May 31, 2025 • 28 mins
Segment 1 with Jerry Jamison starts at 0:00.
In business, I have always been a sucker for a good grifter story- how people do it, why they do it and why people believe them in a game that relies on winning someone's confidence.
Over a span of 39 years, 23 aliases, 28 arrests in 20 cities, and nearly a dozen imprisonments, Robert Spears had lived a con artists' life of unparalleled adventure and intrigue.. Shortly before Thanksgiving Day in 1959, a plane exploded in mid-air, killing all 42 passengers and crew and leaving scattered debris and bodies across the otherwise tranquil Gulf waters. Listed on the manifest was Dr. Robert Spears—once the highly regarded president of the Texas Naturopathic Association. Father of two small children with a lovely, society-minded wife and an elegant home in an exclusive neighborhood, it was a monumental tragedy for them as it was for all the souls lost that day.
Less than two months later, Robert Spears miraculously “rose from the dead” in Phoenix where he was promptly arrested.
Jerry Jamison is an award-winning advertising copywriter with more than thirty national writing commendations during his career. Following his years as a copywriter, Jamison turned to a career as a novelist, generating more than 30 books in a wide range of genres. Jamison has been the recipient of numerous national awards during his career including a national commendation, alongside Senator Edward Kennedy, for his service to underserved communities. He has a new book out called "Vanishing Act: A Crashed Airliner, Faked Death, and Backroom Abortions".
Segment 2 with Dr. Rebecca Homkes starts at 17:06.
How do you need to change your leadership style during uncertain times like we are living in now?
Dr. Rebecca Homkes is a high-growth strategy specialist and CEO and executive advisor. She is a Lecturer at the London Business School, Faculty at Duke Corporate Executive Education, Advisor and Core Faculty for BCGU (Boston Consulting Group), and a former fellow at the London School of Economics Centre for Economic Performance-the author of "Survive, Reset, Thrive: Leading Breakthrough Growth Strategy in Volatile Times".
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-small-business-radio-show--3306444/support.
In business, I have always been a sucker for a good grifter story- how people do it, why they do it and why people believe them in a game that relies on winning someone's confidence.
Over a span of 39 years, 23 aliases, 28 arrests in 20 cities, and nearly a dozen imprisonments, Robert Spears had lived a con artists' life of unparalleled adventure and intrigue.. Shortly before Thanksgiving Day in 1959, a plane exploded in mid-air, killing all 42 passengers and crew and leaving scattered debris and bodies across the otherwise tranquil Gulf waters. Listed on the manifest was Dr. Robert Spears—once the highly regarded president of the Texas Naturopathic Association. Father of two small children with a lovely, society-minded wife and an elegant home in an exclusive neighborhood, it was a monumental tragedy for them as it was for all the souls lost that day.
Less than two months later, Robert Spears miraculously “rose from the dead” in Phoenix where he was promptly arrested.
Jerry Jamison is an award-winning advertising copywriter with more than thirty national writing commendations during his career. Following his years as a copywriter, Jamison turned to a career as a novelist, generating more than 30 books in a wide range of genres. Jamison has been the recipient of numerous national awards during his career including a national commendation, alongside Senator Edward Kennedy, for his service to underserved communities. He has a new book out called "Vanishing Act: A Crashed Airliner, Faked Death, and Backroom Abortions".
Segment 2 with Dr. Rebecca Homkes starts at 17:06.
How do you need to change your leadership style during uncertain times like we are living in now?
Dr. Rebecca Homkes is a high-growth strategy specialist and CEO and executive advisor. She is a Lecturer at the London Business School, Faculty at Duke Corporate Executive Education, Advisor and Core Faculty for BCGU (Boston Consulting Group), and a former fellow at the London School of Economics Centre for Economic Performance-the author of "Survive, Reset, Thrive: Leading Breakthrough Growth Strategy in Volatile Times".
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-small-business-radio-show--3306444/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Get ready for all the craziness of small business. It's
exactly that craziness that makes it exciting and totally unbelievable.
Small Business Radio is now on the air with your host,
Barry Maltz.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Well, thanks for joining this week's radio show. Remember this
is the final word in small business. For those keeping track,
this is show number eight hundred and thirty three. Well
in business, I gotta tell you, I've always been a
sucker for a good grifter story.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Help people do it, why they do it, why.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
People believe them in a game that relies on winning
someone else's confidence, here's a story for you. Over span
of thirty nine years, twenty three aliases, twenty eight rests
in twenty cities, in nearly a dozen imprisonments, Robert Spears
has lived a con artist life of unparalleled venture and intrigue.
Showly before Thanksgiving in nineteen fifty nine, a plane exploded
(00:57):
in mid air, killing all forty two passengers and crew,
and leaving scattered debrion bodies across the Tranquil Gulf waters.
Listening on the manifest was doctor Robert Spears, once the
highly regarded president of the Texas Metropathic Association, father, two
small children, with a lovely, society minded wife, an elegant
home and exclusive neighborhood. It was a monumental tragedy for them,
(01:20):
as it was for everyone that was lost in that day.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Less than two months.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Later, Robert Spears miraculously rosemudad in Phoenix, where he was
promptly arrested.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
There's a new book out.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
It's called Vanishing Act, A crashed airliner, fake death and
backgroomd Abortions, written by Jerry Jamison. He's an award winning
advertising copywriter with more than thirty national writing commendations in
the career. He's joinnated more than thirty books in a
bunch of different genres. He also the recipient of many
awards during his career, including a National commendation alongside Senator
(01:51):
Edward Kenny for his service to underserved communities. Jerry, welcome
to the show.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
Thank you very much. It's an honor to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
That was a long introduction, but I want to at
least set the stage for the story. How did you
get interested in the rabbit hole that Robert Spears went down?
Speaker 4 (02:10):
And that's interesting on its own.
Speaker 5 (02:13):
I owned an advertising agency for forty years.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
And I happened to on a particular campaign.
Speaker 5 (02:19):
I wanted to develop a campaign for one of my
clients that had sort of a retro vintage feel to it,
and I felt like the best way to connect with
that I didn't want to just go online and you know,
google something. So what I did is I just ordered
a whole bunch of old Life magazines, New Yorker magazines,
that type of thing, and just flipped through the pages
(02:41):
to look at what ads were like, what typefaces were used,
what the writing style was. But I almost a tactle
thing where I wanted to feel the you know, feel
the magazines and smell the paper and kind of, you know,
go back in time and feel what it would be
like to develop a campaign in the nineteen fifties.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
And so what's the oh, you'll keep going?
Speaker 5 (03:05):
And I was just going to say, I was going
through ads and I turned the page and the headline
at the top of the next page it says, man
downs airliner.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
To fake death.
Speaker 5 (03:15):
And it was a relatively short story, but it was
such a stunning story and one that you know, I'd
never heard of it, and as I found out, no
one really knows at all. It's just this started to unravel,
like you know, peeling an onion. I mean, the story,
the headline was a downed airliner. The story goes back
(03:38):
four or five decades of crime.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
That was just amazing.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
So what's the story behind the store and this piiclar thing?
