Bryan McAnulty: Welcome to The Creator's Adventure, where we interview Creator's from around the world, hearing their stories about growing a business As an entrepreneur, there will come a time when you have to hire somebody to grow your business, and when you do, how will you become a great leader? That's the question that we're gonna answer today.

Hey everyone. I'm Bryan McAnulty, the founder of Heights Platform. Let's get into it.

Hey everyone. We're here today with Maria Aguire, a bestselling author, thought leader and leadership coach leadership online coach. She is an AVA Aviation Management. All right, let me restart that for you. I'll do it. I'll do it better. All right. Hey everyone. We're here today with Maria Aguire. She is a bestselling author, thought leader, and leadership online coach.

She has been an aviation management professional for the past 27 years, and in September, 2022, Maria published her first book, the Square Peg Leader Delusion, the Art of Building and Leading Bulletproof Teams from her proven record of turning dysfunctional, low performing teams into consistent and engaging high perform.

Maria, welcome to the show.

Maria Aguirre: Hi. Happy to be here.

Bryan McAnulty: All right, so my first question for you is, what would you say is the biggest thing either that you did or you are doing that has helped you to achieve the freedom to do what you enjoy? .

Maria Aguirre: I think that is really getting out of my own way. I've, I always had the, even through all my years in corporate, I always had that bug of having my own business.

And you always. Second guess yourself. And you always question which way do I go? Or how valuable is the knowledge that I've gained into embarking into a new endeavor, like a, like a new business. And it's really, I think making the decision and, and taking the, the steps to do something that really creates that freedom.

So to, for me, was. Really compromising because I'm still incorporated and I'm running my business in parallel. It was really compromising in what is that I wanted to achieve and setting up those goals, even though it may be more, um time consuming at the time, it, it really gives me that light at the end of the tunnel, let's say, because I'm actually doing what I ambition to do, which was building my business.

Bryan McAnulty: Awesome. Yeah, I think that's great advice. I think people. Can probably relate to that in a lot of different ways because it's not only like starting your business or, or doing that thing that you want, but like it can be in so many pieces along the way of like launching that first product. Now that you've started the business or, or at every step along the way, it's easy to, to think of like some kind of excuse that, oh, well I'm really busy with all this, but should, can I really do this yet or do I have to wait?

So I think that's helpful. So in your case, what was that motivation that made you say, I really wanna start my own business?

Maria Aguirre: I really had when, when I started doing writing the book, I, I was really creating a course. So that's where my business was born. And I, I really had this need to share the knowledge that I've gained throughout my years in aviation and all that I've done with my teams because I see other people struggling with similar things, and I have two business degrees.

I did my undergrad and my graduate school in business, and there's a lot of the things that. Very practical that have helped me really achieve high performance with different teams that I've led that weren't taught in. . So I saw that need and that gap in what leaders really need to learn about that is not really taught in school.

So that's where the box started and I was like, okay, this, this is something I need to share. And, and it really started bothering me. I, I couldn't stop thinking about it. Mm-hmm. , it was like, okay, I need to get it out and I need to share because, you know, we, we are not supposed to keep our talents for ourselves and the, and the things, the skills that we've learned, we are supposed to share them.

So that's where it comes.

Bryan McAnulty: Yeah, definitely. Well, I definitely believe that. I definitely relate to that. That is my sa same kind of feeling and, and feeling I gotta start this, this software business and, and help other people share those same things. So definitely understand that. So you started your career in this in the aviation industry.

You've been working there for over 26 years leading these high performing teams. Can you tell us a little bit more about how you started and, and how you kind of climbed to the position that you're at today?

Maria Aguirre: Yeah, definitely. So I'm born and raised in Ecuador and when I was a little girl the apartment where we live was in the back of the airport.

So our apartment literally you could see the fence across the street. And so I always heard the takeoffs and, and I was always very passionate about flying. I love going to visit my family in other cities, traveling. And so I wanted to be a pilot. As a little girl, but born and raised in Ecuador, you needed to join the Air Force.

