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My guest for Episode #244 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Josh Cunningham, the CEO and Founder of rokrbox – an inside sales assistant company based in College Station, Texas.

After starting rokrbox in 2013, Josh’s real estate company has worked over 3,000,000 internet leads for teams all across the country including Lars Hedenborg, Jeff Cohn, & Spring Bengtzen. Having hired and trained over 400 ISAs, Josh is a sought-after speaker for his invaluable knowledge on 

He’s focused on developing a company culture that attracts the best millennial talent and drives success.

Josh has learned how to scale and optimize business portfolios through building amazing teams with his take on company culture. His expertise was showcased through rokrbox's award winning culture, which inspired him to become the founder & CEO of Five Star Company Culture. 

He hosts a podcast by that name — thanks to Josh for having me as a guest previously, and thanks for being my guest here today!

Josh's mission is to help businesses maximize their potential and learn how to implement a winning culture that retains employees, increase team productivity, and allows business owners to regain their personal freedom.

Stepping back, Josh explains the wakeup call they faced during an organic period of growth, as their student workforce started to shrink with the onset of school schedules. Instead of panicking, they pivoted, embracing the lesson as an opportunity to refine communication and clarify their mission. Transforming this hitch into a turning point, they instated a daily huddle, which not only served to align team focus, but also sparked a cultural shift by nurturing an environment of support, connectivity, and collective growth.

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Questions and Topics:

• When did you realize it was YOU that “failed”?
• What did they do to fix it? 
• Tell us more about the huddles – how long? Standard agenda?
• What was the effect in fall 2016?
• Appealing to millennials vs. Gen Z? Have you had to adjust?
• Where did you learn these mindsets and management styles from?
• Defining core values and types of people to work with?
• What do you do as a CEO that helps make it safe for others to do the same?
• Tell us about the “Five Star Company Culture” podcast
• My episode with our mutual connection, Kevin Harrington

Scroll down to find:

• Video version of the episode
• How to subscribe
• Quotes
• Full transcript

Find Josh and rokrbox on social media:

• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• YouTube

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Episode Summary

The Power of a Champion Mindset in Business Culture

Embracing a Culture of Learning from Mistakes

In the competitive landscape of business, a culture that fosters growth and development through learning from missteps is crucial. Rokrbox, an inside sales assistant company, has epitomized this philosophy by embedding the mindset of a champion into their core values. This doesn't imply a streak of unblemished victories; rather, it means recognizing that both wins and lessons emerge from each outcome. A true champion is defined not by a flawless record, but by resilience and the willingness to stand back up after falling down, transforming setbacks into stepping stones for growth.

Overcoming Challenges: Reflecting and Implementing Change

Rokrbox faced a notable challenge during a period of rapid growth. In the summer of 2015, as the company soared to new heights, a significant portion of their part-time workforce, primarily made up of students, dissipated with the start of the fall semester. This unexpected shift presented a stark realization that the meaning and importance of their work weren't being effectively communicated by leadership. It was a crucial moment that shifted the company's focus inward, igniting a reflection on the mechanisms essential for transparent communication and employee retention.

The Magic of Daily Huddles: A Key to Cultural Success

The transformative solution that Rokrbox discovered was the implementation of a daily huddle. A practice that now anchors their workday, these huddles serve as a time for team members to connect, recognize each other's achievements, set collective goals, and align on the mission for the day ahead. This ritual not only eradicated previous communication inefficiencies but also played a pivotal role in shaping the company's award-winning culture. It created an environment where each employee could see the bigger picture, comprehend how their contributions mattered, and envision a path for professional growth within the company. This daily routine of recognition, education, connection, and motivation ensures that all team members feel valued and part of a larger goal.

Creating a Vision and Communicating It Effectively

The lesson here extends far beyond the boundaries of a single company's experience. The leader's role is not only to create a vision but to effectively communicate it throughout the organization. Rokrbox exemplifies that having a clear and vivid vision isn't sufficient unless it is shared and understood by the entire team. Issues in business often stem from communication breakdowns, and a leader's capacity to articulate goals and expectations to their team members is paramount. Through the huddle process, Rokrbox was able to transform communication within the workplace, demonstrating that intentionality and structure in daily interactions could forge more profound employee engagement and drive stronger business outcomes.

The Importance of Core Values in Recognition and Growth

Highlighting the successes and efforts related to core values within the huddle reinforces their importance in the company culture. Rokrbox has shown that core values are not just platitudes; they are the standards by which team achievements are measured and celebrated. Acknowledging team members who live by these values each day keeps them active and exemplifies the behaviors that lead to success.

Concluding Insights: The Role of Leadership in Navigating Mistakes

Ultimately, the story of Rokrbox provides an insightful examination of the role of leadership when navigating through mistakes. Instead of assigning blame externally, it takes a leader to look inward and take responsibility for the team's direction. Identifying gaps in communication and rectifying them through strategic actions, like daily huddles, not only salvages a challenging situation but also propels the business forward with renewed strength and cohesiveness. This approach is a testament to the statement that victories in business are not only about winning but also about learning to rise after setbacks and emerge stronger.

Cultivating Skill Development and Proactive Communication Strategies

Rokrbox's adaptations to their business in response to generational shifts and student workforce dynamics underscore the importance of flexibility and foresight in personnel management. By examining resumes with greater scrutiny and asking more probing questions during interviews, they ensure that employment expectations align with both the company's needs and the students' academic schedules. This targeted approach not only aids in the selection of dedicated team members but also fortifies the retention of valuable talent.

Furthermore, maintaining a proactive dialogue with employees about their outside commitments allows for preemptive scheduling adjustments. This adaptability preserves the employment relationship, preventing abrupt departures and promoting employee well-being.

Implementing Regular One-on-Ones for Holistic Employee Engagement

One significant practice adopted by Rokrbox is the holding of regular one-on-one meetings that follow a strategic cadence of evaluation and engagement. These meetings are structured to review work-related skills and pinpoint areas needing improvement. Importantly, they conclude with inquiries into the personal lives of employees, thus embodying a holistic approach to employee engagement. Recognizing that personal circumstances can heavily impact work performance, this approach fosters an environment of support and understanding within the company.

