In Episode 130 of “The Trusted Advisor,” RSPA CEO Jim Roddy talks leadership with Steve Martorelli, the Founder and CEO of VAR/ISO Turnkey Processing. Among the topics discussed are how the guiding principle of “Remarkablism” shapes Steve’s leadership approach and the organization, how to integrate your core values into day-to-day operations, and the importance of opening yourself to 360-degree feedback.
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Full episode transcript via Apple Podcasts:
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Roddy: Welcome to another episode of The Trusted Advisor Podcast and Video Series, powered by the Retail Solutions Providers Association.
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Roddy: Our goal on the pod is to accelerate the success of today’s and tomorrow’s leaders in the retail IT industry.
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Roddy: I’m Jim Roddy back with you again.
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Roddy: Thank you so much for joining us.
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Roddy: Now, as always, we talk with leaders in the retail IT channel about their leadership journeys and what they’ve learned along the way.
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Roddy: And in this episode, we’re gonna talk with Steve Martorelli, the founder and CEO of Turnkey Processing, a hybrid VAR ISO headquartered in Connecticut that offers solutions related to point-of-sale, merchant services and marketing services.
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Roddy: Steve, welcome to The Trusted Advisor.
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Martorelli: Thank you, Jim.
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Martorelli: Thanks for having me.
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Roddy: My pleasure, for sure.
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Roddy: So now I gave like a one-sentence description of your company.
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Roddy: Can you tell our audience a little bit more about the story of Turnkey Processing, when and how it started and what the company looks like today?
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Martorelli: Sure, absolutely.
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Martorelli: In a nutshell, we’ll start with the story of me as a kid.
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Martorelli: I always used to side hustle anything I could as a little kid, whether it be shoveling snow for people.
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Martorelli: Really, actually, my first ambition was to be a Ninja Turtle, but everyone told me that would not be possible.
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Martorelli: So there’s still a little hope there somewhere in my heart, but I got really into doing service, right?
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Martorelli: So shoveling people’s driveways when it snowed.
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Martorelli: Later on, high school and college, I made my way through DJing.
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Martorelli: So I never had a formal job on the books, but I kind of always paved my own way.
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Martorelli: And through kind of a random friend, while I was in law school, not really a random friend, a really good childhood friend, started talking to me about a random idea of starting a credit card processing company, which sounded absolutely like a commodity business, and I don’t know, very generic idea.
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Martorelli: I said, sure, let’s get going.
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Martorelli: That’s how Turnkey started, but it was really when I made my way out to Las Vegas one time.
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Martorelli: I don’t know if it was a bachelor party or some kind of trade show or something, but I had always heard about a company called Zappos.
00:02:07.055 –> 00:02:10.015
Martorelli: I said, I’m in town, let me go take a field trip.
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Martorelli: I visited Zappos and I was really amazed what they had built and what they were doing out there, and that really inspired me to think more of us as a service company that just happened to sell blank, and that was the motto that I brought back to Turnkey.
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Martorelli: That was our really big ambition, I’ll call it our BHAG, or whatever you want to call it, was let’s become the Zappos of Merchant Services.
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Roddy: Got your big BHAG, big hairy, Dacia skull.
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Roddy: How old were you at that point?
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Martorelli: I started Turnkey 15 years ago, and I’m going to say, what was I, like 23, 24, 39 now.
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Martorelli: I was attending law school, evening law school.
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Martorelli: This was my day hustle, and really by the end of law school, this became, started to become something, and I was really more passionate about business than going into law, but it’s always been a great tool for me to have in the utility belt.
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Roddy: Sure.
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Roddy: Now, I’ve done that Zappos tour that you did as well.
00:03:12.215 –> 00:03:13.895
Roddy: In fact, we did it.
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Roddy: It was a handful of executives in our industry.
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Roddy: I can’t remember, it was how RetailNow was set up in the past.
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Roddy: So for folks who don’t know, RetailNow is the RSPA’s annual summer convention and education conference.
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Roddy: There was a gap on a Monday and a bunch of us just all got together and did the tour.
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Roddy: There Tony Shea, the late founder of Zappos, he was just sitting there at his desk out in the middle of everybody.
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Roddy: Hey, Tony, how are we doing?
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Roddy: They had all the conference rooms that got painted by the employees there.
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Roddy: So what was it about that tour that stood out for you that you found inspiring?
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Martorelli: Well, so first of all, I think me and you got to share the same experience of pre-Amazon acquisition.
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Roddy: Yes, it was.
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Martorelli: When you really got to go.
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Martorelli: Yeah, you really got to go behind the scenes.
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Martorelli: And for me, I had no expectations going zero.
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Martorelli: I read it about it in business school and college.
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Martorelli: And I was like, you know, it sounded like a quirky, cool company.
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Martorelli: Let me check it out.
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Martorelli: Never really expected, but we were greeted at the front door by the receptionist.
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Martorelli: And she’s like, yeah, you know, let me take you backstage.
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Martorelli: You know, suit is completely non-formal, just went back there.
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Martorelli: And it was amazing to me.
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Martorelli: People were having celebrations.
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Martorelli: There was a chief, you know, celebrations officer.
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Martorelli: They had a KPI for somebody who’s been on the phone the longest with a customer.
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Martorelli: It was like 13 hours.
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Martorelli: Just a lot of amazing stuff they were doing.
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Martorelli: They had a cafeteria, a gym, or they’d give people free lunch, or like you could buy premium lunch for $3.
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Martorelli: So just a lot of really cool, fun ideas.
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Martorelli: And what really was amazing to me is that people were, I mean, they had lines out the door applying to get a position here.
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Martorelli: I don’t know, it was like one out of 3,000 people got the job.
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Martorelli: And they didn’t necessarily pay the highest wages or anything else.
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Martorelli: They treated everybody great.
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Martorelli: They gave them a great wage, but it’s not like they’re paying everybody 100 grand a year, right?
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Martorelli: They were offering people a fair wage and a really great culture, and it was driving people there.
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Martorelli: And what really impressed me too was the fact that they gave people the idea of like, hey, if you try it before you buy it, right?
00:05:12.795 –> 00:05:19.415
Martorelli: So you try it for three months, and you either take $3,000 and walk out the door, or welcome to the team.
00:05:19.415 –> 00:05:21.115
Martorelli: So then there’s like some skin in the game too.
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Martorelli: I really liked all the stuff that you’re coming up with was just like mind-blowing to me back then, so.
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Roddy: Yeah, and all very much people-oriented, and it’s interesting because Zappos, they’re not subtle about what their company, I’ll use in the past, then stood for, like you said, pre-acquisition.
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Roddy: And so your company is the same way as well, right?
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Roddy: You’re not subtle about that at all.
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Roddy: So your website, it features a detailed page about your company culture.
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Roddy: It lists your seven core values.
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Roddy: There’s also on your website, it says a message from the founder.
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Roddy: And on those pages, you introduce the word remarkableism.
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Roddy: And so can you tell our audience what remarkableism is and how it guides you as a leader and guides you as an organization?
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Roddy: I’ve never seen the word before, so am I pronouncing remarkableism correctly?
00:06:07.095 –> 00:06:08.235
Martorelli: That’s it.
00:06:08.235 –> 00:06:08.835
Martorelli: You got it.
00:06:08.835 –> 00:06:22.435
Martorelli: And it sounds like you did some homework and some digging to find that on our website, but yeah, so remarkableism, it kind of started just as a small little joke in the office, but our very first core value was provide remarkable service.
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Martorelli: And sooner or later, somebody, you know, the word remarkable is floating around.
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Martorelli: And then one day I just came out and I was like, hey, why don’t we just call this remarkableism?
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Martorelli: So it kind of gained some traction.
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Martorelli: Everybody was on board with it.
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Martorelli: And really what it evolved into is more or less of a first core value.
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Martorelli: Obviously we still have our Provide Remarkable Service, but remarkableism became more of a philosophy of life.
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Martorelli: And for me, that’s basically a personal, never-ending cycle of growth.
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Martorelli: And there’s three domains.
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Martorelli: There’s physical, mental and spiritual.
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Martorelli: And the key thing that I learned over time is, you know, and I think this is a mistake a lot of people make, and especially when you’re younger, social media, all these things, is you’re always constantly in this race.
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Martorelli: You feel like to compare yourself to other people.
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Martorelli: But when you really start to look inward and just look at your own metrics, right?
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Martorelli: You versus you, last year versus this year, you can cultivate a lot more happiness and success that way.
