Ep. #874 - Professional Development Training

00:00.00

Matt DeCoursey

And we’re back! Back for another episode of Startup Hustle. Matt DeCoursey here to have another conversation, I’m hoping, helps your business grow. So if you’re not learning, you’re probably getting worse at whatever it is that you do. That could be personal, professional, or physical.

Today we’re going to talk about professional development training and how to. Keep your staff and those around you moving forward. Now I personally am someone who prides myself when it comes to my leadership role at trying to help people get the maximum out of themselves and also help them get what they want. We’re going to talk about that and more today.

Before I get into who I’m having today’s conversation with, today’s episode of Startup Hustle is brought to you by fullscale.io, helping you build a software team quickly and affordably. That’s my business everyone. And if you want to learn more about what we do go to fullscale.io, we can help your tech company build the software team that you want and can afford.

With me today, I’ve got Del Lampkin. Del is the founder of Harbinger Horizon. You can go to harbingerhorizon.com. Now there’s a link for that in the show notes that makes it even easier. So once you go ahead and scroll down there, you can see a little bit more about what they do and have some context for the episode straight. So without further ado, straight out of Gardena, California, Del, welcome to Startup Hustle!

01:16.84

Del Lampkin

Hey, thank you for having me. I definitely appreciate it. It’s an honor to be here.

01:20.76

Matt DeCoursey

Yeah, I love this topic. So you know, as I usually do, let’s go ahead and begin with my question of what’s your backstory and what brought you to know us today?

01:34.49

Del Lampkin

Yeah, so pretty much my backstory, it goes a little bit further than just my business. I’m someone who grew up in South Los Angeles, right in the heart of what some people call South Central. And growing up, there are some very challenging times living in a world of crime and poverty. Low economic status, single mom raising three kids. And one of the things I’ve always wanted to do was just provide service to others.

So I actually started off working in law enforcement. I still do work in law enforcement. A 20-year veteran working in city government with about 16 years of experience working as a sworn peace officer. But for me working in law enforcement wasn’t good enough. There’s only certain limitations to how you can provide service to others.

So about six years ago, I started my business, Harbinger Horizon; it’s a professional development solution for different businesses and organizations. Even for individuals who are just looking to gain some higher ground in life or, as I say, rise above stability. And we focus on things like workplace grass prevention training. We talk about team-building concepts and stress management.

One of the hot topics I’ve been immersing myself in lately is cultural diversity and how we have these inclusive conversations about what makes us different but, at the same time, what brings us all together. Because there’s a lot more things, we have in common than not. Other than that, we talk about professional development topics and leadership topics. So it’s been an amazing experience being able to immerse myself in different organizations, different households, different, and different cultures. So something I’ve been enjoying the last six years, on top of the fact that I get to still provide service in law enforcement.

03:26.86

Matt DeCoursey

So when it comes to professional development and I understand law enforcement is a profession, but that’s a little different than my profession. I don’t carry a weapon. I don’t have a badge. I feel on some days maybe I should.

03:33.48

Del Lampkin

You know.

03:44.95

Matt DeCoursey

Um, because you’re you’re often diffusing situations and stuff like that. But how do you carry? When you talk about carrying the law enforcement profession over to the white-collar type profession? Where do the carryovers go what’s important to bring from one side to the other?

04:03.94

Del Lampkin

Yeah, absolutely I appreciate that question. So like when we talk about working in law enforcement and fusing it together with professional development. You know people are calling you in law enforcement. They’re calling nine one because they’re having their worst day. You know these are moments where ah. People have exhausted all options and rather that may be having a dispute with your neighbor or perhaps ah you know, possibly losing a loved one. They’re calling you because they’re having their worst day and yeah, there’s a specific role that law enforcement plays in responding to that, and it’s essentially solving a crime. We do have opportunities to console people opportunities to you know, try to piece back together at least in that quick moment try to piece back together. Someone’s life but it’s only a short moment. Um, where that relates to professional development is. You know when someone’s going through tragedy. That’s not the only time someone calls. Ah you know or is in need of help. Um in this potter case different organizations, different businesses. Different individuals are trying to figure out some challenges that they’re having within our organization. They’re having issues with employee retention. They may be having issues. Ah, with things like um, you know employees that are engaging in some type of discriminatory behavior or abuse of conduct or they’re trying to figure out how do we bring our teams together. Well, that’s another call to 911 right. Not necessary 911, but you know these employers are reaching out to consultants. They’re reaching out to experts trying to figure out how can they bring people back together in organizations, and that’s where I come in focused on doing team-building projects having team building discussions, or having discussions about. You know, certain things that are related to equal opportunity employment law just to keep the organization grounded and in the process, we’re building stronger leaders within the organization which as a result of building stronger leaders. We’re building stronger organizations and it always starts with the individual it always starts with. Each with with a single person within the organization. So. That’s how we bridge bridge that Nexus. It’s that that first responder to an organization.

