Ability to Lead Others

Episode 947: Ability to Lead Others, with Greg Dickerson

The ability to lead others, with our guest, Greg Dickerson. Join us in today’s episode and gain the ability to lead others.

Greg Dickerson has the ability to lead others wherein he works as a serial entrepreneur, real estate developer, coach, and mentor. Over the past 20 years, he has bought, developed, and sold over $200 million in real estate, built and renovated hundreds of custom homes and commercial buildings, and started 12 different companies from the ground up. Greg currently coaches some of the top entrepreneurs, real estate investors and syndicators in the industry today.

What you will learn from this episode about the ability to lead others:

• How Greg has always had big entrepreneurial ideas starting from a very young age, and how he found his way into construction and then real estate development
• How Greg has the natural ability to lead others when he built a $30 million real estate development business in just seven short years
• Why leading, delegating, motivating, effective marketing, and a focus on developing his employees have been critical components of Greg’s success
• How Greg “leads by numbers,” relying on KPIs to measure progress throughout the organization to ensure that the company is always moving the needle
• Why Greg sees his thought leadership efforts as a naturally occurring, organic extension of his business leadership
• How Greg has broken into thought leadership and content creation, and what important lessons he has learned about creating a competitive business edge
• Why being generous with your expertise can position yourself as an authority that your audience knows, likes and trusts
• What benefits Greg has received from his thought leadership efforts, and how he is building out his platform
• Why Greg tackles each day with intentionality and immediacy, and why a sense of urgency is vital for business leadership
• How developing yourself as a leader and understanding the people around you can help you improve your interactions with them and provide you with the ability to lead others

Resources:

• Website: www.DickersonInternational.com
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/agregdickerson/
• Nurture your ability to lead others by applying for a one-on-one coaching and mentorship with Greg Dickerson

Additional Resources:

• Sell With Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner: https://amzn.to/39y7x13
• Predictive ROI Free Resource Library: https://predictiveroi.com/resources/
• Stephen Woessner’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
• Unlock your ability to lead others by listening to this podcast with Yigal Adato

 

 

Ability to Lead Others: Full Episode Transcript

 

Get ready to find your recipe for success and nurture the ability to lead others from America’s top business owners here at Onward Nation with your host, Stephen Woessner.

 

Good morning. I’m Stephen Woesner, CEO of Predictive ROI and your host for Onward Nation, where I interview today’s top business owners so we can learn their recipe for success, how they built in, how they scaled their business. In fact, my team at Predictive ROI will continue to encourage you to go back to our Predictive ROI resources section?

 

Because as you’ve heard me say, probably back in 2019, early on in 2019, we doubled down our commitment to make that resources section, to really turn it into a resources library. And we were committed to that all the way through 2019. And then as we stepped into 2020 and now we’re mid 2020, our commitment remains strong. We are still doubling down on that resource library to make it bigger, better, deeper and more helpful to you.

 

So now you can download free practical and tactical guides for everything from how to create your ideal client avatar, how to land your dream clients, or even our new business to business podcasting for profit secrets e-book. Plus, there’s other success strategies and checklists and guides that we have compiled from the brilliant insights shared by our very generous guest.

 

So just go to PredictiveROI.com/Resources to get yours. And as always, everything is free and everything to request. We will send it right to your inbox before we welcome today’s very special guest Onward Nation. 

 

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Ability to Lead Others: Greg Dickerson’s Introduction

 

And our guest today is Greg Dickerson. Let me share some additional context around why, when Greg and I connected because of the great introduction from Zach Beach.

 

So Zach, if you’re listening, thank you very much for doing that, my friend I appreciate it. Why, when Greg and I had that phone call and then and then he said yes to being my guest today, why I was over the moon excited for this conversation. Greg is a serial entrepreneur. He’s a real estate developer. He’s also a coach and a mentor.

 

But over the last 20 years, and I shouldn’t say, but over the last 20 years, he’s bought and developed and sold over $250 million in real estate. He’s built and renovated hundreds of custom homes and commercial buildings, and he has started 12 different companies from the ground up. So a huge credibility indicator. He’s obviously built and scaled in a particular niche in real estate.

 

But then and I shouldn’t say, but then as in recently, but over the last several years, Greg has made this decision to really double down on sharing his thought leadership, getting super intentional about being helpful to his audience. But why? So when I asked him about that, you know, as we were preparing for our conversation, he said to me, well, you know, Stephen, back in the day, you know, being a student of guerilla marketing, online, offline channels, back in the day, you know, you could do X, Y, and Z as marketing strategies and that would work well.

 

But today you really as a business owner, you really need to be a media company. That absolutely 100% rang true with me. You need to be intentional about sharing your smarts, your insight, your wisdom on a consistent basis with your audience. And I think he’s 100% right. So we’re going to dig into how getting intentional about thought leadership is now helping him build the coaching and mentoring side of his business, and also how this renewed commitment in 2020 about blowing out those channels, blowing out the helpfulness and taking that even deeper across other channels, how that’s being even more helpful to his audience.

