Apr 22, 2021
Speaker 1:
You have to know where you are before you can determine where you
are going,
Speaker 2:
Raising the water level of leadership in the Tri-Cities of Eastern
Washington it's Tri-Cities influencer podcast. Welcome to the TCI
podcast. We're local leadership and self-leadership expert. Paul
Casey interviews, local CEOs, entrepreneurs, and non-profit
executives to hear how they lead themselves and their teams. So we
can all benefit from their wisdom and experience. Here's your host,
Paul Casey of Growing Forward Services coaching, and it could be
individuals and teams or breakthrough success.
Speaker 1:
It's a great day to grow forward. Thanks for joining me for today's
episode with Brad Sapp and feel, and Nate Robertson from Spotted
Fox Digital, and they have some fun facts. And for the first time I
think they might do one on each other. So who wants to go
first?
Speaker 3:
All right. So, I mean, Brad's got, Brad's got some good ones, but
I'll go with an easy one. I would definitely say, you know, some of
the funny things that Brad does in the office is he's from Alabama.
And so when he says certain words, you know, you could think he's a
Tri-Cities boy until, you know, he starts saying compass like a
compass and you know, I'm like, is that what did you say? He's like
I say, compass and I was like, you mean compass? It's like, yeah.
Compass. So definitely some of the language from being from
Alabama, are you from Alabama where you're from Alabama roll tide.
So that's what we hear a lot in our office. We got a new
whiteboard, just a little side note in there. The first thing that
was on it was a huge red roll tide. So
Speaker 1:
Nice, nice. And Brian, what about Nate?
Speaker 3:
Right. So there's a lot of quirks about Nathan usually has to do
with squirrels, but no, it's really, honestly, one of the funniest
things, I think Nathan tends to call it like a remote for the TV.
He calls it a channel changer. And I just think that's an old term.
Like it should be me calling that not you. I feel like it's a
channel. It does promote longer though.
Speaker 1:
Oh, that's hilarious. And Brad said that his wife was starting to
come up with a whole list for him. And he said, Oh, thanks, honey.
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Speaker 1:
Call Maren at (206) 485-4066 or visit Salus that's S A L U
S-law.com today. Thank you for your support of leadership
development in the Tri-Cities. Well welcome Brad and Nate. Brad,
first time we met was through BNI here in the Tri-Cities and I
heard you were the guy for website and all that other stuff. This
was your another Brad idea company then, and we've developed a
friendship along the way you've done. You've been helping me with
my website for years and years. And then Nate got to meet you along
the ways you guys merged into a Spotted Fox digital. And you've
done a lot of video for me and both testimonial videos and my not
my speaker demo reel videos. So it's been a great compliment for
our two businesses. So glad you're a part of this today. So let's
dive in so that our Tri-City influencers can get to know you take
us through a couple of your career highlights that led you to this
current company and tell us why you love what you do
Speaker 4:
Well. So I actually started my career in Alabama. I was working for
a software as a service company. We were working with hospitals and
that's actually how I ended up in the Tri-Cities working with
Kennewick general and Kadlec can went general, obviously is not
Rios. They've gone through rebranding, but that's how I ended up
here in the Tri-Cities. And that's how I started. That's how I
actually built my relationships in marketing here locally started
doing a web design for a local marketing agency. And I did some
with regional agencies here and that's kind of how I ended up
starting my business. So that was probably one of the biggest moves
that actually come into the Tri-Cities and then joining BNI, you
know, joining BNI has led to a lot of connections that led me to
you all and led me to partnering with Nathan. And if it worked for
that, you know, group of, or that organization and the people that
I met through that I wouldn't be sitting here today.
Speaker 1:
Wow. Very cool story. Nathan, how about you?
Speaker 4:
Yeah, so I mean, I started, you know, Tri-Cities local, small town,
you know, loved the idea of advertising from, you know, when I was
little. And so when I was going to school, I didn't know what I
wanted to do, but I knew it was something to do in advertising. And
so I did some odds and end jobs and eventually landed my first job,
which wasn't easy in a radio station here in the tri cities, which
was used to be called NNB radio. So this is going to date me a
little bit, which is crazy. Cause you know, I always think I'm
young, but you know, let's be honest. So I got gray hair, I'm the
silver Fox now. So, you know, but was able to land my
first
Speaker 3:
Job in radio. And I enjoyed coming up with the ideas for clients
and, you know, just found out that I have this unique niche to
being able to, to come with a unique idea and not just a cookie
cutter idea. And I did that for a while. And then I actually ended
up working for a spotted Fox, which was a deal company. And when I
was working there, I was doing mainly sales. I grew the Tri-Cities
from zero and was able to build this up and then eventually ended
up purchasing the company. And at that time it wasn't my dream. And
I really liked the advertising aspect of it, but you know, ended up
falling into the video side and on the side because I was able to
build a team on the deal side. So I started doing some video
production on the side and you know, that took off.
