Jeff Applegate is a builder of innovative products for the best companies in the world. He loves what he does and does what he loves. He also enjoys helping others succeed. Jeff believes that joy and satisfaction come through trusted relationships with employees, customers, and vendor partners.
One of the biggest stereotypes that remain popular even today is that businesses are all about making a profit. Joining me on the podcast today is my friend Jeff Applegate, who believes that even though making a profit is important, the key to business success lies in creating a culture that empowers people and places a premium on building trust and relationships with both employees and customers. Believe it or not, even a plastics manufacturing company can be purpose-driven to the point where the people are just as excited as you are about making a difference.
4:19 - Morality and integrity in the business world
18:49 - Stereotypes surrounding millennial employees
29:25 - Care about your employees - listen to them
32:14 - The role of faith in Jeff's beliefs and values
45:40 - Separating your own identity from your business
51:55 - Two types of culturally driven leaders
1:07:48 - Culture is the magic in the bottle - it is the secret sauce
1:14:58 - Jeff's passionate plea to entrepreneurs
"Recognize culture. It's not about hitting the super sales record. It's about people. And if you take care of the people, the people will take care of you and your customers - that's culture."
GET IN TOUCH:
MARK LEARY:
www.linkedin.com/in/markhleary
www.leary.cc
JEFF APPLEGATE:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-applegate-b346624/
https://texasinjectionmolding.com/
Production credit:
Engineering / Post-Production: Jim McCarthy
Art / Design: Immanuel Ahiable
You're Doing It Wrong - Jeff Applegate
Wednesday, December 16, 2020
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
people, culture, business, core values, opportunities, company, talk, customers, stand, important, purpose, started, job, build, part, model, houston, authentic, leadership, conviction
SPEAKERS
Jeff, VO, Mark
Mark 00:00
So we're rolling, cool. We are live. This is you're doing it wrong with Mark Henderson Murray, my name is Mark, you should feel in control of your life. And so what I do is I help you get control of your business. And part of how I do that is by letting you listen in on a conversation between two people who have a passion for excellence somewhere in the entrepreneurial world. And this time, they're talking about a subject you already know something about. But we're digging down deeper to get into the nuts and bolts so you can really unlock the secrets to what's working. And you can break through your ceilings and get what you want from your business and ultimately, from your life. And the subject today with my guest I'm, I'm always excited. I always say that I always say I'm not gonna say I'm excited. But the truth is, I am excited and looking forward to this conversation for some time. Because it's really inspired when I first spoke with Jeff about how his business is culture runs. And really the subject today is about where we're gonna start the conversation is around purpose in business, outside of profit and how it affects businesses growth and from a visionary perspective. And so, Jeff Applegate is an innovator of great products is in the manufacturing space, but really is purpose driven around community family giving back and there's a real strong spiritual aspect to what he does in the culture and and I'm really excited to hear more about just journey and how his beliefs and his passions have fueled the success of his business. And so welcome this morning, Jeff Applegate.
Jeff 01:31
Thank you, thank you for having me,
Mark 01:33
Mark. I really am excited Actually, I love this subject. I love it. Because I work with a lot of different companies, and a lot of different levels in terms of how much of their personal beliefs and how much of what they stand for, affects their business, which starts with first knowing what they stand for. And so I would love to just kind of get your thoughts on how important has purpose beyond profit been for you in being successful in business?
Jeff 02:00
Well, I think it starts with who you are, and you have to be comfortable in your own skin, you have to be have your convictions for what you what you stand for. And I think people, if you're going to be authentic in the in the workforce, and you're going to be a leader in the workforce, people look to you and they want to know, who is this guy? And what does he stand for? And does he do what he says he's gonna do, there's an integrity aspect, and then if you if you if you stand for something, you should model it, and they're gonna watch it. And so, you know, that's, that's, I think that's important for us to, to know our purpose when we know who we are. Do
Mark 02:44
you think that perspective is normal in your industry?
Jeff 02:48
I think it's normal for people to try to create an image or to have a have to, to be themselves, but I don't, you know, I think that they hide something, I don't think that there's there's the private side, and then there's the public side. And I think that some people try to mix those two are in or separate those two, and they have a different life outside of work and out and a different image outside of work than they then who they truly are.
Mark 03:15
When did you first or what was your first memories of taking a stand in business for something that was about it was really mattered to you?
Jeff 03:25
Well, I think probably my early early my early memories, were right out of college and I was kind of wondering, you know, I was I went to Baylor University was trying to, to live out my Christian faith in a way that was authentic and real and had considered full time ministry, in a camping ministry and I, I decided that I had a degree in finance and entrepreneurial management, I needed to go pursue that and I was like, Well, how is this gonna work out when I go to go to work? And are they are they going to be Am I going to be brought into situations that were going to cause me to compromise what I might believe or, or or would would that limit my ability to be successful in that that career and so those are the first things that I thought about that was i wanna i don't want I'm gonna slow that down a little bit because
Mark 04:19
what I heard there was sort of there is a perception that business has a lack of morality maybe maybe it even in you going into this going Oh man, this is this is gonna be treacherous water you know people are they people out there do bad things and am I going to be in integrity with myself and so is it was that that was that sort of the stereotype you were we felt like you're walking into
Jeff 04:42
I think that was a stereotype it was wrong. I think that there certainly are you know in in any career any world you're in you're there's there's good people, bad people good morals, bad and more morality in the in the organizations and much of it's driven by the leader. I happen to join a company It was a private company was being acquired, and it was going to be part of a public company. But, but nothing but the highest integrity. And it was a privilege to work with some great leaders and to learn from them and to follow them. So I quickly learned that my stereotypes were wrong, and that I could be who I wanted to be or who I who I was, and, and not be, you know, say be ashamed or have to have two different lives.
Mark 05:33
Yeah. Well, something came to my mind, as soon as you said that, that. We talked about leadership, a lot of leadership stereotypes, and then a time when leadership is, you know, very visible, you know, in COVID, in election time, and we talk a lot about leadership. And I don't think we talked enough about types of leadership, because I think a lot of what we're taught socially about leadership is by Well, clearly by what we see. And, and there's, there's this sort of expectation that leadership is leadership, like, if you're, if that's a leader, then that's leadership. And I guess that's generically true. But we're missing I think, a qualitative component, which is, leadership is all around us, great leadership, admirable leadership is not a given, you have to sort that out for yourself, which, you know, what type of leadership is what you are trying to pursue, both in terms of how it's done, and and why it's done. I mean, there's the there's the reason, you know, what, what is the mission? You know, what is the objectives? In terms of what world are we trying to create? That's the purpose piece of this. And then there is the methods that people use to lead and anybody who we know, in a leadership position is probably some form of leader. But we, I think it's an important question to ask ourselves, is that the way we would want to lead even if that is the outcome with we share the same pursuit of the same outcome? And so you were lucky or lucky, I bet you worked hard to make good decisions to wind up at a company that you felt good about? Did you how conscious was that to find yourself at a good company with good leadership?
