IMPACT DRIVEN LEADERS - BUILDERS With Alex Snider

Howard Brown: 00:00:06

Hello, it's Howard Brown. It's the Shining Brightly

Howard Brown: 00:00:08

Podcast show. So glad you're here. I have an amazing guest.

Howard Brown: 00:00:14

Oh my God all the way from Mexico. Alex Snider, welcome.

Howard Brown: 00:00:17

How are you?

Alex Snider: 00:00:19

I'm so good. Howard, thank you so much for

Alex Snider: 00:00:21

having me.

Howard Brown: 00:00:23

I have to tell you that although I talk a lot about

Howard Brown: 00:00:26

human resolve in healthcare, I love talking about business

Howard Brown: 00:00:30

growth, stimulation startups technology, because I have a

Howard Brown: 00:00:35

true blue true green Babson guy. And so entrepreneurship, it just

Howard Brown: 00:00:39

runs in my DNA. So I've got an amazing strategy advisor with me

Howard Brown: 00:00:44

today. And let me just tell you a little bit about Alex.

Howard Brown: 00:00:47

Alexandra is a keynote speaker, strategic advisor and a podcast

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host. And she advises founders, executives and accelerators. And

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she also is the host of the builders podcast. So she is the

Howard Brown: 00:01:00

Content Builder herself. We're gonna dig into that and show you

Howard Brown: 00:01:02

what she's built. And she has worked across four continents,

Howard Brown: 00:01:06

she leads strategic planning, Operation improvements, for

Howard Brown: 00:01:09

multinational multibillion dollar, divestments and startups

Howard Brown: 00:01:12

and all leading to exits. Today. She leverages the connections of

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insight and experience she's gained to advise impact driven

Howard Brown: 00:01:19

business leaders. And it's really important to get this

Howard Brown: 00:01:23

guidance, I can tell you that she's a sought after keynote

Howard Brown: 00:01:26

speaker presenter and her insights have been featured on

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industry leading conferences, events, the volcano summit, the

Howard Brown: 00:01:32

Impact Hub collision conference, when she's not supporting

Howard Brown: 00:01:36

clients, she has a real life and she's working for that work life

Howard Brown: 00:01:39

balance. She actually, you actually I said you hit the gym

Howard Brown: 00:01:43

a lot. You actually cuddled rescue dogs and you reading and

Howard Brown: 00:01:48

your big adventure. So Alex, welcome. Now that we know a

Howard Brown: 00:01:53

little bit about you, okay, tell us something that we may not

Howard Brown: 00:01:56

know about you that you want to share? Hmm.

Alex Snider: 00:02:00

I think something that isn't always really

Alex Snider: 00:02:02

evident, I talk so much about leadership and strategy and you

Alex Snider: 00:02:07

know, really exist in this world of business. The foundation of

Alex Snider: 00:02:11

that actually came from growing up as an athlete. So I grew up.

Alex Snider: 00:02:15

And I politics taught me how to think strategically. It's wired

Alex Snider: 00:02:20

into my brain to analyze and scenario plan and then execute

Alex Snider: 00:02:25

on that. It also taught me about discipline, and really being my

Alex Snider: 00:02:30

own competitor, like that, you know, person, you need to be

Alex Snider: 00:02:33

this view every day. And to the persistence and long term kind

Alex Snider: 00:02:38

of focus and strategy, you have to have that when you're

Alex Snider: 00:02:41

pursuing high level athletics. So I think that's an interesting

Alex Snider: 00:02:45

tie in that's maybe not a huge secret that I was, you know, I'm

Alex Snider: 00:02:48

still very athletic, I hit the gym all the time. It's a huge

Alex Snider: 00:02:50

part of my identity, but that that foundation, you know,

Alex Snider: 00:02:55

hindsight is 2020. Looking back. That is where it started,

Alex Snider: 00:02:59

literally, you know, as a child.

Howard Brown: 00:03:04

I love that because a lot of leaders have

Howard Brown: 00:03:08

some relationship with athletics. So for you as an

Howard Brown: 00:03:12

equestrian, it's one with the horse, right? I mean, that's

Howard Brown: 00:03:15

really, you and the horse, just like a golfer with a golf ball,

Howard Brown: 00:03:19

or someone maybe playing tennis with a tennis ball. But you also

Howard Brown: 00:03:22

played a team sport of rugby. All right, and you're only as

Howard Brown: 00:03:26

good as the weakest link on the team and me being a basketball

Howard Brown: 00:03:29

player. I was the point guard. Right? So I was the floor

Howard Brown: 00:03:33

general. Okay, the floor general on what play? We're running.

