Higher Up Podcast

Ep.023: Data Drives Decisions

• Higher Up Podcast • Season 2 • Episode 13

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What separates good leaders from great ones? Data. In this episode, Brady and Benji break down why tracking the right numbers leads to smarter decisions in business and life.

From coaching softball to leading a restoration business, they share real examples of how data transformed their results—like turning a 31% win rate into a championship team. They also explore how industry leaders like Chick-fil-A use metrics to optimize customer experience and how tracking response times and communication efficiency has improved their own success.

Beyond business, they dive into why Google reviews matter more than you think, how employee feedback strengthens culture, and how their “Coffee with the CEO” program gathers game-changing insights. The key? Start small, track 1-3 meaningful metrics, apply what you learn, and watch the impact.

If you’re ready to level up your leadership and make decisions based on facts instead of feelings, this episode is your blueprint. The numbers don’t lie—are you paying attention?

Episode Introduction

Speaker 1

all right. Well, benji brady, welcome into another episode, episode 23. Uh, today we're talking data drives decisions data, data drives decisions.

Speaker 2

All right, when you think of the number 23,. What do you guys think of? What comes to mind first? Michael Jordan 100% yes, yes, yes, yes.

Speaker 1

The GOAT, michael Jordan the only person that doesn't you know yell at the journalist on court during the game about his son.

Speaker 2

Well, true, but I will tell you, as the topic is today, today, I'll let you mention it here in a second number 23 had the best stats in the history of the game.

Speaker 1

plug there's a plug for you yeah, I do need to go back and watch this documentary. I never did and I heard it was a.

Speaker 3

It was really good really good, yeah, I did too, that's. That's actually a good note, adam, I need to do the same thing I need to check it, especially as a filmmaker.

Speaker 1

I should check that, but I heard, and aren't you?

Speaker 2

aren't you, adam, aren't you impressed with brady's setup?

Speaker 1

we, actually I am for those that are that are watching the uh, I was jokingly called a vidcast so you know, those are watching on youtube. Brady looks quite professional. This is it's nice. It's a nice change. It's nice change. It's nice to have you where the sun isn't coming in behind you.

Speaker 3

I'm kind of partial to my office. I mean, I'm very cozy in there, you know.

Speaker 2

But this is good, I think a lot of people would say that they are just glad he doesn't have the stack of books. That was probably one of our most engaged episodes, like all the stack of books and documents he had.

Speaker 3

I still used it. I still used it up until last week.

Speaker 1

What we didn't account for was for the changing of the seasons.

Speaker 3

That's true, and the sun coming in, yeah.

Speaker 1

So when you saw that you're like guys, the time's changing and the sun's just beaming through my window Yep, yep it. And the sun's just beaming through my window Yep, yep it was very angelic, though Very angelic it was it was, it was Well, yeah.

Speaker 1

So, like I said, today we're talking data drives decisions. This is a great topic for our listeners because this has been a key emphasis on any and every decision that you guys have made in your business. Data, I mean, you can't fight it. You know, brady, you've said it before but hope is not a good strategy, and the counter to that is data drives decisions. Data lets you know is something working? Is it not working? Do we need to pivot? Do we need to find another method? So I know this is a big thing for both of you that y'all have really pushed, with anyone associated that works for you, serves with you. Whatever, that is Data and it's not just business, right, that's like your family, that's church. That's everything that lets you know is what I'm doing working or am I wasting my time?

Speaker 2

Yeah, it's data does drive decisions, everything you do. And just just to give you a little history, I guess we might tell a little story, um, as part of the history, but I was a travel softball coach for probably close to I don't know 10 years and actually cause I know it was not 10 years seven years. The first three years we played park ball For those of you who don't know, that's like the park in your local community or whatever and I'll never forget the first year we were looking to. As a matter of fact, Adam, I was talking to your wife.

