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Crippled CEO Blog #141:

Every business THINKS it wants new customers. 

And that’s partly true. Customers are important. 

But the truth is, if you really want to be a thriving, profitable enterprise, you don’t just need customers — you need clients.  

What’s the difference? 

A customer buys from you once. A client is an ongoing customer whom you are building a relationship with. 

And while this seems obvious, focusing on the wrong one creates different strategies with different goals. 

If you decide that your primary goal is to get new customers, you might end up with a case of “corporate schizophrenia” — a term coined by my business mentor and dad to describe something he found particularly irritating.  

Corporate schizophrenia, according to dad, is when a business works real hard to get new customers, but then treats them like garbage once they have them. It’s like the company has multiple personalities, thus the term. 

That’s what happens when you decide you are focusing on getting new customers — when the goals you decide on are all about new customer acquisition and those are the numbers you are tracking. That’s how you end up with corporate schizophrenia. 

However, if you also make a point to put plans and systems in place to turn customers into clients and then to focus on client retention, then you can avoid this tragic diagnosis. Last week I talked about allocating a good sized portion of your marketing budget to highlighting customers, celebrating them, and making others aspire to be them. When I spoke about this last week, the idea was that celebrating customers publicly was an excellent way to get more customers. This is also a good first step to turn them into clients, also (you can read last week’s blog for more on the specifics there). 

Beyond that, though, every business is different, but if you decide to make turning customers into clients and then keeping those clients a priority, you’ll start the process of finding the ways to do just that. 

(I’ll always be your mom’s #1 client. Your mom also gets a text from me every Sunday with a link to the latest blog post. Send a text to 561-726-1567 with the word CRIP as the message to get a link to the blog as soon as it’s up.

Did you know that I have a YouTube channel now? I do! I am putting up two videos every single week. Go search for Crippled CEO and you’ll find me. I would appreciate it if you subscribed.)

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Crippled CEO Blog #140:

Approximately 127 years ago, back when I used to go out to night clubs, all of the attention in the room would turn to the parade of sexy servers, proudly carrying a liquor bottle like a trophy with sparklers shooting out of it. Sometimes the DJ would make note of it, also, just in case anyone missed the display. We would all watch the customer, the hero of this performance, take possession of the bottle, and inevitably, it wouldn’t be long until someone else, wanting the same experience, ordered another, and another parade of ladies snaked through the club with the fireworks and liquor held high.

That same bottle could be purchased for $40 at the store, but the night club would sell it for $300. And they would sell a lot of them. 

Nobody is paying for the actual vodka. They are paying to be the subject of aspiration — to be, for a moment, the person everyone else wants to be.

I’ve seen the same idea employed at a charity gala. During the “call to giving“ after dinner, the MC called for donations, almost like an auction. The biggest donors were given this big glowing thing — praise and adulation heaped on them in front of everybody. Just like with the bottle, it wasn’t long until more people started raising their hands to give. 

We all know that we should market to get more customers (hopefully). However, I think you should be spending a good portion of your marketing budget finding ways to celebrate your existing customers. Not only do you make that customer much more loyal and increase the probability that they will turn from a customer into a client (more on that in next week‘s blog), but few things will get people to buy from you as successfully as making what you offer something to aspire to. And they’ll pay more for it, too — just like the people paying $300 for the $40 bottle of booze. 

Make a big deal out of a customer’s purchase. Ask to take a picture of them with whatever they’ve bought and post it on your socials. I’ve seen real estate agents and car dealerships do this, but it really could be anything. Maybe do a short video interview with your customer, asking them how they got to be so smart and amazing, and then post that. Maybe pick a customer of the week that you highlight publicly, talk about glowingly, and celebrate. 

Testimonials are great, but making people envy your customer for being your customer… that’s  even better.

(Happy Father’s Day! Thankfully, the only girl who calls me daddy is your mom. I’m happy to report that I’ve gotten through yet another Father’s Day with no surprise cards showing up in my mailbox. If things keep going well with your mom, maybe you’ll be getting me a card next year. Your mom also gets a text from me every Sunday with a link to the latest blog post. Send a text to 561-726-1567 with the word CRIP as the message to get a link to the blog as soon as it’s up.

