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MLB World Series Champ to Business Boss: Trent Clark’s Playbook for Success and a Winning Mindset
59 Plays29 days ago
What does it take to build a high-performing team? Trent Clark—former MLB coach, serial entrepreneur, and host of Winners Find a Way—joins Brent Oberlink to break down the mindset, discipline, and leadership strategies that separate winning teams from the rest. From overcoming setbacks to keeping a remote workforce motivated, Trent shares powerful insights from his book Leading Winning Teams and his experience coaching at three World Series. If you're a contractor, entrepreneur, or leader looking for an edge, this episode is packed with game-changing advice.
#Leadership #WinningMindset #BusinessGrowth #Entrepreneurship #Contractors #TeamBuilding #SuccessTips #BlueCollarBusiness #MindsetMatters #WinningTeams #TheBetterContractor #MLB #WorldSeries #Motivation
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Transcript
Introduction to Trent Clark
00:00:00
Speaker
You want boss up your life? All you got to is get in with me. I don't even pay to get in the club. They know I'm a walking tee. I'm presidential leaving the club. We ain't stopping at no lights. You want to be a boss?
00:00:10
Speaker
You got to pay the price. Well, welcome back to another edition of The Better Contractor. Today, I am joined by Trent Clark. He's a fellow podcaster. He has a book.
00:00:22
Speaker
Podcast is called Winners Find a Way. And the book is called Leading Winning Team. So we're excited to have Trent on the day. kind of an industry expert on motivation, discipline, mindset, which all of you entrepreneurs know, those are all important things. So Trent, welcome to the show.
00:00:38
Speaker
Thanks, Brent, man. Super excited to be with you, man. I'm always, always fun and happy to dig into it, right? Yeah. It's an interesting topic. I know, you know, online, there's a lot of different people that talk about different things, mindset related and You know, I think sometimes that may get overcrowded. Like if you're like me, where you follow a bunch of people like that, but then, you know, at times though, when you have those bad days, you have those rough weeks, you have, you know,
00:01:03
Speaker
sales slump, whatever that may be, you're like, you know what, I need some of
Trent's Career and Motivation Story
00:01:07
Speaker
that right now. I need some of that motivation. um So kind of cutting through and finding the people like you that that have the experience and and have written the books and have done the podcast and stuff like that is awesome. So tell me just a little bit first before we get started.
00:01:19
Speaker
Tell me a little bit about your why. So what got you here? What's your motivation? How did Trent end up doing what he does right now? Yeah, i think I think my motivation was, you know, this is who I looked up to growing up, right? a lot of people came alongside of me and helped me get to where I wanted to go. Mentors, coaches, all these things. And I thought, man, like, I want to play as long as I can. And I went into pro baseball and And I was done very early, man. I was done playing but before I was 24 years old.
00:01:49
Speaker
you know They gave me that, hey, you'd make a good coach talk.
Creating Winning Teams
00:01:52
Speaker
And that was a job transition going on there. and and And I was like, man, now I could go into a coaching and do what I admired in these other folks and make a difference. And that's really why I wanted it because so many people made a difference for me.
00:02:07
Speaker
That's awesome. That's awesome. Your book, Leading Winning Teams. So one of the things you talk about there quite a bit, well, obviously, is creating that winning team. I'm just curious, what is like a couple of things that you think is like must-haves? Like, don't don't give the book away, but what are a couple of things?
00:02:21
Speaker
Yeah. No, no. ah um Listen, I'll give the whole book away. Here it is. Like, you have it. um Yeah, it's – so after after going to three World Series, right, as a coach and leading all these – I've started 14 different companies.
00:02:34
Speaker
So always having teams to lead. And like, what what are we all looking for? Right. we're We're looking for certain things and like values are a big deal. i want I want winners around me. And the winners find a way is so important because winners, when shown data that they're losing, find a way to win. So I want to surround myself with those people who have an insatiable appetite to win and want to create that value.
Managing Remote Teams Effectively
00:02:59
Speaker
And i think also a good team is is very solutions focused.
00:03:03
Speaker
And I think that's a huge part of having a great team. I think hyper learning is really important. If you're going to if you're a team that's going hard and fast, You got to learn fast. You got to adapt quickly, especially in small business, right? Because in small business, we're constantly up against tons of competition and we just want a little edge, right? And the edge is the fact that you're nimble. You're not like the big companies who've got to like, hey, have a six month committee to decide whether they should use a black or blue ink.
00:03:32
Speaker
you can You can decide that, you know, before lunch is over and get going on your things that are really important to you. And I think being focused and targeted and having that, um you know, big goal for everybody, whatever we're going for, you
Aligning Teams with Company Goals
00:03:47
Speaker
know, some call it a BHAG or whatever, whatever we see as a vision for our company, getting everybody on board, moving in that, you know, we always talk about Brent because you and I know a lot of entrepreneurs and a lot of successful people, you know, birds of a feather flock together.
00:04:02
Speaker
Well, the reason they are because they're all going in the same direction. and And when you got teams, we want to be moving towards one thing. There's nothing worse on a team when everyone's going like, hey, we're going to get this thing. We're going to onboard 50 new clients. We're going to get to 10 million. you got one person going, yeah, i just I just want better equipment. I don't care about any of that stuff.
00:04:21
Speaker
I want this and I want that. And you got yeah one you know one of the lambs just taken off. You either got to bring them back in or you got to get them out. yeah That's awesome. That's awesome. One of the things I know a lot of contractors probably struggle with, and I'm curious if you have any insight into this.
00:04:39
Speaker
A lot of contractors, like ourselves included, will have an office staff that is awesome. We have field staff that is awesome. But for us, so a lot of our workers will work remotely. So they'll come in, see them on a Monday, you'll see them again on Friday,
00:04:52
Speaker
And it sometimes seems like, not with all, but with some, you'll see a little bit of a loss of that motivation, that team, the management team may be here, and it seems like it filters a little bit and and goes away some as it gets out to the field and gets dispersed.
