Growth Through Scale, Culture, and Leadership

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There are some people that make their
work just another thing they have to do,

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and there are those that make their
work something that they want to do.

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Welcome to Working on Purpose with your
host Elise Cortez. In our program,

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we provide guidance and inspiration from those
people who have found deeper meaning and

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personal connection to their work life.
It's beyond nine to five. It's working

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on Purpose. Now Here is your
host, Elise Cortez. Welcome back to

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their Working on Purpose Showkaks for tuning
in again this week. I'm your host,

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Elise Cortez. Join you live from
Dallas, Texas, which is home

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base for me. If I've been
tuning in for a while, then you

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know. This program is all about
helping people create more meaningful and productive personal

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and work lives and equipping leaders,
insight organizations to cultivate meaning and purpose that

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elicits passion inspired contribution, innovation,
and persevering performance. I talk with my

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guests to drawn their ex pritise and
share my own experience consulting, speaking and

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developing workforces across the globe. Every
week. In these conversations, I hope

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you walk away with something you can
immediately put to use in your life,

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and then you come alive with a
possibility of living with passion, working on

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purpose, and are inspired to discover
for yourself just how big and fulfilling your

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life, work and leadership can be. And if you do catch fire from

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anything you hear, reach out and
tell me about it. Email me at

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Elise at Elise Cortez dot com or
used to contact Me feature on my website

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to message me and tell me how
I can help. Whether you want to

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join the distribution list to stay informed
of these radio show topics, you want

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to see about joining a catch fire
online inspiration, accountability or mastermind community.

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You want information on the purpose driven
leadership programs for individuals or companies offered on

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site or via webcast, or you
want to see about having me speak for

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your company or conference at any event. I'm glad we're connected, and thank

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you for listening. Now onto this
week's program with us today is Jonathan Hurstkovitz.

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He is hurstkov Excuse me. He
is the founder and CEO of SVOC

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Business Growth Advisors. It's a consultancy
that helps its clients grow their businesses by

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gaining an understanding of their strategy,
vision, operations, and culture prior to

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founding this organization. He was the
president of Imart Express for twenty two years

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and also the interim COO for City
Vet and multi unit veinary chain in Dallas.

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Today, we'll be talking about why
and how to scale and grow a

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business, how to leverage culture to
grow a business, and how strong and

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poor leadership reflects in the operations of
a business. Jonathan, welcome to Working

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on Purpose. Well, thank you
so much for having me honored to be

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here. Well, let's kick off
with one of my favorite subjects, and

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that's energy if we can, Jonathan, So, you know, I just

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I marvel at how we met.
Literally it was just a momentary exchange and

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an elevator. I was finishing a
talk that I was giving in a building

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in downtown Dallas. You were on
your way out and we were both heading

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for the elevator and we literally had
just a short exchange, but just in

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that time period enough to figure out
we both wanted to know about each other's

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professional world. So, right,
isn't that amazing? It totally is.

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And so you know, it goes
back to I think the purpose of your

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show. And we had chemistry and
I'm a huge guy on chemistry and fit

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and I use a lot of that
to hire people in order to scale and

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grow. And so you know,
if you and I weren't on this radio

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show and we've met, you know
off of it, we're going to be

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working together because we have a connection. We have a chemistry, and that's

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where it starts. It does.
And I want what I want to recognize

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and appreciate an applaud and really call
out to our listeners is you know,

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we both had the good sense to
lean into that, right. We made

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sure that each of us had our
business card, and we followed up and

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we had lunch and talked about this
and here we are and there's kisma in

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that, and I just really want
to celebrate that. And yes, we

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definitely had chemistry and here we are. And when you told me what you

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what you were up to in life, I thought that would really make for

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a great conversation on working on purpose
because I think there's so much of what

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you do that has an intention on
it lets people's purpose really come more alive

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than what they do through their work. So I wanted to talk about three

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things on the show, Jonathan,
scaling and grow into company culture, and

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leadership. So but before we do
that, it probably would help our listeners

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for them to understand a bit more
of your background and just how it is

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that you got into this space and
what it is that you bring. So

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can you briefly sketch your long background
for us? I will. I happen

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to have an opportunity to be the
president of the business school back when I

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was in college and Pearl Vision,
which is a national optical chain. Soone

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I knew who had graduated put a
letter in there and it said come visit

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and interview with Pearl And I was
going to set the world on fire.

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Why would I sell glasses? It
made no sense to me, but I

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still went and took the interview.
And it was with Pearl Vision for about

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two or three years. And with
all due respect to Pearl, they did

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teach me everything not to do in
business during the years that I was there,

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and I took that knowledge and through
my networking and chemistry with people that

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I met at Pearl they told me
to go ahead and talk to their head

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operator who had started a company for
a doctor who resides in Dallas. It

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was an optical chain. And I
met with this gentleman and we talked for

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three hours. It was again,
I'm going back to chemistry, and he

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really said back then, I don't
know what you're going to do for us,

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but you want to work here.
And at the time I said I

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need to eat. I said absolutely
now to make it very brief, unfortunately,

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the gentleman that did hire me,
who was the operator of the company,

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suddenly passed away in thirteen weeks,
and the owner of the company,

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doctor Barnes, came in and said, you know, let's see where this

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goes. And it went for me
another twenty two years, another twenty one

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years as at the company twenty two
years, and through that process always fired

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myself. I wanted to achieve.
I wanted to make my name and business.

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I wanted to motivate, affect people, and so I was given the

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opportunity to be in advertising and marketing, and then I hired my replacement,

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and then I went into real estate, hired my replacement operations, and then

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finally president for my last five years. Ultimately, I was part of a

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team that helped scale and grow an
optical chain to one hundred and sixty eight

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units, which made it the eighth
largest in the United States, and subsequently

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the valuations and the optical business got
very frothy in twenty thirteen and the owner,

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doctor Barnes, decided to sell.
And in that transition, I went

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ahead and resigned and started focusing my
attention on using that same exact experience,

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surrounding myself with best in class people
to create a culture. And I'm now

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the founder of s VOC Strategy,
Vision Operations and Culture Business Growth Advisors,

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and we provide operational expertise and capital
for companies to scale and grow. Awesome,

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awesome, awesome. I know that's
a whole lot to summarize in just

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a few short senses, so thank
you for that. That was great.

