Special Guest Expert - Aleksander Szlam.mp4: Video automatically transcribed by Sonix

Special Guest Expert - Aleksander Szlam.mp4: this eJwljstugzAQRX8FedEVhQKBAFJUZdFWqtQVarfIsgdi8IPaQwhE-fcadTn36pw7d8KMRtDY4joBqcmZhERoh1QzaAUndXrMyzTL8pCw2aFRswP7XxRJccjTkFDGzOwNe5iVVZ4cQ9IJkLzVVO3OTkjw2nGhtnekvpPZSh9fECdXx_GyLFFvTC-BTsJFzKiYW3GF-JrGO-ripPkabvp9KF66z59y-82roWpZsykQ63ppxv6VSjwp4II-OTNbBiduFi0N5d9-KiQoUO6fNBMwQWXwMYPD4O02gcXgOThLGB3VHGzQbJKqSE0HT3XGKooe28_H4w_IfmW-:1nKuTH:ozB3zTHgHS2ovYrKNVzLxDgRvsM video file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Speaker1:
So here's the big question. Our entrepreneurs like us who have been hustling and struggling to make it to success, who seem to make

It one step forward only to fall two steps back. Work dedicated. Determined. And driven. Finally, break through and win, that is the question. And this podcast will give you the. My name is Bill. This is the mind body.

Speaker1:
Hello, everyone, and welcome, welcome, welcome to the mind body business show. My goodness. Oh, I've just talking to our special guest expert right before going live here. I am so blessed. That's the one word that just hits me quickly and instantly that I've just gotten to meet this amazing, amazing individual. Alexandre Schlamme is coming on here in just a moment. I cannot wait to share him with you. And that is what this show is truly all about. It is a show by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, and the purpose of this show is to bring on successful, amazing individuals like Alec to. Help show you the keys, the secrets, the recipes to success. The thing is, we all think that is some magical array of things that must fall into place perfectly for us to become successful. And really all it is is all you need to find. Is that one recipe? You only need one. It may not be the one you think it is, but all you have to do is follow the steps put in the proper ingredients. Do it step by step. Follow someone else's lead who has achieved success. It's that simple. Yeah, it takes time. It takes work. It takes energy. But it also takes a single correct recipe. And so that's what I brought on the show are people like Alex who have that recipe. He's figured it out. I'm excited. I cannot believe this. This is amazing. I can't. I cannot wait to bring him on.

Speaker1:
But real quick. That is what the mind body business show is all about. It's about the three pillars of success. It's about mind, which means mindset. That's about having a powerful and more importantly, flexible mindset. And these are traits. I found a very successful people over the last 10 years or so, studying only successful people. So one was a very powerful and flexible mindset. Number two is body taking care of their body. Alec is the epitome of that. This man is doing a lot of things physically. We're going to have a chat and find out what those are. I know what they are and we're going to share them with you. And they literally take care of themselves physically by doing physical exercise and nutritionally by ingesting things that are good for them. And then business. Now business is multi multi multi-faceted. It includes the mastering of certain skill sets, skill sets like sales, marketing, team building, systematized leadership. I could go on for quite some time. I want them, I promise. The cool thing is, yes, it's important to master each of these skill sets, but you personally don't have to. Why? Because if you just master one, just one and actually, yes, it was one of those that I mentioned in that list just a moment ago. Then the rest fall into place. If you want to know what that one is. Go ahead and put it in the comments. I see you guys coming on watching.

Speaker1:
What is that one? One skill set that if you master, then the rest can fall into place if you want to know the answer. I'll tell you anyway, whether you're asking or not, because I don't want to hold it out there like a carrot dangling. It is the skill set. Of leadership. Once you have mastered the skill set of leadership, you can then bring in those individuals and lead them, those that have the skill sets that have mastered those skill sets that you have yet to and may never master. Because let's face it, mastering something takes a long time. It's like being. I can't think of the word, but it takes 10000 hours to achieve mastery of of these skill sets on average, and that would take a long time for any one person. So why not take the approach of mastering the one skill set you need and then using that to leverage off others? Beautiful. Beautiful, beautiful. All right. And another phenomenal, phenomenal skill set or actually attribute a very successful people is what I found in studying all these individuals is that to a person, they are also very avid readers of books and not just any books, but books that have a purpose and impact on them for their business or their personal life. And with that, I want to very briefly, I promise Alex is right here. Waiting would really briefly, I'm going to move into or segue into a little segment I affectionately call bookmarks.

Speaker2:
Bookmarks born to read, bookmarks ready, steady read bookmarks brought to you by reach your peak library.

Speaker1:
Yes, reach peak. Now, a real quick word, a quick word of advice, I do this every show, but. Well, as you're watching the show, you're going to hear beautiful, wonderful, amazing resources, I know Alex is going to have many, many of these when he comes on and you're going to want to go click away and type in the URL and go find out what it's all about. I would caution you not to do that and instead is write it down old fashioned old school with a pen and paper. Write it down. And then after the show over, go visit those resources. Why do I say that? I would so so hate for you to take your attention away from Alec as he is talking when he is giving that one golden nugget that could potentially change your life forever? And I'm not kidding about this. I've seen this happen. I've spoken from stage. I see people get up and walk to go to the restroom right at the moment that I know I'm delivering that one golden nugget. So please do yourself a favor and just stay with us. Take notes and learn from the master Alec, who's coming on in just minutes, a couple of minutes, maybe less. All right, Richard Peek Library is a website that I had developed, and I'm not kidding with you and mind.

