September 14, 2023 • 24 mins
Imagine building your brand from the ground up, with nothing but a small-town mentality, a handful of dollars, and a bottomless pit of determination. That's the tale of Doug Ecklund, CEO of Cellular Advantage, our guest for this episode. Starting his journey in rural Iowa, Doug embraced the struggles of entrepreneurship, building his business into a revered brand with 33 locations and a strong company culture. We'll uncover how Doug's core values, respect, and love for his team played a pivotal role in growing Cellular Advantage.
We're not stopping there. Doug sheds light on the art of buying time and the crucial element of delegation. With the right staff and management teams, understanding your strengths and weaknesses, and knowing when to seek help, Doug has created a system where his business can function seamlessly even in his absence. Prepare for an insightful discussion on work culture, overcoming hurdles, and achieving that elusive work-life balance. Don't miss out as Doug shares invaluable insights and experiences from his extraordinary journey with Cellular Advantage.
You can Follow Cellular Advantage on all the socials
Buy the book "The 9 a.m. Meeting: A high-impact approach to making work meaningful, energizing employees, and taming the turnover tiger"
Until next time... Follow on Instagram @buytimepodcast
Follow Jacob K. Mead on all the socials @jacobkmead
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey everybody, this is Jacob K Mead and this is the
Buy Time podcast, where wediscuss everything there is to
know about buying back your time.
Be sure to like and follow andshare with somebody who needs to
buy back their time.
Enjoy today's episode, welcometo another episode of the Buy
Time podcast.
I'm excited for today's episodebecause I have Doug Eklund, ceo
(00:21):
of Cellular Advantage.
I think they have 33 locationsnow and they're a dealer for US
Cellular.
Doug, why don't we start with?
Just tell us a little bit aboutyourself.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
A little bit about myself.
I'm a small town Iowa guy Endedup in the big city of Des
Moines 30 some years ago andwe've got two kids, both ones in
grad school, ones in college.
And then we've got CellularAdvantage, which started.
We're in our 31st year.
We just had our 30thanniversary.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Such an accomplishment.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
So a couple kids, when we're 24 years old and my
wife's name is Mitzi and sheworked for US Cellular directly
out of college, she got theopportunity to take over one of
their stores and so I told myboss I was taking a leave of
absence and we started.
We moved out of a one bedroomapartment into a two bedroom
apartment so we could have anoffice and we started a business
(01:13):
, and somehow it's still stillkicking.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Still kicking today.
I mean, you've grown it.
It's just amazing how you'reable to grow it, and so quickly
in 30 years.
It may seem like a long time,but in the aspect of things it's
really short.
And what are some of thestruggles?
So, when you first got started,what are some of the struggles
that?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
you had, I mean in the beginning.
It's probably like any startup.
I mean it's cash flow, cashflow, cash flow.
It's a big part of it,especially in our business.
I mean you'd buy a phone forback in the day I mean it's $150
, you buy a bag phone orsomething, and you'd give that
phone to the customer for freeand then you would wait to get
paid an activation commissionand the activation commissions
(01:53):
would come in from 30 to 60 daysfrom the date of activation,
depending on when the activationhappened.
So when we were trying to getfinanced, we go to the bank and
we told them what we're going todo.
A lot of them kind of scratchedtheir heads and they're just
like so you're going to buysomething, give it away for free
and wait to get paid for it?
And we're like, yeah, that'swhat we're going to do, and it
probably took five bankersbefore we could find one that
(02:15):
was creative enough to see ourstruggle.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
I understand that struggle.
Sure, we're trying to do.
I, when I first started mybusiness, I went to multiple
bankers and had my business planall lined out and neatly
written out and they told me no,we don't see it, we don't see
it panning out.
And it took so long for me tobe able to figure out a way to
get financing and end upstarting with just credit cards
to get started.
It's tough.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
We ran out of money a few different times and went to
credit card.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Yeah, you're across your fingers.
How am I going to make?
Speaker 2 (02:39):
payroll.
Well, I mean, I sold a Jeep tomake payroll back in 1995.
We were going to be short andwe fire sailed my Jeep, cherokee
Limited.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Sacrifices you make.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Yeah, and then Metsi's mom and dad were nice
enough to let us use theirChrysler K-Car station wagon
with wood paneling on the sides,and it was always a fight to
see who could get out the doorfastest so they didn't have to
drive the Woody.
We call it the Woody.
It's part of the company storynow at this point.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
I love it.
It's a great company story andI love hearing the background.
So you built this out, you gotstarted and then you started to
build out your team.
So talk to me a little bitabout your teams and what makes
it be your dream team.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
I mean the team, I mean for us, it's all one thing
we've really learned, and Ithink we just kind of lucked
into it maybe in the beginning,but ultimately it's really
turned in.
We're very intentional about itat this point, and that's the
culture.
And so we grew, grew, grew,just about grew it right into
the ground.
And there was no core values,there was no purpose statement,
(03:44):
there was no real defining.
What does this company standfor?
And I mean we, literally weopened 19 stores in 12 months at
one point.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Wow, that's impressive.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
And just about ran it right in the ground.
And as we were coming out ofthat trying to get it put back
together, that's when we reallyfigured out that we've got to
stand for something and there'ssomething that's bigger than
just being in the phone business, and so we crafted a purpose
statement, some core values, andthose are things that really
mean a lot to us.
(04:14):
And that core leadership teamwe're all in on that, and every
interview right down the frontline, I mean we talk about those
things Because we want to hirefor culture, not so much for the
skill level I mean we'll trainfor skills, absolutely but if we
can get people that are lookingfor a place, it's going to be
fun.
It might be a little quirky,but it's full of respect and
(04:36):
love and I mean, I think in thebusiness world love is something
that's not really talked about,but I mean we're supposed to
love each other and that'ssomething that we really try to
do internally and when we hiresomebody we're like this is
going to feel a little differentprobably, and we hope it does,
and that's the point, that's thething, and and when you get the
culture right, it really it's amultiplier.
(04:59):
And I think Pat Lynch, you know,and he's a famous business
speaker author.
He talked about culture being amultiplier.