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Okay, so let's get into the
whole scaling and growing. But before we

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get into that, let's get a
common language here. Some of the people

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listening to the show maybe haven't really
heard a lot of that language. So

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first, what do you mean by
scaling and growing? You know, scaling

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to me means growing the business,
growing more units, more eye care centers,

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more pet centers, pet centers,
and the growing part to me is

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really about the people, process and
the infrastructure that ultimately leads into profits,

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cash flow, and valuation. So
it's growing the business and growing the people

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within it. Okay, And what
are some of the reasons that an organization

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might want to scale and grow?
And if I just step back for a

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second, I think about what I'm
doing my own operation. Obviously, I

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want to matter to more people across
the globe, so that would be a

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big reason, a big drive for
me to want to scale and grow.

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But what for other organizations, why
would they want to scale and grow?

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Well, you know, I once
heard Ray Kroc a quote that he had

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said, and Ray Kroc was the
founder of McDonald's, and he said,

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if you're not growing, you're dying. And so a lot of organizations,

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I feel founders, entrepreneurs are geniuses
and everybody wants to accumulate wealth. They

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want to change people lot lives and
the products or their services that they offer.

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And a lot of organizations they want
to grow, but they only can

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grow so much, and in order
to go to the next stages, they've

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got to be able to be accepting
of change. But to really answer your

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question, a lot of organizations want
to scale and grow because they, like

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you, want to. They want
the world to see what they're doing or

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what they're offering. M No question
about it right. And you know,

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it's interesting. I go back to
what you said about if you're not if

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you're not growing, you're probably dying. And I just immediately got present to

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a couple of people that I've had
the chance to speak with lately who are

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very much in that place. They
were running and gunning for many, many

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years, and all of a sudden
they're like almost in free fall. And

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and I don't know if that's you
know, really just we stopped putting,

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you know, pressure on the gas
pedal or what. But what are some

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of the things that companies do wrong
when they try to scale and grow.

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Well, a lot of times,
you know companies that get over they get

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over their skis, and so growing
for the sake of growth is not healthy.

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You have to make sure that your
structure, your infrastructure, your people

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are ready to take on growth.
Because to me, whether you grow from

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some whether it's a revenue number or
store account number, it's a percentage.

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So if you have a thousand stores
and you add one hundred, it's ten

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percent. Well, if you have
ten stores and add one it's one store,

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it's still ten percent. It's still
an exponential growth experience for both companies.

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And so a lot of times,
most of the times my clients,

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like I said, get out over
their skis. They just want to grow

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and then they play catch up.
I always say, it's the it's the

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snake that swallow the rabbit, and
so it's being able to digest that growth

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and then you know, after that
move forward and so help that answered your

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question, and yeah, right,
But some of the things they do wrong

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is just they say, okay,
we've been so successful, surely we can

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grow the company twenty and thirty percent. But a lot of times that twenty

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or thirty percent takes a different organization
structure, training. Sometimes the people within

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the organization. A lot of the
listeners might not have heard this, but

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they reached the Peter principle, which
is, where as good as the last

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job we have, we almost the
company outgrows us. And so that happens

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with a lot of organizations. And
the key to not having that happen is

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just keep training your people, just
really quick. Just on the topic of

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doing things, maybe not the best
way. I think about this and wonder

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if this really does happen, or
how often this happens, where you hear

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it, you see it on you
know, TV shows or the movies where

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some kind of crazy marketing scheme actually
works and all of a sudden they're flooded

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with orders and they can't actually process
them. Just how often does that happen?

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It happens. I just got a
call the other day and the entrepreneur

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said, yeah, sure, we
can do that contract. And then you

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know, walked away and said,
oh my gosh, happen. What have

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I done? And I'll give you
a real world experience so everyone can relate

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to it. But there was the
speaker I heard once, and she's brilliant.

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She was with school with Zuckerberger,
and she created a paper and this

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paper, when you put in refrigerator
next to vegetables, makes your vegetables last

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longer, long story short. She
sold it on the streets and the farmers

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markets and then got in front of
Whole Foods, and Whole Foods said we'd

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love to work with you. How
about like the southwestern region and she said

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absolutely, And so her and her
large company of two other people sat in

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their home in her apartment for like
seventy two hours making the paper, and

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she delivered it. I think it
was in her Toyota Celica and it was

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to the roof of the car.
So that's a success story. Unfortunately,

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some people get orders that they can't
process unfortunately. Yeah, and then they

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burned the reputation in the client relationship, etc. So yeah, okay,

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So then on the other side of
that, then help us get present to

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some best practices or considerations and when
we do want to scale and grow,

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how do we do it right?
Well, you know, it's kind of

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what we've been talking about, and
I'm going to start off with what I

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think is the most important thing,
and it's people. People, people,

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And so you give me a team
and we'll figure it out some way.

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But you know, you've got to
have your people that are adaptable, that

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can go with change, hardworking.
You know, you've got to make sure

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your culture sounds, which I know
is you're all about be able to exchange

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ideas and so you know, you've
got to make sure that you're if you

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have a large enough company, whether
it's your HR or your finance, your

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operations, your product development, that
it's what I say, like a car,

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whether you've got a four, six
or eight cylinder, that all the

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cylinders are humming. And so best
practices are people, operations, which is

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processes. That's really it, okay, And of course your product were so

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the product we're saying, just for
clarification, we're saying, whatever you're selling

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works, and you've got you know, of course it may or may not,

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but you know, you've got a
product that sells, You've got distribution,

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you've got that you can create it. So all those things have to

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work in order for the organization to
work. Yeah, and I can certainly

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envision, like I just have have
in my mind that I can imagine.

