IAM2091 – CEO Shares on How to Empower Entrepreneurs and How to Bridge the Communication Gap

In this episode, we have Avi Siegel, a seasoned entrepreneur and CEO of Vital Signs.

Siegel shares his entrepreneurial journey, starting from selling trading cards at six, to running a popular ice cream store and eventually leading Vital Signs, a sign language interpreting agency.

He discusses his passion for equal access communication and his consulting work helping small business owners and consultants.

Siegel highlights the importance of mentorship, client acquisition, and creating an inclusive environment for both employees and clients.

His approach prioritizes continuous learning, community support, and leveraging experiences for exponential growth.

Website: siegelbusinessconsulting.com

www.vitalsignsinterpreting.com

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Full Interview:

Transcription:

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Avi Siegel Teaser 00:00

We work with companies that have interactions with deaf currently or do not have any interactions with deaf. And so the goal is, let's say if the company has interactions with deaf right now, the goal is equal access communication hands down, basic human rights, right? So we are really putting our foot forward to make sure that happens.

Intro 00:23

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 00:51

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast. And I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Avi Siegel. Avi, excited to have you on the show.

Avi Siegel 00:58

Yeah, thank you. Good to be here.

Gresham Harkless 00:59

Absolutely. And Avi's doing so many phenomenal things, but of course, before we jump into that, I want to read a little bit more about Avi so I can hear about some of those awesome things. When Avi's entrepreneurial journey began at the age of 6 and he started buying and selling trading cards. And by the age of 18, Avi had managed and run a popular retail ice cream store featured on the Travel Channel. By age 21, Avi has created a secondhand textbook company, as well as a dog walking company in Manhattan. In 2017, he decided to follow his passion and use his business management experience, leadership experience and textbook brain to start coaching small business owners. It was his way to give back to the business community and put his skills to good use.

And in 2019, he took over as CEO of Vital Signs, growing and guiding the business through growth cycles and a global pandemic, and I was reading a little bit more about Avi before we popped into this and he describes himself as a lifelong learner. And you can probably even see that he devours as many business books as he can, which is always great to hear. He loves playing board games, spending time with his wife and his children. And one of the things that really resonated with me, I was reading a little bit more on something he posted on LinkedIn. He said, “Think of hard times as your investment. You're playing in time and discomfort for the person you want to become”. So Avi, excited that you get to invest some time with us. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO Community?

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Avi Siegel 02:21

Oh yeah. What an intro too. Thank you for that. That's fantastic. You did your homework.

Gresham Harkless 02:27

There you go. It was easier to read it than probably it was to execute on all those things. So I appreciate you for making it easy for me to have something to read.

Avi Siegel 02:34

For sure. For sure.

Gresham Harkless 02:34

Perfect. Perfect. So I guess to kick everything off, let's rewind the clock a little bit. I know I touched on it, but I want to hear a little bit more about your CEO story and let you start it with all awesome.

Avi Siegel 02:41

Yeah. All right. Awesome. Okay. So the CEO story, it's funny. You read a little bit of that bio and how I started, like, my journey started at age 6. I'll get more into that. The funny thing is that I was talking with Alberto, he's the CEO of Zumba, and we were sharing stories because he did a similar thing at age, I think he said 4, where he was literally like leasing out a watch that he had and to friends and they would pay him. And then, and once he said the story, like his grandfather bought him the watch or something like that. And his mom was like, where's the watch? And he's like, I gave it to a friend to borrow. And she's like, what do you mean? Gave it to a friend? She's like, yeah, give it to a friend. And he pays me money and then he gives me the watch back. And so we kind of like chatted about these like early, early moment entrepreneurial ventures. But we had no idea this was like entrepreneurship, so to speak, quote unquote.

But it was just a great little moment between the two of us. And it's really the start of the journey, right? I feel like when I didn't have to figure out what I was going to do in college, like I didn't have to figure out what I was going to do in my life. I was very fortunate enough to know business was where I was going to spend my time, hands down. So back in 2012, I started working for Vital Signs and then really spent the next seven years climbing the chains. I held every position within the company. So Vital Signs is a sign language interpreting and transcribing agency. We serve nationwide. We have, I just got these numbers yesterday, we have employees or contractors in 49 of the 50 states. So we really have a nationwide base and we provide the interpreting and transcribing, facilitating the communication between the deaf and the hearing world for government, college universities, private sector, and nonprofits.

