426 | Overcoming Self-Sabotage and Blind Spots in Business: George Kriza

Jan 26

[00:00:36] full conference cloud video: What's up everybody. I'm Chaz Wolf gathering the Kings podcast coming back to you again today with another King on the stage, George Kriza . My man, how we doing?
[00:00:47] George Kriza: We're great. Chaz. It's great to be here today.
[00:00:50] Chaz Wolfe: I appreciate you being here. Um, I am, I'm digging your setup over there. You got, you got all kinds of awards and all kinds of stuff.
I'm sure we're going to get to, but I love a good, a good history of winning. Just champions win over and over and they have trophies to show for it. So I'm excited for this conversation. Tell us what kind of business
[00:01:09] George Kriza: that you have. I operate Challenging Decisions, which is a consultancy based on my 25 years as a CEO and the remainder of my business life, designed to assist other CEOs
CEOs
in solving really difficult and thorny business problems.
And that could be an entire litany of different types of problems.
[00:01:32] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. Love that. We're always trying to solve problems. In fact, there might be people listening today. That have a few problems, maybe if they're in business, possibly,
[00:01:39] George Kriza: right? And, you know, and one, one of the things, uh, I've noticed with CEOs, CEOs are, uh, you know, shot from guns.
They're inspired, they, they're founders, they're entrepreneurs, they're exciting, uh, all excited about the things that they're doing. But, uh, one thing almost all of us don't understand is our blind spots. And so, you know, sometimes we run straight into concrete walls and we don't even recognize it until it's right in front of us.
So, uh, you know, my, my goal is to try and eliminate blind corners for CEOs or, or just help them solve things when it's just out of their wheelhouse.
[00:02:24] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, I agree with you. I've also got to, I got to maybe correct you on something that maybe you didn't have this experience, but some of us entrepreneurs, we don't, uh, learn just by, uh, being presented to them right in front of us.
Sometimes we have to like charge right into them. And even if it's a brick wall, we kind of back up, you know, we're a little bit dizzy and then we do it again. You've never seen that though before, right? No, it
[00:02:48] George Kriza: happens over and over again. Yeah.
[00:02:50] Chaz Wolfe: That's right. That's right. Well, hopefully we can maybe identify some of those blind spots today.
Um, before we do that though, I want to know, like, why are you, why are you here? Why are you doing this thing? Why are you coaching? Why are you helping other entrepreneurs? Like you've had a successful run. You've been, you know, the, the, the eye candy from a entrepreneurial world. Like you've done the thing, but yet you're still grinding.
You're still pushing. Tell us why.
[00:03:13] George Kriza: Well, it's important to me that, uh, I mean, I'm not just in this for myself. I, you know, yes, I ran a successful company. Uh, I had my liquidity event, you know, I don't need to work at this point in time, but I feel like, uh, uh, having been through what I've been through, having seen your help can be invaluable and I I'd like to assist people and again, whatever the domain of the expertise is.
Uh, some things are not in my wheelhouse and other things are in my wheelhouse, but if I, uh, have lived it and experienced it and successfully overcome it, uh, that expertise can really save some, some individuals time, money, and, uh, resources, as a matter of fact.
[00:04:02] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, yeah, there's, uh Uh, varying resources to your point that we lose by hitting that brick wall.
Uh, we lose them again when we decide to hit the brick wall again and again and again. And so what do you think, um, you know, if you had to kind of maybe give us a short list of some of those blind spots or maybe, maybe just the brick walls that we're running into, I'm sure you've got them categorized.
What, what are three or four or five ones that you see most often in CEOs?
[00:04:30] George Kriza: Well, uh,
uh, number one, uh, an effective culture. A lot of times a management team, uh, is just not percolating on the same wavelength. And invariably, that's the CEO's responsibility to make that come together and to create the clarity and the effectiveness that has to happen.
