david_horsager: Welcome to the Trusted Leader Show. it’s David Horsager, I have a good

david_horsager: friend, a brilliant entrepreneur and the founder of EideCom with the Today

david_horsager: Charles Eide. Thanks through in with us.

charles_eide: Thanks for having me, David. it’s so great to see you, man.

david_horsager: Hey, just full disclosure. he is a friend, but he has produced some of our

david_horsager: best and biggest events. Trusted. Uh, back when we did the Trust Edge

david_horsager: summits Now we have the Trusted Leader Uh summit coming up. He did our

david_horsager: widely acclaimed virtual event out of their studio, which was like April

david_horsager: Fourteenth and fifteenth of the pandemic, and we had people on from around

david_horsager: the world. I remember Kirkstanon, and you know this is whoops, Um, my

david_horsager: throwing my pen. but this is interesting because even back we held eighty

david_horsager: CEOs and senior executives for two eight hour days, virtually

charles_eide: That is amazing. I mean, I, I mean, only you could

charles_eide: hold the attention.

david_horsager: and the studio and the lights and the interaction and all that. So you know,

david_horsager: there’s a lot more to you and I’m so excited. I mean you’ve started

david_horsager: companies. You’re selling one of your companies spinning one right off right

david_horsager: now. you are. I. Since I’ve known you’ve been an, you know this

david_horsager: entrepreneur, but also so not just this kind of foe, solo entrepreneur, this

david_horsager: leader of people that’s growing real businesses. You’re a a family man. You

david_horsager: fly your own plane, which I’ve had the opportunity to to to go with you on

david_horsager: some some fun things. Um, you know Y, there’s a lot to you, but give us say.

david_horsager: Just give us a couple more insights backgrounds on Charles side.

charles_eide: Well, I, uh,

charles_eide: first of all, David. this is so fun to be doing a pod cas with you. You are a

charles_eide: brilliant guy and I absolutely love following all the things you do.

charles_eide: So I guess you’d say that, Um, it all comes down to things that you are Pat

charles_eide: Ionate about, but that you’re also good att, right like we’ve all watched

charles_eide: American Idol where there are people that are wildly passionate about being

charles_eide: famous singers. but they’re not good

charles_eide: at singing and we all know it. I think it comes down to kind of identifying

charles_eide: those things in your career that you’re really good at and focusing on those

charles_eide: things. Uh, I read a book a long time ago and I don’t remember the name of it,

charles_eide: but what I took away from it was. Forget about improving on the things you’re

charles_eide: terrible at R. Start improving on the things you’re good at, because you’ll

charles_eide: become so good at them. And so that was kind of my thing. When I was uh, a kid

charles_eide: in high school, Um, I was really into audio visual and technology and it kind

charles_eide: of I. I got good at it. I got not good at like the technical stuff, as much as

charles_eide: understanding how an audience reacts to Um, the things that you do, And you

charles_eide: know, I knew that I could find great audio technicians. I could find great

charles_eide: lighting designers. I could find great video engineers, But really where where

charles_eide: my talent was? ▁ was in understanding how you can make an audience feel a

charles_eide: certain thing, And so today we do that for audiences all over the world,

charles_eide: mainly for big internal corporate meetings. That are, you know, Multiple days

charles_eide: they’re indoors. Um, we don’t do anything. you know. It’s funny you meet

charles_eide: people and they’re like. So like Do you do like concerts? Then you know and

charles_eide: you’re like Oh, I, uh, no, we don’t do concerts unless it’s for one of our

charles_eide: clients. Like you know, it’s part of the show. Then maybe we’ll do a concert.

david_horsager: so you know you, I’ve seen you know you produced some massive leadership

david_horsager: events. We’ve been a part of not just ours, but others that are uh

david_horsager: significant and you do have an eye on that, but you know. I also think you

david_horsager: know. sometimes you don’t see your own gifting. What I see you as

david_horsager: just this well rounded gifted entrepreneur that it’s actually really able to

david_horsager: lead people well inpire up like your sales team is better than any. I’ve

david_horsager: I’ve met. You’ve got a tech team that’s fantastic and will come in and

david_horsager: serve. I know you know they’re like. Oh, we had some big issues. Where is?

