Let Me Speak To A Manager

"A Message to Garcia" is an article written by Elbery Hubbard in 1899 that is still heavily referenced in the military and private sector today. It is a story of a lieutenant tasked with a seemingly impossible mission who carried out his orders with no guidance. The story became a rallying cry for military leaders and corporate executives alike. Frank and Ian dive into the facts and myths about this article, and how the lessons might still apply today.

Also in this episode:

• What it means if a manager tells you to "get the message to Garcia"
• The uncommon nature of the story's protagonist
• How valuable are autonomous people in business?
• How to find people like this in the interview process
• How to demonstrate you have these characteristics in a job search

Locus of control is the degree to which people believe that they, as opposed to external forces (beyond their influence), have control over the outcome of events in their lives. The concept was developed by Julian B. Rotter in 1954, and has since become an aspect of personality psychology. A person's "locus" (plural "loci", Latin for "place" or "location") is conceptualized as internal (a belief that one can control one's own life) or external (a belief that life is controlled by outside factors which the person cannot influence, or that chance or fate controls their lives). George Costanza of Seinfeld fame is a classic example of someone who lives with a mindset that nothing is in his control, and nothing is fair.

In this episode, Frank and Ian break down the tangible value of mindset in relation to careers:

• How early do we start to develop a locus of control?
• The role of sports on our mindset
• Why we take credit for the good, but explain away the bad
• How external limelighters make others feel
• The double standard - we expect others to own it, but don't always hold ourselves to that standard
• Unintended consequences of being too hard on yourself

"So you're saying I'm a clown? I make you laugh. I'm here to amuse you?"

~Tommy DeVito, Goodfellas

Why don't more people list "sense of humor" as one of their strengths on a resume? In our opinion, managers and employees who could make people laugh were also some of the most successful. In this episode, Frank and Ian look at the benefits of humor in the workplace.

In this episode:

• Using humor to differentiate yourself in a crowded field
• The difference between a fun manager and a clown
• When humor DOESN'T work
• How to use gallows humor in tough times
• Self-deprecation as an art form
• Using humor to dodge difficult questions
• Humor in delivering difficult feedback

Frank and Ian gave up on the Detroit Lions or Miami Dolphins winning a Super Bowl long ago. Instead, we revel in the pomp and circumstance of the NFL Draft, when hope springs eternal and our teams make highly questionable decisions on personnel. In this episode, we break down our top lessons from decades of watching this bloated spectacle that has done little to change the fortune of our favorite football teams.

In this episode:

• Why game film matters
• Looks can be deceiving when hiring
• How Bill Polian looked at character flaws
• Pedigree is important, but not that important
• When to take a chance on a "project"
• Hire for need, but don't pass on an unusual talent
• Even the best companies regularly missing on hiring
• Hire slow and fire fast
• Why culture still trumps talent

The peak–end theory is a cognitive bias that impacts how people remember past events. Intense positive or negative moments (the “peaks”) and the final moments of an experience (the “end”) are heavily weighted in our mental calculus. In this episode, we look at how this psychological bias impacts our careers and how companies can use the rule to attract and retain more customers.

In this episode:

• What's more important: a good first impression or last impression?
• What a colonoscopy can teach us about delighting customers
• Primacy bias and premium pricing
• What do we really remember about work experiences?
• The role of onboarding and exit interviews
• The sandwich method of providing feedback
• The "Sugar" Ray Leonard approach to getting a better raise

How much time do we have left? In this episode, we break down the second half of our lives by looking at how many of our favorite experiences we have left. How many more times will we watch a Super Bowl? How many more fantasy football seasons? How many more times will Ian eat pizza at Lombardi’s in NYC? Frank and Ian use this exercise to dissect how they are spending their time more deliberately.

