Latest / The Delegation Download Podcast / Building a Stronger Team with Emily Cho: Behind the Scenes at Elevate's Strategic Leadership Retreat

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Building a Stronger Team with Emily Cho: Behind the Scenes at Elevate's Strategic Leadership Retreat · The Delegation Download Podcast

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Delegation Download Podcast, where business owners, CEOs, and leaders learn to work smarter, not harder.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: We're your hosts, Nicole Hughes and Ashley Carlson, here to share real stories, expert tips, and simple strategies to help you delegate with confidence and grow your business with support.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: Because you can do anything, but not everything.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome back to the Delegation Download Podcast, where we have real conversations about what it takes to lead, grow, delegate, and build a business that doesn't depend on you doing everything yourself.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: For the next four episodes, we're doing something a little different.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: We're taking you back to Elevate's leadership retreat last year in Nashville, where our team stepped away from the day-to-day to work through our own strategic mapping process.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: And we're bringing you behind the scenes.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: You'll hear from the Elevate team members who were in the room as we talked about where we were, where we wanted to go, and what needs to happen in order to get there.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: These conversations are real, they're candid, and they give you a look at what strategic planning actually sounds like when you're in the middle of building and growing a business.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: So welcome to this special four-part series of the delegation download.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: Pull up a chair and join us at the table.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: Let's get into it.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: All right, welcome back to another episode of our behind the scenes look during our Elevate retreat.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: I am joined by Emily right now.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: Emily traveled 500, oh, excuse me, 916 miles to be here today.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: So Emily, tell the listeners who you are, where you're from, how long you've been at Elevate, and what your role is here.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm Emily, obviously.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: And originally I'm from Nebraska, but right now I'm calling Miami home.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: So that's where I travel from Miami.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: It took three fire alarms and just one plane ride, thankfully.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: It was a fantastic trip, really quick.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: I have been with Elevate a year and a half now, I believe.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just having to like think.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's a year and a half.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: A solid year and a half.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: I am an account manager.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm new in the account management role.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: I've only been an account manager for less than six months, which has been wonderful.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: And then I'm also an executive at Mansoul.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, for our listeners who don't know, what does an account manager do here at Elvate?
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: What is our role, our responsibility as an account manager?
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: We help lead the team.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: I feel we're a really good part of leadership.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: We mentor other EAs in the company, just checking in, seeing how the clients are doing, how our EAs are doing, just to see where support might be needed, giving an extra view, or if there's any little projects going on, if there's any feedback that we can also provide for our EAs just to support that end goal for the client.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: And then so for those that don't know our structure, account managers work very close to Amanda, who is our manager at Partnership Success.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: So you guys do have a lot of communication with clients, a lot of meetings with clients, talking about new delegation ideas, where they see themselves, being a little bit more on the strategic side of their business versus like the implementer side of the business, like we are as leaders.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's an important role here at Elevate because it helps foster the end goal of Amanda's initiatives in terms of fostering those partnerships, growing those partnerships, and supporting these businesses as they scale and as they grow.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: So it's a crucial role here at Elevate.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so last year you were not part of the strategic planning that we had.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: I was not.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: No, you weren't, but you saw it from an implementer's perspective.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: I did.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: So I'd love to get your insight on now that you're here and you are seeing the behind the scenes look to strategic planning and all of the work because it is a lot of work there.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, yesterday we had a nine-hour workday where we sat and we just planned all day long.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: What difference did that make to you from an EA's perspective looking in to see the projects, the tasks, the plans that came out of strategy and how that eventually impacted Elevate in a good way?
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: Or maybe it was something that we had planned for that just didn't work out.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: So we had to pivot.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: I think from last year, because I didn't know what it meant for you guys to for the account management team before leadership to kind of go off site and meet together.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: I just knew something was happening.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then of course the whole team a couple weeks later kind of got a huge overview and not expectations, but really a breakdown of what Elevate's goals were for the next year.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: I thought that that was wonderful because I felt it included me as an EA within the company more.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because of course we're a part of Elevate.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: We enjoy working with Elevate for a reason.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: However, to hear all of the ideas and plans and goals that leadership was thinking to have me even come in and make a little bit of a difference in the company and further Elevate schools entirely was really wonderful to hear.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: I also really enjoyed because it's, I feel like you have your set, you know, you have AMs who are going to kind of spearhead or lead a lot of things, and you have the EAs who who are doing the daily work, right?