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Martorelli: And that’s really what the philosophy is.
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Martorelli: So you know, Turnkey is my platform to live by that and hopefully spread that to others as well.
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Roddy: Got it.
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Roddy: Thank you for that.
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Roddy: It’s funny you bring that up because I was just talking to a leadership coach earlier this week, and he was talking about how if your drive is compared with other people, if they slow down, then that gives you permission to slow down, right?
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Roddy: And you don’t have anything consistent.
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Roddy: It sounds like what you’re saying is along the lines of what he had is, if you’ve got that engine going inside you, inside all your teammates, and it’s the self-challenge, not, you know, the way that the world, you know, spins you around and round or slow or fast.
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Roddy: Is that kind of what you’re saying?
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Roddy: Like, it’s got to be something inside.
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Roddy: It’s got to be that fire in the belly is really the key.
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Martorelli: Absolutely.
00:08:06.255 –> 00:08:09.055
Martorelli: So me personally, I try to live by that.
00:08:09.055 –> 00:08:11.895
Martorelli: I do live by that, getting rid of the word try.
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Martorelli: And I do live by that.
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Martorelli: I practice that on the daily.
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Martorelli: And I think over the last few years, a lot of people have seen big transformations happen.
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Martorelli: Really over the last 10 years, people have been with us, you know, they’ve seen transformations in me, followed by transformations in the company.
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Martorelli: And that’s how we’ve been continuing to grow.
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Martorelli: And just this year, I just came up with a wacky idea when they said, we’re going to create a Remarkablism Challenge for 2025.
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Martorelli: And listed out a whole bunch of habits, check in things for people to do.
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Martorelli: And it was completely voluntary.
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Martorelli: I also challenged people to come up with some big goals for themselves.
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Martorelli: And came up with like a gamification of all this, where if you do your daily check ins on different habits, you get different points for them.
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Martorelli: And whoever gets the most points at the end of the year, we’re actually going to give them $3,000 towards their dream vacation or their bucket list experience, whatever they want to do.
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Roddy: Wow.
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Roddy: Very nice.
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Roddy: Now, how did the team respond to that?
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Martorelli: So I really didn’t know what was going to happen.
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Martorelli: It’s either going to be a flop or you know, but I feel like right now there’s some magic in the air.
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Martorelli: Even before I came into this interview, I was asking some people some questions and they were like, really they said, you know, it got me inspired about myself, like thinking about what could I do this year.
00:09:23.455 –> 00:09:24.855
Martorelli: And we got some really ambitious targets.
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Martorelli: We have some folks that are looking to lose 100 pounds this year.
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Martorelli: We have some folks that want to create a feature length film of 90 minutes.
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Martorelli: I got another guy who said, I want to learn how to do a backflip by the end of the year.
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Martorelli: Now he’s in his mid forties.
00:09:39.615 –> 00:09:42.595
Martorelli: I’m going to say not super athletic.
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Martorelli: So we were all like, dude, if you can do that, you’re winning.
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Roddy: And just make sure he doesn’t do it on company grounds, right?
00:09:49.955 –> 00:09:51.615
Roddy: You don’t want that to be a worker’s comp.
00:09:51.615 –> 00:09:54.595
Martorelli: Make sure you get a life insurance policy or something first.
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Roddy: Yes, comfort of your own home to do that.
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Roddy: So tell me this, there’s a reputation that is in the point of sale industry, that some businesses have been far less today than there were a few years ago, lifestyle businesses.
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Roddy: Like are you thinking, is that drive you think going to be something that you can sustain over the long period of time?
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Roddy: Or there’s also, you wouldn’t be the first person in the payments or POS industry to be like, hey, their residual income is pretty good, I’m going to go put into cruise control.
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Roddy: I guess, what are your thoughts on that?
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Roddy: I mean, you’re 39, so you’re still on the younger side.
00:10:30.855 –> 00:10:33.635
Roddy: But I guess, what’s your take on that?
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Martorelli: All right, so long and short of that, I’ll give you the short story of that.
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Martorelli: My grandfather drove a bulldozer till he was 80 years old, and they literally had told him, you can’t drive anymore, you’re just backed into someone’s car and probably could have killed somebody, right?
00:10:46.455 –> 00:10:47.235
Roddy: Okay, all right.
00:10:47.235 –> 00:10:48.655
Martorelli: So that’s like where I come from.
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Martorelli: But beyond that, I think my philosophy is that if you’re not growing, you’re dying.
00:10:53.815 –> 00:10:56.095
Martorelli: So, you know, everybody needs growth.
00:10:56.095 –> 00:11:03.535
Martorelli: If you don’t have that growth, if you get to a point of stagnation, you’re going to start losing your top talent, they’re going to go elsewhere because those people are looking to grow.
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Martorelli: And it’s really about what you want, right?
00:11:05.295 –> 00:11:08.355
Martorelli: And I see this happen all the time because we deal with lots of small business.
00:11:08.355 –> 00:11:11.135
Martorelli: I see people with that drive and that passion to keep going.
00:11:11.135 –> 00:11:14.675
Martorelli: And I see people are like, no, like I’ve reached this level of comfortability.
00:11:14.675 –> 00:11:16.995
Martorelli: So in a way, you know, I think it’s different for everybody.
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Martorelli: But for me, turning into a lifestyle business is kind of like basically saying you’re checked out, right?
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Martorelli: You’re selling out, you’re done.
00:11:26.335 –> 00:11:28.395
Martorelli: You’ve reached your top of your mountain.
00:11:28.395 –> 00:11:29.595
Martorelli: That’s the end.
00:11:29.595 –> 00:11:31.415
Roddy: And you’re not thinking about growing anymore.
00:11:31.415 –> 00:11:37.775
Roddy: So what activities do you engage in to ensure that you experience growth, both as a person and as a leader?
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Roddy: Like what are the things that you do to stay sharp?
00:11:40.315 –> 00:11:40.795
Martorelli: Sure.
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Martorelli: So really like one of our values here, our third core value is always be learning.
00:11:45.795 –> 00:11:50.475
Martorelli: And I wanted to tweak the always be closing thing to always be learning.
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Martorelli: And really, I think there’s three domains that you can learn from.
00:11:55.715 –> 00:11:58.895
Martorelli: One is really kind of like tactile feedback.
00:11:58.895 –> 00:12:00.915
Martorelli: You know, what are you learning out in the field?
00:12:00.915 –> 00:12:04.515
Martorelli: What are you getting for feedback from customers, from employees?
00:12:04.515 –> 00:12:06.235
Martorelli: Then another point is reflection, right?
00:12:06.235 –> 00:12:12.555
Martorelli: You know, taking that time every day to reflect me personally, I do what professional sports people do.
00:12:12.595 –> 00:12:17.675
Martorelli: I keep a journal, well better how journal, and I take some time to meditate.
00:12:17.675 –> 00:12:24.395
Martorelli: Last year, I was doing 15 minutes a day, this year, I’m going to up the ante to 30 minutes a day, and really just think about what could you do better?
00:12:24.395 –> 00:12:26.515
Martorelli: How could you have said something better?
00:12:26.515 –> 00:12:28.475
Martorelli: And then I think there’s also academic, right?
00:12:28.475 –> 00:12:32.415
Martorelli: Because we can learn every day in our environment, but it’s also where do we push ourselves?
00:12:32.415 –> 00:12:34.095
Martorelli: What books are we reading?
00:12:34.095 –> 00:12:41.235
Martorelli: You look at some of the really big visionaries out there, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, these guys crush books, you know?
00:12:43.655 –> 00:12:48.415
Roddy: God, and along those lines, what books, what are some books that have impacted you?
00:12:49.495 –> 00:12:51.295
Martorelli: What’s impacted your life?
00:12:51.295 –> 00:13:01.875
Martorelli: I’ll tell you my last book, which was kind of a very strange story of how I got there, but I had heard the name Yogananda, came up through some kind of podcast or something.
00:13:01.875 –> 00:13:11.595
Martorelli: And apparently Steve Jobs, when he died at his funeral, he left one thing for everybody who attended the funeral was this book by Yogananda, The Autobiography.
00:13:11.595 –> 00:13:20.215
Martorelli: So I said, you know, if Steve Jobs, it was important enough for him to leave this as his last dying wish for everyone to read it, I figured I’d check it out.
00:13:20.215 –> 00:13:34.155
Martorelli: I ended up visiting my sister in California, randomly ended up in Encinitas one day, and literally went to this like garden, public garden to check it out, not knowing anything.