I mean, it seems like he persuaded someone else to
fly his plane ticket. I guess when you could do then,
what was the motivation behind all this? And why did
his friend go along with it?
Speaker 5 (03:56):
Yeah, doctor spears, and I should just right up front.
He was advertises in obgyn who dealt with quote female issues,
but he was really an abortionist. It was the only
thing he was. He was nothing else. He never had
a medical degree, he never went to college. He never
(04:17):
went to school that I know. I'm not even sure
he read a book. He was just a full time
scam artist from the time he was twelve years old,
and at this point he's in his sixties and he
had finally been arrested.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
He had been arrested a lot of times.
Speaker 5 (04:33):
He'd spent a dozen different terms in federal penitentiaries up
to this point, but this time he knew he was
going away for good, and.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
So he was out on bail.
Speaker 5 (04:45):
The court case was about to start in a month,
and he was out on bail, and he made a
decision called his He went back to Tampa, Florida, where
his very best friend. And I can't emphasize enough how
close these two were.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
They were so close, closer than brothers.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
This is al Taylor.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
Al Taylor, Yeah, very good friend.
Speaker 5 (05:08):
The families were friends, best men in each other's weddings.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
I mean that kind of thing.
Speaker 5 (05:13):
And he said, hey, I've got a business opportunity for
us in Dallas. I have the business meetings are all
set up. We're going to make a ton of money.
So here's what I want you to do. You drive
out there and I'm going to fly to Dallas. We'll
meet in Dallas, and then we'll go to the meetings,
the business meetings. And then, according to his records, doctor Spears,
(05:38):
al Taylor said, oh, man, my neck is hurting so bad.
I was in a car accident a couple of weeks ago,
and my neck is just killing me. And doctor Spears,
the good Samaritan, the best friend, said, tell you what.
You take my plane ticket, which you could do in
nineteen fifty nine. You take my plane ticket and fly
You give me your register, your license, your wallet, and
(06:02):
your keys, and I'll drive your car over there.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
I'm up for a road trip.
Speaker 5 (06:07):
He takes off in the car. Al Taylor gets on
the plane and twenty two minutes later, that airline explodes.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
From the package he was carrying.
Speaker 5 (06:17):
Right before he got on, he gave al Taylor, his
best friend, a brown wrapped paper package and said, this
is cash.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
This is for my wife.
Speaker 5 (06:26):
As soon as you land take it to her right away.
She needs this cash, so don't lose this package. And
he got on board and he slipped it under his
seat and it was a time bomb.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
So with your research with Robert Spears, how could he
send his best friend to death so he could live.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
I don't understand that.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
I think the word is psychopath. Yeah, for so sociopath
he really was.
Speaker 5 (06:57):
You kind of led this segment with mentioning grifters and
con men. Robert Spears never even knew his real name
his entire life.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
He had grown up with a mother in poverty in Oklahoma.
Speaker 5 (07:18):
Who just said, say had lots of boyfriends and they
as a child, he just she moved him from place
to place to place to place, just took to her
boyfriends and every time she moved him, she changed his
(07:38):
name to the name of the man that was there,
so they weren't living together, I'm assuming in the nineteen twenties.
And he never knew his real name ever because from
his earliest age he had you know, he had a
different name every couple of months. It really set the
path for this guy again, going back to this.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
Kind of fraudster persona.
Speaker 5 (08:04):
He just realized early on he was in a reformatory
by age twelve and permanently in the system. Intermittently from
that point on. He would just do a crime, do
a fraud, extravagant frauds at times cons and then change
his name and moved to the next state. He just
kept going and going. He had twenty six different aliases.
(08:25):
He landed in prison a dozen times. He was arrested
in twenty different cities, always admitted to the crimes.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
Oh yeah, I did it. You know.
Speaker 5 (08:34):
He was so charming, so personable that after he usually
didn't serve even two years of a ten years ten
year sentence at an era when everybody had to serve
all their time, not like now, and they just release him.
One of the judges that sentenced them called him the
(08:57):
most charming bad man I've ever met in my life.
That should be on his tombstone.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
So, in your research about Robert Spears, why did he
do what he did because he didn't know any other
way to live?
Speaker 4 (09:12):
H Well, I think it was part of it. There's
a couple of things in here.
Speaker 5 (09:15):
One I think I think he was motivated by greed.
He was had grown up poor, and by that I
mean devastatingly poor, and but I really think there was
another element to it, And I think there was a
game in it for him that he just truly enjoyed it.
And I think he had this idea that if someone
(09:37):
is dumb enough to hand over their money to me,
well it almost would be a crime.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
Not to take it. I almost think he was that way.
He was so charming and full of humor.
Speaker 5 (09:49):
I mean, you know, from a movie standpoint, he's this
incredibly likable guy. He just he just cheats people out
of their money left and right. He does he does
horrendous things. He does, heinous things. He's not a murder
anything like that, but oh my goodness, the stuff he
does where he just devastates families and businesses with a
(10:10):
smile and then just moves right on. He's he is
a lifelong fraudster and he had developed his skills wonderfully.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
So what have you learned about grifting? You know, it's
a confidence game. Why don't people get taken in various
grifting schemes because they want to trust people like Robert
Spears or they want to try to get ahead.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
Well, his promises were always so good.
Speaker 5 (10:34):
If we think of Bernie Madoff right as you know,
those those percentages are just so good. But more than that,
I want your listeners to go back and there, thinking
to the forties and the fifties, it was an era
in America of trust, of goodwill. We'd come out of
(10:56):
the war. This was you know, Eisenhower era. This is
Boomer In the beginning of the Boomer era, there was
just a good natured feeling. People were making money. They
had two breadwinners and families. They were buying cars, washing machines,
interstate system was going in. I mean, it was just
(11:17):
a really good time and people were trusting. People were trusting.
We went through this horrible war and we came out
and where the gleaming city set.
Speaker 4 (11:28):
On a hill.
Speaker 5 (11:29):
I think there was just an attitude of trust. On
top of that, he was a doctor. He had a
beautiful home, a two story home and an exclusive neighborhood
of Dallas, had a wife, two lovely children. They were
in the society circle. Who would ever doubt this person?
(11:49):
And that would be like later in his life, But
every era of his life he seemed to manage. You know,
he would cheat someone out of say a one thousand dollars,
which might be ten or twenty thousand dollars today, and
the first thing he would do is go buy a
brand new car, a brand new custom fitted suit, go
to the nicest restaurant, pick up two of the prettiest
(12:10):
girls in the very town where he scammed everybody right exactly,
and he.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
Would drive down Main Street.
Speaker 5 (12:17):
And one of the newspaper headlines I found with a
picture of him, it said, the most eligible bachelor in Emporia, Kansas.
He had just scammed the people there to get all
that money. And you know, by the end of the
week he's picked up cost of prison.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
He's like, it's.
