Steven Pope

He'll probably watch this video.

It doesn't matter.

And I said to Francisco, that's what everybody said about you too.

Now, mind you, Francisco's 45, I think.

Hopefully, I don't get that wrong.

But he's in his 40s, right?

He's older than me.

And people said about him, he's not ready to be a VP.

And I said to those people, maybe not today, but I bet you within six months of becoming VP, he'll be ready.

And nobody understood that comment internally at MAG.

They really didn't.

But then when they saw Francisco come online and he's operating where he was supposed to be operating, they're like, okay, I get it now.

And the delineation here is interesting because if you hire somebody from external, the pressure is so high for them to perform.

But if you promote somebody internal, the pressure is actually less.

Why is that?

It's because you know how long it's going to take them.

You've seen what they've done in the past.

And so I was patient and I was able to give Francisco the runway to do what he needed to do to run brand management.

The prior era to Francisco at my Amazon guy was very diva-esque.

I had let some very talented individuals with some major personalities run my leadership team, or not all of them, but just a portion of the leadership team was a diva.