The Athlete Entrepreneur

Dan Berzansky | Founder and CEO of OneTeam360 a SaaS Solution that “Gamifies” Employee Management to Improve Engagement, Management, Training, and Reporting

November 10, 2021 Greg Spillane
The Athlete Entrepreneur
Dan Berzansky | Founder and CEO of OneTeam360 a SaaS Solution that “Gamifies” Employee Management to Improve Engagement, Management, Training, and Reporting
Show Notes Transcript

This episode of The Athlete Entrepreneur features Dan Berzansky

My guest for this episode is Dan Berzansky. Dan is currently the founder and CEO of OneTeam360, a SaaS solution that “gamifies” employment management to improve engagement, management, training, and reporting, specifically for the part-time hourly workforce. 

Dan is a multi-time founder who also Owns and Manages Premier Aquatics, a full-service aquatics management and staffing firm with over 600 locations. 

Dan swam competitively and earned his undergraduate degree from Division 1 Stony Brook University in Long Island, New York and he earned his MBA from Pepperdine University.

Dan is the Vice President of Stop Drowning Now, a national drowning prevention education program designed for use in the elementary school setting. He is also the upcoming Vice-Chair of the Orange County Drowning Prevention Task Force.

Follow the show at:  https://www.athleteentrepreneurship.com/

Greg Spillane:

Cool. So why don't you start off by telling me where you're from?

Dan Berzansky:

Sure thing. Well, first off, thanks for having me excited to be part of it. I grew up in Irvine, California, actually. So I moved to Irvine when I was about eight years old. My family immigrated from South Africa and moved directly to Irvine. That's where all the other South Africans went. And I was there through through college.

Greg Spillane:

First of all, I did not realize Irvine was a hotbed for South Africans. Second of all, that's, that's wild man, South South Africa sounds like a really interesting, diverse place to have spent the first part of your life in.

Dan Berzansky:

Yeah, it absolutely was. And the coolest part is that a lot of my family remains in South Africa. So we, we had the opportunity growing up to head back there and see this whole other world, you know, when you live in the US, people don't really understand how good it is. Until you've seen third world countries and even developed countries that are just not there. You go back, and you have this completely different mindset, and just you're exposed to so many different things. And, and people and cultures, it's it's pretty amazing. You know,

Greg Spillane:

I I hadn't I didn't travel much when I was a kid, just for whatever reason, you know, it wasn't something that my family did a lot of, especially outside of the country. I mean, maybe you know, minus the trip to Mexico here and there. And, you know, as an adult, I've had a chance to do a lot of traveling and have been all through Europe and Asia and and experience all these different cultures. And, you know, I think it's the one you know, one of the things that this country could do a better job of that other countries really have part of their culture, especially if you go into like Australia, and you go to parts of Europe where, you know, when when, when a kid graduates College, like there's just an expectation that you're going to spend a year or two years just traveling around the world. And that perspective, I think is so important in life.

Dan Berzansky:

Yep, yeah, we've been, I believe we see it. Now we see. It's just a completely different mindset. Right? When you look at a lot of the other countries, when I look at my Australian friends and my British friends and South African friends, they they are they understand the way the world works, whereas a lot of my friends here only understand what's expected from an American American standpoint. And it is. I think it's only half the story. You know,

Greg Spillane:

Elon Musk, a South African is, I mean, obviously, it's a big country, but he did your family know his family, or is there ever any connection? So?

Dan Berzansky:

No, no. That'd be nice. That'd be great story, right.

Greg Spillane:

So you, you you. You grew up in Southern California primarily after after being born and raised in South Africa. You end up in Stony Brook college, right. That's Long Island, New York. Yeah, a long ways away from Irvine. Yep. Tell me a little bit about that. How did how'd you choose Stony Brook?

