Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:11] Speaker B: Welcome to the Victory Show.
Hey victors. Welcome to this episode of the Victory Show. If this is your first time joining us, I'm Travis Cody, best selling author, 16 books, and the creator of bestseller By Design. Now I've had the privilege of helping hundreds of business consultants, founders, entrepreneurs write and publish their own best selling books. And along that journey discovered a really fascinating pattern. A lot of businesses hit a revenue plateau, usually around a million dollars, and they struggle to break through it. So on the show, I sit down with some of the world's Most successful founders, CEOs, leaders, business owners, to uncover the strategies they use to overcome those plateaus and scale their business to new heights so that you can do the same. So get ready for some deep insights and actionable takeaways that you can implement in your life and business. Starting now. Today's guest is one of the most accomplished and respected leaders in American manufacturing. Cheryl Merchant brings over 40 years of executive leadership. Having held senior roles at industry icons like gm, Mazda, Ford Lear, she's led international teams across North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America. As president and CEO of Hope Global for 19 years, she scaled the company by 5x, transforming it into a Tier 2 automotive industry leader with more than 2,000 employees and operations on five different continents. Since becoming the CEO of Taco Comfort Solutions in 2020, Sheryl has doubled revenue, added over 350 jobs, led a major acquisition in England, and launched global facility expansions totaling nearly a quarter million square feet. Her leadership has been recognized with awards like Crain's Women in Manufacturing of the Year, the New England Businesswoman of the Year, and multiple career achievement honors. She also holds honorary doctorates from both Bryant University and New England Tech. She's a champion for economic growth and education, serving on boards ranging from the Rhode Island Commodores and the Greater Providence Chamber to University of Rhode island and the RI Manufacturers Association. Cheryl isn't just a CEO. She's a force of innovation, mentorship, and enduring impact. So please welcome to the show, Cheryl Merchant. Thank you so much for being here today. I feel like we could probably have an hour conversation about your stints at each one of those companies. I mean, gm, Mazda, Lear.
I mean, what I love about this book project I'm working on in the show and specifically is, you know, we've had some pretty, we've had leaders in pretty big companies. But I think you take the cake for working for the most amount of billion dollar companies. And not just that, but dealing with the culture of having like, say, working for somebody like Mazda right where Headquarters is in a different country and it's coming from a, from a completely different lens of how we do it. And I, I sometimes will go on rants where I think a lot of Americans are fairly narrow minded and have zero idea of kind of how the rest of the world operates.
Before we get into that, let's talk about like did you know you wanted to be like was business the thing for you at a young age or did it sort of choose you?
[00:03:04] Speaker A: Oh Lord, no. It shows me. And by the way I used to refer myself, somebody would mention about how many different, different companies I work in and I, I tell them, yes, I'm really a spy. And my next one's Chrysler. So I get there actually I thought I was going to be a nurse. I passed out twice about visiting family in the hospital and rethink myself. I ended up with international business computers and, and Spanish as minors and just found an incredible home, found an just amazing opportunity and my passion actually along the way took a little while. But that's.
[00:03:39] Speaker B: So when did you have the realization along the journey that you went, hey, wait a minute. I actually really enjoy this.
[00:03:45] Speaker A: I really enjoy this. You know, actually I would tell you pretty much from the beginning. So just to tell you, I'm, I'm a Michigan farm girl, all right. Grew up dirt ass poor, two pair of shoes, you know, spent my summers pulling weeds and picking up stones.
[00:03:59] Speaker B: Clearly entrepreneur written all over you.
[00:04:02] Speaker A: All over me. You know, I actually got. One of my first times I got in Trouble was at 16 because I had taken the car. Not just the school, but I was. My parents found out that I was buying donuts before school every day and then going in for, for 20 cents by the way and then going in and selling them for a buck at school. So yeah, I, I've always known the, the, that one of the basics of known the value of a dollar. Growing up on a farm, you learn really quick.
[00:04:27] Speaker B: Parents got upset that you were turning a 5x profit on your donuts.
[00:04:30] Speaker A: Well, but I wasn't where I was supposed to be with the car.
[00:04:35] Speaker B: All right, that pesky little part of the equation, it just made them shake.
[00:04:39] Speaker A: Their head and you know, I, I didn't really, really get in trouble but I, I literally from that point knew I was never going to be on a farm. Knew that I didn't want to leave my fate that were uncontrollable.
[00:04:56] Speaker B: How big a farm were you on, if I may ask?
[00:04:58] Speaker A: 350 acres.
[00:04:59] Speaker B: So he's a good size.
[00:05:00] Speaker A: Were you guys up in middle Michigan. And my dad was a shop worker, so he was in a stamping plant. My mom was a nurse and they did the farm on the side. And we raised beef cattle. Buying deacons three days, three days old and raising them up.
[00:05:14] Speaker B: And hogs, that was your side hustle.
[00:05:17] Speaker A: Worked, worked, worked. It was actually my side hustle is what we were doing. But watch my dad sit at the table after watching field of beans blow away for the fourth time and cry and pray for that rain and he could get enough for seed finally. But I'm like, nope, this is not my life. I'm not going to be in this situation.
