September 16, 2025 • 38 mins
What if you could make better business decisions with the same clarity as an MRI—but for the mind?
In this episode of the Business Roundtable Podcast, host David W. Carr sits down with Dr. Tony Alessandra—Hall of Fame speaker, bestselling author of The Platinum Rule, and founder of Assessments 24x7. With over 50 years of experience in professional speaking, leadership training, and assessment development, Tony shares how tools like DISC, Motivators, and Emotional Intelligence unlock self-awareness, strengthen teams, and drive measurable business results.
From selling cookware alongside Zig Ziglar to building a multimillion-dollar assessment company, Tony’s journey is packed with insights on leadership, culture, and the future of assessments in the AI era.
In this episode, you’ll discover:
🔗 Connect with Dr. Tony Alessandra
Website: https://assessments24x7.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonyalessandra
Email: tony@assessments24x7.com
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/business-roundtable--6049255/support.
Watch more episodes on YouTube and subscribe here:
https://www.youtube.com/@steward_your_business
Connect with Steward Your Business:
Website: https://stewardyourbusiness.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidwcarr
In this episode of the Business Roundtable Podcast, host David W. Carr sits down with Dr. Tony Alessandra—Hall of Fame speaker, bestselling author of The Platinum Rule, and founder of Assessments 24x7. With over 50 years of experience in professional speaking, leadership training, and assessment development, Tony shares how tools like DISC, Motivators, and Emotional Intelligence unlock self-awareness, strengthen teams, and drive measurable business results.
From selling cookware alongside Zig Ziglar to building a multimillion-dollar assessment company, Tony’s journey is packed with insights on leadership, culture, and the future of assessments in the AI era.
In this episode, you’ll discover:
- Why assessments are like an MRI of the mind and how they reveal hidden strengths
- How DISC and Motivators improve hiring, leadership, and conflict resolution
- The problem with “one-and-done” assessments—and how to maximize their value
- How AI-powered assessments are transforming coaching, sales, and team alignment
- Why knowing yourself is powerful, but knowing others is even more important
🔗 Connect with Dr. Tony Alessandra
Website: https://assessments24x7.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonyalessandra
Email: tony@assessments24x7.com
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/business-roundtable--6049255/support.
Watch more episodes on YouTube and subscribe here:
https://www.youtube.com/@steward_your_business
Connect with Steward Your Business:
Website: https://stewardyourbusiness.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidwcarr
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Welcome back to the Business Roundtable podcast. I am your host,
David Carr, founder of Steward your Business bringing teams together
to accomplish great things. And this week we have another
fantastic guest, one that I've followed for many years, doctor
Tony Alessandra. I'm super excited to have him here and
to share with us his background and you're going to
get just a wealth of knowledge, understanding, practical insights here.
(00:57):
We're going what I'm tit on this, I all be
going on on the gut why assessments drive smarter business decisions.
So welcome to the podcast, Tony, Thank you David. Absolutely, Tony,
You've been around, you have been you know, working with
as a speaker. People may have known you, they may
have followed your emails and speaking for years, and now
(01:20):
you've been the founder of Assessments twenty four to seven,
which I'm super excited to get into that are really
about a set of tools and resources that really drive
alignment and results. But before we get into Assessments Themseelves,
I always love to have our guests give us a
little bit about your journey as a business owner, as
a leader and what brought you to assessments twenty four
to seven today.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yeah, so let me go way back, David. I grew
up in the projects of New York City. Growing up,
went to Catholic school. In Catholic school, every month we
had a new thing we had to sell, you know,
to our relatives and or to door you know, candy cars,
you know, chances to win a car, whatever, whatever, and
(02:05):
I would always always do well. So it started instilling
in me that I was a good salesperson even as
a little kid. As the years went on, I went
away to college and my parents only had enough money
saved to pay for my freshman year. And my mother
(02:26):
said to me, don't worry. Something will something will happen.
My mother, you know, had this vision something will happen.
And here I was now between my freshmen and sophomore year.
Parents didn't have the money to pay for my sophomore year.
So I got a job doing construction and within one
week the contractor, the general contractor came up to me,
(02:48):
knelt down beside me. I was on the roof hammering
and nails. He knelt down beside me, put beside me,
put his arm around me, and said, Tony become a doctor.
So that was just way of fire in me. That night,
I was at a party and I was telling the story.
I'm a storyteller, so tell the story making people laugh.
(03:09):
And one of the guys who was on the football
team with me at our high school, Tom's Over High
School in New Jersey. He was a year behind me,
but now he had graduated, and he said, Hey, why
don't you come work for my uncle? And I said,
doing what he said selling cookware door to door? I said,
I know nothing about it. He said, money, you know,
(03:33):
Come try it? So I did. I tried it out.
In the nine weeks I had left for that summer,
made several thousands of dollars enough to pay for my tuition,
room board, spending money, everything. And I did that for
two more summers. It's interesting that as I was doing
(03:53):
that and earning all this money to pay for my education,
my parents never had to pay another penny. The top
salesperson from Texas I was in New Jersey, the top
salesperson from Texas. Are you ready for this telling cookwear?
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Zig Ziggler, Oh my gosh, seriously.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Yeah. Now we both sold salad Master cookware back in
the mid to late sixties. So Anyway, I graduated Notre Dame,
went to University of Connecticut, got my MBA, decided to
become a college profit with an MBA. Did that for
three years, and then I decided, no, I really like
(04:33):
this college teaching, but in order to really stay in it,
I have to get a PhD. I looked around. I
found Georgia State University in Atlanta. The reason I chose
that is when I was a kid, there were a
couple of books that I read. I was I really
was into motivational things, and one of the books with
(04:54):
Psycho Cybernetics, which I loved. I don't know if you
ever read that, by Maxim Law. The other one was
The Magic of Thinking Big by doctor David Schwartz, multimillion
best selling book, and he was a prophet Georgia State University.
So I called him up, said look, I'd like to
come there, which would be my dissertation chairman. He said yes, State.
(05:15):
They gave me a teaching position which helped pay for everything.
Got my PhD, and then got a teaching position at
the University of San Diego. So I live in San
Diego now, but came out here in seventy six after
two years of teaching. And at the time, by the way,
(05:36):
I should say, in November of seventy four, I had
finished all my course work and I went to this
little workshop about personality styles, which I had never been
exposed for. This was November of seventy four. I sat
through this and if you believe in love at first
(05:56):
sight but for a concept, and this is what I
want to do. So you know, I started doing some
training and speaking around these four styles. And so now
in seventy eight September seventy eight, the dean of the
(06:17):
School of Business in San Diego said, Tony, you know
you're speaking a lot and training a lot, you're teaching
you know what, You got to pick one or the other.
And I said, you know, Dean, I've been teaching now
for eight years. I'll finish out this semester, but I
will give my my a go at being a professional,
(06:40):
full time professional speaker. So on January seventy nine, full
time professional speaker did that average probably one hundred paid
speeches a year for about forty years. But I will
tell you so this is it started January seventy nine
where I actually was. Now I'm not a teacher anymore.
At least academic teacher, and now I was a speaker.
