The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Beyond the Hammer: A Fresh Approach to Leadership, Culture, and Building High Performance Teams by Brian Gottlieb

Episode Date: September 18, 2024

Beyond the Hammer: A Fresh Approach to Leadership, Culture, and Building High Performance Teams by Brian Gottlieb https://amzn.to/3BjCRnp Briangottlieb.com “Brian’s book inspires both successful individuals and future entrepreneurs, urging them to embrace challenges and pursue growth.” – Wolfgang Puck Employees that don't take ownership of their work Friction between departments Inconsistent results These are the top challenges that face most businesses today. These common issues create high turnover and force managers into crisis mode where they're consumed putting out daily fires. Over time, the very nature of the business changes and a new culture emerges; one shaped by the lowest level of acceptable behavior. Beyond the Hammer approaches these concerns in two highly engaging sections: First, a fictional story of George, a business owner struggling with burnt out employees, high turnover, and frustrated customers. Readers follow George as he discovers five foundational pillars of leadership that have the power to build teams that perform at a high level, consistently. The second section shifts from storytelling to strategy, providing an actionable path to weaving these 5 pillars into any business, enabling leaders to integrate these principles into their daily operations seamlessly. Written for managers and leaders alike, Beyond the Hammer offers a simple yet powerful approach to creating a team where everyone is aligned, and properly positioned to win.

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast. The hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show. The preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. The CEOs, authors, thought leaders, visionaries, and motivators. Get ready. Get ready. Strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms, and legs inside the vehicle at all times. Because you're about to go on a monster education roller coaster with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Hi, folks. It's Voss here from thechrisvossshow.com.

It's Joe and Aaron Lee. As soon as that makes it official, thank God after 16 years I don't have to sing that line anymore. I'm so over it, and I'm pretty sure the audience was. Although people like running up to me and screaming at me, and then I call security on them, have them removed from the building. So, guys, we have an amazing author on the show. We're going to be talking about his insightful book that's going to expand your mind, make you smarter. And if not, we're going to have to come out there and fix you.

We're further sure your family, friends, and relatives. It always starts with a threat and violence. Refer to the show of your family, friends, and relatives. Or else. Go to Goodreads.com, 4Chest, Chris Voss, YouTube.com, 4Chest, Chris Voss, Chris Voss 1 and the TikTokity, and ChrisVossFacebook.com. I don't know. Just go to them all and just press all the buttons.

See what happens. Today we have Brian Gottlieb on the show with us today. He's a multi-book author. I believe he has written his latest book that's coming out September 10th, 2024, called Beyond the Hammer, a fresh approach to leadership, culture, and building high-performance teams. Welcome to the show, Brian. How are you? Hey, Chris.

Thanks for having me. And by the way, not only do you always have great guests on, you certainly have the best intro out there in podcast land. I've heard that. Everyone freaks out over there like, oh my God, it's so great. We're just here for the brain bleed. So Brian, you're an inspirational business leader who founded a home services business in 2009 on a plastic folding table with $3,000. I did that when I was going to grow up and be Scarface one time, but that's a different story.

That was in the 80s. Twelve years later, when he sold the family of businesses that he created at that table, they had diversified products that spanned across multiple states, grown to 600 employees, and neared $1 billion in lifetime sales. Inc. 5000 recognizes the organization as one of the fastest-growing companies in America. And now he joins us on the show with his spectacular insights. Welcome to the show, Brian.

Hey, thanks for having me. Really, really, really looking forward to what we're going to talk about today, whatever that might be. Let's do it. Give us your dot-coms to lead off. Where do you want people to find you on the interwebages in the sky? Sure. Just, it's do it. Give us your dot coms to lead off. Where do you want people to find you? On the interwebages in the sky. Sure. Just, it's super easy.

BrianGottlieb.com. G-O-T-T-L-I-E-B. Nice and easy. Nice and easy. On the cover of the book, too. It's easy to spell out there. So give us a 30,000 overview. What's in your new book, Beyond the Hammer?

Well, you know, if you're a leader, a manager, an entrepreneur that is running a business or a team and things aren't going as planned, I think everybody knows the frustration that that causes. It's aggravating. It's exhausting. And it doesn't have to be like that. So Beyond the Hammer is a fresh approach to leadership and how to build high-performance teams.

