ML363: Brian Samson (Leader @Plugg.Tech)

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Speaker B: Hi, I'm Shannon Lucas, co founder and co CEO of Catalyst Constellations, where we help organizations execute at the speed of change. You can find me on LinkedIn and on, um, the Master Leadership Podcast, episode ML362. I'm excited to introduce Brian Sampson. Brian is the founder of Plug Technologies, where he helps US Companies solve one of today's biggest business challenges, building high performance teams with speed, trust and global reach. He brings more than a decade of experience and has built three companies from 0 to 4 million in annual recurring revenue. What makes Brian different is how deeply he understands people, culture and the strategic advantage of nearshore talent in Latin America. If you're rethinking talent growth or what the future of work really looks like, this conversation will expand how you build.

Speaker A: Welcome, Brian Sampson. How are you?

Speaker C: I'm, um, doing great. Thanks so much for the opportunity.

Speaker A: Well, we're excited to have you. You're tuning in from Hawaii?

Speaker C: That's right. I've been fortunate enough to call Hawaii home for the last nine years.

Speaker A: Are you ready to pour into our listeners?

Speaker C: I'm, uh, excited.

Speaker A: All right, so Brian, tell us a bit about your leadership journey and what you're doing now.

Speaker C: Yeah, maybe I'll start with the end. So today I am, um, the founder of Plug Technologies, which is a leading, uh, near shore staffing company. We connect talent from Latin America to U.S. companies. In addition to that, I'm part owner in several other companies, um, here in Hawaii, cleaning company and a locksmith company. And then I, uh, also have a recruiting business and a new AI implementation company. So I kind of work across a lot of different places and as this is a leadership podcast, I'm actually not super busy. It's kind of that one minute manager framework that I think a lot of listeners have probably read where if you set your people up for success.

Speaker A: Oh, I love it.

Speaker C: You have a lot of free time

Speaker A: and you can create so much. I mean, it's wonderful to hear all the things that you're doing. And I bet those are all passion projects.

Speaker C: Yeah, I have a lot of fun. You know, I think at this stage in my life, I have different points of leverage that I can offer. You know, whether it's capital, wisdom and advice, talent systems, you know, things like that. And as long as I find a energetic, enthusiastic operator that wants to go through the fire of entrepreneurship, I'm there. However they need them. My journey started from the Midwest, working in restaurants, which is a great way to learn, I think expectations, uh, is a huge part of both leadership and management. And my very first job. I don't know if you've ever seen a restaurant, Lily, called Fuddruckers.

Speaker A: Yes.

Speaker C: Yeah. Have you ever eaten there before?

Speaker A: I may have, yeah.

Speaker C: It's a little bit more old school, kind of like the TGI Fridays era, where you don't see them so often anymore. But they were big in the 90s and I had this role that was very loosely defined. So at Fuddruckers, you would order your burger at the counter and then get a cup for your self serve soft drink. And then 10 minutes later they would say, lily, your order's ready. And then you go up and they've got this amazing kind of buffet setup of condiments. So you could dress your burger in a million different ways. And it's really fun. You've already gotten your soda from the soda fountain, you sit down and then all of a sudden I appear like a ghost out of nowhere, you know, and hey, how was your meal? Can I get you a refill on your drink? Can I get anything from the bakery for you? And customers were really unsure, like, uh, who is this guy? Like, why is he interrupting my meal? He's not a waiter because I already got my food myself. But all that's to say, I was confused on the value that I was doing. The customers were confused. And if there's anything that I try to get right early in any organization, it's clear. Expectations, um, uh, you know, what am I supposed to do? What does success look like in this role? And that was like my first kind of real job. And it hit me early, like, okay, I need to know, what does success look like? The second restaurant that I worked at kind of helped me pay for college. A, uh, big Midwest juggernaut called Portillo's with Chicago style food, hot Dogs and Italian beef sandwiches and things like that. And really, really busy, high volume place. Like 40 cars in the drive through at a given time. And they had a whole outdoor team with headsets taking orders and paying. And what was really interesting about that restaurant, high stress, high volume. Every manager but one kind of had the same ethos. They would catch you doing something wrong.

Speaker A: Oh, sounds like school.

Speaker C: Sounds like school. So did you put the heavy stuff in the bag first? Oh, I forgot. You know, I think. Did you wrap that one twice in foil? Oh, you know, I forgot that. Did you use a serrated knife properly with a cutting glove? Uh, you know, you're just constantly tense up the managers walking through because what are they going to point out that I'm doing wrong?

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker C: And there was one guy, while just a total flipped attitude, and everyone relaxed when he came through because he was looking for things you were doing correct.