Jeff 07:13
You know, as a young kid, I can't say that it was that that was something that I was looking, I was just looking for a job. And it was a job that I had, and I had a few opportunities. And this one was a more entrepreneur opportunity. So I was looking at, for me personally, starting my career, where could I get experience and a lot of experience and so I just happened to get into a company that a small family safe $20 million family run business, but I knew I'd have the opportunity to do engineering related things, forecasting financial related things. I wanted to get in sales. And so I looked around the Caymans, if you're going to do something in this company, where where's the action? And I remember, they had these conference room and that everybody was huddled up in this conference room for hours. I'm like, well, that you know, all the important people in that conference room. So I thought, how do you really
Mark 08:14
how do you get in there? I want to get in there. I don't know what they're doing. But I want to be a part of it.
Jeff 08:19
Yeah. So there was all the sales guys. So I was like, I need to, I need to figure out how to get into that sales thing. So I moved into sales. And that was a good part. And and really, there were some you know, I think that luck, part of it was that Yeah, there were some, some, some people that were that I was fortunate to, that were part of the company that became great friends and mentors, even to this day, or I met with my old boss last week, and just was very impactful to me. back then. And still today, as somebody that I look up to,
Mark 08:54
well, how important for the next several chapters of your life was that initial foundation?
Jeff 09:00
Oh, it set the course. I mean, you go off for sales and sales management, and then general management leading the business and, you know, a lot of the leadership was in sales is, you know, knowing where to hunt, and where are the opportunities, and so then you end up naturally shaping the business where the where the opportunities are, and you have the vision for where you're going. And so you end up from sales to Sydney on managing the sales team. And then you're really directing the business and, and running the business.
Mark 09:37
So it seems somewhat obvious when you can challenge us but like, the the, the impact for you is huge. Like being being in that room being in those opportunities to setting your course as you described. It could have been totally different. What what burden, and what responsibility does that put on you today? When you look at your business and your company and people who you hire specially the junior people, what this, how do you look at them now knowing how important those early days were for you?
Jeff 10:13
Well, I look at them. And as if they're in my shoes, and I try to, as we shape our business, and we move it forward to work, I don't do anything different today than I did back then. And then I look at the landscape of opportunities. If anything, I try to be more narrow, I try in my earlier career would take on things that were not, you know, not necessarily the best fit, just because they were the best opportunities that were out there, and would take our business in a direction that may not have been the best. So if anything, now I'm a little bit more narrow in the opportunities that I look at. But when I see those opportunities, it is a privilege to be able to take these younger folks and to be able to put them right in the middle of a an opportunity, they come out of school, they join us and next thing, you know, they are championing you know, a new product development, bringing a product to market doing doing the engineering, launching the production working with the customers, they have no, I think it's, it's such a privilege to see them and they haven't really no idea how much responsibility and how much freedom that we're giving them to be able to, you know, run their little business or run their little program. And so I love to see that probably nothing more, that gives me more joy in to see any young person come in, to grasp a hold of those opportunities to develop a relationship with the customer to take off and to see those products be successful. And, and see them flourish. And we've we've had a number of people here and you know, we try to create opportunity for them. And, and yes, some of them, most of them stay. Some of them, you know, they they sprout wings, and they want to go try something else. But that's, I look at that as a success as well.
Mark 12:10
Well, that kind of that whole model reminds me of how many companies have created some form of either internship program or onboarding, training something, it's, it's kind of a holy grail to be able to create that. Not proving ground, but it's almost like a garden. Yeah. And, and it's I found it very elusive to be able to create that sometimes, you either don't have the right things in place. Well, I know we don't write things in place when that doesn't happen. But I've seen a lot of companies try that in fail. And they just try to say like, Hey, we're gonna hire it. And then let's think of it this way. Like if the if the idea is, here's, here's my idea, we're going to copy so and so has this amazing internship program, and here's what we're gonna do, we're gonna take the least experienced people, and we're gonna give them all the autonomy in the world, and then we're gonna see what happens. Like, that's not good. That's not what you got, like, that's not that's not how it works. How do you make that work? Because you're heard with a big message of empowerment, a lot of latitude, but there's got to be some stuff you put into that mix that make it probably successful,
Jeff 13:14
right? Well, we're a relatively small company. So and I, what I've done is over the years have been involved with the University of Houston, I've been on their advisory board for the industrial engineering. And then I've also been involved at the advanced manufacturing center for the Houston Community College. So I get access or see the students. And so what I've done is, as part of being on the board, you know, the students will come up and they'll present their capstone projects, and you see the sharpest, best and brightest students that are at University of Houston. And so I don't know how many but I have approached, approached them after that, or at the awards banquet, gone around and met different people and, and invited them to come over and do an internship. And so when they bring it into an internship, we will put them in a different area of the company. And it may be in the quality area, it may be in engineering, it may be with our CRP system, and we'll see where their strengths are. And then if it looks like they can, you know, they've got good personal skills and interpersonal skills, we'll, we'd like to get them into project management. And so we've had a number of interns that come in and we were able to watch them closely. We're able to see what they pick up what they like, what they don't like and then and then create opportunities for them. And most of those internships within, you know, usually it's, you know, you think it's gonna last a month or two and it's in a couple of weeks or somebody saying, I want that person and they see they see that they're, they're bright, they're capable. And next thing you know, they find themselves a home and they they blossom that you make In the garden as they, they start to, they start to grow. And so and we've been, we've been able to move them around and from in not always just one spot as a smaller company, they may start in their quality area, but then they move into project management. Because through quality, they get to know all the production, they get to know the, the, the processes, and they have some interactions with the customer. And then it's just natural for them. They they've been on the manufacturing floor, they've got enough experience that they're ready to go to, to, to, you know, help help customers bring their products to market. So that's been fun.
Mark 15:36
So I heard that as is, you know, don't judge the sort of flippant or simplistic answer of like, Oh, we give them lots of latitude, like you've done your work, like you've watched them, you've given to them, you've been a part of that you've there's a lot of things that have happened by the time you get somebody in the door. And so it's just not a matter of like, Hey, we're busy, we need more people go find me some students like that is not this is take a plot of land with wesen it clean all the weeds out, let's spend some time and let's really care for this, plant some seeds to see what grows. And then we've got some plants that don't take a lot of maintenance, because we did all the work up front. And I think that's a big metaphor for all the things we do in business, all the pre work that sets us up for good outcomes. Specifically that what do you see your personal role in all that?
