Customer Service Excellence: The Power of Individualized Management with Shannon Hayden

Chris Fredericks: Welcome to Empowered Owners, the podcast that takes you inside empowered Ventures. I’m your host, Chris Fredericks. In each episode, I’ll have a discussion with one of our employees to discover and highlight their distinct personalities, perspectives, and skills while also keeping you in the loop with exclusive news, updates on company performance, and a glimpse into the future plans of Empowered Ventures. This is an opportunity for me to learn more about our amazing employee owners and an opportunity for you to hear regularly from me and others from within Empowered Ventures. On this episode of Empowered Owners, I’m talking with Shannon Hayden, Customer Support Manager at TVF. Shannon joined TVF in 2021 and has 19 years of experience in customer service and management. Shannon has a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in management from Indiana Wesleyan University, and she grew up in the Indianapolis area. I’ll also be joined by Empowered Ventures, Vice President of Portfolio Operations, Mike Algrim at the end of the episode to debrief my discussion with Shannon, and also shed some light on stewarding excellence, which is one of EV’s, four strategy pillars, what we mean about stewarding excellence and what it means to us. With that, let’s get to my conversation with Shannon. Hi Shannon. Welcome to Empowered Owners.

Shannon Hayden: Hello. Hello, how are you?

Chris Fredericks: Doing well. How are you doing?

Shannon Hayden: I’m good. I’m great.

Chris Fredericks: Good. Good. I thought just to start off, we might start with your time or like why you ended up joining TVF. If I understand correctly, you joined TVF, couple years ago, roughly. What led to you joining TVF?

Shannon Hayden: Yeah, it’ll be two years in August. So a couple years ago, I was at a point where I wasn’t quite sure of my next move. I left my previous employer and I thought about, what do I want to do? And I wasn’t sure, so I took some time off. I spent some time with my daughter, with my now husband and just did some, just some things to just focus on me for a little bit. and then I found TVF on LinkedIn and inquired about it, spoke with Diana, spoke with Jeff Swedberg. and the more I talked with them about TVF, about the opportunity, the more it solidified my desire to go ahead and. Start something new. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to get back into the corporate world. I liked doing my thing with my husband, with his business, and I really liked focusing on my daughter while she was out of school. but the more I learned about TVF I, I couldn’t pass it up. I just couldn’t. So I decided to go ahead and join, and I’m still here almost two years later.

Chris Fredericks: That’s fantastic. So that’s so interesting that you left a prior role and kind of decided to take a bit of a break and sounds like maybe support your husband with his business a little bit, with only sharing what you feel comfortable. But I’m curious what led to that, that need to take a break, and focus on yourself for a while.

Shannon Hayden: Yeah. Yeah. So I’ve been in management support type roles for almost 20 years, and I’ve been leading teams, I’ve been in support roles, whether it was a call center, or something similar and. I really questioned, do I wanna lead people anymore? Do I want to do something where I’m an individual contributor? I wasn’t quite sure. But again, once I talked with Jeff, once I talked with Diana and really understood the dynamics of the role here at TVF, what was needed, learned a lot about the culture. It was something new and it was a new environment, whereas it wasn’t one of the big corporations that I was, so familiar with. it was a smaller organization and it was something that I had never been a part of. So I wanted to take a step back and try something different. Even though it was the same, it was also different. So that’s really what led me to say, you know what? Let’s go ahead and try it. Let’s go ahead and see what this is all about. And so far it’s been amazing. It’s been a great experience. I’m learning something new every single day. and that’s important for me because again, I’ve been doing some support leadership type roles for almost 20 years. And even though I’ve been doing that and I’m very familiar, it’s still something new. It’s still something different that I’m doing here at TVF. So that’s what drove me to come on board.

Chris Fredericks: Awesome. Yeah, that’s so interesting cuz the feedback, and I, I think you, maybe you’ve heard, but the feedback is that you’re a terrific manager. People really enjoy working for you. a lot of compliments came through and the prep for this episode, just positive and funny and supportive and all kinds of things. Clearly your experience as a manager, I think. Is positive and strong and good, but you, maybe you were experiencing some manager burnout or something, or a big company environment, didn’t end up, but, so you’re a little gun shy about management. But now, here at TVF, it sounds like it’s working.

