Multiple 9-Figure Post-Exit Entrepreneur Lee Benson Reveals The Art Of Value Creation (#409)

409 Lee Benson Audio
===

Jeffrey Feldberg: [00:00:00] Lee Benson is the founder and CEO of Execute2Win, otherwise known as ETW, a company dedicated to helping organizations improve results through better alignment, decision making, and accountability. as a CEO, Lee has founded seven companies, achieving exits ranging from a few million dollars Well into nine figures.

He developed the MIND methodology, which stands for Most Important Number and Drivers, a business operating system designed to strengthen teams by aligning every action with their core objectives. Lee is also the author of Your Most Important Number, a book that guides leaders in identifying and leveraging their organization's key metrics to drive success. And before we hop into the podcast, a quick word from our sponsor, Deep Wealth and the Deep Wealth Mastery Program. We have William, a graduate of Deep Both Mastery, and he says, I didn't have the time for Deep Both Mastery, but I made the time and I'm glad I did.

What I learned goes far beyond any other executive program or [00:01:00] coach I've ever experienced. Or how about Bruce? Bruce says, before Deep Wealth Mastery, the challenge I had with most business programs, coaches, or blogs was that they were one dimensional. Through Deep Wealth Mastery, I'm part of a richer community of other successful business owners.

The idea shared forever changed the trajectory of the business and best of all, the experience was fun. And we'll round things out with Stacey. 

Stacey said, I wish I had access to the Deep Wealth Mastery before my liquidity event, as it would have been extremely helpful. Deep Wealth Mastery exceeded my expectations in terms of content and quality.

And you know what, my Deep Wealth Nation, why they're saying this is because Deep Wealth Mastery, it's the only system based on a nine figure deal. That was my deal. And as you know, I said no to a seven figure offer, and I created a system that we now call Deep Wealth Mastery that helped myself and my business partners, welcome from a different buyer, a different offer, a nine figure exit.

So if you're interested in growing your profits, preparing for a future liquidity event, if that's two years away or 20 [00:02:00] years away, and you want to optimize your post exit life, Deep Wealth Mastery is for you. Please email success at deepwealth. com. Again, that's success, S U C C E S S, at deepwealth. com. We'll send you all the information about Deep Wealth Mastery, otherwise known as Scale for Ultimate Sale. That's where you want to be. You want to be with other successful business owners, entrepreneurs, and founders just like you who are looking to create market disruptions.

And they want to lock in their financial freedom and have success and fulfillment. 

That's the 90 day Deep Wealth Mastery Program. It has your name on it. All you need to do is take the next step. Send an email to success at deepwealth. com.

Deep Wealth Nation, welcome to another episode of the Deep Wealth Podcast. Well, in the house of Deep Wealth today, we have a fellow nine figure exit entrepreneur. And let me ask you, Deep Wealth Nation, are you asking, how do I get more value for my company? How do I get that lifestyle that I started this company to begin with in the first place?

How do I not become the statistic on the failure side? I don't want to [00:03:00] be on the failure side. I want to be on the winning side. Well, if you're asking those questions and a whole lot more, you've got it. You've come to the right place. Lee, welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast, an absolute pleasure to have you with us.

And there is always a story behind the story. So Lee, what's your story? What got you from where you were to where you are today? 

Lee Benson: First, Jeffrey, thanks for having me. And this is a lifelong journey. I'm 63. I feel like I'm barely getting started. I've started eight companies from scratch.

I know I will do more. So in a way, this is kind of my 43 year overnight success story. I spent my senior year on my own. I was kicked out of the house, had an apartment. I was already financially independent by then. And I was thinking back then, want to start at least five things that will be able to see any one of them support my lifestyle in retirement.

So if four don't work out, I'm going to be in good shape. Well, I've already gone through six things that all worked out that can support my lifestyle. And back then, I wanted it to be have something to do with business, because I just kind of love this whole idea of, creating real value in the [00:04:00] world, or music, or both.

And so, business has worked out really well, music has been a power hobby for my entire life going through, but that's kind of how I started. And then, from 20 to 63, I mean, this is essentially my 43 year overnight success story that's continuing, if you will. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah, I love that 43 year overnight success story.

People just see the end. Oh, yeah, he was just lucky. Just was there at the right time, had a lot of luck, and as we both know, he's anything but that. So talk to me going back, and I know offline and Deep Wealth Nation, you can't see this. Obviously, it's audio only. I'm seeing this with Lee. He's got this beautiful, I don't know how to describe it, studio, all these instruments that are there, and I said, Lee, is that the real deal or is that just a bad no, it's real deal, I'm a musician.

So, Lee, talk to us in the early days, as you're a musician, you're sharing, you're doing something like a thousand different performances at one point in time. Did that impact how you approached business? Did it not? Where would you be on that? 

Lee Benson: Yeah, good [00:05:00] question. don't consider it one of my businesses, but it really was running a business.

First half of the 80s, played over a thousand nights in clubs and concerts. Crowds ranging from, thousands all the way down to maybe only the cook and the bartender if nobody showed up, in the club. But I still love creating that emotional energy value with a band and going through it.

We had a sound crew, a light crew, a stage crew the singer and I were really the band, and we would change out the rhythm section a few times, as we went through, so it, really was like having a business and I love that, and during the day I was working for most of the 80s as an electroplating operator, and I became the supervisor, the general manager, And then fast forward to 93 when my boss said close it or sell it because we just lost pretty much all of our business overnight.

Gave me 30 days to do it. I couldn't find anybody to buy it. And I said, look, I want to go this direction. I believe in it. You don't believe in it. Let me assume approximately 600, 000 in debt. I'll put my [00:06:00] house up as collateral and we'll figure this out. And he said, great, do it. And so, took that over the end of 93, and then I started setting, and I closed that, and not too many years later, but Able Engineering in 95, Able Aerospace in 99, Able Systems and Technology in 99, just kept stacking these things.

Things up that made sense going forward. So, in a way, you can say it's kind of a value creation cycle. I would struggle to get a capability, to start a business, to learn something, whatever build confidence and all of that, use that to create value, and I just kept taking steps.

