Ask Christina First

In this episode of Ask Christina First we dive into time and leadership style. Are you the knit picker- are you the manager always looking over the shoulder of your employees, expecting your staff to be mini versions of you, and checking in so many times that you could have just done the project yourself? Do you micro-manage? Time management might work well for you but you may have trouble letting things go. The David Allen system says that when you delegate a project, get clear on the performance level of the project. Then get clear on what the vision of the project is and what the story of the project is. Empower the people you trusted enough to hire, to use their skill and background knowledge and apply them to your vision, project, and product. Don't deliver the project with the details, you don't need to give your contractor or employee the 'how', that creates a micro-managing environment. Take a receptionist for example, you don't tell a receptionist how to field multiple calls. You hire a receptionist with experience and trust that they'll use their experience and knowledge to field calls, direct calls, and take the necessary messages. You tell them what the intro is when they answer the phone and then take your hands off of their work. Though your nature is to call to the details, you have to empower your employees and team members and give them a sense of accountability. Friendly & Open Style- Are you the type of leader that just wants the work done? You're friendly and accepting and give your employees lots of space. You deliver the end vision but you don't provide any details or specifics, your terms are idealistic and lack structure. This style means you provide a generic vision, but you don't provide enough information to set the employee or contractor up for success.

In this episode of Ask Christina 1st, she challenges the belief that you can’t be kind and good and still do necessary business tasks such as marketing your products or services or pitch sales.
Your purpose is to lead and that means having the willingness to be right and wrong and to know that your decisions make a difference. You can lead by example by letting your yes be yes and your no be no, knowing that your employees and clients are taking note. Another aspect of leadership is your willingness to be seen by not hiding your light. Don’t hide your light and don’t detract from or hide your power or expertise. Instead, be willing to have your marketing material show you as the expert you are. You can also begin by making your knowledge public. Publish blog posts as an expert- it’s part of your job and your work needs to be found so you can enrich people’s lives. What if the sun refused to shine or withheld its brilliance? We would be deeply affected by that and you are the same. Nature doesn’t apologize for itself and nature abhors a vacuum. You are here to fulfill your purpose, so step into it. While doing so, hold your shape; be findable, be seen, and keep your boundaries. Maintain your integrity and professional limits with employees and customers.

The Currency of Employment is an episode about how to remain a friendly employer without crossing the boundaries of becoming friends with your employees. It is natural for us as entrepreneurs to want to be friends with our employees; we’re all personable people, so it happens. The thing you must be mindful of as an employer, however, is to be friendly with your employees, but not become their friend.

Your employees and independent contractors relate to you similar to the manner that a child does to a parent. You pay them, you provide their financial stability, so, they are dependent on you. If you are a business owner who divulges too much information, whether about the business or your personal life, you run the risk of crossing boundaries. Think about the kind of boss you are, are you inclusive when it comes to information sharing? Even if you are spewing information off-the-cuff about the business, you are including employees in conversations that you shouldn’t. From the employees’ perspective, they will begin to lose faith in the stability of their job when know that much about the business.

In this episode of Ask Christina 1st, she interviews real estate investor David Thompson of Thompson Realty. David earned his MBA in finance from Thunderbird School of Global Management, and graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. degree from Arizona State University. After spending twenty years in a corporate job, David decided that it was time to pursue a passion he picked up along the way. He has helped investors with over 4500 apartment buildings. During this interview Christina gets David to tell us how it all began and why he chose real estate as his way out.

https://thompsoninvesting.com/

In this episode of Ask Christina 1st we continue our conversation on why employees leave. This show, however Christina breaks down from the perspective of the employer and how the employer can better understand the culture of their business. A great way to start assessing this is by asking yourself some serious questions about the quality and longevity of your company. Is your company a long standing trusted company that customers rely on? Is it profitable? Do your employees enjoy working there and does your company serve more than one industry? Asking this questions well help you discover the culture of your company as well as understanding what your employees are experiencing work for you. According to the LA Times article mentioned in part one of this show, statistics shows that 54% of employees care about the type of relationship they have with their employer. Therefore are you setting up an atmosphere where your employees are excited and fulfilled to work for you, or is the atmosphere chaotic and anxious? It's imperative you begin to alter your company based on what you find by asking these questions. Employees leave for many reasons, but the boss holds significant impact whether they stay or leave.

