In this innovative episode, Jackson Calame, Founder of First Class Business, shares how he helped launch and scale several successful startups in the B2B industry & SaaS space, servicing thousands of small And midsize businesses.
You will discover:
– Why being heard isn’t the problem and what is
– How to carve out your role as founder (so you don’t have to do it all yourself)
– Why you should eliminate the word can’t from your vocabulary
Episode Transcript
Scott Ritzheimer
Hello, hello and welcome welcome once again to the secrets of the high demand coach podcast and I am here with yet another high demand coach. It is the one the only Jackson Calame who teaches visionary entrepreneurs how to unlock sustainable revenue growth and expand their legacy. Jackson teaches businesses not only how to avoid failure, but also how to win by becoming a true leader in their market. Jackson and his teams prepare business owners and executives to bridge their growth gaps. And collectively they often fill the CEO CMO or even CEO roles during this transformative process. And he believes that developing an incredible culture built around a clear vision dedicated to customer satisfaction must be the focal point for any company’s mission for them to thrive. Well, Jackson, we had the opportunity to meet several times now. But I think we first were introduced by my opportunity to appear on your show, Vision pros, which is fantastic. By the way, go check it out on Apple podcasts. And now we get to turn the mics around. So glad to have you on the show wondering if you could not gonna before we dive in here, what got you into building first class business and the work that you guys are doing right now?
Jackson Calame
Well thank you Scott for having me awesome to to I don’t want to say return the favor. It’s my honor to be here. Your book, by the way. The whole analogy on the coach run on the football field catching the touchdown, dude, it just blew my mind. I’ve been meditating on that ever since I’ve shared it with several people told people like wow, like you got to read this. This is so cool. So thank you for that. In terms of how we got started. You know, I guess I have to own the fact that when I was in Uruguay, found out had an epiphany that I needed to get into business had no reason to do so came home, went back to the BYU school Maryana business. And I said, Look, I know I screwed up and have a point three, three GPA. But I really need to get into the school, how do I do it? They didn’t laugh me out of the room. But it was as close to his kind of version of that, as it could be said no, not a chance. So I ended up saying you know what, if I’m not going to get in through the university, I just need to go find a business owner is going to take a chance on me. And that led from one thing to another pivots up until I realize I’m a service oriented person. I don’t like second class service. I’m not gonna provide it, we do things first class.
Scott Ritzheimer
That’s awesome. That’s awesome. And one of the key areas you focus on helping founders to launch well, right to be heard in the market. And one of the things that most folks listening to this will readily recognize is that with all the media available, it’s actually never been easier to get your message out. But I don’t know that it’s ever been harder to get your message heard. Right. So what can we do as founders as business owners to really stand out and as the clear choice in our market?
Jackson Calame
Ah, I think it’s so easy to be heard. Actually, the challenge is we don’t know what to say. So when my daughter, you know, obviously all four my kids went to that stage where they were three through five, right? And when they scream, I want the candy, the candy. They’re not going to get it. It ain’t happening. Right. And so the challenge is, how do we shift the way we talk about what we want into a position where we’re serving people based on what people also need and want. And if we don’t make that shift, we’re going to sound like that tantrum child and doesn’t sound like I just sounded it sounds like, Scott, we have the best solution ever. Come look at it. We’ve got case studies and we make $100,000 from people tomorrow, like, whoa, like so many people are doing that. Meanwhile, Tony Robbins was smart enough several years ago to say, hey, let’s come out with a documentary and let’s call it I am not your guru. But one.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah and and so how do we take that right? Success leaves clues but how do we how to as founders? Do we need to start thinking about our messaging? And and what are some practical steps on how to get that out into the real world?
