Video Closed Captioning:
good morning good afternoon good evening
folks Michael Zuber with run retail at a
time back with the one and only Mr Greg
Dickerson how you doing sir doing great
Michael how are you today I’m doing
wonderful man I love getting to talk to
you bright and early Monday mornings my
time get to ask you very unique
questions I’m lucky enough to talk to
now 10 millionaires every week but you
you have a unique skill set both video
number one you were a builder of luxury
and first-time homebuyers video number
two you are an entrepreneur your story
of a truck in a toolbox made it in my
second book 15 conversations with
millionaires so I’m going to ask you to
put on your entrepreneur hat not that
you ever take it off but let’s put that
one on specifically and I want to talk
to you as an entrepreneur an experienced
entrepreneur somebody who coaches and
helps other entrepreneurs get started I
want to ask you what do a lot of people
kind of
almost have over confidence on when they
get started and equally maybe some
things that they are too concerned about
when they get started because I think a
lot of folks when they enter
entrepreneurships they probably are
overconfident here and they’re too
scared over here and it’s there’s a
mishmash of things going on what do you
think yeah it’s it depends on the
individual it’s all over the map but you
know with a lot of people they think
more about the problems and the hurdles
than they do the gold that they’re
trying to achieve so the best thing to
do is you know think about the problem
you’re trying to solve get after it and
then the other things will take care of
themselves but a lot of people just
think about all the little different
things that are the little roadblocks
that might be in their way or things
that they have to do or hurdles or
whatever and then like you said on the
other other side of the coin a lot of
times people will underestimate what
they’re actually capable of and you know
you’ve heard the saying where you know
most people under overestimate what they
can do in a year or underestimate what
they can do in five years or something I
can’t remember what the saying is but
overestimated air underestimating five
yeah yeah yeah at the end of the day a
lot of people underestimate what they’re
actually capable of in the long term
because most people can’t think you know
long term in that way and then you have
the other side of the coin where people
are just overly optimistic and way
overestimate their capabilities don’t
understand their limitations therefore
they don’t know how to fill in the gaps
with their weaknesses and their
limitations
um but I’d say you know the biggest
thing is people focusing on uh what can
stop them which is limiting belief
versus focusing on the problem you’re
solving and just getting after and
providing Solutions yeah one thing
that’s similar about our background in
this respect only is is
um for the last 10 years of my career I
managed first or second line sales teams
and I always looked at a sales leader as
an entrepreneur right you own these 10
accounts you own this patch of dirt you
own this whatever and it’s your job to
extract a certain amount of Revenue it’s
called a quota from that area and the
entire organization right everyone
around you from product engineering to
marketing to customer service to all of
them they’re here to use to help you but
they also can be a distraction let me
explain
right when you when you’re a salesperson
there’s there’s no lack of people trying
to help
and what I’ve always told sales teams
right because again I got on stage and I
spoke to teams is I want everybody in
the room who’s not that doesn’t have a
quota to think about this
every sales rep in this room has a
backpack
and in that backpack the first thing
that goes is my quota
they have to deliver two million bucks
in 12 months for example
now I know all of you want to help and
you want references and you want to get
customer support tickets and you want to
get maintenance renewals and you want to
do all these things I want to I want to
ask everyone else around this are you
adding rocks to their backpack making it
harder or are you actually making it
easier right and the reason I bring this
up is because what I see a lot of sales
people do and I must have worked with
over a thousand of them
is and I and I want to ask you this as
an entrepreneur to see if it’s the same
some sales people get focused on being
busy
and don’t focus on what actually drives
Revenue so they come to all the meetings
and they got all these other people
doing all these amazing things but
they’re behind on their quota because
they’re not doing Revenue generating
activities and I think there’s a lot of
entrepreneurs who get distracted in
being an entrepreneur and system and
processes and they forget where the hell
is the revenue coming from so is there
that kind of distraction or not really
yeah absolutely I mean what you’re
talking about is just people don’t want
to pick up the phone and call you know
so it’s just they’re afraid of rejection
you know they have that resistance a lot
of it too is your your network people
that are around you and other people
that don’t think what you’re doing is
possible because they haven’t done it
and they’ll try to stop you so you know
listening to other bad influences uh
that can stop people but for an
entrepreneur specifically
um not focusing on the right things when
you’re starting a business which again
the right thing is uh you know focusing
on the problem you’re solving and as
soon as you can filling in the Gap so
that you can give away all the little
things as an entrepreneur you’re a
creative Visionary somebody who has to
like you know get after and think you
know you’re not necessarily the guy that
needs to be filling out spreadsheets
right so you can you can get distracted
you know doing order fulfillment
customer service all these different
things when when an entrepreneur is is a
leader a Visionary you’re supposed to be
building the team that can solve the
problems that you lead down the field so
you know the analogy I always use is the
head coach of a sports team right the
head coach’s job is not to play every
position the players are doing and all
of that you know the head coach is to
lead the organization they’ve got
assistant coaches and then you’ve got
the players and you’ve got all the
support around it so for a lot of
entrepreneurs they get so bogged down
the details because they can’t let go
they don’t know how to let go and they
don’t know what systems put in place so
you need people need systems and you
need uh you know the ability to execute
and focus on the right kpis as you get
going along so that’s getting a little
deeper than what you’re asking but at
the end of the day for depending on what
people are doing a lot of people just
don’t want to do the work you know they
just get distracted by other things they
