Leaders vs. Managers

It's my philanthropy by the way, and follow me on all social channels because we're always bringing the heat. And here's some heat today. People say they're standing on business. Don't know what they're talking about half the time? What business you're standing on? It's a nice phrase. Do we even understand the difference between business and busyness? Right? People say, oh, I'm a small business owner, I'm a business owner, arm entrepreneur. Do you know that there's a difference in those phrases.

I'm sorry, there's a difference in those definitions, right, Hello, So a business owner, a small business owner is modeling a standard business plan. So you're a business owner because you own a chick fil a franchise, you're a business owner. If you own a McDonald's franchise, you're a business owner. If you own a barbershop, you're a business owner. If you own a nail salon, you're a business owner. If

you own a traditional restaurant, you're a business owner. If you own a trash compacting business, a plumbing business, an electric contracting business, yes, you are a business owner. There are many. You're a office supply company owner. Yes, you're a business owner. You're a consulting company owner. Yes, you're a business owner. Congratulate. It's a big deal. It's serious, serious situation. You should be very proud of yourself. I'm serious.

I'm not like joking, like you know, you're a real business owner, right, and you should be proud of that. And so in that situation, my friend Howard Hugh and I we love this word situation. It's a situation. Everything's a situation. You can't either can't explain it, don't want to, don't want to get into details. You just call them the you know, it's a situation. She was it was a situation with her and him, and but yeah, I didn't really understand the situation and I didn't want to

get involved. The situation. Man, the situation was was crazy. You know, it just got to it became a whole other kind of situation. All right. Back to the topic. So, an entrepreneur is different. An entrepreneur's crazy. I'm an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur works eighteen hours a day to keep from getting a job. Is literally creates something out of nothing,

a new innovative idea. An entrepreneur as somebody who takes a restaurant and and adds a club and connects it with a sanitation company and then connect'm making this up and and and and connects it with a plumbing company and then connects it with artificial intelligence and then rewires it whole thing and then and it does it during the day versus at night. Just it's a it's a new concept on an old thing. It's a new concept of a new thing. It's a new thing. It's an innovation.

It's a it's a creation from from nothing, and it's and then proving that new thing actually has value, and then making it valuable and then taking that value to market, and then and then creating marketable value from that thing. Here's it. So, here's one example, business person versus entrepreneur. People use these phrases interchangeably. They're not interchangeable. You can be an entrepreneur and be a small business owner. You can be an entrepreneur and be a big business owner.

You can be an entrepreneur and not be a business owner. You can have an entrepreneurial mindset and run a nonprofit. Run your life just as almost like a you know, an entrepreneur mindset. If you're just running your life, what might be an upgrade on being a hustler and I mean hustler in the positive sense of the phrase. You can be a business owner and be entrepreneurial, and you can be a business owner and be an entrepreneur. But don't presume because you're a business owner you are an

entrepreneur that that is a bridge too far. And words matter, definitions matter, And by the way, don't be an entrepreneur and presume that you There are people who are entrepreneurs who are horrible. Horrible business owners need to be need to stay a million of ways away from actually running

and owning a business. Uh you know. This is analogous to a great recording artist is a great uh you know, a track star athlete or a great you know, performer who has a business manager who handles the left brain work while they handle the right brain work. Left brain is analytical two plus twe equals four and all that stuff. Left brain sorry, right bring is creative making the best, most amazing music or whatever on the planet. But don't

confuse don't things. Because you have a genius in one area, it automatically means you have a genius in another. That is a mistake. To assume is to make an ass out of you and me. Literally, that's how it's spelled. So don't assume, right, don't. It's a horrible thing to do in business or life is to make assumptions. Just ask the question. Don't assume. Just ask the questions and get the answers. So now let's let's get into an unpack uh, the substance of titles and titling in business.

Before I get to that, me deal with a one huge misnomer. I've already dealt with one misnomer which is not so huge, but business versus an entrepreneur, it's just something that irritates me because I am an entrepreneur, I am a business owner, I am an executive. These are three different categories, and there are three different talents. And I'm also a getted none person. I'm all at execution. I'm also a thought leader in some ways. These are

five different categories of talent. And so you want to be the Michael Jordan of your space, right, Michael Jordan was not just a great basketball player. He had he was had intellectual genius. He had strategy. He you know, he had placement, he knew timing, he knew you know, he had you know anyway, so you he had you know, he was high frequency, a high frequency thinker, and he was very observant of He could figure out what his opponent was doing, who is whoever is assigned to him.

Within one and a half games, he had figured the guy out. So he was paying attention not to his own game. He understood his own game. He's pay attention to the other how he played the game. So we can map out how to reverse engineer success in that situation. Here's a bigger git. That's important. Leadership versus management, Leaders versus managers. I made this mistake me, John O'Brien. I screwed this up time and time again. Is I built close to fifty entities now around the world, three of

which are the largest in their category. The largest minority owner of single family rental homes in America. Company I built and sold and still have an ownership interest in it, but I don't run it anymore. That's the Promise Homes Company. So a couple of years ago, built and still lead. That's Operation Hope. Largest nonprofit financial literacy Promise Homes is for profit, the largest financial literacy financial coaching organization in America.