[00:05:36] Speaker B: Yeah, it's. People have such a hard time understanding that's the way it is. Like, I grew up on a small farm. It's like 12 acres. It was self sufficient, right. We weren't. The goal was we would raise enough cows that if we sold one or two of them, it would pay for our cows plus the alfalfa for a year. Right. So we essentially had free meat.
But my grandfather, his father, so he's my great grandfather, he was a sheep farmer in central Utah. And I remember when my, when my great uncle. So my grandfather's brother was 86, he was in LA and I had a conversation with him about how did you end up in LA from Podunk, Utah? And he said, he's like, we had one winter where it got so cold, all of the sheep piled up on each other. And he said out of a herd of 87, 57 sheep died because they suffocated each other. And he said they went out the next day. And he's like, my dad looked at them all and we got rid of all of them. And he said, I'll be back in a few days. And he disappeared. And he went and got on a train and went to LA and found a job and came back and got his family and they just moved, didn't even sell the house. Just literally walked away from the farm and the property and went down very, very hard life.
[00:06:37] Speaker A: My dad said, you will never be scared of work and you will never go hungry. And that was true statement.
Kept on going from there.
[00:06:45] Speaker B: So. So why international business? I mean, you're in nursing, like did you throw a dart at the board and that's what it stuck on or no.
[00:06:53] Speaker A: Would always. Running a farm has a, an amazing kind of business plan. You know, you get paid at certain times and you have to make the whole year work. Right. And how that cycles and even the dealing with the markets and various other Things. So I really got into business. My dad was, would teach me how to run numbers in my head and really understanding, you know, what, what made a profit. And he paid off that farm. I mean, I lost both my parents here not too long ago and we're sitting with a couple, $3 million farm, right? I mean, fully paid off and just amazing and very, very hard work did that. But what really got me into the business end of it was building teams. Trace. I.
My very first job that I got with the General Motors was a supervisor in a paint shop. And I had a team and boy, I tell you, a hard life. Downtown Detroit, this little farm girl went. And back then, I mean, we're talking 40, 42 years ago and that, I mean, you went to Detroit to die, right? I mean, it's just what it was, it was shootings and everything else. So it was, it was quite an awakening. But I, I learned what happens when you treat people right and when they got your back and when you, you can do anything, you really can, just.
[00:08:10] Speaker B: Showing people a little bit of empathy and respect, how far that goes. And yet like, why in some of these big corporations that just for whatever reason, it's not always there.
[00:08:21] Speaker A: Yeah, it's really amazing. You know, I tell a story often that I was sitting, so here's this little American, five foot two, blonde farm girl sitting in Czech Republic. I was sitting in my office in Czech and I was interviewing a gentleman in China for running my China operation that we were about to launch. So he was going to be doing, you know, green, starting it up.
[00:08:43] Speaker B: Let me think about that though, for a minute. You're in Czech Republic interviewing somebody for a business job in China.
Did you ever just sit there and go, how did I, how did I end up here?
[00:08:53] Speaker A: I've done that a lot. You know, that was, that might have been one of them. But I've done that, that very thing a lot. But at that time I asked him, I said, you know, China has, is well known for having great amounts of turnover. So what, what do the Chinese people look for when they're in a, in a job like that? And he said, well, first of all, their environment really means a lot to them because, you know, they, they just, it's a stature thing, it's a comfort thing. It's a, it, it gives them a Persona of how the company's doing. And second, they, they want to know that they're going to be listened to. They really, people, you know, the Chinese people really want to talk, you know, share ideas and, and have a collaborative kind of place where they, they feel like they can have an impact. They then they want to be looking at they, they want a company where they have opportunity to grow and be able to learn new stuff and and you know build their lives. And then they want to be recognized. They want to become you know, compensated and recognized for their hard work. And remember I'm talking about the Chinese population and I'm thinking to myself this is human nature. This is exactly human nature. You can go anywhere in the world and you can either be talking about a 3 year old or a 93 year old. They want to be listened to, they want to feel appreciated. They want, you know, want to be respected and feel like they're, you know, they can contribute. And that's, that's the bottom line of everything. If you treat you know and I'm not a Bible preacher but I'll tell you my rule number one rule is you would that mentioned due to you do we also to them likewise do. If you want people to give you respect, you got to give it to them. Otherwise it never happens and you can build a team. That and bottom line of my success and it took me a while to figure this all out and that what I was even doing actually to tell you but I have built success on making people successful and I tell them so I'll sit down with my senior leadership now and say my job is to make every one of you the best you can possibly be. And I've learned a great deal over the years. I'm going to share with you. We're going to you know, I'll put it out, we'll share ideas, maybe you have others and we can build upon it, make it something even newer. I mean you can talk centralization, decentralization of power and whatever. You can go through so many different things and how can you fix but and then I get to along for the ride. That's kind of how it's been. And I have a team right now, five years they've never got less than 100% of their bonus and mostly up towards 150 the and so that gives you street cred too right? If you always make them succeed even through a Covid and a supply chain mess and everything else that's happened in this world, you know, just dedicate yourself to making people succeed and being recognized.
