ARJUN:
Tom, looking at your streak of big wins both as a client, then backing for clients on the agency side and having such a big impact, what are some of your biggest success stories and how do you get there? How do you consistently keep hitting grand slams?
TOM:
The biggest success story is probably the startup of Razor. That was a digital marketing agency I co-founded. We started it with $25,000 and three employees in some borrowed space. Within four years we were 200 people and recognized by Adweek as the fastest growing agency in the country, and we did that during some down economic years. In fact, one time at a staff meeting when we were in the middle of our highest growth year, I said to the team that Razor had higher net job growth than the entire state of California. That got a little laugh, but I said it because I thought we should be proud.
But I was also referring to another message that you don't have to let outside circumstances get in the way of your success. You just need to attack with focus and resolve. That's worked throughout my career. Here’s a current example. I’m working with a digital marketing agency named Tandem Theory, which brought me on board just as the COVID shutdown hit. Because of that, their clients got hit really hard and their revenue fell 40% overnight. So I worked with them on a project called “A Rising Phoenix” where we said, “We're not going to let outside circumstances dictate our fate. We're not going to stand still and just hold on. We're going to grow through this, get ahead of the pack, and set ourselves up for a great next year.” It worked. Tandem won six clients in nine weeks and they couldn’t hire people fast enough. They attacked with focus and resolve.
ARJUN:
In an environment like that, how did you change the morale and make them believe in what you talked about? You said so brilliantly and confidently, “we will not let outside events dictate our fate.” That’s a very powerful statement. How did you get through, and make everybody align with that?
TOM:
It's a process. In this case, there was a very strong culture to begin with at Tandem Theory. They had a highly collaborative culture from the beginning. So we could build on that. And we were 100% transparent. We told the team that temporary salary reductions were necessary because of the drop in revenue. But as we communicated very frequently with each win, each time we made progress against the plan we had shared with them, we reached the point where we were able to announce that Tandem would give the staff back all the dollars they had sacrificed in their salary reduction. So they became whole.
ARJUN:
That says a lot about you as a leader, coming with so much conviction and helping a team turn around in such a short timeframe. As you look back at your career, is there one person or incident that has inspired you the most?
TOM:
There is something that happened a long time ago when I was just out of business school. I was working in marketing at Pizza Hut, and I was feeling a little bit over my head. Our head of marketing was named David Novak and he was a giant to me. One day David walked into my tiny cubicle and handed me his speech he was going to make to the entire franchise community in a couple days. He asked me if I would look it over and make some edits and tell him how to make it better. So, I went home that night and marked up his speech and made some comments. I actually crossed off one entire page. To me it just wasn't working.
The next day when I gave him the marked-up doc I immediately second guessed myself. Was I going too far? I was telling him that his speech wasn't very good. He took a look and said, "I agree". When he looked at the big edit, he said, "I hated that section too". He basically accepted every one of my edits and made that speech to the franchise community. It inspired me. I felt I could do anything at that point. I always remember two things I took away from that. One, I realized that even as an entry-level guy, I could have a voice and I never gave that voice up. And I always remembered the impact that had on me when a senior leader talked to a junior leader and listened and took his advice. So I've tried to be a good listener to my entire career.
ARJUN:
I can relate to that because I was there in that building. You’ve helped me understand both of your takeaways from that experience. Looking at David Novak, along with other incredible leaders we have crossed paths with, what are a few traits that are important or non-negotiable in an amazing future leader?
TOM:
I think the traits are more about who they are than what they know. I start with selflessness. That is critical. I don't think you can make big impacts if you think of yourself more than you're thinking of your organization. I also think humility is very important for a couple of reasons. The minute you stop being humble you stop listening, you stop learning, you stop evolving, and you get passed by. Plus nobody puts all their heart into working for an arrogant leader. Then the last one I’d say is courage. Mediocre results are often found on the easiest path. Making a big impact takes bold moves and making bold moves takes courage.
ARJUN:
Many times in the corporate world we see someone who is a type-A personality come in like a storm and change the whole organization. But you're showing there are different forms of leadership, and the one based on selfless humility and courage is effective and sustainable. Is there a business story that you’ve shared most often as a leader?
TOM:
It is also a Pizza Hut story from a long time ago, and it deals with unintended consequences. Pizza Hut was making a push to overtake Domino's in delivery market share. They had a big operations initiative. They wanted to get 90% of their deliveries under 30 minutes. So they put the measurement systems in place. They put the incentives out there and they launched it. And sales plummeted. They just went through the floor. We were scrambling to figure out why, but the store managers actually figured out why before we did. They knew the key to getting 90% of their deliveries under 30 minutes was having enough drivers on staff in the store to make the deliveries. So they didn’t answer all their calls.
Remember, technology back then wasn’t as advanced as today, so when all these calls came in on their multiple phone lines, they didn’t automatically get placed on hold with reminders to keep waiting. You had to answer the call. So the store managers let them ring off the wall. They only answered enough calls where they knew they could make the delivery on time. They basically managed the order level down.
I took two things away from that. One is I learned to try to always think one more step. What about this? What about that? That served me well. I also learned this important lesson: you have to make yourself ready for success and ready for a big impact. For instance, at Tandem, while we were having success, we were also preparing for new business. We made sure the hiring pipeline was in place and we had some quality candidates we could bring onboard in a hurry. Because otherwise, that early success would have evaporated. We wouldn't have been able to sustain the good news in front of the staff, and we would have lost a lot of momentum.
ARJUN:
So early success evaporates if you do not make yourself ready for more success. I loved that example of the delivery drivers because many times when we think big, we forget that the one more step we talked about is a brilliant concept. So thank you for sharing that one concept.