06:14.56

Matt DeCoursey

Well much like a moment in law enforcement or you know life outside of work in the same way you can inside a company you can implode your reality by. Taking a bad situation making it worse making it even worse. It’s kind of like you know I have a 5 year old and a seven-year old and um, you know the the logic when they’re upset is absent and you know there’s there’s been a few things and you know as as far as like professional or personal development. Given a lot of speeches related to my book Balance Me. That’s a realist guide to a successful life, and I think oftentimes people they ruin their own everything sometimes unknowingly sometimes it’s ah, a small collection of little things you like you look at the person that can’t make it on time to work.

07:08.81

Del Lampkin

Um, yeah.

07:10.62

Matt DeCoursey

Um, they might be great when they get there but they’re late every day, and like that’s usually not the person that gets the promotion gets the raise. So sometimes it’s like a collection of like little pebbles that piled up enough to turn into a big mound or a mountain and then sometimes it’s just just a true meltdown. Um, you know I mentioned before we. Um, our longtime leers might not know of this about me when I was in my early twenty s so I was I was a bouncer at a bar for 4 years and I worked at a couple of different ones in a small little town of Durango Colorado and I mentioned to you that I learned more about dealing with people at that job than anything else. Because not only were they off they were often drunk, angry, and confused at some time. So like when it comes to dealing with people at their worst moments. Or any of that like so in the professional side of things you got people that they’re upset with coworkers. They’re upset with clients. They’re upset with you like what’s the first key to dealing with someone in that in that when they’re in that situation.

08:14.40

Del Lampkin

Well, you know one of I I glad I’m glad you asked that question and a lot of times. It has a lot to do with not necessarily addressing the external but addressing the internal. We recognize that everyone has different cultural differences in how they deal with trauma or how they deal with stress. Um, that that could be something that’s related to someone’s national origin or maybe their ethnicity or maybe regional culture. You know how you would you know talk to someone in um, in an urban setting would be a little bit different than maybe a rural setting the internal part of it is recognizing that. You may not have all the answers. I know that’s a tough thing to say and I know that that’s something that’s hard to hear for ah for some people but you don’t always have the answers when you when you answer a call for service and so one of the things we have to do is a balance our attitude we have to balance. As you probably are aware working as a balancer we have to balance our attitudes and keep our attitudes in check, but also in trying to resolve this an issue you may have to collaborate with the person that’s asking you for help asking them about hey so how do you. How can I help you deal with this situation? I wouldn’t suggest that to someone who is drunk and belligerent. But if you can provide service by asking them. Hey, is there someone I can call to get you into a car to you know, get you home tonight? Um, you know these are these are different. This is just a so very simple question that you can ask to resolve. What could potentially explode to a huge issue. Um, I know you mentioned like you have a you have a 5 year old and and I I think about that and I think that you know what I do is is very similar to how we address our children. Um. You know we in our organization, we think that the easiest thing to do or the fastest or best way to resolve an issue with an employee is just to get rid of them right? But I mean you can attest to this. You can’t get rid of your 5-year-old, you can’t just say hey you know things aren’t working out. And as a result that we if we treat our um employees like they are our children if we treat our subordinates like our children. We learn to essentially work with them. We try to figure out. You know what are their needs. Why are they feeling the way they’re feeling. If you can expand on that a little bit I mean what do you think as far as like how you would deal with your employees and in general.

10:43.61

Matt DeCoursey

So well, a few things so and I get into this and and and balance me. Um, so you mentioned cultural and different kind of differences that people have regardless of where that where they’re from 1 thing that is known is that we all have a different personality type. And regardless of what that personality type is our worst qualities show when we’re under stress or when we’re worn out so when you’re tired or underst stressed your worst qualities come out so there’s a way to handle the differences of of that so like psychologically. When certain people just respond to things in different ways. So like you know and I refer to this as just the simple way of it. Some people need to be pushed, and some people need to be pulled and in some cases, some people just need to stop. You know like hey chill out, and I know from it. And I know that that’s ah, a common approach for a lot of police officers. It’s like you get there. Things are heated. You’re like let’s see if we can take this down envelope, you know because 1 thing that never really works out is is responding to the stress with something else. That’s a stressor like. Sometimes that’s the thing is you can tell people to chill out and they don’t so like you’re kind of pulling them along when you’re like hey let’s calm down a little bit. You’re pulling them. You know, then then you get to the point where you might have to push you might have to be like hey all right? You know you get a little louder. Get a little more now I I have a different you know some of this too is I think also in-person situations and virtual are different. You know so I’m a big kid I’m you know 6 3 6 4 I used to be six-four and I swear I’m shrinking I’m not as tall as I used to be I’m like 6 three and a half now you know 200 and fifty plus pounds and so with that I’ve also had to learn that that I can be imposing physically because I have a big loud voice I’m a big tall person and sometimes that’s not always a good thing and sometimes it is too because sometimes you’re like hey chill out you know and and people kind of like. I don’t know. There’s a different kind of an alpha effect there but overall like you know that’s the thing is I think there’s ah you know for for me when it comes to dealing with people on ah on a day-by-day basis and with the development you talk about professional development. Well. Understand I think it begins on many days with understanding what people actually react to and what they’re okay with and what they’re not like my wife is is by nature an introverted person. So if I want to.