Shannon Hayden: It is. And I have to say the team that I currently manage here at TVF is so different from the teams I’ve managed before. and it’s so refreshing, this team, and not just the CSS team, but just overall within TVF. They are really passionate about what they do and how they do it. I’ve been in call center roles and many folks know what a call center is about. It’s very rigid, very, focused on number of calls, how long you’re on a call, and a lot of metrics, that level of stress and that level of metric driven. just not here. It’s not here at TVF. And that’s what makes some of the biggest differences for me, is being in an environment where it’s not solely controlled by metrics and it’s not a lot of micromanaging to where I have to literally look to see, how long someone has been on a call, how long they’ve been an after call. all of those different things that come along with a call center or with a support role. This team, like I said, they’re so passionate about what they do, how they do it, both within our, with our external customers, our internal customers. I couldn’t ask for a better group of folks to work with because everyone wants everyone to succeed. So knowing that and seeing that is so refreshing for me.

Chris Fredericks: That’s fantastic that, I think that’s a good segue for a topic I was definitely wanting to get into, which is you’ve spent most 18 years, 20 years in customer service. Specifically I think management and customer service. and a lot of companies, most companies say, we have great customer service, and a lot do. but I’m curious from your experience, like what do you think is truly great customer service? Is or looks like, or like what are the secrets to actually providing the kind of service that a customer would say is great?

Shannon Hayden: I would say, for the longest time, all the years that I’ve been in management and leading in a support type role, customer service type role, the level of customer service that. Anyone’s gonna get. It all depends on the people who are providing the customer service. So really focusing on the individual who are supporting our customers, or in TVF’s case, supporting our sales team. I am really focused on the individual in how do they want to be looked at as a customer support rep or how, what are some of the things that I can help them do and individualize my management to that individual so that they can feel confident and so that they can feel that they can provide the highest level of customer support to our customers.

So taking the time to really focus on the individual, whether it’s building their skills, whether it’s talking through issues, whatever it may be. really spending the time to get those individuals to a place where, again, They’re confident, they’re comfortable. They’re, they don’t have any problems with asking questions or any things like that. But really focusing on that individual and making sure that they’re comfortable and making sure that they’re in a happy place so that they can then turn around and provide that happiness and that customer, that excellent customer service to a customer.

Chris Fredericks: I love that. sounds like you take a very people-oriented approach. Like each individual person, you customize your approach so that you ensure they’re able to provide the best version of themself to the job.

Shannon Hayden: absolutely. Cuz everyone’s different. Everyone is different. Everyone looks at certain things differently. Some people are, Very driven, and they like, outward praise and they want, they want you to tell ’em how good they’re doing. Some people they want to be on the back, on the back end and don’t want all that attention and things like that. it’s important for me to learn about each individual employee to understand, what their skills are, what their areas of opportunity are, and to work with them individually and then, Coming together as a team and really talking about some of those things and how we can do, do better as a team to provide that, that highest level of customer service too.

Chris Fredericks: Yeah. How have you found it to manage in a remote environment? Was this your first time or, and how are you going about, being successful managing in a remote environment?

Shannon Hayden: Yeah. no, this is not my first time. So my last role I did, manage remote individuals as well. it all comes down to just proactive communication, proactively reaching out to individuals, whether it’s. Through teams, face-to-face, whether it’s a quick chat, whether it’s a quick phone call, whatever those measures are just me proactively initiating that is key. a lot of times your support team, they’re busy. they’re busy with their customers. Again, with TVF, they’re busy with their sales consultants. So I have to take that opportunity to proactively reach out and initiate conversation. And it doesn’t have to be anything work related. It can just be how was your weekend? What are some of the things that you’re doing this week or what’s going on this week? But really, actually proactively initiating what those conversations are,to help them begin to communicate as well. I think that’s definitely the key.