Jeff 16:43
Your mind is the entry point in some ways, I'm picking them and and making the introduction and then after that, more or less, I'm a cheerleader. You know, I'll, you know,
Mark 16:54
picking them isn't just like going to the market, but you did a lot of that we were involved, you see them and then then once you've kind of you've done all that gardening and and now you take me pluck them out of the garden, you send them over to the people to clean the vegetables near at the grocery store to supply chains. You're out of that, but you did the gardening,
Jeff 17:11
right, yeah, I've had the opportunity to have the behind the scenes look at their, in their schooling, and to, you know, because they were doing presentations, for us, they were usually that I can see their communication skills, I can see the type of projects they worked on, I can see their thinking process, then I get a chance to meet meet them. I can talk to the professors and say what do you think about this person, were they dependable, were they did they show up to class were they and you know, the the professors they know I mean, these are these are kids that have gone through a program and engineering program, they've worked on projects, the the professors know which ones are, are, are going to be good students are good, good employees, and we haven't missed on any of them. And then once they're here, you know, I just introduced them to the, to the opportunity here, then they're on they're kind of on their own, they'll they'll work within the people in the company, and then I'm checking in with them. I mean, they they're sitting on, you know, probably 30 feet from me. So I hear them, you know, when they're working with customers, I see the projects that they're working on. I check in with him, I'll just encourage him to say, Can you believe you know, that what you're what you're having the opportunity to, to be involved in So, so quickly, and how they're, they're jumped in, and they, you know, there it is a fast paced, you know, fun, entrepreneurial environment. And it's really it's contagious. So it's real easy for them to, to, you know, to jump in and to see the how good how good of an opportunity they have.
Mark 18:49
So I a lot of people hearing this could imagine I can imagine them saying like, well, they probably don't take it for granted. They don't appreciate it. They take it for granted. Do you have millennial entitlement experiences?
Jeff 19:02
You know, you hear that all the time. And I can't say that the folks that we've had, I feel like there's and I've seen it in other. I won't mention the companies but I've seen it in others where they take advantage. You know, they've got to have their there. They get a new puppy, well, they've got to be able to leave three times a day to go take care of their puppy. And you got to understand that and that's not something that I've seen. I mean, the folks that we've had, it's just not been a problem, but I am aware that there are there are others that there's a reason I guess there's a stereotype but I haven't experienced it here.
Mark 19:40
So what I'm the trend around this is that there's two sides of the coin. And what we're finding in the research is that the millennials are more clear about wanting a purpose. Mm hmm. Man in the old days, the job was the privilege. That was your purpose. Now it's like I got it. Like I can literally work anywhere in the world today, right at any moment for any for a moment. Right, right. And so the competition is really high. And so I have long since asserted that, look, you got to raise your game, the game is changing. And it looks like people are lazy, but actually the standard just went up. And and if you can raise your game, you need to because you're going to lose to the competition, who is a little more aggressive and a little more purposeful and has a better story. And it looks to me like when we have a good match in purpose with somebody who was craving purpose, it kind of lights up, it's not just, it's not just like you satisfy them. It's like you really get their energy, as opposed to like, if you don't have a purpose, like you're not getting anything from it, because they're spending their time trying to find the purpose. But when you get the purpose click, then they're ready to go. And we're and outwork you.
Jeff 20:50
Right, right. Right, right, right. I agree if you can get them locked in, and they buy into your purpose. And I think that's a big part in a good, good topic to talk about is the culture, you know, what we look at is, we try to build our business on people process and technology, we hire the best people we can find. We have good recipes are processes that generate repeatable results. And then we give those people the technology and tools to do their job. That's kind of a simple formula, many businesses follow. But I think what we try to do, and I think the difference between good companies and great companies are those that can wrap that people process and technology in a culture, and a culture where people generally respect each other, and care for each other. If they genuinely respect each other, and they genuinely care for each other. Everything else takes care of itself. And I think that they that you've got engineering stuff, we've got folks here from you know, that don't speak much, much English that have low skills. And then we've got very high skilled tradesmen and machinists and tool makers and process technicians and engineers, and we all work together as a team. And you have to respect from the from, you know, from the lowest level to the highest level, that creating that respect and genuine care for each other. And I think we can do that. And it's, it's, it's man, it's elusive, it's hard to do, it starts, I think it starts with me. And if I've got a model that, and if I model that, then it hopefully, and I can get other folks to model that it becomes contagious. And that's the difference when you have that I said, that is the culture, that's the secret sauce. That's the magic in the model that really makes us different and say, Why Does somebody want to work with us over somebody else? Yeah, it's hopefully they feel that when they come in.
Mark 22:52
So you, you touched on a lot of things there. And I do think I see the core and the essence of, of what is most important, I have talked to seen, and we've all I think most people I know have read the stories of the amazing things that happen from these compassion and human focused cultures. And most people immediately attached to wanting that result, that resilience and the wonderful stories that come from sacrifice and helping people out in these, it's amazing. And the part of that, that I think is important, most important to talk about is how it comes about because it's not just it's not a switch, it has to it has to have two things it has to have, like what you said it's personal has to be authentic has to be really you if you want to just copy somebody else's else's culture is probably not gonna happen. So you got to understand who you are. And the second piece is, you got to really do it, you got to really do it and do it for a long time. And you know, that when you need a friend, it's too late to make one. If you're going to set the precedent for what you stand for, it has to have been done in peacetime long before you needed to cash in on that on that capital and have people come together and lean on each other. So how did you do those two things, discover yourself and manifest that and, and what was the journey like to kind of building that reputation?
Jeff 24:16
Well, I think that Kali it started it started back, as I mentioned, went right out of college is trying to you know, understand who you are and and get a picture of how you're going to live out who you are in the workplace, workplace and you know, you know, some people may say cultures, you know, having, you know, ping pong tables and you know, people wearing their, you know, runner and whatever they want to work and bring your dog and you know, you know I'm not that's not who I am. I mean I'm you know, I like to work hard, like but I but I am about people and I am about relationships. And I think that there's I tried to bring that culture into this business. It starts with me, but then I had to have a few champions. And I had two ladies that, that as we grew, first started the business, it was myself and an office manager. But as I was able to add HR, and as I said, add accounting, and different folks in the administrative side of it, they, they caught the, I think, caught the vision, and they, and they, they helped me carry that out to the manufacturing floor. And then we celebrate, if somebody, you know, there's a, a, we had a maintenance guy early on, and it was hot, we don't have an air conditioning plant. He was he went out on his own initiative went out and bought cokes, and he was just going around handing out everybody cokes, and I just, I love that. I was like that, I mean, just somebody that, you know, he, you know, they give everybody a coconut smile. I mean, it was it was that old semies commercial, and I just, I mean, I loved it. That was when you know, you know, I get chills thinking about it, because that's when, you know, somebody else caught the culture that we're trying to create, I can't be me, I can't be the one doing all that. But if I can do it, you know, if I can, maybe with that guy, you know, if he was going through difficult challenges, maintenance, and I would take the time to sit there and talk with him and help him and go source stuff. Because the time to make a friend as you said before you need him. In Houston, starting the manufacturer, I started the manufacturing Association in Houston. And because of that, I know a lot of people in Houston and where to get stuff done. So when it comes to maintenance, you know, when something breaks, you know, I don't know how to fix anything, but I usually know who to call. And so just by helping that one guy and maintenance and maybe being a resource and being a friend to him, who's carrying a pretty big load. You know, maybe he he and that was who he was to, and I think that's hiring people that that that are gonna, that's, that's who they are. And so are we celebrate. And if not me, because I'm one of those guys that you know, if I'd miss Christmas and near me, you know, I just, I just kind of go But well, I've got some folks that that you know, whether it's Mother's Day, Father's Day, Thanksgiving, Halloween, we have pumpkin and they do it and they were there, they make sure that we have the you know, they they know in my heart, I want to build that community I want to celebrate, you know, we're gonna have Thanksgiving, we're gonna bring our our folks together and have a meal together. You know, they, they take that they organize it. And they do a great job with it. So I think it's, you know, I say genuine respect each other and care for each other. I will take another set with it. We have to love each other. And we had a theme every year I have a theme for our business in one year. It was love one another. I mean, because that really step was what I really wanted in the in the culture building time, I don't know, three or four years ago, I said, I want to, you know, I want people to take this and understand it is I want to love each other. And it happened. I think it was around the hurricane Harvey. And we had the chance after Hurricane Harvey to go out and love one another we had a chance to go out into the community to visit their homes and myself in the HR person, we went out and we went to their apartments, we saw the devastation. We had to commute a community of our other manufacturers that sponsored and gave us that sponsored families and we were able to spot supply needs for family. So I think that when you have the chance to put that you put that into practice, that's also those opportunities that give you a chance to knit that culture together. It's the crisis's. And I think how you respond in a crisis is where it is there's those are the great opportunities to build build your culture.