Speaker1:
And what I did is I compiled a list of all the books that I've read that I personally vet as having profound impact on my life, either in business or in personal or both. And so not every book I've ever read is in here and another I'm going to actually admit something here. I didn't start reading. I'm 57 years old right now. I didn't start reading avidly until I was 47. And then I realized after person after person, mentor after mentor told me the importance. I finally started reading, Oh my goodness, they were right. It is very important, and you will see your life take off in dramatic ways in both business and personal. If you read the right books, and that's why I put this list together, it is not here for the purpose of making money. All those buttons go to Amazon. I may make a few pennies I don't even know. To be honest, I just make everything clickable to Amazon and other affiliate programs, but it's all there for you. A quick library to go. Go check that out. I'm done talking about that because I'm so excited. I'm going to bring our amazing special guest expert on right now. Let's do this. Here we go.

Speaker2:
It's time for the guest expert, spotlight savvy, skillful, professional, adept, trained, big league qualified.

Speaker3:
And there he is, ladies and gentlemen, it is the one, the only Alexander Shalom, yes.

Speaker1:
Welcome to the show, my man, Alex. So great to have you.

Speaker3:
Thank you. Thank you, Brian, so much for chatting with me before and having me on your show. I am thrilled to be here. I hope I be able to help some who knows and the preneur or some start up or whatever, or maybe even senior businessmen with some something I say would be very nice.

Speaker1:
That's the beautiful thing, because we can all, no matter what our age or level of experience, we can all learn from someone else because we've not lived every aspect that is possible in existence. And I love that you brought that up. My mentor that I love who I raise up. Is he literally could be my son by age. That never mattered to me. You know, age, color, race, gender, none of that. I said color and race, didn't I? Everyone gets the idea. I'm like, Wow, that's kind of redundant. But yeah, none of that matters to me. What matters are results and what matters is having people like you on this show. I know I've always been told it's not polite to point, but I just did it. But we're going to have some fun and we're going to get deep into Alec's life here as deep as he wants to go. He has some great stories to share. I hope he shares those here tonight with everyone here. Before we jump all the way in, I do have a little bit of housekeeping to take care of and I'm glad we've got quite a good number of folks watching right now. And what that is is toward the end of the show, we're going to give away a wonderful prize. But you must be on live watching live and you must be on to the end of the show. Why? Because that's when we show and tell you how you can enter to win.

Speaker1:
What do you win a five night stay at a five star luxury resort? And that's compliments of the big insider secrets. You see the red logo above Alex left shoulder there on the screen. If you're watching this on video, if you're listening on podcasts, obviously you can't see that, but it is the big insider secrets and that is. Jason asked my dear friend who has offered this for me and my company to give away every single show. And it's a legitimate vacation stay, so you don't want to miss that sound of the end. And just a couple more, and we're going to get into it. All right. So if you're struggling with putting on a life show together and let's say it's overwhelming and you want a lot of the process is done for you while still enabling you to put on a high quality show and connect with great people like Mr. Shalom and grow your business all at the same time, then head on over to carpet bomb marketing, carpet bomb marketing, saturate the marketplace with your message, and one of the key components that is contained in this carpet bomb marketing series is one that you'll learn how to absolutely master, and that is the very service we're using this moment to stream our live show, and it's right here right now on the Mind Body Business Show. And over the course of the past, gosh, it's been 10 years now. I've tried many of these quote unquote TV studio solutions for live streaming, and I'm here to tell you with it from experience that stream art is the best of the best today, and it combines supreme ease of use along with unmatched functionality.

Speaker1:
So write this down. Don't go typing it and clicking away. Write this down our whip dot com forward slash stream live all together. One word all lowercase that URL one more time R.I.P. for Stream Live. Ok, it is time, ladies and gentlemen, to bring the man the myth. The legend. Himself, Alexander Schlamme, who I am so pumped, so excited. And now what we're going to do is give you the introduction you richly deserve. And that is to let people know just a little bit about you, and then I'm going to let you take it all. And tell people all the wonderful things that you told me earlier. So Alec is a prolific innovator, founder and CEO of Melita International Inc., and that's a global company which birthed call centers, the call center industry. I hope you heard that everybody birthed it. He did. This is amazing to me. While dramatically enhancing and personalizing people to people. Telephone communications. That's the extent of his bio, and I'm glad it's a short one because you want to hear it straight from him. And if you don't mind, I'll just give a brief overview like you were telling me earlier when you started out, how old you were and just how your life has gone up till now.

Speaker3:
Ok. If you allow me, I need to. Is there an echo? Are we OK?

Speaker1:
We're OK on this end.

Speaker3:
Ok, so I just wanted to thank two people who are involved who got me introduced to you a few weeks ago. One is Lloyd Loftin. He's an incredible individual. I don't know how he did it, but he when he met me and he we arranged a lunch with Richard Brock is the other person. So anyway, Lloyd runs a sales heroes group. We're his he wrote books and et cetera, where his talent and the book allows people to deal with objections when they are selling in the sales process. You know, rebuttals and closing deals. So his stuff is 100 percent to be read by anyone who is in sales. Richard Brock provides software in a company called Sales Talk Technologies and his software for desktop for people that sell by whatever. It's AI based artificial intelligence real time playbook, so it allows the agent, whoever's on the phone to interact and get, you know, responses, objections which are used from Lloyd's book, et cetera, et cetera. I just wanted to thank them immensely. I want to thank you very much, and I'll just dove into a couple of things you ask kind of a loaded question, and I kept thinking about it for a while how to do it. But I think I need to kind of start with. Because I'm talking about technology, I'm talking about business building companies around the world, innovation, all of those things. So I just wanted to tell a little story what the impetus for starting the company Melita International, what it was and why. So number one, I give a lot of credit to Georgia Tech where I got my education, but more over to my cousin, younger cousin Michael Gilson.

