Empire Building

You’re sitting in your office. It’s a busy week at work and you’re preparing for an important meeting. You receive word that two of your team members just submitted their two week notice. Your phone rings. It’s a client panicking about their social media campaign. A few minutes later, the phone rings again. It’s the nurse from your kid’s school, who got hurt on the playground. You look at the calendar for the rest of your week and you feel overwhelmed.

What do most of us usually do in this scenario? We skip workouts and meals. We cancel our plans to go out with friends and family. A week goes by like this, then two weeks, then two months — and some of us spend years putting ourselves on the back burner.

All of us have felt that overwhelm, and it took big wake-up calls to help us break the cycle. So, today, we’re going to share our stories — when we weren’t taking care of ourselves at all, how it affected our lives and businesses, and the incredible results we saw when we started prioritizing self-care.

You CAN have it all — but only if you prioritize filling your cup up first.

Resources:

• "Sleep Smarter: 21 Essential Strategies to Sleep Your Way to a Better Body, Better Health, and Bigger Success" by Shawn Stevenson

Connect on Instagram:

• Seychelle Van Poole: @seychellevp
• Vija Williams: @viavija
• Sarah Reynolds: @sarahreynoldsoji
• Wendy Papasan: @wendypapasan

Empire Building is a production of Crate Media

Over the last two episodes, we’ve guided you through the first five steps of The Empire Building 8-Step Hiring Process. This week, we’re covering the last three phases of hiring, and as always, sharing stories about how we failed forward to become better versions of ourselves along the way.

The Empire Building 8-Step Hiring Process:

• Step 1 - Job Fit Verification
• Step 2 - Thought Process
• Step 3 - Life Story
• Step 4 - Motivational interview
• Step 5 - Group interview
• Step 6 - References
• Step 7 - Defense
• Step 8 - Expectations Dialogue and Offer

Connect on Instagram:

• Seychelle Van Poole: @seychellevp
• Vija Williams: @viavija
• Sarah Reynolds: @sarahreynoldsoji
• Wendy Papasan: @wendypapasan

Empire Building is a production of Crate Media

In the last episode, we shared the first three steps of the eight-step hiring process that has helped all four of us find the right people to grow our businesses. Today, we’re going to continue working through the process, sharing stories of our successes and, more importantly, failures along the way.

The Empire Building 8-Step Hiring Process:

• Step 1 - Job Fit Verification
• Step 2 - Thought Process
• Step 3 - Life Story
• Step 4 - Motivational interview
• Step 5 - Group interview
• Step 6 - References
• Step 7 - Defense
• Step 8 - Expectations Dialogue and Offer

Connect on Instagram:

• Seychelle Van Poole: @seychellevp
• Vija Williams: @viavija
• Sarah Reynolds: @sarahreynoldsoji
• Wendy Papasan: @wendypapasan

Empire Building is a production of Crate Media

We know that, if you’re listening to this, you have big dreams for yourself and for your organization. And if we take Oprah’s advice — and why wouldn’t we? — “it’s only when you make the process your goal that the big dream can follow.”

So, over the next three episodes, we’ll be diving into the how—the process—of hiring talent.

We know that hiring is one of the most difficult parts of running a business, but if you go about it the wrong way, you’re just going to create more problems for yourself in the long-run. So, we’re going to share some stories about what happened when we hired for the wrong reasons, how those experiences forced us to fail forward, and what it looks like to adopt the 8-step hiring process in your organization.

The Empire Building 8-Step Hiring Process:

• Step 1 - Job Fit Verification
• Step 2 - Thought Process
• Step 3 - Life Story
• Step 4 - Motivational interview
• Step 5 - Group interview
• Step 6 - References
• Step 7 - Defense
• Step 8 - Expectations Dialogue and Offer

Connect on Instagram:

• Seychelle Van Poole: @seychellevp
• Vija Williams: @viavija
• Sarah Reynolds: @sarahreynoldsoji
• Wendy Papasan: @wendypapasan

Empire Building is a production of Crate Media

Regardless of your industry, regardless of the size of your company, there’s one thing that’s going to make or break your business: hiring and training talent.

Who you’re in business with matters. It’s that simple. Unfortunately, this is also where we make the most mistakes! So, we share tactics and exercises that you can use to evaluate yourself as a leader, evaluate who is on your team, and adopt a talent mindset.

