Welcome to the Level Up Your Business Podcast! Owning a business is a challenge. Knowing how to keep innovating in your business is an even bigger one. Join restaurant owner, motivational speaker, and innovation expert Sara Frasca this week as she guides fellow business owner Rocco Catucci on how he can incentivize his employees for better performance and happier teams. If you've ever pondered hiring a business coach but want a sample first, come along for the adventure!
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Transcript:
You're listening to level up your business, the podcast where we talk to hardworking business owners and leaders and help them solve real issues in real time. I'm your host, Sarah Frasca restaurant owner, keynote speaker and business coach. I've spent my career not only in corporate America, but also as an entrepreneur, carrying on my family's legacy through my restaurant. Now a business coach and consultant, I'm helping other businesses to use creative problem solving and innovative thinking, to drive lasting change. Stay tuned to hear some inspiring guidance that will help you to level up your business. A little bit about myself from where I came from, and what am I doing today. I'm originally from upstate New York, my wife and I escaped to Florida in 1996. We've been here ever since we've opened up several businesses here, after closing six businesses down in New York. And I went to work for a large payment processing company, would we move down here, or did that for the last 25 years and decided within the last year and a half, it was time to get on my own again, and started another company. So I started a company called truly payments. And we do payments, payroll, we do ATMs, we do HR, we do all kinds of stuff for small businesses. And one of the reasons that I got into that was because being a small business owner, I kind of knew what the small business owners were going to do on a daily basis. Some of them didn't sleep at night, some of them had second and third mortgages on their homes just keep their businesses afloat, they are worried about inventory and overhead. They are worried about employees. So I knew the headaches. And I thought if I could develop a business where I could help them in some way, whether it be and all the things that I had mentioned everything from payments to payroll, that would be a benefit to the community. So I am doing that now full time. We have built a sales team, we have about 55 sales reps between Florida and California right now. And building it steadily. We're building relationships and partnerships with vendors and different POS systems companies, probably a lot of them that you've already heard of, or maybe use yourself and your business. So that's great. So you're from upstate New York, what area, it's please call them to the art. Syracuse, the Pennsylvania New York border. That's really neat. Cool. Well, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for joining us. And you started off in answering perfectly what my first question was going to be? And that's just kind of where have you come from? What did you kind of what was the impetus for growing and building your business? So that's really helpful. Explain a little bit I know there are two names of businesses that you represent. There's integrity, which is the logo you've got on the screen there. And then truly, what is the relationship? How does that work? Well, truly payments is the company that I own. And I'm Vice President of integrity payments, there is a relationship or partnership there so to speak. Maybe the same as a restaurant would have a partnership with a vendor for different things. I use integrity, integrity uses me. So we help each other out. We build each other's business. Got it? No, that's great. Okay, well, I don't know anything about the payment processing and the world that you live in. So this is going to be a fun podcast today. Because one of my I'm gonna just use the term superpowers. Although I guess that is a subjective, you'll have to tell me if it's a superpower is that I really love to help business owners and business leaders to, you know, navigate the future to innovate, to creatively problem solve so that they can serve in a different way and continue growing, have the success that they dream up. So tell me, what are the types of challenges that you are faced with? What's keeping you up at night, Rocco? You know, that's a it's an interesting question. Because coming from a traditional business, a lot of things kept me up at night. It's interesting, because this particular business doesn't keep me up at night, that much. But my focus really, and the headaches usually that come with this business is the Salesforce that I'm building as a 1099. Salesforce. So these people run their own business. They're independent agents, almost the same as a insurance agency where they represent various different companies. The agents on my team have their own companies, they name it, whatever they'd like to their 1099. And I supply them with whatever they need to get going in order to build their businesses. So everything from POS systems, hardware, software and such to training and different motivational meetings that we might have during the day or week. So we do everything we can to help them build their own independent businesses. So I think the biggest probably the biggest challenge is for people coming into this business as a 1099, who are traditionally in a W two format, where they're getting a salary, and maybe a commission on top of that. So probably that's the biggest challenge in my line of work. These folks are kind of an eat what you kill model, yes. But it's their own business. So they're gonna rely basically on their whatever they can produce on their own, whether it be through referral partnerships, or belonging to different networking groups, such as BNI, or Chambers of Commerce. So it's actually them. We give them all the tools. Okay, and that's very interesting. is truly I was gonna say, is it a franchise? I mean, is there any? Is it connected in that way? Or is it you started from scratch? I started from scratch, and then really is actually from a town and my family is from Italy, called Albert. I honestly, I wondered because it is an Italian name. Okay, keep going. I'm sorry. No, no, that's fine. So the town in Italy is called Alberto Battletoads, and Purulia, and Adriatic. And the, the structure, the homes are the buildings, there are conical shape. They're layered stones, it got to a point. And they're called truly, if there's many of them, they're called truly, if there's