Sept. 8, 2025

Cruz Gamboa, CFO, founder and chief strategist of Ascend Growth Ventures

Cruz Gamboa, CFO, founder and chief strategist of Ascend Growth Ventures
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Cruz Gamboa, MBA is a former GE Corporate Executive and a seasoned Scaling Up business coach with a passion for helping ambitious founders, CEOs and mid-market companies, who are ready to think beyond incremental progress, increase profits, boost valuation, and drive meaningful impact to 10x their value and reach.

Cruz has lived in multiple countries and speaks 3 languages: Spanish, English, and Portuguese.

He is the author of Drive From Within.

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Churchill said, those who failed to learn from history are

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condemned to repeat it. Kevin helen n believes that certainly

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applies to business. Welcome to Winning Business Radio here at

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W four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com

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and now your host, Kevin Helena.

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Thanks everybody for joining in today. I am Kevin Haleanan

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and welcome back to Winning Business TV and Radio. We're

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on W four cy dot com. We're streaming live on

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addition to Facebook, and that's at Winning Business Radio, and

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of course we're available after the live show on whatever

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platform your favorite is to watch and listen to podcast

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content that's YouTube by Heart Radio, Spotify, Apple and the

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list goes on the mission of winning business radio in TV.

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As regular viewers and listeners, no excuse me is to

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offer insights and advice to help people avoid the mistakes

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of others, right to learn best practices. Those are the

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how tos, the what tos, the what not toos, and

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I hope to be challenged and to be inspired by

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the successes of others. Who are those others. They're consultants, coaches, advisors, authors,

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founders and owners, entrepreneurs, people with expertise. But you know,

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virtually every successful person that I've had a chance to

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talk to has had some form of failure in their

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lives and careers. So I say it every week. While

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we all have to get our knee skinned once in

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a while, I'm driven to keep those scrapes from needing

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major surgery. Endeavor to learn from history so we don't

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repeat it. I've spent the better part of my career

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equipping businesses to grow, and that's from solopreneurs to small

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and medium sized businesses all the way up to the

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Fortune fifty. I've seen a lot of those companies win

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and to varying degrees. I've seen some fail I've had

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the opportunity to rub elbows with some of the highest

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performing people around and with some of those that probably

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should have found other professions. So in my own businesses,

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I've had lots of success, but some failures too, So

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I like to think I've learned a lot. So you're

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gonna hear from me, but mostly you're going to hear

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from those guests. And today I'm excited to have Cruiz Gamboa.

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He's founder and chief strategist and CFO of Ascend Growth Ventures.

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Here's his bio. Cruz Gamboa is an NYU MBA holds

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a bachelor's in Economics for the minor in Business from UT.

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Austin hookoem Horns is a former CEO, corporate executive, and

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a season scaling up business coach with a passion for

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helping ambitious CEOs and mid market companies increase profits, boost valuation,

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and drive me meaningful impact. With deep expertise in corporate finance,

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strategy and executive leadership, Cruise has served in pivotal roles,

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most notably as Regional CFO for ge Gas Power Latin America,

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where he led high growth initiatives that broke records and

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set new benchmarks. Today, Cruz combines the power of the

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scaling Up framework with exponential thinking in decades of CFO

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experience to help businesses scale with clarity and confidence. He's

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the author of Drive from Within, a guide for leaders

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seeking purposeful, sustainable success without the chaos. At the core

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of Cruise's approach is the scaling Up methodology by Verne Harness.

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Some of you are familiar, many probably are, and that

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enables teams to streamline operations, align around strategy, improve cash flow,

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and eliminate roadblocks to growth. For visionary founders ready to

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think beyond incremental progress, Cruz also brings in the bold

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principles of Exponential Organizations EXO by Sealia Mismail excuse me

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empowered towering businesses to harness technology, automation and disruptive models

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to ten x their value and reach. Cruise is a

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committed not convicted committed We both should be convicted committed

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environmental advocate and renewable energy investor. He's a certified life

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coach and has been coaching and mentoring high performers for

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two decades. While in the corporate world, He's live in

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multiple companies and speaks three languages, Spanish, English, and Portuguese.

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When not working, He's an enthusiastic reader, often drawn to

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leadership and personal development books. He's also a studio recording

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artist with songs on Spotify. He's passionate about tennis and

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snowboarding and enjoying an active and creative lifestyle. And of

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course he's a dedicated father of two and he resides

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in Framingham, Massachusetts. Cruise, Welcome to Winning Business Radio.

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Thank you so much, Cavin, and thank you for having

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me here. And I'm really excited to be here and

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have this conversation with you.

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Mite.

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Thanks you for that intro that was It always is

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always an opportunity to reflect on my I hear these

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things by, you know, from other people's mouths, so I

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appreciate that.

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All right, Just quickly, I want to talk a little

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bit about backward First, just tell us about your two children.

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My two children, Maximo and Abrielle. So Maximo is seventeen.

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He is now a senior in high school.

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He's crushing it.

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He's doing really well in school and he wrestles, and yeah,

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he made the varsity team. Even though it was like

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his second year into the program. So he's doing really

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well in abrill. She's going to college at Bentley and

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she also crushes it.

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She showed me her report card and it was really good,

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and I was really.

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Proud of her because, you know, when she was in

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high school, we have we have a little questions on

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how good of a student she was going to be.

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But she turned out to be an amazing athlete.

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So yeah, excellent. Good for her and good for you too.

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So tell us where you grew up.

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I grew up. Look, I grew up in Venezuela. I

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was more in Venezuela, and then I left when I

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was seventeen, came to college the US. Uh, and then

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after that, I you know, I joined first Unilever and

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then You're Electric, and I worked across Latin America here

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in the States, and yeah, it's been sort of my

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my sandbox between some places in Latin America and here

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in the in the US.

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Well, we're gonna touch on those. What were your early

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interests so high school, early college?

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Honestly, it was I was a computer nerd, to be

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honest and uh, and a musician, so that those are

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those were the two things that really inspired me.

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I I played.

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I played golf a lot as well, at least three

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times a week. I got to be relatively good eleven handicaps,

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So I mean that's not great, but it was.

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It was good for me for now after you know,

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when in.

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My sort of my adolescent years, when I when I

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hit like sixteen, it's just it was not.

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So cool to play golf. I had other interests. Yeah,

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but yeah, for a while it kept me going.

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So my two sons, both of them had a little

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overlap and location, but they both had a chance to

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either caddy or one of them actually ran to help

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run a pro shop and they got the golf a

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lot too. So my golf game is not what you

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consider a game, you know. I can go by the

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role of you don't have to be good, just don't

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be slow.

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That's right, And it's interesting. I played from time to

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time and I still have it a little bit. But yeah,

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I wouldn't trust myself to go in a tournament.

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So unless it's best ball, and you can't good for everybody,

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all right, So why did you choose Venezuelan kid? Why

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did you choose to go to U T Austin and

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We know you majored in economics and business.

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So why U T Austin and why that focus.

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Look, at the time, I had friends and family in Austin,

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and I figure that if I was already making a

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lead and uh, you know, leave my family behind, it

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would probably make sense to be out of place that

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I knew other people, and I had a little bit

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of a network, as you know, as you know me,

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and I'm big on family, so I figured it would

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be it would be best for me to be closer

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to family. And also, by the way, I visited U

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T the UT campus, and I just fell in love

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with it. I was just like, I'm gonna come here.

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I already knew when I when I went to visit it,

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I knew that I was going to get in. So

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I was really determined to go there.

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City but small city, not New York, right, although you

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ended up in New York, but city small city offers

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a ton I mean you kept it weird, I'm assuming, yes, exactly, Okay,

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and you got to see.

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It's not that weird anymore.

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Actually, yeah, it's definitely grown. It's definitely grown. So Unilever

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was soon after college.

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It was just soon after college. Uh, yeah, I had

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I had a job. He was like I think he

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was like twenty four hour today.

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I was just working so much.

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I vaguely like, when I think about it, I vaguely

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remember those days. I was literally like from eight to

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like ten pm every day, just closing the books financial analysis,

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next year's plan, profitability analysis. I was they really got

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a lot from me during those times.

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Well, good news is in your early twenties, you don't

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need a lot exactly. Yeah, yeah, you just go on

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films all the time, all right. When and what motivated

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When did you and what motivated you getting your MBA.

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It was kind of like I was already working at

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g Capital, and I I was had just left NBC

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because I worked at NBC Universal for a while in

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New York City, and I just felt that I needed

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to I needed a little plus in my sort of

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in my career, in my sort of in my in

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my education as well. Felt that I mean, I went, uh,

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I went to school for economics with a business minor,

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and I just felt that there were I need a

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little bit more. I needed to learn more about like

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private equity, about evaluation and stuff like that. And I

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I felt that n y U was probably one of

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the best schools. Actually, I was really lucky that I

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was there in New York City and I and I

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got to I got to apply and got in. It

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was the only the only school that I applied to

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for for.

