Latest / The Spiro Podcast: Managing your Real Estate Photography & Videography Business / Developing Leaders in your Business
Transcript
- 0:00Coming up on this episode of The Spiro podcast.
- 0:04Time,
- 0:05time, time, time, relationships, time.
- 0:08You have to understand in your company that is the biggest thing
- 0:12that you can give those relationships and your time with those individual.
- 0:18Welcome to the Spiro podcast.
- 0:20Managing your real estate photography and videography business
- 0:25with your hosts, Todd Kivimaki
- 0:27and Craig Magrum
- 0:31Hi, and welcome to the Spiro podcast,
- 0:33Managing your real estate photography and videography Business.
- 0:37Spiro is a software platform.
- 0:38We designed it to help you manage your day to day business and really
- 0:42ultimately to help you scale up in your business.
- 0:46I'm Craig Magrum and welcome to the podcast.
- 0:49Your host and
- 0:51what I can't even think of another title to give myself.
- 0:53I really don't need to, I guess.
- 0:55Let me introduce Todd, because Todd is is the owner
- 0:58and founder of Spiro Co and co-host of the podcast.
- 1:02You know, it's been one of those mornings already.
- 1:04- Todd - Oh, Craig, it's Friday for us right now.
- 1:07So if you're listening
- 1:09sorry if it's not Friday for you, but we've got that to be excited about.
- 1:13And I learned that you just built on one little bit of excitement.
- 1:15It's going to be a great day.
- 1:16It is. I'm super excited.
- 1:18Before we dive into Spiro updates and then the main topic this is
- 1:23I experienced a first, let's start with a little bit of a laugh, Todd.
- 1:26Oh, yes, I love these, Craig.
- 1:28I experienced the first on a shoot that I did yesterday up in my market.
- 1:33So one of our practices is we usually we either put,
- 1:37you know, your foot covers or, you know, foot booties, shoe booties on or
- 1:41take your shoes off before you go into a seller's home.
- 1:44Right.
- 1:45So I get to my my listing here in
- 1:48and there's some contractors rushing to try and get last minute.
- 1:51- You know painting - we love that. Right?
- 1:53- we love the contractors - I pulled up on my
- 1:58my realtor knows better.
- 2:00But anyway, that point aside,
- 2:02they were actually wrapping up and getting ready and, you know,
- 2:06like, hey, we're going to be out of here in just a minute.
- 2:08I'm like, okay, no problem.
- 2:09I can I'll start back room or something.
- 2:11So I take my shoes off.
- 2:12I go through the garage,
- 2:13take my shoes off to go into the house, through the garage, and just to, you know,
- 2:18a regular pair of black hey, dude, shoes super comfy, easy to get on and off.
- 2:23You know, I go for practicality.
- 2:25I go in, I start doing my shoot.
- 2:27The contractors are cleaning it up.
- 2:29Hey, you know, we're pulling out in just a minute.
- 2:31I'm like, okay, no problem.
- 2:33You know, keep shooting.
- 2:34They finish getting wrapped up, cleaned up,
- 2:37you know, cleaned stuff out of the garage and they pull out of the driveway.
- 2:41I'm like, okay, I've got the place to myself.
- 2:42You know, we've got Yes, we love that.
- 2:45Leave me alone. Let me do my job. Right.
- 2:47And so I finish up my photos and my video in the house
- 2:51and I step back out into the garage and I look for my shoes
- 2:55because I left them right at the base of the stairs.
- 2:58And my shoes Todd are gone.
- 3:01They are M.I.A. Missing in action. Gone.
- 3:05I'm like, No, I know.
- 3:06I left my shoes right here.
- 3:08So I start to panic just a little bit and laugh at the same time because,
- 3:12like, this is ridiculous.
- 3:13- Where my shoes go? - and this is an empty house, right?
- 3:16A new build.
- 3:17It's a vacant house. Right?
- 3:19It's not like you accidentally left under the sofa.
- 3:21Right? Exactly.
- 3:22I like those contractors. Took my shoes.
- 3:25They took my shoes.
- 3:27What the heck?
- 3:28So I'm like,
- 3:28maybe they just got moved out of the way or as they were cleaning it up.
- 3:31So I looked all through the garage. No shoes.
- 3:33I look in the garbage cans, no shoes.
- 3:35I go back in the house.
- 3:36Well, maybe they put them in the closet to get them out of the way.
- 3:39No shoes.
- 3:40Oh, I gone, gone, Just gone and gone In 60 seconds.
- 3:46Do you keep an extra pair of shoes in your car?
- 3:48I never thought of keeping an extra shoe nearby,
- 3:52but I think
- 3:53that's going to be added to my checklist now.
- 3:56So I text.
- 3:57The realtor. I’m like.
- 4:01This is a first in my career as a real estate photographer,
- 4:03but
- 4:04oh my goodness
- 4:05I think the contractors took my shoes.
- 4:07Could you check with, please?
- 4:09Sure enough, she writes back, Oh, my gosh, you got to be kidding me.
- 4:13Yeah, I'll. I'll get back to you.
- 4:14Yeah, the the lead contractor took the shoes thinking it was his son's shoes.
- 4:19Who is on his team and I couldn't wait around
- 4:22because I had another, you know, another event to get to. And.
- 4:26And so I left without my shoes.
- 4:28Had to head back home.