Did you know that I have a YouTube channel now? I do! I am putting up two videos every single week. Go search for Crippled CEO and you’ll find me. I would appreciate it if you subscribed.)

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Crippled CEO Blog #139:

One of the major goals of the drowning prevention community is to dispel the misconception of what drowning looks like. Most people think that drowning looks like what we see on TV — arms flailing about, frantic splashing, and calling out for help. I (and others) call this the Bay Watch drowning and, like Pamela Anderson’s breasts, nothing is real about this depiction. 

The reality is that drowning doesn’t look like this at all. When someone starts to drown, an automatic reflex takes control of their body, and there’s nothing they can do about it. Typically, a drowning person will be just beneath the water, their eyes may look glossy, and their arms will either be out to the side or they will look like they are trying to climb an invisible ladder under the water. Because the body is focused on trying to breathe, they are physically incapable of calling out for help. Drowning is actually silent. There is no splashing, flailing, or yelling. In fact, this drowning reflex is so strong, that one way to tell if somebody is drowning is by noticing that their hair is in their face. Nobody likes their wet hair in their face, so if somebody is fine, they will just move it out of the way. However, if somebody is drowning, they can’t do this; so, if you see someone just beneath the surface with their hair in their face, you need to take action — they might be drowning. 

Just like there are nonobvious signs that somebody is drowning, there are also nonobvious signs your business is in trouble. Here are four canaries in the coal mine that are easier to miss.

1) More and more “crazy“ or “unreasonable“ dissatisfied customers. Every now and then, you are going to get someone who is nuts and cannot be made happy. These exist. However, if you find yourself starting to describe a growing percentage of your customers this way, that is a sign of trouble. Either you are getting burnt out and starting to resent your customers, a drop in quality is making more people upset, or — and this is the most likely — a combination of both. We briefly used a company whose products started breaking, sometimes as soon as the customer started using them, and other times just during the shipping process. Over and over, the owner of this business said the issue was user error. He thought customers were installing them wrong. Oddly enough, this “user error“ wasn’t an issue for the competing brand that we switched to. Low quality is a problem, but the inability to own it and take responsibility is an even bigger problem.

2) You lose more than one excellent employee in a short time span. Sometimes people choose to move on and it isn’t your fault, but if you have more than one GOOD person decide that they are better off somewhere else, that’s an issue. Your good employees are going to be the ones with the most opportunities trying to pull them away. They have options. Because of that, they will be the first to go if things seem to be headed in a bad direction, or changes have made them unhappy. An inability to retain top tier people is a very bad sign. To make matters worse, this can create a downward spiral. If problems in the business are making good people leave, then eventually, all you will have left are employees who can’t find another job. You are left with just crappy employees. This is going to make your problems even worse, making it even harder to keep good people — and good customers. 

We used to use this IT company for technical support. They were pretty solid, with a number of good technicians. They had one guy, though, who was awful. He was just the absolute worst. Something changed either in the business or with the owner, and from what I’ve been told, he started treating the staff really harshly. Eventually, the only employee he had left was the terrible one. Because he sucked, he didn’t have any other options, so he was more willing to put up with the abuse. It didn’t take long for us to switch to a different IT firm. I doubt we were the only one. We had been a customer for many years, and when we canceled our contract, no one ever even reached out to ask us why.

3) You have resorted to trying to be the cheapest. Some companies, like Walmart or Amazon, can succeed by always the being the lowest price, but chances are, that can’t work for you long term. The problem with making your low price your most salient benefit is not just that you are working with smaller margins, but you also don’t have any loyalty from your customers. If they can find it cheaper somewhere else, that’s where they’ll go. This creates a price war — a race to the bottom — and if you’re not careful, you might win. 

4) I’m going to touch on the most obvious signs in a moment, and one of them is definitely cash flow. If you don’t have the money to make payroll, pay rent, or pay suppliers on time, you know that you’re in trouble. A more subtle warning sign before your bank account is empty is this: if your bank account balances + your accounts receivable are lower than your payables, you are about to be in trouble. You need to start clearing inventory, trying to borrow money, and trading cash for pre-orders yesterday.

