The CEO of VIP Marketing / Founder of Craft Creative/Founder of 10 Mile Studios, and the creator of The Adcast, the Podcast for Marketers and Advertisers, Mr. Eric Elliott, discuss the fuel that drove him to create his businesses. He shares the most significant sacrifice he made to achieve his level of success and reveals the importance of knowing your worth.

Eric shares, with TheBEAZ, the vision that he had for creating his marketing agency and reveals the reasons behind promoting the craft creative ahead of VIP Marketing in the initial rollout of his properties. Eric also gives insight as to the significance of 10 Mile Studios.

Join us at Beaznetwork to hear Eric's compelling conversation.

You can find Eric Here:

https://heyimeric.com/

https://www.veryimportantplacement.com/

https://www.wecraftcreative.com/

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Do you feel like it's time to begin a new period of productivity, growth, and success in your life? It happens, it happens, and we just need the right motivation and the right teacher. Welcome to TheBEAZ presents Epoch Visionary. No matter where you are in life, if you've made it or on the way up the ladder, this is for you. We're here to enlighten, discuss, inform, and question established points of view so that we can begin a period of new discovery and achieve those life-altering, amazing results. This is the TheBEAZ presents Epoch Visionary.

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Charles Beasley (00:50):

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Welcome, welcome, welcome to a new episode of the TheBEAZ presents Epoch Visionary and as usual we will be respectful of your time because we know that time is the new currency and as always, I am Charles "The Beaz" Beasley and everyone in the world has heard of me. You, the audience, have heard of me. But those that are yet to come will hear of me because everyone in the world has heard the story about the birds and who? The bees, and that was me.

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Charles Beasley (01:17):

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What we hope to do at this particular point is to have a conversation where we can drop some information, but remember before you can connect the dots you must first collect the dots. So hopefully we leave some information that you willing to collect and maybe you can put it back together at some particular point in time just to help you make another step forward in your journey or your life or whatever it may be to you. And today's conversation is, does your sacrifice affect your worth? Does your sacrifice affect your worth? The young man that is going to help us on this journey is Mr. Eric Elliott. He is the CEO of VIP Marketing, the founder of Craft Creative, and the founder of Ten Mile Studios, which is in North Charleston. He's also the creator of the AdCast which is the podcast for marketers and advertisers.

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Charles Beasley (02:14):

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Let's give a big welcome to Mr. Eric Elliott. Thank you for coming on the show, Eric.

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Eric Elliott (02:19):

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Thank you, thank you. Beaz, man, I'm excited to be you, man. I've been listening for a good while, man, and I love what you do. I love what you do.

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Charles Beasley (02:27):

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Awesome, awesome, awesome. I am as excited to have you on. We always chit-chat a little bit and I've been waiting on this moment for a long time. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to set the atmosphere. We've heard a little bit about his companies. We will dig into that a little bit deeper here. Yet, what I would like to do at this particular point in time is talk about the man just a little bit, okay?

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Charles Beasley (02:49):

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Eric is a superhero. He's a man that loves teaching and using metaphors, okay? But this is not a metaphor. Eric is the living embodiment of the rules of being a superhero, okay? Eric has a backstory of growth behind that. He has a backstory and there's growth behind tragedy and this is very, very interesting. I think this may be what fuels him but he'll tell us that a little bit more. Through trial and tribulations he's an entrepreneur, he's a philanthropist, dedicated father and husband, and he's a friend to many.

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Charles Beasley (03:30):

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Two of Eric's superpowers, he's got many but we just going to brush on these two right now, okay. He has an immense heart and he gives back and you can feel it in him when you talk to him and if you ever meet him you can see it in his smile. It's pretty awesome, okay. Number two is he has uncanny brain power, hence he has those companies, right? So once we get into talking to him you're going to see what that means and I'm pretty excited about that.

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Charles Beasley (03:57):

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Now there is something that I really did not know that's kind of surprising to me. Shocking but nonetheless it may be shocking to others. But Eric is a sneakerhead, right? He's a sneakerhead. I never would have thought that. But what my spies tell me, he has a closet full of shoes. Doesn't say sneakers, but shoes in general. Now he's, I don't know, but he has an affinity toward Air Jordans is what they tell me now. So I don't know like me back as a kid you used to go put on the shoes, you go jump higher, run higher, I think that might be why he puts on them Jordans, because he think he can dunk. I don't know.

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Charles Beasley (04:32):

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But this is what I did find out, which is a very good reason. He wears sneakers because it reminds him of where he comes from and where he's going to be. Right? So as he kind of looks at, wears those sneakers to remind him where he came from and it makes him thankful for where he is today and that was, I thought that was very, very awesome and profound to me. Eric is already planning for next year and beyond. The coolest thing about that is that he's able to see things as they are, but on top of that what he does is he's able to see things as they could be. That is a true visionary. So as a visionary you see things as they are but you have the vision to see things as they could be and that's part of his story. His mind is always geared towards growth and moving forward and his dreams are limitless. So that's a visionary in itself.

