Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
iHeartMedia Presents CEOs you should know. Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I'm John Dangel, founder and CEO of Dinkele Business Development
and former president publisher of the Baltimore Business Journal. This
is Iheartradios CEOs you should know and I'm here today
with Richie Huffman, CEO of Celebraty. Welcome Richie, and thanks
for being here.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yeah, looking forward to our conversation. It's been a little while.
I thought it might be good just to talk a
little bit about the organization first. Then we'll get into
some leadership questions. But for those who may not be
so familiar, could you tell us about Celebraty.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Yeah, Well, celebrate started right here in Baltimore. We're the
leading preschool provider in early education and before and after school.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
And what's your mission?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Our mission, I'm so proud of this is to grow
people big and small, grow people big and small, and
I think that's exactly what we should be focused on.
We grow people big, meeting our teachers, making sure we're
giving them the skills to be a phenomenal celebrity school teacher.
And we're also focused on our little ones and making
sure that they're hitting developmental milestones which will allow them
(01:11):
to successfully enter into kindergarten.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Love it, love it? Thank you? And what are some
of your most popular programs? Could we talk about those
a little bit?
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Well?
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Our programs range. Our programs range from infant care all
the way through as I mentioned, preschools, so we have
infants and toddlers and preschoolers three and four year olds,
and then before and after school program for school agers.
I wouldn't say there's one particular popular program. We have
about one hundred and fifty students in each one of
(01:44):
our Celebrity schools.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Wow. Well, and what would you say sets you apart
from your competitors.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
I would say that how we grow people big and small.
There's no other organization out there that's focused as much
as Celebrity is on our teachers making sure that they're
on the right skill path and career paths. Fifty percent
of our new teachers are coming from our employee from
our competitors, because they want an opportunity to grow with
inside the organization. We're super, super proud of that.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
That's great, Thank you, appreciate you sharing that. And now
are you guys still headquartered in Maryland?
Speaker 1 (02:17):
We are even though we're currently operating in eighteen states,
we are headquartered right here in Nottingham, Maryland.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
I love it, Yeah, and we appreciate that. Thank you.
I knew you've mentioned. I know you've been growing and
expanding rapidly past few years. So tell us a little
bit about that. Where do you currently have you know,
Celebrate locations and you mentioned multiple states, but yeah, talk
to us a little bit about that and what your
growth plans are moving forward into twenty twenty six. And yeah,
(02:45):
excited to hear from you about that. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
So currently we're as I mentioned, we're in eighteenth state.
When we first started, we thought we would you know,
continue here in Maryland and some of our neighboring states Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware,
and before you know it, you know, with with the
young population moving all around the country, we're in eighteen
different states now, all the way down the East coast
(03:10):
and the Texas and as far west right now into Denver.
So right now we have seventy three schools open and operating.
End of this year, we'll be close to ninety and
our goal moving forward is to open twenty new locations
(03:30):
each and every year for the next five years and
bring in thirty new franchise partners as we move forward.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
That's fantastic what you talk us about what maybe a
typical franchise or looks like or franchise looks like, imagine
all walks of life maybe, But what are you what
are you looking for in a franchise?
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Yeah, I love that question. A lot of our franchise
these are looking to get out of the corporate world.
They're already executives working for major companies. They've done very
well in that career. They've probably been there twenty to
twenty five years running other teams, it teams, engineer teams,
financial teams, and now they're looking to you know, create
(04:14):
a legacy, uh, make a community impact, and create wealth
for their own families. And they can find that through
the celebrity school opportunity.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
That's fantastic, and I imagine you have a full on
team that helps them obviously set that up, look for
the you know, the right places, you know, helping them
with marketing, all those you know kind of typical franchise
or benefits. So I guess when.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
When you look at someone yeah, absolutely, But as you mentioned,
it all starts with the right franchise, and we have
a very good program in place that allows us and
allows our franchise to make sure that they are the
right person and that we're the right brand for them.
I'm super proud of that. And then from there we
(05:03):
will help them find the location for a celebrity, will
help them through permitting, through construction, through opening, and then
ultimately for the next ten years, fifteen years, twenty years,
helping them operate their celebrity schools.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
That's great. I appreciate you. Appreciate you talking about that.
