Chris Greco is the founder of Operator Up and author of 8 Steps to Overcoming Adversity. Greco recounts his journey of turning around a struggling company, emphasizing that true leadership emerges in times of hardship. He reveals how he revitalized a retail tech firm, guiding it through economic challenges and scaling it by nine times. Greco underscores the role of core values, teamwork, and an unyielding commitment to resilience in his leadership strategy. His approach to overcoming adversity—embracing discomfort to achieve greatness—offers a practical blueprint for any leader aiming to elevate their impact. With poignant stories and practical advice, Greco makes a compelling case for building a culture where employees know their leader “has their back,” which he argues is key to inspiring extraordinary results.
Want to learn more about Chris Greco’s work? Check out his website at https://www.grecospeaks.com/.
Connect with Chris Greco on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisgreco/.
Think you'd be a great guest on the show? Apply at https://podcast.allies4me.com/podcast-guest/.
Want to learn more about Craig Andrews' work at allies4me? Check out his website at https://allies4me.com/.
Key Points with Timestamps:
- [00:00:30] Introduction to Chris Greco and his journey in transforming Storewise
- [00:02:00] Greco discusses the unique challenges of the grocery industry and the low-profit margins in independent grocers
- [00:07:04] Insights on resilient leadership and building a team that thrives in adversity
- [00:11:03] Story of Steve Jobs, the importance of challenging leadership, and healthy conflict
- [00:19:08] The value of resilience in personal and professional life
- [00:24:02] Importance of giving and receiving encouragement in the workplace
- [00:27:28] Greco’s anecdote on resilience and teamwork, illustrating the support he received during a challenging boating trip
- [00:30:00] Overview of Operator Up's mission: culture building, leadership development, and market efficiency
Transcript
00;00;00;00 - 00;00;30;20
Craig Andrews
I was in a coma for six weeks while the doctors told my wife I was going to die. When I woke up, she told me the most fantastic story. My team kept running the business without me. Freelancers reached out to my team and said, we will do whatever it takes. As long as Craig's in the hospital. I consider that the greatest accomplishment of my career.
00;00;30;23 - 00;00;51;10
Craig Andrews
My name is Craig Andrews and this is the Leaders and Legacies podcast where we talk to leaders creating an impact beyond themselves. At the end of today's interview, I'll tell you how you can be the next leader featured on the show.
00;00;51;10 - 00;01;15;19
Craig Andrews
Today I will welcome Chris Greco. He is the founder of Operator Up and the author of 8 Steps to Overcoming Adversity. One of the things that caught my eyes was he's the former CEO of store. He turned the company around in two years by working together with this great team. Established core values, rebranded recruit, and scaled the company by nine times.
00;01;15;26 - 00;01;21;12
Craig Andrews
Nine times during a tough economic time. And then he sold it,
00;01;21;12 - 00;01;25;06
Craig Andrews
and just wrapped up that deal a number of months ago.
00;01;25;06 - 00;01;37;10
Craig Andrews
Drove series A, in the funding won the founders of the card. You know, he recruited them to be an investor. I mean, just a great story, but one of the things that Chris talks about is overcoming adversity.
00;01;37;12 - 00;01;45;14
Craig Andrews
And I can't imagine being a leader without having some type of diversity story in your past. And so, Chris,
00;01;45;14 - 00;01;48;08
Craig Andrews
let's chat about welcome to Leaders and Legacies.
00;01;48;10 - 00;01;50;04
Chris Greco
Great to be here. Thanks, Craig.
00;01;50;06 - 00;01;50;26
Craig Andrews
So,
00;01;50;26 - 00;01;59;01
Craig Andrews
tell us about let's just launch off. What store wise what what what what is store wise? What the look like when you showed up?
00;01;59;03 - 00;02;00;08
Chris Greco
Yeah. Store wise, the,
00;02;00;08 - 00;02;03;05
Chris Greco
retail technology firms. The thing about the,
00;02;03;05 - 00;02;09;06
Chris Greco
all the independent grocers around the country is your neighborhood grocers. They are the the fabric,
00;02;09;06 - 00;02;12;05
Chris Greco
the backbone of the of this country.
00;02;12;05 - 00;02;14;17
Chris Greco
We provide actually pricing software to them,
00;02;14;17 - 00;02;18;05
Chris Greco
to allow them to price their, their items with,
00;02;18;05 - 00;02;24;02
Chris Greco
more accuracy and really, make sure they're not only delivering the best price to the consumer, but protecting, you know,
00;02;24;02 - 00;02;25;19
Chris Greco
their own margins and profits.
00;02;25;19 - 00;02;30;25
Chris Greco
So it's it was definitely a win win. And it was a great, you know, four four year run.
00;02;30;27 - 00;02;35;08
Craig Andrews
Yeah. And I've heard that grocery stores run on like 10% margins.
00;02;35;08 - 00;02;39;06
Chris Greco
And that's, that's that's a gift trade. Less than 2%.
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Craig Andrews
Really.
00;02;40;02 - 00;02;48;06
Chris Greco
Yeah. Especially the independents. Yeah. It's it's a phenomenal. You know I knew nothing Craig about the the grocery industry and you got and you know
00;02;48;06 - 00;02;56;10
Chris Greco
you always got they always say you got to be ready for an opportunity when, you know when it happens, even though you might not be ready for it. And I'd never been, you know, CEO before.
