Accountability is a powerful concept that can help you reach your full potential. If you are held accountable for your progress, then you will work harder to achieve your goals. On this episode, Porschia, alongside our special guest, Xan Wong, discusses the importance of accountability and how it affects your career.
Accountability plans empower you to be in control of your actions in your personal and professional life. According to Xan Hong, “ Having someone else have a level of expectation on you, is just a great way to keep that extra layer of motivation that you wouldn’t necessarily have if it’s just you by yourself.”
A startup veteran with over 15 years of experience, Xan is the CEO and co-founder of ONTrac. With this revolutionary goal accountability platform, he has helped hundreds of people reach their goals by making successful action plans and following through.
What you’ll learn:
- The way accountability works as external motivation for achieving your goals.
- How can professionals and executives create a successful accountability plan and stick to it?
- Importance of breaking down your goals and celebrating small wins.
- What steps should executives and professionals take to get a positive edge in their careers?
Quotes:
“If you share a goal with someone, you are more likely to achieve it. But more importantly, if you share that goal with someone you respect, that actually has a bigger impact.” – Xan Hong
As a thank you for listening to this episode of the Career 101 Podcast, we are sharing our FREE master class – Career 911: Solving the Top 5 Challenges Executives and Professionals Have! It’s a training based on solving the common problems our clients have experienced to reach their goals. You can get access to the master class here!
Episode Transcript
Porschia: [00:00:00] today we are talking about Accountability 101, Creating Accountability Plans with San Hong. San Hong, the CEO and co founder of OnTrack, is a startup veteran with over 15 years of experience. During that time, he has generated over 10 million in revenue in a variety of industries. He previously raised 800, 000 for one of his ventures.
San is currently the CEO and co founder of a tech startup, and he scouts for a venture firm in the UK that invests exclusively in no code startups. San also hosts a show on Clubhouse where founders pitch to angel investors for investments. And he also advises other startups and even helped his eight year old daughter build her ice cream truck tracking app using the no [00:01:00] code platform, Bubble.
Hi, Zan. How are you today? I’m well, how
Xan: are you doing today?
Porschia: I am doing well. You have a very interesting bio. So I’m excited to have you with us to discuss accountability and creating accountability plans. But first, we want to know a little bit more about you. So tell me about. Seven year old saying,
Xan: I’ve got to think way back to this.
So I was definitely, so I grew up in a family with two parents that were immigrants. So first generation, um, and so they were very strict. So it was always kind of a struggle between trying to adapt to, you know, the American life and, and kind of the expectations of my parents. Um, but, um, you know, one thing that was good from that is.
They held a very high expectation as far as achieving academically. And so, you [00:02:00] know, of all the things, you know, I remember a lot of bad, but at the end of the day, I have a lot to thank, you know, my parents for that. But I think that, that, that element of, of being a kid of immigrants, uh, parents, I think has a lot to do with kind of my early year experience.
Porschia: I’ve heard some of my friends who, um, their parents were immigrants tell me that like achievement was a really big deal for them. So, Sounds like that was probably the case for you too.
Xan: 100% yeah.
Porschia: So what did you want to be when you grew up, Sam?
Xan: Oh, that’s a good question. But what I can tell you is, um, being a doctor was kind of what we were raised to, to want to be.
So, you know, my, my mom’s dad was a doctor. And so that was, you know, I kind of grew up with pre med as, as, as kind of my end goal. So I, I, you know, I didn’t really necessary. I don’t remember anything in particular. Oh, my dad was an engineer. So at one point, I think I wanted to be an engineer as well. [00:03:00] Um, but, um, those are the two things I kind of remember, you know, at the top of my list.
Okay.
Porschia: So tell me about your first job.
Xan: So, right after college, um, I had two, two things I did right after college, so I had been doing, um, medical research, uh, at, I went to the University of Pennsylvania, so I did some medical research at their medical school, um, and again, the goal was to, to go to medical school at the time, um, and then, uh, I also ran track at the University of Penn, so I actually did some personal training, uh, on the side, so I kind of, I did both, uh, for a period of time.
Um, but those were my first two jobs. But then, um, I guess my first corporate job was. For a medical education company where we developed, uh, educational events for physicians, um, that were sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry. Oh,
Porschia: very interesting. Very interesting. [00:04:00] Um, so tell me about perhaps some highlights or pivotal moments in your career before I guess you went the entrepreneurial route and started, uh, opening your own businesses.
