But like miss that how did that happen with it? So Peyton and you y'all came on the show
You did your first little episode with us and then you realized when that y'all had met before through the success networks success champion network
Ironically, I saw him again on
They have like a podcast like a live cast every week and I'm like wait
That's Peyton
Wow, I know him
I
There it is
I really like Donnie and Keith and what they're up to and you know, Donnie's tell me about his vision
He's like and I want to have a retreat center and I just want to be able to wake up and see a giraffe walking
Past your window and I was like man. This guy's got a vision
Like he's got things he wants to do
He has a lot of visions big visions. But what I like to say is like they're just good people
Just good salt of the earth people they had their
Badass business summit a few weeks ago and I went and I was just struck by how normal
Donnie is because he seems like he's such a huge presence like when you see him on all these things
He just seems larger than life, right?
And then you see him just in front of you know, the network and you know all these entrepreneurs
He's just a solid normal guy who occasionally cries. It's really weird
Really weird
Given just in his personality. So it's just really good salt of the earth people and you don't meet that
a lot nowadays, unfortunately
Right. Well, it's it's um, you know something you you got to cultivate
And they're they're doing the things that they need to in order to cultivate that and so it's been it has been fun to get
To know them a little bit of a distance but also to have Peyton involved in both programs
You know and and getting behind the scenes a little bit on on both sides
It's been a it's been a fun process to realize like alright, do we want to bring this full circle together?
Is this the timing is the timing later?
You know, it's it's fun to get to explore. Have you met Keith his brother?
Yeah, my family is with Keith to Keith is another one that again is just
You meet him on like a video call or a virtual coffee and you think of him as one way and then you meet him in person
And you're like, oh wow, you're just like this soft cuddly teddy bear
It's just odd it's odd kind of their dynamic and how different they are from each other as well
Like on one hand you have Donnie who feels really rough or curse
Where the hat just feels like he should be on a motorcycle when you talk to him and then you have Keith
It's just like this
Chill easy going kind of not completely Zen, but just a whole different brand
We had the exact opposite experiences
exact opposite
You know like me and Keith
Dove in at me and Donnie dove in
At that high-level feel-good process and me and Keith got nitty-gritty on the back end
And talked all about it. So they have that that's one of the neat things about leadership though
Right is you have to know the dynamics of like when are you in the war?
Right and when you at the ball
Right, and there's a way to show up with the military ball and there's a way to show up on the front lines
And both of them have that dynamic power of being able to do both. So
Rebecca you've been you've got EV graphics and consulting you work in the
Accessibility and inclusion space and beyond I don't want to be limiting on this process
But you're you talked about business strategy and how it can actually be amplified by diving into
These dynamics that so many entrepreneurs are unaware of
I'm gonna play devil's advocate a little bit. There's a number of people who've dove into that dynamic because there's money to be had
Right. There's a number of people who are screaming at people fear of missing out like oh my gosh
If you don't do this, you're gonna your business is gonna be torched by the government and blah blah blah
And there's a balance to be had there
but what I loved about what your form submission talked about was that if
We play our cards correctly in business if we're strategic about what we're doing then the byproduct of
being more inclusive and
Being more aware of accessibility will actually amplify
Our revenue growth. I want to dive in and talk about that before we we continue. I love you
and
I'd look at it as kind of if you support people and they support you kind of thing and you're right
There are plenty of people who are in the space who just see it as like oh everybody's talking about it
So let me go to it and maybe you know find a way to bring revenue into my world
But in truth, that's not gonna last that's not long lasting action. Those aren't things that are going to bring that revenue generation
Generation essentially if you're talking about business you want your people to be able to do the job that you're asking them to do
I went ahead and put a quote on here. I mean, I know it seems so silly. It's like well
Isn't that obvious yet? I don't see the actions supporting this in the business world very often, right?
So if you support the people they will support you
So the question is, you know, I think a lot of us as business owners
We saw wait, I do support people. Um, yet that reaction right that defensiveness says otherwise
how do we learn to be supportive in
Relation to accessibility and inclusion. What are some things that we're overlooking if you were to hit hard on the subject?
if I'm hitting hard part of it is just being introspective and
Being able to admit that you can miss it. You can miss it. You can make mistakes
You can be unaware part of being an entrepreneur part of being a business person is learning how to grow if you look at Apple
They're always doing something new. They're always trying something new even as
They came up with these new things and like their iPhones right? Everybody was so mad about their charging port
Not being you know, like everybody else's what did they do after they figured out? Oh, that's not working
They went ahead and said hey
We were wrong on that and they've actually changed course if companies that are as big as Apple consider and say hey, we missed it
Hey, we made a mistake and why can't we as other entrepreneurs?
