Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast with Paul Casey

Cynthia MacFarlan, a Chicago area native, moved to the Tri-Cities in 2000. As a Speech/Language pathologist for more than forty years, Mrs. MacFarlan has worked with people of all ages, in multiple settings and across all levels of care to help them with communication disorders. Mrs. MacFarlan's love of animals and therapeutic skills led her to form Therapeutic Riding of Tri-Cities (TROT), the first nonprofit therapeutic riding facility in SE Washington State. With the help of her benefactor Dr. Lawrence Dubose and the support of her husband and daughter, Mrs. MacFarlan launched TROT, in 2014. Since then, hundreds of people have donated resources, talents and time to make TROT a reality. Mrs. MacFarlan's biggest reward has been watching her dream unfold and grow into something that is helping to change lives and bring joy to those involved in the organization. Mrs. MacFarlan holds Level 1 certifications with both Certified Horsemanship Association (CHA) and the American Hippotherapy Association (AHA). She is also a member of the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship International (PATH Intl.). In 2021 and 2022, TROT hosted IRD Certifications.  Achieving high standards to foster excellence in the instruction for the Adaptive Riding Program is important and furthers the mission of serving God and our community for our families. In her free time, Mrs. MacFarlan enjoys making memories with family, hiking, walking on the beach, and spending time with her therapy horses, Cocoa and Cowboy. 

Torey founded BrandCraft in 2012. An artist at heart with an entrepreneurial spirit. Torey's background winds through Science & Engineering (a registered Civil Engineer) until he decided to chase his true passion – marketing. After short stints away, the Tri-Cities area lured him back to plant roots and put up shop. Free time consists of golf, coaching, beer tasting (12oz tasters), and photography.

It's a great day to Grow Forward with Tri Cities Influencer, Shae Frichette from Frichette Winery!

It's a great day to Grow Forward with Trisha McFarland from Mirror Ministries!   

Tri Cities Influencers: Cari McGee, Jennifer Cunnington, and Jay Freeman

Tri Cities Influencers: Carlos Martinez, Michael Novakov and Brad Toner

00:00:06.600 --> 00:00:24.810 Paul Casey: it's a great day to grow forward thanks for joining me today's episode with jet Richardson he's executive director of habitat for humanity here in the tri cities and a fun fact about jet well, he said he's allowed sneezer jet tell us more about that. 2 00:00:26.970 --> 00:00:28.530 Jet's iPhone: I don't know if there's much. 3 00:00:28.560 --> 00:00:30.180 Jet's iPhone: More to actually tell you. 4 00:00:31.920 --> 00:00:33.870 Paul Casey: You could show no no don't do that. 5 00:00:34.440 --> 00:00:34.890 People. 6 00:00:36.390 --> 00:00:42.570 Jet's iPhone: People off often quite surprised and it's a, it is a family trait, so I will. 7 00:00:43.830 --> 00:00:48.120 Jet's iPhone: throw my turn my dad under the bus here a little bit and I get it from him. 8 00:00:49.890 --> 00:00:50.160 Paul Casey: wow. 9 00:00:52.380 --> 00:00:57.480 Paul Casey: Alright well we'll dive in with jet after checking in with our tries to the influencer sponsor. 10 00:00:58.950 --> 00:01:02.670 Paul Casey: Thank you for your support of leadership development in the tri cities. 11 00:01:03.420 --> 00:01:19.710 Paul Casey: Well, welcome Jeff I was privileged to meet you way back in 1995 where I was an elementary principal at liberty Christian school, it was even before that was the vice principal the first year I moved and I think you were in seventh grade so it's been a while. 12 00:01:21.420 --> 00:01:23.580 Jet's iPhone: That was a long time ago, yes yeah. 13 00:01:24.420 --> 00:01:25.590 Paul Casey: Look at you now. 14 00:01:27.330 --> 00:01:28.890 Jet's iPhone: i'm not much taller but. 15 00:01:30.990 --> 00:01:36.330 Jet's iPhone: I think I have done some things that are a bit different or unexpected since then. 16 00:01:37.110 --> 00:01:41.910 Paul Casey: Yes, well help our tri city influencers get to know you tell us about. 17 00:01:43.260 --> 00:01:48.600 Paul Casey: What habitat does tell us what you do for 80% of your day all that stuff. 18 00:01:49.470 --> 00:01:50.550 Jet's iPhone: yeah so. 19 00:01:51.600 --> 00:02:03.510 Jet's iPhone: habitat for humanity tri county partners is the official name of our local affiliate here we're located primarily in tri cities, but we do work. 20 00:02:04.020 --> 00:02:15.840 Jet's iPhone: And walla walla as well and and, quite frankly, our geographical service area sorry geographic servicer is all of Benton Franklin and walla walla counties. 21 00:02:16.770 --> 00:02:32.370 Jet's iPhone: So we have a lot of work ahead of us, currently we've been in the tri cities we've been operating as an affiliate for 26 years but we've only really worked and Pascoe ritual and and kennewick and walla walla. 22 00:02:33.960 --> 00:02:45.090 Jet's iPhone: We would love to expand that influence to the outer parts of our counties someday and looking forward to figuring out how to do that habitats mission. 23 00:02:45.900 --> 00:03:04.350 Jet's iPhone: is seeking to put god's love into action habitat for humanity brings people together to build homes communities and hope and our vision is that everyone in the tri county area would have a decent place to call home. 24 00:03:05.550 --> 00:03:06.360 Jet's iPhone: We don't. 25 00:03:07.500 --> 00:03:18.540 Jet's iPhone: We don't give homes away people partner with us to purchase the homes, we provide every discount that we can to make them as affordable as possible. 26 00:03:19.770 --> 00:03:22.380 Jet's iPhone: For low income families in our in our area. 27 00:03:23.940 --> 00:03:29.700 Jet's iPhone: But that's the mission and that's the vision that we are trying to carry out here locally. 28 00:03:30.780 --> 00:03:40.200 Paul Casey: What I love about the vision is it's so big you know I think big visions should be big that it makes it just draws us for like that everyone has. 29 00:03:40.590 --> 00:03:49.320 Paul Casey: A great place to live right and it's just like man, if you worked every second of every day, it would still be this big vision that you'd still be shooting for so. 30 00:03:49.380 --> 00:03:53.670 Jet's iPhone: We hope we certainly hope to work ourselves out of a job yeah. 31 00:03:53.850 --> 00:03:54.240 Right. 32 00:03:55.440 --> 00:04:07.530 Jet's iPhone: And, but what's the point in doing this, if you still have people who are homeless or housing insecure in some way or another, we there's still a lot of work to do. 33 00:04:08.490 --> 00:04:14.670 Paul Casey: Here here so you're an executive director, what do you spend 80% of your day doing. 34 00:04:15.960 --> 00:04:20.850 Jet's iPhone: Oh, I I probably spend 80% of my day asking other people how to be an executive director. 35 00:04:24.180 --> 00:04:25.470 Jet's iPhone: it's a very humble answer. 36 00:04:27.210 --> 00:04:43.470 Jet's iPhone: I, I will say I I probably spend 80% of my day learning, though in some way, shape or form i'm I feel like i'm constantly learning or re educating myself on what I think are good practices for urban planning housing. 37 00:04:45.210 --> 00:04:57.870 Jet's iPhone: i'm learning, who are people and other organizations that habitat needs to somehow partner with in the Community, or at the State level or even at the federal level. 38 00:04:59.220 --> 00:05:03.000 Jet's iPhone: Constantly researching grant opportunities. 39 00:05:04.560 --> 00:05:05.850 Jet's iPhone: opportunities that would. 40 00:05:07.290 --> 00:05:20.130 Jet's iPhone: increase the affordable ness of homes that we're that we're doing and and then asking people to be a part of that so yeah i'd say 80% of my job is is is learning how to do it. 41 00:05:21.180 --> 00:05:22.440 Jet's iPhone: in some way, shape or form. 42 00:05:22.710 --> 00:05:26.160 Paul Casey: Great answer yes and so why do you love what you do. 43 00:05:27.870 --> 00:05:28.350 Jet's iPhone: hmm. 44 00:05:29.610 --> 00:05:30.090 Jet's iPhone: I think I. 45 00:05:31.230 --> 00:05:39.870 Jet's iPhone: I want to I you know, I was looking at that question earlier and I think it's a real privilege to love what you do. 46 00:05:41.220 --> 00:05:53.460 Jet's iPhone: I don't think it's something that everybody experiences or is experiencing, currently, especially in this in this current era where job job security. 47 00:05:54.570 --> 00:05:56.040 Jet's iPhone: and employment has been. 48 00:05:57.150 --> 00:06:00.510 Jet's iPhone: Just all over the map, so to say so. 49 00:06:01.860 --> 00:06:08.460 Jet's iPhone: To love what you do I think it's a huge privilege and to have something to do it's a huge. 50 00:06:09.690 --> 00:06:10.770 Jet's iPhone: blessing in itself. 51 00:06:12.240 --> 00:06:12.720 Jet's iPhone: So. 52 00:06:14.130 --> 00:06:17.700 Jet's iPhone: So I, as I was thinking about that you know why really. 53 00:06:19.020 --> 00:06:20.760 Jet's iPhone: kind of stands out because. 54 00:06:23.790 --> 00:06:25.530 Jet's iPhone: I love, what I do. 55 00:06:27.810 --> 00:06:34.140 Jet's iPhone: Because it's something that I think I find just inspiring and motivating. 56 00:06:35.280 --> 00:06:42.720 Jet's iPhone: To see people come together to be a part of building a better community. 57 00:06:44.160 --> 00:06:54.660 Jet's iPhone: And at the same time working for an organization like habitat it's a triple win you know it's it's it's a win for. 58 00:06:56.130 --> 00:07:09.180 Jet's iPhone: The people that we serve who want to get out of subsidized Rentals and into affordable home ownership create wealth and opportunity for their children and their grandchildren. 59 00:07:10.050 --> 00:07:28.800 Jet's iPhone: it's a win for the communities that we are constantly evaluating and looking for ways to make sure that everybody moves forward and upward and it's a win, for I think myself just to be a part of that and to be a part of the staff. 60 00:07:30.060 --> 00:07:37.080 Jet's iPhone: And people who feel similarly similarly passionate about the issue of housing. 61 00:07:38.490 --> 00:07:44.850 Paul Casey: yeah I can hear your gratefulness coming through in that answer I can hear your passion for the mission which is. 62 00:07:45.480 --> 00:07:55.080 Paul Casey: What you want from any nonprofit executive leader, because it just spills out into like I said, the staff and the families and the Community so love that. 63 00:07:55.650 --> 00:08:06.630 Paul Casey: So Jen and your journey to be where you are today what have you learned from previous bosses supervisors that could be good or bad that you keep in mind today, while you lead. 64 00:08:08.820 --> 00:08:16.080 Jet's iPhone: that's a really good question um i've had my share of bosses over the years. 65 00:08:17.490 --> 00:08:21.810 Jet's iPhone: And i've had like you said, good and bad ones, I think we all have. 66 00:08:23.520 --> 00:08:34.170 Jet's iPhone: Even if, even if they weren't explicitly bad bosses you've had bosses that weren't as great as others you've had favorite people to work for and people that you just work with you know. 67 00:08:37.050 --> 00:08:46.230 Jet's iPhone: As I think about what the good bosses or the bosses in my life that I have the most respect for and. 68 00:08:47.490 --> 00:09:05.190 Jet's iPhone: How I feel that I have taken that experience and to my own managerial role is recognizing that their success sorry the people that work for me that report to me their success. 69 00:09:06.600 --> 00:09:20.250 Jet's iPhone: is not a zero sum game their success is not mean my failure if they say that they if they succeed and move away or move on to bigger and better things. 70 00:09:20.700 --> 00:09:30.750 Jet's iPhone: outside of the role or the job that they have right now it's not a failure on my part, that is, that is awesome to be able to cultivate. 71 00:09:31.650 --> 00:09:39.900 Jet's iPhone: relationships with people and develop skills and other people that they can then take on to more opportunities for themselves bigger and better. 72 00:09:40.290 --> 00:09:51.690 Jet's iPhone: and exciting things for them that's a huge success that's something that not all my bosses felt, you know they they felt some of my bosses previously felt like. 73 00:09:52.560 --> 00:10:02.610 Jet's iPhone: They needed to keep me in a role, because it was good, it looks good for them, but they didn't want to see much growth, they just wanted to see that. 74 00:10:02.940 --> 00:10:04.590 Jet's iPhone: job was getting done. 75 00:10:05.130 --> 00:10:11.910 Jet's iPhone: And then they went on themselves to bigger and better things and just kind of leave you behind and so. 76 00:10:13.230 --> 00:10:15.720 Jet's iPhone: What I what i've taken away was that. 77 00:10:16.740 --> 00:10:21.840 Jet's iPhone: I want to see the people that work for me achieve more than me. 78 00:10:23.820 --> 00:10:26.460 Jet's iPhone: Because that's that's. 79 00:10:27.630 --> 00:10:29.340 Jet's iPhone: that's success that I can. 80 00:10:30.570 --> 00:10:36.420 Jet's iPhone: I can really be proud of, so I think looking for opportunities with people. 81 00:10:38.250 --> 00:10:44.910 Jet's iPhone: To try new things to develop skills really understand what motivates them and what. 82 00:10:46.050 --> 00:10:55.170 Jet's iPhone: Their goals are so that I can, if I can play a part in helping them achieve that I think that's it's just very rewarding. 83 00:10:56.490 --> 00:10:57.030 Jet's iPhone: and 84 00:10:58.050 --> 00:11:13.740 Jet's iPhone: i'm surprised, as I look back over my bosses that that that that is rare doesn't wasn't always the case, but I had a few and honestly I believe that's partly why I felt the confidence to go after this role. 85 00:11:14.910 --> 00:11:22.050 Jet's iPhone: And to be doing what i'm doing now is because they cultivated that success in me. 86 00:11:23.250 --> 00:11:30.780 Paul Casey: Well, so good yeah I don't think people should be in a leadership role my personal opinion is shouldn't be in a leadership role if they don't have. 87 00:11:31.200 --> 00:11:38.910 Paul Casey: The growth and development of their people as one of their primary functions, I really believe that we have to help our people get better. 88 00:11:39.210 --> 00:11:44.760 Paul Casey: So you're right when that day comes when they move on to some other green pasture maybe it's greener. 89 00:11:45.330 --> 00:11:58.680 Paul Casey: That we we have set them up for success and we smile and cheer them on as they leave because they have become better under our watch, then they came in and it wasn't just a stepping stone. 90 00:11:59.040 --> 00:12:05.220 Paul Casey: And an endurance that we just got through another day together, but we were very intentional in that and leadership. 91 00:12:06.930 --> 00:12:18.210 Paul Casey: So leaders, also have to fire themselves up because every day you're out in front you're the face of the organization, where do you go jet for inspiration as a leader to fire yourself up. 92 00:12:20.880 --> 00:12:23.850 Jet's iPhone: I really wish I had a better answer for this. 93 00:12:25.800 --> 00:12:26.490 Jet's iPhone: I think. 94 00:12:30.060 --> 00:12:31.110 Jet's iPhone: In order to. 95 00:12:32.940 --> 00:12:38.760 Jet's iPhone: inspire myself for habitat and at this epic pass via the executive director. 96 00:12:39.900 --> 00:12:45.600 Jet's iPhone: it's important for me to be in contact and to work with other executive directors from around the state. 97 00:12:48.090 --> 00:12:50.940 Jet's iPhone: hearing what they're working on what their challenges are. 98 00:12:52.770 --> 00:12:58.560 Jet's iPhone: It allows me opportunity to learn and inform sometimes. 99 00:12:59.790 --> 00:13:07.230 Jet's iPhone: I think there are there are affiliate leaders that I can offer some solutions to or guidance or and then other times and most likely. 100 00:13:08.040 --> 00:13:26.070 Jet's iPhone: they're offering that for me and and it's a it's a reminder that the mission like you said is big and it's bigger than our affiliate it's bigger than our State actually and our country what habitats trying to do around the world. 101 00:13:27.420 --> 00:13:44.250 Jet's iPhone: Is a huge undertaking, and I think, making sure that I have some regular connection with other people that are serving at the same capacity level that I am is important, just to not get burnt out. 102 00:13:46.200 --> 00:13:50.460 Jet's iPhone: But to remind myself, that there are there are many, many other people. 103 00:13:51.840 --> 00:13:56.970 Jet's iPhone: engaged in this work and who have stories of inspiration that. 104 00:13:58.470 --> 00:13:59.130 Jet's iPhone: are good for me. 105 00:14:00.420 --> 00:14:11.730 Paul Casey: yeah because it's stories of inspiration pull us up even their frustrations, we can commiserate with like oh other people struggle to not just me i'm not struggling here by myself. 106 00:14:12.150 --> 00:14:14.040 Paul Casey: and ideas get traded. 107 00:14:14.310 --> 00:14:21.060 Paul Casey: that's why I love mastermind groups I think you're in one with some executive directors, that I know of as well. 108 00:14:21.720 --> 00:14:29.850 Paul Casey: As well as in your industry with habitat and other affiliate directors so tries to the influencer listeners if you're not in some kind of group. 109 00:14:30.360 --> 00:14:47.430 Paul Casey: Where people at your level your role within your industry or just across industries gather, I would say form one make a group invite some friends keep each other accountable keep each other pumped up and you'll you'll look forward to those meetings each and every month. 110 00:14:49.170 --> 00:15:01.770 Paul Casey: And then jet there's the continuous improvement aspect I know you're a learner and so you have to set the tone and leadership for learning what are you currently working on yourself to better yourself. 111 00:15:03.810 --> 00:15:04.200 Jet's iPhone: I think. 112 00:15:05.220 --> 00:15:05.820 Jet's iPhone: i'm. 113 00:15:07.080 --> 00:15:13.650 Jet's iPhone: dive into more specifically, some of the things that I i'm learning about one of those areas is. 114 00:15:16.710 --> 00:15:19.950 Jet's iPhone: In the area of racial reconciliation. 115 00:15:21.210 --> 00:15:34.560 Jet's iPhone: You know tri cities i've well i've lived i've had the opportunity to live in many urban environments, bigger than the tri cities, other countries and continents. 116 00:15:35.880 --> 00:15:50.130 Jet's iPhone: And one of the things that I don't think i've ever really thought very carefully about or critically about is what is the racial diversity of our own community here locally and. 117 00:15:51.840 --> 00:15:56.370 Jet's iPhone: I think it was became very pertinent this last year and a half. 118 00:15:57.420 --> 00:16:02.400 Jet's iPhone: As the racial reconciliation conversation has you know sparked. 119 00:16:03.600 --> 00:16:06.990 Jet's iPhone: Many, many, many debates and just. 120 00:16:08.010 --> 00:16:23.310 Jet's iPhone: passionate conversations all over the country, what does that mean for us locally and we're not exempt from it, what but what does that look like, and so one of the things that i've just been trying to read up and better understand is. 121 00:16:25.050 --> 00:16:27.540 Jet's iPhone: This is what does that mean here. 122 00:16:28.650 --> 00:16:31.710 Jet's iPhone: habitat for humanity's very existence. 123 00:16:32.940 --> 00:16:38.160 Jet's iPhone: started in rural Georgia, you know 50 years ago and. 124 00:16:39.450 --> 00:16:49.320 Jet's iPhone: It was along those lines of racial reconciliation and how do we, how does how, how do communities, provide for. 125 00:16:50.250 --> 00:16:57.120 Jet's iPhone: People and create opportunity for those that need it, the most and those that need it, the most in Georgia at that time, where the sharecroppers. 126 00:16:57.660 --> 00:17:17.640 Jet's iPhone: So habitats existence its roots is in racial reconciliation and then never really thought about that aspect of the organization and its mission until this last year and a half and wanting to better understand how does that How does that applied to us locally. 127 00:17:19.110 --> 00:17:34.770 Jet's iPhone: Who are who are the people that we are are trying to serve and what does that look like and not to shy away from the conversation, but actually just try to educate myself a little bit more, so that we can come up with. 128 00:17:35.880 --> 00:17:40.500 Jet's iPhone: Collaborative approaches to address, whatever the situation is. 129 00:17:41.250 --> 00:17:49.740 Paul Casey: so good, and I think we have tri cities recently in the fall had a diversity equity inclusion conference I don't know if you went to that. 130 00:17:50.580 --> 00:17:56.220 Paul Casey: But I heard, I heard good things that it's one of the ways this area is trying to do what you're doing, which is so good. 131 00:17:56.490 --> 00:18:11.070 Paul Casey: Not just go back to your organization's roots and pull that forward into the present here in tri cities, but like you said to not shy away from the discussion, but to learn, even if you don't feel like an expert on it just keep learning about it, so that you can be a part of the discussion. 132 00:18:14.010 --> 00:18:27.480 Paul Casey: How do you balance and integrate family time personal time jet you know work as a nonprofit executive could take up every minute of your day and week So how do you give that priority time. 133 00:18:27.930 --> 00:18:35.610 Paul Casey: To work so that family doesn't suffer and families, so that work doesn't suffer it's probably not an easy answer, but what are you currently trying. 134 00:18:37.980 --> 00:18:44.040 Jet's iPhone: Honestly, Paul this isn't a struggle for me I I I. 135 00:18:45.150 --> 00:18:52.620 Jet's iPhone: I love the work and I realized that it doesn't always fit the standard nine to five. 136 00:18:54.300 --> 00:19:00.360 Jet's iPhone: date, you know typical work week that other jobs have but. 137 00:19:01.860 --> 00:19:02.700 Jet's iPhone: The balance. 138 00:19:02.760 --> 00:19:15.990 Jet's iPhone: For me, is is in boundaries it's when i'm home i'm home that's that's where I I turn off that's where I unwind I don't I try not to check my email too much unless. 139 00:19:16.680 --> 00:19:18.090 Jet's iPhone: i'm waiting on something that. 140 00:19:18.150 --> 00:19:29.910 Jet's iPhone: needed my response you know when i'm home it's that's it i'm i've never been one that works well from home I work better from you this. 141 00:19:30.450 --> 00:19:48.030 Jet's iPhone: And so, this whole I think the bigger challenge has been you know in our current environment with everyone, preferring to work from home how do I get my staff to come back to the office to work with me here because that's where I work better when i'm when i'm at the office. 142 00:19:48.300 --> 00:19:48.840 Jet's iPhone: working. 143 00:19:49.170 --> 00:19:51.630 Jet's iPhone: And when i'm when i'm at home i'm relaxing. 144 00:19:53.490 --> 00:20:02.850 Jet's iPhone: So, having those boundaries, I think, is really important for me to achieve that that balance but, honestly, it hasn't been. 145 00:20:04.230 --> 00:20:11.160 Jet's iPhone: It really hasn't been an issue you know, maybe there, maybe i'm maybe that's a blind spot that I need to think about and talk to my board. 146 00:20:12.180 --> 00:20:13.650 Jet's iPhone: If they feel like I haven't gotten a. 147 00:20:13.920 --> 00:20:14.490 response. 148 00:20:15.780 --> 00:20:16.710 Jet's iPhone: times but. 149 00:20:17.220 --> 00:20:24.750 Jet's iPhone: To be honest, it's it's boundaries and it's also it's also staffing, you know I, I have a staff that. 150 00:20:25.890 --> 00:20:38.940 Jet's iPhone: is amazing, and they do their jobs well and I don't have to worry about little things if I know that they're taking care of it, you know they're they're doing their job they're doing it well. 151 00:20:40.470 --> 00:20:52.290 Jet's iPhone: And, and things are getting done, even if i'm not watching them and so when i'm when I can when I leave the office, I can I can turn my brain off a little bit and and just relax. 152 00:20:53.160 --> 00:21:01.050 Paul Casey: I applaud your great boundaries, because the work will still be there tomorrow and most things that we make urgent are truly urgent so. 153 00:21:01.380 --> 00:21:12.450 Paul Casey: I really applaud that and I think you're right on that the best work life balance is a great staff or a great team wrapped around you at which you can empower to keep doing great things and. 154 00:21:12.870 --> 00:21:26.340 Paul Casey: You recharge your batteries, so you can stay out in front so yeah totally totally applaud that and I want to talk more about your team, but let's uh let's pause before we head into that next question and give a shout out to our sponsor. 155 00:21:29.700 --> 00:21:36.270 Paul Casey: So Jeff let's talk about hiring and retaining great employees, probably more pertinent today than ever before, how. 156 00:21:36.660 --> 00:21:47.430 Paul Casey: what's your process or the organization's process for attracting great talent and then what are you trying to do intentionally in the workplace, so that employees, want to stay with you. 157 00:21:51.120 --> 00:21:53.910 Jet's iPhone: Well, if someone has figured this out, please let me know. 158 00:21:56.070 --> 00:21:57.840 Paul Casey: you're supposed to have all the answers for. 159 00:21:59.850 --> 00:22:00.600 Jet's iPhone: Certainly. 160 00:22:00.690 --> 00:22:07.980 Jet's iPhone: Certainly, do not have all the answers in this area, but it is a pertinent question because we are in the hiring process right now. 161 00:22:07.980 --> 00:22:08.310 Paul Casey: For. 162 00:22:08.700 --> 00:22:10.170 Jet's iPhone: For two key positions. 163 00:22:11.580 --> 00:22:12.120 Jet's iPhone: and 164 00:22:14.040 --> 00:22:20.100 Jet's iPhone: This will be since i've been at the in the role here, probably the fourth or fifth person i've i've hired. 165 00:22:21.630 --> 00:22:27.030 Jet's iPhone: And what i've learned through that process is to manage expectations early. 166 00:22:28.680 --> 00:22:29.760 Jet's iPhone: it's really. 167 00:22:30.900 --> 00:22:34.620 Jet's iPhone: You know it's it's a it's a, you have the job description. 168 00:22:36.570 --> 00:22:52.050 Jet's iPhone: In front of you, and you know you put that out as as and post it and people are applying to it, and I think what's common in every single nonprofit job description i've ever read is the very last point additional duties as we acquire. 169 00:22:53.820 --> 00:22:55.800 Paul Casey: The most important one yeah. 170 00:22:55.890 --> 00:23:03.000 Jet's iPhone: which you know automatically I think this last hiring round I just took that last bullet and moved it to the top. 171 00:23:04.200 --> 00:23:04.620 Jet's iPhone: First. 172 00:23:04.680 --> 00:23:05.340 Jet's iPhone: first thing. 173 00:23:07.080 --> 00:23:16.740 Jet's iPhone: But, but it it it speaks to I think the bigger challenge of managing expectations, you know we are an affiliate. 174 00:23:17.880 --> 00:23:22.050 Jet's iPhone: Locally with about eight to 10 full time equivalent staff. 175 00:23:23.970 --> 00:23:32.070 Jet's iPhone: we're not large by any means and but we're not we're not the smallest in the state, but it means that we all wear multiple hats. 176 00:23:32.220 --> 00:23:43.380 Jet's iPhone: And we all do, different things, and as someone proves themselves, efficient and effective and in a in a capacity that we didn't expect well that's a new job for them, you know. 177 00:23:44.370 --> 00:23:45.150 Jet's iPhone: it's a. 178 00:23:45.270 --> 00:23:56.850 Jet's iPhone: it's it's but it's about for me it's about managing expectations, so that people realize that you know what we do isn't. 179 00:23:57.900 --> 00:24:15.600 Jet's iPhone: limited to our job descriptions that it, it has we all have a bigger role beyond our job description and so to not shy away from from what that means taking on responsibilities, you might not have expected to take on, but being able to do that graciously and. 180 00:24:16.650 --> 00:24:25.140 Jet's iPhone: and positively, you know that's that's important one of the things I think, for us, though, is a lot of people don't realize. 181 00:24:26.610 --> 00:24:28.920 Jet's iPhone: habitats connection to the faith community. 182 00:24:29.940 --> 00:24:30.900 Jet's iPhone: Our background. 183 00:24:31.950 --> 00:24:43.350 Jet's iPhone: In our very inception, was it with two two missionaries in a pastor in southern Georgia and that that aspect of our mission seeking to put god's love and action has. 184 00:24:43.920 --> 00:24:54.330 Jet's iPhone: permeated everything that we do, but I feel a lot of people don't realize that and so sometimes they come into the role and it's like oh I didn't know that this. 185 00:24:54.900 --> 00:25:05.460 Jet's iPhone: organization was like that and and and it, it can make some people uncomfortable if they're not prepared for it so that's that's one of those aspects of managing expectations, making sure. 186 00:25:05.850 --> 00:25:13.170 Jet's iPhone: That everybody that comes into the organization is clear on what we're about and what we do and why we do it it's. 187 00:25:13.680 --> 00:25:17.730 Jet's iPhone: it's certainly not to limit or isolate anybody, but. 188 00:25:18.930 --> 00:25:20.250 Jet's iPhone: it's one of those things where. 189 00:25:21.360 --> 00:25:26.580 Jet's iPhone: If everyone understands the job description and the mission fully. 190 00:25:27.750 --> 00:25:28.170 Jet's iPhone: Then. 191 00:25:29.760 --> 00:25:48.930 Jet's iPhone: If you want to be a part of the team then great there's a role for you, and if not, we hope that you find the role that the job or the organization that fits for you, better, but from the very beginning, from day one from when they the first interview starts there yeah. 192 00:25:48.960 --> 00:25:55.620 Paul Casey: being very clear with the why the vision, the mission, if you want to align with us we're going this direction. 193 00:25:56.160 --> 00:26:00.300 Paul Casey: Jim Collins always talked about getting the right seat people in the right seats on the on the bus. 194 00:26:00.840 --> 00:26:06.840 Paul Casey: So huge and I do a seminar on giving and receiving feedback constructively. 195 00:26:07.260 --> 00:26:20.340 Paul Casey: And I my definition of feedback is calibrating expectations, just two words so you talked about managing expectations, because that's where the conflict, usually happens on a team is I thought. 196 00:26:20.730 --> 00:26:35.550 Paul Casey: I was supposed to do this, you thought I was supposed to do this, and now we have a conflict so as a leader, if we can manage that make it as clear as possible and keep people updated along the way there's a good chance we're going to have less of that unnecessary conflict. 197 00:26:36.990 --> 00:26:47.370 Paul Casey: How do you feel about delegation jet is that a struggle for you, is it something that comes naturally any tips on delegation that you've learned, while you've been in the Leader chair. 198 00:26:47.970 --> 00:26:49.710 Jet's iPhone: I love telling people what to do. 199 00:26:51.300 --> 00:26:51.600 Paul Casey: Okay. 200 00:26:51.630 --> 00:26:52.890 Jet's iPhone: next question, not a problem. 201 00:26:56.190 --> 00:27:15.900 Jet's iPhone: Well, no it's it's it's I think it's something that I rely on quite a bit like I said we're a small staff, and we all have our job descriptions, or maybe we should say our job suggestions of like this is the idea that we all went books, but the flexibility to do other things. 202 00:27:17.220 --> 00:27:23.760 Jet's iPhone: means that I can I can assign tasks that come up rather randomly or unexpectedly. 203 00:27:24.780 --> 00:27:27.900 Jet's iPhone: To two people that I know that they'll get done. 204 00:27:30.690 --> 00:27:40.500 Jet's iPhone: One thing, though I I try to keep in mind, as I delegate anything is Am I delegating something that I wouldn't be willing to do myself. 205 00:27:42.540 --> 00:27:59.400 Jet's iPhone: And if I find that that's the case, then I I don't delegate that task, I hope that if you ever talked to any of my staff, they would say he's never asked me to do something that he hasn't done or been willing to do himself. 206 00:27:59.460 --> 00:28:00.570 Paul Casey: Yes, yes. 207 00:28:00.630 --> 00:28:09.690 Jet's iPhone: um, so I think, then, with that thought in mind, as I, as I delegate some sometimes I think people don't like to delegate because. 208 00:28:11.370 --> 00:28:20.610 Jet's iPhone: they're afraid that the task won't get done well, or to their standards and that's to me that's a communication problem, not. 209 00:28:21.090 --> 00:28:23.100 Jet's iPhone: A or Anna micromanaging problem. 210 00:28:23.280 --> 00:28:32.550 Jet's iPhone: If you have a staff that you trust and have experienced success with then it's no problem delegating things to them, because you know the job will get done well. 211 00:28:34.080 --> 00:28:41.490 Jet's iPhone: And if it doesn't then it was probably a communication error from my part so it's a learning point there another learning opportunity there. 212 00:28:41.880 --> 00:28:48.090 Paul Casey: yeah donation equals good I mean good communication is essential part of good delegation. 213 00:28:48.720 --> 00:29:04.080 Jet's iPhone: Right, but then for me to delegate, something I can confidently say i've done this, I know what you got to do like I can help you with it, but you got this you know it's it's a task that I. 214 00:29:05.550 --> 00:29:18.690 Jet's iPhone: I i've done and I i'm i'm not shirking the responsibility by giving it to you, but actually i'm still do that you can do this well so that's that's kind of the difference there feel. 215 00:29:19.830 --> 00:29:32.490 Jet's iPhone: When it comes to delegation is is really just being mindful of what i'm asking someone to do, and this is something that I wouldn't ask someone that I if it's something that I haven't done or wouldn't do myself and why am I, asking them to do it. 216 00:29:34.650 --> 00:29:38.010 Jet's iPhone: it's it's important, I think, to understand that about myself. 217 00:29:38.640 --> 00:29:45.390 Paul Casey: yeah that's delegation isn't dumping and that's what often people do and they're not willing to do it themselves so it's leading by example. 218 00:29:45.870 --> 00:29:57.510 Paul Casey: And being a servant leader, which you're illustrating with that so we're learning that about you jet and also that if you're proficient in your organization, we reward you with more work no just kidding. 219 00:30:00.210 --> 00:30:01.770 Paul Casey: The duties as assigned right. 220 00:30:02.700 --> 00:30:03.570 Jet's iPhone: Oh yeah I think. 221 00:30:04.590 --> 00:30:05.730 Jet's iPhone: that's true but. 222 00:30:07.170 --> 00:30:11.160 Jet's iPhone: you're responsible with with the little things you'll be possible with. 223 00:30:12.180 --> 00:30:14.820 Paul Casey: Oh it's so good, I think that's in the Bible somewhere. 224 00:30:15.810 --> 00:30:16.050 Jet's iPhone: that's. 225 00:30:16.290 --> 00:30:24.510 Paul Casey: Good that's good well Jeff Finally, what advice would you give to new leaders or anyone who wants to keep growing and gaining more influence. 226 00:30:30.300 --> 00:30:34.410 Jet's iPhone: wow I consider myself a new leader too so. 227 00:30:36.420 --> 00:30:40.020 Jet's iPhone: it's for me the answer to this is a little bit of the blind leading the blind. 228 00:30:41.010 --> 00:30:43.890 Paul Casey: From one leader to another one right or another yeah. 229 00:30:44.730 --> 00:30:45.660 Jet's iPhone: I, I think. 230 00:30:46.920 --> 00:30:49.320 Jet's iPhone: What comes to mind is focusing on your impact. 231 00:30:52.320 --> 00:30:53.880 Jet's iPhone: You know humility. 232 00:30:55.770 --> 00:31:02.550 Jet's iPhone: I think oftentimes humility is equated with meekness and when I when I think of focusing on my impact from a. 233 00:31:04.110 --> 00:31:07.920 Jet's iPhone: standpoint of humility, it means, am I doing everything that I like. 234 00:31:09.060 --> 00:31:18.870 Jet's iPhone: If you draw a circle on a piece of paper everything inside that circle as me what I can do what what I can achieve and my filling that circle completely. 235 00:31:19.050 --> 00:31:23.160 Jet's iPhone: that's still that's humility, I think, as. 236 00:31:23.700 --> 00:31:25.200 Jet's iPhone: I truly understand it. 237 00:31:25.620 --> 00:31:27.540 Jet's iPhone: oftentimes we think of meekness. 238 00:31:29.790 --> 00:31:44.490 Jet's iPhone: And connection to humility and so there's like are you focusing on your impact, are you are you focusing on what you can do and what you can achieve are you challenging yourself to make that circle bigger but still fill it completely. 239 00:31:45.600 --> 00:31:57.960 Jet's iPhone: When we start to focus on on things outside of that circle, you know that that then becomes I think arrogant and also starts to stretch us in ways that we're not ready. 240 00:31:59.790 --> 00:32:11.490 Jet's iPhone: And may not be able to handle so so focusing on your sphere of impact your circle of impact what you can do and how you can achieve it and do it well, I think, is really important. 241 00:32:12.570 --> 00:32:17.040 Jet's iPhone: and defining again those boundaries of what is inside and what is outside of that circle. 242 00:32:19.980 --> 00:32:21.840 Paul Casey: So good so good, I feel. 243 00:32:22.050 --> 00:32:24.390 Jet's iPhone: that's probably that's where I would start. 244 00:32:25.050 --> 00:32:40.680 Paul Casey: fill the circle and anything outside of that circle often becomes a worry to it could be arrogance like you said, but it can also be worried because it's out of my control or yeah it's not in its not in my sphere of influence so yeah. 245 00:32:40.770 --> 00:32:42.120 Paul Casey: I think that go ahead. 246 00:32:42.540 --> 00:32:45.180 Jet's iPhone: 111 thing that that comes from is. 247 00:32:46.230 --> 00:33:06.420 Jet's iPhone: My experience with habitat so far, you know we we focus on people who are we focused on helping families and individuals in the Community that fall between 30% and 60% area of media income medium area median income sorry I don't know why that was difficult for me to say, but we often. 248 00:33:07.920 --> 00:33:11.190 Jet's iPhone: Get lumped into the organizations that are working on housing. 249 00:33:12.930 --> 00:33:23.910 Jet's iPhone: Beyond that spectrum so particularly housing for homeless individuals experiencing immediately immediate need for housing and urgency. 250 00:33:24.960 --> 00:33:30.360 Jet's iPhone: And people coming out of transitional housing or started people needing transitional housing coming out of. 251 00:33:31.320 --> 00:33:52.290 Jet's iPhone: The prisons or recovery programs things like that nature everybody needs a place to live, everyone needs a place to call home habitat is best suited for people between 30 and 60 and up sometimes up to 80% higher median income, and we should be supportive of organizations that do others. 252 00:33:53.310 --> 00:33:56.670 Jet's iPhone: But it is not our responsibility to fix those problems. 253 00:33:56.790 --> 00:33:57.090 yep. 254 00:33:58.710 --> 00:33:59.160 Jet's iPhone: and 255 00:33:59.220 --> 00:34:03.330 Jet's iPhone: And I think so that's where it's being humble and what you know you can do. 256 00:34:03.540 --> 00:34:04.110 Jet's iPhone: But doing it. 257 00:34:04.920 --> 00:34:16.470 Paul Casey: yeah staying on mission for sure well Jeff How can our listeners best connect with you and your local the local affiliate here of habitat. 258 00:34:16.920 --> 00:34:18.360 Jet's iPhone: know my DEMO handle. 259 00:34:21.960 --> 00:34:24.510 Paul Casey: So what he's saying is he needs donations. 260 00:34:25.440 --> 00:34:26.190 Jet's iPhone: Just kidding. 261 00:34:27.510 --> 00:34:39.000 Jet's iPhone: Obviously we're online habitat builds calm is the website for our local affiliate here and our social media on Facebook, is the same handle. 262 00:34:40.380 --> 00:34:49.500 Jet's iPhone: But yeah feel free to stop by we have a we have a great store for DIY projects, then you can learn more about the mission there. 263 00:34:49.800 --> 00:35:07.980 Jet's iPhone: What we're doing feel free to fill out a volunteer application and come out to the site where we're working in Pascoe right now, and hopefully in other parts of the Community and the greater counties, as we try to seek to impact people beyond just the tri cities. 264 00:35:09.390 --> 00:35:14.580 Paul Casey: Well, thanks again Jeff for all you do to make the tri cities, a great place and keep leading well. 265 00:35:15.750 --> 00:35:16.470 Jet's iPhone: Thank you for. 266 00:35:17.250 --> 00:35:27.240 Paul Casey: Let me wrap up our podcast today with a leadership resource to recommend and i've just redesigned my website now I haven't obviously I hire better people. 267 00:35:27.810 --> 00:35:36.090 Paul Casey: To do that i'll put in a plug for spotted fox digital here in the tri city, so if you haven't been over to my website Paul casey.org. 268 00:35:36.510 --> 00:35:53.400 Paul Casey: I encourage you to go over there there's some free resources there there's some ones that my books are on that site and some other tools, you can see, the other services, I offer would love for you to just check it out and give your give your comments on Paul casey.org. 269 00:35:55.620 --> 00:36:05.430 Paul Casey: Again this is Paul Casey and I want to thank my guest jet Richardson from habitat for humanity tri county partners for being here today on the tri cities influencer podcast. 270 00:36:05.820 --> 00:36:15.330 Paul Casey: We want to thank our sponsor and invite you to support them, we appreciate you making this possible, so that we can collaborate to help inspire leaders in our Community. 271 00:36:15.870 --> 00:36:20.790 Paul Casey: Finally, one more leadership tidbit for the road to help you make a difference in your circle of influence. 272 00:36:21.120 --> 00:36:37.530 Paul Casey: it's from Tony Robbins he said, the higher your energy level, the more efficient your body, the more efficient in your body, the better you feel and the more you will use your talent to produce outstanding results so until next time kg F keep growing forward.

