Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Brad Englert Founder of Brad Englert Advisory & Author of Spheres of Influence

Episode Date: January 17, 2025

Brad Englert is an experienced author, advisor, and technologist with over 40 years of experience in the private and public sectors: Accenture in Austin for 22 years, including 10 years as a partner, and then The University of Texas at Austin for eight years, including seven years as the Chief Information Officer. Brad is the founder of Brad Englert Advisory.Learn more: https://bradenglert.com/ie/Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-brad-englert-founder-of-brad-englert-advisory-author-of-spheres-of-influence

Welcome to influential entrepreneurs, bringing you interviews with elite business leaders and experts, sharing tips and strategies for elevating your business to the next level. Here's your host, Mike Saunders. Hello and welcome to this episode of Influential Entrepreneurs. This is Mike Saunders, the authority positioning coach. Today we have with us Brad Engler, who's the founder of Brad Engler Advisory and author of Spheres of Influence. Brad, welcome to the program. Thank you. Hey, I'm excited to talk with you about your book. I think you've hit several Amazon bestsellers, so I want to hear all about what led you to write the book and then what some of the key teachings are.

But before we dive into that, give us a little bit of your story and background and give you some context that way. Okay. Well, I joined Arthur Anderson out of graduate schools, which became Anderson consulting, which became excellent. century, and I was with them for 22 years, 10 years as a partner. And my practice area was primarily higher education. So Ohio State, Michigan, Columbia, Vanderbilt, the big publics, the big privates. And then I happily retired. And my alma mater called and said, we need an IT strategy. You know higher ed. Can you come help us for an hour, a week pro bono? And I said, sure. And three months later, I was half-time, six months later, I was full-time, and I became the

chief information officer at the University of Texas at Austin for seven years. That'll show you for retiring, huh? And my wife said, I knew you'd do that. And said, guys are stupid. You need to tell us when we do stuff like that. But it was really a lot of fun because I was on the other side of the table. And, you know, over 40 years, I've really, really. realize that business is based on authentic relationships. And being on the customer side and then being on the vendor's side, you know, it really gave me some interesting perspectives. And, you know, I enjoyed mentoring people throughout my career,

and I still mentor two or three people here in Austin. But that doesn't scale. And that's really why I decided to write the book is how come. I shared these stories to help people grow in their career. Yeah, it's, it's so neat to see, like, what you went through and the lessons and the trials and tribulations and all of that, you can encapsulate that in a book and where people can, you know, come alongside and, as they say, success leaves clues. So what clues did the success you experience leave?

And so when someone is thinking, oh, spheres of influence, I want to be influential, what is the, the type of person that will benefit most from your book? It's really anyone in the professional world, it's geared primarily to those in growing in their career, young adults, but also mid-managers. I had someone explain that the way I described how to work with your supervisor as well as those reporting to you, he never really had any advice on how to do that as a middle manager. So, you know, he made it part of his book club for his leadership team. Neat.

Yeah, so I think that's really huge. And I saw in the Amazon description, the word vendor. And I think that when you hear the concept of, oh, to succeed in business, you need to be building relationships. That seems to ring a bell with some people. Like, yeah, I agree with that. But then they start thinking even with your vendors. So I want to get to that because I want you to explain, you know, you go deep, you go internal, you go external, even with vendors. And what does that look like?

So talk a little bit about the internal and external spheres of influence. Yeah, the internal spheres are those relationships you have the most impact with. And that would be your boss, your direct reports, executive leaders in your organization, and all your staff. and external sphere of influence or he had less direct impact but still influence, which would be customers, peers and influencers, and strategic vendor partners. And so do you feel like one should be worked, if someone is going to say, oh, I want to work on relationships, should they start with internal first and move to external, start with external, then move to internal, or is it kind of like they are fluid?

Well, that's a great question. It depends, but I would start with my boss. Most of us have a boss, and what a great way to start. And you may also have direct reports. But I would just start with one and practice the principles. There are three principles that apply to all the relationships. One is understanding their goals and aspirations. Two, set and manage expectations. And three, genuinely. care about their success. And so you can ask your boss, what are their goals and aspirations? Some people are scared to do that or, you know, think it's out of place. Well, as when I was the boss, I wanted my direct reports to know what my goals and aspirations were. I welcome that discussion. And setting and managing expectations, simple principle, but we don't always do it very well.

