IAM2390 – Chief Revenue Officer Bridges the Financial Literacy Gap for Small Business Owners

James Hatfield is the Chief Revenue Officer at Liveswitch and with extensive leadership experience in companies like IQVIA and Sageworks.

Liveswitch uses instant video to drive less, give more estimates, assess issues remotely, pre-qualify leads better, and document your work. With a simple click and no apps, LiveSwitch Contact is the fastest and easiest way to connect with customers and team members to make more money and save time.

James was the President of Sales at a company that turned financial statements into plain language for small business owners, leading it to become an Inc. 500 company and eventually sold it to KKR.

He emphasizes the importance of “grit” and resilience in business, especially in the face of rejection or adversity and advocates for collecting feedback and using it to improve your business, which he refers to as “delighting the customer.”

James recommends forming a personal board that includes people from different industries and backgrounds.

Website: LiveSwitch

LinkedIn: James Hatfield

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Transcription:

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James Hatfield Teaser 00:00

And we saw a hole for small business owners. They didn't understand their financial statements. They couldn't make heads and tails of the income statement and balance sheet.

The bookkeeper would talk, the accountant would talk, and they would nod their head and have really not an idea what was going on.

So we created a technology that would take that income statement and balance sheet and turn it into a plain language report that that business owner could understand and compare themselves to other businesses in their industry.

Intro 00:27

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.

Gresham Harkless 00:54

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast and I have an awesome guest on the show today. I have James Hatfield. James, excited to have you on the show.

James Hatfield 01:02

Gresh, thanks for having me. I'm ready to rock and roll. I'm excited.

Gresham Harkless 01:03

Yes, absolutely. I'm super excited to rock and roll. But of course, before we do that, I want to read a little bit more about James so you hear about all the awesome things he's been working on and as the Chief Revenue Officer at LiveSwitch.

James has been instrumental in driving the company's success in video communication technology. He is responsible for the customer experience and every process that generates revenue.

At LiveSwitch, he has extensive leadership experience across diverse roles and technology areas with companies ranging from fast growing startups to Fortune 500 companies and enterprises.

And James joined LiveSwitch from IQVIA where his responsibility was as director to lead the creation of the customer buying experience, a streamlined process driven by product management teams.

And prior to this role, James was President of Sales for Sageworks. And James holds a BS in Business Management from the North Carolina State University.

One of the really great things I loved about James when we had our initial conversation, he is a wealth of knowledge and experience and I really think we're going to get opportunities to delve in deeper that's going to help out these builders, become architects and be able to kind of level their business ups in so many different ways.

So, James, excited to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

James Hatfield 02:12

I'm so ready. I'm excited to share the good, the bad, and a little bit of the ugly as well.

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Gresham Harkless 02:16

Absolutely. Well, let's dive in then. So to kick everything off, let's rewind the clock a little bit, hear a little bit more on how you got started, what I call your CEO story.

James Hatfield 02:24

Oh, yeah. They always say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. And so my grandfather had a big influence on me.

His dad died young and he was the oldest of many kids and he had to drop out of high school and put himself to work.

He went to work at a tire shop and he really had to hustle to put food on the table at such a young age.

I really look up to that and what it took to do that. And his big dream for me as his grandson was like, hey, it would be awesome if you painted the roads on the highway like the lines on the highway.

He was like, you have made it and you'll never miss a meal. And I was like, hey, grandfather, like, I'm probably not going to start painting the highway, but maybe I can start painting homes.

And so I come from nothing. So, I needed to graduate high school and figure out a way to pay for things.

And I started this painting company from nothing, built up to a couple crews, which also led to building out power washing company.

Then I felt like maybe I should go back and get an education while I ran those companies so I could do the better books, better hire fire, promote all the good things that it takes to run a company.

So I got my degree in business and from there I had a nice twist and turn and I hopped into technology and left the blue collar businesses and went into tech with one of my partners who ran a land landscaping company.

Gresham Harkless 03:36

Nice. Well, I definitely appreciate you sharing that and especially like how, like you said, the apple doesn't fall far, but even those seeds that are planted from generation to generation end up being so instrumental.

