Skot Waldron:
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Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Unlocked. Today, I am talking to Reneldo Randall of Friends In Biz, and this is a great conversation. I loved this conversation. It is all about not just being an entrepreneur, and not just starting businesses, but we go into a little bit more of a specific topic when we start talking about partnerships. And not only partnerships, but partnerships with friends and family, and what that means, and why we shouldn’t do it. Why we should do it, why they fail, and the psychology behind them. We even coined a fun phrase about getting pre-partnership counseling. Kind of like pre-marriage counseling, but pre-partnership counseling. And he offers some great tools to help you with that.
If you are an entrepreneur, if you’ve been in business, if you’re thinking about going into business with a partner, this is going to be a great interview for you. If you’ve ever been in a partnership and want to learn from those experiences, this might help you as well. So listen up, Reneldo has some awesome information for us. Let’s do it.
(music)
Hey man, how’s it going?
Reneldo Randall:
I’m well, sir. How are you?
SKOT WALDRON:
Hanging tough. Hanging tough. Doing the thing we do, right? It’s 2021.
RENELDO RANDALL:
Absolutely.
SKOT WALDRON:
So, I want to just start right out of the gate here. You’ve got a lot of experience doing a lot of different things, everything from higher education administrator, which is what you do, nonprofit leader, business strategist, mentor. You are doing a lot of things to help people through a journey. Whether that’s as a higher ed administrator helping younger people find a career, build them, mentor them through that career, but also really helping entrepreneurs with a focus there on creating structure and intentionality around building good and healthy cultures. Why are you doing that?
RENELDO RANDALL:
I think it’s something just built into my DNA. That’s a good question. Why? It’s nothing that I have picked all the time. I think it’s just things that picked me, and the things that felt right. And so, I just kind of moved forward with them. And so, it is a kind of a reoccurring ribbon or narrative that’s gone throughout my life where it’s service. I’m a social entrepreneur. And so, all of my things are kind of in that vein of helping. So, I’m in the helping business all around, right? And so, I fell into higher education, but it utilizes all my skillsets. Fell into the nonprofit. It utilizes all my skill sets and passions. And so, the list goes on with every other business that I’ve decided to dive into.
SKOT WALDRON:
Social entrepreneurship. I love that term. So, I’ve never really heard it put that way before, but I love that. You have some training in human resources, communication styles, and developing those. One thing you mentioned was something interesting about the biggest mistake that companies make when it comes to their company culture. And you said, number one, not being intentional. They’re not intentional about it. Or, number two, they’re not serious enough about it to make sure that one even exists or is that it’s maintained. Maybe they’ll go out and do a quick little training or something, but the seriousness comes into holding on to that, making sure it’s sticky, consistent, and that it lasts, right? That it’s sustainable over time. So, have you noticed that in the past with other organizations, maybe people you have worked with in the past? Why did you pick those things as the biggest problems companies are making?
RENELDO RANDALL:
Yes. I just see it a lot, right? They’re either too big to be intentional, or they’re just not serious about being intentional. And you have to know what you want to set, in terms of culture for your company or your organization. You got to know, and you have to be intentional about making sure that permeates throughout the company. And if you’re a bigger company, it just means you got to put more effort towards it. If you’re a smaller company, it can be a bit easier. Sometimes it can happen organic. But, if you’re a larger company, mid-sized company, you can’t trust that it will happen organically. People are coming into your organizations with lots of skills, but you need to set the culture, right? The leader needs to set the pace. And it’s important that you do that, right? Because if you let it take on a culture of its own, an identity of its own, it’s going to be hard to kind of get it back, right?
It’s good-
SKOT WALDRON:
Oh, you went on mute.
RENELDO RANDALL:
I’m sorry.
SKOT WALDRON:
Oh, there you go. There you go.
RENELDO RANDALL:
Yeah. So, I was just saying any changes that you need to make along the way, you can just simply implement those. But when you start out right, it usually ends up right. So, I think concerted effort needs to be put towards that.
SKOT WALDRON:
Okay, start right, so that it ends right. Be proactive, not reactive.
RENELDO RANDALL:
There you go.
SKOT WALDRON:
That’s what I think is a big problem.
RENELDO RANDALL:
There you go. Yeah.
