Ezra Rosensaft of IDW: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became A CEO

“Be a great listener”. Over the past year I have been humbled by many people who know more than me — as I mentioned earlier, we are a team; no ONE person has all the skills — and I have learned the criticality of: don’t listen to reply, but rather listen to listen.

As part of my series about the leadership lessons of accomplished business leaders, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ezra Rosensaft.

Ezra Rosensaft is the CEO of IDW (OTCPINK: IDWM), a leading media company with the award-winning IDW Publishing and IDW Entertainment divisions.

Thank you so much for joining us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

To give some background, after receiving my BA and then going on to get my MBA, I worked for “Big Four”, and then HBO for about 15 years. I joined the IDW family in early 2018 as the CFO, and then mid-2020 I took on the role as IDW’s CEO.

I’m afraid the details of my career path are rather bleak as it is pretty straightforward, (though both HBO and IDW as well as the TV industry in general, are anything but boring), but when I started in the industry after getting my degrees I dedicated myself and my time to it. Some people will test their passion for their career by veering off path and exploring other options — maybe to return, maybe not, but for me, when I started I was in it for the long haul, and that’s all she wrote. As I like to say, it’s not a job, it’s a lifestyle (though to be honest I often daydream that my background is something out of one of our comics or television series… don’t we all secretly wish to be interesting?) Frankly, I think it’s that “interesting” part that makes companies like IDW excellent. The people are all interesting and the chemistry and culture that I’ve had the privilege of helping build are amazing.

Our Chairman, Howard Jonas, is an amazing role model in that regard, for me on both personal and professional levels; I’m simply carrying out his vision.

Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard?

I think that most professionals hit certain obstacles throughout their careers that make them wonder whether they’re in the right place or not. Challenges are inevitable, so how you handle them is ultimately the deciding factor of your success. To this day, I continually remind myself that there is room for improvement, which has always been something that’s motivated me to push past any hardships that I’ve been presented with in my career. When things get tough, we have to remember that once the difficulty passes, the easier times are that much sweeter. Mindset is half the battle, so looking forward — even in the most difficult times — was half the battle, sometimes more.

So, how are things going today? How did grit and resilience lead to your eventual success?

Things are going to be great in 2021! Yes, I think we all need to force ourselves to be positive in the face of the past 12+ months. I now start each morning, the moment my feet swing out of bed by verbally stating “It’s going to be a beautiful day!” Perhaps the theme of 2020 was grit and resilience. Much like nearly every industry this year, the publishing and entertainment world was rocked by the pandemic and eventual lockdowns. We had to rethink how we approached all facets of the business. But we did it and we did it well. Though our book sales have almost doubled from last year (what do people do in a pandemic? Buy books.), it’s not to say that challenges have been curtailed by any means (books up, productions on hold — argh!) There’s still so much to work through, but these obstacles are what I am most thankful for. I’d much rather be humbled in the face of adversity than continue being comfortable and complacent.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

One of my first months at KPMG (the Big Four firm I started with), the head of the practice saw me in the hallway midday and asked me if I had time to review something timely for a very large client (parent company of Mercedes-Benz, actually). I was a newly minted MBA, and I must have been on another cloud that day for some reason as I recall looking at him and stating “Sure, but later, Tony, I’m going to lunch now.” Literally. That was my answer. Only later that evening when I told a friend did she say “Are you crazy? He wasn’t really ‘asking’; he was telling you to do it NOW.”

I quickly realized that learning to prioritize — truly prioritize — is as essential in business as in the emergency room (I was a volunteer EMT in NYC for half-a-dozen years, so yes, having been in many ambulances and ERs, media is not as life critical, but nevertheless prioritization is essential).

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

IDW is unique because we do it all and we do it well! We’re a leading (growing) media company that provides the best of entertainment through our licensed brands like “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”, and breakthrough IP like “Locke & Key”, while always endeavoring to be on the forefront of the latest trends across all platforms. We holistically evaluate and acquire IP for franchise development across comics and graphic novels, television, theatrical, games, merchandise and more.

I remember visiting the “writers room” in LA for “October Faction”, first an IDW comic, then a TV show we licensed to Netflix. Our current Publisher, Nachie Marsham, was not with us yet, but our President of Entertainment, Lydia Antonini, was at IDW, albeit a different role at the time. She brought the best of the industry to IDW and into that writers room (helmed by Damian Kindler). That is what everyone should aim for, whether a window cleaning company or a telecom giant: the best in class. Great people aren’t just a little better than very good people; a great employee is 10x better than the next “very good” one.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?