david_horsager: ▁You know, at our last kind of global event we had a ▁zoom up date. That

david_horsager: didn’t you know that happened the night before and they were just jumping

david_horsager: and helping making this happen. So we. we’re starting at a high level with,

david_horsager: you know, I don’t know how many cameras and everything, And it you know it’s

david_horsager: it was I. I. I just think somehow, at least the people you’re around, not

david_horsager: to, not to mention Mike. Uh, you know Danielsonn, and you just have great

david_horsager: people. but you you, you’ve made that happen. Ive, I’ve watched leaders can

david_horsager: have vision. stay so low, not hire right, not build a certain type of

david_horsager: culture and I guess I would say, let me tell you as if this is true. Like,

david_horsager: somehow you do it

david_horsager: well being not just winging it, but kind of able to like, piv it fast, and

david_horsager: like bring them with and not do every you know culture thing perfectly, And

david_horsager: maybe I’ve you got vision, But it’s not like I set up this whole culture

david_horsager: road map and the right perfect things, but we just go and people

david_horsager: come along. So um, you know, I don’t know. Tell us a little bit about your

david_horsager: leadership style,

charles_eide: well, I think it’s important to remember. It all starts with vision right. It

charles_eide: all starts with what is the vision of the company And how do we achieve that

charles_eide: vision? And yeah, you know, you can be really good at structuring departments.

charles_eide: In fact, we had a a meeting this morning about that is like how do we

charles_eide: structure our organization to be more effective, But really it all comes down

charles_eide: to empowering great people to do great work, you know, and and seeking those

charles_eide: for the things that they are really passionate about, but they are also

charles_eide: extremely talented at doing and then and then, believing in them and

charles_eide: empowering them to maybe even

charles_eide: spread theiring beyond what they thought they could do. You know, I,

david_horsager: so let let’s stop right there and say how do you hire those people be cause

david_horsager: there’s a lot of problems for people. Well, I just yeah, I want the people

david_horsager: like you seem to draw like they’ motivated and they like. what is it you

david_horsager: look for in? You know, Yes, there’s some things that are different with

david_horsager: sales people, production people, managers. But what is it as a whole that

david_horsager: fits in this dynamic culture? You? you? I mean, another thing. people should

david_horsager: know. you are able to pivot during the pandemic in like one of the most hit

david_horsager: industries in the world.

david_horsager: And you’ve you know you created a new technology, Re at later you, you’ve

david_horsager: um, you, You’re doing some of the most amazing virtual events, But it’s just

david_horsager: somehow you. how you hire is fascinating to me. How do you find them this

david_horsager: kind of person and get them to come along the journey with you?

charles_eide: well, I think I. that’s a really great question. Um, I, I really believe like

charles_eide: attracts like. but you can’t really attract great people unless you really

charles_eide: know who you are first. and so for for us it was establishing core values that

charles_eide: really identf the things that were important to us. And so we have four core

charles_eide: values that I’d come, positive, creative, effective and team player. Those are

charles_eide: the four things that we live by here, and when you make those clear in job

charles_eide: descriptions and in interviews, you almost scare away the people that don’t

charles_eide: resonate with those things while attracting the people that are like, Oh my

charles_eide: gosh, I’ve always been looking to work at a company that has positive people

charles_eide: and they’re creative, but they’re effective in what they do. And while we’re a

charles_eide: team, and so, I think starting out with the vision and the core values is

charles_eide: absolutely the center of attracting great people, and then of course living by

charles_eide: them and talking about them, You know, it’s funny. I. we talk about the core

charles_eide: values of this company at every Monday morning meeting. We have an all company

charles_eide: huddle every Monday at nine, and that all company huddel, we talk about the

charles_eide: core values and it’s funny because the people who have been here the longest

charles_eide: they’ heard it the most, and they’re the most excited about it because they

charles_eide: see the impact it has when the new people come in. You know we have. We’re

charles_eide: We’re hiring multiple people per month and they come in and the the, the

charles_eide: people who have embraced the core values and the vision of the company. They

charles_eide: almost get re energized. when new people join the team. They’re like, Oh, my

charles_eide: gosh like, I’m not insane for working here clearly because here’s another nut

charles_eide: job that wants to be positive with me, you know, so I, I think like attracts

charles_eide: like. and I think being clear crystal clear about what are your core values

charles_eide: embody those things and how they relate to the vision and the right people

charles_eide: will always reveal themselves.

david_horsager: How do you? Uh? did you lead the meeting still on Monday mornings or

david_horsager: somebody else?

charles_eide: It it depends on. so I have a business partner, Mike Danielson, you know, ‘.

charles_eide: David, uh, and Mike has been running the meetings lately, but sometimes I’ll

charles_eide: run em. Um, my goal really is to empower my my staff to actually start running

charles_eide: them. I want to let the other voices that want to be heard be heard. And so

david_horsager: Well, I didn’t know where we would go today, but we’re going to goul. What’s

david_horsager: the meeting? What’s the money? Morning? How to look like you got the whole

david_horsager: team. I mean, we’re going to go all over the place, But we we going to try

david_horsager: to do it? Fastcause? I want want to suck the Merrow life out of your brain.