Speaker A: And he was one of the managers.

Speaker C: Yeah. And he's the only one that did that. And everyone loved him. Their performance, you could see, like they were relaxed. They gave it their best because they wanted to be recognized for doing something right. And later I read the book Whale Done, and I don't even know if this manager had ever heard of that book, but he was doing exactly what this book is all about. You know, catching people in the act of doing something right. Like, well done, well done. Um, you know, I'm a teenager in these situations, but decades later, they still kind of stuck through. And I think catching people doing something right and giving them clear expectations has been foundational for every other company that I've founded.

Speaker A: You know what, Brian? You could have fallen in line and done what everybody else did. But I loved that even as a teenager, you were able to have that observer perspective and know what you didn't want to do or who you didn't want to be. Which is valuable when we have bosses that aren't that skill, that leading.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: So I love that because those two things, clarity is kindness, to give people clarity on what you expect from them and catch them doing something good, are both really wonderful skills to have as a leader, because you're setting people up to win, which is what you do. So tell us a bit more about your organization and how can we connect with you?

Speaker C: So Plug Technologies, the website is Plugg Tech. We are working with people that are very interested in Latin America. Latin America talent. Uh, maybe they've worked offshore before or they've worked with teams in India or the Philippines or China and amazing places for talent. The only problem is there's a big ocean in the middle. So we're all in different time zones. We're all awake at different times. Or if somebody's accommodating, that means somebody else is compromising.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker C: Latin America, everybody's on the exact same time zone as the US and the talent there is fantastic. It's very culturally aligned to the US So we have a team of recruiters, operations people, salespeople, leaders that are working with customers and working with talent and putting them all through our system to ensure success. And we do about a hundred of these placements every year.

Speaker A: So you also have a podcast.

Speaker C: That's right. It's called the, uh, Nearshore Cafe podcast, and we're about 85 episodes. We are constantly bringing guests on that have either worked with Latin America and they want to share their story, or they're a really interesting person in Latin America, and it brings a spotlight to all the great people out there.

Speaker A: That's fantastic. Now, why should a, uh, leader consider this? I mean, you talk to us about the time zone, which is great, when

Speaker C: there was a bull market for talent. So think Back to like 21, 22 of the quiet quitting era, and wages were skyrocketing, but that also meant recruiting was impossible. Remember that this is also the era of total, uh, remote work. So if you had a talent market that you could tap into that had all the skills you were looking for, software engineers, call center marketing, leadership, operations, and all talent is down there in Latin America too. And if you can't seem to find them in the States, they're there. So you have this larger market to draw from. Now, in a case, uh, for the bear market, maybe we're in one right now. We've got the Iran war, oil's going up. Companies have less capital, they want more optionality. Finances are stretched a little bit tight. So you want to look for cost arbitrage, labor arbitrage. And generally, labor in Latin America is going to be 40 to 60% priced better than, than it is in the States. So if you normally have six months of reserves, you might need to stretch that for a year. This gives you some flexibility and optionality as you build your team.

Speaker A: I love that. And, you know, I can't help but lean into the fact that you're running so many companies and you have such a smile on your face. Listen, I typically can feel energies, even on Zoom. I don't feel any stress from you.

Speaker C: So, uh, that's a great compliment.

Speaker A: Tell us, how do you do that? Like, help us to Understand running one company can be stressful. How many do you have?

Speaker C: Five.

Speaker A: Okay. Can you please school us?

Speaker C: I think the most important thing is actually perspective. So, you know, I remember in college I was president of a business organization. You know, like those little chapters, you know, 15, 20 students. We're all trying to, like, put something on a resume and figure stuff out. Were doing some things, and we lost a few members. And I went to the chapter advisor, and I was like, ah, you know, this the worst day of my life. You know, like, we're hemorrhaging members. He's like, slow down. You know, like, cancer is serious. This isn't. Have a little levity here. And then later on, as an adult. My wife and I are licensed foster parents, so we, um, went through the foster care system, uh, took a little baby girl in who was six months, and, oh, my God, like, the life that she had, you know, prior, just, uh, unfathomable. And I'm not going to say it was easy. You know, it was. It was a difficult couple years. We did later adopt her. She's part of our family. But that's like, you know, you see like, meth, burns and just, uh, like the worst type of stuff. What you're dealing with really isn't that big of a deal. You know, it's kind of perspective. So I try to keep that in mind. And it's something that tends to happen, you know, when either you've gone through something hard or just life experience. It's hard to have that perspective when you're 17 years old.

Speaker D: Right.

Speaker C: Uh, when you're in your 40s, like me, I think it's a little easier. You've gone through the fire a few times, and just having the right perspective, that it's really not that bad.

