Trust Is A Superpower

As entrepreneurs, we want to get the most out of our teams, the most out of what we're doing, the most out of projects that we commit to. In fact, we want the most progress we can get in the shortest period of time. We call that momentum. However, if you don't have trust, it just isn't going to happen.

I'm Alex Charfen and this is The Momentum podcast, made for empire builders, game changers, trailblazers, shot takers, record breakers, world makers, and creators of all kinds, those among us who can't turn it off and don't know why anyone would want to. We challenge complacency, destroy apathy, and we are obsessed with creating momentum so we can roll over bureaucracy and make our greatest contribution. Sure, we pay attention to their rules, but only so that we can bend them, break them, then rewrite them around our own will. We don't accept our destiny. We define it. We don't understand defeat because you only lose if you stop and we don't know how. While the rest of the world strives for average and clings desperately to the status quo. We are the minority, the few who are willing to hallucinate there could be a better future and instead of just daydreaming of what could be we endure the vulnerability and exposure it takes to make it real. We are the evolutionary hunters, clearly the most important people in the world because entrepreneurs are the only source of consistent, positive human evolution and we always will be.

I am actually on my way to get a haircut right now, so if you hear some beautiful engine noises in the background, that is my E46M3 that has band track prep has a Tubi exhaust system and a whole bunch of other upgrades, but I'm not going to bore you with that.

In fact, today is about something entirely different. It's about how we get the maximum amount of momentum in the shortest period of time from the people around us and how in a heartbeat we can affect ever been able to get that level of momentum out of our team around us again. Today, I made a post on Facebook that I post every couple months. It's just a reminder that I put up there for the people who follow me and it simple. It says, if you've lost trust in the person working for you, fire them. If you've lost trust in the person you are working for, quit because neither gets better with time and I 100% fully believed that sentiment because if you don't trust the person working for you, you are going to have de-leverage relationship where you don't trust what they say you don't trust when they come and tell you they can't do something. You don't trust when they give you feedback and that lack of trust is going to make it near impossible for you to maximize your working relationship.

And on that same token, if you don't trust someone who you are working for. If you're in a situation right now where you're working for someone, even if you're an entrepreneur and you have your own business and maybe it's you're working for someone in a partnership or maybe you're working for someone in an arrangement that you have or in a JV or if you are working for an entrepreneur and you've lost trust in that person, you should quit because you are giving up precious hours and days of your life to someone who is not going to get the best out of you and who is not going to develop you and who is not going to cause you to evolve like you could because quite simply you don't trust them.

And here's why I'm so big-

Speaker 2: Continue on Texas 360 loop south for four miles.

Alex Charfen: I told you I was in my car and I use Google to get everywhere in Austin, so every once in a while you're going to hear her interrupting, but sorry about that. So the reason that trust is so critically important when people are working for you, is that or vice versa when you're working for someone else, is that we have to be able to trust what the people around us say. Because here's the reality about business. Business is full of uncertainty where the most vulnerable person in any business is simple. It's the person in charge because every issue going on in a business is that person's responsibility. So if you're that person, you have to have a massive amount of trust and intimate level of trust with the people who are working closest to you and on your team and you have to be able to trust every single member of your team that they're doing the right thing and that they're moving your business forward and that they're helping you grow in the right direction.

And if you don't, here's what happens to the employer employee relationship, to the entrepreneur team member relationship. Here's what will happen over time. If you don't trust somebody, you're not going to give them as much to do. If you don't trust somebody, you're not going to give them the important outcomes in the business. If you don't trust somebody, you will instinctively, whether consciously or less than consciously start demanding less from that person, asking less of that person on getting less out of them. And so what happens is every dollar you're paying someone you don't trust becomes a de-leveraged dollar. Every minute you spend with someone you don't trust is a de-leveraged minute. And here's what happens to entrepreneurs. I've been coaching entrepreneurs for over 20 years and one of the things that shocks me is how often someone has a person on their team, not only that they don't trust, but that they don't even like.

If you don't trust someone and like someone, you need to get them off of your team as fast as possible because of all the reasons I just mentioned. And here's the other reason. If you think you're the only one who knows you don't trust them, you're fooling yourself. The rest of your team knows that there's something going on with that person. The rest of your team has an energetic feeling that there's something going on with that person and the rest of your team knows that you are putting up with something you're tolerating. You're letting that person be on the team even though they're not fully leveraged, even though quite frankly, they're not doing as much as the people that you trust and they're not being pushed as hard as the people that you trust. I call that sanctioned incompetence. This is a term that I use with my coaching clients all the time.

