Feedback

Editor’s Note: This question generated input also from:

JOSH JURHILL

Co-Founder and CEO Muscular Moving Men & Storage Please visit July’s Feedback entry on our website to learn from this business’s strategies and experience.

FEEDBACK QUESTION:

Let us know what you want to know from the Valley’s top business leaders. editor@inbusinessphx.com

For all past Feedbacks go online to inbusinessphx.com and see what Valley executives think on various business topics. Looking at how this plays out in the workplace, how have you used sports and/or gaming for team or morale building?

GREG HAGUE

Founder and CEO 72SOLD Sector: Real Estate

At 72SOLD, sports has played a huge role in our team morale building. Through our partnership with the Arizona Cardinals, we host fun pre-game events for our agents and employees on the Great Lawn at virtually every home game. These typically involve competitive game playing (like Foosball), music, food and various other forms of entertainment. We also have our corporate and agent team attend Cardinals games in our suite, and participate in “community give-back” partnerships with the Cardinals that involve company-wide participation.

Through our partnership with the Arizona Diamondbacks, we give our agents and employees tickets, have pregame events like with the Cardinals, and even have special “72SOLD” nights like on June 13th when I threw out the first ceremonial pitch, with almost 300 of our local team in attendance. You can see that at 72Dbacks.com.

For the upcoming 2023 Super Bowl in Arizona, we are working with the Super Bowl committee to have the 72SOLD team host a booth with competitive games at the Super Bowl Experience center during the week before kickoff.

72SOLD 72SOLD.com Greg Hague is founder/CEO of 72SOLD, recently recognized as the “Leading Home Selling Program in America.” Hague served as a real estate business commentator for NPR and real estate expert to The Wall Street Journal. He has appeared on more than 200 television and radio shows, was featured in Kiplinger’s book, Buying and Selling a Home; Investors Business Daily; Money Magazine; and Carolyn Janik’s book, Selling Your Home.

JOHN KOBIEROWSKI

President and CEO ABI Multifamily Sector: Real Estate

Sports tends to draw a lot of Type A personalities, and so does commercial real estate brokerage. In fact, we have more than one athlete on our team. So, when we set up our new Phoenix headquarters, incorporating sports into the workplace was a natural. A basketball court in the parking lot is a convenient spot to get out on a beautiful day and shoot hoops. We didn’t want to get the usual Foosball table or ping pong table in the office, but, instead, the brokers brought in a set of kiddie golf clubs and wiffle ball golf balls, and “golfice” was born — a friendly game that builds both camaraderie and competition.

Speaking of competition, a few years ago we had a client gift us a small wall-mounted basketball hoop. They asked everyone who received a hoop to submit their coolest video. Our team put together a pretty incredible video of trick shots around the office and ended up winning a trip to Hawaii! Check it out on our Instagram page @abimultifamily.

ABI Multifamily abimultifamily.com John Kobierowski is the President and CEO of ABI Multifamily, a brokerage and advisory services firm with offices in Phoenix, Tucson, and San Diego focused exclusively on apartment investment transactions. John is also the co-founder of Neighborhood Ventures, Arizona’s first real estate crowdfunding company, and owner of The Grid. Works co-work space in Uptown Phoenix.

EIVAN SHAHARA

CEO Brightroot Inc. Sector: Cannabis

We held our first-ever Kickball Tournament at the beginning of this year. We had 16 kickball teams — each comprised of 10 players, ages 21 and up — compete for an official trophy, along with bragging rights. A portion of the tournament proceeds benefitted a local cancer nonprofit to help increase awareness of men’s health issues and promote early cancer detection. The event was not only fun, but it also was a great morale booster for not only our internal team but also for our industry.

Through this kickball tournament, we wanted to help increase conversations about men’s health issues. We knew the pandemic had a profound effect on all types of cancer screenings, and that, for men in particular, doctors are seeing even more delayed screenings, which is resulting in the discovery of more advanced cancers, especially prostate. Cancer is a topic that men tend to not talk about very often, so we planned this event as an opportunity to increase important health conversations. We shared information about important preventive cancer screenings, less invasive health exams, and support resources available.

Brightroot Inc., parent company of Mint

Cannabis themintcannabis.com Eivan Shahara is CEO of Brightroot Inc., the parent company of Mint Cannabis, which is headquartered in Arizona. Brightroot earned $9 million in revenue in its first year. The company is now valued at more than $500 million. With a nationwide network of retail locations, manufacturing/extraction laboratories and cultivation centers, the Mint is home to the nation’s third-largest dispensary and first cannabis kitchen of its kind in the country.