1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,160 Tell me about your vision. 2 00:00:02,160 --> 00:00:04,400 Well, I guess before I tell you about my vision, 3 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:07,760 would it be helpful if I kind of frame why I have the vision? 4 00:00:07,760 --> 00:00:09,480 Yeah, I'd love to hear that. 5 00:00:09,480 --> 00:00:12,760 Yeah, so in my day job, I help my clients 6 00:00:12,760 --> 00:00:15,400 in valuing their businesses and intellectual property assets. 7 00:00:15,400 --> 00:00:16,920 I've done that for a long time. 8 00:00:16,920 --> 00:00:19,400 And one of those IP or intangible assets 9 00:00:19,400 --> 00:00:22,040 that I valued is people, human capital. 10 00:00:22,040 --> 00:00:23,800 And you've heard every CEO on the planet 11 00:00:23,800 --> 00:00:25,480 pound the table and say, our people 12 00:00:25,480 --> 00:00:27,160 are our most valuable asset. 13 00:00:27,160 --> 00:00:30,520 But let me ask you a question to put you on the spot here. 14 00:00:30,520 --> 00:00:32,200 This most valuable asset, do you know 15 00:00:32,200 --> 00:00:36,120 where that appears on a financial statement? 16 00:00:36,120 --> 00:00:40,120 There's only how many people you hired? 17 00:00:40,120 --> 00:00:41,600 I'll give you the spoiler alert. 18 00:00:41,600 --> 00:00:44,120 People don't even appear on a balance sheet. 19 00:00:44,120 --> 00:00:46,840 So your machinery and equipment, so your desks, your chairs, 20 00:00:46,840 --> 00:00:49,120 your computers, that's all you can find in a balance sheet 21 00:00:49,120 --> 00:00:49,880 and fixed assets. 22 00:00:49,880 --> 00:00:51,520 But your most valuable asset that 23 00:00:51,520 --> 00:00:53,520 goes home on the elevators every night 24 00:00:53,520 --> 00:00:55,800 is not a line item on a balance sheet. 25 00:00:55,800 --> 00:00:58,840 So I've valued the human capital in my profession 26 00:00:58,840 --> 00:01:00,760 for a number of reasons throughout the years. 27 00:01:00,760 --> 00:01:04,080 And I never thought that we kind of told the whole story 28 00:01:04,080 --> 00:01:05,540 about the value that people contribute 29 00:01:05,540 --> 00:01:07,160 to the value of a business. 30 00:01:07,160 --> 00:01:10,560 And decided to write something about it. 31 00:01:10,560 --> 00:01:13,000 And when I was writing a couple of books, 32 00:01:13,000 --> 00:01:15,320 which were my journey to really prove that people are 33 00:01:15,320 --> 00:01:16,800 companies with valuable assets. 34 00:01:16,800 --> 00:01:20,400 So my vision then is that one day people 35 00:01:20,400 --> 00:01:23,440 will have a line item be recognized as a line item 36 00:01:23,440 --> 00:01:25,600 on the balance sheet for the most valuable asset 37 00:01:25,600 --> 00:01:26,760 that they are. 38 00:01:26,760 --> 00:01:30,360 That my profession will do, I'll call it a better job, 39 00:01:30,360 --> 00:01:33,840 in the way we value people to consider all the things that 40 00:01:33,840 --> 00:01:37,280 are beyond the cost to replace associated with people. 41 00:01:37,280 --> 00:01:39,360 And that vision goes even further 42 00:01:39,360 --> 00:01:42,080 to expand to the way people are treated inside organizations. 43 00:01:42,080 --> 00:01:45,840 So my hope is that CEOs and managers and leaders 44 00:01:45,840 --> 00:01:49,960 in organizations will get wind of this construct 45 00:01:49,960 --> 00:01:53,320 and treat their people in a way that demonstrates that they 46 00:01:53,320 --> 00:01:54,640 actually care about them. 47 00:01:54,640 --> 00:01:56,600 And oh, by the way, what's in it for them, 48 00:01:56,600 --> 00:01:58,600 the companies that actually do those right things 49 00:01:58,600 --> 00:02:02,840 about their people outperform their peers. 