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Hey, this is Kyle wittmeyer, with Kyle with Meyer consulting and if you really want to learn how to level up your life, you should be listening to the time to shine today podcast with my friend Scott Ferguson.

Hey, it’s Scott Ferguson here with full time to shine today.com and South Florida real estate, business and lifestyle. It’s a little cross pollination episode with my friend, Kyle wittmeyer. And he’s, you know, compared to me, he’s a young buck, but he is lightyears ahead of me at his age when I was his age. His what he’s going to talk about regarding mission values, leadership culture, customer service, you’re going to pick up some valuable valuable knowledge nuggets. And if you live here in South Florida, make sure you hire Kyle to level up your company, or even just level up yourself. So without further ado, here’s my interview with my friend, Kyle wittmeyer. Let’s level up

Hey, time to shine squad and my South Florida real estate business and lifestyle listeners I’m gonna I have a special treat for you. I have Kyle wittmeyer, who is a coach here in South Florida and I want to do the cross pollination. So ends up on both podcasts so you’re in for a real treat and the knowledge nuggets that Kyle is going to drop on you today are fantastic. So let’s hear a little bit about Kyle. He lives in serves in South Florida helping companies achieve organizational health through his five step training process. Kyle has worked for 15 plus years and organizations that produce excellent customer service, uncommonly positive culture and high levels of leadership. Kyle offers innovative ideas and paradigm shifting strategies to organizations who know they need a shift in the company’s organizational health, but either don’t have the time Time to implement or lack the personnel needed to invest in this realm of influence. Wow, that’s some serious credentials brother and it looks like you’re a really big go giver. So welcome to the show Kyle and if you can please tell us your favorite color and why

I guess my favorite color is like a mix of blue green. Okay, and I love that because I love the ocean so I that’s it and that’s why

you are a water man. I see you’ve been surfing for us quite a few years and pretty much your whole life then. Seven years. Okay, gotcha. So you really fell in love with surf down here that’s awesome. Yeah which is

a love hate relationship in South Florida. Got

Yeah, yeah, cuz the waves are not is good as I guess they could be in different areas. Is that the love hate? Yeah,

yes, South Florida is kind of the bottom of the barrel and the surfing world but we still get some pretty decent swells several times a year. So yeah,

you know, Kelly Slater is like one of the best ever, you know, and he best Yeah, the best and actually, Kelly, if you’re listening, I did talk to your people. And I know that you’re coming on in October for an interview, so I’m really stoked about that. But he’s from Cocoa Beach and is the best competitive surfer ever. And he started here and like medium to South Florida. So that’s pretty awesome, right?

Definitely. All right.

I’m going to shut my mouth now and I’m going to let you tell me about the origins of Kyle. What? You know, I should ask, is it Whitmore? wittmeyer wittmeyer. Right. Whitney? wittmeyer. Yeah. All right, Kyle. wittmeyer Consulting.

Yeah, that’s the origins of that, please. Definitely. So I was working for an interior design company locally here in South Florida. And I really wasn’t doing much I was out of college and it was kind of my first job at the time and I was actually working in the warehouse. So when I tell you like, low and slow man, I was working low and slow, not doing a whole lot. Not a ton of aspirations, first job kind of thing. And the my employer approached me She just asked if I had any interest in curating the core values for the organization in hopes that it would be something that would go into our company Handbook, that it would be a part of training all new employees and that it would become very central to the BI annual reviews that performance reviews for the company. And so she did that. And I was happy to oblige. I actually had an incredible time coming up with this stuff. And I started a weekly newsletter based on the core values of the company and really tried to take that to the kind of the next level and in doing so I actually realized, man, you know, you you kind of have a passion for this. And I had tapped into something that I that I didn’t know is there. And so I started questioning, how can I take the concept of core values and company culture and translate that into a business and so I landed on the concept of consulting, I found myself registered daring to become part of the john Maxwell team. I’m not sure if you’ve heard of john Maxwell. Oh, my God. Yeah. Awesome. So I’m in good company. And, and I found myself kind of moving in a direction of being a leadership consultant. And so that was my first kind of step into it was getting involved with john Maxwell and getting resources through them licensed and trained by them. And in doing so, I realized, and this is this is not necessarily a bad thing, but that the leadership consultant market is fairly saturated.