You know, forty plus states, three hundred physical offices, fifteen hundred physical and satellite offices, millions of clients, billions of dollars deployed on the for profit side, a few hundred million dollars in that one business of activity and transactional value. Then the largest financial inclusion holding company in the country, four hundred employees. All that stuff. Okay, so does that make me a leader or a manager? Well, I'm both. In fact, I'm more than that if you listen to

the titles I mentioned earlier. My mistake was that I could take somebody who was not even a manager a tactician, and turn them into a manager there or no jump over management, and make them a leader by giving them a title because I like them. You can put wings on a pig and hope it will fly. It won't. If you put wings on a pig and hope it to fly, it's not the pig's vault, it's yours. That's

what I was doing. I was taking people I cared about, I liked, I thought were amazing, giving them a title, giving them a paycheck because they said they could do it, they wanted it, they desired it, told me they could handle it. Don't worry, had no experience in the situation we're talking to me about, telling me they could do romanticize what I was doing by looking at what I was doing. Oh my god, that's so easy. Not easy, and just fell right on their flat on their face

half the time. And you know, sometimes ruined the relationship because I'm pushing them to be the best that I see in them. But what I see in them is not what they see in themselves. How I see them is not how they see themselves. I remember there was one dude who worked for me and really talented in many areas, really talented the areas, great, community, great with kids, great, I mean great with anything black. It's in black issues

great personality. And one day I noticed that on the on the business card the signature line on the email that we assigned to them at the company, and I pay for the email title to change to regional CEO. And I'm like, well, hell, I don't have a regional CEO. Said I called check with my my, my, my upper manager, like did did I change titles? Did I approve chitel title changes? And I just don't remember it. No, No, you have regional you have market precedents and market leaders.

You don't have a regional CEO. You're the CEO, John, Thank you reminded me. Appreciate that. So I call this person and I'm like, look, you know you already CEO chief executive officer. That's what that means. You got to write a check or call checks to be written, Like you got to hunt. CEO is a hunter, and this person didn't want to hunt. They wanted to flass. They wanted to have fun, they wanted to enjoy themselves. They

wanted to chill. They wanted to go to parties and receptions and go to the White House and go go and go do what they do well. But I'm like that that's only part of the job. It's a very small part of the job. Actually, I hate going under these receptions and all this stuff when all I'm doing is just talking about blah blah blah. I want to my problems have to have a beginning and middle and an end, right. And so this person told me that they were good at a word i'd never heard of before, ideation.

And I'm like, wow, okay, just taught me something, and I've learned that word ideation. It's a really important word. But I also realized I had put this person in the wrong job. And to their credit, they quit. But I had been paying them for a long time to not do the job that I asked them to do. They decided to do the job they wanted to do. I mean I'd come in and they'd be in my office doing photo shoots in my office, right And I was out traveling trying to raise money, and I had

to budget and they had to meet the budget. S if you're gonna have this time, you got to meet the butet you want to get rid of somebody quickly give them a fundraising goal. So is you got to go. This is the payrollers X written utilities of Y and this is this region. If you want to be a regional CEO, you got to raise some regional money. And well they were gone pretty quick after that. Over thirty two years, I've seen it all right, and I've learned

to admire and respect people for their talent. So that wasn't that person's mistake. That was mine. I screwed that up because I wanted them to be this and that, and I gave them a lot of free rein and they took it and took some more and some more and some more, and then blamed it on me when it didn't work out. It's okay, that's what you know what.

That's what happens when you're in the big seat. So leaders, well, so somebody who's a tactical leader is somebody who you give a task to and you say do X, and they go do X. But if you don't tell them the DUEX, they may just sit there. They're a tactical leader. That's how their brain is wired. That's how the endorphins fire in their brain. Please write this down, Please take notes on what I'm saying. Please do not run an office, a department, a business of partied planning. Don't do anything.

Don't run a club, don't run a don't run a social event, don't run a nonprofit for profit, don't run your family unless you listen to this and understand. You got to put people in places the soil where they'll grow. You take a plant and put it on a concrete it will die. I don't care how much you water it. You got to put that plant in the right soil and then water the soil and then nurture it right.

And so if you put the wrong person in the wrong soil or the wrong place and then lecture them about how they're not doing the thing that you have in your head. Once again, you put wings on a pig and hope it'll fly. It's not the pig's fault. It's yours. You're the leader. Okay, I'm just giving away a bit of what is coming up when I describe

these different titles. There's also founder right. No organization will raise as much money in its emphasy as when the founders around and founders doing it because no one who washes rental cars, people who just work someplace will just bounce and leave. The founder doesn't get a day off. It's not interested in the day off, and I didn't eve think that. They don't even think they're working. They're like, this is my passion. I love this. Right, they're doing

what they love. And that passion, that enthusiasm, that inner joy is infectious and people want to buy into that because you don't do business with companies. You do business with people. It's about relationship capital. Right. You don't need another attorney. Nobody needs to hire another attorney. They're one attorney for every four hundred people in America. You don't need to hire another attorney. Which you hire somebody you retain, Somebody you respect, you admire you like you love you.