Speaker 2

Both the girls were at a birthday party this past weekend and we were talking about the girl that we were there for McKenzie and Addie to have the birthday party. Her aunt, me and that lady's husband actually coached softball together. We were talking about softball stuff and Emily was standing there and I'll never forget, because Emily was talking about y'all were about to start Addie with the whole. You know, park season was starting up again. A couple of the girls there played together and I was reflecting back to those days thinking, man, I remember when Sammy was playing park ball, we had to make the decision about 12U softball that's the age of 12 and under is what they call 12U. Are we going to continue? Because they didn't really have a park, you know, park girls playing park softball after 10U. It really didn't exist.

Softball Coaching & Metrics

Speaker 2

So the only way we were going to continue to get better was to go play travel softball. So I called this guy up and said, hey, I want to be able to be a coach. What does this entail? He said, tag, you're it Like? You're going to be the 2005 girls softball coach for travel for this specific organization? I said, fine, that works. So our first year OK, data drives decisions. Our first year fall of 2016,. We won five games out of 16 games, that's a 31% win percentage Not very good.

Speaker 3

Not very good?

Speaker 2

No. So I had to make a decision, like I've got to recruit some additional girls. There were some girls that didn't want to play anymore. The next spring, we went 17 and 17 and we won one championship. So that was a 50% win ratio. One championship the next fall, the following fall, we won 20 games, only lost six and we finished first place twice, so we have a 77% win percentage. One, two championships and then the next spring 2018, we won 26 games, lost 16, and won five championships. So data drives decisions. We had to make a few changes to our team, to. Maybe it's your organization which we're going to talk about here in a second, but those things matter, especially in parents. Adam, I'm sure you could have tested this now. Parents get really uptight about their, their daughters, playing softballs to the point of, you know, walking up to the fence and shaking the fence.

Speaker 1

I know you've seen it I know you've seen it, man I'll even vicariously, through their kids. I just take pictures. That's all I do. I just enjoy watching her play and take pictures of them I would love to see some of the moments you capture.

Speaker 2

That's a story for another day.

Speaker 1

I told somebody the other day I think one of my next series should be is capturing angry parents of these games and like, oh, that'd be good, I'd watch that series you could get posted hey, you could start an instagram, I mean, and, and you'd probably get some people to dial in angry parents, so we'll call it but.

Speaker 2

But that brought that back. So another thing I wanted to talk about. Okay, me myself. So about a year ago I weighed 228 pounds. All right, today I'm 238 pounds. Now, by the way, just for you listeners, that's not muscle weight.

Speaker 1

You're also tall though I'll give you that.

Speaker 2

Yeah, but it don't matter. I need to get back down to my 228 pounds. How do I change this? How? What would you guys say?

Speaker 3

well, I mean, it's gonna start with making some different decisions in a mindset you know first yep, but then you gotta decide yeah, go ahead, adam.

Speaker 1

No, it starts. It starts with what you're eating. Like Brady's saying, make decisions, it starts with what you're eating. What are you putting into?

Speaker 2

your body Yep, and you have to exercise.

Speaker 3

You have to do a little more.

Speaker 2

Less intake of calories, more outtake, we'll say, of calories through exercise. I know you guys know I love Chick-fil-A. What I'll never forget there was one day that Sammy and I were going to a softball tournament several years ago and we walk in and we're sitting to where we can see behind the counter. Okay Now, first thing I did. She said what are you looking at? And I said I'm actually looking at their screen above the drive-thru window. You know, back then they didn't have 100% where you can look right into the kitchen.

Speaker 1

I knew exactly where you were.

Speaker 2

That's sad, I know that back then, if you guys remember. They've changed the way they do drive-thrus. Now a lot of people are doing this, not just in Chick-fil-A, but in other restaurant fast food as well. They now have the doors open up where people walk out.

Speaker 3

Yeah, I actually like that a lot better.

