Mick Unplugged - Blair LaCorte Unpacks Coaching, Curiosity, and Culture in Leadership

Episode Date: April 21, 2025

Blaire LaCorte is a visionary business leader renowned for transforming industries and cultivating relentless growth. As the CEO of Loomis and former CEO of XOJET, Blaire has built his reputation on turning challenges into opportunities, scaling businesses through strategic innovation, and building strong, purpose-driven cultures. Known for his deep curiosity and people-first leadership style, Blaire has guided both turnarounds and high-growth companies by empowering teams, embracing change, and prioritizing authenticity and respect in every interaction. His unique perspective comes from a lifetime of learning, both in business and personal development, making him a sought-after coach and mentor for executives worldwide.  Key Takeaways: People Are the Heart of Every Business: No matter how innovative the technology or groundbreaking the ideas, true success hinges on people working together effectively and building the right culture. Strategy Is About Saying ‘No’: While brainstorming welcomes all ideas, effective strategy means making tough decisions, focusing on what matters most, and aligning your team around those priorities. Growth Requires Discomfort and Change: Leaders must create environments where teams are challenged, sometimes by “moving the stool” and letting people stand on their own, learning through failure, and being held accountable.  Sound Bites: “Brainstorming is about saying yes. Strategy is about saying no.” “If you assume everybody is stupid when you come in, then they will assume that you're stupid and that you don't see them.” “I can help someone up, but I can't hold them up. If I continue to help you too much and I hold you up, your legs don't get strong.” Quote by Mick: “I tell people all the time and if you listen to the show, you know I say, culture is a four letter word—C, A, R, E. And if you're a business leader, you don't necessarily lead the business, you lead the culture, and the culture is what drives the business.”   Connect & Discover Blair: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blair-lacorte-68084/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blair.lacorte Website: https://www.aeye.ai/ Website: https://bootstraplabs.com/community/blair-lacorte/   FOLLOW MICK ON:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mickunplugged/  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mickunplugged/  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@mickunplugged  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mickhunt/Website: https://www.mickhuntofficial.com                                                              Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mick-unplugged/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I haven't gotten it right all the time, but I also have self-forgiveness, which is, as my dad would say, you're either learning or you're earning. And if you look at it that way, even in failure, you're gonna be better the next time. Welcome to Mick Unplugged, the number one podcast for self-improvement,

leadership and relentless growth. No fluff, no filters, just heart-hitting truths, unstoppable strategies, and the mindset shifts that separate the best from the rest. Ready to break limits? Let's go. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting episode of McUnplugged.

And today we have a leader who's taken innovation from the skies to the streets. As the CEO of Loomis and former CEO of XOJET, he has redefined industries with his visionary leadership and ability to turn challenges into opportunities. He's a master of strategic thinking and setting up success. Please welcome the trailblazing, the transformative, the strategic, my guy, California's own, Mr. Blair La Cour. Blair, how you doing today, brother? All right, Mick, I'm doing great.

You got me revved up now. Feeling good. Revved up, absolutely, absolutely. Blair, man, on Mick Unplugged, we talk to people about their because, that thing that's deeper than your why. So if I were to say Blair, today, what's your because, man? What's the purpose that Blair LeCourte has?

Actually, I think that's a great question. And look, I think we all have influence from our personalities and we have influence from our parents and our upbringing. But I think all three of those come together with me, which is my because is to coach and to improve and to learn, right? I'm driven by curiosity and the only way that I can learn is by connecting with people and I hopefully help them and they help me. So that's the that's the basis.

Man, we have a lot in common, like if you were to ask my mom, like as a as a kid, she used to always say I was different because I was curious. Right. Like I never took an answer and just ran with it. Like I always wanted to know the why behind the why. I would ask a ton of questions. Like Blair, when did you realize that you had that curiosity trait? Because I think most power CEOs, that's the reason is that curiosity trait.

