Episode 1 - Andy Weins - Serial Entrepreneur

Check out episode 1 of season 2, where I have Andy Weins is in the hot seat. Andy is a one-of-a-kind serial entrepreneur, veteran, speaker, coach, and all-around genuine human. We dive in on creating culture, understanding people, and running a successful business.  

 

Leighann Lovely  00:19

If you are an HR professional, business owner or at the operations level trying to understand what people want. You may be struggling, our systems have been shocked practices have been questioned, and culture is the leading conversation. Let's learn how culture is created, sustained, and why it should be the leading conversation when discussing hiring, training and retention. This is the foundation of any business and it's time to address it. So tune in to Let's Talk HR humanizing the conversation. We tackle topics that influencers of change need to understand and struggle to overcome every day, such as where to start, and what the new workforce wants, and how to attract and keep positive momentum going. I'm your host Leighann Lovely.

 

Leighann Lovely  01:07

Launching Season Two with me today, I have an amazing guest. He is a serial entrepreneur, speaker, veteran owner and all around humanitarian. Of course, if you met him at random, you would probably think he's just an average Joe, because he's the kind of person that would stop and help you change your tire on the side of the road. Of course, he would not get away without a great conversation and a whole lot of F bombs. Because Andy wines is his authentic, unique self no matter where he is. And that is why I am so excited to have him join me and have an awesome conversation today about business ownership, about culture, and about basically, how to run a business.

 

Leighann Lovely  01:50

Andy, thank you so much for joining me today. Why don't you tell me in five minutes or less a little bit about yourself and your business?

 

Andy Weins  02:00

I mean, we get down and dirty even less than five minutes Jack, I bless we got a lot of questions to get to it's not to talk about me. Let's talk about HR. Break it out Barney style. I'm a serial entrepreneur. I was born and as an entrepreneur, I worked for large corporations, I worked for small companies, I joined the military deployed came back home. And after having done all those things, I realized that I was running away from what I was put on this earth to do, which was run businesses. My father runs a business with my mom. Both my grandfather's ran businesses, my great grandfather's tool, my four grandpa great grandfather's ran businesses is what we do. So I run businesses. I'm a father, I'm a veteran. That's it. I mean, we don't need we don't need much more time. And then I'm sure we'll get into some stories over the next hour as we dive into HR, what makes me tick.

 

Leighann Lovely  02:53

Awesome, great, great beginning, and I was gonna go right into, you know, in all senses of the word from the moment that I've met you, you are definitely a serial entrepreneur, but a successful one. Many, many people can say that they're a serial entrepreneur, but few can say that they are successful serial entrepreneurs, right? So you wear many hats? How do you go about balancing all of the different job duties that go along with owning multiple businesses.

 

Andy Weins  03:25

It's all about the use of language. I'm a big fan of linguistics. And so one of the words we I don't use and one you just use, there is balance, don't use the word balance. It's not about balance, it's about alignment. Do these things go together? I look at life. And it's really it's really three parts? It is it are three aspects of defining who you are, right? It's kind of the what you do, right? That's we talked about here, this is the work thing, right? And it's the family, right? And then who you are as a core person? Well, let's just take those three things, right. And the goal is, these are three strands, right? I can I liken it to a rope, or you have these three strands. And separately, if they're competing, right, we think about balance, one goes up, one goes down, right? That's balanced, it's bullshit, you will constantly be juggling and fighting. But the goal and the key thing is how do you align these three things? Right? Because within those strands, there's a lot more strands and a lot more depth. But how do you get those three main strands to align, interact? And then as you do that in life, the more you have these strands interacting and have alignment, you have this nice, strong life. And so I look at even within work, right, which strands, feed the major strands, right? And then how does it interact with my family and how does it interact with my relationship with myself? And then how do I build this strong, repeatable life that I want? And then it's about alignment. And then how you do that is you consistently look at yourself, and it's about self awareness, self regulation, and then self reflection and For those three things, right, when you're in that reflection stage, you're to start stop, continue methodology. And within start, stop, continue, you will look at going back to the beginning, what do you need to start doing, stop doing or continue doing so that you live a life that is alive in these three aspects of your life?

 

Leighann Lovely  05:19

Wow. And you said something that's, that's really important, which is, you know, self awareness. And obviously, everything starts with with that. Yep. How did you get yourself to that point, though?