Leveraging Masterminds to Foster Collective Growth

Taking inspiration from traditional masterminds made popular by thought leaders like Napoleon Hill, Rokrbox has instituted monthly mastermind sessions to cultivate collaborative problem-solving and empower their employees. These sessions, promoted with incentives like free food, encourage voluntary participation from team members eager to discuss strategies for improvement. By facilitating this shared environment, Rokrbox reinforces its commitment to collective growth and allows for the integration of diverse perspectives into the company's operational framework.

Adapting to Generational Differences without Stereotyping

The evolution of Rokrbox workforce from millennials to Generation Z has entailed an understanding of each generation's idiosyncrasies while avoiding overgeneralizations that hinder relationship building. Recognizing that individuals bring unique values and behaviors to the table facilitates a more nuanced approach to team building. Josh Cunningham of Rokrbox also emphasizes the necessity of adapting management techniques, such as content and competition structuring, to match evolving attention spans and engagement styles without succumbing to the pitfalls of confirmation bias.

Implementing Strong Values Across Generations

Ultimately, Rokrbox's approach emphasizes the timeless nature of certain management principles, regardless of generational divides. Strong company values that resonate on a fundamental human level will consistently attract employees who align with the company's mission. The implementation of practices such as huddles and masterminds transcends age brackets, connecting employees to a shared vision of success and growth within the organization.

Learning from External Experiences and Insights

The trajectory of Rokrbox's culture is not merely an introspective journey; it has been informed by various external sources of insight. Josh Cunningham's exposure to .com era influences and his father's career provided the early inspiration for entrepreneurship and adapting to technological paradigms. As the business world continues to evolve, learning from both internal experiences and external wisdom remains a critical component in cultivating a resilient and impactful company culture.

Harnessing the Power of Teamwork in System and Process Design

Reflecting on Rokrbox's adoption of standard operating procedures (SOPs), similar to those which propelled Best Buy's consistent in-store experiences, underscores the critical role of systems and processes in achieving a harmonious business environment. When each team member comprehends their responsibilities and the expected outcomes, efficiency and productivity thrive within the organization. Therefore, it is imperative to recognize the vitality of establishing and continuously refining SOPs to adapt to the inevitable changes within any dynamic market.

Inculcating Ownership and Agility in Small Business Environments

Working with small business owners, as Josh Cunningham did, offers the unique advantage of seeing real-time impacts of one's contributions on company performance. This immediacy catalyzes a sense of ownership and responsibility among employees, encouraging them to step up as key contributors to the organization’s success. To incorporate this level of agility into any business model, companies must imbue their culture with an openness to employee feedback, quick implementation of viable suggestions, and an empowering environment, where actions directly correlate to tangible outcomes.

Learning from the Spectrum of Job Experiences

Every job, from the most menial to the most prestigious, imparts valuable lessons that can transform business practices. Acknowledging even the “crappy jobs” fosters an appreciation for what not to replicate, while simultaneously refining the vision for one’s own business environment. The takeaway for any business is profound: understanding the breadth of employee experiences can inform and inspire better workplace design, improving morale and productivity in kind.

The Significance of Defining Company Values Early On

Defining Rokrbox's core values long before the hiring process began served as a testament to the foresightfulness of its leadership. Clear and resonant values not only attract like-minded individuals to the team but also serve as a constant beacon, guiding decisions and behaviors. As a business grows and evolves, these values remain its pillars, ensuring a consistent and supportive culture that can withstand and adapt to market fluctuations and internal challenges.

Building a Strong Cultural Foundation for Sustainable Growth

Drawing an analogy from construction, every great skyscraper begins with a robust foundation. Rokrbox's philosophy that culture is akin to this foundation illustrates the belief that a company's resilience is deeply anchored in its core values and collective ethos. Amidst marketplace shakeups and economic turns, a steadfast cultural base allows a business to pivot effectively and maintain its core identity, even as services and problem-solving approaches may evolve.

Creating a Coachable Atmosphere and Celebrating Vulnerability

Josh Cunningham’s approach to leadership takes root in serving rather than dictating, encouraging personal empowerment, and fostering a culture wherein mistakes are viewed as opportunities for growth rather than failures. By promoting a coachable atmosphere and leading by example in vulnerability, employees are permitted to navigate their responsibilities with confidence and ownership, contributing to the overall resiliency and strength of the business.

The Five Star Company Culture Initiative

As a leader with a vision to serve beyond his own company, Cunningham’s Five Star Company Culture initiative extends his philosophy to a wider audience, seeking to assist other business owners and C-suite executives in crafting environments where values are lived out loud. By sharing insights and practical strategies, this platform aims to assist businesses in laying down robust foundations for their culture, ensuring their operations are primed for success and sustainability in a relentless and ever-changing market landscape.

Embracing Vulnerability and Authenticity in Leadership

The candid sharing of personal stories and mistakes by influential figures such as Kevin Harrington sets the stage for a new paradigm in leadership. When leaders like Harrington demonstrate vulnerability, they signal to their teams that it's acceptable to make and admit to mistakes. This behavior, in turn, fosters a culture of authenticity and trust within the workplace. When employees see their higher-ups own up to their errors, they are more likely to feel secure in expressing their own challenges and learning from them.

The Impact of Authentic Stories in Building Trust

• Fosters Relatability: Sharing personal mistakes makes leaders appear more relatable and human, bridging the gap between management and staff.
• Encourages Openness: When leaders are open about their failures, it cultivates an environment where employees are also comfortable sharing their experiences and ideas.
• Builds Resilience: Recognizing and learning from errors paves the way for a resilient mindset, where challenges are seen as opportunities for growth.

