IAM1417 – TV Host and Global Business Celebrity Builds His Network of C-Suite Leaders

Jeffrey Hayzlett is a primetime television host of C-Suite with Jeffrey Hayzlett and Executive Perspectives on C-Suite TV, and business podcast host of All Business with Jeffrey Hayzlett on C-Suite Radio. He is a global business celebrity, speaker, best-selling author, and Chairman and CEO of C-Suite Network, home of the world’s most trusted network of C-Suite leaders. Hayzlett is a well-traveled public speaker, former Fortune 100 CMO, and author of three best-selling business books: Think Big, Act Bigger: The Rewards of Being Relentless, Running the Gauntlet, and The Mirror Test. Hayzlett is one of the most compelling figures in business today and an inductee into the National Speakers Association’s Speaker Hall of Fame.

• CEO Story: Jeffrey is so successful in his current status that he now, worked his way up to a Fortune 100 officer. But going back to his early days as a young executive director, he also had some failed moments where he got a foul with the Board of Directors. Out of necessity, he started his company looked for clients immediately, and built that into a multi-million company.
• Business Service: C-Suite community, membership, meetings, education, C-Suite TV, Radio, book club, hero club (high-level CEO & Entrepreneurs).
• Secret Sauce: Being relentless. The ability to go what they want. Focusing on the key things.
• CEO Hack: Membership at C-Suite Network
• CEO Nugget: Go faster. Quit worrying about what people think.
• CEO Defined: Being a leader that's open and approachable. Is also responsible.

Website: hayzlett.com
Facebook: JeffreyHayzlett
Twitter: JeffreyHayzlett
Books: https://amzn.to/2NTAEFO 

Episode Link: https://iamceo.co/2018/10/04/iam078-tv-host-global-business-celebrity-build-his-network-of-c-suite-leaders

Check out one of our favorite CEO Hack’s Audible. Get your free audiobook and check out more of our favorite CEO Hacks HERE

Transcription

The full transcription is only available to CBNation Library Members. Sign up today! 

Please Note: Our team is using the AI CEO Hacks: Exemplary AI and Otter.ai to support our podcast transcription. While we know it's improving there may be some inaccuracies, we are updating and improving them. Please contact us if you notice any issues, you can also test out Exemplary AI here. 

00:02 – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkness values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

00:27 – Gresham Harkless

Hello, Hello, Hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast. And I have a very special guest on the show today, Jeffrey Hazlitt of C Suite Network. Jeffrey, it's awesome to have you on the show.

00:37 – Jeffrey Hayzlett

It's good to be here. Thanks so much for having me.

00:39 – Gresham Harkless

No problem, no problem. And what I want to do was just read a little bit more about Jeff so you can learn a little bit more about all the awesome things that he's doing. Jeffrey is a prime-time television host of C Suite with Jeffrey Haslett and Executive Perspectives on C Suite TV and business podcast host of All Business with Jeffrey Hazlett on C Suite Radio. He is a global business celebrity, speaker, bestselling author, and chairman and CEO of C Suite Network, home of the world's most trusted network of C Suite leaders.

Hazlett is a well-traveled public speaker, former Fortune 100 CMO, and author of three bestselling books, Think Big, Act Bigger, the Rewards of Being Relentless, Running the Gauntlet, and the Mirror Test. Hazlett is one of the most compelling figures in business today and an inductee into the National Speakers Association Speaker Hall of Fame. Jeffrey, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

[restrict paid=”true”]

01:33 – Jeffrey Hayzlett

I am ready. Thank you.

01:35 – Gresham Harkless

No problem. Thank you. The first question I have was just to learn a little bit more about your CEO story and what led you to start your business.

01:41 – Jeffrey Hayzlett

You know, I got started over a number. I bought and sold over 250 businesses in my career, about 25 billion in transactions. I've worked my way up, all the way up to a Fortune 100 officer at one point. But, you know, as a, as a small business owner, I got started by just, I was working for the American Diabetes Association years ago as an executive director in South Dakota and I was about to get canned. And that was the true story. I'd run afoul with the board of directors. You know, I got headstrong young kid, you know, that time, I think it was 20, 24, 25, you know, and thought I knew everything and thought I knew how to do everything.

And I remember the chairman of the board, Mike McMillan, a very good of mine, who's since passed, but Vietnam vet, great guy, doctor. And he came to me and said, do you want the resignation letter or the fired letter? And that's a true story. And that was Christmas Eve day. And that night I went out and got an IBM PC. Junior and I started Hazlitt and Associates the very next day, which was Christmas Day. And then the day after Christmas, I started looking for clients and nailed my very first client, which was a medical school, you know, to help them. And so that's how I got started.

