You're listening to the Creating a Brand podcast success story segment.

I am your host, Alex San Felipe.

In this short segment of the show, I bring on friends of the podcast to share a motivational,

inspiring, and sometimes even challenging story from their entrepreneurial journey,

along with a

practical takeaway for us to implement.

The point is for each of us to be able to learn and grow from the experiences of others.

With that said, please enjoy today's success story episode.

My name is Brandon Hakeem, and I'm the founder of InsiderSchool.com.

I want to tell you about a time when I needed to fire someone but got them to quit and thank me for the opportunity.

So I was 22 years old running a restaurant with employees in their 30s and

40s. I was way in over my head. And we had one employee who was really good to start, but over

time, you could just see his head and heart was somewhere else.

So I knew I needed to have this conversation with him, but the question was, how do I do it?

Here's what I did.

I went to the library and I checked out a book called Difficult Conversations.

And I wrote down the three-step framework that it talked about in the book.

So then when I met with the employee that day, we sat down and I just followed that exact

framework from the book. Instead of it being a tense conversation like I anticipated, it would be.

It was really pleasant. He felt good. I felt good

and he walked away, giving me a hug and thanking me for the opportunity. And that's when I really

realized the power of learning and books. Now, I know you already know that, but my advice for you today and what I think most

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