The Role of Cross-Promotion in Amplifying Influence

Josh Cunningham's Five Star Company Culture initiative heavily relies on the sharing of experiences and resources to enrich other businesses. By engaging in cross-promotion through podcasts and other media outlets, leaders can extend their reach, sharing valuable lessons and knowledge. Engaging with host Mark Graban illustrates how forming strategic connections can enhance visibility and impact across different platforms, benefiting an ever-wider audience.

Strategies for Effective Cross-Promotion

• Leverage Platforms: Utilize various channels, including podcasts and social media, to share insights and expand your influence.
• Collaborative Ventures: Forge partnerships with industry peers to share resources and co-create content that provides mutual value.
• Community Engagement: Actively participate in community discussions and events to bolster your presence and credibility within your field.

The Significance of Accessible Brand Identity

Josh Cunningham's mention of Rokrbox's distinctive spelling highlights the importance of a memorable and searchable brand identity. In a digital age where web presence is crucial, creating a unique brand that stands out in search engine results is vital to attracting and retaining customers. A brand’s accessibility online directly influences its market performance and the ease with which potential clients can find and engage with a company's services.

Key Elements of Crafting an Accessible Brand Identity

• Consistency: Establish a consistent look and feel across all platforms to make your brand easily recognizable.
• SEO Strategies: Focus on search engine optimization to ensure your brand ranks well in relevant search results.
• Distinct Brand Elements: Develop unique aspects of your brand, such as a logo or tagline, that set you apart and make you easily identifiable.

Nurturing Leadership and Cultivating Success

Leaders like Cunningham, who are ready to share their wisdom and experiences openly, play a pivotal role in shaping the future of business culture. By embodying the principles of vulnerability, authenticity, and accessible branding, they pave the way for a new generation of businesses defined by connection, learning, and genuine engagement with both employees and customers. This holistic approach to leadership, culture, and branding stands as a formidable blueprint for success in the ever-evolving business landscape.

Automated Transcript (May Contain Mistakes)

Mark Graban:
Welcome back to my favorite mistake. I'm Mark Graban. Our guest today is Josh Cunningham, the CEO and founder of Rokrbox. They are an inside sales assistant company based in College Station, Texas.

Mark Graban:
After starting Rokrbox in 2013, Josh's real estate company has worked over 3 million Internet leads for teams all across the country. He's focused on developing a company culture that attracts the best millennial talent and drives success. So I'm looking forward to talking with him about that later here. So his expertise was showcased through Rocker Box's award winning culture, which inspired him to then become founder and CEO of five star company Culture. Josh is the host of a podcast by that same name.

Mark Graban:
Thank you, Josh, for having me as a guest. Previously on that show. I'm happy you're my guest here today. How are you?

Josh Cunningham:
Yeah, certainly. Thanks so much, Mark. Glad to return the favor. It's always great getting on Zoom and jamming out with you and talking business and entrepreneurship and all that good stuff that helps people grow their lives and achieve more freedom.

Mark Graban:
Yeah. So I get to turn the tables on you today and ask the questions. We'll have good conversation, though, about what you're doing at Rokrbox and beyond. So before we come back to that, I'm not going to let you off the know the question we always ask. Get things started here.

Mark Graban:
Josh, what would you say is your favorite mistake?

Josh Cunningham:
Yeah, I love the whole concept of the show here. Know as champions and as business. Uh, one of our core values here at Rokrbox is we possess the mindset of a champion. And I always explain to people that a champion isn't somebody who just does everything perfectly the first time around. But a champion is someone who learns from their mistakes and they learn from other people's mistakes.

Josh Cunningham:
They fall down seven times, but they get back up eight, and they help pick up those around them. So I've always been a fan of you either have a win or a lesson, and I was preparing for this interview and just kind of reflecting back on some of the tools for success in our business that we have now, that there's some things that just intuitively we create, and it's a really great process or system or culture tool, as I like to say. But a lot of the stuff that we have that's really a pivotal or important aspect of our business came from exactly that. It was a mistake that we made. It was something that we messed up, and we had some reflection, and we had to think, well, how can we do this better and make sure this never happens?

Josh Cunningham:
So probably one of the most important tools in our business came from a mistake that happened. And it actually comes back from the summer of 2015. Back in those days. We started the business in 2013, spent the first couple of years just kind of really learning what would make our clients successful. And in the summer of 2015, business just started taking off.

Josh Cunningham:
It just started soaring and spreading like wildfire. It was like a rocket ship just taking off to new heights. I'm sure many of you can relate to those fun and exciting points in your business growth and development. And, you know, we hired students from Texas A. M.

Josh Cunningham:
To do the calls for us. We're an inside sales assistant solution for real estate professionals all across the country, and our talent pool is students from Texas A. M. So over the summer, we're recruiting all these callers. We're bringing them in.

Josh Cunningham:
They're joining our fun and competitive work environment. They're smiling and know, highlighting all these warm opportunities on behalf of our clients, and it was a really great and fun and exciting environment to be a part of. And one day in September, happened here in Aggieland. Happens every year here in College Station, Texas. I wonder if you can imagine what this is.

Josh Cunningham:
Happens every fall in college Station, Texas. Was the school semester started. I don't know why, but it caught me off guard that year for some reason. And everybody always has more obligations. They've got other priorities.

Josh Cunningham:
They've got their extracurriculars. Their fall school workload picks up, and I don't know if you're aware of it, but here in Texas, football is actually a religion. And so all the students, they want to go to the football games and go hang out with their friends on the, you know, I was absolutely shocked that know, because all of our team members have these things that they prioritized over this part time job. 40% of our team, poof, disappeared just like that. And we were just totally shocked, man.

Josh Cunningham:
We were just devastated. What had we done to make this happen? Poor little me. And I was just absolutely devastated and looking for fingers to point somebody to blame. And then one morning, I found them right there in the mirror, looking right back at me, and I realized that this was my failure as their leader to communicate to them that this wasn't just some other part time job, that this was the first step in their young professional career that was going to set them apart from their peers, that was going to help them get whatever job they wanted to once they walked the stage, because of the skills and the experiences that they were building here.