Howard Brown: 00:03:36

Okay, what defense we're calling, okay. And I had to pace

Howard Brown: 00:03:40

the game. These are decisions. These are decision making. Real

Howard Brown: 00:03:43

time. Right. Exactly. Right. So this is amazing. So I do believe

Howard Brown: 00:03:48

that there is a relationship between leadership discipline,

Howard Brown: 00:03:53

strategy and athletics that we have in life. So I love that. So

Howard Brown: 00:03:57

maybe you want to share a little bit more of your background?

Howard Brown: 00:03:59

That would be

Alex Snider: 00:04:00

Yeah, absolutely. And I think, you know, we'll

Alex Snider: 00:04:02

come to leadership and style, but also I was actually really

Alex Snider: 00:04:05

quiet. But I was the captain of every team I was on. So I think

Alex Snider: 00:04:09

there's like a really cool tie in that we can talk more about

Alex Snider: 00:04:12

that. beyond athletics. And you know, I played rugby for 20

Alex Snider: 00:04:16

years, I played into my kind of early to mid 30s. So that's

Alex Snider: 00:04:20

something that I continued to do. But in terms of more

Alex Snider: 00:04:23

professional, I did a lot of different things when I was

Alex Snider: 00:04:27

younger, partly because athletics meant I didn't

Alex Snider: 00:04:30

necessarily have a second plan. But I eventually found my way

Alex Snider: 00:04:34

after working in marketing and medicine space into an MBA, and

Alex Snider: 00:04:38

I discovered the world of entrepreneurship and strategy

Alex Snider: 00:04:42

and all of the things and I was so lit up because it really

Alex Snider: 00:04:46

brought into focus. I thought I was always a bit of a numbers

Alex Snider: 00:04:49

person, and that I was kind of quiet and shy, but I loved

Alex Snider: 00:04:53

psychology and how people think and so I realized actually, that

Alex Snider: 00:04:57

all of these things kind of could come together in business.

Alex Snider: 00:04:59

and strategy and all the elements of it that you need to

Alex Snider: 00:05:03

build a great business. And I was very fortunate. Despite the

Alex Snider: 00:05:07

timing of my graduation to get opportunities in strategy

Alex Snider: 00:05:12

consulting, I went into that. So I've done strategic consulting.