Speaker 3:
And then that's when I met Brad because Brad, we, we ended up
working in connect workplace where Brad was and I met Brad there
and I was like, hey man, you know, could you give me a quote on a
website? And so we said, I was looking for videographers. Yeah. So,
so long story short, we started working together and eventually
quote unquote, we started living together, right? So we're in the
same. I like convinced them to get an office space with me at a
connect workplace. And he moved in and then from there we just
started working together and everything was flowing so well that we
said, you know what? We just need to partner. And then that's when
Spotted Fox digital became right and and use our two strengths. And
now we do social media management. We do paid ads online, paid ads,
SEO, you know, kind of a one-stop shop for your marketing
needs.
Speaker 1:
How many staff do you have now?
Speaker 4:
We have a total of 11,
Speaker 1:
11 staff. Yep. And over there connect workplace behind, behind
Costco back in their great office space area. And so why do you
both love what you do? I mean, Nathan, I'm sort of hearing that the
creativity is a big deal for you.
Speaker 3:
No, I would say, you know, one of the biggest things is, is
delivering and, and coming up with a concept and an idea for a
client and then, you know, the most nerve-wracking part is you come
up with this idea, you're sitting at a meeting and you're like so
excited, you know, and then you leave that meeting and you're like,
Oh my gosh. Now I have to make this become a real thing. Right. And
so the cool thing is, is, is actually being able to see that from
an idea into fruition of like, wow, this actually happened and the
client's happy and what we delivered to them. And so that's where I
get my, you know, enthusiasm, enthusiasm and excitement for what we
do.
Speaker 1:
How about you, Brad?
Speaker 4:
I would agree. I, my, my favorite part is really just, you know,
helping businesses grow and it, you know, being able to form a team
and have a team of people where it's not just me with the idea and
then going to execute it, you know, having a team of people that
can rely on and have their focus and their strengths so that we can
deliver the best product possible.
Speaker 1:
Yeah. Very cool. And so staying in your strengths, multiplies, your
influence, you both have strengths. How do you add the most value
to this partnership now that you have 11 people on the, what would
you say? Like your sweet spot is
Speaker 4:
Personally? You know, I think for me, it's, it's really making sure
that we're like, day-to-day that we're doing the things that we
need to be doing to get to where we want to be. Like, you know, not
just, not just making sure that we're checking things off our list,
but we're actually thinking long term of like, what are the things
that we're doing today? They're going to get us to where we want to
be tomorrow. Definitely. I don't think that's the biggest value
that I bring to the team.
Speaker 3:
Yeah. I would say, you know, the visionary portion of myself is
always thinking big, big dreams. Like we're going here, you know,
one day we're going to be bigger than Apple. I dunno. I mean,
that's what gets
Speaker 4:
Me out of bed in the morning is,
Speaker 3:
Is, is thinking big. And sometimes that can be really scary. And
you have days where you, you know, as the visionary where it's
really scary and you don't know about those dreams but being around
a group of people like the team that we have, it's always like an
injection of being like, yes, you know, we can, we can do it. And
you know, honestly, I learned from a young age, like anything you
set your mind to, like you can do. And so that's been a huge
strength of mine is
Speaker 1:
Yes. So on the flip side, then you have to be self-aware of your
weaknesses, right? So what's your favorite way to sabotage
yourself?
Speaker 3:
I'll be honest. So Brad points at me,
Speaker 4:
This is an easy one. This is an easy one
Speaker 3:
All day. And I admit to it honestly, it's spelling and grammar.
I'll be completely honest. That is my biggest weakness is I call
myself a creative speller. So I'm able to spell a word, how many
different ways Brad, I don't know, a hundred. So, you know, that's
my weakness, but I also let people know that, you know, and I own
it and that's, and I try to get better at it. And you know, I got
Grammarly, I got all this stuff, but at the end of the day, I
accept it as like, this is something I struggle with. And I have my
team help me, you know, Hey, I'm gonna send this email out, this
important email. I have them check it out. Like, it's definitely
not something I hide. I let people know, I'm a bad speller, but I
have a lot of other, you know, strengths to overcome.