Speaker 5 (12:33):
Okay, And they said why would you stay there? And
he says, well, if you have the money, why would you.
Speaker 4 (12:39):
Not spend it? I mean, it would be stupid. Not
to spend it. So I think he just was a
you know, they give me money, I spend the money.
Speaker 5 (12:47):
It's a good time, it's good for the economy, for
the economy.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
You know, you mentioned you mentioned the whole thing with grifting,
this idea of greed, because I think there is a
lot of greed, even on part of the mark the
person that is tarted. Like one of my friends got
taken in a Ponzi scheme and I said to him,
your shirt. Your first indication of this was a Ponzi scheme.
Was the guy that was promising you fifty percent return
per year on your money. There's something like really wrong
(13:13):
with that. But the same thing with Bernie Manoff. People
got involved with him because they thought they were special.
They thought it was greed, and that still goes on today.
Speaker 5 (13:22):
Yes, and you know, the group that he targeted most often,
which is a little humorous, he would go after like
state farm insurance agents. So what he would do is
they would have a national conference, you know, like today,
this would be their national sales conference. It would usually
be in the Midwest somewhere, and so you know, a
(13:44):
thousand insurance agents would gather. He would rent a hospitality suite,
have an open bar, go into town, hire half a
dozen beautiful, scantily clad girls as hostesses, and then bring
in these men and say, for two hundred dollars, if
(14:06):
you give me two hundred dollars, I will provide you
a year's worth of leads on business. And they stood
in line to hand him two hundred dollars.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
For sure.
Speaker 5 (14:19):
He did it for you know, he would do it
for a week at a time. Then he started doing
a thing where he said he had these women go
to the hotel bar and cozy up to these insurance agents,
get their phone number, you know, some information on them.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
Oh what's your name, what's your phone number, all the stuff, and.
Speaker 5 (14:44):
Then call up their wives or the company headquarters and say, Hi,
I'm with the hotel.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
Your husband lost his wallet.
Speaker 5 (14:55):
You are going to need to wire some money or
he's going to have to be kicked out of the hotel. Well,
we're going to need five hundred dollars. Just wire it
to Western Union in this name, because that's the hotel comptroller,
and all day long people would send him money. So
(15:16):
he's scamming the agents in person. He's scamming their offices
and their wives. And in that particular instance, he got
busted after four days because the wife sent the money
to Western Union. Of course he would go and pick
it up, you know, he'd have a fake name, he'd
go and pick it up. He got busted because the
(15:36):
woman wrote at the end of the Western Union telegram
with the money, my husband is bald and this man
had a full head of hair. And the headline the
next days the headline in the paper is full head
of hair condemns manned.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
That's funny. Well, I think it's a great book.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
It's called Vashing Act a crash, Airliner, fake down and
backroom abortions. It's really incredibly relevant even today. Where can
people catch up with you with all the writing you do?
Speaker 5 (16:07):
Jerry, Well, I have a website that's Jerry Jamison dot com.
Jamison is JA M I S O N. Jerry Jamison
dot com.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
And all my books are.
Speaker 5 (16:17):
Available on online at Amazon and all online outlets.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Jerry. Thanks.
Speaker 5 (16:25):
Finishing Act is available, Vanishing Acts available and all major bookstars.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
Any place you can buy a book. It's it's distributed internationally.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
So wonderful. Jerry, thanks for talking us about this topic.
This is a small business radio show. We'll be right back.
Speaker 6 (16:40):
Do you still have great expectations for the great recession?
Speaker 7 (16:43):
Barry can show you how to let go of failure
and bounce.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
To get ready for that next great success.
Speaker 7 (16:48):
Go to www dot Barrymolts dot com.
Speaker 6 (16:51):
Barry will show you how to get crazy and achieve
your business success.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Stick around to get your small business unstuck. More of
Small Business Radio with Barry moles.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
So for small business owners?
Speaker 2 (17:08):
How do you need to change your leadership style during
uncertain times like we're living in right now. My next
guest is doctor Rebecca home Keys, who's a high growth
strategy specialist, CEO and executive advisor. She's a lecturer at
the London Business School, factively faculty at Duke Corporation, Executive
Education advisor and CORPS faculty for the Boston and Soulting Group,
(17:30):
and a former fellow at the London School of Economics.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
She's got a new book out.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
It's called Survive, Reset, Thrive, Leading Breakthrough Growth Strategy in
Volatile Times.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
Rebecca, welcome to the show.
Speaker 7 (17:42):
Thank you so much for having me. It's my pleasure.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
You know, there's an old age that says anybody can
be a captain in a calm, see right, So what
does small business owners need to do now that it
looks like with the tariffs, with inflation, perhaps we're in
for a rocky ride.
Speaker 7 (17:59):
Lean for a ride.
Speaker 6 (18:00):
And it sounds a bit cliche, but I often just say,
you know, uncertainty is the new certainty.
Speaker 7 (18:05):
So we need to especially for small business owners.
Speaker 6 (18:08):
Right, especially for small businesses, you know, And really I
would challenge many small business owners tell me when you
ran your business through certain times? You know, entrepreneurs are
fundamentally about making decisions through uncertainty. But let's be fair,
like the level and pace of change, So the frequency
of change, the pace of it, the level of it,
it is something a little bit more, you know, I say,
(18:28):
we're actually just moving from uncertainty to chaos, so we
it aren't for rocky times. But hey, the grid news
is you can grow a business through uncertain times. It's
actually a great time to grow a business if you're
willing to adopt some of your playbooks and frameworks.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
And that's the way you say, we should reframe the
understanding of uncertainty, because uncertainty doesn't mean it's bad. It
just means that the market is shifting and you've got
to just do something different.
Speaker 6 (18:51):
Yeah, our brains are not framed to handle uncertainty. Well,
like I would say, it's not our fault, right we
were We weren't evolved over time to love uncertainty.
Speaker 7 (19:00):
I like to start with the basic definition.
Speaker 6 (19:02):
Is what I found arry is that when we speak
to each other as business owners about uncertainty, we tend
to put a word before it that means it's going
to be bad, and we listen for it. We ask
our colleagues, hey, how are you managing uncertainty? How are
you going to overcome uncertainty? How are you dealing with uncertainty?
We always prefice it by something that says this is nasty,
which frames our brains in a way that is a difficulty.
(19:24):
So baseline definition, the definition of uncertainty is a series
of future events which may or may not occur. Whether
or not those events are good or bad depends on
what we're trying to do and how we're set up.
So see that as your job. Figure out what I
want to do and then get set up to succeed
in that environment.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
So one of the biggest blind spots that leaders usually
face when they're in uncertain times.