Speaker3:
He, when he joined Georgia Tech, maybe a year after me, and by the way, none of us spoke English. We didn't know whatever we did know America. We are immigrants from communist Poland. We left in nineteen sixty nine and we arrived here in nineteen seventy through Vienna, through Austria, through Italy. Rome finally got a legal permit and visa to enter us. We were sponsored here by the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta, and I thank them from the bottom of my heart. My cousin, Michael Hilsenrath. While studying at Georgia Tech, he met a gentleman by the name of John Lucas, and you will understand shortly why he not only helped us, which was a different story to set up a music band. My my cousin Michael, his brother, myself and a couple of other people in Poland, we had a very nice group and we composed music. We wrote our own lyrics. We performed anyways. Coming to America, and we all came as family, we wanted to do something together and special, and definitely John was instrumental helping us with music and performances. I wanted to tell you this, why, John, if it was not for him. She knew us, I built some technologies for him later on, but the way it happened was when I graduated tech and I was working in nineteen seventy nine at Lockheed as a scientist and I was working also on my master's degree at tech. He came to my apartment at that time and he brought in, believe it or not, for any engineers here, you will be saying what he brought to me an answering machine.

Speaker3:
You guys know what answering machine is, but in the old days, it was all mechanical. There was no microprocessor. There was nothing. It was relays piece of tape and a little transceiver, and they would write on the magnetic tape anyway. The reason I tell you this is because he asked me. And 79, Alec, you, as an engineer from Georgia Tech, rambling wreck were from Georgia Tech. Why don't you take this? And I think I will have few clients, but can you modify it so it can make phone calls? It can deliver messages to remind people about furniture delivery or some other stuff instead of people having to call and waste start. So I laughed at him because I said, John, you don't understand. Flip the unit over. You will see a schematic. It's all mechanical. It's like there's nothing. So I said, I will build you from scratch multi-line. Not just one telephone line that can dial, but multi-line system using computer engineering software microprocessor. So that is, I have to say, the beginning of the company that I and my wife built over the years, over 20 years. So I just wanted for people to understand that. So that's one impetus. The other one that is important is doing a project. I eavesdropped when I just before Lockheed. I work for company solid state systems and I actually filed there, invented the first electronic telephone that was connected to a phone system.

Speaker3:
The company specialized in phone systems like we all know in buildings and whatever. But that phone, when I created it, that had a display first, first, maybe phone instrument with displays back then until like late eighties, none of the phones actually had a display. So anyway, so I bring this to your attention and I will just dove Bryan to something else. But while working at solid state systems, I eavesdropped and I heard Wisconsin Public Service Representative. I think a director. He was asking the owners of this company if they could modify the phone system. So that the phone system could make phone calls. It could detect that somebody answered the phone so that they during emergency situations like power down where elderly people without power, they were many actually incidences that they died. So there were many, many lawsuits against the Wisconsin public or the gas was leaking anyways. The system was to dial reach these people, but at the same time, figure out that somebody answered the phone so the system would deliver a message and tell that dispatch repair person to go and do what needs to be done. When I overheard it, the owners of the company said it's impossible to do because back then all the phone systems phone lines were analog, which means there was no signaling on the phone line. So if you dialed that person somewhere they picked up the phone, you would know that they picked up. There was no signaling like we have now on digital lines. So that's the other input I quit during this project.

Speaker3:
I actually took it upon myself, and I built this system for Wisconsin to dispatch installers. This during emergency. I did it, but what I did for cancer detection, detecting when somebody answered the phone, I made a mistake. It worked fine when I tested it here in Georgia, when I went to Green Bay. It didn't work. So during that process, I had to figure out why and accidentally get this. The phone is ringing next to me. And I had Oscilloscope electronic kind of monitoring connect, and I see bursts on the phone line. I said, What the world is this? Later on, I decoded it. I wrote an algorithm over there. I used to be. Ok, you're pretty good writing software and firmware. And I discovered that when somebody is calling during the ringing pattern, when the phone rings, they sending you the phone number. It was never used by any phones or anything. The reason because there were no displays you didn't know somebody was calling, but technicians had a special, you know, that handheld like a little device. It would tell them that it's coming from that number, but only for them not on the phone instrument. So that's that these two things building a dialer because of John Lucas that could dial out later, discovering that somebody calling in, I can extract the phone number that gave the impetus to building complete call centers over the years that would process both incoming calls, outgoing calls, and there's just much, much more to that. So that's the beginning or that's the story why I started the company.

Speaker1:
And so amazing, there are so many things that stood out to me, Alec, and the things that bubbled up to the very top of everything you just said is what Lloyd just said in a comment. He said, See what a great heart Alec has. And yes, we can all see that. And why do we say that? Because when you started talking the very first thing you did rather than say, Hi, my name is Alec, and this is what I do, and this is why I'm so great. Instead of doing that, you gave a shout out to two friends. That's all that speaks volumes of who you are at the core and then you talked about and you were thankful of Georgia Tech and then John and you just kept going on and it was all about your your fortune and your blessing and how you embrace that. And it's so refreshing to see and hear someone, especially of your magnitude of success, especially. And I hope everyone that's watching and listening is really taking notes on this. You're watching the model right here. You want a recipe. You just found it. It is Alexander Schlamme. He is the recipe for success that in my humble opinion, everyone should follow. Why? Because he has that golden heart. There are many recipes for success, and not all of them are what I would consider to be good. They could be coming from people that don't have good in mind. That is not ALEC. Alec is the other side of the spectrum. He raises the bar. And thank you for coming on this show. And already we could end the show right now, and we've got enough value for everyone to live their life. Just be like Alec and start, you know, start following you everywhere they go, everywhere you go and hound you. I'm just kidding. But that is what stood out. And then I'm a tech geek. I'm a former software engineer as well. We didn't talk about that before the show.

Speaker3:
Thank you for the comments and all that. I really don't deserve it. But if that's the way you feel, I have to say thank you. I'm being taught by my wife. You have to say thank you when you get a compliment. So I keep trying.

