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I can tell you that most successful companiesThe greatest majority have good, they’re a value-driven organization. They care about what they do. They want to run an ethical environment, and they want to make sure that they’re in complete compliance and uh with what’s required of them.
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How to y’all. I’m Elizabeth Gore. Welcome to the Big Idea from Yahoo Finance, the show that navigates the world of small business and entrepreneurship. As the co-founder of the small business funding platform Hello Wallis, it has always been my mission to help entrepreneurs have the tools they need to succeed. So let’s cowboy up.Today’s big idea question is, what are the top leadership qualities in CEOs in our industry focus is talent management. In honor of Veterans Day, this is a special episode to lift up veteran owned businesses. There are a total of 1.6 million veteran entrepreneurs in our great country, employing over 3.2 million workers. Joining me today is the most VIP guest I have ever had on this show, my dad, Mike McKee.Mike is a US veteran, having served during the Vietnam War as a flight medic. He turned that leadership and compassion into one of the early entrepreneurs in the talent management industry. Having built and sold multiple companies, he was featured in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal as the future of human resources. Today, Dad leads CEOs through the mergers, acquisition, and exits of their companies through his company, the MDM McKee.Group. He is the best crown paul in the world and the chairman of my personal board of advisors. There is no one better to answer the big idea question. What are the best leadership qualities in CEOs? Oh my goodness, I’m so nervous. Let’s welcome my dad, Mike McKee.Dad,
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you’re on
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the big idea.
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I can’t get over this. This is pretty exciting.
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Let me start with Happy Veterans Day. This is our veterans, so thank you for your service.
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Well, it’s my
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pleasure. And both my grandpas served in the army.
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It’s a great honor
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and um I’m nervous. I’m so excited you’re here.
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Um,
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are you nervous too.Um, before we jump into your great entrepreneurial history, I want to talk because it’s Veterans Day about your service, and I’m gonna jump back to between 1969, 1977, um, and you, it just blows my mind that you were a flight medic in the reserves in the Air Force and going to school and working full time and kids.Yep, I mean, how, how does one
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survive a little bit later in this scenario,
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so, yes, but how, I mean, how does, how does, I don’t think people realize the amount of heart and work it is to become.A a military leader. I mean, that’s so much.
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Well, it, it is, it’s a lot of work.But you know, there’s a lot of reward.Because you get to 1 serve your country and I’m very patriotic as you know, and two, you get to work with wonderful people, just wonderful people and so it’s once you get through the initial stages, which can be very difficult, uh, the payoff is really good on what you’re able to do and accomplish.
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So. And you, uh, staff sergeant and, and during the Vietnam War flight medic, tell me about that.
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Well, I was trained to be a medic, and then you’re trained to be a flight medic, which is what I wanted to do.And I was stationed at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois, where all the air back back then, uh, was headquartered, and the Air Force moves all sick and wounded at that time for all military branches. I’m assuming it’s the same and government-related personnel, so veterans as well. And our job was to provide the transportation in a healthcare environment. So it was like a flying hospital plane.And so our job was to pick them up, transport them to where they’re getting their care.And move them around the country and move them back from overseas. And so we dealt with a lot of wounded personnel, uh, and a lot of ill, sick people. uh, the military at the time, and I’m assuming it’s still the same way, has highly specialized facilities around the country. So if you were, uh, had a burn issue, you were taken to San Antonio.Uh, if you, so different health care organizations throughout the military,
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you helped a lot of folks in their mental health during Vietnam and yes,
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uh, when we transport people, especially coming back from overseas, uh, they would typically be loaded into the aircraft based upon the kind of patient care that they needed. And, uh, so there’s a lot of drug use in Vietnam.And so a lot of those, uh, soldiers uh were brought back so they could receive treatment and, uh, so we want the care in the aircraft to be specialized to the kind of patient load that we had in the care and of course the kind of nursing care that they needed and that they deserved and that absolutely deserved
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andyou were so good at your job that when.Kissinger negotiated the release of the POWs during Vietnam. You were, you were chosen to help transport those very important individuals in our country.
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That’s correct.
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That’s
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correct. What
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an honor.
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Well, it was an honor and uh.Uh, it was a very difficult time uh in the history of our country.But it was an honor to be chosen to help bring him home, and the unit that I was in, once they arrived in the states, then we picked them up and then we, uh, moved them to different facilities around the country and each POW had an escort.And uhSo it was, it was fun.
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So it was hard but fun.
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Well, you got to share in their joy, you know, to be going home after what those poor individuals had to go through, and I don’t mean poor. These are some of the strongest characters, the highest honored people that we should ever hold up in the military for what they went through. So just to be able to, to be a part of that was, was very special.
