Accidental Entrepreneurship: Transforming Passion into Profit with Garrett Delph

Join us for an inspiring conversation with Garrett Delft, the accidental entrepreneur who transformed his life from corporate monotony to leading multiple successful ventures. Discover Garrett's journey from cashing in his 401k to start a swim school, to capturing moments as a professional photographer, and eventually pioneering Shoot Edit, an internet-driven digital lab for photographers that served 35 countries. Garrett shares the lessons learned along the way, providing a blueprint for turning passion into profit, even if the path is unexpected. His story is a testament to the power of embracing change and innovation, revealing valuable insights for entrepreneurs looking to navigate the intersection of people, business, and technology.

Explore the intricacies of managing business expectations with Garrett's current venture, Clarity Ops, which addresses the crucial "management expectation gap." Uncover how aligning an organization's vision and values with its operational pillars can lead to sustainable success, empowering managers to transition from micromanaging to effective leadership. Garrett emphasizes the importance of fostering a culture of care, where understanding the 'why' behind business operations and investing in employees drives positive change. Tune in for a roadmap to avoid common entrepreneurial pitfalls and create thriving businesses that prioritize both people and performance.

Guest Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garrettdelph/

Sponsored by Nico Van de Venne CommV

Chapters

• 0:00 Accidental Entrepreneur's Journey to Success
• 17:28 Navigating Business Expectations and Processes
• 31:50 Creating a Culture of Care

Transcript

Garrett: 0:00

When you give instructions to people and you need the output to be dependable. I didn't know that I needed to write those instructions down, give them to the people, make sure they're clear on those instructions and they're clear on the output that is expected.

Nico: 0:39

So Let me invite you to sit back, drop your jaw, tongue and shoulders, take a deep breath and, if you wish, close your head to your heart and felt the beat within, opening up to receive even more value and fulfillment out of your business and life and today's episode. I'm your host, nico van de Venne, confidant to successful CEOs, founders and entrepreneurs who are striving to achieve everlasting fulfillment. Welcome to the Everlasting Fulfillment Podcast with our next guest, gareth Delft. Gareth, welcome to the show. I am so happy to talk to you. We just had a wonderful conversation in the green room. Tell us who you are and what magic you bring into the world.

Garrett: 1:21

Hey, nico, thanks for having me on the show. It's great to be with you and I appreciate being here.

Nico: 1:27

That's great. Thank you for taking the time. So, your story. I think it would be very interesting through here because you've done a lot of, you've already started a lot of businesses and you've always had influence on a lot of businesses. Tell us where you come from and how you ended up. You know standing behind the mic, right right there, sure.

Garrett: 1:49

Sure. Well, um, you know, my case ended up being the case of an accidental entrepreneur. Um, you know, I went and did the college thing and went out and got a corporate job and got another corporate job and never intended to go the route that I did. But ultimately, after nearly a decade in corporate America, I woke up one morning and I was like I'm really unhappy, I don't like what I'm doing, and all I know is I think I need to work for myself and I had no idea what that was going to look like. So I cashed in my 401k, I think at the time I had like 13,000 bucks. I felt like a millionaire. That led me to starting just out of the chute some businesses for the love of. I had an aquatics background, so I started a swim school and wrote a proprietary curriculum to teach little kids how to swim. That spun off into a water safety education program that I sold to school districts here in Southern California. Those were not good enough to provide for me. So I loved photography. I'd never owned a camera so I thought, all right, I'll buy a camera and start taking pictures of everyone all the time. I did that and you know, you know it goes, people like, hey, you take photography, so they pay me a few bucks, I take photos of their families and their friends. Um, those created some momentum, but ultimately the photography thing took off. I ended up shooting, becoming a professional, accidental professional photographer. Uh, I mean, I, I ended up shooting, becoming a professional, accidental professional photographer. I mean, I ended up, you know, studying and becoming very proficient in it. But that culminated into a fairly nice-sized business. We did over 350 weddings, probably 500 portraits over the course of 10 years, had a staff of seven people Enter 2005, the digital inflection point hit the market.

