Balancing Traits: Feminine vs. Masculine Leadership
Join Victoria and Delilah as they sit down with Chad Smith - a leader outside of SaaS. They discuss topics that include the differences between masculine and feminine leadership traits and how these apply across multiple industries.
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Okay guys, let's huddle up.
Introducing guest number three, I think on the podcast.
Welcome Chad Smith.
Chad, welcome.
I just want to preface.
Delilah and I wanted to bring in other leaders within, you know, sales and
outside of the tech industry because at the end of the day, the skills and the
things that we're going to talk about today is very relevant, no matter what
industry you're in.
So welcome.
Thank you.
Happy to be here.
Chad, maybe you could start with your background, what your role is.
Introduce yourself, your backstory.
So I'm a general manager for an elevator company, TK elevator.
I've spent most of my career in the elevator industry coming up through sales.
This is more of a construction industry.
So it's been a little bit more of a niche thing.
I have worked in this industry in both Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and now here
in North Carolina.
One of the coolest things about his role is that he is in sales and it might
not be sales, but there are so many similarities.
And throughout the years, we've picked each other's brains on how we manage
teams or, you know, run our sales orgs.
So Chad, I want to get a better understanding from you on kind of like you
manage a, you have 120 indirect and direct reports total.
So kind of walk us through that, you mentioned articles that you've read in the
past about how you choose to hire certain people for certain roles and how even
though you're in an elevator company that you still have two branches of the
business, right?
You have your account managers and then your new business.
So similar to us, we have existing a new logo.
So there's a lot of ties that cross paths there.
So talk to us a little bit about that.
Sure. So I have approximately 120 direct reports that includes our field staff
as well.
So the people actually working on the elevators and we have a couple of
different lines of business under my purview.
One of them being our service arm, which is existing buildings.
We have a construction arm, which is new buildings, pure construction, and then
kind of the hybrid or a mix between the two and modernization, which is making
old elevators new again.
So we kind of three different arms of our business will say service, obviously
being our largest and kind of what we exist to be is a service company.
So under that umbrella of our service side of the house, we have in my team, at
least in Raleigh, I have a sales manager who reports to me and manages our
sales team, the account managers for our service customers.
And we have five sales reps dedicated strictly to account management.
They also have a growth goal.
So they do a little bit of the proactive sales function of growing the service
business, but the primary function, of course, is our existing customer and our
existing portfolios.
Chad, I'm curious, what kind of technologies are you guys leveraging in terms
of like a CRM platform?
Like internally, like how are your sales reps going out, finding new business?
Can you maybe talk a little bit about, you know, like what the processes or
what their methods are like?
It's funny because a lot of it kind of depends on the rep and what works best
for them.
We're lucky enough that if it's a building with more than one story, there's a
likelihood that there's an elevator in there.
So if we don't have it, then someone else does.
So that's just kind of pure in old fashioned cold calling where we'll walk in
the building, you know, drop a business card, want to talk to the manager.
But we do a lot of other forms of prospecting using resources such as like the
state database to determine what buildings do have elevators because that's
kind of what we're looking for first, right?
It's make sure they've got an elevator that we can service.
So from a service growth standpoint, we really kind of depend on a couple of
different things, some intricacies that we can lean on, but primarily it kind
of just boils down to like does the building have an elevator?
We have a lot of resources like Dodge data, which is a company that can
consolidate a lot of building permit data.
That'll help us that we can we through, but honestly, there's nothing better
than just old school being out in the area, looking at the buildings.
I don't have that building.
I'm going to go see who does.
Yeah, I was like thinking about it because Delilah, when we think about like
when we're prospecting, Oh, what kind of chatbot are they using?
Like, how are they breaking that pain or it's like, how are you qualifying to
understand like these types of buildings that you're looking at or whatever you
beat your competitor in a sense?
Like it's like interesting to think about it from like a different industry
perspective.
If you know, no, it totally does.
I mean, and one of the things we want to know is who do they have?
Who is their service provider?
Because we have different value ads that we want to present earlier on,
depending on who their service provider is based on what we've seen in the past
that are some of the pain points.
