Culture Eats Strategy

Fun, young and active entrepreneur Chris Meade joins us today for another exciting discussion on culture. He runs a remote-based business CROSSNET and we talk about how he creates a fun working environment for his millennial workforce. 

A New Way To Play

Chris Meade is the co-founder of CROSSNET, the world’s first four-way volleyball game. CROSSNET combines elements of the childhood game four square and volleyball in a competitive game to 11, win by 2. CROSSNET is now available at Walmart, Target, DICKS, Academy Sports, Amazon, and 20+ other retailers.

Three years ago, Chris, his brother and their good childhood friend, Mike, came up with the idea of a 4-way volleyball game. They started researching on competitors and found out they will be the first to officially launch the idea.

“So when this idea came to us, we started bringing out the model. We got 2 nets from Walmart, tied them together and we had our friends over, like ‘wow this is actually something really cool.’ So from now on, we will launch the company. With just some cash in our bank account and we scaled it to be a nationwide brand.” – Chris Meade

Challenges In Growing

Chris shares about trial and error strategy while they were starting. He mentions about order fulfillment and production as one of their challenges. 

“I had sales skills from my days, corporate America, reaching out to people. My brother is really good at social media, has been doing that for years. My partner, Mike is an engineer by training. We all had different skill sets, which leads us not to step into each other’s toes and having autonomy.” – Chris Meade

In terms of culture, Chris defines it as “ the way people treat each other with respect and how they treat each other within the company.” He is proud to say that they are a young, fun and active company and that translates to their culture as well. 

Leveraging Remote Work

At the moment, they have 20 people working remotely. They have department heads who supervise freelancers. He also shares that weekly, they write down things that eat up their time to enable them to identify tasks that they need to outsource.  

“One thing that we do better with a lot of young entrepreneurs: identifying our weaknesses. I’m not a graphic designer. I know it’s going to take me 40 hrs in Photoshop to create some pretty cranky logo. I might pay for somebody else for their 2 hrs and have it done quicker and better.” – Chris Meade

Download and listen to How A Young Entrepreneur Launched Remote-Based Business CROSSNET to learn more. Remember to let Chris know you heard about him on Culture Eats Strategy with Jaime Jay!

Connect through the link below:

Linkedin: Chris Meade

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Today, we had the chance to converse with David Cherner, the Co-Founder and CEO at YOL. The company delivers transformative learning experiences for professionals and teams. They combine wellbeing training and mindfulness-based service engagement as a foundation for impactful leadership development.

We talk about the importance of culture, how he came up with the business concept and many more!

Health and Wellness Exec

David spent most of his prior career in the health and wellness arenas, both as an executive and strategy consultant. He shares to us how YOL (a Turkish word for path or road) was born out of personal wellness experience. He was so refreshed and transformed that he wanted to package a similar experience for other middle-aged people who wanted to get a kick start in life.

“We started as a B2C trip and retreat company. Fast forward 6 years to now we’ve evolved into a hybrid experiences company. Now we consider ourselves a pure B2B corporate learning and well-being company.” – David Cherner

The Ultimate Experience

David and his team spent about 6 months doing research on the broader retreat space. He even found himself immersed in a humanitarian trip to Haiti. Ultimately, they end up with the idea of taking people to beautiful places where the aesthetics and the environment would automatically transport them to connect their mind and body. 

“Teaching them how to meditate, giving them some stress reduction techniques, giving them some killer yoga⁠—so they kind of sit in their heads and their bodies. The ultimate goal of our experience? Their heads are clear, their bodies are rejuvenated, and already they feel like they’ve accomplished something and they’re ready to take on what’s next in their world” – David Cherner

Importance of Culture

As a strong believer that Culture outweighs any strategy, Jaime Jay poses a question for David about his personal definition of culture. 

“Culture is the soul of the company. It’s the vibe, its the DNA. That’s how I would describe it and you can describe it, the norms, certain behaviors of different people and so on and so forth but to me, its something you really feel.” – David Cherner

Download and listen to Transformative Learning and Wellbeing For Leadership Development to learn more. Remember to let David know you heard about him on Culture Eats Strategy with Jaime Jay!

Connect through the link below:

Linkedin: David Cherner

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Today, workplace culture expert Jenean Perelstein joins us to discuss culture and how entrepreneurs can achieve a higher level of positivity, productivity, and profitability. 