00:05:06
Speaker
how Have you struggled with that? Have you seen that? what is so Yeah, yeah we struggled we struggled with it mightily, Brent. You'll appreciate this. like I had a shipping business, right? So we had um we had we had a great office staff, and then we have a great vessel staff. like There are unions, and there's bunch of things going on, and and we both have very different objectives in that, right? Except...
00:05:29
Speaker
We got to draw that one commonality that we're all going for. We are a unit. We work together. And, you know, early on, one of the biggest challenges we had, Brent, was that the office staff, I felt, knew like about 10% of what was going out in the in the field, on the vessels, in the water in this case, right? and And wanted to tell everybody, you know, how they should do it better, right? Right.
00:05:52
Speaker
And then I had the people on the vessels going, you know, the office doesn't know anything. We call in and they don't know. So they knew about 10% of the information that was going on and had all sorts of opinions how we could do it better. And we really had to educate everybody on, man, knowing your role and role and your responsibility and being the best at that is is is really crucial to the team.
00:06:15
Speaker
And just like Brent on our team, man, you know, I need you to hit cleanup and hit the ball really hard. I don't need you to bunt. I don't need you to pitch. Like you've got a role on our team and I, and this is how our winning formula.
00:06:28
Speaker
And if you're the best in your role and your responsibility, we're going to go places Then we got to honor that role and responsibility and really appreciate people. And how we do that in my world is, you know, I run Bloom Growth behind all all companies that I'm involved in, whether I own them or whether I'm coaching them.
00:06:46
Speaker
And we've got KPIs and measurements and we're celebrating ourselves. Our team, when they hit those roles and responsibility, key KPIs, right? And whether that's you know how how many roofs we're getting done a week, whether that's how many you know shingles, how many things we're tearing off. but it It doesn't matter what the industry is because I'm industry agnostic, but the KPIs have to be very pointed to get us to where we want to go and everybody's doing their part and so the last thing really the vessels you don't ever wanted to talk about was hey how many invoices got paid and are we you know above 90 on our ar they didn't care right like you know and and in the same breath the office is like whoa how many gallons of like uh asphalt did we discharge that you know like
00:07:32
Speaker
there's No one cares how many barrels, right? ah ah It's a number and we all got that. But what's important to us at different levels should be measured, should be managed and then celebrated because we know what success looks like and process when it's really done well.
00:07:48
Speaker
means we hit those KPIs and then it becomes repeatable. So we have leading indicators that say, hey, if we discharge 500 barrels ah a week off a vessel, you know that vessel is going to be super profitable. We know that.
00:08:02
Speaker
And so we have a goal for that vessel or whatever the case it is. And so I think getting behind that and then celebrating each team right where they're at and their own KPIs, everyone goes, hey, man, that's cool.
00:08:15
Speaker
I'm glad you guys are hitting 80% of all the things that are really important in your area. And we're and we're trying to celebrate that and move them up to 100%. And then the beautiful thing is it all ties together, Brent, when everyone's hitting on all cylinders and doing their stuff.
00:08:31
Speaker
It's amazing how the company's growing. The customers have
Discipline in Teams
00:08:34
Speaker
never been happier. Like everything's going the race right way. This is a great place to work. and And it's, you know, sometimes a great place to work isn't an easy place to work.
00:08:43
Speaker
You know what long as you have the right people. That's right. Because if you're around the right people and you're going for a big goal and you're winning all the time. You know, he, remember when we were on those teams, Brent, and we won all the time, but it was kind of hard. The coach was really hard on us and like, Hey, let's do some more hill running. Brent, Brent, get out there. Let's be like, dang, dude, you know, we won eight to six. Like guy last week, you know, we're doing pretty good. We won like the last five in a row, but he's just pushing us to that next level.
00:09:11
Speaker
And, but every weekend, you know, everybody talks about how good our team is and we're kind of shoulders back, chest out, you know, don't know if Brent and I, you know, we play for that team. Like, you know, so we are proud of it. We're confident in it.
00:09:24
Speaker
And if we're seeing those wins, you know, people will put that extra effort to be part of a one That is awesome. And actually Noah, our videographer was talking just last week. We were talking about like sports and stuff in high school and he was reminiscing about a coach that he had.
00:09:37
Speaker
That was exactly what you were talking about. That was like really hard, you know pushing. You know, and sometimes that is not who you like in that moment sometimes, but you usually learn to appreciate that person really, really quickly to get older in life.
00:09:49
Speaker
But especially to be part of that winning team, you'll learn like, hey, that person's got my back. That person's pushing the whole team to success, you know, so I love that. I had a great conversation with them with a dad when I'm coaching youth sports and you know he comes in and goes, yeah, man, these kids, they don't understand hard work. He goes, I remember our coach, we won the state championship three of like the five years and we're in the state finals, all five.
00:10:14
Speaker
And my buddy Harry, boy, you know Coach was really made up name um
Tailoring Leadership Approaches
00:10:19
Speaker
he was really hot tough on Harry. you know Harry was a black guy. We didn't have a lot of minorities in our area. and He pushed Harry so hard. I felt bad for Harry a lot, but you know Harry kept showing up and working hard and you know, we went on and we won two state championships while I was a varsity player. it was pretty awesome.
00:10:37
Speaker
Harry played on three ones that went to the state finals and he was part of the two also. Then he went to Michigan and played and then he went to the NFL and he was like, you know, you look back and go, man, that coach sure was tough on Harry.