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You know, we've got all these
great processes. The sales are out there,

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hum and the salespeople are just killing
it and they bring it in all

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kinds of orders. But maybe part
of the process or the software that accepts

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those orders is a really slow or
really clunky, and you know, it

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takes three days to spit out an
order that maybe they needed to spit it

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out in you know, thirty minutes
or whatever. I can so imagine those

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different places in along the chain that
if they are not in sync, would

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totally upset the cart. Well like
yeah, like you said, that goes

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with anything. I mean, you
open up a hospital, a medical clinic,

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a vet clinic, an optical retail. Uh you online? I mean

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if you go online and all of
a sudden your orders start dinging and dinging

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and dinging, it could be the
start of something very very beautiful, or

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it could be the end of something
very very quickly. But no one's perfect,

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and the reality of it is,
your systems will not be up to

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par, your product will not always
you have nothing inventory. It's just making

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sure that you've got people that can
adapt change. And if you do get

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a lot of those that business,
you're you're able to service at the best

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you can. You know. I
just I just got president and reminded to

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myself of something Jonathan. I remember
years ago, I'm at these two really

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successful ladies here in Dallas where I
live, and I forget what kind of

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business they happen. It was just
the two of them that ran it.

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And I said something about how they
got business, and they looked at me

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strangely and they said, oh,
my gosh, you have no idea.

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We cringe when the phone rings.
We're afraid people more people are going to

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call us. We can't handle any
more business. And I remember thinking to

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myself, what a problem to have. But now I really recognize through this

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conversational lens that they were certainly not
able to scale. And now I understand

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that. You know, it makes
I see that now and just you're bringing

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it right back for me. Yeah, and you know that word cringe,

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I understand it. To me,
it's a challenge. You know, when

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you cringe, you're that that response
might be we might actually tank this thing.

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To me, it's exciting. We're
going to push ourselves further than we've

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ever pushed ourselves. And to me, that's where you rally the team and

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say, yeah, we're inundated at
the door online with the phone. How

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cool that? Yeah, I like
that problem too. And on that high

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note, let's grab our first break, Jonathan, I'm your host, Alice

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Cortez. We don't either have John
Hirskovic of s SVOC Business Growth Advisors.

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He shows today from Dallas. We've
been talking about how to scale and grow

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a company. After the work,
we're gonna get into the into culture and

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its effect on top line and bottom
line results. Stay with us, We'll

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be right back. Alise Cortez is
a speaker and engagement and development catalyst.

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00:18:33.480 --> 00:18:37.920
She designs and delivers professional development,
leadership and engagement workshops and can bring her

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00:18:37.960 --> 00:18:44.079
expertise to your organization. She will
help ignite meaningful development within your workforce that

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00:18:44.119 --> 00:18:48.079
will increase employee engagement, performance and
retention. To learn more or to invite

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00:18:48.079 --> 00:18:52.799
a Lase to speak to your organization, please visit her at www dot Elise

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00:18:52.920 --> 00:18:57.960
Cortez dot com. She would welcome
the opportunity to help get your employees working

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00:18:59.119 --> 00:19:08.160
on purpose. This is working on
Purpose with Elise Cortez. To reach our

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00:19:08.200 --> 00:19:15.960
program today, send an email to
Elise ali Se at Elise Cortez dot com.

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Now back to working on purpose.
Thanks for staying with us, and

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welcome back to working on purpose if
you're just joining us. My guest is

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Jonathan Herskovic of SVOC Business Growth Advisors. Prior to founding this organization, he

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was the president of i'mart Express for
twenty two years and the interim CEO for

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City Vet and Multi Unit Veterinary Chain
in Dallas. I'm your host, Elise

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Cortez. So our next subject that
I wanted to talk about here and just

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extract what I can from that mind
of yours, Jonathan, is culture.

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It's such an important part of business
and an organization and so wildly misunderstood,

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and I think miss misutilized under leverage
for sure. So when I think about

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culture, in fact, I'm doing
some work right now with an organiz today

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here in d Alason. Culture,
you know, thinking about it, it's

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really like the heartbeat of the organization. And I've heard it said many times

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and I tend to agree that it
eats strategy for breakfast. So why do

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you think so many companies don't understand
their organization's culture or they can't articulate it.

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What's up with that? I think
a lot of organizations are complicated,

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They really complicated. They try to
analyze it and over analyze it. And

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to me, it's just all about
the spirit of the Golden Role. It's

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just respect. It's about respecting people. It's about trust, communication, being

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honest and open, doing your best, making mistakes, but correcting those mistakes

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and don't doing them again, and
don't do them again. I just think

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a lot of organizations try to make
it lofty when to me, cultures just

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about a bunch of ordinary people getting
together to do extraordinary things well where it

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gets interesting. And even like I
said that, the project I'm working on

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right now is the reason we're working
on culture. There is a reason,

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and there wouldn't be spending money if
if there wasn't something to do with this.

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But first, why do you think
it's just so important in terms of

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the organization's health and sustainability to address
or manage culture well. To me,

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culture it translates into the health of
the organization in the sense that it does

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increase top line efficiencies, bottom line
cash loan valuation because culture, you have

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to have a positive culture, and
you'll always outdo your competitor if you do.

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And I've actually seen that in multi
unit organizations where I can look at

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the data where you should be able
to look at the data, and really

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the businesses within the portfolio that are
outperformed the others they use are the ones

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that are executing the culture that the
organization is defined. So far, our

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listeners who maybe are listening to this
going gosh, this sounds really squishy,

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And I want to just share a
little bit about my perspective on culture and

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add to what we've been talking about
here in that you know, culture is

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really like the unwritten set of rules
and regulations that happen or govern an organization

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right there, That's really what people
have learned to do and say and believe

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in order to be rewarded and to
keep their jobs. I mean that's really

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what, in my mind, what
culture is. The opportunity is to really

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get really clear about what is what
culture are we operating in? In other

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words, bringing it to a conscious
level where you can start to say,

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oh, okay, so you know, if we start to notice that people

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aren't speaking at the meetings because they're
worried that that's going to get them fired,

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is that something that we really want
to continue. It's part of our

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culture, but is it working for
us? So you know, those are

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the kind of things that I find
really interesting when I'm working on culture that

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organizations to just like everything else in
life, right, bringing it to a

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conscious level so you can intervene and
change it or redirect it if you want

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to. So to that end,
Jonathan, I was so intrigued when you

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talked about part of what you do
is to help increase top line growth through

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culture. What do you mean by
that and how do you do that?

