906 Put People First

Leaders value their people. Dale Partridge is an incredibly successful serial entrepreneur who has not only made several fortunes, but has spoken on stages like Facebook HQ, created a massive social media following, and is a well-known author. But what I’ve learned from Dale about business, relationships, leadership, and life is beyond any of that. Sometimes you need to look far outside your circle to get insight on how to reach the next level. I was in this position a few years ago. I wasn’t learning anything new to market my business online. And that’s when I met Dale. We recorded this podcast episode a few years ago, and I wanted to feature a clip of it on 5 Minute Friday where we talk about the best ways to interact with your employees to create an incredible culture. This to me is one of the most overlooked but essential parts of being a good leader - and a good entrepreneur. I'm excited for you to hear Dale's insight on what he has learned about this in Episode 906. If you enjoyed this episode, check out the video, show notes and more at http://www.lewishowes.com/906 and follow at instagram.com/lewishowes Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  This is Five Minute Friday.

• 0:10Lewis Howes?

  Today's guest, his name is Mr. Dale Partridge. He's a good friend of mine that I connected with a little over, almost a year ago now. For those that don't know who Dale is, he is an entrepreneur who's launched seven companies and is most known for, one of the companies called Sevenly. And each week, Sevenly partners with one qualified nonprofit and Sevenly donates $7 for every product sold to support the charity's cause.

• 0:40Speaker 01

  You know, I started a couple of companies before this and, you know, been fired from my own companies, but got through the wringer in many ways of learning, you know, about my leadership. And I remember a mentor came up to me one day and said, you know, can I, can I talk to you? And he took me in the other room and he said, you know, Dale, when you talk to people, you hurt people. And I remember thinking like, whoa. And at the time I had like 42 employees. And I was thinking like, I looked at my, at my past and the history of the relationships that I had and I saw a wake of destruction. I mean, just of people that I had not cared for. And I think that this might be one of the reasons that qualifies me to write this book is because I've, I struggle here, but I'm also winning here.

• 1:25Speaker 01

  And, um, you know, in this time at Sevenly, I had to really regain this trust. And I mean, remember that the marketplace, um, you know, left to itself, it doesn't see people, you know, it sees pieces to a puzzle. It sees potential purchasers, it sees, you know, zeros and dollar signs and credit card swipes and bottom lines, right? So, and, and every dollar our company makes is a reason not to change. You know, that, that worked, let's just not, you know, I don't need to change.

• 1:53Lewis Howes?

  Keep being a jerk.

• 1:55Speaker 01

  Right, yeah, exactly. So what we've done is we've tied a lot of the, the negative things that we've done in our past, we've tied that to our success. You know, we say, well, you know, lying, I've lied for 10 years and, you know, I'm really successful and very wealthy and. So I'm going to keep doing that because I've tied lying to my success. And so it's really hard to be able to pick and choose and go, what do I need to get rid of that's actually bad? And what do I need to keep that's actually good? And you know, so it's this is the depth of kind of real emotional leadership. Because you know, what got us here isn't going to get it get us there. And you saw that even in the marketing, you know, you're doing the same thing over and over. And you go, man, I need to jump to the next level. Same thing with leadership. So we look at the strongest companies in the world.

• 2:40Speaker 01

  And it's so funny because you know, let's talk about like Patagonia or North Face or Whole Foods or In-N-Out or Chick-fil-A or Ben and Jerry's. These companies that just crush it in the marketplace.

• 2:50Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 2:50Speaker 01

  Their leaders, they all do the same thing and they have no idea that they're doing this. They're not tattooed on their, you know, HQ, they're not in their mission statements, they're not in their business plans. And they're not things that you're going to find in Fast Company or Inc. or Harvard Business Review. Instead, they're things that you, that you, you know, your parents taught us in kindergarten. They're like the very basic principles of life, like don't lie, like be, you know, love, love one another, like be kind, share. And be generous and you know, at this, at this basic level is where these, these leaders are crushing it. Because it's very difficult. It's very difficult. I'm talking, these are the things that humans have struggled with forever, right?

• 3:33Speaker 01

  We, you know, I'm 30 years old and I still tell my wife that I'm around the corner and I'm not, I'm lying, right? And so it's like, you know, it's, we still struggle with these things as leaders. And, and this is where we find success is when we can be these moral, ethical, incredibly, you know, strong willed, you know, built with integrity type of leaders that can take over our companies and lead our companies to success.

• 3:58Lewis Howes?

  So what would you say is the most important ingredient to running and then growing a successful company?

• 4:05Speaker 01

  You know, for me, it's emotional leadership for sure. So I mean, this is, this has been being able to become that leader. You know, and I remember switching my thoughts. So I thought as soon as I switched and stopped seeing money as the primary goal, but as a byproduct of helping a million people.

• 4:22Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 4:23Speaker 01

  That was the big shift. I thought, I got into settling, I said, my whole focus was just changing a million people's lives. And that was the focus. And the result was a multimillion dollar company. And so shifting that into purpose and shifting that into caring and, you know, as the CEOs of our companies, whether we're, you know, two employees, five employees, or 500 employees, it's our ability to nurture and to care and to love.

• 4:52Speaker 02

  Hey guys, if you enjoyed this inspirational clip from a past episode of the show, then you'll love the free book I'm giving away right now. It's called The Millionaire Morning. It includes some of my best tips for starting off your day with a millionaire mindset. Get your free copy at themillionairemorning.com and just pay shipping. Again, check it out right now, themillionairemorning.com.