Garrett: 3:53

Film, the sort of film for cameras, died. We were then faced with shooting digital and suddenly we were both the lab and the photography studio. That led me to solve my own problem, which culminated in starting another business in 2007 called Shoot Edit, and that was the first internet-driven digital lab to the entire world. Basically, if you were a professional photographer, instead of driving to a lab and giving them your film, you would upload all of your digital media to us. We'd make it look pretty and send it back to you. That turned into a really great business. We ended up serving 35 countries worldwide.

Garrett: 4:37

It also introduced me to tech. I had no idea I was going to start a tech company but at the end of the day, aws became our backbone and I had to figure out how to scale a technology business with people and tech worldwide. I had no idea what I was doing. I had no idea who to hire, how to hire for them, but, long story short, we ended up hire for them. But, long story short, we ended up hiring over 500 employees, which came with the advent of a sister company that we built in order to support that growth and scale.

Garrett: 5:18

That took me up through about a couple of years ago where, in scaling people, process and performance, I, through my battle scars, learned a lot about business and a lot about people and a lot about what just the business domain out there in the world is like, and realized I had a passion for perhaps helping businesses to not go through all of the pain and duress and loss I went through and help them in a way that is fast and easy to follow and that brings me. You know that business is called Clarity Ops, which is how we met, and now I'm here on your podcast and talking about how we can help businesses and leaders be better and succeed.

Nico: 6:12

Yeah, wow, that's a beautiful story to listen to, actually.

Garrett: 6:17

There's a lot of moving parts there.

Nico: 6:18

I would not have expected. You know the start of it would not have been within my expectations. That you know the start of it would not have been within my expectations. But, yeah well, corporate world, and you jump off the off the boat from there. Um, there's a lot of people you know who started realizing that that indeed it. It is not where where your heart gets thumping a little bit faster. Um, I come from ibm and verizon so yeah probably the big dog name idea yeah, I, I think we did the other way.

Nico: 6:51

You know, I I went into I come from tech and then get got into the people business, so yeah, yeah sure sure, yeah, but so, so photography, yeah, I, I, I can imagine, um, because you said 2005, when you actually the swap started with a digital story right that's where you? I have a friend of mine, a very good friend actually, who did our our uh marriage. Um kind of shot a lot more pictures than he had initially expected, but yes, it was so wonderful, um, and he yeah he got through that story as well.

Nico: 7:27

So, yeah, his business is booming and he's, you know, focused on business portretting. So so he's really, you know, giving you a nice shot, you know, which gives us lots of tips saying how you have to be dressed, and stuff like that which is good for the final picture, uh, but yeah, I can imagine then actually processing. So, if I understand correctly, you had a first initial jump that you made into becoming a self-employed person. What was, for you, one of the decisive moments when you said I need extra help in my business to move forward?

Garrett: 8:10

Yeah, so so, uh, great question, and you know it was actually. The answer is very simple. There were more people that wanted my services than I could provide personally. It's a classic supply and demand and and, uh, you know, as, as a guy who wanted to succeed, I was like, well, there's a couple of paths here. Either increase my price and, um, you know, make more with the same effort, which I did. I at the time, I didn't like that idea because I was scared of raising my price, prices or train people to do what I do, or go find people that already do it and hire them under the banner of the brand, and that was the choice that I made.

Nico: 9:00

You mentioned, you didn't like to move up your prices. Can you remember what the reason for that was?

Garrett: 9:05

Yeah, I was a husband and a father and the sole provider and I just couldn't. I would rather take the long tail approach, keep prices the same and do more work at scale, than risk losing income because people wouldn't buy my higher price. It was very calculated but I didn't want to take that risk. You know I wasn't. I wasn't a single guy anymore. Yeah, I paid these and my wife, you know some, some, some securities were necessary.

Nico: 9:39

Yeah Well, I understand, I understand completely. And you know, when I started in 2020, my prices were the basic general prices for an hour's coaching or guidance, but after a while, I started realizing that the buck didn't really reach enough to move forward. But, indeed, you kind of make a calculation of what do I want, what do I desire, and then you move from there. So if you, if we look at you started, you know, hiring people, teaching people, what you did, yeah, was there anything that happened during that time that you would like to share with us that really has a core.