If the management team in a company is not effective, the entire company you can predict will be struggling. So, uh, management team culture, very important. Finance, having adequate, uh, an adequate financial plan and understanding where those different resources can come from. Uh, I also have experience in software development.
You want to talk about an area which can be a black hole of money and time, software development is one of them. And those are three that just come to mind quickly. Uh, you know, if I wanted to, I could probably come up with three or four or five more.
[00:05:35] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, love it. Inside of those, I want to kind of press on them and see kind of what you've learned.
For you though, culture is a really big subject. So let's hit that one first. What was so important or maybe a catalyst for you in the company that you grew before you had your exit, uh, around culture, something super tangible that, uh, that you were able to kind of turn the, turn the page with?
[00:06:01] George Kriza: Well,
Well, that's easy enough, actually, because, uh, uh, you see that we were an Inc.
500 company and, you know, you, You see a poster like that and you say, wow, you know, that's impressive that you did that. And in case, uh, some of the listeners aren't familiar, uh, you have to have a three year growth pattern that exceeds,
the market by a lot. And at that time, when I got that award for our organization, we had a 473 percent growth rate over a three year period.
Which is really good. Although today, if you look at the ink 500, uh, the bottom end is more like a thousand percent, three year annual growth rate. So life has changed since that happened. But what hasn't changed is ultimately it throws you into crisis. After crisis after crisis, you have market-centric crises.
Crises. In other words. Uh, you know, crisis number one is getting your product accepted by market leaders, which leads to the growth. Then, you recognize that you're enjoying this stratospheric growth, and you say to yourself, How can I morph my management team into a much more capable management team? In my case, I thought the answer to that was to bring in really experienced, uh, and really well educated senior executives.
So I actually hired three Northwestern MBAs and a University of Chicago MBA to run different, areas of the organization. And also senior engineers from places like Motorola. And I can tell you this, that this was the most strife filled, ineffective period in my company's history. And so, uh, Over time, I began to understand and study what one of my landmark learnings comes from Patrick Lencioni.
And Patrick Lencioni has two super successful books that I, I highly recommend. One is, uh, uh, How to Be an Outstanding Executive, and the other is Temptations of a CEO. And so, I, I learned how to cultivate clarity, how to build an effective management team. How to hold the management team accountable and build a culture where people are able to be both vulnerable, open and, uh, collaborative.
But during that period, it's like a pressure cooker and everyone was, but on the one hand, uh, the, even the experienced executives were butting heads continuously. Yeah, our management meetings were like, like a war and filled with tension. And, and, and then I thought that these MBAs, with their, you know, tremendous pedigree, would automatically plug in and make a huge difference.
The fact is that did not happen. Uh, you know, and this is extremely big learning for people running an organization, is a pedigree, or, and I hate this, this is going to sound like I'm talking in the fifties, but you know, book learning, Or technical skills does not equal effective management.
[00:09:38] Chaz Wolfe: right? Yeah,
[00:09:39] George Kriza: And so, yeah, so, so as I began to understand and appreciate that and began to apply those principles, we completely changed the dynamic and matter of fact,
uh,
uh, as opposed to everyone running a million directions at one time, you know, we settled on those primary issues.
Uh, uh, the one, two, and three most important things and those were the things the entire organization was going to focus on. And then we aligned the management team, we aligned the compensation structure, and we aligned the top level communication so every single person in the organization knew where we were going and how we were going to get there.
[00:10:25] Chaz Wolfe: I love it.
Um, okay. So there's, there's immense power in
harmony
focus, and that's in essence what you just described, um, harmony being with your management team and then, and then focus being on those, those three major things that move the needle.
[00:10:42] George Kriza: Now, I can, I hold on. Yeah. I'd like to clarify that. This harmony is not one of them.
It may have sounded like harmony is one of them. It's not harmony, it's effective collaboration. And effective collaboration does not mean harmony. Effective collaboration means that you're willing to challenge one another respectfully, that you're able to give voice to all the different opinions, and try and make decisions based on merit, as opposed to based on who put their hand up and came up with the idea.
