good morning. coming up on "your business," the own earp of this body cam company joined forces with law enforcement to come up with a product that helps them do their jobs. how the woman who owns this jewelry company is helping the homeless get back on their feet. plus, neil blumenthal of washby parker with some insight on what you can do to hold onto your best employees. let's grow fast and work smart. that's coming up next on "your business." >> "your business" is sponsored by american express open. helping you get business done.

>> hi, everyone, i'm j.j. ramberg. welcome to "your business." over the past five years, the business of body comes has grown significantly. and as we've seen in the news recently, body cams have played an important role for police forces around the country. today, we meet the man behind wolfcom body cams, who's worked diligently with law enforcement to come up with products that help them do their jobs. >> open the door! >> when los angeles based wolfcom entered the police body camera space in 2011, the little known company quickly became an industry leader. >> at the time, there was only two other competitors. we were the big three in the united states. >> the founder is the force behind the booming business. that built its reputation on technological innovations. >> our phones were ringing off the hook. we did very little marketing. the other two competitors they

had no gps. no night vision. we were the first to introduce a high quality video. >> hands down. >> but four years after peter launched wolfcom's first camera, his world came to a crashing halt. >> one of our competitors decided how can we destroy this company? i was in a meeting when one of my employees walked in and said you need to look at the news. we have no more software. our competitor just bought out the software company that we're using. >> software is critical to body cams for storing and managing videos. with no warning wolfcom's software partner was acquired for $13 million by the biggest player in the industry. >> next thing you know, all our customers started calling us. there are rumors that wolfcom was done. >> peter was blindsided by this devastating blow. at a complete loss for a viable solution. but the body cam industry had always been cutthroat. and building wolfcom had not been easy. >> hands up. >> when peter came up with the

concept for the third eye body camera, he was actually living out his 007 dream. running a spy shop in hollywood. happened officers frequently stopped by. >> this one particular officer kept coming back, almost every day, looking through every product we had. and he would always leave empty handed. >> the ever curious period had to ask, why? >> he says look at me. i have over 30 pounds of gear on myself. all over my body. if only you can just put a spy camera or put a camera into something that i'm already wearing, and that's when i took a look and i saw his mike. >> two years later the wolfcom third eye built the market. >> we started putting a lot of ideas into this, including gps, night division, the ability to zoom in and out. >> open the door, please. shots fired. >> we came from that background of electronics, small cameras, that's how we were able to stay in the game. >> keep your hands where i can

see them in >> every time there was a police shooting we always noticed a spike in sales. >> but the 2014 police shooting of an unarmed teenager named michael brown in ferguson, missouri, became a game changer for the body cam industry. >> suddenly everybody and their grandmother wanted in on this gold rush, on this gold mine. i knew that it would blow up to maybe a hundred competitors. >> this dramatic shift in the market, and the overnight saturation of other body cam start-ups was not good for wolfcom. >> now, we're competing with so many other competitors. trying to push ourselves up to the front. it got a lot harder. >> there was also a major problem overseas. wolfcom body cameras became targeted by counterfeiters. peter had made the mistake of having one factory handle every part of the manufacturing and assembly. all it took was one untrustworthy employee, and the wolfcom winning formula was out there for every competitor to

see. >> you get people who, they just have no morals, no conscience. i mean we lost huge deals in other countries. i spent over $100,000 just on attorneys chasing people. >> after learning that harsh lesson, peter went to the other extreme. creating too many moving parts to the wolfcom manufacturing process. >> next thing you know we're dealing with up to 80 vendors, we have inventory problems. you have everything except one piece. and there's a two-month delays, but you've got a customer who ordered 1,000 units. when i did it that way there's no copycat but it is a pain in the butt. >> eventually peter fixed this, too. and by the time he lost his software partner in 2015, he had years of start-up wisdom under his belt. his resilience pushing through tough times, and willingness to learn with every obstacle was about to pay off. >> i needed to evolve. i needed to go somewhere where i have never gone before. i need to step into the darkness. and turn it into light, so then i decided that wolfcom was going

to evolve into a software company. and now today i'm proud to say, we are a hardware and a software company. >> the body camera business is now on track to become a billion dollar industry. making the competition even more fierce. some players have been accused of using unfair tactics to secure contracts. from cultivating close ties to police chiefs to splurging on luxury vacations for other law enforcement decision makers. >> get yourself some cover. >> am i doing something wrong? >> yes, ma'am, you are now. >> and some police departments have also come under fire. approving a no-bid process, which allows a single company to secure a body cam deal without facing any competition along the way. >> our model, for wolfcom, is actually honor, courage and integrity above all else. so we'll never stoop to that level. after 17 years of being in business, i've learned something. no matter what, i'm still here. you need to think of your life like an airplane. always going forward. never going back. you can't go backwards. >> hands up! >> hands to your side.