 

Because when I asked him about the why rule, simply said to me, look, Stephen, leaders set the pace and how can I expect those participating in my coaching and mentoring programs to become media companies themselves if I’m not doing that to the greatest degree, which is 100% right? And so I think this conversation Onward Nation is going to be extremely helpful, not only from somebody who has built and scaled 12 companies.

 

Awesome. Not only from somebody who has sold over $250 million in real estate. Awesome. But somebody who has approached his thought leadership in a very serious and intentional way about being helpful to an audience. So with that said, I am so very excited. Welcome to Onward Nation. Greg. 

 

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Ability to Lead Others: Greg’s Background

 

Stephen, thank you for having me. That’s quite an introduction.

 

Thank you so much. Oh my gosh. Well, thank you so much for saying yes. I am just delighted and honored to have you here, my friend. So before we dive into what is probably going to feel like a litany of questions, and I’m going to ask you, because what I do before we do that, take us behind the curtain and tell us more about you, your path, your journey.

 

And then we’ll dive in. So adults are right. That’s what describes me now, very focused and deliberate. But I like to stay busy. I like to do a lot of different things. I’m the guy that started everything from the ground up from scratch, learning it all the hard way. I went into the Navy right out of high school.

 

I’m a natural born entrepreneur, so let’s back that up. So as a kid, I’m the guy knocking on your door, you know? Hey, Stephen. My name is Greg. I live down the street. I need to make some money. What do you need done? I’ll wash your car, walk your dog, cut your grass, rake leaves, anything. babysit your kids.

 

If you don’t have kids, I’ll find kids and I’ll babysit them. So, you know, I mean, that was me, right? Natural born salesman. Natural born entrepreneur. starting at a very young age. My dad taught me a lot of hard lessons. You know, I did all of the work around the house. I got paid for the chores, and, if I went and cut grass using his equipment, he would charge me for the equipment.

 

So I had to pay rent on the equipment. And then when I got to a certain age, I had to pay rent to live under his roof. And if I ever borrowed the car before I had my own, I had to bring it back with a full tank of gas. So, you know, when I borrowed the car on Friday, it always seemed to be empty.

 

You know, I had to bring it back with a full tank. I didn’t get to use it again. So those were the lessons I was taught at a very young age. You know, strong work ethic. My dad was a career military man. My mom worked for Blue Cross Blue Shield her entire life. So no entrepreneurs in our family at all.

 

Everybody was either career military or corporate America. And, but I always had this bent that I wanted my own business. I wanted to do my own thing, carve my own path. I wasn’t good in school, and wasn’t a good student, wasn’t a good learner. Nobody can reach me. You know, the teachers had trouble reaching me, and you know, and I guess I was a bit of a hyperactive child.

 

So, I got through school, worked a number of jobs in school. Anything from telephones sales to pizza delivery, to restaurants. And then, when I got out of high school, I joined the Navy, and I did retail in the Navy. So I learned a lot about business and a lot about retail. And the military got out and did some work and some in restaurants.

 

And construction was the only two things that I ever did. And I was working on a restaurant, and a guy was building an addition on it, and he hired me to come clean up after him. So that’s when I kind of got my start in construction and started learning, you know, the construction trades and then fast forward to 1997, I moved to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and I had a couple little small businesses before 1997, but I moved to the Outer Banks, North Carolina, where I’m sitting right now.

 

In 1997, a little coastal community off the coast of North Carolina moved there to open restaurants. So that’s what I wanted to do. But I got into construction instead after the first season of working in a very seasonal summer vacation destination restaurant industry. No fun at all. And, I decided to get into construction. I started as a little handyman remodeling contract, and that was in 1997, 98.

 

And, my first year I did about 250,000 and sales, just me and my truck and my tools. Seven years later, I was a $30 million company, largest builder developer in the area, one of the largest builder developers in the area. And I started 12 of those companies all along the way during that seven year period, built them all up, sold them all off, and then kind of semi-retired and, I’ve been developing and investing and, you know, building and growing companies ever since.

 

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Ability to Lead Others: Learning Extremely Valuable Skills

 

So that’s kind of me, you know, in a nutshell, long story short. Okay. So there’s some really good stuff there I don’t want to do before we dive into the thought leadership piece, which is going to be a lot of fun, there’s some huge nuggets. I’m sure, in the seven year path from $250,000 to $30 million.

 

I mean, that’s right, that obviously doesn’t happen by accident. There is a lot of blood, sweat and tears there. So if you were to give Onward Nation business owners maybe a couple of the biggest lessons that you learned during that seven year period that you feel like looking back on now, were contributing factors or key ingredients, however you want to describe it in your recipe for building and scaling.

 

What might a couple of those lessons be? So, you know, I didn’t go to college but I am self-educated, very highly self-educated, so I would consume anything I could get my hands on. And I worked for a restaurant organization, Lonestar Steakhouses, before I moved to the Outer Banks and started this company. After I got in the Navy, I had a five year period of restaurants and construction, and I read a lot of books at that organization, and we had regular meetings, but that company taught me numbers.

 

And it taught me how to budget, how to break down the numbers and how to run a business by the KPIs, by the numbers in great detail. They also taught you how to be a leader, delegate or motivator. So they taught you how to manage other people, how to recruit, hire, train, how to work with each other, and how to lead, delegate, motivate and manage other people.

