"Doubling down on making teammates feel valued & heard is critical."
Gary Frey is a connector, “MacGyver,” and confidant for CEOs as well as the co-host of the Anything but Typical Podcast featuring vulnerable, behind-the-scenes stories of ripple-making entrepreneurs to encourage others.
He has served as president of four successful companies, including Bizjournals.com, a business news portal which he helped transform from a three-person organization to a $100 million company. He has done two turnarounds and held executive positions in two Fortune 100 companies. He leads business growth coaching and business development efforts for a regional CPA firm that serves privately held businesses and their owners.
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Gary Frey: I love helping business owners & their teams save money, make money, stay out of trouble, & have fun as they scale up their companies. So does our anything but typical, regional CPA firm, BGW CPA, PLLC.
2020 and 2021 threw a lot of curve balls into business on a global scale. Based on the experience gleaned in the past couple years, how can businesses thrive in 2022? What lessons have you learned?
Gary Frey: The need to address the following:
>Know your core. (Core Purpose, Core Values, & Core Customer in particular)
>Know your numbers.
>Over-communicate with your team & customers.
>Embrace the pivot & nimble-mindedness.
>Enlist outside wise counsel. (It’s hard to read the label when you’re inside the jar.)
The pandemic seems to keep on disrupting the economy, what should businesses focus on in 2022? What advice would you share?
Gary Frey: Lessons learned in answers above.
How has the pandemic changed your industry and how have you adapted?
Gary Frey: It forced us into remote working overnight while we were in the midst of “busy season” in mid-March 2020.
We had already embraced leading technology & supported flex schedules with remote access. We didn’t miss a beat. Many in our field weren’t prepared.
What advice do you wish you received when the pandemic started and what do you intend on improving in 2022?
Gary Frey: Our leadership team of 10 met daily via Zoom once lockdowns hit. We had contingency plans in place for cutting our pay first & how to address anticipated cash flow challenges once clients might start having inabilities to pay.
We implemented a weekly webinar with live Q&A for free to help businesses make sense of ever-changing, ambiguous federal programs & mandates starting March 17, 2020. We’re approaching our 100th week of doing these.
Online business surged higher than ever, B2B, B2C, online shopping, virtual meetings, remote work, Zoom medical consultations, what are your expectations for 2022?
Gary Frey: A hybrid approach — mix of virtual (Zoom) & in-person that will continue to flex with surges. We don’t see returning to pre-pandemic norms anytime soon (if ever).
How many hours a day do you spend in front of a screen?
Gary Frey: Far too many. 8+
The majority of executives use stories to persuade and communicate in the workplace. Can you share with our readers examples of how you implement that in your business to communicate effectively with your team?
Gary Frey: We implemented StandOut 2.0 in January 2020 for weekly communication facilitation. That was a fortunate move.
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as the real challenge right now?
Gary Frey: Keeping team members engaged & motivated while we’re into 2 years of this & in the midst of competitors throwing crazy money at them daily to get them to jump ship.
In 2022, what are you most interested in learning about? Crypto, NFTs, online marketing, or any other skill sets? Please share your motivations.
Gary Frey: Crypto & NFTs are still such enigmas.
A record 4.4 million Americans left their jobs in September in 2021, accelerating a trend that has become known as the Great Resignation. 47% of people plan to leave their job during 2022. Most are leaving because of their boss or their company culture. 82% of people feel unheard, undervalued and misunderstood in the workplace. Do you think leaders see the data and think “that’s not me – I’m not that boss they don’t want to work for? What changes do you think need to happen?
Gary Frey: There’s a level of denial across the board. Doubling down on making teammates feel valued & heard is critical.
On a lighter note, if you had the ability to pick any business superpower, what would it be and how would you put it into practice?
Gary Frey: Create multiple revenue streams that produce mailbox money! Still trying yo figure that one out for us!
What does “success” in 2022 mean to you? It could be on a personal or business level, please share your vision.
Gary Frey: Success for me has far less to do with money & more to do with how effectively I walk in my core purpose of making a positive difference in the lives of others.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Gary Frey for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Gary Frey or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
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