So, I've been on this journey really since I was six years old when a neighbor said unsolicited or asked me, would you pull 25 cents an hour? Sure. And that led to shoveling snow, and mowing lawns, and paper routes, a dishwasher, cook, busboy, band business, and now a consulting company Execute to Win, where I work with hundreds of businesses from startup to 60 billion dollar plus market cap.

I [00:07:00] love the game of creating real measurable value in the world. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: Wow, There's so much there, and just before we go on to what you're doing and the huge impact that you're having, from the music stage to the business stage, where would you say there would be some similarities, and where have there been some differences for you?

Lee Benson: Yeah, of the things that I don't think a lot of people think about is When you're playing in a band and for me it's all originals. I love writing songs and doing that. You have to be super creative. You're working with personalities. Everybody's a little bit different. Getting that mix right in the band has everything to do with whether you create the right product that conveys the emotional energy that you want to convey and hopefully the world likes it same thing in a business when you're building a senior team.

How that team works together to create value intentionally is everything. Get the team wrong and it doesn't feel very good. Get the team right. The harder it gets, the harder you laugh and it's fun and you keep [00:08:00] building value. So there's so many similarities when it comes to, building a team to create value in a band, emotional energy, there's material value that can come out of as well.

There's also spiritual value, which at its core is about connectedness, strengthening those relationships. It's all the same in a business. The material value creation, I want to know, what is the one most important number in a business that's reflective of the value of the business in your industry and that will drive the majority of the right behaviors.

And then on the emotional energy side, well, we as leaders create the environment from which everybody creates value. What does that feel like to be there? How passionately are we talking about what's possible and engaging everybody in productive conversations and action to move in that direction and make it happen?

And on the spiritual value creation side, in the context of a business, and I've done lots of this in my companies, what are the programs we're putting together to strengthen connections between team members? And so why do we do all of this on the emotional energy side [00:09:00] and the connectedness side? It significantly increases productive engagement with team members.

When companies say we do engagement surveys to see how engaged everybody is and from the scale from one to whatever are you engaged, that's ridiculous to me. It's the productive engagement we're looking for and it's the environment from which they're creating value and we as leaders and how we create that.

How does that land on you, Jeffrey? Makes sense? 

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah, I mean, there's so much there, and as you're talking about that, Lee, whether you're in a band, or whether you're in a different kind of band, otherwise known as a business, a corporation. 

Lee Benson: Yeah. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: I always take a step back. When people say, yeah, hey, the success that you're looking at me, this is all self made.

And in my mind, I'm saying, no way, nobody is self made. It takes a community. It takes a village. It takes the right team. To do what we do. I know looking at my own business, there's no way I could have done that on my own. And I had, thankfully, team members that were better than me, smarter than me, that were doing all these different kinds of things.

We each have our [00:10:00] own role to play. We have our brilliance in certain areas, but then we round it out with other members of the team or the band, in this case, as we're talking here, that can really make the difference. And so it's DeepWealth Nation. Go to the show notes, all the links are there, it doesn't get any easier, it's a point and click.

And Lee, I want to talk to you about your MIND METHODOLOGY. And for someone who's listening in and saying, MIND METHODOLOGY, what the heck is that? And I can share the acronym with them, but hey, I have the source, I have the creator right here, why not have you do that? What's going on with that? What would you want our people to really know about in terms of the MIND METHODOLOGY?

Lee Benson: Yeah, and one thing I'll say in your previous comment, then I'll answer that question, is that we don't do it on our own. It takes a village to do this, and it wouldn't have happened without you or me doing our job and starting it, right? It wouldn't have happened, but we all did it [00:11:00] collectively. It's like this big value creation machine.

And ideally, we're all in the right seat, creating, super aligned value and going really fast. Now, that's why I put together the, I'm actually calling it the MIND management system because it's so comprehensive. But the simplest version of it is as a business leader, how do we get every single team member fully aligned to create the most value as a company, collectively together.

So at the top of an organization, MIND, the acronym stands for Most Important Number and Drivers. What's the one number that's most reflective of the value of your business and will drive the majority of the right behaviors? So at the top, over time, you want that to continually go up because I think the CEO's job is to continually and responsibly increase the value of their business.

Now look at every function in the business, and this could be small business, medium, super large, doesn't matter, but what's the most important number that's reflective of the value that a function like marketing or sales or HR or finance is [00:12:00] designed to create? Where are you starting? Where are you going?

At any point in time, are you on track, at risk, or behind? And then same thing for every single team. So you can bolt this on all the way to the front line, even if you had thousands of employees or have thousands of employees. So it makes it really easy, because my challenge was how do we get everybody aligned, create the most value possible.

So when I go to a team, And I can see what their most important number is that's reflective of the value they were designed to create and will drive the majority of the right behaviors. And I say that last part because you can pick a number. That you knock it out of the park, but it doesn't drive the right behavior, so it actually takes the company backwards and doesn't accrete any additional value.

So when I go to a team and I look at how you're doing, okay, here's your most important numbers, this is where you started, this is where you're going, you're currently on track, at risk behind, maybe you're overdriving it, then I just ask the question, what's the best work you're doing to continue to achieve your most important number and create more and more value?

And the driver's piece of it are categories [00:13:00] of work that any team can continually leverage to always be improving. It's your continuous improvement effort. So what's the most important number? What's the work you're doing to improve it? What are you talking about in meetings? What are the actions that you're taking?

And it's wildly powerful. So when I ask a leader, and this is such a great question, I think, for all of us to be asking folks in our organization, when I ask anybody that's leading a team, how do you create value for this organization? Most of the time, when I start working with a company, I get a job description, But if they say, well, I'm on this team, this is my team's most important number, this is why it drives the majority of the right behaviors, and this is the best work that we're doing to continually improve that, that's a good answer.

And if I find somebody that works for that leader that's non supervisory, and I ask the same question, and they say, Well, I'm on this team. This is our collective most important number. This is my role. These are the two or three outcomes that I'm accountable to, and this is the best work I'm doing to contribute to my team to [00:14:00] achieve our most important number goal.

That's a pretty darn good answer. That's way better than the answer that I think most people would get if you asked that question. And if you're doing reasonably well as a company and you ask the question, you get a lot of job description answers, that is awesome because now this is a giant opportunity to radically improve the value that you create as an organization, collectively.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Interesting. And by the way, Deep Wealth Nation in the show notes, go there, click on the book, your most important number, increase collaboration, achieve your strategy, and execute to win. And Lee, what I want to ask you, you don't waste any time, boom, chapter one, you get right to it. And you're talking all about alignment and how it has to absolutely start really with us as the founders or the entrepreneurs, or certainly the senior leadership team.