 

So I learned some extremely valuable skills when it comes to scaling a company. And I was with that company when they went from, I don’t know, it was 100 restaurants to 500. So, I was a regional director, started from scratch with that company and worked my way up to regional director. I had about 13 restaurants under my, super, under my watch in the area of North Carolina that I was in before I moved out of the bank.

 

So I learned a lot of great lessons there that I was able to apply to the construction business. So basically, I’m a leader, delegate or motivator. So I kept pouring into myself, learning how to lead others, learning how to manage, learning how to delegate. And then the other part of it was I was a marketer first and foremost before anything else.

 

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Ability to Lead Others: Growing and Scaling a Company

 

So in order to grow and scale a company, you need two things. You need people, and you need customers, right? So you need people in your organization to build and grow and scale, and you have to develop those people. And then you need customers to come in. So I read guerilla marketing and I learned how to be a marketer first and foremost.

 

Back in the day when your media was all offline. So I was an offline media company doing everything I’m doing today, but offline, and then I was growing and developing people. So you’ve heard the old adage, a lot of business owners say, hey, I want to work on my business, not in my business. My philosophy has always been to work on the people in your business, so they work on the business for you.

 

So I didn’t grow and scale any of my businesses. I grew and scaled people to scale. The business is for me. So that’s what I am. I’m a developer of human capital, and I leverage human capital more than anything else. That is the most valuable resource in your business. I was very fortunate to learn that early on that people are the most valuable resource in your business.

 

Nothing else matters. It’s all about the people. Okay. So that’s really smart. And the reason being is because I think that that’s a unique point of view, to you and, and, you know, I mean, we’ve done almost a thousand interviews here at AutoNation. And, we often talk about building a scale. Obviously, that’s one of the purposes of the show.

 

And we often talk about resources and so forth. And I will say this, after having almost a thousand interviews, I’ve never, ever heard one person say, now, they may have, they may agree with you. They may say, absolutely, Gregor’s right there. And we’ve done the same thing. I’ve never heard somebody say it through the point of view or the lens like you just did.

 

Grow and scale people. That’s really smart. Yeah. And everybody will say, oh, yeah, I know that, of course, but are you intentional about it? Right. Have you been intentional about that resource and looking at that as the most valuable investment you’re going to make in your business because your business is made or lost, it’s won or lost. It’s made or broken on the people.

 

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Ability to Lead Others: Building The People in Your Organization

 

Now, the people are your employees first and foremost. Then it’s your customers, clients, vendors, subcontractors, everybody involved in that organization. So not only did I build all the people within my organization internally, I also developed all of my subcontractors, vendors and suppliers along with me to be able to grow and scale that quickly. So I would hold seminars not just for my employees, but our entire team.

 

I would bring all my subcontractors, and I would help them become better business people so that we can all win together. And that’s how we were able to scale up and scale out so quickly, in that business. And, you know, for everybody listening, if you’ve got a $1 million business or $10 million your business or $100 million your business, you got to exit that business at some point, right?

 

We’re all going to liquidate sooner or later. Everybody’s going to exit that business, whether you’re selling it or passing it down. So you have to put these systems in place, and you have to build the people in your organization so that you can do that. The last thing you want to do is spend your life building something that you just walk away from, because it can’t function without you.

 

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Ability to Lead Others: How To Measure a Great Leader

 

Well, okay, so let me ask you one more point on this, and then we’ll move to some of the thought leadership stuff that I want to pick your brain on. But when you mentioned running a business by KPIs. But then you also went on to say, I looked at my role as leader, delegator, motivator.

 

And as we’re continuing to talk, growing and scaling people, that made me think, and maybe I’m off base here. I’m just curious. That made me think that, okay, if it’s a KPI driven business, awesome. If his role is leader, delegate mode, or motivator awesome, that makes me think that maybe there are KPIs in each one of those buckets.

 

Like there are KPIs for being a leader, KPIs for being a delegator, KPIs for being a motivator. Am I on the right track with you? Oh yeah. Absolutely. You know every area of your business, you can put metrics in place, key performance indicators, KPIs in place to measure the performance of that department, whether it’s the top, the very top leader.

 

How do you measure a great leader, you ask, is people. And a great leader is measured by how well the organization runs without you. So it should arguably run better without you than it does when you’re there. So, the KPIs also as running the business by the numbers, it gives you a predictable business, right. So you know that if you do, X is going to result in Y so that you get Z.

 

So it’s a predictable, consistent outcome by looking at the numbers, managing the business by the numbers. The truth you know is in the numbers. So it takes the emotion and the guesswork out of the game in terms of, you know, budgeting, finances, you know, things like that. So, all of your metrics of the numbers of the business when it comes to people, you know, your KPIs are how satisfied are your people, how happy are they doing, what are they doing?

 

Are they excited and engaged? Do they want to be there or are they just ticking off the days and just checking the box and bringing home the paycheck? And, you know, there are certain jobs out there, call centers, this, that and the other. I mean, you got to have people that are just, you know, checking the box and doing whatever.

