BIZ/DEV

Jill of All Trades w/ Linda Beneze | Ep. 80

May 02, 2023 Season 1 Episode 80
BIZ/DEV
Jill of All Trades w/ Linda Beneze | Ep. 80
Show Notes Transcript
In this episode, David and Gary interview Linda Beneze, CRO extraordinaire and mentor to all of the greats! They discuss how to create a company culture of growth and inclusion while supporting the strategy of the whole.

Links:

Linda Beneze LinkedIn

Respiratory Motion Inc.


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David Baxter has been designing, building, and advising startups and businesses for over ten years. His passion, knowledge, and brutal honesty have helped dozens of companies get their start.


In Biz/Dev, David and award-winning Creative Director Gary Voigt talk about current events and how they affect the world of startups, entrepreneurship, software development, and culture.


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David:

Hi, everyone. Welcome to the biz dev Podcast, the podcast about developing your business. I'm David Baxter, your host, and I'm joined today by Gary Voigt, who Little did you know, underneath the 1000s of plastic flamingos that surround Gary's trailer? He has a cheese cave. So how was it like growing cheese in the bottom of a cave in a Florida trailer? Park? Cheese cave?

Gary:

I thought you said cheese cake. No, that would be gross. That cheese cave. Go with a Gary go with it. Yeah, sure. So produce cheese wheels and you can't have a cave in Florida. No one's gonna buy this. No one's gonna buy it. Well, they did buy the flamingos. That's all I know.

David:

All right, no. More importantly, we are joined by Linda Benzie. She has been a CEO, a CRO and every other see, you can imagine for the last 15 years, she has been kind enough to join us. How are you? Linda? Thank you for coming.

Linda:

I'm great. David, how are both of you?

David:

I cannot complain. It's beautiful today. So yay. So I wanted to start off today, I wanted to continue the conversation that I've had the last few weeks with our guests about leadership. You've done all the roles. And I think that's it's a really good question to throw over to you. When I say leadership, what does that mean to you?

Linda:

Well, leadership to me is having a really good team that you are able to bring out all of their strengths, to work in concert together, and to support them and enable them to be as creative and productive as they were meant to be. Nice.

David:

So practically speaking, what does that mean? Like on a day to day? How does how do you accomplish those leadership goals? In a practical manner? Is that a lot of meetings? Is that a lot of nice emails? Is it what it what is it that gives you your practical side of being a leader.

Linda:

So I think setting an environment that makes it easy for all of the team to interact is important. So I do typically do a weekly meeting with my team. And I will also do on a weekly basis, one on ones with all of my team. And communication really is the key to get the entire organization to buy in. So I would typically have it depending on the size of the organization, either a monthly or a quarterly type meeting with all employees. So in my larger organizations where I've had, you know, 1200 people responsibility, then I would end up usually doing a quarterly update, but in my smaller startups, I would typically do a monthly meeting with all the employees. i

David:

How big of a company were you as a CEO? This is following up with a question on this. Based on that, was it big company, a little company?

Linda:

Um, so semester, my startups have been,I think, average size around 50 employees, okay. And when I was president and general manager at Teleflex, I had,you know, $300 million in revenue and 1200 people and several different manufacturing facilities, several different business unit locations that I would need to go around. And, and that's why I think communication is key, is because if you don't sort of set the messaging and communicate what's going on and achievements and things that we are,you know, people when they're in their own little world, they know what they're achieving. But if they don't see it,connecting to a broader picture, they don't feel fulfilled, I don't think so. I think it's important to communicate all the achievements of the organization as a result of what the individuals are doing on a day to day basis.

David:

Well said Well said, the reason I asked the size question is so our company is 11 people and the weight of that tiny company, the weight of that sits on me pretty squarely. And I've always wondered when you're managing and you're responsible for CEO you know, very high up in the chainand you have recentSo for 1200 plus people, how does that not just cripple you? Like mentally? I mean, that's always it, it blows my mind, because to me, 10 is hard. 11 is hard. I can't imagine an order of magnitude or 10 of orders bigger than that, how do you not stress yourself out?

