The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk - 191: Robert Herjavec - Shark Tank Investor + Listener Q & A

Episode Date: February 16, 2017

Episode 191: Robert Herjavec - Shark Tank Investor + Listener Q & A Subscribe on iTunes  or Stitcher Radio The Learning Leader Show "You don't have to be born in this country to have success in this country." - Robert Herjavec In This Episode, You Will Learn: Common themes of leaders who sustain excellence: Have a deep passion for their craft They bring a unique value proposition You don't have to come from a big city to make something happen Leadership:  People don't want to be managed, they want to be led... You must provide value to the company Robert's thoughts on immigration and the fact that you don't need to be born in this country to be successful "It's a testament to hope... and it's really hard." "You Don't Have To Be A Shark" "You don't have to be mean to be effective.  Some sharks aren't nice.  Be yourself, be real..." Questions from YOU (the listeners) answered as part of the Q & A portion "What is it that inspired you to start The Learning Leader Show?" -- Mauricio Dulon from La Paz, Bolivia "How do you coach for disciplined execution when all you get from your client are excuses? -- Norma Scott Garrell from Olive Branch, Mississippi "How do you add value as the mentee in a mentor/mentee relationship? -- Ben Arwine from Chicago, IL "What benchmarks do you use to gauge how you're doing in your leadership journey?" -- Brian Westerfield from Troy, OH "Is there any one guest whose advice or experience haunts you (in a good way)? -- Shawn Fuller from Ontario, Canada "What has been the biggest surprise for you in this journey?" -- Ryan Jacobs Continue Learning: Follow Robert on Twitter: @robertherjavec Read: You Don't Have To Be A Shark Connect with me on LinkedIn Join our Facebook Group: The Learning Leader Community To Follow Me on Twitter: @RyanHawk12 You may also like these episodes: Episode 078: Kat Cole – From Hooters Waitress To President of Cinnabon Episode 071: Nate Boyer - Green Beret, Texas Football, The NFL Episode 179: How To Sustain Excellence - The Best Answers From 178 Questions Episode 107: Simon Sinek – Leadership: It Starts With Why Did you enjoy the podcast? If you enjoyed hearing Robert Herjavec on the show, please don't hesitate to send me a note on Twitter or email me. Episode edited by the great J Scott Donnell The Learning Leader Show is supported by FreshBooks: FreshBooks is offering a 30 day, unrestricted free trial to my listeners. To claim it, just go to FreshBooks.com/Learning and enter LEARNING LEADER in the "How Did You Hear About Us?" section.

Hey and welcome to the Learning Leaders Show. I am Ryan Hawk. Thanks so much for being here. If this is your first time here, this is a little bit different than we normally do. It's a two-part episode. One, I had a conversation with Shark Tank's own Robert Herzvec, one of the sharks on that show who invest in entrepreneurs. We discussed his process for doing that, as well as some of his other business ventures and him being a best-selling author. And in addition to that, I posed a question to the phenomenal leaders in my Facebook group, the learning leader community. I asked them any questions they had for me. And I would be happy to record my answers. And so you'll hear about the first 20 to 25 minutes of this episode is me responding to those questions.

People from all over the world ask really thought-provoking questions. I did my best to answer them. I didn't get to all of them. but maybe we can make this regular cadence moving forward if you guys like it. And then the second part, you'll hear my conversation with Robert Hergevac. So, ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, it's a Q&A episode followed by Robert Herzvec. All right, first up, you know, this is really cool. It's from Mauricio Dilan from La Paz, Bolivia.