Jackson Calame
You know, stepping into being genuine and authentic is a really important part of that for the way I go about things. You know, sky if you had some fun of me earlier, we talked about how my image changes like daily and and that’s part of that is just being willing to step into those different sides of me that are important. You know, and I’m, I’m willing to self discover that. If we’re chasing all the buzzwords if we’re going and looking for articles online that say the seven steps to do this, the three steps to do this. We’re over simplifying the process of business. That that oversimplification to me is what’s driving one of the biggest reasons that’s driving people to fail. It would be like a patient. Think of the business hours a patient going into the doctor and saying, hey Doc is If you made less cuts, when you did my heart surgery, it would be so much easier. You’re right, it would be so much easier to do the thing. And you’re going to die. You know, like, what are you doing, trying to give me that advice. So as a business owner, who is not a chief marketing officer, and has never written a chief marketing officer description, right, a chief executive officers and chief operating officers, these people are trying to step into roles that can’t, because there’s so many coaches that want them to over simplify, say, no solopreneurs can win the entrepreneurs are doing awesome. Just because somebody says they’re doing awesome doesn’t mean they actually are. So we have to take a step back and look at the whole picture. I know it’s a buzzkill. But we have to look at the real life versions of who’s winning how are they waiting? What are their teams look like? And it’s usually far more expensive than most business owners want to admit. Swallow that frog. Go for it do the right set of decisions, don’t tell the doctors in the world to make less cuts.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah. So I think there’s brilliant advice behind that. Now, one of the challenges with it is, you know, before just starting out, we can’t afford a full executive team. So how, what are some of the first steps that we can take in the process of of moving toward that more expensive strategy, and bringing in the help that we need?
Jackson Calame
I think it begins with eliminating that word. Scott can’t. That’s baloney. And now from you, I know you’re speaking for the audience. When we tell ourselves, we can’t do something I’m not talking about floating to outer space. You know, I’m not talking about intangibles, I’m talking about being wise enough and humble enough to share the pie from the start. Right? How do I recruit the Lebron James, if I want LeBron James, in the next NBA League? I’m going to have to go to extreme lengths in order to gain the attention of somebody who’s that attractive, right? Am I doing the right things to interview people? Or am I short cutting, am I willing to sell my home and move into a smaller apartment because I know that the 100,000, or 200,000, that I can put into my business now is what’s necessary to pull everything together at once, rather than once in a while buying a $50 solution, kind of like buying a sparkler on July 4, right and doing one sparkler at a time for the entire night that entertains a five year old, maybe maybe a three year old actually. But when it comes to business, if your investing strategy is to go cheap, and to go small, and to make cuts as fast as possible, you’re going to end up with the 96% of people who lose within 10 years or the 4%. who survive. And I don’t think that survival is the American dream.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, I agree. So who is it then that we need on our team? And and the follow up question to that is, what is the specific role that the founder needs to fill in in a successful launch?
Jackson Calame
Yeah, I hope that everybody is listening takes that the vision pros aspect to heart, my belief is that you are the visionary of what you do. And so therefore, it’s important to know your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, it’s important to become very self awareness, self aware, and open with whoever you’re going to bring onto your executive team about what it is that you’re lacking. What it is, you don’t do well, and as you open up that reality, if you are not qualified to be the CFO, you need to consider who can come in and help you with that role. You’re not qualified to be the chief executive officer that’s really in charge of oftentimes PR, oftentimes bringing in the other C level executives, oftentimes as well running the the the team dynamics, then, and you’re a visionary who wants to be out in the world, or maybe doing fulfillment, then those types of roles, gravitate towards your strengths, bring people in, who can help you with your weaknesses. It’s not so much a matter, in my opinion of defining the exact roles. I tried to do that at 23. Well, after my second startup, and I was like, I’m gonna create the perfect vision maps, the perfect org board of all the roles that will work in every company. And it didn’t take me more than an hour. That was a pretty long time to realize, oh, well, you’re on a restaurant. The titles who worked with you, Expo waiter, sous chef, exec chef is very different than when you run a drilling company, or when you run a digital marketing agency. So mapping that process out and bringing somebody in who’s qualified to help recognize those dynamics. Again, if you try to do the surgery yourself, good luck. Some people have apparently figured it out. I’ve never met one.
Scott Ritzheimer
Is, do you find that there are any themes around what the founder in particular has to hang on to Are there any non negotiables or is it really as freeform as you know whatever, whatever works for them?
