Christine Schlonski [0:02]
Hey Gorgeous! This is episode number 258 with a business celebrity Jeffrey Hayzlett.

Jeffrey Hayzlett [0:09]
Hi, this is Jeffrey Hayslett, you’re listening to Heart Sells! Podcast with Christine Schlonski. Enjoy.

Christine Schlonski [0:15]
Well, I am so super pumped about our guest today a real business celebrity Jeffrey Hayzlett, who has bought and sold over 250 businesses in his lifetime so far, and billions of dollars in transactions. He began in the printing industry and has reinvented himself into a Hall of Fame speaker, a Fortune 100 CMO, a TV personality, a podcaster. a best selling author and an entrepreneur while talking about creativity. And his motto is “Change, Adapt or Die”. And we will be talking about this today how you can change and adapt so that you do not need to die in your business over your business but you can have the impact you are looking for. Jeffrey is the primetime television host on C-Suite, and the executive perspective life on C-Suite TV and he is the host of the award-winning “All Business” with Jeffrey Hayzlett on C-Suite Radio. Jeffrey is also the CEO of the C-Suite Network. And that is the home of the world’s most trusted network of C-Suite leaders and best selling authors. His recent book, “The Hero Factor” which we also will talk about in this episode, is how great leaders transform organizations and create winning cultures. So get out a piece of paper and a pen because you definitely want to take some notes. And let’s dive right in. I am so excited to have you on the show today. Jeffrey, welcome.

Jeffrey Hayzlett [1:56]
Thank you very much for having me. It’s a pleasure.

Christine Schlonski [2:00]
I’m so excited because you are a person that has reinvented himself so often. And you’re also somebody who says, Well, if you don’t reinvent yourself, then you basically will not survive, right change, adapt or die. And the status quo, especially in the times today, companies have just the biggest challenge to survive or if they just got on the radar, to even understand what’s going on.

Jeffrey Hayzlett [2:32]
Well to stand out to be able to even stand out you’ve got to develop new skills and in fact the branding of yourself, the branding of you. So you sell the company, sell the company so you. I started doing that when I was at a Fortune 100 Cup company, I was using myself as the light I call it the eye candy to get out there. You know, getting on the news, getting in the media, anything to draw attention to my company, which is that time was Eastman Kodak. That’s what I wanted to do in order to try to at least bring some value of what I call OPM, other people’s money to the equation. And yeah, so to either change, adapt or die, so we’re always changing. I mean, just as individuals, we get older, and what we used to look like when we were in our 20s we don’t look like that today, you know, so we and I always say, well, we actually look better. And the reason for that is to be able to change yourself to reinvent yourself and I think we do that with our hairstyles. We do that with you know, our clothes. We do that with fans, but why can’t we do that with our own personalities?

Jeffrey Hayzlett [3:34]
Why can’t we do that with, because we change I mean, we get grumpy or we get nicer we get you know, we get smarter? Chances are we don’t get dumber are the few of those people but, but most of us, we adapt and we change, and if we don’t, I do think we wither and brands and companies are exactly like that too. And so it’s very critical for us to be able to you know, go in it with that mindset. You know, a brand is nothing about a promise delivered. And so when you think about your brand, it’s not that colors. It’s not the things you know, a lot of people I know that are in the speaking world or in the personality-based business world, they, you know, they talk about their brand. You know, like it’s this or it’s that well, no, it’s really about a promise deliver, what it is that you’re doing for someone, and how are you delivering? And if you keep that at the forefront Well, that’s really the marks of really making it happen.

Christine Schlonski [4:29]
So how can people especially in today’s world where everybody seems to panic or seems to vary? And I know that a lot of people are not they see the opportunity, but a lot of people who are not having big businesses yet or starting out and have a challenge in selling their services, they might be suffering even more. So how can they think bigger and act bigger? Like what advice could you give them