Dan Berzansky:

Sure, sure. So Tony, Stony Brook chose meme is the real, the real answer. So you know, I was doing my own recruiting. I came from a family, none of my parents, neither my parents went to college. In fact, very few people in my family were college educated. So when it came down to growing up in Irvine, it's very academic focused. And I was the one driving my own ship. For for my own college career. As far as my parents were concerned, I was going to just magically find a job with no college education and no experience. I don't think that they even thought about it. When I I was the first person to go to college with my family or graduate college in my family. It was just never a thing. So the recruiting I was doing was really through swimming. So you know, I did well in high school, I was high enough ranked at CIF and other on the competitive side that I was getting some letters for some from some schools and I was going to be the you know, the five guys sixth guy and one of the bigger schools locally. Or I could go to Stony Brook and get a ride and it was an email that I got from the coach there and or letter that I got from the coach there I should say, that just said we had some money for you. And so I went

Greg Spillane:

what events Did you swim?

Dan Berzansky:

I was a sprint freestyler so I was 50 303. My in punishment I swam some for I am

Greg Spillane:

but short stuff. Yeah. And so you know, what is it? What does it take? Like how good do you have to be to be able to get a scholarship to swim right? I'm assuming it's a relatively competitive you know, it's not football there's you know, isn't 85 scholarships at every, you know, Division One school. Where did you fit in, in sort of the national rankings?

Dan Berzansky:

So I mean, really to swimming D one, two In A D, one program now, I don't know that I could do it, I don't know that any of the guys that I swam with could do it. The training has changed so much kids are starting so much younger. But I was just to give you a sense I was California was, it's probably one of the faster high school competitions in the in the country. And I was a top four, top five at CIF D one. So I was relatively good, you know, I, I don't think I could have made the Olympic team or anything like that. But I was pretty fast. And it was a challenge to get recruited even at that point. So now, now you almost need Olympic trial cuts to get recruited in a college swim program, D to d3, whether or not scholarship in anybody, it's different. The one is competitive. And the other issue is, Title Nine didn't have a huge impact on the ability for the smaller sports to recruit. So a lot of those scholarships went to right or wrong, right, I think is right, went to women. And it eliminated a lot of the opportunities for men to get scholarships that probably shouldn't have gotten them in the first place anyways, we just kind of leveled the playing field.

Greg Spillane:

What when your career was was coming to an end your swim career, your four year athlete there? Did you have some thoughts and some aspirations of potentially going Olympic trials and going that route? Or did you kind of know is over.

Dan Berzansky:

I knew it was over. Yeah, I'd run my course I didn't get faster in college, I you know, for the first time my parents never pushed me, really pushed me at all to compete, I did it on my own. And in college, when I had, I was in a situation where I was working, I was going to school, I have to be at every workout, not I could be at every workout, which is a very different, very big shift, right? When you're in high school, and your parents are giving you the choice to go to 6am workout. It's great. Now, when your coaches literally, I mean, I remember there was three times I missed workout in the morning, and I had a $50 bill, like a receipt, essentially saying your scholarships been reduced $50 because you missed workout today. It's just a very different feeling. And I just by the end of college, I was done.

Greg Spillane:

You know, I talked about this with a couple of my old buddies and teammates from college. And, you know, you would you would ask, sometimes it was just was such a drag, right, going to practice training, you know, getting into the gym, even going to class at times felt like a huge drag. And now, you know, we're all in our 40s middle age working and we're just like, Could you imagine if all you had to do all day long, was work out train with your buddies, and then go to class and like, learn really interesting facts, you know, and for some reason, at that time in your life, it feels like such a drag, you don't want to do it. You feel like this whole world is out there and you want to take it on. And then you get past it. You're like God, such a great time of our lives, right?

Dan Berzansky:

Yeah, yeah. What's the what's the, the phrase youth is wasted on the young? You know, it's, uh, yeah, totally, absolutely. I would, I would give nothing. I would give everything excuse me to be able to work out and learn. I mean, what's cool? Did you have them? Not so much?

Greg Spillane:

Do you have that coat? You know, like, I know, there's, there's still things I say on a day in day out basis. And it's just like, you know, these, they're almost like cliches, but things coaches used to say to us all the time, like, Do you have any, you know, kind of saying or anything a coach used to just always, like, throw at you that you just still to this day, like can't get out of your head?

