Daryl Dixon - How to Build a Great Team
In this Inaugural second episode, Lee interviews Daryl Dixon, CEO of VALiNTRY360. They discuss how to think about building a great team that will impact growth for long term sustainability. Daryl has a robust background in building and managing teams over his two decades of entrepreneurship and previous executive roles at enterprise level companies. Have a guest recommendation, a question or just want to connect? Go here: https://www.harvardmurray.com/explori...
Connect with Daryl Dixon --
Lee Murray (00:00):
Welcome to the second episode of exploring growth podcast. I'm very glad that you're here today. I'm talking about building great teams with very successful business owners, CEO, Daryl Dixon of ball tree three 16. Let's get into it. Hey Daryl. Thanks for joining.
Daryl Dixon (00:18):
Happy to be here.
Lee Murray (00:21):
I'm really excited about having you on today because, we've known each other for a long time, and I know that you love building great teams and, team building teams and finding good people is what I want to talk about today. So really quickly, let me introduce you to the audience. Kind of in my own terms. So, Daryl Dixon CEO at Valintry 360 and has been a family friend for many years. In fact, that's how we met through a family connection. Daryl has been a mentor to me when I was getting started in my business. Now almost a decade ago, has helped me think through how to think like a business owner, which has been just super helpful. learned a lot of things from him and it's, and been my experience that, you know, Daryl does a lot of behind the scenes kind of things to help people, just because he genuinely cares about people like mentoring me, right.
Lee Murray (01:16):
He generally cares about people and seeing people succeed, which means he's great at building teams. Right. <laugh> , and, I know that in, you know, if we look back at Daryl's career was a long, long term, career as an executive in the healthcare industry over the last decade, became an entrepreneur starting and successfully selling one of his companies to only roll right into starting his second company, which is now Valintry 360, which we talked about a little bit today where he's a CEO. but the reason I decided to bring him on today is because, I've had the good fortune of watching him and a lot of his team behind the scenes grow Valintry. And, I've learned a lot about how to approach finding great team players and building up amazing teams, and that he has a unique vantage point because what they offer as a service, or maybe we should say as a solution, is, actually placing talented technical professions, right. Professionals in there and leadership roles. so, I'm really excited to have you here Daryl, to give our listeners context to some of the ideas that you're going to talk to us about today. And we'll hear from you, give us a short version of kind of where you came from and what you're doing today with Valintry 360.
Daryl Dixon (02:35):
Okay, well, thank you for having me Lee. the, as you said, early in my career, I spent, time with, some large companies, as a healthcare executive. actually, the first 20 years of my career, the last 25 years, I've been an entrepreneur. And so, and that's been affiliated with two companies. So, I like to think that I have, the perspective of both an independent entrepreneur, as well as, some understanding of what goes on inside corporate America. but I've clearly enjoyed being an entrepreneur more than I enjoyed being a, a corporate executive. So, , so, the latest venture that we're involved with is a Salesforce consulting business called Valintry 360, integrated into our consulting practice is a technology staffing business that, when we finish a project, typically a Salesforce project, if the client wants to operate their own internal organization, we're able to supply that staff and, and identify what their needs are and put them on their way so that they're independent and, to be able to operate their Salesforce instant, effectively, on a going forward basis.
Daryl Dixon (03:46):
And so, we're growing that business and that's what I'm involved in.
Lee Murray (03:51):
That's amazing. And I think a unique thing in the market too, because I, I talk to a lot of, different vendors and, you know, marketing automation platforms and sales automation. And I talk to a lot of Salesforce people too. And it seems like there are a lot of people out there that can help with the Salesforce side and in one form or another, whether it's the community aspect, or just, getting set up or building in other APIs. And you guys have a unique function in that. You're actually integrating it inside their team, which is very integral to, to growth, right? It's not just providing this sort of cold, outside expertise that is once you're done, then you're done. it seems like you would have a, a much closer, connection with your clients in that way.
