Speaker 1: 00:00 Welcome back to another episode of pro status. I’m Jesse Maitland and I’m here today interviewing of the Drake gallery, the Dre couch. Let’s perfect. Yeah. So we definitely wanted to get our opportunity to talk about ourselves so you know who you’re listening to on the show. And so today we’re going to talk to Drake and he’s going to share a bit about a story and some touring and production stuff and what other goodies, how to be a pro since that’s why we’re here, which makes an expert. So, Oh man, I gotta stay humble guys. It’s part of being a pro. So quickly
Speaker 2: 00:38 Backstory, Jessie and I have been friends for a very, very long time. One of my longest friends is Jesse. So score, we are stoked to be doing this podcast together. Yeah. Actually we’ve talked about doing something for so long. It’s definitely, this is definitely for fun. Yes, it’s for fun and honestly, we know a lot of great people and we want you to be able to listen to what they have to say and benefit and learn from them as well. So trying to share that knowledge with everyone I think is a big thing for us. So yeah. Well let’s get started. Drake. Yup. What is the coolest thing that you’ve recently purchased? I about a week ago, bought a max pout MacBook pro. Oh my gosh. Another app. I know Apple products keep coming up, but I bought the eight core MacBook pro 15 inch with 32 gigs of Ram and the four gig, it’s the Vega pro 20 graphics card.
Speaker 2: 01:43 It’s the biggest graphics card you can get. And I didn’t max out the hard drive, but everything else is maxed out and I went from a wow. The year before his model, I had that model. It doesn’t compare it. That one was not maxed out though. I just had like a basic, so you’re saying it’s actually worth the upgrade? Oh absolutely. Going from a quad core MacBook pro with the standard graphics card with the two gigs of video Ram and 16 gigs of Ram, great laptop. I went to the ACOR maxed out and all the bottlenecks that I’ve had with editing anything or even running OmniGraffle, which is a very CPU heavy Ram heavy software. It doesn’t have any of those bogging down issues that I’ve had on my other macro pro, which is why I was skeptical about, I was like, am I going to buy an almost $4,000 computer and have the same issues and not not be worth the money, but I have not run into any of those issues yet with that computer.
Speaker 1: 02:43 Well, the previous one was there. There’s a processor upgrade too, right?
Speaker 2: 02:47 There’s a generation, yeah, it’s a generation. And then also it’s the [inaudible]. So it’s the newest [inaudible] going from last year’s I seven. Yeah. Okay. So you do have that. That is legitimate. So it is a processor upgrade, a Ram upgrade, and for video editing of huge upgrade video Ram upgrade. But knowing Apple, the graphics card shares the Ram, which is why going from the 16 gigs of 32 gigs of Ram I think makes a huge difference. Cause I’d never would use the 16 gigs in a software application. But if your video cards trying to use that to then you’re going to run out of 16 really fast. Yeah, for modeling. So having the 32 I think is beneficial. So if you’re questioning to buy one, is it actually worth it and you to make your life easier? I would say yes, it’s going to be better. Do you find last year’s, do you find it kind of an oxymoron?
Speaker 2: 03:45 The Apple is all like, they love their radio and cards and yet the company that owns them is a competitor. AMD yeah, because they only use Intel chips and I think, yeah, I think it’s hilarious. It’s funny, I think it’s funny that they will only use Intel but they will not use Nvidia cards. I think that was super funny. I mean how sick would it be to have a Mac book pro with all the specs that we just mentioned, but with a 10 70 or 2070 or 2080 like a desktop. That is crap. Which I get, I mean the rumor say they’re supposed to come out with a 16 inch this month and it’s supposed to be more powerful. Right. We don’t know if those, if that’s true or not, and 16 inch it’s just going to be a refresh. 15 inch. You know like they’re not going to change their screen size.
Speaker 2: 04:36 Interesting. But what I’ve really looking forward to is the Mac pro, well actually no prices of the Mac pro this month. The cheese grater bringing it back. That thing could be amazing. It really depends on the prices cause it could be how expensive. Yeah. I remember when we were first playing with that iMac pro, that thing was quite a big leap in technology and that wasn’t even a maxed out on my pro. That was only the $10,000 model. Only $10,000 we did not, we did not buy it. It was for another company. They say never spending your money, your own money on things, spend someone else’s. Well basically it went down to trying to get an export, a one hour export done in 15 minutes or less. And obviously they were trying to do out of that quid pro and that was not going to happen pro Rez by the way.