So you needed to be a male. So I had the opportunity years later to move to the us in operations, aerospace operations. So I took it. It's as I always call it, is the behind the scenes magic and, you know, behind every takeoff and landing. So that's what we do. We do maintenance, we do manufacturing.

and I got the opportunity, I took it and never looked back. I've been in the industry for 27 years as, as you mentioned, and it's, it's been great. It's been a lot of learning experiences, a lot of ups and downs. But I can tell you that there's very few places that I feel more comfortable than in a, either a hanger or a maintenance shop.

So it's really my brand butter.

Bryan McAnulty: Oh. So, yeah, you managed to secure a leadership position in aviation, which is typically, as you were kind of mentioning, like a male dominated industry. So did you face any challenges or would you say like, I don't know, what, what advice would you give to other women who want to be in a leadership position in a male dominated.

Maria Aguirre: I would say don't second guess yourself. It's, it's really, it really comes down to the knowledge you have and the capabilities that you bring to the table. I did encounter a lot of, of challenges and, and I actually write about them in, in my book, I have a whole chapter on women leadership because it's We are, we tend to be less assertive and, and we tend to second guess the value of the contribution that we bring.

But very, very early on in my career, I understood that the environment was the environment. It was not gonna change because I was a woman. So I adapted and I work as hard as my male counterparts, and I let my work speak for itself. So that's how I secure it because it was really I think that sometimes is, is a self-imposed bias that we as.

10 to half and and it's really if, if you really wanna go for it. Awesome. Great advice. That would be my

Bryan McAnulty: advice, . Yeah, it's great advice. Yeah. So in addition to this career in aviation, now you've started your own business and you're offering coaching services to help executives and managers become better leaders.

So can you tell me a little bit more of like, how that started? You, you went into a little bit of like your, the bug and the, the passion that made you start it. So what was kind of like your first step? Because like, as you mentioned, you're still in corporate now.

Maria Aguirre: Yes. So like I said, I started creating this leadership content and first I started a blog.

I was like, how am I going to share all this content? Right? So, and before writing the book, I also wanted to test the, if, if the content was valuable for the people that was reading it. So I started a blog, and then I got certified as a coach under John Maxwell. and I decided, okay, let me help other leaders because I think there's a lot of power in mentoring.

and in coaching you, you can't get anywhere on your own. There's always somebody that, you know, took you under their wing and got you, and, and taught you and, and put you in front of the right people at the right time to help you out progress. So helping people with that to me is tremendous. And, and the coaching part is, I love it because it allows to have these, these open conversations in which people normally get their aha moments by themselves, but it helps them to have like sounding board.

For their ideas and, and really that confirmation that they're taking the right steps or they should tweak this or that to move ahead in the goal that they're, they're setting themselves to. So that's why I love what I'm doing through meaningful leaders.

Bryan McAnulty: Great. Yeah. And so you mentioned that what was originally planned to start out as a course turned into this book.

So how did you approach that? Did you work with a, a publisher? Did, did a publisher find you? How did that all happen?

Maria Aguirre: No, I actually self-published, so I had to figure the whole thing out. And the funny thing is that you think that you did the outline and you wrote the book and that's it. The worst part is, or the difficult part starts afterwards cuz you need to figure out all these things about how to publish the book, how to get it edited and create a cover.

And I wanted the cover of the book particularly to be very unique. You know, when you're browsing on your phone on Amazon, the thumbnails are tiny and I, I wanted it to be different. So I actually hire a graphic designer that does. Sci-fi to the cover of the book, so it's different. Mm-hmm. . And so I had to learn the whole process getting the, the book copyrighted and self-publishing through Kendall publishing.

So it was, it was quite an experience. I've learned a lot and it's opened the door for other people to reach out and say, Hey, I've always wanted to write a book. How do I go about it? Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.

Bryan McAnulty: All right. So,

Maria Aguirre: and, and, and I can, I, I can tell you the mm-hmm. , the process is great. It really empowers you, but at the same time, the moment you click publish you have this feeling like you're completely naked because your most creative you know, process is, is out into the world.

But it's, it's, it's a great experience.

Bryan McAnulty: Yeah. Yeah. That sounds awesome. So, in your professional opinion, How can managers and entrepreneurs become better team leaders?

Maria Aguirre: I always say that team building is relationship building. So it's, it's by being authentic, you really wanna build relationships with the people you are entrusted to lead or the people that you are hiring.