So if you have a talent levelof seven in a store but the
culture in that store is reallybad, it's maybe there's a toxic
person in that store, it's notgood.
So the culture is maybe a three, absolutely.
So you got a seven times threeis 21.
You got another store where thetalent level maybe the talent
(05:21):
level is only a five buteverybody gets along really well
and they're, they're boughtinto what we're trying to do.
So the culture is an eight.
So that stores a 40.
The 40 is going to kick thecrap out of the 21 all day long
and we figured that out, thatI'll take people that might not
have them.
They might not be the mosttalented, but we can train for
that.
But but if they're, if theyunderstand that we want, when
(05:42):
that guest comes in the store,that we want that guest to leave
, feeling you know, if they'vewalked in here, when they leave,
we want them here, you know.
So if we can make their day alittle bit better, I mean that's
, that's the win.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Ultimately, I love that.
I love that you set those corevalues and that you are
employees are meaning more toyou than just people and warm
bodies.
I feel like so many companiesout there.
It's just I need a warm bodyand you have the mindset of no,
we want to actually have corevalues and we want to help them
in every aspect of our life andwhether that be personal or, you
know, with the company, and Ilove that.
That's.
That's great to hear that yourcompany does that.
(06:16):
I've actually had the privilegeof talking to some of your old
employees and they said thenumber one thing that they loved
about your company was theculture, and so I appreciate
that that that means a lot thatyou shared that.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
I think there was two cellular advantages.
Really, I mean I've had todescribe that like the first 10
years.
It was almost.
What can this thing be for me?
Speaker 1 (06:33):
I mean, we were, I mean what can I get out of it?
What can I get out of it?
Yeah, and it was you know we're.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
We had this chance to grow, like I was talking about,
with the big growth that year,and I had visions that we're
going to make the Inc 500.
We are going to be part of the500 fast growing companies in
America.
I mean, we plotted it out.
We're like, yep, we're going tohit that, we're going to hit
that, we're going to hit that,we're going to have that honor,
and you know, and then we aboutjust took it right in the ground
and it's just like, okay,there's, there's got to be
(06:59):
something more to it than that.
And that's when, I mean, wereally figured out that we have
an opportunity to really helppeople that are a part of our
group.
You know, just do life a littlebetter.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Maybe I don't know I love that, so talk a little
deeper on that.
So how did you come to thatsenses?
Was it something that you andyour wife talked about and you
said, hey, we need to dosomething differently?
Is it something that your wholeentire team came to you on, or
is it something that yourealized?
What made you come to therealization that, hey, I need to
focus more on my core values inmy business, not just all
around me.
(07:33):
And what can I get out of it?
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Well, I mean the core values were birthed out of that
train wreck that we had.
I mean it was a.
You know you use the termdumpster fire, but I mean it was
.
We were out of compliance onprobably three or four things at
the bank.
They could have called our debtin at any time.
We owed a lot of money and youknow things weren't the best at
home.
I mean I was never.
We were trying to open.
All these stores were inChicago or Nebraska spending
(07:56):
lots of time doing all.
So I was doing, I was, I wasterrible at home, you know, as a
father and as a husband.
You know it was all about meand own work, blah, blah, blah.
So when you get, when you hadthat, when you, when you really
kind of were looking over theedge of the cliff, looking down
the hill as far as, like that'swhere I could be falling off
this cliff any day if the bankcalls, you know, for me there
(08:18):
was a faith component that wasnever in my world before.
You know, we just we literallyhad a neighbor that was like,
hey, do you want to come tochurch?
And I'm like like that's neverreally been a part of my world.
And we, we hopped into churchone day and it was literally
like we were the only peoplethere.
I was kind of like the messagewas directed right at us.
I'm like, all right, there'sgot to be there's.
You know, you got to recognizethose moments and for us, that
(08:40):
was something when it was kindof a wake up call of, okay,
let's try something different.
And you know, so that's wherethe whole concept of we're going
to try to enrich the quality oflife for each and every person
we come into contact withwhether they work for us or
whether they're a guest comingin the store, and you know,
that's just that whole idea ofyou know, love is a verb, you
(09:00):
know, can we love?
Can we love the people thatcome in, can we love the people
that are here, you know, andthat's just something that it's
really worked out for us and Ilove it.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
You really built a good work culture and sharing
that story it means a lot.
You built this company up andyou got to a place where you
have your core values and youwent through all these
challenges.
When would you consider thatyou made it?
When would you sit down and say, hey, we're doing well, we've
made it?
Speaker 2 (09:29):
I mean we got out the other side of the debt and
everything and we've been happyto be debt free for quite a
while You're going to have anaccomplishment.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
by the way, Not many companies can say that.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Yeah, and that was something that and we probably
could have grown the businessmore had we wanted to entertain
the idea of borrowing more moneyagain to grow.
But I think we got to the pointwhere we were comfortable with
what we were doing, andsometimes comfort is the enemy
of doing something special.
But that's what.
We're getting a little olderand so we're starting to think
about things a littledifferently.
But I'm just blanking on thequestion right now.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Oh, you're good.
What's some obstacles now thatyou might have?
You got to this place ofcomfort where you have the
amount of stores that you want.
What are some obstacles thatyou're seeing in your everyday
business aspect now?
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Obstacles.
I mean staffing is always goingto be a challenge.
I feel like we've done a greatjob of, I mean I think, our
turnover and retail turnoverright now, if you look at it and
actually it's close to 100% ayear.
I mean that's where it's just.
You've got that bottom groupthat just they come in, maybe
it's not for them and they leave.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
It's like a circulation, it's just
circulating.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Yeah, middle third stays a little bit longer.
The top third are there longer.
I mean, we were at 2022, wewere at 20, I'm sorry, we're at
42% in 2022, which we felt thatwas a pretty good, a pretty good
deal.
So staffing is going to be achallenge, you know.
And then the hours that wereopen, I think, is another thing.
You just got to find peoplethat are.
You know you're going to havesome weekend hours, you have
(10:57):
some evening hours, things likethat, but and then the things
that keep me up at night arejust the things that we can't
control.
You know we're a dealer for acarrier, so a US cellular is a
carrier.
You know, if they, if they'redoing great, that's generally,
we're going to ride that withthem.
