David Horsager:
Welcome to the trusted leader show it’s David Horsager. I have a special guest today. He is a force of nature. He’s generous. He’s fun. He is running one of the top real estate companies in the country, and he’s doing a lot more. So those of you that, that are into sales and real estate, it’ll be great. But those of you are thinking, oh, real estate. I’m not gonna listen. He there’s, we’re gonna talk about so many other things today. Thank you for being on the show. Welcome to this show, Kris Lindahl.
Kris Lindahl:
Well, thank you, David. I’m so excited to be here and I, I love what you just said there, because I, you know, I used to think all the time when I’d hear in industry, I thought I didn’t relate if I wasn’t part of it. But what you start to realize is is that everything applies to all industries. And so I’m excited to, to have a conversation with you today. Thanks for having me.
David Horsager:
And, and, and, you know, as I’ve gotten to know you, you’re a multifaceted force of nature. So we’re gonna have a whole lot of fun here today, but let’s let’s let me just give you the mic for, for two minutes. What are some things people don’t know about Chris? Lyal you know, many people know this huge team, certainly in Minnesota, they know you, they see you and even across the country, but tell us a couple things behind the scenes.
Kris Lindahl:
I appreciate you asking that. Thank you. It, it, you know, everyone thinks of the branding, right? And, and I’ve been fortunate enough to be the, the, the front of our brand. And a lot of people know who I am, but what most people don’t understand is it’s all about the people like every organization. And, and that type of statement is so cliche, right? It’s it’s like, oh, the people, the people, right. Seats and the, and the right seats on the bus and all those things. But really when I, when I look at our organization, we wouldn’t be where we are today without them. Right. I mean, that’s the reality of it. You could create the most amazing marketing brand and everything else, but it all comes down to the people. It all comes down to their desire to lead and grow and get into those really uncomfortable moments. And I always love, you can always learn a lot about people based on how they respond, when things don’t go. Right. And so that’s what we have in, in our organization is a lot of that. And I like it.
David Horsager:
Tell me, tell me this let’s jump right in, and we’re gonna get more to personal and other parts. But, but you just, you beg a question here that a lot of people are struggling with today, both retention, but more importantly hiring, how do you get the right people? We know hiring costs, maybe two and two and a, if we lose someone that we wanna keep, it might be two and a half times hiring costs. How do we actually hire the right people? How have you done such a good even hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people? How do you hire right? Then we can get to, to keeping boom. But that that’s a big job because, well, the, well, the, the people of course are our biggest benefit. They can also, it can be a poison, right? So ho how do you hire, right.
Kris Lindahl:
Yeah. You know, well, it takes off very long time. Right? And so anyone that’s that’s, you know, that’s, that’s tuning in today. It took us years and years and years, and we still don’t get it right. Every single time. Right. Because the reality is is that someone can be great on a resume. They can be a great culture fit. They can interview really well. And then they show up in the real world and they don’t deliver on what they sold you on. Right. And so there’s, it’s, it’s really challenging to, to, to get that perfect. And we still have our learning opportunities, but one of the things that that I’ve found is if you’re truly not hiring people to your core values, first, you’re gonna have a really challenging, you’re gonna have a really challenging situation. I’m
David Horsager:
Gonna jump right in. And how do you hire to your core values? Everybody talks about this, I’ll hire to your core values. And by the way, this was interesting. When I had horse Schultz, the founder, founder of Ritz Carlton on, he said he didn’t really think assessments were that much until he found an assessment that now is just blown up. But, but an assessment that helped him basically hire to his values. And he said, the percentage of people they got right. Went way up. But how do, are there any tactical things you do to hire, right.
Kris Lindahl:
Yeah. So, so there’s you, I mean, the easy one is, is you can evaluate it, you know, depending on who’s hiring, in our case, we have HR and we have department leads. And so you could, you could do some sort of checklist. Do they, you know, do they match, did demonstrate these things, but it’s all about the questions that you asked the candidate, right. And the easy, you know, cliche, like, are you, this? Are you that? Well, of course, they’re gonna give you some scripted can’t answer. That’s gonna be easy. When you start asking questions to people that are thinking about a career inside your organization that are in, that are in the perspective of someone else. I know, Hey, what would your spouse say about this? Or what would your best friend growing up say, what would your previous employer say about this? Give me an example in your life where this happened.