[00:11:38] Speaker B: So in your current role did you just had you just started and right. And you rolled right into 2020?
[00:11:43] Speaker A: Yeah, I was there in 19 but the company I'm in 2017 crashed like, like major crash. They launched an ERP system. The prior wasn't the owner. He had stepped back and they had got way over their head. They launched, launched an ERP system, let a bunch of tribal knowledge go. They had no documentation. See their inventory, you know, I mean, it was, it was kind of crazy. And so the owner got a column and he had been my friend for 25 years here in the state. We both were running companies pretty good size and would find each other on a stage or in a meeting or in a committee or, you know, at some function. And we used to get together on weekends and, and talk about one the dream team of he and I working together. But of two of, you know, Sharon, I got this problem, what would you do? And I got this problem, what would you do? Kind of thing. And so he, he got called back to his company and within three months he called me and he said, you know, time's up, you gotta come. I'm gonna lose this company. He. We had 26 million in past due to banks. And we had. I mean it was a mess. And so I came in in 19 and the one agreement was that he was gonna stay with me because he's an amazing, amazing person. The way he cares about people and the way he treats people are exactly my values. And I knew we could work together. And I just said, man, he's an icon in the industry. You're loved your name, people will help you because of who you are. And we're going to need some help for me to be able to dig this out. And you got to promise me you're not going to take off. So we worked together over 2019 and stabilized. The company barely got into 2020 and boom, right? And in 2020, it was kind of wild. There had.
We'd done a two or three trips, but we, he and I came back from a trip in the very first week of March or the just the end of February, I'm not sure something in there. And, and I wouldn't let him sit down until I wiped everything clean.
We got back and we pulled the team together and said, this is what's happening in the world. We had, we knew China. We had a plant in, in Vietnam. We had a plant in the.
[00:13:47] Speaker B: You saw it weeks before it was coming.
[00:13:49] Speaker A: It was in the heart in Italy. I just come back from Italy and we both said I got sick. I was in the streets of Italy. I had to go to Czech Republic. On the streets of Italy and pharmacies trying to find something because my head in My ears and everything hurt so bad. But we, we sat and talked and we listened to everybody. We're launching an erp. We got all these people in Canada and oh, we're doing this down in Texas and we got this. And we kind of, you know, the sales are having a big thing out in California. And I'm like, okay, I hear you. You got this week. I want everybody home. And we locked down two weeks prior to everybody and everybody thought I was, you know, I was crazy. Johnny and I, we were doing it too soon. Etc. We saved the company and we succeeded throughout Covid. Being essential was good. You know, we make stuff lose water. And if you want water, you want heat, you want cool, you're gonna, you're gonna let us work. So, yeah, it's, it's been a, it's been some challenging times, but it's been really good.
[00:14:48] Speaker B: So let's talk a little bit about the, your specific industry because, you know, as a laypers about manufacturing, obviously, you know, this last couple years, apparently there's been some noise coming from higher up people about manufacturing in this country. There's no context for someone like me. So you've, you've been doing this long enough. Now. Can you talk us through a little bit about why is manufacturing so important to America? And just in the 40 years, what have been the changes you've seen during that time? Good and bad?
[00:15:16] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And you know what, that's probably when you think about business, my real gig is I love to make stuff. And it's been everything from carpet, those carpet strips when you walk into a building and you got these mats to braid, did the Timberland bootleg braiding. You know, we produced all that we had the world contract.
So I mean, you take that all the way through an interior of the entire Jeep Liberty, you know, you did all the arms and everything. So I love making stuff. And manufacturing has definitely been on a roll over these 40 years. It went from, I mean, you know, you can look through, from the unions and how manufacturing was handled and the way it was and the pricing and the, I mean, how people, people on the line in a manufacturing place were working so that their kids didn't have to work in a manufacturing place, right? And then we went through this stage where our government, everybody just, we want. America needs to be a service industry. You cannot live as a country if you don't make stuff. I mean, you've got to be able to, to, you know, pull that trigger. And just like the last company I worked for, hope we shut down everything else. Forget shoelaces, we're making parachute cord. And I mean we had to be dedicated to what was going to happen during the World War I. So we need to be able to make stuff end of story and, and if nothing else then at least to understand it and to be able to control it and not let somebody lead you down the wrong path. And we got away from that for a while and now we're trying to bring it back, but it's pretty tough. I mean I've been on a path five years to get out of China and it's not that easy. It's just not that easy. Too many care about bottom line price. We say we want it made here, but it's expensive to make here and you've got to find, you've got to find a balance on how to do it and you got to have good partners. Manufacturing to me is the foundation of everything. It's kind of like the farmer, you know, I mean we got to grow our own food, we gotta, we gotta be able to be in control. I, I believe in that. And it's not always been that way.