If they're not doing as well,then we're going to.
We're going to feel that aswell.
We try to do the best we can oncontrolling the things we can
control and but I'd say, youknow, and it's the same
(11:21):
everywhere.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
I mean, staffing is tough for everyone, especially
in the retail industry, inservice industry, staffing is
always a struggling.
One thing you know your corevalues.
I love that you talk about that, because US cellular has a lot
of core values too, and it justit goes to show that
implementing core values andreally helping your employees
and actually providing value tothem is going to help them not
only in your company but intheir personal lives, and that
that really shows.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
I think the two, I think our little company and
their bigger company line uppretty well on a lot of things,
which has been good.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
I mean yeah, you've grown 33 stores and are you
thinking about continuinggrowing?
What's your plans there withwith the growth?
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Yeah, I mean we added three this year but we grew by
10% this year.
There's, I think there's goingto be.
You know, I hope there's goingto be other opportunities going
forward.
So if the if it, if we can lookat an opportunity and figure
out it should be profitablegrowth, then we'll certainly
swing the bat at it.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Absolutely so, looking, looking at this entire
story, it's it's amazing to meto how much you actually gone
through to get to where you are.
A lot of people don't see that,and especially as a business
owner, they they see what youare currently at, but they don't
see what took to actually getthere Right, so that's, that's
an amazing story.
So you talked about all thistime that you spent with work
and how you kind of lost out ona lot of opportunities with your
(12:37):
kids.
If you could go back in time,would you still do the same
thing, or what would you dodifferently?
Speaker 2 (12:43):
No, I would do a lot of things differently.
You know, the the kids wereboth pretty young during that
2002 to 2004 kind of that waswhen we were really trying to
ramp things up.
So you had a newborn and a fouryear old at home.
So we figured it out pretty,you know, figured it out by.
You know 2004, 2005, we had itall.
(13:06):
We kind of had it figured out.
So, but doing thingsdifferently, you know, just, I
don't know that I would havebeen able to really change my
travel schedule, but I do.
I would have changed the factthat I felt like I'm the big CEO
so I'm gone a lot, but when Iget back I need time to you know
, for myself kind of a thingwhich that that would be the one
(13:28):
thing I would definitely flip.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Remember time for Doug.
Don't don't forget time forDoug, because it's just as
important to you when you havekids.
It's not about you anymore.
No.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
That's something that .
That's something that, with theego that I was really, that it
was carrying I was carryingaround, was hard for me to see.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
I I understand completely.
I have two kids and it's likeI'm running this business and
sometimes I go home and Irealize I'm following up on
emails and I tell myself, oh,it's only going to take a minute
.
And I look at the clock andit's eight o'clock and it's
their bedtime.
And my wife's really good.
She calls me out and she goeshey, put your phone down.
You know it's family time andI'm like, okay, phone goes down.
She calls it, how it is.
So you actually wrote a bookand it's called the 9 am meeting
(14:08):
.
What's that about?
What's that all geared around?
Speaker 2 (14:12):
So we thought we had a story to tell.
So it's our employee turnover,it's the first part of it's a
company story.
It's just kind of like allright, here's how we started,
the mistakes we made, the growth, the problems that we had, all
that kind of stuff, and thengetting it straightened out.
So we tell the story.
But one thing that weidentified is that our turnover
in one market was different thanthe other markets and we
(14:35):
started digging into that.
And that was the market whereNick Velotti, who's our VP of
sales, and I mean he's in chargeof the whole, all the stores
and all the people.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Great guy, by the way .
I've actually been able to talkto him a few times and he
always has great conversations.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
He's the best We've been together for 23 years.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
It's always good to have that strong partner.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
So what was going on differently is he was meeting
with people in his office.
He just had an open sign up Ifyou want to come in and just
talk about life, you can come in.
And he did those at 9 am.
And so we started talking aboutit and like what are you doing
with everybody?
He's like, well, we're justtalking about life.
He's like when you ask thesesalespeople what do they want,
(15:15):
he's like you just get the deerin the headlights, look.
And so he started to help themdream a little bit, try to
figure out what are the thingsthat were important to them,
whether it would be personal,could be financial, it could be
physical, it could be justplaces they want to travel, just
all these different things.
So he had all these categoriesand he just helped people kind
of start dreaming a little bitand then, okay, what are the
(15:35):
things that need to happen tostart doing those things?
And in a lot of cases it waspeople were carrying debt or
things like that.
So we started working on afinancial piece model where
people could they could enrollin that, they could start to get
themselves out of debt, startto get an emergency fund built
up and then start saving money.
But the whole thing with whathe was doing, it was just such a
(15:58):
much more personal touch and wewere not afraid to put personal
and work together.
I love that, you know, becauseeverybody's got a mirror they
look in it's their work mirror.
And everybody's got a mirrorthey look in it's their home
mirror.
And if you got an unhappy facelooking back at you in one of
those two mirrors, it affectsthe other one 100%.
And so we're like well, if wecan help equip people with more
tools so that that home mirroris smiling back at them, that's
(16:22):
gonna help them.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Break that barrier.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
So we're like all right, we're gonna do something
different and we're gonna starttalking about how work and
personal go together.
We had one guy came in and he'slike my wife told me this was
career suicide if I came in andstarted talking about my
personal life, you know, becausehis wife is working, that's all
they know.
His wife works at one of the bigcompanies like a principal or a
Wells Fargo, and it's hey howyou doing Great.
Yeah, it wasn't.
(16:46):
You know, I'm gonna say it'sgreat, even though my radiator
just blew up on my car and Ineed a new dishwasher and I
can't afford to pay for you toone of them.
So the water cooler talkchanged and that's what we
started noticing that and so wewrote a book about it.
We figured out our turnover.
It cost us around $6,700 aperson that we would turn over
(17:07):
and that would be in lost salesand productivity.
You know the cost of hiring,cost of training, all those
things.
It was $6,700 a person, wow.
So Nick's market back then hewas a market director, not that
he wasn't over the whole thing,but his market when he was doing
this stuff I mean his turnoverpercentage is around 26%.
(17:29):
Chicago was over 100%.
