Flex Your Communication Style: Insights on Leadership and Systems from Giana Cambria

You know, when it comes to being a business owner and creating content, those are, it's different than you being Mr. Beast and trying to get a million views on YouTube. Right. And so people are going to see through that very quickly. And so I think one of the biggest mistakes people make when trying to build a brand is they over complicate the idea of brand. Because a lot of times depending on the size of your company, right, if you've got multiple people on your team that are going to be getting on camera, that's a little bit different. But usually most founder led businesses where you're the face and the voice, you are the brand. So there's not a whole lot of other than just being clear on like what your non negotiables are and your core values and being clear on that so you have a lens to run everything through and you don't get pulled astray. Other than that, I don't think that you have to go out and make this huge play on what is my brand voice going to be, what am I going to, how am I going to show up? You just need to again, find the intersection of the things where you're an expert and what your audience needs and deliver that to the camera.

Hey, I'm Kwame Christian and you are about to step into the world of Negotiate Anything, the number one negotiation podcast in the world, where we teach you how to make difficult conversations easier while getting more of what you want in the process. Each episode is packed with practical tips and strategies from the experts. We delve into negotiation, conflict resolution and leadership skills that are crucial in both business and in life. Whether you're closing a deal, managing a team, or navigating personal relationships, Negotiate Anything provides you with the tools you need to succeed. Our conversations are real, relatable, and most importantly, rooted in practicality. So if you're ready to transform your conversations and elevate your negotiation skills, join me on Negotiate Anything. Subscribe and listen on Apple podcasts, Spotify or wherever you love to listen. Let's make every conversation a winning negotiation. Gianna, thanks for joining us today.

Thanks for having me. Good to be here.

Yeah, it is our pleasure, my friend. So how would you get us started? By telling us a little bit about yourself and what you do.

Yeah, sure. So I run a company called Upper Hand Creative and essentially what we do, we work with entrepreneurs, business owners, we help them get all of their content done in less than four hours per month. Right. So we do that in a couple different ways. There's the strategy. We put the systems in place to basically build out this content machine, so to speak, inside their business. And then we place what we call content specialists to run this machine for them as well. So they handle everything from raw footage all the way up to posting.

Incredible. Gianna, as an entrepreneur I find that highly unlikely. Is that possible to put within a business? Can you think of any companies that you've worked with?

One comes to mind. Yeah, maybe.

So listeners. Gianna and I are friends. Her and her company helped us with our video. Video content, the video content that you're going to see starting in this year and on. And I tell you, the company that she has is incredible. The team is incredible, the processes are incredible and her ability to manage a remote team top notch. And so even though we have a branding and content specialist in our midst, we're going to focus on her ability to create effective communication systems within her team. So I think from the outside looking in, Gianna, it might not be obvious how complex your organization is. So can you give an idea or an example example of what that looks like? Just the internal functioning of a brand creative?

Yeah, sure. And thank you. I appreciate that. I'm obsessed with systems and leadership I would say as well. So that's really been the foundation of what we've done and it just happens to be that those systems work really, really well for content. So high level overview. Yeah, we have a team of about 39 and they are all over the globe. So I'm based in Florida, we have one other team member in Florida and then everyone from there is, I mean everything from the Philippines to Eastern Europe to South America to Canada. Right. So now we have one in the UK as well. So it's a lot of different time zones, a lot of different cultures and personalities and a lot of remote communication with Slack and Zoom and all the different things.

Yeah, it's pretty complex and it can be overwhelming, I'm sure. But I want to focus in on those two terms that you said, systems and leadership, because it's kind of like the book Atomic Habits. They say you don't rise to the level of your goals but you fall to the or weakness of your systems. Right. So these communications approaches that you have, they don't happen by accident. They're systematized and then it takes a strong leader to put it in place and then have people kind of follow and get in line with the systems that you're putting in place. So can you tell us about what it took to start to put the puzzle pieces together to have a functioning Communication system.

