IAM1058- Business Professional Provides Market Entry and Back-office Services

Craig is a seasoned business professional in Latin America. He is the Managing Director and Co-Founder of the Biz Latin Hub Group which specializes in the provision of market entry and back-office services. Craig holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering, with honors and a Master's Degree in Project Management from the University of New South Wales. Craig is also a military veteran, having served in the Australian military on numerous overseas missions and also a former mining executive with experience in various overseas jurisdictions.

• CEO Hack: Understanding what the client wants and helping them achieve it
• CEO Nugget: If it's not working pivot and move to something else
• CEO Defined: Someone who sets a strategic direction or pivots when needed

Website: http://www.bizlatinhub.com/

Full Interview:

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Transcription

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00:26 – Gresham Harkless
Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gretch values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.

00:56 – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Craig Dempsey of Biz Latin Hub Group. Craig, it's great to have you on the show.

01:05 – Craig Dempsey

Absolute pleasure. Looking forward to having a chat.

01:08 – Gresham Harkless

Definitely looking forward to it as well. And before we jumped into the interview, I want to read a little bit more about Craig so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. And Craig is a seasoned business professional in Latin America. He is the managing director and cofounder of the Biz Latin Hub Group that specializes in the provision market entry and back office services. Craig holds a degree in mechanical engineering, which honors in a with honors and a master's degree in project management from the University of New South Wales. Craig is also a military veteran, having served in the the the Australian military on numerous occasions, overseas missions, and also a former mining executive with experience in various overseas seas jurisdictions. Craig, great to have you on the show again. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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01:52 – Craig Dempsey

Sure. Let's go.

01:53 – Gresham Harkless

Let's do it then. So to kinda kick everything off, I wanted to rewind the clock a little bit here a little bit more on how you got started, what I call your CEO story.

02:02 – Craig Dempsey

Sure. Look. Talking about myself, you know, I guess is a is a reasonably good point to start. Well, I come from a small town originally, in Australia. So, you know, just for a little bit of context there, the original school I went to actually only had four people in my grade. Wow. So it's definitely, you know, let's call it rural. So look from there, ended up, joining the military, as you've already mentioned there. Long story, but sort of a family history of that. So I went off to, I guess, Australia's equivalent, of US West Point, did my military service, served overseas on quite a number of jurisdictions, in in the world, decided that, I'd I'd been in the military for long enough after about eleven years.

Ended up in the mining sector, worked in Australia, got transferred across to Canada, worked in Canada for a while, found myself down in Peru. And for those who don't know where Peru is, it's where Machu Picchu is in South America. Got bored with that, decided to, you know, go back to my roots, put a backpack on and went backpacking. Found myself, North of there in a country called Columbia. Was there only about two weeks, end up finding myself heading up a large multinational engineering company.

Wasn't planned, just kind of happened. Did that for a while, then decided it was time to do something for myself. So I went off and set up this group. And I guess a few years later, now the group sort of expands across sixteen countries. So we're probably the largest of what we do across, Latin America, and we have a few other offshoots, in Asia Pacific as well. So that's more or less my story. You know, to be fair, it was more by chance, luck, and opportunity than any sort of particular plan.

03:42 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. But gee, it it makes sense. I often say the harder harder you work, the luckier you get. And sounds like you've definitely been very active and been there for those opportunities because a lot of times people will get the ball and they fumble it, but you kinda took it in. Sounds like you're running with it.

03:55 – Craig Dempsey

Well, look, in most cases, it's about seizing the opportunity you get. You know, the reality is, yes. You know, for every opportunity you don't take, maybe another one may present itself. But, look, at the end of the day, we only live one life. And, you know, it's a matter of hopefully trying to make as many right decisions, and getting as many right as possible. And hopefully it leads you somewhere that makes you happy, whether that's with lots of money or whatever the case may be.

04:20 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. And whatever and however we define that happiness is absolutely key. So we make sure we're making decisions in alignment with that.

04:28 – Craig Dempsey

Exactly. Look, you know, not everything in life about is about money. I mean, look, money allows a lot of things. Let's not kid ourselves here, but it's not the be all and end all for a lot of people. Now, if that is your thing, that's fantastic. Go for it. Conversely, you know, if it makes you happy because you're serving the community or doing something else, well, that's good too. It's just a matter of, you know, when those opportunities present themselves, taking it, and sort of furthering your cause in that direction. ‘

So, you know, too many times in life people are not taking the decision that's best for them because of the fact that these preconceived ideas or what they're supposed to do or should do, etcetera, in life. So anyway, that's, you know, the randomness of of my life, I guess. And it happens to, you know, take me to Latin America. Although, at this present time, I'm actually sitting in Miami. So, there you go.

