The ROI of Kindness: The Surprising Secret That Generates Long-Term Results by the Best-Selling Author, Speaker, and CEO Brian Biro on Episode #0316

Brian Biro [00:00:00]:

Hi. I’m Brian Byrow of www.BryanBiro.com, and you’re listening to EAInterviews.

Mario Fachini [00:00:06]:

EA Interviews episode 0316

Mario Fachini [00:00:09]:

Inspiration, transformation, success stories, and the imperfect action round 7 days a week. Join Mario Fachini for today’s Authority Effect Interview. Would you like to know the surprising secret that creates long term success? How would you like to know what major corporations do to increase their ROI? I’m gonna cheat a little bit here but check this out. spoken for Starbucks 35 times Lockheed Martin 90 seven times Pizza Hut 40 times Allstate Insurance 23 times Microsoft 40 times Kaiser permit, meant 8th 60 times and REMAX 60 plus times. I am beyond excited to have by Brian Birow here, the author of the ROI of Kindness because he’s gonna be sharing all of these insights and more right after we thank our sponsor.

Sponsor [00:00:58]:

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Mario Fachini [00:01:22]

Here he is, ladies and gentlemen, Brian Biro. Brian, how are you feeling today?

Brian Biro [00:01:27]:

I am feeling great with that wonderful introduction. It just proved I’m old.

Mario Fachini [00:01:33]:

It it proved that you’re you have a wealth of wisdom and experience, and I’m excited to learn some of that because, you know, I I see I saw the one sheet you know, probably a month or two ago whenever it was. I was like, wow. Absolutely. And, you know, reading it over the last of days. And even now, I’m like, I’m not gonna mess this up. We get one shot. This thing’s live, and I generally don’t look at something. But I’m like, I just wanted to make sure you got the credit because you have just so much experience, and I am so excited to have you here. So why do you think kindness is so important?

Brian Biro [00:02:09]:

Well, you know, Mario, first of all, thank you for that. I I feel honored to be with you. You do an incredible job, and you’re making a difference with incredible interviews. And why is it kinda so important? Well, we all want kindness in our lives. and we wanna we wanna feel that we’re treated with kindness, we feels good to be kind. But I wrote the book, the ROI of kindness, to point out something that really breaks through a myth. So many of us have been raised, especially in the business world, to think that your kindness is nice, but it’s weak. Kindnesses got no place in business. It’s doggy dog. But I wanted to, first of all, research and find the truth. And the truth is that is real old thinking that kindness not only feels good, kindness rocks, kindness works all the way to the bottom line. Your return on investment at in every way that you can imagine from reduce reducing turnover to course building up a feeling of loyalty and commitment and inspiration from your team, to the way you interact with customers and clients. So I wanted to really bring out the fact that kindness is not just a nice thing. It’s a It is a practical, productive, awesome culture building tool that can change the way that your team functions changes the flow of your business and differentiates you in every way. And I also believe we need kindness in our in our whole world more than I’ve ever seen in my lifetime that there’s so much separation. My mentor was the greatest coach of all time. His name was John Wooden, and he used to say we need to be able to disagree without being disagreeable. and that’s really one at the heart of something that has been building in me. And that’s why I have that passion to write this book and not only talk about kind but help people understand how you really deliver it.

Mario Fachini [00:03:51]:

What would you say for an organization that is going odd? That’s just that floofy stuff and, you know, they’re they’re just stuck with that old thinking.

Brian Biro [00:04:00]:

Well, let me give you a a specific example. In the fast food industry, the quick service food industry. What is the biggest challenge that they face? It’s very simple. Anybody who has been around it? No. It’s turnover. And the average turnover In the quick service food industry, per year, average annual turnover is a 170%. So, essentially, you have to turn over your employees twice a year. There are 2 companies in that industry that are known for building a kindness culture. In fact, it’s it’s the cornerstone of their entire flow. It’s how they are built. It’s how they reinforce every day. It’s how they train every day. It’s it’s in their orientation. Those two companies are Chick Fil A and Starbucks. So an industry with a 170% turnover, the turnover for those 2 companies at Chick Fil A is 14%, And at Starbucks, it’s 24%. And when you figure that it costs in that industry about $6000 every time you replace an employee, That’s a lot lot right to the bottom line, and that’s just measuring those dollars. It’s not measuring the the improvement in customer service you get with people who have a little more experience are already into the flow. So there’s a great example. Another great example, an industry that that I use a ton up until about a year ago and starting again because I’m a professional speaker out there as the airline industry. What’s the company that’s synonymous with the combination of kindness and fun. That is the core of their culture, Southwest Airlines. Southwest Airlines, 46 years without ever having a layoff. without ever without ever being unprofitable, they are profitable 46 years in a row. Wow. Their average their average turnover is less than 3% in an industry that’s 30%. And when you consider how much much more than 6000 a person it does to replace someone in that industry, kindness rocks.