Alex Snider: 00:05:16

I've also done operational optimization I bought, loaned

Alex Snider: 00:05:19

into the m&a team for a while to do mergers, acquisitions,

Alex Snider: 00:05:23

divestments and carve outs, predominantly in energy and

Alex Snider: 00:05:26

natural resource spaces, all around the world. So I've worked

Alex Snider: 00:05:29

in Africa on mine sites. And in Johannesburg, I've worked I

Alex Snider: 00:05:33

lived in London, I've been in Singapore, I've been in, you

Alex Snider: 00:05:36

know, North America and South America. So I've really been all

Alex Snider: 00:05:39

over the place. And, and I love that. And I really got to hone a

Alex Snider: 00:05:43

lot of that maybe like, thinking that I grew up with

Alex Snider: 00:05:48

strategically from sports, right. And if we think of

Alex Snider: 00:05:50

strategy, start strategy with like war tactics, then sports is

Alex Snider: 00:05:54

basically simulated more of some kind. And now we've taken it

Alex Snider: 00:05:57

into business. So I got to really hone that through seeing

Alex Snider: 00:06:00

so many different businesses and working through so many

Alex Snider: 00:06:02

different business opportunities and problems. And then I got to

Alex Snider: 00:06:06

a point where I just felt like, I didn't want to go into the

Alex Snider: 00:06:10

partner track. And that was where I was being pushed, I, you

Alex Snider: 00:06:12

know, really grateful for the opportunities, but I knew I

Alex Snider: 00:06:15

wanted to explore some other areas. And so I actually left

Alex Snider: 00:06:19

sold everything, became nomadic, and just embarked on a bit of a

Alex Snider: 00:06:24

journey of exploration of what was out there in, you know,

Alex Snider: 00:06:28

venture capital social impact startups, I was already on the

Alex Snider: 00:06:31

board for a few startups and got more involved, ended up

Alex Snider: 00:06:35

partnering into one co founding some others, we could fill in

Alex Snider: 00:06:40

five shows with those stories. But long story short, through

Alex Snider: 00:06:44

that, I learned to right size, everything I had learned in the

Alex Snider: 00:06:46

more corporate consulting space into tools, and growth and

Alex Snider: 00:06:50

maturation of these organizations. And when we

Alex Snider: 00:06:55

exited them, you know, the main business in 2021, after we were

Alex Snider: 00:07:00

supposed to exit in 2020, March, we'll spare you that story. But

Alex Snider: 00:07:05

we almost failed. After the deal fell through we 3x and 10

Alex Snider: 00:07:10

months, and then we sold the business. I really knew that I

Alex Snider: 00:07:13

wanted to take the tools I had developed and all of the like

Alex Snider: 00:07:17

weekend coaching sessions I had been doing with other founders

Alex Snider: 00:07:20

that you know, we're in our co working space, and turn that

Alex Snider: 00:07:23

into something more formal, where I could take strategy and

Alex Snider: 00:07:27

strategic planning and the processes of maturing of

Alex Snider: 00:07:32

business, things you need into other organizations and really

Alex Snider: 00:07:36

help other leaders achieve their dream make their company a great

Alex Snider: 00:07:39

place to work for their team members and deliver amazing

Alex Snider: 00:07:41

things for their customers. And so that's what I've done.

Howard Brown: 00:07:45

Well, where are you when I started three

Howard Brown: 00:07:47

companies that I didn't have an Alex to, you know, help me with

Howard Brown: 00:07:50

my blind spots and the stuff that I'm not good at, which

Howard Brown: 00:07:52

actually is strategy and analytics and the good stuff

Howard Brown: 00:07:55

that you are. So I think what you're really pointing out

Howard Brown: 00:07:58

though, it is building a business is a team sport. And I

Howard Brown: 00:08:04

actually call it Life a team sport, but but I call cancer

Howard Brown: 00:08:07

fighting cancer, a team sport, everything is finding it alone

Howard Brown: 00:08:10

is very difficult. And a lot of founders and a lot of business

Howard Brown: 00:08:13

leaders, they internalize this and they feel like they they you

Howard Brown: 00:08:17

know you're weaker, or you're not as capable if you go for

Howard Brown: 00:08:19

help. But it's not true. It's actually more that actually

Howard Brown: 00:08:23

shows your growth if you're actually willing to, you know,

Howard Brown: 00:08:25

take in the proper mentorship and consultation and things like

Howard Brown: 00:08:29

that. Talking about. Yeah, so take me into your, you know,

Howard Brown: 00:08:33

your your highlight reel of your leadership and team building.

Howard Brown: 00:08:36

And and also I asked you to also think about mentioned some, some

Howard Brown: 00:08:39

maybe iconic or not so iconic leaders that we all should kind

Howard Brown: 00:08:43

of look towards. Oh, yeah,

Alex Snider: 00:08:45

I mean, I couldn't agree more. I always say

Alex Snider: 00:08:47

entrepreneurship leadership is a team sport. And it's a lot less

Alex Snider: 00:08:50

sexy, and often more lonely than like, we're sold on the

Alex Snider: 00:08:53

internet, right? Like learning to build a team learning to lead

Alex Snider: 00:08:57

a team, it's so vital to your success and to actually enjoying

Alex Snider: 00:09:01

it, because we, I think miserable leaders are out.