SKOT WALDRON:
And if we looked back at COVID, or even the racial injustice issues that we were having in this country, and inside of organizations that have all been there but probably just came to the surface, how many companies were reactive to that whole situation as opposed to proactive? That’s something that’s really interesting that I think that we all need to think about and use as an example in the past.
RENELDO RANDALL:
Yeah. I think now that it’s happened… Nobody expected that to happen, right. There’s companies or industries that never thought that anything would disrupt their scalability and their long-term strategy. And so, the pandemic comes out of left field and really stirred things up for everybody. Now that it’s happened, people will obviously put things in place to prevent things like this in the future.
It’s also going to change their mindset. They’re going to operate different. So now, when they’re doing their SWOT analysis and they’re thinking about the future, the way they invest in things and what they do, they’re probably always going to have pretty solid, now, contingency plans. Because now that this has happened, right? We haven’t seen this happen in our lifetime, certainly, right, in the last century. And so, now that it’s happening, it’s going to change the way we’ve done business and we’ve worked within our companies forever.
I think the fact that people are working at home, the teleworking, will increase now, right? Because some of the things have shown some cost savings, right? And so, there’s been some chinks in the armor kind of illuminated, but it also shows some things, some ways we could work better, that we’ve probably been spending a little bit more money in places where the money didn’t need to be spent, and we were probably putting the resources in places where we didn’t need the resources.
And now that we’re having to kind of step back and see what’s a necessity for running business, now that’s becoming a little bit more clear.
SKOT WALDRON:
Right on.
RENELDO RANDALL:
So, certainly changes that are going to stay. Some will be for efficiency purposes.
SKOT WALDRON:
Definitely. You see it all over the board. Right? And it’s really interesting because it kind of pushed some companies into that. Right? It was companies that maybe dabbled with remote working before, or, “No, no, no, no, no, no. We’re not going to do that. I like all my people here, I like to be able to see them. I like to be able to know that they’re doing their jobs, and be able to touch them and talk to them,” and whatever.
But, now they had to do it. It was an experiment that was forced upon them. And I think a lot, I would say more companies rather than less, came out of that finding new, brilliant ways to be productive, to build trust with their employees, and to give them more freedom, and to build a culture that hopefully is going to help them in the long term, not hurt them.
RENELDO RANDALL:
Yes. I agree. And they were forced into it. Right?
SKOT WALDRON:
Yeah.
RENELDO RANDALL:
And so, when you’re forced into it, you got to go through the different levels of rebellion and resistance, and then you finally adopt it, and then you become a part of it. Right? You start to play nice, and then you finally start to see what it is that everyone else is saying that the visionaries in the company and the business see, and you just move forward.
So, it’s going to change things. I mean, it showed a lot of inefficiencies, too. And so, if you think about travel. So, anybody could travel for business. Now they’re on Zoom, right? And so, think about how much money that saved. You think about people that… Even commuting, office space, right? Renting commercial locations for office space? It stretches out the gambit, right? Now, there is a piece of that that probably is going to require some training, for the trust piece and the remote work, and balancing if children are at home, or if there’s multiple people working at home, some psychological components in that as well.
But, I mean, there’s a lot of great things that are coming out of a really horrible, horrible situation, though.
SKOT WALDRON:
That’s right.
RENELDO RANDALL:
It’s an interesting dynamic.
SKOT WALDRON:
Yeah, it is. Let’s talk about, you’re kind of focused now on entrepreneurship. How do you feel like this, the pandemic, has shaped the entrepreneurial space? Your clients, the people you work with, what’s going on in their minds right now?
RENELDO RANDALL:
Yeah. So, if you’re already an established business person, and you had a brick-and-mortar business, obviously you’ve had to change how you’ve done business to survive. And so, either you scale your business quickly with peripheral-type products and services, right, where you can slide into stuff that’s closely related to what you’ve already done, if you were no longer able to do business solely the way that you formally do business.
Then you have a group that are going to have to change altogether, right? What you’ve done in the past, because of the pandemic you can’t do anymore. And so, then you have to find a way to serve another need, right, to satisfy another need. And that’s what businesses do. They solve problems.