Daryl Dixon (04:41):
Well, it's interesting that you say that because it actually is one of our differentiators, one of the biggest differentiators is we actually start with the business process, typically sales and marketing. And we docent that process. We streamline that process before we ever think about, applying Salesforce, which is the technology support and solution to the process that's defined. And so, we don't start with Salesforce as a solution. We start Salesforce is really just the means. the ends is what's actually defined as a new efficient sales process, which leads to much more happy employees, much more efficient employees, because they're not doing work arounds or silly things to, work around the system because the system hasn't stayed up with, the current business processes. So that's one of the number one reasons that we're called in and what we're involved in.
Lee Murray (05:37):
Yeah. That, makes, perfect sense. And I see, I see that a lot and it seems like the common denominator for problems inside of an organization from a sales and marketing standpoint is the team, right. And so, getting in there and getting your hands dirty, and setting the, the strategy in place, but the system with to how that they're going to operate and then actually being able to, speak that technical language and install that system on the back end to support them, is huge. I mean, there there's value on every side of that.
Daryl Dixon (06:11):
It really, it makes the difference. It makes a huge difference in terms of the company's success and scaling, and becoming, more profitable, increased sales and of course, more success.
Lee Murray (06:25):
Yeah, that's right. so I have some questions that I prepared for you and, we'll see where this goes. I just want to have a kind of an open conversation, because I know you have, a breadth of expertise when it comes to team building. And so, I'm going to, you know, feel free to take this and run with it, rabbit trails and all, you know, we want to add as much value to our audience as possible. So, let's start kind of like macro long term, thinking if a, company's thinking about, how team building, you know, factors into their long-term growth, why is team building, you know, building great teams? Why is that important for growth?
Daryl Dixon (07:03):
Well, in, in my opinion, relationships determine results. And so, those relationships are really key to relationship with clients, relationship with team members, relationship with peers, relationships with regulatory bodies, relationship with vendors and consultants. And so, it, it really starts with those relationships. And so, the core of those relationships is trust. so do what you say. You're going to do say what you're going to do and do what you say you did or are going to do and do it, that doesn't exist a lot in this day and age. And it's interesting that it really becomes a quick differentiator, in terms of people knowing about your company, wanting to use your company. And it's really a quarter stone to one of our growth strategies and that's to land and expand. so, where if we're able to get a toehold in terms of a small project and then expand to others, that's really based on relationships, which are based on trust. And for that to be able to extend to, team members besides just the core group of founders, you've got to very carefully select those team members that have aligned values, aligned values to you individually and, and very importantly aligned values to the values you've established for your organization.
Lee Murray (08:30):
Most definitely. I love that, land and expand. There's so much that you can take from that, at really at any place that you're at on that, that journey of growth. because I think there's a lot of companies that are in a place where they have a good book of business and the business is coming in, but they're not expanding. Right. so, you know, I don't know. I think that people, when they hear that going to think they're going to hear it in different ways. That's I like that a lot, you know, some something that is, that stood out to me, just in terms of like key team members as you're growing is, and I've noticed this as I'm working with clients, when they have a very standout COO it's and out COO, it seems like the company typically grows a lot more effectively.
Lee Murray (09:22):
And my it's been my experience when I see, a standout COO, is, is someone who is again, team oriented. They're bringing everyone together. They're, they're, they're overseeing lots of different, departments and projects within those, those departments. And they have to be a good team player. Right. And so, I'm kind of interested to know like where you come from on that side. when you, when you look at a company what's that key person or a role that really can make or break a great team.
Daryl Dixon (09:59):
Okay. Well, it's, it's actually the way I, first of all, I totally agree with what you just said as far as the COO typically. but it really ties back to two people, in my opinion, and early on small companies, the, the primary founder generally has to play both these roles, but it's rare that they're actually good at both these roles. And that is, we're a we're we use the, the book and the process, entrepreneurial operating system from the book traction by Gina Wickman mm-hmm <affirmative>, and he talks about they're having to be a visionary and they're having to be an implementer. the COO that you just described is the implementer. And so, he's got to glue the team together, or she, she's got to glue the team together. she's involved in selecting the team. a lot of times that COO is, trying to keep up with the CEO.