>> how many times have you passed a homeless person on the street, and wished that you were doing more to help them? well one los angeles woman decided to stop wishing, start a business, and dedicate herself to helping. nbc's morgan radford has her story. >> hope, strength, and words of encouragement stamped on keys and turned into jewelry. each key made by someone who hopes to one day have a reason to use it. how many people have you helped transition out of homelessness? >> we've gotten over 70-plus people job opportunities here. >> growing up in hollywood, kaitlyn crosby has worked as an actress, but was seeking a way to make a bigger impact. in 2009, after encountering a young homeless couple a light went off and she turned a simple jewelry idea into business with a big impact. >> i love that so much. >> today, the giving keys

factory in downtown l.a. sits just a couple blocks from skid row, where some of l.a.'s 46,000 homeless reside. >> i love. >> here kaitlyn employs people trying to transition off the streets. and the keys they create are then sold under one condition. that the buyer gives their key to someone who needs it more. >> this isn't just about jewelry to wear because it's cool. it really trains you to keep your eyes open to somebody who's going through a hard time. >> people, like kelly williams. >> doing drugs. i stole. i've done practically everything that you can think of. >> what was your ah-ha moment? what was the moment when you were at your lowest and you said, i can't live like this anymore? >> i went to prison. like practically every two years. i wanted something better for my life. >> and, she found it. >> this is where the magic happens. >> at the giving keys kelly works alongside people who not only understand her pain, but also the power of redemption.

>> since you've been working here, you've been able to get other things, and kind of come in to transitioning to have your own place. >> yeah. i did it in six months. >> wait. back up. hold on. hold on. so you're saying in six months of working here -- >> yeah, my life will never be the same. just changed me. to just want to do good, man, for the rest of my life. >> which is exactly what experts say the giving keys could be a model for the rest of the country. >> they are taking men and women that have no other option, teaching them a marketable skill, teaching them to work in a team, teaching them to be proud of a product and services being delivered, and oh, by the way, the giving keys is making money doing this. >> so they're legit? >> they're legit. >> giving people like kelly williams a second chance. >> if you can just make an impact on one person you know, that is the best feeling in the world. >> perhaps even the key to happiness. morgan radford, los angeles.

it's one thing to sell your products to local consumers. it is another to sell to a major buyer with national distribution. here are five ways to attract big buyers. one, use data to show traction. buyers need to know that your product will sell. use data like website visitors, order numbers, and press coverage to show how your product resonates with consumers. two, always have a pitch ready. you never know when you may meet someone who could help you out. keep your phone or tablet stocked with compelling images and charts. and have a fact sheet with all of your specs and contact information ready so that you can send it off at a moment's notice. three, attend trade shows or vendor days. these are great places to meet new buyers. make the most out of them by sending your most knowledgeable and upbeat employees. and if you have a booth, avoid leaving it so there's always someone around to answer a question. four, partner with a broker.

sales brokers already have relationships with big buyers and know how to get your products in front of the right people. but they also have reputations to protect. like the buyers, before they partner with you, they're going to want to make sure that your product will sell. five, make sure your product is ready to ship. if you do build a relationship with a buyer, and then you can't fulfill it, that is going to lead to problems right then and later on. now it's time for our brain trust, and today we're doing it from these amazing offices of warby parker here in new york city. today we have neil blumenthal, who is the founder of warby parker now with more than 1300 employees and a valuation of more than $1 billion. and jana rich from rich talent group who works with warby parker and airbnb and so many others to recruit top talent. so good to see you guys. neil thank you so much for inviting us here. >> thanks for having us. >> i want to talk to you guys about retention. you have 1300 employees here.