Yeah, I think, you know, I was curious in a large part to the fact that, you know, I grew up in a divorced family, you know, not, you know, I wouldn't say poor, because there's a lot of people out there that were a lot worse off, but I would say challenged. And I had eight brothers and sisters. So I was always trying to figure out

how the world worked and how to actually hold things together and how to meld these two families together. So I started really at an early age at an early age, asking my my mother got remarried and had an airline and my dad had a staffing company and I was always asking, you know, either about people or about business, right? Like, how does it work? And how do we, you know, get some control, right? What do I need to do to make things better?

Yeah, that's amazing. I love that dude. And you know, you've built a reputation Blair for scaling businesses. Again, another unique trait that I'll just be honest Blair makes you a unique one of one. One of the things I've been fascinated about you and I told you offline, I've been waiting for this episode

is just understanding how to scale a business. I'd love for Blair to give us an exclusive almost, right? Like what's your strategy for identifying the right opportunities in either chaotic or an uncertain market? Sure, you know, I think that the way that my brain works and I hope some people will relate to it is look, I look for patterns, right?

And scaling is all about patterns, right? Can you figure out the pattern of what's not working? Can you figure out the pattern of what is working? And then can you double down? Test, test, test, adjust, adjust, adjust. So one of the things I have come to realize, and I'm not sure I realized this early in my career, is that when I look back, I've

done two types of companies. I've never been an entrepreneur. I've always partnered with entrepreneurs, which I think to me is kind of interesting because that's what I did when I was growing up. My parents were entrepreneurs. I didn't start the companies, but I was trying to help them. In doing that, I've had two different types of challenges. One has been turnarounds and the other has been growth companies.

So, why turnarounds? Because when you come from the rough and tumble side, what you have to realize is you can't change the way people look at you. You have to leverage the way they looked at you. And when we came from the rough and tumble side, they said, okay, we'll throw you into that. You'll be able to handle it. So turnarounds were easier for me because they said this kid will he'll figure it out. Growth companies are kind of the elite. Right.

Once you've made your reputation, people say, oh, this guy's done it before. Let me put him in there. What's really fascinating is they're exactly the same. They're exactly the same. In a turnaround, I'm going to replace 60% of my staff and I'm probably going to, in some way or another, impact at least 50% of the people in the company to a large extent, whether you get rid of them or you upgrade them or you train them or things like that. It turns out in a growth company, over the first three years you're going to grow a company, you're going to change 60% of your staff, and you're going to impact 80% of the people because you're growing so quickly, right?

So they're exactly the same thing. I think people think they're different because you actually, in one case, are saving a company, in another case, you're saving a company that needs to figure out a different way to grow. So for me, when you ask me, how do I do strategy? It may be a slightly different way of looking at it. And I hope it resonates with some people as,

look, brainstorming is about saying yes. Strategy is about saying no. Strategy is about saying no. Anyone can come up with ideas. Maybe they're good, maybe they're bad. People like to talk about this all the time. But really it's deciding where to focus. And so when I decide where to focus, my first step, whether it's meeting a person who asks

me to coach them or it's taking over a company, is to stop thinking about what I know and start listening to what other people know. Because when you know, when you look at a company that hasn't been able to grow as fast as people wanted it to, or they're struggling, there's probably 30% of the people in there that are really talented, but don't know what to do to actually get that talent out or aren't allowed to do it. There's another 30 percent of the people in there that are very talented, but they're not going to help you get to where you need to go. They're not bad people.

And then the most important part is there's somewhere between 15 to 20 percent of those people are people that will actually be culture carriers and that will actually drive other people. And then there's 10 to 15 percent who you got to get rid of. There's just you got to get rid of them. But if you assume everybody is stupid when you come in, then they will assume that you're stupid and that you don't see them. So the first thing I do when I go to talk to a person or I go to talk to a company

is signal to them, I see you. I want to hear from you, right. I want to hear from you. I want to learn from you. Now, again, they may teach me something that they're wrong and I can see it, or they may teach me they're right, and I never would have seen that. But remember, when I come back to that top 15 to 20 percent who are going to be the leaders to make the change, if I show them that I know something about the company, not bringing it from the outside, how smart I am, that increases my probability that they will realize that when someone treats the people who

they're going to let go with respect, they're going to treat the people they're going to promote with respect. And it's basic basic and I know it sounds simple, but the reality is we get too intellectual. We need to, when we enter a problem, to make sure that we understand it. You know, there's a thing that we learned from the Israeli military when we were training, which was they had the power of seven. And so they talked about strategy.