00;02;56;11 - 00;03;01;09
Chris Greco
I never I wouldn't even I never would have thought about going into, you know, grocery and,
00;03;01;09 - 00;03;06;09
Chris Greco
I am so glad that I did because a, I got to,
00;03;06;09 - 00;03;08;04
Chris Greco
work with, you know, great people.
00;03;08;04 - 00;03;13;11
Chris Greco
My leadership team scale the company. I just, you know, supported them. So,
00;03;13;11 - 00;03;14;20
Chris Greco
the the forum did it,
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Chris Greco
along with, you know, 50 or so other,
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Chris Greco
great,
00;03;18;02 - 00;03;18;28
Chris Greco
individuals.
00;03;19;05 - 00;03;20;17
Chris Greco
But I also got to really,
00;03;20;17 - 00;03;22;23
Chris Greco
get to know an industry that I never would have
00;03;22;23 - 00;03;23;23
Chris Greco
known had I not been,
00;03;23;23 - 00;03;25;23
Chris Greco
CEO a store wise.
00;03;25;25 - 00;03;31;01
Craig Andrews
You know, I took this business class years ago, and they had a, a game that we played, which was,
00;03;31;01 - 00;03;41;02
Craig Andrews
you know, we had to run a supply chain, you know, we would get a forecast out and we would get orders and, and go through that. And the one thing I learned about that was, don't put me in charge of running a supply chain.
00;03;41;04 - 00;03;43;19
Craig Andrews
Other it's going to be a disaster.
00;03;43;22 - 00;04;00;11
Chris Greco
It's hard but sticks on that business, you know, like like it's it's it's pretty impressive. Yeah. I mean getting just the fact that you can get a banana from the farm to the kitchen table for less than a quarter is nothing short of a miracle.
00;04;00;14 - 00;04;09;23
Craig Andrews
That truly is it's it's amazing. And with 2% margins, if you make a mistake, that's it. I mean, I was just there's,
00;04;09;23 - 00;04;21;14
Craig Andrews
a store, I think, in Nashville. Grocery in Nashville that was just reading is about to go out of business. Just because they got that out of, they got out of sync on those things.
00;04;21;15 - 00;04;28;05
Chris Greco
Well, let me know because I'll. I'll definitely put them in touch, the new CEO store wise, and hopefully they could, do business together to keep them going.
00;04;28;07 - 00;04;36;17
Craig Andrews
You know, so obviously. So when you're talking about the tough economic times, was that during Covid when when everything with August.
00;04;36;18 - 00;04;36;27
Chris Greco
August.
00;04;36;27 - 00;04;38;28
Chris Greco
So my so the book,
00;04;38;28 - 00;04;42;28
Chris Greco
launched my book in June in 2020 and I had all, you know, and I was,
00;04;42;28 - 00;04;47;27
Chris Greco
I had all the intent of really putting a lot of marketing going on, you know, the speaking tour,
00;04;47;27 - 00;04;51;20
Chris Greco
and so this opportunity came calling and,
00;04;51;20 - 00;04;57;27
Chris Greco
it actually with came calling before June, but in August, I was named, you know, CEO store was,
00;04;57;27 - 00;05;04;25
Chris Greco
and that was obviously six or so months after the pandemic really hit in March.
00;05;04;28 - 00;05;08;18
Craig Andrews
Which that really messed up our supply chains.
00;05;08;18 - 00;05;18;27
Craig Andrews
It was specific to grocery. I was I was like, you know, I joined the Marines in 85 where, you know, the evil empire was this this country where you had, you had to wait in line to get,
00;05;18;27 - 00;05;21;23
Craig Andrews
groceries, and the government could tell you what you could do and when you could do it.
00;05;21;23 - 00;05;27;27
Craig Andrews
And through jail, if you did the wrong thing at the wrong time, I'm like, Holy crap, we've just reinvented the Soviet Union here in America.
00;05;27;29 - 00;05;36;09
Chris Greco
Well, the supplied the the there's a lot of product that didn't make it didn't make it to the shelves. I mean, if you if you were in the stores during that time, you'd recall like,
00;05;36;09 - 00;05;39;22
Chris Greco
you know, some items that just weren't, you know, weren't there.
00;05;39;24 - 00;05;42;25
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Well, toilet paper was one.
00;05;42;28 - 00;05;45;24
Chris Greco
Yes. As overblown, but it's okay.
00;05;45;27 - 00;05;46;15
Craig Andrews
Yeah.
00;05;46;17 - 00;05;50;07
Chris Greco
It was never blown. Okay. That was that was that was a big headline.
00;05;50;10 - 00;05;53;03
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Well I remember we bought some,
00;05;53;03 - 00;06;05;12
Craig Andrews
we bought some Mexican toilet paper that didn't feel so good and smelled weird, you know, just had weird scent. I'm sure markets while in Mexico. But, you know, I live in Texas, and,
00;06;05;12 - 00;06;07;22
Craig Andrews
our big grocery store is H-e-b and,
00;06;07;22 - 00;06;12;16
Craig Andrews
which is a Texas based chain. And I think they're just like, hey, we we know how to find stuff.
00;06;12;16 - 00;06;18;00
Craig Andrews
And they reach down to Mexico and, you know, weird, rough toilet paper was better than no toilet paper.