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An MBA, to be honest, and I got in. So

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it was it was really good, outstanding. So big question,

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and you can think about it, but what was your

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biggest takeaway from getting the NBA. Wow, maybe that's even plural.

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I know that's a big question.

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Yeah, it's a big question because back then, the sort

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of the biggest takeaway was just really getting.

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To know uh the professors.

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I meant, some really amazing professors, and I just I

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also made some friendships that I still i'm in touch with.

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And to be honest, I think now when I look

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in hindsight, I think it's probably more interesting to when

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you look at things in perspective, because at the moment,

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I was just really excited to begin an m b A.

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It was all about how I fell. Now and now

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I have this title, right, But now I look, I

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look back in time, and I think I learned a

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ton for sure.

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But I think interestingly enough, I think it's really the experience.

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Of going through some real, real life business problems and

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and that that is to me, the best education that

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you can have, right just and I think General Electric

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was a great place for that. It was I was

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surrounded by really top notch leaders and peers and I

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and I learned a ton from them.

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So it, yes, it helped me.

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It augmented my my skill sets, my expertise, if I

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have to put you know, sort of like so where

227
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I said, what is the one thing that it did

228
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for me was confidence?

229
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Oh good, that's good. Love that.

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All right?

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00:12:08.639 --> 00:12:12.399
Tell us about the position at Unilever, and this is

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building kind of your backstory, right, how do you how

233
00:12:15.200 --> 00:12:16.759
do you get how you got.

234
00:12:16.600 --> 00:12:17.679
Excuse me to where you are?

235
00:12:17.679 --> 00:12:19.799
And when we get past the break here in another

236
00:12:19.799 --> 00:12:23.600
few minutes, not in a hurry, but people will understand

237
00:12:23.639 --> 00:12:25.639
better how you're able to do the work you do.

238
00:12:25.919 --> 00:12:29.080
Tell us what you learned, uh at well, describe the

239
00:12:29.120 --> 00:12:30.960
role and tell us what you learned at Unilever.

240
00:12:32.120 --> 00:12:36.039
At Unilever, I was they called it a marketing accountant,

241
00:12:36.120 --> 00:12:38.759
which it sounds kind of like an oxymoron if you

242
00:12:38.799 --> 00:12:41.879
ask me. But basically what I did, I was just

243
00:12:41.960 --> 00:12:48.279
thinking the sort of financial analyst for product lines, and

244
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I had I think I had back then.

245
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I had Personal Care and detergents.

246
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So I was the guy with the most expertise and

247
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most knowledge on the financial aspects of all of the

248
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brands in those two categories. And and it seems like

249
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it's it wouldn't be a lot of work, but it's, man,

250
00:13:10.399 --> 00:13:13.200
it was. It was a lot of work because you know,

251
00:13:13.360 --> 00:13:15.879
we had to know basically.

252
00:13:16.360 --> 00:13:19.039
All of the details of all of the ingredients, the

253
00:13:19.120 --> 00:13:19.600
cost of.

254
00:13:19.720 --> 00:13:23.519
Every ingredient, you know, aggregating the cost and like you know,

255
00:13:23.559 --> 00:13:29.399
looking at the pricing, looking at the competition, analyzing which squs.

256
00:13:28.960 --> 00:13:30.600
Were more profitable versus not.

257
00:13:32.080 --> 00:13:34.360
Looking at the different channels, you know, because I mean

258
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there were you know, there's a channel segmentation for when

259
00:13:37.639 --> 00:13:42.399
you're in the distribution industry, especially for personal care, so

260
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you know, if you have a tremendous amount of segmentation

261
00:13:46.440 --> 00:13:48.120
in the channels that you sell into.

262
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So understanding all of that and aggregating over.

263
00:13:51.240 --> 00:13:55.279
All the data and being able to provide management and

264
00:13:55.279 --> 00:13:57.879
and the and the sort of the product leaders with

265
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intelligence on how to position the brands was was uh,

266
00:14:04.080 --> 00:14:06.679
you know, quite an undertaking and that was my responsibility.

267
00:14:06.720 --> 00:14:10.240
I I I started. I was very junior at the time.

268
00:14:11.399 --> 00:14:14.240
I had a couple of mentors that sort of like

269
00:14:14.399 --> 00:14:16.399
taught me what I needed to know, and then I

270
00:14:16.480 --> 00:14:17.720
kind of like took off on my own.

271
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But yeah, it was it was super interesting.

272
00:14:19.919 --> 00:14:21.759
I mean, I still a lot of the stuff that

273
00:14:21.799 --> 00:14:26.879
I applied today, especially when it comes to understanding profitability

274
00:14:27.039 --> 00:14:31.360
and just getting sort of just doing market analysis and

275
00:14:31.440 --> 00:14:35.320
decision making, decision making one distributions and all that. It

276
00:14:35.399 --> 00:14:37.559
comes from that from those days. All the stuff that

277
00:14:37.600 --> 00:14:40.120
I learned back then. Yeah, I'm sure you have.

278
00:14:40.240 --> 00:14:42.200
I've seen companies that are focused on an area and

279
00:14:42.240 --> 00:14:45.840
they don't realize it's one of their least profitable items.

280
00:14:45.840 --> 00:14:48.759
There's and then they look over, you know, with with guidance,

281
00:14:48.799 --> 00:14:51.519
they look at another product line and realize how profitable

282
00:14:51.519 --> 00:14:55.720
it is, but they're not focused on selling it. So yeah,

283
00:14:55.759 --> 00:14:58.039
that's that's important, all right. Now the ge how did

284
00:14:58.039 --> 00:14:59.759
you How did you land the position at g the

285
00:14:59.840 --> 00:15:01.639
first one? And you were in Latin America at the

286
00:15:01.639 --> 00:15:03.879
time playing golf.

287
00:15:05.039 --> 00:15:07.440
There you go, that's an awesome Yeah, I was in

288
00:15:07.519 --> 00:15:09.960
the golf course, I you know, I I went to

289
00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:12.480
play on it by myself and they say, hey, do

290
00:15:12.519 --> 00:15:14.000
you wanna do you want to play with this guy?

291
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And I was just like sure.

292
00:15:15.840 --> 00:15:22.320
He was the CEO of GE Lighting at the time,

293
00:15:23.799 --> 00:15:25.919
and he you know, there was an operation there in

294
00:15:25.919 --> 00:15:28.200
my in my city in Venezuela back then, because I

295
00:15:28.440 --> 00:15:32.279
was there for a couple of years, and so we

296
00:15:32.440 --> 00:15:36.240
you know, we just started playing together and he told

297
00:15:36.240 --> 00:15:36.840
me what he did.

298
00:15:36.840 --> 00:15:39.039
I told him he didn't embarrass him that badly. Apparently,

299
00:15:39.840 --> 00:15:41.519
Uh no, no, he was okay.

300
00:15:41.679 --> 00:15:45.279
I still read him, but he was okay. Yeah.

301
00:15:45.879 --> 00:15:47.919
So towards the end, he said, you know what, I

302
00:15:47.960 --> 00:15:49.919
think this was a great conversation and I think you'll

303
00:15:49.960 --> 00:15:54.159
be great for you will be an amazing talent for

304
00:15:54.440 --> 00:15:57.279
the f m P, which is a financial management program.

305
00:15:57.799 --> 00:16:01.600
And I was just like, sure, let's let's talk. So

306
00:16:01.799 --> 00:16:07.440
we exchanged information. That was on a Saturday here on Thursday.

307
00:16:07.480 --> 00:16:11.840
On Thursday next week, I was interviewing with him. Then

308
00:16:11.960 --> 00:16:14.039
the week after I interviewed with somebody else.

309
00:16:14.440 --> 00:16:17.600
And then I was in, all right, that's a good take.

310
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Time to take our first commercial break. That was your

311
00:16:20.240 --> 00:16:24.039
first stint at GE you went elsewhere. We're going to

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get to that story, amen, and ended up back so

313
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but everybody will be back in about one minute with

314
00:16:28.440 --> 00:16:29.120
Cruiz Gamble.

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Thank you.

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You're listening to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helenett on

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W four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com.

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329
00:17:23.799 --> 00:17:26.839
And now back to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helene

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00:17:26.839 --> 00:17:30.680
presenting exciting topics and expert guests with one goal in

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00:17:30.759 --> 00:17:34.279
mind to help you succeed in business. Here once again

332
00:17:34.559 --> 00:17:38.960
is Kevin Helene.

