Shawn McAllister

I’m extremely honored to be sharing with you in this episode a conversation with one of the most prolific entrepreneurs and talented business minds in Charlotte – Shawn McAllister. 

Shawn began his entrepreneurial journey here in Charlotte at age 21 by founding the Gin Mill tavern, and has since been involved with the construction of over 200 bars and restaurants in the area, development of luxury condominiums, and community revitalization projects. Shawn has over 25 years of business ownership and management experience growing companies structurally from the ground up, systematizing them to achieve their financial objectives, and developing individuals and teams that execute. 

For my small business owner audience, and that’s most of you I would guess, you’ll find this episode especially insightful. With experience comes wisdom, and Shawn generously shares some sage advice for small business owners. Whether you are aspiring to open your own business, have just started out, or are several years into it, you’ll find value in the advice Shawn offers. Some of the best stuff happens toward the end of this episode, so make sure you stick around. 

So, friends, thanks for joining us. It’s my honor to share with you my conversation with Shawn McAllister – enjoy.

Here are my Top 5 value grabs from this episode:

1. Choose the right heroes. Find the mentor that has achieved the goals that you want to achieve, in a way that you wish to achieve them. In other words, the mentor that has been there and done that, and aligns with your values. By the way, that’s there’s a big difference between a mentor and a coach – anyone can hire a coach, but you’ll need more than a checkbook to earn a mentor. 
2. There’s no need to put everything on the line or risk everything for your business. Test your business plan or concept with the low-cost probe – dip your toes in the market before you dive in. 
3. Build enough runway for your business to take off. Take the time and do the work  ahead of launch to give your business the best chance of success. 
4. Customer experience above all else – period, end of story.
5. Systems and Processes build quality, efficiency, and ultimately profitability. Take the time to document, develop, and refine high quality systems and processes early on in your venture.

Helpful Links:

Fulcrum Living https://fulcrumliving.com/

Fulcrum One South End https://thefulcrumone.com/

Books recommended:

Halftime: Moving from Success to Significance by Bob Buford
Buy here >> https://amzn.to/3qrSO0j

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
Buy here >> https://amzn.to/3sDngpW

How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie
Buy here >> https://amzn.to/38UdW9B

Thanks for listening!

Email the host: thebestofclt@gmail.com

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Transcript:

Welcome to The Best of Charlotte, a podcast featuring the best small businesses, and the most influential professionals in Charlotte, North Carolina. Each week, we’ll bring you a new interview with those small business owners and professionals that are making a big impact here, in the Charlotte area. Thanks for joining us. Enjoy the show.

Jeff:

Welcome back to The Best of Charlotte podcast. I’m extremely honored to be sharing with you in this episode a conversation with one of the most prolific entrepreneurs and talented business minds in Charlotte, Shawn McAllister. Shawn began his entrepreneurial journey here in Charlotte at aged 21, by founding The Gin Mill tavern, and has since been involved with construction of over 200 bars and restaurants in the area, development of luxury condominiums, and community revitalization projects. Shawn has over 25 years of business ownership and management experience, growing companies structurally from the ground up, systematizing them to achieve their financial objectives, and developing individuals and teams that execute.

Jeff:

Shawn’s current role is as a principal at Fulcrum Living Inc., a construction firm based here in Charlotte. We discuss Fulcrum Living’s current project, Fulcrum One, in South End. These are cutting-edge condominiums featuring first in class architecture and amenities. Lauded as Charlotte’s best real estate investment for urban professionals, Fulcrum One in South End is the first of seven such developments planned for Charlotte. As a culmination of Shawn’s vast construction, management and business experience, and his experience of building some of the most exceptional spaces in Charlotte, there is no doubt that Fulcrum One will be nothing short of amazing.

Jeff:

For my small business owner audience, and that’s most of you, I would guess, you’ll find this episode especially insightful. With experience comes wisdom, and Shawn generously shares some sage advice for small business owners. Whether you’re aspiring to open your own business, have just started out, or are several years into it, you’ll find value in the advice Shawn offers. Some of the best stuff happens toward the end of this episode, so make sure you stick around. Friends, thanks for joining us. It is my honor to share with you my conversation with Shawn McAllister. Enjoy.

Jeff:

Shawn, welcome to the podcast.

Shawn McAllister:

Hey, good to be with you.

Jeff:

Appreciate your time, and looking forward to this conversation. We’re going to talk about several topics, actually. Not the least of which is a project that you are heavily involved in in South End, which is really exciting. But to begin the episode, to begin this conversation, let’s dive into a little bit of your background, share with the listeners a brief bio on you and your background in business.

Shawn McAllister:

That’s probably the toughest question. How much time do you have? Just been doing it a long time, that’s it. I think I usually do it with math. I’m 45. Actually, I’m 46 now. So, 46, started when I was 21. Actually, whenever I was 10 I’d be going to real estate … I’m from Jersey originally, and grew up there. If we had a snow day, I’d go to a real estate closing with my dad. Just loved being on job sites, and just doing all that stuff. Just crazy, worked a ton as a young kid, and just enjoyed it. Actually, in the restaurant business and things. But started my first place when I was 21. So, I’m 46, I’ve been doing this 25 years.

Shawn McAllister:

Went to UNCW, played soccer, and I would say successfully failed out of Wilmington, like most great people do. And just came to Charlotte. Me and my brother opened our first bar, ’97-ish, Downtown, The Gin Mill. Just had a lot of hustle. And we’ve done a good bit over the 20-something years or whatever else. But really, we can break off into more categories, because you can drill down on any particular area over the 20-something years.

Jeff:

Yeah, absolutely. You’re not the first UNCW athlete I’d had on the podcast. I recently had a guest who’s a really successful food blogger here in Charlotte, runs an amazing Instagram blog. Is quite the influencer, I guess you would say. She was a volleyball player at UNCW. But, different generation. You and I are both the same age.

Shawn McAllister:

Oh, really?

Jeff:

Yeah. I think she’s 26, 27. So, different times, for sure. But yeah-

Shawn McAllister:

Funny. If you went to school there, even if it was at the same time, everything kind of gets to be a blur. So, even if it was someone still the same age, it’s like, “I think we used to hang out. I’m not sure.” But yeah, definitely a good time. Beautiful beach. My best record was a little bit … Decent in soccer, but I think I hit the beach 26 days in a row or something like that. We know naturally what happens after that.

Jeff:

Yeah.

Shawn McAllister:

Not around too long. Played two seasons.

Jeff:

Yeah. I had a similar experience when I went to college in Florida. But it wasn’t the beach. It was golf. I went to Florida State.

Shawn McAllister:

Oh, very cool.