In this episode you will learn:

1. The proper questions to ask to find out how your employees feel about working for your company?

2. Why employees can take on your emotions and how to not let that happen.

3. How to create a balanced environment that enables productivity and peace for both employee and employer.

In this episode of Ask Christina First, we focus on why employees leave. Now you may have a ton of ideas, however the one that stands out the most is how employees feel about their boss or person in charge. If you're the boss/lmanager, how you interact and engage with your employees determines if they want to actually be there or not. Taking an article from the LA Times, Christina shifts through each reason why employees leave their employers. The first two categories listed are people want to move on to a new job or the relationship with their boss or management is unpleasant. Both of those categories alone make up 47% of the poll making those two reasons the highest. Christina, however finds solutions for both employee and employer. This can boil down to how do you handle relationships with your employees? Do you hire the right people for the job? Can you relate to them in any way? Can you manage them within the culture of the company? Do you know how to work with your employees? Asking these questions will help the employer find the right employees. There however will always need to be boundaries in place so that the work always comes first. An employer and employee should maintain a healthy work balance within the workplace without it ever getting too personal.

In this episode you will learn:

Why employees eventually leave their jobs?

Why management and employer should maintain an atmosphere that employees enjoy coming to everyday.

How to keep all parties happy while also keeping the business productive.


Here are a few steps from the LA Times article Christina uses as a reference in this show:

1. To gain respect from your employees, know the business and the individual's job. Employees respect managers who know what they're doing.

2. Acknowledge their work and have an honest respect for their work. Offer up praise and inquire about what they learned in the process. This shows an interest in their growth and work and affirms the hard work they've put in to succeeding.

3. Have an open door policy and when you can, actually leave the door open. Eliminate the physical barrier between the boss and the employee and let it be clear that you are available. There are times when you need to close your door, but whenever possible, leave the door open to ensure employees know you are interested and want to help.

In this episode of Ask Christina Suter we focus on part two of the Bottom Line. The culture of America as a whole, and among many small business owners is that we don’t want to be thoughtless in our business. We are anti-big business because it can be heartless, greedy, and does not revolve around a human or good belief system. It is absolutely possible to be a conscious minded, kind, or good-hearted business owner, and not have it negatively affect your bottom line.

One of the things that should be clear to employers and employees is the difference between being friendly and being friends with employees. Being friends with your employees means you treat them with the same personal guidelines you’d treat your actual friends. Friends share, as a version of currency, but your employees are not your friends; treating employees as friends crosses boundaries. Employees are people you have hired to perform a task, fill a role, and to carry out their job, the exchange there is their time, talent, effort, and work in return for payment. Avoid adding friendship currency, giving leniency, or being unresponsive to employees when they fail to uphold their side of the employment agreement.

Friends excuse, forgive, and may not even mention tardiness; employers don’t have that option. If your employee shows up late for work, fails to complete a project, or speaks poorly of their job to coworkers or customers, take action. All of those things contribute to a negative work environment, bring down morale, and ultimately, it is time and money out of your pocket. Late employees cost more, they require you or others to fill in for them in their absence, and their work isn’t being completed when they aren’t present.

For the benefit of the employee, as their boss, be sure that you comment on and/or establish warnings and consequences when work is not done or tardiness occurs. This will keep the bottom line unaffected, and will help reassure the employee that their presence and their work matter. Encourage employees to show up on time, do their best, and to be proud of their work. When speaking with your employee, inquire as to whether there is a way you can help or support them in their home life. Maybe a temporary situation in their personal life is prohibiting them from arriving on time, make temporary changes to their hours or schedule so you both win. Adjust their job description or commitment, if they can’t perform the tasks assigned to them right now. Give him or her the opportunity to have a voice, and to see that you understand and that they matter. If nothing changes and warnings have been given, offer a new position entirely, or let them go.

If, by nature, you are a generous person and want to run and own a generous business, be sure to value your time and efforts. Price your products and pay yourself and your employees appropriately. Assess whether you pay your employees too much or yourself not enough, and most of all, remember you are not responsible for the livelihood of your employees.

