How to Build a Team Guaranteed to Shine and to Consistently Create Exceptional Work Product with Traci Campbell

Tracey Campbell is an entrepreneur, a speaker, an author, an executive producer, an IT consultant, a CEO and the founder of 25013 c nonprofit organizations. She can do all of this because she's empowered teams of people around her. How exactly she does that is what Traci and I explore in this episode.

Welcome to The Courage of a Leader podcast. This is where you hear real life stories of top leaders achieving extraordinary results. And you get practical advice and techniques, you can immediately apply for your own success. This is where you will get inspired. And take bold, courageous action. I'm so glad you can join us. I'm your host, Amy Riley. Now, are you ready to step into the full power of your leadership and achieve the results you care about most? Let's ignite the Courage of a Leader.

Well, you are great at being a show host and an interviewer and an interviewee II. I know I have told you, Traci Traci, that I was so impressed when I interviewed you for the courage of a leader book, I asked you the question, how do leaders enable those around them to take on the tough stuff? And your answer was specific. And immediate. You said educate, support, protect and guide. So I'd love to dive deeper there. Educate. I assume we give people all the information that they need to be successful. We tell them not only the what we tell them, the why we provide the background, we provide the context. Tell me more about support. Okay, because I think that there's a lot of leaders out there who feel like they're supporting their teams. And I think that they might have one, maybe two key ways that they do that. How do you think about supporting your team members in your various endeavors?

Yeah, and I think, I think for the most part, I'd like to believe Amy, for the most part that those who are tasked or have been given the moniker of leader or director or some other lofty title, if you will, which denotes that they're in charge of a group of people, I like to think that most folks in that realm, support their team of you know, whether it's sharing their ideas, or embracing their ideas, or whether it's just letting them vent if necessary. And all those things are extremely important. And I think that's just to me the job of a leader to do. However, I also am a firm believer that when someone feels that they have ownership in something, when they feel that it's not just okay, I'm going to show up and do this job from nine to five, or I'm going to be a part of this project. And guess what the star of the show was going to get all the accolades and get all the benefits, but I'm doing my small part of here, I think if you continue to allow that to be the vibe of the environment, that eventually what's going to happen is folks will do it for a while. And then they will trickle off. Or they'll they'll find something else because we all it's human nature, we all want to feel valued. And we all want to feel a part of something. And we all want to feel that we're important in that something's right. We all want that. Whether it's business, personal, family relations, whatever it is, as human beings, that's what we need. And that's what we want. So when I talk about support, it goes a little bit beyond just, okay, these individuals are helping me to do our radio show or our podcast, or they're helping to do our social media or our website. Yes, that's all true. But I like to think that the reason most of the interns that we've had over the years are still with us. Yeah, I like to think that the folks that believe in the nonprofit side of the house, Bebo Foundation are still there since 2013. A lot of them. I like to think it's because they have some ownership in this they have a stake in this, you know, I am very good. I hope I am I think I am very good about saying hey, if you're passionate about a certain aspect of This, own it, run with it. Have at it. You know, we'll get together and talk about it. But I'm looking to you to drive this. And actually I'm looking to you to to educate me, because I'm not an expert in everything. So when you give people that, that latitude that runway, nice to do those things, I think that they appreciate that they value it, and they want to see the thing that they've invested so much time and energy in grow.

Yeah. Love it. What an empowering perspective on support, that it's not just listening to their ideas listening when they need to vent. Right. Yeah, being there to hear them. But going beyond that, giving them the ownership letting them drive the boat. And yeah, I feel really proud of what they're able to help create. That's great perspective on support.