[00:17:24] Speaker B: No. You know, it's so interesting because when I. So I worked in Hollywood for 15 years and that was one of the things you strive me crazy about living in LA is just listening to people talking about it and having grown up on a farm that was self sufficient, that's just the way it was. And just meeting so many people that were so disconnected from where their food came from and having no idea and just, and not even that, but I think almost the entitlement of like of course I'm just going to show up at the thing. And even to this day like here in Vegas, there's times where I'll just, I'll be in my grocery store and I'll just stop and look at it going like, what would people in Ukraine right now do if they came into this store and saw this? And you turn 180 degrees and right across the street there's another one.
[00:18:02] Speaker A: Like it's just crazy on how we handle things.
[00:18:07] Speaker B: So anyway, we could go on tangents of the map.
[00:18:09] Speaker A: So yeah, farm I think manufacturing now it's a different world. I mean I'm putting in right now 5 million in new equipment that's automated and it takes it, you know, we're training our core base of people to be able to manage these equipment, you know, programming and testing and, and the maintenance and just general operating. So manufacturing is different. You need AutoCAD people. I got 100 engineers in this company. I got, you know, I mean, another. I would feel like another. I don't even know, 30 finance people and a whole bunch of, you know, strategic leaders. And so there's so much to what goes into manufacturing these days. It's just not the same.
[00:18:50] Speaker B: So what are the strengths of American manufacturing right now?
[00:18:53] Speaker A: People. I think people are the strengths everywhere. I really do. I just am a firm believer you can do anything with the right team. And I've come into a few places that people have been treated bad and they were sour and they, you know, just had a real bad attitude. And you still can turn that around just by treating people right. Treating people right, listening to them, collaborating, recognizing them. At General Motors, I had a team and we did all the two tone painting because I worked at the Fleetwood Clark. So if you knew the Fleetwood Brome, that'll tell you how old I am, Joyce. But we did the two toning and all of those checkered cabs that were downtown Detroit and the yellow and green, all those. But I had a team. I Learned out that GM took 10 cars off the line every single day and just audited them down to every speca dirt. And once I learned that, and by the way, the way I learned that, my boss was sending me over there. And this will give you a little bit on the other. On the flip side. All right, sure. Manufacturing. But my boss would send me over there to, to audit with this guy, audit the cars. And I came back one day and said, we're getting hit with a water leak, which was very detrimental for a vehicle to get hit with water leaks. Right. And it. I said, it's not ours. Our seals and everything are there, but the welds busted from the body shop. But the little, this little auditor guy didn't want to go up against the body shop dude who's, you know, have you set, chewed on him.
[00:20:19] Speaker B: It's easier.
[00:20:20] Speaker A: So I'm gonna charge it to the paint shop and you fight it. But anyway, I got. When I told my boss, he said, young lady, I send you over there for a reason. That guy's not that bad looking. You grab a hold of him, you hide him in the back seat, you smother him and kiss him. You do what you have to do, but you don't come back with shit like this. Said to me, now go. But I, you know, and I did, I went and got the. The.
[00:20:39] Speaker B: You smothered him in kisses.
[00:20:40] Speaker A: You know, almost, almost. I went and got that head of body shop and I said, you know, I need to show you something. Could you have a minute? I mean, I know I'm pretty new and all this, but. And he came over there, and I said, now, I've been told that you are a high integrity man and you hold quality as number one and you hold your people accountable and. And all of that. And so I just wanted to share with you because this, to me, looks like a busted well that came from you and our seals right there in the sweet seal split. And. And they charged it to paint shop. And so I'm pretty sure you're the guy that knows how to handle this system and make sure the right people are accountable and take care of that. He looked at me, he's chewing on that cigar, and he just shook his head and he goes, yep, I see where this is going. But he took care of it. Took care of it. I mean, and I learned about this audit, right? So every day this was happening. So my. My team, I came back and I told them, this is what they're doing, man. This is how they're rating us. How? Because every person, every department, anyone. And I spent probably a year of this doing this. When I came to this company. How are you evaluated? How are you measured every day? How do you know that every single day you go home and I kick butt, man, I was so successful, I did this. How? What are you responsible for? What are people looking at you and saying, whoa, you need to know those things, right? So I taught. I pulled back my people and I told them. And then we went about three months with zero defects. Unheard of. And I wrote them all. I had my sister who was going to. Through school and marketing, had her make this certificate. I got the head honcho to sign them, and. And then my boss assigned them, and I signed them and I handed them out to everybody. I had the relief guys coming in, you know, and saying, hey, I spent, you know, however many minutes relieving the team in here, and usually they're the worst because they can come in and then leave and they don't get blamed. Right? But they wanted in on being recognized, and it was great. And I really learned right up front, man, they were so proud.
[00:22:36] Speaker B: Some recognition.
[00:22:37] Speaker A: So proud. Yep.
[00:22:39] Speaker B: So you said something I want to back up on, because I don't think people realize what you said where you're like, they just pull 10 cars a day off of the line to inspect them. How many cars a day was that line producing?
[00:22:49] Speaker A: 60 an hour.
[00:22:51] Speaker B: 60 an hour, 24 hours a day.