Linda:

Well, I think that if you build good culture, really, and you develop people, then those people become the spokes in the wheel that, you know, multiply what your efforts are. So I don't really feel any more stress from a big organization than I do from a small organization, I think.It's just, it just scales, you know, when you when you have the right people, and they are, they areenabled andallowed to fail, then they're not afraid to fail, and they go out and do things that will help build the business and, you know, in a very productive way, you know, I think if you cripple them, and you don't allow them to fail, then everything will drop to you because they're afraid to fail, so they don't do any.

David:

Good. That's interesting. I think the way that you're describing I don't think I've heard described that way. And I like it is that as a small company in the small founders, you most of the people who listen to our show, are aspiring entrepreneurs or new edit. And they feel that pressure because they're in control. And I think what you're describing is, you don't feel that stress, because you are delegating to the point and you're empowering the people below you. So that that stress is no longer yours, is that an accurate summation?

Linda:

I mean, I certainly, you know, have things that come up that are stressful that, you know, I would have to deal with, but, you know, I think my first really important mentor to me, when I was a salesperson at Bard, you know, I would be out in the field by myself most of the time, and then he would come in and work with me once every two or three months. So if I would call him at the end of the day and say, you know, I've got this issue this challenge, and not sure exactly what I need to do about it. And he'd say, Well, what do you want to do about it? So he would put always put it back on me to make a decision, take a risk, you know, do what I thought was best to do. And I've just implemented that same philosophy my entire career. So that was, you know, in my early 20s. And now it's, you know, 40 years later, and I'm still doing the same thing. If someone comes to me and says,you know, I've got a problem. And I don't know if I should do this or do that. I would just say, Well, what do you what do you think you should do? I had a, I had a Director of Marketing come into my office one day, who was working very hard on a program of a new product that she was responsible for developing. And she, she came in with our full slide presentation, you know, this is why I think we should do this. And I'm like, Well, if that's what you think, then you're the expert, just do it. And she was, like, shocked. You know, and I think it's just because they had been, you know, sothey had had leaders prior to me that were very directive and telling them how they needed to do something and why they should or shouldn't do anything. So I just really believe in people takingaccountability and responsibility as long as you share what your strategic initiatives are, and then you as a team, come up with the goals and objectives together and then drill that down into each department, then they feel empowered to go ahead and take care of it and they know I'm depending on them to do that. And I follow up with you know, in those one on ones, about every quarter, I will make have them make a list of of objectives that they need to get done in that timeframe. So it all kind of ties together very easily.

David:

You what you're saying is very convicting to me becauseIt's sounds like the leadership I would like to do. And I'm not really good at it. I had a minute, a friend of mine in my business group said that good leaders, don't let people leave things out their door. And what do you mean is very similar what you're talking about, he would have people come into his office, and you could tell that their entire mission of this visit was to drop a task off it at their desk. And his job as a leader was to redirect and do No, no, no, that task is yours, you need to pick that back up and take that back with you, instead of leaving it on my desk, and I find in myself that I am very willing to take the task. And, and, and without realizing that I just accidentally disempowered that person, because they're coming to me. So I'm thinking, well, they don't think they can do it. And so I'll take it. But that's actually the apps opposite of probably what they really need. So I, Gary, I need to get better at that. Not with you, per se, just in general people I care about and who work hard.

Gary:

Yeah, I can see that being a sticky situation, though, especially with a smaller company. Because obviously, you cannot have that approach with that many people or as many people as Linda has, but the feeling the need to help. And then also trying to empower does seem like a little bit of a gray area, depending on just the communication that short span of time. So I mean, that's a trick, you're gonna have to learn how to master. But what it's something that tension is practice. Yeah,

David:

sure. I don't think I've I mean, I'm been a leader for only a few years, right, where I've had a real team, rather than a bunch of contractors. And so I'm still very new at that part of it. But I can that is the goal. And I think every single one of the people who have leadership positions in our company, and I would imagine in all of yours as well, they want you to give it back, they just might not realize it.