One thing I want to ask you, you know, interesting
economy right now and with the rising cost of childcare
across the country, what are some things that Celebraty is
doing to support parents in that regard.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Yeah, and that's a big focus for Celebraty. Not only
you're becoming a celebrity franchise e as I mentioned, to
go ahead and make an impact on your community and
create legacy for your family and wealth. But one of
our jobs is as a brand through celebrate is to
do exactly what what you're saying. We're very much into
helping our parents through lobbying, making sure that we're fighting
(06:01):
for the break policies for our preschool industry, but also dollars,
making sure that scholarship dollars are in place, maybe universal
pre K dollars are in place, and just making sure
parents have resources to make sure that they can continue
to put their children in high quality preschool programs.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
That's great, that's great. Thank you for sharing that. I
want to switch ears a little bit around. I love
talking about that. And how would you describe your leadership
style Richard?
Speaker 1 (06:35):
As you can imagine, it surely changed over thirty one years,
so there's at letters a little bit which there's a
lot of maturity that has happened over those years. But
you know, I think what I've learned to do is
just learn how to articulate and communicate my expectations better.
I think if the expectations and the focus is clear,
(06:55):
and the expectations and the path forward is articulated, I
think you'll get the results to your team.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Yeah. I love what to say about expectations. I saw
an executive coach for many years and one of the
things he taught me was just that. And I tell
everybody now that I talk with leaders that were talked to.
But three things he said was clear communications, clear, expectations
(07:25):
and accountability with care and the Definitely.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
That's exactly right. And I know it's easy to say,
but it's not easy to do because sometimes as leaders,
it forces us to really step back and say, do
am I clear? Do I truly understand where we're headed,
what the expectations are, and what is the path for
it that I'm asking my team to follow me on
(07:52):
or help me get there. So I think it works
both ways. It really forces the leader to ask those
tough questions of of themselves, but then also then be
able to articulate it to the teams that you're leading.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Yeah, agreed. And that communication piece is huge because you
may feel like I'm communicating this. We we've talked about it.
But a lot of people learn different ways, right or
they hear things a different ways. Some people need that community,
some people like to be presented and talk to them
about something like an experiential. So you have to kind
of learn your team and learn the different ways of
(08:27):
communicating because this might not just be a memo or
an email that goes out that's going to you know,
communicate your expectations or your visions. So that's so true.
Resilience seems to be like a buzzword these days. You know,
how do you demonstrate that leading your team? Man, I
would say, it's a lot to do.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
We just talked about. I think in order to be resilient,
you have to be focused. You have to be clear,
you have to set those expectations, you have to see
a clear path forward and being able to understand, you know,
what's happening now, but more importantly, not only what's happening now,
but but where are we headed? What does this thing
(09:11):
look like? You know, year one, year two, year three,
year four. Because I think that's what pulls you forward. Wait,
when you when you have that vision, I'm really describing
a vision. When you have a vision not only of
yourself and your team, but also the organization, you know,
that's what pulls us through. That's what pulls us through
the tough learning days. And I think a lot of
(09:32):
leaders get stuck in and it's very easy to get
stuck in the the the the issue of today or
the opportunity of today without realizing let's just push through
this and let's focus on the big picture of what
do we expect out of the end of the year,
or what do we expect at the end of this
five year journey.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
That's good. That's interesting. You know, I asked this question
a lot, and a lot of the answers I get
actually focus more on like looking back words and looking
at like what we've done, what we could have done better,
and making changes and you know things. I actually like
the idea of, Yeah, keeping your keeping that vision ahead
of time. Look, you're you're always going to go through
(10:11):
ups and downs in your business, but like keeping that
vision there helps helps you become more resilient because you
have something to go after, you have like a purpose,
a focus. I love that.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
That's great, that's been that's been my secret. My secret
is Okay, here we are, it's not where we want
to be. Where do we want to be? And how
do we close that gap between where we're at and
where we want to be?
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Yeah, yeah, that's good. I appreciate you sharing that. What
advice would you give other CEOs that are trying to
kind of manage their teams during these you know, kind
of interesting times.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Again, I think, man, it's another one of those I
think it's the same answer. Are you being clear? Are
you setting the expectations? Is the vision forward clear? And
I think if you don't understand that, and to be
honest with you, I think a lot of leaders don't
know how to answer those questions or don't know the
answers to those questions. So that would be step number one.