Xan: Yeah. So, um, I had to think back on that one, but, but actually one of them came up the other day because I got into a, a somewhat political discussion on Facebook and, and, and this experience that I had kind of came up. And so, um, as I was trying to figure out what to do, uh, I didn’t get into medical school.
I got waitlisted twice. I didn’t get in. So I was trying to figure out what to do. So I went to graduate school of education and. During that time, my student taught, uh, at a public high school, which actually no longer exists in West Philadelphia. Um, and… Not intellectually, but physically and mentally, that was definitely probably one of the hardest years I had just, you know, growing [00:05:00] up in a suburban, you know, community and then seeing, you know, kind of, What these kids, you know, in West Philadelphia had to deal with, it really opened my eyes.
And even though, you know, I didn’t teach after that, it’s an experience that has affected me, you know, 20 years later, you know, just, you know, maybe not even just from a career perspective, but just a personal perspective. There’s a there. I, again, um, it hasn’t necessarily affected me from a personal perspective.
I’m sorry. It’s something that didn’t necessarily affect me just from a career perspective, but also from a personal perspective. And just so many of my views from a political standpoint have been affected by that experience. And I think it’s, it’s one that not a lot of people have had, but, um, it’s one I value quite a bit just because I think it is unique and I think it gives me a certain level of appreciation, um, for what [00:06:00] I have, but also.
You know, a need to kind of help others as well.
Porschia: Yeah. And it sounds like that desire to help other people has kind of come out in all of the work that you’re doing, the startups and all of that. So that’s kind of maybe a segue there. Um, so Sam, what would you say were some of your biggest career challenges before you started, uh, your own company?
Xan: I mean, I think I touched on it a little bit is, you know, I think I kind of grew up with this one mindset and when that didn’t go that way. I kind of felt lost for a while. Right. And so, um, you know, I tried a couple different things out and, you know, I tried the education route and I think the education route was more like pressure from parents be like, Okay, so you’ve got to do something.
So let’s just choose something. And versus really doing something [00:07:00] that I wanted to do. Um, and so I think really that the challenge was just Not knowing what I want.
Porschia: And thank you for sharing that, Sam, because a lot of our clients feel like they have to have it all together. Um, and you know, have this career path all planned out. Um, and I would say the vast majority of people, you don’t necessarily get that even in college. And so, We actually do some speaking for universities and whatnot around different career focused topics because I’ve even learned in in networking with universities and from my own experience of going to college, a lot of their like career services or career development departments.
They don’t have time to really sit with students and get to the root of, Hey, what do you want to be when you grow up? You know, um, I think some of the large universities, um, like where I went, you might be able to get a 20 minute [00:08:00] time slot with a counselor. And I mean, who knows how much is going to get solved in that 20 minutes, but, um, You know, I talked to a lot of people at various ages and in various generations who are still trying to answer that question.
So for you, how did you get some clarity around what avenues you wanted to pursue?
Xan: So, um, I’ll try to keep the story quick, but, but, um, It was kind of accidental. It wasn’t really completely my choice, but I think it’s probably one of the best things that ever happened to me. So, um, the company I was working for, the pharmaceutical marketing company, was acquired.
And I remember this very clearly. We got herded like sheep into a conference room. There was about 60 of us that got herded in. And, um, you know, basically they did this presentation and it was an org chart. The 60 people in the room weren’t really on that work chart, and so, so we got laid off, and um, you know, what was [00:09:00] interesting is, you know, they didn’t want us to, you know, tell our clients, I was an account manager at the time, but, you know, my thing is, once you lay me off, you know, you can’t really tell me what to do anymore, and so, you know, I, I called my client, and basically what happened is, they said, you know, we trust you, and so, um, they basically Request, you know, basically brought the business over to me and all of a sudden I was kind of going from employee to entrepreneur, um, over the course of like a couple of weeks, right?
And it was not a small contract. And so I basically had to figure stuff out on the fly. And, um, but candidly, entrepreneurship has been the right place for me. I’m not sure without that kind of external push, maybe, maybe not, you know, would I have made that plunge? If I didn’t have, you know, kind of the, the safety net pulled out from under me.
I don’t know the answer to that, but I haven’t gone back since and I’m. [00:10:00] It’s been a great decision for me, and I’m very much unemployable now.
Porschia: Yeah, yeah. And that I’ve heard that, you know, from a few of our clients. And I think that’s a great transition into entrepreneurship. When you have that one large client that you can get.