I would love to be Apple but I'm not Apple and I don't know if that's you Jackson
But it's like it's okay if those larger companies can say that we need to be just as introspective and say we missed it
Or even look at our numbers our numbers
We need to be very real about those things our KPIs and our metrics. It can't always be
Well, they don't have enough training or there's something wrong with the product or these just aren't the right people at some point
We have to say
What am I missing?
Because things aren't changing in the way I need them to for my business to grow and succeed
I think it's that introspection that really makes people defensive because we don't want to be interested
We don't want to say well, I made this mistake or I'm unaware
That's how I knew I was to say well you you you hit hard softly. Oh, right
So I'll throw that out there. I'm gonna hit a little bit harder
I'm gonna amplify it because you said you can be aware, right?
And I'm like you kind of have to learn to be aware
Oh, you know, there's there's no can to it if you are unaware which so many so many like I'm unaware of a lot of things
If I don't have thick enough skin to admit that I have no business in entrepreneurship
No, right. We are very unaware. I think you said the opposite thing said we can be unaware. I think we all are unaware
Like there's no ifs ands or buts about it. We're all learning constantly then you talked about KPIs and metrics
You know as a as a relation there
I think that's one of those challenges that when
when the brands who want to help with accessibility
Begin to understand how to track the results, right and help the business owners recognize that okay
We're not just going to corner you on this one little subject, but we're also going to amplify the success of your brand
Then websites will start to become more accountable for
Diving into accessibility and like you said it will then lead to us attracting
Niches of people that we couldn't otherwise attract because it would literally it would literally be impossible
If we're just going about it in a in a narrow
Mindset way, so it's very important to dive into this but you you hit that really big KPIs and metrics
So let's dive down the rabbit hole to of that because you brought it up and I'm like, man
I finally got somebody who's gonna talk to me about the goods of business. So
Metrics let's start let's dive to the deeper end. So
Out of the shallow waters assuming everybody knows what KPIs and metrics are
What what should they be tracking that they are not and how do they utilize their KPIs and metrics?
To be more strategic when it comes to growth
When we're talking about what to track, I mean, of course it varies right but for me
I always think about when I'm talking about clients things about product productivity. Ooh a word we all love
productivity
Sales
Sales per hour if it's a sales team calls per hour if it's a call center team
I used to work in tons of call centers back in the day
Always exciting times but things that really mattered were things like calls per hour things like huge company
It can be okay
I've worked with several that are much smaller and even I get across to a team of I don't know
I guess solopreneur or some like
or some like well, let's talk about the threshold because
Let's go right for the bottom then solopreneur should they be measuring the sales per hour? I would say
If you're talking about a solopreneur, I would
I would and I see that as you need to kind of at least know where your baseline is
Like everybody needs a baseline and I know it sounds kind of maybe kind of productive for people like well
I'm a solopreneur, but are you even tracking anything?
No, that's usually not and that's why I'm excited. I'm playing devil's advocate with you, but I'm like angels advocate, too
Okay, so we're gonna track sales per hour
solopreneur is
What is the baseline that they should be looking at?
In terms of sales per hour
That's always because it depends on the industry that looked at and that coincide with each other
But I would be very curious like if somebody's gonna tell me that I need to base things based on a sales per hour
I need to know their accounting their factoring and other metrics that also go along with that equation to create that that success word
So what's what's another?
metric for
Maybe let's go towards companies that are at maybe they got 20 to 50 employees
so they're not your fortune 500s or your earring 5000s, but
They're
They want to aggressively grow stronger
What are the metrics that?
Are more applicable at that level?
At that level I'm still thinking things like productivity
Uh-huh, I'm still thinking along those lines and I'm saying that
if nothing else
Because I'm when I'm talking about accessibility. I need to know my people are actually working
And if we're looking at you know, maybe they haven't closed tickets
Maybe they haven't reached this many people maybe they're spending too much time doing x y and z maybe they're not hitting deadlines
There's usually a deeper reason for that and we tend to miss it
Because we're not tracking anything
A lot of startups in particular because that's kind of the group that I'm thinking when you say that like more startup be
They don't track a lot
And it's because of the culture and I get it i've worked in them before and they're like well we move quickly
We move fast. We want to break things. I'm all for it. Innovation's amazing
But again, if you're not tracking things you have no idea what you're breaking. What's the purpose of breaking the things?
You're just breaking stuff to break it
You don't you're not able to really be able to find any progress in that or to really identify the key pieces
That you need to address
And you'll make sure I get accessibility too. So accessibility
we're talking about
colors layouts and back in systems to help those with disabilities such as
I can't see your website or I
Or i'm deaf and I need to be able to see but not not I can't hear the video that's playing
Are those types of compliance aspects of accessibility you're referring to?
Those are some and then I would even go to the website
And then I would even go a little further. So you have people that have like conditions like autism, right?