Yeah. And I think like, I can't really do this justice without giving kind of the context of where this came from. I think we all have people in our lives that can see past where we are at at our current state and can see just the potential and maybe the raw traits and characteristics and strengths that we don't even see ourselves. And so I was really fortunate probably about eight years ago to find that person for me. And it came through. I was working at Orange Theory. I used to work for their corporate division, running some studios here in Florida. And before I got to that point, I had just started at Orange Theory for a free membership, to be honest. So it was just a job out of college and that was really all I ever intended it to be. And lo and behold, eight years there and then some. And it was much more than that. But basically I had somebody that put me in a leadership position somewhat early on. Like on paper it didn't make any sense. I was managing people that were 10 plus years older than me. But more than that, they had 15, 20, 30 years experience in the fitness industry and I had just gotten certified a year before. So here I am, a quiet kid. And that's kind of part of the story with content too. I was always quiet, right. I just wanted to put my head down and do the work. And luckily somebody saw past that, put me in this position and I found out that I actually really do enjoy and thrive off of leadership. Like I actually did a, you know, if you ever done the disc assessment, there's actually a layer of it that's a motivator. And so my number one motivator was actually leadership. And I go, oh, okay, that makes a lot of sense. So I just got in that and I thrived. And then it just so happened. Orangetheory being one of the top franchises at the time, they were very obviously system heavy, right. They had a process for everything. They were also super reliant on people, right? Coaches, when you go into a workout, that's what made the whole experience. And so I just got this world class education on leadership and systems and how to manage different people. And I learned a ton about myself as well. I learned about like the way that I actually like to communicate is probably about 1%, especially of my team, right. The other 99%, it was a totally different. I had to learn to flex my communication style to them. Right. Because I came in and I was like, I'm very direct and bullet points and to the point. And most people, when you're leading A team, you got to get to know them, right? And hey, how was your weekend? And what's going on? And talk to me about this. So I learned, I learned those concepts of flexing communication styles and I learned systems. I learned curiosity as well. That was really what got me through that and kind of that imposter syndrome. And so that all just became the foundation of what we're doing at Upper hand. And I am conscious that now, as a remote team, there's probably a lot of things we could be doing better. And every day I'm asking myself, okay, how can we be, like you said, more intentional about this communication? Because I do think you have to be more intentional when it's remote. But yeah, I was very fortunate to have that to carry it over.

That's incredible. So there, there are a couple of cool things right in here. So first of all, your willingness to flex your communication. I think it even goes back to the beginning where you said you self described as very quiet. And then you discovered this passion for leadership and this ability to lead. And I think a lot of times people will look at where they are now and then they would just say, this is who I am, how I am, and it does not change. But you have the growth mindset. You recognize that there's a place that you wanted to go and you were able to make that adjustment. And then you were in an atmosphere that provided you with the skills and the know how that you are using now to create effective systems within your company. And so I want to talk about a bit about that transformation. So for the listeners out there who might say, okay, I have a very specific communication style and it does not adjust, how were you able to make that adjustment in yourself to be a more effective communicator?

Great question. Yeah, I have to dig back a little bit on this, but, you know, I think. And this actually plays very well into systems. To me, everything is a framework. If I have the framework and I understand, you know, where we're starting from and the map forward, then it becomes very easy. And what it also did, like, you know, back at Orange Theory, we had a. He was a COO at the time, and he was really the one that kind of catapulted me into this and taught me so much about business systems and leadership. And he came in and one of the first trainings he did with us was a four quadrant training. You probably know the model, but it was the horizontal and vertical axis was basically a form of how dominant or easygoing are you? And then how formal or informal, are you? Right, but you start there and everybody can kind of give you characteristics. Right? Now if I said, okay, what's, what do you think of when you think of somebody that's informal versus formal, right? Oh, less emotional and to the point and blah, blah, blah. Right. And same thing with dominant and non dominant. So very easily you had a format to place yourself and go, oh, this is where I am. And then based on where you fell in the quadrant, it was your characteristics and your communication style. And the eye opener for me was that, you know, he had the room separate so you would assess yourself. And then they had the team assess me because I was in a leadership position at the time and it was mostly aligned a little bit different, right? So that was interesting how you see yourself versus how you're perceived. Lesson number one. And then I was the one in the top left quadrant, actually, it was me and the COO at the time and everybody else in the room was the majority, bottom right, and then a few others scattered here and there. And bottom right and top left were two totally opposite communication styles. And it made sense as to why. And I noticed this in my interactions with my boss at the time, right? Very different than how he interacted with other people on the team. And I saw that he was flexing his style to me. So long story short, this all just, it gave our team common language because they could be like, ah, you're being top left right now. I need you to come down to bottom right. It was an instant like, oh, you're right, I'm sorry. So that process and their willingness to step into that as well and give feedback and be transparent about that allowed me to not just self assess, but also have that immediate feedback loop and go, oh, you're right. When I do this, it's causing this friction because this is how you're perceiving it. So it was, I mean, practicing that for two years, giving the team common language with that framework, I think was everything. And then permission to, to call each other out on that as well.

I've got a quick story for you. So I was at this keynote and I talked to a listener and he said, kwame, I love the podcast, but my favorite part, man, I love those commercials. And I said, I don't think this is a true story. And now let me tell you about Negotiate Anything Premium, where you can listen to your favorite Negotiate Anything episodes ad free. With a subscription to Premium, you can get access to more insights from your favorite experts and ad free listening and extended episodes bonus, you'll also get access to exclusive episodes and personalized advice from yours truly. If you've been looking for an easy and affordable way to level up your skills and negotiate more of the best things in life, join our Premium community. Now for that gentleman in that fictional story. This ad's for you. And for the rest of you, I'll see you in premium. That last part is really important because that's more of a culture thing. We have to have a culture where there's enough psychological safety where we can call each other out, where it doesn't feel as though you are being singled out or judged inappropriately. If you create that candid conversation type of culture, then you can have these conversations and solve problems without people getting too offended or taking it personally.