She is the author and creator of Internal Alchemy: The Welcoming Abundance Blueprint and Stand in Your Strength Strategies, where she provides training to clients worldwide and certifies coaches, to use their model to their own clientele.

Synergizing Business and Anthropology

As a Sociocultural Anthropologist, Jenean Merkel Perelstein has studied behavior change across many different cultures. From the markets and prisons of India to the boardrooms of the United States, Jenean has learned and implemented change strategies that have saved lives and made fortunes. 

Jenean is a Business Strategist, U.S. Patent holder, and revered speaker. She worked as a medical anthropologist before becoming CEO of Alchemie Academy. Here, she has enriched workplace culture for clients ranging from solopreneurs to Fortune 100 companies. 

“People from the industry call me behavior change specialist, but anthropology tells me that that is actually not…how people change and we know we can talk about that. People change because of their beliefs, not their behaviors.”– Jenean Perelstein

Beliefs and Behaviors

Jenean was a medical anthropologist and was working in areas like program evaluation. Throughout her career, she started recognizing that the highlight of her work was behavior change. 

“People from the industry call me behavior change specialist, but anthropology tells me that that is actually not where people, how people change and we know we can talk about that, people change because of their beliefs, not their behaviors.” – Jenean Perelstein

As Jenean found her calling, she also found her niche, working with different companies. She helped various companies with their business strategies but she places high importance on developing a good corporate culture. 

“They could have a tremendous strategy, it could be spot on, actually, but if their culture was wonky in any way, that strategy wasn’t gonna get implemented.” – Jenean Perelstein

Weaving Culture and Strategy

Jenean shares that when she started weaving culture and strategy together, that was when she saw her clients really take off. It’s why she loves to consult with organizations in creating productive teams and profitable businesses.

Jenean and I only had time to cover the first 3 places in your workplace culture where productivity traps hide. We are offering a FREE download with ALL 10 Productivity Traps and their solutions!

Download and listen to Stand In Your Strength to learn more. Remember to let Jenean know you heard about him on Culture Eats Strategy with Jaime Jay!

Connect through the links below:

Email

Stand in Your Strength/CES

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For another special episode, Jaime Jay of Culture Eats Strategy shares an important event in his life where he had to take a break from work. Surely, it is one of the most nerve-wracking event any entrepreneur would ever encounter. 

However, what Jaime shares to us today is how his team from Bottleneck Virtual Assistants step up and took on responsibilities to continuously operate the business. That is what an astounding culture is about!

Culture Eats Strategy

Jaime Jay believes culture goes way beyond any company strategy. He is a huge believer in enforcing and cultivating a positive workplace culture. In fact, he has been doing that in his business, Bottleneck Virtual Assistants.

“I do believe that if you do not have a culture that is surrounded by positivity, kindness and people on the team rooting for other people and trying to help them out the best that they can, going above and beyond job roles and responsibilities, then, that is in my opinion, not a good business. You will lose revenue because of this.” – Jaime Jay

Medical Emergency

Probably one of the biggest nightmares for anybody is to have a medical emergency, especially if one ailing parent is involved. Jaime was no exemption to this. He recalled in this episode the situation of her mother and how he had to fly to another state to attend to his mother’s operation.

He also observed how the medical professionals were attentively and proactively assisted his mother in the hospital. One that he attributes as another great company culture. He believes that if the company does not take care of its employees, they wouldn’t be able to take care of customers themselves.

Culture of Kindness

The BNVA Team stepping up the game

Jaime Jay shares how proud he is of the team. Everyone stepped up their game and performed their tasks and even went above and beyond what was expected from them. He believes that it is because of the culture of kindness within the company.

“As the leader of this organization, the buck stops with me. It is my responsibility to make sure that things happen in such a way that they are done with thoughtful, kind maneuvers — number one, good for the company, number two, good for the staff and number three good for our clients.”  – Jaime Jay

Download and listen to Bottleneck Staff Stepping Up to learn more. Remember to let Jaime know you heard about him on Culture Eats Strategy!

Connect through the links below:

Linkedin:  Jaime Jay

Linkedin: Bottleneck Virtual Assistants

Facebook: Bottleneck Virtual Assistants

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After seeing a disconnect between companies and engineering graduates, Businessman and Engineer Jon Breen of Breen Machine Automation proudly advocates for intentional employee development.

He shares with us today his career and life as an entrepreneur and his unique company culture comprised of different engineers from various fields. 