Garrett: 10:21

You know the score description of your leadership style hmm Well, I'll tell you, you know, one of the big giant early learnings, when I began to hire people, was, again, I had no idea what I was doing, and what I found immediately is when I would go to share what I wanted done, you know. And now we call them managing expectations Fancy word, right, fancy term. But then I was just like here's what we need to get done and let's go do it. But what I began to see is my mileage would vary based on the person who received my input. And at the time I wasn't. And this was the big learning curve.

Garrett: 11:12

I wasn't educated enough. I didn't understand that when you give instructions to people and you need the output to be dependable, I didn't know that I needed to write those instructions down, give them to the people, make sure they're clear on those instructions and they're clear on the output that is expected. And so, as you can imagine, when you talk about shooting people's weddings under my brand, these photographers would go out and they would all would come back with different stuff. You know, some people didn't think it was important to shoot the first kiss. Some people did.

Garrett: 11:50

Some people didn't think it was important to shoot the first kiss. Some people did. Some people didn't think it was important to get the speeches by the father during the reception. Some people did, and so all of these really important things were being missed and other things that I didn't deem important were being captured, and it crazed, created a lot of pain and you know unhappy clients because they're used to getting what I promised as a brand. So that was a big, big milestone for me in terms of understanding the power of process Um and how, when you get that right as a template, you secure the business in terms of what the business needs for output.

Nico: 12:35

That's interesting. Yeah, because marriage you don't kind of get a do-over. Some people might by using other people. You're right.

Garrett: 12:47

Let's try that again Exactly.

Nico: 12:53

It's pretty critical.

Garrett: 12:54

Yeah, yeah, there's a lot of businesses that have the same issue but, but in marriage yeah right, the emotional side is pretty big, but you know, we, we can appreciate this, this um principle. You know if, uh, you and I owned a restaurant and were famous for our fish tacos, we probably became famous because we have a process for making the perfect fish taco. But if you begin to, if, if, if you try to grow that business without having control around the thing that you're famous for, then you will quickly become not famous and people, people will stop coming because you can't guarantee that same magic, that same experience, that same flavor that kept that, that created the snowball effect of becoming very popular. Like that applies to everything all business does. I think that is the power of the principle well, it's a.

Nico: 13:54

It's kind of the same thing when, with podcasting story, you kind of the interviews go with a certain flow, so there's not always, you know, the rigid questions and I never liked rigid questions but there is a certain process before and after creating this content, because you actually have to prepare everything a little bit in the front and then finish on the end and I use I I use kind of strange talking about people that way, but I have people that I work with, um virtual assistants, who actually finalize everything and and fine-tune a couple of the texts and so on. So indeed, yeah, if you don't explain exactly what you expect as a business owner, you might get results that are not really linked to your own business. Yeah, absolutely.

Garrett: 14:41

So, nico, I would actually challenge you will not Like, you will not get the output that you expect. Now, if your expectation is I don't care, then perfect, because you don't care about your output and your mileage will vary. I think your podcast post-production example is perfect. Had five VAs and you did five podcasts and for each podcast, you gave the post-production to a bespoke VA and you didn't give them instructions, but you knew exactly what your brand needed for its aesthetic, for its tone, for the way your cuts right All of that stuff timing. If you don't give every one of them the same exact instructions, then you lose control of your brand. True, I think that's crazy powerful.

Nico: 15:39

Yeah, I did. I did In all honesty um more than a year ago. I did not believe that statement. I'm pretty chaotic as a person. So I kind of wing a lot of things because that's how my flow works. But since I've started using standard operating procedures SOP, sop or whatever the name's called sometimes by companies I've noticed that even for myself, I've become much more relaxed, being sure of the output, relaxed being sure of the output.

Nico: 16:10

So, when you talk about what you experienced, did you have anybody guiding you or supporting you in understanding what the next step was for your business? So, for instance, with the whole story of getting everybody aligned to do the same way, of those taking the exact pictures that are needed, did anybody guide you with that?

Garrett: 16:32

Nico, I feel like at that juncture in my career, credit can only go to one person, and that is God. That is the only credit, because I wasn't reading any books at that time, I wasn't self-educating, I wasn't pursuing best practices, but it became very evident to me and I feel like he's the only one that probably could have given that to me. So that is the honest answer on that one.

Nico: 17:05

That's amazing, actually, because now I understand even more clearly why clarity ops has coming to fruition. Because if you've had these experiences that I understand completely why you want to help other companies use you know, your experience for a big part, and probably the stuff that you learned afterwards to improve their businesses. So how do you currently tackle situations with your customers? Can you give me an example of how these things roll in your business?