I don’t think I need to go over the obvious signs — you can’t pay your people/bills, unplanned, sharply declining revenues, ongoing negative profits, etc. If you’re not making payroll, you don’t need me to tell you things aren’t going well. 

But those are a few of the less obvious indicators that your business might be in trouble. If you can catch them early, you have a better chance of righting the ship before it’s too late. 

And now you also know what drowning looks like. That was just a free bonus. Just for you, no charge.

(Do you know who’s good at spotting red flags? Not your mom. Your mom also gets a text from me every Sunday with a link to the latest blog post. Send a text to 561-726-1567 with the word CRIP as the message to get a link to the blog as soon as it’s up.

Did you know that I have a YouTube channel now? I do! I am putting up two videos every single week. Go search for Crippled CEO and you’ll find me. I would appreciate it if you subscribed.)

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Crippled CEO Blog #138:

I think every small business should be posting on Facebook and Instagram, preferably at least once per day.

This is only helpful, however, if you are posting the right thing.

I see so many small businesses that treat their Facebook posts like ads in a newspaper or magazine. 

And that is fine occasionally, but it can’t be the majority of your output. 

Here is my mantra for posting to social media as a business: 

Be the show, not the commercial. 

Regardless of what you do, people are going to be more inclined to care about the “show” than your commercial. 

Think about it: you will tune out a 30 second commercial for a real estate broker or an interior designer, but these shows on HGTV get tons of people watching for a half hour at a time. 

You would fast forward through a commercial about a pawnshop, but Pawn Stars was a huge hit raking in millions of eye balls. 

Literally nobody wants to sit through a commercial for a venture capital investor, but Shark Tank is excellent TV.

I was asked once what the difference is, and my answer was short: intent. 

There are four kinds of content you can put out where you’re the show and not the commercial, and whichever you are doing, if your intention is correct, people will notice. 

So, what are the four kinds?

1) Educational content. If you own a business, you are an expert in something that other people need or care about. You have valuable insight that you can share. Share it. And share generously. Don’t worry about giving away what you think you’re selling. People will still end up hiring you. If you’re a web designer, and you give a step-by-step tutorial on how a company can build their first website, even though you just gave away all of the information so people could do it themselves, that tutorial is going to make them more likely to buy from you, not less. Knowing how to do something isn’t what’s stopping people — actually doing the work is. 

2) Document what’s going on in your business. Turn your company into a mini reality show and let people feel invested in being a part of the journey. Share the good, obviously, but don’t be afraid to share the bad, also. People who feel like they know your company and come along for the ride are going to refer you and be about as loyal as you can get.

3) Fun stuff. There isn’t much educational about filming your staff doing the latest TikTok dance, but it’s fun, people will like you more, and folks are more likely to buy from companies they like.

4) Curate other content. Being a source for things happening in your industry is a great way to provide value without having to actually create any original content. If you are an automotive repair shop, and your Facebook page always has all the latest and most interesting car news, that’s going to get people coming back while increasing your credibility. 

You don’t have to do all four of these. In fact, I would recommend focusing on one, maybe two, and then sprinkling in the others when the opportunity arises.

And that’s that. If you do this consistently, you’re going to do well on social media. Just take a step back every now and again and make sure that your content hasn’t drifted over into being a commercial, and you are still the show.

Welcome to show biz. 

(You know who put on one heck of a show last night? Your mom. Your mom also gets a text from me every Sunday with a link to the latest blog post. Send a text to 561-726-1567 with the word CRIP as the message to get a link to the blog as soon as it’s up.

Did you know that I have a YouTube channel now? I do! I am putting up two videos every single week. Go search for Crippled CEO and you’ll find me. I would appreciate it if you subscribed.)

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Crippled CEO Blog #137:

“No good deed goes unpunished.”

Various versions of that idiom have existed since Dante authored the original iteration in 1320. 

For over 900 years, that expression has been repeated. 

And I’m calling bullshit. 

I strongly believe that giving generously is good for you and your business. 

Good deeds, giving, and generosity is a huge part of Life Saver Pool Fence. Life Saver donates pool safety fencing to any family who has had a fatal or non-fatal drowning. 

The average pool fence costs around $2,000. 

When people come to us with their drowning story, we don’t verify it in any way.

