Hot Mess Hotline

Wayne Patrick is a serial tech entrepreneur whose Hot Mess Hotline conversation is about his lessons learned during the Great Recession in 2008.

His "world fell apart," when he got a Monday morning call losing 10% of his sales. 

The firm was in hot water. 

At the time, Wayne's company, PDD, was firmly entrenched in the automobile industry. 

Wayne's world was falling apart and he knew he had no choice but to trim his budget fast. The automobile industry was imploding and another 15% of his existing business was also at risk. 

Wayne was dealing with multiple issues:

1. What would he do about losing 10% of the company's revenue? How would they recover from that? 
2. What, if anything, could he do to not lose the other 15% of his existing business?
3. What could he do to hold onto another automotive prospect he had in his pipeline?

They had bet on the automobile industry and concentrated their business on two or three customers putting them at risk. 

Wayne and his team were willing to do the really hard, difficult things that you have to do to make it and get through. It could have been easy to throw up their hands in overwhelm but they never quit.

Show Resources:

• The Hard Thing About Hard Things
• Harvard Business Review's article on strategic negotiation

About Wayne Patrick

Wayne Patrick is a mentor and investor in several startup and entrepreneurial companies. He has over forty years of experience in Information Technology including IT Director for a large fortune 500 Financial and Insurance Company.  He has extensive experience in the IT Consulting Industry having started and managed his own IT Consulting Company, Professional Data Dimensions to a successful exit. His experience in the software industry includes having developed and led the consulting efforts for a large software firm and having been the COO of two entrepreneurial/start-up software firms that had successful exits.

About AIS 

AIS is a proactive IT consulting, infrastructure and security company specializing in strategic solutions that help organizations leverage technology to drive positive outcomes. Based in Indianapolis, AIS was founded in 2012 and works with public, private, and government organizations across the Midwest. Through our service delivery platforms, and our talented professionals, we provide pers

In today’s episode, Mike Sipple Jr. wants you to know that as a mid-level leader you are an inspiration!

It might not feel that way sometimes.

You may be asking, "How can I be an inspiration as a mid-level leader?"

Here's how:

It's through learning experiences and having to make decisions that we grow. 

As a leader, you have a vision and you make decisions based on those long-rang planes. Sometimes these decisions create the outcome that is planned and sometimes they don't. Either way, you get to you learn. 

So even when...

• an ad campaign goes wrong
• your messaging isn't right
• or a pandemic hits

You may be hurt emotionally, but you still have to lead.

Realize that when these things happen it hurts those around us as well. From your family to your team it's important to let them know that it hurts you too: share your energy, your experience, and your fear. Let some of it out.

About Mike and His Work

Mike Sipple, Jr. is known throughout the world by family businesses for two reasons. First, Mike owns a third-generation family-owned boutique executive firm; Centennial Executive Search, out of Newport, Kentucky. The reason is that Mike and his father are the co-founders of a growing Global Leadership Platform, Talent Magnet Institute, utilized by organizations to invest more intentionally in their people leaders.

• “Leadership is a journey, and you don’t have to walk it alone.” Mike Sipple, Jr.
• The Talent Magnet Leadership Podcast
• www.talentmagnet.com/trial  $1 – trial
• www.talentmagnet.com/giveaway (tell them Stefanie sent you)
• Mike Sipple Jr Profiles: Twitter / LinkedIn Profile / Instagram / Recent Article in Thrive Global
• Talent Magnet Profiles: Twitter / LinkedIn Profile

Do you ever wish that you could see that your CEO is a human being? That they are vulnerable? That they can mess up?

In today’s episode, Aimee Kandrac, CEO and Founder of WhatFriendsDo, tells us about a time where her close friend’s son was diagnosed with a cancer.

As her friend’s family waited in isolation in the hospital for 100 days, many stories were shared and stored on Aimee's database. About 6-months into this journey the WhatFriendsDo website crashed and none of the backups worked, Aimee had lost their whole story. On top of that 10,000 other users all over the world lost their data as well. When anyone has a technology crash it sucks. Users are upset and people get frustrated and wonder “Why isn’t this working?”

What Friends Do was holding people’s lives at a critical time for them. Losing this data was like losing their story - the story of the most intimate and critical times in their entire lives.

For Aimee, as a business owner, and as a friend personally impacted, it was hard to untangle herself from the personal side to be the business owner. Aimee was in full-on crisis mode…The questions going through her mind were:

• Who do we have to get to and by when?
• Who else do we need to bring in?
• What are the long-term ramifications of this?
• How do you continue to show up for the world while you were struggling through all of this?
• For the things that hit her emotionally, how much of that should she share with her team and when?

Aimee had lost all of the data, all of her users and the fate of her business was uncertain. Even though she hadn’t created the code, as the CEO, it came down to her. It took about 6-months of soul searching before Aimee made the decision to come back and restart her business.