Speaker 1:
Yeah. Like I said to you, you're aware of it and you make that
known so you don't try to cover it up, which would just make
everyone talk about you behind your back. And you also use tools
like Grammarly, which is that's a good plug for that program and
using your team to, because there's probably a few of them that are
very strong on editing and proofreading and things like that. How
about you, Brad?
Speaker 4:
Okay. So I've been thinking about this a lot and you know, I'm not,
not trying to call him Nathan out here, but I think he's kinda my
favorite sabotage on the same exact thing, because you know, it be
like, Hey Brad, can you review this? And so it's really kind of
controlling that in, in, in it's more of processes. It's making
sure that we're following the process because it's easy with this
guy. He has so many ideas all day long that, you know, and it's fun
to collaborate. I love that part of it. I love like the creativity,
but we kind of have a system in place now to where we try to
parking lot his ideas and we discuss them on a certain time instead
of like coming up or like talking about them every time they come
up. Cause I thought, I thought I had good ideas before I met this
guy and I, he still has good ideas and he just has a lot more of
that.
Speaker 3:
But Brad used to be nice enough where you'd actually listen and be
like, okay, what do you want to do? And now he's like, you know,
Nathan "parking lot it" that's our new term
Speaker 1:
Verb.
Speaker 3:
And then I'm like, okay, I'm going to wait until next
Tuesday.
Speaker 1:
Yes. Land the plane, land the plane. So I'm going to say, see you
next Tuesday. Cut that out. So yeah. What are your meetings look
like then? Because it sounds like it's a lot of fun. You know,
you've got lots of ideas to play with, but what's your meeting
rhythm,
Speaker 4:
You know, it's very structured. We have, we have a, we have a, an
agenda for each of our meetings and it's set up, you know, it's a,
it's very systemized where we have an ice breaker and we talk about
like our best, our best personal thing. That's happened to us
during the week and our best business event. And we kind of go
through that as a team and then we, what else is on the agenda?
So
Speaker 3:
Then we go through, I think, highlights of like what's
happening,
Speaker 4:
Customer, employee highlights. What's good. Are there any issues we
need to address? And then we have our parking lot
Speaker 3:
And well rocks first. So rock reviews. So our rock reviews are
basically what we come up with as a an individual. And so our
company rocks, so we offer a program EOS, which is its traction,
the book traction, what is it? Them
Speaker 1:
Entrepreneurial operating system.
Speaker 3:
So we go EOS and that's the program that we've taken for our
business. That's done pretty well. But do we want to cut that out?
No, that's cool. Okay, cool.
Speaker 4:
Okay. So then after the rocks we have, it's called, I think it's
called IDs. I'm not sure of the terminology, but then we identify,
we identify, discuss and solve all our issues. So any of the issues
that have been parking lauded for that week, we go through, we
identify the top ones, and we start going through and solving them.
And some weeks we get through one or two other weeks, we knock
everything off the list. You know, it all depends on how complex it
is, but we try to knock through those things and we just identify
the most important ones and get through them. And it's, it really
helps us as an organization to focus on the most important things
and do it a specific time and not be worried about it every time
something comes up and it just makes us a lot more
efficient.
Speaker 3:
Yeah. Having the meetings actually structured is, is really good.
And honestly has made a huge difference because a lot of times
Brandon are so busy and not having that structure. There causes a
little bit of chaos and nobody walks away from the meeting with a
lot of value. And, and now I, I definitely feel like Armenians have
gotten a lot stronger.
Speaker 1:
Yeah. Traction definitely recommends Gino. Wickman is the author.
Want to give him lots of credit for that? And big rocks are your
priorities, your top priorities for the quarter. Right. You set
them for the quarter and then yeah, you have your a, was it level
10 meetings I think is your, is your weekly. And then the IDs and
it's, I think what's cool is that the issues get solved at a
certain time and they don't, they don't consume the other meetings,
but it's like, alright, this is our time to bang these out that
stuff. Well, rarely do we achieve our highest potential by
ourselves. So who keeps you accountable and energized to getting
your own professional and personal goals accomplished?