Paul Casey:                         Great team leaders notice an imbalance in the team and have the ability to adjust to it. But again, don't attack the person attack the problem. Speaker 1:                           Raising the water level of leadership in the Tri-Cities of Eastern Washington, it's the Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast. Welcome to the TCI podcast. We're local leadership and self-leadership expert, Paul Casey interviews, local CEOs, entrepreneurs, and nonprofit executives to hear how they lead themselves and their teams, so we can all benefit from their wisdom and experience. Here's your host, Paul Casey of Growing Forward Services, coaching and equipping individuals, and teams to spark breakthrough success. Paul Casey:                         It's a great day to grow forward. Thanks for joining me for today's episode with Jeanne Dillner, she is the CEO of SIGN Fracture Care. And I asked for a fun fact about her and it turned into a whole story. And so, Jeanne, I'm going to just let you roll with it. Jeanne Dillner:                  One of the women at work gave me the idea of playing with watercolor to relax. And so, I've been doing that for about a year now. And then on June 17th, at 9:30 at night, I was petting my dogs goodnight and somehow fell over and broke my arm. I'm lefthanded and I broke my left arm. So, I wasn't able to use that for about three months. And so, but I still needed to have that creative outlet. And so, I started to not only learn how to write with my right hand, but also do my art with my right hand. And so, I've just as a joke, decided to call it wrong handed art. And so, that my funny thing.                                                 And then another thing that I do with my dogs is entertaining to people who decide to walk with me, sometimes I just don't want to because I do this, but I make up voices for them and kind of relay what they're really thinking to others. And Wally has a weight problem. He has a lot of conversation about how I force him to become anorexic, but it's not true. It's really nice. [inaudible 00:02:11]. Paul Casey:                         Oh, that's awesome. And Tri-Cities Influencer listeners, Jeanne put up to the screen, one of her wrong handed art watercolors and it's lovely. She did this lovely. Well, we'll dive in after checking in with our Tri-Cities Influencer sponsor. Speaker 2:                           From the Columbia basin to the Pacific ocean, Basin Pacific Insurance & Benefits help protect families and businesses in a professional, timely manner. Our people are knowledgeable and service oriented, helping you ensure your home, auto and toys. As well as commercial business, large or small, health insurance, individual or group, agribusiness and crop insurance. At Basin Pacific Insurance & Benefits you get the service of a large broker with the care of a local agent. Locally owned since 2010, visit us online at basinpacifictricities.com. Paul Casey:                         Thank you for your support of leadership development in the Tri-Cities. Well welcome Jeanne. I was privileged to meet you many years ago. You reminded me that it was at the hammer facility, I was doing a training back then. I didn't remember. That was the first time I met you. But so since then I've enjoyed a tour of SIGN Fracture Care. I know a few of the employees there were leaders in the organization. I'm a donor of the organization and I just love the mission. So, I'm looking forward to interviewing here today. So, our TCI influencers can get to know you, tell us about what SIGN does and what do you spend about 80% of your day doing as a CEO? Jeanne Dillner:                  Those are two big questions. The first thing I'll answer is what do we do? We are a nonprofit organization. We are very unusual because we not only provide training to do orthopedic surgery in developing countries, but we also provide the implants. Our founder is Dr. Lewis Zirkle, a long term orthopedic surgeon here in town, and who dedicated his time off to helping surgeons in developing countries, get the skill and sustain the skill. And the only way he discovered to sustain the skill is for someone to provide the implant on an ongoing basis. And it just turns out that after many years of trying to get other people to manufacture it, it really meant that he needed to manufacture it. So, he, 22 years ago opened up a manufacturing plant and I've been working with SIGN ever since then, as well as a handful of our employees.                                                 Now, many of them are getting to retirement age. And so, we're doing exciting things to transition SIGN into the next generation is sort of what I call it. What I spend 80% of my time doing really is the people parts. It's not just the people overseas that we have to train and nurture, but it's also our own staff. So, for 2021, it's in everybody's goal to work on succession, sorry, succession planning. And that for us just means identifying tasks that need to be taught to another individual, so that you have the cross training that's there. And then also thinking about when we're doing new hires, especially in management, what's their potential for helping out in future positions in science? So, that's what we're working on in the near term. And it's really funny because I remember it was about 10 years ago that I started seeing other CEOs who are my age now, doing the same thing.                                                 They were saying, "Now, my focus is to prepare the company for when I'm not there anymore." So, that's what I'm, sounds kind of harsh to say, but that is what my next several years is... The goal is to have things set up so that SIGN can continue on with the successes that we've had so far. Paul Casey:                         That's very wise to have a succession plan, TCI listeners. Do you have a succession plan, no matter what position do you have? Is there someone coming up behind you who is getting equipped to take your spot when you get promoted to your dream job? I like that better than getting hit by a bus. Jeanne Dillner:                  Yeah. We just recently got inform one of our most experienced machinists is having to move on. So that puts a real challenge on us because that's a kind of a position that's harder to replace than others that we have at SIGN. So yeah, it's not just the CEO or the founder who needs to do succession plan. Paul Casey:                         Yeah, totally agree. And one thing I recommend to companies is you have a duty handbook, some kind of documented of your major processes and procedures. So, if you did this appear tomorrow, somebody could at least pick up the book and say, all right, here's what he did. Here's what she did. Jeanne Dillner:                  That's a great idea. I just wrote that down. Thank you. Paul Casey:                         Well, why do you love what you do, Jeanne? Jeanne Dillner:                  Well, I love helping people and while I do it indirectly by being CEO, I don't get to go in and I'm not a nurse or a doctor, so I get to go in and watch surgeries. During disasters, there are times when I help more directly, but I just love knowing that we're helping patients in developing world walk again and return to work, and children returning to school. If the parents don't return to work, then children get pulled out of school. So, we're really helping, not only families get out of poverty, but we're also helping the communities grow and expand, and improve because people are able to stay in their jobs and contribute to the society. Paul Casey:                         What a fantastic mission. Yep. It'd be easy to get excited about that for sure. So, in your journey to where you are today, you probably learned a lot from people that you watched, bosses, supervisors, leaders, what do you keep in mind, good or bad, from that education that you had while you lead today? Jeanne Dillner:                  I love that question because you did give us some questions ahead of time. And I love that one because it reminded me of Gary Coker who owned funny enough, a sign company. And I was hired as the office manager. We made signs, we were actually called the right name for once. But he gave me a lot of leeway. I just had to make sure that people paid their bills and we paid our bills, and that I managed the money appropriately when we had loans. Those are the days of 20% loans and we had a revolving loan kind of thing. And I made sure that got paid down as fast as it could. So anyway, he just really gave me the confidence, his trust in me gave me the confidence that I could do and learn just about anything.                                                 And then I moved from, that was in St Morgan where I was born. Then I moved there to go to Portland State as a night student. And worked full-time at another company. And that manager just the opposite. He was very nitpicky. He complained about any mistakes and it didn't take long for me to lose the confidence that I had built up under Gary Coker. So, not that I've been perfect at it, but that's what I've been trying to do at SIGN, is give people the leeway, step in at times maybe they don't like it. But when I feel like I haven't conveyed well enough what the path should be, but you can't just let people run free and not step in if they're going off track. But anyway, I've been trying that and I'm getting better at it over the years, I guess, I hope. Paul Casey:                         Yeah. Jeanne Dillner:                  [crosstalk 00:10:37] would say that about me at SIGN. Paul Casey:                         Let's get him on the line right now. I was kidding. Jeanne Dillner:                  Okay. Call him up.                                                 [inaudible 00:10:42] 107 [inaudible 00:10:47]. Paul Casey:                         Yeah. It sounds like you're more of a guide, right? You change your style and I think Ken Blanchard developed a situational leadership model right? Some people need more directions. You have to be super clear with your expert expectations. And this is the deliverable. This is what a win looks like. Other people want autonomy. Let's leave me alone, clear away the obstacles and let me do my job. Jeanne Dillner:                  Yeah. And sometimes it's not easy to find out who needs what, but... Paul Casey:                         Right. Jeanne Dillner:                  But we're figuring it out. Paul Casey:                         Yeah. Well, how do you keep yourself fired up Jeanne? Where do you go for inspiration as a leader? Jeanne Dillner:                  Well, one of the things that is inspiring to me course is the patients that we help. So, we get pretty frequently. We get patient stories and surgeons will send those to us, or they'll send us a story about just what it's like at their hospital. And that really is an encouragement to keep on going, especially during the pandemic when we can't travel there ourselves, because that was like the biggest high is to go see the people, see the dignity of even the impoverished, and know that you're helping their lives become better. It's not just the patients lives that are better, but it's also the surgeons because now they're doing something worthwhile. They have the tools they need to help their patients. So, that's what I would do during travel times, but now we're in staying at home times and I think you know that I'm Christian and that I have a faith in God.                                                 And so, I've tried to use this time to believe that it's something God is doing to help us get closer to Him and to pray more, and to consult, and practice, and strengthen our faith. So, I'm doing that quite a bit right now. And especially, in terms of just, I know this is a hard time for people they're working from home. They don't have that same social connection, human connection with people and it's not as energizing sometimes. So, I've prayed a lot to be energetic about my job and find something really intriguing to focus on so that I can get revved up and make progress. Paul Casey:                         Yeah. I think people do play off their leader, the energy that they bring or the vibe that they have. So, I love that you're really being intentional about that. Amping it up with a little bit more charisma or energy, or whatever that would take... Jeanne Dillner:                  Right. Paul Casey:                         To be a model for the team and also... Jeanne Dillner:                  [inaudible 00:13:30]. Paul Casey:                         Agree that yeah, that's true. Right. Some days harder than others. Yeah. Jeanne Dillner:                  Yep. Paul Casey:                         And the spiritual connection being sort of the key to mental health, emotional health, physical health, it's sort of like the core. And faith over fear, we've got that sign in our house here in a culture where there's a lot of fear. Jeanne Dillner:                  Oh yeah. Yep. Well, there's probably always been that fear. It's just that now we're seeing it. And so, how we handle what we see is what God, we have to go to God to understand what to do, so. Paul Casey:                         Absolutely. Well you have to keep improving yourself. You've probably shared little nuggets already there what you're working on as a leader, but what are you working on like right now and maybe even for the months to come as a leader to better yourself? Jeanne Dillner:                  Well, I think the other thing we're working on besides succession... That's such a hard word. Succession planning because it's psychological that it's hard to say [inaudible 00:14:33] is the long term. Well, I think a three year long term goal is good. Because it's not so far in the future that you can't touch it in a way. And it is hard to plan for three to five years right now just because you really don't know what the... It's just, things are so uncertain. Paul Casey:                         Yes. Jeanne Dillner:                  But we are working on that. I mean, we're more intentional about that now. And we're trying to learn and convey the lingo of that kind of thinking that is more than 12 months out thinking. We've been doing 12 month planning for a long time, but now let's turn that into 36 months planning.                                                 And so, we're learning how to define and report on KPIs, key performance indicators. Things like that, that are more businesslike as a nonprofit. We haven't had to be as rigid or disciplined. I don't know. We're disciplined, but we haven't had to use business lingo as much, but now we're transitioning into a new ERP system. So, we're going to have to change a lot of the ways that we do our work and it's going to, for the most part, be better than what we're doing now. And some of that is getting better information out of the data that's going in there about our costs or time to manufacture things, or whatever things that this new ERP will be tracking for us. So, we need to be thinking about what does it look like to have a new product, significantly different products.                                                 So, we're looking into, and talking very seriously with a few people about starting science spine. So, what it does that look like for us and how do we incorporate that into our database? It has ramifications that are tremendous. And we think that people would be excited about funding that, but we don't know yet until we get a core group set up and really a pilot project going, how it's going to work and whether the local surgeons really want to benefit from it. But that's the exciting thing for the next three to five years, is to see how that project pans out. We're pretty confident it's going to happen and going to start next year sometime. Paul Casey:                         Wow. SIGN spine. You heard here first. Jeanne Dillner:                  Yeah. Right. Well... Paul Casey:                         How exciting. Jeanne Dillner:                  Yeah. You try here first. Paul Casey:                         Yes. Jeanne Dillner:                  [crosstalk 00:17:23] a conversation within our walls for quite a while. Paul Casey:                         Yeah. Very, very exciting. And I love how you brought up key performance indicators. And no matter if you're in a nonprofit or in a for-profit or you're a solopreneur, I think tracking those KPIs for yourself and your performance, and as an organization just make you more effective. So, Jeanne, how do you balance or integrate your personal time, your family time with the work time, so that everything gets the priority it needs, right? It's a little bit of a Tetris trying to fit all those things into your schedule. How do you do that? Jeanne Dillner:                  I can say I've been super weird at that. Right now, my family consists two golden retrievers and myself, and then one of my brothers decided to move here. So, I make time for him and his wife. Every weekend, they come over and help me walk the dogs. And I just got back from Lake Oswego where my one year old grand niece had her first birthday. So, I am, I would would to say the first 20 years, I wasn't very good at it. And now that I'm looking more to the distant future. I'm focusing more on my brothers and their families, and making sure that I'm staying healthy, and able to participate in their lives more than I had been in the last 20 years, let's say. Paul Casey:                         Yeah, good stuff. It is a work of progress for all of us in leadership because we like the work, we do. There's so much that has to get done. Jeanne Dillner:                  Yeah. Paul Casey:                         But if we put ourselves off or our families off for too long there's consequences on that side of things. So, we have to raise it up the priority scale. Jeanne Dillner:                  We do. And some of that is they were busy with their careers too. So, it's just now that we're all able to really see the value and the need for us to stay connected because we need that. We need each other. And honestly, SIGN is out of a point where it can now afford to have more people. So, like in your situation, you are everything. And for many years I was a lot of more things than most CEOs are. So, we've got some incredibly talented and competent people on board now, who can and want to have that responsibility, share the responsibility, which is also healthy for the word I have a hard time saying, succession planning. To make sure we have more managers now that are, and they are all quite capable of handling things, whether I'm here or not. And all I'm doing now is fine tuning their knowledge to make the transition easier in the future. Paul Casey:                         Yes. I want to pick your brain more on employees, but let's go to a break here before we head into our next question on hiring and retaining great employees. Let's do a quick shout out to our sponsor. Speaker 2:                           A lot of sweat and hard work has been put into your farm and ranch, protecting it in your family's legacy is what matters most. At Basin Pacific Insurance & Benefits, we understand the challenges agribusinesses face today. Our team is knowledgeable and service oriented. From small farms and ranches to vertically integrated agriculture. Our team at Basin Pacific and Manley Crop Insurance provides the services of a large broker with the care of a local agent. Locally owned since 2010. Visit us online at basinpacifictricities.com. Paul Casey:                         So, Jeanne, what's your process for attracting great talent. You said it's sort of the key to work life balance is to have great people underneath you. So, I would agree with you there. And then how do you keep good people? How do you make the workplace a place where employees want to stay? You've had some long timers there. And I know the mission is probably one of those reasons, but it's probably culture. So, talk to us about that. Jeanne Dillner:                  So, I think mission is key to the fact that we're able to keep people for so many years. The machinists they're making the implants that go into the bodies of the patients. So, they know that the every day they make... How many nails do they make a day? Let's say they make a hundred nails a day. They're helping a hundred people walk again. Paul Casey:                         Wow. Jeanne Dillner:                  And that's pretty impactful, I think. And keeps you going when times are rough. And of course we try to pay a fair salary just because we're a nonprofit, we still have to compete for good employees. In terms of hiring the right people, the rightest people have come to us providentially. We've just been made aware of them or they found out about us, so we feel very strongly and thankful for that.                                                 There are some positions for us that are very hard to find the right fit. And so, we are having to change how we interview and assess a person before we bring them on because we consistently choose not the right person for it, or they're just not coming to us. Especially right now, it's hard to get people to apply for work for some reason. So, we have a one or two positions opened and we're just being a lot more selective now. Because it's very painful to hire somebody, have them not work out and then have to start it all over. Paul Casey:                         Yes. Jeanne Dillner:                  Painful for them and painful for us. But in terms of keeping people besides the mission, we're also fairly flexible. We can be more flexible in the non-manufacturing jobs, but we're pretty flexible there too, in terms of time that you work. So even in the shop, the shop is open, say from six o'clock, till 17:30. So, the people that want to come in at six and work till a certain time, they can do that. As opposed to always everybody having to be here from seven to four. And then we're also flexible for the office staff, like the engineers and the clerical people, et cetera. If they need to be off for a child's school play or sports or whatever, they just make it up on Friday or something. And I'm not being super forceful about people coming back into the building. There are some of our staff who are very afraid of the pandemic and about catching COVID, and they feel the safest place at home, and their work is fine from home.                                                 So, we accommodate that and we look to other companies for how they're handling it, and how they're informing how they're going to move back to the building eventually. But I've just not set a date because who knows when the next flare up will happen. So, I don't want to really enforce anything. And those that are staying home most of the time when I need them in, they come in and they're fine with it. But anyway, so yeah, it's a challenge though because we all enjoy each other's company. And I think ideas are exchanged much faster. If you're an innovative company, I think it happens more rapidly if you're in the same room together, but we're still making good changes despite being so far apart. Paul Casey:                         Yeah. Flexibility is such a key in today's work place. Many sources have said that's even more important than salary and almost benefits. I mean, it's just such a big deal for people to be able to have that flexibility. It used to just mean work hours and paid time off, and things like that, but now, it's working at home or working at the office, so. Jeanne Dillner:                  Yeah, I had one person who says, "Well, I'd really like to work in the office." And I said, "Okay, I'm not telling you can't, so that's fine." But the other thing that I was really excited to be able to offer to people when schools were closed is that they could bring their kids and have them learn alongside because not every child can study without some supervision, so. Paul Casey:                         Yeah. Jeanne Dillner:                  We were able to accommodate that as well. Since there were so many people gone, there were plenty of empty offices. Paul Casey:                         Yes. I like how you led with the mission. And of course for nonprofits, that's the key of why people sign on, is the mission. No matter what job you have as a leader, I think it's important to connect your people, your team to the constituents you serve. No matter if you're making widgets or developing people or providing some kind of service. I think when you get a glimpse of who you're serving and how that actual end user is benefiting, it sort of kicks you back in as a motivator, so... Jeanne Dillner:                  Yeah. Paul Casey:                         That's neat that like what you said, I'm going to save a hundred lives or help a hundred lives today. There isn't much greater motivation than that. Jeanne Dillner:                  But we're friends with Leatherman tools. They've been very supportive for SIGN. And their marketing is awesome and they sincerely believe their tool is saving lives. It's getting people out of predicaments. It's an amazing tool and series of tools that they've developed. And so, we're learning from them on how to reinvigorate your enthusiasm for the job that you have, so. Paul Casey:                         Good marketing. So, you mentioned succession plan, I won't make you say it again, but delegation is a part of sort an early stage of that. Making sure you're too deep in every position. And how do you feel about delegation? What are struggles for you or do you have some tips on how to do it well? Jeanne Dillner:                  Well, what I wrote was hire really good people. And it's true. It's lot easier to delegate when you're working with people who want to learn and who want to take on more responsibility, and have the aptitude for it. So, that's been very freeing for me. I've had a dream for one of our departments to be X, Y, Z, and the people that are in there are now, they have that same dream and so, they're making it happen. But if you have people that can't visualize that dream, then you it's just going to be slow coming. But now, that department is really swinging and helping educate more surgeons because of it. And then how do I encourage myself and others to delegate? That is harder, but I do check in with myself and say, "Jeanne, why are you doing this scan right now?"                                                 And well, right now, it's because we don't have a front desk person. So, after doing it for about a week, I realized this was not a good use of my time. So now, we're going to look at hiring a temp agency to fill that spot for at least part of the day, each day. Because it's a drain on my mental capacity, which should be thinking about [inaudible 00:29:26] not... Paul Casey:                         Yeah. Jeanne Dillner:                  "Did I push the right button to scan this thing?" Paul Casey:                         Yes. Jeanne Dillner:                  [crosstalk 00:29:32]. Yeah. I do have a personal assistant now, which is very wonderful and also frees up a lot of time for me. And she's helping me learn to what things to let her just go do, instead of me wanting to start the process and letting her finish, kind of a thing. Paul Casey:                         Yeah. Jeanne Dillner:                  So, I'm very relational. And so, that's hard because I like interfacing with all the people that report to me, but really there are some things that are better done by someone else. Paul Casey:                         Yeah. It's a good question you asked yourself like, "Am I the right person to be doing this right now?" And I think leaders should ask themselves that question often because you've been promoted or hired for 15,000 feet or 30,000 foot view... Jeanne Dillner:                  Right. Paul Casey:                         Of your team or organization. And not that you're unwilling to make a scan or sling a chair because servant leaders, no job too small. However, the organization only has hired you for a reason. And it's great that if there's other people that love doing the scans can be employed to do that and everybody wins. Jeanne Dillner:                  Yeah. Scan and file it and all those other things. So yes, there's a lot to those little jobs that really, if you can't find that piece of paper again, it can mean hours of work trying to remake it or whatever. Paul Casey:                         Yeah. Well finally, Jeanne, what advice would you give to new leaders or anyone who wants to keep growing and gaining more influence? Jeanne Dillner:                  I think new leaders oftentimes become afraid of failure maybe. And so, become micromanagy and they don't even know they're doing it. So, I would think a new leader would want to have someone who's honest with them, that they check in with, just to get honest feedback on how they're doing. And then to also find mentors that they've seen or feel like are good leaders and just spend time with them. One of the things that I realized I haven't done with my other managers, but the new managers I have, I am doing. I call it manager in training and I just let them pick my brain because I don't know what their question are, so. And they don't oftentimes either, so when we talk through how to let go of things, and how to train somebody else to do something, and how to think a little bit bigger than you are right now. So, that I can see that you're ready to take more.                                                 Those types of things that I didn't do with the other managers, probably because 20 years ago, when I was asked to do this position, we were all learning just how to do SIGN, period. Paul Casey:                         Yeah. Jeanne Dillner:                  And so, we're all busy learning together. We didn't have time to do manager in training because this manager was in their own training game, honestly. But yeah, I think that's been healthy for them and it's certainly helped us build a rapport that we might not have had, otherwise in trust that we wouldn't have had. So, I don't know, I guess that's what I [inaudible 00:33:05] of today. Paul Casey:                         Yeah. Putting on that mentor hat and making yourself available, and then the questions. Really in mentoring relationships, I've often found the mentee is in charge of the questions and then the mentor is available and then speaks from their experience. So, it sounds like a pretty good MIT system you got going there, Jeanne. Jeanne Dillner:                  Well, thanks. Because I thought, well, was I supposed to build a curriculum? I wasn't sure what I was doing, but it seems now they're just taking things they have quandaries about and then just talk through them. Paul Casey:                         Yeah. Jeanne Dillner:                  I meet just about every week with each one of, there are three, with each one of them. So, and then I meet with the more mature managers, I meet once a month or so. Paul Casey:                         Well Jeanne, how can our listeners best connect to you and to SIGN? Jeanne Dillner:                  Well, they can learn more about SIGN Fracture Care by going to www.signfracturecare.org. We have a really nice website and it's very informative and there's places to donate if you find that you feel like you want to support our organization. You're welcome to send me an email. I look at that all of the time and my email address is Jeanne, jeanne.dillner@signfracturecare.org. Paul Casey:                         Well thank you for all you do to make Tri-Cities a great place and keep leading well. Jeanne Dillner:                  Thank you, Paul. It's been a pleasure. Paul Casey:                         Let me wrap up our podcast today with a leadership resource to recommend. And it's a book I just read on vacation called, How to Say Anything to Anyone, by Shari Harley. And there's good stuff in there. And one of them hearkens back to one of Jeanne's last answers, is we need to get more feedback on ourselves from the people around us. So, who do you need to get feedback from today, specifically, on your performance? Because most people won't speak up and share that. So, that was one thing I gleaned from the book and also getting ahead of situations with your expectations right up front, even on a personal level, so people know where you're coming from. So, How to Say Anything to Anyone is a great read. Again, this is Paul Casey, and I want to thank my guest Jeanne Dillner from SIGN Fracture Care for being here today on the Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast. And we want to thank our TCI sponsor and invite you to support them. We appreciate you making this possible, so that we can collaborate to inspire leaders in our community.                                                 Finally, one more tidbit for the road to help you make a difference in your circle of influence it's by [Deep 00:35:45] Roy, he said, "Inspiration comes from within yourself. One has to be positive. When you're positive, good things happen." Until next time. KGF, keep growing forward. Speaker 1:                           Thank you to our listeners for tuning in to today's show. Paul Casey is on a mission to add value to leaders by providing practical tools and strategies that reduce stress in their lives and on their teams, so that they can enjoy life and leadership and experience their key desired results. If you'd like more help from Paul in your leadership development, connect with him at growingforward@paulcasey.org, for a consultation that could help you move past your current challenges and create a strategy for growing your life or your team forward. Paul would also like to help you restore your sanity, to your crazy schedule and getting your priorities done every day by offering you his free Control My Calendar Checklist. Go to www.takebackmycalendar.com for that productivity tool, or open a text message to 72000 and type the word, "Growing." Paul Casey:                         The Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast was recorded at fuse SPC, by Bill Wagner of safe strategies.

Paul Casey: Your brain does not see the word knots. So if you're like, I am not going to eat chocolate, you know what your brain hears is chocolate. And so then you're like start moving toward it and you have actually more of a craving for it because the brain doesn't see that where it's just a fun fact about the brain Speaker 2: Raising the water level of leadership in the Tri-Cities of Eastern Washington. It's the Tri-Cities influencer podcast. Welcome to the TCI podcast. We're local leadership and self-leadership expert Paul Casey interviews, local CEOs, entrepreneurs, and non-profit executives to hear how they lead themselves and their teams. So we can all benefit from their wisdom and experience. Here's your host, Paul Casey of growing forward services, coaching, and he could be individuals and teams to spark breakthrough success. Paul Casey: It's a great day to grow forward. Thanks for joining me for today's episode with Diane Howard. Diane is the executive director for the port of Benton. And I asked her for something funny about herself and she sees all about classic movies and the time that they're supposed to be watched every year and you're going to have to do it justice. So go for it. Diahann Howard: Yes. I love, yeah, all things. Star wars, DC, Marvel, our fall season for our family and extended family kicks off with the Harry Potter series. Then we transitioned into the Lord of the Rings for over the Christmas period and of hosts. Then we've got to do the TMC movies as well. I got white Christmas, I got everything timed out and my family knows me for this. And it's just a little bit of my, I, I just enjoy all those types of movies and it's just hilarious. And then I a layer, I sprinkle on top of that, a little bit of the peanuts collection for every holiday season. So my kids will come home from college and I've got peanuts, you know, The Great Pumpkin going. It just depends on what's going on, but I just like the things that make them smile and it makes us smile and allows us to connect a little bit and kind of have our, we used to have forced family fun, Fridays and things that we would do. And it's just part of the, the cycle of the year for our family is centered around movies and games and activities. And Paul Casey: I love it. I was going to say you're forcing them into a sedentary life with all that movie watching, but Diahann Howard: Oh no, I hope not. But yeah, that's we don't want to go too many movies in a row, but that's for sure that'll break it up, but nothing better than a crisp fall day and a good Harry Potter movie Paul Casey: That is so much fun. Well, we'll dive in after checking in with our Tri-City influencer sponsor Speaker 5: From the Columbia Basin to the Pacific Ocean, Basin Pacific Insurance and Benefits, help protect families and businesses in a professional, timely manner. Ours are knowledgeable and service oriented, helping you ensure your home auto and toys as well as commercial business, larger small health insurance, individual, or group agribusiness and crop insurance at basin Pacific insurance and benefits. You get the service of a large broker with the care of a local agent locally owned since 2010, visit us online at Basin Pacific Tri-Cities dot com. Paul Casey: Thank you for your support of leadership development in the Tri-Cities. Well welcome, Diane. I was privileged to meet you years ago. I think it was through leadership Tri-Cities is that where we met? I'm trying to, Diahann Howard: That are either a team for meeting and I got an opportunity to meet you. And I literally think it was that same week that our commissioner Robert Larson said, Hey, you got to talk to Paul. He's a great guy. He's got this new business. It was, it was wonderful for me to be able to tell him, you know, I've, I've just met him. And I think it was, it was either you're correct. Leadership tries to do sort of chamber event. I just can't remember. It's been some time Paul Casey: You're right. You're right. And I remember interviewing you over at C3 church for like a meet the leader that was before I started this podcast, but I was trying to start like a community forum where we would just get to talk leadership with, I think Ken Hohenberg was there and it's hard to think who else was there on that one, but that was fun. Diahann Howard: Thank you for having me on again. Paul Casey: Appreciate it. Absolutely. Well, so then our Tri City influencers can get to know you tell us about what your organization does and what do you spend 80% of your day doing in your role? Diahann Howard: So the port of Benton is chartered by under the state of Washington, as all ports are under RCW 53. And our primary focus really is economic development on behalf of the region and on behalf of the state, as well as tourism. And that's, it's just that clear. So our port district is two thirds of Benton county. We've got everything from the north Richland area, a little bit of office R and D commercialization education. And then we transitioned over to Benton city. We've got some redevelopment buildings there. Then we go over to Prosser area, a lot of work with the wine industry there, a lot of work with the Walter Core, which is now a partnership with WSU, and which is fantastic. And then we continue to kind of head south and we've got Kirby park. And in addition to that, you know, port right transport station. Diahann Howard: So we've got barge facilities, that's really just a intake for large components that come to the Hanford site or part of the Hanford project. And then we've got two general aviation airports, one in Richland and the other in Prosser. And then finally, we've got 16 miles of rail track that runs from north Bridgeland all the way down to the Columbia center region. And both class ones could run direct on this rail, which is a really capability in the state of Washington. So that's what we do. So a lot of my day is really just spent collaborating with community economic development partners with my team, ensuring that they have what they need and that, and I think that we all love what we do here at the port, because it's always varies. I mean, you can be working in wine to airports to taking care of not that this is necessarily a good thing, a broken sewer pipe at a facility or a water pipe. So you never know what the day's going to bring. And I think that that's what makes it a lot of fun and why I know that I love what I do. Paul Casey: Wow. That is awesome. I really appreciate giving me the whole scope of that. Cause I remember moving here and hearing port and I just assumed boats, you know, and I, I, it was, I remember going to a chamber meeting where the, all the ports were there and wow, what a, an education. So I'm hoping the listeners by you rattling off the whole scope of what you lead was very educational, Diahann Howard: Good from a broad perspective, you know, at the end of the day ports, we're really, we are a system that lead to the port of Seattle, the port of Tacoma or the sea port Alliance. It's all about getting our value, add and add products to market. And we serve a global market in the state of Washington. So that's really what we're about. We're a system and we're always working in collaboration with our other port districts Paul Casey: And your journey to where you are today. Diane, what have you learned from previous bosses? Previous supervisors probably there's good and bad, right. And don't mention any names keep in mind today while you leave. What has stuck with you from those experiences? Diahann Howard: I've learned from, primarily what I've learned is what I don't want to do when I manage people. To be honest, I also have learned from some of my past managers about just the importance of seeing broad perspective and really looking at things from multiple lenses. And I think that that was the biggest gift that was given to me from that manager. I, myself focus more on a servant leadership style. I really prefer to provide clarity of direction and strong communications, which there can never be enough of. And I really want to ensure that I've got all of my team growing and set up for success, really positive, really positive with them and appreciate them in public in anything that I need to correct. I do that one-on-one in private. I would never want to be treated that way and I don't want to treat anyone else that way is really kind of my motto on that. Paul Casey: I love it. So many leaders that have come on this podcast that said servant leadership is like the only leadership style, right? And all the benefits and how winsome that is to your people to follow you. When you have style, you're not a lording over leader, you're coming alongside kind of a leader and removing obstacles love that, love that style. Even in my own personal mission statement, because I believe in it so much, you, you lead by talking about a broad perspective. Can you elaborate a little bit more on what that means for a leader to have a broad perspective?     Diahann Howard: You've got to, there's always multiple sides of a story. There's also multiple perspectives. Not everybody always has all the information on everything all the time. And I'll speak to this a little bit later as well. I just think that you've got to take the time to listen to get that perspective, but look at it from different angles. How does that look? I know for myself, one thing I've always said is can I face the 70,000 people that live in the ports district and tell them that this is a good decision? Can I explain to them in one or two sentences why it's important and how it creates a job for somebody tomorrow? If I can do that, then I know I'm on the right path. So again, broad perspectives and making sure that you're looking at the good and the bad of it too. I mean, it's not always, sometimes we've got to, to look at the bad. You definitely need to look at the bad and be prepared for that and understand how you're going to help support your team through that and how you're going to manage through that. Paul Casey: What a great rule of thumb to think about. I have to announce this to 70,000 people. Am I in good footing? I make it considered all these issues. Have I talked to the right people? I've often heard, it said like before you send the email, if this were to get published in the Tri-City Herald, do you feel comfortable with that? Or would you probably do some edits? Well, leader has to have to fire themselves up. So Diahann, where do you go for inspiration for yourself as a leader? Okay. Diahann Howard: For me, it's really back to the same thing. It's the community. I think that's the benefit of my, for myself of being born and raised here, I've got a lot of clarity and sense of purse, a purpose, and I've got a strong passion for the community. It's inspiring to me to want, to help people that I know and have grown up with. I've seen their businesses grow. I've known their family for a long time. I also understand what this community looks like in times of trouble in the mid to late eighties. And I know what it was like to see, you know, lots of families have to leave and the impact the region. So for me, the community itself is very inspiring and that's again, the role of economic development. That's what it's all about. It's really, it's, it's a run that never ends. It's about what we're doing today strategically to help support and grow and create an opportunity for someone else tomorrow. And really why I enjoy this type of work. Paul Casey: Well, let me ask this cause COVID affected us all in the last two years. If community is such a good driver for you to fire yourself up, then COVID hits. How did you get, how did you stay connected to community so that you could keep building yourself up and not as a lot of expressive people, you know, that were more extroverted? They, they were just really glum, you know, and discouraged during that, because that was their source and it was taken away. How did you still fire yourself up? Diahann Howard: Actually for the port, it drove us to increase our level of digital communications webinars working with our downtown associations, like the Prosser downtown, the Prosser chamber, the city of Richmond. It actually had us connect further and deeper with them talking one-on-one meetings with industry, folks, and tenants, just to see how they were doing those just one-on-one conversations was how, how we did it. And our role for ports is a little bit different during COVID. We, again are a state entity, we're a special purpose district. We can't waive rents. We can defer them, but we can't waive them. And it still has to be paid back. So just making sure that we were having constant contact with there, with our tenants, making sure that we were really staying in tune with what was going on with them, but it also drove our team. Like, look, we now is our time to strengthen and be ready so that when our community and our region does come out of this, we're in a really strong position to continue to help support them. Diahann Howard: That we've actually created a pathway for everybody to come forward out of COVID. And that's really what we focused on. We looked at our facilities and areas where we can improve them and make them more attractive. And, and basically forward-thinking, you know, simple things like lighting projects and cleaning, just painting up facilities just to freshen them up so that when people do come back, they're going to feel like, yeah, you know, this feels good, this feels good. I feel safe. And I feel good. And I know that the people that manage these facilities have taken the time and the effort to ensure that everyone's following state safe protocols, Paul Casey: What a fantastic response, everything from the buildings being now, what can, what can we focus on when other things we can't focus on, but I love your ears, your phrase of further and deeper in communication. And of course we're not out of the woods yet. So Tri-City influencers. If you still have opportunity while we all have opportunities to go further and deeper in all of our relationships, whether that's at work or on a personal level. And I would just encourage us all to continue to follow that guidance because people are feeling very alone and that leads to a lot of negative emotions. So that's a cool response. Diane, how do you balance or, well, let me ask you this first. I, I would love to know how you develop yourself and what are you currently working on to develop yourself so that you can be a model for developing your team? Diahann Howard: Hmm, well, I'm constantly working on my communications, so I, I just don't think you can ever over communicate. And even when you think that you have, you, haven't everyone communicates in different matters. The other thing I'm really, really working on is just really actively listening, deeply listening. And I also think that right now, you mentioned COVID right now for, I know for my team and for just, it's really a time to provide everybody a lot of grace and empathy. And I stress that to them, not only to each other, but to our tenants, to the people that we engage with on a daily basis. We really want to give everybody some grace and empathy right now. There's just a lot going on. People are managing COVID family's concerns. And then we're also here at work trying to get that this job done. So I really want to listen. Diahann Howard: I would really want to understand more about what's happening in their life. And I, I really focus on providing them as much flexibility as I can because it's a different time right now. And I don't re going forward even post COVID. Cause I believe there will be hopefully a post COVID. I really have discovered that I really, I do not want to lose this connection with my team. So I, I think that this just becomes more part of our normal, as far as our live, our life work balance is what I'm hoping to strive for it. And focusing on them, taking care of themselves and their families from Paul Casey: So good. You know, I just finished doing a training for PNNL on communication skills and you hit, you hit some big ones there, I'm over communicating because if you think you're over-communicating, especially in the land of COVID, you're probably just enough, I guess it goes over communications, going to people are going to miss it so many times. And they're finally going to hit it. Maybe around the seventh time. The research says, and then listening really is the best form of communication and endears people to their leaders. So Tracy influencers, you want more influence? You've got to be a better listener. Not, not, not necessarily the one that's doing all the talking. I love what you said, Diane, about grace and empathy as let's have this go on forever, not just during a crisis time, but let that be a way or almost ground rules for how we communicate with our teams. Great stuff. How do you balance or integrate your family time with work time? And I don't know if that was impacted during, during the COVID shutdowns at all. You can throw that in there if, if it was for you, but how do you give priority time to both? Diahann Howard: So this is one that I constantly have to work on, even when there's no COVID, even before COVID with the very beginning of COVID, we were ripping our organization forward into cloud-based flexibility, ensuring that everybody had the right communications and work tools so that they could either work at home or work in the office. So there was a lot going on. There was a lot to understand and unpack during that period of time, but I am really constantly working on this one. It's hard. It's hard for me to set my phone down. It's hard for me to sometimes I, I, I really have to focus to actively again, listen, and really I am, I am trying to take a better approach to managing a work-life balance. And COVID actually has showed me that I'm not on a constant frantic jumping pace of travel. And I really understanding my need to prioritize. I have a fantastic team and that has been phenomenal for me in order to provide a better work life balance. And I do truly appreciate them each and every day. So I don't feel like I'm always caught up in a fire drill. So it, it it's, you have to actively be conscious about it. You have to actively pay attention to it and you can't let your health, your health has to be a priority. Paul Casey: Yeah, I think for being a little vulnerable because you're probably a driver personality style at some level and just a teeny bit. Okay. And a lot of leaders listening are also a drivers or the line personality styles I like to teach. And it is hard because we love our work and we love excellence and we love results and goals and metrics. And so it is hard sometimes to put the phone down and to divert our attention and have a replenishment plan too. So thanks for, thanks for sharing that. You're a work in progress along with the rest of us. Diahann Howard: Absolutely. Paul Casey: Well, before we head into our next question on hiring and retaining great employees, a shout out to our sponsor, Speaker 5: A lot of sweat and hard work has been put into your farm and ranch protecting it. And your family's legacy is what matters most at Basin Pacific Insurance and Benefits. We understand the challenges Agra businesses face today. Our team is knowledgeable and service oriented from small farms and branches to vertically integrated agriculture. Our team at base and Pacific and manly crop insurance provides the services of a large broker with the care of a local agent locally owned since 2010, visit us online at Basin Pacific Tri-Cities dot com. Paul Casey: And what's your process for attracting great talent on your team. And then what do you do intentionally to make your workplace a place where employees want to stay for a long time? You've actually given us a little glimpse into some of that through your leadership style. Diahann Howard: Well, first and foremost, I seek out really good people. I love people that are better than me and expertise in their fields and see a bigger picture and are collaborative. My first and foremost thing I'm always looking for is how do they play with, along with the team? How do they work with others? That to me is the most important is, is, is the integrity of the team and ensuring that everybody has or feels like they have space here. And everyone has a seat at this table, so good people bring that cause they have the confidence to go with it. So I love that. I also to continue on ensuring that I'm staying in touch all employees, I hold one-on-one meetings with and I call them, stop, start, continue meetings. So what should we stop doing that we're currently doing? What should we start doing that we're not thinking about right now? Diahann Howard: And what is it that you like and how we're going strategically that we should continue depends on the person. Cause not everybody wants to, you know, say hello every morning or have a one-on-one meeting every week, but it just depends on the person whenever they need. So for some, I meet with them monthly, some weekly, some only semi-annual, it just depends again on their needs and wants. I really encouraged them to enhance their strengths, but I focus with them on any weaknesses that they want to develop to drive their passion and success. I really liked the fact of flexibility and the diversity of work here that makes it again enjoyable to be at the port. It's different every day. It's never the same. And there's always opportunities where people might say, you know, I want to try, I want to collaborate with that. Or I want to kind of step into that role. Diahann Howard: Okay. Let's, you know, let's try some new things. I have no problem with that. I actually like it. And we really do strive to be fully transparent with our entire team on what we're working on. I was to provide a monthly email out, to tell, for example, our facility staff that are really out in the field and we don't see them and interact with them, especially with COVID is often. But that, that, that way they know what's going on. They know what's coming in front of our commission for consideration. And it's just really important for me that everyone's B D is treated fairly with integrity because they all bring value back to the organization and they, they literally are what makes support successful Paul Casey: So many golden nuggets there. So let's, there's, you're going to have to rewind to get all those. But two that I picked up from that was the stop start, continue. And I'd heard, I've heard this before. I've heard that leaders can do this for all the themselves as like a leader report card. Like what of my behaviors do I want to do? I need to start doing more of stop doing or continue. I like how yours is organizationally. You make your employees think organizational, what does, what is it that we need to stop doing start doing or continue that that's a neat twist on it that I hadn't heard before. And I also thought it was interesting of the varying cadence of one-to-one so that you're not on the same cadence with everybody. Some people want more of your FaceTime, others, you know, probably want more autonomy. So that's creative, There's so much to do in the leader's chair. So how do you not burn out? How, what, what are you, what are your thoughts on delegation for you? Are you a great delegator? Do you struggle with the, any tips for our listeners on delegation? Diahann Howard: Well, the secret to delegation is when you have good people, delegations, not a problem. So I have no problem with it. I, I do not like a micromanagement approach. It is not very successful. It actually drives productivity down and culture down. And so delegation's really not a problem. The struggle at times though, is just ensuring that they are communicating and collaborating and matching and understanding each other's communication styles. And so that's the important thing is to always touch base with them on and make sure again, all sides are feeling like they are a part of that effort or that they know where things are going or how things are going to be moving forward, or they've come up with a joint plan. And really a lot of times they're doing so well. It's just really my intention, no goal to just to stay out of their way. Diahann Howard: So that can be hard to cause you want to know, you want to know and you want to see the progress and you've got to measure and you want to know, but you can just, it's better sometimes just they're doing great, stay out of their way, tell him how much you appreciate them. And then, you know, see if they need coffee, you know, what, what is it that they need to, to keep going and help them through? And what, what else can you be provided to help support them? So again, try to provide various approaches and work with them. I also really try to set, not set, sorry, unrealistic debt timelines are. I prefer quality, quality over time, quality over just completing that task and checking the box. Because for example, we have an integration project right now on our leases and the finance system. Diahann Howard: I would not want that to be rushed, good input in good data in great quality out. And I would prefer that they don't have the pressure of that. And just knowing that they don't, they actually do a fantastic job of pressing the pedal to the metal because they know that there's there. There's going to be flexibility there. And if something comes up, we can talk about it because at the end of the day, for us, it's about ensuring that we provide good customer service and good end product. So I'd rather just have them again, take the time to do it right and allow them to keep that good work-life balance in place. Because the more we take care of ourselves, the better we can take care of each other and take care of our customer. Paul Casey: Yeah. The old sharpening, the saw from Stephen Covey, right? If we you've got a sharp solver, we're probably going to produce more quality and be less irritated and angry and depleted, or if you have a Bolsa. So yeah. So your philosophy is quality over speed, as much as possible. And, and it's great that you've, you've made that clear as an expectation to your people. Cause I would assume there's some other bosses out there, their speed, maybe they wouldn't say speed over quality, but they would probably say speed is very, very important or maybe they've got different expectations. So it's great that you've got, you're being as clear as you can, with your people about what you expect. You also brought up communication styles. Tell us more about how you assess what a persons on your team's communication style is that, does that start way back at the interview even, or you give them a survey or how do you assess whatever one needs on your team? Diahann Howard: I think it really starts on just the one-on-one. I'm also very observant of people. So I, I just, it's how, it's how they like to be approached. I will go say good morning to people at their offices, just to see that they have everything that they need and kind of check in some, you know, some people might be rolling their eyes like right now, like, oh God, I wouldn't want her to come to my office, but I get that. And those that kind of, I understand. And, and I give that, I give those people space because they don't need that kind of contact. However, that's when you start to learn people's communication styles, you know, some prefer to definitely see it in writing. Some want to be taught, talk it through some want clear direction. I think that's the other thing is a value that we have now as a port has an overarching strategic plan. Diahann Howard: So our again, organization and culture is the number one priority for the port and for our team. And since we all know that, and we talk about it and that leads into their everyone's individual work and goals. I think that that definitely helps, but it's just getting time to, to observe the person and their interaction with other people, as well as with is as well as between us one-on-one then I really try to help weave that web between them and other people and help everybody understand like, well, maybe this person actually does better if he follow up with an email or maybe you need to just go ahead and set a meeting because both of you are, have a lot going on right now. And not that anyone wants more meetings, but in this instance, it's probably better. If you sit down and talk it through it and don't make assumptions. So we always talk about those things because we do have a lot going on. If we can take care of things quickly, we definitely try to do that because we're, we're working in a very collaborative manner. Paul Casey: Yeah. That's great stuff. I've got a tool from Harvard business review years ago called the leader report card, no leader users, guy. That's what it was called. Yeah. And so I made a little tool out of that where a boss can tell his or her people what their style is like, how they want to be communicated with what their pet peeves are. It's, it's a fascinating little tool and then they can get it back from their team to see what their communication style is and their strengths and their weaknesses and their pet peeves. That it's, it's a fun little way to get leaders and their employees learning each other pretty quickly. So they don't step in landmines along the way, like the roll dice of the good morning. That's what, I'm glad you still do that dynamic because research does show, it sets a positive vibe in the office. So I know Diahann Howard: Even if I go down the hall and just care about something we've got going on for that day, because I black, but it's really just to kind of break open the break, open the day and set a good tone. I hope that's my, Paul Casey: Well, you mentioned strategic planning a moment ago. What's your process for that? Diahann Howard: Again, we just two, two years ago, we brought in an outside consultant firm and we did again, the one-on-one meeting. So individual one-on-one meetings start continue one-on-one discussions with the consultant economic development partners, stakeholders with the consultant, and then one-on-one meetings really with our industry folks in order to ensure that we're really meeting the needs of our clients, customers, and really trying to ensure that we are staying strategic on, on direction forward of what we needed to do. It's allowed us to really eliminate a lot of unnecessary costs and expenses that we had. It's been a phenomenal, the things that we've been able to address through that process. And we've also been again, taking this time to do things like the lighting projects to drive energy efficiency, just again, to ensure that where people do come back to work, the environment again is refreshed and safe. So it's, it's been very helpful for the team to definitely feel like we're rowing in the same direction. Everyone has clarity of role. Everyone has clarity of lane, it just drives the productivity. And again, big word for me is efficiency forward in order to meet the needs of business and our customers and tenants Paul Casey: Efficiency forward, it sounds like Growing Forward. So we'll, we'll make those together. Well, finally, Diahann, what advice would you give to new leaders or anyone who wants to keep growing and gaining more influence? Diahann Howard: I think it's a reminder. It's kind of like, you know, Spider-Man right, the leading of the privilege and it comes with great responsibility. You, you definitely need to remember that it is not about you anymore. It's about your team. You have to constantly want to learn and grow yourself and you're going to also learn and grow from them. I'll also take a little bit of note from Jim Mattis that, you know, you've got to know all your business, everything from, for me, it's everything from the facilities to the finance side, to the legislative side, to the transportation side, you need to know your business. And that's really important and be open to all levels of input. This again, can be hard because not everybody always knows all the information. So don't just make judge some quick judgements, take some time to reflect again, listen. And then the end, if you just do what's best for your organization and community, that mindset's really always worked out well for me. And I hope it works out well for them. Paul Casey: Hmm. Great stuff. Great stuff. So Diane, how can our listeners best connect to you? Diahann Howard: Well, the best way to connect to us as our Port of Benton's website, which is just portofbenton.com, you can either call or email us. Everything's listed there as well as our strategic plan. Any updates on any projects, we also have newsletter information, digital and print. So whatever way again, you prefer to communicate, we're here to serve you and we appreciate your trust. And we in our, we appreciate your trust and we hope that we continue to meet the needs and be good stewards of your investment. Paul Casey: Well, thank you again for all you do to make the Tri-Cities a great place and keep leading. Diahann Howard: Thank you, Paul. Paul Casey: Let me wrap up our podcast today with a leadership resource to recommend it's a book I just read on vacation called the slight edge. It's been around for a while. The author's name is Jeff Olson and he talks about just little habits done every day. They're not jazzy sexy habits, but it's the little habits, a little exercise, the little 10 minutes of reading professionally a day, they had up to greatness over the long-term. So check out the slight edge by Jeff Olson. Again, this is Paul Casey. I want to thank my guest, Diane Howard, from the port of Baton for being here today on the Tri-Cities influencer podcast. And we want to thank our TCI sponsor and invite you to support them. We appreciate you making this possible so we can collaborate to help inspire leaders in our community. Finally, one more leadership tidbit for the road that will make a difference in your circle of influence. Desmond Tutu said hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness until next time KTF keep growing forward. Speaker 2: Thank you to our listeners for tuning in to today's show. Paul Casey is on a mission to add value to leaders by providing practical tools and strategies that reduce stress in their lives and on their teams so that they can enjoy life and leadership and experience their key desired results. If you'd like more help from Paul in your leadership development, connect with him at growingforward@paulcasey.org for a consultation that can help you move past your current challenges and create a strategy for growing your life or your team forward. Paul would also like to help you restore your sanity to your crazy schedule and getting your priorities done every day by offering you is free. Control my calendar checklist, go to www dot take back my calendar.com for that productivity tool or open a text message 2 7 2 0 0 0, and type the word grow. Paul Casey: The Tri-Cities influencer podcast was recorded at fuse SPC by Bill Wagner of safe strategies.

