Business Partnerships: How Different Strengths Create Better Results

So let's talk about visionaries and integrators. So the concept comes from the book Rocket Fuel. We have used it to number one, understand each other and not resent each other or not avoid. And I think a lot of opportunity. So let's break that down. Visionaries are big picture. They have ideas all the time.

Right?

And that is what they bring to the table, out-of-box creativity.

And relationships.

Relationships. The, the points where they, they start something, they rarely finish it, or they need to start a lot of things and they get excited about starting and not necessarily implementing it. And that's when integrators come in. Integrators, are more process-oriented and they're going to look at that idea and really like break it down and run a model inside their own head to say, okay, that's going to work, that's not going to work, or understand what will it take to get that done. Liz is a visionary. I am an integrator. And I believe that having that awareness helped us tremendously when growing our real estate business. So let's break it down, some lessons that we learned and we want to share with you. So let's start with the number 1, Liz.

Yeah, and we've learned these from both great partnerships and bad partnerships, right? So, so it comes from that place. So number 1 is figure out your role before you pick a partner. So that seems so obvious, right, Andresa? Mm-hmm. But it's not always because what ends up happening, what we've seen over the years, and I've even had this happen myself many years ago, most investors partner on likeness versus understanding what their strengths are first and what they bring to the table. Let me explain that and unpack that for a minute. This really happened to me. I went to a networking event. It was in Atlantic City, New Jersey, good old New Jersey. And Matt and I were pretty early in our investing career, but we were meeting people, connecting with people. We met this gentleman that we hit it off. And when I say likeness, we had that kind of likeness of style, likeness of ideas, likeness of what we wanted to accomplish, kind of big ideas. And we were both very, all three of us were very like relationship-oriented, extroverted. Really connected with this guy, right? We ended up partnering with him on a very specific development project in Trenton, and it was a disaster. Talk about two visionaries is a problem. There was three of us. It was a nightmare in, in hindsight. And I learned so much about that because most of the time we, you know, we connect with people and we think, oh, there's something here. We need to, there's some chemistry or there's some connection. I like them. That's not enough to build a business and to have a successful, thriving company. So the key is to know thyself first. And what I love about Rocket Fuel is it really goes through a quiz. It gives you a quiz because we often think sometimes we're something, but quiz always kind of defines it a little bit better for us. So really get clear. Are you more of that visionary? Sometimes, like on Jess's case, she has both of those energies and she's higher on the integrator. So I have both energies, but my integrator role's quite, my score is quite, quite, quite low. So point being is know thyself first, know where your gaps are, and then look to either partner or hire for that. I wanna give one very specific example of sometimes Andresa, as women are growing their businesses and they're like, I'm a visionary, but I can't just find a partner who's an integrator. That's not where I am in my business. You can hire, say, a GC that is an integrator. And that is something that I looked for when I, uh, doing a local project. I knew that I don't have that integrator energy or it'd be a force for me. So I really made sure anyone I hired, even my, my realtor, they're very much that operational, putting the process in place. Even my bookkeeper that's on that project, everyone I've surrounded myself with has more that process-oriented approach than me. So that's how you can sometimes kind of manage it, if you will, versus feeling like you have to just hire someone or partner with someone off the bat. You can find people to work for you, especially in a contractor ability that has that ability.

For those of you who didn't read the book yet, you're like, how can I figure that out? Right? Visionaries, as you can tell, speak a lot.

Hey, hey, hey, it's not nice.

They like it, right? I usually say that they process things outside their head. It's like their head is open, so they're processing as they are talking. Sometimes when you're talking to a visionary, you're like, okay, but how about this? And they're like, I didn't think of that yet, right? So they, they they're gonna process it with, with you. But one quick tip here for you to identify, have a, like a tip of the iceberg. Observe how people send you emails. If they send you emails in large paragraphs and they have a lot of words giving it to you, that's a visionary, right? If somebody is sending you paragraphs that have a space in between and they have bullet points, Shorter, right? Undercommunicate. That's also something that happens with integrator, undercommunicate, right? Not, not good. That also is a sign. But here, here's what I seen in terms of, of real estate investors. Let's say you have your business, you don't have a partner yet, so you are having different seats. For those that do have a partner, and then when I ask, okay, Who is the visionary? Who is the integrator? There is a big mistake that is happening that, oh, I am an integrator. And when I dig a little bit, I'm like, you're not. You are in the integrator seat. You're not an integrator by nature. So you're trying to shove somebody, well, I just grabbed the visionary position. You are going to be the integrator. That's torture, right? That's really torture. So all the support, you really need to look for the integrators. For every 4 visionaries, there is 1 integrator, some, some, something like that. So you need to think about that when you are building your, your business. I think it was Kim Kiyosaki that says, if you are bringing the same thing to the table, one of you are redundant. Right? It's harsh to say, but it quite is. And that's what it takes for you to build a sustainable business and make decisions.

