Eric Mulvin (00:00)

Welcome to the Unfinished Business Podcast. I’m your host, Eric Mulvin, and this is a show where I sit down with CEOs, creatives, visionaries, and leaders who are out there changing the world through business, through creativity, through their organization, or through leadership. Because it doesn’t matter who you are or what you’ve accomplished. Even someone like John Maxwell or Peter Drucker, they still have something that they wanted to accomplish in their careers, even at the top of their game.

And so on this show, we explore those stories and those journeys here on Unfinished Business with Eric Mulvin

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Eric Mulvin (01:46)

All right. Today’s guest is a Vistage Master Chair and Executive Coach who has spent over three decades working with CEOs and business leaders to help them make better decisions and build stronger companies. Before stepping into coaching, he built and led a successful real estate development company and launched an internally funded venture capital firm. After exiting his business, he felt called to help other leaders grow.

Eric Mulvin (02:14)

bringing the lessons he learned in the real world into the peer advisory and leadership development. Today, he leads multiple CEO peer groups through Vistage and works closely with executives to sharpen their vision, improve decision-making, and create both professional success and personal fulfillment. Ladies and gentlemen, please help me welcome Fred Carpenter. Thank you. I feel privileged to be here, Eric. I feel honored that you’re here too. I really appreciate it. I look forward to our conversation.

Eric Mulvin (02:43)

This is going to be fun. ⁓ We’ve been talking about this for years. I think I want to say it’s been years that we’re going to do this and then I think I had one podcast that ended and then I planned this one for like a year. Now here we are so it’s ⁓ it’s been a journey. A little bit slow to get there, but the value is in today. yeah, definitely well ⁓ for the people here who are watching who. ⁓

Eric Mulvin (03:12)

are getting to meet you for the first time. Why don’t you tell us more about Fred and a little bit about Vistage, since that’s a big thing you’re working on right now. I guess to give you a little background, because as people look at their careers and say, what was it that got them to where they are at? And I grew up on a farm in South Texas, about 20 miles north of Matamoros, Mexico.

Eric Mulvin (03:40)

and about 20 miles west of South Padre Island. So between the farming, sports, the beach, Mexico, you got my youth. Man, that sounds pretty incredible. Fun childhood. And my family had been farmers since 1700. And ⁓ my dad said, you are not going to be a farmer.

Eric Mulvin (04:06)

And so he basically kicked me out of the house and said, go to college and get an education and make something out of yourself. And so probably one of the best things that my dad ever did for me was pushing me in that direction and helping me to realize that there are things that I could do more than just be a farmer. And farming is not a bad thing. I’ve worked in it, but it’s the opportunities that I had in my life would not have happened if it hadn’t been for that situation. That’s incredible. And I think, yeah.

Eric Mulvin (04:36)

I’m curious, ⁓ at what point did you realize that? Because maybe early on you’re like, man, I can’t believe I came from this background. This is crazy. All these other people here have business backgrounds and I was a farmer. Thank you for asking that question. I hadn’t thought about that that way. when I went to Brigham Young University and was in their MBA program

Eric Mulvin (05:03)

and I

Eric Mulvin (05:04)

had the opportunity to work in the Dean’s office of the Marriott School of Business and be the student host of every executive that came on campus to speak to the students or be awarded with anything. And as that host, I got to spend a lot of time with some very unbelievable individuals and listening to them and asking them questions and just picking their brains

was probably one of the best things that ever happened to me because they changed

Eric Mulvin (05:33)

the trajectory of where I thought I could go and become. So it was really when you were at college. What were you thinking before that? I was looking at finding a job, getting my MBA, finding a job. And to be honest with you, it changed my trajectory because I realized I didn’t want to find a job. Yeah. What I wanted to become was a CEO, president, or owner of the Fortune 500.

Eric Mulvin (05:59)

That’s a huge shift to go from that to I want to be the CEO of a Fortune 500. And it was just fascinating that some of the opportunities I had and as people said, what do you want to do? And I started to change that scope there. It was fascinating watching them change because then they were really anxious to be able to help me to see the things that they did that helped them to succeed. And those were valuable lessons.

Yeah, well,

I think it’s interesting that you’re on the other side experiencing the benefit. But because of that, I’m sure that that influenced your later on career where now you’re helping coach people all the time. It did. It was the foundation.

Eric Mulvin (06:46)

And so that was really my start. I’ll tell you another situation there. And so what happened is, to be honest with you, what happened was is

that I sat down and decided how could I get to be the CEO because I know that they weren’t going to hire me as a CEO right out of an MBA program. And so I sat back and said, are the routes, the routes that I could take in order to get to that position? And it was in the financial market, in financial area, accounting firms, consulting firms.

Eric Mulvin (07:16)

banks, and financial divisions of organizations. And so that’s where I started to ⁓

send resumes to and try to find a position in those ⁓ companies. And one of those was Bechtel. Bechtel is the world’s leading privately owned engineering construction company. And I got an interview there and I met—

Eric Mulvin (07:47)

I walked in and I did a round of interviews and one of the persons that I met was senior VP and

Eric Mulvin (07:56)

he was an individual that was, let’s just say, seized the room. He was big, he was unbelievable, he was dressed immaculately, and I’m a farm boy. And this guy went to Harvard undergraduate in Stanford graduate school.

Eric Mulvin (08:16)

And I’m sitting there going, and I walk out of this meeting thinking, wow, that guy was really impressive.

Eric Mulvin (08:16)

And I’m sitting there going, and I walk out of this meeting thinking, wow, that guy was really impressive.

My next interview was with the chief financial officer of the company. And during that interview, I thought it was going really well, and during that interview, he said, where do you see yourself in 10 years here at Bechtel? Without even thinking, I said, in your seat as a CFO. And he looked at me.

Eric Mulvin (08:46)

with this kind of a funny look, he looked at me and he says, you know you gotta beat out that guy you just interviewed?

And my whole demeanor just crashed. ⁓ Because here I thought I was competing against MBAs. No, no, I wasn’t competing against seniors. That guy’s. Other guys and senior, BPs. And I realized, and it changed the way I looked at the world too, because when we walk on the stage, you’re competing against the world. You’re not just competing with your company or other.

Eric Mulvin (09:14)

people in your city or whatever. It really is an international situation.

And fortunately enough, they actually liked me. And so I started my career at Bechtel. All right. So that’s a, I think that was your first, no, that wasn’t your first job. The first job was the Grand Canyon. So that was your first job out of college. was the first job out of college. Okay. So that’s a pretty good start to the…

Eric Mulvin (09:41)

And you set the bar high. You set the expectation. They’re like this guy has some pretty high hopes. So

Eric Mulvin (09:48)

What did that do for you? Because I mean, I’m sure that guy is like looking at you extra close this whole time. Like, let’s see what he’s made of. Well, luckily for me, Bechtel is a big organization. So I only interacted with him maybe one or two times after that. But it really opened up the opportunity because I was put in there a new division called real estate. And

Eric Mulvin (10:11)

it was an interesting situation.

The situation was that I had my offer, I accepted my offer, packed up everything we had in back of a U-Haul. I mean, not a U-Haul, but a ⁓ moving van, which took about a third of the space because I didn’t have much coming out of college. And we moved to an apartment in Concord, which is in the East Bay, and began my journey. Walked in the first day and asked where the HR department was.