Jeff:

Yeah, yeah. It was a good experience, but not a great place for a 20 or 21 year old guy who was probably fully ADD.

Shawn McAllister:

I was just about to pull ADD out from my … Actually, just pleasure-driven. It’d be drizzling out, I’m like, “It’s raining. I don’t think I should go to class.” Anyway.

Jeff:

It’s all good. What position did you play?

Shawn McAllister:

I was a goalkeeper.

Jeff:

Yeah. I was a keeper as well through different portions of my soccer career. And then for the last three years of high school, I played center back. I was captain of the defense one way or the other pretty much my entire soccer career.

Shawn McAllister:

I’ll help you segue so that I can keep you back … I’m not taking you off track. But you’ll hear me talk a lot about my brother. I’m, growing up, one of three boys. My middle brother, Greg, he came down. I’m the youngest of the three. He came down to Charlotte, and that’s how I visited. But he went to Belmont Abbey and played soccer. They went to the National Championship and had a killer run. So, I visited whenever he was at school there. And I just thought the South, and particularly Charlotte, everybody was just so nice. Most of my offers were in the Northeast, and being a goalkeeper in the winter in Rhode Island is not cool at all. That’s what brought me. My three schools was UNCW, ECU and Coastal Carolina. That was my three visits. And my dad’s like, yeah. Coastal Carolina, your condo’s on the ocean. And I was like, “Dad, I think I’m going to go there.” He’s like, “No, you’re not.” I ended up at Wilmington.

Shawn McAllister:

But anyway, I’ve done business with my brother. That’s what brought me back whenever I left school early, him being at Belmont Abbey. He went the corporate path. He did Wells … Or, legacy Wachovia, old, old-school Wachovia, right out of college. And then within a year or so, with me leaving, we started The Gin Mill together, and then had a 15, 20 year stint partnered, doing development, construction, everything. You’ll hear his name, my brother, Greg. And then fortunately, my oldest brother, Trey, he is down here as well. It’s pretty cool that we’ve got everybody here.

Jeff:

You made a good choice, I think, migrating to North Carolina. Really ahead of the curve, there. I mean, Charlotte has … I don’t think the secret really got out until the mid-2000s, how appealing Charlotte and Raleigh and areas of North Carolina really are to folks who are looking for a better economy and a better climate.

Shawn McAllister:

Yeah. I think we really hit traction around all of that with the second run. We hit a little bit of a blip with that ’01-ish bump, the whole … But post-’08, I mean that’s the thing that just, I think, solidified Charlotte on the map, which we had been tracking. Which in real estate demographics terms, it’s in migration. Which is really, if you follow the word, it’s data driven, people migrating or leaving an area. But that just solidified it for everybody. That aspect of it’s crazy.

Shawn McAllister:

But going back to post-college, ’97-ish or whatever else, I mean we started out in the restaurant/bar business because we did that growing up. We were one of the early places Downtown when nobody lived Downtown. There was no grocery stores Downtown, there was probably four or five places … Bar Charlotte, which is a group of our friends. Bar Charlotte used to actually be an after-work place for stock traders and stuff like that. That’s how Downtown progressed. We were that very, very, very early boom Downtown, and then in South End as well.

Jeff:

Well, speaking of your early businesses, you’ve had several businesses over the years. [Cory Smith 00:09:37], who’s an amazing marketing talent here in Charlotte and quite an influencer in her own right, connected us. And she was a guest on the podcast at one time. But during the course of our conversation, she had mentioned what a prolific entrepreneur you are, and have been in your career. Touch on a few of the businesses, a few of the projects that you’ve been involved with over the last couple of decades.

Shawn McAllister:

Sure. Well it’s funny, first thing that anybody who knows me knows I would never … Not that there’s anything wrong with it. But I don’t see in my world, generation, whatever, as being an entrepreneur. I didn’t even know that as a kid. It was either you worked for yourself or you worked for somebody else. I saw my dad go from corporate to … He ended up being a developer. And he started with an office building. And first one he bought, we’re out there with kids and hammers and stuff like that. It was cool. And just saw him evolve. And so it was really about working for yourself. I think it’s about the work ethic, period. And then from that, it’s whether … I get you’re doing it for somebody else. And people see a lot of glamor in it. Never felt that. Once you have to make payroll and you’re responsible for people’s families and obligations like rent and other things like that, all the glamor goes away really, really quick.

Shawn McAllister:

Even at 21. I opened our first place when I was 21. It was much cheaper to buy a beer next door than it was to own a bar, with all the responsibilities and things. All in all, started with The Gin Mill, ’97, ’98-ish. We were Downtown for about a year. The building actually went into bankruptcy, not us. It was a mid-rise. It’s where King’s Kitchen is now. But that was an interesting earliest venture. I was 21, and negotiated a lease, did everything on my own, with my brother. That was an adventure into itself. And then it just so happened that we had a non-ethical developer, landlord, who didn’t make it long in town with the whole building. So, we learned legal. I learned legal at the age of 21, fairly intense, because the whole building was in bankruptcy.

Shawn McAllister:

From there, then relocated Gin Mill to South End. That was more of a development deal, so where Gin Mill is now, it actually started where Tavern on the Tracks was, and that was before that area was even developed. I was looking on East Boulevard, so I understood real estate at that stay in point. We were looking where Bruegger’s and other places where. But I ended up going to South End because of the rents, because the rents were cheap. And we got to do the work, and the view was phenomenal from where it was. So then, did Gin Mill there. We were crazy, very fortunate, blessed and successful. We had one of the early decks outside that overlooked the Downtown. We later did one of the first rooftops, which was a challenge, but we pulled that off when we moved Gin Mill to the front.

Shawn McAllister:

And then had a nightclub, did the first nightclub in South End. Short stint. That’s an interesting business too. And we did that in the building next door, which is what is actually now the Gin Mill … We ended up turning that into a draft house over the years. We also then had a long run with Amos’ there. But to us, they were all real estate deals, and our strength was building and designing and going through the improvement process of developing, really, restaurants and bars. And that, we then started doing it for other people, maybe 2000-ish, ’01. And if you fast forward, I think we’re probably around 200 bars and restaurants that we’ve built in town. Bunch of them Downtown, notables from EpiCentre to landmarks like Connolly’s, and good friends of ours. Just a part of a lot of crazy stuff, from little joints to multi-million dollar places. Did plenty of them where we demoed everything we put in a few years ago for one client for another, so we got known for doing it for others.

