August 14, 2023 • 44 mins
Michael Ryan President & CEO Innovative Financing Solutions www.innovfs.net
Archie Filshill CEO Aero Aggregates of North America www.aeroaggregates.com
Michael Ghesser Co-CEO & COO IMS Trading www.cleanlogic.com
Suzannah Sarkahian General Manager of Audi Wynnewood Audi of Wynnewood www.audiwynnewood.com/
Archie Filshill CEO Aero Aggregates of North America www.aeroaggregates.com
Michael Ghesser Co-CEO & COO IMS Trading www.cleanlogic.com
Suzannah Sarkahian General Manager of Audi Wynnewood Audi of Wynnewood www.audiwynnewood.com/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:10):
Welcome to Executive Leaders Radio, yourspot in the corner office, the radio
show where executives share their secrets tosuccess. Executive Leaders Radio. You're listening
to Executive Leaders Radio this year hostHerb Cohen with my co host Jeff mack
new Mark, Matthew Shapiro Obermeyer andkinda pop Is Handlin and mister Jeff Matt
(00:32):
Will you please give us a rundownon who we have on the air today?
Please? They're happy to Herb.We have Archie phil Schill is the
CEO of Arrow Aggregates of North America. Susannah Kate Sarcane is the general manager
of Audie Wynnwood, Michael Guesser CEOof Clean Logic, and Mike Ryan as
the President CEO of Innovative Financing Solutions. Thank you, mister Matt. Let's
(00:54):
get to know Archie Philshill, who'sthe CEO of Arrow Aggregates of North America,
Archie Woods errs in North America.What are you guys doing. We're
a manufacturer. We make ultra lightweightaggregate from recycle glass and we are from
how many brothers and sisters? Andwhere are you in the pecking order?
Sure? I grew up in NortheastPhiladelphia in a row home, the oldest
of four boys, all right,eight to fourteen. What kind of stuff
(01:17):
are you doing as a kid allNortheast Philadelphia with row homes? A lot
to do, lots of kids,hundreds of kids in the neighborhoods, and
lots of sports, building tree fortsdown the woods outside as much of the
day as possible, and probably inventedindoor soccer with my brothers in our house.
How many kids were in the neighborhood? What was your role with the
kids in the neighborhood? Hundreds literallyhundreds of kids in our neighborhood. It
(01:40):
was a very tight neighborhood. Lotsof different groups. I was you socialized
with a lot of different groups acrossthe neighborhood versus maybe sticking with one group
the whole time. Caleb, canyou give me a hand please? A
archie. It mentioned soccer. Iknow you're a pretty good player, but
you spent some time when you wereI believe you said you're a twelve in
the green room in Scotland and youweren't such a great player over there.
(02:04):
They teased you a little bit.What did you do to fit in and
kind of earn your worth on theteam. Yeah. I think being American
it was a bit of a standoutin Scotland, but soccer was definitely a
common denominator with the rest of thekids, so that definitely helped me fit
in that I at least knew howto play the game, so that probably
helped me build my network of friendsover there. You knew how to play
the game, and I mean youeventually got integrated in the group. Hey,
(02:27):
this guy is a good player.He's not just a yank. He's
going to pick up the ball withhis hands. So I'm wondering how that
relates to business. How do youimprove your worth with your company and really
fit in with the big boys.Yeah. I think a lot of it
is just how to I guess readpeople, get along with people, and
really just teamwork, which soccer isa great example of teamwork, right,
(02:49):
You got to get along with alot of different people, without a doubt.
That's helped me throughout my career.It sounds to me like you were
doing that as a kid in theneighborhood, also trying to figure out,
you know, how you had tohandle yourself with all the kids in the
neighbor with all the diverse personalities.Absolutely, Matthew Archie, how young were
you when you were building things thatprobably didn't start? I was probably around
that eight to fourteen age and itwas tree for it's down the woods,
(03:12):
you know, putting together whatever extralumber nails you can, and it was
a different for it every other week, really, and your dad also had
you building stuff too, right,tell me about that. Sure, My
dad was a bricklayer. He workedin Philadelphia and made me labor for him
quite a bit on weekends. AndI think that was a direct point to
make sure I didn't become a bricklayer. What do you mean to make sure
(03:32):
he didn't become a bricklayer. Ithink he worked very hard and he wanted
me to work with my head,not my back, as he said many
times. So I think he broughtme out to you know, let me
see that firsthand. And you obviouslydid what he wanted, right, He
became an engineer, not a bricklayer. But I'm curious, what did you
learn from laying bricks that you bringwith you every day to arrow aggregates of
(03:53):
North America? Probably two things.One was that I didn't want to lay
bricks right. It is tough work, but it also taught me what in
my field now of how everybody ona job site is important. It's not
just the engineers, it's the labors, it's the craftsman and how to understand
each of their interest in needs.Jeffrey so Archie growing up being the oldest
(04:17):
of four boys, how has thatinfluenced your career and what do you take
to work from being the oldest,Well, being the oldest, I think
I probably had the most responsibility.There's a ten year spread between me my
youngest brother. My parents both worked, so for a good part of my
high school is you know, Iwas the one that was home, making
dinner for not every night of theweek, but a lot of nights,
(04:40):
and making sure my younger brothers weredoing the right thing. So similarities between
being a CEO and the oldest offour boys. I think the biggest similarity
is just the responsibility. You know, you're taking it, what you're doing,
what you need to do, nomatter what that is, and being
responsible for it. You grew upin the northeast Philoelphia in a row else
and this is middle class neighborhood backin those days, and there were hundreds
(05:04):
of kids in the neighborhood. Andwhat I was hearing from you is that
as opposed to being a standout withthe other kids, you sort of managed
to fit in with everybody and whenyou wasn't Wasn't it a little frightening to
move to Scotland when you were akid? Well, we've gone over a
couple of times to visit family beforethat, so staying for the year not
(05:27):
not so frightening, but definitely adifferent step in your life to be away
from your home for a year.So how do you think that that move
influenced what you're doing nowadays? Igo back to people skills. You know,
you move, you change countries,it's it's the same people skills,
right. People are people all aroundthe world, and how you deal with
(05:47):
them and how you relate to them. And I think it served me very
well throughout my entire career. Peopleare the same around the world. So
you you happen to think people arethis even though we're different, we're the
same percent What do you mean tellme more? You know you can go
I've traveled a lot for work.It doesn't matter what country you go to.
People deal with the same issues,right, They got to get up
(06:10):
in the morning, they got theirfamily to take care of, they got
a job to go to. Sothat's not unique to the States. That's
that's uniform around the world. Yeah, but you take that for grit.
I'm not so sure. I realizethat you're telling and you may have was
was the beginning of you picking thatup? You're living in Scotland for that
year. Is you just seem tobe very adaptable and very open. I
(06:30):
think part of the Scotland experience,my parents both being you know, right
off the boat from Scotland, youknow, gave me a worldly view from
a very very young age for sure. And how's that. How's that helped
you in business? Oh? Ikeep going back to people's skills. You
know what we do, and asan engineer, it's a lot of people's
skills. Yeah, there's engineering involved, but you're you're dealing with people and
(06:53):
problems and and being able to relateto people and listen to people and understand
where they're coming from from all aspectsof the industry is a key part of
what I do every day. CalebMatthew Jeffrey give me a hid with him.
Archie, you mentioned you have childrenin the green room. What are
the similarities between being a CEO ofyour company and being a dad? Oh,
(07:15):
well, that's a that's a toughquestion. You know. I tried
to apply a lot of what Igot from from my dad with my son
and who ended up going into engineeringand he's working as a structural engineer.
Now my daughter is letting you knowshe doesn't want to be an engineer,
but supporting that because she's going totake a different direction. She's going business.
I don't know if I could drawexact similarities, but being open minded
(07:40):
to both decisions is probably the closestsimilarity. Archie and the green Room.
You also toast a little bit aboutyour mom coming over. What was that
about? Yeah, so my momcame over. My dad came over to
work in the States for two years, and my mom came over for three
weeks holiday and they both met inPhiladelphia and we're here for fifty years.
So you know, without ever intendingit right, and what was the impact
(08:03):
on you and your family? Sothey met here, so they started a
family here. So I guess Iwas the impact of them meeting the first
impact And I think once they starteda family. They you know, they're
very family centric. They started hereand raised the family and it wasn't until
my dad passed away. Fifty yearslater my mom moved back to Scotland to
(08:26):
be with her family. Did youinteract a lot with your family in Scotland
the rest of your family, theextended family. Yes, our family was
either Scotland, England or Canada,so we didn't go down the shore.
Every year or two somebody would comeover to visit us, or we'd get
to go over and visit them,whether it was Scotland. Probably got to
see the Canadian family a little bitmore. That spread out family that you
(08:46):
grew up with. What impact doesthat have on your building a team at
work? Yeah? I think youknow what was need about having cousins that
were you know, always saw oncea year or maybe every other year.
When you met up with you pickedup exactly where you left off, which
might have been two years ago.Right, they were still family, You
still got along. You just didn'tgo over their house on weekends. Right,
(09:07):
you only get to see them everyyear or two. So when it
comes to your relationships and business,you like long term relationships and business don't
you. I do, yes,And they're international in scope, aren't they.