(11:11):
Where do you want this organization to be at the
end of the year? And is there a path? Is
there a strategy to push us forward? Lead us forward
to do that? And then and we just were in
strategy meeting yesterday, and the more clear you are with
your goals and your strategy of how we're going to
(11:31):
do that and the action steps that we're going to
take in order for that goal to become a reality.
Now it's just execution. The goal is the goal, the
strategy is the strategy meeting, how are we going to
do it? But then what actions are we going to
take in order to make that happen? So if you
and as you know, it all starts with the people.
If that so, it's either people the process or the
(11:54):
execution in my in my in my head as a leader,
so is the goal? Is the goal unrealistic?
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Well?
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Is the strategy right? You wrote the strategy on how
how we're going to do it? And then the only
thing that can be missing, that would let that would
prohibit us from reaching that goal is the failure to execute.
So let's talk about that.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
We worked with a lot of folks on strategy and
mostly around you know, business development, but like to your point,
you know, having that strategy in place, and then what
tactics are going to You're going to be using ideas
or of you thing to meet that strategy. And then
what what I heard and what brings to me is
the execution part because that's where most people right is
(12:39):
holding their team accountable to executing on those specific tactics
to get you where you want to be. And you
got it, you got it.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
So the only thing missing from that is how often
are you getting together with your team and reviewing that
right right right? And and we we were doing it
quarterly and now we've shrunk it down two monthly. And
I think it's spot on because it's you know, you're, you're, you're,
you're going to see this faster that maybe we're going
sideways here. H And again it's either the the strategy
(13:09):
is the wrong strategy, or you're not the right person
to execute it or something or what is standing in
your way to executing on you know, on what we
were written.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Yeah, I think you're right on with that. I remember
taking myself back to my BBJA days where we we
would put a strategy together, but we would only look
at it midyear, half years over. We look at it like, okay,
in the first half, what we need to do?
Speaker 1 (13:37):
I'm like, we should be in Minnesota. What's going on?
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (13:42):
I probably could have changed that back and.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
You live and learn, I guess, and that as a leader,
you're going, how the how didn't you know we were
in Florida? When we're right? So ye, monitor it often,
set those expectations and have a really really, really good
strategy that anybody could could. I mean when we just
finish strategy yesterday and we just we went through it. Okay,
who's the owner of goal one? I am, what's the goal?
(14:07):
How are you going to do it? And what are
the actions you're going to take? And if that doesn't
flow seamlessly, then we should probably stop and take a
harder look at it.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
I agree, that's great. I love it all right, So,
so what gets you excited about the future of celebraty Listen.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
We're doing We're doing big things here, and we're changing lives.
We're helping people get out of the corporate world and
become entrepreneurs and own their own business as I mentioned,
create legacy for their family, make a community impact through
our film for optic endeavors that we that we have,
and create wealth and so that that's what excites me.
(14:45):
I mean, we are changing lives. We actually have two
young ladies that used to work for celebrity They were
celebrity teachers, became celebrity directors, and then actually now own
their own celebrity schools. So I love to see that
life changing events occur through entrepreneurship.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Yeah, that's a that's a great story. That's a great story.
What what what keeps you up at night?
Speaker 1 (15:12):
You know, nothing, nothing except my wife says I snore.
But but I fixed that over the last four days too.
You know, I'm just super. Every day we're winning, meaning
every single day we're making improvements to our process procedures
because we're learning. I just spent last week. Last Sunday
(15:36):
and Monday, I was in Nashville visiting our schools. Uh Tuesday,
I was in Kentucky. Thursday I was in Virginia and
I the things that I learned out there, we came
back and we fixed and we implement it so that
that that that's what excites me, just making this, making
our process, our systems better and better and better, which
(16:00):
for you know, our lives and our franchisees to be
more successful because of those changes that we're that we're having.
Got it, Thank you appreciate it keeps me up at
night nothing because I also believe that there's an answer
for everything. We just haven't. We just haven't. You know,
if we have, if we've identified an opportunity, there's an answer. Yeah,
(16:23):
there's an answer to the solve. There's there's not one
problem out there or one thing in business that there's
not an answer for and here to celebrate through those processes.
We we already and being in business for thirty one years,
we already know the answer. Now it's have we identified
it and are you willing as a franchise e, are
you now willing to execute on it and change it?
