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Steven Pivnik, Entrepreneur & Founder, Joins Ultimate Guide to Partnering®
Steven Pivnik is a highly accomplished serial entrepreneur and CEO of a leading Microsoft partner, renowned for his ability to apply a growth mindset and agility in leadership. With a sharp focus on innovation and results, Steven has led his company to success, demonstrating what it means to embrace challenges and drive meaningful progress. His expertise in guiding businesses to achieve their greatest potential has made him a sought-after leader and visionary in the tech industry.
In his new book, “Built to Finish”, Steven chronicles his entrepreneurial journey, offering valuable insights into the strategies and mindset that helped him scale new heights. His story is one of perseverance, leadership, and a commitment to continuous improvement, providing readers with practical lessons on navigating modern business complexities. Through his experience, Steven Pivnik continues inspiring leaders to think big and act purposefully.
What You’ll Learn From This Episode:
- Steven on Creativity & AI: Creativity is key in product design, go-to-market strategies, and culture. AI can significantly boost creativity.
[00:00:00] - Vince’s Introduction & Steven’s Background: Steven Pivnik, entrepreneur, author of “Built to Finish,” and endurance sports enthusiast, shares his journey of building a company and competing in Ironman.
[00:01:29] - Entrepreneurship & Endurance Sports: The book parallels the grit and determination needed for both business and athletic achievements.
[00:04:06] - Partnering with IBM & Microsoft: Binary Tree’s strategic shift from IBM to Microsoft showcases the importance of aligning with the right partner programs and knowing when to pivot.
[00:05:50] - Business Challenges & Failures: Steven shares a misstep with SharePoint and the lesson learned from international expansion—having a full in-country team is key for success.
[00:09:03, 00:10:05] - Importance of Relationships in Partnering: Building strong, personal relationships with Microsoft team members and understanding their goals are vital for successful partnerships.
[00:13:17] - Coaching Entrepreneurs for Exits: After his exit from Binary Tree, Steven advises entrepreneurs with $10M+ ARR, helping overcome roadblocks and navigate toward successful exits.
[00:14:16, 00:17:13] - Traits for Business Success: Creativity, especially when coupled with AI, helps companies stand out. Identifying gaps in the market left by large corporations is a smart strategy.
[00:19:28, 00:24:10] - Upcoming Mount Everest Climb: Steven’s next adventure is climbing Mount Everest in May, with preparation focused on endurance and strength training.
[00:25:37] - Dream Dinner Party: Steven would invite his grandfather (for his life journey), Richard Branson (for his adventurous entrepreneurship), and a Navy SEAL (for their leadership). The party would be held in Sardinia, Italy.
[00:27:52, 00:30:45] - Advice to Entrepreneurs: Surround yourself with experienced mentors and team members who have operated at a higher level than your current business to accelerate growth.
[00:34:09] - Closing Remarks: Vince recommends “Built to Finish,” noting its inspirational story for entrepreneurs, and invites listeners to join the “Ultimate Partner Experience.”
[00:35:27, 00:36:16]
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Keywords
Steven Pivnik, Built to Finish, growth mindset, leadership agility, serial entrepreneur, entrepreneurial success, business leadership, company growth strategies, scaling a business, leadership insights, business innovation, growth mindset in business, agility in business leadership, business transformation, entrepreneurship lessons, business leadership development, tech industry leader, how to grow a business, leadership strategies for success, successful business growth, innovation in leadership, leading with purpose, CEO insights, business success story.
Transcript
Transcript (Provided by Descript)
[00:00:00] Steven: With an AI specifically right now, I think it’s really going to help the creative. Um, so if you add in, sprinkle in a little bit of creativity into your product design, into your go to market strategies, like even into your culture, it’s going to help tremendously.
[00:00:20] Intro: Microsoft’s purpose is in service of your purpose. And again 2024 is the year that partners come out as the leading edge of the spear on finding this buyer intent. You show up to every meeting and demonstrate why you are relevant.
[00:00:33] Intro: Every day I have to force myself to make sure that I’m taking one step ahead in terms of my own learning.
[00:00:37] Intro: That flywheel of success is where you will build momentum and that momentum will continue and then you feed into the other systems to say this is what we did, this is how we did it together.
[00:00:48] Vince: Welcome to the ultimate guide to partnering. I’m Vince Menzione your host, and I’m on a mission to help leaders like you achieve your greatest results through successful partnering. Much of the discussion we have these days is around the tectonic shifts we’ve been seeing in our world and in our lives.
[00:01:04] Vince: We talk about the need to apply a growth mindset and agility to how leaders need to achieve their greatest results. Today I’m excited to feature a leader, a CEO of a Microsoft partner, who applied such a mindset, to take his company to the pinnacle and has chronicled his journey in his new book, Steven Pivnick is a successful serial entrepreneur.