They're probably experiencing.
Yeah.
See, that just goes to show that sales is sales no matter what industry, but we
all have a similar journey in that sense.
It's linear.
Yeah.
Something I did want to talk to you about though is before, you know, we
started filming, we kind of all got together and we're brainstorming and you're
recently talking about hiring because that's something that Victoria and I are
constantly doing.
And as you know, Victoria and I are women in sales.
We're very proud of that.
And it was so interesting.
Chad actually told us that the last, I believe, seven, you said AM roles that
you actually hired all females.
So I would love to pick your brain about that.
I think it's always first and foremost, like the best person for the job all
the time.
And so it's just a byproduct of that of being the best person happened to be
women.
And obviously I very much, you know, wanted to expand our search to broaden our
ability to recruit, you know, all walks of life.
And with that kind of may take a little bit of a different approach, maybe or
thought on how do we assess the talent that we're hiring in terms of their
skillset and what's going to make them successful.
I think this is a very technical or mechanically inclined industry.
Elevators are right.
I mean, there's engineering involved and no one, no one knows what an elevator
does outside of just press the button and it's there and it takes me somewhere
and there's a lot of things going on behind those doors that people don't know
about.
So it can be very mechanically intricate.
And I think probably just from a generalization standpoint, women might not
always have a more technical or mechanical inclination.
So I think that has in some capacities maybe led them away from an industry
like this or they wouldn't think that there was an opportunity for them here
when like we just talked about with the parallels and sales and account
management.
It's just people.
It's just customer service.
You know, I think it's no secret.
There's more men and leadership positions, I think, or decision making roles
throughout like the workforce.
And I think what a very common misconception is, or maybe misconception may not
be the best word for it, but a very common mistake that leaders make when
hiring for sales positions, especially if they came through is that they're
going to a lot of times may want to see that the person that they're hiring is
going to have a similar skill set or traits that they had that made them
successful in their role.
And if they don't possess those, then they may not think they might, they would
be a good candidate for the job, whether that's a mechanical skill set,
technical skill set, more masculinity, whatever that may be could have been a
deterrent from hiring women.
Whereas, you know, we had a couple of really, really talented female sales reps
for us that kind of helped me to to see the different ways that women can be
successful in navigating customer relationships conflict.
While leaning on the resources at hand for some of the areas that they need to
help in if it was a mechanical or technical, you know, area.
Chad, I completely understand where you're talking about.
I think that your industry is like construction in general is probably very
male dominated.
So that's why I thought it was really interesting that for certain sales roles,
you, like you said, hired the best person for the job and didn't just do the
norm, which would be higher strictly men.
You were interested in different qualities between men in sales and women in
sales.
So that's kind of what I wanted to touch on.
You showed us this article that I referenced in the beginning of the podcast
about masculine and feminine qualities.
So, yeah, yeah.
So article is the Forbes article feminine and masculine workforce dynamics.
Author is Nicole Silver.
It's a longer article, but the biggest things that I like to take away is she
does a really good job of highlighting the.
Positive qualities of both masculinity and femininity in the workforce and why
they can both what different traits of each can be.
Beneficial so masculine qualities, including structure and planning, taking
action risk taking competitiveness, protectedness and being assertive masculine
traits get things done.
This means the plan is usually direct and structured where everyone knows their
role and what they need to accomplish when a person uses masculine traits
without balancing them with feminine traits, they may come off as aggressive,
uncaring and demanding.
How do you like determine this when when hiring like to Delilah's question
earlier like what qualities are you looking for when you're speaking to these
women that you are interviewing?
Really, I don't know that I'm looking for any specific mix of the qualities.
I'm more so looking for an individual that has maybe a higher level of
emotional intelligence to know what their qualities are that they can use to
their advantage and that they navigate conversation and maybe conflict.
Well, it's hard to determine someone's ability to navigate conflict and more of
an interview setting.
But just interacting with someone and seeing do you feel like they have a
competitive spirit?