Speaker 6 (19:47):
One of the biggest blind spots. I've seen three common,
not awesome responses. The first is a very classic entrepreneur
response of delusion. And there's good reason for this is
that we've made a plan, and we can indicate the
plan to our team, to our board if you have one,
and we feel that we've got to stick to the plan,
and that's delusion. The world around this is changing, It's
(20:08):
okay to change. And the second one, which I'm actually
seeing a lot more of right now, is proalysis, where
we just wait. You'll say, hey, let's not make any investments,
let's not hire her the summer like we normally do.
Let's just wait until we know more. Let's just wait
till after these ninety day pause and what happens is
you put your business in this constant holding pattern. And
the third response I see is what I call frenzy,
(20:30):
where things aren't working so you just start throwing stuff
at the market and hope that something sticks. So we've
really got to pause and say, hey, let's not fall
into delusion. Proalysis are frenzy. Let's reframe this uncertainty and
instead look for the growth opportunities within it.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
You know, I always think of at this time a
great Mike Tyson quote that says, everyone's got a plan
until you get punched in the.
Speaker 7 (20:51):
Mouth exactly exactly.
Speaker 6 (20:54):
You know, that great type of quote actually came from
how with my mulkey and old Prussian boarder General oh
O reginally said, Yes, but it.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Wasn't Mike Tyson that up all by himself. I'm surprised, Rebecca.
Speaker 6 (21:05):
Well, what I think we don't know is maybe Mike
Tyson was just a Prussian military exactly, not giving him
enough credit for it. Yes, what a wonderful original quote was,
no plan survives me on first point of contact with
the enemy. But Tyson of course expressed it very elegantly
in a more memorable.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
Right, well, in a boxing way.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
So you said that people respond sometimes by paralysis, sometimes
by frenzy. What's the best way to adapt when these
kinds of uncertain shocks come along in the marketing system,
in the work environment.
Speaker 7 (21:36):
Love a question.
Speaker 6 (21:37):
Let's talk about some practical stuff folks can do. The
first is stop trying to predict the future. And I
know that sounds silly, but we're actually doing this more.
And you know, AI has many wonderful ways to help
the small businesses. It's not helping us in our thought
that we can predict the future. You know, you put
a question to that GPT, it's going to pump something
back with such authority we can't. So hey, you know,
(21:59):
I want you to allocate ten percent of the time
in trying to predict your future into the real differentiator.
What such companies apart is they make great decisions even
though they can't make great predictions. Instead, focus on building
some robustness into decision making of your team.
Speaker 7 (22:13):
And one thing that I like.
Speaker 6 (22:14):
To do is stop asking what could happen? So as
you're sitting on the table with your team, instead of saying, hey,
what could happen with harriffs or what could happen.
Speaker 7 (22:21):
With supply chain?
Speaker 6 (22:23):
Instead ask what could make us or what could break us?
That's the power question, Barry, What could make us? What
could break us? What are those outside opportunities that can
really change our business, could double our growth? And what
are those things that could break us would actually break
the business model. But here's my real strong advice with
your team, come up with at least ten kickers before
(22:43):
you even discuss the killers. Because I call the what
could make us kickers and the what could break us killers?
Most teams I work with can give me twenty killers.
Speaker 7 (22:54):
Some kickers it takes hours. So this is a great exercise.
And here's why I love it the most.
Speaker 6 (23:00):
When you start looking for these kickers, half of them,
what are I college? JDI just do it? It's like, well, hey,
why don't we just start working on this right now?
So refrain the question from what could happen to instead
what could make us or what could break us?
Speaker 4 (23:12):
Now?
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Rebecca and your book Survive, Reset, Thrive, Leading, Breakthrough Growth
Strategy involved the times you talk about the cost of
chaos really falls this proportionally on small and midsized businesses.
Speaker 7 (23:24):
Why is that a couple of reasons.
Speaker 6 (23:26):
You know, small businesses have many advantages which I want
to come back to. But larger organizations have a lot
more resources. They have lobbing resources, they can do something
to call acting to shape where they can shape the
environment in their favor.
Speaker 7 (23:39):
They have a lot more tools.
Speaker 6 (23:41):
You know, a large organization has twenty to thirty people
working on supply chain. A small business that's twenty percent
to one person's job. Right to deal with some of
these challenges that we have right now with tariffs. So
we definitely have a resource challenge where we have less resources.
We have a time challenge, we just have less folks
allocated to this, and we have an information challenge is
that we often don't have the full depth of understanding
(24:03):
of all of our partners in supply chain and where
they located. So we are certainly aut of time and
information and talent challenge. That said, you didn't ask, but
I'd love to answer. We also have some great opportunities.
Small businesses can be much more agile. We don't have
big boards or corporate governments that we have to get
decisions through. So yes, we're at a disadvantage. We can
(24:24):
turn that advantage into our favor and move faster. Going
back to making somebod these great decisions faster and then
moving more so than others.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Rebecca, I think that this is a particularly difficult time
for small businesses because, you know, they always talked about
how the US economy is a ship.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
You know, it's a lordship. It's hard to turn around.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
But it seems like President Trump is making decisions on
the fly on a daily basis. Sometimes the tariffs are on,
sometimes they're off. From this percentage this, and so things
literally change could change for small business hour by hour
or day by day. I know we don't want to
try to predict their future, but what do we do
when the things that we identify today could be different tomorrow.
Speaker 7 (25:04):
It's such a great question.
Speaker 6 (25:06):
And this administration is having some actions that are really
harming small business in America, and I feel for them.
I'm seeing that it is making planning difficult. Let it
go through a couple of things that I find helpful.
So one, and I'm not being silly. I'm an economist,
I'm a psychiatrist. But take a breath. I often say,
just take a breath. Right is growth is midterm? Really
(25:28):
align on what are we trying to do over the
mid term? And I call it a direction versus a destination,
Like align your team around where do you want to
be by the end of twenty seven? Now, I know
that sounds along a way to think two or three years,
but it does helpful to think, Hey, where is a
business going to be at the end of two or
three years, not just right now. Then articulate your beliefs.
(25:49):
Really sit down with a team and say where are
some of these big trends shaping us, where are they
going to be over the mid term? Align on your
beliefs and then say, okay, if we take these beliefs,
what choice this should we make as our business. Now
you've got a frame. Now, once you've got your beliefs articulated,
as information's coming in, you can say, okay, does this
affirm our beliefs or does it maybe challenge them? And
(26:12):
I call it the new ones in noise out. This
is the real challenge for small business owners. It is
mostly noise, but there is some new ones that we
need to bring in. So have a clear set of
goals for the organization, have a clear set of beliefs,
and be able to tell your team, hey, we're working
on these things because of these our beliefs. So we
might change things as our beliefs are challenged. And I
(26:33):
know that sounds a bit theoretical, but what really helps
is again, have your top eight or ten beliefs on
a piece of paper.
Speaker 7 (26:39):
Have the goals on a piece of paper. But remember, if.
Speaker 6 (26:41):
Those beliefs challenge you might change some of those goals.