Speaker 2

Yeah Well, why? Because service is faster, right, I mean, you get faster service. So back then they had the windows. They had to hand the bag through to you. I looked up on this TV up there and there was several key. I'm going to call them KPMs key performance metrics. Don't know if that's what they call them, but we'll just call them that to make it good for this, for this podcast today, and up there on the screen they had order time, customer service time, food delivery time and the. I forget what the other one was, and I know you guys are going to agree with this, but how many times have you got to a drive-thru with you and your wife and kids or whatever? And when you actually pull up to the window and your food's not ready, what do they tell you to do? Pull forward, pull forward.

Speaker 3

Pull forward to the stop sign that's at the end of the building that blocks the rest of the traffic.

Speaker 2

That's right. So here's a question Do you guys think that they stop their metric when they have you pull forward?

Speaker 1

Oh, 100%. Yes, Do they 100%.

Speaker 2

I have to agree with Adam. I don't know about that, but think about this. They've stopped their clock. Their clock has stopped because you've moved out of the way. It's time for the next. You're out of the cycle.

Speaker 1

Other than the end of the cycle is delivering the food. But technically you're out of cycle, I would assume.

Speaker 2

I would think so. Now, if you're a Chick-fil-A employee or manager or owner or whatever, listening to this.

Speaker 3

Please reach out to us and let us know what the actual thing is, we would also like a sponsorship, if there's any of those for some Chick-fil-A.

Speaker 2

But the thing is, the key is, even in the restaurant industry they're tracking some kind of metrics because they know the faster they can get you the food it's hot, right off the kitchen line that you're going to be the most satisfied customer and you're probably going to come back, especially if your order is right. So here's what we're going to talk about today. In your business Maybe it's your church, maybe it's your uh, you're a manager of a company, maybe you're an employee what are some key metrics? Brady and I are going to talk about just a few um that we do in our organization. Just a few. Okay, how quickly do we have as industry standard, brady, that when a customer calls our office? How quickly do we have as industry standard, brady, that when a customer calls our office, how long should we respond back to that customer? That we're on the way?

Speaker 3

Well, I mean, in our industry it's always been an hour. We've got a one Now listen, nowadays if you wait an hour to call somebody back, that's going to be a long time. So it's actually shorter than that, but the industry standard has always been about an hour.

Speaker 2

Yeah. And then the next metric is how long would we be on site to that customer's house industry standard Four hours. Four hours Now. Obviously we're going to beat that time because we want to get there fast. And then what's the next metric is how long should we have some kind of now again, just so everybody knows Adam's mentioned this a couple of times we are in the restoration business water, fire, cleanup, construction. How long should it take us to get some kind of debriefing back to the insurance company if they choose to file a claim or whatever? What's that typical timeframe? Eight business hours. Eight business hours Again. We try to beat that as well. There is actually a company in Birmingham Adam we'll see if you know who they are that in Birmingham Alabama they're called On Time 59. Do you know what their slogan is? It's On Time Electric. It is On Time Electric. Do you know what their promise?

Speaker 1

is. I'm not a branding guy, I should. It's like if we don't beat 59, it's on our dime, or something like that.

Speaker 2

You are so close.

Speaker 1

That was really good, because we watch the news every morning and they are a sponsor and we hear it Welcome to on-time electric Wait. Do they have a jingle? Adam, can you sing that for us? They do. I can't. That's why I missed it On.

Speaker 3

Time 59?

Speaker 1

I have no shame. I don't know if they have a jingle. Actually We'll be there in 59 or it's on our dime, something like that you are so close On Time 59 or we pay you 59. I knew it was something like that.

Key Performance Metrics in Business

Speaker 2

Yeah. So basically what they say is if we have an appointment with you, we are going to be on time, or there is no $59 charge. I've never used them so I wouldn't know how they charge, but that is their motto. That's good, yeah, how long does it take you to get on site? It's all about service. Think about speed of service. So, no matter what industry you're in, it's about speed of service. Today's world. Brady is exactly right. If we were to wait an hour to call a customer back in our industry, they've probably called two or three other companies at this point, right, especially the way Google works and all those other things. So again, going back to the Chick-fil-A model, if you guys had to pull forward out of that drive-thru line and you had to wait at the stop sign Brady was talking about and you sat there and sat there and sat there and sat there, wouldn't you get upset? Absolutely, yeah.