Yes? And I maintain the samerelationships I had overseas as I do
today here. So you're all aboutrelationships is what it comes down to.
(09:28):
You just happen to be an engineer. That's a good way to put it.
Yes, do you think you're evergoing to retire? I get asked
that question a lot. No timesoon, And I think what I've learned
over the years is it's not theneed to retire, it's the ability to
say you can retire if you want. But I don't see it happening anytime
soon for me, because you reallyenjoy your job, huh, I really
(09:52):
do? Yes. Well, what'sthe website address to this organization of Arrow
Aggregates of North America. It's justArrow act Rgates dot com. A e
r O Aggregates Give me that onemore time, the spelling of that whole
thing, a e r O aggri egats dot com. We've been speaking
with Archie Philshill, who's CEO ofEROIG CEO of Aero Aggregates of North America.
(10:18):
Don't we get to visit our websites? It's Executive Leaders Radio dot com.
That's Executive Leaders Radio dot com.To learn more about our Executive Leaders
and Archie give me your website onemore time, please Yeah, erroaggregates dot
com and Erroaggregates dot com. Stickaround, we'll be back in a moment.
Right after this quick break, they'llgo anywhere. This is herbco.
(10:41):
When you're hosted Executive Leaders Radio dotcom. Regarding your career, if you're
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(11:03):
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(11:24):
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com. We're back. You're listeningto Executive Leaders Radio. This your host,
(11:58):
heurb Cohen, like to introduce susannasArkayan, who's general manager out of
Winwood. What is out of ofWinwood? What are you guys doing?
We are selling lots of parts.Hopefully we are number one in our market
and we have been for a verylong time. All right? And where
you're from? How many brothers andsisters and where are you in the pecking
(12:20):
order? Kennett Square, Pennsylvania,right near Jordan's in Chester County. Seven
brothers and sisters, And I amthe youngest, So what what what makes
the youngest special? What were you? What made you different? I think
I am for sure the lattest onein the family, and I'm pretty sure
for being the youngest. There's fourboys directly in front of me, age
(12:43):
wise and just wanting to be heardvery chase my brothers around, try to
keep up eight to fourteen? Whatkind of stuff are you doing as a
kid to fourteen? Very interesting?I was tom Boy playing with my brothers
playing bass, well, kick thecan you know, whipple ball in the
backyard, to you know, startingto wear makeup, shaving your eyes and
(13:05):
curling your hair for those years.And uh, let's see, Jeff,
could you give me a hand withgetting to know Susanne please? Yeah,
Susannah, you've taken a different approachto running at the car business. It
really more like running it as afamily. How do you manage differently?
(13:26):
I think I managed people first,you know, instead of you know,
numbers, numbers, numbers, dothis that sell a car, sellow car,
which obviously I do too. ButI really am invested in my staff.
They worked very hard. I workedvery hard for them. Right.
We swabble, we you know,but at the end of the day,
(13:48):
we get along and we encourage eachother. And did that come from being
the youngest in your family that youhave you learned, you know, how
you'd like to approach things. Ithink so. I mean, you know,
when you have a lot of sevenbrothers and sisters, you're not all
alike. We have all different personalities, we're different ages. Where there's a
fifteen year age friend between the twoof us, between the seven of us,
(14:09):
and you know, you managed tocope and compromise and share and feed
off each other and learn all aboutthe people. Caleb Dana, what did
mom and dad do for a living. My father worked for DuPont in the
experimental station and my mother was mostlya housewife and seven kids. She was
she wasn't own with us. Whatdo you take from your mother to work
(14:31):
every day? My mother was extremelystrong. She was also extremely smart,
powerful, She didn't have to saymuch and kind I mean she she was.
She was really brilliant, honestly forsomebody at her age. She really
for females. Fact that she reallystood her ground. She was involved in
(14:52):
a lot of projects or a lotof race relations. She was impactful.
So she had a impact on yourbusiness career even though she was a homemaker.
You said something that was interesting inthe green room and you said that
car sales are career that anybody canget into. You have attorneys, you
have all kinds of different people areselling for you. Now do you think
that you take that from your mother, that she was a homemaker, she
(15:13):
could have succeeded in business. Andnow that's how you look at some of
your new employees that are doing differentthings and they're going to be successful,
or your watch at Audie. Ithink so, I mean fascinating thing about
the core business you can come fromany walk of life to be successful.
You can have an education, youcan not have an education. You can
start in your twenties, you canstart in your face. It really has
(15:33):
no bearing of where you go andhow successful you will be. Pretty sensitive
question there. Caleb Matthew says thatit's been evident to me today that you're
very tuned into kind of gender rolesand what happens within gender roles. And
I'm curious because we go back eightto fourteen, it was a woman other
than your mother that you looked upto, well, not really a woman.
(15:58):
I was really the Olympics, atwatching Olympics, couldn't wait, love
gymnastics, love figure skating. Ithink my first person that I really idolized
the poster on the wall was NadiaComanici. But she was a kid.
I mean, I don't know ifshe was more than fifteen years old,
that's fair. What did you likeabout Nadia? What do you like about
her? She was powerfully intense withoutbeing loud. I'm always loud, trying
(16:26):
to figure out it just to bethe perfully intense. I mean, it
was remarkable to me that this kidjust herself with such quietness, with the
sheies soul that you can achieve.And what does appreciating that kind of power
and effectiveness and difference from you?What does that have to do with the
way you run your team? Now? I think there's times, as you
(16:52):
know, you get older, youlearn something that you learn different things,
but something. There's something about beingquiet and listening and paying attention to things
around you to focus because you know, times I'm like, I'm all over
the place, but when I'm wheni'm really effective, I'm kind of drawn
in and I'm quiet. Uh,you know, measuring my words how I
(17:15):
say things to get the biggest impact. What. So you know you're married,
you're running this business at home?Who wears the pants in the family?
And tell us a little bit aboutthat? I want to say both,
you know it's I am older.I remember, you know, a
different generation you grow up. Yourfather was the head of the household.
(17:36):
Maybe not so much of my household. But you know, my husband is
very supportive of me. I think, you know it would be prouder.
But I think we both wear thepants. We both at different areas that
we're really good at. So youyou you trust people you've learned and you
can trust people. You can dependon people. How's that affecting your building
(17:56):
this business? Because I do trustindependent on people, and they know that
I trust them, and now Idepend on them. I mean, we
are a team. And that's whyI think the difference is coming into dealership
or dealing with me compared to goingto other places. You've said a couple
of times today that you're a bigEagles fan. Tell me what it is
(18:18):
that you like about being a footballfan. Oh my god, I could
fill an hour how much I lovethe Philadelphia Eagles. I hadn't worked falls
and text when they won the Supercouple of years ago. Then I had
giving birth to having kids. Okay, people are texting me to four.
I am like, can you believeit? Because they know I would still
(18:40):
probably be up. But a communitythat matters to you, right, because
I mean, there's just something aboutthat about a football team. You know,
it is a team. You havea leader. It's funny. When
I was a sales manager, Iused to make my staff run out of
my salesman Saturday morning and pretend they'rerunning through the tunnel, you know,
like you know, you get themall red up Saturday morning, salesman get
(19:00):
hype, get hype, and thenit's like then I like, I want
you running down those stairs in theshow room like you're running onto your to
the tunnel. But yeah, nowI love football. It just I grew
up with sports. My father wasa big sports proson, had four brothers,
but they all they were more baseballpeople. And I just started watching
football through like the indie read erroris when I started loving. You know,
(19:22):
this is that a football actually seemsright for you in the green room
earlier you said you were nice.You'd knocked people out, but you'd also
pick them back up and encourage them. I feel like I feel like that
connects to the violence, but alsothe intric hit play making and how you
know, kind of intelligent a gamefootball actually is. Yeah, well it's
(19:44):
funny you say that it is avery intelligent game, which I don't think
people realize. But selling a caris also very intelligent. You have to
make those moves, you have tobe able to get from being their buddy
on the test drive to come downand doing business and you know, look
in some the eye and shaking theirhand and they're trusting you that you're doing
right by them. And it's agame of interest selling a bar It truly
(20:08):
is. You know you said earlierin the green room that you said you
sold cards, but you often talkedabout service. Why does the service part
matter to you? Oh? Servicesand continuing relationship. It brings you back
to the dealership, just because whenwe sell you, when we sell you
a cars not the end of ourrelationship. We're hoping that you'll come back
(20:30):
and service your car for your ownership. Service is a big, big part
of our company. So you thinkyou're going to retire one day? God,
I hope. So I keep tellingmy kids, if they give me
some grandchildren, I will love thefit about retiring, so I could watch
them, But they're neither one isin any hurry. So what do you
(20:52):
think you do if you were goingto retire? What would you How would
you apply yourself? I have acouple of charities that I'm in off with
that I wouldn't just spend more time, But unfortunately, at this point of
my life, I'm really way toobusy to do as much as i'd like
to. So you tend to bepretty intense and pretty active. What time
(21:14):
do you start thinking about business inthe morning? What time do you stop
thinking about it at night, say, from the time I wake up.
Huh, it's all probably the timeI go to bed. Okay, I
just wanted to stays a week.But you really enjoy what you're doing.