I believe that oftentimes, you reach the point of burning out when you’ve been doing the exact same thing the same way for too long. The world is constantly changing, so as leaders in the publishing and entertainment industries, we must mirror this. Rather than constantly sticking to what has always worked, it’s important to seek innovation and surround yourself with people who think differently than you. Combining tradition with an open mind and a corporate culture with a diverse perspective will not only set your company up for success, but it will also keep you engaged, fresh and in the fight. And, one more thing: no matter how hard it is, it’s critical to “unplug”. I had a run of several 80-hour weeks. It wasn’t until our counsel said to me one day: “Ezra. Shut it off and no emails from you for two days.”

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

As I mentioned earlier, our Chairman, Howard Jonas, is a personal and professional role model. I was depressed after leaving HBO, and when I met with him, he saw past the depression and anxiety, and offered me a role at IDW. I would absolutely not be where I am today without boots-on-the-ground, real-world conversations with Howard. At the same time, Lydia (Antonini) was in the trenches with me as we both put in ridiculous hours to course-correct IDW. Even our new Publisher, Nachie, helps ground me every time I talk to him about the comic book space. I am so grateful I can learn from him and others. The company is a team; forget titles — they are meaningless.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

I wish I had a snappy answer such as “helping to cure cancer”, though I can say that I’ve had a strong hand in bringing IDW’s culture swiftly in line with a “correct” diverse and open culture that reflects where the world is headed and people want to come to work.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me before I started leading my company” and why. Please share a story or example for each.

  1. “Don’t work 12 hours a day, 6 days a week.” It’s true. It is not productive or efficient in the long-run, and you will not only burn yourself out, but your family and friends will truly loathe you.
  2. “Don’t try to control everything’. I think it is natural for C-level professionals to want to manage or control, not micromanage mind you, but still an attempt to manage things. Better off delegating and then delegating some more.
  3. “Encourage growth in others”. It seems obvious but harder in practice. Yet boosting employee self-esteem is hugely important for a healthy organization.
  4. “Be a great listener”. Over the past year I have been humbled by many people who know more than me — as I mentioned earlier, we are a team; no ONE person has all the skills — and I have learned the criticality of: don’t listen to reply, but rather listen to listen.
  5. “One day at a time.” It’s true. The lights go off and the office cleaners come in. One can only do so much in one day — especially from home in a pandemic

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

My favorite IDW initiatives come from our children and family divisions, publishing an array of comics and graphic novels for young readers. I would love to see this initiative flipped with young authors and illustrators creating content for adults to help us reconnect with our inner-child. As mentioned, I make it a priority to constantly expose myself to out-of-the-box thinking and as a father, I can say with complete certainty that children are expert out-of-the-boxers and can teach us a thing or two through their surplus of creativity and imagination. I think all adults could use even just an acute reconnection with that unique creativity that children have. If only we can all un-learn to “color in the lines” and just color anywhere on the paper — literally and figuratively.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

I can be found on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ezrarosensaft/

You can also find IDW on Instagram and Facebook @idwentertainment and @IDWPublishing, and on Twitter @IDWentertain and @IDWPublishing.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!

My pleasure; thank you for the opportunity. I’ve been a Medium premium subscriber for a while; I could get lost for hours reading articles on Medium, and love that Authority is firmly rooted here.

Ezra Rosensaft of IDW: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became A CEO was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Xiaoyi Chen of LuminoCity Festival: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before Became A Founder

Keep going- resilience is the only way forward. There will be setbacks along the way, but it’s essential to keep trying and keep moving forward. For example, this year due to COVID travel restrictions we were unable to bring our overseas workers from China who are instrumental in assembling the lanterns onsite. We were able to pivot and enlist the help of local workers to help build the lanterns instead. The change in plans created a very tight timeline, and it took all hands on deck, myself included, to get the festival across the finish line.

As part of my series about the leadership lessons of accomplished business leaders, I had the pleasure of interviewing Xiaoyi Chen.

Xiaoyi Chen is the founder of LuminoCity Festival — an annual immersive wonderland of light sculptures and art installations in New York City. Chen was born and raised in Zigong City, located in the Sichuan province of China, which is the epicenter of lantern manufacturing and lantern festival production. She held the magic and childhood memories of the annual lantern festival close, and after attending Pratt Institute for graduate school, Chen decided to share the experience with NYC. The first LuminoCity Festival took off in 2019 with great success and will continue to return to the city for years to come.

Thank you so much for joining us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

Thank you for having me! The story of LuminoCity Festival begins with my childhood. I grew up in Zigong, located in the Sichuan province of China. Every year, the city hosts an annual lantern festival that attracts over two million people from around the world. As a child, I was captivated by the experience and watched the lanterns grow in size and scale with each year. I knew I had to find a way to bring the lantern festival tradition to the United States in order to share the magic I experienced as a child.

After graduating from Pratt, I started to think about how I could bring this experience from my childhood to New York City. I had visited local light festivals including the famous Dyker Heights Lights during my first holiday season in the city, which gave me a sense of the current market. The goal with LuminoCity Festival was to bring together traditional lantern making techniques with modern design in order to introduce a new experience altogether. LuminoCity Festival is more than just a light festival- it brings together illuminated sculptures, storytelling, and culture unlike anything the city has seen before.

Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey?

When I first started my journey with LuminoCity Festival, the biggest obstacle I faced was learning to stay true to my vision and tune out the critics. I don’t have a background in business, I’m young, and at the time I didn’t have the necessary capital raised in order to launch the festival. Despite these challenges, I was insistent on pursuing the vision that I had for LuminoCity Festival and was determined to find the resources to make it work. There were times when the process was slow and I made mistakes along the way, but I wouldn’t change anything because I learned so much about how to run a business and ended up with the festival I had always dreamed of.

I also discovered that the event and production industry is very male-dominated and that I faced even more obstacles due to my age, race and gender. There were times when I felt like I wasn’t being taken seriously or was not expected to speak up or give a firm opinion, especially when it came to raising money for the business.

Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard?

When things get hard, I focus on what I can do to solve the problem in front of me. I reevaluate plan A and look for where I can make adjustments or improvements. I use my judgment to find certainty in uncertainty, and to make the impossible possible, even if it looks like I am putting all of my eggs in one basket. This singular focus on making the best plan possible and focusing on the work is what keeps me going.

So, how are things going today? How did grit and resilience lead to your eventual success?

Right now I am at a place where I feel like we have planted the seed of LuminoCity Festival and that it will continue to grow as long as we stay on the right path. At times it feels like we are walking on the edge of an abyss and that every move is one step further into the unknown. It could be solid ground or it could be air beneath our feet. The important thing is to keep going and to put one foot in front of the other in order to build towards success.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I don’t think it was a mistake, but when I was first starting out I learned how important it is to find the right talent and fit for the team. At first, it was really hard for me to let members of the team go who weren’t a good fit. I came to realize that I couldn’t make decisions based on my own personal comfort or perception, but rather that I had to make the best decisions in the interest of the business.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

With many holiday light festivals already established in New York City, it was important to find ways to make LuminoCity Festival stand out. The global pandemic made this even more challenging as we had to find new ways to make the experience safe while still presenting a dazzling light display. This year, we were one of the only large-scale outdoor holiday festivals in New York City and we had to implement new health and safety measures including mandatory masks, social distancing, and hand sanitizing stations throughout the festival in order to keep guests safe. We also presented over 7,000 light sculptures that spanned over 10 acres, which are handcrafted by a team of skilled artisans in China. Lastly, the Lumi character, a magical light bulb and the host of the festival, helps to differentiate LuminoCity Festival from other lantern events in the city.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?

No matter your title or department, I encourage others to jump in, get their feet wet, and take responsibility for their work. Some days will require physical strength when it comes to helping out on site, while others will include long days of sitting at a desk. For me, no task is too small. I personally go in and set up the office that we use while on site and make sure every detail is correct — from setting up the Wifi to stocking pens. At the end of the day, the best way to avoid burnout and continue to thrive is to roll up your sleeves and do the work.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

It’s hard to choose just one person! This year I am especially grateful for the entire LuminoCity Festival team who produced a successful event despite significant hurdles due to COVID 19. Without their support, hard work, and dedication over the past few months we wouldn’t have been able to put on the festival. I am also grateful for my close friends. So much of my day is spent on the festival that it is crucial to have friends who are outside of work that I can go to for their support and outside perspective.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

LuminoCity Festival has brought goodness and joy to thousands of New Yorkers and visitors from outside of the city. To me, success looks like seeing the smile on a child’s face when they come to visit and the laughter that families share while walking through the lights. It has been a difficult year for so many, and we are happy to create an experience that literally provides light to others.

By staging the festival this year we were also able to provide jobs to many who may have otherwise been out of work. 2020 took a huge toll on the economy, and we were proud to be able to offer opportunities for people to work and take part in the festival.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me before I started leading my company” and why. Please share a story or example for each.

  1. Utilize your network. As an entrepreneur, networking is an incredibly powerful tool. I often rely on my close friends who I can talk to about the business and where we need support. It’s helpful to have an extra set of eyes and ears who can share opportunities by word of mouth and recommend people they may have in mind. I’ve also had great success through casual chance encounters. Once I met a lovely couple during a trip to San Francisco. We stayed in touch and they ended up coming on to help us with user experience and accounting!
  2. Find your community. For anyone who is interested in starting their own business, I would recommend either finding a friend who is also starting their own venture or joining a meet-up or start up group where you can exchange ideas and resources. There’s only so much you can learn from books and Ted Talks! When I was preparing for the 2019 festival I connected with another woman who had experience in running her own businesses in both the non-profit and the for profit sectors. Her advice and wisdom was invaluable to the success of LuminoCity’s first year.
  3. Keep going- resilience is the only way forward. There will be setbacks along the way, but it’s essential to keep trying and keep moving forward. For example, this year due to COVID travel restrictions we were unable to bring our overseas workers from China who are instrumental in assembling the lanterns onsite. We were able to pivot and enlist the help of local workers to help build the lanterns instead. The change in plans created a very tight timeline, and it took all hands on deck, myself included, to get the festival across the finish line.
  4. Commit to the path. Being an entrepreneur is extremely time consuming and there is very little work-life balance. This is not a path for everyone and it takes a significant amount of commitment and resilience. It was not until LuminoCity Festival was already underway that I realized that this company was much bigger than myself and that I would need to hire outside help. My strong commitment to my vision and seeing it through helped me to find a way forward and grow the company with confidence.
  5. Be comfortable being solo. It’s important to recognize that the business starts and ends with you. Whether it is a partner, investor, or team member, you have to be prepared to continue doing things without this person. This is something that I have learned while growing the LuminoCity Festival team.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

