Culture and Growth, The Leadership Principles That Transfer Across Every Industry, with Russell Warner

What do mortgages, marketing, and skateboards have in common?

More than you think.

In this episode of Unapologetic Leadership, Cory Dunham sits down with entrepreneur, CEO, and sales leader Russell Warner to explore the leadership principles that transcend industries. From building businesses and leading teams to creating strong cultures and navigating rapid growth, Russell shares lessons learned from decades of entrepreneurship across multiple sectors.

Together, they discuss the importance of hiring people smarter than you, creating a culture of collaboration, avoiding "CEO-itis," embracing innovation, listening to customers, and developing what Russell calls an "Us-Em" mindset where teams focus on solutions rather than blame.

Whether you're leading a startup, managing a growing organization, or building a legacy business, this conversation offers practical insights on leadership, culture, adaptability, innovation, and sustainable growth in a rapidly changing world.

About Russell Warner

Russell Warner is the CEO of Ghost Boards, where his leadership has helped drive more than $10 million in sales through strategic product launches, operational excellence, and market expansion. With expertise in sales leadership, marketing, B2B and B2C growth, and P&L management, Russell has built a brand known for innovation, creativity, and customer engagement.

His passion for building high-performing teams and fostering cultures built on trust, collaboration, and continuous improvement has made him a respected leader across multiple industries.

Connect with Russell

Website: https://ghostboards.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/russelldeewarner/
Instagram: @ghostlongboard
Phone: +1 (801) 599-7447

Because great leadership isn't about having all the answers.

It's about building a team that can find them together.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to Unapologetic Leadership. If you felt stressed, overwhelmed, wrestling with the imposter syndrome, wondering if you're just not good enough, then this podcast is for you. So here's your host, Corey Dunham.

SPEAKER_03 0:21

Welcome to this episode of Unapologetic Leadership, where I have Russell Warner, who's in sales leadership, a marketing master, branding, and is also the current CEO of Ghost Boards. Welcome, Russ.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

Hey, thanks, Corey. It's good to be here and good to be able to jump on together.

SPEAKER_03 0:42

Yes, you're very welcome. You're very welcome. So tell us what do you do and how do you impact the world?

SPEAKER_01 0:49

Yeah, wow, that's like a deep question there, Corey, right here early morning. How do you impact the world and leadership? I think as a person or human or father, we always try to make a difference, one in others around us. And I think you take what you've learned and you take what's around you. And I've always said in leadership first is you build teams that people are smarter than you. Because if you hire people dumber than you, it makes you dumber.

SPEAKER_03 1:18

So I've never thought about that, but I would have to agree with that because the people you hang around, the associations, all of that.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

Yeah, you become you become like who you surround yourself with. And and as you learn from others, I think the best leadership is sharing your experiences of other people's successes, yours, and make them better so when they leave you, or as they go on their own, they're becoming an even better person or better manager, owner, or whatever they become.

SPEAKER_03 1:53

So I think that's great. Yeah, and you were telling me offline that you do, or you've done, you've had a lot of different with different organizations, industries, all of that. Is how do those how tell me a little bit about your background, and then also what how does that affect you today and what you're doing?

SPEAKER_01 2:11

Yeah, I think I've always been a serial entrepreneur. My first company I owned was in elementary school. I owned a candy company, and then I owned a lawn care business in college, and then I owned a chemical business in college, and then I owned a mortgage company, I dropped out of college because you know, with it. And I've owned a marketing company of doing a lot of branding and mobile apps and games and websites, and I currently own a skateboard company. And so I think throughout life you learn through these different experiences of all your failures, all your successes, um, everything you mess up on that you try to bring that to another. But I believe that all businesses are the same. People laugh at me when I say running a mortgage company, running a skateboard company are exactly the same.

unknown 3:07

Really?

SPEAKER_01 3:07

And I yeah, and I think they are the same processes. You still have a customer, yeah, you still have operations, you still have compliance, you still have marketing, and you still have sales. And so I think they all follow everything I learned in mortgage, I used in skateboards, everything I learned in skateboards, I used in mortgage. So I think they're they're parallel businesses.