And when they went in to make a major change, they would take seven people and three would argue the proactive and four would argue the negative. Now they wanted to make this change. They had an understanding and they wanted to make it. Why did they do that? Because either they were going to find out that they hadn't really thought it through, which happened 20% of the time, 80% of the time the change, they were going to go out that they hadn't really thought it through, which happened 20% of the time, 80% of the time, the change, you know, they were going to go forward with it.

But even if they were going to go forward with it, they now understood where they may need to mitigate risk, where on the edges they may be wrong, where they would need to actually figure out how to stop the negativity. And so going through the process opens up your mind, repurposes your neurons. We're designed with quick twitch. Neurons are designed to be frozen into place so that we can make decisions faster. Why do we do that?

Because dude, we're not the prettiest, we're not the fastest, we're not the strongest animal, and we were afraid of getting eaten. So a lot of what we do, which has been an advantage in survival, turns out to be not an advantage when you're leading complex organizations. And we are the only animals that actually organize across continents, across cultures, in masses. When you look at tribes, especially look at tribes of animals, they do it on a very

intimate level. So when we start to get too full of ourselves and realize that we have all this power, we have to go back to what is our challenge. Our challenge is your biggest strength often becomes your biggest weakness. I love that, Blair. I love that. I wrote so much down into what you were just saying. I want to unplug a couple of things, starting with culture. And it's something that I know was important for you because I've read a lot of your work and been a huge follower of yours for a long time. I tell people all the time, and if you listen to the show,

you know I say, culture is a four-letter word, C-A-R-E. And if you're a business leader, you don't necessarily lead the business. You lead the culture. And the culture is what drives the business. And Blair, I love the fact that you said you go in and say, I see you. So I want to talk with you about or ask you the importance of culture and say, I see you. So I wanna talk with you about

or ask you the importance of culture and why so many CEOs and leaders get it wrong where you've gotten it right. Well, listen, that's a, I thank you for the compliment. I haven't gotten it right all the time, but I also have self-forgiveness, which is, as my dad would say, you're either learning or you're earning.

And if you look at it that way, even in failure, you're going to be better the next time. So it's almost impossible to get it right with culture when humans are involved, because we don't always know what we're dealing with. And even more important, a lot of people don't know what they're dealing with. So for instance, I early on, I'm old, right? So I was there when 360 reviews first started. Now early on, I'm old, right? So I was there when 360 reviews first started. Now, dude, I'm old, right? And so I remember hearing,

oh, we're gonna do these 360 reviews. And back in the old days, you got reviewed by your boss. So you knew where you were coming from. You knew what he wanted and you knew how to actually go into the review. These 360 reviews were terrifying because your peers were going to give you feedback and so weren't the people that work for you.

So I spent six months trying to be the best human I could be. So I had a guy, a sales guy, wasn't doing well. I spent time with him. I went out with him, deal these things. And when I got my review back, I got skewered. And the reason is because, look, that's great that I care, but it also matters that I care about everybody, right? So you got to be really careful. When I say that I want to see people, it doesn't mean that you won't see something that is negative that you're going to have to change. It means I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt. So from that, I actually learned a practice that I've followed

to this day, which may sound like a lot of overhead. But if I'm going to fire someone who's a direct report or one of my direct reports is going to fire someone, so they came to me and said, I'm going to fire someone, I would offer before they left, I would offer to have lunch with them and explain why we made the decision. 90% of the time, people said, yes I want to come, either because they appreciated the respect or they wanted to flame out their boss and explain why he's an idiot and tell me these things. But what happened is the two times that people remember you is when you enter and when you leave. Right? And so when you give someone enough respect in that culture, even when

you're firing them, we could be wrong and we make mistakes, but if they know the reasons, they can actually get better. And what I found over time is that level of respect. People would bring me deals that I had fired and people would refer people to come work for me that I had fired because I had given them enough respect and enough information that either they disagreed with me and they doubled down or they saw that they're in the wrong job and they doubled down on a new job and they were very successful and very happy with that.