Speaker 1

What's the point of fast food if I could have gone and sat down for this?

Speaker 2

See, we could drop the mic right there I could have gone to a sit-down restaurant.

Speaker 2

That is not fast food and it happens at other restaurants all the time Taco Bell, McDonald's you could go on down the list that if you don't get your food on time, people are going to get upset. So again, key metrics. So you know you could go on down the list that if you don't get your food on time, people are going to get upset. So again, key metrics. So, Brady, I got a couple of things for you, for our team. So, basically, anytime we have a meeting, we're pretty much talking about metrics. Yeah, how often should these metrics be talked about with your team?

Speaker 3

for those listening out there, how often should you bring them up, I mean, I would say, as often as you can. Now, in an ideal world, a lot of us, we have technology that's available to us today, and so dashboards and apps and things like that should be Now again granted. If you're putting in the right information into the system, then it should report back to you, just like Chick-fil-A, I mean. There's somebody probably sitting there pressing the button Okay, we got the order, and then now they're pulling up and we've started gathering the stuff. So, as long as you're putting in the right information, you know, garbage in, garbage out, but as long as you're putting the right information, we can get that information out. So, typically, what we do is every time that we meet, we're looking at some type of metric, and here's the analogy that I use all the time. Okay, let's say that you go to your favorite sports game.

Speaker 2

Yeah.

Speaker 3

Okay, besides upward sports, okay, where everybody wins, everybody wins, that's right, everybody wins. But let's say you go to your favorite sports game and you show up and nobody's keeping score. Is that a? Is that a? Is that a fun game? Probably not, because you. I mean, what's the point? Right, you want to know who's winning. So the only way for us to know who is winning in our organization is through the data and what the data is showing us. And are we meeting the deadlines or are we not meeting the deadlines? Are we meeting the metrics? Are we not meeting the metrics?

Speaker 2

Love it. So think about this there are a lot of business owners, not even in our what we would call our industry, that call Brady and I for questions and things, all that. Maybe they pass us in church, you know, maybe it's at this local store, supermarket, whatever. And I've been asked this question a lot, Brady, I'm sure you have as well. Should I share my financials with my team, what would?

Speaker 3

you say, I mean, for a long time we, we didn't Um, but I think as much, as much as you can, I mean, are you going to? Are you going to share the full thing? No, but I mean, being a business owner is a, is a um. It's a big blessing in, in in a lot of ways and sometimes it can be burdensome depending on. You know just the amount of information that's out there and if you're the only one that is holding on to that information and you're not sharing it at least with your leadership team, then you've got to be able to share that burden across, because you may have certain metrics of revenue and profit and you know just certain things like that that are on your profit and loss statement, your balance sheet, whatever that looks like. If you're the only one that knows that information and you're not sharing it with others, then they don't know if the company's winning or not.

Speaker 2

Yeah, that's a great point, because and I agree with you that I think there's sometimes where you don't need to share everything, but at least with your key managers that's the key here at least with your key managers. And look, let's be honest, because people say why would I want to share that with my management team? Listen, if you can't share some of this information again to Brady's point, not everything with your management team you probably have the wrong person in the wrong seat. Okay, so just take that into consideration. We pride ourselves in putting people around us that they are better than us as far as maybe they get great ideas. I'm not talking about as far as better, but maybe they get great ideas. They do a fantastic job. We need to be able to be willing to share with them the key points. Here's one, adam, this comes home for you Google reviews Do they hurt you or do they help you?

Speaker 1

Oh, 100%, they help you. It's one of the key metrics that Google looks at, because then also it's consistency. Google wants to see that you have an active profile. They're not going to push businesses that people use their platform to find if they're not active or if they're unanswered. That's why for us it's important to gain those.