[00:01:29] Vince: And the author of “Built to Finish”. Steven, welcome to the podcast. Vince. Thank you so much for having me. So excited to have you here in Boca Raton, Florida. We, we, you know, you love our background, right? We bought the beach right in for you.
[00:01:40] Steven: The background is fantastic. What a great touch for, for a recording studio.
[00:01:44] Vince: Absolutely. And, uh, thank you for making the trip from New York city.
[00:01:49] Steven: Yeah. I’m glad we were finally able to put this together.
[00:01:50] Vince: I know it took a while. We had, uh, the airlines have not been our best friend here and getting you here.
[00:01:54] Steven: No, not at all. For a second there, I thought like we were cursed, but I finally made it.
[00:01:59] Vince: Well, so excited to welcome you here today. You and I had the opportunity to know each other when I was leading Microsoft’s public sector business. And you were, you were leading one of the top partners working with Microsoft. And we want to talk more about that journey today. You know, we talk about the tectonic shifts we’ve been seeing in our world. And in our lives and how organizations have become agile and having to address those issues. So we’re going to tie in that conversation today But also more importantly for our listeners and our viewers today. Tell us a little bit more about Steven Pivnick.
[00:02:29] Steven: Sure, so I’m a serial entrepreneur I’m, also an endurance sports enthusiast. I’ve become addicted to ironman distance triathlons Mountaineering and ultra-marathons. And I think the two, the entrepreneurship is an endurance sport. They have a lot of similarities and, um, that’s kind of me in a nutshell.
[00:02:49] Vince: Yeah. And also an author, right? So, the genesis of this interview today is that I saw Steven announced his book “Built to Finish.” Which is the journey, both your professional journey and your athletic journey. Right. I was hoping maybe we’d spend a little bit of time on that and why you wrote the book.
[00:03:08] Steven: So, um, as I was approaching my entrepreneurial finish line, which is basically I think most entrepreneurs want to realize the value of their creation and exit their company.
[00:03:16] Steven: So as I was approaching my exit, which was to a 4 billion competitor and selling my company to them, I was also approaching my, my, um, endurance goal of getting into the iron man world championship and competing there. So those two events actually happened about 12 months apart. And after coursing that finish line in Kona, Hawaii, I said, you know what? I want to memorialize this journey in a book. offer tips and tricks and advice with the hopes of inspiring others to set audacious goals.
[00:03:45] Vince: I love, that audacious goals. I mean, the whole, I, the whole journey in triathlon, well, both the business journey as an entrepreneur. I’m living that myself and then also the athletic journey.
[00:03:57] Vince: So, uh, I’m hoping we’re going to, uh, dive deep into those conversations today. So do you think that, what do you see the similarities here between the two?
[00:04:06] Steven: There’s so many. Right? From the planning, preparation, execution, perseverance, setbacks, pivots, stamina, all of those can be applied to entrepreneurship and they could, it could be applied to endurance sports.
[00:04:22] Steven: So, and they all, they all feed on each other. So there’s, that’s just the beginning of the similarity list.
[00:04:27] Vince: Yeah. And in the book, you actually draw parallels between the two, right? You take us on the journey, you’re coming to the United, your family’s coming to the United States, your early journey. The, the business journey and then you, and then you’re weaving in the, the athleticism and the journey to a triathlete.
[00:04:42] Steven: Sure. I mean, it all starts with the grind. You know, I talk about, you know, the, the grind that my parents needed to go, my parents and grandparents, you know, went through in uprooting a family from the former Soviet Union to Brooklyn, New York. And then the grind that’s necessary to start up a business and all the things that need to happen at the, in the early stages in order for you to, to make it to a point where you can actually, you know, see that finish line. Eventually,
[00:05:04] Vince: Such a great story about, you know, I like to refer to grit and determination as to like amazing factors. I got to live with my grandparents who came to this country in the 1920s and we all lived together. And I felt like I saw a lot of similarities in reading your story to my family’s journey.
[00:05:21] Vince: So it was really terrific. Uh, many of our listeners or viewers are partners, right? So this is the ultimate guide to partnering. You spent a little time in this world that we live in now, and you were very successful working with. Organizations like IBM and then Microsoft and that transition from the IBM world to the Microsoft world, which I thought was fascinating.
[00:05:40] Vince: But the journey wasn’t overnight. What experiences or best practices can you share with our viewers and listeners about that journey from start to exit?
[00:05:50] Steven: Sure. Um, one of my partners used to describe us as the pilot fish that swims next to the shark, right? So, in the 90s…
[00:05:58] Vince: I never thought of it that way. But I love it. I love the analogy.
[00:06:00] Steven: I’m not 100 percent sure that I love the analogy because we’re not, we’re just the live of somebody else. But, um, in the nineties, our, our specialty from a business partner perspective, I ran binary tree, uh, it was email, right? Um, in, in layman’s terms, we were the best email moving truck in the world.