00;06;18;04 - 00;06;21;06
Chris Greco
Yeah, yeah. HBS respectable grocer too.
00;06;21;08 - 00;06;22;24
Craig Andrews
Yeah. The,
00;06;22;24 - 00;06;25;11
Craig Andrews
you know, something else that happened,
00;06;25;11 - 00;06;34;19
Craig Andrews
recently, and my wife went to the store to get paper towels and this was, you know, about a few days after everything went,
00;06;34;19 - 00;06;39;00
Craig Andrews
haywire in western North Carolina because of the hurricane.
00;06;39;03 - 00;06;39;24
Chris Greco
Yeah.
00;06;39;26 - 00;06;58;01
Craig Andrews
And she couldn't get. No, no, it was actually, we were back to toilet paper. She was trying to get toilet paper, and she thought people were hoarding. I said, no, I bet you the supply chains got messed up because there's so little slack in the supply chains. And I looked it up and sure enough, the toilet paper we like was made in Augusta, Georgia, and.
00;06;58;06 - 00;07;04;24
Craig Andrews
Yeah, yeah. And which got hit by the hurricane and yeah, it, it just took it out of the stores for about a week or so.
00;07;04;26 - 00;07;08;19
Chris Greco
Yeah. Yeah. So how happens. So it happens.
00;07;08;21 - 00;07;20;03
Craig Andrews
So, so you're in this business where, I mean, it seems like the margin for error is about zero or as close to zero as it gets. And
00;07;20;03 - 00;07;24;04
Craig Andrews
and so you're equipping them with software to help them make better choices.
00;07;24;07 - 00;07;34;26
Chris Greco
Better pricing thinking thing about it, we're we're giving them clean data to allow them to price their items more efficiently and effectively. So so maybe, you know,
00;07;34;26 - 00;07;48;09
Chris Greco
so maybe the, the price on one item can be raised by a, by a nickel and a price on another item. It can be decreased by a dime. And the overall profitability of the store is higher as a result because you're understanding consumer demand.
00;07;48;09 - 00;07;48;21
Chris Greco
Yeah. It's
00;07;48;21 - 00;07;51;19
Chris Greco
yeah. There's not one industry that technology,
00;07;51;19 - 00;07;52;26
Chris Greco
has not disrupted.
00;07;52;26 - 00;07;54;02
Chris Greco
You know, so,
00;07;54;02 - 00;08;01;21
Chris Greco
and, you know, I was, I was, you know, blessed to really, you know, pick up a company in an important industry and, and made that industry better.
00;08;01;24 - 00;08;05;15
Craig Andrews
So what was going on with store wise when you showed up? Why why were they in trouble?
00;08;05;16 - 00;08;09;04
Chris Greco
Typical. I mean, you get a great idea. Great founder.
00;08;09;04 - 00;08;09;12
Chris Greco
I'm,
00;08;09;12 - 00;08;12;03
Chris Greco
you know, I'm a go to market operator,
00;08;12;03 - 00;08;14;21
Chris Greco
you know, sales and marketing and, and,
00;08;14;21 - 00;08;16;20
Chris Greco
usually when you have a, you know, a,
00;08;16;20 - 00;08;20;08
Chris Greco
technical founder, good product, you pair them up with,
00;08;20;08 - 00;08;23;28
Chris Greco
you know, a person and a. Yeah, you know, a team that understands how to scale,
00;08;23;28 - 00;08;25;19
Chris Greco
a company, it usually works.
00;08;25;20 - 00;08;30;29
Chris Greco
Works out well, but it's but it's it's it's common to see where somebody built, you know,
00;08;30;29 - 00;08;37;26
Chris Greco
The Accidental entrepreneur, where they build a product, it gets traction, they get, you know, store wise, had a, you know, a hundred,
00;08;37;26 - 00;08;40;10
Chris Greco
maybe 200 stores when I joined,
00;08;40;10 - 00;08;43;23
Chris Greco
when, when I exited, we had over 1300.
00;08;43;23 - 00;08;46;25
Chris Greco
So we scale that, we scale that, nicely, but,
00;08;46;25 - 00;08;51;10
Chris Greco
again, the accidental entrepreneur, where you start something with you, they start solve a problem.
00;08;51;10 - 00;09;01;16
Chris Greco
They're founders. And going from 0 to 1 of super hard. It is super hard. So, you know, when I came in, it's just a matter of, you know, partnering, you know, you know, with them and,
00;09;01;16 - 00;09;06;20
Chris Greco
and eventually we, you know, we hired, we changed out the, the leadership team and
00;09;06;20 - 00;09;10;19
Chris Greco
was able to recruit we rebranded the companies original name was,
00;09;10;19 - 00;09;11;10
Chris Greco
something else.
00;09;11;10 - 00;09;13;06
Chris Greco
We rebranded store wise.
00;09;13;06 - 00;09;17;05
Chris Greco
And we and we scaled and it was it was a great outcome.
00;09;17;08 - 00;09;22;11
Craig Andrews
You know, I think one of the, one of the fears that some,
00;09;22;11 - 00;09;30;04
Craig Andrews
founders or CEOs have is the fear of, hey, if I don't know all the answers, then nobody's going to respect me.
00;09;30;07 - 00;09;40;26
Chris Greco
You know, that was not the case at all. Yeah. All my lead, the the the leaders, the store wise would not have scaled if I didn't. When there are really four key leaders that that I worked with.