In this episode: 

• Why people tend to overestimate how much time they have left 
• How life milestones act as “awakenings” 
• How we form our images, both personally and professionally 
• How to be deliberate about where you spend your time (and who you spend it with) 
• What moments will we remember in forty years and why not make more of those? 
• How to prioritize your life for balance 

People tend to fall into two categories as decision-makers. The first group is maximizers, those who strive to make choices that will return the maximum benefit. Then there are the satisficers (made-up word blending satisfy and suffice), those whose choices are determined by more modest criteria and nothing more. In this episode, we look at both approaches' ramifications and reflect on critical decisions we've made in our own careers.

In this episode:

• “The Paradox of Choice”
• Why maximizers struggle to enjoy the journey
• Paralysis by analysis
• What type of questions do you ask yourself when making a big decision?
• The concept of “mental accounting”
• Do the results of our decisions correlate with satisfaction?
• Where do famous CEOs fall on this spectrum?

Careers are not linear. We might feel societal pressure to make every move based on real or perceived progress, but is that realistic or even rational? In this episode, we look at multiple scenarios where taking a step back or down is the best move for your long-term career. Frank and Ian discuss the times when they made non-obvious decisions that set up much bigger moves down the road.

In this episode:

· What if your industry is changing/shrinking?

· How to spot a rocket ship and when to jump on one

· What it means to take a job to get "close to the sun"

· Choosing pay over fancy titles

· How a step back could restore your career

· Do you work in a department with upside?

· The role of ego in career decisions

· A 10-year decision looks very different than a 10-month decision

· What's your driver?

o Power

o Knowledge

o Pay

o Purpose

In this two-part episode, Frank Cava and Ian Mathews break down every detail from a $10M real estate project involving 75 single-family homes in Richmond. This is our first podcast episode where we film together in the same room, using Frank's paparazzi film crew and editors. We share every granular detail of how we identified, negotiated, funded, executed, and celebrated a deal that was incredibly profitable to us and the investors who helped us fund the deal.

In this episode:

· The power of patience when working in real estate

· Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered

· Caring about your investor's money more than you care about your own

· The best way to get a second deal is to perform well on the first

· Why you should stop to celebrate a big win appropriately

In this two-part episode, Frank Cava and Ian Mathews break down every detail from a $10M real estate project involving 75 single-family homes in Richmond. This is our first podcast episode where we film together in the same room, using Frank's paparazzi film crew and editors. We share every granular detail of how we identified, negotiated, funded, executed, and celebrated a deal that was incredibly profitable to us and the investors who helped us fund the deal.

In this episode:

The power of persistence and follow-up to find great deals

How a great partnership drives an equation of 1 + 1 = 3

How the deals you close are closely linked to your ability to execute

Profits are made when you buy, not when you sell

How to raise private capital from wealthy investors

What happens when a profitable deal gets hit with a pandemic

How to communicate to investors when a deal starts to go sideways

We're breaking tradition and interviewing our very first guest! Given the meager budget for this fledgling operation, we searched for a future star that we could afford today. Yoni Katz is a 12-year-old entrepreneur and a big fan of our podcast. He is starting several businesses and wanted to get our insight. Little did we know that Yoni would teach and inspire us more than we could help him!

In this episode:

· Building a personal brand at any age

· How to price your first products/services

· Small business guerrilla marketing

· How to work referrals

· Playing to your strengths

· The difference between features and benefits

· Pricing based on the value you provide

· Investing at a young age

We continue to follow the meteoric rise of Jeff Bezos and his growing juggernaut of a company. This second part of our series starts with Barnes & Noble threatening to crush Bezos if he doesn't sell out. Like most decisions Bezos makes throughout his career, he calmly rejects that offer and doubles down on his belief that Amazon can change the landscape of American business. From tech startup to the largest company in the world, we dive into the growing pains and changes Amazon needed to make with people and strategy to create a business that changed the world.

We’re suckers for a good “rags to riches” origin story of a scrappy founder stepping out into the abyss. What makes the story of Jeff Bezos and Amazon so intriguing is how comfortable Bezos had it when he went all-in on this company. In this first part of two episodes, Frank and Ian work through the early days of Amazon and find dozens of parallel lessons for any ambitious person looking to build a career.