50 00:02:02,840 --> 00:02:04,520 Thank you for sharing that. 51 00:02:04,520 --> 00:02:09,360 Where would you say, and you told me the background story 52 00:02:09,360 --> 00:02:12,720 of where this stems from. 53 00:02:12,720 --> 00:02:15,000 But why do you care about it? 54 00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:18,040 Why have you internalized that? 55 00:02:18,040 --> 00:02:22,200 And what's your why behind this vision of yours? 56 00:02:22,200 --> 00:02:23,520 Yeah, thanks for asking that. 57 00:02:23,520 --> 00:02:24,960 That's a really insightful question. 58 00:02:24,960 --> 00:02:27,840 So there's a couple of reasons around my why 59 00:02:27,840 --> 00:02:29,800 behind the story. 60 00:02:29,800 --> 00:02:33,600 One is that as a leader, I've had situations 61 00:02:33,600 --> 00:02:37,120 where I've worked for managers who I would describe as, 62 00:02:37,120 --> 00:02:39,080 their style was management by spreadsheet. 63 00:02:39,080 --> 00:02:40,160 So have you ever worked for anybody 64 00:02:40,160 --> 00:02:42,200 who only looked at the metrics and never really 65 00:02:42,200 --> 00:02:43,640 knew who the people were? 66 00:02:43,640 --> 00:02:45,120 I think everybody out there listening 67 00:02:45,120 --> 00:02:46,920 can probably relate to that. 68 00:02:46,920 --> 00:02:49,280 So I've had situations where I'm trying 69 00:02:49,280 --> 00:02:52,960 to get a superstar employee, for example, promoted. 70 00:02:52,960 --> 00:02:55,400 But the metrics didn't tell the whole story. 71 00:02:55,400 --> 00:02:56,960 So that's one component. 72 00:02:56,960 --> 00:02:59,120 Then there's another circle, if you will. 73 00:02:59,120 --> 00:03:01,840 And that is I was a single dad for about a dozen years or so. 74 00:03:01,840 --> 00:03:05,320 And during that time, I got to work for a couple of leaders 75 00:03:05,320 --> 00:03:10,760 that I would say were true, empathetic, considerate leaders. 76 00:03:10,760 --> 00:03:12,920 They treated me professionally. 77 00:03:12,920 --> 00:03:14,800 They recognized that as a single dad, 78 00:03:14,800 --> 00:03:18,080 I had certain responsibilities and circumstances 79 00:03:18,080 --> 00:03:21,640 that I had to contend with that maybe some of the other employees 80 00:03:21,640 --> 00:03:22,360 didn't. 81 00:03:22,360 --> 00:03:24,760 And they gave me latitude and flexibility. 82 00:03:24,760 --> 00:03:27,080 And I would walk through fire for them. 83 00:03:27,080 --> 00:03:29,620 Then I worked for some other folks during that period of time 84 00:03:29,620 --> 00:03:30,520 that didn't quite get it. 85 00:03:30,520 --> 00:03:31,880 Maybe they'd roll their eyes if I 86 00:03:31,880 --> 00:03:34,520 had to get a sick kid from daycare at 3 o'clock. 87 00:03:34,520 --> 00:03:37,720 They'd say things like, it must be nice leaving work at 3, 88 00:03:37,720 --> 00:03:40,040 as if I was going out to the golf course or something. 89 00:03:40,040 --> 00:03:41,160 So that's the other circle. 90 00:03:41,160 --> 00:03:42,580 So that intersection is what led me 91 00:03:42,580 --> 00:03:46,160 to start to really internalize the idea of people really 92 00:03:46,160 --> 00:03:49,720 are your most important asset, because I could sort of feel 93 00:03:49,720 --> 00:03:52,640 the employee engagement needle inside of me, if you will, 94 00:03:52,640 --> 00:03:55,040 and how it moved to the right for the guys and gals that 95 00:03:55,040 --> 00:03:58,080 led with empathy, and how it moved to the left for the folks 96 00:03:58,080 --> 00:03:59,360 that didn't quite get it. 97 00:04:02,560 --> 00:04:03,880 Wow. 98 00:04:03,880 --> 00:04:06,920 Well, I don't know if you do have this, 99 00:04:06,920 --> 00:04:09,840 but what are your core values with your business 100 00:04:09,840 --> 00:04:12,600 model that you practice? 101 00:04:12,600 --> 00:04:13,720 It's pretty fundamental. 102 00:04:13,720 --> 00:04:16,180 It's basically treat people the way you'd want to be treated. 