Speaker 4:
Man? I would say what keeps me personally energized is, is the
people that we work with. I think that, you know, and the, in our
clients, you know, and looking at what they want and growing
people, not, not the dollar, you know, I think a lot of people get
held up on, on a dollar and making, you know, making a living
instead of actually making an impact on someone's life. So that's
definitely something that keeps me motivated is it's not just about
going to work and, you know, just making money. It's about when,
you know, I leave this place one day. I want people to say, Nate
was a great guy. I worked for him and he taught me this. And that's
why I am where I am today. So
Speaker 1:
Making a living, making an impact, not making a living love that.
That's that's good stuff.
Speaker 4:
*inaudible*
Speaker 1:
How about you, bro? It keeps you accountable and inspired,
energized.
Speaker 4:
So yeah, so I would say, I, I thought about this. I think there's
like three things that keep me personally and professionally
accountable each week. And we've mentioned a couple of them. One of
those is, is on, on a professional level. There's two things.
There's the level 10 meeting that we have each week, because that
really helps us keep a pulse on what's going on, but it also holds
us accountable for the rocks, all the to-dos and making sure that
we're staying on task. But you know, I, I'm very much a, you know,
professional accountability system each week, you know, holding,
held accountable for making sure that we're bringing business to
our networking team and that we're getting that back. And then
personally, and even professionally you Paul, you're your business
case plug there? I noticed, I noticed a big difference when, when I
didn't have that, you know, I was, I did other things like
mastermind and things like that, but that it was from a different
perspective. I noticed a huge difference when I came to you, Paul,
and you were helping me because it, it really put in my mind the
things that were easy to forget about, you always reminded me of,
Oh, you need to be working on this and this and this. And if it
weren't for you holding me accountable each month, I would never
look at those things. And it's all legislative. It looks like that.
And it's made, it's made a big difference,
Speaker 1:
Right? Yeah. Without accountability things fall off the radar,
don't they? And so even your park, the parking lot concept keeps
things back on the radar, so you see, can bring them up. So yeah,
coaches, BNI group, so many good ways to surround yourself because
as an entrepreneur you could get, and especially in COVID, it's
like double isolation. So it is great to surround yourself with
people that keep you pumped up and accountable, then there's
replenishing your energy. I was just reading in a book before
coming over here today that, you know, time is a finite thing, but
energy you can actually replenish. So that keeps you at the top of
your game. What do you do to manage stress,
Speaker 3:
Manage stress, man, I know what Brad does, Brad meditates. And this
is something that I wish I could get better at because I've done it
a few times and it's been, it's been really good, but
yeah,
Speaker 4:
It's consistency. It's the consistency. Yeah.
Speaker 3:
I would say just getting outside, like, and getting, putting myself
in, like when I'm at work, I can get re-energized just by going on
to you, maybe, maybe a social media shoot with some of our social
media team. Right. And I'm going through and I'm like, thinking, oh
man, we're doing this. This is great. You know? Or like, I love the
video shoots. Right? Like a lot of times I get varied and just the
day-to-day of being a CEO hopper and doing that side of things, but
it's nice to actually go and actually be a part of like what you're
creating. And so that's really actually energizing to me instead of
doing the day-to-day it's, it's switching things up, I guess, at
the end of the day. Yeah.
Speaker 1:
Switching things up. Yeah. Changing the state. I think Tony Robins
says and reconnecting to what you do best. Sounds like also pumps
you up. So breath meditation, anything else? Yeah.
Speaker 4:
So meditation is definitely a key for me. It really kind of helps
it's it's really kind of, I don't want to say mind control, but
that really is kind of what it is. It helps you kind of control
that monkey brain, you know, cause it's easy to really get stuck in
your head and you know, whether, whether negative thoughts or
positive thoughts or whatever, it just helps you kind of control
that and helps you. Like it just helps you think about things
without reacting first. And I've noticed a huge difference since,
since meditating. But the other thing that I do is a walk and I'll
either listen to music or listen to podcast book. That's always
helpful, but music has a huge stress relief for me.