Speaker 2: 05:27 Paris [inaudible] that’s a big key factor in that trying to export Perez [inaudible] for 45 minutes to an hour in under 15 minutes. So I was like, well, I’m my pro. That’s the only option. That’s what we’re going to do it. And it did it in like four minutes. So now we should do that same test on your laptop. Yeah. I should take the same footage and see how this compares because this computer was not out. This laptop was not out. That’d be kind of fun. It’d be interesting to know where it stacks up because for me, this is like, I know we’re ranting about computers, but if your computer can export like a minute per minute, so every minute of your film is, every minute that it renders, it means it’s just playing your film back. That’s great. That’s fast enough. And if you have a three hour film, don’t complain that it takes three hours.
Speaker 2: 06:21 Totally. I think that’s probably the, the level of performance that I think everybody really wants. One-To-One. One minute. One minute in, one minute out. Yup. That’s incredible. Absolutely. As you guys can probably tell Drake’s a bit of a nerd, just a little bit telling me about how you got into technology. Like what made you the nerd? Were you always a nerd? Kind of my first piece of tech that I remember buying was the original iPod touch. Oh yeah. Back in the day. Didn’t even have an app store. You get it and you’re like, what? What do I do with this? It’s cool but I can’t do anything with it. So I remember buying that. I was probably 13 I think. Yeah. Ironically I remember him carrying that iPad, iPod touch. Yeah. And then it broke, which is funny. It broke within the 30 days.
Speaker 2: 07:15 So I returned it and funny enough the iPhone three G had just come out with iOS three. Wow. 10 years. 10 iOS is okay. Cause we’re on iOS 13 now. I was three came out and that introduced the app store. That was it. That’s right. That’s right. And I returned the iPod touch and bought the iPhone three G. And it was funny because I had a job barely enough to pay for my monthly phone bill and that’s where all my money went. And so I bought the iPhone three G and paid the monthly phone bill with at and T cause that was the only carrier of the iPhone back in the day. Oh yeah, that’s right. It was only 18 only 18 T wow, that’s crazy. I know. So that those will come. My first like piece of tech that I bought, I had a PowerBook G4 back in the day before Apple went Intel.
Speaker 2: 08:08 Did you have the black one? No, that the PowerBook [inaudible] was still the same clamshell was that the Clinton after the clamshell? It was like the MacBook pro, like the ALO. It was the big one with the mechanical keys and big and still one of the most comfortable keyboards ever. Yeah, it was broke all the time. I had the 12 inch, the little tiny computer cause I couldn’t afford a 15 inch back to the day. So I’ve always been at 13 you’ve been doing technology, like you got started with just dorky little things like the phones, kind of how like I’ve always like was interested in it. But I started volunteering at church in the kids’ ministry cause I didn’t want to go to kid’s church. That’s kind of my story. And so I started volunteering, helping with like sound and slides and that kind of thing.
Speaker 2: 09:01 And then it kinda grew from there. Well kind of, no, it really grew from there. Started working at the church back in the day doing video stuff with XLT [inaudible] and [inaudible] GLTs XL twos and Nixon one. So once he’s, there was also the XL one S yeah, Keenan. Oh, old mini DV tape camera. So I remember filming a little bit on those back on it, rocking that FireWire out fire away. You had to play the tape back and capture it into your computer. So I remember doing that, messing around with final cut pro seven six and seven I think was out at that time. And then actually got hired for reels to do sound at pestle. That was like my first real real job and after they realized a 13 year old could actually be dependable and hustle. Yeah. So the other thing about background, I homeschooled so I had a little bit more free time but I still had to get like a work permit and do all this stuff.
Speaker 2: 10:03 But I did not like school but stay in school and it kind of goes back to, I’ve been quoting this a lot lately, Elan must have this, there’s a difference between schooling and education and a huge difference actually. And I think their schooling and there’s things that you need to learn. Cause honestly like math, I was like, why the heck am I gonna use math now? Putting it in PAs and doing all this like crazy stuff. I actually have to use all that math. So I’m like okay that was actually worth learning. So there is like stay in school, learn school. But beyond that there is the schooling versus education and honestly working as a 13 1415 you know in my teenage years during school I was getting an education. Yeah, totally. Because I didn’t know a whole lot. I didn’t, I knew nothing when I was a teenager, but I was always there.
