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Listen "Marty Strong Is Back to Discuss the Pandemic’s Affect on Business Owners and His Upcoming Book “Be Visionary”"
Episode Synopsis
Joining The Circuit of Success for a second time since October of 2021, Marty Strong is back again to continue sharing his wisdom behind perfecting business processes and embracing the dreamer within. Marty is a retired Navy SEAL officer and combat veteran, as well as a novelist, practicing CEO, and Chief Strategy Officer. He authored Be Nimble: How the Creative Navy SEAL Mindset Wins on the Battlefield and in Business. His second book, Be Visionary: Strategic Leadership in the Age of Optimization is set for release in January 2023. Marty's newest book applies his life experiences, formal education, and hands-on knowledge to demonstrate how proactive thinking and the application of thoughtful vision is the essence of exceptional leadership.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION
Brett Gilliland 00:02
Welcome to the Circle of Success. I'm your host, Brett Gilliland, and today I've got a repeat guest. So we don't, we don't do that too often, Marty. So that was a lot of fun last time back in, aired October 4, 2021. We have Marty Strong with us. Marty, how're you doing today?
Marty Strong 00:19
Doing pretty good, Brett.
Brett Gilliland 00:20
Good, well it's good to be with you and you know what I'm fired up about today is we're going to talk about this new book you got coming out here. It's called "Be Visionary," and so when you gotta name Visionary Wealth Advisors of your company, and you got a guy with a book called "Be Visionary," it's just made as a recipe for success today isn't it?
Marty Strong 00:39
Yeah, it's like a marriage. Think of matchmaking, matchmaking in heaven!
Brett Gilliland 00:43
That's right, right here today on The Circuit of Success. Well, those people that did not get to dial in in October of 2021, last time we spoke, Marty is a retired Navy SEAL officer and combat veteran. He's a novelist, a practicing CEO, a chief strategy officer, you've got your other book "Be Nimble," how the creative Navy SEAL mindset wins on the battlefield and in business. And in this book, as we just mentioned, "Be Visionary: Strategic Leadership in the Age of Optimization" is coming out January of 2023. I know you're a thought leader, and you're talking all over the world and doing things and helping tons of people. So thanks for being with us. But if you could maybe just give us again, a little background who Marty Strong is, and what continues to make you the man you are today.
Marty Strong 01:31
Okay, well, I'm from the humble state of Nebraska. My parents were, I guess, farm kids, for the most part, my dad was definitely a depression era farm, farm kid, large family, etc. So they had a, they both had a very, very strong work ethic, a real blue collar approach, even though my dad ended up getting a degree later on, and eventually spending 30 years working for the government thing, he was the deputy director of Walter Reed, when he retired, he never, you know, he never left that early part of his life. And that's what he imparted to me, my brothers and sisters, this kind of, you know, return the tool in better condition than you borrowed it, you know, be polite, a lot of the Golden Rule kind of application, but very strictly applied, and take care of things that you've been given and appreciate the people that are helping you and the people around you. So that essentially was my value system. And that's what I walked into the Navy in the mid 70s with and kind of stumbled into the SEAL team selection process, and ended up spending 20 years in that business, so that, in that role.
Brett Gilliland 02:44
Traveled the world chasing bad guys in that role, man, and appreciate and thankful for your service, you guys are amazing at what you do. So we can talk about a lot of stuff today, but one of the things I want to talk about when we spoke, you know, almost a year ago, the world was still, you know, somewhat shut down, obviously was kind of opening back up. But what have you seen now and all the leaders that you're helping, but also the companies that you're running? What have you been seeing as the biggest difference today, now that the world, you know, basically is back up and running and making things happen?
Marty Strong 03:18
Well, I think there's, there's two kinds of disruption that occurred with a pandemic and by all definitions, the pandemic was a black swan, nobody, there are people paid to anticipate epidemics and pandemics, but nobody really anticipated this particular one. And it's not so much that it was because of the virus, the way a virus was spread, or the medical aspects of it. It was the political and governmental aspects of it.
Brett Gilliland 03:43
Yeah.
Marty Strong 03:43
We've never really had a either an epidemic or a pandemic, where our governments both state, local and federal, just started shutting things down and shutting people down and shutting movement in commerce down. And then it wasn't consistent because of the way the states are laid out, politically, it wasn't consistent across the whole country. So if you're a CEO, like I am, and I've got one country, one company that's in 21 different states, and Japan and other companies in seven states, you had this kind of topsy turvy, you know, reaction to COVID. And to each state's rules, whether they're very stringent or very, very loose. And we thought we were pretty stable, we were still growing in both companies through '21, which we kind of pat ourselves on the back a bit, able to hold it all together and still grow a little bit. But then the vax mandate came out September 16 of '21, and the mandate applied to all government employees, all military, all government contracting employees and companies, and all health care workers. Well, I manage a government contracting company and a health care company. So we were a little bit too soon on that patting of have our backs because suddenly I found out that about half of my entire, about 1000 people population were not vaccinated. And about 40% basically told us when we're not gonna get vaccinated.
Brett Gilliland 05:13
Yeah.
