Podcast Description

Manuel gets interviewed on the 20/20 Foresight Podcast hosted by Earl Ameen.

In this short 9 min interview, Manuel answers 6 questions about what it means to be the CEO of a mid-sized company, how he got to this position, and what he would like other CEOs to know and more.  

Manuel lays out a lot of quality insights in this short amount of time and we think you’ll find the interview, as Earl says, “Outstanding!”.

 

Podcast File

Insights on Being the CEO – What it Takes and What it Means to Lead

Click here to download this Podcast >>

 

Podcast Transcription

Hey guys, what’s up? My name is Jimmy. I’m the Associate Creative Director for Manuel here at AGM and welcome back to the Facebook Marketing Ninja podcast.

I’d also like to welcome our new listeners as well, and if you haven’t already, hit subscribe to keep yourself up-to-date with the best Facebook marketing tactics out there.

And in this episode, Manuel is a guest on The Grey Owl Company, 20/20 Foresight podcast with Earl Ameen, featured on LinkedIn.

It is a fast-paced six-question interview in nine minutes, because like Earl says, “Top CEOs know how to listen and be concise.”

Check it out.

 

Interview with Earl Ameen

of The 20/20 Foresight Podcast

Earl: This is Earl Ameen with The 20/20 Foresight podcast, where CEOs of midsize companies share their insights.

It is six questions in nine minutes because top CEOs know how to listen and be concise. So let’s get to it.

 

Question #1:

In just a few sentences, tell us who you are and what you do.

Manuel: What a smart concept by the way! I absolutely love it, Earl.

My name is Manuel Suarez, and I am a marketing, a digital marketer. I run a marketing agency with 67 staff as of today, and I got obsessed with the subject of marketing when I had nothing, and I was bankrupt, and I had to figure out a solution.

So I do digital marketing. I built my own businesses, and I help other businesses thrive, specifically in this difficult era that we’re all living in today. That’s what I do every single day of my life.

Earl: Outstanding!

 

Question #2:

What’s the best thing about being the CEO?

Manuel: You know, Earl, what I really love about being the boss, being the leader, is:

• ACCOUNTABILITY.
• RESPONSIBILITY

When things are going great, usually I’m the one driving that energy and making my team successful and have wins along the way.

When things are going wrong, which happens a lot, especially in the business world and the marketing world, it could be an intense one. Things are also my responsibility, and it’s always like being in the driver’s seat.

I don’t know if a lot of you guys can relate to that, but I hate being driven around.

I don’t let my wife drive. I don’t let anybody drive and not even when my kids are 18. I’m not going to feel comfortable.

I like being in control of my future and my destiny, knowing where I’m going.

And I think that’s an important skill a CEO needs to have, that you have to really feel, that you determine the road, that you decide whether you make it or not.

And that’s leadership. That’s leadership at its best.

I don’t ask permission from anybody. I get to execute my own decisions.

And as long as I operate with the benefit of everybody around me in mind, then everybody follows me and I develop loyalty.

And that’s what I like about being a CEO.

I don’t have to be bossed around. I boss people around, but with the viewpoint of helping them succeed. And that’s what I think all CEOs should operate under.

Earl: Outstanding!

 

Question #3:

I hear from other CEOs that leading their team and being able to see the road ahead can be a challenge.

What are your thoughts?

 

Manuel: That’s a great point. I think it goes in line with what I was just talking about right now. It’s:

A CEO is really responsible over the present time and the future of a company. And, is generally also responsible over the past of a company.

So being able to predict the market and what the opportunities are is a very important part of a role of a CEO.

I can tell you that one thing that I have seen other CEOs or other leaders fail at, Earl, is that they stop looking at other departments in their organization or other areas, and really get to understand every single element of their business.

They get really into DELEGATING and stop really UNDERSTANDING what’s happening and why it’s happening and how it’s being done.

And when you create that separation between the activities in your environment, in your organization, and yourself, you lose control to an extent.

So I like people to know and to understand that point, that even though I have chief marketing officers, I have chief operations officer, even though I have creative directors and marketers and all these people,

 

I always remain

KNOWLEDGEABLE

 

In every single field, as much as possible, even though these guys get better than me along the way.

And that’s, in many cases, true for a lot of us leaders. We have people around us that are better than us in many different areas, but if you’re knowledgeable in every single field that you’re working at, that your organization is responsible for, then you can keep it moving forward.