And sometimes we need to shift from what I call
planning to prepareing. We want to plan, we want to
have this prediction, we can't always do so, so think about, Hey,
let's build from robuses into my business even though I
can't plan by the day to day.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
I mean, this is really great advice.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
It's really going to be interesting to see what happens
over the next year and a half. Where can people
catch up with you and get a copy of your book?
Speaker 6 (27:07):
Oh, thank you so much for asking. So you can
go to either my website Rebecca humcast dot com that's
just my first name, Rebecca h O mks dot com
or the book's website, Survive Reset Thrive dot com and
you can pick up a book on Amazon. And the
book was written not just for big businesses. It was
written with very much small business owners entrepreneurs in mind.
And I try to give you this just step by
(27:28):
step playbook to grow your business at any time.
Speaker 7 (27:30):
And I really want to emphasize that. You know, we
often say, oh, well.
Speaker 6 (27:33):
Markets are good, markets are bad. I tell entrepreneurs, why
are you letting the market tell you when to time
to grow your business? You tell your team when it's
a great time to grow the business, and uncertainty is
a great time to grow. Let me stay one more thing,
very uncertainty. It is a great time to grow because
it's a great time to learn. Over these next couple
of months. The one thing that's going to rain above
(27:54):
most is honesty. Your customers are going to be much
more honest about what they want and what they don't want,
what they're willing to pay for, what they're not willing
to pay for. So will your partners and your vendors
lean into this uncertainty is a great time to learn
all of those key insights TV to grow your future business.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Rebecca, thanks for that great advice, and I want to
thank everyone for joining this week's radio show. I got
to thank our incredible staff, our booking producer Sarah Schaffern,
our sound editor Ethan Moltz. If you are serious about
being more successful in twenty twenty five, give me a
call instead of a private line seven seven three eight
three seven eight two five zero, or email me at
Barry at Molts dot com.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
Remember, love everyone, trust a few, and paler your own canoe.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Have a profitable and passionate week.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
If you can find Barrymoltz on the web at Barrymolts
dot com or more episodes of Small Business Radio at
Small Business radioshow dot com,
Get ready for all the craziness of small business. It's
exactly that craziness that makes it exciting and totally unbelievable.
Small Business Radio is now on the air with your host,
Barry Maltz.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Well, thanks for joining this week's radio show. Remember this
is the final word in small business. For those keeping track,
this is show number eight hundred and thirty three. Well
in business, I gotta tell you, I've always been a
sucker for a good grifter story.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Help people do it, why they do it, why.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
People believe them in a game that relies on winning
someone else's confidence, here's a story for you. Over span
of thirty nine years, twenty three aliases, twenty eight rests
in twenty cities, in nearly a dozen imprisonments, Robert Spears
has lived a con artist life of unparalleled venture and intrigue.
Showly before Thanksgiving in nineteen fifty nine, a plane exploded
(00:57):
in mid air, killing all forty two passengers and crew,
and leaving scattered debrion bodies across the Tranquil Gulf waters.
Listening on the manifest was doctor Robert Spears, once the
highly regarded president of the Texas Metropathic Association, father, two
small children, with a lovely, society minded wife, an elegant
home and exclusive neighborhood. It was a monumental tragedy for them,
(01:20):
as it was for everyone that was lost in that day.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Less than two months.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Later, Robert Spears miraculously rosemudad in Phoenix, where he was
promptly arrested.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
There's a new book out.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
It's called Vanishing Act, A crashed airliner, fake death and
backgroomd Abortions, written by Jerry Jamison. He's an award winning
advertising copywriter with more than thirty national writing commendations in
the career. He's joinnated more than thirty books in a
bunch of different genres. He also the recipient of many
awards during his career, including a National commendation alongside Senator
(01:51):
Edward Kenny for his service to underserved communities. Jerry, welcome
to the show.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
Thank you very much. It's an honor to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
That was a long introduction, but I want to at
least set the stage for the story. How did you
get interested in the rabbit hole that Robert Spears went down?
Speaker 4 (02:10):
And that's interesting on its own.
Speaker 5 (02:13):
I owned an advertising agency for forty years.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
And I happened to on a particular campaign.
Speaker 5 (02:19):
I wanted to develop a campaign for one of my
clients that had sort of a retro vintage feel to it,
and I felt like the best way to connect with
that I didn't want to just go online and you know,
google something. So what I did is I just ordered
a whole bunch of old Life magazines, New Yorker magazines,
that type of thing, and just flipped through the pages
(02:41):
to look at what ads were like, what typefaces were used,
what the writing style was. But I almost a tactle
thing where I wanted to feel the you know, feel
the magazines and smell the paper and kind of, you know,
go back in time and feel what it would be
like to develop a campaign in the nineteen fifties.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
And so what's the oh, you'll keep going?
Speaker 5 (03:05):
And I was just going to say, I was going
through ads and I turned the page and the headline
at the top of the next page it says, man
downs airliner.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
To fake death.
Speaker 5 (03:15):
And it was a relatively short story, but it was
such a stunning story and one that you know, I'd
never heard of it, and as I found out, no
one really knows at all. It's just this started to unravel,
like you know, peeling an onion. I mean, the story,
the headline was a downed airliner. The story goes back
(03:38):
four or five decades of crime.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
That was just amazing.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
So what's the story behind the store and this piiclar thing?
I mean, it seems like he persuaded someone else to
fly his plane ticket. I guess when you could do then,
what was the motivation behind all this? And why did
his friend go along with it?
Speaker 5 (03:56):
Yeah, doctor spears, and I should just right up front.
He was advertises in obgyn who dealt with quote female issues,
but he was really an abortionist. It was the only
thing he was. He was nothing else. He never had
a medical degree, he never went to college. He never
(04:17):
went to school that I know. I'm not even sure
he read a book. He was just a full time
scam artist from the time he was twelve years old,
and at this point he's in his sixties and he
had finally been arrested.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
He had been arrested a lot of times.
Speaker 5 (04:33):
He'd spent a dozen different terms in federal penitentiaries up
to this point, but this time he knew he was
going away for good, and.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
So he was out on bail.
Speaker 5 (04:45):
The court case was about to start in a month,
and he was out on bail, and he made a
decision called his He went back to Tampa, Florida, where
his very best friend. And I can't emphasize enough how
close these two were.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
They were so close, closer than brothers.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
This is al Taylor.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
Al Taylor, Yeah, very good friend.
Speaker 5 (05:08):
The families were friends, best men in each other's weddings.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
I mean that kind of thing.
Speaker 5 (05:13):
And he said, hey, I've got a business opportunity for
us in Dallas. I have the business meetings are all
set up. We're going to make a ton of money.
So here's what I want you to do. You drive
out there and I'm going to fly to Dallas. We'll
meet in Dallas, and then we'll go to the meetings,
the business meetings. And then, according to his records, doctor Spears,
(05:38):
al Taylor said, oh, man, my neck is hurting so bad.
I was in a car accident a couple of weeks ago,
and my neck is just killing me. And doctor Spears,
the good Samaritan, the best friend, said, tell you what.