Speaker1:
And that's the other. Another wonderful thing about you is the connection you have with your wife and how you're so open about it. I've run into far too many men who rather than, you know, lift up their wife and their relationship with each other would rather joke about it in a demeaning way. And I'm thinking, why did you get married if you're just going to joke about? You know, I think about it. I don't really call him out, but I'm thinking about, I was like, Man, you're kind of a turd, you know, compared to. But let's see what. Oh, we got Lloyd asking another question, he said, Steve Jobs said, you can only connect the dots looking back today. We have Caller ID and it came from this guy. Yes. Amazing. Yeah. And that is what's so awesome. He didn't say it, but that's it. Alec invented Caller ID. He is the reason we have it.

Speaker3:
I need to mention something. Yeah, I'm sorry. I interrupt. Because when you look in Google, when you look at Wikipedia and I don't know. It's so crazy because you see many things, even for call centers and others, you don't even see my company, Melita International, my name. I try to connect with people I don't. It's not about me, but at least put my company and tell them what and how, because we did invent what became later caller ID. And that was with that accident. Remember what I said? The phone rings. I figured out that the phone from the calling side is coming across. Well, what we did years later, just to connect the dots we started building, as I said, inbound outbound, major large call centers with hundreds of agents and we invented, gosh, so many things. One of them is I wanted to. You mentioned books. If anybody is interested, I'm holding here. It's an old book, but it's really for technology people, people that build call centers. I co-wrote it in nineteen ninety four. It's called predictive dialing fundamentals, and it kind of describes a lot of the things that call centers. People that manage need to do, how to do staffing, how to calculate anyways. But what I was going to say is that when we. Grew the business and sold very large call centers. The first one, and this is interesting, too, I don't even have it in my notes here. It's very interesting. We first we did outbound predictive diary, which means that the system would call by itself on multiple lines, 100 lines of 50 line 20 and it would by itself through all the coding I did originally, you know, listen to the signals.

Speaker3:
I mean, I wrote so many different algorithms. And then later, of course, I had phenomenal employees and technologists and and research department. But the first systems, I'm bragging because I did all of it myself. There was no one else as far as technology. The one thing I didn't say yet I was going to my wife was there from the day I started laying out the circuit in an apartment on the kitchen table. I swear to you, I started designing it because of John Lucas. He says, Build it, OK, so I was working. But at the same time, if anyone knows, knows what work means, my son was just born that year. You know, February. We already had a daughter there. I was working full time at Lockheed. I was also doing my master's degree, so I was going to school getting, I mean, masters at Georgia Tech Electrical. It's not simple. So I was doing all this and I was designing this for John Lucas because I said, I'm going to do it, and it so happened. Miracle miracle that that company I work solid state. They needed a system later for dispatching. So anyways, it's just that's all I was going to say is that finally, when we built larger systems, it became an opportune time, Brian, to deliver a system that no one ever heard about.

Speaker3:
Never before in history to American Express in Phenix. And what I'm saying is, yes, our system first was dining out. What I mean by predictive dialing, just if people don't understand, we wrote algorithms and predictability. We used high level mathematics and probability statistical theory so that the system would eliminate all of the signals and only connect the person who answered the phone. And unlike the systems that were copied, copycats our system, when you set Tilo or you said whatever in any light you picked up the phone instantly you were connected. So the system increased productivity. One agent could do the work of almost four people. And I'm telling you it's incredible. The whole industry over time was born because when you can save money enormously or I used to say, don't fire the people, God forbid, don't if you have 50 people in a call center, don't don't. I love people, but those 50 people can do the work of almost two hundred four times. So don't you think I used to say to the management and directors that concern? Don't you think it's better for you to contact customers more often and build relationships than fire people? So this is what we did anyway. So when we installed the system at American Express. I was there because I wanted to surprise them. And I said to them, Do you receive phone calls too? Oh yeah, yeah, we have some people sitting there on the phone system, you know, so they had no information.

Speaker3:
They didn't know anything. I said, can we move some of these calls to our system? And they said, Why just wait and see? So here it goes. I'm standing there. The call comes in what we did, we I a couple of guys at that time were much larger. We wrote an algorithm so it would strip that phone number right of the person calling. It would take that number go into the database. It wasn't even called database at that time, but it would find that customers record if it were. If that record was there, guess what? It would display the whole record in front of the agent. But on a terminal, this is where people don't understand something. Oh, my granddaughter, I'm telling you should are so disappointed in school doing project, and this is why I'm working on many, many things. I'm writing a book because. It's all truthful, it's all real, it's all they're all documented, there are 50 patents in the U.S. there's so many documents you can find whatever, but people don't understand where these things came from. And when I tell you what I just said, the incoming call, we grab the number. We displayed it for the agent and the agent. This and this is the funny part. So the agent says, Yes, Mr. So-and-so. Just like now, complete silence. You know why the person calling in. He he was shocked. I think it was a man, if I tell you what, within maybe 30 seconds of silence, we all looked at each other and he says, How dare you? How dare you, you know? You know, like, trace me, how dare you steal information, whatever back then? This is eighty four, eighty five.

Speaker3:
You know you're sustaining information today, you know what I'm talking about. So this is how it happened. So after that, about five, eight, nine years later, phone companies and executives, they learned from this stuff because we started installing incoming systems in displayed info. But why? The reason is that the agent doesn't have to waste time asking, Who are you? Where do you live? Verify your name. You see, because you have the caller ID that it became known later on the phone when phones had displays because originally then when it became that. Think about this you didn't need within a few years of this invention, you didn't need to verify who the person was. Yes, a little bit here and there, because even though they call from a known number, let's say from home number, you're not sure if it's the owner of the house or later on the cell phone. So you may have to have another question. But initially, back then, the calls would come in and we based on that invented another thing which is very important and clever. And it's all over the world because we knew who is calling. We were able to look up in the database, previous conversations, previous exchanges of information. Then we wrote software that would intelligently. It would take that caller that just called in and we say, Oh, you talk to this person, oh, you talked about this subject.