00:13:34.155 –> 00:13:42.595
Martorelli: We followed this path down next to this water, and some Buddhist monks came out of a building, and like, hey, what are you doing here?
00:13:42.595 –> 00:13:48.155
Martorelli: I said, we just kind of followed the path, and they’re like, oh, was the gate open?
00:13:48.155 –> 00:13:50.135
Martorelli: I said, what gate?
00:13:50.135 –> 00:13:54.975
Martorelli: They politely walked me out, and they said, yeah, there’s actually a gate here, but I guess it was open.
00:13:54.975 –> 00:13:56.255
Martorelli: I said, what do you guys do here anyways?
00:13:56.255 –> 00:13:58.075
Martorelli: They’re like, well, this is where Yogananda used to live.
00:13:58.075 –> 00:14:00.855
Martorelli: I’m like, huh, I just heard that name.
00:14:00.855 –> 00:14:01.835
Martorelli: They’re telling me all about it.
00:14:01.835 –> 00:14:10.815
Martorelli: I got the book, it was like 550 pages, it just took me a little time to read it, it was written in the early 1900s, but a super deep spiritual book.
00:14:10.815 –> 00:14:13.495
Martorelli: I think it’s a really amazing read.
00:14:13.495 –> 00:14:18.335
Martorelli: And really actually that’s what kind of triggered my drive to start meditating more.
00:14:18.335 –> 00:14:20.995
Roddy: Interesting, I will definitely check that out.
00:14:20.995 –> 00:14:26.495
Roddy: First I’ll have to figure out how to spell it, but I’m sure Google and then word can help me with that.
00:14:26.495 –> 00:14:28.375
Martorelli: I’ll email you after.
00:14:28.395 –> 00:14:30.655
Roddy: I appreciate that, thanks.
00:14:30.655 –> 00:14:32.015
Roddy: So you mentioned always be learning.
00:14:32.075 –> 00:14:40.435
Roddy: And so the full principle says, be curious, seek feedback, what you just alluded to, read voraciously and reflect deeply.
00:14:40.435 –> 00:14:42.975
Roddy: So you talked about how you do that.
00:14:42.975 –> 00:14:49.475
Roddy: How do you do that inside your organization and have it get into the flow of the day-to-day activities, right?
00:14:49.475 –> 00:14:55.255
Roddy: Because everybody’s busy, I got to finish this job, but you’re talking about always be learning at the same time.
00:14:55.255 –> 00:14:59.435
Roddy: How do you integrate those things while you’re still impacting the bottom line in the short term?
00:14:59.975 –> 00:15:00.635
Martorelli: Sure.
00:15:00.635 –> 00:15:03.795
Martorelli: It’s definitely more of a carrot than a stick approach.
00:15:03.795 –> 00:15:10.415
Martorelli: We have a book club, so we encourage people to pick any kind of book that they want to read that inspires them.
00:15:10.415 –> 00:15:14.715
Martorelli: It could be self-help, it could be business, it could be literally a fiction book.
00:15:14.715 –> 00:15:19.535
Martorelli: We will reward them with a gift card if they read it and turn in a simple book report.
00:15:19.535 –> 00:15:22.495
Martorelli: When I say book report, it’s not like you had to do even in middle school.
00:15:22.495 –> 00:15:24.955
Martorelli: It’s literally like, hey, what are three things you learned here?
00:15:24.955 –> 00:15:26.155
Martorelli: What’s something you’re going to do different?
00:15:26.855 –> 00:15:31.635
Martorelli: A couple of reflections that you actually read the book and put some thought into it.
00:15:32.435 –> 00:15:38.015
Martorelli: Those gift cards can range anywhere from 25 bucks to 100 bucks, depends on what book it is.
00:15:38.015 –> 00:15:39.375
Roddy: Got it.
00:15:39.375 –> 00:15:41.275
Roddy: Do all your employees participate?
00:15:41.275 –> 00:15:42.575
Roddy: Is it one?
00:15:42.575 –> 00:15:43.415
Roddy: What’s the ballpark?
00:15:43.415 –> 00:15:46.255
Roddy: How many folks really race after that carrot?
00:15:46.255 –> 00:15:47.015
Martorelli: Sure.
00:15:47.015 –> 00:15:54.455
Martorelli: I’d say there’s probably about 20 to 30 percent who really like integrate that into lives.
00:15:54.455 –> 00:15:56.595
Martorelli: A lot of people like to learn in their own ways.
00:15:56.595 –> 00:16:01.755
Martorelli: Some people just do audiobooks and podcasts on their own, and they don’t bother to put a thing in.
00:16:01.755 –> 00:16:14.095
Martorelli: But I think all across the company, people are making efforts to learn whether it’s even technical things, figuring out a new equipment that we’re selling or training.
00:16:15.235 –> 00:16:15.615
Roddy: Got it.
00:16:15.615 –> 00:16:27.215
Roddy: I’m guessing 20 to 30 percent is probably 19 to 29 percent higher than most of the organizations out there, because a lot of people just they’re not able to consume that kind of information.
00:16:27.215 –> 00:16:34.195
Martorelli: I’m actually interested to see this year, I think there’s going to be an uptick because that’s a couple of the habits in there for people.
00:16:34.315 –> 00:16:35.715
Martorelli: Now, they’re more aware of it.
00:16:35.715 –> 00:16:40.515
Martorelli: I think we’ll have to touch base next year, see how we do this year after the challenge.
00:16:40.515 –> 00:16:43.275
Roddy: I’d be happy to check back there.
00:16:43.275 –> 00:16:48.035
Roddy: Before we take a quick break, I want to ask about another principle, it’s egos at the door.
00:16:49.035 –> 00:16:53.535
Roddy: I’m curious, you put that up on the wall and everyone’s like, yes, I will definitely check my ego at the door.
00:16:53.535 –> 00:16:56.155
Roddy: But how do you actually execute on that?
00:16:56.155 –> 00:17:02.375
Roddy: Can you share a story about you or your team acting on the egos at the door principle?
00:17:02.375 –> 00:17:02.715
Martorelli: Sure.
00:17:02.715 –> 00:17:08.615
Martorelli: Well, I think core values are pretty well known at this point, the importance of them, all those things.
00:17:08.615 –> 00:17:14.075
Martorelli: I think the way you really find your core values is one, is you look to see what’s inside you and you write those down.
00:17:14.075 –> 00:17:19.335
Martorelli: When we first started, it was like learning, it was providing remarkable services, working as a team.
00:17:19.335 –> 00:17:27.715
Martorelli: But then I started to discover other ones by looking at the opposite side of things.
00:17:27.715 –> 00:17:30.355
Martorelli: Who are the people that don’t work out here?
00:17:30.355 –> 00:17:34.155
Martorelli: What are the commonalities and patterns and traits between those people?
00:17:34.155 –> 00:17:38.235
Martorelli: What I really boiled it down to is this concept of egos at the door.
00:17:38.275 –> 00:17:42.415
Martorelli: Patrick Glienzioni, I later learned, he calls it smart, hungry and humble.
00:17:42.555 –> 00:17:43.715
Martorelli: That’s his word.
00:17:43.715 –> 00:17:48.375
Martorelli: And I think really what it comes down to is, are you open to being questioned and challenged?
00:17:48.375 –> 00:17:52.375
Martorelli: So my leadership style, I’m happy to have a debate with anybody about anything.
00:17:52.375 –> 00:17:54.395
Martorelli: There’s no hard feelings.
00:17:54.395 –> 00:17:57.935
Martorelli: And I think some people coming to the organization, and I’ll give you one example.
00:17:57.935 –> 00:18:05.455
Martorelli: We had a sales manager came in from another company making X hundred K per year.
00:18:06.195 –> 00:18:12.395
Martorelli: And he came to Turnkey and he was being challenged on a lot of things and asked, how can we do this better?
00:18:12.395 –> 00:18:16.355
Martorelli: And he was finally kind of like lost it during a quarterly meeting one time.
00:18:16.355 –> 00:18:21.215
Martorelli: And he was like, why can’t we just come to these meetings and talk about budget?
00:18:21.215 –> 00:18:22.135
Martorelli: And what are you doing?
00:18:22.135 –> 00:18:23.775
Martorelli: And pat each other on the back.
00:18:24.375 –> 00:18:24.955
Martorelli: And that’s it.
00:18:24.955 –> 00:18:28.255
Martorelli: Why do we always have to think about what are we doing better in challenging this?
