IAM1249 – CEO Builds a Platform for Coaches and Organisations

David is the host of the HowWeSolve podcast and show, which is also the umbrella company for his portfolio of businesses – LTVplus, TaskDrive, and Shortlist. The latest passion project David is working hard on is Upcoach CDM (content delivery management) and CRM platform for coaches and organizations.

• CEO Story: Started entrepreneur at 15 years old with a friend, learned and explored the computer world. Went on to build businesses. From Germany moved to the United States. And back to Europe with his wife and family. And went on building his portfolio of businesses.
• Business Service: Coaching platform. Outsourcing company. Research. Content Delivery Management.
• Secret Sauce: He learned to overcome being an introvert. Trained himself in exposure therapy/public speaking.
• CEO Hack: An app Habit Checker – organizes and tracks daily goals, and builds a powerful habit. And Inbox Zero – funnels inbox and develops good habits.
• CEO Nugget: How you do one thing is how you do everything.
• CEO Defined: Being of service. Empower and help employees grow, coach them.

Website: upcoach.com

Facebook: david.henzel

LinkedIn: davidhenzel

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Transcription

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00:16 – Intro

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. Gresh 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.

00:43 – 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 David Henzel of How We Saw. David, it's great to have you on the show.

00:53 – David Henzel

Thank you for having me. Excited to be here. I'm super excited as well too.

00:58 – Gresham Harkless

And before we jump into the interview, I want to read a little bit more about David so you hear about all the awesome things that he's working on. And David is the host of How We Saw Podcast and Show, which is also the umbrella company for his portfolio businesses, LTV Plus, Task Drive, Shortlist. And David is also the founding CEO of UpCoach CDM, a Content Delivery Management, and CRM platform for coaches and organizations. David, you're doing so many awesome things. I'm glad we could steal you away for a little bit. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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01:24 – David Henzel

Yes, yeah, excited to chat with you.

01:26 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome, well, let's make it happen then. So I wanted to kick everything off by rewindin' the clock a little bit. Here is a little bit more on how you guys started, what I call your CEO story.

01:35 – David Henzel

I was a misfit. I went to 14 different schools and I got kicked out everywhere. And I dropped out of school when I was 15. I was kind of lost and didn't know what to do with myself. And then a friend of mine came to me and said, hey man, you want to start a business together. You could go to computers and start an IT business. I'm like, yeah, sure. I have nothing else going on. And then I found Entrepreneurship, which was like the light at the end of the tunnel. Not having anybody tell me what to do. And I can just grow and learn and explore. And so this is how I got started. And I've been doing this for over 20 years.

So I had a few businesses, originally from Germany, I had an IT business and an Econ business, which I sold to get the money to get my investor visa to come to the United States, where I co-founded MaxDN, which was a content-driven network, which we sold 6 years ago. I had a really successful exit and moved back to Europe because my wife wanted to be close to family and I thought I'd already retire. Then I read a book called Conscious Capitalism, which also has an impact.

And I read Conscious Capitalism, which explains you that a normal business is there to enrich or make the owners of the business richer to increase shareholders value, right? But a conscious business takes care of all stakeholders, meaning suppliers, employees, customers, the planet, society, et cetera, right? And if you have a business like this, it's the best vehicle to have a positive impact in the world. And this kind of really resonated with me. So I went like all in and as you see, I have a bunch of businesses now pushing really hard to employ a lot of people, give them good jobs, and provide great services and help.

02:58 – Gresham Harkless

Yes, absolutely. So I know you touched on, and I did as well too, and I introduce you a little bit more of the businesses and how you're creating that impact in so many different people's lives. Could you take us through a little bit more of what's within your portfolio and how you make those things and that impact?

03:10 – David Henzel

Initially, I want to start an outsourcing company because I want to employ a lot of people who like SaaS business before and stuff like this, But I want to have a people business to create a great culture and a great place to work. And so I started Alipoplus, which is an outsourcing company for live chat and support agents for SaaS and commerce companies. And since then grown really well. Then I bought Task Drive, which is a lead research and SCR sales development reps company. Then I co-founded Invest into Shortlist, which is a backlink-building company for SEO purposes. And so this kind of grew, the portfolio grew and I was coaching the leadership teams of my businesses. And I want to help them to be on the A game.