 

But for the most part, you can have engaged excited people if they know that they’re appreciated, if they know that they are showing up the best they can be that day. You know, I always ask people, hey, are you good at what you do? Oh yeah. Yeah. You know, I guess I’m good at it. Well, are you the best at what you do?

 

Are you doing the best you can possibly do every single day? Because you know what? That’s what everybody’s counting on. You know, when you and I show up at the coffee shop, we don’t hope to get, you know, an adequate, mediocre cup of coffee. We want a great hot, fresh cup of coffee. So that barista needs to show up, right?

 

They need to be the best they can be that day at that job. Not the best in the world, but the best they can be. That day. So anyways, that is a KPI for your employees. How engaged are they? You know, how excited are they to be there? How happy are they to be in that organization? And you as a leader?

 

How consistent are you? Do they know who’s going to show up every day and what kind of a leader they have? And are you setting the example? Are you leading like you and I talked about what the media company, the leader sets the pace of the pack in the organization. So everything comes down to the behavior. If you’re looking for a certain outcome, you have to be able to put performance standards in place, and you have to measure the behavior and hold it accountable to the performance standard, measure the behavior, hold it accountable to the goal that you’re after.

 

And then that’s where you can start looking at, am I getting what I’m looking for? And am I not? And then that’s how you adjust and grow with the business. So absolutely you have KPIs in every area. That’s great mentorship. Thanks. I mean, because that’s exactly what you’re doing here is you’re giving great mentorship to Onward Nation business owners love.

 

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Ability to Lead Others: The 3 Data Points

 

That is awesome. And you just gave us a couple of accountability lessons. They’re holding our team accountable to their respective KPIs. So as we transition into this next piece, which is the media company piece, which is the thought leadership piece, I want to start us off by sharing three research statistics or data points, not research statistics.

 

That’s redundant. three different data points with Onward Nation business owners, because I think it’s going to be really relevant to this next section, Greg, that we talked about. So Onward Nation, here’s a couple of 2 or 3 data points for you to consider as we lead into this next piece. So 90%, this is about how the buyer journey and the buyer himself or herself has changed.

 

90% of the buying journey starts with an online search. Today, 90%. That means that your prospects are prospects without you ever even knowing that their prospects. So 90% of the buying journey starts with an online search. I recorded a YouTube video a few months back that cites all these statistics and sources. So let me give you the next one.

 

70% of the business to business buyer journey happens before prospects ever identify themselves to you. Right. So again they’re going deeper in that funnel in evaluating you before you even know they’re a prospect. And lastly, 63% of business to business buyers say they can develop selection criteria or finalize a vendor list based solely on your digital content. That’s why this section, this blueprint that we’re going to talk about with Greg is so critically important because it is literally you putting yourself out and adding value first.

 

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Ability to Lead Others: Entering The World of Real Estate

 

So Greg, let’s start there. Like when did when did that really sink in for you that hey, wait a minute, there’s a shift here. I need to make myself an online media company and I need to be providing value first. Like, when did that start for you? Yeah, I’ve kind of known it all along. But it was more hit when I started to do some, like, I’d write articles for newspapers and magazines, and then I did a few news interviews, like I was on Fox News one time, interviewed on the phone, kind of like we’re doing here, about the economic crisis back in 2009.

 

People would reach out anytime I spoke, anytime they read something, people would reach out to me. So I realized, recognized, you know, number one, that just you just get perceived as the expert when you do that. So people just automatically see you as an authority. They see you as an expert because you’re speaking intelligently about a subject and you’re giving and providing the value.

 

So that’s when it kind of hit me there. And, when podcasts started becoming a thing, I did a couple of podcast interviews, same kind of thing. People would reach out to me after that and say, man, you know, thank you for that. I just, I never thought about this that way or I met you. I could really use your help with that.

 

So, it’s just kind of a naturally occurring organic thing. I love your 90% figure because in real estate, as a real estate developer, investor, broker, over the years, you know, that was the biggest first shift, was that 90% of your real estate buyers started their search online and the whole Zillow and all that. So by watching Zillow, watching how the real estate process and transaction in the world of real estate changed as a builder, being in an area where our clients didn’t live here, right.

 

I’m building vacation homes for people outside of my area that live in, like, you know, Northern Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, reaching them. So they’re looking you up, searching you online, things like that. So all of that kind of came in. 

 

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Ability to Lead Others: Coaching and Mentoring Others

 

And then of course, I was, you know, followed Gary Vee from the beginning in his, I don’t know if everybody remembers when he did.

 

What was it, wine TV, his first YouTube channel? Yeah. He was really the first one to come out and really start talking about what we’re talking about now at a high level, doing his wine time, TV or whatever. That was when he started. So I’ve kind of watched Gary and followed his career and a few other public figures out there that are doing it, but it wasn’t until I had done a couple of podcasts and a couple of speaking engagements, and people were reaching out to me afterwards, wanting me to hire me to help them with their business.

 

And, you know, I’ve always been a coach and mentor my entire life, as I’ve told you, in my businesses, other businesses, things like that, but never as a business. And then when that started happening, I was like, man, you know, there’s an opportunity here. People need help. So, what I decided to do was to get very deliberate about it, really, in the last year and a half.