00:18:28.255 –> 00:18:32.335
Martorelli: And like he got really upset and he basically walked out the door and said, I quit.
00:18:33.295 –> 00:18:35.835
Martorelli: And we all looked around and we’re like, oh shit, okay.
00:18:35.835 –> 00:18:39.315
Martorelli: Well, I guess we’re going to learn how to do our own sales management.
00:18:42.915 –> 00:18:45.515
Martorelli: Later, he actually told me on Monday, he didn’t mean it.
00:18:45.515 –> 00:18:49.055
Martorelli: He wanted to come back, but we decided that we needed to move on.
00:18:49.055 –> 00:18:51.455
Martorelli: So I think that was a decisive action at that moment in time.
00:18:51.455 –> 00:18:55.855
Martorelli: We’re like, okay, we’ve identified something here that exists in our DNA.
00:18:55.855 –> 00:18:59.495
Martorelli: And we can’t have people that don’t mess with that because there’s always going to be that clash forever.
00:19:00.555 –> 00:19:20.375
Roddy: Yes, and everybody will have different levels of that, but it sounds like what you’re talking about is, if your culture just can’t be on the wall, if you have way more people who live by that culture, those who don’t are really going to stand out, and either you will ask them to leave the organization, or they will themselves kind of self-select with it.
00:19:20.375 –> 00:19:21.155
Roddy: Is that kind of what it is?
00:19:21.155 –> 00:19:22.615
Roddy: You’ve got to make sure you’re…
00:19:22.615 –> 00:19:23.995
Martorelli: There’s a comfort level.
00:19:23.995 –> 00:19:25.195
Martorelli: I think you’re right on, right?
00:19:25.235 –> 00:19:26.135
Martorelli: Everyone has a comfort.
00:19:26.135 –> 00:19:28.155
Martorelli: No one likes to be questioned or challenged, right?
00:19:28.155 –> 00:19:28.475
Roddy: Yeah.
00:19:28.475 –> 00:19:30.355
Martorelli: There’s a certain comfort level to it.
00:19:30.355 –> 00:19:41.515
Martorelli: If it’s coming from a positive place, most people don’t have a problem with it, but some people who have a very prideful stance and posture, take it extremely defensively.
00:19:41.515 –> 00:19:45.455
Martorelli: It’s tough because you can’t walk on eggshells and dance around things like that.
00:19:45.455 –> 00:19:46.355
Martorelli: We have to be fluid.
00:19:46.355 –> 00:19:51.995
Martorelli: We have to be able to challenge and question each other, especially because best practices are always evolving.
00:19:52.275 –> 00:19:55.735
Martorelli: So, what worked yesterday could change tomorrow.
00:19:55.735 –> 00:20:01.395
Roddy: That is correct, just because it worked two months ago, two years ago, two decades ago.
00:20:01.395 –> 00:20:05.675
Roddy: There are some things that are obviously like honesty, work ethic and things like that.
00:20:05.675 –> 00:20:08.495
Roddy: You’ve got to be open to doing that.
00:20:08.495 –> 00:20:13.715
Roddy: Let’s pause here to let our listeners and viewers know about the Retail Solutions Providers Association.
00:20:13.715 –> 00:20:20.815
Roddy: The RSPA is North America’s largest community of retail technology VARs, software providers, vendors, ISOs and distributors.
00:20:21.195 –> 00:20:26.175
Roddy: To accelerate your success as an RSPA member, email membership at gorspa.org.
00:20:27.635 –> 00:20:33.635
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00:20:33.635 –> 00:20:40.275
Roddy: Our Platinum sponsor is Blue Star, our gold sponsors are Cocard, Epson, Heartland and ScanSource.
00:20:40.335 –> 00:20:48.915
Roddy: Then finally, make sure you save the date for Retail Now 2025, the Retail IT channel’s number one trade show education conference networking event.
00:20:49.315 –> 00:20:54.615
Roddy: This year’s event is set for July 27th through 29th at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.
00:20:54.615 –> 00:20:59.535
Roddy: For more information, visit gorspa.org/retail Now.
00:20:59.535 –> 00:21:03.515
Roddy: Retail Now is where the industry meets.
00:21:03.515 –> 00:21:10.475
Roddy: So we’ve talked at a higher level about from your organization and how you lead.
00:21:10.475 –> 00:21:12.875
Roddy: How would you describe your leadership style?
00:21:12.875 –> 00:21:22.115
Roddy: Are there a few overarching words or phrases to represent what you’re striving for as a leader and how you would like your team to describe you?
00:21:22.115 –> 00:21:23.035
Martorelli: Sure.
00:21:23.035 –> 00:21:31.655
Martorelli: I think I would be pretty accurate in describing myself as optimistic, demanding, and supportive.
00:21:31.655 –> 00:21:37.435
Martorelli: I think at least what I get from other people is they enjoy my positivity.
00:21:37.435 –> 00:21:39.915
Martorelli: I think I give them a hope for a better future.
00:21:39.915 –> 00:21:48.115
Martorelli: Even the comments I’ve been receiving about this challenge, people have literally come up to me and be like, I wouldn’t have actually done this if it wasn’t for you creating this challenge.
00:21:48.455 –> 00:21:48.975
Martorelli: This is cool.
00:21:48.975 –> 00:21:50.095
Martorelli: I’m excited.
00:21:51.175 –> 00:21:58.595
Martorelli: I think demanding, I have very high expectations, and I really push people outside their comfort zone.
00:21:58.595 –> 00:22:08.675
Martorelli: That is a strength and a weakness sometimes if I push too far, but people know what they’re signing up for and supportive though, because they always know at the end of the day, I’m there to support them.
00:22:08.795 –> 00:22:10.655
Martorelli: If people come to me with problems, we’re here to solve it.
00:22:10.655 –> 00:22:17.275
Martorelli: We’re not trying to get people in trouble or crucify them or anything like that.
00:22:17.275 –> 00:22:18.055
Roddy: Got it.
00:22:18.055 –> 00:22:25.075
Roddy: Can you talk about the importance of, it seems like if you’re only demanding without being supportive, it’s almost like an unfunded mandate.
00:22:25.075 –> 00:22:27.935
Roddy: You’re just driving people and they’re like, I don’t have the tools to do my job.
00:22:27.935 –> 00:22:37.075
Roddy: But if you’re only supportive without being demanding, be like, I support you working only three hours this week, that you could do something like that.
00:22:37.435 –> 00:22:44.555
Roddy: Can you talk about how do you put the, I guess, what is it, the ying and the yang or whatever together of that?
00:22:44.555 –> 00:22:51.975
Martorelli: Whatever you want to call it, I think, there’s kind of two opposite ends of the spectrum that also need to be balanced.
00:22:51.975 –> 00:22:59.275
Martorelli: And I think if you have, at the end of the day, you’re a company, you’re not a family, which is more aligned with a professional sports team.
00:22:59.275 –> 00:23:10.815
Martorelli: So you have to be demanding, you have to be results oriented, you have to really push people beyond their comfort zone or else they’re not going to grow and we’re not going to achieve those next targets that we want to have.
00:23:10.815 –> 00:23:14.675
Martorelli: On the same time, you can’t just be an overbearing dictator, right?
00:23:14.675 –> 00:23:19.195
Martorelli: You also have to be supportive and understanding and empathetic.
00:23:20.335 –> 00:23:26.595
Martorelli: So I think balancing those two, you know, and mentoring people at the same time pushing them, challenging them.
00:23:26.595 –> 00:23:31.475
Martorelli: I think that’s what you really have to, you know, that’s all I can say.
00:23:31.475 –> 00:23:32.995
Roddy: No, I appreciate that.
00:23:32.995 –> 00:23:38.835
Roddy: I’m curious, I want to talk about some of your experiences like from early in your career that shaped you as a leader, right?
00:23:38.835 –> 00:23:42.235
Roddy: You talked about that experience touring Zappos.
00:23:42.235 –> 00:23:53.655
Roddy: Can you talk about another learning experience or like one story that’s really stuck with you and shaped you as a leader and it’s almost like always in the back of your mind and really shapes the way that you lead and you behave?
00:23:53.655 –> 00:23:55.675
Martorelli: Sure.
00:23:55.675 –> 00:23:58.555
Martorelli: I guess what I’ll call is my coming of age story.
00:23:59.695 –> 00:24:04.075
Martorelli: It’s different for everybody, but I think really it’s the adversities that shape us as leaders, right?