They make you laugh, you trust them, they get you. And that's why you hire an atturn. Even though there's one attorney for every four hundred people, people still hiring attorneys, right, countains the same thing, and so on and so forth. It's about relationships. Okay, So tactician, let's explain that. Uh. And then you have manager, which literally means to manage. Right, By the way, I want you to unpack some of these words I'm using our society uses. Where does the

word credit come from? It comes from the Latin word creditoe, which means credibility has nothing to do with money. What does the word capital come from. It comes from the Latin root word copy toass meaning knowledge in the head has nothing to do with capitalism, and money is not Your capital is in your head human capital. And then capitalism is an extension of that, using your human capital to produce and so on and so forth. Banking is a trust business. Trust I mean banking literally is a

trust business has nothing to do ultimately with money. You know what, check is nothing better than something that has the the uh uh a barcode on it. It has it has the routing information, the bank acount information. That's something that confirms this you and all you're doing is using that check to transfer value from you to somebody else, and signing it is giving the authorization. You can literally sign somebody's T shirt and walk the T shirt in

the bank and walk the person the bank. Whether don't try this, by the way, and blame it on me. You have an argument with the bank for a long time, but they'll be forced to sell to cash the T shirt at some point because it's a legal it's legal tender if you did it right. But it'll become a waste of everybody's time, and you'll never be invited to

that bank ever again. But but literally, you can cash somebody's T shirt because you can write all the information that's needed to cash the check on the T shirt. That T shirt becomes the check. Which so this is a means of transferring value. Okay, back to the topic. So managers manage, They manage what you give them to manage. It's a box, it's a definition. It's pre defined. Again,

just between an entrepreneur and a business person. Business person in an entrepreneur and as example, the business person has a pre defined business plan. McDonald's has already told you what success looks like. Just follow a business plan. Chick fil A's already told you. Taco Bill has already told you.

You know, there's a business plan. If you follow it, there's an eighty percent change something over fifty percent chance that you'll be successful with big franchises, maybe even maybe an eighty ninety percent chance you'll be successful and hopefully also highly profitable. But you've got to follow the business plan. So a manager is following a business plan within the business that and they're managing that business or that part

of the business plan. Don't assume because you're a manager someplace that you have now the skills to be automatically a business owner. A lot of people I know do this leave cash out there four on one K. Don't are clueless effect they have but an assistant that's company paid for, a secretary. Maybe they have an expense account they have different from an expense report. By the way, expensive report is reimbursable. Expense account is what the company provides.

You told go entertain and do things on the company's time, buy things of the company's time. You have health insurance, you've got a free office, you've got travel, you have technology. I have friends who come to me like, I'm not going to become an entrepreneur just like you, John, I'm gonna go out here. I've got this idea. I listen to the idea. I'm like, well, the idea is a little hair brain, or the idea is light, or the ibre is not tight, or the ibrey is a maybe.

Now what are you gonna do again? Well, I'm about to lead this cushy job in this six figure income and go out here become an entrepreneur. And I'm using my throw one k my savings to do it, and I'm like, no, don't do that. It's gotta be a train wreck. And they get mad at me for telling them straight what I'm thinking because I love them, and they crash. And then two years later, if they run through all their savings and then got a line of credit in their house, ran through that had to then

sell the house. One of them come to me and say, John, wat didn't you tell me? I tried to tell you. You curse me out. But you know, they don't realize the hidden benefits of working inside of a company. And you're very successful because you have all this infrastructure around you. And so if you're in a fortune one thousand, fortune five hundred company and you're a manager, it's part of a larger team and the business plan has already been

redefined the founder's founder, the CEOs made successful. All you have to do is execute on the on your management responsibilities and you look like a star. But that doesn't mean that you are a star. Doesn't mean you're going to be a star in your own orbit in your own universe. You're starting somebody else's orbit in universe. And that's why you're successful. I'm not saying you can't do it as an entrepreneur or a business owner. I'm just

saying it's a completely different set of disciplines. Right As a as a manager, somebody else is doing everything else. As a business owner an entrepreneur, you're doing everything else, everything else. Is you right, Hey, Joe, you're doing that? Okay, Joe An, you're doing that. Okay, you're Joe and Joeanne. You're Joe and Joeann in this example, is you talking to you? Right? Okay? I'm twenty minutes into this podcast. I'm not giving you the definitions of the titles yet.