But that's how I look at culture is that it's not always good, right? It's not always how we say you're going to be soft with someone, it's like being a coach. Sometimes it's being real with someone to get them to the next level. And sometimes it's cutting someone so they can play on a team that's better. So, you know, when you look at culture, I believe that culture has to be about winning.

Humans are wired to improve, again, learning or earning. Now, if you believe that it's learning or earning, and it's about winning, that means they can learn a lesson and that can be a win. And it doesn't mean that you have to actually be making money every day, but people have to feel like they're moving ahead. Giving people bonuses and hugging people, I believe are the next step from actually helping them to figure out, are they in the right place and do they want to win? That's when you get the multiplier effect.

If not, then they're looking for answers from you. Actually, I'm looking for answers from them. Those answers have to come out from inside. I would always say, I can help someone up, but I can't hold them up, which means I'll help you. You've made a mistake. I'll help you. I'll talk to you about it.

But if I continue to help you too much and I hold you up, your legs don't get strong. The second I turn around, you fall down. I'm back to help you up. You don't gain self-confidence and the whole culture falls apart. Just like when I went to that sales guy and I made him successful and I didn't take any attention to the people who are doing good work. That was the message they got. I'm crushing it and I'd really like to spend some time with you, but you're

completely focused on someone who's failing and you're holding them up. Right? So anyway, just some food for thought is that I, you and I are a hundred percent aligned. I do think it's about culture and about humans, but that doesn't always mean it's easy. And it doesn't mean that you're always making it okay for people, right?

Sometimes you have to make it uncomfortable and sometimes you have to let them fail. And sometimes, you know, the classic phrase, I never fired someone faster than the new, to time I knew I needed to fire them. There's never been a time where I thought to myself, I shouldn't have done it faster, right? Because we always say, oh, you know,

but they have potential and maybe I'm just too busy and maybe I should put a little bit more time or, you know, I know they're the wrong person, but let's keep them around because the risk of me losing someone right now is, I'm telling you, in any major position that I have had to let someone go, I've never had a point in time where I didn't say I should suck it up and done it sooner. Because the second you don't do it sooner, everybody else in the company is brought down

by that person. Because while you're focusing on one, you're not focusing on your team. Totally agree. Just like when you say, I see you to your team. Well, when you don't take action swiftly, they see you with that. That's it. I actually I love that. And that's the reality is that they are always looking at you in one way or another. And you need to show them what you want the culture to be. Yep. Yep, yep.

You know, Blair, one of the things you said first, offering to take someone that you just let go to lunch, genius, because it does two things for me. One, it means that I'm always developing or at least providing assistance for my people to do the right things, right? And two, you're doubling down on the fact of, you know, it's not personal. There's a reason. A lot of times when we terminate people, it feels, whether the reality

is or not, we feel that it's personal on either side, right? But if Blair's like, hey, I'm going to take that person to lunch, now all of a sudden it's like, well, one, it's not personal, and two, I'm gonna reflect and say, well, yeah, Blair did give me every opportunity to succeed, right? Blair did give me the rules of engagement. So, if I did get let go, maybe it was me, right? Or conversely, I just wanna tell Blair

how much I dislike him, and I'm gonna take this I just want to tell Blair how much I dislike him, and I'm gonna take this opportunity to do that. Or how much I dislike my boss or however old you are. But it's okay, because that's human. That's human, right? And when you just decide that you can actually make a decision that impacts someone's life, and there's no backlash from that,

that you don't feel it, you don't see it, it's like stabbing someone and not getting the blood on you. Okay, this is gonna be a big deal for people. Now, a lot of times it's exactly the right thing for the company or for them, but the thing that I didn't realize over time that I had to do was the first couple of times I did it, I took it too lightly.