Speaker A: I do want to honor you, and I don't know if you recognize this, but not a lot of people can sit in that space where they're smiling and there's stress all around them because it does happen. So having that perspective requires that we look, that we observe. Right? It's an intentional thing. It just doesn't happen. And I know from speaking to many leaders and walking, you know, my own journey, that you had to stop and take a look at yourself and then shift something. Change is inevitable. Growth is optional. And so when we come across some change, sometimes crisis, that can be that pivotal moment. So tell us about the best crisis in your life and why.

Speaker C: Great question. So for me, Covid was catastrophic, but it was really good in the end for me, and maybe this explains why I'm spread across a lot of different things now. In 2019, year before COVID my first child was born, my son and had a business that was doing really well, didn't require a whole lot of work for me. I think I've realized I have maybe a type B personality, which means I. How do I find leverage so I can do the least and get the most?

Speaker A: Right. There's value in that. Yeah.

Speaker C: Uh, and of course you gotta work hard, but sometimes there's other ways around it besides just grinding. But anyway, uh, Covid hit and all my revenue just went poof. And I'm not alone. There's a lot of businesses went through this. I was really stressed. I'm, um, the sole income for my family, my son, Hawaii, just like New York, it's not the cheapest place in the world to live. How am I going to get through this? And what it really did is it made me conscious and aware that no matter what success I have, there's always something macro that could impact that. So really what I need to do is make sure that I've set myself up with disparate income streams that don't connect each other, different operators, and like, if the locksmith company has a bad month, that has nothing to do with nearshore Latin America talent. Right. Like, we're all kind of separated. And that was a really rough time, I'm not gonna lie. But if I didn't go through that, I probably wouldn't have created all these different ways to feed my family.

Speaker A: That makes so much sense and it's so smart because you have all kinds of different industries that you're investing in or a part of. Thank you so much for sharing that. Now, as someone committed to continuous learning, Brian, what are you learning right now?

Speaker C: Uh, AI, um, I'm having a lot of fun experimenting with it, trying it. I've set myself up with a little budget, you know, where if I buy the wrong tool, we've all done that, you know, like, I don't know if you know the comedian Sebastian, uh, Maniscalsko. He's got this bit where he goes to the ice cream store and he doesn't do the samples. He's just like, I'll buy it. I'll get the two scoop pistachio. And uh, oh, it's disgusting. But like, it's on me. I screwed up. I won't do that again. And I think that's maybe how I'm approaching these AI tools. Half of these are going to be a total waste of Money. But I'm giving myself permission to spend a little bit and make some bad decisions, buy some bad tools, because there are going to be some gems in there. And I found some good ones. What I'm kind of fascinated with. It's a little scary, but there's a tool called Delphi which you can use to almost create like a clone of yourself. So I've got a podcast and loaded up with all my episodes, and it speaks just like me. So, like, you can call it on the phone and it sounds with my voice the kind of things that I would answer, the kind of things that I would say. It's a little eerie, but I can use this to like, train different sales tools or customer service tools or things like that for my team and my customers. And that's been really interesting.

Speaker A: Uh, yeah. Once you get past the fear, you can lean into the curiosity, because it's here. We might as well just lean in. All right, so, Brian, when you reflect on leadership today, what are your biggest concerns and what gives you the most hope?

Speaker C: You know, what concerns me is I don't take it for granted anymore because I realized that a lot of people didn't have the experiences I did of working in entry level food service. Whether you're working at the mall or you're working at a restaurant or a Home Depot or something, you know, like, this is what people kind of start their careers, you know, with these entry level jobs. And then I worked in an office, you know, for the first six, seven years of my career, and like little bullpens and banter, and you learn by listening and it's silly. And you go out to lunch with your co workers. So today there's a lot of teenagers that, you know, these jobs are gone. The little jobs at the mall, the little jobs at, uh, McDonald's, you know, they're not there as much anymore. And then all the COVID remote work, like if you graduated in 2020, you may have never worked in an office. And sure, you can have a successful career, but it doesn't mean that you're learning everything and you can kind of make these little mistakes and somebody's there to, hey, you should try it this way. That probably worries me. I don't know if there's any way around it, but it does worry me. But then, you know, what gives me hope is there's still a lot of optimism out there in the world. And I think with AI, there's going to be a million brand new companies. Um, I think it's really going to Accelerate entrepreneurship. And I love talking to entrepreneurs because we're all taking this big risk and betting on ourselves, and now we just have more ways to bet on ourselves.