Marty Strong 05:14
So and so that was, that was my real kind of black swan event inside of the bigger black swan event because everything up to that point we had figured out we'd managed we'd retooled, reshaped, restructure, re-envisioned the companies we were doing business, I sent everybody home in March of 2020, and I've only got about 16 people out of 58 that were in the main office managing these companies now, I shrunk down from 21,000 square feet of office space, and a couple locations down to 6,800. Embraced all that, right, change, move, do all those things I write about, and then all of a sudden, there's this decision that everybody has to have a vaccine or else they can't work. And so that really created a crisis for us there in in September. So, and again, every state, and a lot of our government, and government agencies and the department of defense, they all kind of reacted either very aggressively about the new rule, or said, "Don't worry about it." So it was it was all over the place. And in the healthcare side, there wasn't actually a deadline expressed. So the whole healthcare market was going well, "do we have to everybody backed by tomorrow, by next week, 10 days, 20 days next year?" Yeah, it was, it was a mess. And that was the biggest, so far, the biggest impact to COVID the pandemic on the business, because everything else that's happened, it really has either been a positive or neutral to the two businesses.
Brett Gilliland 06:39
You know, it's pretty hard to go out and replace 40% of your workforce, isn't it? I mean, my gosh.
Marty Strong 06:46
It is and they had security clearances, so that's difficult to find those people and they had some very unique skills that the government wanted, you know, and certain credentials are going to be trainers certified by this agency, or that agency or particular program. So yeah, you couldn't just go out there and find them all on the street. You know, the second part, which I think is hitting everybody, and this is kind of the 2022 impact is the staffing crisis. In that we always had good retention in both companies, and I talked about this with my board members, I talk about this with other business owners all the time. You know, the, the everybody's kind of pointed the great resignation, alright, that's the reason for it. And everybody's still trying to get a handle on exactly what's going on, I've heard that the baby boomers all started retiring around the same time as the pandemic and, and there was an accelerated advancement of the next generation, which left a big hole in the middle, and nobody's qualified for those jobs and all kinds of crazy theories. But in reality, our, our experience has been, if you're looking for good people, you're gonna have to pay them what they're worth and their worth is based on the market availability now. So those dynamics have changed because of the second kind of parallel event next to the pandemic. And I'm not sure it's directly associated with just with the pandemic, I think the pandemic is one of those things like, like a revolution, where revolution changes the entire social fabric of the nation and just changes everything, suddenly everybody can own something where before only the king could own something, those kinds of really, you know, huge sea changes, right? I think the pandemic changed the way labor is going to be utilized in this country, and maybe around the world, depending on what, how countries address it. But so we're still trying to get our hands on that.
Brett Gilliland 08:39
Yeah. And so I mean, what what do you see? I mean, as a leader of organizations, and you know, as an author, you're writing great books. I mean, what, what do you see for us, other leaders and the people listening this podcast? I mean, what do you see? What do you forecast 1, 2, 3 years from now you see any big changes out there?
Marty Strong 08:54
EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION
Brett Gilliland 00:02
Welcome to the Circle of Success. I'm your host, Brett Gilliland, and today I've got a repeat guest. So we don't, we don't do that too often, Marty. So that was a lot of fun last time back in, aired October 4, 2021. We have Marty Strong with us. Marty, how're you doing today?
Marty Strong 00:19
Doing pretty good, Brett.
Brett Gilliland 00:20
Good, well it's good to be with you and you know what I'm fired up about today is we're going to talk about this new book you got coming out here. It's called "Be Visionary," and so when you gotta name Visionary Wealth Advisors of your company, and you got a guy with a book called "Be Visionary," it's just made as a recipe for success today isn't it?
Marty Strong 00:39
Yeah, it's like a marriage. Think of matchmaking, matchmaking in heaven!
Brett Gilliland 00:43
That's right, right here today on The Circuit of Success. Well, those people that did not get to dial in in October of 2021, last time we spoke, Marty is a retired Navy SEAL officer and combat veteran. He's a novelist, a practicing CEO, a chief strategy officer, you've got your other book "Be Nimble," how the creative Navy SEAL mindset wins on the battlefield and in business. And in this book, as we just mentioned, "Be Visionary: Strategic Leadership in the Age of Optimization" is coming out January of 2023. I know you're a thought leader, and you're talking all over the world and doing things and helping tons of people. So thanks for being with us. But if you could maybe just give us again, a little background who Marty Strong is, and what continues to make you the man you are today.
Marty Strong 01:31
Okay, well, I'm from the humble state of Nebraska. My parents were, I guess, farm kids, for the most part, my dad was definitely a depression era farm, farm kid, large family, etc. So they had a, they both had a very, very strong work ethic, a real blue collar approach, even though my dad ended up getting a degree later on, and eventually spending 30 years working for the government thing, he was the deputy director of Walter Reed, when he retired, he never, you know, he never left that early part of his life. And that's what he imparted to me, my brothers and sisters, this kind of, you know, return the tool in better condition than you borrowed it, you know, be polite, a lot of the Golden Rule kind of application, but very strictly applied, and take care of things that you've been given and appreciate the people that are helping you and the people around you. So that essentially was my value system. And that's what I walked into the Navy in the mid 70s with and kind of stumbled into the SEAL team selection process, and ended up spending 20 years in that business, so that, in that role.