Yeah. I don't think people Realize the scale of what that was. 60 an hour, 24 hours a day, three shifts. Yep, yep. Yeah, that's remarkable.
[00:23:04] Speaker A: Long time when you get out at one in the morning or. No, it was. And then you always had to do overtime. I know that because if I hooked it really good, we could get to the pub across the door and if I could have somebody buy me a.
[00:23:14] Speaker B: Drink right before it closed.
[00:23:16] Speaker A: Right before it closed. You know, if you had a drink waiting for you, you could get in. Yeah, those, those, those days are crazy. Same thing with Mazda when I was there. Now that was, that was a different. Because it was 50 Japanese and 50 Ford motor. Right, right.
[00:23:30] Speaker B: So let's talk a little bit about that because now we got two different, you know, two different cultures, especially the Ford. I mean you got culture plus the ego.
[00:23:37] Speaker A: And they got a whole bunch from of ex Chrysler people.
Ford's running. But they, that's where they got all these old guys.
So. Yeah, I had seven Japanese trainers. I ran the end line in the body shop. So I now maz. I went in there two years before it was launched and we had to take a week's training and everything that you were going to supervise. Right. So I had mig braze, CO2 weld, gas brazing, metal finish. Metal finish. Kind of you got to hit the car and then you got three minutes to get this ding out. Right. So. And luckily for me, you know, my mom taught me how to weld when I was a little. I can put a hay bind back together.
So anyway, we, we had seven Japanese trainers in this and they did exercises every morning. And it was a, it was a culture that they were, they had, your people had. They started at one stop and then they, they had a space that, where they were supposed to complete their job. And if they finished early, they were to go back to that space and stand and think about their job. And the Japanese walk up and hit them upside the hard hat and go, man, no good, no good. No ducking, no ducking. Job, think job.
And then you got the, you know, the Americans that are still doing the crazy, crazy stuff. I mean that, that kind of thought, you know, there was a lot of the Grab a hoe, bring your, you're not going home tonight or after the meeting. And so there's, there's all the good old American.
[00:25:02] Speaker B: So you had the, you had the Japanese guys looking and going, how Americans get stuff done? Waste so much time.
[00:25:07] Speaker A: Waste time. I was the first woman not allowed to go because back then Japan, in Japan, women were not allowed in the factories they were all couldn't work after.
[00:25:16] Speaker B: Five good old fashioned men's work.
[00:25:19] Speaker A: Very much so. As one of the first supervisor hired in this factory that didn't go do three months in Japan.
[00:25:26] Speaker B: This is the thing though too right. We look at it and going oh that's so sexist. And at the same time like Japanese are going we don't want women there because that's dirty. Like why would women want to go to do something so dirty? Like they, you're, you have so much more value than that. Which I just, you know. So I have a friend that lived in Japan for three years and we talk about that all the time. Just the differences in that attitude.
[00:25:46] Speaker A: Very protective, hot and glows. Yep.
[00:25:48] Speaker B: So what, let's talk a little bit about your company you're working with right now.
You come in in 2019, it's in dire straits.
How do you approach like walk me through like your thought process of okay, we got this company, we've got 26 million outstanding. Where do you even start with it? For someone like me that seems like such a huge problem. Like how do you not get overwhelmed by all of the things that got to be going on at the same time?
[00:26:12] Speaker A: So one of the first things I did, I study numbers. I mentioned that to you. So I started studying. I mean I can remember at one point I was sitting with all these guys and I said all the VPs of head of every department. And I said can anybody tell me what 3.5 million of NC material is? Quiet. And I said okay, well I did some digging and it's not non conforming. It turns out NC stands for no charge. Does that help? Quiet. I said Brian, he had in one department you got 1.5 million hitting your P. L. Are you giving materials away? He said I don't know where it's coming from. It's a finance number. Said okay. I looked over at finance and I had a brand new CFO that started right with me at the same time. I don't know where it's coming from but it's real. It happened last year so I budgeted it so great, we're covered. Now let's figure it out. Why are we giving three and a half million dollars in materials away?
So it was just a. I, I go after the buckets, I go after the unknown. And once you show people and I did this when I was in Texas as well. I just printed off because you were never. I was living in Mexico. We were, I was working in Mexico. I had 3, 500 people. And we weren't allowed to share numbers with our Mexican management, right. So I copied all these budgets and I held a meeting at like 8 o' clock at night up on the, one of the rooms out on the floor. And I said, we're all going to get smart together, guys, because I can't do this alone. And we, and they're looking at it and they're like, why do we have 14 million in scrap out of here? And you know, I mean, looking at stuff and then we'd go down and look and figure out where it's going from. And so we took a 21 scrap loss down to 2.