charles_eide: yeah, totally

david_horsager: But what’s what’s what’s what?

charles_eide: tell. Well, Hey, that’s what we’re here to do. I’d so the money morning

charles_eide: meeting. Usually we start out I, Yeah, so we start out by. Like any updates

david_horsager: What are the key components? Yeah,

charles_eide: that are going on? What? What are you excited about? So usually we’ll we’ll

charles_eide: say you know. Would you would anybody like to share something that they’re

charles_eide: excited about That has happened in the last week or that’s coming up? We also

charles_eide: allow people to share Um, good news about each other, you know, brag on each

charles_eide: other. Hey, I was working on this project and Ryan really stood out as a key

charles_eide: player and he made my life easier. We also share. Um, like good feedback from

charles_eide: customers at the meetings. You know where a customer said something really

charles_eide: great and we want to make sure people know about it. We review the previous

charles_eide: week’s work so like because we’re in the event business, we’ll show photos and

charles_eide: all the like beautiful things that our team designed and executed that week as

charles_eide: ▁, as well as things that we’re working on. Then we move into talking about

charles_eide: the core values and we talk about what are our four core values And and how

charles_eide: does that relate, And then we move on to talking about the the reading

charles_eide: material. So every we, everybody is assigned a book every quarter and

charles_eide: everybody is reading that book throughout the quarter. So we say, would you

charles_eide: would anybody like to share something that they have learned this week in the

charles_eide: in the reading right now. Um, we’re actually studying Daniel Pink, Um. On

charles_eide: Masterclass, he’s got this series. and so the sales team sales and marketing

charles_eide: team, we’re studying the Daniel Pink Masterclass on sales,

charles_eide: where the operations team is reading a book called It’s your Ship And it’s a

charles_eide: book Mike and I read a while ago and it basically talks about. And you know

charles_eide: this book, David. it is, and

david_horsager: I know Mike. I know my Gaber shop. The. Yeah, the capain.

charles_eide: I mean, talk about an impactful book that empowers people to have a true

charles_eide: impact on their own environment, their own culture. Um, so so yeah, so we we

charles_eide: review the reading and then and then we, you know. Is there any updates or

charles_eide: things we need to talk about right now? our company is in the middle of

charles_eide: building a brand new facility. and Um, we’ve got a construction project that’s

charles_eide: you know, in the thick of it right now, including our studios and all this

charles_eide: stuff. So we’re talking about what our construction updates, you know. Are

charles_eide: there any things that came to mind last week when it comes to the new space?

charles_eide: Um, and then just keeping people energized around the new things the new

charles_eide: people were adding and he new hires that are coming up Um. again. It’s a very

charles_eide: meeting around the growth of the company and how we’re achieving the vision.

david_horsager: So do they have? do they share at that meeting? Like?

david_horsager: is it how do they share their Um, like weekly priorities or goals or

david_horsager: commitments or that kind of thing? Where does that get shared? Is that

david_horsager: online on Microsoft teams, or is that how? how do you keep them aliged with

david_horsager: what each person needs to do to get there?

charles_eide: Yeah, so we’re all First of all, we’re all in person a hundred per cent,

charles_eide: And that has been the the case since the

charles_eide: pandemic began. We decided against the idea of remote

david_horsager: y. yeah,

charles_eide: work. Um, while the culture is telling us to do it, we said we’re not going to

charles_eide: do that. And so everybody’s in person now. when it comes to the granular work

charles_eide: that each person is doing, we follow the traction e o S model very closely.

charles_eide: Uh, we have an implementer. We are very serious about using traction, and so

charles_eide: we have weekly level ten meetings for each department. So the leadership team

charles_eide: has a weekly level ten, and then each of the departments of Sales of Marketing

charles_eide: has a Littleton Administration has a level ten, and then operations says a

charles_eide: level ten.

david_horsager: Okay at Mar, sales and marketing operations and A, and they all have their

charles_eide: Yeah, they all have their own meeting, and in that meeting you know, I’m not

charles_eide: sure how familiar

charles_eide: you are, but I’ll just share with the audience you. the level ten meeting

charles_eide: basically designed by Gina Wickman and the Traction team, Um, which I’m

charles_eide: honored by the way we will be producing the E o S Traction event coming up

charles_eide: next year. Wow,

charles_eide: how thrilled are we about that? What an amazing thing. Uh. but the e o S

charles_eide: traction model, the Level Ten meeting really embodies the important thing. So

charles_eide: it starts out with a segway where every shares, then it moves into the

charles_eide: scorecard. What’s going on?