00;09;40;26 - 00;09;41;10
Chris Greco
And
00;09;41;10 - 00;09;44;05
Chris Greco
they're they were excellent. They are excellent. Excuse me.
00;09;44;05 - 00;09;44;18
Chris Greco
And,
00;09;44;18 - 00;09;54;09
Chris Greco
the opportunity for the CEO to not only, you know, set the vision, collaborate on the on the strategy, support them on the execution.
00;09;54;09 - 00;09;57;21
Chris Greco
That's that's their the mode, their most important role.
00;09;57;21 - 00;09;58;01
Chris Greco
And,
00;09;58;01 - 00;10;00;15
Chris Greco
and it's all it's all about the people.
00;10;00;17 - 00;10;10;23
Craig Andrews
You know, it's it's really interesting when we look at different companies. Didn't take Apple as an example. Everybody looks at Steve Jobs as the guy who saved Apple.
00;10;10;25 - 00;10;11;10
Chris Greco
Yeah.
00;10;11;13 - 00;10;34;25
Craig Andrews
And and I think there's a lot of merit that. Yeah. But there's some things are missed in that. When Steve Jobs came back to Apple in 1997, they were months away from bankruptcy. They had 4% market share. Steve Jobs had kind of a fatal flaw that beat them twice before. He loved Business Machines. So he launched the Lisa when he was at Apple originally, which was a failure.
00;10;35;00 - 00;10;36;12
Craig Andrews
Then he left and he started,
00;10;36;12 - 00;10;40;01
Craig Andrews
the next cube, which it got some traction but never hit the,
00;10;40;01 - 00;10;56;07
Craig Andrews
the goals that was supposed to hit. And when he came back to Apple, he wanted to do a third business machine. And somebody you never hear about is the CFO who had the balls to approach Steve Jobs and said, Steve, we can't sell enough business machines fast enough to turn around Apple.
00;10;56;07 - 00;10;58;10
Craig Andrews
It has to be a consumer machine.
00;10;58;13 - 00;10;59;03
Chris Greco
Yeah.
00;10;59;05 - 00;11;03;07
Craig Andrews
And the CFO had just seen the whole board of directors fired.
00;11;03;10 - 00;11;04;22
Chris Greco
Yeah, yeah.
00;11;04;25 - 00;11;18;16
Craig Andrews
But he had the guts to say, Steve, you're you're going in the wrong direction. But even Steve Jobs valued people that you never hear about. And if it hadn't been for that CFO, Steve would built a machine that would have never turned around. Apple.
00;11;18;18 - 00;11;29;05
Chris Greco
Yep. Is that well, you have to. So that's called healthy conflict. So there's a gentleman by the name of Patrick Lynch, Gionee. He wrote that he's of the Taylor Group. He wrote Five Dysfunctions of a team,
00;11;29;05 - 00;11;30;07
Chris Greco
death by meeting,
00;11;30;07 - 00;11;42;26
Chris Greco
the advantage and in the advantage, he speaks about the healthy conflict that that any organization family, in this case a leadership team needs to have where you straddle that fine line,
00;11;42;26 - 00;11;44;03
Chris Greco
you know, on the on the,
00;11;44;03 - 00;11;50;03
Chris Greco
on the, the, the spectrum, that allows everybody to really say, what's that?
00;11;50;03 - 00;12;06;08
Chris Greco
What's on their mind without offending the person you're attacking the issue, you know, and not the person. And that's how you make sure that nothing is uncovered, not nothing is left uncovered. And if you really think about the, the the trend we have,
00;12;06;08 - 00;12;15;16
Chris Greco
as a society, it was this article was just in the Wall Street Journal about, you know, why is as a society, we become so passive aggressive.
00;12;15;19 - 00;12;30;18
Chris Greco
And I, I've seen it. But the ability to go ahead and service issues have honest, you know, honest, you know, conversation really, really matters. And I think that lunch really does a good job of describing that. And, you know, in his book, it's the the advantage.
00;12;30;20 - 00;12;41;02
Craig Andrews
How many leaders do you think believe they have an open door policy or whatever you want to call it, the ability for people to confront them versus their, their employees? Perspective?
00;12;41;07 - 00;12;43;20
Chris Greco
I mean, I don't know, I mean, that's I mean, anecdotally,
00;12;43;20 - 00;12;57;15
Chris Greco
I mean, I can tell you that I was a bit blind to how open door, you know, my how much of an open door policy I had. I got feedback from my VP of operations who would come and say, hey, your door's not as open as you would as you'd like.
00;12;57;18 - 00;12;59;07
Chris Greco
Like I'm like, okay,
00;12;59;07 - 00;13;06;16
Chris Greco
even though people would knock and walk in and I thought it was and she and she gave me that feedback. The thought was, was, you know, helpful,
00;13;06;16 - 00;13;14;10
Chris Greco
and healthy. But the fact that she was able to come in and tell me that just directly, it's like, hey, do you have a minute?
00;13;14;13 - 00;13;28;10
Chris Greco
And she comes in and says, here, I just want to let you know, do you realize this is going on? And that, oh, that helped me stay connected with, you know, the, you know, feedback like that would help me stay connected with, you know, with the teams.