And our CFO thought we were stealing or my guys were stealing or hiding it in trucks. So we did an inventory and he made us open up all the trucks. So where are you hiding it? And, and I said, well, what I'd suggest is you stop questioning the integrity of these gentlemen and let's go look. And we changed the whole industry. Teams can do that. You can't do it all by yourself. You, you dig and you share and you bring out numbers. So I've, I've spent time training on finance. I took away. No, the CFO is not going to be the one that says yes or no for money and the HR person is going to be the yes or no for, for people. You guys are going to learn how to run this business and make educated decisions because that's how I work. We're going to do this together. This is how and we'll go forward. It's really, it was really digging in and looking at pockets and trying to understand how things happen and looking at processes, doing what I told you, talking to every single person. Do you know how you're being measured every day? Do you know how you're being successful? Do you have a job description? I mean, do you know what you're responsible for? Because I would get into this stuff and it would be like I said, who did this? Well, I did, but it's not really my job. I was just helping so and so. And they were going up because so. And it was just. Nobody is accountable for everything. It was one big happy family and everybody helping each other and you couldn't trace nothing. So the point was to keep the culture. That's what I promise. You need to. We got to keep this culture. We're going to take care of each other, but it's going to be a clear cut understanding of who needs to do what and how. So we've been building a business Operating system and which is complete policies and procedures. Every single group, every single thing you do, how do you do it? And map it all out, and you find tons of stuff. You know, people double doing and changing things and not understanding what they're doing is going to hurt and all that kind of stuff. So we looked through all the processes and then we also. I sat down with the sales team and said, okay, I want 20% year over year growth. They looked at each other, then they looked at me.
You can't handle 20% growth. I said, what do you mean by that? And then they, they just started telling me, you know, how late we were every time they promised orders or what we were doing to customers. And so if you ask people, what do you think is wrong? Why, you know, basically, what are you doing with how you're doing your job? Do you know? What's your job? All of those kind of questions. What do you think is going wrong? What. What things do you see we're failing at? And then I. I implement a weekly global staff meeting every Monday morning. And I put out a form and I say, I just want the five things you did last week. You told us last week what you were going to do. Anything. You need to share the five things that you're doing this week that you need to share five things next week. It's like, this is going to sound stupid, but I do this whole thing like a football game, okay? I really do. I mean, I.
[00:30:50] Speaker B: My God, were you raised in the Midwest or what?
[00:30:53] Speaker A: But it's the, it's that huddle in the morning, you know, you don't go out on the field, you know, and, and teach people how to do their jobs. When they have that quick huddle and that quick meeting, it's like, here's the play, here's go. And, you know, everybody on that line, you trust everybody on that line. Trust to me. I'm a Cubby fan all the way. Trust to me is about integrity. You know, nobody's got a hidden agenda. Nobody's trying to get it in the newspaper. Nobody's looking to please a girlfriend. They know the agenda. They know the way. We are here to win, and they know how to do their job. So if your job is to tackle that guy, we expect you to tackle that guy. And if you don't tackle the guy, it's like, dude, what's wrong? You all right? You got it? All right, Ready? Go. You don't tackle that guy. All right. Do you need some Gatorade? Five minutes shot. What? What are We. What are we talking here? Are you good? Nope. Hit the bench. And it's. It's about communication. It's about those timeouts. It's about those. Those huddles. It's about the watching during halftimes, the reviews. It's all the way to the scoreboard that tells everybody around you whether to get up and leave or whether there's a chance. Right? I mean, classic communication, being on one one integrity and one. One goal and everybody understanding what they're supposed to be doing. And. And I actually. The very first strategy meeting I held, I started in January, I held it in July, and I call all these people, everybody want. I even got the question, why are you doing this? Because I really wasn't in charge of Europe at that time, but I brought everybody, whether I was in charge or not, and I. We. We did this. Okay. What do you think needs to happen, you know, for us to do this? So we made a list of engagement rules, and then I said, okay, so here's how we play, guys. And I made every person that was in the room sign it. They got a jersey, and they.
Because that's kind of how it. How it works. You. You gotta be.
And then you cheer people on and you teach them how to be the best they can be. That's really what it comes down to. So, yeah, I was raiding Miss west, but I was. I went. I went to Alma College, but I partied at States. I was State. State U of M, you know, and competition's great.
[00:33:03] Speaker B: So this will be when we wrap things down here. This has been a fascinating conversation, but obviously it comes down to teams, right? And it comes down. But it also comes down to leadership because, you know, every squad's gotta have the quarterback. So how do you identify and then nurture leaders inside of your company or companies that you saw?
[00:33:21] Speaker A: There's lots of different ways, but right now we've launched a program called the Takeoff Leadership Management Program. If you want to be a Teiko leader, which, by the way, Takeo stands for Thermal Appliance Company.
[00:33:32] Speaker B: I call the Taco for everybody.
[00:33:35] Speaker A: Everybody does. It's fine. Our Italian plant does, too. But if you want to be a techo leader, you're going to learn the value of trust. You're going to learn how to respect each other and how to handle things. You're going to learn the techniques of supervision, from motivation to just, you know, to. To guiding, to dealing with conflict and all those things. Things, right? And you're going to learn how to.
