Leap Academy with Ilana Golan - Yasser Zaki - How to Grow a Company Through Impact

Episode Date: August 17, 2023

Is it possible to run a global company and change people's lives at the same time? Why is aligning with your mission is so critical? For Yasser Zaki, Global CEO  at Tender Loving Care, he knew making a difference and changing lives was critical for him. In this episode, Ilana and Yasser discuss what it takes to run a global company while staying true to your mission to help others live a quality life.Yasser Zaki is the Global Chief Executive Officer at Tender Loving Care, providing services to 70 countries with over 1,000 staff and creating a massive impact.You can connect with Yasser and his team:LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/in/yasser-zaki-tlc TLC testimony - Billy - https://fb.watch/msc3kPLCpG/?mibextid=Nif5oz   Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/TLCdisabilityservices?mibextid=ZbWKwL Instagram - https://instagram.com/yasser.zaki.9?utm_source=qr&igshid=MzNlNGNkZWQ4Mg%3D%3D About Ilana Golan & Leap Academy:Website - https://www.leapacademy.com/Follow Ilana on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ilanagolan/YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/@ilanagolan-leap-academy

I'm having a moment now that I believe in what I'm doing, but the struggle is making me question it. And my dad said to me, and I'll never forget it, he goes... Welcome to The Leap Show. In The Leap Show, we're here to bring experts from around the globe who share inspiring stories, concrete tips, and insight on what helped them become the best version of themselves and who they are today and create the incredible life that they wanted. Subscribe and follow us. Share this with friends who are also driven and aiming for more because you'll hear stories and tips that you'll hear nowhere else. Hi, I'm Ilana Golan, CEO of Leap Academy, which helps driven professionals reinvent, leap their careers to the next level.

Now let's get started. Today, I have an episode, which is an incredible story with Yasser Zaki. Welcome to The Leap Show. Yasser is a global CEO of Tender Love & Care, over a thousand people on staff, 70 countries, changing people's lives every single day. Yasser, tell us, how did you get started? It's actually started from a personal story that I don't often share, but it's back in the days I was more into the corporate world. So my mindset was very corporate, corporate, corporate. I'm talking now almost 15 years ago.

And I met a lady actually on a train ride that had a very significant person and sad story to be honest and she wasn't she didn't want to go to nursing home she had no one to look after her and it's quite a difficult moment for her and she was crying on the train so I reached out are you okay I'm just you know is, I think everyone would do that. And then she started telling me about her story. And as the conversation went, she had some shopping bags. I carried it for her, walked her home. And then she, the house was a little bit messy.

And I just went in and cleaned it, tied it up for her. And then from thereafter, we became like friends. So I kept going every week helping her out and it was purely I was continuing with my corporate work life is great building my career in a space that I thought at the time is the way to go um a little bit financially driven where I wanted to earn good money I wanted to grow into my career I wanted to do all these things that was a big part of my mindset but then when I saw this lady and I started having that for a while and after she passed I started realizing

that you know it wasn't me helping her it was actually her helping me so it changed my whole concept about is it really worth it to pursue that? And she had money, she had a nice house. But then what happened in the end? So my mindset completely changed and went into helping people, it does feel much better when you help people. And I quit my corporate job and I went into disability services helping people that are vulnerable. And I had a massive pay cut. It was a bit painful to adjust for a while.

But the good thing is I still had the mindset of management, growth, education. How can I get myself good at what I do? And I started building a career in that and discovered that I could grow into my career and kept getting promoted my income started lifting up again and and I found that I'm doing a job that I actually really like really enjoy changing people's lives and and helping and that was the starting point and then from there went to government and worked for government for a while then went into the private sector and did executive management and that kind of stuff. And then decided that to have a bigger impact and to have more influence, I should start Tinder Love and Care. And the name was very deliberate, by the way.