 

And as I’m coaching people, I’m telling them, hey, you need to be doing this. And I’m like, well, why aren’t you doing it? You know? So I’m like, okay, so I said, I will show you. So I will lead. And actually, I remember one time I had a friend of mine who challenged me with Facebook, you know, because I was putting some quotes out.

 

He’s like, is that your original stuff? I’m like, yeah. He’s like, yeah, right. Whatever. So like, I’ll tell you what, I’ll sum up every single bet and you watch it and that’s where it started. 

 

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Ability to Lead Others: Finding Right-Fit Prospects

 

So I started posting on Facebook and Twitter every day, these little one liner quotes, you know, I’ve got these little sayings, these little quotes that are all mine.

 

They’re all original, he said. There’s no way you can do it every day for a year. I did it every day and I’ve still been doing it. Now, I do videos instead of quotes. You know, I do videos every day. Just share. So that’s kind of where it all started. And I’ve learned how this game works of online attention, you know, online proliferation, content proliferation.

 

And I really learned what it means to be a media company in this day and age, if you want to be relevant, if you want to be current in your business, like you said, your customers are vetting you well before they ever walk inside your door or call you on the phone. Their research and your credibility. So you got to show up first and foremost in a very simple online search or checking reviews.

 

They’re looking at what other people are saying. They’re looking at the content you’re putting out. So I don’t care what business you’re in anymore. You’ve got to have a competitive advantage, you really need to. And if you’re trying to grow in scale and you want to really dial this in, you’ve got to be online. You’ve got to have that credibility online.

 

You have to have that content, that platform, so that you can show people why you are truly different, why you’re the expert, what makes you so unique. And so you know why they would want to do business with you. And not everybody’s right for everybody. So they, you know, so it saves you time as a business owner, especially if you’re like professional services, something like that.

 

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Ability to Lead Others: Give People the Real Good Stuff to Make Them Hire You

 

That’s qualifying your prospects for you. So you have to spend all that time, you know, engaging with prospects that will never do business with you because you just don’t mesh. So people can vet you well before they ever reach out. So the sale is pretty much already done for the most part, because they know how you operate. They know how you think, they know what you know you’re sharing.

 

You’re giving them the real stuff, the real good. You’re not doing any of this. But one thing you need to know, and you never tell them what that one thing is. You know, you just go out and you give your best stuff. You tell them what they need to know, and they’re still going to want to hire you, engage with you to do it.

 

And yeah, I don’t care what it is, whether you’re a baker, whether you’re a flower shop owner, whether you’re a landscape shipping company, a builder, a lawyer, an accountant, a doctor, chiropractor, whatever it is, any business you’re in. If you have that content and that presence and you’re sharing your knowledge and your expertise in a sincere way that you’re trying to help your customer and the public at large, you know, that’s just 99, like you said, 90% of the game is done right there.

 

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Ability to Lead Others: Make Yourself Known as a True Leader

 

So, Greg, what you just said there is essentially a truism across thought leaders that they give their best stuff away. They give their insights, their wisdom. They really approach their audiences as being teachers, as pouring the best of what they’ve got into the audience to help them grow, to help them be better without ever fearing like, oh well, geez, if I give them the quote unquote secret sauce and then they don’t need me.

 

A true thought leader doesn’t think like that, do they? A true thought leader really does. Look at this as these are the trials and tribulations, the struggles. These are the things that I’ve learned. This is the best word of God and has no expectation of return. They’re just approaching the audience being super generous, aren’t they? Yeah, absolutely.

 

You know, you want to share your expertise. You want to tell people what they are, you know, looking at what they’re coming to you for. You want to solve that problem, give them the best you got. Put it out there. They still need your help. They’re still going to want to engage you and hire you and do business with you.

 

And again, the biggest thing you’re doing is not only positioning yourself as an authority and an expert. Somebody they can know, like and trust. And everybody’s heard that term. People need to know, like and trust you right before they do business with you. Well, I’m going to break that down. Knowing you means I need to know who you are.

 

So you have to be out there. You have to get known. You have to put yourself out there. So that’s the easiest, most economical way in today’s world to get known is through this thought leader platform, which is video, podcast. You know, all these different mediums and channels that you can be out there for free blogs, articles, sites, things like that.

 

Whatever your thing is, you need to be out there so that people know who you are. So once they know you, now, they have the opportunity to decide if they like you. Not everybody’s going to like you, and that’s okay, because they’re deciding that before they ever take up your time to decide that. So it’s helping you qualify your customers.

 

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Ability to Lead Others: Show People How You Can Help Them

 

So they get to know whether or not they want to like you and then to trust you. So once you show them what you know and you are a true expert in your space, and you do have value to share, and you’re being honest and authentic and you’re putting it out there, then they will trust you.

 

And the more people trust you, the more they want to do business with you. And the longer a lifetime value of that client, the longer they’re going to want to do business with you, and the more people they’re going to share. So that’s you know, like and trust broken down to the micro KPI level. Amen to that. And onward.