Speaker3:
We would route the call to specific agent with specific specific skill, with language. Let's say I only speak polish and the Polish language, so I won't go on with all the other stuff I will just add. Another invention for parents is we invented the very first true end system. This was in nineteen eighty two three that we introduced to schools so that parents wouldn't have to worry so much when their kid didn't show up for school. And I personally went and met with Legislature here in Georgia. Cathy Steinberg was on the Senate Georgia. She and I introduced the bill in our Legislature and then it became were, I mean, throughout the United States that by 11 o'clock in the morning. Middle schools high school must or had to inform, call the parent, letting them know the kid did not show up for school. So anyway, so that's just some of the inventions emergency, you know, blood banks, Red Cross. I mean, all of these people use the system to collect blood for emergency spills. Chemical, nuclear, we delivered even to Georgia. What is it called? There is a nuclear plant here. I just forgot the name I told you. I don't remember names, so that's that. I turn it over to you so people can understand. Caller ID became a different name, and it became associated with handheld and phones that had a display. But when we did it, there was no such thing

Speaker1:
And so many wonderful inventions and things that we take for granted today. And it was all because you pull you, roll up your sleeves and put in some very, very hard work and long hours. And for that, I want to on behalf of everybody watching or listening, I'm sure they'll agree with me. I want to thank you for doing that because without your hard work, we wouldn't have these wonderful things that are saving lives, helping parents, increasing business, creating increased productivity. One person could do the work for I'm all about that because I love automation. It's a whole different area, but it's similar in ways. And there were things that you said again. See, here's the beautiful thing about you, Alec. And what I noticed is the first thing you say is usually the most profound. That's always a key to where this person is coming from. The very first thing you said is it's not about me. And you then said when you were talking about John Lucas and what you said you would do for him. You said I did it because I said I would do it. And those two things run very, very solid, true and profound with me because. There's the recipe for success, everybody listening. It's not about me, it's not about you, make it about the result, make it about the other person, make it about whatever the goal is, but don't make it about yourself. If you do, you will. It will take you longer. You will struggle. And I just I can think of people, the top of my head that are like that. And it's unfortunate. But I've seen what ALEC is talking about time and time again. So I've got to tell you, Alec, I didn't tell you about this before the show, but what I call what those two things were are a bomb dropping moment. And so if I can get my system to react, we're going to have some fun here. Oh, it failed me, but we have a little graphic there that goes across.

Speaker3:
Ok.

Speaker1:
And yeah, I just wanted to let you know that I appreciate everything you're doing and what you said was so profound. My goodness, the truant system and we had a request come in. This is good. So look at this. Look at this. Sophie Flynn, so proud of you, granddad and love watching Doris virtual hug. Love Sophie and

Speaker3:
We love

Speaker1:
It. Yes, I love it. Love this man. He's so amazing. And then Lloyd wanted to hear. He'll give you a moment. Isn't that wonderful? I love this. I love what I get to do.

Speaker3:
I love it because it's because of Sophie. I almost forgot about everything, because we've gone through a lot, a lot of sacrifice, a lot building company for 20 years and we did a merger and that those people that merged with it anyway, it didn't work out. And so. And as I said, Sophie was looking at doing some project, couldn't find anything about Caller ID and I told her. I would never lie, I would never make up stories, that's all true. The world doesn't know, they don't care to know, but it doesn't matter. Go ahead. Just I'm sorry, I reacted this way.

Speaker1:
No worries whatsoever. That's authenticity. That is you. You know, this is what David and Sonja White said earlier. Alexandre Schlamme has a heart of gold, and we're all seeing this. And then he said, Brilliant man. And Lloyd would like to hear a story, though he would like to hear a story. He's putting it in there, he said. Ask him about the girl on the train station in Europe. So it's such an interesting story.

Speaker3:
He wrote it. You know, Lloyd, if you can hear me, I hope he wrote the story that it's on LinkedIn, I think. And somewhere people need to check with Lloyd. Maybe he can post. And that was beautiful. I tell you, I cried when I read the way. Lloyd, you see, I never knew Lloyd until just two or three months ago, and we met at lunch with Richard Brock, whom I adore. He is a phenomenal entrepreneur. He had one of the first call center related desktop products here in Georgia. I think he's now in Arizona. People need to look him up his company. I think I told you it's called sales talk technology. It's amazing product, artificial intelligence based, interactive agents with with with Lloyds. The background, you know, like finding people that have objections. Those two are married together. There's no better marriage. Just like I've been married forty nine years this year to a sweetheart, that's what he's talking about. So it goes like this very quickly. I met my wife in nineteen sixty five in the summer camp. I was fourteen. We were fourteen. Later on, I visited her a couple of times this and that, she came to my town. We lived like a couple hundred hundred miles away, so we after a while didn't communicate. But it happened this way and I have it here in my notes as miracles.

Speaker3:
Because in nineteen sixty nine, my family, my cousin Michael, his brother Gus, I mentioned because we had a band, we played in this, but we all left our family decided to leave Poland to communist Poland. We were so happy because, you know, Jewish people didn't have a great life in Poland, believe me. So Helena's parents and family, they also immigrated now. Of course, we didn't know about it. So here it is. And he wrote the story so neatly. We are now in Vienna. Austria, we are on a platform train platform, and I'm just standing there this week waiting for the train that was to take us to Rome, Italy. That was the the way they handled immigrants until we got permission to enter us. And I keep underscoring legally, OK, because that's important to me. So I am on that platform and suddenly I'm looking in front of me and we have like three suitcases on this cart and towards us is coming Helena's family and I'm looking, you know, close. Wow, you know. So here I'm meeting this. Helena, who's my wife now in sixty nine September or maybe October, and we started talking this and that we whatever we got on the train, you know, on the the train cart she and I, we couldn't stop talking all night. I'm telling you this and that whatever I did have a girlfriend in Poland, which I have to be honest, I was waiting for her.

