The Leadership Stack Podcast

Sean: Next question from LJ, how can a start up entrepreneur manage his or her cash flow? Cash flow is all about awareness. If you're aware that you're making more than you're spending, you have a positive cash flow. If you're aware that you're spending more than what you're making, you have a negative cash flow and we call that bleeding out. A business is likened to the human body. The managers o...

Sean: We have founders who think of their purpose statements as an afterthought. Sometimes they think that, oh, I don't really need that. This is something that it's hard to qualify for. In terms of ROI, a lot of founders who are pragmatic, as you say about their balance sheet would be there. They might be tuning in right now. Okay. You know, purpose statement, how's that going to translate to the...

Sean: We have MJ and her question is, I heard logistics businesses are not advisable in our country because of the traffic. Would it be advisable to engage in this business during this pandemic? JM: You know what? I have a friend who is recently actually thinking about starting a logistic business. Sean: Really? JM: Yeah. So I'm not really sure if it's advisable to engage through this business. Bu...

Sean: We're at a scale-up stage. We're not a startup. We're 10 years old, but we're trying to scale up to the enterprise level. We don't have VCs, we don't have investors. So the CEO and founder, but how do I share with the rest of my team that, "Hey, you know what if we don't have, and we don't uphold this purpose within us within all of us, this is what's gonna happen”? Minter: It's abstract unt...

Sean: This is a very interesting question. This next one. And Erika asks, should my first business be a franchise? JM: It really entails a lot there for you to decide if your first business should be a franchise. You really need to study also if it's something that's going to benefit other people in terms of having it as a franchise. I'm not sure, Sean, because for me, I think there are a lot of e...

Sean: How do you plan on communicating that purpose statement to the rest of the world? Minter: So the key point for me is having spent the time to figure out what your purpose is, until you've actually done a deep level of analysis and thought through what your personal purpose is. It will come out a little bit wonky when you try to say, this is what I believe. Cause you're lightweight. You haven...

Sean: First question would be from Erika. And she asks, what are the pros and cons of investing in a franchise? First, if you're going to invest in a franchise, you're going to need money upfront. So that is a con, because if you're going to be starting up on your own, you don't need to give upfront money, which might be a big amount, depending on what brand you want to franchise. If it's already...

Sean: The topic that is super interesting to me, which you mentioned earlier pre-show, is about purpose in marketing and purpose in business. Now, a lot of the hype in the startup scene today is about profits is about getting investors, is about pitching to VCs. And angel grounds almost no one talks about purpose. Almost no one talks about the 'big why.' I want to know why do you think it's not ta...

Sean: Can you share your creative process from ideation to execution so we can learn from it? Creative process. A lot of the content I make now, the creative stuff is the responsibility of my team. So what I do is answer your questions. Not a lot of creativity there, but I draw from my wealth of experience as I'm sure JM does as well. We draw from our wealth of experience, not a lot of creativity...

Sean: Now, I want to talk a little bit about your book "IGI." How did you come about that idea? How did you come upon the idea of inviting God in and tackling your ego? What was the turning point or the aha moment for that? Can you tell us about that story? Steve: Actually it was a mentor workshop and it had a scorecard for, it was called the four B's and I've since adjusted it and adapted it. And...

Sean: Do you think that rise of user generated content makes the job market in the creative industry more competitive? Do we all need to create content, blogs, YouTube videos to take advantage of this? Let's just say UGC, User Generated Content. UGC is usually posted on other blogs and other websites that is the thought leader for that type of content. It could be a form, it could be a blog, it co...

Sean: How did you figure out that what you were supposed to do and what you were called to do, is what you are doing now? And that's teaching others, inspiring other people, writing books, consulting, coaching, right, et cetera. Steve: I have met many, many wealthy people and many, many rich people and many people that are focused on even moderate wealth. And the materialism is again, one of those...