Jeffrey Hayzlett [5:00]
Stop listening to the voices that tell you you can’t. I mean, it’s the first thing you know, I had a celebrity once come up to me said, Jeff, why are you so sure of yourself? Why do you walk with so much swagger? I said because I can, I mean, and not to, you know, downgrade anyone else by it. But you know, I’m one of those first for business first responders who run into the fire, and, and or runs into the next wave of things that we’ve got to be able to do because I find that by utilizing those tools are good. But they said, you know, Jeff, what happens when those little voices come and tell you you can’t, and they said, I just stopped listening to him a long time ago. And I’m comfortable with who I am with all of its, with all of its problems of issues, that everything else and that we all have. I mean, to think that we don’t have them is crazy. To think that the richest person in the world doesn’t have those issues doesn’t have those doubts, would be nuts because they’re human. But the issue is to cross that chasm, to step across the line to say I’m no longer gonna participate in that kind of self-destructive behavior or say that I’m not big enough. Well, you can be, you know, in let’s think right now we’re going to this ever-changing times, I mean, without questions or challenges, but at the same time, don’t forget in 2008, during the darkest recession, I mean, companies like Uber were born, Airbnb was born. So there are opportunities for a score to be able to, you know, to think big and act bigger. Don’t forget, Christine, an idea without implementation is just there.

Christine Schlonski [6:30]
Yes, I always say stop just dreaming act now.

Jeffrey Hayzlett [6:33]
Yeah, exactly.

Christine Schlonski [6:34]
You have today, right? If you’re happy, healthy, like, take action.

Jeffrey Hayzlett [6:38]
Totally. I love that.

Christine Schlonski [6:39]
Yeah. You know, we all learn every day. Nobody’s perfect. And once you’ve got that concept that the outer world is not looking at you all the time judging because they’re busy with themselves, life becomes much easier.

Jeffrey Hayzlett [6:53]
Well, and don’t forget, I mean, you’re going to fail. All right, let’s be very, very clear. You know, people talk about fail fast, or that’s just bullshit, don’t fail fast. Win fast, you’re going to fail, you’re going to make mistakes, I make mistakes every single day. Hopefully, they won’t cost me my entire business and how I make them but just, we make mistakes all the time. But in big and large, the mistakes that we make, no one’s going to die. From a business perspective now health than everything else, other things are going on in the world that we have to worry about that are much bigger than that. But in the business world, the things that you and I do, every single day, no one’s going to die. So why aren’t you making these changes? Why aren’t you taking those steps? Why aren’t you risking a little bit? Because by the risk, no pain, no gain. I mean, we all you know, we can get into all these cliches about things but the key thing is not to fail fast but to win fast.

Christine Schlonski [7:48]
So have you always been that confident? Or is that something that grew with you and life experience?

Jeffrey Hayzlett [7:55]
I think it grows with success. You know, once you’ve been through it done, it been tested. I think that helps a great deal. I’ve seen that done that, you know, I think that those things help a great deal. And, of course, I’ve done it at med bigger scales, you know, I’ve bought and sold over 250 businesses about 25 billion in transactions. I’ve, you know, traveled the world many times over. You know, some countries hundreds of times and in and do business as chairman of a company in India, chairman of this chairman of that chairman, you know, do those. So when you get you to go through those, I mean, that helps you, but yeah, but here, take the zeros off, take the experience out. If you do it, do it. You know and the more you find it, you know, I’m from South Dakota, we’re a flyover state in the state in the United States over there. You know, this is you and I are in the same room or population density. Everybody’s talking about physical distancing right now. We’ve been practicing that in my state since 1889. are very rural. But you know, I learned early on that whatever I did in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, I could do in New York. I could do it in Tokyo. I could do it in Berlin. I could do in London and just different that’s all, same but different. Okay, great. It didn’t. And by the way, there’s no difference between a business on Main Street or high street then there isn’t on Wall Street. It’s just the numbers of zeros. Take all the way strip it all down. We’re just people running businesses. That’s it. So yeah, so I’ve had the same confidence and I can do what others do and I can do it better or I think I can do it better I wouldn’t have I wouldn’t do what I’m doing. Yeah.

Christine Schlonski [9:31]
Yeah, I love that, think you can do it better that gives you that push. Right, that gives you that go for it. If you fail, you fail. But if you win, the rewards are gonna be big.

Jeffrey Hayzlett [9:43]
Yeah, but also understand your limitations. There are some things I don’t do as well all right, but I gotta go get some good people who do it and you know, my biggest thing right now in fact are I’m writing it down on my list of every day delegate, delegate, delegate, you know because I like to do everything. I mean, I mean, I like to do everything. And just because I can, and I think I can do it better than anyone. I mean, that’s the confidence that I have with that. But at the same time, I know that’s not the best use of my time. Nor are there things that I should be doing because I’m just not the person who should be doing that. There are better people who have more domain knowledge, more in-depth knowledge more, you know, whatever experience all the way around and that’s, that’s, that’s the thing. That’s the mark of leadership. That’s the mark of you know, what, Jason Forest, a friend of mine owns forest performance sales, I think is the group performance group and he helps treat teach sales leaders and he goes no show do. You know it, show it, let them do it.