Where are we as entrepreneurs, generally speaking, typically getting it wrong when it comes to alignment? 

Lee Benson: Well, I think most entrepreneurs don't put enough energy into alignment. So to get full alignment, you've [00:15:00] got a number of things going on. It takes a little bit of work to get it set up, but then it makes it so much easier to sustain and scale it.

And so just giving it weight that it needs, I think is a real challenge. Now there's four areas, and I just actually updated the book and I added a chapter eight titled Why Sometimes CEOs Fail. And the Sub title is does your team really understand? And there's four things going on.

There's business model, strategy, the value of your stuff and culture. So on the business model side, do all of your leaders understand how you come up with your pricing, why it's the right pricing? Do they understand? All of the expenses and approaches that go into producing your product or service.

Do they understand the profitability? And the exciting part, do they understand the future profitability potential? And usually in meetings when leaders get frustrated, CEOs, why are they making these decisions? Why do I always have to do this? I don't understand. Well, it's because they don't understand the [00:16:00] business model or the other three areas.

So I call it nudging where this is value creation nudging, where when they're making decisions out of alignment with a business model, you're nudging them to get them in alignment to fully understand it. So, in future meetings, you don't have to do that and you know you're winning when they're actually nudging their team members that report to them around the same things.

And then strategy, super interesting a lot of people hear the word strategy, oh, it makes sense, I understand that, or whatever, but it's kind of heady, and they want to come up with something that sounds smart, I would say strategy is nothing more than approaches to increasing the value of your business.

So what are the one, two, or three things at any point in time that we're doing to increase the value of the business? And what's the role every single leader in the organization can play to contribute to that? And do they understand it? And usually the answer is no, they don't. And most strategies are just a big compilation of please do your job bullet points, not things that will really increase the value of the business.

And then on the [00:17:00] value of what we have, the products and services, what are your customers really saying, what are the focus groups of customers really saying about it, do all the leaders understand that so they can learn from that? Actually, continually, and appropriately improve the quality of experience of these products and services.

And then lastly, culture. What are the attitudes and behaviors that cause the most value to be created in the organization? And I love coming up with a set of alignment tools that drive that. Each one of these sections here is a whole hour conversation or more, and its own.

But I think. for a lot of leaders, that's where they're getting it wrong. They're not teaching their leadership team the structure of the business, the model, the strategy, the value the culture et cetera. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: My goodness. So what are you saying there, Lee? Are you saying that luck is not a business model and it's not a strategy?

What are you trying to tell us here? 

Lee Benson: Well, it should be, right? You get into business, it just, it should just happen for you. let's intentionally create value. There's a lot of uncertainty and let's look at it [00:18:00] like an adventure. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah, I absolutely love that. And as you're talking about that in your chapter eight, firstly, I love that you talked about, okay, let's talk about the business model.

And I loved how you talked about the value, not the pricing, but the value, then strategy. But let's also talk about culture. All these things, by the way, very similar to you. We talk about in our Deep Wealth Mastery Program and in step two, X Factors. These are the things that don't necessarily show up on a P& L statement or a balance sheet.

Sometimes they do. Oftentimes they don't. Culture is a foundational X Factor. So for you, Lee, when it comes to culture, what would you want us to know? 

Lee Benson: Yeah. Culture has gotten a little bit of a bad name because it's sort of warm and fuzzy in a lot of ways. It's expensive wallpaper.

It has to be meaty. You have to sink your teeth into it. So, if you have, let's just say, mission and behaviors as alignment tools, these, that drive the attitudes and behaviors that we're looking for and so why not have a mission that tells customers in a [00:19:00] compelling way why they should do business with you?

And at the same time, tell every single team member why they have a job, why they get a paycheck. Because if we don't do this every single day to create value for our customers, our jobs are in jeopardy. And then what are the behaviors that cause the most value to be created and get everybody's input on that.

Whether you have five employees, 5,000 employees, it doesn't matter. What are the behaviors of the best performing folks you've ever worked with on their best days? Distill it out. And, some of the examples I've used over time, and you'll find them in your Most Important Number book for the aerospace business.

High performing team members throughout the organization do what they say they will. That's the observable part of integrity. Or they're fully engaged and participate within the team. They treat company resources as their own. They're respectful, honest, and straightforward. They present and pursue permanent solutions as opposed to dwelling on problems.

know these until I'm no longer on the planet because every single team member, at least twice a year, had to come up with one example for each of those things, [00:20:00] each of those alignment tools. As to where they applied it to make the company measurably better. It can't be wallpaper. I'm sure you see this too I'll interview senior leaders, from large companies that'll say, Oh, yeah our, our values are everything.

It's why we do what we do. It's why we're successful. That's fantastic. You have 12 values. What are the values? Not uncommon for them not to know any of them. So now we've just devolved into business virtue signaling, not actually using it. So I think that's why culture gets a bad name, because it's not applied correctly the majority of the time.

hesitate to put a percentage on it, but I bet it's 90 percent of the time plus it's not applied properly. What do you find, Jeffrey? 

Jeffrey Feldberg: Oh my goodness, there are so many different directions that I can go in and you can't, you can see me, but the listener, you can't see me, my wheels are turning and I'm wanting to go here, I want to go over there.

Billy, I really want to make this about you and let me ask you something, as you're talking about this, before we go any further, I want to go back for [00:21:00] just a moment to Able Aerospace. This is the company that you led to a nine figure exit, congratulations, by the way. What you're talking about, this is not just theory.

It's not some textbook in a classroom. This is tried, proven strategies from the trenches. They got results. And so, with what we're talking about, big picture wise, when you look back at your exit with Able Aerospace, is there one thing that really stood out? That moved the dial for you because it could have been no deal.

As we know, that's where most of these things typically end up, or it could have been a much smaller number, but was there something looking back at it that was truly exceptional that really worked, or perhaps it was a combination of things, we'd love some. Thoughts on that? You obviously you've had some time since the exit to reflect and you've begun to put this into motion with all that you're doing, but where would you be on that?

