Are you ready for an open discussion with the best of the best and the best of what's next? Welcome to the Tony DUrso Show. Join in on a great conversation today with some of the world's great influencers, as they showcase great advice and techniques that made them the game changers they are today. Now here's Tony DUrso.

Tony:

Welcome. I'm your host, Tony DUrso. I interview some of the most successful people in the world, and I thank you for joining us. This show is dedicated to helping you turn your vision into reality, and we are the number one show on Voiceamerica.com. We're going to talk with Mark Villareal about the millennial factor. Mark says his most favorite thing is to coach people and help them develop. He loves doing that all day long. He loves helping people and it shows in this excellent interview. He wants to build leaders and build culture. Ah...but just one moment. There are some techniques Mark uses which I've never heard before, and I'll bet this changes the way you deal with new hires and employees forever. Oh....and wait till you get to the taxi story. That is something! Listen on and learn. And before we get into this, I want to thank our sponsor, Indeed. If you're in charge of hiring, boost your job posts and get the best people - fast! For a limited time, get $75 credit at indeed.com/durso. More details just ahead on this sponsor with a lot more info on them, so please stay tuned. And as you know, my interviews with the world's elite entrepreneurs are all about helping you launch your new business or take your business to the next level, and we also cover a lot of great information for everyone else. Sometimes the penny drops with the right information for you to start something profitable yourself or help you do your job a whole lot better. I love to help you, and I love to hear how these world-class interviews are helping you. Please give me a hand and subscribe. Rate and review my show on Apple podcasts right now. If you need help, you can go to ratethispodcast.com/tony. That will walk you through the review process. And here's a shout out to someone who calls himself Crooked Edge, who said, "Love listening to Tony and all of his amazing guests. Truly has helped expand my knowledge. Recommended to everyone, especially entrepreneurs". That makes my day. Thanks for your kind words. I really appreciate it. You have my eternal thanks. And if you want to help me help more people and help get my show to those that need to hear this in this world, please consider giving me a review. Again, the easiest way is to go to Apple podcasts or go to ratethispodcast.com/tony. A kind five-star review helps grow and support the show and you get my eternal thanks. That's priceless! : All right. Let's get into it. Today's show is about the millennial factor with Mark Villareal. Let's see what we can learn today. At the end of this interview, I'll give you a summary recap of what we went over, so stay tuned for that. Mark Villareal has a passion for developing people in a manner that helps them achieve their goals. Early in his 35-year career, he realized that the more he focused on others' success, the more his career blossomed as well. And here we go. Hi Mark. Welcome to the Tony DUrso Show. So glad to have you on with us today.

Mark:

Well thank you for having me, Tony. It's very exciting to be a part of it.

Tony:

Thank you. The honor is mine, Mark, and you know we hear so much about the millennials and I'm sorry for all the millennials in this audience here, but wait...not really sorry. We are going to help you. We are going to give advice to you and those that work with you, which we believe is going to be very appropriate, apropos, and you're welcome to get back and let us know if there's anything else you'd like to say. I love hearing from all of you in the audience. And I really like this because I hear so much about millennials all the time, and now I get to address that square on with an expert who really understands the millennial factor. Mark, before we get into that, and before we regale our audience with some stories and information, anecdotes and so forth, we would love to follow your journey to success. So please tell us -how did it all start for you? What's your backstory?

Mark:

My backstory goes back many years. I was in corporate America for 35 years, but the last 21 years in corporate America was at the C-level, meaning I was reporting to the CEO, which made for great days and maybe some days didn't make for great days, but my passion and I worked for one organization that was a franchise organization that we built up from five locations to over 300 was always, how do we develop and how do we train people to work in those programs. And in fact, when I was vice-president of a $500 million organization, that international one, my CEO had even asked me one day, if you could do your favorite thing, what would you do? I said, I would sit next to people all day long and coach them, help them develop. So that was a lot of my backstory working in corporate America in different organizations, reporting to the CEO is having to learn how to develop people, the nuances in developing people, and most of all, building leaders and building culture.

Tony:

I've been down that road a little bit as well in corporate America in a C-level position. And no matter how well I thought I did, there was always something to improve. There was always something more to learn and there were always younger people being hired. I've managed a lot of people and it's very interesting how I believe it's an ongoing process and we're going to talk more about that, but I just thought I'd comment because we have some great parallels and similarities here, and you just never know enough about personnel, that's for sure. Now, going along with this Mark, how did you come about the vision for your current success?