Started with to kind of make that transition. So we’re going to we’re going to dig more into your entrepreneurial background, but I want to start with the basics. This also, you know, speaks a lot to entrepreneurship. What is your definition of accountability?
Xan: Yeah, so accountability. Um, I’m gonna pull in, you know, a couple things here, but it really kind of is that one of the core tenants of why I started my startup.
But being accountable to someone is, you know, someone having an expectation on you. Um, and the reason why that’s powerful is, [00:11:00] you know, studies show that if you share a goal with somebody else, you’re actually higher to achieve it more, more likely to achieve that goal. But more importantly, If you share that goal with someone that you respect, that actually has a bigger impact.
And I think the reason why is you’ve now have kind of that external force on you where you, it’s not only, you’re not only doing it for yourself, but you’re, you’re doing it because you don’t want to disappoint that person that you respect, you know, how they think about you. And so really accountability is having kind of an external motivation for achieving it.
And it’s in the form of, of. Someone expecting you to achieve that and also kind of being there. To help push you, guide you, provide motivation, be your cheerleader, whatever it is that you need to, to, to, to kind of get you over the finish line on that.
Porschia: I love the point you made about external motivation. I think that is a really, really good way to put it.
Uh, when [00:12:00] it comes to accountability and I think you started kind of answering this question, but I want to dig deeper. Why do you think accountability is
Xan: so important? Yeah, I mean, I think it’s, it’s what I said, right? Is, um, you know, a lot of studies show that if you share your goal, you know, with anyone, right?
You’re more likely to achieve it. And I think it’s the same reason that, you know, now you’ve made it real. You’ve got people kind of checking in and like, Oh, how’s that going? Right? Like it takes some, it takes some, you know, to do that because You know, it’s easier to not tell anyone if you fail, then no one knows about it.
Right. And so that’s a much safer way to do it. But once you start putting it out there, it’s real. And now you feel, you know, I always tell people I ran track in college and some of my best races were. When I was in the outside lane when I couldn’t see anybody. And [00:13:00] so I did that because you’re running scared.
Right? And that’s a little bit what it is, is now you put it out there and you know those questions are going to come. And now you want to, you’ve got that extra push that if you don’t feel like someone’s chasing you may not kind of have that extra kind of pressure. Yeah. And so I think it’s really just sometimes, you know, I’ll do stuff like that and put it out there, you know, I’ve had so many businesses that, and sometimes I’ll put it out there and people, a lot of them fail, right?
But, but sometimes just putting it out there and saying, here’s what I’m going to do just. Gives you the motivation to take the next step. And I think that’s really what is so powerful about it is sharing it and having someone else have a level of expectation on you, I think is just a great way to just keep that extra, you know, layer of motivation that you wouldn’t necessarily have if it’s just you by yourself.
Porschia: Yeah. Yeah. And I really appreciate the point you made a lot of great points, but I really appreciate the one that you mentioned about having other [00:14:00] business ideas that might not have been deemed successful. You know, I was doing research years ago and I think they said like the average entrepreneur has had like three or four businesses that have quote unquote failed or, or not been as successful as they wanted them to be before they get there.
One that is. And so I think for a lot of entrepreneurs, they put that pressure on themselves and they kind of give up because they think, you know, whether it be talking to other people or what they see on social media, but they think everything is supposed to be a success and an instant success at that.
Yeah. Thank you for, uh, reiterating that. Um, Suzanne, many of the professionals and executives in our community are interested in improving their level of accountability to reach their goals. So how do you recommend professionals, uh, and executives really create an accountability plan?
Xan: So I think this [00:15:00] kind of, um, is, is a key piece of, of kind of the motivation between, you know, why I started the platform, um, was that.
I did a lot of research. I also did, um, a lot of experimentation on my own, and I kind of learned what kind of increases the chances of someone achieving a goal, right? And so some of the things that kind of came up were, you know, the importance of using a smart goal, using something that’s, you know, creating a goal that’s measurable, you know, time based.
Specific, right. Breaking that goal down into tiny pieces, you know, down to what do I have to do every day to achieve this goal? Um, and then because it’s a measurable goal, you know, having a way to track that progress. Um, and so I say all that to say that to achieve a goal, you need to have, you can’t just have the goal.
You need to have a very specific action plan [00:16:00] mapped out day by day. What do I need to do on a regular basis to achieve it? Right? You do it once you set the goal, you no longer focus on the goal. You focus on the individual tasks that you need to achieve that goal. And so I say that because I think that’s the foundation of the accountability plan, right?
