Ted Santos, Founder and CEO of Turnaround Investment Partners, is in the business of creating miracles. Also known as the CEO Whisperer, he works exclusively with CEOs of midsize to large corporations who are in need of radical change and transformation in order to maintain growth and relevance. He helps them to become disruptors in their industries, to penetrate untapped markets, as well as to establish a strong corporate culture that will help them to navigate uncertainty and ensure long term success.
Please tell us a little bit about your business – what is Turnaround Investment Partners all about?
Turnaround Investment Partners is in the business of producing miracles. CEOs hire us when they want to produce a breakthrough. However, they are unsure how to do it with existing resources. Once the breakthrough is accomplished, it will alter the future of your business forever. To make the breakthrough a reality, we work with the executive team to develop disruptive strategies. Those strategies produce disruptive technology and/or the ability to penetrate untapped markets. Those untapped markets allow organizations to generate new revenue that they ordinarily would not have realized without the breakthrough. To ensure the rest of the enterprise executes the breakthrough initiative profitably, we train staff and management to transform corporate culture.
Tell us a little bit about your background and how you started your company.
I spent several years working as a sales trainer. Our method focused on the psychology of sales and how to deal with difficult prospects. With that training, I moved on to become the Chief Operating Officer of a transportation company that was growing so fast it was starting to fall apart. By training staff and managers in conflict resolution and implementing structures to support a rapidly growing business, the company stabilized and increased growth.
That experience positioned me to run another company – translations of foreign languages – with three years of declining revenues. I turned that company around and helped develop new services that gave us a competitive edge in the marketplace.
With so much experience growing revenues and transforming culture for companies facing challenging transitions, I thought it was time to focus on being an advisor. I worked for a company that provided leadership training. They also developed a powerful mythology for transforming corporate culture.
After a number of years working with that consulting firm, I decided to step out on my own. That way I could be the master of my destiny and completely integrate my executive experience with an innovative way to transform people at every level into effective leaders.
What would you say are the top 3 skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur, and why?
- The first is a mindset. Entrepreneurship requires a mindset that allows you to see the big picture for your business as well as your clients. That mindset also has to understand the job is not done until it is done. There are no shortcuts.
- Second is leadership. It is important to understand that effective leaders do not tell their people what to do. In the words of Steve Jobs, we hire good people and ask them what we should be doing. The best leaders are great at coaching their people up and bringing out the best in them. Every person has some transferable skill or unused competencies that are not being used by the enterprise. However, if it were being used, it would greatly benefit clients and accelerate the growth of an entrepreneur’s company. The leaders’ job is to mine or pull out that unused talent. This cannot be forced. It is more about empowerment.
- Third is financial acumen. It is irresponsible to run a business that is not profitable. Profit rewards the entrepreneur for the risk he has taken. It also allows him to invest money back into the business for future success. That success includes hiring talented people who are consistently trained over time. Financial acumen also gives an entrepreneur the ability to know the difference between profitable and unprofitable clients. It allows her to know how to manage the funds of the organization properly while consistently making decisions that move the enterprise to its next level.
- Bonus four is sales. Leadership is the biggest sales position in the company. You need to be able to sell your vision to staff, management and investors. You need to be able to sell your value proposition to prospective clients.
What are your plans for the future, how do you plan to grow your company?
While my primary focus has been to sell to other businesses, the future will include selling directly to the consumer. I have written a book called, Here’s Why You Can’t Find Love. The book takes my methodology for transforming corporate culture and integrates it into intimate relationships.
The book allows me to look at the big picture of the US. As it stands, corporate America is losing $300 billion a year in workplace productivity. That loss is happening because of divorce. When people are dealing with divorce, their workplace performance drops by 50%-75%. As it stands, corporations live with this problem as though there is nothing that can be done about it.
My book focuses on providing people with the skills and competencies to choose the right person for marriage. Once in the relationship, there are tools that allow people to build a great, lasting relationship more effectively. If more relationships are successful, divorce rates drop. With lower divorce rates, corporate America can stop bleeding the $300 billion in workplace productivity. As you can imagine, unproductive people can cause an organization to be unprofitable. Unprofitable corporations will lay people off to regain profitability. When people are laid off, it puts stress on marriages and can lead to divorce which starts the cycle of unproductive employees all over again.
The other strategy is to continue to work with organizations. If I work with corporations to provide people with the breakthrough mindset, people can take those skills and implement them into their intimate lives. That would be a new form of corporate social responsibility. My book is one step to reach the consumer and introduce them to the breakthrough mindset.
How do you separate yourself from your competitors?
I am a product of my work. I don’t sell a service. I am the service. And I stand for being the leaders’ leader.
When I develop leaders, I do not train them to be great problem solvers. In fact, it is the opposite. Great leaders intentionally create problems for their organizations to solve. Steve Jobs is a great example of one such leader. By asking his people to create a device that could play 1,000 songs, they had to create something that had never been created. There was no blueprint. It became the iPod and altered the future of Apple forever.
One of the biggest challenges with intentionally creating problems is our mindset has been trained to avoid problems. At the same time, when leaders create those problems, they become breakthroughs.
This differentiates me in the marketplace. I am training people to master the uncertainty and chaos that comes with intentional problems. To master chaos and uncertainty, one must first master self. This is the most effective path to intentional breakthroughs. Up to now, breakthroughs are seen as a matter of luck. I work with clients, so they no longer depend on luck. They become the masters of their destiny.