And then you have a group that, because of the pandemic, they’ve maybe been disjointed or lost that nine-to-five, and now they’re going to have to start a business, right? We’re in the gig economy. We’ve been in the gig economy for a little while, so they may come up with another fancy term, but it’s the gig economy where people have done stuff. Uber, Uber Eats, they’ve done all these different things to kind of bring in some additional cashflow. Or, they’ve done, they’ve sewn, or they’ve made things. Now, those things are going to become viable businesses for some people where they’re going to use that to clothe their kids and bring groceries into the house, and then pay their rent or mortgage.
And so, you’re going to see those three type of business people. Those are in business that are evolving in a business because of COVID, you’re going to see those that are going to have to change… If you’re a business person, lots of times you can’t be married to the business you’re in. You have to find another business, and that’s going to be some people.
And there’s people that never thought about being an entrepreneur and are now being kind of forced into being an entrepreneur with a skill, or a gift that they had, or a problem they didn’t think they were going to have to solve that now they’ll solve.
SKOT WALDRON:
Okay. That’s really good insight. And let’s put another complicated layer on top of this. So, you also work with entrepreneurs that are working with family and friends, partnerships, starting businesses with family and friends. And maybe, I don’t know why, maybe it’s because they’ve been quarantined for months, and they’re like, “Hey, we should start some business together.” So, tell me about that dynamic. How do you even begin a business with a friend, family, someone that’s close to you?
RENELDO RANDALL:
Yeah. Very carefully. Right? I mean, you let me know, Skot. When you’ve ever heard people that are doing business with family or friends, usually it’s not… It’s frowned upon a little bit, right? It’s not encouraged. The risk outweighs the cost. I mean, the benefit outweighs the cost in a lot of cases based on people’s conversations.
And so, me and my best friend had been doing business for about 30 years, and so we were like, “Well, we’ve been able to do this.” Multiple businesses and throughout different industries. And so-
SKOT WALDRON:
Wait, hold on. Let me stop you there. You said you and your friend have been doing business for 30 years?
RENELDO RANDALL:
My friend. Yeah.
SKOT WALDRON:
30 years?
RENELDO RANDALL:
30. Well, and so-
SKOT WALDRON:
Wow. That’s awesome.
RENELDO RANDALL:
I’m not that old. I know. Thank you for bringing that up. So, 30 years, when I was-
SKOT WALDRON:
What, did you start when you were 10?
RENELDO RANDALL:
We started young. Literally, we were probably 12 or 13.
SKOT WALDRON:
Wow.
RENELDO RANDALL:
And so, it started as athletics, right, and it’s how to work with a team. That’s where it starts. Right? You want to win, and you want to win in business, and winning means different things. But we had to work on a team together and we had to lead teams of our own. He was on offense, I was on defense. We had to work together to get the offense/defense to do what we wanted to do, which was win. And so, it’s almost like we were the heads of the two areas, and then we went back to the areas to help the whole team win. So, it really started there conceptually, and it just stuck.
And so, then we went into nonprofit, we went into minority investing, publishing company, speaking business, and the list goes on. And so, we organically did that. And so, then we went back and figured out what we did right and what other people were doing wrong, because people kept asking us, right?
And so we sat down and we talked to other business owners that are friends and family and loved ones, right, and we actually have an inventory that you should sit down with your friend or family member, right, before you even get started.
Kind of like marriage counseling. I’m married. So, me and my wife did pre-marriage counseling. And so, we sat down with the pre-marriage counselor and we talked about what do I like? What do we don’t like, right? Because when you start off in marriage or in business, it’s all happy and euphoric, but then life happens.
And so, same thing with business. Life happens. So, you set these rules and guidelines while you’re in a good state of mind, you’re jovial and you’re feeling good. And then, when those storms come, because they will come, you revisit the document and you talk about what you said you would do when you were feeling good about the business. And now that things are a little rocky, you revisit the rules that were made.
And so, it’s the thing that keeps things in order. So, that’s how you should start it. And that’s kind of the background of how we got into the book and then now into the coaching and consulting type [crosstalk 00:15:53].
SKOT WALDRON:
Okay. So, you’re saying that I should go into pre-partnership counseling, right?
RENELDO RANDALL:
Yes.
SKOT WALDRON:
Is that what it is?
RENELDO RANDALL:
Pre-partnership counseling. I think you just coined something. Yeah.
SKOT WALDRON:
Run with it, man.
