Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for High Velocity Radio.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here. Another episode of High Velocity Radio, and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show we have Spencer Bynes. He is the Atlanta metro president for iHeartMedia. Welcome, Spencer.

Spencer Bynes: Thank you. Lee, it’s a pleasure to be here.

Lee Kantor: Um, for folks who aren’t familiar, can you just give us, um, I called it iHeartRadio. That’s what back in the day, it was called for a while, but now it’s iHeartMedia. Can you talk about that? Uh, just kind of mission purpose and how you’re serving folks in Atlanta?

Spencer Bynes: Yeah. I mean, uh, for those who aren’t familiar with iHeartMedia, we are the number one audio company, uh, Atlanta today and say that with great pride, um, we reach about nine out of ten Americans every day. We are the number one podcast content provider on the globe as well. Uh, and now doing that internationally, um, we offer not only, you know, about 900 radio stations across the United States, but, uh, now are launching podcast hubs in APAC and Doha and Qatar in that area. And we, you know, of course, you’ve seen iHeart music festivals and country festivals. And so we’ve got lots of tentpole events, live events, um, all across the country as well, along with iHeart music, uh, Awards, podcast awards. So everything media, I think a lot of folks think of us as just a radio company, but we are a full fledged media organization.

Lee Kantor: So, um, before we got on the air, you mentioned that, uh, you’ve been working, um, in several different markets before you got to Atlanta. Can you talk about, um, what your plans are in Atlanta and, how you see this market evolving?

Spencer Bynes: Yeah. Um, my plans for Atlanta is, you know, iHeartMedia has never been a dominant, uh, cluster in this market. So certainly, I think my first and foremost goal is to help us get into the rightful position of of, uh, leading media in this in this marketplace. We’ve got a lot of competitors in the market. And within our company, uh, Atlanta has always been, uh, a struggling market. So my goal is to come here and help us consistently drive revenue, um, in a positive manner, drive performance in a in a positive manner. That’s that’s what I do. This is my second tour of duty, uh, with iHeart. I was here about 16, 18 years ago when it was Clear Channel Media and a totally different role. So I’m classed as a market fixer. Um, because of my background. And, um, I was running five markets in Texas before I got here and was able to turn those markets around. And we had a pretty phenomenal year last year in this market, um, and recognized some revenues that haven’t been seen in quite a while. And, uh, you know, when you look at Miller Kaplan in terms of digital revenue and total revenue overall, we were at the top of the market. So, um, we’re on we’re on plan, as they say, to do some of the things that we want to accomplish here in Atlanta.

Lee Kantor: So let’s talk about kind of what you’ve learned about turning around, uh, companies like this, what are some of the things and maybe you can share some leadership advice that you’ve gotten over the years. Um, how do you go about kind of turning around a situation? Um, obviously when you’re brought on, everything’s not Well, or else they probably wouldn’t be calling you. But for any organization that might be struggling or plateauing or maybe going negative, what are some of the things that you do right away? What is kind of your first 100 days look like when you’re taking on a new challenge?

Spencer Bynes: I love this question, Lee. Now you’re getting to the to the core of my DNA, and that’s that’s really helping people. I had a a consulting firm, um, when I, after I left, I clear channel the first time and, um, our, our tagline was you only better. Um, meaning that everyone has talent. It’s just up to leadership to identify that talent and then focus it in the right direction. So it’s a it’s a pretty easy template for me that I’ve seen work consistently. And it really has a foundation of three things people, process and product. And coming in and looking at those three buckets. And this works For any company. And I’m my background is executive coaching and leadership development. And so when I would come in, I’ve worked in pretty much every vertical you can think of, of coaching CEOs and senior level executives. And when you look at people, process and product, you come in. And those first I come into a market, the first 30 to 60 days, I interview everyone in the building, uh, from, uh, the janitorial staff all the way up to the senior executives in that market. And I ask them, you know, basic questions, typically three questions around who you know, what do you do for the company? How do you add value? Uh, and what, uh, can I, as a market president, do to help you achieve your goals? What’s so interesting to me is how do I add value is probably the toughest question for everyone to answer.