Right, really.

And so I was like, man, I need to figure out something else. And what do I care about that involves leadership, but encompasses more than just leadership. And so that’s how I landed on organizational health. Because I, again, you mentioned my five step system, and I think these are the five different things that contribute to having an overall healthy organization. So that’s where it started. was just doing it for one company on On a very small level and then realizing that I should be doing this for a lot of companies.

Excellent. So before we get into the five steps, which I can’t wait to hear them, I couldn’t help to go back and say you were a warehouse worker out of out of college. Correct. Okay, so it’s like someone starting in the mailroom or something that might work for me is a real estate agent, I have them dialing for dollars. So it’s just kind of you’re, you’re working your way up, you’re the bottom of the barrel, for lack of a better term. Why did this person approach you to help them with their core values? Would you just again, I’m not putting on anybody that works in a warehouse. But generally, that’s not where they go. So can you share with us

while you’re here? You’re right. I totally agree with you. I typically you don’t approach the guy at the very bottom of the barrel and ask them to take on something like that. And it was an extreme honor and something that I’m very grateful for because it obviously launched me into being where I am now. But the only thing that I can come up with is is my background, my educational background. Sure you probably saw it on my website, but I have a degree in ministry and an organizational we’re gonna go

over that. Please cover that. Yeah,

okay. Yeah. So I guess it’s kind of that cultural that that kind of concern for good culture and a good value system, I think is probably what she saw. And maybe what set me apart from everybody else. And I say that obviously humbly, but yeah, no, I think that was the main, honestly the main factor in why she approached me and I think she probably saw some potential on my life as well, that I was not currently engaging in by just kind of being satisfied as merely a warehouse worker and not really pursuing anything else. And so I think she was kind of giving me a shot, you know,

all of it. That’s great, man. They saw something in you and you probably showed up on time and finished your job and did your job right. So that’s, that’s what a lot of people will see. So you started consulting for the small company, what was your aha moment to take it to the next level? To where you’re at in progressing through right now. Hmm.

I think my aha moment came when I became involved with john Maxwell and went to they have obviously they have all of their online resources and this entire platform that you can get, and you can engage with, but they have a bi annual gathering in Orlando, Florida. And I attended that and it’s they call it an IMC. It’s an international certification event. And I attended that and it was just three days of teaching from people like john Maxwell and other guest speakers on things like leadership and company culture. And it was at that at that moment, really, that I realized, man, you you are moving yourself in a direction to eventually become an entrepreneur. And you really are, you’re really on a timescale at this point. Your days are numbered with the warehouse shirt. So that was kind of my aha moment to Really cultivated vision for where I’m going now.

But that’s amazing. So tell us about Okay, so you went to school for ministry. You went to school for what else there at Palm Beach State? Correct? Atlantic? Atlantic. Okay. Yeah. So what does your family think about what you’re doing now, compared to maybe what you went to school for? And I have to ask, especially because you know, you’re a millennial, if I’m speaking, right, so what what do they think about that?

Well, it’s tough. I’m from South Carolina. So I’m from the Bible Belt. And so most people are Christians, you know, that identify I am a Christian. Awesome, awesome. And so obviously, with that, you have pretty much everybody just kind of naturally whether they take their faith seriously, seriously or not, they just kind of naturally identify as a Christian is the way of the land in South Carolina. And so I grew up my family’s fairly serious and so they thought it was great that I was I was going to college and I specifically was going to college, for ministry, and for organizational leadership. So the organizational leadership thing kind of just happened to me, the ministry thing was on purpose. But they, they, for the most part, they embraced it. I wasn’t raised in a Christian household per se. My mom is an incredible woman, she raised me completely by herself. My father passed away when I was five. And so she would not articulate a faith in in the Christian religion, per se. And so even though you know, it’s the Bible, though, I didn’t grow up that way. So yeah, I think there was some mixed opinions about me getting a ministry degree. Where’s that gonna take you How are you going to make a living right those kinds of questions come up. And again, really

hide it into your values though, people you coach though, so they,

yeah, right. Now that was actually a huge that was kind of a secondary motivation for me because I am actively engaged in ministry actually lead a ministry in my spare time. And so that’s what I was looking for is how can I kind of intersect my faith and my love for leadership and business? And how can I kind of combine them and bring them into the same world without being like overly preachy or going to organizations and trying to shove Jesus down their throat, you know what I mean? And so coming from the approach of, of healthy values, I think really demonstrates my faith in a lot of ways. And so it’s one of those things that doesn’t have to be talked about. It just shines right through it.