charles_eide: You know, and everybody has their metrics and either you’re on track or you’re

charles_eide: off track

charles_eide: right, Uh, and then your rocks. So like what you need to get done this

charles_eide: quarter, are you on track or off track for your rocks, and then the To do list

charles_eide: and people headlines, Um, and then I. d. s, which is where we spend

charles_eide: most of our time identifying discussing and solving problems. Um, and

charles_eide: obviously I won’t get

charles_eide: into the the G. You’re very familiar

charles_eide: with this, but for the listeners, Traction’s a great way to

charles_eide: the book, Traction by Geno

charles_eide: Wickman’s. a great way to learn.

david_horsager: So, do you on that and we use part of it. We have some things we field in

david_horsager: ourselves that we we like, But basically

david_horsager: on that does the implement an outside, hired consultant and implement. in

david_horsager: your case, lead all three of those before those meetings.

charles_eide: No, So so our implementer only does the quarterly and the annual, So we have

charles_eide: three quarterlies and an annual, and that implementer we have Dan Mosha, I

charles_eide: don’t know if

david_horsager: Mhm, Mhm,

charles_eide: you’ve ever heard of Dan Mosha, Uh, Dan has been a game changer, I think he’s

charles_eide: the best implementer out there. Um. but what I was going to say is he helps us

charles_eide: develop the Uh, the quarterly and the annual stuff that then carries into what

charles_eide: we execute in each Level ten

charles_eide: meeting and then E, the leader of that department runs that meaning.

david_horsager: okay, yup,

david_horsager: So okay. at what point did you start? How many people did you have to have

david_horsager: to start making it meaningful beyond like just having one of those weekly,

charles_eide: Well, I mean, you know when you’ve got a handful of people, Let’s say you got

charles_eide: three to five people. I don’t think you need multiple

charles_eide: departments. At that point, you know you’ve got all that wrapped

charles_eide: together. It really started happening when we got up in the like

charles_eide: teens where it was like you know when you got into eleven, twelve

charles_eide: thirteen. Now

charles_eide: now you’ve got different departments.

david_horsager: right. all

david_horsager: right. Well, there’s a lot here. How how is your? How is you know? you look

charles_eide: Um, you know, now we’re going to be

david_horsager: back at you being kind of an entrepreneur A lot of your life. and Wh, what?

david_horsager: what It’s change for how you lead over time? How have you changed?

charles_eide: that. That is probably the most interesting question I’ve been getting asked

charles_eide: lately because I have changed a lot. Uh, and I think I u. I. First of all, I

charles_eide: used to always think that if you had people on your staff, you had to. If you,

charles_eide: if you hired people, you had to micromanage them. you had to. you had to lead

charles_eide: with an iron fist. And you know the old school way like I grew up around my

charles_eide: grandfather, and it was very like Lead with the iron fist. If they don’t

charles_eide: perform, you fire them. you know. it was micromanaging them. What are you doing?

charles_eide: I need to report every thirty minutes. You know whatever,

charles_eide: and you know there was a shift I made where I said, Why am I doing all this?

charles_eide: I’m actually working more

charles_eide: by doing that instead of hiring great people to do the job, And so I went from

charles_eide: A, and part of that was hiring the right people, and R, really moving better

charles_eide: people into the organization where today I think we have so many people who

charles_eide: are professional and amazing. I think hiring great people and trusting them

charles_eide: to do the work,

charles_eide: and I, I mean, just like you or me, David, the Um.

charles_eide: The autonomy we have

charles_eide: gives us the freedom to be creative and make great things happen, and we need

charles_eide: to give that to our employees. because if you don’t and you don’t trust them

charles_eide: to do what they’re there to do, maybe they shouldn’t be there.

charles_eide: So I think it’s much more of a A. A. A, hands off from managing, but more of a

charles_eide: trusting and caring for people.

david_horsager: What. Let’s get personal for a second. At least the great leaders that I’ve

david_horsager: talked to and been around. it seems like they have some ways they lead

david_horsager: themselves well, or even some routines. And you know we talk about a lot.

david_horsager: It’s hard to be a great leader out there. if you’re not leading yourself the

david_horsager: hardest person. you have to leader yourself. What do you do? personally?

david_horsager: discipline wise, routine, wise to be healthy as a leader. Maybe it’s

david_horsager: physically spiritually. you know, Uh, interpersonally or or otherwise, you have

david_horsager: you have something that you do.