Kris Lindahl:
Right? And so when you can get ’em out of that, just that, that cookie cutter Q and a, the better you’re gonna be. And I, and I’ve seen so often that most people that are interviewing, they don’t stay in the box, right. They don’t stay in the box, they ask a question and they move on and they’re just like checking questions and answers off of their sheet. Instead of getting real intimate. I love that. You said, you know that like, Hey, we’re gonna get personal here too. And like, that’s really important, right. When you’re looking at, at connecting with people that could potentially be part of your organization, you have to be so thoughtful because yeah, there’s a, there’s obviously a, a ratio of, you know, what a bad hire costs you and all those other things, but there’s also the culture impact to that as well. Right. And so, yeah, they, they might not be able to do the job, but if they affect the culture and all of a sudden, now you brought someone in and they’re not the right fit, but now 10 other people are now all of a sudden off task, and they’re no longer the right fit because of what that person did. It can exponentially grow and it can be super painful for an organization.
David Horsager:
So get the right questions. Any one more, one more good question or piece of device to find the right questions.
Kris Lindahl:
Yeah. So I always, I always love asking the question and it’s not really a question, more of a statement. Tell me more and pause. Oh, I’m curious. Can you go a little deeper on that? Right. So just like just, I, I think the tendency that most people have when they’re looking to to hire or evaluate talent is they do all the talking. Yep.
David Horsager:
Right. Do
Kris Lindahl:
All talking like you have to be the facilitator. Right.
David Horsager:
I think of this, the last, the, our, one of our great recent hires, we actually really followed a process and we really set up the question and we said, we’re gonna do this many interviews. This is a high, higher level person here. And we hit it. You know, who we hired, hit it outta the park, happens to be who, you know, Josh, he’s a fantastic, perfect, amazing fit. But we followed a process that time when I started, you know, what, 22 years ago I had these conversations and, you know, and, and once in a while, actually, sometimes we gotta, right. Sometimes we didn’t because of, you know, but I was all over the place. I was that guy just, well, let me just tell you, it’s such an amazing place to work. We’re doing such amazing work. Well, yeah. They , that doesn’t help us vet exactly. The right people. One
Kris Lindahl:
Other thing. Yeah. Oh, spot on. One thing that you mentioned there too, that I think is also really important is you mentioned assessments, right. And, and assessments, aren’t the end all be all right. But they definitely help you get closer and, and to have, and, and when you get an assessment, you’re able to have deeper conversations with the candidate about their strengths and the areas where they need improvement, right. To better understand, you know, what is their natural state and, and, and where do they elevate to in their career? Cause it’s really important, cuz most people are not the same at home as they are in the professional setting and understand the difference between the two. Some people have to level up their energy so much when they get into the professional setting, that it’s uncomfortable for them. And they get pushed outta their comfort zone where others they’re the same personally as they are professionally. And so, so those assessments really help you understand that. And I, they’re not the there’s no assessment. That’s perfect. We’ve done. ’em All. But it definitely opens your eyes to sort of different things that you might not be able to identify in an
David Horsager:
Interview. Do you have one that you like offhand? I mean, we use a few, but do you have, do you have something that comes to mind offhand?
Kris Lindahl:
So we use there’s no perfect assessment. So we use several of ’em to sort of get the results. I mean, we, we love culture index. Kobe’s another one, strength finders is another one. And, and really we input several of ’em in together to really get what we’re looking for. And the beautiful thing about our organization is because we track data. So, so detailed, we understand from previous hires, what things work well for us, that doesn’t mean that someone can’t have success outside the industry or in a different organization, but we’re really clear on what it looks like to be successful at crystal doll real
David Horsager:
Estate. I think that’s a key knowing what it looks like to be successful, but those three real hit hit on different angles. And people’s in, in case people didn’t hear them. Colby looks at motivation the, the culture index or predictive index, they’re very similar and that’s been super valuable for us. And then of course, strengths finder just can give an overview of, okay, what are their strengths when they’re at their best? Love it. Let’s go backwards for a minute. You know, you are very young, sophomore, Fridley, Minnesota, your dad has a tragic accident and passes away. Tell us about that and how you kind of came through that to be who you are today.