Mark:

Well, there's two things here. One, it starts a little bit actually probably prior to my backstory. My second book is called Leadership Lessons from Mom, and so I always quote that my mother was the best leadership coach who chose to be a housewife. It tells stories of me growing up from childhood all the way until her death, but she was just always big on character and building the things that really helped formulate me to be a leader, and she was always big on ... her term was pay it forward. And she'd always encourage that leaders lead with humility so she was quite an inspiration and obviously I'd love to have her today. She's passed away, but that's what drove me and her big thing was about paying it forward and develop others. She would even tell me that I always want you to find mentors that mentor you, but you will probably learn more in life for life and for business and your career from those that you're mentoring. And so that's what drove my vision about where can I always get and do my passion where I can mentor people, organizations. My mission statement is to build leadership one person, one team, or one organization at a time. So my vision started very early. I was able to do a lot of that in corporate America, but then as I was able to then separate and branch off for my own organization, now I'm doing what I love to do.

Tony:

And Mark, what is that purpose? What's the passion behind this? Why do you love this and why do you do it?

Mark:

Well, I think there's several things. The purpose or the passion is to see people grow and develop, and to make a difference and teach them how to make a difference in others, so whether it's even donating your time. I'm part of the board of Our Empowering Women because I've had a lot of success in mentoring aspiring women in leadership, and some of that started when they were just my admins in corporate America and they had so much more potential, and so mentoring them and developing them to where - one is a vice-president of another organization - they've gone on to different levels. And as you see that spark, it says, where can I make a difference? Sometimes you have to assess, well, what are my skills or gifts that I have and if I can pay it forward and then they can pay it forward and form a culture, it's really the purpose of everything we do. And you know I write books, so I have the six books, but I not only have business books, but I have children's books too, because it's for the same purpose. How can I inspire the youth to always dream big and to aspire to be bigger things?

Tony:

Mark, when a person generally says that they write children's books, one immediately thinks of fiction stories, but these are nonfiction. These are education-type books?

Mark:

Actually... well the title of the series is called The Adventures of Park Ranger Brock Cliffhanger & His Jr. Park Rangers, so they are stories that help educate the children on one, following good role models and Park Rangers are great role models; two, on learning about our state or national parks and to enjoy them, but it teaches some good safety lessons in the park junior park ranger program. The last one is on the Great Smoky Mountains and the 2016 fires and how they started, but how they can preserve and protect. In one of the books, it talks about children that are missing hiking, so it takes them through the lessons of...they don't only go search and find for them; that's part of the adventure, but what were the 10 things that they didn't do before they went hiking that they should have? Once they were missing, what were the 6 things that they should have done? And when they encountered wildlife, like they do in the story, what should they have done? So it educates them as well. We have in the book that Park Rangers should always pay it forward as well. So in everything I write, I teach that mentality.

Tony:

Mark, I love that. As we spoke off air, we both love the mountains. We both love nature. Very cool on those. I definitely want to make sure that we give that good plug. Now, if people go to your website, which is markvillareal.com and I'll spell that. Mark- that's Mark with a K and then last name Villareal.com. If people go there, can they see the children books and navigate to Amazon or wherever they can buy them?

Mark:

Yes, they'll see all the books I've written. There are four business books and then the two, the children's series, which are under that series, and they are located on Amazon. In fact, I even have a thing on my website right now that I'm actually giving a free digital copy of my Leadership Lessons from Mom that is available for them as well. So we do things that entice, educate, pay it forward. So yeah, you always want to encourage someone on what they can do.

Tony:

I love this topic. We're talking about the millennial factor with Mark Villareal. This is the Tony DUrso Show where you can learn from the wisdom and success of others to help you move on your vision path. Just ahead, the chat continues about the millennial factor with Mark Villareal, but first it's time for us to take a short break. See you back here in just a moment. We were all blindsided by 2020. Businesses like yours are decking as best they can, including how you hire. If you're in charge of hiring during this dramatic change, Indeed is here to help. Indeed is the number one job site in the world, because Indeed gets you the best people - fast. Indeed, they do. Unlike other sites, Indeed gives you full control and payment flexibility over your hiring. You only pay for what you need, you can pause your account at any time, and there are no long-term contracts. That's really cool. Plus, Indeed provides powerful tools to make your search that much easier. Yes, indeed they do. Like sponsored jobs, which are shown to be three and a half times more likely to result in a hire. With 73% of online job seekers visiting Indeed each month, Indeed is going to get you the important hire you need, just like they have for over 3 million businesses. And that's worthy of repetition. 73% of online job seekers visit indeed each month who can greatly help you get the most important hire you need just like they have for over 3 million businesses. That is indeed amazing. Right now, Indeed is offering our listeners a free $75 credit to boost your job posts, which means more quality candidates will see it fast. Try Indeed out with a free $75 credit at indeed.com/durso. This is their best offer available anywhere. Go right now to indeed.com/durso. Terms and conditions apply. Offer valid through December 31. That's indeed.com/durso. All right, guys, check it out, sign up and tell me how much you love it. Announcer: You are listening to the Tony DUrso Show with key influencers. We'd love to hear from you via email. Be sure to send questions and comments to Tony@tonydurso.com. Now back to Tony and his guests.

