Transparency in Business & the Growth of C-Suite

This week on "Create. Build. Manage." I talk with Jeffrey Hayzlett, Chairman and Founder of C-Suite Network, about the importance of transparency in business, some of his mentors and life lessons along his entrepreneurial journey, the growth of C-Suite Network, and more!

Episode Transcript

(00:10):
Welcome to create, build, managethe entrepreneurs toolbox. Here's your host,
Scott Miller, my guest tonight,is a global business celebrity, speaker,
best selling author, and chairman andfounder of c Suite Network. You can
catch Jeffrey Hazlett weeknights on biz TVas the host of c Suite with Jeffrey

(00:32):
Hazlett and Executive Perspectives. Jeffrey,Welcome to the show. Hey, good
to be on your network. Thanksso much for having me. No,
we appreciate your time. I wantto kind of dive into it your experience
for those who haven't had the opportunityto get to know you. You were
the chief marketing officer, vice presidentof Eastman Kodak. He've served on multiple

(00:55):
boards. Would kind of like totalk about people's experience as you look back
over your career. What are someexperiences that you've learned along the way,
Jeffrey that's really helped you where you'reat today. Well, mostly as a
leader, probably to keep my mouthshut and listen, you know, that's
the biggest one that I've learned overtime. And it's tough for a guy
like me who as a marketer andof course a TV and podcast host.

(01:18):
Everything else is to keep my muthshut, you know. But the more
I listen, the more I learned, and you can hear those wonderful gems
and see those things come out inother people. And I think that's the
biggest thing. But you know,highlights certainly. You know, I was
a judgeing Celebrity Apprentice for three years, had my own show on Bloomberg as
a primetime television host, and nowhere on Business TV and c Suite TV
and of course c Suite Radio.You know, the media stuff, the

(01:42):
people I get to meet, asyou know, Scott, You've interviewed so
many wonderful, wonderful people in thebusiness world. And I get to interview
not just business people, but celebritieswho have become business people like Pinjelt,
you know, Steve Forbes, who'sbeen in the you know, certainly had
run for president, done every thingelse. And I could just go on
Pierce Morgan and just keep going,Jean Simmons, who is a marketing genius,

(02:06):
although we did fire them on CelebrityApprentice. Well, let's kind of
dive in before all of this,before all your success. Let's go back
even further. Did you ever imagineyour career would take the path that is
taken. Go back to your collegedays. I mean, were you expecting,
Yeah, I'm going to be amajor media mogul and get to meet
all these celebrities. It's kind offun to look back on. But what

(02:30):
did you set out to do whenyou got into business? To do the
best at whatever I was going todo, whatever that might be. You
know, I always had a sensefrom when I was young, I was
always going to do something big.I just didn't know what it was going
to be, you know that.I always had that little bit of confidence.
Although I always had those voices inthe back of my head just like
everybody else. I just stopped listeningto them a long time ago, and

(02:51):
I always knew I would do something. But even back in college, I'd
already run for lieutenant governor of thestatus South Dakota. I was working for
George McGovern who was a US Senatorat the time. I was doing a
lot of different things, hosted myfirst parade on television, you know,
all those little things that you do. Yeah, but so uh you know,
but people always say about did youhave any of this plan? Well,
heck no, Uh you know,I think I didn't think any of

(03:14):
that. I just knew that Iwould put one foot in front of the
other and do the best I could. I probably should have been a lot
more strategic in the things I did. I've been more about follow my passion,
follow my heart, and then maybefollow my mind. And you know
that served me very well. Buta lot of people, as you do
interviews like this or podcast interviews,and people say, did you have all

(03:36):
this planned out in the answer isabsolutely know and no way, shape or
form. And but you know,when I saw an opportunity, I chose
to take it. But it wasalways based on my values. You know,
I've walked away from jobs. Iwalked away from the CMO Beastman Kodak
probably at the height of my careeras a CMO for Fortune one hundred company,
but it led me to other thingswhich I love to do. I

(03:57):
walked away from my primetime television showand Bomberg to go start my own OTT
network and you know, the cSuite network. So you'll learn, You'll
learn as you go, and youknow, you take some of them with
on the chin, and it takessome of them in the wallet. I
think the thing I love most aboutyour story is South Dakota. And there
you see, you're still in SouthDakota. There's so much pressure in our

(04:20):
business and media. You got tobe in New York, you got to
be in Los Angeles, and you'veproven that you don't have to be.
You don't have to be. Youcan today with the virtual set or where
we at. And I happen tobe sitting in Gainesville, Florida today where
I'm working with a company that I'mon the board for and working with them,