Garrett: 17:38

yeah, sure, well, I think, a very applicable problem, um, based on what we've talked about so far, is a thing I call management expectation gap, and that is, you know, often, I would say, mostly businesses don't plan for infrastructure. They plan for revenue, right, and so they invest in selling their service or product, and they try to sell as much of it as possible, as fast as possible, and then they jump out of the plane and build their wings on the way down. When it comes to fulfillment, right, and so what you know now, what this always does, it puts a business in crisis mode because they're struggling to deal with quality issues that now come as a result of not planning, and they struggle with delivery, turnaround times and speed of delivery because they didn't plan for it also, and so always, you know, like, at the crux of it typically it's related to these things you got businesses going fast, they didn't plan their work and work their plan, which means managers generally are not trained or expected by the business to give clear instructions to the people they lead so that those instructions lead to the output the business needs. Like, generally, it all goes back to that. And so what Clarity Ops does? You know?

Garrett: 19:16

What I'll do is go in and first sort of treat it like a general health practitioner. We'll do a health assessment. Symptoms are one thing. In a business, you know problematic symptoms, but the root of the problem is another. So I'll just go in and start asking questions.

Garrett: 19:36

Hey, let's start at the very top. Do you have a vision, mission that's documented and published to your team? Do you have core values, meaning, have you decided on the things that the business and its leaders value in terms of how you're going to make decisions and how you're going to go about treating your people when you do make decisions? Do you value accountability? Do you value measuring output from people? Do you value measuring performance? Right and so well, and you know, know, we talked about this earlier I uh have three pillars that I focus on people, process and performance. Um, and so the first is take a look how do you value and care for the people, and we have a nice laundry list of ways to do that.

Garrett: 20:25

Once you've established valuing your people in your business for what is right for you, then you need to build SOP, build processes around those things that you value so that they can be sustained, and not only sustained but repeatable in perpetuity, no matter who works for you, because you know people will come and go.

Garrett: 20:51

Yeah, right, and so then, once you build those processes for the people you plan to care for, then you move into performance management and then you build infrastructure for managers to let process govern and measure the people. So, really, really by the way side note on that, nico what's really I've found to be especially healthy for that is it helps managers not micromanage but govern, and so when they go to coach people, instead of pointing a finger at people, they point a finger at the process and the governance and they both get to look at that third party thing and go right. And it's really healthy because it's no longer about a person doing a bad thing or whatever, or a manager always cramming down their throat, you know, through micromanagement, but instead they get to let process govern and found that to be very, very, very healthy. So that's the approach I take.

Nico: 22:02

Yeah, well, it's something that kind of synchronizes with how I approach my team as well, I'm currently working with about 15 people in a current project and indeed there's a few people there who, would we say it like a porcupine when they get those hairs coming up and standing up and saying so you're asking me something, you want me to do something. The hair come up and they're kind're. You're asking me something, you know you want me to do something. The hair come up and, oh right, they're kind of, you know, struggling against it, and then we, we actually focus on the end result.

Nico: 22:39

That is expected and that's when I I kind of give them the opportunity to find out themselves how they can tackle that situation, and then we come down back to the process and say, see, this is what normally is being done. What's the issue? Why haven't we had that result in the past? Because the process is too rigid or there are parts that have been changed in the meantime. It's a little bit more adaptive, I would say at some point, because you're really in the operational side.

Nico: 23:11

But if you look back, or you step back into that story and you look at what you're saying, indeed it comes down to actually talking to the people that executed the actual task and then go back and see what's what's the practical story that we have written in the past and compare to the reality, and then you come down back to saying, okay, so you do it this way. Now let's reiterate that on the processes so that it actually reflects what you do. So it's kind of a balance sheet story. It's a balance where you just write it down how it really is done and then go back and forth and get back and forth, but of course the end result. That needs to be clearly defined before you even start doing these things yeah, that's usually a challenge yeah, it is, it's, it's the old.

Garrett: 24:01

You begin with the end in mind, right?

Nico: 24:03

indeed, indeed, our dear old friend steven covey is the is still the lord of that part.

