Stephen Shedletzky ON: The Surprising Secret to Business Success (#136) — Transcript
Updated: Oct 26
THE PICTURE OF WEALTH · EPISODE 136
Stephen Shedletzky joins Dustin Serviss to discuss leadership, creating a culture where people can speak up and the human conditions behind business performance.
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This transcript was generated from the episode audio and lightly edited for readability. It may contain transcription or speaker-attribution errors. Refer to the recording for exact wording.
Chapters
[00:00:00] Making sense of a career in hindsight
[00:04:42] Leadership lessons from an early career disappointment
[00:08:48] Working around purpose and culture
[00:12:54] How a personal why guides decisions
[00:17:18] Defining success alongside family roles
[00:22:24] Funding a company rather than chasing every engagement
[00:26:40] Flexibility and the purpose of being in the office
[00:31:13] A vision attracts people who can execute
[00:35:06] Transparency, impact and a sustainable business
Guest & resources
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Transcript
[00:00:00] Stephen Shedletzky: Most of our lives and careers are often a series of happy accidents, you know, and mostly happy accidents. One of my favorite quotes right now is from a Danish theologian, Kierkegaard, who says, life makes sense looking backwards, but it must be lived forwards. And so often we look back, and we're like, oh, yeah. That makes loads of sense. But, like, we never know. I don't know what's in store for me in five years from now. I have some goals. I have some ideas, but, like, I have no idea.
[00:00:28] Dustin Serviss: Welcome to the picture of wealth or TPAW as we call it. I am your host, Dustin Service. I am excited to have Steven Shedlesky on the phone... On the phone on the podcast today, and you actually like the name shed, which as a man, I think that's a great name. How did that manifest? Did someone give you that? Did you make that a marketing thing? What was that?
[00:01:06] Stephen Shedletzky: Well, first of all, we are not on the phones. We are on the on the microphones. What... Why is a man?
[00:01:11] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. Well, I think a shed. I I have a shed, which I showed you my yard. I didn't show you the the shed out there, but that's that's something I take pride in and clean it and, you know, even the lawnmower makes it dirty all the time, but there you
[00:01:22] Stephen Shedletzky: go. There you go. And I I never thought I'd be so proud of my little lawn that we have here at front of my house in Toronto, but I am... Though there is a company called Steve's Shed, I don't own it. But it's simply because of my complicated last name, first four letters, shed. And so both my siblings and I went to an overnight summer camp, and we were all called one derivation of shed, sheds, shed z, list goes on. So I personally don't like the name Steve. For me, personally, I don't identify as a Steve anymore. Right. My mom can call me Stevie, but I either go by Steven or Shed amongst friends. So I like Shed.
[00:02:05] Dustin Serviss: There you go. Well, you are taking the charge in corporate culture. And, again, I I I think it's... I was gonna try and get fancy with the opening of this podcast, and I thought, you know what? You did get mentored by someone who is worthy of talking about, and now you've built your own thing and we'll get there. But I think we should back up and paint a picture for the listener of who you worked for or worked with and what you've built together with that person, and then then we will parlay into, what you're doing now. But back us up for, you know, maybe fifteen years ago as you kind of morphed into the new role.
[00:02:42] Stephen Shedletzky: Sure. Absolutely. My career has been in many instances and even my life. I think if most of us are honest, most of our lives and careers are often a series of happy accidents, you know, and mostly happy accidents. One of my favorite quotes right now is from a Danish theologian, Kierkegaard, who says, life makes sense looking backwards, but it must be lived forwards. And so often we look back, and we're like, oh, yeah. That makes loads of sense. But, like, we never know. I don't know what's in store for me in five years from now. I have some goals. I have some ideas, but, like, I have no idea. So... Yeah.
[00:03:20] Stephen Shedletzky: So, I ended up going to business school at Western University at the Ivy School of Business, which I loved, had a great experience. Always gravitated toward leadership development, organizational development, and behavior. My first full time job out of biz school was with Petro Canada turned Suncorp in their rotational management program in downstream. So it was gas stations and convenience stores and car washes and stuff like that. Not that I was particularly passionate about the industry, but the term leader was in the title, like leadership development. I love that. I neglected to ask them how they defined the term leadership because as it
[00:04:03] Stephen Shedletzky: turns out, there's no standard definition, though I think there should be. And my definition of leadership is more around caring for people and and service orientation, which I think was a part of it, but not the whole story. And, my first day at that job ever, a thousand people were let go post merger. And so I was the young whippersnapper walking in as many more people were walking out boxes in hand. And I had this, like, very tumultuous first career experience of seeing the folks around me in tons of uncertainty, waiting for their pink slip to arrive next, seeing far fewer leaders than I had wished,
[00:04:42] Stephen Shedletzky: showing up with transparency and loyalty and fighting for their people. There were a lot more leaders who weren't being as transparent or who weren't being vulnerable about what they did or didn't know. So it was a really interesting first career experience. Sorta fast forward, I fell out of love with my career very early, which was terrifying. You know? And we are a species of comparison. So I look at my friends who were doing well in this, that, and the other, and I'm, like, questioning the choice that I made and questioning my own motivation and questioning the career that I wanna build.