You really wanna surround yourself with people that you can rely. and people that can reciprocate that and, and, and trust you and let, allow you to lead them. So it really comes down to, I would say, having very good communication. Be very transparent about your intentions. People can smell be as a mile away, so it's always good to be authentic and really they need to know what you're about and that you're there to help them once.

Really listen to what their needs are and really help them to do their job easier and better. Then they'll start trusting you and that relationship starts to build. That's how leadership is built.

Bryan McAnulty: Mm-hmm. . Yeah. That, that's interesting. I was actually talking with a, a teammate of mine recently, how there is the, like the difference between like interests and values and you might have completely different like interests than the other person that you're working.

but it's important to share the same values and communicate those values. And definitely, so as you're, as you're mentioning there, like if you, as the leader, if you're not making those values that you have clear, or if you're, if you're making things up that don't actually align with those values, then the rest of your team's gonna feel that, and there's gonna be some kind of disjointedness because of that.

And so making sure that whether or not you have the same interests or whatever, as long as the team is clearly lined on the values, then that would be at least my take on it with from what you're saying,

Maria Aguirre: Mo. Most definitely. And, and one thing that sometimes we, we feel as leaders is we try to motivate people with things that we are motivated by.

And you really have to know your people enough to know what motivates them. Yeah. Right. Because people get motivated by what motivates them, not. The people around them. So when you really know their values, like you mentioned, it's really important because that's where the motivation comes from, right?

Their family or their next career step, whatever the case might be, that's what it's gonna motivate them to take the step.

Bryan McAnulty: Yeah. Yeah. I like that. That's great advice. So yeah. What would you say is the difference between a manager and a leader?

Maria Aguirre: That's one of my favorite questions in the whole world, , quite honestly.

Management, you're in charge of the business. You're in charge of either the whole of the business or a portion of the business. So you're in charge of the budget and the objectives, and you're in charge of processes and procedures. as a leader, you wear a different hat, you're in charge of the people.

So it's really in the human aspect, what you oversee on your leadership. And you, when you find that sweet spot in which you combine both, then you are a high performer because you can manage both. And, and I think it's, it's important to, to understand that it's a combination of. Brain and heart and really understanding you love your people, but you keep them accountable and you keep the main thing the main thing, right?

Yeah. So it's, it's, it's a dual role that we have to perform when we have the responsibility of the business, but at the same time we have people that we lead.

Bryan McAnulty: Would you say that, like, I mean, I guess it's ideal that you're both right, but is it always possible to have. Someone who is truly great at both and in some business structures, is it better to have a separate manager and separate leader, or would you say it's better to always have somebody that can really do both if possible?

Maria Aguirre: I, I think it's important to leverage both because there's, there's always going to be having two people, the way I see it, having two people may create a conflict. Because their motivations come from different places. But if you find a nice spot in which you're looking after the business, but at the same time you're caring for the people and developing them and, and growing them, then the business can be successful as a whole.

So I think that is, is finding that balance and, and I think that we learn in school a lot of the management aspect. . But the leadership aspect is, is worth what's left a little bit unattended in school. And, and, and a lot of new managers enter the workforce and they don't know how to deal with people.

And, and honestly, leading with leading people and, and dealing with them and daily basis is not for the, is not for everyone. Not everybody is equipped. Some people work very well independently and they cannot deal with people. And I can tell you, Ryan, I'm an introvert. To me, I, I really go out of my way to make sure that my team is engaged and, and, and is involved and, and I need my quiet time afterwards.

But it's truly loving the people that you have been entrusted to lead.

Bryan McAnulty: Yeah, I like that. It made me think of, for myself an experience that I think really helped me learn about like what is a great leader was With this team that I met, a a software development team I met in in Poland.

And I just had a great experience from their founder who he kind of showed me the way he was acting with his whole team. Cuz basically I stayed like, kind of with his team for a little bit. Cuz I told him, like at the time I was, I was going through happened to be visiting the country and the way that he.

Addressed each team member and, and talked to them. You could tell he really saw everybody as like the person and not just thinking about the management. And that was kind of eye-opening for me and something that like I hadn't heard of in other people talking about business or things like a, a school environment, like you mentioned that you, you had to kind of see it and experience it from how he was actually acting towards people that.

