"If you're in the people business, you're in the feelings business"
Mark Mears shares insights on the journey from C-level marketing leader to solo entrepreneur
Welcome to the latest entry in The Workaround. You’re in good company with thousands of fellow entrepreneurs and innovators!
I’m Bob, your host. My mission here is to share personal, behind-the-scenes stories of the ups and downs of my career leading tech startups and corporate innovation.
I write to make you think, smile, and discover a shortcut to success or a trap to avoid.
Here we go…
“I don’t want to make money and retire. I want to make a difference and inspire.”
This is an inspiring message from someone re-inventing himself after a long and successful career.
Today, I share my podcast conversation with Mark Mears, an enlightened leader who has followed his calling. There are at least three reasons why I think you’re going to enjoy this episode:
Mark had a long and successful career working in the restaurant industry for brands we all know—PepsiCo/Pizza Hut, McDonald’s, Frito-Lay, JCPenney, NBC/Universal, and The Cheesecake Factory.
Thanks to his upbringing and early mentors, Mark developed a model of people leadership that was far ahead of its time.
After years of corporate success, Mark has launched his own consulting business. He shares insights into the ups and downs of becoming a solopreneur.
Here’s a summary, a teaser, an amuse-bouche to get you to hit the play button above and listen to my conversation with Mark:
Midwest Nice
Mark grew up in Kansas, where his family and community instilled in him the key character traits of working hard, keeping commitments, and respecting others. He first put these traits to work as a lifeguard in high school, where he took responsibility for cleaning pools and toilets to ensure guests had an enjoyable experience. This would guide his future career in leading massive service brands.
We also discussed something I’ve noticed from living in Cincinnati, Ohio, for the past 25 years—it’s excellent for marketing national brands. There’s a reason P&G, Kraft, Kellogg, and many more rose to success out of this region—it tends to represent a cross-section of the country. While trends tend to come from the coasts, this is where mass brands are born.
Explore & Follow
Like many of us, Mark had a meandering early career direction. He initially pursued a law degree until a professor he respected pulled him aside to suggest his talent might better be applied to journalism and marketing communications. Mark followed that suggestion and thrived.
A few years into his marketing career, David Novak, who tried to recruit Mark out of college, called again with an offer to bring him onto his team at Pizza Hut. Mark leaped because David inspired him.
These two influences sent Mark’s career into new, positive directions. We should look for such influences earlier in our careers and serve similar mentoring roles when we have the wisdom to see the potential in others.
Team > Employees
Mark developed a strong servant-leader mentality in his career, and he still lives and breathes this today. He made a point to say that he dislikes the word “employees,”—which can dehumanize the people we work with and instill power dynamics. Instead, we are one group of teammates with a common goal.
We discussed how “people are the product” in nearly every business. No matter how strong the brand or quality of the product is, if the teammate delivering the service doesn’t feel good about their job, the customer experience will suffer. As Mark describes, “If you’re in the people business, you’re in the feelings business,” and “Real leaders don’t manage; they inspire.”
Inspire > Retire
After many years in senior leadership roles, Mark achieved his crowning career accomplishment by turning around a struggling business and getting it to a strategic acquisition. But his success couldn’t stop the new owners from letting him go in favor of their own team. It was a difficult experience for him.
Mark could have gone into the sunset to sit on a beach or fill seats on Boards of Directors. Instead, this sparked a calling to start his consultancy and write a book. He saw that his unique combination of wisdom, network, and passion could be leveraged more widely for the benefit of more than one organization.
Becoming a Previously Important Person
I asked Mark about the biggest surprise he experienced in launching his consulting business. He shared how moving from being part of a team to sitting down at your home office as a solopreneur can be very lonely.
Mark found his team in Chip Conley’s Modern Elder Academy, an organization with insights on shifting from a Very Important Person to a Previously Important Person. Groups like this provide the support, resources, and accountability needed to make late-career shifts. The key to success is to give as much as you get.
I’m grateful to Mark for spending time with me and excited to see him take a significant risk later in his career. His pursuit of a meaningful calling can create positive ripples that benefit many of us in our business careers.
Helpful links:
How we might work together…
Are you interested in launching your own consulting or service business or need help taking your current services business to the next level? Fleet is our holding company for services, and we’re actively looking to build business partnerships with winning leaders. Let’s talk!
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BONUS: Cool Content of the Week
A little something I found meaningful. You might agree…
You’ll be miserable if you don’t do what you’re supposed to do
We lost country music star Kris Kristofferson recently. His music will stay with us, of course. But last week, I discovered his philosophy, which could impact our lives as much or more—if we listen to it.
In his post, Austin Kleon shares how Kristofferson — a former Rhodes Scholar who studied the Romantic poets — “chose to turn his back on a distinguished military career and move to Nashville to be a janitor and write country songs.” His mother wasn’t thrilled.
But he heard his calling and chose to follow the words of William Blake, a poet he loved:
“If he who is organized by the divine for spiritual communion, refuse and bury his talent in the earth, even though he should want natural bread, shame and confusion of face will pursue him throughout life to eternity.”
It’s a beautiful story that inspires us to practice patience, wait for the right moment, and then go for it when it’s in front of us. Otherwise, you may spend the rest of your life miserable, wondering what might have happened if you had followed that call to adventure.
It's all right here isn't it? "As Mark describes, “If you’re in the people business, you’re in the feelings business,” and “Real leaders don’t manage; they inspire.” It just points to the necessity of doing work on yourself as basis for everything else. This was an inspiring interview. I especially like Previously Important Person. That should be a whole book in of itself to help people who are pivoting to something new.