Kris Lindahl:
No, I appreciate you asking that, David, thank you. You know, a lot of people don’t know the story and I, I remember the moment when my career changed, but before I get into those details, I just wanna share this really quick. I was on the front page of the star Tribune, which is the, the, the major newspaper here in Minnesota and the, the front page story was about, you know, my dad’s accident. And, and it was like, here’s what Chris has had to overcome in his life. The perspective of that, that people felt about me changed in that moment for the people that read it. Right. And so I think so often we tend to judge a book by its cover, or we try to look at where they’re at today. Like, oh, Chris Lind doll is this brand. That’s known all over the country.
Kris Lindahl:
And he, you know, and he is at this level, but people don’t really understand the things that I had to overcome to get here. And so with, with my dad’s situation, what had happened is, is him and his girlfriend were, were out drinking all day long. They got in an argument and he walked in, she jumped in the in the driver’s seat of his work van. He walked in front of the van, she hit the gas and dragged him a hundred yards and killed him. And that moment changed my entire life. Right. I remember I was, you know, I wanna date myself now, but I had a pager. Right. And my mom paged me. And I remember the, seeing the house phone number on the pager. And then that, that little asterisk, that in 9 1, 1, which I’d never got a text message like that from her.
Kris Lindahl:
And so it was, I was out for a walk. It was a, you know, it was a beautiful night. I remember exactly how, how it felt outside. And I got home and she’s like, your dad’s been in an accident. We didn’t know any details or anything. We, we drove down to the hospital and I ran into my great uncle my dad or my grandpa’s brother who very successful, had a great relationship. That’s actually where I really grew up learning about the outdoors was from him and what he, you know, what he, what he shared with me right. When I walked out, he’s like, you don’t wanna go into that hospital room and see your dad. And remember your dad like that. Right. You don’t, you just don’t want to go in there. And, you know, being, being the age, I was, I was like, ah, I’m gonna go in there.
Kris Lindahl:
And then I, and I paused for a second and I, I respected him so much that I listened to that. And it was one of the, the greatest gifts that that I’ve ever received to not go in that room. Right. I can only imagine being dragged a hundred yards to, to see the, you know, the last memory of, of your dad in a hospital, you know, in that, in that sort of that space. I’m glad I didn’t do it. And, and what I realized after that, a after that accident is, is my dad and I were, were, were drifting away a, a, a bit before that because of of how often he was drinking and you, it’s, it, you know, what’s interesting is, is so often I hear in really successful people, the connection to like parents alcohol, and like, there seems to be a direct correlation there.
Kris Lindahl:
But as I got older, I started to distance myself a bit. I’m like, I, I just don’t wanna be a part of this way of, of living. Mm-Hmm, not that I didn’t love my dad and have a lot of respect for him. And he played a huge impact in my life, but I was growing up and I was like, this isn’t what my life’s gonna look like. And then the accident I had to grow up really fast. And and I think that’s part of why I am, where I am today is because I did have to figure it out at an early age mm-hmm and it was done. What other
David Horsager:
Mentors came around you?
Kris Lindahl:
Yeah, the, the, the biggest one, and this is why I have such a I have such a sweet spot for teachers and coaches a guy’s name, John Swanson. He was my football coach in eighth grade and basketball coach in ninth grade, made a massive impact in my life were still dear friends today was just talking to him the other day. We go golfing together. We go to events together. We go to sporting events. He still coaches basketball and football and, and he just, he changed my life. He really did. He changed my life. And, and you hear this so often about coaches and teachers and, and it, it’s sports really changed my life to have that place, to, to compete, to grow as a leader, to learn as a, as a young adult. I have, I just have so many things that I’ve taken from sports that I’ve incorporated into my professional life. Tell
David Horsager:
Me about a couple of them.
Kris Lindahl:
So the big one is that is the competition, right? The drive, right? That’s a, that’s a massive one. And, and what I, what, the way I was when I was younger is I’m gonna run everyone over. Like I’m gonna win at all costs. It doesn’t matter what it takes. And as I got older, I started to realize that the competition for me is inward, right? It’s an internal drive now, not external. Right. I don’t, you know, I, I don’t disrespect anyone. You’ll never see, see me say anything, hurtful, hateful about anyone ever. Because I want the best. And I believe in people, I push myself internally and go, okay, this is the internal score, right? You’re like, all right, you gotta keep going. You gotta keep going. You gotta get up at five o’clock in the morning. Here’s what you gotta do. Like, and, and you’re, you’re pushing yourself.
