IMPACT DRIVEN LEADERS - BUILDERS With Alex Snider

Hello, it's Howard Brown. It's the Shining Brightly

Podcast show. So glad you're here. I have an amazing guest.

Oh my God all the way from Mexico. Alex Snider, welcome.

How are you?

I'm so good. Howard, thank you so much for

having me.

I have to tell you that although I talk a lot about

human resolve in healthcare, I love talking about business

growth, stimulation startups technology, because I have a

true blue true green Babson guy. And so entrepreneurship, it just

runs in my DNA. So I've got an amazing strategy advisor with me

today. And let me just tell you a little bit about Alex.

Alexandra is a keynote speaker, strategic advisor and a podcast

host. And she advises founders, executives and accelerators. And

she also is the host of the builders podcast. So she is the

Content Builder herself. We're gonna dig into that and show you

what she's built. And she has worked across four continents,

she leads strategic planning, Operation improvements, for

multinational multibillion dollar, divestments and startups

and all leading to exits. Today. She leverages the connections of

insight and experience she's gained to advise impact driven

business leaders. And it's really important to get this

guidance, I can tell you that she's a sought after keynote

speaker presenter and her insights have been featured on

industry leading conferences, events, the volcano summit, the

Impact Hub collision conference, when she's not supporting

clients, she has a real life and she's working for that work life

balance. She actually, you actually I said you hit the gym

a lot. You actually cuddled rescue dogs and you reading and

your big adventure. So Alex, welcome. Now that we know a

little bit about you, okay, tell us something that we may not

know about you that you want to share? Hmm.

I think something that isn't always really

evident, I talk so much about leadership and strategy and you

know, really exist in this world of business. The foundation of

that actually came from growing up as an athlete. So I grew up.

And I politics taught me how to think strategically. It's wired

into my brain to analyze and scenario plan and then execute

on that. It also taught me about discipline, and really being my

own competitor, like that, you know, person, you need to be

this view every day. And to the persistence and long term kind

of focus and strategy, you have to have that when you're

pursuing high level athletics. So I think that's an interesting

tie in that's maybe not a huge secret that I was, you know, I'm

still very athletic, I hit the gym all the time. It's a huge

part of my identity, but that that foundation, you know,

hindsight is 2020. Looking back. That is where it started,

literally, you know, as a child.

I love that because a lot of leaders have

some relationship with athletics. So for you as an

equestrian, it's one with the horse, right? I mean, that's

really, you and the horse, just like a golfer with a golf ball,

or someone maybe playing tennis with a tennis ball. But you also

played a team sport of rugby. All right, and you're only as

good as the weakest link on the team and me being a basketball

player. I was the point guard. Right? So I was the floor

general. Okay, the floor general on what play? We're running.

Okay, what defense we're calling, okay. And I had to pace

the game. These are decisions. These are decision making. Real

time. Right. Exactly. Right. So this is amazing. So I do believe

that there is a relationship between leadership discipline,

strategy and athletics that we have in life. So I love that. So

maybe you want to share a little bit more of your background?

That would be

Yeah, absolutely. And I think, you know, we'll

come to leadership and style, but also I was actually really

quiet. But I was the captain of every team I was on. So I think

there's like a really cool tie in that we can talk more about

that. beyond athletics. And you know, I played rugby for 20

years, I played into my kind of early to mid 30s. So that's

something that I continued to do. But in terms of more

professional, I did a lot of different things when I was

younger, partly because athletics meant I didn't

necessarily have a second plan. But I eventually found my way

after working in marketing and medicine space into an MBA, and

I discovered the world of entrepreneurship and strategy

and all of the things and I was so lit up because it really

brought into focus. I thought I was always a bit of a numbers

person, and that I was kind of quiet and shy, but I loved

psychology and how people think and so I realized actually, that

all of these things kind of could come together in business.

and strategy and all the elements of it that you need to

build a great business. And I was very fortunate. Despite the

timing of my graduation to get opportunities in strategy

consulting, I went into that. So I've done strategic consulting.