That's one of the neat things about doing this podcast. So there are listeners and fans from all over the world. Maricio's question is, what is it that inspired you to start the Learning Leader Show. You know, I haven't told the story in quite some time on the podcast, but initially a few years ago, I was fortunate to have a dinner set up with a guy by the name of Todd Wagner. Todd was and actually currently still is the business partner of Mark Cuban. And Todd at this dinner told the story of creating broadcast.com as well as all the tough moments while they were doing it, him and Mark. And then also he progressed through many details to

discuss what it was like sitting across from the people at Yahoo, convincing them to buy his business for $5.7 billion, making him and Mark billionaires. And I was inspired by the story. I loved the way he told the story. I thought, man, this is incredible. Really juiced me up. And the one part that I regretted about that conversation was the fact that I didn't have it recorded. And in addition to that, I am a big fan of podcast. I listen to them constantly. I also have interviewed probably thousands of people over the course of my career in the profession of sales and sales management. And so I thought, why don't I combine my love of podcast, my innate curiosity, my inquisitiveness with the fact that I feel like I have a knack

for interviewing people. And I wanted to become a better communicator overall. I wanted to be a better listener. I wanted to be better up on stage. I wanted to have a platform to reach out to my heroes. So for example, Simon Sinek, one of my heroes, I doubt Simon would have taken my call or responded positively to my email, my cold email, if I didn't have some sort of platform for him to share his message on. And the Learning Leader Show has created that for me. And so, Maricio, that is why I started my podcast. And since it's happened two plus years ago, 200 plus conversations, conversations, you know, hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world listening. It's incredible. I'm very proud of that.

All right. Next question from Mark Moynihan, Wallingford, Connecticut. What are the top three attributes that you feel someone needs to be a successful leader? So, Mark, I'm going to revert back to a conversation I had with Kat Cole. many people who have come to my speeches or have listened to this podcast probably know that I hold cat in very high regard. And so I think her answer to this question is one that I've repeated over and over. I have a little bit of a spin on it made of my own, but I have to give her credit. And so first of all, she talks about productive achievers, productive leaders and that they have a, if you have to envision a scale and it's a balance of two buckets of characteristics. They've got to be equally balanced.

So in that first bucket on the left side, picture this, visualize this, is courage and confidence. So they have to have a really well-built muscle around courage and confidence. They take risks. They believe in their point of view. But on the other side of that scale, that bucket is curiosity and humility. So leaders that have that bucket, they realize they don't know everything. Therefore, they need great people around them. They're willing to ask questions.

and be curious. But if you get one of those two buckets too heavily weighted, a person gets out of balance. It could be really difficult to sustain excellence. So if you're too courageous and confident, you might be, as Cat would say, a bull and a china shop. And if you're too curious and humble, you might be just a student and you never take action. So it's a, it's having that, that good balance of courage and confidence mixed with curiosity and humility. Great question, no, Mark. Thank you.

Okay. Norma Scott Gerell. Forgive me if I pronounce that wrong from Olive Branch, Mississippi. How do you coach for disciplined execution when all you get from your client are excuses? So it's a tough one, Norma. I appreciate the question. When it comes to execution, I lean towards a book I read by one of the coveys called the Four Disciplines of Execution. And I'll share those four disciplines and how I've implemented them and how they've worked.

So one is focusing on the wildly important goals. First, you need to know what are your goals. You'd be shocked to see how many people don't clearly define what their goals are. You've got to define that first. Next, act on the lead measures. So the lead measures are the actual day-to-day actions that lead to your ultimate goal, the wildly important goal that you set. Lag measures are the goal itself.

So in the profession of selling, lag measures are the ultimate goal, which is achieving your quota or the number that's been set forth to you, the budget by the company. A third part of the four disciplines are keeping a compelling scorecard. So you must measure both the lead measures and the lag measures. So measure the behaviors that lead to the ultimate goal. So if you're in a profession of selling, again, it might be something along the lines of number of cold calls made, a number of opportunities, created, a number of proposals sent, number of product demonstrations, number of times in the negotiation stage. And so you measure all of those important lead measures, see and tease out where you're doing a great job, and then flash that on a big scoreboard for all to see on a

regular basis. And then also number four on the four disciplines, it's creating a cadence of accountability. That's creating a cadence of accountability. You must hold people who are underperformers accountable. One thing I learned early in my career as a sales manager is that my top performers were really upset with me if I was too nice or lenient on underperformers. They needed me to hold them accountable. And I found that I made mistakes early on by not doing a good enough job of holding people accountable. But I learned that the hard way, which is since to help me in the years that have followed, but you must focus on the wildly important goals, act on the lead measures, the measures that the activities that lead to success,