In this episode of Ask Christina 1st, we gladly jump back into real estate with Brent Kesler from the Money Multiplier. Brent originally from Kansas, but lives in Florida started his career as a chiropractor. Finding himself almost a million dollars in debt, Brent took it upon himself to attend a conference that would change his life, but not at first. After a year and a half of contemplation, Brent decided that he would give this concept a try. A concept known as the infinite banking concept derived from the book “Becoming Your Own Banker.” Three years after taking his first step, Brent was able to get him and his family out of debt simply by using whole life insurance. Most people turn the other cheek when they hear life insurance, but Chrisinta and Brent both use whole life insurance policies in a mutual fund for investing amongst other things. Brent now teaches his methods to over 2,000 students nationwide as well as speaks at many conferences across the country. Brent will be speaking at FIBI Pasadena Thursday February 20, 2020.

https://themoneymultiplier.com

In this episode of Ask Christina Suter we focus on the Bottom Line. The culture of America as a whole, and among many small business owners is that we don’t want to be thoughtless in our business. We are anti-big business because it can be heartless, greedy, and does not revolve around a human or good belief system. It is absolutely possible to be a conscious minded, kind, or good-hearted business owner, and not have it negatively affect your bottom line.

One of the things that should be clear to employers and employees is the difference between being friendly and being friends with employees. Being friends with your employees means you treat them with the same personal guidelines you’d treat your actual friends. Friends share, as a version of currency, but your employees are not your friends; treating employees as friends crosses boundaries. Employees are people you have hired to perform a task, fill a role, and to carry out their job, the exchange there is their time, talent, effort, and work in return for payment. Avoid adding friendship currency, giving leniency, or being unresponsive to employees when they fail to uphold their side of the employment agreement.

Friends excuse, forgive, and may not even mention tardiness; employers don’t have that option. If your employee shows up late for work, fails to complete a project, or speaks poorly of their job to coworkers or customers, take action. All of those things contribute to a negative work environment, bring down morale, and ultimately, it is time and money out of your pocket. Late employees cost more, they require you or others to fill in for them in their absence, and their work isn’t being completed when they aren’t present.

For the benefit of the employee, as their boss, be sure that you comment on and/or establish warnings and consequences when work is not done or tardiness occurs. This will keep the bottom line unaffected, and will help reassure the employee that their presence and their work matter. Encourage employees to show up on time, do their best, and to be proud of their work. When speaking with your employee, inquire as to whether there is a way you can help or support them in their home life. Maybe a temporary situation in their personal life is prohibiting them from arriving on time, make temporary changes to their hours or schedule so you both win. Adjust their job description or commitment, if they can’t perform the tasks assigned to them right now. Give him or her the opportunity to have a voice, and to see that you understand and that they matter. If nothing changes and warnings have been given, offer a new position entirely, or let them go.
If, by nature, you are a generous person and want to run and own a generous business, be sure to value your time and efforts. Price your products and pay yourself and your employees appropriately. Assess whether you pay your employees too much or yourself not enough, and most of all, remember you are not responsible for the livelihood of your employees.

In this episode of Ask Christina 1st, we talk about curbing your business expense and what it means. Business expenses are broken down into two categories, fixed and variable. Fixed are the core expenses that don’t move a lot, these expenses have a monthly payment commitment, a contract, or an agreement, and require a specific payment amount. Variable expenses are those business expenses that vary, or change, and aren’t essential to keeping your business running. The management of both expenses and the way to curb your business expenses boils down to tracking.

Business owners tend to focus on their variable expenses in order to change them, but the core expenses should also be looked at. Can you reduce the amount of your electricity bill, the rent, can you reduce a full time employee to part time employment position, which will also save you on benefits. Make cuts that are unnecessary or repetitive, don’t just cut hours or benefits for the sake of doing it, cut back on things that waste money. Comb through your fixed expenses and determine what expenses are many not actually core; if your business can run without renting out space, without a landline or multiple phone numbers or websites, eliminate those things and save a significant amount of money.

In this episode you will learn:

1. How to differentiate between your fixed and variable expenses.

2. Why deciding what should go and what should stay will help you save money.

3. How to track your expenses including advertising, rent, employee salaries, equipment, etc…


Every business is its own entity, so there is no formula that works for every business; it wouldn’t be advantageous. It would be easy to look at the highest things on your expense sheet and cut them, but that would not solve the problem, because every business has its own pattern and process.