I've also done operational optimization I bought, loaned

into the m&a team for a while to do mergers, acquisitions,

divestments and carve outs, predominantly in energy and

natural resource spaces, all around the world. So I've worked

in Africa on mine sites. And in Johannesburg, I've worked I

lived in London, I've been in Singapore, I've been in, you

know, North America and South America. So I've really been all

over the place. And, and I love that. And I really got to hone a

lot of that maybe like, thinking that I grew up with

strategically from sports, right. And if we think of

strategy, start strategy with like war tactics, then sports is

basically simulated more of some kind. And now we've taken it

into business. So I got to really hone that through seeing

so many different businesses and working through so many

different business opportunities and problems. And then I got to

a point where I just felt like, I didn't want to go into the

partner track. And that was where I was being pushed, I, you

know, really grateful for the opportunities, but I knew I

wanted to explore some other areas. And so I actually left

sold everything, became nomadic, and just embarked on a bit of a

journey of exploration of what was out there in, you know,

venture capital social impact startups, I was already on the

board for a few startups and got more involved, ended up

partnering into one co founding some others, we could fill in

five shows with those stories. But long story short, through

that, I learned to right size, everything I had learned in the

more corporate consulting space into tools, and growth and

maturation of these organizations. And when we

exited them, you know, the main business in 2021, after we were

supposed to exit in 2020, March, we'll spare you that story. But

we almost failed. After the deal fell through we 3x and 10

months, and then we sold the business. I really knew that I

wanted to take the tools I had developed and all of the like

weekend coaching sessions I had been doing with other founders

that you know, we're in our co working space, and turn that

into something more formal, where I could take strategy and

strategic planning and the processes of maturing of

business, things you need into other organizations and really

help other leaders achieve their dream make their company a great

place to work for their team members and deliver amazing

things for their customers. And so that's what I've done.

Well, where are you when I started three

companies that I didn't have an Alex to, you know, help me with

my blind spots and the stuff that I'm not good at, which

actually is strategy and analytics and the good stuff

that you are. So I think what you're really pointing out

though, it is building a business is a team sport. And I

actually call it Life a team sport, but but I call cancer

fighting cancer, a team sport, everything is finding it alone

is very difficult. And a lot of founders and a lot of business

leaders, they internalize this and they feel like they they you

know you're weaker, or you're not as capable if you go for

help. But it's not true. It's actually more that actually

shows your growth if you're actually willing to, you know,

take in the proper mentorship and consultation and things like

that. Talking about. Yeah, so take me into your, you know,

your your highlight reel of your leadership and team building.

And and also I asked you to also think about mentioned some, some

maybe iconic or not so iconic leaders that we all should kind

of look towards. Oh, yeah,

I mean, I couldn't agree more. I always say

entrepreneurship leadership is a team sport. And it's a lot less

sexy, and often more lonely than like, we're sold on the

internet, right? Like learning to build a team learning to lead

a team, it's so vital to your success and to actually enjoying

it, because we, I think miserable leaders are out.

Right? Like nobody wants to work for the miserable leader who

makes their life miserable anymore. And I think that's also

my second big belief is that strategy and leadership go hand

in hand. And so to your question, yeah, I don't know if

I, I would love to bring it maybe notable leaders, I'm not

going to say these are leaders that I think are people you

should emulate. But when I think about strategy, and I think

about leadership and how they amplify each other, there are

some really fundamental components to leadership is a

skill and leadership style is a choice. And so you really need

to decide what leader you want to be. And that takes effort to

be that person just like being the best you in life takes

effort being the best leader takes life and it means

overcoming a lot of your background. So I'm gonna keep

this PG Ah. So I think it's something that we see the

leaders that we see, they are not always people that I would

say exemplify amazing leadership, they often exemplify

one element of it. And then they have a team and duality, maybe

behind the scenes that actually makes the business have

successful leadership as to your point as a team, right? So if

you think about somebody like Henry Ford, so one of the things

I often say is like, drop the ego, maintain the audacity.

That's one of the things that's really great about a great

leader. They can ask for help, they can accept feedback, they

know that their job is to rally the troops and not have all the

answers. But you think of someone like Henry Ford, he

possessed the audacity to see and pursue a different world.

Okay, he possessed a vision that nobody was gonna believe in. And

what's that mean? That means that cars became a reality that

manufacturing and assembly lines were forever changed, the cost

of things changed accessibility to vehicles change, I would

never hold Henry Ford up and say I want to be the leader like

him. But that is one component, the audacity to see something

when no one else believes in it, and continue to pursue it. That

is incredible. Somebody else that comes up all the time is

Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs was an autocratic leader, he was not a

pleasure to be around, he was not a particularly nice person.

But he again, had audacious vision, and was inspiring enough

because obviously, the timing meant we're a little further

along in history, we know a little bit more of what it was

like to work with him, he worked in a knowledge base, as opposed

to big manufacturing. He inspired people enough that they

put up with it, but he also hired people around him to help

manage that. Right. That's another element though. How do

you can you articulate and communicate something that

inspires people to be driven and own and pursue again, a real

vision for something? And then you think of somebody else who's

really well known Richard Branson, it's a completely

different vibe, right? Richard Branson is approachable, he's

unconventional. He's customer focused. He's known as a risk

taker, right, obviously calculated. And he's known for

making a fun, kind of flat hierarchy environment in his

companies, right. So that's somebody who has taken some of

these elements of these other guys who are known to be

challenging, you know, personalities. And he's

integrated those some of those skills and capabilities and

approaches, but into something that has a lot more of the soft,

intangible components of leadership, that I would argue

make you an amazing leader, and make you a more sustainable

leader, somebody who is able to succeed in multiple different

areas, which is actually something Richard Branson has

done, right. I mean, he has crossed so many industries, he

is able to connect the dots and connect people in a way that a

lot of people aren't, while also having this amazing, you know,

set of leadership skills that he has developed over time, and

frankly, trial and error, which he's been very open about.