Nebraska was over 100%.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Missouri was over 100%, so he's at this 22%.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Something is happening here.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
He's doing something, he's showing it, and that's
what we figured out, so we wrotea book about it.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
It's called Taming the Turnover Tiger and, but it's
helping people connect the dotsbetween why do they go to work
and what do they want out oflife, and when you put those two
things together, it's reallypretty cool what's happened, and
so we've had a lot of fun withthat, and I really love that.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Yeah, I always ask people to.
One of my questions is if youdidn't get paid for what you
were doing, would you still goto work?
Yeah, and a lot of people lookat me like obviously no, and
they'll have that culture.
That's important, I would stillgo because I'm getting the
knowledge I'm learning.
They care about me, theyactually want to see me succeed.
They want to actually buildvalue in my life, and not many
employers do that.
(18:16):
And so a 9 am meeting where ifsomeone wants to buy your book,
can they get it on Amazon.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
We can get it on Amazon.
But I mean, if you've gotpeople listening to this, if
they want to shoot me an email,just send it to ceo at
selladvantagecom.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Ceo at selladvantagecom.
That's just kind of the generic.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
That's kind of the generic email for cellular
advantage.
But it'll get to me and I'lljust send you one.
So I got to stack them in theoffice and if we run out of them
, that would be good for you,and then people can go buy them
on Amazon.
Yeah, so go buy the book.
Let's sell out, yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
So that's amazing.
And now you just recently, yourdaughter just got married.
She did and it like, lookingback on it, you could probably
see how, how fast time goes by.
One of the probably the talk tome a little bit about that day
how are you feeling when she wasgetting married?
Did you have any flashbacks ofher being little?
Or, of course, how was that day?
Speaker 2 (19:07):
The day was perfect in about every way and I somehow
held it together for the mostpart, the tears from falling
Exactly Flo and I'm thinking ofmy daughters.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
I'm like man they're only four in eight months now,
but I can't imagine a few yearswhen they're getting married and
I'm just having to hold backthese tears.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
The days are long and the years are short, so, but
you know they open the door forus to walk down the aisle and
she's got her.
You know, her hand in my armand I could feel her start to
shake and I'm like, all right, Igot to hold it together because
I'm like if I lose it, she'sgoing to lose it and then it's
going to be a mess going downthe aisle.
So we made it down the aisle,okay, and I just, you know, I
said, hey, we got this, we'regoing to be good, and she and we
(19:44):
love, we love the guy shemarried, he's, he's wonderful
and the day was great and itit's uh, but man, it just it's
like a blink of an eye, that'sfor sure.
It goes by so fast.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Everyone tells you that and before you have kids
are like, wait till you havekids, it'll go by fast.
And I was that naive personthat said, no, what do you mean?
It won't change anything.
And then I have my first kidand I realized that I blinked.
In two years, sure.
And it's just, it's amazing thatwhat time does.
I think that's why it's soimportant to buy time, and a lot
of times I think people look atit and they go you can't buy
(20:16):
time.
And you've been able to buytime, and the way you've been
able to buy time is through theright staffing and being able to
have the right management teamin place.
So talk to me a little bitabout that, um, buying your time
.
What was it like the first timethat you stepped outside of
your business for like, let'ssay, a week or two weeks and you
knew it could run without you?
What was your feeling?
Speaker 2 (20:35):
No, the feelings.
I mean.
That's probably one of the mostgratifying things is just
knowing that if I'm not there,nobody's going to know the
difference at this point, whichis great because, um, you know
what we've, what we've done, andagain, I don't know if we
lucked into it or what, butwe've got myself and three other
three other people who are, I'dcall it, kind of the leadership
(20:55):
team and we've got.
Each of the four of us knowsthe things that we're not any
good at.
Each of the four of us knowswhat things we are good at, and
we are very comfortable inletting Matt handle anything
that needs to be analyzed, itneeds to be processed, it needs
(21:15):
to be done from a numberstandpoint.
Nick's so good with the people.
Todd, operationally, is alwaysable to figure out a better way
to get things done.
But we're all I mean wecompliment each other a lot and
that's what I think you know.
Call it dumb luck or call itwhatever, but we've got a group
that kind of fills in eachother's gaps and that's
something that's been.
(21:36):
That's been great for us, andyou know that's know your
strengths.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
know your weakness, Know your strengths and don't
rely on those that are betterthan you.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
And don't try to fake it.
I mean, if you're not good atsomething, it's okay to say that
you're not good at it Ask forhelp, Right.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Some people don't want to ask for help.
It's like ask for help if youneed it and there's stuff that.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
And then I think, when you get to the next level
is where there's things thatyou're good at but they suck the
life out of you.
I was pretty good at readingthe lease and figuring out what
should and shouldn't be in thelease, but I mean I get done
with it and I'm just like, wow,you know, I just feel like I
just went through a battle.
And you know, todd's reallygood at that and maybe he feels
the same way and he's just doingit because he's nice, but he
(22:19):
goes through those things and heI mean, he's good at
negotiating these things, he'sgood at finding the different
things that we need in them, andbut getting to the point where
not only I mean at the pointwhere I can really just work on
the things that I'm good at andthey give me energy as compared
to things I'm good at, thatmight take energy away, I think
you enjoy Right Things.
I enjoy and that's and that'swhat's, that's what's really fun
(22:42):
for me.
Like we just had our leadershipsummit a couple of months ago,
so we had all of our storeleaders into Des Moines and you
know, you just get to speak intothose people you know and you
get to see them at work andyou're just like man.
It's the most proud feelingthat you can have, for when you
see, you know the, the talentand the, you know the love they
have for each other comingtogether is really cool.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
So it's it's just a feeling.
It's almost hard to explainit's.
It's overwhelming, doug, it's.
It's been my pleasure to beable to have you on this podcast
.
If somebody wanted to find moreinformation about you, where
can they go?
Speaker 2 (23:14):
I mean Read your book .
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Read the book.
I mean you've got.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
I mean I'm on Twitter , doug Eklund on Instagram, doug
Eklund on, you know, Facebook.
You got LinkedIn.
All that stuff.
It's just pretty easy to, nothard to find.
So it's it's I love.