Mario Fachini [00:05:53]:

Absolutely. Those are some killer stats there. It’s no longer just floofy or anything. You have like hard data on it. And I had no problem with it to begin with, but I know some people you nailed this saying, oh, it’s weak. It’s this, that, the other thing. It’s like, You know, even if you do have the profits, if you have no soul and no one you know, oh, they’re a good business. They’re efficient. But people don’t want I I don’t I I know people don’t want to do business with businesses and blank faceless entities. It’s a human interaction. the people want nice people.

Brian Biro [00:06:29]:

They do more than ever. In fact, in the last 5 years, the single component, the single element that that is the the biggest element of choice. So what how do we differentiate? When you think about almost every industry, if we’re in that industry deliver somewhat the same products, We gotta differentiate somehow, and it really comes through people. And by far, the most important in terms of how important it is and the decision we make mean, who we’re gonna buy from, who we’re gonna work with, who we’re gonna stay with. And also in the terms of the the rate at which that importance is growing, is kindness. I’m talking about three times as much as any other element. We want to feel good when we go to the dentist. We wanna well, we may not feel good at the dentist when we come out, but we wanna feel good about how we were treated. We wanna feel great about the experience that people really consider us to be important as a customer that we’re that we’re that we mean something. We wanna feel and that’s how we build an organically sustainable business because ultimately, what we want is organic growth, meaning we don’t have to spend 1,000,000,000 of dollars to create that growth, that it comes from word-of-mouth, that it comes from referral, that comes from people talking about how awesome they felt with you. And I think that every one of the people who turn into your podcast, they think about the company’s that they really, really like to patronize. The countries that the companies that they they talk about, that they go to. I guarantee you somewhere in there is that focus on the way that they’re treated with kindness with a sense of, hey. You make me feel like I matter and I can’t. I’m not just a number. I’m not just a thing. I’m a human being and somebody that you really want to take care of.

Mario Fachini [00:08:05]:

You know, you reminded me a lot of when I was at this leadership event Horst Schultz, I believe is his name. He he was the CEO or still is of Ritz Carlton, and he was talking about you know, if if there’s one industry you wanna be nice to people in, it’s the hotel industry. And it what he was given away all the secrets why why they’re so successful in the experience. And, you know, I love that you have the data backing it up, and I’m sure you have a list of 100 other companies that are super succeeding. So what would you say to someone who wants to incorporate it, but the team might not be on board, or they wanna incorporate it for business reasons, but it’s not the core of who they are.

Brian Biro [00:08:50]:

That’s a great question. I think that the key is is that kindness I I talk about in the book that starting place to build a kindness culture is something that’s called a kindness value proposition. And and the key to doing that really well in organization is try is get buy in from your teams, to have your team engaged in the process of designing this very simple It’s a kind of vision statement. It needs to be very short. No more than 10 words. But a kindness value proposition is a way of expressing who we are and how we deliver kindness. So example, Chick Fil A, it’s a pleasure to serve. at at at Southwest Airlines, having fun and and serving people. They don’t talk about airplanes, and they don’t talk about chicken in They talk about how we deliver kindness. And when people people really come around to a simple clear message I have a personal experience when I was in my corporate career long ago before I went in to become in a professional speaker. Our organization turned around with our kindness value proposition, and it was that we are we are champions of empowerment. Now we wrote that as a team 35 years ago, and I can guarantee you everyone on that team today will be able to tell you those same words because there’s only 5 words. We are champions of empowerment. and every decision we made, every way, every time that we wanted to acknowledge and appreciate someone was built around that core culture building principle. Culture eats strategy for breakfast. Right? And building a culture starts to be sustainable, starts to be scalable. and that’s what we really want. We wanna be able to grow with that culture. So start with that simple foundational piece and get by at it and It’s funny when to talk about you brought up the best way the best way I can describe it is when we came up with that simple idea. I had caught I was the boss. I walked in the room with this really long what I thought was really cool written piece that was gonna be our kinda value proposition. I don’t think they kept one word. Everybody else turned it into we are champions of empowerment. And though it wasn’t my words, when we came out, it was our words. and it became our passion and it became our litmus test as to whether decisions were the right decisions. If they didn’t serve if they didn’t fit a we are champions empowerment, We didn’t do it.

