Employee Retention, Financial Stability and Company Growth with Kevin Robertson

0:02Who's ready to rock today, Fire Nation? JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, brought to you by the HubSpot. Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like The Product Boss. Today, we'll be breaking down employee retention, financial stability, and company growth. To drop these value bombs, I have brought Kevin Robertson into EO Fire Studios. Kevin has 25 plus years of experience in banking, insurance, and financial services, covering a diverse spectrum of employee benefits in insurance products and services. And today, Fire Nation will be talking about benefits and offerings for employees, creating financial stability for yourself, successful planning for retirement, and so much more.

0:43And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Kevin and our sponsors. Hustle & Flowchart, hosted by Joe Feer, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Join Joe as he discusses systems, mindset tweaks, reframes, and strategies to help you build a business that gives you freedom and fuel for your life. A recent episode on using AI for effortless content creation is a must-listen. Listen to Hustle & Flowchart wherever you get your podcasts. Ever thought about giving a TEDx talk? It's one of the most powerful ways to share your message with the world.

1:15And four-time TEDx speaker Taylor Conroy from Thought Leader can help you get there. Visit thought-leader.com slash fire to join Taylor's free training where he teaches you how to land a TEDx talk and spread your message to millions. Kevin, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. That's a really intriguing question. And I was in preparation for our conversation. I was thinking about that. And I think what I've come up with is this. Most Americans, if you ask them to define success or what their thoughts around success are, probably lead to their definition that success translates to money or recognition.

1:59And for me, I don't actually view that. I look at success as really winning at all of the small victories that you have each day and each week and as you move through whatever you're doing to be successful and that you become satisfied with those small victories along the way. And I gave some thought to why that is the case. And it really is because it really triggers the motivation for most people that I would view are successful. It drives them. In other words, the challenge, the victory and the satisfaction is the reward. And then the money that comes with that just comes on the back end. So it's really an intriguing question.

2:43Fire Nation, this is why I asked that question because it is intriguing and I love the way that Kevin approached it and just the different ways that different entrepreneurs approach the same question. And I really hope that gets you excited for our conversation today, which is all about employee retention, financial stability, and of course, company growth. Now, you believe your former life as a self-employed business owner actually gave you an edge, Kevin, in corporate America. Tell us more. formation of the entrepreneurial roots that I had were formed in me very young. Both of my parents operated a part-time business in addition to their normal work lives.

3:22And as I grew up in that environment and then I went off to college and so on and so forth, I found myself almost subconsciously trending myself towards leadership opportunities or larger experiences beyond just the normal classwork that comes in college. After I exited from college, like a lot of new graduates, it wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do. And the industry that I ended up with was really merely by accident, really more than anything else. But I started a small business out of college in the insurance industry. And what I learned about not only that industry, but myself was really around the concept of systems in small businesses and entrepreneurial mindset.

4:12One of the books that was very important to my formative thinking around entrepreneurship was the famous book called The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber. I'm sure you've heard it, probably read it. And, you know, a couple of the concepts in that really resonated with me, the concepts around that, you know, most people work in their business, not on their business, and this concept of breaking a business down, no matter how complex it may be, into smaller, repeatable, simple steps and then putting systems in place to ensure that those steps are met, that will lead to bigger and better components of success.

4:51And I go right back to what I started with, this concept of winning small victories, right? That's really where my career evolution started. From there, of course, after being self-employed for 12 years, I was heavily recruited at the time to come into HSA Bank. And I'll be honest, I had a very high level of reservations with the concept going back, we'll say, into corporate environment after being self-employed for so many years. Quite honestly, it was one of those things that when I made the decision, it was primarily made because it was an entry not just into a new business, but into really a new industry.

5:34And that challenge or the prospect of the challenge is really what motivated me to think about why I would want to make a change and then ultimately had led to being successful over the last nearly 20 years in the space with HSA Bank. I'll be honest, I would never have been as successful in a corporate world if I had not been using the lessons that I learned as an entrepreneur, especially about having systems and working on their business, not just in their business. Now, you believe that business owners should be thinking about benefits and offerings for employees because we have a lot of those individuals listening right now.