(07:03):
But the travel was killing me. It really was. So
I decided in two thousand, I took my entire staff,
my office, everything, my speaking, spun them off into their
own business, sold it to my VP of marketing, and said, hey,
I'll work for you rather than you working for me,
(07:25):
and I'll just pay you in percentages. So I started
doing that. But at that moment, that was in two thousand,
I had already either late ninety nine or early two thousand,
said you know what, I'm going to make a business
of the assessments. I really was intrigued with it because
in ninety six, from seventy four to ninety six, everything
(07:46):
was paper based. In ninety six, I decided to put
it online, The Platinum Rule Assessment Online was getting thousands
upon thousands of people taking it every month for free
because I wanted to sell my book, The Platinum Rule.
And it took me a while. You know, again, I
was actively speaking, making good money, you know, my focus
(08:07):
was there. I was still watching, you know, this platinumal assessment,
and I started saying, you know, this could be a business.
So I was on the phone with a company I
had hired out of Florida to build the platform for
me so that I can sell the assessments. And I
(08:27):
got on the phone with them. I just realized that
it wasn't going to work with them, and they told me,
you know, you can't use anything we've already done for you.
I said, no problem. I hung up the phone. This
twenty two year old kid was in my office working
on my website and he said, excuse me, Tony, I'm
sorry I overheard the conversation. Could you give me a shot? Wow,
(08:50):
we try to develop this. You know, I had nobody else.
I said, way to go. So he dug into it.
He built something. Our first customer, Ken Blanchard.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Oh my gosh, the author of The.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
One Minute Manager, talk about luck. Yes, I will tell you.
I say that my life was has been filled with luck,
filled with luck. I honestly think I have an angel
on my shoulder.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
You're blessed.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Absolutely, it just has been incredible. So I built it
Ken Blanchard the University of Phoenix, which was a big client,
and this kid, you know, kept improving things, and then
he started hiring some people for me, other it people.
And that was in two thousand and here we are
(09:46):
now in twenty twenty five, and that young kid who
now is getting ready to turn forty eight this summer
is my CEO of the company.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
That Wow, what a journey, guys, guy.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Brandon Parker, And I mean he does an incredible job.
The employees love him. He handles everything in the company.
I mean we have a COO and so on, but
he just does an incredible job. So there came a
point where I had to actually stop speaking because I
(10:23):
figured as the business, the assessment business, grew, I cut
back little by little by little. I was waiting for
the right time. I wanted to do a mic drop speech.
I wanted to go out on top David. I didn't
want people to be saying, jeez, I remember when he
was good. I want to go out where people would
(10:44):
be saying, what are you crazy? So that happened. In
April of twenty two. I gave my mic drop speech
in Las Vegas and that was it. I haven't spoken since.
So it's been over three years. I have not given
a speech, and all my energy and devotion is to
this company. But again, Brandon runs the company, not me anymore.
(11:08):
You know, I'm there. I jokingly tell brand and every
so often, Brandon, I've taught you everything you know about
this business, but not everything I know. It's still some
things I have. You know that I'm not necessarily holding
them back, but the occasion hasn't come up for me
to convey that additional knowledge to him. I love the
(11:32):
assessment business. And the reason I love it. I was
just on the phone with somebody this morning, actually a competitor,
but a lot of competitors in the assessment industry, our friends.
We've won each other for many years. I've been in
the business now over fifty years, and I was talking
to him and one of the assessments that he sells
(11:56):
is called a strong vocational assessment. I took that assessment
back in nineteen seventy three.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Oh wow, And it tells you what.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
You'd be good at. So when I took it, I
was a college profit at cal State Fullerton, and it
said number three. It said it had a whole list
of things. But number three said I'd be good in
marketing and merchandising. Well, hey, yeah, of course. Number two
said I'd be good at sales.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Well of course, yeah, there you go.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
But number one I looked at it. I said, this
is absolutely crazy. Remember this was nineteen seventy three. I said,
I can't believe how absolutely wrong this was, and I
filed it away. So, as you know, I became a
full time professional speaker in January seventy nine. I was
gifted enough to be inducted into the Speakers Hall of Fame.
(12:49):
In nineteen eighty five, I was doing one hundred plus
paid speeches a year. And then in the early nineties
I decided to get this multi paid each facts and
that facts scanning machine A zero and I wanted to
take all my file the file cabinets, and one folder
(13:09):
at a time, one drawer, one folder. I would I
would scan it and then save it on my computer.
One day I'd come across that strong vocational.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
Oh you found it again because I filed.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
It away and I look at it and I say,
oh my god, I can't believe this number one professional speaker.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
And back in seventy three, and you just file it away.
Huh yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
But in the at seventy three it was a frame
of reference.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Yeah, yeah, who's yeah?
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Accurate? Was that?
Speaker 3 (13:42):
Wow? And there you did it for.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Just told me that you know the right assessments can
be life changing. So that strong vocational I really, even
though we don't market it at all, I'm a real
advocate of it. But you know, assessments, David, they're like
I described them as an MRI of the mind, right,
(14:08):
just like you know, when you go into a medical
thing and you get an MRI, it kind of really
gives you an insight, a deeper insight than even an
X ray to what may or may not be wrong.
And that's what assessments do. And there are many different assessments.
We have several We have emotional intelligence, We have motivators,
which tell you why you do what you do. Are
(14:30):
you're more economically motivated, more theoretically motivated, more esthetically or
you know, altruistically. But our biggest seller is the DISK assessment.
And that was when I went to that little workshop
in November of nineteen seventy four. This is what it
(14:51):
was about. It was about the four style model. It
was something that was so near and dear to my heart.
It was my number one speech that I have been giving,
you know, since nineteen seventy four all the way through
twenty twenty two. So the DISK assessment is really really significant.
One of the best selling, if not the best selling
(15:13):
in the world. Assessment. So one of the problems David,
and why some people are not really into some people
or companies are not into assessments.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
You know, it's hard to tell you one reason, but
I think some people equate some of these assessments. If
you ever remember, you know, in some magazines they used
to have these little quizzes you know, yeah, right, answer
the quizes, and they sometimes equate it to these you know,
pop psych Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Yeah, they're very simplistic.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Yeah, very simplistic, which is so far from the truth.
And then even if they don't believe that, a lot
of people when they use assessments, they use what's called
one and done. The assessment is taken, they look at it,
they read it, maybe even get a little bit of
a debrief, but then file it away and that's it.
(16:10):
And to me, that is taking incredibly valuable information and
just stuffing it in a draw and forgetting about it.
We believe in using it in many different ways, using
it for team building, using it for conflict resolution, using
it for leadership development, using it for sales development, using
(16:34):
it for actually taking candidates, and using it from a
hiring perspective. Now, not as you don't want to use
an assessment. I'm just telling you my opinion here. Use
an assessment to say you're hired or not hired of
the puzzle, right, David, another piece along with your resume,
(16:57):
your background, your education. Absolutely, but but then again let's
look at a resume. A resume to me is like
a balance sheet with no debits. That whereas like a
disk assessment is much more objective and a disc assessment
(17:18):
is very difficult to gain because you're not really sure
how to answer these questions what are they looking for?