Mario Fachini [00:11:09]:

What what time time frame should someone expect it would take to implement this? Obviously, You could say, let’s schedule a meeting. We’ll have a group round table. We’ll mastermind this and that. You can do that within the next twenty 4 hours to a week depending on the schedule of the industry, this and that. How long would you say it takes to get everyone on board fully not just fully implement it, but get it into the organization and then have it start taking the roots where it is fully implemented. Is this like a week long process, a 60 day process, a 2 year process, how quick can someone turn around to start getting these results?

Brian Biro [00:11:48]:

Well, inch by inch, anything’s a cinch. So the starting place is to create that first statement. And that can be it depends upon of course, upon your your the the size of your organization, it depends upon, you know, your where everybody is right now, but you can literally do that within a week. There’s come up with that simple piece. But the way to think about it is not as when are we gonna get it done. It’s it’s a ongoing piece. You consistently reinforce it. You think about Every single aspect of your communication has to come back to that piece. Every meeting you have starts with your with your kindness value proposition. And it’s corny, but it starts to build that piece. And every great team is built around some simple principle, simple belief. Coach Wooden said success is peace of mind. It comes from knowing you’ve been the best of which you’re capable. He created a simple model called the pyramidous assess, but the key wasn’t they did those. The key was that they were they were always there every single day until it becomes built in your DNA. So it’s really important. I love that you asked a question because we tend to think in terms of tasks and we get it done and then it’s done. No. This one is alive. This one is breathing. This is something that you feed every single day. But the initial piece to come up with the kindness value proposition, you can do in a very short period of even if you’re a huge organization. Just just depends on how much feedback and what mechanisms used to generate that input and feedback to to come up with what becomes your model that you run with?

Mario Fachini [00:13:19]:

So we talked about why you should be doing it and what the benefits are, obviously, increased profits, loyalty, all these different things. What does it do to the customers when they start having this experience? You know, regardless of the money in the at margins because they don’t know those. But what what did you say it does to the customers and the brand over the life of the company?

Brian Biro [00:13:40]:

Well, again, it’s, again, a great question. and that is what what happens with kindness is kindness is is a multiplying kind of impact. Example, There is a wonderful story in in Starbucks and and in Chick Fil A, they have all these stories. But here’s a simple little story. A customer came in probably a couple times a week through chick Fil A. One day was in a hurry. It was on a phone call while they’re picking up their food at the drive through window and forgot to take their change. It was $2.83. Alright. Well, in another organization that doesn’t have a kind of value propositions called a pleasure to serve, What happens to that $2.83 goes into the pocket. It goes back in the till. That’s that. It’s over. But because of that litmus test, because of that ongoing cultural phenomenon called a pleasure to serve. That person who that that person who was handing out the food took that money put their name on put the name of the client because they also part of kindness is paying attention to who the person is and learn their name put it in an envelope, put it in front, made a note to anybody else who is there. Well, a week later, the person comes back in. They get their chicken sandwich, And at the same time, say, hey. You forgot your $282.83 last week. Here you go. Now how do I know that story? Because it’s been told 75,000,000,000,000 times starting with that person who was treated with that extraordinary level. So the impact on the customer is multiplied. I’ll give you another example, a personal example.

Mario Fachini [00:15:07]:

Please do.

Brian Biro [00:15:08]:

1 of the industries that is right front and center in our world in the last year more than ever is health care. And I’ve done over 60 training events for for 1 of the larger HMOs in the world, Kaiser Permanente. Well, I was brought into 1 one big medical center who had an area in their company that was not living up to their patient care standard. and patient care is everything that Kaiser’s about. And they are very meticulous in how they measure it, and it must be at least above 85. Well, it was mother child health care, which is birth in babies. And you think, boy, that’s still a good thing in a hospital. But they were having trouble. They could not get over 60 on this on this scale where 85 is the minimum acceptable. So I came in and did a series of interviews, then we did trainings. And what we established was a a really wonderful format to build kindness in your organization that we called the 4Ws. The first w is called welcome that kinda starts with the welcome. And not just the first time you walk in, but welcome everywhere you go. And from the team, I found out there were places where people were not feeling welcome. The second was warmth. Now people think kindness warmth. They are the same thing. but here’s where it really matters. It’s easy to be kind to kind people. Where warmth and kindness counts is to be kind to people who are not kind. People who are scared, in pain, worried, doubting. That’s where they felt they were falling short was they were kind when people were kind, but when people were a little brus where and then when you’re in giving your birth to your first child, sometimes you’re in pain, you’re worried, you’re scared. It’s a new experience. So the second w was warmth. The 3rd was one that is vital at any organization, and it’s we, WE. It doesn’t do enough to provide kindness to your customers if you’re not providing it to one another. Soon or later, it’s gonna come out to the customer as well. And they found that, hey. We do a pretty good job and warmth and welcome to our patients, but we’re not that way to each other. We have these silos between night shift, day shift, between the different different functional groups within the organization. And when you put those 3 together, welcome, warmth, and we, and put him in the context of kindness, that 4th w will come, and it’s called world class. And after one quarter of implementing it after 2 years of being under 60 on their scores, they were 88. The next quarter, they went to 92 and they’ve never gone back because they continually focus on these simple 4 w’s. That’s how effective and simple it can be in a gigantic organization.

Mario Fachini [00:17:47]:

That’s impressive. That’s a very significant jump. I it’s like 20, 25%.

Brian Biro [00:17:54]:

Huge jump, a huge jump. And and then think about the other side of it. Think about how good people feel to be an organization that is creating that kind of word-of-mouth, that kind of that kind of feeling that when you walk in, you feel really a part of something rather than it’s just a job.

Mario Fachini [00:18:11]:

And keeping it going. You said they never fell back. It’s one thing to get there. And by all means, you know, for people that have done that, great job. But it’s another thing to keep it no matter what the industry business personal. You know, anyone I don’t wanna say well, yeah, anyone can get there, but it takes a different type of person to maintain it.

Brian Biro [00:18:30]:

And and it’s key one key principle to make that happen is simplicity. Keep it simple. You know, the the Kiss principle. Keep it simple superstar because we tend to complicate things. And when we complicate things, then it starts to get it starts to get tougher to maintain that focus. Alright? So the key there was It’s the 4 w’s, and we repeat them and repeat them. Everybody knows them. And so it starts to build, as I say, into the DNA of the organization to where It’s an automatic. It’s a habit. It’s an absolute natural focus, and that’s how we can maintain it.

Mario Fachini [00:19:06]:

Do you think there’s any way they could go from 92 to 345? Is there anyone at 9899 or a100 or is it like just the way it’s graded.

Brian Biro [00:19:17]:

Well, I you’re talking to the eternal optimists. So is there any way? Absolutely. We can get up there, but

Mario Fachini [00:19:23]:

I’m with you on that.

Brian Biro [00:19:24]:

You raise a key point. There’s gonna be always somebody who you know, we all had teachers where we did the best job of our life. Mhmm. to be plus. and we knew it was an, hey, and any other teacher. So you could have some graders who’re gonna be tougher from the patient care standpoint. But so I I think that The key is to keep moving forward. Keep setting aside and move at 92, say, hey. It wouldn’t take that much to get to 94. And when you’re at 94, 96 doesn’t look that far away. And ninety 97 doesn’t look that far away. That’s how you get there. My first career was as a United States swimming coach and something powerful, a principal call. What you focus on is what you create. And, Mario, I can’t tell you how many times I had athletes who were striving to make a time standard. So the way you qualify for the national championships is you must meet a time standard. You have to swim an event within that time frame. Right? I can’t tell you how many times I had athletes hit exactly that time standard. because that’s why and we’re talk talking to the 100th of a second. And it always made me think, what if I would have told them the time center was a little bit faster? It probably would’ve hit it because what we focus on is what we create, whether it’s good or whether it’s bad. So that’s why it’s so vital to focus on what you wanna create.

Mario Fachini [00:20:37]:

Wow. That’s powerful. 1100th of a second. You you never told them I mean, could could you have told them it was one second faster than what it really was?

Brian Biro [00:20:52]:

Well, that’s what I thought. I should have done that. But, you know, when but they know the standard when it comes to it, but it it made me realize how how much more we have in this. One of my books is called There Are No Overachievers. And that was something that John Woodens would say a lot. And what it meant was we have no idea, really, how much we have inside of us. Every so often, we may approach our potential. And we when we do, it’s it’s such a remarkable feeling. And so when we set those standards a little bit higher and we really keep moving those standards forward, We have something in us that can move us towards that that that new destination. And and help us identify things ourselves. We didn’t know we’re there.