Speaker3:
I was thinking this, but it didn't happen. Thank God. Oh my God. Helena is something else. I mean, she's the best friend, the best wife. The best. You know, Mimi. Grandchildren call it a partner. I didn't say it that I was going to. I come back in a minute because what Helena achieved and what she did for our company, I don't think many people on this call could even comprehend because it's virtually impossible what she kept doing, holding family, working full time, taking kids to school, to activities and helping me with everything in the company. And she'll grow. So I'll say it now. She got and rise to the position of executive vice president. She was responsible for world human resources, for facility management, for. At first, she did everything by hand, you know, paying bills, ordering parts, inventory. All of this as we started growing. So she's the best ever. But the story goes to go back to what we started. So in Rome, we started kind of dating, you know, I liked her a lot. She didn't like me when we met because she said, You, you had greasy hair. You look like Elvis and you were so quick and guitar and you were playing and singing everything. All the girls with this and that. So I didn't care to be closer to you.

Speaker3:
Ok? I said, OK, what can I do? I didn't know that. But anyway, so here we are on a train, then we are in Rome. We started talking about life and this and that. And guess what? And I'm going to cut it short. After seven months. Of being stationed in Rome, in Italy, Jewish organizations, well, HIAS, which is kind of international, but Hebrew Institute, whatever, they gave us some money. Of course, they made arrangements for all immigrants where they stayed this. And then they gave us some money, of course, to buy food this and that, and we would get from our parents 50 lira, which was nothing, you know, like a dollar. She and I would go for a cappuccino. We would go to movies like in the theater. It was so dark and kind of dirty. She says she's writing, co-writing with me some stories. So here we go. Seven months pass. Yes. Yes. Is that not miracle? Whatever is already here, we're getting called to the agency that we received. Visas permits to go to America, and I'm excited my cousins are already left their family. So we were still staying there, so I may tell you now this and that, she tells me. Her family got visas to go. I said, OK, great. You know, we were already beginning to date, so I said, Well, hopefully somehow we'll connect when we get to America whenever you get.

Speaker3:
Well, guess what? We got the visas. A couple of weeks later, we got the tickets. We are on the same airplane. If we get on the plane and an airplane and I don't remember, I don't want to lie, I don't do that. I don't know what and how we are on the same airplane flying to New York and we are sitting next to each other and just talking to each other, wondering what in the world is going to happen to us. It was very fortunate to have these fraternities. I don't know the English word sorry. I was fortunate that my cousins were already in America and we already knew the address where they lived. So when we got to America, her family was sponsored by Pittsburgh, the Jewish Federation we in Atlanta. Then she was able to correspond with me, and then we kept in touch, and of course, so many things happen. But we got married in nineteen seventy three. So that's part of that story, but he captured it very, very well. Lloyd is just a genius and I mean his vocabulary the way he I don't know if guys, everybody needs to check him out. Sales Heroes Group, anyone just look up. He's some somebody that you guys got to know. How else can I help?

Speaker1:
My goodness. I know it's possible because you've done so much already. And you know, that's when it comes down to business and being successful. I just want folks to really understand at a deeper level. It's about your relationships with people that are the most important part of any success. And you can see Alec is a perfect example of someone who serves from the heart. You know, he's always talking about other people first. And you said a certain word to me before we came on that you said multiple times. And it kind of just encapsulated what drives you. And the word was miracles. And you kept saying how blessed you were and you were so grateful. And that's just you. And that's the thing is, if more people just would think about what they're grateful for instead of all the stuff that's happening in their lives, that's not positive. Well, then your your outlook will change for the better. And you'll be like Alec. I mean, full of energy, full of just love. I just feel this immense amount of love coming from you, Alec. I hope you don't mind my saying that. It's just thank you. It's it's I don't meet people like you every day. You're amazing. I've had a lot of great guests on this show, and I don't want to put anybody down as a second to you. But I got to tell you, the bar has been raised very high as far as what kind of human being one person can be. And that is you and I appreciate you.

Speaker3:
I don't know if I deserve all the documents and stuff, but but you mentioned building business because of employees. You were saying, if anyone cares, they building business. I wrote few just bullet points, which may be important to people that already have a business or trying to build or rebuild or kind of remake themselves. We as Melina and I, as I said she was. In the garage with me, when we moved from our apartment, she did everything. We have a story because we didn't even know how to market things. I created with her like a pamphlet. We were mailing it out because for those energy like Wisconsin, after that, I tried to sell more of those same emergency systems. But I was working for Lockheed for the next two and a half years. So we didn't know how to, you know, put the stamps on the envelope containing it so thick. So we were looking like we licked the stamps and then the envelopes, you know, the inside of the flat. Later on, people told us, You take a sponge, you take a lot of, I mean, I'm telling you the truth. We learned and I and I have to give credit also to my brother-in-law, unfortunately, he's no longer with us. Ben felt gayer because when I started all this, I brought him in. He's, you know, my sister's first husband, and he helped a lot with testing the equipment because, as you know, you can have idea, you can build it, you design it.

Speaker3:
But if you don't test all the different and intricate things, you know the product could be. We had virtually no failures and Ben was phenomenal. I miss him no longer. But I wanted to just mention two or three things. We hired Alina and I. She was in charge of HR, as you know, some of the most reputable service business service providers, the names people may know, they no longer, for instance, Arthur Anderson. They were financial advisor, too. I mean, one of the best our government shut them down. I don't know why they had to morris manning legal people in town. Jones Eskew, patent and trademarks and many others. So we surrounded ourselves, not just phenomenal employees. And Helena has this thing. You know, she can read through people, you know, today you can't even ask questions. Well, how when, whatever. But she was very good at it. I think I have a good sense of people and between the two of us, we have. I tell you, we are so blessed that we had just about all employees that were that were loving us, they I say it, maybe you don't believe me, but I'll make a point in a second. We because we love people. My wife and I in general. When we built the company, we decided Hardin, and they're going to have the most benefits, whatever we can afford.

