TV/radio/podcast host, and Chairman of the C-Suite Network, Jeffrey Hayzlett, talks about creating “LinkedIn on steroids”, setting conditions of satisfaction, and his relationship with Donald Trump, and why mood overcomes culture, why it’s not the lucky who win (it’s the relentless), how to make a policy of “Big Dogs Only”, and the importance of thinking big, and acting bigger.

Today's show is going to compel you. Jeffrey Hayzlett,

who you're about to hear from, is the host on a primetime

television show called C Suite. And he's the chairman of the C

Suite Network. He also was on Celebrity Apprentice, he has a

book called Think Big, Act Bigger. We're going to talk

through some of that today. He was the CMO of Kodak and was an

executive for several large organizations. And so he's the

real deal. And he spent a little time with us, Jeff, thanks for

being here.

Hey, thanks for having me. I really

appreciate it. And thanks for saying that. I'm real. I like

that. I, you know, I love teachers without question. But I

like people who really get dirty, who really get it done.

And I've always been about that, you know, I bought and sold over

250 businesses, my career 25 billion in transaction, I've had

some businesses that have been huge success, and some that have

lost, you know, I've started them with the hopes of cornering

the market, and I found out there wasn't one so I've done it

all.

company and I had a CEO, as a friend of mine

is now working as a CEO for me and another company. And he had

the HR director came in, said, Jeff, it's like a big Mack

truck. And she told me that in the meeting, so and I said, and

your point, what's your problem? You know, that's my job. My job

is to be like that my job is to go through obstacles around

obstacles over obstacles to create things to happen. I'm the

kind of guy that you bring in for that. And if you want touchy

feely, and all those, yeah, I can give you some of that. But

that's not what I'm about. My job is to make things happen.

And I do it with great respect of other people, and individuals

and ideas and so forth. But in the end, someone's got to pay

the bills. In the end, someone's got to deliver on the promise

that we've just made. And that's really what it's about. So I

really focus in on those promises and being pigheaded

about that saying, hey, no, we said we were going to hit this

goal mean this number, this this profitability, this net realized

rate, whatever it might be, we use terms in sales. And that's

what we're going to do. And we're not accepting anything

less than that. So that's what we mean by being pigheaded. So I

take that as a great compliment.

Well, but you don't, that doesn't necessarily fly in the

face of you don't care about culture.

Culture is as Gerber once said, you know, I

think was Gerber. You know, culture eats strategy for lunch.

I mean, it does. I mean, you and I are always talking about mood,

I think moods, one of the most important things you can have

inside of a business is you have a great mood, you can overcome

culture, you know, getting people but you know, if you have

a bad mood, even the culture is really tough to break into. If

you ever watched a television show you'd like let's say, West

Wing, or pick any show that you see, you can see that has an

energy to it a cadence that you can see, as you watch the show,

well, the same thing walks into an office, you can walk into

someone's office, and they immediately feel the culture,

immediately feel the cadence of the company. Are they stuffy?

Are they slow? Are they fast? Are they quick? Are they nimble?

And I think the leaders have to do that, you know, it's like,

let's get it done.

So your kind of style and your approach, which has been

very successful is is just exactly what you said. It's

knocked down barriers, your blow through walls, do whatever it

takes, what are some examples of companies that have kind of

steamrolled their way through stuff?

Can you say Uber? Can you say, Uber, I mean,

there's a prime example where people said, we're not gonna

allow them, and we're gonna put up barriers, there's, you know,

legislative or regulatory kinds of things. And these guys are

just running right through it and say, Nope, we're not

accepting that this is what we're doing is that we're doing

it, people said to it's gonna be more expensive, they're going to

have surge pricing, they're going to charge you outrageous

prices yet, look at that growth, look at what they're doing,

because they have a service that people really want. And no

matter what those critics might say, they're driving through it.

And even when they've done some really stupid bonehead moves, I

mean, and said things they shouldn't have said, but yet,

you can see that they've steamrolled through those

obstacles, and they're just making it happen. And in there's

tons of other companies that I can cite as examples of that,

that continually, so success after success in terms of just

saying, here's our goal, here's where we're at, and we're gonna

get there and no matter what it takes, you know, this, this

passion for getting to that, you know, to that ultimate utopia,

and my question to you most people who are listening right

now is why not? Why not? Well, you know, you get to build

anything you want to do you get to do it any way you want to do

it. Why would you do it that way? And when people say, well,

we can't do it that way. Well, why? Why did someone put a gun

to your head? Someone holding your children hostage and saying

you can't do this? I don't get it someone you know, I use

examples in my book where I think big guy bigger where, you

know, people come to me I said, Look, you know, I know the value

of a network. I know the value of being a TV, being in radio

being books, you know, speaking, like yourself, have, you know,

have a consulting practice that your community is important to

you. So I told my team, hey, go out and start making sure I'm

engaging more with my followers show me how to do that. Show me

ways in which I can get more people. And yet when I first

they first did this, well, we can't do that. I said, Well, why

not? And they said, well, because of the budget, I said,

who gave me a frickin budget? I said, Go do it. It's up to me to

decide whether it's too expensive or not. You're to tell

me how to go do that. You tell me what I have to do? Do I have

to run ads on Twitter? Do I have to run ads on Facebook? Do I

have to? Do I have to, you know, tweet more, and I have to do

more video, you tell me? What will help do that so I can adopt

the best practices and be real because it's me that's doing it

by the way, it's not somebody else. And and so those are the

kinds of things when we talk about being pigheaded. And just

running through obstacles?