- 4:29I mean, you know, shouldn't stop anywhere.
- 4:31So I'm driving barefoot home and I just get into the driveway of my home.
- 4:36Hey, the contractor took it back to the house.
- 4:39You you can get them.
- 4:40I'm like, Oh, grief, I'm already back on it.
- 4:4435 minutes away.
- 4:46Oh, my gosh.
- 4:47Well, the good news is, Todd, the shoes have been recovered.
- 4:51I just have to pick them up today.
- 4:53- But it was - like they're not back in your possession.
- 4:57No, no, not yet.
- 4:58- I have to go get them - they're sitting there.
- 5:00Who knows who's going to take them between now and then?
- 5:03No, they they put them inside the house for me.
- 5:06There was no there's no showings today, so I'm good.
- 5:10Oh, Craig, that is a fir says
- 5:12if anyone else lost their shoes out there listening.
- 5:16Yeah, we need to do an episode of just, you know,
- 5:19funny stories on the job.
- 5:22In fact, maybe we could do that.
- 5:24Send us your funny stories.
- 5:25What crazy things have happened to you?
- 5:28And I will read them or read them on air here.
- 5:30Yes, Yes, we'll do that.
- 5:31So you can email us. hello@spiro.media.
- 5:34Send us your crazy stories of things that have happened to you on shoots
- 5:37and or you can leave a comment on the YouTube channel.
- 5:41We will keep an eye out
- 5:42- for your crazy stories, but - maybe we could reenact those, Craig.
- 5:49You know, I have a background in radio.
- 5:51We could do a radio play of crazy events, you know,
- 5:55in the day in the life of Yeah.
- 5:59It's like the precursor to TV.
- 6:01That's what they use it on the radio.
- 6:02It was radio was the leader of the mind the theater.
- 6:06I you know, I actually do like listening to old radio dramas.
- 6:10I mean, they did such a good job on those.
- 6:13- Anyway, - I'll have to check them out, Craig.
- 6:16The Phantom. Check out the Phantom, or War of the Worlds.
- 6:21There's The War of the Worlds is pretty awesome.
- 6:23Okay.
- 6:24Yeah. Okay. All right,
- 6:27There's our funny story to start off the podcast, let's let's dive
- 6:30into Spiro updates a major,
- 6:33major update just recently launched
- 6:35Holy, holy cow.
- 6:37Yes, a big update.
- 6:38This touched so many portions of the system
- 6:42and it was due like we these were came these came from the top of the idea board.
- 6:47So the biggest one was we got rid of the old reshoot process
- 6:51and you have a create appointment, an additional appointment
- 6:55button now and you can use that if you need to go back and shoot drone
- 6:59because it's not rainy now. You can use it.
- 7:01If your photographer
- 7:02forgot to shoot the basement and you need to send them back out there,
- 7:06you can use that if you need to go a different time
- 7:09because you're scheduling a Twilight shoot.
- 7:11So any reason to go back out to the property again
- 7:15or and again can be many times three or four times we don't limit them.
- 7:20You can quickly and easily add that
- 7:23the next one just going down the list is we have decoupled.
- 7:26You have to toggle it on.
- 7:27It's an option,
- 7:28but you can decouple checking into an appointment and sending the text message
- 7:32to the next appointment so you can check in, but not send.
- 7:35And then when you go in, you preview
- 7:37the house, you lose your shoes and you're ready to send the message.
- 7:41You can send you can send the message.
- 7:45I did not lose my shoes.
- 7:46They were stolen from me.
- 7:50I know exactly where I put my shoes.
- 7:52I didn't lose anything.
- 7:54Okay. I see where your dog.
- 7:56I think I agree.
- 7:57Next one is you can change your Cubicasa product right in the portal.
- 8:02So that was a big one.
- 8:03You all asked for many others.
- 8:05There's a list of them.
- 8:06We sent an email out,
- 8:07one that we actually forgot to announce and you'll probably hear from now
- 8:10because this is lagging quite a bit, but you can now allow your agents
- 8:14to modify any part of the property website.
- 8:18The biggest one that you all have asked for.
- 8:19You said, Hey, some of my agents, they want to upload their own photos
- 8:23or their own floorplan or their own disclaimer.
- 8:26You have to toggle this on to allow them to do it.
- 8:28But once you toggle it on in your settings,
- 8:31they can have full right at that page and they don't need to send that to you.
- 8:35So that's the biggest thing here and I'll be done with updates,
- 8:38is the fact that these come from you.
- 8:42And I want you to know that, you know, in a day of today
- 8:45and we just had elections and not going into that, but
- 8:48day is like, does my word, does my vote count like it does?
- 8:52Go look at that feature based request board
- 8:55and from the top down, you will see what we are working on.
- 9:01So that board, if you're like, What are you talking about, Todd?
- 9:04is in the upper right hand corner.
- 9:05Click the feedback button, It'll take you right to the board where we track those.
- 9:09You can vote on them and you can add more.
- 9:11And if you don't have a spare account, check it out.
- 9:13At spiro.media you can sign up for a free account
- 9:16and then you can see what Todd is talking about.
- 9:19Yes, please sign up.
- 9:20We'd love to have you in our community.
- 9:22Absolutely.
- 9:23All right.
- 9:24Well, thank you for the updates on that.
- 9:26That's awesome.