The people who did well during the pandemic, the people who survived during the pandemic, they also looked internally, and they all started focusing on their employees. So it happened to be the exact thing that we needed to do to the point where we were in pretty good shape. There were a lot of other interpreting agencies that were not in great shape. There were interpreting agencies that were cutting rates for their freelance interpreters, and we did the opposite. So we wanted to support the community, the deaf community, the interpreters, the transcribers. And so something that we launched during COVID was a program where we would lend money to, we would provide capital to interpreters and transcribers if they needed. We helped all of our employees. We didn't drop a single employee. We didn't lay anyone off. We didn't let go of anyone. We didn't drop anyone's rates, nothing. So I had about five mentors of my own at this point.

And one of my mentors said, Avi, you have to start mentoring. And I was like, cool, I'll do that, right? So I started just, if I heard a business challenge, someone's going through, I was like, hey, I can help you. I've dealt with that before, or I know exactly what you should be doing. And you're probably heading down a slightly not so great path. And if you make this change, you'll head down a much better path. And so I just started doing that and I fell in love with it. I did it for five years and I remember having this feeling like, I need to do this on a much larger scale, right? Like, I've done this as a passion project. They say you do something for free long enough. It's obviously a passion and it's a business model at that point. If you're doing it like this, you can make it into a business model.

And so I was doing it for five years, totally loved every minute of it, had mentees of mine that stayed basically the whole five years. So anyway, I launched Siegel Business Consulting at that point. I invest in this transition from mentor to coach. And then probably within about two to three months, I was at capacity. I was turning down clients. I was working probably 60 to 80 hour work weeks. And then at that point I had two kids and I'm a very involved husband and father. Like those are high priorities for me. And so between all of that, it really, it didn't feel like 60 to 80 hour work weeks because I loved what I did, it was my passion. But at the same time, I also knew I couldn't stay there forever. It was not sustainable.

And so I ended up niching down into basically consultants. At that point, I was working with business owners, like small to, let's say on the larger scale of small business owners to individual consultants. And I ended up scaling down and basically teaching consultants how to do client acquisition. And that was a whole game changer. And so that's where I am today.

Gresham Harkless 07:39

Nice. I appreciate you sharing your journey. And so I wanted to drill down a little bit more and hear a little bit more on how you work with your clients for both Vital Signs and then the Business Solutions. Can you take us through what that process looks like? And then also what you feel is like part of your secret sauce, what you feel is actually a part of what makes you unique?

Avi Siegel 07:55

That's a good question. So, on the Vital Signs side, we work with companies that have interactions with deaf currently, or do not have any interactions with deaf. And so the goal is, let's say if the company has interactions with deaf right now, the goal is equal access communication, hands down, basic human rights, right? So we are really putting our foot forward to make sure that happens. And so we work with companies to figure out what services they should be requesting. How to do it. We do one-on-one trainings also with companies where we'll come in and we'll do a training on here's Deaf Culture 101, here's how you work with an interpreter, and so we'll work with them on the gamut of providing interpreters to also education for their entire workforce.

Then on the other side, we have companies that have no deaf connection at all, but at any point in time, they could end up with a communication with somebody who's deaf. And so we provide a service for them where at any point in time, if that occurs, they can get access to an interpreter. And then on the coaching side, I'm teaching in, well, there's really two paths, right? There's scaling and there's client acquisition. So right now I'm teaching consultants and specifically fractional C-suites, so like a fractional CMO, fractional CFO, CRO, COO, how to acquire high-ticket, high-paying clients. So I told you that within two to three months, whatever it was, I was fully booked up and I was turning down clients.

Channel number two is really for the consultants and also for small businesses, it's scaling. Scaling, leadership, and management. And so we have a group where we discuss all of this and we actually work with individuals in real time on the challenges that they're going through to help them ultimately scale their business. And so I was working at that time I was working with small businesses and we were padding top line, padding bottom line, I had owners taking owners distributions for the first time in their entire careers with their businesses. But I kept getting pulled to the consultant world and so that's how I ended up in a consultant space and also the small business space.