SPEAKER_03 3:30

Yeah, that's pretty cool. As you're listing off all the different things and industries you've been in, I'm like, either the word is eclectic or very diverse industries, but I love how you bring it together with they're all run the same way. And I also hear as you talk about systems and different strategies, but also too, I hear people. The way you treat people is also the same way.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

So yeah, I think of people, it's always interesting as you gather even people. I used to become the middleman coach in between operations and salespeople. Because you always get these operations people that say no, it has to be done this way. Salespeople say they got to be done this way, and they want to butt heads. And my job is always like, no, let's put them together and work together. Let's figure out how do you make you ask the salespeople, how do you make the operations better? You ask the operations, how do you make the sales better? Then they'll start communicating and start talking, like, oh, we want the same thing, but we're coming at it from different directions.

SPEAKER_03 4:30

Yeah, no, I agree with that. It brings you back to a story just with me. I used to work with my late sister for maybe a decade or more, and we used to maybe it's just finance family dynamics too, but we used to always argue on the same thing until basically I matured and realized, oh my gosh, we are both trying to get to the same goal. We just have different perspectives on how we do it. And of course, that sister-brotherly love had to all always had to one, we always had to one-up each other. But I totally agree with what you're saying that we all have the same goal and we have to remember that and find the commonalities. And and too, when we do find the commonalities and work together on things, it's amazing how much more can be done. And maybe that goal, initial goal, maybe wasn't even big enough with two people working together, two organizations or departments, two departments working together.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

So yeah, yeah, it's interesting about that. When companies grow, they have these different dynamics of different personalities, different work ethics, different backgrounds of how they did things at another company. And there it's almost like a marriage. When you get two people together, your wife was raised one way, you're raised another way, and then you're trying to figure out what are you guys gonna do on raising kids? And I think Ben is so much the same. You're taking somebody who has 20 years' experience in another company's culture, and then they come to yours and they're like, Well, this is what we always did. Then you have other people coming, well, this is what we always did. But it doesn't mean that what they did was wrong or right, or they did is wrong or right, is what is our culture going to be. And every time I've hired people, there can be dynamics that hurt a company when you're growing and bringing so many different personalities together and trying to form who are you as a company, and what are your standards, your operations, your cells, your processes. And I've always had this saying, I believe there's two different types of people in this world. I call them usms and them-ems. And what that is, uh, the them-ems are always about themselves. They're always saying, Well, what's in it for me? And what about me? What about me? And they kind of suck the organization people to try to keep them happy. And the them-ems are never gonna be happy because it's always about them. And they have and they have a problem and they blame it on the company instead of, hey, I have a problem that's our problem. And that's what and that's what an USM is. USM is like, hey, us, we have a problem, we need a solution, I'm going to contribute to that solution instead of just throwing it on your plate saying, you're the problem, I'm just me. The USM mentality is like, hey, let's get together and figure out this flow, this operations, this compliance, this issue or culture as a company. So I think if you look deep into people's their personalities of how they are they an USM or are they a themum? And I think it makes a lot of difference in growing a company.

SPEAKER_03 7:44

Yeah, I think that's really good. And as you were talking about developing a new culture, whether it's somebody coming into what's happening, but everybody having that understanding is what I'm getting at. Yeah. Because I've always thought of myself, and I know offline too, you said you're a pretty easygoing guy, and I've thought of myself as the same way until I look at ooh, it looks like I'm trying to control things or have things my way, done my way, kind of in a sneaky, sneaky way, and I didn't want to admit that early on. And I didn't realize, oh my gosh. Yeah.

unknown 8:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

I'm sorry, what was that last part? I think we all do. I think we always go in a situation like my experience of 30 years, it's got to be my way, instead of taking sometimes that step back and say, tell me about the last couple you're with, how did you guys deal with this? And sometimes you'll learn, a lot, I guess a lot of the times you'll learn there's more than one to make a great culture, great leadership, or change of a company, especially one that's hiring really fast or growing really fast, or one that's not, one that's stuck is sometimes. I call it CEO itis, where they always think they're the only one that's smart, the only one that knows how to do something, and the CEO gets too far into his head saying, I'm not gonna listen to my people. And you have to CEO IDIS is, I think, a really bad thing for companies.