Eric Mulvin (10:43)

And so they directed me to the second floor and I went up there and I found the HR department and walked up to the desk and introduced myself. I’m Fred Carpenter. I’m here to meet so-and-so. And she welcomed me into the office and she said, well, we’ve got good news and bad news.

Which one do you want first? Because the position I was going for was in their finance department, which does billion dollar deals all over the world in these major construction projects.

And so that’s why I wanted to be in that position. they said, which do you want first? Do you want the good news or the bad news? I says, well, give me the bad news so I can at least finish on the good news. Well, that position in the finance department, it’s no longer there.

Eric Mulvin (11:32)

In our business, we expand the contract depending on our backlog. And we basically made the decision to eliminate that position.

Eric Mulvin (11:42)

And so I’m looking at her with this probably groupy face like, what the? You just moved across the country or across a couple states. And they said, we do have another opportunity. And that opportunity is in a brand new division. I don’t know anything about it. But they’ve asked.

Eric Mulvin (12:01)

But they’ve agreed to have you come work with them. And it was their real estate division that they had just started. And so that really became the foundation of my

professional career was in the real estate business. And that’s how you ended up there. Yep. OK. So that part of your journey there, how long did you stay at Bechtel?

Eric Mulvin (12:24)

I stayed at Bechtel for probably about four years.

Eric Mulvin (12:28)

And then I got an offer to go across the bay and go to work for a real estate syndication company. And while I love Bechtel and everything about it was great,

and I got the opportunity to actually participate in the construction of several projects around the world.

Eric Mulvin (12:38)

and I got the opportunity to actually participate in the construction of several projects around the world,

I wanted to get more into the investment side of it. And so my felt that was way to do it was working with an investment company that did that. And so ⁓ I moved over to the other side of the bay and began working for Equitech. basically we would go and find real estate projects and then for the Prudential Bashe.

Eric Mulvin (13:06)

and then basis for its investors then obviously were the funds.

Eric Mulvin (13:15)

So you were there and what did you pick up learning at that position? ⁓

There’s a lot of money to be made in real estate. That was your big takeaway? Because I transitioned from a country boy and went around and all of sudden I’m dealing in a situation where I had the opportunity to do about $2 billion worth of acquisitions. And it’s a lot of fun to spend somebody else’s money. Yes. So, and that’s what I did for several years until I was introduced to a friend.

Eric Mulvin (13:53)

of to a the son of a friend, very close friend of mine. And he came over to me after church one time. He was at church visiting his father-in-law. He came over and he said, well, I hear you’re in real estate and can I have a chance to talk with you? He was an attorney. And so he said, can we have a chance to talk? We did. Actually, it was that was the foundation of Glenwood, which was the company that we developed.

Eric Mulvin (14:22)

over the next 15 years. 20 years. And that’s where you really built your career then, right? So you started that company? Yep. I didn’t know you started it. Well, tell us about that because then I mean, I’m jumping ahead to the stuff I know that the audience doesn’t know. Well, John Hansen was his name.

Eric Mulvin (14:22)

over the next 20, 15 years. 20 years. And that’s where you really built your career then, right? So you started that company? didn’t know you started it. Well, tell us about that because then I mean, I’m jumping ahead into stuff I know that the audience doesn’t know.

John Hanson was his name.

Eric Mulvin (14:47)

I called up John and said, John, because I met him in at his father-in-law’s house. And then he said, well, let’s talk. Well, I finally called him about a month later because he never called me. And I said, hey, John, I don’t know whether this is something you really want to do or not. But I just left my job. I just resigned. And John says, He said, well, you better let’s get together. So I flipped.

Boise, Idaho, where they were having a reception for his sister’s wedding. And that was our first meeting. And we stayed up all night talking about what we could do and how we could do it. And that was the foundation of Glenwood Financial Group, which then later became part of the Glenwood Group, which was our equity fund. All right. So set that up. Tell us about like because that you did some really impressive stuff.

in that period of time of your career, like crazy, like the stuff that people dream about. Like, and then you were saying you wanted to be a CEO of a company. Well, I realized that that wasn’t what I wanted. Really? Because working in that area, you don’t really have a lot of control. You have a board that controls you. Serving on several boards. I learned that lesson.

Eric Mulvin (16:07)

And I wanted to have control.

I’m not a control freak. Yes, I am. And ⁓ I get to work with Eric a lot ⁓ and ⁓ he knows be successful in business, don’t you kind of need that a little bit or maybe a lot of bit, depending on what you’re doing? I believe that you have to have a vision of where you’re going.

Eric Mulvin (16:10)

I’m not a control fee. Yes, I am. ⁓ I get to work with Eric a lot and he knows that. to be successful in business, don’t you kind of need that a little bit? you need it. Or maybe a lot of it, depending on what you’re doing. I believe that you have to have a vision of where you’re going

and create plans

Eric Mulvin (16:35)

that can get you there. And you can deviate from those plans, but you need to make sure that you’re not deviating from where the goal is. Yeah. What’s… ⁓ I’m doing this, now I’m going to go do this, now I’m going go do this, instead of focusing and building the opportunity. Because it took several years. This didn’t happen overnight. And was trying to raise money and…

⁓ One of our first ⁓ opportunities that we had was

Eric Mulvin (17:04)

to ⁓ become a partner with a company called Tutor Time. And Tutor Time was a franchise organization on the East Coast. ⁓ And they came to us to see if we would build one of their ⁓ childcare operations. And that evolved into a partnership where we would build them

and we would operate them. And we would then have the opportunity after three years to either

Eric Mulvin (17:34)

Send, give it, sell it back to them or keep it. And it was basically gave us that because they didn’t want to spend their money opening schools. They wanted to spend their money leading and operating those schools. So. Which is another lesson there somewhere. Everything is saying there’s like little lessons to learn. There is. And ⁓ and as I’ve driven around

Phoenix here, it was kind of been kind of cool. ⁓ Several of the.

Eric Mulvin (18:02)

tutor time. I built probably half the tutor times here in Phoenix and ⁓ I’ve driven around several sites. They’re no longer there because they were bought for we were just had a property with our facility and real estate. We’ve had people bought those sites and converted them to something else. But it still is has some great memories of us being here and

building our first school in Awetuki. Well, and it’s a well established brand here and

Eric Mulvin (18:32)

Phoenix. so you helped introduce it to the Phoenix market or? We introduced it. Awetuki was our first, Tutor Time’s first school in Phoenix. And we ended up selling that division, that company, back to Tutor Time.

Eric Mulvin (18:58)

It was a fun story. We were out playing golf with the individual

Eric Mulvin (19:01)

that was running that organization, and we were talking about selling the company. We’re in that process now, thinking about where we’re going, what we do, and how we do it. So I asked him how much he thought we could sell it for. And he said, well, I think running the numbers and everything, I think we could probably sell it for $10 million. There were 25 schools. So that was about 5,000 students.

Eric Mulvin (19:25)

It was at 5,000, was 1,500 students. I started laughing at him. And he started, why are you laughing? He says, we’re going to make $25 million. And he looked at me like, you’re crazy.

Eric Mulvin (19:41)

We made $25 million. $25 million off of that. Well, he was saying that was going to sell for $10 And ⁓ we sold it for $25 Jeez. So that’s a good lesson there. The big win is don’t underestimate the value of what you’re doing.