Mario Fachini [00:21:32]:

Yeah. And we’re always striving for that. You know, the next point, if you’re ambitious enough to go from a to b, you wanna go from b to c, c to d, And, you know, something I tell people frequently is don’t freaking enjoy the journey because where you are today is exactly what you were praying for, you know, in in my case, a 100 episodes ago.

Brian Biro [00:21:53]:

Absolutely. Absolutely. And focus on controlling your controllables. This is a big thing in the last year because that’s how you enjoy the journey. When we are controlling our controllables, we feel momentum We feel confidence. We feel inspired. But when we try to control the things we don’t control, how do we feel in? Worried, frustrated, angry, lost. And so all of my work is about focusing on the things we do control. Now We want great results, but what we need to focus on is what we need to do to get to those results. We focus on what we put in, great things will come out. And so the whole foundation of everything that I teach is about what I call breakthrough leadership and kindnesses of perfect part of this. But it’s about the first the first controllable is to shape your future, and that’s about vision. That if you’re focusing on what you don’t want, you’re gonna get it because what you focus on is what you create. Alright? If you focus on what you do want, that’s like setting that time standard, I’m gonna get there. I’m gonna get to that over 85. The second is to energize and engage your team. One thing that happens in an environment that feels a lot of kindness is energy starts to rise. And here’s an incredibly important simple principle to our children, to our customers, to anyone that we care about having a major positive impact on our life, our energy is our example. Our energy is our example. People won’t remember that much of what you say no matter how well you say it, and they’ll never forget your energy. Alright?

Brian Biro [00:23:29]:

There the energy is speaking much louder than words. And so energy is a controllable. And through the way that we move and our focus on purpose, that’s how we can elevate our energy. and the 3rd controllable is

Brian Biro [00:23:40]:

to build people, build teams, and build relationships. Mario, every person who watches your podcast, no matter what industry they’re in, they’re in the same fundamental business. It’s called the people business. It’s the relationships you build. It’s how you grow. It’s how you adapt. It’s how you change. It’s the way you help others do the same. that’s gonna determine as you not only the success of your business, but as you say, the joy, the fun, the inspiration you have along the way.

Mario Fachini [00:24:07]:

This is some great insight, and I I wanna ask you, like, 551 more questions, but I wanna go back first and talk about that energy because whether you’re in a room with someone on the phone, you know, on video, whatever the case is, How do you think people sense that energy? I’m glad you talked about the importance but if you can’t see someone If you’re even on the phone, it’s easy to tell when you’re in a room with someone and you’re near them you can, you know, you can tell, but how do you pick it up on the phone? How do you pick it up on video, why do you think it permeates through all these different mediums regardless? And where does it start with?

Brian Biro [00:24:48]:

Well, that’s again, you got some beautiful and and very, very insightful questions. The banner study on communication was done at UCLA many years ago. and it and it looked at the 3 elements in our human communication. There’s body language, so that’s that’s what we’re saying without words. it’s tonality, so that’s not what we say but how we say it. And then there’s finally the third element is words. So this study was set to ascertain what is the relative importance of each of those and what actually communicates? Well, 55% of communication is is body language. 38% is not what we say, but how we say it. It’s tonality. Words are only 7%. Now you raised the point. Well, what about over the phone when they can’t see? Of course, now we see each other even on the phone. But the truth is you can read somebody’s body language without seeing it because it’s coming through their tonality. You can feel when somebody’s really energized. So the first understanding is that communication that’s like when we travel to a foreign country and we don’t speak a language, We still can communicate through our body language and even our tonality. We’ll get there. The second key is to be fully present. And if there’s one thing that I hope I can give to more people than any other idea, it’s the importance of being fully present. Energy is transferred only when we’re fully present. And the fact is you can’t fake that in communication. You know on the phone whether somebody’s you know, multitasking while you’re talking to them because they’re because that tonality, that body language shifts, and you pick it up immediately. You can tell when they’re watching ESPN when they could be talking with you right now. So being fully present means that when you’re with someone, A 100% of your mind, body, and spirit is with the person you’re with where they are now. And that says an sends an unmistakable message. Whenever we’re fully present with somebody, it says to them, you’re important. You matter. You count. And whenever you’re not present, it sends an equally powerful but different message that you’re not that important. Now I think that part of the reason you’re you’ve been so success with your podcast is just doing this interview. You’re so present. You’re right there. You’re really listening and taking it in before you formulate what you’re gonna say next. This is what I call the gift being fully present because I believe that our job, no matter what we our position is, our job is what and I think we’re all breakthrough leaders. is to help the people that we lead, that we serve, that we love, to know they’re important. And the fundamental way we deliver that message is by being fully present.