Mark 29:08
So when you talk about the love one another, I love it. And I think it's powerful. Was it an act of vulnerability for you to kind of put that out there? Did you have any fear that that would be taken as too soft or too weird or inappropriate? Or was it just like they know you? And it was easy?
Jeff 29:25
Um, yes, it was. I did think about it, you know, because I'm gonna put him on T shirt. What do they think when I had your love across your T shirt? And it was, so I didn't think about it, but but I might that was my convictions. And that's, you know, I would Yeah, I think in my own My job is to, to love them. You know, my job is to help them these individuals, as individuals and for their families to help them prosper and And I, you know, I do something now is I, we had our theme this year was building our story, we're building a manufacturing building, but we're also building our story, or our life story. And I I'm doing, I want to go meet some of the folks that would otherwise not meet. And I'll ask them, tell me your story. It's just an open book, you know, and they may want to share, or they may not want to share, but what it what it communicates when I asked somebody, you know, it may be in an impromptu, I see him in between their shift, and I don't know him, I might introduce myself and, and it will start to talk and I will say, Tell me, you know, Tell me your story. And what I'm trying to communicate to them is that I do care for them, I do want to know, are they you know, basic stuff, where are you from Houston is your family here, you're married, tell me about yourself. And then as much as they want to share, I want them to know, I'm there to listen. And so that's a, you know, that's part of building the culture, it's part of me planting seeds out there, to let them know that I, you know, that I do care for them. Now, that causes some, you know, that people feel like they have a relationship with the CEO. So when there is a issue, they want to talk to me, and sometimes that causes issues, they need to go to their supervisor or whatnot. But, you know, we, our folks understand that here. And they, you know, we, we, we handle it appropriately and, and depending on what it is that my doors always open, but, you know, depending on what it is, we may try to try to manage that at a at a different level.
Mark 31:31
Well, one thing he said that struck me is about the conviction. And it's, it's a kind of got this visual of like you being aware of yourself and being kind of at the edge of your comfort zone, like this is my conviction, I'm going in a certain direction, and I'm pushing myself and and inviting other people in to just at the edge of my comfort zone. And putting you're pushing yourself a little bit each year. Hmm. And so what's different today than then maybe when you first started this, like what like how far have you expanded your convictions and, you know, have you grown by growing the cultures authenticity by 30% 100%, we know what's really changed in terms of you you growing and how that's manifest?
Jeff 32:14
Well, I think that by the time I got here, I'd had the chance to practice it for a while. And so I was pretty comfortable in what I was trying to do. Now taking it from, you know, your choir, a company that has the culture that it has, and trying to bring your own, put your own stamp on it, you know, there was definitely a conscious effort to do that. But, you know, I have as a, as a, as a Christian, as a follower of Jesus, I have a, you know, we have were called, you know, to spread the gospel to share the good news. And so, but I look at that in a professional environment, you know, that's where I establish, say, boundaries, and everybody has a different, maybe a way that they think of that, and I look at my job in the marketplace is not to proselytize, it's not to impose what I believe. on other people, I want to have to hire the best people, I don't care what faith they are, I want them to be the I want them to be great employees and great teammates. And, but I think my job is to love them. And, and to let them know that I do care for them. And that we build that community. And then if there's opportunities for me to share, say, my faith, then that's a privilege that, you know, they they will give to me. And if somebody asks me, or certainly in I am who I am, so I am going to it may be, you know, I may say the blessing at Thanksgiving, I'm going to acknowledge that, you know, when something happened, you know, I don't think it just happened by coincidence, you know, that my you know, that, that one when, when events happen, you know, I believe God's provided for us, and, and I'm not, you know, that's, that's my conviction. And so I don't, I don't hold that to myself, you know, if I'm with the group, and I'll say, these are the great things that God has done, and this is how he's provided for us in different circumstances. And so I don't want to do that in any way that make anybody uncomfortable, but I also don't want to do it in a way that's it's gonna not be authentic to who, who I am and what I believe. So that's
Mark 34:48
so important. So, you know, we're in Texas, and so when this topic comes up, it's typically a Christian religious aspect of the business, just because of where we are and I I say that because I just don't want the confusion for listeners like, why does he always keep talking about getting so excited when there's a when there's a Christian religious theme. And in just from my perspective, that's circumstantial. I just happened to be in a place where that pops up a lot. I don't propose that the Christian religious values are important part of a business. What I do propose is that you must be authentic to yourself. And, and I'm seeing a lot of that. And I am also the reason I mentioned this, and why I stopped to make sure we get this clear, I've worked with companies who have had the opposite problem, where it's three years down the line after we established core values. And it's like, I feel empty. Well, why? because I was too afraid to stand up for the mission, part of what I want to do here, I want to make a bigger impact. And it was kind of the lowest common denominator, I'm thinking of a very specific case, a lowest common denominator effect, where two partners together, and they just kind of put the culture plan together based on what they thought the other would agree to, and it neutered, their real impact. And so I'm just, whenever this comes up, is this know yourself, push through the vulnerable, you know, that vulnerability and be authentic. Because you can waste a lot of your life and a lot of your time not not really doing what you meant, what you're meant to do,
Jeff 36:26
and know your audience. I mean, if, if I was in another part of the country, if that wasn't used to that, I might, I might, I might not be as it because I don't want people to feel like I'm in. I'm imposing My, my, my beliefs on them. And I don't want it to be a negative. So I'm going to still be authentic to who I am. But I think you know, no, your know your audience. And there's some times that depending on the audience, I may be a little a little more open with it. And then the note people that didn't the company that know me better than somebody that I met the first time. I mean, I'm not. I do try to as you would with any relationship here. That's the
Mark 37:12
formula though. I'm glad you brought that up. So let's let's kind of talk that through because I do think there's a there's a balance, if you know who what you stand for, and you know, your audience, that that's a formula like that, that guides you what's gonna come out of my mouth? Where is the conversation going to go? Because you, if you know yourself to be highly convicted about your religious beliefs, you may take on more risk in that conversation, knowingly, knowingly alienate somebody, because that's so important to you. And so I don't think it's ultimate prac I would do not suggest pragmatism first. I do suggest, understand the consequences and be sure you can live with them. Right is that because if you if you really are inauthentic by not saying Bless you, or whatever prayer, you want to say, and in any conversation, like I could not in good conscience, recommend that you do that. But to your point, do do the calculus, do understand that the consequences are going to come you are going to alienate some people, and you should be comfortable with that.