That’s huge. mean that’s $15 million difference. That’s a huge, that’s a huge difference there. I asked him after we closed the deal. I says, do you trust me now? He says, be honest with no, because I don’t know whether you’re joking with me or telling me the truth. That’s funny. So, so you, with the, the Glenwood group, right? That, that organization, I mean you did

Eric Mulvin (20:29)

stuff like that, that wasn’t the only thing, right? Like you did projects like this. Tell me more, tell us more about some of the other things that you got to work on with that or what you got to learn through running that organization. One of the, company that we had was off-campus housing for universities. And we, we operate, we were probably the 13th largest provider of off-campus housing. we got into that business.

Eric Mulvin (20:58)

And in around 2015, of a sudden, was cash was plentiful. People were doing crazy stuff. They had subprime cash that we’re using. And so you were having in the real estate, in the housing market there and in the commercial market, they were doing 100 % leverage deals. Oh yeah. And like 07, yeah, leading up to the 08 crash. Yeah. Exactly. And so we were in that market.

Eric Mulvin (21:28)

and trying to play it on a difficult side. we knew we needed to move out of what we did because all of our money that we had raised was friends and family. We had raised about $100 million worth of friends and family monies to do our portfolios. And so we knew that we couldn’t succeed on that because it’s much bigger market. And we went to the marketplace in July with the

Eric Mulvin (21:58)

try to find the institution that we would do the investment with. we ended up finding one, but the equity markets in Wall Street, they kind of closed down in August. And so when we left, we had 45 companies that had expressed strong interest and signed NDAs, nondiscosler agreements, NDAs. And the company that we decided to do it with ⁓ and ready to go in September,

Eric Mulvin (22:28)

when everybody came back and we negotiated with the company. We were going to put into this new venture $60 million free and clear ⁓ off campus student housing ⁓ complex. And they were going to put in $100 million of cash. so we were really excited about this because we already had three more sites ready to go. And so it wasn’t like we were just

Eric Mulvin (22:57)

getting the cash and then starting, but we were ready and had already cultivated site. And one of our properties was at corner of Apache and rural, not the exact corner, but just off the corner on Apache or rural. I’m sorry. I don’t remember which one it was, but I know what you’re talking about. There’s a Taco Bell right there on the corner. There’s a complex right behind there. Yeah. And that was one of our properties. That was one of the first like high density buildings in

Eric Mulvin (23:25)

Tempe like off of when the light rail was built. is a, it’s a big deal. You guys weren’t just building like another housing. It was like, this is the future of Metro Phoenix. Well, and it was a lot of fun to get to do there and get there. it,

and it ended up not working for us because ⁓ we went to, we flew into, we got the deal done. We negotiated the contracts. We flew into New York city and on, and then on

Eric Mulvin (23:55)

On the, I think it was the 15th of September 2007, 2008, when we flew in,

Eric Mulvin (24:07)

we were all excited, the papers were ready, we were ready to sign the deal, ready to fund the deal, and went down to lunch. And that was the day that Leman Marcus declared bankruptcy.

And when that happened, they were one of the biggest players in that marketplace. And it literally caused the crisis that happened. was the match. You were there though, like in the ground zero of all this happening. We were in a restaurant

Eric Mulvin (24:37)

watching this TV and they’re watching the numbers crash down in front of us. And we walked back to their offices. they called up their,

started calling their people that were putting funds, monies in the fund to see where their status was. And they basically all said, we’re out. And because they have portfolios where they have values for

Eric Mulvin (25:04)

stock in bonds and real estate and things like that. And so we ended up not doing that deal. that was a change in my life. Yeah, it’s really interesting. And ⁓

because right now we’re going through this pretty interesting economic time. I don’t know if you’d say it’s as sudden, but I mean, some of the changes that have been happening the last couple of weeks are pretty, pretty sudden. ⁓

Eric Mulvin (25:33)

You see any parallels between like the economy there and what’s happening now for like as a business leader that is navigating through this? I don’t know. You’ve been through a couple of these crisis. I have. But if you go back to

the crash of 2018 or 2008, mean 2008, this didn’t happen in 2008. It happened in 2007. There were a lot that they were doing subprime loans. And as a result,

Eric Mulvin (26:03)

When the market started to crash, it started to get very wobbly. People were losing a lot of money, but they kept throwing more money in. so 2007 was really the start of where the crash ended up.

Eric Mulvin (26:17)

I agree with you, Eric. I see a lot of the same things happening now in different ways. It’s not necessarily fact. The cash is just situation, but there’s a lot of stuff going on that causes me to ⁓ recognize that

we’ve got to be very vigilant of where we’re going and what we’re doing and how we’re doing it and who we’re doing it with. Yeah. Yep. And one of the switch gears, you know, we talked about a lot about your ⁓ professional background, but

Eric Mulvin (26:46)

for the last, I don’t know how many years now, you’ve been a Vistage coach. I’ve been a Vistage chair for 12 years.

And my transition to being a Vistage chair was interesting. My partner went ahead and started another real estate company. I was a member of Vistage, which is the world’s largest organization of CEOs, presidents, and owners who get together and help each other.

Eric Mulvin (27:15)

And I was a member, I was 33 years old when I joined this group. The next youngest individual was eight years older than I was, because

Eric Mulvin (27:23)

there wasn’t a lot of 30 year olds that owned their companies in the early 2000s. And they put me under their wings and helped me grow and helped me build. And when the crash happened, I went to the group, I went to my Vistage group and said, hey, you know, I got this issue and this issue and help me through this thing.

And immediately they all said you need to file bankruptcy.

Eric Mulvin (27:50)

And if we had filed bankruptcy, we had a lot of friends and family money that had been put into our real estate portfolio. And so if we had declared bankruptcy, would have probably bankrupted 100 people, senior citizens. That was their retirement fund. And so I told my group that the big caveat here is I can’t file bankruptcy. So you’ve got to help me figure out how to

Eric Mulvin (28:15)

navigate this whole thing and not file bankruptcy. And that’s what they did.

And that’s a pretty noble thing. mean, it’s it. We think it was a lot of money. hundred twenty million dollars. Because I mean, you see the headlines. It seems like every week there’s another company out there that’s ripped off customers and there there’s no intention of paying them back.

Eric Mulvin (28:41)

But you guys did. And that’s unfortunately that’s not the stuff that’s going to make headline. You’re not going to see headline, you know, dissolve company pays back 100 million dollars to its investors.

Eric Mulvin (28:50)

That doesn’t bring the clicks that the other one would, but that’s crazy powerful. Well, and one of the things that I learned in this and my banker friends aren’t going to like what I’m about to say, is that one of the things that saved us and helped us do what we needed to do in order to make sure that

Eric Mulvin (29:11)

we helped our investors was we never used one bank. We had four.

And so when it came to time to everybody, the banks come after us and so we basically said, you go ahead and file, but we will go ahead and declare bankruptcy. And when we do declare bankruptcy, you’re going to wipe out four banks.

Eric Mulvin (29:35)

And they wouldn’t do it. Yeah. And so we were able to use the budget pay off. It leveraged all the banks against each other. Well, yeah. And that led to where I went from there. And it was May of 2012, my Vistach chair who had helped me for 15, 20 years to I was sitting and doing a one-to-one. One of the things in Vistach is not only do we meet on a monthly basis for a full day to help each other, these are CEOs.