Daryl Dixon (10:52):
Who's a visionary, maybe not focused on the details. but that COO has to be focused on the details and what's really, an art to a successful COO in my opinion, is building the concept of, being a leader, more so, being a leader first and a team member second. And so, mm-hmm, <affirmative> creating that sense of culture, that sense of value, that sense of trust, the sense of, feeling safe and wanting to go to work really falls on the implementer's shoulders. It also, the implementer also can be the bad guy. He has to be the bad guy, or she has to be the bad guy. perhaps if somebody's not on the right seat on the bus or they shouldn't be on the bus or they've been, selected incorrectly or, or they haven't been trained <affirmative> there's could be all kinds of reasons, but the key is to get the right, the people in the right seats on the bus, which, you know, is talked about in number of different business books. but that implementer, really has to do that. But the, but the heart of the matter is leadership in team building. because if you've got, a team that will follow you, it's a lot easier to get things done. Then if you're simply an appointed manager, you know, with, kind of wrote authority
Lee Murray (12:18):
Most definitely. And, and as a, as an implementer, you have to be able to have, have the vision, but then see it, see, you know, not only from a skill standpoint, but see it in your team, you know, you have to be able to see do they have what it takes through and through to bring us to help us get to this vision. And then just keeping up, keeping your CEO grounded and <laugh> and,
Daryl Dixon (12:44):
Everybody. Yeah. Yeah. And by the way, sometimes the roles are diverse.
Lee Murray (12:53):
Oh, okay.
Daryl Dixon (12:54):
Some cases can be reversed. Okay. Well, in some cases, you may have a really good, detail-oriented operations person that really isn't that great. A visionary, in fact, you could have a marketing executive be a visionary, in my opinion, it could be the chief operating officer. although typically that visionary isn't necessarily, you know, on a disc profile, they're, they, they tend to be, somebody that's an influencer, somebody that's, got a fairly good dose of ego, things that are kind of the opposite of that detail oriented person that, is steady and, compliant, in terms of the S and the C. And so, the point is that that function has to exist, whether it's between two people or within the, original founder for a successful business, in my opinion, those two functions have to be happening, in a successful organization with a successful, team leader and a successful team.
Lee Murray (14:01):
Yeah. And, you know, I'm glad you brought the dis assessment. I, I love psychology and I love be behave behavior. I mean, I could fit in sort of people watch in the business realm all day. I, I just love, you know, why do people make the decisions they make it baffles me most of the time, but when the disc assessment came around, it really just solidified a lot of things about behavior. For me, it turned on a lot of light, light bulbs. tell, talk about the, the disc assessment a little bit. How, how do you utilize that tool in your company and, you know, as you're looking to build up teams?
Daryl Dixon (14:38):
Well, it's so significant, in our company that, me and one of my other executives actually formally got certified, in disc assessment. Okay. And so, the, the conference room that I'm sitting in right now, you can't see it, but on the opposite wall, there's a very large, diagram of the disk profile for a dominant, influential, compliant and steady. it has the descriptors under each one of those. And there's, there's not a week that goes by that. if we're talking about a particular client or a personality, sometimes it could be issues between team members, but it, it just takes a lot of, pressure off a lot of emotion. It takes the emotion out of a situation to be able to realize that perhaps the way this person is behaving is not personal. it just happens to be what their profile is.
Daryl Dixon (15:32):
And so, we're just huge believers on it to the point that, you know, this diagram that we use in the conference room here is probably about four feet by four feet. That's how big it is. And then some of our folks have it in their offices, but it's, we use it in the selection process of team members. We use it in, trying to interface well with clients. we just think it's a, a cornerstone to the different types of people that we are out there. And it just helps you fit the fit those people together in teams like puzzle pieces. in some cases, when you try to put a square peg in around hole, the, the puzzle doesn't come out very nice. So, this helps us do it the right way.
Lee Murray (16:13):
I think of the disc assessment as sort of the small rudder to steer the big ship. It can be those small things that about people that if understood, can make a big impact. So, I'm curious what your, your, disc profile is.
Daryl Dixon (16:28):
,I'm fairly balanced. although I'm low, low on the influential eye person, I am an introvert. I'm happy to be behind the scenes. And so, although I, I do have visionary characteristics, but in fairly detail oriented and steady. So, other than the, I, I'm pretty well rounded between the D the C and the S
Lee Murray (16:52):
Okay, so you, so you can pull on each part of you as it is needed in whatever circumstance.