Speaker 1

We have metrics right now. We break it down for how many reviews we want each of our franchises to get per year. We break it down to let them see what they're doing quarterly so they can understand. So they have quarter goals because those quarter goals allow them to realize all right, well, we're supposed to hit this many in a month, but for the quarter we're behind, so maybe they had a slow month or something like that, so they need to look at those. So we break those down yearly, quarterly and monthly, and then even further, we celebrate those with our team weekly Like, hey, these are the reviews that we pulled. So we're really hitting those all, from the top to the bottom with them.

Speaker 1

But it also makes a big impact. I mean that's huge to get any of those type of things because Google sees it. And then also you're talking about metrics. Google measures how quickly you respond. I mean our goal is 24 to 48 hours for something we we hit that way less Typically it's we try to do day of, obviously over a weekend. It might be tough if we get jobs with the weekend or evening. But you know our goal. Our goal is 24 hours, our, our, we don't try to extend past 48. Like, we know that we need to respond within a day or so and google again.

Speaker 2

They measure that data, that you're measuring yourself to say, hey, this is a business we would recommend. Yeah, so so, adam, on the flip side, metrics, keep, keep performing metrics. Can they hurt you?

Speaker 1

I mean, yes, I would say so as well. What when you're talking about hurting? What way are you looking into that?

Speaker 2

so great, great question. I was actually hoping you'd ask it. So let's say that a customer puts a google review online right and they give you a one star. Can that hurt you?

Speaker 1

it can. Um, because what, what is looked? It takes typically five positive reviews to negate the weight of a negative review. So think about it. I mean, and that seems unfair, right, you know you're like do you want to walk into a fight with somebody where it's like one versus five?

Speaker 2

You know, do you want to be on a?

Speaker 1

bare knuckle challenge. I know, do you want to play basketball like one versus five? No, you know. So it's tough, but yeah, I mean, at the end of the day you've got to. So when that comes in, it's a plus and a negative one. It says, all right, we messed up, how do we fix this? How do we flip this? So doing that, that's the. That's where you say, yes, it can hurt you, but I think the positive way in that too is sometimes when we do receive those, it gives us such an opportunity to fix that.

Speaker 1

And we've had many a times where you know we're not perfect. Things don't always go well. There's also things out of our control that we can't control, whether that's a customer needing a certain product or something they're trying to get ordered that's on back order. Sometimes they don't understand that and we get that. But with that negative metric it gives us an opportunity to fix it. And we've had time where customers will go back and update a review, make it positive and say, hey, I had a bad experience at first. They came, they fixed it and they reached out. And for us I always tell our team that's a positive because that lets customers know if we don't get it right, we're going to fix it. So I think, yes, I think that metric also helps. Sometimes it does that. That's the reason why we have a process, when a negative review comes in, to figure it out and and then we have a. We have, we know, we have a clock to figure out. We got it, we got to fix this so we can flip that metric.

Speaker 2

Yeah, and on the flip side too, you know as far as can it hurt you? I think a lot of people to your point. They don't, they try, they don't really have a review process in place. Let's be honest, I mean, you guys probably do the same thing you want to go to local restaurants. Don't you look up their Google reviews, especially if you've never been to this place.

Speaker 2

I mean, if people are complaining about the food and the service and all, you're probably not going to go right. So it can hurt you in a way if you don't have positive Google reviews on there. An owner looks at this one, let's just say it's one or two reviews that are one star and they go. Oh no, not another one. We used to be in the same boat until we had so many positive reviews. We actually were like team, you did a great job on this. Maybe we had a communication breakdown, whatever. To your point, it can turn the opposite way, and I know you mentioned this too employee recognition for you owners and managers, listening is a big thing. Brady and Adam, we pride ourselves on making sure that we recognize our employees for getting those, and they look forward to that.

Speaker 3

It's a big thing.

Speaker 2

Here's one, and I know we've done this in our organization Even recently. Uh, we talked about coffee with the CEO of I think it was the last episode or two episodes ago. But what about doing some type of how do you want everything we've been talking about to this point? Is external metrics right? What can we do to help the customer do internally, but from an internal perspective have you ever considered in your business, or again your company, whatever have you ever considered asking for anonymous feedback from your team about your organization?