Mario Fachini [00:27:27]:

Wow. I I could listen to you all all day. Like, I would I can’t wait to see you on stage, like, 6 hours straight. You’re you have so much you’re sharing, and I appreciate it. And, you know, I wanna make a joke about the phone because, yeah, you can tell when someone’s not listening, you’ll hear them rustling or just meandering. Or am I on speakerphone? Or there there you have these context clues, but I’ll just say this for anyone who tries that crap. Change your freaking settings because if you’re texting someone and the phone is vibrating, and you hear it’s I don’t get it from people I talk to. a ton. I’m going real back in the long long time ago but I was like really? Really? Alright then.

Brian Biro [00:28:17]:

You you can’t fake being present. We know instantly when somebody has shifted their consciousness away from us —

Mario Fachini [00:28:22]:

And this you’re right. It’s in their tone. I mean, I’m making a joke. I’m not making a joke. seriously check your settings. If you’re doing that crap, 1, be fully present, and it’s not an issue, but 2, seriously, like, whatever. But you can hear in the tonality shift in the focus. You don’t need all these other things. It just makes it very easy to tell.

Brian Biro [00:28:44]:

Mario, I’d love to share a really quick story about how — Please. — moving from your from your head to your heart. The the greatest gift I’ve ever been given was given even my 2 daughters when eight and three years old. And at that time, my speaking career had taken off. I was on the and I was consulting for a company that was growing very fast as well. So I was on the road about 24 days a month. And we actually moved from the big city of Seattle to a little town in Western Montana so that I would be a more fully present dad. That when I was home, I would work out of my home. I would be there to get them ready for school, I’d be there after school to take them to dance, help them with homework, we’d have family dinners, tuck them in at night. But sometimes we know what to do, but we don’t do what we know. And at that time, almost all of business was done on the phone. We didn’t have much email. We had no in social media, no text or anything. So I would

Mario Fachini [00:29:38]:

go in my office.

Brian Biro [00:29:40]:

Yeah. I would go in my office at [4:40] in the morning, and Long story short, I missed all those beautiful moments. And one night when I could have been tucking in my daughters and reading them a story and being present, Instead, I was reaching from my phone in my office and about to take care of a whole bunch of voice mails. And my daughters walked in, crawled up in my lap, looked me in the eye, 8 and 3, and changed my life. And they grabbed my heart, and they shook it. And they said, daddy, we just wanna know before we go to sleep tonight. Do you love your phone more than you love us? I felt the blade go in deep, Mario. You know, Emerson said, what you do scream so loudly, I really can’t hear a word you’re saying. And I was living my life as if my phone was a higher priority than my daughters. Well, I will tell you I tucked him in that night, and I never missed another night when I was home. The next morning, I got him ready for school, And I never missed another morning when I was home, and my wife was, like, the happiest person in the world because she’s not a morning girl. Right? And she had been doing all that carrying the load of presents. That day, I made a significant shift.

Mario Fachini [00:30:48]:

Good for you.

Brian Biro [00:30:48]:

And I said from that day forward, I would never do more than 7 events a month no matter what you pay me. And so from that day forward, My goal in life became to be more fully present. I never missed one of their dance performances. I never missed one of their school events. But here’s the part. I thought I was doing it for them. Every dimension of our life professionally, health wise, everything elevated with that simple decision to be more fully present. because you don’t get less done being president. You get more done. Right? And none of my books got written until my daughters shook my heart, woke me up, and made me realize that the greatest The thing that’s gonna last when I’m gone to them was that I was present for them even in those special moments when it really mattered.

Mario Fachini [00:31:31]:

Good for you. Yeah. That’s what they’re gonna remember. That’s that’s for sure. I I was just I had Garland Vance on recent so. And he actually was a director for Chick Fil A for 15 plus years, and we had a great conversation. And I’m seeing a pattern here because we were talking about You know, when people remember at the end of their life and I love what you said about, you know, no matter how much you pay me because the reality is you can do 35 events a month. or you could do

Brian Biro [00:32:01]:

7

Mario Fachini [00:32:02]:

and get paid 5 times as much. It’s just math. It’s just math.