Kris Lindahl:
And the drive changes. You realize you get older, like you don’t need to necessarily attempt to run people over all day, every day, right? Like, that’s not good for, that’s not good for you. It’s not good for them. And when I was younger, like I just wanted to win whatever it took. And so that’s why, that’s why, when you, you know, I look at my career, right? I had that drive that it didn’t matter what everyone else was doing. I knew what Chris needed to do to win. I wasn’t ever worried about the noise. I wasn’t worried about the naysayers, the doubters. I was like, here’s what I have to do every single day to win in my life. And I just continue to show up. And then the, the, the, the second part that, that is big. And I know you talk a lot about that is trust, right?
Kris Lindahl:
So I see it so often we won’t hire anyone anymore. If they don’t have some sort of team environment background, right. It doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s sports, but really diving in and understanding how to win together, how to lose together, how to communicate in difficult times, how to have confrontational conversations when things are tough. Right. And so I learned all of that through sports, and I’m just such a big proponent. My daughter, you know, Victoria’s 12 and she has soccer tryouts this weekend. And we’re going through that journey right now. I’ll tell you right now, you know, raising a, a, a young woman in this world is not easy. But we’re really talking a lot about, you know, how to be the best teammate, right. You know, when you lose how to, you know, you go, you go shake hands with everyone on the other team. You pick people up when they, you know, when they fall over, you go sit next to someone when they’re injured, even if they’re on the other team. And so just the amount of things that you learn from sports is just so
David Horsager:
That’s interesting, cuz you know, you didn’t have a dad for a part of your life there later on as, and, and now your daughter, what, what did this whole experience, what does it make you, what, how have you become a better leader at home? Like leading your daughter?
Kris Lindahl:
Yeah, no, I appreciate you asking. Yeah, no, I, I really, I remember, you know, so I got my real estate license in may, 2009 and three weeks, you know, at the absolute bottom of the market. And a, a couple of weeks later I found out that we were having Victoria, right. So she was born September, 2009. So it all came at once. Hey, I just went commission only. And now, now I have to support a daughter. That’s gonna be here in just a few months. So but I remember that moment when I found out and I said, I’m gonna do things different, right? The way that I’m gonna be as a father is gonna be different than the way that my father was. And, and it wasn’t that he was that he was, that was bad. I just had the opportunity to learn from what he did right.
Kris Lindahl:
In the areas that he can improve in one of the things from the story that I didn’t share, that I think is really important is that back when, before you know, about a couple years before he passed away, he was in the national guard. You know, he was in the reserves and he was getting deployed and it was back when everything was going on with desert storm. And, and we thought that he was gonna have to go to Iraq. And we weren’t sure if he was gonna come back. And so what he did is he wrote letters to, to me, my sister and my brother, and gave them to his mom, my grandma to hold onto. If he didn’t come back from war, it turned out that he ended up getting deployed to Russia. And he, and he didn’t didn’t end up in Iraq, but my grandma held onto those letters and the night that he passed away, she gave us those letters.
Kris Lindahl:
Hmm. And I remember reading that letter and, and I read it and I, and I could barely even read the words that were in that letter. It was so hard for me. And I took that letter that next day. And I gave it to my mom and I, and I really wasn’t in a position to actually read it for a long time. All the, you know, and after I graduated college, I started to get a little more courage. I remembered the words and I finally asked my mom like, Hey, I’m ready to take that letter. I framed it. I have it in my house now. And, and I can read it. And, and one of the things that’s crystal clear when I read that letter is that there’s certain things in that letter that my dad had regret. Right. And a lot of it had to do with drinking.
Kris Lindahl:
Right. And, and what he said is he’s like, there’s things that I’ve missed along the way because of my drinking. And also there was passion there too. He loved to play the guitar. And he said, the way that I play the guitar, it reminds me of the way that you play sports. And I know that you’re gonna be all right in life. Right. And so, so it’s just, and, and that’s a, you know, for everyone listening today, it’d be a recommendation that I’d give to everyone, kids, grandkids, you know, maybe it’s coworkers, family members, friends is to, to write a letter that if something were to happen to you tomorrow, that someone could hand that to them. It’s just such a powerful thing that I have and a, a reminder sort of the life that, that, that I’m gonna live. It’s my guide. It’s my guide for what my life looks like. And for the father that, that, that I have been, and I’m gonna continue to be for Victoria.