Spencer Bynes: I typically get answers around their job Um, description more so than how they add value and connecting the dots on. How does a company make money? How does the company value what I bring to the table? So it’s it’s always an interesting people think it’s a trick question, but once I get all of those those interviews done, I give everyone about 20 minutes of my time until I get through the whole list. I consolidate that information into some common themes, bring everybody back into a room, and share what I’ve learned from those conversations. And then we prioritize based on impact. Meaning, uh, I will from those conversations pretty quickly. Know, um, do I have challenges on the people side, on the product side? Um, or, you know, in that performance? So when you’re looking at people, product and process, um, if the processes are broken, uh, You can you can identify those quickly.

Spencer Bynes: And typically what I’ve seen is it’s a little bit of both of you have some outdated processes or uh, some poor communication around process that when you fix those, you immediately start to see a revenue shift. Um, it’s a little bit harder on the people side because people may be miscast in their role, um, or have outgrown the roles, outgrown them, or they haven’t been upskilled or trained or coached. Some of those things you can fix and some you can’t. And once you find those, those individuals and you and you either move them around in the organization and put them in a better space or you replace them, revenue starts to magically appear as well. But that’s the quick formula for that, and it takes some time. Uh, out of the six markets I’ve been in, uh, some move quickly and I see dramatic change, uh, because those problems have been there for a while and haven’t been changed. When we change them, it immediately impacts in a positive way. Some are a little bit deeper rooted in process, and it takes you a little bit of time to uncover those. But those those principles work no matter what industry you’re in.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you ask the question, how do you bring value? Is that doesn’t that speak to the culture of the organization? Because if they’re answering in a very this is my you know, this is what’s on my job description, that sounds like they have a very transactional view of what’s going on in the organization. But if they can answer more holistically, that sounds like the culture is healthier and that they understand kind of what their mission is and what they should be doing. How do you kind of fix culture, or is that something that, you know, by changing the people in the process, you fix the culture? Um, can you speak to that?

Spencer Bynes: Yeah. I think the answer, the short answer is it depends, Lee, because you may find that culture is super valuable. Um, and someone else may have a difference of opinion. I think it really depends on who you are, what role you play in the organization, and how much influence do you have if you’re one of the leaders in the organization, uh, that is responsible for a team, um, how you drive culture and influence culture matters a lot, but if you’re an individual contributor who doesn’t have a lot of influence, that it may it may be different. So I’ve learned over the years is to ask the question and then holistically step back to see what are the trends, because you can’t. And this is my opinion. I wouldn’t say that this is scientifically proven or anything, but I believe that you cannot manage Age people because they’re too diverse. They’re too unpredictable. What you can do is manage behavior because behavior is universal across, um, race, origin, you know, religion, all of those types of things, behavior, human behavior, you can pretty much predict to a certain degree based on circumstances. So as a leader, I think a lot of leaders fall into trying to manage people and not behaviors. And then as a leader, you need to basically give direction, remove obstacles, motivate, uh, and provide resources for people to do their jobs. If you can do those things consistently and keep it simple, the rest really falls into place. There’s a I think this is a Nick Saban, uh, saying, I don’t know, but I really like it is don’t focus on the success. Focus on the standards. If you continually raise your standards, success is inevitable. And so that’s that’s the type of culture that I try to to instill in those places that I’ve been given responsibility over. If I can get people to individually look at what their standards are day to day and them to raise their standards up incrementally over time, collectively it makes a huge difference.

Lee Kantor: So how do you manage the culture of an organization when they’re in an industry that is kind of chaotic and going through a disruption or going through, um, a lot of innovation that, um, especially in, in kind of older organizations where maybe the trust has eroded over time that they people have been made promises that haven’t been kept or, or it feels like they’re in an industry where they’re falling behind. Um, can you talk a little bit about how to manage that in in a time of disruption? Because there are so many organizations that are being disrupted, um, even in your industry where, uh, you all had to make a shift from radio to digital, um, but in other organizations where maybe AI is becoming more and more prevalent, uh, can you talk to how to handle that type of chaos?