About Aimee Kandrac

Aimee’s story began when a close friend, Laura, was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor at the age of 25. Aimee, her mom, and her sister took charge and coordinated all of the non-medical care, and rallied hundreds of friends to show their support. Recognizing the need for a simpler way to coordinate care, Aimee co-founded WhatFriendsDo.

At WhatFriendsDo, Aimee is an innovator, instigator, advice giver, and leader. She excels at inspiring others to pitch in and help, and sees WhatFriendsDo as an incredible opportunity to take caring to a new level, but in a very personal, powerful, and viral way.

At her core, Aimee is passionate about running a technology-based company centered on helping friends and families going through a life-changing event. Her innovative leadership has earned her recognition as one of Indy’s Best and Brightest Finalists from Junior Achievement of Central Indiana and as a Top 50 Mompreneur of the Year from eBabble.com.

Aimee has been featured in print and online in Forbes.com, Fortune, Time, LA Times, Advancing Women, Oprah.com, Indianapolis Woman, and the Indianapolis Star, as well as many TV, radio, and podcasts.

What is WhatFriendsDo.com

WhatFriendsDo is a free platform that empowers friends to help loved ones in need. When an event like a health crisis occurs, pe

Kevin Berkopes talks about the Hot Mess that happened due to COVID which jarred schools: the largest healthcare, childcare, and food programs in the world. 

Kevin and his company, Crossroads Education, work to support schools in parenting alongside parents to help create healthy kids by using relationship-based education. Kevin knows that "Everyone has a solidified opinion on what needs to be done in education." But no one has real solutions to improve equitable access and services, especially to balance out the trauma of poverty.

Kevin's company uses students as the co-creators of tutoring systems in schools so that tutoring becomes available for all. He also offers math departments as a service. You must listen in for this unique, simple business model that solves several problems at once.

Get these episodes and more straight-talk advice delivered directly to your inbox at https://stefaniekrievins.com/blog/.

This episode reveals how a CEO learned powerful lessons during a staff tragedy and how it built resilience for 2020. While we'll never wish this trauma on your team, there are real lessons you and your staff can always take from challenges.

• Why everyone on a team needs to share responsibility for revenue generation
• Why having your people share in the spotlight is critical for succession planning
• How the more you invest in your people, the more it will pay off
• How to connect self care and stamina

Get these episodes and more straight-talk advice delivered directly to your inbox at https://stefaniekrievins.com/blog/.

This episode discusses the limitations to passion, why being less intolerant can be a great thing, and tools to know people are doing their jobs. Darren Reese is the CEO of the SESCO Group and he is sharing his secrets to success as an unlikely executive, including taking control of your own learning and several key tools to trust your people are doing the right thing.

Get these episodes and more straight-talk advice delivered directly to your inbox at https://stefaniekrievins.com/blog/.

Stefanie Krievins and Executive Coach and Mastermind Host Cal Ellison discuss the deep questions that the pandemic forced business leaders to answer. The pandemic and economic shutdown forced CEOs and mid-level leaders to really evaluate why and how they were successful. This episode offers new tools to think about planning for and re-thinking growth in the future.

Get these episodes and more straight-talk advice delivered directly to your inbox at https://stefaniekrievins.com/blog/.

Last year, 2020, was the ultimate hot mess. And 2021 is also starting out with a bang. But there's always good that emerges during difficult times.

This episode features Armando Lanuti, the president of Creative Works. This company designs the backdrop and experience in family entertainment centers. Their primary customers' businesses closed up shop when COVID hit. They were on track for a blockbuster year and then everything came to a screeching halt.

But Armando's team demonstrated resilience in amazing ways. Listen in for how they pivoted, adapted, were optimistic, and came out of 2020 swinging for the fences.

See the full blog post and transcript at https://stefaniekrievins.com/there-is-an-i-in-team/

Get these episodes and more straight-talk advice delivered directly to your inbox at https://stefaniekrievins.com/blog/.

We've all seen the inspirational placard "There's No I in Team!"

If you want to know how to improve communication within a team, the first thing that you need to know is there IS an "I" in "Team" - and no, asserting your "I"-ness does NOT necessarily make you an A-Hole.

I’m talking about how to build trust at work by bringing the personalities, individualism, and egos of your team away from the extremes and to a successful, productive place in the middle. Whether you've got the ultimate team player, yes-man who shows up for everything (but then can't or won't deliver) or the ultimate individual who does great work (but can't seem to get along with anyone else), THIS is for you, my friend!

See the full blog post and transcript at https://stefaniekrievins.com/there-is-an-i-in-team/

Get these episodes and more straight-talk advice delivered directly to your inbox at https://stefaniekrievins.com/blog/.

 

Time management is a myth, and today, I’m going to talk about why – and what you should be doing instead to maximize the time you have, manage expectations at work and at home with the emergencies that inevitably arise, and get your best work done without the constant stress.

See the full blog post and transcript at https://stefaniekrievins.com/why-time-management-is-a-myth/ 

Get these episodes and more straight-talk advice delivered directly to your inbox at https://stefaniekrievins.com/blog/.