Absolutely, yeah.

So when you think about the communication systems that you use now, in our previous conversation, I think one of the things I admired most is your willingness to continue to adjust and experiment. Because it's not one of these situations where you figure it out and you're like, I never need to change again. We have these systems in place forever. So what are the signals that you're looking for when you're recognizing that something might need to change in your communication style or systems?

Yeah, I think it's a lot harder remote. It definitely is. And so I've had to be more intentional about check ins. And we're going to be implementing this. It hasn't been super consistent yet, but there's almost just an emotional quality to the end of day reports we have. So that could be like, hey, scale of 1 to 10, how are you feeling in your role? How effective are you feeling? And then it's like stress load and how happy are you feeling? That sort of thing. So just having that kind of measure, as cheesy as it sounds, again, you just gotta be more intentional. It's remote, like person to person. It's easy, right? I wouldn't say it's easy, but you can pick up on things a little bit faster. The main thing is performance. Right? Hey, something's a little off in the numbers here. Or this doesn't seem its usual self. Although I do think that may be a little bit of a lag indicator. But generally like in someone's demeanor, right? How are they showing up to work? Is it different? How are they responding to things? What's their attitude? I just try to read between those lines as much as I can, which is not great. It's. For us, it's a lot in slack, right? So like trying to read between the lines and somebody's like, text communication is not great. So we've had to be more intentional in some of the shifts that we've made as realizing that because it becomes either okay, we're accurately assessing kind of feeling off some, the way your message is coming through on slack, or we're completely off the mark and we're maybe filling in a story that's not there and something that you never meant. So we're trying to take a lot of those conversations more into zoom so that we can have that real time feedback. But just overall body language and mood and attitude I think are probably the number one thing.

Yeah. I tell you, there's no easy way around it. As much as we would like to believe that we can just have these text communication approaches just exclusively, it's just not possible. And a lot of times what ends up happening is we try to move too quickly and have these conversations very quickly via text and then we end up causing more problems and then it's a bigger problem to solve down the road. And so what we're realizing is that it takes work, it's inescapably difficult and it takes work and the work is consistent, but you reap the rewards of that consistent work with more effective communication down the road too.

So true. Yeah. And just like a point of vulnerability, honestly, when I left Orange Theory, right. We were really, really good about that. And one of our team core values was radical transparency. Right. And radical. What's the word? Radical candor. So, you know, following that sort of framework. Right. And that meant, I mean man, almost daily. Right. Myself and our other leaders included, we were constantly stepping into these uncomfortable conversations. But that is what made us great. No doubt about it. Looking back on that, that is what made that team so strong and so trusting and allowing to have that two way street with feedback is because every single day we were getting uncomfortable and addressing things and not letting it slide. And then when I left Orange Theory and came full time into upper hand and everybody was remote and at that time, really it was just me in Orlando and literally everybody else was completely outside the state. It was almost like an excuse where it was like, okay, everybody's on slack. This is just how we communicate. This is what we're going to do. It's weird to get on a call in the middle of the day. It stops productivity. All these excuses that go in your head. Right. And so it was like this pendulum swing for me and I realized fairly quickly that we couldn't continue on that way. I think it's funny. We would never do that in a friendship or in a relationship with a family member or in a romantic relationship. You would never do that and just say, we're going to communicate only on text and email. But we tend to do that a lot easier in business. Or at least I do anyway.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think. And just speaking candidly too, as an entrepreneur, sometimes there is just so much to do that your communication skills deteriorate simply because of the effort and energy that's required to continue to communicate with so many different people. And we might try to get away with just a quick message like, please, I hope this is enough. And usually it's not. And I tell you, it is magical once you can just get on Zoom and have a conversation. Because I was talking to some members of my team just this week about it because I keep on getting pulled in so many different directions. They just throw meetings onto my calendar and they say, yeah, the things that I was trying to get your attention about for weeks, I can knock it out in 15 minutes. Just because we have the beauty of focus and context and body language too. So it really makes a massive difference.

Yeah, definitely.

Yeah. And I kind of want to shift a wee bit because I know we've talked, we focus mainly on the internal communications and the structures here. I want to shift the entrepreneurial focus to business development because this was not planned. I'm actually curious about this because the offer that your company has, I was skeptical because I said this sounds too good to be true. It's just not. It's not possible. And listeners, it was and we're doing it and it works. So when you run into somebody who has that this is too good to be true kind of skepticism, how do you start to break down those barriers?