Brian Biro [00:32:07]:

very good math, and I will tell you that became my that’s how I determine my fees. When when I started to get demand beyond those 7 events, it was time to raise my fees. because I was not gonna change that. I never did. And I’m and I really appreciate it because presence is the key to balance. We’re not gonna have equal time. You know, we’re just not going to. There’s so much going on in the world, but 5 minutes of being fully present with someone is worth 5 years of faking it, and you can’t fake it.

Mario Fachini [00:32:35]:

Oh, I like that. That’s a great expert authority in sight. That I like that a lot. I have one more question for you before we thank our sponsor and come back for the imperfect action round.

Mario Fachini [00:32:47]:

And I think you’re gonna absolutely love it.

Brian Biro [00:32:49]:

I love it. Yay.

Mario Fachini [00:32:51]:

Oh, that’s better.

Brian Biro [00:32:52]:

I’m ready.

Mario Fachini [00:32:53]:

It’s the wheel of whatever. You want yellow or black?

Brian Biro [00:32:56]:

I love it. Let’s go yellow.

Mario Fachini [00:32:58]:

Oh, I’ve never done this before. That’s interesting. kind of fun. You said yellow? Okay. Cool. Yellow. Oh, I gotta ask you that one. Okay. so many questions out there. So my question is for you is with the ROI of kindness, obviously, it’s working personally. It’s working in business. Let’s take it a step further. What would happen to sports and politics if we incorporated the ROI of kindness?

Brian Biro [00:33:29]:

Now you’ve got my hidden motive, especially the last one politics. I just believe that what we’ve done is created so much separation. so much us against them, and it never works. My corporate career, we had a sing my first job at in the corporate arena, I ended up becoming a vice president of a large transportation company. And we were, as politics are now, separated operations hated sales, sales hated operations just hated the home office a little bit more. And that just was so foreign to me from my background in sports. where team team is everything. And that’s where I started doing team building training. And I watched us turn from not from the outside, not from the marketplace. From the inside, we turned into an an enormously successful organization. And that was simply because we understood that it we can disagree without being disagreeable. We can respect each other. and then we can start to really honor and value differences. I don’t want a team of people who are just like me because then they’ll only see the little bit that I see. I want people on my team who have talents I don’t have. I want people on my team who have passion in areas that I don’t have. And then if we’re working towards that common end, that kindness value proposition, that goal that we’re going together, then we’re gonna be a thousand times stronger than it just to having a bunch of people doing the same thing. So a lot of the organizations say we gotta be like minded. I think we gotta be like hearted. That’s what really matters. When we’re like hearted, then we value and honor differences. And another word for differences that’s, I think, is a much more productive word, and it leads towards kindness. And we could do this in politics as well. It’s called resources. Differences are resources. Right? I want people who have great talents in the in the areas that I don’t. That’s a new resource. So What would happen to this world if we could, again, remember that we can disagree without being disagreeable? We can find some common ground. We can be a model of that for our children rather than if you don’t believe what I believe you’re bad.

Mario Fachini [00:35:39]:

The the insights just keep coming. Love that. Thank you for the deep thoughtful response, and I’ve always envisioned that. Just what if you know, the whole why can’t we get along? What if we did? What would the world be like if We just stopped some of the nonsense and found ways we could help each other. One of the main reasons I started business, all it is is asking people for help and you get rewarded for it. Not really that hard of a concept.

Brian Biro [00:36:05]:

Great perspective. We can respect each other. We can respect each other that we we ultimately want the same things. We wanna live joyous lives. We want our families to be to be happy, to be healthy, to be safe. The the ultimately, we gotta remember we’re going towards the same things. and we may have different ways of getting there. But if we start from the place of of respecting each other’s ultimate outcome, and those are the outcomes, then we should be able to find that common ground and treat each other with kindness.

Mario Fachini [00:36:34]:

I like what you said about the like hearted. Lot of people like minded, but more need to be like hearted. So thank you for that. We’re gonna thank our sponsor and come back for the imperfect action round. Brian.

Sponsor – EAPublishingMethodBook.com [00:36:48]:

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Mario Fachini [00:37:08]:

And I went from having an idea and a pasta ability to actually getting my book published.

Mario Fachini [00:37:16]:

Or Catherine.