00;13;28;13 - 00;13;31;23
Craig Andrews
You know, when I was working in the semiconductor industry, we,
00;13;31;23 - 00;13;36;18
Craig Andrews
a product I have was just dominating the space.
00;13;36;18 - 00;13;44;22
Craig Andrews
But, you know, we caught our competition. Flatfooted. I knew there was just a matter of time before they responded. And I noticed some of our team,
00;13;44;22 - 00;13;51;11
Craig Andrews
our engineering team had just gotten a little comfortable, actually, the the engineering manager said, Craig, people love our product.
00;13;51;11 - 00;13;56;28
Craig Andrews
They're always going to love our product. You're too worried. Yeah. After that, I went to my general manager's office and I said,
00;13;56;28 - 00;14;12;17
Craig Andrews
I said, I think our competitors, I think our competitor, I named it by name. I think they're hungrier than we are. My GM got upset and threw me out of his office, and I was like, whoa, okay, won't do that again.
00;14;12;24 - 00;14;13;27
Craig Andrews
Well, within.
00;14;13;29 - 00;14;15;19
Chris Greco
That was the wrong reaction.
00;14;15;19 - 00;14;15;27
Chris Greco
Well.
00;14;15;27 - 00;14;20;17
Craig Andrews
And and wound up happening was with a nine months, we deployed one of our most,
00;14;20;17 - 00;14;38;12
Craig Andrews
valuable resources to Korea to hang on to the Samsung business. Not for a strategic role, which this guy should be filling strategic positions. It was a tactical role of just brute force trying to hang on to business because we were in that bad of a shape because we fell asleep while our competitor wasn't.
00;14;38;14 - 00;14;41;01
Chris Greco
Yeah, yeah, well, I the,
00;14;41;01 - 00;14;45;21
Chris Greco
I think that feedback is healthy, but obviously your GM that it didn't think so. So I think there could be
00;14;45;21 - 00;14;47;19
Chris Greco
an opportunity for learning there.
00;14;47;22 - 00;15;00;07
Craig Andrews
So what would you recommend to other leaders that I would imagine most leaders you talk to, you say, of course I have an open door policy. How would you recommend that they identify if they have a blind spot there? What to do about it?
00;15;00;09 - 00;15;10;02
Chris Greco
I mean, I think so. I would ask, though, I think you got a question like how much, how much they read like and what? And I would ask them what, what, what evidence or,
00;15;10;02 - 00;15;10;15
Chris Greco
what
00;15;10;15 - 00;15;30;04
Chris Greco
actions or feedback have you received that would support, you know, the, the idea of your, of your premise that your door is open and I think just going and and and having them do that kind of, you know, self-reflection I think matters because I think it'll drive them to, to ask, hey, do I have an open door policy?
00;15;30;04 - 00;15;35;23
Chris Greco
Where can I you know, you know, where can I improve? And the on the other side and the other side of it is that,
00;15;35;23 - 00;15;38;01
Chris Greco
they may have a legitimate, you know,
00;15;38;01 - 00;15;41;08
Chris Greco
open door, you know, a two way,
00;15;41;08 - 00;15;44;05
Chris Greco
they're they drive conversations, right. But,
00;15;44;05 - 00;15;47;04
Chris Greco
the job of a of a leader or CEO is, is,
00;15;47;04 - 00;15;48;28
Chris Greco
it's a lonely job.
00;15;49;00 - 00;16;00;06
Chris Greco
And sometimes the person who would say, hey, you don't have an or, you know, an open door policy. There could be it might not be deliberate. So some benefit of the doubt also has to be given.
00;16;00;06 - 00;16;11;15
Chris Greco
You could have a very highly active board that's pulling the CEO, you know, you know, you know, up in, in all the time, you know, you know, be taking them away from, you know, running, you know, you know, running the business.
00;16;11;15 - 00;16;15;25
Chris Greco
That could be possible. But there could be, you know, other stuff going on, you know, at home,
00;16;15;25 - 00;16;16;01
Chris Greco
that,
00;16;16;01 - 00;16;36;13
Chris Greco
you know, that, that, that makes them less accessible. So the idea of like, you know, when I go back to the when we spoke earlier about the low engagement, why the majority of the working world isn't motivated about Mondays, if if people gave each other, you know, more benefit of the doubt on why something is happening or why something is what it is.
00;16;36;16 - 00;16;48;02
Chris Greco
I think that those that engagement might improve because there be an understanding versus like, well, why are they paying attention to me? Why can't I go and talk to them, you know, and all the other reasons?
00;16;48;04 - 00;17;06;13
Craig Andrews
Yeah, yeah. Well, if I think back, if I think back about that GM, the greatest compliment he could ever pay you was to ignore you. If he if you weren't, if you weren't getting any face time with him, that meant your stuff was working.
00;17;06;15 - 00;17;08;20
Chris Greco
Yeah. That's fair.
00;17;08;22 - 00;17;10;00
Craig Andrews
But.
00;17;10;02 - 00;17;13;29
Chris Greco
But there's but there's always we could always we can always improve.
00;17;14;01 - 00;17;14;22
Craig Andrews
Yeah.
00;17;14;25 - 00;17;15;20
Chris Greco
Right.
00;17;15;23 - 00;17;17;08
Craig Andrews
But said benefit the.