- 9:27All right.
- 9:28We're going to we're just going to dive right in.
- 9:29This is going to be a lean, mean, quick episode,
- 9:33but full of some very important things.
- 9:37As an owner and a leader in your real estate media business.
- 9:40And Todd, you know, here where we're where we're at in Ohio,
- 9:46the Northern Hemisphere winter is coming on.
- 9:49Things slowed down a little bit and now is the perfect time to work,
- 9:53not in your business, but work on your business.
- 9:56It's something that we really I don't know that we've done an episode on.
- 10:00I could be wrong on this, but I'm not remembering
- 10:02this is as your company grows you as a leader,
- 10:07your role is going to change and morph and evolve over time.
- 10:11And one of those things that you have to be able to concentrate on is,
- 10:15is the captain of your ship is developing officers and leaders below you
- 10:22to then help lead your team.
- 10:25So we want to dive in this week.
- 10:26Todd, I want to kind of pick your brain on
- 10:28how do you develop leaders in your company.
- 10:32And I've got a whole list of questions that I'd love to.
- 10:35We're not going to get through all of them, but
- 10:37I think this is a really important topic
- 10:40in growing and scaling your business is how do you develop leaders?
- 10:44And I know it's not related to photography or video, but
- 10:47it is a good general business and life issue
- 10:52that we need to learn how to do is how do we develop leaders under us?
- 10:56And that could be your family,
- 10:57that could be your business, that could be your church.
- 10:59True, true.
- 11:01This this applies to every area of life.
- 11:04It's how your
- 11:04your role has evolved since you started Wow video tours 20 years ago.
- 11:09So you've developed as a leader and you've learned how to develop leaders so
- 11:13This is a disclaimer, I don't know what any of these questions are.
- 11:16You also right,
- 11:17Craig is suggesting it's going to be lean short to the point
- 11:19because I'm probably not going to have a whole lot of good answers.
- 11:22So he'll ask the questions we just saw on the screen.
- 11:24We just saw that episode, Todd.
- 11:26we just saw the effectiveness of this episode
- 11:30All right. Sorry. We'll cut that out.
- 11:31- No, I would leave it in - I think we need to leave that in
- 11:35anyway. Okay.
- 11:36Well, let's just dive in because.
- 11:37No, I think you've you've shared things with us
- 11:40and I've listened to you and you've coaching on this,
- 11:44but let's just start right off as you're growing and you're realizing
- 11:48I need to kind of more for what I'm doing
- 11:50and I need some people to take over some of what I do and lead
- 11:55the rest of the team in these particular items.
- 11:58Whatever area of the business it is.
- 12:01The first question I would ask is what qualities
- 12:04are you looking for in somebody to develop as a leader?
- 12:08What's the skill set?
- 12:09What's the character, what's the integrity?
- 12:11What are the qualities
- 12:13of of a person that you're looking for that you want to develop into a leader?
- 12:17So from from an owner's perspective,
- 12:20when we bring people into the team that they will
- 12:25have a position that leads people.
- 12:27Is that the context that we're speaking from?
- 12:30It could be an it could be somebody that just joined it.
- 12:33Maybe they're just a I don't want to say just let me rephrase that, because
- 12:38every role is critical.
- 12:39Important Say you hire a customer service person
- 12:43and you hired them as a customer service person,
- 12:46but you
- 12:48didn't think much about developing them into a leader.
- 12:51What are the qualities that you're looking for in that person
- 12:54to potentially elevate them
- 12:56to a leadership type of role, say, over customer, other customer service?
- 13:00Okay. Yeah, perfect.
- 13:01I understand.
- 13:02It's a good question because you hire on and one thing
- 13:06that we always do when we suggest that you do when new hires
- 13:09have them take a personality test, we do the disc test.
- 13:13There's many out there.
- 13:14If you don't know what those results mean, you should spend some time.
- 13:18You should take the test
- 13:19and you should understand what personality type you are and then
- 13:24read a book, watch a video, listen to a podcast
- 13:26or two about personality types, because I think that's a huge
- 13:31magnifying glass
- 13:32into an individual and you just want to make sure that you're hiring
- 13:36someone for the position that has a correct personality type.
- 13:40Just a quick example. Customer service.
- 13:42You do not want to High D personality and generalizing, but D personality.
- 13:48It is. They are dominant personalities.
- 13:50They are going to tell people what, what it is,
- 13:53what they think and what the reason is, because they're helping them out.
- 13:57They see it as a positive.
- 13:58Like, why would I not say what I think is going to help?
- 14:01You were a C personality who wants everybody to be okay
- 14:06is going to spend more time and they care about the person.
- 14:09So that is the first thing is that personality type.
- 14:11Make sure you get the correct role there.
- 14:14Then to answer your question, Craig, as
- 14:16that person comes in and is on and is onboarded
- 14:21and gets trained after they get over the first 90,
- 14:25you know, maybe more days, you start to really get
- 14:29insight as to who they are.
- 14:31And so things that I would be looking at and times that we've hired
- 14:35someone and said, Hey, this person could actually do a lot more for us.
- 14:40One is the care, the care that they provide.
- 14:43You can really tell someone who's going to do a task and then someone
- 14:46who has the ability to read into the task a little bit more.
- 14:49Yeah.