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All right, we are back with Cruz gamboa before I

334
00:17:45.720 --> 00:17:48.759
jump in, just so the audiences. No, we're going to

335
00:17:48.759 --> 00:17:53.039
be proud to re engage one of our key sponsors

336
00:17:53.039 --> 00:17:55.319
will be Best in Wealth Management in the week's coming.

337
00:17:55.359 --> 00:17:58.359
So I'm excited about that, all right, So you had

338
00:17:58.400 --> 00:18:03.279
a two significant position manufacturing finance manager but also leading

339
00:18:03.319 --> 00:18:08.759
the digitation digitalization of order sales and all the back end,

340
00:18:09.640 --> 00:18:11.119
and you went through six sigma also.

341
00:18:11.680 --> 00:18:15.759
Yeah, So back then when GE was going through the

342
00:18:15.759 --> 00:18:20.559
whole six sigma campaign, right, it was like everybody had

343
00:18:20.599 --> 00:18:20.920
to be.

344
00:18:21.200 --> 00:18:23.640
A green belt or a black belt and all of that.

345
00:18:24.359 --> 00:18:29.039
And I had the opportunity to basically do this digitization

346
00:18:29.240 --> 00:18:32.720
project for all of the order sales and report and

347
00:18:32.839 --> 00:18:40.000
reporting for the g Industrial Systems business. And it was

348
00:18:40.039 --> 00:18:43.039
a huge undertaking because back then, I mean I'm talking

349
00:18:43.200 --> 00:18:47.200
this is a long time ago, two decades ago probably,

350
00:18:48.200 --> 00:18:53.720
and I you know, reports were not as automated. Everything

351
00:18:53.920 --> 00:18:57.839
was done to excel. It was just very manual, and

352
00:18:57.920 --> 00:19:02.960
it was very cumbersome, right, And the problem was that

353
00:19:03.039 --> 00:19:06.039
not only did we we back then industrial systems was

354
00:19:06.039 --> 00:19:09.839
a highly a very complicated business because he had I

355
00:19:09.960 --> 00:19:11.599
want to say, like sixty plans.

356
00:19:11.599 --> 00:19:13.240
I don't recall the exact number, but it.

357
00:19:13.240 --> 00:19:15.839
Was a ton of plants and we needed to get

358
00:19:15.920 --> 00:19:21.079
like every day orders and sales numbers from sixty different

359
00:19:21.160 --> 00:19:26.599
plants across the globe every day so that we could

360
00:19:26.599 --> 00:19:31.079
actually deliver to the CEO of the company. So it was,

361
00:19:31.480 --> 00:19:33.799
it was it was quite an undertaking back then. Today

362
00:19:33.960 --> 00:19:36.039
those things would be easy, but back.

363
00:19:35.880 --> 00:19:36.839
Then it was. It was.

364
00:19:36.960 --> 00:19:40.359
It was a ton of work, and it was something

365
00:19:40.400 --> 00:19:43.519
that I personally, I think, I'm very proud because nobody

366
00:19:43.559 --> 00:19:46.599
believed that we were going to pull it off. And

367
00:19:46.640 --> 00:19:49.279
he turned out that over time all of that data,

368
00:19:50.079 --> 00:19:53.519
you know, became completely digitized with designed what we call

369
00:19:53.599 --> 00:19:57.319
the digital Cockpit, which was basically like a command center

370
00:19:57.400 --> 00:20:01.680
for orders and sales information. No only for the CEO,

371
00:20:01.839 --> 00:20:05.519
but now for the middle management and basically for anybody

372
00:20:05.519 --> 00:20:08.440
who wanted to see sort of the orders and sales

373
00:20:08.559 --> 00:20:11.720
information for the business. So that was that was a

374
00:20:11.720 --> 00:20:15.799
big project. And I was kind of like the the

375
00:20:15.799 --> 00:20:19.000
the project manager, not from the technical side, but from

376
00:20:19.200 --> 00:20:22.359
sort of the the SME, the subject matter esper exper side.

377
00:20:22.440 --> 00:20:24.839
So yeah, well we'll get to this in a second.

378
00:20:24.839 --> 00:20:27.119
But them had to have been success and good visibility

379
00:20:27.160 --> 00:20:30.680
because you landed back at GE But tell us about

380
00:20:30.880 --> 00:20:33.039
NBC Universal for about two and a half years at

381
00:20:33.079 --> 00:20:33.839
Dirty Rock.

382
00:20:34.720 --> 00:20:38.319
Yes, so I so this is right around the time

383
00:20:38.640 --> 00:20:46.839
when the NBC NBC was acquiring Universal and and you

384
00:20:46.880 --> 00:20:51.720
know they were there, they had a shortage of finance

385
00:20:52.160 --> 00:20:55.319
leaders in the in the new business so I had

386
00:20:55.359 --> 00:20:58.759
an opportunity to work there in the business development group

387
00:20:59.119 --> 00:21:03.160
as a finance manager, and I thought that was very

388
00:21:03.200 --> 00:21:05.920
interesting and it was sort of aligned with what I

389
00:21:05.960 --> 00:21:06.799
wanted to do next.

390
00:21:06.839 --> 00:21:07.519
I wanted to do.

391
00:21:07.480 --> 00:21:11.920
More transactional work and be working on you know, sort

392
00:21:11.960 --> 00:21:15.880
of the business development side of of GE. So it

393
00:21:15.920 --> 00:21:18.519
was it was a cool transition for me. I we

394
00:21:18.599 --> 00:21:22.359
incubated a couple of projects organically, we worked a lot

395
00:21:22.440 --> 00:21:25.839
on on some potential acquisitions, and I got to see

396
00:21:25.880 --> 00:21:28.720
a lot of you know, the new technologies, which are

397
00:21:28.799 --> 00:21:33.079
obviously they're not new anymore, yeah, obsolete. But back then,

398
00:21:33.640 --> 00:21:35.559
for example, one of the things that we were doing

399
00:21:35.759 --> 00:21:40.039
was to try to get the NBC sort of channel,

400
00:21:40.519 --> 00:21:43.480
a version of it on a cell phone. So this

401
00:21:43.559 --> 00:21:46.960
is I'm actually dating myself, So this is back then.

402
00:21:47.000 --> 00:21:51.640
It used to this was oh four six yeah, yeah, yeah.

403
00:21:51.480 --> 00:21:53.759
It was a long time ago, so twenty years ago.

404
00:21:53.920 --> 00:21:54.920
So yeah.

405
00:21:54.960 --> 00:21:58.160
So but back then that that was a big undertaking.

406
00:21:59.240 --> 00:22:02.799
To be able to actually like watch television on your

407
00:22:02.960 --> 00:22:07.640
on your cell phone, that was unheard of. They were iPhones, yes,

408
00:22:07.920 --> 00:22:10.799
I mean I yes, they may have been, but they

409
00:22:10.799 --> 00:22:11.799
weren't what they are today.

410
00:22:12.039 --> 00:22:12.160
Right.

411
00:22:12.240 --> 00:22:14.359
Yeah, there's actually I have a funny story about that

412
00:22:14.480 --> 00:22:18.519
because it was two thousands, around two thousand and three,

413
00:22:18.519 --> 00:22:21.200
two thousand and four, and I was working with this guy,

414
00:22:23.079 --> 00:22:26.240
Salil Davis, I think it was his name, and uh,

415
00:22:26.559 --> 00:22:28.799
and I told him, you know what, I actually have

416
00:22:28.880 --> 00:22:30.839
an MP three player. Wouldn't it be cool to have

417
00:22:30.880 --> 00:22:33.240
an MP three player that was also your phone? And

418
00:22:33.279 --> 00:22:36.960
he's like, and he said he was ahead of technology

419
00:22:37.000 --> 00:22:38.759
development Business development group.

420
00:22:38.799 --> 00:22:41.160
He's like, that will never work.

421
00:22:42.440 --> 00:22:45.000
Because every time you try to put two things that

422
00:22:45.039 --> 00:22:48.000
do different things into one component, it just doesn't from

423
00:22:48.000 --> 00:22:50.279
a technology standpoint that we don't do that.

424
00:22:50.480 --> 00:22:51.519
And like six.

425
00:22:53.000 --> 00:22:58.079
Steve jobs, you know, bounce the whole iPhone and I,

426
00:22:58.160 --> 00:23:00.799
you know, I never got to say gotcha.

427
00:23:01.640 --> 00:23:04.839
He might be listening, so you never know. We watched

428
00:23:04.839 --> 00:23:07.119
my wife and I watched this show called Murdoch Mysteries.

429
00:23:07.160 --> 00:23:10.039
It's a Canadian broadcast and it's set in the late

430
00:23:10.039 --> 00:23:13.200
eighteen hundreds to early nineteen hundreds, and they do a

431
00:23:13.200 --> 00:23:16.440
lot of jokes like that it'll never fly. So it's like,

432
00:23:16.519 --> 00:23:18.920
imagine if we could all be connected by some they

433
00:23:18.920 --> 00:23:21.720
didn't use the word computer because you'll think about the time.