Success is not always guaranteed in the business world. Many if not most of us face imminent failure at times. Many give up, but if you don’t and you march through that, it often gets you to some of your biggest wins. Could you share examples of things like that in your career? More importantly, what got you the confidence and how did you turn that imminent failure into a major win?
TOM:
I can share a business failure early in my life that turned my life around forever. My father was a small town Chevrolet dealer. I was working for him as a salesman, straight commission but I was doing okay. I was also enjoying the life of being a big fish in a small bowl. But I didn't have a plan other than that, and I really didn't have a great work ethic. I was just kind of having fun. Then there was a bad economy, which was compounded by my father's history of not controlling the spending that tightly. He, along with a lot of small town car dealers at the time, went bankrupt. He had nothing. I found myself without a plan, without any money or resources, and only a couple college classes under my belt. I felt completely lost.
But it shocked me into action. I moved to another city. I financed myself through school, graduated with honors, got a job, got a fellowship for business school, and graduated at the top of my class. From there, I’ve had a successful career. But it started with that shock. There were a couple of things. First of all, I realized how quickly things can go from great to going south on you. I never took success for granted again after that. I swore I was never going to feel that lost feeling again. That really became my drive and my motivator, and my work ethic changed dramatically. Lastly, what has really impacted me in my whole life is I swore I wasn't going to be 60 years old and broke like my father was. I’ve done well, but I’ve always made sure to live within my means, so that would never happen to me.
ARJUN:
My grandma became a widow at the age of 38. She sold life insurance and raised three kids and built a house. One time I asked her how she did it. She gave me the rule of quarters. She said, “If you make a dollar, right away, break it into four quarters. One goes for taxes and everything else you can’t control. One goes for committed future, like children’s education. The third goes for your own future. Now you have a quarter left, and you live within that quarter because that’s who you are.” I love that simplicity. Tom, thank you for taking me back there.
Let’s talk a bit about agency work. From the client side, people are impatient. They expect the agency to walk in and know where the client is, feel the pulse of the customer, and start producing right away. You work in different industries. How do you help your team to constantly feel the pulse of the customer? How do you do that?
TOM:
I'll answer that in the context of Tandem Theory and my current role. The Tandem team can only add the maximum amount of value for the clients if they know the client's business as well as they do. I'm a big believer in intellectual curiosity. I found it interesting that when I joined Tandem, they were already emphasizing a culture of curiosity. Even in the hires they make. Curiosity was actually on the review form and the performance measure. They have a couple teams dedicated to this. For instance, the data science team. They are constantly mining customer data and helping find gold in it for their clients. There’s also a research team that helps understand the competitive set, helps them understand the client's business. It’s a big investment to be close to the client, but I believe a culture of curiosity always keeps you close to your customers.
ARJUN:
Extending that, how do you see the next big idea in the industry for your clients? The work you’ve done has helped put brands into a rapid growth phase. So how do you see the next big ideas? What's the magic there, the secret?
TOM:
Given that currently I'm in the digital marketing space, everything is about the customer experience, positive frictionless customer experiences. I think the digital agencies that are the absolute best with data and analytics and content are going to dominate. I mentioned that Tandem has data and analytics at their core. They call themselves a customer experience agency and have a strong content team. I think they’re well positioned for rapid growth in that space. And that's what they're seeing right now.
ARJUN:
Let’s take all your experience and take a step back to the past. If today’s Tom were to have a conversation with young Tom, just out of school and beginning his career, what one piece of advice would you give your younger self?
TOM:
I would tell young Tom to enjoy the moment more. As I mentioned, that Tom had a great work ethic, but it came at some costs. I have three kids. There’s a good age spread between them, and I can certainly feel the difference in the amount of time I spend with my youngest. It’s easy to see now, but I was blind to it back in those days.
ARJUN:
I think that's one of the things anyone in the corporate world must realize. We all have the same 24 hours in a day, and we all make a choice how we distribute them. Speaking of how we use our time, I always find that great leaders have a process, because success that is planned has a process and can be repeated. So for you, what's the first thing you do when you start your day, and what's the last thing you do toward the end of the day?
TOM:
The first thing I do is visualize. Every morning I get up and go downstairs in my building to the gym to get my workout in. While I'm riding on the exercise bike, I run through the day. I visualize what meetings I'm going to have, what conversations I'm going to have, and how I'm going to approach those. What's the outcome? I get my day started that way.
I also like to visualize the long-term. Always kind of running through, where's Tandem Theory going to be in one year? Where are they going to be in two years? Where are they going to be in three years? I play with that in my mind all the time. And I find that the more I visualize, the more things tend to play out that way.
Then at the end of the day, it's very old school, but I'll take my list and see what I've checked off and what I didn't get checked off. I'll make my new list for the next day. I'll look at my calendar for the next day. That’s how I wind up my work before I walk away and try to leave it behind. My end of day itself, if I'm not falling asleep watching a movie or something, I just try to remind myself how fortunate I am not to take it for granted.
ARJUN:
Tom, you are a business transformation leader with a long history of making big impacts, and you’re not done yet. I’m looking forward to bigger impacts in your future. Thank you Tom sharing with each those of us just starting our career the advice to have the voice and have the courage and never give up that voice. And those of us who are little more on the mature side of a senior, I really think we need to keep the door and the window open. We need to always understand that feedback makes us better, feedback, asking for feedback, doesn't make us weak.
And thank you for sharing with us how you make yourself ready for success; because many times when we crossed the first threshold of success, we do not know what to do next. And that can be our biggest failure, not knowing how to get through. Because early success evaporates if you do not plan and you're ready for success. Thank you Tom.