keeping a compelling scorecard for all to see on a regular basis, and then creating a cadence of accountability where everyone holds each other accountable. Thanks for that question, Norma. So Ben Rwine from Chicago, Illinois. I've gotten to meet Ben actually, great, great young. professional. And his question was, how do you add value when you're the mentee and a mentor mentee relationship? Meaning maybe you're earlier in your career and you don't feel like you can add much value. This is interesting to me because this was asked me, I recently gave a speech and

had Q&A at the end and someone asked this exact same question. So I can just share maybe one thing that I've done that I think helped. I was fortunate to find a number of mentors who were willing to help me when I was very early in my career. And one thing that I did for all of them that I feel like based on their responses to me, they all appreciated was whenever we'd have a call, if one, I would come to the call with a few topics that I would send to them prior to the call to help them, you know, get their mind ready to answer some questions. Maybe they were current things I was struggling with or just thoughts and normal questions that pop up based on books I've been reading. And I wanted to get their take on whatever that problem was. So then you go and you have

the call, and let's say the call is an hour long, during that call, take extreme diligent notes, write down slash type, whatever it is that they're saying. And then, you know, letting them know that you're, you know, you're serious about this and you're going to take what they're telling you and implement. And so once you get done taking notes, then create a document for them, bullet points, you know, highlight certain areas, but create a document for them, a living, breathing document that list everything that they, they taught you that day, and then send it to them and say, hey, mentor of mine, thank you so much for the call yesterday.

I took notes, here is what I got from what you told me, and you list out everything. So this serves a few purposes and why it can be helpful. One, it shows them that you really care and that you come to these talks prepared to learn and to implement. two, it gives them documentation of what they've taught. So they can have almost a book of what their advice was to me. And this also serves another purpose because they're probably mentoring other people as well. And now they can look at their notes.

They could actually send this email to others. And so the advice that you're getting from them or the help you're getting from your mentor could potentially not only help you, but could help men. other people. And I think we should all go into our day-to-day, you know, life, so to speak, with the thought of how can we help as many people as possible, not just ourselves. And so this this gives the opportunity for your mentor to truly be a teacher, to make it easier for them to help other people. And it shows them that you really care and that you're trying to implement what they told you. So I would, that's the advice I'd give to someone who's a mentee and

feels like they can't add value. You can definitely add value. Like I'm, I'm in the position now. where I mentor a number of people. And I would love it if somebody would send me recaps of our meetings. It doesn't happen very often, but I can promise you I would never miss a meeting with somebody if they're taking diligent notes and then they sent me a recap of what I had. I would, it would create a, like I said, a book for myself. And that's what I try to do for people who mentor me on a regular basis. Next, Brian Westerfield, friend of mine, Troy, Ohio.

What benchmarks do you use to gauge how you're doing in your, leadership journey. Self-reflection, outside assessment, or output slash enthusiasm of your team. So this is a thoughtful question, shows that Brian has, I'm guessing, a really high level of self-awareness. A few ways I would, some benchmarks are ways I would answer this question. So one, I'm really fortunate in the fact that my audience, the people listening right now are really intelligent, smart human beings. They're leaders in their own right. And I, like I said, to get a lot of emails from people. And this is the dynamic and the group that seems to enjoy my podcast is a group that I'm really proud of, the fact that I would be happy to interact with him

on a regular basis. So I listen and learn from their feedback for the most part. I realize that most people, they might have a little tweak here and there. And I'll try to implement what they'll tell me. So I listen to my audience first, Brian, I would say. Next, I ask. So I regularly solicit feedback from a small group of people who I know are regular listeners. So, for example, my dad is one of these people. Joey Coleman is someone who has been a guest on the show. I will send Joey videos of my talks and Joey's potentially the greatest speaker I've ever seen. And he will write me minute by minute feedback on my speeches. And so one of the ways I can measure how I'm doing on a podcast or how I'm implementing into my life is how I do when I get up on