Focus on Company Culture

Jon Breen was a former client of the host, Jaime Jay. Both continued their positive communication because they share similar ideologies on company culture and entrepreneurship. 

Now in its third year of operation, Jon created Breen Machine Automation Services, offering fast, friendly, and tailored automation solutions to the global manufacturing industries. Breen Machine prides itself on intentional employee development and uniquely friendly customer service.

“Part of our focus in our culture is: you have to have some people skills. You have to be able to work well with people. Because we’re not hiring from within this industry, we can find that. We can find people who can serve customers in a way that they are not used to being served. Hopefully, in a much more comfortable and happy and friendly way. I think that’s a huge value.” – Jon Breen

Employers-Employees Disconnect 

Jon chose a career in engineering because he enjoys exploring and creating solutions to real problems. He also enjoys working with people in the industry to improve their automation. However, during his stint in the corporate world, he observed a disconnect between employers and employees.

“When I was starting out in the industry, I realized there was a huge disconnect between, where people come out of school and where people in the industry want to hire those people. They always want somebody with 5 years of experience.” – Jon Breen

Intentional Employee Development

Jon shares in this episode how he implements this program. For instance, they do not hire employees with 5 years of experience. Additionally, he hires engineers from adjacent fields and trains them into the role. So far, customers had been responding positively to this move. 

“Part of this is, each individual that I look at, I look and say, ‘What skills do you have? What talents do you have? Do you have a knack for anything specific?’ We only hire people with the right attitude.” – Jon Breen

Download and listen to intentional Employee Development to learn more. Remember to let Jon know you heard about him on Culture Eats Strategy with Jaime Jay!

Connect through the links below:

Linkedin: Jon Breen

Linkedin: Breen Machine Automation Services Inc.

Youtube: Breen Machine Automation Services LLC

Ebook

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Anese Cavanaugh joins us today to share how she helps people to intentionally create an organization that thrives through establishing a contagious culture. She shares how business leaders and any individual can show up and bring their best selves to the table in order to create a significant, positive impact in their lives.

20 Years in the Making

For the past 20 years, Anese Cavanaugh has been a leader and cultural advisor, working with top innovators and executives in companies like GM Financial, Fitbit, Nike, among others.

Anese has a background in kinesiology, working with athletes, around performance. She then moved into corporate health, productivity, and healthcare. The common theme throughout her entire career is: paying attention to the way people create change and how these people take care of themselves impacts that change.

“Regardless of any organization and any industry, if you’re a human being who wants to have more impact and also enjoy your life and feel really good doing it, the IEP methodology is something that helps us bring more intentionality, more energy, more presence, that’s underneath culture.” – Anese Cavanaugh

IEP Method®

Anese is the creator of the IEP Method® (Intentional Energetic Presence®). She is also the author of CONTAGIOUS CULTURE: Show Up, Set the Tone, and Intentionally Create an Organization That Thrives. Another work of hers is: THE LEADER YOU WILL BE: An Invitation (a leadership storybook).

She engages with executives to strengthen team health, unlock leadership potential, optimize company culture, and maximize impact.

“What I have found is that people tend to externalize culture and think that it’s happening around them. It’s actually every single one of us that creates the culture. If you go underneath that culture, it’s our intentional energetic presence.” – Anese Cavanaugh

Finding Your “Why”

Jaime Jay and Anese had a fun exchange of conversation on having the strength to do things that we don’t like. Anese suggested finding the why, the underlying reason why we do things that we do. 

For Anese, when it comes to leadership, culture, and change, she advises anyone to be clear about intentions. If one is connected to their intention and the “why,” everything else becomes so much easier.

“You can frame anything into a positive, in every single situation that is happening, even in the most challenging moments of our lives, there are gifts that happening.” – Anese Cavanaugh

Download and listen to Contagious Culture: Intentionally Creating an Organization That Thrives to learn more. Remember to let Anese know you heard about him on Culture Eats Strategy with Jaime Jay!

Connect through the links below:

Linkedin: Anese Cavanaugh

Instagram: @AneseCavanaugh

Twitter: @AneseCavanaugh

Facebook: @AneseCavanaugh

Today, former rocket engineer turned investor/consultant Mike Sackmary joins us for another exciting episode. He coined the phrase Genius Mistake and he shares how business owners, entrepreneurs, and other leaders can identify and overcome these mistakes.