SPEAKER_03 9:06

Yeah, yeah, that doesn't sound that great. And I can I've heard of a lot of organizations that have turned off, you know, the CEOs, people in those positions have turned off a lot of the organization in terms of their eagerness to support what the mission is, all because of that, whether you want to call it selfish or just not really listening.

SPEAKER_01 9:27

Or egotistic, you know. Yeah, but it is that they think they're the only ones that know the answers. And I think they got to look at their people saying, You guys are the ones are the experts. You're the expert in customer service, you're the expert in IT, you're the expert in sales. You know, you tell us how to make this company a little bit better instead of it being 100% on the CEO's shoulders that really has the most passion for the business because it's their business, and saying, But let's then title, I think, all the other people in the company.

SPEAKER_03 10:01

Yeah. Yeah, no, I think that's great. And then and I think we talked about even offline before this conversation that you had family or kids, and then and then how has a lot of these philosophies or things we're talking about right now, how has that affected how you've been a part of your family? I don't want to say necessarily run your family, but how have you interacted inside of your family?

SPEAKER_01 10:24

Yeah, I think I fell into the trap of I'll call it a little bit of the CEO itis, where the company became more important to me than the family. And the family had to remind me that they are there.

SPEAKER_02 10:38

Me too.

SPEAKER_01 10:39

Yeah, me too. Your weekends are up till midnight and you're working on your business, and you lie to yourself and your family because you tell them, well, I'm doing this for you. You know, you wouldn't you wouldn't have this house, you wouldn't have these vacations if it wasn't for this business. And most CEOs will start lying to their family that he they care about their family more than their business, and I think it's just opposite. And you know, you have to have a strong family to be able to punch you in the face, say, wake up, we are here, we're always gonna be here, the business won't. And you have to decide, okay, what where do I put put my balance? And that life work balance is tough to do for most CEOs.

SPEAKER_03 11:30

And do you feel just because they want to make sure they're successful, or is it because they're always trying to hit revenue numbers, or what do you what have you seen maybe with yourself or others as you've gone along in your career?

SPEAKER_01 11:42

I think sometimes that carrot is this close to your nose, and you're always chasing it, saying, Well, when I get to this, or when I get to that, then I'll be able to replace myself. But there always will be another carrot that you're chasing as an owner of a company of a new development, a new system, a new product, and you're always running. Eventually, you have to say, Okay, wait a minute, there's never going to be another soccer game for my kids. There's never going to be another football practice or dance. There's never going to be riding a bike with them or playing catch with them on the weekends. And so you have to be able to step back and say, okay, I can sacrifice this project to go longer because I need to have home life. And, you know, for me, I I've always brought in family into the business. You know, yeah, which is it's sometimes it's that tricky thing of the nepotism that you'll hear about. And a lot of companies will, they'll bring in their kids or their family members, and you have to be very careful with that, too, of putting them in position of how they can be successful, how they can contribute, and feel that they're super important, also in what they're doing for the business and for themselves.

SPEAKER_03 13:05

Mm-hmm. Yeah, no, I think that's a huge thing. And that's the thing, too. My dad started our family marketing business back in 1980. This year it's 46 years, and we've gone through all kinds of iterations of what I call old school managing a company, which is the CEO, the president, they make all the decisions. There is no collaboration. To now, there's way more collaboration, respecting people, their time, their energy, and as a human being, just as a human being. And I've seen a lot of transitions over this. I've been here for 30 years that I've been a part of our family marketing business to owning it. And I've seen all different kinds of things, starting off at the bottom and then moving my way up. But and I think that was for me, it was probably a great thing to start at the bottom, learn all the ins and outs, get paid the least, and work my way up. I feel that worked out for me, and I think it does for many other people too, that they've earned it, especially the people around them who could be older in most cases and have been in that organization for quite some time, and then this young whippersnipper or whipper whippersnipper. I have a friend in uh in Australia who we have weed whackers here in the US, but they have something called the whippersnipper.

SPEAKER_01 14:22

Oh, that's funny.

SPEAKER_03 14:22

The same thing. Yeah, that so I can't even think of what the phrase is for young whippersnapper. I can't even think of what it is now. I got whipper snipper in my head.

SPEAKER_01 14:30

So there we go. Whip whippersnipper. There's a new word.