Alex Snider: 00:09:06

Right? Like nobody wants to work for the miserable leader who

Alex Snider: 00:09:09

makes their life miserable anymore. And I think that's also

Alex Snider: 00:09:13

my second big belief is that strategy and leadership go hand

Alex Snider: 00:09:16

in hand. And so to your question, yeah, I don't know if

Alex Snider: 00:09:20

I, I would love to bring it maybe notable leaders, I'm not

Alex Snider: 00:09:24

going to say these are leaders that I think are people you

Alex Snider: 00:09:26

should emulate. But when I think about strategy, and I think

Alex Snider: 00:09:29

about leadership and how they amplify each other, there are

Alex Snider: 00:09:32

some really fundamental components to leadership is a

Alex Snider: 00:09:37

skill and leadership style is a choice. And so you really need

Alex Snider: 00:09:44

to decide what leader you want to be. And that takes effort to

Alex Snider: 00:09:50

be that person just like being the best you in life takes

Alex Snider: 00:09:52

effort being the best leader takes life and it means

Alex Snider: 00:09:54

overcoming a lot of your background. So I'm gonna keep

Alex Snider: 00:09:59

this PG Ah. So I think it's something that we see the

Alex Snider: 00:10:06

leaders that we see, they are not always people that I would

Alex Snider: 00:10:10

say exemplify amazing leadership, they often exemplify

Alex Snider: 00:10:13

one element of it. And then they have a team and duality, maybe

Alex Snider: 00:10:17

behind the scenes that actually makes the business have

Alex Snider: 00:10:21

successful leadership as to your point as a team, right? So if

Alex Snider: 00:10:24

you think about somebody like Henry Ford, so one of the things

Alex Snider: 00:10:28

I often say is like, drop the ego, maintain the audacity.

Alex Snider: 00:10:31

That's one of the things that's really great about a great

Alex Snider: 00:10:34

leader. They can ask for help, they can accept feedback, they

Alex Snider: 00:10:38

know that their job is to rally the troops and not have all the

Alex Snider: 00:10:40

answers. But you think of someone like Henry Ford, he

Alex Snider: 00:10:43

possessed the audacity to see and pursue a different world.

Alex Snider: 00:10:49

Okay, he possessed a vision that nobody was gonna believe in. And

Alex Snider: 00:10:54

what's that mean? That means that cars became a reality that

Alex Snider: 00:10:59

manufacturing and assembly lines were forever changed, the cost

Alex Snider: 00:11:03

of things changed accessibility to vehicles change, I would

Alex Snider: 00:11:06

never hold Henry Ford up and say I want to be the leader like

Alex Snider: 00:11:09

him. But that is one component, the audacity to see something

Alex Snider: 00:11:14

when no one else believes in it, and continue to pursue it. That

Alex Snider: 00:11:18

is incredible. Somebody else that comes up all the time is

Alex Snider: 00:11:21

Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs was an autocratic leader, he was not a

Alex Snider: 00:11:26

pleasure to be around, he was not a particularly nice person.

Alex Snider: 00:11:30

But he again, had audacious vision, and was inspiring enough

Alex Snider: 00:11:37

because obviously, the timing meant we're a little further

Alex Snider: 00:11:39

along in history, we know a little bit more of what it was

Alex Snider: 00:11:41

like to work with him, he worked in a knowledge base, as opposed

Alex Snider: 00:11:44

to big manufacturing. He inspired people enough that they

Alex Snider: 00:11:48

put up with it, but he also hired people around him to help

Alex Snider: 00:11:51

manage that. Right. That's another element though. How do

Alex Snider: 00:11:55

you can you articulate and communicate something that

Alex Snider: 00:11:58

inspires people to be driven and own and pursue again, a real

Alex Snider: 00:12:04

vision for something? And then you think of somebody else who's

Alex Snider: 00:12:07

really well known Richard Branson, it's a completely

Alex Snider: 00:12:10

different vibe, right? Richard Branson is approachable, he's

Alex Snider: 00:12:14

unconventional. He's customer focused. He's known as a risk

Alex Snider: 00:12:19

taker, right, obviously calculated. And he's known for

Alex Snider: 00:12:23

making a fun, kind of flat hierarchy environment in his

Alex Snider: 00:12:28

companies, right. So that's somebody who has taken some of

Alex Snider: 00:12:32

these elements of these other guys who are known to be

Alex Snider: 00:12:35

challenging, you know, personalities. And he's

Alex Snider: 00:12:39

integrated those some of those skills and capabilities and

Alex Snider: 00:12:43

approaches, but into something that has a lot more of the soft,

Alex Snider: 00:12:48

intangible components of leadership, that I would argue

Alex Snider: 00:12:51

make you an amazing leader, and make you a more sustainable

Alex Snider: 00:12:55

leader, somebody who is able to succeed in multiple different

Alex Snider: 00:12:59

areas, which is actually something Richard Branson has

Alex Snider: 00:13:01

done, right. I mean, he has crossed so many industries, he

Alex Snider: 00:13:04

is able to connect the dots and connect people in a way that a

Alex Snider: 00:13:08

lot of people aren't, while also having this amazing, you know,

Alex Snider: 00:13:13

set of leadership skills that he has developed over time, and

Alex Snider: 00:13:16

frankly, trial and error, which he's been very open about.