Josh Cunningham:
So, again, as the leader, I failed to communicate that to them. I failed to paint that picture. And again, the stuff that we're learning here on a day to day out basis, scripts and dialogues and objection handlers and CRM management, and it's the entry level to every sales position. So you master that fundamental, it's going to open up the gates of opportunity for you. And so what we did to sort of fix this problem, I researched and was seeking out answers and just began to search for solutions.

Josh Cunningham:
And I finally found it. The ultimate secret sauce, the ultimate key to our success, that magic genie in the bottle. And what it was was a daily huddle. That's what we decided to implement to our business. And so it's something that happens now every single day in our business, three times a day, because our shifts are shorter in length, they're only 4 hours in length.

Josh Cunningham:
And every single shift begins with this huddle. And the concept, the idea behind it, is that this gives us that opportunity to pause and to separate the stuff they have going on outside of work, their school life, their social life, their relationships with their parents and their family and their friends and their siblings, and to take the time to huddle up, just like the football team does every Saturday in between every single play. They're very familiar with that. And so we created this daily huddle where it gave us the time to connect with one another, to recognize each other, for our achievements, to set our goals for the day and for the shift, and make sure that we're all on the same page, that we can break that huddle and go out to battle together. And every quarter, we always do employee surveys to get feedback on what we're doing well and what we can improve.

Josh Cunningham:
And consistently, year after year, quarter after quarter, this is always one of their favorite rituals that they get to be a part of, is that daily huddle. So the mistake was made. We weren't communicating. We weren't making it clear that this work was meaningful and important and was going to be fruitful to them in the future. And so, through our daily huddle, we were able to communicate that every single day at the beginning of each shift.

Mark Graban:
Wow. Well, I love that story, Josh, for a lot of reasons, illustrates a lot of the things we try to celebrate here on the podcast and in my book, is the learning and the growth and leaders taking responsibility and figuring out what do we do about it? I'm curious, how long did it take before you realized, okay, looking in the mirror, that was the source of it. I mean, was it a matter of wanting to blame others? Did you go through some of that and get any pushback, or was it a matter of thinking it over and then realizing, okay, hey, this is on me as a founder and CEO?

Josh Cunningham:
Yeah. I think when you, as the visionary, as the leader of the organization, not only is it up to you to create that vision, but it's up to you to communicate and articulate it. So I saw that this is the best part time job for a college student on the planet. This is the job that I wish that I would have had if only I had a job like this. I would be building these skills and mastering these fundamentals and opening up all these doors once I graduated so I could see it in my head.

Josh Cunningham:
Right. But once I realized that not everybody else got it and not everybody else was on the same page as me. When you think everybody else is wrong but you, maybe you need to take a good, long, hard look in the mirror. Why is not everybody else understanding what I understand? Okay, well, what are the steps that you took to really paint the picture, to create the vision and to communicate it to your team?

Josh Cunningham:
I mean, most issues in business and relationships, finance, come down to communication. It's just a breakdown in communication. And so, again, I had the vision. I could see why it made sense for them to stick it out through the fall semester and to stay working at the business. And the business was growing rapidly, and we had lots of opportunity for advancement, for people to move up in the organization and to begin to step into leadership positions and start mastering leadership skills.

Josh Cunningham:
And so, again, I knew all that, but I was failing to communicate it. And so when I was in search for a way to communicate that and paint that picture clear, prior to our huddle, everybody would just kind of show up, clock in, and go to work, and then clock out and go home, and then the next shift would just show up, clock in, and go to work. And so there was never that time to really, truly paint the picture of, like, let's take a moment and recognize what we did. Yes. Today, and let's applaud each other and let's lift each other up, and let's take a moment and talk about what we have going on today and what our craft is, what our skill is, and focus on something to make ourselves a better version of ourself.

Josh Cunningham:
Right. Instead of just showing up and doing the work and leaving, what do we want to focus on today? To really hone in on and sharpen a tool in our tool belt. And so we would take a piece of the script, or we'd take an objection handler. Or we would take something that we're doing, a process or system, and we would elaborate it and focus on it and role play it with each other.

Josh Cunningham:
And then the whole element of the connection phase of our huddle is all about building that camaraderie, building that connection within our team, because we're open 80 hours a week and our employees work four hour shifts, so we have a lot of different people coming and going throughout the day, throughout the week. So providing them a time to pause and connect with one another and get to know each other. And so we do that through just a conversation starter, like an icebreaker, hey, who's your favorite superhero when you're a kid? And it gives people those opportunities to learn a little bit more about their coworkers, about some thought provoking question that they might not normally ask. And then the last step of our huddle is the motivation, which is, okay, what are your goals for the shift?

Josh Cunningham:
What do you want to accomplish today? What is it that you're working on that you want to improve so that we can help hold you accountable as a team and as your peers? And so just through that four step process, it's the recognition, it's the education, it's the connection and the motivation. And then just a nice, good, ready? Break.

Josh Cunningham:
We have a lot of different shouts and cheers and Ras, and then we go out and do our work. And just that five to ten minute pause before we all go out, it creates so much more meaning in the work that we're about to do. And seeing that this isn't just us calling a bunch of Internet leads all day, every day, but this is a vehicle to make us a better version of ourself and to open up more doors of opportunity in the future.

Mark Graban:
Well, thank you for telling us about that. You proactively answered a couple of questions I was going to ask you. John, how long are these huddles, and is there a standard agenda? Because companies I've seen, including healthcare organizations. Yeah, they're short, they're tight, they're fairly structured.

Mark Graban:
So it's not just kind of an aimless, let's get together and look at each other and what are we going to do? They've got to be pretty snappy, right? There's work to be done, but there's an important function of making sure you make the most of the huddle. Right?

Josh Cunningham:
Exactly. Yeah. And like I say, it's about five to 10 minutes, depending on how many people are in it. Some of our shifts have more staff than others, but the things that can make it go lean one way or the other, as far as shorter or longer. The recognition, there's always scorecarded numbers that you should be tracking as a business KPIs.