103 00:04:16,180 --> 00:04:19,320 So it's courtesy, it's respect, it's decency, it's empathy, 104 00:04:19,320 --> 00:04:22,000 professionalism, communication, transparency. 105 00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:24,520 This is just the stuff that I would want. 106 00:04:24,520 --> 00:04:27,000 And it's really quite that simple. 107 00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:27,480 Thanks. 108 00:04:27,480 --> 00:04:27,960 Wow. 109 00:04:27,960 --> 00:04:29,040 Thank you for sharing that. 110 00:04:29,040 --> 00:04:32,880 I think a lot of times, I have been fortunate enough 111 00:04:32,880 --> 00:04:36,720 to not face that in a long time. 112 00:04:36,720 --> 00:04:38,760 But a lot of times, the corporates 113 00:04:38,760 --> 00:04:43,160 are looking at one metric, and they 114 00:04:43,160 --> 00:04:45,920 disregard what keeps their employees happy, what 115 00:04:45,920 --> 00:04:48,800 keeps the employees motivated to be work with them. 116 00:04:48,800 --> 00:04:56,520 And attrition is a big problem in a lot of businesses, 117 00:04:56,520 --> 00:05:01,520 which I think could be solved by what you're mentioning here. 118 00:05:01,520 --> 00:05:02,600 So how do you? 119 00:05:02,600 --> 00:05:04,880 Attrition is huge, because there's not just 120 00:05:04,880 --> 00:05:07,480 the cost to replace the people, which is, by the way, 121 00:05:07,480 --> 00:05:08,800 more than you think it is. 122 00:05:08,800 --> 00:05:11,320 It's multiples of individual salaries. 123 00:05:11,320 --> 00:05:15,120 But when you think about a good employee that's been with you, 124 00:05:15,120 --> 00:05:18,280 pick a number of years, five years, 10 years, what have you, 125 00:05:18,280 --> 00:05:21,480 they're accumulating the institutional knowledge. 126 00:05:21,480 --> 00:05:25,160 It's all those soft skills stuff that any newbie is never 127 00:05:25,160 --> 00:05:27,160 going to really understand until they've been there 128 00:05:27,160 --> 00:05:28,400 for a similar amount of time. 129 00:05:28,400 --> 00:05:30,880 And it could be as subtle as knowing 130 00:05:30,880 --> 00:05:34,400 when to approach you about financing for a project, 131 00:05:34,400 --> 00:05:39,280 for example, when to ask Joe for more resources. 132 00:05:39,280 --> 00:05:41,880 You can tell by the look on certain person's face 133 00:05:41,880 --> 00:05:43,640 or the way they're holding a pencil 134 00:05:43,640 --> 00:05:45,640 in a particular conversation. 135 00:05:45,640 --> 00:05:48,440 That little nuanced stuff is really hard to replace. 136 00:05:48,440 --> 00:05:50,800 And it goes out the door when people leave. 137 00:05:50,800 --> 00:05:52,960 Yeah, it totally does. 138 00:05:52,960 --> 00:05:56,360 It totally does. 139 00:05:56,360 --> 00:05:59,000 I want to talk about you now. 140 00:05:59,000 --> 00:06:01,880 So I see you're an author. 141 00:06:01,880 --> 00:06:06,320 You wrote a book, which is very impressive, 142 00:06:06,320 --> 00:06:11,640 because let me share my screen for a second. 143 00:06:11,640 --> 00:06:17,640 I think this is a lot of times when people come on our show, 144 00:06:17,640 --> 00:06:19,480 you want us to promote the book. 145 00:06:19,480 --> 00:06:21,120 And then I go right here and say, 146 00:06:21,120 --> 00:06:24,560 you have two ratings or three ratings. 147 00:06:24,560 --> 00:06:28,320 You, on the other hand, Dave, have 84 ratings, 148 00:06:28,320 --> 00:06:31,080 which is, I would say, a successful book launch 149 00:06:31,080 --> 00:06:32,840 to some extent. 150 00:06:32,840 --> 00:06:34,760 There's a lot of hard work that goes into that. 151 00:06:34,760 --> 00:06:40,240 Talk to me about your journey of how the book came about, 152 00:06:40,240 --> 00:06:42,040 and then how did you get into business 153 00:06:42,040 --> 00:06:45,880 from being a job employee, and then get into the path 154 00:06:45,880 --> 00:06:48,640 of not doing podcasting. 