It's a passion. I just loveit. Website address of Audi of Winwood
Audi Winwood dot com. Audi likethe car A U D I W y
(21:38):
n N E w O O ddot com. We've been speaking with Susannah's
ark and who's general manager, Audiewin would here on Executive Leaders Radio to
the visit our website Executive Leaders Radiodot com to learn more about our Executive
Leaders. Stick around with back ina moment. Right after this quick break,
(22:08):
We're back. You're listening to ExecutiveLeaders Radio. Thistro host Herb Cohen
like to introduce Michael Guesser, Who'sCEO Clean Logic. Michael, what is
Clean Logic? What are you guysdoing? Clean Logic is a skincare tools
manufacturer and distributor. And where areyou from? How many brothers and sisters
and where are you in the peckingorder? I'm from Los Angeles, California.
(22:30):
I have one younger brother. Allright, you're the oldest to two
and eight to fourteen. What kindof stuff are you doing as a kid.
I was playing all different sports,skateboarding, hanging around the neighborhood.
All Righty and Jeffrey, why didyou give me a hit? Michael,
tell us about the first job thatyou had and where you started making money.
(22:52):
Early in March. First job Iever had was babysitting. He was
about twelve or thirteen years old.What did you do differently than other babysitters
in the neighborhood. I was alwaysa very friendly, outgoing person, and
I knew that the parents had totrust me, and the kids had to
like me and want me to babysitfor them. You were looking at the
(23:12):
big picture as a kid as asopposed to, you know, trying to
goof off. You're looking at thebig picture, trying to figure out how
to keep everybody happy all the time. Huh, All right, yeah,
you Mike. Tell me about momand dad. My dad is from Israel
and my mom is from the UnitedStates. Not a great marriage, two
(23:33):
people that were probably not as successfulor achieved as much as they had hoped
they would. What impact did thathave on you? Were you aware of
that had grown up? Yeah?From a very early age, I knew
that my parents shouldn't be married,and I knew my parents worked very,
very very hard and didn't achieve asmuch as they had wanted. So,
so how did they push you towardsrunning clean logic? My parents had always
(24:00):
encouraged me to work and earn andcreate a life for myself that would have
been better than they had. Theywould always tell me things like, work
now, play later. The moreyou know the place, the more places
you'll go. They constantly said noto little things that I would ask for,
or you need to pay for ityourself, things like that. Very
early. Caleb, like, whatkind of sports were you into growing up?
(24:26):
I played everything, but the onlysport I was ever successful at was
ice hockey. Tell me about that. Ice hockey for me was a very
fast paced sport. It was verycompetitive. It was a sport that I
felt at a very big sense ofteam, which was something that I always
enjoyed being part of. And soyou played all these sports and you kind
(24:48):
of brushed them aside because you hada skill and affinity for hockey. Now
you're an entrepreneur. What's it liketo find something they're good at and really
go full born into it. Sofor me, when I'm the type of
person when I do find something thatI like, I put one hundred percent
into it. And I think forme, I knew that I was going
to be an entrepreneur from a veryyoung age, and that's kind of why
(25:11):
I was always chasing it, andwhen I was able to finally do it,
I went one hundred percent all inthat drive and that competitiveness. What
benefit is that to the employees andcustomers of Clean Logic, You at the
CEO given one hundred percent. SoI think that, combined with my love
of people, is kind of thecombination that kind of helped make this as
(25:34):
successful as it is because I wouldalways give one hundred percent to the company
and building the team, but Ialso knew how to work with the people
and talk with the people, Andfor me, it's always been an amazing
feeling to see somebody and help thembe as successful as they can be an
unlock their potential. Jeffrey Michael,how young were you when you knew that
(25:57):
everything was possible? And how didyou see that? One of My earliest
memories was I think I was aroundfour years old and my grandfather used to
ask me, what do you wantto do when you grew up, and
I would I knew that at thetime, Like I was saying things like
I want to find the cure forAIDS or I want to, you know,
(26:22):
come up with cures for cancer.And I was always had this big
thinking things like that. You mentionedthat when you grew up in Beverly Hills,
but you were one of the poorerkids, and you would visit your
friends parents that were working and youwould get a sense of their business.
Tell us a little bit more aboutthat and what that did do you.
(26:42):
Yeah, my friend's parents were allentrepreneurs. They were They owned their own
businesses. If they were the accountant, they own the accounting firm. If
they were the lawyer, they ownedthe law firm. They were fashion designers,
they were all they were. Theywere the heads, owners and CEOs
of some of the law businesses.And every time I would go visit their
businesses with my friends, I wouldnotice that here are these people that I
(27:06):
know that I'm in their house.I know them as people, and this
is something that they created. Soit reaffirmed my thought that I can do
anything I want if these people do. Reaffirmed your thought that you could do
anything. And this business that yougot involved with, you said it started
one way and you've taken it inanother direction, which is proof positive that
(27:27):
you can do anything. How didit start them? What did you do
to this business? So the businessstarted by importing food from South America and
selling them to Hispanic grocery stores insouthern California, Arizona, Texas, areas
with large Hispanic populations. And aftera little while, we started making our
(27:47):
own products, importing and manufacturing ourown products. And that evolved when we
realized that Hispanic based products didn't haveas big of an appeal as a mass
based product, so we started tocreate our own brand. So they went
from Hispanic brands to Clean Logic,for example. And as soon as we
started understanding the power of a brand, we began to become way more focused
(28:12):
on creating a successful brand. Andthat's the evolution of things. So it
sounds to me like as opposed tobeing diagnosed with ADHD as a kid,
they should have diagnosed you as amister evolves and keep things moving forward in
growth things. On the other hand, you mentioned that your daughter is neuro
(28:34):
diverse and you have a deep sensitivity. It's like you have another side to
you, which on one hand iskeep bobbing. It's also the other side
of you was a deep sensitivity topeople that your daughters tuned you into.
So when my daughter was eighteen monthsold, we put her into an early
intervention program. It's a school forchildren with disabilities. And while there,
(28:56):
I noticed that she and the otherkids that had various disability these were still
able to accomplish the same task asa typical childhood. So I started to
realize that there's nothing that they can'tdo. And as they got older,
I started to see more and more. But I was always one of the
things that kept me up at nightwas what does her future look like?
And what does the future of thesechildren look like? And so I started
(29:18):
to research that and there were thingsbut I wasn't I wasn't happy with that,
and I knew that these kids weremore capable of the options than the
options that were out there. Andso that's what got me to decide that,
Okay, I'm going to create anenvironment where people with disabilities, all
disabilities, can gain meaningful employment andwhere they can be inspired to achieve independence
(29:40):
and success. So what's going onwith you. So again, this is
mister revolvement here, So tell usmore about what you're thinking. Is So,
I think a lot of it hasto do with my love of people.
I've always loved people, and Idon't think that just because someone is
different or has a disability, thatthey should be left out or not be
(30:02):
included in every normal, normal life. So when I didn't see what I
think that these kids were capable of, and ultimately many adults were capable of,
I knew that. And maybe it'sselfish or maybe it's just for my
daughter, but I knew that Icould create it myself and give them what
I thought that they should have.Are you trying to inspire your daughter or
(30:25):
does your daughter inspire you? Soyeah, so it's my daughter who inspires
me. But what I but Ithink what she's inspired me to do is
to create this. It happens tojust be a business, It just happens
to be a work. But whatI'd like to do ultimately, and it
comes from her, is create thismodel of being able to make your business
(30:49):
or year off your company accessible thatcan be shared with every other business across
the country. Because I don't thinkthere's any reason why businesses can't higher disabled
people. They're they're just as qualified, and they just as productive as anybody
else. I think they just needcertain accommodations, but there's no reason they
can't do it. So that's likeit seems a question we seem to be
(31:12):
asking all the CEOs today is doyou think you're ever going to retire?
Do you think you're ever going toretire? I would like to at some
point to be able to. Ithink there will be a point where I
don't go to a job anymore,but I think I'll always be working to
inspire disabled people to be independent andsuccess. It doesn't me like you're always
(31:33):
going to be creating. Am Imistaken about that? No? I think
you're right. Yeah. It's like, you know, you got this working
from a blank piece of paper inyour blood. And what's the website address
for this organization and its clean logic. It's clean logic dot com, Clean
logic dot com. We've been speakingwith Michael Guesser, who's CEO of Clean
Logic here when Executive Leaders radio thatgive me a website one more time for
(31:57):
clean Logic, It's dot com contractcleanlogic dot com even listening to Executive Leaders
Radio. Dipricant to visit our website, it's Executive Leaders Radio dot com to
learn more about executive Executive Leaders ExecutiveLeaders Radio dot com. Stick around me
back in a moment right after thisquick break. Serbco and your Executive Leaders
(32:19):
Radio host and the CEOs we've interviewedon this show are interested in helping you
get your business started and helping yougrow your business. Whether you're aware of
the issues or whether you want theCEOs to give your hand identifying the issues
in getting your business started and orin growing your business, why don't you
(32:42):
email us at consult at Executive LeadersRadio dot com. That's consult at Executive
Leaders Radio dot com. Whether you'reinterested in having our CEOs speak with you
regarding getting your business and started orgrowing your business, send us an email
(33:05):
at consult at Executive Leaders Radio dotcom and we'll be sure to get back
to you shortly with some help.We're back. You're listening to Executive Leaders
(33:30):
Radio. This show host Herb Cohenlike to get to know Mike Bryan,
who is the president and CEO ofInnovative Financing Solutions. Mike, what is
innovative financing solutions. We are consultingfor our that consults to banks and credit
unions helping them make commercial loans.And we consult to business owners of all
(33:51):
sizes, helping them with their commercialfinancing needs. Okay, DOOKI, And
how'd you get a job with thiscompany? I started company in two thousand
and nine. Alrighty, where you'refrom? How many brothers and sisters?