The movement has already started! LuminoCity Festival has fulfilled my dream to share the experience of my hometown lantern festival with the world. It is important to me that we are able to extend the opportunity to find the joy and magic in the lights with the local community as well. This year, LuminoCity Festival partnered with charities including Big Brothers Big Sisters of NYC, Tickets for Kids® Charities and Astor Services for Children & Families to brighten the holidays for children. We will continue to partner with the community for years to come in order to spread as much good as possible.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

Readers can follow LuminoCity Festival on our social media channels below:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/luminocityfestival/?hl=en

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LuminocityFest

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/luminocityfestival/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/luminocityfestival/_created/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNYnpwDxzcHcvVztTP3mFdQ

Xiaoyi Chen of LuminoCity Festival: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before Became A Founder was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Ethan Karp of MAGNET: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became A CEO

No matter how much I believe in the importance of taking time for myself in my workday, with family, vacations, etc., I just get completely wrapped up in the excitement, the importance, and the urgency of every day at work. I trust my team and empower them to take the organization to new heights, however, I also know that there are many things they do that could go better if I helped. My ego continually tells me that I am important and can make everything better if I just spent more time.

As part of my series about the leadership lessons of accomplished business leaders, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ethan Karp.

Ethan Karp is the President and CEO of non-profit consulting group, MAGNET, the Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network. Prior to joining MAGNET in 2013, he worked with Fortune 500 companies at McKinsey & Co. He received both a Ph.D. and undergraduate degree in biochemistry and physics from Miami University.

Thank you so much for joining us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

Simple — walking around the office saying hello to everyone. As a McKinsey consultant I would fly around the world every week to a new place or a new project. On Fridays, when many consultants took the time to work from home, I went into the office. I always made time to walk around the office and make small talk. I guess you could call it networking. To me, I was just being friendly.

At the same time, while I loved my work at McKinsey, I was eager to make a contribution to society. So I started looking at all kinds of initiatives going on in Cleveland. Eventually, I found a non-profit organization whose mission was to help small manufacturers; it not only intrigued me but also happened to have one of the people I’d befriended on my Friday walkabouts as board chair. I considered him a friend and mentor, so when he asked me to lead the organization, I said yes.

Can you tell us a story about hard times you faced when you first started your journey?

About eight weeks into the job, bright eyed with great ideas of how we were going to set strategy together, I gathered my new team. Ten minutes into the meeting my marketing and sales leads got in an all-out screaming match. I got them calmed down, but then a few minutes later I had to lay down the law about sexist jokes after one was proffered to “lighten the mood.” Two people sat in the corner and said nothing for four hours. I learned later that most everyone figured this 26-year-old “hotshot” was going to leave — they just had to wait him out. Complacency was rampant. Initiative was non-existent. The organization was disconnected from its mission. The culture was toxic and here I was in my first leadership role trying to unravel it all.

Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard?

I wish I could say that it was undying optimism and belief in the ability of people to change. But in reality, what got me through those early days was blind naivete. I vividly remember telling my Board Chair that “if only I could make these three staff changes, everything would be fixed.” He wisely counseled me that I shouldn’t make broad proclamations as this was only part of the problem, there were no quick fixes. He couldn’t have been more right. It took four years of strategic recruiting, performance management, organizational changes, and culture building until we finally got all the right people moving in the same direction towards achieving our mission. Making those people changes was just the tip of the iceberg to truly changing a culture.

Sometimes I wonder what I would have done had I known what I know now. Would I have even taken the job? Perhaps we all need to enter new roles like this every few years so that we take on the challenges that others with more experience might not. Perhaps a little blind naivete is sometimes helpful in making real change happen.

So, how are things going today? How did grit and resilience lead to your eventual success?

For the first couple of years, you are constantly undoing others’ mistakes — bad processes, bad hires, poor management, etc. But then, one day you realize, they are your mistakes now.