[00:11:16] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Uh, yeah. Collaboration is probably a good word there. Um, you know, harmony on my side, meaning that there's a, uh, there's unity, harmony and unity, almost almost intersecting. It's like, okay, if we have three things that we're after and this decision between us, our focus is to figure that out and you and I both maybe are going to have some differences of an opinion and we're going to wrestle that down.
That's all good. That's more than welcome. With the understanding that that's the target, not you or me being right, which is exactly what you just said. So I love, I love that. Um,
the, the,
the, the, the, the basis of people working together is how really any organization is successful. So I appreciate you sharing that the, the, the person listening right now, maybe they have an executive team.
Maybe they just have a couple of two or three employees other than Patrick's books, which I'm a huge Patrick fan as well. In fact, I'm. Uh, certified in one of his programs, love his work.
What's one
one of his, what's one of the go to steps that you would suggest that the listener has, whether they have a management team and maybe it's different for the person who has just two or three employees to be able to start cultivating this culture of collaboration and, and focus around the targets.
[00:12:30] George Kriza: Well, the number one step is to have organizational clarity. And so even if you had three people. It's possible that not all three people, uh, three people understand what your goal ultimately is. And, and the interesting thing is, nobody really knows, uh, whether that goal is going to stick. Right? So over time, like, like in, in the, using my prior organization as an example.
uh, we did
We did sales incentives, channel sales incentives, so I am a channel sales incentive expert as well.
[00:13:08] Chaz Wolfe: Okay.
[00:13:08] George Kriza: But
with, with the sales incentives, you know, we started out doing travel programs. We migrated into doing merchandise programs. And then later, we were approved by Chase to offer prepaid card programs. And this was a giant change, but my point is very simple.
Uh, the drivers and the requirements of each of those steps are radically different. Uh, the suppliers are different. The lingo is different. The, the, you know, the, the cycle time is different and how you deal with it all different kinds of expertise all the time. Now, if everyone didn't understand that you're migrating away from travel onto payments, then.
they're gonna
They're going to be left in the dust and they're going to be thinking the old way when it's time to shift. And mental shifts are a huge problem for people. People get stuck in the sand and, you know, it's like a tank that, uh, just can't get any traction and even move. So, uh, that's why clarity becomes so important.
You have to, uh, you have to over communicate organizational clarity and the goals of the company.
[00:14:28] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, I love the vein that we're on. What do you have in your toolbox over there for the actual entrepreneur themselves to be clear? Because obviously in order to be able to communicate clearly to the team, they first have to create a clear vision of what, that we're making this change or whatever the adjustment is.
What tools would you suggest? Or what, maybe is there a methodology or a couple steps?
[00:14:48] George Kriza: Well, uh,
uh, it's just a blocking and tackling kind of work. You have to put it on paper. Uh, and I would, as a, you know, I, I think a lot of people think that when you write a business plan, that you need to write that business plan, uh,
long form
form, with prose.
I, I am a huge fan of, uh, concise planning. And that concise planning can be done one of two ways. It can be done in an outline, which is the way I approach everything. work with an outline and decide exactly where we're going to go
in simple
statements. And then you can shuffle those statements around. I mean, if you want to think of it like a PowerPoint deck with one or two bullets in each slide, the simpler the better.
So you, you, it's like creating a straw man of what this thing looks like. And then another thing you can do that I took advantage of is I use mind maps. And mind maps, I tend to use mind maps,
uh,
uh, you might say more tactically than strategically. And so, uh, I would have a mind map for every major arena of the business.
I would have a finance mind map. I would have a, uh, operations mind map. I would have a Uh, uh, a type of
Uh, actual
methodology where you take every category of interest and map out all of the spinning wheels in each category so that you could at a glance work with each departmental VP or manager and demonstrate.
This is what's in play. What are we going to work on now? What are we going to work on next year? What have we already finished? So everyone, you know, when we have these departmental meetings, would be in a position to know exactly what's in play for them.
