The Importance of the Power of People and Technology Combined, Especially in this AI Era with Brett Beveridge

0:01Light that spark 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 Billion Dollar Moves. Today, we'll be breaking down the importance of the power of people and technology combined, especially in this AI era. To drop these value bombs, I brought Brett Beverage into EO Fire Studios. Brett is the founder and CEO of the revenue optimization companies, T-Rock, serving Fortune 500 companies. He is also a Forbes book author and a full feature indie movie producer. He was recognized as a 2021 Ultimate CEO by the South Florida Business Journal and has been included in Florida Trend's Most Influential Business Leaders multiple years in a row.

0:44And today at Foundation, we will be talking about being better, smarter, and faster with outsourcing. We'll talk about the importance of the AI era, how to find and keep the right talent, and so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Brett and our sponsors. 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.

1:18Listen to Hustle and Flowchart wherever you get your podcasts. If you're ready for the internet's best converting checkout, then Shopify is up to 36 % better compared to other leading commerce platforms. Sign up for a$1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash onfire, all lowercase. Go to shopify.com slash onfire now to take your business to new heights. Brett, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Sticking to the original plan is the opposite of what has led to my success over time. Not to say that you don't have to have a well-thought-out plan and identify a business opportunity and feel like you have the solution to that business problem, but being willing and able to ebb and flow and move through that process and be able to augment your plan is very, very, very important and allows you to evolve as an entrepreneur and evolve as a company.

2:28Brett, the title of today's episode is The Importance of the Power of People and Technology Combined, Especially in this AI Era. What does this mean to you? Today's world, companies have to always be optimizing. They can never, there is no such thing as set it and forget it, right? There's no such thing as you can just allow something that you built in the past to take you where you want to go into the future. it. So companies should always be optimizing. It never ends. And optimization and transformation come from the top down, but also from the bottom up. It forces you to listen to your people, your employees at all levels of the organization.

3:12And it's mission critical for them to participate in the future of your business, because without them, and they're closer to you in most cases, to what's really happening out there in the real world, you're going to find yourself behind the eight ball. So I would say companies need to be clear on what they want. They need to be clear on where they are now. And they need to, most importantly, understand that gap. And then they need to build a detailed plan to get them where they want to go. And that's where kind of the technology and the people come into play. You use the word optimize. I want to talk about another O word, outsourcing, because you believe that outsourcing is the best way to maximize and optimize our business.

4:01Let's talk about a couple real world examples of this. First of all, the name of our company is T-Rock, which is really short for the revenue optimization company. So this is really appropriate for us today, John. T-Rock sounds cooler. So we use we go by the name of T-Rock for that very reason. But the business basically specializes in outsourcing. So I'll just give some general kind of rules of thumb and hopefully you'll allow me to give a handful of tips for people that are considering whether outsourcing is right for them or not. First and foremost, I would say you should never outsource anything that is core to your business, right?

4:44Anything that your business is the critical area of your business that you must own in order to operate efficiently. So an example, efficiently, excuse me, an example of that would be your technology. So let's say you have, that everyone will understand, you have an app and your app is what drives your revenue. Your app is what drives your brand. Your app is what drives your complete company ecosystem. You should never outsource that to a third party. You should own that. But if there are components of your business or your app that someone else can do better, smarter, faster, cheaper than you can, and it's not core to your business, you should always outsource that.

5:35Give us another real world example of something that you did in this area recently that you're like, I'm really glad I outsource this. We represent one of the largest, if not the largest retailer in the world. They're a customer. Our customers are typically Fortune 50 customers. And this particular retailer is amazing at putting products on shelves that people want to come in and buy that require little or no education. The same company also is dedicated to providing great customer service for customers looking for more complicated products and services like electronics, for example. And this particular retailer has an electronics department.

6:18So when people are wandering through this retailer and they're looking for a TV or they're looking for a wireless phone or things that require more of consultation and more of a prescriptive solution to make sure that customer is getting what's right for them, that's where it's really smart and wise for that retailer to outsource that to us. So an example would be you walk through that retailer, you go up to an electronics department looking for a wireless phone. we would engage you. So it would be my W2 employees instead of that retailers. We are fully trained. We are fully motivated and we're experts in the wireless phone arena.

6:59So when people come up to us, we're going to identify their needs. We're going to present products that meet their needs. We're going to show them the different options of phones and manufacturers and colors and storage and memory and speed. And we're going to match that to whatever carrier they're interested in, whether it be the carrier that they're currently embraced with, or maybe it's considering moving to another carrier. We activate that customer and we ring that retailer's register. And that leaves the customer feeling extraordinarily happy that they got this unexpected engagement with someone at this retailer that's not known for providing that kind of customer service.