It's my job as a leader that if they possess certain traits that I'm able to
help them develop those and maybe use other traits that may also, you know,
some of these subconscious habits that they have or make up to their
personality just that they're able to use them.
Well, I don't know that I have a set, they need to have these things.
I think sales is like 90% confidence and as long as they are using those to
embody that, you know, and that they're, they know them and are leveraging what
things they do well, then, you know, we can build on everything else.
It's so interesting because like the masculine qualities, I mean, we think this
all the time, but if a woman were to say something, sometimes it could come off
as like emotional or right or aggressive, but like if a man will say that in
more of like a higher up leadership role, I would say, it's
confident and assertive and all that. So that's why I just find this like so
fascinating, especially that Forbes wrote about it. So I would love to hear
about the feminine qualities and then like bridge the two together on account
managers and what qualities they have.
The feminine qualities, I think, when you're when you're thinking of a customer
service role or someone who is representing your brand or your organization,
customer facing, these would represent much better. So I'll just read them.
Feminine qualities include being receptive, caring for team members,
understanding the needs of the consumer that the brand services, speaking
effectively, flexibility, listening to intuition and patience.
Femininity is hard centered. This means they have good relationships with their
vendors and are positive influence on team members. They have a good line on
their customers and therefore can build a strong product and are adaptable.
When a person uses feminine traits without balancing them with masculine traits
, they can come across as passive, indecisive and indirect.
Totally. We talk about this all the time, Goliath and I, and I think, Goliath,
we do like a good job, I would say, at balancing both. I always say like I use
the term as like fiery, but then I realize like I shouldn't be saying that
because it can be seemed as like not a good way, but to your point, Goliath,
like when men are assertive
or aggressive or, you know, I guess quote unquote fiery in the workspace, it's
like, okay, yeah, they're confident, but when a woman is like that, it's like
emotional. Yeah, she's emotional.
Right. I think especially in leadership, right? Like for you guys being in
leadership, this would just be a theory, but if more men possess more masculine
qualities and more masculine qualities geared towards, or have a leadership
inclination in terms of being direct and being process oriented,
then, you know, maybe even more so as you get into leadership, you may feel
more of a subconscious pressure or societal pressure to be more masculine or
have more masculine tendencies.
Chad, what do you feel like you relate to the most? I think if I had like a
leadership brand, it would be empathy. So that may actually align more with a
feminine trait, I guess.
You know, it is a construction industry. There's a lot of things that have to
be very matter of fact. You know, this is some salt to the earth individuals
that I get an opportunity to lead and work with.
Some of our construction partners are very matter of fact. So you have to be
confident. You have to be direct. You have to be sometimes a man's man to kind
of make your name for yourself here or get respect, you know, amongst our trade
partners. But from an internal standpoint and managing my team, I think it's rooted in
empathy.
Definitely. I think the saying that people work for people goes such a long way
. And in this case, it's like not necessarily man versus woman. I do. I think
that the perfect leader will have traits of both.
But I think typically, like as a society, people think like the more dominant
and straight, like the higher up you get, that's what you need to be. But the
people that really have like a feminine, if you call it feminine, just in the
sense of this article, but that those feminine qualities as their foundation
where they're empathetic. They are, you know, they're a people person. Like they see their people as the
people they are. You make people want to work for you. Now you need a touch of
that, like setting expectations, dominant type of personality, right?
Depending on, especially like Chad, you have a team of 120 and such different
types of roles under you. You have to really balance it and be there for
everyone.
Yeah, I think it's so important that you have a good balance of both, right?
Like having empathy, but also being direct, being supportive for your team, but
also, you know, being assertive.
But to your point, like people work for people at the end of the day, like it
doesn't matter who you are. It doesn't matter what gender you identify with as
long as like you're a good leader, you're assertive, you're there for your
people. You back them, you're direct, it really doesn't matter. You get shit done,
right?
Sure. I think it's rooted in confidence too. Like you sell best when you're
confident. You're most confident when you feel empowered and supported.
So for me as a leader, I'd have to empower my people and know that they've got
to know I've got their back. And if they know that, then they're running fear
lessly.