155 00:06:48,640 --> 00:06:51,520 Yeah, so if anybody were to ask me today, 156 00:06:51,520 --> 00:06:53,360 would you ever want to write a book, 157 00:06:53,360 --> 00:06:56,160 I would say, heck no, it's way too much work. 158 00:06:56,160 --> 00:06:58,240 But here's the interesting thing. 159 00:06:58,240 --> 00:07:01,760 I never intended to write a book, honest to God. 160 00:07:01,760 --> 00:07:05,200 I knew I needed to write something that would help 161 00:07:05,200 --> 00:07:10,120 to shine a spotlight on the way my profession values 162 00:07:10,120 --> 00:07:11,760 human capital, and highlight the fact 163 00:07:11,760 --> 00:07:13,880 that our most valuable asset isn't on a balance sheet, 164 00:07:13,880 --> 00:07:16,400 like I mentioned to you at the top of the program here. 165 00:07:16,400 --> 00:07:20,240 And at the time, I also had a platform besides LinkedIn. 166 00:07:20,240 --> 00:07:21,680 I was a contributor to the business 167 00:07:21,680 --> 00:07:23,200 section of the Huff Post. 168 00:07:23,200 --> 00:07:26,160 So my article appeared there as well as LinkedIn. 169 00:07:26,160 --> 00:07:29,880 And same word, same pictures, but on the Huff Post, 170 00:07:29,880 --> 00:07:31,800 platform had carried a lot more cache, 171 00:07:31,800 --> 00:07:33,400 and apparently got a lot more reach. 172 00:07:33,400 --> 00:07:36,840 And people started to show up in my life asking me, 173 00:07:36,840 --> 00:07:38,320 well, what's next? 174 00:07:38,320 --> 00:07:40,360 And there was never a what's next, man. 175 00:07:40,360 --> 00:07:42,960 It was like, OK, I thought I was one and done. 176 00:07:42,960 --> 00:07:45,000 But I was inspired to explore the journey, 177 00:07:45,000 --> 00:07:46,320 because I realized that we're all 178 00:07:46,320 --> 00:07:48,360 climbing the same mountain, about trying 179 00:07:48,360 --> 00:07:49,800 to prove that people matter. 180 00:07:49,800 --> 00:07:51,120 But the people that I was meeting, 181 00:07:51,120 --> 00:07:52,200 they're all climbing the mountain 182 00:07:52,200 --> 00:07:53,280 from different sides. 183 00:07:53,280 --> 00:07:55,000 But we're all looking to get to the same spot 184 00:07:55,000 --> 00:07:55,920 on the top of the mountain. 185 00:07:55,920 --> 00:07:57,480 So I learned from those folks. 186 00:07:57,480 --> 00:08:00,280 And we wound up collaborating, and that one article 187 00:08:00,280 --> 00:08:02,040 turned into a series. 188 00:08:02,040 --> 00:08:03,760 Ultimately, it had to become a book, 189 00:08:03,760 --> 00:08:05,920 because I needed to aggregate everything. 190 00:08:05,920 --> 00:08:08,720 My vision was that CEOs would have a chance 191 00:08:08,720 --> 00:08:11,160 to read all this great content, and linking them 192 00:08:11,160 --> 00:08:13,200 from article to article to article 193 00:08:13,200 --> 00:08:15,000 didn't seem like an efficient way to do it. 194 00:08:15,000 --> 00:08:16,640 And ultimately, the best way to do it 195 00:08:16,640 --> 00:08:18,920 was to consolidate it and call it a book. 196 00:08:18,920 --> 00:08:21,400 So that's how book one was born. 197 00:08:21,400 --> 00:08:25,280 Fun fact, on book one, somebody actually turned it into a play. 198 00:08:25,280 --> 00:08:27,800 It blew my mind. 199 00:08:27,800 --> 00:08:29,360 They hired a playwright. 200 00:08:29,360 --> 00:08:32,720 They got actors, got a venue, and brought 201 00:08:32,720 --> 00:08:36,160 the story of the new ROI, Return on Individuals, to life. 202 00:08:36,160 --> 00:08:38,920 And just to put a cherry on that Sunday, 203 00:08:38,920 --> 00:08:41,200 having not intended to write a first book, 204 00:08:41,200 --> 00:08:43,520 I didn't intend to write the second one either. 