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Charles Beasley (05:28):

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Because of this his businesses are thriving. I didn't say they were just kind of moving along, but they are thriving. His family is loved and growing and his network is nothing less than inspired by his story. So that's always cool.

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Charles Beasley (05:42):

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First, Eric, what I would like for you to do is just tell me a little bit about your companies. The VIP Marketing, Craft Creative, Ten Mile Studios, and the AdCast. Tell us a little bit about that.

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Eric Elliott (05:55):

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Man, thank you so much for that introduction, man. I really appreciate it. I think first and foremost when anyone listens or hears that about the companies the first thing they ask is when do I sleep.

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Charles Beasley (06:09):

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Yeah, you busy.

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Eric Elliott (06:09):

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For me, we do have these companies and I started in late 2009, 2010 and I found a need that wasn't being fulfilled. I wanted to be more of an advocate for clients and so I started out, I left my job from a broadcast TV station and went out and just did, started my own agency. I started my own agency, hung my shingle. I started with a desk from Craigslist and a Toshiba laptop that I keep in my office as a reminder and a memento of how is started.

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Charles Beasley (06:39):

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Okay.

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Eric Elliott (06:41):

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I started the agency. Just kind of fell into it, you know? I fell into it and I started it because I had a manager that actually said to me, I don't know how to negotiate agency business.

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Charles Beasley (06:54):

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Really?

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Eric Elliott (06:56):

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Yeah. They said to me I don't know how to negotiate agency business and also would ridicule me for sending me emails out saying my spelling was incorrect, my punctuation wasn't correct, and it was almost like instead of coaching it was more belittling.

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Charles Beasley (07:10):

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Right, right.

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Eric Elliott (07:11):

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So what I did was, when I did decide to move out on my own I always wanted to be, I wanted my agency to be what my employment was not. I wanted to have a great environment, a family environment where people can actually create. People can do the work because they want to, not because they have to. When I did that back in 2010, I mean, this was early on before social and all these other things got really popular and at the time we were focusing on traditional media. As I would go from business to business and speak to different business owners letting us handle some of their marketing, what I found was there was a need for creative.

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Charles Beasley (07:55):

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Okay.

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Eric Elliott (07:55):

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There would be a lot of businesses that would actually have marketing people on the inside and they didn't want to invite us in. It's almost like letting the wolf into the henhouse. So what we did was started Craft Creative, and Craft Creative was solely focused on just the creative idea and video production. With that, I mean, it had just such a great trajectory of growth. We made sure that it was 100% separate from VIP Marketing and operated different. Different colors, different branding, different trademarks and everything.

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Eric Elliott (08:31):

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As that geared on and we started developing and gained a lot of production business, here's the production agency growing, here is the marketing agency thriving. The cool thing is any time the marketing agency gets a client it hires the production group.

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Charles Beasley (08:44):

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Right, okay.

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Eric Elliott (08:46):

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As it went on what we found ourselves doing was we would always rent the studio space and it was just almost cumbersome for us on the Craft Creative side to rent studios. So what we did was we just put out that search and we started, as we grew on, I mean we started growing out our building to the point where we couldn't have more than 10 people using one bathroom anymore so it was time to go.

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Eric Elliott (09:12):

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Then we sought out, partners with 4S Capital, the folks who have built up the Ten Mile building that we're in now. We started our first studio which is probably one of the very, very few. There's probably two or three if any that I even know of around here as far as African-American-owned studios. So when we did the Ten Mile Studios, this is a creative complex is what we call it where people can come in. If they are a creator and they want to come in and do photography or if they're a cinematographer and they need the studio background of if they launch a podcast, they can come and rent out this studio.

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Eric Elliott (09:51):

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We operate under 5000 square feet and it's been a dream and for me it's just good and I operate my own podcast, as you mentioned it, the AdCast out of it. You know, we've been blessed but like I said, I couldn't do any of it unless I had a great team on all sides. I love these people, they're great, and they push me forward and I thank them for it.

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Charles Beasley (10:15):

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All right, awesome, awesome, awesome. You had a lot packed in there so you also have a lot that you got to do, right?

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Eric Elliott (10:22):

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That's right.

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Charles Beasley (10:22):

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That kind of makes me wonder, right, because you mentioned the fact that they kind of belittled you in the beginning and you used that fuel to move forward. So now I like the fact that you said, well, you have the creative separate. How did you come to that? Was that something that just popped in your head because a lot of people, they start jumbling things up and they don't really segment things and I found it kind of thought-provoking that you said that you had that plan. Did you come up with it yourself? You mentioned mentors to me before. Was that something that you learned from somebody else? Where did that come from?

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Eric Elliott (10:59):

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Actually, you know, it was from the experience of actually going out into the marketplace and what I did notice was a lot of agencies where they would have creative in-house. What they would do is they would put the agency first instead of making the creative just as important as the agency. Because the truth is, sometimes without the creative an agency is nothing.