I love your story.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
It's so powerful and I really want to say thank you
so much for taking the time tocome on the by time podcast and
talk about how you can youpurchase your time and all the
strengths and struggles you wentthrough.
Really cool to have me on.
I love it.
So, guys, that is anotherepisode of the by time podcast.
Thank you so much for listening.
Make sure to share this withsomebody that needs to hear the
story, and if you are needinghelp with buying time, let me
(23:48):
know.
Send me a DM.
Make sure to buy the book the9am meeting and let's sell out
all the copies.
Thanks, Until next time.
Thanks for listening to today'sepisode.
My name is Jacob K Mead, anduntil next time.
Hey everybody, this is Jacob K Mead and this is the
Buy Time podcast, where wediscuss everything there is to
know about buying back your time.
Be sure to like and follow andshare with somebody who needs to
buy back their time.
Enjoy today's episode, welcometo another episode of the Buy
Time podcast.
I'm excited for today's episodebecause I have Doug Eklund, ceo
(00:21):
of Cellular Advantage.
I think they have 33 locationsnow and they're a dealer for US
Cellular.
Doug, why don't we start with?
Just tell us a little bit aboutyourself.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
A little bit about myself.
I'm a small town Iowa guy Endedup in the big city of Des
Moines 30 some years ago andwe've got two kids, both ones in
grad school, ones in college.
And then we've got CellularAdvantage, which started.
We're in our 31st year.
We just had our 30thanniversary.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Such an accomplishment.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
So a couple kids, when we're 24 years old and my
wife's name is Mitzi and sheworked for US Cellular directly
out of college, she got theopportunity to take over one of
their stores and so I told myboss I was taking a leave of
absence and we started.
We moved out of a one bedroomapartment into a two bedroom
apartment so we could have anoffice and we started a business
(01:13):
, and somehow it's still stillkicking.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Still kicking today.
I mean, you've grown it.
It's just amazing how you'reable to grow it, and so quickly
in 30 years.
It may seem like a long time,but in the aspect of things it's
really short.
And what are some of thestruggles?
So, when you first got started,what are some of the struggles
that?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
you had, I mean in the beginning.
It's probably like any startup.
I mean it's cash flow, cashflow, cash flow.
It's a big part of it,especially in our business.
I mean you'd buy a phone forback in the day I mean it's $150
, you buy a bag phone orsomething, and you'd give that
phone to the customer for freeand then you would wait to get
paid an activation commissionand the activation commissions
(01:53):
would come in from 30 to 60 daysfrom the date of activation,
depending on when the activationhappened.
So when we were trying to getfinanced, we go to the bank and
we told them what we're going todo.
A lot of them kind of scratchedtheir heads and they're just
like so you're going to buysomething, give it away for free
and wait to get paid for it?
And we're like, yeah, that'swhat we're going to do, and it
probably took five bankersbefore we could find one that
(02:15):
was creative enough to see ourstruggle.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
I understand that struggle.
Sure, we're trying to do.
I, when I first started mybusiness, I went to multiple
bankers and had my business planall lined out and neatly
written out and they told me no,we don't see it, we don't see
it panning out.
And it took so long for me tobe able to figure out a way to
get financing and end upstarting with just credit cards
to get started.
It's tough.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
We ran out of money a few different times and went to
credit card.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Yeah, you're across your fingers.
How am I going to make?
Speaker 2 (02:39):
payroll.
Well, I mean, I sold a Jeep tomake payroll back in 1995.
We were going to be short andwe fire sailed my Jeep, cherokee
Limited.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Sacrifices you make.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Yeah, and then Metsi's mom and dad were nice
enough to let us use theirChrysler K-Car station wagon
with wood paneling on the sides,and it was always a fight to
see who could get out the doorfastest so they didn't have to
drive the Woody.
We call it the Woody.
It's part of the company storynow at this point.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
I love it.
It's a great company story andI love hearing the background.
So you built this out, you gotstarted and then you started to
build out your team.
So talk to me a little bitabout your teams and what makes
it be your dream team.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
I mean the team, I mean for us, it's all one thing
we've really learned, and Ithink we just kind of lucked
into it maybe in the beginning,but ultimately it's really
turned in.
We're very intentional about itat this point, and that's the
culture.
And so we grew, grew, grew,just about grew it right into
the ground.
And there was no core values,there was no purpose statement,
(03:44):
there was no real defining.
What does this company standfor?
And I mean we, literally weopened 19 stores in 12 months at
one point.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Wow, that's impressive.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
And just about ran it right in the ground.
And as we were coming out ofthat trying to get it put back
together, that's when we reallyfigured out that we've got to
stand for something and there'ssomething that's bigger than
just being in the phone business, and so we crafted a purpose
statement, some core values, andthose are things that really
mean a lot to us.
(04:14):
And that core leadership teamwe're all in on that, and every
interview right down the frontline, I mean we talk about those
things Because we want to hirefor culture, not so much for the
skill level I mean we'll trainfor skills, absolutely but if we
can get people that are lookingfor a place, it's going to be
fun.
It might be a little quirky,but it's full of respect and
(04:36):
love and I mean, I think in thebusiness world love is something
that's not really talked about,but I mean we're supposed to
love each other and that'ssomething that we really try to
do internally and when we hiresomebody we're like this is
going to feel a little differentprobably, and we hope it does,
and that's the point, that's thething, and and when you get the
culture right, it really it's amultiplier.
(04:59):
And I think Pat Lynch, you know,and he's a famous business
speaker author.
He talked about culture being amultiplier.
So if you have a talent levelof seven in a store but the
culture in that store is reallybad, it's maybe there's a toxic
person in that store, it's notgood.
So the culture is maybe a three, absolutely.
So you got a seven times threeis 21.
You got another store where thetalent level maybe the talent
(05:21):
level is only a five buteverybody gets along really well
and they're, they're boughtinto what we're trying to do.
So the culture is an eight.
So that stores a 40.
The 40 is going to kick thecrap out of the 21 all day long
and we figured that out, thatI'll take people that might not
have them.
They might not be the mosttalented, but we can train for
that.
But but if they're, if theyunderstand that we want, when
(05:42):
that guest comes in the store,that we want that guest to leave
, feeling you know, if they'vewalked in here, when they leave,
we want them here, you know.