Eric Mulvin (30:04)

presidents and owners of companies who don’t have no conflict of interest in the group so that everybody can open up and talk very freely and openly so they help solve each other’s and help each other figure out ways to go and where to go and how to do it. And that’s what the group to do. In addition, I have the opportunity as a Vistach chair, working with each one of my members on a monthly basis as well in a coaching session.

Eric Mulvin (30:31)

It was in my coaching session in May of 2012 when we couldn’t do it anymore. We basically had reached the end of our rope. And I was sitting down with my Vistach chair and I said, Pete, we’re going to close the doors in the first of August. And I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’m 57 years old. I’ve got a

Eric Mulvin (30:58)

I’ve learned more in the last five years of going through hell than I ever learned in 20 years of great success. And my chair just kind of smirked a little bit. And he said, have you ever thought about being a Vistach chair? And literally from the top of my head to the bottom of my toes, I was electrified. just had this surge that was, wow. And so that’s what I decided to do. Economically, it’s a good business, but it’s not what I had before.

I had before. Yeah.

However, I enjoyed a lot more. The opportunity to work with CEOs, presidents, and owners of companies and help them make better decisions and become better leaders and achieve better results. And so that’s how I became a Vistage Chair. Cool. I’m ⁓ picturing some kind of ritual, you know, the passing on the baton, like with the cloak and the robe or something.

Eric Mulvin (31:55)

You are now worthy

Eric Mulvin (31:56)

of leading a group. Well, it’s been a blast. I’ve probably processed over 10,000 issues over the last 12 years. And in the years before, I went there because in our company, all of our companies, several companies that we had in the investment fund, ⁓ each person was an operating partner.

and I was the managing partner.

Eric Mulvin (32:26)

And so I coached my operating partners rather than brand that division. I coached them how they could build it and grow it and stuff like that, because that was what I was learning in Vistage. so that was kind of the start of what I did. I was able to, Vistage was nice enough to let me participate. And I had, and I built ⁓ three groups in ⁓ Los Angeles and had a great time

running those groups.

⁓ was fun to watch those companies. had three companies that all had under $100 million in revenue. One had $20, one had $50, one had $80. And over the subsequent years, I’ve been working with them. And they all sold for just about $950 million. These were companies that had turned themselves from duck.

Eric Mulvin (33:25)

technical technology driven companies to become technology driven companies. And that’s one of the big reasons that happened. So that happened three times over the last 11, 12 years 12 years. Well, and one of the highlight of life, if I could put a cherry on top, I worked with a company that had about 40, $50 million in revenues.

And they were in, they were starting their B round and

I helped him and worked with them. They were, he is a part of this stage and I worked with him through his B and C rounds. And this past year they sold their business for $7 billion. It was service Titan. Yeah. $7 billion. It makes your, your real estate company look tiny. Even though that was massive. That’s a, I mean, we’d probably have a whole episode on that.

Eric Mulvin (34:21)

So service Titan, which when I first joined Vistage, I got to hear about that because I know another member worked with them and I mean, they were already on a rocket ship. So it was fun to talk about. But I mean, like my question here is there’s people listening. Oh, go ahead. Maybe I’ll go off on a tangent just to hear from you.

Eric Mulvin (34:45)

When I first joined Vistage, my very first meeting, I’m this 33-year-old kid. ⁓ And there is this, and one of the great stories that I love to tell about Vistage is that there was a gentleman who was Chinese from Taiwan. ⁓ when he came in, he had two sit-down Chinese restaurants. And he was so frustrated that he couldn’t make the money.

Eric Mulvin (35:12)

He says, I’ve got to figure out ways to make more money with my Chinese restaurants. And so the group processed that issue and over some over time, he came back and he decided that he was going to do QSR quick service restaurants. Providing Chinese food. So you were there right when he was processing this issue, which is what we do in Vistage. You know, you got a problem in your company. You take it to the group like help me out guys. And so he brought this issue with his little Chinese restaurants.

Eric Mulvin (35:42)

two restaurants is like, ⁓ I need to make more money. So that was where it ended up is because that was there was basically hamburger joints and stuff like that. weren’t a lot of QSRs, but QSRs were just quick service restaurants were starting to expand. And I’ll never forget that ⁓ when he told us that he was going to do this, we all looked at him like, that’s pretty cool. Will anybody buy Chinese restaurants? Quick serve.

Eric Mulvin (36:12)

And he grew that business and about six months later he came in, maybe a year later he came in and he says, my issue is now is I need to grow this to a hundred million dollars. Like within the 12 months of that conversation. ⁓ And the last time we actually worked with him was when he decided that he would tell us that his new dream and what he wanted to do was one billion dollars in revenues.

Eric Mulvin (36:41)

And now that business probably does about $4 billion. And it was Andrew and baby turn. And obviously it was Panda Express. Everybody can figure out that one. Well, now that you mention it, that, but it’s crazy. Cause we all, mean, everyone knows Panda Express today and you’re just used to seeing them around. But the fact that you were there in the room when like the idea for Panda Express basically.

Eric Mulvin (37:09)

Because before that there was no fast food Asians. And in fact today they’re one of the few, there’s not a lot. Like they dominate that market. being able to be exposed to these, I don’t know, for me, like being part of Vistage gave me a lot of confidence because I’m I’m sitting here with these other CEOs that are doing $100 million a year, $50 million a year. Pac Biz is not that big.

Eric Mulvin (37:36)

I seeing being exposed to that, like seeing these people getting to know them because these groups, they’re not huge groups, right? Like there’s 10, 15, maybe 18 people. Typically are about 10 to 18 people. Yeah. So we’re not talking about a massive room of like a hundred people and a workshop or something. This is like a group that you meet with once a month and you guys know each other, you have each other’s back. So for me, that gave me so much confidence because what, just like you, when I joined

I was

as 2019. So that was I was 34 I think when I joined not too much different age than you. And I was nervous. I’m like what I don’t belong in this group like my business is too small. I don’t think I think they made an exception for me to be in here. And but being around I think for me it was like all these guys are normal like there’s nothing that they are doing that I can’t do. And so

Eric Mulvin (38:33)

Did you, did any of that rub off on you? Like being exposed to all this, all that craziness of like what you could do in business. Every, every meeting I would go home and go, wow. And what I, the first six months I didn’t do it, but after that six, six months, I recognized I need to write down all these things. And if that was really what began how I planned.

Eric Mulvin (39:02)

my growth of all my businesses was based upon the feedback I was getting. I may not have it the way they wanted it done, I did it. But it caused me to think and recognize here’s an idea that I can take and make it happen. Yeah, because there’s obviously more than one way to do everything, but there’s definitely some wrong ways to do stuff that unless you get those different perspectives, you might not realize that you’re going down the wrong path.

Eric Mulvin (39:29)

And one of the things we do in Vistage is when you process an issue, we don’t just talk about it. It’s that, what, Eric, what do we do with it? Yeah. Put it on an action summary form to report back when you come back the next month. And if you got 15 CEOs sitting in the room and you come back and say, ⁓ I didn’t do anything, you didn’t want to do that, do you?

Eric Mulvin (39:59)

Yeah, it’s is there’s definitely been times where yeah, it’s like Eric, this is what you said you were going to do last month. ⁓ What’s the update like? ⁓ did not get to that. And yeah, I mean, it’s going to stay there because we cross it off once it’s complete. And if it’s not complete, OK, we’re going to check back next month. And there’s stuff that I mean, it’s a great way to hold yourself accountable, because I think for me, I say all this all the time with business leaders.