What were the top three mistakes you made starting your business, and what did you learn from them?
The first mistake was starting a business while undercapitalized. When cash is short, you tend to make decisions that are very different from when cash is abundant. The notion of fake it until you make it is not good advice, even though people say it a lot. It is difficult to be authentic when you are faking it.
I bootstrapped it. On the other hand, with cash, you can look at the big picture and develop strategies that allow you to more effectively penetrate the marketplace.
- The second mistake was not choosing the right partner or not choosing a partner at all. I have done too much as a loner. Successful businesses are built by teams.
On paper, the partner I chose was good. His background was in finance and technology. My background was sales and operations. Except, he was independently wealthy (I was not) and did not want to put money into the business. Therefore, his motivation and strategies to generate revenues were different than mine. He wanted to work on a success fee where we were paid on the back end. While that can be lucrative, it could be one year or more before you generate income.
If you are going to choose a partner, which it is wise to do, have long conversations about money management and strategy. Talk about scaling the company and leadership strategies with people you hire. In some ways, finding a business partner is no different than seeking a spouse.
- The third was having a one-dimensional marketing strategy. My business partner and I relied strictly on networking to acquire new business. While networking can be extremely effective, there are other channels, like positioning your company as an industry expert through public speaking.
Tell us a little bit about your marketing process, what has been the most successful form of marketing for you?
My target market is the CEO or board of directors. These are people who are very difficult to reach. They say you will have to make several touches to get the attention of a busy CEO. To reach this market, I thought about doing a lunch and learn.
My specific target is middle market CEOs. That means their businesses generate revenues between $100 million – $1 billion. To reach them, I created CEO breakfast roundtables that cater to the size companies I desire. To make the roundtables attractive, I invited former CEOs of Fortune 500s to lead the discussions. I had former CEOs of Chase Bank, Xerox, Harrah’s Hotels & Casinos, NY Stock Exchange, State Street Bank and many more. The roundtables were held five times a year. In addition, each sitting CEO had an opportunity to speak one-on-one with a retired CEO of their choice.
This marketing strategy positioned me as an expert in understanding and servicing CEOs of mid cap businesses. That opened doors for me to provide consulting services.
I was also able to expand beyond the roundtables. I did larger invitation only events for CEOs. I was able to generate revenues from sponsors.
I did the events because I was seeking a way to position myself as an expert with CEOs. Instead of looking for events others had created, I developed my own.
What’s a productivity tip you swear by?
Forget about time management. You cannot manage time. You get the same 24 hours everyone else gets. You can manage your commitments in time. Instead of jumping from task to task, put specific tasks in specific time slots. For example, from 8:00 am until 10:00 am, make sales calls. During that time, do not do anything else, no multitasking. Stop at exactly 10:00 am. From 10:00 until 10:30, handle things from those calls like emails or mailings. From 10:30 until 11:00 am, you can handle breakdowns. Those are the things that needed your attention while you were making sales calls.
You can train your staff to respect your commitments in time. That way they don’t just walk into your office with problems that distract you from what you are doing.
You can put this in an Excel spreadsheet. You can color code it. And you can manage your entire day this way. It can include eating breakfast and working out in the gym.
What helps you stay driven and motivated to keep going in your business?
When I was six years old, I watched my mother run with two broken legs. Since then, I knew human beings had something very special and powerful. However, we are not taught how to tap into it. At 11 years old, I started working out because I wanted to find that untapped power. As an adult, I found new ways to seek that untapped power. I transferred that mindset to my professional life. As an advisor to executives, I now work to help others find that untapped power. We call it breakthroughs.
In the back of my mind, I am always thinking how to analogously run with broken legs. As people, we are taught that running with two broken legs is impossible. So I am looking for opportunities to make the impossible possible.
What is your definition of success?
Getting what you want from life on your terms. When things are not going your way, you persist until you get it. In most cases, the journey is more valuable than the destination. It is the journey that makes you who you are and gives you the capabilities you have. Those capabilities allow you to create new successes. That is a successful life.
What valuable advice would you give new entrepreneurs starting out?
Find a compatible business partner who complements you. Brainstorm with them. Decide who is responsible for what and execute.
Have capital.
Constantly train. There is a pattern for companies that grow and suddenly begin to fail. The company outgrows the CEOs skills and competencies. If you want a $1 billion corporation, you must be a $1 billion dollar CEO before you get to that revenue milestone. I have watched $20 million CEOs grow the business to $50 million. They were unable to contain an enterprise that size. As a result, it shrinks back down to $20-$25 million. This happens at every milestone level.
In addition, it is important to train the people around you. If you don’t, the company will outgrow them. That means you will have to replace your people every time you increase revenues by $25-$30 million. It is wiser to keep the same people, if they are good.
As you develop as a CEO, you want to make yourself obsolete. What you do today is not what you want to be doing 1-3 years from now. It is wise to delegate to your direct reports and they delegate to theirs. Then you can learn new skills and competencies that make you relevant to the next level of revenue growth. In other words, you are constantly making yourself obsolete in one area so you can grow in another. For example, if you are the only salesperson, you want to hire someone who can sell. While you may still visit major clients, the business no longer depends on you for sales. You are free to do other things. Perhaps you use that free time to find investors. At some point, you hire a CFO. The CFO is responsible for finding investors. That frees you up to find board member for the company.
How can readers get in touch with you?
You can reach me by contacting me through my website, www.turnaroundip.com, or you can reach me on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/ted-santos-ab0107. I look forward to hearing from you!