Shawn McAllister:

And we progressed. While we were doing general contracting, we were still doing development on our own, and my brother and I, me and my third brother, we did Queens 626, which was luxury condos in Myers Park. It was real successful project. We did a bunch of stuff, historic, adaptive reuse. We did a ton in South End that … We were way early pioneers of Downtown Gastonia, actually. All of that was really cool buildings, but we were also doing … There was tax credit stuff. We did, post-meltdown, some early stimulus stuff. The real early, like the TARP funding and things, that was in Downtown Gastonia. Did a ton in South End. Most of all, early warehouse conversions, the exposed ductwork, the corrugated metal. We were doing that before-

Jeff:

Before it was cool.

Shawn McAllister:

Yeah. Because it was cheap, to be honest with you. I still remember back in the day, trying to make it from the Wendover Home Depot to South End, my brother driving. I was in the back of a 4Runner just going, “Dude, don’t stop short, because I’m out.” But it was old-school. You’re grinding it through. My brother would say, “We’re not spending another dollar on …” Well, we’re going to have to because we still need door hardware for the bathrooms. I’m like, you just got to do it. But through all that, we learned business best practices. Once we started building the fee-based construction, really got good at systems processes. Everything’s always, always, always about the customer experience, period. End of story. You don’t have revenue, you don’t have anything. And if you don’t have reputation …

Shawn McAllister:

And your reputation doesn’t have to be all glamorous, either. It’s just, did you do what you said you were going to do? Did you do the right thing? More of that is in the difficult times than in the good times. Can you look somebody in the face and say you did the right thing? That, we learned early on from our parents and from hard work, and then just carried it through. Yeah. Been through a lot of wars and battles. The ’08 push, which really was like a three year push, if not more, really. That was war. It taught you a ton. All that was crazy, crazy interesting. But now in hindsight, absolutely invaluable.

Shawn McAllister:

So, we did that. We did fee-based, the Southborough. Mixed use, where the Lowe’s is, we did the commercial office building and wrapped that with decked townhomes. But anyways, Southborough project. Monte Ritchey, who’s still in town and doing work, we did that.

Shawn McAllister:

Totally side note, worked hard with a lot of top, high-end people in town. I ran at it hard. But had the equivalent of Uber. Company called Ydrive. And because I was in the restaurant/bar business for so long, in business, tried doing that startup but it was in that bad time. Put a ton of money and time into it. It was painful as could be. But had the vision that Uber did. Uber had the technology, but had a global business model for that. The Ydrive model was you got your car home. You got a ride in your car. But it was leveraged all with the marketing. I feel like there’s almost no better marketing in business than the alcohol industry. They have always done a phenomenal job. I call it guerrilla marketing. Leveraging that with sponsorship through alcohol, beer, wine and everything else in the bars and stuff. But just naturally, through God’s will, came back to old-school construction development.

Shawn McAllister:

And then one of those segues was … Worked on EpiCentre, actually, too. The real good friends of ours … My brother ended up going with them full time, Vision Ventures, Paul Picarazzi, Doug Stephan. Great. Known them forever. Best dudes. Crazy smart. But anyway, my brother Greg’s with them full time. But they bought EpiCentre out of bankruptcy, and that was an interesting run. And then we came as consultants and helped them, just because it was such a massive project. And Greg stayed on with them, but I took over a portion of the portfolio there, the net, [inaudible 00:18:12] stuff, the nightclub and the movie theater.

Shawn McAllister:

All that was fun because you’re working with your buddies. It was definitely top shelf team. We had a hedge fund out of Boston. That was just crazy fun. But very, very successful. It ended up being crazy. Those guys crushed it. And they deserved it, too. And hopefully the sad thing about EpiCentre Downtown, is to see it at its peak of what they did with it, my brother included. The thing was just top-notch. And to see the fall was just terrible. But anyway, that’s something I’m very, very proud of, to have been a part of that.

Jeff:

Project, after project, after project. Started with The Gin Mill in ’97. You were 21. And the projects just kind of grew in scale over your career?

Shawn McAllister:

Yeah. Basically, I would say … It’s interesting, because just over the fact that I forget to mention Fulcrum and what we’re doing now. My partner, who’s the best in the world, I love her to death, Denise Abood. You should have her on. As a human being, but as a business woman, you talk about somebody of stature. She was in all corporate American, but I’m just, again, so blessed to have her as a business partner. And just a great friend. We were out last night, had a great time. But just as she would get mad at me. It’ll be, “Shawn, what about Fulcrum?” Which is what we’re doing now.

Jeff:

Yeah. Well, I was going to lead up to that, yeah.

Shawn McAllister:

Yeah. Well, I appreciate you leading the witness. I forgot that. Terrible. Anyway, but the point just like that is, most people, because of the notoriety of it, usually always gravitate to the project. To me, in its infancy stage, it’s always about the business. When I mention Vision Ventures, I don’t say, “Oh, EpiCentre.” They’re just phenomenal at what they do, period. And that’s a byproduct … Hopefully, what we were known for the whole stint of all those projects, is we were better and better. I would always say that we were probably the second-best interiors contractor in town. Which, I’m never a fan of being second to anything, but somebody that was legacy, Charlotte relationships, [inaudible 00:20:31], whole nine yards, that was a feat that I don’t think we could have overtaken.

Shawn McAllister:

But we were known as the company. We were hands-down, definitely the best restaurant contractor, period. And then of that, as far as interiors, our customer experience, I felt, was strong. And we had the referrals. Again, we were 20-something years old. We were a startup, and ended up … And I didn’t even mention a bunch of other deals that was more … Not philanthropic, but community driven. I was part of a team of three that did the merger of South End with Center City Partners, back in early 2000s. And that was an education to itself too. But that’s whenever with that merger, Center City Partners got all the additional tax funding from South End to really manage the area and stuff. So, that was huge, huge feat. That’s what’s helped it get to the point today.

Shawn McAllister:

But yeah, to me it’s about company and individual expertise by default. Yes, you get projects like things that we mentioned. And there’s a bunch that I didn’t mention. But I think you and I, in our previous discussion, talked about it. Your best projects are your best companies based on profitability, not notoriety. Like for Vision, I won’t disclose any numbers or whatever. EpiCentre’s success ended up being reflected in dollars. So yes, it’s a perception. But for us, the reason why we were successful as a contractor was our systems and processes. We had profitable projects. And that was through our experience, but it was just systemized, automated, all that other stuff. I look at it as companies and individuals, and the project is just kind of a byproduct of it.

Jeff:

I mean at the end of the day, a business … There are a lot of ways to view success. But as a business owner, profitability has got to be near the top, if not at the top of the list to gauge your success. I mean, you can be busy and look great, but if you’re not profitable, you’re really missing the point.