You have to be careful that you do not sanction incompetence, and here's what that means, for us as leaders, when we allow incompetence in our business, when we allow someone to just exist and take up space that we don't trust, when we aren't actually pushing everybody, when someone's stepping out of line, not doing the right things at the end in a way that is not trustworthy and we just put up with it. Here's what we essentially do for everyone else on our team. We let them know that we sanctioned that behavior. A sanction is like saying it's okay, a sanction is the same as approval when it comes to team members, so if you have a team of let's say, and I'll just give it to you, simple as far as sanction incompetence. If you have a team of five sales reps and four of them are making 60 calls or more a day and they're closing, 20% of the people they get in touch with and they are selling enough that you ... They're selling past their commission quarter or the quarter that you've set up with them or the measurements you've set up with them and then you have one sales rep that's doing 40% of all of that, but it's not mentioned.

It's not discussed. You don't actively talk about how that person isn't doing everything they should. Then here's what happens. You will automatically deleverage the other sales reps. They're not going to show up in the same way as they would if everyone on the team was moving in the right direction. They're going to start to understand, and quite frankly, they should start to see and understand that they don't have to work that hard because if the other person who isn't doing as much as they are, the other person who's not producing as much as they are isn't doing it and they're not getting either a called out or talk to or coached or counseled or moved forward. Then everyone on your team will be the deleveraged.

Speaker 2: In half mile turn left onto the frontage road.

Alex Charfen: Thanks again there Seri. Everyone on your team will eventually be deleveraged. In fact, when you sanction incompetence, it can hurt the productivity, not just of the sales team, but of the entire team. Same thing when you don't trust someone because you and I both know, when you don't trust someone, you're going to treat them differently. Now, let's look at the other side of this coin. If you don't trust the person you're working for, let's say that you're a team member in an entrepreneurial business where the entrepreneur changes directions constantly. They don't communicate in a clear way. You don't feel like they're really being upfront and honest with the team and transparent and telling you guys what's going on. You over time, you just don't trust what they say anymore. They've said too many times I'm going to be in this meeting and then they don't show up or this is what we're gonna do this month, and then they change direction the next month or sorry the next week or the next day or they say, this is what we're going to really aim at.

This is going to be where we're going to put all our focus and then they switch it on you again. If you're in that situation with an entrepreneur, get out. It doesn't matter how much you're getting paid, and I know that sounds crazy because a lot of times entrepreneurs who act like that will pay people more money to stay on their team. They will actually pay a disproportionately higher salaries because they have to. They have to in order to keep people on their team. But here's the challenge. If you're working on a team like that, what you know and I know and what known in your heart for probably longer than just hearing me say it right now, is that you aren't putting your best stuff out there.

Speaker 2: In a quarter a mile turn left onto a frontage road.

Alex Charfen: Thanks again. Siri. You are putting your best stuff out there. You're not actually working as hard as you possibly can. You're not doing everything you possibly could do for the business because that lack of trust has you holding back, has you guarded? Has you saying like, Hey, I'm going to get away with as much as I can do here. I'm not going to do as much as I need to. I'm going to do as much as like what's required, but no more, and here's the problem of being a team member in that situation. It's not about a paycheck. It's about your career. It's about your development as a human being. It's about your development as an entrepreneurial personality type. Even on someone's team. It's about what is that situation doing to help you become better at what you do, better at who you are to help you learn, grow and stretch.

If you don't trust someone, one of the biggest challenges is you will not put in the same amount of time, energy, effort, and focus as you normally would, and here's the big one. If you don't trust someone either direction, whether it's on your team or whether the person you're working for, you are not going to get into maximum momentum and you know what I'm talking about. Those periods of time in your life where everything's going your way, where you're excited to get up every day where you don't even have to use the alarm clock, where you're filled with energy, where you have more stamina, more strength, more courage. You're ready to go.



You make decisions better. You feel the chemical high of momentum. You know what I'm talking about? That's where people like us grow the absolute most. When we're in momentum, we accomplish more. We grow more, we learn more, we do more, and we make more happen in the world, and the problem with a lack of trust is that if it's not there, it absolutely turns off momentum.