[00:06:17] Steven: If a company needed to move an email platform from someplace to someplace else, we were that truck that got them there. Um, so in the nineties, IBM was that shark. Right. So we made sure that we latched ourselves, I’m sorry, that shark, not truck, shark. We latched ourselves onto IBM success. So that was one of our, you know, best practices.
[00:06:36] Steven: We made sure that we identified, you know, what their goals are, you know, what, um, and what they’re trying to do from a market share perspective. And we said, you know what, we’re going to help them get there. And we did. And when the tide shifted in favor of Microsoft, you know, we’re talking about like 2005 ish.
[00:06:53] Steven: Yep. And then IBM started. growing as the bigger shark in the waters, we said, you know what, you know, time to pivot and let’s go follow that shark because, um, it, the grass is going to be greener over there. And boy, was it.
[00:07:07] Vince: Yeah. I remember the move from Lotus notes to the Microsoft platform. Yeah. And it was, and it was huge.
[00:07:13] Vince: And Microsoft spent a lot of time there. And then of course, Microsoft moved everybody to on, to the cloud, right? So there was that additional…
[00:07:22] Steven: Like I said, as long as there was movement, we were happy because we facilitated all of those email changes for a variety of use cases. Like you mentioned, there’s several others.
[00:07:30] Vince: Well, let’s dive in more on the Microsoft side since IBM probably is less relevant today to some of our listeners. But like, what was that like to work with Microsoft? What were some of the learnings you can share? For partners starting out or really earlier in their journey now, like what, what were some observations you had and how did you learn to swim alongside them?
[00:07:51] Steven: Sure. Um, I hope I’m not insulting Microsoft in any way, shape or form because at the end of the day, they were the best partner in the world to have. Um, but I’ve heard this saying, and it’s kind of true. You can go out of business doing business with Microsoft. Yes. Yes. Microsoft has a million and one initiatives.
[00:08:05] Steven: And I think the biggest challenge business partners have today is figuring out which one of these initiatives they want to latch themselves onto. Because if you don’t choose wisely, you can go, you may go out, you won’t go, it’s not guaranteed to go out of business, but you may, right? So, you know, choosing wisely, um, from these, all of these initiatives because they have part, they have programs, you know, around the globe, around every single, um, stack of theirs, every single technology, um, product.
[00:08:31] Steven: And it changes every year. 100%. Yeah. Yeah. So latching onto the right one and knowing if and when to change is probably one of the biggest challenges business partners are faced with.
[00:08:41] Vince: It’s fascinating because we talk about a set of operating principles around what makes successful partnering. The seventh and last principle is agility and the ability to learn and know intuitively when to pivot.
[00:08:52] Vince: Right, and I think that’s exactly what you’re talking about here. Give can you give us an example from, from your experience there, like was there, was there a chance that you had a, that you had a pivot with Microsoft that you can share?
[00:09:03] Steven: Yeah, I mean, there was more, on more than one occasion, we had some full starts around SharePoint.
[00:09:09] Steven: And I’m not blaming Microsoft, I’m blaming ourselves because maybe we just, SharePoint is such a, you know, why is such a big beast? Yes. There’s a lot of things that you can do around SharePoint and maybe we chose incorrectly and we just, we, we were, we were so successful with exchange. And then Office 365.
[00:09:23] Steven: We wanted to replicate that success with SharePoint. And We couldn’t. So one of many failures, right? And again, maybe we didn’t latch on to the right program or the right component of SharePoint, or maybe our technology wasn’t as good as our email technology was. But that was one of the, um, the oops, the multiple oops that we had in our business journey.
[00:09:43] Vince: Were there any significant, I mean, that was one pitfall specifically. Was there anything else during that period of time? Like you took this company on a very successful journey, a very successful outcome, uh, and exit to Quest, which we also know. Uh, we know some of the, uh, former Quest folks as well. Um, was there anything else along that journey that you can share with our listeners? Some learnings there?
[00:10:05] Steven: Yeah. One, one, one of the ones that come to mind is our international expansion, right? Because our forte was dealing with the largest customers on the planet. Like if you threw a dart at the fortune 5, 000 list with your eyes closed, Pretty good chance to get a land on a customer of ours.
[00:10:20] Steven: Most of these companies are international. So that, that kind of dragged us overseas. And in some countries we had great success in other countries, not so much. And I attributed that to, um, kind of the U S mentality of, as long as you have a body, you know, in that continent, you’ll be fine. Like for instance, in the continent, in the continent.
[00:10:38] Steven: So which, which, which was a huge mistake for, for example, Germany. Which is the biggest market in Europe. Um, we had a salesperson in Germany, but the rest of the staff that’s necessary for a project, the solution architect, the consultant, the support engineer, et cetera, et cetera, they were in other countries.
[00:10:54] Steven: So we had minimal success in Germany in the beginning versus France where we had an entire team there. Our sales executive, our solutions architect, our consulting services manager, our support engineer, you know, five of the five touch points that a customer would have with us was in country. Speaking the same language, understanding that culture, you can guess our success in France was awesome.