Shawn McAllister:

Yeah. And the whole point that we always joke in the bar business … Another great operator in town who’s our business partner, and now he bought Gin Mill from me, John Ellison. He started Amos’. John’s best line always was, we’re not a non-profit business. And the whole thing is it’s not selfish, and it’s not anything else. Because if you want to have the resources to give the way you want to, both for your personal, family lifestyle, but then in helping and giving others, you need time and you need money and resources to be able to help others. It’s your job to be profitable in order to do all these other things. Yeah. You need to have a bottom line, and then of that then what you do with it, that’s the second form of judgment and responsibility. But first responsibility’s profitability, taking care of your people, your customer. But then from there, again, what you do with it.

Jeff:

Customer experience can’t be overstated. I want to circle back to that. I’m sure we will during this conversation. But I’m going to change the order of the outline for the conversation that I have in front of me, because if I don’t have a checklist in front of me, I’ll miss all kinds of things. Anyway, going back-

Shawn McAllister:

We’ll [inaudible 00:23:54] over beers. Again, I started in the bar business at 21. Actually working in it at, like, 12. Over drinks you can handle a lot of topics. I’ll probably be okay.

Jeff:

All right, cool. Well, you brought up Fulcrum Living, the Fulcrum project. I should say, the Fulcrum South End project. I had that on the list to talk about a little bit later, but I’m going to move that up. Let’s talk about that. Share a little bit of the details of that project at South End.

Shawn McAllister:

Sure. Again, we saw an opportunity for a business. And really, what had happened over time was doing consulting, as I mentioned, that run of EpiCentre, and then had a brief stint with one of my people I’d done business with before. And we’d partnered up, and she was a full-time real estate consultant. Just spent time on that side, so it gave me a more analytical approach versus a hustle, hard work approach. And just certain information was glaring at me. One was the data in migration, the amount of people living here. Then of it, it was the demographics associated. Basically in a nutshell is because our Southeast schools are so strong, and you have the weather and the opportunity, by default you get postgraduate people. So one, moving from a real estate standpoint. But the whole thing with real estate is you’re truly tracking household income. So, all of your growth rate of an area’s really job related.

Shawn McAllister:

And what’s interesting is the yin and the yang, or the complement between the two is the way that businesses recruit. And I was fortunate to sit with … It was Pat McCrory, actually. We just had a random opportunity. It was awesome. Just as he was finishing being governor. But to learn how they recruit, how the state and local government recruits business. But it’s really based on your workforce. Yes, it’s quality of life infrastructure to say, hey, we have a quality workforce. That’s how you do that.

Shawn McAllister:

Now, you see first hand how getting all these young professionals which we have over in your stint is, that’s why the headquarters are coming. They’re complementary, and I feel like Charlotte’s always done a great job with the infrastructure, our parts … And really, I think the business model’s been simple. It’s like, just don’t grow like Atlanta did. That’s really what happened.

Shawn McAllister:

If you put all these ingredients together of people moving here, crazy pace, job growth, headquarters, good infrastructure, proper growth … You put that all together, and then you take that 20-some years of experience we just talked about, and knowing how to build construction in South End and things, just saw this niche for condo. That’s really what it came down to. And not being a condo developer, just saying that going back to business, is you have a customer. It’s a supply and demand thing. We’ve got 10,000 apartments, people dropping a ton of money. But they do not have the option to own and live in that area. And having grown up in the Northeast and traveled a good bit, love to go to major cities and stuff, Boston, Chicago, et cetera. You’d have your brownstones. You’d have everything else.

Shawn McAllister:

But the fact that our exponential growth … I mean, it just became glaring at me more and more, was just shocked that opportunity wasn’t there. Just like we did with the Ydrive and saw the opportunity, went all in. The better thing here is just know the area. Been here forever. Know how to build, very fortunate that way. And to develop, so just develop the model. And the first one wasn’t do one. The model had to have been a growth one, because you couldn’t … That’s why condo hasn’t been done, because you can’t just do one out of the gate. The amount of money, there’s insurance, there’s form of construction … Because of post-’08, you’ve got about seven moving parts that you have got to get right in order to pull it off. And to put all those resources in for just one doesn’t make sense.

Shawn McAllister:

When we talk about our project right now, the first one is called The Fulcrum, which is our signature first one. Corner of Worthington and South Tryon, 45 units. And we’ve got all the website and all the other really cool visuals associated. That’s just one of … We’re forecast to do seven in Charlotte, first. Seven projects, roughly around 50 units. There’s a very specific business model behind that size, scale and type. That’s the first one. But it is a company. The company is Fulcrum, which has a cool story. But it’s urban living, so it’s for urban professionals. We don’t pick a demographic, meaning young or old or whatever. It’s for people that choose that lifestyle, which I used to live in it as well. And it provides an opportunity for home ownership.

Shawn McAllister:

And we’re very targeted, focused. We’re hitting a price point. I’ve done luxury before, and we’ve done mega-luxury as well. We’re building for the masses, so the price point’s 300 to 450,000, which will tip the 500 point. But they’re mainly all one bedroom, and some two bedrooms. For that whole demographic that’s renting, you can own for what you’re renting. And we’re keeping it at that price point, so you get insane appreciation. Which, we refer to as we are the best real estate investment in town for urban professionals. Is there some other good real estate investments for people? Yes. But if you’re an urban … Somebody that lives that lifestyle, there’s no better investment. You can pick at stock all you want, but to be your tenant, your own tenant. And we allow for that appreciation because we’re keeping the price point fixed, so we can hit this whole demographic.

Shawn McAllister:

It’s Fulcrum is the company, and then there’ll be seven. And then we will also have a premium line that will do a different model type that will be more on the luxury end, so north of 500s. And we’ll do more of those. But we won’t just keep it to Charlotte, and it won’t be just South End.

Jeff:

Well, you’re absolutely right. I mean for what you spend renting a one or two-bedroom apartment in South End, that is the mortgage payment in that mid three to 500 range. That’s an amazing investment for someone who, like you said, wants to live that lifestyle, that urban professional condo lifestyle. That’s amazing. How far along is that project?

Shawn McAllister:

Well actually, we’ve a ton of reservations. And we’ve very limited … There’s a lot of unique things. But basically, we’ll convert our reservations to contracts starting first of the year. We’ll break grounds. We’re scheduled for middle of February, so post winter months. Middle of February, we’ll break ground. But what’s really cool is … Good news is these are soundbites. If you hear how many times you and I have said before about customer experience, this is customer experience on absolute steroids. It’s taken us 20-some years of wins and losses, and put it all into this. Hopefully, we’ve worked very hard, invested insane amount of time and money and resources that this experience is just as good as it could be, that we would have raving fans as buyers.