[00:05:17] Stephen Shedletzky: And and in that sort of inquiry, I came across and was introduced to Simon Sinek's work. And a friend of mine shared his TEDx talk, the how great leaders inspire action. The the circles won, the golden circles start with y, and just right time, right place. I started sharing his message to anyone who would listen. I went to a event in downtown Toronto to hear Malcolm Gladwell speak, and Simon spoke just before him unbeknownst to me. Wow. And the friends that I was at that event with, you know, Simon was on, like, the event magazine cover, and it's like, it's your boy. Like, it's the person that you're, like, sharing his stuff already.
[00:05:52] Stephen Shedletzky: And so it was right time, right place. I mean, and Simon, I describe as as one of my orators. Like, he puts into words, I think, for many people, the the type of world we wanna live in, a more inspired, safe, and fulfilled world. So right time, right place, bunch of elbow grease, guile, and networking. I ended up becoming the fourth person to join Simon's team, which was back in two thou... Late two thousand eleven, early two thousand twelve. Did the start with my podcast, which is an amazing experience. First person to do Simon's social media that wasn't Simon. So I really had a chance to study and learn from him how to
[00:06:28] Stephen Shedletzky: communicate, and, you know, you communicate with why, how, and what, and in that order, and had a chance to build an organization in his image and in his likeness and in his message for many years. And it was an amazing ride, amazingly fulfilling. I'll pause there. There's sort of the the next bit of of the story in in uncovering my own work. But, yeah, an amazing ten years, and I still do share some of Simon's message and and work with with Well, I
[00:07:02] Dustin Serviss: think many many people might know it, but for listener, if you don't know Simon Sinek or the start with why sort of philosophy, Shed, can you try and give us a a mental diagram of what the three circles look like and the the questions that kinda go with it just so we got a bit of a backdrop?
[00:07:20] Stephen Shedletzky: Sure. Yeah. So this is the the the foundation of Simon's work, which came from a place where he lost his own motivation for what he was doing. And he knew what he was doing. He knew how he did it different or better than his peers or or or competition, but he couldn't clearly articulate or even know why he was doing it. And no matter how good he was at doing the thing, he lost his own sense of purpose, direction, and inspiration. And so he sort of stopped everything that he was doing, took some time to figure out, well, what is my why? And for him, it's to inspire. It's to inspire people to do the things that inspire them so that together,
[00:07:57] Stephen Shedletzky: we can change our world for the better. That's what orients him. And then he only started doing work that he felt would help bring that cause to life in line with his values and how he operates at his best as well, in keeping things simple and finding the silver lining and, like, all of his guiding principles. But that was sort of the birthplace of this amazing journey and ride that he's been on of of writing a book, start with why, you know, many well known TED Talks. And he's gone on to write other books, Leaders Eat Last. The Infinite Game is his most recent and my personal favorite of his.
[00:08:30] Stephen Shedletzky: I kinda describe it as his greatest hits album plus some really good bonus tracks. And he and he uses game theory, finite and infinite games to point out that life, relationships, career, business are all infinite games, but too many of us are trying to win the game that has no finish line.
[00:08:48] Dustin Serviss: Love
[00:08:48] Stephen Shedletzky: it. Which is brilliant content and really good. So, yeah, so Simon is a beacon and a stand for leaders and organizations living and leading with greater purpose and clarity, and greater values and better cultures.
[00:09:05] Dustin Serviss: Can you bookend that with an example of the Apple diagram that he talks about?
[00:09:11] Stephen Shedletzky: Yeah. Yeah. I'll I'll... I like using a a different example because
[00:09:14] Dustin Serviss: it's fun.
[00:09:15] Stephen Shedletzky: So, the example that I often use is... You know, because an organization can define itself in its identity or even in its marketing by what it sells. So an organization could say, we sell, toys. We believe in encouraging fun and creativity in people of all ages. And the question is, who am I talking about? And you could say Mattel. You could say Lego. You could say, you know, list goes on. But if I start from the inside out and I say with everything we do, we believe in inspiring and developing the builders of tomorrow. We do so by encouraging fun and creativity in people of all ages. We happen to make toys. Who are we talking about?