i imagine you've had some turnover over the years. is retention what we should be looking for as owners of companies? as people who run divisions of companies? what do you think? >> i think it's really important to assess who you are losing, and where your company is in terms of growth. very fast growing companies who are morphing and changing dramatically are going to need different people. so i think we have to be careful, retaining the people weigh want to, and not losing those that we don't. >> because people are always saying, you want high retention, right? it has been the mantra since the beginning of time of business. and it's -- and -- i imagine the people you don't have your whole original team still working here. two of your founders aren't here. >> yeah, you know, it -- i think it's important to have sort of these cultural carriers, and these folks that really exemplify the values of the company. and those folks don't necessarily need to have been here since the beginning. but, i agree with jana

completely that if you don't want 100% retention. you want some turnover. you want people coming in with fresh skill sets. fresh perspective. and, i think, there's this idea that culture is static. and companies need to, you know, stay the same and everyone's nostalgic for the past. at the end of the day, companies evolve and cultures evolve and change. and that's okay. just like real cultures evolve and change. right? america is different today than it was a generation ago. and these companies are, as well. >> so at what point do you look at your own company, your own division, and say, okay, i am losing people too quickly. first is, i am losing people at the right speed because the company or the division is changing. >> i think the reason why people are leaving, right, if people are leaving balls they don't see growth opportunities, if people are leaving because they feel like they're not getting paid well, those are things to dig in to. if people are leaving because,

you know, need to bring in somebody with more expertise, and that's actually changing their growth trajectory, that's okay. and hopefully they'll get a better opportunity elsewhere, and will support them in that, and that's fantastic. >> i think it's also interesting to look at what pockets, and where this is happening. meaning if all of a sudden you've got a lot of people leaving you marketing team, is there something wrong there? meaning you have to look at the leadership of that team. is something going wrong? or if four or five members of a ten person leadership team are leaving that has a huge impact on how the outside world views your company. so those are two examples of where i think you have to stop at least and say wait a minute, what's happening. >> okay, let's talk about that. the outside world. so when companies go through periods of change, oftentimes a lot of people leave. either they're laid off or they leave themselves. how do you deal with the perception of that, when you're doing it, because the company's actually moving forward from the outside it may look like it's moving backwards.

>> i mean at least what i would say about that is, it's really interesting from our vantage point. we will start to get a lot of inbound calls from very senior executives when something's not going right with a company. so i say we're always an early indicator if retention is going to be an issue. or if something is at least potentially wrong with the company. so if those are clients we work with, give them a heads up, we'll never say specific names of people, but you know, hey, there's a lot of people loose in your marketing team. it might be something you need to look at. so being able to have at least some sense of how that's being perceived externally, sometimes we can get in our own little bubbles as entrepreneurs, that like we know why, but the outside world doesn't know why. >> and as a ceo, by the time that's happening, you're in crisis mode. so the question is, what's your canary in the coal mine. and to our perspective, it's feedback. it's our performance management system.

so we do things called month in review. so rather than having performance reviews once every 12 months or once every six months, we actually do it every month, so that way there is that direct feedback from direct reports, and managers, but even more important than that we do an anonymous survey every six months and we call it an employee engagement survey. and, it's anonymous. we can only drill down to groups of five to protect anonymity but we can cut the data by gender, by department, by tenure at the company, so we can really get a sense of what's going on, and it's a commitment that we make to the team that we're all going to try and make this place better and better and better. so if there are people that want to leave, hopefully the reasons for that start to emerge and we can address it. >> and is retention a metric that you look at? is it an important metric, rather, that you look at? >> it's an important metric, but i never found anybody that defines it really clearly.

and i know that sounds crazy. but what is retention? is it cohorts of people that start on "x" date, for how long they should actually be here? so, we're seven years old. and, we're now up to 1300 employees, a majority of who have been hired in the past twelve months. so our retention would look really strange. we don't monitor it as closely as, hey, are we losing good people for bad reasons. >> all right, thanks both of you so much. >> thank you. people, purpose, profits, and play. those are the four principles that guide business at the world's largest franchise gym. anytime fitness locations are open to members 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. the company's on the brink of having 4,000 locations in 30 countries, with revenue hovering right around a billion dollars. co-founder chuck runyon tells us why business is always about