You take my plane ticket, which you could do in
nineteen fifty nine. You take my plane ticket and fly
You give me your register, your license, your wallet, and
(06:02):
your keys, and I'll drive your car over there.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
I'm up for a road trip.
Speaker 5 (06:07):
He takes off in the car. Al Taylor gets on
the plane and twenty two minutes later, that airline explodes.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
From the package he was carrying.
Speaker 5 (06:17):
Right before he got on, he gave al Taylor, his
best friend, a brown wrapped paper package and said, this
is cash.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
This is for my wife.
Speaker 5 (06:26):
As soon as you land take it to her right away.
She needs this cash, so don't lose this package. And
he got on board and he slipped it under his
seat and it was a time bomb.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
So with your research with Robert Spears, how could he
send his best friend to death so he could live.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
I don't understand that.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
I think the word is psychopath. Yeah, for so sociopath
he really was.
Speaker 5 (06:57):
You kind of led this segment with mentioning grifters and
con men. Robert Spears never even knew his real name
his entire life.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
He had grown up with a mother in poverty in Oklahoma.
Speaker 5 (07:18):
Who just said, say had lots of boyfriends and they
as a child, he just she moved him from place
to place to place to place, just took to her
boyfriends and every time she moved him, she changed his
(07:38):
name to the name of the man that was there,
so they weren't living together, I'm assuming in the nineteen twenties.
And he never knew his real name ever because from
his earliest age he had you know, he had a
different name every couple of months. It really set the
path for this guy again, going back to this.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
Kind of fraudster persona.
Speaker 5 (08:04):
He just realized early on he was in a reformatory
by age twelve and permanently in the system. Intermittently from
that point on. He would just do a crime, do
a fraud, extravagant frauds at times cons and then change
his name and moved to the next state. He just
kept going and going. He had twenty six different aliases.
(08:25):
He landed in prison a dozen times. He was arrested
in twenty different cities, always admitted to the crimes.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
Oh yeah, I did it. You know.
Speaker 5 (08:34):
He was so charming, so personable that after he usually
didn't serve even two years of a ten years ten
year sentence at an era when everybody had to serve
all their time, not like now, and they just release him.
One of the judges that sentenced them called him the
(08:57):
most charming bad man I've ever met in my life.
That should be on his tombstone.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
So, in your research about Robert Spears, why did he
do what he did because he didn't know any other
way to live?
Speaker 4 (09:12):
H Well, I think it was part of it. There's
a couple of things in here.
Speaker 5 (09:15):
One I think I think he was motivated by greed.
He was had grown up poor, and by that I
mean devastatingly poor, and but I really think there was
another element to it, And I think there was a
game in it for him that he just truly enjoyed it.
And I think he had this idea that if someone
(09:37):
is dumb enough to hand over their money to me,
well it almost would be a crime.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
Not to take it. I almost think he was that way.
He was so charming and full of humor.
Speaker 5 (09:49):
I mean, you know, from a movie standpoint, he's this
incredibly likable guy. He just he just cheats people out
of their money left and right. He does he does
horrendous things. He does, heinous things. He's not a murder
anything like that, but oh my goodness, the stuff he
does where he just devastates families and businesses with a
(10:10):
smile and then just moves right on. He's he is
a lifelong fraudster and he had developed his skills wonderfully.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
So what have you learned about grifting? You know, it's
a confidence game. Why don't people get taken in various
grifting schemes because they want to trust people like Robert
Spears or they want to try to get ahead.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
Well, his promises were always so good.
Speaker 5 (10:34):
If we think of Bernie Madoff right as you know,
those those percentages are just so good. But more than that,
I want your listeners to go back and there, thinking
to the forties and the fifties, it was an era
in America of trust, of goodwill. We'd come out of
(10:56):
the war. This was you know, Eisenhower era. This is
Boomer In the beginning of the Boomer era, there was
just a good natured feeling. People were making money. They
had two breadwinners and families. They were buying cars, washing machines,
interstate system was going in. I mean, it was just
(11:17):
a really good time and people were trusting. People were trusting.
We went through this horrible war and we came out
and where the gleaming city set.
Speaker 4 (11:28):
On a hill.
Speaker 5 (11:29):
I think there was just an attitude of trust. On
top of that, he was a doctor. He had a
beautiful home, a two story home and an exclusive neighborhood
of Dallas, had a wife, two lovely children. They were
in the society circle. Who would ever doubt this person?
(11:49):
And that would be like later in his life, But
every era of his life he seemed to manage. You know,
he would cheat someone out of say a one thousand dollars,
which might be ten or twenty thousand dollars today, and
the first thing he would do is go buy a
brand new car, a brand new custom fitted suit, go
to the nicest restaurant, pick up two of the prettiest
(12:10):
girls in the very town where he scammed everybody right exactly,
and he.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
Would drive down Main Street.
Speaker 5 (12:17):
And one of the newspaper headlines I found with a
picture of him, it said, the most eligible bachelor in Emporia, Kansas.
He had just scammed the people there to get all
that money. And you know, by the end of the
week he's picked up cost of prison.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
He's like, it's.
Speaker 5 (12:33):
Okay, And they said why would you stay there? And
he says, well, if you have the money, why would you.
Speaker 4 (12:39):
Not spend it? I mean, it would be stupid. Not
to spend it. So I think he just was a
you know, they give me money, I spend the money.
Speaker 5 (12:47):
It's a good time, it's good for the economy, for
the economy.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
You know, you mentioned you mentioned the whole thing with grifting,
this idea of greed, because I think there is a
lot of greed, even on part of the mark the
person that is tarted. Like one of my friends got
taken in a Ponzi scheme and I said to him,
your shirt. Your first indication of this was a Ponzi scheme.
Was the guy that was promising you fifty percent return
per year on your money. There's something like really wrong
(13:13):
with that. But the same thing with Bernie Manoff. People
got involved with him because they thought they were special.
They thought it was greed, and that still goes on today.
Speaker 5 (13:22):
Yes, and you know, the group that he targeted most often,
which is a little humorous, he would go after like
state farm insurance agents. So what he would do is
they would have a national conference, you know, like today,
this would be their national sales conference. It would usually
be in the Midwest somewhere, and so you know, a
(13:44):
thousand insurance agents would gather. He would rent a hospitality suite,
have an open bar, go into town, hire half a
dozen beautiful, scantily clad girls as hostesses, and then bring
in these men and say, for two hundred dollars, if
(14:06):
you give me two hundred dollars, I will provide you
a year's worth of leads on business. And they stood
in line to hand him two hundred dollars.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
For sure.
Speaker 5 (14:19):
He did it for you know, he would do it
for a week at a time. Then he started doing
a thing where he said he had these women go
to the hotel bar and cozy up to these insurance agents,
get their phone number, you know, some information on them.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
Oh what's your name, what's your phone number, all the stuff, and.
Speaker 5 (14:44):
Then call up their wives or the company headquarters and say, Hi,
I'm with the hotel.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
Your husband lost his wallet.