Let me get into it, but I hope you found this entertaining. I certainly have been good therapy. And then my favorite position, which I misdiagnosed me for a long time. My favorite definition is leader. A leader sees a problem and wants to solve it. Problems at the beginnings, middles, and ends. Managers don't see problems who want to solve it. Here's always I've learned this one big rule about being a founder and a hunter. If I'm gonna get a know,

I want to get a know from the boss. I want to get to know from the chief executive officer. The founder somebody who writes checks, not the one who catches it. The one who writes checks, the one who makes strategic decisions, vision decisions. I want that person to tell me no, this is not a good idea, because it takes the same injury to get to succeed big or to succeed small. It's the same energy to get a know from somebody that fifteen levels below the boss

or the boss, it's the same energy. I'd rather get a know from the boss. I may learn something from the note, but a manager's job. Listen to me. Now. The manager's job is more often than not, to tell you no. I don't care what the idea is. You know why, please listen to this. This has dropped the mic because the manager knows this. They're saying to themselves, I don't get this is a great maybe great idea, crazy idea, unique idea of new product been brought to me.

I've been using this old thing. It's not as good. But I don't get fired for saying no. I get fired for saying yes to the wrong thing. So the answer is no. I'm gonna repeat this. This is what a manager does. Now. It's not personal. Business is not personal. It's a gladiator sport. Don't take it personal. Listen. The manager's job is to tell you no unless you get very lucky, unless they like you, there's a relationship, you're hooking them up in some way. Who knows. I don't know.

You showed up at the right time the right day, asked the right question when they were vulnerable or didn't have a solution. But typically the manager's job fifteen the manager of fifteen below levels. He love us below the boss. Their job is really to tell you no, because they don't get fired. But saying no no, only ever know they told you no. They'll say they're gonna tell the boss to tell their team. They know they won't. They're

not telling anybody. You're gonna put that in your idea, a round file, the trash can or a foul cabinet, and I hope nobody ever sees it. They were gonna write a memo to themselves and filed away. Their job is to self preservation, by the way, to keep their job.

Their thinking is is by the way wrong thinking. This is like the biblical story of the talents, where God rewarded people with these three people gave these different talents and one person took the talents and that it was three talents and went and made a bunch of money, and talents was like money back then, and then the person had to think two talents. They went and did real great too. I'm probably get the number of talents wrong, so don't jam me up on that. But the person

who had one talent just buried it. And when when when the time came like, look, I've saved this one talent, how'd you say that? I just buried it. But you didn't grow it. No, I just buried it where didn't lose it. They gave that talent to the people who made money on the other tower because they were able to produce. They were able to Those were leaders. So a manager's job, they think is self preservation and they don't get fired for saying no. This gets fire for

saying yes to the wrong thing. The answer is no. The leader's job is to say yes, because you don't grow the business unless you're saying yes to something. I went into this banker's office. Oh I wish I could remember this guy's name. I would love to give him credit. One of the reason I love doing this podcast I can finally give people public credit for all the stuff they did to help me in the course of my life. This bank was in Lancaster, California, and this banker was

running this one location, Jack Cephis. It was Antelope Valley Bank, who was bought three times by somebody in the bank at this point is part of a larger conglomerate, but it was called a Low Valley bank. This guy named Jack Seat, it was good old boy. And I went to his office try to get a thousand dollars for Operation Hope. I drove an hour and a half from LA two hours wherever it is to try to get a thousand dollars donation for Operation Hope. But really I

wanted I wanted the relationship capital with this guy. So I went to go to the boss man. I didn't go to the Seat, the community investment officer or the community affairs officer. But no, we disrespect to that. I'd have done that if Jack told me no or he doesn't want to see me out, because I really, at the end of the day, I want at least a thousand dollars and the relationship with the bank. But I want to again, I want to know from the boss. So I went and had. It was one branch and

it was a glass office. He was the middle of the glass office old school banking, and his desk, his mahogany desk, was right in the middle of the middle of this glass office, in the middle of the one branch bank, right. And I went in to go see Jack, and I sat down. I had I had hoots. I had a kind of uh, you know, you just couldn't stop me. I sat down at this guy's desk, and I felt comfortable with the met little bit. I said, Jack, Can I be honest with you? Sure? John? Can I

call you John here? Can I call you Jack? Sure? Why are you so lazy? Excuse me? No one's ever talked to him before this line. And I wasn't disrespectful. I thought it was being legit, Like you've got your feet up on a desk. There's nothing on your desk but a newspaper. There's a phone on your desk, your feet in the newspaper, and you're sitting there talking to me. But this was happening before I got there. Shouldn't you be doing stuff? He said, John, you clearly don't understand

what a CEO does. Okay, explain to me. He said John. I've got an underwriter to underwrite loans. I've got a credit analysis do analysis of loans. I've gotten appraiser to appraise loans. I've got a receptionist to make sure the ear to put People like you don't get to my desk next time, because you need when you're a leader, you need a headspace. You need clarity to be able to do what you do, so you don't need a