people, and why we all need to play more in this learning from the pros. >> i love the quote that leaders don't build a business, leaders build people. and then people build the business. sure you want to have a great idea. then you have to hire the right people and power them to execute on the business. >> we place a great deal of emphasis on workplace culture. right. how we behave. what values we have on working together. and so we really are very rigorous through the hiring process. we try to get out of the scripted interview process. we ask questions that really want to get into their skefl awareness. some mistakes they made in the past. so we really want to break that down through a very lengthy interview process. we want them to maybe get on a white board and give us some of their strengths, weaknesses. we will ask them to videotape themselves, put a powerpoint

together. do a youtube video to show personality. to give people greater purpose, i mean, combining your heart power with your brain power, and they will go the extra mile. they'll work a little bit harder. they know that they're enriching people, or the planet beyond just the paycheck. i think you have to be very intentional about it. when we're talking about strategy for the business, first of all, why are we trying to go there? and how does this benefit others? how are we improving stakeholders lives? and with anytime fitness, it's the numbers. right? we're getting them to a healthier place. everyone must profit in this business. of course, from a financial perspective. and we're in the franchise business. so we have to make sure that our franchisees are set up to succeed. typically in franchising, it's a percentage. so the more a franchisee does in revenue, the higher percentage we get.

with anytime our royalty is flat. as they grow their business we're capped out of what we make. that is very rewarding to the franchisee financially. 50% are buying and opening more stores. i think that's a great testament to their success. we feel the same way about our employees. how can they come how can we develop their wholesale? invest in their personal professional growth so when they're done with our company, they can say the company made me better too. we put a percentage of the annual revenue into a pool every year and this can fuel personal professional goals for our employees. we want to fost they are always be learning life long student atmosphere here. we want them to physically improve. mentally improve. i think companies could use a little bit more play in the workplace. seven out of ten people according to gallop drive to work every day feeling miserable or emotionally neutral about their job. and to me that is a pretty sad stat. because we spend over half our waking hours at work at our all staff meetings, we have like new

rookie skits or stupid human tricks they have to perform. that sets a tone that we're vulnerable and can laugh at ourselves. for our annual conference, we do a parody of very popular movies. like wife done star trek. we've done top gun. we've done the hangover. walking around the office, having a little bit of sense of humor, being self deprecating and understanding that we can take the work very seriously without taking ourselves seriously. the science about play validates that a company will be more curious. they'll be more collaborative. they'll be more creative and we value those as we try to grow the business. >> whethn we come back, most ofs have millennials on our workforce. how do you manage them and how do you keep dealers and retailers happy when you're selling products online?

thank you so much. thank you! so we're a go? yes! we got a yes! what does that mean for purchasing? purchase. let's do this. got it. book the flights! hai! si! si! ya! ya! ya! what does that mean for us? we can get stuff. what's it mean for shipping? ship the goods. you're a go! you got the green light. that means go! oh, yeah. start saying yes to your company's best ideas. we're gonna hit our launch date! (scream) thank you! goodbye! let us help with money and know-how, so you can get business done. american express open. do have you any tips on how to keep dealers happy if we're selling our products on the website as well? >> it's a great question. in today's environment, it should be completely acceptable for you to sell on your own website. the key tip i would give you is

create differentiation. to really keep everybody happy and protect yourself, the key would be to offer your vendors one offering, bundles, price, promos and have one on the website. >> millennials are transforming the workplace. they have a unique perspective about the career path and where they'd like to work. so if you are an employer and looking to either hire them or retain them, our guests have some ideas on how to do that. he is a partner and research director at future workplace. so good to see you, dan. >> okay. i know so many people who are sort of like millennials, they don't work as hard or they want to go home earlier. they're asking for a raise all the time and sort of kind of don't know quite what to do with it. you say it's relatively easy. you just are to look at things differently. >> they always existed. young people always view older people as being wise and willing to mentor where older people always think younger people are

lazy and entitled and not focused. >> so there is not a millennial thing? >> it's where you are in your life and viewing people younger than you or older than you. >> but there are things that we see in the workplace that is transforming for everyone. let's talk about millennials. they want fair pay. not necessarily higher pay, fair pay. >> yes. everyone from 16 years old to 65-year-olds want more money, of course, whether they're looking to get a job or promoted in a job, that factors into the equation. but it's really about fair pay because we have access to so much information at our finger tips. we can pull out the phone go, to pay scale or salary.com and figure out how much we're supposed to be making at this point in our careers based on our title and people that are young are more likely to have trans parent discussions about the peers about how much their making at their company. >> i think as a hiring manager, you go look at those also and show here is our scale.