For me, the first big mistake was a hiring one. A senior leader abruptly left, leaving just a single key employee remaining in that function. Another employee, my mistake hire, suggested to the key employee that, in the wake of the chaos of the departure, he should threaten to leave if he didn’t get a higher salary. The suggesting employee was the proverbial bad apple who turned many employees sour and fueled toxic culture. I hired this person against the advice of my counselors and peers. I created the problem.

I owned this mistake (and I did fix it), alongside all other subsequent mistakes that I made. My resilience came from having trusted mentors I could talk to and a team that I had recruited to be the cultural vanguard and to support each other to make change happen no matter how many mistakes we made. My grit came from knowing that I was never going to be the type of person to mess things up without putting them right. Today, MAGNET is on the list of best places to work in Cleveland and our ability to save and create 1,500 jobs per year in manufacturing is a testament to how our team works together to drive impact and success.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

The stupidest mistake I made early on was smiling too much. Not kidding. I was in a meeting with senior leaders and they were talking about a very serious problem that predated me. I wanted them to know that I was engaged. So, I put on an amused slightly upturned mouth that looked like a smile. As I was made aware after the meeting, it looked like schadenfreude — that I was happy about these troubles. In that moment I learned that as a leader, every expression, every gesture and every word must align. It has taken many more years to realize that there is simply no replacement for authenticity. You must tap into your genuine leadership presence so you can truly connect and engage.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

Our belief in values and their power makes our company standout. When COVID happened, MAGNET could have taken a PPP loan and waited it out, preparing ourselves for when manufacturers were ready to hire us again. Instead, we relied on our values to do the right thing. We worked harder than ever before to coordinate 2,000 manufacturers to create personal protective equipment across the state of Ohio to help save lives while saving manufacturing jobs.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?

No matter how much I believe in the importance of taking time for myself in my workday, with family, vacations, etc., I just get completely wrapped up in the excitement, the importance, and the urgency of every day at work. I trust my team and empower them to take the organization to new heights, however, I also know that there are many things they do that could go better if I helped. My ego continually tells me that I am important and can make everything better if I just spent more time.

Here’s the deal — it is probably true that as the leader, you, right now, are best positioned to do many individual things better and faster than the people around you. Your company might perform better if you did them. You likely got to where you are with a huge amount of energy and focus and drive. You might be able to sustain that for another 5 years until you do really burnout and then everything crashes.

But in reality, it’s a fallacy that you can make everything better by stepping in to do it yourself. While you might get better results in the short term, you will burn out. You’ll also leave the team around you feeling disempowered and frustrated. Maybe you’ll avoid the mistakes they would’ve made, but you’ll prevent them from growing and learning from those mistakes.

I don’t have the silver bullet here — I am in that millennial group of leaders struggling to balance everything. The extra boost in performance from taking on more myself might be worth sacrificing sleep or family time. At least now I am aware of that struggle and am actively making my decisions for myself.

No matter how many articles you read that talk about this, nothing is ever going to stick until you really dive into what is driving you. And to do that, you need a therapist/coach. So my main tip is to find someone you like and trust and talk to them every week. Let them help you be the best version of yourself and not let leadership drain you each day. If many people rely on you, your mental health and awareness needs care and attention.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

My mentor, Felix Brueck, a man who has spent countless hours with me as a neophyte leader, gives counsel when I ask, but never takes away my agency. He gives me the blunt, straight scoop when I do well or when I mess up. He tells me how to do the hard things and sticks up for me when I make mistakes. But above all, Felix cares about me.

Last year, after multiple years of really strong performance for my organization, Felix went about his normal set of interviews to make my review. The centerpiece of this review was an extremely sincere, yet brutally honest assessment of the way that I had taken care of my health (i.e., my weight). For years, Felix had been sharing stories of how sometimes people let themselves go and how to counter that. I wasn’t listening, so Felix elevated it to the performance improvement goal in my review.

Some might be taken aback at how personal this was. To me, this was the ultimate mentor — someone who truly cares enough to want me to live a happy life, not just a productive one for the organization. This is a lesson I will carry with me forever in the way that I treat others — as people who I care about first, and as employees who have jobs to do second.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

Our organization is mission driven. Everything we do is to make life better for the people who live and work in Northeast Ohio. And we do that by creating more manufacturing jobs and growing the regional industry. We have also expanded our mission to focus on helping underemployed or unemployed people (most of whom are in poverty) raise themselves up through good manufacturing technology jobs. And we focus on connecting people of color to more opportunities so that our factories will look more like the communities they serve. Every day I get to go into work and know that we are helping change lives and bring goodness to the world. This binds our team and brings the “why” to our work.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me before I started leading my company” and why. Please share a story or example for each.

1.) Watch and listen for a long time before you make changes when you first join (three times longer than you might feel is necessary).