Chris Fredericks: Like just consistent reaching out and communication through whatever platforms you have available to you and checking in with them as people, not just on the work stuff.  Yeah. Yeah. That’s great. So when you joined TVF, I would say TVF was in a journey of creating a customer service or customer support team. it wasn’t always part of TVF’s like, History really, to have a really defined and clear customer support team more broadly to build a new function or do new department. That’s what you were tasked with. how do, how does a new manager, not, you’re not a new manager, but how does a person in a new situation managing the building of a new function in a company, like how do you go about doing something like that?

Shannon Hayden: Yeah, I have to say, Chris, it was, and I’m not gonna say was cuz it is. it’s definitely new, although I have been in a leadership role for so long, I haven’t been in a leadership role here at TVF. So coming in, bringing a group of customer support specialists together, who all support different sales consultants who have different ways of doing certain tasks. it’s. Again, it’s a learning thing. It’s a learning opportunity because I’m very cautious and very cognizant of how things have been done and really trying to understand the whys behind things. So again, it’s something that I’m continuing to work on even almost two years later, just learning. What we do, how we do it, not just from the customer support side of things, but from the sales side of things, from the purchasing, the marketing, all different areas of what we do and how we do it. but again, the biggest thing is communication for me. talking to different individuals, understanding and asking the whys. And sometimes I ask questions multiple times because I may have gotten different responses or different answers, or maybe I just forgot, but. Having the opportunity to ask those questions and to really understand what’s happening and what’s going on has definitely been key to bringing this team together.

Chris Fredericks: Yeah. Yeah, cuz what I understand, and as you’ve done it, you’ve done an amazing job of doing that with your team and also with the rest of the managers and leaders in both directions. You’ve just been very. Relationship oriented and, patient and yet, persistent is how, I guess for, from what I’ve heard,to make sure it’s, the progress is being made that everybody wants it to be made. So does that resonate with kind of the approach you generally take?

Shannon Hayden: Yeah. And especially with change management, I am one who was very careful to make sure that I understand all components before any changes are implemented or discussed or things like that. So I’m very. Interested in what is sales take on this change? What about marketing? What about purchasing? How does it affect them? I’m one that’s not looking solely on my team and how we’ll benefit or what will, how we’ll adjust and things like that. I’m looking at all individuals and what does that look like and how can we make it better for everyone?

Chris Fredericks: That’s amazing. That’s great. Have you ever been in an employee owned company before?

Shannon Hayden: No, this is my first one.

Chris Fredericks: What are your thoughts so far?

Shannon Hayden: You know, I say I don’t know yet. Um, I don’t know yet. I’m still trying to understand all of it because it is so new and there’s a lot of different aspects to it that I’m just not familiar with, so I’m still learning a lot about it. but what I can see now and just the behaviors of everyone in an employee-owned company, again, it’s that passion. It’s that passion that everyone has, that everyone. Everyone wants us to do well. sometimes you don’t get that in other corporations or those larger corporations, you really don’t get that. Some folks, they’re just there for the job and let me do my thing and let me go home. Whereas here, everyone is literally willing to just step in and do what they can to help, even if it’s something outside of their, you know, main, duties or the certain tasks that they’re tasked with. Everyone is willing to step in and help. So being able to do that. And an employee-owned company is something new to me, and it’s something that I’m like, okay, I see. I see you. I see what we’re doing here.

Chris Fredericks: cool. Very cool. Yeah, cuz I think with your, the timing of when you joined, you’ll probably be receiving your first ESOP statement here in a few, a couple months is if I’m doing my calculations correctly. So you’re about to enter the world of, you’re about to be a true, true employee owner here shortly.

Shannon Hayden: No, it’s good though. So far, I’m, uh, from what I’m seeing and what I’m experiencing.

Chris Fredericks: Yeah.

Shannon Hayden: All good.

Chris Fredericks: Awesome. What about, mentors or like growing up, did you have anyone, family or colleagues, coworkers,like, who comes to mind for you that really has played a big role shaping you?