Howard Brown: 00:13:20

It gets incredible. So thanks for using

Howard Brown: 00:13:22

those examples. It's, again, there's there's some things to

Howard Brown: 00:13:26

emulate. There's some things to learn from. But leadership takes

Howard Brown: 00:13:30

lots of shapes, sizes and forms. But I think you said the key

Howard Brown: 00:13:33

thing that you surrounding yourself with the right teams,

Howard Brown: 00:13:36

and the right people around you is really key and very vital. I

Howard Brown: 00:13:41

call that from athletics. team chemistry, can't predict team

Howard Brown: 00:13:45

chemistry.

Alex Snider: 00:13:46

And I often say to people, you know, and I work

Alex Snider: 00:13:49

with not just entrepreneurs, I work with leaders in all

Alex Snider: 00:13:51

different places. But we love to put an entrepreneur on a cover

Alex Snider: 00:13:54

of a magazine, right? We love that. It's like we love to put

Alex Snider: 00:13:58

these people up there. The people you see on the covers of

Alex Snider: 00:13:59

magazines, they do not represent your average entrepreneur. When

Alex Snider: 00:14:02

I say average entrepreneur, I mean successful entrepreneur,

Alex Snider: 00:14:05

people who are building amazing things, so many of them, they're

Alex Snider: 00:14:09

not on the cover, and they are not somebody who they may be

Alex Snider: 00:14:13

yes, you can be polarizing and audacious to a degree. But I'm

Alex Snider: 00:14:17

not going to name names, you know who I'm talking about these

Alex Snider: 00:14:19

guys from Silicon Valley, who are on the cover of everything

Alex Snider: 00:14:22

and are, you know, constantly quoted, they have duality in

Alex Snider: 00:14:27

their leadership team that compensates for the fact that

Alex Snider: 00:14:31

they are so strong on certain things and completely lacking in

Alex Snider: 00:14:35

others. If people had to work directly for them only at this

Alex Snider: 00:14:39

point of how strong their leadership personality and style

Alex Snider: 00:14:43

is. They would struggle to run a successful company, because they

Alex Snider: 00:14:46

do not do the people side of things. Yeah,

Howard Brown: 00:14:52

you're right. So let's let's transition a little

Howard Brown: 00:14:54

bit because something that you're really your expertise is

Howard Brown: 00:14:58

in strategic planning. and why that is so important to sustain

Howard Brown: 00:15:02

sustainable growth? Yeah, right in your wheelhouse. Oh, god,

Alex Snider: 00:15:05

yeah, I love strategic planning, I get giddy

Alex Snider: 00:15:08

for my client workshops. And they're often tough the first

Alex Snider: 00:15:13

time too, but my clients get giddy either for the workshop or

Alex Snider: 00:15:16

like a couple months later when they start seeing the results.

Alex Snider: 00:15:19

But strategic planning is so important. You have to know what

Alex Snider: 00:15:24

your vision is right? And I talked about success on your

Alex Snider: 00:15:26

terms, we can come back to that. But you have to figure out why

Alex Snider: 00:15:29

are you doing this? Where do you want it to go? And kind of what

Alex Snider: 00:15:32

do you want to play? What part do you want to play in that, and

Alex Snider: 00:15:36

then you have to decide how you're gonna get there. Right,

Alex Snider: 00:15:39

you have to have a strategy strategy is like the glue

Alex Snider: 00:15:41

between the vision and the operations, tactics, activities.