We don’t double check it. 

We just give them the pool fence. 

I am certain that we have been ripped off a few times. I don’t know of any specific incidents, but it has to have happened, at some point. 

I’m okay with this. 

I would rather let a few people cheat us than ask a parent to prove that they had a tragedy, or a near tragedy.

We honor practically every warranty claim, even the ones we know are bologna. 

Life Saver donates to every drowning prevention nonprofit having any kind of event. And yeah, we usually get our logo up on a banner or something, but there are more efficient ways to spend those advertising dollars. The marketing isn’t the motivation — supporting the cause is. 

We also have a track record of doing some pretty amazing good deeds for our staff — it wouldn’t be right to detail them here. 

And anyone who knows me knows that I have a strong propensity for giving.

While I think it’s enough to do it because it’s the right thing to do, and your best bet is to not have any expectation when you do, the truth is that good deeds pay off. Yes, they do occasionally come back around and bite you — I’ve certainly had my fair share of that — but overall, you come out ahead. So, if you need some selfishness in your generosity, there you have it. You’ll get it back; I promise. 

It’s worked for me. It’s worked for my business. It’ll work but you, too. 

(Your mom was all about giving last night. Your mom also gets a text from me every Sunday with a link to the latest blog post. Send a text to 561-726-1567 with the word CRIP as the message to get a link to the blog as soon as it’s up.

Did you know that I have a YouTube channel now? I do! I am putting up two videos every single week. Go search for Crippled CEO and you’ll find me. I would appreciate it if you subscribed.)

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Crippled CEO Blog #136:

What would this look like if it was easy?

What would it look like if it was enjoyable?

How can I rig the game in my favor so it’s easier for me to win?

One of the superpowers you develop as a cripple is figuring out the optimal way to do something.

I have noticed that non-cripples will do things the harder way because it’ll end up working regardless, so they don’t really need to put thought into finding the easiest method.

But for me, the options are often the best way or no way at all. In lots of cases, the correct solution is also the only one that will work for me. Or, even if it’s not the only way, because I have so much else that I’m simultaneously dealing with, the easy way is much more important. So, I have gotten pretty good at finding these ideal ways of doing things, and the skill has grown beyond my personal needs and into my business. 

Let me give you some examples, though. 

I just started creating videos for YouTube and Facebook (you can find them if you search for Crippled CEO on YouTube). 

Even though it’s probably not the most aesthetic background, I shoot them in my office, because we already have the camera stuff in there for Jeopardy, and I have Mike there to help me. I record two videos back to back every Wednesday so we don’t have to get everything set up and taken down multiple times per week. 

My friend Marc Shapins is a great video editor. I don’t know much about editing, but I do know him, and I can afford to pay him to edit these for me each week.

This whole process is designed not only to be easy, but to take advantage of the resources I do have to get it done. I could try doing this by myself, at home, in front of my WebCam, or trying to get a friend help me, and then try to do all the editing myself — but those videos probably aren’t getting made if I went that route.

I have figured out that I like doing things with other people so much that I am totally fine doing things I otherwise wouldn’t like as long as I’m doing it with another person. This is why I saw the Batman three times in the theater.

So, I’ve used this to my advantage, and now as much as humanly possible, from checking emails to taking my vitamins to going over marketing analytics, I try to do these things with another person. This requires some self-awareness, but I’ve used this thing I’ve learned about myself to hack getting things done.

Life Saver Pool Fence’s uber busy season is from March through July. Historically, we had inventory projection systems in place where we tried our best to anticipate demands for all of our various product lines, analyze the leadtimes for all of the various components, and hopefully have everything we need for the upcoming month or two on time or a little bit early. We had carefully mapped out schedules where materials were supposed to arrive week after week, getting here just in time as we needed them. Unfortunately, real life would inevitably happen, and even though we would try to build in buffers and safeguards, inaccurate projections, shortages, delays, etc. would throw things out of whack, and like dominoes tipping each other over, one problem caused another, and the result would always be a season where we were struggling to keep up with the demand.