Shannon Hayden: I can honestly say for me it’s been my grandmother, you know, my grandmother had so much wisdom and she was a very no-nonsense individual too. She will give it to you straight, whether you like it or not. She will, you know, not sugar sugarcoat anything. but she always spoke the truth in. I knew that everything that she spoke about was to benefit me and to really benefit me as a person and how I approach certain things and how I deal with certain things. So,I have to say my grandmother, hands down has definitely been that person for me, who has really molded me and really, really helped me into the person that I am today Both personally and professionally. So if anyone were to ask me that question at any point in time, it will always be the same. My grandmother,

Chris Fredericks: That’s great. That’s awesome. And I understand you have a daughter too, do you take that same no nonsense approach with your daughter?

Shannon Hayden: Sometimes she gets me, sometimes, you know, I,fall into her trap. But, uh, it’s fun. She’s, she’s my only one. And, it’s hard, you know, I grew up with three other siblings and to have just the one, you know, it’s a different experience. And so I’m learning that. Sometimes even though she’s that teenager, she’s 13, so she’s into all the teenage things right now. And I have to really catch myself to not give her everything. I’m like, yeah, just because I can, doesn’t mean I should, you know, I really have to reel her in and I really have to, you know, try to get her to understand the needs and the wants. Sometimes you’re not gonna get everything you want. and that was one thing my grandmother had to instill with me too. So,she’s definitely, you know, a big part of my day-to-day and, and everything that I got going on too. Absolutely.

Chris Fredericks: Yeah, What about kind of the covid years?

Shannon Hayden: It was tough at the time. She was in fourth grade. Fourth grade, I believe, and I swear, I thought, okay, what are they teaching you in school? Because every time I’m working on something with you, it’s like, I don’t know,I’m, I’m not sure how to do this. I’m like, come on. I don’t know this stuff. I grew up in the eighties. I don’t know all this, this new math and these new ways of doing certain things. So it was, it was hard.

Chris Fredericks: Yeah, that’s, that makes sense. Was there anything else you, we’re excited to talk about, like work-wise or just, I have of a closing question for you too, but before I get to that, like I don’t, is there, are there any topics you were excited to, to talk about

Shannon Hayden: Ijust want it to be just very conversational. Um, whatever comes up, we’ll talk about it.

Chris Fredericks: Well, you’re definitely doing us a favor coming on thank you. So yeah, my last question, what advice would you have for kind of the rest of the employees, the employee owners and the employees of all of our Empowered Ventures companies? what advice comes to mind that you can draw on from your career, personal life, just anything that stands out to you as Something you feel strongly about that, just something that comes to

Shannon Hayden: I think one of the biggest things that come to mind is I. Really taking the opportunity to get to know folks. I think sometimes we don’t take enough time to get to know our colleagues and get to know the individuals that we’re working closely with or maybe not as closely with. So really just taking the time to learn the individual and learn what they’re about. Sometimes just, you know, having the chance to talk more and to communicate more with people will really give you. A lot more insight into either their behaviors, their thought process, or why they think the way they do or why they do some of the things that they do. I think it would really open some, eyes to understanding who we are and what we do and how we do it. and it all comes down to just talking with each other and just communicating with one another. and just being open to having fun too. I’m one of those individuals who I like to laugh. I like to have fun. I like to talk about different things that we go through, that we all go through. and not being just so focused on the business and day to day and just really taking time to just enjoy one another, learn one another, and just really, really together.

Chris Fredericks: That’s amazing, and I can see why your team enjoys working with you and for you so much, Shannon. That’s awesome stuff. Well this has been a fascinating conversation. I appreciate you coming on. you said you were willing to stick around for another short segment just to get to know you a little bit more.

Shannon Hayden: Come with it. I’m ready, Chris.

Chris Fredericks: Okay. Okay, we’re gonna take a short break and then we’ll be right back. Welcome back. So in each episode of Empowered Owners, after we chat with our guest, we bring them back for a quick and fun segment to get to know them a little bit better. Today Shannon and I are gonna do something I’m really excited about. We’re gonna draft our top five most iconic apparel and accessories brands of the eighties and early nineties. A very specific category, but I think for good reason. So we’re talking things like footwear, apparel, watches, jewelry, whatever. the best, like a top five, most iconic. and. It’s from the eighties and early nineties, which I think a lot of, gen Xers or early, early millennials will get as like a really particular period. so I don’t know. I’m excited. Do you wanna just jump right in, Shannon? You get the first pick. So most iconic apparel and accessories brands of the eighties and early nineties. What’s your first pick?