00:10:49
Speaker
Got every lick of potential out of that kid. And, you know, you think he's looking back. on on coach hardship going man coach h was so tough on us he's like thank god this guy pushed me to see what i could be because i didn't even know what i could be and i mean just a just a a plethora of success in this guy's career man and you know i just think sometimes we don't know that tough love is love man it's awesome It really is. And I think sometimes we also believe that there's, you can do that in coaching, you can do that in sports, but you can't do it in business because people don't necessarily want that in business. But I don't agree with that.
00:11:28
Speaker
You know, don't agree that either. And I think, you know looking back, like I would much rather personally work for someone who's pushing me to success. That's going to push me in a way that I can climb the ladder. you know, it's going to push me in a way that the company is going to expand and grow and thus give me an opportunity that I wouldn't have had if that person wasn't like that.
00:11:46
Speaker
Yeah, and you know what you know what I'm doing, Brent? I'm always talking to my players, and I want to know what makes Brent tick. what you know You're my player on this team, you know ah ah whether this is contracting company, whether you're a service group.
00:12:00
Speaker
and no No matter the role, I've got two guys right now. I've got Brent and Noah. They're motivated by very different things, but both of them want to be the best they can be at their job. One wants to be because, i hey, man, I want to make my parents proud. I want to do The other one's like, hey, I want money, man. I want to be secure. I wasn't financially secure as a kid.
00:12:18
Speaker
It makes me so nervous not to have money. you know, $500,000 in my bank account, knowing I'm never going to be in a situation that I was left in as a kid. And like, I get that.
00:12:29
Speaker
So I'm using that as their coach, as their leader. You know, and you, you have a CEO and COO there. They're like a a general manager of the club. and And that COO is like the head coach. Right.
00:12:41
Speaker
And they're, and and they should both know that because they're driving Brent and Noah different ways based on what you guys want. And the moment, You know, Brent doesn't show up right for me. I'm like, hey, Brent, I'm here to help you because this is what you told me you want. do you still want that?
00:12:57
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. i still want it. Then let's go because this is what I think is going to get you there. And you're like, well, sometimes it doesn't feel like this is getting me right. All right, let's talk about that. But this is why we're doing it and we can talk through that.
00:13:08
Speaker
But meet meet your team where they're at. I absolutely love that. It's almost like a tailored approach. You see so many times like in the business world where someone will Blanketly do reviews on employees or whatever. yeah And it's usually like sitting down with them going through, Hey, here's the five things you kind of aren't doing that well.
00:13:25
Speaker
And here's a couple things you're doing well. And that's usually the end of it. They don't do what you just said, where they're actually going in and trying to say, hey what makes Trent click? Like, what does he actually care? Some people, it's the money.
00:13:36
Speaker
Some people, it's not the money. They want more time off. They want something else completely. And the more you can hone in on as a boss and say, hey, this is what Trent wants. This is what Noah wants.
00:13:47
Speaker
And make notes of that for every review. Set goals for the next review. And at that next review, go back through and actually say, hey, last time we sat down, this is where we were wanting to go.
00:13:58
Speaker
We've made 50% effort. it doesn't if If you did that to me, Brent, man, like I'm like Man, this dude actually cares about me. and And now here we are the the next quarter and he's asking me, hey, man, we talked about these five things.
00:14:13
Speaker
I put these things down and in our Bloom software. And I said, these are the things that you said you'd like to work on because you want to deliver the highest quality. And you know what? All we've seen out of you is you do deliver high quality. There's a couple of things you've had to learn along this in the trade that, you know, you're learning the ins and outs.
Mentorship and Team Success
00:14:32
Speaker
We love your quality. We've talked about you've got to work on your speed. That's really important to us because we've got to do a lot of jobs. And so we we don't want to sacrifice the quality, but we need you to work a little faster.
00:14:43
Speaker
But ultimately, a guy like you that's dedicated to the quality of the process, you know you've told us you want more security, more management responsibility. We see you as a manager.
00:14:55
Speaker
Let's talk about the five things we talked about you getting better at. And have you done those? Let's walk through those in the next quarter. like Man, that's a five to seven minute conversation with your team member who says, hey, listen, I've listened to you.
00:15:08
Speaker
I care about you. I want you to be the best team member for us. I'm here to get you better. Because guess what? When we all get a little bit better, ooh, that's magnified, right? Like, let's say everyone on your team, Brent, gets 10% better.
00:15:23
Speaker
Man, the organization got like 40% better as a whole because they're all better working together. The customers are happy. You know, you got more jobs. Marketing's going better. It's amazing how the thing's all falling in place.
00:15:37
Speaker
But we're all either getting better or worse. And if we're not going to hold each of our team members accountable to what we're going for, you know, we're going to risk that we could go backwards. and And that's going to be a tough place to compete from in any environment. yeah No, I agree with that. And I love that too.
00:15:54
Speaker
The one thing you had said earlier, you'd brought up about KPIs. I wanted to go back to that one just a second. Do you, so like when you measure those, every industry is different. So like for us, that's going to be safety. It's going to be productivity, which is as is within the industry.
00:16:08
Speaker
Um, I was curious. So we had a guest on six, seven podcasts ago, and he was with ProTiv, P-R-O-T-I-V. And it is a newer app where you can kind of track productivity. It's for contractors or service-based businesses primarily. like And they can actually, you can basically put the project in, the people, it syncs with your software and you go in and it basically is telling them, Hey, you're,
00:16:32
Speaker
meeting expectations or exceeding. You keep this up. This is about the dollar amount you will get. So I'm curious on like the KPI model and reward model. How much of it do you think is monetarily based?
00:16:43
Speaker
How much of it should be words of affirmation, acknowledgement in front of the whole group as a whole? Just kind of curious your take on that. Well, you know, first I love any any business management that helps. And like, I love the famous quote, right? What gets managed or what gets measured gets managed, right?