David Horsager:
So did that make you jump totally, as far as alcohol, even like I’ve seen, I get a walk next to leaders and I get a walk, it could be senators, or, or it could be, you know, pro sports teams or it could be CEOs. And I see alcohol actually just kill a lot of relationships and futures. Did it make you absolutely turn from anything like that at all? Did you, how do you navigate that?
Kris Lindahl:
Yeah, so that’s a, a really good question. I mean, fortunately for, for fortunately, for me, I’ve, I’ve never been really big into drinking. Obviously those life experiences played a massive role in that. But I’ve also been so focused on being the best leader that I can be personally and professionally that it’s not a good look. If I, if I want others around me to elevate and be the best they can be in life. And then I’m off doing something different earlier, we talked about trust, right? If I’m, if I expect people around me in my life to be a certain way, and I’m doing something completely different, like that’s not gonna work. They don’t trust me. Right. So, so if, if I’m committed to wellness and fitness and, and, and, and all these other things, then if I lead by example, they trust me and they’re more likely to do it. You know, how many times in life has someone actually done what you’ve told them to do? Never right. So you have to inspire them and you have to lead by example. And so that’s one really important thing for me.
David Horsager:
Tell me this, you talked about discipline before, and we, what I’ve noticed, at least in all the leaders I’ve interviewed basically all, all of them. They have certain habits and routines, you talked about getting up at five in the morning. What are, what are some routines that you have that set you up for success? Yeah. Daily or in life?
Kris Lindahl:
Yeah. So, you know, I think, you know, balance rhythm, you know, everyone uses different words on what that means. Rhythm happens to be for me. I, you know, when I get up at five o’clock in the morning, my typical day, I say typical, cuz it doesn’t happen a hundred percent of the time. Anyone that says they do it a hundred percent of the time that life shows up and different things go on, you might be traveling. Right. There’s there’s in
David Horsager:
Your fishing, right?
Kris Lindahl:
Yeah. Fishing, right? Yeah. That’s part of it too. Right. So, so the, the ideal schedule for me is, is I’m up early. And I, and, and I go for a bike ride, 15 to 20 miles. I drink a lot of water. I start the day with a lot of water every single day. Staying hydrated is super important for me, but there’s some days where I’ve got a different agenda and I might go for a bike ride in the evening, but I don’t miss it. Right. It might be eight o’clock at night where it’s like, you know, the, the sun setting and, you know, the last several days in Minnesota, the sunsets have been absolutely spectacular.
David Horsager:
Unbelievable. I, I know this is, I, I gotta call this out since it happened last night. I, I was biking last night, coming back and along the lake. And it was an unbelievable sunset. I did something a little different this week. So we do a few of ’em, but I, I did a, a, just a sprint triathlon with my son. And I just gotta try to keep being able to keep up with him heading toward 50 years old here and like, oh my goodness, it’s a, a 17 year old. He hardly has to train. It seems like to, to do it. So we just, we did one this Saturday and I got whooped by his speed, but ,
Kris Lindahl:
I’ve gotta, I’ve got a 12 year old daughter that soon to be 13 and I’m running around a soccer field right now. And, and you know, all those, all those sports that I played, you know, all the life lessons I took with me, I also took with some injuries and a little bit of a sore, tired body at times. Yeah.
David Horsager:
Any other routines, like, I, I don’t know what it would be, journaling, prayer workout other things that are kind of like, this is something I rarely miss. Yes. I, or I do consistently.
Kris Lindahl:
Yeah. I think gratitude’s another one. Right. I mean, it’s, you know, just every single day that we get to wake up in this world is an opportunity. Right. And so really diving into like, okay, what, and, and as I think about gratitude, I always think about, okay, what went right yesterday? Where do I have room for improvement? And what am I gonna do today? And, and, and speaking of that rhythm, sometimes I do that before I go to bed. And sometimes I do that right when I wake up, depending on the day, but I always reflect. Right. And that’s, and, and, and, you know, there was something I just shared in our all company meeting the other day is that if anyone is feeling a certain way about something I did or something I said, or suggestion for improvement or any sort of constructive feedback, I’m a hundred percent open to anything that anyone wants to talk to me about.