Speaker 2: 10:59 I was always Googling, always have my phone, I was Googling stuff and just figured it out. But that’s been my nature. It’s just a, yeah, something presents itself. I’ll figure it out. That’s, that’s awesome. How I’ve done it. So that’s kind of where I started. Way, way back. So fast forward, you are now, I am now the production manager for Bethel church. So I oversee all audio, lighting, video and alive in the live setting. Everything live that happens in the room, falls underneath my umbrella now, which is crazy to think that I started as a 13 year olds and now I’m 24 so 11 years later. That’s wild man. And that’s crazy. Now I’m overseeing it and it’s crazy to see the teams change cause I’ve seen like everyone transitioning in and out of their jobs and a lot of them are still Redding and we’re still friends, but they’re not all on the team. And now this team is way different, but they’re awesome. Like everyone’s in pro and everyone knows what they’re doing and it’s really cool to see it all change and actually be a part of it in the area that I’m in right now. Absolutely. I guess there’s probably some things that we could learn from there. So what’s the main turning point of something? So an example of something that took you from just being the Sunday 13 year old to an actual professional.
Speaker 2: 12:32 Oh, okay. I think it was 2015 or 2016 2015 I’m pretty sure I got asked to LD Bethel music’s tour with Martin Smith and to be honest, I had no clue what I was doing and I always like, I’ve Clint to thank for that because Clint [inaudible] was the production manager and he asked me to do the tour. He also probably knew that I had no clue what I was doing, but he did trust me enough to know that I would figure it out and went on that tour and had to figure it out. I was like one of the first tours, right? It was like the one is like the second or third actual tour that pestle music did because before that was tied to live tour and then it was this Martin Smith tour and so I went on that tour and that was back John and Thompson, Chris Greeley, Travis noble, myself, Aaron not, Oh wow.
Speaker 2: 13:28 That was our crew, six of us. And a lot of the days it was only the six of us set it up. We didn’t actually have hands or anything, so that really it took it from, okay, we’re doing the sound and lighting at church to now we’re setting up and tearing down every day in different venues, in half house arenas. We did a couple of those and I had to learn very fast how to do that and there was so much that I learned on that tour of what to do belt more of what not to do. Totally. So that was like the first, I think turning point that took me from, okay, I was just a church guy. Now I’m learning that I’m a professional in this industry and, and had to work with pros at these venues. That work was other pros. So that was a big, big turning point I would say from there it was honestly the next tour that I went on, cause we partnered with solo tech and I wasn’t, that was the first tour.
Speaker 2: 14:28 I LD didn’t, I didn’t LD another tour for a long time cause we brought in ed white and honestly that, those tours. But that first tour I learned so much from the med wire. It was a big deal from ed white and honestly in the solar tech guys because we partnered with solo tech as our rental house. And those guys are so smart and have been around, if you don’t know who solar tech is, they do all the big shows, tours, tours, Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, like big, big shows. Yep. They’re big too. They’re based in Canada. Yup. And they have an office in Vegas and that’s who we partnered with. And some of the guys that came out on that tour with us are incredible. And are they’re the ones that doing Justin Timberlake tour and Beyonce tours and stuff like that? Yeah, there was Ethan, max and H. H. yes, three of those three toured with us [inaudible] and a and then ed white of course I learned a ton from ed and he’s probably the best LD around still.
Speaker 2: 15:33 He’s incredible as a lighting director. And so being able to, I was able to learn from him even though I was running content and an led wall tech at that time. So got to learn from him and learned how one, how to do lighting from Washington, but also how to pair content and lighting together and what that really means and how to be intentional, I think. How to think about the entire room and not just absolutely looks cool. Yes, it went from like, we’re just doing this to look cool to, we’re being intentional and we’re partnering with what’s happening in the room and learning to be very intentional. And at the time I was being stretched too, cause I was creating all the content and running it and yeah, I didn’t know what I was doing, but I just pulled more and more and more stuff.