And it sounds like the fuel that a lot of people, I would say there is the opportunity to have it.

But everybody doesn't have that desire, that hunger, that ambition to be able to kind of see those things happen.

James Hatfield 03:58

Absolutely. It's definitely something that you've got to just step back and learn from and surround yourself with people that can help you.

One, obviously education is helpful, but even, and sometimes more important is who you surround yourself with your board of directors. Right. And who you know. Right.

So me getting to know my partner now who ran a landscaping company, he was finishing his MBA at Duke University and we saw a hole for small business owners.

They didn't understand their financial statements. They couldn't make heads and tails of the income statement and balance sheet.

The bookkeeper would talk, the accountant would talk and they would nod their head and have really not an idea what was going on.

So we created a technology that would take that income statement and balance sheet and turn it into a plain language report that that business owner could understand and compare themselves to other businesses in their industry.

And what happened from there. And when we started an incubator and we grew that thing and I went back to my old school roots of knocking on doors to get jobs.

I picked up the phone hundreds of times every day calling New York City, trying to find a home for this software that we created and this little incubator we were working out of.

And lo and behold started selling, started scaling the business. We became Inc 500, which means we are one of the fastest growing companies in the United States of America.

And that company went on to become a multi billion dollar company. And now all the banks across the United States use it for their loan software.

And we had a successful exit with KKR and we went into philanthropy next. And I can talk a little bit about that journey before I talk to what we're currently doing now.

Gresham Harkless 05:26

Yeah, absolutely. I definitely love to hear more about that. But one of the things I did want to definitely hammer home is I love that I think Alexander Duckworth or Alexandra Duckworth Worth, I think she has a book called Grit.

And I think so many times they, they talk about like education is not as it's important, but it's not all the things, as you said, it ends up being that desire, that hunger, that grit that people have that really is that, that indicator of success.

So you being able to kind of do that and kind of see like how that is taking you sounds like through the journey as of being such a strong thing.

James Hatfield 05:57

Oh yeah, absolutely. You have to have grit. You've got to be tough. There's no participation awards in the world of business.

You got to know how to take it on the chin. You got to know how to take a no, you're not going to get yeses every time. It's not going to happen.

People are going to be direct with you and sometimes they're going to say things that you don't like.

Some things that may be true about yourself. If you're humble, maybe you'll listen or they might get you wrong.

And you have to have a tough, thick skin because the higher you climb, the more that this is going to come at you.

It's going to come from employees. It's going to come from partners, it's going to come from customers.

It might even come out of your own household. But if you can say, they always say you can't humiliate a humble person. So as long as you remain humble and hungry, you're going to be just fine.

Gresham Harkless 06:38

Yeah, absolutely. So I would love to drill down more and hear a little bit more about your journey. What took you from that technology to nonprofit work?

James Hatfield 06:46

Yeah, I think I've always had a heart for serving and so has my partner. He created a company called Inmates to Entrepreneurs.

I created a bunch of churches, actually, and founded a bunch of churches. Inmates Entrepreneurs Program. We put thousands of incarcerated men and women through our programs.

People don't like to hire people with a record. And we believe in second chances. And so we educate.

It really warms you to your heart. And it actually turned into an ABC television show called Free Enterprise, won a bunch of awards. It's wonderful.

But we also both figured, hey, we're too young to hang up our cleats. We want to build another billion dollar company.

And so we went on the hunt to buy a company. This time, rather than starting an incubator, we wanted to get down the chessboard a couple steps.

So we bought a company that was 12 years old and we came into the company and we started to reinvent the focus of that company.

We still do a lot of things that we originally did purchase a company for, but we started diving in to some really cool things that I'm excited to talk about.

Gresham Harkless 07:41

Perfect. Perfect. So do you feel like that's part of what I would like to call your secret sauce? It could be for yourself, the business, or a combination of both.

But is it your ability to be open to trying and testing those things out, but frankly, to be able to take that step, to even try those things out. Do you feel like that's part of your secret sauce?

James Hatfield 07:59

Secret sauce is the customer knows the answer to the test. Are you spending enough time with your customer? I don't care what you do.