bunch of distractions. I walked through life by the way to this day consciously oblivities and most things around me because it just doesn't matter. Somebody asked me what I tell my twelve year my twelve year old or fifteen or eighteen year old self. They asked me that a few days ago, ask me for some advice on leadership. I say, ignore the boys, most people and what they're rambling about low frequency conversations just doesn't matter. It just

doesn't matter. Gossipling about people. It just doesn't matter. Ignore it, keep it moving. Eagles don't fly in packs. You've never seen a flock of eagles. Eagles on high altitude birds, but buzzes love packs and the low altitude birds. And Turkey's got wings and can't fly its profiling. We're getting the other title definitions here. So Jack told me, you really understand what I did. So we went through all the different roles of everybody at the bank. Really try

to you know. Really it was a great rap, right wrap on making John look stupid and taught me a lesson. And he said, my job is to read this newspaper, which you call newspaper, it's a Wall Street journal. My job is to get in every day with the clear head, no distractions, look out here and through this glass and see what's going on in the marketplace, in in my city, in my region. Read the walk, read the local newspapers. He was going on crime and opportunity and who's in trends.

Read the Wall Street journals. He was going on markets and money in the world. And then they pick up that phone and connect these dots and grossing business for this bank and I. And the only reason you got here is I answered the phone when you called. And if I was busy appraising and doing another I wouldn't be able to answer your call. And you seem to be like a pretty special young man. What could I do for you? And he gave me that thousand dollars

by the way, and we became dear friends. I called a few years ago to say thank you. Damn. That was one of my first donors Operation Hope. Operation Ope is now as seventy two million dollars annual operating budget. We've directed four point five billion dollars in capital, millions of clients. But it all started with this one client, one person helping one person get hooking up with one partner, getting you know, commitment from one donor, one thing at

a time. All right, So now I've broken down in broad since leadership as differentiated from management. So Jack's job was to say yes to me, you want to that, that's the job of the boss. But if you can't get to the boss, get to the manager. And the manager's job is self preservation. So what do you want to do with the manager? Make them look good? Help you go there? He says, your idea, but it's their ideas,

their credit, all right, Okay? Man? I remember and Bassaror Andrew Young told me one day I was I was working with President Bush the Son. I really loved the father and didn't know the son very well, but I was working with Bush the Sun and I wasn't really feeling him at that time. I gained respect for him over time, and he give me a shot to create

a financial literacy council. And he told me in the meeting with the cabinet, his cabinet that he was going to do this with Eight months later it hadn't been done, and I was frustrated, and so I Bash Young was in DC. I was visiting him Washington, d C. How thing's going. Oh, it's crazy, it's not happening. And these people, I'm not sure they're serious. And he and he looked at me and said, John, stop it. Be skeptical, he said in Bassard Andrew Young King's right Army civil rights

movement made modern Atlanta's international city. Be skeptical. But don't be cynical, because if you're cynical, you've lost hope. Your job is to go in there and listen to that Listen to that man, President Bush. Assume he's a good man with bad counsel. Assume he's a good man with bad counsel. Your job is going there and give that man good counsel, good advice and make him look good. And when he does the thing you're asking him to do,

it's not your idea, it's his. Make him look good because there's only one client in Washington, d c. It's the President of the United States of America. You've got to make him or her, hopefully one of these days, look good. And I did exactly what he said. It it's not about you. It's it's not about me. Here is in you, it's we. You've got to do the work for we. Here it's about civil rights. You can't be a civil rights leader unless you have of a civil

rights mentality, which is about the we. It's about helping all of God's children to come up. You're our ambassador for free your will. You're the dean of black capitalism in this example. Go go teach and be the great The greatest teacher is a great student. Be a student now and learn how to listen. God get you two years in one mouth, so he's listened twice as much as you talk. I shut up and went over and cut that deal and created the first ever President's Advisory

Council of Financial Literacy. Became Vice chairman of it, Chairman of the Committey the Underserved. The chairman was Charles schwab By the way that was one of the president's friends. Of the donor to the president. He had had no involvement in this council whatsoever. I did all the work myself. But I was told the last minute, the President is going to make Charles Schwab, who had the name and the credibility. It was a billionaire even back then, Uh

hesna make him chairman because that was his boy. And I was like, okay, and I was going to be a member of the council. I wasn't concerned about titles. And when I flew in the day that they signed the executive order to make ancial literacy, they fed the policy the US federal government. Yes, I did that all the way. You know, it's still work, more work to do, because we need to make the policy of the of the of the country and put it in schools. But

that's all the thing. But when when he was assigned the executive order, he said, where's John's name on this thing? Why does John have a title? So he the president And again I had I did not have a great admiration. I just didn't, you know. I brought the hype about who George Bush was, the son George W. Bush, and versus having my own opinion about him. It was actually a nice guy, very nice guy. Did more for Africa