charles_eide: Yeah, I mean I, first of all, I like to make sure that my daily routine is

charles_eide: nearly the same every single day. Um, I get up at the same time I go to the

charles_eide: office. I always go to the office unless I have a meeting

charles_eide: and that’s really important. I also probably about two three years ago decided

charles_eide: that if I wasn’t physical, uh, physically healthy that I couldn’t perform at

charles_eide: my best and so I said, Enough is enough about feeling guilty. Um, I, I work

charles_eide: out best in the middle of the day, makes my whole day

charles_eide: better and so I carve out time that it’s not negotiable. You cannot schedule

charles_eide: me between eleven thirty and one ever. I will not meet you. I don’t care who

charles_eide: you are. my physical fitness of my body. Uh, was was even in my late twenties

charles_eide: and early thirties, was taking a back seat and you could see it and I could

charles_eide: it. The doctors, you know, doctors are nice people and they don’t like to tell

charles_eide: you the truth. Uh, they don’t like to tell you the cold’s

charles_eide: truth, but the cold truth was, I was in my mid thirties with the beginnings of

charles_eide: heart problems with high blood pressure and cholesterol and all these things

charles_eide: that I just neglected and I and I finally said Enough is enough. I need to

charles_eide: take care of myself. So my physical body was, you know important.

david_horsager: I had a very similar experience as you know, and it made all the difference.

david_horsager: One of the problems is we guess compared to other kind of average people in

david_horsager: better than that. Well, that mean sometimes, but what do you? um

david_horsager: on that? Do you?

charles_eide: Do you mind if I share something

charles_eide: with you? It’s a revelation that I had for us

charles_eide: leaders when it comes to take taking care of our bodies, and I? I. This is

charles_eide: something that took me years to figure out and I figured it out and it made so

charles_eide: much sense. As leaders were used to delegating out everything to the experts

charles_eide: in on our teams. Right. We’re used to coming up with master plans and then

charles_eide: executing them by having others do that stuff.

charles_eide: Your physical fitness and your health and your body cannot be delegated to

charles_eide: anybody, and that’s where we fail. as we think. Oh, well, if I hire a trainer

charles_eide: and a nutritionist I’ll be fine. No,

charles_eide: there is no leverage on this. It is a one to one work to return ratio and

charles_eide: there is no leverage You can’t put in one and get five with your body In your

charles_eide: fitness. it does not work and I think we have this mentality as leaders where

charles_eide: we’re like. there’s got to be a short cut. I mean, there’s got to be some

charles_eide: leverage in here somewhere and the truth is there is no leverage in it. It is

charles_eide: a one to one input to return ratio and you have to decide you’re going to do

charles_eide: it. Uh, and and I think leaders struggle with it because we want to outsource

david_horsager: Yeah, So what do you do? Uh, eleven thirty to one is, do you guys have a

david_horsager: fitness place at your offices? or will you at your new one?

charles_eide: so our new facility will have a a fitness center with. Um, the men’s and

charles_eide: women’s restrooms both have showers,

charles_eide: two showers and each one

charles_eide: we’ve got. I mean, we really are like we’re going all out on this.

david_horsager: Yup, that’s nice.

david_horsager: so a lot of people don’t have that. So what did you do the last while like

david_horsager: you? Because you didn’t have a fitness center in your last offices, Did you?

charles_eide: No, No, and where we are Currently? Yeah, there’s no fit. So I, I did hire a

david_horsager: so what would you do? would you? Yeah, that’s awesome. I, I’d like that,

david_horsager: Someday, Yep,

charles_eide: trainer and I was like. I need this to be financially painful enough that I’ll

charles_eide: do the work

charles_eide: because if I’m paying for a you know a trainer to train me

charles_eide: three four days a week, it needs to be financially painful so that I do the

charles_eide: work. and

david_horsager: Did you go to Uh, a place?

david_horsager: A Gm? Yeah,

charles_eide: currently, Yeah, I mean, that’s where I, so I train Currently a North Loop

david_horsager: Yp. Yep.

charles_eide: fitness in Minneapolis. Uh, with my trainer. That’s where he likes to meet.

david_horsager: right. Okay, so that’s good. So hey, do you do you mind getting personal

david_horsager: here? What time do you get up and what time you get to the office?

charles_eide: okay, I am a lifelong um. night owl that is trying to train himself to not be

david_horsager: Yep, yup,

charles_eide: What’s funny is um. I. I. So I, and now I go to bed about ten thirty.

charles_eide: That’s where I try and be in bed. Um, and then I get up around seven.