Brett Gilliland 02:44
Traveled the world chasing bad guys in that role, man, and appreciate and thankful for your service, you guys are amazing at what you do. So we can talk about a lot of stuff today, but one of the things I want to talk about when we spoke, you know, almost a year ago, the world was still, you know, somewhat shut down, obviously was kind of opening back up. But what have you seen now and all the leaders that you're helping, but also the companies that you're running? What have you been seeing as the biggest difference today, now that the world, you know, basically is back up and running and making things happen?
Marty Strong 03:18
Well, I think there's, there's two kinds of disruption that occurred with a pandemic and by all definitions, the pandemic was a black swan, nobody, there are people paid to anticipate epidemics and pandemics, but nobody really anticipated this particular one. And it's not so much that it was because of the virus, the way a virus was spread, or the medical aspects of it. It was the political and governmental aspects of it.
Brett Gilliland 03:43
Yeah.
Marty Strong 03:43
We've never really had a either an epidemic or a pandemic, where our governments both state, local and federal, just started shutting things down and shutting people down and shutting movement in commerce down. And then it wasn't consistent because of the way the states are laid out, politically, it wasn't consistent across the whole country. So if you're a CEO, like I am, and I've got one country, one company that's in 21 different states, and Japan and other companies in seven states, you had this kind of topsy turvy, you know, reaction to COVID. And to each state's rules, whether they're very stringent or very, very loose. And we thought we were pretty stable, we were still growing in both companies through '21, which we kind of pat ourselves on the back a bit, able to hold it all together and still grow a little bit. But then the vax mandate came out September 16 of '21, and the mandate applied to all government employees, all military, all government contracting employees and companies, and all health care workers. Well, I manage a government contracting company and a health care company. So we were a little bit too soon on that patting of have our backs because suddenly I found out that about half of my entire, about 1000 people population were not vaccinated. And about 40% basically told us when we're not gonna get vaccinated.
Brett Gilliland 05:13
Yeah.
Marty Strong 05:14
So and so that was, that was my real kind of black swan event inside of the bigger black swan event because everything up to that point we had figured out we'd managed we'd retooled, reshaped, restructure, re-envisioned the companies we were doing business, I sent everybody home in March of 2020, and I've only got about 16 people out of 58 that were in the main office managing these companies now, I shrunk down from 21,000 square feet of office space, and a couple locations down to 6,800. Embraced all that, right, change, move, do all those things I write about, and then all of a sudden, there's this decision that everybody has to have a vaccine or else they can't work. And so that really created a crisis for us there in in September. So, and again, every state, and a lot of our government, and government agencies and the department of defense, they all kind of reacted either very aggressively about the new rule, or said, "Don't worry about it." So it was it was all over the place. And in the healthcare side, there wasn't actually a deadline expressed. So the whole healthcare market was going well, "do we have to everybody backed by tomorrow, by next week, 10 days, 20 days next year?" Yeah, it was, it was a mess. And that was the biggest, so far, the biggest impact to COVID the pandemic on the business, because everything else that's happened, it really has either been a positive or neutral to the two businesses.
Brett Gilliland 06:39
You know, it's pretty hard to go out and replace 40% of your workforce, isn't it? I mean, my gosh.
Marty Strong 06:46
It is and they had security clearances, so that's difficult to find those people and they had some very unique skills that the government wanted, you know, and certain credentials are going to be trainers certified by this agency, or that agency or particular program. So yeah, you couldn't just go out there and find them all on the street. You know, the second part, which I think is hitting everybody, and this is kind of the 2022 impact is the staffing crisis. In that we always had good retention in both companies, and I talked about this with my board members, I talk about this with other business owners all the time. You know, the, the everybody's kind of pointed the great resignation, alright, that's the reason for it. And everybody's still trying to get a handle on exactly what's going on, I've heard that the baby boomers all started retiring around the same time as the pandemic and, and there was an accelerated advancement of the next generation, which left a big hole in the middle, and nobody's qualified for those jobs and all kinds of crazy theories. But in reality, our, our experience has been, if you're looking for good people, you're gonna have to pay them what they're worth and their worth is based on the market availability now. So those dynamics have changed because of the second kind of parallel event next to the pandemic. And I'm not sure it's directly associated with just with the pandemic, I think the pandemic is one of those things like, like a revolution, where revolution changes the entire social fabric of the nation and just changes everything, suddenly everybody can own something where before only the king could own something, those kinds of really, you know, huge sea changes, right? I think the pandemic changed the way labor is going to be utilized in this country, and maybe around the world, depending on what, how countries address it. But so we're still trying to get our hands on that.
Brett Gilliland 08:39
Yeah. And so I mean, what what do you see? I mean, as a leader of organizations, and you know, as an author, you're writing great books. I mean, what, what do you see for us, other leaders and the people listening this podcast? I mean, what do you see? What do you forecast 1, 2, 3 years from now you see any big changes out there?
Marty Strong 08:54
In God we trust