Like who is out there holding yourself accountable?

Eric Mulvin (40:28)

Like maybe you got a spouse, but even then, like they’re not gonna be, I don’t think you’re gonna have a great relationship with your spouse if they’re watching your 24 seven, you need to be motivated yourself. A lot of companies that look at their executive, look at their executive team and say, well, this is my, this is my, my team. And when you have your executive team and that’s all you listen to, you’re basically taking in your exhaust fumes.

Eric Mulvin (40:54)

because you’re not generating new ideas.

Eric Mulvin (40:57)

You’re just repeating those ideas and to sit in a room where there’s 150 to 200 years of experience of being a CEO. One of the things that helped me was it helped me understand what a CEO was to begin with. And ⁓ that’s one of the things that I love is to be able to work with people and help them do the aha idea. Yeah. Well,

again, going back to the Panda Express thing, mean, being there,

Eric Mulvin (41:27)

That’s the ultimate aha idea, I guess. Not every idea that pops up in Vistage is going to turn into a four billion dollar a year company. But there’s always that potential too, which makes it fun. You never know what conversation leads to a deal that leads to something else and something else. And I think for me as a business owner, mean, it’s a blessing and a curse.

Eric Mulvin (41:54)

The optimism you have every day, I don’t know, like who’s

Eric Mulvin (41:57)

who might call me today that could change my business forever? Because I think a lot of us were in that position where one phone call could change everything possibly, but in reality, I those calls don’t happen very often.

Eric Mulvin (42:13)

One of the things that I recognize more than anything else is that success, lot of some people have great success in a very short period, but it just takes just continually focusing on the next step, the next step, the next step, because you have to build it, and some companies are built really faster because there are opportunities or whatever goes on, but everybody can become better leaders.

Eric Mulvin (42:40)

and to be

Eric Mulvin (42:41)

able to make better decisions when you surround yourself with experience and make more money. And that’s really what Vistage is all about is helping their CEOs and presidents and owners ⁓ make better decisions so they can become better leaders and make more money. And that’s what my goal is. I, going back to when I became a Vistage Chair, I was pretty beat up and ⁓

Yeah, you just went through the crazy implosion of the market, losing that company. And I was sitting with my Vistach chair when I was telling him I had this experience. that was, and what I recognized when I went home from talking with him was that my passion, if I’m going to be a Vistach chair, is to make no one, no one ever go through what I did.

Eric Mulvin (43:41)

And that is my passion. And that’s why I am a Vistie’s chair right now is just to make sure that I help my CEOs and other individuals in this world to be able to have those opportunities to succeed and not go through hell. Yeah. And that’s a, mean, you, you take a company, like I saw this stat yesterday, which was kind of mind blowing that I think within five years, 60, 67 % of companies,

Eric Mulvin (44:09)

that reached the Inc 5000 go out of business within five years. was what, I know maybe I need to double check that quote. saw that from a slide from a workshop yesterday, but I couldn’t believe that. I could believe it. You could believe it. So why do you think that is? Because you have more experience with this. For me, that doesn’t seem like that shouldn’t happen. It’s because they are going over the same situations in the same situation. You have to get outside of that.

Eric Mulvin (44:38)

I’ve had several top speakers who all say every company needs to have a peer advisory board and an executive coach. And that’s what made it. If you talk to the people that made it, most of them all said those were the two things they had was somebody that they could where they could go and get other ideas and viewpoints. Because when we process an issue and you’re doing clarifying questions, are your thoughts, are your questions the same as somebody else’s questions?

Eric Mulvin (45:08)

or somebody because that’s thinking outside the box now. Those questions are coming from people who are looking at the situation completely different. And so they ask questions that cause people go, And so to me, that’s really the challenge is because they start to believe in themselves. Yeah. And you know, one thing I find really fascinating too is the dynamic in our group. You know, like

we’re really

Eric Mulvin (45:38)

We want to see each other succeed. And so when you keep coming back month after month after month with the same issue, and maybe you’re trying to present it to the group in a different way, like, this is a completely different issue, guys. And we’re like, no, it’s not. This is the same thing. You’re just buttering it up and making it look different. But we really want to see those people succeed. it’s not like we’re, it’s just.

I don’t know where you would get that anywhere else where you’d have these other business owners because I have business owner friends and we talk like we go out to a son’s game or go out drinks and talk about business. But I can’t see them like, Eric, I’m going to check in with you next week and make sure that you got this solved or we’re going to grab lunch so we can talk about it. And like that’s the kind of stuff that happens in our groups. It is. And I love it. But also in my one to one coaching sessions with each one.

Eric Mulvin (46:33)

I try to push them to places that they weren’t thinking about or possibly and not ⁓ fully vetted. And so I try to push them and they give me…

Eric Mulvin (46:46)

privilege of pushing you really hard. because I’ve been through a lot of stuff, I’ve spent 10,000 hours coaching, to be able to help probably over 100 CEOs, presidents, and owners of companies of leadership has been one of the great privileges of my life. Yeah, well, it has been an honor to be part of the group and to learn because I mean, I don’t know how I

Eric Mulvin (47:16)

I joined a different group when I joined Vistage and he was a former, I think he was a CEO of a semiconductor. Like he was in that space and he was like on his way to retirement. So Fred absorbed us into his group. think there was like two or three of us. That was like 2020, think maybe. So about six years ago now at this point and, and I was,

Eric Mulvin (47:44)

the group I was with, it was small, like there was three of us. So that’s where I really felt intimidated. Cause I was like, do I stay in this group? I mean, I don’t know. So it was cool though, like right away seeing the other members and then, and getting to work with you, think, and, ⁓ nothing against the other guy with the other coach. I mean, you 10,000 hours, right? Like you, you spent so much time coaching people and we’ve, I’ve spent so much time sitting across from you being coached that

Eric Mulvin (48:14)

I already know half the time what you’re going to say before you say it the question you’re going to ask. So sometimes I could just have a one-on-one session with myself in the mirror and be like, this is what Fred would say, and then I’ll go do it. But that, because you already know, like, it’s good stuff. It’s like, I know already that I need to get pushed back on these things. And if I go talk to Fred about it, he’s going to ask these questions. So need to go work on it. But I mean, that’s growth.

Eric Mulvin (48:43)

That’s learning. That’s what we have to do as leaders to get better, right? Well, and going back to something we talked about earlier, Eric, is kind of what’s going on in the world today. And really, we’re hitting a position or a place that the animosity and the anger and a lot of stuff that’s going on throughout the world.

People ask, several members have asked me

Eric Mulvin (49:10)

what my thoughts are about this situation, what’s gonna go, what’s gonna happen, and I’ve lived through a few of these things. And we could succeed in this time, but we have to play together. Because the team is going to take each other to that level. And it’s not gonna be one person doing it and nobody else, it’s everybody trying to make everybody successful. Because…

Eric Mulvin (49:36)

the positivity of

Eric Mulvin (49:40)

overcoming the negativity of what’s going on in the world is difficult to do, to be able to see opportunities, to feel positive that you can make those things work. And to me, that’s one of the biggest challenges that all executive coaches and Vistich has, Vistich Chair Group, which is all the chairs at Phoenix, we get together and have to eat our own cooking. ⁓

Eric Mulvin (50:06)

that’s really what presentation I’m making.