So sometimes it's more of a sensorial overload
Sometimes it's that cognitive load situation a lot of websites have and I love a sleek website. Please just let me say that
You have websites that auto play video when you first go there and it looks really cool
And there's stop motion and there's like tons of videos or tons of photos. There's just a lot going on
Yeah, verbal violence. I mean, yeah
Like those are things that can actually be a problem not just they distract
It distracts it makes it hard to focus. So maybe you want to promote one product
You're like, oh we really want to promote this but they're like I can't even
Adjust to what's happening to digest that information and actually focus on that product. So I'm either going to click away from it
Or I'm going to click on another tab that has nothing to do with what you want me to see
Internally that stuff becomes problematic because a lot of the times the way we design our websites
It's kind of the way we design our internal stuff like training
Or support or resources or you know, just kind of the the internet
Internet rather sorry that people might be using we tend to have that same design style because we have branding
And schools, like if we go to school you could we go through the whole castbook
It's not that bad
things that are fun meet exclusive
We see this a lot of people are celebrating this. So if there's a Food becomes available
You can always say yeah
They're ready for this
But I don't think that there are people who get Really frozen
is I've wanted to explore the idea of,
I haven't found that compliance company.
I got people who tell me that we need compliance
all the time.
And I get it, I want to do it.
But I'm not Jay Abram.
I don't have a billion dollars in my pocket.
Just throw it out there, right?
I don't have the,
and I certainly don't have the sense of security
that this person threatening me with a compliance issue
is the person who's the best person to come in
and help me figure this issue out.
They just sound like they're terrified.
And they're just a sheep that baws louder
than everybody else that there's a problem here.
I was like, no, that's not gonna fix it.
So I'm really very curious to talk to you more
about what you're up to, how you're going about it,
how we can bridge this gap because I'm with you.
At scale, these types of solutions
can help brands win at bigger levels
and not at scale, it's important for the one,
for the one who needs it.
That's what it's about.
It's about helping the one,
but we have to be able to eat as entrepreneurs too
in order to be able to survive
and help people with their businesses and thrive.
I could pretend I thrive all day long,
as a podcaster, but at the end of the day,
there's a balance to be had.
And how do you help everybody with what it is you do?
It's one of those things I tell people,
it's a delicate balance
because I'm a business person slash advocate.
And there are plenty of people who will yell and be like,
well, you need it and you need it now.
But one of my personal philosophies is,
I think a lot of people understand
and they get that they need it,
but they don't know how to do it.
They don't know how to go about starting it.
And if you're not giving them those tools,
all you're doing is yelling into the void
because they're gonna hear you.
And they might even be like, yeah, I feel that.
But I can't do that right now because I-
I got 400 other things that I feel
and I can hear people yelling at me about.
It ain't happening.
I have 400 other things
and I know how to do at least 300 of them.
You're yelling at me about something that I wanna do,
but I have no idea how to do it.
So that's a whole nother load
that I have to take on to learn how to do it.
Correct, we gotta break the gap for entrepreneurs.
We have to break the gap if we don't.
And it's not, and I tell people,
it's not an easy thing either.
It sounds like it is.
Like, oh, adjust some colors and do this and do that.
But when you start going into guidelines, it's not easy.
It's almost like a Rubik's cube.
I don't know.
Most people in my shoes,
it is far safer to just nod and say, yes, I will do that.
And then get off the stage so that I can say,
okay, let's just try to avoid her calls in the future.
That's what entrepreneurs will typically do
in these scenarios versus diving in and figuring it out.
So we're gonna see where this takes us
over the next coming weeks and months, vision pros.
I hope that y'all are taking note too of like, all right,
well, I guess I might need to think about compliance as well.
And if you can shift your mentality from,
do I have to do this to the,
what's the opportunity I'm overlooking on this?
Then you might find yourself putting something
into practice that can actually really help your brands.
And that's what I'm hoping to get to the bottom
of at some point, hopefully it's today.
Before we dive in too far into that vision, Rebecca,
what are, you've been at entrepreneurship,
for a little while, you've got your background in business
and all the leadership stuff you've done.
So what three resources would you recommend
for visionaries that are on their way to?
It definitely depends on what you're doing.
But for me, I like a few things.
So I like actually a couple of books,
The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen.
And it's about why leading companies often fail
when they don't innovate.
And it's one of those things where,
we all know about innovation, we talk about it a lot,
it's kind of a buzzword, but I don't really think
that we understand fully what innovation is.
Why it powers businesses and why when you don't have it
and you don't have proper innovations, things fail.
And so I personally like that one.
I also like Start with Why by Simon Sinek.
And it's more about purpose-driven leadership.
So talking about how leaders that inspire their teams,
like by focusing on the why,
can drive that innovation and success.