And I've done all kinds of stuff. Painted and power washed house. I've been in clinical I've been in financial technology.

I'm now in video technology. I do nonprofits. Like everybody is a customer. Right. And I'm here to serve and not be served. Right.

And to serve, you have to go sit with the people you're serving. You have to walk them out in their shoes.

You have to ask them real tough questions. They're going to want to tell you. Oh, how great you are and how people don't like to hurt each other's feelings.

But every now and then, you get a customer that's willing to tell you the truth. And the truth doesn't always feel good. Right.

But the truth will make you stronger. And that true. Where is the source of the truth? The source of the truth lies in the hands of the customers because they're the ones swiping the credit cards or giving you cash.

And you do, are they going to come back to you? Are they going to tell their friends? It's only if they had an experience of delighting the customer.

We hear this all over the place. We've heard this from Jeff Bezos. That was his mantra. Like, delighting the customer are you delight the customer is like you.

But did you delight them? If you ask them what you're doing, and then from there, hey, take the humble road, if they tell you the truth, you should say thank you.

And then you need to get to work on how to improve. And what you can do is find patterns. You don't just talk to one customer.

You talk to as many as you possibly can and prospects as well, people who didn't buy from you. Hey, what could we have done better?

Keep asking those questions and look for patterns. And when you find those patterns, make some changes, if it makes sense.

Gresham Harkless 09:30

Absolutely. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack.

So this could be like an Apple book or even a habit that you have, but what's something you lean on to make you more effective and efficient?

James Hatfield 09:41

Yeah, I don't Netflix and chill.

Gresham Harkless 09:43

There you go.

James Hatfield 09:44

All right. Instead, I do things like listen to podcasts, like the one you're listening to right now. You're already a step ahead if you're listening to this right now, because you're listening to podcasts.

And I would recommend you put things between your ears. Go get an audible account, go get books.

There's always something you can learn. Always, even if you think you're at the top of your game, you got to learn more.

Like, I always ask, like, who coaches LeBron James? Who coaches Tiger Woods? They need coaching.

Like, why? Because they're still trying to improve. They're still trying to win. And I love to coach the best and I like to be coached.

And I find books to be a great coach. I find podcasts to be a great coach. And so I would recommend that my hack is definitely spending time with Things between your ears educating you.

Gresham Harkless 10:28

Yeah, that's such a huge thing. And you might have already touched on this, but what would you consider to be a little bit more of what I like to call CEO nugget?

So this could be a word of wisdom or piece of advice. I like to say it might be something you would tell your younger business self if you hopped into a time machine or potentially a client as well, or somebody from the incubator too.

James Hatfield 10:43

Yeah, I've hinted at this a little bit so far, but you need to make your own board of directors. Lots of great businesses make board of directors and they bring world class people to sit on those boards to advise the company as the CEO reports to that board.

Who is your personal board of directors and do you have them? And do they all look the same, smell the same, walk the same, talk the same.

You don't have enough variety. Put those younger folks on your board of director. They may be really young gunners with tons of passion.

Maybe they know technology better than you. Maybe they have some. Then maybe put some of the gray hairs like me. I got a few of them on there as well. They know a few things. Right.

And then get diverse with it as well. Different industries, different backgrounds. Spend time with those people and make sure you come to give to them because they're going to be giving you way more than you actually can return.

And make sure you're touching base with them regularly, letting them know what's going on. There's so many different platforms to communicate with people now.

I have board of directors all over the country and the world that help me, that I lean on and I go to with when I'm banging my head against the wall or just to get a check sometimes if I just need to vent or sometimes if I need a good old attaboy, you got this.

This is hard. Running, building and growing things is quite difficult. So surround yourself with those, not just cheerleaders, but those people that are going to tell you the truth.

So I would say the golden nugget of today is make your board of directors and make it as fast as you can.

Gresham Harkless 12:05

Yeah, I absolutely love that. And as you said, you know so well, often we'll say your environment will determine your altitude. How high and far and deep, you'll fly and go is determined by the people you have around you.