- 14:50Quick example, Let's go to the customer service example that we're on
- 14:53and you can train them and do some scripting with them to handle
- 14:5890% of the questions
- 15:01that come in and the needs that your clients have.
- 15:04And in those responses, when you have a customer service,
- 15:09your admin come back to you and say, Hey, this client use these types of phrases.
- 15:15And I think they might be thinking about going somewhere else,
- 15:20that that would show to me that they want to have
- 15:23a high extreme level of care for your business.
- 15:27They care that you might be losing a client.
- 15:31Yeah.
- 15:31Another example is they come and say, Hey, could you I want to know more
- 15:35about the way we do drone and the way that we do our agent on camera.
- 15:40I just I want to be able to serve.
- 15:42I want to be able to answer
- 15:43these questions that right there would say they have an extreme
- 15:47level of care because they want to do it to serve the client.
- 15:50In turn, it's going to make you more money,
- 15:52but they see it as a way to expand your business.
- 15:56So that's one thing that I always look
- 15:57for, is individuals that were thinking at a higher level.
- 16:00Okay.
- 16:01And then the flip side of that is if if you have more than one employee,
- 16:06you have a great insight as to how they interact with each other.
- 16:11So if you have someone that steps up and says, hey,
- 16:14this individual will came to me and I've showed them
- 16:17how to do these items,
- 16:18and I'm wondering if it would be okay if I did a guide or if I spent
- 16:21a little more time with them.
- 16:22Could I schedule a meeting with them?
- 16:25That's what you will naturally.
- 16:27Natural leaders possess that where they will come in and they
- 16:31they will see a problem and they will look for a solution.
- 16:34Even if it's on their job description or not.
- 16:36And that solution can come in many different ways.
- 16:39So just be in tune as to is it is it
- 16:42solution to serve your clients better,
- 16:46to make sure the team morale, to gather the team.
- 16:49So those are some things that I would look for
- 16:51and knowing like, hey, this person possesses the ability to lead people,
- 16:55that's really good.
- 16:56So a phrase you just use kind of triggered something in my mind.
- 17:00You said natural leaders.
- 17:01So there are definitely people that, yes, they're natural born leaders.
- 17:05They just have this propensity to step out in front
- 17:09and really encourage people, lead people, get them going,
- 17:12have you ever had a case, though, where you've seen leadership potential
- 17:15in somebody that didn't realize that about themselves in
- 17:20they're the type of person of what I would call a reluctant leader?
- 17:25So that's a great question.
- 17:27I'm trying to think of some examples over the years at Wow
- 17:32and if you haven't, that's okay.
- 17:33well, both of my leaders who run the company
- 17:35now, Jess and Steve, they did not come in to do that position.
- 17:39They they came in, you know, Steve came in to run marketing.
- 17:43So we hired him.
- 17:44We knew he was going to build and run a division, not sales and marketing,
- 17:48and be in tune for, you know, as much as we grown and projections and leading.
- 17:52Then a sales manager and a team. Jess came in, fantastic
- 17:57photographer, had a great eye and now she leads our entire operations.
- 18:01So I would say and I'm saying this knowing that
- 18:06Jess would be okay with me saying this, so I'm not talking behind her back,
- 18:12but this is a positive.
- 18:13But the thing with Jess is she is a natural leader, but
- 18:16she would probably say that she is isn't because she doesn't she
- 18:20she doesn't have the confidence, but she can do incredibly crazy things.
- 18:24And and to have that like I I've known she's always had that
- 18:29and the thing with Jess is she knows how to win
- 18:32and I guess I won't go much too much into that.
- 18:35But people who know how to win cultivate winning
- 18:39and the thing about
- 18:42Jess is so for me
- 18:45so Jess possesses the skills and she has really,
- 18:48really great people skills and she's incredibly smart as well.
- 18:53She just doesn't think she is. Okay, let me compare that to me.
- 18:57I think I can do anything.
- 18:58I'm dumb enough to think I can do anything, honestly.
- 19:02Like I was raised in a way that like my my mom, my mother,
- 19:06it was like, okay, you can do that. She would help me.
- 19:08She whatever it was a project, an idea she would help facilitate me
- 19:11getting to that.
- 19:13And so I think I can do anything, but I have such little talent.
- 19:16It's like, but my brain pushes me through there.
- 19:19So I get up from like, I can do anything.
- 19:20I'll, I'll figure that out.
- 19:22And like, I'm dumb enough to keep trying and I'm consistent.
- 19:25I'm consistent and persistent enough that I generally figure it out.
- 19:30So that's the big difference as to where you might find someone who
- 19:33you see those skills in them like a Jess and you know, like she's a winner
- 19:38and she can get a team to win, but she just doesn't think she can.
- 19:42Yeah,
- 19:43okay.
- 19:44I mean she does now.
- 19:45let me like she understands and through building her up and her
- 19:49and I developing a relationship, this might get to some other questions,
- 19:52but just I just wanted to clarify.
- 19:53Like she she's proud of what she's accomplished.
- 19:56She probably won't tell you it's as much as she has.
- 19:58But if I talk about it would be way more than what she said she would accomplish.
- 20:02Yeah, and that does lead to the next question then.
- 20:05So once you've identified those individuals or individual that you want
- 20:09to start to develop into a leader, what does that process look like?
- 20:13What you've gone from you used to do the shoots
- 20:17to then pulling out of doing the shoots and running the business.