And it really comes down to how do you get the best out of people and create a great aligned team, people full of purpose. That's what the book's about. Why is it entitled Beyond the Hammer? Is that a reference to, I might be putting words in your mouth, but is that a reference to some people in management just see every problem just needs a hammer? Or what does the Beyond the Hammer mean? The reference to it is that in this case, the book was written in two sections.

The first half is a parable because I like stories. And the second half is very actionable where it's how to plug the lessons of the parable into your business. So in the first half of the book, the character is a contractor and he has to get beyond the hammer to really work on developing people. Because if you want to build a business, let's face it, you got to be committed to building people. That's very true. That's a great point too, because I think a lot of people forget that. Because if you want to build a business, let's face it, you got to be committed to building people. That's very true.

That's a great point too, because I think a lot of people forget that. You talk about culture in your book. We talk about culture a lot on the show. It's one of my favorite topics. Right now, my audience is probably rolling their eyes. Oh God, he said leadership and culture again. But it's inherent to successful businesses. You found raising yours and building yours. I found very early on, culture is one of the most important blueprints or foundations you

set down at the start of a company. Or if you come in acquiring something or maybe you have an appointed CEO, you've got to re-establish that by cracking the whip. I don't know what that means. So Brian, give us a 30,000, not a 30,000 overview. It's Monday. Brian, tell us a little about000, not a 30,000 overview. It's Monday. Brian, give us, tell us a little about yourself. What was your upbringing?

What got you into your influences, you know, childhood and got you into being an entrepreneur? Who hurt you basically is what the question is. Yeah. So look, like a lot of entrepreneurs, I didn't go to college. I went straight out of high school selling pots and pans door to door. Brother from another mother you are. I didn't go to college either. Yeah.

I've been an entrepreneur at heart and had a lot of fun. I love selling. I love being at the kitchen table, telling my story. And the idea that when I was 18 years old, I could knock on a stranger's door and then two hours later,

I can walk out with a check in my hand. That was super exciting. I do that when they're not there. That's even easier, right? Don't do that, folks. Yeah, so I just stayed in the industry and moved from pots and pans into selling home improvements.

And in 2009, it was just time to maybe do it for myself. I think I spent many years making other people rich, and I wanted to try it for myself. And so the $3,000 and a plastic folding table got me going. I started my first company at 18 with probably nothing. But I mean, it wasn't a big earner. But the first big company that we built, we started with $2,000. And a year and a half later, we started a second company on top of it for $4,000.

Turned them both into multimillionaire companies. So I feel you, man. I mean, what a great story to to build from three thousand dollars in a plastic table you know business you hear all these people like i don't have enough money to start my own company i need investors i need a vc you know i need to do it when the time is right i have plenty of money to lose or something i don't know and you know here you built your business and with three000 bucks. Now, is this your first book? I can't remember. This is my first book. It took me two years to write it. So I'm hoping my next

book is a little shorter. I think that's why I was thinking you're a multi-book author. You said that in the green room and I was like, oh, maybe there's multiple books. But when you go back to talking about culture, right? So in the beginning, when you first started business as the entrepreneur and the only employee in the organization, success comes down to how well the entrepreneur executes. But when you start to grow a business, now you have to start hiring people. And how people perform both in the leader's presence and in their absence actually defines the success of an organization. So culture and mindset, I mean, that's key to growing a business. Creating the right team and culture that makes a difference in your business

community to build that. You got Wolfgang Puck to put the lead quote on here for the endorsement. How'd you get that? I love Wolfgang Puck. His food is amazing. I used to practically live every week in Vegas at, what's his most famous? Spago. Spago in Vegas, right? Yeah. Great place. Spago Vegas and Spago's in Hollywood.

Yeah. So while I didn't go to college, when I was about 55 years old and my business was at the time was probably doing, I don't know, maybe I was 54, the business was doing maybe $30 million. I realized that I had no idea what I was doing, Chris. I had no idea how to run a $30 million company. And I was essentially the bottleneck in doing, Chris. I had no idea how to run a $30 million company. And I was essentially the bottleneck in the organization. So I heard about this executive education program at Harvard Business School. I applied for it, not thinking they'd ever accept me. It was more like on a dare. So I applied, but they did it. They accepted me. I was excited and petrified at the same time. But it was a three-year program that I went through at Harvard Business School, and in my class was Wolfgang Puck. Really?