You can’t just have an accountability partner without that action plan kind of being the foundation. And so I think to really have a successful accountability plan, I think you need to A, you know, one, like I said, set that SMART goal. B, create that specific action plan. And then from there, pick that accountability partner.
And again, kind of what I talked about earlier, like someone that you. You care about what they think about you, right? Because that’s, that’s going to be part of the motivation. And from there, you know, a lot of studies actually show this is. You then want to meet with that person regularly so that you can go through and track, you know, let’s, this is what we were trying to do.
Did we do it? If not, why didn’t we do it? Do we then have [00:17:00] to make some adjustments to the plan? And then from there, let’s make a, you know, kind of a target for that next meeting, right? And then from there, you can go to that next meeting and do the same thing where it’s like, okay, did we achieve it? Did we not?
Why not? Right? And then and then kind of repeating that process. But I think again, having that specific plan that everyone can agree to ahead of time. That to me is the key. And then the accountability partner isn’t necessarily holding you to the goal. They’re holding you to the action plan rather than, you know, the goal.
The goal is the results of having a good action plan and then sticking to that action plan consistently. Does that make sense? It
Porschia: does. It does. I think you made a lot of really, uh, vital points there. Um, I liked what you said about picking the accountability partner. So I’m a certified coach, as you know, and I think, um, a lot of times coaches serve [00:18:00] as accountability partners.
Um, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be a coach, um, be someone else in your network. Um, one of the things I talked to. Our clients about a lot is creating a career support system. It’s not just your family and your friends. We know that your friends and family can be great. But a lot of times they’re biased and they have their own expectations for you and, um, their own ideas on how far they think, you know, you can make it and, and.
All of that. And so I think that can kind of cloud the process, uh, for people. And I, I just like to share that because sometimes people think, Oh yeah, I’ve got my sister, I’ve got my cousin and they’re my disability buddy. And I really liked what she said about someone you respect. And of course, you know, you probably respect your friends and family, but there’s another layer to that.
Um, and I, I usually say is this person unbiased, right? Are they [00:19:00] not, you know, um, Financially or emotionally invested to the point that you are in it. Um, so I really, really liked that point about picking the right accountability partner, which I think
Xan: I totally agree with that, that, that, that kind of, uh, unbiased, this, I think I totally agree with that.
Yeah.
Porschia: And then also what you said about the partner holding you to the action plan, not necessarily the goal. That’s really important because a lot of times people are just thinking about the goal and the outcome, but it’s really about the actions that lead to that. Right. And so, um, you know, a great plan.
Yes. We’ll get you to success, but sometimes if you’re working the plan and you’re not getting where you want to be, the idea is to go back and rework the plan. And it doesn’t mean that. you know, you’re dumb or there’s something wrong with you. It just means that the plan needs to be reworked. And I think sometimes people quit on themselves when they’re like, Hey, I’m doing this action plan and I’m not getting the result, you know?
[00:20:00] Yeah. Um, so I really like your, your distinction there about holding you to the plan. Um, so, Zan, what are some of the biggest mistakes you see people make with their accountability plans?
Xan: Well, most of the time it’s because they don’t make one, right? So I think, I think that’s really number one. Um, and I think what I, my experience has been a couple of things. I think one is, You know, I think the SMART goal piece is important because it’s the specificity that’s so important. I think if you don’t have, if you don’t start with a specific goal, first of all, and make it measurable, then how do you know if you’ve achieved it, right?
And so what we’ve seen that’s been so effective is when you set kind of that specific plan, the specific goal, and you can clearly measure your progress toward that goal, right? When you start to see progress. That gives you confidence, that gives you motivation, and that makes you more [00:21:00] motivated to continue that plan.
Right? And so, the problem is a lot of people, like you said, just give up on the plan. Well, you know, too early. But if you set it up in a way where you get these small wins early and often, that gives you a great, you know, that’s the endorphin rush, right? And so you’re like, Oh, my gosh, this is working. Let’s keep doing it.
Right. And if you don’t set it up that way, then you don’t see those small wins. Then that’s I think when people give up too early. So I think number one is not having a specific plan, not the specific goal. And then also not setting up these little small wins along the way. Right. That give you that motivation to keep going, keep pushing.
Um, that’s really been, I think, kind of things that I’ve seen in myself and others where they haven’t, they haven’t kind of hit what they wanted to.
Porschia: Yeah. Yeah. I think you’re right. I think all of those things lead to people giving up like
Xan: a thousand percent. Yeah.