Daryl Dixon (17:01):
Yeah. And every, by the way, everybody is, I mean, it's very easy to do a disc profile. You can go online, it's generally 15 or 20 questions, which are shockingly accurate. but it can vary by where you are in your career, what you're doing, it changes. but and also changes based on distances, but it will clearly pinpoint your predominant. in my opinion, it'll pinpoint your predominant, tendencies. And again, it's a good, it's a, it's a, you know, if you're hiring a salesperson, a really, you know, top salesperson, you'd, wouldn't want them to have my profile because you want them to be a much higher eye in terms of being outgoing, enjoying that. And so consequently I've hired sales people with that are high eyes, as opposed to me being, you know, a, a D and a C
Lee Murray (17:53):
I have a very weird profile. Mine is an IC.
Daryl Dixon (17:57):
Okay. so that's awesome.
Lee Murray (18:01):
I, so I, I struggle. I struggle because, you know, part of me is the fun, loving party going, like, I want to, I want to, I want to do this, right? Like, I want to talk with people and get to know people and, you know, develop relationships. And the other part of me is I want all of that to exist inside of a process. And I want to do it in a process driven way. That's so it's, it's a, it's a unique, tension that I live in.
Daryl Dixon (18:29):
Well, given, given your consulting practice, in my opinion, that's a pretty good combination,
Lee Murray (18:36):
I would think so, you know, I, it is serving me well, so I'll, we'll, I'll just go with it. <laugh>, listen, I, I, so since we're talking about in particular, specific roles, like the COO, I, I, I always, so it's been my experience working with, I work with a lot of COOs cause they're the ones that bring me in, they see the problem, you know, and they, they want to, , kind of introduce me to their marketing team and we talk about, strategies, systems, different things, but it can be that a lot of the times the CEO is the problem. Right. A lot of times I've seen that the CEO is the bottleneck to growth. And so, I would say a fair amount of the work that I'm, that I do is trying to convince the CEO that they need to let go and give more autonomy to the, the marketing team or the sales team. you know, again, putting systems in place so that they can speak, they can work together to, to have an effect on growth. I'd be curious, do you see it the same way, or do you, you know, who, who is the, the main bottleneck that you see in small companies?
Daryl Dixon (19:42):
It can certainly be the founder of a of a small business that you know can't let go or you know doesn't want to, that really is uncomfortable delegating, which ties into a trust factor. And I'm, I'm not an endorser, I'm not a paid endorser of, traction, but I will tell you traction helps address that by creating something called an accountability chart, which defines three to four. Okay. primary responsibilities for every person in the organization. Once I think, an owner can see what those responsibilities are and that people, most importantly, via the implement mentor are held accountable to those. everybody's in agreement, there's no surprises, it's, the management becomes unemotional, from the standpoint of whether people are doing their job or not doing their job.
Daryl Dixon (20:36):
And so, it really becomes a great vehicle for, an entrepreneur who who's, who's a lot of days working, you know, 16-hour days and no family time and no quality of life and stressed out and poor health. they really need to grasp some sort of a system like that to be able to delegate. And when they do that, the team builds because, as long as they're given the authority, along with the responsibility and the accountability, that is the formula for success. And so, if people feel that they're trusted, and they've been given the, the authority, the accountability, and, and the job, the job duties, that, that giving of trust, is just an incredibly powerful motivator for, teams
Lee Murray (21:31):
Agreed a hundred percent. so, switching gears, a little bit more to the practical, you know, I, I, I want to utilize this platform as a way to let our audience, hear great ideas and great wisdom, but also things that they can take and utilize tomorrow in their business. So, with that in mind, more of the micro, if, if you're, if you were sitting down with, the average small to mid-size CEO or owner, what's some practical advice on how they should think about practically finding that next hire or, or building out a good team. Like, what is it that, is there a place they can go or, I mean, we'll get to resources later, but how should they be thinking about that?
Daryl Dixon (22:18):
Well, as a, is a new business owner in, in a growing small business, you sort of hit two phases. Your first phase, includes a circle of individuals that you've either worked with in the past. They may be quasi friends. They may be people that have a skillset you don't have. but the point is it's a small circle. And so, it may be four people, three people, five people, if you're lucky, maybe six, if you're really lucky. but once you hit that point, you're going to go out to the general public and you're going to have to identify, who is going to be the fit for the organization. And so, the, and the core of that relationship is trust those first 3, 4, 5, 6 people. you've worked with them. you've got trust between the, all of you. And so, it's, you work at a completely different level if you stop there, you'll always be a small business, and you will not grow.