charles_eide: Uh, Sometimes, if you ask my wife’s she’d probably say seven thirty. Um,

david_horsager: leave way

david_horsager: there and then you go straight to the officer. Do you hang out with the

charles_eide: So that’s that’s my routine.

david_horsager: family first, or do you? you go straight the office and you do family time

david_horsager: at different time.

charles_eide: Yeah, so usually so the kids are kind of already under way there. The the boys

charles_eide: are waiting for the bus. Evelyn’s already at school by then, and so we, we

charles_eide: will just and I will sit and have coffee for about a half hour sitting in the

charles_eide: piano room. Well, I’m eating or drinking my coffee.

charles_eide: Um, having my breakfast and so on.

david_horsager: And what? what? what about? So when do you see the kids And what? Hire you?

david_horsager: Intentional that way Because I know you are.

charles_eide: Yeah, it. kids. are you know? the evenings are better with the kids they’ve

charles_eide: had their school day. They’re at home. We’ll do fun little projects right now.

charles_eide: I’m working on the the basement and putting in Um, like fi. uh, I’m putting in

charles_eide: a fitness facility in my basement as well. uh, we will work out together, the

charles_eide: kids, the the boy. Well, all three of them we will work out together and

charles_eide: they’re getting into it. It was funny the other day I was downstairs working

charles_eide: out and my six year old comes down and he, just he doesn’t say a word, and he

charles_eide: walks over to the dumbbells and grabs the fives

charles_eide: and he starts uh, doing bicep curls by himself. Doesn’t say a word to me.

charles_eide: He’s just doing bicep curls and then he goes over and he sits on the bench and

charles_eide: it’s funny because kids. it’s like. it’s like people on your team. They don’t

charles_eide: do what you say. they do what you

charles_eide: do and I don’t know where he figured this out, But he starts doing a bench

charles_eide: press with these dumbbells and I’m like, Oh, my gosh, this is so cute, so we

charles_eide: like to work out. We have a very fit family. My wife is actually a trainer.

charles_eide: and and so she keeps us on line as well, and she cooks a healthy dinner. I get

charles_eide: home at night and

charles_eide: chicken with no seasoning on it at all,

david_horsager: there you go. raw chicken right on the bone,

charles_eide: and vegetables. Lots of chicken

david_horsager: So let you know that’s it here. This is a fun one for me this week because I

david_horsager: just happened this week, and uh to my ki. My, the two youngest, my youngest

david_horsager: is, you know he’s skiing. He’s on the aerial ski team, Snowking and uh does

david_horsager: lacrosse, and so these things. But but he asked my daughter who’s dance and

david_horsager: stretching and all that kind of stuff, he said to her. the thirteen year old

david_horsager: to the fourteen year old. Can you be my trainer and my coach and helped me

david_horsager: get stretched out so I can do these um aerial things And he’s a great ath,

david_horsager: little athlete. You know, he he’s but, but it’s kind of fun seeing the work

david_horsager: city. So she said, Okay, Be up at six tomorrow morning. We’re meeting. We’re

david_horsager: going to. you know. we’re going to start this training session. So they’re

david_horsager: They’re certain of training together. It’s it’s

charles_eide: isn’t that cute.

david_horsager: pretty funny. Yeah, that’s so fun. so um, let’s go to. You know you’ve

david_horsager: learned a lot in your career. What are you learning right now?

charles_eide: I’m learning. Oh man, I’m learning a lot of stuff. Im learning to be patient

charles_eide: that it like my lifelong thing is being patient.

charles_eide: I’m a very impatient person.

david_horsager: so challenging for us that are entrepreneurs. It’s like we needed to Sm

david_horsager: mountains, but that seems like it’s a common thread for me. It’s like this.

david_horsager: Y. there’s you know it. I, in some ways, I think actually, impatience is a

david_horsager: value for an entrepreneurs to push the mountain down. Turns out it’s not so

david_horsager: great at home or with kids or with relationships, so we have to work against

david_horsager: that in

david_horsager: human relationship. And yet we have to, you know, I’m made to be a driver in

david_horsager: a way too, right,

charles_eide: Yeah, I mean’s, so true. it’s like y like I am naturally a very impatient

charles_eide: person. Uh, I, I expect you know, I expect things to be done a certain way in

charles_eide: a certain time period and I’m not very patient about it. And then you’re

charles_eide: you’re totally right. When you go home, you’re like I need to be patient.