 

Andy Weins  05:33

Well, I mean, the running joke is self awareness is the first step. But it's not the last step, right? What is the most critical step because it's the first step. And that is where I'll make the argument. Most People Fail. They, they are not aware of who they are. And there's, there's a ton of methodology of how you can make yourself aware of it. I don't care if you do a DISC assessment, or Myers Briggs, or ask the people around, you go to a fucking counselor, like, figure it out, right? Get a bunch of these data points. And then also understand how you represent and is the person that walks in the person that wants to walk in, right. And so being aware of that, and then being good with it, right, the moment you stop giving a shit about what other people think or feel is a beautiful thing. Now, those are data points, it's not that I don't care, it's that I'm not going to let those perspectives change who I am for the sake of change, I'm not gonna let people water me down for the sake of watering down, if I want to modify my behavior is because I'm aware of my behavior. I regulate my behavior, because in reflection, I recognize what I do and do not get out of this world. And I want to make sure it's consistent across the board. So that's the key was self awareness. Are you doing something different? And if not, are you comfortable with who you are? Are you content are those very different words? But what is that word that drives that? Once you have that conversation with yourself, then you can show up to life? And breathe easy being you unapologetically? Because 8 billion people on this planet you are you no one else can do it better. Just go out and be you. But be aware of who you are that avatar of a person that that thing that operates, you know, it's different than the the body and how it reacts in the world is very different than the soul and the mind. Right? But what is that avatar? Is that consistent with who you think you are? Who you want to be? And what do you want to get out of this world? Once you started doing that and take the time, you got to put the time into work on yourself. That's where I think a lot of people fail. They don't take the time. They don't put the time in because they'd let their ego get the better of them.

 

Leighann Lovely  07:43

That's, that's amazing. And I think that we all wish that we could constantly show up only as ourselves constantly No,

 

Andy Weins  07:51

no, no, no, I'll take a line for Brad Herta. We don't wish we plan. Right. Okay, well, there's a difference. Wishes pot a fucking star. No, we plan. This is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna wake up early, I'm gonna have my coffee. I'm gonna put pants on. I'm gonna whatever, whatever the plan is that gets you to show up as the person you need to be. I can think of I can. I know the elevator. There's an elevator in Walkinshaw. I have to go to the third floor to go to this networking group that I don't want to go to I haven't wanted to go to I haven't gone to in a while. But before I didn't want to go there. But in my head. I'm like, I gotta be here for the sake of my business. And if I'm going to show up here, I got to show up. So elevator door closes, it's gold, mirrored fucking whatever. 1990s bad to Corp. Anyways, I can see my reflection. And if I show up, like I don't want to be here, that person shows up. But if I show up, and I put a stupid smile on my face, I show up different and that's a plan. If I wish I was just in a better mood ain't gonna happen. But take the three seconds to smile at the mirror. Give yourself a high five like Bo Robbins tells us to, and then go out and kick ass. But that's a plan. Not a wish.

 

Leighann Lovely  09:07

Absolutely. You're right. You're right. But that is a struggle that many have. It is a struggle, that many fear. And that's something that

 

Andy Weins  09:18

what what are you afraid of? Where's this fear piece?

 

Leighann Lovely  09:21

Well, I'm not necessarily speaking to myself, it took me a long time to show up as me on a regular consistent basis. Right. There are people who fear walking into work every day and thinking I'm going to be found out because I have XYZ going on at home. Because impostor syndrome correct. And that's a real thing that people exist and but you have crit you clearly have created a culture at at your businesses. And you accept everybody for who they are. Is this what you're saying?

 

Andy Weins  09:55

100% Absolutely. Wonderful. Yeah. Easy, simple.

 

Leighann Lovely  10:02

So tell me how you created and, and have allowed people to do this at your business because this is what really truly interests me you are. And every time I've ever come in contact with you, you are you every time I see you wild, crazy, professional, all different flavors of Mr. Andy wines. You are 100% You, but You are unique in in to too many circles of people that I have come in contact with.

 

Andy Weins  10:37

Yeah, so to answer the question at the top, how do I how do I do? And how do I create that culture? It's real easy, unless it's illegal, immoral, unethical, we fucking do it. Right? And I get to be the referee on the morality, right? And the ethics here. Right? Illegal is governed by a different entity, I'm not gonna say hire but a different entity. Right? And then what's moral and what's ethical round here is is is up to the the discretion of the individuals that make up the culture. Right? I'm not the commissioner of the league. I'm the referee, so that I can solve dispute if there is such a dispute with that said, just a referee, right? I'm not the end all be all right? Alpha and Omega, I'm the referee to say, Okay, how do we allow people into our organism, right, we treat our organization like an organism, elite, living, breathing thing, so that when people come in, they can impact the culture, one of the most bullshit questions in HR is, hey, do you think you're going to be a good fit to the culture? First off, they don't know what the culture is? Because they're not there. Right? And culture is? Right? It is, it is exclusive of people that aren't in the culture, right? It's inclusive of the people in the culture. So if you're in a candidate, you don't know what the culture is, other than whatever bullshit they sell you on the website. So terrible question. Second piece is, you're not considering the what that candidate can bring to your culture. Right? Because culture is not a static, stagnant thing. It's forever changing and evolving. So the question should be, what are you going to bring to the culture of this organization? So now we flip it on its head, right? We know that organizations when treated like an organism, a living, breathing thing, all the individual components play a role in how that organism organism functions? And what do we accept culturally, I can certainly be the referee to make sure it's not illegal, immoral and unethical. But after that, let people go right, let, it's that simple beef and weird, or Don't be weird, I don't give a shit just be you. And then create a culture and what that is it accepted. If I want to be accepted, I have to accept others for being themselves. And that's it. I might not like it, but get the referee, not the judge and jury. It's different.