And where are you in the peckingwinner? From suburban Philadelphia, Upper Darby,
little blue collar town and I amthe youngest of four and eight to
(34:13):
fourteen. Tell us a little bitabout what you were doing eight to fourteen
years old eight fourteen, getting intotrouble periodically, but mostly trying to stay
out of trouble by playing sports ofall kinds depending on the season. And
let's see, mister Matthew tom handplease, Mike, what was your favorite
(34:34):
subject in school? They were mostlybusiness courses? You know, even when
I was in high school. Whywould you like business courses when you were
in high school? And my dadwas an accountant and so we used to
talk numbers all the time when Iwas a kid, and he was really
sharp. He was one of thoseguys I could just you know, come
(34:55):
up with a number, you know, in a calculation without thinking. So
do you feel like you kind offollowed your father's path into into this business.
I think I did. I justveered from accounting to finance and that
was my place that I thought itwas best for me. And your dad
(35:15):
passed when you were a teenager,I think, right, yeah, I
was seventeen. What impact did thathave on you and the family. That
was a big impact because you gofrom you know, a two income earning
family to one, and a fatherthat is you know, no longer there
and a mother that's working endless hoursgraveyard shift as a nurse. So it
(35:39):
was it was a big change.So did you have to help your mom
out a little bit? I guessyou were the only one still home,
right I was, Yeah, allthe siblings were in college. I was
the last one in high school andtrying to help my mom on the business
side, primarily trying to figure out, you know, making sure that bills
got paid, making sure uh,you know, attractive recordcile. Was she
(36:02):
asking you for help or did youjust kind of you got a volunteer but
I knew she needed it. Howdoes that process? How does that that
history of helping your mom. Howdoes that affect you now? I think
that's what noble business owners of allkinds right now. It's very rewarding,
(36:24):
especially through the PPP process. So, uh, that's kind of like the
seed to your business model. Yes, yeah, what do you mean?
It's very rewarding. What are youtalking about? So we arranged financing,
you know for business owners, youknow, most why do you Why do
you personally find that rewarding though?Because these are folks that have trouble,
(36:49):
you know, getting alone. Theycan't walk in the front door of a
bank and just get alone. Sowhat you were doing with your mom,
that's who you are nowadays, allright, isn't it. Yes, that's
the Jeffrey when you get me here. Yeah, So Mike, your first
job when you started making money?What was it very first job? I
believe it was I did last jobs. I think it was a dishwasher at
(37:13):
a local restaurant. And what didyou do with the money that you made
at being a dishwasher? So Ithanked, you know, the dollars and
uh, you know, so I'mfourteen, so I'm thinking sixteen is my
first car. So that's where youknow, the bulk of what did you
learn being scrubbing those dishes? Whatdid you learn that you take take away
(37:35):
at your age today? Yeah,it was really the value of hard work,
because you know, you're going fromyou know, seven to you know,
twelve at night, and I learnedthat, you know, with hard
work, you know, comes thereward of you know, a paycheck.
Well, you also mentioned you ranthree restaurants. I guess those weren't two
(37:57):
nine to five either, were theythey were nine nine? Yes, not
at all at one time? Didat three at the same time? And
when I was a banker by day? Uh huh, Yeah, you know
how to work, Caleb. Mike, you say you're the youngest of four,
what was your dynamic lake with yoursiblings? We were only uh,
(38:19):
you know, a year and ahalf to two years apart, so you
know, we were pretty close,uh you know, growing up, and
I ended up being closest with myolder sister actually, And we talked about
when your father passed away you kindof had to take over and help out
your mother. Was it really yourolder siblings that jumped in or did you
(38:42):
kind of take control and really helpout the finances? Yeah? I really
had to take control. They wereat college and they were gone. So,
you know, everybody lived away andwent to school. I stayed home
and I commuted to college later totry to you know, stick with my
mom. So you're not a friendof doing what you need to do,
commuting work in the long hours inorder to make something successful, which was
(39:05):
your home life. Now you mentionedus ifs is not your first business,
you started a couple of other businesses. Did you kind of learn from that
young age what it takes to reallybe successful? Yeah? I think I
did. I think I always hadan entrepreneurial spirit, you know, in
me, and I can't say therewas a lot of you know, relatives
(39:27):
that had their own businesses, soI was one of the few, you
know, that went down that path. And part of that entrepreneurial spirit that
you mentioned, it is all aboutfinding solutions, right, Yeah, just
like in our name Innovative financi Solutions. So that is Jeffrey else were you
thinking? Yeah, so Mike,you went from big banking course states to
(39:51):
running your own business. What wasthe inspiration to starting your business and was
it scary? I mean, tellus about the beginning of that content.
Yeah, it was scared. Ihelped start a bank in Philadelphia in two
thousand and six with a group ofindividuals and thought that I was going to
end up being the president of thatbank and may have, but decided in
(40:14):
two thousand and nine to pivot andstart my own company. I didn't want
to be, you know, reportingto fifteen seat board of directors and to
consequently started IFS And how do youfeel? How does it make you feel?
Very rewarding? You know, I'mresponsible for twenty five people and we
(40:37):
have a great team and uh uh, you know, we do some great
work, I believe every day.So it sounds me like the cree your
your your middle name is coming upwith creative solutions, really understanding how to
get a deal done, different levelsof financing that equity. Am I reading
that correctly? Yeah? This stuffwe do is a little complicated, sometimes
(40:59):
convoluted, you know, to figureout. So it's not the it's not
the easy stuff. And but that'sokay. Once again, it is rewarding,
you know, to be able todeliver that financing to an entrepreneur who
really needs it and has had adifficult time. I guess the good thing
you're running your own business nowadays.You suppose you're running There was three restaurants.
(41:20):
It was twenty five hours a day. It's a good thing are running
your own business, you're financing businesses. You get to go into ten or
eleven and leave it four or five. It's long launches. Right, Oh
yeah, you know, I'll begoffin later this afternoon. Right. Uh
yeah it was. But I don'tmind a long hours. They are,
you know, like the rest ofthe folks here in this uh that we're
(41:43):
interviewed today. I think everybody's probablyputting in the long hours or so.
She married or single? I ammarried? Do you have any kids?
At one? Twenty seven year old? Similarity between being the CEO and being
a dad? What is it withmy kid? Not that much difference.
(42:04):
I still have to kind of directhim, Uh like I direct my employees
to. I've watched you physically reactwhen HERB asked you the retirement question before.
What's that visible? What's that reactionbeen about? Yeah, it's pretty
funny. I reached sixty one,So now that discussion seems to come up
(42:25):
more often, and uh, youknow, I'm gonna probably go out kicking
and screaming, uh from retaining butwhat I'd like to do in the future
is work with entrepreneurs, be amentor, teach an entrepreneurial ship class.
Do somebody, why do you wantto be a mentor? I don't.
I didn't really have great you know, mentoring, and I always thought that
(42:49):
was really important. So I wouldlike to kind of get back if I
could. Why is that important?Because you know young entrepreneur, you know
who's really motivated, you know,does need direction oftentimes, and he's been
doing it since us seventeen, helpinghis mother out. It's the same thing
(43:12):
he's doing with his clients, andMike thinks it's going to be different as
a volunteer, it's going to bethe same thing. It's just he's not
going to be charging anything. What'sthe website address of this organization known as
Innovative Financing Solutions. Yeah, simplyInnovative Financing Solutions dot net. Innovative Financing
Solutions dot net. Gotcha, Jeffrey, Can you give us a rundown on
(43:35):
who we've had on the air today? Please? What a great show her.
We started with Archie Philshell, theCEO of Arrow Aggregates of North America.
Susannah Sarkane, the general manager ofAddie Winwood, Michael Guesser, CEO
of Clean Logic and Just Now,Mike Ryan, President and CEO of Innovative
Financial Solutions. Like to thank myco hosts, including Jeff Mack Newmark,
(43:58):
Matthew Shapiro, Obermeyer and Kid popUs for you giving me a hand structure
the questions I'll be providing on listeningone against educational and entertaining show. Jeff,
what is the website address for Newmark? Please? It's Newmark dot com.
Mister Matthew Schapiro website address for ObermayerObermayer dot com. And Caleb for
Hendland please an Lantic Creative dot comHendland Creative dot com. Don't forget to
(44:21):
visit our website. It's Executive LeadersRadio dot com. That's Executive Leaders Radio
dot com to learn more about ourexecutive leaders. Thank you for joining us
today. Without listening what it wouldn'thave a radio show. Enjoy your day.