Porschia: So, San, tell us more about OnTrack and how people [00:22:00] can use it to help them with their accountability.
Xan: Sure. No. So, so really, you know, it’s, it’s all the pieces that we’ve talked about so far, right? So kind of the, the, the origin story behind OnTrack is, um, I had the project that I mentioned to you that I had raised money for. Took a long time. I won’t talk, talk about that. Took a long, long time to raise 800K.
Finally did it. And the business ended up failing. Um, and then right along that time. Uh, my father, I had spoken to, um, for close to 10 years, um, passed away before we could go out and see him. And so I actually experienced quite a bit of depression during that time. And so I wanted to get myself out. So I actually set a lot of goals during that time.
And so I, I did a lot of research and, you know, all the things I talked about is kind of what I learned. Is kind of what increases your chances of achieving goal. Right. And so when I looked at kind of ways to support the goals that I [00:23:00] had all the all the tools were like, Okay, what’s your goal? And I’m like, you put it in.
And then it was like, Okay, let us know when you get there. It was kind of like, Well, I want to know how to get there. Right. And so I wanted someone to kind of help me kind of map out all those those tiny steps. And I couldn’t find that. And so really, you know, I created originally on track. I’ve got two co founders.
Now I took all the things I learned about achieving a goal and reversed engineered it into a content platform. And so, you know, on track is a content platform and the content is called a smart track. A smart track is really a step by step action plan to achieve a specific goal. Right? And so, um, content creators can create these plans that end users can you You know, enroll in connect their calendar and actually have the entire process.
You know, we break the goals of the milestones. And so basically what happens is the end user can have a milestone scheduled on their [00:24:00] calendar. And then they can kind of mark task complete. They can share their progress with an accountability partner to do exactly what we talked about, is hold them accountable to that plan.
Are you doing, are you doing all the things that you’re committing to? If so, great. If not, why not? Um, and so I think what we’re trying to do is really, our mission statement is to simplify the process of achieving a goal. And we’re trying to kind of work with contact carriers. Creators to create content in such a way that helps the end user kind of incorporate all the things we talked about having a specific action plan, you know, chunking it down to the smaller pieces, sharing their progress with accountability partner.
We design content in such a way that really facilitates all those processes kind of inherently. Does that make sense?
Porschia: It does. It does. And, um, I want to let everyone listening know that, you know, um, it might be easy for for you to go [00:25:00] and look at this because, uh, Sam’s team may have a great website. And. I don’t know.
Some people are visual to me. Yeah. I think this would, you know, when they go and they take a look at your website, this will also kind of help them understand the flow of kind of how they can use the smart tracks to, um, make sure that they’re sticking to their, uh, accountability plan, uh, and taking those actions.
Um, so you started a little bit with telling us these things, but let’s say, you know, someone goes and they take some They take a look at your website and they definitely want to start with some smart tracks. Um, what have you found are some best practices when kind of using, um, smart tracks on your platform?
Xan: Yeah. So I’ll answer that question. Another question. Cause there’s really, it’s essentially a two sided marketplace, right? Because we’re also looking for subject matter experts to create smart tracks. Right. And so [00:26:00] actually let me just address that really quickly because we’ve seen some challenges there because.
I think a lot of people don’t create and stick to a specific action plan because it’s hard, like it’s hard to do, like it’s easier to kind of create content that just talks about this is how you do it without actually going into the nitty gritty and reverse engineering, like, what do you actually physically have to do day by day to do that?
And so that’s actually been one of the challenges. And so what we’ve been seeing is we have to work with some of these content creators to help them kind of kind of do that. Right. And it’s it’s not easy. Um, and then, you know, to answer your other question, right? So for the end users of the smart tracks.
I think it’s, it’s kind of, um, you start with one, right? Is, is, you know, it’s easy to kind of, you know, Oh, that’s interesting. That says you’re gonna try and do a bunch of them, but, but really just, just start with one. Um, like I said, the best thing is to kind of integrate your calendar right now. We only integrate with Google calendar.
And just pick something that you really just want to do and the [00:27:00] idea is to really simplify that process where the smart track has done the heavy lifting of the house. Right. And so, um, and then I would say that the last piece is to go ahead and share that, you know, Invite an accountability partner to that journey so that they can kind of track your progress along the way.
So I would say, you know, start with one and then, you know, incorporate the accountability partner, whether it’s a coach or someone else or a mentor or someone, like you said, that you respect and you want. To again, you care about what they think about whether you, you are sticking to your plan or not. And so I think those are all the things I would recommend.