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It’s interesting because now I look at you all these years later in your entrepreneurial journey and with Veterans Day, we’re celebrating that there’s almost 2 million veteran-owned businesses in this country employing millions of people, and I also have to shout out military spouses. It’s just a big growing segment, especially with um internet, AI and accessibility because military spouses have to move so much. Um, and I’m curious and we’re going to jump into your entrepreneurial journey, butOur big idea question today is, is what are the strongest traits that CEOs have in leadership?And get translating from leaving the military into entrepreneurship. I mean, what are the skills that pull through there?
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Well, the military was a wonderful.UhEnvironmentTo help you prepare to go into business and to succeed in life for that matter.And there’s kind of three areas that I that I look back on is one, they established a foundation, so they, they establish a foundation of physical ability, mental ability, and training on the skill sets that you need to be successful in whatever that military career is. So all three of those, the physical, the mental, and the training, uh, have to be there and on your entrepreneurial journey. They just do.And, and then the second thing that, that was really important is you learned how to be a leader and operate as a team.Because nothing gets done in any environment, uh, without working with other people and being able to communicate and being able to lead, and that was an important training ground for that and the third area that I would really emphasize, and I’ll tie this back to CEOs in a moment.is you have to be able to adapt.Uh, you’ve got to learn to read the tea leaves because as we see in society today, that things change so quickly.And if you can’t change with them.And help lead that change and be out in front of it whenever you can, uh, you got a tough road to hoe. And in my talent management career over the years working with many people, I was, I’ve been asked a lot about what’s an operating style of a CEO that you’ve seen.That is indicative sort of the best operating style, and my answer to that is is there’s just a myriad of operating styles out there that there isn’t any one style no, no, but the one area that you see in successful CEOs and successful leaders and whether that’s a CEO of a company or a department head or somebody just leading their small business is that they can adapt, they can change, and that they get out in front of it.And those that don’t adapt don’t survive.
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Well, speaking of change, so you come out of the military, you had an incredible career going in the YMCA. the YMCA and where you met my mom, and, um, you, I know that you contribute a lot of your leadership, not just to the military, but to the Y. But you took a crazy risk um before talent management and human resources was a big deal.Um, you, if I remember correctly, you had to borrow $30,000 and decided to jump in and people said you were crazy, which all of us entrepreneurs are crazy, but tell me, tell me why you went from a very stable, not lucrative career, but a stable career into entrepreneurship.
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Well,My confidence grew working at the Y. You have to do everything. You learn all aspects of business working in nonprofits, and my confidence continued to grow and my skills grew.But I’m a builder. I’m not a maintainer, so I like to build things and, uh, just like my daughter and, uh, and my son. So we’re builders.And I had finished up, was on a 4th year of directing a Y and made the decision. Somebody mentored me into going into business, and gave me months to think it through and did a nice job of prepping me for it.And, uh, I just felt that this is something I wanted to do for two main reasons. One, I wanted to spend more time with my kids. I was a little bit addicted to the job, not a little bit, so they didn’t see much of their dad. And then the other is, is that I just aspired to have uh a better financial result in the long term. And the why let me be my own boss. I had superiors, but if you perform, you get to operate independently.The same thing and going into business. I got to kind of be my own guy and uh.So, but the two motivators were more time for my family.And uh and then to be able to build a better future.
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For the record, I remember you being there, so I have to set the record straight. All right, Daddy, hold that thought. We’ll be right back on the big idea.How do y’all, welcome back to the Big Idea. We’re here with Mike McKee, my dad. Now, your first year business, you went from making $24,000 a year.To 50,000 a year. So you
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doubled. I doubled, uh-huh. Left the Y making 24, 1st year, made 50, thought we died and gone to heaven.
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And this is um late 70s, early 80s just for context,
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9 to 80, right,
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even though you’re 50 now. So, um, but then your second year you was your big dirty unicorn year. You almost failed.
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Came within a couple of hours of being out of business. It was a very scary period.Uh, didn’t have any additional resources to draw on cash flow. You know, business is all about timing, success, cash flow, and it just dried up, and I wasn’t seasoned enough to know where to go beyond that at that level.But, uh, so I came within a couple of hours going out of business. Well,
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andI remember you telling me you, you, your um employees, Paula, we have to give her a shout out, stuck with you without getting paid. And you had, and this is pre-cell phone, all the things you have 2 hours before your phone lines were getting and you got the call of a lifetime, but there’s a backstoryto this.
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There’s a great backstory and uh I had called on this major oil company.A 1.5, 2 years beforehand.To pitch career transition outplacement services to them. And I was able to uh get an appointment with the vice president of Human Resources.And he was very generous to see me. I took along a gentleman that was a retired HR executive from Amoco named Quentin File, and Doctor File. He had a PhD and he, I had no gray hair. I’m 31 years old and I needed that maturity to walk in there plus his guidance.
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A bit hired an actor, let’s be honest.