Okay?

So that's that. And that doesn't mean that visionaries are just like la-la land and integrators are like, you know, robots. There's pros and cons of each. And I think that knowing that, You can go from avoiding a conversation or having a lot of conflict because you are resenting the differences, which is our second lesson, right, Liz? Going from avoiding it or having resistance or resenting each other because of the differences, because difference also creates a lot of conflict. How can we leverage it? And it's work. It's not easy. So that's our second lesson.

Absolutely. So when you think of, I know thyself, I am a visionary or I'm an integrator, and even when you find people to partner with, it's not all roses and sunshine. And the biggest work to be done is how do you get to really leveraging the differences? Because you have to remember, they're so different. Literally, the ideas of a Visionary are opposite to an Integrator. It's like shooting them down. It's like, boom, boom, boom.

We are each other's triggers.

Boom, boom, boom. Exactly. A Visionary and Integrator ultimately are each other's triggers. You're gonna naturally frustrate each other. It's not just different personalities, 'cause then you throw personality, that's a whole other layer here. But just strictly Visionary and Integrator, they're literally opposing each other because it's like, 2 pieces of a puzzle coming together. Now the picture's there, now it's complete, but the 2 pieces have their own unique needs and wants and styles. So the key, and I've always seen this in team building, I've seen this in partnerships, you know, when you're talking to someone and, and, and I, we, Andresa and I were coaching actually, uh, 2 women, uh, at InvestorCon about visionary and integrator. If you remember that conversation and we were coaching them and, and we were saying, hey, The idea here is that you really want to leverage this about each other. And she goes, oh, and she rolled her eyes. One of them rolled her eyes and she's like, yeah, that's just how she is. So that's not leverage. That's called resentment because you're kind of annoyed. You're kind of like tolerating them. That's just how she is. And that's not leverage. That's not fully leveraging each other's differences. So the key and how do you move through that is not always the easiest thing. Andresa has taught me this, is that when you take the personal out— now, a visionary, if they're a visionary and they're very extroverted, taking personal out of things, it's work to do that because they're often sometimes combined. However, the key is to take the personal out. And when you could take the personal out of a situation, you start to say, poke holes through this. What do you see here that I'm not seeing? Is that why you're saying no to this? That makes sense. Versus, well, it was my idea and I'm taking it personally. And then there's a whole personal baggage, quite honestly, that gets involved. I know this because I've had it. I say this with kindness to all the visionaries listening because I live it and I can get triggered there at times. However, I think I've been more mindful and intentional to say, okay, this just doesn't make sense right now. And so that's the key is the leveraging and the really appreciating what the person brings to the table and saying it to them, hey, I really appreciate you bringing this to the table versus, well, okay, that's fine. So it's the way of being.

Let's share with them a very clear example of how it will look like before and after. So let's, let's say Liz had an idea. Keep in mind, Liz is a visionary. Liz had an idea and she's attached to this idea, meaning her and the idea itself is one body. There's no separation. For an integrator, It's completely separate. The task is the task, could care less, not attached. So for the integrator, it's completely separate. The way that the integrator mind works is through asking questions in order to gather data to understand better the vision so we can kind of map out the workflow. That being said, let's say I start asking Liz questions in order to gather data. If she does not know that that's my job, that's what I'm supposed to do, she's like, why are you asking this? You don't think I'm capable of it? You don't think I, I, I, is the I, right? I didn't think of that. Oh, I should have thought of that. Well, now that you're saying that, oh my gosh, I didn't think of that. Or, You want me to just do, think everything? So when you go from that situation, which is not helpful, and then the integrator like, how the hell I'm gonna understand better your idea if I don't ask you questions? I'm not questioning you. I'm asking questions in order to gather data. Very different, right? So do you see both, both minds have total like reasonable reasons to feel the way that they feel. When you are leveraging, this is how it looks like. Liz and I have this framework that is like front of stage and back of stage. Liz is front of, front of stage means she's gonna have an idea and she's gonna share with me the skeleton, a couple of points that she thought it through, connecting the dots. It will be as if I was doing that? No, it is not meant to be like that. It's not meant to be completed. Andresa Guidelli is meant to be front of stage, a rough draft of it. And then when we come together, I am backstage. She knows I am going to ask questions, poke holes on the project, and we are looking at a document versus talking. We created a document, so we are both looking at a document and we ask ourselves, what are our blind spots over here? How can we make it easier? Does it align with our business goals? Do we have the time, the resources? Is this something that we are interested or not? So that is completely like framework, right? I have— she's clear with the expectations. She knows what I'm going to do. It's like we know the rules of the game. When you are not aware of being a visionary or an integrator, you are playing a game without rules and expectations. And that leads to resentment and a ton of conflicts that keep repeating and you don't know why. And then all of a sudden you have somebody that you are building a business together that you tolerate, and then you use those sentences, "Oh, that's how she is. Oh boy, here she comes with another idea," or, "Uh-oh, she's going to interrogate me on this." Right, so it starts with awareness and establishing the expectation so we can leverage. I know what she's supposed to do, she knows what I'm supposed to do, and we're poking holes on a piece of paper or a file. Let's poke holes here, let's poke holes, or let's break it down. Many times, one thing that I wanna share is that many times visionaries, And I say with all the respect, right, Liz, they don't know what it takes. What do I mean by that? They have this beautiful idea. That being said, in the backend, in terms of operations and tech on how to execute that, many times visionaries think that, oh, this is going to take a few hours. Actually, it's going to take 3 months, or, or we are going to need that, right? Because visionaries are not meant to know with the tech part. That's not their job. Their job is the creativity. And Liz is amazing when she's in movement, in a car or in the airplane. That's when she has amazing ideas and she talks a lot. And I let her talk and I just take notes. Our business, our ideas, our relationships grew because of ideas that started with, prom list.