[00:11:17] Vince: You know, it’s funny that you mentioned that because I see similarities, organizations that try to come into the North American and U. S. market, and they might land in a place let’s say like Canada or even like French Canada like Montreal, right, and expect that they’re gonna cover the U.S. market in California and Florida and places like this. Uh, same, same, same similarities, right? Culturally so different than the market here in the United States.
[00:11:42] Steven: Yeah. So that was one of the many pitfalls. If I had to do it again, it would be a team per country. And, um, you’d be, we would have been a lot more successful quicker.
[00:11:52] Steven: I mean, we eventually got there. We figured, we figured out what the differences were and we figured it out.
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[00:12:23] Vince: And you spent a lot of time and I recall even in the book like you would go out to Redmond, you’d spend some time at Microsoft headquarters. Uh, what did you see there working with the Microsoft teams that you work with? Um, you mentioned, uh, you, that, you know, working with Microsoft was, I guess, I’d say probably the biggest partner, right? They understood partner, they embraced partnering, I’d say probably more so than IBM. Um, what did you see there and were any, were there anything, were, any learnings you’d have there? Because I talk about building those personal relationships, building that brand and story, being known for the one thing, working with Microsoft. What were your experiences there with Microsoft?
[00:13:17] Steven: You hit the nail on the head. I was going to say relationships, right? At the end of the day, businesses are built on relationships.
[00:13:23] Steven: And, um, hopefully partners aren’t penny wise and pound foolish and don’t want to get on the plane to go have lunch and or dinner and or breakfast or any sort of meeting with the people that they’re working with. You know, once you, nothing beats establishing that type of personal relationship. And it’s, it’s, it’s.
[00:13:41] Steven: It, it paid off for us, you know, 10 times over by getting on planes repeatedly and spending, you know, numerous, numerous, um, Um, meetings out there just to get to know people and understand, you know, um, what drives them, what their bonus on what they’re quoted on and things like that. And they don’t, they really don’t mind sharing.
[00:14:02] Steven: You just, you just have to ask.
[00:14:03] Vince: Yeah. We talk about, you know, asking what their scorecard looks like, right? Like how are they, how are they balanced? Exactly. What are the metrics that they’re driven against? Like, and that changes every year as well. So understand, understand your scorecard and what drives success.
[00:14:16] Vince: I used to also use a term, uh, uh, how can we, what, what would it take for us to get you a red jacket at the end of the year, which was the pinnacle award, the top award for being the most successful person at Microsoft. Those people would get those red jackets. So that was always a great question to ask people.
[00:14:32] Steven: Yeah, a hundred percent. And they don’t mind sharing. Right. So they’re very, very transparent. And they’re not going to beat around the bush. And as long as you, you ask, like one of my CFOs used to say, don’t ask, don’t get. Exactly. Ask, you’ll get the answer, and then you can align your priorities with theirs.
[00:14:48] Vince: So, successful exit. You talked about some of your passions around athleticism. I’ll talk about triathlete, uh, climbing. We’re going to talk a little bit more about that. But you’re also doing some work with other organizations now, like you and I had a conversation about coaching some organizations on how to be more successful.
[00:15:06] Vince: Tell us a little bit more about that and what’s the profile, the person you’re working with and what are the outcomes that they’re looking to achieve?
[00:15:14] Steven: Sure. So I’ve benefited tremendously from advisors, especially towards the tail end of my company’s career. Um, earlier on, like most entrepreneurs, I was very cocky.
[00:15:23] Steven: I thought I knew it all and I didn’t want any help, which was the totally wrong approach. So when I, when I wised up and brought on, um, advisors, guess what? The company started growing, decided becoming much more profitable and we were like perfectly marching towards an exit strategy. Nice. So now that I’ve had that, had that exit, I’m basically giving back to the entrepreneurial community and doing for others exactly what advisors did for me.
[00:15:49] Steven: I love that. So we’re, I’m, I’m about. 48 hours away from signing from a deal being signed for the first business partner. Um, that’s, you know, signed up with me now that I’ve done it, I can help others.
[00:16:01] Vince: So they’re getting to their exit. They’re out there…
[00:16:02] Steven: Where we’re in the tail end of due diligence right now, and they should be exiting in about 48 hours.
[00:16:07] Vince: Is there anything specifically you can share with our viewers and listeners about that? Like, is there, is there, cause I have this, I told you about my set of operating principles, but is, You talked about having a vision and grit and determination, those types of things. Is there anything, is there like a formula that you share?
[00:16:22] Steven: Sure. Um, so I answered, I’ll answer your previous question and this one, as far as like a typical profile, you know, this customer of mine, you know, fit my ideal profile, which is a company doing at least 10 million in ARR. That’s profitable, um, but has, uh, is experiencing some roadblocks, right? Maybe a little bit of stagnation, a little bit of slowdown in sales growth, maybe a reduction in profitability.