A few years back, I asked, “What would this look like if it was easy?“

I decided we would try to figure out what we were going to need for the entire season, and then just get all of it before March. No coordinated shipments. No special timing. We were just going to get all of it, and if we figured out we were wrong about something, then we would have extra time to adjust and bring in more.

It took us a couple years to get this dialed in and really go all in with it, but now we have, and we do have other problems — mainly storage — but one problem we don’t have is keeping up with demand. We don’t have the long lead times this year that we have had almost every summer for the last 30 years. The easy way was the best way. 

You don’t have to be crippled, though. Tim Ferriss believes that the question, “What would this look like if it was easy?“ is a big part of the reason for his success. It often might seem easier to just get it done, but imagining how you might do it if you were disabled, if it HAD to be easy, might give you some revelations that you didn’t expect.

(Your mom was extra easy last night. Your mom also gets a text from me every Sunday with a link to the latest blog post. Send a text to 561-726-1567 with the word CRIP as the message to get a link to the blog as soon as it’s up.

Did you know that I have a YouTube channel now? I do! I am putting up two videos every single week. Go search for Crippled CEO and you’ll find me. I would appreciate it if you subscribed.)

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Crippled CEO Blog #135:

I think you should play board games, or as us aficionados call them, table top games.

And not just because they’re fun and I’m trying to evangelize you to my hobby.

But because I think they are important for your friendships.

People have this idea that they just keep friends just by continuing to know them.

But I have this theory that friendships require scaffolding, they require a framework to be built upon.

It is why we have such an easy time making friends in our school years. We have this thing we do every day that we have to do with a bunch of other people.

It’s why we make friends at work.

And it’s probably the biggest reason why churches are so successful.

Friendships require a scaffolding, and at least for me, tabletop games are a great one. I probably wouldn’t have the closeness I have with my game night crew if it wasn’t for game night.

And there are games out there for everybody. From simple to complex, from silly and physical to serious and cerebral, I promise there are games out there that you will like.

If you’re having terrible memories of playing Monopoly or Risk right now, let me help you: those are terrible games. Way better games have been created.

Here are some of my favorites that I think are great for people to start with:

Lords of Waterdeep

Ticket to Ride

Settlers of Catan

Tsuro

Takaido

Mysterium

7 Wonders

Dominions

Citadel

Dixit 

One Night Ultimate Werewolf

So, that’s it. Play tabletop games if you like having excellent friendships. Or pick some other scaffolding that works for you. Maybe you prefer to start a band or a dance group or something. This is just what has worked for me, and I’m really glad that I’ve done it.

(Do you know who enjoyed playing games with me last night? Your mom. Your mom also gets a text from me every Sunday with a link to the latest blog post. Send a text to 561-726-1567 with the word CRIP as the message to get a link to the blog as soon as it’s up.

Did you know that I have a YouTube channel now? I do! I am putting up two videos every single week. Go search for Crippled CEO and you’ll find me. I would appreciate it if you subscribed.)

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Crippled CEO Blog #134:

My mom died way too young in 2011.

I was 28 years old. 

Today is Mother’s Day. I had another blog post all ready to go today, but I decided to save it for next week because I think this is important.

If you’re on good terms with your mom, call her, spend time with her, try and go a little bit extra out of your way to really savor and appreciate the time you have with her. You only have so many of these Mother’s Days left. If she is 65 years old, you probably only have 10 or 15, more if you’re lucky, and then that’s it. That’s not a lot. 

If your mom is toxic and abusive, then keep her out of your life, but if you’re not on good terms, and she’s not THAT bad, do the really hard thing, reach out, and try to extend an olive branch today. You will regret it later if you don’t. I promise.

That’s it. Just a plea asking you to put a little more oomph into loving your mom today from someone who wishes he could. 

(My mom is dead, but yours still wants me to call her, though usually it’s late at night. Your mom also gets a text from me every Sunday with a link to the latest blog post. Send a text to 561-726-1567 with the word CRIP as the message to get a link to the blog as soon as it’s up.

Did you know that I have a YouTube channel now? I do! I am putting up two videos every single week. Go search for Crippled CEO and you’ll find me. I would appreciate it if you subscribed.)

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Crippled CEO Blog #133:

Hi. I’m Eric. And I’m addicted to debates. 