Speaker 1

Well, nobody ever wants to hear the negative. That's right. You've got to be able to accept the constructive criticism and I can tell you as a creative, that's very hard, that's very hard criticism, and I can tell you as a creative, that's very hard, that's very hard, um, but I mean, I also understand, um, that that when you do that, I mean that's something, benji, you and I have had many conversations because you're just a supportive person. That's just your personality, that's who you are.

Speaker 1

And we've had conversations where I'm like, benji, tell me it looks terrible, like it's okay, like I need you to say this is not your best work. So if I do something and it's not, then I need to know that If there's something that it seems like hey, I know you have the capability of doing this, I feel like you're not giving the attention, like I think that constructive criticism needs to be happening, whether that is anonymous or just giving that metric, like hey, and you know, hey, this is the work I've seen you do and this is the work that you're doing, that we did on this. It's just again, I think that's, I think that's extremely important. It's not easy, but I think it's somebody you've got to be able to to handle that.

Speaker 2

Yeah, brady. Brady, you've done again coffee with the CEO recently and we have our employees in there give us positive feedback. Maybe some things that we need to improve on. What have we seen from our people just with?

Speaker 3

that.

Speaker 2

Because I see your recap every week and it's pretty good stuff.

Speaker 1

Well, and when you do that too, Brady, in the caveat with what Benji's asking also to add into what he's doing, I was going to see, if you don't mind, talk a little bit about how you're doing that. But also, what I love is you're giving recognition based on your core values. I've noticed you've done that the past couple weeks, where you're giving recognition inside of what you're saying hey, this is what is our core values, and then you're giving people in that. So I know that's a whole bunch.

Internal Feedback & Employee Recognition

Speaker 3

We threw at you, but I just wanted to make sure because I thought that was really neat that you've been doing that lately. Yeah, so I think we're going to do another podcast episode on core values and how we recently changed ours up. But, yeah, based off of that is we started doing this thing called Coffee with the CEO, to where we started three weeks ago ago and, over the course of like 24 to 30 weeks or something like that, sitting down with every, every person in the organization, and really for three purposes. One is to roll out the core values individually uh, from us to them, right. So that's the first purpose. But the other purpose was finding out what's going well in the organization. So we start out with a positive and we get everybody to typically there's about five people that's in there but find out what's going well in the organization. And then the third thing is tell me what challenges we're having, and we've heard a lot of good feedback and, to this point, when you're looking at data, okay, and so we're getting all this feedback right, benji, and what we're looking at is what we're looking for are trends. Okay, we're not necessarily a one-off. Yeah, somebody had a bad experience here, a bad experience here, or what those things are, but what are the commonalities? And then we take those commonalities and say, okay, what do we need to do about that? Okay, so a big one for us.

Speaker 3

And sometimes you think you're doing things really well and you're like, well, we need to reevaluate that. So one of the big things that has come out is communication, and you know you've got all these. You know we're about up to 180, 190 employees, something like that, but it's hard to communicate to 190 people. So that's something that we have to figure out how to do better, and I think we've gotten better over the last 12 to 24 months. But that's something that has come out of these sessions by us asking these questions, out of these sessions, by us asking these questions.

Speaker 3

And then what we're doing, to speak to what you were talking about, adam, is how do we engage with our people related to the core values, and so we have our payroll platform called PayCore. There's a recognition feature that's in there, goes out to everybody, and so we want people to recognize where people are doing something really well, and we're tying that back to one of our new seven core values that says hey, adam, you know what you did. You were doing an amazing job doing this podcast and producing it. You know you are really following through on relentless execution, which is one of our core values. So we could go in pay core and we could recognize Adam for that.