Eric Mulvin (50:09)

in our April meeting is learning and development on positioning individuals, getting people to figure out how they can get out their head out of the challenges and focusing on the challenges of the anxiety and the issues like that to know that you do have opportunities. So what’s one piece of advice you’d give to a business leader listening right now that’s like, okay, that sounds good. How do I do that?

Eric Mulvin (50:34)

You want me to be flippant? Join this stage. Step one. Okay. Uh, the first thing is, that, uh, when I find, when I talk to a lot of, of, uh, present CEOs and owners, uh, one of the things I find out is that they’re not leaders. They’re managers. And if you’re, if you’re a CEO, president owner of your company and you’re managing the business, you’re wasting a lot of

Eric Mulvin (51:03)

talent

Eric Mulvin (51:04)

Because you have, if you build an executive team around you, they can move the company, which allows you to focus on where we’re going and how we might be able to get there. call it looking, is seeing around the curve, being what’s around that curve. And to me, that’s one of the big things is you’ve got to have a, you’ve got to need to develop an executive team. I, when I joined Vistage when I was back, my chair worked with me for four years.

Eric Mulvin (51:33)

to get me to get an assistant. Four years. because I was the ball neck in everything that was going on in our business because it had to go through me. And when I did that, that was when all of a sudden our business changed. But it took, but I was stubborn because I wanted to make sure everything, I was dotted and every T was crossed. And you’re a manager then. You’re not leading.

Eric Mulvin (52:00)

And to me, that was is one thing is to

look yourself in the mirror and say, am I a manager or am I a leader?

Eric Mulvin (52:08)

That’s a, that’s a good question. And if you haven’t asked that question to yourself in a while, because your roles change all the time. And maybe at one point you started out as a leader and slowly piece by piece, you’ve now become a manager and maybe you’re questioning why, why am I doing like, you’re not happy with your day to day. Cause I mean, you’ve coached people that end up being managers that, and like, what does that feel like for them when they’re in that mode and then they finally get out? Well,

Eric Mulvin (52:38)

I have another second group that I have, is called a key group. And those are people who report to CEOs and are typically the number twos. And they’re the people that are being groomed to take over the business when the CEO wants to step away or sell the business. And part of the challenges that they feel is when you’re… And I’m being probably a little bit too strong on the management side, but when…

Eric Mulvin (53:07)

You have a CEO, president or owner who is managing those C-level executives. You’re spending all your time doing the work that should be done by somebody else that can be done for somebody else. So train, teach, grow, hire the right people, the right people on the bus. And when we talk about getting the right people on the bus, the first thing is to get the right people on the bus. And that’s

Eric Mulvin (53:36)

making sure that the person you’re hiring fits the culture of your business. Because nothing destroys businesses and groups than having a ⁓ bad person that’s not a good fit. Then you can look at getting the right person in the right seat. And I’m going to steal something from EOS. EOS is an enterprise operating system. It’s an organization out there that helps leadership teams to get together and work together.

Eric Mulvin (54:06)

They have something called GWC. so, you know, my last piece of advice is GWC is really one of the most, something that I’m working with all my members to do, ⁓ is that G is we get it.

Eric Mulvin (54:24)

W is we want it. And C is we have the capacity to do it. And if you look at a project, do we really get that project? Do we really understand what that opportunity is? Do we really want that opportunity, or are we just doing it because we need more business? And C is do we have the capacity to actually make it work?

Eric Mulvin (54:54)

And so those would be my two things. Yeah. It’s a very powerful thing that, you know, and being part of Vistage, don’t know, maybe not every group is like this. Definitely our group. We have a lot of people that use EOS. So, and like Pac Biz, we’ve been using it now for six years ourselves, but that whole GWC thing is really an interesting thing. I think that part is not the tough part, the tough part. And this is my next question for you.

Eric Mulvin (55:23)

Now you looked at your team and now you maybe you have like a family member that’s sitting in a seat or or the person that you know was with you from day one when you first started that company and now you know whether it could be things in life you know maybe they have kids now and they have different priorities whatever the reason is ⁓ they don’t fit anymore how do you deal with that because I think for business leaders listening and watching right now

Eric Mulvin (55:52)

I think the ones that make those hard decisions, have those hard conversations and move the business forward, the ones that start separating themselves from the ones that can’t make that decision. then, cause I think there was something that we talked about a few months back that has really stuck with me. Like, is your business ⁓ a lifestyle company or is it a, I forgot the other one that they said it was like a… A legacy. Yeah. Like, but it…

Eric Mulvin (56:18)

Are you trying to build a company? Is this like a fun thing on the side that

makes a bunch of money and you just get to play business on it? Basically, right? And the question is, what would you? How do you build with that? If you have someone that’s like a key position that’s critical and you know you need to… And look, you’re listening to this, the name is in your head as you’re listening to this. You already know the person that…

Eric Mulvin (56:46)

that we’re talking about here and you know what you need to do, but you can’t pull the trigger.

Eric Mulvin (56:52)

And ⁓ I’m going to go back to GWC. know, I basically, and the reason I’m using GWC, because if they don’t get it, if they truly don’t understand what they’re supposed to do and how they need to do it, train them up. If they’re not willing to be trained up, then they don’t want that position and they’ll never have the capacity to do it.

Eric Mulvin (57:16)

And I have watched where you have CEOs, owners who

⁓ are pleasers. And so they just can’t pull that trigger. They can’t make, ⁓ you know, employees, older employees who’ve been there a long time who are stuck and can’t change, family members. And I’m watching two, I two companies right now where, ⁓

Eric Mulvin (57:45)

the owner has had to make some very difficult decisions with their leadership team.

And that those choices that he made changed the company and it’s put them back on track to be able to be successful. And it’s a hard thing to say, but at the end of the day, if you don’t get it, you don’t want it, and you don’t have the capacity, it is not going to succeed. That person cannot succeed.

Eric Mulvin (58:16)

Yeah. And do you have any specific ⁓ examples that, I mean, without

Eric Mulvin (58:21)

saying specific names or anything, but I mean you’ve seen it on the other side where they made that choice and now their company has gone into a completely different trajectory, right? Well, the one I’m talking about right now is now starting to make that move. And the

Eric Mulvin (58:43)

individual that is still working in the company was working in the company.

was the roadblock and he had been there from the time that the business had been launched. were best friends and launched and so it’s been a situation where he’s been in the company forever and he’s basically learned that he could not do anything and get away with it. And the CEO, the president of the company had to go to the CEO and says, we’ve got to get rid of him.

Eric Mulvin (59:12)

And for five years, he’s allowed him to continue to

Eric Mulvin (59:12)

five years he’s allowed him to continue to do

Eric Mulvin (59:18)

do stuff that just never allowed the company to succeed because he was the cog in the wheel that didn’t have the capacity to make the job happen. And that just changed a month ago and already in one month they’re seeing a tremendous change and the CEO, the owner of CEO

Eric Mulvin (59:41)

said, man, I can’t believe this is really cool. He says, why didn’t I think of this before?

Eric Mulvin (59:48)

I think about things before. Being a CEO is not always a comfortable job. And ⁓ I know that a lot of companies don’t have boards. And so you don’t have a board you’re responsible to.

Eric Mulvin (1:00:10)

But you do have senior leaders who basically are your board.