Garrett: 24:11

That's right, man. Hey, you know, I I'd like to. Maybe, just in case I I wasn't clear um, you'd mentioned the word. I think you mentioned the word rigid and um, I, I think it's important for me to comment on that. I don't think there's a one size fits all when it comes to process. As a matter of fact, I use a matrix that we created, a decision-making framework matrix that is really applicable to this topic.

Garrett: 24:45

I think the higher you go up in the org chart, the more freedom and autonomy leaders must have. Actually, the rigidity is broken apart and neutralized because at that level Bezos talks about this you're paid to make two, max three really important strategic decisions for the business that are typically rooted in critical thinking, not process, and so at that level, it's important that founders, ceos, give C-suite the proper autonomy to make decisions, and typically they're not process driven, the chain. And you get to you know what japanese call the genba right, where you're talking about very mechanical, technical, micro decisions that have to be made exactly the same every single time so that the toyota vehicle that drives off the completed lot is always going to work the same way, right? This is where you get into a very rigid technical execution that requires high-profile SOP. So there's this really nice gamut that you can follow and plug in where that rigidity needs to be rigid versus very full of autonomy. Yeah, I understand that. Yeah, I understand that. I really understand.

Nico: 26:15

There is indeed a clear difference between what decisions strategically need to be made and actually operationally need to be made. It should be a lot easier. Operational side, because it should be described clearly and, you know, use a manual.

Garrett: 26:33

IKEA, exactly right. These are the steps. Yep, yep, that's right, but if you know, if I'm not careful, I could sound like everything should be manual driven, and I want to make sure that that point wasn't being made.

Nico: 26:47

No, it's a very good point because indeed it's something that I've noticed in people I work with. So I focus on C-levels and on founders, and you usually don't have the kind or the type of person that really lives in a box, I would say. They usually are able to jump out of any position that they're in and challenge their environment to move towards other ideas. So the people you work with have you ever experienced situations where a leader comes down to a point where they have some great ideas, they want to put them out into the world, but their environment is not ready for it? Have you experienced that in the past?

Garrett: 27:37

Yeah, I've experienced that in sort of two categories One is operationally they're not ready for it, and the other is culturally they're not ready for it. You know, they want to execute fast and they want the quality to be superior, but they're missing governance, missing sop, for example. All right, and the, the old way doesn't work, and so it takes time. If you don't have knowledge transfer systems in place, if you don't have copious SOP to achieve results, it takes time to go build that stuff up. So you're probably looking at, you know, six, nine, 12 months, depending on the size of the business, to build it out. And then the other is the culture side.

Garrett: 28:37

You know, we both have worked with and seen culture debt. And when a leader this is often the case, when a new leader comes in and they want to transform and they are faced with infighting and gossip and lots of complaining high churn rates, employee churn rates, right, maybe a spike in customer complaints as a result, and they want to move fast. But the truth of it is, when culture debt has been given deep roots, it takes again, it takes time to. You know, break all of that up and reteach and retrain the culture for the new ways, if it's common for people to lie and be dishonest and that is a culture thread killing, lying, eliminating lying as a standard is tough. It takes time. Those are examples I've seen on both sides.

Nico: 29:49

Yeah, yeah, it's, it's wonderful. Well, not in the cases of those companies, but it's wonderful that you explain it that way, because indeed it's kind of the experience that I've had as well. Years back, I was requested to join a team as their leader, but I was more or less in a matrix environment.

Nico: 30:08

So direct manager was managing a couple of people in that team and then I was, you know, kind of of resentment, even towards managers and so on, because they had had a couple of different managers and everybody has their different style of directing or being very directive or very withheld or something like that, and I'm used to, you know, standing between the horses instead of getting on the carriage or running in front of them. I dug myself into the team and explained to them my door is open, let's talk, really open, and put the fingers on the table and there will be no repercussions or whatever that might come up by. Whatever you say, the funny thing was that the gossiping kind of died down and the resentment was still there, but it was directed towards something that they could not establish and there was nothing there anymore. So it kind of died out because of that and then started working together again. But it's very unique in every situation.

Nico: 31:19

It is yeah, it's nice to hear that.

Garrett: 31:22

Nico, I'm curious did you ever determine the root of the resentment?