- 20:21So what do you as owners, as leader, what do you do in to train
- 20:25somebody and grow them into a leader yourself?
- 20:29How do you even start that process with somebody?
- 20:31And what does your day look like or week look like, spending time with them
- 20:35to grow them?
- 20:36Yeah, great question, because this is one that I fumbled on
- 20:40enough times over the years to get figured out.
- 20:43It took a coach talking to me and talking me through this. Time,
- 20:47time, time, time, relationships, time.
- 20:51You have to understand in your company that is the biggest thing
- 20:55that you can give those relationship s in your time with those individual.
- 21:00So just think of it.
- 21:01You know, I was I was going through an old notebook
- 21:03and a coach told me and I have this written down from many, many years ago,
- 21:06but everything you do becomes symbolic.
- 21:10remember you and you don't think of this because you are just you.
- 21:16And you might think my company small and you might think
- 21:18it's just one employee, it's just one virtual assistant.
- 21:21But you are the head of your company
- 21:25and they look at what you do way more than you think they do.
- 21:31If you're positive that is going to breed positivity.
- 21:35If you're negative, you know it's going to spread a whole bunch of negativity.
- 21:40So, you know, when my coach said this to me
- 21:42and using the word symbolic, I'm like, What are you talking about?
- 21:45Like symbolic?
- 21:46Are you serious? Dennis? Like, come on.
- 21:49But it really is.
- 21:51It's symbolic with them and you need to spend time and they need
- 21:55to feel and see
- 21:58you putting time and care and effort into them
- 22:03so that then
- 22:03they can gain the confidence and in that spending some of that time.
- 22:08Another word that I use a ton and I learned this
- 22:10with my next coach, Dave, but is you need to empower the team
- 22:15because right now you hold all the power in your company.
- 22:18It's on your head.
- 22:20You think about this company all of the time
- 22:24Even if you don't think you're thinking about it,
- 22:26how many of you wake up in the middle of the night like,
- 22:28Oh my goodness, I just solve that.
- 22:30I can't tell you how many times I wake up and I'm like, wide eyed
- 22:34And I'm like, Oh my goodness, that's my next idea.
- 22:37Yeah.
- 22:38And, you know, you write it down so you don't forget it
- 22:40or all get it in the shower, but you get it in these unconscious times
- 22:44because you think about your business all the time
- 22:48So when
- 22:50you put an employee into that and especially an employee that you want to
- 22:53lead, you have to hand over the reins
- 22:56and you have to be verbal about that.
- 23:00And then you have to tell the team that they have the reins
- 23:02and then you have to go back to the person you gave the reins
- 23:05and you have to encourage them.
- 23:09You have to tell them they can do it, that you trust them and let them do it.
- 23:13Tell them that you don't mind mistakes.
- 23:16You know they're going to make mistakes and that you make mistakes every day.
- 23:18I make mistakes every day personally.
- 23:21mistakes are okay.
- 23:22We'll learn from them. That's how we grow.
- 23:24It took years and years of me saying that for the team
- 23:30- to begin to somewhat believe it, - it was to say the issues, believing it.
- 23:36Because I've had roles that I've been given that were leadership in nature
- 23:40that I just I constantly doubted myself and questioned myself
- 23:43and didn't believe that I had the ability or the power or,
- 23:47you know, the authority to make the decisions that I did
- 23:50because I was so used to the top down model of leadership
- 23:54where you have to run everything through, you know, the head person.
- 23:58And that's such a great point.
- 23:59Sorry.
- 24:00But just remember, you all think
- 24:02differently out there listening.
- 24:05I, I had a job in high school, and I waited tables in college
- 24:10for a couple of years in college, and then I started my business.
- 24:14I don't think of that mentality.
- 24:15I just think of what's a problem.
- 24:17Let me find a solution that top the my whole art coach or chart.
- 24:21I don't know what that is.
- 24:22I don't know what any of that stuff is.
- 24:24My brain and your guys's brain works in such a free form way
- 24:28that you have to understand you're way different than an employee
- 24:31who comes in and says, Tell me what you want me to do.
- 24:33I want you to be happy with me.
- 24:36And but there's a level of and a limit of somewhat what they're going to do.
- 24:40And you should expect me more than that.
- 24:41I mean, they're just they are your employees.
- 24:43Like you owe it for them to come in and do this.
- 24:45But they don't think like you.
- 24:48So you said
- 24:50again, I'm keying in on certain words that you're using.
- 24:54You said the word trust,
- 24:55that you trust that person to lead and you need to communicate that to them.
- 24:59If you're the type of person, though, that you're so used
- 25:01to doing everything yourself and you're a hands on, you want to
- 25:04you want to have your hands on on the work, which is kind of how I'm wired
- 25:07is I like having my hands on.
- 25:10How do you as you're growing as a leader and having to develop leaders,
- 25:14how do you make that that mental switch in your mind
- 25:18that I'm willing to let go of the reins and trust the trust?
- 25:22because that's your baby.
- 25:24That business is your baby, right?
- 25:26Yeah.
- 25:26And can you ever really, truly trust someone else to take care of it
- 25:30and and have the passion for it that you do as the owner?
- 25:34How do you develop that trust in others, Todd?
- 25:37This is this is a great a great, great question.