(16:45):
Based on what we told you? The answer was.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Yeah, it's funny. So I've been doing this for I
don't know, six or seven years now. I definitely could
count on one hand the people who've said that that,
you know, nothing keeps me up at night. Yeah, which
is actually great. I think that's your leadership style and
positivity and all that kind of good stuff.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Yeah, tomorrow, but listen tomorrow. We'll listen tomorrow. We're going
to learn something. And you know I do. I think
one of my leadership styles I think about tomorrow. I
think about, you know, in the morning, I think about
my day. I think about the meetings I'm going to have.
I think about the way I want to show up
to those meetings. I think about the outcomes that I
(17:28):
want out of that meeting. So I'm you know, I'm
previewing a lot of the things of the way I
want them to go and how I want to show
up as a leader prior to the meeting. And most
of the times I'm ninety five percent deliver on that vision. Sometimes,
you know, sometimes I don't.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
So we'll go good. Well, thank you, that's great. Well
to wrap things up, is there anything else you like
our listeners to know about you? Uh? And celebrate?
Speaker 1 (17:56):
I mean, if you don't know celebrity, you do now.
I mean, we're a teen different states where we're offering
this opportunity not only to families, that have children that
that we would love to take care of and be
responsible and help get them ready for kindergarten and in
a safe, nurturing environment. And if you're in the corporate
world and looking to get out, I highly suggest you
(18:20):
you look at the solid opportunity it offers you and
your family a lot of things. From as I mentioned,
through legacy, every child, every every family can can rally
behind a school. I don't care if you're two years
old or four years old or eighteen years old. As
a child, you understand what mom and dad about to
(18:41):
get into or become a part of. So it's a
great legacy builder. It's a huge community and philanthropic driver
through the through the school. And and also you can
create wealth for your family for them from from this opportunity.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
That's great. That's great. And how tell us how we
can get more information about celebrity Then go.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
To celebrity dot com.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
C E C E L E B R E E.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Or they can follow me on Instagram and really get
behind the scenes at Richie Huffman Celebrate.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Well great, Well, thank you so much. It was a
lot of fun. I appreciate you taking the time to
talk with us. Today and yeah, I really appreciate congratulations
on your success and own your success coming up. So
thanks again, Ratchie, I appreciate you taking the time out today.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Thank you for the opportunity.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
This has been. Iheartmedias CEOs you should know
iHeartMedia Presents CEOs you should know. Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I'm John Dangel, founder and CEO of Dinkele Business Development
and former president publisher of the Baltimore Business Journal. This
is Iheartradios CEOs you should know and I'm here today
with Richie Huffman, CEO of Celebraty. Welcome Richie, and thanks
for being here.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yeah, looking forward to our conversation. It's been a little while.
I thought it might be good just to talk a
little bit about the organization first. Then we'll get into
some leadership questions. But for those who may not be
so familiar, could you tell us about Celebraty.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Yeah, Well, celebrate started right here in Baltimore. We're the
leading preschool provider in early education and before and after school.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
And what's your mission?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Our mission, I'm so proud of this is to grow
people big and small, grow people big and small, and
I think that's exactly what we should be focused on.
We grow people big, meeting our teachers, making sure we're
giving them the skills to be a phenomenal celebrity school teacher.
And we're also focused on our little ones and making
sure that they're hitting developmental milestones which will allow them
(01:11):
to successfully enter into kindergarten.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Love it, love it? Thank you? And what are some
of your most popular programs? Could we talk about those
a little bit?
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Well?
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Our programs range. Our programs range from infant care all
the way through as I mentioned, preschools, so we have
infants and toddlers and preschoolers three and four year olds,
and then before and after school program for school agers.
I wouldn't say there's one particular popular program. We have
about one hundred and fifty students in each one of
(01:44):
our Celebrity schools.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Wow. Well, and what would you say sets you apart
from your competitors.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
I would say that how we grow people big and small.
There's no other organization out there that's focused as much
as Celebrity is on our teachers making sure that they're
on the right skill path and career paths. Fifty percent
of our new teachers are coming from our employee from
our competitors, because they want an opportunity to grow with
inside the organization. We're super, super proud of that.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
That's great, Thank you, appreciate you sharing that. And now
are you guys still headquartered in Maryland?
Speaker 1 (02:17):
We are even though we're currently operating in eighteen states,
we are headquartered right here in Nottingham, Maryland.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
I love it, Yeah, and we appreciate that. Thank you.
