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EP116: Jody Steinhauer - Doing Well By Doing Good
54 Plays6 years ago
It's not just about you. Our guest, Jody Steinhauer, founder of The Bargains Group and the charity, Engage & Change is fuelled by her entrepreneurial passion and commitment to assisting others. She started the Bargains Group (TBG) to help retailers save money on wholesale clothing and accessories. Since 1988, Jody has grown TBG from her apartment to a multi-million dollar-a-year business. As well, she created Engage & Change to give people and companies the opportunity to do group volunteer projects that assemble and build vital supply kits for the homeless. During this interview, you’ll discover…
- The importance of loving what you're doing
- Figure out how you're going to give back
- What impact you will have on people
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Transcript
Starting Strong: The Power of Recognition
00:00:00
Speaker
For example, on my business card and on my signature file, if you email me or anyone, anybody in my company, it actually says on the very bottom of it, I've picked my two most prestigious well-known awards. One of them is the Canadian Woman Entrepreneur of the Year. And the other one is Canada's top 40 under 40.
00:00:18
Speaker
And when that's on a business card, the first thing, it happened today, I was out, people said me, wow. And I always joke around and say, yeah, I'm not that impressive. But when they see those kinds of things, you are world class, you know, it sets you head and shoulders. And that's why I talked about before, winning the awards, getting recognized, doing good things, whatever you're doing, that your competitors aren't, scream it from the rafters, you deserve it.
00:00:48
Speaker
Welcome to the Thought Leader Revolution with Nikki Ballou. Join the revolution. There's never been a better time in history to speak your truth, find your freedom, and make your fortune. Each week, we interview the world's top thought leaders and learn the secrets of how they built a six to seven-figure practice. This episode has been brought to you by eCircleAcademy.com, the proven system to add six to seven figures a year to your thought leader practice.
00:01:20
Speaker
Welcome to another exciting episode of the podcast, The Thought Leader Revolution.
Meet Jody Steinhauer: A Social Business Pioneer
00:01:26
Speaker
I'm your host, Nicky Baloo. And boy, do we have an amazing, exciting guest lined up for you today. She is a pioneer in that trendy space now known as the Social Business Enterprise. She founded The Bargains Group in 1988
00:01:48
Speaker
30 years ago when she was only two years old. And she has taken the concept of doing well by doing good to a whole new level. I am speaking, of course, of none other than the one, the only, the legendary Jody Steinhauer. Jody, welcome to the show. Thanks, Nicky. Thrilled to be here. I'm thrilled to have you on the show, Jody.
00:02:15
Speaker
So Jodi, I wanna tell you, this show, this show is here because our listener is a hero to us.
00:02:25
Speaker
And like every good story, our story has a hero and it's got a villain. The hero is our listener, who is an entrepreneur, usually a coach or a consultant, who wants some help growing their business. But there's a villain out there in this story and it's a bunch of unscrupulous,
00:02:46
Speaker
success gurus who have programs that don't deliver results for people. And you know what? I think people who want help growing their business, they're worried about who they can trust. And they're also thinking to themselves, and I believe this very strongly, that, hey, you know what? I'm a good person. If I'm going to invest in a program or in a mentor, I deserve to win. And so on this particular show, the mentors we're bringing to help people
00:03:13
Speaker
Are you our guest? So our listeners really interested knowing what your backstory is because they trust us to bring them great people on the show. So tell us your backstory, Jodi.
From Fashion to Frugality: Jody's Ethical Shift
00:03:23
Speaker
Uh, sure. Well, I, uh, I actually graduated in fashion marketing and business. And, uh, very, very quickly I recognized that the fashion business was very much like a beauty pageant and it didn't align with my, my ethics and values and, uh,
00:03:42
Speaker
For those of you who are familiar with the Me Too movement, you can read between the lines. So I quickly left that industry and was introduced by Fluke to the discount worlds. And going back 35 years ago, for the people who live in Toronto, there was Woolworths, there was Honest Eds, but there was no such thing as Walmart or TJ Maxx or winners or dollar stores. So I was extremely, extremely ahead of my time.
00:04:12
Speaker
because what I started to do was work for a gentleman where we would go to factories all over Canada, back then there was a lot of manufacturing still in this country, and we would purchase large quantities of clothing and related items and then repackage them and rebundle them into small boxes, maybe 24 pieces or so, and sell them to stores across Canada on the phone. So remember, there is no internet, there is none of this happening.
