IAM2509 – Culture Strategist Helps Organizations Build and Enhance their Organizational Cultures

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Chuck Salvo Teaser 00:00

Companies really want me to first do a cultural assessment. What I'm talking about is actual in-depth conversations, not surveys, with your leaders and with your line level employees.

Even with your customers, and try to find out what's really going on and what is really the voice of your employees and your customers.

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 00:50

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

Chuck Salvo 00:57

Great to be here, Gresh.

Gresham Harkless 00:58

Yes, I'm super excited to have you on to talk about all the awesome things that you're doing.

But of course, before we do that, I want to read a little bit more about Chuck so you can hear about some of those awesome things.

And Chuck is the chief happiness architect and culture strategist behind the R.A.V.E movement — Respect and Value Everyone.

With over 30 years of leadership experience, including 15 years at Disney Institute, Chuck has helped organizations around the world design intentional culture that drives employee engagement, customer loyalty, and sustainable growth.

He's the author of R.A.V.E.: How to Respect and Value Everyone, offering CEOs a practical blueprint for building resilient and people-centered organizations.

Chuck's approach challenges leaders to move beyond slogans and embed respect, connection, and purpose into their operational DNA.

His passion for cultural transformation isn't just inspiring, it's a proven catalyst for performance, retention, and long-term success.

And I talked a little bit about and listened to like one of Chuck's interviews and he talked a lot around like how important it is to build a happy culture, not just kind of snap your fingers and hope for that happens.

I think it really resonated with me because I think so many times you see people doing awesome things.

He worked for a very happy company. I think people would describe it. And we often say, like, hey, I wish I had that.

But I love that he brings that practicality there and realizes, as he says so well, that culture needs to be something that you do intentionally.

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

Chuck Salvo 02:27

I am.

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Gresham Harkless 02:27

Let's do it. Let's get it started then. So to kind of kick everything off, let's rewind the clock here a little bit more on how you got started. What do I call your CEO story?

Chuck Salvo 02:35

Oh, wow. I mean, my background was in culinary arts. I mean, you can't see my svelte body, but I love cooking still to this day.

And then I was hired in a food and beverage business and restaurant business with Hyatt and Hilton and Sea Pines and Harbor Town and Hilton Head for years.

And then Disney came calling. And I spent 15 years with Disney in the Disney Institute, helping organizations find happiness.

And then about five years ago, I decided to retire from Disney after 15 years and go on my own because I really wanted to focus on more intentional approach to businesses and so they could focus on themselves.

Disney was fabulous and continues to be fabulous. One of the things I saw as a leader there is that it really was always focused on Disney.

Of course, people are paying to come and hear about Disney. However, when you do work like this, it really needs to be very tailored and very custom to the organizations.

You have to have them build their own culture. It's not like a plug in from another company.

So you have to be intentional about that. And that's really how I wanted to focus my advocacy and my passion to those companies.

Gresham Harkless 03:56

Yeah, it's so awesome to kind of hear that you've been able to kind of do that and take the experience and knowledge and information that you have and be able to kind of customize that.

So you have, like, how does everything work? Are you having like an initial conversation when you're working with your clients and then you're putting the program together?

Could you take us through a little bit more on what that looks like?

Chuck Salvo 04:13

Yeah, I mean, more often than not, companies really want me to first do a cultural assessment.

And that really is, I mean, listen, the quantitative type of studies, all these surveys that you take with employees, they they're good.

So I don't want to knock them down. But what I'm talking about is actual in-depth conversations, not surveys with your leaders and with your line level employees, even with your customers.

And try to find out what's really going on and what is really the voice of your employees and your customers.

So that's imperative because we, once we have a way of getting them to really spill it, because they're very nervous about surveys.

They're thinking they're going to, even though they're told that they're confidential and ours are confidential.

But people don't believe that, and you really have to make them comfortable.

When you get into conversational tone, and it's not this structured question number one, question number, you know what I mean?

That by the nature of itself becomes suspicious. And really, it's got to be human to human.

And if you get human to human, you really pull out incredible information.