434
00:23:22.279 --> 00:23:25.319
But they would bring in characters like Tesla and Edison

435
00:23:25.400 --> 00:23:28.599
and you know, inventors of the day. And this detective's

436
00:23:28.599 --> 00:23:30.759
way ahead of his time. He's like an inventor himself.

437
00:23:31.000 --> 00:23:35.359
But they they foretell things humorously and it's always yeah,

438
00:23:35.400 --> 00:23:39.599
never mind, it'll never work. All right, So you landed

439
00:23:39.680 --> 00:23:42.200
back at GE How did that happen? And then you've

440
00:23:42.200 --> 00:23:47.119
had some really progressive roles during that That was almost

441
00:23:47.319 --> 00:23:49.200
twenty I mean eight and a half and then another

442
00:23:49.279 --> 00:23:51.640
nine years, right, I counted the first eight and a

443
00:23:51.680 --> 00:23:55.559
half as in Connecticut and Latin America and then Gie Verona.

444
00:23:55.640 --> 00:23:56.640
I wait to talk about that.

445
00:23:56.759 --> 00:23:58.960
Vernova, Vernova. So yeah.

446
00:23:59.000 --> 00:24:02.440
So like after NBC, I went to G Capital and

447
00:24:03.079 --> 00:24:06.079
and I love G Capital. My experience in there was

448
00:24:06.119 --> 00:24:09.480
the best. I learned so much. I used to be

449
00:24:09.519 --> 00:24:12.759
an underwriter back then, so my responsibility was to just

450
00:24:12.839 --> 00:24:16.920
basically look at different credit applications and work with the

451
00:24:17.039 --> 00:24:20.279
UH the sales team, to just shepherd all of the

452
00:24:20.319 --> 00:24:24.440
different credit application processes, take them to the credit committees,

453
00:24:24.480 --> 00:24:29.079
get them approved, structure, close funded, and then monitored the

454
00:24:29.119 --> 00:24:34.640
credits after they were closed. So Yeah, so that was

455
00:24:35.160 --> 00:24:37.200
tremendous opportunity.

456
00:24:36.599 --> 00:24:40.480
For context what at least then probably more now, But

457
00:24:40.599 --> 00:24:42.319
what what was the what were the revenues of G

458
00:24:42.480 --> 00:24:45.319
Capital that time? They were into everything metal. Oh my,

459
00:24:45.559 --> 00:24:46.640
they got anything.

460
00:24:47.000 --> 00:24:48.960
I don't recall, but I got to say it was

461
00:24:49.000 --> 00:24:53.799
like seventy billion dollars. It's like ridiculous. It was a

462
00:24:53.880 --> 00:24:55.400
huge amount of Yeah, it was.

463
00:24:55.400 --> 00:24:57.000
It was. I mean, I want.

464
00:24:56.839 --> 00:25:01.880
To say the G Capitals was one of the largest finkos.

465
00:25:01.240 --> 00:25:05.599
In the world then, I mean, I think so amazing. Yeah,

466
00:25:06.440 --> 00:25:10.000
so you came back as a VP structured finance on

467
00:25:10.039 --> 00:25:12.599
the writer middle market cash flow. Long that's that was

468
00:25:12.640 --> 00:25:16.960
my reste right, and then managing director actually that was

469
00:25:16.960 --> 00:25:20.799
Connecticut and then Latin America managing director of capital markets.

470
00:25:20.839 --> 00:25:21.680
They want to bring you back.

471
00:25:22.039 --> 00:25:25.079
So so speaking of like one thing leads to another, right,

472
00:25:25.160 --> 00:25:28.880
So I you know, I was six years into G

473
00:25:29.119 --> 00:25:33.200
Capital and you know sort of Latin America was opening

474
00:25:33.279 --> 00:25:37.440
up again and she was making a huge bed to

475
00:25:37.799 --> 00:25:42.599
grow the Latin region, and they asked me, given my background,

476
00:25:42.680 --> 00:25:45.799
if I wanted to be redeployed back to Latin America

477
00:25:46.440 --> 00:25:51.720
to basically be in charge of developing the capital markets team,

478
00:25:52.519 --> 00:25:55.279
and you know, initially it was it was not the

479
00:25:55.480 --> 00:25:57.880
I mean I was reporting to smaller guy, but eventually

480
00:25:58.279 --> 00:26:00.519
I got you know, I became the sort.

481
00:26:00.359 --> 00:26:00.960
Of the league guy.

482
00:26:01.799 --> 00:26:05.880
But the what we did was basically to secure capital,

483
00:26:05.920 --> 00:26:08.920
whether that was dead or equity for big projects where

484
00:26:08.960 --> 00:26:13.559
GE had its technology. And mostly what I ended up

485
00:26:13.559 --> 00:26:16.880
doing was helping the UH sort of the gas turbine

486
00:26:17.039 --> 00:26:21.160
into a gastourbine business because they were the ones that

487
00:26:21.279 --> 00:26:22.720
required the most capital.

488
00:26:23.000 --> 00:26:24.440
It was the biggest projects.

489
00:26:24.480 --> 00:26:28.119
And sort of my marquee deal in in that role

490
00:26:28.599 --> 00:26:31.599
was closing an eight hundred and fifty million dollar deal

491
00:26:31.640 --> 00:26:36.119
in Argentina which took a year and a half to

492
00:26:37.000 --> 00:26:40.599
from like start to finish to close, and it was

493
00:26:40.720 --> 00:26:42.960
one of the UH. It was one of the deals

494
00:26:43.000 --> 00:26:47.759
that actually got me promoted to executive because again one

495
00:26:47.759 --> 00:26:50.759
of those things where people were like that will never close,

496
00:26:51.440 --> 00:26:54.559
love it, love it, and it.

497
00:26:54.599 --> 00:26:57.119
Did just tell Cruise what he can't do.

498
00:26:57.400 --> 00:26:59.880
Right, I think you know what, I'm starting to see

499
00:26:59.880 --> 00:27:00.640
the pattern.

500
00:27:00.480 --> 00:27:03.720
Kevin, Yeah, yeah, all right, I have an interesting question

501
00:27:03.759 --> 00:27:07.640
at least on the role decarbonization strategy that's a much

502
00:27:07.680 --> 00:27:13.359
more carbon footprint related environmental concern correctly.

503
00:27:13.799 --> 00:27:15.880
Well, so here's what happened.

504
00:27:15.920 --> 00:27:20.480
So this is more reason right, So fast forward till

505
00:27:21.480 --> 00:27:22.680
an hour twenty one.

506
00:27:23.079 --> 00:27:26.519
Yeah, four years ago. Yeah, I you know, I had

507
00:27:26.519 --> 00:27:31.039
the opportunity to basically help the g.

508
00:27:30.480 --> 00:27:35.839
GUS Power Systems business to develop the hydrogen and carbon

509
00:27:35.880 --> 00:27:42.599
capture business for the Americas, basically in North America and

510
00:27:42.640 --> 00:27:45.000
Latin America, but mostly to be honest between you and I,

511
00:27:45.039 --> 00:27:49.720
it was mostly the US at the time, and my

512
00:27:50.079 --> 00:27:55.240
responsibility was to take the existing technologies that we had

513
00:27:55.480 --> 00:27:59.279
and just put a commercial framework on how to sell

514
00:27:59.319 --> 00:28:03.599
them and find projects and clients that would be interested

515
00:28:03.640 --> 00:28:07.480
in in adopting those technologies so that we can decarbonize

516
00:28:07.519 --> 00:28:10.559
the fleet because the I guess I thought at the

517
00:28:10.599 --> 00:28:14.279
time was that we wanted to make the gas turbine

518
00:28:14.319 --> 00:28:17.920
fleet as green as possible so that they could continue

519
00:28:17.920 --> 00:28:21.039
to run in the long run, because you know, like

520
00:28:21.039 --> 00:28:26.119
like any other turbine manufacturing business, you have to waste

521
00:28:26.160 --> 00:28:28.559
of making money. You make money by selling the actual

522
00:28:28.599 --> 00:28:32.400
turbine and by servicing it. Right, So so you had

523
00:28:32.400 --> 00:28:35.880
a best interest in in in staying sort of green

524
00:28:36.359 --> 00:28:41.680
and keeping the gas turbines out of the The site of.

525
00:28:42.000 --> 00:28:44.200
Environmentalists that's right, that's right, right.