Absolutely. And it kind of segues into guide. If you're doing those things under the support umbrella, in my opinion, then guiding is just a natural thing that happens because for example, I'll actually give a real life example we have someone on our team, she's amazing. She volunteer, not compensated. She just believes in the BS on our AMREF radio show. She loves it. She started as an intern, she's still here. I think she came on and 2017 Nice, is still with us still doing a great job every week. And recently, long story short recently, she does a phenomenal job with editing. She's very talented as an audio editor to to create the show or edit the show at the level in which it's on terrestrial radio. She's very talented. However, recently, she got in front of the microphone, I said, Hmm, I want to start with a microphone. And, you know, she thought, well, that's not my wheelhouse as well. How do you know it's not your wheelhouse? You haven't you tried it. Now, of course, my job is to make sure that if she's struggling, that you know, we're going to guide or we're going to edit later or we're going to do all those things. So we know that going in, but at least there's the opportunity for her to try it. And guess what, she's done a great job. And she sent me her headshot the other day, and then she calls she's, uh, Traci, I just sent you my headshot. Can I hope it's okay. And I said, Well, why wouldn't it be? Okay. Well, I was just wondering, you know, if you really want me to come on the show more and do I would love to and I know that you put our pictures out there, you know, the folks that come on the show, and I'm sitting there smiling because she was dancing around asking me it's okay for her to promote that into into into Promote that to her network of people. And that's an absolutely you're doing the work. It's morally whether you're behind the scenes or in front of the scenes, if you will, it's all work. And so she earned that she earned that. So now not only is she an editor, she's now periodically on the air with us, and who knows what else she may take on because now she is more invested. And my job is to guide her in this new aspect. Okay, being in front of the mind stole a lot from that being behind it. So my job is to guide her in that

lovely, lovely, lovely, I see what people try new things. Maybe Be on the lookout for strengths, and where might they be able to contribute in new and different ways. And when we do so, set them up for success,

that amount for success. Now, again, if someone did that, and they realized, and we realized that, you know, this is really not for you. It's okay. Yes. Okay. Yeah, it's okay. It's one thing when you realize that something is not for you on your own, versus someone telling you that it's not for you. Experience is always the best teacher. So if we're able to give someone that experience, and then let them decide if this is for them or not, but guess what, you can go back to doing what you were doing before you can try something else. When you're in an environment or you create an environment like that for folks. I think they will stick with you longer.

Yes, yes. So part of guiding is allowing them to experience and decide for themselves. So today, my guest is Traci S. Campbell. She's an entrepreneur, a speaker, an author, an executive producer, an information technology consultant, the CEO of Bebo worldwide, and founder of 2501 C three nonprofit organizations, the champ community project, and the Beebo foundation. She's worked with corporate and academic clients, such as IBM, McDonald's Sears and Northwestern University. The with over 12 years in podcasting and radio she has hosted several programs that aim to educate, inform and entertain. Bebo worldwide helps clients with radio podcasts and streaming media exposure and affordable seo services. So Traci is a dynamic Talent host and executive producer. She's interviewed veteran actors, recording artists, VH, one stars, politicians, and she has got the talent and the poise to be with them all and the knowledge to ask the right questions. As founder of the Bebo Foundation, tracing the team produced the annual Bebo beauty in beauty out awards, with which recognized dynamic women demonstrating leadership in their communities. And its celebrates real role models. Traci, delighted to have you with me here today.

I am so excited to be here, Amy, and thank you for allowing me to share this opportunity with you. This is fantastic.

Absolutely, I could talk to you for hours. Let's also talk about part of your response, which was pro tact. And that one that one touched my heart. When I heard that one, tell us more about how does a leader protect

me. And again, I know this gets harder when you're in a corporate structure. I know I've spent the bulk of my career in corporate. So I know it's harder to do what I'm about to propose. And that is to create a sense of family. And we all know that. When you think a family, we like to think that a family protects its members, right? We like to think that mom is protected of dad, mom and dad are protective of their children. And so even the children are protective of their parents, we like to think in a healthy family environment, key word being healthy family environment, that that's inherent right that protection is inherent. The same can be applied to a business entity, if you will, especially a small business, especially if it's a situation where you own or you're the leader of the small business, you have the ability to absolutely foster an environment that feels family like now that doesn't mean that things are lackadaisical, that doesn't mean that folks can just do what they want to do and, and not adhere to the bottom line. I'm not suggesting that. But what I am seeing is