Shannon Hayden: So,I’m telling my age quite a bit with, with this draft pick, Chris, but it’s all good. It’s okay. I think the first thing for me, and I have ’em written down, I have always been really big on fashion, so,The thing that really stands out with me were the blue jeans that were around in the eighties and nineties. So we had we had Sasoon, we had Gloria Vanderbilt, we had guests, you know, in the we had Levi’s, which a lot of folks still were Levi’s today. Um, the good pair of jeans. So, You, can’t go wrong with some of those from the eighties and nineties.

Chris Fredericks: For sure. So what’s the first pick in terms of an actual brand?

Shannon Hayden: For me it was Guess hands down.

Chris Fredericks: All right, I’m gonna go to my first pick and then send it back to you for your pick number two. Kind of similar to you with blue jeans. I think, footwear was a big thing,the, in the, that timeframe, and there’s a lot of brands to pick from. so I, this is, I don’t know if this is the right one, but it’s just so iconic now that Nike, I think just that’s when Nike became Nike. So for me, my first pick is Nike.

Shannon Hayden: That’s actually on my list too. It’s actually on my list of, uh, even sneakers today.

Chris Fredericks: What about you pick number two

Shannon Hayden: Tt’s from the eighties, but it’s not a particular brand per se, but it was a particular. Fashion statement. So it was back in the eighties, I talk about it as the girls just wanna have fun era where it was, you know, the Madonna era where it was the, leggings and the, uh, leg and the, the net.Gloves and, you know, things like that. So it’s not a particular brand, but definitely something that was very iconic back in the eighties. definitely something that all the girls wanted to wear and all the girls wanted to look like, and the, you know, the girls just wanna have fun. So I think that, like I said, not a brand, but definitely something that was very iconic back then.

Chris Fredericks: My second pick. I’m excited. This one’s still here. I was curious if you would grab this one. So from a brand’s perspective and also just a, the fa a particular kind of fashion, hyper color. That to me was so exciting back then and obviously not something most people would wear today unless it’s ironically, I guess you can wear it maybe today.

Shannon Hayden: Yes, well, you already talked a little bit about sneakers, but, uh, tennis shoes were also on my list, so, not specifically Nike’s, but because everyone knew about Nike’s and Nike’s are still around today. But, um, we had LA gear. We had British Knights, um, of those sneakers, they were super popular back then and everyone wanted a pair.

Chris Fredericks: So LA Gear. LA Gear is your pick. That’s a good one because we’re doing brands, I’m also gonna do a Blue Jeans brand. but guess it was your top pick. So I think I’m gonna grab a really crazy eighties, it’s truly eighties iconic jeans, which was J dash. Pick four for you.

Shannon Hayden: I didn’t actually think of brands. I thought of more just different things from the eighties and nineties. One of the styles that’s on my list is, um, women some of the girls will remember this, but back when I was. elementary school, junior high-ish. we would wear these charm necklaces. And I had a necklace full of all these random charms around my neck.

Chris Fredericks: I’ve for sure remember what you’re talking about. That’s great. okay. From my fourth pick, I’m going to go with Umbro shorts. I don’t know if you remember, Umbro.

Shannon Hayden: I do.

Chris Fredericks: Yeah, those were really big. so they’re like soccer style, I guess European soccer style shorts. And nobody was even playing soccer back then, but we all had Umbros. For your last pick, and I know you were thinking more just styles and different things, but any, what else comes to mind?

Shannon Hayden: Kind of nineties, early nineties or the,baggy jeans and the baggy, uh, the overalls with, one strap off You. You know, how they, used to do it. Um, that was a huge, fashion thing.