Tony:

All right, we're back on the Tony DUrso Show where you can learn from the success of others to help you move on your vision path. Let's see what we can learn today. Today's show is the millennial factor with Mark Villareal. At the end of this interview, I'll give you a summary of what I got out of this, and I'll share some pointers with you. Stay tuned for that. It is with a servant’s heart that Mark has helped employees and managers reach their next level of success. He has assisted in developing consultative sales executives, managers, and business leaders. All right, and now back to the chat with Mark. Mark, let's go over perhaps some myths, truths, half-truths about millennials. We hear so many things. Some of them are not true or not really true, so let's kind of break some of this apart, please.

Mark:

Certainly. To start, I always say let's take a step back. Understand that millennials will make up 70% of the workforce soon, so that's why you're seeing such people speaking here are these things because it is a big influx, but with the different age groups that are out there - and I'll identify myself as a baby boomer -with each of us there's differences because it's how we were raised, what era we were raised in that bring those differences. So one of the first of the myths that you always hear is that they're just really different. Things that are important to them aren't important to us and these other age groups, and when you really dissect it, and I've had success working with millennials and so the book is real world because of my experiences and how I've taught others to work with them as well, is if I took the top 10 things that are important to me, and then the top 10 things are important to the millennial, the 10 items are the same, but the order of importance is different. They are big on what is the purpose of the company I'm working for? That's usually up there like number one. What is the reason of my existence in this company and what are the values of the organization, where as a baby boomer, we were coming into the workforce, it's “give me a job with great stability and what am I going to get paid”? While those are still important to the millennial, they're not upfront like they were for my age group. Understanding that then allows you how to manage them. The other is that they're difficult to manage and I will say that they are actually not difficult to manage. What I explain in my book is that because there's some leaders that are just have been very good leaders already, that as the millennials came in the workforce, they've had success managing the millennials because they already do the additional things that millennials appreciate. Meaning they are very transparent, they over-communicate, they explain why we do things, and those are things that are important to the millennial. As a baby boomer, certainly when I'm told the why, I appreciate it but well, the why was because I get paid for it. This is how we do it. What drives that in millennials is they grew up in the digital age that I didn't grow up in, so they're used to always knowing the why, because I can Google it. I can get the answer and that also drives the transparency, but great leaders already over-communicate. In fact, I was working with a company yesterday where I was teaching their leadership that great leaders repeat themselves constantly even, but they are very transparent and they explain the why, and so as you build that culture for the millennial, they appreciate it. I think the next one is the big one is I always hear millennials aren't loyal. Why should I put the effort in or why this because they'll have seven jobs in two years, so why? And actually, that is usually because we have a organization, however you're running your organization you're not explaining from day one expectations clearly enough, because I always tell them they're not loyal because you haven't shown them what a career is. You're teaching them that this is just a job. And so from day one, and I teach this in leadership, whether it's millennials or not is how you communicate from day one, how your culture is. I always communicate, Hey, here's how I manage, here are expectations of the job, and then here is our career lattice of our organization of ways that you can grow. And I say lattice, because they can grow up, but you can grow laterally as well. And then when you educate, and here are the skill sets that are for each of these roles. So I encourage you to always work with your leadership team on opportunities, but take some self-accountability that if you want to grow in certain areas, because if you take self-accountability and learn some skill sets on your own, you're going to stick out to me. And so what that does is that this educates them from day one. So when they're saying millennials are not loyal, I'm like, well, you need to take hold and educate all your employees on day one. The half-truths are millennials are entitled. Now I will say that I've met people in all age groups that sometimes have that entitlement mentality. I would say more with the millennials on how they were raised. This is why you take and you give them instruction on day one. You know, once I show them the career lattice on day one, and if you want to grow in our organization, this is how you do it. It won't occur that in two years, they're saying, Hey, I should be promoted because I showed up to work on time every day. It eliminates that entitlement on day one, and it sets that culture in their mindset and you manage to do that. Some may come entitled and because of the bigger influx, they may be seeing more of them. And I think some of that comes into account that unfortunately today in America is we have both working parents. So sometimes how they're raised might bridge that gap, that they might feel a little more entitled, but you can eliminate that from day one.