Thank you for joining us, andhave a nice day. Bye bye
Welcome to Executive Leaders Radio, yourspot in the corner office, the radio
show where executives share their secrets tosuccess. Executive Leaders Radio. You're listening
to Executive Leaders Radio this year hostHerb Cohen with my co host Jeff mack
new Mark, Matthew Shapiro Obermeyer andkinda pop Is Handlin and mister Jeff Matt
(00:32):
Will you please give us a rundownon who we have on the air today?
Please? They're happy to Herb.We have Archie phil Schill is the
CEO of Arrow Aggregates of North America. Susannah Kate Sarcane is the general manager
of Audie Wynnwood, Michael Guesser CEOof Clean Logic, and Mike Ryan as
the President CEO of Innovative Financing Solutions. Thank you, mister Matt. Let's
(00:54):
get to know Archie Philshill, who'sthe CEO of Arrow Aggregates of North America,
Archie Woods errs in North America.What are you guys doing. We're
a manufacturer. We make ultra lightweightaggregate from recycle glass and we are from
how many brothers and sisters? Andwhere are you in the pecking order?
Sure? I grew up in NortheastPhiladelphia in a row home, the oldest
of four boys, all right,eight to fourteen. What kind of stuff
(01:17):
are you doing as a kid allNortheast Philadelphia with row homes? A lot
to do, lots of kids,hundreds of kids in the neighborhoods, and
lots of sports, building tree fortsdown the woods outside as much of the
day as possible, and probably inventedindoor soccer with my brothers in our house.
How many kids were in the neighborhood? What was your role with the
kids in the neighborhood? Hundreds literallyhundreds of kids in our neighborhood. It
(01:40):
was a very tight neighborhood. Lotsof different groups. I was you socialized
with a lot of different groups acrossthe neighborhood versus maybe sticking with one group
the whole time. Caleb, canyou give me a hand please? A
archie. It mentioned soccer. Iknow you're a pretty good player, but
you spent some time when you wereI believe you said you're a twelve in
the green room in Scotland and youweren't such a great player over there.
(02:04):
They teased you a little bit.What did you do to fit in and
kind of earn your worth on theteam. Yeah. I think being American
it was a bit of a standoutin Scotland, but soccer was definitely a
common denominator with the rest of thekids, so that definitely helped me fit
in that I at least knew howto play the game, so that probably
helped me build my network of friendsover there. You knew how to play
the game, and I mean youeventually got integrated in the group. Hey,
(02:27):
this guy is a good player.He's not just a yank. He's
going to pick up the ball withhis hands. So I'm wondering how that
relates to business. How do youimprove your worth with your company and really
fit in with the big boys.Yeah. I think a lot of it
is just how to I guess readpeople, get along with people, and
really just teamwork, which soccer isa great example of teamwork, right,
(02:49):
You got to get along with alot of different people, without a doubt.
That's helped me throughout my career.It sounds to me like you were
doing that as a kid in theneighborhood, also trying to figure out,
you know, how you had tohandle yourself with all the kids in the
neighbor with all the diverse personalities.Absolutely, Matthew Archie, how young were
you when you were building things thatprobably didn't start? I was probably around
that eight to fourteen age and itwas tree for it's down the woods,
(03:12):
you know, putting together whatever extralumber nails you can, and it was
a different for it every other week, really, and your dad also had
you building stuff too, right,tell me about that. Sure, My
dad was a bricklayer. He workedin Philadelphia and made me labor for him
quite a bit on weekends. AndI think that was a direct point to
make sure I didn't become a bricklayer. What do you mean to make sure
(03:32):
he didn't become a bricklayer. Ithink he worked very hard and he wanted
me to work with my head,not my back, as he said many
times. So I think he broughtme out to you know, let me
see that firsthand. And you obviouslydid what he wanted, right, He
became an engineer, not a bricklayer. But I'm curious, what did you
learn from laying bricks that you bringwith you every day to arrow aggregates of
(03:53):
North America? Probably two things.One was that I didn't want to lay
bricks right. It is tough work, but it also taught me what in
my field now of how everybody ona job site is important. It's not
just the engineers, it's the labors, it's the craftsman and how to understand
each of their interest in needs.Jeffrey so Archie growing up being the oldest
(04:17):
of four boys, how has thatinfluenced your career and what do you take
to work from being the oldest,Well, being the oldest, I think
I probably had the most responsibility.There's a ten year spread between me my
youngest brother. My parents both worked, so for a good part of my
high school is you know, Iwas the one that was home, making
dinner for not every night of theweek, but a lot of nights,
(04:40):
and making sure my younger brothers weredoing the right thing. So similarities between
being a CEO and the oldest offour boys. I think the biggest similarity
is just the responsibility. You know, you're taking it, what you're doing,
what you need to do, nomatter what that is, and being
responsible for it. You grew upin the northeast Philoelphia in a row else
and this is middle class neighborhood backin those days, and there were hundreds
(05:04):
of kids in the neighborhood. Andwhat I was hearing from you is that
as opposed to being a standout withthe other kids, you sort of managed
to fit in with everybody and whenyou wasn't Wasn't it a little frightening to
move to Scotland when you were akid? Well, we've gone over a
couple of times to visit family beforethat, so staying for the year not
(05:27):
not so frightening, but definitely adifferent step in your life to be away
from your home for a year.So how do you think that that move
influenced what you're doing nowadays? Igo back to people skills. You know,
you move, you change countries,it's it's the same people skills,
right. People are people all aroundthe world, and how you deal with
(05:47):
them and how you relate to them. And I think it served me very
well throughout my entire career. Peopleare the same around the world. So
you you happen to think people arethis even though we're different, we're the
same percent What do you mean tellme more? You know you can go
I've traveled a lot for work.It doesn't matter what country you go to.
People deal with the same issues,right, They got to get up
(06:10):
in the morning, they got theirfamily to take care of, they got
a job to go to. Sothat's not unique to the States. That's
that's uniform around the world. Yeah, but you take that for grit.
I'm not so sure. I realizethat you're telling and you may have was
was the beginning of you picking thatup? You're living in Scotland for that
year. Is you just seem tobe very adaptable and very open. I
(06:30):
think part of the Scotland experience,my parents both being you know, right
off the boat from Scotland, youknow, gave me a worldly view from
a very very young age for sure. And how's that. How's that helped
you in business? Oh? Ikeep going back to people's skills. You
know what we do, and asan engineer, it's a lot of people's
skills. Yeah, there's engineering involved, but you're you're dealing with people and
(06:53):
problems and and being able to relateto people and listen to people and understand
where they're coming from from all aspectsof the industry is a key part of
what I do every day. CalebMatthew Jeffrey give me a hid with him.
Archie, you mentioned you have childrenin the green room. What are
the similarities between being a CEO ofyour company and being a dad? Oh,
(07:15):
well, that's a that's a toughquestion. You know. I tried
to apply a lot of what Igot from from my dad with my son
and who ended up going into engineeringand he's working as a structural engineer.
Now my daughter is letting you knowshe doesn't want to be an engineer,
but supporting that because she's going totake a different direction. She's going business.
I don't know if I could drawexact similarities, but being open minded
(07:40):
to both decisions is probably the closestsimilarity. Archie and the green Room.
You also toast a little bit aboutyour mom coming over. What was that
about? Yeah, so my momcame over. My dad came over to
work in the States for two years, and my mom came over for three
weeks holiday and they both met inPhiladelphia and we're here for fifty years.
So you know, without ever intendingit right, and what was the impact
(08:03):
on you and your family? Sothey met here, so they started a
family here. So I guess Iwas the impact of them meeting the first
impact And I think once they starteda family. They you know, they're
very family centric. They started hereand raised the family and it wasn't until
my dad passed away. Fifty yearslater my mom moved back to Scotland to
(08:26):
be with her family. Did youinteract a lot with your family in Scotland
the rest of your family, theextended family. Yes, our family was
either Scotland, England or Canada,so we didn't go down the shore.
Every year or two somebody would comeover to visit us, or we'd get
to go over and visit them,whether it was Scotland. Probably got to
see the Canadian family a little bitmore. That spread out family that you
(08:46):
grew up with. What impact doesthat have on your building a team at
work? Yeah? I think youknow what was need about having cousins that
were you know, always saw oncea year or maybe every other year.
When you met up with you pickedup exactly where you left off, which
might have been two years ago.Right, they were still family, You
still got along. You just didn'tgo over their house on weekends. Right,
(09:07):
you only get to see them everyyear or two. So when it
comes to your relationships and business,you like long term relationships and business don't
you. I do, yes,And they're international in scope, aren't they.
Yes? And I maintain the samerelationships I had overseas as I do
today here. So you're all aboutrelationships is what it comes down to.
(09:28):
You just happen to be an engineer. That's a good way to put it.
Yes, do you think you're evergoing to retire? I get asked
that question a lot. No timesoon, And I think what I've learned
over the years is it's not theneed to retire, it's the ability to
say you can retire if you want. But I don't see it happening anytime
soon for me, because you reallyenjoy your job, huh, I really
(09:52):
do? Yes. Well, what'sthe website address to this organization of Arrow
Aggregates of North America. It's justArrow act Rgates dot com. A e
r O Aggregates Give me that onemore time, the spelling of that whole
thing, a e r O aggri egats dot com. We've been speaking
with Archie Philshill, who's CEO ofEROIG CEO of Aero Aggregates of North America.