00:04:42
Speaker
If a buyer didn't trust me on the phone, which that was my job is to make them trust me and give them incredible ideas that would help their business so that they would continue to buy.
00:04:52
Speaker
I would even snap a Polaroid picture and put it in an envelope and mail it to them. That's how old I am, Nikki. So fast forward, I loved helping people.
Building The Bargains Group: Trust in a Pre-Internet Era
00:05:04
Speaker
I loved a retailer telling me that it was incredible. I wasn't just providing them product, but I was telling them how to set it up on a rack, what to price it at, how to move more of them by putting two, four, three, four, giving them all different strategies.
00:05:20
Speaker
But as that continued to grow in my business, and sorry, I left that gentleman, I ran his business and made him millions of dollars. And he made a very bad business decision.
00:05:31
Speaker
and took the company down and came to me and said, Jody, you make me all my money. I'm going to open up an office next door tomorrow because we're going to have to bankrupt the whole company. You'll start on your own and I'll give you 10% of the business. But for six months, we'll have no money for infrastructure or staff. So I was very honored. And I said, thank you very much, but I might as well put my name on the door. I'm going to be running the business and I'd like to keep 100% of the profits.
00:06:01
Speaker
but I'll be happy to help you with anything you need. So the Bargains Group literally was born out of one of those, you know, keep your eyes open for an opportunity that comes your way because I was brought up that you always do whatever you're going to do at maximum capacity. So I ran his business like it was my own business. So that was on a Friday and the entire industry in Montreal and Winnipeg heard what happened.
00:06:28
Speaker
called me on the weekend and said to me, Jodi, we support you. We will provide you with all of the product that you need. We will ship it to you, go out and sell it. And when you get paid, you can pay us. And back then I just said, Oh wow, is that ever nice? Uh, now 30 years later, we call that self financing and the entire industry
00:06:51
Speaker
trusted me because I had a stellar reputation of being honest, hardworking and a ton of integrity. And they financially backed me and I made money from the first week I opened up. I very quickly stopped dealing with retailers after five or 10 years because Walmart and the whole retail discount revolution started coming in and retail wasn't as fun as it used to be.
00:07:16
Speaker
And as an entrepreneur, like many of the people here, my whole philosophy is if I'm going to work 20 hours a day, seven days a week, I got to love what I'm doing because it's not work.
Helping the Homeless: Jody's New Mission
00:07:27
Speaker
It's fun. So I started to really do some soul searching and I recognize that I really love volunteering and I did a lot of work with homeless shelters.
00:07:37
Speaker
So I had that epiphany moment in my life when someone did a homeless shelter, asked me what I did. And I told them that I sold socks and underwear and clothing to stores. And I find out that homeless shelters actually had to buy socks and underwear at times. And when they did, they were going to these big box stores and getting hosed. They were paying way too much. They were taking time out of their day as social workers, not with their clients.
00:08:03
Speaker
and they weren't getting donations on top of it. So I developed a whole section in the bargains group where we service not-for-profit social service agencies, shelters, drop-ins, disaster relief supplies. Right now BC is having floods, we're shipping stuff out there. We do refugees, we do all of that. And we do not just clothing, we've expanded into personal care and hygiene products, holiday gifts,
00:08:30
Speaker
bedding linen, if you think of having nothing but the clothes on your back and walking into a homeless shelter, we have to supply all of those other things across the country. And the more we supplied, the more we recognized that there's a huge gap between needs, what these places need and what they have money for. So what I did was reach out to my most valuable thing that I cherish, which is my network. And I said, what can you donate? What can you get together?
00:09:00
Speaker
And I started a whole charity today called engageandchange.org 19 years ago where we get together business leaders two days a year, one of them in June called Project Water and we build
00:09:15
Speaker
summer survival kits and we give out 300,000 bottles of water and 3,000 survival kits to over 190 homeless shelters and social service agencies. So when there's a heat alert called within two hours of Toronto, the social workers have the tools and the water so nobody will die from dehydration. And they don't have budgets for any of this. So they're relying solely on the charity, which is comprised of three board members, a lot of love,
00:09:44
Speaker
and no salaries, and really just collaborating with the networks of wonderful, wonderful people I have. And in the winter, we do the same thing, but the project's 10 times as large because we live in Canada and it's cold, and we build winter survival kits that project winter survival in January, and we distribute those. And to give you an idea, the winter project, the donation within three hours is about a half a million dollars worth of product that's out there on the streets.