That was the eye-opening moment for me. And I guess like some examples of that, like I remember the one time the one day we were all gonna go out to dinner or whatever, and like the office was closed and there was one woman, she was still working there, but like everything was closed and like he, he had to go up to her and tell her like to go home and like, she was just trying to work really hard, but like, he wanted to make sure, like for herself that like, Whether or not it's, it's gonna benefit him that she works harder.

Like he wanted her to take care of herself and, and to, to go home and, and go spend time with her family and everything. And it was, it was a a thousand little things like that I guess that added up that made me kind of see like, wow, the, the focus on the awareness and the empathy towards the team as people is so important.

Maria Aguirre: Definitely. And, and, and one thing that sometimes companies as they grow and teams as they, they grow, they tend to forget, is that people are, are in business with people. It's not really the systems. The systems are there to help us, but is that, is that we create that human connection. That human interaction And I think that is, is good business focusing on the people first and then anything else.

Bryan McAnulty: Yeah, definitely. And, and yeah, I do think it's definitely true that there's, there's people who need to be shown that and told that and, and experienced that because that's not how their organization is really currently run. Yeah. So I guess bringing this back to the like kind of independent entrepreneur who is kind of our main audience, if somebody is.

It's working. They're, they started their business from the ground up and like they're the one in charge of their business and just starting to learn how, like they can put together a team and start delegating. Maybe they're, they're, they're hiring a, their first first employee, first person they're hiring.

Can you offer some advice to somebody who maybe feels like they're struggling to delegate or. Maybe just feels like they're not having too much success. Because I guess I've seen cases where an entrepreneur hires somebody. They say like, okay, everyone told me I have to go and delegate this thing. But then the, the end result is some kind of mix of things not working out right.

And sometimes people will blame it on the person that they hired, but there's a lot of times where it's probably something in the communication and the expectations. So I don't know. What would your advice be for somebody who's just trying to learn how to.

Maria Aguirre: Delegating is difficult. I, I can tell you that I'm, I'm a perfectionist in recovery and I really had to learn to delegate because I never thought that anybody could do it as well as I did.

So I'd rather put 60 hours a week and, and not have a life. So delegating it really comes down. that trust. So if, if you are just hiring somebody it, it's going to be really difficult at the beginning because you really need to establish that relationship and see the capabilities of the person. And, and obviously sometimes you read a resume and it's fantastic and the, the actual results are not what you expected when, when the person is actually working.

So it's really coming down to understanding what the. The other person is bringing to your team and taking advantage of those strengths, right? And we tend to delegate the things that are more admin and, but I think that as entrepreneurs, my recommendation will be the things that you're very strong at.

Don't delegate those. Keep those because that, that would be the success of your business because that's the special touch that you put that nobody else can, can put on and, and delegate the things that you can live with. Delegating that will not have a huge impact in your business, at least. Until you get to learn that, that the skillset this person is bringing into your team.

And once you know them and you're more comfortable with them, then you know, the more you teach them about what you do, the the better there will be to, to, to cover for you and to take on more responsibility so you can grow your business. Cause ideally we want to our business to grow a not stay stagnant with certain amount of people that we can serve.

Yeah, that's great.

Bryan McAnulty: I think Yeah, people have to re remember to look at it as an investment that you can't expect to, to hire somebody, whether they're an employee, a contractor, or a freelancer. You can't expect to hire them. And then just magic happens and they're this, this duplicate of you with this certain skillset.

There is gonna be some kind of investment there. Even if they are somebody who, who really is a high performer versus somebody who's kind of just starting in their field. And so I, I think that's important to remember. And also I, I like the point that you're making of like, then as you work with them, as you grow, figuring out what other responsibilities can they take on.

and that really comes down to that same idea of like seeing everybody from who they are as a person, right? Because you have to think about, okay, like these are the responsibilities that you might have to, to give to somebody, but as you, you learn what each person's role is and what their preferences are and what their talents are.

There might be certain things where like they prefer to. I don't know. The, the task that you have might be slightly different or there might be certain things that slightly different than you in initially envision that position or, or what they would do that they can really specialize and really help you with.

And in that case, maybe it's better to have them continue to focus on that and then find another person for that, that new task instead.

Maria Aguirre: Definitely. And, and one thing that you mentioned I think is key, is having that clear communication, right? So we. We expect that the people by osmosis understand what we want and we really need to really convey the message clearly and sometimes repeat it several times and, and show them how exactly is that we want things done because it's the only way, right?