- 25:40I'll use a Steveisms so Steve
- 25:42my director of sales and marketing at Wow
- 25:45trust but verify
- 25:47- That's what we use - Ronald Reagan
- 25:51is is that wrong?
- 25:52That's Ronald Reagan.
- 25:55There he is. So trust but verify.
- 25:57And that is
- 26:00we trust them to do it, but we're going to verify that they do.
- 26:03And you're not going to you're not going to come and be like,
- 26:05hey, it's time to verify you did what I wanted.
- 26:07Okay?
- 26:08You're going to you're going to meet with them
- 26:09at a regular cadence once a week, probably,
- 26:12and you're going to discuss these things and you're going to check up on them.
- 26:16And, hey, how did this thing go?
- 26:18And I know you told me that someone you were going to send me this email.
- 26:21Did I miss that email?
- 26:23So I use a lot of phrases like that when I'm when I'm talking,
- 26:26I always assume that they did
- 26:29what they said
- 26:31they were going to do, but I'm I forget things.
- 26:35I'm human and I know some things.
- 26:37Technology can happen, emails get lost.
- 26:39So I always assume they didn't ask and I put it back on myself that I missed that.
- 26:44That was I'm sorry.
- 26:45If I did, I will. Yes, go to that.
- 26:48And then you've backed into it.
- 26:50You still want the answer from them and they go, Oh, no, it was me.
- 26:53I'm so sorry. I'll send it to you right now.
- 26:55kind of a non-confrontational way to hold accountability.
- 26:59Yes, I used to love confrontation,
- 27:02and I come up with things
- 27:04I love confrontation.
- 27:06I've never heard that phrase.
- 27:08No, no, it's not.
- 27:10I used to love confrontation. Oh, I thought I'd.
- 27:13I, I thought you said I used to love confrontation.
- 27:17What's the look of what's this new message I've heard?
- 27:20I'm just speaking too fast today.
- 27:23Let me rephrase that and let me redo that bleep.
- 27:25Cut it out, Justine. No, you keep it.
- 27:27I use Craig.
- 27:29I used to love confrontation. Okay.
- 27:32All right, All right.
- 27:34I hate confrontation, Todd
- 27:38So it's good to have a leader
- 27:39that has learned how to back into the conversation,
- 27:43the accountability conversation, that that puts people like me at ease.
- 27:48But yeah, if my leaders coming at me, Hey, where's that email?
- 27:51My defenses go up, I get or I get just super scared or nervous
- 27:55or then I, I already critique myself harshly as it is.
- 28:01So you're coming to somebody in a non-threatening way,
- 28:05but still holding accountability that that's good.
- 28:09Yeah.
- 28:09And I will say that I fine tune this message pending who I'm talking to.
- 28:15I know everybody's personality in the company.
- 28:18Many of us are high C personalities.
- 28:22Some of us are our D personalities.
- 28:24I don't soften anything when I talk to a D personality, you know,
- 28:27because they see it as wasteful.
- 28:29You don't have to know, in fact,
- 28:30that they be like, why are you even like, why would you even soften that?
- 28:34And they won't they won't use the word softer.
- 28:36But that's the approach of this is like, Hey, no, I won't do no, we can't do this.
- 28:40Sorry.
- 28:41Like there's no so you can fine
- 28:44tune that over the years, but you have to be aware of yourself
- 28:48before you gain an understanding of how you impact others.
- 28:50And then you need to be a chameleon and personality type and you need to match
- 28:55that personality type of that person that you're communicating with.
- 28:59You know, there's there's value to taking that approach with clients as well.
- 29:04Oh, my goodness yes.
- 29:05Just this week, Chris and I had a meeting with a broker up
- 29:09in my market that we'd like to extend expand business with.
- 29:13And I've this is the first time I believe, that I had actually sat down with him.
- 29:17I'd always dealt with his marketing manager, but I knew his
- 29:21I knew his reputation as a cut to the chase.
- 29:25- Let's get down to brass tacks business type of - I know who you're talking about.
- 29:29Okay.
- 29:30And well, you might you might not.
- 29:33It might be somebody else that. Okay.
- 29:35Yeah.
- 29:35Anyway, so I asked Chris if he would join me
- 29:39for this conversation because I'm the type that I do like more.
- 29:43The conversation, the relationship building, whatnot.
- 29:46That was not going to work with this guy.
- 29:48And Chris said, Yeah, I can I can be a
- 29:52well, he can
- 29:53cut down to business as well and okay, that's it.
- 29:57So I know he said it was good to have Chris with me to help
- 30:01get down to the conversation because I'm the Yeah, I'm
- 30:04the warm fuzzy And Chris is like, okay, yeah, you want to talk business?
- 30:07So here's the numbers.
- 30:08You know, let's hash it out
- 30:09and it the whole the whole meeting took maybe 15 minutes
- 30:13and we got a commitment that he's going to test us out for the rest of year
- 30:16for all of his listings now.
- 30:18he's a big lister.
- 30:20He is. He is.
- 30:21I'm like, Chris, thank you for coming up. I appreciate that.
- 30:24So it's okay to call in reinforcements to compensate your personality type.
- 30:28But yeah, learning people's personalities and how to communicate to
- 30:32them is a huge part of leadership.
- 30:33And in developing leaders as well, but also developing clients.
- 30:37So this relationship has been further developed because Chris knew
- 30:40how to just cut down too.