Dan Berzansky:

You know, there's honestly was nicknames and things of that nature, where, depending on how my training was looking that day, you know, if I was if I was lazy, it was walrus, who's, you know, just different nicknames that he would give all of us if we were sucking it up. I would say that's, that's number one. And and then, you know, my first real job is, that's where I have probably more takeaways from my boss was just very, I had never, obviously never had a real job before. But to this day, I've never worked with anybody like my first boss, who just understood the numbers and understood the way things work.

Greg Spillane:

So So did you move back home right after you graduated?

Dan Berzansky:

Yeah, I was actually in my senior year, I was flying back, doing interviews for a job here. And the day I graduated, I jumped in the car. And in fact, the actual day I graduated, I jumped in the car and drove back. And did

Greg Spillane:

you know what you wanted to do at that point, like had you kind of had a prep, you know, a plan for your career?

Dan Berzansky:

No, no, i i No, not even close. I mean, I was a psychology major. You know, I had no idea Do what I want to do. And I've been really fortunate where I often ask myself, you know, am I lucky? Do they just fall to things fall in my lap? Or am I just an opportunist? And I just, I jumped when I can when I can jump. But no, I didn't know what I wanted to do. I took a job. Again, I interviewed during my senior year, I started, I think two weeks after I graduated, I started the job. It wasn't a job that I thought I'd be in forever. I ended up being there for about almost 10 years, before I started my companies,

Greg Spillane:

and you got your MBA, kind of during that period of time, right. You went, went to Pepperdine, got an MBA, they're really good business school. You know, that's something I get asked a lot, you know, having having done the same gone back, you know, got an MBA to a huge commitment, time, commitment, cost, etc. And, you know, frequently asked, is it worth it? And I'm curious to hear your thoughts on that, you know, what your what your decision process was before you're deciding to go through that program? And then, you know, now in retrospect, you know, was it worth it? Would you recommend it to other people?

Dan Berzansky:

So, so it's, I've got two answers for you. Me being in quote, unquote, the corporate world and working for someone else, my boss came to me and said, I'm a couple years from retirement, I want you to take my job, we will pay for your MBA, because a psychology degree is just not going to cut it. So he gave me no pressure, but he gave me an opportunity to go and get it done. Now, the challenge for me as a psychology major getting into any decent MBA program, your psychology degree doesn't help. So I actually had to go back, I spent about a year and a half, going to school at night, to get to get some business credits underneath my belt. So I went back to Long Beach State. I didn't get a degree there. But I got enough classes to qualify for, quote unquote, minor. And then I was able to apply to Pepperdine a few other schools and was worth it. If I, I learned a lot, I learned which questions to ask. I think in a corporate setting, I think an MBA was helpful. I think it lent and made people feel more confident in my ability to lead, especially when we're getting into bigger budgets and bigger numbers, more people, however, you know, running my own businesses, I don't know that I would have done it again, if I was already in the throes of my businesses and doing what I was doing. I don't think that there was anything that I learned that made me a better business owner, and a bit of a better boss, or better with numbers or anything like that. Yeah, that's,

Greg Spillane:

that's interesting. I, I, you know, the thing that I would say don't do it, is if you're trying to get a job because of it. I, you know, I mean, I guess there's people that come out, you know, young kids that end up going to, you know, Harvard, or whatever it is, and they get into investment banking, or they want to get in management consulting, and, you know, that's, that's the path. But for a lot of people, you know, that that are doing it, because they think they're going to come out and the world's going to open up to them. And just from a job perspective, I'd say that's, that's, that's about as good I don't don't go that route. Right, you rather the network, right. I mean, I, I still to this day, work with people that, you know, I've met relationships that were developed during that process. And, and, you know, you learn the rules of the game a little bit. It's not, it's not that you can't learn it on your own. And obviously, you've you've, you know, CEO of multiple companies, you you have learned it on your own, but you know, you kind of get that framework, and you can understand a little bit on Alright, really, what am I looking at from a balance sheet? And if I am going to raise money, how does this work? And you know, whatever it might be? So, you know, there are some functional things that find some value, but, yeah, absolutely not a ticket to anything and not necessary in many ways. I mean, you can self learn and be self taught all those types of skills.