Because again, we tend to wanna start with
like the finished product.
We don't always wanna start with the why and the purpose.
And I think that's something that business owners as a whole
just kind of forget.
I'm a huge fan.
I love Simon Sinek.
Yes, continue.
And then I have one other book called
The Future is Faster Than You Think by,
let me make sure I get him right,
Peter Diamandis and Steven Cotten.
And I want you to think about rapidly advancing technologies
from AI to 3D printing and how things like that
are poised to kind of reshape the way that we do things.
And for me, it's important for visionaries
to just wanna think about excelling the pace of change,
preparing for the future,
because these are all things that are happening.
That's not going anywhere.
3D printing's not going anywhere.
They're 3D printing houses.
Yep, military bases.
At this point.
And so having a good understanding of what that looks like,
even if you're not in the tech industry,
even if you're in something else, is really helpful.
Like I'm, you know, I'm a designer,
I do some tech, that kind of stuff.
I use AI, but even I have to admit to myself
that things have been moving so fast.
They are.
They're moving.
One of the greatest movies that display that,
that broke my mind,
because I grew up with, you know, without,
I grew up with everything that we already have, right?
So, and I saw the movie, Oppenheimer, a couple of weeks ago.
I was like, whoa, like, oh my gosh,
no wonder why people feel so different
in different generations about things.
Like, it is crazy what we've been able to accomplish
and what I took for granted.
As a fairly like intellectual individual,
I didn't quite get it.
And fun fact, vision pros,
I used to work for Steven Kotler at the movie theater.
I'm a research collective.
So very, most people don't know that.
My stint was fairly short with the team
that called me the Maverick.
And all of the organization,
they made some exceptions to the rules
to allow me to participate and be there.
So yeah, they're programs, you're at a dangerous.
And some of the things they're up to
is absolutely fascinating.
Great team, by the way.
And fun to be involved a tiny bit in what they're up to.
Simon Sinek, I'm a huge fan of the why concept.
And starting with it, not a bad place to start.
I like to start with the who.
That's my start is who am I aligning myself with?
Do we share the same types of values and virtues?
And do our whys align as well?
And so I wouldn't give a crap about what Simon taught
if I didn't care for the values and virtues
of the man himself personally.
It'd be like studying Hitler.
Oh, I mean, it's like he did a lot of cool things, I guess.
Like he did a lot of big things that made the history books
and he did a lot of awful, horrific things too.
It's like, that's not the style, that's not the process.
Those aren't the mediums I wanna go about building
what I'm building.
So again, nothing against Simon.
In fact, Tribal Leadership,
I'll drop one more resource on that
because I freaking love that book.
Tribal Leadership, it talks about how when you have,
when you finally settle in on the right vision or mission,
your team members will actually argue about it.
And that argument is a good thing.
That alignment process is like harmony
where it's two different notes.
They see things two different ways a little bit,
but that's what creates the music
is that they're not the exact same note across the board.
So Simon is, I'm glad you put him on there.
He's in my hall of fame of business leaders for sure.
So we're gonna come right back.
We're gonna talk with Rebecca further
about what her vision is,
how we apply accessibility and inclusion
and strategy altogether for growth of our brands.
And we'll dive in as deep as we can, my friends.
All right, welcome in to Vision Pros Live.
With Jackson Callum, I'm your show host.
We'll be doing interviews for visionary entrepreneurs
and guest leaders who are building
fantastic visions out there.
And we'll be talking about how we can make them happen.
So let's get started.
Welcome to Vision Pros Live.
I'm your host, Jackson Callum,
founder and CEO of First Class Business.
And I'm excited to have Rebecca Perjean on the stage today.
We're gonna be talking about an area of business
that I have ultimately successfully avoided
for the last 14 years, the accessibility side.
I know, I guess it's like a guilty admission, by the way,
but don't beat me up too bad, my friends.
That's not because I want to ignore it,
it's because most of us have so many things to do
as busy entrepreneurs that it's like really one more thing.
And yet this is one of those areas
that it does hurt my heart,
that people can't access the value of what we do.
And whether that accessibility is driven by compliance
for the sake of those who are blind,
or for the sake of those who are deaf,
or it's somebody in, I don't know, Sri Lanka,
or the Philippines that only speaks Tagalog,
or somebody in some other foreign country,
like that we have so much room to grow
in order to help provide for the 8 billion.
So, but how do we do that?
Is there a way to do that where we don't feel forced?
And is there a way we can do that where we benefit
so that we're all growing together?
I'm a big believer in that, and I've gotten to see
and help a few companies do just that at scale.
I hope to be able to provide that to each of you as well.
And Rebecca and I will do our best
to help make that possible for you.
Before we bring Rebecca back on stage,
just a couple of other resources
where we really can help with that process.