526
00:28:44.279 --> 00:28:46.759
So so yeah, so so that I was doing that,

527
00:28:46.960 --> 00:28:49.920
I was. I did it for like a single a year,

528
00:28:50.559 --> 00:28:53.799
and then I then I went to I you know,

529
00:28:53.799 --> 00:28:56.839
I went to a startup and also in actually also

530
00:28:56.880 --> 00:28:59.920
in carbon capture. So it was very it was an

531
00:29:00.240 --> 00:29:03.480
technology that was very much in line with what I

532
00:29:03.559 --> 00:29:05.359
had been doing at General Electric.

533
00:29:06.319 --> 00:29:08.400
All right, we're going to take our second break, and

534
00:29:08.440 --> 00:29:11.079
then we're going to get back into how you decided

535
00:29:11.119 --> 00:29:14.839
you wanted to move into coaching and developing others for

536
00:29:14.920 --> 00:29:15.880
their scalability.

537
00:29:15.960 --> 00:29:17.039
Okay, we'll be right back.

538
00:29:17.400 --> 00:29:22.200
Thank you.

539
00:29:22.200 --> 00:29:26.160
You're listening to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helenet on

540
00:29:26.440 --> 00:29:30.319
W four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com.

541
00:29:30.559 --> 00:29:33.240
Don't go away. More helpful information is coming right up

542
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right here on Winning Business Radio.

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The yp dot com website is your local search engine.

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554
00:30:12.039 --> 00:30:15.039
And now back to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helene

555
00:30:15.079 --> 00:30:18.920
presenting exciting topics and expert guests with one goal in

556
00:30:19.000 --> 00:30:22.480
mind to help you succeed in business. Here once again

557
00:30:22.799 --> 00:30:23.839
is Kevin Helenett.

558
00:30:30.799 --> 00:30:32.160
That's my ten year old headshot.

559
00:30:32.200 --> 00:30:37.200
By the way, how did you so, there's a there's

560
00:30:37.240 --> 00:30:39.559
a question we ended with we'll start here. How did

561
00:30:39.559 --> 00:30:42.000
you know you wanted to start working with others? And

562
00:30:42.079 --> 00:30:44.680
you had been doing mentoring, I know, during gees as

563
00:30:44.720 --> 00:30:46.839
an executive, et cetera. But how did you know you

564
00:30:46.839 --> 00:30:49.559
wanted that to be your full time passion.

565
00:30:50.839 --> 00:30:52.359
Well, that's a great that's a great question.

566
00:30:52.559 --> 00:30:58.759
So initially, like when I decided to start my own business,

567
00:31:00.119 --> 00:31:02.920
I was doing mostly just kind of like the same

568
00:31:02.920 --> 00:31:05.960
things that I was doing before, just the CFO work,

569
00:31:06.480 --> 00:31:08.960
and I was doing some M and A as well

570
00:31:10.440 --> 00:31:15.400
on the cell side. And so in the context of

571
00:31:15.440 --> 00:31:20.880
me working with small businesses, I realized that it was

572
00:31:20.960 --> 00:31:24.880
kind of like easy for me to sort of see

573
00:31:25.039 --> 00:31:27.839
what they were not seeing because you know, I've well,

574
00:31:27.880 --> 00:31:32.400
first of all, I worked on more mature businesses in

575
00:31:32.440 --> 00:31:36.279
a corporation, which is, you know, already has processes and

576
00:31:36.319 --> 00:31:41.400
everything kind of works to some extent, so I knew

577
00:31:41.440 --> 00:31:45.440
what a good process looked like, okay. And I also

578
00:31:45.799 --> 00:31:49.599
realized that all of my financial background that I kind

579
00:31:49.599 --> 00:31:52.519
of took for granted was just very very valuable and

580
00:31:52.680 --> 00:31:57.480
useful for founders in sort of the one to ten

581
00:31:57.519 --> 00:32:01.680
million dollars range. Really, the reason being is that a

582
00:32:01.720 --> 00:32:05.599
lot of founders just are really they have really great ideas.

583
00:32:05.720 --> 00:32:08.599
They are probably good at sales, good at product, but

584
00:32:08.720 --> 00:32:13.960
maybe they're not good at you know, finance, and they

585
00:32:13.960 --> 00:32:16.119
don't have to be. Not everybody has to be a

586
00:32:16.160 --> 00:32:19.680
waste of finance, right, But I figured that there was

587
00:32:19.680 --> 00:32:21.799
a lot of value that I could add on the

588
00:32:21.839 --> 00:32:26.640
finance side to these founders. And then additionally, I started

589
00:32:26.680 --> 00:32:30.559
noticing something that even caught my attention even more is

590
00:32:30.559 --> 00:32:33.839
that a lot of the problems that most of most

591
00:32:33.880 --> 00:32:37.160
founders are facing between one and ten million dollars in

592
00:32:37.240 --> 00:32:43.319
revenue are really mindset related. And this was actually fascinated,

593
00:32:43.640 --> 00:32:47.160
fascinating to me because I had been I've been investing

594
00:32:47.279 --> 00:32:50.119
a lot of time, and I've done a lot of

595
00:32:50.119 --> 00:32:55.400
like coaching and programs on personal development, and I figured

596
00:32:55.400 --> 00:33:01.640
there was an opportunity to actually help founders by bringing

597
00:33:01.799 --> 00:33:09.440
these three things together, finance, mindset, and strategy. And typically

598
00:33:09.480 --> 00:33:12.079
when you actually when you talk to certain coaches, some

599
00:33:12.119 --> 00:33:15.079
coaches are more on the sort of the mindset side,

600
00:33:15.559 --> 00:33:18.880
you know, others are more like maybe on the strategic

601
00:33:18.960 --> 00:33:21.839
side or maybe on the tactical side. I'll coach you

602
00:33:21.880 --> 00:33:24.680
on how to be a better sales leader, for example,

603
00:33:24.680 --> 00:33:29.960
if you know anybody like that. But but but what

604
00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:33.559
I've noticed, and I know it to be absolutely the truth,

605
00:33:33.720 --> 00:33:37.079
is that most business problems are mindset problems.

606
00:33:38.200 --> 00:33:40.160
I mean, you can call it which air way you want.

607
00:33:40.200 --> 00:33:42.480
But if you're if you're facing.

608
00:33:42.519 --> 00:33:45.920
A business problem and you think there's no other solution

609
00:33:46.079 --> 00:33:49.039
and you think that you are risked, you know, constrained

610
00:33:49.039 --> 00:33:53.559
by these things that you you know, identified as problems

611
00:33:53.599 --> 00:33:56.599
in your mind, the minute you change the way that

612
00:33:56.640 --> 00:33:59.359
you look at the problem, the problem that you're looking

613
00:33:59.400 --> 00:34:02.400
at change and you find a solution. So if that

614
00:34:02.559 --> 00:34:05.279
is not mindset, then I don't know what is mindset.

615
00:34:05.319 --> 00:34:08.320
But that's basically that was my observation.

616
00:34:08.519 --> 00:34:10.159
So I was going to add, if you think the

617
00:34:10.159 --> 00:34:14.320
problem is unsolvable, you're right at first, right of right,

618
00:34:14.480 --> 00:34:15.079
so you look at it.

619
00:34:15.159 --> 00:34:15.360
Yeah.

620
00:34:15.679 --> 00:34:18.599
Yeah, So I figured there was a there was an

621
00:34:18.639 --> 00:34:21.800
opportunity to bring those three things together and h and

622
00:34:21.840 --> 00:34:25.719
make it more powerful and uh, And that's basically I mean,

623
00:34:25.719 --> 00:34:28.440
I think we've talked, we've spoken about this before. I

624
00:34:28.480 --> 00:34:32.480
developed my sort of my IP on top of the

625
00:34:32.920 --> 00:34:37.000
scaling up harsh pology. Yeah, that's sort of my my

626
00:34:37.159 --> 00:34:42.039
core framework. But I figured that that framework also needed

627
00:34:42.559 --> 00:34:46.559
additional things like mindset and and sort of the the

628
00:34:46.599 --> 00:34:53.039
financial sort of the financial insights to basically scaling a company.

629
00:34:53.840 --> 00:34:56.719
And that's and specifically, I mean I would say that

630
00:34:56.760 --> 00:34:59.800
this is more specifically for smaller companies because if you're

631
00:34:59.800 --> 00:35:02.960
talk talking about scaling a three hundred million dollar company,

632
00:35:03.000 --> 00:35:07.880
you a CUFO, you probably have good, good financial systems,

633
00:35:08.199 --> 00:35:12.159
So the finance is no longer as important. Maybe there

634
00:35:12.199 --> 00:35:16.199
are all aspects, but I'm talking specifically about my sort

635
00:35:16.199 --> 00:35:18.679
of my ideal client profile, which is from one to

636
00:35:18.760 --> 00:35:23.119
ten that is definitely a product in a way of

637
00:35:23.119 --> 00:35:24.960
going to market that works for them.

638
00:35:25.280 --> 00:35:28.599
So in addition to mindset, well cover those three areas.