00;17;17;10 - 00;17;23;28
Chris Greco
The what separates. What separates. You know great companies from the elite is, is
00;17;23;28 - 00;17;34;09
Chris Greco
each individual really getting as close to their full potential as possible, which means exceeding where they, you know, exceeding their, their quote unquote targets. Yeah.
00;17;34;09 - 00;17;40;04
Chris Greco
I don't want to, to just own to a sales company, you know, most sales position, but everybody has objectives and goals like so.
00;17;40;05 - 00;17;50;08
Chris Greco
So what more can I do, right. If I hit my goal? What can I do to help the person next to me? As an example, right when is a failings was one of our core values at a store wise?
00;17;50;08 - 00;17;51;18
Chris Greco
So.
00;17;51;20 - 00;17;57;22
Craig Andrews
Yeah. And so where I was tying that in was your comment about benefit of the doubt, you know, so our, our,
00;17;57;22 - 00;18;12;25
Craig Andrews
when we make assumptions, we usually amplifier insecurities. And so like in that case I'm like, well, gee, my Jim's ignoring me. He must not think I'm very, you know, valuable member of the team. Yeah, but giving the benefit of the doubt and like, oh, no, actually, it's the other thing.
00;18;12;25 - 00;18;18;12
Craig Andrews
If I'm looking at the people he's paying attention to and their. Their stuff is a mess. Yeah.
00;18;18;14 - 00;18;24;11
Chris Greco
When you say ignoring like, you're making the assumption this is like an in office environment, right? Where people are physically together.
00;18;24;14 - 00;18;25;28
Craig Andrews
Yes.
00;18;26;01 - 00;18;45;19
Chris Greco
Yes. Totally different. Right. Like, I mean, I mean part of the engage part of those in kilo engagements cause I think is because a is more people are virtual, right? They're more remote. And so you have I mean, I mean, it's hard. It's I mean, open door open video, however you want to call it. But I mean, I mean, if you don't have the those sidebar,
00;18;45;19 - 00;18;52;21
Chris Greco
you know, I hate to use the data term watercooler conversations, but they matter because they that's what that's the break.
00;18;52;21 - 00;19;08;15
Chris Greco
The break is in relationships. So I would say that with your your GM, the maybe there's an opportunity to for a relate for a, you know, a close relationship there. So there wouldn't be any like guessing on in my performance underperforming right.
00;19;08;17 - 00;19;12;17
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Yeah indeed I
00;19;12;17 - 00;19;19;07
Craig Andrews
you've talked a lot about resilience not here on this, but I want to make sure we cover that because I know that's a hot topic for you.
00;19;19;09 - 00;19;19;18
Chris Greco
Yeah.
00;19;19;26 - 00;19;27;29
Craig Andrews
What what are you saying. Why is resilience the topic today. And was it what attention does it need.
00;19;28;01 - 00;19;28;07
Chris Greco
Or
00;19;28;07 - 00;19;43;18
Chris Greco
we spoke earlier comfort and greatness cannot coexist right. Comfort and greatness cannot coexist. And I think that when we talk about trying to get to the top of the mountain, every everybody wants to celebrate being in the top. They don't. They don't want to celebrate the root getting up there.
00;19;43;18 - 00;19;52;02
Chris Greco
And I think that when you look at when you, the way you build resilience is through overcoming hard stuff that, that that motto.
00;19;52;05 - 00;19;52;24
Chris Greco
So my,
00;19;52;24 - 00;19;55;13
Chris Greco
my, my, you know opinion
00;19;55;13 - 00;19;56;06
Chris Greco
the motto
00;19;56;06 - 00;20;24;01
Chris Greco
life is good is an incomplete sentence. If you really want to be truthful about life, the sentence should go something like life is good and it's hard. Life is good and it's hard because it shows. It really, really identifies and shows what life is all about. That, that in order to go ahead and do things that are meaningful, do things that yeah, where we find purpose, where we get good fulfillment, they're going to be hard.
00;20;24;04 - 00;20;41;12
Chris Greco
And if you really look at the you look at the hard, you go, you go almost break it down into three sizes. There's the everyday struggle there. You know, that could be like a long work commute. Maybe you're maybe your pet didn't give you the proper goodbyes. You left for the office or into your home office for a zoom call.
00;20;41;15 - 00;20;59;13
Chris Greco
There's a temporary setback. Maybe you know your friend, your bit, your best friend resigned and moved on to somewhere else. Maybe you had an argument with your spouse or, you know, boyfriend or girlfriend that is kind of ongoing. And then there's a permanent life of changing, of that which, you know, in my case, I lost my father when I was 15 years old.
00;20;59;15 - 00;21;05;18
Chris Greco
And I, you know, I washed my childhood priest, give him his last rites. I was there, you know, in the room.
00;21;05;18 - 00;21;21;06
Chris Greco
I don't know if was an accident. I believe my father waited for me, but my my brother wasn't home. My sister was four years old, so she was too young to remember. But you look at those events, and you, you can say, you know, why me?
00;21;21;08 - 00;21;33;02
Chris Greco
Or you can say, why not me? Why not me? Is there, there there's a there's this is this is this is the plan. So how do I how do I get past this? How do I learn from it? And and
00;21;33;02 - 00;21;47;26
Chris Greco
how do I use that to prepare me for the next thing? Because honestly, there's, there's the we all fall into, you know, 1 or 2 types of people, those that have experienced adversity and those that will most of us fall in both.