Gresham Harkless 10:22

Nice. I appreciate you sharing that so much. 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, something that makes you more effective and efficient.

Avi Siegel 10:34

The first thing, and this is in no order of importance, but the first thing is your micro disciplines. So the way that I get 30 to 40 books a year is I have a micro discipline that I like to drive my kids to school. That's a time where I get to spend time with my kids and that's valuable to me. On the way home, I will listen to my audio book and I will listen to it every day. And that's my discipline. The second thing is, so over the last few years, I've been blessed with an insane amount of success. I won't jump into it all, but I think that the secret is, people ask me, what's the secret, right?

The secret is engaging with people that have done it before, right? Like, I engage with my coaches and I skyrocket compared to what I would be if I didn't have their brains to pick all the time, right? So, finding the people that have shared, have done the journey, learning from them. And then really it's always for me, I'm always looking multiple steps. Like I'm always 10X-ing everything. If there's one effort, I'm like, okay, cool. I can do this one effort and then I'll get me, let's say a 5X, but how can I get it to be a 10X? And that opens up your thought process and takes you from linear growth to exponential growth, right?

Gresham Harkless 12:01

Nice, I absolutely love those and how powerful it is. So what would you consider to be a little bit more of what I call a CEO nugget? This is a word of wisdom or piece of advice. It might be something you would give as a habit to your favorite client, or if you hopped into a time machine, you might tell your younger business self this.

Avi Siegel 12:16

I think if I hopped in a time machine and I wanted to tell my younger self something, it would be find the people that have done what you're trying to do and just learn as much as you can from them. The other thing I would tell my earlier self would be literally nothing is impossible. And if you think for one second that there's something that is impossible, that is the moment where you need to check yourself and check your assumptions because there's usually like a mental block and not a physical block because you really could accomplish anything. But when you put in a definitive or and not and possibility, you lose that.

Gresham Harkless 13:03

I love both of those, especially because of how to me, they tie in together. So I wanted to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And our goal is to have different quote unquote CEOs on the show. So, Avi, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Avi Siegel 13:15

One from the Vital Signs side and one from the Single Business Consulting side, because my role there are very different. My role in Vital Signs, what it means to be a CEO for me is providing an amazing place to work for as many people as possible. So employing as many people into an amazing organization where they can also make great salaries and provide for their family. Like that, I think is a big part that drives me as a CEO. Certainly when it comes to Vital Signs, like I want to blow up Vital Signs so that we can just create a better place for the world, right? Like we're a mission driven company. So we need to be, you know, getting equal access communication out everywhere, and that's my passion.

And as a CEO providing that environment to work and the means for as many people to provide a great, to provide for their family, that's really important to me. On the consulting side, really, or maybe it's really part of the same is teaching people how to create financial freedom, how to be black belts at sales so that finance is never an issue for them. They can charge what they're worth and change the trajectory of their life for themselves and for their families.

Gresham Harkless 14:18

I love that. Avi, truly appreciate that definition. Of course, I appreciate your time even more. So what I want 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 out about all the awesome things you and your team are working on.

Avi Siegel 15:03

Yeah, for sure. Everybody who's listening to this is in a place where they can change their lives, right? Like they have the ability, they're business owners, entrepreneurs, whatever it is, high-level executives, whatever it is. I think that one of the most amazing things is understanding that there truly is no limit. So you can reach out at avi@vitalsignsllc.net, and you can link that in the description or you can shoot me a text. I'd love to hear from you. So you can shoot me a text at 301 404 2284 and I say text, not a call because I am in calls and podcast interviews and webinars a lot. So shoot me that text and I'd love to engage in the conversation.

Gresham Harkless 15:57

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Thank you so much again, Avi. And to make that even easier, we will have that information. Like I mentioned in the show notes as well, too, so that everybody can reach out and connect with you, so thank you so much for doing that, my friend. And I hope you have a phenomenal day.

Avi Siegel 16:08

Thank you very much. You too. Thank you for having me on this show. I love it.

Outro 16:13

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by CBNation in Blue16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I AM CO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google podcast, and everywhere you listen to podcasts. Subscribe and leave us a five-star rating.

This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless, Jr. Thank you for listening.

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