 

Leighann Lovely  12:57

So how would somebody handle as a company grows, obviously, cultural, like you said, the culture will evolve, it grows like an organism, organism, as you've mentioned, now, as companies grow, you start to see a shift in that now you have different departments, and different people start to influence those different departments and almost like a break of that organism becomes to how do you continue to keep those working together, almost as one yet also separate. And I'm not saying as completely separate, I'm saying that you have two different things working, but also in the same building?

 

Andy Weins  13:42

Well, because they started from the same place, right. And within the organization, especially here, when you have this table, I have one point at 10 franchises across the country. And our culture became individualistic at the site, because we didn't do enough to bring everybody together. And we didn't have a strong enough culture. So So it made us very adaptable and flexible when we out in the real world. But then we also had very different customer experiences from one to the other. So we did some things like having centralized HR centralized dispatch, so there was a consistency in that HR bucket consistency, and that and that operations bucket, but at the end of the day, the sites function very independently. And that was part of the culture. Because the way you operate a site in Texas is different than California is different than Wisconsin. And I've had businesses in all three places. And so you have to allow right you have to have a strong enough practices or procedures and all those SOPs and all that good stuff, right? So that when you do say, okay, here, here's the organism now, take it over here and plant the seed. They have that framework of the business side, but they get to develop their own culture. And you got to do check ins to make sure that culture is be consistent with the values and beliefs of the over All entity, but you've got to let it grow. And you can't, you have these two organisms that you talked about that separation, you can't make them function the same way. A G G is a prime example right now GE is going through a major shift, they're taking their three divisions that are all, like a triangle, right with the same leadership structure. And they're breaking them into three silos. Because the way that you know GE Healthcare operates is different than the other two entities. So now they're going to silo these things because it just doesn't work on top. Because there's, there's significantly different than the other two business entities, it might be to a point where you gotta separate completely. And this is a major company. And they tried doing it, where they had the, the one nucleolus controlling all but the silos did operate the same now they're breaking into three different companies. So I don't care if it's our 20 person operation here in Butler, Wisconsin, or a huge, you know, multibillion dollar organization like GE, you got to recognize, you know, at what point does the culture sort of negatively impact the business operations? Again, alignment, they got to align with each other, they have to complement each other. If they don't, you're gonna have conflict, and then that's when people leave.

 

Leighann Lovely  16:21

Absolutely. So you mentioned your business in, in Butler, Wisconsin, and I want to actually touch on that before we go any farther. So you what was your first business? First of all, let's start with that.

 

Andy Weins  16:39

It was well, I'll say it'd be there's a lot of Andes candies is probably the first business I remember, fourth grade, third or fourth grade, I sold nature's touch candy bars for a buck apiece for the Boy Scouts. And I also sold everybody else in the troop, because I branded it as Andy's candies. And I was out there hock it up, and whatever they were $1 apiece, and like 50 cents went to the Scout 50 cents, but I didn't I didn't care. And the stupid thing is I don't I can't have sugar. I can't have candy or chocolate. And I was still able to, to get out there and Hawk them was probably third or fourth grade. So that was Andy's candies. And then,

 

Leighann Lovely  17:20

of course was in fourth grade. You were born an entrepreneur.

 