13:18.90

Matt DeCoursey

Basically, sell her on an idea or what we want to do I have to present that different than I would someone with my same personality type. So yes, So and then you know that’s always the thing is you know that you can really like heated situations can get out of control in a hurry I mean’s and and you know what at the same time. They’re not always a bad situation. Because you know we talk in the world of startups and Business. We talk a lot about disruption. Well, disruption is friction, and you know sometimes you get to Sometimes you do have to break things to put them back together. It’s just about how to do that in a way that you know that’s ah.

13:55.35

Del Lampkin

Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely you know I What’s important to note and in highlight and all that is just the fact that each individual or each and yeah, each individual situation is different and we have to adapt in those different moments. You know as long as we are treating people professionally and sometimes.

13:55.40

Matt DeCoursey

Healthy and productive. So a question, did you have a response?

14:14.73

Del Lampkin

You know when it comes to treating people professionally, you do have to kind of set the tone when someone’s upset or irate. But then there are other times where if you just sit there and you’re just quiet and you let people have their say sometimes that’s another way in which we diffuse certain situations. Some people just want to be heard. You know.

14:29.69

Matt DeCoursey

So yeah, no.

14:32.00

Del Lampkin

And when you give them that moment to be heard. It starts to develop a ah little bit of trust because they recognize that maybe this person isn’t here just to arrest me maybe this person isn’t here just to stop my behavior and and get rid of me in other words or talk I’m putting someone in Handcuffs and and moving them on the jail. It’s not sometimes when you show up, you have to be a mediator and what we find out is the way things look when we first arrive it could be chaotic. That’s not actually what it that’s not actually what it is um is just you know a person that’s very upset. Maybe they’ve had a. Series of things going on in their life that I would never be able to understand. But then there’s other times where I may be able to understand and be able to empathize with that person when you’re demonstrating that empathy. You start to form a ah bit of trust and I think that trust is one of the key tenets of exercising leadership anywhere you go. When you can develop trust with someone that is that’s key. Um, you know, trusting your yeah when you build trust as an individual working in law enforcement or any profession people. Not only trust you as an individual but they trust the entire organization they they trust the entire profession. And any any any each show every one of those moments you have an opportunity to really change. Someone’s outlook and how they see who you are as an individual and also how they see the law enforcement profession.

15:57.93

Matt DeCoursey

Yes I talk a lot there recently I’ve been keen on the ah culture of honesty and inside of business I think that’s an important thing so that that honesty culture mean and that has to start from the top down so you know I try to be the first person. At at our office so I have a different challenge so most of my employees are in the Philippines so I’ve got 240 employees over there and then we have we Kansas City where we’ve got 5 so I’ve got 2 different worlds to to commingle and to deal with and honest to. Fully different cultures like very very different both with personality approach and a lot of stuff but the culture of honesty begins. It has to start from the top-down, and that means as a leader you have to be ready and willing and able to say hey man I mess this up. I’ve done a terrible job like we just did that here because I’ve been at yeah, my company grew so quickly that the yeah and so we are a culture first organization. But that honesty has to come from the leader like you. You have to say hey, I’ve done a terrible job at some of this stuff. And that maybe that’s why I hired this person or you or whatever and all the way down the line but the the reason that that’s important is because if you’re not willing to take responsibility and accountability for your success or failure. Well, you’re not you’re not you’re not that developed

17:30.20

Del Lampkin

Yeah.

17:32.33

Matt DeCoursey

Just meaning like you got to you know and that’s that you know you see athletes. Do this a lot in post game interviews or whatever they’re like hey I had the shot and I missed it. You know it’s that’s it’s it’s that simple so so you know that’s taken taken. Responsibility for it. 1 thing I I know that is the opposite of that is is establishing a culture of blame, you know, and I say that a lot like if we’re not trying to blame anyone for the failure in the end people do have to take responsibility for it. But if you find the culture inside your your if you find the development of of. Your professional culture is all about blaming people. So blaming is a source of anger and it reflects anger. I mean if I’m blaming you for something that’s ah that’s not a that’s not a a can-do kind of thing now in the end I’m also you know this actually Jives pretty well with. With law enforcement, I’m a big believer in an extreme ownership and there’s ah you know that’s been ah, a popular book and subject. There’s a couple navy seals that that put that out, and you know the thing is is really in the end. Yeah well so you you know and here’s the thing you don’t have to get very far into it like most of.

18:36.30

Del Lampkin

I have that book in my background here. Ah. Yeah, yeah.

18:45.37

Matt DeCoursey

Here’s the thing is that’s not a super broad concept. Most of that book is like stories and like the reality of it. But the thing is is like really in the end. There’s no, there’s no bad teams. There’s just bad leaders and and so eventually and.