Tony:

They are not really as different as society or the media makes them out to be. There are some differences with perhaps the way they're raised. They have the internet; they 're able to find answers to things a lot easier than you and I did when we were growing up too, as little comparison - or probably you were the same as I - could not wait to move out and make it on our own. Couldn't wait. When I was, 17 I went out on my own, got my own place. You know, you lived for that. You wanted to be out, you wanted to be independent, but today it's a little bit different. There's the cushy home. And I think that that's great that kids can stay at home while they go through school or learn more about careers and give them that chance because I didn't have that chance. I didn't have that umbrella or safety net or whatever of learning a career, going to school and having everything taken care of while I did that. I had to make it out of my own. So it's a different mentality. You know, we call that old school, but I don't really know why. It's just a different mentality or mindset of we want to make it but not necessarily on a career. There's no way at 17 I could have supported myself and gone through school at that age and taken on any career. So there's plus and minuses about it. So I think for one, that while we're not so different, I think millennials have better opportunity because while they are at home, they can spend two, three, four, five years and get a great degree and get into a great career where they can really earn a lot of income, instead of perhaps you and I. We struggled. We made it; we're successful, but we had a different route.

Mark:

Absolutely. You mentioned 17. When I was 18, I moved from Cerritos, California to Palm Springs. That was far away enough because it gave me that.... I think in some ways you look for your independence in some way. I moved away just to motivate me that I'm going to go make it if I'm not here. Living on the next block was too close that I could reach out, and so it was some things I did to maybe motivate myself by moving that distance. And that's exactly right, is I think that millennials do have some great opportunities to take advantage of it if they're able to do this and get the degrees, but part of their upbringing then is okay, where do you take that from there? But some of the truths that I would say Tony, or the first thing I say about millennials is that I will tell you that I think they're the most courageous work force group out there. I see no fear in them and working with them and to the fact that that's almost a danger so I would say this. Because they always had quick answers, internet, they raced to things. So I say there's many times I would have to hold them back more than push them forward. In other words, because they would take a shortcut. In other words, let's realize, and I always had a term. In fact, I would hang up signs in their desk areas that say, stop, look and listen, because my mom used to tell me that, but it was really helpful with millennials of stop for a moment, look around at your environment and what you're proceeding to, and then listen to the coaching that you received and know that you understand it before you go to what you're planning to do. So I used to have to slow them up more, and by doing that, I actually saved them time on their development. But the other truth I mentioned that they're value driven, the workforce balance. If you have a company that your values, and we talk about trust and honesty, those should be a given as values, but workforce work-life balance. We want to have fun on the job. Here are some of the values we want to live by, and here is the mission of the organization, and if we drive this, we can truly have a purpose and make a difference. That is the first things that attract them and some say they're not attracted by money. Money is just not as important, but if you give them these other things, and I mentioned before, the truths are they do like transparency. They like to understand the why and it actually motivates them when you educate them. Here's why we're doing this, and they appreciate the over-communication. That's when they become loyal and then money does make a difference to them.

Tony:

These are some really good points. Really gets the mind going on this workforce. 70% of the population, I believe is what you said. This is the Tony DUrso Show where you can learn from the wisdom and success of others to help you move on your vision path. Just ahead, the chat continues about the millennial factor with Mark Villareal, but first it's time for us to take a short break. See you back here in just a moment.

Tony:

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Tony:

All right. We're back on the Tony DUrso Show where you could learn from the wisdom and success of others to help you move on your vision path. Let's see what we can learn today. Today's show is the millennial factor with Mark Villareal. At the end of this interview, I'll give you a summary of what I got out of this, and I'll share some pointers with you. Stay tuned for that. Hey, fellow entrepreneurs. Join me on Twitter @tonydurso and get in on the fun. You can message me there too. That's @tonydurso on Twitter. Mark has a passion for leadership development and has a hunger for continued growth and development. He believes strong leaders pay it forward. And now back to the chat with Mark. Let's go into some of the steps. You may have mentioned a few things, but I like to kind of go over. Your book is all about the steps for managing millennials, The Millennial Factor, so let's go into some of the steps, please.

Mark:

Well I think very early in, I probably mentioned it before is I teach that first, everything starts at hiring and it actually starts before you hire. So how do you incorporate within your hiring process where you can hire the, or increase the.

Mark:

It actually starts before you hire. So how do you incorporate within your hiring process where you can hire the, or increase the likeability of someone that you're going to bring in that they appreciate or come in because they like your culture and they like your mission and they understand the job description. So that's very important. I worked with a company in Cleveland that they're like, I can't some reason I'm having difficulty hiring millennials. And I said, well, let me do a few things so I went to their website. I'm like your mission statement is nowhere. I can't find it and that's your reason for existence and millennials want to know that. Two, your values are up there, but they're not very visible. I would make those more visible. Let's look at your hiring ads and they were standard. Here's what we're hiring for. And I said, if you want to increase that, and for anyone you hire, I would recommend this, but it's very attractive to millennials. I would say here's our mission statement and here's the values that we live daily and here's the job description that we're hiring for. If you believe this opportunity is for you, please apply. So it starts that out day one or before you're hiring. Day one, or actually through the interview process, you test for how well do they know you? I used to put a little 10 questionnaire test that I would have them take when they came in, waiting for their interview to see if they know our mission, and if they know our values, if they know our industry, who are our competitors. I want to hire people that at least did some research. And what happens is an organization as that gets out, because your employees know how you hire and they refer other people, it's like you better come prepared, that starts building the culture even before you hire people. Then as you hire them, it's very important I mentioned about on day one, I explain how we manage. We manage by rewards or consequences, and we hired you because we have high expectations and we believe you match those. But at times I'd love to manage you by rewards every day, but we know that there's times that's there's going to be consequences. So if I see things that you're doing might be detrimental to your success, would you want me to correct you and coach you on that? And on day one, everyone says yes, but the reason I do that on day one is there will be times I'll have to remind them of that conversation because it's like, you're showing me my interest is your best interest on driving your success and I owe it to you to have this conversation. And I tell them behavior modification, we have to face consequences. As quickly as you can show that you received the coaching and correct yourself, we'll get you right back on the reward side. So we teach that, just set that culture on day one. I talked about the career lattices on how you can get promoted and grow with our organization and so those are the things that we instill. That's where I talk about how do you build a hiring plan? One of the other steps is then how do you build a communication plan? I go through all the topics in the book on what are the things that is going to be important for any employee that I hire, but especially millennials that I want to make sure we communicate, not just once, but over and over. One is mission, vision, values, but more than that. Everything that's important. And so where should those be? It may need to be in any of our HR documents. Our handbooks that we have. They should be on our walls in the work area. They should be in our contests. We should name them our contests. Hey, you exhibit at this value with this customer, you've really demonstrated the mission. The mission of the month contest. Those types of things on how much you can communicate and you roll them out and you over-communicate. So that's another step.

Tony:

The millennials, I like how you coach them day one about the reward program and how you like the atmosphere to be full of rewards and validations and acknowledgements and so forth, because everyone loves that. Now the millennial is a younger person. They're used to being at home and getting their way or talking back to the parents or telling them off or ignoring them. But when you get into this work a day world, it's a whole different thing. And I would hazard a big guess. I know I would win on any way. Millennials wouldn't want to be corrected. Nobody in that sort of a situation or scenario wants to be corrected. We don't want people to say, you should do it this way instead of that way, or this way is not good. You know, I can see that, just that one thing of taking this person through that training curve, on operating per protocols of the business. That has got to be really, really tough. Does your coaching just saying, hey, we want to reinforce that multiple times while the person is there, how you work as you were mentioning, and is that really sufficient so that they're open to being corrected, because that's going to be like a really hard stop for some of them.

Mark:

Well, here's two things because you mentioned one thing about how they may be at home. So imagine the organizations that do not have that conversation on day one, and that's where they're struggling. That's where they're saying, and they throw their hands up because then the millennials weren't at least given a direction that they're going to be coached, and then when they're coached, it's like, well, I don't like this. So at least telling them on day one and then reminding and then seeing it in action, it doesn't stop there. That's just the start. It doesn't mean you won't have struggles, but because I actually teach that I coach openly because when I coach you, I want others to hear. I want others to learn and that's the type of environment. So in all things that I ever preach it, as you would know me, as I always preach about consistency, because if you're not consistent, you're going to get tested, because sometimes you'll have those. But one of the keys too is I love the book, The One Minute Manager where it says, go out and catch someone doing something right? So sometimes people think of leaders or managers that you're always telling me something wrong. So I used to tell my leaders to start the day by going and asking people, what can I do to help you today? Any roadblocks? What can I take off your plate? How can I assist you? And that was more of a servant mentality. And so that was part of catching them doing something right. But we tried to show them that our coaching started from the positive aspect, but even a slight correction or coaching, then isn't that bad. But sometimes Tony you'll have those that struggle with it. So there's two things you can do. In fact, I had someone that had a team of four small team, but he said, I'm trying to give everybody equal time, equal rewards and they're not buying in. I said, find one that you think will buy in if you have a conversation and give him the benefit of your time and energy and reward him heavily until the others starts saying, Hey, wait, how come you're giving him more time? How come you're giving him more energy? And it's like, because what I've asked you to do you haven't, and if you're willing to play along, these are the rewards that you can receive. And in fact, that's one of the conversations too I teach on day one is I tell people, I will give you every benefit of my time if you give me every benefit of the effort. But what I'm looking for is when I coach you, I'm looking for you to correct yourself, and when you correct yourself, like I'll keep giving you my energy, but I'll be straight and honest with you that when you stop doing that, you'll see me spend more energy elsewhere because my energy is important to me and I want to work with those where I'll make the biggest impact. And so people start recognizing that as leaders, because sometimes you're in that mindset, I got to be fair and give everyone twenty-five percent. And I'm like, make your energy where your impact is, and you will see the others then start to follow.