Uh And there are ways where the assessment gets thrown
out if you know, pull.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
It too much.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
We you know so uh and uh So there's a
lot of different ways that you can use it within
a company, and we encourage that, you know, for all
the things that I just mentioned. But here we are
today with the the growth of artificial intelligence and what
that does. So what we did is within the last month,
(17:56):
we just came out with our own uh art official intelligence.
It's AI assessments intelligence, and so we have a closed
system and what it does is absolutely incredible. So let's
let's talk about it for a company so a company
(18:18):
decides to and let me just use with this because
it could be used with our motivators or emotional intelligence.
So let's just talk about this. So let's say everybody
in our company, and I'm going to make believe you
and I are in this company, h and everybody in
our company has the disk assessment. You run a division,
(18:39):
I run a division. We don't report to each other.
We're peers. But yet I need to influence you. Wait,
let's say that I'm I'm I'm sales. I run the
sales department. You run the production. And you know sales
and production are always like this because well sales is
always promising yeah we can do.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
That, Yeah we could do that, and.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
You've promised them what by when? But so now I've
got to try to convince you to go ahead and
do this custom project. So I can now with our
artificial intelligence, with our AI. Now that I know your
we have your disk and my disc, I can ask
(19:23):
our AI. Look, I'm going into a meeting with David
and I have to say, David Carr.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
So it's the rate, Yes, yes, there you go do And.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
I need to convince him about doing this this and
this what is the best way to approach him, and
what should I avoid, and it will tell me exactly
what to do with you. And it doesn't do it
based on D I, S C. And for those who
are not familiar with DISC, it's dominance, influence, steadiness, and conscientioussiness.
(20:00):
It goes much deeper than that, even to the way
you answered the questions in the report. So it goes
a whole bunch deeper than just oh a d No.
It looks deeper, and it will tell me exactly how
to deal with you. If I'm a salesperson and I
need to sell somebody and that person has taken the disc,
(20:22):
let's say a customer, I can actually let's say I
have a customer. Hey, look before we start working with
each other, Hey, I have a free disc that you
need to be interesting. So a person takes the disk
and I say to our AI with an assessment's twenty
four to seven. Hey, David is a new customer. What's
(20:43):
the best way to approach him, What's the best way
to present, what's the best way to ask for a commitment?
What's the best way to assure long term customer satisfaction?
It will tell me exactly what to do with you
will not believe what we have fed into our AI system.
(21:06):
It's a major undertaket. It's a closed system because all
of our data is in there. And when I say
all of our data, we're talking about multi, multi millions
of different assessments.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
So this is so powerful, Tony, I wanted to get
I wanted to go back because what you said was,
I feel like a lot of people there's a lot
of information. A lot of people take an assessment or
watch a video or get the book, but it's a
lot more about that. Like what you're saying is you're
actually taking the data, and in this case of the AI,
you're actually working it. You're like, how do I leverage
(21:42):
this to help me make better decisions? How to show up?
And I think that's the real power of these assessments.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
And I agree with you.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
A lot of people, I feel like gets stuck in
and they take it, but they don't really understand how
to leverage the power of the tool and the resource.
And that's why I love having you on here because
as coach consultant myself having taken I actually have taken
multiple assessments from you, the disc and the motivators among others,
and so I find revelation and then it's like, Okay,
(22:10):
I apply it to myself and then how do I
help my clients?
Speaker 3 (22:14):
You know?
Speaker 1 (22:14):
So it's it's extremely powerful. I hope folks that are
listening to this resistance to assessments. It's not about like
putting people in a box. It's just like they say,
how do you understand how people naturally show up? And
how I can better manage and lead and communicate more effectively.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
That's what I'm hearing from you, Tony.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
I mean, so the fact that you have this and
I love how you pair up and.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
The way that with this is with with other business
owners and coaches, and we can we can help bring
it to our clients because it's it's fused. We still
have at the end of the day, we still need
human connection, I think more than ever in our in
our world today, you know, we want to be known, understood,
and the computer is great, but at the end, how
what's my relationship like with having you here, the people
(23:03):
in my life, the coworkers, you know, we want to
have better relationships and I feel like in our world
today we're really struggling with having real, deep, authentic relationships.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Yeah. And it's interesting you use the term authentic because
we were toying with the idea of calling our AI
authentic intelligence, because that's what it is. And you know,
I know, I've been talking about this from a business
point of view, but it works in personal relationships, so
(23:35):
with your spouse or significant others, with your children, with
your children and their teachers. It just goes on and on.
We actually have an assessment called the Kids disc which
is incredible. It's a whole different questionnaire that's aimed at
kids typically in the third through eighth or ninth grade.
(24:00):
Port is a three part report. Part one describes the
child based on how the questions are answered. Part two
is for the parent, now that you know the child style,
what should you be doing?
Speaker 3 (24:13):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
Three is for the teachers or coaches that now say, okay,
now that you know about the style, this child's style,
what's the best way to coach them or teach them? Uh?
And and it's it is unbelievable, really unbelievable. And with kids,
instead of using d SC, we use little birds an eagle, owl, dove,
(24:38):
and parrot. You know. So because so the kids that
you know, remember it much more and you know it's
it's very colorful. So we really dig into this. We
are really into the assessment business because we believe it
not only helps people, it helps them communicate, It helps
it helps them connect, helps them persuade. It just goes
(25:03):
on and on.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
Right, I mean, I love how and you talked about it.
I mean, so influence. We're always talking about influence, right,
how do we don't we can?
Speaker 3 (25:12):
We don't understand that? Number one.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
I think sometimes Tony, the assessments give you maybe a
reality check of like you said, I didn't even think
about the speaking, you know, when you did that one
assessment of like, I don't even think that's real for me,
but it really ultimately was. You didn't even recognize it
in your at that time, like that was even in
your purview. And I think a lot of times we
get closed off assessments. To me, at least, it's like
a mirror back and saying, oh wow, I didn't realize that,
(25:36):
because at least for me, Tony, I I growing up.
I will adapt and try to show up in a
certain way because other people want me to show up
that way. And I've learned that's a more you know
it's it's not my preferred way of being. It's because
I've been cultivated in a way in our world, and
I think assessments can cut through that. Like you said,
you can try and game it, but it's going to
(25:56):
cut through. And you're like, I never, I didn't think.
I didn't see it that way before.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Right? Have you had those aha moments with people? Yeah,
you're like, wait a minute.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
We rarely, rarely, if ever, have somebody tell us this
did not describe us the right way. In fact, the
last time, some guy said, you know, I took the
assessment and it doesn't describe me at all. I want
my money back. And we said, fine, we're going to
give you your money back. But before that, uh, why
don't you go because he had mentioned, you know, he
(26:27):
was married, why don't you go ask have your spouse
look at it and asked her if it describes you?
And he came back to us and said, I don't
want my money back, you know, so you know, she said,
this is exactly like you. He didn't see himself that way,
but she said, this is exactly who you are. It
is absolutely uncanny how accurate the assessment is in describing
(26:53):
people and you mentioned you know, your business being a
consultant and how you help other people and businesses. I
would say our biggest customers at Assessments twenty four to
seven would be business coaches, yourself, companies that want to
(27:13):
develop their employees. We have numerous universities, universities that use
it for development of staff and faculty, but also using
it in certain business and psychology courses with their students.