00:17:02
Speaker
And so, you know, having KPIs, having all those work orders, I mean, such an important thing. And I think that's going to be a holistic approach, right? and And by the way, I might ask my team.
00:17:16
Speaker
What do you want? Do you want you want bonuses when you operate so efficiently and we operate at a 60-point margin on a job? do you want Do you want affirmation? Do you want Starbucks you know ah gift cards?
00:17:31
Speaker
I want to know what you want. and And I think that's part of also knowing our team. like How do i reward you, Brent, when you do really well? Because I rewent, I reward Brent and his wife with a trip down to Cancun because you're so valuable to me, to me. Right.
00:17:47
Speaker
And, and Noah, I get him into higher education and a videographer program to take him to the next level. Cause all she cares about is being the highest quality guy in the market.
00:17:58
Speaker
And so he can't learn enough. And he's like, Whoa, man, you're, you're going to pay for that
Hyper Learning and Adaptability
00:18:03
Speaker
$2,000 class. Yeah, of course we're going to play that because I know that's important to you. And we benefit from that.
00:18:09
Speaker
Just like I benefit from Brent coming back on, man, I love working here, man. My wife and I just spent four days in Cancun, a long weekend, no kids, man. You know, I'll never leave this place.
00:18:21
Speaker
Amen. Yeah, no, that's perfect. And I like that customization too. You know, a lot of places don't do that. And that is awesome because it is what motivates, you know, what motivates me is gonna be different than you and what is different than Noah.
00:18:32
Speaker
I learned hard lessons on that, right? when When I took one of my office staff, which was phenomenal. I mean, she was she was the face of ah of an organization I had. You know, the smiling face that any customer, vendor, mail, anybody walks in the door like, hey, how you doing?
00:18:50
Speaker
You just get Emily. Not fictitious. yeah Emily, it's so great to see you. yeah Well, Emily also had a degree in accounting, right? And so I was super excited about Emily. you know So two things I really screwed up on One was um Emily was like our employee of the year one year. Like she was just incredible. We were growing fast and everyone was doing a bunch of things. the The first thing was hard for me to pinpoint one person that was just going above and beyond.
00:19:19
Speaker
But we went down to the foundation of like, What does everybody value about us? When we asked our clients, what do they what do they love about us? Emily's name was mentioned by name, like more than any employee in the whole place. And I'm like going, she doesn't deliver any services. she doesn't like But she is the gatekeeper, right? And people loved her. And we just celebrated her. And and you know what I did is i I brought her up on a stage at an annual event.
00:19:49
Speaker
hand. We were so excited. we were given her better ward and we gave her, you know, a night out with her husband. And she came to me the next day and said, you ever do that again? I'll leave this company. I mean, dead panned. i don't want that. I don't want to be in front of buddy. Don't know speeches.
00:20:05
Speaker
Like I'm here to do my thing with people. I love them, but I'm not here to stand up in front of, you know, a hundred people and be recognized. Like I was embarrassed. I was hurt. I'm like, man, it was the exact opposite effect of what i wanted to do.
00:20:21
Speaker
Right. And I was like, dang, man, what a, what a screw up. Right. Because i didn't ask, how do you want to be rewarded? Emily? Yeah. It's just like, man, just,
00:20:35
Speaker
Yeah, to each his own, right? Like, and I get it. Like, it's not for everybody. You know, like, how do you want to be wrecked? It's just like when we're in school, right, Brent? Like, we sat there, and there's 25 kids, and God's blessed them all with different things.
00:20:48
Speaker
And we're like, oh, man, Tim, you're really struggling with this math. And I'm like, oh, man, I'm not. I almost cut my hand off in shop class today. i don't know what the heck I'm doing down here, man. I am not going to make it as a carpenter, bro. thank you um' I'm scared of the lathe. You know, i'm ah like, it's a hot mess. And night I'm thinking like, Oh, and then he excels over on the sports field and then she's excelling and debate. And he's it like, we're all got our gifts. Right.
00:21:10
Speaker
and And they're just going to be different. And that's, and that's totally cool. It's okay. What I want you to do is be in an organization where you find your lane to thrive and, and, and really contribute because, know,
00:21:22
Speaker
Man, when you contribute for an organization, you feel good about yourself. So one question I had earlier when you were talking about KPIs, thought came into my head about the psychology of people.
00:21:32
Speaker
And I was curious how much you're really good about like tailoring the reward, the message. i was curious how much. So like way the way you may approach Noah and I know this because Noah and I know each other well.
00:21:45
Speaker
He likes it just blunt, honest. Don't BS Just tell him what. Yeah. I have other people that I've managed through the years that that would offend them and shut them down and they hear the rest of it.
00:21:57
Speaker
I was curious how much when it comes to building a team, how much you think the manager or owner of the company should tailor that approach while still being authentic to themselves? Man, I mean, i think it's challenging, right? Like, you know, when you have 400 team members, right? Like, I mean, are you going to be able to tailor every conversation?
00:22:17
Speaker
I think self-awareness is a big deal. You know, I love that Noah's blunt, straightforward, give it to me straight, no BS kind of guy, right? That's not everybody's cup of tea, right?
00:22:29
Speaker
Like, you know, and, and, and, and when you're, and from what I've learned that when I see people that are that way, they have no problem. They're blunt and very straightforward with everybody else.
00:22:39
Speaker
And they have no, they have no problem with it in return. In fact, give it to me straight. I want to be efficient. Right now. That doesn't serve everybody, right? that That offends people, they're hurt, their feelings are hurt.
00:22:52
Speaker
So, you know, as a self-awareness thing, when I take an executive on the team like Noah, who's going to be leading, I want him to to let everybody know, hey, listen, I've been charged with being pretty blunt, little bit standoffish and pretty straightforward.