00;21;48;00 - 00;22;03;27
Chris Greco
But there are people who say who will say that they they have it. And overcoming adversity, you know, getting past the hard do the good is what we are meant to do because suffering is part of the human experience. I mean, a you should everyone on that your your guest should
00;22;03;27 - 00;22;12;13
Chris Greco
go on YouTube and listen to Jensen Wang, the CEO of Nvidia, when he's speaking of the Stanford students.
00;22;12;15 - 00;22;41;20
Chris Greco
And he was asked, what's the big piece of advice? And he says, look, you life is tough. There's going to be suffering. There's going to be pain. Your success. And Nvidia will want an Nvidia or people who can get past it. Both, both their personal pain and professional. That's that's a very powerful, powerful story, you know, from somebody who really was an immigrant, came here from nothing, risked, you know, risked a lot coming out of Stanford business School and now scaled arguably the most valuable company in the world.
00;22;41;23 - 00;22;50;19
Craig Andrews
Right? Yeah. So if we think about the structure of an organization,
00;22;50;19 - 00;23;03;18
Craig Andrews
where it would be my assumption that the most resilient are often the leaders and where there's a lack of resiliency is probably in the lower levels, is that would you say that's an accurate assumption or. No, no.
00;23;03;22 - 00;23;06;22
Chris Greco
I, I don't know I don't know if the if blanket statement
00;23;06;22 - 00;23;10;26
Chris Greco
I don't know if that that's, that's accurate. My experience Craig has been
00;23;10;26 - 00;23;17;13
Chris Greco
I think leaders need to create the environment where people can thrive, right? Where they, where they can where they can have an open
00;23;17;13 - 00;23;24;10
Chris Greco
discussion on, on on something that might be, you know, in their in their way that the leader can help, you know, remove.
00;23;24;12 - 00;23;37;20
Chris Greco
But I, you know, I would say like the biggest thing is what the leader can do is, is they got they got they got to be encouraging early and often. That's a big help. That helps more than we know. The lack of the lack of an encouraging word,
00;23;37;20 - 00;23;41;17
Chris Greco
the lack of encouraging words is just too commonplace in our society.
00;23;41;19 - 00;23;57;20
Chris Greco
I mean, the, the, you know, the the people. If you were to ask people, just go out and survey ten people on the street and says, when was the last time someone says, hey, I got your back? You know, I doubt, I doubt it's more than 3 or 4 out of ten. That's a problem.
00;23;57;23 - 00;24;02;01
Craig Andrews
And so a heck of a lot cheaper than a counter offer when the employee's about to leave to a competitor.
00;24;02;07 - 00;24;24;25
Chris Greco
Yeah, yeah. And it it comes at it, it comes in all forms. I mean, you know, I mean I remember I look back at some of the most like the most rewarding times in my life was when someone gave me like that, that that word or their sentence, you know, of, of encouragement, whether it's my encouragement, whether it's my mother saying, hey, you know, Chris, you were you can do anything and everything, right?
00;24;24;28 - 00;24;41;25
Chris Greco
You can do anything and everything. I remember, when I was a swimmer on the, I was, I was, I was the slowest of four on our college swim team. And the anchor man, I was. Oh, so you're either you're the slowest, either second or third, depending on the strategy, the relay. And I remember he had the anchor.
00;24;42;02 - 00;24;59;25
Chris Greco
The anchor already. He'd always I'd be up on the on a swing block and we would we would never I can't I never recall the time where we let a race. And all he said is, is Chris all I need you to do is just time, and you can time. Just catch him, meet him on the wall and I'll take care of the rest.
00;24;59;28 - 00;25;16;27
Chris Greco
That type of like, encourage. You're sitting there, get ready to take off like, okay, all I got to do is just catch this guy. And I just think that the those the that, that motivation, you know, you know, you know matters. You know you got this. You can do this. Hey great job staying late Thursday. You know, night.
00;25;16;29 - 00;25;38;06
Chris Greco
We crush that proposal, we save that customer. I'm glad you're here. I bet on you every day of the week and twice on Sunday. I mean, that's a lot, right? That's a lot to say. And I think that it goes back to it's uncomfortable for people to say that it's uncomfortable to go beyond the word, the two words, great job.
00;25;38;09 - 00;25;39;18
Chris Greco
Uncomfortable.
00;25;39;20 - 00;25;40;22
Craig Andrews
Yeah.
00;25;40;24 - 00;25;44;27
Chris Greco
You uncomfortable? Do you want greatness as a leader?
00;25;44;29 - 00;25;47;16
Craig Andrews
I love that. I love that it's,
00;25;47;16 - 00;25;55;04
Craig Andrews
you own comfort or you want greatness. And there's there's a cost to greatness.
00;25;55;07 - 00;26;22;05
Chris Greco
Yeah. I mean, it can have your comfort. I mean, what this what type of life? What type of life can you possibly lead? Can you possibly lead being comfortable all the time or most of the time? It's a balance. If you're if you're trying to pursue something right, you're trying to pursue something. There's going to be there's going to there's going to be, you know, headwinds.
00;26;22;08 - 00;26;26;06
Chris Greco
Yeah, I, I recall the time when my wife and I, we bought,
00;26;26;06 - 00;26;40;27
Chris Greco
for our one year anniversary gift. You know, I, I was you're probably you're honest why I tell but I was I was very effective in, in sales. I, you know, ran sales teams. And so our one year anniversary gift which made her a keeper is that we bought each other our boat.