[00:16:45] Steven: And the owner has been at it for a while, you know, 5 to 10, maybe sometimes 15 years. In this case, it was 20 years, the owner. And they’re just, you know, ready for that exit, but they can’t see that light at the end of the tunnel. Right. So the formula is really to help, um, Take things out of the way so that light can become visible and by take things out of the way, there’s so many, um, but that’s, that’s what advisors help me do and that’s what I’m able to help others with right now.
[00:17:13] Vince: Like read the label of the jelly jar that you can’t read when you’re inside the jelly jar. And, uh, you know, just, just, you’re, you’re working, so you’re, cause I feel this myself so many times you’re, you’re working in the business that you can’t work on the business.
[00:17:27] Steven: A hundred percent. I mean, that’s such an overused statement, but it’s so true.
[00:17:30] Steven: And a lot of CEOs don’t realize what the difference is. And once they actually see that difference, it’s, um, like this, it’s like this aha moment. Oh my God. So this is what it means to work on the business instead of being in there 24/7.
[00:17:43] Vince: So invaluable. I love that. So let’s go back to the book for a second, because I love the title.
[00:17:49] Vince: Uh, you know, there’s a famous book “Built to Last” that, you know, similar in terms of the name of the title. So can you elaborate on what it truly means to be “Built to Finish”?
[00:17:59] Steven: I mean, you just have to be, you know, super passionate about that finish line, you know, whatever that is. There’s so many different, you know, finishes.
[00:18:06] Steven: There’s, you know, degrees in education. There’s, you know, maybe marriage in a relationship. Um, obviously the exit, the sale of a business or crossing an actual finish line or getting to the top of a mountain. So you just, you need to be super passionate about that finish. You need to know your why. Like, why, why is this important to me personally? And once, and I love Simon Sinek.
[00:18:29] Vince: Yeah, I was just thinking of Simon Sinek. I love it.
[00:18:31] Steven: What’s your why? You need to know. It’s so, it’s so true though. Once you know your why, the how becomes a lot easier. And there’s just, there’s so many people out there that can help with the how, but you need to figure out, you know, what the why first, and then you’ll get there.
[00:18:47] Vince: Yeah. Um, we talk about mindset. That we talk about. Uh, vision, having a vision, but having your, um, we refer to a term personal philosophy. And a lot of times people have a statement that’s basically, is there a why, right? Right. What, what is, what is it, what is your ultimate outcome for your life for, for your purpose, you know, and it’s a little bit different than a mission statement.
[00:19:11] Vince: So, uh, in the book, you emphasize the importance of resilience and adaptability. Which, um, which are also tied into this principle seven I talked about, which is agility. Uh, from a business perspective, what traits can organizations cultivate to help them along that journey?
[00:19:28] Steven: Um, if I had to pick one, especially in today’s day and age, I would say creativity. Right? Because there’s so many companies, individuals that are following, you know, specific playbooks. And there’s nothing wrong with playbook. I mean, I think a playbook is fantastic because, um, sometimes previous results do are responsible for future success, but in other cases it is not. So I think creativity is key, especially from a go to market perspective, because there’s so many, there’s so many companies and brands that just, you know, copy each other.
[00:20:00] Vince: Yeah.
[00:20:00] Steven: With AI specifically right now, I think it’s really going to help the creative. If you’re, if you’re already creative, you can 10x your creativity with the help, help of ChatGPT and other products. Um, so if you add in, sprinkle in a little bit of creativity into your product design, into your go to market strategies, like even into your culture, it’s going to help tremendously.
[00:20:23] Vince: So talk to me about that from the binary tree perspective. Was there anything specifically that you can point to from that?
[00:20:29] Steven: Um, yeah, we, um, we were super creative, I think. Like, one of our competitors said it best. We created a problem where a problem didn’t exist. I love that. So, the problem was email migration, right?
[00:20:41] Steven: Yeah. So, email migration was supposed to stink. If you’re converting data, especially, and people don’t understand how complicated a calendar entry is. There’s a lot of complexities behind a recurring calendar entry. Yes. So, the market understood that if you’re going from apples to oranges, IBM to Microsoft, or vice versa.
[00:20:59] Steven: Mm. You’re going to drop a couple of things here and there and just expect the worst and just deal with it. Um, we, we went out of our way to show the market that it can be perfect. You can have 100 percent data fidelity during the migration and during this integration period where half of your company is on one platform.
[00:21:18] Steven: And the other half is on the other while we migrate everybody over. So we became super creative in saying, if you’re dealing with these problems, that’s a problem. It doesn’t, migrations don’t need to stink. They can be completely flawless and, and seamless to your end user community. And that, um, served us really well.
[00:21:36] Steven: And how’d you brand that or how’d you market that? Um, so we went, we did a lot of trade shows and we did a lot of road shows and when it was our turn to get up on stage, um, we were not embarrassed because Microsoft also does a great job of putting forward on multiple partner solutions to the marketplace.