Porschia: Wow. So, um, I think you made a lot of really, really important notes there. So, yes, I think that breaking down your goals into these action plans so into a smart track. Um, It’s harder than [00:28:00] it seems, right? And so, um, to your point about content creators and really helping them to do that with your platform.
Um, I think that is so important on my, uh, nerdy side, Zan. You know this. I’m, uh, doing a master’s degree and, um, And my program, part of, you know, what we dig into is, you know, curriculum development and training, and so how to really, um, try to get the results that you want, because to your point, it’s not about talking at somebody and hoping that they pick up the information and know how to create their action plan from that, right?
There are so many steps that I think you and your team, I know are really good at. Pulling out and helping people to, um, to get to, um, so one thing, Sam, that I’m not, I’m not sure of, cause I know you guys have made some changes to your platform. Let’s say somebody comes with their own goal, right? So they have their own goal.
Uh, maybe, you know, [00:29:00] some of our clients, some of the goals that we get is, you know, they might want to find a job, a new job and a certain amount of time, or they might want to start a side business in a certain amount of time. If they have their own goal, Can they come to, uh, on track and create a smart track for that, or is it just kind of the set different, um, goals that you already have, like, plugged into the platform?
Xan: What I would say is they could do that. I think, I guess, and not to turn anyone away, but, you know, just being honest here, I think, If they’re trying to create their own action plan, um, it would take some time to build at that smart track. Um, and it might be more. If they’re trying to do their own action plan, it might make more sense to do something like a Google Sheets, right?
I think the power of a smart track is if we have [00:30:00] content creators that are subject matter experts in different areas. Where they can provide the framework of how do I do this, right? If someone does, has no idea how to achieve that goal, you know, the, the vision, the longterm vision is to have all these subject matter experts create these smart tracks where someone can go browse and look for, like, you know, how do I find my first job?
How do I optimize, you know, search engine optimize my site or, or, you know, whatever it might be, or how do I lose X amount of pounds, whatever it might be. It’s for those people that don’t know where to start. That are looking for somebody that has expertise in that to provide them a framework on this is how you do it day by day to achieve that goal.
So I think that’s probably a better use case versus someone trying to do it themselves because, you know, the platform, it can take some time to build it in. You’re almost better off just scheduling out the calendar items yourself, you know, take the same amount of time, right? But that being said, the one, the one [00:31:00] piece where it would be helpful for that person is the accountability piece.
Because then you can share that progress and have that accountability partner log in, and then they can see in real time what you’ve done, what you haven’t done. So, I guess that would be, that would be the benefit of building that out, um, and then using it for your own, for your own, you know, goals that you build out yourself.
Porschia: Great, great. So we’ll be providing a link to your website and then the other social channels in our show notes, um, so people can find you online and find the OnTrack website. Um, but what is the best way for someone to get in touch with you, Zan, if they, they like what they’ve heard, they want to, they want to talk to you or communicate
Xan: with you.
Awesome. Oh, so, I mean, so definitely go to, uh, the website, which is, uh, start OnTrack. com, which, um, Portia is going to share the link. So it’s spelled a little bit differently. So it’s probably best to just click that way. Um, but probably the best way is [00:32:00] to, um, on that on the website. Once she shares it is an email address.
If you want to email us, um, we can, we can schedule a demo. Um, that’s probably easiest because, you know, there’s some nuances to the platform that we’re still trying to figure out how to communicate that, uh, efficiently. Um, so kind of walking through a demo is probably the best way to do it and get a feel for how it could possibly benefit you.
Perfect.
Porschia: Perfect. So, Sam, I want to ask you a few other questions. I love to talk to other entrepreneurs, especially ones that are so experienced like you do. You’ve got a lot of great experience with startups and different businesses. What is your definition of career success? Oh,
Xan: so I guess I’ll answer that the best way I can because career for me.
You know, coming as an entrepreneur, I think kind of kind of a corporate connotation, right? So, um, going through that period that [00:33:00] I had, um, you know, where I had that business failure, I had that kind of moment where, you know, where, where, when my dad passed away, that was, um, that was a very had a huge personal impact on me and how I view life, right?
And I think the most important thing I learned from that was, Time is your most important resource is by far your most valuable resource, right? And so I think for me, the definition of success is generating enough income to make yourself happy, doing something that you love, but not, you know, what’s the saying is, is, you know, you don’t want to work to live, but live, you want to live to work, right?