Daryl Dixon (23:15):
so, you have to learn to be able to go over to that next phase. And so, in going on to that next phase, you start to have to use tools to identify people that have similar values. And, again, going back to a well-defined position, there's a variety of recruiting efforts, but in term, in terms of kind of thinking about interviewing, one of these candidates, mm-hmm, <affirmative>, there's some characteristics I look for, when I interview a candidate, one, is that, are they selfless? In other words, is it an interview? An interview is supposed to be about the candidate, but is it, is it a me candidate versus a we candidate? And you can very quickly as you listen to the stories of their success and what they've done, they'll either talk about their team and their success of the team, or they'll talk about them and the success of themselves.
Daryl Dixon (24:07):
, needless to say, the latter is of concern. If you really want to have a team player, and be part of a, a working team. the other thing I look for is, an extended, involvement in some sort of, of organization of mission. it could be the boy Scouts, the girl Scouts, they could have gone to Greek school, Jewish school, parochial school, Catholic school. it doesn't matter to me, but to see them involved with some kind of an organization that's associated with a mission, it could be the Y M C a, but it's, it's got a, there's another side to them. That is more than just getting ahead, just getting good grades, just getting a good job, just making money. And in some cases, people have spent, you know, their entire grade school and even high school years, you know, affiliated with organizations that I think help round them out that, we all need to help each other and, and, you know, we need to, we need to love our fellow man.
Daryl Dixon (25:08):
, and so, it doesn't mean that people are that way. And certainly, people don't have to be affiliated with any of those to be altruistic or, or the right candidate, but it just gives you a clue, as to what may be there that may otherwise not. another thing that's important is people that have made commitments beyond, the, the normal, which could be associated with music and gymnastics, but the point is every day after school for multiple years, they had to come home and they had to, do work above and beyond their homework and schooling, which takes commitment and grit. mm-hmm <affirmative> to, to, to stay through to that process and, and people that have really, excelled to a, a high level. I have that much more admiration for it that they've got the stick-to-itiveness and grit, to take what it to take.
Daryl Dixon (26:00):
What's going to come our way relative to the challenges of growing and starting a business. The last thing I, those are last thing. Those are all great. The last thing we just mentioned is, I like to ask about their mentors, it's music to my ears when I hear that their mentors are their parents or a parent. I think that's really, it's brave for the candidate to say that, because I don't think it's a particularly, positive or courageous thing to say as a young man. You know, my, my dad is my mentor or my mom is my mentor. I find it very positive actually. but I love to hear if their mentor, is a community leader, it could be a church leader, again, some affiliated with some sort of a mission-oriented person. I think again, that gives insight. it could be a coach too. I mean, there's all kinds of sport coaches that are, mentors, but, when you dig a little deeper and find out why they're a mentor, you'll immediately understand whether they, what they learned from that mentor. And you're able to, you know, you'll get a sense of their values based on what they tell you. They learned from the mentors.
Lee Murray (27:14):
Most definitely. those are all great, pillars to take into an, into, you know, interviewing, people that you don't know, right. You're, you're meeting these people for the first time and looking on a piece of paper and how do you ascertain that this person is a quality person that would make up a good team, right? Those, those are great ways to think about it. And I love the missional one because you know what they're, what is probably going to happen by osmosis is that they're going to bring that mission thinking to the company, which probably translates to loyalty. You know, I mean, maybe there's not a direct connect, but to me that's what it says is loyalty. We're here at we're actually are looking side by side at each other. We're all moving ahead the same, cause there, they've done it somewhere else. I love that. That's powerful. Yeah.
Daryl Dixon(28:04):
The, the last thing I would just mention, there was an article that was actually, one of my, business colleagues. one of the executives here at Valintry, sent this article to me, within the last two months actually, it was an article from Inc magazine and the, the, the subject is Warren buffet. Integrity is the top trait to look for in a job candidate. And there's, there's four questions that apparently, he uses, in interviewing candidates, which we love because I think trust is the number one. trust and integrity are the, is the number one characteristic that you need to have, in a true successful team member, which translates also ultimately to a team leader. And, and I'll just read these really quickly, but would you be willing to tell a white lie to help us out?