I love that. There was the New Zealand Prime Minister. Her name was Jacinda Ar
dern. I hope I didn't butcher her name. She gave a farewell speech during her a
farewell to Parliament when she was stepping down.
Now she was the Prime Minister of New Zealand. And I believe she was only the
second mother or someone to become pregnant while serving in Parliament for New
Zealand. So anyway, that's not relevant to the sort, but this was something she
said in her farewell speech.
She says, "You can be anxious, sensitive, kind, and wear your heart on your
sleeve. You can be a mother or not. You can be a crier, a hugger. You can be
all of these things. And not only can you be here, you can lead."
Love. We can end it right here, guys.
Yeah, literally. We're done with the episode right there.
That is incredible.
I thought that was impactful, though. It's just, you know, it's now a woman,
right? I think, you know, you can have empathy. You can lead with passion. You
can have your heart on your sleeve.
I've done that. I'm lucky enough to lead talented people. So I'm able to tell
them, like, be a mother first, be a father first, be a friend, be a husband,
whatever it is that you have to be at home.
You can be happy there. That just, I think, bleeds over into pride and being
proud of what they do here because they feel empowered and supported.
I think feeling empowered is like the most important, right? Like, Delilah and
I try and coach our team on, like, hey, like feel confident enough to have
those difficult conversations or, you know, feel empowered to, you know, lead
your own discovery calls or, like, whatever it is that you need to feel
confident within yourself, knowing that your leader has your back at the end of
the day. Should you fall flat on your face or there to pick you up in a sense and guide
you along the way? Chad, totally agree on that.
Yeah, the one thing that you said that really resonates with me is be who you
are at home and then you'll be good at work.
Someone once told Victoria and I that being a manager or just like leading a
team or in general is part-time managing, part-time therapist.
Your people are people, like, at the end of the day. They're going through
their own struggles at home. They can't just come to work and be 100% all the
time and you have to understand how to be there for them on a personal level.
So, yeah, I love that line where it's like, if they're in a good environment
and happy and you're making sure, like, you're touching all those grounds, not
just talking about work. They're going to flourish in work in return.
Any time I make a job offer, I always end with, "Hey, I want you to know I have
all the confidence in you to do this. I know it can seem daunting. It's a new
industry a lot of times for a lot of people, but I want you to be you and do
the job. Don't try to be the job. Don't try to be what you think this job makes
you be."
That was some advice I got when I became a leader when I looked at other
leaders and I thought, "I need to act that way or be this way." And I realized
that I did the best when I was just being myself and I felt that I was
supported by my leadership to, you know, one do the right thing and be
supported in my decision making and have help when I need it.
Confidence comes a lot of ways for different people. Sometimes men might find
more confidence speaking about something if they know it more technically
because I know everything there is to know about this. I can speak to it.
Sometimes it's just I know that I can say, you know, or do the very best I can
here and my team will support me in that and I'll have people stand behind me.
It's also learning what is going to build that confidence for individuals that
you can help them to grow because all in all, if it's rooted in confidence,
everything else will just kind of be a byproduct of building their confidence
and they'll gain everything else along the way.
I was thinking about it too. Like when we talk about servicing our customers as
we're all leaders here, I think of our employees as our customers. Right? Like
we want to make sure that they're happy.
We want to make sure that we're servicing them. You know, we're being empat
hetic to their needs and what it is that they want and their goals and their
values and so forth.
I feel like as leaders, it's important for us to think of our teams as our
customers. I love that analogy.
You know, you'll have different customers with different needs and you have
different employees with different needs and different motivations, right?
I mean, I read a book by Nick Saban once or about Nick Saban and it wasn't by
him, but it was about him.
And in one of his analogies, Nick Saban's Alabama football coach, he's kind of
like my leadership mentor. I think if I had to say I have one, but he says in
his book that until he knows what motivates someone, he can't lead them.
He asked a kid, do you want to go be in the NFL? Yes. Okay. I can lead you to
the NFL. I have a rap sheet showing that I've gotten all of these players to
the NFL.