I knew you've mentioned. I know you've been growing and
expanding rapidly past few years. So tell us a little
bit about that. Where do you currently have you know,
Celebrate locations and you mentioned multiple states, but yeah, talk
to us a little bit about that and what your
growth plans are moving forward into twenty twenty six. And yeah,
(02:45):
excited to hear from you about that. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
So currently we're as I mentioned, we're in eighteenth state.
When we first started, we thought we would you know,
continue here in Maryland and some of our neighboring states Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware,
and before you know it, you know, with with the
young population moving all around the country, we're in eighteen
different states now, all the way down the East coast
(03:10):
and the Texas and as far west right now into Denver.
So right now we have seventy three schools open and operating.
End of this year, we'll be close to ninety and
our goal moving forward is to open twenty new locations
(03:30):
each and every year for the next five years and
bring in thirty new franchise partners as we move forward.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
That's fantastic what you talk us about what maybe a
typical franchise or looks like or franchise looks like, imagine
all walks of life maybe, But what are you what
are you looking for in a franchise?
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Yeah, I love that question. A lot of our franchise
these are looking to get out of the corporate world.
They're already executives working for major companies. They've done very
well in that career. They've probably been there twenty to
twenty five years running other teams, it teams, engineer teams,
financial teams, and now they're looking to you know, create
(04:14):
a legacy, uh, make a community impact, and create wealth
for their own families. And they can find that through
the celebrity school opportunity.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
That's fantastic, and I imagine you have a full on
team that helps them obviously set that up, look for
the you know, the right places, you know, helping them
with marketing, all those you know kind of typical franchise
or benefits. So I guess when.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
When you look at someone yeah, absolutely, But as you mentioned,
it all starts with the right franchise, and we have
a very good program in place that allows us and
allows our franchise to make sure that they are the
right person and that we're the right brand for them.
I'm super proud of that. And then from there we
(05:03):
will help them find the location for a celebrity, will
help them through permitting, through construction, through opening, and then
ultimately for the next ten years, fifteen years, twenty years,
helping them operate their celebrity schools.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
That's great. I appreciate you. Appreciate you talking about that.
One thing I want to ask you, you know, interesting
economy right now and with the rising cost of childcare
across the country, what are some things that Celebraty is
doing to support parents in that regard.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Yeah, and that's a big focus for Celebraty. Not only
you're becoming a celebrity franchise e as I mentioned, to
go ahead and make an impact on your community and
create legacy for your family and wealth. But one of
our jobs is as a brand through celebrate is to
do exactly what what you're saying. We're very much into
helping our parents through lobbying, making sure that we're fighting
(06:01):
for the break policies for our preschool industry, but also dollars,
making sure that scholarship dollars are in place, maybe universal
pre K dollars are in place, and just making sure
parents have resources to make sure that they can continue
to put their children in high quality preschool programs.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
That's great, that's great. Thank you for sharing that. I
want to switch ears a little bit around. I love
talking about that. And how would you describe your leadership
style Richard?
Speaker 1 (06:35):
As you can imagine, it surely changed over thirty one years,
so there's at letters a little bit which there's a
lot of maturity that has happened over those years. But
you know, I think what I've learned to do is
just learn how to articulate and communicate my expectations better.
I think if the expectations and the focus is clear,
(06:55):
and the expectations and the path forward is articulated, I
think you'll get the results to your team.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Yeah. I love what to say about expectations. I saw
an executive coach for many years and one of the
things he taught me was just that. And I tell
everybody now that I talk with leaders that were talked to.
But three things he said was clear communications, clear, expectations
(07:25):
and accountability with care and the Definitely.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
That's exactly right. And I know it's easy to say,
but it's not easy to do because sometimes as leaders,
it forces us to really step back and say, do
am I clear? Do I truly understand where we're headed,
what the expectations are, and what is the path for
it that I'm asking my team to follow me on
(07:52):
or help me get there. So I think it works
both ways. It really forces the leader to ask those
tough questions of of themselves, but then also then be
able to articulate it to the teams that you're leading.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Yeah, agreed. And that communication piece is huge because you
may feel like I'm communicating this. We we've talked about it.
But a lot of people learn different ways, right or
they hear things a different ways. Some people need that community,
some people like to be presented and talk to them
about something like an experiential. So you have to kind
of learn your team and learn the different ways of
(08:27):
communicating because this might not just be a memo or
an email that goes out that's going to you know,
communicate your expectations or your visions. So that's so true.