What I realized and how it changed me was I had to really understand why this person was being let go. Not just, hey, you know what, we're reorganizing, this person doesn't have the skill set. I had to spend time with the manager. And what did that do? It gave us an opportunity to actually grow together and for me to coach him. Because if I disagreed with it, at the end of the day, it will be their decision.

But we had a discussion. So it also gave me a platform to actually coach and get to know my managers, and it gave me an opportunity to really be able to respond with absolute opinions when I went to that lunch. When they said, well, I don't understand it, I could say, hey, this is where we're going, these are the skill sets we need,

this is what we looked at or I could say look Here's some examples of where you can see this is not your strength. I can tell you I let someone go Six months ago and I said, oh my god This is tough. I really you know, this is person I really like but they were Phenomenal at customer service and they were phenomenal in front of people and they were terrible in organization. You can't have someone who's terrible at organization be running your calendar. At the end of the day, they realized that's not what they like to do. They just liked our relationship as did I.

What did I do? I moved them back to the role that they were good at. Right? And I took that it looked like you're getting demoted, but in reality you're being promoted to where you can succeed not doing something that yeah, it's helpful, but it's, you know, it's going to make you miserable. No, I agree. And that kind of takes me to where I wanted to go next

because you mentioned something about letting your team fail, or at least giving them the opportunity to do the work. And I feel like, especially in 2025, we massage, these are the words of Mick and Mick only, right? We massage empowerment and call it, or we call it empowerment, but what we're really doing is micromanaging people right and when we micromanage when we're too close we don't let people show us that they can do the job or that they can't the end

of the job right and so one of my favorite parallels to this and it's one of my pillars in leadership I call it great leaders know how to move the stool right for their team. And what I mean by that, Blair, if you remember Muhammad Ali, right, in his big fights and the big moments of fights, his trainer and coach, Angelo Dundee, would move the stool in between rounds and make Ali stand up. And what he was trying to do was say, I know you're tired, I know you're fatigued, but you've got more in you and you just don't see it. So instead of sitting and being comfortable, stand up.

And the other part of that was also face your opponent while you're standing. Because if you remember the Joe Frazier fight or the third Joe Frazier fight, right? It was like Joe Frazier, they had been battling. Both of them were tired. Ali, again, stands up. Dundee moved the stool. And Joe

Frazier saw Ali standing and he was dog tired and said, there's no way I can continue if this man is standing in between rounds. And so I think as leaders, we've got to know when to move the stool. We've got to know when it's okay to tell your team members, right? Your direct reports like, hey, I know you're comfortable, but I need you to prove that you can do it. I see that there's more in you. I'm moving the stool and I'm gonna make you stand tall. And what happens next is on you,

that grit that you have inside of you or the lessons that we've learned or what we've been teaching. So for Blair, like, do you think it's important for leaders to move the stool? And if so, what are some signs? Cause I think that's important for leaders to move the stool? And if so, what are some signs? Because I think that's important for the listeners and viewers. What are some signs that it's time to move the stool and let our team stand on their own?

Right. So, number one, I think it's a great pillar because it's back to this helping versus holding someone up. When you don't move the stool, you don't know whether you're giving them a break that's making them weaker or that they're actually recovering. And so if you don't move the stool, you don't test it, which is one of my first things I always like to do, which is to test someone. So I understand them, right? I understand what they like and what they don't like and what they're uncomfortable with and what they're not uncomfortable with. Because if I don't know that,

how am I gonna coach them? Right? And so I think that when I first meet someone or take over something or executive staff, one of the things I do is I go back through their history and I look for what they're comfortable with. And I don't do it the way that most people do. What I do is, look, it's always easy to see achievements

in a resume or to hear achievements in a story. And people are selling and they wanna sell you their best. So what I do is say, take me from the time you were a child and I want you to talk about decisions you've made and why. Right? So, you know, where did you go to college? Why did you decide to play a sport or join the band? Where did you take your first job?