Paul Casey: We're making left onto a two-way highway is like approaching a change situation. So I've got a vision. Consider the timing, possess the means and the team to make the change and look both ways before accelerating, Speaker 2: Raising the water level of leadership in the Tri-Cities of Eastern Washington. It's the Tri-Cities influencer podcast. Welcome to the TCI podcast. We're local leadership and self-leadership expert Paul Casey interviews, local CEOs, entrepreneurs, and non-profit executives to hear how they lead themselves and their teams. So we can all benefit from their wisdom and experience. Here's your host, Paul Casey of growing forward services, coating and equipping individuals and teams to spark breakthrough success. Paul Casey: It's a great day to grow forward. Thanks for joining me for today's episode with Edison. Valerio Edison is a state farm agent here in the Tri-Cities specifically Pascoe. And I asked him for something quirky about himself and actually I sort of knew what he was going to say because we golf together and he likes to use the phrase nice and easy whenever I try to hit the ball too hard, but Edison, tell us a little bit about that phrase and I think it probably goes beyond just go, huh? Edison Valerio: Totally. Paul. Hey, thank you so much, Mr. Casey, for giving me the opportunity to be on your podcast. And this is Edison with state farm, like a good neighbor and a nice and easy as something that is really simple, but that's how I try to live my life. Nice and easy and the same way that we apply that at the golf course when we try and we were trying to push something and we have something in mind and it would try to push it too hard sometime it doesn't go our way, right? When we try to hit the ball, but there's nice and easy Paul is something that is really simple, but at the same time is taking life nice and easy and be nice to yourself when other people that's, that's also have a positive impact. So I applied to my personal and in the golf course. Paul Casey: Okay, nice. Well, I'll tell it to my golf game. So there you go. Well, we'll dive in after checking in with our Tri-City Influencer sponsor, take back your weekends and let Senske services be your green team. Senske services is a locally owned and operated company founded in 1947. That has been working with families for nearly 75 years to help create and maintain environments that are great places to live, work and play. They're a family business built on family values and Senske dedicated to delivering quality and providing exceptional customer service. Senske offers a variety of services, including full service, lawn care, pest control, tree care, and Christmas decor. You may have seen their holiday light show at the corporate office. It is a must see every year services are backed by the Senske promise, which means the job will be done right. Or they come back out to learn more about the services Senske provides and the offers available to you visit Senske dot com. Paul Casey: Thank you for your support of leadership development in the Tri-Cities. Well welcome Edison. I was privileged to meet you when I was about three or four years ago, I think I was recruiting for a mid-Columbia Score, which helps entrepreneurs launch small businesses here in the Tri Cities. And you you're a key volunteer on that team and thank you again for that. And, and then it was on the golf course as well, where we've had a good, good time. And I think you're usually playing, UB40 on the golf course cart, which has always encouraging. Edison Valerio: Yes, yes. And then it goes back to a nice that easily. You had to always include a bit of music. You know, some of us, they do meditation before they go into the golf courses because as we know that the game is a mental game as well. So they let a bit of you before, you know, really, you know, relax relaxes. Yeah. Paul Casey: Yes. I love it. Well, so are a tracing. Any influencers can get to know you tell us about your work there at state farm and what do you spend 80% of your day doing these days? Edison Valerio: Yeah, I know that's the, you know, I've been really, really blessed to have this opportunity to be my own, my own business owner, to have my own business at the beginning of these this year, which is we're still through the pandemic and I stay, I stay farm independent business owner. We have an office and I have three team members. Two of them are licensed. Someone is going through the process. And so, you know, my background to Paul, I, I used to manage banks for 15 years. I've been in this community for 20 trying to create a positive impact with the people that we touch with while we have so that we can make a difference. And in this world in general, but I spent the, so that's my, you know, my main key for my office, my base is, is to make sure that we have a qualified individuals, talented individuals, but also we, that, that they well-trained so that when our customers call, they can have the best, worst service possible because we are about, we might again, risks of everyday lives so that people can recover from the unexpected when something happened to them, they can recover so that they have dreams so they can, they can realize their dreams. Edison Valerio: And so I spent a lot of time coaching a lot of time, making sure that the basis is born in with our, my expectation, but it was also reaching out, doing some marketing, being in my community, volunteering my time and such as going to mainly now here in Detroit, in the passcode, excuse me, on the schools of volunteer my time about to Pasco high now on spending time on new horizons, which is they have kids, challenging kids, oh, with early pregnancy and things of that nature. So we go there as a big partner and, and talk to them, but mainly, you know, focusing on the financing part of it, because that's what that's my expertise is. So that's where to spend the majority of my time. Paul Casey: Gotcha. Why do you love what you do? Cause you, you made a shift from the banking industry to the insurance industry. So I'm assuming there was a pole there for you. Why do you love what you do? Edison Valerio: Yeah. And you know, every single day when we wake up and we look about what do we have, that we can make a difference. So in the financial industry with the knowledge that I had was about, you know, helping people with a checking the same amount with Mons and, and talk them within how to have a better, better score, better five quiz scores. But here with insurance is, and we are in financial services and insurance as well, but they insurance portion of this is about managing risk. How do we manage the rest of everyday lives? So that, because it wouldn't on minus the Rez and something happened, we can lose it all in one second. So it's so fascinating to come to work and talking with people and asking those, those proper questions so that we can discover what they need so that we can protect assets, but also we can protect them and we can protect their family by making sure that they have the right products so that if they have an accident, once again, they have the right coverages because if not, then they open themselves to any lawsuits or medical beers or they don't able to pay. Edison Valerio: And it's really like, just like last week, Paul, I had a customer that is Spanish-speaking. And the first thing, I mean, she had a little bit of leak of water and her and her house, but she just came here because she works all day, may Lee and they, an amount of foster company, she works all night and that you sleep all day, but she took the time and she didn't, she didn't call the plumber or anyone. She just came here for, you know, for us to help her. So when are in faces of devastation and desperation, they thinking about us, right? So how, what an opportunity we have to help those individuals and to have anyone to think of us in that time, when they have a station desperation so that we can help them so that they, they, they can continue to live in the regular life because everything can change more secretarial. So that's the, that's the beauty of what I do, what I do call and every single ledgers come into work. And, and it just, my vocation is my vacation. You're saying joy. I can be here for, you know, eight hours, 10 hours, 11 hours on any calls that I gave for any course summers at any given time. And we have our 24 course, 25 hours of course, summer services that they can also assess if, if I, you know, if I can, but fascinating to be in that position. Paul Casey: Yes. Yeah. It sounds like you've nailed your why now you do what you do. I love that. Tell us a little bit about, you want to hire a, you want a team around you. That's highly qualified people. Who else do you reach out to as an entrepreneur to help you be successful? Who do you surround yourself with? Edison Valerio: Yeah, that's a really good question because we, you know, we never stop learning. We have to continue to learn and we have to be in attentions as to what, what, what's the systems that we need and want it to continue growing because we're not whole, we're not a hundred percent. We always need a percentage. Our buckets are needed according to the projects. Right. So, you know, perhaps, you know, I reach out to you, you really gave you really influence influential and team leadership and team spirits. And just as a personal growth, you have a great book. And I read a lot of look from John, John Maxwell and, and motivational books. And also in the mornings, I, you know, I have my three things that I do in the morning, which is one of the thing is my spiritual, which is [inaudible] listen to your stints. And then Alyssa to my motivational is going to more diversity. And then, then I do my exercise, but you know, reaching out, you know, me once again as asked me, reaching out to what's playing me hall and then in a community, having that have a, your center of influence by, you know, people from my BNI, people like you and, and other leaders in the community that had been influential. I know you have any questions, you know, you can always call them different business owners, you know, such as you know, I have one Mike Miller from mood security, a fan of mine and yeah. Paul Casey: Yeah. Good, good people. Cause it does take a community. I like how you mentioned BNI at first . If people don't know what BNI is, what is, would you explain that to our listeners? Edison Valerio: Yeah. I know they BNI is, is a business network that is going to expand your personal knowledge, personal professional, but also it's a great marketing source. And what he does say is that anything that you have sort of model people that can refer your business. And in case when the, the customer comes into their businesses and asking for, or inquiring them, their businesses, they can also say, oh yeah, but then we have so-and-so. And so that can help you, perhaps in my case with your insurance not only, you come in to buy a home, but also have someone that can help you. So it's a referral base. You build relationship within your team and trust. And also they say centers of influence that instead of you promoting your business, you have 20 other people perhaps also promoting your business, Paul Casey: Good stuff. We all need that we all need the, the fellow promoters, the refers, especially in entrepreneurism, because there's such a word of mouth advertising that as critical to build your reputation as someone who can help and add value. I love that. Let me go to something you mentioned earlier, you said you've got a great morning routine, three things that you do in the morning. You said you nurture your, your spiritual wellness. You talked about like motivational and exercise, go a little bit deeper. Because I'm sure that is probably a way that you avoid burnout and negativity. Edison Valerio: Oh, absolutely. You know, we, you know, we love what we do and of course, as an employer and you know, we love the, are, you know, alive. So anything else, but we also need to remember Paul, that that is a lot of negativity up there, right? So this is just the world. I mean, our world is even in the morning, you know, I don't, I don't, I don't listen to, I don't start my day listening to news. I haven't watched the news for many years. I read that news. I read it because I choose what I wanted to read. So once again, going back into being intentional, we need that your positive. And just like, can we take our environments in the morning? So you need your environments in the morning or for you to go through that day really strong. So that anything that comes your way, you able to overcome it. Edison Valerio: Yes. So for me, those are the three things that I've found that I keeps me really strong. And as I go through the day, because throughout the day you're going to have, you might have a customer that, that might take it on you, you know, Mohammed courseware, that's how to by date. And so how do you overcome those challenges? How do you help those individuals? Right? If you not, if you're not suited mentally, physically, and you know, it's, it's, it can definitely overwhelm you and they ended up fourth and you don't love what you do a thing for those, that nature, but going deep into those three rituals and you know, you don't have to do her every day, but the same way that perhaps one of us, you know, you do Joe gum, meditation, whatever it is, you do need to spend time for yourself. Edison Valerio: Yeah. And that's the time that I take for myself early in the morning, so that, you know, before the family, anybody works up, you already too, like you are, you're ready to go for the day and you're ready to take on that day. So it's not, I mentioned it to you, Paul, you know, just take just an hour within that hour. You know, you break it down, you break it up to different sections, but in the same time that I'm working out and that's what I'm listening to, my spiritual breakfast, and it's really simple. It's like, I go to YouTube and so many different, you know, your stands or any other spiritual preachers up there, they just, you know, sexual it's up 20 minutes, a 25, no more than that. And then the more, more diversity, more diversity, it's the same where you have 20, 25 and then goes in so deep into, you know, new, our purpose in life, but not giving up, becoming a varsity. Edison Valerio: And we'll you down? How do you, how do you lift yourself up? And those other things, all that, you know, people, you know, they see does. And perhaps they see me that, you know, this happy guy that happy Caribbean guy that goes around smiling all the time within a, with an island vibe. But as it is, you know, it's not easy. You have to, it's not just this mile that you, you know, trying to reflect, but it is, you know, how you chooses to have out a smile by the things that you intentionally consume mentally. Cause we had to be mentors, mentors, strength, and we have to mental mentally strong. And so that's, that's how I lead my life. I mean, that's how I lead in the morning. Now, Paul Casey: Once you intentionally consume and otherwise he just got the default consume, which is often a lot negative stuff, a lot of drama that you could allow it to cling to you. And instead you got to pull that stuff off and choose what you consume to set yourself up for a good day. Love that good stuff. Well, Hey, let's take a quick break. Before I asked Edison how he plans his day, how does he get things done? Let's reach out to our sponsors. Are you dreaming of a lush weed free lawn? Have you heard what your neighbors are saying about their Sinsky lawn, a lush weed-free lawn in, within your reach? Don't just take it from us. Listen to what people in our community are saying about Sinsky services. Lavando Elle of Kennewick said I've been a customer for several years and I can depend on Sinsky to take good care of my lawn. Paul Casey: I always get a call before each treatment and a detailed report. After Mildred w of Kennewick said, the workers are always willing to satisfy the customers. And that says a lot. Thank you for everything. Key services is a locally owned and operated company that has been in the business of lawn and tree care for nearly 75 years. This means nobody knows green lawns. Like Senske let Senske help you achieve the lawn of your dreams by visiting sinskey.com today, to learn more so Edison, how do you get things done? How do you organize yourself? Every, every entrepreneur has to have a way because you're your own boss and it's very easy to procrastinate when there's no hard deadline. Edison Valerio: No, that's, that's the, that is a really good question. We, because I'm not going to go into details, Paul, because I are, you know, my, the business that I do and even banking, I mean, it has a lot of processes and this latter routine. So even when we, even when you would get up in the morning, you know, you have to have that routine. So everything is starts with our routine. And so just to make a daily to do list, and that starts the night before. Yeah. And even, even so some of us, we like we planners. So we, we plan on Sunday for the week and, and sometimes you can plan for the whole month, but you can, it's tentative, right? Because you use a lot of verbal second, half and political through weekly, you planned for the week and Sunday. That's what I do. Edison Valerio: Take your time. You make sure that your schedules and you knew you review your schedule so that you can have a really quick snapshot, snap view and, and, and your mind as to how that work is going to go. But you, so you made your daily to-do list in the morning or the night before you follow through you do the hottest, you do the hardest task first, and then you clear off your desk, but let's go back into my, into my, to clarify. And then I'm going to go to, I have four more items that I want to emphasize, but like what we do in an insurance world requires everything requires attention because we're dealing with, with people we're dealing with customers risk, we money in the race. So that was something happened that can be, they can be protected. So if somebody calls and said, Hey, a Edison, I just replaced my 2012 Toyota Highlander for a 20, 20 Camaro door. Edison Valerio: Things I cannot, we cannot procrastinate it and do it later because if something happened during that time, of course we can, we can back, you know, we can make it effect at any time by those things has to be done sooner than later, immediately on that date, we cannot leave without getting those tasks done because we have, we have people moving and those moving in generalists' vehicles, anything can happen. Any accident can happen in a given day. So those tasks needs to be done. But in general, though, I'm going to just, you know, we mentioned about, okay, well, get things done through the, during the Workday. And once again, make a daily task, do the hardest tasks. First clear off your desk, sit up a system, set up you process. Because if you don't have a system in place, then you're going to be posed so many different ways, such as if you have a systems that everybody knows in the office that you're going to take an hour. Edison Valerio: The first hour from eight to nine is going to be for you to prioritize your tasks. And they know that, okay, within eight to nine, we're going to take voicemail. We're going to take messages because you know, perhaps Edison is working on his routine for the day and then focus on one thing. First CSI. You know, we, as I assume, I mean, we would like to multitask, but just focus on one thing first at a time, get that things other time done so that you can go into another task. Don't jump around because you don't want to have different open tasks and the day nothing gets done. You want to get one thing first, get it done, moving to the next one. Edison Valerio: And, and the last one is, you know, it's in the office. It's okay to say, no, I know I cannot do this. Always know, you know, I would like for you to search it or guest announcers or figured it out. And it's okay to say no, because you cannot take all the task. It's going to come as a business owners, you need to delegate, right. And you need to your team for them to find those answers and then have them challenge them. Having to find those answer. I share those with you. Like the iron and the burns. Like even, yeah, the first of course I made the first one or two months, you're spending a lot of time coaching with them and you do your coaching sections, but then they, you enable them to search and find those answers. And then they, the one who ended up teaching you and which they not as a whole, the offers gets, instead of one person gets, you know, three or four brain educating each other by having, by having this open concept, right. People share with the IDs numbers practices. Yep. And so that's, those are the things that I organize my day, Paul on Paul Casey: Those are really good. I love the, I, they call it the eat that frog principle of doing that, those difficult tasks first and avoid. It's easy to cross off a lot of little things first, cause they're easy or more fun or just convenient, but we get that big thing done. We get that monkey off our back and we're able to then start a snowball of productivity for the rest of the day. And also, like I said, you know, clear your desk, right? If, if we're all looking at her desk right now, we're just like, oh, you know, it looks like a bomb hit. It, it, it, that clutter just sort of yells at us and it actually hurts our productivity because we get this, this it's, it's a feeling of overwhelm it's in the back of our heads. Probably not right in front of us, but there's something about a clean area with a nice and tidy to-do lists that allows you to set the stage for being productive. So you've got some really great habits there that the time manager and me just smiles. Well, last year you made your, you made a career change and during the COVID year. And so you had to, you had to make a decision to switch careers. Can you tell our listeners who might be on the verge of like, Hmm, I might want to do something different. Maybe it's they have a day job and they want to pursue their dream job. Maybe it's just switching positions, maybe it's going for a promotion. What counsel would you give someone who is really thinking about doing something different than they are now? Edison Valerio: You know, it's we all Paul, we, we are a scare. Well, we get scare of the unknown. Yeah. And so, you know, be being in banking for many years and even so I, I became an approve candidate for state farm 10 years ago, but I was so comfortable with online skein money in banks. At that time, I was finding you bank of America that I didn't want to jump. Right. Because you feel comfortable with the little of income that you receive and to jumping into a commission, a hundred percent commission, right? So you just, you have a fear of the unknown, but what I can tell them, the listeners up there is that [inaudible] what you visualized is going to be while you're going to realize the time that you executed your plan. So your objective, you know, and of course, before you jump into your ticket, take an interest in investigating your, what exactly you're trying to do, you know, have that adapt adaptability or your mindset, you mindset. And you mind sets that stability sometimes come a lot of times going with a gravity too. Right. Edison Valerio: But whenever you feel the, you know, the fear, you know, trying to, to feel grateful instead as, and share with other ones and they feel that where they can keeps you the ins and out, do you research read once again, I mentioned, if we, the session I'm really good on that, Paul, because when you visualize at one point, it's going to be, it's going to come in fruition and put things in perspective who thinks in perspective and you can't, you can be anything that you wanted to be in life. The only limitations are in our minds, in our head. We can't, yes. We're going to have a lot of adversity, but I send times we can, we can become once again, anything because the situation does, doesn't dictate who we are. You know, as I mentioned it to you, Paul, that I am a, I am a kid and man's young from the bronze, the bronze on New York, the city that they, they, the streets of New York, my mother single mother, that she couldn't, she couldn't have me in a tough neighborhood because she was working in a nursing home. Edison Valerio: And so I grew up in the, in the island. We, you know, from the Dominican Republic and I live in Puerto Rico as well. And then, but to me, you know, it was, and I came here to what I wanted college when I was 18. I just, I didn't my first time in Washington state. But you know, it was a private school part of my religion Seventh-day Adventists. And I knew that I was, that's what I wanted to be. I started as electrical engineer, but at some time it was tough because you had to learn so many different things that you don't know, but you had to uncomfortable before you go, you get comfortable. You, you had to then visualize that other anal, the tonal. This is what I, I see myself. So in any businesses up there or anyone that is the ones to take, make that change, don't think that you're going to have a plan B, don't go with a plan B, you have to go with a plan, a, you had to jump and don't think that you're going to come back to what you were doing, because otherwise you're not going to seq at a hundred and twenty oh two twelve. Edison Valerio: We want to G we want it to be a fun and hide high fat and high heat, two 12. So that nothing stopped you. Right? So that's the type of mentality. And, and we had to be mentally strong. That is easy. Absolutely not. That is difficult. Absolutely. That that is possible. Yes. Yes. It's possible. Yes, we can do a, yes. We can meet any things. And some, sometimes, you know, we have, Paul would come to work and a lot of people, they have so much, so much talent and they come to work because they just feel that that, that they are that's, that's as good as they go. They are. And, and they have this, this, this pipeline, amazing goals and plans, but then they would put in, in plays. And then somebody said, I think that was the Jean rom. You rom said Les brown. Yeah. Les brown. He said, he said, motivational speaker. He, that he says that Les says that they, the plays that has the most talented or the most dreams are a and the cemetery because everybody texts it to the tomb because too late, too late. So why not to realize and put your plants in place now where we can, instead of taking a seven feet on the ground, and if you fail, you fail, but at least you try. Paul Casey: That's good stuff. And I love how you said, you realize what you visualize. Right? And so you've got to keep that goal or that dream, or that next career for that next job position firmly ensconced in your mind. And then, like you said, another author says, burn the boats, right? The Cortez principle of, you know, you can't leave yourself the chicken exit. Like, well, if this doesn't work, then I've got my plan B, but no, I've, I've got to pursue this a hundred percent. If it doesn't work out, it's going to be okay. You know, I can always fall back on my old career or something else, but you don't go in with that. I'm going to bail when things get tough, I'm going to put it wholeheartedly. And yeah, you mentioned some good people there, Les brown listeners, anything unless brownie, what you want to listen to that Jim Rowan, R O H N a. He's got fantastic stuff. You've mentioned Joel, Olsteen for encouragement and you some really good stuff to fill your brain with. Hey, so Edison, finally, what advice would you give to new leaders or anyone who wants to keep growing or gaining more influence in their community or in their workplace? Edison Valerio: You know what, one of the thing in order to keep, to keep growing and we need to realize is number one, you know, we're talking about the pursuit of happiness and sometimes, you know, the pursuit of happiness, we as human being, we, we want to, you know, we have these, this facade of happiness, are you doing little things that are not aligned with your purpose. So find you purpose, which is going to find your happiness, and then yet that's going to be contagious. And so with that, whatever you walk, you know, you're going to be walking with your cheek and the shoulder about who you are humble behind, they happiness. That's going to tell you who you are, but also that is going to rebel you purpose in life. And your purpose in life can be different ways. It's not. And I'm talking about just making money, because that is comes. That is the spiritual, that's the result of doing what you love to do. A hand, but the purpose of, you know, perhaps going and talking with others, working with us, non-profit organizations, going to the salvation army or the food bank, whatever it is, find your purpose first and names. That's going to keep you going. And, and by finding your purpose, I know you why then you're going to find your happiness. Paul Casey: Well, that is so good. Yeah. I've listened to another podcast where the speaker says the opposite of depression is let's see, I'm trying to think of, she said, but the opposite of depression is a lack of purpose. It's actually apathy. It's not knowing at your core. And so when you have that purpose, you have, you have that internal drive that motivation and that happiness follows after that. I think I slaughtered the quote, but you, your point is well taken that you've got to have that core purpose in order to lead to joy, which is going to vault you forward in an everyday and get you up every morning. Well, Hey, how can our listeners best connect with you? Edison Valerio: Yes, they can't follow my webpage on Facebook. Edison, Villarreal is state farm, and also on Instagram, as well as some malaria state farm. We're located here in passcode, 34 7 was court street wide next to Sally's. And also on this north, everybody, you know, on this north is, is a restaurant has been, the staff establishment has been here for 70 plus years. And, and of course you can give us a call at (509) 492-4446. And we'd more than happy to talk to you about your insurance needs. But you know, if you need me to go and talk to anyone about sharing my experience to any high schools, which I love to do talking to our youth, you know, please feel more than working to, to do so and give us a call. Yeah. And it was great. Paul, thank you for giving me the opportunity. Paul Casey: Yes. Well thank you for all you do. And the nonprofits you've been associated with the chamber of commerce, and like you said, just your willingness to speak to youth or share your story. You make the Tri-Cities a great place. And so keep leading. Well, my friend, Edison Valerio: Thank you. Thank you. Paul Casey: Let me wrap up our podcast today with a leadership resource to recommend all you have to do for, to get my tool on how to be a terrific team leader is you open a text message to 72,000 that's 7 2 0 0 0, and type the two words team lead, put a space in between that team lead to 72,000. I'll send you a one pager on 11 inspirational actions to do with your team. Well, we'll have to give that as a free gift to you. So you can be a more terrific team leader than you are right now. Again, this is Paul Casey, and I want to thank my guests, Edison. Valario from state farm for being here today on the Tri-City influencer podcast. We also want to thank our TCI sponsor and invite you to support them. We appreciate you making this possible so that we can collaborate to help inspire leaders in our community. Finally, one more leadership tidbit for the road to help you make a difference in your circle of influence it's by Robin Sharma. And it goes along with what Edison talked about of the getting out of the comfort zone. Robin says, the more time you spend in your discomfort zone, the more your comfort zone actually expands until next time kgs keep growing forward. Speaker 2: Thank you to our listeners for tuning in to today's show. Paul Casey is on a mission to add value to leaders by providing practical tools and strategies that reduce stress in their lives and on their teams so that they can enjoy life and leadership and experience their key desire for salts. If you'd like more help from Paul in your leadership development, connect with him@growingforwardatpaulcasey.org for a consultation that can help you move past your current challenges and create a strategy for growing your life or your team forward. Paul would also like to help you restore your sanity to your crazy schedule and getting your priorities done every day by offering you is free control my calendar checklist, go to WW dot, take back my calendar.com for that productivity tool or open a text message 2 7 2 0 0 0, and type the word grown. Speaker 4: The Tri-Cities influencer podcast was recorded at fuse SPC by bill Wagner of safe strategies.

Paul Casey: Change isn't cemented until it becomes part of the new routine and it's the leader's job to create the culture. Remember I led with that two sessions ago, a change of culture only happens through accountability, Speaker 2: Raising the water level of leadership in the Tri-Cities of Eastern Washington. It's the Tri-Cities influencer podcast. Welcome to the TCI podcast. We're local leadership and self-leadership expert Paul Casey interviews, local CEOs, entrepreneurs, and non-profit executives to hear how they lead themselves and their teams. So we can all benefit from their wisdom and experience. Here's your host, Paul Casey of growing forward services, coaching and equipping individuals and teams to spark breakthrough success. Paul Casey: It's a great data grow forward. Thanks for joining me for today's episode with Ken Hohenberg. He is the chief of police in Kennewick, and I asked him for a fun fact about him and he unequivocally said, I start on time. So Ken, you got a couple of instances of that where everyone around you knows that you start on time. Ken Hohenberg: Yeah. You know, it's just one of those things I've been tagged with over the last 18 years being, being the chief of police, here in Kennewick. But I related a story here recently about the fact that when we dedicated this building in 2008, May of 2008, my friend Andy Miller, that Ben county prosecutor was running late. And I'm sure it was legitimate for some court issue. And he was with Scott Johnson at the time who was his chief criminal deputy. And as they were hurrying trying to get to our building dedication down here at 211 West 6th, Andy had made the comment about, we need to hurry because the chief always starts on time and Scott's going, you know, Andy, these things never start on time. We're going to be fine. And anyway, they arrived late and we started on time. And, and since that time, I mean, whether I'm doing new officers swearing in whether it's entry or lateral police officers or promotion ceremonies, we always start on time. I just, I firmly believe that when you have people adjust their schedules that, you know, out of respect for other people, we started on time. So I'm kind of quirky about that. And I know I probably drive my wife nuts too, because I, I like to, I like to be on time and, and sometimes that's not as important to other people. Paul Casey: We often marry our opposites. So yes, I totally can relate. Ken Hohenberg: Well, she she's my better half and keeps me out of trouble in a lot of different areas. So I'm okay with that. Paul Casey: Oh, that's good stuff. Yeah. I've actually at a previous leadership position said, we're going to start with whoever's here. And one time I was in a leadership team meeting, I was the only one in the room. So I started and I said, I'd like to welcome you all here. And they all walked in one at a time and said, who are you talking to? I'm like, we agreed that we were going to start with whoever's here. And I was being ridiculous to make a point, but yes. Ken Hohenberg: Point well taken. Paul Casey: Well, we're going to dive in after checking in with our Tri-City influencer sponsor, take back your weekends and let Senske services be. Your green team. Senske services is a locally owned and operated company founded in 1947. That has been working with families for nearly 75 years to help create and maintain environments that are great places to live, work and play. They're a family business built on family values and Senske is dedicated to delivering quality and providing exceptional customer service. Senske offers a variety of services, including full service, lawn care, pest control, tree care, and Christmas decor. You may have seen their holiday light show at the corporate office. It is a must see every year services are backed by the Senske promise, which means the job will be done right. Or they come back out to learn more about the services Senske provides and the offers available to you visit Senske dot com. Paul Casey: Thank you for your support of leadership development in the Tri-Cities. Well welcome Ken. I was privileged to meet you. We were trying to come back when that was, but I know it at the least it was 2006, 2007 when I went through leadership Tri-Cities and you're always so gracious to speak on a law enforcement day and a law and justice day. And so appreciate you doing that for the community where we all get to meet you and get to see the, the new police station over there, which it was even before that, because he said it was oh eight. Right? So it was, so I got to meet you before that. I got the privilege of interviewing you at Columbia community church. When I did like a meet the leader, meet some co community leaders. So I was just chomping at the bit to get another chance to interview you. So thanks for being here today. Well, so that our Tri-City influencers can get to know you tell us a little bit more about the Kennewick police department and what do you spend most of your day doing? Ken Hohenberg: Also the Kennewick police department were authorized 108 commissioned police officers. And obviously we have support staff on top of that. And we're also very fortunate. We work with a lot of great federal partners. So including state partners as well, we have department of corrections, community corrections officers work out at the Kent police department along as well as CPS workers from DSHS. So it's a busy place around here and probably, you know, going back to your fundamental question about how I spend 80% of my day prior to COVID throw that in. And if, if you can't chuckle a little bit, the year and a half, that we've been through this, but you know, 80% of my day really is really engaged in interacting with people. And one of the reasons why I was attracted to policing to begin with, I, I like having flexibility in my schedule, but, you know, and I use the term. I love people because I really do love people. It's been rewarding to me. I just finished 43 years with the city Kennewick on July 17th, finished 18 years as the chief of police on July 1st. So, you know, I've had really what I would consider my dream job. I, I, I, I like to think that collectively the kind of what police department makes a difference in the community and little influence over that. And, but I get to work and interact with great people. Paul Casey: What's the average tenure. I'm just curious, have a chief of police. Ken Hohenberg: It's about five years. Really? Wow. Yeah, it is nationally. It's about five years. And, you know, even if you compare around locally on chiefs and sheriffs that we've had here locally, it's the tenure's longer than that. I'm like the fourth police chief and Kennewick 60 some years, it's a Lincoln was police chief for 24 years. And Bob Arkoff was police chief for 15. And Mark Harden was police chief for 10. And then I'm the second longest tenured police chief at 18. Paul Casey: Wow, great longevity, great longevity. There's so much more you can do when you're at a place for that kind of length and you can help create the culture even more. I'm sure you've been able to do that more so than other schools are coming God in five years or less. Ken Hohenberg: No, that's true. You know, I mean, it's hard to change a culture, even, even when you grow up in an organization, you know, what's good, you know, what's bad, but it's hard really, you know, when you start dealing with, you know, police departments that have 50 or more police officers, it's, it's a challenge to change the culture in less than five years. So I've been very, very blessed that I've been able to be in this position as long as I have, and even more blessed people haven't wanted me to leave. So Paul Casey: Yes, yes. And I hope you caught that Tri-City influencer listeners, that if you're trying to do a culture change, it's the long game, you know, if you've been there less than five years, you've probably inherited a lot of issues and just keep plugging and keeping faithful at your position. So Ken, who do you surround yourself with? I would say like on the inside, like who are you choosing to have in your inner circle or even the hires, you know, in the entire KPD and then outside your organization, who else do you like to hang out with because you know, that they're critical to your success? Ken Hohenberg: Well, that's a great question. And, you know, I've fed for years when, when I first was appointed chief back in 2003, I realized the most critical thing that we could do is who we hired to begin with. You know, if you look at what's going on, not only across the state, but nationally, the unfortunate thing for law enforcement agencies, we still have to hire from the human race. So human beings and human beings make mistakes, but so we really have to be tasked with finding truly the best of the best that understands the core values of public service, bringing their best to work every day. And that really was back in 2003, where a lot of agencies were trying to recruit and expand the opportunities for people to get hired by different law enforcement agencies. I actually increased our hiring standards and we have some challenges with personnel issues, especially the first seven, eight years that I was the police chief. Ken Hohenberg: I can tell you the last seven or eight years have been the best years that I've had being a relatively few complaints. Last year, I had less than a dozen complaints, a whole department, and over 500 compliments, I started tracking compliments well. And so those are people that will take the time and an email, a letter, something than just the word on the street, send it in something formal to the, to the department. But you know, really trying to surround myself with really talented, the A-plus students that you bring in in D and then certainly right hand in glove with who you hire, being the most important thing then right behind that is who you promote. So after you have people that you know, are tenured in an organization, you have an opportunity to watch them. I tell people, you know, the, the cool thing about pleasing as I hire leaders from day one. So most person in the door is a leader, or they're not going to be with the Kent police department. So then strategically when they enter into a formal leadership position, like a Sergeant or Lieutenant a commander, or the assistant chief, I'm really picking the best of the best at that time to continue moving the organization forward, people that understand the mission, but also have the people skills, the common sense to continue to facilitate that mission as well. Paul Casey: I love that that a complaint compliment ratio 12 to 500 Ken Hohenberg: That's, you know, and the funny thing of it is, you know, even when I hired on the department in 1978, we've always tracked our complaints. And, and I don't know why that I decided, but in oh three, after I was appointed chief, I thought, you know, if I'm going to hold officers and personnel accountable for mistakes or things, they do wrong, I'm also going to give them credit for the things they do. Right. And I was really surprised at the amount of compliments we generated, but those complaints went down over the years. Has I dealt with different discipline issues as well as increased hiring standards and really, really set the tone for what it was going to take to be a Kenwood police officer. Paul Casey: Yeah. It's a measurable, right. And it's, and it's something and what we measure, we, we tend to focus on. So I love how you, you decided to, to measure both of those things. And now you're seeing the fruit of that. How about outside the organization? Can, who do you, who makes you successful outside of KPD? Ken Hohenberg: You know, I was fortunate way back when my father-in-law who passed away in 1999, he told me a long time ago when I was young patrol one that you ever join a service organization, you have to join rotary. And I'm like, Hey, I didn't know anything about that. And I can tell you the Rotary club, they're all great service clubs. Yep. And when I was a captain in 1996, I was working with the tech skill center and I got asked to attend a rotary meeting. And I ended up joining Columbia center rotary. And I've been a Rotarian ever since 1996. And, you know, having people outside your normal business dealings outside that normal work group that you're in, I think is healthy. Not only mentally, but keeps you aligned with a more normal perspective, but I've really intentionally tried to align myself with people that have like values that I do. Ken Hohenberg: A lot of people know Dave Retter from Sotheby's, you know, Craig jerkies is a good friend of mine with sun Pacific energy. We worked together on the boys and girls club that we built here in east kennel, WIC. I've just been blessed over the years with a lot of good, good friends that have been supportive of me in this role as police chief, but supportive of me is can a horn bird for the person that I am all has like values when it comes to giving back to the community, really trying to make a difference in her community. Paul Casey: Yeah. So healthy. And I've heard such good things about rotary throughout the year. So how many clubs are there in the Tri-Cities? There's several aren't there. Ken Hohenberg: Yeah. There's six clubs in the price cities right now. And I'll tell ya. I, you know, I had speaking engagements at Kiwanis and a number of other civic organizations, and they're all great when people get engaged and involved Paul Casey: Yes. Service above self and what a great model too. So can leaders have growth mindsets? They don't have those fixed mindsets to say like, well, I was born this way, you know, or that's the way I am. And so how do you keep evolving as a leader 18 years in your current position what's in your own professional development plan? Ken Hohenberg: I think one of the things that have really helped me evolve over the years is it's probably a good thing, but it's also sometimes negative because I get involved in more, you know, over the years, I've just had an opportunity, whether it's been through our Washington association of sheriffs and police chiefs, I'm a past president of that. I currently serve as a board chair for the Washington auto theft prevention authority board. I'm the vice chairman of the Northwest Haida, which is a high intensity drug trafficking, which has a federal program comes to supporting our law enforcement agencies. So besides the, you know, the, the personal things that I am engaged in, I try to find opportunities for continued professional growth as well, because nobody knows at all. Paul Casey: Yep. Yeah. So good. It sounds like they're all, they're all sort of stretch assignments for yourself that you put yourself in other leadership positions to stretch you and add value in other areas. Ken Hohenberg: Well, and the benefit really comes back. Not to me directly, personally, but it's come back to benefit. Not only the kennel police department, but the other surrounding agencies, as well as our communities. Paul Casey: Yeah. So it boomerangs back on you when you serve. I love that. How do you go about getting things done? Can let, let's go a little like behind the curtain there and you're in your office. How do you organize yourself with so many things coming at you? Ken Hohenberg: You know, well, one of my commanders told me I was like a fighter pilot. He said, I don't know how you do it. You just, you fly by the seat of your pants, but you always come out on top. And I'm like, I don't know about that. I get over committed, you know, but, but the reality of it is, is, you know, you do have to have a way of prioritizing what is most important because there are so many things that are really important and it's like, people talk about priorities. If everything's a priority, then really nothing. And so, you know, in my day changes constantly, you know, when I get up in the morning and the first thing I do is I grab my phone and I look for any text messages from the on-duty commander that we have, you know, drive by shooting. Ken Hohenberg: If it's something really bad where somebody's been shot, I get a phone call in the middle of the night, but, or a police officer gets hurt. But it's one of those things that my date changes constantly. So it's hard sometimes for me to say the map out my roadmap for the day, or even for the week to say, this is what I plan on getting done, because sometimes my schedule changes that for me. And to be honest with you, that's one of the things that I love. And so maybe I was made to be a fighter pilot and I don't have any, I don't have any real deep wisdom that I can share on how I've been able to manage my schedule. Even my wife at times say, you know, you really should look at your calendar the morning, maybe the night before. And, but to me, my evening can be filled with something that I'm doing either professionally or, or what the family and you know, oh, you try to balance all of that with the time that you have, because you can't grow more time. Paul Casey: That's right. That's right. Well, before we head to our next question on how can it looks at the bigger picture, even in a career where there's so many crises that he must react to let's, let's do a quick shout out to our sponsor. Are you dreaming of a lush weed, free lawn? Have you heard what your neighbors are saying about their Senske lawn, a lush weed-free lawn in, within your reach? Don't just take it from us. Listen to what people in our community are saying about Senske services. L.E. of Kennewick said I've been a customer for several years and I can depend on Senske to take good care of my lawn. I always get a call before each treatment and a detailed report after Mildred w Kennewick said, the workers are always willing to satisfy the customers. And that says a lot. Thank you for everything. Since key services is a locally owned and operated company that has been in the business of lawn and tree care for nearly 75 years. This means nobody knows green lawns. Like Senske let Senske help you achieve the lawn of your dreams by visiting sinskey.com today to learn more. So is probably easy to get trapped and do reacting to crisis being in law enforcement. How do you as the head leader specifically step back and intentionally look at the bigger picture? Ken Hohenberg: Hmm. I think that's a great question as well. You know, I mean being strategic rather than being tactical right in the moment at the time. And I know it's, it's hard for me to give you some specific examples, but I know with my current command staff and I have a great bunch of leaders that I get to work with every day and assistant chief and four commanders and poodle lieutenants, and it's sometimes we'll be dealing with a situation and it's not that they're in the panic mode, but they think I'm going to react to it. And I have the least reaction out of everybody. And it's not because I'm not engaged or I don't care. It's I know how I react is probably going to dictate how others react as well. Yeah, well certainly in leasing where you're dealing with community issues and sometimes a crisis, the last thing that you need is for somebody to add to that crisis. Ken Hohenberg: And, you know, fortunately the longevity I'm sure has helped me over the years. I don't know that I was as methodical as I am today, you know, 40 years ago. But I can tell you that I really want to set the tone, not only for the command staff, but also for the rank and file. We're dealing with all of this police reform right now. And you've read and heard about issues where police are not going to respond to this type of call or that type of call. And I've had a lot of people ask me about that. And you know, my answer is it depends on the circumstances. No, I've never been a guy that's just black and white and say, you know, we do this and we don't do that because sometimes one set of circumstances will dictate one response versus another set of circumstances may dictate no response. Ken Hohenberg: But you know, once again, we have an obligation to the public for public safety. And I feel very strongly about that. And regardless of what challenges we're given, we're going to work within the guidelines of the law and we're still gonna deliver excellent public safety. That's what we're we do. Like a lot of other businesses, people don't have a choice where they go to get that service. So I want to be everything for everybody all the time, or as much as, and, you know, I work with really smart people that can figure that out. And that's the reason why I also feel very fortunate. We have three unions within the Kenwood police department at the management association, the police officer's benefit association, and then our professional staff are represented as well. And I've had one grievance in 18 years. Wow. Now, which is, which is huge. And that was moved to the city manager over a termination, moved to the city manager and the city manager upheld by position and the union wouldn't take it forward past, past that point. But all the communication to me is, is key. And also letting employees know that you truly do care about not only them personally, but about what they bring to the table and what they're doing molar here. Paul Casey: Well, so you would probably be an advocate for the way to avoid union conflicts is to care about your people probably have great communication with them. Any other tips for those that might be listening that are in a union environment? Ken Hohenberg: I I'll tell you. I I've been very fortunate. I was an interim fire chief for six months, and I had an opportunity to work with the fire union and my first meeting with them, I chose to have over lunch. I bought them all lunch. And it's amazing when you sit down over food and you're honest and open with people and you tell them what you can do and what you can't do work, you can get done. And we just, we had a fabulous, I think they were a little reluctant at first, but after our first meeting, they ask if we could continue those meetings. Wow. You wanted me to buy him lunch again, but great time. And I, I just always have strived, you know, relationship relationships are built on trust, which would be willing to get out of your office in order to build those Paul Casey: Here you're here. And if you get nothing out of this interview, Tri-City influencers lead with food leaders lead with food. Yes. Ken Hohenberg: There's a reason why people have broken over the years. Paul Casey: Yeah. There's something about the table, you know, that that develops trust and relationships. I don't know. Well, Ken, it's been a tough year for, for everyone and I'm sure for the police department, you've had to be responsive and strategic in an uncertain time. What key moves did you have to make? And I'm talking about both COVID and civil unrest, and you've alluded to a couple of those things already. What, what strategic moves did you have to make in the last year and a half? Ken Hohenberg: Well, you know, I'll take the protests because as you know, we had, we had protests in the Tri-Cities and in all three cities kind of what original inner Pascoe. We also had some challenges with people exercising their second amendment rights and growing up with semi-automatic weapons, protecting businesses. And you know, one of the things that I decided to do, and it's going to sound like a common theme here again, but I actually invited three different groups together to, to protesting. And one that was second amendment rights. And they were all somewhat in conflict with each other. And, and once again, I, I bought them pizza for lunch and they were, I was surprised. I mean, we had, our detectives had developed relationships with all three groups and everybody was passionate about what they were doing, but we have some really, really good dialogue in about just under three hours. Ken Hohenberg: And, you know, I know one of my commanders ended up picking up the pizza cause I wanted good pizzas. I didn't buy cheap pizza. And I bought the pizza, you know, you know, we got, we got phones, we can. And I said, no, I want to buy the pizza. I think there's, there's something you put your money where your mouth is, right? Yes. Strongly enough that there was enough conflict that could, I didn't want to see larger conflict. And at the end of our meeting, we actually ended up standing together at a news conference and the, the protest steers or not the protesters, but the, the people that were trying to defend some of the businesses where we weren't having issues, they decided that group ended up ultimately disbanding. So, well, I think there was some honest, effective communication that was done between those three groups. My role was really just facilitating. Ken Hohenberg: But once again, somebody has to have the, I don't know what you want to call it, the insight at least to try to bring people together so that they could hear each other. And I was, I, it was w I love human dynamics. I love watching people that are skeptical of each other, you know, after a period of time, actually be able to express their, their thoughts and people listen and not interrupt. And then at the end of the day, actually come together and shake hands. And it was pretty cool. And some lay people still have some very strong, powerful beliefs. Sure. And I can certainly respect that, but you know, a lot of these issues when I, when it comes to civil unrest, certainly when it's centered around policing, there are examples that have occurred. I had to Tri-Cities, they've occurred outside the state of Washington and they've occurred in other parts of the country. And, you know, I, if, if I do have a bias, I think that here in the trace cities, regardless of which police department it is, I think we provide a pretty good service here, here. We've heard Paul Casey: Listeners that Ken brings people together, whether it's in a union environment where it's in people with drastically different perspectives on an issue, or whether it's his own staff, bringing people together is the key so that people aren't stewing in their own little silos, wherever those are, they need a place to engage in constructive dialogue. And, and Ken kudos to you for doing that. How about, how about the COVID pandemic and how did that affect the police department? Ken Hohenberg: So, you know, once again, leaf and fire, you know, you don't really have a choice or, you know, if you end up having to get physical and connect with people, and also, you know, I serve as deputy city manager to remotely our city manager and have for the last eight, nine years. And that was really a city wide strategy of trying to make sure not only our city leadership, white team stayed healthy, but also really focusing in on our own departments as well. And we've been very successful, I think, through these virtual meetings, even though that's all I've been doing today, that's Paul Casey: Yes. Ken Hohenberg: But I think, you know, thanks to our elected officials in the city of Kennewick have been so, so supportive of public safety. And I think it's hard, especially for elected officials not to meet in person because they don't get a chance to, you know, up close and personal to their constituents. Right. But they've also realized the value of making sure we keep our employees safe so we can continue to provide over 300 different services that we do to our community through all the different departments in the city. But it has been a challenge. I mean, it's been a challenge for us when it community events being able to interact with in our schools when we were doing remote learning, obviously we have dare program and Kennebec or school resource officers. It limits those opportunities. We went through not having a waterfall is 4th of July. Those are all big summertime functions that bring families together and certainly brings communities together as well. So fortunately, we're, we've seen more opening up, but we're still watching those COVID numbers. And probably while we're doing this virtual meeting as well, so Paul Casey: True. True. Well, finally, chief, what advice would you give to new leaders or anyone who wants to keep growing or keep gaining their influence? Ken Hohenberg: Gosh, that's a, that's a tough question because, you know, I mean, for me personally, I have a, sometimes I have a hard time with people will say, well, you know, you, you've been such a great leader in the police department. Are you such a great community leader? And, you know, I have a hard time taking that title leader to begin with because somebody times you need to know when to be a good follower. Yeah, no, I think it's like I tell new sergeants when they get promoted inside the police department as formal leadership position, you have for far more power with your personal power, you know, Ken Hohenberg than I do with my positional power as chief of police, most of you know that I'm going to retire and into February of next year and people say, well, aren't you going to miss that position? Ken Hohenberg: Wow. You know, I love having the opportunity to serve as the Kenwood police chief and I've enjoyed every day. And when I walk out the door, am I going to miss it? Sure though, it's going to be times that I'm going to miss it, but it doesn't define who I am. I, I hope that I've defined that position somewhat. And so I guess one of the things I would tell people is, you know, never forget where you came from. Certainly always be willing to do the work yourself, people that do things that you wouldn't be willing to do yourself. Sometimes I think people forget that and you know, you never arrive someplace and you're there. I think, I think as a person, whether it's in an organization or in the community, I think you have to strive every day to make it better. And, and if you quit, you have any quit. You haven't just quit for yourself, but you've, you've quit for a whole host of other people that rely. And whether it's in a family situation, a business situation or community situation. Paul Casey: Yep. Well, good stuff. And I like, I, you led that answer with, you know, we have to, we need a class on followership, not just leadership, really. So that's, that's the leading yourself first, before you even get put into a position of leadership, good stuff. Well can, how can our listeners best connect with you? They wanted to give one of those compliments to the KPB. Ken Hohenberg: There's a, you know, there's a variety of way to connect with us, whether it's on Facebook or if you call down to, we have a police administration line at five, eight to 1305 8 2 1 3 0 0. We have a website that you can connect that way. If you called the police administration number, my assistant can get you connected. And I just, you know, one of the things I think that I am very proud of is over the years is we try to be everything to everybody all the time, because we truly do value. Not only what happens here in Kennewick, but also with our partners in our neighboring jurisdictions. We're just blessed to live in a, in a great supportive community that no matter what the national narrative may be, we still have great community support here in the Tracy. Thank you. Paul Casey: Well, thanks again, Ken, for all you do to make the Tri-Cities a great place and keep leading. Well, thank Ken Hohenberg: You. Paul Casey: Let me wrap up our podcast today with a leadership resource to recommend. I love a good assessment and I got a whole bucket full of them. Here's one on multiple intelligences. We're all smart in a different way. And there's ones like interpersonal or interrupt personal or a musical rhythmic or a spatial or kinesthetic. We're all smart in different ways. If you want to learn how you are smart, especially if you're feeling down on yourself like, oh, I don't know what strengths I have. You can take a multiple intelligence test at personality, maxx.com, personality max.com/multiple intelligences test. And again, it'll sort of pick you up and say, this is how I need to lead when I'm in leadership. Again, this is Paul Casey. I want to thank my guests, Ken Hohenberg from the Kennewick police department for being here today on the Tri-City influencer podcast. And we also want to thank our sponsor and help you invite you to support them because we appreciate you making this possible. So we can collaborate to inspire leaders in our community. Finally, one more leadership tidbit for the road to help you make a difference in your circle of influence. It is Seth Godin. He said the secret to leadership is simple. Do what you believe in paint a picture of the future. Go there and people will follow until next time. Kgs keep growing forward. Speaker 2: Thank you to our listeners for tuning in to today's show. Paul Casey is on a mission to add value to leaders by providing practical tools and strategies that reduce stress in their lives and on their teams so that they can enjoy life and leadership and experience their key desired results. If you'd like more help from Paul in your leadership development, connect with him@growingforwardatpaulcasey.org for a consultation that can help you move past your current challenges and create a strategy for growing your life or your team for Paul would also like to help you restore your sanity to your crazy schedule and getting your priorities done every day by offering you his free control. My calendar checklist, go to WW dot, take back my calendar.com for that productivity tool or open a text message. 2 7 2 0 0 0. And the Speaker 4: Word ground, the Tri-Cities influencer podcast was recorded at fuse SPC by bill Wagner of Safe Strategies.