SPEAKER_03 14:34

Yeah. When these young whippersnippers come up, and they are, you know, just thrust into this leadership level, and many times they're kind of floundering around, and I guess that's where the challenges sometimes come in, or disrespect, or whatever it may be.

SPEAKER_01 14:49

Well, I I think anything, you'll see companies that first leadership, that first owner, old school, they're working on a crate and don't want to spend money, they're doing it their way that that worked for that generation. And then the next generation comes in and they're like, wait a minute, that's so 1970s. Let's bring this into the 90s and 2000s, and then you think about it, let's say one of your kids takes over the business, that third generation, they're gonna bring and say, I'm gonna throw what dad did because that's so old school, and I'm bringing in this. And and for you or me or anything like that, we're like looking down, like technology is moving so fast right now, faster than any time in history. We're seeing things change from chat GBT to AI to everything. The way marketing, the way marketing was done with your grandfather is put an ad in the newspaper, you know, and your kids are like, what's a newspaper? And we were like, well, what's Google? You know, then so we're gonna keep moving this generational process from how a business is operating. But I think that every fundamental always stays the same. What are you doing? How are you listening to your customer? What are you learning from them? How are you adapting change of the environment? Because if you say, I'm not gonna change, and I think we all get stubborn in certain things. I remember even a year ago, I was so stubborn about I don't want to be on Amazon because I don't want Amazon to get 30% of my business. I I gave in, I'm like, okay, but I looked at our house, my wife orders something every day from Amazon. I go to the porch, there's another package there. I'm like, wait a minute, I better get with the times. Amazon is a business strategy. I heard from another CEO conference, he's like, he goes, I was struggling embracing TikTok. He goes, I finally did it, and now it's 20% of their business. And it's as crazy as that is, I'm thinking, oh my gosh, if he just would have said no, I'm not gonna do it, and hold his guns because TikTok is blah, blah, blah. He doesn't like it personally. Does that really matter what he feels personally or what's best for the brand and the company to grow?

SPEAKER_03 17:18

Yeah. I think that's a powerful statement. I've heard other people say that same thing of if you owned a grocery store, would you not carry the foods that you hate and that you're disgusted by? Or would you allow the customers, as you said, listening to the customers and interacting with the customers and hold the products and services that they do purchase and use?

SPEAKER_01 17:39

Yeah, it's funny. When we started at Ghostboards, we came up with these 10 designs. Me and my partner did. It was called the Riptide, the Tortuga, the Maui, the Surf and Sun. We came up with these awesome designs that we thought as owners. Well, today, we never sell those designs. They're on our way to see one of those sell, I'm like, oh my gosh, someone bought one of our 10 originals. But we had to also adapt where we started having customers ask us, well, where's the butterfly? Okay, we'll make you a butterfly lawnboard. And what about a skeleton rose? What about a mermaid? And so all of our designs today have been given by customers saying, Hey, we want a dragon. We're like, okay, sure, we could do a dragon. So we started being really, really nimble listening to the customers saying, What designs do you guys want to see? Instead of us being the designers, all the customers send in designs to us and then we adapt them. And that's worked really well for us to be nimble of saying the customer's going to create the product and then we'll manufacture it for them.

SPEAKER_03 18:51

Yeah, that's really cool. And and I don't know if that it seems like it would make a big difference. I've always owned small organizations or been a part of small companies. But if the huge, large companies out there, I bet it's more difficult for them to change gears and be as nimble and adaptable as you're talking about. Being able to listen to the customer.

SPEAKER_01 19:10

Yeah, I think it is, where even a drink company, can they say, or a food company, all right, we're gonna do this flavor of Doritos. Can they be nimble enough to or are they gonna say, nope, we have nacho cheese, we have Cool Ranch, that's what you're gonna eat. What would people want to see? And I'd start seeing even these larger corporations are doing a little bit of that. You'll start to see drinks starting to come out like, hey, let's try a new flavor, let's try this raspberry cherry cream soda, and say, let's test it with the market. So I think even larger companies are starting to look at the adaptation of what is the consumer looking for that we could wow them with and get behind.