00:23:08
Speaker
I'm an efficient guy and I don't mince words. I have no intent. to offend you, I want to give it to you straight and I want feedback in the least amount of words I can give you because I actually do like you and I want to see you succeed.
00:23:23
Speaker
It sometimes may not come off that. So if I do that and you're offended in any way, I'm giving you permission to let me know in that moment that maybe the way I handled that, I could have done differently.
00:23:35
Speaker
That's a pretty good pre-frame. Well, because now what's the thing? Like when Noah goes, but that's an absolute idiotic idea. What? Like, I instantly feel like I've got to defend myself. Like, Oh, Noah calling me out in front of the whole leadership team. Like, you know, my defenses are up, you know, now my chest is up and you know, we're, we're men.
00:23:59
Speaker
Like, by the way, watch out. Like, you know, I always like that, you know, that Peterson quote, like, Hey, with men, there's always this threat of violence, right? Like, Hey man, like people will get pissed. Right. So,
00:24:10
Speaker
now it's it's reactive because i wasn't expecting it now noah's told me that two or three times before he started meetings and stuff like that so then he says that and i'm like yeah hey no i think this is one of those moments right now we're all kind of laughing about it because noah gave us permission and now we all just sensed it hey there's a noah moment right and so you know also noah's also doing this too he's also like going hey man I don't need a 10-minute diatribe of feedback.
00:24:41
Speaker
You can give it to me straight. You know, if someone's going, hey, Noah, you know what we really like about, you know, you dress good for the job. Like, wait a minute, man. Hey, man, yeah can you can you give it to me straight in three minutes or less? Because I would love that.
00:24:55
Speaker
Yeah. Let's get to music. And everybody's happier, right? Like, Hey, let me just boil this down. In fact, I'm a bullet point guy. If you've got this thing on bullet points, I'm going to listen. I'm gonna remember it. You talking for 10 minutes. I'm probably going to forget half this stuff.
00:25:09
Speaker
I'm busy. Oh yeah. No, that's yeah. I find myself too often either using my executive assistant or chat GPT to bullet point stuff. That's too long. So totally hear you. I totally hear you.
00:25:20
Speaker
Um, Another thing in your TED talk and some other stuff I've read it on you, you've talked a lot about discipline. And obviously that is hugely important when it comes to teams, when it comes to leading, when it comes to being a leader for other people. That
Learning from Setbacks
00:25:35
Speaker
is huge. I wanted to get little bit more of your feedback on that and also hyper learning both.
00:25:41
Speaker
Yeah. So I've been around some of the top performers in the world, right? You know, just crazy. Famous people that have created a value in in their organization that is head and shoulders. there's There's one commonality of the best and most productive I've ever seen, and that's self-discipline.
00:26:03
Speaker
Right. Like, and, and I can have discipline, but you know, if I don't have self-discipline, Brent, I really need you to keep me disciplined. Right. And, and by the way, that may be your job and your role to help me in that. That's awesome.
00:26:15
Speaker
Like I'm going to be better for that, but that's still management, man. And it's a lot of management. And so self-managing, that's a big deal. And, you know, as I talked about in the TEDx talk, you know, it's either the pain of discipline or the pain of regret you choose.
00:26:31
Speaker
and and And we both, you know, man, I'm 55 years old, man. like Like, i don't know anybody in in their mid-40s or older that doesn't have regret and and doesn't understand, like, man, i should have done something different in that situation. I wish I i would have, I could have, I should have.
00:26:50
Speaker
Man, we have these moments in our lives, and and and we just like to take them back and do a do-over. And the fact of the matter, they can be 30, 40 years old and the the the memory of that is is instant pain it's pain to our heart it's disappointment that we let people down that we mistreated somebody in some way and was were disrespectful to somebody and thought and that's not who i want to be right but the pain of discipline is acute man it's an acute pain it lasts very short you and i go do the hill running and we may puke and all this but listen
00:27:28
Speaker
Two months later, who win the championship. You think we're still talking about like how tough it was to do hill running for training? Like I've never won a championship and someone came back to me going, you know what? you know what, Brennan? It was just too hard. I wish I would have never done it. Like said no one ever.
00:27:45
Speaker
Like if you achieve and you're creating great things and you're training yourself and discipline and discipline is training, right? You have to be trained up for it. You begin to love the results that you get from discipline and you realize how much it serves you.
00:28:00
Speaker
And little regrets will pop up and be like, man, I wasn't disciplined in that moment again. and now I regret it. and And it's just it's it's coming in all different phases of my life, big and small.
00:28:13
Speaker
And for people to really get that and understand that it's a it's a pretty big deal. Yeah. I think discipline is one of those things a lot of people don't take serious enough.
00:28:24
Speaker
And, you know, even at a younger age, people who even maybe aren't entrepreneurs is because like you said earlier, not doing stuff, in my opinion, most of time is actually harder, you know, so like go to the gym or not go to the gym.
Commitment vs. Interest in Teams
00:28:37
Speaker
To me, I would rather go to the gym, even though that's hard than to be fat and out of shape and have health issues later in life. I would rather struggle and put up time now for my business to make money because being hard or being broke at a later stage is also hard, you know, or not having the self-discipline to not cheat on my wife.
00:28:57
Speaker
Guess what? Divorce is hard. Yeah. you There's always that dichotomy back and forth where you can choose this and that may be tough in the moment, but that's going to save you some hardship later. That is actually going to be harder. So anyway, I love that kind of in in the regret part of it. I love that.
00:29:12
Speaker
but Yeah. I think regret later. Yeah. And I love that. Yeah. I've heard that statement before. Choose your heart. Right. yeah Like, And i andve I don't know how many times, like, you know, I'm a gym rat, right? And I don't know how many times I go, man, I don't i don't feel like going to the gym at all.