Andy Weins  17:26

Oh yeah, I've been taken apart lock sets and faucets since I was five, six years old. Right when I could have a screwdriver I could I started taking stuff apart. I wasn't very good at it. But I learned the skills then that I use to this day. But on my father's company, two man crew hammer we had a PC when I was probably 10 or 11. And I learned to type on a typewriter like old school carbon copy, feed it through make sure lines up press the buttons. And so I've been I've been writing estimates, I think I learned writing on a typewriter was probably seven or eight, which now my daughter is eight and she can type like nobody's business. But like that wasn't normal for us to type. Right? We could do cursive and then we could type now the cursive was a dead thing whatever. Till a tangent but but uh, I used to type on a typewriter carbon copy proposals and, and bills for my dad. And then and then it went to the PC. I remember the first time I took a proposal and turn it into an invoice by just changing the word proposal the invoice and like, you know, quote to balance do my dad was blown away. Say What do you mean you have to retype the whole thing and my eyes changed like the two things and give it a fake number. We're good, it looks good. Looks nice. Right? And he had like actual letterheads you to feed feed the letterhead and make sure it was whatever, you know, facing the right way. So it printed it because you know that was 25 cents a piece of paper for that that letterhead. So you don't want to you know, now you've screw up approval, you redo the PDF and resend it rang it a little Docusign. Back then that was that was a quarter of 30 cents a piece of paper because it had the logo on it on that, you know, nice heavy stock paper like you know, that's where I cut my teeth, doing that shit going into Microsoft Word and just customizing it. And I remember like, the first time I did a proposal for the company clutter busters, you know, or, you know, the quote, It was like, you know, quote, 0001 So I'm like, fuck it. I'm gonna start at 100 So it was point 000101 I'm like, hell yeah, I've done 100 of these before that. You might write because you want it you know, you wanted to buy yourself some credibility. So clutter bussers back in 2009 was the first company I had and it was out of necessity. I got laid off two days before Christmas in 2008. Because you know, that whole financial crisis, right? I was I was I was Iraqi combat veteran that couldn't get a job for more than $9 an hour. When I said fuck that I'm gonna go do my own thing. So I was I was hauling scrap by the alleys in the northwest side of Milwaukee and cleaning out little ladies basements at 100 hours a trailer on the weekends. And that was that was my first business. I remember my business card I wrote serving our community since 2008. I bought my cell phone of the year, because I just you know, I did a couple of jobs in 2008. Without a name was Yeah, so 2009 We'll call it the clutter busters, which was eco friendly, clutter removal for your home and business. That was our tagline that was it. And I paid, paid, I got my 250 or whatever it was business cards from Vistaprint. And I spelled the word business wrong. So I was fucking passed. So I had to then pay for the next 250 It was like 55 hours, and I didn't have 55 hours. So you know, I had to figure that out. Right? I started my business with that, that business over the 100 hours. I spent $55. At Vistaprint, I spent 35, 40 bucks at OfficeMax getting bright green flyers and went around and put in people's doors. And yeah, it was it was terrible. It was wonderful at the same time.

 

Leighann Lovely  20:59

That's awesome. And look at you now how many businesses do you own today?

 

Andy Weins  21:06

Ah, I have four or five kinda sorta, I mean, you know, a couple of them. You know, I, I've started and stopped businesses. I've opened and closed I had a media company for about three years, I close that this year, I realized I love creating content for our businesses and for for, for us. And I love creating content for others. But I don't like to facilitate creating content for others, if that makes sense. So like, so I closed that was antidote Media Group we went on, we went hard on that for about two years. That was a lot of fun until it wasn't. And so I own it, but it's it's a dormant company. Right now. We have one large project we're finishing up to about 20 minute documentary finishing up for the VA. So we're doing that one, but then after that, I don't anticipate keeping that business running. So you know, our mainstay is camera crew junk removal. That's the business that pays the bills. And then we have the redrum Mk II, which is a side hustle at best. It's a entertainment business come in break shit, have fun. And then Young Guns, which is a passion project of mine. Those are the three main businesses. And then you know, we have an entity for our building. I'm a part where my parents we own a farm together in Mequon, I'm gonna get chickens this year. I gotta list like, I gotta, I just gotta put up my whiteboard. So I gotta let I'll announce it here first. So these are the things I'm going to do. In the next two years, I'm going to get a chicken farm going. I want to do that. I've always wanted to be a farmer. I grew up on my grandparents farm. So I'm gonna do chickens. Probably next year. For or what? What is this for me? For me for me? Okay. Yeah, so the razem slaughter. I'm Salem, Edom. So it's a chicken farmer, I want to this year I will become a licensed or certified whatever the nomenclature is. Small, small arms instructor. So I teach people right now just passively how to shoot. And so I'm not looking to make money and I, I want further training doing it. I do the military. So I just want the civilian equivalent to get myself more practical knowledge to enjoy that. And then I also want to get my pilot's license in the next 18 months. Oh, so. And again, not not like, I don't know, maybe there'll be a business. It's more over like, I want to fly a plane. So

 

Leighann Lovely  23:29

go do that. Yeah, that's, that's awesome.

 

Andy Weins  23:32

So those are three very random things farmer, you know, small arms instructor and pilot.

 

Leighann Lovely  23:39

Well, if you ever need to, I don't know fly your chickens anywhere or

 

Andy Weins  23:43

and shoot and shoot on the way. Yeah, we're good. That's it. I mean, right. And again, it's doing these things without losing focus on the mainstay, which is environmental consulting and hauling junk up out of landfill. And so again, it's about that alignment piece, right? I don't, I don't get to do those other things unless that that junk removal business is out paying the bills, right. I'm writing a book right now. I'm doing I still do keynote speaking. I have a podcast right? All those things. Those are my hobbies. My hobbies just happen to have a business aspect to them. Right. Like, we have a hobby farm right now. I just want to bring chickens on the hobby farm and then see what happens. Worst case scenario is I have a freezer full of chickens at the end of the cycle or two.