[00:17:03] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. Yeah.
I love that. Okay.
Um, let's,
Let's switch over here to, um, Some tactical, but on, on the, uh, failure side, uh, you've given us some really, really great things that you've done inside of the organization that you used to have and some things that you're helping with your current clients.
What about an hour that, uh, just wasn't your greatest? Um, something that you did that he wouldn't
[00:17:23] George Kriza: want to repeat.
Yeah,
Yeah. So, uh, I talked about software development and, uh, uh, the actual underlying key to making the Inc 500, which I invented along with my team. a completely new software technology to manage, uh, channel sales incentives for multi billion dollar organizations.
And as a matter of fact, people like CDW or Ingram Micro, uh, Ingram Micro continues to use my platform to this very day. And so, uh, it was revolutionary. Well, that's great. So, you know, you have version one, version two, and then we found out
about two
two and a half years in that we had made architectural errors in the software or Didn't fully comprehend the way that structure ought to be Well, that's you know, that's the equivalent of saying we need to do heart surgery on Software while it's working and running.
Well, we tried to do that two or three different ways We tried to do it internally And it was just, nothing was going right. And then I said, well, look, I'm going to make a decision. We're going to outsource this. I got 2. 3 million dollars into that. I originally thought it was going to cost under a million.
I got 2. 3 million and there was no end in sight. And I ended up firing the outsource. Who then sued me. Oh, fantastic. Yeah, because I, I was taking them to task about how much I really owed them.
[00:19:08] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah.
[00:19:09] George Kriza: Well, you know, that was very, very difficult, and, you know, ultimately we brought the project back in house to solve the problem, and we did solve the problem.
It took a long time,
uh,
uh, and it cost a tremendous amount of money. Much more than I would have ever anticipated.
[00:19:29] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, it always does.
more
money, more time, more effort, more sleepless
[00:19:34] George Kriza: nights. Yeah, but that, of course, the end result though, was that we ended up building an enterprise class,
bulletproof, business process management application that any size organization and any amount of data could leverage.
So, it was exciting, ultimately, to get to that point where
we,
we really re baked it beautifully.
[00:20:04] Chaz Wolfe: Right. I mean, tell me about that moment, right? Because you could have been 2. 3 million in, you know, trying to get out of the contract, you know, guys telling you he's going to sue you, uh, and, and, and more or less throw up the hands and quit.
But what I'm hearing you say is that somewhere along the lines there, there was so much agitation of thought that something new was born. Let's try it a brand new way. Let's try to solve it this way. And actually what that ended up doing was creating this, this brand new, so, so much better thing that you would have ever had anyway.
And so what was that moment like, where it teetered towards creating this brand new thing that ultimately ended up not just solving the problem, but being a hundred X better.
[00:20:41] George Kriza: Well,
Well, it's very rewarding and exciting. Uh, you know, as you learn and learn and learn and make changes in the management team. So the people changed, the methods changed and my management style changed.
Uh, and all three of those things coming together, uh, finally in the homestretch, which was in 2016, uh, in the homestretch, uh, you know, we set a goal that we would hit this, what we call 4. 0 level of the software. Uh, After five, 90 day sprints. Everything was tightly defined. Uh, as I mentioned, the compensation to the software team was aligned with success.
In fact, it was interesting. They made 4 out of 5 of the goals on time. And, uh, the one time that they were 2 weeks late, the manager says, We still want the bonus. I said, You must not understand what a deadline is.
[00:21:44] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah.
[00:21:46] George Kriza: And so
And so, no bonus for that one quarter, but Four out of the five quarters, we hit it.
Everything, everyone, I mean, everyone understood exactly what we needed to do and we did it. And so, yes, it could not possibly be more rewarding. And the clients, you know, at one point, right in that timeframe, uh, the biggest client was ready to renew and they were also looking at other options. And after they looked at all the other options from competitors.
