GE 243: Why Entrepreneur Jim Twerdahl Credits Never Having Breakfast Alone to His Business Success [podcast]

Hey everyone! In today’s episode I share the mic with Jim Twerdahl, president of many companies, including JBL, Marantz, and a biotech startup.

Tune in to hear Jim discuss the importance of referrals and professional connections for faster growth, the marketing lessons he’s learned from being president of JBL and other companies, his process for hiring and interviewing executive candidates, and why most startups fail by getting diverted by too many potential opportunities.

Download podcast transcript [PDF] here: Why Entrepreneur Jim Twerdahl Credits Never Having Breakfast Alone to His Business Success TRANSCRIPT

Time-Stamped Show Notes:

• [00:33] Before we begin, please leave a review and rating and subscribe to the Growth Everywhere Podcast!
• [01:38] Jim is a native Chicagoan and moved East to go to business school.
• [01:53] He became president of a company for the first time at age 27, but was fired a year later.
  • [02:08] By a happy coincidence, he ended up in a HiFi business, which eventually led to his move to JBL in California.
  • [02:32] He then moved on to become president of a biotech startup.
• [02:57] Later, he became president of Marantz, after which he and a friend bought several small companies.
  • [03:37] His business partner went back to academia, so Jim started a consulting business.
  • [04:03] He also started an investment practice.
• [04:50] Jim has made a lot of mistakes, but he has learned from them and gained a great deal of wisdom.
  • [05:41] Really understanding your demographic/target market is key to marketing success.
• [06:37] Jim finds Peter Drucker’s books intuitive and thoughtful; they proved to be helpful to his career.
  • [07:01] Lately, he’s been reading The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.
• [08:04] Managers should try to join organizations that will be supportive of them in the present and future.
  • [08:33] Jim was a member of YPO.
  • [08:43] He has made life-long business connections because of this group.
  • [08:50] He is also a member of Provisors, a network of professional service providers in California.
• [09:25] There is an important lesson in the book Never Eat Alone: Jim and his partner tried to have breakfast meetings with new people every day in order to gain leads/plant a seed.
  • [11:00] They would meet one person and ask for a potential connection to another person. It was a chain of connections, which helped build the business.
  • [11:35] Whenever you can, try to refer someone to another person.
• [11:40] Jim believes there is a huge amount of power in referrals: if you refer someone to another person, the person you referred feels indebted and may be more inclined to help you in return.
  • [12:05] “The more that you give, the more that you’re going to get.” -Jim Twerdahl
• [12:46] It takes a lot of time to be part of professional organizations, but it gives you a wider array of resources.
  • [13:05] All of Jim’s business is based off of referrals; he feels bad for slacking on the marketing side of his practice, but referrals have served him well.
• [14:27] Jim bought businesses because he wanted to take underperforming companies, add value, and then sell them for a profit.
  • [15:09] Everyone underestimates the difficulty of adding value to a preexisting company.
  • [16:00] Always try to think about operating synergy when you are integrating businesses.
  • [16:22] Consider how to develop marketing strategies that complement one another.
• [16:45] JBL was worth $50 million when he started and $75 million when he left.
• [17:25] The method for bringing on executives varies by industry.
  • [17:39] Referrals are a good source for finding an executive/new employees.
  • [17:55] Search firms are great and often worth the high price you have to pay.
  • [18:05] There’s an old saying, “You should hire slowly and fire quickly.”
  • [18:12] Most people make the mistake of hiring people who are “too much in their own image”.
  • [18:28] Really consider the skills and personality of the person you’re bringing in. In order to do this, have more than one person interview the new hire.
• [18:48] Jim also strongly recommends interviewing in a more relaxed social atmosphere (over dinner or drinks).
  • [19:15] Check references yourself.
  • [19:30] Ask open-ended questions of the references and try to read between the lines of what they are saying.
  • [19:53] Hiring is about a 50/50 proposition regarding the success rate.
  • [20:29] Ideally, the interview process should be multiple steps and have multiple points of interaction.
• [21:20] Jim recommends Zero Moment of Truth.

Resources From This Interview:

• Jim’s website
• JBL
• Marantz
• Peter Drucker
• YPO
• ProVisors
• Must-read books:
  • The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni 
  • Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time by Keith Ferrazzi
  • ZMOT: Winning the Zero Moment of Truth [a Google e-book] by Jim Lecinski
  • Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini

• Jim@twerdahl.net

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