Resilience seems to be like a buzzword these days. You know,
how do you demonstrate that leading your team? Man, I
would say, it's a lot to do.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
We just talked about. I think in order to be resilient,
you have to be focused. You have to be clear,
you have to set those expectations, you have to see
a clear path forward and being able to understand, you know,
what's happening now, but more importantly, not only what's happening now,
but but where are we headed? What does this thing
(09:11):
look like? You know, year one, year two, year three,
year four. Because I think that's what pulls you forward. Wait,
when you when you have that vision, I'm really describing
a vision. When you have a vision not only of
yourself and your team, but also the organization, you know,
that's what pulls us through. That's what pulls us through
the tough learning days. And I think a lot of
(09:32):
leaders get stuck in and it's very easy to get
stuck in the the the the issue of today or
the opportunity of today without realizing let's just push through
this and let's focus on the big picture of what
do we expect out of the end of the year,
or what do we expect at the end of this
five year journey.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
That's good. That's interesting. You know, I asked this question
a lot, and a lot of the answers I get
actually focus more on like looking back words and looking
at like what we've done, what we could have done better,
and making changes and you know things. I actually like
the idea of, Yeah, keeping your keeping that vision ahead
of time. Look, you're you're always going to go through
(10:11):
ups and downs in your business, but like keeping that
vision there helps helps you become more resilient because you
have something to go after, you have like a purpose,
a focus. I love that.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
That's great, that's been that's been my secret. My secret
is Okay, here we are, it's not where we want
to be. Where do we want to be? And how
do we close that gap between where we're at and
where we want to be?
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Yeah, yeah, that's good. I appreciate you sharing that. What
advice would you give other CEOs that are trying to
kind of manage their teams during these you know, kind
of interesting times.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Again, I think, man, it's another one of those I
think it's the same answer. Are you being clear? Are
you setting the expectations? Is the vision forward clear? And
I think if you don't understand that, and to be
honest with you, I think a lot of leaders don't
know how to answer those questions or don't know the
answers to those questions. So that would be step number one.
(11:11):
Where do you want this organization to be at the
end of the year? And is there a path? Is
there a strategy to push us forward? Lead us forward
to do that? And then and we just were in
strategy meeting yesterday, and the more clear you are with
your goals and your strategy of how we're going to
(11:31):
do that and the action steps that we're going to
take in order for that goal to become a reality.
Now it's just execution. The goal is the goal, the
strategy is the strategy meeting, how are we going to
do it? But then what actions are we going to
take in order to make that happen? So if you
and as you know, it all starts with the people.
If that so, it's either people the process or the
(11:54):
execution in my in my in my head as a leader,
so is the goal? Is the goal unrealistic?
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Well?
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Is the strategy right? You wrote the strategy on how
how we're going to do it? And then the only
thing that can be missing, that would let that would
prohibit us from reaching that goal is the failure to execute.
So let's talk about that.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
We worked with a lot of folks on strategy and
mostly around you know, business development, but like to your point,
you know, having that strategy in place, and then what
tactics are going to You're going to be using ideas
or of you thing to meet that strategy. And then
what what I heard and what brings to me is
the execution part because that's where most people right is
(12:39):
holding their team accountable to executing on those specific tactics
to get you where you want to be. And you
got it, you got it.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
So the only thing missing from that is how often
are you getting together with your team and reviewing that
right right right? And and we we were doing it
quarterly and now we've shrunk it down two monthly. And
I think it's spot on because it's you know, you're, you're, you're,
you're going to see this faster that maybe we're going
sideways here. H And again it's either the the strategy
(13:09):
is the wrong strategy, or you're not the right person
to execute it or something or what is standing in
your way to executing on you know, on what we
were written.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Yeah, I think you're right on with that. I remember
taking myself back to my BBJA days where we we
would put a strategy together, but we would only look
at it midyear, half years over. We look at it like, okay,
in the first half, what we need to do?
Speaker 1 (13:37):
I'm like, we should be in Minnesota. What's going on?
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (13:42):
I probably could have changed that back and.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
You live and learn, I guess, and that as a leader,
you're going, how the how didn't you know we were
in Florida? When we're right? So ye, monitor it often,
set those expectations and have a really really, really good
strategy that anybody could could. I mean when we just
finish strategy yesterday and we just we went through it. Okay,
who's the owner of goal one? I am, what's the goal?