And people don't remind , at least common people don't remind. So the communication is keen leader. , definitely.

Bryan McAnulty: Yeah. I think yeah, understanding that, that it's an investment, being good at communicating. And also I, I would, I guess having a fair bit of patience is really important as well. Definitely I think maybe that's, that's a reason at least some friends I've talked with who are also entrepreneurs when they've asked me about like, how did I hire somebody or, or add somebody to my team.

And then I've talked to them and it seemed. The difference with us was that they weren't really patient about it in the same sense. Like they understood there was investment, but, but still, I guess if I had to say a, a quality that I guess has helped me is I think I am pretty patient with with things and understanding in that sense.

Gotcha.

Maria Aguirre: Good. It always helps to be patient.

Bryan McAnulty: So one of the areas that you focus on as a coach is team building. You mentioned this a little bit already. Yeah. Most of the people in our audience are probably kind of running their business online, so, and I mean, even ourselves, like our team is, we're all fully remote.

So how would you suggest a team can kind of improve their team building in a remote work environment?

Maria Aguirre: If possible. I always think that you always have to build up that personal relat. . So making time cuz we, we jump from one meeting to the next and it's always go, go, go. So making that time to, even if it's virtual, just having a you know, a time in which let's have a virtual happy hour or, you know, let's, let's share a, a coffee and just chat.

Tell me, cut, catch me up on your life. What, what's going on? Having that time to, to really listen to the person. on the other side, not just the tasks that, you know, you're expecting them to complete or The status of x, y, Z project is really listening to the person. So making time. I always say that a team is not a team until they break break bread.

So having that time to really share a moment of, you know, not work related conversations, I think is, is really important because . Otherwise it just becomes a routine and, and we tend to forget the human aspect. So that would be my recommendation. You know, and, and for us, even throughout the pandemic aviation was essential.

So we were together on site throughout the, the, the whole thing. But we had other teams that team, teammates and, and colleagues lateral that we hadn't seen in, in a couple years. So just getting together at some point and you know A city that was convenient for everyone because we had a workshop or something and just had a nice dinner and, and, and, and a glass of wine and chat.

That was a lot of, a lot of help for us. So I, I would recommend just making the time for that personal space. Even if it's just half an hour. It's important once in a while. Yeah,

Bryan McAnulty: that, that sounds good. I wanna share a story that hopefully it's helpful to, to our audience, some piece of it. But so our team, like, we're all fully remote and at the end of last year, we had like our first, finally the pandemic mostly stopped.

We had our first team meetup and we're based in Austin, Texas. So I flew everyone into Austin here. And for some of us we'd met before, but some of us, it was our first time meeting each other. And it was an awesome experience. Definitely. I think we're gonna keep doing things like this going forward, but as a kind of testament of how important that was, so like two women that work with me like they talk with each other like in weekly meetings and things, but their, their roles don't really overlap that they're interacting so much.

And they spent so much time together over the trip that, like, I remember like the second day they, they both came over to us and like, it seemed like they had known each other forever suddenly. And and like it's been like one day of them meeting each other and actually like being together in person.

So that, that was really interesting for me. I guess I'm, I'm curious what you think. So like, what we also do is we have weekly meetings on Zoom. And we have like one main team meeting per week. I think the size we're at that, that works still. We don't want to keep in too many meetings if we don't have to be.

And what we do at the beginning of that meeting is everybody talks about like, what happened on their weekend or like, For just updates of their life. And so that's how we started off because you're right, I think like everything is like go, go, go all the time. And so I love that. And instead of like starting the meeting, like here's all that stuff and then, oh, we don't have time to get to the other stuff.

We start, we try to start it out slower. Honestly, it helps me because like the meetings are in the morning for me cuz some of our teams in Europe and Asia. And it helps me because I wake up and this, all these things went wrong or are happening or whatever. And so like, whether I wanna be or not, I'm already in like go, go, go.

So it helps us all, I guess to like step back and say like, What's, what's new in everybody's life and all that. So that's one thing we do. I love it. And we also try to do like, as you mentioned, like in like a at least I do with my team in like performance review calls. Try to really make sure to understand like, well, what's going on in their life and everything and, and talk with them about that as well instead of just the worst work aspect.