639
00:35:28.639 --> 00:35:31.840
But I've heard you say that most founders get stuck

640
00:35:32.079 --> 00:35:34.800
right when they reach between three and seven. Why is

641
00:35:34.840 --> 00:35:41.400
that a tipping point three? Constrained theory? Okay, so constraint theory.

642
00:35:41.519 --> 00:35:46.280
So basically, constraint theory says that process or in this case,

643
00:35:46.320 --> 00:35:50.519
a business will grow until it reaches a constraint, and

644
00:35:50.519 --> 00:35:54.280
then it will grow no further. Okay, it's the same thing.

645
00:35:54.599 --> 00:35:57.719
When you are starting your business. You're in a you're

646
00:35:57.840 --> 00:36:01.000
sort of in survival stage, right, You're a startup and

647
00:36:01.039 --> 00:36:03.679
you're just trying to get to product market fit. You're

648
00:36:03.760 --> 00:36:08.639
trying to just basically make gain client profitable.

649
00:36:08.920 --> 00:36:10.119
Yeah, become profitable.

650
00:36:10.280 --> 00:36:13.079
It leads all of the things that you know, maybe

651
00:36:13.239 --> 00:36:17.360
attract people, hire people, build partnerships, build partnerships, all of

652
00:36:17.400 --> 00:36:20.159
those things. You're focused on that, and then at some

653
00:36:20.320 --> 00:36:24.000
point you have been you are the business, right, you have.

654
00:36:24.079 --> 00:36:26.280
Kind of like helpers around you that are helping you.

655
00:36:26.920 --> 00:36:32.000
But eventually you reach a point where that play is

656
00:36:32.079 --> 00:36:36.920
no longer viable because why because you went from maybe

657
00:36:36.960 --> 00:36:38.880
having ten clients to now you have one hundred and

658
00:36:38.880 --> 00:36:42.199
fifty clients, and the processes that you came up when

659
00:36:42.239 --> 00:36:44.960
you only had ten clients. They don't really scale when

660
00:36:44.960 --> 00:36:47.320
you are like one hundred and fifty or two hundred clients,

661
00:36:48.320 --> 00:36:50.800
and maybe they delivery right. It was easy to deliver

662
00:36:50.960 --> 00:36:53.880
to ten clients, but if you have one hundred clients

663
00:36:53.920 --> 00:36:57.400
that you need to delivering in different locations or different

664
00:36:57.440 --> 00:37:02.159
products with different specifications, that's when things get stuck and

665
00:37:02.679 --> 00:37:06.320
problems happen, and then most of your time then goes

666
00:37:06.360 --> 00:37:09.599
from thinking about the strategy and the growth of the future.

667
00:37:10.039 --> 00:37:12.159
You spend most of your time now in the weeks

668
00:37:12.280 --> 00:37:16.320
trying to fix problems, and then because you're tied into

669
00:37:16.360 --> 00:37:19.039
fixing the problems, you have no time to think about

670
00:37:19.280 --> 00:37:21.480
how you know, who are the new talents that you

671
00:37:21.559 --> 00:37:24.719
need to recruit or or who like, what is the

672
00:37:24.719 --> 00:37:28.079
next thing for your company? What are the areas where

673
00:37:28.079 --> 00:37:32.199
you need to improve because you're so into the details.

674
00:37:31.840 --> 00:37:33.519
And this is where you know.

675
00:37:33.840 --> 00:37:37.079
With my mentalology, what we do is basically try to

676
00:37:37.320 --> 00:37:42.239
identify how to free you up in the first ninety days.

677
00:37:42.320 --> 00:37:43.440
So that's my mission in the.

678
00:37:43.440 --> 00:37:46.239
First ninety Dainty, Yeah, I want to make sure that

679
00:37:46.280 --> 00:37:48.679
we create the space for you to be able to

680
00:37:48.719 --> 00:37:51.920
take a step back so that we can actually start

681
00:37:51.920 --> 00:37:53.920
thinking about the growth of your company, because if we

682
00:37:53.960 --> 00:37:56.400
don't do that, then even if we do the work,

683
00:37:56.440 --> 00:37:57.880
what's going to happen is that you're not going to

684
00:37:57.960 --> 00:38:00.079
have time, you're not going to have the conviction, and

685
00:38:00.440 --> 00:38:02.119
you're you know, we're not going to be able to

686
00:38:02.719 --> 00:38:05.440
successfully implement all the things that we need to do

687
00:38:05.559 --> 00:38:08.320
in order to get the company moving into the next level.

688
00:38:08.400 --> 00:38:11.840
So it really requires a sort of a mindset shift

689
00:38:12.039 --> 00:38:16.199
of going from what I call being a firefighter, okay,

690
00:38:16.199 --> 00:38:18.719
and I don't mean that anotherrogatory fashion.

691
00:38:19.119 --> 00:38:23.960
It's just a tag from firefighter to architect, okay.

692
00:38:24.039 --> 00:38:30.280
So that's that's where we reactive to proactive, reactive to proactive.

693
00:38:30.360 --> 00:38:33.719
So when you're an architect, you're you're creating systems. You know,

694
00:38:33.800 --> 00:38:38.039
the systems kind of like run the processes. You have metrics,

695
00:38:38.360 --> 00:38:42.599
You have a team that has a clear objective. They

696
00:38:42.639 --> 00:38:45.920
have KPIs that they know they're being measured on. You

697
00:38:46.000 --> 00:38:50.159
have execution rhythms, so that you know every week, every

698
00:38:50.199 --> 00:38:55.760
month and requorder, you're revisiting the results, making changes, improving things.

699
00:38:55.880 --> 00:38:59.480
You have a way to measure whether people are being

700
00:38:59.519 --> 00:39:02.400
effective or not in their job and maybe have a

701
00:39:02.440 --> 00:39:05.159
way to help them. So they can get to the

702
00:39:05.199 --> 00:39:10.719
next level. All of those things is basically just putting processes.

703
00:39:11.440 --> 00:39:16.679
Is the structure for running your company more smoothly and

704
00:39:16.840 --> 00:39:20.679
in a way that requires less intervention from you, which

705
00:39:20.719 --> 00:39:21.679
is that's what we.

706
00:39:21.599 --> 00:39:25.760
Want beyond the beyond the founder, right.

707
00:39:25.920 --> 00:39:28.320
Beyond the founder, because in the end, it doesn't mean

708
00:39:28.320 --> 00:39:31.000
that you're like removing yourself from the business. What you

709
00:39:31.039 --> 00:39:32.719
want to be is you want to be free to

710
00:39:32.800 --> 00:39:34.880
be able to say, you know what, now my business

711
00:39:35.000 --> 00:39:38.039
needs me here, you know, and like I need to

712
00:39:38.280 --> 00:39:41.679
basically help the sales leader do whatever it is that

713
00:39:41.719 --> 00:39:44.079
we need to do to double our sales, or now

714
00:39:44.119 --> 00:39:46.559
it's I need to spend more time on the delivery

715
00:39:46.800 --> 00:39:50.480
because if we fix that constraint on the delivery side,

716
00:39:50.480 --> 00:39:52.719
we're going to be able to serve twice in the

717
00:39:52.800 --> 00:39:55.920
number of the amount of clients. So these are the

718
00:39:55.960 --> 00:39:58.039
kinds of things where you need to have that flexibility

719
00:39:58.159 --> 00:40:03.639
and that sort of availability to be able to choose

720
00:40:04.239 --> 00:40:06.239
what are the next steps and how do you best

721
00:40:06.360 --> 00:40:10.519
allocate your time and uh and and also have planning

722
00:40:10.559 --> 00:40:12.039
time for yourself for the business.

723
00:40:12.840 --> 00:40:13.440
So it's the.

724
00:40:13.400 --> 00:40:16.199
Headspace and the time to be for example, creative. What

725
00:40:16.239 --> 00:40:19.039
else could the company do. What are the soot products

726
00:40:19.039 --> 00:40:21.400
and or services we could be offering that we're not. Now,

727
00:40:21.880 --> 00:40:27.119
all right, you've identified six top areas of concern. Touch

728
00:40:27.159 --> 00:40:29.679
on these briefly. Cash flow chaos you.

729
00:40:29.639 --> 00:40:32.159
Call it, oh Man cash floos.

730
00:40:32.559 --> 00:40:35.519
So you know how a lot of companies, well you

731
00:40:35.599 --> 00:40:37.840
probably have listened to some of your clients in the

732
00:40:37.880 --> 00:40:42.199
past where they are you know, they're running somewhat successful companies,

733
00:40:42.199 --> 00:40:45.119
maybe two three million dollars, and they feel like they're

734
00:40:45.199 --> 00:40:50.519
always cash strapped. Gosh is you know it's just died, okay?