00:24:04.795 –> 00:24:06.355
Martorelli: We’re not really being shaped during the good times.
00:24:06.575 –> 00:24:10.835
Martorelli: It’s really the difficult times that test us and tell us who we are.
00:24:10.835 –> 00:24:17.135
Martorelli: For me, that happened about, I’d say about seven or eight years into the business.
00:24:17.135 –> 00:24:21.815
Martorelli: This was with, like I mentioned before, started the business with a childhood friend.
00:24:22.235 –> 00:24:25.675
Martorelli: We were close since high school all the way onward.
00:24:25.675 –> 00:24:29.115
Martorelli: We got to an inflection point where in the very beginning it was go, go, go.
00:24:29.855 –> 00:24:33.935
Martorelli: And we got to this first level of success, you know, maybe a million in revenue.
00:24:33.935 –> 00:24:40.175
Martorelli: And that was a major inflection point because we both wanted to go in different ways.
00:24:40.175 –> 00:24:42.395
Martorelli: I think you might actually say it the best, right?
00:24:42.395 –> 00:24:44.055
Martorelli: The lifestyle company.
00:24:45.075 –> 00:24:46.435
Martorelli: I knew the writing was on the wall.
00:24:46.435 –> 00:24:47.975
Martorelli: If we didn’t grow, we were gonna die.
00:24:47.975 –> 00:24:49.995
Martorelli: We’re gonna lose our best people.
00:24:49.995 –> 00:24:57.555
Martorelli: And for him, kind of opposite core values and also like this is my time to kind of coast and be the absentee owner.
00:24:58.235 –> 00:25:04.375
Martorelli: And it was really that inflection point, which created some critical conversations.
00:25:04.375 –> 00:25:11.595
Martorelli: And ultimately, it turned into a pretty bad partnership breakup with not even amicable departure.
00:25:11.635 –> 00:25:16.515
Martorelli: It turned into two competing companies going after the same customer base.
00:25:16.515 –> 00:25:21.035
Martorelli: And we had people that, you know, really core people that are still here today.
00:25:21.035 –> 00:25:26.535
Martorelli: They stayed on with Turnkey and really fought to retain our clients and to make it through it.
00:25:27.255 –> 00:25:33.775
Martorelli: We ended up making out of that year, even though we lost some big customers, we ended up still growing that year.
00:25:33.775 –> 00:25:45.095
Martorelli: And then ever since then, we really just took off because we were able to bring on better people, just continue growing and scaling with the culture and the values that we wanted to create for ourselves.
00:25:45.095 –> 00:25:47.535
Roddy: And so what did you learn from that?
00:25:47.535 –> 00:25:51.775
Roddy: Besides like, you should only have the sole proprietor own 100% of the business.
00:25:51.775 –> 00:25:53.955
Roddy: Like, what were your learnings that came out of that?
00:25:54.535 –> 00:26:00.035
Martorelli: Yeah, I think like the simple thing that people always say, like, don’t ever get into business with friends and family.
00:26:00.035 –> 00:26:04.535
Martorelli: I don’t necessarily agree with, yes, this didn’t work out because this was a friend.
00:26:04.535 –> 00:26:08.575
Martorelli: But I can also say that, you know, somewhere around that time, right?
00:26:08.575 –> 00:26:13.735
Martorelli: A little bit before that time, I had hired on my sister and she’s still here today, and we worked very well together.
00:26:13.735 –> 00:26:19.735
Martorelli: And I think what it really comes down to, and that’s when I first started learning the importance of these core values was back then.
00:26:19.735 –> 00:26:22.055
Martorelli: And that’s where I knew all of our conflicts were coming from.
00:26:22.215 –> 00:26:29.835
Martorelli: If I want to provide remarkable service, but the other person tells the employee, I’m not here, tell them, make up some lie, right?
00:26:29.835 –> 00:26:39.575
Martorelli: We’re creating two different messages to employees, and it creates a lot of confusion and just morale problems and toxicity.
00:26:39.575 –> 00:26:47.515
Martorelli: So that was really, that was my first school of hard knocks on the values, and we become more and more selective over time.
00:26:47.515 –> 00:26:53.715
Martorelli: If people come on now, we see right away that there’s a problem with that attitude or core value gap.
00:26:53.715 –> 00:26:58.655
Martorelli: We have that discussion one time, but then we help them find happiness elsewhere.
00:26:58.655 –> 00:26:59.075
Roddy: Okay.
00:26:59.075 –> 00:27:00.335
Roddy: That’s a good way to put it.
00:27:00.335 –> 00:27:10.475
Roddy: So when you’re doing pre-employment process, are you asking about the core values or are you judging people against the core values based on their answers?
00:27:10.475 –> 00:27:14.235
Martorelli: Absolutely.
00:27:14.235 –> 00:27:16.055
Martorelli: Interviewing is a critical component.
00:27:19.075 –> 00:27:21.835
Martorelli: One of my mentors is a detective.
00:27:21.835 –> 00:27:27.095
Martorelli: He’s actually one of the leading homicide interrogators here in Connecticut.
00:27:27.095 –> 00:27:36.995
Martorelli: He has over five homicide convictions based on admissions, which is pretty wild just to watch him go at it, but we’ve worked together on proxies.
00:27:36.995 –> 00:27:38.815
Roddy: Just to clarify, he was a detective.
00:27:39.455 –> 00:27:42.215
Roddy: He was not the one who committed the homicide.
00:27:42.215 –> 00:27:43.635
Martorelli: Yes, he’s a good guy.
00:27:46.655 –> 00:27:50.295
Martorelli: But we’ve really crafted some awesome questions for interviewing techniques.
00:27:50.295 –> 00:27:58.235
Martorelli: He’s helped me up that game and really throwing curveballs at people, seeing how they answer things and really getting to the truth.
00:28:00.755 –> 00:28:05.315
Martorelli: Just for example, what does above and beyond mean to you?
00:28:05.315 –> 00:28:07.195
Martorelli: That’s an open-ended question.
00:28:07.195 –> 00:28:09.555
Martorelli: Actually, let’s go for it.
00:28:09.695 –> 00:28:11.555
Martorelli: What would you say?
00:28:11.555 –> 00:28:13.035
Martorelli: What is above and beyond to you?
00:28:13.695 –> 00:28:15.895
Roddy: What does above and beyond mean to me?
00:28:15.895 –> 00:28:23.215
Roddy: It’s there’s the stated job description or the stated working hours or the stated process.
00:28:23.215 –> 00:28:27.175
Roddy: But the more important thing is to get the outcome.
00:28:27.175 –> 00:28:31.415
Roddy: If you need to go above and beyond the standard, do that to get the outcome.
00:28:31.415 –> 00:28:36.255
Roddy: You cannot say, well, I followed the 17 steps of our process, but did you get the outcome?
00:28:36.255 –> 00:28:46.455
Roddy: The example I always give is because I was in the publishing industry, and there would be occasionally printing mistakes in the magazine, and so you would have to issue a make-good to the advertiser.
00:28:46.455 –> 00:28:49.835
Roddy: And so people would propose, let’s give them a discount, let’s do this.
00:28:49.835 –> 00:28:53.595
Roddy: And the question was, well, first, how does that align with what we did before?
00:28:53.595 –> 00:28:55.975
Roddy: But then also, does it actually make it good?
00:28:55.975 –> 00:28:59.155
Roddy: Are they going to say, I’m still angry or this is unfair?
00:28:59.155 –> 00:29:00.975
Roddy: You can’t just say, well, that’s what we’ve done before.
00:29:00.975 –> 00:29:02.815
Roddy: Does it actually make it good?
00:29:02.815 –> 00:29:04.715
Roddy: So Steve, how did I do?
00:29:04.895 –> 00:29:05.835
Martorelli: I think you did great, right?
00:29:05.835 –> 00:29:17.375
Martorelli: There’s a bar and you’re shooting above the bar when you go above and beyond and you kind of find out where people’s bar is when you ask them that question, especially if you ask them like what you described that for you, like what about your job?
00:29:17.375 –> 00:29:18.795
Martorelli: What do you do right now?
00:29:18.795 –> 00:29:20.615
Martorelli: And I’ll give you a recent example.
00:29:20.615 –> 00:29:25.335
Martorelli: We had somebody who said doing what you said you were going to do.
00:29:25.335 –> 00:29:30.375
Martorelli: And I said, okay, well, I would say that’s good, right?
00:29:30.375 –> 00:29:33.955
Martorelli: Well, like where is she coming from?