 

Leighann Lovely  24:29

I'll buy some chickens. Yeah.

 

Andy Weins  24:31

And I learned how to raise chickens in more more environmentally sound. And there's some really good practices out there and how to raise chickens, you know, organically and humanely. And that's interesting to me.

 

Leighann Lovely  24:44

Right? Mainly, and then you kill them and eat That's correct.

 

Andy Weins  24:47

100%

 

Leighann Lovely  24:51

That's, yeah, hey, and it's great that you have you know, a successful business and then you can also have, you know, side Business, possibly side businesses, you know, teaching individuals to shoot safely and something that people would enjoy. So if that turns into a business, now you have something that you can enjoy and love doing. So I mean, that's awesome. That's, it's finding a good and you don't like the word balance, but I'm gonna use it anyways, a good balance in your life to you know, work life balance and, you know, finding different things that you you know, an outlet to, you know, really enjoy, and it's never too late to go and get your pilot's license, why not? Right? So, yeah, so with all of this, you know, with every all of the different things that are going on, and I'm going to go back to this the culture at an at a company, and one of the the main things that I see happen at companies is that somebody starts up a business and it grows, it goes through an exponential growth. And as that culture organically naturally grows, the individual at the top, spends less and less time at that company. And that culture, kind of, like an organism grows on its own and kind of takes over. And so at what point or, you know, how, at as the individual at the top that owner, how do you stay plugged in to truly know what's going on, on the floor, when you've got so many other responsibilities?

 

Andy Weins  26:29

Well, I'm not on the top, let's let's, let's go back to that organism, I'm in the nucleolus. Right, and that's different right there. It's a level playing field, we all contribute to the success of the organization, some of us are more close to the nucleus than others. And that's, that because of, you know, our risk aversion or ultimately comes down to who's most liable. Those there, those that are the most to lose, and the most, again, are the nucleolus. That's just how that's that. That's how it works. And so there's a lot of things and mostly technology, right? Why why not embrace technology? So for example, my phones in my pocket, and I can feel it going off here, throughout the day today. We have an app with with our guys and I can I know every transmission that happens between our guys in the field, right? So I can tell, hey, are guys running ahead of schedule? Are they running behind schedule? What is the cadence and their voice? How are they feeling? Right? Yeah, you know what, we're just gonna run it right now. I was, I'm gonna see what these guys were talking about. But an hour ago, I can just press the button here. And this is what I do. I listen to this on my way home or throughout the day. Get a feel of how the guys are feeling on a given day. Operations. Listen, for Blizzard. I have two team members who are ready to whatever meet us at Blizzard Charlie location one was done at the Bravo. Good Capri will do. Thank you.

 

Andy Weins  27:58

So we'll things like that. I know the guy is I know who that is. I know if he's ahead of schedule. I know his demeanor. Right? I also know it's four o'clock and ESBL by 4:30 to go to bags because he plays bags at 4:30. On on Wednesdays, right? So I can I know he will have a good week or a bad week based on whether or not he gets off at 4:30. Today to go to bags. That that is it. Right? Is that simple. But I can also look at our operation software, I get a pulse for the guys, one of the best thing to do I can walk the yard, I can walk the yard, I can tell you who worked yesterday who didn't work based on how clean the yard isn't not clean. So you don't have to be I don't have to be down on the floor. I don't have to be out in the trucks 24/7 To get a feel for how things are going. And then you just do walk in talks. Hey, what's going on here? What's going on? What's what's going on there? I also use certain people's indicators. There's one guy, right. If he's pitching I just that's a good indicator that he's breathing that day because that's what he does. Right? If he wasn't pitching I'd be afraid he might not you know have any air in his in his in his lungs. But then I got another guy who drove me he's been with us it'll be five years next month. He'll been with us five years. If Jerome complains about something. It's something because drome doesn't complain it's all cash withdrawal like yesterday I saw Jerome I was I was leaving the shop he was loading up some stuff in his car my daughter was talking to him he was jovial as a Hey was been good job is that man is good is good like ABS you know, like he had nothing to say but as good it's good right? So now I know there's no so someone else comes to me right now like oh, the morale is terrible. You know, it's not a stock drone. drones that were good. But that person might be having a bad day. Right or that day might have got bad but if things are bad for days on end or weeks on end drama, let me know if I asked him if I don't ask him he won't tell me. So it's not entirely passive, but you got to know where to go to get the right information. And then also new guys run it all our existing guys know what when we get new guys hey, what do you think about the Companies so far, right? Because retention is key. And I was very pleased. You know, last week I asked one of our new guys he's like, yeah, don't feel like the new guy. Everyone's like, super cool and chill and teach me stuff. He's like, a lot of times you go to a new place people treat like shit, because you're the new guy. I'm like, yeah, no, you just make, like, you're, you're, you're making things better around here. Because you're allowing us to take on more work. Because we can, we can do more with more hands. So that's it is little indicators like that. You can't trust everything, you know, one person says all the time, but you can try. You can trust a lot of people and just have conversations. And you also have to know what is what does right look like? And and you don't know that unless you're, unless you grew up in the business, or you built the business, you don't always know I came from the franchise world. Why do you know I did junk? Well, for years, then I got into the franchise world, and I left. And a lot of franchisees, they didn't know what right was, because they were told by the franchisor. Well, right was, but they didn't know their ass from a hole in the wall. So they didn't even know these little indicators, you gotta check. And when you build your business, you know what right looks like.