charles_eide: Um, I know that. Uh, Jessica told me this thirty times. Uh, but I need to

charles_eide: listen to her. Tell me at a thirty first time. Um, you know you’re like. I

charles_eide: have to be patient, but then of course there’s times where I’ll I’ll be like

charles_eide: we’re We’re doing what with with who and should be like. I have told you this

charles_eide: thirty times and I’m going to kill you. so I think you know patience goes both

charles_eide: ways, but in the workplace I, I think that if you’re naturally an impatient

charles_eide: person, it’s just coming down to how you harness that impatience, because I, I

charles_eide: will say that it is good to drive results and to hold people accountable, but

charles_eide: you also have to be patient with

charles_eide: people. Um, especially when they’re learning as well. so that’

david_horsager: and I think in a pandemic and with all the things happening, there was

david_horsager: definitely a time to start and show up with empathy first.

david_horsager: No doubt it.

charles_eide: that’s how we got through it.

charles_eide: I mean, that’s how we got through It was to care for the team first, and I’ve

charles_eide: always been. you know everybody, says David. They. they always go well. The

charles_eide: customer is always first and I, you know what I decided a long time ago. My my

charles_eide: team is first, Because if there first they will put the customer first.

david_horsager: right, totally true.

charles_eide: So I always have their back, no matter what.

david_horsager: Are you thinking about following up on the learning question? Are you

david_horsager: curious about anything right now that you’re like pressing into?

david_horsager: I’m curious about this right now, whether it’s you know, a certain

david_horsager: technology leadership or how our world’s going to be, or how you’re going to

david_horsager: solve something.

charles_eide: Well, I mean, I’m always curious how the world’s going to be, and I’m kind of

charles_eide: one of those rebels when like the world tells me to do something, I’m like.

charles_eide: No, I’m not doing that. Um, So you know, I, I wrestle with that stuff, but I,

charles_eide: I mean from a technology standpoint we started a company called Second Stage

charles_eide: and it’s a software company that has a product. We only have one product right

charles_eide: now. It’s a great product. Um, that basically is a virtual venue for Um

charles_eide: events. So if you have an event going on and you want to provide an online

charles_eide: audience with a great experience, Second stage is a great product. for that.

charles_eide: We’re also finding that it’s also really good for the in person audience. So I

charles_eide: imagine you’re at a conference in Las Vegas and there’s a speaker coming up,

charles_eide: But you want to run back to your room, you know, or you want to sit by the

charles_eide: pool, and you want to watch the general session from the pool. Second stage is

charles_eide: a great way you can pull up the schedule. Click on it and watch uh, the live

charles_eide: content or the pre recorded content, so we develop that, but I’m still

charles_eide: learning about technology and I get frustrated with myself about it because my

charles_eide: mind doesn’t work like that and I don’t really understand timelines and how

charles_eide: stuff works around, developing software and features and rolling them out, And

charles_eide: I just I struggle with

charles_eide: it And so it’s something I’m really trying to wrestle with and understand

charles_eide: better right now.

david_horsager: it’s interesting. you know, just thinking how parallel our journeys are. I

david_horsager: remember when when kind of my tech director, said David. Um, believe it or

david_horsager: not, you’ve just become overnight the c, e O tech company and I’m like, No

david_horsager: cause I, I don’t even like posting on Facebook, right, I don’t.

david_horsager: but when we built the the platform, one of the things I think that I’m

david_horsager: excited about is that we kept the human component of real people, But, but

david_horsager: our, our Our trust certified platform where people can measure and get

david_horsager: reinforcement. All these tools. That was a big, massive fun learning for me,

david_horsager: and it still is. It’s part of our

david_horsager: whole way of you know, building trust in the world, but it’s kind of

david_horsager: interesting because. We were kind of starting our technology journey a few

david_horsager: years ago about the same time. Um.

charles_eide: I have a family member who’s made his. You know, his entire career in the in

charles_eide: the tech world, and he, you know he’s so, he’s brilliant beyond

charles_eide: me And he said to me, He’s like Look,

charles_eide: we are all always learning in this, So don’t think you’re going to figure it

charles_eide: out cause you won’t

charles_eide: that’ reassuring. thanks.

david_horsager: exactly. But and yet at the center of almost every business will be

david_horsager: technology in you know this decade you won’t find one Without That doesn’t

david_horsager: mean there won’t be an absolutely human component. I think people are a

david_horsager: little. s wrong a little bit and thinking it’s it. Really, people should

david_horsager: still be at the center, but technology will be able to amplify a lot of

david_horsager: things. even as you noted the in person experience.

david_horsager: What’s uh? what? What’s your biggest hope for the future

charles_eide: Uh, that’s a really big question, David. are you referring like like a big bi?