05:16 – Gresham Harkless

There you go. But the world is so small nowadays and and super connected with all these ways that we have it connected. You can be in many places out at the same time. But, so I I know you touched on a little bit, you know, the the Biz Latin Hub group. Could you take us through a little bit more about that and and how you serve the clients you work with?

05:34 – Craig Dempsey

Sure. Look. Keeping it very simple. You know, at the end of the day, we are an integrated, accounting firm, law firm, and recruitment firm. So, it's not traditional in a lot of markets, to actually have those sort of services integrated, but that's what we are. We have a presence in every major market within Latin America. And as I said, we have a small presence in Asia Pacific, in Australia, and New Zealand. We pretty much work with clients, generally foreign multinational companies, to enter and to do business in the region through understanding the market and to navigating its complexities. As you can appreciate from a cultural, from a legal point of view, even from a, you know, a business way of operating, the region is quite different. And therefore, we sort of help them through that path and provide all those enabling services to to bring it to through to fruition.

06:23 – Gresham Harkless

And, would you consider that to be what I like to call your secret sauce? The thing you feel kinda sets you apart. Is it that ability to kinda see the forest for the trees and be able to kinda help support clients in the best way possible?

06:33 – Craig Dempsey

Sure. Look, you know, at the end of the day, that ability to, you know, help the client particularly to understand and to and to apply and to navigate, yes, is definitely, you know, our philosophy or our value proposition per se. But with that said, you know, what puts us apart is the fact that more or less we are the only integrated firm, in the region And the fact that we actually do offer very much a regional approach. So we can work with a lot of clients that particularly, you know, a North American group. You know, let's say their Fortune five hundred wants to enter the region. They're not looking to find a provider in one country and then another one, another one. They're looking for some way of being able to integrate that and not only on a country by country level.

But on a region level. So when that's pretty much where we do it. And look, what we I guess we're uniquely positioned that we do put a strong focus on doing what we do in English as well. You know, it's it's depending on the jurisdiction you go to or the region. I know you were mentioning before you you were gonna be traveling through to Mexico And to a tourist area, yes, English is very common. However, in a lot of other countries in the region, English is not common at all. So, you know, that's sort of something we add on to there. And what we do is fairly tailored to to the client's needs.

07:44 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. That that makes so much sense. But I think, being able to kinda understand what your clients are looking for is at the the heart of it. And being able to kinda I guess, definitely in this term, to be able to translate and and understand that in so many different ways is is absolutely huge.

07:57 – Craig Dempsey

Yeah. Yeah. No. Exactly. It's about understanding what the client's there, what they wanna achieve, and then putting the pieces in place to enable that exactly that. And hopefully, with as little hassle as possible, which you can't get away from. There are complications, you know, doing cross border sort of activities, but, you know, know, we're there to try and make it as seamless as possible.

08:19 – Gresham Harkless

I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So this could be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It might be something you would tell a client or if you hopped into a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

08:30 – Craig Dempsey

I guess I'll relate this back to the business I have at the moment. And we work with a lot of clients, more so nowadays, very large internationals, but particularly earlier on, we worked with a lot more smaller individual entrepreneurs, etcetera. And I guess it does link in a little bit to to the last response, but and I guess that would be, you know, and this sort of advice to any sort of budding entrepreneur, business owner, future CEO, whatever you call itself. And look. It's about understanding your finances. And that means understanding the numbers of your business. Look, I've seen too many businesses, and business owners that they will go out. They will actually have a good business. However, in itself, even when it's successful, it's it's a failure. You know, it's you can't just have a great business, manage it well, offer a fantastic service if at the end of the day, there's no margin.

Clients aren't going to pay. And it's very frustrating, you know, just to see people who, you you know, put their heart and passion into growing something. However, it's never going to achieve their aspirations or what they're trying. And unfortunately, some people and, you know, I've been one of them, and I'm not sure about yourself, Gretchen, but, you know, inside your own business, you can get yourself into a little bit of bubble. And perhaps it's a little bit hard to put your head out to look at it a little bit, pragmatically or, you know, with a fresh set of eyes.

So the first thing I would say to anybody is, look, before you go down the path of committing so much of your life and energy and money and everything to it, it's just to make sure that the numbers make sense based on what you're trying to achieve. And if they do and it's not all about making huge profits. But if they do make sense and the business at the end is sustainable in achieving your outcomes, well, that's fantastic. Off you should go. But if it's not, well, there's no point kidding yourself. It's a matter of, look, take a step back, perhaps pivot on your business plan, or perhaps make the hard decision and kill it and move on to something else.