But that’s been fantastic. Tell us a little bit. I don’t want to say quickly, but in a nutshell, because I don’t want to give away too much of your secret sauce, but about the five steps.

Yeah, definitely. That’s something that’s on my website, so it’s not giving away too much. The five steps are number one is vision, mission and values. Number two is leadership. Number three is company culture. Number four is customer experience. And number five is conflict resolution. And I believe that if you can achieve excellence in those five areas that you can achieve organizational health.

I love that. That’s beautiful. So you got vision and values leadership, culture, customer experience in conflict, conflict resolution. So, Kyle, you’re a young man. What do you do? Or how do you handle it? When a company? How do you get people to take you seriously? You know, I mean, I started in this business as a real estate agent when I was 25. Okay, as you know, 22 years old shoot 23 years ago now, and it took me, you know, people would look at me and say, What are you talking about? This is my biggest investment probably ever gonna make, you know, yeah, but what did you do to or what do you do or how do you handle that? You know, we’ll call it an objection when people come to you.

Definitely. The main objection people ask me is what What qualifies you to speak to me about my company he on these terms, and my default typically is actually my education and my certification. And so that probably sounds even cliche, but a degree in organizational leadership and assertive certification through john Maxwell team, to coach and train and speak on these specific things. That’s a good educational foundation. And then from that point forward, it’s my experience in the industry as the company that I started with the interior design company and the work that I did with them. It’s my clients locally, who I’ve worked with in the scope of work that I’ve done for them, that really, in my opinion, speak for itself. And so how do you arrive there when you’re a young man, you don’t have any practical experience? You have a ton of educational experience, and you got to get somebody to take a shot on you. I would say, and I’m not sure if this is the question that you’re asking. But I would say the best advice for that is to leverage relationships and I mean, quick and fast. asked Who do you know, I would take that this is what I did, I took inventory. Who do I know that successful? Who do I know that is achieving great things in business and life in entrepreneurship. And I reached out to all of them, I made a list of 15 people that I knew. And I reached out to all of them and said, Hey, this is what I’m doing. This is what I’m dreaming of. And this is how you can help me by connecting you with anybody that you may know or any resources you may be in touch with. And the level of success that I’ve attained through that has been incredible.

So Mandy just answered a little bit but if I’m out networking presence and flush here in South Florida, or even have a client online or whatnot, what what is the keywords that I might be listening for? Those make see if someone is a good prospect, contact a referral for you.

Yeah, definitely. If somebody is complaining about the overall culture of the workplace that they’re in, that is a key indicator that there’s either something wrong With their leadership, the company might not be moving in a direction they might be kind of directionless, I should say. And so they’re needing direction. They’re needing development in their vision, mission and values. If leadership is toxic or poisonous people feel like they’re highly micromanage. Or if they’re even spoken down to or spoken to negatively on a daily basis in the workplace. These are all indicators that your organization is not in the healthiest place and there’s definitely room for improvement.

Love that. Love it. So when you’re working with these people in you’re helping them with their their culture in improving their mission, values, leadership. Is there any good questions that you wish the people would ask you but they don’t really