7:41What are the results? Well, the results are 10x, and in some cases, much more of what that store was doing before they decided to outsource this particular task to a third party. Fire Nation, interesting stuff, outsourcing, optimizing. And you believe for sure that if someone can do it better, smarter, faster, and maybe even cheaper, then it needs to be outsourced. Can you expound upon on this theory? So I just gave you an example of one area where that particular retailer is not good at consultative sales. So that's an example where they really aren't proficient at doing that. So to outsource that to someone who can do it better, which in this case, T-Rock can, smarter, faster, and in this case, less money, it's an obvious choice for that customer.

8:33So when you're thinking about, there's another company, it's a fruit company, you would know, a very large fruit company that also was looking to have their products represented properly in secondary and tertiary markets around the country. So we became T-Rock employees, T-Rock W-2 employees, became masters at this particular product and would build a national team that would go visit secondary and tertiary markets where this product is sold and ensure that the salespeople in those stores were really proficient and had a great understanding of why this particular product is better than their competition.

9:15So we're about building market share, building relationships and maximizing market share. And in that case, that particular company told us that for every dollar they invested in us, they got a$17 return. I'm not saying this to pat ourselves on the back. I'm just trying to provide examples of how outsourcing can dramatically affect your business. Now, There are pros and cons to outsourcing. Some of the pros is specialization. If you find the right outsourcing partner, and that's the caveat throughout all of this, they're going to have best practices in this space that you're with a particular task you're outsourcing.

9:57They're going to do this all day, every day. They're going to know exactly what works. They're going to know what doesn't work. They're also going to be attuned to the least, you know, the most aggressive and cutting edge, you know, exposure to what you're trying to have done the most effectively. They can provide you with economies of scale that business might be built around this particular task or set of tasks. So they already have leadership. They have training. They have development. They have hiring, recruiting, marketing. All of those ingredients already built into their business that you can tap into without trying to rebuild that yourself.

10:33There's also a huge con, a huge pro, is ease of onboarding and offboarding. If you have the right relationship with your outsourced partner, you're able to ebb and flow. You're able to add people as you need them and take people away when you don't. Think of seasonal sales for a retailer. Right. Think of October, November, December. You want to ramp up your sales staff to be able to accommodate the increased traffic. But come January, February, you want to be able to bring that down to normal steady state. There are some cons, too. And any good relationship addresses these cons. But some feel like they lose control and they lose some flexibility and some accountability.

11:21So if you don't have the right agreement and the right relationship in place with your outsourced partner, you're at risk of losing some control over the activities or how your brand is represented. So big, big, big, big focus on making sure you have a lot of clarity in your relationship to address that. I think this is important stuff because people really approach these relationships very casually at times. And you can really get hurt as a result, Fire Nation. So take a lot of this to heart because there's so much gold within. And we have a lot more to talk about with AI, talent, and more when we get back from thinking our sponsors.

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15:13So can we really dive into that specific topic? Every company knows that it's all about their people. And without attracting and maintaining and retaining the best people, you're nowhere in your business. Let's just be real. So how do you attract the right talent? You do that by becoming a really great place to work. You do that by making sure you have a strong company culture. These are table stakes, right, before we get to the technology. You make sure that your company can provide career pathing and growth opportunities, flexibility where necessary. And then, of course, there are the benefits, the soft benefits like ETO or working remote as needed from time to time, and other discounts on products and services because they're employed with their company.

15:57Recognition, contest, all those things are table stakes. How do you incorporate technology to help you shoot with a rifle instead of a shotgun? Well, you start to understand who your A players are through AI technology. What are their personality indexes? How do they behave? A players really love A players, so they want to be around them. So you want to take your best performers and you want to get people and attract people that are as closely related to those people as possible. AI can help you do that. There's not one way to get a thousand employees. There's a thousand ways to get one employee.

16:37Now, I do want to dive deeper into the talent thing because you did bring that up. And I do know that my audience struggles with attracting the right talent. How do we do that? So you do that through what I just mentioned. You want to first understand who you're trying to attract. And if you're a company that has one product or service to sell, that's a little bit less difficult than if you're a company that has multiple products or multiple programs with multiple customers involved. So identifying what does good look like with the employee you're trying to attract is very important. You got to be very clear on that.