00:29:33.955 –> 00:29:35.775
Martorelli: And what’s the level of the bar over there?
00:29:35.775 –> 00:29:38.515
Martorelli: It’s people don’t even do what they said they’re going to do.
00:29:38.615 –> 00:29:43.975
Martorelli: So going above and beyond for them is simply the standard over here, right?
00:29:43.975 –> 00:29:44.515
Roddy: Yes.
00:29:44.515 –> 00:29:44.755
Roddy: Yeah.
00:29:44.755 –> 00:29:50.335
Martorelli: So you have filter questions like that to really see what framework people are coming from.
00:29:50.335 –> 00:29:54.875
Martorelli: But I think beyond interviewing, there’s also training that needs to go into place.
00:29:54.875 –> 00:29:56.035
Martorelli: And that’s our big thing for this year.
00:29:56.035 –> 00:30:02.195
Martorelli: We hired a customer experience consultant and really working on taking us to that next Zappos level.
00:30:02.195 –> 00:30:03.075
Roddy: Got it.
00:30:03.075 –> 00:30:03.515
Roddy: Interesting.
00:30:03.715 –> 00:30:08.435
Roddy: I also have to say, you brought up the detective as such, you know, helped you from an interview standpoint.
00:30:08.435 –> 00:30:12.175
Roddy: The best hiring manager I ever worked with, his name is John Dudenhofer.
00:30:12.175 –> 00:30:16.655
Roddy: And he was for I think seven or eight years, a military police officer.
00:30:16.655 –> 00:30:26.415
Roddy: And boy, did that guy know how to ask very benign, but very precise questions and not let on in terms of the path that he was going to go down.
00:30:26.415 –> 00:30:36.215
Roddy: The things that some people ended up confessing to him, because he got them so relaxed, or I’ll just say very helpful to know in the pre-interview process, you wouldn’t want to brought that person on board.
00:30:36.215 –> 00:30:38.315
Martorelli: No, you’re spot on there and that’s really it, right?
00:30:38.315 –> 00:30:47.115
Martorelli: You want to get people into their safe place and so that they can be honest and transparent with you, and you reward them for being honest and transparent, and they give you more.
00:30:47.115 –> 00:30:53.875
Martorelli: And really at the end of the day, I’m also honest and transparent with people like if we can or we can’t take them.
00:30:53.875 –> 00:31:07.215
Martorelli: And we had a guy, I navigated a very tricky situation one time, he had extreme religious beliefs that disabled him from working with certain groups of people.
00:31:07.215 –> 00:31:12.695
Martorelli: And so I asked him straight up, I said, listen, you know, how would that affect you right here?
00:31:12.695 –> 00:31:20.835
Martorelli: If you were on the job, and you were meeting with a gay business owner, would you have to preach to them, or could you keep those two worlds separate?
00:31:20.835 –> 00:31:25.875
Martorelli: I said, to be honest, I’d be compelled, I’d have to bring that into work.
00:31:25.875 –> 00:31:29.615
Martorelli: So he asked me, I said, he goes at the end of the interview, I’m assuming I’m not gonna get the job.
00:31:29.795 –> 00:31:42.415
Martorelli: I said, listen, it’s not about not getting the job because of religion, it’s because we have to keep certain things separate at work and create a professional environment, an inclusive environment for everybody.
00:31:42.415 –> 00:31:47.295
Martorelli: But I think that you’re super passionate about what you do, you should look for something in that realm.
00:31:47.295 –> 00:31:54.235
Martorelli: So you leave off on that good note, you’re transparent, and you can navigate through some pretty tricky waters.
00:31:54.235 –> 00:31:59.475
Roddy: Yeah, but going back to, that’s a good example of being demanding but supportive at the same time.
00:31:59.535 –> 00:32:01.115
Roddy: You didn’t say, get the heck out of here.
00:32:01.115 –> 00:32:07.595
Roddy: You didn’t say, well, I guess we have to do whatever people are inclined towards doing or follow whatever they do.
00:32:07.595 –> 00:32:14.435
Roddy: There was a standard of you need to sell to these people or you need to work with these individuals.
00:32:14.435 –> 00:32:19.115
Roddy: If they say no, then it’s for whatever the reason is, whatever it’s based in.
00:32:19.115 –> 00:32:27.615
Roddy: So yeah, that’s the difficult practical application of leading, being demanding, and being supportive at the same time.
00:32:27.615 –> 00:32:28.275
Roddy: Got it.
00:32:28.275 –> 00:32:28.815
Roddy: Thank you for that.
00:32:28.955 –> 00:32:35.375
Roddy: So you talked about the experience that had with that, I guess, the bad breakup.
00:32:35.375 –> 00:32:43.855
Roddy: Can you talk about, I’d say since then, and just seeing we’re recording this for our audience, we’re recording this partway through January, so still thinking New Year’s resolutions.
00:32:43.855 –> 00:32:49.515
Roddy: My 2025 resolution is be brave enough to ask this question to every leader who appears on The Trusted Advisor.
00:32:49.515 –> 00:32:51.895
Roddy: So don’t bite my head off with this.
00:32:51.895 –> 00:32:57.715
Roddy: So can you tell us about a mistake that you’ve made as a leader and what you learned from it?
00:32:57.755 –> 00:33:06.495
Roddy: It can be a recent mistake, it can be from a long time ago, it can be a colossal disaster, or it could just be a time where maybe you fell short of meeting your own standards.
00:33:06.495 –> 00:33:07.335
Martorelli: Sure.
00:33:07.335 –> 00:33:10.615
Martorelli: It’s such an open-ended question.
00:33:10.615 –> 00:33:14.555
Martorelli: I think if I reflect backwards, there’s tons of mistakes.
00:33:14.555 –> 00:33:23.975
Martorelli: I’d say one personal characteristic though, that I’ve really become aware of and I really been trying to work on is, I have a tendency to fight fire with fire.
00:33:23.975 –> 00:33:31.395
Martorelli: So if somebody comes at me guns blazing, I might be right in what I said, I might be justified in what I said.
00:33:31.395 –> 00:33:35.875
Martorelli: It might also be mean and not kind and not the right timing to say what I have to do.
00:33:35.875 –> 00:33:40.615
Martorelli: So me personally, it’s working on how to fight fire with water.
00:33:42.655 –> 00:34:01.235
Martorelli: I think if you ever read the book with Victor Frankel, Man’s Search for Meaning, he talks about there’s a space between stimulus and reaction, and that’s where I need to go into, is to get into that middle space before I react and really figure out what’s the optimal response to the situation.
00:34:01.235 –> 00:34:02.275
Roddy: So how do you do that?
00:34:02.275 –> 00:34:04.715
Roddy: What technique do you use?
00:34:04.715 –> 00:34:09.435
Roddy: While you’re contemplating that, one of my former bosses, he would have that on occasion.
00:34:09.435 –> 00:34:13.895
Roddy: Him and his brother would both have very, very short tempers, and they’d snap at people.
00:34:13.895 –> 00:34:19.915
Roddy: They started doing reading, there was a document they had called The Man with Inner Balance is what it was.
00:34:20.055 –> 00:34:26.235
Roddy: And remember, he talked to me and said, if you catch me doing any of these things, let me know.
00:34:26.575 –> 00:34:29.395
Roddy: And I’m like, oh yeah, you do this one all the time.
00:34:29.395 –> 00:34:31.575
Roddy: I was hoping we wouldn’t start right now.
00:34:31.575 –> 00:34:40.295
Roddy: But it was very helpful to be able to say to him when he would get angry, or he could attend to mock people instead of, they said this, they said this, and da-da-da.
00:34:41.015 –> 00:34:46.235
Roddy: He opened up the door for everybody around him to catch it, because he knew he wasn’t good catching it himself.
00:34:46.315 –> 00:34:49.775
Roddy: So I guess, how do you move forward and get good at that?
00:34:49.775 –> 00:34:50.475
Martorelli: Yeah.
00:34:50.475 –> 00:34:55.695
Martorelli: Well, I mean, that raises a good point too, is nobody wants to necessarily correct the boss.
00:34:55.695 –> 00:34:59.735
Martorelli: So it’s tough to get that feedback out of other people.
00:34:59.735 –> 00:35:02.375
Martorelli: Have I done 360s in the past, things like that?
00:35:02.375 –> 00:35:03.255
Martorelli: Yes.
00:35:03.255 –> 00:35:07.095
Martorelli: What I think is really the most effective is time.