205 00:08:43,520 --> 00:08:47,280 But that's the story of conversations 206 00:08:47,280 --> 00:08:49,160 that I've had on my podcast, which 207 00:08:49,160 --> 00:08:50,360 is called Behind the Numbers. 208 00:08:50,360 --> 00:08:52,320 So the book is called The New ROI, 209 00:08:52,320 --> 00:08:53,440 Going Behind the Numbers. 210 00:08:53,440 --> 00:08:55,640 And it's conversations with leaders 211 00:08:55,640 --> 00:08:58,240 who have demonstrated what they've done to do culture change 212 00:08:58,240 --> 00:09:01,280 and how that's driven corporate value. 213 00:09:01,280 --> 00:09:05,760 And how did the business side of things come about? 214 00:09:05,760 --> 00:09:08,400 When you were not working for an employee anymore, 215 00:09:08,400 --> 00:09:10,840 how did you start the business side? 216 00:09:10,840 --> 00:09:12,080 No, I've been always fortunate. 217 00:09:12,080 --> 00:09:13,480 I spent a little bit of time doing 218 00:09:13,480 --> 00:09:14,720 some independent consulting. 219 00:09:14,720 --> 00:09:16,680 But for the preponderance of my career, 220 00:09:16,680 --> 00:09:18,920 I've been a part of an organization. 221 00:09:18,920 --> 00:09:23,280 And what do you focus on now? 222 00:09:23,280 --> 00:09:27,760 Like, what's your main area of expertise and focus now? 223 00:09:27,760 --> 00:09:31,040 So the main area of focus, what pays the mortgage, as they say, 224 00:09:31,040 --> 00:09:33,560 is business valuation. 225 00:09:33,560 --> 00:09:36,120 So there's a lot of reasons why companies need valuations. 226 00:09:36,120 --> 00:09:39,360 And I like to tell people that Shark Tank made what I do sexy 227 00:09:39,360 --> 00:09:41,020 because they brought the word valuation 228 00:09:41,020 --> 00:09:41,920 into your living room. 229 00:09:41,920 --> 00:09:44,480 I mean, even my kids know that I do something in valuation 230 00:09:44,480 --> 00:09:46,600 because they saw Mr. Wonderful and Mark Cuban talking 231 00:09:46,600 --> 00:09:47,680 about it. 232 00:09:47,680 --> 00:09:50,400 So there's a lot of reasons why companies need valuations. 233 00:09:50,400 --> 00:09:53,200 That's what I do day to day. 234 00:09:53,200 --> 00:09:56,360 Thank you for sharing that. 235 00:09:56,360 --> 00:09:59,000 One more question for you. 236 00:09:59,000 --> 00:10:00,880 And that will be the last question for today. 237 00:10:00,880 --> 00:10:03,840 What is your goal for being on the show today, Dave? 238 00:10:03,840 --> 00:10:05,160 My goal for being on the show today 239 00:10:05,160 --> 00:10:06,560 was to add value to your audience. 240 00:10:06,560 --> 00:10:09,040 I mean, I am a show host myself, so I 241 00:10:09,040 --> 00:10:12,560 understand what it means when you have guests on the program. 242 00:10:12,560 --> 00:10:15,240 The most important thing is that whatever 243 00:10:15,240 --> 00:10:17,560 the host is trying to tease out of the guest 244 00:10:17,560 --> 00:10:19,000 is to the benefit of the audience. 245 00:10:19,000 --> 00:10:20,600 So I'm just here to serve. 246 00:10:20,600 --> 00:10:22,000 Thank you for being here today. 247 00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:24,480 I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live. 248 00:10:24,480 --> 00:10:27,120 I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions 249 00:10:27,120 --> 00:10:29,360 as these episodes continue to move forward. 250 00:10:29,360 --> 00:10:31,080 This is going to get more and more fun. 251 00:10:31,080 --> 00:10:33,000 We'll have more and more engagement as well. 252 00:10:33,000 --> 00:10:35,040 We'll invite people to participate in the show. 253 00:10:35,040 --> 00:10:37,400 And thank you for giving us your time and attention. 254 00:10:37,400 --> 00:10:40,120 Have an excellent time building out your vision 255 00:10:40,120 --> 00:10:52,720 and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.