Dan Berzansky:

Yeah, yeah, people. I mean, there's no question people take you more seriously when you have those three letters behind your name. And, you know, I think there's a level of trust that it helps build. But again, just from a pure learning standpoint, I feel like I, I've learned more from making mistakes in my business and just not doing that again, if that makes sense. But I do appreciate it. I know how to speak to people that I might not have known how to speak to before. I know there's a I have a book of questions that I now ask that I probably would not have learned to ask until too late. So I'm glad I did it. But again, if you're right, if it's because I want, I want to go find a new job and you think it's going to solve all the problems. I don't think it's the way to go.

Greg Spillane:

You're essentially the CEO of two companies. Which is, which is an impressive task one company's very much established I'd love maybe you just take a second kind of help people understand sort of the size and scope of the first company. And then you know, obviously I want to dive a little bit into the second one as well.

Dan Berzansky:

Cool. Cool. Yeah. So in 2011, I founded mirror aquatics, which is essentially poor management Learn to Swim lifeguard. So two water safety companies, when we call it we staff roughly 550 to 600 lifeguards throughout the West Coast of the US, we have about 100 locations where we provide lifeguards, and we run about depending on the time of year, anywhere from two to 13 Learn to Swim programs, where we see 1000s upon 1000s of kids a week through our doors. We also own a couple of privately owned swim schools. So we we've been purchasing land, developing that land and swim schools and building indoor Learn to Swim facilities where it's another team, but a lot of redundancy within the administrative side of things. So that's exciting. It's been going in the right direction. It's it's, it's been growing year over year to really sometimes scary clip. And, yeah, I'm really happy with the way that it's gone and the team that we've built and where I see it going in the future. And then obviously, you've alluded to the other company. So we built a software, to run premiere aquatics to run the actual team. It's an employee engagement platform, which basically drives performance and employee satisfaction within the company. And we've basically over the course of four years or so we saw it really work, we saw it really make a big difference in our, in our bottom line, the turnover cost got cut in half, staff were staying longer, they were happier, they were more engaged. So essentially, with a couple of guys from my MBA program, I was talked into redeveloping and into a multi tenant system. So we've we're finishing a million dollar raise as we speak, we're about done with it. We launched the app in the App Store and Google Play store this week. And it's we're off to the races with a whole new company. Yeah, no,

Greg Spillane:

I think that's really very, very cool. You know, you're having a chance to get to know you over these years, you know, you you are able to build this first company up to you know, the size it's at, I know, you've had to take a lot of chances along the way. And you've bet on yourself several times along the way. And you have a really successful thriving business. And what I love is that you saw another opportunity that existed, and you were, you know, willing to take a shot on that found this new company. And I mean, and you're not playing around, like you're you're, you know, you're going out there, you're talking to VCs, you like you said, you said, you're just about to close a million dollars of funding, you have an engineering team, and you know, looking to build and scale a true SaaS company, you know, while also running this other business that you you founded and have grown to significant or relatively significant scale.

Dan Berzansky:

Yeah, it's, it's, uh, it's interesting. And it's a, it's a weird dilemma for me, because, you know, for 1011 years I've been personal sacrifices is to say, to say lightly, I think my kids have, have sacrificed, I think my wife have sacrificed, I think I know, I have sacrificed. I've asked employees to sacrifice to build this business. And we're finally at a point where we get to reap the benefits, and we're actually getting weekends off. And we're actually making the right pay. And we're everyone's kind of living it. And then when this one team opportunity came into my head, I just couldn't get it out of my head. And it's the, you know, it's a joke. It's the difference between a CEO and an entrepreneur. I'm probably a bad CEO, but I'm a great entrepreneur, and I get really excited. And it was, it was the next challenge and the next opportunity. And to some degrees, you know, my wife says, you should maybe slow down and enjoy what you build. But the way I do that, is by building something else. And it's, I'm super excited about it.