RENELDO RANDALL:
Pre-partnership counseling.
SKOT WALDRON:
New business for you. Because apparently you like starting stuff. So, there you go. You and your business partner.
RENELDO RANDALL:
Yeah. I appreciate that.
SKOT WALDRON:
Pre-partnership counseling.
RENELDO RANDALL:
Partnership counseling.
SKOT WALDRON:
Bring me in on just-
RENELDO RANDALL:
That’s exactly what it is.
SKOT WALDRON:
I want to be brought in on something right there.
RENELDO RANDALL:
For certain. Count it done.
SKOT WALDRON:
That’s awesome. So, that’s so valuable because here’s what happens, right? And I’ve had a lot of discussions with different people. I’ve never actually done it because my dad’s an accountant and he said, “Oh man, you don’t want a partnership. They always end up this way. They always end up that way. No, you don’t want that.” So, I’ve always kind of been really trigger shy, right?
But going in with these individuals, there’s definitely a lot of value that that adds, right?
RENELDO RANDALL:
Right.
SKOT WALDRON:
There’s some scary things, but the value there is also important. If I’m on the fence, what would you say to me to help me really consider doing the partnership thing?
RENELDO RANDALL:
Yeah. Well, think about it. For those of us thought about starting a business, or even when you want to tell somebody something exciting about your life, you always go to your friends, family and loved ones. You start a business, either you’re doing the business with them, or you want them to be a customer. Right? And so, there’s the benefit of picking who you do business with, right, and having it be somebody that you know, love and trust. And so, that’s a big thing, right? And that is a big thing. And sometimes that’s enough, right? You know, love and trust them. And not only do you work with them, but you have an opportunity to go on vacation with them. So, you make the money with them, and you spend the money with them. Right? And then there’s things that, once you get further down the line, there’s legacy that’s there.
And so, it can build the relationship. And this is what our book endeavors to do, build the business relationship, but also build the relationship that was existing. Right? At least maintaining it, but even growing it. And so, it’s just that idea of doing business with people you know, love and trust, and then spending money with people you know, love and trust. And you all make the rules. There needs to be equal respect. And there’s a lot of complexities to work out in any business because people are different, the relationships are different, but if you can work those out, it’s bliss.
SKOT WALDRON:
Okay. So what types of… Because I dig a lot into personalities and communication styles in my line of work and what I do with coaching clients. I know you do that, too. What would you consider the almost ideal partnership? Who are those individuals, those personalities, that make up kind of that solid partnership you’ve seen be successful?
RENELDO RANDALL:
Gotcha. So even in our book, we talk about doing a personality test, and a battery of them, not just one. Do three or four, so that there’s no refuting the sign says, right? All of them are saying, this is the type of personality you are. And that way we don’t have to tell your friend, family and loved ones, “Yeah. You’re this person.” Right? You had that to support you. And they bring in somebody like you or me to say, “Hey, this supports it. Let’s talk about what this means, and how you all can use this to build together.” So I would also say, it really doesn’t matter. You need to figure out what they are, but after that, it doesn’t matter what they are, because then you bring on the other personality types or skillsets that you need to make the business run.
Right? So, whatever you don’t have, and identify that, whatever your weakness is, then you bring on people that have that strength. Now, the tricky part is in the beginning, when you’re a microbusiness, you’re a solopreneur times two, I guess, right? You’re a partnershipreneur duo. You may have to do a lot of the stuff which may not be in your wheelhouse. But if you know your partner’s, your family member’s personality type, what moves them, it helps out a lot. Just as you make decisions, the way you receive them when they say certain things, even through electronic medium. So, it just helps you move. You don’t spend a lot of emotional energy, right, on thinking through why they did or said a certain thing. You know that it’s attached to the personality type. You don’t take it personal. You can keep moving. Right? And that keeps the momentum going, and it keeps a happy, healthy balance.
SKOT WALDRON:
Okay. So I-
RENELDO RANDALL:
Yeah. But if you don’t-
SKOT WALDRON:
Oh, go ahead. Sorry.
RENELDO RANDALL:
No, I was just saying, I was just going to end with this. Right? It’s important to know that you and that person don’t have to be the end all be all. You should and will, when the time is right, bring on other people that fill in those gaps, in personality and in skillset.