Paul Casey: John Maxwell's says, "If change doesn't make you uncomfortable, it's not really change." There might be like, baby change. But, when we're talking about change in the seminar, we're talking about, like substantial change for your project, or your team, or an organization. Speaker 2: Raising the water level of leadership in the Tri-Cities of Eastern Washington. It's the Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast. Welcome to the TCI Podcast, where local leadership and self-leadership expert Paul Casey interviews local CEOs, entrepreneurs, and nonprofit executives, to hear how they lead themselves and their teams, so we can all benefit from their wisdom and experience. Here's your host, Paul Casey of Growing Forward Services, coaching and it could be individuals and teams to spark breakthrough success. Paul Casey: It's a great day to grow forward. Thanks for joining me today for our episode with Kyle Cox. Kyle is the Executive Director and Chief Librarian of the Mid-Columbia Libraries. And when I asked something quirky or interesting about Kyle, he told me about Scotland, and that's where he spent some of his childhood, but it made a conflict in his childhood. Kyle, tell us a little bit more. Kyle Cox: Yeah, so I spent a couple years of my childhood in Scotland. Actually, in St. Andrews, Scotland, the home of golf. Paul Casey: Wooh. Kyle Cox: I did got this PhD from St. Andrews. So, I moved from Western Washington as a fairly small child... To Scotland where I was also a fairly small child. But, it was an interesting experience. We were Americans, there were very few Americans in St. Andrews. At that time, you had basically grad students and their families, and Air Force officers and their families that were stationed to the RF base. Kyle Cox: So, there were very many of us. We were reminded constantly that we were Americans in a very negative way. I think, there's a lot of fun in the UK of reminding someone to yank. But, then, we came back from Scotland, I had a very thick Scottish accent. I only need metric because I have been single for so long over there. I even have forgotten some American history and basic American stuff. Kyle Cox: So, everyone, when I came back, including at school, thought I was actually Scottish, no one believed that I was an American. And, for me, as a child, it was a very formative experience because I was a stranger in a strange land. And then, I was a stranger in my own land. Paul Casey: Wow. Kyle Cox: Until, kind of feeling like a stranger in both places, after basically going through acculturation and socialization and Scotland made me, so that I was no longer an American. Paul Casey: Wow. Kyle Cox: But, it really again, formed a lot of my wife experience a kid, good and bad, honestly. Paul Casey: And probably, funded a good therapist for couples. All right. You got to do the accent. You have some to talk about the library on your accent. Kyle Cox: Yeah. And so, I can usually do a pretty good Scottish accent, not always on a command. The town... I don't know if you remember the song, and I would walk 500 miles? Paul Casey: Yeah. Kyle Cox: They lived in Fife, which is where we lived. And the town they lived in was called Otter Box in Scotland. So, Otter Box in Scotland. That's a real word, by the way. But, Scotland and it was very specific and it's a wonderful broke. Watch Outlander, if you want more Scottish accents. I probably am not the greatest at it anymore. Kyle Cox: But, the plus side though, Paul, is I can watch a lot of stuff from the BBC and have no problem understanding what they're saying. And a lot of other people need subtitles. So, I guess that's my expense superpower as a result of living in the US. Paul Casey: All right. Tri-City Influence listeners, if you need a translator, you've got Kyle on your side. Kyle Cox: You can have me translate BBC shows, if you need me. Paul Casey: Awesome. We'll dive in. Let's check in with our Tri-City Influencers sponsor. Take back your weekends and let Senske Services be your green team. Senske Services is a locally owned and operated company founded in 1947, that has been working with families for nearly 75 years to help create and maintain environments that are great places to live, work and play. Paul Casey: They are a family business built on family values. And Senske dedicated to delivering quality and providing exceptional customer service. Senske offers a variety of services including full service lawn care, pest control, tree care and Christmas decor. You may have seen their holiday lights show at the corporate office, it is a must see every year. Paul Casey: Services are backed by the Senske promise, which means the job will be done right or they come back out. To learn more about the services Senske provides and the offers available to you, visit senske.com. Thank you for your support of leadership development in the Tri-Cities. Paul Casey: So, welcome, Kyle. I was privileged to meet you through Leadership at Tri-Cities which I've been able to save for many of my guests for this podcast over the years because they are the influential people here in Tri-Cities. And you have served on the board, they're even class director and they're excited about being the next class director again, and... Kyle Cox: Yeah. Paul Casey: ... adding value wherever you go. So, let's look at our Tri-City Influencers can get to know you. Tell us a little bit about the libraries, and then a little bit more about what you do for about 80% of your average day. Kyle Cox: Sure. The combi libraries is an inner County Library District. So, we serve Ben Franklin counties. We also serve Adams County. So, we have 12 branches to cross but in Franklin County. The only place we don't have service is City of Richland, which has their own library. But we go from Prosser, the West all the way up to Columbus to the East, which is about halfway to Pullman. Kyle Cox: And then, two branches in candlewick, two branches in Pascoe, serve a lot of people, over a quarter million residents. Actually, are served by MCL. So, what do I do? I'm the Executive Director, the Chief Librarian. Most of what I do every week is coaching people. That's a huge part of my job. We have over 120 employees. Kyle Cox: We have, again, over 12 work sites. We serve a lot of people, different needs. Obviously, it's not just books at the library. We help people in so many different parts of their lives, finding jobs, helping people write resumes, navigating the internet, also checking out lots of books and movies, et cetera. Kyle Cox: But, again, primarily, what I spend most of my time on is coaching people. I have a fantastic team of really good people who know what they're doing, which makes my job easy. But, it's more about coaching. A big part of it is, obviously, resource allocation, monitoring resources, seeing where they're going, are we accomplishing what we're setting out to do. Kyle Cox: And then, I think the third big part of what I spend my time doing is looking for opportunities and threats. I think most really good CEOs are looking at the outside. They're scanning the environment to seeing what's out there in terms of how we could better serve our customers, how we could better serve our region, how we could leverage partnerships, to better serve people, with existing partners, other agencies. Kyle Cox: And then, also, what's coming down the pike, what could threaten us in our ability to fulfill our mission. And so, that means lots of news. I read a lot of news, I'm got to, what, read a lot of trade news, especially. I'm a news junkie. So, I consume a lot of news that like news, past. Obviously, 12 plus months has met a lot of news, just consuming constantly. Kyle Cox: So, again, I would say coaching people, resource allocation, and then constantly scanning for opportunities and threats. That's probably the three most common things I do in my week. Paul Casey: I love how you lead with coaching as number one. Obviously, I'm a coach. And so, that's music to my ears when a leader says that. Coaching, of course, is a style of leadership. Kyle Cox: Yeah. Paul Casey: And I just think it gets the best reception from your team because it's this arm round mentality of, "Hey, let's go towards this goal together." And I love how you lead with that. Why do you love what you do? Kyle Cox: I think at the end of the day, I think you can't love what you do 100% of the time. And it's more about finding the why. And, sometimes, again, everyone, including CEOs and tech breakers, et cetera, have to be reminded there why. One of the things that comes to mind frequently is, I was on the State Library Board for six years. We have meetings all over the state. I went to Seattle and Olympia quite a bit. Kyle Cox: I had a little bit of break time between flights and my meetings. And so, I went to my childhood library in West Seattle that I loved very much. I have very fond memories of. It's a beautiful old Carnegie building. And I had not been there for 20 plus years. And so, I thought, "You know what? I'm going to go to my library after being in hours of library meetings." And I walking into the up, those steps into this very old, beautiful brick building, I was very much overwhelmed by how much I loved being in that space and how many memories I had of learning. Kyle Cox: I am a lifelong learner. I love learning. If I'm not learning, I'm actually not very happy, quite frankly. I know that of myself. And I'm reminded of being a small, again, a small child walking up to what I thought was a huge building, which in retrospect was not that big. But, to me, it was gigantic. And just remembering that I could find anything I ever wanted to learn about or read about or listen to, and that people at the library are not there to tell me what is good or bad, but just to help me find that. Kyle Cox: And, I'll be honest, I was very little overwhelmed by the positive feelings that I had. That reminds me of why I do what I do. In our country, we are privileged... People forget this, we have a right to information in this country. Libraries exist to help people find information to learn, to escape, to enjoy. We don't even care why you're doing it. But, we have an obligation to provide you with that experience. Kyle Cox: Why brace people forget in our country are the most used cultural organizations, in almost every community go to. You don't think about it, because we're quiet. We're not as self-imposing or obvious or loud. If we're doing our job well, you're having a seamless experience. It's positive, you're getting what you need. Kyle Cox: And so, I think, for me, I love what I do, because I can help others feel the way that I felt as a child. And that, I feel whenever I could, walking through the steps, I'm like, "Oh, my gosh, there's literally anything I want to learn about, or I want to read about, or I want to experience." And that makes, I think lives more meaningful, more impacted, more aware of others. Kyle Cox: I think that the more that you learn, the more empathy you build in yourself and towards others. And I think that that's, again, an underlying human need that we have that we frequently overlook, because we're too busy dealing with everything else. Libraries do wonderful things on relatively little money compared to a lot of the other services that we fund to the public sector. But, we do it because we care about others. We care about our community. And, ultimately, we believe that information and knowledge helps make people have a better life and enjoy their lives more. That's why I love what I do. Paul Casey: Makes me want to go to the library right now. Kyle Cox: You should, Paul. Why aren't you at the library right now? And, of course, we have a fantastic... We have Libby... Paul Casey: That's right. Kyle Cox: ... that means so people use digital resources now because of COVID. There was a period where we couldn't even check out anything physically for about five months, it was crazy. But, now, again, we have so many people every single day. I use it, audio books, eBooks, magazines, it's all there, and it's all on your tablet or phone. If it's not checked out, you can get an under 30 seconds, typically. So... Paul Casey: Yeah, tell the listeners about Libby because I know some of our listeners do use Audible or maybe some other pie graph. Kyle Cox: And I do too, I subscribe to Audible. I hope that's okay to say. I know my kids both love audiobooks. And so, and, sometimes, because of how digital publishing works, we can't as a library always get digital materials... Paul Casey: Sure. Kyle Cox: ... for specific imprints like Amazon's, Imprint, doesn't always release or sell to library. Paul Casey: Okay. Kyle Cox: So, there is complications. But, Libby is the app that you can download. What you would do is, if you have an MCL card, you just basically sign in with your card information. The access to our entire collection, which is it's one of the biggest in the state. We started really early back in 2009. That's before most people... And we've just been putting money into it, and resources every single year. Kyle Cox: During COVID, because we were able to be open to the public, we shifted quite a bit of money, almost a quarter million dollars just to the new materials for digital... Paul Casey: Wow. Kyle Cox: ... because the demand was so, so high. So, yeah, demo Libby on your app store, you'll log in with your library account information. And Paul is showing you right now, it's fantastic. But, honestly, the nice thing too is that there's no late fees. We don't have late fees anymore, anyway. But, it will check itself back in, if we even tell you want to renew this, if no one's waiting for it, you can get it renewed, it's a really fast, convenient way of doing it. Kyle Cox: Again, not just eBooks, but also audio books in both English and Spanish. And we're working in other languages, too. We have picture books for kids and early beginning readers really chapter books. And then, a huge magazine collection, which I'm really excited about. Magazines are in that weird period of, are they going to survive or not? Kyle Cox: And because of the digital platform, there's a great way to consume magazines without feeling like you're killing half a forest just to get your magazine fixed in every month. Paul Casey: Man, it's so good, so good. I love how you said leaders are learners. And when we're learning, we're growing. And you have all created the atmosphere of learning there in the library. And it is one of the first things, I think of when I think about where do I go to learn? Where do I go to grow? And that's fantastic. Paul Casey: So, let me go there with you. So, leaders have to have a growth mindset, which you do. And I can't tell you how many of my guests when I asked the very last question of how do you want to gain more influence? They say something along the lines of keep learning, keep growing, keep professionally developing. So, how do you keep evolving as a leader, Kyle? What's in your professional development plan? Kyle Cox: I think part of it is a good indicator if I'm growing is, if I'm uncomfortable. Paul Casey: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Kyle Cox: Honestly, I think that we... In our society, our experience is designed to be as comfortable as possible. I think that private sector, public sector, it's trying to be as comfortable as possible. So, what I like to do quite frankly, is again, I consider a lot of news, I read a lot of time looking for new things and thoughts. There's a couple of places I go to for professional's sources, some really good blogs that I really love because they're already kind of a thought leader on that. Kyle Cox: But, what I have found, though, is that for me to evolve, I do need to be a little uncomfortable. I need to have something that challenges me. Sometimes, with app, especially if I become a little too uncomfortable with an idea, I'll have to hit pause, and I need to come back to it. But, I have done enough work on myself that I'm aware of that. Kyle Cox: And for me, it's also figuring out why am I uncomfortable because of this? What about this is making me uncomfortable? Frequently, when someone has a great idea, it's not because they want to make you mad, or alienate you or exclude you. It's because there's a need that you don't fully understand yet. I think that's part of it. It's figuring out, how can I better understand other's needs or where they're coming from? Kyle Cox: And I think as I understand that, more and more, and it's something I'm going to be working on until I die. It helps me grow as a person. Again, I think empathy is so important. It is a trait that we frequently overlook in leadership development. As I've told, a lot of my staff, like some of the stuff that you're working on to be a leader at work is going to make you a better human being, and we are one unit. We are not... I tried doing that. I think, a lot of leaders have tried doing that, where you think, what, this is business mode. This is personal mode. This is parenting mode. We're all the same person. Kyle Cox: And so, as you're working on things, and you're learning about things, and sometimes, confronting things that you don't particularly like, as you work on that, and as you consider it, and as you begin practice those skills, and that awareness over and over again, you're going to be better in general, and you're going to hopefully, improve all parts of your life because you can't be great at one thing, and horrible another because those innate skills are so connected. Kyle Cox: You mentioned coaching. Coaching, again, as I did more and more coaching, I think with my own staff, I saw myself getting more coaching focused with the kids, with my kids a little bit more. And so, it's this idea, I tell this to myself all the time, we are one person. You can't get really good at this one part. I mean, I guess you can, I would not recommend it. Because you're compartmentalizing different parts of your personality, which is not healthy. Kyle Cox: But, again, the more that you engage with all parts of yourself, and build up again, more self-awareness, more empathy, so that you can understand the fact that if I get offended or upset or uncomfortable, where is that coming from? Because typically, it's not the source. The source is not intended to do that to me. Again, it could, chances are it won't. Kyle Cox: And I feel like that's how I grow is by finding a little room for growth. I like being challenged. My wife has said that point blank, if I am bored, I get complacent. And so, I like having a stretch goal because it makes me feel the need to work there. Again, sometimes, I have to hit pause and say, "Okay, you're getting too upset about this, come back to this in 24 hours or come back to this in a week." But, I think it's the quest of self-improvement. Paul Casey: Yeah. Kyle Cox: I think, where you just have to constantly be looking at the fact that, again, not everyone is setting out to make your life harder or to whatever you think, but in the moment, we might feel that way. So, yeah, I hope that answered the question. Paul Casey: Yeah, it's good stuff. It reminds me of the, like the red, yellow and green zones that we can have where green is just, we're in that productivity. It feels really comfortable, almost too easy some complacency sets in. Yellow is that stretch zone that somebody won't call it fun, comfortable, right? It's where you have to... Kyle Cox: Yeah. Paul Casey: ... try to put on a little bit of a smirk, smile and say, "Alright, I'm going to go into this zone where I'm a little uncomfortable, because I know I need to push myself with a challenge. And then, red zone, you don't want to go there because that's the burnout zone where you just... Kyle Cox: Exactly. Paul Casey: ... out or freak out, and go into a panic attack. So, we just need more yellow zone in our life. And it sounds like you like to go there. Kyle Cox: I do. I do. The challenge, though, is that when you've been in yellow and red zones a lot, sometimes, you don't always recognize that a green zone is a good place to be too. Paul Casey: Yeah. Kyle Cox: I think that's the other piece too, is that, again, there's this... We're socialized over our entire lives as to what a leader or a boss or whatever you want to call is. And I think part of that for, especially in your 20s is, you're busy. You're constantly busy. But if I'm busy, I'm productive. If I busy, I'm impactful. If I'm busy, you know what I mean? It's this whole idea that I have to constantly be in yellow right up to the edge of red as much as possible to be like this, on the move, impactful leader. And I think that we also have to make time to enjoy the green zones that we have. Paul Casey: Yeah. Kyle Cox: I think frequently, we undervalue the green zones during times that we have because I think that's how you help feed your own individual needs is that, it doesn't have to be yellow all the time. It doesn't have to be bright orange, whatever color you want to use. But, I think, that's also that means stepping back and learning about yourself, and what your own needs are. And in addition to the needs of your team, just being able to say, sometimes, it's good to have green. Paul Casey: Yeah. Kyle Cox: And, sometimes, it's not always a negative to be able to have time where you can breed, where you cannot feel like you're constantly stretching or pulling or pushing yourself or others or a project. Paul Casey: Yeah, that's good because... And if you're listening, and you're an achiever, you totally know what Kyle's talking about because it's always like continuous improvement, on to the next thing, push, push, push. And the green zone can both be a strength zone, or it could be a recovery zone... Kyle Cox: Exactly. Paul Casey: ... or just pull back, and then get out of overdrive for a while, just stay in drive. And now, let's go to a break. And when we come back, I'm sure the green zone is also helpful for your mental and emotional wellness. Kyle Cox: Yeah. Paul Casey: So, I'm going to ask you about that in just a moment. But, first, a shout out to our sponsor. Are you dreaming of a lush, weed free lawn? Have you heard what your neighbors are saying about their Senske lawn? A lush, weed free lawn in within your reach. Don't just take it from us. Listen to what people in your community are saying about Senske Services. Paul Casey: Lavanda L. of Kennewick said, "I've been a customer for several years, and I can depend on Senske to take good care of my lawn. I always get a call before each treatment and a detailed report after." Mildred W. of Kennewick said, "The workers are always willing to satisfy the customers. And that says a lot. Thank you for everything." Paul Casey: Senske Services is a locally-owned and operated company that has been in the business of lawn and tree care for nearly 75 years. This means nobody knows green lawns like Senske. Let Senske help you achieve the lawn of your dreams by visiting senske.com today to learn more. Paul Casey: So, Kyle, to avoid burnout negativity, we probably do need to go into green zone, how do you feed your mental and emotional health and wellness on a regular basis? Kyle Cox: That's a good question. It's something that I struggle with, I think. I think that... I don't want to say it's the why of productivity because that's a little too strong of a word. But, I think it's making time for self-care and space. It's making time for green zones. I worked with an executive coach for many years. I had a great experience with them. And part of it was making sure that you create a great sense because I was so used to being in yellow. It was being able to say,"You know what? I don't need to be running five things right now. I don't want to be on five boards." There was a point where I was on six boards. Paul Casey: Oh, my goodness. Kyle Cox: I'm on one board right now. And, and that feels good. I think for me, it's being able to say and prioritize, tonight, we can stay in, or being kind with yourself. I think, it's something that leaders need to do a better job with, is learning to be kind to yourself, because as you, again, depending on your life experience that can be difficult because of standards that you set for yourself or perceptions that you worry about. Learning to be kinder to yourself means that you have more capacity to be kinder to others. Paul Casey: Oh, it's good. Kyle Cox: And I think that it's something I'm going to be working on again, the rest of my life is trying to be kinder to myself. A lot of leaders, I think set really unrealistic expectations or overly stringent expectations of what we think we should be able to do. Knowing all the things that we know that others don't know that are going on in our head in our life experience. Kyle Cox: And so, I think those lily pads or green zones that you get to hop to is where you get to say, "You know what? I am really burned out right now on this." And being honest, in terms of, is there something else I could work on? Is there another project that's actually more impactful? Or could have more potential to be impactful? You know, what does that look like? Kyle Cox: But, again, that comes back to self-awareness and being able to say pause, I'm not reacting. I am proactive, you know what I mean? I'm being proactive in terms... And intentional with how I spend my time and energy and effort. Paul Casey: Yeah. Kyle Cox: And that takes a lot of work. It's something, again, I've got to worry about the rest of my life. And I know that. Paul Casey: Yeah, what I like about that is what you said about when you set realistic expectations for yourself, when you're kind to yourself, when you forgive yourself, then you expand that capacity to do that with your team, and all those around you because no one wants to live under a workaholic, slave driver, as a boss, who's always pushing themselves so much the extreme that you feel like you've got to push to the extreme too. Kyle Cox: Yeah. Paul Casey: So, being under a leader that is intentional about their own self-care really feels like an, "Ahhh." Like, okay, my leader gets work life balance or whatever we want to call that. Good stuff. So, it's easy to get trapped in reacting to crises in a leadership where you feel like you're just putting out fires all day. And as leaders, we have to put out our fires here and there. But, how do you, Kyle, specifically step back and take a look at the bigger picture? Kyle Cox: I think part of it is checking in with your team. I think just hearing where they're coming from too because whether it's a fire or a crisis or emergency, how you perceive it might be very different than your team perceives it. And, just being very aware of that, I think that when I was younger, and cutting my teeth, although I'm still cutting my teeth as a leader. I think, I had a tendency to be more disclosing in terms of... This is everything I know. Kyle Cox: And I think that as I've gotten more seasoned to this, and gain more and more years of this, I have a little more judicious in terms of, "Okay, this is where we're at." And I think part of it is being able to hit pause and say, "Okay, what do we need to know? What's coming down the pike?" So, that when we create space to have conversations about what to do, it doesn't feel so urgent, or this is where I'm already going. Kyle Cox: I think, sometimes in crises, you have staff that want you to be directive, and they want you to say, "This is what we're going to do," because depending on the level of crisis, or emergency. And, sometimes, you have to do that. You also hopefully, have built competency in relationship with your staff so that they trust you and understand that if you're recommending something, or if you're directing them to do something, it's based on X, Y, or Z. And it's because that relationship in that experience. Kyle Cox: I think, for me, it's just again, being self-aware. And sometimes, checking in with my wife. We're working at home during COVID that was really helpful, just to get an unbiased third party, that's the benefit of working with a coach, I can say that, is that you get to have people that you trust that are not part of your core kind of nest at work. Kyle Cox: It's also just kind of, for me, I'm a learner, I like data, I'm a planner. I think, at any given planner out of necessity. But, I like planning. And I think for me, it's about the scanning, what do we know what's coming down the pike through a COVID? I would call and I would talk to the Health District and the Governor's office. Even if it wasn't, because I was going to get information, so that I knew, and I could... Again, share with my staff, "Hey, this is what's coming down the pike. And this is what we can expect." Paul Casey: Yeah. Kyle Cox: I mean, in a lot of ways, it's about shepherding and guiding in terms of the more that I know the terrain, the more that I can help us get to where we need to go. Paul Casey: Yeah. Kyle Cox: With the least amount of harm or danger. I told that to some younger leaders in the past is that, sometimes, you don't get to make the best decision. You don't get to make a perfect decision. Sometimes, it is, how can I do the least harm out of this situation. Again, hopefully, you're not doing that very often. But, again, that takes experience that takes being... Working with your team, and navigating these kinds of experiences. Kyle Cox: It also means, I think, giving some room for people. Not everyone's going to get the information initially. You're going to have to repeat it. You're going to have to talk about it. You're going to have to reiterate it. And you can have... That's been my experience with COVID is that, be prepared for talking, be prepared for conversation, be prepared for lessons learned and changing with your team. Paul Casey: Yeah. Kyle Cox: People refer to talk about it. You know what I mean? Paul Casey: Right. Yeah, you said a few great things. There are some gems that create relationships with your team, because it's hard for someone to follow a leader they don't completely trust. So, those relationships, when crises come are it's forged before that. Not during the crisis, usually, it's before that. You can spend some capital then, I guess. Paul Casey: But, during the crisis, then you said create space, space for the opportunities coming down the pike, create space for reiteration of a message, create space for those conversations. And then, he said, create that self-awareness of where am I at right now, so that I'm not reacting in crisis, people are start looking to me to be the rock and leadership. And so, I need to make sure that I'm taking good care of myself. So, a lot of good stuff there. Kyle Cox: Yeah. Paul Casey: All those are intentional leadership behaviors, none of them are urgent in the moment, right? They're quadrant too in the old covey model of not urgent, but boy... Kyle Cox: Yeah. Paul Casey: ... when you need to call on that moments, if you've built that quadrant too intentionality, it'll come through for you. So, one of the most difficult tasks that a leader as you know, Kyle, is having the difficult conversation, right? Kyle Cox: Yeah. Paul Casey: I think, every leader has these moments where they have to confront a team member. How do you bolster the courage to do that? Kyle Cox: Practice. I think, when I've had to have difficult conversations, and I've had to have multiple difficult conversations, it's practicing. Again, sometimes, it's a script. It's making sure that you know what needs to be communicated. It also depends again, on the dynamic, if you're working in a union environment or other kinds of environments. There's also mechanics associated with that. Kyle Cox: One of the things that I worked on with my coach was realization, I should say. I've talked about this with my wife, I said, "If I care about someone, I have a hard time giving critical feedback." It's something that I have been aware of, again, it's a huge... It can hamper your ability to effectively have difficult conversations. If you're worried about, I'm going to hurt their feelings, or I don't want to hurt their feelings. Kyle Cox: So, it's something I worked on with my coach quite a bit was this idea of thinking about issues as a specific thing. Again, there's a lot of strategies to do this really well. But, I think just being very mindful of what I'm talking about, where I'm coming from, why it's relevant. Again, if you're having regular conversations, you shouldn't be having this many difficult conversations. Paul Casey: Right. Kyle Cox: I think that's the other piece too is that having regular check-ins and feedback as much as possible, which I acknowledge has been difficult with COVID, especially, is that you're losing some of that. I would say, positive interaction that isn't an issue or a crisis, or something that's what you would consider critical or corrective feedback. Kyle Cox: Having that dialogue going, I think, it really helps with that. At the library, when we were still shut down, we were having... Our exec teams having twice a week meetings, just to check in, because we didn't see each other at the office. And it was just as much to be seen and communicate with each other as it was to convey information and give updates. Kyle Cox: I think the more that you... It's also okay to say this is difficult. I think as a leader, we forget the fact that we can own our own emotions and say, "This is difficult for me." And you will even say why, if you really want to, but owning the fact that you as a human have emotions and feelings. And, sometimes, they're irrational. And, sometimes, they are contradictory. And, sometimes, they're involving things that your staff don't even understand or fully grasp because you haven't shared that with them, or et cetera. And so, I think I'm just taking stock of that fact, I write out, always write out when you need to get out. Paul Casey: Yeah. Kyle Cox: Practice it, review it, because in a lot of those conversations, I mean, there's a couple of different ways those conversations can go. But, just being able to be on point in terms of, this is the stuff I got to get out. I think that really helps. And then, again, own your perspective, own your emotions. If something is disappointing to you, you can say, I disappointed for blank, provide evidence as do that, you know what I mean? Paul Casey: Yeah. Kyle Cox: I think that we get so caught up in the critical feedback piece that we can get. It's hard to get you to unwrap yourself when you get so wrapped up in this. Paul Casey: Yup. Kyle Cox: Am I going to hurt their feelings? Am I going to be seen as blank, too mean, too harsh, too critical? Paul Casey: Yeah, I like how you said the regular stream of feedback is probably going to lessen the need for too much or too big of critical feedback, because you're... There's also... Kyle Cox: Yeah. Paul Casey: Those where... I'm keeping in touch with my team so well, that a lot of time hasn't gone by or something has blown up in between. So, that one, I've seen your script because I've had the privilege of working with your organization, and you're very thorough in your script for a critical conversation. I think that is excellent because if emotions do stir up and they will, you could squirrel away and ramble, and then put your foot in your mouth and not get to the outcome that you're trying to get in this moment. And so, I love how thorough you are in preparing for those conversations, good stuff. Kyle Cox: I think part of it, Paul, is it's... I don't want to fix the situation, I want to make it better. I think that's the difference is... Paul Casey: Yeah. Kyle Cox: ... if you want to make it better, because it's not just about interventional feedback, where I'm going to have an intervention because I need to change this. I think part of that is being able to step back and also say, "Hey, if we can work on these interrelated issues, too, we can make the whole thing better. And I think that's usually... It takes a lot more work. It takes a lot more time. But, if you can do that, I think you can get a better result. Kyle Cox: It also shows that you're investing in the person. It's not just about, I want you to fix this. It's that, I care about you as a human being. I trust in you, you're a good valued member of my team, let's work on these things because this will make you better and I'll make you a better team player. Kyle Cox: But, you have to invest in your staff as much as you can, and it's something that's tough because you think about trainings with dollars and cents and like per diem and all these things. But, it's also, okay, how can we support people as much as possible? Paul Casey: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah, I heard it once that it's care fronting not confronting. You're having this conversation out of care. And you're even... I think, you alluded to it in there is, there could be some organizational dynamics that is hurting this employee's performance. And we're just going to be honest about that, too. We're not here to bang them over the head, we're investing in them in their future. So, that's some of the best answers I've heard on this podcast. So, way to go, Kyle. Kyle Cox: Oh, good. That's good. Paul Casey: I hope that was helpful to our listeners. Kyle Cox: Yeah. Paul Casey: Finally, what advice would you give to new leaders or anyone who wants to keep growing and gaining more influence? Kyle Cox: I would say, your goal should not be to gain influence. I would say, that's not my goal. It's to make things better. Paul Casey: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Kyle Cox: You said, "How you gain more influence?" I would actually say, if that's your objective, you need to take stock of your priorities, quite frankly. It should not be about... I mean, I'm thinking about the Otters, the high [inaudible 00:36:02] disc of really influence. Paul Casey: Yes. Kyle Cox: And, at different times in my life, I've displayed more of those traits. But, I think for me, it'd be take time to learn, Leadership Tri-Cities is a fantastic program. One of the great things that happens with Leadership Tri-Cities is that, you get a basically, a scan of the terrain, the scan of a region, you get to look at all the different sectors that serve our community, and you get to see the challenges and the obstacles. And, also, the opportunities that we all face as we serve our community. Kyle Cox: And so, I would say, as a leader, we have a tendency to think or want to think. I know what I'm doing, I am comfortable in my own skin, I can lead the charge of San Juan Hill, like Teddy Roosevelt. And I think that that's a very two-dimensional view of what leadership is. I think leadership is so many things combined, part of it is interpersonal skills. It is the ability to communicate. It's the ability to communicate verbally and non-verbally. Kyle Cox: But, I think so much of it is, is also allowing yourself time to learn from others, allowing yourself time in learning. They realize, you don't have to act all the time. You don't have to lead the charge all the time. Also, take stock of the fact that that San Juan Hill to use this metaphor might not be worth hurting up. It's just a matter of just taking stock of what you care about personally, and figure out how you can translate that into how you can take. Kyle Cox: You can basically, I'm trying to say it right. You can operationalize what you care about personally, and your professional behavior. And you can say this is how I can make things better. Again, I love learning. If I'm not learning, I'm not happy. It's a good thing I'm a librarian, because I think I'd be really unhappy if I wasn't in a learning profession. Kyle Cox: For me, again, it's figuring out how you can learn. I would say that, how can I learn about something? I don't know. How can I learn about people? I don't understand or know. How can I figure out the obstacles that people are facing and how can I help plug into that if I want to do that. It's just about learning. It's about having a growth mindset. Kyle Cox: If you want to be a good leader, you cannot have a fixed mindset that does not work. Those are two totally different things. You've got to be willing to learn and I think part of that is also being willing to be in situations where you are a little uncomfortable, where everyone might not agree with you. And being able to step back and say, "What can I learn from this? How can I learn from this? What can I do? Is this actually a place for me too?" Kyle Cox: Being honest is that, not every place is a place for you as a leader. And just being aware of mindful of that. Again, hopefully, surrounding yourself with people who care about things. I think passion is really important. Paul Casey: Yeah. Kyle Cox: For me, that's always a challenge is, if I'm not excited about it, it makes my life a whole lot harder. But, if I'm excited about it, I will give it 110% because I want to succeed. So, I'd say, learning about yourself, get as much self-awareness as humanly possible. Paul Casey: Yes. Kyle Cox: Work on yourself, work with a coach. I think that's a great way to develop as a leader. Look for organizations like Leadership Tri-Cities, which can help you expand your knowledge base and your experience base. Be kind to yourself. And then, again, all those things contribute to a growth mindset. And not even a growth mindset, a growth life. Paul Casey: Yeah. Kyle Cox: It's a lot easier to help others to grow if you're growing yourself. Paul Casey: That's so true. Yep, yep, have those leader, have those learner glasses on all the time. If I could sum up that last paragraph, that's what it would be both yourself, others, the situation, your team, all around. Great stuff. So, Kyle, how can listeners contact you if they wanted to connect with you? Kyle Cox: So, I mean, the easiest way would be through the library. Again, if you go to the library website, midcolumbianlibraries.org, you can get a hold of me that way. I'm also the one board, I'm on right now is Leadership Tri-Cities. I'm the class director for Class 26, which will be happening in 2022 at this point, but I'm involved with that. Kyle Cox: I'm happy to talk with listeners, if you want more information, although I would fully acknowledge they might know more about it than I do, so. Or, if you want access to great books, movies, materials, articles, et cetera, you can always take advantage of your local library and Mid-Columbian Libraries. Yeah. Paul Casey: You're here. Awesome. Kyle Cox: Keep reading, keep reading, keep learning. Honestly, this life is so complex. And I think to be a leader, you have to be living it. And you've got to figure out what that looks like from you because what it looks like for me, and you, Paul, it's different than what it is for anyone listening right now. Paul Casey: That's true. Kyle Cox: And there's a lot of opportunities to contribute and to give, and to support. And, find where you fits. And that means, trial and error. Paul Casey: It does. Kyle, thanks again for all you do to make the Tri-Cities a great place. And keep reading well. Kyle Cox: Thank you. Yes, keep reading, keep living. Thanks, Paul. Paul Casey: Let me wrap up our podcast today with the leadership resource to recommend. It's called Vidyard, V-I-D-Y-A-R-D, Vidyard. I stumbled upon through a recommendations where you can send video messages, you can attach them to an email and instead of just emailing somebody, you can just talk to them. They open up the attachment and there you are saying, "Hello, you can be..." If it's a potential client, you can introduce yourself. If it's a thank you, you can be super personal from your heart. And now, they can hear your tone of voice where they can't just in a plastic email. Paul Casey: So, check out Vidyard. They've got a free membership, and there's also a paid membership that can put some bells and whistles with it. But, it's just a way to be more personal in your email by doing it by video. Again, this is Paul Casey, I want to thank my guests Kyle Cox from Mid-Columbia Libraries for being here today on the Tri-City Influencer Podcast. Paul Casey: And we want to thank our TCI sponsor and invite you to support them. We appreciate you making this possible, so that we can collaborate to inspire leaders in our community. Finally, one more leadership tidbit for the road to help you make a difference in your circle of influence. Max Dupree says, "The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say, thank you, and in between the leader is a servant." Until next time, KGF, keep growing forward. Speaker 2: Thank you to our listeners for tuning in to today's show. Paul Casey is on a mission to add value to leaders by providing practical tools and strategies that reduce stress in their lives and on their teams, so that they can enjoy life and leadership and experience their key desired results. Speaker 2: If you'd like more help from Paul in your leadership development, connect with him at growingforward@paulcasey.org for a consultation that can help you move past your current challenges and create a strategy for growing your life or your team forward. Speaker 2: Paul would also like to help you restore your sanity to your crazy schedule and getting your priorities done every day by offering you his free control my calendar checklist. Go to www.takebackmycalendar.com for that productivity tool or open a text message to 72000 and type the word growing. Paul Casey: The Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast was recorded at Fuse, SPC by Bill Wagner of Safe Strategies.  

Paul Casey: Bulls are the gasoline that make the vision goes somewhere, Speaker 2: Raising the water level of leadership in the Tri-Cities of Eastern Washington, it's in Tri-Cities influencer podcast. Welcome to the TC podcast. We're local leadership and self-leadership expert Paul Casey interviews, local CEOs, entrepreneurs, and non-profit executives to hear how they lead themselves and their teams. So we can all benefit from their wisdom and experience. Here's your host, Paul Casey of growing forward services, coaching and equipping individuals and teams to spark breakthrough success. Paul Casey: It's a great day to grow forward. Thank you for joining me for today's episode with Zahra Roach. She is the executive director of the children's developmental center and a fun fact about her. She tells me this since English, isn't her first language once in a while, she might mess up a colloquialism. So Zahra, tell us, tell us about that a little bit. Zahra Roach: Yeah. So my first language, thank you, Paul, for having me, my first language is the fifth, most spoken language in, in the world. And I learned like many people English when I started kindergarten. And then I went on to be an English major and teach English at the high school, high school level. But every once in a while I do use certain phrases incorrectly. Like I will say, you know, staff turnover and then my spouse, John will laugh heartedly and say, no apple turnover, staff overturn. And so it's, it's not very frequent that it happens, but you know, he gets a kick out of it. And so did others. Oh yeah, you are not a native English speaker. So yeah, that's just, Paul Casey: That's awesome. And what about grit and what a great way to learn English is to major in it? Well, we're going to dive in after checking in with our Tri-City influencer sponsors, take back your weekends and let Senske services be your green team. Senske services is a locally owned and operated company founded in 1947. That has been working with families for nearly 75 years to help create and maintain environments that are great places to live, work and play. They're a family business built on family values and skiing dedicated to delivering quality and providing exceptional customer service. Senske offers a variety of services, including full service, lawn care, pest control, tree care, and Christmas decor. You may have seen their holiday light show at the corporate office. It is a must see every year services are backed by the Senske promise, which means the job will be done right. Paul Casey: Or they come back out to learn more about the services Senske provides and the offers available to you visit [inaudible] dot com. Thank you for your support of leadership development in the Tri-Cities. Well, welcomes our era. It was a privilege to meet you a boy. It was between two and four years ago. I was doing a strategic planning retreat for the children's developmental center. And yeah, I think you were very pregnant at the time for our member. Right. And you had barely come onto the board have moments, so your eyes were big and this was my first meeting of you. Zahra Roach: That's right. And that was six years ago. I know, just because my daughter's about to have her sixth birthday. And so she was an honorary board member. She came to those meetings with me first and you know, the card carrier then as she got a little bit bigger and started crawling around and we couldn't contain her to just the car seat, I had to leave her at home, but that's right. Yeah. The children's developmental centers that in my life and yeah, our children's lives for some time now. Paul Casey: Yeah. Look at you now, executive director so that our Tri-City influencers can get to know you a bit. Tell us about the CDC. What, what the mission is there and then tell us a little bit more what you do as executive director. Zahra Roach: Yeah. So the children's developmental center been in existence and Benton and Franklin counties for 44 years and has been serving families, children in particular with therapeutic services for developmental delays and disabilities. So what that means is we have speech, language pathologists, occupational therapists, a physical therapists, special education teachers and educational assistants. And so they address those early interventions as early as they are made known to us. So we get a referral and we see a kid as soon as possible, because I know from my own educational experience and profession and education is that you address those interventions and delays early on. Then you have the greatest amount of success for that child in their life. So, and a little bit of what I do for my organization, you know, is to support that, you know, support the day-to-day that my staff does because it's really important work. It's transformative work in the lives of those family members and that in particular, that child, right, they may not know it cognitively yet, but they may later on, Paul Casey: Thanks for making a difference. That is what a great mission. And it's been great to be associated with the organization and see it go it's ups and downs through the years and how funding streams change and the school district relationships change. And here at the end of 44 years still rocking it Well in your journey to where you are today. What have you learned from previous bosses, previous supervisors? I'm sure there's good and bad that, that you keep in mind today as you leave. Zahra Roach: You know, I think for me the type of learner that I am, I learn, I seek out feedback. I seek out reflection as often as possible. One of the things that my mentor Jerry Bell taught me early on when I was a student teacher, was that, you know, you keep a notebook and you look back at your day or your week, whatever time increment you want and write down the things that went well and not to well, and what would you do to change it? And so I think that's one practical thing that, you know, my mentor taught me to do that I still do today. The frequency is kind of spotty, you know, these days. But I was, whenever I remember I pull out my notebook and I try to do that for myself. And I think, you know, some of the things that I have seen in terms of, you know, leaders who are in need of, of, of just either a break or they are burnt out and you can see that, that the intention is good and it's there, but they are stretched too thin. Zahra Roach: And that, that becomes really clear and evident when you're in close proximity to them. And yeah, it's not necessarily feedback I would give unsolicited, but, but, but definitely visible. So I think that's something that I have to check into too. It's counterintuitive, right? Every Sunday I get, I take out my work laptop and I try to get ahead of the week by doing work before the week starts. And the counterintuitive thing to do is completely allow myself to enjoy the downtime that I have so that I am re-energized for the work. So yeah, that's just, I guess those are just a little bit of tidbit to buy a house. Paul Casey: That's so good. I love the celebrating of wins that your mentor shared with you. I try to do that with all my clients in every session, whether that's an individual session, a group session, often when I do strategic planning with the company, we talk about the winds. So it was just something that, what it does for your morale when you, when you go back, because our heads go down and we just like keep grinding on the next thing and what's the next problem to solve. And it's great to capture those, those thoughts, those positive thoughts. I I'm, I'm a journaler. And so I try to capture my wins or what I'm grateful for from yesterday. When I wake up today and I've been doing that for so many years, I've filled many journals and it is just a great practice to do. I love also what you shared about the, you know, the, the, the leader who may not be aware of how they're coming across, when they're running ragged. And what, what advice would you give to leaders to help them be more self-aware because clearly you've, you've experienced leaders who weren't self-aware and they're that you were getting some backlash from their over busy-ness and they're not stepping back and relaxing enough and recovering. What, what, what advice would you give? Zahra Roach: You know, just, you know, the advice that I did give, but I guess to get into more specificity, it would be too. I think we all, as individuals know the places that allow us to unplug go off the grid and recharge, whether that's in a book, whether that's going swimming, a hike, I don't know a certain place, but allowing for it to be a certain amount of time, because you do come off of work and you're still charged from it. You're still processing. Well, this conversation took place. How do I resolve this problem? And so it takes we're humans. It takes time to kind of decompress from that, to be able to enter that sort of reset space, allow yourself that, that time, you know, whether that's a day, two days a week, I'm not sure, I guess people would have to ask that themselves for me, I think it's, I think it's a week minimum week to decompress. Zahra Roach: And then I think too, for me, it's, you know, really emphasizing just the importance of sleep. And I get to the place where I am physically tired at night and, but my brain is still going. It's still actively like, oh, I've got this tomorrow and oh, this on Thursday and this on Friday. And if I do this before Friday, then I'll be even better prepared. And so kind of creating routines that help to have healthy habits around completely unplugging mentally, even if you're physically away from that workspace so that you can just recharge and come back to it with a smile. Paul Casey: That's so good. Totally agree with you. And yeah, they say that they people say, ah, you need at least three days on vacation to just flush work before you're totally pro. Especially if you're more type a wired, you know, it takes you a long time to purge work and I've found that true. Then I'm like the third day of vacation. That's when I really sleep in, like, my body's still wants to wake up at work time for a few days. And then it's like, oh, now I'm officially relaxing. So like you said, a week is probably a good timeframe for a vacation, but we also need those small recharge times as well, daily and weekly, so great stuff. So that's the decompressed times is there, we also have to fire ourselves up as leaders when we're not feeling motivated. You know, even in this last year, year and a half of COVID, where do you go for inspiration as, as a leader? Zahra Roach: You know, as strange as it sounds, sometimes I would say a couple of places sometimes within, and I have to ask myself if I weren't in the position that I were in, who might be doing it. And oftentimes I see people in leadership positions and this is, this is one of my motivations to, to get into leadership is that we see people in leadership positions who are, they are there for the ego part of it. And that is not a healthy leadership stance. And then you can see it in their organization or their work or their speaking. And so I think that, you know, one of the places that I have to go is within to ask myself that question, when I don't feel fired up and say, who would be serving in this space, if I weren't serving in a space, you know, my leadership philosophy is very much a servant leadership philosophy. Zahra Roach: You know, I'm not too good to change a paper towel roll or put on my jeans and Tenny and come to work and move boxes out to the shed or storage shed with other staff members and do the work side by side with them because all of the work is my work to do. And so those are the types of things that I have to kind of just revisit for myself. One of the, I guess, inspirational people that I just, you know, found when I was doing my master's in education was Parker Palmer, the author Parker Palmer, the courage to teach. And so whenever I pick up one of his books and revisit, just, you know, open it to a random page and go, oh yeah, you know, like this is the, this is the vocation. And to be honest, everybody, everybody is in some sort of leadership position. It may be more evident for some of us like myself and less evident, you know, like a child who might be the eldest in their family. Right. So it's all about what do we do with that, that power, that authority, how do we use it? How do we communicate with others? And so I've always just felt like tapping into Parker Palmer's books have just always reminded me about the, the servant leadership philosophy and why it's so important to, to continue to, you know, lead in, in that, that lane, that philosophy. Paul Casey: Oh yes. I really believe it's the only philosophy for leadership is that servant leadership philosophy. For sure. And I'm glad you've got a book to go to that sort of gets you recharged. I was just reading Patrick Lencioni's newest book, the motive. And by the way, if you like Patrick, Lencioni's five dysfunctions of a team guy, the death by meeting the advantage, he's got so many good books. He says the read this one first, you know, it's his most recent book because it's all about the motive in leadership. And like you mentioned, a lot of people get in there for ego or for the perks. And that is not the right motive to lead. It is all about being a servant leader, good stuff. Well, leaders also have to continuously improve right. To set the tone for leadership development of their team. So Zahra, what are you currently working on to better yourself as a leader? Zahra Roach: No, I am right now just working on jelling with my supervisors. So we are engaged in a year long process of just training where we, once a month, we have an hour and a half of kind of training or professional development in which we engage in, like, what are our learning styles, communication styles, how to give him how to give feedback, how to receive feedback, how to deliver difficult news. And so it's, I think that's one way in which, you know, I, I learned who my team is and they learn who I am and we learn how to best serve our organization and mission to the best of our capability. Paul Casey: Yeah. Great stuff. And, and you've been in your position for how long now? Your executive director position. Zahra Roach: Yeah. Paul Casey: I, I totally recommend like you're doing just to build relationships with your, your core team and, and get, like you said, get to know them, their personalities, their learning styles. So if you're, if you're a new leader, Tri-City influencers relationship building is really agenda item, number one in those first 90 days, because that's where you're building trust with your people. Great stuff. Well, how do you balance or integrate family time with work time? So you're, you're a mom, you're a wife, you're a nonprofit leader, your community focused a lot of different hats that you, you wear in life. How do you make sure everybody gets priority? Because we all know work-life balance. Isn't a real thing. Zahra Roach: Yeah. And sometimes my family suffers sometimes work suffers. Sometimes council suffers. I mean, it just is like, it is an ongoing struggle, and I don't have it perfected. So I couldn't tell you what the secret sauce is. Cause I don't know. I'm still figuring it out. I think it's a lot of it has to do with time management and figuring that out. My solution might go to seclusion for that every time it was like, well, if I do this the night before, if I make my breakfast the night before, then that I don't have to think about so I can actually eat and have mental energy do the work if I, so yeah, I think it's, it's the time management piece. Definitely a big part of it. I think it goes back to the time to unplug and just say, okay, I'm not looking at my phone. Zahra Roach: I'm, I'm fully paying attention to whatever my son is. Teaching me about Minecraft, that he is speaking a different language to me, but I'm going to pay attention to it, you know, and, and kind of just accepting out loud and saying it to people, not necessarily apologizing for it, but thanking them for their patients. Like, yeah, I was, I was disconnected for a week cause I was on vacation or I was, you know, thank you for waiting for me. I had this happening, you know, a back-to-back zoom meeting all day and I just needed to take a few bites of something before I joined your meeting five minutes late, you know, whatever it is, it's, it's, I'm still learning it. And I think that, you know, this last year has definitely taught us a lot of different lessons about time management, you know, early on in the pandemic we thought, oh, we're home. We can get so much done because now we can just go to meeting after meeting, after meeting back to back. And that's not necessarily the case. Paul Casey: I know, right. It was like, I don't even need my travel break, you know, in between clients. And then I realized, wow, that's sort of wears on, you know, looking at a screen for six, seven hours a day. So yes, we did learn a lot about time management in this pandemic, for sure. Well, Hey, before we end our next question on a, I'm going to ask her about hiring and retaining great employees. Let's do a shout out to our sponsors. Are you dreaming of a lush weed free lawn? Have you heard what your neighbors are saying about their Senske lawn, a lush weed-free lawn in, within your reach? Don't just take it from us. Listen to what people in our community are saying about Sinsky services. Lavando Elle of Kennebec said I've been a customer for several years and I can depend on Senske to take good care of my lawn. Paul Casey: I always get a call before each treatment and a detailed report after Mildred w Kennewick said, the workers are always willing to satisfy the customers. And that says a lot. Thank you for everything. Since key services is a locally owned and operated company that has been in the business of lawn and tree care for nearly 75 years. This means nobody knows green lawns. Like Senske let Sinsky help you achieve the lawn of your dreams by visiting sinskey.com today, to learn more, those are, let's talk about hiring and retaining great employees. And I know you're in your six month there, but what's your philosophy on attracting great talent. And on the, on the other side of things, what are you going to do or starting to do intentionally to make your workplace a place where employees want to stay for a long time? Zahra Roach: Paul, it is so difficult to be at an employer right now. And there is, you know, I think we are hiring and hiring for multiple positions. And I think that, you know, this past year has just caused so much change in the nature of how we work, that it's got people exploring other options. And so, you know, how do I attract the right personality? It's, it's really difficult. And I would take, I mean, you may know, I think you do know my spouse, John, and, you know, has his own company called full story. And that's what his company is all about. So I have gleaned a lot of information from him about just how do you have an authentic interview? How do you pull out relevant information about a person's character, not just their technical skills. And so it's really in the quality of questions that are asked at the time of an interview, it's about knowing your own organization and knowing your own team dynamics well enough to know what it is you're looking for in, in the soft skills of an individual and how you want them to fit into your team. Zahra Roach: And, you know, to, you know, pull from somebody famous Brine brown. It's a lot of it is about vulnerability. How do we, how do I attract somebody who is able to be vulnerable? Who knows, you know, has the humility to know that they are not perfect. They are not the expert. They're not the best they have room to grow because I think that's one of the things that no, as I said before, I am really committed in my organization to professional development and training staff and supervisors. And that goes for me as well as a former teacher, I think, you know, being a lifelong learner, that's one of those habits of mind that I have never departed from. And I still feel very strongly about that. I'm still growing and learning. And if you know, that's, what I want out of out of a staff member is that they still have that mindset as well to, to grow and learn. Paul Casey: So good. It's, I'll do a quick plug for your, for your husband's company. What's the website, Zahra Roach: It's whole story, hq.com, Paul Casey: Whole story, hq.com. Awesome. I think that's going to be even more and more important for hiring here in the, in the future. So it tries to the influencers. If you're hiring, you've got to get this information from John Roach. Yeah. I love the Bernie brown stuff too. I can't wait to listen to another audio book by her. I just bought it at the store. And all of that, the power of vulnerability is such, it builds trust so much and those soft skills are the strong skills. Right. And that's, that's what we want to listen for in those interviews. And it's tough. So the power of a, of a, a powerful question is huge. Well, there's so much to do while in the leader's chair. So there are, how do you feel about delegation? Do you struggle with it? Is it easy for you got any delegation tips that you'd like to throw out there today? Zahra Roach: Yes, I would. I am a type one personality reformed OCD, individual, and, and I still slipped back into it. Right. And it happens when I'm at my worst, when I'm at my worst, I slipped back into that. Like, if I can control everything, it will be all right. And that is completely wrong. I can't control everything. That's an illusion not possible. And so, yeah, learning to delegate is something really difficult to do because if I'm a good leader, then I know what my staff is capable of, but I simultaneously know what their deficiencies are. And so, you know, and sometimes I think, gosh, if I give this work to so-and-so, it is, there's the possibility of ABMC not happening correctly or, you know, I can identify what the potential pitfalls will be, but if I don't do it, what I have more work on my plate. Zahra Roach: Right. And, and then I'm stretching myself too thin to go back to what I said before burnout. But then also, I, I kind of robbed the opportunity from a staff member to, to push beyond what their capabilities are, what their natural talents are. I Rob both of us from a learning teaching moment and you know, me of the, the leadership moment of being able to coach a staff member into something that they haven't been able to do before. And so I have to just be more strategic about, well, what, you know, I want to set them up for success, not failure. So, you know, giving them a bite size amount of, of challenge with that delegation of doing something that they haven't done before, instead of overwhelming them with too many things at once. So yeah, it is, I would say it's, there's, there's degrees of, of how I have to handle that delegation and, and make sure that it goes off, that I handed off well, but I handed off with still a little bit of a challenge for that receiving that, that task or that project. Paul Casey: Yeah. Tri-City influencers. Anybody else struggled with that? When you get your back against the wall, you want to control everything. I think there's probably some others nodding their head with that as well. Is that interesting that we do that? We feel like we've got to control something because our life feels a little bit out of control. So we've got to be self-aware of that, but delegation is one of the ways out of the prison of that burnout and feeling overwhelmed. So love your tips on that. Delegation develops, it's a two word sentence, delegation developed period. Well, what key moves did you have to make for your organization? Just since you've been in the leader chair, maybe you're in, you're currently having to make those, you probably inherited some of the pandemic changes for just serving the children that you serve. How are you strategic in this very uncertain time, Zahra Roach: Not live inside of your strategic vision? I would say being able to modify it to what is more important right now than other strategic email objectives during this pandemic, because, you know, for us, I think it's been watching other local nonprofits who have been really successful in the virtual online space. And that has been a place where this children's developmental center has not thrived. And so that was something, as I, you know, as I interviewed for my position was something that I brought up and it was relevant. And six years ago, we were not doing that way before the pandemic. We're not doing that during pandemic either. And it does not allow us to engage with community in the place that is really the place where we're mostly at right now. And so, yeah, I've been working actively with, you know, with, let's see focal point media, we are doing a kind of a refresh of our logo. Zahra Roach: We are working with underground, creative on updating our website, working internally with staff about how to use Facebook and social media platform to better communicate our mission and what we do on a day to day basis. And those little baby steps are making a huge difference. So we have, you know, our, our supervisors are now sharing a little bit more about with parents, parent coaching tips on Facebook, they are sharing a little bit about just, you know, developmental markers to be on the lookout for. And it's driven our Facebook engagement up considerably just in the month that we started doing it. So, yeah, I think not losing sight of what are the most relevant strategic objectives for your organization. Paul Casey: Yay. Just embrace that technology. And I love what you said, focal point underground, creative, the website, the logo, I'm doing that right now as well with Spotify, digital going to refresh my website and logo. And there's just some, some, some groundedness, some foundation that links to that strategic vision that we can do when we can't do all the other live in person, things that we want to do. So kudos to you all for taking leaps forward and it's already paying off with the parents. That's pretty cool. Well, finally, Zara, what advice would you give the new leaders or anyone who wants to keep growing and gaining more influence? Zahra Roach: Yeah, I think, you know, for me, particularly right now, it's one of those counter-intuitive things. Strategic vision is like my that's my map as an executive director, how do I, you know, how do I lead this ship into the future? And, and, and then ask myself how I'm going to do it. And we are, so we are amidst like a time of so much change that it's being very intentional about how much more change to introduce right now. And so it's this balance that I have not ever had to strike before, because I'm very much, like I said, before, type one do, or like let's cross items off the list, let's get it done. And I have to be more intentional and mindful about what are already, we went from last year, never doing tele-health to completely 100% doing telehealth. And now we are in a hybrid form that we also never did before. Zahra Roach: And so I just have to know that everybody's along with me and if I charged forward and I still have people adjusting to whatever the last changes, I'm going to lose folks along the way. And so, yeah, I'd have to, I just think that it takes mindfulness about your strategy or your visioning, hold that vision you've been in your head, don't lose the vision and I'm, I'm not trying to live by fishing. I see a bright future out of all of this, but I think it's how for me, how I set the pace to get to that vision is that is the key right now. Paul Casey: Well-spoken be careful of the pace, keep the vision in mind, but be careful to pay especially of introducing change so that you can still bring everybody with you on that journey to that awesome vision. Love that. Well, how can our listeners best connect with users and also the CDC? Zahra Roach: Well, definitely connect with us on social media. I'm with the children's developmental center, there are ways with, in which people can get involved, that they can give their time or can pass forward to others in this community. The mission of what we do, because I think there's probably at least one person that we each individually know in our friends or family network that have a delay or a disability. And so I think a lot of people encounter us when they are the parent or grandparent and their child or grandchild is receiving services. And so many times I encounter people who have that moment of like, gosh, I never knew you existed before until, you know, we got our referral. And so that's something we, you know, we want people to know who we are that we've been serving this community for 44 years and doing it in a reputable way that we have been, you know, for years the lead agency in Benton and Franklin county. So I would say until we get that new website up and running, which we anticipate to be in the next month or so. Yeah. You can engage with us on social media, on Facebook. Paul Casey: Awesome. Well, thank you again for all. You agree to make the Tri-Cities afraid place and keep leading. Well, Zahra Roach: Thank you. Paul Casey: Let me wrap up our podcast today with a leadership resource to recommend. I don't know if you're a team leader and you would just love to have some plug-in plate tools to be able to implement with your team, or that's a performance review form or a one to one agenda or anything like that. That's, that's what I offer through a program called bullseye. It's a new membership community that I've just launched. And if you're a team leader, it's for you, I've got videos that you can play for your team and, and at staff meetings where you can send them an email to inspire them. I have recorded some audios for you as the leader to help you as you just work on your own mindset and to have that leadership view of things, there'll be icebreaker questions for your one to ones. There'll be links to other great leadership resources. You get a discount for growing forward products and services. And once a month, I'm going to bring in an influencer here in the Tri-Cities for a live Q and a that you can ask questions to someone you might normally not normally get a chance to connect with. So check out, bulls-eye go to Paul casey.org, and it's just $29 a month. And you're going to get just action packed stuff every single week on Thursdays. Paul Casey: Again, this is Paul Casey. I want to thank my guests, our approach from the children's developmental center for being here today on the Tri-City influencer podcast. We also want to thank our TCI sponsors and invite you to support them. We appreciate you making this possible so we can collaborate to help leaders in our community. Finally, one more leadership tidbit for the road to help you make a difference in your circle of influence it's from Zig Ziglar. He said, gratitude is the healthiest of all human emotions. The more you express gratitude for what you have, the more likely you'll have even more to express gratitude for until next time. Kgs keep growing forward. Speaker 2: Thank you to our listeners for tuning into today's show. Paul Casey is on a mission to add value to leaders by providing practical tools and strategies that reduce stress in their lives and on their teams so that they can enjoy life and leadership and experience their key desired results. If you'd like more help from Paul in your leadership development, connect with him@growingforwardatpaulcasey.org for a consultation that can help you move past your current challenges and create a strategy for growing your life or your team forward. Paul would also like to help you restore your sanity to your crazy schedule and getting your priorities done every day by offering you is free control my calendar checklist, go to WW dot, take back my calendar.com for that productivity tool or open a text message 2 7 2 0 0 0, and type the word growing Speaker 4: The Tri-Cities influencer podcast was recorded at fuse SPC by bill Wagner of safe strategies.