Uh, they brought us back in and they said, we'd like to use you. And then they start negotiating. So I'd like to tell you what I did. Okay. Cause I know a little bit about negotiating. Uh, what they did was they started to, you know, push down, down, down, down, down on what the pricing ought to be. And I started the whole conversation.
I go, let me ask you a question. And I don't have it right in front of me, but, uh, I, I wrote down five salient points. About
the,
how great our software was, our organization, how great our organization was, uh, how great our client collaboration was, and I go, do you agree with this or not agree with this? Bing, bing, bing, bing.
They go, George, you have the Cadillac product of the industry. We want to work with you. Well, I'm glad we established that. Now let's finalize the pricing.
[00:23:14] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Got to bring them into an agreement on what it is that we're talking about. Um, I love that. Yep.
[00:23:21] George Kriza: Great job. You can never win a negotiation.
First of all, if you don't mind, you know, negotiation ought to be win win. You don't really want the other people to lose. You want them to feel like they've maintained their self respect and that they're coming out beneficially in a situation. Having said that, you, you know, you also have to have tremendous Clarity, um, your position and your pricing and your, your VAT.
When I say position, your value proposition has got to be super clear because if you're not selling value, then suddenly you've just commoditized yourself and that's a problem.
[00:24:06] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah. It's interesting. Uh, on this topic of value, I just one little sentence here. I, or one little story I don't share often, uh, like this, but just the other day, um, my seven year old, my seven and 10 year old daughters.
Uh, have a, we have a weekly meeting and then a monthly family meeting and they have a responsibility to grow their accounts. And so they're always looking for ways to make money and, and get creative and, and add value and serve. And this is how I describe it. It's by doing this, you're adding value or that you're serving.
Um, Anyway, so, uh, it was a couple, I don't know, maybe a week or so ago. And my neck was pretty tight. I had slept on it wrong or something weird. And, and so I asked my seven year old, Hey, you want to make some money? She was like, yeah, I was like, okay, I need, I need my neck rubbed. She was like, okay, great. So she jumped right on it, had a great attitude, was rubbing my back, didn't ask me the time frame, didn't ask me how much it was, just came forward in, uh, as, you know, a valuable situation where I needed it to be rubbed.
She didn't do it half hearted. And, uh, it was like five minutes. It wasn't that long at all. And I told her, hey, go put five dollars on your, on your tracker. And my wife was like, five dollars? What in the world? You know, like, I could have rubbed your back for five dollars. And I, I, it took, it took me to an opportunity in that moment.
And I don't want to just explain it to my wife, but. To my seven year old daughter of like, look, no, I, the reason why maybe you got paid, you know, a lot more than normally for something small like this is because in that moment you added immense value to me and I, I really wanted it and I was willing to pay for it because it's what I wanted.
It was right now. It's exactly what I needed. You did it with a great attitude and you added so much value to me. And so I think you're, you're spot on here. It doesn't, the price has nothing to do with it. It has everything to do with what does my thing do for you? And if it's really, really valuable, then guess what?
That means it's going to cost a bunch because it's valuable. Exactly. Okay. Well, so, um, you've given us some highs and some lows. give me just one more nugget that you've got tucked away in there. Maybe an example of one of your clients, uh, you know, that they've been struggling with and you were able to kind of, you know, unlock a few things for them that maybe most entrepreneurs deal with and you can help the
[00:26:05] George Kriza: helpful listener with it.
Well, uh, one of my challenging decisions, clients, uh, is trying to raise capital. And, uh, you know, that's always, uh, it can be difficult. And one of the interesting things, and by the way, you know, we were at the point of getting an offer for a term sheet. And, uh, it turned out that the biggest obstacle that this individual had was, again, I won't mention any names, but it was himself.
Um
Uh,
The people that were looking at investing in his organization wanted someone that could be a collaborative CEO. And this was the kind of person that said, this is my invention. This is my business plan. This is my way or the highway. We're going to do it exactly this way. And so on and so forth. So I act after like six months.