SKOT WALDRON:
Okay. So, what I was going to say, that’s right on, right? And what you said about filling those gaps, because we call it the missing voice, right? If you understand your own style, it’s first being self-aware. Being aware of my strengths and weaknesses, what I bring to the table, what I need help with, what my partner brings to the table, what they also need help with, being okay with that, humble enough to have that good discussion, and then bringing in people eventually, to help us where we need that hole filled. Right?
RENELDO RANDALL:
Absolutely. You know, what’s difficult is, like me. So, we said, we’ve been doing it for 30 years. People change a lot in 30 years. I’m certainly not the 12-year-old I was. I mean, I had hair.
SKOT WALDRON:
What? You did?
RENELDO RANDALL:
Yeah, I had hair. So, when people know you for that long, it’s difficult for them to see you in a different light. And so, you have to be… Athletics helped us because we got really good at constructive criticism, and we got really good at knowing each other in tight spots. And so, you really got to assess how you know a person, and really come to terms with, this is their new skillset in this endeavor, and if you share multiple endeavors, like me and my partner do, well, in one endeavor, he’s kind of the leader. And in this endeavor, I’m the leader because of the nature of the business.
But we respect our skillsets, and it really, really works good because it’s an unspoken communication that makes things rapid-fire.
SKOT WALDRON:
Nice.
RENELDO RANDALL:
So, I would pray that everyone would [inaudible 00:22:10]. And the thing, too, is everybody will be a friend in business, right, because this also fits into the corporate world. You’re going to make friends. So, it’s friends, family, and familiarity partner. So, in business you work somewhere for a decade or so, they’re your friends. You spend more time with them than your family. So, how do you also deal with them in the same way? It doesn’t have to be an entrepreneurial enterprise.
SKOT WALDRON:
So, let’s jump off the other side. Why do most of them fail, then? It has such a stigma to it, right? Don’t start businesses with friends. Don’t even do business with friends and family. Don’t sell them anything, don’t buy anything from them, and definitely don’t go into business with them. So, why is there that stigma though? Why do they fail?
RENELDO RANDALL:
Yeah, so, we did a poll, right? We did our due diligence. And so, a lot of people feel like the cost doesn’t outweigh the benefit, right? People don’t respect your skillset. I kind of alluded to that. They treat you different than they would treat a stranger in business. All right? They want a discount if they’re going to be a consumer of yours. There’s just a lot of complexity. It does take a lot. It does take some emotional exercise. It takes a little bit of work to get it going, right, because you got to work through these things, how you feel.
You just met me today. So, all you know about me is my professional life, right? Well, you didn’t meet me today, but in the last couple of months. Where my friends have known me all my life. And if they’re really close friends, they know all my dirt. And so, it’s hard to departmentalize that piece of them, and not recognize them as this person. So, it takes some work to realize what are the things that are going to be barriers to doing business with family and friends. And then after hearing that information, is it still worth it? Right?
And so, it ultimately has to be worth it. It has to be something you want to do. You have to see the vision, you have to see the goal, and you have to see the benefits, and be willing to work on the things that are common slippery slopes, so that you all don’t slip down those slopes.
SKOT WALDRON:
So, why have you been able to do it for 30 years? I mean, besides all that kind of other stuff we’ve been talking about, right? And you could re-emphasize any of those points, but what is the secret sauce for you and your partner?
RENELDO RANDALL:
Man. I don’t know if we’ve just been lucky, but the book says, right, as we distilled it down, we have respect for one another, right? So, there’s that equal respect. Constructive criticism is used because people are sensitive. We really learn each other’s personality types throughout the years. Some of that just came because we were intuitive to know, or we did move forward with a lot of personality tests. We spent a lot of time together. And so, we know each other’s weaknesses and strengths and pain points, right?
And then one thing is really, really cool, that really maintains this, right, we keep each other accountable. And in our romantic relationships, and our business relationships, and our relationship with other friends, we keep each other accountable. And we’re open to that constructive criticism.