SPEAKER_03 19:57

Yeah, yeah, I've seen that too, because I feel I feel like I back in the day, like I'm I'm a big Reese's person, yeah, and all they had was one kind or one kind of peep during Easter and one flavor. Yeah. And then now they're coming out with all these different shapes of pumpkins, caramels, yeah, yeah. And I'm like, what? Was I born in the dark ages or something? Yeah. Just because it was the 1900s doesn't mean that you know, like my kids say, hey, were dinosaurs walking around back in the 1900s? No, no, they weren't.

SPEAKER_01 20:30

But there's only one Reese's. There was only there's only one flavor of Coke, one flavor of Pepsi. That was it. You know, now you're seeing all these different flavors and drinks and stuff and food come out, and they're getting creative with it. And yeah, I'm like you, like, why didn't they do that when we were younger? It was very simple. No, no, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:56

And I think as you're saying too, it's more of the culture nowadays with tech especially moving so fast, things being innovated, changing constantly. So that's maybe more of a focus, and as you say, maybe more of a focus to be able to listen to the customer and to be able to adapt much quicker.

SPEAKER_01 21:17

And I think it's easy for the rollout of things, I think, a little bit easier. You think about even when we grew up, there was D's family restaurant, McDonald's, Burger King, and now there's thousands of burger places, hundreds of different pizza places, and tons of different drink options, tons of different shoe options. You think about when you went to buy shoes or even jeans, when we were in high school, there was maybe three gene companies.

SPEAKER_03 21:47

I was gonna say the same thing three jean companies.

SPEAKER_01 21:49

Yeah, maybe ten shirt companies, right? And now everybody can be innovative. Say, I want to roll out my brand and I want to do a brand and I want to give something to and they're searching because they can't. Can't find it from their current gene company, current shoe company, like then I'll just go make it myself. And so I think we have this innovation today with people like, well, I could do it, I could do it better, or I could do something. And it's really kind of cool to see how much innovation there is from everything, from songs. When I was in the 80s, you listen to the radio, waiting for a new song to come out. Maybe there might be a new artist that does a song next month. But now artists are so free to share on YouTube and TikTok and Instagram and Spotify. They can say, I want to share my talent with the world. And I don't have to wait, I don't have to wait for a record label. I don't have to wait for the radio to play my song. They can say, I'll just get it out today.

SPEAKER_03 22:55

Yeah, and I think that's really cool because there are pretty awesome different styles of music and the way just people interpret their artistic flavor, if you will, and what they see. And it's like, yeah, we wouldn't have that if we didn't have, like you said, the YouTubes and the digital platforms today. And even my wife and I were just talking over the weekend, just of we're trying to figure out like Taylor Swift is the big thing out right now, and the number one person, and we're trying to figure out where did she come from? You know, whereas typically 40-50 years ago, like you said, you had to have a label, sponsorship, big promotions, and all this kind of kind of marketing going on. But I think Justin Bieber was found through YouTube.

SPEAKER_01 23:37

He was one of the very first to kind of break through that mold of coming in at a different angle. And everybody saw that, and they're like, Where did this kid from Canada just come from? You know, I think is his mom from Canada or something. They were born there.

SPEAKER_03 23:54

I don't yeah, I don't remember.

SPEAKER_01 23:56

Yeah, but but all of a sudden he put his music on YouTube, and everybody's like, wow, this is possible. There's talent out there that we've never heard of. And I think we see that everything is we're moving from I'm gonna call it the yellow pages and of advertising, even, and be able to say the yellow pages are everywhere now, they're in all these different platforms, and it just isn't one thing where you can find a product or a company. You can find products and companies and people in so many different avenues.

SPEAKER_03 24:31

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it is pretty crazy what's out there and what's possible. Yeah. So, yeah, and a quick question for you. I'm sure throughout your career, you've had times when you've been pressured to either create results or to make decisions, and how do you stay focused in aligned on your values and vision when you do have that pressure at you?