So, you know, net necessity. But even with necessity, I always had the business bug. And so that led me to then go off and, you know, build that company up into multi-millions and, you know, make my first million by the first time I was 26. And then, and then, and then I went out and, you know, started buying up companies and getting involved with them and helping other people buy up companies and get involved with them. And that took me all the way to where I'm at today.

03:18 – Gresham Harkless

Nice, Nice, Nice. Obviously, that's a great story. And to be able to kind of laugh at, you know, what happened years ago and be able to say, hey, it worked out best for you.

03:27 – Jeffrey Hayzlett

Sounds like, yeah, I'm not, you know, look, you can't be bitter about stuff like that. I mean, it was a great opportunity and it got me to where I wanted to go. So, you know, more. And to be honest with you, I deserve to be fired. So there you go, There you go.

03:39 – Gresham Harkless

So that makes perfect sense. So I wanted to hear a little bit more about everything you're doing with C Suite Network. Could you tell us a little bit about what you're doing and how you're helping serve the clients you're working with? Yeah.

03:48 – Jeffrey Hayzlett

You know, one of the best things I ever learned when I was in the, you know, Fortune 100 space was that it's a very small community. And when you think about even Fortune 1000, there's only 5,000, you know, five officers per company on average. So if you think about that, you know, major officers of a company, it's only 5,000 people. So it's a very small community. Even at a worldwide level, very small. We all know each other. And then, so then expand that out to, you know, more and more businesses. There are only 7,500 businesses in North America that are over a billion dollars. So it's not a lot of businesses that are in that mega, mega category.

But one of the things I learned is that I started to look for people who I could trust, a trusted Network. And I found them by size or by their position for the most part because if you're in a billion-dollar company, you want to do business with a billion-dollar company. And because they understand your trials, tribulations, problems, opportunities, strengths, weaknesses. And so I look for things like that. And so that's what gave me the idea once I got out of there was how do I keep that going? I used to a lot of money, like $50,000 a year just to go to a meeting three times a year just to be with other people like me and have that insight.

And of course, it would save my company hundreds of millions by doing that. So it was a very small investment to get something back because who do I turn to? Who can I go and ask who can I have a. Just like on this podcast, you built this tribe of people who listen and same thing. And so I just wanted a thing that we could do. So we have C Suite Community. We have members, we have meetings, we have education, we have C Suite TV, C Suite radio, C Suite Book club. You know, we have our Hero Club, which is for our high-level CEOs, entrepreneurial CEOs that we asked to sign a pledge to run their business like a hero company. I mean that you know, these are the things that we do and do every single day.

05:43 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome, Awesome, Awesome. And it sounds like you're very, you know, dialed into obviously the needs of what it is that Community actually needs and wants. And you have created all these products and services based on that.

05:52 – Jeffrey Hayzlett

Absolutely. So we've got a lot of things. So like, you know, our highest level membership is what we call C suite black and just like a black card. And so what, you know, for $1,000 you could be a member and you get all these benefits. It ends up to about, you know, over 10,000 hours with stuff. You get to come to the meetings for free. You get a digital assistant or AI assistant who listens in on every single meeting, takes notes, you know, sends you a recording, and sends you the 8 action items, that you just discussed.

We have MD live where I can, if I'm not feeling well, I hit a button and I'm talking to a doctor in 15 seconds live on camera. We give you things like clear so you can go through the airports. You don't have to wait because you're C Suite, you know. You know, that's what we try to do help build and help give you the kinds of services that you need in order to be more valuable to your company. That's what that's all about.

06:50 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. It makes perfect sense because those are the pain points that they have. But you're providing that solution for exactly what it is that they're looking for. So now I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. This could be for you or your organization, but the idea is something that makes you unique or distinguishes you as your business and organization.

07:07 – Jeffrey Hayzlett

Being relentless. I'm relentless. If I get onto something, whatever it is I'm going to do, we're going to do it. Sooner or later, it's going to get done so that, you know, you have to have. That's one of the things I think makes Up Our Hero CEOs, is that they're also relentless in the ability to go after what they want and focus on the key thing. So that's mine. It's relentless. I'm relentless. You will not beat me. You will not beat me. I go to bed at night hoping I'll hurry up and sleep so I can get going the next day.

07:35 – Gresham Harkless

That makes perfect sense. And is that something that you feel like you developed or is something that was already kind of in place? How do you? How did you develop that relentless gene, so to speak?