think about that. I think I want people to really take a deep dive into into the video. First point of the five step process that I have, which is vision, mission and values. I think that people hear that and they gloss over it. And right, everybody’s like, Oh, yeah, we’ve got it. We’ve got a mission statement, we’ve got core values established. And most of that is very much like these cliche phrases or words that you plaster on a wall. Or maybe if you care about it a little bit more, you get turned into like a professional posts or something and you hang it right. But people don’t seem to take seriously the vision and mission and values, which is actually why it’s my number one step in my five step process. And I’m extremely passionate about it because I think if you have a clarified vision, right, the vision is the direction so I always teach it like this. If a vision is the destination, it’s the direction you’re going in, right. It’s the place that you want to end up at as a company. Then the mission is going to be the vehicle that helps you get there, how are we executing? How are we getting to the vision, right. And so that’s the mission. And so there’s a difference between vision and mission. I don’t think people really fully understand that sometimes. But it’s crucial to understand that you have to separate the two, the mission is the execution of the vision. And then lastly, the values, kind of carrying on with the transportation analogy that I’m saying the values would almost be like your GPS, if you have core values that tie into how you’re supposed to conduct yourself in the workplace. Then when you’re met with challenges, circumstances, situations, negative customers or negative interactions, these values steer, you say, hey, there’s a roadblock up ahead, right. It’s called confrontation, and you should make a left here and this is how to navigate through that. So vision, mission and values. I think that’s huge. And I and I wish that clients and even potential clients would ask more about that. I love it.

I love it. So with all that being said, experience that you have in building your company. What is the one thing you know for sure? Huh?

What is the one thing that I know for sure, I know this is that if companies, if companies can’t create a healthy atmosphere, if they can’t create leadership that really is raising people up and empowering them, right? If you can’t create these things, then then you are in trouble. I would say you’re in trouble. And I say that confidently. Because if you don’t have that, then you have the opposite of that. And at the very least, you have complacency. And so you either have a negative workplace or you maybe have an apathetic and complacent workplace. Either way, it’s negative. It’s not good for you. It’s not good for your customers and it’s not good for your bottom line. And so that is something that I would, I would put a flag in the ground on and say that I know confidently is that organizational health is a top top priority and I think people are really, really beginning to buy into it more so now than ever, with Google reviews, Yelp reviews, social media, all these different things, right, that are becoming more and more relevant. People can just perceive the culture and the overall leadership of your company without ever stepping foot inside your doors, or getting on a call with anybody that represents your company.

Love that. I saw that in your blog winning with wittmeyer the culture blog. That’s awesome. What you just said about the Yelp and the Google and whatnot. So if you were to remove your cell phone out of the equation, what are the three things that Kyle cannot live without?

I definitely can’t live without my girlfriend. Okay, I can’t live without my surfboard.

And I cannot live without my friends. Awesome.

That was quick that you know what you would got going on? Tell me then what what’s one thing that’s blown your mind thinks something that’s just like wow, boom. really blown your mind.

You know, honestly, it’s been,

it’s been the way that people love to connect, and they love to share resources and they love to help you out in business, honestly, even you reaching out to me to do this podcast now is another example of this kind of this mind blowing thing. And this maybe even segues a little bit into a question that you potentially would ask me I know that you had on the forum, is that what held you back from entrepreneurship for the longest time? And I want to tell you, it was fear of inadequacy, right. I felt like I wouldn’t be able to measure up. And so it’s like, man, when I finally just, you know, jumped in, took a risk and just started saying, hey, I need help. I’ve never done this before. I’m reaching out to my connections. I’m leveraging my network man. People are quick to come to the rescue. They want to help. They want to share resources, they want to connect you to relationships they have and to me that’s mind blowing, because I just Didn’t expect it. And it’s probably one of the main reasons that I felt

that answer. And when you ask your people like you said, they want to help, it’s like you’re you’re coming them with no ego, and they’re like, I can help this person. That’s awesome. So Kyle, what is your definition of a life well lived.

I think a life well lived, is first and foremost, to take faith seriously. I think that you you have to find faith. And I’m not I’m not on this podcast to preach. Obviously, you and I are both Christians. And so people know where we stand with that. I think finding faith in life is of utmost importance before anything else. And honestly, I think that’s, I think that’s the gateway to living well, and living a life well lived. And secondly, though, would be finding your passion and going for it. And even if you’re not sure if it’s your passion, if you think that you’re passionate about it, start taking steps in the direction to facilitate because I had a concept in my mind and I teach on this sometimes Where I had passions stirring within me. And I made myself available to them, but I did not facilitate them. And there’s a major difference. And I think if you want to live a life well lived, you have to go beyond making yourself available to your passions, you have to start facilitating them

taking massive action as Tony Robbins would say, and all the rest of them, right? Yeah, absolutely. All right, brother. We’re gonna move into what we call our level up lightning round. So we’re gonna ask five or six questions, you and I could talk for 1520 minutes and each one of them I’m gonna hold you to 10 seconds, no explanations. Just give me an answer. Or at death. Ready? Here we go. What’s the best leveling up advice you’ve ever received?

to invest in a program called consulting, calm.