Speaker 3:
That raises one for me, like fitness working out. Because a lot of
times when I'm in that slump and I've been working really hard and
maybe I through working out, out the window for a little bit, then
you started really hitting ceilings. And I feel like once you start
working out and you know, I am Peloton this year, cause I've never
done, you know, spin or anything like that. But my brother-in-law
has been doing it for like a year. And I was like, okay. I was
like, I'm going to buy one of these sayings. COVID the gym's
closed. And I need someone to push me. And so it's been awesome. I
mean, when I get off of it, my brain feels rejuvenated. Like I feel
more confident. I think that's the biggest thing for me in fitness
is like, when I got done working out, I'm like I lifted these
weights. I was on the Peloton. I'm freaking confident and I go to
work, and I'm guaranteed. People could tell like, wow, now you got
a good workout. So he's on my butt. You worked out today. You
didn't work out yesterday. Exactly. I showed up yesterday. It was a
long day
Speaker 1:
Exercise. The best depression Buster there is. Well, before we head
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to three, the Parkway in Richland, Washington. So gentlemen hiring
and people development crucial for leadership. If you could clone
the ideal spotted Fox digital employee for your organization, what
traits are you looking for when you go into interviews?
Speaker 3:
Oh, that's a great question, Paul, you know, people are heated, any
good organization. We, we value our culture. We have set core
values that we really follow. So they really have to align up with
that first and foremost. But as far as key traits go, I think, you
know, knowing somebody that has really good interpersonal
relations, that's super important. Whether it's internal with our
team outpacing for clients, having a strong relationship with
people is super important. And then, you know, having good
organization and really like leadership, being able to run a team
of people. Those are really key traits that I always look for. If
we're looking for somebody for our leadership team.
Speaker 1:
Yeah. What's interesting about that is you didn't say anything
about social media skills or web code. I mean, you started with
values in her personal and organizational leadership
skills.
Speaker 3:
Yeah. Hiring people for me is always a really exciting task, but
sometimes I'm not the best person to make the final decision. I'll
be honest. And that's because I, I I've done some like leadership
and kind of personality traits and I'm the kind of person that I
see. Like everybody has potential, you know, I'm like I send to me
and I, it could be any, Oh man, that guy would hire him. And after
he had done, I'm like, I feel like we should just hire them. All
right. So it's good to have Brad to like really focus me and, and
you know, our team because we actually have our team that helps us
hire, like, it's a big thing because instead of Brad and I just
making that decision, we have key members on our team that it's
like, Hey, you're going to be working with this person. And so
making sure that they can work well together. And so I think that
that's definitely a, you know, when it comes to hiring, it's not
always for me an easy decision, but with the help from my team, it
definitely gets it.
Speaker 1:
That's why it's nice to have a hiring team or hiring panel with
multiple personalities on the team. You can.
Speaker 3:
Yeah. And we deal with so many different personalities between, you
know, just our clients and even staff, you know? So you have to be
able to work with, that's all we've been really blessed. We have,
yeah, we have, we have an awesome team.
Speaker 1:
So when have you taken some lumps in hiring? Like what, you know,
I've been walking along the journey with you bred for a while, so
there's been successes and you know, some that didn't work out
where have you seen like maybe like, Oh, we sh we should have seen
that. Or they didn't have that trader that value.
Speaker 3:
Oh man. That's hitting close to home. No. Yeah. You want to take
that? Yeah. Yes. Can you repeat the question? So honestly, a lot of
times when you're hiring in, and you're not thinking of the actual
fulfillment of the position, because you have to be thinking of
all, you know, we were low, you know, I'll give you a sense. We
were looking for a certain person to fill a certain void. Right.
And the main thing on that void was the personality and the skills
of communicating with our clients and those things. Right. But we
didn't really pay attention to the actual like functionalities and
what that person can do. And so when we brought them on our team,
it was, it was a lot more training to the other sides of that part
of the business that we were thinking they already may have had,
but we were more focused on tunnel vision and they are that perfect
person for that. But we weren't really thinking of the other side
of fulfillment. And so I think that definitely realizing that they,
and they have to be well-rounded and not just think, well, this is
going to solve all our problems because the last person we had was
good at this, but really what we need is this right? So it's a kind
of mix in between.
Speaker 1:
Yes. And you do learn from what didn't work.
Speaker 3:
Yeah. The important thing is like, you're always going to have,
they're always going to be things that don't work out. You know,
you're going to have quote unquote failures, but as long as you
take something away from that and you learn and you better, that
it's all part of that it's yeah.
Speaker 1:
Yes. So I've had emerging leaders tell me they want to grow
thinking strategically. So you both said that it's sort of your
strength spot to look at the big picture. You both described
yourself as visionary working on the business. How would you say an
emerging leader can look at the big picture and what does that look
like for greater long-term impact?