[00:09:57] Dustin Serviss: The piece.
[00:09:57] Stephen Shedletzky: LEGO.
[00:09:59] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. Okay. So, like,
[00:10:00] Stephen Shedletzky: right? And I could even go more specific and say we sell plastic toy building blocks or one of the world's largest toy manufacturers, whatever it might be, but it's their purpose, their why of inspiring and developing the builders of tomorrow. And now the fun piece is you look at LEGO from the outside looking in, they make all sorts of stuff. They make plastic toy building block, but they also have a TV show with Will Arnett.
[00:10:24] Dustin Serviss: Love him. Mike. He's love
[00:10:25] Stephen Shedletzky: him. And, yeah, you know, makers. And they have, you know, Batman movies with Will Arnett as the voice of Batman. In two thousand eighteen, Lego sold five hundred thousand pairs of men's boxers. You know? And they have theme parks, and they have rest... Like, they have video games, all this stuff. And from the outside in, you're like, what? This company has no discipline or clarity. But from the inside out, it's like, of course they do. Everything they do is to inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow. And when you or or I or anyone puts on their LEGO underwear in
[00:10:57] Stephen Shedletzky: the morning, you feel pretty good about what's possible for that day, both with our, you know, minds, heart, hands, whatever it might be that we can create in that day. And so that's one of my favorite examples is an organization in defining itself and how it communicates and lives and leads and operates why, how, what bull's eye. From
[00:11:21] Dustin Serviss: the work you're doing now, what would you say to listener... So listener to identify themselves as missing the why. They know how to do it. They know what they're doing. But what are some things where that listener could ask their... Themselves, or do you have some tools or tips for that?
[00:11:41] Stephen Shedletzky: Yeah. So, I mean, it's you know what you do. You know how you do it better or different than others. But for what reason? For what purpose? What is it that you want for others to feel or experience because they do business with you? What is it that you want for people in the world, whether they do business with you or not? When have you felt most alive? What are the most successful client engagements? What are the least successful? When have you felt most fulfilled as a leader? When have you felt least fulfilled as a leader? And so when finding sort of the the common threads between these stories, there...
[00:12:14] Stephen Shedletzky: You know, a pattern will emerge that is sort of the undercurrent of it all. So for me personally, my why, which guides everything that I do in my life and career in business, it's to engage with people in meaningful ways so that we connect with depth and live in a more fulfilled world. I I love engaging in conversation. I love this. And for me, when it's meaningful, when it's beyond shallow, and meaningful to me could be, you know, the depths of depths and the hardest of conversations or light and funny and just enjoyable. You know, I care about connection. I care about intimacy, and I care about fulfillment.
[00:12:54] Stephen Shedletzky: I care about people finding and using their strengths and contributing to something bigger than themselves. So that guides everything that I do. You know, I care about human beings getting along and, you know, being peaceful and and and connecting, as opposed to a lot of what we're seeing going on in the world today. So, yeah, those are some questions and just an example for me of what my why is and how it guides how I conduct myself as a friend, as a human, as a parent, as a father, and as a professional.
[00:13:25] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. I think we see it in a different light, same theme. You know, recently worked with a client who achieved his house. It's worth over four million. And his, his comment was, I sort of... You know, the first couple months sat back and thought, is this it? Like, my whole life, I've been aspiring to build this thing that could help me afford this house that was this big important thing to me. And now I'm kinda going, now what? It's a moment of being quite scared and saying Yeah. I don't really know. You know? Again, it's revenue goals, increase my revenue twenty percent a year. It's like, well, for how long? In forever? Yeah.
[00:14:09] Dustin Serviss: And I I think that does, you know, dovetail in... Into some of the work we coach people on. I'm saying, like, well, to be successful in life, you gotta work hard. How hard? Yeah. I don't know. It's, like, really effing hard forever. Well, it's like, well, that doesn't work very well. And you mentioned at the start of the podcast, you just never know in life. You have a plan, and guess what? Yeah. Like Mike Tyson says, everyone has a plan until I'm punching you in the face. And so if life is kind of coming forward at you and you're not sort of at least loose in your approach in sort of being
[00:14:45] Dustin Serviss: flexible or true to your values and able to sort of use that. So I guess thank you for pursuing yours as an example to get us kind of to the next thing I wanna talk about, which was
[00:14:57] Stephen Shedletzky: I can I can just? A couple of things just to add in here before you go there if I can. Awesome. Sure. So so the purpose of business is not to grow.