We have the government, my gosh, one of the big
(27:36):
ways for the government. You know, the government has a
lot of people coming in and let's just actually, let's
talk more specifically about the military. The military has a
bunch of new people coming in. How do I get
the best out of these people? And a whole bunch
of people coming out? How do we take the people,
particularly coming out of the military and giving them suggestions
(28:00):
and advice on what they should or could do. Here's
an interesting thing, David. I don't know if you've tested
our our ai yet, but why don't you ask, you know,
with your disk, ask our ai what are the best
occupations for me? See what it says I would love
to do.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
I've got I've got my assessments.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
I'm gonna go back in there, ton You've give me
a challenge, So I'm going to go test your AI.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
Do it. And you know, if you're married and you
and your spouse take the assessment, go in and say, hey,
what's the best I mean, look, look it's our twentieth anniversary.
What's the best present I can get from my spouse?
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Oh? There you go.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
You won't believe what you can ask and how accurate
the answers are because it is AI but using our
it's using the AI out there in the world, but
our data it's more precise to an individual person's assessment.
(29:02):
I mean, it really is unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
Yeah, Tony, I mean you're this you're teaching the acquire teaching.
I love this stuff too. I'm with you, I'm all,
but I hear a lot of business owners what I
found as a coach. He told in guiding them and
saying you and I know how valuable this is. And
I think sometimes they're like, well, I just want to
get another tool or system, like something else in the
marketplace that's going to fix the problem of my company.
(29:26):
And it's really their people. We all need systems and processes,
don't get me wrong, we need those things. But sometimes
I feel like that they feel like that that's going
to be the answer instead of investing, like we're talking about,
so speak maybe to the business owners just thinking for
a minute, like why should I invest the time?
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Because I don't have time to do the assessment. My
people are going to take it out.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
They're going to like speak a little bit to that
tony of like what you've seen, because there's a resistance
there of like wow, we don't have time for this
learning and development stuff and you know.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Yeah, so and really it's not that much time. Yeah,
in fifteen minutes to do the assess I would say
that you're there.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
You go look at that.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
And again, if you have your whole all the employees
in your company take it. It's their fifteen minutes, not yours.
But when you get all the data back, it's just
it's so enlightening because we could you can create these
graphs to show where all the people land. See where
there are where you have an over abundance of employees
(30:26):
and where you're lacking in a particular area. You know, hey,
I lack in this area which is you know, checking
detail whatever, or I'm over extended in this area where
we're all, you know, high eye sales types, so everything
is all great, when in fact it's not necessarily all great,
(30:47):
you know, so you really it doesn't take that much time.
And of course, you know, I don't know if you've
been through. We have some audio programs that that are
not audio video. We call it a virtual training, virtual training.
You can go through this disc virtual training. Everybody can
go through it on their own. You don't have to
have a separate session there. It gives them at least
(31:09):
a basic background. Our reports, by the way, as opposed
to reports from let's say, competitors, A lot of competitors'
reports it's pretty much all about you, whereas our reports
it's about you, and then there's a whole section on Okay,
(31:30):
now that you know about you, here's how you use
it with other people. You know, when I was growing up,
I was, and still to this day, my two big things.
I keep saying this to our staff simplicity and practicality.
Make it simple so that people understand it and show
them how they can use it on a day to
(31:52):
day basis. And that's what our reports do. Simple and practical.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Yeah no, that's great, Tony. I hope everybody's hearing that.
And I agree it's important to understand you by yourself,
But then what is it like to be on the
other side of you? And I agree with you, those
those the assessments that's just about you aren't as it's helpful,
but it's much more practical, like you said, and using
those and those are the ones I like. And that's
why why have you here, Tony, Because the value that
(32:17):
you're bringing, the assessment that I got, you know, just
from running that you gave me, there's just so much,
so much in there. It's it's it's amazing. You've done
a great job of putting that in there. We want
to make sure everybody that's listening to this podcast, you guys,
you know Tony and I are connected on LinkedIn.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
We're gonna put you know, Tony the links.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
Here to the website and all of that, so you
guys please go check it out. Tony's just again got
just so passionate about this. It's so impactful, like we
talked about, from hiring the leadership, development team, building, customer engagement, sales,
you name it, just a culture. And I'm a firm believer, Tony,
when you create this and your intentional like this your
(32:57):
example of you know, CEO, bring it, you get employees
that will stick around. From a business perspective, my experience
is that when you invest in this, people will stick around.
If they don't feel understood, if they don't feel like
you're saying appreciated, they'll leave.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
And I think it's so, and it's very costly.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
So keeping that that team intact, it really makes a
huge difference in the longevity of your business. The fact
that you had you know, this core team, Tony, just
speaks to your leadership number one, but you know, and
being intentional about that and knowing where your strengths are.
And I'll give you an example, Tony, because what you
brought up was, you know, knowing the difference and appreciating
(33:37):
these things. I had somebody that was very detail oriented
did the QAQUC, which I could do wasn't my strength,
and so that was great. He came into that position,
but he didn't value what I brought from as a
connector in a relationship side and said, why do you
need to be like this?
Speaker 3 (33:52):
We just we just got to do the system and
the process, and I said, we need both.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
But what happened is the company shifted and really just
focused only on the qaku. See before you know it,
people left left over time because like I don't feel
appreciated understood, and so.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
You need both.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
And that's where I feel like you make, you know,
using these assessments, working together and seeing that just is
so insightful, like you're saying, Tony, it can be. It's
just such a reverberation throughout the life of your company
and what is ultimately the legacy you're leaving. I love
what you've created, Tony. I mean, what a life of
design and intentionality that you've done, knowing and leaning into
(34:29):
your your strengths.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
Yeah, so, uh, what what I think I I'm leaving
is helping people build stronger into personal relationships, the ability
to communicate more effectively, the ability to listen and understand. Uh,
(34:52):
you know the platinum rule, which was really my baby.
The platinum rule is do unto others as they would
have you do unto them. So it's a whole concept
of understanding the other person and trying to meet them
at least halfway understand them. That's why travel for kids
(35:14):
is so crucial. Travel not just around the country but
around the world because you get to see how other
people are and you start saying to yourself, you know,
they're really not that different from us. But if you
don't know that, you think, wow, they're you know, they're
like alien, you know. But the whole thing is about
(35:35):
really helping people connect. And by the way, if people
want to connect with me on LinkedIn, obviously they just
go to LinkedIn dot com slash and my last name Tony,
not last name, my full name, Tony Alessandra. Don't put
the doctor there. Just all one word, all lower case
t O N y A L E S s A
(35:55):
N d r A. So that's how you get to
my site, and then just say that you want to
connect with me. If you want to really see our website.
For the assessments, just go to www dot assessments two
for X seven dot com. And uh, if you want
to just contact me, just say Tony at Assessments two
(36:20):
for X seven dot com. So Tony at assessments too
for X seven dot com. I'll be more than happy.
And I answer my own emails, you know, so I
don't have somebody looking at them and answering them for me.
You send me an email, I will answer it.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
Look at that. I love that, Tony, Well, that's why
what have you? I mean, you and I have made
this connection. Like I said, I'm so glad you're here.
I know we're getting to the end of the podcast,
but I'm so glad you're here because, like I said,
being following you for years, getting.