10:25 – Gresham Harkless

I wanted to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO, and we're hoping to have different quote, unquote CEOs on the show. So, Craig, what does being a CEO mean to you?

10:35 – Craig Dempsey

Look. Interesting question. And, look, I guess, there are many, many different interpretations of such. Look, I would say being a CEO, you know, it's a mindset combined with, I guess, a position or responsibility. I mean, yes, you can be a leader. You can be leading teams. But that doesn't mean you're a CEO. You can be a manager. But that also doesn't mean you're a CEO. To me, I guess, a CEO is somebody who leads and manages a team. Sure. But they're also someone who, I guess, sets a strategic direction. And then more importantly, they then have the relentless drive to get themselves, their team, their company, whoever's involved, their stakeholders to achieve that objective.

So it must be more than a leader or a manager. It's gotta be a driving force in their own right, and also pragmatic enough that they can assess, understand with confidence and are also humble enough to, to change directional pivot when needed. I mean, the end of the day, the CEO doesn't mean you have to always be right and have all the answers, but it does mean you always have to lead. And I guess that's the difference. You know, you can outsource a task. You can, you know, delegate a task, but the responsibility of a CEO is still with them regardless. So I guess that's my interpretation. I'm sure others have very, very different interpretations depending on their their viewpoints and context, etcetera. But I guess that's pretty much where, you know, my opinion is.

12:09 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. I definitely appreciate that. I love that mindset, coupled with the position and the responsibility and just all of the aspects you talked about as far as, like, being able to have that humility and all of those things because I think as we even talked about, you know, business and being able to make decisions, as you all help people do, it's not a siloed decision. It's ultimately, like, what people are trying to do to better their business. So as leaders, it's it's important for us to understand that, you know, it's not just, oh, I'm just going to do and be the CEO because I have this on my, my wall or whatever. It's because you are actually creating that mindset, fostering that environment, and doing so many things that it takes to end up being a quote, unquote CEO. So I love that, perspective and definition.

12:52 – Craig Dempsey

Yeah. Look. You know, at the end of the day, CEOs, are generally paid well. You know, and they're generally looked after. But conversely, it is a lonely position, you know, for for many. You know, at the end of the day, you are accountable and responsible for setting that direction and achieving that objective. Yes, you'll have managers underneath you and leaders underneath you. And, yes, they will have their part to play within that. However, if someone fails, you fail. You know, and that's it. You know, you've gotta bring it and your team. You have to be that force that drives them along.

So that's really what, you know, I believe a CEO is. Now I'm sure there are many, many examples out there who happen to be in a position of CEO, but in my opinion, I'm not because they don't have the mindset of such. Conversely, we probably have people who are not in CEO positions, which in their own right, they are acting in that way. But, you know, it's one of those things that, you know, I I think everyone should strive for if it's within their, you know, their aspirations in life. But conversely, you know, if you're happy doing something else, that's also good too.

13:57 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. At the end of the day, you know, you can choose that happiness and however, it manifests itself. But I love, you know, that perspective and that reminder as well too. So, Craig, truly appreciate that. I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is just pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know and, of course, how best they can get a hold of you and find about all of us and things you're working on.

14:19 – Craig Dempsey

Sure. Look. Yeah. I guess first up, thanks again for having me. It's been an absolute pleasure. Look. You can reach me through the biz Latin Hub website, which I'm sure you'll include the details there or reach out through me through to me personally through LinkedIn. It's always a pleasure to meet new people. And I guess just sort of finishing off, you know, from my perspective, I'm very glad that I've managed to to leave my homeland and travel the world and and having to done business in different parts of the world and supported clients doing such a, you know, that this for their in endeavors as well. And I highly encourage people that, you know, have that enthusiasm to to want to do that sort of thing to, you know, to get up and go do it. I mean, at the end of the day, you know, sometimes you do need to do more than talk, and acting is, is definitely in usually your best interest.

15:04 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. And just like Craig said, we will have the links and information in the show notes, and I definitely appreciate, you know, your background and you sharing it with us and reminding us how important it is to kinda go out and venture out and try different things because I think that not only does that help us and give us that happiness, that enjoyment at that time, but I think it's also something that we can kinda catalog and use when we're making certain decisions. And I think the people that are having those varied, you know, experiences and those perspectives are the people that do and can understand how to find the solutions that we'll need today, but also in the future. So, Craig, thanks so much for for for doing that and and sharing that with us today, and I hope you have a great rest of the day.

15:40 -Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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