00:10:12
Speaker
So from that, we loved what we did and we started having companies calling us and saying, boy, we have warehouses full of product, but we don't want it to end up in a dollar store. You're connected to all the not-for-profits across Canada. Can you quietly donate it out for us, Jodi? So we made a commitment and we started a program called the Full Circle Donation Program.
00:10:35
Speaker
And at any time a not-for-profit ever does business with a bargains group, including a church, a school, or somebody's just buying to donate to a not-for-profit, they get access to this warehouse and they get cases of free donations with every transaction. So it's kind of like a loyalty club. The second last division we started,
00:10:56
Speaker
was discount promotional products because people, we have our home of the famous $2 t-shirt and everybody wants to put a logo on it. So we expanded to doing custom t-shirts and everything else you can think of in the swag, wear a tote bag, a pen, you name it, we can do it. But we do it in a very ethical way, unlike other companies where we say, what are you trying to accomplish? And tell us what you're thinking.
00:11:21
Speaker
And most of the time somebody comes forward with, you know, they want to do a tote bag or a pen for a trade show, for example. And my people will say, no offense. It's really boring. Can we give you another suggestion? That's probably less money with a much bigger wow or impact. And that's, you know, that's really who we are at the Bargains Group. We're all about bargain idea generation.
00:11:43
Speaker
And the more we do, the more we help. So the last division we've just opened, which I think is going to take over all of the company.
Kits for a Cause: Corporate-Charity Collaboration
00:11:52
Speaker
And we just launched the website last week, kits for a cause.com. And again, it recognizes the void that not-for-profits are desperate for product. And they have corporations calling them and wanting to volunteer and bringing teams out to volunteer.
00:12:09
Speaker
but they can't fill a homeless shelter with 200 corporate volunteers. So they're turning away volunteers because they don't have anything for these people to do.
00:12:19
Speaker
And on the other hand, corporations want to go out and volunteer and do corporate social responsibility and team building and they don't know where to go. So these people keep coming to me because of the charity I founded. So we started to basically match them up and say, well, we've got all these charities that need stuff and you've got a bunch of people who want to do good things and you've got a budget. So I'm going to get you to build kits for a cause that you're passionate about.
00:12:46
Speaker
and that can contribute an impact to your bottom line when I also teach you how to market it. And you can do an event, whether it be 30 minutes or three hours, five people to 5,000 people, but it's all about how we can change the model of fundraising and philanthropy in Canada and have really great impact and also contribute to our bottom lines as companies. So that's my quick version.
00:13:14
Speaker
Jerry, I'm speechless, and this never happens because I speak for a living. It's mind-blowing that you have a strong, powerful business, a capitalist business that has really made its mark and stood out in the marketplace by doing good.
00:13:33
Speaker
You know, this is thought leadership. So Matt Church, who's one of my mentors, said an expert is someone who knows something, but a thought leader, that's someone who's known for knowing something. Jody Stanhauer and the Bargains Group are known for doing business in such a way that makes a difference in the lives of people, the most vulnerable people in our society. You're known for this. It's a big reason why so many people are attracted to doing business with you.
00:14:01
Speaker
Could you comment on this definition of thought leadership being known for knowing something and how you feel this has helped you and then suggest to our listener how this can help them? Sure.
Awards as Catalysts for Thought Leadership
00:14:14
Speaker
Sure. Thought leadership, I think is just really figuring out, you know, what differentiates you from everybody else and how you're making an impact. And I think sometimes you don't plan on being a thought leader. You just fall into it. So.
00:14:30
Speaker
We were recognized, uh, I'm going to say over 15 years ago because I was doing this back then. And back then people would say to me, business leaders, mentors, why are you caring so much about the homeless? Why don't you just focus on making more money? And that's where I'm really personally different. I say, you know, success is a very different word to many people. And as a thought leader, you know, I say success to me at the very deepest core is about being happy.
00:14:59
Speaker
And what makes me happy and the people I surround myself with is making others happy, helping and making an impact. That doesn't mean we're going to have the largest company.