your baby brother and Leslie. Right,

right, exactly. Yeah. There's gotta be boundaries, issue boundaries, even in your in your personal life, the boundaries. But that aside, you can still have an environment where folks feel like not only am I going to work for a brand, or a mission that I believe in, yeah, a brand or mission that will allow me to grow because they're going to support me a brand or mission that, wow, I'm going to get great experience. But I also feel that if I were to make a mistake, and guess what they will and so will you as a leader, if I make a mistake, or if I have a misstep, if you will, that I feel that I can go to this family, to this head of the family, and that person or group of individuals are going to first try to protect me, or cover me if you will. If of course, it's warranted, I have to put me right, because I've been very careful with this one, because protection is there if it's warranted. Now, obviously, we have a situation where this person, or individuals did something that would be a detriment to the company or to the mission, that's a different conversation. But the assumption is that this person made a mistake, this person is growing, we all make mistakes as we grow. And if you're able to foster that kind of environment, your job is to make everyone feel that they are protected, that they're valued. And again, this all goes back to enhancing the performance of your team. If they trust you, then they're less likely to do anything that's going to be detrimental. Yeah. And if they do, you have the opportunity to give them another chance and make them feel inclusive and protected. So so to me, it's creating that family like environment, and it's not always easy. What I'm proposing sounds easy, but it's not. But if you're able to do it, again, it speaks volumes to retaining those individuals on your team. Yeah,

it is a challenge and one that is definitely worth pursuing. As I think that that family feel that we support each other, we've got each other's back, this is a safe place to share your new ideas, try something and stumble. It's more important than ever.

It is it is. And you know, Amy is something that's really interesting. And I think it's great, actually. But it's really interesting, this whole notion of supporting your own or being there and being supportive of something that's a little more close knit. The millenniums are doing a phenomenal job of this. And I've read more than one article that talks about how they will support a local, unknown brand. Yeah, if they believe in it, if they feel a connection to it, they are more apt to support that brand or that mission. And guess what, tell all their friends and family about it, then a big box brand, they're more apt to support, Bob, and Jill's Apple, Stan, than they are to support target. Okay, so those are just examples. But I hope everyone gets the point here. And then this is the generation that's coming up. And they are all about localization. They're all about supporting homegrown, they're all about supporting authenticity. So we, you know, the Gen Xers, the boomers and beyond, really need to take heed of that. And if you're in a position where you can influence the environment that you're in, take a lesson. That's one of the great things about millennials. I think that's phenomenal that they are all about supporting the little guy. Yeah. If you are a little die, then you might want to take a lesson from them. I think it's great.

Yeah. Yeah. And that's, and that's a great point, right? Whether it's our department, our function, our division within something larger if it's our mom and pop boutique, if we support and protect our team members will get that support and that protection back? Absolutely. It will be it'll be it'll become an authentic exchange,

as Absolutely. Now, is this a silver bullet? No. Because we all know, there's all sorts of things that happen along the way that and some things are just unavoidable. But if this is your bread and butter, if you will, of how you're going to conduct your business, especially small business, and this is how you're going to foster that type of environment. I think that being able to say I've had interns with me for 567 years being able to say that my nonprofit committees or boards are still around for 10 years, I think you're setting yourself up to be in a position to be able to have those milestones.

Yeah, yeah, I couldn't agree more. So Traci, you said, educate, support protecting guide, pre pandemic? And now we have experienced a pandemic? Yes. How does leading in these ways, look and feel different? How have you how have you had to do that more intentionally? I'm assuming?