Love it. share one of your personal habits that contributes to your success. Prayer, and reading doesn’t click I love it outside of your own website, and of course, a shameless plug of time to shine today calm. What’s another resource that you To go to, to maybe level up your life or maybe even teach you something about your industry.

Definitely it’s called giant, giant worldwide.com giant worldwide

calm. How about your go to book?

I’m the book I’m reading now and I love is called the advantage by Patrick lencioni.

Love it. I’ve read it. It’s amazing. It’s good, favorite charity or organization you’d like to donate your money or time to?

Oh, man.

I really kind of keep it faith centered in terms of donating money in time. So my church that I go to here in South Florida is called the harbor church. that’s a that’s a big place for me personally.

Love it. Lastly, what is the best decade of music 6070s 80s or 90s 90s? Well, bad. Alright, so Kyle, leave that our time to shine squad and also our South Florida real estate, business and lifestyle listeners. Knowledge Nugget that you want to leave behind with them to take with them. Hmm.

Yeah, I think that it when you’re when you’re looking at organizational health, and when you’re looking about how to rally people, you want to get people on the same page. Again, I think that the five steps that I that I said first, that’s that’s a serious like, foundational point. If you really want to mobilize your company and start moving towards organizational health, I would say do that. Secondly, I would say do this is that find a rallying point, find a thing of common interest that everyone can buy into and address whatever issues there are. So if there’s confrontation, if there’s drama, if there’s conflict, whatever it is, talk about it, bring it out into the open, and then have everybody rally around a common thing, whatever that thing may be. And I think that even creating phraseology for it right, creating your own language for the direction that you’re moving in, actually will help people buy in Because you as an organization are creating something unique, people feel like it started with you. It’s not just a repeated process or, or something that they’ve read in a book or something, you know what I mean? So really putting language to some sort of unifying concept and then moving in that direction. That’s what I would say is going to really help people

have some solid parting advice that’s really, really solid. So tell us how can we find your car?

Yeah, you can find me on Instagram. I don’t have separate business and pleasure Instagrams. I just mix it all on one. It’s kk Widom. 21, that’s k w i t. m 21. As my Instagram My Facebook is Kyle Patrick wittmeyer, as well as my LinkedIn the same cow Patrick wittmeyer. And then finally, my website is k the letter K wittmeyer. My last name, so k wittmeyer consulting.com. access all the ways to connect with me.

All those will be in the show notes to all the lists. There’s out there so well this has been nothing short of a pleasure. We always like to surround ourselves with people that are leveling up their life. They stay humble, they stay hungry. And Kyle with is leveraging relationships fast his vision mission values, such as ego side and ask for help. Those are the kind of people that are we want to surround ourselves with. And Kyle, thank you so much for coming on to the to the podcast. You’re part of our squad now. So you can’t go anywhere else. I’m kidding. You’re stuck with this brother. I really appreciate your time, man.

Yeah, no, absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. And just I’ve said it. I’ve said it before when I say it again. Thank you so much for serving our country. We really appreciate it.

Well, that’s nice of you to say. Thanks, Kyle. Appreciate you. Have a great day. Hey, thanks so much for listening to this episode of time to shine today podcast, proudly brought to you by southern New Jersey real estate. Real Estate excellence can be reached at 561249726 Six and online at www dot Sutter in nugent.com. If you’re a business owner or professional who would like to be interviewed on time to shine today, please visit time to shine today.com slash guest. If you liked this episode, please subscribe on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, I Heart Radio or wherever you get your podcast. There’s a link in the show notes to our website. Also there you will see our recommended resources. We hope that you will support our show by supporting them. If you like what you’ve been listening to, it’d be great if you could just give us a five star rating and tell your friends to subscribe while you’re at it. I’m your host, Scott Ferguson. And until next time, let’s level up it’s our time to shine.

Music Courtesy of: fight by urmymuse (c) copyright 2018 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/urmymuse/58696 Ft: Stefan Kartenberg, Kara Square

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