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Well, but he was a good mentor for me too, and he knew the HR world and I, and of course I compensated him for this. So you roll in, we roll in, we meet with this guy and he’s, he’s been there a long time and he says, well, Mike, I appreciate you coming out, but, uh, our company, we don’t fire people. It just doesn’t happen. They’ll go on and retire. And I made the comment, which I probably shouldn’t have.That it well if you don’t fire somebody you should because you’ve got people that probably deserve to move to a different direction their life to be successful. So he thanked me for coming. We walked out. Doctor Pile said, Well, you blew that one, you’ll never get a call, and that was the call that came in 1.5, 2 years later, 2 hours before I was out of business.Saying they had a small project that they wanted to talk to me about.
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That was the phone call.
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Save my skin. I’ll tell you I was scared.
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So,on this Veterans Day, what is your advice to a veteran who wants to start a business?
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Don’t underestimate their abilities, be confident in the skills that they’ve learned and what they can bring forth. Secondly, find a mentor.If you have an area that you’re interested in, then reach out to people that are in that business. They are committed to veterans and find a couple of mentors to learn the business and what’s important about the business and then make sure that you prepare properly.And that you have the resources lined up to be successful because that’s what we’re all about is being successful.And then and and then if it’s right for you and your family.And you’ve done your due diligence, then you commit.You and you go after it and you go after it bigtime.
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And back to our, our big idea question is what are you said adaptability, but what are other leadership qualities in those CEOs that you see that made it that far?
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Well, I think it, it also translates on what constitutes their successful business because their qualities are the ones that put these foundations in place.And, uh, one is, is they pay attention to all key aspects of the business. So it’s hard to sell a business that isn’t really well run, not just in terms of delivery of its product, but it also has to have a great team.Great human resource policies, great retention of good people. You got to have a strong customer base. So, that leader’s ability, that founder, and we specialize with founders.Their ability to communicate and lead and really do it effectively externally and internally is just critical. You see it along all the different customers or clients that we work with. The other is they, besides delivering a good product, they’ve got to establish good foundation, good administration in their business. They’ve got to manage, uh, that foundation effectively. So good accounting, good technology integration.Good risk management, it’s gotta be there.And uh and they have to have a loyal.And returning customer base. So those are the skills that they, they have to create that
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environment. OK, I want to spend one second on that. Um, I, I mean, my brother and I have learned from you through and through about integrity and values driven, even if you have to walk away from things that could be lucrative. Those CEOs that are now exiting.Do you find that most of them lead with their values?
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I can tell you that.Most successful companies.The greatest majority have good, they’re a value-driven organization. They care about what they do. They want to run an ethical environment.And they want to make sure that they’re in complete compliance.And uh what’s what’s required of them.So yes, but there are some.That still make it and do well, that, uh, probably don’t have the greatest ethics in the world. They’re able to skirt by, but very few. And I can tell you when we zero in, we do a lot of assessment before we take somebody on as a client. We do a significant amount of assessment around their culture and their ethics because we got to live with them for a long time. 2, we have to sell
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that. I can’t imagine you sit across from a hole every day.
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Well, and, and secondly.We sell a lot of our companies to private equity and and a lot of private equity companies specialize in lower middle market founder driven companies that they buy and and private equity is really tightened up around values and culture.So they look at thathard.
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We both share a favorite book, um Lonesome Dove. Oh, what’s our McCray. We don’t tolerate rude. Um, I want to wrap up. I want to come full circle to Veterans Day, and um, you told me something the other day that really touched me and I want to share it with folks. So that, that day that your lights are about to go on the business.I asked you what in your military experience did you use during that time?Do you remember what you told me?
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Well.You can’t quit. You just can’t quit. I mean.Uh, I was pretty vulnerable to that stage because it’s very emotional at that when you go through something like that.But you know, it’s the military teaches you to be successful, you know, that you have to be successful. There is no alternative to success in the military, and there maybe you’re not always successful, but that’s certainly the mission. And secondly, uh, Richie, you can’t quit.And as hard as it was, you just kept digging and finding a way and you just couldn’t, you can’t quit and you haven’t, you haven’t failed until you walk away and I’m, I just couldn’t fail. I just, and I was fortunate. I was very fortunate that I got that phone call. So
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I love you Danny I love you. Happy Veterans
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Day. Thank you so much. It’s a pleasure being here and I’m so proud of you. I love you, love you.
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At the end of each episode, I like to give a shout out to a small business who’s doing amazing work. Today, I’d like to shout out one of my favorite veteran owned businesses, Willie’s Distillery.Based in Ennis, Montana, Willie’s was created by Willie and Robin Blazer in 2012 with the goal of creating a brand and products that embody the independent spirit and authenticity of the American West. Check them out at Willie’s distillery.com. Thank you to my dad for coming on the show and thank all of you for joining us. We hope you’ve learned a lot.This has been the big idea from Yahoo Finance. Please make sure to scan the QR code below to follow Yahoo Finance podcast or check us out at the Big Idea where we get your podcast. You can also come say hi to me on any of my social channels at Elizabeth Gore USA. I’m Elizabeth Gore, and as my grandma always said, hold your head up pie and give them hell. See you next time.
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This content was not intended to be financial advice and should not be used as a substitute for professional financial services.