So if we can make their day alittle bit better, I mean that's
, that's the win.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Ultimately, I love that.
I love that you set those corevalues and that you are
employees are meaning more toyou than just people and warm
bodies.
I feel like so many companiesout there.
It's just I need a warm bodyand you have the mindset of no,
we want to actually have corevalues and we want to help them
in every aspect of our life andwhether that be personal or, you
know, with the company, and Ilove that.
That's.
That's great to hear that yourcompany does that.
(06:16):
I've actually had the privilegeof talking to some of your old
employees and they said thenumber one thing that they loved
about your company was theculture, and so I appreciate
that that that means a lot thatyou shared that.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
I think there was two cellular advantages.
Really, I mean I've had todescribe that like the first 10
years.
It was almost.
What can this thing be for me?
Speaker 1 (06:33):
I mean, we were, I mean what can I get out of it?
What can I get out of it?
Yeah, and it was you know we're.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
We had this chance to grow, like I was talking about,
with the big growth that year,and I had visions that we're
going to make the Inc 500.
We are going to be part of the500 fast growing companies in
America.
I mean, we plotted it out.
We're like, yep, we're going tohit that, we're going to hit
that, we're going to hit that,we're going to have that honor,
and you know, and then we aboutjust took it right in the ground
and it's just like, okay,there's, there's got to be
(06:59):
something more to it than that.
And that's when, I mean, wereally figured out that we have
an opportunity to really helppeople that are a part of our
group.
You know, just do life a littlebetter.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Maybe I don't know I love that, so talk a little
deeper on that.
So how did you come to thatsenses?
Was it something that you andyour wife talked about and you
said, hey, we need to dosomething differently?
Is it something that your wholeentire team came to you on, or
is it something that yourealized?
What made you come to therealization that, hey, I need to
focus more on my core values inmy business, not just all
around me.
(07:33):
And what can I get out of it?
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Well, I mean the core values were birthed out of that
train wreck that we had.
I mean it was a.
You know you use the termdumpster fire, but I mean it was
.
We were out of compliance onprobably three or four things at
the bank.
They could have called our debtin at any time.
We owed a lot of money and youknow things weren't the best at
home.
I mean I was never.
We were trying to open.
All these stores were inChicago or Nebraska spending
(07:56):
lots of time doing all.
So I was doing, I was, I wasterrible at home, you know, as a
father and as a husband.
You know it was all about meand own work, blah, blah, blah.
So when you get, when you hadthat, when you, when you really
kind of were looking over theedge of the cliff, looking down
the hill as far as, like that'swhere I could be falling off
this cliff any day if the bankcalls, you know, for me there
(08:18):
was a faith component that wasnever in my world before.
You know, we just we literallyhad a neighbor that was like,
hey, do you want to come tochurch?
And I'm like like that's neverreally been a part of my world.
And we, we hopped into churchone day and it was literally
like we were the only peoplethere.
I was kind of like the messagewas directed right at us.
I'm like, all right, there'sgot to be there's.
You know, you got to recognizethose moments and for us, that
(08:40):
was something when it was kindof a wake up call of, okay,
let's try something different.
And you know, so that's wherethe whole concept of we're going
to try to enrich the quality oflife for each and every person
we come into contact withwhether they work for us or
whether they're a guest comingin the store, and you know,
that's just that whole idea ofyou know, love is a verb, you
(09:00):
know, can we love?
Can we love the people thatcome in, can we love the people
that are here, you know, andthat's just something that it's
really worked out for us and Ilove it.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
You really built a good work culture and sharing
that story it means a lot.
You built this company up andyou got to a place where you
have your core values and youwent through all these
challenges.
When would you consider thatyou made it?
When would you sit down and say, hey, we're doing well, we've
made it?
Speaker 2 (09:29):
I mean we got out the other side of the debt and
everything and we've been happyto be debt free for quite a
while You're going to have anaccomplishment.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
by the way, Not many companies can say that.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Yeah, and that was something that and we probably
could have grown the businessmore had we wanted to entertain
the idea of borrowing more moneyagain to grow.
But I think we got to the pointwhere we were comfortable with
what we were doing, andsometimes comfort is the enemy
of doing something special.
But that's what.
We're getting a little olderand so we're starting to think
about things a littledifferently.
But I'm just blanking on thequestion right now.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Oh, you're good.
What's some obstacles now thatyou might have?
You got to this place ofcomfort where you have the
amount of stores that you want.
What are some obstacles thatyou're seeing in your everyday
business aspect now?
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Obstacles.
I mean staffing is always goingto be a challenge.
I feel like we've done a greatjob of, I mean I think, our
turnover and retail turnoverright now, if you look at it and
actually it's close to 100% ayear.
I mean that's where it's just.
You've got that bottom groupthat just they come in, maybe
it's not for them and they leave.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
It's like a circulation, it's just
circulating.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Yeah, middle third stays a little bit longer.
The top third are there longer.
I mean, we were at 2022, wewere at 20, I'm sorry, we're at
42% in 2022, which we felt thatwas a pretty good, a pretty good
deal.
So staffing is going to be achallenge, you know.
And then the hours that wereopen, I think, is another thing.
You just got to find peoplethat are.
You know you're going to havesome weekend hours, you have
(10:57):
some evening hours, things likethat, but and then the things
that keep me up at night arejust the things that we can't
control.
You know we're a dealer for acarrier, so a US cellular is a
carrier.
You know, if they, if they'redoing great, that's generally,
we're going to ride that withthem.
If they're not doing as well,then we're going to.
We're going to feel that aswell.
We try to do the best we can oncontrolling the things we can
control and but I'd say, youknow, and it's the same
(11:21):
everywhere.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
I mean, staffing is tough for everyone, especially
in the retail industry, inservice industry, staffing is
always a struggling.
One thing you know your corevalues.
I love that you talk about that, because US cellular has a lot
of core values too, and it justit goes to show that
implementing core values andreally helping your employees
and actually providing value tothem is going to help them not
only in your company but intheir personal lives, and that
that really shows.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
I think the two, I think our little company and
their bigger company line uppretty well on a lot of things,
which has been good.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
I mean yeah, you've grown 33 stores and are you
thinking about continuinggrowing?