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Charles Beasley (11:19):

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Right.

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Eric Elliott (11:19):

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Because when a client hires you, they hire you for strategy, execution, and they want you to have great creative that can differentiate them from the rest of the people in the market and help them move forward, so the need was creative. We felt like we had the strategy and the agency side now but it was just that need for creative. We wanted something that was fully devoted just to handling creative and actually coming up with great ideas and that's why I think it propelled so fast.

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Charles Beasley (11:48):

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Okay. Did a little, you know, we talked but I looked at a few different things and I saw you teaching a class or talking and one of the things that you talked about was the importance of telling a story and not just talking about numbers, per se, when your client goes in there. Where does that come from? Because I think the key to selling or convincing or maybe, a story kind of sticks with you.

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Eric Elliott (12:18):

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I think the one thing about, when you talk about selling, people, they don't like to be sold but they like to be hooked. You know?

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Charles Beasley (12:24):

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Exactly, right. Okay.

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Eric Elliott (12:25):

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So I think with that was we tried to look at things a lot different versus saying that we want to sell them something. I come from the approach of, I don't want to sell to sell, I want to sell to help. You know? We use that and that's what's big for me. That's kind of a driver for me to say that I want to be able to help people.

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Charles Beasley (12:51):

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You mentioned the word selling and nobody wants to be sold anything. You're 100% right because when we talk and obviously I run a car dealership so the word selling is something I don't like to talk about. We just kind of lead people to make their own decision and that's what we do. Now you mentioned that in that scenario but you also mentioned that before when you were talking about what you didn't want to see, right? You know? You were ridiculed, you were this, so even when you started to think about your business and who you wanted, you went from what's in their mind, what does that person want or need? I thought that was pretty cool. Have you always have that insight? It's not about you, it's about them.

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Eric Elliott (13:32):

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Yeah. I feel like I've always wanted to be an advocate for people. I think that's something that I was raised with. You know? I get satisfaction in knowing that you did something right and I felt like in business if you were doing the right thing the money is going to come and that's where the longevity and that's kind of my desire to be able to help people. That's why I do what I do. You know, people can say, hey, I'm wrong, but a lot of times when I look at whatever problem that I'm solving, I don't think with money first. I think about this scenario, like how much could I help these people in what kind of situation they're in.

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Eric Elliott (14:19):

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Now don't get me wrong, we're in a business and you will get rewarded for the problems you solve, but in my case it got to a point where I couldn't solve small problems anymore, I had to start solving bigger problems because there was so much demand for time.

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Charles Beasley (14:35):

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Okay. Outside of that, is there some other source for your passion? Because what I get when I listen to you and talk to you and we get into long conversations, it's always about passion. I've seen some things on YouTube and some other things and you were very passionate one day about somebody told you they couldn't do this or whatever.

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Eric Elliott (14:56):

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That's right.

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Charles Beasley (14:57):

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Is that what fuels you in the beginning? Is that kind of still what fuels you now? What was that or what is that?

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Eric Elliott (15:05):

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I got a switch turned on for me in September of 2004. September of 2004 I remember distinctly, and there's two managers that stood out for me. It's just like you can always go back and remember great teachers in your life. You can always go back and remember certain managers that shouldn't have been leaders. So I've always had the helping in me that I wanted to do but I think what sparked me more on the agency side was what I received from managers and that started in September '4 when I interviewed for a radio position.

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Eric Elliott (15:36):

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I interviewed with one group and I was getting blown off and blown off because when I started out in a lot of broadcast media, radio, and television there weren't a lot of African-Americans that actually did that. When I interviewed I originally interviewed with a general market station which was like a non-hip hop station or some people would call it an urban station. I interviewed with the country and the pop stations and I probably did two or three different interviews. I did some callback. When I finally interviewed with the manager he took me in his office and he put some paperclips on the desk and I'll never forget this.

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Eric Elliott (16:16):

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I say 16 paperclips and he tells me to this day, he says eight. So he put the paperclips on the desk and he says no, no, no, no, no. Each no was to represent someone that didn't want to do business with me and then he has a couple maybes and yeah, and a yeah, come back to tomorrow, that kind of thing. So those were supposed to be a symbol of the people that would say no to me. So what it was was a discouragement to say, are you sure you want to do this? That's what he said to me.

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Eric Elliott (16:47):

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Even though I did that he gave me this binder, this binder of the station stuff. I never listened to these stations before and I practiced these stations over the weekend and I had my wife, she started helping me. At the time she wasn't my wife but we would actually go through this binder. I would learn it because I had to come in and present to this guy at these stations. So I came in and I did it. I felt like I did a good job and I was able to present standing in front of him because I learned it in the restaurant industry by talking to people. And he never called me back. He never called me back.