How to take a goal and make it a team goal and get people to win. So you really. That's what you got to do. And, and you got to do it by example. There's no question. I mean, you got to walk the. Walk the talk, and you've got to have people trusting you, because why are they going to follow you if they don't trust you? Nobody follows you. If you are in charge to take that hill and you say charge and you get up there halfway and you look back, nobody's behind you. You cannot call yourself a leader. So you got to gain trust. You've got to gain.
And it comes from walking the talk, and it comes from doing what we say you're going to do.
And.
And I like to win. And I've done it multiple times with these guys. I'll bring people in the room and say, look, you're in this room because think. I think you've got what it takes. You're either got, you know, two or three jobs. You're loyal to your dedication. But I like to win. And if you're not willing to give 150, you're willing then please exit stage left. No harm, no foul.
All good. But if you're going to stay here with me, I guarantee you you're going to win and you're going to work your butt off. Understand it? So be ready. Here we go. And I've done that through. In 2008, I did it through bankruptcy, you know, through.
We were in the war room because we had 15 customer bankruptcies and suppliers dropping like flies. And automotive, when GM was going down and Lear went down and Cooper seen her tire went down, and everybody. So that's what. What really what it takes, it's pulling people in together and saying, okay, hold hands, folks. Nobody can drop.
[00:35:26] Speaker B: But, yeah, you know, kind of circling back to the beginning of our conversation where just giving somebody a clear job description and like, this is what you do. This is how you know when you're winning. Just putting the clear boundaries in there, like how much simpler that makes the organization run, how much drama that cuts down, how many problems that cuts down. And again, you go into.
[00:35:46] Speaker A: Most companies want to win. They want to feel good. Nobody, one of my best mentors told me, nobody gets up and says, let me go see how many people I can screw up and how I can look bad. They put your leg on one leg at a time. And he says, and if they don't do their job, it's because they didn't know it was their job. They didn't have the Tools to do their job. They. They needed training to figure out how to do their job. And the worst is they weren't comfortable in talking to you because all four of those are your problem, not the employees. They come in and do the best they can do every single day. And if they're not doing it right to the leader.
[00:36:18] Speaker B: So for you, your bio talks a little bit about mentorship. What do you. What do you. Now that you're at this point in your career, what do you enjoy about mentoring others?
[00:36:26] Speaker A: I love it. I. I won this mentor of the year, and I basically challenge everybody, you know, give back. I have five mentors at all time. I've got this lady, she's now in one of the top marketing B2B companies for a cosmetic. But she started. She was a secretary for the president of the Chamber of Commerce, you know, and the guy called me and said, man, this young lady has got stuff you need to take her on. And. And if you end up with me to be a mentor, then you get, you know, immediate. So you text me and you're in trouble, walk out the parking lot, I'll pick up the phone, help you through whatever problem you're in.
But you're gonna also. It. It's. You got to be dedicated to it, because I. I don't want to waste my time, you know, national career conference, 2,000 people. My mom takes me down there, teaches me how to do makeup, buys me a couple blouses, you know, and we go to this thing. And. And GM was the only company that was worth it because I was going to walk. She said, you were here. You're not walking out. She took me shopping, bought me these blouses that made me go to this presentation thing. And I got to hear GM and I. I told her, I said, I'm gonna elbow my way to that table because everybody's gonna kill them. I'll meet you outside. And they did. Everybody went to GM, right? I mean, this is back when GM was like the icon. 65% market share and the big boy.
And there was a gentleman standing there. He'd look at a resume, and I don't think you could count to five and it. And flip it, say, write this down.
She'll give you an interview slot and. Or, thank you. You're on our list. They took 110 interviews out of all of those people.
And out of 110, they hired 13. Bad number. But that's what it was. They were bi people, these people, you know, teachers. It was everything. And I got a chance to Ask him what were you do, what were you looking for that you did that that fast? And he said, the ambition and the ability to learn. Because if you've got that, you can't have one. You could have the ambition but not be able to. And you could be able to and have no interest in doing it. You've got to have both the ambition and the ability to learn. He said, I knew I could teach anything. GM put us through six months of very hard supervision, motivational. Here's how you look at yourself, how you, here's how you handle yourself. Here's how you deal with people. Here's how you do this. And I've never forgot that. So I tell people, when you get to me, if you're, you know, you, you can be great at your job. And I've had VPs want to promote somebody that's just great at their job, but they're not interested. They like coming in and doing that job and leave me alone because.
[00:39:08] Speaker B: And that's, I think, the other thing, like, right, so like with what I do with people that come to me with books, because I have a direct marketing background. And so for me a book is a tool. It's like, it's just a start. And there's all these other things you could do. And so I'll meet people and they'll tell me and I'm like, oh my God, we could do this and we could do this, we could do this, we could do this. And I have to like stop and not say anything because I'm like, could. Maybe they don't want to do that. Maybe they just want the book, right? And it's probably like 90% of my clients are like, I'm just happy with the book. And then 10% are like, oh, I can do other stuff and do the.
[00:39:36] Speaker A: Book to lead and teach and, and be able to share what I've been through in 40 some years. And you know, you could, you could do all sorts of titles from, you know, what, what not to do to the top success, Things that win to what's really behind in these bottom of these big icon companies.
