Cheryl Knowlton: Hi everybody. Cheryl Knowlton with Dynamite Productions coming at you. Clay Johnson, Castle and Cooke Mortgage. Today, we’re here to talk to you about surrounding yourself with people who are going to make you look great. Choosing the right partner if you are going to have a partnership, and we’re going to talk specifically about partnerships today. Clay, let’s talk about you and John. You’ve been partners for 22 years?
Clay Johnson: Incredible, yeah.
Cheryl Knowlton: That is.
Clay Johnson: There’s not many in this business that has done that.
Learning to work together may take time
Cheryl Knowlton: That is correct. Not many who have been around that long, much fewer partners for that long. You’ve been together longer than you’ve been married to your respective wives.
Clay Johnson: There’s a little joke about that sometimes with them, but we do. We work really hard and I think that’s the biggest thing is John grew up working on a farm. I grew up working on a cattle ranch and raising hay. Working in that industry, you learn to work hard. John and I have had different partners over the years that we started out with. It was kind of interesting because what we learned is that we can just trust one another. We know-
Cheryl Knowlton: That’s absolutely essential.
Clay Johnson: It is absolutely essential. We know that when the other one’s not able to do something, the other one’s going to be there to have their back. We know that come heck or high water, we’re going to be able to do that. That person’s going to step up to the plate and do what has to be done in that moment. Then of course from there, we’ve added to that. You’ve talked to Dawn, who’s worked with us now for 15 years.
Cheryl Knowlton: Yes, wow. I didn’t realize that.
Clay Johnson: 15 years.
Cheryl Knowlton: Holy cow.
Trusting team members
Clay Johnson: So we just trust in one another and making sure that those certain things take place and happen. That’s such an important part of team building. I think for me when I first had to learn that was when I had to step away from the business with the loss of a family member.
It was a very, very busy time and I was really stressed that everything was going to happen and close on time and work out and it did. That was a huge relief. I know that they … because they’ve trusted team members, they stepped up and they saw the need and they filled that gap and it was incredible. From that experience, it’s just kind of build one more another where there’s just a lot of trust.
Cheryl Knowlton: That’s fantastic. You think about the trust fall. I think everybody has heard of the trust fall or participated in one. As you were talking, it just reminded me the whole premise behind that is knowing that someone has your back when you are literally falling.
Clay Johnson: Right. That’s exactly right. Yeah. Such an important part. Finding those people can be a little tricky sometimes.
Cheryl Knowlton: It can.
Clay Johnson: But there are some things to look for right up front, personality tests and … you’ve utilized those a little bit.
Cheryl Knowlton: Yeah. Let’s talk about those in our next episode.
Clay Johnson: Kind of making sure you have those right people on your team. John and I are very different, but we complement each other really well.
Cheryl Knowlton: That’s the important thing.
Clay Johnson: It is. Yep.
Cheryl Knowlton: Yep.
Clay Johnson: Thanks so much guys, and we’ll see you in the next episode.
Cheryl Knowlton: Bye-bye.