stage to deliver the message of what I've learned from the Learning Leaders Show to others who ask me to speak. And so I really rely on tough, hard, honest feedback from a small number of people that I really trust. And I would encourage everybody to do that, to find those people who are willing to offer feedback. Now, my information or what I do is out in the open. My podcast is there for anybody to listen to. Most of my speeches are videoed and I try to get to get that video and share with other people. I'm going to do a better job of that, moving forward, of putting it on learning leader.com. But that's how I would say I gauge my leadership journey, asking the people who are closest

to me if they've noticed a difference, if they notice an improvement in my communication ability and my speaking ability and being a good listener and asking great follow-up questions. I will specifically ask them what they think. And typically, those people are ones who I hold in very high regard and they're willing to tell me the truth. Next, Sean Fuller from Ontario, Canada. Is there any one guest whose advice or experience haunts you in a good way? Another really thought-provoking question.

For some reason, the first name that comes to mind here is Tim Urban. I think Tim is one of the most interesting people I've ever spoken to. I've ever listened to on the TED stage. I read a lot of his work at wait but why.com. And Tim told me that most of the people in this world, we all have a blank canvas, but most people are painting white on top of that white blank canvas, meaning they're doing work, but you don't really notice it. And the best of the best, the people who transcend generations and do big things,

who leave their mark, which is something that I truly want to do, they're willing to paint blue all over that canvas, meaning they're willing to paint blue all over that canvas, meaning they're willing to make a splash. They're willing to do something that's unique, that's different than what most people are doing. They're willing to shoot really high. He named people like Steve Jobs and Elon Musk. But in addition to just painting blue on that white canvas

where everyone else is painting white, they'll also then stop and they're willing to paint red on top of it, meaning they will reinvent themselves over and over. They're not just going to go and get really good at one thing and do that forever. They'll get really good at something. They'll make a splash, and then they'll completely pivot and do something else. And that advice hits me hard.

It makes me really want to seek out opportunities to do that, to paint blue, and then to say, I think I've got this figured out, and then the paint red. So I don't know exactly what that means for me is a podcasting to speaking, podcasting to writing, podcasting to how it helps me in my everyday job, how it helps me with my family. But I think about painting blue a lot. And I think about how can I paint red once I've established the blue? And Tim Urban has done a good job of helping me think in that manner. And I can't wait to record another one with him soon.

Next, Sandy Buckholtz, Corona, California. Ryan, now that you have a well-established fan base with success of the podcast, I imagine you have no shortage of people, leaders, potential guests, either knocking at your door to be on the show or hundreds of suggestions being thrown from your fan base. My question is, how do you choose between all these amazing people? Do you find yourself gravitating towards particular genres, like athletes, entrepreneurs, authors, how long is your potential guest list? Thanks, looking forward to this episode.

Okay, thank you, Sandy. So I don't really think of specific genres when looking for guests. Ultimately, I'm looking for people who are interesting, who have sustained excellence, as long-time listeners know I am a fan of. And most importantly, my guests need to have a really detailed understanding of why they have sustained excellence. So in addition to that, they also, I believe, need to be good storytellers. So it's, you know, I think of Simon Sinek, one of the most impressive guests, one of the most popular episodes I've ever released. I've had two talks with him.

Simon understands this message, has a great message, but is also a phenomenal story. tell her. Kat Cole is another one of those. I've already mentioned her once on this, but I think I want people who fully understand the why behind they've been great. And then they can share with great stories in addition to sharing the why behind it. I have recorded some episodes with some people who are not very good from an audio perspective. Maybe they're better writers than they are speakers and maybe they don't have very good stories or they're too long-winded. And those episodes have just never seen the light of day. I don't release them because the, what's most important to me is the quality of the show. And so every episode, I take it as that there will be

people who are listening for the first time. And I want those first time listeners to continue coming back. And based on the growth of the show, that appears to be happening. And so I don't want that ever to go away. So the quality is much more important than the quantity to me. And so obviously, you know, as the show has grown, it's become much easier to book really quality. already guest. Other people who have been on have really enjoyed themselves and they refer me to their friends and they usually run in good circles. I obviously get a lot of PR people pushing those who have books coming out. I will take on those people, I would say probably one out of every 10 times that somebody reach out to me because I'm interested in them. But the bottom line