Yeah. The one thing I can say, Amy, and we've had challenges just like everybody else, but the one thing I can say is, you know, when you go through a situation that you prepare for, well, I should say, when you are prepared for a situation that hasn't arisen yet, okay? When you do that, and you train or you plan, or you stockpile, or whatever it is that you're doing, when the situation actually happens. Now you have things that you can call up, you have reserves, you have things that now you can tap into. And the reason I bring that up is that some of the things that we just discussed with them, some of the things that we're talking about right now are things that just just didn't happen yesterday. Yeah, these are things that we were doing and advocating and trying to live what we preach for a few years now. Yeah, so when the pandemic hit the team, I have to give them all credit. It they just said, Okay, well, we can't go in the studio now. So guess what, we're going to set up our own home studios, and they were proactive without having to say, Hey, everybody, this is what we're gonna do. They were proactive. I realized they had ownership, trade, ownership. There you go. They had ownership. They had a stake in this. And if you've been with anything, a couple of years, 234 years, you're not really wanting to let that just fall by the wayside. Right? You're you have a vested interest now, so they were proactive in getting whatever they needed at home, setting up their area at home if it wasn't already set up. They were proactive. Have okay now, even though it's not my job to promote on social media, because Traci has individuals that do that, guess what we're all pitching in. So they started promoting more than they did before they even though it was outside of their primary responsibility, they still did it. And they did more of it. So all of those things that the environment that we created together for those few years pre pandemic, all of that stuff came up, bubbled up to the top when we needed it. Yeah, yeah,

I just keep thinking about that ownership that you were speaking of earlier. Right? And when people are invested, and we're more invested, when we feel that ownership, we do we all right, when we feel like we can make decisions around this, we're a we're a integral part of making it happen, then you get that proactive response, you get that you're not going to get that it's not my job, right? We're making this happen. And you're thinking about what are all the ways that I can support and I'm gonna get involved in social media promotion, even though it's not my job? That's right, guys, I want this to be a success.

That's right, we had a couple individuals that unfortunately, fell ill to COVID. And so all of us, myself included, had to take up extra responsibilities. Well, a couple of team members said, Hey, we would love to be able to help with show ideas. And would you allow us essentially, to, hey, we're going to come up with some ideas, we're going to pitch them to you, Traci, and others, and, and if it's great, if you want to use it, great, we'll go out and we'll do because once you have a show idea, you have to now do the research and do all these other things to prepare. So it's not just hey, an idea. And that's it, no, there's work that's associated, when you're signing yourself up for it. You're setting yourself up for probably five or six tasks that are related to this idea. Okay, so and they know that they've been around long enough. So they knew what they were saying when they say hey, we're willing to pitch in and do this. And, and couple other ideas. We said, Great, we want to move forward on and they took responsibility. And some of those ideas we've already broadcast out there. And it was a great conversation, great content, great research. I didn't do all that myself. These are individuals that are on the team, but they learned from me and from others. And so now they can go out and do it at a level that brings us quality. And again, how we handle the pandemic, well, we didn't wait till the pandemic, we borrowed on all the things that were building blocks prior to the pandemic. Now, within the pandemic, some things came up unexpectedly. But again, that family supportive, experimental, if you will, environment, allow individuals to say, Okay, we have to do this, this and this, and they were proactive. And that's, that's the kind of team that you want.

Yes, yes. And when you have that, they can figure out the details. They can have the obstacles, the opportunities, the whatever is coming your way? Absolutely. Yeah. When you've got the team that's empowered and feels that ownership, they're ready to figure it out.

Absolutely, absolutely. Absolutely. And that's what happened to us. And I'm everyday, everyday, Amy so grateful and feel very blessed to have individuals that I work with constantly that aren't burned out, at least not yet. And they continue to deal with my idiosyncrasies, and, and all sorts of things. You know, we're all humans. So we have quirks and but all those things aside, it's a phenomenal, phenomenal team. Yes, yes. And

your team puts on a lot. Yeah, we have covered some of it. But we have not yet. Tell us about luminar.com. Yes,