Shawn McAllister:

But basically, we’ve created an entire visualization. We have virtual, fully animated … You can change colors and other aspects of the room. Not because that’s fun or cool, but for this buying group, most likely 80% of them have never bought before. So, the ability to have confidence with the investment … You either buy a piece of paper stock, or you get to walk the company, walk the floor, no management stuff. We’re using all the best forms of technology, touch screen. And we’ve systemized every aspect of 50,000 feet, four stories. I mean, literally every component.

Shawn McAllister:

As you would pick an investment, you’re like, what’s the probably of the return? I’d say ours is, like, 98%, because if you look at the amount of infrastructure built behind it. We have a fully automated development process. We leveraged, like I said, the animation, the drawings. Everything is scheduled out, so we have set up the scale. And we’re as all in as it gets. But that should reflect in … We’re now in the position of getting street-level retail. We’re in South End right now, but I want to be on Main and Main, basically. We’re hunting up today to go get the forefront. But it’ll just be a killer buying experience, because once somebody signs up, they follow it all the way through construction. So, they’re constantly in … We’ll have some taps there, coffee area. But it is about that experience and understanding the process being navigated through. But that’s our job, to take the buyer through. We’re excited. We just got a killer team. We’re very excited.

Jeff:

One of the questions I wanted to ask you, one of the topics I wanted to discuss, you touched on it a little bit. But that is, since starting The Gin Mill in ’97, how have you selected your lanes for business over the years? How have you chosen your areas to grow? And how have those decisions evolved over time?

Shawn McAllister:

First of all, great question mainly for the type of audience that you have because bottom line is, for you to be true to yourself, it’s based on the inside. It’s where are you being pulled? What’s natural for you? For me, what was very important, as I said, starting with that timeframe. So, coming on being married 13 years, four kids. Two boys, two girls from seventh grade, fifth grade, third grade, first. That’s the GPS. That’s what guides you. What was important for me is growing up, everything was awesome and stuff. Parents didn’t have the best relationship. I was fortunate to have a killer relationship with them both, but saw just people that completely grew apart. I’d say once I worked hard, I started early, my next career was learning how to be a good husband, and then ultimately, a good father. Because that was the biggest profitability, bottom line equity you could imagine.

Shawn McAllister:

It was actually around that ’08 stint when I started doing more … It didn’t make money. It was painful. But, the Ydrive. That was very purpose driven. I did a bunch with the church, so construction. But I was actually coaching a bunch of friends, which ultimately was really coaching myself, but created systems and processes around business leaders, people with big time of how do you organize your time? You and I have talked about technology and things, but all of that was, how do you buy freedom? And it’s freedom for fulfillment, so you need money to do it and you need time to do it. Everything we’ve done … Fulcrum is the example. That’s all my sweet spot. I could build and do the stuff that we’re doing now.

Shawn McAllister:

It’s just, I’ve been doing it 20-some years. I picked it that way. My instincts, my internal GPS if you will, drew me to it because I knew it was easy. We’re all naturally drawn to things that we excel at. And you could tell when you’re around someone that’s not authentic. Not that there’s anything wrong with it. It’s just sad more than anything, because you can feel them just not balanced. And they’re torn either trying to get profitability, or trying to scale or get a home life. And you just see them. It’s not smooth in battle. That’s why our team, my partner, and some of those other people that I’ve mentioned so far, they’re all awesome because good spouses, period. Just good people, friends, just the energy and stuff you get around them, kids. That’s your lane all day long. And whether you’re in corporate or whatever else, it’s where it’s taking you, where’s your skills, but it’s not trying to achieve something that isn’t …

Shawn McAllister:

I’ll leave it with this and then we’ll switch over. I learned real quick, my business heroes were my social or whatever zeros. And I just made that up right here, by the way. But I mean, they would be on Fortune Magazine, and you’d have the best quotes of, “If your numbers aren’t good …” Blah, blah, blah. But two years later, they’re on Fortune Magazine for the most unethical things, not just money related. Again, husband, parent, things like that. You really want to pick your heroes, and the ones that have that balance. And I was fortunate to have a consultant early on that helped me … I mean, guy told me to have date night with my soon-to-be-wife. So, we did. And 13 years later, I see another 30 years later. That’s the lanes. I mean, we’re not business. Our DNA is human. It’s the human connection. This stuff should be fun.

Jeff:

The importance of team can’t be overstated, but the way you described your passion for being great at your next career, which was being a great dad and a great husband. Just the way you described that was probably one of the coolest things any of my guests have said. I really admire that. That is very, very cool.

Shawn McAllister:

And A, thank you. B, you keep saying it. And the only reason why I know it is because people that were important to me said it. And one thing that I think is important, I think it’s important to be a better spouse than it is to be a better parent, because by default I had the best parents. Absolute best. They weren’t good spouses to one another, so I think that effort … And that’s probably the easiest thing. And by the way, if you can stay married and stay happily married, you can run a company. You can do everything.

Shawn McAllister:

I always say, I mean I could manage people all day long if I could persuade my kids … And I tell them. I’m like, “I will take you down.” I said, “You are not going to outthink me. No Jedi mind tricks. I will stare you down as long as … I will break you.” For the greater good. But if you can be a successful parent and spouse, business is easy. Because guess what? Your customers and your vendors, they all have spouses. And they all have kids. It’s just like that. I get it. You’re right.

Jeff:

Sure. Sure.

Shawn McAllister:

Pick your battles. Do you want to sleep on the couch? In principle, where does principle get you? Absolutely nowhere.

Jeff:

Oh, that’s funny. Yeah, so true. But yeah, very cool. I love that sentiment you shared. I just wanted to underscore that. We talked about this in our conversation we had a while back, while we were scheduling this meeting. And that is how you are data driven. You rely heavily on data when making business decisions. What are some ways that you utilize data to support your business decisions?

Shawn McAllister:

I think to oversimplify it … Which is important, because it feels like you get off into the weeds. Is there’s a business consultant turned around and said, “If you want to track best business practices, go to the highest paid people, industries and see how they perform.” And I’m getting to your data point. Easiest thing is we look at highest paid is athletes and entertainers, which I’m not necessarily a complete fan of doing. But if you look at it from an industry standpoint, football players might play 18 games a year, when you break it down. Entertainers might do a concert every … Whatever amount of time. It’s preparation, but the thing is part of that preparation has to do with rest, non high performance.

Shawn McAllister:

The thing is, if you buy into that, which it’s only common sense that you would, how then do they analyze improvement? The whole thing is, obviously we talked about before, gravitate to sports. Watch your game film. How do you know when you did something right or wrong? If you finish a meeting and your gut’s getting at you like, man, that was adversarial, or I was pretty abrupt, or whatever else, you’ve got to play the meeting back in your head. And of that, think of what happened. And then ultimately, how can you improve it? But the play is done, the meeting is done. It happened. But if you can’t grow from those things and improve, you’re just going to keep sputtering or staying in the minor leagues. My two favorite coaches, Bill Belichick and Nick Saban. I mean, they are the Bill Gates of sports. They take an analytical approach to it. You watch game film, you understand the players. Go right, don’t go right. And again, none of this stuff’s rocket science. It’s not crazy. But it’s just the discipline.