Now, I'll give you a little Wolfgang story. So when you're at Harvard, you have to live on campus in their executive ed program. You live on campus for three weeks in a dorm, and you share a dorm with seven other people from seven other areas in the world, all with seven other areas of business expertise. And you talk about case studies. When Wolfgang came to class and came to his dorm, there was a computer in his room, like with all the rooms. He didn't even know how to turn a computer on.

He admitted that, that he never had to turn a computer on. He knows how to turn a stove on. But what a great, great entrepreneurial story he has. Just a super great human being. Just lovely, lovely person. So we became friends. That is awesome. I'm jealous.

Did he cook for you? He actually did on our graduation. He brought his whole team in and made wonderful lamb chops and all kinds of stuff. It was fantastic. Yeah, he makes some of the best food. Oh, my God. Yeah. It is.

I just love going to Spago's. It was always, you know, just there were so many flavors there that he has. And there's a lot more, I don't know, there's a lot more great restaurants and chefs around. But kind of back in the 70s and 80s, he kind of had the corner on the market, I think. He sure did. He was really probably the first real chef other than maybe Julia Child that built this brand. It was the only place I could go back then. Yeah. Man, really sounded old the 80s and 90s the 90s it was the only place to go back then where when you'd eat a plate of his food you would experience tastes

that you'd never experienced before yeah and yeah so his steakhouses by the way cut are fantastic if you ever go to cut steakhouse they're wonderful is it in vegas they have they have one in new york and they have them all over the place one in london they have to check yeah yeah so give us some some more samples out of the book maybe do you want to tease out the the story that you used to the parable or sure so the the parable is set up in the way George is the main character and he's struggling. He inherited the business mentor named Marty, and he learns these five foundational pillars of leadership to create an aligned team that performs consistently and at a high level, which by the way, is important for every business out there. It's again, how do you move from the business depending upon your activities to be successful to your teams? And look, it's not an easy process. You know how it

is when you're building a business. The first instinct is to want to control every aspect of the business. But we know that's truly not scalable, unless if you want to have a manual of policies that are 12 inches thick and people to enforce those policies. Really, it's about how do you empower people, but not in a woo-woo sense. It's what is the process to truly empowering people and to truly developing the best inside of the person? It makes all the difference in the world. What's the other thing I was looking for? On the second part of this section, you have actionable path that you provide to weaving five pillars from the story that you tell into any business

enabling leaders to integrate the principles in their daily operations seamlessly. Would you want to tease a few of those out or maybe all five? Sure, sure. Yes. As I said, the first part of the book is a parable and it's a story and these five pillars are revealed. But in the second half, I think people want, at least I wanted when I read a book, I wanted something that would add easy entrance and exit points because I can't necessarily sit down and dedicate

eight hours to reading a book. So I wanted to be able to come in and out of it when I needed to, but then also wanted something that wasn't theoretical, that was highly actionable and applicable to my business that I can truly plug in. And that's what I wrote in this book. So the five pillars that were revealed, one of them is one that's known as belief is transferable. And it's the idea that, and I use the analogy in the book that when my kids were little and they were on training wheels and it was time to take the training wheels off. And I wouldn't just take the training wheels off and say, go get it, watch out, you're going to crash. Instead, what I would do is I'd hold onto their seat, I'd run behind them, and I would say, you can do this, you can do this,

you can do this. And as I let go, my kid would say, look at me, dad, I can do it, I can do it. In that very moment, my kid before I let go didn't necessarily believe he could do it. But because I believed in him, it transferred to him believing in himself. And the same is true for people on a team. People join organizations and they're trying new things and you want them to grow. And people have FUD, fear, uncertainty, and doubt when trying new things. And we can help with that by transferring belief. And we do so by not just saying, hey, I believe in you, but by making it what's known as evidence-based belief. I believe in you because. I believe in you because I by making it what's known as evidence-based belief. I believe in you because. I believe in you because I've seen you do X, Y, and Z, and that's why I know you can be

successful with this. It's just a little technique that really helps people realize their potential. And it's called FUD? I mean, FUD is the... I'm not referring to what is called FUD, but what was the analogy? You used FUD again? Faith? Fear, uncertainty, and doubt. It creeps into us all the time. Whenever we want to do something, we don't do it for some reason, it's usually out of

fear or we're uncertain that we can do it or we have doubt in ourselves or somebody else. And FUD is a big factor that limits people's growth. And especially if you're trying to build an empowered business where people are empowered to make decisions and help grow the organization, FUD can be a big problem. Yeah. No more FUD. I'm making shirts for that around the office. We are no FUD. Stamp out FUD. No FUD. All fun, no FUD.