Christine Schlonski [10:48]
That’s cool.

Jeffrey Hayzlett [10:49]
I like that.

Christine Schlonski [10:50]
Yeah. Yeah. And, and so for somebody who is maybe a solopreneur or you know, somebody has a VA like a small enterprise. And they still do everything themselves because they love doing it and they think they can do it better what advice could you give them to delegate like what helps you to delegate to let go of it?

Jeffrey Hayzlett [11:12]
Well scale you want to get to scale that’s what you have to be able to do you know, and that’s a typical thing for most people start off as a one-woman, one-man band and move to devout followers where they get a couple of people who just you know, plug the hole and they do anything the jack of all trades and then you move to skilled practitioners and professionals that you bring in but the key is that to really outline what are your conditions of satisfaction? What is it that you want to get from the business and where do you want to go by outlining that and keeping it the forefront? Then you can start to you know to layout your days, layout your months, layout your weeks, layout your quarters, your years, as to where I want to go, you know, and what are my two or three, or five to six main things I’ve got to get accomplished per day per week, per month, per quarter, per year in order to get gain that scale. That’s part of my, my conditions of satisfaction, but most people don’t spend enough time just focusing on those conditions of satisfaction.

Christine Schlonski [12:09]
Yeah, I think that’s an important point. Maybe we can go a little bit deeper. How can you set yourself up for a system to follow? Because oftentimes, especially when you know, maybe it’s a solopreneur or a small company, it’s more like you kind of hustle, you kind of do you act, or react, but you don’t really have that plan that you follow. And it seems like you’re very clear on these are these things I want to accomplish this week? This is for the month this is for the year and you just go for it.

Jeffrey Hayzlett [12:43]
Well,

Jeffrey Hayzlett [12:43]
if you don’t have a plan, you’ll never get there. If you don’t have an itinerary, you’ll never get to your destination. You don’t have a ticket. You never for sure get there. I mean, so those are the things you have to layout is like what is it we want to do and you know, we get back to understand in the C-Suite Network, at least what are your values? You know, I want to know what the values are first. So, you know, how are we gonna operate? What is the way we’re gonna operate? What kind of business are we going to be in? And that relates to my own personal values about how I want to treat people and operate but from there that then drives, you know, okay, now, what are our business goals? And where do we and how do we want to reach them? And then just to, you know, start backtracking the plan, and if you don’t have a plan, I can guarantee 100% you’re not or maybe 99 because there’s one of the 1% that get pretty lucky. But the 99% view if you don’t, if you don’t plan to get there, you’re not gonna get there.

Christine Schlonski [13:39]
Yeah. So many of our listeners have a gift, have a talent. They’re really passionate about what they do, but they are fearful of selling. They are fearful of, you know, asking for money or putting the right price tag on their services and products.

Jeffrey Hayzlett [14:00]
That’s okay, I’ll do it. If you don’t, I will. Meaning if you don’t, if you don’t feel comfortable and asking or getting the value of what you provide, then you should be working for somebody else.

Christine Schlonski [14:15]
That’s a pretty clear statement.

Unknown Speaker [14:17]
Well, it is without question. I have no qualms whatsoever, saying I’m worth this and value this and my self worth or the worth of my business or services, and the worth of my people that work with me. So I have no issue in saying I, you know, this is what we’re worth, and this is and I’ll stand hold to it. You want to negotiate that change that but you got to ask if you don’t ask you don’t get I mean, my gosh, if you see the beautiful woman across the room, and you never went over and asked her to dance, you’ll never dance. You’ll never dance. And then if that had been true, I never would be married for 40 years now.

Christine Schlonski [14:54]
Yeah. Yeah. Congratulations.

Jeffrey Hayzlett [14:57]
Thank you very much.

Christine Schlonski [14:59]
I’m glad you had the confidence.

Jeffrey Hayzlett [15:00]
Yeah, well she still says after 40 years that she still says it’s the best 11 nonconsecutive years of her life, there you go.