00:15:09
Speaker
or I'm going to have the biggest bank account, absolutely not. But I can go to bed every night knowing I made a huge dent in the universe, whether that be as a leader in my company, as in my community, or to my children, because thought leaders bring up thought leaders, right? That's the other part of it. So I think the really important thing that's also helped us about is recognizing that winning awards and being publicly recognized
00:15:35
Speaker
is a really great thing. And so many entrepreneurs and business people I met don't understand this concept. If you're doing something great and someone tells you, get them to nominate you for an award. Win as many awards as you can, because when you win an award, and I started winning them back in 2001 when I won the Canadian Woman Entrepreneur of the Year award, it allowed
00:16:00
Speaker
the doors to be opened for me to get invited into the fancy groups of people, the big cocktail parties, the big events. And what happened was they would ask me to speak and give speeches about what I was talking about and what I was a thought leader. And then I was then, again, allowed to stand up on a stage and really give a commercial for my business. And all I was doing was talking about what I was passionate about. But like Nikki, you said,
00:16:29
Speaker
People want to do business with good people. And even more so now than 15 years ago, because of all of the craziness and the lack of trust we have out there. You know, if you come to my office and you see an entire wall full of awards, plaques and everything,
00:16:46
Speaker
They're strategically put there because I want people to know who we are as a brand. And I want them in five seconds to trust us. Right. So I think the thought leadership of what we've been able to do is said, this is who we are. This is what we do. And it also puts a filter on everything we do as a business. There's so many opportunities that come my way. But if it's going to affect my reputation and what we stand for, both myself and my company,
00:17:14
Speaker
That's the filter system that we say, there may be a lot of money on the table, but it's not who we are. And I think being a thought leader is also being able to say no to the opportunities that could potentially hurt your reputation for being that leader.
00:17:32
Speaker
You know, that's a very important point because if you're a thought leader, you're known for something. You're known for something that matters. You're known for something that you do or something that you've created that's different from what other people are doing. And you can't do anything to tarnish that brand, right? Absolutely. And I think it's really important. People don't realize how quick that can happen. And again, with social media these days, it's, it's,
00:18:02
Speaker
It's terrifying. So you've got to make sure that whatever you stand for, that not only do you stand for it, that it's stamped everywhere you are, but that the people you bring on and are working for you or interning for you or associated with or your suppliers, that you're being totally transparent and your people are totally being transparent because at the end of the day, we're not a massive company, but the bargains group is Jodi.
00:18:29
Speaker
So if somebody in my organization does something extremely inappropriate and we don't find out, it can really have a very negative impact. So I think that's part of it. You have to really, as a thought leader, you have to be transparent, but you also have to make sure that your team and your brand is being consistent with the message that you're standing up there talking about what you're a leader in and known for.
00:18:53
Speaker
Yeah, that's very true. That's very, very true. So we say there's five pillars to thought leadership, and I want you to comment on each one of them.
Intellectual Property: The Cornerstone of Leadership
00:19:02
Speaker
So number one is you need to have world class IP, world class intellectual property. To be a thought leader, you need to think and you need to be a leader, which means that
00:19:14
Speaker
your thinking and the types of things that you talk about need to stand out and be different from what other people are doing. Can you comment on that, on how you use that and how you recommend people use that? Yeah, I mean, I think we, I touched on it a bit earlier, figuring out what makes you different. So, uh, one of the, the mantras that I've come up with that I use over and over and over again is giving back makes great business sense.
00:19:42
Speaker
And the reason that, and the reason I say that, thank you, is because when a company donates or a company goes out and volunteers, most people will say, Oh, I don't want to talk about that. Like, I don't want to come across as being obnoxious. And I say, no, no, no, you don't understand. You need to know how to leverage giving back so that it can totally impact bottom line.
00:20:06
Speaker
And that's something that most people, business owners are extremely shy of. And that's one of the things that we teach them. How do you subliminally talk about what you've done and make sure that, for example, your employees know about it, your future employees know about it so they, you know, recruits know what kind of company you are and your customers know about it. And you can do it in so many different ways without being obnoxious.
00:20:34
Speaker
And I think that's really, really key on being world-class because although majority of my business is in Canada, I get to speak a lot internationally. And for example, on my business card and on my signature file, if you email me or anyone, anybody in my company, it actually says on the very bottom of it, I've picked my two most prestigious well-known awards. One of them is the Canadian Woman Entrepreneur of the Year. And the other one is Canada's top 40 under 40.
00:21:02
Speaker
And when that's on a business card, the first thing that happened today, I was out, people said me, wow. And I always joke around and say, yeah, I'm not that impressive. But when they see those kinds of things, you are world class, you know, it sets you head and shoulders. And that's why I talked about before winning the awards, getting recognized.
00:21:21
Speaker
doing good things, whatever you're doing, that your competitors aren't. Scream it from the rafters. You deserve it. 100%. Pillar number two is that you need to have clarity. You need to have clarity of who your ideal customer is. You need to have clarity about your message. I think you do both of those things really well. Can you comment on those?