18:49.49

Del Lampkin

Right.

18:55.53

Del Lampkin

Um, yeah, and and and yeah.

18:59.69

Matt DeCoursey

That’s the culture of honesty though. The team can fail and fail and fail and now eventually you get to the point where the leader has to swim back upstream to you. And that’s that culture of honesty that you have to have with yourself and other people. I mean I’d rather have my employees come up and say hey, we failed we need to do better next time. This is how we’re going to do it. Than just be like blaming everyone else all the way downstream which by the way is what happens when you have the opposite of that culture or when you have the wrong people in general.

19:29.90

Del Lampkin

Yeah, and not only that, you know when you have this organization behavior of blame people aren’t willing to be as open and honest amongst each other amongst the peers especially when a leadership at the top has a a mentality of blaming. Subordinates for why? The organization’s failing but what ends up happening with this is we start to develop an organization that engages in negative gossip. We have an organization that starts to develop and develop essentially a very toxic organization built on. Um, what’s the term I’m looking for here um a hostile work environment where where people do not feel comfortable communicating with one another when when we see this this this negative behavior occurring when we see these things occurring this toxicity this hostile work environment. Employees tend to create subcultures within the organization they start and most commonly we refer to those as clicks you have this group of employees who aren’t want to talk to this group of employees and now you don’t have people working together. They start to work in factions and usually when you have them working in those factions. Those. Ah, their own core values. Their individual core values because we all come in with our own core values they usually aren’t aligned with the organization’s overall core values and then that’s when you start seeing the harassment occurring the discrimination the abuse of conduct. Ah, these are things that not only do we need to talk about as an organization because it’s mandatory for many states of United States, but it’s something that we need to have a conversation about to maintain the cohesiveness in the workplace reminding each other through just general discussions about you know how we’re supposed to treat one another. I’m a firm believer that if we’re not taking care of the people within the organization if we’re not having these conversations reminding our employees of the expected cultural behavior. Um, we can’t possibly go onto the streets. We can’t possibly go onto our communities. We can’t possibly go to our constituents. And tell them to treat. We should be treating each other with kindness and respect and professionalism and I think that’s one of the biggest challenges is not just law enforcement but in in in every organization. What is the what is the culture that we’re building within the organization and does that culture reflect. The type of um, the the type of personalities the type of relationships that we are building with our community members I mean we could get further into that as far as like.

22:12.58

Del Lampkin

This buzz word that we commonly hear or a phrase corporate responsibility or corporate social responsibility things like that. But it’s this ideal that we need to keep checking one another in our organization and by checking one another. It’s checking in checking each other’s checking in when someone’s engaging that type of behavior. Say something you know when nothing’s occurring check back in with your employees and and just remind them of the expectations of how we treat one another in the workplace. How do you How do you balance that with I know you said that in the you know most of your employees are in the Philippines and and I know and like you said they’re dealing with their own challenges I mean. Just the simple simple things like weather. You know we don’t have to deal with typhoons here. They do you know.

22:54.91

Matt DeCoursey

We just did it. We just had a super typhoon that you know I actually published a video about that on the Startup Hustle Tv Channel I don’t know if you so you might have seen that is that why you’re mentioning it? Yeah yeah.

23:06.20

Del Lampkin

Yes, I have and and and it’s and it’s so amazing. So yeah.

23:11.30

Matt DeCoursey

And that’s a powerful video, by the way. It doesn’t have like millions of users or anything but we put that out there. The mission of Startup Hustle is to tell the real story of entrepreneurship.

And I want to get into that as a quick reminder, with me today is Del Lampkin and Del’s the founder of Harbinger Horizon. Go to http://harbingerhorizon.com. There’s a link for that in the show notes and before we continue our conversation. Another reminder that today’s episode of Startup Hustle is brought to you by fullscale.io, helping you build a software team quickly and affordably now.

Yeah, like you mentioned that video so that whole situation was kind of a surprise because as I mentioned, we’ll put a link to that in the show notes as well. But that video is titled how a super typhoon affected our business. The very first thing I say in that video is this is an account of us ,them, and that whole thing. So it’s not uncommon for a typhoon to hit the Philippines. They get a couple dozen of them a year. This one just wound up especially well and then hit our main location like a bullseye. Like in the center of the bullseye and it costs a lot of disruption.

With that, I was actually with my business partner last night just kind of catching up on some stuff and he asked me a question about that. He’s not as involved in the business as I am but asked about the typhoon. And I said I think I’ll look back at that as I continue down my timeline as a leader and I will consider that some of my hall of fame moments. Just meaning like there was like it went from like one day like we were having a Christmas party here in Kansas City the next that we knew a typhoon was coming I just didn’t realize I honestly was a little I was unprepared for that.