Lee Benson: Yeah. And I still operate three companies today. And I think my biggest exit financially is yet to come. My philosophy has been for a really long time, make [00:22:00] not selling the company an equally good, if not better, option to selling it. 

Lot of folks are just patching things up.

It's almost like painting a termite infested home and hoping nobody looks in the walls to find out what's going on to sell for as much as you can. I walked away three times from the deal and I think I still may have grown it faster than what they've done with it. But they've done a great job but that's how I was thinking about it.

And the reason we got such a great multiple, and I can't talk about the actual number because we contractually aren't going to do that, but I got a 21. 6x multiple of EBITDA on this nice 100 million business, very profitable. And at a time where folks in the aviation aftermarket repairing and overhauling components like we were, might have gotten six, seven, or eight if they were really strong.

Well, why did we get that? We had 15 years straight of 20 percent compounded annual growth on average. We had a really great believable story about growing into the future. Found the right strategic buyer. They actually found us. [00:23:00] And it worked out. And so as I think about it most people I meet with that are leading companies and are thinking about selling, it's all about the material value creation.

And for me, it was material, so important, the more money we have, the more amazing things we can do. No question, wildly important. The emotional energy value creation, the X Factor for leaders, huge part of the leadership development work that I did surgically with every single one of our 64 leaders. And then on the spiritual value creation side of connectedness, we had a 10, 000 square foot gym in place.

If you trained two days a week with other team members, you would get 100 percent of your health insurance premium paid the next month if you did that. And you could roll it month after month. If not, you paid 20%. We paid 80%. It was still great. Bring your family members, kids, spouses. You get even more money in your paycheck.

That was just one of many programs that we had to strengthen and deepen relationships with team members. So with all of that, never once had a leader quit in the 23 years from starting it to selling it. That's pretty [00:24:00] incredible. The productive engagement we had was through the roof. And when they would run healthiest companies to work for competitions in the Phoenix metro area everybody knew it was a competition per second.

We blew everybody away. People want to win the Best Places to Work awards, so people want to go work there. We just were. Like, we had so many positions where, people were lined up for a long time wanting to come into the company. Don't need to win an award if you just be these things, you become the best place to work.

The word will spread, and all the stars will want to come work for you, and the stars are all working, by the way, rarely are they on the street. so was there one thing? It was thinking about creating value holistically. That's the best value, and if you don't get the right deal, if you're looking to sell, And by the way, and I know you agree with us, we should be positioned to sell for the highest price at any point in time because life conditions can change quickly.

But if you don't find the right deal, keeping it's a great option, if not a better option. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: [00:25:00] And Lee, that was our North Star. As you know, with any exit deal, it dies a thousand deaths. And for us, what was always very comforting, yes, it'd be disappointing if the deal didn't go through, but for us, hey, we have this incredible business, so if the deal doesn't go through, big deal, we'll keep on managing it, yes, there's some risk involved, we get that, We'll work through that.

We'll manage it. We'll show up with an even more profitable company. So what's the downside here? It's having some more patience, having some more time. I wanted to circle back though. You said something that is spot on. It's also very easy to miss and one of the things that you're saying is yes, it's important to measure numbers.

But what numbers are you measuring? You can hit it out of the park. But you actually did more harm than good, and so, to me, that's always, hey, let's not confuse activity with progress. I can imagine someone in the Deep Wealth community, they're hearing us talk, they're hearing about the MIND acronym and what's going on in there, and they're probably asking, well, Lee, this is great, but how do I know that I'm picking the most [00:26:00] important number?

Are there tell tale signs that it's the right one or not the right one? What would you say to that? 

Lee Benson: Well, it's super easy at the top of the organization because in your industry, how do those companies typically get valued? And so that's an easy one, but as you go out to the different functions one of the ones I talk about in the book.

Is HR. And so when I meet with new companies and they want to start deploying this, and each team needs to come up with their most important number. They have to go through it. They have to own it. It can't be myself or some other senior leader giving them a number because when it fails they point to them and say, it wasn't my fault.

I knew all along it wouldn't work, even though they told you it would. So they have to come up with it. And in HR, they almost always say, well, it's got to be engagement. Say, great, now let's hypothetically play this out. You hire me to run HR for your organization. You have a hundred employees, a thousand employees, or whatever.

Three years in the future, we've kept 97 percent of everybody, our engagement score, or excuse me, retention, not engagement, retention. Our retention score is through the roof. Nobody's ever done this [00:27:00] before. Never mind that. 50 percent of the team members can't do the job, but we've kept them, right?

So, if you were to pick retention, which again is the most popular one that HR leaders will throw out there. And so, yes, it's a number. Retention is important if applied in the right way, but it didn't drive all the right behaviors. We did everything we could to keep them, even the folks that aren't creating the value that we hired them to create.

Now, a better, most important number that I like over all others personally for HR is percentage of seats filled with capable people, and a capable person is somebody that's in a role that has clearly defined outcomes that are measurable, and they are achieving or over delivering on those numbers.

And it's working, so they're capable. And you stratify it a bit in terms of the value they create for the organization because a senior leader that isn't getting it done can do a lot more harm than a frontline team member. Even though collectively frontline team members, arguably in a lot of companies, create [00:28:00] the most value for the business.

But I think that's really it. So, if you had a hundred employees and 80 of them were meeting or beating their outcome based responsibilities that, again, are measurable and 20 percent aren't we're at 80% and I would measure that. And so we could go one function to the next and test the most important number.

Is that the right one? Reflective of the value that they should be creating for the organization. And will it drive the majority of the right behaviors? And I say majority of the right, because every thing that we measure could drive behaviors that aren't healthy. And it's good to have that conversation with a team.

What are the behaviors this number will drive if that's our North Star? They're going to be really healthy. And what are the potential behaviors that could hurt us? We want to be aware of that. So when it comes up, we don't want to do it. And then we all collectively on this team want to do our best work to drive that most important number.

Jeffrey Feldberg: It's interesting. And I like how you're looking at it from an HR perspective. It's not enough that we fill the seats. What percentage have [00:29:00] we filled the seats of people who are competent, that are in, using our music analogy like we were talking about earlier, that in their own right are rock stars, what a great KPI for HR, but a lot of this seems to be coming back to something that you mentioned a little bit earlier, and firstly, the fact that Nobody quit from the top leadership level is remarkable, incredibly impressive.