Jeff 38:15
Yeah, and I don't want to I don't want to alienate people. So I will get a judge if it's first time I've met somebody, but I also, you know, I want to, I think to have a privilege as the entrepreneur business owner, that we have a privilege to do business with the people we like, and yeah, if if, hey, if I don't want to go to lunch with this customer, I don't need him as a customer. You know, life's too short. You know, I want to I want to know him I look at I want to know, every customer and I want to know every vendor, and I want to know every employee and I want to have a good quality of life making cool stuff for people I like I mean, that's my formula is and if I don't you know if there's you know, if it's there's conflict or there's it's just life's too short let's let's we can part ways and and we don't always have to have the same you know, we absolutely don't have to have the same religious beliefs I've worked I've worked with for many, many years with with and respect folks of all religions, they know where I stand, I know where they stand, and we we can have, you know, we can talk about Ramadan, we can talk about their, their family, their traditions, and, and, and in a completely and judgmental way. I mean, I'm, they know where where I stand as well and did say, we can coexist, and it's not my job to change their, you know, maybe their heart, it's my job to love them and, and let the Holy Spirit change their heart as it is, as it's appropriate.
Mark 39:57
So even when I hear you and you're not talked extensively about this, you know, it's your value, your core value, what's matters at your heart is the best outcome. And it's a human outcome. It's, it's, it's a loving outcome, and you with that understanding, are open to the many ways that that can manifest, you're not rigid in all the ways that I can manifest. And so I think that comes out for you. And so that i think that that ends up being part of your, your message, that's part of you, that's genuine, genuinely want the best for somebody
Jeff 40:31
that may not, that may not be a part of our team. And that's sometimes it's really hard because you're in that conflict, where I've got somebody that's really valuable employee, I don't have, they need to advance to the next opportunity, I don't have that next opportunity. And they may feel like they need to go, Well, if they go, well, then I've, we've done our job, we've brought them in, we've encouraged them, and we've helped them to grow, they're gonna graduate, and we're gonna, you know, we're gonna, you know, they may someday be a customer, they may someday be a vendor, you know, that's a relationship that I want to, I want to keep, you know, forever. Once they're part of the company. You know, I, you know, I'm committed to them, and I'm committed to them for whether they're here or beyond.
Mark 41:19
I had somebody on the on the show, several months ago, Jeff Hoffman is one of the early founders of Priceline, and he talked to he said he was on a TV interview. And he said, he was asked the question, which is not an uncommon question, that was, what's more important, the destination of the journey, almost a trite question. And in that moment, he just had a snap realization, that was neither it was who is on the journey with you, hmm. With if you're surrounded by the people you love, the journey is the journey, right? And the destination is the destination. Who cares? It's just you can we can handle anything, we can do anything. And we're together. And I that has really stuck with me. Because as much as I love that, I still struggle, I still get destination focused, and less injury focused. And then I'm like, Am I making all the right decisions about how to make sure the community that I'm in is well curated and cultivated and cared for? Hmm,
Jeff 42:17
you know, I did a what helped me in that. We mentioned destination or journey, I think I went through a career crisis at one point where I'd lost my job. It was trying to figure out what I wanted to do, I went and I went with a friend of mine did a program living life you're meant to live and you go through and you go back as far as your earliest memories, and you go through and look at who you really are, and what's important to you, and you're in different aspects of your life. And in this case, it was career. And I came up with five things after three days with this guy in a hotel room with butcher paper all over the wall, we came up with five things that I would go and go pursue, and it was, this is what was meaningful to me. And it's, it's not going to apply to everybody. But for me, this is what made me tick was number one with meaningful relationships. That was what the life was all about was meaningful relationships, entrepreneurial, it had, there had to be this risk and return thing. You know, I like the entrepreneur control, I'd worked for a public company, and I had them tell us to, you know, to trash these customers in order to get these other customers out, because they're a bigger revenue, and I was the one on the relationship side of it having to go and try to clean up the pieces. So I wanted to control to make right decisions for the customers. You know, so is a meaningful relationships, entrepreneurial control and adventure to live, it had to be fun, you know, if it wasn't fun, you know, why do it you know, life's too short. And then a challenge to conquer was the fifth piece. If, if it was easy, there's no satisfaction of being easy. And so taking on you know, you know, the big hairy audacious goal or that whatever the challenge is. So that became my both my destination and my journey. My destination at the time was to find a spot which when I looked at I said I need to run my own small to medium sized company where I can have it can be I can have those meaningful relationships I can be entrepreneurial I can have the control I can pick the adventures and that's part of our you know, we have our core values is right in the middle of it we you know, we it's innovative and creative it's the adventure to live it's you know, if we're going to do something we want to do be the best at it. It's there's a lot of that what what what came my say personal you know, roadmap, you know, now is also weaved into our company, core values and, and so it's fun to bring other people along.
Mark 45:11
So so there's, there's a lot there, one of the things that comes to mind is, what part of your identity is the business? Meaning, a lot of times people say, the business is you, you're the visionary. And it's you. And I've learned that I don't agree with that. I believe that your business is no more you than your child is you, like your child has your DNA, but has a life of its own and unique characteristics that you need to address and at some point, can and may should live without you.
Jeff 45:48
Right? It needs to right.
Mark 45:50
So that So did you have to sort of carve out what parts of you in the business world? Is there a separation? Do you see them as different? Or what's what's your relationship there?
Jeff 45:58
You know, that's a good, good, I haven't really given it too much thought. But I think that my first reaction is that we, as the entrepreneur owner later, we certainly shape it, like we shape our kids. So I think I have influence over the business and the direction we go, the type of customers we have, the culture that we're building. But it I fail, if it's me, I mean, if it's if I can't leave, you know, and I haven't, I haven't, it hasn't gone beyond me, and it hasn't spread other people, and where they can carry the they have the vision, they know where we're going, you know, if I have not conveyed that to them, where they could do that, if I left tomorrow, then I have I think I failed. And I think that was the, for me, it took probably three years before we started to build a team, where from a culture standpoint, they got the vision, we had the right people, we had to go through a couple of different folks to get to the right people, once we got the right people, I knew we had the right people, when I didn't have to tell them, this is how you should do it. They, they they had the vision they had they had they were carrying it forward in their areas of responsibility. And so the more I can take that vision, and I can share that with others where they catch it, and then in each of their whether whether it's our tool shop or our manufacturing, or engineering or counting your customers or whatever those groups are they can, you know, they have they are carrying it the overall culture, then, you know, I don't need to be here.