(14:07):
How are you going to do it? And what are
the actions you're going to take? And if that doesn't
flow seamlessly, then we should probably stop and take a
harder look at it.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
I agree, that's great. I love it all right, So,
so what gets you excited about the future of celebraty Listen.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
We're doing We're doing big things here, and we're changing lives.
We're helping people get out of the corporate world and
become entrepreneurs and own their own business as I mentioned,
create legacy for their family, make a community impact through
our film for optic endeavors that we that we have,
and create wealth and so that that's what excites me.
(14:45):
I mean, we are changing lives. We actually have two
young ladies that used to work for celebrity They were
celebrity teachers, became celebrity directors, and then actually now own
their own celebrity schools. So I love to see that
life changing events occur through entrepreneurship.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Yeah, that's a that's a great story. That's a great story.
What what what keeps you up at night?
Speaker 1 (15:12):
You know, nothing, nothing except my wife says I snore.
But but I fixed that over the last four days too.
You know, I'm just super. Every day we're winning, meaning
every single day we're making improvements to our process procedures
because we're learning. I just spent last week. Last Sunday
(15:36):
and Monday, I was in Nashville visiting our schools. Uh Tuesday,
I was in Kentucky. Thursday I was in Virginia and
I the things that I learned out there, we came
back and we fixed and we implement it so that
that that that's what excites me, just making this, making
our process, our systems better and better and better, which
(16:00):
for you know, our lives and our franchisees to be
more successful because of those changes that we're that we're having.
Got it, Thank you appreciate it keeps me up at
night nothing because I also believe that there's an answer
for everything. We just haven't. We just haven't. You know,
if we have, if we've identified an opportunity, there's an answer. Yeah,
(16:23):
there's an answer to the solve. There's there's not one
problem out there or one thing in business that there's
not an answer for and here to celebrate through those processes.
We we already and being in business for thirty one years,
we already know the answer. Now it's have we identified
it and are you willing as a franchise e, are
you now willing to execute on it and change it?
(16:45):
Based on what we told you? The answer was.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Yeah, it's funny. So I've been doing this for I
don't know, six or seven years now. I definitely could
count on one hand the people who've said that that,
you know, nothing keeps me up at night. Yeah, which
is actually great. I think that's your leadership style and
positivity and all that kind of good stuff.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Yeah, tomorrow, but listen tomorrow. We'll listen tomorrow. We're going
to learn something. And you know I do. I think
one of my leadership styles I think about tomorrow. I
think about, you know, in the morning, I think about
my day. I think about the meetings I'm going to have.
I think about the way I want to show up
to those meetings. I think about the outcomes that I
(17:28):
want out of that meeting. So I'm you know, I'm
previewing a lot of the things of the way I
want them to go and how I want to show
up as a leader prior to the meeting. And most
of the times I'm ninety five percent deliver on that vision. Sometimes,
you know, sometimes I don't.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
So we'll go good. Well, thank you, that's great. Well
to wrap things up, is there anything else you like
our listeners to know about you? Uh? And celebrate?
Speaker 1 (17:56):
I mean, if you don't know celebrity, you do now.
I mean, we're a teen different states where we're offering
this opportunity not only to families, that have children that
that we would love to take care of and be
responsible and help get them ready for kindergarten and in
a safe, nurturing environment. And if you're in the corporate
world and looking to get out, I highly suggest you
(18:20):
you look at the solid opportunity it offers you and
your family a lot of things. From as I mentioned,
through legacy, every child, every every family can can rally
behind a school. I don't care if you're two years
old or four years old or eighteen years old. As
a child, you understand what mom and dad about to
(18:41):
get into or become a part of. So it's a
great legacy builder. It's a huge community and philanthropic driver
through the through the school. And and also you can
create wealth for your family for them from from this opportunity.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
That's great. That's great. And how tell us how we
can get more information about celebrity Then go.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
To celebrity dot com.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
C E C E L E B R E E.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Or they can follow me on Instagram and really get
behind the scenes at Richie Huffman Celebrate.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Well great, Well, thank you so much. It was a
lot of fun. I appreciate you taking the time to
talk with us. Today and yeah, I really appreciate congratulations
on your success and own your success coming up. So
thanks again, Ratchie, I appreciate you taking the time out today.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Thank you for the opportunity.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
This has been. Iheartmedias CEOs you should know
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.