(04:42):
and you know here we are doingtelevision I did. I did one
of my own shows today. Idid both the podcast and television show that
I take today and then doing thisshow. You can be anywhere today,
And the key ist of having greatcontent, you know, if you've got
great content, great ip, andthen getting it out and you don't that
studio as we used to have inNew York City, Um, I don't

(05:02):
need that anymore. I can doit from anywhere. And that's one of
the you know, I tell people, change, adapt or die, and
that's a real theme you have tohave in business and I live that every
single day. Jeffrey. I knowyou off television and you're a very humble
guy for all the success you had, very approachable. Do you think it's
keeping in your roots, keeping inthere in South Dakota as your home base,

(05:24):
you think that's helped you continue tobe who you were, who you're
who you grew up being. Yeah, I think so. But the other
thing is you've got to surround yourselfwith really good people. You know,
my wife, I've been married forforty two years. I'd say forty four
because we were engaged for two,so I like to get the credit for
that. But you know, she'sfive ft one hundred and five pounds.
I'm six foot three, two hundredand seventy some pounds, and they say

(05:46):
I'm bigger than necessary. And she'salways, you know, kept me grounded,
and they have other people around meto keep me grounded, because you
know, in this business you got, you can get a little heady when
they when they think this looks likeI candy all the time. You can
get a little bit too big foryour britches. And I always remember that
phrase from my mother and my grandmother, and you know, and I've always
just learned to treat everybody like youwant to be treated, and you know,

(06:11):
remember, no matter how big youthink you are, there's always someone
bigger. And so I'm always strivingto do a better job and to do
the best job I can and andI try to be as good about it
as I possibly can. And thatreally comes down to values and living the
values that you were taught when youwere a kid and then all the way
through to practice those those as anadult. Forty four years together, that's

(06:33):
awesome, That's very impressive, shesays. She says, she's my trophy
wife, and she is there.You go, well, you know,
so I've I'm at twenty one years, so I'm still catching up with you.
And my wife says that divorces outof the question, but murder is
not. And that has kept mepretty straight. Well most the most I

(06:53):
was with. I havn't breakfast thisweekend, and there were some people talking
about daylight savings time, and itwas two young men and two young women
and they were trying to struggle overwho is that women were having an argument
with the guys, and I finallyjust said the guys just whatever they said,
guys, you gotta learned. That'swhat the truth is. That's what's
gonna be they're gonna win. SoI've learned that along time ago. That's
awesome. That's awesome. Well,so being transparent, that's something important to

(07:15):
you as a leader kind of unpackedthat for us. Yeah, I you
know, I think that's one ofthe biggest virtuals that a business leader can
have and organizations for that matter,is to be transparent. You know,
you walk into a business room andthere's elephants in the room. Why don't
we just say, there's elephants inthe room, let's talk about those elephants.
Let's get them out on the table, you know. Or you have
an employee who says, well,I don't want to throw someone under the

(07:36):
bus when you ask them who's thinkingthis or where did this come from?
Well, that's not where we're lookingfor as leaders. We're out looking for
people to be extremely transparent. Youknow, back in many, many decades
ago, I had a printing businessthat was in trouble. And I was
running this printing business, and youknow, I started trying to make a
small fortune in business, and Istarted with a large fortune, and you

(08:00):
know, and I was really strugglingwith the business, and you know,
I wasn't truthful. It wasn't transparentwith my employees. That cash was really
tight, and my manager went outof the way to buy a truckload of
paper to get a great price onit. But it was with cash I
didn't have. Now had I've beentransparent with him and said, hey,
I'm short on cash, worse shorton cash, don't do this. I

(08:24):
know you're trying to do the rightthing, and it's absolutely appropriate, and
I love you for it, andyou should be doing that, you know,
But he almost put me under Andso it's important that I learned from
that lesson. It's important for usto know that transparency is just paramount to
a business. And you know,great football teams, great baseball teams,
great sports teams have complete transparency.When you come back in the huddle and

(08:46):
everybody knows you missed a block,they know you missed a block, don't
cover it up. Just say mybad, I missed a block. I'm
sorry he got tackled, and thenmove on. People will appreciate you for
that. Isn't that a lost artthough? I Mean, maybe I'm sounding
like I'm older now when I talkabout it, but it just seems like
we're always trying to or I saywe the collective society is more interested in