Daryl Dixon (28:56):
That's a really, you know, when you're sitting there looking at the potential hiring manager and then they take it one step further is if the situation called for it, would you ever lie on my personal behalf? The other one is, tell me a story, of you, but the things you tell me can't be on your resume. So, you know, they could have worked with somebody to come up with this world class resume, but now all of a sudden, they're going to have to describe themselves in terms outside their resume. That's right. And the other one, which is pretty common is what are the characteristics exhibited by the best boss you've ever had? And again, you know, what the answer to that question is, you're looking for, things like honesty, integrity, team building leadership, if they've experienced that they know what they're looking for.
Daryl Dixon (29:46):
And it's interesting, the latest candidates that we've hired here at valry, what's interesting to me is they are looking for, they're ex they're ex they're young people. they have experience with multiple work environments, their early career work environments, but they know that they're looking for a positive environment where they're supported, cared about that it's that it's a, trusting environment, that they don't, that, you know, that they, they, will be supported in terms of their growth and their careers. And that is becoming, more and more, a requirement of candidates that we're interviewing for our company.
Lee Murray (30:28):
That's, that's great. it's, it's such a nice thing for the right person to fit a culture like that and know that they're sort of, they have some security there, right. To know, okay, I can put, I can put my head down and go to work and everyone else here is doing the same thing and I don't have to worry about, well, my boss is thinking about me or my paycheck, or, you know, all these sort of, external things that can become a, a weight, that, and that's that security allows people to really
Daryl Dixon (31:00):
Do their best work. It works. It is because the other one that, we, we work really, really hard, to not have. And this is particularly true on the, the staffing side of our business is most, staffing organizations are highly competitive. They're cutthroat inside the organizations mm-hmm <affirmative>, and we don't let that happen. And so, they are pleasantly surprised that, there certainly is the reporting of results of individuals wins and mm-hmm <affirmative>, what I still love to this day is every time there's a deal done by the, by the company, there's a whole raft of congratulatory emails, to other team members. we never made that part of the policy of the company, but it just happens. Yeah. And so, every time a deal's announced, you know, there's like 10 internal emails that I see in terms of, you know, congratulations that are passed on between the team members. And I think that's, I think that's unique,
Lee Murray (31:53):
You know, it's so, and it's so rewarding, I'm sure too, to, to lead a company that's their culture has sort of, formed on its own, right? Like you've, you've done a lot of this heavy lifting to put the right people in place so that people can succeed and be fulfilled in their job. But when you see stuff like that happen, it, it, it's got to be super fulfilling for you because, you know, as you're growing your business, you know, the goal is to, to grow it and, you know, make a profit and potentially sell it at some point, whatever the goal is, right. Because it's for profit, but along the way to have that part to be part of it is, is pretty substantial.
Daryl Dixon (32:30):
Yeah. In fact, it reminds me of another, the, the leader of our, Salesforce practice, in his last staff meeting with our consultants, I had no idea he was going to do this, but he took it upon himself to, take the four values of our company, people first trust, teamwork, and innovation. And what he did in the staff meeting is he actually chose; he created a PowerPoint slide for each person that he chose to represent each one of those values for the last month. he then features what that individual person did, because there were four different people identified for these four different values. And now in the next staff meeting, it's their responsibility to identify somebody, in the organization that they will pass that or pay it forward to, in the next staff meeting, as to why they're, recommending that person or, or calling out that person relative to their behavior and approach. And so, it was just, it was really, a novel way of, of we call it, taking the values off the wall. And actually, applying those, we, we speak about our values in each one of our meetings and, every company has values on the wall, but I'm not sure every company takes them off the wall. And it's really a core to, the team building and team relationship and culture of our company.