Josh Cunningham:
And so it's very simple to focus on two or three different numbers and just simply report those. But the best form of recognition that we have comes from our core value recognition. And so that's how we actually start to huddle. We say, okay, welcome to the Am, the PM, the midshift. Today, let's start off with some recognition for living by the core values.

Josh Cunningham:
I want to go ahead and recognize Mark because he possessed the mindset of a champion. Yesterday he came in from class, it was know he had to ride his bike here through the rain, and he showed up drenched, soaking wet. And he put on his headset and he just jammed out and put up a ton of know, way to go, mark, for possessing the mindset of a champion. And so that is great because it helps our core values come to life and shows that they exist and that they're living and breathing. And so depending on how many people are in the huddle and how many people are living by those values, that can be a little bit longer, shorter than just the reporting of the two or three important KPIs.

Josh Cunningham:
And then the education portion, again, that's practicing of a skill. So what we actually do is we take a calendar and we look at all the different pieces of our skill, of our craft. And at the beginning of the month, we kind of create that calendar so we know, okay, what's just a couple of minute? We're just going to take this one line of the script or we're just going to do this one. Objection.

Josh Cunningham:
Handler. And let's just practice that. So that's really easy to keep short and confined. And then the next one is that connection. And like I said, we use sort of like an icebreaker connection card.

Josh Cunningham:
And that sometimes, as you can imagine, people start sharing stories about their childhood or their goals or dreams for the future that sometimes can take a little bit longer time depending on how elaborate people are being. And so we got to always make sure we're reeling it in and keeping an awareness of the time. And then the last piece, the motivation is really simple. I mean, we're walking around, it's boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. How many opportunities do you want to identify?

Josh Cunningham:
How many live transfers do you want to get? And that information just gets written up on a whiteboard. So that's a couple of seconds. And then we're just setting those goals for the shift and breaking the huddle. So five to 10 minutes is really all you need, but it's the consistency that's important is making sure that you give people that opportunity to separate what's going on outside of work.

Josh Cunningham:
And then now here we go. We're getting ready to work, and let's all make sure that we're on the same team, we're on the same boat, rowing in the same direction.

Mark Graban:
Yeah. So you had this exodus of employees fall of 2015. That was right after Johnny Manzell.

Josh Cunningham:
Johnny football. Oh, yeah.

Mark Graban:
For the NFL, like, the stadium had been expanded or was being expanded.

Josh Cunningham:
Exactly.

Mark Graban:
Was kind of a particular recent high point for Texas A and M and the AG, certainly football program.

Josh Cunningham:
Oh, we get them about once a decade.

Mark Graban:
So what was the effect then, in the fall of 2016? You had these huddles in place. You were not assuming that employees shared this understanding of what they were building skill wise. It wasn't just a job. What was the effect in 2016 and beyond?

Josh Cunningham:
Yeah. So there were a couple more lessons hidden into that exodus that we had, which was making sure that in our hiring process, when we're hiring people, because we're always hiring, we always have people graduating and leaving the organization, we always fill in their void, but we always make sure that once we start hiring around the end of the spring semester, there's a lot of students out there just looking for a summer job. So we do a little bit more thorough analysis of their resume. And if I see that the last three jobs, you had started in May of last year and ended in August, and then the next job you had started in May and ended in August, and the next you had started in May. Okay, are you looking for a summer job?

Josh Cunningham:
And so we've added a little bit more questioning in our interview to make sure that this person has had the experience of working during the school semester. Right. So that's just another little layer of selection through our interview process, and then also just being aware of the extracurriculars that people are involved in, the commitments that they have outside of work with school. And so we've learned to be more flexible with some people so that rather than them working all summer and then just anticipating that they can't do both and just quitting instead. We've had that conversation way earlier about, okay, your fall workload is going to be a little bit larger.

Josh Cunningham:
Are you okay with moving your hours down from. Our average employee works 16 to 20 hours a week. Are you okay in maybe working twelve to 16 instead of 16 to 20. And so we start setting the expectations and negotiating with people, people that have been with the organization for a while. So if it's really good talent, we want to hold on to them.

Josh Cunningham:
And they've been with us for a year or so, and they're like, hey, man, next semester I start my upper level classes, or I just got elected president of this organization. I've got some more duties and some more responsibilities. We'd be much more proactive about having that conversation versus just sitting back and waiting for everybody to be overwhelmed. So we do regular one on ones with our team, and we have a certain cadence of, like, 15 day, 30 day, 60 day, 90 day. And in each of those conversations, we're asking about what's their skill level with the work, which is obviously important, and where can they use some help.

Josh Cunningham:
Work related, a lot of work related questions. But then the last 20% of the one on one is all about their personal life. Hey, how's everything going at home? How's everything going at school? And so that way, we're always proactively having those conversations with people so that they don't wind up having a tough time in classes, and then they're turning in their two weeks notice.

Josh Cunningham:
Instead, we proactively have those conversations. And we've had many times where students are like, man, this semester is tearing me up. Okay, great. Well, can we cut back your hours and give you some more study time, and you can get your grades back up to where they need to be, so that way, we don't have to end this relationship abruptly. And so it's just about being a little bit more proactive, give about those types of things.

Josh Cunningham:
So the huddle is still in place. It still gives meaning and purpose behind the work that we do on a day in, day out basis. But some of the other lessons behind that is just the talent selection and then the talent retention pieces that we've adopted, some of the conversations that we've had.

Mark Graban:
Well, thank you for sharing those reflections and lessons learned. Really appreciate that, Josh. Now, as the company has been around for ten years now, your bio, it talks about appealing to millennials and the kind of work culture they might want. Now you're hiring Gen Z. Gen Z, are you seeing differences, or are students of those ages still pretty similar?

Mark Graban:
Have you had to adjust?

Josh Cunningham:
Yeah, I mean, that's the thing. There's no way around it. Our talent pool is our students from Texas a m. And so, yeah, when we first started the business, we were hiring millennials, and now it's Gen Z. And the thing that I always talk about when it comes to people stereotyping generational talent is that no two people are exactly the same.