6:19They're business owners, they're small business owners, medium-sized business owners. We have entrepreneurs, I mean, we have these individuals who maybe are thinking about this. So can you share some examples of how this can actually be done correctly? Regardless of how large or small your business is today, the reality is that we have radically changed the workplace, not just because of the pandemic. I'll be honest, the pandemic, that acted as an accelerator of sorts. but the feelings and sentiments that we're seeing materialize post-pandemic were there before. They just got a kind of wind in their sails behind them, right?

6:59And when you're thinking about benefits, what I have found is that very few employers are deliberate about their benefits. They haven't spent time thinking about and answering the questions like, why are we offering benefits in the first place. In other words, what are you trying to impact? A lot of employers or small businesses, entrepreneurs, everyone, doesn't matter what level of complexity, because I've asked this question of Fortune 50 and small businesses all the same, and I get the same response. I ask them, why are you offering benefits? What are you looking to impact or what are you going to look to succeed?

7:43And more importantly than just what you're trying to do, is how are you going to measure success? In other words, if you're doing something for a deliberate reason, then what is that? Let's document that. And then let's figure out identifying the metrics of how we're going to measure whether we're succeeding or not. That concept and benefits is often overlooked. And as such, employers and entrepreneurs are probably left to wondering, like, hmm, am I offering the right benefits that impact my employees? Are we offering these things that attract and retain talent or am it just going through the motions?

8:23And you apply that to, you know, knowing your employees, knowing your demographics, and then asking and answering those questions like, why are you offering benefits and how are you going to measure success? Only then can you have a true strategy and think about the concepts of benefits in that same vein. Fire Nation, this is a person who has been there, done that, has learned the lessons, and knows how it can be done correctly. So thank you for sharing that with us. And we have a lot more to talk about really around this topic and more when we get back from thanking our sponsors. The amount of software required to run a growing business can be daunting.

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10:05Thought Leader is a speaker coaching company that has helped over 550 and counting coaches, speakers, entrepreneurs, authors, and experts land TEDxTalks. Thought Leader is not affiliated with TED or TEDx, but they're able to get these results because their founder, Taylor Conroy, is a four-time TEDx speaker himself and past EO Fire guest. You might be thinking a TEDxTalk sounds great, but where do you start? Taylor has put together a free training that's going to teach you how to land a TEDxTalk in as little as 90 days. join Taylor to learn exactly what TEDx organizers are looking for in their speakers, how to write a talk that goes viral once it goes online, and more.

10:42Visit thought-leader.com slash fire. Join Taylor for this free training and get your message out of your head, out of your heart, and out into the world where it belongs. That's thought-leader.com slash fire. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Can you believe we're already halfway through 2024? I mean, time flies, especially when you're head down trying to grow your business. But one thing I've done consistently for the past 12 years is check in on where I'm at with my goals. Now is a perfect time to do that. And therapy can be a huge help when it comes to taking stock of progress and making adjustments for the remainder of the year.

11:20That's right. Therapy isn't just for those who have experienced trauma. It can be incredibly helpful when it comes to learning how to set boundaries, leveraging your time most effectively, and getting back on track with your goals. Not sure where to start? Give BetterHelp a try. It's not only super convenient and flexible, it's also easy to dive right in. Just fill out a brief questionnaire online and get matched with a licensed therapist. Take a moment. Visit betterhelp.com slash fire today to get 10 % off your first month. That's betterhelp.com slash fire. Kevin, here's a question that I love asking my guests because I feel like it really puts them in a lot of my listener situations, which is what advice would you give yourself early on in your career?

12:08So if you were to give yourself advice in your early career self, what would that be? I will tell you that if I look across all of the jobs and also I've run a number of volunteer organizations and contributed a number of for-profit and non-profit organizations and boards. I will tell you there's probably two things that I learned throughout my career that today I couldn't live without, but I don't know if I knew what it meant on the front end. And it's probably how important it is to surround yourself with good people. And let me explain what I mean there, because it's not just finding talent, right?