(09:09):
cya than actually just being transparent whenthey make a mistake that's refreshing well.
Or we believe that brands are whatwe make them, and brands are not
Brands are promises deliver, they're transparent. And the greatest brands in the world
are the ones that say, hey, every once in a while, we
screw up, every once in awhile, we didn't do the right thing.
Hey, well, this is whatwe're trying to do. And I

(09:30):
think most people want to do businesswith people like that. And so in
today's world where you know, selfiesare the you know, the number one
thing, and we see all thesepeople trying to make these instant brands of
them the brand of you, Butthe brand of you is really has to
be rooted and grounded. And justlike whether it's a company, a box
of soap, a cure for disease, or political candidate, it's very important

(09:52):
to be what you are and whoyou represent. And transparency is at the
core of that. Truth always comesout, for sure. See that.
We see that when people put upthat facade, it only lasts so long.
Well, especially social media, it'sgonna you're eventually going to be found
out. You will be shown asa fraud. You know. I can
remember the instagrammer who was an influencerwith two million followers and she was representing

(10:16):
a T shirt company and sold twoshirts. You know, if you if
you don't have engagement, if youdon't have the depth, if the real
content isn't backed up by real ipor you know, real stuff, then
you're going to fail and you're gonnait's gonna be uncovered. So you know
your best to just say hey,right off the bat, I don't know
and or I can't do that.Is there somebody better on my team that

(10:41):
can do that? That's a muchbetter way of being able to go forward.
For Visiting this Hour with Jeffrey hazelIt again, he is with c
Suite Network and we're gonna dive moreinto what c Suite Network is coming up
right after the break. Visiting ThisHour with Jeffrey Hazlith and Jeffrey, we

(11:22):
were talking about being transparent on thatlast segment. How important it is for
you as a leader to be transparent. Let me flip the script on you.
How important is it for you toseek transparency? I e. Feedback
from your clients, well, allthe time. At the end of every
meeting, you know, I doa lot of consulting, and I give
a lot of keynotes, do alot of different business, you know,

(11:43):
And whenever i'm double those keynotes,everybody always asked me to come and either
serve on boards or to come andconsult with them, or even to speak
with him. But when I'm consultingwith him, you know, when we
finish our session, Scott, oneof the first things I do is I
lay out what I call the conditionsof satisfaction at the beginning of meeting,
and then at the end of themeeting, I always say, hey,

(12:03):
are you satisfied? And I askthat question because if they're satisfied, I
know I've done everything I was supposedto have done, and then maybe some
more on top of that. Ifthey say they're not, then we go
back to the conditions of satisfaction andsay, hey, well, problems were
we solving when we first began thismeeting or when we first began this work,
and then how can I do thisbetter or what can I do to

(12:24):
get it to where you need itto be. So it's very important for
us to line around what I callthose conditions of satisfaction. So I'm constantly
seeking feedback and you don't have toalways, you know, ask just sometimes.
I said when we first began thisshow, Listen, listen. You
can pick up the things very quicklyfrom folks whether or not you're doing a
good job. Great great advice,and it makes you you're speaking in what

(12:48):
you do. You just continue tofine tune it so that you get better
at it, and that's what youwant absolutely. I mean, audiences are
great, great tools to be ableto have when you're doing like professional speaking,
or you know, even listeners orto your podcast or viewers of your
show and read those comments, becausethat's where you get that feedback where you
can do it. You know,as I'm a Hall of Fame speaker and

(13:09):
I'm constantly tweaking my speeches on stage. I'll change the intonation of the word
or the way I do it,or the way I phrase it, or
even my voice up or down,and I practice in practice to see how
the audience react. You know,hopefully I'll keep getting those standing ovations.
Do you walk away and just betransparent with me, Do you walk away?

(13:31):
Do you do you feel satisfied,or you or you'd like me,
you think about the one or twothings you could have done better. Oh,
I'm always thinking about the one ortwo things I could do better.
I am satisfied without question. Thereare sometimes I walk away and go,
man, I really blew that thatwas terrible. I could have done a
lot better. But even even mybad, bad experiences are pretty good.

(13:52):
And by the way, I'm notbragging. It's not bragging if it's true.
But nonetheless, you know, evensometimes I walk away and say I
could have done better. I youknow, when we get finished a meeting
with a team, or I finisheda presentation and I have staff with me,
I'll turn to them and say,what could I have done better?
That's a question I asked almost everysingle time. What part did you like?