You've used the word surgical a number of times with a surgical approach to leadership development. In fact, in chapter six, you even talk about that. Can you share with us more what's going on behind the scenes with the surgical approach to leadership development? Because it seems that To get these results, it's just not going to happen on their own.

There needs to be leadership behind them to get this throughout the entire organization and to keep on top of that, keep it moving in the right direction. So what's going on there with the surgical approach? 

Lee Benson: Yeah, one of my business partners in Execute to Win before he passed was Jack Welch, former CEO, General Electric.

And Jack and I fully agree on this, that [00:30:00] probably 90 percent of dollars spent on leadership development in the United States are wasted. And it's wasted because it's a one size fits all. And I remember asking the head of HR for a 40, 000 employee public company and I asked, hey, what are you doing for leadership development?

Oh, we have this amazing program. We send all of our leaders at this level here, at that level there, and they get together twice a year. So that's fantastic. So how is it helping each of these leaders improve their performance, the, the value that they're held accountable for creating? Without HR said, we got nothing.

And I said, well, how do you know what's going well? Well, they fill out surveys and said they had a good time. I was like, okay that's interesting. Thanks. so when I say surgical, I look at a team whatever the function is, let's say it's production. They've got all this stuff to get out.

What's your most important number? Maybe it's gross margin, something along those lines. Great. What's your most important number plan? Where'd you start? Where are you going? Where are you at? What are the categories of work that you can leverage to continually improve [00:31:00] that with your team?

And when I look at that information and I see what they're doing, I know exactly where that, within. Sometimes 15, 20 minutes exactly where that leader needs to develop. So it's surgical leadership development. It could be strengthening a strength is what they need, but you look at a lot of a leadership development programs and here are all of these elements of successful leadership and where do you want to do the work?

And I find that fascinating. Let's go talk about that. Completely disconnected from the value they're supposed to be creating in their organization. So for me, it's all. surgical leadership development. There's general stuff that applies. It's great to read books and be aware of this stuff, but it's about connecting a bunch of dots to be more successful as a leader and what do I need to create more value with my team to support my organization.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And really building off of that, and you shared that Jack Welch, one of your partners at ETW, I mean, you're doing some incredible things with ETW in terms of having this as a Software application, you're going in, you're [00:32:00] making companies better, you're getting accountability, we're increasing the profits, it's getting to the culture.

So if we rolled back the curtain, if you're open to sharing a bit of the secret sauce, what's going on with ETW and how you're able to do what you're doing? 

Lee Benson: Yeah, the thing I love about ETW, so I build these businesses, the biggest one had 500 employees when I exited the nine figure exit, once it sold, I thought, this is so fantastic, like I'd already turned the page, now I get to work with Lots of organizations, rather than impacting 500 employees, now it's hundreds of thousands of employees and growing that I'm impacting in all these different businesses.

So, what was exciting for me was being able to, create this culture of holistic value creation, basically connecting culture to value creation on, at scale. And so ETW is all about that. There's a number of things that we do. We help companies actually implement the mind management system so they can do that.

The last chapter in the book, Your Most Important Number, is a [00:33:00] DIY chapter. I get emails from leaders around the world regularly saying all we did was change the language to Most Important Number. And then the CEO says, kind of laughing, then I decide I want to do this, and their team immediately challenges them and asks the question, well, what does this have to do with the most important numbers?

So, I know this works, it's incredible, you can do it at scale, or really small, it doesn't matter. and I started a while ago, these Execute Mastermind groups, and I limited to eight, and I've been in Mastermind groups for a lot of years, and some of the bigger ones that you would have heard of, with overlap for probably 40 years collectively but these mastermind groups, limited to eight, every two months, we do a deep dive on everybody's business.

We get to four each month. And our goal is to continually, responsibly increase the value of each of the businesses. And we know so much about each other's business that when they bring an issue, if it's not the root cause we push the symptom aside and go right for the root cause that's causing it.

And metaphorically in [00:34:00] these groups, it's as though we've invested most of our retirement money in the conglomerate. We want to get a good return. So. That's been wildly rewarding and powerful, and just watching the growth of these companies. And then there's an investment piece. I personally have quite a bit of money in a number of different companies and all those companies that we invest in, I lean in heavily with my team to make sure that they're going to be successful.

So I love the work. to add um, something we're calling the Leadership Value Lab next year, because there's so many amazing leadership principles and. And concepts that we want to take out to the world. So we want to build a giant community around that. Probably towards the end of Q2, we'll be rolling this out next year.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And so Lee, as you're talking about this, clearly there's a lot of boxes that we can check of what you've done. You've had tremendous success in business. You've had a wonderful exit, and you're sharing there's probably even a bigger exit after that nine figure one that's off in the wigs, we're working on that right now, these different investments, you're helping other entrepreneurs through these peer groups that you're doing.

For you [00:35:00] personally, though, here now and today, and it's probably changed over time, if you zoom out, what would it be that gives you fulfillment? It's beyond the numbers in the bank or the accolades that we get in business from the success. From a personal level, what's driving you with some fulfillment and happiness?

Lee Benson: my internal most important number is fulfillment, and, there's a lot of so called gurus or experts out there that would say, if you're not happy all the time, something's wrong, please give me all your money and I'll help fix that for you. You can't be happy all the time, but I do believe you can continually increase fulfillment.

So my purpose in life other than elevating human consciousness, because I think the more we figure out, the easier everything gets, the more value we can create. I think that's the purpose of the. Human Existence, in my view, but the way it distills out for me is driving holistic value creation behaviors out into the world.

So, there's material to be cultivated, everybody gets that mainly focused there, and at the same time virtues signal and say that's not important, it's about the other stuff, but when you look at their [00:36:00] actions, it's mostly about that. They're out of balance on the emotional energy and spiritual value creation with material.

So, for me, that's what I'm doing. One of the companies I'm operating is called DinnerTable. com. It was a client that their original idea failed, changed the name of the company, went a whole different model, something I've been thinking about for over a decade. so, when it comes to connectedness on the spiritual value creation side, in a really short time this year, we built over 20, 000 parents in our dinner table family community, and it's a community of parents raising kids to create value in the world, holistic value, and a place to go podcast tonight.

