Relationships drive the economy in small business with John DiJulius

John DiJulius, author of The Relationship Economy

John DiJulius and Bill Ringle discuss The Relationship Economy.

>>> Visit MyQuestforTheBest.com for complete show notes with more expert advice and inspiring stories to propel your small business growth.

Top 3 Takeaways from this Interview

Use technology to form basic tasks, enabling employees to focus on what's more important.Build a culture internally that creates an emotional connection with your employees with each other.Create a relationship built-in training for new and existing employees because they don't just have it, and it can be taught, and if you don't teach it, it can be translated into actions, and it's gonna be cold transactions instead of warm interactions that build loyalty.The art of building relationships has five keys: authenticity, insatiable curiosity, incredible empathy, one must love people, and must be a great listener.We create certain nevers that we would never do or always do if the opportunity presents itself.

Interview Insights

Read the Show Notes from this Episode

Q: When you are growing up who's someone who you think of who inspired you?

A: I have a long list, but let me start with my mom; and it may sound stereotypical, but she raised six kids, all under the age of 20...she had this unbelievable energy...she never made excuses nor complained, and just had this unbelievable faith and belief in all her kids...[1:29] Q: And as a result of your mom's strong faith and belief in all of you and you, in particular, John, how do you draw on that lesson that encouragement, that role model, that she shared with you back then? How does come through today in a decision today, or the way you treat people?

A: I think it's believing in people even when it's not easy to...you know when someone failing...one of my kids...one of my employees...[02:40] Q: What makes it possible for you to continue to believe when people are in a tough situation?

A: Drawin' in my experience growin' up, it wasn't easy to believe in. I was ADD LD, requested to repeat a lot of grades...and my mom always stuck it up for me and told me I was to do a great thing. And whenever we're faced with that situation, I always say and ask my leaders to do the same thing; when someone's failing, "let's look in the mirror first," no one came here to fail. No one wants to be making mistakes; we give them all the support, encouragement, and confidence we can. And it's usually something we could've done better, you know when we do that most of the time we get rewarded, it's kind of the same thing, and no ones ever gonna give them second or third chances...as I told you, I like words, and another favorite word of mine now is 'Encourage'...look at the word, split it up, 'In-courage,' and the new meaning is to put courage in someone else... [03:15] Q: This isn't your first book, Relationship Economy, what is it that inspired you to say all of these things that I've learned, all of this list that I've put together, all of these processes need to be shared and put it into book form? What was the point when you realized that Relationship Economy needs to be a book, John?

A: We're in the midst of the digital age, the digital revolution, and I love technology...and technology is not the enemy; we weren't using it to eliminate customer experience, the human interaction face to face, and just seeing how the pendulum is swinging so far over that high tech note touch and seeing the ramifications in the digital age is having on us personally and professionally...you know, today's illiterate are those who cannot make a deep connection with others truly and you know when you think about that we can all point the finger in us older people like to think that these are the millennial...we are the one who raised them, and we're judging them. And number two, make no mistake about it, the lack of people skills that is happening in our society is the responsibility of the business lea...