  • Example: When I became the leader, I spent a few days studying and interviewing (like a consultant) before suggesting changes. As a consequence, it was months and in some cases years before I saw the true colors of some of my team members. Because some people were good at making it look like they were all about the change but weren’t. If I had more patience initially, I could have better observed their behavior and more accurately predicted who would be “with me” on the change journey.

2.) It is okay to rely on others in the organization for help. They will appreciate you asking them and probably have great ideas.

  • I relied on one sales team member more than anyone else. He understood our business and the key people. In the early days, I needed his counsel to make any progress with people who didn’t trust me. Now, I rely on him to run a huge portion of our business as the VP of Operations; he and I have been working together for nearly a decade now to turn MAGNET around.

3.) Being the CEO is like being Aladdin’s genie. Sure you can do whatever you want, but there is a catch — the more power you exercise unilaterally the less power you have because you lose people, lose respect, reduce employee empowerment and destroy culture.

  • I remember thinking that we needed to fire an employee based on an interaction I had with them. I relayed the incident to their supervisor. Their supervisor thought that she could coach them and told me sheepishly that she didn’t want to fire them despite my damning interpretation of a situation. I could have told her that the person had to go. If I did this, the supervisor would never feel agency over their team. Instead, the supervisor tried their hardest for another year to help this employee. It didn’t work and eventually the employee was let go. But because the supervisor had honesty and authentically tried to help this person, they left on good terms. And now I have built more trust with the supervisor by reinforcing that their decisions about their team are final.

4.) Going from being the number 2 to the number 1 is a tectonic shift, and not to be underestimated. As the second in command you can set strategy, go fix things, be everywhere you want to be. As the CEO, you have responsibility to manage the risks in the company which leaves you limited time to truly do the exciting things you did as number 2. As the number 2 you are leading with your intellect and ability to contribute. As a number 1 you are leading by empowering and guiding others.

  • After five years of fielding all of the HR issues and legal issues of the organization, I was frustrated. I was about to give up on filing all of the lengthy paperwork to document everything because it never seemed to help. When an unethical employee threatened to sue us over made-up claims, we went to mediation and settled. I talked to our company’s lawyer and asked why it mattered whether I got all of the paperwork right. “Ah” our wise lawyer responded, “you do all of the paperwork to avoid getting a really good lawyer taking someone’s case and then suing you for millions of dollars (even if you didn’t do anything wrong).” This is a tangible example of a risk that CEOs have to pay attention to that isn’t even on your radar if you are a strategy-focused number 2.

5.) Set your cultural expectations early and make sure people adhere to them. Just because they are “soft” doesn’t mean you can’t coach, direct, teach, and even give performance measures on these cultural elements. A good culture will attract the people you want and help the best come out of those you have. Nothing is more important, so start early with clear expectations.

  • It took a few years before we incorporated a detailed set of behaviors associated with our values into our performance review form. This reinforced the importance of culture and values and turned a squishy thing into something that we took very seriously at MAGNET. While their incorporation into our reviews was not the key to creating a good culture, it was a critical accelerant and I wish I had done it earlier.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

So much has been written about being mindful, about having outside counsel, about taking care of yourself in your organization. But this is SO hard. How many bright, ambitious, hard-working business leaders drive themselves into the ground or become mean versions of themselves?

The movement I hope to start one day is the wide acceptance of business coaches who incorporate therapy and psychology into their coaching tools. These people exist today, but they are rare and hard to identify. Helping leaders become their best selves and raise awareness of their impact in the world, awareness of others, and frankly, increase how they bring their own brand of “love” into the world would impact so many businesses, so many people employed by those businesses, and ultimately the world.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

Follow Ethan on LinkedIn (Ethan Karp) and follow MAGNET on Twitter (@MAGNETOhio) and on LinkedIn (MAGNET: The Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network).

Ethan Karp of MAGNET: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became A CEO was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Women Of The C-Suite: Ladi Goldwire of ‘BrinMar Construction & Development Group Ltd’ On The Five…

Women Of The C-Suite: Ladi Goldwire of ‘BrinMar Construction & Development Group Ltd’ On The Five Things You Need To Succeed As A Senior Executive

The very things that people love about you will also be the very things that make them dislike- I had taken a job once before in an executive role. I was hired for my understanding of the role, my frankness, my ability to lead, and because I had been raised in the community. After settling into the role, being very frank and having a keen understanding of protocol and policy became a sticking point for outside forces to demand that I not be allowed to attend meetings. They simply were no longer interested in what I had to say. I learned quickly that your traits can be gifts and seen by others as a curse.

As a part of our series about strong women leaders, we had the pleasure of interviewing Ladi Goldwire.

Ladi Goldwire is a State licensed General Contractor and Building Code Administrator certified through the International Code Council. She has over 15 years of experience in the construction industry. Her primary focus has been in the creation and expansion of small to medium size construction firms. She has found a passion in hemp construction which is sustainable and economical. Ladi is extremely dedicated to mentoring and empowering women in business.