Greg Spillane:

So how do you manage that, then, you know, I mean, you know, what you just described is actually fairly common. There's a lot of serial entrepreneurs that are amazing at taking an idea from conception and getting into initial traction, and then, you know, they're not always the best operators. Now, I know you and I think you're being humble. And I think you're actually an excellent operator and what you've been able to do and your main business, but as you do look at starting to have multiple lines, there's only one of you, how do you start to, you know, spread it out a little bit and You know, to be able to bring on other people to take on responsibility from you.

Dan Berzansky:

Yeah, I mean, it's probably been my biggest challenge I'm fortunate enough to have my main operations director for Premier aquatics is overseeing a lot of what goes on, I mean, daily, I will say my calendar is my best friend, I schedule everything out from from busy work time to reading time to everyone kind of knows when they're going to get me, and it forces them to be a little bit more prepared. But I'm working a lot hours to be quite honest. I mean, it's our dev calls started six 630 In the morning, every day. And you know, where we've got emails coming throughout the day, and just being really deliberate with my time is the number one thing, right? I try not to unless it's an emergency, I try not to let anything derail me, from what my day is supposed to look like. That's the only way to get it all down, right. And then it's the matter of, of just open, honest communication, and just making sure you empower your people to make decisions that I probably would not have allowed in the beginning, I was to say the least a micromanager. I was I was at every program I was watching every swim meet, I was watching every training I was. And at some point, you just have to systemize and trust that you've got the right people if you don't find the right people. Right. But yeah, that's, that's how I do it. I really tried to be very deliberate with my time and my, my energy.

Greg Spillane:

A question that I always like to ask, you know, and one of the reasons I started this podcast is because, well, number one, I love talking to, you know, successful entrepreneurs and people that are just doing well in business, and also love sports and athletics. And I know, in my personal life, both as an entrepreneur, as an ex athlete, so much of so much of my like, for gene, I think occurred in college and through sports, through, you know, working with teammates, and sort of a competitive drive and work ethic and just amazing coaches and people that, you know, helped shape who I was. And, you know, I like to think that I've taken that for professionally. So the question I always ask, curious, and in your cases, this kind of drive that you've demonstrated throughout your career that you've just described to me that that, you know, this work ethic, is that something that you've always had, and is one of the reasons why you were successful as an athlete, or is you know, you're just competitiveness in nature and going and being an athlete and competing at the level that you've competed, really helped kind of build this drive and work ethic that you've now applied to business.

Dan Berzansky:

It's it's a combo, but I think it comes down to I am, I am really driven. I am, I wake up in the morning, excited for the day. And I remember at 15 years old, I took my first coaching job. And I rode my bike to the Racquet Club near my house and coached master swimming in the morning, and where all the other 15 year olds on their mornings, they weren't swimming, or sleeping. I've always been mature in that in that respect, immature, a lot of other respects. But I've always wanted to do more. And I wanted to stay busy. And I'm not. I love sitting on the beach as well. But I want to stay stay active. And I think that's why I ended up where I ended up right college, with college swimming with, with my career with everything else. I've just been excited to take on more and it's never been why not? It's been let's go for right. I've always wanted to take on the new challenges and push myself as hard as I can. I

Greg Spillane:

think part of that comes from your you know, your parents upbringing. You know, you being born in South Africa, you know, being obviously coming to this country, not necessarily educated. You said you're the first person in your family to get a college degree. I'm assuming there's a grittiness that probably existed in your family and definitely coming up in an area like South Africa. Do you think that that had something to do with this?