[00:15:06] Dustin Serviss: Purpose of business is not to grow. What is it for then?
[00:15:10] Stephen Shedletzky: The purpose of business is to deliver some value, and growth is evidence that you're generating value. Growth is evidence... Growth is a byproduct. You know? Growth is what you offer resonates and people want more of. For anyone who says my why is... You know, you could say your why is is personal development or growth and helping the people around you grow as human beings. But to say that, you know, what's the quote that any business that simply exists to make a profit is a poor business? That, like, the only thing that growth grows for growth's sake in our human existence is cancer. That's it. And so for you to define the why of a company
[00:15:58] Stephen Shedletzky: to grow, no. Like, the why of a company should be to deliver value to folks. The question is, what is that value? You know, and if you stripped away all sort of human possession, what's the thing that's most important to you so long as you have enough food, shelter, whatever it might be?
[00:16:18] Dustin Serviss: I was gonna say life, but, yeah, beer and water.
[00:16:21] Stephen Shedletzky: Yeah. So I just wanted to highlight that, you know, growth for the sake of what and what value are you delivering to others both inside of the organization, for employees and those who show up and serve and work as well as the clients or customers or end users that you serve as well.
[00:16:41] Dustin Serviss: This is not where I was going, but I think we're gonna go here because it's, I think you're bringing up a good point of success. What is success? Really overtalked about thing because it's so unique for everyone, but it's Yeah. That's fine. There can be podcasts and whatever. But for the person defining their own journey, do you have... You know, again, do you coach people on this? Like, what would be a a key question or exercise to ask themselves to to get realigned or to start a transformation to something different?
[00:17:18] Stephen Shedletzky: I mean, you're totally right, Dustin, that success is in the eye of the beholder. So, like, for me, is there a financial component to my success? Absolutely. But it comes to a point because first and foremost, I define myself as a father and as a husband and as a son and as a brother and as a friend. And so though I love my work and I care about my work a lot, and I travel a lot for my work, that's hard because it takes me away from my job at home, physically, at least. And so for me, there's a... Like, I don't wanna be on the road more than seventy five to a hundred days of the year tops, like, tops, which is like what I'm doing right now.
[00:18:09] Stephen Shedletzky: I don't wanna travel more, which means I get to be creative. Oh, what are the other ways that I can bring my work to life, which doesn't require that I physically have to be there? You know? We're having this conversation. You're in Kelowna. I'm in Toronto. We're not in the same studio, though it would be fun. And as well, what are some things that we can create that we put a lot of effort into, but I don't have to show up live to make it happen? Online courses, digital products. So, so, yeah, success is in the high of the beholder. So some fun questions is, you know, what would you like the end of your life to look like?
[00:18:46] Stephen Shedletzky: What would have happened? Who's around you? You know? And for some reason, when I was struggling and toiling away at that first job post... That post merger company at Suncor, and I was like, this is not what I wanna be doing. I asked two questions. I really admired and look up to my grandfather, and I went... What was he doing at this point in his life? The answer was he either was in, a prisoner of war camp as a Polish soldier behind enemy lines in Berlin, or he was hiding in cornfields and farms trying to save the lives of seven people around him. And I went, okay. I think I can take some risk for all the sacrifice he made
[00:19:31] Stephen Shedletzky: to give me and his two sons and my family a shot at life, it gave me just a bit more courage and boldness to be like, I I gotta make the most use, of this life, not from a personal gain, but from a service and fulfillment point of view. And then the other is I thought of how do I want my life to be when I'm not working or when I'm near the end. And for some reason, I just had this vision of me with my children and my children's children outdoors in nature, playing. There's sunshine. We're all happy. We're getting along. And as I look at it, it's kinda what my parents have now, which is beautiful, and my in laws as well.
[00:20:14] Stephen Shedletzky: So those were, like, anchors of success for me, which have very little to do with what I do professionally. But that's sort of like a vision that helps me, which guides how I show up in my career. There are things far more important than my career because my kids now are eight and five. And in ten, fifteen, twenty, thirty years, I wanna have, knock on wood, I wanna have an amazing relationship with them. That's far more important to me than anything career wise. Wise. So I I think we we have to figure out what are our values, what's most important to us, what's more important to us than money, what are
[00:20:54] Stephen Shedletzky: we willing to sacrifice money for in order to live or bring to life. And I think the answers behind those questions are are telling and meaningful.