david_horsager: anyway? business life, personally,

charles_eide: well, I would say world peace, but I think we’ve been at that for a long time

charles_eide: and I haven’t seen it yet. I feel like I even look at. I’m watching World War

charles_eide: Two in color on Netflix, and I’m like I don’t think we’re ever going to have

charles_eide: peace. I really wish we would, but I don’t know.

david_horsager: are there side projects like that though that you’re trying to make a dent

david_horsager: in? I mean we we love. Uh, trying to make a dent in certain global

david_horsager: corruption issues with our trust work and and things. But are there things

david_horsager: you’re thinking about that way like you really hope. Maybe it’s for your

david_horsager: kids, but maybe it’s for the future. Maybe it’s some of the things you are

david_horsager: doing on the side. I know you have a heart for transformation. And and

david_horsager: things are there things you’re thinking about that you don’t mind hearing

david_horsager: publicly that you’d hope

charles_eide: I mean I. My thing is like I. I just hope that I can help my. My real thing

charles_eide: is, I want to help other young entrepreneurs. see,

charles_eide: um, see the value they can bring this world. I think that you know that was

charles_eide: that was me and I. I actually had a couple of really great mentors along the

charles_eide: way. that made all the difference in the world to me, and even they weren’t

charles_eide: even super hands on. They were like. At a distance, you know, I have mentors

charles_eide: today that Um, still mentor me like Chris Linddall, He’s a big real estate guy

charles_eide: here in the Twin cities. He calls me and we’ll talk on the phone, Just

charles_eide: randomly talk on the phone for an hour about it. like the biggest challenges

charles_eide: that I’m facing. Um, or like road blocks he sees coming up for me that I

charles_eide: didn’t even see and I’m like, Oh, my gosh, Like, what a gift to have friends

charles_eide: that are so good like that and I just I want to be able to be that for others.

charles_eide: Um, along the way that I, there’s this really cool young kid. his name is

charles_eide: Julian and I met Julian when I was speaking at. Um, I was speaking at. I think

charles_eide: it was at Maranatha . It’s a private school here in the Twin Cities and I was

charles_eide: speaking to their senior class and he comes up to me afterwards and he’s like

charles_eide: Hey, I’m thinking about starting this uh business where it will will fuel up

charles_eide: your car in the parking lot And I was like That’s brilliant and he was like,

charles_eide: Yeah, I’ve got investors and I got all this going. He’s like I don’t need

charles_eide: money. I just I just want to know you and you know once in a while, reach out.

charles_eide: I tell you what, this kid this summer shows up to my office with his truck,

charles_eide: and it’s got the fueling equipment on it. All the professional stuff. He’s got

charles_eide: the uniform. He’s like I got the App, and I’m like, Oh, my gosh, come in and

charles_eide: let’s talk about this. this is so exciting. So if I can help one or two or a

charles_eide: thousand or a million entrepreneurs do better, Uh, you know I will be happy.

david_horsager: there is a lot more we could talk about. I love that

david_horsager: mentoring goes both ways. You learn so much when you mentor

david_horsager: as you know.

david_horsager: Well, here we go, Charles. There’s a lot more we could talk about and we

david_horsager: have fun doing it. But where can people find out more? Where is the one key

david_horsager: place? People can find out more about Charles Eide or EideCom

charles_eide: Well, if you want to follow me on Instagram, it’s Charles Evan, Eide, I

charles_eide: dispelled, E. I, d E.

charles_eide: I’m pretty active on Instagram, Also, Uh, we just launched a brand new EideCom

charles_eide: dot com. So it’s e, i d e C, o m, dot com one him and there’s plenty of cool

charles_eide: stuff on EideCom Dot Com and Um, And then, of course, if you want to check out,

charles_eide: our event platform’s called Second stage

charles_eide: dot events, Google Second stage event platform, you’ll find it

david_horsager: that’s perfect. and as always, Kent will put all of this in the show Notes.

david_horsager: Trusted leader show dot com. You can find everything about second stage and

david_horsager: EideCom and uh, you know just his instagram. everything he’s doing, Charles,

david_horsager: You’re amazing. We got to go. We need to go fly somewhere again.

charles_eide: Anytime, Dave. Let’s go.

david_horsager: Let’s go. Let’s jump over

david_horsager: to Oshkosh again next summer. Oh thank you. let’s tell us jump to Oshkosh

charles_eide: It’s great to see you and thanks for having me.

david_horsager: again next year.

charles_eide: Let’s do it.

david_horsager: All right well, this has been the trust the leader show, thank you, Charles

david_horsager: until next time everybody stay trusted.