Josh Cunningham:
I grew up in a suburb of Houston that I was a little bit more on the outskirts, and our rival high school that was literally 3 miles down the road, thought we rode horses to, like, you know what saying? Like, it doesn't matter how close in proximity you are to other people in age, geographic, race, religion, all the different categories of categorizing people. It doesn't matter how close you are to someone. People are still very much different. So, yes, there are some generational trends that we do notice between when we first started and now.

Josh Cunningham:
But one of the things I always talk about when people want to subscribe to and buy into some of those frustrations with a generation, all of everybody is exactly the same. Well, anytime you're speaking in absolutes, you definitely can't be telling 100% of the truth. And so, as an organization, it's still our goal to attract and retain talent that live in congruence with our core values. And so, again, we have talent nowadays that live by our same five values that did ten years ago. And so there are some general differences in where their attention is.

Josh Cunningham:
A lot of people are a lot more social media minded, and the attention spans are a little bit shorter. And the content that we create is much more short form now than it was long form in the past. And so we've used some of those things to adjust our recruiting efforts, our content creation. We've even adjusted some of the contests that we have in the office because we're like, well, hey, if everybody's attention span is shorter, let's not have a month long competition, let's have a week long competition, or let's not have a week long competition. Let's have a shift by shift competition.

Josh Cunningham:
So it's just some of those things of being aware of the environment that people grew up in, but there's still people that are just rock solid, that live by our core values, that are magnetically attracted to our organization, that want to stick around and pursue all the opportunities that come with learning how to do the tough work that we do, because that's really where our whole business came into concept, was doing the work that other people didn't want to do. Realtors were generating tons of leads, and they weren't doing a good job of following up with it. And so we found a problem. We figured out how to solve it, and we found a really good pool of talent to train on how to do that. So, yes, there are some generational trends, but it's not anything that you should subscribe to to become a victim of what your stereotype is projected upon them.

Josh Cunningham:
And you're going to find what you're looking for. Right. So if you want to tell yourself, all Gen Z people are lazy and they just want to hang out on TikTok all day long and blah, blah, blah, blah, guess what you're going to find?

Mark Graban:
Confirmation bias.

Josh Cunningham:
Exactly.

Mark Graban:
Yeah. It seems like the older generations always want to throw stones at the younger generations. I'm Gen X of the stereotype of there was the movie slacker. And so, like, oh, Gen X, Bunch of slackers and latchkey kids. You can generalize, but whenever I hear generalizations of, like, well, the younger generation now wants a sense of purpose, and they want to connect their work to that.

Josh Cunningham:
Everybody does.

Mark Graban:
Well, yeah, I think that's existed, and I think it exists more in the current youngest generation because it hasn't been drummed out of them yet.

Josh Cunningham:
Yes, I think one of the funny realizations that I had was another important culture tool in our business is having masterminds. And before I started my business, I was in the real estate world working for a marketing firm, traveling the country, going to all these different masterminds. So I was exposed to the idea of getting together with a bunch of like minded individuals and talking about your problems and how you can solve them and using the power of the group, the power of the mastermind to move the group to new heights. So when I started my business and I first started hiring my first handful of employees, I'm like, okay, we're trying to solve one problem here, but I bet if I have five employees, we can come up with five different ways to do it, right. So rather than have all this inconsistency in our business, let's make sure that we start creating some best practices and some sops and some policies and procedures.

Josh Cunningham:
So I thought, why not have some masterminds in my own business? So we do. Every month we have a mastermind in our business. We're actually having ours this evening. And what we'll do is we'll bribe all the employees with free food.

Josh Cunningham:
It's not a required event. They don't get to clock in. So they're definitely showing us that they're committed and invested in the organization. But never underestimate the value of free food, though. So we bribe them with a little free food.

Josh Cunningham:
We have them come in, they share the things that they think that are working really well. And we recognize those strengths. And then they talk about the gaps and the voids and the inconsistencies in the business, and we strategize and brainstorm new solutions to that. And I had an employee a couple of years ago sort of kind of having the same conversation we're having about millennials and Gen Z. And they were like, yeah, you know, our employees now, they're not really millennials and Gen Z and this whole mastermind thing, and blah, blah, blah.

Josh Cunningham:
I'm like, I didn't invent the mastermind. The concept of the mastermind comes from Napoleon Hill's think and grow rich, which was written almost 100 years ago. So that's the thing. When we talk about and generalize a generation of talent, like, oh, they want their work to have meaning and purpose and whatever. Okay, who doesn't want that?

Josh Cunningham:
Oh, they want to share ideas and know that their opinions count and their perspective is heard and their ideas matter. Who doesn't want that? You know what I'm saying? Like, in a really true, strong organization where people love the organization, they believe in what you believe in. They want to grow with the company.

Josh Cunningham:
All these things work, no matter how old you are. So that's why I've sort of taken all the lessons that we've learned here at Rokrbox and like you said earlier, started five star company culture, because now I get the opportunity to work with small business owners, entrepreneurs, c suite executives to help them take some of these same tools that work, no matter what age you are, because it's really, truly the study of human behavior in the workplace and showing people that, hey, these are our beliefs, these are our core values. This is our mission. This is our purpose, and we together can accomplish more than we can individually. And just creating some simple routines like huddles and masterminds that help people take their business to new heights.

Mark Graban:
Yeah. So our guest today, again, Josh Cunningham from Rokrbox and the podcast is five star company culture. I love what you're saying here, Josh, around the mindsets and company culture and management styles. Where did you learn these from? Who are some of your influences?

Mark Graban:
Was it early jobs? Was it from books or where?

Josh Cunningham:
Yeah. So I had the privilege of growing up in the getting to see the whole.com boom and bust. My father was a computer programmer, and so that, I think, kind of planted the entrepreneurial seed into my brain of like, wow, you can really go out there and create something that doesn't exist and help people solve problems. And so that's kind of where the entrepreneurial seed was planted. And then throughout all my young professional experiences, I had the opportunity to work at big companies, at small companies, for small business owners, for large business owners.