00:21:48
Speaker
Thank you. One of my challenges, I have clarity when I talk about each one of the bargains group, the four divisions we have. But one of the challenges when you're when you're a smaller company, I didn't want to open up four different companies with four different websites and sets of books and all of that. So sometimes the clarity I find for myself is clouded by having to group everything under one umbrella. But
00:22:16
Speaker
You def I mean I gave you my elevator pitch and it took me how many minutes to do. I try to add clarity the opposite way by if somebody says to me I don't really understand what you do Jodi.
00:22:29
Speaker
can you explain, what I usually would say is, will you tell me what you do? And then I apply what they need to know. If they're a real estate agent or an investment person, I would say to them, well, you probably give a lot of swag out to people or have high net worth clients with high transactions. Instead of giving them a business card, have you ever thought
00:22:53
Speaker
of giving them a thank you kit for spending some time with you and putting 10, $20 worth of low good product of useful items that they actually need instead of one of those crappy calculators or a business cart. So I'm always about how can I wow somebody with what I do and impact their life in a positive way. And I think that that clarity is really understanding what it means to wow them. And sometimes they don't even know they have
00:23:21
Speaker
a deficiency or an issue and addressing that and coming across very quickly with what you can do and how you can help. And most of the time, I find the clarity is with stories. Storytelling is a great way to do that.
00:23:39
Speaker
Storytelling is amazing. I'm a big fan of Donald Miller. He has a company called Story Brand. He wrote a book called Building a Story Brand. He has a podcast called Story Brand. I've signed up for his online program and I'm actually doing one of his live workshops.
00:23:56
Speaker
This organization and this individual really takes story to the next level. I also study Nancy Duarte. She is based out in Silicon Valley. She helped Steve Jobs with his amazing presentations, which are all story-based. And I've read Robert McKee in his work. He wrote a book called Story. He's one of the top coaches for script writing in Hollywood, maybe even the top coach. So I'm a big believer in story. Story's awesome story works.
00:24:21
Speaker
Next, the next pillar, and this was a nice segue, is a pillar of a strategy of preeminence. And that means that you need to be the preeminent thought leader in your field, or at least one of the preeminent thought leaders in your field, for you to really be a powerful thought leader. These are the pillars of thought leadership. What are your comments on that?
00:24:39
Speaker
uh, meaning like first to market. Is that what you're trying to know? It's not about first to market. It's being known as a leader in terms of the thinking you do, the concepts you bring forward, that sort of thing, innovation ideas. Okay. Yeah. I mean, I think it's really important and I think sometimes for smaller businesses and smaller business people, it's, it's very difficult because with the internet, there's so much noise and traction out there. So you've got to kind of figure out,
00:25:09
Speaker
which audiences are you going to be able to really impact and be known at and how do you make that happen? And I think through public speaking and storytelling is probably one of the best ways of doing that. And seeing, you know, if you come up with a really cool concept and you can turn it into a speech and even or a book,
00:25:33
Speaker
asking to speak at the annual conferences or help out with roundtables or things like that. Those are great ways of becoming that, but it takes some time. I mean, it's not something that happens overnight and I think it's got to be very strategic and planned.
00:25:51
Speaker
Yeah, that's very true. That's very, very true.
Expanding Influence: Leveraging Your IP
00:25:54
Speaker
So the fourth pillar of thought leadership is all about leverage. And what I mean by leverage is once you have staked out some intellectual property, once you're known for something, and you're maybe delivering it in one way inside your business. So for a lot of people listening to this, they might be a coach, they might be a consultant, they might be doing a lot of their work one on one, or they might be selling one particular program or set of products.
00:26:17
Speaker
Leverage allows you to take that IP and do it in multiple ways. So, for example, if they're just doing coaching, they cannot create group programs, they can do public speaking, they can write a book, they can do facilitation, they can do corporate training. If they're a corporation and they've been known for selling a widget A, they can start being known for selling a higher level widget. I mean, Apple was really good at this. They went from just creating the max to the
00:26:43
Speaker
iPod to the iPhone to the iPad and to IMAX. So what are your thoughts on leverage and how a thought leader can use leverage and how have you used leverage and how do you recommend the listener uses leverage? Sure. Well, there's a great book and an author named Bill Bishop and he talks about, you know, the old factory concept and the new factory. I know Bill well, he was one of my mentors a while back.
00:27:10
Speaker
Yeah. So Bill's an awesome thinker and he's an amazing thought leader. We've had him on the show. He was one of our first guests actually. Oh, okay. Great. Well, his whole concept of thought leadership and the whole new factory in the old factory, you were a product. So whether you sold a coaching package or you sold socks, it really didn't matter. But the new factory is you've got to be the hub. You've got to be the hub.