You Practical family wisdom around what works and doesn't work. So I'm looking at it and saying, well, how am I cultivating material value, emotional energy value, which by the way, to me is the scarcest commodity on the planet of the three. I think that's where I have my biggest strength in these three buckets.

And then on the spiritual side I'm just so elated to [00:37:00] be, growing these communities on the connectedness side, because I think it's a big part of what's missing in the world, especially in the United States. So that gives me a lot of fulfillment. I'm more fulfilled today than I've ever been in my entire life.

I just see it rising, but I'm not happy all the time. I struggle too. three weeks ago, I had knee replacement surgery. It's still aching a little bit sitting here. I wasn't happy about that, but I'm happy I got it done. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: So, when you're having those days, hey, we're all human, we have the days, and some days are great, some days are a little bit more challenging than others.

When you find yourself not on the side of happiness, not on the side of fulfillment, it happens to everyone. And actually, I really salute you because it takes a very open, vulnerable person to say, hey, yeah, I have those days. It's not walking on clouds every day as much as I'd like it to be. What are you doing personally to get yourself back to a better place?

Lee Benson: Yeah I think in general like, I've learned to value struggle any effort to improve who you are as a person or gain a capability, that's my definition of struggle. It could be a micro struggle or something wildly intense. There's healthy [00:38:00] struggles, unhealthy struggles, but there's lessons in value that can be created, learned, that can come out of any and all struggle.

And so when you're a little bit off, something's going, we're struggling with something. Emotionally, with the business, something isn't working, whatever it is, learn to value that because when you come out the other side, your confidence goes up. And for me, the definition of sort of gaining confidence is being able to intentionally create net positive value in the world that's measurable.

And so, as you go through these struggles, as I go through them, to answer your question the harder it is I kind of start chuckling inside and I get a little bit of a warm feeling going, when I come out the other side of this, it sucks right now, but this is going to be amazing at how it accretes to my ability to create more value in the world.

And then one of my internal mantras is be your best when you're at your worst. And so, if I'm having a bad day, like last week I was in a lot of pain just getting over the surgery. I've taken no pain medication of any kind for this. I just don't like the way it makes [00:39:00] me feel. I don't think it's good for us.

I sat through a couple of all day meetings leading these groups and be your best when you're at your worst. I don't want them to even know that it happened. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: Be your best when you're at your worst. Easier said than done, by the way. Sounds great. Easier said than done.

But yeah, that's really where it should all be at. And Lee, as I ask this next question, I'm thinking of an entrepreneur just to set the stage. Perhaps they're in startup mode. Perhaps it's still early years. Financially, yeah, it's going along. They're certainly not where they want to be. They have a roof over their head.

They have food in the fridge. They're covering their mortgage or the rent, whatever the case may be. And I know you've been there, I've been there. Until you've been there, it's really hard to understand where this entrepreneur is saying, Yeah, Lee, Jeffrey, I hear you. You're telling me that money's not the most important thing.

Yeah, easy for you guys to say. You've got your financial freedom, your independence, you did some great things on the business side, good for you. But I'm not there yet, and I know life will be a whole lot better. I will be so much happier [00:40:00] when I have more zeros in the bank, and I can't wait to have my exit because it's going to solve all my problems.

And I know, certainly, Lee, that was me. When I was going up the entrepreneurial success ladder and just so naive, so foolish along the way and learned the hard way, many hard lessons, post exit with that. But to that entrepreneur, what would you say that, sure, money can be a lubricant for life and make things easier.

Absolutely, no one's denying that. In terms of getting that fulfillment, getting that happiness, what would you tell that entrepreneur? 

Lee Benson: Yeah. And I've never said money isn't the most important thing. Personally, a lot of people say that. What I say is money is a very important thing. Cultivating material value creation is wildly important.

emotional energy and the connectedness side on the other two buckets, for me, Also wildly important is, as hard as it is to be good at creating the material value by building a business operating a business I think it's actually a little bit harder and takes a little bit longer to cultivate real emotional energy value and spiritual value in those [00:41:00] other two buckets.

I think that it is. And so, why is it important to not hang on to unhelpful emotions any longer than you have to? Anger, hate, contempt self doubt, defeating thoughts and all of that. Because whenever that's going on And I still do this work, all of us have work to do here, I believe when all that's going on, I can't be present and super creative and create the most value, be inspiring as a leader, can't do that nearly as well when those Unhealthy things are going on.

So when you're in that position I was there too. It's like the first year in the first business. I almost went out of business. I think at least 15 times had to go out and hunt every week for the work that's going to pay the next bills and figure all of that stuff out. But the more stressed I was about it, The slower I was able to solve for the problem.

I, this is such an easy thing to say and so freaking hard to [00:42:00] really get right, but you know there's wisdom in that and what I just said. So whatever we can do to continually grow. Turn the page faster and faster on setbacks emotionally so we can be super present, super curious, and create value faster.

That's one thing I would say to these folks. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: It's all about the value creation and you may say, Jeffrey, on base, off base. For me, it's always been about, let me create enough value that I can help other people solve their problems. And openly, expect nothing in return. If I can do that enough though, and I can scale that, then over time, I'll be in a position to be able to do what I want.

And it's a win for everyone. And as we're talking about this, Lee, I'm actually thinking of my two daughters. So one, fresh college grad, came out of her business program, and now is in a startup herself on the marketing side. My younger one is in her senior year at high school. And I know as a parent, I often struggle with giving them, not just life [00:43:00] advice, but business advice for themselves of what they can use in their career, because I know so often for myself, even today, I read something just earlier this morning or yesterday, what a game changer.

If I would have known this back in the day when I first got my career going, I can only imagine what it would have done for me. where you've been, what you've done, what you've gone through, what you've seen, the people that you're helping right now, what would you share to up and coming entrepreneurs?

Perhaps they're just starting or they're about to start, it's just around the corner, anything that comes to mind of some wisdom or strategies from the trenches of, hey, Think about this. 

Lee Benson: Yeah, two things are coming to mind here. One I couldn't be who I am today and neither could you if you didn't go through all of this stuff, all the struggles and everything else.