(14:13):
You know, what part didn't youlike? And by the way,
this is some staff people who couldnow heard that speech so many times they
could give it themselves, right,so they know exactly what that's like.
But yeah, I'm constantly looking forimprovement. I think you know, I
learned this from an executive I wasworking with many years ago in a company,

(14:33):
a big printing company that was workingwhere I was head of sales and
marketing, and he was the generalmanager of a billion dollar business at the
time, and his big thing wasconstant improvement, constant improvement, constant improvement.
And every meeting we ended up withwhat we could do better, and
I've always taken that and use thatto my advantage. No, that's that
makes sense. Well, let's talkabout c suite. This is a growing

(14:56):
network. I want to know what'sthis idea, because it's pretty cool what
you're doing. Well, it didspark from a TV show. I was
doing The c Suite with Jeffreyizon onBloomberg Television and all of these people interacting
me. Turned out to be thenumber one business show on cable at the
time for Business Cable, and notto make that's a big thing because how

(15:16):
many people rush home to watch alifetime business of the business show right on
the weekend, but nonethe on theweekdays. But nonetheless, it was still
a great show, and we hadall these people, and I started having
more people watched me online than we'rewatching through broadcast. And so as a
result of that, I said,we need to take this out and create
an OTT of what's called over thetop television. And we did. And

(15:39):
with that, we said we couldcreate a network around at a community.
Because it's important to have the contentand get the content out where you need
it, but to have it witha community is how you can really monetize
it. And so we came upwith the idea to create a trusted network
of C suite executives where we helpedthem use their content to grow their business,
to grow their lives, to growtheir education and knowledge. And that's

(16:00):
what we're really trying to do.And so we've got, you know,
over three hundred thousand people who areactive with us digitally, over ten thousand
that have participated in paying and beinga part of the community. And then
of course we've built our TV andpodcast networks and partnering with great shows like
you know bis TV right now,we have been you guys have been with
us almost from the beginning when weline, so we've been partners for a

(16:23):
while. And so you're back inservices that's growing as well. So you
kind of talked about it real quickly. But you're helping them create content.
It's content marketing. You're working withsome really big names. But I understand
you're getting into into publishing can youtalk about that at this point. Well,
everybody's got a book in them withoutquestion, and of course there's over

(16:44):
three million new books coming out ayear. Many of those are business books,
and so it's a great way forpeople to go out and tell the
story. And so CCU Publishing isone of those. We're helping people with
peer to peer counsels how you canbe the leader of your own category.
That's a major thing. And it'sone thing to be a part of an
industry, but to lead that categoryin your industry. So we're helping people

(17:06):
build the brand of you. Andso we we've done that with lots of
services, c Suite Loan, we'reabout just the next week we'll be announcing
c Suite ARC tax credit program whichyou'll be able to go to and be
able to get tax credits. Wedid it. We did c Suite supplies
during the pandemic to help businesses getthose ppe supplies that they needed. So
lots of different services. You wantto start a podcast, you want to

(17:30):
start a TV show, you wantto write a book. Again, using
content to be able to tell yourstory and then build the community that group
of customers and audience and community thatreally wants to get the message. You
mentioned the pandemic. Your organization actuallygrew during COVID. What do you credit
the secret sauce for having that growth. Well, I'd like to say get

(17:52):
off your but I'll say get offyour butt. That was the biggest piece,
you know, And there's a lotof people said everybody needed hugs.
I got you needed hugs. Butyou know, we're if you look at
most business leaders who are watching thisshow, you're a business first responder.
You're not a doctor, you're nota nurse. In fact, you know,
I couldn't even sew a mass.So I said what can we do?
And I said, look, whatwe're going to do is get people

(18:14):
not to survive who wants to survive, but to thrive. So what we
said we were gonna do is goingto be a survive and thrive and we
were going to drive and thrive throughthis pandemic. You know, it was
going to be hard times, there'sno doubt about it. And a lot
of businesses at hard times, alot of businesses who actually did grow like
ours, who said look we're goingto pivot, we're going to change.
We were doing one hundred plus physicalevents in cities around the country and around

(18:41):
North American Canada in the US,and that was all pulled out from underneath
this and the next month, youknow, we lost thousands and thousands and
thousands of pantacs with tens of thousandsof dollars because we couldn't host our own
events, so we put those ondigital. As a result, we went
from one hundred and ten and olover four hundred events online and grow the
overall business and help people not justsurvive, but to drive and thrive.