But the one thing I will say is it’s really hard to have conversations with people when it’s something real touchy and you just don’t know how to open up the door for conversation. So, what we’ve done to make it easy, and this is a freebie, everybody should use it, is come up with some type of code word that notifies that person that, “Hey, I’m feeling some type of way about what’s going on.” Or, in a meeting with other people, what’s being said. And so, that’s an indicator to them, “Oh, Reneldo doesn’t like what I’m saying for some reason. I trust and respect him enough to stop, have the conversation, or to stop what I’m saying in the meeting, and maybe let him jump in, right, and then we can talk. We can debrief afterwards about what that was.
And so, that’s probably one of the biggest things. Because if you can think about it, when you need to have a hard conversation, it’s like, when’s the right moment? How do I lead into it? It’s too emotionally charged right now. So, simple. Take all that off of the table. One key word that lets them know that, “Oh, okay. We need to bring it down, or take it away, because we need to talk about something here.” And be willing to have that conversation.
But it makes it so much easier because hit that word, you don’t have to think about it, and that’s indication that, “Hey, we’re not on the same page.” So, combination of that stuff, but that word, that’s been really great because when you can’t articulate or stop, you just say the word and that pauses everything.
SKOT WALDRON:
So, like yellow banana, right?
RENELDO RANDALL:
Yeah. That’d be hard to get off in a meeting, but yeah.
SKOT WALDRON:
Okay.
RENELDO RANDALL:
It has to be something that-
SKOT WALDRON:
Something like that, right?
RENELDO RANDALL:
Yeah, it has to be something you can say in public, but if you’re on the phone, or even in a text, right.
SKOT WALDRON:
Okay.
RENELDO RANDALL:
So, we talk a lot about electronic communication because as you know, it can get convoluted when you’re doing business on that. Particularly if people don’t know you. But when they know you better, they can receive, understand, your communication via electronic medium better as well.
SKOT WALDRON:
So, yellow banana is probably a little bit complicated.
RENELDO RANDALL:
Yellow banana. Yeah. That might be an awkward word in the room, but you got the idea.
SKOT WALDRON:
I got you, man. I got you. I’ve heard something a little bit like that. And, in the marriage counseling space, right, is, “Hey, there has to be some kind of agreement.” Right? So, say I don’t want to go to this party. Right? My wife wants to go to this thing. Okay? We talked about it before, there’s agreement, there’s an understanding. I don’t want to go, but I will go, and we’re going to stay for 45 minutes. There’s a mutual agreement, but there’s some kind of key phrase, key word I can use, to let her know that I’m done. There’s got to be this give and take. And I think that’s what you’re talking about is that this relationship that… You’ve known your business partner longer than your wife, right?
RENELDO RANDALL:
Yeah.
SKOT WALDRON:
And, it’s a tight relationship, but it’s been built off respect, understanding and trust with each other.
RENELDO RANDALL:
Yeah.
SKOT WALDRON:
So, I think that that’s really important. Building employee engagement. When we talk about that, and engagement with others around us, how do we foster that? How do we get more engagement out of those that are working with us in a partnership, or maybe those working for us?
RENELDO RANDALL:
So, man. What immediately comes to my mind is, as a leader, I feel like, and particularly in a meeting setting, you start the meeting and you’re in the meeting. And everything in between is engagement of the bright people that you hired or were thrust upon you. So, you start the meeting with the idea, and you let them talk, and you insert for clarity. And then at the end, you close the meeting, recapping what you’ve pulled out of it to confirm that that’s what we’re going to move forward with. So, a very diplomatic, but democratic type leadership style. But I also think as a leader… And you don’t have to be the person in charge, obviously, to be the leader. But as that influencer, I feel like you got to know your people.
It gets more difficult the larger the company gets, but you have to know your people, or at least the key leaders over the different sectors of department. You want to be genuine, so you don’t want to be disingenuous with this, but you definitely want to check in with them. Know what they like, know what they don’t like, see how the dog, if they have a dog instead of a child, or they’re getting married, or their mother-in-law, that you want to know those things. You want to check in on them. Right? Because people want to know that you care. Never care how much you know until they know how much you care. Right? That’s the saying that I’ve embodied. Right? I literally want to know how they’re doing. Particularly during COVID, right? And so you get more out of them that way, and you hire them all with their skills and then you let them be free to be great, too.
And so, my employees, I rarely have the best idea. Right? And so, that type of engagement, and sometimes they’ll, knowing that it’s open, and it’s democratic like that, they’ll toss in ideas about what we should do as an office, right? The team. I’m like, that’s great. That’s not my strength, but I know. And identifying people’s strengths at the same time.