I’m currently in remission. I used to argue and debate with people constantly. I’m doing a lot better.

The main reason is because I learned something through my years of arguing with people.

It is impossible to change someone’s mind in an argument or debate.

It doesn’t matter how smart you are, how right you are, or how obvious it seems to you, if you’re in an argument with somebody, it is literally impossible to get them to change their mind.

Because once it has become an argument or a debate, once the goal is to win and avoid losing, it is now also a competition — and nobody wants to lose a competition. No one wants to be a loser.

Also, there’s this proven psychological phenomenon called the backfire effect. When you argue with somebody, you make their brain come up with new reasons why they are correct, and the end result is that they now believe whatever it was you were trying to talk them out of even harder.

The end result of all of this? You can’t win an argument — not if winning means changing somebody’s mind. 

So, how do we persuade people to change their mind?

In my experience, there are three tools that can help. 

Before we get to those tools, it is important that the conversation is in a place where you can use them. Each one requires that everybody is happy and getting along, though. If you slide into debate mode, it’s over. Give up for now. Decide to try again later. 

There are a couple tactics that I learned from the book on negotiating, “Never Split the Difference”, that work well to keep things from becoming an argument. 

The first is mirroring. It feels silly doing it, but I promise that people don’t notice, and it works oddly well. Mirroring is simply repeating back the last few words that somebody said and posing them as a question. You’re not calling them wrong. You’re not changing their mind. You’re just repeating back what they say.

“Tiger Woods is the most dominant athlete in history of all sports.”

“Of all sports?”

The second tactic is labeling. 

Labeling is summarizing what you think the other person believes and feels as honestly and accurately as possible — in a way that they will agree with. Labeling is NOT twisting their position into a straw man that you can tear down. 

“It seems like you are saying that Tiger Woods won more championships by a larger margin than any other athlete in history.”

With mirroring and labeling, you can keep the conversation going without it becoming a debate. Because remember, once it becomes a debate, that’s game over. That means you have to stop trying.

So, now that you’re in a place that’s not an argument or a debate, here are the three tools I found that work best for actually changing people’s minds.

The first is humor. If you can get somebody to laugh at their own belief, you’re winning. Comedians do a great job of making us think differently about a topic by conveying it in a humorous fashion. Comedy works, but this is probably the hardest of the three.

Second: tell a story. Stories are excellent ways of teaching and persuading. Stories take ideas out of the realm of fact and they bring them to life. Also, stories aren’t arguments or debates. You’re just telling a story, either from your own life, or somebody else’s. 

Third: demonstrate. And I don’t mean demonstrate with facts and figures. Get your hands involved. Use pencil and paper and sketch out what you mean. Get in the car and go drive to an example of what you’re saying. Run through an example and let them see it for themselves. 

Those are the three methods that I’ve found work best for persuading somebody to change their mind. Typically, just choosing one that best fits the scenario you are in is plenty, but if you can incorporate two or even all three, all the better.

And please, stop debating with people. You’ll never win. I was the worst of anybody, and it cost me a lot. If I can stop, I know you can, too.

(Do you know who doesn’t need any persuading? Your mom. Your mom also gets a text from me every Sunday with a link to the latest blog post. Send a text to 561-726-1567 with the word CRIP as the message to get a link to the blog as soon as it’s up.)

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Crippled CEO Blog #132:

I fantasize about acquiring specific dream coworkers. 

I know. That’s a weird kink. But this is a judgment free zone, okay?

Plus, it’s worked out pretty dang well for me. 

I think this unique fantasy is a big part of Life Saver’s success, because time after time, I’ve managed to turn these fantasies into reality — but the dream had to come first. The fantasizing was a critical first step. 

Mostly, these fantasy people are friends of mine — specific friends. I have friends who I like to hang out with a lot, but who I wouldn’t hire even if you threatened to put a scotch bonnet in my mouth. 

Other times, they are colleagues.

This has happened so many times now that I have to recognize it as a key part of the process for making my businesses successful. 

Kate Mottram will celebrate her 10th year at Life Saver in September. She started out as an office assistant making $14 an hour, moved up to Logistics Manager, and is now the Vice President of Wholesale Distribution. And even though this September will be her 10 year anniversary, I was envisioning her path 11 years ago. 