(19:07):
And that's you know, that's whattough leaders do. We become business first
responders and we put ourselves into work. That is the key to being a
true entrepreneur. You know, wehear the stats of so many businesses that
fail. Most of the time theyjust give up. Right, it's tough.
It's tough, and you need someyou know. That's why we at
c suite we say, hey,come and join us. Every Friday,
we put together a little celebrates eventwhere it's at place, you know,

(19:30):
kind of like a pub where youcan stop by, like before you went
home, and you could come andget a patent, a back or a
high five you had a great weekor a hug if you didn't. And
that's what we need, you know, a little education, little motivation,
some inspiration, a and a chanceat some monetization. And we all need
those kinds of communities to come together. And that's what c Suite Network's all
about. Awesome, we are visitingthis hour with Jeffrey Hazelt and I'm gonna

(19:52):
get a little bit more personal withyour next segment. Are you ready for
that? I'm ready. Bring it. Brother. We're gonna put you in
the hot sea. You're watching Create, Build, and Manage. We'll return
right after this. I guess thishour is Jeffrey Hazelt. He is the

(20:36):
founder of c Suite Network, andwe were talking last segment really just a
little bit about c suite. ButI've sort of threatened you, not really,
but I told you we want toget a little bit more personal,
So I want to kind of talkabout some of the leaders without naming names.
I'm not going to make you spillthe dirt, but I'm kind of
curious. Transparent not a problem.I could be transparent one. Now I'm

(20:59):
curious because, um, you havea front row seat to a lot of
leaders at people that watch this showor watch bis TV or watch c suite.
You know, they're always sort offascinated. Um, I want to
kind of feel back the curtain.What's your experience as you meet some of
these leaders, some of that youmaybe have already mentioned, or or some
that come to mind. Give mesome stories, give me some dirt,

(21:21):
give me some fun stories, sortof behind the scenes. You know,
there's a lot of fun ones likethat that I had some great experiences with
you. I was just thinking about. You know, the real people that
I'm most impressed with usually aren't theones you would think of. It's the
It's the Fred Pinsons of the worldwho runs a plumbing business and what he
did in my life to help memake who I am today. Or the

(21:41):
Harold Jones, uh, you knowwho helped do different things from me.
Or the John Timmers of the world. And these are people you'll never know,
but you know when you when youdo get a chance to meet with
a fortune ten or you know,fortune one hundred, fortune thousand, or
even um. You know, leadingentrepreneurs, there are always a couple.
I was once interviewing a panel inNew York City and Jeffrey Eimett was there,

(22:03):
and he actually mentioned He said,imagine when you go through security at
the airport and you're taking your plane, And I said, stop right there,
Jeff, when was the last timeyou flew commercials? You know?
Which I know, you know.It was just just a funny way of
being able to put him in hisplace and just say, let's get real,
you know, give real examples.And Jean Simmons was another one.

(22:23):
I mentioned Geane early on. Youknow, he was on Celebrity Apprentice.
I got to know him. Iwas actually a guest on one of his
other shows that he did on Aand E. And you know, I
had a one of the most touchingstories ever was the time I got Jeane
to tell me about his first businesswhere he sold chipped ice, flavored chipped
ice when he was living back inIsrael when he was a little boy,

(22:45):
and how he saved the money forthat, and of course stopped and bought
a treat for his for him andhis friend him and they bought a treat
and he gave the money to hismother and she said, where did you
get this Where did you get thismoney? She was thinking he had done
something bad, and he told herthe story and she started to cry,
and of course when Jean told thatstory, he was crying. And I

(23:08):
mean, those are touching moments thatyou get sometimes even on a show or
behind the scenes. You know,Pendult, who has become a very good
friend of mine, one of thesmartest guys in the world. I love
to give him our time. He'san atheist, and so I love to
end every call, you know,our meeting with him, thank God,
you know, and I just justto give him a little give him a
little punch, you know, orsomething like that. But you have these

(23:30):
great people, some people you don'teven agree with. Pierce Morgan's one of
those, you know. I'm astrong two a supporter supporting our Second Amendment
rights that were granted to us bythe United States Constitution, and of course
pierced from the UK. He doesn'tbelieve in gun control in any way,
shape or for our believes in guncontrol every way, shaping him and not

(23:51):
the private ownership of gun. Sowe have great debates, and I love
great conversations like that. And that'swhat I find, for the most part,
is I have great open conversation andthe chemistry is real and it's almost
immediate. In a lot of cases, do we put these leaders, these
celebrity business leaders. Do we putthem too much on a pedestal? I
mean, they're just human beings,right, we do? I think we

