Jul 25, 2018
Paul Spiegelman is the co-founder of the Small Giants Community, a peer-group of businesses focused on culture and servant leadership. He is the former chief culture officer of Stericycle, the co-founder and former CEO of BerylHealth and the founder and chairman of The Beryl Institute.
Paul is a New York Times best-selling author and has been honored with the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award. He is co-owner of the restaurant, Wine Gallery, in Laguna Beach, CA.
Paul is a sought-after speaker and author on leadership, employee engagement, entrepreneurship, culture, and leading a purpose-driven life. He has made many radio and TV appearances and his views have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Inc. Magazine, and he is currently a columnist for Forbes.com.
Paul practiced law for two years prior to starting BerylHealth. He holds a bachelor’s degree in history from UCLA and a law degree from Southwestern University.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- How Paul used to get annoyed when he’d hear others speaking of being “mindful” and now with his own meditation practice is more present and aware – referring to “mindful” as these powers that he realized we all have
- The important lesson Paul learned from his Dad: always be kind. He would say in his early years, “Always be nice, never burn a bridge, and treat people with respect.”
- Why most of us that start businesses just dive in and work hard and just try to survive
- How like many people in business, we typically have these events that changed the course of our business that we really didn’t expect or in some ways can’t control.
- Why some of our best ideas in business come from listening to our customers – this is how Beryl became a call center for hospitals
- Creating a recurring revenue business and using that to scale your profitability
- How Paul and his brothers moved from Los Angeles and opened a call center in an old Wal-Mart Space
- How sending a handwritten note card to a prospect helped them win a huge deal
- Why being nice and treating people with respect and caring about people is not only the right thing to do — it’s also good for business
- Showing your employees gratitude, treating them with respect, developing them over time, and making life as good for them as you can
- Stepping outside of your comfort zone, reading books, working with mentors, and really trying to soak in as much information as you can because there is so much to learn
- How Paul met his wife (hint: while traveling…)
- The anxiety a lot of business owners have over planning everything, why some things are better out of our control and learning to let things come to us
- Why he titled his best selling book, “Why is Everyone Smiling”
- How and why the book, “Small Giants,” inspired him. And, the blind email he sent to the author, Bo Burlingham
- The importance of having conversations when people approach you, just talking to people, and building relationships
- Why you never know what’s going to happen
- Why Paul — after walking away from an offer from a private equity company — maxed out his line of credit and reduced profitability to go “all in”
- How his strong culture led to selling the company at 22 times multiple!
- How a simple conversation led to Paul becoming a 50/50 partner in the Wine Gallery in Laguna Beach, CA
- How Paul feels when his restaurant receives a poor review on Yelp
- Why Paul feels there is value in taking a silent meditation retreat and his story about the “lonely tree” that really isn’t lonely after all
Ways to contact Paul:
- Twitter: @paulspiegelman
- Website: paulspiegelman.com
- Books: paulspiegelman.com/books
Resources:
- Website: www.smallgiants.org
- Website: winegallerylaguna.com
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/small-giants-community
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/smallgiantsbuzz
- Twitter: @smallgiantsbuzz