- 30:42I probably could have, but Chris was able to bring some insight
- 30:45into the conversation that I didn't even think of.
- 30:48So public kudos to Chris.
- 30:51Chris is fantastic.
- 30:52Yes, I've learned a lot from Chris about that. Yeah.
- 30:55Craig if you would have done it like that, you would have felt so bad about it.
- 30:58I guess maybe the client would have picked up on it.
- 31:00I would have felt dirty.
- 31:02Yeah, that's how I would I would have felt dirty
- 31:04because I'm not the type to just hardcore go after the business.
- 31:08Yeah, that's great insight.
- 31:09Yeah, he would have.
- 31:11He would have sense weakness probably.
- 31:15Yeah.
- 31:15Could have potentially and even say the client was never going to do it.
- 31:18If you would not have gotten it, you would have felt so bad
- 31:21about not getting it even if it was not dependent on your personality,
- 31:25your delivery that it just was.
- 31:28That was super smart to have.
- 31:29Craig There you have Chris there with that conversation.
- 31:32Yeah, there was good.
- 31:33So the importance of learning people's
- 31:34personalities and how to communicate to the different personalities
- 31:38is a huge part of leadership.
- 31:39And in growing leaders, we have time for, I think one more question.
- 31:44This might be a part two that we go to on this
- 31:46because there's some really good stuff here.
- 31:48The last question I have, Todd, is in developing leaders,
- 31:52there's there's managers and there's leaders?
- 31:55And in developing leaders, I would think that
- 31:59there's a different way to develop people into leaders versus managers.
- 32:02What's the fine line?
- 32:05What do you need to avoid
- 32:07to develop just managers versus developing leaders?
- 32:10What is that difference and what's the difference in the training techniques?
- 32:15Yeah, that's a good question.
- 32:16So I think just off the top of my head, my first gut says Craig,
- 32:19that one is an as an extension or is more of the other.
- 32:24So if you're at the point
- 32:26where you have multiple employees and as we grew up, wow, you know,
- 32:30you can manage personally three, four or five employees
- 32:35as you start to go to five to 10 to 15 and then beyond,
- 32:38you are beginning to have divisions and you need those divisions
- 32:42to focus on the goal of that division. Yeah.
- 32:46So you can't do all of that.
- 32:48That's that's really not going to be possible.
- 32:50At least I could not do all that.
- 32:52I could not do it with the with the care and the needs that they had.
- 32:57So naturally, just for us, we would
- 33:01observe people
- 33:03that possess the ability to manage people.
- 33:07And this could be start off as you just make them a supervisor
- 33:11and maybe they manage lunch breaks,
- 33:13they manage time off, they manage just a few other
- 33:17just smaller things that you want to give them to begin with.
- 33:21You know, honestly, if two people take their lunch at the same time,
- 33:24is your company going to close? No.
- 33:27So come up with some of those things and give them that supervisor role
- 33:30and see how they fit.
- 33:32And you can see people that want more.
- 33:36And then generally, naturally, those people become
- 33:40supervisor, the supervisor, the manager.
- 33:44And at that point
- 33:46they they lead more of a team
- 33:48and you have a better idea because now they have more responsibilities.
- 33:52So as a manager they are now looking at divisional responsibilities.
- 33:58So this is not just carry out these items that I've trained you to do.
- 34:03That's what a supervisor does.
- 34:04A manager is building things.
- 34:07Okay, So there is there is a problem here.
- 34:10It's for them to find the solution
- 34:12where your supervisor, if there's a problem, follow the SOP.
- 34:16You know, follow the procedure and the bottom of the procedure
- 34:21says else contact your manager.
- 34:24Basically, or come to the owner and then you'll make the decision.
- 34:28So when you're when you want to empower someone to make those decisions,
- 34:32you want to offload those decisions that could impact your company.
- 34:36That's what a manager does.
- 34:38So from the manager to the leader, to answer your question, for me,
- 34:42it was just that care that I saw that they they possessed the
- 34:47the desire to want to grow the company.
- 34:50They put the company before themselves at times.
- 34:52And that's not a true indicator.
- 34:55You don't want people that just want to work 80 hours.
- 34:57I tell my I tell Steve and Jess, like, go home, get it.
- 34:59No, you say, I'm going to work on this over the weekend.
- 35:01Steve's always like, I'm going to go work on this for the Steve
- 35:04No, please don't work on it.
- 35:05Well, I just want to get it done.
- 35:07Like Steve, I would really love if you don't work on that.
- 35:10And so that extreme level
- 35:13and sometimes you go, okay, I understand you want to get this done.
- 35:17It is bothering you, no problem.
- 35:18Just can you maybe come in a few hours later on Monday
- 35:21just so that you have a little rest?
- 35:22Yeah, because you
- 35:23because the idea of someone that can just put their head down and work through.
- 35:28I think it's
- 35:30a like a misdiagnosed quality in America.
- 35:36Like, we look at it from a cultural standpoint
- 35:39to say, I worked 80 hours this week. I used to do that.
- 35:42I used to work 80 hours or more, and I would be proud of myself
- 35:46And I look back at that Todd like I just wasn't good enough
- 35:50to only work 40 hours like,
- 35:53look, look at how bad I was at that point.
- 35:56I felt like I needed to work double the amount of normal hours in a week.
- 36:01So I'm digressing here a bit.