than the president before. Since, yeah, I said it, I've said things great, the great things about I love Bill Clinton. I love you know anyway, Obama was dignity rich president, no drama Obama. And I've said that great Johnson. I said great things about democratic presidents, and there's some great things about Republican presidents. George. But George H. W. Bush was a George H. W. Bush was fantastic George W. Bush. It was a moderate. Actually, George W. Bush was People

would love to have George W. Bush back. Now they based only the crazy stuff this seeing in these days Ronald Reagan created as signing Martin Luther King's holiday. Did you know that? Anyway? George W. Bush, who didn't owe me a thing, wrote in the Executive Order vice chairman just because he could. He's the President the United States. He's like John Bryant is vice chairman. Just wrote it in because it was the right thing to do. And I ended up doing the work on the council. I

became effectively the chief operating officer. I worked with Charles Schwab's daughter Carrie Schwab Palme Ranz, who's fantastic being. We basically worked together because Charles was busy. Charshwab was running at Schwab and Company and was busy running his busy. He was doing this as a favor of the country. So me and Carrie worked together to operationalize this. Jene Roscoe on my team helped me and we killed the game. Right. That's standing on business, by the way, without taking credit.

First time I've said this publicly, by the way. All right, so here are the titles. I got twenty minutes to actually unpack with the whole topic of this thing was about. And hopefully, hopefully I haven't wasted your time. Hopefully I've entertained you a little bit. Chief Executive Officer write this down a role. The CEO is the highest ranking executive in the company responsible for the overall vision, strategy, and

management of the organization. The CEO makes major corporate decisions, manages the overall operations, and acts as the main point of communication between the Board of directors and the company. That's what i am. I'm CEO. I'm also Chairman of the board. I'll get to that in a minute, right, So I'm chairman of the board. I'm chief executive officer right until recently I was also I'm actually, you know, I have a chief strategic officers, chief strategy officer, but

really I'm not the chief strategist. I would be disrespecting my chief strategy officer at Operation Hope. So I'm saying that I'm the chief vision officer. Also responsibility strategic vision, strategic planning. This is the CEO resource allocation, money, company culture. The culture is not the most important thing in business, is the only thing in business. I learned that from

a CEO of Costco. I think you might have been a co founder actually and communication with stakeholders including shareholders, government entities, the customers and the public. Chief Operating Officer COO. So the first one was CEO. You see these titles, No one who explains you what they are. The COO oversees the day to day operational functions of the company,

ensuring that the business runs smoothly and efficiently. The CEO often reports directly to the CEO and second in command responsibilities operations, management, process optimization, imp implementing business strategies, and coordinating between different departments. This is the person where AI artificial intelligence is going to sit by the way as becomes part of our world. Here's a title that often competes with CEO for prominence. These titles often sit at

the same level below the CEO. It's the chief financial officer in my biggest company, my biggest organization. I have a president in CFO, a president and chief financial officer, which is very need combination of titles. That's Brian Betts, who runs Operation Hope for me. Because money as financial literacy organization is extraordinarily important, so I've combined titles there. Chief financial officer. The CFO manages the company's financial actions.

They are responsible for financial planning, risk management, record keeping, auditing, et cetera, budgeting, financial reporting to hire, management and stakeholders. The board CEO, etc. Responsibilities budgeting, financial forecasting, investment analysis, ensuring compliance with financial regulations very important, and managing financial risk. And I'll add to that audits. I love audits because audits set you free. Somebody wants to and you'll see me.

I'm gonna do a piece on people try to kill me in business. I'm a whole series on that people can try to kill me my own life in business, jealousy, envy, whatever, and I built it. They want it, but they couldn't take me out because you know they oftentime they'd say, oh, John's messing with the money, which is wasn't true. I was making some money and my records were always tight and right, and financial audits will set you free. Financial

audits will set you free. They don't lie. I love math that doesn't have an opinion, So watch out of that episode. Okay, then you have this is now the next level in the C suite, chief marketing officer CMO, and as a president by the way, in here the president is right below. Typically the chief executive officer, and the president presides over in executes on behalf of the CEO. And typically you have a president and CEO is being

groomed often to become the CEO of the organization. And because your CEO does not mean you chairman of the board, by the way, there's a different function. So you have a chief executive officer in most companies, that's it. You have a president of most companies, that's it. Sometimes you'll have a president in COO. Sometimes you'll have a chairman and president in or the chairman and president sometimes You

often see chairman in CEO. That's big ball, that's top of the mart The CMO chief Marketing officer leads to companies marketing initiatives, focuses on brand management, market research, product marketing, and customer outreach responsibilities, marketing strategy, advertising, brand development, market analysis, and customer engagement. Chief Information Officers CIO. This is becoming even more important in this day and age because we

live in a technology centric world. Role CIO is responsible for the information, technology and computer systems that supports enterprise goals. This role actually might get elevated to that top C suite that talks to you about CEO, president, CFO, COO.