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Eric Elliott (17:24):

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What happened was the other manager who was in the meeting with him, she called me back and she said, if you want to be here you got to make a move. I made that move and I got in and she hired me. When I got in I broke every single sales record that they threw at me, every single one. That manager that didn't hire me, the guy that he hired in my place left within six months. I stayed for four years.

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Eric Elliott (17:52):

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His words were, to another manager, one of the biggest mistakes I made was not hiring Eric. So that was one that fueled me.

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Charles Beasley (18:01):

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Right, okay.

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Eric Elliott (18:02):

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That got my tank to about halfway full. Then when I was actually in television, when I got recruited from radio to television and I had that manager who was a manager, they weren't a leader to me at all. It was just, it was constant attitude. It was just such a great product to work with, but they were just not a great leader to work for. It was uncomfortable to come to work. You felt belittled. I never want to do that to our people now.

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Eric Elliott (18:32):

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I can never forget when I went into their office for my review and I still keep to that review to this day and I read it.

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Charles Beasley (18:39):

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Okay.

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Eric Elliott (18:39):

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No kidding, I still have it and I still saw where she said you don't know how to negotiate agency business. You need to send me your emails when you send them out. It was just ridicule after ridicule. So what that did is it took my tank from halfway full to full.

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Charles Beasley (18:56):

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Okay, okay.

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Eric Elliott (18:57):

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That was, I would say, the battery that never burns out that helped me to start my business.

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Charles Beasley (19:04):

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Okay, okay. So you got something that you continue to go back to that keeps moving you forward. So I know there's got to be tough times but let me ask you this question, right. So when I say sacrifice, the word sacrifice, when it comes to your business, what comes to mind? What have you sacrificed to get to where you needed to be or where you are today?

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Eric Elliott (19:26):

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Man, that's an easy question for me to say. I sacrificed a lot of family time. I sacrificed a lot of family time and what I thought was, back then, that I had to outwork everyone. I thought I had to put in more hours. I thought I had to do all these things and as you get a little older you realize that you can never get that time back. When you get a little gray in your beard and you look in the mirror it's like you look back and you say, you know what? What did I miss?

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Charles Beasley (19:59):

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Okay.

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Eric Elliott (20:01):

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My children, they're getting older and so my most important thing now is being able to spend time with them. I'm doing some things that I've never done before. I know nothing about baseball and my has me coaching softball. But you know what? Secretly, I love it because I love seeing her out there doing it. I love it for her. And I get to spend time with my kids and it's that time. So I sacrificed a lot of time with my family and what makes it really hard is that my wife, she encourages my work because she knows it's the one thing I love so there's never, ever, ever been a time where she says, stop working.

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Eric Elliott (20:46):

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At some point I know there's probably someone who can relate with this where you take advantage of that and I feel there are times where I took advantage and there's also times where I sacrificed. Where I could have been working with one of the kids on doing something and instead I'm in a Saturday afternoon, spending Saturday afternoon writing proposals or writing plans. I would say I sacrificed, what did I sacrifice? It was my time.

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Eric Elliott (21:16):

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But I'm not so sorry that I sacrificed it because it may sound selfish but truthfully, a lot of it I do it for my family. Because I'm not one of those that splurge on a lot of things. I would like to say I wanted to put in the work then so that I can enjoy it now and I think I'm getting to that point where I can enjoy it now and I've made those sacrifices, you know? I've made those sacrifices in time. I traded my time to be able to get where I am. If my wife resented it, then I'd feel bad about it but she doesn't and nor do I.

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Charles Beasley (21:56):

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Okay. If you put in that amount of time and sacrifice, you had the fuel behind you, so you found that source, and then you put in the time. When you started this and you said, I'm going to move from working for these people that don't appreciate me, I'm going to create something that I can have my own, did the end or where you are today, did you see that then? Is where you are today what you saw when you first decided to make that jump to ownership? Is it what you thought it was going to be?

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Eric Elliott (22:30):

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I think when you go into business for yourself you really don't know what to expect because there's no manual. It's like becoming a parent, you know? You actually become a parent again but just of an entity, is what you are.

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Charles Beasley (22:41):

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Right, okay.

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Eric Elliott (22:43):

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You're raising a company, is what you're doing. That's exactly what you're doing. I mean, you have children that you raise and then you have a company that you raise. For me what I wanted was something different from what I had worked in. It's no different from when you have your children, you want to give your children better than you've ever had and so I've always wanted to give my team members or employees better than I've ever had. You know?

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Charles Beasley (23:10):

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Right.

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Eric Elliott (23:10):

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And I want them, the most important thing is for them to be able to appreciate it but I want to make sure that they don't work in the kind of environment that I worked in.

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Charles Beasley (23:21):

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Yeah, okay. I got you.

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Eric Elliott (23:22):

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Does that makes sense?