How did you get your first job? And what I try to do is actually get them to start to tell me who they are and what they're comfortable in and who they've become. Because then I actually have an opportunity, if I'm going to expand them, to say where would I move the stool to? Right? Not just take it away, but I'm going to move a stool over to a different place and give you some experience because my job is to make the athletes better.

One of the reasons we don't do that is because we feel risk. If someone's a high performer and we screw around with them, are we actually injecting risk? The other is it takes effort. And the effort isn't immediate payback. The effort is the trust that you get from someone, the learning that you get from someone and the strength that you build in someone usually comes over time. And we're so busy.

If we believe our job is just making decisions, we won't move the stool. If we believe our job is coaching and making people stronger so that they can make decisions, we'll move the stool. And so I think that's a mindset. I'm also, look, remember I'm a change manager. So there are opportunities where you don't have to do that. We did a study when I was at Texas Pacific Group, and we had bought a lot of companies over the years.

At the time I was there, we had bought 93, but everything from Neiman Marcus, we bought IBM. We merged it to create Lenovo. We bought Burger King, we bought Grow-E, we bought a lot of companies. And so we would every quarter, we were one of the few firms that would actually do a HR analysis of how we thought the team was performing,

all of the executive team. Now you can argue it's biased, you have a certain mentality, but it's indicative over time, who's an A, if those are the type of people you thought were A's, they'd stay A's, these are the Bs, these are the Cs. What we found is that in steady state industries that were growing, if we could pick A players, which we considered A because they had the experience, they would perform like A players. But if the industry changed, the As went immediately to Cs.

If we picked what we would have called B players, which had malleability, they had done different things and they had seen ups and downs. If the industry changed, they would move to A's. Again, as we start to think about what kind of people we want to hire, it depends on the context. If I'm just trying to get this company to grow 5 percent a year, because we have market leadership,

it may be okay to pick someone and not push them and not try to make them better. If I think that there's an opportunity that the industry will change or I need to grow faster than that, then I need to put time into my management because they have to grow before the company can grow. It sounds very obvious, but they have to grow before the company can grow. It sounds very obvious, but they have to grow before the company can grow. And most people who grow companies, it's a process, not an end, right? So you can't just say,

oh, they're gonna do the exact same thing again, because it's never the exact same thing. So when I see this as a mistake, a lot of people think, oh my God, we need to grow, I need to get a salesperson who's done it before. It's not just that they've done it before. Can they do it again?

You have to ask what was the process and who are they and why did they enjoy that? Because it may have been that they just worked really hard, but they don't have that in them again. It may be that they got lucky. It may be in that particular industry or that particular product that they just got it. But it may not be that they're truly a growth personality, right? That they will whatever comes in front of them, they will actually figure out how to do it. And that's your job in hiring a staff and hiring a partner.

No, totally agree. And Blair, I'm going to take that a step further with me and my businesses, especially when we're talking about salespeople. And so for all the leaders and CEOs out there, I want you to think about this when you're interviewing for salespeople, because this was always one of my first questions. Why are you available? Most great salespeople should not be available unless there's no room for growth or They want to become a partner in something or they've reached the ceiling, right? I always ask If I'm hiring for sales, tell me why you're available Because you shouldn't be and that's just me being honest, right? I know I actually if I work for you

Yeah, I love that and you know That a sales guy who's failed, winners win. Winners win, okay? They find a way to win. And if you fail the two jobs in a row, I'm not saying you're a bad person, but I'm saying there's a problem. And they may say the problem was with the product,

the problem was with the management, but great athletes find a way to win. You can have one strike, but you get two strikes on you. You got to ask yourself, what's going on here? Because that position, to your point, is a position that is defined by winning. I would also say, like I say, this is my, I just told one of my sons, I said, he's moving from marketing to sales. If you have not asked someone for money, you don't understand business.