Speaker 2: 16:18 I’m feeling more and more and more stuff and started to put it in resolume and adding filters to it and we don’t use any of that anymore because it looks so bad. Oh yeah. Actually fun story. Yeah. I remember we went to shoot content, we bought a brand new GoPro, never used it. And we’re like, Oh we’re going to shoot some waves, we’re going to put it on the beach and we’re gonna have the waves kind of rush over it and it’s going to look awesome. And I was like, make sure you ties a rope on that thing because no matter what you do, I think it’s probably going to get taken out. Didn’t put a rope on it. One wave later, that thing was gone. 400 bucks. We never even saw the footage from it. Probably has that GoPro though. That’s probably still there. Honestly, it’s probably just [inaudible].
Speaker 2: 17:08 Who knows. The could have gone out, it could have been sitting there and someone picked it up. Never know. I would hope, honestly, I would hope someone got some use out of that thing cause we didn’t. So yeah, those were very stretching and growing moments. And honestly I tell people this all the time, like I’ll see someone in the tech world and they’re, they’re learning and growing. I’m like, you need to go on tour. [inaudible] And there’s so much that you learned from being on tour. You learn how to be fast, you learn how to be efficient, but everything has to be detailed. Oh yeah. And it has to work the first time. And you learn how to listen to authority as well. And then you, there’s a lot of oversight, like a bootcamp. There’s creative professionals, there’s your, your touring manager, your creative producer, your production manager.
Speaker 2: 17:54 There’s a lot of voices happening. You have to make the show go on. And then when there is a problem, you can’t, you can not, not have a show, if that makes sense. Yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. The show has to happen. And it has to be top notch. And there’s been very close calls where it’s like 5:00 PM doors are supposed to open, and the led walls not working. And you’re like, wow, what are we going to do? And somehow we’ve always had a show and everything’s always worked. So I would say all of my learning, most of my learning and experience came from touring. Also. I want to throw this in there. Touring is not glamorous. Yeah, definitely. Like, Oh, you get to travel around the world for free or get paid to travel around the world. Yeah. But I work from eight in the morning till two in the morning every day.
Speaker 2: 18:44 You, yeah. Six hours sleep is a good night. Yep. And you get a day off every now and then you don’t see daylight sometimes for sleeping in a tiny bunk. Yup. And it gets colder, really hot depending on who’s on the bus. And it kind of stinks. And there’s not a lot of room and you have no private time. Zero. You’re always even painful. Half the time you’re showering with people, so you’re getting literally that private time. So yeah. Turing’s not glamorous, but you learn a lot really fast. I know, I know. I learned a tremendous amount when I was out. That was amazing. And most of the guys that I work with would say the same thing when they started touring, that’s when they started learning. And you take for example, Chris Greeley, he’s been touring since he’s 14, eight 34 35 now. Yeah, cause I think Chris and I are 10 years apart.
Speaker 2: 19:39 So way more experience. I didn’t start touring until I was 18, so I think I would love some pro tips on some things. All right, so you were accomplished at a very young age and you still are your production manager. I’m a very large department. And you do a lot of events. I mean, do you know, do you know the number of events that you do in a year? No, it’s not in the triple digits, but it’s in the high double digits. It’s like 60 plus a year, if you count all of those small ones too. Yeah, the small ones. And then, but we have about nine flagship conferences, events that I do. And by that I mean plus 2000 people, like 2000 or more people usually. Yup. That’s about right. And two of those are like 6,000 plus people commerce. So somebody’s listening and they’re like, wow, this guy’s super young, super successful. There’s definitely something to learn there. Right? Like you’ve got to have some wisdom for these guys. Cause like some of the things,
Speaker 1: 20:48 Some of the things that come up for me is like how you manage relationships. How did you manage, you know what I mean? Like just relationships and family and health and finances and you know like there’s all these things that are challenges and production is demanding. Super demanding. It will drain the crap out of you. It will take everything you have if you let it. Yeah. And so how do you hustle and still maintain some sort of a normal life and then like, cause you know, if you let it drain you, you’re, you’re not being a pro, like something sacrificing, you know.