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Charles Beasley (23:22):

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Sure, absolutely, absolutely. You created something different but the fuel was, okay, and actually when I got into business I said, this guy over here, he doesn't give me what I need, right. So again, I knew or felt strongly that if he is at this particular level, if I change and pivoted and do things a little bit differently and I believe in people and training and coaching and all those things because nobody gave it to me the same way. So it helped me know that I could get to a different spot than where I was and it just gave me that fuel that you talked about.

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Eric Elliott (23:56):

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Yeah.

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Charles Beasley (23:57):

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So what I got here it says, again, does your sacrifice affect your worth? So I still remember hearing a conversation. I don't remember exactly where it was but I think we talked about it a little about. But you said, you know, you got your agency. You go out here and people want you to do everything but they don't want to pay you, right?

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Eric Elliott (24:15):

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Yeah.

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Charles Beasley (24:16):

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Or they want you to give them advice but they don't want to pay you for it, right? One reason why I came up with this is because of that conversation, right? You just told me about the fuel and you told me about the sacrifice. So how much does that affect who you pursue, what you pursue, what you charge? How does that play into it?

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Eric Elliott (24:40):

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Man, that's a great question. At one point I had to learn my value and I thought people were coming back to me, like in the beginning, because I was so inexpensive. Like, you know, they just like me. The thing was, they were making money off of what was in my head, you know? They were making money off of what was in my head and the truth is there's really no price that you can put on a great idea. There really is none. So at some point what you're speaking about, at some point I had to really change a lot of my conversations with people because sometimes my conversations, some people would try and turn them into consultations.

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Charles Beasley (25:23):

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I got you, okay, okay. Right, right.

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Eric Elliott (25:24):

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I really had to learn that and once I learned my own value then I put a value on my time. When I put the value on my time, notice I didn't say I put a rate on my time. I put value on my time. And then I had to start pricing accordingly. So our agency prices that same way.

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Charles Beasley (25:44):

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I always thought that was profound because as you look at it and that's what I was looking for. I can't remember what you said. The conversation versus a consultation. I don't know how that goes but when you get to that point you're like look, stop. We are transitioning from one thing to another.

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Eric Elliott (26:07):

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Man.

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Charles Beasley (26:08):

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Have you had that conversation? Do you just bow out gracefully? How does that work?

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Eric Elliott (26:12):

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A couple ways. It's so funny. It kind of happens and I think if I have a good friend and we're shooting the breeze and we're talking things like that, that's okay. But when it comes to some kind of lifting or anything else it's like hey, that's when you got to kind of hold on. I had someone call me a couple weeks ago and they were talking to me about their business and while they were on the phone they said, hey, hold on. I got someone else who has got a business, too. Maybe you can talk to them, too.

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Eric Elliott (26:41):

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I kind of had to really, it's not, you know, being like you're high up on yourself but I had to stop it and say I can't do that. I really can't do that because there's value in what you say. There's value in what you say and then there is value in ideas that you create and so why would I give away my best thinking and not charge for it? You know? That may be an idea of a concept that I may never come up with again or strategy or way that you can do things and it's almost like, it took me years to be able to get to where I am now. So why should I give it away for free?

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Charles Beasley (27:22):

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I got you, I got you. I still remember that conversation from down the road. Like man, that sticks with me, right? Because I'm like you. You like metaphors. I like sayings, right? One of the things I said, we're dragon-slayers, not sword-makers, right? Anybody can make a sword, you know what I mean? If you got the right stuff, you heat it up, you put it in, you can make that. But when you're creating something or you're trying to persuade or whatever that is or have that idea, then you got to be able to pivot and move and continue to do those different things because who knows what happens. Can you think on your feet? Can you think critically? Can you come up with an idea?

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Charles Beasley (27:57):

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That's part of the conversation, that's part of why I like listening to your AdCast and then I'm talking to you as well is because I can see that in what you do and the stories that you've told me and the value that you bring. That's amazing and that is very, very much so, so awesome. I really, really dig that.

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Charles Beasley (28:17):

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We were talking another conversation. Lots going on out there in the market today, right?

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Eric Elliott (28:22):

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Yeah, a lot.

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Charles Beasley (28:22):

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You talked about the way people used traditional media and some of the other things. How do you know when the cheese is about to moved? Are you looking at your market right then or you're a step behind? I mean, how do you recognize and look or do you look for the cheese to be moved? Do you peek around the corner say, well, the cheese is still here? How does that work.

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Eric Elliott (28:45):

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Who moved the cheese, right?

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Charles Beasley (28:47):

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Exactly. Where did it go?

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Eric Elliott (28:49):

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I think it's the same way when a weatherman, he stands in front of the boards and he makes these predictions. What he's doing is he studies the weather, you know? He studies the weather and marketing is just like that, too, and you really need to pay attention to the tides, the currents, the sunrise, the sunset. Everything else. The temperature and everything else and then what you'll learn to do is you develop, usually an instinct and when you develop that instinct and you base that on your experience and couple that with some of your research, your own research, then sometimes you can kind of project or forecast what's going to happen.