12:51One of my early mentors in the business explained with a concept that was that good people with good character make great teams. In other words, that it wasn't just finding people that were talented or that could be an individual player, but that ultimately how you nurture that through a supportive environment and how important a culture is to an organization, especially around growth, trying to nurture the concept that every single one of us contributes to the growth of organization, even though our job might not be directly in growth. And I will tell you what I have learned is that culture beats individual performance every time.

13:34And if I could go back to, you know, the early days, because I'll be honest, at various points, whether it be in my individual business or when I'm an HSA bank, I've probably sometimes been attracted to like, oh, look at this, you know, really strong performer. But I needed to ask myself, does that performer really fit into the bigger cultural picture? And how are they going to impact the rest of the organization? And when I have ignored that component of trying to fit those people into culture, I can tell you it's always been either a short-term success that leads to headaches downstream, or it just finds a mismatch and you just wasted a bunch of bandwidth.

14:16And quite honestly, resources, investing in the wrong area. So thinking about how good people and good character make those great teams and how culture plays a role, no matter how big or small the team is, I think is incredibly important and a lesson I wish I would have learned even earlier in my career. I think if you were to ask a lot of business owners right now, what's one thing they dream about having? What would they just absolutely love to have part of their business? It would be financial stability. So talk to us, Kevin. How can we create financial stability? There's a couple of principles, I think, that just cannot be ignored.

14:58They're timeless. But I'll be honest, as profound and as timeless as they are, they're often overlooked. And I think the first is the concept around pay yourself first. You have to make sure that if If you are going to be creating financial stability, whether we're talking about in the near term or long term, you need to pay yourself first, meaning you have to put money aside, whether it be saving for retirement, whether it be saving for a new investment in the business, whatever it may be. You need to think and act in the long run and that in that basis. So a lot of times, you know, we live in a I want it now society.

15:37Right. We want the newest and latest and greatest widget. it. We want the newest and flashiest cars and those types of things. And if you make decisions based on those types of attributes and not thinking ahead and evaluating, I'll call it evaluating the ROI on the various decisions and making sure that you're taking care of your core first, I don't know if you're ever going to find financial stability, at least not on a deliberate basis. You might find it accidentally, but you're not going to find it deliberately. So So that concept of paying yourself first, thinking and acting for the long run, I think is really, really important.

16:13I think the also being realistic about your future needs and where you're at. I will tell you that I've never seen anything in a financial security discussion where the outcome is, well, I already have more money than I ever need to know about and or think I need. and I have plenty saved that I don't need to work on saving anything more. It's the time value of money and I think being deliberate about that and being realistic with what you're trying to achieve I think are important attributes that can't be overlooked. Now something else that can't be overlooked even though a lot of people don't want to think about it because they feel like it's so far off or it's just like sometime in the hazy distant future is retirement.

17:00So let's talk about your advice when it comes to planning for a successful retirement? Very similar to the question that I was asking about why an employer would be offering benefits. I think when you're talking about planning retirement, what do you want out of your retirement? Have you actually sat down and mapped out what you think you want your retirement to be? Why you want it that way? I think I don't know if this statistic is 100 percent true, but one of the things that I have been that's been reinforced into my mind is that most people spend more time planning a two week vacation than they do planning their retirement.

17:43And you stop and think about how profoundly shortcoming that may leave you. But it's true. Have people sat down and mapped out what is it they want in their retirement? Why are they thinking that way? And then setting and reviewing a plan to achieve that on a regular basis. That's probably I'm hoping and I would think that the people that are listening to these podcasts probably don't think like that. They probably are more goal-oriented and have that vision articulated and written down and reviewed with regularity. But I'll be honest, if you look at the statistics, even those people that are highly entrepreneurial sometimes overlook some of those basics.

