Lessons - From an NYU Dorm Room to a Billion Dollar Company | Liz Elting - TransPerfect Co-Founder & WSJ Bestselling Author

In this lessons episode, explore what it takes to build a business that scales through empowered teams and long-term vision. Discover how creating ownership drives entrepreneurial performance, understand why sustained sacrifice is often required in the early stages of growth, and uncover how thinking bigger can shape clearer goals and greater success. Speak to me about your growth strategy because I've never heard of a growth strategy like yours outside of a franchise model, I guess. I don't know if that's the best way to describe it, but you would air drop people into cities and they were successful. So I want to understand how you grew this business because that is a wild strategy to me that you would put somebody on their own and they would actually do okay, basically selling those services into a whole new market. Yes, and initially in the early years, I mean the very early years, the first maybe three years, we're doing it all from New York, and then without, okay, to become a global company, we need to start having these satellite offices and also clients want that local presence. So it's in their best interest too. So I remember we started with San Francisco just to kind of give a tangible example. And basically what we said to the person leading that office and we do the switch every offices, okay, you need to sell $50,000 a month for three consecutive months and then you can bring in a second person. And then the two of you need to sell $120,000 for three consecutive months and then you can bring in a third person. You need to sell $190,000 for three consecutive months and so on. And that's how we paid for it. And we did a very low cost model. Because as I said, these were one person offices and they were in executive suite situations where which were the most cost effective way to go. And as a result, the rent was very low, one or two person offices starting with one person, but they had the revenue goals and they were very incentivized because they didn't want to work alone. They wanted to have their own company under that. It was an entrepreneurial situation and we paid them like entrepreneurs whereby when their revenue went up, they made a lot more. So they had a low draw but a high upside. So the goal was to pay as low a draw as they were comfortable with, but then make it so they had a high upside and they would make more than they would anywhere else in the industry and they would really feel like an entrepreneur. And we made it so they had a commission that didn't sunset. I mean, if you I can elaborate on that if you want. No, I think it's smart too. The reason why I think it's really interesting to go into this model is because you speak a lot about the employees have to feel like owners. But I feel that very few people accomplish that effectively. I think there's a couple of issues that present themselves. Number one, you're not paying them a lot so they don't care about the business. Number two, if you're trying to do a low draw and high commission, then you have to find the right people that are very self-sufficient, self-motivated are confident in their own abilities. And I feel like that's a very hard profile to find and obviously you've perfected how to find that person. But the strategy that you deployed, I think a lot of business owners founders would love to deploy, but it's the people problem that they have an issue with and they can never solve for it. No, you're right. And it is the hardest part. That is the key to having a successful business, right? Finding and hiring and developing and retaining the right people. And often it's some of it's not developing. It's just they are the right people when they come in and they have what they need. They have the threshold level of qualities they need. But related to what you're asking is I think it helps if you hire people who are young who don't who aren't married, who don't have families that they need to support who are used to living higher risk. They're okay. They'll take the risk. They'll make less if they're not successful, but they're looking to make more than they could ever make. So they don't need the security. They're willing to take the risk because they know they want to feel like entrepreneurs or be entrepreneurs within our company or within a company. And that's the situation you can provide. The other thing you can do over time is fan some stock or I guess they're, you know, employee, I mean, ESOPs. But I mean, fan some stock is another way to do it without actually giving away equity and basing that stock on the revenue and the profit of the company. But I think for us, the key was finding like-minded people who really wanted to build something big and create a 100 person office or a 200 person office and then be managing people outside of their office in other cities or countries in our company. And that's precisely what we did. A quote from you, very entrepreneurial quote, work today like no one else will so you can live and give tomorrow like no one else can. What does that quote mean? Yes. And I mean, that's really, and I putting in the hours and sacrificing and I, you know, it's not what people want to hear, right? A few people want to hear. There's a way to be a mega success without doing that. But every company I can think of and I read about and I learn about who's created huge companies, billion dollar companies or even, you know, successful companies that are not that like, have put in a lot of hours and given up some things in the early years to create the infrastructure that they want and the right sales team. I mean, I've talked a lot about sales. I think the right sales solution is critical because you can't do it alone at the entrepreneur cannot be that the salesperson for the company or even the most important salesperson or the head person as a salesperson. I mean, ultimately you have to have a well oiled machine. But in order to create that, you have to put in the hours over a sustained period of time. But