So, it’s a couple of different things woven in there, right? Identifying their strengths, being genuine about their life outside of work, even though they spend a lot of time at work, and it’s giving them the freedom just to be great. Right? Bring great ideas to the table. Let’s see if we can use them now, or if we can make them best fit for this moment, or do we need to put them on the shelf and revisit them later?
SKOT WALDRON:
Love it, man. So good. I’m not going to mess it up by saying anything else. Because that was great. That was awesome. I really appreciate it. Is there anything that you can offer my audience to help them with any of this?
RENELDO RANDALL:
Yeah. So, if you want to go to Friends in Biz, right, friendsinbiz.com/resources. So this, what’d you call it, this partnership? I like the way you phrased it. It’s the marriage counseling piece, but it’s that… What’s the new coining? I might change the name of it. What’d you call it earlier?
SKOT WALDRON:
Pre-partnership counseling?
RENELDO RANDALL:
There you go. Pre-partnership counseling. So, there’s a document like that, and then there’s a second document that talks about strategy, right? So, a kind of risk assessment, right? So, the one document will talk about, well, what should you sit down and talk about with the friend that you’re going to be in business with? And once you look at it, you’ll see that it can be used for other things as well.
And then, there’s a strategic document, like risk assessment. And so, that’s what people are worried about at the end of the day. And so, I think that once they get comfortable with that, they feel more comfortable about moving forward because some of the risk has been removed.
So, I think that’s a resource that will save people a lot of time. And then also on the website, they can find out about what we do. It’s pretty niched. And yeah, if they have any questions, they can contact me there. My information’s there.
SKOT WALDRON:
Awesome. That is so good. Yeah. Those two documents are really interesting to me. Right? I mean, I’m not into a partnership right now, but I would love to see kind of the psychology behind what is in those questions because I could probably apply them to my marriage, right, at the same time. Right?
RENELDO RANDALL:
Absolutely. We say R&D is research and development? Well, it’s also rip off and duplicate.
SKOT WALDRON:
Yeah.
RENELDO RANDALL:
So, a lot of that, at least conceptually, is from marriage counseling. Right? I feel like I have a pretty good marriage, and I know a lot of stuff crosses over in business.
SKOT WALDRON:
It does.
RENELDO RANDALL:
And people should not be afraid to allow it to cross over, for the betterment of whatever you’re doing.
SKOT WALDRON:
It’s so true. So true. Well, I appreciate you, Reneldo. Good luck in all you’re doing. Keep rocking it out there. Good luck. You started a new mastermind group, so good luck with that.
RENELDO RANDALL:
Thank you.
SKOT WALDRON:
And helping those entrepreneurs. I call them the little fish with big dreams, right?
RENELDO RANDALL:
Little fish with big dreams.
SKOT WALDRON:
That’s what they are. So, congratulations on doing that. I’m an entrepreneur, you’re an entrepreneur. Let’s rule the world, right?
RENELDO RANDALL:
Yeah. Everybody’s an entrepreneur. Appreciate it, Skot with a K.
SKOT WALDRON:
All right, buddy. See ya.
I’m going to hit on those three last topics. Strengths. Understand the strengths of your people. Be genuine. Really be genuine. Have interest in them. Understand where they’re coming from. Understand them as people, not just their skills, the things they do in that way, but their lives. Understand who they are as people. And number three, it’s about giving them the freedom to be free. I love that statement.
Freedom, I call it liberation, comes through empowerment. And when we empower other people, when we give them the freedom to be free, all types of things can happen in their own lives as individuals, in their families, and in our teams and our organizations. We will grow. We will excel. We will be all the things that we dream we can be when we’re entrepreneurs starting companies.
So, take that to heart. The partnership discussion is key. I hope that you took something out of that. And, if you did, throw it in the comments, throw it in the chat. I would love to understand a little bit more about what you’re thinking as you listen to these episodes. If you want to find out more, you can visit my website at skotwaldron.com. If you want to read see more of my interviews and whatnot, YouTube channel, it’s all good. Please subscribe, like, share, do all those things. I really appreciate you. This has been an episode of Unlocked, and we will see you next time.
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