Tony:

Mark, it brings up perhaps a myth or a half myth or whatever you want to call it of. I hear this now. And then I don't work in the corporate world at all and so forth, but I hear this of, just showing up for work, a person wants to be acknowledged and validated and rewarded and given prizes. All they do is just show up for work. Is it gone down to that level or is that just a myth?

Mark:

Well, it has in some, so it's a half myth. Once again, but I think I explained that. I think most of this are in existence because we're not eliminating them on day one, and because even I, even before the millennials, the work group prior, I would get frustrated that they would come in on time and clock in, but then they would go get their coffee and then have the morning talk about the football game, and we really didn't see them start working until 15, 20 minutes into the day. And it's like, look, you need to come in early and do those things before you walk in. So it's been with every work group, but because of the influx of people, we are probably seeing it more. And one of the things I teach, because I tell the story that great leaders have to become great storytellers because it's not just always explaining, do this, do that. You have to tell a story behind some things for them to really see it from a different perspective. That's why they like the why.

Tony:

This is the Tony DUrso Show where you can learn from the wisdom and success of others to help you move on your vision path. Just ahead, the chat continues about the millennial factor with Mark Villareal, but first it's time for us to take a short break. See you back here in just a moment.

Tony:

Do you like to zone in sometimes on a good story that just takes you away from the world? We all need that sometimes, right? Here's a good book recommendation for you. I'm announcing a book that I've worked on for years with my coauthor SKR and the title is Imen of Atlantis. The Pursuit is the first book, volume one. It's a trilogy. We've spent years on this. It's been a labor of love. Get it now at tonydurso.com/Imen. It's a fiction story of what happened in Atlantis once upon a time, and there are multiple storylines that merge and converge together. Some of the key players are Bomo, Roni of Imen-Hera, Crown Prince Eyvind, Raidon, Prince Korin, and it involves the main kingdoms of Carron, Carthinia and a plot against Bodon, but you really need to look out for Queen Tara. I don't think you've ever run into anyone so cunning, crafty, and evil. Have you? Well, aside from Prince Korin, perhaps, and maybe some people you read about in the news, but I digress. You would think this has to do with contemporary times, but it was never written for that purpose. This first book is about the love of money, especially gold, and what people and rulers will do to get as much as they can. Get it now at tonydurso.com/Imen. What is the Imen? Who are they? Well, once a powerful race, the Imen captured and dominated every nation and territory on the four land masses of Atlantis until none were left. War was a form of sport and no one presented a challenge great enough for them. It wasn't until they had reached the final conquest when a divine intervention personified as a messenger was sent by the Creator to offer an ultimatum. The Imen were given a choice to set down their weapons forever in exchange for the gifts of healing and regain their spiritual powers. Most accepted this ultimatum, and those who refused perished as predicted. The abilities of the Imen? Well, you'll have to read the books and see what they can do. They can do some things that are beyond amazing and beyond our reality, and this is really where the book starts at this point forward. It is absolutely amazing. Go to tonydurso.com/Imen and get The Pursuit. I think it's going to leave you breathless. Thanks, and happy reading. Announcer: You are listening to the Tony DUrso Show with key influencers. We'd love to hear from you via email. Be sure to send questions and comments to Tony@tonydurso.com. Now back to Tony and his guests.

Tony:

All right. We're back on the Tony DUrso Show where you could learn from the wisdom and success of others to help you move on your vision path. Let's see what we can learn today. Today's show is the millennial factor with Mark Villareal. At the end of this interview, I'll give you a summary of what I got out of this, and I'll share some pointers with you. Stay tuned for that. Hey, fellow entrepreneurs. Join me on Twitter @tonydurso and get in on the fun. You can message me there too. That's @tonydurso on Twitter. Mark assists organizations by identifying and establishing strong and successful culture built upon the right foundation of values and principles. It is through proper strategic planning and execution that creates long-term sustainable results. And now back to the chat with Mark.

Mark:

I had that situation in a Denver location. So finally, when I traveled in one day and when I arrived, I gathered everyone together and we would sometimes have a quick meeting, but I told them the story about... I said, I just flew in and I took a taxi here, but I'm so frustrated because the taxi was driving me here and then he pulls off the freeway and he said, excuse me, I need to run into the store, and he pulls over to the market, but he keeps a meter on and he runs in to buy cigarettes and get coffee. And they're like, what? And he charged you for that? I'm like, yeah, can you believe that? I said, and then he comes back out and then he finally brings me here, but I had to pay the whole bill. And they're like, I can't believe he charged you for getting his cigarettes and coffee. And I said, I'm glad you see that point because I need to bring this back home, because that's what you're doing to us here in this organization. And they actually laughed and said, we get it now. And I said, so when you hear us harp on that, it's really the same mentality of we want to pay you, we want you to have fun. We want great culture here, and that's why storytelling can add power to any leader, how you can put some things in different perspectives.