Spencer Bynes: Yeah, and I love the question as well. Um, I think in in times of chaos, you got to find some way of, of. Finding common ground, uh, that everyone can, can rally around. Because change is always going to be the one thing that’s consistent. We are always going to experience that change. And, uh, this, this, this season of change has been probably more dramatic and unpredictable than what I’ve seen in many, many years is a very real example. Uh, and when my team hears this, this broadcast, they’re probably going to roll their eyes because I say it all the time is, um, ATL is a common term used in Atlanta, you know, welcome to the ATL. You’re in the ATL. And so I’m big on acronyms ATL is for for us here at iHeart is accountability tenacity and love. And that’s what we rally around. That is the price to get in to our organization. And it also is the standard to stay. And what I mean by accountability, tenacity and love, which helps you manage through the chaos, manage through the change is what can be a consistent rally cry for everyone is we thrive on accountability, meaning that we all are responsible for our part and doing our job. And we don’t mind, you know, receiving those messages centered around accountability, and we don’t mind holding others accountable to what they said they’re going to do.

Spencer Bynes: Um, we are tenacious, ferocious about being our best and being a successful in the task that we’ve been given. And then the third is, if you don’t love what you do, if you don’t love being here or love doing what you do, then why are you doing it? And so we try to find those people who don’t love it. And if the chaos is creating situations where you don’t love it as much because it’s too damn hard right now to do it or to too many obstacles, then go find something else. Life is way too short for you to to do something and spend so much time and energy in trying to reach goals. If you don’t love it, I’m the type of person that kind of runs toward the dumpster fire, and I love to problem solve. So Atlanta was a destination for me that provided those opportunities for for me to do those things. And ATL is something that is in my core belief system, and it helps me get out of bed every day and come to work. And I try to find people who have that same mentality. I try to identify ways to help them get there, and if they can’t get there, then we don’t, you know, we don’t want them to stay and we try to find ways to help them find a way out. Does that help?

Lee Kantor: Yeah. Um, it sounds like you spend a lot of your time in large organizations trying to create this kind of entrepreneurial mindset. When you’re doing that and you’re embracing innovation that you know, every entrepreneurial venture needs as kind of a kind of a guiding star. How do you balance that with accountability and, um, and not make people afraid to take risks knowing that some of the risks aren’t going to work? The odds are, you know, most of them aren’t going to work to some degree, but it’s a matter of iterating and learning and creating that growth mindset along with the entrepreneurial mindset and embracing that innovation just has failure or learnings attached to it, no matter how good you are at it.

Spencer Bynes: Hey, I probably will sound like a you know, I have all these sayings, uh, this is just stuff I picked up along the way. So and I mean these genuinely, um, when you think about innovation and creativity, I, I believe in leading, and someone has to take the hit for when you, when you don’t meet those goals. And so. So while I am the market uh, metro president for for Atlanta, leading is not my sole responsibility. Everyone plays a leadership role in this organization. And so while I don’t lead by consensus, I do lead by context. So I try to bring the brains brain trust together, all of us together to help problem solve and use, uh, the value of all of these different diverse minds and perspectives that we have, um, to get, uh, some contextual information around how do we how do we solve this problem of of getting more revenue or getting new customers back, uh, or in and getting customers that left back, all those types of problems that we deal with on a day to day basis. I try to use those to, to help us solve problems together. But at the same time, um, I have a mentality of, of we don’t lose, we learn. Uh, and that’s something I’ve picked up along the way, too. Don’t be afraid to lose if you’re if you’re not failing. Um, on certain things that you’ve never done before.