Speaker3:
Obviously, money you had. But you know, our company never borrowed money. We were always debt free and we built from the successes, from the money we had. We invested a lot in the research and development, so we were very independent. We own the company 100 percent clean energy. But every employee had options. So if and when we go public, which we did in ninety seven, everyone could convert and they did to, you know, stock on common stock on the, you know, Nasdaq. So anyway, so for some, it paid out for some. But I wanted to tell you, we had medical insurance at first 100 percent. We were a smoke free environment, starting in eighty three when we opened the first off and we paid people that were smokers to go and, you know, get rid of it. We had bonuses all the time, how the holiday party invited the significant others. We had celebrations at the Lake Lanier with kids, et cetera. We gave us government bonds to parents that had a child born while at Melita. They could, you know, 10, 15 years, say they cash it out. Like I said, provided we had built exercise room, we had the whole facility with four women, four men as far as showers. And this and that, we built a our own building. I was in charge with Randy Masters, another guy. They together oversaw when we built headquarters one hundred and ten thousand square feet, very modern, advanced building on the lake.

Speaker3:
She said, I'm telling you that only she built our house houses, our corporate. She ran all of it with Randy across the world. So anyway, that's what I wanted to tell you. We took care of customers and. You know what drives me and what really made it, I wrote this down, I know you didn't ask, but it's my DNA. I have always when I ran this company and I was on many boards, paranoid. Paranoid driven, you may not quite understand, but my wife could tell you and other people never at ease, never I couldn't, you know, and music in my head from the time I was born. And thoughts all the time, always on the go. So what the reason I tell you this is because I never wanted to take anything for granted. I didn't like to look at competitive products or read the brochures. I told my salespeople when they came, Don't do it, I am not going to, Oh yeah, they're doing this. No, you take your time, you spend it on our product, on our, you know, the features and functions. You don't need to learn other people's products, you need to be an expert on others and understand how it benefits our customers and when you do that, we'll always win and we took so many business opportunities away from competition.

Speaker3:
So that's kind of, you know, we did research and development that was huge for us. We open office in in Krakow with 20 scientists, polish we sponsor. We even had that most people on the phone. If they are from Melita, they didn't know I created what it was called shop and house. Chopin is my favorite Polish composer. I listen to his music all the time. It's in me. I tell you. It's like vibrating me all the time, every piece, and I don't know the titles, which is so stupid. I mean the name, but we created shop in house as a offside. Research and development facility, and only a few people knew Jim Crooks, who was in charge of our vice president of engineering and then bogus. Gill was the chief architect of mentioning names because they knew we created. I would go there. I would yell at them. I would a little bit like Steve Jobs, maybe because I told them by next month, you don't have this feature or we don't release this. I didn't threaten. We're going to fire them. But I said, You've got to do it because I'm going to have a heart attack. And I'll tell you what these people, which I love them. They have told me what I wanted to know, which is, I'm going to tell you right now, 10 years after I step down and the company, our Melita was integrated to aspects of about a billion dollar.

Speaker3:
Whatever company at the time, I had no more job. This is two thousand three. Wow. Ten years later, almost to the date, we still communicated with few ex-employees. They wanted to get together. It started as five people, maybe 10 people, their spouses or their significant, you know what? Within two months, Helena said to me, Listen, we can't do this because now we had like three hundred two hundred something on the list. Plus, there's significant other you're talking about five hundred people. Six. What are we going to do with this? This is X employees after 10 years. So Galena says to me, we are setting a date. If people cannot make it, whoever does, but we still had two fifty, maybe three hundred people. So this is what I wanted to tell you. And if I can, at the end, I wanted to read something to my family for sure. If you let me at the end, I have something I have to read because it's a miracle. My life is miraculous. Miraculous. I have phenomenal friends. Not many, but close friends. Once you saw David and Sonya over there and Mickey and Beverly, there's few. But you know, I feel like a few friends is is the most important and to have many, many and really. You don't click, they don't understand you, you don't understand them, so I think I'll stop at the second because,

Speaker1:
Oh my goodness, just so much so that the lesson there is treat people with love, treat them, you know, they say, What's that book leaders eat last? It's you epitomize that where the people come first. And you know, when you do that, look at what I don't know of many people that would want to go see their former employer 10 years later or even a day later. Because you

Speaker3:
Know what? I'm thinking next year is going to be 20 years. Oh, there you go. Already told Halina. I want to see who's going to show up, even if one does, I'm happy, but if it's five 10, I'm happy to do it. Why not? A couple

Speaker1:
More comments that I wanted to share with everybody here is I think it's Henryk says Alec is an amazing human being and his story is so inspiring and fascinating greetings from Henrik in I don't know how to pronounce that Wroclaw,

Speaker3:
Poland. That's what the Germans called it. Breslau Yeah, it's on the south west of Poland, near the German border.

Speaker1:
Yeah, not right. And Merrick in Roswell, Georgia.

Speaker3:
Yeah, Mark. It's like Mark, you know, got the polish. It's Mark. Yes, they

Speaker1:
Need to take language lessons from you now and then. Here we've got a good one. David and Sonya Whyte. I've known Alec for 30 years. Our sons were the same age and we watched them watched over them together. I have traveled extensively with Alec. Amazing does not come close to what and who this man is. He has helped so many people and so giving you will not find anyone remotely close to his character. I am proud to call him my best friend. Love you, David. I wanted to read that I love.