Kris Lindahl:
And someone actually pulled me aside after the meeting and shared a few tips that will improve my life. And I think that’s the same thing about leading by example, if I can stand in front of our entire company and say, there’s no question off limits, we can have any conversation that we want. I think it’s super powerful to reflect because I’ve seen so often that people aren’t willing to look in the mirror and be real and honest with themselves. Right? There’s so many people in the world right now that are, that are just totally delusional about who they are and where the areas are for improvement. Totally. And so the more that I can be honest with myself, the better I’m gonna be
David Horsager:
Individuals, leaders, and companies, if many people, they wanna know what they, they wanna win and they won’t ask their customers how they could. , you know, it’s like, I know many of them would tell them same with leaders. Oh, you wanna be a good leader, but ask your people, you know, this, this feedback can be so valuable and can be the you know, such a huge opportunity. That’s missed, you know, jumping into your, be generous. You know, you’ve got a new mission or not, you know, it’s, it’s been, you’ve become this, this be generous that you, at the beginning, you had this drive and it is probably a little self focused 20 or, or 30 years ago. And now you really have become this, this mission of be generous. And your, your whole foundation supports this idea of be generous. Tell us about it.
Kris Lindahl:
Yeah. So, so originally it was, it was the B generous project and what I realized, and, you know, we always have learning opportunities along the way, even for the amount of branding that we’ve got, right. You know, throughout my career, we, we tied, we, we named the the five, one C three B generous project, and everyone would go, what does that mean? Right. And so the name that everyone knows is Chris Linda. So now it’s the Chris Dale foundation. And B generous is the mission. And we give back our time treasures and talents. And what I’ve learned along the way is the easy thing for people to give is money, right? That’s the easy thing to give. And I’m not saying that people are giving hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars, but even if it’s a dollar on GoFundMe, it’s really easy to click a couple of buttons and say, I contributed to that.
Kris Lindahl:
Cause what’s difficult is sharing what you’ve learned, because a lot of people in the world have a scarcity mindset, right? So, oh, if I share this with them, then they’re gonna be able to take me out and that’s our secret sauce. And so you see so often that people are so scared to share what they’ve learned. And I wanna be around more abundance mindset. People they’re like, Hey, let’s give and share everything. And over time it will level up everyone. And that’s the environment that I wanna be in. And then the third one is time is time. That’s the hardest one for people to give. And you know, how crazy life is for so many people right now, but what we found inside of our world, right? Our community of, of, of people inside our organization, our customers, our past clients, and all of our supporters is that people wanna get behind that group environment of giving back and making a difference. And what very few people in the world think about is legacy, right? And so when we see people come with their friends, their family, their kids, their grandkids, their nieces, their nephews, and they all come together to give back all three of those. It’s such a beautiful thing because they’re creating this long lasting legacy. That’s gonna be there forever. And I just love being a part of it.
David Horsager:
How about this? Let’s, you know, you’re known and I think this might have something to do with it, but I wanna hear the story firsthand, but you’re known for your arms wide open. You’ve been on billboards around the country, across the country, these wide open arms that everybody’s, you know, everybody in Minnesota seen, but everybody, you know, a lot of people have seen tell us about where that came from.
Kris Lindahl:
So it was the desire to be different. Right. So I think one of the things in, in, in business is that you have to differentiate yourself, especially in, in industry that, I mean, most industries, these days are, are in some shape or form or some sort of commodity, right? There’s a lot of, you know, a lot of people that homeowners could reach out to, to sell their house. Everyone knows like 10 real estate agents and the desire to be different. I mean, I remember the, the first photo I took and it was, you know, chrisling doll and a suit and tie just like everyone else that’s been that same way forever. You know, a lot of people have probably seen bus benches all over their communities, right. Realtors forever have done that same thing. And I’m like, let’s shake it up. Let’s do something different.
Kris Lindahl:
Right. And, and we tried a couple of different things. The one before the arms out was Chris nine times in a row in a suit and tie. Right. And it was, I remember back then it was, I, I sell a house every nine hours and it was nine, you know, photos of Chris. And, and I thought that was gonna be like, oh, this is gonna break through, like, everyone’s gonna go, like, why are we seeing Chris Lindel nine times in a row on a, on a billboard. And then all of a sudden, we, we, we came up with this idea to do the arms out, which means a whole lot more to us. Right. Of, of, I mean, trust is a big part of that. Right. Love, you know, a lot of people have related to like free hugs, giving back generosity, like arms wide open. And, and there’s a lot of things that, that have, that have come from that arms out. And what I love about it is it’s all in the eye, the beholder, anyone driving by it, they all go, I wonder what that’s all about. I wonder why he started that. And so everyone genuinely has this like curious state of what does arms out actually mean. Right. And so it, it’s just a disruption.