Lee Murray (33:51):
You know, that reminds me of, being a parent and with the kids, you'd say, I'd say, you know, do you love your sister? And, and my son would say yes, and I'd say, well, why. Right. And they have to answer the question. So, they have to think about it. They got to think, well, because she's smart or she's funny, or, you know, she helped her, her friend out the other day. I mean, that's a, that's a professional environment doing a similar thing where you actually have to spend some time thinking about, what you think about that
Daryl Dixon (34:23):
Person. Yeah. And also, what you think about that value. So, the biggest thing is, you know, that's right. And the other thing is we encourage our sales people and our recruiters and our consultants to talk about the fact that we're a values-based company. And we have found that the more we talk about it and I know its cliché, it's not, you know, you're not going to read about it probably in the next Harvard business review, article. but the reality is if you talk about it, what you're doing is you're really setting yourself up to be held accountable to it. And that's where I think, that's right. That's where, candidates and clients find out that we're different. And that is that, we're prepared to be held, to, you know, in terms of accountability to those values, based on the fact that we're going to disclose them and we welcome, that responsibility to be held to those values.
Lee Murray (35:16):
You know, that's so interesting because what that makes me think of is this, this idea I always have in mind that I'll share it with, typically marketing teams that I'll work with. And it's this idea of like, you're here in this role and you may not always be here in this role, but don't, you want to grow personally, right? As you're here, if you are learning, educating yourself, building skills, advancing in your knowledge and your, and the, the way that you look at your role and how it impacts the, the company, you know, typically it's, you know, that kind of person that's looking for that advice is not going to be in a culture like you're describing, right, because it's not happening naturally, but don't, you want to grow personally because if you seek to grow personally, that's going to lift the tide.
Lee Murray (36:03):
The tide's going to lift the boat of the company. You're going to be, you know, naturally, you know, pouring back into the company and the company benefits. And so, I think that's so interesting how, how that works, that, you know, as we're talking about exploring growth for company growth, right. along the way we're growing personally, and the accountability aspect of that is, is the key. because if there's accountability, that's, that can be a little bit, there can be a little bit of attention there because if you're not used to having that accountability, it's going to feel like not so great, but whenever you embrace it and you realize, oh, no, we're all really personally trying to grow, like what your sales, force person was doing. That's going to, it's going to naturally one to another say, oh, this is this accountability thing is a good thing,
Daryl Dixon (36:48):
But you know, the other thing, you, you, you really struck a nerve in terms of people that want to grow, you know, a great interview question is to ask them what the last book was that they read. we try to be an organization of lifelong learners, and there's a lot of, talking about, of, of books and trading of books and ideas. And, oh, you got to read this one mm-hmm <affirmative> and you can hear the buzz in the organization. And you know, that that's a, that's a growing learning organization and that's always healthy
Lee Murray (37:17):
Completely. And to that point, let's talk about resources. What are some books or podcast or other resources that you listen to, or have learned from in the past that you could recommend, for other business owners to go and read? Well,
Daryl Dixon (37:33):
I've already, I mean, I've obviously already talked about traction. The other thing is, unfortunately in my career I was probably close to 30 years old before I was introduced to a very old book. but a very successful book and that's, how to win friends and influence people by, Dale Carnegie. it's been republished, I don't know how many times and, and the stories are, are a little dated. but the fundamental concepts in terms of the importance of people using people's names, spelling their name correctly, saying their name correctly. the principles in that book are just ageless. And so, I, I just, we had two new, employees start last week. they came to their first mm-hmm <affirmative>, level 10 meeting, which is part of attraction. And, as part of that, I, I handed out traction books and I handed out how to win friends and influence people.
Daryl Dixon (38:26):
And I said, you know, I wish somebody had given, you know, this book to me when I was your age. Yeah. the other one, that's been, is particularly influential for us is, Steven Covey, seven habits of highly effective people. Coincidentally, we've actually been covering that this week. in each one of our morning meetings, we do this little, talk on values or, things that we want to inspire to. And, for the last week, and this week we've actually been going through those seven habits, just a quick reminder of what they are, why it's important. And it, again, these are all kind of mom and apple pie, things that whether you're in marketing or sales or operations or leadership, or, janitorial, it doesn't matter. Everybody can use these principles based on their brand, and how they interface with their peers and, the client organization. So, those are, those are, those are some old fashioned standby, you know, not many why bang stuff, but just, really hardcore, messages. that, again, I think, trust and integrity you'll find is the root, of each one of those books and, and the success of each one of those, processes.
