Brad Englert With Brad Englert Advisory

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for High Velocity Radio.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:14] Lee Kantor here. Another episode of High Velocity Radio, and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show we have Brad Englert with Brad Englert Advisory. Welcome, Brad.

Brad Englert: [00:00:25] Thanks for having.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:26] Me. I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about your firm. How you serving folks?

Brad Englert: [00:00:32] Well, I do it consulting. One of my latest projects was for a regional liquor store chain and they needed an IT strategy. They grew from one store to 100 stores, and there it was, stuck at about 40 stores. And we came up with a mobile app and delivery and a new website, and that’s certainly served them well during the pandemic.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:57] So what is the typical pain that one of your clients is having where they’re like, I better call Brad and his team?

Brad Englert: [00:01:04] Well, it’s usually when their business has grown exponentially, but their it has remained where it was when they started. And so that’s that’s a real pain point.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:15] But what’s a symptom that they would notice that’s like, hey, you know, we’re growing really fast. But I don’t think our infrastructure is keeping up.

Brad Englert: [00:01:23] Complaints from your customers there. And the example I just mentioned, the customers were frustrated that the website was difficult to navigate and they loved the company, but were just frustrated that they couldn’t order what they wanted the way in an easy way. So frustrated customers.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:43] Is there. So I understand, like if a customer is like complaining and they have a relationship with the people in charge, they can voice that. But is there anything like that you can notice just from metrics or from, you know, things going on on the website or on your in your business? That might be a clue that, hey, we better get ahead of this.

Brad Englert: [00:02:02] Well, one thing I see most often is they have their own equipment on site and usually it’s not very well protected or backed up very well. And in today’s world most of that can be outsourced to the cloud. So a lot of these companies can quickly take advantage of outsourcing their services to the cloud, which gives them much better resilience in terms of disaster recovery and and security.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:34] Now, how did you get into this line of work? Were you always involved in it?

Brad Englert: [00:02:38] Yes, I started after graduate school. I started with Arthur Andersen, which became Andersen Consulting, which became Accenture, and my work was in IT consulting and most of it was in public sector. But also I did a lot of higher ed consulting. So my clients were University of Michigan, Illinois, Columbia, Vanderbilt, Texas A&M, etc. and I really enjoyed higher ed because, you know, they have smart people with big issues that needed to be solved. And the firm when I joined was 40,000 globally. Now there’s 700,000 people in Accenture globally.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:23] Wow. Now you have a book out. Spheres of Influence. How did that come about?

Brad Englert: [00:03:30] Well, after I left Accenture, I retired. Um, I was, uh, called by the University of Texas at Austin, my alma mater, and they needed an IT strategy. And so I offered to help them because I knew higher ed and they wanted someone who had, uh, outside the university, and it was an hour a week pro bono. So they’re too cheap to pay for my parking or, uh, dry cleaning. And after about three months, they asked me, would I serve half time? And I said, sure, I can do that. And by, uh, three months later, I was full time and became the chief information officer for seven years. So at the culmination of my second retirement, I had all these stories from 22 years with Accenture and eight years total with the university, and I just wanted to share them with the world.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:25] And then there around the theme of relationships and spheres of influence. Can you talk a little bit about, um, how kind of this thesis came about and how you were able to connect dots and see this kind of, uh, the importance of relationships when it comes to business?

Brad Englert: [00:04:41] Sure. Well, it started with, uh, the great mentors I had at the firm over 22 years. I actually went back and looked at my annual reviews for 22 years, and my boss and mentors did a really good job of giving me stretch roles and preparing me for, uh, becoming a partner. I was a partner for ten years, and mentoring was always a big part of being in the firm. You were expected to mentor others grow, grow the pie bigger. And when I got to the university, I had a big culture change on my hands where the culture of central, it was kind of reactionary fire drill, you know, we’re heroes to save the day. And really, I wanted to change it to more of a customer oriented, uh. View of the world and relationship with our customers. And after I left the university, I still mentor 2 or 3 people. But that’s not very scalable and I can’t clone myself. So I thought, why don’t I package these stories into a book and help people who are starting their careers or already established in their careers, and the two spheres of influence relate to those people you had the most direct impact with. That’s the internal sphere of influence that would be your boss direct reports, executives, leaders and all your staff. And then you have an external sphere of influence where you have less direct impact. And that would be your customers, peers and influencers and strategic vendor partners. And so I talked about all those different types of relationships and how to be successful. The three principles that are in all relationships are you need to understand their goals and expectations, aspirations. You need to set and manage expectations. And you need to genuinely care about their success.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:45] Now, um, do you think that this, uh, premise applies to the non-business world, like your own relationships and your family or your, uh, in your community?