Mario Fachini [00:37:17]:

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Mario Fachini [00:37:20]:

or Mary Alice.

Mario Fachini [00:37:22]:

What he got done for me in 3 days regarding my book launch.

Mario Fachini [00:37:28]:

Sure. Unmanageable. John Cody.

Mario Fachini [00:37:31]:

I’ve worked with Mario over the phone and online, and he’s been very helpful in getting me where I needed to go with promoting my books. Rosio,

Mario Fachini [00:37:38]:

there’s no way in the world been able to do this with somebody else. Again, I’ve attempted it in the past. It didn’t serve me. As a matter of fact, I ended up more frustrated than anything. So this has been a very seamless

Mario Fachini [00:37:49]:

Adele.

Mario Fachini [00:37:50]:

If you’re looking for an amazing business coach, I highly recommend Mario Fuchini. Or Bill Bener.

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Mario Fachini [00:38:23]

And we’re back with the imperfect action around Brian you ready to take imperfect action? Ready.

Brian Biro [00:38:27]:

I’m ready. I’m loose. I’m ready to go.

Mario Fachini [00:38:30]:

Alright. Three questions. 62nd or less answers. The first question is, what is the fastest path to the profits?

Brian Biro [00:38:38]:

Kindness.

Mario Fachini [00:38:41]:

Very good. Number 2, what is the biggest problem when you see prospects making in the fastest way for them to fix it?

Brian Biro [00:38:48]:

for prospects making. They tell instead of asks. Ask more. You got 2 ears, one mouth, good ratio. Listen first. And then you’ll make then you’ll make the right direct you’ll go in the right direction.

Mario Fachini [00:39:00]:

Excellent. Number 3. What is the best way to maximize customer lifetime value?

Brian Biro [00:39:07]:

I could fall back on kindness but I would say be fully present and deliver kindness that way. And then you’re gonna really, really build customer loyalty, customer joy, customer referral, and recommendation.

Mario Fachini [00:39:22]:

I appreciate that, but you would have been fine with kindness. I’m like, we just spent the

Mario Fachini [00:39:25]:

whole time talking about it and how profitable, how much better it is, customer loyalty, like

Mario Fachini [00:39:29]:

all these things. You know? It it’s a no brainer, so thank you for that. What books would you recommend to export authority world?

Brian Biro [00:39:38]:

Well, obviously, the ROI of kindness is a a book that I would love to get everyone to read. It’s a it’s a quick read. It’s a fun read. It’s filled with stories. And stories are 22 times more powerful than just facts and information. So stories are way we take things from the head to the heart. I love to help Keep alive. The principles I learned from John Wooden, my first book was called Beyond Success, and it’s built around what he called the pyramid of Success. And if there’s a book that I didn’t write that I encourage people to read because I think it can change your life. It’s called Man Search For Meaning. Mhmm. And it was by Viktor Frankl, and it shows humanity, how we could how we can endure the toughest challenges as we’ve gone through in the last year and come out better on the other side.

Mario Fachini [00:40:23]:

I like that. Constant improvement, changing the world to making it better, nothing wrong with that. Actually, let me rephrase that. Everything good with that.

Brian Biro [00:40:33]:

Everything good with that. That’s what you focus on is what you create. Focus on the breakthrough, not the obstacle.

Mario Fachini [00:40:38]:

There we go. Where would you like people to learn more?

Brian Biro [00:40:43]:

Simple, just go to my website. BrianBiro.com. brianbiro.com. It talks about my speaking, which is my passion. I joke Mario went on stage. I’m 25. When I get off stage, I go back to 66. But on stage, I’m 25. So bryanviro.com. Thank you so much.

Mario Fachini [00:41:01]:

Excellent. Well, it was a pleasure, and thank you again for sharing everything. Expert Authority World. We have another great episode here today. I’ll see you tomorrow. Have a great day, and God bless.

Sponsor – EAPublishingMethodBook.com [00:41:14]

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Mario Fachini [00:41:51]:

Thanks for listening to today’s episode. I would love to know what you enjoyed most from it. If you haven’t done so already, I invite you to connect with me on my new LinkedIn you can go to it directly at EAInterviews.com/LinkedIn. Once again, that’s EAInterviews.com/LinkedIn. Lastly, check out the full EAInterviews.com site for complete show notes, the full interview video experience links to the resources we mentioned and more. Have a blessed day, and I’ll see you on the next one.