You know, you mentioned on the podcast, that people talk about morning routines and habits, etc. A lot. Basically, I create a course where I help people to figure out their personal mission, mission core values, the goals that they have in their life, and the habits that they have to… Because I think our habits determine everything. If you're rich or poor, happy or unhappy, obese or un-shaped, it all boils down to which habits to cultivate in your life. And so I want to have my leadership teams on the A game because when they're on the A game, they're going to, you know, it's going to trickle down to the other people that they manage and it's going to be good for the business, it's going to be good for them.

I put together a course and this course, the problem with this course, is I also saw this course called managing happiness, managing happiness, and all of this one where I help people do this, but it was a do-it-yourself course on a course that you buy and I only had a 7% completion rate, which drove me nuts because I didn't create this too, you know, make money. I thought this was also making money. I want to create an impact. I want to transform people's lives with this. And so I thought there must be a better way than doing this. So I started to build software that helps me to do group coaching. With this group coaching approach and this positive peer pressure and accountability, I managed to get to a 93% completion rate platform.

Flipped it from 7% to 93%. And this is AppCoach now, which is a platform. And then I partnered up with Todd Herman, who wrote the Alter Ego Effect. He's like an OG in the coaching space. He's been in this for over 20-some years. And I showed him the platform. He told me, Hey, man, I'm not a coach, but I built this coaching tool. What do you think? He's like, this all small, small pay points. That's amazing. I want to invest. So it became a business partner. And now we are building our coach, which working on coining the phrase of human transformation system, because it helps you to transform your coaching clients, your team, your employees, you know, to reach their full potential.

05:19 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Where are you doing so many phenomenal things? Is there something, I guess, you know, throughout the process of you figuring out that there is a gap or something within multiple, it sounds like walks of life and experiences that you have, is there something like a process or something that you think about that says, Hey, this is something that's worthwhile to try and invest, you know, those time and resources into to impact so that you can create and make that bank.

05:40 – David Henzel

So I'm a huge mission mission values nerd. I used to think that it was stupid. You don't need this. You know, it's like, I rather work on product. Vision mission values you all need when you do an investor deck or something that you kind of buried on your website and never look at again. But I realized that that's actually the best tool to have a filter in your system. You know, kind of like figure out like what you really want to work for, what you want to build for whom. And also it's the best management tool to manage your team, you know, so you can reach emergence and everybody kind of does the right thing without having to talk to you because like just kind of angry in the culture.

And so I kind of relate this back to myself and my family that we also run ourselves and our families like a business having family core values, having goals, and really running a family like a business, also myself. I have my personal mission and my personal core values and all these things also spelled out. My personal mission is to be a change agent who's transforming the lives of individuals and organizations so they can reach their full potential. This is the stuff that gets me the most excited. And this is when I'm in my zone genius and have to have the most fun. And so this, yeah, I guess to your question, this is kind of the filter that I'm running everything through that I'm doing. Thus, this really accomplishes this goal.

And if it's not this, there's a cool story from Jack Ma speak. He said we have smart people from our organization come to me and say like, Hey, we could build this feature and do that. This would make us X dollars. And he says like, okay, that's cool. But let me run this through my filter, which is the vision statement, like making doing business easy anywhere. I think it's for them. And if this is a fit and you can choose it if not, you know, just go away, which kind of also makes you lose out, lose the formal piece of like CEO's problem, like shiny object syndrome or one like do all these things, you know, just kind of having a clear focus on what you want to accomplish.

07:13 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. So would you consider that to be what I like to call your secret sauce? The thing you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique. It could be yourself and businesses are a combination of both, but do you think it's that ability to kind of stay true to those mission and core values that you have?