So then all of a sudden the next day it’s like hey this is really really bad and the things that we had to go through like you have to be prepared for that and ah and leadership and like. So I mean the first thing we did is the next day we sent $40000 cash over and because from what we’ve learned in the past is that creates a lot of problems like for example, imagine what it would be like in LA or Kansas City or anywhere if suddenly you had no internet, no electricity, and no clean water.

25:29.95

Del Lampkin

Um, you know.

25:36.64

Matt DeCoursey

And so like simple things like being able to go to the store. You can’t go to the store because the stores because you you probably don’t have cash because a lot of people don’t they have only a card. Well, the card reader runs on the internet that runs on electricity and so like things like.

25:48.24

Del Lampkin

Right? We don’t have cash in our mattress ready to go.

25:55.39

Matt DeCoursey

Yeah, so so like you know you look at other stuff and then there’s also like a big rush similar to like when covid hit and everyone ran out of toilet paper so the supply chain isn’t necessarily prepared to do a lot of that stuff but none of that so there was the immediate so that was a Friday. So immediately I’m talking to some of our leaders there and I’m saying hey you guys need to go in every direction you can and you need to acquire water and food. Any of the things you can because you need to expect so everyone at our company has been working remote so they haven’t been coming to the office every day we have a huge office. So you get ten Thousand Square feet of of space I said you need to be prepared for everybody to show up on Monday morning and they did, and they certainly did. But you know, but with that you also have to like look at the empathetic side of things like everything else about the business doesn’t matter. Let’s make sure people are okay, first. Right?

It took us as I mentioned in the video it took seven full days to account for all of our employees now we had 220 at the time. So I got 20 more now than I did a month ago, but you know you just look at that and like the gravity of that and how do you handle that? We had to really think it out. We had to do things as I issued. Ah, ah, some so you keep knowing that no one had effective bandwidth you can’t necessarily do things that you might normally do online or whatever but use some like really like low bandwidth kind of survey forms to collect info and just like the first question is, “are you okay?”. The second question was “are you in a safe place?”. You know so are you okay and are you in a safe place. The third question is, “do you feel that you’re going to be in a situation where you’re not going to have a home to stay in any time in the next thirty days?”. Those are the first 3 questions you got to lead with everything else past that you know.

So, unfortunately, we had a fairly decent list of people that answered in the negative on one of those 3 questions. So we had to relocate some families and do some other stuff and it was I mean it was chaotic and then. We were able to first off make sure everything was okay, but with that you know that that culture of honesty needs to come out like you know and like being honest about your situation where you’re at because when people need help some people aren’t great at asking for it. You know so but.

28:18.11

Del Lampkin

Yeah, there’s a ton of a type personalities and they you know it’s It’s the bravado in some cultures. Um, you know where they don’t want the help, you know? yeah.

28:23.64

Matt DeCoursey

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

28:33.36

Matt DeCoursey

That’s common with just with people in general because like asking for help isn’t always inherent and you know so yeah, but that whole thing was like the cultural differences too. There’s like a big difference in the way that it needs to be handled.

28:37.40

Del Lampkin

You know I.

28:48.23

Matt DeCoursey

Certain things like so you know Philippines is we can say Asian culture. I know that’s a really broad map over there for that. But there’s just different approach patterns in different ways like so I used to work for a Japanese company and that culture was a lot different than um than.

28:52.28

Del Lampkin

Yeah.

29:06.69

Matt DeCoursey

In the Philippines so in Japanese culture. You’ll be in the boardroom and like if someone says something dumb like here you kind of skip past it or you just kind of ah you move on there. They’ll literally be like that’s the dumbest comment I’ve ever heard. You’re like what.

29:19.32

Del Lampkin

Um, very straightforward. Yeah, ah.

29:23.15

Matt DeCoursey

Like the first time I was exposed to that I was like holy shit like wow we can say that to people. Well maybe you can and maybe you can’t, but you know it’s like a different thing and like I remember it as I worked at that company. It was a long time ago at this point. But they were amazed so Japan their culture was changing because they went from like what they would often refer to as salary men that you would get a job at a company and that’s just where you worked like after college like you’d be there for like 30 years and then it was really changing. So I mean and then you know a lot ah other things too. It’s just like. You know you got it. You have to be sensitive to the way you address certain things because pointing someone out in front of a group of their peers. Well for lack of a better example, like kind of some makes some people want to fall on the sword and. You know? And so yeah, know we’ve had to address that in a lot of different ways and you know to be different now me personally I’m I’m not a not saying something kind of guy so that can be really great for some people and some people dealt some people hate me because of that. But I’m not mean about it.

30:28.66

Del Lampkin

Well I think you were probably happy to be a Japanese coacher for a short minute.

30:29.35

Matt DeCoursey

I’m just honest and open and like that’s the same thing. Well I was really young at that point so I was like honestly I was that was like when I was 30 and you know and that was the last job that I had that wasn’t my own company. So it was you know I didn’t write some of the yeah it was. It was interesting. So.