We actually had the term sheet getting ready to come with the people were super excited and By the way, I'm not looking for a job, but they they They said the only way we're going to give you the money is if George Kriza is the CEO
[00:27:26] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah.
[00:27:28] George Kriza: And
And I said, oh, well, no, I mean, okay, I could do that and and I came to him with the with the offer and he goes Yeah, you can be the president, but I'm going to be the chairman and it's still my way or the highway.
And the minute that the investors heard that
the
the whole thing evaporated. Yeah. So it could have been some better negotiation
[00:27:55] Chaz Wolfe: there.
[00:27:56] George Kriza: Well,
Yeah,
yeah. I guess, I guess it goes back to what I said at the very beginning of our conversation.
[00:28:04] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah,
[00:28:05] George Kriza: CEOs don't often understand their own weaknesses and their own blind spots.
And sometimes they're just so profound that, you know, you, you have got to be, I mean, this is another Lencioni point, you have to learn to be vulnerable. And if you're able to be vulnerable. Then you can hear things that you need to change. You can actually execute the change. And sometimes it means you have got to step back and let someone else, whoever that is, who is perceived, whether they're better than you or not, isn't even the question.
They're perceived. It's having the right skill set and the right level of collaboration, and that's the ultimate trigger because, uh, what I have found, and I've tried to raise money many times, uh, they're investing in not just the business model, they're investing in people, and if they don't think that that person, that CEO, that founder is
someone
they, they respect and can work with, your chance of getting a check is near zero.
[00:29:19] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah,
there's, there's a lot to that, uh, I've seen that time and time again on, uh, Shark Tank, right? Um, they, it's, give me the numbers. Okay, great. I like you. Let me give you an offer, you know?
[00:29:30] George Kriza: Yeah.
[00:30:21] Chaz Wolfe: All right. The, the journey of a CEO, you've given us several, uh, blind spots. One of those blind spots, in my opinion, is, uh, the other things that we say that are important to us, but that we, we don't know how to include them.
Um, I kind of prepped you a little bit before the show that family is a big deal. And I think that, you know, marriage and kids, and I think every entrepreneur has good intentions. It's difficult sometimes to be able to kind of do it all. If we could throw health in there, we could throw faith in there. We could throw, you know, lifestyle or joy, like any of the other things that we want to do in life other than our business.
Um, but coming from a guy that's like super obsessed and was very obsessed with my businesses for a very, very long time. I still am. But I just know now how to be obsessed with all those other things too. What would you say is the blind spot for them? Why, why is it so difficult for CEOs to, to bridge that, that obsession level over to those other things that they say are important
[00:31:16] George Kriza: to them?
Well, let's talk first about family. Uh,
every
every family is different and,
uh.
uh, I, I'm going to sound again, kind of caveman here, but like, if you're the, if you're the, a male, you know, that is operating your business and, uh, you are going full tilt, your wife has to be of a, uh, supportive. mindset of recognizing that she is making a big, you have to know she's making a big sacrifice and she knows she's making a big sacrifice and so she's willing to
uh,
allow that dynamic and give you the freedom and I guess it would work.
The other way as well. It wouldn't matter if the female is the lead and the husband is in the background, but, uh, ultimately, ultimately you have to have the right personality, not only yourself, but on the other side, because if the, if the other mate is unable to get to the point of recognizing, uh, that they're supporting role, then.
You know, ultimately there's going to be a clash and they're going to start saying, well, my needs are not being met and you're, you know, you're traveling here. You're traveling there. You're always on the road. You're, you're at the office until 6 or 8 o'clock at night. And, you know, what about us and the kids?
But, uh, so
So, first of all, you should not let it get that out of balance. You need to spend the time with your family and you need to, it's not just like. Um,
Uh,
uh, a trip here or a trip there. It's gotta be every week and on a regular basis, giving them what they need emotionally. So, you know, you have to get to that point, but it's very, this is very difficult as you know, because especially when you're starting a business, you, if you don't go pedal to the metal, the chances of success are not good.