But if he's leading a kid or managing a player to be in the NFL and they never
care to be in the NFL, then he's not leading them the way that he should
because that's going to have different expectations or different things that he
's going to require of that person.
So it's also just about from our standpoint where I am with leadership. I need
to know not only from the personal standpoint of what motivates you, it's good
to know that you have things that you're doing it for people or whatever that
is.
But also, what do you want to get out of it? What do you want to be? How can I
develop your skill set? Do you want to be an SDR for your whole life?
That's okay. Let me just make sure that we build you a sustainable work
environment to where you are not burning you out or do you want to grow? Do you
want to have management in your future? Then let me kind of expose you to that
so that they're continuing to feel like they're getting challenged and
stretched and grown so that they're showing up looking forward to be in here.
See, this is why I love having guests on that are outside of SAS because it's
just so similar. I keep saying that it's exactly right. Like you just heard it
from Nick Saban, a football coach, had who manages like a huge team at a
construction elevator company and then us in SAS, we do the same exact thing.
Like we set our team down from the beginning and understand their goals,
understand what motivates them personally and professionally. I have some
people on the team that want to buy homes and then they also want to be AEs.
So it's like, how do we work towards that goal every single day? I just love
that you said that. But one thing that I wrote down to that you mentioned the
other day is the guts and grace reference. Can you repeat that again?
It's funny that this is a big topic for us as a company right now. We've been
working with some of our connect and inclusive groups to kind of have
conversation and dialogue around diversity, equity and inclusion.
And I joined the women's network group last week as we were having dialogue. It
was really good. Just hear from other women in our company.
But the premise of the dialogue was guts and grace. And that was their way or a
very fun spin on when we refer to masculinity or feminine traits, guts and
grace and having a little bit of both.
And so that was, I think, the way or a nice way that we just summarized them
and got some grace and having both and navigating a male dominated space or
construction industry with both.
I love that you have to have the guts to say what you feel, but you also have
to have like the grace to be empathetic to like the tough conversations
essentially. Yeah. Next time anyone asks us what our leadership style is, we
should say guts and grace grace.
That's great. I think that's great. Yeah.
I want to go back on the point of like finding the motivation and the fact that
, you know, we're talking about different industries and everything like that. I
think it is really important because something that I've learned to it's like,
if you don't have a desire, you're not going to have a goal.
Right. Like you have to want something in order to get to your final
destination essentially. So I think it's so important to like as leaders that,
you know, what motivates me might not motivate Delilah or my desire is it's not
going to be just Delilah's, but our job as leaders is to find out each person's
motivation and each person's desire before we're able to lead them in a sense.
So I think Delilah, to your point, like it is really interesting that it's like
, you don't have to be in any sort of industry as long as like you have
essentially the human skill set or the leadership skill set, you can apply it
to no matter what industry or job that you're in.
Absolutely.
I have all walks of life here too. And we are more of an onsite job, which is
sometimes challenging for like I have some people or employees that are fresh
out of college with no responsibilities. Right.
And I have one of my leading sales reps on our team is a single mother of two
kids. The way that I can, you know, support her is much different than I may
have to support another individual where, you know, I tell her like you're
going to be a mother first and we're going to stand by that.
Because when I become a father, I'm going to be a father first and I want to
work in an environment that supports that. So, you know, it's rules for rules.
It's not rules for me and not for the like it's, I'm going to lead the way that
I want to be led and I've got to walk the walk and talk the talk.
You know, I can't just say I'm going to support you being a mother first and
then complain if they have to be a mother.
That also just continues to be a catalyst to the culture and the environment
and that employees engagement knowing they're empowered, supported, and then
subsequently confident, I guess, just what it's all coming back to.
I heard something. It's like, if you don't like your culture, change your
culture, like as a leader, like do what you can to change your culture.
You are that you're well and our people are that I had a company cookout this
weekend and one of the individuals, one of our field technicians his wife was
telling me he's so happy working here now he came from a competitor of mine.
He came from a competitor of ours about a year and a half ago and she said he's
doing the same job every day. He's still an elevator technician, but he's just
so much happier here because of the culture.