Alex Snider: 00:15:44

And what often happens is either people get stuck in vision. And

Alex Snider: 00:15:48

they're like, really big picture. And they're really like

Alex Snider: 00:15:49

doing a lot, or they're doing a ton, but it's not aligned

Alex Snider: 00:15:53

through this guide rail, a vision of strategy. And so

Alex Snider: 00:15:57

they're not making the progress. And so what strategy does is it

Alex Snider: 00:16:01

allows you to assess your options, make choices, and then

Alex Snider: 00:16:05

have those choices be the guide for the day to day decisions and

Alex Snider: 00:16:09

activities. And what we do is, we narrow it from the strategy

Alex Snider: 00:16:13

down to tactical operational components, and then decide

Alex Snider: 00:16:16

which ones need to happen first, and you really commit to less

Alex Snider: 00:16:20

get more done. So you have a few priorities in a quarter. And

Alex Snider: 00:16:24

that is something that everyone in the organization

Alex Snider: 00:16:26

communication is really important here agrees is most

Alex Snider: 00:16:31

important, and is where majority of resource and energy is going

Alex Snider: 00:16:34

to go. And once that is done and implemented, then we will take

Alex Snider: 00:16:37

the next set of priorities, and we will do those. And what that

Alex Snider: 00:16:40

does is it allows alignment, streamline to focus and also

Alex Snider: 00:16:45

allows you to say no, right? So when something comes in, you're

Alex Snider: 00:16:49

able to assess, is this in line with what our priorities are

Alex Snider: 00:16:52

this quarter this month, or this next three months? Or do we need

Alex Snider: 00:16:55

to put in a parking lot and come back to it because shiny object

Alex Snider: 00:16:59

syndrome is the Achilles heel of leaders and on particularly

Alex Snider: 00:17:04

entrepreneurial, visionary leaders, like, everything is

Alex Snider: 00:17:07

exciting, and everything is an opportunity. But if you try and

Alex Snider: 00:17:10

pursue everything as it comes up, you never get anything done.

Alex Snider: 00:17:13

And you will see people who are maybe overly entrepreneurial, or

Alex Snider: 00:17:19

don't have somebody to like balance them. They'll have a

Alex Snider: 00:17:22

graveyard of ideas, things that got off the ground, but never,

Alex Snider: 00:17:26

never stabilized into a true business.

Howard Brown: 00:17:29

Well, free consulting from Alex commit to

Howard Brown: 00:17:31

less and get more done. There you go. So so that relates to

Howard Brown: 00:17:36

you know, business, customer, company success, employee

Howard Brown: 00:17:39

stakeholder success and retention, speak a little bit

Howard Brown: 00:17:42

about that.

Alex Snider: 00:17:44

To customer retention or employee retention.

Alex Snider: 00:17:47

Both both Okay, short, in a short amount of time. Yeah.

Alex Snider: 00:17:51

Okay, cool. So for your employees, strategic planning,

Alex Snider: 00:17:55

helps narrow down what we're doing, and then helps you

Alex Snider: 00:17:58

delegate it and give them clarity, as does performance and

Alex Snider: 00:18:02

development. Frozen development is not about, you know, giving

Alex Snider: 00:18:05

somebody bad feedback. It's about knowing your team, knowing

Alex Snider: 00:18:10

what they're working towards in their career, what you their

Alex Snider: 00:18:14

role is how they're going to progress. They know what's

Alex Snider: 00:18:17

coming. So employee retention is really about if people know what

Alex Snider: 00:18:22

their job is, know how it ties to the vision, so they know why

Alex Snider: 00:18:25

it's important, and knows if they're doing a good job that is

Alex Snider: 00:18:29

fundamental to retaining your employees. I like to talk about

Alex Snider: 00:18:33

customer retention, because I think there is a over focus on

Alex Snider: 00:18:37

customer acquisition. So how do you market? How do you do sales?

Alex Snider: 00:18:40

How do you get people in the door? It's very important. You

Alex Snider: 00:18:44

don't have a business, if you can't get customers, you can't

Alex Snider: 00:18:45

sell what you're doing. But equally and I would argue more

Alex Snider: 00:18:49

important is once people are in how do you ensure that and I say

Alex Snider: 00:18:53

it's customer success, not customer service, because you're

Alex Snider: 00:18:56

looking at how to make them successful as a customer service

Alex Snider: 00:19:00

is like I call you when I have a problem. Success is proactive.

