E 39 Joe Calloway - The Core Skills of Leadership

On this episode of the Massimo Show, Rod sits down with Joe Calloway

Joe Calloway helps leaders, owners, and entrepreneurs make great companies even better. He helps organizations focus on what is truly important, inspires new thinking about challenges and opportunities, and motivates people to immediate action.

Joe is the Executive In Residence at Belmont University's Center For Entrepreneurship. He is a business author, consultant and speaker whose client list reads like an international Who’s Who in business, ranging from Coca Cola and Verizon to Cadillac and American Express. Joe also works with small to mid-sized business groups including franchisees, medical practices, law firms, and a range of professional services groups.

Joe is the author of Be the Best at What Matters Most and five other ground-breaking business books including Becoming A Category of One: How Extraordinary Companies Transcend Commodity And Defy Comparison, which received rave reviews from The New York Times, Retailing Today, Publishers Weekly, and many others.

His newest book is Magnetic: The Art of Attracting Business.

Joe's business experience includes having owned a restaurant in Nashville, and he is currently serving as Advisor on Business Development with Gilson Boards, a snowboard design and manufacturing company based in Pennsylvania.

 Joe grew up in a rural community in Tennessee where he focused mainly on his passion for rock and roll bands such as Rolling Stones, The Who, Doors, and the Beatles.  He started off as a drummer and eventually became the frontman! 

Joe also had a passion for all things political and after college, he worked in the House of Representatives representing the state of Tennessee.  Eventually, Joe changed directions because he was becoming tired of the political scene.  

From there he went to work with his Brother in law in Real Estate taking a big leap and leaving his home town to move to Washington State.  He became the General Manager of his brother in law’s company where there were about 10 agents.   

“My job was to help the agents become more successful.  I was paid based on the company revenue.  I got intrigued by coming up with ideas to help the agents become better at what they do.  That is when I left the Real Estate business to go off on my own to seminars and workshops for some real estate companies, banks, all different areas from time management and sales programs.  That evolved into people asking for me to do a speech at a trade association and that grew to speak at big conventions being the keynote speaker.” 

Joe’s roles continued to evolve over the years from customer service, to building your brand with your people, to eventually transitioning into leadership speaking engagements working with smaller groups. 

Joe and Rod discuss what it takes to be a successful leader. Joe remarks that: 

“There are a lot of things, but there is no set answer.  What comes to mind is Clarity. No one wonders what is going on.  It is clear.  This who we are, this is what we value, here is what is important.  Here is the way we treat people.  And clarity on where we are going.  Our vision for the organization and how to get there.”  

Joe and Rod close out the show with Five Factors in Five Minutes where they cover Prospecting, Marketing, Productivity, CRMs, and how Joe is handling his team during COVID.