(24:12):
do. You know, when Iwas a Fortune one hundred officer and I
would go to a trade show Scottthere at seven o'clock. When I opened
my door in the morning, therewould be three people there. Someone would
have me my egg sandwich and atthat time I used to drink a diet
mountain dew, and the other personwould be reading the schedules, were walking.
Someone walked ahead of us to makesure that the button was pushed so

(24:33):
the elevator door would be opened bythe time I got to the elevator,
right, So we do do alittle bit of that. And I used
to try to like peel that backso that we wouldn't do that, and
we would treat people like they shouldbe treated. And that's just like you
and I and everybody else. AndI think the more that we do the
do of that in this world andbringing people up and probably remembering that once

(24:56):
we get to the very top floor, you know, of six tests,
make sure to send the elevator backdown for everybody else, well, And
that's another perspective that you have whenyou are in that position that people are
seeking you all the time. It'sfunny, what's going through your mind is
not what people think you're thinking,right, Yeah, it's not. I
Look, I don't worry about that. I am who I am. You

(25:18):
should be who you are. Don'tworry about what I'm thinking or how I'm
going to react or the way Ishould have react. I'm just going to
react. And some days that bythe way, that could be could be
bad to pendcyl how much coffee I'vehad or not have right life. But
you know, as long as youcan be again, you're authentic. You
know, that's one word I geta lot about myself that people say,
Jeff, you're so authentic. Well, it's hard enough being me. Why

(25:41):
would I want to be someone else? Right? And And that's the way
I think we should live our lives. We should live our brands. You
know, everybody always ad a Jeff'swhat's your biggest aspiration? Or well I
always like two questions. One iswhat's the biggest mistake? And I would
say I don't know. I haven'tmade it yet, meaning I'm going to
make a bigger one, you know, right, and the other one is
like your dream, what's your hope, strings and aspiration? What do you
want to be known for it?And I said, a great grandfather,

(26:03):
you know, and I just wantto leave a legacy like that that you
know, that's what you know.I'm a I'm a human playing ground from
my two granddaughters right now, andso fawsome to me. That's kind of
the that's that's what life's really about. And let's and I think the pandemic
helped a great number of us realizethat that's true. I'm still trying to
picture what eggs and diet mountain dewwould taste like together. That just yeah,

(26:25):
well I don't I don't I separatethat stuff now. I'm just now
it's got to be wine, water, whiskey or coffee. Those are pretty
much my own advices today. Sothere you go. You mentioned a few
names at the start of the segment. I was going to ask you who
your mentors were as a young youngman that left an impression on you.
Were Was it the plumber or wasthere other? Yeah? Well, Fred

(26:47):
Pinson, you know, he gaveme a job when I was about thirteen
and when I really needed a joband and and kept me out of trouble,
and you know, maybe dig ditcheswith a pick and crawl underneath houses
to help unplug a toilet and thingslike that. Harold Jones, who was
a former Marine sergeant gunner who mentoredme when my father was in Vietnam and

(27:11):
kept me straight and narrow. Itwas a Michael Connor who I bought my
first business from a printing business insue Fall, South Dakota, and taught
me the value of how to zeeout or cash register and what that meant
and how to apply that again.And I've applied every single day. How
much do I do every single dayin business? And am I getting to
my average? Am I getting tomy weekly? You getting to my monthly?

(27:33):
Am I making that year the wayI need to do? And profitability?
And people like John Timmer, John'spassed. All these gentlemen have passed.
But John Timmer, who ran aninsurance business in a Republican I was
a Democrat, and he taught meso much about values and sticking up for
what was right. And so eachof those men, as well as members

(27:55):
of my family and others that Ican go and point to because I think
we're all product of socialization. We'reall products of the people that we come
in contact with and have impacts onour lives. So those were mentors of
mine, along with my father andmy mother in different ways. Uh,
some positive and some negative, youknow, because that's just the nature of
family. And uh yeah. Sothere's lots of people who who make up

(28:17):
that and you know, I don't. I'm not a big follower of sports
and not a big follower of ofidols, of those kinds, my idols
or those people who just uh,you know, do their work every day,
come home, pay their bills,and and and try to raise great
families and and and and really bumpup that next generation. That's my job.
That's awesome. So we got alittle bit less than three minutes.