is if I'm not interested in them, then I know I'm not going to be interesting on the podcast. I won't be as good of a listener, as curious. I want to ask good questions. So it needs to be somebody who's interesting, has sustained excellence, understands why they've sustained excellence, and can be a good storyteller. Okay, next up, let's, I'll take a couple more. Let's go to Ryan Jacobs. Not sure where Ryan is from. It doesn't say here.

What has been the biggest surprise for you in this journey? The biggest surprise, I wasn't certain that I would be able to develop such great relationships. You'll often hear me say at the end of episodes, let's continue this dialogue as we both progress on our leadership journeys. And I mean that. I want to continue the dialogue, but I wasn't quite sure how that would go. But I do work to continue the dialogue, and it regularly happens. And that is very rewarding to me.

It shows that people have enjoyed their time on the podcast. It shows that we've developed some sort of connection. And I guess I wasn't sure that that would happen. I thought maybe they would view me as just an interviewer. They would do the interview and they would move on. And that's, for the most part, that's not been the case. For the most part, they have become friends of mine. We regularly talk via email, phone, and text.

Just this week, I'm talking to David Burkis and Turney Duff separately about their book proposals and outlining it and how to speak with agents and publishers and what to do. Ryan Estes, I noticed he's got booking some incredible speaking gigs. And so I just shot him a quick note and said, hey, man, like, how are you doing this? This is incredible. And he sent back a really detail note. This is a day he had two keynotes. I remember because I saw it his Instagram post two keynotes. And he wrote me that night saying, here's how I'm doing it. Here's some of the relationships I'm building with bureaus and, you know, let me know I can help make introductions for you. These conversations are built and have become great friendships for me, people who are willing to help.

And I want to obviously provide value to them as well so that it's a mutual relationship. But I'd say the biggest surprise is that I've been able to build these great friendships of people who are willing to help me. And I'm just eternally grateful for that. All right. Thank you guys so much for the questions. Again, this was a part. Everyone who sent a question to me, I've taken these 100% from my Facebook group, which is the learning leader community on Facebook.

You can join the group from learning leader.com slash group. Learning leader.com slash group. We can get you added. I love the dialogue between all of the great learning leaders in the learning leader community on Facebook. Thank you so much. Look forward to the next one. Well, thank you guys so much for being here on the Learning Leader show. This is a podcast I'm recording and then we'll push it out later.

So I really appreciate it. First and foremost, a quick question for you to get us going. Specifically, Robert, when you look at the tremendous entrepreneurs that you have invested in, you've been around, you've studied over the course of your career, what are the common themes of those who have sustained excellence over an extended period of time? Wow, great question. You know, it's the same as we see and saw last year in Wabash, Indiana. And, you know, you can go online and see the entire first season on small business. revolution.org, but it really comes down to a couple of things. Number one is passion. Everybody is deeply passionate about their business. It doesn't matter whether it's a million dollars or $10,000. And then the second one is really value. You've got to understand your value proposition.

And that's one thing Amanda and I really saw last year is people want to be successful. And we had a big impact on their business. Amanda, can you tell us what the small business revolution is all about? The Small Business Revolution is a movement. We're truly trying to create a revolution around getting people to love, support, and celebrate small businesses. And this year marks the second year of the Small Business Revolution Main Street. And we had 14,000 nominations for a half a million dollar investment in one small town. And after going through all of these nominations, we've narrowed it down to five. And today, we've announced those five, and we're asking people to vote for their favorite at small business revolution.org. Small business revolution.

dot org sounds good thank you so much so robert why did you specifically care and what could be involved in this you have a lot going on between writing and shark tank and everything else when you're like what what what what what's your passion behind doing this well my passion is really for small businesses i ran a small business still run a bigger small business but that's my background and you know it's it's very motivating for me to see people try to get ahead and do better and it's such a great program because it's not always about money. That's the one thing on Shark Tank.