Speaker A: I love that you smile when you say AI because a lot of people afraid of it, but I'm, I'm leaning in. I love technology and so I'm, um, experimenting and exploring. So, you know, one of the things that I'm doing is I'm finally writing a book. It's been 20 years in the making. It's called Master Fear and it's a study on fear, really, because it's been so much a part of my life. So I'm curious to know what are your thoughts on fear and how we should approach it as leaders?

Speaker C: You know, I think it's okay to be afraid, right? Even if your culture makes people feel like it's okay to make mistakes and venture into the unknown and uncertainty, it's really important for the executive team to talk about that. Verbalizing, you know, like, hey, I'm not even sure what I'm going to be doing in two years, right? Is AI going to replace my role as the decision maker? So you're not alone. Like, we're all kind of overwhelmed, anxious. It's okay. But being overwhelmed and anxious has never solved anything. M sit in it for a moment and you have the permission. Right. But we all have to keep moving forward too.

Speaker A: You know, I love what you said because not a lot of people have that perspective where the top level leader, the executive leader, needs to show that vulnerability. Mhm. And why is that important?

Speaker C: It sets the culture, it creates the signals and the cues for everybody else. Because, you know, whether we like it or not, we emulate the leadership.

Speaker A: I love that. Well, thank you so much. Now we have a question from a former guest. Are you ready?

Speaker C: I'm ready.

Speaker A: Let me find a doozy for you. Let me see. You're too laid back. Let me see if I can ruffle your feathers a little. I'm kidding, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Um, all right, so here's a good one. Jennifer Nash wants to know what have you had to unlearn? Something you've been doing all your life, but you've had to unlearn. And you've recently found that out.

Speaker C: Oh man, you're right. You put me on the hot seat.

Speaker A: That's all right. Take your time.

Speaker C: Probably more as a parent to two young kids, I think maybe kind of like a funny anecdote of there's been no greater joy that I've had, you know, of being a dad. But I remember right before my son was born, everything you read, everything you hear, it's going to change your life. It's the greatest thing ever. And of course, like, I'm ready for that. But I had one friend, you know, I've known forever, gave me a call and he's like, hey, just, you know, everyone's going to say how great it is, but it's really going to suck for a little while. Like, it's going to be hard. You're going to be stressed, sleepless. It's going to be really, really hard. Don't worry, it's normal. Just nobody ever says that. And I think that was like a key thing I had to, uh, unlearn. Maybe in my perspective that it's just all going to be bliss, being able to prep mentally, that even the best things can be really hard and rough, challenging.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: Thank God for good friends, huh? Huh?

Speaker C: Tell you the truth, I think it's

Speaker A: the same thing with leadership. I mean, parenting to me is a high level course on leadership, especially when they're teenagers. As a leader, to have an inner circle of people who, who don't bullshit you and who tell you the truth is key.

Speaker C: Oh, uh, yeah, absolutely. You know, I think you got to set that tone right away. And the first time somebody says something, even if you don't totally agree with it, make them feel really heard and seen by raising it. And it doesn't even mean you've got to implement anything that they said. Just like, acknowledge, and they'll keep bringing

Speaker A: that feedback like, you value their input even if you don't align. Right. I love that. So, as a listener to this podcast, Brian, what's a question that you want to pose to the next leadership guest? Like, what are you curious about?

Speaker C: Yeah, you know, we've spent a little bit of time on, uh, First Jobs on my episode, and I'd like to carry that over and have people talk about what they learned from leadership in their very first job. Maybe it's like a little teenager type job. What do they learn? I would be, uh, excited to hear their answers.

Speaker A: You know, I've not had that question before.

Speaker C: Oh, good.

Speaker A: In over 300 episodes. That's pretty good. All right, I love it. Now, is there anything else you want to share with our listeners before we wrap up?

Speaker C: If they are curious about the world of Latin America, we have what's called nearshore curious conversations all the time and educate people about different countries. Talent, pockets, getting hardware in and out, traveling currency, Volatility we love providing advice and pointing people in the right direction so they can go to Plug Tech. Plugg Tech.

Speaker A: And your podcast, the Nearshore Cafe Podcast.

Speaker C: Nearshore Cafe Podcast. And if you Google that, it will take you right to the website.

Speaker A: Love, uh, it. Well, thank you so much for adding value to me and to our listeners. It's been wonderful speaking with you.

Speaker C: Oh, um, my pleasure. Really appreciate the opportunity.

Speaker D: In closing, here's a quick message. Coaching is the art of influence that underpins leadership in the 21st century. It is the very thing that can get you from being stuck to being extraordinary. So go to masterleadership.org and sign up to get a free coaching session. Until next time, continue to ignite that leader in you.