Dan Berzansky:

No question. I mean, my dad was. And he would kill me for saying this later. But I don't know that he was the smartest business person. You know, he's an entrepreneur as well. He owns his own business. But I remember it's always been the norm even going on family vacations. We were stopping at three different suppliers on the way and we were it was just kind of part of the thing, right? It said, Yeah, we're leaving at 5am so we can get to La by this time, so we can do these three things to then go up north and go. So I think it's always been just a natural normal thing for me. But I also I find enjoyment in it. i Really i i don't have you know, I've got my group of friends and I'm social and I love it. But really my fun to me is pretty Problem Solving like that. That is exciting to me, that's fun to me. And I think I got that from my dad. I love that hustle.

Greg Spillane:

I love that hustle, we got a lot in common just in regards to I was the first person in my family to go to college as well. And my dad's an entrepreneur, and I think I kind of grew up a little bit of that hustle. But you know, at the end of the day, I just love to create things, right? I just, it's really fun to build things and sort of stand back and like, look at this thing that you put together and you built. One of the things I know you're a family man. One of the things I talked about with my wife, I have two daughters is how do you you know, you want them to grow up with a little bit of that grit, too, right? Because I think your background, you're describing it very well, like, you know, you there's a little bit of a grind there, your dad was a hustler, and maybe things weren't always the easiest. And you know, you kind of got to see things happen. And I know your parents, your, your children are gonna see your work ethic, but I'm assuming they're growing up in a life that things are a lot easier than maybe they were for you. It's like, how do you make sure that they have that little chip on their shoulder, so they're willing to hustle, and they're willing to work hard and sort of earn the things that they want in life.

Dan Berzansky:

You know, for one thing, my kids are spoiled rotten. And, and they are, they're, they're smart kids. They're nice kids, which is really the important thing to me. I've been thinking about this a lot recently. And because I wasn't around, I legitimately I tried my best to be there at the important things, but I wasn't around my wife raised them on her own. I was up until two years ago or three years ago. So now that I'm involved with their day to day, I'm trying really hard to support their their loves, I'm excuse me, I'm finding it necessary to support their love. So for instance, my son out of nowhere, wants to throw a football and I come home, I'm tired, I want to have dinner and call it a day. He wants to throw a football I walked in yesterday and I said, Hey, you want to throw the football and he jumped up. And, you know, I was able to support him in that I went like, we were working on stroke work in the pool the other day, because he you know, he's a swimmer as well. We work with his soccer skills, we support all the things that he loves. And I try to do the same for my daughters as well. Where if you allow them to invest, because it really it's hard for us to invest in what they want to invest in. But if you if we can just do a better job of that, like really listening to what they want to do and what they what they're excited about. And supporting that. I think it's going to build on its own. I mean, they, they have to, they have to learn it through osmosis to some degree. But if we can get behind them and really support the way they you know, like softball or anything else, right? They want to keep going at it. Let's keep going at, you know, if they want to try something new, great. But let's put all into that. Let's write some goals down. Let's decide what we're going to do with this for the next three months. And let's stick to those goals and see if you want to, you know reassign these goals next time or not.

Greg Spillane:

There's so there's so many life lessons that can be learned, you know, especially in sports in general. But, you know, it's interesting, as you were saying that. I remember as a kid, you know, my dad would come home from a long day at work. And I'm like, Yeah, let's go throw, let's go play catch, let's do whatever. And it was always like, Ah, I'm tired and Alright, let's go and you throw and you throw any throw and you think of yourself like why, you know, all I want to do is play catch, like why wouldn't you want to play catch and now you're an adult, you come home after like, you know, whatever, a 12 hour day and million things in your mind. And one of your kids want to go and play catch you do have that moment of like, I just want to sit on the couch so bad right now and do nothing but but you got to show up, right? Like it's just so important for your for your your kids and the relationship you're building for you to just be like, Yeah, let's do it. Let's go out and do

Dan Berzansky:

this. Yeah, I mean, look, it's it's really there, they have energy, it's gonna be directed in one direction or another. Right? So is it? Is it social media? And you know, whatever? Or is it physical activities and goal driven performance and things of that nature. So they're going to go whether you like it or not, right? They've got they need an outlet, whatever that outlet is. So I think it's really important to support the outlet that they get excited about that obviously is a healthy one.