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Eric Elliott (29:28):

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But the most important part and the hardest part about any kind of marketing is not just the technology, it's the people. One of the best classes that I remember taking in high school was sociology. Just paying attention to exactly what people, how they respond and how they react to things because that is the hardest part about any business, is people. When you do that research, you do that research. You have instinct. You know people. You can kind of say, you know what? I believe this is going to happen, you know? And you look at people's habits. I think today the more digital that crowds our life and comes into our life, it offers a matter of convenience to people. Convenience and insight.

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Charles Beasley (30:14):

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Okay. When you were looking at your company, right. So you started here, you've grown and expanded your company. You keep talking about people and how to do that. So can you give me and Beaz Nation an example of a challenging time in your career after owning the company that required you to make a, let's say a significant sacrifice to better lead your team?

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Eric Elliott (30:39):

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Great one. I hired wrong in the beginning.

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Charles Beasley (30:45):

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Okay.

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Eric Elliott (30:45):

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What I mean by that, I would always hire off of my heart instead of my head. That was wrong and that was wrong of me and what I had to do. One of the things I kept looking at myself saying, why am I losing these people? This person is a nice person. Not everyone that's a nice person needs to be within your company. I truly had to learn how to hire better and have the first thing it had to start with was having a good process for hiring. Having a one, two, three, four, checks and balances of how you hire.

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Eric Elliott (31:16):

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Then really kind of figuring out is that person the right person to put in this seat? Having tests and quizzes for people. Like now, if I hire anyone, we quiz them. We send them an assessment test to really figure out are they a good fit. I want to be able to say this is what the position is and this is what it entails and then I want to couple that with that person's personality and how they score on the assessment test and then can they follow directions. If I tell them send an email at 10:18 PM will they just send it at 10 o'clock? That's not what I asked.

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Charles Beasley (31:53):

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Right.

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Eric Elliott (31:53):

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So then I know they can't follow directions. I always look to see, one, are they competent? Are they competent? That's number one. Two, can they fit into the culture? If they're competent and they can fit into the culture they might be the right fit to get to the next step.

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Charles Beasley (32:10):

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Okay, that's awesome, because I agree with you 100%. I had a situation very similar to that. People talk about feelings, right? I'm like, nice guy, I get it, I understand. Having said that, he's not able to do this job.

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Eric Elliott (32:24):

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Yeah.

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Charles Beasley (32:27):

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That gets you in trouble and it gets them in trouble and you mentioned culture. It tears everybody down.

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Eric Elliott (32:33):

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Absolutely.

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Charles Beasley (32:34):

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If you try to create that culture it's got to be there.

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Eric Elliott (32:37):

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Man, I think if anything, I would advise any business owner, anyone who is doing any hiring. I don't care if you're a manager, whatever you're doing, you have to hire for competency and also for culture. You have to. If they don't check those balances then I doubt that you'll have a good fit down the road.

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Charles Beasley (32:55):

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Okay. So you mentioned the competency to do the job, but you also mentioned something about behavioral personalities, right? When you think about the people that you deal with, diversity is always there. Do you speak to one guy or woman different than you may speak to another person based on their personality profile?

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Eric Elliott (33:21):

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And that's such a great question and that's one of the great reasons why I had to learn how to hire better. Just because you are the business owner doesn't mean that you know how to hire. Because some business owners suck at hiring and there may be someone on your team. I mean, just because you're a visionary doesn't mean that you're a great implementer, right?

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Charles Beasley (33:42):

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Right, okay, okay. So true.

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Eric Elliott (33:44):

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I feel that every visionary needs a great implementer. Maybe you're not great at your hiring but maybe your implementer is a rockstar at it. They might be a rockstar at it. When you are hiring people you have to develop some processes and you can't go down the road and say I'm going to treat this person different because of their gender, their race, or anything else, or how they identify. What you have to have is, you know what your company needs and if they fit and they have the competency and they can fit within your culture and they can pass an assessment or have a favorable assessment for the position in your company, then you should move to the next level.

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Eric Elliott (34:29):

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Then at that point, if you're doing those right things, if you're doing those things, it'll actually help narrow your search or narrow your people who are actually coming towards a job, your candidates for you, and you can make a better decision that way.

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Charles Beasley (34:45):

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Okay. I don't know where this comes from but I remember somebody said, it must be the shoes. I don't know if that's a commercial or whatever. I just remember hearing that somewhere. I don't remember who or what that is. But nonetheless, as I found out your affinity towards sneakers, right? Being a sneakerhead and the fact that you said that the sneakers remind you of where you come from and to be thankful for where you are today. Explain that to me? Where did you come from? What do you mean?

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Eric Elliott (35:12):

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Man, I'm wearing a pair of Air Jordans right now.

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Charles Beasley (35:14):

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Okay.

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Eric Elliott (35:15):

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Actually, the number three, the Black Cement. I would say the sneakers, I have more shoes in my closet than my wife does.