Paul Casey: it's a great day to grow forward thanks for joining me for today's episode and it's with me i'm going to do a solo episode for you today on leadership development that leaves a legacy.   215 00:31:53.430 --> 00:32:02.430 Paul Casey: If you are in a role where you get to develop other people, which is what leaders do best, then this is for you, if you are an aspiring leader yourself.   216 00:32:02.730 --> 00:32:17.640 Paul Casey: And you want something to recommend to your boss, maybe there'll be something some nuggets in this that you might be able to trickle up and say i'd love this in my leadership development plan we're going to dive in after checking in with our tri city influencers sponsor.   217 00:32:19.290 --> 00:32:34.440 Paul Casey: Thank you for your support of leadership development in the tri cities, so I had a favorite boss several years ago, and what I liked about him in this whole arena of leadership development is that from the moment I was hired.   218 00:32:35.700 --> 00:32:47.880 Paul Casey: He was all for my success right he he helped me learn how to succeed, from the moment that he onboarding me actually even before that I remember him sending me an email saying your first 90 days.   219 00:32:48.180 --> 00:32:59.520 Paul Casey: Here are the priorities, I would like you to attack and you know what it was, it was relationship building so i'll just file that one in there as well, if you're new to a position that's got to be in your first 90 days plan.   220 00:32:59.940 --> 00:33:09.660 Paul Casey: He spoke of me highly in front of the team always he empowered me to lead in my job description he backed me up when they were difficult times.   221 00:33:10.050 --> 00:33:22.170 Paul Casey: He sent me to professional development opportunities that I was interested in even coming with me on a conference once so like the number one and number two and organization, you could go together in a conference thought that was awesome.   222 00:33:22.500 --> 00:33:31.110 Paul Casey: We would do one to ones, every week and you rarely would bump those, including doing a book study together, so we could both grow he gave me feedback.   223 00:33:31.470 --> 00:33:40.770 Paul Casey: Mostly positive feedback, so he was an encourager there's just so much I appreciate about him and that's what I think of when I think of a leadership developer.   224 00:33:41.820 --> 00:33:56.670 Paul Casey: Kim level says companies with highly developed leadership programs outperform their competitors their business results are typically seven times greater seven times greater, and they are.   225 00:33:57.360 --> 00:34:01.800 Paul Casey: 12 times more effective at accelerating business growth.   226 00:34:02.520 --> 00:34:14.970 Paul Casey: That companies with weak leadership programs wow seven times more business results 12 times more effective at accelerating business growth, I mean that is just unbelievable if you think about it.   227 00:34:15.570 --> 00:34:25.110 Paul Casey: So we have to change our thinking if you're in the Leader chair from people are there to get the work done to work is there to get the people done.   228 00:34:25.530 --> 00:34:30.510 Paul Casey: And that good work is there to get the people done so, besides that quote.   229 00:34:30.990 --> 00:34:42.900 Paul Casey: If I could influence you to have a plan for leadership development here's some more reasons along those lines, you need a pipeline for new blood at all levels of leadership.   230 00:34:43.500 --> 00:34:51.570 Paul Casey: Or else, then you turn around and no one is ready to step up and then someone gets poached away to another company or they get a health issue.   231 00:34:52.110 --> 00:34:57.180 Paul Casey: And you're in trouble right so you're always on the lookout for potential leaders.   232 00:34:57.480 --> 00:35:05.610 Paul Casey: The global leadership forecast puts out a report every year, and they said just 15% of organizations rate their future bench.   233 00:35:05.820 --> 00:35:14.430 Paul Casey: As strong just 15% don't know if your company's in that boat, or if you're doing a better job than most, but that's why this is so important.   234 00:35:15.150 --> 00:35:25.230 Paul Casey: A second reason is, you need a succession plan for you and the other top leaders when you or they do move on, we always have to be too deep.   235 00:35:25.650 --> 00:35:35.820 Paul Casey: In everything you have right now, and the bhutan's have to be passed cleanly when the inevitable happens I don't know if you've ever been in a situation at your company or another company.   236 00:35:36.090 --> 00:35:45.330 Paul Casey: where only one person had the vital information and then they weren't available they went on vacation or you just they weren't answering their text messages.   237 00:35:46.200 --> 00:35:55.890 Paul Casey: Or that person left the organization, you know weeks before and then it's like oh no they got the combo to the safe, you know, are they are the only ones that had the password to that important classified document.   238 00:35:56.190 --> 00:36:02.100 Paul Casey: And so we have to make sure that we have we're too deep in our organization now but also have that succession plan.   239 00:36:02.820 --> 00:36:11.490 Paul Casey: The third reason have a leadership development plan is it provides empowerment that leads to full engagement of all employees.   240 00:36:11.880 --> 00:36:19.950 Paul Casey: And that it can be a retention strategy for you as well, if you want to keep good people if they feel empowered they're probably not going to leave your company.   241 00:36:20.580 --> 00:36:23.940 Paul Casey: Because they feel empowered equipped and they don't feel micromanaged.   242 00:36:24.540 --> 00:36:30.330 Paul Casey: It also provides challenges that expand potential leaders skills and capacity.   243 00:36:30.660 --> 00:36:44.760 Paul Casey: I think everyone on our team is sort of like a Watt light bulb you know all light bulbs have different wattage right so i'm gonna have 100 Watts some or 75 Watts, some are 40 Watts, not an intelligence, but in their capacity so when we train people.   244 00:36:45.120 --> 00:36:52.470 Paul Casey: We increase their capacity we focus on their job and how they can get better at that, when we cross train right.   245 00:36:53.280 --> 00:37:01.080 Paul Casey: We we are increasing their capacity so when we're developing people we're really focusing on each person and taking them to the next level.   246 00:37:01.470 --> 00:37:06.510 Paul Casey: And then, finally, it spreads the workload of leadership better assuring quality.   247 00:37:06.900 --> 00:37:18.360 Paul Casey: It builds another mountain and then the ecosystem underneath that mountain when we develop a leader, not just a follower it's it's a multiplication not just addition when we develop a leader.   248 00:37:19.290 --> 00:37:30.930 Paul Casey: john McGuire and Gary road said if organizations, want to create sustained change, they must develop a leadership culture, while simultaneously developing individual leaders.   249 00:37:32.160 --> 00:37:41.490 Paul Casey: So you might be saying okay i'm looking around in my organization, who should I pour into who is like a leader type that I should develop.   250 00:37:42.120 --> 00:37:49.530 Paul Casey: Because we don't want you to develop people who are going to rise to the level of their in competence that's called the Peter principle.   251 00:37:49.950 --> 00:37:57.750 Paul Casey: people that are promoted to their level of competence that's when you take an individual performer and you're like wow they're so good at that let's put them in a leadership position.   252 00:37:57.990 --> 00:38:08.610 Paul Casey: And then it's a disaster, they don't have the people skills relational skills, the emotional intelligence to keep up with that promotion and then everybody under them is miserable.   253 00:38:09.000 --> 00:38:19.320 Paul Casey: So we do need to look for certain kinds of leaders and when you're looking for qualities in a potential leader or Hypo a high potential leader john Maxwell has.   254 00:38:20.070 --> 00:38:26.550 Paul Casey: advice he says, do they develop fresh approaches to long standing problems.   255 00:38:27.330 --> 00:38:38.490 Paul Casey: Are they quick to find like practical solutions when they see an issue they sort of have this constructive spirit of discontent right, this can be better they're always saying like this can be better we can sharpen this.   256 00:38:39.240 --> 00:38:44.430 Paul Casey: Another quality would be they do, they succeed at rallying people behind their ideas.   257 00:38:44.880 --> 00:38:48.930 Paul Casey: So you're looking for someone who might have a little bit of inspirational influence right.   258 00:38:49.200 --> 00:39:00.660 Paul Casey: you're going to watch to see who is looking at that person and actually following what they say they're going somewhere right and they're they're persuading other people to join them on the ride the trains, leaving jump on.   259 00:39:01.650 --> 00:39:09.300 Paul Casey: How about people who encourage their current subordinates to take risks and get personally excited about projects.   260 00:39:10.260 --> 00:39:20.220 Paul Casey: These are those folks that are called early adopters you cast a vision, they immediately pick it up and they start running with it, they can catch that vision and turn it into action.   261 00:39:20.610 --> 00:39:28.230 Paul Casey: Maxwell says the point of leaning is not to cross the finish line first but to take people across the finish line with you.   262 00:39:28.950 --> 00:39:43.080 Paul Casey: here's a few more traits they recognize the reward individual achievement when it's in their power to do so they're always catching people being successful they're saying thank you they're putting them in for the company incentive program or the recognition Program.   263 00:39:44.640 --> 00:39:53.310 Paul Casey: they're showing servant leadership around every corner, they make people want to reach for high goals and they feel good about what they are doing.   264 00:39:54.240 --> 00:40:03.960 Paul Casey: I find that folks that do this understand their company's purpose they understand the standards, the culture and they try to make it contagious so everybody on the team is doing it.   265 00:40:04.290 --> 00:40:10.740 Paul Casey: They sort of create like good peer pressure on a team and it's going to take good people skills in order to do that.   266 00:40:11.310 --> 00:40:22.230 Paul Casey: They have a solid track record for hiring and training new employees, I don't know if they're on maybe a hiring team, but maybe they've got some role in the onboarding process or the training process.   267 00:40:22.560 --> 00:40:33.690 Paul Casey: And you just know that they do such a great job of in culture rating new people on the team they're perceptive because they're mentored well the new folks by this person.   268 00:40:35.100 --> 00:40:44.010 Paul Casey: There they get off to a great start they hit the ground running and just find wherever you have a good leader, the team gets better and the organization gets better.   269 00:40:45.090 --> 00:40:52.140 Paul Casey: They also push persistently to overcome difficult obstacles, even if it means going out on a limb.   270 00:40:52.530 --> 00:41:00.840 Paul Casey: They show courage, the average employee would just pull back and go i'm not gonna stick my head up and get shot out where this person actually speaks up.   271 00:41:01.260 --> 00:41:14.910 Paul Casey: They show some emotional fortitude there's a stick to it ignis about them, I can do this about them they're willing willing to take on responsibility and own IT and be that person of action.   272 00:41:15.630 --> 00:41:26.070 Paul Casey: Ben Franklin says, I never knew a man who was good at making excuses, who was very good at anything else, not a potential leader nope they don't make excuses they own it.   273 00:41:26.820 --> 00:41:35.910 Paul Casey: And maybe you've got some other things that you would look for in a leader, maybe, being a good communicator being proactive being fun if your culture as a fun culture.   274 00:41:36.180 --> 00:41:41.190 Paul Casey: But I just wanted to give you some of these from john Maxwell just add my color commentary to that.   275 00:41:41.970 --> 00:41:48.510 Paul Casey: Andy Holloway throws on three more he says a desire to help others, develop and learn yeah you don't want a leader.   276 00:41:48.930 --> 00:42:00.840 Paul Casey: Who doesn't want to develop other people right by default it doesn't make them a leader if they just want to be an individual performer they accept feedback well and then take action based on that feedback.   277 00:42:01.440 --> 00:42:10.620 Paul Casey: there's a shortage of people that receive feedback well enough you noticed this maybe in yourself, or in other people on your team, a lot of people get defensive they fight back.   278 00:42:10.980 --> 00:42:17.250 Paul Casey: And they don't say yep that's that's true or, thank you for the feedback i'm going to mull over that and try to do something better.   279 00:42:17.790 --> 00:42:24.960 Paul Casey: And maybe there's even a tolerance for ambiguity and so what's happened in the last couple of years there's been a lot of ambiguity in our world.   280 00:42:25.410 --> 00:42:36.990 Paul Casey: And people there are moving into leadership, they have to have a little bit more comfort with situations that don't have a clear answer and they don't freak out or say the sky is falling, as they go through.   281 00:42:37.710 --> 00:42:45.000 Paul Casey: difficult times so basically what i'm saying is not everyone can or should be a leader in your organization.   282 00:42:45.360 --> 00:42:54.960 Paul Casey: Sometimes they are placed well in their role as an individual performer and you're just going to keep training them and equipping them right where they're at we all have to keep growing forward.   283 00:42:55.740 --> 00:43:03.750 Paul Casey: But it doesn't mean we all have to go into a leadership position so here's some essentials for leadership development, first of all take it seriously.   284 00:43:04.290 --> 00:43:10.530 Paul Casey: What an opportunity, I was with another leader what we were going to share an employee.   285 00:43:11.310 --> 00:43:19.620 Paul Casey: Years ago, and I remember when we were given the news that we were going to share this employee came into my office and he said what an opportunity to develop this Gal.   286 00:43:19.950 --> 00:43:29.970 Paul Casey: I mean we've got this opportunity to to help her to shine in her new role and I thought well that's a refreshing perspective to say what an opportunity.   287 00:43:30.780 --> 00:43:38.460 Paul Casey: So at the top of your organization, there has to be unity and priority to leadership development efforts.   288 00:43:38.790 --> 00:43:51.120 Paul Casey: Because I don't know if you've seen this, but a change never really gets cemented until the top leaders make personal adjustments to move with that change and, in this case it's leadership development.   289 00:43:51.600 --> 00:44:01.770 Paul Casey: i'm going to encourage you to calendar it, you know I love talking about time management, and if you don't calendar anything it's probably not going to happen so calendar leadership development or it gets pushed out.   290 00:44:02.790 --> 00:44:13.800 Paul Casey: A lot of people cancel leadership development opportunities, because there's a more urgent crises right i'm going to say don't do that, I mean make make make that sacred.   291 00:44:14.520 --> 00:44:24.270 Paul Casey: Literally make a recurring appointment in your calendar to think about leadership development to plan leadership development to meet about it or to implement it.   292 00:44:25.650 --> 00:44:35.610 Paul Casey: then start with a goal for each person on the team once you once you have that goal and craft and following intentional plan that has a clear timetable.   293 00:44:36.270 --> 00:44:46.260 Paul Casey: A lot of companies do leadership development in spurts right it's sort of Lucy goosey it's reactive, and you know i'm going to i'm going to emphasize on the job training is fantastic.   294 00:44:47.340 --> 00:44:58.050 Paul Casey: But it does take time to develop somebody and the payoff can be great personalized that plan to each direct report that you have.   295 00:44:58.920 --> 00:45:11.100 Paul Casey: Everyone is wired directly everyone has a different mesh of skills and strengths and thresholds and aspirations so leadership development cannot be a one size fits all.   296 00:45:11.670 --> 00:45:19.080 Paul Casey: except when it comes to the company philosophy and vision and mission right that everyone gets inculcated to that, but.   297 00:45:19.350 --> 00:45:30.300 Paul Casey: When it comes to leadership development plan it's got to be individualized to each person in fact some companies call it an IDP or an individual development plan for each person.   298 00:45:30.750 --> 00:45:42.000 Paul Casey: Taking into account what were their goals are in their career path in the organization Chris hardy says servant leaders support people as they grow and develop.   299 00:45:42.990 --> 00:45:52.770 Paul Casey: Then, once you have the plan in place evaluated constantly and pivot for better effectiveness pivot was that big word and koba that we heard all the time.   300 00:45:52.980 --> 00:46:00.450 Paul Casey: you're going in one direction you pick up the dribble and basketball, and you look around and you can't get to the hoop that way, and so you keep pivoting on that.   301 00:46:00.690 --> 00:46:06.060 Paul Casey: On that one leg until you can either get a clear shot, or you can pass the ball to somebody else.   302 00:46:06.540 --> 00:46:23.850 Paul Casey: So your core team and staff must answer what's working in our leadership development plan what's not working in our plan, when do we need to take this up a notch or when do we need to let the rope out more to each employee do those mid course corrections to keep it relevant.   303 00:46:25.080 --> 00:46:33.690 Paul Casey: i'm also going to encourage you to budget for leadership development leadership development should not be but it often is the first line.   304 00:46:34.110 --> 00:46:43.230 Paul Casey: Line item to get axed in the budget, I say that because i'm a trainer and you know oftentimes my role gets cut out because it's like oh we're really tight.   305 00:46:43.590 --> 00:46:50.790 Paul Casey: With our margins, and so we really can't do the training that you have offered to us, Paul to get better as a team and so.   306 00:46:51.120 --> 00:46:55.890 Paul Casey: oftentimes that's, the first thing to go i'm going to say no, keep that sacred in your budget.   307 00:46:56.310 --> 00:47:03.840 Paul Casey: Is it a line item right now in your budget, you can think through you know that your spreadsheet your budgets leadership development in there if.   308 00:47:04.530 --> 00:47:10.350 Paul Casey: encourage you in the next cycle to make it alive hire a line item and put some money into that budget account.   309 00:47:11.130 --> 00:47:23.610 Paul Casey: I know it doesn't seem critical to business growth, but it is right Jeffrey Pfeffer says, if you want to return on your investment in people, the first thing you've got to do is invest in them.   310 00:47:24.030 --> 00:47:41.340 Paul Casey: You develop them you do all the things that will cause them to have the skills and abilities and motivation to do an effective job you can't sit there and say gosh I don't know why my people aren't doing a good job, when you haven't put anything into it, nothing in nothing out.   311 00:47:42.600 --> 00:47:47.550 Paul Casey: So Jeffrey Piper was talking about, you know the investment really is your time and it's your money.   312 00:47:48.600 --> 00:48:06.660 Paul Casey: And then finally write the manual on your job, and have everyone else right the manual on their job to So this is the old in case you were hit by a bus I don't really like that illustration, it sounds very dark in case you were promoted to your dream job right there would be a document.   313 00:48:07.950 --> 00:48:16.650 Paul Casey: or a duty manual there of the main things that you do every week so someone could pick up where you left off, and do it without much assistance.   314 00:48:17.070 --> 00:48:23.070 Paul Casey: So i'm going to encourage you just to set up some category started document This takes time right you don't do this in one afternoon.   315 00:48:23.520 --> 00:48:34.050 Paul Casey: But just chip away at this until you've got a compendium on your job, and then each one of your key players, has a duty handbook on themselves, just in case.   316 00:48:34.500 --> 00:48:47.910 Paul Casey: And the first step would be just starting, an outline of what would go in there all right before we head on, to the three legged stool of leadership development let's do a quick shout out to our sponsor.   317 00:48:55.050 --> 00:49:01.680 Paul Casey: All right, I want to take you briefly briefly through the three legged stool of leadership development.   318 00:49:02.610 --> 00:49:12.930 Paul Casey: people tend to support what they help co create i'll say that again people tend to support what they helped co create so anytime you can involve or include the trainee.   319 00:49:13.260 --> 00:49:22.410 Paul Casey: In the design of this leadership development process and its menu there's really a better chance of them fully engaging in the whole process.   320 00:49:22.980 --> 00:49:37.740 Paul Casey: So if you had to break it into three chunks of leadership development there would be on the job training, there would be mentoring coaching and there would be continuing education and all the resources, I read in training magazine and.   321 00:49:38.880 --> 00:49:49.230 Paul Casey: The association of training and development, the common percentage is 70% on the on the job training 20% of coaching and mentoring and 10%.   322 00:49:49.530 --> 00:50:03.120 Paul Casey: In continuing education, it seems like the standard practice for that so let's just give you a few tips on each one of these and, hopefully, you can get something out of it to put into your plan feel free to modify.   323 00:50:03.990 --> 00:50:08.610 Paul Casey: how you see how you see fit with that and let's start with on the job training.   324 00:50:09.390 --> 00:50:14.700 Paul Casey: Increasing responsibility but also increasing authority, if you would, if you give people responsibility.   325 00:50:15.000 --> 00:50:24.150 Paul Casey: But they have no authority to make decisions Oh, my goodness that is so frustrating, it would be better, not even to give them the authority in the first place, if you're tying their hands.   326 00:50:25.470 --> 00:50:34.950 Paul Casey: So here's some tips, they can come along and shadow you when you're developing them or whoever's mentoring them, they can come along and shadow it's the principle of take them with.   327 00:50:35.280 --> 00:50:47.160 Paul Casey: Right i'm going to this meeting I take them with i'm going to the seminar i'm going to take them with a meeting with our top client or customer i'm going to take them with Everywhere you go you let them see an experience what you are.   328 00:50:47.670 --> 00:50:55.920 Paul Casey: experiencing then when the experience is done you debrief with them what are their perceptions of what they just saw what would they have done differently.   329 00:50:56.280 --> 00:51:07.050 Paul Casey: what's the cause and effect the person responded this way, what did we talk about that maybe lead them to do that, they can also lead portions of meetings on the job.   330 00:51:07.950 --> 00:51:16.950 Paul Casey: Your job is to strive to be bored I know that sounds funny when when influencer said that, meaning that you want to delegate so many things.   331 00:51:17.310 --> 00:51:25.830 Paul Casey: That it's like you're bored you'll never be bored because other things will come in from the side but you'll be at the highest level of leadership, if you can delegate.   332 00:51:26.220 --> 00:51:38.070 Paul Casey: Your job is to say, as little as possible in a meeting unless your vision casting or you're facilitating or you're validating other people, so how this mentee.   333 00:51:39.210 --> 00:51:44.880 Paul Casey: prep in it you're going to prep them in advance to lead a portion of the meeting, whatever that issue is.   334 00:51:45.270 --> 00:51:55.260 Paul Casey: teach them how to facilitate and then they run that agenda item at the meeting they get to sit in the leadership chair like take us through the financials herb you know.   335 00:51:55.620 --> 00:52:01.050 Paul Casey: Or why don't you lead us through this professional development tip of the day right like a leadership minute.   336 00:52:01.860 --> 00:52:09.420 Paul Casey: Something maybe they've even been reading that they're eager to share maybe they lead a quick team building activity or just the icebreaker question.   337 00:52:09.810 --> 00:52:17.790 Paul Casey: At the beginning, maybe they lead an emphasis on one of your company values and how they're watching that play out in real life.   338 00:52:18.270 --> 00:52:29.580 Paul Casey: When you cringe inside if they don't do it the way that you typically do it please don't criticize in public support them in public, then correct and coach them in private.   339 00:52:30.810 --> 00:52:38.070 Paul Casey: and be sure to cannot just criticize but make sure you brag on them, give them specific praise of what they did well.   340 00:52:39.060 --> 00:52:50.310 Paul Casey: They can also lead task forces or committees, I like task forces more than committees, because a task force is set up, when there is a problem that needs to be solved.   341 00:52:50.730 --> 00:52:59.730 Paul Casey: And then you can take this person you're developing this leader in training and put them on that and say you're going to lead that task force for a period of time.   342 00:53:00.210 --> 00:53:06.030 Paul Casey: So problem gets surfaced you're going to need more time than just a staff meeting to solve it.   343 00:53:06.390 --> 00:53:19.890 Paul Casey: And you're going to tell this direct report okay you're going to explore the solution you're going to share it you're going to pick a little team here you're going to teach them how to run it and they're going to just mold that little task force into a team and get it solved.   344 00:53:20.970 --> 00:53:29.700 Paul Casey: If you're like well we don't have a lot of those that pop up those kind of things that could be solved by a subgroup then maybe it's a COMP a section of the strategic plan.   345 00:53:30.000 --> 00:53:42.510 Paul Casey: Of the company and this person would champion one of those major objectives and it's a great breeding ground for leaders to give them an opportunity to run on a section of the strategic plan.   346 00:53:43.290 --> 00:53:47.640 Paul Casey: They can also in this on the job training give input on problems to solve.   347 00:53:48.240 --> 00:53:55.230 Paul Casey: In the organization or on the team they're probably already thinking about it, they probably go home and tell their significant other at home.   348 00:53:55.500 --> 00:54:05.430 Paul Casey: So they're probably talking and listening to others in the hallway talk about what needs to be solved in the company, so now you're going to allow them a say you're going to allow them to have a voice.   349 00:54:05.880 --> 00:54:20.760 Paul Casey: And if they bring a complaint to your attention you're going to say okay anytime you bring a complaint to me you've got to come with three potential solutions and you're going to just keep questioning them until they actually choose the wisest solution.   350 00:54:22.080 --> 00:54:27.420 Paul Casey: And then you're going to say all right run with that maybe you can always say that, but if you give a chance to.   351 00:54:27.720 --> 00:54:39.900 Paul Casey: Let them run with that because leaders are known by the problems they solve so this new person can be seen as a problem solver they're going to get more respect from the others on the team, they have to be tested.   352 00:54:41.160 --> 00:54:47.400 Paul Casey: On the job training, they can also act on your behalf, so you can make them your delegate to certain kinds of meetings.   353 00:54:47.640 --> 00:54:58.230 Paul Casey: When you're not available, you can give them some authority to make some decisions and, again, you never bite their head off when they make a mistake that was well thought out, but in that case it failed.   354 00:54:59.280 --> 00:55:06.360 Paul Casey: And the way to get ahead of those failures as much as possible is keep thinking aloud when you're making decisions in front of them.   355 00:55:06.690 --> 00:55:13.710 Paul Casey: When you think aloud it's like well the reason i'm doing this is because i'm also keeping these three things in mind, as I make my decision.   356 00:55:14.100 --> 00:55:25.470 Paul Casey: When you think aloud it allows them to get in your brain so they start acting like you would in such situations, they also didn't get a chance to take a role in every area of leadership.   357 00:55:26.670 --> 00:55:36.480 Paul Casey: So besides the ones we've already talked about this is going to take some thought to make sure they experience every meeting every task every learning opportunity.   358 00:55:37.080 --> 00:55:44.910 Paul Casey: I also recommend this if you ever have an intern work at your company to try to give them the full gamut of the experience right.   359 00:55:45.240 --> 00:55:54.840 Paul Casey: They might get to manage their own line item in the budget for a while my first boss did that, when I was a 24 year old I got to manage a line item in the budget wasn't a.   360 00:55:55.170 --> 00:56:03.390 Paul Casey: Who is this several hundred dollars, but it was a big deal for me, they can attend other department meetings that are not directly influencing their job.   361 00:56:03.810 --> 00:56:15.960 Paul Casey: They can sit in on a hiring panel or beyond that they can onboard a new employee with sections of the employee handbook or maybe give a tour tour to a new employee.   362 00:56:17.010 --> 00:56:26.160 Paul Casey: They can process your inbox with you for a while, this was a great task I got to do with a mentor to see the types of emails that he would receive.   363 00:56:26.490 --> 00:56:36.480 Paul Casey: And then again he would think aloud and tell me how he's going to solve that or who he would go to to solve that problem or wearing the budget, he would give that thing a code.   364 00:56:37.020 --> 00:56:44.820 Paul Casey: Before he gave the approval it was really valuable they can maybe handle customers that have made up their way up the chain with a problem.   365 00:56:45.330 --> 00:56:54.420 Paul Casey: Which practices their conflict resolution skills, because and leadership that's what it's going to be about and maybe they even they lead listening sessions to try to.   366 00:56:55.080 --> 00:57:12.330 Paul Casey: pull in input or feedback from other staff or your best customers finally on the job training, they can evaluate every event every process and maybe even one employee, maybe they don't deliver that to that one employee, but they would do a mock.   367 00:57:13.710 --> 00:57:20.520 Paul Casey: performance review with you and another person and then together if it's not confidential.   368 00:57:21.300 --> 00:57:30.510 Paul Casey: You would still deliver it, but that person would pretend like they were going to be the ones that deliver it that's really where leadership hits the payment when they evaluate all these different things.   369 00:57:30.930 --> 00:57:40.860 Paul Casey: you're trying to get them to make everything they touch better, more streamlined more wow more success producing more team centric.   370 00:57:41.310 --> 00:57:52.620 Paul Casey: And sometimes it's just 1% better, but would it be great to get some new ideas from this person here developing Okay, think about so far on the job training, what would you put in your plan.   371 00:57:54.960 --> 00:58:04.770 Paul Casey: The second form of leadership development is i'll be go to continuing education so 10% of your leadership development plan can be on continuing education.   372 00:58:05.460 --> 00:58:10.140 Paul Casey: You want to get them in front of great leaders so here's some things you can do.   373 00:58:10.890 --> 00:58:14.130 Paul Casey: They can read the handbook the employee handbook with fresh eyes.   374 00:58:14.460 --> 00:58:23.220 Paul Casey: right they probably read it when they were hired they're forced to sign a paper, saying they did, but now from a leadership perspective they're going to read the handbook with different eyes.   375 00:58:23.520 --> 00:58:31.650 Paul Casey: And we're going to have them ask questions about anything that doesn't make sense, like do we actually do that it might actually make you make some revisions in your handbook.   376 00:58:32.580 --> 00:58:38.220 Paul Casey: you're going to tell them the story of the history of the organization and where it's going if they don't know this already.   377 00:58:38.700 --> 00:58:49.320 Paul Casey: You want them to reconnect to the big why you're both in leadership in this company and the difference it's making in the lives of people you want them to read catch that vision.   378 00:58:50.190 --> 00:58:59.460 Paul Casey: The fire of the vision, so it becomes automatic in their conversations with other employees other colleagues, you want to walk them through every line of the budget.   379 00:59:00.210 --> 00:59:10.230 Paul Casey: tell the story about what the companies are and what's the basis for those numbers, because otherwise they're just numbers on a spreadsheet but what's the story of what goes into that line item.   380 00:59:10.950 --> 00:59:20.490 Paul Casey: You, of course, can assign them books to read CDs to listen to podcasts to listen to Ted talks industry magazines to debrief.   381 00:59:21.360 --> 00:59:27.450 Paul Casey: So the debrief is the key part right and then, what can we apply so great authors out there.   382 00:59:28.230 --> 00:59:42.870 Paul Casey: Some companies, I know Dave ramsey company says when you get hired you get a box of books Okay, so what are sort of the key books that everyone in your leadership team has read together now you got this person you're developing you want them to talk the language to.   383 00:59:43.890 --> 00:59:52.200 Paul Casey: about local conferences or faraway conferences to attend now things are opening up more conferences are going back live usually these.   384 00:59:52.920 --> 01:00:03.630 Paul Casey: Their trade specific to your industry or associations and a lot of good stuff happens when you send someone to a conference you know they get educated, they get contacts, they get they get to hear experts.   385 01:00:04.050 --> 01:00:13.500 Paul Casey: There in the trade show get resources their new ideas and it's simply just a break from the routine you're giving them an extra privilege by going to.   386 01:00:13.890 --> 01:00:27.900 Paul Casey: This conference now on the front end, you want to make sure you both agree on the outcomes, you want to see them or get from the conference before they go and oftentimes it's great to send to people, because then they can dialogue about what they're learning, while they're learning.   387 01:00:28.950 --> 01:00:38.250 Paul Casey: Sometimes there's local seminars, I do some local seminars here some other companies come into town, these are usually subject specific you want them to grow in a certain area.   388 01:00:39.660 --> 01:00:44.070 Paul Casey: So if they want to have continuous continuous improvement of their own skills, this is great.   389 01:00:44.610 --> 01:00:59.130 Paul Casey: Maybe it goes along with a company priority that you're all working on together you're going to send them to that seminar, and then they have to present back to you and the team their takeaways so the whole team benefits by sending that one person or two people to a seminar.   390 01:01:00.930 --> 01:01:09.090 Paul Casey: You can have professional development meetings or pieces of meetings that you plan, where you bring other people into the company and they're a vital part of that training.   391 01:01:09.630 --> 01:01:16.920 Paul Casey: You can send them to networking events, if this might be within their job description of the future, because then they're going to meet other community leaders.   392 01:01:17.490 --> 01:01:26.760 Paul Casey: Who they might take to lunch in order to grow from and they can also pick up ways to make their business your business more relevant to the Community.   393 01:01:27.510 --> 01:01:33.840 Paul Casey: And sometimes you get to sponsor them from leadership development program you've heard me talk about leadership tri cities on this podcast.   394 01:01:34.140 --> 01:01:45.390 Paul Casey: There are also mastermind groups or group coaching experiences that I lead that would be great for them to be involved in, because then they can hear from people in other industries as they are being developed.   395 01:01:45.930 --> 01:01:52.350 Paul Casey: Okay, so what did that do you want, in your leadership development plan for someone you're developing or in your own.   396 01:01:53.730 --> 01:01:59.040 Paul Casey: Finally, leg three of professional development is mentoring and coaching this is 20%.   397 01:01:59.460 --> 01:02:07.350 Paul Casey: Of a leadership development plan, this is a larger time investment, but I really believe that you can only impact people up close.   398 01:02:07.620 --> 01:02:14.940 Paul Casey: So make sure that you have one to ones with this person on a very regular basis you're going to ask him key questions in that one to one.   399 01:02:15.330 --> 01:02:21.540 Paul Casey: once a week for an hour is not too long, if you are in intense leadership development mode.   400 01:02:22.350 --> 01:02:29.940 Paul Casey: And I can always send you a flow an agenda for a one to one that can make it even more intentional than maybe you're doing now.   401 01:02:30.480 --> 01:02:37.110 Paul Casey: You can do some What would you do scenarios with this person you've had some experiences, while in the leadership chair, there were real life, they happen.   402 01:02:37.500 --> 01:02:50.340 Paul Casey: And don't tell them the outcome just give them the problem and say how would they respond in that situation and ask why a lot, not to challenge them, but just to pick their brains and examine their thought process.   403 01:02:51.510 --> 01:02:59.400 Paul Casey: You want to give them consistent positive and once in a while negative feedback every employee, deep down, wants to know how they're doing.   404 01:02:59.910 --> 01:03:06.210 Paul Casey: And everyone we run into today is encouragement deprived so we all need a little bit more tank filling.   405 01:03:06.630 --> 01:03:16.920 Paul Casey: And a lot less tank draining so don't go a week go by without speaking positively into their lives and once a mile when you see something get ahead of that quickly.   406 01:03:17.580 --> 01:03:22.440 Paul Casey: don't let something not at you, for a long time without pointing it out to this employee.   407 01:03:22.980 --> 01:03:33.240 Paul Casey: If you think Oh, it might hurt their career in any way you have got to speak up now, and say may give you some feedback then speak the truth in love you would want someone to do that to you.   408 01:03:33.570 --> 01:03:42.870 Paul Casey: If you are being developed the spinach in your teeth, you know you would want someone to point that out see you don't smile with the spinach in your teeth to everybody else at the networking.   409 01:03:43.350 --> 01:03:56.760 Paul Casey: opportunity remember you're polishing the diamond okay observations of them with their constituents, you want to coach them when you get to watch them do their leadership thing this is great for debriefs and for coaching.   410 01:03:58.050 --> 01:04:07.680 Paul Casey: Hopefully, if they're a high potential leader they're going to ask you how did I do what could I have done better even that last 5% come on you're holding back on some to bring bringing me between the eyes, with that.   411 01:04:08.160 --> 01:04:16.380 Paul Casey: Okay that's just someone who is eager to receive feedback, you might want to get them an internal mentor that is not us, is good for all employees.   412 01:04:16.710 --> 01:04:23.070 Paul Casey: This would be a veteran employees got a heart for developing others don't assign them to someone who's going to see it as a waste of time.   413 01:04:23.610 --> 01:04:32.520 Paul Casey: You want to give them a mentor that knows, the best way to handle situations, and they have great skills with other people because mentors.   414 01:04:32.730 --> 01:04:39.330 Paul Casey: tend to teach other people and they just love that part of their job once in a while I want to get them external coach I get hired to come in.   415 01:04:39.660 --> 01:04:46.650 Paul Casey: And coach high potential people i'm not emotionally tied to their job and objective sounding board as an outside coach.   416 01:04:47.250 --> 01:04:59.550 Paul Casey: Who is worth their success helps them storyboard their way to their goals and it grounds them and into their identity and it pushes them to deal with issues I love doing this.   417 01:04:59.940 --> 01:05:11.400 Paul Casey: When I come in to mentor others, but there are others as well that can be that can coach from the outside and help this person develop, especially when you don't have 100% of time to develop this person.   418 01:05:12.150 --> 01:05:19.710 Paul Casey: Okay, so, in summary, you know what do you see as benefits for having such a comprehensive focus on leadership development at your organization.   419 01:05:19.920 --> 01:05:29.340 Paul Casey: Hopefully you're able to share them that's what I lead with today who are these people that are among you that you need to develop and then the three legs of the stool.   420 01:05:30.360 --> 01:05:37.890 Paul Casey: Leadership development through on the job training continuing education and mentoring and coaching all right.   421 01:05:38.760 --> 01:05:50.610 Paul Casey: Let me wrap up our podcast for today with a leadership resource to recommend, and it is in the line of this it's called leader launcher if you have high potentials.   422 01:05:50.880 --> 01:05:59.370 Paul Casey: Emerging leaders young professionals at your company I would love to help develop them on your behalf, and so it's a two hour training.   423 01:06:00.150 --> 01:06:05.370 Paul Casey: once a month we've been going virtual for the last year we're going to go back to live within this next year.   424 01:06:05.760 --> 01:06:18.630 Paul Casey: And it's like getting $9,600 worth of my training, if I were be hired by your company they're going to get it for just just under 500 bucks so they're going to get two hours of training on 12.   425 01:06:19.080 --> 01:06:24.480 Paul Casey: Different leadership proficiency over the course of the year and they're going to meet some other cool.   426 01:06:25.200 --> 01:06:38.760 Paul Casey: High potentials from other companies, at the same time and get to do some networking with them so go to leader dash launcher calm leader dash launch calm and I would love to be a part of your leadership development plan.   427 01:06:41.040 --> 01:06:49.770 Paul Casey: Well, again i'm Paul Casey I want to thank you for joining me today for the podcast as I talked about leadership development that leads leaves a legacy.   428 01:06:50.040 --> 01:07:00.030 Paul Casey: And I want to thank our TC I sponsor and invite you to support them, we appreciate appreciate you making this possible, so that we can collaborate to help inspire leaders in our Community.   429 01:07:00.510 --> 01:07:07.050 Paul Casey: Finally, one more leadership tidbit for the road to help you make a difference in your circle of influence.   430 01:07:07.590 --> 01:07:25.590 Paul Casey: it's James merits, he says the power that comes from speaking a kind word writing a kind notes or giving a kind touch cannot be measured it's one of the indispensable keys to being a winner and influencing anybody until next time kg F keep growing forward.