One, there's a book called Brain Glue
by an author named James Bond.
James Bond wrote this book, and Jack Canfield,
the author of Chicken Soup for the Soul
that published 130, I'm sorry, his book has sold
to 130 million copies.
That's huge.
Jack said, as an entrepreneur, you'd have to be an idiot
not to buy this book, it is so powerful.
Well, beyond that, why do I believe in Brain Glue?
Because Brain Glue helps you see the emotional side
of what it is you're trying to help people logically do.
If you don't tap into emotions appropriately
and you don't use that resource
to help people understand the value of what you do,
you are missing out on helping them stick to the concept
that you're trying to provide.
I highly check right away that you're trying to provide.
I recommend checking out and listening
to the short audio clip on Amazon if it's for you,
then go ahead and of course get the book.
Then there's Ticker.
Ticker is a program that's meant to help you
with your stock trading purchases for people
who are beginners in the process of investing.
I said traders, but one of the things that Sean taught me,
he's the founder of the company,
Sean Tepper taught us that there are zero
billionaire day traders in the world.
There's literally not a single one.
And what he's trying to say is like,
stop with the day trading stuff.
I'll move into investing long-term
and if you move in towards investing long-term,
then you're following in the footsteps of people
more like Warren Buffett.
So he's a great leader, came on the show,
absolutely loved what he was up to.
And I was like, okay, I'm gonna get this out in the world
for people who are big into learning
how to become wise stewards of their finances.
This may be the diversification opportunity
that you've also been looking for.
And there's the Water Project.
The Water Project is not something
we're affiliated with at all.
I just love it.
When I found out that there are millions of people
who don't have access to clean drinking water,
I decided we needed to do something about it.
I needed to do something to remind myself
on a daily basis that I've got to do more
than just rock this microphone, right?
And just bless the people that are closest to me.
What if we were able to help fund projects like this
throughout the world where people don't even have access
to the basics of life?
So what I love about the Water Project
is I get to pick the actual community
that I'm going to then help,
and they will actually send you the proof
that they brought that Water Project to fruition,
whether it's in the form of a sand dam
or whether it's a borehole well.
These are concepts that I had no idea what they were.
Now I get to know kind of all about how those things work
because the way they educate people who donate
and give to their projects.
So if you're not in a position
to financially give back to the Water Project,
my hope is that you'll hear me out
on thinking in your heart and your mind.
Who would love to bless kids like this?
Kids that celebrate Christmas Day,
like my kids celebrate, well, celebrate water, sorry,
like my kids celebrate Christmas Day.
That's the type of impact that we can make,
and it's a generational impact
that can very much change the world.
So hope you join me on that.
And if you know of another cause
that's just as important to you or more important to you,
drop it in the comments and give us a chance
to give back to that cause as well.
We've got lots of people to help,
and we can do that more effectively together
than we can divide it.
So without further ado, Rebecca,
thank you so much for joining me on Vision Pros Live.
Welcome in.
Thank you so much for having me.
Super excited to be here.
Yes, absolutely.
So let's talk about the vision a little bit,
just to kind of get my own bearings around this.
So what do you feel your vision is
for the people that you're serving?
For the people I'm serving,
I have a vision of a world that actually accommodates them
and engages them and embraces them
and really just brings humanity back into the process.
That's really the vision I have for them
is to not feel less pain.
Talk to me about this.
Who are they?
They are people with disabilities
and those disabilities can range
because a lot of people think physical disabilities.
So they think blindness
or they think maybe missing limbs or things like that.
But it's also people that have autism,
people that have ADHD,
people that have dyslexia, dysgraphia.
All of these different things that they think different
or they're wired differently
or they have maybe a little bit more energy
than some of us.
And people tend to think that,
well, there's something wrong with them
because they're different,
because they have this going on,
excuse me, or because they need additional support,
but that's really not the case.
So in my vision,
it's really about bringing just a human component
and helping people understand,
helping businesses understand these are people.
They're employees like anybody else.
If they're internal for you,
they're people just like you would meet on the street.
They just happen to be different
from what you would expect in terms of the norm.
Okay.
And let's shift gears a little bit into what's your vision?
What do you see for yourself?
Ooh, for myself.
For me, I actually envision,
I envision myself creating spaces
and just really creating a world that is inclusive.
And the world that we live in right now,
I'll be honest, you hear that word inclusive
and some people panic in a lot of different ways.
It becomes like woke and all this stuff.
And I don't necessarily believe that that's what it has to be.
I think that you can be inclusive.
I think that you can be accountable.
I just want a world where people are people
and people can be allowed to people,
you know, in a good way.
I have a son and I, from my vision,
I just want a world that he can be proud of.