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Charles Beasley (35:25):

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Okay. That's amazing.

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Eric Elliott (35:26):

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She makes fun of me for it. She makes fun of me. She's so simple in comparison to me, man. I'm the closet hog. True story. She complained about it many times and rightfully so. But for me it's like the sneakers, it's not just fashion. For me, it's a level of authenticity as well and what I mean when I say that is I don't care if you're my largest client. If I come see you, I'm going to wear my shoes. I want to be comfortable because I don't think you care what kind of shoes I have on my feet. I don't think you care if I have Rockports or if I have Stacy Adams or if I have Air Jordans, because the most important thing is going to be what comes out of my mouth and how I deliver it to you.

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Eric Elliott (36:11):

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My shoes are for me, not for everyone else, and for me they are a constant reminder of what I could not buy. So when I have the ability to be able to buy them now, that is my treat to myself.

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Charles Beasley (36:25):

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Awesome, awesome, awesome. That's just a little, it's like the dark chocolate I eat. Little treat to yourself about where you come from. That's cool.

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Eric Elliott (36:36):

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[inaudible 00:36:36]

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Charles Beasley (36:37):

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It's the little things in life that really, really kind of set me off, too, right? So I think that's awesome. When I look at where you come from and where I come from and what our journey has been, we've known each other for a long time and your business, I think, we have very similar ideas and thoughts, right? One of the biggest things for me is when it comes to selling a car, talking to someone, helping them take ownership of a car, hiring somebody, whatever. It's about trust, right?

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Eric Elliott (37:08):

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Mm-hmm (affirmative).

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Charles Beasley (37:11):

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I think people, you said they listen to you, right? So when I'm listening to you or listening to someone else I'm looking to see if I can trust them. Well, trust comes when you show competence, right? Not when they like you. You might be likable but if you have no knowledge there's no trust, right? If I ask you about the agency and give me some ideas and you can't tell me nothing or you can't give me anything I might trust you to come hang out with me but I wouldn't trust you as an ad agency.

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Charles Beasley (37:40):

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How much time and effort goes into it to train somebody and how do you know when they're ready?

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Eric Elliott (37:49):

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You mean as far as someone that works for you? How do know when they're ready?

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Charles Beasley (37:52):

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Yeah. How do you know when they're ready? I know that you do the assessment but what's the process of saying this person is ready and he's going to go out and represent the way that I want him to? Him, her.

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Eric Elliott (38:03):

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I think the most important thing is you have to know exactly who you are.

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Charles Beasley (38:05):

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Okay.

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Eric Elliott (38:07):

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If you know who you are then they know what to become.

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Charles Beasley (38:10):

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Okay.

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Eric Elliott (38:11):

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If you don't know who you are and you just put a person in the seat and say sell this rate cart, or sell this car. then they're going to do just that and if that's the task that you give them they're going to damage all trust and all kind of reputation just to be able to do the task that you give them. Right? It's a distinction. Trust is also a distinction as well because you have to say, this is who we are. This is our way of doing things and here's our why. Then when they have that why and they have that belief and they buy into it, that makes it easier for you to be able to train them as well.

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Charles Beasley (38:52):

262

Okay.

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Eric Elliott (38:52):

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If you have a hard time hiring someone you're going to have a hard time training them.

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Charles Beasley (38:56):

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Right.

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Eric Elliott (38:58):

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It goes into that trust and that competency thing and you bring up a great point, is that trust, I think everyone regardless of what industry that you're in, everyone is fighting for the highest amount of Google reviews because they all want trust. That is a form of trust. It's trust and it's reputation. Telling people trust me, I have a good reputation. Look, I got a five-star reputation. You know, it's amazing to me now. You may have an agency that may email a general manager and say, hey, I'd like to talk to you about how I can change your dealership. The general manager may say, you know what? I get these a dime a dozen.

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Charles Beasley (39:38):

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Right.

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Eric Elliott (39:39):

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But if you let that general manager see a one-star review when he's fighting to have all five stars, he pays attention to that, you know what I mean?

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Charles Beasley (39:46):

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Right.

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Eric Elliott (39:48):

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Because it's their reputation, you know? It's what everyone else on the outside sees.

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Charles Beasley (39:53):

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Yeah, exactly. Okay. Well, it's going to bring us to this. This is the part of the get down, Eric.

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Eric Elliott (40:00):

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The get down?

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Charles Beasley (40:00):

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The get down for the Beaz Nation is that sweet part of the music that you can play over and over and over again. You're just sitting in your seat and you can't be still because it's so good, right?

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Eric Elliott (40:12):

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Oh, man.

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Charles Beasley (40:13):

286

You dropped a lot of dots from back and forth, but what is the meat and potatoes, the getdown that you would want the audience to know the things that they can play over and over in their head to help them make another step?

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Eric Elliott (40:27):

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Man, be good.

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Charles Beasley (40:30):

290

Okay.

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Eric Elliott (40:31):

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Be good to people. Be authentic.