So you're going to be putting in the extra time. And you're going to be, uh, unbalanced if it's nature, and then you just have got to, uh, get to the point where you balance that back out.
[00:33:42] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, I think that you hit some really great, uh, important pieces there. The supporting role, um, doesn't mean submissive or less than or second to.
Um, but it does take a collaboration, going back to that word that you used earlier so, so wisely. Just like your team members working together in that scenario, we can have two different opinions here. We can, we can wrestle something to the ground, but at the, at the ultimate end, what are we doing this for?
Well, we're doing it for our family or whatever the family mission is, you know? And so, uh, I love
[00:34:16] George Kriza: that. And then the other thing, the other thing, Chaz, uh, to your point about faith, uh, you know, there are plenty of people today that are atheists that don't. believe in a God. I wouldn't be one of them. God is at the center of my life and my family's life and it has always been that way.
We're very active in our congregations and here's the thing
uh, there are
are lots of dark moments
where
where you don't you can't see the way out of the tunnel You know, it may be debt, it may be software, it may be, you know, the machine's not working, whatever it is, uh, you just, you just can't see, and then, you know, that debt might be stratospheric, where you're thinking, I will never get out of this, I need to declare, and, uh, and there's only one thing, in my opinion, that sustains you at a moment like that, is your belief that, uh, you know, your God is able to Help you and never forget you.
Yeah.
[00:35:27] Chaz Wolfe: Yeah, I, I second that. That, that, um, belief is, is one that, like you said, kind of transcends situations. Um, and, and that same belief, um, can be in, in,
I
say yourself, but really your family, your team, your business, your mission. Like you can, you can have that same level of, of, uh, courage. You know, to continue to take action, um, and not and not, uh, peel over.
Although sometimes it feels like we should, um, just peel over and throw the hands and give it, uh, give it a whirl. So, um, I want to ask you a question, kind of going back into your past and then we'll kind of wrap things up here. But
if you
if you had the opportunity, I'm gonna let you pick the age. Um, but to speak to the younger George, roll back the clock.
I
want you to tell me how old George is. And I want you to tap him on the shoulder. I want you to whisper in his ear.
and I
And I want you to tell me what you say to him.
[00:36:26] George Kriza: well,
Well, I started my business the first time, uh, when I was about 40.
and
And I thought that was an appropriate time to start my business. I, I was very concerned that I had enough experience in life, in business, and in, uh,
seeing
seeing the whole equation.
uh,
I guess ultimately you never see the whole equation. You know, for all of your hope that you're ready, you're never quite ready.
And even when you're very accomplished, you have so much left to learn. So, I guess I would have said, yeah, probably didn't need to be 40. You could have done it a little bit earlier. But be ready for
so
so many blind corners, be ready, you know, to, to be steeled and ready for anything, but go ahead and do it because it's worth it.
If you can be successful,
[00:37:41] Chaz Wolfe: That's
such a good message. Don't don't delay, but know that there's challenge, but Hey, you're gonna make it through, right? There's some strength in that persistence, you know, and I, I think that you're, you're one of probably many that would go back and say, I could start it earlier.
You know, I've asked that question to several hundred entrepreneurs at this point, and I would say it's probably one of the top, you know, five answers. So maybe the top three of, I just started sooner. I mean, what did I have to lose? You know, and, and you gave some, uh, some honesty to that, that there's still difficulty.
It doesn't mean that starting earlier would have been necessarily any easier. It just, um, you know, you were equipped. I appreciate that, that perspective.
[00:38:20] George Kriza: In the last, since COVID, when everything went on zoom, I've attended a number of support. I don't know if support groups is the right way, but, you know, learn about LinkedIn, learn about how to connect, learn about how to build funnels, learn about,
Lots of different topics that are essential to be successful in one way.
