Always give constructive criticism via voice message or Video! This way no feelings are missed or reconstrued in translation!! And don’t ALWAYS only point out the flaws! When an employee does something great for your business, congratulate them! Thank them! This goes a long way in keeping your employees excited to work for you.
We are living in a new world in which offices are becoming obsolete. How can teams effectively communicate if they are never together? Zoom and Slack are excellent tools, but they don’t replicate all the advantages of being together. What strategies, tools and techniques work to be a highly effective communicator, even if you are not in the same space?
In this interview series, we are interviewing business leaders who share the strategies, tools and techniques they use to effectively and efficiently communicate with their team who may be spread out across the world. As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Krista Mashore. She has been in the top 1 % of realtors nationwide for 20 years and has personally sold over 2,200 homes and averages at 100 homes a year. She is the author of Four best selling books focusing on digital marketing. She has been featured in Forbes, Inman News, The Wall Street Journal, NBC, Fox, and so much more! She is the recipient of five Two Comma-Club Awards. Krista, always being a teacher at heart, loves serving people and has turned her attention to sharing the secrets of her success to agents across the nation. Through her coaching, teaching, speaking and training Krista is revolutionizing the way real estate agents market themselves online. She offers an innovative step-by-step approach on how agents can gain a massive digital footprint.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
After getting my master’s degree in teaching…I set out to teach third grade! While I loved it, I had recently gotten divorced and was barely making enough to take care of my family. I had two girls and no great way to take care of them financially.
However… I always say, mindset is KEY in what happens next in your life. I told myself I would provide my two daughter’s the best life I could. So, I got my real estate license and decided I would do everything I could to DOMINATE my market.
How? I did everything bigger and better than my competitors. I chose innovation, as opposed to doing what everyone else was doing. I mailed large colored brochures, I took advantage of video and Facebook ads. I decided I would not do an open house or participate in door knocking… and I became one of the top 1% of realtors in the nation for 20 years!
After this, I knew I had a groundbreaking approach to marketing for any profession, so I took what I had learned and became a coach, creating Krista Mashore Coaching and 4 best selling books!
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
When the market crashed, I sold nearly all foreclosed homes… many in my industry started labeling me as the foreclosure queen… NOT a name I wanted at all! So, I completely rebranded who I worked with and now currently only do seller transactions in my real estate business!
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
It’s not the direction of the wind that determines where the boat ends up, it’s the set of the sail — Jim Rohn — this quote helped me learn that we cannot blame our past environments for our lack of success or happiness. We simply have to adjust and keep sailing.
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 about that?
My husband and girls of course ! For supporting me when I decided to go rogue from my million dollar real estate business to coaching in a matter of days! They supported me 100%!
And 110% MY TEAM! I couldn’t do it without them! As one of my sales reps, Annamay always says…. “JLO doesn’t enter the stage looking like that on her own! She has a whole team behind her polishing her technique, her figure, etc!” I couldn’t do it without my dream team!
Ok wonderful. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. The pandemic has changed so many things about the way we behave. One of them of course, is how we work and how we communicate in our work. Many teams have started working remotely. Working remotely can be very different than working with a team that is in front of you. This provides great opportunity but it can also create unique challenges. To begin, can you articulate for our readers a few of the main benefits of having a team physically together?
Working in a single office space can be beneficial in:
- Encouraging team building
- Creating a corporate culture
- Facilitates social interaction and bonds between employees
- Can allow for more spontaneous idea sharing and problem solving
- Enables mentoring, especially with new hires and interns
- Provides ability to monitor employee performance
- Helps in fostering of social skills required in business
On the flip side, can you articulate for our readers a few of the main challenges that arise when a team is not in the same space?
My team works completely remote and we LOVE it!!!!
However I do recognize working in different spaces can provide a few challenges such as:
- Overwork. It may sound counter-intuitive, but overwork is a growing concern among remote workers as it can be difficult to turn it off.
- Unwanted interruptions and distractions working from home.
- Communication challenges especially for those jobs that require mainly work alone tasks.
- Technology problems, sometimes hindering the ability to conduct meetings seamlessly.
Fantastic. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your experience, what can one do to address or redress each of those challenges? What are your “5 Things You Need To Know To Communicate With Your Team Effectively Even If You Are Rarely In The Same Physical Space ? (Please share a story or example for each.)
I use several means to communicate effectively while running a completely virtual business that makes over 1 million in revenue each month!