00:29:26
Speaker
And I don't recall a single time I got up off my rear, got up off the sofa and went and went, you know what? I'm so unhappy with myself, Brent, that I went down and I spent an hour at the gym. What a waste of time.
00:29:40
Speaker
Said no one ever. Yeah, yeah. So let's talk about um hyper learning. Yes. You know, hyper learning for me. So I was mixed in this um and I kind of fell into this, right? Because and in pro sports, hyper learning is like critical. Like if you can't learn and adapt fast, you can't stay no matter how skilled you are.
00:30:03
Speaker
Like they can't wait on you. They can't wait on you to figure it out, to put it together. And so it's a it's a real challenge in the game. So I found these three real challenges significant environments where this hyper learning exists at the highest level, which is pro pro sports and athletics, um entrepreneurship, because you have to adapt. You have to be quick. If you don't make adjustments, so you'll lose your house, right? Like, I mean, this is the reality of the deal.
00:30:32
Speaker
And then of course, special forces, right? Where life and death is on the line. Like this is, we've got to go now what What we've all done in that is is there's been a self-selection of people that can kind of raise up and compete at those levels, right?
00:30:46
Speaker
they're They're like, you know, um only 3.7% of all businesses in North America make a million dollars. that's arate That's a top line number. Sell a million dollars worth of services every year. So you're in rare air.
00:31:02
Speaker
in north america if you're one of those people so when you're around a bunch of other three percenters guess what you've got resources galore they're going fast i mean we just watched the four nations cup i don't know if you watch hockey but the four nations cup was just on and it was the best of sweden uh i think finland and u.s s and canada i mean These are the all-star teams of all-stars. These are the best, like 20 players in every country, all competing. The game is the fastest hockey I've ever seen.
00:31:34
Speaker
Listen, you check your ego at the door. Everybody's great. Everybody here, and you can learn from one another. So I'll tell you in pro sports and and all those three things, there's plenty of ego, right? All three of those categories, there's plenty ego, but If you are willing to humble yourself and go into that room with the idea of I'm going to sponge this up and get as much out of as I can.
00:31:57
Speaker
Behind the closed doors, when all of us are interacting together, it's a very humble, hyper-learning environment. When you leave out and go out on your own and go look and do your reps and work at it and and create value, have that confidence. Have that, you know, show that, that you've got that. You know this.
00:32:14
Speaker
and and And I love that. And some arrogance and ego will look. It'll show up a little bit individually. but if you're willing to take that step back and realize everyone here has been trained everyone here has had a mentor everyone here has gone through hyper learning and challenges they've had to overcome and why would i lose that benefit by not gaining someone who grew up very differently than i did who grew up in the dominican republic and all the challenges they faced to get here but they earned it to get here and now they are here listen
00:32:48
Speaker
Check it and learn as much as you can. Sponge it up that because when you do it, it is going to make you so much better. And the multiplier on that inside your organization, when you're doing that really well, is massive.
00:33:04
Speaker
How important do you think having a mentor?
Leadership and Team Building Conclusion
00:33:07
Speaker
is and how important do you think having like, we've all heard this saying, like the five, the people, five people around you determines your future. How important do you think that is outside of your work or coaching, like your sports? Yeah, I mean, I think, I think it's, it's,
00:33:23
Speaker
It's massive, right? I mean, literally taking someone, I love the the movie, The Edge, right? With Sir Anthony Hopkins, they're chasing, you know, they're they're running from the bear and like, you know, we're going to kill the bear, right? And he's like, what are you talking about? goes, what one man can do, so can another, right? Like, and and I just remember that being so, you know, we're trying to do these things in our life and like, hey, guess what?
00:33:46
Speaker
Someone, a cement contractor out there went out and built it. um Have you met Wholesome Cement? Have you met some of these groups that have done these things? They've gone out and built $100 million dollar companies. Someone has done it before you.
00:33:59
Speaker
Get one of their board of directors to be a mentor to you and your small $5 million dollars cement company and and and come alongside. Take them out to breakfast once a month. You will learn so much in that time.
00:34:12
Speaker
It's amazing. And then this is about leading winning teams. you know Who are you going to surround yourself with? If you want to have a a winning team, you better have people. that are awesome and and and compete at the highest level so how many times Brent in your career have you gone oh man Teresa I'll take ten more just like her well what are we saying about Teresa we're not saying like I need to clone Teresa we might want to clone her because she's so good but We're not saying I need her educational background.
00:34:44
Speaker
I need, i need the way she carries her values. I need the way she, you know, shows those every time I need the way she treats our clients with the way she interacts with our team, the amount of work she can get done in short, short time. It's always correct and proper. Like we're surrounding ourselves with those team members that are so good that that's our big five, right? We're like, Hey, what, not just five. What if I had 50 Teresa's like,
00:35:08
Speaker
we would be a hundred million. Oh my gosh. That's right. That's right. You, you could be. And so it's ah it's a selection process that drives me crazy, right? Because, you know, everyone tells me they got a great team, right? And I'm like, okay, cool. How much did you spend on getting it? And how much time did you get in that team? Yeah. Acquiring them.
00:35:26
Speaker
because i come from the pro baseball world where we spent millions of dollars on draft choices that did not work out. They look like a can't miss kid, blah, blah, blah.
00:35:37
Speaker
and And we did everything we could and we missed, missed all the time. And we were developing all these kids. So we'd have the top 25 players on that major league roster.
00:35:48
Speaker
that fit, that actually knew their role, knew their responsibility, shared our values, would go in. And, and you know, we're talking about eight eight different countries, you know, six languages. i mean, like there's all these factors that you put on a team that are tough to overcome. But yet when you're all going for the same vision, you have it.