He can be happy in, he can grow in, he can thrive in,
all of those kinds of things.
Okay, I love that and I appreciate that.
So how is leaders in?
How do we help?
How do we step up and, you know,
help those who are different
and create this type of inclusion?
By being open.
And by looking at the way that you're doing things
from a completely different lens,
because we tend to, as business owners, right,
we might have a small sampling of people,
our leadership, you know, that kind of thing.
Maybe some choice people that you know,
kind of in your teams.
And those are the ones that you go to
for all the information.
Those are the ones that you go to for all of the feedback.
And the real way that you help
is actually asking all of your people.
And by also being proactive.
Being proactive and understanding
that just because you haven't heard
that somebody has a disability
doesn't mean that it doesn't exist.
It's kind of like when people were discovering America.
It was already there.
It's not like just because they went
and sailed across the sea that it made it present.
It was already present.
Disabilities are already present in your business.
They're present in your world,
internally and externally.
Billions of people worldwide have disabilities.
So they exist.
You have to be proactive about it
and just really be open to learn
and be willing to kind of go towards this new venture.
Yeah.
Let's dive into that though,
cause we've got some realities
that I think a lot of business owners avoid
cause there's liabilities.
You know, there's regulations.
There's chaos that can ensue.
So I'm gonna go back to that winter storm that crushed Texas
and almost pulled us off the map powered grid wise.
And I found a homeless person underneath my staircase
and I invited them into my home.
We started to make preparations
and got them fed and I was gonna have them stay with us.
But as their story unfolded,
the story started to get a little bit out of hand.
Right?
It started to not add up.
This person went from different to,
uh-oh, this may be a dangerous situation.
And, you know, and by all means,
like I'm supposed to be open, right?
I'm supposed to make room for these realities,
but I also got kids to protect.
And so then I ended up getting them set up in a hotel
and for a couple nights and, you know,
as that situation again continued to unfold
and this person began to smoke in that hotel room,
I don't know where they got that, right?
But that also created the challenge
and a liability set for me.
And this person could have destroyed that hotel room.
You know, they could have done a lot of things
that would have been a nightmare reality for my family
and our security to be able to deal with.
So I feel a strong empathy towards both sides on this,
that, you know, we've got a, you know,
well, that's the exception,
is it the exception of the rule?
We don't know, you know, we only know
what our own experiences are based on.
So how do we protect ourselves
and how do we make sure that, you know,
we're not feeling guilty for not being able to do more
for individuals, especially when it can be such a danger
to those we love.
Yeah, and I will say that as a fellow business owner,
I know that it is a scary place,
because like you said, there is liability.
There is always the possibility that if you wade into this,
you might make a mistake,
but I'll actually go the other direction.
If you don't wade into this, it's still a mistake.
It's a mistake, of course, for your business
and possible revenue,
but it's also a mistake on a legal side of things.
So it's still a mistake.
You have to choose which mistake you'd rather have.
If somebody is still going to possibly,
if I've implemented accessibility
and somebody might bring a suit, right,
because that's a constant fear that business owners have.
So we'll just attack it.
If you bring that to me,
I'm able to better bolster my argument by saying,
I am implementing these things
and you'll be further down the road
to resolve that situation than you would be
if you've done nothing.
If you've done nothing, you are starting from scratch
and it is not an easy stick and overlay on your website,
call it a day type of situation,
because a lot of times those don't actually address
a lot of accessibility problems.
So you almost have to choose which type of mistake
you'd want to make.
If you're asking me,
I would rather be further down the road
and make a mistake that I can easily course correct
and pivot as opposed to now saying,
I've got X number of days to make sure this is together.
This is together.
And people will have a closer microscope on you
if you've done absolutely nothing
and that's the starting point.
So you're gonna make mistakes,
but mistakes happen.
All the things that people have in the audience too
about compliance and moving your brand forward,
what types of mistakes.
I think the greater message that I heard you talk about
was not necessarily even in relation
to the compliance aspect.
It's about doing the right thing.
And that's it.
We've got to look at these opportunities and say,
you know what, even if I'm at risk
by doing the right thing in this scenario,
if it's the right thing to do,
we should step up and do the right thing.
Reminds me of the Batman movie
where the Joker's trying to blow the boat up or whatever.
And then the guy comes and drops the remote
over so nobody can do it.
And it's like somebody had to step up and do that
in order for neither boat to blow up.
Sorry to ruin the movie for anybody
who didn't see that 20 years ago.
But let's dive into another area.
So what is the worst leadership experience
that you've ever had, Rebecca?
Oh God, there have been several.
I think the worst I would ever have had,
I was hired in, like I've said,
told you before when we were getting to know each other,
I've worked in call centers
but I've worked in very small ones also.
And there was a guy, he had just started his business.