Mark 47:47
How did it's like those core values? very admirable core values? How do you bring spirituality into it? Is that simply through inference through how you lead? Or do you have explicit conversations explicitly in the core values in some way?
Jeff 48:03
They're not. I mean, you know, there's things that are consistent integrity, do you say you're gonna do win win win, you know, we want to create an environment where if we're gonna make a decision, the customer wins, the employee wins, the company wins, we shouldn't have one should not lose. And so we look at that, that as a core value when we're making a decision. And you know, we're going to value people, we're going to give back to the community, what that we live and work in, we're going to from a craftsmanship, we're gonna work we're gonna take quality and it takes take pride in a job well done. World Class services, another area that we so all those things that are continuous improvement cycles, success, that those are all of our core values. And if you look at those core values, they're not you know, you know, there's no spiritual component of those. I mean, those are things that are are just good, moral, right things to do. And I think they're consistent with what we're doing from Yeah, I don't know from a spiritual aspect how I you know, how that how that ties in to our core values other than it's, it's consistent with the teachings of the Bible, I'd say if the the direct and serve USA some people call it Christ based leadership, and I think instead of having the triangle where the CEO is at the top and all the people are at the bottom, you know, in a Christ base leaders, you turn that upside down, you know, the first thing is, this is where we're gonna go. And now you turn that triangle upside down. So how can I serve you and that's the if there if there is a biblical model of direct and serve, this is where we're going to go. This is how we're going to do it. And how can I serve you to help you get there? that that would be an aspect that I'm, you know, I believe in how to how you run a business, you know, there's the authoritative do it because I said, you're going to do it, or, you know, you know, different different way that that you more of an inspiration this is this is this is the picture that we're painting for where we want to go. Now how can how can I help you be successful in and share in that success. So as we achieve those goals,
Mark 50:29
I love that model. And I and I agree 100%, just from a very pragmatic perspective. Sure. I mean, this is the servant leadership, it's Christ based leadership, you know, whatever, whatever got you to that, to me, the way it used to work was command and control. And that's the old model. And it was very effective when there was no command and control if it was chaos, command control is much better than that. But now, we've got kind of this inform and inspire approach, which is just very much what like you said, if you've got three people trying to serve the needs of one, that's pretty linear growth, if you got one person who's trying to think their way to solve the problems of three people and three people who are trying to work to solve the problems of 30 people, you've got exponential power, if you can use one idea and one person to help many, many more people in that inverted triangle, inverted pyramid model. It's very, very powerful. And it's very humbling and purposeful, to feel like you can make a difference and help people. So it's, I agree 100%
Jeff 51:31
Yeah, it's a it's a hard thing to to do to get other people to adopt that model. But I think that's where the, the, the getting the right people on the bus, kind of thing where you you have those folks that that see their purpose as to help other people prosper, and and help our customers prefer help our vendors prosper. I mean, all we need all three of them. And so,
Mark 51:55
you know, I want to highlight a point that I've encountered, and this is this is funny, I do a lot of these interviews, and I'm really kind of non directed, I go where we go. But this is an opinion I have, and that there are two types of cultural, culturally driven leaders or culturally identified leaders maybe. And they're the kinds, the first kind is very proud of their culture, and how amazing they are. And they take a lot of credit for this amazing culture. And I'm not going to exactly tell you the signals as to what I'm talking about what usually when I talk to these people, I get a sense of pridefulness that may be detached from reality. And then I see humble leaders who are curious and constantly driven to figure out what they're missing and how they can serve their community, of the in their in our culture. And there's a total difference, a complete difference of hypocrisy and effectiveness. And when you have truly a beloved leader, they're the humble, I'm always trying to find out what I don't know, I really kind of try to serve them. And there's the person who is just like, you know, you know, maybe he's in the spotlight and might get some recognition. And you have a few conference candid conversations with the that leadership team. And it's like, yes, not that great hair. And so, I love hearing from you this, it's a real sense of humility. And I haven't talked to anybody who works on your on your team, but I have a really strong prediction that they would say great things just because based on how many leadership teams I've worked with, where that humility is present, that's what you get, and you get a real family, high trust. low key low key is kind of the signal. If the pride is loud, oh, my God, I'm gonna not gonna be surprised when I hear some people frustrated. Well, so what do you do have a thought on that?
Jeff 53:48
Well, I yeah, I think that the, the, my thought was that if you were to count our company, you're going to find people frustrated to
Mark 54:04
telling you
Jeff 54:06
so it you know, they're, we're not perfect by any means. And I think that's what we get up every day and try to figure out how you can we, you know, if we're off this way we have we steer it back this way, and, and, you know, keep the peace and we you know, you've got, we run 24 hours a day, we've got lots of different people, lots of different personalities, you know, managing conflict and whatever is part of the part of the journey and part of the opportunity. So
Mark 54:35
well, let's talk about that. So how is your running 24 hours a day? businesses good for you right now? It's, yeah,
Jeff 54:40
it's 30% of our business was the energy business. So when we went into COVID, I mean energy business, as everybody knows, in Houston, Texas went to enter the tank. I mean, everybody put the brakes on so we came out our priorities were we had one set of priorities in January. By March, everything is switched, it was number one, we're going to keep our people safe. Number two, we're going to take care of the customers that we do have that are running needs to because they're the ones that are, you know, keeping us a lot. And number three, we're going to be really aggressive at trying to build new business, and we're going to finish up the year behind what we did last year, but where we lost a 30% of our business, we're gonna end up about 10% down. And that's because we, you know, we were, you know, really aggressive in going after anything that came in, that was a decent fit for us. And so I think we'll be stronger when we come out of this, because we're gonna have a, you know, they weren't energy business, they were medical and construction and, and other other manufacturing oriented business, a food and beverage, they were just outside of what the energy business, which is, it's more common in Houston. So I think we're going to come out as a, when the energy business does start to come back, I think it will be a stronger company. Because we follow that path. And hopefully, we can continue to keep our people safe as we as we go into the this winter season.
Mark 56:15
So I go back to a point you this business was acquired, this is all around this theme of culture. And well, I find my core values is that when we, in the culture by design, we start taking stand. There are three categories of what happens or how people react to that. And one is people go, yeah, of course, that's what we have always done. Then there is a group of people who make different sounds, but it is like yuck, right? And so they may just disappear, they may accuse you of ruin the culture, they might any number of ways they would describe it, but the end is yuck. In the middle, there are these people who are like, well, I hadn't really thought about it before. And since you bring it since you mentioned it, that does sound like something we can do. When you were acquiring you have whatever was already there. Right? How did you think about culture change, and did you have to make major changes?