So this has been pretty interesting. What else have we missed that maybe we should talk about in your book? There are essentially five pillars. Another pillar is the idea that leaders shape culture through purpose and direction. And in that process, as we were talking about culture, culture is important because how people think affects how they feel. And how people think and feel determines how they act. How a team acts determines how the organization performs. And an organization, you know,

culture is shaped by the lowest level of acceptable behavior inside an organization. So we have to make sure that we have people aligned around the right purpose and are given the right direction in an organization or things just certainly won't come out so well. All ships must sail in the same direction. It's about alignment, isn't it? Yeah. One of the other pillars is that leaders are aware of the echo of their voice.

And I'll share with you, as you know from running your business, Chris, your team will decide what type of day they're going to have based on the kind of day you're having. And if the team sees you as angry or stressed or anything like that, they're probably not going to bring something to you that's important because they're going to be afraid. We as leaders always have to realize that we have to become aware of the echo of our voice because that's what leadership is really about. The signal that we put out that people pick up on, the echo of our voice, especially when it's coming out of the hall and it's yelling, it's clearly angry. I'm just kidding. So tell us about some of the things you

do on your website. You do some consulting, speaking, and other things, I believe. Yeah, I do a bunch of keynote speaking all over the country. It's super fun. I absolutely love doing it, kind of lighting up a crowd, getting them all super revved up and giving them some actionable ways that they can truly grow their business. And then I do angel investing. I sit on boards, angel investing. You know what? Having sold my businesses, life is really fun now. I mean, it's super fun. And I get to do the things I've always wanted to do. And that's kind of a blast. It's kind of sucks. They make you do the first part first and the second part. Just go, just,

just skip the part. I think all my employees just tell me that you should go be a consultant, Chris. And I'm like, we're running like multiple companies here at the same time. How much time do you think I fucking have? But then 2008 fixed all that. I was like,

wow, I have plenty of time to be a consultant now. So Brian, it's been wonderful to have you on. Give us your.coms, the final pitch out for people to order up your book wherever fine books are sold. Sure. BrianGottlieb.com. Now, by the way, if you love audiobooks, I have to pitch my audiobook here because while I read the second half of the book, I needed a really cool narrator to read the first half, a great storyteller because it is a parable. And I collaborated with Eduardo Ballerini, probably one of the most famous narrators of all time.

He actually is the voice of the parable, and he does such a great job. It's a great book. I think you'll really enjoy it. It'll be well worth your while to read. He sounds like he should do opera, like he's an opera singer with that title, with that name, you know what i mean

he used to be an actor on the sopranos by the way oh was he yeah was he we we just had somebody who was on the sopranos on recently it was one of the it was one down the line of lists but i think it was the mother of chris chris christopherson chris christer whatever that kid the one kid the heroin kid i think she was the mother of the heroin kid so So essentially, if you have a business and you're trying to grow it and you don't know where to turn, this book is for you. It's really going to help you build an aligned team that's going to perform consistently and at a high level. Oh, it's been wonderful to have you on.

Thank you very much, Brian, for coming on the show. Appreciate you, Chris. Thanks, Moniz, for tuning in. Go to Goodreads.com, 4Chess, Chris Foss, LinkedIn.com, 4Chess, Chris Foss. Chris Foss, one of the TikTokity and all those crazy places on the internet. Thanks for tuning in. Go to Goodreads.com, 4Chess, Chris Foss, LinkedIn.com, 4Chess, Chris Foss, Chris Foss, one of the TikTokity, and all those crazy places on the internet. Thanks for tuning in.

Be good to each other. Stay safe. We'll see you next time.