Linda:

Yeah, I think you know, I don't know if either of you have ever watched New Amsterdam.I am currently addicted to that show. Okay, so thank you for bringing that lifeline is it and I have seen some episodes. Okay, so can I help? I just like I've been I've been bringing that in here. That's exactly. You know, that's exactly how it works. You know, when someone comes in, and they're reviewing their goals with you. And let's say they're getting stuck on one of the objectives. And you say, Well, how can I help? And they'll typically tell you, you know, what it is that would help them get that task done. So generally speaking, it's, you know, supporting them by a lot of times when you have those kinds of things, it's because one of their peers that they have to depend on to get their objective completed, is either not responding not making a priority, not participating at the level, they would need to get their initiative taken care of. Soyou know, that sometimes is the way to get it done. As I say, you know, I really need some more support fromJoe. Okay, Joe, why don't you come along? And to the next meeting? How about if I have Joe come to our or you come to Joe's meeting, and we'll discuss it together and see what, you know how, why we're getting stuck on this. And so I really find myself as more of a facilitator a lot of times just to open pathways for people to get their initiatives taken care of, I find that I feel like I know I do when I do my job. Well, I always get that little like, celebratory feeling inside, right?

David:

I get those most often when someone comes to me with a problem. And generally, it's exactly what you said, except in our world. It's not that they're not doing a good job is that if someone else has stolen them, or they are busy on another part, they wish to be somewhere else. And my job is to clear that path. Right? Okay, let's juggle, move the pieces around so that we can free up that resource that you need. And then I do the little happy dance because I feel like I did my job for a moment. And that's, that's always a very good feeling when you when you've done that, because you've now just cleared the road. But you didn't break all the other pieces, right? Because only the top person can move the pieces between projects easily. Because it's good to be king, right? No one says no, when it's when I'm moving the pieces are

Linda:

right.

David:

But you can't break everything in process. Right? Are you then you're just being a bad leader in general. So it's funny, you're saying all the things I want to be when I grow up, so I appreciate that very much.

Linda:

Well, I'm sure you're doing a fine job. Your business is growing from the podcasts that I've listened to. So that's that's the first sign.

David:

Don't ask Gary, how are companies doing? He lives he said horrible. So one of the things we've been talking about a lot recently is hiring. And I want to jump into thatJust for a second, because I think a lot, a lot of the people we've spoken to have been too small to have a real good opinion on hiring because they just don't do it enough, right? They have five people or less. Yeah. So we're early on in the stage of their growth and their startup to where they might not even need to hire anybody beyond just an occasional temporary contractor for a group of tasks, but not like a full on employee. What we have found so hard with hiring it was this market is so weird right now, like it's it defies all I love finance shows and like marketplace and all of those. And they all talk about this makes no sense because they're trying to constrict the market, so that the economy slows down and jobs slow down and pay rates go down. So everything gets cheaper, right, because inflation is too high. And so they're putting all their their pieces in there, and they're using all of their weapons to slow everything down. But no one cares. The job market is still insane. And rates are still going up. And but inflation is coming down. It's just like no one understands it. And I say all that because hiring is strange, because depending on your industry, some people there's jobs everywhere. And other people there are no jobs right? There are no people, let me say that again. Like if your hospitality right now finding a waiter is impossible.

Gary:

Yeah, I was gonna say hospitality versus tech. That's there's not enough workers, for one too many for the other. Indev its

David:

Dev is always a weird beast, because every single one of those people who got laid off, have they have another job. If they want one, right now, they're probably enjoying the severance package. But once they're done with that, they're gonna find another job within a day, it's crazy. But when we put a job out for our project manager or something like that, we get 50 or 80 applications within a week, it's just bam, there they are.But hiring is just a weird time. So with your experience, I mean, you've you've done the hiring thing, way more than I have, or any of us have, and most of our audience, how, how is that for you? How do you find the right people, even in this crazy market? So hiring is one of the things that I've probably had, gosh, I've been doing it since 1987. So it's something that I learned,

Linda:

I think what's unique about my experience is that I have both big company and startup. So it the big company stuff is, is good, because it gives you sort of a template for how to do things. And then I just tried to apply it in my small company worlds, when I've done it. So I've been in two very, very large companies, and the rest has been startup.Andit's, it's kind of a unique position. Because if you have sort of the templates, you know, okay, marketing, I need to do these 10 things to be successful. And, and, you know, when you're doing a software, if you're making sure you have a good software development lifecycle, and you know what the steps are to do that when you're doing r&d, you know, that you have to do a properprocess. So like, customer focus development, and things like that. So that's the nice thing about big companies is it kind of gives you those templates. And so way, way back, I started a hiring process where I think what is the most important about it is that you do the same process, every interview that you do, as far asif you're talking to, you know, 10 different people, that you try to frame it the same way, or else you'll get confused.On whether one candidate was much better than the other or not, if you use the same set of questions, then it will give you a barometer that doesn't confuse you confuse you as the hiring manager as to which one was stronger. So I like to use a process that, you know, first of all, take me through your resume, tell me just hit the highlights, you know, why? What was your big achievement and why you moved on to the next thing? And, you know, sometimes you'll have someone take, you know, 45 minutes just going through that process, and then I question how much focus they have. Because if they take that long, then I can't really dig into sort of my questions about them real deeply. And then I like to just have the same set of questions so that I can see how different people deal with those questions. And that really has been the and I also go through sort of a three interview process. Typically I would do a phone interview last 30 minutes.First time, just to, you know, and try to do a big enough pool of candidates, like I like to do probably16 people through that initial process of that phone interview, and then try to narrow it down to, you know, maybe 10, to do a firstface to face interview. And then from there, I'm hoping to get down to like two or three, to do the next interview, and then make an offer. After that, you know, I always check my own references, even as a CEO.Because there's something about your gut, and your intuition that you can't get if someone else checks your references, especially if you're using a recruiter, because the recruiter wants to replace the person with you, you know, and they're gonna say, oh, their references were great. Soand again, with the references, I tried to use a list of questions that are the same list of questions for everybody. Andif you, first of all, if you can't get a reference to call you back, that's a bad sign. Secondly, if you, you know, is saying, well, Terry described yourself as sort of a superstar. Would you use the same characterization on this? Oh, no, not exactly.You know, or it's just something about checking your own references, and I always check, at least, I asked for three. And I liked them to be appear a boss. And,you know, if they've managed people, a subordinate,or a customer, if they're, you know, willing to give you a customer, that's good, too.

David:

That's so interesting that you're talking about references. And I always joke about references, because you know, they're only going to give you nice people who, obviously they're not going to give you their worst enemy, right? Their adversary is not the guy you're going to call. So I, I love the idea that you're asking big ol open ended questions that they have to answer. And you can you can read a lot about the superstar question being the one I'm specifically thinking of that one is really interesting, because you're gonna whether eventually they're probably going to say yes, right, just because this is my buddy. And I want to make sure that they get the new job, whatever. But you can tell so much in that answer. It could be. Yeah.Or it could be Oh, yes, absolutely. Superstar. 100%. Right. That's a very big difference. Same words. Totally different.

Linda:

Yeah.

David:

intonation.

Linda:

And the same is true for like, my favorite question at the end is, if you had a position that John had before available, would you would you hire him again? And if they hesitate, you'd be surprised how many times they hesitate? Then they're like, huh, or, you know, if they're quick to say, Absolutely. No doubt, would Hiram in a second wish I had a position right now, you know, you can just tell the difference, when you're the one asking the questions, kind of read between the lines. And you can also yes, people do provide people that they think are going to provide them a good reference. But some of them honestly don't have really good references sometimes. And you can tell by the quality of the reference, what their job, what their role is, how successful they've been, you know, if they get three people that are just like, you know, Joe on the street, then, ah, I don't know why this guy doesn't have so many good references.

Gary:

I have a question about culture fit. So I'm assuming that you probably want to check for any indications that this person is going to fit within the culture of the company. And I'm guessing that's probably in the, you know, the later interviews when you're down to two or three.Do you have any, like red flags or any kind of, I guess, indications that someone is going to be bad for the company culture?

Linda:

So statistically, yes, I've hired a lot of great people, really great people. I've also heard some really bad people. I mean, 20% of the time you make a mistake. And, you know, you kind of just go, Oh, why didn't I pick up on that, you know, oh, I let them take control the interview too much, or whatever it was, you know, I dismissed what this reference said, but I shouldn't have you know, kind of thing.SoI think reallyYou say, you know, save that for the end, but I actually try to get that,like in the first face to face interview, you know, I try to say,my question to really get to that asso. So what type of company are you looking for? And if they tell me things that my company can't really provide them,

Gary:

then ping pong table expresso machine.