 

And I have seen this happen so many times. our Predictive ROI team, we typically will go on site and in ten mini or a client’s events. And in our clients they have thought leadership platforms, whether that’s podcast, video or all of the above, whatever. And it is so awesome to be sitting kind of in the background.

 

And then an attendee, or multiple attendees for a particular workshop or whatever the event is, walks in, they’re meeting our client for the first time, and they say to that person, you’re exactly the person who I thought you would be because they’re there. Because every time they turned around, they’re that the thought leader was being helpful, answering questions, sharing generously, doing all the things that Greg just described.

 

And then when there is the face to face meeting, it’s like, oh my gosh, you’re exactly the person who I thought you would be. My guest is Greg. When people meet you as prospective coaching clients or, you know, mentees, you’ve probably had similar experiences, right? Oh, yeah. They say, you know, I feel like I know you already have consumed all your content.

 

I’ve been following you, watching you, listening to you. And you know what’s really cool is they hear me say the same thing in person as I say in the videos. And they’re like, man, you really practice what you preach. You really mean what you say. And, you know, I don’t sell. So, there’s a difference between advertising, marketing and and what we’re talking about here, you know, marketing and, you know, advertising marketing is just putting your brand out there, awareness, things like that.

 

What we’re talking about here is showing people why they want to do business with you and giving them what they’re looking for before they ever walk in the door, and not pitching from the stage. Right. This podcast is the stage. If you put on a seminar, that’s a stage. If you write an article, that’s a stage. If you’re in a meeting with somebody that’s a platform, that’s an audience, that’s a stage, and you don’t want to pitch, you want to give.

 

Show them how you can help them give value, give the answers. Don’t be worried that they’re just going to take everything and run away. Some people might. Yeah, I have tons of content. People can watch my content, learn from it and go do their own thing. But they, you know, they still want my help because of the little fine things that you just don’t have time to go into in all your content and the ability to be able to ask those questions and go deeper. So, you know, it’s just such an incredible thing. 

 

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Ability to Lead Others: Taking The Platform to Another Level

 

Back in the day, I used to teach all my salespeople and everybody in the business, you know, qualified, qualified, qualified, and you know it. That’s what this is. It qualifies your prospects. It sorts people so that you can be more efficient. You can focus on delivering world class service, world class results, world class products to create raving fans with your clients and your customers.

 

So take us inside your goal for 2020, because obviously you’ve already created a lot of content. You have been helpful to your audience. We know your point of view because you shared it. But as you stepped into 2020, it sounds like you had a conversation with yourself of you know what, I think I can do even more.

 

I think I can blow this out even further. I think using some of your words. So tell us what 2020 and your planning for 2020 like, how you’re going to take that deeper and be more helpful to the audience. So I want to take my content platform to another level and start doing. I want to release some books this year, so I’ve got that in the process right now, to release at least 2 or 3 books, ebook and hard copy format.

 

I’m building out my school of entrepreneurship. I just released courses this year, for different things, and entrepreneurship is one of them, which is what we’re talking about platform and authority and things like that. and really developed this school of entrepreneurship, a place where, you know, the everyday person can get an MBA. Right? It’s like the MBA, MBA program for the everyday person that didn’t go to graduate school, didn’t go to business school and wants the nuts and bolts of the business.

 

So it’s my management philosophy. It’s my business by the numbers philosophy. I’ve got some real estate, real estate development courses, things like that, but really building this legacy company because once this content is created and put out, put out there, it’s out there forever. So I don’t want to live forever like I’ve got this ego. What I want is to have an impact forever.

 

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Ability to Lead Others: It’s About Leaving a Legacy 

 

I’m at the point in my life where I’m after impact. I love helping people. I love watching people grow. I love the testimonials I get, you know, one conversation with you changed my life. And, you know, just watching the trajectory of the business changes other people’s lives. I have a very strong faith. So I’m able to share my faith through these things and help other people do the same and support the community and their nonprofit organizations and philanthropic endeavors.

 

You know, by having a business that grows and scales and thrives. So to me, it’s about reach. It’s about impact. It’s about leaving a legacy and a mark on this world that’s going to live well beyond me, to help people with the things that weren’t there when I was coming up, that weren’t there when you were coming up.

 

You know, to sustain and help and perpetuate and just build and and grow beyond anything we can even imagine. So that’s my main thing now, is you got to reach people where they are. Some people are in video, some are on podcasts, some are on Instagram, some are Facebook, some are written. Whether it’s blogs, books, this, that and the other.

 

So the writing, you know, side of it. I don’t really have time to write articles or any of that anymore. So I’m really going to put somebody in place to do that for me and take everything I’ve got put in written form, so start releasing that. So I’m just really building out all areas of the content platform.

 

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Ability to Lead Others: The Journey of Greg’s Grandfather

 

You know, I got to say, I love your street smarts approach to this. I certainly love the impact, love the legacy, but the reason why I say I love this street smarts approach is because, you know, in full transparency, you shared, you know, what your path and journey was like. But then I think about my own family’s path and journey and my grandfather immigrated here from Istanbul, Turkey, was 18 years old, couldn’t speak the language, had $10 in his pocket.