But in
But in looking at the individuals that are attending those meetings,
Lots of
[00:38:49] George Kriza: of them probably shouldn't be entrepreneurs. They're trying to be entrepreneurs,
but
but they're really struggling to find even a good starting point. So if you can find a good starting point, if you can, you know, if you can literally put into practice all of the modern ideas about internet marketing,
more
power to you.
The people that are able to do that have become much more successful, much more rapidly. But it is one of those highly intense, highly directed kinds of paths. And it's just not for everybody. So, you know, some people probably would be better served to remain in a traditional corporate environment and being a role player, and a very good role player,
And not even go through the exercise of, flailing around for five, 10 years and getting nowhere.
So I don't know if that helps.
[00:39:53] Chaz Wolfe: No, I think it's, I think it's smart. Um, I think that, uh, people have to be honest with themselves and there's no, there's no, um, you know, for the person that, that heard that and is like, Oh man, I don't know. Like I've been thinking about going back and getting a job. Maybe that message is for you.
Maybe it's not. Uh, maybe it's a message of you just really dialing back. That's all I'm hearing you say, George's look in the mirror and decide what you want. And if you, and if you're okay with the challenge, if you're okay with being in the room and being intense, like you just described, then good, then you're in the right spot.
It might suck right now, but you're in the right spot. Push through. But if you're not. That's okay. You don't have to be an entrepreneur. So I love the I love the freedom there that you gave. How can the listener George find you? Number one, if they just want to connect with you on LinkedIn or any of the other platforms, or if they are looking for, you know, a coach to be able to help them with these big decisions or blind corners, as you call them,
[00:40:47] George Kriza: how can they find you?
Uh, thank
Thank you for asking, Chas. I am in LinkedIn, both as George Kreisa, K R I Z A. Okay. And challenging decisions. I got two different presences there. I have a web environment challenging decisions. One word dot com. You can find a lot of information there. I have a Uh, a video podcast up on YouTube with, uh, Nuggets of Wisdom and I, uh, uh, hopefully I'll be able to put our conversation up there, but, uh, I've also had an opportunity to talk with some really noteworthy people like Jeffrey Moore, as an example, and people from the Table Group.
Uh, and that's all posted up there, uh, again, just search for George Carriza, you'll find my YouTube channel. Uh, but, uh, I'll give you a phone number as well, 3 1 2. 3 2 0 7760. One more time. 3 1 2 3 2 0 7760. I'd welcome a phone call and, uh, be glad to have an initial consult with you. And then see whether or not we can be helpful, uh, long term in your business situation.
[00:42:04] Chaz Wolfe: Love it. George, uh, you've got an incredible history. I know you only gave us just little drips of the wisdom that, uh, exists inside of that brain.
[00:42:13] George Kriza: You know, I didn't tell you, I didn't tell you, I didn't tell you anything about all the time I spent with Steve jobs, but we'll leave that for another
[00:42:21] Chaz Wolfe: time. A little cliffhanger.
He said, there's gotta be a part two.
Uh.
Well, that, uh, that leaves pretty good reason to, to have you back. So we'll make sure that that happens. Steve jobs. Um, you know, there's, there's some interesting things I'm sure that you picked up from that experience, um, as we all have just watching him from afar. But, um, again, thank you, George, for being here.
Blessings to you, your family, all the clients that you're helping, um, many, many blessings. Thank you
[00:42:43] George Kriza: for being here. Thank you, Chaz.

In this episode of Gathering The Kings podcast, host Chaz Wolfe engages in an enlightening conversation with George Kriza, a celebrated entrepreneur and Inc 500 honoree. Together, they explore the nuances of recognizing and overcoming blind spots that CEOs often face, the essence of effective collaboration, and the significance of clarity and focus within organizations.

George Kriza:

Website : https://challengingdecisions.com/who-we-are

Facebok: https://www.facebook.com/AgileDecisions

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@georgekriza6767

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/george-kriza-006500/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/challenging-decisions/about/

Call:312-320-7760

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