[00:21:04] Dustin Serviss: Chet, you've done well in life. You're doing well in life. What are your thoughts on sort of pre retirement? You... You're too interested in your career to retire, but then your job, you likely could do it for a long time. So you don't necessarily have to retire, but could you still see success in traveling, like, sixty days? And so it's like... And and make income? Like, is it still enough, or is it like I'm... Where I'm... I'm not questioning what you're doing. What I'm doing is trying to gauge how people make decisions about what's enough. And I Yeah. Again, we counsel lots of blue collar people, and and that's a hardworking
[00:21:44] Dustin Serviss: thing, and it's hard to get off that treadmill to go like, well, you know, you're a speaker. And so it's like, you have to go to places to speak. So that's how you get paid. So it's like, could you speak twenty five days less and still make okay money, or is that what you're trying to figure out?
[00:22:00] Stephen Shedletzky: So I'll be very personal and upfront and open. I've had some changes because just recently, I've truly started my own business, and I've actually treated it as a corporation now where I have an employee and we draw salaries. You know? Whereas previously, I would speak and it would all come to my sole proprietorship.
[00:22:24] Dustin Serviss: Right.
[00:22:24] Stephen Shedletzky: And so the more I did, the more I earned, and it was like, go go go. Well, now it's a little bit different because now I'm funding a company, a company that should be self sufficient and should pay its people well. So it's now a little bit different because it's a little less rat race y and more... There are bigger questions on how much do we need. I'm doing more and more of my own work, which comes with higher rates and higher fees for the time being.
[00:22:54] Dustin Serviss: Mhmm.
[00:22:55] Stephen Shedletzky: I also look at... So the way that I describe our business is high touch, medium touch, low touch. So high touches show up in person, which should come at a premium unless it's something I really wanna do for whatever reason, you know, ethical or service oriented or whatever. There's medium touch, which is, you know, pants are optional, which is doing... I'm wearing pants right now, but they're they're track pants. Yeah. They're very comfortable.
[00:23:21] Dustin Serviss: Upstairs looks good. Yeah.
[00:23:22] Stephen Shedletzky: Yeah. Exactly. Part... Party on... Or party on the bottom.
[00:23:26] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. Exactly.
[00:23:28] Stephen Shedletzky: But, you know, I I can do a bunch online live. So that's medium touch where I still have to show up live, but I could give a keynote in Romania tomorrow and still wear the same pants with a mustard stand on them. Right? And then there's low touch, which is what are the digital products, online courses, things that we can create that can scale that we have to put a considerable amount of upfront energy and in creating and a funnel and marketing because you can make the world's best online course. But if you have no one who's buying it, you have the most underutilized world's best online course.
[00:24:04] Stephen Shedletzky: So that's how I view the business, but I think there are many considerations. I mean, a, I hope there's demand for me and my work. B, I have to monitor my health and take care of my health because travel is hard on the body. And how many years can I keep doing this in the way that I'm doing this? Or what are the habits that I need to change to give me longevity and health span, not just life span. And then, yeah, I mean, I I don't have, like, a fifty five or sixty five, and I'm gonna retire. You know? I look forward to when my wife's work life shifts and changes a little bit because she's on a rigid, sorta not
[00:24:46] Stephen Shedletzky: uberly flexible schedule right now. And I look forward to when she can join me and travel with me more and when my family can come with me a little bit more. But it's the type of thing that I... Much like my father, I will retire when either I... Well, pretty much, I don't have the faculties to keep doing it, physical and mental. You know?
[00:25:07] Dustin Serviss: It's a
[00:25:08] Stephen Shedletzky: it's a great
[00:25:09] Dustin Serviss: mindset, for a retirement plan because you don't need to save as much. If you keep your body, you spend more upfront keeping your body right, then you can actually work a bit longer. And if you start two days, three days a week when you're sixty to seventy and you're doing something you like and you're making a hundred grand or eighty grand, it... That helps a lot.
[00:25:29] Stephen Shedletzky: Yeah. Well... And it's also... What do human beings want from work? I think we wanna be treated like human beings, one. We wanna be compensated fairly and equally as merit to the work of the value that we're creating. Purpose and meaning and fulfillment. Yes. And flexibility and autonomy, which is a big hot topic now in terms of the return back to office conversation, because to mandate folks to have to come back four or five days a week, like, that pushes that flexibility autonomy one a little bit or or or a long
[00:26:08] Dustin Serviss: What are you seeing in the landscape with that one? Like, what is the real world feedback on that?
[00:26:14] Stephen Shedletzky: Not great.
[00:26:16] Dustin Serviss: And Toronto's probably Leighton with it over there.