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: They're kind of in the grind, they're in the hustle.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas the AMs are more, okay, let's scale back a little bit and see where the bigger picture is and make any little pivots or changes that we need to to accomplish the end goal that leadership or the clients even set out for us to do.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: So to hear that leadership had then taken a whole week just to think of different ways that I as an EA could also help make that impact for the whole year was wonderful, as well as hearing what they had planned or what was planned for them to further elevate.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: Because we weren't such a small, I feel like we were such a small team last year, but I feel like we're the same size.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: It just feels bigger.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that that comes with any growth that you have in a business.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: So just because we may have the same number of physical bodies working at Elevate, we have bigger goals.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: Each year, our goals either shift a little bit to be more aligned with the business, or they shift a little bit to be more aligned with the specific foundation that we have at Elevate.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I feel like every year we come into these strategic plannings and we are very intentional about what we're going to be working on in the next year, whether that is more client-facing.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, client-facing is our bread and butter.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: So we need to make sure that we are focused on that every year.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: But there's different aspects of client-facing that we want to improve, that we want to grow.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: And there's also team culture.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: Like that is a huge thing.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: If our team is not happy, then our clients are not happy because our team has to be happy.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: And that is just as important as serving our clients.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: We need to serve our team.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: And so all of these initiatives that come out of this strategic planning are important, even if you do not see like the, you don't see it directly in front of you.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's happening on the back end.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's happening for a specific reason in order to grow as a business, in order to grow, to grow as a group, and in order to scale to the next level, whatever that next level may be.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that this year too is really interesting being a part of the AM and coming on the leadership strategic planning because it's it's none of the topics that we've been discussing or none of the workshops that we've been doing are new things.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: There are things that the team has brought to us that we've noticed within this last year while those goals from last year were set out that we we sat and think this doesn't feel right.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe we can grow from here.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: We like where we thought we would go.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: However, there's a new change, there's a new perspective.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: And it is something of maybe it's not what we initially had thought that it would be, but that's also a part of business.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: Is you're kind of going with the flow and learning as go, but you still have you still have an end goal.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: Amanda talked about it when I was chatting with her about strategic planning.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's like you have to have those KPIs to be able to measure and you're not just looking at what's working, you're also looking at what's not working.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: Because you can't sit with something that is not working and just be like, Well, I hope it works out.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: It'll get better.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: But you have to address it.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: And maybe it doesn't get better.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: So you have to have a plan to make it better.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: And that is where we take this intentional time to really look at what's working, what's not working, and make a goal and make a plan to get there, to make it all work.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: This year we did something a little bit different.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: Last year we did not do it.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: So this is my first time experiencing as well.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: But we each hosted a workshop based on an initiative that we want to bring into the next year.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so I'd love for you to talk about what your initiative was and why you chose that specific workshop to host for the retreat.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: So it's really refocusing on how account managers can connect not only with the clients, more organically, just focusing on different ways the account managers can connect with the clients and understand more what our EAs are working on daily, because again, our EAs, they're doing the daily in the grunt.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: They're not focusing all the time on the big picture.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: And that's okay.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's not something that we really necessarily require them to do.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: And as AMs, we kind of see where those gaps might be to help bring more awareness, not only just for the client, but for the EA as well.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: Another part of my workshop is just how the account managers can communicate a little bit more effectively with our EAs and challenge them to kind of pull back and look more strategically themselves.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: It has been really great.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: It's just giving a different perspective.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: Like you were saying, like you came in and you had fresh eyes and you saw this, the training that we had for the account managers and you saw the systems and the processes that we had.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: Ashley and I have talked about this before.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: It's so important to have different eyes on your processes because other people are gonna pull out things that you didn't necessarily think were not working because we do, you know, everyone does it, but you do something for so long, it's muscle memory.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: So you forget like little steps that go in between this to this.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: Like, how do I get from A to D?
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: Where's B and C?
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: And what might make sense for you makes sense for everybody else.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where kind of the calls also happen is well, but why did you do this?
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: Explain it to me.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because it doesn't make sense to me.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: I want to know more.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_01: Teach me so that I can do it for you and I can maybe find something that would maybe work a little bit better or maybe a little bit more effectively.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: I think that anytime you have, and again, Ashley and I have talked about this before in a different series, but that's why training is really important so that you have somebody that can one, call out the flags, two, learn the systems that you're you want to have done.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: And again, you're all working towards the same goal.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: So if somebody comes with feedback, it's not because they're criticizing your the work that you've already done or the amount of hours that you've put in.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's simply because they're seeing something that doesn't make sense and they want to know more and they want to learn.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: They're curious, and curiosity is good.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: Like let them be curious.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm excited about your workshop specifically, just because I think it does call out some roadblocks that we have faced, um, some maybe some gaps that we have seen, but we're not quite sure how to fill them, or we fill them in the moment, but still don't have a direct plan moving forward every time it happens.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: And obviously, it's not all cookie cutter.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: Nothing is going to be the same every single time.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: But if we have an outline of how we should follow it, I think it'll make a huge difference on just communication with our team, communication as AMs, and then communication obviously with our clients.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: So out of your workshop, if you are to take one action item and you are to put it into play in 2026, what would it be?
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: And what is the impact that you're hoping to make?
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's actually a really good question.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um I want to say it's the we, not me mentality.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: And that's for clients, that's for AMs, that's for EAs, because we are a partnership, right?
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: And we're all wanting the success, right?
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: No matter where we are in.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: It sounds so cliche, but there's no I in Elevate.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: That letter is not there.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: Now we you have your action item for what you want to focus on in 2026.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: What are you personally going to commit to in 2026 to make an impact at Elevate?