Knowing that, would you have any like, suggestions of anything else you think would be like good for us to try? Cuz I'm curious. ,

Maria Aguirre: um I think maybe you know, like you were sharing the story about the two ladies that you know, work, work really well and their, their jobs didn't interact maybe creating like a body system, maybe maybe having an accountability partner, somebody that they can talk to or maybe having a group chatting, which they can just share things that they wanna share personally.

That's a, that's a. Practice and, and people just may, you know, they may just send jokes or, or memes or they may say something significant, you know my kid just work for the first time. And those are things that are very meaningful for them. So having that opportunity to share them with the rest of the team gives them that sense of belonging that we own, that we own, crave, especially when, when we're in a team environment.

And if you're virtual, that helps a.

Bryan McAnulty: Cool. Awesome. Yeah, that sounds great. Yeah. All right. And yeah, so as you mentioned last September you published your first, first book, the Square Peg Leader Delusion. Can you tell us a little bit more about the book and how it can help leaders?

Maria Aguirre: Yeah. So the square peg leader dilution is based on the adm, the square peg in the wrong hole.

So the premise of the book is that same as a square in a circle. Not because they're geometrical figures mean that they fit together a team in a leader, not because they're in the same industry or even belonging to the same company, means that they are a good match. So it's really. About starts with self-leadership and all the things that we as leaders need to develop, like our mindset in understanding the different tools that we have at our disposition and really understanding that it's not about us, but it's that transition from working individually to working for the team and serving the team.

So having that mindset, mindset shift to, to really focus on the. . And then the second part of the book is about the team itself. So I talk a lot, a lot about the different tools. For example optimization, since I'm in operations is operations optimization. So how you build an operation. And how you optimize and then scale it.

My background is in continuous improvement. I'm a black belt in Six Sigma, so I really enjoy that aspect of lean and really fine tuning processes to increase performance. But I also talk about things like emotional intelligence and imposter syndrome, which is something that, particularly for entre.

Is something that I think we all at some point encounter is that feeling of I'm, I'm really faking it. I'm not really ready for this, or I'm really not equipped to do what I'm doing or, or equipped to do what I'm, I'm called to do. And, and it's really understanding that we all deal with that and, and it's keeping it check and, and really moving forward.

So at the end of the book, I share what I call the team building manifesto, which is 26 practice. That I recommend for leaders, which is what I do. I literally start writing down what is that is important for me with my teams. And that's where that list came from. And so it's really an both a leadership book for, for other leaders, eh, as well as a statement of accountability for me, cuz I still have my teams that I, that I lead, I have three teams that I lead at the moment.

So outside of of my business. But it was a really interesting experience and, and if you guys are interested on, on, on knowing more about it, my website is meaningful leaders.com and the book is available on Amazon, so.

Bryan McAnulty: All right. Awesome. Great. So before we get going, I got one more question for you, and that is, if you could ask anything to our audience, whether it's something that you're curious about, something that kind of want our audience to think about for themselves, what would you ask?

Maria Aguirre: Hmm. It, it will be something to think about. It's something that probably I ask myself a lot these days with, with my business is how are you adding value to the people you serve today, to the audience that you serve today? I think it's important to always keep that in the forefront because we can get our ego in the way, especially when we start getting some momentum and starting becoming successful.

It's important to understand that the goal of a business is to add value to other people. So how am I adding value to others today? That would be my

Bryan McAnulty: question.

Okay, great. All right. Well, besides finding the book on Amazon and your website, where else can people find you?

Maria Aguirre: I'm on linking under my name and I'm also I have a YouTube channel.

I'm sharing different tips for leaders and I'm starting at Twitter, but don't call me on that because , it's very recent.

Bryan McAnulty: All right. Sounds great. All right, well, thank you so much for coming on the show, Maria. Thank you so much.

Maria Aguirre: Of course, Bryan. Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure.

Bryan McAnulty: If you enjoyed this interview and won the chance to ask questions to our guests live, tune in on Tuesdays when new episodes premiere on the Heights Platform Facebook page.

To learn more about the show and get notified when new episodes release, check out The Creator's Adventure dot com. Until then, keep learning and I'll see you in the next episode.