[00:26:20] Stephen Shedletzky: Yeah. And, I I mean, there are some clients that I work with that are big, large corporations that are going through four or five day mandates back. I mean, how many people love a mandate in general?
[00:26:31] Dustin Serviss: Right.
[00:26:32] Stephen Shedletzky: You know? So I'm a personally a big believer that the characteristics of the work should dictate where it takes place from.
[00:26:40] Dustin Serviss: Mhmm.
[00:26:40] Stephen Shedletzky: I'm a huge advocate of human connection. But, like, do we really need to go to the office to be on eight hours of of of Zoom meetings? Like, really? You know? I think we can afford to be strategic with. And how awesome is it for someone from your team to do the things they need to do as a parent from ten thirty to eleven thirty in the morning should they need to and not have to hide from work? Just be up front. You know? So I'm a believer in flexibility. And in some instances, you know, if you drive a bus, it's not yet self driving. So you kinda gotta show up.
[00:27:19] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. If you're
[00:27:19] Stephen Shedletzky: a health care professional and you're performing surgery, for the time being, you gotta show up. Like, there are certain jobs, lawn... Like, list goes on where, like, you show up because that's the nature of the work. And if you're leading folks that it's in the nature of the work that they have to be there, if you're leading them, you should probably be there too. So, but... Yeah. So I'm seeing that a lot. I mean... And the conversation is like, hey. Focus on that which is within your your control. You cannot change a corporate policy, but you do have influence over where you
[00:27:57] Dustin Serviss: work. Yeah. Well, that's... Yeah. I think it's a
[00:27:59] Stephen Shedletzky: You can't change the policy, but you can vote with your feet if you need.
[00:28:06] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. I think you mentioned no one likes a mandate, but then they were mandated to leave or go out. So then it's like, yeah, it's messy.
[00:28:15] Stephen Shedletzky: Yeah. I mean, but but listen. Every organization can make the choices that it wants to make, and it must live the repercussions of those choices as well. Yeah. So And is that allowed? Yep. Totally.
[00:28:29] Dustin Serviss: It's just... It's... Again, if you got your fixed mindset, it's like, life changed. At the end of the day, if the results are getting done, then does it really matter? And and hopefully, you can maintain the corporate culture. I am seeing a bit of an affinity back to face to face for some Yep. To to just get... You know, whether it's reduced. But you you mentioned a good point. I wanna circle back to it because as entrepreneurs, we have a lot of good ideas, and we have even more great ideas, especially because we share them with ourselves, and we just kinda manifest or ruminate as, like, that's such a good idea.
[00:29:06] Dustin Serviss: But at the end of the day, you need to market.
[00:29:09] Stephen Shedletzky: Mhmm.
[00:29:09] Dustin Serviss: And so back to to Simon, I think that would be good to to sort of see that because I remember seeing that TED Talk when it almost first came out. I remember getting the book, and it's like, okay. I wonder how long this guy's actually been talking about stuff or if he just came up with an idea, sent it to a promoter of TEDx, and they got him on, and he just went viral. And then all of a sudden, he's super successful, got a team of people. That's usually not how it goes. And so how was the engine built, or what was sort of the thought process in... Twofold question. I'm throwing a lot at you about That's fine. Testing if you have a good idea.
[00:29:51] Dustin Serviss: And then second of all, when you have something you're passionate about, actually getting that in enough people's eyeballs that you can make a living from your business idea.
[00:30:01] Stephen Shedletzky: So who... Is it the quote... Is it from Henry Ford? There's a quote around But vision without without execution is is hallucination.
[00:30:12] Dustin Serviss: Or it sounds like Napoleon Hill, but maybe it's Henry Ford.
[00:30:15] Stephen Shedletzky: Yeah. Somebody. So you can have as many ideas as you like, even great world changing ideas. And if they stay an idea, you're successfully floating in the clouds and nothing happens. So, I mean, I both have general thoughts, and then there's, like, the case study of Simon in in particular. I mean, Simon admits that he won the Internet lottery a few times.
[00:30:39] Dustin Serviss: Yeah.
[00:30:40] Stephen Shedletzky: So he wasn't even the one asked to do that TEDx talk. It was a colleague of his, and she said, you don't want me. You want this guy. Because Simon is the visionary in the order. Right. Right? I think he was working on the book at that time, and he had been giving, like, a sixty minute version of that talk or even a ninety minute version of that talk. And they said you had fifth... You have fifty minutes. So he just he just crunched it. And anytime he didn't know what to say, he would just repeat, people don't buy what you do. They buy why you do it. I think he said it eight times.