00:35:07.095 –> 00:35:11.115
Martorelli: So just use time as your ally.
00:35:11.115 –> 00:35:20.515
Martorelli: If somebody says something that is hurtful or offensive or disrespectful, buy yourself some time before you make your response.
00:35:20.515 –> 00:35:23.495
Martorelli: Maybe it’s a breathwork technique.
00:35:23.495 –> 00:35:25.135
Martorelli: Maybe it’s kick the can.
00:35:25.135 –> 00:35:27.595
Martorelli: Maybe it’s an email or a text message.
00:35:27.595 –> 00:35:31.795
Martorelli: I got one yesterday that’s still sitting in my box that I wanted to respond to right away.
00:35:31.795 –> 00:35:35.175
Martorelli: But I said, it’s actually with a family member.
00:35:35.735 –> 00:35:40.275
Martorelli: I said, you know, I’m just going to wait till tomorrow, and cooler heads prevail.
00:35:40.275 –> 00:35:43.875
Martorelli: So take a little book page out of Stoicism.
00:35:43.875 –> 00:35:44.655
Martorelli: I think that’s what it is.
00:35:44.655 –> 00:35:46.175
Martorelli: It’s mastering our emotions.
00:35:46.175 –> 00:35:51.935
Martorelli: I think that’s where journaling, that’s where meditation comes into play, reflecting on those things.
00:35:51.935 –> 00:35:57.675
Martorelli: If you give enough time, the right answer comes to you, and the other person also cools down too.
00:35:57.675 –> 00:35:59.955
Martorelli: That’s why I really think that’s the way to go.
00:35:59.955 –> 00:36:05.795
Martorelli: But believe me, I get tested once in a while, and I don’t always pass the test.
00:36:05.795 –> 00:36:09.695
Roddy: Yeah, but if you’re mindful of it, then you can say, how can I do better next time?
00:36:09.695 –> 00:36:11.955
Roddy: You’re not going to necessarily get perfect right away.
00:36:11.995 –> 00:36:12.535
Roddy: I go from there.
00:36:12.535 –> 00:36:25.115
Roddy: Stoa says, and that’s a great, I don’t know if you’ve read Ryan Holiday’s work, The Obstacle is the Way, Things of That Nature talks about embracing the things you run into instead of being angry at them saying, what can I learn from this?
00:36:25.115 –> 00:36:33.675
Roddy: I also worked on the hallway from a psychotherapist, and she started burning into my brain instead of reacting to people saying, hmm, I wonder what is causing them?
00:36:33.675 –> 00:36:36.415
Roddy: What happened in their life that would cause them to behave this way?
00:36:36.415 –> 00:36:36.635
Roddy: Right?
00:36:36.635 –> 00:36:40.155
Roddy: And you start empathizing with them as opposed to, that person’s a jerk.
00:36:40.155 –> 00:36:41.975
Martorelli: That’s actually a great point there.
00:36:41.975 –> 00:36:46.475
Martorelli: Another awesome book on that, actually, I have it right here in my office.
00:36:46.475 –> 00:36:47.215
Roddy: All right, good.
00:36:47.215 –> 00:36:51.755
Roddy: So for those not watching on video, Steve is walking across his office to grab the book.
00:36:51.755 –> 00:36:52.735
Roddy: The Four Agreements.
00:36:52.735 –> 00:36:54.055
Martorelli: The Four Agreements.
00:36:54.055 –> 00:36:58.115
Martorelli: And one of them right in here, it’s, there’s actually four, right?
00:36:58.115 –> 00:37:00.595
Martorelli: But one is, don’t take anything personally.
00:37:00.715 –> 00:37:02.595
Martorelli: And I think it goes right to your point, right?
00:37:02.595 –> 00:37:08.035
Martorelli: Take a step back, realize it’s not you, it’s actually coming from a place in them.
00:37:08.035 –> 00:37:10.955
Martorelli: It’s kind of like that, hurt people hurt people, right?
00:37:10.955 –> 00:37:11.335
Roddy: Yes.
00:37:12.155 –> 00:37:14.115
Roddy: Yeah, so exactly right.
00:37:14.115 –> 00:37:18.995
Martorelli: Don’t take it personally and you can cool down and go from there.
00:37:18.995 –> 00:37:20.215
Martorelli: That’s really it.
00:37:20.215 –> 00:37:21.255
Roddy: I appreciate it.
00:37:21.255 –> 00:37:28.035
Roddy: One of my last questions for you, who are some leaders that you look up to as mentors and have helped you shape your leadership approach?
00:37:28.115 –> 00:37:35.775
Roddy: I’d say beyond the, you said like that academic, getting the direct feedback and like what did they do that’s had a lasting impact on you?
00:37:35.775 –> 00:37:36.755
Martorelli: Sure.
00:37:36.895 –> 00:37:40.735
Martorelli: I’d say I have mentors is a big deal for me.
00:37:40.735 –> 00:37:43.115
Martorelli: I think I have mentors in a lot of different areas.
00:37:43.115 –> 00:37:47.155
Martorelli: I think if you want to grow in any domain, you need a mentor there.
00:37:47.155 –> 00:37:53.255
Martorelli: So let’s focus on business and in the business sense, I think my biggest mentor throughout my whole life was my father.
00:37:54.735 –> 00:38:05.915
Martorelli: As a kid, I grew up seeing him start a company, which he’s grown into pretty much the biggest tile, marble, stone fabricator, distributor in New England.
00:38:05.915 –> 00:38:07.395
Martorelli: You know, over 100 employees.
00:38:07.395 –> 00:38:22.295
Martorelli: So it’s I’ve literally seen it go from me working in the sweatshop gluing tiles on a board when I was a kid, which I’ll say is my only job I ever punched in for five bucks an hour to seeing him to where he grew now.
00:38:22.575 –> 00:38:27.555
Martorelli: And I think a great part of mentorship is when you get to the stage where you call each other for help, right?
00:38:27.555 –> 00:38:35.595
Martorelli: So, you know, not only do I seek his advice, but I’m also honored to give back when he calls me and asked me a business question.
00:38:35.595 –> 00:38:40.555
Martorelli: Outside of that, I really can’t, I stumbled across this idea from the book.
00:38:40.555 –> 00:38:41.035
Martorelli: What is it called?
00:38:41.035 –> 00:38:42.195
Martorelli: Think and Grow Rich.
00:38:42.195 –> 00:38:45.315
Martorelli: They talk about having mastermind groups.
00:38:45.315 –> 00:38:47.815
Martorelli: So here at Turnkey, I created a mastermind group.
00:38:47.955 –> 00:38:53.915
Martorelli: I joined a CEO mentor group as well.
00:38:53.915 –> 00:38:54.735
Martorelli: I attend those things.
00:38:54.735 –> 00:38:55.595
Martorelli: I make time for that.
00:38:55.595 –> 00:38:57.355
Martorelli: A lot of people say I don’t have time for these things.
00:38:57.355 –> 00:39:01.675
Martorelli: I actually devote one day a month to my mastermind group.
00:39:01.675 –> 00:39:19.115
Martorelli: Over the last five years, that’s also helped me grow leaps and bounds because you have 14 other bright CEO minds in the room challenging you, pushing you beyond what your beliefs are or what your stereotypes are, or helping you raise the bar for yourself.
00:39:19.115 –> 00:39:21.975
Martorelli: Sometimes just super helpful to solve a problem.
00:39:21.975 –> 00:39:25.995
Martorelli: I think we all need to develop those groups in our life.
00:39:26.375 –> 00:39:40.035
Roddy: To tie one of your earlier points together, those mastermind groups, they tend to not take personally the situation, because they’re detached emotionally from what you’re doing in the day-to-day, and so they don’t care if they’re able to say, well, that seems really dumb.
00:39:40.035 –> 00:39:43.435
Roddy: Yeah, right, and they’re able to just to give some benign.
00:39:44.875 –> 00:39:49.295
Martorelli: It’s like when you’re a kid and all your friends are like, you got to break up with her.
00:39:49.895 –> 00:39:50.775
Roddy: Yeah, right.
00:39:50.775 –> 00:39:54.355
Martorelli: Or you’re telling the same friend over and over, listen man, the writing is on the wall.
00:39:54.355 –> 00:39:55.815
Martorelli: It’s very simple, you got to break up with them.
00:39:55.915 –> 00:40:00.315
Martorelli: Then finally, years later, it happens like, well, I knew it, it’s not a big surprise.
00:40:00.315 –> 00:40:00.815
Roddy: That’s right.