07:42 – Jeffrey Hayzlett

You know, I think it's partly. It's there. It's. It was always there, you know, just a little bit. A little bit crazy, a little bit sane. So, you know, I think for all of us, we all have something like that. It's just I recognized it more than others, you know, And I just think those are things that we come. As we get older or we get smarter, hopefully, we get more awareness about who we are and what we do is that we can start turning these things on a lot faster. And the faster you can identify those things in you or around you, the better. And so I've got a. You know, that's the other thing is I got a good sense of who I am and what.

What I like and what I don't like and what I want to do and not do. That I don't. I don't have to debate about those things. And I think that's a real mark of a great leader, too. You know, it's like my wife will ask me, you know, where do you want to go for dinner? And I'll answer right away. And she goes, you didn't even think about it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I did. Just, I think a lot faster, sweetheart. And it's not to be derogatory to my wife in any way, shape, or form, because she's the boss. But, you know, my point is, is that, no, I did think through those things and I went through all the permeations. That's still where I want to go eat, you know.

08:46 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And CEO hack could be a resource like a book or an app, or it might even be a habit that you have, but something that makes you more effective and efficient as a business owner.

08:59 – Jeffrey Hayzlett

Well, I mean, I'm going to tell you right now, it's the membership stuff that we have at C Suite Network. And the reason I say that is because that's what we do for CEOs. We go find all those. So we go find the AI assistant, we go find the doctor's app, we go find, you know, all the, you know, the strategic tools and everything else that you want to have in place so you don't have to. When I was a CMO of that major company, when I stepped out of a trade show, out of the hotel to go to a trade show in the morning, there's three people waiting for me. Somebody with my coffee, someone with an egg sandwich, someone with a calendar.

You know, the schedule to go over the schedule for the day. And that was at 7:00. I mean, I stepped out of my. Boom, 7:00, they were there. Then someone's rushing ahead to go push the elevator button so we don't have to wait. Right. That's the kind of service that we try to do at the C Suite. Same thing. Your time is valuable, your knowledge is valuable. And so what we try to do is just like you go to a fine restaurant and they know what you like to drink, and when you sit down, there's your favorite scotch or your favorite wine or whatever you might like to have, it's there. Well, that's what we try to do, too. That's my favorite hack.

10:01 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, I love that and I love the concept and the idea because time is something you cannot get back. So being able to say that no matter how small it might seem, it all starts to add up and you can get a lot more done.

10:12 – Jeffrey Hayzlett

Exactly.

10:13 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Now, I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. This might be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice, or it might be something that you might tell your younger business self. So do you have a CEO nugget for us?

10:23 – Jeffrey Hayzlett

Yeah, go faster. Go faster. Quit worrying about what everybody else thinks. Go faster. So, you know, we listen to other People sometimes when we should listen to Inner Voice a little bit more that just says go faster. I wish I'd have done it faster.

10:34 – Gresham Harkless

I love it, I love it, I love it. And now I wanted to ask you. We're hoping to have different CEOs on this podcast and hopefully, kind of look exactly like what the word CEO means and what that kind of how people actually define that. So what does being a CEO mean to you?

10:48 – Jeffrey Hayzlett

Being a leader. You know, it's being a leader, a very open, approachable leader who's responsible for lots of people, lots of customers, lots of customer satisfaction. That, you know, the buck stops here when it comes to that. So, you know, I don't look at it as just, I run a business, I run a big family and a family of customers, a family of vendors, a family of, you know, partners, a family of employees. And I really look at it like that.

11:13 – Gresham Harkless

Well, I appreciate you, Jeff, for taking some time out of your schedule. What I want to do was pass the mic to you, so to speak, to see if there's anything additional you want to let our readers and our listeners know and how best people can get a hold of you.

11:25 – Jeffrey Hayzlett

Well, you can find me anywhere. Just go to Jeffrey Hazel at H A Y Z, L E T T. There are a few of us with that name, but only one of me. And so you search that and then search anything with C Suite, C Suite radio, C Suite Book club, C Suite, TV, and certainly you'll find us on the C Suite network. And if you're inclined to make a difference as a CEO and you want to be a value-based CEO, check out the Hero Club. But reach out to me directly and I'll be glad to talk to you.

11:50 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Sounds good. Well, thank you so much, Jeffrey, for everything that you're doing, and all the impact that you're making upon the world. I appreciate your time and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

11:58 – Jeffrey Hayzlett

All right, cheers my friend.

11:59 – 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.

[/restrict]