“The Everything Store” is a fascinating look into an American business icon and we break down every juicy bit in this two-part series.

Frank recalls the story of Owen Meany, a character in a book he read as a young man that somewhat imperfectly explains how hidden talents emerge when you least suspect them. In this episode, we talk about the importance of practice and repetition to master any skill professionally or personally.

In this episode:

· Past behaviors are an accurate predictor of future performance

· Skills translate across industries and from company to company

· Go where a company values (and pays) for your specific skillsets

· Your performance certainly won't speak for itself (you need to be a marketer)

· Get results, but do it in your unique way

· You can't expect to catch much fish with only one hook in the water

"No enemy is worse than bad advice."

~Sophocles

In a culture where anyone can publish anything with no more experience than an internet connection, certain platitudes are taken as gospel. With thousands of "life coaches" posting advice, the same tired advice gets repurposed ad nauseam. In this episode, Frank Cava and Ian Mathews take a contrarian stance on some commonly accepted wisdom.

In this episode:

· Maybe you shouldn't "follow your passion"

· Hard work alone has a ceiling

· Translating what a manager really means when they say you should "be patient"

· What goes unspoken when someone tells you that "you can be anything you want to be"

· Why balance is only a function of your ambition

· How to explain a short stint on your resume

· If you don't toot your own horn, who will?

· No one wants to hear how things were done in your old company

When you need to be productive, what type of music does it for you?

Ian bangs out hip hop while Frankie hee-haws along to the banjo. This argument has gone nowhere for years but that all changes with this episode!

Your fearless co-hosts each pick five of their favorite songs for career inspiration. Two men enter this podcast, but only one emerges victorious. Follow along as they break down classics from Biggie, Charlie Daniels, Tupac, and Alan Jackson, pulling career lessons from classic lyrics.

 "Our ego is our silent partner--too often with a controlling interest."

~Cullen Hightower

The mere mention of the word ego conjures images of self-loving, selfish maniacs who would stop at nothing to bolster their own self-image. Here we make the clear distinction between ego, a person's self-esteem, and an egotist, a person wholly consumer with self-importance. Without the ego, there would be no success. What would drive us to fight through resistance, to risk failure, to persevere? We look at how a person can use their ego aspirationally without letting success get to our heads.

In this episode:

• Why parents act like fools at youth sports games
• The absurdity of big egos in large companies
• Why ego tends to show itself once you've had success
• Leaders who say "I" when things go poorly and "we" when things go well
• Why sacred cows exist in organizations
• The higher up you move in an organization, the fewer pats on the back you should expect
• How Frank knew he wasn't getting a big tip at Outback Steakhouse
• How to convince yourself you are still the underdog
• Why we still freak out about posting videos online
• A lack of ego can be just as a big of a problem as an ego out of control

The coach of an NFL football team hired a strength and conditioning coach, and all hell broke loose. Frank Cava and Ian Mathews break down how this questionable decision went horribly wrong and play Monday morning quarterback on what the Jacksonville Jaguars and head coach Urban Meyer could have done differently.

"Fredo, you're my brother, and I love you. But don't ever take sides with anyone against the Family again. Ever."

~Michael Corleone

This is the climactic conclusion of our leadership series on the most famous crime family in cinematic history. We bring this trilogy home in style, all the way up to Michael's big finish during the baptism.

In this episode:

· The cold truth about getting a new manager

· Only fools (like Moe Greene) get emotional when negotiating

· Has your mentor been through enough battles to be your "Consigliere?"

· The one time a manager won't ever give you a second chance

· It is easy to let power go to your head

· All new leaders want to put their personal stamp on a business

"I don't like violence, Tom. I'm a businessman. Blood is a big expense."

~Sollozzo

Act II of our homage to an all-time classic is filled with drama, suspense, and succession planning! Frank and Ian continue to pull lessons from the Corleone family business in Part 2 of our podcast trilogy.