And so, so working is something [00:34:00] that you enjoy so much that it’s not viewed as working, right? So I think my definition of success is, is not feeling like you’re going to work ever, right? Is, is, is having that something you enjoy so much and you, it doesn’t take so much time off that you, that your quality of life is impacted.
So for me, that’s kind of my definition of success, which, you know, I don’t know if that’s what you were looking for at all, because again, to me, career. You know, career success has a connotation of corporate. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but that’s just kind of my perception of it to me that that’s kind of how I’ve defined it.
And I’ve reshaped my goals and the way I do things. To completely move towards that definition of success and just the way I leverage outsourcing automation just to to to really, you know, optimize the amount of quality time I have in my life. I think that’s really kind of been the driving force behind how I’ve changed how I’ve done things.[00:35:00]
That is
Porschia: perfect. That is perfect. And thank you for sharing all of that with us. You’ve shared some vulnerable moments with us today. And I appreciate you doing that. Um, something that, you know, when you were just talking, it made me think again about accountability, you know, with your business experience, um, to kind of take it back to an accountability question.
When we think about, um, how does having co founders help you with accountability? Because I mean, for me personally, I don’t have any co founders, you know, a founder, CEO, and I have team members, but you know, I’ve not had that co founder experience. What is that like? And does that kind of, you know, aid and accountability
Xan: at all?
So I have had co founders before. Um, and most of them have crashed and burned miserably. Right. And I actually, you know, I’m one, I’m sure you’re the same where I [00:36:00] always like to kind of have these, I do the instant replays all the time to kind of figure out like what’s working, what’s not working, why is it, you know, and so in the past, uh, and I’ll share an interesting story.
Um, in the past, Co founders have always been like, we had this idea together and it’s like, all right, let’s, let’s partner up and do it, right? There was no strategy behind why we were partnering up. You know, there was no analysis as to whether our, our, our personalities fit and things like that. And so with OnTrack, I took some of that learning and approached it very differently.
So I originally was just myself and, um, you know, the end goal is to raise money and, and, you know, I’ve always heard that VCs Like teams rather than single co founders, right? Um, and so for those that don’t know VC stands for venture capitalists. So, so those are the, so those are the folks that are investing, you know, decent amount of money to, to, to kind of scale these companies.
Um, this time around, I took a very interesting approach. So number one is I really took a deep dive [00:37:00] on, and I’m eventually going to answer your question, but I think this is, it’s still interesting. But, um, I took a deep dive on. where my skill set was lacking, right? My skill set and maybe also personality, like what, what my, what my weaknesses are, like for instance, uh, patience is, hasn’t been and never will be one of my strengths.
And so, so I purposely looked, uh, for people that complimented me from the standpoint of. Offset my weaknesses, had skill sets where I thought I was weak. Um, and I, I intentionally went after people with those skill sets. I was looking for a diverse team. Um, and so I got what I think is a fantastic team.
And the other thing I will say is what we did and actually my co founders actually suggested this. I can’t even take credit for it. We actually took six months To do it as a [00:38:00] dating period where we acted as co founders for six months with no expectations of anything. Um, and we did team meetings and all this stuff.
I had him sign a nondisclosure to make sure, but, um, and we got a chance to see how we work together. You know, do our visions align? Do our morals align? You know, because I’ve had issues where I’ve had partners that were morally we didn’t, you know, ethically, we didn’t align. Right. And so we got a really good chance.
And I felt really good about bringing them on. So and so eventually we agreed to terms and we brought them on as co founders. What I have seen, um, and this is interesting. I think you’ll appreciate this is Uh, so Angela is one of my co founders. She’s the first female co founder I’ve had and, you know, I don’t want to, I don’t want to, um, I don’t want to kind of generalize, but at the same time, I think there are some, some differences generally between men and women and how they think and how they, and she has really [00:39:00] pushed back.
On Gemini, probably at a lot of the right times, right? It is because Gemini, we do have, so Angela has more corporate experience. Gemini have entrepreneurial experience. And so we’re out there trying to, you know, we want to take these risks all the time and it was like, hold on a sec, you know, this doesn’t necessarily make sense and.
In retrospect, you know, I was frustrated because I’m like, no, no, we got we got and like in retrospect, she’s really pushed back at a lot of. And so I think it points to the importance of a team. It points to the importance of diversity, right? Because, and I have arguments all the time with it. Diversity is not just about.