So what better way to do that than to create that board of directors and be able to kind of create it in a win, win, win scenario where you do get to provide that value, but at the same time you get that.

I don't know if brutally honest is the right word, but that's what's coming up. But you want people to tell you what you can do to be your best self so that you can make the impact that you were ultimately called to make.

So I think when you're in that space and understand that and you're starting to have people around you that are also doing that, then it is, I imagine it's very challenging.

But it's challenging in the way that you get see, if not more than sometimes the potential that we think that we have within us.

James Hatfield 12:51

That's right. That's right.

Gresham Harkless 12:53

Awesome, awesome, awesome. So now I wanted to ask you one of my absolute favorite questions, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO.

Our goal is to have different, quote-unquote, CEOs on the show. So, James, what does being a CEO mean to you?

James Hatfield 13:04

Yeah, it's leading a number of different things, whether it's small businesses or nonprofits. What it means to me is you're the mother and father of the organization. Right?

Employees don't always understand when they receive a paycheck, what's going on for you.

Like, when we're building a business, sometimes we're handing an employee a paycheck. And that month I didn't even take a paycheck because I own the company. Right?

And that employee might even complain about their paycheck. It's hard to understand. It's almost like parenting. Right? There's some things my kids don't understand about because they're not.

They're not the parent. Right. They don't understand that just like sometimes the employee is not the owner. Right?

And money does not grow on trees. Like, sometimes you have to go and raise money and you're humbly accepting money from others.

Sometimes you're putting in your own money to make that happen. Sometimes you're borrowing money to make that happen.

And because you need to take care of the staff. But it means, having a little bit of an edge to you.

It means, like, making sure that as the mother, father of the organization, you're making the tough play calls. You're taking care of the organization.

At the end of the day, I got to take care of the organization and not just the individual. It's not just about me. Right?

And it's not just about that person. But, like, can the company endure? Because there's companies that Just hemorrhage cash and they go out of business. Most businesses do not make it.

So to make it, you need to have some discipline. You need to have that understanding and you need to make sure that you're taking care of your customers and your staff, but be the mother and father and own that role.

And I don't ask my kids, like, hey now, sometimes I'll ask them in a way of getting feedback. But I'm not asking my kids to take care of my personal budget.

I'm not asking the kids to call up the repairman, you know, to take care of getting a new roof on a house.

There's just some things that the parents need to take care of and that's what it means to be running the company.

Gresham Harkless 14:47

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, James, truly appreciate that definition. Of course, I appreciate your time even more.

So what I wanted to 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, find about all the awesome things you and your team are working on.

James Hatfield 15:02

Sure. I'll start off with how you can get a hold of me and then I'll give you one final thing. So to get  a hold of me, you can go to the website LiveSwitch, LIVESWITCH.com and you can ask for me personally.

Next you can find me on LinkedIn. Just looked up James Hatfield. Connect with me, reach out. I'm happy to give back happily to connect with anybody that would like to.

I'm easy to get a hold of, the last thing I'd like to leave people to think about because I've scaled many companies from zero to millions to billions. Okay, and how do you do that?

And you might be the one standing in the way of your own growth and scale. To do that, you need to find ways to make yourself redundant.

And usually as leaders, as people running companies, it's hard to give your quote unquote power away because you want to be the person, the big one at the top with the big titles. It's the wrong mentality.

Okay, you do still need to be mom and dad like we talked about, but you also need to find things that you're good at, you're not good at and things that you just need to hand off and make yourself redundant.

And so I would just say, really to scale, make yourself redundant and you'll be shocked at what you can do when you do that.

Gresham Harkless 16:07

Absolutely. I truly appreciate that, James. Of course, to make everything easier, I know you're easy to find, but to make it even easier, we're going to have the links and information in the show notes as well too, so that everybody can follow up with you. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

James Hatfield 16:17

Thank you. Thanks for having me on the show, Gresh. And thanks for all the listeners.

Outro 16:20

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast, powered by CB Nation and Blue16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community.

Check out the latest and greatest apps, books and habits to level up your business at CEOhacks.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless Jr. Thank you for listening.

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