Speaker 3:
Well, for me, its really time blocking, you know, walking out the
time to do it with our level 10 meetings, but also like personally,
like blocking out specific times of the day that I'm supposed to be
doing specific activity. And as long as I have those, or as long as
I get those done, I feel like that's a successful day. The other
part of that would be our, our long-term planning that we do. We,
we blocked out like three to four days a year where the entire day
is focused on that alone and we've walked everything out and that's
all we talk about. And so I think again, just blocking that time
out is a huge, huge deal. No, and I totally agree with Brad. And I
think one of the biggest things is that you're not just
time-blocking for yourself, but we actually tie block with our team
to complete our vision. So that way, you know, you're able to, to
all be on the same track without there being confusion of where are
we going? And maybe Brad has certain goals in his mind that he's
not sharing with me. And so when we do it as a team and we time
block, it really has a huge impact. And I do definitely think that
you should do personal time as well, but when it comes to goals of
the business, definitely, you know, the team is definitely
key.
Speaker 1:
Yeah. And our teams are waiting for us as leaders to cast that
vision. I think it gets them excited when they know where the
owners are going, where the leaders are going, and they get
confused when they don't know where they're going. Or like you
said, your goals are in your head, but I can't read your mind. So,
and then Brett, you know, I love time-blocking, that's like huge.
So, so if you're trying to find time for things, that's going to
fall off the radar, but if you literally calendar that appointment
with yourself, that's going to happen. I also, like I added about
the retreat. I think every team should do these chunks of time
where you just look out a little bit further and you can gain a lot
of ground by doing that. So that's the macro level now to the micro
level, what small acts of leadership do you try to both do daily as
much as possible to make a positive difference in your
team?
Speaker 3:
I'll definitely say leading by example, and you know, that's not
always an easy thing to do as an owner. You know, sometimes you
just want to roll in at 11 o'clock and, you know, Hey, I own the
business. Right. But I think sometimes, you know, being the first
one at the office and the employees seeing that I think that's been
a huge impact and just kind of letting people know like, Hey, I'm
in this to like, you know, yes you do. You know, you work for me,
but I work with you. So yeah, I would agree with that. And I think
the other thing that we do as a, as a leadership team, or as a
company is really like showing our appreciation, not just for, not
just for our clients, but for our, our employees, like showing them
recognition of the things that they do well and and rewarding them
when a client compliments what they do.
Speaker 3:
Oh yeah. We have a breadboard. Yeah. We have a brag board and, and
we have goals for each department on certain amount of kudos or
things that they're supposed to get each, each quarter. And we look
at that all the time and I've noticed a huge difference in our
team. They're, they're just so much more excited on a daily basis
of like, even when they get a compliment, it's, there's just so
much more excitement among the team together. I also like to add
onto that brag board thing. I think it's such a cool, like a lot of
people don't want to brag. I'm not going to probably like, I don't
mind being like, look, you don't look at this, you know, two people
I know, and I'm are close to. I like to and think a lot of people
like hold those things inside. And I think it's important to show
them and have a place where they can go, Hey, look, this happened
to me. And its a, it's a great place to put it. And it's a place
where we can see like, Hey, they're doing a great job because some
of the times we see these employees are doing great things, but we
just never hear about it. And so we put a place where they can
actually show us or tell us where it's a safe place to do it. So
yeah, that's been super helpful.
Speaker 1:
Brag board. Love it, love it. So if one of our TCI listeners asked
you, like what, what two to three books must they read to grow
their leadership or their entrepreneurial skills? Or maybe it's a
resource like a website or, you know, just a place that you go to
grow. Where would you point them? Paul Casey, another $5.
[inaudible]
Speaker 3:
I would definitely, I mean, I'll be honest. I'm not a huge book
reader. I like audio books, but I would, for one of them, I'd say
traction and let me be completely honest. Have I finished reaction
completely, almost I'm on the last final, like 20 minutes, I think?
But the biggest thing I would say is, is, you know, finding your
niche. So mine is YouTube. Like we learned a lot of stuff like
video production wise on YouTube and, and we were able to emblem
emulate what we liked and, and to, you know, a process or product.