Shifting Careers

Mike spent 12 years in rocket engineering before transitioning to business when he created his own investing firm. He Co-founded Constant Closers to provide guidance to professional people to turn prospects into ardent evangelists for their businesses.

“We were working on the space shuttle program. Rocket engines are a little bit complex. I kept thinking, why are we coming up with errors? Why are we finding the same kind of problems? Or we might solve Problem A in situation B, for example, but Problem A would come again in situation F. Why is that same type of problem is repeating?” – Mike Sackmary

Genius Mistakes

After getting inspiration from his rocket engineering career, Mike coined the term Genius Mistakes. He further shares the genius mistakes that he sees in companies who are failing, or not staying in business

“A genius mistake is when you’re so smart in your own mind, you let the same error happen but you didn’t catch it because you were thinking in a different direction.” – Mike Sackmary

One of the main genius mistakes Mike mentions is: the sales is not greater than the owner’s cash burn rate. Another thing is that business owners are oftentimes the bottleneck in the business because they believe they can accomplish everything without seeking help or they are not open to constructive criticisms.

“Are you able to be humble in a good way? To be able to listen and not criticize? Absorb it, let the people who know you well, help you and see where the parts that you shouldn’t be handling yourself.” – Mike Sackmary

The Big Why

Jaime Jay also seeks out Mike’s definition of culture and what is his biggest driver in doing what he does. Mike’s driver is to help people. He believes one can help and give value and still make money. Anyone can be kind, compassionate and professional at the same time.

“My big why is how do we help people. One of my primary investors in this company said: ‘Well, let’s narrow it down to better phrasing. Let’s say we do well by doing good or we make money by solving problems in a good way.'” – Mike Sackmary

Download and listen to Genius Mistakes: Identifying and Overcoming Business Challenges to learn more. Remember to let Mike know you heard about him on Culture Eats Strategy with Jaime Jay!

Connect through the links below:

Linkedin: Mike Sackmary

Twitter: @ClosersConstant

Website: Constant Closers

Subscribe to the Free Newsletter: Constant Closers

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Yakir Markowitz, the CEO of HIARC Roofing Service, joins us today to share how reliability and relationships helped to scale his business. He also shares how hiring a consultant helped him focus and how communicating effectively delivered better results to clients.

Opportunity Worth Pursuing

Yakir Markowitz is a husband and father of five kids. He considers his family his main source of strength to reach his long term goals. Prior to specializing in roofing, he worked with a friend in the construction industry.

In terms of scaling, hiring a consultant helped Yakir focus on which businesses to pursue. His consultant also helped him alleviate his micromanaging tendencies and taught him the importance of delegation.

“O.W.P. Opportunity worth pursuing. She doesn’t want you to push along doing business, trying to grow business, which is bound to fail.” – Yakir Markowitz, on advice he received from his consultant

Becoming Reliable

Yakir hired someone who went out and interviewed a couple of his clients. This person gained valuable customer feedback which helped him understand deeper his client’s needs. 

“The industry is looking for people that are reliable, in the sense that, first of all, that they could trust. There’s a lot of people out there, they’re just looking to just make a buck. They do that at the expense of their customers and their clients.” – Yakir Markowitz

Building Relationships

Yakir attributes his over two million dollars in gross sales during his first year to his relationships with clients. For instance, if a client’s roof doesn’t need fixing, he advises them honestly. This built trust among his clients and ultimately built relationships.

“Obviously, the goal is we build a relationship. We just don’t build roofs, I’d say we build relationships. The clients know, when they reach out to me, they know there is honesty and integrity.” – Yakir Markowitz

Download and listen to Focusing on Reliability and Relationships To Scale Your Business to learn more. Remember to let Yakir know you heard about him on Culture Eats Strategy with Jaime Jay!

Connect through the links below:

Website: HIARC Roofing

Linkedin: Yakir Markowitz

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You’ve heard about Bottleneck Virtual Assistants in the past, where Jaime Jay, our host, conversed with amazing business leaders. BNVA is Jaime Jay’s company and his team members are here to talk about the good and the bad of working remotely. In this episode, Jaime Jay shares to us how to create and cultivate a culture on a remote-based company.

Working Remotely

Jaime Jay, a businessman who thrives off company culture, shares that having a remote-based team has forced him to build systems and processes internally in order to have sturdier communications. He says that repetitive tasks must be systemized and must be captured through a workflow.

This process has helped him with delegations and accountabilities since he has never met a single person from his team, physically. He also addresses some of the common queries that he receives on how to maintain a good culture with a remote team.