Jackson Calame
I can only speak for myself on that, and the type of people that I work with. And for me the non negotiable is there are two very powerful elements for growth, influence and power. One of them is hate. And it’s I know, it’s easy to label people and say that oh, so they don’t like Hitler lead with hate, obviously, you know, and he almost destroyed the world, in the process. But we all have hate within us. We can’t escape that we have two sides of the coin, we get hangry. You know, we react, we tell people what to do. We try to control people and tell them what to do. We get frustrated people on telling me they’re not very good at life by saying you’re not great at doing what you did, I’m disappointed in you. And we also have the power of love. And we’ll use the power of love. But also people who’ve driven excellent missions and visions from Martin Luther King, to Jesus. And that dynamic of choice right there to me is one of those areas where no, if I find myself gravitating towards hate and vices, to guide, coerce, or manipulate, I need to make a shift back to the other side and say, No, I’m going to lead with principles of love. That’s, that’s probably the only one for me. If I meditate on it, maybe there’s more, but that would be the one that’s absolute non negotiable. I will not choose to use the powers of manipulation, coercion, and authenticity, unethical behaviors, you know, the first three people who react to this and are going to get X, Y or Z product, there is no love, and a manipulation tactic to grow.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, yeah, that’s so true. That’s so true. It brings me to a question I actually asked this of all my guests, I’m interested to hear what you have to say. But what would you say is the biggest secret you wish wasn’t a secret at all? What’s that one thing that you wish everybody watching or listening today knew?
Jackson Calame
The business is hard. That’s the secret that everybody really knows and doesn’t want to hear. And, you know, it’s, you know, if you want validation on that, find out, go ask people, How many people have read, the effective executive by Dr. Peter Drucker, and it’s shocking how few people have read that book or even know about it, we try to oversimplify the process. And in reality, business is hard. So as life, we’ve got to learn to accept that embrace it and move into learning to do what’s hard, you know, or we’re going to, or we’re basically, on the bandwagon of get rich quick, even though we’ve learned to say that we’re not.
Scott Ritzheimer
I was, I was early in my, the second part of my career as a coach, and was facing this challenge all over again, you feel like you graduate from it at some point, and you never do. I was talking to another coach had been doing it for a while. And he said, Just because it doesn’t seem like it’s working doesn’t mean you’re not doing the right thing. And I think it goes to this, this prompt you have is if we think that hard means wrong, right? We will abandon the things that are most meaningful. And if we think that hard is wrong, right, we’ll constantly chase after strategies that promise, you know, the quick fix, but failed to deliver is a powerful, powerful point. So folks who are listening to this, and they’re just connecting with you, finally, someone who gets it, right, they understand it’s not just you know, jazz hands, and it’s all better, but they want someone who can really partner with him to build this build on their vision? What? How can they get in touch with you? How can they find out more about the work that you guys do?
Jackson Calame
firstclassbusiness.io is a great place for business owners to go and start and see and all the materials that are on there very deliberate in terms of, if you study those materials out, and you see what’s there, that’s an effective way to interview me. And I see too many business owners once again, they think they found that person, they jumped to the conclusion, they want to talk to him and hire him without doing any background research. I highly recommend doing the background research. And to I’ll double down on just one more piece of advice. And that is, when you’re bringing in people with C level fractional C level executives, for instance, make room for somebody to actually be a chief, and recognize that most of them have never been a chief in their life. They don’t actually know how to tell you what they need to be doing to those departments. But if entrepreneurs if we aren’t ready to be told, like how things are going to go in a certain department and relinquish that control. We know it doesn’t matter what type of person you bring in. It’s not going to be an effective executive relationship. So first class, business and vision pros live.com. If you’re listening in, you probably be a fantastic guest for my show, too. We’d love to have you.
Scott Ritzheimer
Fantastic. Well, Jackson, thanks so much for being on. Thank you so much for sharing this wisdom and truth throughout the episode today just really appreciate it it’s an honor having you here as well and for those of you watching and listening today you know your time and attention mean the world to us I hope you got as much out of this conversation as I know I did and I cannot wait to see you next time take care.
Contact Jackson Calame
Jackson Calame teaches visionary entrepreneurs how to unlock sustainable revenue growth and expand their legacy. Jackson teaches businesses not only how to avoid failure but also how to win by becoming a true leader in their market. Jackson and his teams prepare business owners and executives to bridge their growth gaps. Collectively, they often fill the COO, CMO, or CEO roles during this transformative process. Ultimately, developing an incredible culture built around a clear vision dedicated to customer satisfaction must be the focal point of a company’s mission to thrive.
Want to learn more about Jackson Calame’s work at First Class Business? Check out his website at https://firstclassbusiness.io/
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