Shawn McAllister:

And somebody’s mentioned recently too … It just hit me right now. It’s that whole … Oh, there’s a good spot on Netflix with five, top tier coaches. One was the global team, but it was the women’s national soccer team, Doc Rivers. whatever. All five of them in that spot said you can’t be worried about getting fired. The head coach of the women’s national team, she had to break down. She said based on as the new players were coming in and then the older ones were retiring, the makeup of that team was a different dynamic of skillsets, of body type, of everything. She had to break them down and rebuild them. That’s not popular. Taking a loss for a quarter is not popular in business. I know a business that shut down for six months just to totally retool. They’re just like, we’re on a path. We’re sprinting off the cliff. We’re not even walking, we’re sprinting.

Shawn McAllister:

A, slow up. See what’s happening, whatever. That game field … If business allows for the same stuff that that does, but if you don’t mix up your team … You might need new assistant coaches. You might need different players. You might need role players, whatever else. You might need to look at your competition. Your business allows for that. And that’s through your financials, but then it’s through indicators. It’s through just answering your own question of, what do my clients think about me? They’re really not tough. It’s having the discipline just to sit still. Another … What’s his name? Jeffrey Gitomer. Gitomer’s line to me. He and I were having coffee. He’s the absolute best, but he said his one mentor said the best part of his career is when he did nothing. It’s like a dog chasing their tail. You’re not making progress.

Jeff:

I know that feeling, and I can relate to that, treading water, chasing your tail, and perpetuating that. It takes a lot of courage to slow down and stop, and change your trajectory, your business’ path. Or to close, right? Sometimes, calculate insolvency. And it can be tough to face, but-

Shawn McAllister:

I did it. I mean, with Ydrive. You always hear everybody say, oh, the best athletes, entertainers, whenever they failed or lost, or your business, you closed or did whatever it is. Yes. That’s your best learning, life experiences. But literally, you talk about treading water. You blink, it’s 10 years. Everybody always turns around and says, “Oh, I’ve been at it for X amount of time.” I’ve been doing it for 25 years. They haven’t all been profitable. I mean, you talk about cutting your teeth. I’m talking needle cutting. But I’d say main thing … What’s the main takeaway? Get great business heroes and people to follow.

Shawn McAllister:

I’m a huge Tony Robbins … Absolute, awesome, huge fan, because his strategies are killer. But all in all, just a couple simple, simple, simple basics is get somebody who’s been through it before. Of that, respect the way that they did it and what you hear. Not because they get paid for it, so coaches and stuff. Just talk to people. All my mentors were … I had mentors when I was 21. I called my attorney, Mr. Hord, who just recently passed. One of the best gentlemen in Charlotte, Johnston, Allison & Hord. I learned from all them. I learned how to build from other guys. And that’s your best lessons.

Shawn McAllister:

And then going back to your desk once you’re done with those good meetings and stuff and being like, all right. Where am I at? What do I got to do? And then of that, certainly use good indicators, like learn how to read the financial statements. If you ever say, “I don’t have enough time,” or, “I don’t have enough money,” you can’t afford not to. You can’t afford the time not to do that. You can’t afford the money not to do that. Just like you can’t in those personal relationships that we talked about. You can’t afford not to.

Jeff:

Oh yeah. Very well said. You brought up Jeffrey Gitomer. I’m a big fan. I think I’ve just about read everything he’s written. He’s a prolific writer and speaker, and also a prolific podcaster as well. I don’t know if I’d call him an early adopter, but he’s been doing it a while, and very consistently. We’ll have to talk some more about Mr. Gitomer. And I know he’s a Charlotte resident.

Shawn McAllister:

Well, remind me. We’ll shoot him a spot. Nobody’s more creative. The main thing about Jeffrey is … And that’s what I think you want to be known for. Is his creativity. That dude works so hard to be creative. And it sounds like an oxymoron, but it’s not. And he really, to be honest with you … The old Carnegie stuff. Well, God’s eternal blessings, the ability to relate to people and empathize with them is fairly innate to me, so I feel like I have a good grasp of people. Doesn’t mean it changes the way you act, but I can kind of sense how they are. That’s first thing. Then Dale Carnegie course of just two of his books, Win Friends, Influence People, and then on top of it too is Stop Worrying, Start Living. Those two things … You don’t need to read another book other than those two. I felt like that got me on the path from sales, and then Gitomer kind of closed it from a technical side.

Shawn McAllister:

But, I didn’t have to master it. But I’ve been fortunate with us being startups, was we always just chase revenue. You need revenue to have a bottom line. But then we got really good at that, and it was like, all right. Well we got revenue, but we don’t got a bottom line. My father’s short line was, it’s not what you make, it’s what you keep. Once you get good at revenue, then you can go to profitability, which is cost and consistency and stuff. Gitomer definitely helped me. I’ve got a ton of techniques and skillsets because of him. And he’s a great dude. He’s the best.

Jeff:

Yeah. He’s awesome to listen to. I listen to his podcast quite a bit. I’ve never had the opportunity to listen to him in person at any of his speaking engagements. I started reading his sales books back in mid-2000s, before the ’08-’09 crash. Right around then, I was reading a lot. I was in commission sales at the time, and yeah. His technical acumen from just years and years of trial and error and refining his sales process is amazing. But yeah, he also talks a lot about creativity. And I’ve repeated it in conversations with other guests on how being creative is hard work. It takes effort. And if you’re not creative, like Gitomer says a lot in his writing … If you’re not creative, you want to learn how to create, study creativity.

Shawn McAllister:

Yeah. Well, I think the biggest thing is a takeaway for that, and obviously we can move on after the topic, is it goes back to what we’re doing at Fulcrum with all the visual and animation stuff. The point of the creativity is the appreciation for the customer and for the revenue. We would say profits aren’t given, they’re earned. Revenue is not a given, it’s earned. You appreciate that check. That’s what we always do. When customers spend money with us, that’s a home equity line check that they stroke, or, say, a luxury product. That’s a lot of hard work bonus that you’re earning. The part of the creativity is coming in and appreciating, and that’s really what’s … Gitomer’s best line always is, he’s like, “Keep in mind, there’s somebody in the conference room right now on the other side of town, your competitors, in the conference room coming up with every strategy to kick your asses.” I mean, that’s what business is. Beating your competitor. The way you beat your competitor is for your customer. It’s just like, who appreciates the customer more and is going to spend time? And that time is in creativity.