18:26So I would tell you the most important component about planning retirement is exactly that, planning retirement. Fire Nation, you've been hearing value bombs from Kevin, and I want you to take the mic now, Kevin. Take a step back. You know we've been talking about employee retention, benefits, financial stability, company growth. What is the one thing that you really want to make sure our listeners get from our conversation today? Somewhere along my career, I learned a saying by a famous French poet, Anatole France. And you've probably heard it before, but it's a saying that goes, some succeed because they're destined to, most succeed because they're determined to.

19:13And I subconsciously and beyond subconscious, that's always been kind of my mantra. And I love nothing more than for people to tell me, oh, you can't do that. You can't achieve that. Oh, that's too much of a challenge. There's no greater motivator to me. And I think most people that are entrepreneurial probably have that same mindset. And I go back to what I started with when your very first question, when you were asking me about, you know, what what I think becoming successful, most people disagree with. It's those little victories. I how do you have a little victory? I'm sorry, a big victory.

19:52You have a bunch of little victories. Break that down into smaller chunks. Make sure that you're you're diving in, doing everything you can to win the little victories. And guess what? After a bunch of little victories, you will have a large victory. And that, to me, I think, has motivated more than anything else. And whether or not it's in business, whether it's not in other things in your personal life, I think you can apply that same strategy. I look back to when I started at HSA Bank. When I started at HSA Bank, we had 153 ,000 customers and four people in our growth organization. And today, and we had about$300 million in deposits.

20:29And today we're approaching 14 billion in deposits, three and a half million customers. And I've got about 130 people in our growth organization, just around our growth organization is sales and business development, those types of people. and that didn't happen overnight it happened through a series of small victories and I my word to the wise to everybody on this podcast is do you know what your small victories are I know everybody knows what your big victory is in other words that's your goal that's what you're trying to achieve long term but it can seem you know daunting or insurmountable and the old adage how to eat an elephant one bite at a time you should break down your challenge you should break down your business into those small repeatable chunks, put a system in place to ensure their success, and you will find small victories.

21:20If you find small victories, you will get the big victory. You will have the success you're looking for. I believe that in my heart of hearts. Kevin, if Fire Nation is listening right now and they're like, dang, I need to learn more from this guy, what is your call to action? How do they connect with you? There is some bio information about me on hsabank.com, but I also am happy to share my email address if you would like. And it is simply K.P. Robertson, and Robertson is spelled R-O-B-E-R-T-S-O-N at H-S-A-Bank.com. Happy to, you know, again, it might take me a little time to respond, right? But I'm happy to, you know, provide any type of insights or response that I can.

22:03I'm a big believer in, you know, kind of give to get. And I love to give to other people, to other entrepreneurs, to people that are trying to be successful. And in doing so, I'll get something back from that. So again, you can go to our website. You can contact me directly. I'm happy to help out any which way I can. Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with KR and JLD today. So keep up that heat. For links to everything we talked about today, visit eofire.com. Just type Kevin in the search bar. The show notes page will pop right up.

22:38And Kevin, thank you. for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation. For that, we salute you and we will catch you on the flip side. Thank you very much. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Kevin for sponsoring today's episode. And Fire Nation, over the last decade, I've interviewed more than 4 ,000 of the world's most successful entrepreneurs, and I've created a revolutionary 17-step roadmap to your financial freedom and fulfillment. I put it all into my first traditionally published book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, personally endorsed by Seth Godin and Gary Vaynerchuk.

23:13The Common Path to Uncommon Success is the step-by-step guidance that you need to achieve the lifestyle of your dreams. Visit UncommonSuccessBook.com. I will catch you there or on the flippity-flip side. Hustle and Flowchart, hosted by Joe Feer, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Join Joe as he discusses systems, mindset tweaks, reframes, and strategies to help you build a business that gives you freedom and fuel for your life. A recent episode on using AI for effortless content creation is a must listen. Listen to Hustle and Flowchart wherever you get your podcasts.

23:49Ever thought about giving a TEDx Talk? It's one of the most powerful ways to share your message with the world. And four-time TEDx speaker Taylor Conroy from Thought Leader can help you get there. Visit thought-leader.com slash fire to join Taylor's free training where he teaches you how to land a TEDx talk and spread your message to millions.