Speaker 3 (36:49):
To have you on the Business munt People podcasts through honor.
You know.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
I hope everybody's hearing loud and clear how important these
assessments are. If you would, in part, if they if
they take one thing from this this podcast, Tony, what
will you say if you've got nothing else, what would
you say be with them today our listeners?
Speaker 2 (37:06):
Well, I would say, uh, you know, knowing more about
yourself is absolutely crucial. Knowing more about other people is
as if not more important crucial. I used to teach listening,
and one of the phrases I had is when I talk,
(37:26):
I only know what I know, But when I listen,
not only do I know what I know, I now
know what you know. And listening is power. Assessments are power.
Assessments are sort of a digital way of listening and
understanding people.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
Love that. I love that. Thank you so much for
being here.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
Ever again, you guys know how to reach Tony directly now,
but of course you can leave comments, think your review.
We'll really appreciate that sharing this with others that you
felt out of that really helped to get the message
out there.
Speaker 3 (38:02):
Thank you again for being here County.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
With us my pleasure, David.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
Thanks for inviting me absolutely everybody time to help there.
Speaker 3 (38:11):
Thanks again for listening to everybody by now
Welcome back to the Business Roundtable podcast. I am your host,
David Carr, founder of Steward your Business bringing teams together
to accomplish great things. And this week we have another
fantastic guest, one that I've followed for many years, doctor
Tony Alessandra. I'm super excited to have him here and
to share with us his background and you're going to
get just a wealth of knowledge, understanding, practical insights here.
(00:57):
We're going what I'm tit on this, I all be
going on on the gut why assessments drive smarter business decisions.
So welcome to the podcast, Tony, Thank you David. Absolutely, Tony,
You've been around, you have been you know, working with
as a speaker. People may have known you, they may
have followed your emails and speaking for years, and now
(01:20):
you've been the founder of Assessments twenty four to seven,
which I'm super excited to get into that are really
about a set of tools and resources that really drive
alignment and results. But before we get into Assessments Themseelves,
I always love to have our guests give us a
little bit about your journey as a business owner, as
a leader and what brought you to assessments twenty four
to seven today.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yeah, so let me go way back, David. I grew
up in the projects of New York City. Growing up,
went to Catholic school. In Catholic school, every month we
had a new thing we had to sell, you know,
to our relatives and or to door you know, candy cars,
you know, chances to win a car, whatever, whatever, and
(02:05):
I would always always do well. So it started instilling
in me that I was a good salesperson even as
a little kid. As the years went on, I went
away to college and my parents only had enough money
saved to pay for my freshman year. And my mother
(02:26):
said to me, don't worry. Something will something will happen.
My mother, you know, had this vision something will happen.
And here I was now between my freshmen and sophomore year.
Parents didn't have the money to pay for my sophomore year.
So I got a job doing construction and within one
week the contractor, the general contractor came up to me,
(02:48):
knelt down beside me. I was on the roof hammering
and nails. He knelt down beside me, put beside me,
put his arm around me, and said, Tony become a doctor.
So that was just way of fire in me. That night,
I was at a party and I was telling the story.
I'm a storyteller, so tell the story making people laugh.
(03:09):
And one of the guys who was on the football
team with me at our high school, Tom's Over High
School in New Jersey. He was a year behind me,
but now he had graduated, and he said, Hey, why
don't you come work for my uncle? And I said,
doing what he said selling cookware door to door? I said,
I know nothing about it. He said, money, you know,
(03:33):
Come try it? So I did. I tried it out.
In the nine weeks I had left for that summer,
made several thousands of dollars enough to pay for my tuition,
room board, spending money, everything. And I did that for
two more summers. It's interesting that as I was doing
(03:53):
that and earning all this money to pay for my education,
my parents never had to pay another penny. The top
salesperson from Texas I was in New Jersey, the top
salesperson from Texas. Are you ready for this telling cookwear?
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Zig Ziggler, Oh my gosh, seriously.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Yeah. Now we both sold salad Master cookware back in
the mid to late sixties. So Anyway, I graduated Notre Dame,
went to University of Connecticut, got my MBA, decided to
become a college profit with an MBA. Did that for
three years, and then I decided, no, I really like
(04:33):
this college teaching, but in order to really stay in it,
I have to get a PhD. I looked around. I
found Georgia State University in Atlanta. The reason I chose
that is when I was a kid, there were a
couple of books that I read. I was I really
was into motivational things, and one of the books with
(04:54):
Psycho Cybernetics, which I loved. I don't know if you
ever read that, by Maxim Law. The other one was
The Magic of Thinking Big by doctor David Schwartz, multimillion
best selling book, and he was a prophet Georgia State University.
So I called him up, said look, I'd like to
come there, which would be my dissertation chairman. He said yes, State.
(05:15):
They gave me a teaching position which helped pay for everything.
Got my PhD, and then got a teaching position at
the University of San Diego. So I live in San
Diego now, but came out here in seventy six after
two years of teaching. And at the time, by the way,
(05:36):
I should say, in November of seventy four, I had
finished all my course work and I went to this
little workshop about personality styles, which I had never been
exposed for. This was November of seventy four. I sat
through this and if you believe in love at first
(05:56):
sight but for a concept, and this is what I
want to do. So you know, I started doing some
training and speaking around these four styles. And so now
in seventy eight September seventy eight, the dean of the
(06:17):
School of Business in San Diego said, Tony, you know
you're speaking a lot and training a lot, you're teaching
you know what, You got to pick one or the other.
And I said, you know, Dean, I've been teaching now
for eight years. I'll finish out this semester, but I
will give my my a go at being a professional,
(06:40):
full time professional speaker. So on January seventy nine, full
time professional speaker did that average probably one hundred paid
speeches a year for about forty years. But I will
tell you so this is it started January seventy nine
where I actually was. Now I'm not a teacher anymore.
At least academic teacher, and now I was a speaker.
(07:03):
But the travel was killing me. It really was. So
I decided in two thousand, I took my entire staff,
my office, everything, my speaking, spun them off into their
own business, sold it to my VP of marketing, and said, hey,
I'll work for you rather than you working for me,
(07:25):
and I'll just pay you in percentages. So I started
doing that. But at that moment, that was in two thousand,
I had already either late ninety nine or early two thousand,
said you know what, I'm going to make a business
of the assessments. I really was intrigued with it because
in ninety six, from seventy four to ninety six, everything
(07:46):
was paper based. In ninety six, I decided to put
it online, The Platinum Rule Assessment Online was getting thousands
upon thousands of people taking it every month for free
because I wanted to sell my book, The Platinum Rule.
And it took me a while. You know, again, I
was actively speaking, making good money, you know, my focus
(08:07):
was there. I was still watching, you know, this platinumal assessment,
and I started saying, you know, this could be a business.
So I was on the phone with a company I
had hired out of Florida to build the platform for
me so that I can sell the assessments. And I
(08:27):
got on the phone with them. I just realized that
it wasn't going to work with them, and they told me,
you know, you can't use anything we've already done for you.
I said, no problem. I hung up the phone. This
twenty two year old kid was in my office working
on my website and he said, excuse me, Tony, I'm
sorry I overheard the conversation. Could you give me a shot? Wow,
(08:50):
we try to develop this. You know, I had nobody else.