Eric Mulvin (1:00:17)

they need to hold you accountable. Does that make sense? That same kind of like a board who is helping the company move forward. And I think for a lot of maybe younger business owners or people who maybe their business isn’t at that level, they don’t even realize that that’s how a lot of bigger companies work. yeah, you’re not

out there making decisions on your own. Like you might see Mark Zuckerberg, the face of meta all the time, but there’s a whole bunch of people over there telling him.

Eric Mulvin (1:00:47)

what to say or do and ⁓ I don’t like you said, you know, the control that they have ⁓ and maybe Facebook is a bad example. Like you might have a little more outsized control than most, but in a traditional company with a board, they, they, have to answer to them pretty significantly.

Eric Mulvin (1:01:05)

They do unless you’re Elon Musk, company yourself. But even in Musk’s situation, I tell you, the guy is a leader. He is a visionary.

Eric Mulvin (1:01:17)

Where do we go now? Where do we go now? He’s always looking for opportunities there in the marketplace. And ⁓ he’s not the most liked guy in the world, but that’s not what his business is about. His business is making money for his investors, which is himself. Yeah,

this is true. Well, that could be a whole other episode that we could unpack.

Eric Mulvin (1:01:45)

to kind of wrap up this conversation, because I mean, as you’re answering stuff, like, man, there’s another question I could ask. There’s another question I could ask. There’s so many lessons that I’ve learned. ⁓ But there is one thing I want to touch back on that we didn’t talk about in Vistage that I it’s one of my favorite things in Vistage. And it’s the the guest speakers that come in.

Eric Mulvin (1:02:05)

and talk to the groups and it’s

Eric Mulvin (1:02:08)

You know, like you, you might think about going to a conference somewhere, like traveling out of state and there’s the keynote speaker on stage. You’re like, man, I’ve seen some of his podcasts. I’ve seen him on different things and, I’ve read some of his books and that’s the kind of people that come to your, group that, you know, of 10 people, 12 people. And he comes and speaks to us one-on-one and like a little tiny small setting, which is I,

for me, that is one of, I mean the, the

Eric Mulvin (1:02:38)

Obviously the peer advisory group stuff is huge, but also like the education that I have learned because there’s so many parts of Pac Biz that are from those speakers like EOS. Can I give you an example of success? Yeah. We had a speaker that came in and his name was Chris Jennings. I’m going to give him the hype and he’s on sales. ⁓

Eric Mulvin (1:03:08)

there was he talked about a lot of stuff but one of the things he talked about was that in football you have offense, defense, and special teams. When you ask coaches who won the game normally it’s the special teams. Who’s your specialty team? Special teams. And this individual has a productions company that puts

on conferences and does all the screens and the front of house stuff with a

Eric Mulvin (1:03:38)

video and stuff. he went to his, he had a sales team, he went to, but they weren’t making as much progress as he wanted to. And so he sat down and thought about with me and that, well, who would be my special teams? And we came up with his project managers who

are responsible for putting on those predictions. Who’s the person who talks with

Eric Mulvin (1:04:07)

the client the most.

Eric Mulvin (1:04:09)

it’s the project managers. And so their project managers now are the highest selling group in their business. And they went from about $6 million several years ago to over $30 million this past year. And it’s because they took an idea, one idea from Vistage that now has changed their company. And for those of you guys who maybe are not like,

Eric Mulvin (1:04:38)

You hear these big numbers or you’re like, want to get there one day. That is a big deal to go from six. Like we’ve been trying to grow Pac Biz for years and years and years. And I mean, to go from that size to where he’s at today. And ⁓ for me to be a part of the Vistas group and see that growth and see that and ⁓ without giving too much details on the specific company. But I know like we were all there together. ⁓

Eric Mulvin (1:05:07)

through the beginning of COVID when this is like business went to nothing. And so he essentially in the last six years, he went from like zero to where he’s at today, which is again, I go back to the inspiration that you get from other people and to hear people like Chris Jennings come and talk. I mean, it’s, it’s a big part of our sales process as well in our company. And I, you know, there’s

Eric Mulvin (1:05:32)

Like the advice you get from a lot of people the last couple of years now, like when you have a problem, I’ll just chat GPT it. Go look it up on chat GPT. Like, all right, you’re going to get some generic answer to solve this problem for your business versus this guy that has a proven concept that has worked with thousands of businesses all over the country knows it works. You know, the difference between going that route versus, you know, some generic advice you might get on chat GPT. It’s really powerful.

Eric Mulvin (1:06:03)

Well, when you talk about those speakers, I’m going to, I’m going to, one of the things that I wish that I could get my members to realize is that this great opportunity of having these great speakers come in and do a workshop with you rather than just talk to you. And, ⁓ is that those individuals all will take your phone call and talk to you. And you just had an experience with that, with somebody. ⁓ yeah.

Eric Mulvin (1:06:29)

Definitely with Derrick Mains. He was one of our speakers and he just put on a workshop recently yesterday as a matter of fact and so I was able to attend that and just get a refresher on some of the stuff he taught about process mapping and but is it you know, it’s someone that I’ve gotten to know now and you know have a Relationship like take him to Sun’s game or I’ve taken him to a Sun’s game and he’s gonna be a future guest on the podcast. So

Eric Mulvin (1:06:57)

Look out for Derrick Mains in a future episode. But these, yeah, it is incredible because it becomes part of your business. all these little people, all these little things that, you know, they come in and they teach you about HR, teach you about hiring, teach you about how to exit the company, how to, I mean, trying to think of some of the topics that we’ve covered over the years. there’s brain, how the brain works. Like that was the most recent one.

Eric Mulvin (1:07:25)

And I’m still trying to unpack like all of the things that you could do with it. mean, probably just from one of these lessons alone, you could spend the next year like, how can we implement this and roll this out? And then the next month there’s another one and there’s another one. So ⁓ there’s no shortage of education. I think that the interesting challenge as a Vistage member is to figure out what are the things that fit best with your company.

Eric Mulvin (1:07:54)

and

implementing it and again, holding yourself accountable because I think for me, and I think this is something that you’re always as a coach trying to make sure we don’t do, but someone comes in and they do a workshop and you’re like, then you turn around to your team, okay, put this in place now. And it’s, you’re like giving them a day and it’s like something that’s gonna take six months. And then next month there’s another, hey, put this in place, put this in place. So. It is a challenge.

Eric Mulvin (1:08:24)

It’s the challenge. It’s the new idea of the month. But again, even if you don’t fully, like there’s no way you can implement all those ideas because there’s so many, but every month, and I think going back to Visage, they’re really good about like, what’s the one takeaway that you can implement in the next 30 days that we’re all going to talk about next month to make sure that you do. And just that little thing, you know, make sure that I

Eric Mulvin (1:08:53)

roll something out or get something out in and your business, if you do nothing else in your company but that, like at least you’re moving your business forward and making it better and you do that month over month, year after year, you’re gonna get better. You cannot get better unless you are introduced to new ideas. And where do you get new ideas from?