First site on my list: Voxer, this platform works almost like a walkie-talkie, in that employees can voice message back-and-forth utilizing on the spot notifications. This is my team’s single most used platform when needed to get in contact during short notice. Within Voxer , users can create group messages, entire team messages, and private messages extremely easily.
Next: Hubstaff! Hubstaff is an app that one can download to their computer or phone and can be used as an outlet to punch in and punch out daily. We have all team members, even those on salary, punch in and punch out! Hubstaff also offers the ability to look at every employees productivity each day. For example, top employees should be at or over around 50% productivity most of the time. This app also takes screenshots of employees computers every 10 minutes.
While this app can seem a little overwhelming and overbearing… It’s extremely helpful in keeping employees on track and ensuring employees are working their paid hours!
Next: Of course Gmail. We utilize Gmail daily not only for email purposes but for scheduling meetings easily, for creating a cohesive company signature that can be changed frequently, and so much more.
Next: Monday.com, monday.com works to keep track of employee tasks and help the entire team understand what projects are being worked on in each department. monday.com acts as a mega scheduler for your entire team.
Next: Loom. We love Loom! Loom is a site you can use to record your screen! We use this super frequently to show clients how to optimize their marketing. We use it frequently to share how to navigate sites and CRMs when onboarding a new employee as well!
Finally: Zoom, while everyone seems to be using Zoom nowadays it is for a reason. Zoom helps you seamlessly meet with employees, clients, and so much more. We hold our live events and coaching calls on zoom as well!
Has your company experienced communication challenges with your workforce working from home during the pandemic? For example, does your company allow employees to use their own cell phones or do they use the company’s phone lines for work? Can you share any other issues that came up?
My company has truly moved into COVID times seamlessly in terms of work and work ethic. We utilize our own phones, along with email and Voxer to communicate frequently.
We have a Voxer thread between the entire company as well, to make sure nothing is missed!
Let’s zoom in a bit. Many tools have been developed to help teams coordinate and communicate with each other. In your personal experiences which tools have been most effective in helping to replicate the benefits of being together in the same space?
Voxer 110% ! Like I said my teams single most used platform is Voxer! We send voice messages daily! We brainstorm, collaborate, laugh together on their and so much more!
My particular expertise and interest is in Unified Communications. Has the pandemic changed the need or appeal for unified communications technology requirements? Can you explain?
Yes! But I believe these platforms do exist in my list above! Creating a successful company virtually is not impossible! We did it!
So far we have discussed communication within a team. How has the pandemic changed the way you interact and engage your customers? How much of your interactions have moved to digital such as chatbots, messaging apps, phone, or video calls?
All of our interactions with students are completely virtual and via Zoom, email, Kajabi, etc. While this may seem like it could effect a company negatively… it 100% helps us! I help real estate agents internationally now! Working towards a greater goal of aiding their success!!
In my experience, one of the trickiest parts of working with a remote team is giving honest feedback, in a way that doesn’t come across as too harsh. If someone is in front of you much of the nuance can be picked up in facial expressions and body language. But not when someone is remote. Can you give a few suggestions about how to best give constructive criticism to a remote team member?
Always give constructive criticism via voice message or Video! This way no feelings are missed or reconstrued in translation!! And don’t ALWAYS only point out the flaws! When an employee does something great for your business, congratulate them! Thank them! This goes a long way in keeping your employees excited to work for you.
Can you give any specific ideas about how to create a sense of camaraderie and team cohesion when you are not physically together?
- Company Trips (each year)
- Team Meetings (each month)
- Team Group Chats
- Team email threads for birthdays, employees of the month, anniversaries, etc.
Ok wonderful. We are nearly done. Here is our last “meaty” question. You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire 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. 🙂
Every single business out their should focus on SERVING their customers/clients instead of SELLING them. Develop trust, provide value, and nurture your clients… it will make all the difference in your company, lead generation, and sales!
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Check out KristaMashore.com/ClientConversion to sign up for my FREE course!
Thank you so much for the time you spent doing this interview. This was very inspirational, and we wish you continued success.
Thank you !!!!
About The Interviewer: David Liu is the founder and CEO of Deltapath, an award-winning unified communications company that liberates organizations from the barriers of effective communication. Liu is known for his visionary leadership, organic growth strategies, and future-forward technology. Liu is highly committed to achieving a greater purpose with technology. Liu’s business insights are regularly featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur Magazine, Tech Crunch, and more.