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Well? You know, to me, a culture is engagement. And so

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if you just look at Chick fil
A or you look at Starbucks, I

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mean those are pretty s sessil companies
and they just sell chicken and they just

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sell coffee. And so you know, you can feel it when you go

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into these organizations, when you go
into Starbucks or when you go into Chick

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fil A, you can feel it. And when people are engaged and happy

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and know where they fit in the
culture and that they know what behaviors that

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the culture is about, that translates
to the consumer. Whether you're selling a

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product, service, healthcare, it
truly, to me is the differentiator.

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And I want to share story with
you. I was with a very,

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very large equity firm in the country
which I will not name, and we

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had an incredible culture and an incredible
profit percentage. And the person said to

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me, how was your profit percentage
larger than other companies that were familiar with?

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And I got real quiet, and
I thought about it not too long,

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and I said, because of the
people and the culture. And there

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was a little disconnect in the room. And so what happens is when you

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have engaged people surrounding a culture,
promoting a culture that translates to the consumer,

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and that consumer shares their experience with
other people and they brings more business

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to you. It directly affects your
bottom line top line. I totally see

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that, and I certainly am a
frequenter of Starbucks occasionally at Chick fil A.

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And you're right, when you walk
in, you know that you're connected

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in part of something. You're like
drawn in if you will. And I

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completely appreciate that. And yes,
it does translate. I keep going back.

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I mean I can tell you that. For me, just every time

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I go into a Starbucks, I
feel like they actually really do want to

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know. What's your name? How
do you spell that? Who cares?

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Just give them my coffee? You
No, wait, how do you spell

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your name? Right? It matters? And so I get that translation and

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it does, It does show up, and you I what I find infinitely

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fascinating it and frankly delightful because I
get to affect it with my work is

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how we can address that and improve
it. So can you give us a

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story of, maybe of how you
work with an organization and you've helped them

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with their culture, how it's made
a difference, and obviously keep them keep

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them anonymous. We don't want it, We don't want to give away their

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identity. But tell us another story. Yeah, So I went into an

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organization. And so you know,
if you had a triangle where the point

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is at the top a lot of
organizations, that's where your management is,

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your CEO and department heads, and
then everybody else is at the bottom.

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Well, to me, I went
into an organization and I flipped that triangle

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and the home office is really or
the corporate office is really just a call

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center for the field. And in
doing so, we created a serviet leadership

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culture where the people that were actually
on the front lines they got they got

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the title of CEO or president or
department head because truly they are what matters.

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And when I built and I took
them through that process of change in

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their culture, it resulted in close
to a ten percent comp comparative revenue increased

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from the year prior. That's awesome. And can I can only imagine the

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difference in those frontline people that before
and after must have been incredible. Can

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you presence a little bit for us
what was like Yeah? For and after?

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Yeah? I think that's a that's
an incredible question. And truly,

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to me, the heart of leadership, the heart of culture right now,

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is that people want to know where
they fit. You know, thirty years

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ago, you could walk into a
company twenty years ago and it's just like,

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I need you to do this,
will you do it? And people

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go, yeah, Now people want
to know why. I want to know

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why are we doing what we're doing, who is it affecting? And how

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am I apart? Because we're part
of a community now, where a team

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or a community, and it really
elevated their purpose, their mission and their

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focus on the customer that was receiving
their service or their product. I got

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that. I can just so see
it. And because I do NF for

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that work myself, and it's just, you know what a difference it makes

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to come to work with the why
in yourself ails right, I mean,

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it's just it really makes all the
difference in the world. And then to

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be supported by leadership who says,
hey, let me see what I can

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clear out of your way so you
can be more successful, you can do

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more and feel more fulfilled in your
work. I mean, and in in

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terms of that servant kind of a
leadership model. What an incredible flip that

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must have been. What I find
fascinating in your story, Jonathan, is

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how in the world that you convinced
these people to accept this huge move that's

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it. That's a radical change for
them. That's a great question, or

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that's a great statement, and I
guess it. I would say it has

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to do with telling my story and
being able to experience building one of the

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largest optical change in the United States
based on those principles, and that's what

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I do now. I share the
successes we had as well as failures,

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so that companies can try these these
things out. There's no gear and teas,

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but I'm pretty confident in them.
And it's a process. And everybody

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wants to do good. Nobody wakes
up and says, I'm going to walk

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into Starbucks today where I work,
I'm going to make a really bad cup

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of coffee because that's what I do. And so people want to do good

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and as business owners or management leadership, make them feel good about doing it

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and it translates through your whole organization. Yeah, no question about that.

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I totally get that. Well,
then on the other side of that coin,

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again, I like to be able
to get our listeners to be kind

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of get into this stuff and start
trying it on for themselves. What are

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some of the science or symptoms maybe
that an organization might have a problem with

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culture, what would be present for
them, you know, it's a lot

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of it is in the way they
speak to each other, the body language

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they have, their communication or lack
thereof style of their emails or how they

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communicate, you know, whether or
not the organization is an open book,

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whether they keep things secretive, whether
doors are being shut all the time.

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I'm an open door concept guy.
If they speak poorly about their customers,

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I've heard that everyone's just like,
I can't believe these customers, And to

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me, it's they're the only reason
we're here. So I really promote never

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speaking poorly about a customer. They're
the reason we exist. And then you

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know, the other thing is if
they complain about management, you know,

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or like GA again, no one
walks in and says, you know,

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I work at Starbucks and I'm only
going to poorly manage everyone today. We're

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all just people, and so some
of those signs are just the complainers and

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00:31:52.319 --> 00:31:57.400
just you can you can feel it
in an organization, you can see it,

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you know. I would add one
more thing to that as I was

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listening to you talk, that for
me as a prime indicator there's something wrong

401
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with culture, and that as if
people are governed by fear. If they're

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afraid to speak up, they're afraid
to tell the boss there are new ideas.

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They're afraid. They can't be honest
about taking off a little bit of

404
00:32:16.519 --> 00:32:21.039
time from work. To me,
that's a real problem, a real indication

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of a problem with culture. I
have to share a story with you if

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i'm a please, I have a
client. They said, we can't accomplish

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these objectives. And I said really, and they said, yeah, the

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only way we do it is we
punish people. And I said, I've

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worked in communist China before. I've
actually been over to China before. Then

410
00:32:44.720 --> 00:32:49.960
by communists felt like and I said, how would we be punishing these people?