And now I'm enjoying every moment of it. Incredible, incredible. So tell us a little more, because first of all, yes, maybe some people would have, you know, come to her and try to make her feel good, but not a lot of people would clean her house. So that is yes, sir. But tell me a little bit, when you started Tender Loving Care, there's a lot of fear that will go with something like this. And can I monetize it? Can I grow it? Can I make this a success? Is it going to come to tell us a little bit about the beginning and where it is today? Because it's so inspiring. Yes, sir. Yes. So the first school of thought is creating purpose. Why am I doing what I'm doing? And very important not to lose that focus because as the business grows in general,

sometimes your focus changes, which that's not the case in our case. And so being very clear about the purpose of why I wanted to start Tender, Love and Clear was the starting point. And based on that, everything else evolved from there. And it was about helping people, creating positive impact in the world, and leading my example. That was very, very focused. So creating more awareness around disability, we knew that people with disability were vulnerable, didn't have easy access to a lot of services, didn't, you know,

could not, and we have a lot of refugees that come to Australia. We have people that English is a second language. So a lot of people struggled to even manoeuvre the system. So there was definitely a space where we could come in and provide those kind of services and improve people's life and to do that you have to do it in a sustainable way as you said it's it is scary when you go into that and I was quite comfortable in doing good and working with other you know organizations government all that kind of stuff but But moving into that private world, it does get lonely sometimes. And sometimes you get people look at it from a competition point of view. Well, we don't do that.

We don't compete in our space. We don't compete over people's lives. We collaborate over that. So that mindset and change of the narrative is key to the success that we've had. Incredible. Incredible, incredible. Because again, you're a global CEO. And on the other hand, you're talking all about impact and serving and loving versus money, money, money,

growth, growth, growth, which is where a lot of CEOs take themselves. So, and again, as we discussed, that's probably the key to your achievements, right? So talk to us a little bit more because that is so rare. Yeah, sir. So, so the question is never about making money or not. There's no shame of people making profits every now and again.

There's nothing wrong with that. What I find is you can do good while you're actually succeeding in business. And it's very important to have a very special focus on that. And that's a big part of what we do every day, like how we're going to change someone's life today. It's a language that we use. What are we going to do today to improve someone's life, to mentor someone, to do something good, and creating the platforms for people that actually are willing to do that as well so a lot of people and i've seen it so many times they'd love to help

they just don't know how to so being the vessel that can create that and say okay this is how you can help this is how you can contribute and have you thought of that in your business one of the things that are quite interesting is impact investment tends to double your return of investment so if a business and you see that in the c-suite companies i mean we have mcdonald's or has ronald mcdonald's houses and they have emirates airlines that has emirates foundation so a lot of the the big c-suite companies are recognizing quickly that they can actually improve their ROI by helping people by doing good win-win for everybody it's incredible yes sir but tell me again um so as a

CEO um a global CEO it is scary and lonely at the top um a lot of decisions tell us about you know maybe a hard moment that you had that you remember that you needed to kind of face the fear face the doubts and you know kind of persevere anyway i'll tell you an interesting thing um and it starts it's it's the reason of growth and it's the challenging moment so the pandemic was a very tough situation for probably everybody. But when you come in the care industry, you're supporting people. So now you have lockdowns from government saying you can't be with people. But as an exception, your services in certain cases

has to continue providing care for people. Obviously, there's enough nurses, doctors, and caregivers are the same. So now you have a situation where people are getting COVID and 14-day isolation, everyone, and then you have to provide care for someone that is tested positive and brings all the fear out there. Our person went down and supported people. It was that, you know, that tight and that tough

because every time one person got sick, everyone else had to stay at home. So it was very tough. And from a business perspective, we had to shut down a lot of our operations completely. We were not allowed to even operate. So we could only do in-home cares and accommodation services and nursing support, but we could not allowed to even operate so we could only do in-home cares and accommodation services and nursing support but we could not do the programs and activities and the center care and all that kind of stuff so it's a huge piece that you know went a bit funny for business for

the business and then you're dealing with staff that are losing our jobs what's going to happen how we're going to afford our payments so you're dealing with all these emotions and being the CEO, everything's on your shoulders. Everyone is waiting for you to give direction. Everyone is waiting for you to get creative. Everyone is waiting for you. Are you going to just let us go and look after yourself alone or are you going to look after everybody?

