The Leadership Stack Podcast

You said failure made you learn a lot about what works and what doesn’t. What’s your advice to people who are afraid to fail? Sam definitely experienced a lot of failures. It’s like this famous basketball quote that says “you miss all the shots that you don’t take.” That’s the difference.  We have faced failure but we just move on and learn and grow from it. For example, Sam has been in New Zealan...

Our guest for today is Mr. Sam Kamani. He is the CEO and co-founder of Product Done. Product Done builds software for really early-stage startups for entrepreneurs and founders. A lot of the founders who come to them are non-tech founders and they have amazing ideas such as an SAS product or a mobile app. We just have them bring their ideas to life. How much do you charge for, let's say a simple s...

How do you build your relationships and write connections and how do you pursue those people when it comes to mentoring? Building relationships should not be an artificial thing. It should be natural and casual, because millennials, especially the younger generation today, the centennials, can detect if you're fake about something if you're not authentic.  I handpick the mentors that I want to lea...

Today’s guest is none-other than Ms. Jazz Rivera. She will be the one asking questions to me about leadership, entrepreneurship, and management. What if I don't have the capital to start a business? The thing is, a lot of people will tell you you have to have money to make money. I don't completely agree with that because I did have money, but all I had was PHP1300, which you probably have on you...

KC is the international executive property officer of SMDC. KC has been doing real estate for 4 years now. She has also been training brokers abroad for just about a year now. What are your views on Real Estate Investments? There are pros and cons to real estate investment. The cons include the need to have a lot of capital to do it. If you’re going to loan from the bank and you didn’t get a good...

Ms. Leizel Obuga is the CEO of MSI Modelling. It’s an 18-year-old company that she started herself. MSI Modeling started in 2002. They cater to students as young as 4 to 26 years old. They focus solely on personality development. Their tagline is “Learning how to be a model without looking like one”. People can look like a model even if you’re not.  She started MSI Modeling just after she was done...

How Do You Conduct Appraisals like Evaluations? We have what we would call the reverse annual evaluation. We don’t have an annual evaluation here. That’s not how we do it. In the RAE or reverse annual evaluation, we ask our people to send us an email about everything they have outside of their job description. Everything that you did outside of your job description for the benefit of the company i...

How do you usually recover from setbacks? First, I remove myself from failure. Don’t say that “I failed”. Rather, say that it was a mistake and move forwards. A lot of entrepreneurs personalize failure. That is the mindset of a loser. You will be buried under a mountain of failure rather than standing on top of it. If you separate yourself from the failure and see them as lessons, then it’s inevit...

What were some things that you had to let go of? One of the things that I had to let go of was playing computer games. Back then it was a borderline addiction and it took a real effort to stop. James Clear who wrote the book Atomic Habits says “We don’t rise to the level of our goals; we fall to the level of our systems. I had to make a system that had to create a system that would enable me to ke...

What do you think is the cause of people going AWOL? Was this a problem when you were still starting out? AWOL was a problem. We even had a recent experience with people going AWOL just around a year ago. That was when we already improved our hiring process. It was more common before because they got in too easily. I hired the wrong people. My whole hiring process sucked. It was just one seating w...

Gossip is the antithesis of unity… I can’t tell you that I know each and everything that’s happening in the office. But my team knows my stand on gossip. What is your Why and how did you find it? Our purpose statement is different from our mission and vision. Our Why statement is we exist because the world is underserved by digital marketing companies. There are some out there that are not good, n...

What kind of traits do these people have to have for you to entrust the gatekeeper position to them? We have two Human Resource personnel. They do all of the hiring and legal work in terms of application. They do a thirty-minute drive-by interview just to get to know the applicant. After which they’re sent home. If we need to talk to them again for a second reason, then we’ll call them. The second...

What are the skillsets that a great leader should have? Being decisive. Leaders have to be decisive. If you’re a carpenter, your job is not to hammer nails onto the wood or to paint the fence. Your job is to make decisions. What am I going to do today? How am I going to do it? Should I put this piece over that wall? The world may see you as a person who works with stone, wood, and pain. But what y...

How do you mentor leaders? How do you cultivate the talent? How do you see this in people? The first thing that you should do is to qualify them. There are people who want to be leaders because of compensation or recognition. Most, if not all people want more of these, but not everyone wants to serve other people. Leaders are called to serve. If you don’t want to serve, then don’t step up to be a...

What are the bigger mistakes that taught you some very valuable lessons? Some people say that when you’re a person standing atop of a mountain, you’re successful. The reality is no I’m not. I am standing at the top of my failures. These things help me get to where I am. If I chose to stay below these failures, I’d have nothing. I would be the laughingstock. I chose to be gritty enough to get back...

Why Should You Do SEO for Blogs? There are tons of traffic. There are billions of searches happening every day. All the eyeballs that see you are very important because they’re already done with the discovery phase. They know what they want. Now, if they find what they want, there is a high chance that they’re already going to buy, read, download, or convert into leads. I love search traffic much...

When did you make your first million? Charles got his first million when he was working on his first branch of Cotton Depot. During that time, profit was really good, and he was incredibly happy the moment when he found out he got his first million. During this journey to a million, what were some of the principles that helped you make that first million? A good name matters a lot in the field of...

How tight is the competition for talent? In the Philippines, fresh graduates would almost always seem very angelic, and because of that, it feels like they have huge potential. However, if you put them out there, the potential you found during the hiring process suddenly disappears. To be honest, it’s hard to find real talent. There are many good-hearted people out there. But you need to develop t...

What is the culture in Strat Quad and Dropify? Charles’ workplace has an average age of 23 to 24. His team is composed of predominantly women, but there are a handful of men as well.  He sees potential in his team. Since the team is still pretty small, Charles can talk to them whenever he’s in the office. He always asks them two questions: “Is the company’s vision clear?” and “Do you see that the...

What are some of the biggest mistakes that you have done that you’ve learned from? One of the most crucial things that Charles made a mistake with is forecasting wrongly. But it can also lead to new opportunities. In Charles’ case, he wanted to look for ways to make his first business, Strat Quad profit faster because his forecasts weren’t being met. This problem then birthed his other business, D...

What is Dropshipping? Dropshipping is the concept of being a reseller without investing capital. In Dropshipping, the merchandise will not go through you. Strat Quad has been operational for 5 months. How long has Dropify been operational? Dropify started on January 6, 2020. But in the short time that Dropify has been out, they have already garnered around a hundred clients. Why do these people wa...

How did being a traditional online seller take you to the journey of starting up StratQuad? Charles sold items online under the name of Cotton Depot. His primary products were bedsheets under the brand of sleep essentials. While continuing his online business, his sibling called him and offered him a business opportunity. His sibling proposed starting up a fulfillment center because it was growing...

How did growing up in a family full of business people influence you? While working, Charles Sy learned that when you have a mentor, you see both the good and the bad things. He looks for the good traits that are compatible with his personality and applies them. The bad traits and the ones that don’t fit his personality, he takes note of. Would you say that influenced you and how you do business,...

How do you improve your leadership skills? Harry wears a lot of hats. He is a husband, a businessman and most importantly, a Christian. Most of the books that Harry reads focus on spirituality and character development. You can’t always put the blame on the client or your people. In most cases of fall out or disagreement, it starts from within. Harry thinks leadership starts with leading himself t...

How many clients and hires were you able to get from the beginning to today? Reality box has a unique point of sales which is the relationship that they build with their clients and the way they tell their clients’ stories. From simple coverage, Reality box evolved into a documentary focused on storytelling. Before, they started with just one event every so often. And by God’s Grace, they became b...