just don’t want to do what they need to
do which for sales it’s picking up the
phone you know for an entrepreneur you
know it’s finding the right people and
letting go of that control and
delegating and uh you know filling in
your weaknesses instead of you know
trying to build on your weaknesses
delegate that out focus on your strength
and then get after it yeah I think
there’s a lot of things when I look at
entrepreneurs and I bring up
entrepreneurs because I think there’s a
lot of of Real Estate Investors whether
it’s wholesalers flippers you know of
that Oak that have had it really easy
the last two years
and I’m already hearing from many of
them that are pretty stressed out right
they’ve already burned through their
savings they maybe have too many
projects going on they’re going to lose
some money on and and when I kind of
talk to them one-on-one
it
they got high on their own Supply they
didn’t realize the market made them uh
and two they seem to have put layers
between them and revenue right they
they’re playing they’re playing like
Master operator but they’re not actually
in control of the revenue anymore and
they wonder what’s what’s going on uh
maybe I you know it just seems Seems
like there’s a lot of pain coming to
some investors who uh don’t realize that
the market made them well it’s investors
and businesses because you know the cost
of capital so anybody who has to
refinance anything whether it’s you know
corporate debt whether it’s real estate
debt whatever uh that’s number one
that’s you know there’s going to be
companies going out of business because
they can’t refinance their debt uh
there’s going to be Real Estate
Investors that have properties that they
have to refinance that’s not working or
they have adjustable rate you know
mortgages that are going up uh and then
you have the ability to adjust and adapt
to a changing Market it’s like I said
when it’s going up you lead the market
up whatever you sold yesterday you sell
for 20 more today you sell for 20 more
tomorrow when the market is declining
whatever you bought yesterday you buy
for 20 less today you buy for 20 less
tomorrow as the market is declining it
takes a while for that to go through the
seller’s heads and a lot of people are
fooled by you know little market
movements and things like that and uh
you know but we’re in it we’re in a
declining market right now real estate
values are adjusting so you have to kind
of hold firm and hold your guns and you
can’t expect values to go back where
they were in anytime soon unless rates
drop all of a sudden back down to two
and a half three percent yeah when you
look at entrepreneurs uh and you’re
coaching someone I’m sure you’re
coaching lots of people so right when
you’re coaching a new entrepreneur who’s
gonna about to launch an initiative into
a changing cycle right I I think you and
I always talk about Good Times Never
Last bad times Never Last I think it’s
very clear that the good times are over
for a little bit now what are you kind
of telling them to get right are you are
are you saying go hard and fast are you
saying hey watch your Burn Right In the
Beginning uh have extra reserves how are
you coaching them as they get ready to
launch into what you know clearly could
be a recession and some are calling for
a you know either a long or a deep
recession yeah so it depends on the
market you’re in obviously you want to
make sure that there is opportunity you
know in the market that you’re getting
after but yeah you want to be a little
more lean than you were we’re in
uncertain times in a lot of different
ways from an economic standpoint you
need to understand who your who your
client is who your target is what your
Market is who your competitors are I
mean there’s a lot of things you have to
be be a lot more sensitive to now
because the economy is Contracting you
know people are pulling back on their
spending in all levels you know but at
the same token There’s real
opportunities out there a great time to
start a business in defense right you
know defense spending is going to go up
and through the roof all around the
world so I mean in every environment
there’s always opportunities you know uh
there’s opportunities in debt
restructuring there’s opportunities and
you know I mean again where are the
biggest problems that you can solve and
you’re going to have problems in every
environment and then you have to go
where uh you know where the
opportunities are where the capital is
flowing into but you know in these times
you have to you know well I’ll tell you
what’s over are the the valuations that
we’ve seen in the past like people that
want to start something think they’re
going to get 20 30 40x and I’m and I’m
coaching people that are looking for
exits I’ve had to rein in their
expectations on multiples because that
has changed because cost of capital has
changed so you know the deals that were
done over the last two years you know
aren’t being being done right now but
they’re still being done you just gotta
you know bring rain in that level or you
wait so you know if it’s an existing
concern they’re looking for an exit
you’ve got to tighten the range you got
to focus more on uh Top Line Sales and
earnings and produce overhead you know
reduce that that spending uh that was so
easily prevalent in the last couple of
years and in those you know exit
expectations so yeah that’s that’s kind
of where it’s at now but there’ll be
opportunities but you know it’s just
these there’s very uncertain times right
now nobody knows what the outcome is
going to be but we’re going to talk
about that in video number three kind of
asked you to put your uh you know Back
to the Future head-on and talk about
2023 I’m looking forward to that but
when I you know if I were to summarize
Greg Dickerson if I were to introduce
you on stage is I would say something
like he’s he’s generally the most
optimistic you’ll see opportunity
everywhere that’s that’s kind of how I
feel when I speak with you like
opportunities out there you just have to
look for it maybe you have to look a
little bit harder now but it is out
there kind of wrap this up for us and
tell us where uh people can find you
yeah Greg dickerson.com that’s where
you’ll find the Eternal optimism in all
situations but also very calculating of
the risk as well that’s something I
learned because it was yeah only for me
before 2008 I went through 2008 and I
learned it’s not always up only it’s not
always up that’s right I like that
calculator risk but again I do think the
uh the the the slant toward optimisms
helps you be more creative and that’s
what I think wins in When the tide goes
out is being creative because in the
market we just saw cash one cash was
cheap risk was zero in the market that’s
coming up whether it’s restructuring or
this or that being optimistic allows you
to see creative ways and I think that’s
why you and your students are going to
crush it so Greg thank you so much