Chris Fredericks: Do you remember what, was there a brand for the overalls? I feel like there was one brand that the overalls, like everybody. I think it was, guess I think everyone wanted the Guess overalls. For my last pick, again, kind of going with just of throwbacks, oh, I have too many. I think I’m gonna go with Swatch. So swatch watches, was like the big, the big, thing. If you were cool, you had a swatch, you didn’t wanna just have a Timex. If you had a Timex, you were very outta style. Real quick, other brands that I thought were interesting or that when I did a little, so Doc Martins, Calvin Klein, And then you covered LA Gear, converse, wranglers were kind of a thing for a little while. Yeah.

Shannon Hayden: I didn’t have wranglers, but I definitely remember

Chris Fredericks: I didn’t either. No, I always, my, my parents always bought Lee Jeans, cuz those were the cheapest at Kohl’s.

Shannon Hayden: Throwbacks all day long.

Chris Fredericks: Awesome. Shannon, this has been a blast. Hopefully,we’ll hear from our listeners who they, which, whose list was better, but neither way. I think we both won with our list for sure. So thank you for coming on. This has been so much fun. Mm-hmm. Hi Mike. Welcome to Empowered Owners.

Mike Algrim: Thanks Chris. Thanks for having me.

Chris Fredericks: Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for joining to briefly talk about, and debrief my discussion with Shannon and also, dig into, stewarding excellence, which is one of our, pillars of our operating strategy here at Empowered Ventures. First and foremost, what did you think about my conversation with Shannon?

Mike Algrim: Oh, it was great. Yeah, she seems like a really great person. I haven’t had the luxury of getting to meet her in person just yet, but I. Really appreciated hearing more about her story and just, her decision to join TVF I thought was really pretty cool.

Chris Fredericks: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I’ve met Shannon a few times in person and she’s just as delightful in person as she was on the podcast and I think TVF’s really lucky to have her. So what, did you have any takeaways or anything from the conversation, anything that stood out to you?

Mike Algrim: Yeah. Oh, for sure. Yeah. I, it came up a few times throughout the conversation, but, you could tell continuous learning and just always learning something new. I think she, at one point, even shared that a big part of her job search before joining TVF was finding a position that she would learn something new every day. And I think she even said that specifically, and that resonated with me a lot just given the fact that I know education and always seeking, being curious, all that kind of popped up a lot in her, conversation and it shows, like it was just really very cool to hear her talk about all the ways and always coming back to that and saying that she really appreciates the opportunity to learn.

Chris Fredericks: Hmm. I love that. Yeah, and I think that’s all, maybe we find that’s true in an employee ownership environment, that people that have that continuous learning mindset and desire that drive almost to keep growing. That’s just a really good match, I think in our experience with these types of companies.

Mike Algrim: For sure. Yeah, I think as each employee is an owner, thinking like an owner means also every day Going to work and treating your job with a sense of ownership over not just what you’re doing, but also a curiosity over the teams. You also heard that in her conversation too, of just always asking questions and inquiring with her employees, with other people that she interacts with.

Chris Fredericks: Just really a huge sense of this, like thirst for knowledge that you mentioned. Yeah. That’s fantastic. Let’s pivot into our discussion around stewarding excellence. So I guess for everybody, which we very carefully chose this word stewarding and really what are we referring to, Mike when we’re even talking about stewarding? Like just big picture for anybody that’s curious. What are we even talking about in when we talk about stewarding excellence?

Mike Algrim: Yeah, for sure. Yeah, it’s, for me it’s really this vision of supporting the operating companies on their journey. In any and all ways that they’re seeking support. And so it, it really starts with that like grand view of just helping being there. Sometimes, just as a, somebody to voice things to, or a shoulder to cry on type of a thing,it really can span all the ways that they’re seeking support, but really helping them on this journey cuz, business isn’t always easy.

Chris Fredericks: But it certainly can be when you’ve got people that you’re able to communicate with and kind of work things out. I think it’s really a beautiful thing when we get there. Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. And in, in kind of the context of our business model, we’re. We’re a holding company. we’re an employee owned holding company. We acquire businesses that many times are kind of transition, needing to transition, not just ownership, but also management, to some degree. How do you think about our approach to stewarding and our desire to be excellent in this approach? How do you think that kind of fits with what our overall kind of business model is?