(10:18):
Don't we get to visit our websites? It's Executive Leaders Radio dot com.
That's Executive Leaders Radio dot com.To learn more about our Executive Leaders
and Archie give me your website onemore time, please Yeah, erroaggregates dot
com and Erroaggregates dot com. Stickaround, we'll be back in a moment.
Right after this quick break, they'llgo anywhere. This is herbco.
(10:41):
When you're hosted Executive Leaders Radio dotcom. Regarding your career, if you're
trying to figure out how to makethe most money and also enjoy your career,
that's enjoy your career, I meanreally enjoy your career and make the
most money, you ought to talkto our CEOs. They've got the bird's
(11:03):
eye view of where the really profitablejobs are, where the really profitable jobs
are going to be, and they'rewilling to speak with you regarding their vision
for the future and where you mayfit into it. In order to make
the most money and really enjoy yourcareer. Email us consult at Executive Leaders
(11:24):
Radio dot com. That's consult atExecutive Leaders Radio dot com to get help
from our CEOs regarding where you maywant to go in your career to make
the most money and really enjoy yourcareer. Consult at Executive Leaders Radio dot
com. We're back. You're listeningto Executive Leaders Radio. This your host,
(11:58):
heurb Cohen, like to introduce susannasArkayan, who's general manager out of
Winwood. What is out of ofWinwood? What are you guys doing?
We are selling lots of parts.Hopefully we are number one in our market
and we have been for a verylong time. All right? And where
you're from? How many brothers andsisters and where are you in the pecking
(12:20):
order? Kennett Square, Pennsylvania,right near Jordan's in Chester County. Seven
brothers and sisters, And I amthe youngest, So what what what makes
the youngest special? What were you? What made you different? I think
I am for sure the lattest onein the family, and I'm pretty sure
for being the youngest. There's fourboys directly in front of me, age
(12:43):
wise and just wanting to be heardvery chase my brothers around, try to
keep up eight to fourteen? Whatkind of stuff are you doing as a
kid to fourteen? Very interesting?I was tom Boy playing with my brothers
playing bass, well, kick thecan you know, whipple ball in the
backyard, to you know, startingto wear makeup, shaving your eyes and
(13:05):
curling your hair for those years.And uh, let's see, Jeff,
could you give me a hand withgetting to know Susanne please? Yeah,
Susannah, you've taken a different approachto running at the car business. It
really more like running it as afamily. How do you manage differently?
(13:26):
I think I managed people first,you know, instead of you know,
numbers, numbers, numbers, dothis that sell a car, sellow car,
which obviously I do too. ButI really am invested in my staff.
They worked very hard. I workedvery hard for them. Right.
We swabble, we you know,but at the end of the day,
(13:48):
we get along and we encourage eachother. And did that come from being
the youngest in your family that youhave you learned, you know, how
you'd like to approach things. Ithink so. I mean, you know,
when you have a lot of sevenbrothers and sisters, you're not all
alike. We have all different personalities, we're different ages. Where there's a
fifteen year age friend between the twoof us, between the seven of us,
(14:09):
and you know, you managed tocope and compromise and share and feed
off each other and learn all aboutthe people. Caleb Dana, what did
mom and dad do for a living. My father worked for DuPont in the
experimental station and my mother was mostlya housewife and seven kids. She was
she wasn't own with us. Whatdo you take from your mother to work
(14:31):
every day? My mother was extremelystrong. She was also extremely smart,
powerful, She didn't have to saymuch and kind I mean she she was.
She was really brilliant, honestly forsomebody at her age. She really
for females. Fact that she reallystood her ground. She was involved in
(14:52):
a lot of projects or a lotof race relations. She was impactful.
So she had a impact on yourbusiness career even though she was a homemaker.
You said something that was interesting inthe green room and you said that
car sales are career that anybody canget into. You have attorneys, you
have all kinds of different people areselling for you. Now do you think
that you take that from your mother, that she was a homemaker, she
(15:13):
could have succeeded in business. Andnow that's how you look at some of
your new employees that are doing differentthings and they're going to be successful,
or your watch at Audie. Ithink so, I mean fascinating thing about
the core business you can come fromany walk of life to be successful.
You can have an education, youcan not have an education. You can
start in your twenties, you canstart in your face. It really has
(15:33):
no bearing of where you go andhow successful you will be. Pretty sensitive
question there. Caleb Matthew says thatit's been evident to me today that you're
very tuned into kind of gender rolesand what happens within gender roles. And
I'm curious because we go back eightto fourteen, it was a woman other
than your mother that you looked upto, well, not really a woman.
(15:58):
I was really the Olympics, atwatching Olympics, couldn't wait, love
gymnastics, love figure skating. Ithink my first person that I really idolized
the poster on the wall was NadiaComanici. But she was a kid.
I mean, I don't know ifshe was more than fifteen years old,
that's fair. What did you likeabout Nadia? What do you like about
her? She was powerfully intense withoutbeing loud. I'm always loud, trying
(16:26):
to figure out it just to bethe perfully intense. I mean, it
was remarkable to me that this kidjust herself with such quietness, with the
sheies soul that you can achieve.And what does appreciating that kind of power
and effectiveness and difference from you?What does that have to do with the
way you run your team? Now? I think there's times, as you
(16:52):
know, you get older, youlearn something that you learn different things,
but something. There's something about beingquiet and listening and paying attention to things
around you to focus because you know, times I'm like, I'm all over
the place, but when I'm wheni'm really effective, I'm kind of drawn
in and I'm quiet. Uh,you know, measuring my words how I
(17:15):
say things to get the biggest impact. What. So you know you're married,
you're running this business at home?Who wears the pants in the family?
And tell us a little bit aboutthat? I want to say both,
you know it's I am older.I remember, you know, a
different generation you grow up. Yourfather was the head of the household.
(17:36):
Maybe not so much of my household. But you know, my husband is
very supportive of me. I think, you know it would be prouder.
But I think we both wear thepants. We both at different areas that
we're really good at. So youyou you trust people you've learned and you
can trust people. You can dependon people. How's that affecting your building
(17:56):
this business? Because I do trustindependent on people, and they know that
I trust them, and now Idepend on them. I mean, we
are a team. And that's whyI think the difference is coming into dealership
or dealing with me compared to goingto other places. You've said a couple
of times today that you're a bigEagles fan. Tell me what it is
(18:18):
that you like about being a footballfan. Oh my god, I could
fill an hour how much I lovethe Philadelphia Eagles. I hadn't worked falls
and text when they won the Supercouple of years ago. Then I had
giving birth to having kids. Okay, people are texting me to four.
I am like, can you believeit? Because they know I would still
(18:40):
probably be up. But a communitythat matters to you, right, because
I mean, there's just something aboutthat about a football team. You know,
it is a team. You havea leader. It's funny. When
I was a sales manager, Iused to make my staff run out of
my salesman Saturday morning and pretend they'rerunning through the tunnel, you know,
like you know, you get themall red up Saturday morning, salesman get
(19:00):
hype, get hype, and thenit's like then I like, I want
you running down those stairs in theshow room like you're running onto your to
the tunnel. But yeah, nowI love football. It just I grew
up with sports. My father wasa big sports proson, had four brothers,
but they all they were more baseballpeople. And I just started watching
football through like the indie read erroris when I started loving. You know,
(19:22):
this is that a football actually seemsright for you in the green room
earlier you said you were nice.You'd knocked people out, but you'd also
pick them back up and encourage them. I feel like I feel like that
connects to the violence, but alsothe intric hit play making and how you
know, kind of intelligent a gamefootball actually is. Yeah, well it's
(19:44):
funny you say that it is avery intelligent game, which I don't think
people realize. But selling a caris also very intelligent. You have to
make those moves, you have tobe able to get from being their buddy
on the test drive to come downand doing business and you know, look
in some the eye and shaking theirhand and they're trusting you that you're doing
right by them. And it's agame of interest selling a bar It truly
(20:08):
is. You know you said earlierin the green room that you said you
sold cards, but you often talkedabout service. Why does the service part
matter to you? Oh? Servicesand continuing relationship. It brings you back
to the dealership, just because whenwe sell you, when we sell you
a cars not the end of ourrelationship. We're hoping that you'll come back
(20:30):
and service your car for your ownership. Service is a big, big part
of our company. So you thinkyou're going to retire one day? God,
I hope. So I keep tellingmy kids, if they give me
some grandchildren, I will love thefit about retiring, so I could watch
them, But they're neither one isin any hurry. So what do you
(20:52):
think you do if you were goingto retire? What would you How would
you apply yourself? I have acouple of charities that I'm in off with
that I wouldn't just spend more time, But unfortunately, at this point of
my life, I'm really way toobusy to do as much as i'd like
to. So you tend to bepretty intense and pretty active. What time
(21:14):
do you start thinking about business inthe morning? What time do you stop
thinking about it at night, say, from the time I wake up.
Huh, it's all probably the timeI go to bed. Okay, I
just wanted to stays a week.But you really enjoy what you're doing.