Christine Schlonski [15:09]
Good job. I think it does come down to your why like what’s driving you?

Jeffrey Hayzlett [15:15]
Totally

Christine Schlonski [15:16]
You have to give it to the world and you have to find a way to make it work so that you get what you’re worth. And so we are coming back to the south, worst to understanding what you can deliver and how much you should be charging for it.

Jeffrey Hayzlett [15:34]
Yeah, but also then understand how that sets in the industry how that sets with you, those that you might consider your peers or those that are what you might consider aspirational in terms of where you want to go. You know, I and then you know, your speaker or you know, a person who trades time for money to some extent even though you’ve got the expertise. You also have to look at inventory, your time is inventory, there’s a lot of things could go into the factors of how you utilize that. And best utilization of time, in fact, my company, my team looks at that. And “I’m an Asset” you know, not only do I have the C-Suite Network, but there’s also we have a public relations and marketing company called “TallGrass”. Because if you want to run with the big dogs, you have to learn to pee in the tall grass. That’s the slogan for the company. And then they have me, which is a brand itself in terms of speaking the media that I do television and podcasting and the, you know, the work that I do as a commentator. And so we have that and we treat that as best use of inventory. So we use me as best use of inventory, where should I be and how should I be able to provide services in and out of the company, and what’s the best use of our time.

Christine Schlonski [16:47]
And that applies to every size of the company, right? You just get it to need to get clear.

Jeffrey Hayzlett [16:52]
Totally. Even if I were the Chief Marketing Officer of Eastman Kodak or say the CEO of a large publicly-traded company. There are people who will be sitting down to decide what the CEO, how much time is allotted for this, and this? Because if they waste time I mean you know when I was at that level you know people would greet and meet me outside my hotel room at 7 am to go for the day at a trade show for instance. And my entire day was planned out there were you know, they would have brought me my coffee and egg sandwich so I can eat as I’m walking. Someone wants it went ahead press the elevator buttons you know to make sure the elevator so they didn’t even want me wasting they would have pre-walked the routes of how we would have gotten from one booth or one meeting to another. That’s how well it was planned out because they don’t want me going down the wrong aisle or over to the wrong part of the meet building. Because I wasted three minutes that’s valuable time. And so these are the best use of time best use of inventory. So yeah, you went and by the way, as I’ve said earlier, that’s why I’m delegating more. Right, because it’s the best use of time.

Christine Schlonski [18:03]
Yeah. So getting really understanding the concept of your time as the biggest asset that you have yourself. And then also for your company, I think is really important. And I see that a lot of people are not that clear about this.

Jeffrey Hayzlett [18:18]
Totally. And that’s one of the big steps that you have to be able to make.

Christine Schlonski [18:22]
Yeah. So do you remember what the first thing was that you ever sold in your entire life?

Jeffrey Hayzlett [18:29]
Oh, yeah, totally. I know two things. I remember. I sold a magazine door to door as a kid called “True Grit”. And it was a boys’ magazine. And I use and “Boy’s Life” was the other one and I actually went door to door selling these magazines like for 25 cents per subscriptions. And then the other thing that I sold and I was really good at it was barbecue tickets for the baseball team. I used to win every year. For years, I would go out and I would sell tickets to this barbecue to raise money for the little league and I used to win all the time.

Christine Schlonski [19:08]
Cool. Well, that gives you some sense confidence I guess.

Jeffrey Hayzlett [19:11]
Yeah but there’s no way that you would let your kid go off and do what I did back then. You know I went door to door in places that my parents had no clue there was no phone I’m a kid I’m 10, 9 8 9 10 years old going door to door Wow

Christine Schlonski [19:27]
Yeah, well these have changed a little bit.

Jeffrey Hayzlett [19:31]
Exactly.

Christine Schlonski [19:32]
But there are opportunities right, you can do, you didn’t have the internet so now you can sell on the internet.

Jeffrey Hayzlett [19:39]
Yeah, now kid could set up a website and do search analysis and buy the right terms and never leaving

Christine Schlonski [19:45]
YouTuber which is eight or nine years old.

Jeffrey Hayzlett [19:48]
Yeah and make a ton of money.

Christine Schlonski [19:50]
Yeah, so cool. So did you ever have a challenge when somebody then rejected you in terms of sales like when they said no? I don’t wanna buy it.