From that information, then we meet with the groups and say, OK, now what are the gaps and what are the highlights?

And by the way, most companies that I work with already have a great start at this.

So I seldom get companies that are really bad at stuff because they just don't want to get better.

Usually companies want to get better and want to go from great to greater are the ones that I have the most success with because they're going to give the investment and the time to to make sure culture is is intentional.

If you're just trying to do a plug in thing. Again, that's where it doesn't work.

And that's where if your employee thinks it's just another initiative, they're not going to follow it and it's not going to be adapted or adopted.

Gresham Harkless 06:24

Yeah, absolutely. And probably definitely won't be, fully implemented and cemented within an organization either.

And I almost wonder if that's, kind of part of what I would like to call your secret sauce.

It could be for yourself, the business or a combination of both. But I love that you said that, when they enter the room that this is the business part.

Because I think so many times we get so caught into putting things in silos. OK, the culture goes here, the accounting goes here, the people go here, the employees go here, and just all those things end up being siloed.

But I almost wonder if maybe similar to like a culinary chef, you realize that it's not either or it's both and better and being able to kind of mix those things together and realize how impactful they are.

Do you think that perspective and ability to implement that as part of your secret sauce?

Chuck Salvo 07:07

Oh, my golly. Yeah. I mean, I think that you said it so well, because it's amazing to me that most organizations have an HR team, they have an employee engagement team, and they have a customer service team.

I mean, so right there, you have three separate silos, right? When in reality, they all work together and they need to be the messaging needs to be aligned.

Now, the other issue I hear so often is that companies try to make their marketing message or their customer message, the same message they give to the employees.

They just think, oh, that slogan or that brand image, well, let's use the same thing for the employees.

No, you need a totally separate communication to the employees. And that's what I tend to work with them on, is building that foundational structure for that employee message.

Now, it needs to be 100% aligned with the brand message, right? And, but, it's like when today's starts, so you have LX, you have a leader experience.

That's connected to the EX, which is the employee experience, which is in connection to the CX, which is the customer experience.

And then from there, you get this wonderful, connected, aligned inertia that gives you great comments, great culture, great customer experience, all those things together.

But it starts, back to the book a second, it starts with building individual personality assessments and individual relationships with those individuals.

And in the book, I teach about, okay, first, I need to learn what my personality type is like. I'm clearly an expressive Gresh.

But there's some people might be analytical, some people might be more drivers, some people might be more amiable and introverts.

But the importance of knowing that is first of all, I need to know who I am. Then I need to learn how to identify what the other person might be.

And then I go into skills of how do I now start building a relationship with that individual.

And you don't do that by listening to the news and by bringing up controversial topics.

You do it by saying, so Gresh, what is your favorite food? I'm asking you, what's your favorite food?

Gresham Harkless 09:31

Yeah, definitely spaghetti.

Chuck Salvo 09:33

Spaghetti?

Gresham Harkless 09:34

Yes, I'm an Italian guy all day.

Chuck Salvo 09:36

Oh, listen, we have that in common without a doubt. I've been getting the Indian and some of those flavors lately. But yeah, I mean, I'll share some Italian recipes with you offline another time.

Gresham Harkless 09:48

Hey, there we go. I'm definitely a foodie, so anything you share, I'm probably gonna try it.

Chuck Salvo 09:51

Oh, it's great. That's the risotto that I gotta get you.

Gresham Harkless 09:55

Okay. Well, definitely, definitely. We'll put it in the show notes for sure.

Chuck Salvo 09:58

For sure.

Gresham Harkless 10:00

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

So this might be an app, a book, or even a habit that you have. What's something that you lean on that makes you more effective and efficient?

Chuck Salvo 10:13

Really, just… pausing. I'm an expressive, as I noted earlier, and the skill set I've had to learn, and I have to continually challenge myself to do so, is to close my mouth and sit on my hands.

Because I want to solve. And a lot of us leaders, a lot of the CEOs I work with out there, also, same thing is true.

The second somebody starts talking to us, we jump into solve mode. And so I've had to learn that with my wife.