(28:41):
We have a lot of what weaffectionately refer to as entrepreneurs who watch the
show. They're working for somebody else, but they dream of leaving that job
to start their own venture. Whatadvice would you offer them? Go do
it? I mean, you're gonnaFirst of all, let me tell everybody
out there in business today, you'regonna fail. Oh boy, you're gonna
fail. You're gonna fail. Often. The key is to win fast,

(29:03):
not lose fast. You're gonna lose, and so get going if you have
the passion, but make sure it'smore than just passion. I try to
corner the market on pheasants one timetoo. I realized there wasn't one,
you know, And that's that's awhole book right there. And I lost
my rear end on lots of differentbusinesses and different investments, and that's how
you learn. But overall, ifyou keep putting at it, it's the

(29:26):
relentless that win in the end.Sure, there are these people who get
lucky. They build an uber,they build an Airbnb. I mean,
who would have thought they let someoneset an eck and on a couch and
somebody would pay you for it?Right? And you know, I mean
you think back about those kinds ofthings. Right. So you're going to
get lucky from time to time.But the people who are most successful are
those that are relentless, that reallydo it, do well and do it.

(29:47):
You know, It's it's not easybecause it's hard. It's supposed to
be hard. And so my adviceto you is to get going and start
building and figuring it and figuring itout, get together with as many other
people who are like minded, meaningwho are entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs just like you
who want to do it, andyou'll form that great community and it will

(30:07):
be some of the best friends ofyour life. Now, that's such thing
as overnight success, though, right, it takes time. Ever mentioned Uber
maybe if I slept with a start, but even Uber Uber, I mean
Uber was founded by an accident,right, I mean, there was four
guys out drinking in Paris, couldn'tget a cab in the middle of the
night, and decided we need tobuild an app that will get us a
right home boom And so it's experiences. Typically it's accidents that find that and

(30:30):
you'll get those every often. Butyou know, it took a lot of
hard work and a lot of tenaciousnessfor them to build that brand into what
it is today. Let's talk abouthow someone can get a hold of you,
can follow you, because I knowthey'll want more information from you.
So what's the best way to reachyou? Your website? Yeah, best
site, Just go to hazlet dotcom or a c suite of any kind

(30:51):
and find us. You can seeus everywhere and you know, if I
write you back. It's me,it's not somebody else. A lot of
people don't always know that, butyou can come see us at dot com
h y z l Ett dot comor see sweetnetwork dot com see hyphensuitetnetwork dot
com. Jeffrey Hazelt, we appreciateyour time this hour. Thank you,
it's been a pleasure. And keepup the great success on Busines TV.

(31:14):
We appreciate, we appreciate the partnership. It's going to continue to grow.
I got a feeling so big time, big time Boia. All right,
you're watching Create, Building, Manage. We'll be back right after this.

(31:47):
Welcome back to Create, Build andManage, Scott Miller. What a great
hour we've had with Jeffrey Hazel.It such rich information. When you think
about leaders you look up to,they've all made mistakes, they've all done
some things that they would regret,and they've had success as well. And

(32:07):
then that that motivation if you're inthat place where you're just looking to start
something, to get out there andreally just start your own business, do
it. Don't wait. Now's thetime to do that. And I can
relate to that in my own story. There have been moments when I've had
an idea and I've wanted to dosomething and you let that inner voice sort

(32:30):
of talking out of it. Andone of those was a book. I've
always wanted to write a book,Russell. That was always on my list
of things that I wanted to do, Russell Sorrow our producer. Here,
great segment there with Jeffrey Hazler.What did you walk away with? I'm
just curious kind of what nugget youappreciate it the most. I think transparency

(32:51):
is important. So I definitely thinkthat that's a really good point that he
made there. And transparency both ways, I think is really I think that's
extremely helpful. It's machine right.You want that from your leaders. You
want them to be to be honest, all right. So I always wanted
to write a book, and mybook is now available, and this is
my opportunity to give a little shamelessplug about it. But let me tell

(33:12):
you why we did this. AndI say we because it was a team
effort to research and put this booktogether. And certainly want to think Julia
grub and all the work she did, my assistant with this book, as
well as the rest of the team. We talked to a lot of businesses
throughout the day. We have thisshow you see on Sunday nights. Usually

(33:35):
we're interviewing some well known, somecelebrity business leaders like Jeffrey Hazelett who have
had a lot of success. Butthen we have our daily show that you
can watch right here on biz TV, or you can also listen to our
podcasts as well. You can subscribeto the Daily Show podcast where we interview
kind of a mix of some biggername entrepreneurs as well small businesses. And

(33:57):
over the years, as we've talkedto different businesses is what we find is
a lot of people understand or theyknow media, but they don't really know
the inner workings of media. I'vebeen in the media business for over twenty
five years, and I often findwhen I tell somebody I work in media,
you know, just by the questionsthey ask, you know, they
understand what content is, they understandhow they can consume it, but I