You might see a CIO up there. Sometimes this role involves overseeing the I T department, ensuring that the company's technology supports its objectives, responsibilities, IT strategy, cyber security systems management AI will be added to this artificial intelligence, and ensuring that technology investments aligned with business goes. Chief Technology Officer CTO, which correlates with the CIO. By the way,

the CTO focuses on the technological direction of the company. Well, maybe this person actually might be up there with THEE the reports, right the CEO and the CIO. Yeah, they both could be up there, or the CIO might flow through the c to let's not. Don't get confused, just follow the titles. The chief Technology Officer focuses. The CTO focuses on the technological direction of the company more often often more on the development and innovative side, compared to

the CIO, who focuses on the IT infrastructure side. You got that. So it's like the CTO is like the strategists, the technology strategists, and the CIO is a plumber, the technology plumber. They work parallel, correlate, one for one can on top of the other structurally, depending on the type of company we're talking about. The next level down is senior management. And by the way, the board of directors does not run the company. People get this confused if

you ever see a board running the company. As a mismanaged company, the board sets the policies and procedures, the standards for the company. Board of directors, it represents the shareholders and stakeholders as a stakeholder group, but the board should not be running the company. You might see a title that says non executive chairman, which means that person's a hands off chairman. They're just doing board management. They

don't want to be bothered. You have an executive chairman who was somebody like me who's nosey, has got his nose and everything, who is very involved in the management. But they don't have They don't want to use a word. But it's been the word. It's been misused. I can't use this word. They don't. They don't. They don't overrule. I was gonna use another word, start a tea. They don't overrule the the CEO, right, uh, unless they are the CEO. But the sexative chairman has it's normally consulted

with all important decisions. Okay, here's the next level down senior management levels, right. Vice president. These are corporate vice presidents because you have many companies like the banking industry. Really the vice president title now is really somebody running could be somebody who's running a branch, could be. But a corporate vice president who works in the corporate office is a whole different beast. They are a corporate officer

of the company. Vps are senior executives who who head major divisions or functions within the company, such as sales, human resources, or product development. Now watch titles. Now that I've told you this, watch titles, It'll all start making sense to you. They report to the c suite executives responsibilities overseeing departmental objectives, strategic planning within the division, within

their division, within their division. Where I said, how manager can confuse that they can do the whole job because there's to teach strategic planning within their division or group managing teams, ensuring that their department aligns with company objectives. Right. Corporate VPS General Council This is atturney basically for the company, exclusive to the company. Inside the company, I have a general Council. The GC is the chief legal officer responsible

for overseeing the legal aspects of the business. By the way, did you know that the US ambassador, when assigned to a country, is effectively the President of the United States in that country, unless the President of United States shows up in that country. They're the president's representatives in that country. That's what an ambassador is. They report to the State Department Secretary of State. But if somebody is all they have given the mandate. They're managing the mandate given to them.

That Secretary of State who was talking on behalf of the president saying foreign policy, they're you know, left alone. They're they're the big baller shot call in that country. All things flow with regards to the United States of America through them all right back to this. So General Counsel is the chief legal officer, okay, for the company legal responsibilities, legal stra Are you enjoying this or am I putting you to sleep? As you can tell me,

I'm sort of enjoying it. No one teaches you this stuff like is what we don't know that we don't know this killing is what we think we know. Here we go responsibilities legal strategy, managing legal risks, ensuring compliance with laws and regulations, and overseeing the legal department. Directors. This is not a board director. This is a director within the corporation. Directors are senior managers responsible for specific functions or departments within the company below the level of

the corporate VP. They are one level below vps and managed significant parts of the organization. Responsibilities departmental management, resource out location, implementing strategies set by the executive team, and reporting on departmental performance. By the way, these are for profit and nonprofit entities alike, and a lot of governments could get a lot of insight to how to manage

based on what I'm saying structurally here mineral management. Watching these people, they're either very very very very good and you'll love them, or their train wrecks and they will make your life miserable. Managers Role managers oversee specific teams or projects within a department. They are responsible for executing the strategics, the strategies set by directors and senior management,

and they're often left alone with budgets and responsibilities. That's why you got to if you have a great one, my god, they'll just transform your company and make you look good. They have a bad one who So when you deal with somebody you know in a government agency or whatever, and they're telling you off and they don't seem to care. They're a manager and they've been left

alone and no one tells them anything. They have base the actor like that as CEO or whatever responsibilities day to day team management, project execution, performance reviews, and ensuring that their team meets it meets their objectives. Project managers. I love project managers, love love love project manager. I have a great one, Bill Fair, who works in my office. As an example, who's my deputy chief of staff, but

he does project management, amongst other things. Role project managers are responsible for planning, executing, and closing projects with specific timelines and budgets. By the way, my executive assistant Tina Fair is a project manager. My travelistant Deborah Collins is a project manager. My confecial assistant Sir James is a project manager. My chief of staff Rachel is a is a multitasking project manager. She has several titles. I think