30:48.42

Del Lampkin

Yeah, going going back to that that video. Um, you know, ah about your employees in the Philippines. The reason why I highlight that is because what you’re seeing in that video is essentially a documentary of. Ah, a pivot that’s occurring, but the other thing is again, you’re talking about these different challenges that people have, and in everything you just talked about, it’s showing what we did when we demonstrate is a due concern for our employees. We’re showing due concern for the people that are you know. At all levels within the company  I like to believe that when the leadership is taking care of its employees. The employees have a tendency to take care of the customers. A lot better. The most important aspect of that video as I saw a sense of community. Um.

31:41.66

Matt DeCoursey

I Totally Yeah yeah.

31:43.29

Del Lampkin

It talks about how the employees were even willing to come back to work within that week and the discussions that are taking place right? right? Why are they here?

31:47.93

Matt DeCoursey

I had 18 people show up the day after the typhoon and I asked our manager I was like, why are they there? He said well they want right? Because of all days to call in sick, that’s one of them, but they said, and by the way, I’m giving all of them an award.

32:00.56

Del Lampkin

Um, right.

32:05.92

Matt DeCoursey

Because first they all they said I had something I needed to deliver to the client. Our clients. I was like I think they would’ve understood on that one but still but I yeah but I mean yeah.

32:10.94

Del Lampkin

Yeah, that’s at this that’s at the surface level they’re telling you all the answers at the surface level. I’m here because I have to do this I have there. It’s superficial stuff but what you don’t see or hear. Is what they’re saying is that I’m here because I know I’m in a place of safety. I’m here because I know that my employer cares about me. I’m here because at the moment I have nowhere else to go but I know that I’m gonna get support here. That’s what you’re not hearing from his employees but that’s what it is. That’s exactly what it is and it all.

32:41.30

Matt DeCoursey

Yeah.

32:50.60

Del Lampkin

Starts with the culture that we have created within the organization. So and then the last part is the yeah.

32:54.29

Matt DeCoursey

Well right? and and and on the flip side of that if we didn’t have that kind of culture they would have been like why I was I didn’t want to come in unless I had permission.

33:04.74

Del Lampkin

Um, yeah, church.

33:06.49

Matt DeCoursey

Man no so by the way there were some things that were tough with that because at you know ah dealing with that situation and also Covid. Um, so like so in the Philippines there are a lot more. It’s fair to say militant about some of that. So.

33:13.23

Del Lampkin

Yes.

33:24.00

Matt DeCoursey

You know, all of a sudden we had to like find a balance, and you know, so we had this like it was man that was like I often refer to entrepreneurs needing to be plate spinners like you have to run like the plates. Someone’s spinning plate on an end of a stick you know and 1 wobble you get to run and spin it. You got to go spend another one that was like an ultimate exercise in so plate spinning because.

33:33.50

Del Lampkin

Ah, right.

33:43.86

Matt DeCoursey

We had employees. We had their families. We had clients and you know our clients were overwhelming. I mean they were all there was no one that objected to they all empathized with the situation. In fact, they were asking how they could help. We ended up. We ended up ah raising. Between the money we sent over and then we did a fundraiser through the Startup Hustle chat community if you’re not a part of that you can find it on Facebook just search Startup Hustle or Startup Hustle Chat? Yeah, so we ended up raising or sending out between clients. Money so we sent 40 Grand Cash the next day like we say cash we sent it over and we told the managers to go wait in the line at the bank for, however, long it took so we had cash at the office because we didn’t want to be like hey you know the the non-empathetic way was to just zip it into their bank account.

34:34.33

Del Lampkin

You know, not a smart move. It’s yeah, right? which could be even more detrimental because now it creates a safety issue while they’re in line.

34:37.15

Matt DeCoursey

And then all of a sudden. It’s like okay so no I got to wait in line for 4 hours for it so we had yes right? well and then honestly it created a safety issue at the office that we had to talk about too because we’re I mean we don’t have that kind of money.

34:52.71

Del Lampkin

Yeah.

34:54.94

Matt DeCoursey

Now, if you talk about the difference in economics, that is essentially the buying power of having a quarter-million dollars cash on hand here, meaning it’s like 6 to one that’s like the difference in the cost of living and everything and that’s a lot of money so like. We had to also kind of think about that we’re like do we shouldn’t just send 1 person to go get this because like that’s also not fair like to that person like you don’t want I mean that’s I don’t know like well you could run off with that money. Um, not so yeah or there could be. You know there are desperate people doing desperate things but overall like it was really kind of like you mentioned in the beginning of the show. Del,  it’s like you got to show up and you got to assess the situation and you got to and I I feel like.

35:34.85

Del Lampkin

Yes.

35:39.50

Matt DeCoursey

Law enforcement side of that thing I would imagine that’s the training that you get right away. It’s like you don’t just show up and start shooting well and in some cases, you might have to you may have to yes.