Mike Algrim: Sure. Yeah. So when I referenced the journey, that’s exactly what I mean is like everybody has a unique journey and every business will have a little bit of their own uniqueness to that. Maybe it’s a leadership transition, or a unique business, issue that they might be having. That’s really everything in that and is embodied in this journey that we’re looking to help them through. But at the same time, getting back to this idea of continuous learning is really as every leader, every employee has this ownership mindset and really does have this thirst for knowledge. we’re really there just to inject support. Maybe it’s to engage a consultant. Again, it’s whatever they need. that’s really the key thing is really there to say, Hey, yeah, we, have a good sense of the journey that you’re on, can lead with some empathy and really understand it both through firsthand or through our, kind of network, but then lean on that and bring in some really good resources for them that, might help them accelerate their path. Through whatever issue, or something to celebrate. it isn’t always issue related. It could also be some really cool things to celebrate or we can plug in and help them do that,

Chris Fredericks: I’m also thinking that just in terms of other holding companies or businesses that buy and hold many businesses like we are, but there’s like a lot of different ways to do it. Like some companies, Try to centralize like a lot of the operations at the holding company level or corporate level.

Mike Algrim: Other companies try to create a really strong sense of shared services where, maybe all marketing activities are being done at the holding company level or, other things like that. And how would you say ours is unique versus others’ approach,yeah. Yeah. So I, for me, I think in the short term it always seems like you, we are naturally motivated to centralize and try to get economies. They call ’em economies of scale, right? Where you say, Hey, we can hire one person that can cover all the operating companies. That makes a lot of sense and to some degree it does in the short term, but when you really look at the fact that we are a buy hold in forever, like there’s really no intention of selling you the best thing we can do. Allow the operating companies or give them that flexibility, empower them to go through that process and build those skills in house again, it could create a little bit of a diverse approach across the portfolio, but there’s really some beauty and magic to that uniqueness of that. Every company will be able to. Show their strength long term and saying, Hey, yeah, we’ve solved marketing for us, or we’ve solved sales for us. And then it’s not so much a relying on the holding company as it is us sitting back and really watching the magic play out and say, wow, look how great this company is doing, over that long term.

Chris Fredericks: Yeah, that makes so much sense. I’m thinking of some examples of just how this plays out. Like I. For example, we don’t require our companies to all be on the same systems. they could have different run on different software, whatever works best for them. Any other examples come to mind for you of just how this actually plays out in reality?

Mike Algrim: Yeah. Yeah. you bring up a good one, which is the An ERP or an enterprise management system is really the. It’s the core of most businesses. and you’re right, we haven’t asked and said, Hey, everyone’s gotta have the same one. Even though again, there in the short term, there’d probably be some efficiencies to that, but that isn’t really what,we’re about every business coming into the portfolio is gonna be unique in their own ways. And so their system needs will also be unique and allowing them to find what works best for their business as long as it’s giving them that intelligence,the data that they need. And it works for them. I think that’s really something important that we can embrace and learn to work with as well.

Chris Fredericks: Yeah, makes a lot of sense with our approach, with this approach we are taking and still, on a journey to develop exactly how we’re doing it, how we’re going about this. Because we’re still early in our journey as a holding company. it also comes to mind that maybe there still will be some things that from the holding company level, we need consistency or whatever. And we always try to minimize that as much as possible. but like, how do, and the other thing that comes to mind too is just the importance of having really good leaders in these companies. So with our approach in this long-term mentality, how do we, while as much as possible, leaning into kind of this decentralized approach, each company being as autonomous as possible, how do we also. Effectively just have our standards or anything that we need to, be on the same page with like management of the companies.

Mike Algrim: I think it’s all rooted in, I get back to that kind of original point of it’s all rooted in if everybody’s thirsty for knowledge. I think that from a leadership standpoint, there will be a really good sink there because we’ll always be learning our way forward through that. And again, we link arms and try to make that a very positive experience long-term. And that’s the other big piece is that we’re thinking so long term that we can be really patient and mindful around what decisions are really most important. making sure that we’re well aligned with the leadership on that. for sure. Now of course. Yeah. You mentioned too, like then that syncing up,the other thing to acknowledge with this is that we are all part of one enterprise and there is a, the accounting or fiduciary responsibilities in the fact that though each operating company will operate mostly autonomous.