Greg Spillane:

Yep. All right. So let's let's let's dive into some some more specific questions. So some more fun questions. So one of the questions I always like to ask is, if you could go back and give your 18 year old self one piece of advice, what

Dan Berzansky:

would it be? Well, a lot of advice there. But I would say fiscal responsibility, you know, I was fortunate enough, even out of college, in college, not a college to do, okay? Just because I was grinding, I was swimming a night and bouncing or bartending or surfing or whatever I was doing in college, I would say just being smarter about money, in general, to be able to afford to do the things you want to do, whether it's trips or building a new business. So that's one and then probably shut up and listen, you know, as an 18 year old, we think we know everything. In you know, we know a lot, there's no question about it. But there's a lot of really smart people who are you may not like the entire message. But there are bits and pieces that you can glean from everybody. And just shut up and listen.

Greg Spillane:

Yeah, another one is, don't don't try to jump the line too fast. Right? I know, myself. It was, you know, it was like, early in my career. I, I was like, I should be the, you know, the I should be this, you know, this company, right? Yeah, I can just like, hey, just relax, pay your dues, like low. Yeah, learn a little bit more before you're so anxious to take off take over the world. I mean, you don't ever want to crush that in somebody. And I think that's where entrepreneurship comes from. But there are people in life that you know that they'll be with the company for six months, and they're wondering why they haven't already got promoted to VP. We, we get the question all the time. You know, if you look back on your, your professional career, we know what's that one failure. That's Dan's out. And I mean, obviously, you've learned from it, you're doing great, but what's that one big mistake that you're like, ah, gosh, I wish I could have that one back.

Dan Berzansky:

I mean, honestly, it was it was a new program. It was, you know, when I started the business, it was very seasonal. Right? We were summer lifeguard summer swim programs, we didn't have anything year round. And I would without doing any research without any preparation without any, any anything. I launched a essentially like an after school program. We had an office space, we had staff we had, you know, and I did nothing to look at competitors. I did nothing to look at programming, I did nothing to look at staffing budgets, I really just said, To hell with it, let's go. And it cost me quite a bit of money. In a very short amount of time, it cost me a lot of money. And it took me a couple years to dig out of that. It was right in the beginning when I started the business it was I just got too excited too quickly. And I I shouldn't have been there. When you hire

Greg Spillane:

what is the most important trait or strength you look for? In somebody that comes onboard to your team?

Dan Berzansky:

willingness to take feedback, and just culture fit for my for my team. Really, Are they someone who's going to if it's if it's the wrong person, we can generally tell right away. It's mee, mee, Mee Mee Mee versus you know, oui, oui, oui, oui, oui. And we look for the wheeze, right? We look for people who want to be part of something bigger, not just solely focused on building what they have to do. You know, how can I be part of the bigger thing?

Greg Spillane:

Who has been the most influential mentor in your life? Why?

Dan Berzansky:

And I'll joke and say it pains me to say it, but it doesn't really but my my first boss, Dan Bernstein, in the job that I my first job out of college, and again, I was there for almost 10 years. I learned, I think I've run my business the way I do because of him. He was very deliberate, very calculating, just everything was on purpose. And, and a lot of it was, you know, this whole perception is everything piece came from him, where we are very big on, I know what you think you were doing, but what does it look like you were doing? Right? And that all came from him from beginning I remember looking at the paint, you know, the building that we worked in was a big building that the organization owned. And the the budget for paint every year, stands out in my mind is just being the most absurd number and I couldn't figure out what the hell he was. How can we spend this every year? Well, he would start at the front of the building and paint the entire building every year because it had to look clean and had to look inviting and have to look. And I never understood that right as an 18 year old or excuse me a 21 year old at that point. What the hell, why are we spending what we're spending on paint, but then you realize that just the it just changed the feeling of the facility in the building and the people in it made them feel prideful about it. So yeah. Quickly there are now

Greg Spillane:

how do you continue to self educate? How do you stay on top of things

Dan Berzansky:

So I'm part of entrepreneurs, organization, EO, I do a lot of learning through our EO chapter and national learning and so on Blinkist as my best friend. So, you know, my 15 to 25 minute books on audio, where it can be in the car driving from site to site, or wherever I'm going and fit in some learning there as well. But I would say number one is just my, my, for mates, my, my fellow entrepreneurs in my EO group, where I can go to them and not sugarcoat anything, give the true story and get feedback on their experiences that relate. I've

Greg Spillane:

been thinking about blankest, you're, you're a fan.