Speaker 3

And then what we're doing is every week we're tallying those up and through our communication channel with Slack, with our entire organization, is we're saying, hey, there were five people that really embodied relentless execution. They got called out this week by their peers and so we're posting that on there. So it's just a way of communication and reinforcing. And that's another data point as well to see okay, well, now we've got three weeks worth of data to say we got a lot of people that are pursuing excellence and less people that are data wins. So now how can we focus more on the ones that are keep what we're doing, but focus on the ones that we're having some challenges with and how do we make those a little bit better?

Speaker 2

Yeah, and there's obviously, like Brady said, there's many taking this data that we're getting. There's many tools out there that you can use Google Sheets, you know Excel, obviously, ai, with chat, gpt, you can plug stuff in.

Speaker 1

Just don't copy and paste.

Speaker 2

That's true, that's right. But here's the biggest question Obviously, there's lots of tools, right? What if you fail? Let's say you get all this data, ok, what if? What could happen?

Speaker 1

Well, what's the point of collecting? And if you're not? That's my first thought, exactly, I mean, what's the point? It feels like it's. You know every moment of your day. You know finding pockets of time. Your time is one of your most valuable commodities that really you can control if you're controlling it the right way. So if you're spending the time and effort to collect it but you're not using it, then what's the point in that? I don't know. That's my first thing. I don't know if that kind of, I don't know if that no.

Speaker 2

I agree with you.

Speaker 1

That's my first thought I'm like why are you collecting it?

Speaker 3

Yeah, yeah, I think that's a big point. I mean, you're wasting a lot of time by doing it. So, by using the data, you want to use it for good, and if you get a lot of that, then you can curate that to help drive whatever those KPMs or those KPIs are. It's supposed to help you make better decisions, correct. That's why we say data drives decisions.

Speaker 2

But if you don't use it to your point.

Speaker 3

If you don't use it, then you're probably going to be making some bad decisions.

Speaker 1

Well, and I think too I think something that's important, because we've heard this a lot, especially in the position that you guys have been in training and helping other serve pros and things like that. They're like hey, show us, how are you guys being successful with things? Though, the first things I find, if somebody's like well, I mean I don't understand. Like how are you doing this? Like, for instance, we, we have a company we use to help with our, our digital marketing, and like how do you know it's making you money, I'm like, well, we track it and I'm there like, oh, you do that, wait what?

Using Data to Drive Change

Speaker 1

because they'll be like, because what what's funny is? They'll come like oh well, this company's I don't, I hate, they're way too expensive and they're not making us money. They're not making us money, it's a waste of money. I'm like all right, well, I said, well, you know how many, how many calls are you getting? How many of those are you converting? Uh, of the calls you convert, what's your average dollar per job?

Speaker 1

and they're like well, I don't know and I how can you, you know, for us to say, well, this company doesn't work. We need to have valuable data. Now, it's helped us in the past like, hey, this company actually doesn't work, we need to move on. But I think too, if you're in a position where you're trying to figure out if a system's working for your business, you have to first look. Do I have the data to prove that? Or is that just an emotional choice? Do I just emotionally think I hate this, it doesn't work? You can say that all you want, but emotion doesn't drive financial. Yes, you can have a passion for something, you can love something as a creator, I 100% understand that but you can't make decisions based off emotions. We have to make decisions based off numbers. Brady, you and I have walked through that a lot, even in some of our other markets. Oh yeah, and me as an emotional person, and that's something you know no.

Speaker 1

Every year on my evaluation it was always the top, like we got to not be emotional, so I'm aware of it. But there are some decisions we had to make to cut some things. That was tough to cut but the data showed. I mean, you can't deny data. So I just as you're talking about that, benji, I think anybody listening if you're struggling in an area, first, the first question you should even ask yourself is do I have the data to prove it or whatever? Do I have that to show?

Speaker 2

Yes, that's exactly right. So if you don't again to your point if you don't use the data, why even start using it Now? We want to encourage you to start with something whatever that is, track something, and then, as you get better at it again, you can go on and on. I've got a list, we'll put it in the show notes for you. And yes, 100%. Guys, this is ChatGPT, because I have not read any of these books, but I will tell you I did look these up. Brady would say I wouldn't recommend anything unless I've read it myself, but I did look these books up. They do exist.

