What does it really take to rise into leadership when no one is handing you the roadmap? In this episode of the Leading Visionaries, host Anjel B. Hartwell sits down with Lara Hamilton, Director of IT Services for the HelpDesk Realty, a division at Tectonic (formerly eResources), where she has excelled for over 15 years, to unpack a leadership journey built on resilience, persistence, and vision. Lara didn’t set out to work in technology. She created her path by solving problems, improving systems, and proving her value again and again.

If you’ve ever felt like you had to figure it out on your own, this episode will remind you that your persistence is your power.

What You Will Learn

Leadership can begin in unexpected places when you step up and take ownership of a vision.

Improving systems and solving problems can create opportunities even when you weren’t looking for them.

Persistence and resilience are essential traits for navigating challenges and advancing in your career.

Building trust and working alongside your team creates stronger engagement and better results.

Developing others to take your place is key to growing as a leader and advancing your career.

Innovation often comes from seeing possibilities others overlook and acting on them.

AI is not replacing jobs but reshaping roles and increasing efficiency within organizations.

Clear communication and vision are necessary to enroll others in your ideas and gain support.

FAQ:

What makes someone an effective leader?

An effective leader combines vision, persistence, and the ability to support and develop others. Lara emphasizes that leadership is not about control but about working alongside your team and helping them grow.

How do you get decision-makers to support your ideas?

You must clearly communicate your vision and demonstrate its value. Showing results and building trust over time helps leaders gain buy-in from executives and stakeholders.

Is AI going to replace jobs?

No, AI is more likely to transform jobs rather than eliminate them. It helps reduce repetitive tasks and allows employees to focus on higher-value work.

Connect with Lara Hamilton

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Now here's your host, Anjel b Hartwell.

Anjel: Welcome to another episode of the Leading Visionaries Podcast, where we celebrate the ingenious, insightful, innovative, and inspired leading visionaries of our time, and provide our listeners with world class examples of the kind of courage, clarity, and confidence it takes to bring visions into reality.

Lara leads her team in delivering exceptional IT support and customer service to ensure seamless infrastructure and operations. For clients. So I'm excited to have you here today. Welcome to the show, Lara.

Lara: Thank you. It's so great to be here.

Anjel: Alright, well I like to talk a lot about leadership and as the director of IT services leadership is part of your.

Lara: Well, I wasn't organizing teddy bears, but. When, um, when I, my children were young. I was a stay at home mom for seven years and I was very involved in their PTA and became their PTA president, and we were very successful. We were the first PTA in the history of our county to have a hundred percent membership, which is both parents.

Join the PTA on the day of registration. And so it's, it was a, it was a huge undertaking for free, you know, that you do and you know, you're giving very small time windows of, uh, raising money within a six week timeframe to build an entire playground and things like that. And we accomplished a lot, and I think that's really what started my leadership.

Anjel: All right. And so what inspired you? Like, what was the vision for you to get into technology?

And so, um, just out of boredom I improve the processes and in, and in doing so, I eliminated my own position. Instead of letting me go, they moved me to another department to help with their efficiencies and I ended up working my way through the operations of the entire bank and they saw the value in it.

Anjel: Beautiful. Well, so this is interesting because a lot of innovation comes from somebody like you who. Can see the things that aren't functioning and is able to, you know, create new systems or structures or implement new technologies to actually create more efficiency. So that does require a lot of vision.

Lara: So it's a really difficult thing to explain because it's like being able to see different colors that other people can see.

You can see how things could work differently and how they can, um, be improved on so that the workforce is, is, um, more, runs, more seamlessly or, uh, this could affect this process over here and else some of it is just. Over time learning softwares, learning the different things, and then some of it is just vision that you see in your, in your mind.

It's just, it's just a gift to be honest with you that, that people have.

Like how do you approach. Entrenched systems or entrenched mindsets or entrenched operational guidelines and easily and effectively, you know, then enroll them in your vision.

Lara: So that's not always been easy because I didn't start out with, let me teach you how to do this process. I'm gonna help you, I'm gonna encourage you.

I, when I started out in this industry outside of banking, it was. Very cutthroat. It was very trying to prevent you from succeeding. And so if you really wanted to succeed, you had to do it, uh, for yourself and and not necessarily rely on other people to help you and to be there to teach you processes.

That was one thing that I did at the very beginning that really made a difference in my learning skills and my ability to move forward, where other people didn't really care. They were just going through the motions of the job, and so I was able to surpass those people that were hop at at the beginning.

Obstacles for me.

Because somebody like you can actually create huge amounts of ripple effects of positive change, but you have to get the decision makers on board. So I'm curious about your process, your own personal process for kind of enrolling those people.

Lara: So just to be real with you. I'm a woman in a man's industry and there are not a lot of people that are going to see your skills unless you prove them.

Anjel: Yeah, beautiful. What inspired you to leave banking and go into the business that you're in now?