It gets incredible. So thanks for using

those examples. It's, again, there's there's some things to

emulate. There's some things to learn from. But leadership takes

lots of shapes, sizes and forms. But I think you said the key

thing that you surrounding yourself with the right teams,

and the right people around you is really key and very vital. I

call that from athletics. team chemistry, can't predict team

chemistry.

And I often say to people, you know, and I work

with not just entrepreneurs, I work with leaders in all

different places. But we love to put an entrepreneur on a cover

of a magazine, right? We love that. It's like we love to put

these people up there. The people you see on the covers of

magazines, they do not represent your average entrepreneur. When

I say average entrepreneur, I mean successful entrepreneur,

people who are building amazing things, so many of them, they're

not on the cover, and they are not somebody who they may be

yes, you can be polarizing and audacious to a degree. But I'm

not going to name names, you know who I'm talking about these

guys from Silicon Valley, who are on the cover of everything

and are, you know, constantly quoted, they have duality in

their leadership team that compensates for the fact that

they are so strong on certain things and completely lacking in

others. If people had to work directly for them only at this

point of how strong their leadership personality and style

is. They would struggle to run a successful company, because they

do not do the people side of things. Yeah,

you're right. So let's let's transition a little

bit because something that you're really your expertise is

in strategic planning. and why that is so important to sustain

sustainable growth? Yeah, right in your wheelhouse. Oh, god,

yeah, I love strategic planning, I get giddy

for my client workshops. And they're often tough the first

time too, but my clients get giddy either for the workshop or

like a couple months later when they start seeing the results.

But strategic planning is so important. You have to know what

your vision is right? And I talked about success on your

terms, we can come back to that. But you have to figure out why

are you doing this? Where do you want it to go? And kind of what

do you want to play? What part do you want to play in that, and

then you have to decide how you're gonna get there. Right,

you have to have a strategy strategy is like the glue

between the vision and the operations, tactics, activities.

And what often happens is either people get stuck in vision. And

they're like, really big picture. And they're really like

doing a lot, or they're doing a ton, but it's not aligned

through this guide rail, a vision of strategy. And so

they're not making the progress. And so what strategy does is it

allows you to assess your options, make choices, and then

have those choices be the guide for the day to day decisions and

activities. And what we do is, we narrow it from the strategy

down to tactical operational components, and then decide

which ones need to happen first, and you really commit to less

get more done. So you have a few priorities in a quarter. And

that is something that everyone in the organization

communication is really important here agrees is most

important, and is where majority of resource and energy is going

to go. And once that is done and implemented, then we will take

the next set of priorities, and we will do those. And what that

does is it allows alignment, streamline to focus and also

allows you to say no, right? So when something comes in, you're

able to assess, is this in line with what our priorities are

this quarter this month, or this next three months? Or do we need

to put in a parking lot and come back to it because shiny object

syndrome is the Achilles heel of leaders and on particularly

entrepreneurial, visionary leaders, like, everything is

exciting, and everything is an opportunity. But if you try and

pursue everything as it comes up, you never get anything done.

And you will see people who are maybe overly entrepreneurial, or

don't have somebody to like balance them. They'll have a

graveyard of ideas, things that got off the ground, but never,

never stabilized into a true business.

Well, free consulting from Alex commit to

less and get more done. There you go. So so that relates to

you know, business, customer, company success, employee

stakeholder success and retention, speak a little bit

about that.

To customer retention or employee retention.

Both both Okay, short, in a short amount of time. Yeah.

Okay, cool. So for your employees, strategic planning,

helps narrow down what we're doing, and then helps you

delegate it and give them clarity, as does performance and

development. Frozen development is not about, you know, giving

somebody bad feedback. It's about knowing your team, knowing

what they're working towards in their career, what you their

role is how they're going to progress. They know what's

coming. So employee retention is really about if people know what

their job is, know how it ties to the vision, so they know why

it's important, and knows if they're doing a good job that is

fundamental to retaining your employees. I like to talk about

customer retention, because I think there is a over focus on

customer acquisition. So how do you market? How do you do sales?

How do you get people in the door? It's very important. You

don't have a business, if you can't get customers, you can't

sell what you're doing. But equally and I would argue more

important is once people are in how do you ensure that and I say

it's customer success, not customer service, because you're

looking at how to make them successful as a customer service

is like I call you when I have a problem. Success is proactive.