00:27:38
Speaker
to your network and to your clients. So when they need something, they come to you because you're that thought leader and you're that connector. And I came up with, it's funny, about 10 years ago, and everyone seems to knock me off now, but I always said your network is your net worth. And I have been out religiously for 30 years, two to four nights a week, meeting interesting people, going to really great events where I'm gonna learn and meet people at the same time.
00:28:09
Speaker
But what I've really been doing is also building my network so that when I talk about that word leverage, people know me. If you need to know something or someone, just call Jodi. She'll know who they are and she'll be able to connect you. And being a connector and helping people is how I've really leveraged what I believe in is all about helping. So if it's a business person,
00:28:33
Speaker
I can ask them within five minutes, what is it that you're looking for? Do you need more clients? Do you need more ideas? Do you need to put a spin on something? What is it exactly that you're looking for? But I think it goes above and beyond. When people call me, they don't call me.
00:28:50
Speaker
just because they want you know some clothing or some promotional products or they call me for the craziest things because they know that when they get off the phone either i will have already answered them and given them what they need and if i can't i will introduce them to some somebody leverage my resources and connect them to somebody who can help them and i think that
00:29:11
Speaker
That's how I look at the word leverage, and I really believe the world or the universe is all about the laws of reciprocity. I go out there and help people every single day. I don't expect anybody to help me, but the few times I've needed help, when I actually ask, it's incredible. Nobody ever says no to me. And that's really what I'm starting to do now. After being in business for 30 years, I'm realizing I'm now gonna turn around
00:29:40
Speaker
and start asking. And it's incredible when you just say to someone, imagine a client or someone who really likes you and you say to them, hey, listen, I really enjoy working with you. Do you have any other people in your network that you think I could have great impact with and are as nice and fun as you because I only want to deal with nice and fun clients? When you ask that question, you'd be shocked. You'll get answers.
00:30:08
Speaker
Right. And that's a simple way of business people every day being able to leverage what they should be able to leverage their network of people who trust them because it's a very noisy world out there. And although Google's phenomenal and people can find things, there's still nothing better.
00:30:27
Speaker
than a human recommendation. So hopefully that answers your question. There's no hope to it. You know what, General George Patton said, hope's not a strategy. And that did answer my question. It's very powerful. So you know what? I'm going to take advantage of having you on the phone.
00:30:43
Speaker
looking to get connected to certain groups and associations. I understand there's an association of facilitators, there's an association of trainers, associations like that, of coaches, of speakers, of authors. I want to be connected to the folks who run them so that we can introduce thought leadership and what we do to them. So Jodi, if you know anyone in those organizations, I would love an introduction. Yeah, and I think also even groups of speakers would be a phenomenal
00:31:12
Speaker
great connection for you because they're all looking to be known as thought leaders in their areas and can only benefit 100%. Those are good. So you know what, maybe offline we can chat about that's fantastic. So the fifth, the last pillar is the importance of peers and mentors.
The Role of Mentorship in Personal Growth
00:31:28
Speaker
Now I know you believe in this. I know you're part of peer groups. I know you believe in mentorship. So talk about why that's important, how you do it and how people can do it in their businesses.
00:31:40
Speaker
All right, great. I'm going to talk about peers, mentors, and I'm also going to talk about something. I do a speech on negative mentors. OK, so I strongly believe that not only do we need to mentor others, but we also need to be mentored. And it doesn't matter how successful we are. We can always grow and learn. And the second we stop growing and learning, we're going to be in trouble. So I also I also believe
00:32:10
Speaker
that mentors and mentorships have a shelf life. And I could list out over the years, all of the different mentors that have come into my life and have impacted me and how, and how I would say the average time that I've spent with someone and had them as a mentor or mentored others has been approximately two years.
00:32:35
Speaker
You know, sometimes the odd one has ended quicker and the other ones have a little longer, but I think it's really important because what I like to do in the process is set goals. And I like to say, listen, you've got knowledge in this. I've got a weakness in that. I would love if you could mentor me, teach me, help me grow and hold me accountable because as an entrepreneur and a leader,
00:33:02
Speaker
The great thing, but also the difficult thing is I don't report to anybody. So I need to also be held accountable. So I have mentors also in my business life. And that's where most people think about it, having coach or a mentor in their business life. But I also have mentors that have, I'm going to call them mother mentors. I'm an entrepreneur who went back to work after three days of having both children.