- 36:04But yeah, I knew Steve and Jess were going to run it
- 36:09because they kept asking for more and they kept
- 36:12taking the initiatives that I gave them and then I'd give them a little more
- 36:16and then I'd give them a little bit more.
- 36:18And then at
- 36:20when they transitioned to a leaders, that's when I go, Hey, I trust you guys.
- 36:24What is the vision of this?
- 36:26Where do we want to go?
- 36:27Yeah, and then and then that's when and they'll ask you.
- 36:31They asked me this this week because we did pumpkin planning.
- 36:33We literally did it on the front board.
- 36:35I wrote down.
- 36:36They didn't know we were doing pumpkin planning to begin with.
- 36:38I wrote down our initiatives.
- 36:39I spaced them over the board and I said, What's potential?
- 36:43What are liabilities in it?
- 36:45How blue or red is the ocean and number of stars.
- 36:49And then I stood back and I drew pumpkins around each one of them.
- 36:52They kind of smiled and smirked at me.
- 36:54One because my pumpkins look nothing like this.
- 36:57But then they were like, okay, I get what you're doing.
- 36:59Yeah. And they asked me which ones do you want to do?
- 37:02And I said, Guys, I want to do the ones that you feel the most excited about.
- 37:09So that's the big difference between a manager
- 37:11and what I look to as my leaders at the company.
- 37:16You want to build morale in your leaders,
- 37:19put that kind of trust in them.
- 37:21Like Todd just said, I want to do what you think
- 37:25is most exciting to you,
- 37:27because then they're going to love their job,
- 37:29They're going to love their responsibilities.
- 37:31It'll almost not be work for them.
- 37:34So, yeah, showing that kind of trust in the people that you're growing
- 37:38as leaders will just create nothing but good things for you guys
- 37:44to as an employee to have that kind of leadership,
- 37:47that that vibe, for lack of a better word, will just trickle down
- 37:52and you'll have much more likelihood of having happy employees and a happy team
- 37:57when you're you're setting the direction of the culture at the top like that.
- 38:02It trickles down.
- 38:03It just it does, It trickles down.
- 38:06Mhm. Yeah.
- 38:08Good stuff.
- 38:09So yeah, how to develop leaders in your organization and getting yourself
- 38:14there mentally yourself to be able to shoot, to place trust in the people
- 38:20to take those things over that you've, you've been used to doing yourself.
- 38:24Todd Any closing thoughts?
- 38:26Just a quick buck if you want more.
- 38:28The E-Myth Everybody says it, but I would if you are
- 38:31just getting into your leadership journey.
- 38:35E-Myth is Great.
- 38:36I think it's a very it's a story based.
- 38:38It will resonate with you.
- 38:41And then the other one is
- 38:44by the OGs Burger Institute.
- 38:46It's called Leadership and Self-deception Thinking outside of the Box.
- 38:52If you haven't read those and you want to become a better leader, that I do.
- 38:57I love both of those.
- 38:59Both of those are narrative based.
- 39:01Those seem to be my favorite type of business book.
- 39:05So that would be my two suggestions if you're looking for more.
- 39:08Yeah. Excellent.
- 39:09John Maxwell has a whole library of books as well on leadership.
- 39:15And he does get into the difference between managers and leaders
- 39:19and how you train a leader versus what, what managers are.
- 39:24So yeah, check out John Maxwell.
- 39:25He's just, he's got tons of resources as well
- 39:27and no degree we're not sponsored by any of these books were not
- 39:31there's no what's the word I'm looking for.
- 39:34No affiliate links.
- 39:35We will provide a link to the books,
- 39:37but we're not getting any sort of financial recompense for that.
- 39:41Just we just want to give you
- 39:42a good, rich resources to help you strengthen your business. So
- 39:46you should call John
- 39:47and see if we could get a kick back here right.
- 39:51John
- 39:51I've read so many of your books.
- 39:54He would probably love the initiative that I showed in doing that.
- 39:58Or are we get a cease and deceased
- 40:03Yeah. Good stuff.
- 40:04Good stuff. All right.
- 40:06Well, we hope this has been of benefit to you.
- 40:10You know, again, leave us comment about crazy stories
- 40:12that have happened to you on the shoot, on the appointment.
- 40:15And just if you have some things that you've learned in developing leaders,
- 40:19again, share those stories with us.
- 40:21We love to hear from you.
- 40:23Drop us an email.
- 40:23hello@spiro.media or you can also leave a comment on the YouTube channel.
- 40:28And we would love to hear back from you.
- 40:30And as always, if you've found value in the podcast,
- 40:34make sure you leave it like share it, subscribe or all of that good stuff.
- 40:38But we do appreciate you guys watching and listening.
- 40:41So thank you for joining us again this week.
- 40:43And with that, that's going to wrap things up, make sure that you just take it
- 40:47and take some time to just be thankful for the blessings in your life
- 40:52as we get ready to celebrate Thanksgiving here in the U.S.
- 40:55And make sure you take a breath this week as well.
- 40:57You guys have a great week.
- 40:59Thank you for joining us for the Spiro podcast,
- 41:02managing your real estate photography and videography business.
- 41:05This is a production of Spiro and wow video tours.
- 41:09You can find out more about Spiro is real estate, media, business management
- 41:13software at our Web site, Spiro.media.