What's your plans there withwith the growth?
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Yeah, I mean we added three this year but we grew by
10% this year.
There's, I think there's goingto be.
You know, I hope there's goingto be other opportunities going
forward.
So if the if it, if we can lookat an opportunity and figure
out it should be profitablegrowth, then we'll certainly
swing the bat at it.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Absolutely so, looking, looking at this entire
story, it's it's amazing to meto how much you actually gone
through to get to where you are.
A lot of people don't see that,and especially as a business
owner, they they see what youare currently at, but they don't
see what took to actually getthere Right, so that's, that's
an amazing story.
So you talked about all thistime that you spent with work
and how you kind of lost out ona lot of opportunities with your
(12:37):
kids.
If you could go back in time,would you still do the same
thing, or what would you dodifferently?
Speaker 2 (12:43):
No, I would do a lot of things differently.
You know, the the kids wereboth pretty young during that
2002 to 2004 kind of that waswhen we were really trying to
ramp things up.
So you had a newborn and a fouryear old at home.
So we figured it out pretty,you know, figured it out by.
You know 2004, 2005, we had itall.
(13:06):
We kind of had it figured out.
So, but doing thingsdifferently, you know, just, I
don't know that I would havebeen able to really change my
travel schedule, but I do.
I would have changed the factthat I felt like I'm the big CEO
so I'm gone a lot, but when Iget back I need time to you know
, for myself kind of a thingwhich that that would be the one
(13:28):
thing I would definitely flip.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Remember time for Doug.
Don't don't forget time forDoug, because it's just as
important to you when you havekids.
It's not about you anymore.
No.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
That's something that .
That's something that, with theego that I was really, that it
was carrying I was carryingaround, was hard for me to see.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
I I understand completely.
I have two kids and it's likeI'm running this business and
sometimes I go home and Irealize I'm following up on
emails and I tell myself, oh,it's only going to take a minute
.
And I look at the clock andit's eight o'clock and it's
their bedtime.
And my wife's really good.
She calls me out and she goeshey, put your phone down.
You know it's family time andI'm like, okay, phone goes down.
She calls it, how it is.
So you actually wrote a bookand it's called the 9 am meeting
(14:08):
.
What's that about?
What's that all geared around?
Speaker 2 (14:12):
So we thought we had a story to tell.
So it's our employee turnover,it's the first part of it's a
company story.
It's just kind of like allright, here's how we started,
the mistakes we made, the growth, the problems that we had, all
that kind of stuff, and thengetting it straightened out.
So we tell the story.
But one thing that weidentified is that our turnover
in one market was different thanthe other markets and we
(14:35):
started digging into that.
And that was the market whereNick Velotti, who's our VP of
sales, and I mean he's in chargeof the whole, all the stores
and all the people.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Great guy, by the way .
I've actually been able to talkto him a few times and he
always has great conversations.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
He's the best We've been together for 23 years.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
It's always good to have that strong partner.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
So what was going on differently is he was meeting
with people in his office.
He just had an open sign up Ifyou want to come in and just
talk about life, you can come in.
And he did those at 9 am.
And so we started talking aboutit and like what are you doing
with everybody?
He's like, well, we're justtalking about life.
He's like when you ask thesesalespeople what do they want,
(15:15):
he's like you just get the deerin the headlights, look.
And so he started to help themdream a little bit, try to
figure out what are the thingsthat were important to them,
whether it would be personal,could be financial, it could be
physical, it could be justplaces they want to travel, just
all these different things.
So he had all these categoriesand he just helped people kind
of start dreaming a little bitand then, okay, what are the
(15:35):
things that need to happen tostart doing those things?
And in a lot of cases it waspeople were carrying debt or
things like that.
So we started working on afinancial piece model where
people could they could enrollin that, they could start to get
themselves out of debt, startto get an emergency fund built
up and then start saving money.
But the whole thing with whathe was doing, it was just such a
(15:58):
much more personal touch and wewere not afraid to put personal
and work together.
I love that, you know, becauseeverybody's got a mirror they
look in it's their work mirror.
And everybody's got a mirrorthey look in it's their home
mirror.
And if you got an unhappy facelooking back at you in one of
those two mirrors, it affectsthe other one 100%.
And so we're like well, if wecan help equip people with more
tools so that that home mirroris smiling back at them, that's
(16:22):
gonna help them.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Break that barrier.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
So we're like all right, we're gonna do something
different and we're gonna starttalking about how work and
personal go together.
We had one guy came in and he'slike my wife told me this was
career suicide if I came in andstarted talking about my
personal life, you know, becausehis wife is working, that's all
they know.
His wife works at one of the bigcompanies like a principal or a
Wells Fargo, and it's hey howyou doing Great.
Yeah, it wasn't.
(16:46):
You know, I'm gonna say it'sgreat, even though my radiator
just blew up on my car and Ineed a new dishwasher and I
can't afford to pay for you toone of them.
So the water cooler talkchanged and that's what we
started noticing that and so wewrote a book about it.
We figured out our turnover.
It cost us around $6,700 aperson that we would turn over
(17:07):
and that would be in lost salesand productivity.
You know the cost of hiring,cost of training, all those
things.
It was $6,700 a person, wow.
So Nick's market back then hewas a market director, not that
he wasn't over the whole thing,but his market when he was doing
this stuff I mean his turnoverpercentage is around 26%.
(17:29):
Chicago was over 100%.
Nebraska was over 100%.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Missouri was over 100%, so he's at this 22%.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Something is happening here.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
He's doing something, he's showing it, and that's
what we figured out, so we wrotea book about it.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
It's called Taming the Turnover Tiger and, but it's
helping people connect the dotsbetween why do they go to work
and what do they want out oflife, and when you put those two
things together, it's reallypretty cool what's happened, and
so we've had a lot of fun withthat, and I really love that.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Yeah, I always ask people to.
One of my questions is if youdidn't get paid for what you
were doing, would you still goto work?
Yeah, and a lot of people lookat me like obviously no, and
they'll have that culture.