Linda:

Exactly, you know, then they're like, Well, we're really not quite there yet. I'm not sure if you're going to be a good fit for the company. Because that that really is the most important thing. Well, a track record is the most important thing, you know, if they can show that they've achieved a lot of things, then that's the most important thing. But the second saying is, you know, can, let's say they're coming from a big company and you're hiring in a small company, can they make that shift, to having to roll up their sleeves and do a lot more themselves? versus, you know, delegating it to someone that we don't have, you know, or using a consultant or being comfortable, and working with consultants and directing consultants and things like that? SoI always ask a lot of those questions, but most importantly, you know, what kind of company you know, what are you looking for in a company? And if they list a lot of things that I don't have, I make it very clear? Well, we don't really have that, you know, how do you think you would deal with that? Andso I think,you know, if people say, you know, I don't really like to, I don't really ever talk to my boss, I don't really have meetings with them. And I'm like, Oh, well, I'm gonna want to meet with you every week. So is, is that going to be okay, you know, and I want to have a meeting with the group every week, or, you know, is that gonna, is that gonna work for you? I don't like to meeting out but I don't think if we're, if we're not operating on the same page, then we're not going to be successful as a team. I have a question. I, this is real world. Here we go.

David:

We're in the graduate level category now.So you have a contractor. This is real world, this happened last week.You have a contractor, who has royally hosed you.Right. They have lit the fires dropped their grenades on their way out, whatever, whatever it whatever they could do. They did, right. They deleted in a critical folder on their way out the door. Right? Not something you can easily recover from.They're gone. You have kicked them out of the organization. Alright, it's not a good fit, you're gone. They dropped their grenades on the way out. Okay.How do youprotect the next company, if at all? Because I feel a responsibility, right? I'm the boss. This happened on my watch, they dropped the grenades, we're figuring that out. But now you're out in the real world. And you're probably going to do it again. Because your skills bucket, right?Do you feel any responsibility for that poor next company? Who's probably going to get hosed Right? Or do you just let them go? Or is there any recourse in that are you just, man that just stinks

Linda:

generally, you get to the position that you're in, or I'm and because you've been successful, not only at delivering on things, but you have to be able to deal with people, right. So generally, you'rewell liked, you know, you don't usually climb up if you're not, you know, pleasing most of the people most of the time and interacting in a positive way. So, you know, even though when you are in a leadership position, people generally assume that you don't need accolades, because the job is the accolade and that you don't like to hear people say, Gee, you're the best boss I ever worked for and you know, things like that, that number,but it? I do, I do findthat I do take it personally, sometimes if I haven't been successful at building a good rapport with someone. You know, I'm like, you know, I don't I don't know why I have such great rapport with all these other people. But this one, you know, I can't get through to or, you know, they don't really understand who I am and that and I'm extremely transparent. You know, I'veAra, you know, I'm struggling with this, can you help me with that, you know, whatever. AndI'm very directed, you know, I, here's your goals for the year not meeting your goals, I'm going to say, you know, you're not meeting your goals, how can I help you sit and I give them a chance, but for whatever, you know, maybe the job is too big for them sometimes. And, you know, I do have to think about that there have been people that I'vebeen resistant to hire into a position because I thought maybe it would be, you know, too big a job for them. So I'll start them out in a like with a lesser title, or lesser responsibility, if I'm not sure if it's a big jump for them, and then have them work into it. Just so you know, I don't want to set them up for failure.

Gary:

Since you have this experience from giant corporations, not a small startups, something we ask every one of our guests that I'm sure you have some insight here for is what are the three pieces of advice that you would give an entrepreneur, a new business or a startup?