How are you going to manage it? And when we went to business advisors, they all said hibernate. They said slow down your business, do what you can, and then hibernate, and then wait until you get out on the other side and then regrow the business. That was all the business advisors we got. So I'm sitting there in a situation where I'm literally on my own, having to make a decision that everyone looking up to you, and you have to create that direction.

But everyone you talk to the are in the same boat and no one actually has the answer because there's no prediction no one had predictability no one knew how long would it take no one knew when it's going to end how beer is going to get no one knew anything so that was that was very tough and and i remember when i i went home and i slept over and i was like i could not sleep at night we have a concept in 10 to 11k we call it the tlc family so i i speak about that quite a lot and i'm like how can we keep saying family family family and then the second i get stuff i tell the staff stand down so it just didn't sit right with me so i I decided I'm not going to do that. So we did not stand one staff down in the whole pandemic period.

Everyone maintained their job, their income and everything. And I gathered the team and I said, moving forward, it's tough, but we go down, we go down together. But now is the time to give back and get creative and get good. We're good at what we do. We're smart people and we know business very well. So let's turn it around and work it in our favor. And how can we get creative outside of that? And that was the igniting moment of actually huge growth to the organization and a huge change.

And part of it being global and all these things started from that moment. Wow. Oh, my God. That's such an inspiring story. So that's incredible. I mean, again, most people will just tuck under the bed and not want, you know, or under the sheets and not want to even look or they would just take care of themselves. I just love what you said. What do you think is one thing out of the box that you did that made this big shift?

Because it's incredible. And again, most businesses didn't, you know, some flourished in COVID and most died. And, you know, again, depends. So what made that shift for you? So it's our school of thought of we love being different, doing different and achieving different. This is a very very unique thing about me personally but also my team it's embedded into our culture and um when we looked at the at that point of time when i gathered the team i said okay now we need to revisit our

strategy because our strategy is not going to work on the pandemic because the business looks different and when we revisited we we found one of the biggest risks when we did our SWOT analysis, one of the biggest threats, was that we were 100% reliant on government funding at that point. So we're running a multimillion-dollar business that completely relies on one source of revenue. So when the government decided to shut down an arm of that, our revenue went right down on the spot.

So we could see that as a threat and it could easily was a change of policy or rules collapse the business while you're running really well and then all the environmental risks and the unknown risks can hit you hard and you wouldn't be that prepared for it okay so we identified that as a big threat. And that was, okay, so we need to diversify that. So we need to find different sources of revenue that is not reliant on government, that is not reliant on one source, and also reduces the risk significantly.

And by doing that, we started applying what we call a blue ocean strategy. So how are you going to do things differently? That looks different. Our industry didn't have that. So everyone in our industry just focused on the healthcare side. We all tried to go into different revenues. It was very focused on government funding.

And I'm like, okay, government can't do it on their own. I can't rely on government heavily, and the pandemic proved that. Let's collaborate with the government, but get creative. We're good at business. Let's expand it. We visited at the time, what are the areas for business that would help growth, and

food and beverage was actually one of them. Everyone had to eat, we had the panic buys in the supermarket, so we needed to get perishable items. Then I started pursuing a new entity called Mayfood, which is part of the group. And I didn't want to lose focus on my initial impact. Impact is the heart and the soul of what we do.

So we decided to import feta cheese. And it had its challenges because dairy products are not easy to get into any countries. We had to go through a little bit of hurdles, but we got through it. And then in our company constitution, we said 70% of the employees will be people with disability. Because we don't want to lose focus on impact. So a whole business got created to generate a completely separate source of revenue that is not government reliant and servicing the community even better. So now people with disabilities that are struggling to find jobs, we give them a platform where they can work. 70% of them are people. So we're getting paid like you and I would get paid at zero government support.

We are covering the cost ourselves that that was one of the initiatives that we created out of there and it's going really well and it did create a different source of revenue um so that was that was a powerful move that we've done that serves us well and in our sector no one does it in that context like we made us very unique it was very blue ocean and it started to actually pull or start getting a lot more business because people now coming in we want to work and i would also change the narrative in terms of the consumers so now consumers if you buy your product that you know it's going to help someone with a disability to work and we had to make sure that we get the best quality so it was not about getting something cheap it's about getting the best of the best and people

with disability are delivering the best of the best so consumers started if i'm buying a product i want to buy a product that helps people incredible incredible and that's the leader that you are i mean you're so innovative and you're so thinking outside the box and you made something incredible here happen and all of this was amazing impact which is so so rare yes sir tell me for a second i would love to hear a story of a person or something that you know just you know you know, you change your life. I would love to hear that. Yeah, I've got plenty of those.