35:45.67

Del Lampkin

Right In some case. Yeah, there’s there’s some times where you’re you’re you’re pulling up to an active. You know things are happening rapidly evolvingin most situations. Yeah, but let’s yeah yeah.

35:56.52

Matt DeCoursey

Let’s move past that because that is what it is but in most situations, it’s 2 people that are pissed off with someone or there’s someone else that’s distraught for some reason so figure out what’s going on because you know so I mean that’s what we did it was I mean honestly it was a big exercise in and one thing I’ve talked about regularly.

36:05.96

Del Lampkin

Yeah.

36:15.23

Matt DeCoursey

Since then, the importance of being able to create and execute a contingency plan on a dime so we learned. So it was two years ago in March of 2020 that we learned a lot about that. I was actually in the Philippines when Covid.

36:21.67

Del Lampkin

Yeah, absolutely.

36:32.92

Matt DeCoursey

I was in the Philippines for most of March of 2020 and that’s when Covid really hit hard over there. And two weeks on that side of the world, they were about two weeks ahead of where we were at. So you talk about a contingency plan. Being planned for every direction that things can or could go. And with that means theoretically you’re probably making 6, 7, or 8 plans knowing that only one of them is actually going to be good. But the exercise with that is understanding when, where, and how you may do different things when they come up or arise. And I think that that plays well into the development of your professional culture as well because if you haven’t given any thought to things that could occur now, you mentioned certain things like you talk about discrimination, you know, just things that aren’t.

37:21.45

Del Lampkin

Um, yeah.

37:27.10

Matt DeCoursey

Fair or Shitty in the workplace and like I don’t ain’t no one got time for that here like I will you gotta cut that out like have no tolerance for that. But you know like overall as I mean. Yeah, we kind of shifted our topic here which is fine I feel like we’re talking more about developing a culture of honesty and whatever. But yeah.

37:40.62

Del Lampkin

I think we’re okay because one of the things that are some of the areas that I think that the listeners are learning is that when it comes to providing resources for your company. Um, and this is something that I share in my business It’s great that you have resources but do you know how to Ah, ah, ah sufficiently and equitably um, essentially deliver those resources or um. You know, give those resources to your employees. It’s not just dumping. We use the example of cash here. It’s not just by simply dumping a bunch of cash. It’s making sure you’re allocating it the most effectively in the most effective way you can, but then the earth thing that we are talking about that I think the listeners can really catch on to. We talked about this typhoon we talked about Covid and we’re learning at this point or we’re asking ourselves. How do we pivot when we have these unscheduled events occur I know for myself. My business I would say 99.9 of my business. I was going to a location and speaking to an audience and speaking to a group well when covid hit everything shut down. So I had to ask the question of what do we do next. Because I can’t go and do presentations. I can’t stand up in front of a bunch of people profession development facilitating was I mean essentially done or at least for what most people for most people it was for me. I went back to the drawing board and I said okay, what can I do to stay in business. What can I do to stay afloat well, the first thing I did was marketing dramatically dropped as far as my expenditures and marketing I actually use those resources and this is something that you know I hope that it can help someone that’s probably. Ah, in the same consulting or same profession I’m in when it comes to professional, professional development presentations I dropped my marketing dramatically and invested that into building a studio where I can now do virtual presentations. 1 of the things that I pride myself on a lot in my business is that sets me apart from a lot of other consultants. A lot of other professional development presenters is a lot of my training is activity-based it’s I do a lot of activities with my clients to that that reaffirm.

40:16.86

Del Lampkin

Some of the key objectives that we want to meet I wasn’t able to do in person. So now I have to figure out how do I create activities. Virtually what are some of the resources out there that exist to where I can actually still stay connected with my clientele? There’s plenty of there’s ah plenty of video conferencing systems and resources that are out there that I had to learn to use I mean like overnight you know and that’s where I made that Pivot. You know I had the internet I still had a connection with my art with my clients and so that’s. That’s where my pivot started.

40:52.42

Matt DeCoursey

Yeah, and those pivots. Also, you know we did that here even with a podcast because prior to covid it was always in person and we had talked about you know taking it virtual because we would have been able to reach so many more guests and have so many other people like you weren’t going to be in Kansas City to record this? um.

41:08.56

Del Lampkin

The ray.

41:11.50

Matt DeCoursey

So you know, but it actually you know a lot of times these pivots result in and a healthy and a move to something that makes a lot more sense.

So once again, today’s episode Startup Hustle is brought to you by Full Scale helping you build a software company quickly and affordably you can find us. More info about Full Scale and the Startup Hustle chat group or on Facebook you’re really the best place to do. It is at fullscale.io so with that it’s time for the founder’s freestyle. That’s how I look to the end. My episodes are Startup Hustle, I say my episodes [because] I’m not the only host of the show.