David Horsager:
Yeah. You’ve won, you know, and, and, and thrived in a very competitive market. And in so many ways, tell, give me three differentiators, or maybe just touch on, I, I think there’s at least from what I’ve seen, this, this scholarship idea, the arms open idea, the, the way you guarantee a sale, like, what are the, what are, when you say, Hey, what are the differentiators? Because I, I know I don’t wanna stay in real estate forever here. Most people listening have nothing to do with real estate, but people, you, what you’ve done in your space, other than be generous, other than love people, other than figure out hiring the right people and being an example to them and building this great culture. You, you, that front end, there is a uniqueness that is absolutely clear. And I think people need to get this clarity is one of the, is the first pillar of trust being clear. We trust the clear we mistrust or distrust the ambiguous. And so how do you’re clear about a few things that make Chris lend all real estate absolutely different than everybody else? No,
Kris Lindahl:
I, I, I love that question because it’s the, obviously the successful campaigns and the innovation do differentiate us, but having people in the right spots in the organization matters more than anything. I am an off the charts, visionary. Like you look at any of this assessments, I almost break it because I’m so high in vision, no detail, zero follow up. Like I own that space. And everyone else around me does too. And, and I look at the early days and there was almost like this guilty feel of being a visionary because I couldn’t follow through on other things. And, you know, you had people that like, almost like parenting where you had people in the organization that started made me, like, you didn’t follow through on this. You didn’t do this. Like, and now I have people around me that embrace who I am and, and those ideas and, and campaigns that you mentioned, those are all my ideas, right?
Kris Lindahl:
Because I’m in that vision spot and I stay focused in that place. It makes a big difference. And having really dedicated ops people and integrators and people in our organization that are so dialed in on getting things to the finish line. I have a thousand great ideas a day, 24 hours later. There’s about five that are still decent and 72 hours later, there’s one that I’m like, oh, that can change the industry. And so the other thing with that too, is what makes us so special is that we really don’t get that many great ideas to the finish line, right? One of the mistakes that most people make inside organizations, especially when they have a visionary, is they give everyone in the organization whiplash all day, every day, let’s go here, let’s go there, let’s go here. Let’s go there. And everyone’s running around completely dizzy.
Kris Lindahl:
And we have so much discipline to vet ideas before we ever get them to the finish line. And that’s one thing that most people don’t figure out, but it’s also has to do with the way you hire, has to do with the assessments has to do with clarity, has to do with trust, has to be, you know, but the vulnerable, transparent conversations I mentioned earlier, all of that comes together. Cuz you can create all the most amazing marketing campaigns and innovation in the world. But if your people can’t execute on it and they’re exhausted and they’re fried and they’re burnt out, you’re not gonna last. It’s gonna, you’ve seen them a hundred times before. It’s like that flash in the pan where all of a sudden they shoot up and all of a sudden like they decline or they go out of business. So they file bankruptcy.
Kris Lindahl:
And I remember in the early days when we first started this, everyone said, oh, this is never gonna last. There’s no way that Chris Leal can continue to do this. And we just continue one after another, we just keep climbing, keep growing, tune out the noise. We don’t respond to everyone. We just keep doing what we do. And, and you’re right. Like a lot of the things that we’ve, that we’ve really invested in and, and, and made big, actually came from one thing. And you said it earlier, it came from our customers. We listened to what our customers say, right? Our customers said, Hey, we’d like to have this. We look at emails, we look at text messages. We go to appointments. What are people saying that they need in this market right now? And that tells you where to go people all the time. Say like, Hey, Chris Lindo is a marketing genius. I just am really good at listening.
David Horsager:
So yes, as we get toward the last question or two here, what’s I wanna go back to one of the words that came out early and it’s drive. You have an enormous amount of drive. You have an enormous amount of vision in a day where a lot of people are looking to work less and work, you know, certain things around work, life balance and certain things. I, I, I just, from what I see, a lot of the healthiest people mentally, physically in other words, actually are, are kind, are actually work. Like work is a healthy, big part of their lives though, you know? But, but how, it’s not just you, it seems like you’ve hired, driven and motivated a certain type of drive toward an exciting, positive possibility. How do you actually, in this environment, motivate this, go the extra mile align we’re in this together. We’re this, this drive that is positive. It’s generous and a host of other things. But how, I guess in this world, are you taking hundreds and hundreds of people and basically hiring and motivating drivenness?