here is where you fit on it and here's why. you just need to explain to people so they get expectations back. >> back then you just would never have these discussions. but now it's so important because if you don't pay someone fairly, can you offer them a ping-pong table, free food, anything, and they're not working at your company. >> okay. flexible work. we talk about this all of the time. people let them work from home and brought them back in and everyone is sort of dealing with this right now. >> will is no 9:00 to 5:00 workplace anymore. the average work week is 47 hours a week for full time salary employee. and because of work creep and how technology is enabling us to answer e-mails and phone calls outside of the office, people are working pretty much 24/7 for the same salary. >> the tradeoff is they want to be able to drop tlir kheir kid t school and come to work late. >> people want pmaternal leave, flexible jobsharing. >> not have to take the day off

for a doctor's appointment. >> as long as they're perform willing, it's about the results. that's what's going to matter in the future. >> that means you have to be very clear about what the results are, right? if you want to have a flexible schedule, you need to perform to this level. >> just like getting a promotion, make a case for everything. >> learning and development. it is not the case where people come into work and just say i'm going to give my all to you. employees want to know that company is investing in them as well. >> especially for young people. if you're not investing and learning and development, they're not going to invest in time spent at your company. the younger you are the more learning development you need, you don't know very much. >> right. >> the older you get, the less likely you're to say you need some extra training and support. >> we had will dean who is a ceo of tough mudder on recently. he has his whole staff do harvard business school cases. and they love it. they learn a lot from it. he teaches them. even when they were a start-up they did this. >> people need to be challenged and they need to constantly learn. if they're not, they're going to be bored and they're going to start looking for other opportunities which are right at

their finger tips. >> finally, i think this one is so important which is link your responsibilities to the impact. even if you are the person who is filing. you should know why that is important for the company. >> a the love people get meaningful work wrong. they think that a young person just wants to change the world on the job. and that's not true. it's about linking the work that they're doing on a daily basis to splg that omething that is b to their manager, team, ceo, partners and maybe even the world. if they can't see that linkage, they're not as engaged and more likely to quit. >> you're spending time here. you want to know it makes a difference for something that matters within the company or the world. thank you so much. i really appreciate all the research you've done on this. >> thanks. happy to be here. this week's your business selfie comes from elizabeth davis-cerami who owns y' or so sweet. she created a business which makes sweet and savory crepes

pick up your cell phone and take pakt a picture of you and your business. send it to us. thank you so much for joining us today. earlier this week i heard a man speak to a group of ceos. he is one of a group of 16 people who survived a plane crash for three months he lived up there in the snow with no boots and no coats and no water and food. he told us his story. he is a very successful businessman. what he wants us to get out of this is business is hard. we're going to face hard things in business and in life. and we should face those things and we should be stressed about them, et cetera. but we all need to remember at the end of the day what is really important. and keep your eye on that as you go through these hard things in your business. hug the ones you love and remember at the end of the day that's what's important. don't forget your business. of course we need to grow our

companies and want them to be successful for a million reasons. but remember what is the most important which is the people that you love. now we would love to hear from you. if you have any questions or comments about today's show, e-mail us . you can also click on our website. we posted all of the segments from today's show plus a whole lot more and don't forget to connect with us on all of our digital and social media platforms as well. we look forward to seeing you next time. remember, we make your business our business. so that's the idea. what do you think? hate to play devil's advocate but... i kind of feel like it's a game changer. i wouldn't go that far. are you there? he's probably on mute. yeah... gary won't like it. why? because he's gary. (phone ringing) what? keep going!

yeah... (laughs) (voice on phone) it's not millennial enough. there are a lot of ways to say no. thank you so much. thank you! so we're doing it. yes! "we got a yes!" start saying yes to your company's best ideas. let us help with money and know-how, so you can get business done. american express open. it's the seventh annual revvie awards from rockefeller center. here's your host, al sharpton. >> good morning and welcome to our seventh annual revvie awards. it's where we celebrate the best and worst in 2017. and give awards to those who deserve it. let's bring in our distinguished panel of judges. joining us this morning, robert