00:40:00.815 –> 00:40:03.695
Roddy: But if you’re engaged in the emotion of it, yeah, she’s not that into you.
00:40:03.695 –> 00:40:04.215
Martorelli: Correct.
00:40:04.215 –> 00:40:05.075
Martorelli: That’s exactly it.
00:40:06.235 –> 00:40:14.415
Martorelli: The more you can actually start to perceive that and become aware of it, the faster you can make decisions and ultimately, the better you’re going to be.
00:40:14.435 –> 00:40:23.955
Martorelli: If you stay in bad relationships in your personal life or in business for five, six, 10 years, all it’s doing is just chipping away at your ability to grow.
00:40:23.955 –> 00:40:25.435
Roddy: Yes, and stealing time, right?
00:40:25.435 –> 00:40:27.815
Roddy: Any time that you spend in that is not going to be.
00:40:27.855 –> 00:40:29.375
Martorelli: Everything, yep.
00:40:29.375 –> 00:40:32.675
Roddy: And so again, just for everybody following to keep up with it.
00:40:32.675 –> 00:40:35.135
Roddy: So the four agreements, I just have not read that.
00:40:35.135 –> 00:40:36.915
Roddy: I’m going to add that to my reading list.
00:40:36.915 –> 00:40:39.535
Roddy: And then Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.
00:40:39.535 –> 00:40:50.875
Roddy: So not only is Steve recommending it, this Steve Martorelli, Steve Koontz, the late CEO and co-founder of Blue Star, that was a book that he would always preach.
00:40:50.875 –> 00:40:55.435
Roddy: And Steve, just so you know, when I was at his memorial service, that’s one of the things that I mentioned.
00:40:55.435 –> 00:40:58.335
Roddy: And I was like, who in this room has read Think and Grow Rich?
00:40:58.335 –> 00:41:02.355
Roddy: And usually when you ask that in a normal group, maybe one or two hands go up.
00:41:02.355 –> 00:41:04.695
Roddy: I like half the room, if not more, went up.
00:41:04.695 –> 00:41:07.895
Roddy: And it was like, oh yeah, Steve said, you’ve got to make sure you read the book.
00:41:07.895 –> 00:41:13.335
Roddy: So take it from the late Steve Koontz and Steve here today, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.
00:41:13.335 –> 00:41:17.055
Roddy: It’s an unusual book, but it has a lot of good messages to it.
00:41:17.055 –> 00:41:19.415
Martorelli: And I will put one disclaimer on that book too.
00:41:19.415 –> 00:41:22.295
Martorelli: Remember, it was written in a different time and a different era.
00:41:22.295 –> 00:41:26.415
Martorelli: There’s some weird stories in there where it might rub you the wrong way, right?
00:41:27.735 –> 00:41:32.155
Martorelli: From where we are today, just remember it was written with good intent in the time that it was written.
00:41:32.155 –> 00:41:34.635
Roddy: Yeah, there are elements of it where you’re going like, this is great advice.
00:41:34.635 –> 00:41:37.095
Roddy: And then a page later, you’re like, this guy’s crazy.
00:41:37.095 –> 00:41:39.275
Martorelli: This is crazy, yeah.
00:41:39.275 –> 00:41:41.615
Martorelli: It’s a little bit mystical too, but yeah.
00:41:41.615 –> 00:41:43.615
Roddy: Yes, it is a fun roller coaster ride.
00:41:43.615 –> 00:41:49.475
Roddy: Just so you know, I remember reading that when my daughter was in third grade practicing for a talent show.
00:41:49.475 –> 00:41:51.755
Roddy: And so every night I would drop her off and then wait for her.
00:41:51.755 –> 00:41:54.235
Roddy: And so I was reading that in the hallway of an elementary school.
00:41:54.235 –> 00:41:58.915
Roddy: And I wonder if somebody who had read the book was probably walking by going like, why is he reading that thing here?
00:41:58.915 –> 00:42:01.955
Roddy: But Napoleon Hill, there’s one of a kind.
00:42:01.955 –> 00:42:03.535
Roddy: So what last thing for you, Steve?
00:42:03.535 –> 00:42:05.355
Roddy: So we’ve covered a ton today.
00:42:05.355 –> 00:42:07.995
Roddy: I’m curious if you have like final advice for our audience.
00:42:07.995 –> 00:42:15.475
Roddy: Like, let’s say you have a three minute lift or Uber ride with a small business leader and they’re like, hey, I’m an aspiring small business leader.
00:42:15.475 –> 00:42:18.355
Roddy: What advice would you give to them and give to our audience today?
00:42:20.915 –> 00:42:23.895
Martorelli: I would say, actually, I got three second advice.
00:42:23.895 –> 00:42:28.975
Martorelli: And it says, you don’t attract what you want, you attract what you are.
00:42:30.275 –> 00:42:34.415
Martorelli: So if you want better, you need to become better.
00:42:34.415 –> 00:42:35.815
Martorelli: And the results are gonna follow.
00:42:35.815 –> 00:42:39.475
Martorelli: And that’s, I think really the driving force behind remarkableism.
00:42:39.475 –> 00:42:43.395
Martorelli: If you improve, you’ll see those improvements in your business.
00:42:43.395 –> 00:42:48.895
Martorelli: If you get more power and use it responsibly, you continue to get more, right?
00:42:48.895 –> 00:42:56.155
Martorelli: So, you know, there’s a balance between personal growth and then what you do with the success, right?
00:42:56.155 –> 00:43:00.995
Martorelli: Do you squander your resources or do you reinvest in yourself and your people, right?
00:43:00.995 –> 00:43:06.755
Martorelli: And that kind of gets super philosophical too, but what is the point of money at the end of the day?
00:43:06.755 –> 00:43:13.515
Martorelli: And I think, you know, I think it’s really to help us flourish, right, as people.
00:43:13.515 –> 00:43:15.175
Martorelli: So how do we become the best people?
00:43:15.415 –> 00:43:17.995
Martorelli: What are the things that we can do to get ourselves there?
00:43:17.995 –> 00:43:27.875
Martorelli: And I think if everybody kind of takes that philosophy to heart, you know, I think a lot of people will be a lot happier and more well off and healthier.
00:43:27.875 –> 00:43:28.375
Roddy: I love it.
00:43:28.375 –> 00:43:28.935
Roddy: Very well said.
00:43:28.935 –> 00:43:30.695
Roddy: Bob Chapman, we interviewed him.
00:43:30.695 –> 00:43:36.155
Roddy: He took a company from 20 million to 3.4 million, interviewed him late last year.
00:43:36.155 –> 00:43:42.215
Roddy: And he said, like, I’m, you know, when I look back on my career, it’s not the products, it’s not the stuff, right?
00:43:42.215 –> 00:43:45.075
Roddy: It’s the people that we develop and the people that we impact.
00:43:45.115 –> 00:43:47.115
Roddy: And it sounds like you’re saying the same thing.
00:43:47.115 –> 00:43:54.275
Roddy: And if you want to do that, you’ve got to, like I said, if you want to achieve that, you’ve got to attract, you’ve got to be that and help other people.
00:43:54.275 –> 00:43:55.815
Martorelli: Absolutely.
00:43:55.815 –> 00:43:56.435
Roddy: Love it.
00:43:56.435 –> 00:43:58.635
Roddy: Well, that does it for this episode of The Trusted Advisor.
00:43:58.635 –> 00:44:06.035
Roddy: If you enjoyed our discussion, be sure to subscribe to the RSPA YouTube channel and The Trusted Advisor podcast so you never miss an episode.
00:44:06.035 –> 00:44:10.915
Roddy: Before we go, big thanks again to Steve Martorelli for sharing his wisdom with us today.
00:44:10.915 –> 00:44:14.275
Roddy: Thanks also to RSPA Marketing Director Chris Arnold for his production work.
00:44:14.715 –> 00:44:16.295
Roddy: Joseph McDape for our music.
00:44:16.295 –> 00:44:19.215
Roddy: And last but not least, thanks so much to you for listening.
00:44:19.215 –> 00:44:25.935
Roddy: Our goal at the RSPA is to accelerate the success of our members in the retail technology ecosystem by providing knowledge and connections.
00:44:25.935 –> 00:44:29.515
Roddy: For more information, visit our website at gorspa.org.
00:44:29.515 –> 00:44:32.995
Roddy: Thanks for listening and goodbye everybody.
00:44:34.155 –> 00:44:34.435
Martorelli: Bye Jim.