You might get some, you might feel some forward progress. It might feel like you're doing some things, but you're just not getting it into that place and it's magical for people like us. Think back through your life, through those periods of momentum where everything was going your way, where you were excited to get up every day, where you were making things happen. That is when we grow the most. That is when we developed the most. That is when we find the most opportunities. That is when we magnetically attract the right people into our lives. That is when we build the relationships we want. That is when we become who we want to be, and it is not worth a paycheck for you to stay in a position where you're working with someone you don't trust and it is not worth anything a team member is doing to keep them on your team if you don't trust them.

Speaker 2: Turn left on the frontage road.

Alex Charfen: Thanks again, Siri for only interrupted me when I'm really making a point, but anyway, when you realize that you are in a lack of trust with somebody, it's time to make a massive change. Now if you're an entrepreneur and you're working with a team, the way you build trust is to be consistent. The way you build trust is to say what you're going to do and then do those things. The way you build trust with the team to the point where they will give you discretionary efforts where they will show up on holidays where you will have to ask them not to work. I know because this is the situation I'm in. We actually had a team member protests because we were all taking Thanksgiving off in the United States. She lives in Ireland and Kareena our designer, who is absolutely amazing. Without question, the best designer I've ever worked with.

She's one of those designers where people say you can't get speed and quality, but you have to choose one. We get speed and the highest quality I've ever gotten. She's amazing and part of the reason is I know she's in momentum because she loves working with our team and we love her and she actually protested, taken off Thanksgiving, she worked through the holiday in Ireland because we took it off here, but she wasn't willing to give the time up and the way that you do this as an entrepreneur, as you are consistent, and here are the keys, one, have a strategic plan, so everyone on your team, including your designer knows where you're going and you build trust. Two have a communication system where everyone in your team knows where you're going and they can see that you're getting there, and then three, be consistent with getting the right people and processes in place so that your business moves forward fast.

If you do those three things, here's what will happen, instead of being the entrepreneur that the world complains about, and by the way, the two biggest complaints about entrepreneurs from their teams-

Speaker 2: In 1000 feet use the left lane to take the loop 1 North Ramp.

Alex Charfen: Now you guys are going to know where I'm going anyway. If you look at the biggest complaints about entrepreneurial teams-

Speaker 2: Use the left lane to take the loop 1 North Ramp.

Alex Charfen: Okay now Siri, if you look at the biggest complaints about entrepreneurial teams is two things. One, we changed direction too often and two the communication is unclear.

Speaker 2: Continue on loop 1 North for four miles.

Alex Charfen: Like the communication unclear from being interrupted by a GPS, but the two things that entrepreneurs have the biggest issues with is one, that they changed direction too often and two, the communication is unclear, so if you solve those two issues in your business. You create a strategic planning, you stick to it, and then you keep clear communication structure.

Here's what happens. You start to predict the future and if you want to be an entrepreneur that everyone on your team will trust, predict the future. Say what you're going to do, call your shots and then make it happen. Pull the target closer so that you have realistic outcomes in your team can go and get and consistently hit them. Trust is a super power. It can make everyone on your team more talented, more engaged, and able to do more. It is also the type of superpower that when you don't have it will make everyone on your team including you be deleveraged and feel like they're running through molasses. I want you to have a fast growth company. Build an empire and habit team that supports you fully. The way you get there is you use trust. You build trust. You create trust and you protect it.

If you're ready to start building trust with your team. If you want to have these strategic system, the communication structure, the predicting the future so that your team knows where you're going and you build trust with everyone. Let us show you how to get more return on your investment for the team you already have. Let us show you how to get more out of every member of your team and let us show you how to build a company that makes you feel protected and supported in the ways that you should feel protected and supported. That lowers the pressure and noise in your life so that you can go out and make your greatest contribution. Have the company you've always known you should and grow as fast as possible. Go to billionairecode.com/apply. Answer some questions from me and my team. You'll end up on a call with one of us will give you information about our programs and let's see if we can help you build your empire. Build a massive company and-

Speaker 2: In two miles take the West over road, north with road exit.

Alex Charfen: That was right on my big clothes. Let us show you how we can help you build your team, build your empire, and go out and make your greatest contribution and make a boatload of money too. Billionairecode.com/apply.