 

Leighann Lovely  31:05

Interesting. And that's awesome. You know, it's, I don't want to say that it's not often that the owners will walk around because somebody in your position who has been in the thick of it, who, and somebody with your background, who knows what it's like to have $55 in their pocket and to start a business and then to be successful, they understand that it just, it's life isn't given to you, you have to work for it,

 

Andy Weins  31:34

we got to earn it every day, myself included, and that's my job.

 

Leighann Lovely  31:39

But people who who've, and I don't want to say people who've just been, you know, their life has been, you know, given to them on a silver spoon every day, have a tendency to forget that they need to walk the floor, they need to get a sense of the, you know, a feeling of How is everything going, what is going on, and then addressing those issues, head on in order to create that culture. And, and having a culture that is great, versus shifting a culture that is bad. To make it great is obviously a different thing. You're talking about, you know, a huge, but to create it from the ground up.

 

Andy Weins  32:23

You got to build it, you got to be intentional. Right. Right. And that's, that's,

 

Leighann Lovely  32:27

that's amazing, Andy that you have,

 

Andy Weins  32:29

you can't fault people from where they came from? Good, better, indifferent. Right? We definitely have, you know, if anything in this, in this country, I think of all the conflict we have, the greatest conflict we have right now is, you know, the haves and the have nots, right, those in power knows that the rest of us, right, and what he's saying in class warfare is the 1% of 1% of 1%, fighting the rest of us, you know, 99.9999%. But without getting too political here, but when it comes down to when it comes to the classes, right? It's not about where people came from, it's where you're at today. And it's the obligation of the all the leaders within the organization to establish the standards, right. And so you have somebody that doesn't recognize, hey, you got to walk the floor every day, you had to take the fucking happy hours out their office, grab their hand and walk the damn floor. And if they do it on their own accord, God bless. And if they don't you take them and you take them and you take them. And you do it until they recognize it. If they don't recognize it, you ship them on down the line and have somebody else deal with them. Right? You're right, there are people that grow up with with more or with or with less, and it is what it is. Certainly it's your job as a leader to show the standards, right? I hire a lot of people with the expectation that they're going to know more and see more than I do, and rarely does that happen. So there's a reason why I'm the one that started the company, and I'm the one that owns it, and they don't, because they don't see what I see. Right? And because I see it, it allows me to challenge them and lead them and show them what right looks like what we're where we're going to set forth that vision, right. And then it's on them to execute, right and understand the details and fill in the gaps and fill in where I'm not strong. And so it's not a question of where people are coming from it's it's an obligation of the leadership of the organization to set the tone. And the leadership fails to do it. That's on a leadership. It's not on that individual. Yeah, absolutely. We are in a world that needs and leaders and a lot of people are so afraid of being leaders that they're not

 

Leighann Lovely  34:46

absolutely. Either they're afraid of being leaders or they're not trained properly in the simple. They're simply trying to be managers and they don't want to be leaders.

 

Andy Weins  35:00

as well, those are different words, sometimes you need a manager, sometimes you need a leader, you can't just say you can't manage people. I hate that word shouldn't leading people will lead to better results and manage people, you can manage. You can manage processes, you can manage places, like we have a warehouse manager, his job is to manage the product within the warehouse, you can manage that you're going to manage it. If you want to manage people, then you're going to teach them those how and the what and monitor their activities, and you're going to own the results. And that sounds fucking terrible. And we leave it leaders leaders, set the expectation that a result, they lead the people on the people figure out how to achieve that result. And I'll make the argument. If you have 11 people in the room and one's a leader and 10 people have to figure out the how there's more collective brainpower that 10 How people and there's the the one what person, right and collectively all 11 need to know their why the organizational why, and their individual why? Once you start doing that, now you're leading, and now the leaders leading with the why, hey, this is why we need to do that. And eventually, you'll have the white leaders, and you'll have the how, you know, the the how leaders, I'm sorry. And then the white people, they'll figure out how to do it. And that's a beautiful thing.