Shawn McAllister:

And by the way, in this segue, to me that’s really what marketing is. You’ve got sales. Sales is driven by marketing. Like Phil, who we talked about, who’s our CMO, nobody’s more creative than him. I mean, the dude … And that’s why if you look at … Us, we’re a single development, one-project development. How many people have commercials for just one project? I mean, we’ve already produced this cool, and it has everything, and you’ll be able to get at [Cory’s 00:50:22], the one pumping it out on social media over the commercials app. But actually, remind me. I got to show it to you. It’s as cool as can be. But it’s Buying Crushes Renting. This whole thing, it’s like a spinning icon. And it whacks … So, we have fun with it. And Phil just took it to another level. They literally have the sound effects of punching in it. We spent all this time.

Shawn McAllister:

And I’m always the one … I’m the strategy guy behind the scenes saying, “Subliminally, this is what they need to take away.” But then Phil, on the creative side, then saying, “Oh, we could do this with sound,” or do whatever else. But yeah, for our one project over there, we had this whole campaign that we were launching. And we’re going to do it in all the bars and restaurants. And you’ll hopefully see it all street level in South End in no time. It’s just creativity for that buying experience. We make it that buying crushes renting. And it’s so cool, and it’s fun. But you’re either going to do that, or you’re going to go buy a tract home.

Jeff:

Yeah, right.

Shawn McAllister:

I saw the billboard on 77, or you’ve got this fun thing that you have water bottles and beer coasters and everything else is all around. I mean, that’s going the extra mile. But you’ll beat your competitor. We will. Our competitor is renting. And buying crushes renting. And we are, Fulcrum is the best real estate investment for urban professionals. So, you get into that category, we’re going to win. Why? We work our ass off to do it not the way we want to, but for the way that our customer needs to buy it, the way our investors need to see it. Which is different languages, different things. But we work our ass off to do that in a fun, cool way. That you could get it over two minutes, and then go hang with your family. It’s not a 50-page business plan. You can do it a two-minute video, or a one-page landing site of …

Shawn McAllister:

All of our business materials are actually online. Our entire system is an internal portal that we created, and you can hit any model, you can hit any unit, anything. And that’s just so our whole team is quality. Like Denise says, we need to run a 100 and something million dollar company from the beach. That’s the model that we’re working against.

Jeff:

Take care of your customer or your competition will, right? We talked a little bit about soccer, and I know Phil, CMO, is a big Liverpool fan. And there was a Premier League coach quoted. One of the quotes I remember so vividly over the years is talking about training, and he said, “My players don’t get paid to play soccer.” Or football, as it’s called in England. “They get paid to train.” Playing the game is the fun part. And it’s just amazing how all of this ties in, and you’re just hitting the nail on the head, utilizing data to support business decisions, building up that customer experience and teams, and all these amazing points.

Shawn McAllister:

I think what’s important for what you’re … Because I’ve talked to you on the side, which I have all of the admiration for you for, is the purpose of your podcast is to help other business owners navigate the journey. And you are a simplified resource, so somebody doesn’t have to go read four, 200-page books for all this, that that’s what you’re doing. I think that the important takeaway, since this is for that audience, is if there is anything that needs to be taken away from all this is it doesn’t have to be insanely complex. Yes, Bill Belichick might watch 50 hours of game film. Just watch two. Start the habits of these things that coach or whatever else … No, you don’t need to do it as a Premier League. But just do it. And by the way, you’re going to continue to grow.

Shawn McAllister:

But look at your financials. Even if you don’t know what the hell you’re looking at, it doesn’t matter. Just do it. And then the next time you’re with one of those people that’s a hero or somebody who impressed you, you’ll be like, “Listen, I don’t understand this. Can you tell me?” We’re built, it’s ingrained in us to help one another. Husband to husband and father to father, spouse to spouse, whatever it is. Business owner to business owner. I didn’t know all this stuff when I was 21, 25, 30, whatever. People are out there to help. You don’t have to hire them or whatever else. Be vulnerable enough and humble enough. And it’s really more vulnerability. Most people are insanely arrogant. It’s the defense mechanism. Let’s just be vulnerable enough to be like …

Shawn McAllister:

Listen, I know. I took over a company. This kid … Kid was doing 7 million bucks a year of revenue. Had 50, 60 sub-contracts … I mean, this thing was a monster beast. And it was a time bomb too. And I was like, how? Everybody could have a lot going on, but they are afraid to let anybody look in at it because you’re like, hey, you’re going to see what’s behind the curtain. Yeah, 7 million sounds good, but what are you making? How much debt do you have? It’s, “Oh, we don’t want to talk about that.” But I’m just saying, for everybody to take away from this, is it is easy. But be vulnerable enough to say, “Hey, here’s what I don’t know.” And yes, you will get all that. And if somebody doesn’t know it and they care about you, they’ll point you in the right direction. And that’s how it all goes down.

Shawn McAllister:

Athletes at a senior level or an elder type of athlete always helps the young ones, as long as they’re good kids and they’re willing to listen and learn and work. Anybody will share their help. Again, it’s not like all this stuff is unattainable. Just start it, but start the effort of who you talk to, what you’re looking at. And again, just be well rounded.

Shawn McAllister:

And the other thing too, you can see me. I always tell everybody, just like all the helmets behind. You wear a multitude if you’re going to work for yourself. A multitude of hats. You have to take a hat off and put it on. You have to put your accounting hat on. You have to stop and make sure you’re … That’s just what you have to do. You have to take your ops hat off and put your marketing hat on and say, “Am I being creative?” And you got to be disciplined enough to block the time. But if not, something’s going to suffer accordingly.

Jeff:

All excellent points, and really well said. And I appreciate the kind words as well. Yeah, I love sharing the stories of these entrepreneurs, these self-employed business people, and freelancers and professionals in the area. I think it’s important. I think there’s a lot of value in sharing the stories, so yeah. I appreciate that.

Jeff:

I was going to close our conversation by asking if you had some advice for inexperienced small business owners or entrepreneurs? And you covered a lot of that just now in the last couple of minutes. But do you have anything else you want to add in that vein, and then we’ll call it a day?