Speaker 2: 21:24 Well I mean yeah, I have a few things that I can mention about that first thing. And Brian Johnson always says this, you have to have a hobby, something that does not involve you making money, like you have to have a hobby. And I really took that one to heart, even though sometimes I don’t always have a hobby. I kind of drift in and out of hobbies, which is fine, but you have to have something that you do that doesn’t make you money, but you’re not searching for money. That’s really good. One of those, and this might sound funny, but this is a way to have I think our relationship and also a hobby for a while, for several months. I haven’t played in a long time, but I was like really into a couple of games on Xbox and that’s what my hobby was. And I know it’s like you don’t want to play video games, but like I had something to where I’d go home at night and I’d sit down and I’d play and it was not making me money.
Speaker 2: 22:16 It was just a way for me to chill. And honestly I was play online so I play with other people. So there’s a little bit of that online community thing and most of them I knew, I knew these. They’re friends. Yup. Or in our own house. Like we’d split screen and play four of us together. So there is that like I think you do need to have a hobby, something that refuels you that you’re not stressing about. This has to be a product because most of my hobbies turned into work or a way to make money or I want them to make me money. So there’s that. I think that that’s like a key thing as a production person, you have to have that. That’s great. Yeah. That’s awesome. I think managing time like so now I’m married and I have a one year old, so that’s even more difficult because when I was single it was like you don’t give a care in the world about time.
Speaker 2: 23:05 And I also didn’t spend a lot of time with my parents. Luckily my brother works with me now, but so I can spend time with him. But your friends end up becoming your family. Honestly, like my family was who I was working with at that time and I was traveling with my family basically because I was touring so much now, like I was dating, I dated through that, got married, kind of stopped touring. I still travel but I don’t tour so I’m not gone for two to four weeks at a time, five weeks at a time anymore. But I think you kind of, and I had to learn all, I learned this quickly. You just, you have to realize you’re going to get less sleep if you want. All of those things. And that might sound funny, but you’re just going to get less sleep than before and you gotta be willing to work hard and play hard.
Speaker 2: 23:54 Honestly, it might sound funny, but like for me, like I’m up at five or six every day and then I go to work, I go home and then I spend time with my son and then he goes to bed three, four hours later. And then I spend a couple of hours with my wife and then we go to bed and then I’m back up at five so I’m sleeping five to six hours every day. And it’s just become the normal. And I think you have to like, if you want all of this stuff, there’s only so much time in the day. It’s true. And part of that is is I could sleep in a little bit later, but I don’t have enough time in my day to get all my work done, which is why now I get up at five or six cause that gives me extra hours in the day. Plus I like being up before everyone else so I can get stuff done without people yapping at me.
Speaker 2: 24:42 Cause if eight nine o’clock rolls around and then all the emails start coming back and people asking you stuff, but I don’t know. So stress, well there’s always stress. You stress, you gotta learn how to manage stress and just like ignore it basically. Like you can’t be stressed. And there’s so much that comes up in like these events and stuff like that that everyone’s freaking out about and you have to be the one that is just calm and collected and like, yeah, I’ve seen it. But part of that comes with experience. Like I’ve seen everything that could go wrong, goes wrong. Even high high dollar openers that are like it flopped and all that money just went down the drain. I’ve seen it happen. And so you know, you get to a point where you’re like, I’ve seen all the issues come up and it’s not a big deal anymore.
Speaker 2: 25:28 And most of the times the people attending the event have no clue what just happened. I think that’s a pro tip too. Like you know, that’s, that’s a big deal. Like knowing how to manage stress and how to deal with it. Like we set the tone. Oh yeah. You know, and if you bring stress into the situation, everyone’s stressed and all the stress you set as a leader, like talking to like production managers or tech directors right now, like your stress with your, what you bring to the table affects your entire team. So if you’re stressed, the rest of your team is going to be stressed. You have to be the one that’s calm and collected. Yup. To be able to bring that calm coolness to your team. I had somebody tell me once that stress is an emotion. And once I realized that I was like, Oh, I can master my emotions.