Kris Lindahl:
Yeah, I, yeah, that’s a real, that’s a really good question. I think
David Horsager:
That’s a big uniqueness by the way. Yeah,
Kris Lindahl:
For sure.
David Horsager:
There’s a lot of people that aren’t today.
Kris Lindahl:
That’s right. And, and, and one of the things when people hear the word drive that I think where there’s some real major confusion. When people hear the word drive, they think workaholic mm-hmm right. They always think that like, oh, I don’t wanna work. You, you mentioned that, you know, the work life balance, which suggests that there’s some sort of 50, 50 Teeter totter, right. And people all the time, they, they think that that all of a sudden Chris Al’s 24, 7 running through walls and never stops working to get to this point. Right. And, and, and you know, obviously at the beginning of any journey of, of any business, right? When you’re on your own, you tend to work more. You have to make a lot of sacrifices. You know, anyone that’s done anything big. There’s a lot of sacrifices they had to make along the way to get there.
Kris Lindahl:
But when, when we hire people, we ask the tough questions before we hire them, Hey, what does life look like? When things get tough? What do you do? Give us examples. Tell us more. What do people around you feel when things get tough for you? Right. So we’re asking a lot of questions about challenging times. You know, it’s, it’s, it’s like anything, you know, you learn a lot about people when things go wrong, right. When things are great, it’s, it’s really nice and fun and Hey, we’re winning, everyone’s winning. It’s, it’s all good. But then the moment that flips and all of a sudden, it’s like, Ooh, we didn’t expect that to come. Oh, we had a little more turbulence than we expected. Then all of a sudden you start looking around and you start understanding like, okay, this is what they’re built for. This is what, this is what is inside.
Kris Lindahl:
And I think you can’t really train that. You just have to find people when you’re evaluating talent that have that level, that when things get tough, they show up because there’s two types of people in the world right now, when things get tough, there’s a lot of the world that just shut down, right? They’re like, I can’t even get out of bed. I’m not gonna get up. Things are going wrong. What’s gonna go wrong today. And then there’s the other side. They just embrace those opportunities. And they’re so excited to enter that growing season. And the thing that I’ve seen so often in life is that when all these challenges come up, you’re actually growing so much. But when you’re in that moment, it doesn’t feel like you’re growing and tell you, get outside of it and you look back, you go, wow. Those were some of the greatest opportunities of my life. And, and so I just, I love those moments cuz that’s really where you grow.
David Horsager:
Well, this has been fun. I’ve got one more question for you before I do Chris. There’s so much more I could ask you. I know there’s a, a bunch of differentiators I’ve heard about read about, I think you have a new partnership come with the Minnesota twins and a host of other things happening that are exciting and interesting and a whole lot of not just how you hire, but how you built such a great culture. We might have to have you back before that you you’ve written the best selling book sold, but where’s one place we can find out more about Chris Lindel or connect with you.
Kris Lindahl:
Yeah. So, so the best place is connect with kl.com, which is right there on that link as all my social media channels, I personally manage my social media. I love, you know, getting messages from so many people that hear and see, and then I get to connect with around the world. And so if you’re listening, you know, make sure to follow me, send me a message. I’d love to hear what things I can do better based on the interview that you just listened to today
David Horsager:
And all that’ll be in the show notes at trusted leader, show.com and more about Kris Lindahl. Hey, this has been a treat, Chris, you know, it’s the trusted leader show. Last question. Who’s a leader you trust and why?
Kris Lindahl:
The biggest one for me is coaches and teachers, right? And so I mentioned, you know, John earlier, who’s made just a massive impact in my life. And, and he’s one that, that I call all the time for advice just to, just to level set and figure out how I can improve in life. And he’s just played an I a major impact in, in my life.
David Horsager:
Everybody needs a teacher, a coach, and a mentor, and a friend, right? Walk beside you. Walk ahead of you. Walk that behind you. We need him. Well, Kris, thanks so much. This has been a treat and this has been the trusted leader show until next time stay trusted.