01:07:28.980 --> 01:07:40.710 Paul Casey: it's a great day to grow forward thanks for joining me for today's episode with Tom Olson Tom is the general manager of our local costco in kennewick and I.   432 01:07:41.460 --> 01:07:51.420 Paul Casey: asked him if there's anything quirky bottom, he said he was a pretty straightforward guy but he did mention he's got a little OCD so Tom tell us a little bit about your OCD.   433 01:07:52.830 --> 01:07:57.960 W486MGR: All right, yeah I guess it's that's a tough thing to talk about I could give you a couple of examples.   434 01:07:59.220 --> 01:08:08.310 W486MGR: So on the homefront i'm kind of got to have all my short sleeve shirts in one area my long sleeve, and I kind of have them color eyes.   435 01:08:09.630 --> 01:08:21.480 W486MGR: I cancer kind of the same way and I get a little irritated it's off Center but I like tire and I like to the body, so I hope my wife out but I took us probably about as quirky as I get at home, it away.   436 01:08:22.860 --> 01:08:23.460 Paul Casey: Thank you.   437 01:08:26.520 --> 01:08:30.780 Paul Casey: Well we'll dive in after checking with our tries to the influencers sponsor.   438 01:08:32.160 --> 01:08:36.390 Paul Casey: Thank you for your support of leadership development in the tri cities.   439 01:08:36.780 --> 01:08:53.220 Paul Casey: Well, welcome Tom I was privileged to meet you in our in a church small group and we call ourselves the business band of brothers and we get to we get to meet every Wednesday morning first thing and encourage each other and boy it's just been a delight getting to know you that way.   440 01:08:54.450 --> 01:09:02.400 W486MGR: yeah absolutely I think that's looking back at the last you know well, basically, after the first year it's probably.   441 01:09:03.090 --> 01:09:14.280 W486MGR: One of the more important things for me personally just just us leaders and not just happened men, you know husbands are getting together and kind of an accountability group it's been great.   442 01:09:16.050 --> 01:09:30.480 Paul Casey: It has been great will flourish tri city employee influencers get to know you a little bit Tom tell us about tell us a little bit about costco and your role there and what you spend 80% of your day doing.   443 01:09:30.690 --> 01:09:48.360 W486MGR: Sure sure well hopefully most most people that listen to the podcast have been out a costco or been to this costco which, which I find most places I go the tri cities, everyone knows where we're at, but you know, we obviously a big volume unit in retail us, you know just.   444 01:09:49.620 --> 01:09:49.950 W486MGR: We.   445 01:09:50.970 --> 01:10:08.010 W486MGR: We obviously move groceries non food, so we have everything under one roof, but you know my job as a general manager, this is very high volume in here in kennewick, and so we have about 500 employees and 20 I think 23 departments so really my job is going around.   446 01:10:09.330 --> 01:10:18.600 W486MGR: looking a little bit of the details understanding their business, a lot of it is just motivation going around and and encouraging, especially after a tough, you know this last year and a half for sure.   447 01:10:19.170 --> 01:10:28.770 W486MGR: talking with the employees being true to their Square and and they're they're on board emotionally and cost goes here to help them out there, but you know.   448 01:10:29.700 --> 01:10:39.660 W486MGR: it's a lot of motivation this job you know we have a limited amount of skews or the from the business aspect not too taxing just a lot of motivating quite honestly.   449 01:10:40.950 --> 01:10:42.540 Paul Casey: Why do you love what you do Tom.   450 01:10:45.450 --> 01:10:59.610 W486MGR: yeah I was thinking through that question, and I really had two answers the first one is I love the dinette the business dynamic of costco I love the value element of.   451 01:11:00.750 --> 01:11:08.730 W486MGR: You know the giving people a value for their money and it's been that way for almost 37 years now just I like the value dynamic.   452 01:11:09.360 --> 01:11:17.970 W486MGR: More importantly, is is I like the LIFE changing dynamic have seen you know i've been around the world, literally with costco and just him.   453 01:11:18.660 --> 01:11:33.750 W486MGR: Involving myself in people's lives, seeing them grow and mature and reach their you know goals as leaders in our company and teaching our business dynamic which is awesome So those are the two things that really keeps me honestly going every single day.   454 01:11:34.680 --> 01:11:38.700 Paul Casey: And it sounds like you're a CEO you're the chief encouraging officer.   455 01:11:41.010 --> 01:11:44.490 W486MGR: I always am the barnabas barnabas of commerce, calm yes.   456 01:11:46.560 --> 01:11:56.400 Paul Casey: yeah for sure yeah for you folks that don't go to church out there barnabas is a biblical character of like he was an encourage or he came alongside people.   457 01:11:58.710 --> 01:12:09.330 Paul Casey: Pretty cool that's pretty cool and, if I remember your story right you've been here a long time or costco you've been with them, for many, many years tell us a little bit about your journey there.   458 01:12:09.810 --> 01:12:10.260 yeah.   459 01:12:12.000 --> 01:12:15.210 W486MGR: You know, really simple I went to.   460 01:12:16.320 --> 01:12:26.610 W486MGR: Gonzaga Washington state went back to Gonzaga my mom was a professor at Gonzaga so plan graduate with a degree in history to teach high school and.   461 01:12:27.660 --> 01:12:37.080 W486MGR: coach athletics, and then costco I got hired on student employment their third building it was one of the first 600 people hired employment at Gonzaga and.   462 01:12:38.940 --> 01:12:46.710 W486MGR: I remember my mom cried for like days when I told her I wasn't going into education, I decided to stick on with costco and and it's it's.   463 01:12:47.340 --> 01:12:57.870 W486MGR: Because i'm, the last of the baby boomers I heard him explain the generational you know the the baby boomers generation X and i'm in the last year of people who just get one job and stick with it, I guess.   464 01:12:59.430 --> 01:13:00.690 W486MGR: On the original.   465 01:13:01.110 --> 01:13:01.830 Owners but.   466 01:13:02.880 --> 01:13:08.130 W486MGR: Just love like I said it's been simple to stay just because it's a great company in the things things that you're so.   467 01:13:09.840 --> 01:13:12.420 Paul Casey: Good stuff yeah it was it was in Japan is that.   468 01:13:12.630 --> 01:13:14.790 W486MGR: You also went with guns yeah yeah it.   469 01:13:14.970 --> 01:13:17.370 W486MGR: In 2014 2015.   470 01:13:18.780 --> 01:13:25.440 W486MGR: I was able to go over to Japan as a director, and so I have nine buildings between Tokyo and Hiroshima and.   471 01:13:26.640 --> 01:13:36.060 W486MGR: was able to spend time over there kind of an expansion of of encouragement they're having multiple buildings and then came back in 2017.   472 01:13:37.380 --> 01:13:41.700 W486MGR: it's been a brief time with corporate and then I really didn't do last for four years and.   473 01:13:43.110 --> 01:13:44.460 W486MGR: love the location or.   474 01:13:45.420 --> 01:13:50.130 Paul Casey: It can we let the cat out of the bag there's a new casco coming to town right.   475 01:13:50.190 --> 01:14:01.920 W486MGR: yeah yeah that I think that came out in the news, a few months ago yeah we've we've got the blessing for that, which is good news for the tri cities and they're treated costco very well and.   476 01:14:03.570 --> 01:14:14.940 W486MGR: You know I haven't heard a lot about how it's moved I heard it's moving slow like a lot of construction now just due date, you know hands and having proves big enough and supplies.   477 01:14:16.200 --> 01:14:22.950 W486MGR: But it's but it's out there and it's kind of it's kind of happen, which is awesome that's great for the tri cities so.   478 01:14:23.880 --> 01:14:32.370 Paul Casey: It will well you've got 500 employees 23 departments, who do you choose to surround yourself with on your team to help.   479 01:14:32.730 --> 01:14:44.790 Paul Casey: You in the organization be successful so within costco and then, if you think about outside of costco are there, people that you associate with to help you be successful outside the building.   480 01:14:45.300 --> 01:14:47.100 W486MGR: yeah that's a great question.   481 01:14:48.750 --> 01:14:55.950 W486MGR: You know, having to teach that same dynamic to my managers of Detroit that surround yourself with people that think exactly like you do.   482 01:14:56.430 --> 01:15:06.180 W486MGR: Up it took me quite a few years, I have three immediate assistant managers that that work directly with me and I make a point of it.   483 01:15:07.230 --> 01:15:08.910 W486MGR: In when interviewing to just.   484 01:15:10.410 --> 01:15:22.350 W486MGR: not make the mistake is running people that think, just like me, you know I i'm a pretty animated guy i'm pretty high strong believer not and I am a stickler on details and.   485 01:15:23.490 --> 01:15:38.040 W486MGR: I ordered but i'm really transparent and honest and forthright, and so I appreciate that for my immediate assistance, I know that when I do kind of mix up things or mess up something I have a relationship with a couple of my systems where they can come in and close door and go hey.   486 01:15:39.210 --> 01:15:46.200 W486MGR: You know that wasn't so cool that interaction need to circle back, and you know i'm learning, the most important words you know.   487 01:15:46.680 --> 01:15:52.590 W486MGR: over my career of saying hey i'm sorry, are you know hey I messed that up and yeah here's what I really meant.   488 01:15:53.340 --> 01:16:03.870 W486MGR: And costco has all the triggers to set things sideways I mean our volume the stress of the job, the amount of people you see each day and we're we're very busy unit so.   489 01:16:04.650 --> 01:16:17.370 W486MGR: it's important to surround myself with people that can say that without fear of an email he's gonna he's going to be really upset so i'm always thankful to the person who bring some of that stuff to my attention.   490 01:16:18.900 --> 01:16:22.110 W486MGR: I think that's the first key and then outside of work.   491 01:16:24.660 --> 01:16:30.360 W486MGR: know that lonely at the top thing is somewhat true that's why I think i've kind of enjoyed our relationship and smoker you know.   492 01:16:31.620 --> 01:16:41.250 W486MGR: it's important to have accountability to some group of people or someone if you want to grow and it's easy when you're at the top, you know you're basically.   493 01:16:42.180 --> 01:16:54.150 W486MGR: i'm it know 400 miles away from our corporate office and it's easy to kind of go out on your own so accountability is important and, of course, my wife, you know she squares me up daily you know, which is important.   494 01:16:55.380 --> 01:16:59.070 W486MGR: You have to kind of keep some kind of keeps me in a box, which is good.   495 01:17:00.090 --> 01:17:09.270 Paul Casey: Sure yeah love the diversity of thought surround yourself with people who aren't clones of yourself but have a different talent mix different perspective.   496 01:17:09.660 --> 01:17:20.970 Paul Casey: And also surrounding yourself with people that speak with candor and allowing that candor and not snuffing it out, but know welcoming that feedback from your inner circle is so huge.   497 01:17:21.390 --> 01:17:30.750 W486MGR: yeah I am you know, I was talking with my staff and the meeting this morning, you know with being a successful we're one of the few retailers, where people stand in line to wait outside and.   498 01:17:31.260 --> 01:17:41.040 W486MGR: We got our yearly meeting every year for weekend Seattle, the number one thing right as a company is being arrogant, you know the arrogance and the pride.   499 01:17:42.540 --> 01:17:51.870 W486MGR: are dangerous, and so I try and emulate that in the fact of the way we deal with our Members are refund policy, what we do.   500 01:17:53.100 --> 01:17:57.420 W486MGR: it's easy to get arrogant and prideful and those are dangerous.   501 01:17:58.590 --> 01:18:03.960 W486MGR: And so i'm not I don't want to be that way when people give me feedback, I give them chemical feedback are expected the same way.   502 01:18:05.490 --> 01:18:10.140 W486MGR: As long as it's in truth and with respect, I mean that's that's important so.   503 01:18:12.180 --> 01:18:23.610 Paul Casey: Maybe you're answering my next question with some of that right there Tom of having a growth mindset and how do you keep evolving as a leader after doing it for so many years, with the same company at the highest levels.   504 01:18:24.210 --> 01:18:27.840 Paul Casey: what's what's in your own personal and professional development plan.   505 01:18:28.380 --> 01:18:29.910 W486MGR: yeah great question.   506 01:18:32.250 --> 01:18:43.500 W486MGR: You know, some of it i'll be honest with you has been accidental or you know some of it has been costco and their training, you know they've been forward thinking, I think, was forward thinking.   507 01:18:44.790 --> 01:19:03.330 W486MGR: Our mantra the last few years and it's i've evolved with it is being a leader and not a manager, now we talked about you manage your checking account manager bank account manager, you know you manager yards your yard and your fertilizer but you need people on and how you need you know.   508 01:19:06.030 --> 01:19:19.020 W486MGR: I try and be open, you know I trying to be open to ideas, although there are times, where I don't always agree with everything that's that's talked about I feel like you have to stand for something you have your own personal beliefs.   509 01:19:21.000 --> 01:19:32.370 W486MGR: But I try and forward think you know right like right now we're already planning this week for November, December and January the holidays, how are we going to get through the holidays, what are we going to do we don't wait for it to sneak up on us.   510 01:19:35.430 --> 01:19:41.220 W486MGR: And it's been hard because i'm at the older end now, the man leadership's back on the costco you know.   511 01:19:42.300 --> 01:19:48.000 W486MGR: Is ease and the exercise it's been hard to relate and communicate and.   512 01:19:49.050 --> 01:20:00.990 W486MGR: i've had to learn about because we're constantly relearning you know don't understand necessarily their thought process I got there, there are part of our workforce, and so I try and re educate myself as I can.   513 01:20:01.740 --> 01:20:11.850 Paul Casey: You know that's a good point how what have you seen has been the biggest benefits conflict in between the different generations when it comes to communication.   514 01:20:12.330 --> 01:20:21.300 Paul Casey: What have you learned you've had to adjust to because it's not it's not the baby Boomer way you know, to communicate that way, what have you learned.   515 01:20:21.660 --> 01:20:22.050 Now.   516 01:20:23.880 --> 01:20:28.890 W486MGR: boy I think you know learned a lot about myself, you know the willingness to change number one.   517 01:20:30.030 --> 01:20:30.930 W486MGR: Number two.   518 01:20:32.910 --> 01:20:39.870 W486MGR: We talked about it a couple weeks ago, as a group, as a regional meeting or retail meeting we had on the phone and.   519 01:20:42.090 --> 01:20:57.570 W486MGR: The encouraging thing I found is whether you know we can put labels on everybody, but I think when you talk about compassion, we all share compassion, I think all of the generations, want to feel good about the work they do and how they're doing.   520 01:20:58.890 --> 01:21:05.490 W486MGR: it's just how do you cultivate it from each different, and I find it with honesty and it's what the compassion, you know and being appreciative.   521 01:21:06.750 --> 01:21:13.800 W486MGR: You know, when I first started out in the early at these working you know appreciation wasn't necessarily part of the workforce.   522 01:21:13.890 --> 01:21:21.000 W486MGR: He was like you're you're getting paid that should be good enough and you don't just spend a lot of my time.   523 01:21:21.780 --> 01:21:27.030 W486MGR: Like today I walked in and through three people at six o'clock morning hey you got a minute before you leave today.   524 01:21:27.540 --> 01:21:43.410 W486MGR: They would turn you off today can I talk to you for a second you know and they they want to feel included in the compassion so that's important but yeah it's it's a boy you can't sit still on it, because i'm going to do you're behind the curve for sure.   525 01:21:44.190 --> 01:21:54.810 Paul Casey: yeah like I said managing it we manage people and we met projects and budgets and facilities, but we lead people, and that is a different mindset.   526 01:21:55.860 --> 01:22:02.880 Paul Casey: Even though we're called managers, many of us where we are, we are the leaders and we got to put on our leader had every day.   527 01:22:03.180 --> 01:22:12.120 W486MGR: yeah absolutely absolutely and you know some of these are in their 20s and 30s now we're part of a large generation of divorces and moms.   528 01:22:12.540 --> 01:22:18.120 W486MGR: Who were kids post it, and so I find I connect with that group Berlin Wall, they just want to know, someone cares.   529 01:22:19.410 --> 01:22:30.120 W486MGR: They interact with them and I get 100% almost buy in because I truly appreciate, they just want contact in which it's an interesting group of degeneration nerve but.   530 01:22:31.200 --> 01:22:38.640 W486MGR: everyone's, as you know, everyone's different than in the workforce it's if it's always changing and i'm not perfect, for sure so.   531 01:22:40.650 --> 01:22:42.990 Paul Casey: appreciation is like oxygen I think.   532 01:22:43.050 --> 01:22:43.650 W486MGR: Oh it's.   533 01:22:45.270 --> 01:22:46.740 W486MGR: great praise great word.   534 01:22:49.020 --> 01:22:57.480 Paul Casey: Well, how about when you're in when you're in a leadership position with that many people under you or you get moved toss from store to store over your career.   535 01:22:57.870 --> 01:23:12.300 Paul Casey: there's probably a temptation for burnout and maybe even a drift towards negativity because of the stress that people are under, how do you Tom feed your mental emotional spiritual health and wellness on a regular basis.   536 01:23:13.410 --> 01:23:15.300 W486MGR: very, very, very question.   537 01:23:17.130 --> 01:23:22.320 W486MGR: I think it goes back to you know my belief, you know what I what I believe.   538 01:23:24.030 --> 01:23:35.520 W486MGR: Reading a lot, you know Christian churchgoer obviously and that keeps me Center you know I want to live a Christ like life so it's giving a lot, you know that's how I gauge.   539 01:23:36.240 --> 01:23:44.640 W486MGR: A lot of my success at this point in my career is how much, am I, giving I don't consider myself necessarily a taker a little pretty simple.   540 01:23:46.290 --> 01:23:50.400 W486MGR: And, as I, you know mature that gets more important, you know just kill it giving.   541 01:23:53.280 --> 01:24:03.960 W486MGR: This last year on year or two with the code in the extra stresses i've started being a walk more incorporate some pains with my wife and I, you know we can offer insurance eating more and and visiting and.   542 01:24:05.040 --> 01:24:16.410 W486MGR: Because you know we never missed a beat her when people went home and stayed home, we were we were probably busier and we've been and you know as far as gaining market share and so on.   543 01:24:17.430 --> 01:24:24.270 W486MGR: it's not easy, but a great sound whole life itself, as you can make it with some good communication and.   544 01:24:24.720 --> 01:24:26.640 W486MGR: I didn't mention either, but we have a lot of fun here.   545 01:24:27.000 --> 01:24:45.690 W486MGR: We do, and honestly we keep it fun we keep it up like was it probably a little too much sarcasm, at times, but light and fun and I think having fun and enjoying what you're doing is an important part of being you know, keeping yourself stable, you know it's needed for sure.   546 01:24:46.050 --> 01:24:49.680 Paul Casey: yeah I think people produce better when they're having fun at work when they're happier.   547 01:24:49.890 --> 01:24:50.190 W486MGR: yeah.   548 01:24:50.310 --> 01:24:51.060 Exactly yeah.   549 01:24:52.140 --> 01:24:58.020 Paul Casey: yeah and I think if I think a little bird told me you get up awful early in the morning to start that connection with.   550 01:25:01.680 --> 01:25:04.440 W486MGR: him i'm I sleep in spurts.   551 01:25:05.520 --> 01:25:20.100 W486MGR: And I used to find it but i'm absolutely I go to bed early but i'm very early in the main room nice little bit more, but yeah i'm i'm never afraid to engage people we started 230 in the morning here and we close up around 1130 so.   552 01:25:20.160 --> 01:25:20.670 wow.   553 01:25:23.370 --> 01:25:33.660 Paul Casey: Well, how do you get things done, Tom what's what's a what's a general manager do to organize themselves with the amount of stuff coming at you on a daily basis, you know.   554 01:25:34.920 --> 01:25:39.150 W486MGR: i'm pleased to announce that it is still as simple as just writing things down.   555 01:25:40.740 --> 01:25:52.230 W486MGR: And I stared out a yellow pad in front of me right now with you know five or 10 of the larger departments and I moved from one piece of paper to the next cross things out keep the major things in front of us.   556 01:25:53.370 --> 01:26:01.050 W486MGR: We over communicate here, whether it be by email or phone, more importantly, at the volumes we do each day now.   557 01:26:01.620 --> 01:26:10.200 W486MGR: We have a regimented failsafe plan of walking every day and having a plan for the next day to where there's trying to eliminate as many surprises.   558 01:26:10.650 --> 01:26:18.300 W486MGR: Yes, can we look to see what's coming in and free tomorrow and can we have a plan for their employees don't get frustrated with moving things 10 times.   559 01:26:20.070 --> 01:26:26.730 W486MGR: So I think it's a sin, you know, trying to keep it trying to keep it for me, probably peace of mind written down and then lists.   560 01:26:28.020 --> 01:26:37.830 W486MGR: And in the world of emails I delete a lot of you have especially our office that just started, you know I found frivolous and fortunately for me i've been pretty lucky there but.   561 01:26:39.330 --> 01:26:44.610 W486MGR: yeah writing it down having a plan, and then we talked about forward thinking you know.   562 01:26:45.360 --> 01:26:56.580 W486MGR: He picked up the win and then they sleep better and then they they feel better they don't dread going to bed and staying up on my you know they know they have a plan and keeps everybody keeps everybody Square.   563 01:26:57.840 --> 01:26:59.700 Paul Casey: Very cool the old legal pad.   564 01:26:59.730 --> 01:26:59.970 yeah.   565 01:27:01.980 --> 01:27:02.370 W486MGR: Still we're.   566 01:27:03.750 --> 01:27:04.320 W486MGR: Still.   567 01:27:05.340 --> 01:27:08.790 Paul Casey: going to get that shot adobo mean when we cross them off our last.   568 01:27:13.080 --> 01:27:20.940 Paul Casey: Well before we head to our next question is, I want to pick tom's brain a little bit more than that forward looking a shout out to our sponsor.   569 01:27:24.480 --> 01:27:34.080 Paul Casey: So Tom you mentioned forward thinking, I really love that I love I think leaders have to be visionary, they have to look around corners, they have to see like you said, the Christmas season coming.   570 01:27:34.650 --> 01:27:41.400 Paul Casey: How do you specifically step back and look at the bigger picture and not just put out fires all day long.   571 01:27:44.160 --> 01:28:00.750 W486MGR: it's probably it's a great question and I found when reading through you know you give me this list that some of this has been a natural reaction, but I think in there many in the pace of this day and age, and the pace of my business.   572 01:28:03.180 --> 01:28:20.040 W486MGR: It may be cliche, to say the highs and the lows, but I just find I take all that out, and I just try and keep everything on a straight line, not that there's a lot of emotion for my business and a great job appreciate that getting excited celebrating you know when we have successes but.   573 01:28:22.770 --> 01:28:32.640 W486MGR: In in crisis that's that's come daily like you know whether its members don't fall, you know going down in the workplace, we had a couple suicides here this year is or will.   574 01:28:32.850 --> 01:28:33.240 Be.   575 01:28:34.320 --> 01:28:45.960 W486MGR: I don't let the staff or the group dwell on things I don't let them over talk it or I believe conversation should be productive and you know reflective and so there's.   576 01:28:48.480 --> 01:29:04.830 W486MGR: I just look at the bigger picture and I like to talk about down the road I don't like to talk about the failures of yesterday and on this silly like to talk about today, I think when you're keeping your staff looking forward with their eyes up they're not falling down, looking back.   577 01:29:06.510 --> 01:29:07.950 W486MGR: When we mess up we.   578 01:29:08.130 --> 01:29:17.610 W486MGR: We take a couple minutes, where hey, why did that happen what what happened there, but I don't you know, send out 10 more emails and hit him up the next day like don't you remember.   579 01:29:18.810 --> 01:29:20.310 W486MGR: Last time you failed it's.   580 01:29:20.370 --> 01:29:20.700 Paul Casey: yeah.   581 01:29:20.910 --> 01:29:28.290 W486MGR: We just kind of we always try and keep it pitched out in front of us where we're kind of chasing that which I think is a good feeling for most people.   582 01:29:28.890 --> 01:29:36.660 Paul Casey: yeah It makes me think like in track and field like we're an Olympic season now you know, a track and field where they are the runner looks to the left or the right that's when they.   583 01:29:36.900 --> 01:29:38.400 Paul Casey: They lose momentum right.   584 01:29:38.790 --> 01:29:40.170 W486MGR: Great analogy perfect.   585 01:29:41.160 --> 01:29:44.730 Paul Casey: yeah that's why I named my business growing forward services.   586 01:29:47.040 --> 01:29:48.540 W486MGR: Not growing sideways right.   587 01:29:49.680 --> 01:29:52.770 Paul Casey: yeah it's staring backward that it just doesn't have the same.   588 01:29:52.800 --> 01:29:53.160 Paul Casey: Time.   589 01:29:53.760 --> 01:29:54.660 Paul Casey: It doesn't have to do it.   590 01:29:56.700 --> 01:30:08.940 Paul Casey: Well, you mentioned you brought up Kobe there what key moves did you have to make for costco and the last year and a half to two years, seemed like you said you stayed open, you are deemed essential You ran out of toilet paper, like everybody else.   591 01:30:10.470 --> 01:30:11.070 Paul Casey: How did you.   592 01:30:11.220 --> 01:30:14.340 Paul Casey: How did you stay responsive and strategic and during coven.   593 01:30:15.090 --> 01:30:15.450 know.   594 01:30:17.250 --> 01:30:25.530 W486MGR: On on a lot of levels, probably the toughest year in my career, but on a lot of levels, probably one of the most successful team building years for.   595 01:30:25.830 --> 01:30:28.620 W486MGR: My for my building in our company.   596 01:30:30.720 --> 01:30:32.010 W486MGR: You know, it was.   597 01:30:33.150 --> 01:30:37.530 W486MGR: You know, we kind of locked arms and just said, you know we're going to do this and and.   598 01:30:38.760 --> 01:30:51.690 W486MGR: One of the key things i've had to do, which has been very, very tough for me exponentially, the last year and a half, because we've hired we've seen five years of growth percentage growth in this market.   599 01:30:53.220 --> 01:30:54.840 W486MGR: Five years worth in the last year.   600 01:30:55.350 --> 01:30:56.070 Paul Casey: well.   601 01:30:56.130 --> 01:31:02.940 W486MGR: And so, now we probably increased our staff by 25 to 30%.   602 01:31:03.960 --> 01:31:11.160 W486MGR: i'm and i'm a hands on guy so you know, and I love big volume, but I also like to know, every detail of what's going on and.   603 01:31:12.330 --> 01:31:27.690 W486MGR: Why, I found out real quick and the first three or four five months of this last year I just kind of have to let a few things go spend more time being articulate listening, the clear on goals, allowing more failure, sometimes you know.   604 01:31:29.850 --> 01:31:40.650 W486MGR: You know, talking through those scenarios and maybe it wasn't we weren't clear enough and how we planned it so you know five years had a very high volume building either pre covert.   605 01:31:41.730 --> 01:31:50.640 W486MGR: i've had the world of just honestly remember you know how may become a kind of a different manager again, you know rebuild myself again.   606 01:31:52.350 --> 01:31:57.210 W486MGR: And there's been a lot of pluses and then there's been there's been some some tough road to but.   607 01:31:58.350 --> 01:32:00.000 W486MGR: we're stronger team this year for sure.   608 01:32:02.550 --> 01:32:03.030 Paul Casey: wow.   609 01:32:04.140 --> 01:32:13.830 Paul Casey: That in you know you said, like the couple suicides Oh, you know, in an organization or in the periphery, I mean the mental health drain.   610 01:32:14.340 --> 01:32:18.150 Paul Casey: Like you said you had to reinvent yourself as a manager to be that cheerleader.   611 01:32:18.540 --> 01:32:34.920 Paul Casey: You said articulation clarifying goals and letting some stuff go talk to me about that was it, you said, your OCD that must have been a struggle to actually take all this experience and put a few things to the side, while you reoriented towards being a cheerleader.   612 01:32:35.160 --> 01:32:41.850 W486MGR: yeah very projects from the top down, and again this morning as early as this morning we're talking about.   613 01:32:42.990 --> 01:32:54.900 W486MGR: i'd have, I do have my staff in the morning, half the stuff in the afternoon, and you know somebody brought up kind of a loose and that was part of the way we do our business and it kind of exploded into.   614 01:32:57.000 --> 01:33:01.530 W486MGR: We use retail failures and pen and not sarcastically but.   615 01:33:03.450 --> 01:33:14.790 W486MGR: You know the arrogance, if you look at companies like kmart or shoes or where they lose their way, and they lose their target focus and they lose their their basics nothing's kind of eat away at your culture.   616 01:33:16.530 --> 01:33:22.770 W486MGR: very, very hard from you like even I just give me an example, like our register set up here, we had 18 registers pretty cool but.   617 01:33:24.060 --> 01:33:31.170 W486MGR: We now have 28, but a lot of them are set up in the normal standard costco procedure which is you know we always have somebody helping the cashier.   618 01:33:31.260 --> 01:33:33.900 W486MGR: packing Well, now we have a tan at each end.   619 01:33:34.470 --> 01:33:40.620 W486MGR: or just somebody standing there with the gun, you know, so the checks and balances of there, which is an increase in shrink.   620 01:33:41.190 --> 01:33:46.590 W486MGR: it's an increase in that you know i'm just uncomfortable with that piece of it at the same point.   621 01:33:47.370 --> 01:33:53.880 W486MGR: We don't have lines anymore, and our Members can get in and out and it's quicker and so there's a cost of doing.   622 01:33:54.870 --> 01:34:04.620 W486MGR: I guess that's the best analogy, I can give you I mean it my stomach kind of turn sometimes and i'm looking at it, but then, I have three Members walk by and go man this place is great, we got him we got out.   623 01:34:06.150 --> 01:34:14.070 W486MGR: And yeah you know every six months cycle, the last couple, we ran a little higher shrink, not a lot, because you know you can see our box of cheerios right.   624 01:34:16.890 --> 01:34:21.120 W486MGR: But we have a little bit just missed items, you know just because of our volume and so when.   625 01:34:21.930 --> 01:34:35.700 W486MGR: that's an example of just having to let it some of it goes a little bit and that you know the way this dynamic is set up right now we kind of got to give a little to be sure we're taking care of our people and our Members so.   626 01:34:37.020 --> 01:34:38.880 W486MGR: it's maybe an example yeah.   627 01:34:39.210 --> 01:34:40.740 Paul Casey: Thank you for the extra check stands, we.   628 01:34:40.740 --> 01:34:41.820 W486MGR: appreciate yeah.   629 01:34:42.930 --> 01:34:46.320 W486MGR: I do get a lot of local and it's good for people, you know we we don't.   630 01:34:47.640 --> 01:34:57.750 W486MGR: We definitely almost doubled the size of the front end which which now we can move people per hour or more people per hour through the building when we have parking spots, so now now.   631 01:34:58.140 --> 01:35:03.450 Paul Casey: A lot of good stuff in that pivot and and even though you know I don't like it when you move the potato chips across.   632 01:35:03.450 --> 01:35:03.690 there.   633 01:35:06.000 --> 01:35:07.530 Paul Casey: there's a thing called change.   634 01:35:09.780 --> 01:35:12.720 W486MGR: I wish I had $1 for every time someone's got on you, by moving.   635 01:35:14.370 --> 01:35:17.580 Paul Casey: How do you help people handled change.   636 01:35:17.790 --> 01:35:19.770 W486MGR: yeah it's a.   637 01:35:21.660 --> 01:35:28.920 W486MGR: You know I I put it to people when, especially when we're there are some things that we change, like our shirt or.   638 01:35:29.970 --> 01:35:41.400 W486MGR: Product line or whatever, but you know when you're asking someone to make changes in their leadership style I always say it's not a haircut issue you know that's my haircut taking minutes for most people yeah.   639 01:35:42.060 --> 01:35:57.450 W486MGR: More you say head or like that shirt to wear that small you know that's an easy one, but yeah when you start getting into you know hey you really need to make some changes here about the way you articulate about the week listen your body language.   640 01:35:58.770 --> 01:35:59.520 W486MGR: You know.   641 01:36:00.630 --> 01:36:02.910 W486MGR: Why, those are tough and you have to be patient.   642 01:36:03.960 --> 01:36:05.160 W486MGR: You have show patients.   643 01:36:06.600 --> 01:36:12.150 W486MGR: And again that's where just become an open and honest and articulate and being a good listener.   644 01:36:14.910 --> 01:36:25.350 W486MGR: i've had some retirements to this year, you know they're saying, have a business outgrows people sometimes it does you know, we have some people know 3839 years and built this company and.   645 01:36:26.100 --> 01:36:33.810 W486MGR: Changes art and they're tired tired, you know, this is a tiring business where like like a lot of organizations, but.   646 01:36:35.100 --> 01:36:39.810 W486MGR: I have had some people just tell me hey i'm I can't do that.   647 01:36:41.220 --> 01:36:54.570 W486MGR: Like I appreciate the honesty, but rather need to go a different direction, those are those are those are good conversations and honesty and then friendship and then respect to other other people in the work they've done but.   648 01:36:57.390 --> 01:37:04.950 W486MGR: Most people are willing to do it we're pretty lucky we have that I think we have the best retail team and in the United States, if not the world I.   649 01:37:04.950 --> 01:37:05.580 Paul Casey: mean.   650 01:37:05.880 --> 01:37:10.200 W486MGR: We can move the business and move the product and keep our Members happy.   651 01:37:11.250 --> 01:37:12.210 W486MGR: you're pretty good job.   652 01:37:12.660 --> 01:37:13.170 W486MGR: yeah.   653 01:37:13.590 --> 01:37:14.070 Paul Casey: i'm trying to do.   654 01:37:14.250 --> 01:37:18.570 W486MGR: That without being arrogant but i'm feel like we're pretty stronger.   655 01:37:19.380 --> 01:37:32.490 Paul Casey: yeah that's so cool to be able to say that everybody can say that's that's that's pretty awesome and you mentioned there's there can be performance issues, there can be attitude, you know or behavior issues, there can be paste issues right and.   656 01:37:32.610 --> 01:37:38.100 Paul Casey: I mean you have to confront you probably have to confront each one of those a little bit differently right as we.   657 01:37:38.400 --> 01:37:39.720 W486MGR: Absolutely, you know.   658 01:37:43.410 --> 01:37:50.250 W486MGR: You know i've always been fortunate I think if you ask my staff i'm i'm a pretty tough guy i'm pretty tough on the basics.   659 01:37:51.570 --> 01:38:02.310 W486MGR: But I I think working for me is like that the worst roller coaster you're I always tell the stuff that you ever went on a skirt you sometimes but you can't wait to go on and do it again.   660 01:38:04.080 --> 01:38:09.600 W486MGR: And they love it pretty you know picking people enjoy working for me, but I think part of that is you know paul's we've talked.   661 01:38:10.080 --> 01:38:23.070 W486MGR: When you're organized and when you have plans and you have successes it builds it builds trust it builds trust in the fact that we're successful and we're a team, and we have a plan.   662 01:38:24.210 --> 01:38:33.390 W486MGR: That helps you know build the team, and you know, so we talk about relationships, a lot here, we talked about trust.   663 01:38:35.220 --> 01:38:41.610 W486MGR: You talked about being open and honest and you know we're not perfect, but but we try awful hard.   664 01:38:43.560 --> 01:38:52.680 Paul Casey: yeah well tell him, finally, what advice would you give to new leaders or anyone who wants to keep growing and gaining more influence.   665 01:38:54.330 --> 01:38:54.690 Paul Casey: yeah.   666 01:38:56.910 --> 01:39:04.470 W486MGR: Well, my formula my formula has always been one of my biggest strengths, thank goodness, is just working hard.   667 01:39:05.640 --> 01:39:19.200 W486MGR: At what I do I hope that's never replaced I think hard work is rewarded, no matter what you're doing whether it's in the yard or at work or whenever you see the fruits, it has to start with the willingness to be able to work hard.   668 01:39:21.570 --> 01:39:23.970 W486MGR: And they're really appear stepping into being.   669 01:39:25.410 --> 01:39:39.120 W486MGR: managing a business or leading are really sit down by yourself and understand the difference between what's managing and what's leading and then I don't want to mix it up in today's world leading people is very, very difficult.   670 01:39:40.020 --> 01:39:49.320 W486MGR: And, as a result, I always suggest reading doing a lot of reading doing a lot of having an accountability group getting feedback.   671 01:39:50.730 --> 01:40:00.180 W486MGR: Getting coaching whenever you can can you know hey what could I be doing, and the last thing, be able to take some criticism that was hard very, very hard for me.   672 01:40:01.230 --> 01:40:02.460 W486MGR: To use.   673 01:40:03.510 --> 01:40:13.380 W486MGR: i've been doing this 36 or 37 but I will say the first 15 years or so, I wasn't very receptive to that or areas for improvement.   674 01:40:15.660 --> 01:40:20.610 W486MGR: And I finally i've learned hey if I if you're getting some some.   675 01:40:21.750 --> 01:40:31.680 W486MGR: You know, encouragement to improve in certain areas it's probably because someone cares about you and they see potential Ai be a little worried in today's day and age, if they're not saying anything.   676 01:40:32.460 --> 01:40:32.850 yeah.   677 01:40:34.860 --> 01:40:42.510 Paul Casey: Well, for I know you're a golfer Tom and they say, if you take a golf lesson from a pro would you get mad at the golf pro for adjusting.   678 01:40:43.680 --> 01:40:43.980 W486MGR: yeah.   679 01:40:45.600 --> 01:40:47.520 W486MGR: i'm just gonna hit it straight or I don't want to do that.   680 01:40:49.980 --> 01:40:50.820 W486MGR: me what to do.   681 01:40:52.080 --> 01:40:54.510 W486MGR: Sure that's a great analogy yeah.   682 01:40:56.160 --> 01:40:59.550 Paul Casey: Good stuff so Tom How can our listeners best connect with you.   683 01:41:01.560 --> 01:41:17.340 W486MGR: You know, for me, it's and I get it a lot with people as he a church or people I see around you know, the Community is just coming in and saying I think everybody comes through here asked for me at the door i'd love to sit down and talk with anybody.   684 01:41:17.880 --> 01:41:23.430 W486MGR: Some time come into the office you know it takes 1520 minutes or whatever it is, but.   685 01:41:24.510 --> 01:41:33.570 W486MGR: yeah generally you know six and a half days a week or six five and a half days a week my i'm right here, trying to keep my arms around the place.   686 01:41:35.370 --> 01:41:35.850 W486MGR: So.   687 01:41:36.390 --> 01:41:43.080 Paul Casey: yeah that's very generous of your time well thanks again for all you do Tom to make the tri cities, a great place.   688 01:41:43.110 --> 01:41:44.730 Paul Casey: and keep leading well.   689 01:41:45.240 --> 01:41:45.420 Now.   690 01:41:46.950 --> 01:41:50.880 Paul Casey: Let me wrap up our podcast today with a leadership resource to recommend.   691 01:41:51.420 --> 01:42:00.690 Paul Casey: And it has to do with training I would love to be your training buddy someone that you could hire to come in to help your folks grow in their soft skills.   692 01:42:00.930 --> 01:42:09.480 Paul Casey: But that's emotional intelligence or their personality style whether it's handling conflict and receiving feedback well like Tom and I were just discussing.   693 01:42:09.780 --> 01:42:24.060 Paul Casey: would love to come in and do a lunch and learn for your team or half or full day training, please go to my website Paul Casey calm reach out and we will make it happen in the second half of 2021 as things are opening up.   694 01:42:25.800 --> 01:42:33.600 Paul Casey: Well, again, this is Paul Casey and I want to thank my guest Tom olson from costco for being here today on the tri city influencer podcast we want to thank our.   695 01:42:34.110 --> 01:42:43.740 Paul Casey: sponsors and invite you to sponsor to support them and we appreciate you making this possible, so that we can collaborate to help inspire leaders in our Community.   696 01:42:44.070 --> 01:43:00.480 Paul Casey: Finally, one more leadership tidbit for the road to help you make a difference in your circle of influence Benjamin Disraeli said action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action until next time kg F keep growing forward.  