If you’re not, and you disconnect too much that you don’t really know what’s going to happen with that organization, or with that company, in that department, you can’t be accountable.

Earl: Indeed. Indeed.

 

Question #4:

What piece of insight do you want to share with other CEOs?

Manuel: Well, one thing that I can tell you that has been something that I take for granted, that in my case has been a big part of my success, is building a team around me.

We live on a very unique world, Earl, in which the world around us has access to this thing that we call the internet. And because of that, we can work and operate from anywhere in the world.

And I have successfully built a team of people that helped me at a distance.

I do have a lot of local staff and I love the experience of having local people, but some of my best people that helped me out the most, that are some of the brightest minds that I have work from home at a distance in many remote locations of the world.

So I have people in the Philippines. I have people in Europe. I have people in Mexico – all over the place. And these guys, I wouldn’t be able to do it without them.

And that’s one of the opportunities of today’s world.

2020 has given us the opportunity of building a team of people in many cases, in other countries that have different economies, which means that you can bring them in for much less than you would have to pay a staff here locally.

Earl: Right.

Manuel: And that is one of the things that I think that entrepreneurs, CEOs might not really get in many cases.

They have the ability of building a team remotely and people that help them and bring in power that is more qualified than them in certain areas, who help them with their business goals.

And I would definitely advise any of you guys to look into today’s platforms like Fiverr, Upwork, and all these places. There’s a lot of different ones, Freeeup, Fiverr, Upwork.

Earl: Sure.

Manuel: 20Four7VAs, so you can start getting some help in the different areas of your organization.

Once you get help, Earl, you start getting help, you start getting yourself to the next level and you start going free and you can really become a CEO.

Earl: Outstanding!

Manuel: Otherwise, you’re trapped in the day-to-day activities.

Earl: Outstanding!

 

Question #5:

What other successful CEOs like yourself would you like to acknowledge and should be on my podcast?

 

Manuel: I’ve gotten the honor of talking to a lot of incredible people and meeting a lot of incredible people along the way.

One person that comes to mind. I have a good friend of mine. His name is Riggs Eckelberry.

He is the founder and CEO of a public company called OriginClear. They have a big purpose of reaching a lot of people with purified water and clean water.

One of my greatest mentors in the world that I learned a lot in the world of eCommerce and Amazon, his name is Ben Cummings.

Definitely, somebody that runs an organization and is quite powerful and quite effective, somebody that I highly recommend.

There’s another person not connected to Ben Cummings but a similar name, Tom Cummings.

This individual is an absolute rock star. He built a company to $300 million a year in the United States as an energy company, and now he’s opening up markets in Europe, and he’s one of the best CEOs that I’ve ever seen in my life.

Earl: Outstanding.

Manuel: So that’s somebody that’ll definitely give great feedback to you guys.

 

Earl: And now for

Question #6:

How do you celebrate a win?

Manuel: Well, I like to validate people that are performing well, Earl. I like to make people know that we’re winning.

I think that people have to feel that they’re a part of something special that it’s accomplishing success.

There are two sides. When it comes to being a CEO and a leader.

• You can build a honey empire, meaning that you’re sweet and you’re nice and you support your people. Or,
• You can be ruthless and intense.

I like to go into the honey side of things. And when we have wins, we celebrate them. When we accomplish a new client, for example, we celebrate them.

And I usually, I acknowledge in a big way in front of everybody, my team members that are helping me accomplish those wins.

And then we rapidly move on to our next goal and our next target. So as long as we are…

Earl: Excellent!

Manuel: Acknowledging the people that are part of that particular win, I think that you can just move on very fast, yes.

Earl: It’s a pleasure to have you on today, Manuel. How can people find you?

Manuel: Earl, anybody that wants to know more about what I do, I’m an internet marketer. I teach people about social media marketing and how to create a social media business. You can find me by searching me up anywhere on any social media platform. I am omnipresent.

Manuel Suarez, M-A-N-U-E-L. Suarez is S-U-A-R-E-Z, or you can go to my website, manuelsuarez.com and find more information.

I have a marketing company called AGM Marketing, which stands for Attention Grabbing Media. It’s easy to find it.

Earl: Outstanding. All right. This is Earl Ameen with the 20/20 Foresight podcast.

For more insights, go to LinkedIn and search for the Gray Owl Company.

Manuel, thank you.

Manuel: Thanks for having me, Earl.