People just want money. But with small business revolution, we're not just giving them money. We're helping them revitalize the town. I mean, it goes everything from some financial advice to new benches last year to make the downtown look better. Marketing. Coordinating with them,

putting them together with other small businesses. It's just, you know, it's great to help and it's great to have an impact in the community. For both you, What would you say are some of the biggest lessons that you've learned while working on it? Really the passion that these small business owners have and how much more they can accomplish when they're working together. But we saw some themes in all the small businesses. They needed a little bit of help kind of understanding their numbers and understanding how they need to think about their numbers.

And then really marketing. I mean, small businesses don't get into business for themselves because they can't wait to build their website or figure out what SEO is or figure out where to get their business cards printed. But those are important aspects of growing your business. You have to be findable online. And so we really saw that these small businesses struggled with their numbers and with marketing. So we were happy to be the tag team

that was able to bring those solutions to them. Well, the thing that I really learned is you don't have to come from a big town to be successful. And you can sell regionally in your low town, and you can also sell globally today with the Internet. So, Robert, a lot of people listening to this show that's from all over the world, and a lot of them are either young professionals, so to speak.

and so they're looking to grow within a company or potentially start their own company. And one of the themes I get asked advice about is how to avoid some of the pitfalls or common mistakes of a young manager, a young person who's looking to grow into their career and work in a business. What's some advice you give to people when they come to you when it comes to being a younger, inexperienced manager, how they can avoid some of those pitfalls? What do you think the pitfalls are? Well, I think sometimes people get too focused potentially on themselves and not their people that work for them, making the transition from an individual contributor to one who is leading others.

I think it's tough. It's a tough jump. And so I'm curious when people ask you, what do you say to them? Well, I'm not sure it's an age thing. I think leadership and management is difficult, no matter your age. I mean, I think what I always say to people is people don't really want to be managed. Nobody wants somebody standing over them and micromanage them, but people want to be led. And, you know, the definition of a great team is not a bunch of people who like each other necessarily, although that's nice, but it's a bunch of people who respect each other. And so if you're going to manage, you're going to lead anybody, provide value. Provide value to the people you work with, provide value to your company. Because today, that's your only job guarantee is providing value.

So, Amanda, when you think about the small business revolution, One of the, I think, beautiful things about Shark Tank is that we watch as families, and it's a great family moment. I know I do personally myself with our children, and it's a good bonding moment. It's good TV. So how is a small business revolution similar to that when it comes from a family perspective? I think it's about telling those stories. I mean, when you hear the story of a small business owner, you're so much more likely to support them. You realize that you've actually put a face to a business, and that when you're supporting that retail, shop or you're going to that restaurant, that you're helping someone provide for their family,

helping them employ other people. And there's just something really great about knowing that you're supporting people and hearing their stories is probably the most similar piece. I think that's why people love Shark Tank. If you hear the story behind why they started their business, what's challenging about it, what they have in terms of hopes and goals and dreams for the future. And the Small Business Revolution is really a great way of telling these stories. Last year in season one, we went to Wabash, Indiana, and worked with a handful of small business and the town as a whole. And if you're a small business owner or from a small town,

I think you'll draw a lot of inspiration from the things that we help them with, the advice and the journey that they went through. We really wanted it to be a resource to other small businesses so that you can watch these episodes and glean advice about things like leadership like you were talking about, but also knowing your numbers, about marketing.

So we really encourage people to go. It's online at small businessrevolution.org. And they can also see that's at stake for this year's finalist. You know, we had 14,000 nominations, and we've narrowed it down to five. and now it's in America's hands to choose where we go for season two. I love it.

Robert, there's a lot of talk now in the world about immigrants and people who come to America or potentially are not allowed. And can you talk to me about the perspective you've gained growing up briefly for the first, I believe, eight years of your life in Croatia and then immigrating over to Canada and then working here. I'd love to learn more about perspective gains as you had to work. to strive to achieve levels of success? Well, you know, I think America is a land of immigrants.