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Charles Beasley (40:34):

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All right.

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Eric Elliott (40:36):

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Never let anyone tell you that you can't do something. Know your worth.

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Charles Beasley (40:43):

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There you go.

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Eric Elliott (40:44):

300

And have respect for yourself.

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Charles Beasley (40:50):

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There you go. Okay.

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Eric Elliott (40:52):

304

I would say have respect for yourself, man. It's one of my core values.

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Charles Beasley (40:55):

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There you go.

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Eric Elliott (40:58):

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You got to respect yourself.

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Charles Beasley (40:58):

310

All right. You got to have some foundation that you go back to. I love that and that's the part that I love when I talk to people about how they see themselves, you know? What's in them and what's that thing that they go to over and over again because part of, the biggest part about this podcast, it's in all of us, right?

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Eric Elliott (41:14):

312

Yes.

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Charles Beasley (41:15):

314

Somebody has overcome something. Some of us or some people have shown the propensity to keep moving and playing that over and over, but we can't sometimes see it outside. Sometimes we can't see the forest for the trees. So your story is very impactful and be authentic, know your worth. I have never forgotten that conversation about that. That has resonated with me a long time.

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Charles Beasley (41:39):

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With that being said, now we're going to talk about this. This is Epoch Visionary and what is an epoch? An epoch is a period of time in history or a person's life, typically one marked by notable events or particular characteristics. One of the epochs that I remember was if I must quite I will quit to do whatever it is I need to do to get to where I want to be, but that's one of mine. What would you say or give the audience an epoch that comes to mind?

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Eric Elliott (42:11):

318

Man, I think the epoch that comes to my mind has to be with my son. I believe it has to be with my son. I'll never forget March 15, 2018 when we got his diagnosis when he was 10 months old. For me that was it. That was not the turning point to be a better business person but the turning point to be a better person.

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Charles Beasley (42:36):

320

Okay, okay.

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Eric Elliott (42:38):

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I learned to not take things, I guess, so seriously and to really cherish some moments. That part for me, it has a lot to do with business but then it doesn't and it's how I can say, like I did earlier, like I sacrificed a lot of time. I would say when he went through what he went through and watching him and my wife and her still pushing and propelling me to go do what I did, that's that moment. That is that moment and that is that one thing that did it.

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Charles Beasley (43:21):

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Okay. well, awesome. As you move forward in your job it gave you balance to recognize that you had home life and you got to make it all work together and the importance of being able to do that. I think it's cool because you keep mentioning your wife and how she kept still letting you, hey, go do what you got to do. We got this. It's all right. You know what I mean? That balance, man. That balance in how you do that and then I think it also helps you just kind of calm back down when you're talking to other people, too. And they feed off that so that's awesome, man. This is working out and the conversation has been exactly what I hoped it would be and more. You're like the icing on the cake, dude. You know what I'm saying? We put a little icing on top of that bad boy, right?

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Eric Elliott (44:05):

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Oh, man. It's so good to talk to you, man. I really, I love what you're doing. I love what you're doing, man, and I think ... not I think but I know you always set the bar high in everything you do. From one, being a fantastic dresser and two, just being, just a great, bright individual and just salt of the earth. One of the, just, good people, man and I appreciate you for it, love you for it, man, and I just thank you.

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Charles Beasley (44:36):

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All right, all right. Well, I hope to do this again and kind of get with you and again, I always tap into your knowledge and that's a good thing and I appreciate being able to always call you up and be there. With that being said, what are your final thoughts and if you would, Eric, tell the audience about where they might be able to reach you.

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Eric Elliott (44:56):

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Man. I'm a super social, active person. You can find me on any social platform. That's Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, even Tik Tok, man. I try and do that with my kids but I'm not cool enough. If you want to find me you can go to website. That's heyimeric.com. That's H-E-Y-I-M-E-R-I-C.com or just search me on any social platform. Eric M. Elliott, two L's, two T's.

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Charles Beasley (45:21):

332

All right, all right, all right. Sounds good. Well, what we're going to do at this particular point is know that every Friday we have a new episode of Epoch Visionary, TheBeaz presents. So we will come out with another episode next week. Again, thank you for listening and as always we will be respectful of your time. Please look at Mr. Eric Elliott's information and you can always come over to beaznetwork.com and check out all of those people and all of these people that we can talk to and just grow together. I am out of here right now.

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Outro (45:56):

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You've been listening to the TheBEAZ presents Epoch Visionary. The Beaz is an executive manager that runs two successful automobile franchises. Having been in the business since 1995 he's hired, trained, and mentored other successful executive managers who run and lead sales teams and now he sits down with people from all walks of life to reveal how they were able to see the need for change in their way of thinking and begin a new period of productivity, growth, and success in their life. We hope you've gotten some useful and practical information from the show. Make sure to like, rate, and review. We'll be back soon. In the meantime hook up with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at BeazNetwork. 'Til next time.