Faces Changing Southwest Florida
Chris Spiro
By Jessica Hehir
It goes without saying; Chris Spiro is one of the leading faces changing the shape of Southwest Florida. In fact, Chris grew up in Cape Coral and after attending the University of Florida, returned to his hometown to launch a lucrative business. In 1989 he established his own agency and design service, The Spiro Group Inc. Two years later he joined forces with William Waites and Spiro & Waites was born. In 2002 Mr. Waites retired and the company is now known as Spiro & Associates. Our Gourmet Girl recently chatted with Chris about his career, his family and his beloved Cape Coral.
The Interview
GG: One of the things we talk about with everybody of course is where did you grow up? What was your childhood like?
CS: I was born in Brooklyn. My father was a printer, my grandfather was a printer, and my grandfather’s father was a printer. My grandfather gave my father a printing plant and we followed the dogs. From the Pensacola Greyhound Track to the Naples Greyhound Track and we’d go back and forth. But 1970 my family landed here in Cape Coral. My father told us that we were one of the first 1,000 families here in Cape Coral. It was a totally different land back then but it was a great community to be in and still is today. That’s why I raise my children here.
GG: So how did you, coming form a family and a history of printers, end up in advertising?
CS: It was sheerly an accident that I ended up, I guess you could say having a niche in the real estate development field and related industries segment of the business. I always told myself in business, when I started my business, I would never have that one big account that would drag me down. With the agencies I had worked for in the past, if they lost a big account I lost my job. I didn’t want that. Mistake number one, you are always going to have that one big dominant account. My philosophy was if I had ten smaller accounts and lost one of the accounts it wouldn’t hurt as bad.
Philosophy number two was to be very diverse. Don’t focus on one and don’t be a niche in another. The mistake being if you’re successful in it, it’s going to find you. We did real estate, medical, financial, economical developments really, really, well. We ran a campaign for The Strand 10 or 12 years ago. The Strand in Naples, we just placed a logo in a couple of places. In the sky, another one in a pair of golf shoes, in a wake of a pool, the green of a golf course, in the face of a tennis racket, in front of a Mercedes Benz where their symbol would be, in the topiary in front of a house. It got to a point where people were calling up the information center and saying, "I found it!"
It’s gone so much more beyond advertising the product to really being a consultant on the real estate side. I even work with people on sales strategies, sales information centers. I recommend that they go steal good people sometimes when there are real good people to be stolen. It’s really blossomed. It’s been real fun. Even though on a down turn of the real estate market, my business on the real estate side goes up.
I also tell people sometimes not to spend their money. I had a gentleman call me from Portland, Oregon. He started off the conversation by saying, "Wow, it was really lucky that the local newspaper ran that article on that first day, wasn’t it?" To which I said to him, "Do you think that article happened on the front page of the paper because we were lucky? Or do you think it was planned, the fact that we had that article and in the next four days there was a lot of PR buzz about it, then all of a sudden the advertising kicked in and in 9 days we moved 116 homes."
GG: Looking back now, what were your biggest unknowns going into this business?
CS: That’s a tough question. There are two; I’ll give you one from the creative side and one from the business side.
Creative side: It’s a great idea why won’t you buy it? That’s the biggest problem. This is a great idea; it’s what’s right for you, why won’t you buy it? I call it, "Client directed advertising." Sometimes I won’t compromise the idea. I’d rather walk away from the idea, but sometimes we’ll acquiesce and incorporate the client’s ideas because they write the checks.
The biggest thing about the business side: I didn’t realize was I become a friggin’ babysitter. I didn’t realize that because your wife was asking for more child support I needed to give you a raise. That if I wanted you to show up for work I had to co-sign for a car for you. That because your husband slept with your best friend that I should give you the time off and pay for you to go down and get a restraining order for you against your husband.
GG: Employers don’t do those types of things. That’s only because you have a heart and you care about your people.
CS: Well, I don’t know. Like I said, I’m getting a little more callused. I have a little less time for those things these days. It’s the old age creeping in on me. I’m fortunate enough, to have a great, great staff around me.
GG: Spiro and Associates has a full slate of very talented people. How and where did you find them?
CS: One of the people that I had the genuine pleasure of working with was my own father. My father had a heart attack, lost his printing business. I said I’m going to give pop a job. Pop came in there and at first he was our maintenance and errand guy. We need a light bulb changed, something painted, things organized, that’s what he spent six months doing. It made him feel good, Pop loved to do that, Pop got stronger.
Over the years he built our traffic department. He became for my 20-somethings, the guy they had to spend a week with when they first came to work for me to learn a work ethic.
Because in Pop’s world, just because you start at 9 o’clock in the morning doesn’t mean you’re not there at 7:30 in the morning to get your coffee, get your papers, pencils, kibitz, all the stuff you’ve got to do so at 9 o’clock when the bell rings you are ready to go.
That was 13 years ago when Pop came aboard with me. This is a good and bad thing. I really deem it a positive. Six of the people that work for me, left me at one point, but have since come back to work for me. I deem that a compliment that they went out and came back. I don’t believe in burning bridges.
GG: You have received many accolades. I saw them all displayed in the office, and I’ve read about them on your website. Of all of those, what is the most memorable one?
CS: The marriage to my wife first, and our children would be the biggest accolades I’ve had in my life. My biggest professional accolade was Citizen of the Year for the City of Cape Coral. I was bridesmaid four times for that award. My wife wanted me to have that award; my staff wanted me to have that award.