Speaker 2: 26:18 Oh absolutely. And so once I realized it was just an emotion, when I felt stressed, I would just go, Oh, it’s okay. It just feels stressful. It doesn’t have to be stressful. And that like that for me changed everything. And I think another pro tip would be have someone that you can talk to you because you have to release it. Because honestly just going to do events all the time and there’ll be something where I am so pissed at that during the event. And I’m like, why did that happen? I never talked to my team about it. We, I might bring it up as like, Hey, let’s fix this, but it’s a different type of me bringing it up. But I will be furious that I saw like what I saw or something like that. But usually that’s, I go talk to Jesse and we go around the corner, we go outside and I’m just like, I kind of release a little bit of that, but it’s just Jessie and I having a conversation.
Speaker 2: 27:07 But we have a great relationship that we can have that conversation and he’s understanding and we talk through it. So I would say pro tip, have someone that you can talk to that’s awesome. That way that you have a great relationship with. And you know, if I’m saying it Jesse, he knows I’m not like letting it out on him. He knows that we’re just having a conversation and I’m saying exactly what I’m thinking. And honestly with that, going back into your team later and being like, all right, let’s address this. Having someone else that knows how you feel. They can also offer input into a super beneficial cause. I’ll say something and then Jesse will be able to chime in and actually, if this is what Drake actually means, so you want something stressful and a trigger and it actually gets turned into a teaching opportunity to bring people up to a higher level if you’re challenging them to grow with you and leaders pull people up like we lift them up.
Speaker 2: 28:03 So I think that’s incredible. Yeah, I think it’s necessary if you’re in a position like this. Yeah, absolutely. I would say another pro tip, and it might be a pro tip to get to this spot. I always find a way to say yes. Oh yeah, absolutely. To what’s happening or what they want to happen. And there are some times where it’s like technically it’s not possible. Like you just can’t do it and that’s okay. Like be like, eh, what can we do? You know, whatever. I can’t think of an example right now, but there’s sometimes where it is, but finding a solution. So not just saying no like, sorry, can’t do it. It’s like, Oh, we can’t do exactly that, but we could do this. Does that work? Those types of things. So always finding a way to say yes or have another solution. Also coming to the table with the solution I think is like you always have to come to the table with a social.
Speaker 2: 29:04 Yeah, I actually have a rule. I don’t ever bring a problem to anyone’s attention. Trout or solution never bring a problem to the table without a solution. That’s exactly what I was trying to say. So those are kind of some tips because like I’ve worked with several tour managers and other production managers and different bosses over the years and right now I have like five bosses. That’s just how it is. And they’re all going to ask for something different, but they’re going to catch on that Drake makes it happen. Or whoever you’re working, you know, you, you make it happen thing. So it’s just one of those like pro tips I’d say is like you’re working for them and it’s your job to make it happen. So let’s talk about what happens when it doesn’t happen, right? Yeah. I mean there, there are times where it doesn’t happen, but it’s building that relationship with that leader or that boss and like we’ve, I’ve had to bring this up before where we’re trying something new and I brought it up to the leader who was over that and I was like this, I’m concerned.
Speaker 2: 30:12 And I just told them straight up, I’m concerned that this is going to be a flop, knock of lie and I’m willing to go all out and we’re going to do it. But just to give you a heads up, it could flop. So it’s being able to have that conversation with whoever is your boss or your superior or leader that it’s that vulnerable, brave communication. Like, Hey, we’re going to do it and we’re going to go all in, but it could fail. Yeah. And you know, for people out there brave communication, that means like being willing to care enough about the person to be honest. Absolutely right. To tell them the truth, even if it isn’t comfortable because you have value for them and you want the truth. Yup. Right. So the beauty of that is having those conversations is when it does succeed, everyone’s like, yes, even more pumped than before.
Speaker 2: 31:03 But if there is that chance that it could fail and it does fail, and you’ve had that conversation before, it’s like, Oh, okay, we tried, we know that the guys are trying their best and it failed and we can learn from our mistakes and we’re going to move on. But if it’s like you didn’t have a conversation at all and you knew the whole time that it could fail and then it failed, then your boss or your leader is going to be what happened. You know they’re going to come at you, not at you, but you know they’re going to come to you and be like, Whoa, what just happened here? Why did this fail? And it, it’s harder in the long run, but it’s way easier just to have the conversation up front. Like what I said, like it could fail, but we’re going to do it.