one, they're called trullo. So that's where the name came from. That's great. I love it. I love it. Well, you know, with my fresca name, I'm also Italian. So we have that in common. That's really fun. Okay, so let's get back to the Salesforce and keeping you up at night. Is it the motivation that these folks need or what is the what is the crux of the challenge that they are trying that you are trying to solve in order to help spur them forward to keep them focused on running their own business rather than jumping back to a traditional job, so to speak, where they're getting a W two? So it's keeping that focus on them? And sometimes the challenge is, there are some people that just don't have it in them to run their own companies. And you know, we don't know that when we're bringing them on board, we only go by what we see on resumes and interviews. So that's a challenge. How do we bring in the right people? They can run a business as their own? With help, and how do we keep them? It's great, very dog friendly podcast. So sorry, for the barking in the background. So yeah, so I would say, you know, one of my possible solutions for you is to really help them distill their vision. So coming up with their independent because, again, they're not necessarily working with each other, but they are, you know, working with you. And so it's a little bit of what are their goals? What are their strategies? Or what's their vision, and then you can help to support them. So the more that it can come from them and come from, you know, what they need and want, whether it's monetary, whether it's balance related, whether it is flexibility related, I mean, again, these folks are out there, kind of, you know, building your business for you, how can they build their own plan to succeed, and then now you're just supporting their plan, you become kind of a coach or an agent or, you know, a backbone for them, creating success in their own world. Sure. Sounds good idea. And that's something that we do incorporate. We do have weekly team calls, where each one of the agents can lean on each other with questions, answers, success stories, whatever they're doing in their particular markets to make it work. So yeah, we're running that down. And that does seem to help. I'm a big believer, like you said, and finding out what your goals and visions are. I learned a long time ago that if the dream is big enough, you know, the facts don't count the facts that I don't have experience the facts that I don't have this or I don't have that all those facts go away if if the dream to build a business is big enough. That's a really, really great, great kind of, you know, quote, I, I believe the same I mean, if we can envision it, and we can make a plan to get there we can. So my business partner Michael always says, you will succeed whether you say you can or whether you say you can't, and so you've got to have that mindset. I really do believe mindset is huge. Tell me, how are they tracking their success? Do you have software? Do you have metrics for them KPIs, things like that, where they can see how they are doing. We do have a CRM Over, they can input any of the businesses that they're actually bringing on board for their business. We can track volume from each one of those businesses as far as and the revenue that each one of those businesses creates. And then of course, that revenue equates back to what they would make up on their end, based on the businesses that they signed. So yeah, some sort of tracking in place where they can actually see it, and they can see it either go up or down. Yeah, and what about I mean, if they have a stretch goal, can they see the delta between what they would make or what you know, and what that would be if they achieve their stretch goal, because that sometimes can be a very compelling motivator, a carrot for people to kind of give that extra. That's it, it's a great point, I think that, you know, we're coming up with something now some sort of an Excel spreadsheet that one of my guys is putting together that shows, if you do X, you're gonna get this. based on averages, here's what the outcome would be. So it kind of gives them an idea where they can go, of course, not every business that they bring on board is the same. So they do anything, anywhere from, let's say, liquor stores, to grocery stores, to small mom and pop delis. So they're bringing in all kinds of business and all kinds of businesses have different quirks, so to speak. And, yeah, so yeah, I can imagine. Yep, that's great. That's great. The The other thing I was going to say, as you build Truly, it might be compelling to identify the why. And so I describe this to folks as the kickoff the sheets feeling that they need to get started with their day. And so it might be that you articulate this, you know, the small business solution, the American dream, I'm just making this up, I don't know exactly what would be compelling to your team or to you. But I think, you know, even from you describing a little bit of the Y that you mentioned already, you know, it has a lot of power, and it has a lot of meaning, and you want it to be emotional. And frankly, you know, even though we're dealing with money in any payment sort of system, the why is more than monetary. It is, again, it's that heartbeat of the business, it's the reason we kick off the sheets, and we get going in the morning. And so if you can really articulate that, and you find people who want to drive towards that, I think that can be a very compelling kind of motivation. I don't know if you've read any of Simon Sinek books start with why is one that I love? And again, the simpler the better in plain English, how can they impact the world? Right? And it might be we are the driving force behind small businesses and their success. I mean, it's something that is, you know, again, heartfelt it is encapsulating the reason why you built this. Great points, great points. And, you know, my reason for building truly is totally different from all of their reasons why they're building their own particular companies to some of its pay off a mortgage, some would send the kids to college, some it's just to have vacation money, you know, extra over and above. So yeah, they all have. And that's, that's a great point to stay on top of that. Yeah, I think it's a really important one. Anything else keeping you up at night, I'm just trying to think through, if I was in your shoes, what I would do with the Salesforce, but I would say those might be my best tips, as you start as you. And I you know, and I think those tips are great. And I think that they're