David Toushek

David Toushek

Founder

Everything Communications

David Toushek

What has been your business/work highlight of 2024 so far?

Hosting a roundtable discussion with several of the world’s leading communications executives. There are precious few CCOs (Chief Communications Officers) in the world and I had 3 of them of my show Everything Communicates to discuss why companies need a CCO.

Who is your business hero and why?

My business heroes are Eric Yuan and the late great Tony Hseih. Eric learned great lessons from Tony on how to lead with strong values like care and trust. Really putting your people first, and treating them as your first most valuable customers and trusting and empowering them to do their best work and care for the customer is a winning business formula in my books.

What’s the biggest business mistake you’ve made and what did you learn from it?

One of the first mistakes I made early on as an entrepreneur which still embarrasses me to this day, was in calling myself a CEO when I was really only an entrepreneur with a small team of 3. It was a great lesson in humility to learn that one shouldn’t call oneself a CEO unless they have at least 10 reports (or something like that).

What’s the most inspirational book you’ve ever read and why?

Delivering Happiness by the legendary Tony Hsieh is one of the most inspiring books I’ve read as Tony shares how time and time again he almost went bankrupt and through honest authentic communication and trust he ended up building one of the greatest e-commerce businesses with one of the greatest cultures the world has ever known.

What’s the biggest challenge you face in your role in 2024?

One of the biggest challenges facing businesses today are actually gaps and challenges in communication (sales, prospecting, customer experience, employee engagement, etc) yet there is no one in a company who is wholistically tasked with proactively finding and addressing these gaps and challenges. In other words, I have no single natural buyer. Instead, I have 8 or 9 potential buyers, many of whom aren’t even familiar with the myriad of ways a tech broker can help. They don’t know what they don’t know, and they don’t think they need help. Add on top of that a tough economy and tightened spending.

What technology will have the greatest impact on your business this year and why?

I think contact center and employee engagement software are the two biggest opportunities right now as companies have major challenges with keeping employees connected, engaged, and productive as well as keeping customers happy. Customers who are more tech-savvy than ever and have high standards for customer experience.