07:26 – David Henzel

I think this stuff makes an impact. And also, another thing I want to share with your audience because it was so impactful in my life. I'm a recovering introvert. I used to be very introverted. A few years ago, like 2009, I would have never gone on a podcast. I was even uncomfortable on a phone call with multiple people. And I felt how much this was holding me back in business. So I wanted to change that. So I did Toastmasters, which is like public speaking training. I did this twice a week, I went to 2 networking events, but we talked to everybody in the mom to kind of overcome this by exposure therapy, I guess, right? So it's kind of cool with it. But the real change happened when my yoga teacher said every decision in life, you either make out of love or out of fear.

These are the basic emotions why I do anything in life. And this is something I always knew deep down inside, but I couldn't articulate. And since she gave me this formula, I applied, so I turned this into my mantra for everything I'm doing. For example, in sales, I used to hate sales with a passion because I always felt like a used car salesman shoving something down people's throats. But if I know that, hey, this is a really good product, and I know, hey, it's just gonna help you in your life and your business, then I'm starting from a place of love because I want to improve your life, improve your business. It's about you.

And you feel what is coming from it's going to be much easier to sell. Or if I sell out of fear, I sell because I have to hit my quota, I have to pay my mortgage, or whatever. I can't sell for the life of me. And you also feel where I'm coming from. You know, so this is kind of make a big difference or public speaking, you know, or being a podcast. If I think, Hey, what I have to share here can help your audience be better in life and the business or whatever, then I can just flow and, you know, share and versus if I think about myself because I make it about you and act out of love.

If I make it about me and go into a state of fear, like, Oh, do they think I have a weird German accent? Do they think I look weird? Do they think what I'm saying is stupid or whatever, then I freeze and I can't perform? I could go on and on, and give you like 10 more examples about this, but I just want to share this because I think this was a real game changer to realize this and how I operate. And it's also one of our core values in the business. I want everybody to understand why we're doing this. We're doing this to create impact. You know, we're doing this to help our customers. We do this to create change. And this was definitely the secret sauce of my life.

09:31 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I love that. And so I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. You might have already touched on this, but this could be an app. It could be a book or it could be a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

09:44 – David Henzel

Tracking your habits. It's a kind of business one, the one you measure will improve. So I have a habit tracker, which is a habit tracker. And just measure my habits in terms of mind, productivity, and family. I like doing the right things and just tracking some key habits of mine. Inbox 0 is a really important thing for me because it's the canary in the coal mine. If I'm not reaching inbox 0 for a week or so, I know I have too much on my plate and have to remove something or figure something out because otherwise, all my bad habits will… All my good habits will fall away because I'm overwhelmed. So this is a really good early warning signal.

For those of you who know the canary decomine, like the canary, when there's like not enough oxygen, the canary will fall over first before it affects people so it can kind of get out. A key one, the other one is like preparing the next day. So I, you know, before I start to kind of like figure out like what I have to do next day. And then I always circle the frog, the thing that I really don't want to do. And I knocked this one out first.

So I, you know, kind of gives me an energy boost was like kind of like eating up my headspace. Maui habit. I mean, I could go on and on. I'm such a habit nerd. So I could talk about habits all day long, but kind of figure out, which goals you have in life and figure out which habits you have to cultivate to reach those goals. And it's pretty simple, actually, if you break this down and then hold yourself accountable, maybe find an accountability group, accountability buddy, whatever, and just really track it. What you measure will improve.

10:59 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So I want to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. You might've already touched on this, but this could be a little bit more of a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It might be something you would tell your favorite client or if you jumped into a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

11:13 – David Henzel

I didn't know about this before, but one thing that just popped into my mind is which also mantra I really subscribe to how you do one thing is how to do everything. You know, if you're sloppy here, you're going to be sloppy there. If you're an asshole, you're going to be an asshole at home. If you're just like really you are, we are. And it's also, you know, how you do one thing is how you do everything. Also, when you hire people, you know, if you see him do something that's off here, he's also going to do it there, you know, like Zappos has this thing. When they interview somebody, they, you know, talk to all the sea lovers, whatever.

And if they make a decision, they also ask the driver who picked them up from the airport and brought them back and forth. If he was nice to him, if he was stick to him, they'd also hire him because like how you do one thing is really how you do everything. I kind of really deeply understand this, that you know all areas of your life should have your shit together in all areas of your life because otherwise you know it kind of bleeds over and messes up all this stuff.