(34:22):
don't necessarily know everything that goes intomaking content, particularly making good content and
the different ways you can kind ofpush it out there. We're also seeing
a shift in how you market yourbusiness that's changing. You know, think
about how you watch television right now, now you watch biz TV, so
you're watching us over the year broadcast. Maybe you're watching US through our on

(34:46):
demand app biz VOD, but youyou know, you might also watch content
on Hulu and Netflix and the viewersso divided right now. So if you
own a business, how to youreach your perspective buyers, your perspective clients
when people are consuming media in somany different ways today. That's what we

(35:09):
talk about in Media Matters, andwhat we really do is we go chapter
by chapter talking about each type ofmedia that you might be interested in that
you might not know anything about.For example, I talk about written media,
how you yourself can write a bookand give you some practical advice and
things to think about if you're goingto write a book where you can talk

(35:31):
about what you're an expert in.We talk about newspaper. You know,
newspapers aren't dead, they're just inthe digital form. People are still In
fact, there are more people thatare consuming digital copies of newspapers today than
what newspapers have lost in traditional subscribers. So in a sense they've actually grown

(35:53):
on. Who goes to their websitesagain, just consumed differently. Radio is
radio dead? You know? You'relistening to this show on radio. Some
of you are, so it's clearlyyou like radio listening to one of our
bus talk radio affiliates. But radiois not dead, it's just reinventing itself,
and we talk about that as well. We talk about the growth of

(36:15):
podcasting. Of course, we diveinto social media. Anytime you talk about
media today, you have to talkabout social media and the different platforms.
You know, how you post onLinkedIn is going to be different than what
you post on Facebook. We giveyou some practical tips if you're gonna create
video, how you upload the video, and how the video needs to be

(36:36):
a certain link, and how youneed to have close caption in your video.
Tips like that. So we wantedto make it very practical, and
one of the things we wanted todo was simplify it. So you know,
there's a lot of jargon you havein any kind of industry, and
so when we say something in ourindustry like OTT, what does that mean,
Well, it's over the top,which is basically internet television, and

(36:57):
we talk about that. So theidea is, if you own a business,
or you ever think about wanting toown a business, and you want
to market your company. Understanding thelanguage, Understanding how each of these media
platforms work gives you an edge upwhen you go to buy media so that
you understand what you're buying, sothat you can use your marketing dollars wisely.

(37:22):
And that's what we want you todo. We want you to be
able to use your marketing dollars ina very smart and wise way. You
can get this book. It's availableat mediamattersbook dot com. Mediamattersbook dot com.
You see says order now. Whenyou click on that, it'll take
you to some different options, oneof the options being Amazon the paperback i'll

(37:44):
tell you right now at seventeen ninetynine, or you can get the kindle
version for seven ninety nine. Sowe wanted to make this very cost effective
for you. We didn't want topush something out. This is not about
us making money off of a book. It's really about us providing a resource
for you that you can hold inyour hand, take notes, and we'd
love for you to check it out. I'd also love to hear your thoughts

(38:07):
if you do check out the book, or your thoughts on the show.
Perhaps there's a future guest you'd likeus to interview, Russell, and I
would love to talk to the personthat you suggest. So you can find
me on social media. Easy tofind at Scott Miller CEO if you are
on Twitter, if you're on Facebookor Instagram, or you can find me

(38:28):
on LinkedIn. You could see I'mat Scott Miller Media. So just go
to LinkedIn, type in Scott MillerMedia and there you'll find me and feel
free to connect with me. Sendme a message, let me know your
thoughts. We talked about transparency tonight, so give me your transparent thoughts and
as well. All feedback is welcome, and who knows, we might read

(38:49):
your comments on our next show.As I mentioned already, we have our
daily show each and every weeknight righthere on biz TV Monday through Friday at
are It's at eight o'clock pm EasternTime, and again at eleven pm for
our West Coast viewers. You wantto check that out. And if you
like this show, you can findthis show and all of our content available

(39:10):
on demand to mention earlier at bisboddot com, bi zvod dot com.
Russell, did I get all theshameless plugs in? I think that's about
all of them. I can't thinkof another snameless pluck to add. We
need to get your website up there, right, We need to get to
Russell. Russell is the greatest producerdot com. Is that available? I'll
buy it if someone else doesn't alreadybuy it. Hey, thanks so much

(39:34):
for tuning in, and I appreciateeach and every one of you. And
thanks again to Jeffrey Hazelt for histime on this evening to talk about his
story and his business as well.This is Scott Miller until until next time,
So long, everybody,