SPEAKER_01 24:54

Yeah, that's a great question. You know, anytime you get that pressure to make changes, you have to look internally as this is something I believe in. And I think it's all your employees. If you don't have their buy-in, if you just tell them you're gonna do this, and they and they don't have the buy-in or they don't believe it also internally, they're gonna fight you and they're gonna drag it on and not do it. If I remember there was this time, it was a mortgage meltdown, real estate meltdown of 2007.

unknown 25:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 25:24

I was working for a mortgage company, I was their vice president, and we just lost a million dollars in August of 2007. And the CEO came, he goes, We can't do this next month, we'll be out of business. So we have to get everybody to change. And he says, the way we're gonna get them changed, we're gonna have them suggest to us what has to change so they have buy-in. So we did this huge conference call, this big Zoom call, got all the branches, all the employees on the call, and we said, We're not getting off on this off this call until we can show that we won't lose money. And we went around to each of these branches, and they all would buy in, they go, would put up on the screen, okay, here's the financials. And one guy would say, Well, let's raise our fees from $500 to $795. And we asked everybody, can everybody do that? Is that even possible? Then everybody agreed, yeah, we could do that. We're like, okay. And another person said, Hey, let's change our margins by whatever, an eighth. And we asked everybody, can everybody do that? And everybody agreed. And the time we got done on this 10-hour phone call, we actually the very next month we made a profit. So we went from a million dollar negative to September making a profit because we had everybody's buy-in. And I think great leadership is not just telling them, we already knew the answers, we already looked through the P ⁇ Ls. If we raise fees, $295, it brings in $295,000 more dollars for the company. We already knew the numbers, but we couldn't just tell it to them. We had to let them kind of figure it out and see it for themselves. And so they all got to play with this spreadsheet. And I've done that with a lot of other companies, from other companies I work for. Like, okay, this is where we're at. How are we going to get this and let them lead them and guide them and show them the numbers of the transparency? This is how we have to do it. And I and I think it works really well from a leadership instead of whipping them, telling them what to do, is be there with them to help teach. It's a teaching moment to do it together.

SPEAKER_03 27:44

Yeah, yeah, to do it together. Which then, yeah, we're invested, we're a team. Yep. It's not themers. Is it themers?

SPEAKER_01 27:51

Yeah, yeah, them, yeah, them's them, themums. Yeah, them's and usums. Yeah, and I think that's where we created that culture of being usums. And I learned that from that 2007 of you can't just do it by yourself. And you gotta have the team buy in and create the USMs. Because if you get one of them that fights it and says, no, I can't do it, they're gonna always fight, always cause issues, and they're gonna try to convince others then to be on their side versus the company's side. And that that could be a that could be a big struggle all in its own.

SPEAKER_03 28:30

Yeah, and I know it brings me back to the old saying of all you need is one bad apple in the bunch. And I I never used to understand that back when I was young, but I'm like, oh my gosh, it's so true. One bad apple will tend to rot the other ones very slowly, but it will happen.

SPEAKER_01 28:46

And they can do it at the water, they can call it at the water cooler, which we don't really have anymore.

SPEAKER_03 28:50

Or yeah, what's that? I'm not old and okay.

SPEAKER_01 28:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:55

Okay, we're about the same age, but yes. Yeah. What do you mean by that? Because there might be somebody who doesn't understand the water cooler. What does that even mean?

SPEAKER_01 29:01

And uh, and if you get somebody that's always going around trying to tell everybody else, oh, this is so bad. Oh, I can't believe we're doing this. Oh, I think you have to pull that person aside and say, okay, what's what's going on? You know, what what where are you not being heard? And let's talk about the things that you you you want to talk about. And then also I think you can guide them sometimes into seeing that if you did it their way, the company would be out of business next month. And kind of show in the past, say, well, if we did that, let me just show you the numbers. Oh, it happened. Someone says, Oh, Russ, sell all your skateboards for $100 instead of $200. Well, let me show you. That means my break-even went from doing this many to this many. And I'll talk to sales guys too, like, okay, I'm paying you this salary. For this salary, I have to sell, you have to sell this many just for me to break even. Yeah, and so if your sales are here, I'm covering you. You know, you're not even bringing value to the company. I'm actually, it's better that I don't even have you at the company if you don't hit this because I save money and time and everything if your sales don't meet that. And you bring sometimes, I think, clarity or transparency to employees. I think they start listening. I remember even a mortgage, a lot of loan officers would complain, like, well, I know the company has more money, they're making more money on that. Like, let me show you under the hood. You're an adult, let me just show you the numbers. And then they're like, Oh, okay, I I get it. I yeah, there isn't any more money. This mysterious extra money that's being made on stuff, all of a sudden they start understanding, oh, it's not there. I just got to be better at what I do.