And when I ask people, and I do regular sort of roundtable discussions here in my studio and ask people, hey, if you could give your 16 year old or 20 year old self advice, what would it be? And there's these amazing, thoughtful answers. And then I say, okay, now give them advice [00:44:00] they could actually hear, because you can hear it today because you've gone through all this.

They won't hear it then. And the work I do in Dinner Table is I work with the parents, work with the kids in these larger groups. And I asked the question, what character traits and capabilities would you like your kids to have when they launch into adulthood? And then what healthy struggles can we intentionally design today to move them in that direction?

And so for me, as the advice I would give, it's really this question what capability and character traits would you like to have as you go into this business career? And then what can you do to start moving in that direction a lot more intentionally today? And then they come up with it and they own it.

But candidly, it's super hard to give young folks advice they can even hear. Just like when I was 16, I don't know what the age was for you, but when I was 16, I knew everything and nobody could tell me anything. So good luck on that. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah, I hear you on that, and like yourself, absolutely, [00:45:00] sure, tell me whatever you want to tell you.

I'm going to do what I want to do anyways, back in my younger days, and to your point, hey, what didn't kill you made you stronger, and there's so much truth to that. Before we go into wrap up mode, I've heard you mention spiritual a number of times, spiritual value. So, what is spiritual value? So, spiritual, for a lot of people that word, in fact I may have just lost all the listeners at that point who heard that one word, but spiritual, what does it really mean for you?

What does it look like in your life, Lee? 

Lee Benson: Yeah at its core, it's about connectedness, and every person, every family is going to be different, so how connected are we with ourself, do we know why we feel the way we do, make decisions the way we make it, all of it, and then how connected are we with our team members at work, with our family, communities that are important to us, causes that are important to us.

For some families, they're deeply religious. It's about connectedness with God. I'm not religious at all. I feel like I'm connected to the universe when I write songs. This stuff comes in from somewhere and it's not just coming from me. So I, I'm [00:46:00] connected. I don't know how to explain it. I don't know, even know that it's explainable.

But, Spiritual value creation is about connectedness, and it's like politics. If you say Democrat, you turn off half the brains in the room. You say Republican, you turn off half the brains in the room. You say God, you turn off half the brains in the room, which is crazy to me because here's a bunch of folks trying to make the world better, live a better life, and do all that, and somehow that's bad.

That is so strange. But that bucket of spiritual value creation is all about connectedness, and even if you're a full on atheist, Being connected to a community is important to you. that's how I, think about it. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: And what's interesting as you talk about that, and sure, different people, same word can mean different things.

Generally speaking, though, if I zoom out of this, it's more than just showing up at the office. And yes, I'm terrific in these areas. Well, what's behind that? What's your rocket fuel, so to speak, that brings you joy, fulfillment, happiness? What's your support network like? And the reason I mention that, and in addition to spiritual, you [00:47:00] also talked about physical fitness, and what you're doing with your team, and encouraging them and their families to, hey, get a workout in.

We often mis say, you don't hear that a lot in corporate America, it's all about the numbers, but there's people that drive those numbers, and if the people and people If they can't be at the top of their game physically, mentally, emotionally, that's going to spill over onto the business side.

So it's refreshing to hear you speak about, yes, spiritual, yes, physical, yes, our health is really important in all the different areas. If you get that right, you're likely going to have better results on the business side. Thoughts about that? 

Lee Benson: Yeah, 100%. think about two different ways of approaching your team.

One, it's purely transactional. We all agree, we pay you this, you do that. And it's about the material value creation and everybody doing their part. But we're missing all the other stuff. Now, the other way, which I prefer, is we're all on this journey and we happen to be together. It's a developmental journey.

We're here to support each other and grow together and collectively create value [00:48:00] together. That feels significantly different than the transactional piece of it. And I was speaking to a group gosh, a week ago, and these are a bunch of folks interested in selling their businesses. So it's, it's perfect for what you do, Jeffrey.

And one of the things I said is, hey, seven months before we decided to eventually sell this larger exit, 500 team members, every month I would meet with all employees. A whole day was set aside for this by function, had a conference room that could fit over 300 people in it. And I said, hey, we're thinking about doing this.

We want you to keep it quiet. What do you think? the pros and cons and how we think about it. And when we started out, about 20 percent didn't want to do it. By the end, only about two people didn't want to do it. Actually two people. So we ended up going through we had the right deal and all of it, but as I'm explaining the story to this group of folks wanting to sell, the questions were, why would you tell the employees that they have ownership?

Why did you do this? And that just told me instantly, you guys are fully transactional. Like, In my, brain, You wouldn't do anything else but do this. We all [00:49:00] collectively got here. I want to make sure they continue. I took millions of dollars off the top and spread it out amongst 26 leaders as retention bonuses.

Please stay two years so this thing doesn't blow up. shareholders, there were 13 of us, all internal. to the company. We're really good about it, but a couple of them were like, why are you doing that? That's coming out of our piece of the deal. I said, well, I own the majority of the company.

Most of it's coming out of mine. We got here with them. Why wouldn't we do it? And there's a point in the transaction where the process, if you spend money in a certain way, it comes out of your side of the deal, as you would know. And we make commitments to customers to build infrastructure and do other things.

Not that much, relatively speaking, but hundreds of thousands of dollars. Same thing. Why are you doing that? We, it's coming out. Because we made the commitment to do it. But for a lot of folks, their brain is 100 percent the money piece of it, and money, when there's enough of it on the table, you really get to see who people are where you didn't see it before.

And it's wild. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: So true. There's that saying, if you want to [00:50:00] see someone's true character, the true personality, either give them a lot of money or take away all the money and you'll see who they really are. There's so much truth to that. Yeah. Let me ask you this. There are so many questions that I have not had a chance to ask, and we're going to be going into wrap up mode after this next question.

With that in mind, though, from the questions that I didn't ask, is there one that you want to put out there, or is there a particular message that you want to get out to the Deep Wealth community and Deep Wealth Nation that we haven't covered yet, or a specific topic that we maybe even brushed the surface or, once again, haven't even covered that you'd want to get out there?

Thoughts about that? 