Jeff 57:20
I didn't it was a small company is 22 employees, it was really a, the owner of the business was it he was the creative entrepreneur, he was the engineer, he was the sales guy he was he had an administrative support, but he was it. I mean, he. And then you had the the workers that were making the product, and they were good people really good people. But the culture was really owner centric. And so and it wasn't a bad culture by any means. I mean, he he was it was loose, it was kind of a loose, it wasn't, you know, he was he was not he was a creative thinker, not probably a real process technician. And so when we came in, we want to build a world class, and we expect high performance. So you can have a culture of love and respect and care. But we also want high performance, and we expect the hype for we want to be the best at what we do in the industry we serve, we want to be the best at what we do. So we're going to expect and demand high performance. So we put in things like you know, first off, we you know, for we use tools, molds, they're complex metal pieces that you put hot plastic under high pressure into them. And they break and they need maintenance. And we didn't really we didn't have a tool shop, first thing we do is put a tool shop in. Next thing is we're all about people process and technology. So process was a big part. So we went and started put, we put our quality management system. And so we got and we got certified to the ISO 9001 standards. And so we we put those processes in and then we we started improving the technology. And so we were by the actions, we were standing by the way that we were directing the business, we were establishing that you know, and we had we had opportunities, where if there was a quality issue, and we would say there that is not going out the door, the very first thing I did was low risk high return, that they had the crappiest boxes, and you know they were thin flimsy boxes, they use self clear cellophane tape, they had a little, you know, little like Avery label that went on in my head. And I said the first thing we're gonna do, we're gonna make a buy a really high quality box, we're going to put fiber tape on it, it's going to be the same length every time we're going to print a little box on there where the label goes. We're gonna have a four by six thermal printed label, and it's going to have all the information. We're gonna have a green dot once it's been inspected by quality, and then that's going to have their stamp on it that says that they, so they put their name on that box. And so every box that goes out customers are going to see day one are very early on that, that, that that first impression is a box could come with a name on it, it's going to be if they're going to be fit on the palate, right. And so we started doing different things to let people know that we're going to do it a different way. And, and it was and it was further good and further benefit, and we will prosper. And that we can grow. If we have good processes, then we can there that are repeatable, you know, then we can scale. And so, and we everybody
Mark 1:00:41
get on board with that, or did you have any turnover or in this company?
Jeff 1:00:51
I had some pushback, not, not strong push back, it was just like they would it was, you know, we said, we're gonna, there were certain metrics that we were doing by hand, and then we say we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna fill this paperwork out after each shift, and we're gonna do the do, you know, do this administrative stuff to set metrics and measure performance. And they kind of hoped that it would just go away. Like, we'll do it for a while, and then it'll just go away. And I'm like, Hey, guys, they would stop, and we'd go and say, You stopped. I said, it's not going away. And I can't remember if anybody left, but it was, there was definitely pushed back that this, this was burdensome, and we're having to document what we do. And we're having to measure and keep records. And and, you know, we did that manually. And we eventually went to any RP system, which is along our journey of, you know, putting us in ability of, to have repeatable processes, that we could scale, and grow the business and that and that they have now seen, we've been doing it for a number of years. So they see that they're not pigeon holed with this tribal mentality, they know this, this tribal knowledge that they're locked into this job. Well, now, if it's more standardized, and we can take you and we can easily pick you up and move you around the company, because we've, we've put systems in place that, you know, to pull out that information as much as we can and allow us to grow and develop. And that means allow you to prosper as an employee. So yes, we had some early on pushback, we just had to press through it and say it's not going to go away, we had to make some decisions. As far as you know, we're not going to ship that. And we're gonna remember it remember one time, in my, I don't wear wool pants anymore, because I remember I was took off my shirt, and I had just my T shirt and wool pants, and they were completely soaked. But, you know, we were not going to ship the products this and I went through with the quality guy, we stayed here till 11 o'clock at night and fix the product. So that if you out the door, and I think those you know those make statements and and you don't do that that often, we had one situation was when you start talking about building culture is integrity is one of our things that we stand for. And we had a situation where a customer had told us you have to build this tool in the United States. So we don't build it here. They No, we we outsource it to a company in Dallas. And they were built a tool and they were like light, like they finally got it here and it was a piece of junk. And we said, well, we can't send it back to the vendor that had built this for us. So we we said we're gonna try to fix it here. Well, you know what happens when you try to take a piece of junk and you try to fix it, it didn't work. And again, we were in the customer, really, you could it was getting worse and worse. And so we they came to me and said, Hey, this is getting pretty bad. And so I met with the customer. And it just became evident that the relationship was, you know, it was, you know, damaged. And the right thing to do was to write a check for $56,000 and say, I'm gonna refund everything, you can have the tools, but I think you need to find someplace else. And it did give me a chance to bring our team together so that we will never do that again.
Mark 1:04:20
So I just don't understand it. Make sure I understand the story. Right. The customer asked you to make it in the United States.
Jeff 1:04:25
Yes.
Mark 1:04:26
Normally your stuff is not made in United States
Jeff 1:04:29
normally normally on tooling. Usually cost driven wheat and really quality driven and timeliness. We we build it in China. Unfortunately the much of the tool building business had been decimated and then the skilled labor has gone away and so there really are not a lot of places that you can get it so we were building most of our stuff and still do outside of the United States, but we like to and we have some suppliers the United States and We, some will want will pay more. And so we were happy to build in the United States. And we did in this case, we did build one with with a company that we had worked with in the past. Evidently, they'd lost a couple key employees. The owner was struggling with health concerns. And the end result was, it wasn't on time, and it wasn't good quality. But we had to take responsibility for it. And we tried to fix it, it eventually got sideways. And so it was a, you know, a point that I can look at as a story. And say, it was a terrible situation to sit down and have to write a check for that thing and tell him that, you know, but it was, but we wanted to take full responsibility, do we say we do. And, and, and allow him to go on, it was very expensive, but it was, uh, but it was it sent a message to our team, that's the point is that we're gonna stand behind what we do to the best of our ability. And that happened to be in that case, the best, best thing, we've had other things that we've we do, that we, we make sure it's right, even when it costs us and we always take the high road, but that was the one that I'd like to not have
Mark 1:06:22
to do again. Well, I love the story for a couple reasons. It because I've definitely experienced and always guide my clients to core values are something you value so highly, you would willingly pay a price for a high price. If you're not willing to pay a price for it, it's not really a core value, that's an aspiration, or it might be nice to have an accidental thing. So when you're willing to pay a price for it, you've got a story that that sends a message because you know, and I was kind of fishing for this, this, I'll tell you exactly if it wasn't obvious that I see a lot of cultures, when they put their coat when they put your core values in place. These get some pushback that leads to oftentimes termination of high profile employees. And I've had a lot of people describe that as the best turning point for them that they've got some made some high profile terminations that send a message to the culture that this is these are real. And it sounds like you were able to enroll people who wanted to believe in what you were doing, and you set a great example. But in the end, the story is still the same. You were willing to pay a price. And and I think culture ultimately comes down to that. If you're going to get the culture rallied around what you believe in, you're going to have to visibly demonstrate the willingness to pay a price to keep those values in place.