we were discussing some of the topics that we talked about on the radio or on Bebo weekly. And I said, wow, you know, when I talk to clients, outside of our media projects, you know, clients that are wanting to take their business to the next level, you hear the same things over and over, you hear, Well, my website's not doing what it's supposed to do, or I'm not getting enough leads, okay? Or how do I get more hits on my website? Usually, the common denominator is that a, they're not educated themselves. And they what happened is that they relied on someone, that person may or may not have been qualified, but nonetheless, this person is no longer there. And now, they're in the lurch, right? So that's a very common scenario, very common scenario. The other Aside of that scenario is that well, they may realize that they need to know a, b, and c. But they, the courses are expensive. So maybe they can courses. Or maybe they feel that, okay, if I have to prioritize paying for this course, you're ordering more widgets for my business to continue to operate, guess what they're gonna do, they're gonna order more widgets, right? They're gonna, the course or the training is going to go by the wayside. So understanding that, that conundrum, we said, Okay, what do we do? What can we do? And we decided, okay, we're going to create a platform, we're going to start it off with some of the common things that small business owners need. If you're going to teach it, you really need to teach it well. Yeah. Which means many hours of video and or in person and or handouts. I mean, it's a lot of work. Yeah. And so of course, automatically, folks think, oh, my gosh, this course is going to cost me 497 or 697, or 997, those prices that you see out there, yeah. For courses. And so I said, you know, we're going to do something that's a little weird. We're going to do all this work, I took kind of the onus of this, I kind of put this more myself than on my team, because they're already doing other stuff. And I said, over the course of several months, I just took my time. And I basically recorded a lot of content. And we put it together in a nice course on a nice platform made it really easy to get to. And we're looking at prices anywhere from $37 to maybe 147. At the top. Wow, super affordable, super affordable. Now, will we be able to do this long term? I don't know. But our but we want to do it, everyone, we want to keep it that way. And so we're hoping that for the foreseeable future, we'll be able to keep the courses that we offer the training that we offer on blooming our.com. And that affordable RAM extremely affordable round. Yeah. And you walk away feeling wow, I got all of that for that. And our hope is that, selfishly, we hope that you'll tell other other people about it. Right. And again, we're both over there. But authentically, we really hope that you get something from it. It comes

back to your leadership, intention of educate. Yes,

absolutely. Absolutely. That education needs to be accessible. Education is not good if it's not accessible. So we want to make it accessible. And in order to do that, in this climate that we're in economic climate that we're in, we have to make it at a price point that everyone can say, I can afford to squeeze out for them.

Yes. I glossed over the leadership activity of educate earlier, right, I said a few things about it, and then dive into the next I'm glad we've made a loop back to this. Because that's a really great point about making it accessible, right, and this is to your clients. But we can also think about how do we educate an accessible way to our team members? Absolutely. How do they prefer to learn? How do we get to get it to them in an easy way? You know, I've seen some organizations that you know, like everything's a link, well, maybe they want to talk something through with somebody, right?

They want to talk to another human being, maybe maybe

we have different learning styles. So considering that right, and giving folks options and educating in different ways, I might have more of an impact.

Absolutely. And again, sometimes old school is best. I know, folks don't want to hear that. And if we can't, because of the pandemic and all sorts of other factors, if we can't make that in person, one on one human connection, and you know, touchy feely connection, if you will, the next best thing is video as the best the best that we're gonna be able to do in this climate. And so folks will gravitate towards that quicker than giving them a PDF, if you will, they want to feel some kind of connection. And again, we have to do the best we can in this climate. So we took the time on luminar.com to create a lot of video content, actually, the whole platform is set up for video based content because we already know that that's going to be the next best thing to in person learning.

Nice, nice. We will make sure that the link to Luminar and all of the shows that Traci is involved in that the links are in the show notes. Thank you so much for being with me today, Traci and some great specific takeaways on how we can really engage our team remembers at a high level.

Thank you, Amy for having me. And I truly hope that what we discussed here today, I truly hope it will benefit someone out there, especially if you are already in the position carrying the moniker of leader, Director manager, whatever that moniker is, if you're already wearing that badge, I really hope that some of what we discussed today is helpful. And if you're beginning to go down that path, I truly hope what we talked about today is helpful because it really will make a difference long term and for your business for yourself, but especially for those on your team.