12:01 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely appreciate that. So I want to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So David, what does being a CEO mean to you?

12:11 – David Henzel

Being of service, I guess. I see myself as a most genitive who's just kind of removing roadblocks from, you know, I want to hire smart people around me that are very much better than me in certain areas and just kind of like empower them to grow. And just kind of remove roadblocks, give them the resources that they want, that they need to grow and excel. And I'm just like the support, the support. Also, since I have a portfolio of businesses, I'm more on the coaching side or sounding board side versus like I'm not in the day-to-day. I'm just kind of one step removed. Just kind of looking at it, I'm working on the business, not in the business. I guess it's also like a way of like, once your business is certain scale, you should work on the business, being one step removed, looking at the machine, how it's running.

It's like, oh yeah, here's this needs some oil, this needs new gear, whatever, and then kind of hire appropriately. My last business, the guy who bought it, sold this before for multiple billion dollars. And I was the CMO of this business. So they bought our business, I became the CEO of the CMO of the new business and I was putting together the brand and how we're going to put all these different companies that we bought together into one. And I pulled him into meetings and a few times kind of show them like, this is what we add, this is what we're doing. And he sat through the presentations and every time I said that, that's great. And then left you know, after a third time with only saying that it's great and nothing else, I pulled them aside like, Hey dude, am I fucking up or like, what's going on? You know, like, give me some input.

And he's like, no, I only have 3 things that have to do with the CEO. I have to make sure there's enough money. So raise money or make sure money is coming in. I have to be a parrot preaching the mission and the vision of the company to the inside world, like the team, and to the outside world, like customers and marketplace, whatever, like a parrot, like over and over and over. And I have to hire very smart people for key positions and leave them alone. Just match them by .kpi or whatever kind of sounding board, but not be in it. You know, I'll say analogy, if you have a painting business, you should never pick up the paintbrush, you know, you should kind of always figure out like long-term scalable solutions. So you kind of really fix root causes and not just kind of jump into yourself.

14:05 – Gresham Harkless

I love that. I appreciate you sharing that story so much. And I think so many times like when you think, especially if you have multiple businesses, you're involved in so many different things, you're thinking that you're doing more. But a lot of times stepping away and doing quote unquote less, but those things that you're doing are multiplier type effect type things. They have such a huge impact. If you're being that pair, if you're constantly saying this is the mission and vision and goals, when those people are coming up with those ideas and innovating, you're making sure they're in alignment because they hear it over and over again. If you have the revenue, of course, to be able to invest in the business, that allows people to get in the way.

And of course, being able to kind of get out of the way to allow those key players, so to speak, to be able to perform, but perform well is one of the biggest things. So I love that three-part kind of focus. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, David, truly appreciate that definition. Of course, I appreciate your time even more. So what I wanna do now is 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 people can get a hold of you and find out about all the awesome things that you're working on.

15:00 – David Henzel

So connect with me if you want to connect, just hit me up on LinkedIn or any other social network. Please let me know if you heard me on the I AM CEO podcast because otherwise if there's no context, I usually don't accept because I get a lot of requests. You can check out the How We Solve podcast where I talk to smart individuals who have solved hard business problems. So you don't have to, you know, follow the same pitfalls that they have fallen. And yeah, how is the office? You'll see the service offerings that you have. If there's any way I can provide value to you, do anything, just reach out. Let me know how it can help.

15:33 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. To make it even easier, we'll have the links and information in the show notes for the site, your podcast, and all the awesome things that you're working on as well, too. But I truly appreciate you, of course, for taking some time out today, providing so much value and information, and helping us look in a different perspective at some of the problems that we have or different ways that we're looking at things. Because I think when you start to, as we talked about, think about things in a different way, build those habits, and start to see those manifest themselves in so many different ways, that's when you're really in the right place. So thank you so much for emulating that being with us today as well. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:01 – David Henzel

Thanks for having me.

16:03 – 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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