 

Leighann Lovely  36:21

And we don't have enough leaders, we have enough managers that are in tears, because,

 

Andy Weins  36:26

Yeah, because because they've been been lied to for 130 years. Because our public education produces workers and managers, not leaders, and then you're told to go to college, you learn, you don't learn how to fucking lead and college.

 

Leighann Lovely  36:44

Don't take me down that path. Okay, you don't want to lead.

 

Andy Weins  36:47

I was working with students from UW Madison. And I'm like, man, they're college educated, like, You got to be not dumb to get into Madison. Right? These are Madison, and they're seniors. I started working with them in February, and they're graduating in May I'm like, these are gonna be some a high speed individuals, they could write an email. No, because no one taught them soft skills. Because our society is like hard skills, hard skills, hard skills. They didn't, didn't know how to basics, didn't know how to have a conversation that wasn't in text message.

 

Leighann Lovely  37:16

Yeah, they're taught memorization. There's grit, and now it's leadership. No,

 

Andy Weins  37:23

is that correct? No problem. I look at college, I have a bachelor's degree, my bachelor's degree says that I have an ability to learn. And I have an ability to write papers and give speeches. Those are the abilities I have. It doesn't matter what I wrote the speeches on, it doesn't matter. The research I did, it was the fact that I was able to take a problem and write a paper and present a logical argument. That's what I've done. All the other stuff is BS, because it forever changing and evolves. And you can learn it all on University of YouTube for a lot cheaper than that going to college. College has failed people. And this notion of participation trophies is fucking failed people, our society and I've been in the military 18 fucking years, and better the world. And you're right, that the monopoly I have is, I have no problem taking chances and saying what's on my mind, right? A lot of people don't have that. And they don't want to leave. They just and the problem we have even more now is we have people that don't want to follow. Because you have three options in life and only three everything in this role. I break down the three, right? You can lead you can follow are you getting the fucking way? And we have a lot of getting the fucking way people right now. Okay, so if you're not a leader, and you're not following, guess what bucket or it

 

Leighann Lovely  38:54

doesn't leave a lot of other buckets there.

 

Andy Weins  38:57

There's no other buckets, right, that's it. Because even with me, right? If someone walks into the hey, this what we're doing, I'm like, okay, hey, Eddie, shut up trying to follow. Let's go. Right. In order to be a good leader, you got to be a great follower first, right? We're out when I have failed as a leader in the past. It's because I didn't recognize the needs of the follower. I put my needs before there's servant leadership is is the leadership. It's not about you. It's about serving the people at all aspects. Right. Even within the company, you know, like, we've talked about this in the past, there's only four people you serve. The only four people that matter. And, in organizations get this wrong all the time. There's only four people you serve. Once you recognize that you serve four, and they're not equal, but you you serve them fairly, not equally. So here are the four people you serve your customers, your vendors, your Your investors and your employees, nobody else matters.

 

Leighann Lovely  40:07

And I truly believe that one of the the first steps to becoming an amazing leader is humility, until you have truly accepted humility, you will never become an amazing leader. And there are too many people out there that are, are too self centered and too high in themselves to be able to accept that. And that will always keep them in the manager category.

 

Andy Weins  40:33

Yeah, because they're going to be humble enough to recognize that you don't have it all. It takes a team, right. But then the difference between a manager and a leader at that point is you also have to be proud enough, not pride, right, but proud enough to stand up for yourself. And it's the obligation of the organization to have an environment that encourages that. So I worked for Fortune 500 companies where my ideas weren't well received. And they didn't want original ideas. They just wanted you to follow their system. Well, it's like you're holding me accountable for the results, which are not allowing me to change the actions. Well, then why was not I'm just managing the actions, the results, I have no control over. Right? So I'm just mad. Right? So you have to be proud enough or whatever the word is chutzpah, intelligence, whatever, to take some calculated risks, you might lose your job. Right, go back to that nucleus, because right? Those the rest of most have the most to gain or lose,

 

Leighann Lovely  41:38

Right? And FYI, if you do this, you may lose your job. But but you know, once

 

Andy Weins  41:43

you start with, let's start with what's the worst that can happen? Okay, you can lose your job. Is that it? The fuck over yourself, right? Or do you? Or do you want to die a slow death? 20 years of hating your job? Because you chose not to speak up? Or we're not allowed to? Yeah, you are, you might get fired.