Lee Murray (39:44):
Well, as they say, a music, everything's a sample and, you know, it's a, a sample of something prior. So, I look at those two books as sort of that way, even though traction's a relatively newer book, you know, you really covered this sort of trust building, relationship people-oriented book, or resource, and then a, an operational, you know, systems-oriented book. And, and I'm, I'm privy to that. I mean, given my I'm an IC, so, you know, I'm people in process, right? So, I love when those two things come together. So, I, I definitely think those are great books and those ageless books are, are sometimes the best.
Daryl Dixon (40:24):
Yeah. The other thing I'd be remiss in not mentioning is, Joe peachy from peachy and peachy has been a huge influence on our organization in terms of, putting together a formal sales process, which we didn't have. And, and quite frankly, I didn't have for the majority of my career. And so, putting together a what's called a formal, value proposition, being able to articulate that very quickly to, a customer, has really been a game changer in terms of our organization. He, he has a podcast, in, in sales training, organization, and it's really had a profound impact on me personally, as well as our organization.
Lee Murray (41:04):
Yeah. Thanks for mentioning that. And I need to reach out to Joe, have him on here, because he's got a lot of hard-hitting advice that, people can take and utilize day one. So, that's a good recommendation. Okay. Last question, before I let you go, if you could change the mind of a smaller growing company about anything doesn't have to be teams, what would it be?
Daryl Dixon (41:27):
, well, again, it's easy, it's easy to preach. I, did when I'm going to advise, fellow, business owners and entrepreneurs, not to do. And that is, I think that one of the biggest mistakes is to try to be all things to all people. And it's, it's not, it, that's not the, the reason that you're trying to be all things to all people let's face it. The reason you're trying to be all things to all people is to make enough cash to come into the company to make sure your company survives. And so, there's a really, really delicate balance between having enough products to sell and maintain cash flow and, and business. but keeping it limited enough that your resources, and team aren't spread so thin that you're really not effective at anything.
Daryl Dixon (42:20):
, and so, the narrower, it can be, I think the better and then also balancing out, what is your market if the market's too small, and the scope is too narrow. your, your business is going to be much more at risk than if it's the market's a little broader and you've got diversification. Diversification is, is important in all aspects of the business, but it's that, it's that inevitable, slippery slope that I have, slipped down many times to be honest, and that is trying to do too many things, and be all things to all people.
Lee Murray (42:54):
Well, sometimes it's, you know, if, and again, I think as you're sort of alluding to there's people listening to this right now that may be doing that, and they're hating that they're doing because they know they're doing it, but you know, cash flow is important. And if you have a vision for where you're headed and you know, you're headed that direction well then continue going, but just, you know, try to get out of that game. I've been down that road too, you know? and it's, it's not fun because, you know, to the point of hiring good team people teammates, it's, you have someone doing too many things and they're not properly utilized and they're not fulfilled.
Daryl Dixon (43:33):
Right. That's right. And, and by the way, it's hard to deliver good customer service. And so, if you're not careful, it's easy to get into a cycle of failure. So, so yes, you want to be persistent by all means. but the other thing, I would just say, one last thing I would in terms of that persistence is to make sure you're listening to the market and that you are, listening to what the market wants to buy, as opposed to, being driven by what, you, as the entrepreneur want to sell. There's a difference.
Lee Murray (44:03):
Yes. There's a big difference.
Daryl Dixon (44:05):
So
Lee Murray (44:06):
Thanks Daryl. it's been great and, great catching up with you. Appreciate all your wisdom. And, I expect to fully have you back, in another 10 or 15 episodes or so was, this is such a broad topic we could, we could get off on a rabbit trail talking about one thing. So, I'd love to have you back.
Daryl Dixon (44:24):
Hopefully it was helpful.
Lee Murray (44:27):
<laugh> right. Thank you. Hey, I really appreciate you tuning into this episode of exploring growth. I'm trying to get this in the hands of as many growing businesses as possible, so they can take this practical wisdom and deploy it in their companies or with their teams. If you're getting some value out of this show and know someone who should listen as well, would you consider sharing with them or leave a positive review on the platform in which you're listening or watching YouTube audience leave a comment below with something you liked or your perspective on what we discussed? I'm grateful for everyone that tunes in every week, let's keep exploring.