Alex Snider: 00:19:04

What is the experience of being a customer? How am I always

Alex Snider: 00:19:08

innovating and bringing you in to what's next? what's new,

Alex Snider: 00:19:11

what's going to help you get even further as a customer. And

Alex Snider: 00:19:15

if you were looking at from brass tacks, let's say you're an

Alex Snider: 00:19:18

investor, I want to know what your cost of acquisition is how

Alex Snider: 00:19:22

many customers you're bringing in. But if they're all going out

Alex Snider: 00:19:24

the back door, you're not making money. Right? And you're not

Alex Snider: 00:19:28

certainly not growing. So customer success and customer

Alex Snider: 00:19:31

retention is so important

Howard Brown: 00:19:33

is so give us a little bit of a wrap up with

Howard Brown: 00:19:36

success on your terms.

Alex Snider: 00:19:41

There's so much out in the world. And of course the

Alex Snider: 00:19:45

internet is an amazing thing. But there's so much out in the

Alex Snider: 00:19:48

world of what is successful or what you see in social media, or

Alex Snider: 00:19:54

growth at all costs was a big thing for a few years and

Alex Snider: 00:19:57

especially in startups space. Debris Odie is not everyone

Alex Snider: 00:20:01

wants to run a multinational multibillion dollar company, and

Alex Snider: 00:20:04

nor should you, right? Family businesses are a huge part of

Alex Snider: 00:20:08

the economy. Businesses that never grow beyond, you know,

Alex Snider: 00:20:12

seven figures are a huge part of the economy. And I think when we

Alex Snider: 00:20:17

start, we don't often think about, what do I actually want

Alex Snider: 00:20:22

this business to achieve? What are my values? What's important?

Alex Snider: 00:20:25

What are we doing, but also what do I want my life and my

Alex Snider: 00:20:28

leadership to look like? And so I really make sure whenever I'm

Alex Snider: 00:20:32

working with clients, I take them back to that, because often

Alex Snider: 00:20:35

you're running you're a few years in, you're making a few

Alex Snider: 00:20:37

million a year, or maybe even more, maybe you're an eight

Alex Snider: 00:20:39

figure company. And you're just like, Okay, I just gotta keep

Alex Snider: 00:20:42

going. And I gotta keep going. And there's no real clarity on

Alex Snider: 00:20:45

like, what does success mean, right. And it's the same reason

Alex Snider: 00:20:48

you need to tell your employees what successes so that they can

Alex Snider: 00:20:51

achieve it, if you don't tell them, it's really hard for them

Alex Snider: 00:20:53

to succeed, you actually have to define it for yourself. And that

Alex Snider: 00:20:56

is one of the challenges of either being a leader at the top

Alex Snider: 00:20:59

or an entrepreneur, nobody is there telling you, I mean, the

Alex Snider: 00:21:03

world is telling you. And if you want to just try and live

Alex Snider: 00:21:06

someone else's version of success, good luck to you,

Alex Snider: 00:21:08

you're probably not going to be very happy. And you're going to

Alex Snider: 00:21:10

work really hard to get there no matter what. So I really come

Alex Snider: 00:21:14

back with my with my clients. And this is something I would

Alex Snider: 00:21:16

encourage everybody to do, whether it's in business or

Alex Snider: 00:21:18

life, really reflect at fairly regular intervals on where you

Alex Snider: 00:21:24

want to be going and what your days look like what the people

Alex Snider: 00:21:29

around you look like, what you're spending your time doing,

Alex Snider: 00:21:33

and what is most important, so that then, if you don't know

Alex Snider: 00:21:36

what that is, you can't really chart a course for it. And you

Alex Snider: 00:21:39

can run a really long marathon and end up somewhere that you

Alex Snider: 00:21:43

don't really want to be.

Howard Brown: 00:21:45

I will add one thing only to this because that

Howard Brown: 00:21:48

we could talk for a long time on this. I love companies with the

Howard Brown: 00:21:51

triple bottom line. I want them to do good in their communities,

Howard Brown: 00:21:55

do good by their people help others. And if that is part of

Howard Brown: 00:21:59

their mission as well. I think that it rounds it out for me.

Howard Brown: 00:22:03

And that's one of the things that my big takeaway that I you

Howard Brown: 00:22:05

know, I'm running basically a start up in the nonprofit world.