And third would be genuinely caring. When I joined the university, I met with this professor I worked with 40 years ago, I'm sorry, 15 years ago on a strategy, which was successful. And I said, okay, give me some advice. He says, get out of the office and tell people you give a damn. And you know what? That was the best advice ever. Hmm. You know, there's a lot to unpack there.

so I'll start with a couple things that jumped out at me. Understanding goals. So if you start with your boss, understanding the goals. It's not just, here's a set of questions, please answer it. It's not just sending email and go, what are your goals? It's literally getting into deep conversations and actively listening, not just waiting for an opening to make a point. It's literally understanding those goals and aspirations.

And then what I would suggest, and I've heard this, decades ago, and I'm sure you would agree, if you then understand those goals and then help that boss get those goals faster, better, more streamlined, when your boss succeeds, you typically will too. Absolutely. Same thing with your customers. Same thing with your direct reports. You know, if you can help and be part of the success that will breed more success. Because they remember, you know, what that, you know, kind of leverage.

was what the springboard was to help them get to that next level. When it's you, they go, oh, how can I help them? And I think another big thing that you brought up there is genuinely care. Yeah. If you're just asking questions to understand their goals only for the purpose of selfishly getting to the next level, that's going to show. It's like in the sales world, they'll say people, your prospects can smell commission breath. Well, in your corporate relationships, if you're only trying to understand your boss's goals so that you help them only for the simple result of succeeding, they're going to see right through that. So the university has 54,000 students, 4,000 faculty and 21,000 staff.

Our main IT service is the learning management system, which all faculty and all students use. well, my vendor that I inherited only showed up once a year for his maintenance check, which always increased 10% a year. Very unresponsive. I hired them to upgrade the software, and it broke things that had worked for five years. And I worked mightily hard with the faculty and students to find a new learning management system, more modern, more secure. and it took us two years to transition,

but it was worth it. And 10 years later, it's been very effective. And it was bye-bye to that original vendor who just didn't care. And I was a transaction. And the vendor that replaced them actually worked with us all the way along through the two-year implementation. And the VP for Sales would call me and say, is everything going okay?

We stand by, ready to help. And that was really, they did genuinely care. And it was in their self-interest because then they sold their solution to many other large universities. But it just gets down to, you can't really have a good relationship unless there's give and take.

And if you understand and show that empathy, that's huge. And so we've been talking about, you know, kind of like those internal, the boss and coworkers vendor kind of gets into external. And yeah, to your point, there's not really one place to start or stop. And because then, you know, you might neglect one or the other. So it's got to be a yes and. I heard one, the author of the book, Giftology, John Rulin, I interviewed him and he made an

interesting comment in their company. They would want, you know, all of their customers to, in strategic alliances to be so well cared for and taking care of that they trained their staff to do all of this stuff, send gifts and all of these things. But he said, if I did only that and I cracked the whip, so to speak, with my internal staff to tell them to do all that, then I'm missing out on an opportunity, which he said, we start all of that caring and gift giving with our employees. So he said, for example, we pay for our employees to have house cleaning service because we

want them to feel treasured and cared for. And when they feel treasured and care for, then they can go out and make our vendors and customers the same way. So talk a little bit about some of those tangible things that someone can be thinking of doing and implementing. Well, something simple is I would meet with my direct reports in their offices. I would, it gave me an opportunity to walk across campus, bump into customers, bump into students, bump into my peers. And they're, teams would see me coming to their boss and every week like clockwork. And I didn't make them come to me in the ivory tower. That's a pretty simple technique. I asked them to do the same that they should meet with their peers and influencers. So with seven direct reports, each of us

having seven to ten relationships on the campus, we had this network that was like a nervous system that helped us understand what the needs were, helped us build trust, and really become valued partners for the success of the university. Yes. You know, and I think that this, too, when you think about the greater good or for the university, all of a sudden there's a trickle-down effect into the school of business, the school of technology, the school of nursing, and all of these other things. but when you have that bigger overarching umbrella brand that you're focusing on,

the, you know, all tides, all ships arrives when the tide comes in. So I think that's a huge thing to think about. You almost become entrepreneurial, right? Right. That's right. And I inherited an organization that was really kind of had the culture of fire drill and being heroic. And I, over a year and a half, turned it into a proactive customer-facing organization.

And, you know, I said, I don't want to reward heroics. I want to think ahead to avoid situations so we don't have to have heroics. Certainly, we will have problems and how we deal with them is important. But changing that culture, you know, was key to that entrepreneurial focus. Yep. Talk a little bit about, you know, in the external sphere, You have a chapter on relationships with peers and influencers. So now that's getting to external, but something that can really boost projects moving forward and things like that with the right influencer.