You know, race and gender and things like that. It’s about having people with different viewpoints now, usually people with different, you know, different ethnic backgrounds will have different viewpoints, but it’s so important to have all these people looking at problems from different angles and pushing back when necessary, so that you’re not all making [00:40:00] the, you know, making decisions from just one lens.
And so I think that’s what’s been so powerful, you know, but I think it’s important that it’s the right people, right? So you, you, you can’t just have people pushing back. It’s got to be the right people that are pushing back so that it’s for the right reasons. And I think that’s really been. My biggest takeaway from that experience has been like, you know, I think, you know, if and when we’re successful, it’s because of all of us kind of working together and putting in our various inputs towards a central mission, right?
We’ve made sure that our missions and our visions align, but we’re attacking it from slightly different angles and that pushback at all the right times, I think, is really what, where the magic happens. And I think that’s kind of how the accountability happens. In that group, right? It’s us saying, Hey, no, no, let’s, let’s, let’s make this decision together and let’s make sure everyone expresses their opinion on it.
And then as a group, [00:41:00] um, let’s, let’s kind of kind of handicap everyone’s input in that. But, but that’s been That’s been a really cool experience for me. Um, as far as that. So hopefully that answers your question. It’s, it’s, it’s a roundabout way.
Porschia: It does. I mean, that’s very insightful. Um, it, it sounds like you also have your, your built in accountability partners.
Yes. When it comes to your business, so. Um, you don’t necessarily have to look as far outside to find that. Uh, so my last question for you, Zant, how do you think executives or professionals can get a positive edge in their career or their business?
Xan: So my, I guess the one thing I would say about that is just upskill, just upskill all the time.
And the one example I will give you, um, you mentioned in my bio is. You know, my daughter during the pandemic when she kept missing the ice cream truck had asked me, [00:42:00] Hey, can we, can we build an app to track the ice cream truck? And my head as an entrepreneur was like, I’m gonna make this happen. I don’t care what, what, what it means.
I’m gonna make it happen. But then I looked at what it would cost. I’m like, I love my daughter, but not that much. And so that’s when I took, not that I don’t love her that much, but I was like, I can’t pay that, you know, for something that we’re not, we might not do anything, right? So, um, Um, and so that’s when I took a class on how to, you know, on this note coding class, and I got to tell you, that was one of the most valuable things I’ve ever done.
And it was like a 700 class. Not only did I use it to kind of automate things on my own business, but like now I have another business with my wife where we’re actually building these no code apps for, for other small businesses. And like that class has paid for itself over and over. And I think the reason why that’s so important is the world is changing so quickly.
Right. And so you’re not upskilling regularly. You can become irrelevant very quickly. [00:43:00] And so, for instance, during the pandemic, right? In that first six months during the pandemic, e commerce You know, e commerce, the volume of e commerce business increased about as much as it had in the previous 10 years, I think is what I positive.
I don’t have that quite right. But the point is, it increased really fast, right? Where, you know, the first, you know, 50% took 10 years. The second 50% took six months, right? And so you can imagine how quickly the need for technology Increased during that short period of time, too, right? And so if you don’t have the right skill sets to adapt to that change, you’re gonna have a hard time finding your your value, you know, your value proposition in that new reality, right?
And so I think It’s upskilling, but upskilling strategically, right? Try, you know, what’s the saying is, you know, don’t, don’t go to where the puck is, go to where the puck’s going to be, [00:44:00] right? So it’s trying to figure out where that puck’s going to be and setting yourself up so that you’ve got the skill sets.
You know, it’s actually thinking ahead, right? Cause you want to make sure that you’re that competitive advantage where you have skill sets that no one else has, but it’s something that is, you know, extremely needed, right? So digital marketing, online stuff, e commerce knowledge, a lot of these businesses were scrambling if they just had a brick and mortar, how do I, how do I make my business kind of relevant in this new reality?
And so they were looking for people, you know, with those skillsets. So I think it’s really just upskilling, but strategically upskilling. Sam,
Porschia: you have shared a lot of wisdom with us today and also some Wayne Gretzky quotes. I’m sure that our listeners can use it to be confident, uh, in their careers and their businesses.
And we really appreciate you being
Xan: with us. I enjoyed it. I mean, it’s always [00:45:00] great talking to you. You’ve been a huge supporter of us and, and, and, you know, um, you know, anytime I can kind of help you out and help your, your, your followers out, I’m more than happy to do so. So it was, I, I enjoyed it. So, so thank you for having me.
Thank you, Sam.