Connect on Instagram:

• Seychelle Van Poole: @seychellevp
• Vija Williams: @viavija
• Sarah Reynolds: @sarahreynoldsoji
• Wendy Papasan: @wendypapasan

Empire Building is a production of Crate Media

How do you become the best version of yourself?

A lot of people might say hard work discipline, and that’ll get you a good chunk of the way there — but, eventually, you’ll start to burn out and experience overwhelm.

The answer is actually surprisingly simple, although it can be hard to make a practice of it: say NO!

A lot of the time, it’s easier to say yes to something than to say no; saying no can take a lot of willpower, and we only have so much of it. But when we do that, when we say yes to something that isn’t a priority, it means we’re saying no to the ONE thing that matters most.

So, in this episode, we share some tips and tactics you can use to start saying NO so that you can say YES to what matters most — because you deserve to be the best version of yourself!

Connect on Instagram:

• Seychelle Van Poole: @seychellevp
• Vija Williams: @viavija
• Sarah Reynolds: @sarahreynoldsoji
• Wendy Papasan: @wendypapasan

Empire Building is a production of Crate Media

In the last episode, we did a deep dive into the first step of the vision casting process: figuring out what you actually want. This week, we’ll be looking at how to build a business that helps you make this vision a reality.

We will talk about questions you can ask to uncover your organizational mission, why vision is absolutely crucial in business, how to determine your mission as an organization, and the difference between your mission statement, vision, and values. You’ll also learn some tactical steps you can take to create vision and value as leaders within your organization.

Connect on Instagram:

• Seychelle Van Poole: @seychellevp
• Vija Williams: @viavija
• Sarah Reynolds: @sarahreynoldsoji
• Wendy Papasan: @wendypapasan

Empire Building is a production of Crate Media

When we talk about casting a vision of your future, we aren’t just talking about the future of your business — we want you to envision your absolute best and biggest life.

You might wonder, “Why does this even matter? Isn’t this just a waste of time?” And the truth of the matter is that you can’t effectively work towards something until you can see it; you can’t create a plan for where to go next if you don’t have a destination in mind.

So, in this episode, we’ll be diving deep into the first step of the vision casting process: figuring out what you actually want. Next week, we’ll be looking at how to build a business that helps you make this vision a reality.

“What Brings You Joy?” Exercise:

The idea of this exercise is to first figure out what brings you the most happiness so that you can build your vision around that. All you have to do is block off some time, go inward, be honest with yourself, and answer a few questions. 

So take out a journal, turn on some relaxing music, and start writing out your answers to these questions:

• What brings you joy?
• What would you like your relationships to look like?
• What would you most like to accomplish?
• What are your passions?
• What would you like your legacy to be?
• What does your ideal day like?
• What do you feel like, in your body?
• Are you smiling every day?
• What makes your heart sing?

Resources:

• Learn more about The ONE Thing: the1thing.com

Connect on Instagram:

• Seychelle Van Poole: @seychellevp
• Vija Williams: @viavija
• Sarah Reynolds: @sarahreynoldsoji
• Wendy Papasan: @wendypapasan

Empire Building is a production of Crate Media

Brought to you from Family Reunion, Keller William's largest annual conference, this live recording features the first-ever panel of all-female rainmakers, with an income totaling $144 million.

And emceeing this discussion is Gary Keller, co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Keller Williams and bestselling author of several books, including “The Millionaire Real Estate Agent” and “The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results.”

Together, these five real estate rockstars break down what it takes to build a big life, why it requires work-life counterbalance (not balance), and how you can leverage the principles from “The ONE Thing” to simplify the journey.

Resources:

• Listen to Gary’s podcast: Think Like a CEO
• Learn more about The ONE Thing: the1thing.com

Connect on Instagram:

• Seychelle Van Poole: @seychellevp
• Vija Williams: @viavija
• Sarah Reynolds: @sarahreynoldsoji
• Wendy Papasan: @wendypapasan

Empire Building is a production of Crate Media

In the last episode, we started a conversation about what “your numbers” are and why you need to know them before you can build a bigger business and a better life. Today, we’re digging into what is the single most important number in your business, and the one that so few people really want to talk about.

That’s right, we’re talking about the P word: Profit.

Connect on Instagram:

• Seychelle Van Poole: @seychellevp
• Vija Williams: @viavija
• Sarah Reynolds: @sarahreynoldsoji
• Wendy Papasan: @wendypapasan

Empire Building is a production of Crate Media