1 00:00:03.570 --> 00:00:04.259 Paul Casey: Here we go. 2 00:00:05.759 --> 00:00:24.840 Paul Casey: it's a great day to grow forward, and thank you for joining me for today's episode with Chris Porter Chris is partner at Porter Kinney and a fun fact about him is he says he's a little germ of phobic or at least people think he is Chris you gotta go get a color on that one. 3 00:00:25.620 --> 00:00:40.440 Chris: Well it's true it's just been a joke a long standing joke going back decades about my German phobia one time for a birthday present somebody gave me some jello with a hand sanitizer inside the jello just to make sure the agenda was clean. 4 00:00:41.220 --> 00:00:45.330 Chris: The whole bottle of hand sanitizer was kind of molded within the jello and that was my. 5 00:00:46.830 --> 00:00:52.530 Paul Casey: love it love it well, we will dive in after checking in with our tri city influencers sponsor. 6 00:00:53.460 --> 00:01:00.810 Paul Casey: Thank you for your support of leadership development in the tri cities well welcome Chris I was privileged to meet you. 7 00:01:01.140 --> 00:01:09.480 Paul Casey: Man it feels like eight or 10 years ago now, when I visited a you're being I grew up your business networking international group I was a sub and. 8 00:01:09.990 --> 00:01:26.970 Paul Casey: ended up joining be and I certainly after that I think it was 2015 I joined the and I and it's been a great thing ever since and you were able to speak at one of my edge events when we used to do those when we combine pizza and professional development that was fun. 9 00:01:27.870 --> 00:01:28.380 Chris: that's right. 10 00:01:29.100 --> 00:01:43.770 Paul Casey: And you spoke for mid Columbia score I think once on the same topic and I just love, how you want to help other businesses out of wide rookie mistakes as you would call them and really help them thrive, as they as they launch and in those first years of development. 11 00:01:44.760 --> 00:01:45.420 Absolutely. 12 00:01:46.860 --> 00:01:57.060 Paul Casey: Well, how far Tracy and implication to know you better tell us about what your organization does what you spend 80% of your day doing. 13 00:01:58.560 --> 00:02:08.430 Chris: yeah so porter Kenny we're a CPA firm and accounting firm, so we provide tax preparation services and other accounting services for individuals and businesses. 14 00:02:09.630 --> 00:02:25.170 Chris: So business could come to us for tax advice for the preparation of their annual tax return and then also if they wanted us to run their payroll for them, keep their books up to date, help them make good business decisions, you know we're here to support small businesses in the tri cities. 15 00:02:25.950 --> 00:02:32.190 Paul Casey: Great stuff and So what do you end up spending most of your day as a partner, doing same thing or other stuff. 16 00:02:32.970 --> 00:02:38.790 Chris: yeah i'm about split 5050 right now, half the time i'll work on client work, making sure. 17 00:02:39.210 --> 00:02:45.960 Chris: You know i'm filing my clients tax returns on time, helping them make strategic business moves avoid taxes were legally possible. 18 00:02:46.410 --> 00:03:02.520 Chris: And then the other half of my day is spent on management training employees on sales on trying to improve the business, you know, sometimes with leadership we talked about working in the business versus working on the business and i'm about split 5050 between those two right now. 19 00:03:03.210 --> 00:03:11.220 Paul Casey: Nice and, as we were talking before we started recording you're in a major growth spurt in just the last couple of years right. 20 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:18.150 Chris: yeah about two years ago, we have seven full time staff at porter kinney and now we have 24 so. 21 00:03:18.210 --> 00:03:20.430 Chris: Definitely had some growth over the last couple years. 22 00:03:20.610 --> 00:03:22.440 Paul Casey: amazing congratulations. 23 00:03:22.680 --> 00:03:23.310 Chris: Thank you. 24 00:03:23.640 --> 00:03:25.590 Paul Casey: Why do you love to do what to do. 25 00:03:26.970 --> 00:03:34.350 Chris: You know I just have always enjoyed business It just seems like something that's really fun it's almost like you're playing a strategy game. 26 00:03:34.770 --> 00:03:46.320 Chris: And if you make the right moves you're going to win, and if you don't think clearly enough or you make a mistake you're going to lose and it's just kind of this it's kind of a big game big game of chess. 27 00:03:47.190 --> 00:03:53.430 Chris: Ever since I was probably 10 or 11 i've wanted to start a business in fact i'll tell you Paul, the first business I ever started. 28 00:03:54.180 --> 00:04:06.090 Chris: A friend of mine His name was john and my name is Chris so we got together and we said we're going to combine our two names and we're going to start a lawn mowing business, so instead of Chris and john we call it crowd. 29 00:04:06.840 --> 00:04:09.000 Chris: It was cron lawn. 30 00:04:09.540 --> 00:04:10.740 Chris: Which arrives. 31 00:04:14.010 --> 00:04:14.580 Chris: So. 32 00:04:15.060 --> 00:04:23.280 Chris: That was me as a 10 or 11 year old try to be entrepreneurial but i've had a million business ideas, since then and thankfully at least one of them has worked. 33 00:04:24.390 --> 00:04:31.350 Paul Casey: How did you land on accounting and tax prep from all those business ideas, how did you sort through land on that one. 34 00:04:32.010 --> 00:04:45.870 Chris: You know it's what I did when I was at byu That was what my degree was in was accounting, so it was kind of the most natural fit, of course, to start an accounting firm when you have a background in accounting when you have work experience and accounting and a degree in accounting. 35 00:04:47.040 --> 00:04:51.600 Chris: So that's how I settled on that, but yeah I have debated about doing other businesses but. 36 00:04:52.740 --> 00:05:06.360 Chris: I know a lot of tri cities business owners that have their foot in you know many different businesses, they maybe have a portfolio of five to 10 different businesses that hasn't worked for my own personality, I like to be laser focused on just one one business. 37 00:05:06.690 --> 00:05:20.820 Paul Casey: Absolutely so who do you surround yourself with on your team, what makes a great team Member for you to hang around and also who do you who do you tend to associate with in the Community outside of porter kinney. 38 00:05:22.140 --> 00:05:29.940 Chris: Well, within porter Kenny, we have tried to hire the best person for each position and it's interesting as you try to grow a business. 39 00:05:30.420 --> 00:05:42.300 Chris: there's the lowest hanging fruit employees and that's going to be, you know your brother or your sister or your friend or your neighbor just kind of the people that are around around you that you know that maybe you're looking for a job. 40 00:05:43.500 --> 00:05:53.820 Chris: You could always hire one of them, but but really it is very important if you've read the book good to great you know, Jim Collins really emphasizes putting the right people on the right seat on the bus. 41 00:05:54.450 --> 00:06:06.150 Chris: And spending a lot of time hiring I read a book recently by Dave ramsey who recommends the same thing Dave ramsey says he does like two months of interviews before he hires anyone yeah. 42 00:06:06.690 --> 00:06:18.510 Chris: So we have been very careful in the hiring process to hire the right person for each position, not to hire the easiest person or the lowest hanging fruit or the person that we know or the person we attend, you know church with. 43 00:06:19.680 --> 00:06:29.700 Chris: When we hire someone it's it's probably at least 30 hours of my time before we make that higher and so that I think we just have an outstanding team that doesn't need to be micromanaged. 44 00:06:30.270 --> 00:06:37.200 Paul Casey: yeah the measure twice cut once principal at a boss through always said that in hiring you got to do that so way to go. 45 00:06:37.470 --> 00:06:38.760 Chris: Absolutely yeah. 46 00:06:39.690 --> 00:06:43.110 Paul Casey: For outside the organization one who helps you be successful. 47 00:06:43.860 --> 00:06:55.320 Chris: yeah so that's a great question outside the organization, you know, there are a few of business leaders in the Community, that I really respect and i've intentionally take them to lunch and pick their brain and. 48 00:06:55.950 --> 00:07:00.060 Chris: You know it's always good to maintain a spirit of humility about what we do. 49 00:07:00.510 --> 00:07:09.090 Chris: I will be the first to admit that there are you know hundreds of business owners in this area that that do a much better job than I do, and I want to learn from them, I want to. 50 00:07:09.510 --> 00:07:21.720 Chris: have them be my mentor and you know they're further ahead than I am in their business they've been doing it longer than I have and it's good for me to sit down with them over lunch ask him questions learn things from them. 51 00:07:22.920 --> 00:07:36.870 Paul Casey: yeah in fact that's on my list there's no that the reason for this podcast was I did what you did, which is take a leader to lunch, and then I thought, what if everybody else could listen in on that conversation, which is how we've gotten to the truth of the input their podcasts, though. 52 00:07:37.200 --> 00:07:40.770 Paul Casey: yeah i'm taking me to lunch, right now, but maybe i'll have to send you a grub hub or some. 53 00:07:40.920 --> 00:07:41.520 instead. 54 00:07:43.560 --> 00:07:58.380 Chris: Well i'll tell you Paul and this ties in several years ago, I took a very successful tri cities business owner out to lunch to anthony's and I sat down with them, and he had grown a business from from one person from just him to over 500 employees. 55 00:07:58.890 --> 00:08:00.660 Chris: As well as the 100% owner. 56 00:08:01.200 --> 00:08:07.320 Chris: And then he sold the business for a very large sum which enabled him to you know be financially secure for the rest of his life. 57 00:08:08.010 --> 00:08:19.230 Chris: And I asked him, you know what What was your secret and one of the things that he told me really has stayed with me, and that is, he said, Chris I grew my business one strategic higher at a time. 58 00:08:19.320 --> 00:08:26.040 Chris: um and I thought that was a great focus, because so many of us think about growing our business one customer at a time. 59 00:08:26.850 --> 00:08:35.610 Chris: Well that's also true there's kind of two sides of the coin right, we have to add customers, we have to have clients, we have to you know, keep them satisfied and offer a high level of service to them. 60 00:08:36.060 --> 00:08:47.370 Chris: But the other side of the coin is getting the right people in the business like I mentioned earlier, one strategic hire at a time that's how he went from one employee to 600 employees, to a large sale. 61 00:08:47.880 --> 00:09:03.480 Paul Casey: That is so good, I hear also that the only way you're going to really bust out and grow is, you have to hire leaders, not just followers but leaders that's going to help you to multiply hiring followers just as addition so yeah great stuff one strategic fire at a time. 62 00:09:03.780 --> 00:09:18.120 Chris: yeah and Paul you hit the nail on the head, you also do not want to be intimidated it's okay to hire someone who's smarter than you it's okay to hire someone that's more educated than you are you don't have to be intimidated by that get the best people on your team and grow together. 63 00:09:18.870 --> 00:09:30.060 Paul Casey: Great stuff and speaking of growth leaders have growth mindset So how do you keep evolving as a leader what's in your own personal and professional development plan. 64 00:09:31.710 --> 00:09:48.480 Chris: What are the things i've done, I really love listening to books on my phone I use audible and I like to listen to business books yeah, but I have long time for a long time i've had the philosophy that you shouldn't consume information faster than you're able to apply that information. 65 00:09:48.570 --> 00:09:51.510 Paul Casey: or flow good let's say that again say that again. 66 00:09:51.870 --> 00:09:52.170 well. 67 00:09:53.670 --> 00:09:58.290 Chris: You should not consume information faster than you're able to apply that information. 68 00:09:59.400 --> 00:10:06.660 Chris: So, in other words, I hear some people that say hey I listened to one book a week on audible and I think well, are you really able to. 69 00:10:07.380 --> 00:10:13.860 Chris: You know, apply those principles that are being taught in that business book that quickly, maybe some people are I certainly am not. 70 00:10:14.760 --> 00:10:20.670 Chris: So i'll go through a book on audible very slowly, as I drive maybe one book every three months. 71 00:10:21.450 --> 00:10:30.000 Chris: And when I get to my location i'll pull up my phone and i'll take notes on a Google sheet as to what I learned during that drive from that business book. 72 00:10:30.780 --> 00:10:43.140 Chris: And then, when i'm done i'll kind of go through all my notes on board those things that I thought were most applicable and i'll try to apply them in my business and I try not to move to the second book until i've made some changes, based on that the first book that I read. 73 00:10:43.830 --> 00:10:53.310 Paul Casey: that's really going deep on a book I do like that I read about 40 a year and, like you said assimilating that so I I to pull over and. 74 00:10:54.270 --> 00:11:01.320 Paul Casey: Then write down the takeaways from the books as I go and then I file them, maybe i'm not assimilating them complete like you're. 75 00:11:01.590 --> 00:11:11.280 Paul Casey: you're talking about, but I do file them in categories for leadership development so that I can pass them on to clients and in seminars, in the future so totally concur with you there. 76 00:11:11.790 --> 00:11:16.830 Paul Casey: And you know i'm probably going to ask you this, so what are a couple of books that everybody's got to read if they're a. 77 00:11:17.250 --> 00:11:26.460 Paul Casey: Business owner or a leader of other people, they want to develop others or develop themselves what are some of those that pop out maybe you've read just the last few years. 78 00:11:27.120 --> 00:11:36.420 Chris: yeah i'll recommend three as kind of a must read and and if there's listeners out there that are thinking about starting a business but haven't read these three books read these three books. 79 00:11:36.900 --> 00:11:44.280 Chris: Seven habits of highly effective people by Stephen R covey obviously this you know timeless written what 40 years ago and still relevant today. 80 00:11:45.480 --> 00:11:50.190 Chris: Second, one would be good to great by Jim Collins like I just mentioned, also timeless. 81 00:11:51.360 --> 00:12:07.830 Chris: Book so vital to read if you're trying to grow your business, as the title implies from good to great and then the third one would be the E myth revisited by Michael gerber which is really kind of the small business Bible, how to grow a business from one person to 10 people to 50 people. 82 00:12:08.640 --> 00:12:13.290 Paul Casey: yeah and I think he was the one that coined that in the biz working in the business or on the business right. 83 00:12:13.500 --> 00:12:14.700 Chris: that's right yeah. 84 00:12:15.480 --> 00:12:31.710 Paul Casey: Great great book recommends thanks Chris for that to avoid burnout and negativity and even in the land of Kobe the last couple years here how have you fed your mental your emotional health and wellness on a regular basis. 85 00:12:33.270 --> 00:12:42.540 Chris: yeah that's a great question you know some business owners talk about you know you got to work 100 hour plus weeks in order to be successful, I do not buy into that philosophy and. 86 00:12:43.500 --> 00:12:52.140 Chris: Most of the effective successful people I know don't work 100 plus hours they do work, maybe 50 to 60 hours a week, I mean they're not slackers that's for sure. 87 00:12:52.770 --> 00:13:02.490 Chris: But you definitely want to take some time some personal time completely on your own I like to do some you know i'd call it spiritual time each day kind of Bible study time each day. 88 00:13:02.940 --> 00:13:11.250 Chris: That I take on my own I definitely spend time with my wife and kids each day intentionally during certain times of the day, so yeah don't neglect yourself. 89 00:13:12.570 --> 00:13:24.420 Paul Casey: yeah self care huge love, I put in, so your spiritual practice there at the beginning of the day, so setting the tone for the day what successful people do in the morning is is huge. 90 00:13:24.750 --> 00:13:35.220 Paul Casey: And then also making sure i'm sure core values family is one of your top ones as well, and not leaving them the leftovers, but prioritizing them somewhere in your day love that. 91 00:13:35.580 --> 00:13:43.770 Paul Casey: Absolutely, how do you go about getting things done, I love to know the organizational system of Chris porter, how do you organize yourself. 92 00:13:44.430 --> 00:13:53.490 Chris: Well i'll tell you Paul I went to one of your presentations several years ago, where you said that we should make a to do list for the next day. 93 00:13:53.820 --> 00:14:03.480 Chris: At the end of the day, so at the end of today i'm going to make a to do list for tomorrow, while those priorities are still fresh in your mind that was a very helpful suggestion and i've done that. 94 00:14:04.560 --> 00:14:09.300 Chris: I don't think I do, that every day, I should, but I do, that a lot of days and I appreciate that suggestion. 95 00:14:10.140 --> 00:14:16.380 Chris: So that's one thing i'll throw out the other thing i'll throw it is from Stephen R covey where he talks about that analogy of. 96 00:14:16.710 --> 00:14:23.310 Chris: Having a jar and everyone's heard this before you have a jar you want to put big rocks and it's small rocks and sand and water in it. 97 00:14:24.180 --> 00:14:31.980 Chris: The only way, you can do that is put the big rocks in first and then the sand and then the water, so the sand kind of falls around the big rocks and everything fits. 98 00:14:32.640 --> 00:14:47.700 Chris: And he uses that analogy to basically recommend you take your most important biggest priorities during the week and you schedule them into your calendar at the beginning of the week don't let any anything else interrupt those important items that you have. 99 00:14:49.230 --> 00:14:53.760 Chris: put those in first add the big rocks your calendar first and then other things fall into place. 100 00:14:54.810 --> 00:15:01.770 Paul Casey: That is so good, I was just telling that illustration, is a timeless illustration of the big rocks I was just teaching that and look at a. 101 00:15:01.980 --> 00:15:09.030 Paul Casey: Digital summit recently, because it is so applicable don't let anything crowd out those three top priorities. 102 00:15:09.390 --> 00:15:21.930 Paul Casey: And I don't know why we do this, Chris we seem to like blow ourselves off and our priorities, we would never do that to someone in a coffee shop or a client appointment right, but we do this for ourselves all the time and then we're like procrastinated yet again. 103 00:15:23.580 --> 00:15:24.630 Chris: Absolutely yeah. 104 00:15:25.380 --> 00:15:26.670 Paul Casey: And I think we would say Paul. 105 00:15:26.700 --> 00:15:31.890 Chris: Paul you also taught me didn't don't show I say obey your calendar is the phrase that you use. 106 00:15:33.270 --> 00:15:36.960 Paul Casey: is like obey your thirst have a calendar. 107 00:15:37.200 --> 00:15:37.740 Chris: that's right. 108 00:15:39.150 --> 00:15:47.910 Paul Casey: Well before we head into our next question about how Chris looks at the bigger picture versus being reactive and leadership let's shout out to our sponsor. 109 00:15:50.220 --> 00:16:02.430 Paul Casey: Well, Chris it's easy to get trapped in simply reacting to crises and leadership and putting out fires, how do you specifically step back and take a look at the bigger picture and get ahead of stuff. 110 00:16:03.960 --> 00:16:05.700 Chris: yeah that's a great question. 111 00:16:06.810 --> 00:16:11.040 Chris: I don't know I don't have a perfect answer for that, but i'll tell you one thing i've done is i've turned off. 112 00:16:12.090 --> 00:16:17.610 Chris: That little notification on the computer where every time you get an email this little thing pings up you got an email from this person. 113 00:16:18.540 --> 00:16:26.910 Chris: You know I definitely spend times during the day when when that's completely off when I don't hear any beeps for my cell phone and it beeps from my computer and I could just be focused. 114 00:16:28.560 --> 00:16:37.860 Paul Casey: You also take time as a company with your your core team to do some strategic planning for the year ahead or the quarter ahead anything like that. 115 00:16:38.640 --> 00:16:48.120 Chris: Absolutely my business partner and I we meet weekly Mondays at 1pm and we talked about yet planning and how our goals are coming along. 116 00:16:48.780 --> 00:16:55.680 Chris: And then we have a group of directors of the company so there's two owners and then for directors of our different departments. 117 00:16:56.250 --> 00:17:07.020 Chris: And we are all reading good to great even if we've read it before we're all reading good to great and then we're meeting on July 30 for an all day retreat with you know some refreshments and a meal and. 118 00:17:07.590 --> 00:17:12.030 Chris: And some activities and we're going to discuss the principles and good to great and how we can apply them to our business. 119 00:17:12.780 --> 00:17:19.050 Paul Casey: love the book study idea and now ramsey himself his organization, when you get hired there you get a box of books. 120 00:17:19.350 --> 00:17:29.280 Paul Casey: Because he wants everyone to be speaking the same language and so that that's a cool thing you're all going to do together, even if it's a reread for many of you it's a new read for others. 121 00:17:29.610 --> 00:17:35.730 Paul Casey: love the off site retreat to i'll put in a plug there as well, I love doing those leading those with companies because. 122 00:17:36.060 --> 00:17:51.300 Paul Casey: You know it's a chance to relationship build like you said eat some food together break bread and look ahead without without that constant notification barrage or interruptions throughout your day so way to go for getting your team away to think ahead. 123 00:17:52.830 --> 00:18:06.000 Paul Casey: What key moves did you make, for your Organization has this whole coven thing went through in the last couple of years, how are you responsive to that how did you become strategic in an uncertain time. 124 00:18:07.740 --> 00:18:17.550 Chris: You know, maybe, instead of answering how I did that you know I serve a lot of clients and maybe I could just anonymously talk about how some of them navigated through it. 125 00:18:17.850 --> 00:18:26.790 Chris: Right, it was very interesting, you know we serve like I said a lot of businesses in the tri cities and restaurants, I thought were very interesting during coven. 126 00:18:27.570 --> 00:18:34.410 Chris: We have a lot of restaurant clients and some of them just almost instantly you know when march hit when April hit. 127 00:18:34.830 --> 00:18:48.540 Chris: They quickly got on uber eats and doordash or had their own delivery drivers and just quickly revamped their business model and some of them did very well, some of them were selling more food than before the pandemic. 128 00:18:49.800 --> 00:18:56.130 Chris: Whereas some of them who just kind of dogmatically stuck to the old business model really struggled so. 129 00:18:56.910 --> 00:19:10.350 Chris: Whether it's co founder whether it's another crisis or whether it's just a constantly changing paradigm of technology, we absolutely need to be responsive on our feet, we cannot run our business like we did five years ago, and we cannot be afraid of change. 130 00:19:11.880 --> 00:19:17.880 Paul Casey: yeah and you bring up that word change, what do you feel most people don't of course don't like change. 131 00:19:18.660 --> 00:19:24.330 Paul Casey: I find leaders are a little bit more comfortable with it because we're the ones, usually driving it you had this huge growth. 132 00:19:24.870 --> 00:19:39.150 Paul Casey: spurt in the last couple of years, so i'm sure with that came some change whether that's procedures, if not just different people, how do you best lead organizational change and how would you recommend other business leaders lead change. 133 00:19:40.680 --> 00:19:44.670 Chris: yeah that's that's a great question there's always resistance to change. 134 00:19:46.230 --> 00:19:50.310 Chris: In fact, well, I probably won't share that story, I was about to share a. 135 00:19:50.310 --> 00:19:53.430 Chris: story, but I don't know if I could do it in a confidential enough medicine. 136 00:19:55.050 --> 00:19:57.600 Chris: But there's always resistance to change but. 137 00:19:58.830 --> 00:20:05.820 Chris: yeah I think you just have to talk about how you know the very obvious truth that if we don't change we stay the same. 138 00:20:06.120 --> 00:20:11.940 Chris: Now that just sounds so stupid, but it's true if we don't change we don't grow if we don't change we don't progress. 139 00:20:12.510 --> 00:20:22.950 Chris: And I think people just need to realize, you know, like my friend my mentor that I talked about earlier that I met at anthony's going from a one person company to a 600 person company. 140 00:20:23.460 --> 00:20:28.530 Chris: Their organizational chart must have changed, you know 27 different times, or more. 141 00:20:29.220 --> 00:20:36.630 Chris: And even in Puerto kitty, you know as we went from when, as a seven person company, you know our organizational chart was basically here's the two owners of the top. 142 00:20:37.080 --> 00:20:45.150 Chris: And here's the five people that report to us it was just very basic we had an organizational chart but it's like okay we're in charge and we're the supervisors that's all it is. 143 00:20:45.750 --> 00:20:53.550 Chris: But now as a 24 person company, the two owners don't necessarily want to be in charge of all 24 so we revamped our organizational chart. 144 00:20:54.150 --> 00:21:02.550 Chris: And that is something that i'd recommend that's something that Michael gerber recommends and the E myth, no matter how small your company is make an organizational chart. 145 00:21:03.090 --> 00:21:13.800 Chris: give each person, a job title give each person, a list of their duties that they need to fulfill and, as you grow annually, you should be updating that organization chart. 146 00:21:15.750 --> 00:21:29.010 Paul Casey: What do you do what became a something you delegated to that next level I think you're calling the directors right, the Director level that you did before, but with growth and you know delegated for someone else to supervise. 147 00:21:30.210 --> 00:21:46.230 Chris: Well, one example would be semi annual performance reviews, yes, so I used to do all of them myself and now i'll do the four directors, will do a semi annual review with me and then each of them will do four or five with the people in their department. 148 00:21:47.610 --> 00:21:59.280 Paul Casey: What do you use for performance reviews what system, do you do some self evaluation is it a is it a rating scale is it more narrative what have you sort of landed on lately I know it's probably always in flux, but. 149 00:22:00.480 --> 00:22:12.180 Chris: yeah one thing I mean there's a lot we could talk about there, but one thing I think that we've changed recently that's been very effective is give the staff member of the team Member the feedback before the performance review. 150 00:22:13.050 --> 00:22:22.110 Chris: You don't want to be sitting face to face with somebody and all of a sudden just surprise them with some negative feedback or constructive criticism, as we call it in a more politically correct. 151 00:22:22.110 --> 00:22:22.470 Chris: way. 152 00:22:22.920 --> 00:22:27.930 Chris: You don't just want to surprise somebody in a face to face setting because naturally they'll become defensive. 153 00:22:28.650 --> 00:22:33.840 Chris: So if you send them an email beforehand and say hey thanks so much for meeting with me tomorrow at two. 154 00:22:34.470 --> 00:22:44.880 Chris: Here are some things that I think have been going really well give them six or seven here's two things that I think we can improve on and set some goals on, then they go into the meeting, knowing what's going to be discussed and there'll be less defensive. 155 00:22:45.750 --> 00:22:56.400 Paul Casey: I found that i've got three other clients that also do that same thing they send their performance review a day in advance it's for the people who like to Milan things you know and it probably. 156 00:22:56.820 --> 00:23:08.850 Paul Casey: Well, for mostly it settles them down because they get freaked out on the day of their performance review, but yeah it's sort of like brings it in and more of a conversation the next day, instead of the surprise or. 157 00:23:09.480 --> 00:23:13.800 Paul Casey: This is, you know this is going to be this very tense conversation I think it's a great move. 158 00:23:15.360 --> 00:23:17.280 Paul Casey: Speaking of difficult conversations. 159 00:23:17.520 --> 00:23:36.180 Paul Casey: Conflict very difficult among teams and when you're a supervisor and you have to confront a direct reports someone on your team it's it's usually not a whoo you know kind of day, how do you first of all bolster the courage to have that conversation, and not just let it keep on going. 160 00:23:37.440 --> 00:23:47.220 Chris: yeah I think you bolster the courage by reminding yourself that that conversation is not only good for you, but it's good for that particular team Member to hear. 161 00:23:48.870 --> 00:23:54.990 Chris: You know and Jim Collins again back to good degrade he talks about that a lot he talks about, for example, the ultimate. 162 00:23:55.770 --> 00:24:06.540 Chris: Tough conversation is the conversation where you have to let somebody go and he talks about in his book if there's somebody who is not a good fit for your organization not only. 163 00:24:07.500 --> 00:24:13.920 Chris: Are you doing yourself a disservice by keeping them on you're doing them a disservice by keeping them on the team because. 164 00:24:14.250 --> 00:24:18.930 Chris: They might be a much better fit for another organization with a different culture with different goals. 165 00:24:19.380 --> 00:24:31.830 Chris: And by continuing to keep them on your bus, even though they're in the wrong seat and on the wrong bus you're basically wasting years of their life so do yourself a favor do them a favor by having that tough conversation. 166 00:24:32.190 --> 00:24:50.550 Paul Casey: No, that is so good, because you really want to have the conversation in service of them, and your organization so you're serving two purposes and when people just don't want to have that conversation so you've had to let people go, probably in the course of your leadership over the years. 167 00:24:51.900 --> 00:25:05.940 Paul Casey: Take us there for a moment what have you learned about the the conversation where it's like we're not a match, how does How does that go, but what recommendations would you have to business owners and other leaders who have to have that conversation. 168 00:25:06.930 --> 00:25:10.020 Chris: yeah well there's certainly no easy way to have that conversation. 169 00:25:11.160 --> 00:25:16.770 Chris: But you really just want to treat people very well on their way out. 170 00:25:18.120 --> 00:25:25.560 Chris: Whether that be giving them a generous severance payment on their way out or allowing them to stay on the health insurance for a couple months. 171 00:25:25.980 --> 00:25:40.860 Chris: Just whatever you can do to really kind of make the transition easier from your place to someone else's and if it wasn't really you know, a specific problem with their job performance, it was just in general they didn't fit the culture. 172 00:25:42.090 --> 00:25:52.440 Chris: That you were trying to promote maybe they would be a great fit at another company and you could even help them try to find that next company try to find that next job where they would be a good fit. 173 00:25:53.610 --> 00:26:02.070 Chris: So I think more than just choosing the right words during the conversation I think you have to look at the whole experience as treating that employee with dignity on their way out. 174 00:26:02.400 --> 00:26:15.660 Paul Casey: Oh, so good that we're dignity yeah always helping them save face I had one boss that told me, you know someday I might be working for you, Paul and and as a custodian so I want to make sure we leave on good terms. 175 00:26:16.260 --> 00:26:26.340 Paul Casey: That was good you've never done it in a Community like the tri cities to you're going to run into these folks probably that it's important for us to do it well, always with dignity. 176 00:26:26.790 --> 00:26:31.560 Chris: yeah and Paul that's a key point where we are in a small town, this is not Chicago, this is not New York. 177 00:26:31.980 --> 00:26:41.190 Chris: And with customers and staff members even former staff members yeah you're going to run into them at the grocery store, you know, two weeks from now so just treat everybody kindly and with dignity. 178 00:26:42.210 --> 00:26:53.010 Paul Casey: You mentioned the word culture, when you said you know they may not be a fit for the culture, what kind of culture is porter Kenny trying to develop among the staff so that. 179 00:26:53.460 --> 00:27:04.650 Paul Casey: You know if I were to walk in your business, this would be like the feel that I would get you know, in the air, what do you try to promote there and what are you banging the drum on always with your team. 180 00:27:05.850 --> 00:27:15.300 Chris: yeah that is a fantastic question so we definitely have a culture of continuous improvement and with continuous improvement comes change like you mentioned. 181 00:27:15.990 --> 00:27:23.790 Chris: we're a different company, they will were just two years ago, so people that are resistant to change and don't like. 182 00:27:24.180 --> 00:27:38.250 Chris: Learning a new software program or you know learning a new process or having a new organizational chart they would have a tougher time staying with quarter Kenny, because we have this constant pursuit of excellence and improvement in our organization. 183 00:27:39.510 --> 00:27:47.430 Chris: And then on the flip side of that we also like to have fun and we like to you know, have a good rapport with everyone on the team. 184 00:27:48.900 --> 00:28:02.580 Chris: We like to have a fun culture and we'd like to not take ourselves too seriously and those two aspects of our culture, they might seem like you know, oil and water trying to mix, but I think you could have both. 185 00:28:03.540 --> 00:28:07.920 Paul Casey: So i'm not gonna i'm not gonna see some nerf gun wars in the accountants office is that what i'm saying. 186 00:28:09.570 --> 00:28:16.950 Chris: yeah you might just see somebody converting a desk to a ping pong table in the other room a couple days ago. 187 00:28:17.790 --> 00:28:18.090 Paul Casey: Good. 188 00:28:18.210 --> 00:28:18.870 Paul Casey: I like it. 189 00:28:19.170 --> 00:28:24.150 Chris: I didn't know they solve these little small ping pong nets that you can put on top of a desk and you know, have a couple of games. 190 00:28:24.210 --> 00:28:24.510 that's. 191 00:28:25.830 --> 00:28:34.290 Paul Casey: awesome well Chris Finally, what advice would you give to new leaders or anyone who wants to keep growing and gaining more influence. 192 00:28:35.790 --> 00:28:38.370 Chris: Well, I think i've already given it but. 193 00:28:39.870 --> 00:28:52.170 Chris: I was recently talking to a very new business owner probably had two employees and I could tell during that meeting, you know, he did 95% of talking he didn't ask for any advice. 194 00:28:53.460 --> 00:28:55.980 Chris: The impression I got was that he already knew everything. 195 00:28:57.750 --> 00:29:05.940 Chris: Even though I could tell that certainly there were things that he could do better with his business so just having a little bit of humility and just recognizing. 196 00:29:06.990 --> 00:29:13.680 Chris: Wherever you are in your leadership, development or in the business growth, there are people ahead of you that you can learn things from. 197 00:29:14.610 --> 00:29:23.580 Chris: Some of those people are right here in the tri cities, and you know sit down with them ask them questions and some of those people are national experts who have written books read those books. 198 00:29:24.450 --> 00:29:32.190 Chris: don't ever get to the point where you think you just have all the answers, and you know everything because that's the point in which your professional development is going to go downhill. 199 00:29:32.700 --> 00:29:41.850 Paul Casey: Absolutely stay teachable stay coachable tries to the influencers Chris How can our listeners connect with you and your business. 200 00:29:43.410 --> 00:29:48.480 Chris: Well, I can feel free to shoot me shoot me a question at Chris at quarter can u.com that's my email. 201 00:29:50.010 --> 00:29:59.850 Chris: yeah and you know our business information is pretty easy to find our website is porter can you calm, but yeah one of your listeners can can feel free to reach out to me if they wanted to connect. 202 00:30:00.690 --> 00:30:05.940 Paul Casey: Well, thanks again for all you do to make the tri cities, a great place and keep leading well. 203 00:30:06.750 --> 00:30:07.320 Chris: Thank you, Paul. 204 00:30:08.070 --> 00:30:11.820 Paul Casey: We wrap up our podcast today with a leadership resource to recommend. 205 00:30:12.090 --> 00:30:21.390 Paul Casey: i'm starting a membership Community i'm calling it bullseye bullseye is going to be for team leaders, if you supervise other people bulls is for you. 206 00:30:21.600 --> 00:30:28.890 Paul Casey: for less than like 75 cents a day you're going to get some plug and play resources every week in your email box. 207 00:30:29.130 --> 00:30:35.070 Paul Casey: Things videos you can play for your team meeting icebreakers that you can give in your one to ones. 208 00:30:35.340 --> 00:30:41.850 Paul Casey: They all have performance evaluation forms and one to one flow is there's going to be all sorts of great stuff. 209 00:30:42.120 --> 00:30:50.610 Paul Casey: If you're a team leader, so that you'll actually look forward to opening an email from growing forward services, so you can come to my website at Paul casey.org. 210 00:30:50.790 --> 00:31:00.660 Paul Casey: As that begins to launch and get in on the ground floor of this, because then you'll be part of the discussion as we help each other grow in our businesses and leadership development. 211 00:31:02.910 --> 00:31:10.620 Paul Casey: Again this is Paul Casey want to thank my guest Chris porter from porter Kenny, for being here today on the tri cities influencer podcast we also want to thank our. 212 00:31:11.160 --> 00:31:19.740 Paul Casey: sponsor and invite you to support them, we appreciate you making this possible, so that we can collaborate to help inspire leaders in our Community. 213 00:31:20.130 --> 00:31:34.530 Paul Casey: Finally, one more leadership tidbit for the road to help you make a difference in your circle of influence when you lose your focus, you lose your momentum until next time KGF keep growing forward.

Speaker 1: So one of the greatest predictors of success is goal orientation. In fact, only 3% of Americans write down their goals.  Speaker 2: Amazing the water level of leadership in the Tri-Cities of Eastern Washington in the Tri-Cities influencer podcast. Welcome to the TCI podcast where local leadership and self-leadership expert Paul Casey interviews, local CEOs, entrepreneurs, and non-profit executives to hear how they lead themselves and their teams. So we can all benefit from their wisdom and experience. Here's your host, Paul Casey of growing forward services, and it could be individuals and teams to spark breakthrough success.  Speaker 3: It's a great day to grow forward. Thanks for joining me for today's episode with Eric Pearson. Eric is the CEO of community first bank and HFG trust, and they are my financial partners for life. See, I got it in there and I got to know Eric, I got to meet you for the first-time boy, way back. I did a team building for your team, man. It must've been 10 years ago. And so it was great to reconnect with you recently and do an offsite with your leadership team and you guys are killing it, flipping winning, right? Well, we'll dive in after checking in with our Tri-City influencer sponsor, it's easy to delay answering uncomfortable questions. Like what happens to my assets and my loved ones when I die. So it's no surprise that nearly 50% of Americans don't have a will and even fewer have an estate plan, many disabled clients worry that they don't have enough assets to set up an estate plan, but there are important options available to ensure that you have a voice in your medical and financial decision-making. Even if your health takes a turn for the worst estate planning gives you a voice when your health deteriorates or after you're gone. Marin Miller bam attorney at law is currently providing free consultations to find out more about estate planning or to book an appointment. Call Marin at (206) 485-4066 or visit Salem that's S a L U s-law.com today. Thank you for your support of leadership development in the Tri-Cities. I asked for something funny about Eric today and say it again, Eric. So when a song comes on the radio,  Speaker 4: I have an uncontrollable urge to like, as quickly as possible name, the song or the artist as though it's a trivia contest. It drives my family crazy.  Speaker 3: We all have our quirky thing, but you'd be great to have an, a trivia contest as long as with classic rock. Yeah. Well, welcome. Welcome. Well, so that our Tracey influencers can get to know you, Eric, tell us about what your does, maybe a little bit about how it's joined together and what do you spend 80% of your day doing?  Speaker 4: Sure. Yeah, well, you know, community first bank and ACFE trust joined forces about five years ago. So a little bit of history from, you know, both organizations before they became one can, we, first bank was founded in late 1997. Really first day of business was the last day of 97. So we're what 22 years old. Now, something like that 23 years old and just a hometown community bank focused primarily on small businesses, you know, commercial banking and then supporting the, you know, the consumer banking needs of the, usually the business owners and employees that the bank with them. And then, you know, as we've grown, we've expanded out and, you know, really provide the full breadth of banking services that, you know, most financial institutions do. I was still at that, you know, exclusively local community bank feel. But one thing we, we didn't do was providing any sort of investment management to, or advice service.  Speaker 4: And so one of our board members timetabling, we've been along a long time, financial advisor, Haberman financial group. And so as we talked about trying to add that business line, you know, we looked at various ways to do it. It just always felt like a, we wouldn't be doing it the right way because you know, it's not our business. We'd be learning it from scratch B would be competing with one of our, one of our primary shareholders and directors. And so I always thought it would be a great idea if the two companies could come together, you know, Ty was fiercely independent. And as much as that he built his business and one of them wanted to stay, keep it that way. But one day he recognized because he had something happened with one of his clients that, you know, they would pass away and becoming incapacitated.  Speaker 4: And he would have to part ways with that relationship at that point and, and hand them off to a trust company because he didn't provide those services. He wasn't licensed to do so. And he felt Jesus at the most important time, sometimes in someone's life. And that you've been taking care of their financial needs, giving them advice. And all of a sudden, you you're, you need to hand them off and you, you could re retain them and have someone do the trust work. And he maintained the investment advisory work, but it really wouldn't be in the client's best interest to have that split and pay kind of double fees. And so he felt, well, gosh, I'm going to have to continue to hear these off. And that's just not the service I want to provide. I'd like to look into becoming a trust company. And so he enlisted my help just because the trust companies are regulated and overseen by the same state department as banks, our department of financial institutions.  Speaker 4: And so I went with them, we visited with the department of financial institutions and we quickly realized that it would probably be in his best interest to partner with the bank to form the trust company because of our experience in dealing with regulatory matters, the, the, the depth of capital that the bank had and just the size that, that the bank had become added. Some, some stability to what would become trust company would make it much more viable. So they decided to do a, we merged HFG or humbling venture group into the bank, or as a subsidiary of the bank. And we named HFG trust, added trust services to, to the product mix for them, and then began to go about implementing the, you know, the, the combination of the businesses and they're really two different industries. And so we recognized a lot of financial institutions had embarked on providing investment services, typically in a limited way, and not in a full fiduciary manner that that hyperlink financial group had.  Speaker 4: And so we were careful not to impose go bank tradition on an investment firm. And conversely, you know, we weren't looking to have investment industry influence the way banking was done. And so we ran them fairly separately and just tried to find ways to synergize backroom operations and those kinds of things. And we went about it very slowly. And I think that was wise, you know, we learned a lot through that process about, about the new industry that we were now in as a collective organization, how to manage it, how to work them together. We've been together now five years, and we're really beginning to see the fruits of how we can take care of a client's financial needs across the board. And so, you know, we, we, we call that being their financial partner for life is when we're there for anything and everything that they need.  Speaker 4: You know, we take it, it's when it's in their best interest, we're there to provide it. You know, we're not, we're not salespeople and as much as we're trying to push product or, or, or our business on folks, but when they need our service and our advice for our products, you know, we're there for them and we don't have to send them somewhere else. That's really what we aimed to do, and we've pretty much accomplished it. And so now it's a matter of getting the word out and growing the business and doing a great job taking care of clients. And so that's what we've been up to. Fantastic.  Speaker 3: So does your role change throughout that and, and what do you spend a lot of your time doing right now?  Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, my role didn't really change.  Speaker 4: I was the CEO of community first bank at the time of the merger. And, you know, because it was technically an acquisition and as much as the bank acquired HFG and there were some particular arrangements, you know, I was the CEO for the combined entity. I didn't have a, and, and still don't have a lot to do daily inside the wealth management and trust business, other than, you know, I have responsibility for the financial performance of the organization. And so, but I rely on the talent and management, that's there to produce that. And so, you know, I have oversight and know audit kind of responsibilities to make sure things are being done the right way. Obviously, the results are coming in. And if, if, if, if they vary from expectations to inquire as to why, but really most of my time on that side of things is spent trying to make sure that we're providing that business with the resources they need to be successful.  Speaker 4: And as the organization grew, that really became what I started doing for the bank to, you know, in fact, one of our directors and the strategic planning said, you know, I'm that, I'm the resource allocator. I, I needed to determine there's limited resources in an organization, all of our business units, and even, you know, departments within business units are clamoring for support and resource. And so there's a need to go through and prioritize who gets what, when, and you know, that that's not always easy. Every, every need is a real need. And, and from the perspective of the person who needs it, it's the most important need. And so, you know, that's probably in, in a broad sense, what I spend most of my time doing is working to bring the business lines together, make sure they have what they want, make sure they're working well together and making sure that they're pushing forward on the financial partner for life, you know, mantra that we're living by and, and that, and, and that, and that we're advancing towards our strategic objectives.  Speaker 4: And then making sure we have good people to, to lead that effort. And that's probably been the biggest transition is letting go of management duties and really becoming a CEO, you know, while I had that title for a long time, we were a small enough organization. As most small businesses would know, you're really holding about eight different jobs and you're the ultimate manager and I'm not anymore. We've got a great leadership team at multilevel of our organization at this point that take most of that work off of my plate. And so it's really more directing, you know, the orchestra than it is playing the instruments.  Speaker 3: Yes. So why do you love to do it?  Speaker 4: Well, you know, I, I love taking care of clients. It's probably, you know, the greatest satisfaction is when we have a win. When we see we did something that made their life better, and whether I did it, you know, whether it was part of the interaction or not just hearing those stories, I think is really what drives us. I like building things, you know, just more selfishly I think, you know, it's been fun to be part of an organization that, you know, had 30 employees when I started, and it has 130 now. Wow. And, you know, has grown, you know, five, 600%. And, you know, the wealth management firm was 350 million in assets, under management when we combined, and there are a billion or a little over a billion dollars in assets under management now. And so that's five years, you know, that kind of growth is just remarkable.  Speaker 4: We've added mortgage. We, we always did mortgages, but we've, we've developed and recruited a great manager, Jamie Clark, who has taken us to new Heights on the mortgage side too. So we really feel like we have three distinct business lines, all of which are winning and growing, and it's just fun to be a part of it. And probably what I've learned, you know, in the last five years, especially, is that it almost works better when I'm not doing it. You know, and I did a lot in the early years and not that I wasn't capable of doing some of those things, but I'm only one person. And, and not that other people weren't contributing obviously then too, but I was so much more involved in the weeds, you know, seven, eight years ago I have now and the less involved I am, the better it goes. Yeah.  Speaker 3: And you talked about having these great leaders in these key areas on your team. How did you decide to surround yourself with those folks and who else do you surround yourself with? Maybe even outside of HFG and community first?  Speaker 4: Yeah. Well, you know, two good questions there. I mean, I've been really fortunate throughout my career to have a lot of great mentors. And in fact, we've talked a lot about building mentors for our young talent. It's a challenge, you know, we're finding, we have to be very deliberate about being mentors. I don't recall that as a young person coming up in the industry, I found the mentors and I don't even know sometimes if they knew they were being a mentor, I was just sucking information from them. And I was lucky to know them, you know, was really how it turned out. And, and so I had a lot of that, you know, my immediate predecessor, rich Emory, you know, was a fantastic long time bank CEO who, you know, left the bank. When he, when he retired and handed the keys to me in just pristine shape, you know, it was, it was set up to be successful.  Speaker 4: He laid the groundwork and made my first few years really easy and and taught me so much about really what was important in the banking business. And so, and again, we were small enough that I probably took all those lessons to heart and try to do it all myself, or, you know, again, not all myself, but be involved in all of it myself. And, and then I had to, it took me a while to learn that I, I really needed to let go of a lot of those functions and, and let people experiment and try things without necessarily trying to make oversee their decision-making. And, and, and that's when we really began to, to blossom and grow. But as far as, you know, how we pick the people, you know, some of them have been with us since before I got there and, or very early on when I got there.  Speaker 4: And they, we were just fortunate to have him on board and they're super talented and they've evolved with us and changed in their, in their roles dramatically in some cases. And, you know, and, and it's been fantastic to see people who are willing to do that, to give up on what they thought was their job, and really start doing another job altogether, applying, you know, their knowledge and experience in a new way to the organization. And we've got a large number of those folks that have been with us for a while. We've lost a few along the way, you know, because of change and really good people too, but for one reason or another, you know, the, the growth stressed, you know, what they thought they were a part of to begin with. And so we've really added some new talent, you know, and we've, we've been lucky, and we've been more successful than not in bringing in new leaders to the organization, but we've, we have had some cases where, you know, it just wasn't the right fit.  Speaker 4: But for the most part, the, the folks that we brought in, at least after some working and maybe making sure that they're focused on the right thing, you know, we've been able to develop a team that, you know, as you were with us at our leadership event in Spokane here last week or two weeks ago, and, you know, I, I feel more confident today than I've ever felt with the cohesiveness and the chemistry of the team that we have working together. So, and then beyond that for me, you know, as I said, mentors, but I've really been fortunate the entire time that I've been with the organization to have the board of directors that I have. It was a local group of business leaders who all run significant businesses in this community have tons of experience dealing with all the problems that all businesses deal with, not necessarily banking, although they got a, a crash course in banking early on running our business.  Speaker 4: And of course, Tai is the foremost expert in our company on wealth management. And so, you know, the, the knowledge base and the, and the business management leadership experience that, that our board of directors brings, it has been probably the single biggest resource that I've had through this time, because, you know, they've helped me make all the big decisions and keep me pointed in the right directions to me when I'm maybe going the wrong way and, and, you know, share their own experiences if I'm struggling with something, you know, as well as this kind of happened to me. And, and this is what we did. And, and, you know, I think they would all agree that they like being part of the board because it's a little bit of a, a lonely job sometimes being the owner or the CEO. And so you're going to get a group of us together, and we can kind of finally admit what what's hard and what you struggle with, and what's emotionally taxing and, and you see someone else struggling with it, or someone being successful, something you struggled with, and we all learn from each other. So it really kind of turns into a bit of a support group. Sometimes we've instructed our board meetings that way we spend a fair amount of time, or it's just the board and it's pretty freeform. And we, and we talk openly. And so that's been successful, also involved in lots of other organizations in the community and trade organizations and w deal with other bank CEOs around the state and around the country. And, and so, you know, having a big network of people that can, that can provide input is definitely  Speaker 3: How are you constantly evolving as a leader? You've been in the business a while you're around these great, this great capacity of leaders around you, what's in your own professional development plan. How do you keep, you know, and just not checking in, you know, every day, but like I got to keep growing as, as the top leader. Well, that's  Speaker 4: A great question. You know, I think as I said before, you know, I don't know that I set out in life to be a CEO or to be a bank CEO for that matter when you're a little Navy, never did you, my dad was a banker, so you might think that, but, but it really all happened sort of by accident, you know, that I ended up on this path and then the path just led me where it led me. And, and so, you know, I pursued the things in the short-term that led me to the next thing. And as I got closer, I started to have the vision of what I wanted to do. And when I came to community first in particular, I, I knew that's what I was trying to accomplish. That was the game plan. And, but I didn't know what I didn't know, you know, and, and I probably still don't, you know, 10 years from now, I look back and go, gosh, I didn't know anything.  Speaker 4: I think that that's the reality of it is just knowing that that's a fact that there's, so you don't know what you don't know, and it seems like a cliche thing, but you really don't. And until you learn it, you didn't even know you didn't know it. And so many times, you know, and I think that's probably what keeps me going is our business is one where it's just a different day. Every day. It's not a routine thing. We don't execute the same task two days in a row ever. And all of our customers and our employees throw us new challenges. And so, you know, I think it, it forces you to be continually learning. It's what keeps it fresh and interesting and not monotonous. And, and so I think it forces you to continually go seek skills that you haven't previously acquired to deal with this new challenge that's in front of you. And so at least that's that's, I guess that's how I would summarize it. And Suzanne learning, I wish I could say I was way out in front of a lot of these issues, you know, maybe business strategy. Sometimes I can do that, but in terms of the skills that I need to develop, no, I think you recognize I've got a short book coming and I need to go work on this. It pops up in real time, and then you identify it and, you know, sometimes I'm better at addressing it than others. Sure,  Speaker 3: Sure. So how do you go about getting things done? You said your day is pretty varied, you know, but you've got to do lists. The CEO has a to-do list, just like everybody else. So how do you organize yourself? Just curious,  Speaker 4: Another skill set that I think I could be a lot better at in fact, I was just joking with someone about my paper to do lists. I've tried to put them into electronic format. And so really what I do is I take lots of notes that only I could probably translate. And they're very brief. They just, there for me, it's a matter, it's kind of like the music thing. It's like, I just need a little snippet of the song. I need a little snippet of the information. Then it comes rushing back to me. Oh yeah, yeah. There's this whole topic of information that I need, need to do. And so I make these notes and then about once a week, I transcribed them on a paper with a pen, into a list that has a little more detail as to what I was thinking. And then the next week I'll go back, and I'll see how many of these did I cross off?  Speaker 4: And how many did I not? And, and then look at my new notes and add those new ones to the list. And that's really the process. I mean, it's, it's, it's pretty informal, I guess, in that regard, I get pulled directionally off of a game plan for a day, most days, you know, I think, I think this is how it's going to go, that how it goes. And so, you know, I just have to react with that. And, and so probably the biggest challenge I have sometimes is if I find myself with time, I wasn't expecting, and now I also have a list of things to do, and I have to sit down and say, okay, I wasn't expecting to be working on anything right now, what should I knock off that list? You know, that tends to be the challenge in COVID has made that even more difficult because, you know, it used to be a much more, you know, get out and just, you know, manage by walking around kind of leader, I guess. And I've gotten away from that. And, and I'm trying to get back to it because we're, you know, we're, we're free to do it a little bit more now and, and, but the bad habits set him so fast. And so it's something I'm still struggling with managing wandering  Speaker 3: Around. I love that it has been harder in COVID well, before we head into our next question on how Eric looks at the bigger picture, a shout out to our sponsor, located in the Parkway, you'll find motivation, new friends and your new co-working space at fuse. Whether you're a student just starting out or a seasoned professional, come discover all the reasons to love coworking at fuse come co-work at fuse for free on Fridays in February, enjoy free coffee or tea, Wi-Fi printing conference rooms, and more, and bring a friend. If you use this, where individuals and small teams come together in a thoughtfully designed resource, rich environment to get work done and grow their ideas. Comprised of professionals from varying disciplines and backgrounds. Fuse is built for hardworking, fun, loving humans. Learn more about us@fusespc.com or stop by seven to three, the Parkway in Richland Washington. So Eric, it's easy to get trapped in reacting to crises and leadership. So how do you specifically step back and take a look at the bigger picture? I know that offsite retreat that we were able to do together, that's probably one of those elements, but you know, how do you stay in front of stuff?  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's interesting. It's a good question. It depends. I suppose, you know, when it's, when you get stuck in the morass or the, the, the whirlwind, the whirlwind of day-to-day business, I think I, I, self-talk a lot on reminding myself that whatever it is that I'm obsessed with is pretty small potatoes generally. And really, even to some pretty big things, that's kind of always been a technique for stress dealing with stress that I've, I've always used this for whatever reason. It's very reassuring to me to, to, to tell myself, or to give myself the perspective that what am I complaining about? There are people who have a whole lot bigger problems than I'm wrestling with right now. And you don't have to look very far to find them. And, and they're literally millions or billions of people on the planet who are dealing with far, far more difficult things.  Speaker 4: And that always just sort of reassures me. It doesn't take away the problem, but it, it takes away the, the level of anxiety that maybe starts to creep in sometimes. And so I do that, self-talk myself that way a lot, but strategically maybe if that's the point of the question is how you really step back and look the bigger picture and what we're trying to accomplish and keep other people focused on that. Yeah, that's a, that's you have to be deliberate. You know that that's one where, you know, we do things like we did in Spokane with you where, you know, we remind ourselves, okay, what are the three or four most important things? And how do we make sure we're reminding everybody that that's the case. So we don't get so hung up on details that are important but get so hung up on missing a detail that we forget what we're really trying to accomplish.  Speaker 4: And what we're trying to accomplish is easy. We're really just trying to take great care of clients and, and, you know, again, cliche things, but if we take really good care of clients, they'll continue to do business with us. They'll refer people to us, it's worked it, it continues to work. The more we do it, the more clients come. It, it just is beautiful cycle. It's super easy. You know, from that perspective, you know, actually taking care of them takes work and technical skills and things like that. And managers and leadership and training, and, you know, all the things that we struggle with from time to time. But at the end of the day, the big picture, it's pretty straightforward. And we, we sometimes get hung up, but what should we do? Should we go, laughter, should we go extra far left? Well, as long as we're going left, I think we're doing fine.  Speaker 4: You know, we can of course, correct a little bit, but we went right. That'd be a problem. I think that's the, I think that's the, you know, the, the, the method and all of our leaders are a little different. So I think it's interesting. I have conversations with my leadership team and they're, they're each different in terms, I think of how they approach things. And the real secret is learning how to deal with each of them, you know, making sure that they're getting what they want. We just had a conversation last night about you actually with you too. We said, how come, how come we look around? And we're winning, but it's, sometimes it doesn't feel like we're winning. I came up with the, your recognition was something that's lacking. And we've heard that feedback from, from employees before. And, you know, we try things that are kind of formulated recognition and it just sort of dawned on me sometimes that is really this just conversational recognition, you know, really appreciate you helped me out with that.  Speaker 4: You know, you know, those kinds of things, you know, that for whatever reason you just don't do, if you can be a little bit deliberate about it and being sincere that, you know, I recognize that you're particularly good at this. It's honest, you know, it's not brown nosing. It's, it's just saying things you knew, and you assume the other person already knew, but it's good for the other person to hear you say it. And I think that at the end of the day, that's, that's the, the, you know, one of the biggest things we, we could do a better job of, but it sure helps keep us focused. Yes,  Speaker 3: We all need more air affirmation, inspiration recognition gotta have that. It's gotta be deliberate because you just onto the next thing. So that was, that was a cool recognition there at the retreat of, we got to celebrate our wins because we're winning. What key moves did you make for the organization in the year of COVID up till now to be responsive and strategic in a very uncertain time?  Speaker 4: Well, you know, it was interesting because, you know, when COVID first hit, I was B I was one of those who thought all this won't last week and it's all being over-hyped and, you know, it'll be, you know, by Memorial Day we'll be back to normal. You know, it was my instant, you know, early March 2020 mindset. So I had that wrong. And, but once it became apparent that the, that I was wrong and that it was going to be, you know, a significant event that was going to impact us. You know, I think we, we, we tried not to be on the bleeding edge of adjustments because nobody knew what to do. And so to the extent that we can sit back and watch what other people did and what worked and what didn't, you know, made a lot of sense, but we didn't come up with anything novel in terms of, you know, dealing with it from a space or safety perspective.  Speaker 4: You know, we were fortunate slash unfortunate, very look at it to be an essential business. And so we were never shut down and we had to have people in there, their offices too, not all of our people, but many of the jobs must be onsite. And so that took some of the decision-making out of it, you know, should they stay home or not, but we quickly spun up. And our, our, our it team and facilities group, and whole leadership team did a great job of quickly adapting technology and getting it out the door so that people could work from home. And that we could free up space in places where people were in crowded quarters and or people who could work from home, or if they had symptoms or, you know, they had that they were preexisting health conditions. You know, all the things that were obviously everyone was dealing with, we were able to quickly, you know, take care of those, those, those employees, you know, get people spaced out and get people home who needed to be home and, and deal with it.  Speaker 4: You know, we were slow to reluctant to close our lobbies and, you know, we were, we, but we kind of waited until, I don't know, sometime in early April, maybe that it was, became apparent that you would be conspicuously dangerous if you were open that way. And we went drive through only, and then we opened it back up in August. And then we had to, we've had to shut them down a couple of times, both over the holidays with that spike. And then also in a couple of cases where individual offices, you know, had people out. And so we went back to, drive-through only when that occurred, but by and large, I think, you know, our employee's kind of direct that, how they feel about their safety and comfort with working with one another. And, you know, to our knowledge, we've not had one transmission in our buildings, you know, very confident we haven't, we've had a number of employees that had COVID, but they all contracted it elsewhere.  Speaker 4: Fortunately didn't give it to anyone else. And so, you know, I think we had a pretty good experience with it, but the thing that hit us was PPP loans. You know that it's almost, when I think of COVID, I think of PPP for us, it was especially in the early days in April of last year, it was a bigger deal. It was for us, it was what's COVID, it's, it's all PPP all the time. And I'll admit now we, we through safety precautions by the wayside, you know, it was pre mass mandate when the, when the, when the PVP thing hit. So no one was wearing masks and we had big group meetings and we were, we were bringing food in to keep our employees who were working ridiculous amounts of overtime fed, you know, in engaged, because we had, you know, almost our entire staff work, you know, probably 40, 50 hours overtime, those first couple of weekends off of PPP.  Speaker 4: And it was crazy. I mean, the, the, the hours that we put in and the number of people, we had HR people, it, people marketing people making or helping with the PPP loan origination process, because it was so manual and so new, it was changing every day, but we figured it out. And, you know, I think for us, it was a real, a real win, you know, really helped us stand out in the community because we were able to get loans out, actually funded within a few days of the program, opening up when most banks were like, all right, I'm sure if we want to do this program. And so just a lot of Goodwill in the coin the community. I know we helped out a lot of businesses, you know, helped a lot of employees retain jobs. You know, in that first phase, we put a hundred million dollars on the street.  Speaker 4: It's a big deal in a community like this. And it was scary. I remember thinking, is the SBA really going to stand behind us on this? What if we make a mistake, are we going to lose money on these loans? And, you know, in the baking business, we can't lose money on loans very often, or we're not in the banking business. And so, you know, it's, it's one of those things we it's maybe the most solemn oath we take with deposit or money is we can't make those kinds of mistakes. And, you know, in those early days we felt like we were really sticking our neck out, as it turned out, the program worked like it's supposed to, and there really wasn't any risks that we took, but at the time we weren't sure about that. And so it was nerve wracking to think we're gonna, we're kind of betting the company that this program will work out.  Speaker 4: And, but we decided to do it to trudge forward with it aggressively under the hospital. So, well, if this is what ends it, we went down and doing what we do and, you know, helping, helping our clients in this community. And so I, it comes back to that's the bigger perspective, you know, I literally had that conversation with my wife. I said, well, you know, I'll be the George Bailey or the tray cities, you know, for life, if this happens, I w it was well-intended, there was no, no bad wheel in this at all. If this ends up blowing up in my face and, you know, we'll survive one way or another, it was nowhere near that dire. But in the moment, it didn't feel that way. And so that, that, that was sort of our experience. Well,  Speaker 3: You were the front runners in that. And I just kept hearing in the community in the community go to community first bank for PPP loan. And so it was a good reputation, you know, it's spread like wildfire, and I was fortunate to get one of those as well from you guys. Well, Eric, finally, what advice would you give to new leaders or anyone who wants to keep growing and gaining more influence?  Speaker 4: Well, it should have prepared for that question. There's so many good pieces of advice to kind of boil it down into one singular thing. You know, I think it's, you know, treat people, right. You know, if, if you do, if you treat people well, I mean, recognize, I guess first and foremost, that you don't get anywhere without the people. And, you know, if you're a small business, you might just be, you know, one of your laborers or what have you that worked for you, but, but they're carrying all the weight and they have to know how much you appreciate that and care. And, and w because you do, you're, you're riding on their shoulders. And I think if you're honest with yourself about that, then you can genuinely show that to the people around you. And that probably extends out to, you know, your broader support group, whether it's a consultant that helps you with management or your CPA, your attorney, your banker, or your insurance person, you name it, you know, those people, if you're treating them right, they're going to go the extra mile for you.  Speaker 4: And you need people to go the extra mile for you at certain times, like PVP, you know, as I was saying, you know, I was probably the thing I was the most proud of was I don't have, I think I had anybody who, or what do you mean I have to work this weekend? People were excited. They want, they knew it was there, that they, it was their time to rise up and do the right thing. And I believe a is because we just had great people that their parents had a good job or whatever it was that was most of it. But I think the other part was is that they knew the company cared and we were sincere. And that what we were trying to do with PPP loans was to help the community and they wanted to do their part. They wanted to be a part of it.  Speaker 4: And so, you know, that's what drove people to not just be burned out by the process, you know, and struggle on a year and a half now. And I think we're all tired of BBB, but the, but we're when we see the light at the end of the tunnel, but, but it's that, you know, truly letting people know that they care and what they're, that they're contributing. And that's a big part of it, you know, just get extra, extra benefit out of them. And then that person could be anybody in your support. It could be your spouse or your kids that support you by, you know, being there for you when you had a hard day. All of those things are, are, are, is really, I think what fuels us, at least from my perspective.  Speaker 3: So Tri-City influencers go the extra mile with people in your internal network, your external network, and will boomerang back on you. So Eric, how can our listeners best connect with you?  Speaker 4: Oh, well, I mean, with me directly, I pretty accessible. So you can reach me via email is probably the best way I, I get a lot of emails that I can get back to them if I'm busy during the day later. So my email is E Pearson, P E a R S O n@communityfirst.com. And first is one St. So community one S t.com.  Speaker 3: Thank you so much for all you do to make the Tri-Cities a great place and keep leading. Well, thank you. Let me wrap up our podcast today with a leadership resource to recommend, I run a program called leader launcher leader. Launcher is a leadership development program for emerging leaders and young professionals. We meet once a month and right now it's a virtual and we look forward to getting back together alive and do a two hour on leadership, could be on leading change or casting vision, or having that difficult conversation with a team member. And so the community gathers and do a seminar and they formulate an action plan to take back to their work and customize that. And then there's some peer networking that goes on as well. So they can meet leaders in other industries and talk about goals together. So just a little loose accountability. So if you'd like to sign up for the year, or if you've got employees that you'd like to sign up, it's a leader-launcher.com.  Speaker 3: Again, this is Paul Casey. I want to thank my guest, Eric Pearson from community first bank and HFG trust for being here today on the Tri-City influencer podcast. We also want to thank our TCI sponsor and invite you to support them. We appreciate you making this possible so we can collaborate to help leaders and inspire them in our community. Finally, one more leadership tidbit for the road to help you make a difference in your circle of influence. Scott Adams says there's no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end until next time, keep growing forward.  Speaker 2: Thank you to our listeners for tuning in to today's show hall. Casey is on a mission to add value to leaders by providing practical and strategies that reduce stress in their lives and on their teams so that they can enjoy life and leadership and experience their key desired results. If you'd like more help from Paul and your leadership development, connect with him@growingforwardatpaulcasey.org for a consultation that can help you move past your current challenges and create a strategy for growing your life or your team forward. Paul would also like to help you restore your sanity to your crazy schedule and getting your priorities done every day by offering you is free. Control my calendar checklist, go to WW dot, take back my calendar.com for that productivity tool or open a text message 2 7 2 0 0 0, and type the word groan  Speaker 3: Tri-Cities influencer podcast was recorded at fuse SPC by bill Wagner of safe strategies.