 

Leighann Lovely  42:03

I love that. But you know, what your your I have worked for a large company, I specifically went to work for a smaller company, because they were holding me accountable for results. But I was saying, but your systems not working. And they're saying, but you need to follow the rules. Okay, I'm going to leave, because either I'm going to do what I'm going to do, and you're gonna fire me or I'm going to leave gracefully, completely agree with everything that you are, are saying, but we are coming to time. And I don't want to miss out on the opportunity to ask you a couple of other questions First, if if somebody wanted to take out their frustration at their job that they hate right now, and they're stuck at? Where would they be able to come to the rage room and

 

Andy Weins  42:52

Rage Room MKE in Butler, Wisconsin, that's it. Rage Room, M K E, Google it, you'll find it, it's that simple

 

Leighann Lovely  43:00

Andy it'll be in the show notes. But Andy, I have a question of the season. This is, you know, you have taken the opportunity to launch Season Two with me episode one, I really appreciate that. So this is the question that I will be asking everybody this season. So you ready for this? Girl? If you could go back to your younger self and give yourself advice? When would you go back? And what advice would you give yourself?

 

Andy Weins  43:30

I'd say second grade ish, first grade ish. Back when I cared about what other people thought about me, right back, back when you're, you're not a kid and you're starting to morph into Oh, there's a world around you. And you're not just free, right? And you're getting picked on and bullied and questioned. And obviously you want to fit in with everybody else. And I'll give the same advice I give everybody else and this is the life advice. I came up actually last week at a young man's event I came up with his life advice. And it's not PC but that's for the PC police. So here's the life advice. I would I would tell that kid so as it's called second grade, I had a great teacher in secondary Mrs gets in second grade. I think that seems like a very logical time My daughter just graduated second grade. So I'm like, You know what, that's that's an age where I can still remember some of the things that happen. So here's the advice I'd give that kid and that's the advice I give everybody and this is advice that I also have to remember life is boiled down to the going back to three three phrases have four words each 12 words that this is what I'm living by now. Do the fucking thing. Tell the fucking world shut the fuck up.

 

Leighann Lovely  44:47

And you think that that your younger self would understand what that meant?

 

Andy Weins  44:55

Yeah, because I didn't do the thing. Right I was busy. I was busy telling the world who I was, you know, was or wasn't going to be. And and then, and then I, I felt the need to respond to everybody for everything. Right? If I had just been me, right, if you're just you, no one can stop you. No one can do it better than you. So just you do you do you do the thing, right? Be proud of who you are be like, Hey, I'm Andy, this what I'm doing. You don't like it? That's on you. That's a huge problem, right? I'm a big fan of saying it's a huge problem. Because people come to me with problems well as a you problem. And then walk away. Right? Because if you want to solve everybody's problems, you're gonna be running your mouth and solving other people's problems on your own. Right when the challenges people have is they don't know when to shut up, myself included. So that's what I work on now. Right? Tell the world. But then if someone doesn't like it sounds good. Right? There's people that if they've made it made it this far in the episode of the podcast, they might not agree with it, I have to say it's fine. Least you're listening. Right? If you want to have civil discourse, we can certainly have it. But and maybe I can learn something from you. Absolutely. But But after that, go butcher business.

 

Leighann Lovely  46:23

I think that if we were all are 100% our authentic self all the time, not everybody. Let me just rephrase. Not everybody. There are a lot of assholes out there. And, you know, just put them on an island somewhere and but if the majority of us were just all our authentic selves, and we'd get over it already, I think that there would be a hell of a lot more work getting done. shit happening every day. And you know, happy people walking around. It's it's as simple as that. It took

 

Andy Weins  47:00

but let the assholes be assholes. Because of their their true selves, they'll get found out.

 

Leighann Lovely  47:06

You're right. You're right. And, hey, those circles that I hang out and it is pretty obvious, pretty quick, who they are.

 

Andy Weins  47:17

And their voice is just as important as our voice. Right? The goal is with a freedom of speech. Right? The best ideas come to the top. Yep. I rather have the hassle speaking because they're assholes either way, but at least I know they're there their agenda? I'll take I'll take that over. You don't know who you can trust? Absolutely. So

 

Leighann Lovely  47:38

Well, Andy, this has been, as always an enlightening conversation. I always jumped at the chance to sit down and have a conversation with you. Each time I always walk away with, you know, some gold nugget of information that I know that I can use. So I do appreciate taking the time it's are you taking the time, it's always fun. It's always been a pleasure. Thank you so much.

 

Andy Weins  48:03

Thank you.

 

Leighann Lovely  48:05

Thank you again for listening to Let's Talk HR. I appreciate your time and support without you the audience this would not be possible. So don't forget that if you enjoyed this episode to follow us like us or share us. Have a wonderful day.

 

LinkedIN - https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyweins/

 

Rage Room MKE - https://www.rageroommke.com/

 

Camo Crew (Junk Removal) - https://www.camocrew.us/

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/cruen/family-time License code: 2330NZD3BLNDKPYI

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

people, business, culture, andy, leaders, organism, years, company, fucking, day, chickens, life, world, organization, job, self awareness, running, referee, walk, person

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