I learned it with my daughter. I've even given her permission to say, dad, I don't, I'm not here for solve.

I just need to, right. But what a great skill set to give to your employees and your, and the people you're working with too.

Hey, if you come in here, I'm probably going to solve. And I even tell people now, I do a lot of individual coaching too.

And I have to multiple times tell them that I'm going to sound to you like I'm saying you need to do that.

But that's not what I mean. It's just the way I think out loud. So I'd say, hey, Gresh, you need to really change this and do that and do this.

And I have to be very intentional about going back and say, now, that's just an idea. What do you think about that? And then I need to shut up and listen. Right.

Gresham Harkless 11:36

Yeah, absolutely. So what would you consider to be a little bit more of what I like to call a CEO nugget?

So this could be a word of wisdom, piece of advice. I like to say you might tell it to your favorite business client.

It might be something you would tell your younger business self if you hopped into that time machine or potentially might be something from your book.

Chuck Salvo 11:50

Well, other than the two I said, which I think are really at the core. I also think, and we talked about a little bit earlier, is intentionality. Trying to be intentional.

I think many things I learned at Disney, but one of the most important things I learned is the need to be intentional. where you don't necessarily think you need to be intentional.

So to look at the touch points in your employee journey and look at the touch points in your customer service journey, even in your vendor relationship journeys.

And where you, if you, my challenge and easy challenge and a fun exercise would be is, okay, write down your touch points and count them.

And now I bet you, you could take that and multiply it by four. So instead of there being 10 touch points, now find me 40.

If I'm going to a restaurant and I get seated by the hostess, I get the menu, I order the food, great.

Now, if I want to expand that, what's the parking lot look like when I arrived?

What's the pathway to the door of the restaurant? Is the door clean? Was I greeted with a smile instead of a look down?

So now I could take what was nearly 10 touch-points and I can make them 100.

And if you over-manage your touch-points, you're gonna have much more, you're gonna have better relationships in your individual employee culture, in your vendor cultures.

And as important, if not more important, because that's where your profit comes from, your customer experiences.

Gresham Harkless 13:33

Yeah, absolutely. I love that exercise. 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 Chuck, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Chuck Salvo 13:45

Being a lifelong learner. Yeah, I mean, for me, it is all about, I thought that when I decided to retire, I kind of just crawl up and just relax.

And, I just didn't envision, doing anything else. And then I started saying, wow, this is not, it's pretty boring.

And then looking at life now and the what I get to do and going to all these companies and learning manufacturing and tomato processing and franchise food and beverage skills and all sorts of incredible things.

But also being able to share my helpful tips and hacks with them. I mean, I'm just I'm so much more fulfilled and enriched.

So go out there and be a lifelong learner. By the way, AI, I've really adapted AI and I've listened to somebody recently that said, hey, AI, is either going to, it's here.

So it's either going to control you or you're gonna control it. You're gonna be the leader of it.

And what I've learned is it's a wonderful way to literally say, hey, can you give me five minute, a learning plan for myself on topic A or topic B?

And I just, It's amazing that it goes out there and builds that for you. And so you can challenge it, not just to do fun and frivolous things, challenge it to challenge you and teach you to learn.

Gresham Harkless 15:25

Well, Chuck, I truly appreciate that definition. Of course, I appreciate your time as well, too.

So what I wanted to do now was 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 your book, find out about all the awesome things that you're working on.

Chuck Salvo 15:40

Right. I mean, obviously you could search Salvo Innovative Solutions or Chuck Salvo online. I will tell you that there's a couple of Chuck Salvos out there. So look for the one that's connected to R.A.V.E — Respect and value everyone.

The book is available on Amazon. Again, same thing. Search my name with R.A.V.E and you'll find the book very easily.

Also, it's been so popular that I'm about to launch, so keep an eye out for that. a merchandise store because the logo became so good, so.

Gresham Harkless  16:07

Yeah, absolutely. Well, I truly appreciate that, Chuck. Of course, to make it even easier, we'll 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.

Chuck Salvo 16:16

Thank you. You also.

Outro 16:18

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by CB Nation and 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 Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, 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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