It's a passion. I just loveit. Website address of Audi of Winwood
Audi Winwood dot com. Audi likethe car A U D I W y
(21:38):
n N E w O O ddot com. We've been speaking with Susannah's
ark and who's general manager, Audiewin would here on Executive Leaders Radio to
the visit our website Executive Leaders Radiodot com to learn more about our Executive
Leaders. Stick around with back ina moment. Right after this quick break,
(22:08):
We're back. You're listening to ExecutiveLeaders Radio. Thistro host Herb Cohen
like to introduce Michael Guesser, Who'sCEO Clean Logic. Michael, what is
Clean Logic? What are you guysdoing? Clean Logic is a skincare tools
manufacturer and distributor. And where areyou from? How many brothers and sisters
and where are you in the peckingorder? I'm from Los Angeles, California.
(22:30):
I have one younger brother. Allright, you're the oldest to two
and eight to fourteen. What kindof stuff are you doing as a kid.
I was playing all different sports,skateboarding, hanging around the neighborhood.
All Righty and Jeffrey, why didyou give me a hit? Michael,
tell us about the first job thatyou had and where you started making money.
(22:52):
Early in March. First job Iever had was babysitting. He was
about twelve or thirteen years old.What did you do differently than other babysitters
in the neighborhood. I was alwaysa very friendly, outgoing person, and
I knew that the parents had totrust me, and the kids had to
like me and want me to babysitfor them. You were looking at the
(23:12):
big picture as a kid as asopposed to, you know, trying to
goof off. You're looking at thebig picture, trying to figure out how
to keep everybody happy all the time. Huh, All right, yeah,
you Mike. Tell me about momand dad. My dad is from Israel
and my mom is from the UnitedStates. Not a great marriage, two
(23:33):
people that were probably not as successfulor achieved as much as they had hoped
they would. What impact did thathave on you? Were you aware of
that had grown up? Yeah?From a very early age, I knew
that my parents shouldn't be married,and I knew my parents worked very,
very very hard and didn't achieve asmuch as they had wanted. So,
so how did they push you towardsrunning clean logic? My parents had always
(24:00):
encouraged me to work and earn andcreate a life for myself that would have
been better than they had. Theywould always tell me things like, work
now, play later. The moreyou know the place, the more places
you'll go. They constantly said noto little things that I would ask for,
or you need to pay for ityourself, things like that. Very
early. Caleb, like, whatkind of sports were you into growing up?
(24:26):
I played everything, but the onlysport I was ever successful at was
ice hockey. Tell me about that. Ice hockey for me was a very
fast paced sport. It was verycompetitive. It was a sport that I
felt at a very big sense ofteam, which was something that I always
enjoyed being part of. And soyou played all these sports and you kind
(24:48):
of brushed them aside because you hada skill and affinity for hockey. Now
you're an entrepreneur. What's it liketo find something they're good at and really
go full born into it. Sofor me, when I'm the type of
person when I do find something thatI like, I put one hundred percent
into it. And I think forme, I knew that I was going
to be an entrepreneur from a veryyoung age, and that's kind of why
(25:11):
I was always chasing it, andwhen I was able to finally do it,
I went one hundred percent all inthat drive and that competitiveness. What
benefit is that to the employees andcustomers of Clean Logic, You at the
CEO given one hundred percent. SoI think that, combined with my love
of people, is kind of thecombination that kind of helped make this as
(25:34):
successful as it is because I wouldalways give one hundred percent to the company
and building the team, but Ialso knew how to work with the people
and talk with the people, Andfor me, it's always been an amazing
feeling to see somebody and help thembe as successful as they can be an
unlock their potential. Jeffrey Michael,how young were you when you knew that
(25:57):
everything was possible? And how didyou see that? One of My earliest
memories was I think I was aroundfour years old and my grandfather used to
ask me, what do you wantto do when you grew up, and
I would I knew that at thetime, Like I was saying things like
I want to find the cure forAIDS or I want to, you know,
(26:22):
come up with cures for cancer.And I was always had this big
thinking things like that. You mentionedthat when you grew up in Beverly Hills,
but you were one of the poorerkids, and you would visit your
friends parents that were working and youwould get a sense of their business.
Tell us a little bit more aboutthat and what that did do you.
(26:42):
Yeah, my friend's parents were allentrepreneurs. They were They owned their own
businesses. If they were the accountant, they own the accounting firm. If
they were the lawyer, they ownedthe law firm. They were fashion designers,
they were all they were. Theywere the heads, owners and CEOs
of some of the law businesses.And every time I would go visit their
businesses with my friends, I wouldnotice that here are these people that I
(27:06):
know that I'm in their house.I know them as people, and this
is something that they created. Soit reaffirmed my thought that I can do
anything I want if these people do. Reaffirmed your thought that you could do
anything. And this business that yougot involved with, you said it started
one way and you've taken it inanother direction, which is proof positive that
(27:27):
you can do anything. How didit start them? What did you do
to this business? So the businessstarted by importing food from South America and
selling them to Hispanic grocery stores insouthern California, Arizona, Texas, areas
with large Hispanic populations. And aftera little while, we started making our
(27:47):
own products, importing and manufacturing ourown products. And that evolved when we
realized that Hispanic based products didn't haveas big of an appeal as a mass
based product, so we started tocreate our own brand. So they went
from Hispanic brands to Clean Logic,for example. And as soon as we
started understanding the power of a brand, we began to become way more focused
(28:12):
on creating a successful brand. Andthat's the evolution of things. So it
sounds to me like as opposed tobeing diagnosed with ADHD as a kid,
they should have diagnosed you as amister evolves and keep things moving forward in
growth things. On the other hand, you mentioned that your daughter is neuro
(28:34):
diverse and you have a deep sensitivity. It's like you have another side to
you, which on one hand iskeep bobbing. It's also the other side
of you was a deep sensitivity topeople that your daughters tuned you into.
So when my daughter was eighteen monthsold, we put her into an early
intervention program. It's a school forchildren with disabilities. And while there,
(28:56):
I noticed that she and the otherkids that had various disability these were still
able to accomplish the same task asa typical childhood. So I started to
realize that there's nothing that they can'tdo. And as they got older,
I started to see more and more. But I was always one of the
things that kept me up at nightwas what does her future look like?
And what does the future of thesechildren look like? And so I started
(29:18):
to research that and there were thingsbut I wasn't I wasn't happy with that,
and I knew that these kids weremore capable of the options than the
options that were out there. Andso that's what got me to decide that,
Okay, I'm going to create anenvironment where people with disabilities, all
disabilities, can gain meaningful employment andwhere they can be inspired to achieve independence
(29:40):
and success. So what's going onwith you. So again, this is
mister revolvement here, So tell usmore about what you're thinking. Is So,
I think a lot of it hasto do with my love of people.
I've always loved people, and Idon't think that just because someone is
different or has a disability, thatthey should be left out or not be
(30:02):
included in every normal, normal life. So when I didn't see what I
think that these kids were capable of, and ultimately many adults were capable of,
I knew that. And maybe it'sselfish or maybe it's just for my
daughter, but I knew that Icould create it myself and give them what
I thought that they should have.Are you trying to inspire your daughter or
(30:25):
does your daughter inspire you? Soyeah, so it's my daughter who inspires
me. But what I but Ithink what she's inspired me to do is
to create this. It happens tojust be a business, It just happens
to be a work. But whatI'd like to do ultimately, and it
comes from her, is create thismodel of being able to make your business
(30:49):
or year off your company accessible thatcan be shared with every other business across
the country. Because I don't thinkthere's any reason why businesses can't higher disabled
people. They're they're just as qualified, and they just as productive as anybody
else. I think they just needcertain accommodations, but there's no reason they
can't do it. So that's likeit seems a question we seem to be
(31:12):
asking all the CEOs today is doyou think you're ever going to retire?
Do you think you're ever going toretire? I would like to at some
point to be able to. Ithink there will be a point where I
don't go to a job anymore,but I think I'll always be working to
inspire disabled people to be independent andsuccess. It doesn't me like you're always
(31:33):
going to be creating. Am Imistaken about that? No? I think
you're right. Yeah. It's like, you know, you got this working
from a blank piece of paper inyour blood. And what's the website address
for this organization and its clean logic. It's clean logic dot com, Clean
logic dot com. We've been speakingwith Michael Guesser, who's CEO of Clean
Logic here when Executive Leaders radio thatgive me a website one more time for
(31:57):
clean Logic, It's dot com contractcleanlogic dot com even listening to Executive Leaders
Radio. Dipricant to visit our website, it's Executive Leaders Radio dot com to
learn more about executive Executive Leaders ExecutiveLeaders Radio dot com. Stick around me
back in a moment right after thisquick break. Serbco and your Executive Leaders
(32:19):
Radio host and the CEOs we've interviewedon this show are interested in helping you
get your business started and helping yougrow your business. Whether you're aware of
the issues or whether you want theCEOs to give your hand identifying the issues
in getting your business started and orin growing your business, why don't you
(32:42):
email us at consult at Executive LeadersRadio dot com. That's consult at Executive
Leaders Radio dot com. Whether you'reinterested in having our CEOs speak with you
regarding getting your business and started orgrowing your business, send us an email
(33:05):
at consult at Executive Leaders Radio dotcom and we'll be sure to get back
to you shortly with some help.We're back. You're listening to Executive Leaders
(33:30):
Radio. This show host Herb Cohenlike to get to know Mike Bryan,
who is the president and CEO ofInnovative Financing Solutions. Mike, what is
innovative financing solutions. We are consultingfor our that consults to banks and credit
unions helping them make commercial loans.And we consult to business owners of all
(33:51):
sizes, helping them with their commercialfinancing needs. Okay, DOOKI, And
how'd you get a job with thiscompany? I started company in two thousand
and nine. Alrighty, where you'refrom? How many brothers and sisters?