 

He was forced to drop out of the third grade to take care of his mom and his two younger siblings. When my great grandfather, his father, was tragically killed in Istanbul. And so he had a third grade education, came to the U.S. when he was 18, didn’t know anybody, worked his fingers to the bone for six years, saved enough money and bought his own restaurant.

 

in 1927, in downtown Canton, Ohio, and did it with a third grade education. But with that said, he never ever stopped learning. And he ran three successful restaurants over the course of 42 years. So, like your approach and the impact that you want to create in the street smarts-ness, if that’s even a word, is awesome, my friend.

 

Thank you, I appreciate that. And the same with you. You know, just like that story. I mean, that’s awesome. I love those stories. And, you know, those resources weren’t available when he was doing that. He had to learn it all the hard way. I do know how you have had these resources, your resources, my resources, other people that may be listening, that need to share your wisdom and your knowledge and your experience, you know, that’s why this is so important.

 

So critical. Because maybe he could add 100 restaurants if he were to have the information at his fingertips that you can have today. So. Amen. You know, if I can help somebody and save somebody, the heartaches that I went through, the mistakes that I made because I just didn’t know what I didn’t know. And I was the secret wisdom.

 

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Ability to Lead Others: Bringing Deals and Opportunities

 

I was looking for information everywhere I could. But you didn’t. We didn’t have podcasts and YouTube and all that. When I was learning, I had to get out there and do it and make mistakes and, you know, learn it all the hard way. Well, so let’s talk about the dual benefit of this too, because you’ve obviously built a core business, within real estate, the $250 million in transactions we’ve talked about obviously, that is still benefiting you today.

 

But let’s talk about the dual benefit of this if you’ve gotten really intentional about your thought leadership blowing that, even further in 2020. Is that better? I’m making the assumption that it’s. Yes, but I’m asking because I don’t know. Does that benefit both the real estate side as well as the school of entrepreneurship?

 

Oh yeah. Absolutely. So it brings deals and opportunities, to me for real estate and for business, buying companies, building them up, selling them off, rolling up companies. I’ve got a couple of plays there. So I’m still doing deals. and I’m still active. So, yeah. So it brings those opportunities to me. It brings people to me all the time that want to invest in deals and want to invest in opportunities with me.

 

That’s not why I’m doing it, but it happens. It’s part of it. And then of course, the, you know, opportunity to do things with other people that I’m coaching and, and mentoring. Yeah, I love it. It’s awesome. It’s fantastic because it’s not like you’ve decided to put the core business on the shelf and then go down this different path.

 

You’ve created a platform with some duality to it that benefits both sides of the business. That’s awesome. So let’s shift gears, from thought leadership for just a second. And this might actually give some insight, to Onward Nation business owners who might be thinking how in the world does he get all of this stuff done?

 

So let’s think about daily habits. And I know you’ve had conversations with peers and, you know, mentees and so forth. It’s like, seriously, man, how do you get all this done? So yeah, yeah. You have a habit or two, Greg, that you feel has really contributed to your success over the years. So I’ve always been very organized and efficient in everything I do.

 

So I guess, you know, if there’s a habit, it’s being efficient, organized. So I take care of everything. Now I have no backlog in my life. I have no to do list. You know, when something comes to me, I deal with it. I either respond, delete it or file it. And I’ve been that way with paperwork. Now it’s that way with emails.

 

My inbox is clean. Everybody responded that I don’t put off anything. I responded immediately. People that are most amazed with that they’re like, well, how did you do? How did you have time to answer the phone? Or how did you call me back so quickly? Or how did you respond so quickly? I’m like, that’s what I do. That’s my habit.

 

I will take care of it right now. Very strong sense of urgency. I don’t want any backlog in my life. So what I do is I jump up early every day out of the bed, make up my bed. I start with that and then I just get into it, you know, and I don’t. I don’t have this ice bath routine or this, you know, IBM club or this bulletproof coffee.

 

I mean, you know, I do drink black coffee but, you know, first thing. But yeah, I just got up and I hit it. It’s just kind of how I’m wired. I just, you know, this is it. This is what I do, and I just stay on top of things, and I don’t let stuff pile up on me.

 

Love it because it really gives us some insight into the immediacy of how you build out your day. 

 

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Ability to Lead Others: Most Critical Skills That Business Owners Need to Have

 

So then let’s take that piece, maybe a little bit deeper. Yeah. Everybody that’s around me in business, I have these little sayings. Everybody does, but mine is the best time to take care of anything right now.

 

So what do you think is the most critical skill that business owners need to master in order to thrive today? So that’s one sense of urgency. The best time to take care of anything is now. And then. Second to that is you have to become a leader if you’re going to be a leader in a business, if you’re going to have a business and develop your business, you’ve got to develop yourself as a leader.

 

And I think a lot of people don’t do enough of that. They don’t do enough of developing themselves first, because you can’t pour into anybody else unless you pour into yourself first. So I guess it’s three prongs. One is that sense of urgency. The other one is developing yourself as a leader. and then understanding the people around you.