OK, that I get it. You can contribute to business. But if you've never asked someone for money and been turned down and you've never asked someone for money and taken it and then your product has failed them, you don't understand business because that is business. And one of the biggest complaints and I'm a marketer, business. And one of the biggest complaints, and I'm a marketer, right?

But one of my biggest complaints in marketing today, especially internet marketing, is it's become its own function. And, you know, likes and, you know, funnels and things like that, interesting. But if you've never knocked on a door and understand why people are going to buy, then you're not really a good marketer.

If you look at a lot of the marketing theory, Zig Ziglar and Dan Kennedy and all the guys who invented the original direct marketing, and by the way, the internet is just an extension using technology of direct marketing. When you look at them, they were all door-to-door salesmen. They were all door-to-door salesmen. And what you'll find is in sales, it only comes down to two things. One is math, and the other is human psychology. Are the numbers right? They could afford it, and your margins are good enough that you're going

to survive. And the second is, why are they going to do what they're going to do? There's an old cliche. They don't buy a drill. They buy a hole. They don't buy a hole. They buy a screw. They don't buy a screw. they buy a screw. They don't buy a screw, they buy a TV that needs to be screwed into the wall so that they can sit home at night and cuddle with their wife. Okay, why do people buy? And it's, you know, for me, it's really easy.

It's either got to do with fuel or friction. And the lazy sales guy always picks fuel. Let me tell you why this is gonna be great for me. The great sales guy asked enough questions to find out what the friction is because the friction in buying that drill may be that it's too far away and they don't have a car. It may be that it's too expensive,

which is an easy excuse. It may be that they're afraid of using power tools, right? Because they've never used it before. But if you don't understand the friction, the fuel is the easy one. Okay. But anyway, like you, I get passionate about sales. Unlike you, I was not a salesperson most of my career, but I have never succeeded without having a sales culture that brought information back from the

customer that would teach me what to do with my business model. Because as we said, brainstorming is about saying yes. Strategy is about saying no. Every company lives or die in the business model. And the business model is all based on how much you can sell. The other ones are easy. My margins, my inventory, not easy, but it's more derivative. And then finally, at the end of the day, it's about people and execution. Now I would argue that the people and execution is what everything is based on. That's why it's at the bottom of the pyramid. If you're not good people and they can't execute, all that strategy and business model

and stuff doesn't matter. Right. But you know, sales has a special place in my my heart because it's about a human talking to a human, whether that's over email or it's face to face. It doesn't matter. That's it. Absolutely. Blair, you've been so gracious with your time. Like, I just looked up and I was like, holy crap, I didn't even ask Blair his rapid fire questions yet. So Blair, I'd love to just couple of moments,

a couple of rapid fire questions, nothing intense, but I want you to be ready. Nice. All right, I'm nervous now. No sir, no sir. What is the biggest lesson that you learned? It's all about people, stupid. When I first got into Sun Microsystems, which was a big high-tech company, it was the leader

in hardware at one point in time before it merged with Oracle, I happened to be sitting across the hall from a guy who was head of R&D when I was head of strategy. And I was gonna leave because I didn't understand technology and we were the top technology company. We invented the workstation. We invented a lot of the Unix.

We invented Java. I mean, we were the tip of the spear in technology expansion. And I started to get very overwhelmed because I didn't understand the words and some of the things. And he looked at me and he said, you know what? Every company, including technology companies, the biggest issue isn't the technology, it's the people, getting the people to work together to get the technology out.