SPEAKER_02 30:55

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 30:56

Yeah, and it does, as you said, the transparency, showing people under the hood does make a huge difference. And I I think of just back when my kids were younger and trying to help them understand why we don't leave the water faucet on for 10 minutes while they're running errands around the house. I'm like, can't you turn that off? You know, different little things like that, or why we can't run the hose outside during the summer 12 hours every day when it's hot out, those types of things. But just showing them and sharing with them and giving them a little bit of buy-in understanding does make a huge difference, and especially long term, maybe not immediately, yeah, but long term, and people can see the vision and there's trust that's developed through that transparency. So I think that's really cool.

SPEAKER_01 31:40

Yeah, I think even when you have young kids even showing them the value of you earn this money, I'm gonna let you go spend your money on that toy, that or that Kit Kat or that Reese's. Well, now they have to go pull it out of their own account or their own pocket, they start saying, How bad do I really need that Reese's today? You know, do I really need that toy? And I think we can teach our children and people around us, like, okay, is that something that's needed today, or do I need to save my money for something that's a little bit bigger? And so do I need that instant gratification, or can I wait and save up for something? And because you can, you can show your kids, hey, you bought that Lego kit, where is it today? You got that for Christmas. Do you even remember even where it's at? Oh, it's all broken up somewhere in the basement under the stairs. All right. And so showing them the value of where they put their time, money, energy, I think is really important.

SPEAKER_03 32:42

Yeah, I think that's great. And then one last question I had for you is that when have you made a big move, or you felt like, ooh, this is kind of a big thing and I'm uncertain about it. And then what did you learn from making that move?

SPEAKER_01 32:59

I'd say this last company was a big move for me because I spent 30 years in the mortgage business, so I I knew what wearing a white shirt, tie, suit, speaking mortgage geek to anybody, and learned I knew how to recruit to that, I knew how to train to that. And I entered and I entered into this skateboard world, and it was a little bit scary. It was like, wow, this is it's different. I gotta wear a pair of vans and a t-shirt and shorts and dress different, act different, and know what I'm talking about. Because when you're going back into a new field, I'm gonna call it, the jargon is different, the sales is a little bit different, and you're trying to rebuild relationships in a whole different field. So I stepped off the cliff is in this business was I'm going to go into manufacturing, take down a 8,000 square foot factory and buy machinery, and everything's on your shoulders. You're like, okay, I just spent a lot of money on this better work. This better turn out, and people better like my product. And the scary part when I first started this, I never wanted to be, I'll call it the fidget spinner business. You know, there are certain products that are they're like one hit wonder songs. They they hit and then they disappear, that band disappears. And so when going into a product, it was like, okay, this product has to be innovative, has to be the best out there. Everybody's got to love it and continue loving it, not be a one-and-like, ooh, that was neat, shiny Benny, now we're gonna move on. And so that there's a scary moments when you launch a brand new type of product into the one. I'm sure you talk lots of seeds, you know, Elon Musk launching Tesla. Like, okay, was that scary for him? What was he worried about? Or someone launching a brand new type of airplane or anything? You have to say, okay, what's that process like? So launching a brand new type of skateboard, I was going against the grain because we build all of our longboards out of acrylic, and the rest of the world builds them out of wood. So we were transitioning, pun intended, we're going against the grain of what everybody else was doing. And we went after a different demographic, too, as most skateboard companies is 99% male with all the colors and the graphics, and we went after we're a 68% female following. So we went after we went after girl designs, pink trucks, yellow wheels, all different colors. Now we still cater to the man and the boy and the male, but also we decided we're going to do a larger fishing net. We're going to do beginner long borders to 60-year-olds and everybody in between. And it'd be a custom, we call ourselves like build a bear but build a board concept where you get to decide the shape, the color, the design, the wheels, the trucks, everything is up to you. And that's a that's a scary moment when you're launching into something and you're like, okay, I hope people like our concept or idea, and then grabbing all of that feedback from the customer saying, All right, are we on the right track? It can be scary of changing fills, changing into a product that doesn't exist. It would have been a little bit easier saying, Oh, yeah, we're launching another blank that there's already everybody knows what it is. Gotcha. So it's a little bit tougher of a climb.