Getting citizen of the year and standing along side Council Woman Bertolini, Co-Citizen of the Year. That was a phenomenal award. I’ll give you one other one, Mike Quaintz Chamber of Commerce, nominated me for the Sam Walton Business Leader Award. I am the only person in Southwest Florida to have ever won that award. To me awards mean validation to my staff that their work is recognized by their peers.
GG: By the industry.....
CS: Right, that really shouldn’t be about how you land an account or not, but it is. Our number one client at our agency was me. The number one topic in our public relations dept at Spiro and Associates primarily, me. I’m the engine. We see, we be seen. That success is getting invited to speak. When you’re invited to speak , obviously you’re an expert. Now in town I’m just Chris the ad guy. Outside this market I’m a freaking genius. I’ve spoken in front of as many as 3500 people or 4000 people in one night about branding. So it blossomed from there.
GG: Was it just one thing that garnered that recognition or a group of things?
CS: I’ve been privileged to work with others within the same city. You know Cape Coral is truly the 80/20 principle. 20 percent of the people do 80 percent of the work. I am blessed to be affiliated with the Cape Coral Chamber of Commerce, the Cape Coral Construction Industry Association, the Cape Coral Council of Progress, so on and so forth. The American Cancer Society, The American Heart Association, all these organizations, I’m blessed. But in Cape Coral, I say this to people, ‘Cape Coralians will drive on E for 50 miles to buy their gas in Cape Coral. Cape Coralians will pay 10 percent more to buy their products in Cape Coral.’ It’s kind of like our relationship with England. England can abuse us, but nobody else is allowed to because they will come to our defense. It is very similar to that. It’s a multitude of things. I have a passion.
I am a leadership junkie: Leadership Cape Coral, Advanced Leadership Cape Coral, not once, not twice, but three times. Leadership Lee County, Leadership Florida, Disney Institute of Leadership. That’s my continuing education. That’s how I recharge. I love the psychology of leadership. I had a great ability to be around people that taught me that leaving Cape Coral a better place than I found it for my children. Children is part of a common theme. My belief with regard to my children is that I need to lead by example. My children go and understand why you pick up trash on the side of the streets. I still believe that if you see somebody with a flat tire you pull over and help or ask them if you can help. Unlike other people who are saying "you don’t know if they have a gun."
GG: Have you achieved all the goals that you have set for yourself to date?
CS: No! I want to learn to fly before I’m 50. I want my pilot’s license. I want the privilege to walk my daughter down the aisle. I want to see both my children go to college. You know you always want better for your kids.
GG: We’ve talked about your personal goals, how about for Spiro & Associates?
CS: We want an airline and we want a beer account. The ultimate goal behind Spiro and Associates is to turn it into ESOP, (Employee Stock Option Plan).
GG: What do you feel is the biggest impact that you’ve had in this area?
CS: What I preach with regard to giving back to the community. That would be my business legacy. Personal legacy. I like to try and help my staff, tell them that they need to find balance. We run a family business, we have a very simple philosophy. If things ain’t right at home they ain’t going to be right at the office, go home get their sh** right. We have sent people home and said, ‘you’re not going to get docked pay, but go home and get it right. You can’t sit in front of your computer and be a bubbling idiot. It isn’t going to help any of us.’
You build loyalty, you build friendships and you build a good company that way. You will very, very rarely see me at a nighttime function. I’m up early, I’m going, I’m in business mode, baboom, and I’m go, go, go all day. I get home at night; it’s tennis with my son, karate with my daughter, and dinner with my family. Out in the boat, taking a ride in the golf cart, sitting around watching Idol, cheering for David Cooke. Literally last night, my wife made pizza. We camped out in the living room, picnic style. We ate pizza, watched American Idol with my family and all cheered when David Cooke won over David Archuleta. As funny as it sounds that’s a memory for me of all four of us cheering for David when they announced his name.
GG: Tell me more about your family. It sounds like you are an involved father.
CS: I just don’t sign my children up for sports. My son plays competitive tennis. I play tennis. My daughter is a second- degree black belt, I’m a first-degree black belt, and my son is a black belt. My wife’s a karate mom, she knows how to fix broken fingers and tape people up. I don’t ask them to participate in life. I want to participate in life with them. My daughter had a pep rally, a tail-gate thing at school. I’m the guy who cooked 400 hundred hamburgers until the hair was burned off his arm. I’m the guy when your kid says, " my dad will do it," I do it for them. I’m the guy when 7 kids need a ride to a tennis tournament, I’ll do it. It’s not just making them have life. It’s participating in that life, finding balance. And that would be the legacy that I’d love to leave. That you can find a balance of running a successful business, making a good living and having a family life.
GG: As someone who has contributed to changing the face of Southwest Florida, how has this area changed?
CS: I have a picture of when my family first moved here, what’s now the Cape Coral Chamber building at the foot of the bridge, that said, "Welcome to Cape Coral, a Senior Planned Retirement Community." This was a community that was meant for elderly people. People come and retire and live the dream. Now, this is a very young vibrant community. This is a community that used to be the butt end of all jokes and now people are standing up and taking notice. I will tell you that there is not a senator, there is not a councilman and there is not a county commissioner or sheriff that has been elected that has that has not carried Cape Coral. We are now here on the cusp of what is going to be a great, great boom.