What is the experience of being a customer? How am I always

innovating and bringing you in to what's next? what's new,

what's going to help you get even further as a customer. And

if you were looking at from brass tacks, let's say you're an

investor, I want to know what your cost of acquisition is how

many customers you're bringing in. But if they're all going out

the back door, you're not making money. Right? And you're not

certainly not growing. So customer success and customer

retention is so important

is so give us a little bit of a wrap up with

success on your terms.

There's so much out in the world. And of course the

internet is an amazing thing. But there's so much out in the

world of what is successful or what you see in social media, or

growth at all costs was a big thing for a few years and

especially in startups space. Debris Odie is not everyone

wants to run a multinational multibillion dollar company, and

nor should you, right? Family businesses are a huge part of

the economy. Businesses that never grow beyond, you know,

seven figures are a huge part of the economy. And I think when we

start, we don't often think about, what do I actually want

this business to achieve? What are my values? What's important?

What are we doing, but also what do I want my life and my

leadership to look like? And so I really make sure whenever I'm

working with clients, I take them back to that, because often

you're running you're a few years in, you're making a few

million a year, or maybe even more, maybe you're an eight

figure company. And you're just like, Okay, I just gotta keep

going. And I gotta keep going. And there's no real clarity on

like, what does success mean, right. And it's the same reason

you need to tell your employees what successes so that they can

achieve it, if you don't tell them, it's really hard for them

to succeed, you actually have to define it for yourself. And that

is one of the challenges of either being a leader at the top

or an entrepreneur, nobody is there telling you, I mean, the

world is telling you. And if you want to just try and live

someone else's version of success, good luck to you,

you're probably not going to be very happy. And you're going to

work really hard to get there no matter what. So I really come

back with my with my clients. And this is something I would

encourage everybody to do, whether it's in business or

life, really reflect at fairly regular intervals on where you

want to be going and what your days look like what the people

around you look like, what you're spending your time doing,

and what is most important, so that then, if you don't know

what that is, you can't really chart a course for it. And you

can run a really long marathon and end up somewhere that you

don't really want to be.

I will add one thing only to this because that

we could talk for a long time on this. I love companies with the

triple bottom line. I want them to do good in their communities,

do good by their people help others. And if that is part of

their mission as well. I think that it rounds it out for me.

And that's one of the things that my big takeaway that I you

know, I'm running basically a start up in the nonprofit world.

And it's that to me, I call that noble and I call that admirable,

okay, and that's, that's my one addition to what you added to if

they if leaders can do that, boy, I put them up higher on the

pedestal as well as well. But here's the time, I know that you

went so fast, put your glasses on because it's the shining

brightly spotlight, we are going to shine our light so brightly

from Mexico, from Michigan around the world. Because Alex

helps business leaders, she lifts him up every single day.

And you should get in touch with her. So please tell people how

to best get in touch with you share. Also a little bit of

inspiration as we close out the show. Amazing.

You can get in touch with me via LinkedIn. It's

Alex Snider, you'll see in the show how to spell my name. My

website is AlexSnider.com. And my email is Alex@Alex

Snider.com. So you can find me there you can find links to the

builders podcast, which has amazing guests. And there's also

a link to my Instagram if you want to check out where I am in

the world or if I went to the gym that's on there. So that's

best way to find me. In terms of inspiration. This is maybe a bit

unconventional, but I'm going to talk about being underestimated.

being underestimated by others is not necessarily a bad thing.

I spent a lot of my career being underestimated and allow me to

like surprise and shine. But never underestimate yourself.

And I think one of the keys to that is to really intentionally

surround yourself with people who exemplify where you want to

go. They will hold you accountable, they will inspire

you and they will generally see you for who you really are and

not all the insecurities you have inside. And if you can

learn to borrow their belief the days that you don't have your

own, then you will not spend or waste time under estimating

yourself and you will take action.

Well Wow. Whoa from a quiet shy Canadian girl

to a real leadership strategy. Whisper impressive. Thank you so

much. This is great. i i We have more to talk about so we will.

But this has been the shining brightly show. I want to just

give a couple shout outs to the people that make me look great,

which is front edge publishing. Read the spirit magazine and the

amplify you podcast folks that make me look great as well as

diamond beauties magazine and I've got a shout out to Babson

College as well. You can find me at shining brightly.com and

learn about speaking I'd love to speak at any types of events or

fundraisers or workshops, as well as this podcast and my

book, of course, my memoir, and more importantly, my advocacy,

my accuracy in the cancer world in the entrepreneurship and

mentoring world and the interfaith world, that's the

most important to me. And remember, if we shine brightly

just a little bit each day for ourselves and for others, we

become a force multiplier for good and positive change and we

make the world a better place. And Alex, thank you for coming

on and doing your part to make the world a better place in

business and strategy. And also just you know, hanging out at

the beach and, and going to the gemba to. So thank you for being

here. It's just a real pleasure.

Thank you so much, Howard. It's been a pleasure.

Thank you.