I said, way to go. So he dug into it.
He built something. Our first customer, Ken Blanchard.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Oh my gosh, the author of The.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
One Minute Manager, talk about luck. Yes, I will tell you.
I say that my life was has been filled with luck,
filled with luck. I honestly think I have an angel
on my shoulder.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
You're blessed.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Absolutely, it just has been incredible. So I built it
Ken Blanchard the University of Phoenix, which was a big client,
and this kid, you know, kept improving things, and then
he started hiring some people for me, other it people.
And that was in two thousand and here we are
(09:46):
now in twenty twenty five, and that young kid who
now is getting ready to turn forty eight this summer
is my CEO of the company.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
That Wow, what a journey, guys, guy.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Brandon Parker, And I mean he does an incredible job.
The employees love him. He handles everything in the company.
I mean we have a COO and so on, but
he just does an incredible job. So there came a
point where I had to actually stop speaking because I
(10:23):
figured as the business, the assessment business, grew, I cut
back little by little by little. I was waiting for
the right time. I wanted to do a mic drop speech.
I wanted to go out on top David. I didn't
want people to be saying, jeez, I remember when he
was good. I want to go out where people would
(10:44):
be saying, what are you crazy? So that happened. In
April of twenty two. I gave my mic drop speech
in Las Vegas and that was it. I haven't spoken since.
So it's been over three years. I have not given
a speech, and all my energy and devotion is to
this company. But again, Brandon runs the company, not me anymore.
(11:08):
You know, I'm there. I jokingly tell brand and every
so often, Brandon, I've taught you everything you know about
this business, but not everything I know. It's still some
things I have. You know that I'm not necessarily holding
them back, but the occasion hasn't come up for me
to convey that additional knowledge to him. I love the
(11:32):
assessment business. And the reason I love it. I was
just on the phone with somebody this morning, actually a competitor,
but a lot of competitors in the assessment industry, our friends.
We've won each other for many years. I've been in
the business now over fifty years, and I was talking
to him and one of the assessments that he sells
(11:56):
is called a strong vocational assessment. I took that assessment
back in nineteen seventy three.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Oh wow, And it tells you what.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
You'd be good at. So when I took it, I
was a college profit at cal State Fullerton, and it
said number three. It said it had a whole list
of things. But number three said I'd be good in
marketing and merchandising. Well, hey, yeah, of course. Number two
said I'd be good at sales.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Well of course, yeah, there you go.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
But number one I looked at it. I said, this
is absolutely crazy. Remember this was nineteen seventy three. I said,
I can't believe how absolutely wrong this was, and I
filed it away. So, as you know, I became a
full time professional speaker in January seventy nine. I was
gifted enough to be inducted into the Speakers Hall of Fame.
(12:49):
In nineteen eighty five, I was doing one hundred plus
paid speeches a year. And then in the early nineties
I decided to get this multi paid each facts and
that facts scanning machine A zero and I wanted to
take all my file the file cabinets, and one folder
(13:09):
at a time, one drawer, one folder. I would I
would scan it and then save it on my computer.
One day I'd come across that strong vocational.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
Oh you found it again because I filed.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
It away and I look at it and I say,
oh my god, I can't believe this number one professional speaker.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
And back in seventy three, and you just file it away.
Huh yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
But in the at seventy three it was a frame
of reference.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Yeah, yeah, who's yeah?
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Accurate? Was that?
Speaker 3 (13:42):
Wow? And there you did it for.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Just told me that you know the right assessments can
be life changing. So that strong vocational I really, even
though we don't market it at all, I'm a real
advocate of it. But you know, assessments, David, they're like
I described them as an MRI of the mind, right,
(14:08):
just like you know, when you go into a medical
thing and you get an MRI, it kind of really
gives you an insight, a deeper insight than even an
X ray to what may or may not be wrong.
And that's what assessments do. And there are many different assessments.
We have several We have emotional intelligence, We have motivators,
which tell you why you do what you do. Are
(14:30):
you're more economically motivated, more theoretically motivated, more esthetically or
you know, altruistically. But our biggest seller is the DISK assessment.
And that was when I went to that little workshop
in November of nineteen seventy four. This is what it
(14:51):
was about. It was about the four style model. It
was something that was so near and dear to my heart.
It was my number one speech that I have been giving,
you know, since nineteen seventy four all the way through
twenty twenty two. So the DISK assessment is really really significant.
One of the best selling, if not the best selling
(15:13):
in the world. Assessment. So one of the problems David,
and why some people are not really into some people
or companies are not into assessments.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
You know, it's hard to tell you one reason, but
I think some people equate some of these assessments. If
you ever remember, you know, in some magazines they used
to have these little quizzes you know, yeah, right, answer
the quizes, and they sometimes equate it to these you know,
pop psych Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Yeah, they're very simplistic.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Yeah, very simplistic, which is so far from the truth.
And then even if they don't believe that, a lot
of people when they use assessments, they use what's called
one and done. The assessment is taken, they look at it,
they read it, maybe even get a little bit of
a debrief, but then file it away and that's it.
(16:10):
And to me, that is taking incredibly valuable information and
just stuffing it in a draw and forgetting about it.
We believe in using it in many different ways, using
it for team building, using it for conflict resolution, using
it for leadership development, using it for sales development, using
(16:34):
it for actually taking candidates, and using it from a
hiring perspective. Now, not as you don't want to use
an assessment. I'm just telling you my opinion here. Use
an assessment to say you're hired or not hired of
the puzzle, right, David, another piece along with your resume,
(16:57):
your background, your education. Absolutely, but but then again let's
look at a resume. A resume to me is like
a balance sheet with no debits. That whereas like a
disk assessment is much more objective and a disc assessment
(17:18):
is very difficult to gain because you're not really sure
how to answer these questions what are they looking for?
Uh And there are ways where the assessment gets thrown
out if you know, pull.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
It too much.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
We you know so uh and uh So there's a
lot of different ways that you can use it within
a company, and we encourage that, you know, for all
the things that I just mentioned. But here we are
today with the the growth of artificial intelligence and what
that does. So what we did is within the last month,
(17:56):
we just came out with our own uh art official intelligence.
It's AI assessments intelligence, and so we have a closed
system and what it does is absolutely incredible. So let's
let's talk about it for a company so a company
(18:18):
decides to and let me just use with this because
it could be used with our motivators or emotional intelligence.
So let's just talk about this. So let's say everybody
in our company, and I'm going to make believe you
and I are in this company, h and everybody in
our company has the disk assessment. You run a division,
(18:39):
I run a division. We don't report to each other.
We're peers. But yet I need to influence you. Wait,
let's say that I'm I'm I'm sales. I run the
sales department. You run the production. And you know sales
and production are always like this because well sales is
always promising yeah we can do.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
That, Yeah we could do that, and.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
You've promised them what by when? But so now I've
got to try to convince you to go ahead and
do this custom project. So I can now with our
artificial intelligence, with our AI. Now that I know your
we have your disk and my disc, I can ask
(19:23):
our AI. Look, I'm going into a meeting with David
and I have to say, David Carr.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
So it's the rate, Yes, yes, there you go do And.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
I need to convince him about doing this this and
this what is the best way to approach him, and
what should I avoid, and it will tell me exactly
what to do with you. And it doesn't do it
based on D I, S C. And for those who
are not familiar with DISC, it's dominance, influence, steadiness, and conscientioussiness.