[00:21:53] Steven: They’re, they’re rarely exclusive and when it was our turn to get up on stage and even though our, our, our friends from our competitors were in the audience. We just, you know, beat them up left, right, and center saying that we are the best game in town from a data fidelity perspective. And when it was their turn, they really couldn’t combat that because they knew they weren’t.
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[00:23:08] Vince: So we’re living in interesting times. Um, I refer to them ever since COVID actually, uh, this is a time like no other, this tectonic shifts we’ve been seeing, right? This I’ll call the economic headwinds, uh, geopolitical climate that we live in, uh, changing and buying behaviors. Uh, the dominance of the hyperscalers, I mean, even more so than the days when when you were leading your business, like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon really are dominating even more.
[00:23:34] Vince: So now, cause the, The investments and commitments, especially around AI that are required. And also this co selling has become even more important than it was when you were running your company. Um, characteristics, do you believe organizations need to think about to lead and succeed during these times?
[00:23:53] Steven: So again, your creativity comes to mind in this case, and in this specific instance, just, you know, figuring out where the gaps are, even with these behemoths out there, they’re still, they’re leaving a lot of gaps in their solutions and in their technology for business partners around the world to fill.
[00:24:10] Steven: Like, in my case, back in the day, Microsoft could have easily came up with a migration product, or IBM could have, but it just wasn’t a priority for them. They were out there getting market share, and they left that opportunity out for business partners, and several of us did really well because of that gap.
[00:24:25] Steven: So, I think just looking out for where the gaps are, because they will continuously be there, and filling them is a good strategy to undertake.
[00:24:34] Vince: So, is that your best advice for the organizations listening today on how they can achieve their greatest results?
[00:24:41] Steven: Um, so again, so if you’re looking for a new product, I think identifying a gap and filling that gap is fantastic.
[00:24:47] Steven: Um, if you already have a product in market, then you’re putting the foot on the gas and using, you know, all the popular modern, you know, go to market strategies around, you know, social media and people laugh at me when I tell them, how come you’re not on tiktok? They’re like, well, I hate tiktok. I don’t use tiktok, but I’m like, but doesn’t mean your customers aren’t on tiktok.
[00:25:05] Steven: That’s right. I mean, I stopped watching television. If I, if I have half an hour to kill. Like waiting for a plane to take off. I’m, it’s, it’s entertaining as hell.
[00:25:13] Vince: It is entertaining.
[00:25:14] Steven: So there’s a lot of executives out there that are probably doing the same.
[00:25:16] Vince: So there’s no excuse for somebody not to be on TikTok.
[00:25:19] Vince: We’re getting a lot of views on TikTok these days. So you’re going to see some of this on, on there as well. So talk about your next adventure, right? We talked about certainly the, the coaching work that you’ve been doing with organizations. But I know you’ve got something really big planned in about another year. Is it next year?
[00:25:37] Steven: May. Yeah. May of next year. There’s only one month of the year to do the, to do what I’m about to tell you.
[00:25:42] Vince: Yeah. So let’s talk about that a little bit more.
[00:25:43] Steven: Um, Mount Everest. So I’ve climbed some of the other seven summits. Um, actually, thanks to Microsoft, I fell in love with mountaineering because I spent a weekend out there and I went to explore Mount Rainier.
[00:25:54] Steven: And then a month later, I summited Mount Rainier. Yeah. Fell in love with the entire concept of mountaineering. And I went to, um, Alaska a couple of times, Kilimanjaro, Akinkanwa in South America, which is second highest to Everest, and, um, finally found a partner, um, because I want to come back alive.
[00:26:12] Steven: And I want to, I want to increase my chances of summiting, did a lot of due diligence and found a partner, Alpenglow Expeditions, that I’m going with in May of next year.
[00:26:23] Vince: Wow. So what’s the preparation look like for that journey? Yeah.
[00:26:27] Steven: So fortunately, I mean, a lot of the endurance, um, training that I do currently, a lot of swimming, biking, running, um, is definitely going to help tremendously, but I need to add a whole bunch of strength and conditioning, um, training to that.
[00:26:39] Steven: Um, so the, the, the amount of squats that I’m doing and step ups is through the roof to get me ready for that. And, um, I plan on spending some time in Colorado. I’m doing a lot of the 14ers. Okay. Yes. Get used to, um, altitude again. And, um, yeah, so I think a combination of all of that is going to prepare me for the rest of it.
[00:26:58] Vince: Yeah, we have, in fact, we’ve had other guests here. We’ve had other, uh, Everest guests. Uh, have I made some introductions?
[00:27:03] Steven: Yes, I spoke with both of them. Fascinating individuals.
[00:27:05] Vince: Louise McElroy and, uh And, uh, yeah, and Erwin Visser. But, uh, also, Louise leads some of these 14ers. So, um, there’s a whole group of women, uh, “She Summits” is the name of the group, actually. Some friends of ours.