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: I think more communication.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: I want that organic connection.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: I want that communication so that even if it is the smallest of things, I still want that connection with the clients myself.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: I still want those connections with my EAs that I'm supporting as well.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: I also want to make it my own personal goal to connect with other EAs that I don't actively support because I don't know what everybody else is working on.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: I just know what the EAs that I support work on.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: And they're working on some phenomenal projects, but where could another EA might help?
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: Might help or assist one of my EAs even stronger.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: And then what would be one piece of advice that you would give to a business owner, a small business, a solopreneur that is wanting to implement some strategic planning but just hasn't pulled the trigger yet or started?
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: To not be afraid to make mistakes and honestly to be hesitant to hear the negative feedback.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: There's always going to be negative reviews.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: Negativity is far easier to bring up and discuss than the positives.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but that shouldn't stop you from looking at the end goal and working your way and building those small building blocks to get to there.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: And celebrate those small building blocks.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: Like when you finish one thing, celebrate it.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: You hit a milestone.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: Be proud of yourself.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: Don't think about everything that you haven't accomplished.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: Think about what you have accomplished.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: There's always gonna be things that we haven't finished.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: There's always gonna be things that could be better.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: But even if those things can still be better, you still finish it.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: You still hit a mark.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you did it.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: Give yourself kudos for that.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: Celebrate it, post it on social media, talk about it in a podcast, put it in your newsletter, talk to your team about it, but celebrate it.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: Don't just let it sit there and be like, oh, well, I did it, but I didn't all I didn't do all of these other things.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: There's and that's one of the things that I constantly try to remind everybody in my life is for all five negatives that you've heard, you've probably heard one or two good things.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: You shouldn't focus on them spotted.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: You should focus on those two.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, because it'll just balk you down at the end of the day.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I love having the insight of like your perspective because it is such a different perspective.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: I've been at the retreat now, this is my fourth year, so it's it's been a while.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I have a different perspective coming into these retreats.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: I know what to expect.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: I have not really been on the other side of it because I was part of the first strategic retreat that we had here at Elevate.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so it's really cool to hear from your perspective what it was like getting the information after the fact and seeing the change, the difference, the plans going into the next year.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you for that.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm gonna let you, I'm gonna flip the mic, I'm gonna let you be the host for a second.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I know that you guys have all prepared a question to ask me.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: So have at it.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: Take it away.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: Take it away.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, what do you think is Elimate's strongest point?
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_01: We have a lot of strong points.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I would say that our strongest point is our team culture, which we were just recently recognized for.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: We were this year.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, at the CO 100, which is the U.S.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: Chamber of Commerce, we were awarded the culture champions.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I really think that that speaks to what we are doing behind the scenes.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's not just a title that we got.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: We are very strong in our culture, and it's obviously something that we can grow from.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: No, I don't think anything is ever perfect.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't think that we could ever be like, rate yourself on a scale of one to five, five being the best.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: Like, we're the five.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: No, I I feel like we're always, I feel like everybody, myself included, and I do it on my annual reviews.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_01: I'm always like, I'm not ever going to rate myself a five.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: Even if, even if I feel like I've mastered it, there's always going to be something more that I can learn in this process, in this system.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: And so while I do feel like we can grow from it, I feel like we, it's such a strong arm of our tree that we have here at Elevate.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's such a strong foundation and a pillar that we have that we are building a culture.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's not just a workplace, it's a work culture.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's a community of people, whether it is our team members, our clients, our referrals, our network of people that we talk to, our partnerships that we talk to.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: We just, it's different.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't know how you don't know it until you're in it, but it's just different.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it's so special that we have this community people that we are blessed to work with and collaborate with and have a difference of opinion, a different perspective, a different lived experience, different work experience.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: Because I feel like all of those things make you who you are as a professional.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: You can't just say, well, I've worked here, but what does your what does your life look like?
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: Because that also affects how you come in and you work.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um does this look like because that affects how you work.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: So I would say that our culture is one of our strongest points, in addition to all of our amazing EAs and the leadership team and everyone that we have working here.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: Each of us is a strong tentacle of who we are as Elevate, but the the center, if you will, is our culture.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like I kind of went on a tangent and I just kept going.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: But I love it.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you very much for taking the time out of your day to sit with me here and talk about what your insight is on strategic planning and how it's going to impact Elevate moving forward, how it has impacted you in the past, present, and in the future for Elevate.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: So I just want to thank everybody for joining us for another episode of Behind the Scenes here at Elevate.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: If this episode gave you some insight or you want to learn more, make sure that you're following us on Instagram and LinkedIn that you can get some behind the scenes, additional behind the scenes looks and also tips and tricks.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: But if you are interested in strategic planning yourself, make sure that you book a clarity call with Ashley.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: The link is in the show notes, and we can have a chat and see where you're at and help you hopefully get to that next stage of your business.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: And remember, you've got this.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for listening to the Delegation Download Podcast.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: Don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, and follow us at ElevateVV Solutions for more tips to help you lead smarter and live better.