1:07:37
That is true.
Mark 1:07:39
Well, we have covered a ton of ground, man, I'm grateful we covered. Is there anything else you'd like to add to that to this culture conversation?
Jeff 1:07:48
You know, I don't I think that I mean, let me qualify that I, I, I think culture is go back to what I said earlier, it is the magic in the bottle. It's the secret sauce for any entrepreneur, CEO, leader, business leader, regardless of where you are in your company. Understanding that culture is it makes it's not just a job, you know, and I go back, I tell our folks here, I said, Have you ever worked at a place where you wanted to go to work, it was exciting, you worked around people, and you would you would, you would shed blood for these people. And you would, you know, we say we will get the job out for the customer when they were dead bodies in the floor, because we were all we would do whatever it took to get them out. And I said those, yeah, that's that satisfaction of accomplishing things that are not easy to accomplish. And I think that if you want more than a job, you know, people say, you know, people will show up, you know, on their, their on their time for a job. But when it's a friend, you know, they'll show up any time. And they'll do whatever it takes. And so you want to create a culture where people look at it beyond the job. And when they care and ask if they if I can get them to care for each other. They're going to care for the bathrooms, you know, the cleanliness of the bathrooms, they're going to care for the machinery, they're going to care for the way they put them in that box. They're going to the way they place that label on the box, they're going to care for the the quality of the parts that go in there because there's more to it than just a job. And I think that's when you talk about culture. It's elusive. But it's the most valuable thing and it's it's it's it's hard to hard to put together it's hard to nail down hard to describe. But when you have it you know you have it and it I think the value that it creates to the business is exponential.
Mark 1:09:56
Man, I love what you said and it gave me a little different different lens. And think about core values through and that is it. When we do the core values, exercises and the process to turn them into turn the culture into a handful of statements, so we can really talk about it. We're usually saying it from the perspective of Who are the people who are one of us and who are one who are not. Because we are like, we got to get the people who are not one of those away, and more the people who are one of us. And how we come up with that is kind of this selfish statement of who do we like, who would we like to be around? And and I think it's okay as a way to do it. But what you described for me, it's like, if you really get this, right, you're going to put people in a room together who like each other. And if you can do that, that's real magic. I do think it starts with asking that selfish question to get, but that ultimate goal is to not just people get people you like, but a culture that likes itself and is willing to sacrifice and happily sacrificing for that team, because they feel a part of
Jeff 1:10:56
it, and they don't all look like you. I think that's important. You don't, it can't all look like you diversity is key. And that and having diverse ideas, diverse skill sets, diverse personalities. You know, my partner and I are different personalities. And, and, and, and, and we're where we are, you know, Jekyll and Hyde, we're, we're, we're totally opposites, but we complement each other. And there are certain things that he does that that he's very effective at. And there's some some things that I do that I'm more effective at, but we're completely different. And I think that diversity and and leveraging the best of all the people, and not just hiring people that look like you talk like you think like you that's that then you're you're you're going to miss out on on the diversity and strengths of so many people.
Mark 1:11:55
I agree. And I'm glad you said that, because again, that gives you more of an another lens on the same subject. That is, if people love to talk about diversity, diversity as a concept, without a sense of your culture is kind of meaningless. It's like it's random, diversity. Without that sense of culture is random. And we don't need random, what we want is what unifies us. And if you're in your culture, it's about this community and loving each other. If you can get solid on that, now you bring in diversity, now you've got some power, because you're getting different perspectives and different ideas, and it's resonant around a purpose that everybody is behind. And so that's, that's the real power of, of the collection.
Jeff 1:12:40
Yeah, it's I want to be because I've been accused of this, but that it's, yeah, it's the purpose is not unity and love. I mean, you know, I think when I especially when I when I share this with other manufacturing guys in our industry, you know, it's it's a high performance, we underground, we girded in that, but we expect that they're going to be here every day, they're going to be here on time, they're going to there, we're going to follow the processes, we're going to, you know, do the hard work that needs to be done. And we're going to, we're going to produce quality parts in it, that at the end, that that the end result is that we're going to serve our customers and give them great quality parts on time at a fair price. And we're going to, and we're going to do that in a culture it wrapped in this culture of genuine love and respect. So it's the they both have to be there. Or you're Yeah, you're just a warm and fuzzy mush. Yeah,
Mark 1:13:37
that's great. Claire, for quick clarification, because I've certainly was oversimplifying that and that is exactly right. And what and that kind of brings the the challenge of culture. It's a you know, what is the actual culture is high performance caring for each other, you know, hard work,
Jeff 1:13:52
but you know, leave in the hallway, we're gonna do it. I got no, they don't say anything. They said that somebody, a technical guy needs to help in the middle of night, and they call another technical guy and they show up at two in the morning. You don't teach that. That's just that's big. They came in because they cared. And you know, they didn't ask the only way I even know about is because the second shift supervisor says, Hey, so and so came in last night and helped me out at you know, two in the morning. I'm like, wow. And then he was also here at eight and never said anything. Yeah. Or seven in the morning. So anyway, we we got a few of those people on the need those that that carry that torch. Yeah,
Mark 1:14:35
yeah. And it sounds like you have not everybody does exactly that. But having a few key players to model that becomes kind of a lighthouse. Yeah. Yeah. aspire to that. Yeah. Well, man, I'm so grateful for what you shared. Is there what is actually the question we talked about before we got this going? What is your passionate plea to entrepreneurs right now?
Jeff 1:14:58
Well, I think you recognize called It's not about selling, you know, hitting the super sales records. And it's a it's, it's about people. And it's all about people. And if you take care of the people that people take care of you, and they'll take care of your customers, and that happens with culture, and that would be my passionate plea. And that would be the, the secret sauce that that
Mark 1:15:32
I think they can take to the bank. I couldn't agree more. When I work with companies who really understand who they are. It gives them the power to sacrifice when needed power through difficult times without any flinching. And if they don't have that, you know, a tough day, it seems like a tough day, like why am I doing this, I want to do something else. And so having a real sense of why it matters to them who they are, and this is this is worth it really brings it together and gives them so much power to to grow. So Jeff, I'm super grateful. I really love what you said what you said, and I think people are gonna get a lot of value from this. If somebody wants to continue the conversation or see what you're up to. How does somebody find you see you the website? Yeah, something? Yeah,
Jeff 1:16:14
I'm on LinkedIn. My company is Texas injection molding calm. I've got a blog as well. Jeffrey applegate.com. So Best Places probably through text injection molding calm. Awesome.
Mark 1:16:29
Awesome. Well, that's our time for today. Please subscribe, share with your friends. Make sure that if people might get value out of this, you get it in their hands, any feedback. We love it good and bad. It's always really valuable. And I'm always grateful for that feedback. So we will see you next time on you're doing it wrong with me, Marcus.
VO 1:16:51
This is you're doing it wrong with Mark Henderson Leary for more episodes and to subscribe, go to leary.cc