00:36:07
Speaker
And then these teams are like going, they're telling me, oh, we got a great team. How'd you get them? Well, I mean, Craigslist, anybody with a pulse we took. i like oh Oh, so you got a great team and you just think like you hit a lottery on Craigslist and the five people you chose? Like, come on, man. Like that's not a reality. Like how, what are we doing to bring our teams along and develop them is a big deal.
00:36:32
Speaker
And so surrounding ourselves with those right people um and and knowing that and and the people that want to be there, like you said, Brent, like why do you want team members that don't want to be there? yeah No one wants that.
00:36:43
Speaker
Yeah. That's hugely important. You know, I look just internally at ourselves and we've been in business right at 15, 16 years. And I, I look back in like the staff and management team, especially that we have right now.
00:36:54
Speaker
I wish I had them year one, two, three, four, and five. I didn't at those that, you know, that time. And I don't know where I would be now if I'd had those people then. But like you said, it's just like in a sports team, it doesn't happen overnight. It takes time.
00:37:08
Speaker
You're building culture, you're selecting people, you're firing people, and you're fine-tuning to get to that team. It is a process. One thing, yeah, go ahead. And you're getting better to lead them over that time, too. Like, you're finding out things that you thought might work and it didn't work out the way you wanted it to. And like, ah, you know what, in a different situation, if I had to do that over again, I might do that a different way. So, you know, we're all trial and error, too, man. We're not we're not getting it right. and And leaders don't always get it right. We've got to be okay with that.
00:37:36
Speaker
That actually leads to my next question, which is perfect. So we've talked a lot about winning. You don't win all the time. um What is your advice for the team when they lose in order to kind of keep that team momentum going forward into the next game, into the next year?
00:37:50
Speaker
Maybe it's been an off year for the company. Maybe the economy has sucked. Maybe you've lost revenue. You've lost some good team members and you are in charge of, Hey, I got to keep this ship going in this path.
00:38:02
Speaker
I've got a little bit of rumblings of people that are you know upset or whatever. What would you say to that leader?
00:38:09
Speaker
Well, I'd say winners find a way, right? I mean, winners, when showing data that they're losing, find a way to win. And and so like, hey, the numbers are up against you. You've had a couple ah RFPs. No one's accepting your ah RFP. What are you doing? Are you reviewing the tapes?
00:38:23
Speaker
Are you going back and finding out what did we do? Did you call every one of them and go, man, we really wanted this thing. We love you guys. We think you'd be a great partner. We really want to be your vendor. What could we have done differently? can we sit down with you guys and take you to lunch and just tell us the next time this comes around we want to be better we have another ah rfp in two months with your competitor and we want to know everything that we could do right and man that pisses them off they're like dang man maybe we shouldn't have passed on this group like because even after so there's still value in your marketing by going back and doing that you're also just showing the client you care like we care and we're we're here to get better and and when it goes right and you win
00:39:01
Speaker
you know that's great i i love the you know i love uh ted lasso right like sometimes sometimes you win and you lose man oh yeah you win by default and you get the contract and careful what you wish for you you just took on the worst client in the world and they're just beating up your team and you know horrible to work with and you're like going wow remember when we were so excited about getting this million dollar contract like wow like ah If I could go back in time, man, like I might think like I take two $500,000 cash with any of these other four companies that we'd love to work with.
00:39:36
Speaker
oh I could have made the same money and and been with people we like. yeah And so we're learning that. Right. So I think we go back to process and and and and part of process is selection. Right.
00:39:48
Speaker
So we want we have our avatar for our client. And let's hold steady to that when it doesn't fit. And you've been down this road before. Everyone talks about gut feeling like I don't believe in gut feel at all.
00:39:59
Speaker
I don't believe it. um I mean, yes, you you have an internal mechanism that's going on. one of one of the One of my former clients, Allison Hodson, she's fabulous, right? She's just incredible.
00:40:12
Speaker
And she's probably got the best, and everyone knows it. Like, oh, man, she's got the best gut instinct. Don't believe it at all. she's She's been through challenging days since she was a young girl, and she overcame it all.
00:40:23
Speaker
But... What she does better than anybody is win or lose. She gets the lesson. Why did we win? What went well? She is indexing all these questions and she's just bringing it back in and indexing it for a day. And then here comes this other thing goes, Oh, that looked like something I saw about eight years ago.
00:40:42
Speaker
Pull up that index and go, Hmm. Yeah. I remember we ran into that, you know, GC on that deal and and that moron, man, like talking unrealistically in the pregame, blah, blah, blah. We're all talking about this, throwing out milestone dates that we know no one's going to hit, throwing out numbers that are off.
00:41:00
Speaker
And we're like going, this is going to be foobar in about like two months and everyone's going to be calling and we're going to be the butt of it. Why would we take on this? We've done this before.
00:41:10
Speaker
We've seen this person just in another form, in another way. They don't fit the avatar. Say no and be okay with it. mean, because we're, we're, we chose to lose.
00:41:23
Speaker
I chose the loss because I took it because I needed the money. And then I put my whole team in front of a big pain in the arse and now they don't win and they feel like this is trash. And why do I work here?
00:41:33
Speaker
Look at the downstroke of that. It's crazy. right so when we get our processes down right get them so they're tight always manage them and then stick to them have have a great leader who can help the team stay accountable to those to those things that are so important you've measured that and and this is why i love kpis with the team involved because When we say, hey, discharging 500,000 barrels a week on this vessel is what makes us money. And they know that.
00:42:07
Speaker
Like, hey, that's not the number I said. That's the number you said. So I'm holding you accountable because you told me this was how you look at success. And so as long as it works with the financials and all those things, then we look at that from a holistic standpoint, realistic, all those things on this SMART goal.