411
00:32:51.000 --> 00:32:53.680
And so to your point, I
agree with you. That's a culture

412
00:32:53.759 --> 00:33:00.319
when you have to use punish,
that's a culture that needs to be worked

413
00:33:00.359 --> 00:33:07.559
on immediately before any scaling, before
any growth. So I know exactly what

414
00:33:07.960 --> 00:33:09.839
you speak about, and it resonates
with me highly. Yeah, I'm sure

415
00:33:09.839 --> 00:33:13.960
there's if your listeners going cringing to
use her other work going, I know

416
00:33:14.039 --> 00:33:17.880
exactly what you two are talking about. I experience it. Call us if

417
00:33:17.880 --> 00:33:22.039
that's the case, listeners, All
right, let's grab our last break.

418
00:33:22.079 --> 00:33:23.960
I'm Elise Cortez, your host.
We were on the air with Jonathan Hrskovich

419
00:33:24.160 --> 00:33:29.119
of SVOC Business Growth Advisors. He
joined a day from Dallas, Texas.

420
00:33:29.279 --> 00:33:31.599
We've been talking a bit about the
importance of culture and how it affects top

421
00:33:31.599 --> 00:33:35.799
line and bottom line results. After
wreak, we're gonna get into leadership and

422
00:33:35.799 --> 00:33:38.279
how it shows up in an organization
poorly and well, stay with us,

423
00:33:38.319 --> 00:33:44.079
We'll be right back. Elise Cortez
as a speaker and engagement and development canalyst.

424
00:33:44.240 --> 00:33:49.519
She designs and delivers professional development,
leadership and engagement workshops and can bring

425
00:33:49.559 --> 00:33:53.640
her expertise to your organization. She
will help ignite meaningful development within your workforce

426
00:33:53.759 --> 00:33:59.440
that will increase employee engagement, performance
and retention. To learn more or to

427
00:33:59.519 --> 00:34:04.559
invite as to speak to your organization, please visit her at www dot Elise

428
00:34:04.680 --> 00:34:08.719
Cortez dot com. She would welcome
the opportunity to help get your employees working

429
00:34:08.880 --> 00:34:20.119
on purpose. This is working on
Purpose with Elise Cortez. To reach our

430
00:34:20.159 --> 00:34:25.880
program today, send an email to
Elise ali Se at Elise Cortez dot com.

431
00:34:25.920 --> 00:34:32.400
Now back to working on Purpose.
Thanks for staying with us, and

432
00:34:32.440 --> 00:34:36.320
welcome back. To working on purpose
if you're just tuning in. My guest

433
00:34:36.360 --> 00:34:40.639
is Jonathan Herskovic of SVOC Business Growth
Advisors. Prior to founding this organization,

434
00:34:40.800 --> 00:34:45.280
he was the president of i'mark Express
for twenty two years and the interim CEO

435
00:34:45.599 --> 00:34:49.559
of City Bet at multi unit veterinary
chain in Dallas. I'm your host Elise

436
00:34:49.599 --> 00:34:52.159
Cortez. So for this last segment
here, Jonathan, I wanted to get

437
00:34:52.199 --> 00:34:55.800
into leadership. It's a big part
of the work that I do around leadership

438
00:34:55.840 --> 00:35:00.599
development. And when we were speaking
over lunch about what we wanted to talk

439
00:35:00.599 --> 00:35:04.079
about the show, you said something
that really intrigued me. And it was

440
00:35:04.320 --> 00:35:07.679
this idea that you said you could
walk into an organization or stores and you

441
00:35:07.760 --> 00:35:13.639
could spot bad leadership. So let's
start there. What do you see when

442
00:35:13.639 --> 00:35:19.280
there's bad leadership running organization? What
shows up for you? Well, I

443
00:35:19.280 --> 00:35:22.639
think it shows up for all of
us. Let's take a restaurant, you

444
00:35:22.679 --> 00:35:28.280
know, or a retail store or
Dillards. You walk in and you can

445
00:35:28.440 --> 00:35:32.400
just feel it, whether or not
you're welcome or not, and that to

446
00:35:32.519 --> 00:35:39.639
me is a direct reflection on leadership
on the organization. And we've all been

447
00:35:39.679 --> 00:35:45.760
there. It's like no one says
hellow to you. One time I ran

448
00:35:45.880 --> 00:35:50.480
through a mall in Tulsa, Oklahoma, I don't know sixty stores and only

449
00:35:50.559 --> 00:35:54.960
one store greeting me and I walked
in, And that truly is a direct

450
00:35:55.199 --> 00:36:02.440
relationship of an organization. And I
always say, you can just feel it.

451
00:36:04.320 --> 00:36:07.960
And even when I go to clients, whether they're incorporate in corporate buildings

452
00:36:08.000 --> 00:36:12.800
and buildings and offices, you just
can feel it when you walk in,

453
00:36:13.079 --> 00:36:16.920
whether or not you're welcome and believe
it or not. That to me is

454
00:36:17.559 --> 00:36:22.840
a direct reflection of the entire leadership
of an organization. And so you know,

455
00:36:22.880 --> 00:36:25.440
on the granual level, of course, it's whether you know. It's

456
00:36:25.480 --> 00:36:30.480
how they're green customers, whether they're
dressed well, whether the place is well

457
00:36:30.559 --> 00:36:36.480
lit, whether it's just free.
All related to leadership, because if you

458
00:36:36.519 --> 00:36:40.880
have great leaders, inspirational ones,
then you have great people that can execute

459
00:36:42.000 --> 00:36:47.320
their strategy as well as their culture. Oh I also thought of another really

460
00:36:47.360 --> 00:36:51.960
prime indicator of what has to be
bad leadership, or that is you literally

461
00:36:52.000 --> 00:36:55.840
walk into a place of business,
restaurant or whatever, and the people that

462
00:36:55.880 --> 00:37:00.480
are there to help you don't give
you the time of day. They they're

463
00:37:00.480 --> 00:37:04.880
talking amongst themselves and then they lolligag
finally over to you because you know they

464
00:37:04.880 --> 00:37:08.320
can't be bothered. I think that's
got to be another terrific example of really

465
00:37:08.320 --> 00:37:13.400
bad leadership to allow that to happen
and for the course of the day or

466
00:37:13.440 --> 00:37:17.760
how business has actually done, totally
agree with you. That's where it starts.