(20:00):
It goes much deeper than that, even to the way
you answered the questions in the report. So it goes
a whole bunch deeper than just oh a d No.
It looks deeper, and it will tell me exactly how
to deal with you. If I'm a salesperson and I
need to sell somebody and that person has taken the disc,
(20:22):
let's say a customer, I can actually let's say I
have a customer. Hey, look before we start working with
each other, Hey, I have a free disc that you
need to be interesting. So a person takes the disk
and I say to our AI with an assessment's twenty
four to seven. Hey, David is a new customer. What's
(20:43):
the best way to approach him, What's the best way
to present, what's the best way to ask for a commitment?
What's the best way to assure long term customer satisfaction?
It will tell me exactly what to do with you
will not believe what we have fed into our AI system.
(21:06):
It's a major undertaket. It's a closed system because all
of our data is in there. And when I say
all of our data, we're talking about multi, multi millions
of different assessments.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
So this is so powerful, Tony, I wanted to get
I wanted to go back because what you said was,
I feel like a lot of people there's a lot
of information. A lot of people take an assessment or
watch a video or get the book, but it's a
lot more about that. Like what you're saying is you're
actually taking the data, and in this case of the AI,
you're actually working it. You're like, how do I leverage
(21:42):
this to help me make better decisions? How to show up?
And I think that's the real power of these assessments.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
And I agree with you.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
A lot of people, I feel like gets stuck in
and they take it, but they don't really understand how
to leverage the power of the tool and the resource.
And that's why I love having you on here because
as coach consultant myself having taken I actually have taken
multiple assessments from you, the disc and the motivators among others,
and so I find revelation and then it's like, Okay,
(22:10):
I apply it to myself and then how do I
help my clients?
Speaker 3 (22:14):
You know?
Speaker 1 (22:14):
So it's it's extremely powerful. I hope folks that are
listening to this resistance to assessments. It's not about like
putting people in a box. It's just like they say,
how do you understand how people naturally show up? And
how I can better manage and lead and communicate more effectively.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
That's what I'm hearing from you, Tony.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
I mean, so the fact that you have this and
I love how you pair up and.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
The way that with this is with with other business
owners and coaches, and we can we can help bring
it to our clients because it's it's fused. We still
have at the end of the day, we still need
human connection, I think more than ever in our in
our world today, you know, we want to be known, understood,
and the computer is great, but at the end, how
what's my relationship like with having you here, the people
(23:03):
in my life, the coworkers, you know, we want to
have better relationships and I feel like in our world
today we're really struggling with having real, deep, authentic relationships.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Yeah. And it's interesting you use the term authentic because
we were toying with the idea of calling our AI
authentic intelligence, because that's what it is. And you know,
I know, I've been talking about this from a business
point of view, but it works in personal relationships, so
(23:35):
with your spouse or significant others, with your children, with
your children and their teachers. It just goes on and on.
We actually have an assessment called the Kids disc which
is incredible. It's a whole different questionnaire that's aimed at
kids typically in the third through eighth or ninth grade.
(24:00):
Port is a three part report. Part one describes the
child based on how the questions are answered. Part two
is for the parent, now that you know the child style,
what should you be doing?
Speaker 3 (24:13):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
Three is for the teachers or coaches that now say, okay,
now that you know about the style, this child's style,
what's the best way to coach them or teach them? Uh?
And and it's it is unbelievable, really unbelievable. And with kids,
instead of using d SC, we use little birds an eagle, owl, dove,
(24:38):
and parrot. You know. So because so the kids that
you know, remember it much more and you know it's
it's very colorful. So we really dig into this. We
are really into the assessment business because we believe it
not only helps people, it helps them communicate, It helps
it helps them connect, helps them persuade. It just goes
(25:03):
on and on.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
Right, I mean, I love how and you talked about it.
I mean, so influence. We're always talking about influence, right,
how do we don't we can?
Speaker 3 (25:12):
We don't understand that? Number one.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
I think sometimes Tony, the assessments give you maybe a
reality check of like you said, I didn't even think
about the speaking, you know, when you did that one
assessment of like, I don't even think that's real for me,
but it really ultimately was. You didn't even recognize it
in your at that time, like that was even in
your purview. And I think a lot of times we
get closed off assessments. To me, at least, it's like
a mirror back and saying, oh wow, I didn't realize that,
(25:36):
because at least for me, Tony, I I growing up.
I will adapt and try to show up in a
certain way because other people want me to show up
that way. And I've learned that's a more you know
it's it's not my preferred way of being. It's because
I've been cultivated in a way in our world, and
I think assessments can cut through that. Like you said,
you can try and game it, but it's going to
(25:56):
cut through. And you're like, I never, I didn't think.
I didn't see it that way before.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Right? Have you had those aha moments with people? Yeah,
you're like, wait a minute.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
We rarely, rarely, if ever, have somebody tell us this
did not describe us the right way. In fact, the
last time, some guy said, you know, I took the
assessment and it doesn't describe me at all. I want
my money back. And we said, fine, we're going to
give you your money back. But before that, uh, why
don't you go because he had mentioned, you know, he
(26:27):
was married, why don't you go ask have your spouse
look at it and asked her if it describes you?
And he came back to us and said, I don't
want my money back, you know, so you know, she said,
this is exactly like you. He didn't see himself that way,
but she said, this is exactly who you are. It
is absolutely uncanny how accurate the assessment is in describing
(26:53):
people and you mentioned you know, your business being a
consultant and how you help other people and businesses. I
would say our biggest customers at Assessments twenty four to
seven would be business coaches, yourself, companies that want to
(27:13):
develop their employees. We have numerous universities, universities that use
it for development of staff and faculty, but also using
it in certain business and psychology courses with their students.
We have the government, my gosh, one of the big
(27:36):
ways for the government. You know, the government has a
lot of people coming in and let's just actually, let's
talk more specifically about the military. The military has a
bunch of new people coming in. How do I get
the best out of these people? And a whole bunch
of people coming out? How do we take the people,
particularly coming out of the military and giving them suggestions
(28:00):
and advice on what they should or could do. Here's
an interesting thing, David. I don't know if you've tested
our our ai yet, but why don't you ask, you know,
with your disk, ask our ai what are the best
occupations for me? See what it says I would love
to do.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
I've got I've got my assessments.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
I'm gonna go back in there, ton You've give me
a challenge, So I'm going to go test your AI.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
Do it. And you know, if you're married and you
and your spouse take the assessment, go in and say, hey,
what's the best I mean, look, look it's our twentieth anniversary.
What's the best present I can get from my spouse?
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Oh? There you go.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
You won't believe what you can ask and how accurate
the answers are because it is AI but using our
it's using the AI out there in the world, but
our data it's more precise to an individual person's assessment.
(29:02):
I mean, it really is unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
Yeah, Tony, I mean you're this you're teaching the acquire teaching.