Speaker 2

Just a couple Data Science for Business Foster Provost. You got data driven, creating a data culture. That was a key one that came to mind. You got thinking fast and slow. The point of that one is making sure that you're interpreting the right kind of data, because you don't want to just put something out there and just hope it hits. You know, really spend time diving into it. Another one predictive analysis the power to predict who will click, buy, lie or die. Basically, you know how can I make strategic decision-making process across these different fields. As we wrap this show up, guys, just a few key takeaways. Okay, data can drive decisions, not in business, not just in business. Excuse me, but in your day-to-day life we talked about the softball coach, the weight loss, the restaurant world. Again, in our business, anything data drives decisions. Anything you do, challenge yourself, go ahead.

Speaker 1

Sorry, adam, oh no, you were, I was. You're just talking about those things. I just wanted to point out too, if y'all have questions about this, if you're listening, well, if you go to our website, higheruppodcastcom and you click on our team, on the bottom, there's a place that you can ask these questions and we'll answer them.

Speaker 1

So if you have something, for Benji or Brady to ask them about how they're making business decisions. These are things that we would like to cover. I mean, yes, we're working on some of these episodes based on, like they said. In our last episode, you heard Benji and Brady. Both these are things that they are dealing with in their business, but if there's something you're dealing with in yours, we'll dive into it for an entire episode. So go there Again. Higheruppodcastcom, Go to our team. Under that, you'll actually see a place that you can put your name, your email and then just what you're dealing with or questions that you may have about your business.

Speaker 2

Yeah, and in the show notes too there's a little link that says ask a question, submit a question.

Speaker 1

You can do that as well, obviously, sorry, I was trying to catch you before you signed off, I was like hold on, make sure y'all do this.

Speaker 2

We mentioned this a few minutes ago. Challenge yourself and your team to start with something one to three. Don't start with more than that because you can get too overwhelmed in it. Start with one to three and then, once your team gets it done, you can add others. And, last but not least, celebrate the results of your team exceeding or getting complimented. That is very important to your culture. Again, Brady said we're going to talk about on one of the next episodes about our core values, how we realign those and what it's really doing inside our organization. Guys, you got any closing thoughts before we take it offline?

Speaker 1

I just want to know if Brady has a dad joke before we finish, I do, oh yeah.

Speaker 3

That's what I was waiting on.

Speaker 1

That's why I jumped in earlier, because I was like when Benji gets rolling, he'll hit his clothes out, and I'm like hold on. I want to hear this. I need to see if he has one.

Speaker 3

This is going to be along the lines with data. Let's hear it 85% of people. It's a known fact. 85% of people don't know how to do math. I'm just glad that I'm a part of the other 25%. Oh, I can tell you.

Speaker 1

I'm part of the 85, and you know this working with me firsthand.

Speaker 2

Adam, I hope you realize 85 and 25 don't add up to 100. I know that, that's why.

Speaker 1

I said that.

Speaker 2

Okay, there we go. Hey guys, as always, thanks for listening.

Speaker 1

That was my dad joke.

Speaker 2

Thanks for listening in.

Speaker 1

What's funny is somebody's listening right now and they're like does he know? That was my joke. The funny thing is I've probably sat in meetings with Brady where he said this and he's looked at me like Adam, you know that that doesn't, that doesn't match Right, and I'm like I do. Now I do.

Speaker 2

Listeners. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. As always, Share the episode. If you're on YouTube, you can share it. However, you can help get the word out. We're seeing tremendous traction with this and we just want to be a blessing and help other people in their business. As always, you can connect on social media at higher up podcasts on our platforms. I think we're on Instagram Tik TOK Facebook YouTube yeah, wherever as always, go out there and choose to live a higher up life. See you next time.

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Benji Wilson

Host
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Brady Wilson

Co-host
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Adam West

Producer