Linda:

Well, given our most recent discussion here, find it last minutes, I would say, you know,hiring is the most important thing you do.So really, take your time, go through a process hire, you know, as best as you can, because especially in a small company, every single person is, is important.Second thing I would say, especially in small companies, especially when you're cash strapped,when you make decisions,think about how those decisions impact each part of the organization. But because if you say, you know, I'm gonna hire 20 developers, but your project management team is too small to handle it, then you're only going to have a mismatch on how productive those engineers are going to be as an example.And the third thing I would say is, you know,sales is critical, right? If you don't have sales, you don't have the rest of the organization. And sometimes it takes a bit to get the strongest sales team that you can get. So I would say that if you have a B sales team, even though you're improving it, as time goes on, you need an a marketing team,or marketing plan. So your marketing has to be exceptional in order to make up for not having all cylinders, working for your sales team.

David:

Let me dig into that for a second. Normally, I don't jump in, but I want I want to pick that one a little bit. So what are the practical results? If you have a great marketing team? But I may sales team, what is that marketing team doing for that sales team specifically? generating leads? I've better leads are coming down to the be mean? Yeah, I think so. And you know, if they're just really getting,

Linda:

you know, and when I'm talking about marketing, I'm talking about all different facets of marketing, you know, your website, you know, your search engine optimization, you know, you can get a lot of leads, if you have case studies and things that really grab your audience.Testimonials, people that will come on and be videoed on your website. You know, just there's a lot that can be accomplished in the, in the website, you have email marketing, you have, you know, some advertising depending on you know, it's it's probably digital, but anymore, but it's definitely you need some of that social media you got if you're going to be on Twitter and LinkedIn and you've got to feed it, you know, you can't just post once a month, you've got to post a little more than that. Weekly, at least I would say.PR, you know, it's easy to get low. I think one of my companies we got modern health care's best, best companies to work in two years in a row so you can reach out to monitor howHow do I get this, you know, get, you can create your own awards, PR, trade shows, webinars, executive leadership meetings, user group meetings,touching your customer frequently, most of your customers, they'll help you get new customers, if you engage with them a lot.I would have an annual sort of user group meeting, and got so much business as a result of having those user group meetings and just tying up and keeping your customers really committed to you.blogs, podcasts, I mean, you guys are doing a lot of that stuff. Butthose things all create solid leads for your sales team. And then, you know, of course you have to get them to execute but definitely makes it easier when you have strong marketing.

David:

Nice. Okay, great. Yeah, I mean, I was thinking,I still think I'm almost wondering why isn't it the opposite? If, if you have a B team, sales group are see even worse. You got this great marketing, they're funneling, they're shoveling the leads, right? They're doing their job. But these, you know, be tamers? Well, maybe I'll call maybe I won't, right?Can that can the lead really make up for whatevs?

Linda:

Well, yeah, I mean, so we always used salesforce.com, you got to track the leads, and then you have to have someone who says, hey, you know, John hasn't followed up on this lead for 30 days. And lead is hottest in its first days, right. So yeah, if your managers aren't following up on that on a weekly basis, and they, and then the reps know that you're gonna follow up, and they're like,I can always tell, they knew I was going to, you know, check on them every week, whether they followed up on the lead yet or not. And I could tell they called like, right before my meeting with them, because, yeah, I just talked to them a minute ago.So I mean, it, that's just good management, you have to make sure that, you know, you're not wasting those leads. And I also would encourage the CEO to get out in the field and work with people with the salespeople and make sure, first of all, it makes it easier for them to get appointments, if leadership is with them. And secondly, they they need to be prepared, and they need to, you know,work, be ready to go in and make a call and have an objective in the call. And when you see that, and you can share stories. While John, the other rep. Does this, maybe you should call him and see how he does it so that then you make your sales team stronger, because they're sharing ideas about how they work best and things like that.

Gary:

All right, Linda. Well, thank you very much for your time today. And if anybody else wants to reach out and learn more about you, what's the best way to get in touch with you?

Linda:

You can find me on LinkedIn, and pretty good about responding. So that'd be a great way.

Gary:

We'll definitely include that in our show notes as well. So if anybody wants to reach out and get in touch with us leave any comments or questions, they can do that underneath this video on YouTube. Or they can send us an email Hello at the big pixel dotnet. Or they could reach out on any one of our social media channels. And in the shownotes and description for the show. You will have the links that we spoke about including Linda's link on LinkedIn.

David:

Thank you so much for joining us. This has been a lot of fun. Thank you guys. It's been fun for me as well.