So let's take a university example that's pretty simple to understand, which is a peer of mine was responsible for public safety. Well, it wasn't a matter of if there'd be a problem. it's when there would be a problem. So we worked very closely together to make sure our organizations knew what to do when there was a problem, whether it be a bomb scare or a shooting or 100,000 people in the football stadium. We proactively work together to be sure we worked together because it was so critically important. And he actually was a graduate of the Ohio State University, which was one of my clients. So we just bonded immediately. That's neat.

Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. You know, I think when we hear the word networking, we immediately think of traditional networking. Yeah. Talk a little bit about the contrasts between this and traditional. Well, one of my pet peeves is traditional networking doesn't work. It's superficial and transactional. I had an example where I was at a networking event, and about a week or two later, I got an email from someone who gave me their business card asking me for a donation that they're not for profit.

It's like, I don't even know you. Yeah. It's like, no. But, you know, one thing the firm taught us was the people you work with from day one later, maybe your customer, maybe your boss. a guy I started with in 1984 became the chief information officer of a huge Texas state agency the same time I became the chief information officer at the university. And, you know, we still talk to each other 30 years later. So, you know, and we help each other.

Yep. That's a big point that you bring up about. If you treat people, well, it reminds me of the example, you know, if something like if you climb the ladder to success and you have to step over people to get up there, A, make sure the ladder is on the right building. B, remember that those people you stepped over might be there on your way down.

Exactly. So if you treat a, you know, colleague or a boss the wrong way, you might find that they go to another place and you go to that same place because, you know, it's a small world. That's right.

You don't want to have that, you know, walk into the board room and go, oh, there's that person that I didn't really treat the right way. That's right. That's right. Love it. Well, I tell you, this is, I know that this is not something that you can handle or learn all in one whack. You've got to, you know, learn it over and over and over again.

So where would you say the best place that someone should start? When they think about, you know, your book, Spears of Influence, and they think about where do I begin? You know, we talk about internal and external, but should there be some type of an assessment or audit to see kind of like where they stand and then where they want to be? Yeah, I think you need to step back and say who are the most important people in that would help your career, whether it be your boss, your customer, your peers, or a direct report. And I would start with, you know, take example, a vendor. You don't have to meet every vendor, but the ones you spend the most money with, I meet with them and their bosses quarterly, you know, just to make sure we're aligned. And so, but I don't meet with all the vendors. So which ones are the most important to help you succeed?

And that's so you prioritize based on the importance to your success. Yeah, it reminds me of the 80-20 rule, you know, like, where? should I put my attention? Well, I should put it on the 20% of the whatever, customers, clients, you know, activities that will bring 80% of the results. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Accenture, Accenture always retains, like, 80 to 90% of their customers are repeat customers.

And it's like, that's so less costly to, the cost of sale for an existing customers, you know, is much less than a new one. So nurture those you have. 100%. And also when you find that, okay, I want to develop more whatever, strategic alliances or influencers externally so that it moves this project forward, what are those tasks that would be like the knock it out of the park task that if that's executed the right way, that this project's going to move forward? And so now you're bringing them into your vision and goals. And then then you're both aligned. And now they're understanding. And now they're understanding. the reason why. Well, and you think about the learning management system affecting 54,000 students, 4,000 faculty. I mean, what could possibly go wrong?

Yeah, really? Lots of things can go wrong. But just having that dialogue with your customers. And when we've finished that two-year project, the peer of mine who is in charge of the academic side, we've got this email from all the contacts and all the schools and departments. And it was to the president and we were copied on it. And I just saw that and I said, oh, my gosh, we're going to get fired.

And it was the most complimentary email ever of the fact that our two organizations worked together and really helped nurture this project over two years and reached a successful conclusion. And they appreciated that. And I thought that was pretty awesome. That is really amazing. Well, Brad, it's been really great chatting with you. If someone is interested in learning more and picking up a copy of your book, what's the best way that they can do that?

Well, I'm going to send you a customized link that will give your listeners access to sample the book. It will give them access to how to buy the book. And then third, how to schedule time on my calendar. Perfect. I will have that in the show notes. So that's easy to access. So thank you so much for coming on. It's been a real pleasure talking with you.

Oh, thank you. It's been fun. You've been listening to Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saunders. To learn more about the resources mentioned on today's show or listen to past episodes, visit www.com.