Lee Benson: Yeah what's really important to me is, as I said earlier, driving holistic value creation behaviors in the world and net positive value. So, think more deeply about creating holistic value, material, emotional and spiritual and when I think about the world, it's really If we can get more people creating net positive value and at the same time pushing back on things, taking value out of the [00:51:00] world, just the math will say that folks rigging the game to take value out of the world, which is most politicians, unfortunately, it's a culture of that, And so if we're objectively creating value and pushing back on things, at least in proportion, taking value out of the world, and more and more people do this, that's going to be better place, the whole better world for all of us engage in. And as a company, you'll actually make more money when you do this, and you'll feel better, like all the team members will feel better when you go through, this kind of a culture and you're, you're engaging with it on a daily basis.

So. I mean, that's kind of what I'd like to leave the listeners with, Jeffrey, is think about creating holistic value. I have my podcast titled, Show Your Value, The Art of Value Creation. I talk with a lot of leaders that have done some amazing things. And most of them are telling me, gosh, I really wish I had this when I was running my business.

And these are folks that ran some big stuff, previous CEO of Pfizer Ugg Boots, I mean, all kinds of stuff. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: [00:52:00] Yeah, my goodness, there is so much there, and hey, capitalism, it's certainly not perfect. I get that. Many flaws with capitalism. That said, relative to the other alternatives, in my mind, there is no alternative, and that's what I love about being an entrepreneur.

We can change lives, make the world a better place, truly make the world a better place by solving the painful problems. I'm right there with you, Lee. 

Lee Benson: So Jeffrey, I'd like to change you to value creationism. 

Let's move it from capitalism to value creation, best value across the board. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah. I love that.

Value creationism. Yeah. I'm there. Sign me up, Lee. I'm there. I am there with you. And so with that top of mind, we're going to go into wrap up mode, sadly, we're going into wrap up mode. I really enjoyed our conversation. And so here on the Deep Wealth Podcast, Lee, it's our tradition where I have both the privilege and the honor to ask every guest the same question.

And it's a really fun question. Let me set this up for you. When you think of the movie Back to the Future, you have that magical DeLorean car that can take you to any point in time. So here's the fun part, Lee. Tomorrow morning, you look [00:53:00] outside your window. Not only is the DeLorean car curbside, the door is open.

It's waiting for you to hop on in, which you do, and you're now going to go to any point in your life. Lee, as a young child, a teenager, whatever point in time it would be. What would you be telling your younger self in terms of life lessons or life wisdom or hey, Lee, do this but don't do that? What would that sound like?

Lee Benson: Again, it's challenging. What would I, well, the place I would go back to is my friend Rick's basement with my band and we would play every night for hours and it's jamming really loud and funky lights in the background. What a cool experience that was, but to give me advice, I almost think it would mess me up no matter what I said.

Jeffrey Feldberg: So interesting. So really, Lee, I don't want to put words in your mouth. You can say Jeffrey on base or off base. It's really what I'm hearing. Hey, Lee, this is your younger Lee, enjoy the journey, the ups, the downs, just enjoy all of it because it'll make you who you are today. am I doing with that? 

Lee Benson: Yeah, I think it's good and it's appropriate.

All you ever have is what you're doing right now. [00:54:00] Enjoy that. But could I have heard that and done anything with it? 

My guess is no. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: All you ever have is what you're doing right now. So you might as well enjoy it. That's great advice as well.

And Lee, you're in terrific company. If there's one theme in regards to an answer to that question. It's what we're talking about here right now. So many of the guests are saying, Jeffrey, even in my darkest times, I don't think I would change anything because of that one time. I didn't think I could get through it, but I did, and later on, it helped me do this or that, and I love where I am right now with all of the bumps and the valleys and the hills.

It's all been terrific. I wouldn't change anything. And so it's terrific to hear you mention that and share that with us. And Lee, as we wrap up now, for a listener, they have a question, they want to reach out, they want to sign up with some of the things that you're doing, they want to speak with you, where would be the best place online to reach you?

Lee Benson: Yeah, please go to our website etw. com or connect with me on LinkedIn. I'm easy to find there. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: And Deep Wealth Nation, it does not get any easier. It's all in the show notes. Go to [00:55:00] the show notes. It's point and click. Everything that we've talked about today is there. The podcast, the books, your website, your LinkedIn profile is all there for you.

So that said, Lee, congratulations, it's official. This is a wrap. And as we love to say here at Deep Wealth, may you continue to thrive and prosper while you remain healthy and safe. Thank you so much. 

Lee Benson: Thank you. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: So there you have it, Deep Wealth Nation. What did you think? 

So with all that said and as we wrap it up, I have another question for you.

Actually, it's more of a personal favor. 

Did you find this episode helpful? 

Have you found other episodes of the Deep Wealth Podcast empowering and a game changer for your journey? 

And if you said yes, and I really hope you did, I have a small but really meaningful way that you can actually help us out and keep these episodes coming to you.

Are you ready for it? 

The dramatic pause. I'll just wait a moment. Drumroll, please. Subscribe. Please subscribe to the Deep Wealth podcast on your favorite podcast channel. When you subscribe to the Deep Wealth Podcast, you're saving yourself time. Every episode automatically comes to you, and I want you to know that we meticulously craft Every one of our [00:56:00] episodes to have impactful strategies, stories, expert insights that are designed to help you grow your profits, increase the value of your business, and yes, even optimize your post exit life and your life right now, whatever you want that to look like.

And every time you subscribe and a fellow entrepreneur subscribe, it's a testament to how together, Yes, we are. We are changing the social fabric of society. One business owner at a time, one liquidity event at a time. So don't let the momentum stop here. Subscribe now on your favorite podcast channel.

You'll never miss an episode. You'll be the first to hear from the top industry leaders, the innovators, the disruptors that are really changing and shaping the business world, and maybe you're commuting, maybe you're at the gym, maybe you're taking a well deserved break that we spoke all about on this episode.

The Deep Wealth Podcast, it's your reliable source for the next big idea that could literally revolutionize your business. So once again, please hit that subscribe button, stay connected, inspired, and ahead of the curve. And again, your next big breakthrough moment, it might just be one [00:57:00] episode away. Maybe it was even this episode.

So all that said. Thank you so much for listening. And remember your wealth isn't just about the money in the bank. It's about the depth of your journey and the impact that you're creating. So let's continue this journey together. And from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for listening to this episode.

And as we love to say here at Deep Wealth, may you continue to thrive and prosper while you remain healthy and safe. 

Thank you so much. 

God bless.