Actually, I have a video made for that person. Maybe one day I'll share it with you. And he requested that video. So it's one of the very close stories to my heart. It's a gentleman that he's got dwarfism and he's got intellectual disability, mild intellectual disability. And he was very isolated at home. So for about two and a half years, did not leave his house at all. And the reason is every time he goes out, he gets bullied.

He had people hanging him up on the tree before. So really sad. So by coincidence, he was sitting with my customer care manager. And I'm passing by and I hear him talking, I want help, but I don't want to, because he doesn't see himself as being part of a program on people's disability. He wants to contribute. He wants to do something like you and I would do. But that's not easy to find.

And he was talking like that. I just want to be like everyone. I want to work. I want to earn my living. I want to go out. I want to do these things, but I can't find the jobs. So I overheard the conversation. So I walked in the room and I said, tell me, why do you want to do that?

He goes, well, you know, I should be able to work if I want to work. I want to earn my living and I want to contribute. And I said, okay, if I give you an opportunity to work, you want to be treated like everyone else, and that's rightly so, you should be, then you're going to be treated in the work as well like everyone. So you have to perform, you have to deliver. So setting expectations was very important, okay,

because a lot of people are sorry you have a disability and stuff that's not what that's not the narrative we want to have treat people it's really like you treat anyone else and set them up for expectation and adjust the way you do things in terms of tools and resources and all these things to cater for the need and then let them do the job they're brilliant you know so anyway um, and then I give him a job. And I said, you've got six months probation like everyone else. If you don't do the job well, you're not going to have a job like everyone else. But if you do it well, then you've got the job you wanted.

And this was about three years ago. He's still working with us, still performing. And he came up to me last year and he goes, actually maybe a bit more. And he goes, yes, sir. I want to tell my story. And I said, what do you mean? He goes, I want to tell my story. You changed my life.

Like my life is 180 degrees changed. And he actually co-presents with me now. So if you look into our Facebook page, you will see some of the videos between him and I. Yeah i just linked to the podcast i mean people would love it yeah so um and um i got my marketing team to actually do a video for him and i said don't edit the video just let him speak you know because he wanted that and he came up with the most incredible video and the story is just so genuine so true and so he's one of us i have to say his one is beautiful oh my god so you literally you know working and you know you created an environment that gives you the life

that you want you fly in different places. You're in Australia. You're in Dubai. You're like all over the place. I met you with Richard Branson in Necker Island. So you have, you're living a dream and you're changing lives. That is insanely incredible. What is one thing you wish somebody would have told you maybe a decade ago or, you know, some time ago that, you know, you know, that you needed to hear?

When I had that moment of a change from corporate to non-corporate, I lost a lot of income. And financially, when you live out a certain lifestyle and inside it it drops right down, I got paid quarter of what I was on fire. It shook me a little bit. And I questioned in my head, like, is that something that I do the right thing could have just help people stay doing my work? Or did I want this to be a lifestyle moving forward and I called my dad and I said my dad was a very wise man he was a judge and he was a very wise man and I called him and I said I'm having a moment now that I believe in what I'm doing but the struggle is

making me question it should I just do it as a hobby or do it as a volunteer rather than change? I changed my whole life around that. Even my career, my education, I went and studied all these disability community services, did a whole lot of change, completely everything to be good at what I do. And, and my dad said to me, and I never forget it. He goes, a ship without goodness sinks. And I never forgot that word. And what he meant by that is, if you're running your life, if you're running your business, if you're running and you don't have goodness in it, it's not going to last, you know. And that was a very powerful word that he said to me that and it's actually till today um sometimes we do you know build schools or charity things and and sometimes i get people up in our finance team say okay we we went outside of budget here like a ship with that