Well you mentioned the word passion. Where does

passion fall in the equation of the things that are important to

the success of that company?

Well, passion alone will pay the bills, all

right. It's great to have passion, but you got to eat to

write, I mean, I love to have romance with my wife all the

time. But I you know, I gotta go out and get you know, bring in

the money to pay for the things so I can have the candles in the

in the in the champagne, and have the chocolates and all the

things that go with the passion of our relationship as well. And

the little accoutrements, so to speak of that, that's probably

going to get me in trouble with my wife hope she's not watching

her listening right now. But my point is, if it were passionate

alone, Kodak would still be standing the way it was, I mean,

people were passionate about film, but that That era is over.

And you can you can stop reason, rationality strategy, and in the

implementation of new technology that replaces those things. So

passion alone is not enough, it helps without question, it will

carry you through a lot of different places. So whatever

you're doing, you should be extremely passionate about it.

But don't just let the passion blind you to the real facts, and

the real way of doing things. And that's why it's important

for you know, people like yourself, and others who, who

help these businesses, you know, understand that the systematic

approach and way in which you have to do things, you know,

you're passionate, I'm passionate about sales, I'm

passionate about all these different products and these

different ways of doing it. But in the end, I got to make sure I

got good email, open rates, I gotta have, you know, a regular

campaign, I got to run ads, I got to do this, I got to do that

I, you know, I have to backup the passion. Great example, let

me tell you, you know, just in business books, you know, we own

the C suite network, and the C suite, book club, C suite, TV, C

suite radios, we're building out what I call LinkedIn on steroids

recur, creating an alter powerful community of business

leaders. And it's the upper echelon of the business world,

that's what we're going after. But when you think about books,

there's 390,000 new business books this year 398,000,

published in North America alone, and the average business

book will sell 7500 copies. Now, when somebody like myself and I

just recently sold, you know, like 300,000 copies of Think Big

act bigger, that means somebody else is losing. And so yeah, the

Pat, you have to know these facts and figures. And so a lot

of people think, Well, I just published my book, where's the

business? You know, you got to start months ahead of time, I

even tell people a year ahead of time, before you you start

going, as you know, we market our book very well. It's what we

do. We're very good at it. And in the results. That's why we

have publishers lined up saying, Hey, where's my next book, and

I'm just been, my books only been out for three months. And

now they're asking me, where's the next one? You know?

Right? You really understand that machine. And

what about, there's this thing in the book that you talk about,

called the Caitlin rule?

Love that rule. It was written at this

very desk. So I'm sitting here in New York City, we help take

companies public, we own a company called Tallgrass. Now

Tallgrass is a public relations and social media company, its

slogan says, If you want to run with the big dogs, you gotta

learn to pee in the tall grass. That's, that's, that's the name

of the company, and only works with high growth companies while

we take companies public, or help them elevate their

visibility or celebrities and a host of other, you know,

businesses out there. And we were about to go and meet with

the CEO of a company about 20 blocks from here to talk to him

about taking the company public. So Caitlyn stopped by my desk,

young woman, and I turned to her. And she says, Jeff, should

we take color copies of the presentation? I said, Caitlin, I

said, You're new here. You've only been here for a couple of

weeks. You get to ask me 21 questions. I'm going to call it

the Kaitlan rule. And I'd made it up right there on the spot.

And I said, I said 21 question. I don't know why I pulled it out

of my room with a flashlight. But here's what the rule is.

From now on. You can ask me any question you want. You can ask

me about the meaning of life. You can ask me where the best

Italian restaurant is. You can ask me which train to go take

across you can ask me do I think your boyfriend's really serious

about you? Any question that you want? Is that one of your

frickin questions? And she turned to me right here at this

desk right here and said, I don't think so. And I turned

back to her and said good career Move, because if I have to

answer that question, what do I need you for? Now? Some people

would say, That's man, is that a little harsh? No, it's setting

levels of expectations are what I call conditions of

satisfaction. And I turned to her said, Caitlin, my job is to

get in front of that client and give them the advice that's in

his head, and give them my vast experience of the things I do.

It's like hitting a mark on a stage as a speaker, or as a

television host. It's about me showing up being prepared and

being ready on that spot, lights go on, I start talking, that's

what I'm supposed to do your job is to make sure that I hit that

mark, anything up to that mark? Is your responsibility. And if I

have to do that, what do I need you for? I hired you because

you're a big dog. That's what big dogs do. And tall grass,

nothing but big dogs, you're you're going to take my job here

someday, you're gonna take and beat become the President's

company. That's what I saw on you. I can't wait to do that. If

I have to answer these questions for you. I don't need you.