00:33:30
Speaker
And I didn't have time to figure out how to navigate the mummy world, right? So I was very lucky. I went to a wonderful woman and she runs a multimillion dollar company with thousands of employees, Victoria Sopic. She has eight children and multi businesses. So I figured, wow, she wants to know how to figure out how to be a good mom. So I said to her, I need you to mentor me.
00:33:55
Speaker
And I need you to teach me the shortcut on how to deal with children and how to do it. So she still to this day is my favorite mommy mentor, but there's been lots of others. And then I've also had personal mentors who've helped me grow as an individual, as a whole leader, not just on the business side. Now on the other side of negative mentors, I think this is really, really important. We've all met people in our lives who say things,
00:34:25
Speaker
And they make us cringe and they think, oh my God, please, I would never talk to someone like that, or I would never say something, or I would never treat my children that way, or I would never treat my husband or my wife that way. Those are really, really key people in your life to pay attention to. Because if you don't notice things that you don't think are appropriate and become conscious of them, you can't become better
00:34:51
Speaker
as a leader. So it's very, very important to identify also things around you that aren't that aren't the way you want them to be because those will those will also help you improve your goals of what you do aspire to become better at. And the last thing I wanted to tell you about is I belong to so many groups over the years. Entrepreneurs organization, EO and EOA is probably one of my favorites where I meet monthly with mostly men.
00:35:21
Speaker
And we have a very, very in-depth forum group. And when one of us is having a challenge, we're all there for each other. It's been instrumental in so many business decisions and things that I've had to deal with in my business and personal career. But I also belong to women mentorship groups and mentors circles. And I think, again, at different times in my life, different groups have been extremely, extremely valuable.
00:35:51
Speaker
as well as me mentoring people. I, in my company right now, have 10 interns. Internship and bringing interns into your company, no matter how big or small it is, is an incredible way of mentoring people. And I just won a very senior person and took them away from one of the largest charities in Canada who were all about engagement because they heard that I was heading up this new division, Kits for a Cause, and they wanted to be mentored by me
00:36:20
Speaker
and make an impact. So I think your mentorship, if you also publicize that you like to do it, can also win you key people and key leaders. So I don't know if that answers everything, Nikki, but the mentorship is so vitally important to all of us. Mentorship peer group is super important. I mean, that's what we do. East Circle Academy is a program
00:36:49
Speaker
It's a community, really. What we do is we help people who are looking to grow their business, who are unsure of who they can trust, because we know there, we've been there. Everybody who invests in a program deserves to have it pay off. And we've had a situation where we've invested in programs that haven't paid off. So we want to make sure that ours is curated with great people, and they can come and take advantage of it and grow their business. So absolutely 100%. So Jodi, it's amazing.
00:37:16
Speaker
to have had you as a guest here on the show today. I know you've given us a lot of gold here. So I want you to just bullet point. Give us your top three expert action steps that you want our listener to take on by way of closing off this episode to take into their business in their life.
Passion, Leadership, and Giving Back
00:37:38
Speaker
OK, top three. All right. Well, I think it's making sure
00:37:44
Speaker
150% sure that they're really passionate about what they're doing. And if the answer is I'm not sure, then redefine yourself. That's the number one thing. If you don't wake up every morning excited to do something, then you're not in the right space. That makes sense. That would be the first thing. Figure out
00:38:07
Speaker
what you're a thought leader in or what you want to aspire to be a thought leader in and make sure that it's not a crowded area. I think too many people say, for example, I'm a coach, right? That's too crowded. What is your unique ability of being a coach and what's the impact? So I think figure out what that is. We obviously agree with that 100%, given that that's what we built our business on.
00:38:34
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And I think the third thing is for me, figure out how you're going to give back to your local community. And most people I say that to say, well, you know, I'm just building a business, you know, when I make money, I'll donate and all of that. And I say, no, you know, corporate social responsibility isn't a, well, it'll be nice in a few years when I make money. It's something that's got to be built in to your plan from day one.
00:39:02
Speaker
Because when you are consciously thinking about it, talking about it, putting it on your website, bringing it out to your employees and your clients, it will come back to help your bottom line. But you've got to make a conscious effort of deciding what it is that I'm going to believe in.