 

First and foremost, you know, taking the time to understand empathy, right. Understand where somebody else is coming from, why they are the way they are, what makes them tick, and having that system in place in your organization where you actually do the personality profiling to understand how other people are wired, how best to respond and react, and just take a minute to get to know them to find out why they are what they are, what’s what makes them tick.

 

Understand where they’re coming from. When you first understand the other person, and when they’re where they’re coming from, then it doesn’t matter how you’re approached. You can kind of take yourself out of that equation and have empathy for that individual. And, you know, that goes a long way. But probably out of all of those, developing yourself first and foremost is the most important thing, because you can’t develop anybody else unless you are fully developed yourself and constantly working on yourself.

 

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Ability to Lead Others: Most Influential Lesson From a Mentor

 

Okay, so no joke. Not kidding here. I literally just went back to my journal and I circled what you had said earlier when you said leaders set the pace because as leaders, how can we properly set the pace if we’re not fully developed? It’s all right. Exactly. Yeah. It’s you know, it’s anything you can’t instruct an instructor expect anybody to do something you’re not willing to do yourself as the leader.

 

Right. The leader eats last. The leader goes first on the battlefield. You know I’m leading out front. If we’re going into battle, I’m right there in front of you. I’m not going to send you. I’m going to be in front of you, and I’m going to be leading you in the battle. You know, leaders inspire results out of others, and the only way to inspire others if you are first inspired and the only way to inspire yourself is you have to be engaged yourself.

 

You have to be developing yourself, and you have to be passionate about what you do and about the people around you. A few minutes ago, I said that you’re giving us great mentorship, so let me spin that and turn the table, if you will, on you. So, Greg, tell us about the most influential lesson that you learned from one of your mentors and how that lesson is still paying dividends today and helped you become the business owner, that you are understanding other people first.

 

So there was a time in my life when I was young and cocky, and I would just roll right over you because I’m a high D personality. If you guys know the personality testing, you know, I’m, I’m, I’m a driver, right? So I’m the guy that’s going to break down the wall and turn around. All right y’all clean that up.

 

Let’s go. So I had to really work on myself to be able to temper myself and understand where other people were coming from. So somebody once said to me, it’s a very wise man who can put himself into somebody else’s shoes first and then understand. So that’s probably the biggest, I think about that almost every day.

 

That’s been one of the biggest pieces of advice I think I ever received. Yeah, it’s awesome advice. It reminds me of habit number five from Stephen Covey. Seek first. Understand that to be understood. Right? I mean, it’s just so many things open up when we just have the patience and the calm and just pause for just a second to shift our lens because big things can happen when we’re with the other person. 

 

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Ability to Lead Others: How to Connect with Greg

 

I know that we’re quickly running out of time, and I want to be respectful of the schedule compression that you have today. Greg. So before we go, before we close out and say goodbye, any final advice that you want to share?

 

Anything you think we might have missed? And then please tell Onward Nation business owners the best way to connect with you. 

 

Yeah. So my website, DickersonInternational.com, all of my social media, everything’s there YouTube channel, podcast. They can connect with me there and, you know, check out what I’m doing. So it’s DickersonInternational.com. And you know again I mean you’ve got to you’ve got to pour into yourself first and foremost constantly develop yourself.

 

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Ability to Lead Others: Final Advice from Greg

 

None of my devices have ever had and still today do not have any music on them. So back in the day when it was the, you know, cassettes on tape, and the Walkman, you know, I had that it was cassettes on it was personal professional development. Then it was a CD player, then it was the iPod. It’s always been business books, personal professional development, faith development, things like that.

 

I never waste time pumping anything into my head. That’s not going to help move me forward in my development. I do have some downtime and I listen to music in the car and stuff and TV, but I’m very intentional about developing myself, and I’ve always sought out people smarter and better than me. And I’ve, you know, the other thing that I learned early on was get rid of that ego, right?

 

Ego costs more, opportunity and money in business than alcoholism or anything else. Egotism. That’s the worst disease in corporate America. Set your ego aside. Don’t be intimidated or afraid of people that are no more than you. Hire people that are smarter than you. Find people that are better than you. Surround yourself. Be the dumbest person. When you walk into a room of your peers, find people that are way better, way smarter, and listen.

 

We have two years for a reason. Ask good questions. Seek first to understand and listen and find people who are where you want to be or where, you know, where you strive to be either already or they’ve done it and go learn from them. That was awesome. Well said, my friend. 

 

Onward Nation, no matter how many notes you took or how often you go back in, re-listen to Greg’s words of wisdom, which I sure hope that you do.

 

The key is to take this thought leadership blueprint the way to grow and scale your people. Blueprint to take those because they truly were blueprints. Take those and apply them into your business right away and accelerate your results. And Greg, we all had the same 86,400 seconds in a day, and I am grateful that Zach introduced us. I am grateful that you said yes, to come on to the show, to be our mentor and guide, to help us move our businesses onward to that next level.

 

Thank you so much, Greg, I enjoyed it. Thank you for having me and happy to come back anytime. 

 

This episode is complete. So head over to OnwardNation.com for show notes and more food to fuel your ambition. Continue to find your recipe for success here at Onward Nation.

 

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