00;26;40;29 - 00;26;48;07
Chris Greco
We lived, you know, lived in Miami Beach and and the dealership where we bought the boat, they were they were,
00;26;48;07 - 00;27;00;28
Chris Greco
doing a tour. And this is in Miami from going from Miami to the Bahamas. And so we show up. We show up, you know, where there's 30 boats going across where the smallest. Right. We're like 26, 28ft boat.
00;27;01;01 - 00;27;23;05
Chris Greco
All the boats are like 30ft all the way to like 60. And the weather was okay. But we're sitting there and in our Hawaiian shirts right in getting ready to go. And we're, we're coming out and the waves are getting worse and worse. And all of a sudden I, you know, boom. I take water over the bow toy, douses us boom!
00;27;23;05 - 00;27;38;18
Chris Greco
Again, I take water over the bow. And we're now, we're now we're a couple miles off shore. And I'm debating if I should turn around now. And then I see other boats turning around and. And my wife's like, and my wife's like, are we going to be okay? Is the water staying or draining our she. And now right.
00;27;38;20 - 00;27;59;24
Chris Greco
We're relatively, you know, new relatively you know, new to boating. And we're trying to get to Bahamas and eventually eventually, you know, it's raining so bad you can't really see more than, you know, maybe 100ft all the way around you. And then we're listening to the radio and, and it's, you know, a 1.5 hour, journey took out what was taking almost now, three hours.
00;27;59;24 - 00;28;21;10
Chris Greco
I'm getting low on fuel. And then all of a sudden I hear this boat C express, it says C express, they call it. They call out. Our boat was called Ambitious Desire. And this is I was about C express. We're you know, we're the 45ft bridge or 45ft boat flybridge big boat. We're gonna stay behind it the rest of the way because we had everyone left us there.
00;28;21;12 - 00;28;24;24
Chris Greco
They, you know, we had to keep going back. And,
00;28;24;24 - 00;28;27;07
Chris Greco
I recall and I recall that story because,
00;28;27;07 - 00;28;42;15
Chris Greco
the owners of that boat are now my son's godparents, and we're still friends, you know, 25 years later. But, you know, they. And for them to slow down, it was uncomfortable with them. It was so rough. They could have kept going.
00;28;42;15 - 00;28;52;14
Chris Greco
Didn't even know us total strangers getting our back. And I just recall that story because I think it's important that for that, we need to have more of that.
00;28;52;14 - 00;29;06;06
Chris Greco
In business, if we're if we're going to change the way, you know, our people come show up Monday mornings, they have to know that at the end of the day, this company, my leader,
00;29;06;06 - 00;29;07;28
Chris Greco
has my back.
00;29;08;00 - 00;29;25;02
Craig Andrews
Wow. I don't think we could end on a more powerful note than that. That is just such a powerful visual, powerful story. And I think you're right. When when our employees know we have their back, they do absolutely heroic things, you know? And,
00;29;25;02 - 00;29;28;03
Craig Andrews
so, Chris, now you have,
00;29;28;03 - 00;29;29;04
Craig Andrews
Operator Up that's,
00;29;29;04 - 00;29;32;06
Craig Andrews
advisory firm. And what does it do?
00;29;32;06 - 00;29;33;16
Craig Andrews
And how did people contact you?
00;29;33;22 - 00;29;36;08
Chris Greco
Yeah. So we focus on really we focus on three things,
00;29;36;08 - 00;29;45;23
Chris Greco
culture, culture building, leadership development and go to market efficiency. I put together a pretty, pretty good team. It's a network that I've had for the past,
00;29;45;23 - 00;29;47;13
Chris Greco
more than a decade now.
00;29;47;13 - 00;30;00;22
Chris Greco
We've all been, you know, very successful. And so we're consulting and advising companies that need help and those, those three areas, in addition, I'm doing, you know, kind of speaking and, and starting to put the framework on my together for my next book.
00;30;00;24 - 00;30;13;13
Chris Greco
So they can go they can go to operatorup.com, operatorup.com, and there's a contact list. You can contact me at Chris. And operator, operatorup.com. And, you know, I'll be happy to go ahead and, you know, respond
00;30;13;13 - 00;30;14;16
Chris Greco
pretty quickly to,
00;30;14;16 - 00;30;16;21
Chris Greco
whatever you like to discuss.
00;30;16;24 - 00;30;20;11
Craig Andrews
Well, that's excellent. Thanks for sharing this on the leaders and legacies.
00;30;20;13 - 00;30;23;20
Chris Greco
Thank you Craig. It's been great. Appreciate it.
00;30;23;20 - 00;30;50;14
Craig Andrews
This is Craig Andrews. I want to thank you for listening to the Leaders and Legacies podcast. We're looking for leaders to share how they're making the impact beyond themselves. If that's you, please go to Alize for me.com/guest and sign up there. If you got something out of this interview, we would love you to share this
00;30;50;14 - 00;30;52;09
Craig Andrews
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00;30;52;11 - 00;31;15;23
Craig Andrews
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00;31;15;25 - 00;31;24;00
Craig Andrews
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00;31;24;00 - 00;33;26;05
Craig Andrews
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