the today is not, you know, forever in that quote, I mean, I hear of entrepreneurs who sell incredibly successful companies after five years, seven years, 10 years. I mean, in my case, I did it for 26 years, but it got a lot better after those early years. But it relates to the first million or the first five million is by far the toughest. In the early years, you have to give it more than anyone else, you have to work out work anyone else, you have to be available when no one else is. And that really leads to a well oiled machine and success at the highest level. And it's exciting and interesting because if you choose the right path with the right passion, a passion that can make money and you work with amazing people, it can be fun and exciting for all of you. So it's really a great way to go. Do you ever, I mean, I obviously, you sacrifice throughout your career. But when did you feel like you didn't have to sacrifice as much in terms of your time, your energy, your life? When was that point in your career journey when it was, it was always hard work, but it became something that was more sustainable long term, or has it has the entirety of it always been like balls to the wall, like non-stop hustle, hustle, and I don't think that's the case. But when was that point? Got easier, right? I mean, it definitely got, you know, the first few years were 120 hours a week. And then, you know, I would say about 10 years into it, it got more like 80 hours a week. I mean, you know, the answer is I think when it's your own and you're working with, you know, no funding and you're completely responsible. And when you're in the CEO, even when you have funding, even when it's a public company, I think ultimately it's hard to let go. But I think it got a lot better after eight or 10 years. And then maybe it got even a lot better as far as hours after about 15 years. But, you know, I think you never really let go until, you know, you say goodbye. And so, and that's okay, because as I say, it's very exciting. But, you know, in the early years, I mean, I think the important thing is you can, you can. It's maybe multiple phases. And I guess I mentioned what they are. And, you know, it's fun and exciting and interesting, but hard work, but it's only work if you'd rather be doing something else. Yeah, that's true. I think I think that's one thing, you know, I've had this debate about hustle culture and I don't love hustle culture, but I don't hate it either. I think that it has a place. But I think that the issue is people don't understand what they're getting into. And they also don't have an end goal in mind. So they start to build something and then it takes over their life and then it jeopardizes relationships. And I do believe that for a period of any successful person's life, there is an unorthodox amount of energy targeted towards one thing that they're trying to build. But I also think that there has to be at one point at exit so that life, if that is what the person wants, life can be more holistic and you can spend more time with your spouse and your kids and whatnot. But it does for a period, a season of your life, it does take this insane amount of energy and effort. And I think people have to be okay with that, but they have to be aware of it first, because they don't think people are even aware of what that means when they build something from scratch. Yeah, no, you're absolutely right. Scott, I agree. And I think we all learn over time. This is not sustainable. We need a work like that. We certainly learned with our employees, we couldn't hire people and just pay them more and pay them more and expect them to work 80 hours a week. That nobody wants that or certainly nobody wants it long term. And I think you realize the same thing yourself as an entrepreneur. And that's why, yes, it gets a lot better for us, as I said, it was after about eight or 10 years. And then I even a lot better than that after about 15, but there are people who go in with a five-year plan, some people who get investors and then they're going to sell and they're able to accomplish a great deal in five years and they're giving giving it everything they have for five years and it pays off. But depending on how big you want and what your goals are, you know, it could take longer or two. No, I think that's very smart. You wrote the book Dream Big and Win. In its most simplest form, what does that mean for somebody early on in their career? What is the like the one major takeaway, even from that title? Well, I think from the title itself, I think it's important to think about what you really want because a lot of people don't even know what their goals are. They don't know what they want. They're they're not dreaming. They're just, they're being too practical. And I can relate to that because believe me, I was almost too practical and I almost didn't follow my passion a few times. You know, I thought I was going to be a lawyer and I realized, well, that's not for me. And then I thought I was going into finance, really, so that's not for me. So I think it's very important to figure out what you like and what you don't like and then dream about what you want. And then if you're going to dream and try to do something you want, which is what I think everyone should do, then make it big. Shoot for the stars because then you're going to get a lot closer to that, then if you don't think big and and and dream big and then carry out the actions to be big. So I think that's the idea. Figure out what you want and then figure out how you can incorporate it in your life and be and make it big because that's fun. It's about competition. It's about winning and I think we all enjoy that or most of us do anyway and I and that's who I'm trying to inspire people who who think that way and and just need a little push to try and do it. Thanks for tuning in. If you found this valuable, don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode. And if you want to dive deeper into this conversation, check out the links in the description to watch the full episode. See you in the next one.