Howard Brown: 00:22:08

And it's that to me, I call that noble and I call that admirable,

Howard Brown: 00:22:13

okay, and that's, that's my one addition to what you added to if

Howard Brown: 00:22:17

they if leaders can do that, boy, I put them up higher on the

Howard Brown: 00:22:21

pedestal as well as well. But here's the time, I know that you

Howard Brown: 00:22:24

went so fast, put your glasses on because it's the shining

Howard Brown: 00:22:27

brightly spotlight, we are going to shine our light so brightly

Howard Brown: 00:22:30

from Mexico, from Michigan around the world. Because Alex

Howard Brown: 00:22:35

helps business leaders, she lifts him up every single day.

Howard Brown: 00:22:38

And you should get in touch with her. So please tell people how

Howard Brown: 00:22:41

to best get in touch with you share. Also a little bit of

Howard Brown: 00:22:44

inspiration as we close out the show. Amazing.

Alex Snider: 00:22:48

You can get in touch with me via LinkedIn. It's

Alex Snider: 00:22:50

Alex Snider, you'll see in the show how to spell my name. My

Alex Snider: 00:22:54

website is AlexSnider.com. And my email is Alex@Alex

Alex Snider: 00:22:57

Snider.com. So you can find me there you can find links to the

Alex Snider: 00:23:01

builders podcast, which has amazing guests. And there's also

Alex Snider: 00:23:06

a link to my Instagram if you want to check out where I am in

Alex Snider: 00:23:08

the world or if I went to the gym that's on there. So that's

Alex Snider: 00:23:12

best way to find me. In terms of inspiration. This is maybe a bit

Alex Snider: 00:23:15

unconventional, but I'm going to talk about being underestimated.

Alex Snider: 00:23:19

being underestimated by others is not necessarily a bad thing.

Alex Snider: 00:23:22

I spent a lot of my career being underestimated and allow me to

Alex Snider: 00:23:25

like surprise and shine. But never underestimate yourself.

Alex Snider: 00:23:29

And I think one of the keys to that is to really intentionally

Alex Snider: 00:23:33

surround yourself with people who exemplify where you want to

Alex Snider: 00:23:36

go. They will hold you accountable, they will inspire

Alex Snider: 00:23:40

you and they will generally see you for who you really are and

Alex Snider: 00:23:43

not all the insecurities you have inside. And if you can

Alex Snider: 00:23:46

learn to borrow their belief the days that you don't have your

Alex Snider: 00:23:49

own, then you will not spend or waste time under estimating

Alex Snider: 00:23:55

yourself and you will take action.

Howard Brown: 00:23:57

Well Wow. Whoa from a quiet shy Canadian girl

Howard Brown: 00:24:01

to a real leadership strategy. Whisper impressive. Thank you so

Howard Brown: 00:24:06

much. This is great. i i We have more to talk about so we will.

Howard Brown: 00:24:10

But this has been the shining brightly show. I want to just

Howard Brown: 00:24:14

give a couple shout outs to the people that make me look great,

Howard Brown: 00:24:17

which is front edge publishing. Read the spirit magazine and the

Howard Brown: 00:24:23

amplify you podcast folks that make me look great as well as

Howard Brown: 00:24:26

diamond beauties magazine and I've got a shout out to Babson

Howard Brown: 00:24:29

College as well. You can find me at shining brightly.com and

Howard Brown: 00:24:33

learn about speaking I'd love to speak at any types of events or

Howard Brown: 00:24:37

fundraisers or workshops, as well as this podcast and my

Howard Brown: 00:24:40

book, of course, my memoir, and more importantly, my advocacy,

Howard Brown: 00:24:44

my accuracy in the cancer world in the entrepreneurship and

Howard Brown: 00:24:46

mentoring world and the interfaith world, that's the

Howard Brown: 00:24:48

most important to me. And remember, if we shine brightly

Howard Brown: 00:24:51

just a little bit each day for ourselves and for others, we

Howard Brown: 00:24:55

become a force multiplier for good and positive change and we

Howard Brown: 00:24:58

make the world a better place. And Alex, thank you for coming

Howard Brown: 00:25:01

on and doing your part to make the world a better place in

Howard Brown: 00:25:03

business and strategy. And also just you know, hanging out at

Howard Brown: 00:25:07

the beach and, and going to the gemba to. So thank you for being

Howard Brown: 00:25:10

here. It's just a real pleasure.

Alex Snider: 00:25:11

Thank you so much, Howard. It's been a pleasure.

Unknown: 00:25:14

Thank you.