467
00:37:17.840 --> 00:37:22.960
Yes, yeah, Well another thing
that you said that I thought was

468
00:37:22.000 --> 00:37:24.800
interesting and a guide that spent as
much years as you have in terms of

469
00:37:24.840 --> 00:37:29.920
operations, I can only imagine you've
you've honed this skill. But you also

470
00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:34.519
said that you can walk into a
store and you can actually spot theft happening.

471
00:37:34.960 --> 00:37:38.639
So what does that look like?
Well, that's funny. You great

472
00:37:38.719 --> 00:37:43.920
memory, and so I wasn't really
able to spot it, but it was

473
00:37:44.039 --> 00:37:49.280
it was we'd grown the company significantly, fifty stores in two years. That's

474
00:37:49.360 --> 00:37:53.199
exponential, that's the that's a snake
swallowing the rabbit. And so some of

475
00:37:53.239 --> 00:37:57.519
the stores weren't performing. So I
put on my pair of blue jeans and

476
00:37:57.800 --> 00:38:01.440
headed out and showed up where when
you open up fifty stores, I couldn't

477
00:38:01.480 --> 00:38:05.760
personally be at each one, which
I normally do to open them up and

478
00:38:05.800 --> 00:38:09.639
greet everybody, all the associates and
first aid customers. And so I went

479
00:38:09.679 --> 00:38:14.440
into a store and you could just
feel it immediately. I mean, it

480
00:38:14.559 --> 00:38:19.800
was ice cold in there. People
were whispering. It was like I wasn't

481
00:38:19.800 --> 00:38:23.360
even there. And then I walked
and then a woman walked out very briskly,

482
00:38:23.840 --> 00:38:27.480
and I followed her and I said, ma'am, ma'am, my name

483
00:38:27.519 --> 00:38:31.559
is Jonathan Hirschwitz. I'm the president
of this company. And what's everyone whispering

484
00:38:31.559 --> 00:38:37.639
around about? She said, sir, I work at fries and I'm telling

485
00:38:37.679 --> 00:38:43.159
you you've got theft in this store. And so she was right. The

486
00:38:43.280 --> 00:38:46.519
store was doing poorly. There was
massive theft, and so that was my

487
00:38:46.840 --> 00:38:52.039
that was my theft story. But
you know, on a higher level note

488
00:38:52.639 --> 00:39:00.440
you can see theft and sales numbers. It goes back to engagement. If

489
00:39:00.480 --> 00:39:05.840
your business is not doing well,
there's a reason, whether it's to me,

490
00:39:05.960 --> 00:39:13.079
it's operational advertising or theft. And
so that that's what that's what we

491
00:39:13.079 --> 00:39:16.000
were talking about at lunch. Okay, well, I think that's extremely helpful.

492
00:39:16.039 --> 00:39:20.280
And you know, unfortunately, right, I remember when when I was

493
00:39:20.280 --> 00:39:22.360
growing up in a restaurant business,
my parents had a very successful restaurant,

494
00:39:22.400 --> 00:39:25.559
and you know, it was something
that they had to deal with. They

495
00:39:25.599 --> 00:39:30.239
had to they had to be vigilant
about that and monitor that and you know,

496
00:39:30.280 --> 00:39:32.960
being a lookout for it. And
and unfortunately, and so it's out

497
00:39:34.000 --> 00:39:37.159
there and and so you know,
to me, having really good back to

498
00:39:37.199 --> 00:39:40.679
your point earlier about good strong systems
and operational procedures in place to prevent that

499
00:39:42.320 --> 00:39:45.760
the checks and balances or whatever it
might be. You know, so so

500
00:39:45.800 --> 00:39:52.239
important for healthy business. Absolutely,
theft is just a cost of business where

501
00:39:52.280 --> 00:39:55.159
a lot of my clients will get
hung up. Yeah, you need to

502
00:39:55.199 --> 00:40:00.519
get hung up if it's a high
percentage, But it's just a cost of

503
00:40:00.559 --> 00:40:04.760
doing business. It's just you always
have to set up your systems and processes,

504
00:40:04.960 --> 00:40:07.840
but there's always going to be someone
trying to break them, and they

505
00:40:07.880 --> 00:40:13.480
will. Like I said, if
you want to start a business, you

506
00:40:13.599 --> 00:40:17.239
just have to figure out how to
minimize that. I think that's a very

507
00:40:17.559 --> 00:40:22.199
yeah, I think that's an extremely
healthy perspective. Give us, Jonathan that

508
00:40:22.599 --> 00:40:23.880
theft is it. You know,
it is a part of doing business,

509
00:40:23.880 --> 00:40:28.559
the cost of doing business. Because
I think for some people it's probably very

510
00:40:28.599 --> 00:40:31.440
demoralizing to know that you know,
people are taking advantage or you know,

511
00:40:31.480 --> 00:40:37.320
stealing something. I am I'm reminded
years ago, Jonathan, this just came

512
00:40:37.360 --> 00:40:39.480
to me. I remember when I
was living in Seattle, Washington, and

513
00:40:39.519 --> 00:40:45.519
I my first foray into the human
capital industry was I was an IT staffing

514
00:40:45.559 --> 00:40:49.760
consultant. I was an account manager
selling the staffing services, and so part

515
00:40:49.800 --> 00:40:52.480
of my job was interface with the
clients who hired us, like the Boeings,

516
00:40:52.519 --> 00:40:55.239
the at and t s, et
cetera of the world, and then

517
00:40:55.280 --> 00:40:59.480
interface with some of the consultants that
we brought on. And one consultant wasn't

518
00:40:59.480 --> 00:41:01.920
an interview with Boeing at the time, I remember, And I don't know

519
00:41:01.960 --> 00:41:06.039
if he just figured, what the
heck, I've blown this interview, I'm

520
00:41:06.079 --> 00:41:08.719
not going to get the job,
or he really was being sincere, But

521
00:41:08.880 --> 00:41:13.880
the interviewer said, is there anything
else we should know about you? And

522
00:41:14.039 --> 00:41:15.760
he sat quietly for a second and
thought about it, and he said,

523
00:41:16.440 --> 00:41:22.559
yes, I think I've finally gotten
over my problem with stealing. I've gotten