That's important, I would stillgo because I'm getting the
knowledge I'm learning.
They care about me, theyactually want to see me succeed.
They want to actually buildvalue in my life, and not many
employers do that.
(18:16):
And so a 9 am meeting where ifsomeone wants to buy your book,
can they get it on Amazon.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
We can get it on Amazon.
But I mean, if you've gotpeople listening to this, if
they want to shoot me an email,just send it to ceo at
selladvantagecom.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Ceo at selladvantagecom.
That's just kind of the generic.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
That's kind of the generic email for cellular
advantage.
But it'll get to me and I'lljust send you one.
So I got to stack them in theoffice and if we run out of them
, that would be good for you,and then people can go buy them
on Amazon.
Yeah, so go buy the book.
Let's sell out, yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
So that's amazing.
And now you just recently, yourdaughter just got married.
She did and it like, lookingback on it, you could probably
see how, how fast time goes by.
One of the probably the talk tome a little bit about that day
how are you feeling when she wasgetting married?
Did you have any flashbacks ofher being little?
Or, of course, how was that day?
Speaker 2 (19:07):
The day was perfect in about every way and I somehow
held it together for the mostpart, the tears from falling
Exactly Flo and I'm thinking ofmy daughters.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
I'm like man they're only four in eight months now,
but I can't imagine a few yearswhen they're getting married and
I'm just having to hold backthese tears.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
The days are long and the years are short, so, but
you know they open the door forus to walk down the aisle and
she's got her.
You know, her hand in my armand I could feel her start to
shake and I'm like, all right, Igot to hold it together because
I'm like if I lose it, she'sgoing to lose it and then it's
going to be a mess going downthe aisle.
So we made it down the aisle,okay, and I just, you know, I
said, hey, we got this, we'regoing to be good, and she and we
(19:44):
love, we love the guy shemarried, he's, he's wonderful
and the day was great and itit's uh, but man, it just it's
like a blink of an eye, that'sfor sure.
It goes by so fast.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Everyone tells you that and before you have kids
are like, wait till you havekids, it'll go by fast.
And I was that naive personthat said, no, what do you mean?
It won't change anything.
And then I have my first kidand I realized that I blinked.
In two years, sure.
And it's just, it's amazing thatwhat time does.
I think that's why it's soimportant to buy time, and a lot
of times I think people look atit and they go you can't buy
(20:16):
time.
And you've been able to buytime, and the way you've been
able to buy time is through theright staffing and being able to
have the right management teamin place.
So talk to me a little bitabout that, um, buying your time
.
What was it like the first timethat you stepped outside of
your business for like, let'ssay, a week or two weeks and you
knew it could run without you?
What was your feeling?
Speaker 2 (20:35):
No, the feelings.
I mean.
That's probably one of the mostgratifying things is just
knowing that if I'm not there,nobody's going to know the
difference at this point, whichis great because, um, you know
what we've, what we've done, andagain, I don't know if we
lucked into it or what, butwe've got myself and three other
three other people who are, I'dcall it, kind of the leadership
(20:55):
team and we've got.
Each of the four of us knowsthe things that we're not any
good at.
Each of the four of us knowswhat things we are good at, and
we are very comfortable inletting Matt handle anything
that needs to be analyzed, itneeds to be processed, it needs
(21:15):
to be done from a numberstandpoint.
Nick's so good with the people.
Todd, operationally, is alwaysable to figure out a better way
to get things done.
But we're all I mean wecompliment each other a lot and
that's what I think you know.
Call it dumb luck or call itwhatever, but we've got a group
that kind of fills in eachother's gaps and that's
something that's been.
(21:36):
That's been great for us, andyou know that's know your
strengths.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
know your weakness, Know your strengths and don't
rely on those that are betterthan you.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
And don't try to fake it.
I mean, if you're not good atsomething, it's okay to say that
you're not good at it Ask forhelp, Right.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Some people don't want to ask for help.
It's like ask for help if youneed it and there's stuff that.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
And then I think, when you get to the next level
is where there's things thatyou're good at but they suck the
life out of you.
I was pretty good at readingthe lease and figuring out what
should and shouldn't be in thelease, but I mean I get done
with it and I'm just like, wow,you know, I just feel like I
just went through a battle.
And you know, todd's reallygood at that and maybe he feels
the same way and he's just doingit because he's nice, but he
(22:19):
goes through those things and heI mean, he's good at
negotiating these things, he'sgood at finding the different
things that we need in them, andbut getting to the point where
not only I mean at the pointwhere I can really just work on
the things that I'm good at andthey give me energy as compared
to things I'm good at, thatmight take energy away, I think
you enjoy Right Things.
I enjoy and that's and that'swhat's, that's what's really fun
(22:42):
for me.
Like we just had our leadershipsummit a couple of months ago,
so we had all of our storeleaders into Des Moines and you
know, you just get to speak intothose people you know and you
get to see them at work andyou're just like man.
It's the most proud feelingthat you can have, for when you
see, you know the, the talentand the, you know the love they
have for each other comingtogether is really cool.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
So it's it's just a feeling.
It's almost hard to explainit's.
It's overwhelming, doug, it's.
It's been my pleasure to beable to have you on this podcast
.
If somebody wanted to find moreinformation about you, where
can they go?
Speaker 2 (23:14):
I mean Read your book .
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Read the book.
I mean you've got.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
I mean I'm on Twitter , doug Eklund on Instagram, doug
Eklund on, you know, Facebook.
You got LinkedIn.
All that stuff.
It's just pretty easy to, nothard to find.
So it's it's I love.
I love your story.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
It's so powerful and I really want to say thank you
so much for taking the time tocome on the by time podcast and
talk about how you can youpurchase your time and all the
strengths and struggles you wentthrough.
Really cool to have me on.
I love it.
So, guys, that is anotherepisode of the by time podcast.
Thank you so much for listening.
Make sure to share this withsomebody that needs to hear the
story, and if you are needinghelp with buying time, let me
(23:48):
know.
Send me a DM.
Make sure to buy the book the9am meeting and let's sell out
all the copies.
Thanks, Until next time.
Thanks for listening to today'sepisode.
My name is Jacob K Mead, anduntil next time.
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