[00:27:20] Steven: Actually I plan on reaching out to her again, because I, I need some of the, because there’s a lot of 14ers. There’s a lot of 14ers. I need to come up with a strategy for which ones I should hit and when, prior to the, prior to departing.
[00:27:31] Vince: And I think she’s done most of them, I think, if not all of them, uh, most of them, if not all of them. So, uh, certainly that’s going to be a great conversation there. Maybe we should have you both on the podcast together next time. With Irwin. That’d be great. And Irwin’s been here in the studio. He, uh, he helped lead our event here in the studio back in May. So it’s really kind of cool. So this question is a favorite of mine.
[00:27:52] Vince: Uh, and I like to ask every guest because the answers are fascinating. So Stephen, you’re hosting a dinner party. And you can host this dinner party anywhere in the world. We were talking about some really great restaurants and locations prior to filming today. Um, you can invite any three guests from the present or the past to this amazing dinner party. Some people have even mentioned people in the future that they’d want to invite to this amazing dinner party. Whom would you invite and why?
[00:28:23] Steven: Okay, top of the list is easy. My grandfather. I mean, my grand… talk about, you know, perseverance, the grind. Pivot, setback, stamina, execution. And when we, when my wife and I, after our second daughter was born, we moved half a mile away, the stress that we went through was unbelievable.
[00:28:43] Steven: And he, he uprooted an entire family. We were, we lived in Italy for six months waiting for a visa to get into the U S. So we were literally stateless, right? We, we had to, we had to give up our, our Soviet visa. citizenship. We had no status in Italy, in Rome, and waiting for approval to get into the U. S.
[00:29:00] Steven: That’s fascinating. Unfortunately, um, as, as I got older and I got married, you know, I had kids, my career started taking off. I was spending less and less and less time with him. So as I got older and smarter, this is when I should have been talking to him to get more information and stories out of him. So my grandfather’s at the top of the list.
[00:29:19] Vince: Was he the reason why you came?
[00:29:21] Steven: Yes.
[00:29:22] Vince: Okay, so he was, he led the family out.
[00:29:25] Steven: He, he led the family out. He convinced my grandmother. He convinced my mother and father, who were recently married. And it just had me, I was, I was two at the time. And he’s like, oh, we’re, we’re leaving.
[00:29:35] Steven: And this was at the really, really, um, beginning of this huge, you know, immigration wave. that happened from the Soviet Union to the U. S. in 72.
[00:29:45] Vince: 72. And then you settled initially in Coney Island, if I remember correctly.,
[00:29:48] Steven: Yeah it was so, we, it’s, we, there was this organization that was helping immigrant families.
[00:29:52] Steven: They got us an apartment in Coney Island, and then from Coney Island, we went to Brighton Beach, and my mother still lives in Brighton Beach. I’m going to see her tomorrow.
[00:29:58] Vince: That’s fantastic. Hi, mom. So, okay, so who else is coming to this party besides your grandfather?
[00:30:05] Steven: Uh, I think Richard Branson. Okay. I love Richard Branson.I mean, he is such an adventurous entrepreneur. Yeah. I mean, his story is fascinating. I mean, I love him from a business perspective. I love him from an adventure perspective. He’s not as crazy as Jesse Itzler, my other, um, entrepreneur, adventure entrepreneur that I love, but there’s just something about him, which is just fascinating. I would love to pick his brain.
[00:30:29] Vince: I’ve got to see him speak before and uh, It was at one of the Microsoft conferences. You might have been there. Yeah, he spoke at one of our conferences.
[00:30:38] Steven: I remember actually seeing him on stage. Yep. He’s, he’s just a fascinating individual.
[00:30:42] Vince: What an entrepreneur.
[00:30:43] Vince: What a creative entrepreneur. Let’s talk about that..
[00:30:45] Steven: Super I was just telling my daughter on the way here, um, how he started Virgin Airlines. It’s a fantastic story and how he started a whole bunch of other things.
[00:30:52] Vince: Tell us that story.
[00:30:54] Steven: So, he was actually, he was on a, um, waiting to board a plane to go to, I think, some Caribbean island and the airline, the announcement came on and they said, we don’t have enough passengers, so please come back tomorrow for this flight.
[00:31:07] Steven: He was furious. He, he ran around the airport and then he, he chartered a plane. He was asking people for like a 737 or whatever was popular at the time. And he finally found one, chartered it, went back to the gate and said, Hey, who, who wants to go today instead of coming back tomorrow? Everybody raised their hand, he collected some fee from them, and he goes, I have, there’s a better way to serve the traveling public, and I’m going to create that airline to serve us in a better way than we’ve been treated.
[00:31:36] Vince: That is fascinating. Yeah. All right, who’s number three?