524
00:41:22.599 --> 00:41:25.639
over taking things home from from the
office, you know, the staplers,

525
00:41:25.760 --> 00:41:30.440
the extra pencils, and you know, the equipment. I think I've gotten

526
00:41:30.440 --> 00:41:35.599
past that at which point we all
just bolted out of our chairs and like,

527
00:41:35.639 --> 00:41:38.719
Okay, we gotta go. But
it was you know, it was

528
00:41:38.840 --> 00:41:45.079
arresting in that he was so matter
of fact about it. That's a that's

529
00:41:45.199 --> 00:41:51.400
unbelievable, unbelievable. I want to
share a quick story with you, so

530
00:41:51.400 --> 00:41:52.840
please. You know, it was
a cost of it was a cost of

531
00:41:52.880 --> 00:42:00.679
business. But when someone did steal, uh, we prosecute it. And

532
00:42:00.239 --> 00:42:04.480
we don't have time for your show. But in your show, but I've

533
00:42:04.480 --> 00:42:08.360
actually showed up in a courtroom where
someone stole a significant amount of money and

534
00:42:09.280 --> 00:42:13.559
got them convicted as a felon when
they were looking to just get off with

535
00:42:13.599 --> 00:42:15.880
a slap on the wrist. And
that sent a message to the company,

536
00:42:16.280 --> 00:42:21.800
if you do steal, we will
prosecute you the furthest that we can so

537
00:42:22.639 --> 00:42:27.239
go it. The cost of business. Part of the culture is don't do

538
00:42:27.360 --> 00:42:30.760
it. Yeah, yeah, Well, and I think how an organization handles

539
00:42:30.800 --> 00:42:35.880
it. This is not the specific
direct topic that you and are talking about.

540
00:42:35.880 --> 00:42:39.320
I'll say another perspective of their other
story. When my daughter, who's

541
00:42:39.360 --> 00:42:43.559
now sixteen, was very young,
and I want to say she was probably

542
00:42:44.480 --> 00:42:47.639
oh, a year and a half, maybe two years. She had come

543
00:42:47.679 --> 00:42:52.199
back home from a shopping exhibition with
her nanny at the time, and the

544
00:42:52.320 --> 00:42:53.599
nanny came to me and said,
oh my gosh, Elise, don't I

545
00:42:53.639 --> 00:42:58.119
want to tell you how to say
this? But she took a necklace from

546
00:42:58.159 --> 00:43:02.719
one of their retail stores. And
I was mortified, Jonathan mortified, and

547
00:43:04.000 --> 00:43:07.599
I gathered her, my daughter and
the nanny, and the three of us

548
00:43:07.960 --> 00:43:09.519
drove back to the retail store.
Won't I won't say who it was,

549
00:43:09.559 --> 00:43:13.079
although I think they handled it extremely
well. I just don't want to say

550
00:43:13.079 --> 00:43:15.920
it in case they don't like the
way that I say it. But so

551
00:43:15.159 --> 00:43:19.480
I marched into the real retail store
and asked to speak to the manager.

552
00:43:20.320 --> 00:43:22.880
And I think they must have thought, you know, something horrible has happened

553
00:43:22.880 --> 00:43:24.400
to it. Maybe you know,
we were attacked in the restroom or something.

554
00:43:24.480 --> 00:43:28.800
And easily twenty minutes went by,
and we were standing there, waiting

555
00:43:28.840 --> 00:43:31.119
and waiting, and finally this young
manager came out and he said, can

556
00:43:31.159 --> 00:43:36.119
I help you with something? And
I said, well, something terrible has

557
00:43:36.119 --> 00:43:39.119
happened. By the way. All
the way, all the while I we're

558
00:43:39.199 --> 00:43:42.920
driving to this thing, I'm telling
my daughter about going to jail. And

559
00:43:43.000 --> 00:43:45.519
she's going to go to you know, in prison, and I mean,

560
00:43:45.559 --> 00:43:47.719
I'm laying it on her. And
so I tell her, I say,

561
00:43:47.760 --> 00:43:51.880
look, my daughter, you know
here she is. She took this necklace

562
00:43:51.920 --> 00:43:54.199
and I take it out of my
hand and I put it in his and

563
00:43:54.239 --> 00:43:59.639
you could just see his shoulders relax. And he said, I don't know

564
00:43:59.679 --> 00:44:01.679
what to say. He said,
this never happens. People don't bring back

565
00:44:01.719 --> 00:44:06.480
things that they've taken successfully. And
I said, well, he said,

566
00:44:06.519 --> 00:44:09.639
what can I do for you?
And I said, well, I certainly

567
00:44:09.639 --> 00:44:13.159
don't want to reward her by giving
her the necklace, so I don't want

568
00:44:13.239 --> 00:44:15.440
that. He said, well,
why don't you If you ever want anything

569
00:44:15.480 --> 00:44:16.679
from us, just come back and
see me and we'll talk about it.

570
00:44:17.280 --> 00:44:22.360
And it was such a great example
of how being real and honest and Brent

571
00:44:22.480 --> 00:44:28.280
coming forth opened the conversation and really
helped me give a lesson to my daughter

572
00:44:28.320 --> 00:44:31.880
and really show the best in this
organization and this manager. So I think

573
00:44:31.880 --> 00:44:40.159
the way this stuff gets handled is
also really really important. Yes, to

574
00:44:40.199 --> 00:44:44.360
my knowledge, my daughter's never taken
anything else sense, so maybe it did

575
00:44:44.400 --> 00:44:51.519
work. So we've got just a
couple minutes left here at Jonathan here is

576
00:44:51.519 --> 00:44:53.559
there is there? I want to
give you a chance to be able to

577
00:44:53.599 --> 00:44:58.280
say what you want in closing,
But regarding leadership, is there anything else

578
00:44:58.320 --> 00:45:04.000
that you think is important to surface
in this conversation about leadership? You know

579
00:45:06.119 --> 00:45:12.719
it. Leadership is what either makes
or breaks you know. Working with my

580
00:45:12.840 --> 00:45:16.760
clients, as you have seen working
with yours, I feel they're all geniuses

581
00:45:17.079 --> 00:45:22.679
and they create you their service,
a value, proposition, and a product.