Tony:

I like that story, Mark. No, really? The taxi cab driver really did that? I find it so hard to believe. Okay, well, was this a millennial cabbie?

Mark:

No, no. The cab story actually is false. I made it up to make a point.

Tony:

Do we have to edit this out, cause some they're going to listen to this?

Mark:

I think they know that. I think they realized once I told them. I guess if someone else is going to use that story, then you might. But it's just how can I get the message across where they see it in a different light? Because they could see if I'm in that cab, I'm paying this guy to get his cigarettes and his coffee and that's just not right. But sometimes they think corporate America, they don't see it as a person. And at the end of the day, it is. It's every person in the organization. I used to explain that my responsibility is for every employee to run a financially successful organization, and that means that starts with the little things.

Tony:

We have given some advice to millennials here and there. Is there anything else that's very critical that you feel we want millennials to know?

Mark:

Yes. I would say the first thing millennials, because they are driven by purpose is before they accept the job with any organization, I teach them to learn that organization's missions and values and make sure that they match up with that before they take the job, because I've worked with one organization where the bulk of their millennials didn't believe in the mission or the values, and they thought they can change them and it would take some leadership down and it was causing a bad culture situation. I would say second is always learn about the organization's initiatives, and strategies and roll-outs and align your goals with that. As a leader, when I see an employee saying, how can I help us with our initiative? That's the hair? What are the skills I need to learn? What knowledge can I take home today? Are there places or books that you recommend that I read? That person's going to stand to me when I'm looking for promotions or next leaders, so it's very important that they educate themselves and educate themselves on the career lattices of their organization. Those would probably be the three most important.

Tony:

I like that and I especially like the career lattice. I think that's a really good concept and a really good piece of training there to get people to orient them on how they can go and maneuver in this workaday world and corporate cultures and so forth. So I like that. Mark, what are you looking to accomplish in the next few years?

Mark:

I had to put all my goals to do two to three books this year. I wrote two and I'll have a new one out by summertime, which is Working with Women in Leadership, aspiring women in leadership, and five steps for success, and that's based on actual reality on teaching them, take this step, take this step, take that step, and really how to build a good foundation that when they step out there, because you're going to face resistance, how to overcome that resistance. So that's real important to me, and I want to do my next children's book and then I have the third work laid out, but that would be a lot to get done in one year in writing books, plus what else I do. But really growing the organization that I have, because I do a lot of consulting with organizations where I go out and I assist with the leadership teams or whatever the purpose, but also the dive deeper into the workshops that I deliver that help organizations grow and really stay apprised. I have one of the hot topics out there where I was just in Alaska working with an organization's emotional intelligence and that's cutting edge, even though emotional intelligence has always been around, but it's more of a buzz word for people to understand because of the diversity of age groups and diversity of people's backgrounds. It's more important now that leaders understand emotional intelligence. So to just keep growing it forward exactly like that.

Tony:

I love the fact that you're helping empower women, and I think that's great to give them help in leadership, and you've got a book coming out on that. I really think they need a lot of help. I don't consider them as underdogs in society or in the workaday world or whatever, but somehow, they don't seem to always get paid the same on jobs where you've got the same type of job, same qualifications, same everything. So I think that there are some points there to really help. So I think that's very cool that you're helping them with leadership.

Mark:

But it's really growing themselves say, what is it, 5% to 8% maybe at most of the fortune 1000 CEOs are women. Yeah, that's a small percentage. So we have a lot of room for growth, and I state that a woman have some of the great traits that bring balance to a leadership team. So when you add them to your leadership team, the traits that they have actually add great balance for great decision-making

Tony:

Any personal habits that contribute to your vision success? You're so prolific. You're coach, consultant. You travel, you speak. What are these personal habits that you feel help you stay successful?

Mark:

You know, if you were to hear me speak, or especially when I go to companies, I quote so many books. So first of all, I'm a big fan of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I tell people, read that book because you can break it down to anything. I break it down to some leaders; I broke it down to an HR group up here. I break it down to sales. You could take the seven habits and break it down personally for yourself, and I had discovered my weaknesses there. Probably the two weaknesses that I had to really work on was one, begin with the end in mind, and seek first to understand then to be understood. So all those things I try to incorporate. The first one is be proactive. The next one is first things first, each of the seven habits, so that's the big thing. I didn't have to go rediscover it, but then that allows me that my habits on how I format my day and then we even teach in time management how to flowchart your day, because sometimes it's easy to do busy work, but not do the impactful work. So I make sure that it's scheduled when my impactful work is going to be done. I make sure it's a priority because it's always easy to say, well, I did a lot of work today, but you really messed around with the work that was just busy work.

Tony:

Thank you for that, and it's a very good book. I really love the way you've broken that down and I thank you for sharing that. Aside from that book, are there any other great resources that you would like to share with our audience success squad?