You're not a big dog. And so that's really what that's about.

So. So what are you doing in your organization, when people

come to you, and asking you questions are doing things that

they shouldn't be doing themselves, and you're not

empowering them to do it or telling them that you truly

expect them to do it and hold their feet to fire to get it

done. That's what the Kaitlan rule is all about.

You have to be, if you're going to be one of the big dogs,

to figure it out, you find a way you don't come to me with that

kind of stuff.

Or I'll do it once you know, you know, like,

I've already asked you the answer the question, what do you

think we should do? Well, we should take our copies. And I

turned to her and I said, Do you have time to make them? And she

said no. I said don't lie to him. He asked me a question. And

you know, and in but that's I think we have to call people in

the carpet for those kinds of things. If you're not calling

them on the carpet, you don't set expectations you don't, you

know, it's like it's like a coach talking to a player and

saying, you can run that faster, why you sloughing off, you know,

you know, I know what she could do she that's why we got her in,

I can see people think I'm a jerk, I think I'm I think I'm

being a very good leader and saying, This is what I expect

you to do, we set the bar, I expect you to hit the bar, or go

over the bar, if you don't hit the bar and you're below par

player, I don't want below bar players in my operation. I only

want big dogs. And this is what we do. And that's not a big dog

decision. That's not a responsible person that's on my

team, you're letting me down. That's what that's all about.

Well, and you're training them to think for themselves,

which is one of the best gifts that you can actually give the

person. Tell me really quick, I have a couple more questions for

you, but the conditions of satisfaction, I just want you to

hit that really quick. Can you explain what is that? What does

that mean? How does it come into play?

Yeah, I think this is one of the most

important parts of the book. And I've actually put this in all my

books about conditions of satisfaction, when I call mutual

conditions satisfaction. On one side, you always have a

customer. On the other side, you always have a performer in

everything we do, whether it's with a customer, a vendor, even

our employees, even our kids, you ever make a pinky promise,

those are mutual conditions of satisfaction, where I do

something for the kids, and then they expect us that's that's

what it's all about. And if you break that, oh my gosh, you

can't break a promise, a promise is a promise you can renegotiate

it. But you have to deliver on those promises. And so there's

an action cycle that goes with those conditions satisfaction,

there's an offer, there's the acceptance, there's the doing of

the work, and there's the delivery of the product, and the

acceptance of that delivery. So satisfaction in you at the end

of the in the end of this action cycle, you you always go back to

the person said, I've just delivered you, you know, this

book, you know, or this bottle of water, or this cup of coffee

or whatever it might be. And then you just say, are you

satisfied? Because once they say they're satisfied, there's no

going back, there's no pitch and there's no moment. There's no

renegotiation, there's no missing the payments on the

bill, you're set. You said you were satisfied. So pay me my

money, you know, or give me what you said you were gonna do.

That's the way it works.

Where do you want people to go to connect with you, get

to plug into the C Suite, this whole platform that you've got

going, where's the best place for them to start?

You can start right at the Csuitenetwork.com.

But you can go to Csuitetv.com, Csuiteradio.com,

Csuitebookclub.com. We own everything around C Suite. If

you just look up hashtag C suite you'll you'll run into us

because we have a majority of the conversation or find me at

hayzlett.com.

And last little thing for you, Jeff, you have worked at

these big public companies you've bought and sold

businesses. You've been a speaker, best selling author, TV

show, you're on Celebrity Apprentice, what is next for

you, like what is the thing where you go, "this inspires me,

this is the next wall that Jeffrey Hayzlett personally is

going to be blown through"?

I'm really working very hard right now on

the C Suite Network. This is a way for me to be able to help

business leaders become more strategic and stay the most

strategic person in the room. today. We're just inundated with

time inundated with all these different things that are taking

up the things that we need to do and so I want to help executives

but continue to be the most strategic people in the room

that and when Donald Trump's elected, become an ambassador,

an ambassador for some country. I'm trying to figure out which

one I should probably go for.

Well, if you didn't make everybody mad yet, I'm sure you

got somebody there.

Well, I love him as an individual. You know

what I give him credit for at least at least we're talking

about elections. And we're talking about issues in ways we

never have before. And, you know, I'll give him credit for

that him and quite frankly, Bernie Sanders a credit for

that, as well, because we're talking about things we never

would have been talking about, which is awesome. He's always

promoting himself, which I always think is good. But yeah,

the one thing I'll tell you about Donald, I've done some

interviews for the post and a whole bunch of others about Him.

He loves to throw things out there and then watch people

attack it. And then he then alters his position based on

those kinds of conversations. It's called cause causing

tension. I think great leaders do cause tension and they'll say

something, push it in order to get people to push it one way or

the other. Not necessarily the position that he or she always

believes but great leaders do that. And you know, and great

leaders have got to have haters as part of the process. That's

why it works.

Well. I love it my friend. Thank you for making a little

time for us here.

Don't forget, it's not the lucky who win, it's

the relentless, so get out there and be relentless everyday and

think big and act bigger. Appreciate it. It is always a