Josh Cunningham:
But a lot of it comes from the first job that I ever had working at Best Buy. I was a computer nerd in the late 90s, early 2000s, really selling people their first home pc. And so I took the geeky knowledge that I had as a computer nerd and helped translate that into benefits for a lifestyle. And I just kind of naturally, intuitively did that. And so I was like, oh, I guess I'm kind of good at sales.

Josh Cunningham:
And the thing that best buy did that was so successful that I've modeled a lot of is building systems and processes. It's the reason why you can walk into any best buy, whether you're on the east coast or the west coast, and there's a very similar feel because they have standard operating procedures. And so that was one of the lessons that I learned in working in big box retail. And then while I was in college, I had the opportunity of working for a small land developer and property owner, and he was building out a whole development of townhomes. And I could see that the ideas that I would have could immediately get put in place and become a reality.

Josh Cunningham:
And so, obviously, if you're a best buy and you come up with an idea, it's going to be kind of hard for that to become a company wide policy. But when you work for a small business owner and you can actually provide feedback that gets heard and get valued and get put into place again, that sort of fed my entrepreneurial spirit, but it also helped me realize your employees can be a really great asset if you tap into their minds and give them the freedom and empower them to build the business with you. So it was experiences through working for big companies and little companies, and then also mixed in between there. I had a lot of crappy jobs, too. Man, who hasn't had a crappy job?

Josh Cunningham:
So what I say with those experiences is at least that teaches you the things that you don't want to have in your business. So when I was ten years ago, first starting the business, before I'd ever made my first hire, I decided I was like, well, if I'm going to build this business, I'm going to be spending a majority of my life around these people. If you look at the amount of time that you share with people in your life, the first 18 years, you spend it most with your parents. Or if you have kids, the first 18 years of their life is when you spend the most time with them. But once you sort of become a young adult and go off into college or the workforce, the most amount of time you spend is with the people that you work with.

Josh Cunningham:
And so I thought to myself, if I'm going to spend most of my life with these people, who do I want them to be like? I don't want to show up to work and hate the environment that I'm in. I don't want to show up to work and not like the people that I have to work with. So I just sat down and I wrote down five values that were really important to me, that were derived from my professional experience. And I said, these are the types of people that I want to build this empire with.

Josh Cunningham:
And I defined it years before I'd ever even hired my first hire. And then they're the same values that we live by today, and we check and we reinforce and we recognize and make sure that they actually are the values that we live by. And so some of it intuition, some of it personal experience. I did get my degree in entrepreneurial business management from a and m, but I've learned way more outside of school than I ever did in school. And so, yeah, just a combination of all of it being a life learner and working to learn and not necessarily to earn yield, rich dad, poor dad lesson there as well.

Mark Graban:
Yeah. And I really admire that you have that focus on core values. I'm wearing the shirt again today that I was wearing when I was on your podcast. I wear the shirt a lot when I'm doing podcasts from, you know, the co founders there. Greg and know did have a pretty strong focus on culture.

Mark Graban:
A lot of businesses, there's many other things to focus on, your customer needs and your product and your technology. And there's so many things to focus on. I could see where in some businesses, the culture and the values piece maybe takes a lower priority or falls through. What I'm hearing from you today and past conversation is that it seems like for you, correct me if I'm wrong, that culture is pretty much at the top of the list, obviously, totally customers and the market need and the fit of your product and services that matters. But, yeah, it seems like culture is key.

Josh Cunningham:
100%. It's at the top of the list, and it's really at the bottom of the empire. It's the foundation. I used to live in downtown San Diego, and I'd look out my window of my high rise apartment every day and see them building skyscrapers, and you could always tell, like, the telltale sign of how big of a building they were going to build was how deep the hole that they were going to dig. So they'd come through some empty lot or some old dilapidated property, and they'd bulldoze it to the ground, and then they'd start digging and digging and digging and digging.

Josh Cunningham:
I've seen buildings that they spent over a year and a half digging into the ground and removing the dirt. And to me, that's the analogy of what company culture is. When you have a strong foundation, when you have the right base, you can build your business to be miles and miles high. But if you start building something on shaky ground, on quicksand, or on some muddy waters, then it's only so high that it can go before something happens that disrupts it. I mean, there's disruption in life and in business all the time.

Josh Cunningham:
We're going to get curveballs for the rest of our life, but it's not about what happens to you, but how you're able to respond to it. So if you built your business on solid ground and there's some shake up in the market or some pivot in the economy or something, it gives you that strong base, that strong foundation, and that identity of who you are. And then maybe the service that you deliver or the problem that you solve shifts or changes or has to be repriced or repackaged or whatever, but you've got that base for success.

Mark Graban:
Yeah. So maybe. One other question, Josh, about culture and values on the company website. I'll link to this in the show notes. There's a section here of what I believe, and the fourth point here says, as you've articulated, not everything goes right the first time.

Mark Graban:
Learn from your mistakes and be coachable, and you'll possess the mindset of a champion. So what's one other thing that you do as a leader to help others, hopefully share that same belief, that they can admit and learn from mistakes?

Josh Cunningham:
Yeah, I mean, a lot of that comes from being a servant leader. A lot of the business owners and entrepreneurs I get to work with sometimes are their own worst enemy. They're getting in their own way. They're the bottleneck of decisions. They have to have their hands on everything.

Josh Cunningham:
And to me, that's micromanagement. That's not leadership. Leadership is empowering your people to manage themselves and be confident in the decisions that they're going to make. And knowing that as a business owner, nobody's ever going to care about your business more than you do. Right.

Josh Cunningham:
That's a hallucination. If you're going to expect people, because a lot of entrepreneurs and successful people, we're highly driven. We're ten out of 1024, 7365. And then we hire people, and we get upset because they're not at your level of production or performance. And it's like, that's a hallucination.