Brad Englert: [00:06:58] I think they can, um. Asking those people, you know, what are their goals and aspirations? What what do they want to achieve in life? Um, setting and managing expectations is it’s so easy to get crosswise if you don’t talk about what the expectations are and then genuinely caring about their success. I mean, who doesn’t want that now?

Lee Kantor: [00:07:24] Do you find that do most people have this empathy gene that you’re, I think, referring to this ability to truly care about someone else’s well-being and success? I mean, there’s a lot of folks who look at business as kind of more of a transactional, uh, occurrence rather than this deeper, relationship driven, um, interaction.

Brad Englert: [00:07:48] Well, certainly it can be transactional. Um, traditional networking tends to be transactional and short lived and many times superficial. You finish the, uh, happy hour with the stack of cards, and, you know, everyone has a what’s in it for me mindset. And I just think that rarely leads to, uh, successful outcomes. What I find is if you focus on. Understanding what people need. Like your customers setting those expectations and caring about them. It’s a more rewarding business life and it’s more fun.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:30] Yeah, and I think it’s less stressful. I think a lot of times in my experience, like in selling, for example, when I started out, I was trying to sell whatever I had to whoever was in front of me. And then over time, I learned, why don’t you just have your secret sauce superpower that you do great, and then just find people that match. And then when you’re having a conversation with someone, all you’re doing is trying to see if it’s the right fit and figure out ways that you can help them. And if it’s you as the solution, great. If it’s not you, great. You met somebody else that you know might refer you down the road, but it you don’t force fit your solution into their problem.

Brad Englert: [00:09:11] And there are times when I would say I’m not the right person for you, but I’ll find someone for you. Um, the, uh, liquor store retail firm wanted me to be their IT guy, but I wanted to write this book, so I said, I’ll find someone who will help you. And a woman who worked with me at the firm. Uh, brilliant. She actually, uh, helped, uh, Dell build Dell.com back in the late 90s. And then she worked for. She was with them for 15 years, and then, uh, built a medical marijuana website for a Canadian company. So she knew control substance over the web. Much better qualified than me. And she knocked it out of the park.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:56] Now, do you find that that just takes kind of time in business to come to that level of maturity and humbleness and, um, in order to really serve people? Like I find that this isn’t a lesson that many young people kind of have that aha moment at the beginning. That’s something that is learned over time.

Brad Englert: [00:10:17] Well, um, I have young mentees who, uh, that you can find their blurbs on the back of the book, which, um, they embraced the stories, and they are practicing, uh, some of the skills. It. The good news is you don’t have to be born with this ability. It’s a learned skill, and you just have to practice and follow the principles. And so I’ve been pleased with the feedback I’ve been getting from those just entering their career. And then the established leaders, they say, Brad, I wish I read your book 20 years ago. That would have really been a help.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:58] Now are they taking it to heart and not just reading it and going, oh, that’s a great idea, you know, for somebody else. But our business is different. We, you know, that that that wouldn’t work here.

Brad Englert: [00:11:10] Well, these principles are really, uh, applied to a diverse range of industries, organizations and backgrounds. And I’ve worked in private sector and public sector higher ed, and these principles apply to all of them.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:24] Yeah, I think that this is I mean, this is just the heart of being a good human is, you know, to focus on on relationships and how you serve somebody and how you really help them. And it’s like the the old saying from these early books, um, you know, from the beginning of last century about, you know, if you can help someone else be successful, you’re going to be successful in the long run.

Brad Englert: [00:11:48] Mhm.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:49] Like I think these are universal principles that uh, have stood the test of time.

Brad Englert: [00:11:55] So when I joined the university I met with a faculty member, been with the university for 40 years, uh, electrical engineer. I worked with him on a strategy 15 years prior for a statewide network. And, uh, we’re we were successful. And I said, okay, give me some advice. He goes, get out of your office and tell them you give a damn, right. And it was so true. And so I made a point that to build a network throughout. So the university has 52,000 students, 4000 faculty, 21,000 staff. And I made a point to build a network at the, uh, executive level. And every 6 to 8 weeks, I would meet with deans, associate deans, my peers, uh, assistant vice presidents and just ask, you know, what’s going well with central it what could we do better? And how can I help you? And one of the, uh, best relationships was with the campus safety and security, uh, associate vice president, because we knew it was not if there would be a problem, but when there would be a problem. And I wanted to make sure that everything central it could do, uh, in a bad situation would be there and tested and ready to go.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:24] And then did you were, uh, after having this relationship, did that help you kind of manage a situation that did occur?