Speaker 5 (14:55):
You are going to need to wire some money or
he's going to have to be kicked out of the hotel. Well,
we're going to need five hundred dollars. Just wire it
to Western Union in this name, because that's the hotel comptroller,
and all day long people would send him money. So
(15:16):
he's scamming the agents in person. He's scamming their offices
and their wives. And in that particular instance, he got
busted after four days because the wife sent the money
to Western Union. Of course he would go and pick
it up, you know, he'd have a fake name, he'd
go and pick it up. He got busted because the
(15:36):
woman wrote at the end of the Western Union telegram
with the money, my husband is bald and this man
had a full head of hair. And the headline the
next days the headline in the paper is full head
of hair condemns manned.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
That's funny. Well, I think it's a great book.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
It's called Vashing Act a crash, Airliner, fake down and
backroom abortions. It's really incredibly relevant even today. Where can
people catch up with you with all the writing you do?
Speaker 5 (16:07):
Jerry, Well, I have a website that's Jerry Jamison dot com.
Jamison is JA M I S O N. Jerry Jamison
dot com.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
And all my books are.
Speaker 5 (16:17):
Available on online at Amazon and all online outlets.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Jerry. Thanks.
Speaker 5 (16:25):
Finishing Act is available, Vanishing Acts available and all major bookstars.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
Any place you can buy a book. It's it's distributed internationally.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
So wonderful. Jerry, thanks for talking us about this topic.
This is a small business radio show. We'll be right back.
Speaker 6 (16:40):
Do you still have great expectations for the great recession?
Speaker 7 (16:43):
Barry can show you how to let go of failure
and bounce.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
To get ready for that next great success.
Speaker 7 (16:48):
Go to www dot Barrymolts dot com.
Speaker 6 (16:51):
Barry will show you how to get crazy and achieve
your business success.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Stick around to get your small business unstuck. More of
Small Business Radio with Barry moles.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
So for small business owners?
Speaker 2 (17:08):
How do you need to change your leadership style during
uncertain times like we're living in right now. My next
guest is doctor Rebecca home Keys, who's a high growth
strategy specialist, CEO and executive advisor. She's a lecturer at
the London Business School, factively faculty at Duke Corporation, Executive
Education advisor and CORPS faculty for the Boston and Soulting Group,
(17:30):
and a former fellow at the London School of Economics.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
She's got a new book out.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
It's called Survive, Reset, Thrive, Leading Breakthrough Growth Strategy in
Volatile Times.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
Rebecca, welcome to the show.
Speaker 7 (17:42):
Thank you so much for having me. It's my pleasure.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
You know, there's an old age that says anybody can
be a captain in a calm, see right, So what
does small business owners need to do now that it
looks like with the tariffs, with inflation, perhaps we're in
for a rocky ride.
Speaker 7 (17:59):
Lean for a ride.
Speaker 6 (18:00):
And it sounds a bit cliche, but I often just say,
you know, uncertainty is the new certainty.
Speaker 7 (18:05):
So we need to especially for small business owners.
Speaker 6 (18:08):
Right, especially for small businesses, you know, And really I
would challenge many small business owners tell me when you
ran your business through certain times? You know, entrepreneurs are
fundamentally about making decisions through uncertainty. But let's be fair,
like the level and pace of change, So the frequency
of change, the pace of it, the level of it,
it is something a little bit more, you know, I say,
(18:28):
we're actually just moving from uncertainty to chaos, so we
it aren't for rocky times. But hey, the grid news
is you can grow a business through uncertain times. It's
actually a great time to grow a business if you're
willing to adopt some of your playbooks and frameworks.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
And that's the way you say, we should reframe the
understanding of uncertainty, because uncertainty doesn't mean it's bad. It
just means that the market is shifting and you've got
to just do something different.
Speaker 6 (18:51):
Yeah, our brains are not framed to handle uncertainty. Well,
like I would say, it's not our fault, right we
were We weren't evolved over time to love uncertainty.
Speaker 7 (19:00):
I like to start with the basic definition.
Speaker 6 (19:02):
Is what I found arry is that when we speak
to each other as business owners about uncertainty, we tend
to put a word before it that means it's going
to be bad, and we listen for it. We ask
our colleagues, hey, how are you managing uncertainty? How are
you going to overcome uncertainty? How are you dealing with uncertainty?
We always prefice it by something that says this is nasty,
which frames our brains in a way that is a difficulty.
(19:24):
So baseline definition, the definition of uncertainty is a series
of future events which may or may not occur. Whether
or not those events are good or bad depends on
what we're trying to do and how we're set up.
So see that as your job. Figure out what I
want to do and then get set up to succeed
in that environment.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
So one of the biggest blind spots that leaders usually
face when they're in uncertain times.
Speaker 6 (19:47):
One of the biggest blind spots. I've seen three common,
not awesome responses. The first is a very classic entrepreneur
response of delusion. And there's good reason for this is
that we've made a plan, and we can indicate the
plan to our team, to our board if you have one,
and we feel that we've got to stick to the plan,
and that's delusion. The world around this is changing, It's
(20:08):
okay to change. And the second one, which I'm actually
seeing a lot more of right now, is proalysis, where
we just wait. You'll say, hey, let's not make any investments,
let's not hire her the summer like we normally do.
Let's just wait until we know more. Let's just wait
till after these ninety day pause and what happens is
you put your business in this constant holding pattern. And
the third response I see is what I call frenzy,
(20:30):
where things aren't working so you just start throwing stuff
at the market and hope that something sticks. So we've
really got to pause and say, hey, let's not fall
into delusion. Proalysis are frenzy. Let's reframe this uncertainty and
instead look for the growth opportunities within it.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
You know, I always think of at this time a
great Mike Tyson quote that says, everyone's got a plan
until you get punched in the.
Speaker 7 (20:51):
Mouth exactly exactly.
Speaker 6 (20:54):
You know, that great type of quote actually came from
how with my mulkey and old Prussian boarder General oh
O reginally said, Yes, but it.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Wasn't Mike Tyson that up all by himself. I'm surprised, Rebecca.
Speaker 6 (21:05):
Well, what I think we don't know is maybe Mike
Tyson was just a Prussian military exactly, not giving him
enough credit for it. Yes, what a wonderful original quote was,
no plan survives me on first point of contact with
the enemy. But Tyson of course expressed it very elegantly
in a more memorable.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
Right, well, in a boxing way.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
So you said that people respond sometimes by paralysis, sometimes
by frenzy. What's the best way to adapt when these
kinds of uncertain shocks come along in the marketing system,
in the work environment.
Speaker 7 (21:36):
Love a question.
Speaker 6 (21:37):
Let's talk about some practical stuff folks can do. The
first is stop trying to predict the future. And I
know that sounds silly, but we're actually doing this more.