In this episode:

• How to reject someone with dignity like Don Corleone
• "Leave the gun, take the cannoli" and "Happy wife, happy life" go hand in hand
• "It's not personal, it's strictly business" ... but is it?
• Great salespeople do take it personally
• Payback can be a great motivator

We dig into the mania behind the Reddit mob fighting against Wall Street short-sellers and compare it to other bubbles and manias. In particular, we see a close connection with the dotcom bubble and real estate crash of 2007.

“Leave the gun, take the cannoli.” ~Clemenza

It would be fair to assume that Frank Cava and Ian Mathews started a podcast just for episodes like this. While most see The Godfather as a gangster movie, Frank and Ian see a masterclass in business. In true Godfather fashion, they recorded so much content that they needed to break this episode into a three-part trilogy that Francis Ford Coppola would be proud of. In this episode, they discuss key concepts, such as asking for favors, the only thing a manager wants to hear when they delegate something, your star performers might not make great managers, and losing your temper quickly loses its effect when overused. They also touch on taking advantage of downtime in your career – it is okay to “go to the mattresses!” as well as how Frank used an interviewer’s ego to win his first VP promotion.

"If I go there will be trouble

If I stay it will be double

So you gotta let me know

Should I stay or should I go?"

~The Clash

It's that time of year when people get the itch to find a new company. Frank and I take an objective look at the biggest of career decisions.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why January is "quitting season"
• Everyone can be replaced
• How you are only one regime change away from being replaced
• The misguided thinking of blind loyalty
• If you are living for Friday, pack your bags
• If you don't want to do it for 20 more years, why do it one more year?
• A bad boss in a great company can be an opportunity
• How to use the interview process to understand a company's culture
• Why life gets better right after the worst of a company's turnover problem
• How to leverage your experience for a big payday
• Questions to ask yourself before deciding to leave

“If you are afraid of confrontation, you are not going to do very well.”

—Bill Parcells, Hall of Fame football coach

Think of any mentor you've had in your entire life. Whether it was a parent, teacher, coach, or manager, they probably had a special way of getting under your skin. They coached hard, not mean-spirited, but demanding in a way that convinced you to raise your personal standards. Tough coaching gets a bad rap today, but Ian Mathews and Frank Cava make a case for a style that got the most out of us:

Also, in this episode:

· "You can't be tough on Millennials" and other nonsense myths

· You have to earn the right to be tough

· The problem with emulating famous coaches

· There is a time to be tough and a time to back off

· Managers who mask their insecurities with "toughness"

· What it means to be "pleased, but not satisfied"

· You can be tough and still be likable

· Criticize in private, protect in public

· You can be tough on any generation

· Passive-aggressive is not the same as tough; it's the opposite

· How to praise a star in public

“The world is so beautiful, but alas! There are so many assholes.”

― M.F. Moonzajer

You won't get through your career without working with some truly terrible people. How they get into organizations is a topic for another episode, but in this episode, we dive into their impact on team dynamics, how to survive working beside them, and what to do if you are their manager.

Also in this episode:

• How to deal with a bully at work
• Your responsibility when you become the manager of a bad apple
• How bullies and jerks survive in organizations
• The most dangerous person in any company
• How to tell someone that they are not working out
• How your team grows when you fire a bad apple
• Ian's one piece of advice all new managers ignore (and regret not taking)
• Why no person is too important to live without
• How to manage the aftermath of a termination
• How your team feels about you when you won't fire a jerk
• Why bad situations won't work themselves out on their own

In this episode, Frank and Ian can hardly contain their man-crush for legendary investor and CEO, Warren Buffett. Only the truly dedicated will invest $5,000 and an entire weekend in Omaha to listen to Warren opine for six hours at the "Woodstock for investors." We talk about the day we spent at the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting and all of the other lessons we've learned from our hero.