I mean, we all came from somewhere. And the thing that really stuck out of for me and still does is, you know, you don't have to be born in this country to be successful in this country. And that is a very unique American perspective. Regardless on your view around immigration, we are the land of hope. The unique thing about America is, and we saw this in Wabash, Indiana. You know, when you start a business, you're really making a testament to hope. You're hoping that tomorrow will be better than today.

And statistically, it's going to be really hard. It's hard to start a small business. It's really hard to be successful, but you've got to have that hope. And I think this is such a great country for that. It doesn't matter where you come from. Well, and this country was built on the backs of small businesses. When you think about it, I mean, it's really hard. Entrepreneurship is what's so amazing about that American dream.

I love that quote. I forget where we saw it, but every time you see a great business or even a business, period, somebody made a courageous decision. And that's really what it takes. You know, when you start that business, you're standing there. You're on the edge of that cliff and you're saying, I believe. And it's a lot of hard work, and it's a lot of people like these five towns that want to be successful. Yeah, it's inspirational, I think.

As I said before, I think the combination of the fact that you can watch this with your kids and impact them at a young age, I love the message that it sends to them. Amanda, curious, you know, you're the chief branding communications officer from the Deluxe Corp, and you bring a lot of career experience and internal marketing brand management. So what is it that about this that inspires you most when it comes to Small Business Revolution? Well, at Deluxe, we work with 4.5 million small businesses on their marketing needs, but there is something about working with an individual business owner and seeing how impactful great marketing can be for them. And we saw it in Wabash, Indiana. By giving Ellen's bridal shop

a website, she now just tripled her sales from January of last year because people can book their appointments online. That was something her website didn't allow her to do before. We're seeing one of the other businesses we worked with was Harry's Old Kettle Pub and Grill. And his Yelp reviews are through the roof because we taught him about how to make sure he's managing his online presence and his reviews. And so what's been so impactful for me is to see how my craft and deluxeist's craft of marketing can be so impactful for small businesses. And there's just something really great about knowing that what you do for a living can help change people's lives and businesses. Robert, one more. In regards to your book that you released early last year,

you don't have to be a sharp creating your own success. Curious, what made you write that book and choose that title. Well, you know, I think we see a lot of people come on the show and they think you have to be mean and you have to be disrespectful to people and, you know, we have certain sharks that aren't very nice to people. And so sometimes people think that's how you have to be. And I think we just wanted to send the message out that, you know, you don't have to be like me or you don't have to be like Kevin. You have to be yourself and you can be nice in business, but you can't let somebody take advantage of you. And so, you know, you don't always have to be. You don't always have have to be a shark, but you've got to stand up for yourself.

Yeah, I think that's kind of spirit of the Small Business Revolution, too, is that it's a documentary reality show, but there's no meanness. This is really about genuinely helping people. There's some drama, there's some moments, but we weren't going in there to try and make people feel silly about how they were running their business. We were genuinely there to help them. And that's why I think this is a great resource. It was very real. It was very real. We didn't color stuff. There was problems. There was challenges in all the businesses. We helped them out. Yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you.

both very much for being here today. I sincerely appreciate the investment of your time, and I'd love to reconnect as we both progress on these journeys. Yes. Thank you. Please encourage your visitors to go to smallbusinessrevolution.org and watch season one and see what's at stake for these five towns that are up for the half a million dollar investment, and the winner will be featured in season two of the show. Absolutely. Thank you so much. Thank you. This episode of The Learning Leader Show is over,

but we have plenty more to keep you locked in until next time. Head over to learningleadershow.com for more information and to request your favorite entrepreneur, CEO, world class athlete, or anyone else that inspires you. You can also talk to Ryan directly by reaching out to him on Twitter at Ryan Hawk 12. Thanks again and we'll see you next time on the Learning Leader Show. Pump for our new sponsor this year, it's Fresh Books. The working world has changed with the growth of the internet. There's never been more opportunities for this self-employed. To meet this end, FreshBooks is excited to announce the launch of an all-new version of their cloud accounting software.

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