Spencer Bynes: Uh, you’re not trying hard enough. So there is, you know, there is a lot of failure. I was thinking about this this morning. Um, uh, I said, I’m going to coin this as a Spencer phrase, and I’m probably stealing it, and I just don’t remember where I got it from. But it’s like success is an island in the middle of the ocean of failure, right? It’s just a respite. Success is temporary. It it just is always fleeting. And so success is just a resting point for you to now increase your standard, you know, step out of your comfort zone, take more chances, and more than likely you’re going to fail along the way before you succeed. So that success just gives you an opportunity to catch your breath. For those that are driven to then go launch back out into the deep. And I really believe that I’m fanatical about that. And I, I encourage people, you know, get in and fail quickly. Don’t wallow in it. Don’t look behind you. You can’t win a race, you know, looking behind you. But get in there and take a chance. You know, when we’re doing we’re prospecting for new business. I was like, get in there. And you’re going to be told no more than you’re going to tell you. You’re told yes anyway. So get in and take the no. Learn from it and then come back and ask again.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. One of my favorite, um, quotes along that the, the line of what you’re saying is the obstacle is the way. There there is no path that has no obstacles. The obstacles are just part of the journey. So don’t take it personal. You’re going to have to find a way around it, over and under it, through it, whatever. But that’s just part of it. It’s not something that you can avoid.

Spencer Bynes: Yeah, I heard Steve Harvey say something one time that made me chuckle because he was like, you know, pain is part of the part of the journey. Quit tripping about the pain. You know pain is the way to. To the success. So don’t trip about the pain.

Lee Kantor: Right. That’s growth.

Spencer Bynes: I mean, yeah, embrace it.

Lee Kantor: That’s it. I mean, I 100% agree. Um, so what do you need more of? How can we help you?

Spencer Bynes: Wow. Nobody ever asked me that. Uh. Uh, what do I need more of? Um, it’s the one thing that I probably can’t get. And that’s that’s. I think it’s time. Um. I think you giving me an opportunity to express my my opinion on on this, because I think I have. I worked in media for about seven years and then left, and I worked in consumer packaged goods, and I worked in, in air services and oil and gas. And what I find in media is that, um, because of what you said, it being volatile and so much change and Gin and very, very dynamic. Um, we don’t tend to have a lot of patience when it comes to leadership development and growth. And, you know, there’s a difference between between change and transformation, because we see a lot of change in our industry almost, if not weekly, monthly, yearly, but every year, I mean, this industry is different. Um, the leadership is different. And if you’re not performing, uh, at a high level, you may not be given the chance to lose and then come back and win, um, because the pressures are so high. So I would say, you know, what I need is, is for more leaders to, to be committed to transformation. And that takes time. It takes commitment. It takes, um, you paying attention. It takes active listening, um, and and consistent, uh, focus on the people. Uh, so giving me a platform to at least share that I appreciate that.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. And I think it’s aiming higher, maybe at a different type of mission than you’re initially looking at what your impact can be.

Spencer Bynes: Well said.

Lee Kantor: Well, Spencer, thank you so much, uh, for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work, and we appreciate you. If somebody wants to connect with you, what is the best way to do that? Or even learn more about iHeart, uh, media? Uh, where should they go?

Spencer Bynes: Well, absolutely. Go to iheartmedia.com, and you can learn about all of the different opportunities that we have, whether you’re on our career page or if you want to learn more about some of the different mediums we have within, uh, an assets that we have within the organization. Um, you can reach me at Spencer at Spencer or Spencer at iHeartMedia. Dot com is probably the best way to get Ahold of me. And again, Lee, I appreciate you’re doing great work. I think this is something that everyone needs. We don’t have enough opportunities to have conversations. And that’s the power of radio is having those, um, engaging conversations around some of the things that that impact us every day. So continue to do what you’re doing. I listened to some of your broadcasts, and I’ve gotten some insights from it just in preparing for this conversation. And, uh, you’re doing great work.

Lee Kantor: Well. Thank you. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on High Velocity Radio.