582
00:45:23.280 --> 00:45:32.320
And it's rallying the people around those
items the mission and explaining how they're

583
00:45:32.320 --> 00:45:38.559
a part of it, and then
inspiring them to do things that people never

584
00:45:38.639 --> 00:45:44.760
thought that they could and so to
meet businesses. And they're different than football

585
00:45:44.760 --> 00:45:49.480
teams or basketball teams, are really
any sports teams. They're all very very

586
00:45:49.519 --> 00:45:52.199
good, but the ones that really
make it to the super Bowl or the

587
00:45:52.280 --> 00:45:59.920
playoffs are the ones that exhibit the
high level of chemistry and culture and then

588
00:46:00.039 --> 00:46:06.320
they outperform the rest of the pack. And it's it's it boils down to

589
00:46:06.440 --> 00:46:12.280
the leadership and the leadership executing and
demonstrating the culture. It really really does.

590
00:46:12.360 --> 00:46:14.920
And that's from the heart. And
I've seen it, and I've seen

591
00:46:14.960 --> 00:46:20.920
it benchmarked on successful companies and unsuccessful
companies. There was so much you set

592
00:46:20.920 --> 00:46:22.480
in there, just like I want
to call it a couple of things.

593
00:46:22.559 --> 00:46:24.880
I like what you talked about.
The inspirational piece is really important. I

594
00:46:24.960 --> 00:46:30.679
really believe that so much of leadership
as being somebody people want to follow,

595
00:46:30.840 --> 00:46:34.000
and so the inspiration piece is huge. And then the other piece that I

596
00:46:34.039 --> 00:46:37.960
really liked what you said there that
I want to personally echo is is being

597
00:46:37.000 --> 00:46:42.199
able to create a vision and and
and be able to help people see that

598
00:46:42.280 --> 00:46:44.920
they can, that they can do
more than they think they can. You

599
00:46:45.039 --> 00:46:47.760
lead them to that place. I
think that was a beautiful point. Jonathan,

600
00:46:50.400 --> 00:46:53.440
Well, I think it's important because
you don't have to have a Harvard

601
00:46:53.480 --> 00:46:58.239
and no get you know, I
love education, higher education, but you

602
00:46:58.320 --> 00:47:01.159
don't have to You don't have to
be the genius or the smart one.

603
00:47:02.320 --> 00:47:10.719
It takes hard working, determination,
guts, tenacity, persistence, and so

604
00:47:12.760 --> 00:47:16.960
it's just I have great admiration for
people who have built companies of all sizes.

605
00:47:17.480 --> 00:47:23.159
And I just spent an hour with
some representatives from Soul Lexus, Soul

606
00:47:23.280 --> 00:47:30.400
being one of the top customer service
automobile providers in the United States, and

607
00:47:30.519 --> 00:47:36.480
studied and the time he spent with
us, and that he shared with us.

608
00:47:36.519 --> 00:47:40.719
Their culture was just phenomenal, and
it started in nineteen eleven. And

609
00:47:40.840 --> 00:47:45.280
that same culture that they had in
nineteen eleven they still have today. It's

610
00:47:45.360 --> 00:47:51.119
like on or and eight years.
They're so great something to celebrate. So

611
00:47:51.159 --> 00:47:54.559
we're coming out of time here,
Jonathan, So in say fifteen to twenty

612
00:47:54.599 --> 00:47:59.400
seconds, what would you like to
leave our listeners with today? You know,

613
00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:02.639
if you're listening to the show and
you are an organization or growing an

614
00:48:02.719 --> 00:48:08.639
organization, just you know, watching
it grow and being a part of it

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00:48:08.719 --> 00:48:14.639
is probably one of the greatest experiences
you can have in life. And I

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00:48:14.679 --> 00:48:20.400
have such admirations for people who come
together and change the world, provide products,

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00:48:21.519 --> 00:48:28.159
creating incomes for families. And so
my admiration is to all the clients

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00:48:28.239 --> 00:48:31.199
I've worked with and the opportunities I've
had, and the opportunity beyond this show

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00:48:31.840 --> 00:48:38.039
to share with everyone my experience.
And so keep building those great cultures and

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00:48:38.159 --> 00:48:43.239
your company will grow right along with
it. I guarantee it. Beautiful,

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00:48:43.360 --> 00:48:45.599
Jonathan, A great way to so
much. Thank you so much, You're

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00:48:45.639 --> 00:48:49.440
welcome. Thank you for joining me
and sharing your heart and soul with us.

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00:48:49.480 --> 00:48:52.599
Thank you. It's beautiful. I
love it and listeners. If you

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00:48:52.639 --> 00:48:54.440
want to learn more about Jonathan Hurskovitz
and the working and his team are doing

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00:48:54.480 --> 00:49:00.559
it SVOC Business Growth Advisors, go
to their site, it's s VOC growth

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00:49:00.920 --> 00:49:04.039
dot com. Last week, if
you missed the show live, you can

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00:49:04.079 --> 00:49:07.280
always catch it be recorded podcast.
We were on the air with Batscha Yanniger

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00:49:07.360 --> 00:49:10.679
of the Victor Frankel Logotherapy Institute in
Israel. We talked about just what that

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00:49:10.719 --> 00:49:15.280
word means and how it's being used
to help but we create more meaningful lives

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00:49:15.320 --> 00:49:20.960
inside and outside of work. Fantastic, very interesting and sightful conversation. Next

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00:49:21.039 --> 00:49:23.320
week, we'll be on the air
with author and the purpose expert Karen Hoyos,

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00:49:23.360 --> 00:49:27.639
who wrote the book Purpose At the
Ultimate Quest. We'll talk about her

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00:49:27.639 --> 00:49:30.000
book and the work she does helping
people discover and grow their purpose. See

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00:49:30.000 --> 00:49:32.199
you there. Remember that work is
at least one third of a life,

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00:49:32.239 --> 00:49:38.280
So let's work on Purpose. We
hope you've enjoyed this week's program. Be

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00:49:38.440 --> 00:49:44.559
sure to tune in to Working on
Purpose featuring your host Alice Cortez, each

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00:49:44.599 --> 00:49:49.840
week on the Voice America Empowerment Channel. This week, find your life's purpose

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00:49:50.320 --> 00:49:50.880
at work,