Brad Englert: [00:13:33] Yes. We had a bomb scare. We had a shooting, we had a murder, and we had electricity go out. Now, the electricity hadn’t gone out in 15 years, actually generate our own electricity and backed up by a utility. Both failed and we once a year we would. Get together both our teams and we would have, um, disaster recovery scenarios. We actually prototyped or had a tabletop exercise of a power outage. What would we do? You have no power. You have no network. Um, and then we had an ice storm. We had a hurricane because we’re close enough to the coast that we can get tornadoes. Um, and by practicing these, uh, drills, we just got better at you always found gaps, and we we got better and better. Now, you can’t anticipate everything, though. And so in both our organizations, we had if there was a situation where the executives were called to the executive, uh, emergency Operations Center, we made sure that we had our backup operations centers ready to go. So if there’s a fire in the building where the main emergency operation center is, they were going to come over to my building and use our center. If that was compromised, then we would go to the third center, which was. Up more than a mile away from, uh, Central campus, and that would be ready. So, um, when there’s a situation, we all get on a conference call, we get the orders from executives, we make sure the cable TV is working, the copper phone lines are working. Um, when the power came back on the network working, and we just worked worked the issue and and and because you can’t anticipate everything.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:36] Now in the in you mentioned earlier that, um, part of the thesis of this is that your spheres of influence can be broken into two sections, internal and external is something actionable for the listener right now. Do you actually kind of write down the names of these, these spheres of influence, or you know who they are by name, and then you can like put them in the calendar like you just mentioned and say, okay, every within six months I’m going to make sure I, I, you know, have some communication with all of my internal and a portion of my external, like, like, do you do it that kind of tactically.

Brad Englert: [00:16:14] Yes, yes. And I had seven direct reports at the university. I asked them to do the same. So they all had 7 to 10 relationships across, uh, the campus. And that became like our nervous system, um, and, and our, our weekly meetings. We would talk about, you know, what have you heard what’s going well, what could we change our rumors? We would hear rumors. Um, one rumor was that we didn’t have, uh, enough diesel for the generators when there was an issue. Well, the generators were running on natural gas, so that was a good rumor, but it wasn’t true. Um, so we, um, we it was very intentional. There’s a technique that I describe in, uh, the chapter on peers and influencers, and it’s called power mapping. So you lay out your organization chart and you find, okay, who are your peers. And then and same thing with direct reports, ask them to do the same. And then who are your who are the influencers. So peers are in the same level you are. But influencers could be anywhere. And so it’s intentionally finding those peers and influencers and then connecting with them. And yes, I ended up on your calendar because when the meeting comes up you always remember, oh, I need to tell them about XYZ. And we had, uh, several major projects. We replaced all 21,000 phones and moved into voice over IP. So we basically irritated everybody. Well, you want to let people know that’s coming, right?

Lee Kantor: [00:17:55] You don’t want to surprise them on Wednesday that this is happening Friday.

Brad Englert: [00:17:58] Exactly.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:59] Now, what’s a manageable amount of relationships for a person? I mean, when we’re all online nowadays, it makes it seem like, you know, some people have millions of followers or millions of people. They think that they’re influencing how how many is manageable in your mind, like internally and externally.

Brad Englert: [00:18:19] I think seven is a good number. Um, textbook span of control is five plus or minus two. Um, but I think seven is a good amount evenly split between internal and external. Your boss, you’re going to meet with weekly, your direct reports. You’ll meet with weekly um, staff. We would meet quarterly. I did a, um, a weekly blog to all the staff to reinforce our values and, uh, give kudos where we’re deserved. Um. Just, um, customers. We would meet with the customers. Um, and I had one customer that the relationship wasn’t working out, and we were providing a service, and they wanted to keep one of their staff. People also do help with the service. A hybrid solution, unfortunately, everything. Every time something went wrong, their staff would point at us and blame us for the problem. So I took my pure executive out to lunch and described the problems and how they reoccurring, and he looked up at me and said, you’re firing me as a customer, aren’t you? And I said, yes, I am, and I’m going to buy you lunch, and you don’t have to pay me for any service provided to date. And and he understood.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:46] Yeah. It’s that best fit. I mean, everybody does their best work when you have that good fit and everybody is on the same page and everything’s aligned. Um, so many times the problem is that you just force fit something into something, and it’s just not an optimal relationship for either side. Really.

Brad Englert: [00:20:04] That’s right.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:05] So if somebody wants to learn more about your firm and, uh, or learn more about the book, is there a website? What’s the best way to get connect with you?

Brad Englert: [00:20:14] Uh, website is Brad Engelhardt. Com I’m on LinkedIn. I have a YouTube channel, which, uh, has a book trailer and five funny stories. Uh, good customer service. It never happened. Swiss cheese beat, copious notes and give a damn. So those are kind of some fun, uh, vignettes from the book. And then, um. The book is on Amazon, it’s a best seller, and I, uh, encourage people to check it out.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:47] Good stuff. Well, congratulations on all the success and the momentum. Uh, the website again is Brad Englert, dot com Brad e and g l e r t. Com Brad, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Brad Englert: [00:21:03] Thank you. I appreciate the invitation.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:05] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on High Velocity Radio.