Eric Mulvin (1:09:17)

And that’s the challenge and it’s one of the benefits of Vistage and it’s you know, the peer

Eric Mulvin (1:09:17)

That’s the challenge and it’s one of the benefits of this stage and it’s, you know, the

Peer group is another benefit and hopefully I’m a benefit. yeah. And the one I’ll end with this to discuss here is the one-on-ones too. And I’ll share this as ⁓ someone that’s been again, part of Vistage for these many years is I could not imagine the challenges that I’ve been through in this company ⁓

Eric Mulvin (1:09:45)

through COVID where we lost half of our business overnight. I got my business partner

out of the company, bought him out so that I could run this thing just myself. And then just ⁓ everything, you you Luz big clients, stuff happens. Right now we’re dealing with a major fuel crisis in Asia where there’s running out of fuel for the entire, like for all of, a lot of countries there. And so like every time there’s always some crazy challenge to navigate, but I’ve got.

Eric Mulvin (1:10:14)

Fred over here that I can call who knows my business, knows like

Eric Mulvin (1:10:18)

Like all the stuff had been that we’ve been through a lot together and he could walk me through this stuff because I mean, at the end of the day, know, all right, we’ll be able to work through these things. We’ll be able to figure this out. But to have someone that could, that knows you like that and has the business background that could like, here, this is what you, here’s some ideas and not even ideas, but is that the right path that you should be going? Cause you’re always, the thing is questioning your answers,

Eric Mulvin (1:10:44)

you know, is his favorite thing to say.

Eric Mulvin (1:10:47)

He just sits there and questions everything. He doesn’t even say anything. He just questions everything. But then he makes you think. Which I learned a long time ago that if I tell them the answer, it just goes right through one ear and out other ear. But instead of answering their question, I question their answer. That’s the truth. They just gave me the truth.

Eric Mulvin (1:11:13)

And now I’m questioning that truth.

Eric Mulvin (1:11:16)

to make sure that really is the truth. And so within your company, it’s a really great idea. A lot of leaders like to tell everybody what they do and how to do it. If you change that into a question and help them grow, at one time I gave my members a sign, a full sign that they put on their desk. On one side it said, what do you recommend when people come in and ask questions? What do you recommend? And on the other side it said, whose job am I doing today?

Eric Mulvin (1:11:44)

This is great stuff. So if you guys are listening and you feel like yeah, I am too deep in the weeds of my business You’re managing a bunch of people. I think this is great advice Just for the next week for the next 24 hours when people come to you asking questions Ask them a question and said what do you think? Yeah, or what what is what is your suggestion? What do you think? Well, and and what I’ve learned is by you by questioning the answer that you now give

Eric Mulvin (1:12:13)

is the answer that you think of and go, that’s what I’m going to do. And so it’s a whole different game. Action versus talk. Yep. Cause I think we all have spent those weeks where it’s like you’ve been in meeting after meeting after meeting. You’re like, we’ve done his meetings this week. I didn’t even get anything done. And it’s just all talking, right? And like we need action in this company. And so, I mean, that’s a good way to, take it from just talking to action. So, well, Fred.

Eric Mulvin (1:12:42)

I always got this last question I want to ask and I’m really excited to hear about your answer on this one with all you’ve accomplished in your career and with everything with Vistage, ⁓ know, has been a big career you’ve had.

Eric Mulvin (1:12:57)

I’m wondering, what an unfinished business do you have, You know, it’s actually a simple answer. The ability to help other people. I love, love, love the ability and the opportunity to work with other CEOs, leaders, and owners, because I know that if, you know, I had the opportunity back when in 2008 to

Eric Mulvin (1:13:24)

go with my partners and start another real estate company and make a lot of money. And I didn’t want to do it because what I recognized was

Eric Mulvin (1:13:32)

if I go back to the company, I could only help that company. But if I can have, because of Vistage, if I could be a successful Vistage chair with 15, 20 companies that I get to work with, I’m making a much bigger impact. And so that’s really what I’m, that’s what my unfinished business is, is to hope to find more people that I can have the opportunity.

Eric Mulvin (1:13:53)

to help them have greater success. Awesome. Well, there is no shortage of people that need help with their business. So there’s a good thing for you there. ⁓

Eric Mulvin (1:14:03)

And maybe someone’s listening here. Obviously, you got to be in the Phoenix area. ⁓ You no longer have your Los Angeles group. right? My best-age practice is here. I do coach people around the country via Zoom.

Eric Mulvin (1:14:21)

But my practice is here and I love my groups. They’re special and so thank you for having me. I appreciate it. Yeah,

Eric Mulvin (1:14:30)

Yeah, absolutely. Well, I wanted to let people know if they were interested in connecting with you because I know you’re open for, you know, meeting with anybody, especially to talk about maybe potentially being ⁓ your coach because you said you coach people across the country or possibly

Eric Mulvin (1:14:48)

joining a group here in Phoenix. So if they wanted to connect with you, what’s the best way to do that? My phone number is 818-468-0987.

Eric Mulvin (1:15:00)

And if you call me from a, and I don’t know who you are, what I need you to do is make sure you leave a message. And I’ll call you back because I have way too many phone calls. I think if you’re a business owner, your phone is always ringing off the house. That’s one thing.

Eric Mulvin (1:15:17)

The second thing is my email is fred.carpenter@pharosluz.com. 

Eric Mulvin (1:15:30)

Well, we’ll put it on the screen and we’ll put it in the show notes. yeah, you can email or call him. And I know you’re also on LinkedIn as well. Fred Carpenter.

Eric Mulvin (1:15:31)

it on the screen and we’ll put it in the show notes. Great. Thank you. So yeah, you can email or call him. And I know you’re also on LinkedIn as well. So Fred Carpenter

Eric Mulvin (1:15:46)

maybe I should tell people why Pharos Luz Sure. I have no idea what the story is behind that. So let’s hear it. Pharos was a lighthouse that

Eric Mulvin (1:15:58)

was built around 500 AD. Okay. BC maybe, maybe it’s BC outside of the port of Alexandria. And it stood for like 700 to 800 years. And so to me,

Eric Mulvin (1:16:13)

that’s what I do is I’m Pharos. I’m either in the storms to guide you back home to the safety of the port. And then also I guide you to the open.

open oceans of opportunity and Luz is light. So I’m the grounded lighthouse that’s there always waiting to help you and I am the light. Thank you for sharing that because I have been wondering for years what the heck is this email address mean 

Eric Mulvin (1:16:26)

Eric Mulvin (1:16:43)

I never thought to ask. I was like maybe it’s some Egyptian thing or I don’t know. So all right now I know. All right now I think of that every time I see your email but well Fred.

Eric Mulvin (1:16:53)

thank you so much for sharing. You had a lot of stories here and I think maybe, maybe one day we could bring you back to share some more because there’s, you got 10,000 hours of coaching stories locked inside your head there. Well, thank you. I’m honored that you’d be willing to have me on your podcast. Thank you.

Eric Mulvin (1:17:13)

And one other thing, I’m just going to throw this one out at the end. It has been a joy to watch Eric grow. And I really love

Eric Mulvin (1:17:23)

direction that he has got his company moving in right now. And ⁓ if you haven’t checked into the opportunities with him, I would encourage you to do so. Thanks, Fred. And if you guys like what you heard today, we have more Vistage

Eric Mulvin (1:17:39)

speakers and coaches in the future lined up for as guests and so we’re going to have more people like Fred and but if you like what you heard please subscribe

Eric Mulvin (1:17:49)

You can check us out @BizwithEric or look for Unfinished Business Podcast with Eric Mulvin on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, wherever you listen to podcasts. And so until next time, thank you guys so much for listening today and we’ll catch you on the next episode. Bye everybody.