Nico: 31:27

Yes, I did, and it was basically because they switched so many managers over such a short time. There was no stability. They kind of lost their foundation of who we are, and it's the same with our when. When you don't know your why, you know it is. Why are we doing this right? And one of the things that I at that point was was looking for was that why? I knew exactly why they did a very practical idea of had to plan stuff and they had to execute, but the feeling behind the why, the humanity behind the why that was the issue. There was nobody explaining them why they were planning certain things at certain time for so many people which were very repetitive to all those people. So they were complaining about the fact that they were repetitive, but they were legally bound to plan them and nobody explained that to anybody. So they never explained the situation or the actual deeper why of listen, this is being done for your own safety, because it was all about safety trainings like that.

Nico: 32:37

And then suddenly they all started thinking hold on, if we don't plan these trainings and they don't get the recycled idea or you know, the repetition is the mother of knowledge If they don't get that, then they might not end up getting home safely. Which was they started to understand that deep, more human why of we're actually protecting people to get back to their kids in the evening or their spouses in the evening?

Nico: 33:06

And all these little things kind of came up as in oh that's you know, the light bulb kind of kind of went on and some of the people understood it pretty quickly. Others had some needed some time to understand because they were so used to just doing the job and not thinking about what's behind the job. And I think that as well. It's like you said it's culture, and if the culture is not there, it's the same thing. I have a basic mission statement saying that I want to create the best of humanity one person at a time. But if I tell that one sentence or I say that sentence to one person, they might say, oh wow, that sounds great. But what's the essence behind that? For me is that anybody can actually earn their bread on the table and give their family whatever is needed and by that creating a happiness within humanity so that we can support each other. It's a a whole different story. There's a lot more layers behind that yeah indeed.

Nico: 34:05

Yeah, the root cause was was was pretty clear for me after a short while, but it took me two years to get everything straight out oh yeah, I'm not surprised, not not in any case, garrett, I know we have a lot of stuff that we've talked about and I enjoyed it very much and I think I would love to invite you back on the show. I think there might be some people that might even be inspired by what you're bringing with your three pillars that you work with. Where can people find? One more question I have to ask.

Garrett: 34:38

I ask everybody.

Nico: 34:39

Is there anything that you want to bring to the table for our listeners that you really want to make an impact with?

Garrett: 34:49

Wow, what a great question, nico. Well, let's see, I would say for two personas, nico for founders, business owners the best investment us entrepreneurs can make in the business is a care-driven investment in your people. Now, that's a big statement. In your people, now that's a big statement. But we actually can make calculated decisions for the people you hire for your business. That will benefit the business and the people exponentially if we make them right, and that is a win-win scenario. It is not zero-sum, which is how most businesses treat their people. So that would be my encouragement to entrepreneurs and my encouragement to people who are hired as teammates. Employees of businesses challenge the status quo. I've been hired into an organization that is chaotic, full of disorder, not planned well, expectations aren't managed. You're built on sand, not cement. Um, it doesn't have to be that way, and if you approach it the right way, you could perhaps create a revolution from the bottom up, um, so that's that's my encouragement to both of those personas, nico.

Nico: 36:28

That's really nice. Nicely put them on two sides of the border, each other right. They need each other and there's a neutral zone all the time, so there's always a way to approach each other. Ask a lot of questions. That's usually one of the best tricks in the books to get people to talk to each other. Oh, lot of questions. That's usually one of the best tricks to in the books to to get people to talk to each other oh, I love it and by the way, I would love to love to come back any, anytime, and and I will keep having great conversations.

Nico: 36:54

Yeah, super, where can people find you, because they'll probably have questions for you oh, thank you, definitely.

Garrett: 37:01

On LinkedIn, garrett Delph is my handle and then the website is clarityopsco.

Nico: 37:10

There we go, so that was a wonderful conversation, garrett, and I will welcome you back in the future and thank you very much for your time. You're very short on time, so busy man. We have to let you go and do your next beautiful step into the world. Thank you so much for your service that you're providing all these companies and all the employees that are impacted by it.

Garrett: 37:34

And Nico right back at you. Thanks so much for the great conversation. I really appreciate it.

Nico: 37:39

Thank you and for the listeners. Thank you everybody for listening. Remember to jump from head to heart. Feel the beat within. Have a good one everybody. Bye-bye.