Ladi Goldwire is a strong black woman who stands out — literally. She is a female construction worker with over 15 years in the business. She owns BrinMar Construction & Development Group Ltd, a design build company. In an industry dominated by men, Ladi has learned how to be a strong, effective woman who likes to wear pretty clothes and shoes while pounding a hammer! She is well respected by her male peers for her “can do’’ attitude. Ladi is a firm believer and advocate for hempcrete — a sustainable building tool that is not widely used in construction.

BrinMar Construction & Development Group Ltd. (brinmarelite.com) is a Florida licensed General Contracting Firm headquartered in West Palm Beach, Florida. With several locations throughout the State, Brinmar is dedicated to giving it’s clients the most desired and hassle free renovation experience. Our tradesmen and women are the best in the industry with tried, tested, and proven processes that safeguards every step of the project.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

My backstory is rooted in hard work, perseverance, and grace. I was once of the belief that I stumbled into my industry(construction)-that I found it. Deep thought has convinced me that it found me. I was, and am still very much a daddy’s girl. He was a block mason by trade and spent time hanging out around construction sites, which became my favorite pastime. Fast forward 30 years and here I am.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?

There never is a dull day when leading a company. I am constantly finding myself in interesting settings. I would say that the most interesting is when people are taken off guard at the discovery of me (a woman of color) being in the construction industry.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting?

Once I ordered 270 cubic yards of sand for a project when we only needed 27. There was enough sand to replenish a beach. I definitely learned to triple check my orders moving forward.

Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

Pay attention. Accept responsibility. Find humor in everything.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are?

Yes, there was a fearless community advocate who encouraged me to boldly pursue a career as a general contractor. That was almost 20 years ago and her name was Lynne Hubbard.

Can you share a story about that?

I had children very early in life while being very young. The choice to do so made it difficult for me to sort through what I wanted to do with my life. She made it a point to pour advice and lessons into me and to make sure I understood the importance of wanting to do the same for someone else.

In my work, I often talk about how to release and relieve stress. As a busy leader, what do you do to prepare your mind and body before a stressful or high stakes meeting, talk, or decision? Can you share a story or some examples?

I believe in the power embedded in silence. I try to get still enough to listen beneath all of the noise I found myself surrounded by. It usually involves me finding the nearest body of water or long car rides.

As you know, the United States is currently facing a very important self-reckoning about race, diversity, equality and inclusion. This may be obvious to you, but it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you articulate to our readers a few reasons why it is so important for a business or organization to have a diverse executive team?

First and foremost, fear can only be resolved with understanding. A desire to understand and to be understood is critical to working through barriers that race and diversity misconceptions can bring about. It is so important for organizations to encourage equality and inclusion because people need to see themselves and feel as if they are being included. The world is changing and being pressed to lean into a space of inclusion. I would love to add also that while equality is great, organizations should also be thinking race and diversity equity as well. Being treated the same and equal is always the goal but to encourage that persons of different races, backgrounds, etc. can secure an equitable stake in company growth and expansion is absolutely the gold standard.

As a business leader, can you please share a few steps we must take to truly create an inclusive, representative, and equitable society? Kindly share a story or example for each.

As a leader you have to keep yourself open to the possibilities of change.

You have to listen beneath the noise, trust in the hidden values embedded in different perspectives. Remain open to leading from the rear.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Most of our readers — in fact, most people — think they have a pretty good idea of what a CEO or executive does. But in just a few words can you explain what an executive does that is different from the responsibilities of the other leaders?

An executive is someone who because of their senior status in an organization, has been charged with putting a plan of action into full motion. An executive has to pull together all of the resources and intel afforded to him, or her and create an environment, service or product that will ultimately appeal to consumers. An executive has to be tapped into their team and those leaders subordinate to them, and they have to be able to inspire them to crush company goals. It is the senior status that sets the executive apart from other leaders within the organization. Intuition and a willingness to accept the full gambit of responsibility in the organization’s failures and success that distinguishes the executive.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a CEO or executive. Can you explain what you mean?

Many people are under the impression that CEO’s by mere title alone are “sub-human” for lack of a better word. I believe that the title can sometimes be a barrier to authentic conversations with individuals within the organization. But, I also believe that it is the responsibility of the CEO to make the people within the organization understand the company objectives; creating excitement and enthusiasm around crushing company goals. CEOs are typically dealing with the same day-to-day concerns about life and impact that members of their team are and communicating the desire to connect is important.

In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by women executives that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?

Being seen as a formidable player in the game of leadership is a real challenge for women executives. For example, in my line of work as a General contractor and construction manager, I have often faced inquiries of experience and competence simply because I am a woman. For all of the things that I thought would be problems associated with my race- that has never really been the issue. I have met the most resistance because of my gender. Women lead differently. I like to believe that the difference in our styles of leadership in comparison to men serves as a benefit to the companies we are attached to. Intuition and the ability to reason with a third eye is a skillset that women can tap into relatively easily. I like to view the challenges laid before us as opportunities to demonstrate exactly what we can do when put to the test.