Mark:

As I mentioned, my mom always mentioned about always find good mentors and always mentor others. So, I'm always looking for resources, Tony. The first one I was going to mention is your podcast because the guests that you have on, I'm always listening to hear their insight and it does a couple things. One, it can bring validation; two, it can bring reminders and three, it brings correction. So those are great resources there. I'd like to hopefully think that my website and those things, I can bring the same and this work to continue. The other resources that I've just joined a lot of groups that I work with. I get out there whether they're CEO groups or groups that are online that I can provide feedback sometimes. And then the final resource is I have an accountability partner, and so something I teach everybody is an accountability partner is someone you just meet with 10 minutes once a month, and it could be by phone, but you give each other your accountability plan for the next month and it has three things on there. What one thing are you going to do for personal development, what one thing are you going to do for professional development? And what one thing are you going to achieve with a measurement? And it allows you to interact/coach each other, and if I had something on there for three months in a row and didn't accomplish it, I can tell you that my accountability partner is going to hold me accountable.

Tony:

I like that program a lot. I think it's very needed and I think more people should have something like that. That's excellent. Thank you. Once again, this is the millennial factor with Mark Villareal and you can find him at markvillareal.com and I'll spell it. markvillareal.com. Mark, this was very good, very insightful. You've cleared up some myths and half myths and truths and all sorts of good stuff and some good advice for millennials. I really appreciated it.

Mark:

Well, thank you, Tony. And as everything, let me know how it goes. I could always help so you and I can continue to pay it forward, but it's been enjoyable.

Tony:

Hey, fellow entrepreneurs. Thanks for hanging out with me while I featured an elite entrepreneur who took his vision to reality. I hope this was as inspiring for you as it was for me to do this interview. I learned some good things about hiring, employees, the whole millennial factor. Really, really great stuff. I got some great ideas I'm going to chat about in a second. The insights are so valuable. So how did you like it? The millennial factor with Mark Villareal. If you could do your favorite thing, what would you do? This is what Mark's CEO once asked him. I'm sure you've heard that before, and we've spoken about this on a number of my shows, but really what would you really do? And no silly answers, please, because we're talking about your life here - to a degree. I mean, there's a way to sit on the beach or in a pool with your laptop and make money. Too many people have that idea in their head and it's a good idea, but what would you do? That's the key part that's important. What would you do that would earn the income you need to support your family? Mark said his most favorite thing was to coach people and help them develop. He would do that all day long. He loves helping people and it shows in this excellent interview. He wants to build leaders and build culture. That's very drilled down and it shows in Mark's success. It's that passion that you can take anywhere in the world - on the road, in the pool, at the beach, anywhere. That's what you really need to work out for yourself. And if you have it, zone in on that and make it more crystal clear for yourself. I enjoyed hearing about Mark's mother, who was a great leadership coach that chose to be a housewife. I say that because we don't hear this enough these days. We don't hear enough on the positive upbringing that parents have on their children. This is refreshing! Society has been conditioned for decades to rely on schools to teach such attributes and virtues to kids, and it's a bit lacking from everyone I've spoken to. There are multiple lessons to learn from just that, and I highly recommend getting Mark second book called Leadership Lessons from Mom. I hope you use that information to spend the time with your children to impart similar good lessons to them. Pay it forward. Lead with humility. Get a mentor. These are great points. I urge you to study these. Mark's purpose is beautiful. It's to see people grow and develop and teach them how to make a difference in others. How can you make a difference in your field? Have you thought about this? Are you able to incorporate any of this into your business or career? How Mark establishes his reward or correction system from day one is brilliant. I love it. And his corrections are done openly so that others can learn and not make the same mistakes. Again, these are just some of the amazing takeaways I got from Mark and I love that taxi story too. There's so much more I got out of this interview. What did you get? I'd love to know how you use this information to help you in your business or career. Now, grab hold of your vision, decide you're going to start something great or take it to the next level. You know this. You have to decide first. It always starts with a decision and you can get my Vision Map to help you along the process. The eBook is at tonydurso.com/books. You can pick up the audio version and the training class too. Highly recommended! I created my empire in just a few years. That's all it took. I had the Vision Map as my guide. You can do it too. Okay, guys. Let's help you move on your journey to success. And once again, please consider supporting the show with a nice review. Okay. Just go to ratethispodcast.com/tony. Thanks, and remember: just take action. Success awaits those who persevere and remain steadfast despite the odds. Sow good seeds, do good deeds and join me on the next episode of the Tony DUrso Show Announcer: We hope you've enjoyed this week's edition of the Tony DUrso Show with his key influencers. Be sure to tune in again next Friday at 5:00 PM Eastern time, 2:00 PM. Pacific time on the Voice America influencers channel