Lara: A divorce

I needed, I needed to make more money so that I could support myself and I just wasn't. I'm just, like I said, that Stubborn streak helped me out in that instance because it was a situation where I needed to do it and I was not gonna take no for an answer.

Anjel: Yeah. Beautiful. Well, let's talk about this stubborn streak, because I think that there's other ways of framing it, I think.

S kind of shore yourself up, support yourself in those moments where you have to engage your persistence or you have to engage your resilience. Like how do you talk to yourself in your own head, um, during those times?

Lara: So some of the things that I've done in the past have been, and when I was going through a really hard time and transitioning.

And I do have a competitive streak as well, and so. You know, when someone says, well, that can't be done. I know for a fact in the IT world that almost anything that you wanna do technology wise can be done. If it hasn't been done, that's different, but it still can be done. And so just keeping that in my mind, that.

That isn't really an answer ever. It is, okay if there are limitations in software, how do we go around those limitations? How do we make this work to where the software will start working the way we need it to work for this specific, situation or whatever it is. And, um, the tenacity of that I think is what really helped me.

Lara: though I have a wonderful team.

That support me and I don't really consider them, you know, my people or that kind of thing. I don't look at it that way. If they are busy, I'm in the trenches with them. We get it done together. And I feel like that makes a big difference with them. Also as we are hiring people to be on our team, we make sure that we're hiring a diverse.

Group, someone that's has, I don't wanna have everyone have the same strengths. I need them to be able to share their knowledge with each other and to understand that, uh, you know, in a lot of companies, people will not wanna share information because they think that's job security. And, and for me, that's the opposite.

Anjel: I love that. So it's funny because for years I was in property management years ago, years ago, the first 20 years of my career was in the property management business. And um, in fact, I think we used Yardi as I recall. It was like years and years and years and years ago, like 23 years ago now. And for 20 years before that I was, I was in the business.

And so it's really interesting 'cause one of the things that I learned when I was actually the national chairperson of the trade association that represents all the community associations all over the country, was to this whole concept of developing the people to take your place. Yeah, like it's, it's so important to develop the people to, to take your leadership position.

Lara: Yes.

Anjel: You just keep working yourself out of that job and not in a a way that you feel like there's any kind of scarcity at all, but that you know, it's developing your people so that you can move as well.

Alright, we're gonna take a quick break. When we come back, we're gonna talk a little bit more about what you're doing at Help Desk Realty and. We're gonna let people know where they can find out more about you, but right now, listeners, are you a leading visionary or in the role of leading other visionaries?

Consider joining our community and sharing your feedback and takeaways from each episode. If you are interested in finding out more about how you can receive support for getting your vision out of the air and ought to the ground in a way that's both impact and income producing. The best support is found in collaboration with other leading visionaries, which is why we've created the Creative Age Leader Lab.

I wanna say a huge thank you to all of our listeners who are downloading a rating and reviewing. We're welcoming thousands of downloads from all over the world. I wanna shout out this week to our listeners in Poland, uh, Palmas and Zimbabwe. We will be right back with Larry Hamilton.

Your word is your wand, and as the leader, your ability to articulate and communicate your vision is essential to its materialization and monetization. Please enjoy with our compliments. A free copy of the book, be Heard By Millions and Live Your Destiny, which was a number one new release in three categories to get you started.

Anjel: And we, I'm B with Blara Hamilton. Before we went to the break, I said I'd let you know where you can find out more about her. You can go to team tech tonic.com. That's team. Tech tonic.com, T-E-C-T-O-N-I-C. We will have that for you in the show notes. We'll have that link for you in the show notes. So, um, tell us about what you're doing now, Lara, like exactly, specifically and precisely what is your role?

What is your leadership right now? Where are you leading your team to? And maybe what's in your vision as you're leading yourself out of your current position.

Lara: So one of the things that we're working on right now is really getting into ai and how does AI affect business? How does it affect marketing? Uh, we have a lot of clients with individual websites for their properties or for their company itself.

And for example, our company, we wouldn't use AI for our phones because we want to answer the phone. We want you to get a live person when you talk to them. We want it to be a very, um, personal experience for the end user. And we don't, you know, that's just not something that we would do. But there are so many things that AI can make what your individual employees more efficient.

I don't consider it a thing of where people say, oh, well it's gonna eliminate jobs. I don't think it's going to eliminate jobs. It's gonna create different jobs and it's gonna make the people you have now more productive and that busy work make it take less time. Hmm.

Lara: So Tectonic is an IT company. My department supports property management companies across the country with their software needs. They call us, they, they don't necessarily realize we are not part of their company because we have a very personal relationship with our clients. They'll have an email address that goes directly from their domain, and so they're calling us and they're in a panic.

Someone's sitting in front of them, and that person could be homeless if they don't get that lease signed. And so, and the printer won't work. So if we don't get that printer working, it's gonna make the difference between someone being homeless. All my people understand that. The gravity of what we do and how important something that seems like a simple fix or that people would pass off as, oh, well, we'll get to that later.