And I told her, I said, well, he's a part of that. He contributes to that.
Totally.
We're as lucky to have him as he feels to be with us. You know, it's not just
like I did in this huge favor. He's a tremendous asset. He belongs here.
And having that sense of belonging and knowing that you're a contributor to not
just the business and not just the professional aspect of what we get paid to
do, but you're a contributor to the people around you and their culture.
That's as much as anything else too.
I think that's a huge thing in our SDR work. Like every time that we talk to
our team about like why they like it here and what improvements that they want
to see or what they love about it, it always ties back to culture.
We do such a good job. I don't say so myself of harvesting such a great culture
Aside from anything else in the company, like we say true to ourselves, no
matter what's going on. It just goes a really long way.
I mean, I know you guys want to hear from me on some of this, but I'll tell you
that I think that you guys have a great challenge in terms of a culture being
more remote versus what I have in the sense that I'm lucky enough that I can
walk in and smile every day.
I can be outgoing and jovial and my team is going to see the way that I'm
carrying myself and I'm going to almost set the tone visually.
You guys have a tough challenge of setting a tone, being empathetic, while a
lot of communication can be digital.
Anyone knows as well as I do, sometimes emails or text or words can get a
little bit misconstrued.
We often times need to remember that as leaders, you guys have all done it
where you sent something to your boss or your boss sent you something you over
think.
Why was there a period at the end of that sentence? Are they mad at me?
Kind of thing. I can just walk up and grab somebody and be like, "Hey, dude,
come on, let's go chat."
Whatever. They're not going to have that angst about it whereas you guys might
send a message and inadvertently have someone talking to their wife or husband
about it at night in bed.
What did they mean by this? What is this mean for tomorrow? I don't know. I
think that's tough. It's really tough.
Fostering like a remote culture is definitely difficult, but we've been doing
it for so many years now that it's kind of like we have that rhythm in place
and making sure that we're engaging with our team throughout the day.
Lila and I love to talk about sharing the small wins because they're just as
important as sharing the big ones. Even if someone picks up the phone, "Fuck
yeah, they just answered. Let's go."
Just even saying something like that. Chat, I know that you have said a lot of
really great things on this podcast. We're going to go into our fun rapid fire
questions, but the reason why I preface it like this is because the first
question is, and you have already said such good advice thus far, what's the
best piece of advice that you've ever received?
It's tough because it's come at different times. When I was a brand new leader,
the advice of just being you and doing the job was the best advice that I got.
So that would probably be to new leaders. BU, you've put in put there for a
reason. You won't know everything. You're not expected to.
You're put there because you possess some skill set that whomever puts you
there, sees in you that you will be able to figure it out. So BU and do the job
Then I received advice later that after I got into it and I just was, you know,
drinking from a fire hose of the volume of what came along with it, and I
started kind of fine tuning my own leadership style.
My previous manager at the time who I have an immense amount of respect for
gave me the advice of just doing the right thing. If you always do the right
thing, what you believe to holistically be the right thing, chances are
everything will turn out okay.
And that can be tough sometimes when you're running a business and you have
maybe the customer thinks there's something that's the right thing to do and
you may have a business case otherwise, you know, if I empower my team to be
empowered the same way that I was to just make the best decision that I can
at the time and not try to stress about what would Chad want me to do here,
what would Chad want me to say, you know, just do what you think is the right
thing.
Amen. Love it. Okay. The next few ones are a little bit quirky. So you got to
think fast.
Okay. If you could switch lives with someone for a week, who would it be and
why?
Probably.
I thought it was going to be Scottie Scheffler. Not a golfer. Scottie Scheffler
. Yeah, he's the world number one golfer right now. I thought it was going to be Tiger Woods for sure. Tiger's not in his prime right now. If I could switch with anyone at any time,
2000 tiger for sure. But Scottie Scheffler right now. Wait, is he the one that
had the baby?
Yeah.
I love that. He just he just won the Masters. Yeah. I know absolutely nothing
about golf. I love how I know him as just having a baby and you're again, he
just like won the Masters. That's like the Super Bowl of golf.