17:16And everything from the wording of that job advertisement, which could come in the form of chat, I can say that way more eloquently than many people can write on their own, making sure that that first impression and that job ad is accurate, but it's also compelling. And then the entire process all the way through from how they apply, how fast they're responded to, what those responses are, what does the interview process look like, how are they being interviewed, how are they being spoken with and nurtured between the time they accept the offer and when they start their first day of training, how they're trained, what they're trained on specifically.

18:03Does that match what their job ad said all the way through to the day that they're hired? And then at least for three months after, you have to stay very close to those employees. AI comes in because not only is it helping you identify what employees are perfect, potential candidates are perfect for the particular role you're looking for, but it can also predict when people are unhappy that are already employed with your company. The way that they interact, the emails that they write, conversations that they have all indicate their level of happiness. So AI is mission critical in the future from the time they see your job ad all the way through until the time they've been an employee with you for one year, three years, five years or beyond.

18:46Now we've touched upon this, but I really want to go a little bit deeper because let's say you do all the things right that you've talked about. I mean, you've really attracted the right talent. You've done an incredible onboarding process. You've trained them. They're the right person for the right job in the right place. But then retaining, it can be so hard because now they're like this incredibly valuable commodity for your competitors to poach and to snatch. So how do you really retain this top talent above what you've just shared? A relationship is key. Speaking with your talent and your employees, understanding what their wants and needs are.

19:27What are they looking to do in six months or a year or three years or five years? Is the current company the place for them to be able to achieve those goals and being open and honest about maybe it's not. Maybe you would be better served in another environment and not begrudging the employee for wanting to take that next step in their career or take another career path. We encourage side hustles, for example. So you might be an artist, but you're working with us to make a good amount of compensation and to be able to support your creative brain. We would say, please allow us. We're going to commission you to make a piece of art for our corporate office.

20:08We're going to pay you for that. Are you a rapper? Please, we're going to pay you to create a rap song for T-Rock. So encourage their entrepreneurial spirit. and support their charities, right? You also, people want to work for a company that they have a purpose and core values that they believe in. So if they don't believe in your core values, they're not going to make it long-term in your company. So that kind of alignment and that kind of ongoing relationship building is just an absolute must if you're going to maintain A players long-term. Brett, you shared a lot of gold today, but if you wanted our listeners, Fire Nation to walk away with one value bomb, with one piece of knowledge, what would that be?

20:54Spend time, no matter where you are with your business, whether you are a company that isn't even formed yet and you're looking to start your own business or you're a company that has 10 ,000 or 100 ,000 employees, spend the time taking your core business down to the studs, along with your senior leadership team and the right people throughout your organization to make sure that everyone is aligned with what your goals and objectives are. And build a one, three, five-year plan to get you to your goals, but make sure you remain flexible and you remain ear close to the ground on what's happening in your industry and what's happening in your own company to get you where you want to go.

21:40And if you do that and you have the resource, and you have the energy and you have the passion, you will be successful. Fire Nation knows that they are the average of the five people they spend the most time with. And they've been hanging out with BB, you, and me, JLD, today. So Fire Nation, keep up that heat. And for links to everything we talked about, just visit eofire.com, type Brett in the search bar. The show notes page are going to pop right up. But Brett, if Fire Nation wants to directly connect with you, wants to learn more from you, what is your call to action for our listeners today?

22:09If there's anyone out there that's looking to understand if outsourcing is right for them, if there's anyone out there looking to understand how artificial intelligence and a lot of other technologies we didn't talk about are right for their business, please reach out to us. You can find us at TROC, T-R-O-C, global.com. You can find me on LinkedIn at Brett Beveridge. And you can also go to VEBAconnect.com, which is our virtual interactive technologies to answer any questions that you may have. But I would look forward to a conversation to help anyone any way we can. Brett, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation.

22:48For that, we salute you, brother, and we'll catch you on the flip side. Thank you, John. Hey, a big thank you to Brett and our sponsors for sponsoring today's episode and Fire Nation. If you want a podcast and you want to learn how to do it for free, I have a free course for you. Freepodcastcourse.com. Freepodcastcourse.com. Check it out. I'll see you there. We're on the 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.

23:25A recent episode on using AI for effortless content creation is a must-listen. Listen to Hustle & Flowchart wherever you get your podcasts. If you're ready for the internet's best converting checkout, then Shopify is up to 36 % better compared to other leading commerce platforms. Sign up for a$1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash onfire, all lowercase. go to shopify.com slash onfire now to take your business to new heights.