Now, I’m not going to say that I fully predicted how far she’d come and exactly how she’d get there, but Kate and I were friends for several years before her first day at Life Saver HQ. And at some point, I started thinking how amazing she would be, and the limitless potential for her growth. I knew how great it could be for us, but also for her. And so, when she started expressing some dissatisfaction with her employer at the time, because I’d already been having this fantasy, I was immediately ready to suggest she switch to saving lives. Because I had played it through in my mind so many times, I was confident when I told her that I thought she could be happy and do well. And 10 years later, here we are. 

I’ve known Casey Buckley since we were three or four years old. And while he was running his commercial plumbing business, I often had the thought that he would make the perfect Life Saver Pool Fence dealer. It was so obvious to me. He had all the right traits and skills. So, when he sold that plumbing business and was deciding what to do next, I already knew what he should do. And because I had been thinking about it for so long, I acted quickly, before he went too far down another path. 6 or so years later, and Casey sells more Life Saver Pool Fence than any other dealer in the world — more than the other 90 dealers in most of the major cities in the United States and in 15 other countries spanning five continents.

When Mike and Molly McGahee lived in Chicago, I would imagine that we would be big enough one day that I could hire Mike as my right hand man, acting as a springboard for ideas and helping me execute on all of the things I wanted to do, while simultaneously tackling his own projects, and Molly as our accountant, a role we never officially had before. I literally played out this fantasy for YEARS. One day, Mike calls and tells me that they are moving back to Florida and when I asked him what he was going to do for work, he wasn’t sure — I, however, was very sure. Just like with Casey and Kate, I laid out my vision for him, and for the last 3.5 years, Mike has sat next to me in my office every day. And his wife, Molly, did eventually come on board to be our first full-time accountant, just like I’d envisioned. 

I met Michael Doscher when he was referred to me because I needed someone to hang up a TV in my living room. After that, I contracted him to start doing projects around my house. I knew right away that he would be a great addition. And just like with Mike and Kate, I wasn’t quite sure what exactly he would do. I just knew, that like them, if I brought him on, good things would happen. Unlike the rest, though, Doscher was really happy with his job, but you can’t fight destiny or a dream. Michael Doscher is currently killing it as our Operations Manager. 

All of this leads to the most recent one, which is what gave me the idea to write this. He starts next Monday, and I don’t know who he has told yet, so I will maintain his privacy, but there has been an exemplary gentleman who has been my account manager for years. He was so good there that when he switched to a competing company, I immediately switched as well, without hesitation. I’ve never encountered someone so amazing at high-level customer service. For ages, Mike and I have discussed how incredible it would be to somehow have him work at Life Saver in some capacity one day. A few weeks ago, when he told me that he was leaving his job and hadn’t lined up his next one yet, I immediately suggested that he should join our team, even though it is a totally different industry and I wasn’t 100% sure what his job would be — and he agreed. Just like before, I just know that if you bring on great people then great things happen. Since then, I have a clearer picture of what I imagine he’ll be doing, but I have no doubt that will evolve. 

A cool thing has happened, also — this practice has begun to spread. Kate was able to recruit two amazing people she knew would do incredible work, in a really similar fashion to how I did the others. 

But there are two lessons here. One is having crazy dreams and fantasies about what you want has a purpose, and that purpose is that you don’t hesitate to grab the opportunity to make it come true when it presents itself. You don’t have to stop and think about it because you’ve been thinking about it for a long, long time. You just get to act, and there’s an advantage to being first, or at least being fast. Things are a lot easier when you’re at the front of the line.

The other lesson is that having a great team creates greatness. It is better to have a mediocre idea with a great team than a great idea with a mediocre team. My friend in a rock band once said, “if Jimi Hendrix wants to join your band, you find a place for him.“ If you have the chance to get a superstar, even if you don’t exactly have a specific role for her to fill, just hire her. Superstars will help you figure it out. It’ll work out, I promise.

(Do you know who was a star player on my team last night? Your mom. Your mom also gets a text from me every Sunday with a link to the latest blog post. Send a text to 561-726-1567 with the word CRIP as the message to get a link to the blog as soon as it’s up.)

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