[00:39:55] Speaker B: You know, one of my friends probably taught me the best lesson I've ever heard. What best marketing lesson? Because in my career I've worked with guys that, you know, solopreneurs doing 30, 40 million a year. And I say solo, right? They got a team of 10 people. But, but for the moment, all intents and purposes. And it was always like, it was really interesting because it was always like, more, more. How I mean, how much? Last year I got to grow, this year I got it. And then one time I was working with one guy and I was. I was really stressed out. And one of my friends calls me and we're talking. He's like, yeah, you walk all the time. And I'm talking. He's runs his own business, and his business does about a million a year, and he has 35% profit margin. This is what he said to me. It changed for things forever where he said, dude, if I'm working more than an hour a day, something's broken in my business. And so I'm talking to him, I start talking to him about his business. And I was like, oh, my God. Like, if you could do this thing over here, you'll, you'll, you'll double your revenue. And he's like, no, we'd probably 4x. I'm like, why didn't want to do that? And he's like, because then I have to do this thing, and I hate doing that. I don't want to do it. I'm all, yeah, but you could hire someone to do that for you. And he's like, and then I have to manage someone, and I don't like managing people. And I'm like, but you can. He's like, travis. He's like, I get up at 7 in the morning. I work from 7 to. He lives in Colorado. I work from 7 to 8, 8 o' clock in the summer. I'm on my mountain bike. I'm on my mountain bike until 4, and I come home and I play baseball with my kid. He's like, if I'm making what, I'm a million a year or 10 million a year, how is my life going to be any different? And it was so confusing to me because all the guys I worked with were all about, like, I'll just work, work, work, work more, more, more, more money. And he was just like, what's the least I can do to have the lifestyle that I want? I was like, that was.
[00:41:25] Speaker A: Yeah, but if money's not the goal, if your goal is to share and make people everywhere successful as much as you can, right? I mean, you can, you can only do so much, but that's, that's just so rewarding. I have people all over the world that still call me, call me up and call me boss or jefe.
So many different languages just because I put them in spots and they're, they've got good lies for themselves and their families, right? I took a forklift driver and he's now running three plants in Mexico of probably over 6,000 people.
[00:41:56] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:41:57] Speaker A: He was amazing. He was amazing. And I sat him down and when I gave him a like, it was like I, I pulled him in and said, and I really went to my boss and said, you sign that? He goes, but we don't give sign that. He just busted, he was the lead in busting that what I told you in that material from 21 to 2. I said he just saved this company millions upon millions.
[00:42:18] Speaker B: He was the one that figured it out, huh?
[00:42:20] Speaker A: Yeah. Because he was a material driver. Well, he bought the supervisor and then I got him to a manager and he was a materials manager. Then there was a spot where, you know, we were living with walkie talkies and I walked in on him at 11 o' clock at night and he goes, I don't think I can do this. I don't think I can do this. I just going to have to let it go. And I said, said the only way you leave in here is in a body bag, dude. Because if you go, I have to go because I can't do this without you. I just can't do this without you. Tell me how to help you. I'm here, let's do it. And, and now, and he was still head of, head of materials at that time. Now he's running the plants. He's just, he's phenomenal.
[00:42:58] Speaker B: What a fantastic. We can't end on a better note than that. If someone, if someone's in there, like they, they hear this, they're interested in what Takeo's doing and they want to know about that. Or maybe you know, we got somebody who's listening to this going, they want to reach out to you possibly to talk about mentorship. How, how do people find you? How do they get in touch?
[00:43:14] Speaker A: You can find me on LinkedIn. Cheryl Merchant.
I'm pretty easy on LinkedIn. You can Google me, but don't believe everything you write you read. But no, there's a five or six pages of me out there on the Google, you know, little Ithaca. And I'm right here in Rhode island right now, so that helps.
[00:43:29] Speaker B: Well see, don't you know now if, if I, if I can't pull you up on ChatGPT, you don't exist.
[00:43:34] Speaker A: You probably get my daughter.
[00:43:35] Speaker B: I, I just had a conversation with somebody the other day and he has two year old daughter. Were like the idea of googling to her was like why would you Google like everything's chat now.
[00:43:45] Speaker A: And I'm like so funny in that bio you didn't mention I'm a mother of a 15 and 18 year old.
That's the hard hardest job I've ever come across.
[00:43:54] Speaker B: How do you nurture talent there?
[00:43:55] Speaker A: Oh my gosh. My daughter is four honorary societies running a four point CTE international business course in a sophomore year and is so.
[00:44:05] Speaker B: Very much a slacker. Yes.
[00:44:08] Speaker A: Scout a track. I mean two. Two culture clubs. She's involved in non profit assistance with me on helping communities. So they do okay setting.
[00:44:17] Speaker B: Setting up the next generation. Cheryl, thank you so much for your time. It's been a fantastic conversation.
[00:44:22] Speaker A: It has been such a pleasure to meet you. We'll talk again. Thank you.