00:42:24
Speaker
As long as that's in and they have a portion of that, like, hey, if I own... the goal, I'm much more likely to commit to it. If Brent, you tell me my goal or I tell you, Hey Brent, this is your goal.
00:42:36
Speaker
You're like going, um I don't give a crap about that. Like, what does that mean to me? yeah Like, but how's that going to have impact? But we say, this is what we're working on. This is what you want. I'm tying those goals back to what you want again. Remember back on that personal deal.
00:42:49
Speaker
And then I'm putting in the processes so that you get what you want and go, Oh, So my first reprimand with Brent one-on-one privately is, Brent, when did you stop wanting what you wanted?
00:43:05
Speaker
No, no, I still want it. Then how come you're not following process? Walk me through it. Here's our process. And you're going B, D, E, H. what Hey, man, are we going to skip these letters? Because this is the this is the order, man.
00:43:19
Speaker
And and if you do if you skip this, this is our downstroke. You, we're not going to get what we want. You're not going to get what you want. All these things are going to go. Nobody gets what they want.
00:43:29
Speaker
So I want to know, when did you stop wanting what you wanted? I love that. And that's the buy-in, you know, so with our campus, but it was safety all the time that there safety processes where you have like this checkbox and you run through it, or you can have that plus safety buy-in and culture.
00:43:45
Speaker
And that means that people are actually doing it. When you're not even looking, but the same thing here, you know, if if you give goals, but I don't care about those goals, that's not going to motivate me at all. So that's, that's a great thing you're talking about there.
00:43:56
Speaker
Such a big deal, man. Oh yeah. I know you've got a hard stop. So going to leave you with one question. I'll let you kind of answer it how you want, but you've got a top rated podcast. You've dealt with elite performers.
00:44:07
Speaker
You've interviewed elite performers. I'm curious if you had one takeaway. I know earlier we talked about self-discipline. I'd be curious if you one takeaway from that group of people that you said, you know what, this is one thing I want all of these listeners to know is this one thing.
00:44:21
Speaker
What would that be? o that's That's pretty good, man. um
00:44:29
Speaker
I think that today's environment, I think accountability is a four-letter word. And... I think we need to get to a position where we embrace that because the accountability part is how we all get successful.
00:44:47
Speaker
And we we have these things and accountability doesn't mean like I'm out to get you. It means like we decided all these things together and we all got to commit to it because
00:45:01
Speaker
the accountability to me is based on commitment. um i'm I'm interested, you know, I want the committed, not the interested. Like, and and I use this a lot when I talk to people like, hey, are you interested are you committed?
00:45:15
Speaker
Because I'm interested in losing 15 pounds. But I just ordered, you know, a 16 inch extra large pizza with, you know, double pepperoni and blah, blah, blah. And I'm thinking about going to the gym, you know, and joining and I'm thinking about going down to the grocery store and maybe going to Whole Foods, getting some better stuff. I'm thinking about hiring a trainer like, hey, I'm really interested in losing the 15 pounds.
00:45:36
Speaker
But if I'm committed to doing that, I'm at Whole Foods. You can find me at the gym every morning between 5 and 5.30, and I'm going to be doing my work. And you know my trainer's talking about me.
00:45:46
Speaker
And it's showing up in everything I'm doing because interested is talking, committed is doing. If you want winning teams, hire the committed. Hire the committed that can get behind what you're doing. And if they can't commit to your mission and your customer service level and your values, you don't need them.
00:46:08
Speaker
You need to find someone who's actually committed and not interested. That's perfect. That's absolutely perfect. the one thing I might add to that is a lot of the guys out there, gals too, that are doing hiring.
00:46:19
Speaker
We've always kind of been taught over the past several decades that you hire based upon a skill or you hire based upon a degree. And I want to challenge everyone listening that that is not necessarily the way to hire. The way to hire is to find someone who has that discipline, who has that commitment, and that drive to be on a winning team.
00:46:35
Speaker
The rest of the stuff, for the most part, unless they're an attorney or a CPA, you know, those kind of positions, which still need to hire with these things in mind. But most everything is teachable. This stuff here, that's not as teachable.
00:46:48
Speaker
You can mold it. But these people have a different fire in them than other people do. And that is the most important thing, in my opinion, to hire for. Yeah, but tell me tell me a time you won.
00:46:59
Speaker
Tell me what winning means to you. Tell me what winning looks like. Tell me when you've led and been in charge and and how you manage that. Tell me something you took on that was out of your comfort zone where you led. I can give you 20 interview questions and you can ferret this out, man, with people very quickly about whether they're in it to win it.
00:47:20
Speaker
I'm always looking. Are you a contender or pretender? You have to eliminate the pretenders and the contenders are few. And this is why getting a good team. Did you, did you interview 25 people to hire the right to,
00:47:33
Speaker
No, we entered four and we got 50%. I doubt it, man. like I just doubt it. you know like If you're looking to be the top 20%, then hire the top 20%. Yeah, absolutely.
00:47:44
Speaker
Absolutely. Well, Trent, I know you've got a hard stop, man. This has been an absolutely awesome podcast. I would love to have you on again at a later date. But real quick before we go, where can people find you? Where can they read about you?
00:47:55
Speaker
Yeah, you can get Trent at leadershipity.com. All the socials are either leadershipity or Trent M. Clark. You can find me anywhere there. Please feel free to email me. I have leadershipity.com is our website for, and then I have Trent dash Clark is speaking the books, all that good stuff. So, you know, please reach out and connect to me. I'm um pretty big on LinkedIn. So that's a good place to find me too.
00:48:19
Speaker
Awesome. Trent, absolutely love the episode. Definitely to have you back, man. I appreciate you. Thank you for having me, Brent. Alrighty. Thank you, Trent.