In this episode:

• Ian gets shamed by a sweet, but very rich, old lady in Omaha
• How your earliest jobs can form who you become in your career
• It has never been easier to start a side gig
• No one will invest in you without a track record or skin in the game
• Patience is an underrated strategy for building wealth
• Why Warren is either lavish in his praise or dead silent - a lesson in motivation
• You cannot build a career when you are overly focused on your image
• "Lose money for the firm and I will be understanding. Lose one shred of our reputation, and I will be ruthless."
• Buffett's approach to delegation is next level
• Why Buffett does not set limits on compensation
• How to raise private capital like Warren Buffett

Are you too hard on yourself? Do you spend too much time fretting over the past? You're not alone. In this episode, we talk about how top performers tend to be overly critical of themselves. This drive leads to incredible results but also contributes to a regular feeling of emptiness. We talk about how to cut yourself a break and celebrate more small wins, rather than lamenting big losses. We also dive into how to lead high achievers who are much too hard on themselves.

In this episode:

• How to help top performers who live and die with every small setback
• The type of feedback that works best with a high achiever
• How to pick the right context where you can stand out
• Why you should be careful not to define yourself too early in your career
• Regrets only happen when you stop trying to grow
• Why you might be scared to reach your peak
• No event will define your career
• How no one is paying attention and why it is silly to worry about other's opinions
• Frank Sinatra's famous words on regrets
• A leader's responsibility to celebrate often with their team

Do you struggle to set and hit goals consistently? Are you putting off something important because you can't get started? You're not alone. One study found that 92% of people surveyed failed to live up to a New Year's resolution. We talk about the psychology behind goals and the power of creating simple, achievable habits instead.

In this episode, we cover:

- How to start with one simple daily habit

- Why goals aren't real until you share them with others

- Goals and written goals are two different things

- The Seinfeld Strategy

- Why your Plan B is likely holding you back

- How to find an accountability group

- "Don't turn one error into two errors"

- The importance of positive streaks and how to break negative streaks

- A simple process to find a new job

We might have started with nothing, but we do not consider ourselves "self-made men." We've been blessed with incredible role models, mentors, and diverse sets of leaders. We've learned as much from the advice we took as much as the advice we passed on. In this episode, we talk about the advice that truly changed our lives and offer our thoughts on how to interpret and act on the advice in your career.

Also in this episode:

• The advice you don't take can be just as powerful as that which you heed
• Most advice is based on other people's perception and their unique strengths (not yours)
• Advice is limited to the coach's experience
• If you're not getting good advice, change your inner circle
• Unintentional advice is often the best kind
• Who you should talk to before a major career transition
• How to tell the difference between good and bad advice
• No one can tell you your truth
• Consider the source when offered advice; where did it get the person offering the advice?

Do you feel as if you are underpaid? Frank and Ian talk about the best approaches to use with your company. We have been approached countless times for more money. We believe that timing, delivery, and judgment play a major role in how successful you will be.

In this episode:

• How to tell if the market has moved and your pay has not
• How to tell if you are underpaid
• How large discrepancies in pay happen in companies
• Are you producing enough to justify more money?
• Why timing is everything when it comes to pay
• What is important to your boss when considering this request?
• When you have the most leverage to request more pay
• Are your results easily replaceable?
• What to focus on instead of salary
• How you can move from incremental to exponential increases
• It is OK to be honest with your manager if you are thinking of leaving
• Stop talking in terms of your pay, start talking in terms of your value
• How to respond to any pay raise
• Tactics to avoid if you want to maintain a relationship with your manager

Frank and Ian compare their floundering fantasy football team management to the world of business. Fortunately for Frank, he is much better at execution with his business than he is with his fantasy roster.

Topics in this podcast:

• How to narrow down a funnel of candidates when hiring
• How to hire slow and fire fast
• Why context matters when evaluating a candidate’s accomplishments
• How to become a great storyteller in an interview (important for both the candidate and interviewer alike)
• What it is like to work for a company that cuts the bottom 10% every year
• The limitations of constantly upgrading your team
• Why employee loyalty is only as strong as company loyalty
• As your company grows, your talent must evolve
• With good people, it is not always about the metrics
• Respect your competition, but don’t focus on them

Over the past 25 years, Frank and Ian have hired hundreds of people. Some were exceptional while others were spectacularly terrible. In this podcast, we break down our hiring miscues in hopes that you might avoid some of our pain.