So for me, you know,
Speaker 4:
Years ago it was not much of a book reader, but in the last like
several years, I've definitely become more avid reader. But I also
do listen to audio books. I have a few favorites, but I would say,
what are the most impactful books that I've ever read from a
leadership standpoint is relentless by Tim Grover. I think that's
an amazing book. It doesn't necessarily talk about like leadership
from a business standpoint, but it talks about leadership from kind
of a team standpoint. And I think that, that, and it, it talks a
lot about basketball and, you know, your major superstars who went
through this crazy coaching, but it talks about what they had to do
to become that super Rockstar. And so I think that's a good
foundation. And for me, it's a very inspiring book. So I always,
always liked to pick that up. I love listened to it several times
and then the other there's two other books, traction, I would
agree. And then what's the Stephen Covey book, cost
Speaker 1:
Seven habits of highly effective people.
Speaker 4:
And that one's a really good foundational book,
Speaker 3:
Paradigm shift and podcasts. I mean, I had been listening to John
Maxwell. That's been a huge, a huge, I would say, a source of
leadership information and, you know, he has a really good way of
putting it across. So that's been cool.
Speaker 1:
So finally, what advice would you give to new leaders, new
entrepreneurs or anyone who wants to keep growing and gaining more
influence?
Speaker 4:
I would say really just always trying to improve yourself, always
try to constantly refine you're never going to,
Speaker 3:
There's never a, there's never an informant, you know, you're
always like, I think when you're, when you're young, you kind of
think, Oh, well, I'm going to, I'm going to get to this point and
everything's just gonna be great. It's, it's just, it's not like
that. It's, there's always things to improve on. There's always
just skills that you can continue to refine. And let's say just
always be working on that. Okay. Yeah. And on the leadership side,
a lot, a lot of people will put in, you know, as a boss quote,
right? Like, and, and don't be a boss, be a leader and don't just
tell people to do things, lead them to do that. So I think that
that's where a lot of people, when they step into a leadership role
is, they feel like, Oh, well, I just need to tell people what to do
and do this and do that. And that's the wrong way of leadership. I
think it’s; it's being on the, in those trenches with that employee
and, and helping them get to where they want to go. And that's a
leader, you know,
Speaker 1:
You're here. Well, how can our listeners best connect with you
too?
Speaker 3:
I would say, you know, they can always check out our website,
Spotify, digital.com or connect with us on Facebook and Instagram.
We're always there. We're here for you guys.
Speaker 1:
Well, thanks again for all you do to make the Tri-Cities a great
place and keep leading. Well, Rob,
Speaker 3:
Thanks, Paul.
Speaker 1:
Let me wrap up our podcast today with a leadership resource to
recommend it is the book managing transitions by William Bridges.
So change is really hard for most people and maybe the structure of
change is the easy part as a leader, but we forget sometimes that
change has an emotional impact on people. And if you don't have a
strategy, you don't have someone on it. Then oftentimes people will
resist that change to the bitter end. So he breaks into three
groups talking about the letting go part, the neutral zone and the
new beginning. And if you don't have a strategy for all three
change is going to be a lot harder. So managing transitions by
William Bridges. Again, this is Paul Casey. I want to thank my
guests, Brad Sapp, and field, and Nathan Robertson from Spotted,
Fox digital for being here today on the Tri-City influencer
podcast. And we want to thank our TCI sponsor and invite you to
support them. We appreciate you making this possible so we can
collaborate to inspire leaders in our community. Finally, one more
leadership tidbit for the road to help you make a difference in
your circle of influence and the spirit of Brad's meditation here
at John Kabat-Zinn says mindfulness is about love and loving life.
When you cultivate this love, it gives you clarity and compassion
for life and your actions happened in accordance with that until
next time, KGF keep growing forward.
Speaker 2:
Thank you to our listeners for tuning in to today's show. Paul
Casey is on a mission to add value to leaders by providing
practical tools and strategies that reduce stress in their lives
and on their teams so that they can enjoy life and leadership and
experience their key desired results. If you'd like more help from
Paul in your leadership development, connect with him at
growingforwardatpaulcasey.org for a consultation that can help you
move past your current challenges and create a strategy for growing
your life or your team forward. Paul would also like to help you
restore your sanity to your crazy schedule and getting your
priorities done every day by offering you his free control My
calendar checklist, go to www.take back my calendar.com for that
productivity tool or open a text message two seven two zero zero
zero, and type the word grown
Speaker 1:
Tri-Cities influencer podcast was recorded at fuse SPC by Bill
Wagner of Safe Strategies.