she's the she's chief, she's executive senior vice president. I think she's chief administrative officer. She's got another title and then she's chief of staff. To me, yeah, she's put me for thirty plus years. She's a baller and she does project management still because she's pared away once she's done, right, But she has help now, So okay, so we got that. That did that. Entry Level and associates Associates and analysts. Role associates are analysts are typically entry level positions. This

is the tacticians providing support within the department. They are often involved in data analysis, research and administrative tasks. Responsibilities data gathering, analysis, reporting, supporting senior team leaders, team managers, and assisting in various tasks within the department assistants and coordinators roles. They wrote. These roles are typically administration, administrative

and nature, providing support to managers and executives. By the way, I've found some I found some of my great leaders, greatest leaders as administrators as assistants. Because if somebody has real talent or leadership, they're just being asked to do

a task, They're gonna show it. It's gonna be obvious, and you just your job is to identify that talent and put them in the right soil and help them and just keep promoting them until they hit the Peter principle where they really they're beyond their skis, so to speak, and then back them off so to a level where they're comfortable doing that job. But I've had some people like Rachel by the way, she started as a great example. She literally started as a receptionist thirty two years ago.

She's now the third highest ranking person in all my organizations, balling doing really well, you know, good net worth, good income, lots of responsibilities. But she just kept seeing that talent, kept seeing that talent, kept seeing that talent. Lands Triggs started as a manager and now he was a project manager. Actually, now he's probably number well, he's in the top five, top six in the organization. He's president of a huge division,

president of programs that operational. He's probably serbad be a top four leader. Just great guide Lands Triggs. His legacy is intact. So I find a lot of talent at that lower level scheduling, communication, document management, assistant with smooth operations of daily tasks. It's part of what assistance and coordinators do. Partnership structures. Okay, I'm gonna do this really quick, so I'm running out of time. Partners this is like

law firms and consulting firms. Okay, partners In partnerships such as law firms or consulting firms, partners are co owners of the firm and have a share in the profits that you know that so whenever you see a partners, that's a baller, that's a business owner, so to speak. There are the own part of the business and these they are the most senior members responsible for client acquisition and management, getting clients, and I often play a significant

role in the firm strategic direction. So in a law firm, you typically don't have a CEO. You have the most senior partner. As an example, consulting firms, I have migrated to a CEO function most of the time big consulting firms, but responsibilities client relations, business development, mentoring junior staff, and contributing to firm strategy. But you know, at a law firm, your job is to do law to get more clients. So it's not really all that complicated in that sense.

So they can deal with just having you know, a basically a committee of the partners who out and hunt. Right, somebody's gonna hunt. Somebody's gotta hunt too. By the way, it is literally business and business and somebody's just passing papers around and having meetings and spending money. Get that person away from the checkbook as soon as possible. They're gonna drive you. They're gonna drive you into a ditch.

You need somebody. You need somebody at the top who can execute, who sees problems that they can solve and have timelines to solve it. They manage money well, they manage budgets well, They hunt really well. They go and get the customer and drag it to the ground. Don't drag them to the ground, but I mean and bring them into the cave. And club it. I don't mean like literally, but I mean capitalist is a gladiator sport.

You need somebody who can hunt. Junior partners. Associated partners role Junior partners or associate partners are partners with lessen authority or ownership stake. They are on the path of becoming full partners. The responsibilities include managing client accounts, business development, and overseeing projects or teams. Senior associates their role is they are experienced professionals who support partners in managing client

work and leading projects. Their responsibilities include leading client engagement, managing junior staff, and contributing to business development. Associates their role associates are in partnerships are typically professionals who are responsible for executing client work under the supervision of partners and senior associates. They are not owners. Responsibilities search, research, analysis, drafting, ports,

in supporting senior team members, and delivering client services. The structure ensurers and responsibilities are clearly delineated, with each level accountable for specific aspects of the businesses operations. In the strategic direction, I long for efficient management and growth of the enterprise. Now there's more to this. I've given you the broad swash but who's ever told you this stuff? Like where do you get this from? So hopefully this

has been helpful. Of course, you can ask me questions on social media. I'm happy to answer them in more detail. I'll go live from time to time with my book Financial Literacy for All and do a book club event. You can ask me even questions there. But never be ashamed of asking questions. I ask Quincy Jones, incredible genius and music dear friend, brother, Quincy, how'd you get so smart? Man? Answer? I'm just nosy as hell. I want to know everything

about everything. That's why God gave you two ears and one mouth. If you listen twice as much as you talk, I'm nosy as hell. What about you, O'Briant. Get the book Financial loci for All. Donated to a library or title I school in your family's name. Get the book yourself, send a review, put a review online where you bought the book. Make sure we keep it number one and number two across the country as it's been for the

last few months. Tell your friends about this podcast series, spread this around, pass it around and subscribe to all my social media and get a and go sign up to Operation Show for our scholarship services and if you want to support Operation show but as a donor yourself, love and light. Let's go change the world. Money and Wealth with John O'Brien is a production of the Black

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