Josh Cunningham:
You have to be able to be okay with the fact that somebody else is not going to care about your business more than you do because it's your baby. You're the one who created it. And be okay with empowering people to do 80% of what you're capable. If you have a team of people that are all delivering 80% of what you're capable of, you're going to win all sorts of success. And so it's really leading by example and showing people that you're able to admit your own faults.

Josh Cunningham:
Giving people the gift of vulnerability, being able to fall on your sword, being able to let things go, being able to not get so fixated on some minute detail and act in a state of negative emotion. The art of letting it go is one of the most important things that a leader can do. And so when you got to let stuff go, sometimes you got to admit, hey, man, I messed up here. This is the wrong decision. This is a mistake that I made.

Josh Cunningham:
And when you lead by example and you show that that's acceptable within a human capital organization, it doesn't matter what industry you're in. We're still in the business of human capital acquisition. You have to attract and retain top quality people to deliver the services and follow the systems and processes that you've laid out. And so, being the leader, being the visionary, you've got to show people that vulnerability is a gift. You can give it.

Josh Cunningham:
You could admit your faults. We can learn from people's mistakes. And then when we have an environment that allows that, then it just accelerates the growth and the learning of.

Mark Graban:
Yeah. Oh, I love.

Josh Cunningham:
That's.

Mark Graban:
That's very well said, josh. So, as we wrap up here, tell everyone about the five star company Culture podcast. I hope people will go and find that wherever they're listening to us here, but give us kind of an overview of it, certainly.

Josh Cunningham:
So, I mean, Rokrbox has been around for ten years, and all the stages and podcasts that I ever spoke on were. Here's how to convert online leads. Sign up for Rokrbox. And a couple of years ago, I was invited to speak at an event, and the guy who was hosting it was like, yeah, I want you to talk about your Internet lead conversion. But also, I think it's really cool what you do with your company culture and everything, because you do the work that nobody wants to do, and you hire a generation of talent that doesn't have a great reputation for being hard workers.

Josh Cunningham:
And so I gave two keynotes at that event, and the first speech went as normally planned, told everybody all the secrets and told them, we can do it for them, and drove some people to the back of the room to sign up for our services. But then the second talk that I gave, I didn't really have a call to action, but at the end, I was swarmed with people. There was literally people in tears, like, telling me, like, oh, my gosh, this is incredible what you're doing, this opportunity that you're creating for these college students, these skills that you're building them, this foundation for excellence, being core value driven, and all your decisions like, this is phenomenal. And so I thought, okay, all right, I'm onto something here. People need some more help when it comes to this core value stuff.

Josh Cunningham:
Again, it's something that just intuitively came to me through my experiences and through my knowledge. And I'm a part of a ton of different entrepreneurial groups. And I see business owners at the top feeling so lonely having to always be the person to come up with all the decisions and manage everybody's responsibilities. And I thought, well, there's got to be a way I can serve others and give back to the entrepreneurial community. We just started a new podcast.

Josh Cunningham:
It's called Five Star company Culture websites. Fivestarcompanyculture.com. And what I always say is, culture is the know. It's the key to unlocking that freedom. It's the key to unlocking more know.

Josh Cunningham:
I built the business, and then I moved to San Diego, and I lived in downtown San Diego for five years and managed the business from Zoom. A couple of years ago, when the whole world shut down, I bought a 35 foot motorhome, and my wife and our one year old daughter went and traveled the country for four months while nothing else was happening. And we had the freedom to do that because we had established a rock solid five star company culture that was contagious. Over the last ten years, we've hired and trained over 400 Texas A and M students to be inside sales assistants for real estate professionals. And it's the same values, it's the same mentality, it's the same winning effort that we're putting forth.

Josh Cunningham:
So, again, the five star company culture is all about helping other business owners, entrepreneurs, c suite executives. Learn about some of the insights of the few things that you can do, that you can make some minor adjustments to your rituals that will generate huge, positive results in your business. And so now I feel this calling to serve the business community in another way other than just following up with their leads. And so that's what five star company culture is all about.

Mark Graban:
Well, I hope people will check it out and I'll put links to everything in the show notes, Rokrbox, and the podcast and all. I took a quick peek at the website there, five star company culture, and who do I see right away? You shaking hands with Kevin Harrington.

Josh Cunningham:
That's right.

Mark Graban:
Who was my guest in episode one of this podcast.

Josh Cunningham:
Oh, wow, that's awesome.

Mark Graban:
What was your Kevin Harrington connection?

Josh Cunningham:
Yeah, so one of my marketing coaches does a lot of business with Kevin Harrington, and I saw him speaking at an event and was able to have an opportunity to do an interview with him. And so that interview is actually about some of the different things that we're doing with our company culture at Rokrbox. And so, yeah, it was an awesome opportunity. He's a super cool guy, incredibly savvy, serial entrepreneur till the day dies. He's got his hands on a lot of different stuff, but, yeah, it's been a pleasure getting to know him over the last couple of years.

Josh Cunningham:
Yeah.

Mark Graban:
I'll give a shout out. This podcast would not exist, I think, without Kevin Harrington agreeing. You had to have someone to agree to do that first episode. And he set such a good example, as you put it, Josh, being vulnerable and sharing a story of a mistake that he doesn't have to share. But I appreciate it when he did that.

Mark Graban:
I appreciate you, Josh, for doing the same here today.

Josh Cunningham:
Yeah, certainly. Thank you very much. It's been a pleasure getting to chat with you, Mark. Yeah.

Mark Graban:
So again, Josh Harrington. No, he's not Kevin Harrington's relative. Josh. My mistake. Josh Cunningham five, starcompanyculture.com.

Mark Graban:
Check out the podcast. Go to Rokrbox, the website. The spelling will be in the show notes. It's the marketing thing of a couple missing letters. Rokrbox, right?

Josh Cunningham:
That's right. I get to spell that for the rest of my. Yeah, but if you google it, we got all the search results. So Rokrbox.com, well done.

Mark Graban:
All right, well, Josh, hey, thank you for being a guest here. Really, really enjoyed it.

Josh Cunningham:
Yeah. Thank you again. It's been a pleasure, Mark. Thanks.