There were only like 10 of us,
but he decided to select me as his lead.
I was so excited.
I was like, great.
Then he fired everybody that I worked with
and told me, go hire a new team.
So I did.
I interviewed people, I hired them, I trained them.
Everything was golden.
And then two months later, he sends me an email.
He's like, hey, Rebecca, I'm gonna close the business.
Like, oh, okay, this is wild.
And he's like, but I'm gonna tell people
because it's gonna close in about a month.
I'm gonna tell people in about two weeks.
I can't, I don't want you to say anything
because I don't want them to be scared or panic or leave.
I was like, I don't even know how to react.
So I didn't say anything.
Two weeks comes around, he doesn't say anything.
And day after day after day drags on.
And I'm like, are you gonna say anything?
He's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll have a meeting.
I ended up having to tell those people,
look them in the eye and tell them you are all fired
as of ex-dates.
And that was absolutely not my job.
My boss never talked to any of them ever again.
Like he never reached out to them,
never asked how are you gonna recover?
None of those things.
And that showed me a lot.
It equally showed me a lot
because we talked to the client.
We had one client at the time and I talked to them
and I was so apologetic, I felt so bad
that we had done so poorly for them.
And I remember I apologized
for not meeting their expectations.
And the client said, what do you mean?
And I'm like, well, so-and-so told me
that part of the reason you deleted the contract
was because we weren't meeting the metrics
and we weren't meeting your expectations.
And they're like, no, y'all were fine.
They told us they wanted to terminate the contract,
but no, we were happy with your work.
So essentially I found out that my boss lied to me.
You make me fire people, like just a horrible situation.
And I learned in that moment
that being a good leader does not mean you have a good title.
You have to be honest with people.
You have to be transparent with people
and you have to do the right thing, even when it's hard.
That was the hardest thing I've ever done.
I've never been in HR like that,
telling people you have no job after such date
is probably one of the hardest things,
especially when you've gotten to know them.
Oh my goodness.
We've got a resource that combats this
because this is huge.
It's a massive problem in the world of entrepreneurship
and entrepreneurship and solopreneurship
is that there's so many companies
that are trying to learn how to scale
and trying to learn how to build.
And there's two realities on that.
One, yeah, it's completely irresponsible for us as leaders
to put ourselves in that position
and put others in that position knowingly,
or even ignorantly.
We're adults, right?
We have to have, there's consequences to our actions
as adults and it goes on both sides, right?
So I'm very grateful for the entity
I found most of these tips from.
It came from Traffic and Funnels
and the sales mentor guys.
They've since shut down their own business.
They're facing a lot of the same challenges,
but we have a list of things that,
if you're gonna go to work for a brand,
we've got to look at that brand and say, okay,
do they have their social media presence established
really, really well, right?
Do they have a leadership chart?
People who provide different roles,
where does it feel kind of like so homey
that you can't tell if this company,
where are their revenues at right now?
Oh, well, that's private information.
Ask.
It is on us as adults if we do not ask the hard questions
of the people that we may want to work with.
What is the exit strategy if things don't go well?
Why don't we ask?
Because we don't want to lose the opportunity, right?
We wanna just make it,
we wanna make sure that we secure the paycheck
and the opportunity at hand,
but my point on that is I just hope that all of us
can learn from these experiences
because it sucks to work with bad leaders.
It also like sucks if we keep putting ourselves
in a position where we keep ending up with bad leaders.
We gotta all learn what we need to learn
to have a better outcome.
What's the best leadership going in the opposite direction?
What's the best leadership experience you've ever had?
Best leadership experience I've ever had
is when I was a kid, there was a CEO,
nobody liked him in the company.
He was new.
He just got a whole different energy and nobody liked him,
but he was the only person to reach out to me
after I actually got back from maternity leave.
I had so many problems with my pregnancy.
I had kidney infections.
My son was born with hydrocephalus.
It was a huge thing and I was out.
My team, believe it or not, acted like I had abandoned them,
like I had been on vacation for four or five months,
not like I had had a child.
And so it was very isolating in that moment.
And I remember he pulled me to the slide
and he was like, so how are you doing?
And I'm like, what do you mean, how am I doing?
I didn't even understand why he was asking me that.
And he's like, I see that there's some things going on.
Are you okay?
How are things going?
And we were talking and he recognized
what I was going through a postpartum depression
and postpartum anxiety
because his own mother had gone through it.
And so he told me about that story and he's like,
I want you to know I see everything that's going on
and I know it's really uncomfortable.
And I'm gonna work to change some of this.
I'm gonna work to support you,
but I wanna give you a choice.
Do you want to stay or do you want to go?
If you wanna go spend time with your family,
I get it, I fully understand it.
I wanna give you the choice
because I know this is a difficult time.