Jeffrey Hayzlett [20:00]
All the time. Every day, it still happens people don’t see the value. They don’t get what I’m doing. But you know, I believe that you’re just an idiot or I haven’t done my job well enough and I’m gonna keep going at it until you do. Because I believe in what I do I drink the Kool-Aid so yeah, but that happens every day or Yeah, I wish I could sell 100% of everything I try. Sell a pretty good percentage of it. But you know, that’s but not everybody believes what you got. Not everybody likes your approach. Not everybody likes what you have to offer or what you have to say. You know, sit at the back of the audience when you give them a speech with their arms crossed going that idiot. And you get them all the time. That’s okay. I can’t help but you can’t stop stupid, you know?

Christine Schlonski [20:46]
By I mean you obviously you have a great picture in your head that helps you to not get worried about rejection just to move on. Get

Jeffrey Hayzlett [20:55]
Yeah, well, I mean, you’re not you’re just not gonna win them all. You can’t you know, you’ll never, you’re playing basketball you never make every shot. If you’re you know, if you’re a rifle or gun shooter or you know hunter, you’ll never get every bird you just won’t. It won’t happen it just but if you don’t take the shots, you don’t have a shot, you know. So that’s the thing is to take enough shots, you’ll get better and better at it, you’ll learn more, you’ll get, you’ll adapt, you’ll change, but, but if you never take the shots you never win.

Christine Schlonski [21:26]
Totally. So what do you want to leave us with before this wonderful episode?

Jeffrey Hayzlett [21:31]
Well, I think we just we said it earlier you know, an idea without implementation is just there. So, you know, everybody always asked me what’s the what were the things you tell people to do? Just focus and do it, focus, and do it keep the same thing repeated after I see a focus and do it?

Christine Schlonski [21:47]
Yeah. So the links to your website and all your social media will be on the show notes. What should people check out when they go to your website? Where do you want to leave them?

Unknown Speaker [21:59]
Well, I tell you what, my most recent book is “The Hero Factor” and if you go to theherofactorbook.com we’ll give you a free assessment all about your company and how you stand up against other companies and do you have the hero factor? Do you have what it takes to earn more than your competitors to gross more than your competitors to have happier employees, more engaged customers, vendors who want to do business with you, and be revered in your community? That’s what hero companies do every single day. And so I’m helping lead “The Hero Club” as part of the C-Suite Network to make sure that we have businesses leading with “The Hero Factor”.

Christine Schlonski [22:38]
Awesome. Thank you so so much. I’m looking forward to our next episode, and we definitely gonna go into the hero factor, because I think people need to know more.

Jeffrey Hayzlett [22:47]
My pleasure.

Christine Schlonski [22:48]
Thank you so much. I really hope Gorgeous you enjoyed this episode as much as I did. I had a ton of fun but also, I really was reminded about some really great principles you should have in business. And I loved when Jeffrey said and idea without implementation is just there. And also his view on failing, don’t fail fast. Win fast. I mean, what a concept, right? So, if you are trying to create a brand, then remember that a brand is nothing more than a promise delivered. So you need to have a plan to get from A to B and to deliver your promise. So what can you do today to deliver your promise?

Christine Schlonski [23:36]
Hop on over to christineschlonski.com find the podcast tab and find the links to Jeffrey. He’s just one click away. You can connect with him on social media, you can check out his homepage, you can go to “The Hero Factor” book page. All the links are at christineschlonski.com/podcast and once you’re over there, and you are not yet a subscriber of “The Empowerment Notes” you really want to sign up now because you will get all the amazing updates on Heart Sells! Podcasts really great resources I’m sharing with you. Stuff I usually do not share on social media, as well as an invitation to the Heart Sells! Members Community. This is a community that will blow your mind off and it is a collection so to speak of heart-centered business builders. And that’s what we do inside. We build our businesses from our hearts with our hearts so we can have an impact in the world that’s positive, and also with that impact, make our dreams come true. So hop on over to christineschlonski.com find the podcast tab. Check all that great stuff out. And make sure you tune in to the next episode with Jeffrey because we will be going even deeper on that Hero Journey on making sure you are set up in your business in a way that it makes sense that it’s scalable and that you really are set up to win like a Hero. So thank you so much for tuning in. Have a wonderful day wherever you are in this beautiful world and I’m saying bye for now.