[00:31:40] Steven: Any Navy SEAL. I’m in awe of the military. Um, I, I wear a dog tag with no name on it just to, I, I never served, but, um, if I had a chance again, I would, I remember signing up because back when I was going to college, the selective, um, service was on, I see you needed to register for the draft before being accepted to college.
[00:32:01] Steven: So I remember like it was yesterday running to the post office so I can register and, but I was never selected anyway. I’m just in awe of the military. And, you know, SEALs and Rangers, you know, they’re the creme de la creme of, you know, military personnel and they’re just, thank you for your service.If you have any, if anybody in the military was, thank you, but SEALs and, you know, Rangers, they’re just, just incredible in my mind.
[00:32:27] Vince: It’s funny you mentioned that, cause I was thinking about this actually just today, because I grew up at the end of the Vietnam era, a little bit older than you, a few years older than you, I think.
[00:32:36] Vince: And, um. It wasn’t popular, right? The military wasn’t popular, but I, when I dove into the public sector arena, I got to visit and work with a lot of general, former generals and current generals and military leaders and get to go to air force bases and air army bases. And there’s a level of leadership and leadership training that happens in the military.
[00:32:57] Vince: It doesn’t happen anywhere else. It doesn’t, it doesn’t happen in our colleges and university system. Which is a pity, actually. Uh, but, and I’ve met so many great leaders through that. Yep. Yep. So that’s really terrific. And where were you hosting the dinner?
[00:33:09] Steven: Where am I hosting the dinner? Oh, man, where am I hosting the dinner? I just came back from Sardinia, so I had, I would have to say Sardinia, because we’ve been thinking about going to Sardinia for the last 20 years. I dunno why it’s taking this long, but I can’t recommend it highly enough. It’s just a magical, magical place. The beaches, Italy, almost as blue as this.
[00:33:30] Vince: so I’m, I’m going to Italy. Um, so when, uh, when this airs, I’ll probably be back from then, but we’re going to Italy as we talked about a little bit in about another week or so, and we are doing the coastline. We’re doing Positano. We’re doing Puglia. And, uh, I was looking at Sardinia. I was, I was looking at some. Pictures of the beaches there. Absolutely gorgeous
[00:33:50] Steven: It’s, it’s, it’s breathtaking and it, it’s so worth the schlep to get there. Okay. ’cause it’s not exactly the easiest place to get to. No. But it’s very, very worth it.
[00:33:54] Vince: All right. So, uh, if you don’t mind, I might come to this dinner party. Maybe I’ll bring dessert or was it gelato or tiramisu or something? We’ll find something. Uh, I don’t, I don’t know what the Sardinians have, but I’m sure they have something unique to their culture.
[00:34:06] Steven: They have plenty of gelato. I, we, we had our fair share.
[00:34:09] Vince: So, uh, we have a lot of young entrepreneurs, current entrepreneurs, uh, listeners and viewers that follow us. What would be your best advice for them, for those that are starting out on their journey or along their journey to build an organization that’s built to finish?
[00:34:32] Steven: Surround yourself with folks, whether it be executive team members or advisors that have been there and done that. At the level at at a greater level than you’re at today, right?
[00:34:44] Steven: So if you’re running, let’s say a 5 million company and you want to hire a new head of sales or your CFO don’t hire somebody that’s only worked for a 5 million company, bring in somebody that’s coming from a 10 or 15 million company because he or she is going to really help, you know, move the needle a lot quicker than somebody who hasn’t worked at that level.
[00:35:03] Steven: Yeah. So, um, don’t be as silly as I was for the first. Two thirds of my career and not bring in the necessary executives and advisors.
[00:35:14] Vince: Yeah, that’s really great advice. Steven. So good to have you here today. So excited. Yeah. I’m so excited that you came down, spent some time with our team. Our amazing viewers and listeners, uh, so great to see you again.
[00:35:27] Vince: It’s been a while since we’ve seen each other. And, uh, if you haven’t gotten this book yet, I highly recommend it. Uh, there were so similar, so many similarities for me reading the book. Uh, not, not as much on the triathlon side, cause my knees gave out a long time ago, but on the professional journey, the personal journey, and certainly the journey, uh, the, the immigrant journey, I guess is what I would say.
[00:35:48] Vince: And just that. That, that story resonates so, so much with me. Thank you again for joining us.
[00:35:52] Steven: No, I really, really enjoyed it. Thank you for having me.
[00:35:55] Vince: Thank you, Steven. And thank you to our listeners and viewers. If you haven’t done so already, you can follow us along on Spotify, Apple, and our new YouTube channel.
[00:36:06] Vince: Please subscribe on your favorite channel and tell your friends about The Ultimate Guide to Partnering. And TikTok. And thank you for listening and joining The Ultimate Guide to Partnering.
[00:36:16] AD: Thanks for listening to this episode of Ultimate Guide to Partnering. Hopefully this episode and all the episodes we’ve recorded are helping you better align your partner strategy to achieve your greatest results.
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