Yeah. I know. I can't watch golf, like, or play it or anything that has to do
with it. I think it's probably one of the most boring sports I've ever seen.
I have to agree. I got engaged on the golf course. Oh my God, you did. I'm so
sorry. Wait, not sorry that you got engaged there, but sorry that I am.
Does Monica play golf? I got her golf clubs for her birthday and marks. So she
's starting. She likes it. Okay. But yeah, we played. We did around. It's
actually where the US Open will be this year, which is like another Super Bowl
in golf.
Yeah, it's that course. Don't you have a friend who got engaged on a golf
course too? Yeah, I did. I think golf courses are like stunning though, to be
honest, like it's so pretty. Like I used to walk around like my neighborhood
with a golf course and you know what I do love.
I love to ride around on a golf cart. And you know, the food at like the
country clubs are always. Oh my God, so there's some reason it's always a
Buffalo chicken wrap for me at these golf courses.
Mike's going to get into it more now that he's out of football. It's just
something you can continue to compete in and you can drink beer and do it at
the same time.
Every dude loves golf. I swear. Well, that's probably why. Because you feel
good to compete and drink beer while you do it.
If you could rename yourself, what would you choose and why? That's funny
because there's another Chad Smith that works for this company. So I'm Chad
Smith too. So I've been trying to convince my company to let me change to my
middle name. Maverick, why don't you just be Chad Smith one. Why does he get to be numbered?
Why do you have to be number? I don't know. But I may.
I may just make like a midlife career name change and go by my middle name
professionally at this company, but my middle name is Maverick.
Wait Maverick is his thick name. Okay, this is my favorite question. What is
the most unusual item in your refrigerator right now?
Now I'll tell you, Monica and I live together. So she's always up to something.
I say something. She's been really proud of her sourdough starter lately. And
that's a big deal for her. I would have never done that.
We've been coaching each other through this while she's been coaching me. But
honestly, I don't even know if that's in the fridge. That's how naive I am to
this. I.
Hey, Chad, this is the final question. What's the last photo of you? No, not of
you. But what's the last photo you took on your phone? Enter golf course.
No, it's actually what I posted on my story yesterday of Doug at our neighbor's
house, my dog. Oh my God, that was the cutest video ever. Did you actually, you
couldn't find him when you got home and he's on your neighbor's porch?
It's not that I couldn't find him. I knew he was outside in the backyard. I
just walked out and I was like, Doug, Doug, we're just dug and I look over and
he's in the neighbors sitting with the kids dad or neighbor, just like getting
all the attention.
And they had to let him in. So the kids like open the gate and let him in.
It was so cute. Either way, if you guys don't know, Chad's dog is a golden
retriever named Doug D.U.G. if you've ever seen the movie up looks just like
that dog.
And he was recently nominated or made the chief happiness officer at TK.
Yeah, yeah, that's funny. The social media team reached out to me about posting
that on our like TK national social media.
And we told him not to just because not all offices have like are able to have
dogs in like I do with Doug on Fridays.
Let Doug shine. Let Doug live. I felt the same way, but I didn't want to ruin a
good thing. You know what I mean? So I just said, no sweat.
No sweat. So, but he's because he's got his own little uniform for work and
everything.
Well, thank you so much, Chad, for coming. I mean, your insights into all
things leadership, styles, hiring and qualities that you look for and obtain
yourself.
We're just amazing and really impactful. So we really appreciate you coming on.
Chad, it was amazing to have you on lots of good advice that I think so many
people can take from some great quotes that I learned from too.
So appreciate you coming on here. By the time this episode comes out, Chad will
be a married and whoo.
Where's your wedding? Oh, it's in North Carolina. Yeah, in the mountains. Oh,
it's going to be gorgeous. I can write some pictures. Is Doug walking down the
aisle?
Of course, he's in the wedding. Is Mike walking him down? Isn't he? Yeah. Yeah.
That's hilarious. All right. Well, thank you so much, Chad. It was great having
you on.
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