And where are you in the peckingwinner? From suburban Philadelphia, Upper Darby,
little blue collar town and I amthe youngest of four and eight to
(34:13):
fourteen. Tell us a little bitabout what you were doing eight to fourteen
years old eight fourteen, getting intotrouble periodically, but mostly trying to stay
out of trouble by playing sports ofall kinds depending on the season. And
let's see, mister Matthew tom handplease, Mike, what was your favorite
(34:34):
subject in school? They were mostlybusiness courses? You know, even when
I was in high school. Whywould you like business courses when you were
in high school? And my dadwas an accountant and so we used to
talk numbers all the time when Iwas a kid, and he was really
sharp. He was one of thoseguys I could just you know, come
(34:55):
up with a number, you know, in a calculation without thinking. So
do you feel like you kind offollowed your father's path into into this business.
I think I did. I justveered from accounting to finance and that
was my place that I thought itwas best for me. And your dad
(35:15):
passed when you were a teenager,I think, right, yeah, I
was seventeen. What impact did thathave on you and the family. That
was a big impact because you gofrom you know, a two income earning
family to one, and a fatherthat is you know, no longer there
and a mother that's working endless hoursgraveyard shift as a nurse. So it
(35:39):
was it was a big change.So did you have to help your mom
out a little bit? I guessyou were the only one still home,
right I was, Yeah, allthe siblings were in college. I was
the last one in high school andtrying to help my mom on the business
side, primarily trying to figure out, you know, making sure that bills
got paid, making sure uh,you know, attractive recordcile. Was she
(36:02):
asking you for help or did youjust kind of you got a volunteer but
I knew she needed it. Howdoes that process? How does that that
history of helping your mom. Howdoes that affect you now? I think
that's what noble business owners of allkinds right now. It's very rewarding,
(36:24):
especially through the PPP process. So, uh, that's kind of like the
seed to your business model. Yes, yeah, what do you mean?
It's very rewarding. What are youtalking about? So we arranged financing,
you know for business owners, youknow, most why do you Why do
you personally find that rewarding though?Because these are folks that have trouble,
(36:49):
you know, getting alone. Theycan't walk in the front door of a
bank and just get alone. Sowhat you were doing with your mom,
that's who you are nowadays, allright, isn't it. Yes, that's
the Jeffrey when you get me here. Yeah, So Mike, your first
job when you started making money?What was it very first job? I
believe it was I did last jobs. I think it was a dishwasher at
(37:13):
a local restaurant. And what didyou do with the money that you made
at being a dishwasher? So Ithanked, you know, the dollars and
uh, you know, so I'mfourteen, so I'm thinking sixteen is my
first car. So that's where youknow, the bulk of what did you
learn being scrubbing those dishes? Whatdid you learn that you take take away
(37:35):
at your age today? Yeah,it was really the value of hard work,
because you know, you're going fromyou know, seven to you know,
twelve at night, and I learnedthat, you know, with hard
work, you know, comes thereward of you know, a paycheck.
Well, you also mentioned you ranthree restaurants. I guess those weren't two
(37:57):
nine to five either, were theythey were nine nine? Yes, not
at all at one time? Didat three at the same time? And
when I was a banker by day? Uh huh, Yeah, you know
how to work, Caleb. Mike, you say you're the youngest of four,
what was your dynamic lake with yoursiblings? We were only uh,
(38:19):
you know, a year and ahalf to two years apart, so you
know, we were pretty close,uh you know, growing up, and
I ended up being closest with myolder sister actually, And we talked about
when your father passed away you kindof had to take over and help out
your mother. Was it really yourolder siblings that jumped in or did you
(38:42):
kind of take control and really helpout the finances? Yeah? I really
had to take control. They wereat college and they were gone. So,
you know, everybody lived away andwent to school. I stayed home
and I commuted to college later totry to you know, stick with my
mom. So you're not a friendof doing what you need to do,
commuting work in the long hours inorder to make something successful, which was
(39:05):
your home life. Now you mentionedus ifs is not your first business,
you started a couple of other businesses. Did you kind of learn from that
young age what it takes to reallybe successful? Yeah? I think I
did. I think I always hadan entrepreneurial spirit, you know, in
me, and I can't say therewas a lot of you know, relatives
(39:27):
that had their own businesses, soI was one of the few, you
know, that went down that path. And part of that entrepreneurial spirit that
you mentioned, it is all aboutfinding solutions, right, Yeah, just
like in our name Innovative financi Solutions. So that is Jeffrey else were you
thinking? Yeah, so Mike,you went from big banking course states to
(39:51):
running your own business. What wasthe inspiration to starting your business and was
it scary? I mean, tellus about the beginning of that content.
Yeah, it was scared. Ihelped start a bank in Philadelphia in two
thousand and six with a group ofindividuals and thought that I was going to
end up being the president of thatbank and may have, but decided in
(40:14):
two thousand and nine to pivot andstart my own company. I didn't want
to be, you know, reportingto fifteen seat board of directors and to
consequently started IFS And how do youfeel? How does it make you feel?
Very rewarding? You know, I'mresponsible for twenty five people and we
(40:37):
have a great team and uh uh, you know, we do some great
work, I believe every day.So it sounds me like the cree your
your your middle name is coming upwith creative solutions, really understanding how to
get a deal done, different levelsof financing that equity. Am I reading
that correctly? Yeah? This stuffwe do is a little complicated, sometimes
(40:59):
convoluted, you know, to figureout. So it's not the it's not
the easy stuff. And but that'sokay. Once again, it is rewarding,
you know, to be able todeliver that financing to an entrepreneur who
really needs it and has had adifficult time. I guess the good thing
you're running your own business nowadays.You suppose you're running There was three restaurants.
(41:20):
It was twenty five hours a day. It's a good thing are running
your own business, you're financing businesses. You get to go into ten or
eleven and leave it four or five. It's long launches. Right, Oh
yeah, you know, I'll begoffin later this afternoon. Right. Uh
yeah it was. But I don'tmind a long hours. They are,
you know, like the rest ofthe folks here in this uh that we're
(41:43):
interviewed today. I think everybody's probablyputting in the long hours or so.
She married or single? I ammarried? Do you have any kids?
At one? Twenty seven year old? Similarity between being the CEO and being
a dad? What is it withmy kid? Not that much difference.
(42:04):
I still have to kind of directhim, Uh like I direct my employees
to. I've watched you physically reactwhen HERB asked you the retirement question before.
What's that visible? What's that reactionbeen about? Yeah, it's pretty
funny. I reached sixty one,So now that discussion seems to come up
(42:25):
more often, and uh, youknow, I'm gonna probably go out kicking
and screaming, uh from retaining butwhat I'd like to do in the future
is work with entrepreneurs, be amentor, teach an entrepreneurial ship class.
Do somebody, why do you wantto be a mentor? I don't.
I didn't really have great you know, mentoring, and I always thought that
(42:49):
was really important. So I wouldlike to kind of get back if I
could. Why is that important?Because you know young entrepreneur, you know
who's really motivated, you know,does need direction oftentimes, and he's been
doing it since us seventeen, helpinghis mother out. It's the same thing
(43:12):
he's doing with his clients, andMike thinks it's going to be different as
a volunteer, it's going to bethe same thing. It's just he's not
going to be charging anything. What'sthe website address of this organization known as
Innovative Financing Solutions. Yeah, simplyInnovative Financing Solutions dot net. Innovative Financing
Solutions dot net. Gotcha, Jeffrey, Can you give us a rundown on
(43:35):
who we've had on the air today? Please? What a great show her.
We started with Archie Philshell, theCEO of Arrow Aggregates of North America.
Susannah Sarkane, the general manager ofAddie Winwood, Michael Guesser, CEO
of Clean Logic and Just Now,Mike Ryan, President and CEO of Innovative
Financial Solutions. Like to thank myco hosts, including Jeff Mack Newmark,
(43:58):
Matthew Shapiro, Obermeyer and Kid popUs for you giving me a hand structure
the questions I'll be providing on listeningone against educational and entertaining show. Jeff,
what is the website address for Newmark? Please? It's Newmark dot com.
Mister Matthew Schapiro website address for ObermayerObermayer dot com. And Caleb for
Hendland please an Lantic Creative dot comHendland Creative dot com. Don't forget to
(44:21):
visit our website. It's Executive LeadersRadio dot com. That's Executive Leaders Radio
dot com to learn more about ourexecutive leaders. Thank you for joining us
today. Without listening what it wouldn'thave a radio show. Enjoy your day.
Thank you for joining us, andhave a nice day. Bye bye
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