Speaker 2: 31:46 So that’s kind of one of my tips is like just have that conversation with their yard, which means build that relationship with your superior or your boss or your leader. Cause now all five of my bosses will text me all the time. So it’s, it’s more of like not as boss like relationship, you know, boss, employee type of relationship. It’s just like we’re talking all the time. So if you’re somebody, if you, if you’re somebody who has a leadership over you and they’re always just fearful, you know what I mean? Like yeah, what if could be an indicator that there’s a cultural problem either in your personal relationship or its culture. And perhaps that’s something you want to look at. Like, you know, and that’s what’s interesting is like we’re not just technical people like we are leaders, like a pro that is pro status, right?
Speaker 2: 32:37 Like you are the leader, you in authority, you make things happen and you set the tone. And what’s crazy is, I mean you’re always a leader. No matter what position you’re in, you can always lead in that position. And I had to remind myself of that and it’s only been a year and a half that I’ve had this job title now to where I’m actually, everyone’s looking at me as the leader, but I had to learn how to lead just being the LD or being the video director or you know, whatever job title I had cause I went through so many, I was still leading in that position. You know, yo. Yeah. As a leader I will say this, get to know your team. Like you need to know the team that’s working for you. Yup. And part of that, I struggle with that because I have almost 40 people, 32 people underneath me, so it’s closer to 30 but I have 32 people that employees that work for me.
Speaker 2: 33:39 If I were to be one on one with them once a month, that would be my whole lot. That would take a whole week. You know like that’s a lot of people to sit down and have a one hour or 30 minute conversation with. But you do have to get to know your employees and I will chat. I only, I challenge you as a leader to get to know, not even just your employees because this could translate to anything, volunteers, your team, whatever that is. Like you got to get to know them more than just, Oh, at work. Yeah. Yeah. Get to know them and show that you care. Bring that, that gratitude into your work environment. Always be grateful for what they’re doing, no matter what it is. It will change what’s happening in your environment by being grateful. 100% but it’s just showing that you care.
Speaker 2: 34:25 Yeah, that’s really good. I think it boils down to that. And like with me, I have like, I have 32 employees. Some of them I work with every single day and we talk all the time. So I’m, I already know them so they know I’m not going to schedule one on one with you because yeah, I don’t have to. We talk every day. Then there’s the other ones that I don’t see every day and you know, I have to make sure I have to challenge myself to be intentional with them. Yeah. And, and honestly you will reap the reward of that, of being intentional with everyone if you can. Yeah. And I think there’s definitely an investment side there, but the freedom you have to, to just ask to ask for more from them, right. To challenge them, you have access to them so that they can bring you something new or offer something creative or you know, just now they’re going to be bringing you your best, their best. Cause you can expect the best because you know, or they know you care. Yeah. And so there’s a reciprocal relationship that are happening that yeah. While it makes it takes a little more effort front. Yup. Longterm. It’s just, it’s so much more fruitful. And so now we have, I would
Speaker 1: 35:37 Say there’s a team of people who care about their jobs. They are self motivated and they’re always looking for ways to make things better. Right. That’s super great evidence of someone who is actually operating as a pro.
Speaker 2: 35:52 Yeah. So I would say a final tip being a leader being pro, and this just came a little bit from experience, but I learned it from someone actually I learned it from my dad because he was a boss of a large department as well. Still is sandwich your feedback and what I mean by that is if there’s something critical you need to say, make sure you’re thankful about somebody else. Tell them, Hey, great job here. Let’s work on this. This is killer. Oh yeah, like don’t, every time you speak have something critical. Like every time you speak AP critical, fix this, work on this, do this was enough. No good feedback in there. Like he did great in this area. Is that just something that I still work on because I am always pushing, am I in my nature? I always want to push for better, better, better, better, better. Like that’s, that’s how I’ve driven and wired. It has to be better. It has to be the best. That’s true. But it’s definitely true. Not everyone can keep up with that. So anyways, that’s just sounds awesome.
Speaker 1: 37:11 I think we’re going to conclude this episode guys. Thanks for listening. We’re definitely gonna do more. We’re not doing the rapid questions right now, you know, cause this is, we normally do this on other episodes. Yup. If you got value from that, make sure you post some comments, ask some questions. We diligently read through those. And if you want
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