I love this stuff too. I'm with you, I'm all,
but I hear a lot of business owners what I
found as a coach. He told in guiding them and
saying you and I know how valuable this is. And
I think sometimes they're like, well, I just want to
get another tool or system, like something else in the
marketplace that's going to fix the problem of my company.
(29:26):
And it's really their people. We all need systems and processes,
don't get me wrong, we need those things. But sometimes
I feel like that they feel like that that's going
to be the answer instead of investing, like we're talking about,
so speak maybe to the business owners just thinking for
a minute, like why should I invest the time?
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Because I don't have time to do the assessment. My
people are going to take it out.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
They're going to like speak a little bit to that
tony of like what you've seen, because there's a resistance
there of like wow, we don't have time for this
learning and development stuff and you know.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Yeah, so and really it's not that much time. Yeah,
in fifteen minutes to do the assess I would say
that you're there.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
You go look at that.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
And again, if you have your whole all the employees
in your company take it. It's their fifteen minutes, not yours.
But when you get all the data back, it's just
it's so enlightening because we could you can create these
graphs to show where all the people land. See where
there are where you have an over abundance of employees
(30:26):
and where you're lacking in a particular area. You know, hey,
I lack in this area which is you know, checking
detail whatever, or I'm over extended in this area where
we're all, you know, high eye sales types, so everything
is all great, when in fact it's not necessarily all great,
(30:47):
you know, so you really it doesn't take that much time.
And of course, you know, I don't know if you've
been through. We have some audio programs that that are
not audio video. We call it a virtual training, virtual training.
You can go through this disc virtual training. Everybody can
go through it on their own. You don't have to
have a separate session there. It gives them at least
(31:09):
a basic background. Our reports, by the way, as opposed
to reports from let's say, competitors, A lot of competitors'
reports it's pretty much all about you, whereas our reports
it's about you, and then there's a whole section on Okay,
(31:30):
now that you know about you, here's how you use
it with other people. You know, when I was growing up,
I was, and still to this day, my two big things.
I keep saying this to our staff simplicity and practicality.
Make it simple so that people understand it and show
them how they can use it on a day to
(31:52):
day basis. And that's what our reports do. Simple and practical.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Yeah no, that's great, Tony. I hope everybody's hearing that.
And I agree it's important to understand you by yourself,
But then what is it like to be on the
other side of you? And I agree with you, those
those the assessments that's just about you aren't as it's helpful,
but it's much more practical, like you said, and using
those and those are the ones I like. And that's
why why have you here, Tony, Because the value that
(32:17):
you're bringing, the assessment that I got, you know, just
from running that you gave me, there's just so much,
so much in there. It's it's it's amazing. You've done
a great job of putting that in there. We want
to make sure everybody that's listening to this podcast, you guys,
you know Tony and I are connected on LinkedIn.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
We're gonna put you know, Tony the links.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
Here to the website and all of that, so you
guys please go check it out. Tony's just again got
just so passionate about this. It's so impactful, like we
talked about, from hiring the leadership, development team, building, customer engagement, sales,
you name it, just a culture. And I'm a firm believer, Tony,
when you create this and your intentional like this your
(32:57):
example of you know, CEO, bring it, you get employees
that will stick around. From a business perspective, my experience
is that when you invest in this, people will stick around.
If they don't feel understood, if they don't feel like
you're saying appreciated, they'll leave.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
And I think it's so, and it's very costly.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
So keeping that that team intact, it really makes a
huge difference in the longevity of your business. The fact
that you had you know, this core team, Tony, just
speaks to your leadership number one, but you know, and
being intentional about that and knowing where your strengths are.
And I'll give you an example, Tony, because what you
brought up was, you know, knowing the difference and appreciating
(33:37):
these things. I had somebody that was very detail oriented
did the QAQUC, which I could do wasn't my strength,
and so that was great. He came into that position,
but he didn't value what I brought from as a
connector in a relationship side and said, why do you
need to be like this?
Speaker 3 (33:52):
We just we just got to do the system and
the process, and I said, we need both.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
But what happened is the company shifted and really just
focused only on the qaku. See before you know it,
people left left over time because like I don't feel
appreciated understood, and so.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
You need both.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
And that's where I feel like you make, you know,
using these assessments, working together and seeing that just is
so insightful, like you're saying, Tony, it can be. It's
just such a reverberation throughout the life of your company
and what is ultimately the legacy you're leaving. I love
what you've created, Tony. I mean, what a life of
design and intentionality that you've done, knowing and leaning into
(34:29):
your your strengths.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
Yeah, so, uh, what what I think I I'm leaving
is helping people build stronger into personal relationships, the ability
to communicate more effectively, the ability to listen and understand. Uh,
(34:52):
you know the platinum rule, which was really my baby.
The platinum rule is do unto others as they would
have you do unto them. So it's a whole concept
of understanding the other person and trying to meet them
at least halfway understand them. That's why travel for kids
(35:14):
is so crucial. Travel not just around the country but
around the world because you get to see how other
people are and you start saying to yourself, you know,
they're really not that different from us. But if you
don't know that, you think, wow, they're you know, they're
like alien, you know. But the whole thing is about
(35:35):
really helping people connect. And by the way, if people
want to connect with me on LinkedIn, obviously they just
go to LinkedIn dot com slash and my last name Tony,
not last name, my full name, Tony Alessandra. Don't put
the doctor there. Just all one word, all lower case
t O N y A L E S s A
(35:55):
N d r A. So that's how you get to
my site, and then just say that you want to
connect with me. If you want to really see our website.
For the assessments, just go to www dot assessments two
for X seven dot com. And uh, if you want
to just contact me, just say Tony at Assessments two
(36:20):
for X seven dot com. So Tony at assessments too
for X seven dot com. I'll be more than happy.
And I answer my own emails, you know, so I
don't have somebody looking at them and answering them for me.
You send me an email, I will answer it.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
Look at that. I love that, Tony, Well, that's why
what have you? I mean, you and I have made
this connection. Like I said, I'm so glad you're here.
I know we're getting to the end of the podcast,
but I'm so glad you're here because, like I said,
being following you for years, getting.
Speaker 3 (36:49):
To have you on the Business munt People podcasts through honor.
You know.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
I hope everybody's hearing loud and clear how important these
assessments are. If you would, in part, if they if
they take one thing from this this podcast, Tony, what
will you say if you've got nothing else, what would
you say be with them today our listeners?
Speaker 2 (37:06):
Well, I would say, uh, you know, knowing more about
yourself is absolutely crucial. Knowing more about other people is
as if not more important crucial. I used to teach listening,
and one of the phrases I had is when I talk,
(37:26):
I only know what I know, But when I listen,
not only do I know what I know, I now
know what you know. And listening is power. Assessments are power.
Assessments are sort of a digital way of listening and
understanding people.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
Love that. I love that. Thank you so much for
being here.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
Ever again, you guys know how to reach Tony directly now,
but of course you can leave comments, think your review.
We'll really appreciate that sharing this with others that you
felt out of that really helped to get the message
out there.
Speaker 3 (38:02):
Thank you again for being here County.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
With us my pleasure, David.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
Thanks for inviting me absolutely everybody time to help there.
Speaker 3 (38:11):
Thanks again for listening to everybody by now
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