00:39:22
Speaker
And it doesn't mean volunteering at 16 different places. It means picking something that you're passionate about, that you want to have impact and pick something also that aligns with your business or your company. You know, if you're in the digital space or you deal with people in that space, maybe deal with the less fortunate who need school supplies. And maybe you pick a charity that you want to help train
00:39:48
Speaker
and do building kits with school supplies and also give them education and knowledge, but figure out what it is that you as a thought leader can impact and how you can impact your local community. So I think those are the three things.
00:40:01
Speaker
Those are three fabulous expert action steps. And at every episode we ask our guests for their top three expert action steps and you've delivered gold to us. So Jodi, you're telling us about your fourth division, the brand new division that you've just launched. So what's the URL website for that so that folks can get involved? Yeah, great. It's, it's kits, K I T S for a cause.com.
00:40:30
Speaker
And we just launched the site literally last week, so there's still some things to update it. But basically, it's almost like a dating site. If you're a company and you're looking for an individual, I mean, in the coaching world, I know that's a lot of your audience. A lot of what I believe is coaches have lots of different clients. They can bring great new concepts.
00:40:55
Speaker
Most people are having a problem these days with culture because everything is being automated. So if people want to bring value to their clients, talk about this whole concept and say, what are you doing for team building? What are you doing to build culture in your company? And you don't have to hop on a plane and take everyone to Hawaii. It would be nice, but that's just not reasonable. For 30 minutes to an hour,
00:41:23
Speaker
you could give them a great idea and say, I heard about this great new concept, kits for a cause. The group of us could pack some kits for a local charity and we could really use it to impact our bottom line by taking pictures, video, putting it in a newsletter, putting it on the website. I can talk you through a million different ways. And if they don't have a cause or they're confused, they don't know what would be a good cause for them, then we can match them up with one anywhere in Canada. So,
00:41:52
Speaker
That's what I would love for your listeners to do. Understand we're all super busy and we're going to get busier. That's just the way the world is. And the unfortunate thing is the charities are in desperate need of volunteers because a lot of the seniors who volunteer and didn't work, our grandparents, unfortunately are passing away and our generation
00:42:14
Speaker
is too busy to volunteer. So we've got to figure out how can we help out and make an impact and help these organizations during business hours. And this is the solution.
00:42:24
Speaker
Jody, I love it. This is fantastic. You know what, Kids for a Cause sounds fabulous. I'll have Teresa, who is my fabulous Better Half and my fabulous Chief of WoW at E-Circle Academy. Look into this. I think maybe E-Circle Academy could get our members to participate in Kids for a Cause. And this is fabulous. And you know what, listener, if you're listening to this, make sure that you take advantage of
00:42:51
Speaker
what Jody and the Bargains Group are offering here. Kitsforacause.com sounds fabulous. Make sure you visit it. Make sure you have your clients visit it. Make sure that you spread this to your peers. And if you're listening to this and you're wondering, could I be like Jody? Could I be a thought leader? You know, I'm looking for help growing my business and I'm not sure who I can trust. And I'm a good person. I deserve, I deserve to be able to find someone I can trust to invest in their program and get a great return.
00:43:20
Speaker
and we agree with you and you know what we're ready to have an honest conversation with you to see if your thought leadership is really worth something if it's got six to seven figure your potential will tell you when if it doesn't will tell you that too to find out if you could be like jody steinhauer if you could be a thought leader in your niche and grow your business
00:43:41
Speaker
and if you can be part of a program that you can trust to deliver results for you, jump on a call with us. Go to the link, esircolacademy.com forward slash appointment. That's esircolacademy.com forward slash appointment. You can make an appointment to jump on a phone with myself, a member of my team, and let's have a real honest conversation about you and your business.
00:44:03
Speaker
Whether or not it has the potential to be a six to seven figure business, whether or not we can help you grow it. And Jody, thank you so much for being on the call today. You are amazing. Thank you. Thank you so much. And I, I look forward to seeing all of the new thought leaders come out of your academy. And if there's any other way we can help them with ideas or bargains, we're here to help.
00:44:25
Speaker
You're the best. And that wraps up another exciting episode of the podcast, The Thought Leader Revolution. And to find out more about today's amazing guest, Jody Steinhauer, go to the show notes at thethoughtleaderrevolution.com and you will see the URLs and everything you need to do to participate in kidsforacause.com. And again, if you really want to find out if
00:44:54
Speaker
You can grow your business. If you can find a group, a community that you can trust, go to eastcircleacademy.com forward slash appointment, jump on a call with myself or a member of my team, and we'll help you get an honest conversation going on whether or not a six to seven figure business is in the cards for you with your IP and your expertise where you're at right now. Until next time, goodbye.