Chris Fredericks: Employee owners. This is, again, the beauty of this model is an employee owner at operating Company A cares very much about what’s happening at operating company B because we own the whole, it’s an enterprise. That’s what Empowered Ventures is all about. And so there is a level of governance, a little to some degree, albeit light.

Mike Algrim: We try to toe that line as closely as possible. But yeah, of course there’s definitely certain things like gap accounting or whatever it might be that we do have to follow.

Chris Fredericks: Yeah. Yeah, so I guess it just for me that this all culminates in kind of a need for us to be excellent at maybe having, being on the same page, with our leadership teams about what those few things are that we have particular needs or views on. And then, Kind of all the other areas that we fully feel, believing that they’re empowered and can run the company as they see fit. Just being really have an effective, relationship management, communication and things like that. That sounds easy, but I think anybody that you know is involved in this kind of work knows that it can be really difficult to, to just always be on the same page, with these types of things. Does that resonate for you too? Yeah. Oh yeah, definitely. I think you uncover one look. The beauty of the model is the autonomy of the operating companies. The challenge that it poses is also keeping up to speed so that when there is that discussion around, Hey, this is a big decision, we need your help on it, that you have enough tribal knowledge of what’s led up to that in order to make a really good informed decision together.

Mike Algrim: And so there’s a balance there though, for sure, because day to day we’re we, as a holding company team, we’re not on site. And so there is a level of that autonomy that we have to embrace. We want that. That’s actually the beauty of the model. yeah, totally. If we’re gonna make a mistake, we wanna, we would rather lean towards the autonomy side than us being too involved and, You have to have, for it to be meaningful, we have to be willing to risk one way or the other, and that, that seems like the way we ultimately need to lean, to really lean into this approach, Yeah, and a lot of it. stems from the acquisition itself. We’ve acquired some really great companies and the fact that foundationally they come into the portfolio with such strength in the teams and what they do is a huge benefit to us then to be able to maintain that autonomy then going forward, for sure.

Chris Fredericks: That’s awesome. Mike, this has been great. Is there anything else you thought we should touch on or that we missed? to expound on what stewarding excellence means to us?

Mike Algrim: Not necessarily stewarding, but I didn’t hear Zooba pants as part of the, did, was that on the list for, I, I don’t know if I would call it an iconic brand.

Chris Fredericks: Yeah, great point. that was on my list, maybe 10 or 15 down. But yeah, it, that’s hilarious. I’m glad you brought one of those up. that was one of my favorite lists to put together was just crazy brands and stuff from my, my middle school years mainly, sounds like you had some familiarity

Mike Algrim: I was always jealous of the kids that had hyper color. I never had a hyper color even to this day. I wonder if you can still get ’em, cuz I might be like, I’m gonna go get a sweatshirt.

Chris Fredericks: I had a hyper colored shirt. Yeah. I think I wore it out. I had probably had holes in it. I wore it so much.

Mike Algrim: Yeah. I never owned Zoobas, but there was a time where every NFL team, like that’s what they were touting. Late, late eighties, maybe.

Chris Fredericks: Yeah. That’s so funny. Oh, I totally remember that. Good call. Mike. I appreciate you adding to that part of our conversation. Thank you again for joining.

Mike Algrim: Thanks for having me. Yeah, I appreciate it.

Chris Fredericks: That wraps up this episode of Empowered Owners. I’d like to thank Shannon Hayden and Mike Algrim for joining me and TVF’s Marvi Alvarez, and Amanda Sanchez for suggesting topics for my discussion with Shannon, remember we want to hear from you. Please give us feedback. Suggest guests and topics for future episodes and tell us how we can keep improving the show. You can reach us at [email protected], or you can contact us through our website at empowered.ventures. Last but not least, a big thank you to our production team at Share Your Genius. Be sure to join us next time on Empowered Owners as we explore the lives and stories of the amazing employee owners of Empowered Ventures. If you haven’t already follow or podcast on your favorite platform, so you never miss an episode. Thank you for tuning in.