And you know, AI has many wonderful ways to help
the small businesses. It's not helping us in our thought
that we can predict the future. You know, you put
a question to that GPT, it's going to pump something
back with such authority we can't. So hey, you know,
(21:59):
I want you to allocate ten percent of the time
in trying to predict your future into the real differentiator.
What such companies apart is they make great decisions even
though they can't make great predictions. Instead, focus on building
some robustness into decision making of your team.
Speaker 7 (22:13):
And one thing that I like.
Speaker 6 (22:14):
To do is stop asking what could happen? So as
you're sitting on the table with your team, instead of saying, hey,
what could happen with harriffs or what could happen.
Speaker 7 (22:21):
With supply chain?
Speaker 6 (22:23):
Instead ask what could make us or what could break us?
That's the power question, Barry, What could make us? What
could break us? What are those outside opportunities that can
really change our business, could double our growth? And what
are those things that could break us would actually break
the business model. But here's my real strong advice with
your team, come up with at least ten kickers before
(22:43):
you even discuss the killers. Because I call the what
could make us kickers and the what could break us killers?
Most teams I work with can give me twenty killers.
Speaker 7 (22:54):
Some kickers it takes hours. So this is a great exercise.
And here's why I love it the most.
Speaker 6 (23:00):
When you start looking for these kickers, half of them,
what are I college? JDI just do it? It's like, well, hey,
why don't we just start working on this right now?
So refrain the question from what could happen to instead
what could make us or what could break us?
Speaker 4 (23:12):
Now?
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Rebecca and your book Survive, Reset, Thrive, Leading, Breakthrough Growth
Strategy involved the times you talk about the cost of
chaos really falls this proportionally on small and midsized businesses.
Speaker 7 (23:24):
Why is that a couple of reasons.
Speaker 6 (23:26):
You know, small businesses have many advantages which I want
to come back to. But larger organizations have a lot
more resources. They have lobbing resources, they can do something
to call acting to shape where they can shape the
environment in their favor.
Speaker 7 (23:39):
They have a lot more tools.
Speaker 6 (23:41):
You know, a large organization has twenty to thirty people
working on supply chain. A small business that's twenty percent
to one person's job. Right to deal with some of
these challenges that we have right now with tariffs. So
we definitely have a resource challenge where we have less resources.
We have a time challenge, we just have less folks
allocated to this, and we have an information challenge is
that we often don't have the full depth of understanding
(24:03):
of all of our partners in supply chain and where
they located. So we are certainly aut of time and
information and talent challenge. That said, you didn't ask, but
I'd love to answer. We also have some great opportunities.
Small businesses can be much more agile. We don't have
big boards or corporate governments that we have to get
decisions through. So yes, we're at a disadvantage. We can
(24:24):
turn that advantage into our favor and move faster. Going
back to making somebod these great decisions faster and then
moving more so than others.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Rebecca, I think that this is a particularly difficult time
for small businesses because, you know, they always talked about
how the US economy is a ship.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
You know, it's a lordship. It's hard to turn around.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
But it seems like President Trump is making decisions on
the fly on a daily basis. Sometimes the tariffs are on,
sometimes they're off. From this percentage this, and so things
literally change could change for small business hour by hour
or day by day. I know we don't want to
try to predict their future, but what do we do
when the things that we identify today could be different tomorrow.
Speaker 7 (25:04):
It's such a great question.
Speaker 6 (25:06):
And this administration is having some actions that are really
harming small business in America, and I feel for them.
I'm seeing that it is making planning difficult. Let it
go through a couple of things that I find helpful.
So one, and I'm not being silly. I'm an economist,
I'm a psychiatrist. But take a breath. I often say,
just take a breath. Right is growth is midterm? Really
(25:28):
align on what are we trying to do over the
mid term? And I call it a direction versus a destination,
Like align your team around where do you want to
be by the end of twenty seven? Now, I know
that sounds along a way to think two or three years,
but it does helpful to think, Hey, where is a
business going to be at the end of two or
three years, not just right now. Then articulate your beliefs.
(25:49):
Really sit down with a team and say where are
some of these big trends shaping us, where are they
going to be over the mid term? Align on your
beliefs and then say, okay, if we take these beliefs,
what choice this should we make as our business. Now
you've got a frame. Now, once you've got your beliefs articulated,
as information's coming in, you can say, okay, does this
affirm our beliefs or does it maybe challenge them? And
(26:12):
I call it the new ones in noise out. This
is the real challenge for small business owners. It is
mostly noise, but there is some new ones that we
need to bring in. So have a clear set of
goals for the organization, have a clear set of beliefs,
and be able to tell your team, hey, we're working
on these things because of these our beliefs. So we
might change things as our beliefs are challenged. And I
(26:33):
know that sounds a bit theoretical, but what really helps
is again, have your top eight or ten beliefs on
a piece of paper.
Speaker 7 (26:39):
Have the goals on a piece of paper. But remember, if.
Speaker 6 (26:41):
Those beliefs challenge you might change some of those goals.
And sometimes we need to shift from what I call
planning to prepareing. We want to plan, we want to
have this prediction, we can't always do so, so think about, Hey,
let's build from robuses into my business even though I
can't plan by the day to day.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
I mean, this is really great advice.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
It's really going to be interesting to see what happens
over the next year and a half. Where can people
catch up with you and get a copy of your book?
Speaker 6 (27:07):
Oh, thank you so much for asking. So you can
go to either my website Rebecca humcast dot com that's
just my first name, Rebecca h O mks dot com
or the book's website, Survive Reset Thrive dot com and
you can pick up a book on Amazon. And the
book was written not just for big businesses. It was
written with very much small business owners entrepreneurs in mind.
And I try to give you this just step by
(27:28):
step playbook to grow your business at any time.
Speaker 7 (27:30):
And I really want to emphasize that. You know, we
often say, oh, well.
Speaker 6 (27:33):
Markets are good, markets are bad. I tell entrepreneurs, why
are you letting the market tell you when to time
to grow your business? You tell your team when it's
a great time to grow the business, and uncertainty is
a great time to grow. Let me stay one more thing,
very uncertainty. It is a great time to grow because
it's a great time to learn. Over these next couple
of months. The one thing that's going to rain above
(27:54):
most is honesty. Your customers are going to be much
more honest about what they want and what they don't want,
what they're willing to pay for, what they're not willing
to pay for. So will your partners and your vendors
lean into this uncertainty is a great time to learn
all of those key insights TV to grow your future business.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Rebecca, thanks for that great advice, and I want to
thank everyone for joining this week's radio show. I got
to thank our incredible staff, our booking producer Sarah Schaffern,
our sound editor Ethan Moltz. If you are serious about
being more successful in twenty twenty five, give me a
call instead of a private line seven seven three eight
three seven eight two five zero, or email me at
Barry at Molts dot com.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
Remember, love everyone, trust a few, and paler your own canoe.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Have a profitable and passionate week.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
If you can find Barrymoltz on the web at Barrymolts
dot com or more episodes of Small Business Radio at
Small Business radioshow dot com,
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