goodness things don't worry about it'll be fine so fine. So it resonated with me. It was a very powerful words from my dad. Wow. I'm totally, you know, taking control of this one. Like this is so inspiring. I would love to lend this quote from you because it's so powerful. Yes, sir. This was to me, one of the more inspiring interviews that, interviews that we had. Um, I think you're an incredible leader. You're building something incredible. Um, you know, we see the videos from time to time. So you share it from time to time with me. And, and I think it doesn't even tell a fraction of the story that you are. And now, you know, I know that you're doing some keynotes and I know that you're putting some focus on Impact Plus because you're all Impact Impact. Maybe tell a little bit about, you know, what do you do in those keynotes? Why do people bring you in?

Because I know I've seen you all over the place. So tell us more. Yes, I'm having a lot of that. It's a platform where I can share some of the stories with people and remind people that impact can double your ROI. And impact is a very powerful thing. And the world needs more people that have impact-focused businesses. So having a commercialized armized business is not a problem.

And I keep saying that. In the past, I've heard people, you know, if you make money, you don't care. I disagree with that. It's actually when you run a sustainable business, you help more people. So let's help you run a good business. Let's do that. But just focus on helping people. And remember, how can businesses help?

Employment. When you put a position out there, I've heard multiple people, oh, but a person with disability, for example, cannot do this job. I'm like, no, no, no, that's not the way. Give them the right to compete for the job, but also give them the tools. I mean, if you are a computer engineer and you're meant to do a job and then you don't get given a computer, you're not going to do the job. So we all need resources and tools that can contribute to our success in the job. So do the same thing.

If you're interviewing someone with a disability, make sure you just do small adjustments to your interview so it can cater for a person with a disability so that you can give them the platform to showcase how good they are. And if they're not suitable for the job, don't hire them like you would do with anyone else. But put the effort in to create the environment for them

to be able to show you what they're made of. If you hire someone with a disability, don't hire because you feel sorry for them to be able to show you what they made of. If you hire someone with a disability, don't hire because you feel sorry for them. That's not what we want. Hire them because they can do the job and make sure you give them the tools that help them to do the job. I mean, our receptionist in Melbourne is a person with visual impairment and all he needed is a different monitor and a different keyboard that have inverted colors and things like that and an enlarged um key keypad keypad so the person can actually perform the job once we got these for them they're doing the job really well so it's about those little adjustments and i I think having your keynote speaking opportunities that I now,

in the past I didn't do a lot of them, but I do quite a lot now. And I've always been invited. But now I'm putting a lot of emphasis on that because it's a good platform to actually show people the way to greatness by helping others. And, you know, the world has more than 15% people with disability. You add to it mental health, age care, all these things. So it's a big number. And in Australia, we're one in five.

So there's almost 5 million people. In the U.S., I think it's the same ratio. So it's quite significant numbers. And if we're not contributing to people with disability and get them to actually contribute back to the society and the community then what are we doing incredible you're so right oh my god yes sir um i really enjoyed this conversation you're incredible what you're doing is incredible um i think the leader that you are is rare and I would love to see more of it. Any last famous words before we say goodbye?

Yes, there's one big one. One hand doesn't clap. There's not one person can do it on their own. It's a collective effort that we all have to put our hands together to help the vulnerable people in our communities. So if I can help by any means, guidance, mentorship, whatever is needed, I am more than happy to do that. And I can get my team on board and we can support businesses. This is not a business proposition. This is support to the greater community. So more than happy to do that. Incredible. Yes, business proposition. This is support to the greater community. So more than happy to do that. Incredible. Yes, sir. So if they want to reach out to you guys,

what's the best way to reach out to you, to your organization? And, you know, who is it? Is it the organization? Is it people with disabilities? Who do you want for them? It would be all, all. I mean, everyone has a role to play. So I'm happy for you to share my email, my LinkedIn, and people can reach out and we can definitely get, you know, the right people to support. And yeah, absolutely. You're incredible.

Thank you so much for this inspiring conversation. I'm sure everybody enjoyed it tremendously. Thank you for listening and hope you enjoyed this show. Don't forget to subscribe, follow, share this with friends. I'll see you in the next Leap Show.