Dan Berzansky:

I'm a fan. Yeah, yeah,

Greg Spillane:

you know, I used to read so much more business related material. And, you know, now it's like, I typically have time to read at the end of the day before I go to bed. But if I read business books, before I go to bed, my mind will be racing all night long. So I'll typically read fiction. So you know, then you get so busy during the day, you find that you have a hard time actually getting through your business books. So I've thought about blankest, what I've done is, I'll now like kind of where I drink my morning coffee out in our patio, I'll have a book out there. And then I'm reading and as I'm drinking my coffee, I'll sit down and I'll spend 30 minutes or so reading in the morning, it's only way I could get into that routine. But I might have to subscribe to the blankest

Dan Berzansky:

it's a, it's been a huge change for me, you know, because I can get in two or three, you know, and if I want to dig in deeper and read the book, after I go through the blinks, then great, I can do that. I've done that a couple times. But generally speaking it all to really good summary of the takeaways of the book and go from there.

Greg Spillane:

So to all those budding entrepreneurs out there, that might be listening to this, if you are going to give them you know, a couple points of wisdom, you know, before they start their own entrepreneurial journey, what would it be?

Dan Berzansky:

One peer advisory groups, I didn't do it until later in my career. And I regret that I didn't do it till later in my career, it was the single largest impact on what I've done. And you know, before he was in another group before that, and I remember going to my first meeting, which I didn't even know what the hell I was getting into at that point. And I walked out of there, and I called my wife, I said, I just can't believe what just happened due to the troubles people are sharing about the issues they're having, you know, we're all having the same issues, and we figured some cool stuff out. So I would say peer advisory for sure. And then flushing out your ideas, really, it's there. It's too easy to piss away a lot of money and a lot of effort on something that has no legs. If you believe in it, go for it. But you've got to do some homework, right? You can't just be throwing darts, it's, you know, at the end of the day, like we were only as strong as our name and the people that trust us. So you've got to get it right. And you've got to be deliberate about how you spend your time.

Greg Spillane:

That's right. And, you know, in the second you take outside capital, especially that that responsibility just even goes up higher, right, there's one thing to lose your own money. You know, the second you you sort of have a fiduciary responsibility to somebody else's money who took a bet on you, right? They're taking a chance on you they're betting on the horse. Yeah, they like the idea like they you know, like some different directions but when you invest in an early stage company is you know, precede or an angel investor like you're betting on the founding team. And that responsibility the second you take that first dollar, it's, it's hard not to wear it.

Dan Berzansky:

It's a it's a whole different level of pressures I've never experienced because I've never had investors, I've bootstrapped everything from the beginning. And I you know, the $100,000 is a big deal but then you get like the $300,000 from one person and individual and all of a sudden, everything that I'm spending money on, which again, I've never had to think about I have a budget I stick to my budget but now I go to conferences and it's even do I do I get this meal? This meal do I buy this round? Do I not buy this round? Which was never part of my my thought process and now I really am beholden to 10 investors that I I have to make the money that's my goal in life.

Greg Spillane:

Absolutely. All right, man. I wish you all the luck in the world I'd love to watch the journey and watch you you know you kind of grow a business number one and get that to where you've gotten it to and been very impressed by your you know, ability to take manage risk and just bust your butt through that risk and obviously get your success and then obviously coming from a SAS background myself I love I love what you guys are doing with with one team and I think it's awesome

Dan Berzansky:

awesome thank you thank you I appreciate it

Greg Spillane:

appreciate them thanks for coming on the show awesome