SPEAKER_03 36:50

Yeah, no, I like that. And yeah, I think that's where even talk having another conversation with somebody who worked on one of the teams for SpaceX, and they're gonna be a guest on my podcast here. But they were saying that like Elon Musk's whole thing was about innovation, innovation, innovation, which is to me scary, scary, scary because those things have not been invented yet. However, this person said that Elon was like, hey, even though we have a successful product, let's break it and let's invent something new. We have to be in the innovation space. And not every organization is there, some are a percentage of this or that, 10%, 30%, whatever. Yeah. But everybody has their different culture and focus and vision that they have. But no, I like that idea, like you said, just being willing to do these things and then go back to the customer to say, hey, did we get it right?

SPEAKER_01 37:43

Yeah, and then innovation is scary, especially if Google doesn't know what it is. I've asked AI, hey, can you show me what our product looks like? And it doesn't know. It's still in learning phase because it's never seen something different like what we do. And it's like, for example, when you see a clear longboard, you know, you're like, okay, what is that? And it's a little bit more on the innovation side of what things do, and then you then we rolled in like LEDs into them. It's a little bit different. So yeah, so when you go into innovation, you're always wondering, okay, are we on the right track, or is everybody gonna hate it and say no? And yeah, we can take Elon Musk, and there's haters and lovers. He rolls out the weirdest cyber truck thing in the world. And and what's interesting is everybody talks about it, so he gets you'll never see him do an average he doesn't have to advertise. So it's kind of it's kind of brilliant. You'll never see a TV ad for the Cybertruck. You've never he never has to spend a dollar on advertisement because he's already got haters and the lovers all talking about it, taking pictures of it, doing videos of it, and so I think he's a genius to a marketing standpoint. It doesn't matter what side of the fence you're on, he's getting all the publicity.

SPEAKER_03 39:10

Yeah, yeah. And the funniest piece I feel is that the haters they have so much animosity that they post and show images and photos and they have to get their point across. Yeah, it's so funny.

SPEAKER_01 39:22

Yeah, and he's getting all that free advertisement. So there you go. From an advertising standpoint, is sometimes you have to go look at the Reddit and the haters and say, is it really hurting me, or am I gonna still stand behind what I made and the best version of what I made and say, that's what I'm doing? Yeah, yeah. Thanks, thanks for your comments, and and not allow it to destroy you internally.

SPEAKER_03 39:48

Yes, yes. No, that's great. Well, thank you so much, Russ, for being here today and sharing your background, your strategies, how you've run businesses, and just a lot of your philosophies and how things move forward and the things you've learned. Oh my goodness. Yeah, yeah, I love it. So thank you again for being here.

SPEAKER_01 40:08

Thank you, Corey. It's been a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_03 40:10

Yeah, well, you're welcome. And tell everyone what's the best way they can stay connected to you.

SPEAKER_01 40:15

Yeah, you can check us out at Ghost, like the scary little boo creature. Ghostboards.com is the easiest way. Follow us on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube. You can find us. It's anything that's clear, acrylic, LED, long boards, that's what we make. But we've also innovated into cornholes and balance boards and other products. So we're trying to stay ahead and just keep growing and expanding. But we love to collab with about anybody and talk to everybody. So love a little shout out to come say hi to us.

SPEAKER_03 40:49

That's great. Yeah, thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 40:51

Yeah, thanks, Corey.

SPEAKER_03 40:53

Yep, and thank you for listening to this episode of Unapologetic Leadership, where it's important that you are willing to develop a culture of your own, blending from all different backgrounds, that everybody coming into the organization is going to help. And it's also important to remember that there's them-ums, which we don't want to be, and there's us-ums who are part of the solution. And remember also that everything we do, we are leading by example. So thank you again for being here.

SPEAKER_00 41:31

So that's it for today's episode of Unapologetic Leadership. Head on over to wherever you listen to podcasts and subscribe to the show. One lucky listener every single week that posts a review on Apple Podcasts or iTunes will win a chance the grand prize drawing to win a twenty-five thousand dollar private VIP day with Corey Dunham himself. So head on over to Unapologetic Leadership Podcast dot com and pick up a free copy of Corey's gift. And join us on the next episode.