Setting Up Culture Remotely

In terms of company culture, It is indeed possible to have a great one even if the team members are working from different parts of the world. Operations Manager Sara Knox also shares how amazing their company culture is.

“With the power of technology, right now, we’re all looking at each other, we’re all talking. We, at any moment, we can jump on a call. We can have a face to face, we can share screens. I think it works very well and for the culture, I love how everyone is excited and cares about everyone else in the company. We interact and we engage in fact, we have engagement on Facebook with everybody on a personal level.” – Sara Knox, BNVA Operations Director

The BNVA Team

The team, comprised of Operations Director Sara Knox, Graphic Designer Cedrick Beros, Executive Assistant Reina Adlawon, Recruitment Manager Rechelle Adlawon, Marketing Manager Diane Gervacio, Social Media Manager Ace Medina, Podcast Pilot Audio Engineer Mike Duruin and Bottleneck Medical VAs Co-Founder Dr. David Laurino — each gave their sentiments on the the perks and challenges they face as remote based virtual assistants.

“It’s been quite an interesting life. I didn’t know much about remote work before I met Jaime but it opened my eyes to the possibilities, about people who have phenomenal skills across the world and how beneficial they can be to us on a day to day basis. – Dr. David Laurino, Podiatrist and Co-Founder of Bottleneck Medical VAs

The Good and The Bad

The pros that the team discussed in unison include freedom from traffic and commute, more time for family and their personal businesses and more savings in terms of food and clothing allocation.

“I wasn’t expecting that working remotely was a little bit homey. What I love about working is you don’t have to go out and commute. The traffic is terrible.” – Reina Adlawon, Executive Assistant

“Here in the Philippines, the traffic, it is an understatement if you say its terrible. It’s like a full-time job, it’s like you’re doing two jobs. One of the huge things why I am never going back to the corporate setup.” – Ace Medina, Social Media Manager

“It [remote work] helps me not to spend time in traffic just to travel back and forth to offices in Manila. It helps me in terms of time management, to learn how to control and balance my tasks.” – Cedrick Beros, Graphic Designer

They also shared some of the processes and culture of BNVA that they particularly like such as working with the team and their project management platform.

“When you have a team,

Bonnie Harvey and Michael Houlihan, the founders of the world’s largest wine brand, joins us today to share some important lessons on entrepreneurial culture, the importance of communication and why courage is needed in business.

They are also promoting their new book, New York Times Bestseller The Barefoot Spirit.

Training For Company Culture

Bonnie and Michael have it all. They have a huge estate in Sonoma County, 60 miles north of San Francisco. The couple manages the world’s largest wine brand and they are International keynote speakers. They consult and train startups and Fortune 500’s on brand building and company culture.

“People come to us for a conference for company culture. We want people to feel comfortable. We want them to feel pampered like they are in a fine hotel.” – Michael Houlihan

Additionally, they have authored several NY Times bestsellers such as The Barefoot Spirit, How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand and The Entrepreneurial Culture, 23 Ways to Engage and Empower Your People.

The Barefoot Spirit

Micheal and Bonnie learned valuable lessons crucial to any business. They are highly recommended by companies seeking to increase their sales, and engage, empower, and inspire their people. 

In line with this, they are sharing free chapters of their audiobook through this link. Their new audiobook is presented is a theatrical format with Hollywood actors playing the parts, original musical score, sound effects and more. 

Lessons From Bonnie and Michael

The couple provided several valuable lessons in this episode. You may read some of their materials on topics below:

The Secret to Innovation and Success: Inclusiveness

What Is The Barefoot Spirit Anyway?

Listening to the Barefoot Brand Story Can Save you Time, Money, and Angst!

“We learned how to understand what the other person’s needs were, whether it was a buyer, an employee, or vendor—those were the three main relationships any business has. Try to satisfy their needs before we pushed what it was that we’re selling on to them.” – Bonnie Harvey

Michael also shares what happens with so many start-ups is, they fall in love with their product or service and they can’t understand why people aren’t knocking down windows and kicking down doors to get to them to buy.

“Its because you haven’t presented it in a way that necessarily satisfies their needs because you haven’t taken the time to really find out what their needs are.” – Michael Houlihan

Download and listen to Lessons on Entrepreneurial Culture, Communication, and Courage to learn more. Remember to let Bonnie and Michael know you heard about him on Culture Eats Strate...