Yeah, well, I think you got to get away from instant gratification because I think like again, in marketing we try things and in sales we try things that we would never try in a normal relationship. And when you think about somebody that has like a deep seated belief on something, they're not going to change it overnight. And if I look back at how I've changed my beliefs on something substantial or something that was seemingly deeply rooted or emotional or whatever it's been through relationship, but that, that comes with repeated touch points and probably stories, right. Little by little that are eating away at that, I'm like, oh, here's a new paradigm over here. And that's how we look at what we do with content. So in a short answer, it's content. So anything that's coming up in terms of limiting beliefs, objections, anything around that. We're just trying to go create really good content on that and then push people to that. Right. And if they can consume that before they get to us, before they have a conversation, A, it's a much easier conversation, B, they're going to come in and be a much better client and we're going to be able to get better results for them.

That's true. That's exactly what happened. It's so funny when you describe it this way, because you are 100% right. Because for every skeptical thought that I had, there was a video that addressed it. Okay, Gianna, how do you do? Well, no, that video articulates it perfectly. Interesting. And I love this because what you're doing is you're tying the content and branding strategy to the negotiation and sales strategy. And I think with a lot of companies, there is not a cohesive narrative that ties the two together and they're missing out on persuasive value. I know there are a lot of entrepreneurs and just professionals in general. I think we can all benefit from a little bit of a primer on how to build a strong online brand. Can you just speak a little bit more to the strategy of building a brand and how it translates into subsequent conversations?

Yeah, definitely. I think it ultimately starts with reverse engineering the person you're trying to reach. Just like I imagine, right. Where you would start with a negotiation or with a. A conversation, or even as a leader walking into maybe an uncomfortable feedback conversation. Right. You have to start with that person in mind and it's going, okay, where are they at currently? What's the conversation that's going on on their mind? What are the. What are their expectations on their side? I think a lot of it is expectation management at the end of the day, Right. Because that's ultimately where the gap is. And so we always start there. Right. And then once you have that and you know, okay, this is how they're describing things, these are their frustrations, these are their daily pain points, the questions they have going back to what we were talking about just a second ago with limiting beliefs. Right. And then you go, what do I have to say about those topics? And generally speaking, you know, if you are truly an expert in what you're doing or whatever you're bringing to the table when it comes to your business, you can just answer those questions in a way that lets you step into that. Right. So you don't have to be anything you're not. You don't have to worry about. Okay, but if I do a video on this, how do I sell? How do I convince people? You just trust that if you effectively communicate, speak to their problems or the pain points now and then give value, don't be afraid to give them things in those videos and, and not hold back and not keep everything behind a paywall necessarily, then that just continues on down the line. Right. And it allows them to make a decision for themselves, which is ultimately what we want.

Right. I loved everything that you said, but something is standing out here is that you don't need to be something that you're not. And I think there is a belief that people have that you need to kind of create this stage Persona that is different from yourself. And it's really refreshing to hear somebody that has done it at your caliber while not having to sacrifice their, their authenticity. I think that's really powerful.

Yeah. And I, I mean, hey, I know that can be an effective strategy. Right. I forget his name, but he has a whole book on this. And I guess it was, was it Kobe Bryant that kind of has this alter ego. Right. And there, there is a benefit to that, right? Sure. And it allows you to kind of step into that and into power with that. But I think, you know, when it comes to being a business owner and creating content, those are. It's different than you being Mr. Beast and trying to get a million views on YouTube. Right. And so people are going to see through that very quickly. And so I think one of the biggest mistakes people make when trying to build a brand is they overcomplicate the idea of brand. Because a lot of times depending on the size of your company, right. If you've got multiple people on your team that are going to be getting on camera, that's a little bit different. But usually most founder led businesses where you're the face and the voice, you are the brand. So there's not a whole lot of. Other than just being clear on like what your non negotiables are and your core values and being clear on that so you have a lens to run everything through and you don't get pulled astray. Other than that, I don't think that you have to go out and make this huge play on what is my brand voice gonna be, what am I gonna, how am I gonna show up? You just need to again, find the intersection of the things where you're an expert and what your audience needs and deliver that to the camera.

Incredible. Gianna, I could talk to you about this forever. I really appreciate you coming on the show today. Before you go, remind the listeners about your business and how they can get in touch.

Yeah, absolutely. And thank you again for having me. So you can find me two main channels. YouTube and Instagram are probably the best ones. You can find everything we do from there as well. But again, my Instagram and YouTube would be under my name, Gianna Cambria. And then Upper Hand Creative, we help you get all of your content done in less than four hours per month.

Amazing. Gianna, thank you so much for joining us. Really appreciate it.

Yeah, thanks Kwame. Thanks for having me.

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