And that person was Eric Schmidt, right, who went on to eventually go to Google. And that changed the way I looked at everything, because I realized that we get the shiny objects are always out there. And I'm not saying that we don't have to understand what they are, but at the end of the day, as we just said, the only thing that matters is people and execution. Right. Unless you're going to do a business that's AI and it doesn't, you know, but you still have

at the end of the day, someone building that technology. Correct. Absolutely. Correct. So you've done a lot of amazing things in your life, led a lot of amazing companies. What's Blair doing now? What's new with Blair? I have had an opportunity to actually do something that I have never done before, which was to actually be compassionate to myself and ask myself what I wanted to do versus what I was going to do for other people. Sometimes as you get older, you actually find out that as you change,

you need to change what you do. Because when you're successful, everyone wants you to do the same thing. And what I realized is that what I really would like to do is I'm writing a book very slowly, I might add, on relationships, because I'm fascinated a book very slowly, I might add, on relationships, because I'm fascinated by tribalism and relationships and Dunbar's number about how many people can you connect with

and how many people can you influence. And I think that when I get it done, it's going to be for me, but I hope it adds some value out there. The second thing I'm doing is I'm coaching, because I found that I've been in so many industries that there's a concept called funnel vision versus tunnel vision. I can bring people together from different industries and they can help each other. I have a group of 50 CEOs from 40 different industries and four times a year, I get to sit there for three days and listen to everything that's happening

around the world. And then the third thing I'm doing is just projects with my friends, and actually projects with my kids. One of my sons has a new company, believe it or not, he sells ice, which is not what you really wanted to say as a father. Except when you realize that what he's doing, he's doing craft ice. And I'll just give you one example of like innovation, right? Most ice was made from lakes and rivers and icicles. Why?

Asymmetric freezing with water going against it makes very dense, hard, clear ice with no impurities. Well, we, you know, built ice machines and we built ice that's very easy to make, but impure. Today, one of the big trends in is this craft ice that goes in your drinks, clear and beautiful because it makes you feel good. And they invented a way to make this craft ice more inexpensive. They also very, very pure. But it turns out that the best thing they invented was a mistake, which was if you're going to invent a way

to put it on a production line, you can actually etch designs into it, and it makes people smile. And that simple concept of Jimmy Buffett's parrot on a piece of ice when you're at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville actually really adds value to a dining experience. And so perfect example of I learned an awful lot by just hanging out with my son and seeing that level of inspiration. So I would encourage you guys out there who are in businesses,

whether you're an entrepreneur or you're being entrepreneurial inside a big business, is when you're curious and you learn the history of something, you also have an opportunity to actually innovate and take it to the next level. Because most of the innovators dilemma, most companies have been successful, don't remember how they got there. They remember the risk of change, because now they're successful.

Whereas a kid who said, I'm going to go out there and make better ice, didn't have those constraints. And now they've got 10 times the demand that they can produce because he actually listened. Hmm, there you go. That's really good stuff. So Blair, where can people find and follow you now if they want to venture onto digital or social media. Sure, you know, LinkedIn is a great place.

I post some videos also. I have a lot of resources on our coaching group, which are free for people who aren't in the coaching group, which is PPE Mastermind. I did not make up the name. Pinnacle Performers Elite, but PPE Mastermind, um, which I inherited from two friends, Tony Robbins and, and, uh, Jay Abraham, both giants, um, and people have learned something from, but both of those places have some resources on it. And if I can help you in less than five minutes, because there's someone I can

hook you up with or some question I can answer, you know, just direct message me. There you go. Ladies and gentlemen, my good friend, my virtual mentor, Mr. Blair La Cour. Blair, thank you so much, man, just for spending time. All the wisdom. I mean, I wrote down like eight questions while you were talking that I didn't even get to,

so we might have to do like round two with Blair. Just so you can get to. Yeah, I'm talking too much. That's my problem. But thanks, Mick. I love what you're doing. And I love that you're adding value and inspiring people and making them think

that's what being human is all about. So thank you for what you do. You got it. I appreciate you. And for all the viewers and listeners, remember you're because is your superpower. Go unleash it. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Mick Unplugged. If today hits you hard

then imagine what's next. Be sure to subscribe, rate, and share this with someone who needs it. And most of all, make a plan and take action because the next level is already waiting for you. Have a question or insight to share? Send us an email to hello at mcunplugged.com. Until next time, ask yourself how you can step up.