[00:31:11] Dustin Serviss: That's what he did not. Yeah. That's right.
[00:31:13] Stephen Shedletzky: He just kept saying he kept saying it. But what happens is when you articulate a vision or an or an idea and you can do it at scale, or reach people, all of a sudden people are attracted to that idea and then bring their genius. So Simon is a visionary without executors. You know, not much happens. So there were a few amazing people who joined him very early on and over the years kept joining him both inside of his team and beyond and fans and sort of champions of this movement to create a more inspired, safe, fulfilled world, took his ideas, took his vision, and and acted upon it and brought it to life,
[00:31:57] Stephen Shedletzky: both in their communities, in their companies or organizations, as well as on his team. So ideas without execution are... Is simply hallucination. And so you need not only good ideas, you need, people who make those ideas better and realistic and then can execute upon them and then market them as well. So I think it's all three of ideas, execution, and marketing, and to let people really rock in the lane that they should rock in.
[00:32:33] Dustin Serviss: Okay. It's team. Who... So in in... If you got hundred percent, is this a percentage? So a hundred percent... Let's put money on it. Hundred percent of the money that's made from the ideas goes to the team because it's a group. So the person with the vision Mhmm. How much do you think the person with the vision... Or is there a way to, like... Because, again, you think if listener has staff and they're like, staff are kinda like climbing the ladder and they're going, well, this wouldn't get done without us.
[00:33:04] Stephen Shedletzky: Mhmm.
[00:33:04] Dustin Serviss: It's like... But the idea wouldn't be brought up without the vision. And so there's this thing of what's fair and what's not. And you talk about corporate culture and and maintaining that because you do... Like, two people, three is a bigger magnification than one person, you know, running fast for not very long.
[00:33:22] Stephen Shedletzky: Yeah.
[00:33:22] Dustin Serviss: If you wanna go fast, you stay alone. If you wanna go far, you go with the team and, you know, all that analogy. But I think of that for entrepreneur as they... They're growing or the the team's building, that is a thing that crosses their mind of, like, well, I do make a lot more than everyone else or the leader does. It's like, well, okay. Let's start sharing that. Well, how much do you share?
[00:33:43] Stephen Shedletzky: Mhmm. Well... So, I mean, I'm going through a version of that right now because at present, I'm one hundred percent owner of my company. I self funded the company with seed money from my own savings. Yep. But yet, eighteen, nineteen months ago, I brought on a head of operations who I pay a salary, a good salary, you know, fair salary. Actually pay myself a lower salary than him at present.
[00:34:16] Dustin Serviss: Realistic. Yep.
[00:34:17] Stephen Shedletzky: Because that's what the business needs, and that's what's right for the business long term. I could take every... I'm in every right to take every ounce of income out of that company. I'd pay a huge tax bill, and then what would I do? You know? But I wanna do this for at least another fifteen years, if not more. I also have other ideas of things that I wanna create and fund and potentially invest in. Sort of the next thing I know I wanna work on is my next book, which will probably be in a separate hold code because it's a very different venture, and it's the right thing to do to separate it. And it's... I'm gonna write...
[00:34:58] Stephen Shedletzky: I'm gonna narrate my grandfather's life story as told by my point of view, and I think it should become a movie. So I'm just gonna leave it over there. Right?
[00:35:06] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. Love
[00:35:06] Stephen Shedletzky: it. And be very open with how and what we're funding and my head of operations who, you know, on paper is not yet a business partner, but I treat him as such. We're very transparent and open on how we're gonna deal with that. So, yeah, I mean, ultimately, the owners make the call. But for me, this isn't a get rich quick scheme. This is a have impact and have longevity. And so I will take what I need from the corporation for me and my family to be fine. And if there are decisions that we make around where or how we want to live that are aligned with our values and we need funds, I'll transparently do what we need to do, and I'll
[00:35:53] Stephen Shedletzky: pay the appropriate taxes on dividend or whatever it needs to be. You know? So that's how I approach it, which I think is conservative and may not be everyone's style. But... Yeah.
[00:36:05] Dustin Serviss: I think you, you've recently written a book, and that's part along the same lines as what you're talking about now. People look at books as, like, wow. One million books sold at twenty four ninety five. That's twenty four million. Like, it isn't quite that easy. So No. No. Help. Again, I I
[00:36:22] Stephen Shedletzky: always also not the right math, but carry on.
[00:36:24] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. So having a book myself and sort of going through it, I would share it, you know, as I as I close off the podcast because it is an interesting investment when you tell people about it. Oh, you're gonna spend x amount. So in your book, did you map out a budget, or have you just sort of built it, written it, had it edited, and now you've got your total cost, and then you hope to use that book for some sort of return or... Are you gonna sell them, or what... What's the plan with the book?