What is the most striking difference between your actual job and how you thought the job would be?

The difference would have to be rooted in access to everyday people. I presumed that I would be tucked away making heavy decisions for the company and would likely have very little interaction with staff. My actual job is uber dependent on the experiences and recommendations from the people with feet on the ground. It has become the highlight of what I do.

Certainly, not everyone is cut out to be an executive. In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful executive and what type of person should avoid aspiring to be an executive? Can you explain what you mean?

I think it looks different depending on the industry you are in. In construction and specifically in this new lane of construction (hemp) I have landed in, character traits most conducive to success is having an open mind and the ability to think as if there is no box. There is the willingness to learn something new every day. A successful executive should be able to strike a healthy balance in trusting themselves but also trusting the data relative to industry success and failure. Finally, a successful leader has to have the ability to pivot quickly. If the year 2020 did not teach us all that we have to be ready to adjust at a drop of a dime, I am not certain what will. The difference would have to be rooted in access to everyday people. I presumed that I would be tucked away making heavy decisions for the company and would likely have very little interaction with staff. My actual job is uber dependent on the experiences and recommendations from the people with feet on the ground. It has become the highlight of what I do.

What advice would you give to other women leaders to help their team to thrive?

Do not expect anything to be easy however, don’t look for it to be impossible either. I believe whatever is happening to you is absolutely happening FOR you as well.

How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

Understanding that each experience is making me better gives me the fuel and ammunition- the motivation to make the environments I enter into better as well. This year was full of surreal moments. Black Lives Matter movements, unprecedented occurrences triggering tough conversation around race relations, gender equality among other things just really highlighted the layer of my personality that has always operated from a stance of advocacy. I attempt to use my voice and the very unique choices I have made by way of a career as a means to point out the inequities in our society. I have to start with what I can manage and in doing that I have chosen to home in on impacting my local community. If we all start there changing the world becomes far more tangible.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

  1. The very things that people love about you will also be the very things that make them dislike- I had taken a job once before in an executive role. I was hired for my understanding of the role, my frankness, my ability to lead, and because I had been raised in the community. After settling into the role, being very frank and having a keen understanding of protocol and policy became a sticking point for outside forces to demand that I not be allowed to attend meetings. They simply were no longer interested in what I had to say. I learned quickly that your traits can be gifts and seen by others as a curse.
  2. I mentioned this earlier, but no one ever told me that “what happens to you happens for you”. This ended up becoming the entire premise on which I rationalized the ebbs and flow of being in leadership. When something unfavorable would happen, I would simply rationalize when dust settles that it would serve to the benefit of all involved. It always has.
  3. “Grinding” continually is unhealthy. Everyone is always asserting that to be the best and to remain at the top of your game you have to be in constant grind mode. While I believe wholeheartedly in mastering your craft and putting in ample time to position yourself within your career, I no longer believe it to be a healthy approach to enrichment and success to “grind” excessively in your quest to be the best. There has to be a healthy approach to obtaining and maintaining success. Somewhere in that formula you need to be able to carve out time for self, fun, family, and quiet.
  4. Success and the attainment thereof can be lonely. Be prepared for lonely days, nights, and seasons even. It is the nature of the beast. While pursuing my dreams of becoming one of the world’s most sought-after hemp construction experts, I have spent a lot of time alone. Initially, I spent countless hours on developing concepts and identifying loopholes for the time when this country would legalize cannabis throughout. Some people simply did not believe that the day would ever come. I was ridiculed and called crazy for wanting to dedicate my firm to being able to build with cannabis. Those times were often very lonely. However, staying focused on the possibilities and putting in the work regardless of how outlandish it seemed allowed for a time such as now. Cannabis is in fact on its way to being legalized country wide. The hemp industry is on track to becoming a 20B industry by 2024- out performing future tobacco and alcohol sales altogether.
  5. People only need to respect you. They don’t have to like you. So much of who I am was rooted in having people like me. I wanted to always put myself in a position to be helpful and to be well received. Although we have been conditioned to think people won’t do business with people they do not like but the reality is they will not do business with people they do not respect.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be?

I would love to inspire people to embrace green and sustainable living alternatives through hemp. I’d love to construct homes that are fire resistant, mold resistant, that promote clean air exchange, and that are environmentally friendly.

You never know what your idea can trigger.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“In the end it will all be okay, if it is not all okay then it is not the end”

The relevance of that quote to me and my life is that you always get to start again. You never run out of chances to try to get it right.

We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them

I would love to sit with Mark Cuban.

Women Of The C-Suite: Ladi Goldwire of ‘BrinMar Construction & Development Group Ltd’ On The Five… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.