Shawn McAllister:

Yeah, definitely. I think to close it, I would say that there’s a great group. I’ve just been so blessed with all the relationships that we’ve had over time. But the guys from Downtown, which you would never have thought. But the guys from Downtown, with all the bars and restaurants at EpiCentre, Rob Pedlow, Bob Durkin, just great dudes. The best restaurant or bar people that you’ll know in town. But anyway randomly, Pedlow, which I never would have thought … I think I was pitching him on Ydrive. He gave me a book called Halftime, and it’s Christian. I’m a Catholic. None of it matters as long as you just have faith, period. But he gave me this book, and it’s called Halftime. And basically, it’s faith driven, but it’s really when you hit your second half of life. And never thought I’d get it from him. So, I dove all into it. It comes full circle. There’s a whole group in town, insanely successful, insanely successful people that are in this thing.

Shawn McAllister:

But anyway, the book’s called Halftime. And it’s about, again, fulfillment, things like that. But within the book and the process and the techniques, and I’m fortunate that there’s a big, big group of them headquartered here in town, in Charlotte. Just so happened to be. But main takeaway out of all that, there’s a process when you go to find your fulfillment in life in that second half of life, when you’re really chasing purpose, if you will. But they do such a good job with it. They call it, it’s the low-cost probe. And the whole thing is it’s the equivalent of you dip your toe in the pool. You don’t shave your head and go to Africa on a spur of a whim. The problem with me and everybody who knows me is, I’m the guy who dives head first. I was the youngest guy in Halftime. I think whenever I started to do all of that, I was in my mid-30s, chasing all this.

Shawn McAllister:

But Lloyd Reeb runs the Charlotte … Actually, runs it globally. Just the absolute best. And he retired at, like, 21 or 22 from real estate development. This dude just … And it’s women, it’s everybody. But it’s very high performing business people, and it’s saying the second half of life, you don’t want to pass away and … And that’s what most people are saying, I didn’t have the fulfillment. But to close on the point you’re saying is for young entrepreneurs is the low-cost probe. Having it all on the line is not worth it, nor should it be. There’s no glamor. Don’t take away working for yourself, or the tagline of an entrepreneur is all glamorous. It is as hard as can be. There is more times when we, as a husband and a father, with all that success you mentioned, there’s plenty of times there wasn’t food, groceries in the refrigerator. Because I’d had everything on the line. That is not for everybody, and that’s not the way to do it.

Shawn McAllister:

The whole thing is the low-cost probe is dip your toe in. If anything, have your job, or get a job, do that, and then with your extra time on Saturday, that’s where you’re going to learn the grind and the hustle. You’re all about it, you’ll take that extra time to do it. The reason why people work for themselves, entrepreneurs, are on the hustle all the time, is because you’re eating what you kill. I mean, you don’t kill something, you don’t have food. That’s not glamorous. And I just fell into it because that’s what my dad did, so I did it. I didn’t realize what I signed up for, but that’s all I know. The whole thing is low-cost probes. And if you’re in it right now and you feel like you’re all in it, you’re kind of treading water in the pool, get a lifeline and just get to the side of the pool and take a breath.

Shawn McAllister:

If you got to liquidate a little bit, if you got to sell a portion … I don’t know. You have another venture, you’re bringing a partner on, get some damned help. It doesn’t mean end all, fold it up, take a loss, whatever else. It’s just like, get breathing room, weave a major line. Actually, there’s two takeaways and we could leave it, is low-cost probe, or dip your toe in the pool. Don’t go head first. And then the second thing is build runway. Runway is a terminology mainly around equity and money, but we live off of it now. But you need enough runway to take off. And when you don’t have enough …

Shawn McAllister:

We always say, cash is oxygen. You don’t got cash, you can’t breathe, you can’t think. You need to build enough runway so, again, dip your toe. If you find that you jumped in, just get to the side. You don’t have to get out, you don’t have to quit, you can do whatever else. Just get breathing room, and then of that, build enough runway, be it help, resources, timeline. Tony Robbins always says it’s like people’s goal expectations. He’s like, you could do more in a year than you could ever imagine, but you can’t do in a week or a month what you think you can, and that’s why you never get to it. Just those two things. Get enough runway. Because it shouldn’t be stressful. It’s not meant to be panicking and stressful. It’s meant to be fun.

Jeff:

Yeah. I’m nodding my head. Just nodding and nodding my head, because I can totally relate to those analogies. Those are excellent analogies. I really like the build a runway analogy, for sure. All great advice, and it’s been an amazing conversation. I wish I had had this conversation with you 10 years ago. But this has been amazing. Shawn, I just want to thank you so much for joining the podcast.

Shawn McAllister:

Well I’m a member for life now, so we’re cool. Anything I can do for you, I’m happy. I appreciate what you do for others, and it’ll just definitely be paid forward. Just keep doing what you’re doing. And like I said, I’m here for you.

Jeff:

Well, friends, I think you’ll agree that this was a really valuable and insightful conversation. Many thanks to Shawn McAllister for joining the podcast and being so generous with his time, and for sharing so much of his experience as a highly successful entrepreneur. One of Charlotte’s best, indeed. So much to unpack, but here are my top five value grabs from this episode.

Jeff:

Number one, choose the right heroes. I would argue that every entrepreneur can benefit from a mentor. The sooner you connect with the right mentor, the better. Find a mentor that has achieved the goals that you want to achieve in the way that you wish to achieve them. In other words, the mentor that has been there and done that and aligns with your values. By the way, there’s a big difference between a mentor and a coach. Anyone can hire a coach. But you’ll need more than a checkbook to earn a mentor.

Jeff:

Number two. There’s no need to put everything on the line or risk everything for your business. Test your business plan or concept with a low-cost probe. Dip your toes in the market before you dive in.

Jeff:

Number three, build enough runway for your business to take off. Take the time and do the work ahead of launch to give your business the best chance of success. There’s action, and then there’s strategic action. Do the latter.

Jeff:

Number four. Customer experience above all else. Period, end of story.

Jeff:

Number five, systems and processes build quality, efficiency and profitability. Take the time to document, develop and refine high-quality systems and processes early on in your venture.

Jeff:

What caught your attention in this episode? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Send me an email at TheBestofCLT@gmail.com. There’s also a link to my email address in the show notes. Books mentioned in this episode, Halftime: Moving from Success to Significance by Bob Buford; How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie; and How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, also by Dale Carnegie. You can purchase these books through affiliate links in the show notes, which is a great way to help support this podcast, by the way. Thank you in advance.

Jeff:

The complete show notes and full transcript are located at the home for The Best of Charlotte podcast, www.TheBestofCLT.com. Many thanks to Shawn McAllister for joining the podcast, and thanks to his team at Fulcrum Living for their support in making this episode come together. And finally, thanks, listeners, for following The Best of Charlotte podcast, and for sharing our journey with a friend. Have a great week. Bye for now.

We hope you have enjoyed this episode of The Best of Charlotte. Please consider subscribing to the podcast to stay up to date on our weekly episodes, and leave us a review. Until next time, cheers, Charlotte.