[00:36:52] Stephen Shedletzky: Yeah. Great question. So, yeah, I just came out with a book, October third, my first book called Speak Up Culture, When Leaders Truly Listen People Step Up. And so my first decision was, how do I publish the book? So there's the spectrum. On one side, sort of on the far left here, there's self publishing. On the other end of the spectrum, there's traditional publishing. And then in the middle, there's this thing called hybrid publishing, which is what I ended up going with. So self publishing is you pick everything from soup to nuts, and you fully self fund it. You set up your own publishing company, and you have to do everything
[00:37:26] Stephen Shedletzky: from design, exterior, interior, picking font size, paper thickness, write the thing, edit the thing, you know, print the thing, figure out detail... Like, retail distribution, like, wow. And I had seen some friends and folks go through that, and the sorta answer I got is unless you're Seth Godin, don't do it. Then there's traditional publishing. And what I sorta came to with traditional publishing is you only do traditional publishing if you get an offer that you can't refuse. Right. Right? And for me, you know, I had a decent pedigree. I worked with this author for more than ten years, but, like, I wasn't
[00:38:07] Stephen Shedletzky: a retired Navy SEAL fighter pilot, XCO of Disney or NFL football player. I I was some dude, you know, with a decent social following and a decent pedigree that, you know, would likely lead to some success or book sales. But I sort of figured I'll probably get a, you know, high five figure book deal, which is not anything to trip over, but it's not a... An obvious decision. I've also heard nightmare stories because when a traditional publisher buys your book, I mean, a, you gotta create a book proposal. You gotta shop it with a literary agent, then you gotta shop it with publishing houses. It can take time.
[00:38:48] Stephen Shedletzky: And as well, a publisher is buying you as the product to fit in their catalog of which they have influence over the specs of said product from a creative and editorial point of view. And I've heard nightmare stories of first time authors hating the covers of their book or not writing the book that was in them, but writing the book that their publisher had bought. So there's this other model called the hybrid model of which there are a few really great hybrid publishers. One of them is mine. I'm biased, but one of them is mine, page two, out of Vancouver, close close to where you are. And instead of being the product, you're the client.
[00:39:28] Stephen Shedletzky: Now it does mean though that you need to pay for it. So I sort of... I knew roughly how much it was gonna cost me. Fortunately, I'm extroverted, so I speak to think. And so I sorta committed to... I'm gonna give... I'm gonna do work on this keynotes and workshops as I'm doing it. And so as I was actually paying for it as I was doing it
[00:39:53] Dustin Serviss: Smart. Yep.
[00:39:54] Stephen Shedletzky: Both from savings and then both from work that I was actively doing on it, which is not everyone's circumstance. But now I'm now still treating it as a separate line item with fixed and variable costs and treating keynotes and workshops and high, medium, low touch, revenue as separate line items Yeah. And seeing... You know, we have to sell ten thousand books at full price to make our money back, which we intend to do. You know? And we've sold about nine thousand so far. So Well, that's that's how I view it.
[00:40:33] Dustin Serviss: I appreciate that story again and not, some people may wanna write a book. And, listener, if you're doing that, I definitely encourage you to check out Shedd's book and do a little research. Feel free to ask me. It is a process, and you do need to think about it before you, embark on it because it's a big. Writing. It is about twenty five, thirty percent of the work that needs to be done. So, Shed, thanks for coming on the show today. Where can people find, your information? Where can they find you? Where can they connect with you online?
[00:41:00] Stephen Shedletzky: Yes. For the time being, I think I'm the only Steven in the world, so I'm a very easy Google search away if you can find a way to spell my last name. But you can learn more about the book and my work at speak up culture dot com as well as Shed inspires dot com. And a a joy to join you.
[00:41:18] Dustin Serviss: Awesome, Shed. I will for sure to check it out, and thanks again for coming on today.
[00:41:22] Stephen Shedletzky: My pleasure. Thank you.
[00:41:25] Dustin Serviss: Thank you for tuning in to this episode. If you enjoyed the show, please like and rate the show, share with a friend, or use your new knowledge in your next conversation. If during the show something gave you a pang of inspiration, motivation, or sense of uncertainty, act on it now. Get the clarity you're looking for. Find the permission you seek. Go to service wealth dot com to discover how others are learning how to take Fridays off or buying a recreation property or spending more money. If you're an organizer of an event where you believe my philosophy on finance
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