Sean: What are essential marketing strategies for a small business? A lot of people think that marketing, actually that's, you know, we don't need that so much as long as we have inventory and we have salespeople, that’s already fine. But one of the most important things actually is marketing. Because when you have something good going for you, marketing will be the bringer of momentum. And you ne...

Sean: How do I look at fear in the face and turn it into fuel and overcome? Steve: Well, my answer to that is they're already doing it anyway. By them not being happy. They're already in fear. When you're not happy when you're unfulfilled. Here's how I look at it. Here is where we think we should be in life. Like we all have this vision of whatever it would be. Let's say it's status. It's a job. I...

Sean: Tonight, we have a special guest, Miss JM, and I am very excited to answer your questions with her. Let me just put her on screen right now. There you go. Hi JM. How's your week, JM? JM: It's been hectic, but fun as well. Learning a lot of new stuff. What about you, Sean? Sean: Actually, this week was a pretty good week to start for me because we went to Batangas. Very refreshing vacation fo...

Sean: Do a lot of people today have the same syndrome - imposter syndrome? What prompted you to throw all that out and start your own thing? Steve: I actually ended up being originally by force. That was not something I chose and I'll just share that minute. And then the other was by choice. So two different major paths that I had in my life that were majored for deputies and I call them brick ups...

What are the pros and cons of working as a creative employee in a digital agency vs. working as a freelancer (VA for a coach or social media manager)? What do you think are the motivations of those who choose one over the other? Asking from a point of view of a career shifter who had been an employee in a BPO for more than 10 years. Fitz: Well, I would like to answer this question in the sense tha...

Sean: How is that matching with the advertiser? How is that going to happen? Is there a choice for them to choose who the advertisers are? How is the payout going to be? Jaime: Individual podcasters or like yourself become sort of able to put advertising into the new technology that's being built right now? So I think the landscape is completely different. I kinda liken it to games. So in the pas...

Sean: When you say that you evaluate them regularly, how often do you evaluate them and how does it look? Is there a Google sheet, a piece of paper that you go through a set of questions that you go through? How does it look? Jaime: So we don't value it like that. We do it on a daily basis. So if you're a developer, you will have tasks every morning. No changes every day, 9:00 AM my time. We alway...

  What do you think are the small and easy steps an employer could do to be on the right path of becoming financially fit? Fitz: One of my favorite quotes comes from James Clear, he says that, “We do not rise to the level of our goals, but we fall to the level of our habits or our routine.” Which means if you want to be financially fit, it's not really about focusing on what we want to achieve, bu...

Sean: What else were you able to do to make sure that you come out on top of the competition that you have in your industry? Jaime: I think the best advice I've ever gotten - and I can't remember what I had it from was, "keep your competitors close, but don't emulate them" because what that ended up, you're just going, you know, copying what they're doing and then you're not really finding your ow...

Why do Filipinos have a hard time saving and budgeting? Fitz: This is related to my podcast. My podcast is entitled, The 80 Percent, which is inspired by what Dave Ramsey said. He says that financial success is 80% behavior and 20% head knowledge. A lot of Filipinos, they just focus on the 20%. They know that it's important to save. They know that it's important to track their expenses, to spend l...

What was that light bulb moment that told you, I can actually make a business out of Match Casts? Jaime: The timing was really important. It was January, 2019. I was starting to look into this market and I had to find a new idea in which I wanted to do a startup around. And then by March, I was already kind of hooked onto Himalaya. So Himalaya is kind of considered the super app of China. In the W...

What are the common mistakes when it comes to financial planning? Fitz: Well, a lot of people, when they think about financial planning, they immediately go to investing. How do I grow my money? So that's a common mistake because when it comes to financial planning, you really need to first define your financial goals. A lot of people believe that the goal for their money is to grow it. I believe...

Sean: What do we do when someone in our team who is working remotely at home says that, and you mentioned this a couple of times earlier that he or she is, is burning out or has burned up, how do we solve or solve that or help the person or the individual? Bret: The problem with burnouts is it doesn't tell you it's happening both to the person and to the manager. So burnout is something that is ha...