735
00:40:50.519 --> 00:40:52.840
And then sometimes they say, well, you know, clients are

736
00:40:52.840 --> 00:40:56.159
not paying as well, you know they're not playing, you know,

737
00:40:56.760 --> 00:41:00.920
not paying on time, or I'm having issues because of

738
00:41:00.960 --> 00:41:05.440
the competition and all of those things. And I happen

739
00:41:05.519 --> 00:41:09.360
to pin all of those excuses in the mindset sort

740
00:41:09.360 --> 00:41:12.880
of a bin okay, because they are really mindset. Because

741
00:41:13.119 --> 00:41:15.320
the minutage you change the offer or the way that

742
00:41:15.400 --> 00:41:19.280
you deliver the business, or maybe the kind of clients

743
00:41:19.280 --> 00:41:22.480
that you have, all of these issues can be solved.

744
00:41:22.480 --> 00:41:26.880
Obviously not immediately, but with the intention to finding a

745
00:41:26.960 --> 00:41:30.840
solution to a problem, you can create the conditions to

746
00:41:30.920 --> 00:41:34.159
be able to have a business that generates better cash flow.

747
00:41:34.719 --> 00:41:39.480
And I mean there's plenty of stories about businesses that

748
00:41:39.519 --> 00:41:42.280
were like burning cash and they were like cash strapped.

749
00:41:41.960 --> 00:41:43.960
And then they make a change and then they became

750
00:41:44.480 --> 00:41:45.719
you know, cash positive.

751
00:41:45.880 --> 00:41:49.519
So it is possible to do that, but it it

752
00:41:49.559 --> 00:41:53.199
requires time and dedication, right, you need to go into

753
00:41:53.239 --> 00:41:55.840
it and like put some thought into well, is these

754
00:41:55.920 --> 00:41:58.480
kinds of clients or these kinds of products or these

755
00:41:58.519 --> 00:42:02.320
types of products that are generating the issue And for

756
00:42:02.360 --> 00:42:04.320
that you need to have the time and the uh

757
00:42:04.760 --> 00:42:06.039
and the patients.

758
00:42:05.519 --> 00:42:08.519
To be able to go to the process of identifying.

759
00:42:08.559 --> 00:42:11.239
How where where are the areas that can be improved,

760
00:42:11.599 --> 00:42:13.039
and then what are the things that you can do

761
00:42:13.159 --> 00:42:15.559
to continue to retain the clients but in a different

762
00:42:15.559 --> 00:42:18.840
capacity where they're you know, they they are worth much

763
00:42:18.880 --> 00:42:21.880
more to you because they pay better outstanding.

764
00:42:22.159 --> 00:42:24.280
You touched on the CEO bottleneck. You want to touch

765
00:42:24.280 --> 00:42:27.840
more on that the CEO bottleneck. Wow.

766
00:42:28.280 --> 00:42:32.239
So this is where we we.

767
00:42:32.360 --> 00:42:37.199
Have the belief. Sometimes some founders have the belief that

768
00:42:38.079 --> 00:42:40.960
their team is not good enough, that if they don't

769
00:42:41.000 --> 00:42:46.000
fix the the issues in their in their company, nobody will,

770
00:42:46.440 --> 00:42:50.159
and that they are the only individual that can that

771
00:42:50.280 --> 00:42:52.639
can do so, and they have this what I call

772
00:42:52.719 --> 00:42:57.000
kind of like this hero complex, Okay, And and when

773
00:42:57.000 --> 00:43:01.000
that happens, it's really it's really easy to convince yourself

774
00:43:01.679 --> 00:43:04.480
that that is that feels very true and that's the

775
00:43:05.039 --> 00:43:08.760
only reality that makes sense. But the reality is that

776
00:43:08.800 --> 00:43:11.400
if you really want to scale your company, you can

777
00:43:11.559 --> 00:43:16.519
be in the center of every decision. It's just I mean,

778
00:43:16.760 --> 00:43:18.119
if you want to put a name to it, that's

779
00:43:18.159 --> 00:43:20.360
just physics, right, I mean, if you're in the middle

780
00:43:20.440 --> 00:43:23.880
of everything, the system can only grow or can only

781
00:43:23.920 --> 00:43:28.559
scale as you have the capacity to give yourself your time,

782
00:43:28.599 --> 00:43:31.320
et cetera. And we all know that we are still

783
00:43:31.400 --> 00:43:34.880
humans for now, right, and we have a limited capacity

784
00:43:34.960 --> 00:43:40.079
in our time, in our brain power, and so it

785
00:43:40.159 --> 00:43:44.280
becomes you can become the constrained for growth in your

786
00:43:44.280 --> 00:43:45.320
own company.

787
00:43:45.719 --> 00:43:47.519
I watched my dad, as smart as he was, as

788
00:43:47.639 --> 00:43:50.599
educated as he was, never take vacations. There was a

789
00:43:50.599 --> 00:43:52.400
period of time where he just felt like he couldn't

790
00:43:52.440 --> 00:43:57.840
step away from his company. He didn't equip anybody execution overload.

791
00:44:00.159 --> 00:44:01.639
Execution overload.

792
00:44:01.800 --> 00:44:09.159
So I would say for this one, it's when you basically,

793
00:44:09.159 --> 00:44:12.559
when you have a team of people that are doing

794
00:44:12.800 --> 00:44:19.280
processes that are broken, okay, And they are trying to

795
00:44:19.599 --> 00:44:22.639
do the best they can with the processes that they have,

796
00:44:23.280 --> 00:44:26.599
and eventually they start to break over and over again

797
00:44:27.119 --> 00:44:31.519
to the point that it becomes a major point of

798
00:44:31.599 --> 00:44:36.920
tension in the organization. And then nobody really knows sometimes

799
00:44:37.079 --> 00:44:38.719
or sometimes you do know, but you don't know how

800
00:44:38.719 --> 00:44:43.440
to fix it, okay, because again, to fix something, it

801
00:44:43.480 --> 00:44:47.400
requires time. And if you don't have time, and if

802
00:44:47.400 --> 00:44:52.360
you don't have enough capacity to be able to understand process,

803
00:44:52.400 --> 00:44:55.320
map the process and make the changes, retrain the people,

804
00:44:55.800 --> 00:44:58.400
give them a better install a better system, and do

805
00:44:58.440 --> 00:44:59.800
the thing that you need to do in order to

806
00:44:59.840 --> 00:45:04.559
make get better, then your execution continues to be capped

807
00:45:05.280 --> 00:45:08.079
for as long as you don't fix this problem.

808
00:45:08.400 --> 00:45:10.079
All right, Hiring feels like a gamble.

809
00:45:11.760 --> 00:45:14.519
Hiring feels like a gamble that happens, but you don't

810
00:45:14.519 --> 00:45:19.519
have a system for hiring. And a lot of I

811
00:45:19.559 --> 00:45:22.119
don't know if you've heard or you've experienced this, but

812
00:45:22.199 --> 00:45:23.119
I've seen.

813
00:45:24.480 --> 00:45:28.239
A couple of client, former clients of mine. They were

814
00:45:28.320 --> 00:45:31.840
just dep They just wanted people, warm bodies, the warm bodies,

815
00:45:32.119 --> 00:45:34.880
right and uh, And there was no.

816
00:45:35.960 --> 00:45:40.679
Reflection about whether those individuals were aligned with their values

817
00:45:41.400 --> 00:45:45.119
that the job, that they had all the capabilities required

818
00:45:45.159 --> 00:45:49.599
to do the job at hand, and that that they

819
00:45:50.159 --> 00:45:53.960
and also more importantly, like even if they brought them

820
00:45:53.960 --> 00:45:57.280
into the organization, they didn't have a good onboarding system

821
00:45:57.800 --> 00:46:00.639
to make sure that they were teed up or success

822
00:46:00.960 --> 00:46:04.000
because when you hire somebody, it's not just getting them

823
00:46:04.000 --> 00:46:06.960
into the company, it's just getting it's just also onboarding

824
00:46:07.000 --> 00:46:10.039
them and getting them through the process so that they

825
00:46:10.079 --> 00:46:12.719
know exactly what their job is. They have all the

826
00:46:12.800 --> 00:46:15.760
right tools, and they have the authority to make the

827
00:46:15.800 --> 00:46:18.159
decisions that they need to make in order to be

828
00:46:18.159 --> 00:46:21.159
successful in their job. And if you don't equip equip

829
00:46:21.280 --> 00:46:26.639
them with that, then then it's just it's I mean,

830
00:46:26.679 --> 00:46:28.000
they're not going to be successful.

831
00:46:28.079 --> 00:46:29.199
That's really what it is.

832
00:46:29.599 --> 00:46:31.840
All right, sales and marketing plateau, and we have one

833
00:46:31.880 --> 00:46:33.400
more we are almost out of time.