I love that. And, and the framework that you're speaking about, Andresa, I think is so important. And I wanna just, I wanna say something very specific. The, the framework, and this is number 3's lesson, is it's framework could be meetings, it could be documents, it could be different tools you're using in your business that fulfills both of your needs and it fulfills the business's needs. That's the key. And so something that we've done is that we have meetings that are structured in a way that works for both of us. And we always say for our monthly strategic meetings, you know, we do have relationship time. Andresa, just 'cause you're an integrator or you're an introvert doesn't mean you don't value relationship. How you do it, it might be different than an extrovert or somebody who has, you know, that approach. But you both value relationship, you both value the partnership. You're gonna make time to kind of talk a little bit about, what's coming up for you so you can build the relationship together. So those monthly meetings give us space to talk about not just the tactical pieces, but the strategic part of the business, looking forward for a few months. And it also talks about what's coming up for us personally, professionally, and just kind of gets— we get very real with each other. That's an important framework, habit, meeting that we put in place. Then we have our weekly check-ins, right, Andresa, where we're talking a little more tactically, a little more task-oriented, but it's getting us on the same page. I'm not bringing 25 new ideas to the table on those weekly meetings. If we're talking about something that we're trying to execute, I'm gonna bring ideas and Andresa has ideas, but you have to kind of know what is the purpose of this meeting and how I can contribute versus, you know, how can I derail the meeting? And I think when you come from that place, which you and I both have, Andresa, we kind of stay on task, if you will. Like, what's the purpose of this meeting? Really helps us get on the same page. And you hear that a lot with Visionaries and Integrators, same page. How do we get on the same page? You're naturally not gonna be on the same page.

Exactly. But let's say, for example, we are on this ops meeting, right? That we are together talking about the goals and priorities for the week, and then let's have an idea about a project or something. Instead of derailing that specific meeting, we schedule another one, a quick one, in order to focus only on that deal. And the key is, remember the document that I said about front of the house? That needs to be in place before we have a conversation. So when we have those conversations about a project, I already looked at that document and I already have an understanding of what she's trying to achieve. And I am going to now process it with her and plan the next steps. Or postpone or shut it down, or depending on what it is. But we stay consistent with, with the task of, of that weekly meeting. And it has a time to start and a time to end. Otherwise, we get going. The third thing that we do every single time is having a centralized software. We use ClickUp, but it could be anything that, that you have available in order to track the actions. And we have a quick and simple framework. What is the task that needs to be accomplished? Usually starts with a verb because we wanna make sure it's a specific action that is being taken. Who owns it? And I'm gonna make a big pause over here to say, if the team owns it, nobody owns it. In other words, It's a person that is responsible for getting that task to the finish line. Whose ass is in the line in order to figure it out when it's, if you figure it out, manage whoever needs to manage, acquire the information that needs to be gained, and get the task done. And the third thing is timeline. So the task, who owns it, and the timeline. Means by when. Those are the 3 things that fulfills my soul and allows Liz as a visionary to keep focus on what are the priorities for her. And if you're someone that wants to get into a partnership feeling very confident, or if you are somebody that you are in a partnership right now that's not working, or if you are somebody that had a bad experience with partnerships in the past, but you do understand How can you leverage it to grow your real estate business? And you want to learn more about it? We are going to New York City. We're preparing an investor pop-up on February 27th. It's going to be an afternoon of hands-on exercises talking about the prenup, what you need to do before you get into a relationship, how to leverage each other's skills and experiences. And when conflict hits, how can you handle it? We have Cass and Mike LoZaro. They wrote the book Shoveling Shit, and they have been in business for decades, and they also married. So they know a lot about partnerships. So if you are in New York or around the area, we invite you to join us. We're going to keep all the information that you need below. I hope to see you there. Thank you.