And I decided to go because I'm like,
this is all too stressful
and the atmosphere isn't healthy for me.
And he gave me a severance package and let me go.
And to me, that is the type of leader that we should all be.
No, I understand that it's not realistic for everybody
to do all of those things.
But what he did do that I think is possible.
It's pretty realistic.
That there was nothing.
It really, I feel like it's realistic,
but I know some people might be like,
I don't think that's realistic.
But the one thing-
It's a success for those people, just saying.
Just saying.
If you can't do those basic pieces
of taking care of humanity,
then success is not likely in your future.
Okay, go ahead, continue.
I'll agree with that.
But the one thing he did do
that I don't think anybody can dispute
is he treated me like I was human.
Yes, that's exactly right.
He completely acknowledged, I see you.
I see what's going on.
I know I can't fix all things in this moment,
but I can do this.
And so he identified the way he could do
as opposed to the things he could not do.
And that helped me in ways
I don't think people can even understand.
Like we were having such a hard time as parents.
Like I said, our son was born.
He had a hydrocephalus.
And so we were going to doctor's visits every week,
specialist visits every week.
I'm dealing with postpartum depression,
but I am working full-time.
I'm dealing with postpartum anxiety and panic attacks,
and I am working full-time.
His dad is working overnight.
We did not have daycare.
So it's like I had night shift, he had day shift.
It was craziness in our household.
And that one thing completely changed things for us.
And we were able to really nurture him
in a way that set him up for success later on down the line.
Like I was able to be a much more involved parent
than I probably would have been without it.
That's a powerful story.
I really appreciate you being willing to share that.
It was a life-changing moment.
Yeah, I can see that.
Absolutely.
It's funny how it's just leaders.
We just got to be human and show up for people.
So if this is the last chance you had to share,
what powerful lesson can the visionaries learn
from your experience, Rebecca?
Learn that having the vision itself is not enough.
You've got to put in the work,
and you've got to put in some of the personal skin
to really make your vision come to life.
And sometimes that means stepping
into something uncomfortable.
We talked a little bit about accessibility
and that kind of discomfort,
but even just being human sometimes,
so it shouldn't make us uncomfortable.
If it's something we're not used to doing,
if it's opening up, if it's being vulnerable,
that's going to feel uncomfortable.
But that's really what all of my experiences have been.
It's about bringing that human quote element
back into the fold,
because that's really how you win as a visionary.
It's how you win as an entrepreneur.
People will buy your product, yeah, if it works, right?
They'll buy it, it might be okay,
but if they don't like you as people,
they're not going to continue to buy from you.
You will not have sustainability.
You will not have longevity.
Yeah, they're not going to buy your product either.
Oh, I'm just going to-
He's like, I'm going to challenge that.
They're not going to buy your product.
If you're at a local marketplace,
they might buy your bar soap.
Oh, right, I get that.
Oh, right, because you're there and the president,
but that does not create loyalty.
Right, well, it creates loyalty.
And if you look at it,
the next Disney movie that comes out,
the only people who are going to go see that movie
are people who are Disney fans.
That is it.
And they got all the marketing budget in the world
to convince you that their product
or their service is the best.
But the only people who are going
are people who are actually a fan of the actual culture
and the company itself.
And that's the same reason why Tesla sold
180,000 cars from Staves
that nobody was going to get for two to three years.
I went into a dealership right now
and they told me I wasn't going to get my car
for two to three years, they call the cops.
Right, and be like, no, not happening.
Not buying this product.
People don't care about our product or service.
I'm with you 100%.
They need to be able to understand and value that vision.
And if we're not putting the skin in the game
to the vision, we got a pipe dream.
We don't have the vision, right?
So we have to be willing to put into the vision.
I love what you just shared.
So those of you listening in,
again, I know I brought some heat today,
but I had Rebecca here to balance me out
and bring all the nurturing love with it.
So definitely take a look at the show notes
and you'll see the action steps.
You'll also see the different resources
that we recommended.
If you want to be on the show in the top right corner,
you're going to see a button that says, be our guest.
If you've got a vision that you're striving
to bring to life and you know it's going to help others,
whether it's local and for your neighborhood
or if you're your own family,
or you've got a vision that's going to help
the entire world, come and share with us.
We need to learn and talk about these principles
more often as leaders and as we do.
I mean, I get so much out of sessions.
Like there's so many notes here,
things I'm gonna learn from what Rebecca just shared with me.
So come and join us, share your vision too.
And we will see all of you guys
on the next episode of Vision Pros Live.
Take care everybody.
Thank you for being here today.
I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.
I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions
as these episodes continue to move forward.
This is going to get more and more fun.
We'll have more and more engagement as well.
We'll invite people to participate in the show
and thank you for giving us your time and attention.
Have an excellent time building out.