Speaker3:
I mean, listen, I didn't expect this. It's way too much. And I am almost embarrassed as I'm sweating here. So well, I'll

Speaker1:
Let you have the hook quick. We're kind of near the end, and I will, yes, definitely let you read what you want to read your family in a moment. What I like to do, I can't believe we're already there, but at the end of every show, Alec, I like to ask one question and I've done this for now, three years and a little over three years, and it's the same question to each and every individual. But the answers are what are so profound. It's it's a pretty powerful question, not because of the question, but because of the answers. And just before we do that, I did promise and we got everyone stayed on. Alec, that's a testimony to you. I'm watching the numbers and they're all still here. Everyone who stayed on live, that's all of you watching right now. You now will get the chance to win a five night stay at a five star luxury resort. Compliments of the big insider secrets. I'm going to pull it up on the screen and let you know exactly how to do this. And I'll tell you, I'm going to speak on behalf of ALEC for just a moment. Alec and I both give you permission for just a brief moment to now actually go to a website so you can enter. So hang on. Or you can write this down and do this right after the show is over your choice. I'll let you have that choice. Here it is.

Speaker1:
I'll put it up on the screen to enter. To win. Simply go to your web browser and enter the URL or the web address is our WIP. I am for vacation. That's our IP that stands for a reach your peak. That's my company. Right? I am forgoing vacation and we will pick one lucky winner tonight and announce it on Facebook and give you whoever wins. You'll get the information you need to go and choose where you want to go because you get choices. It's pretty awesome that is there. So write that down our way. I am for vacation because we need to get back to ALEC for this amazing, powerful and profound question. And so just to put it all in perspective, Alec. There is no such thing as a wrong answer to this question. It doesn't exist. In fact, the exact opposite is the case is that the only correct answer is yours because it's unique to you. That is what's so beautiful about this. So what if it takes you five minutes to come up with an answer or if it takes you five microseconds? And I know you know what that is being a software engineer to come up with an answer. Either way is fine, because that's your answer. So there's no pressure on any way, shape or form. And I just can't wait to hear your response and for everyone else to hear it as well. So with that, are you ready?

Speaker3:
Absolutely.

Speaker1:
Oh, of course he is. All right, here we go. Alexander Schlamme. How do you. Define. Success.

Speaker3:
It's a very difficult questions, but to me. Success for me and our company. It is the way I would define is the the family. The culture that we built and for me to watch. My employee said I never talked about customers, we had conferences all over the world, brought all these customers. So for me, seeing. Customers happy smiling our employees, and that's the example I said 10 years later. To me, that's a success, I don't know, that's not maybe what anyone would have expected. I never was driven by money or fame or anything. Yes, my wife calls me monologue. I talk so much now and this and that. But but it's not about that. I just wanted people to know, get to know me or know more about what we accomplished. But we did it because of our customers, of our employees and my incredible wife. I tell you, it's just there's not enough time to talk about how I could write the whole book because there are no, no women like this as far as I'm concerned. So that is success. You know, being watching everyone around you that you have an impact on be happy. And of course, at the same time, it makes you happy. Or should you know? Yes, it's tough sometimes. But generally, even though my wife says, you're so pessimistic now, this isn't it. I'm generally inside of me. I'm very happy. You know, if I can get on a bicycle and go ride in a couple of hundred miles, I'm even more happy. So that's it for that.

Speaker1:
Hmm. Thank you so very much for everything, Alec. You are an amazing man. I hope there are more people on this planet like you, and I can't wait to meet them. All men and women, and I can tell your wife is an amazing, amazing woman and you are blessed. And we are all blessed now because of being able to get to meet you and know you and learn about how how the proper recipe for not just success in business but in life. I believe you found it, and it's one of the best I've ever heard. And I appreciate you beyond words, and I thank you for coming on here and spending this time with us tonight. And I hate to do this. Oh oh, I promised you wanted to make a statement. You wanted to read something for your family.

Speaker3:
Let's do that just before I want to just to say to some people that I am so grateful I have few friends I already mentioned. I didn't mention that, you know, to be successful sales is pretty important, and Rhonda Lynskey was one of the first true vice presidents. He changed the process, et cetera. I tell you, if it wasn't for him, I don't think we would have grown. And then Bill Duma to those two people or vice presidents. They ran into all of the global sales and I am grateful. So I'll read something here. And it's not too long, but life with wife Galina. Children, Julie David, their spouses, Ryan Chelsea and our four amazing grandchildren, Sophie, Harland, Dylan and Vivian has been Maria. I can't even say miraculous. I've been. I'm disturbingly blessed by their presence, love and care, while my love and adoration of them extends beyond infinity. I thank you. I thank you, Brian. Your phenomenal letting me just just ramble on and I am grateful I always will be. And you can count on me any time you can reach out. I'll be one of your little helpers, you know, so whatever I can do for sure. Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. Thank the audience, whoever to be here.

Speaker1:
Beautiful, beautiful letter. Appreciate you for sharing that. Amazing. Oh, I don't even want to end this, but it's time, so ladies and gentlemen, on the behalf of the absolutely amazing Alexander Schlamme, I am your host, Bryan Kelley of the Mind Body Business Show. And we're going to call this an episode. Unfortunately, I wish we'd go another couple of hours, but I want to respect everyone's time, Alex. Especially he's on the East Coast. It's getting late there. And thank you all for coming on and spending your precious time watching and listening to this amazing man. I hope you got as much from this as I did because I got a lot and I am full and filled as a result of this interview. Thank you, Alec. You're an amazing man. And that's it for tonight. So long everybody will see you again next Tuesday. We are signing off.

Speaker3:
Have a great one. Thank you, everybody. God bless. Thank you. Thank you for tuning in to the Mind Body Business

Show podcast at W WW. The Mind Body Business Show Scott. My name is Brian Kelly.

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