834
00:46:34.119 --> 00:46:38.960
Sales and marketing plateau is it's typically driven by what

835
00:46:39.079 --> 00:46:42.039
we just discussed, the theory of constraints. Right, you know,

836
00:46:42.079 --> 00:46:44.599
the play that you were running, the product that you

837
00:46:44.599 --> 00:46:48.039
were selling. You know, eventually you you run out of

838
00:46:48.079 --> 00:46:50.960
people to sell it to, or the market changes, or

839
00:46:51.000 --> 00:46:54.079
the market changes, and uh, I mean, but it's it's

840
00:46:54.079 --> 00:46:57.559
really it comes down to theory of constraint at the

841
00:46:57.639 --> 00:46:58.159
end of the day.

842
00:46:58.239 --> 00:47:00.239
And uh, and once you figure.

843
00:47:00.159 --> 00:47:04.159
Out what about, what feature of what about the way

844
00:47:04.159 --> 00:47:06.159
that you're going to market needs to change, and you

845
00:47:06.199 --> 00:47:09.079
make the changes, then that's when you unlock the growth again.

846
00:47:09.760 --> 00:47:11.039
Last financial blind spot.

847
00:47:12.559 --> 00:47:16.199
Wow, I'll tell you something, and I'm sure you're going

848
00:47:16.239 --> 00:47:19.159
to appreciate what I'm about to say, but I can

849
00:47:19.360 --> 00:47:22.559
assure you that any business that you put in front

850
00:47:22.639 --> 00:47:24.039
of me, or anybody.

851
00:47:23.599 --> 00:47:26.920
For that matter, if you really really.

852
00:47:26.840 --> 00:47:31.559
Dig deep, you're going to find that is leaking cash somewhere.

853
00:47:32.119 --> 00:47:37.159
It is almost an impossibility to find a financial a

854
00:47:37.199 --> 00:47:41.639
business that is one hundred percent financially optimized. There's always

855
00:47:41.679 --> 00:47:45.639
an opportunity to find either more cash or more profits.

856
00:47:46.239 --> 00:47:50.440
For those who are committed to finding more cash and

857
00:47:50.480 --> 00:47:51.679
more profits.

858
00:47:52.880 --> 00:47:55.000
Think about that, it's almost.

859
00:47:54.639 --> 00:47:56.480
Like, yeah, it's alarming.

860
00:47:56.519 --> 00:48:01.079
Almost rights, it's alarming because you're you're always we're constantly

861
00:48:01.159 --> 00:48:04.400
leaving money on the table and and the and it's

862
00:48:04.519 --> 00:48:07.880
just a lot of money or less money. But there's

863
00:48:07.920 --> 00:48:11.039
always something that is being that can be done differently,

864
00:48:11.800 --> 00:48:14.519
something that can be sold differently, something that can be

865
00:48:14.639 --> 00:48:20.519
delivered differently, something that is being charged incorrectly in a place,

866
00:48:20.559 --> 00:48:23.559
so we don't we can't see it. And what happens

867
00:48:23.719 --> 00:48:29.039
is a lot of founders are looking at revenue, perhaps

868
00:48:29.480 --> 00:48:32.880
gross profit and maybe overhead because they want to know

869
00:48:32.920 --> 00:48:36.039
that they're not spending more than they're bringing in. Okay,

870
00:48:36.039 --> 00:48:38.880
and that's it, and they just want to know that

871
00:48:38.880 --> 00:48:43.199
they managed to a budget. But many times they don't

872
00:48:43.280 --> 00:48:48.920
have the financial expertise to go deep to do product

873
00:48:49.000 --> 00:48:54.119
analysis to understand so if there are optimizations on the

874
00:48:54.159 --> 00:48:57.119
act side. You know, there's all these things, all these

875
00:48:57.159 --> 00:49:05.480
different aspects of evaluating financials that most people miss. And

876
00:49:05.519 --> 00:49:09.639
that's why I'm saying that most founders, I would say,

877
00:49:09.760 --> 00:49:10.840
are flying blind.

878
00:49:12.280 --> 00:49:14.199
Well, I wish we had more time. In fact, I

879
00:49:14.199 --> 00:49:16.360
will get you back the next probably after the first

880
00:49:16.400 --> 00:49:18.679
of the year. But for now, who in the viewing

881
00:49:18.719 --> 00:49:21.000
and listening audiences should reach out to you?

882
00:49:21.199 --> 00:49:21.960
And why.

883
00:49:23.199 --> 00:49:23.280
So?

884
00:49:24.159 --> 00:49:27.519
If you have revenues between one in ten million dollars

885
00:49:28.079 --> 00:49:33.519
and you are a growth driven founder who want to

886
00:49:33.559 --> 00:49:37.159
scale your company and are looking to partner with somebody

887
00:49:37.239 --> 00:49:40.840
who can bring sort of expertise not only on financials,

888
00:49:40.880 --> 00:49:44.639
but on strategy and also the energy of growth, which

889
00:49:44.719 --> 00:49:47.840
is something that is cool to have around in your company.

890
00:49:48.079 --> 00:49:49.960
That is the kind of founders that I want to

891
00:49:50.000 --> 00:49:53.199
work with. And you know, if you want to look

892
00:49:53.239 --> 00:49:55.679
me up, and I am on LinkedIn, a pretty active

893
00:49:55.760 --> 00:49:59.639
on LinkedIn again, cruise Gomboa and you can check me

894
00:49:59.639 --> 00:50:00.000
out there.

895
00:50:00.039 --> 00:50:02.440
And I'm you know, we can connect.

896
00:50:03.760 --> 00:50:06.360
On LinkedIn or through my website which is at Sandgrowth

897
00:50:06.440 --> 00:50:08.559
Ventures dot com, so you can check me out there

898
00:50:08.599 --> 00:50:09.000
as well.

899
00:50:09.360 --> 00:50:12.119
Great, this has been fun for me. I'm looking forward

900
00:50:12.159 --> 00:50:14.199
to having you back. Thank you for your time and

901
00:50:14.199 --> 00:50:15.559
I really appreciate you being here.

902
00:50:16.559 --> 00:50:18.480
Thank you so much, Karen. I love it. I love

903
00:50:18.559 --> 00:50:19.559
this conversation. Thank you.

904
00:50:19.880 --> 00:50:23.039
Thank you me too, and thanks everybody for watching and listening.

905
00:50:23.079 --> 00:50:25.519
This is a show about business and business challenges and

906
00:50:25.559 --> 00:50:29.960
business successes. If you've got concerns about the sales effectiveness

907
00:50:29.960 --> 00:50:31.840
of your company, whether your sales team is you or

908
00:50:31.880 --> 00:50:33.880
small or large, feel free to reach out to me

909
00:50:34.360 --> 00:50:38.000
that's on LinkedIn or Facebook at Winning Business Radio. One

910
00:50:38.000 --> 00:50:40.039
of my many email addresses, as I often say, is

911
00:50:40.119 --> 00:50:43.519
Kevin at Winning Business radio dot com. Our company develops

912
00:50:43.719 --> 00:50:47.320
sales teams at the high achievers and sales leaders into

913
00:50:47.360 --> 00:50:49.760
true coaches and mentors, and you can probably see the

914
00:50:49.760 --> 00:50:52.480
partnership with Cruz there. We're not a fit for everybody,

915
00:50:52.519 --> 00:50:54.559
but we maybe we should have a conversation. Thank you

916
00:50:54.639 --> 00:50:57.480
one for another great job. Be sure to join us

917
00:50:57.519 --> 00:51:00.000
next week Monday, September fifteenth.

918
00:51:00.119 --> 00:51:02.079
We'll do it all again. Until then, this is Kevin

919
00:51:02.119 --> 00:51:02.440
helen In.

920
00:51:04.559 --> 00:51:07.079
You have been listening to Winning Business Radio with your

921
00:51:07.079 --> 00:51:10.559
host Kevin Helenin. If you missed any part of this episode,

922
00:51:10.639 --> 00:51:14.800
the podcast is available on Talk for Podcasting and iHeartRadio.

923
00:51:15.280 --> 00:51:18.960
For more information and questions, go to Winning Business Radio

924
00:51:19.079 --> 00:51:22.119
dot com or check us out on social media. Tune

925
00:51:22.159 --> 00:51:24.239
in again next week and every Monday at four pm

926
00:51:24.239 --> 00:51:27.760
Eastern Time to listen live to Winning Business Radio on

927
00:51:28.039 --> 00:51:32.239
W four CY Radio W four cy dot com. Until then,

928
00:51:32.639 --> 00:51:36.239
let's succeed where others have failed and win in business

929
00:51:36.519 --> 00:51:40.320
with Kevin helen In and Winning Business Radio