• Your best employees won’t necessarily be your best friends
• How the “Just Like Me Bias” leads to poor hiring
• Fighting your first impression which rarely translates to a good hiring decision
• Is there any value in being known as a “tough interviewer?”
• Two parties need to make a decision in an interview. Act as if you are being evaluated as the interviewer.
• The problem with focusing on GPA as an interviewer
• What happens when interviews don’t consider how well someone might fit in with your culture
• What can we learn about someone who was “too loyal” to their company?
• Are you diluting the effectiveness of your interview by looking for too many attributes?
• It’s about the answers, not your questions
• How to ask paired questions to better understand a candidate’s true default behaviors

Frank Cava runs a vastly profitable and growing real estate business. But when he left a cushy executive job in 2010, he had an old truck, a couple of townhome rentals in Charlottesville, and plenty of free time. In this episode, we explore what Frank might have done differently when starting his business, based on what he knows today.

• Frank’s first advice for startup founders – Find somewhere to go every day and get out of your house
• Set up regular business expenses to motivate you to find revenue
• Don’t discount your experiences just because they happened at a large company
• How quickly should you hire employees?
• How Frank would think differently about finances if starting over
• You are not really in business until you can consistently generate and convert leads
• What the first months feel like when you leave a big company to start your own thing (what really happens)
• The only type of people you should take advice from when you start
• Why it is easier for others to see your problems than seeing them yourself as a startup founder
• Enjoy the slow moments when you are starting out (you will miss them)
• Pace is less important than direction when starting a business
• “Do for a decade what others won’t and you will live the rest of your life the way others can’t”

A theme that Frank and Ian notice in successful people is a propensity for action. Rather than tinkering forever on the creative process, they get to a 70% solution and test. Seth Godin calls this endless tinkering loop a “failure to ship.” In this podcast, we explore the psychology behind procrastination and talk through the real-world ramifications and rewards of mastering this problem.

• Great music albums are rarely over-produced and neither are careers
• Colin Powell’s “40/70” rule
• The importance of simple rules – “Is it built in wood or brick?”
• The most important factor before investing in a startup
• Stop studying and start believing in yourself
• Evaluating risk with your personal capital at stake
• The difference between a novice and a professional
• Doing more of anything makes doing it once seem less daunting
• If you are going to flop, you might as well do it quickly
• Done is better than perfect

We started with a podcast about “dumb things we’ve said as managers,” but quickly realized the content would fill an entire season. So we went with an equally important topic about the things we weren’t confident or perceptually aware enough to say as young managers.

• Why new managers try to hide problems from their boss
• The stigma behind saying “I don’t know” as a manager
• The difference between a receptive and a proactive manager
• Why all new managers struggle with delegating
• How a manager should think about their time in terms of paygrade
• Don’t fixate on numbers, concentrate on resistance
• People are able to receive feedback on vastly different schedules
• Why it is OK to tell someone you are disappointed
• The difference between “I’m frustrated” and “I’m disappointed”
• How to trust your gut when you sense something is off with an employee
• The most underused management tool
• Can you overdo appreciation?

In this show, we use an example of Ian’s horrendously bad golf game to illustrate a common problem people face in their careers. Self–handicapping is a cognitive strategy by which people avoid effort in the hopes of keeping potential failure from hurting self-esteem.

• You can’t change if you won’t admit that you are unhappy
• Are you self-handicapping or just controlling the narrative?
• Your network can’t help you if you are not honest about what you want
• Why people say silly things like “Money doesn’t buy happiness.”
• Do you spend time around people who think small?
• How much of your professional network resides within the same company?
• Your network won’t help you until you agree to be vulnerable
• Why your ego is more important than your goal
• It is easier to list your accomplishments than articulate your goals (rearview versus dashboard)
• If you are not willing to share your goal, you’re not serious about it
• The power of making public predictions