Make sure you tune in weekly. Join Andrew Morgans the Ceo and founder of Marknology, who’s going to talk all about Amazon and e-commerce. Tune in with Lauren Conaway’s weekly episode Lauren is the founder of InnovateHER, who just got their 5000th member. Congratulations on that Lauren. And my Startup Hustle founder and business partner at Full Scale, Matt Watson, now has a weekly show. Make sure you tune into that Matt. We’re letting Matt talk to the highly technical people because that’s more of the language he speaks. But here we are at the end of the show. Del Lampkins, the founder of Harbinger Horizon, go to http://harbingerhorizin.com.

There’s a link for that in the show notes. There’s also a link to the typhoon video if you want to watch that I would recommend watching that for anyone listening because I think we really demonstrated how we handled the crisis and a lot of different stuff and i. It’s just interesting I got a lot of good feedback on that video. But you know Del, we finish out the show I mean, what are some key points or things that you want to say didn’t say or maybe need to say?

42:51.70

Del Lampkin

Essentially when it comes to being an entrepreneur or being a business owner. It’s an infinite game. It’s a long-term process and with that process comes different challenges. Some of them are expected some of them are definitely unexpected, but you know true leadership. Ah, is again about trusting ah your constituent or trusting your subordinates building that trust with your subordinates and and and and and being able to face those challenges together and as we’ve demonstrated here or at least I hope you know this is something that people called onto. You know when you’re engaging in those relationships where you’re building that trust essentially it’s you taking care of your employees and then feel value. They feel appreciated and that will reflect how your customers respond to your business. You even mentioned how your customers in the Philippines responded to the business when the typhoon hit and that’s just 1 small example. Lastly, just having this ability to be able to pivot. Not just when tragedy happens but learning how to pivot when it comes to your employees facing different ethical. Dilemmas or engaging in certain situations that may be new and then lastly it’s just you know taking every moment in every situation individually not necessarily putting everything in 1 big basket and saying hey if I handled the situation in this way. I need to handle it the same way in this in this particular situation. Each situation is different. We have to adapt to every single moment. So with that again. I thank you so much for having me I definitely appreciate it. It has been an honor that we can have this discussion. Hopefully, this discussion resonates with some of your audience. And um, yeah I’m here to provide service as always.

44:45.71

Matt DeCoursey

And you can find once again, there’s a link to Del’s stuff in the show notes without I mean a couple of things you know we came into this episode that you had never know which direction these episodes are going to go because you know we have a conversational format and we pivoted a little bit without and kind of you know. Trended towards talking about you know the culture of honesty and making your workplace an open forum for discussion and I think that that’s an important thing. And that starts from the top down that is a form of professional development training in many ways.

There’s a lot to be said about that I think that the things that you know if you want to be a leader are if you’re trying to build a business. Your goal should be to build something bigger than you and that means you have to do it with. Other people involved because all you can do is all you can do, which means that if things start going really? Well, then your business might start growing really quickly which means you have to have some understanding of building a healthy culture.

However, that is and the thing is if you don’t do that. You’re going to end up with a place that everyone doesn’t want to work at and want wants to quit. Yeah, really, in the end, a company’s most valuable assets are the people that work at the company, and if if you don’t look at it that way I mean these aren’t cogs in gears in a machine you and I see so many people treat their employees and everything like that. That’s not the way it works folks. That’s not how you get people to stick around now you know there’s a healthy balance that you can you know I have found that if you’re open with.

With the people that work at your organization and you talk to them about whether you’re winning or losing or where that’s at and you’re realistic and open about it. The people that work there understand you know, like sometimes you do have to say we can’t give you everything right now because. Can’t afford to give you everything right now you know at the same time. It’s like also not you know like yeah I don’t know you got to find that balance wherever you’re at and with whatever you do? That’s going to be a little different and I think the last thing I wanted to kind of suggest is you know? Mentioned my book Balance Me. It’s a $99 on Amazon Kindle that’s as cheap as Amazon will let me sell it. They won’t let me give it away all the time. But with that, if you grab a copy of that. There’s a chapter in there about personality styles I think one of the greatest things.

47:23.29

Matt DeCoursey

I’ve done for my own professional development is study and understand personality styles. Mainly knowing what personality style you have and how that interacts with other people. Because that’s the transactional nature of that if you speak the language that other people are most receptive to listening to. You’re going to get heard a lot more and you’re going to get. You’re going to just move things forward a lot if you think it’s other if you think it’s everyone else’s job to adapt to you. You’re wrong. So You got to have an understanding about. How that goes, and I’m telling you the greatest results that you’re going to find are when you improve that level of communication and the way to do that is once again know yourself and know how other the best way to react to others is and.

Yeah, Overall this is a fun Conversation. So ah, maybe we’ll have it again down the road. Thanks for joining me Del.

48:16.55

Del Lampkin

Yeah, I would love to have that conversation. There’s a lot more to it when talking about organization behavior and ethical decision-making a lot more to us. I truly do hope we continue this conversation again. You know to help people build stronger leaders within their organizations and. Even build stronger leaders within their households because that’s important as well. So thank you.

48:38.35

Matt DeCoursey

See you next time.