Anjel: Okay, so I just wanna make sure I'm clear and understanding exactly how you guys show up. What I'm hearing there is you're almost like a white label company where you're embedded into these property management companies in such a way that nobody would know that you were an outside company.

Is that what I'm hearing?

Lara: That's correct. We actually have employees that are outsourced that physically work at the corporate offices and support their it. At their corporate offices. And then we have a team that is in our office that supports all the properties across the country. And we do it all day, every day for software and for hardware.

Anjel: Great. And so, what's your vision for your department for the coming, let's say the coming year? What's your vision for the coming year?

Anytime there's any conflict in the, in the world, it, it does increase cybersecurity issues. So we wanna make sure that those things are, are very secure for our clients existing and to bring on new clients that might have needs that they don't even realize. Uh, you might have one guy at your office that does everything for your whole company.

He's so overworked, he's still, he's too busy putting fires out to really maintain your system at a level that you need. And that's when those ransomwares or those phishing attacks happen is when you're just putting fires out all day and not really looking at the vision of the, of what you need. Yeah.

Lara: We've got clients all over. We actually have a, um, another comp, another department that I oversee that is an off offshore accounting department. So, you know, we can support just about anybody, anywhere. But the ideal for my, for my company would be 20 plus properties more.

Anjel: I agree. Great. Excellent.

So when you think about your own role there in the company, and you think about your history of working your way out of jobs to the next level, like what is your aspiration for yourself right now?

And in order to be able to do that, not only do I have to have someone to be able to put into my position, but someone that understands the, uh, and has the, um, the passion that I have for my clients because I do have a very close relationship with them all over the last 15 years. Many of them, we've supported that whole length of time.

We know each other's kids, we know each other's, you know everything. You know. And, um, that is not difficult. It's more difficult to find someone that builds that bond. It's not the knowledge that is harder to find. It's someone that has the passion for those individual people. That's harder to find. I do believe that my staff now has that, but it did take me time to build that.

Mm.

Anjel: Yeah. Beautiful. And as the leader, I would imagine that you have your eyes on at least one or two people on your staff.

Lara: I

Lara: So one of the things I've been doing with a few of my employees is I've had them join my conference calls.

I have when, when we have time, I'll, I'll say, let's, let's put you on teams. I'm gonna share my screen. Let me show you how I do quoting a client. How do we do, uh, proposals and things like that. Things that they wouldn't normally do in their day, day-to-day work and things that I do in my day-to-day work, but things that I want someone else to, to gain the knowledge of.

Ad: Yeah.

Anjel: Beautiful. And how are you, what are you doing to position yourself to be CRO? Because that's an interesting, you know, kind of move from technology into revenue. So tell us a little bit about that vision.

And it's just developed just like the IT position developed. This position is also developing for me. And so that's what I see myself doing in the next say, you know, few years.

Anjel: Yeah. Beautiful. So what I'm hearing there is that you're, you're looking in both directions. You're a visionary who's looking in both directions and you're already laying the groundwork for what's next for you.

So that there's a smooth transition for the entire organization. Yes. Correct. You can't, you can't move up if you don't look in both directions, and if you don't care about the people coming up behind you, it's not gonna work because you're just leaving a trail of of trash behind you, right? You can't do that.

Well, can I go back to PTA? Sure, go right ahead. You can go anywhere you want, Laura. All right, let's do it. So, uh, we did have, and this, this goes back to the, um. Old school men's world business, you know, when you're dealing with board members and things of communities and, and that kind of thing. And the school that I was a PTA president for, wanted to build a new playground.

And it's complicated, right? And it's extremely expensive. And one of the things that they came in, they talked to me about it. What, you know what? The board, the board of directors talked to me. They said, what's gonna cost you a hundred thousand dollars to do what you want? And it's gonna be this and it's gonna be that.

I can't. I can't get new swing. So we had a lot of obstacles being thrown at us. And what we did was we laid out a vision for the, for the playground. We showed them exactly what it would look like, including the panels for the special needs kids that needed that. We kept the bars of our playground, of our swings, replaced the actual swing itself, and kept the bars, which since the concreted in was acceptable.

And the guy that did the, the, um, review with me at first, he said, we, you know, you didn't even blink when I said it was gonna cost a hundred thousand dollars. And I said, because I don't, I don't think that's an obstacle. I think if we tell people what we're doing, they're going to, they're gonna support us.

Anjel: Well, I love this story, Lara, because it's such a good reminder to our visionary listeners, our leading visionary founders and our, you know, people all over who are tuned into this podcast who may have a vision of their own and it may require quite a bit of funding and. This whole attitude of. The money is not an obstacle.

And just tell people what you need is like, a real foundational core thing that we teach here at Leading Visionaries as well, is you've gotta enroll people in your vision. Yes. And that may include enrolling people in, you know, providing money, whether it's, you know, in, in your case it was donations. But in the cases of, you know, many people who are founders or visionaries with, uh, new ideas that they wanna bring to market.

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