good for any business, whether they, they're 1099, or employees in a business, you have to give those employees or people a reason to come in every day. And a reason to treat customers well and a reason to give good service and good support. So yeah, they all have to have their own individual reasons why. And that's that's a great point, because it's something that I haven't really focused on lately, you know, building businesses, sometimes it takes a second seat. So you got to bring that back up to the forefront. Yes, yes, I ironically, was just with a group of about 50 business leaders in a certain category. It was a an industry kind of convention last week. And the funny thing is, you know, most of them are men, not all but you know, they just kind of hem and haw about the culture component like, Oh, do we really have to talk about culture? It's all the fluffy stuff. And it's like the mushy and honest to goodness, they were resound, endingly anonymous, I mean, what's the right word? Anyway, they were all aligned. They were completely aligned that culture is the number one thing that they have figured out. And it has led to the success of their business, it has exponentially increased the success because people are happy, they are motivated, they are charging ahead, they're coming up with ideas. They're bringing energy and life and creative problem solving. And it's all because they have articulated their vision, they have begun to actually distill this, why, and the people that are a part of their organization buy into that they buy into the vision, they buy into this kind of, you know, core mechanism of why we do what we do in order to drive the business forward. And so I would say coming from kind of, you know, the the powerful message that these folks were able to kind of give us firsthand experience, I would say, this is one of the most important things for you to do as you go back to your business. So make sure you're sitting in that seat and gather some feedback from the team, see what they think. And then articulate it, hire and fire behind it. motivate your team through incentives that help to underscore those principles. It'll really be a compelling component. Yeah. And that's one of the things we're thinking about as well, this incentive. We're putting together annual programs now where we can take top performers, and we all go on a cruise someplace or do something special. That's lovely. That's lovely. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I would say, you know, it's funny how little people remember the money, and how much they remember the experience or the special thing that you've done for them. So I think you're on the right track with that as well. I think that can be a really big motivator for folks. Pretty fun. That's good. I appreciate you getting me refocused on the visit and the goals. That's awesome. Yeah. Well, I mean, there's, there's a number of good books out there, I would say, one of my favorites, actually. Let's see, I've got the all the books behind me here, I would start with the first one, which is building a great business. And it sounds by Ari Weinstein, who's an owner of a business up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and there's a series of four books, this has been one of my favorite business books that I've ever read. I think that his his explanation of the power of distilling this vision and, you know, it gives the team purpose. And again, that's kind of the starting point. Like, I don't even think you can get off the ground unless you have that. So tell me about your Tell me about your business. I mean, you have you have other entities, I would imagine. How are you handling those? I mean, what's happening there? What are your biggest headaches? The years? Yeah. Oh, goodness, well, we are franchising. And so I would say we're in the middle of franchising for the Treska business, which you know, here in Ponte Vedra Beach. So that'll be really fun. And I would say, you know, very, very hopeful that we will franchise first in this area, because the market, you know, it, obviously would be very convenient for San Marco, St. Augustine to beach, I, you know, I don't know where we'll go next. But to have that, you know, kind of opportunity to make it bigger and bolder in the Jacksonville market will be fun. And then my consulting firm, which is point northeast, so you know, that business, I would say, you know, it's a delicate balance, kind of sitting in the CEO seat of bringing on coaches, and bringing on clients. And so we just continually try to navigate making sure we have the right people that are able to coach our clients and that we've brought on enough coaching clients so that our coaches are busy and happy. So that's my main project. How did you get started in business in Ponte Vedra Beach? How did that oh, well, yeah, I mean, I chose the Ponte Vedra Beach location after I moved here from Minnesota and just knew that, you know, this was a really, really vibrant community full of life, but that I didn't think that there was the type of food the artists and quality food, but in an unpretentious place. So I was really focused on making sure that it was a place where you could go on a date, you could have a work lunch, but you could also bring your toddlers and it would be just as comfortable. So awesome. And it's it's proved to be a great spot for locals and for people that are visiting the area. So that has worked out beautifully. Yeah, it is a great. Thank you, Rocco. Well, I really appreciate having you on today. And I would say you know, don't hesitate to reach back out if you have any other questions. I mean, I would say You know, I'm here local, we're in the same community. And I'm always willing to help folks if they need questions answered, and I think you're doing a beautiful job, keep focused on building those people's teams in a way that is motivating to them. And I think you will not only reap the rewards, you know, from a kind of a capitalist perspective, but I think also from a human perspective. That's great. Thank you, Sarah. Appreciate it. Thank you. I hope you have a wonderful day. It's nice and sunny out. So thanks for being a part of our podcast. Yeah, very much. All right. Yes. And Rocco. Thanks again. Okay. Well, bye bye. Thanks so much for tuning in to this episode of level up your business with me, Sarah Frasca. If you have a problem in your business that's keeping you up at night. Please join us in a future episode so we can help get you unstuck. Just clicking the link in the show notes and send us a message. Please remember, stay innovative friends.