Speaker 1: Everyone's favorite radio station is W I, I F M stands for what's in it for me. And so you're only going to pursue a goal probably that you really want  Speaker 2: Raising the water levels of leadership in the Tri-Cities of Eastern Washington, the Tri-Cities influencer podcast. Welcome to the TC podcast. We're local leadership and self-leadership expert Paul Casey interviews, local CEOs, entrepreneurs, and nonprofit executives to hear how they lean themselves and their teams. So we can all benefit from your wisdom. Here's your host, Paul Casey growing forward services, individuals and teams, breakthrough success.  Speaker 3: It's a great day to grow forward. Thanks for joining me for today's episode with Elizabeth Barnes. She is the executive director of the children's reading foundation of the mid-Columbia. And I asked her for something funny about herself, and she said the word avocado, tell us more about that, Elizabeth.  Speaker 4: So I'm kind of embarrassed about this when my husband and I were actually like brainstorming about, what's a quirky thing about you that people can relate about. And I was like, you know what? You are, I am kind of obsessed with avocados. And I know it's such a millennial thing, but you know, like avocados, I eat one or two a day and I have to tell you, Costco has the best office. I like to create like small little paintings. My mom got me off a couple of socks for Christmas, and I might currently searching on Etsy for a giant avocado painting to hang over my dining room table,  Speaker 3: A little bit of an obsession, a little bit.  Speaker 4: My husband told me that people were going to probably start buying me all the condo, like figurines and stuff after this. And I'm just, oh gosh,  Speaker 3: Probably. Yeah. I had, you know, bald Eagles when I used to be a school principal years ago, it was bald Eagles, and I got all those gifts. So that's, what's coming your way. It's coming. I can't wait, but we'll dive in. After checking in with our Tri-City influencer sponsor, it's easy to delay answering uncomfortable questions. Like what happens to my assets and my loved ones when I die. So it's no surprise that nearly 50% of Americans don't have a will and even fewer have an estate plan, many disabled clients worry that they don't have enough assets to set up an estate plan, but there are important options available to ensure that you have a voice in your medical and financial decision-making. Even if your health takes a turn for the worst estate planning gives you a voice when your health deteriorates or after you're gone. Marin Miller bam attorney at law is currently providing free consultations to find out more about estate planning or to book an appointment. Call Marin at (206) 485-4066 or visit Salem that's S a L U s-law.com today. Thank you for your support of leadership development in the Tri-Cities welcome Elizabeth. I was privileged to meet you. You reminded me early 2020. I was speaking for the Columbia basin Sherm, the HR organization here locally, and you were there. So  Speaker 4: That was, yeah. And you and I ended up connecting because you were speaking about your international experience. And I just moved back to the trace of his, after being gone for 13 or 14 years, doing all international work. And so I came up and introduced myself, wanting to find out what happening internationally. And so, yeah,  Speaker 3: It was good stuff. Very good. Okay. Good stuff. And then you've got like young professional of the year or something, right? Well, you got one of those tough things in the journal business. Yeah. And the connect magazine recently got  Speaker 4: Like the young, well, it was executive spotlight. It was of, it was pretty exciting to get, they actually came in and did photographs at my house with me and my son doing, you know, school. Yeah. It was very  Speaker 3: Cool. It was really cool. Thank you. Well, so that our tries to the influencers can get to know you tell us about what your organization does and what you spend 80% of your day doing.  Speaker 4: Yeah. So the children's reading foundation of the mid-Columbia was actually founded right here in the Tri-Cities about 25 years ago. It was collection of teachers and principals and parents all got together and they really identified that education literacy education was the key to future success of our community. And so they started the children's reading foundation, which is now a national organization. The mid-Columbia is our local chapter right here in the Tri-City. So we serve Benton and Franklin county. Our mission is to encourage and educate families about their important role in raising a reader and preparing their child for kindergarten w also to support schools and ensuring the students read on grade level by the end of third grade, and to facilitate community involvement in helping young readers be successful. So this past year during COVID, we have really been working in the community and showing that we're getting as many educational resources and tools as we can. We I'm so proud of my team. We have actually distributed over 40,000 books to Ben or Franklin county to students, to children and families had been Franklin county. And yeah, I mean, if you've heard the saying read 20 minutes a day with a child, that's us, that's the children's reading foundation. So if you've heard that slogan, then you know who we are. And so, yeah, it's a, it's an incredible organization. I'm so proud to be the, you know, the head of this organization. It's, it's just wonderful,  Speaker 3: Like literally in your email address, right? Yeah. 20 minutes@retwentyminutes.com. Yeah. It's just so  Speaker 4: Important. How do I spend 80% of my day? So I spend 80% of my day making connections with the community to really spread our mission and raising funds for our programming. It's that's really, that is my job. So it's like, how can we, how can we grow? How can we develop? How can we ensure that we are meeting the community's needs? And how can we make sure that we have funding to support that support our mission. And then the other 20% is just managed my incredible team. We're a small little team, but they're awesome. I just, they're just so wonderful.  Speaker 3: And why do you love to do what you do besides my incredible team, but I've just been ranked.  Speaker 4: I really love what I do because I'm really friendly, do believe in our mission. Our non-profit is one of the few that actually provides preventative instead of reactionary measures to help ensure our community grows and thrives. Most nonprofits in our community are reactionary. Okay. We have students that are dropping out of high school. What do we do? And instead of that, we say early childhood education, access to books for children at birth through third grade, that's preventative. That actually changes an entire community. So that's why I'm so passionate about what we do is because we are so preventative, we are ensuring that we are saving our community before anything ever happens. It's just, that  Speaker 3: Is so true. And it's good. You pointed that out. I was in leadership Tri-Cities and I remember the day, well, there's a couple of days where it talked about the community and most of the services and the Tri-Cities were reactionary. It's like, okay, so now that there's a problem, we're going to get funding to this. And you are one of the few organizations that's on the front end. Yeah.  Speaker 4: You know, literacy really is the key to success. Children who are able to read on grade level by the end of third grade are more likely to graduate from high school, go on to college, be more financially stable and be healthy members of rewire of our community, you know? And so why not, you know, why not support that kind of organization  Speaker 3: Prevention? Yeah. So Elizabeth, outside your organization who helps you be successful, do you have any mentors, other people in your network?  Speaker 4: Yeah, so that's really, that's really tricky. So we moved here like six or eight months before COVID hit. And so it was such a tough time. Right. I had big plans. I attended a lot of networking events before COVID, but you know, it's, it's difficult to make those connections and those relationships. And so I don't, I don't really have outside of my board. I don't really have a lot of mentors or like a lot of connections here in the Tri-Cities yet outside of, you know, LinkedIn and maybe it's so hard, but yeah, it's yeah. So, but I have a lot of, I have some really incredible women who have guided and led me in the past. I've been in leadership for 15 years now and I have some incredible, really powerful women who have taken me under their wing and guided me and supported me. And so I've reached out to them or bills last year and just asked for guidance and support. And we're in different fields. Now I was in education in the past. So they're still, you know, they're still leading their schools and, and there, you know, they're gigantic, huge schools and I'm running the small little non-profit, so we're kind of indifferent different fields, but you know, they've still been very, very happy to support me. And it's been, it's been nice.  Speaker 3: Yeah. You're an educator at me too. So leaders have growth mindsets. How are you constantly evolving as a leader what's in your own professional development plan?  Speaker 4: So I had big plans for this last, for this year. Right. And of course, like everything had changed, but so my professional developed plan for this year for the 20, 20, 20, 21 has really been ensuring that our brand name gets out there when people hear read 20 minutes, or when they hear the children who need foundation of Maine Columbia, they understand like, oh, I know what that is like, oh, that started here. Oh, okay. They give us books; they provide educational resources. You know, they're here to support families and really ensure that that brand name is connected. We've been here for 25 years. And when I say the children, we need foundation of the children's Winnie foundation. I didn't have to say make Columbia. They're like, what's, that is that the child development center is that, that place over there off the highway. I literally had that last week.  Speaker 4: And I was like, no, no, we support them. We provide ready for kindergarten with that. But now that that's not us. And so really trying to really trying to get our name out there. And the other thing is really to expand my grant writing because we don't have a lot of opportunities to be on the community to make those connections and to, you know, look for sponsors. I've really turned to grant writing this past year. I, I found that grant writing one is very cathartic, right? Like you sit behind a computer, you talk about your incredible organization and you ask people with lots of money Coca-Cola please give me $40,000 to be able to do ready for kindergarten for, you know, communities and Prosser and it's, you know, like that kind of thing. And so you're like, okay, so they have the money, it's an incredible program.  Speaker 4: And I get to share about this incredible program. And so to be able to, to do that, it feels very achievable, right? Like it's something that can be like, and I did this, this, and I did this. And at this moment in time where like, everything is so like, can I even leave my house today? Like as a grocery store, I'm going to be open, you know, still a year later, it's something that's actually very achievable that I can check off my to-do list. I've written 45 breaths this year. He's like, you know, that kind of thing. I'm like, yes, it has been a successful gear and, and it has been successful. You know, the people are very generous. Grant makers are very generous. And I think COVID, you know, has really highlighted the importance of our mission. You know, literacy is when schools closed and libraries closed and you know, so many, so many children and families stuck at home that our mission has become more important than ever. And so grant makers have seen that and it hadn't have given us a lot of money. It's been a very successful year for us. That's great. A lot of wins to celebrate.  Speaker 3: So how do you avoid burnout and negativity? How do you feed your mental, emotional health and wellness on a regular basis? Being an executive director.  Speaker 4: All right. So there's a couple of things. So I have my little COVID pod. Everybody has them, but I have my little, my little COVID pod. It's my family and my parents who live here and, and then like another little family and we all follow hand COVID guidelines, which we've been doing for like a year now. And surprisingly, we haven't killed each other. It's like, you know, it's just like, how are we still friends? But, you know, so we, we do, we do like large family dinners every week where we all get together every Friday evening and we just hang out and have fun. You know, I just, I really make sure that they're, that we have quality time, and we don't talk about work. And you know, like I don't, I, I choose in the past as an educator, you hang out with other teachers, you hang out with other educators and you spend most of least in my experience, you spend most of your time talking about work. Yeah. And so, which is so annoying, I'm like, come on, we're, we're intelligent, smart.  Speaker 3: We're holistic. We have more people. We have more of a life. Yeah. Well, let's, let's  Speaker 4: Just talk about other things. And so I really worked at not talking about work. And so, yeah. So there's that. And then I go on a lot of walks. I'm all about like, I just, I'm not a runner. I've never been a runner, but I really enjoy walking. And so I generally find like a loop that works. I'm like, okay, so this loop is like a mile long. Okay. So I'm going to go on three of these loops today and I've gotten in my steps and I feel good. And it really does help, like bring down the stress. And then I listened to a lot of audio books. Like I am a, I'm a poor sleeper. And so helps me, like, de-stress at night I can put an audio book and listen to a book and it just helps me like shut off the cool work brain and then last but not least a good top cocktail and how stance party helps ease the stress. That's you know, my husband and I are we really miss going out dancing. And so we have quite a few dance parties  Speaker 3: In our house. A little tick talk for you. All right. No, no, no, no, no, no. It's not that we're not, we're not fancy dancers. No, none of it was choreographed. Yeah. How do you go about getting things done? My, my guess is you're an achiever because you were an educator. That's what I picked up on. Cause there's endorphins that, you know, go through you when you cross something off a list. So how do you organize yourself? Get a little granular with them. All right.  Speaker 4: So I'm all about my to-do lists, but specifically Google calendar and task list. So I love the Google suite because everything is interconnected. So I have my email. So when you emailed me asking, if I could be on your show, I will add that to my task list. And then when I have time, I will get to it. I have I, and then I add a little due date onto my calendar by when I have to have it done. And then, you know, and then I, I have this, I have some of the questions that you sent me. I have an, an, a document, which I attached to my to-do list, which is also connected to my calendar. So I don't lose it and it's all there. And then when I'm done, when we're done here, I'm gonna check it off my list. And I'm going to feel great about myself today. I have achieved something, you know, and in, in, in an organization like this, where achievement is, it's not an everyday thing. You know, if you get a grant, like if you get an email about a grant and I got $5,000, right? Yes. That's an achievement for the day, but you don't get a lot of you don't get a lot of daily wins. And so having that task list of likes, yes, I accomplished that. I call it keeps you motivated. It keeps you going.  Speaker 3: It does. Yeah. Does well before we head to our next question on looking at the bigger picture, a shout out to our sponsor, located in the Parkway, you'll find motivation, new friends and your new coworking space at fuse. Whether you're a student just starting out or a seasoned professional, come discover all the reasons to love co-working at fuse come co-work at fuse for free on Fridays in February, enjoy free coffee or tea, WIFI printing conference rooms, and more, and bring a friend. If you use this, where individuals and small teams come together in a thoughtfully designed resource, rich environment to get work done and grow their ideas. Comprised of professionals from varying disciplines and backgrounds. Fuse is built for hardworking, fun, loving humans. Learn more about us@fusespc.com or stop by seven to three, the Parkway in Richland, Washington. So Elizabeth, easy to get trapped into simply reacting to crises and leadership. How do you specifically step back, take a look at the bigger picture of what the organization is doing and maybe even in your own life? Yeah. You  Speaker 4: Know, it's a little hard, it's hard to, especially this past year where so much has had to be reactionary, as things are constantly changing day to day, right. It's, it's been really hard not to just be reactionary, reactionary, reactionary. And do you actually take that step back and say, okay, what are we actually trying to accomplish this year? And so for me, when COVID hit and we were like, okay, what are we doing? I took a, like a, I think it was even, it wasn't even a full day. I think it was just like, you know, a good six hours of freaked out and just like, no, I was like, okay, now let's get together as a team virtually because our office is at an elementary school in Kennewick. And so we had to shut down, like everything we should have. Like, I literally hauled by printer out under my arms and like, you know,  Speaker 3: A little small desk at a home base. Cause I'd never seen it. So  Speaker 4: Homebase has been my house for the last year, but we do, we have a, we have a couple of portables over at canyon elementary school in clinic. Yeah. So, which we've been solely caught getting back into, which has been nice, but yeah. So had a freak out and then said, okay, what can we, what can we still do? All right. We can, we can pit it, our programs that we have, there's the word of the year, by the way. Sorry. I used, I'm really not going to say, you know, like it's the, it's the, I know. So how can we transition from being in-person? So we ha we had in-person tutoring in elementary schools, and then we also have our early childhood education program ready for kindergarten, which was also in person. So I got with my program directors was about community outreach operations manager and said, okay, what can we actually do?  Speaker 4: And so we, in my incredible team, again, we're able to take what we were doing, which everything was in person and say, we're going to do it virtually. And we did, like, it was, we closed down on Tuesday and we were doing the virtual program on Monday. I mean, it was like that. And so, yeah, actually phenomenal. And my operation like operations and community programs, cause it's the same position because we're small. What, how can we ensure that we're still getting books in the hands of families? If we can't be on the community, if our volunteers, a lot of our volunteers are seniors and it's like, they couldn't be on the community. How could we still get books out into the community? And so we said, okay, let's partner with organizations that are handing out food and clothing, like second harvest, for example, or communities in schools and other organizations like that. The boys, girls club, who were saying, you know what, we're still gonna, we can provide food and clothing to these families. So we said, books, literacy is just as important second to food. [inaudible] Thank you might as well. And so how can we, how can we ensure that, you know, we're saying that literacy is also an essential need and so partnering with them and saying, okay, you're already out there. Can we give you the books? Can you distribute them for us? Our, can we come up instead of a table and be behind you in passing, you know, books through windows and things like that. And so doing a lot of drive-through events, but really partnering with those community organizations that are already out there. And so that's, we really,  Speaker 3: Did you have those partnerships prior? Or did you go after them? Once COVID hit?  Speaker 4: It sounded like the boys and girls club and the way we've always provided books to them for like their afterschool program and Karen like that, but communities and schools and not really, and that's become a really big partner for us. We've also partnered with Cooper cupboard out of WSU. Who's providing like, they have a whole like food and food and clothing closet out there. And we said, okay, can we also get books out to your families? And so they partnered with us and second harvest as also like one of our big ones that were out there probably once a month or so partnering with them. And a lot of partnerships, it's a lot, it's a lot. I think we, we ended up having something like 23 different community partnerships this past year with new ones that we hadn't had in the past, but which was new for us, you know, which was, yeah. But our organization is so old. It's hard to tell like maybe in the past we had had those, those partnerships, but you know, transition happens a new leader come and go. And so, you know, it's good to, it's good to breathe new life.  Speaker 3: Necessity's the mother of invention or, or connection, I guess. So it has a board that you have to change your strategic plan. Cause you probably have a strategic plan every one or two years. Did you have to go, all right, this is back burner. This is back burner. Here's some new stuff.  Speaker 4: Oh, so interestingly enough, the board and I were crafting the strategic plan at the time, of course, because they had just ended their strategic plan. The executive, the previous executive director had just exited. And so they're like, okay, we'll wait to craft the new strategic plan with the new executive director. So I come on board, we had been working on it for a couple months and then COVID hit and everybody kind of for about three or four months, just kind of like disappeared into their own little bubble of panic. And so every, and so right. And so a  Speaker 3: Little bubble of panic and I quit quickly on that one hashtag  Speaker 4: That's what it felt like everybody including myself, right? Like if I'm not serving my, if I'm not doing exactly, if I'm not being reactionary exactly to what I need to do right now, I'm just like focusing on my family and trying not to look at the numbers and freak out about swapping in this country. And so, yeah. And so our strategic plan got put on hold. So we're, we're finishing up this month. Long story short, we're finishing up this month, which is good because I think like, because we are, things are starting to open up, schools are starting to open up, you know, the community is, is getting back on its feet, that this is a good time for us to look ahead the next three years and say, where are we going? What do we want to do? What, what have we done? That's really worked successfully this past year.  Speaker 4: And the hybrid model, as everybody is saying, the hybrid model really is the future. You know? And so we are going to end up keeping a lot of the things that we did in those partnerships that we've created and the model of reaching families, the families that really want to reach those low-income families, those really needy families, the families that actually need educational resources and tools and not just yeah, those families. And so the model that we have at the moment is really serving those families. And so we really do want to continue in the same thing.  Speaker 3: How do you best lead organizational change, knowing how hard it is for most people in change and your organization has been here, like you said, for a long time. So you probably came in, you took the job and it's like, alright, you looked around, you probably assess the situation I'm putting COVID aside just for a moment. Right. And so what's your view on that leading change.  Speaker 4: Okay. So I have a view and then I have what happened with this job, which are interesting. Okay. So, you know, from my view to best organizational change, you have a clear vision of where you want to go, right? You set up step-by-step goals and getting there, you empower your staff to run with their ideas, to get there. You support your team. When they feel at a loss, you utilize the experience and knowledge of your board and you make the connections to bring in funding and change. Then you celebrate every step. Wow. That's all easy because that was your textbook answer. You know, like those are the steps in real life. You know, walking into an organization that's been around for 25 years. Organizational change can be very difficult, but this is the way we've always done it. This is how we've always done. This is how the previous executive director did it.  Speaker 4: And the one before them, and this is how we do it. And so I have to say, COVID saved my life for this, like for this, or for actually being able to create organizational change within this organization in a fast way, in a very speedy way, COVID made it, it had to happen. And so it was, it became, you know, necessity, the mother, the mother of necessity. Right? And, and so we were able to make those changes, which might have taken three years in a year. You know, like we, we knew that we wanted to take things more hybrid to take it less out of. I'll give you a great example. So like our ready for kindergarten program in the past, we had a workshop that were set up in elementary schools. We took our, we loved our laptops. We took all of the supplies over there.  Speaker 4: Parents would sign up, they would show up, we would have childcare. Parents would attend. They would sit in this class. It was very spoon-fed to the parents. They would leave, they would get a box of resources and they would go home. Right. And that was, we would do that three times a year. And we had, we had good success, but we, but my, my program director was like, well, what if we, what if we could do something where like, they could learn it at home. And they have the, you know, they were doing like online education, you know, online learning is really becoming trendy, but it just wasn't the model. Right. And I'm sure it would have eventually become the model in the future, but it became, she was the driving force to make it the model during COVID. She said, okay, I have all these ideas.  Speaker 4: She worked with a national organization and they created it and we've had astronomical success. Like more, more parents are participating our community in this program than I've ever had never participated because they can do it at any time. Right. Especially, we always really wanted to get parents who had newborns to two-year-olds. Right. That's really like the early, early age. And that's always been the age that's been impossible to get. Right? Like the numbers were always terribly low and this year they've been higher than ever because parents can do it at any time. Right. They're at home, they're nursing, they're feeding, it's 2:00 AM the baby's crying that can't sleep, whatever. They can just sit on their phone and do this program and get that early child education to ensure that their child is successful. And so it's been great. It's been absolutely, absolutely fantastic to be able to do that quick transition, but what have happened, but it's going to take them a lot longer.  Speaker 3: You did get blessed with that, but it's not all bad. Yeah. Yeah. With change. Wow. So ready for kindergarten. I know about the program. Some of our listeners may not get, can you do a quick 30 seconds on it?  Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely. And I'll tell you about team read as well, which is our other, our big program. So ready for kindergarten is an early childhood education program. We provide three classes a year and we provide all the tools and resources to ensure that the parents are the teachers at home because a lot of children are at home with their parents all day with a parent or a caregiver all day. And we know even if you're not, but the parent is the first teacher of every child. And so ready for provides those resources and tools to the parent to ensure that they have the knowledge and background, to be able to ensure that their child is ready on the first day of kindergarten. We S there are a lot of children in the Tri-Cities who start that first day of kindergarten, two or three years behind their peers.  Speaker 4: So if they're starting at the age of a two-year-old at five, how long is it going to take them to catch up? Maybe never. I don't want to be, I don't want to be a pest, but like, you know, like they're always behind. They're always behind. And then that's, that's not fair to them. And that's, and that's and no fault to parents in the Tri-Cities, right? Like parents, no fault to parents anywhere. Right. It's parents, every parent wants the best for their kid. No parent is like, I to hope my kid fails, you know, like,  Speaker 3: No,  Speaker 4: Trust me. Like, no, I'm a, I'm a mom, no parent wants that. And so, you know, this is just providing that early childhood educational background for parents. So that way they can ensure their kid is successful. Yeah. It's, it's a phenomenal program. And then we also have team read, which is a tutoring program where we provide tutoring for children who are behind moving for, for first through third grade. And that's in the elementary schools in the past, we've actually had tutors from the community, volunteer tutors, come in and provide them. One-on-one tutoring for 30 minutes a week to, to children who are behind this year. We have changed it. I'm not going to use the P word. We have changed it so that children are, the parents are actually getting the tutoring resources to be able to provide that one-on-one tutoring, that targeted one-on-one tutoring for their kids at home. So the teacher evaluates the student, they said the child is at this reading level. And then here are all the resources. So we provide all the like level tutoring resources for the parent to be able to provide that one-on-one instruction at home for the kids.  Speaker 3: Okay, great, great community resources. Wow. So one of the most difficult tasks of a leader is when you must have a difficult conversation with a team member, how do you bolster the courage to do that?  Speaker 4: So this was a really hard thing for me initially. You know, I was really young getting into leadership. I got my first principal's job when I was 29. And I was the leader of, you know, managing some teachers that were long in the tooth, you know, like in their fifties and sixties had been there forever, who were just like, how dare you leave me? And I had to have those. I had to have some difficult conversations, especially bringing in, you know, new educational theory. And they're like, but I've been doing this for 30 years. What do you know kid? And I'm like, this is what we're doing. And so having to have those long conversations and I used to be a crier like where I would get like, so emotional, you know, like freaking out like panic, like shaking. And I'm like, don't cry, don't cry.  Speaker 4: And so I took this great class from this author. Her name is Jennifer Abrams. She's an educational her, she has a background in education, and it was, it's all about having hard conversations. And she takes you to those steps. You don't have a clear idea of what you want to communicate before you go into the conversation, like already have it in your head, be clear and concise. Like you don't, don't apologize for the fact that you're having this conversation. Like you don't own it. It's not, you lay out the facts had documentation to back up your meeting, practice beforehand, out loud. You can actually hear the words coming out of your mouth. You're not like, you know, you might have practiced them in your head, but actually say them out loud before you go in, take a second person with you, a board member or another leader in your organization. If you're afraid, you won't be able to get through it. And then she said, this is my favorite part. She was like, if you're going to cry, clench, just like collect your booty and the whole back of tears and it'll hold it and then share what you need to share. And I'm like, okay. And I have to tell your work. I haven't cried through a single meeting.  Speaker 3: Wow. That's a very practical tip.  Speaker 4: I know. I just loved it. It was so great. No one has ever shared that.  Speaker 3: That's awesome. Well, finally, what advice would you give to new leaders or anyone who wants to keep growing and gaining more influence?  Speaker 4: I have to say like take every opportunity to get out into the community, to meet new people and to really share your vision for your organization. You know, a lot of leaders are passionate. A lot of new leaders are passionate about their organization, but when they might, they might be too passionate and not listen. That's the one thing, right? Like, you know, you're, you're super passionate, but you don't actually listen to what other people are saying. You're just so worried about getting your words out, so, you know, share your vision, but then also take the time to sit back and listen to what other people are saying. Keep current, make yourself a professional development plan. As we talked, like, what is your professional development plan makes you actually have one be looking to the future? What am I, what am I, what am I struggling in?  Speaker 4: What do I need to work on? And then reflection, reflection is key to growth. You know, did you make a mistake? Did you get, you know, did, did the board sit you down and say, Hey, this is an issue. Okay, it's an issue reflect, how can I, how can I own this? It is my fault. What did I do? How can I fix it? So a way, you know, so I can learn from the future and really just, you know, it's, it's what that reflection is key and owning your mistakes, not being like, well, is that my it's not my fault. You know, they just hate me. They're just out to get me. Well, even if, so, even if that's true, you did hurt someone's feelings. So how can you own that? How can you take it on, how can you move forward and how can you move forward? Not just let it hold you back.  Speaker 3: Good stuff, good stuff. Well, how can our listeners best connect with you and also connect to the programs? All of  Speaker 4: Our events can be found on our website on Instagram and Facebook, which is@retwentyminutes.com.  Speaker 3: Well, thank you again, Elizabeth, for all you do to make the Tri-Cities a great place and keep leading. Well, let me wrap up our podcast today with a leadership resource to recommend it's growing forward service training. I would love to come into your organization, maybe do a lunch and learn, or a couple hours workshop that will help build the leadership skills of your team. So you can resource me@paulcasey.org, and we'll customize something that will fit your schedule and your budget, and sort of beef back up professional development for your, for your people this year. Again, this is Paul Casey. I want to thank my guest Elizabeth Barnes from the children's reading foundation of the mid-Columbia for being here today on the Tri-Cities influencer podcast, we want to thank our TCI sponsors and invite you to support them. We appreciate you making this possible so we can collaborate to help inspire leaders in our community. Finally, one more leadership tidbit for the road to help you make a difference in your circle of influence. It's the great Stephen Covey. He said, listen with the intent to understand not the intent to reply until next time kgs keep growing forward.  Speaker 2: Thank you to our listeners for tuning in to today's show. Paul Casey is on a mission to add value to leaders by providing practical tools and strategies that reduce stress in their lives and on their teams so that they can enjoy life and leadership and experience their desired results. If you'd like more help from Paul and your leadership development, connect with him@growingforwardatpaulcasey.org for a consultation that can help you move past your current challenges and create a strategy for growing your life or your team forward. Paul would also like to help you restore your sanity to your crazy schedule and getting your priorities done every day by offering you is free. Control my calendar checklist, go to WWE dot, take back my calendar.com for that productivity tool or open a text message 2 7 2 0 0 0, and type the word grown  Speaker 3: Tri-Cities influencer podcast was recorded at fuse SPC by Bill Wagner.

Speaker 1: There's got to be a clear why as the motivator behind every goal. So I believe it's why power, not willpower that will ignite your inner drive and get you to your goal. Speaker 2: Raising the water level of leadership in the Tri-Cities of Eastern Washington. It's the Tri-Cities influencer podcast. Welcome to the TCI podcast. We're local leadership and self-leadership expert Paul Casey interviews, local CEOs, entrepreneurs, and non-profit executives to hear how they lead themselves and their teams. So we can all benefit from your wisdom and experience. Here's your host, Paul Casey growing forward services, coaching individuals and teams for breakthrough success. Speaker 3: It's a great day to grow forward. Thanks for joining me for today's episode with Jessica Schneider. She is the medical doctor and the CEO and founder and owner of empowered health Institute. And I asked her for something funny or quirky about her and it was hard to come up with something, but she said she loves sci-fi and fantasy. Tell us more about that. Speaker 4: Yeah. As I was mentioning, Paul, I enjoy reading sci-fi books and what I'm currently reading right now is red rising by Pierce brown. And it's a great story, but I, this is the way that I've put myself to sleep for years and years. If I shutting off the real-world and going to something that's a little bit more a fictional, Speaker 3: Love it, love it. Well, we'll dive in. After checking in with our Tri-City influencer sponsor, it's easy to delay answering uncomfortable questions. Like what happens to my assets and my loved ones when I die. So it's no surprise that nearly 50% of Americans don't have a will and even fewer have an estate plan, many disabled clients worry that they don't have enough assets to set up an estate plan, but there are important options available to ensure that you have a voice in your medical and financial decision-making. Even if your health takes a turn for the worst estate planning gives you a voice when your health deteriorates or after you're gone. Marin Miller bam attorney at law is currently providing free consultations to find out more about estate planning or to book an appointment. Call Marin at (206) 485-4066 or visit Salem that's S a L U s-law.com today. Thank you for your support of leadership development in the Tri-Cities. Well welcome, Jessica. This is the first time we get to meet. I've heard your name in the community a lot. And so it's like, I've got to interview her. So it is great to meet you today. Sorry. So then our tries to the influencers can get to know you tell us about what your organization does, the uniqueness of it. And I think I know what you probably spend 80% of your day doing Speaker 4: Sure. Yeah, absolutely. Well, I am the founder and owner of empowered health Institute and we are a primary care medical clinic that is run a little bit differently. So we are a membership model, which means that our patients pay a fee to be part of our practice. And we've taken out the middleman, mainly insurance and allow ourselves a lot more time with our patients, which has been wonderful. And the reason why I started empowered health in the beginning was because I was seeing a huge problem with time to be able to spend with patients and became increasingly frustrated because the 10 minutes slots that I was getting each day with my patients was not enough to do more than push a pill or change a dose. And that is just not what health and wellness is should be about. And so I, I decided to found empowered health and, and by doing this, we're actually two years old this year, this month, and it's been amazing. So we're able to spend 90 minutes at our new patient appointments, getting to know our patients and actually understanding what the root causes that's actually causing them problems. And yeah, it's been incredibly rewarding. Speaker 3: Thank you for doing that, that just sort of blasted away at the old model. And I know some of your patients and they're just, they love that extra time that you get to spend with them. Speaker 4: Yeah. Brought the healing piece of medicine back. I know in it, for me and our patients, that's, that's exactly what they say too. Speaker 3: So why do you love to do what you do? Speaker 4: Yeah, well, I, you know, I got into medicine out of college because I love the science behind it. I am so fascinated with the human body and the ability for the body and the desire to heal. And so basically if we can get out of our own way and know the right tools, our body wants to heal us. And, and so that's why I got into medicine. I actually also applied to business school at the same time as I applied to medical school and I got accepted to both. And so it really was, you know, a hard moment for me to decide which one to pursue. And so medicine one, but being able to start empowered health and also now run a business, suits my personality very well. So it's been a great fit for me, both, both sides. Speaker 3: So you can't do it alone. You have to have a team. So who do you surround yourself with within the practice? And then who else do you surround yourself with outside of your practice to help you be more successful? Yeah, Speaker 4: Well, I mean, my practice is obvious. You know, I've got, we have five employees now and I could not do it without my team. They are, they bring a lot of their own personality and their own ideas to the table. And what I've had a lot of fun with as a leader is allowing them space to actually create and do new things. And so we're always looking for new ways to help support our patients in, in their health and wellness journey from the standpoint of business and, and being able to come and create something new in this community. I've actually been really fortunate because I do, I did grow up in the Tri-Cities and I do have a network of friends here. And so when I was ready to start empowered health, you know, I know the business attorneys, I know the landlord owners. I know, you know, so it's been really fortunate for me. Speaker 4: I've been really supported, you know, Brett Spooner is a close friend of mine, a lot of advice on starting a startup company. I'm also really fortunate that my brother, Casey Stratton and my husband max Schneider both have business degrees. And so I'm able to pick their brains on everything from finance to, you know, employee management and all of those things. I also think it's really important to have female mentors. And so I do have a mentor in the community who is a serial entrepreneur in the metastatic space, Nicole Scharamonte. And she has been wonderful in helping me to look at business and leadership from the standpoint of, of what a female brings to the table. That's a little bit unique. And so that's, those are the people that I've been really fortunate to be surrounded by and supported by and, and the list is even longer, but those are just some of the things, what a fantastic Speaker 3: Personal board of directors that you have so fortunate. So leaders have growth mindsets. So how are you constantly evolving as a leader and what's in your own professional development plan? Speaker 4: Yeah. This is such a great question, you know, and I really think about it. If I look back over my life, I think there's phases of growth as a leader. I have always personally been very interested in personal development. I actually started a personal development book club when I lived in Milwaukee and it's still going on today. Unfortunately, I can't be part of it anymore having moved here. But so I did that, you know, I have done coaching for myself prior to starting empowered health. I think the phase that I've been in in the last two years for personal development has really been trial by fire and being in it and, you know, going through and recognizing problems as growth opportunities. I'm definitely, I think we're entering a new phase and we just actually hired a nurse practitioner. So our, our practice is expanding, but I'm excited to be able to take the next step for myself and personal development. Now that we have another team member who's accepting patients. So, Speaker 3: So you brought up a book clubs, so books, probably a big deal for you, as you think back over the last few years, which books have been made the biggest impact on you? Oh gosh. There's so many now. Speaker 4: Yeah. The one thing I think has, has been a pretty one, pretty good one. Yeah. And I think just the concepts of, of organizing around what are, what are the few things that you want to get done and having laser focus on that. So that's been, that's been a big one for me. Yeah. Speaker 3: I love that book. It's like, what's the one thing you can do that if you do it, all the other things leave there become less yeah. Less burdensome or just maybe not even essential anymore. That's a great question to ask. Yeah. So to avoid burnout and negativity, how do you feed your mental and emotional health and wellness on a regular basis? Cause you got to be the role model. Speaker 4: So, you know, this is, yeah, this is my life. I love this question. You know, a couple of different things. I mean begin with, yes. It, it really comes down to recognizing that, you know, our nutrition matters, our sleep matters. I definitely emphasize working out and feel a big difference if I'm not able to get on the treadmill and just walk, you know, a few times a week. So those key things in my life, I also really do a very good job of shutting off. At the end of the day, I will stop work. I have kind of a hard stop time in the evening and recognize it's so important that I, my brain needs to rest and spend time with my family and my spouse. And I also, one huge thing as far as having perceived balance in my life is travel. We, even if it's just getting out of town for the weekend, it's the time that I find to be most fulfilling as far as reconnecting with my kids and my husband. And so it's, it's a huge part of my life. It's what makes the day-to-day worth it for me. And you know, I've never been to Europe, so I'm not talking about, you know, worldwide travel, but just getting out of town, camping or going to Leavenworth. You know, these are just things that are really important to me. Speaker 3: Yeah. I, they say vacation is an attitude adjustment. It's a code word for attitude. Adjustment. Exactly. Speaker 4: Getting out of the house. Speaker 3: Yes. Well, interesting on a nutrition exercise, you mentioned a few of those things. What is the common message that you give to your patients in those two areas, nutrition and exercise. I'm sure there's someone on the call or on the listening today on the podcast. That's like, I really want to lose weight or I want to live healthy and have that, that lifestyle wellness. What would you say? Speaker 4: Well, from a nutrition standpoint, I would say eat real food. You know, if your grandma wouldn't recognize it, get rid of it. If, if it has more than five ingredients on the label, it's probably not something that should go in your mouth. So start with real food. Okay. And from an exercise standpoint, you know, we talk a lot at empowered health about movement is w it can be anything. Movement is exercise. It does not have to be at a gym. It doesn't have to be a formal class. If you get out and you start making movement more part of your day to day life, you're going to have health benefits. Fantastic. Thank you. So Speaker 3: How do you get things done? So you're with you with patients, but you also run a business. So how do you organize yourself? I also love this Speaker 4: Question because if I, if I picked one word for myself, organization is probably one of the top ones. Yeah. So I, you know, my, my phone, I used to do list and it's, it's, it's my external brain. Right. And I, I truly wish I'm waiting for the day and maybe it exists where I can be in the shower and talk to to-do list to, to continue my list. Cause that's where all the great ideas come. I'll just some white space there. So yeah. So I use that religiously as, as my days, get more crowded or there's certain days of the week that I have more self-expectation. I actually will write out based on the hour, whether it's 60, 30, or 15 minute intervals and schedule in my, my task list for the day. And oftentimes what that does is it makes me realize that I have way too many things that I expect myself to accomplish that day and I can move them in advance. And it helps me feel like I'm accomplishing things and having, like I said, appropriate expectations for my time. Speaker 3: Yeah. It sounds like you're at achiever like me. And if we put too many things on our lists and then we don't get all of them done, we feel like we failed, which is ridiculous. Isn't it, we're getting way more done than the average person. But yeah. So we have to have that reality check. You have to do this. This is something I use with my team too. So listeners it's T O D O I S T. And I'm just reading a book called now do more better, which is like a faith-based productivity book. And they actually have a chapter on to-do list in the book and tell you how to set it up. Speaker 3: So that's pretty cool. All right. Before we head into our next question to find out how Jessica steps back looks at the bigger picture, let's check in with our sponsor located in the Parkway, you'll find motivation, new friends and your new coworking space at fuse. Whether you're a student just starting out or a seasoned professional, come discover all the reasons to love coworking at fuse come co-work at fuse for free on Fridays in February, enjoy free coffee or tea, Wi-Fi printing conference rooms, and more, and bring a friend. If you use this, where individuals and small teams come together in a thoughtfully designed resource, rich environment to get work done and grow their ideas. Comprised of professionals from varying disciplines and backgrounds. Fuse is built for hardworking, fun, loving humans. Learn more about us@fusespc.com or stop by seven to three, the Parkway in Richland Washington. So it's easy to get trapped into reacting in leadership. There's problem comes up, got to deal with it. So how do you specifically step back and look at the bigger picture? Speaker 4: Yeah, I think this is a really a great question. And of course this happens, right? It's, it's unavoidable that these times are going to come up as a leader and as a business owner. And so for me, I think the first thing that I've learned, and this is definitely an in process, but is to step back time-wise, you know, allow 24 hours for the dust to settle, to recognize that there are very few times where a crisis has to be acted on immediately, and that allows my emotions to settle. And then I'm acting a little bit more out of logic, the logic side of my brain versus the emotional. And so, so that's the first thing that I do. And then the second is just remembering the goals. What is the bigger picture? And actually, and sometimes it requires actually just writing it down and looking at it that way. So that's that those are the things that I've started to work on and seem to give me some benefit here. Yeah. Inserting Speaker 3: That 24 hour pause. That's good. Good and good advice. Do you have a strategic plan for your business as you look out, you know, maybe one to three years, I know things are changing so fast, but do you have one? Speaker 4: Yes, we do. It's actually something. Well, as, as the owner and with my spouse, we have a strategic plan that we put into place before we even opened the business. But the one that I'm more proud of and that we use more on a regular basis is the strategic plan that our team has put together. And we spent a lot of time on this in the fall last year. And it is, it's really fun too. It's been actually broken down to by month and, and by product. And so it's fun to go back and revisit that at our team meetings each month, as we, as we travel forward through the year, Speaker 3: Give us a little bit more of an insight into that. Was it a retreat that you did? Was it questions that guided you through, how did you sort of culminate that vision as a team, as a team? Speaker 4: Yeah, so it started, you know, it starts from myself and my spouse. We do a retreat together and we set the big picture goals, and then we really looked at it from the standpoint of, you know, what impact do we want to have? How do we want to grow? What, how can we be better community players? And so we broke it out into five key goals that we have. And then within those goals, we have initiatives that we can act on. And so we broke it down there further. I have a team member. It's actually our coach. We have a health coach that works with our clinic and she does, she's very organized, does a little bit of life coaching also. And one of her great skill sets is, is breaking these things down into Excel spreadsheets in a way that we can all utilize them. So based on our five goals and our initiatives, we actually then develop tasks and then assign them to each individual on our team. So we each are color coded tasks that we, that we're responsible for and that we come back to on a monthly basis to keep each other accountable. Speaker 3: Love that I'm nerding out on that spreadsheet right now. Speaker 4: It is beautiful. Speaker 3: Yeah. That's funny. So last year, you know, COVID hit, did you have to make some key moves yourself for your organization in the last year to be responsive strategic in an uncertain time? Or did you just keep rolling along? Speaker 4: Yeah, I think like most small businesses, there was definitely some, some quick thinking of course safety was first in my mind, you know, as a medical doctor, we have to make sure that we're not putting our patients or our employees at risk. And so we did transition to telemedicine as much as, and stayed at that until we were able to start safely re-introducing in-person visits and, and then slowly moved forward. We are, we now have all of our staff back in our office and, and are, you know, navigating that, but we did have to make quite a few changes. And from a business standpoint, you know, we pulled back on any, maybe more unnecessary spending and, and kind of thought through that. And it was an interesting exercise for myself to go through, to say, what is the worst case scenario here? And to really look at the trajectory, had a lot of great support from my mentors at that time point. I'll never forget being on calls with both, you know, Brett and Nicole and, and hearing very similar feedback from both of them on strategy. What Speaker 3: Was the hardest part of the last year for you? Speaker 4: Oh, the constant change, you know, I have two young kids, I have a five-year-old and an eight year old and between their schooling and changes in, you know, work location for my spouse and support, that was probably the uncertainty. The constant change Speaker 3: Was telemedicine really hard. Or did you adapt to that pretty quickly? Speaker 4: Telemedicine is interesting because there's definitely a lot lost when you cannot put hands on the patient and see them in person, but it, wasn't hard from the standpoint of the technology and engaging. And luckily again, when you spend 90 minutes with your patients to get to know them at the very first visit, plus a 60-minute follow-up, I know these patients very well. And so to be able to pop in quickly for a telemedicine visit actually feels like talking to a friend on the phone. Wow. That's awesome. Speaker 3: How do you best lead organizational change? You know, that you've been doing it for two years. There's probably been a lot of change that you've had to guide your people through. And for most people change is hard unless you've got a unique team where it's, they're all just like, sure. Let's go. Speaker 4: Yeah, no, I know they are pretty unique, but yes, I agree. Change is hard for everyone. You know, the approach that I have learned works best for myself and for the team members that I've had is really bringing whatever the problem is to them. And I've of course thought about it. I thought of what solution I think would be the best, but asking, you know, what do you think is a solution here? What do you suggest? And I've had great results with that. And oftentimes I'm surprised by a brilliant idea that I hadn't thought about. And so I find it's a way to make everyone part of the solution and get everyone's perspective, and yet also provide appropriate direction. Speaker 3: Yeah. So staying close to your team's a big deal, because then it becomes, what do they say of if I can weigh in, then I'll buy in right Speaker 4: On that side. That's very well quite Speaker 3: Well. One of the most difficult tasks of a leader is when you must have a difficult conversation with a team member. So how do you bolster the courage to do that? Speaker 4: Yeah, I think I saw something on Instagram recently about, there's no better way to ruin a good employee than to watch you tolerate a poor employee. Again, I, you know, that just really hits home. Right. It's so, from, from my standpoint, I don't know if it comes down so much to courage is it's just, I recognize that those hard conversations are just part of the job. And if I want the rest of my team and the business and my patients and myself to do well, those conversations have to be had. Speaker 3: Yeah. They say out of caring comes courage. Right. So if you care about the person to hold back from telling them anything would be an act of selfishness, right. Because nobody's growing, I'm not growing as the leader, because I don't want to have that conversation and they're not growing because they haven't gotten the feedback. That's another, Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely. Really good point. Speaker 3: So let's talk about our community a little bit. Tri-Cities so your Tri-Cities girl, right? Good. Yes. That's where my kids went. So you want to be a visible influencer in our community. Right. And how do you do that? Speaker 4: Yeah, so, well, it's interesting what you envision yourself doing when you grow up and what the reality is. I would have never chosen this for my path. That's very, it's even surreal to be here, sitting here with you today, but I think the first thing is getting involved, you know, and when we moved back to the Tri-Cities, we knew, and we, we discussed it as a, as a couple, my spouse and I, that, you know, we were going to step out into positions in the community to, to have influence, to meet people, to understand what the needs of the community are. So, you know, I serve on the board of the Tri-City chamber of commerce. I'm also associate board member of Giza credit union. And so I think it's, it's just about getting out there and understanding what, what is the community doing? What's driving it, what are the needs? Speaker 4: And then start plugging in, and then, you know, bringing your unique self to the table. It's really fun to be a speaker in the health and wellness world here in the Tri-Cities and we need it. We need something to change. We're actually in a really sad space from, you know, especially from primary care and doctors want to do a really good job. They want to love their patients. They want time and it's being taken away. And so to be here and to be able to speak to that is pretty powerful. And so I think the influence just comes naturally, if you're passionate about what you're talking about. Speaker 3: So you mentioned a couple of boards, would you recommend a Tri-City influencers to consider being on a board and why? Speaker 4: Absolutely. I mean, again, it's, it's an opportunity to network and to understand what's going on in the community. It's also really great way to learn from other organizations. You know, I mentioned the strategic plan that we put together at empowered health. It's actually very closely modeled just to the format that seen Giza use. And it's, you know, it's just, it's a great way to learn and to have mentorship and, and connect. Speaker 3: So you're you and your husband are both business owners and, you know, he got a couple of kids, he said, so how do you make time for just you as a couple? Speaker 4: Yeah. We're still, you know, we're still figuring this out. We've tried a couple different things, but you know, a lot of it's just communication and having time to connect in the mornings or at night, I cannot say we're perfect at this. You know, we've definitely put into place date nights and had that. Not always work out, but yeah, so we, we spend time together whenever we can get it. And like I said, I think the biggest thing that we do is really, we travel, we book our travel plans a year in advance and his family still lives in Milwaukee. So part of that's just because we have to, and we have to plan, but, you know, even just getting away for a weekend as a family or just the two of us is probably the way we reconnect. Speaker 3: So tell us about your marketing plan, because to see like you're visible out there. So what kinds of things are you doing on social media? Do you have a newsletter? That kind of stuff? Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah. Well, of course I would be remiss if I didn't mention how we got started with introducing empowered health to the community. And that's largely been through a local marketing firm, brand Kraft media, and they have done worlds. They for supporting, you know, developing our website, our brand and introducing us. But as far as internal marketing, we, we do have a marketing director, Leah, who you've met and she works a lot on our social media, our Instagram. We also have a newsletter, which I'm very proud of and it goes out monthly non-members can go ahead and sign up for it on our website to get access to that. And we put a lot of content in there about lifestyle and supplements and even, you know, latest research on things like COVID and, and, you know, the vaccine and melatonin and all of those different things that have come out about COVID. So that is one way that we've really engaged in showing the community what we do. And the idea is that if you're interested in what we're putting out there, then you can come and learn more about our clinic. Speaker 3: Fantastic. It sounds like that newsletter is something I want to subscribe to too. So that'd be great. So how can they, how can people subscribe to that? What's your website and what's your other ways they can people contact you? Yeah. Speaker 4: So our website is empowered health institute.com. And again, you can sign up for the newsletter on there. There's a box to do that. And we are also on Facebook, under empowered health Institute and Instagram as well. Yeah. Speaker 3: Fantastic. Well, finally, Jessica, what advice would you give to new leaders or anyone who wants to growing and gaining more influence? Speaker 4: Yeah, I think, I mean, it definitely goes back to getting involved in the community and, and recognizing that even if you don't necessarily feel like you have something different, you do, you bring something unique based on your experiences and finding that niche and what you're passionate about and stepping into that in a way to make a difference and just moving forward. Speaker 3: Good stuff. Good stuff. Well, thank you for all you do to make the Tri-Cities a great place and keep growing forward. Thank you, Paul, let me wrap up our podcast today with a leadership resource to recommend, Hey, has it been a long time since you've gotten your team off site and done a retreat, things are opening up more now and I would love to be your facilitator for that. There are so many benefits for retreats, offsite, its relationship building its strategic planning. You can enhance your communication. As a result, we could do a disc assessments. We can do emotional intelligence assessments. We'll just customize that to fit whatever needs your group has for just getting closer together and being visionary for the rest of the year. So just reach out to me@paulcasey.org. Again, this is Paul Casey, and I want to thank my guest, Jessica Schneider from empowered health Institute for being here today on the Tri-Cities influencer podcast. And we want to thank our TCI sponsor and invite you to support them. We appreciate you making this possible so we can collaborate to help inspire leaders in our community. Finally, one more leadership tidbit for the road to help you make a difference in your circle of influence. Benjamin Franklin said an investment in knowledge pays the best interest until next time, keep growing forward. Speaker 2: Thank you to our listeners for tuning in to today's show Paul Casey on a mission to add value to leaders by providing practical tools and strategies that reduce stress in their lives and on their teams so that they can enjoy life and leadership and experience their desired results. If you'd like more help from Paul in your leadership development, connect with him@growingforwardatpaulcasey.org for a consultation that can help you move past your current challenges and create a strategy for growing your life or your team forward. Paul would also like to help you restore your sanity to your crazy schedule and getting your priorities done every day by offering you is free. Control my calendar checklist, go to WW dot, take back my calendar.com for that productivity tool or open a text message 2 7 2 0 0 0, and type the word growth Speaker 3: Tri-Cities influencer podcast was recorded at Fuse SPC by bill Wagner of Safe Strategies.

Bill Wagner: Eleanor Roosevelt said, "Great minds talk about ideas. Average minds talk about events. Small minds talk about people." Be a great mind. I am Bill Wagner and I am a Tri-Cities influencer. Paul Casey: We use I messages, not you messages. But a you message, again, puts us on the defensive. And someone that's already aggressive, oh boy, that's just like bringing gasoline to the fire. It's going to make it a whole lot worse. Speaker 3: Raising the water level of leadership in the Tri-Cities of Eastern Washington, it's the Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast. Welcome to the TCI Podcast, where local leadership and self-leadership expert Paul Casey interviews local CEOs, entrepreneurs, and nonprofit executives. Hear how they lead themselves and their teams so we can all benefit from their wisdom and experience. Here's your host, Paul Casey of Growing Forward Services, coaching and equipping individuals and teams to spark breakthrough success. Paul Casey: It's a great day to grow forward. Thanks for joining me for today's episode with Madeline Carter. She's the morning news anchor at NBC Right Now. And fun fact about Madeline, she says she's an old soul and gets teased for it all the time. Madeline, tell us more about that. Madeline Carter: Oh, Paul, I belong in the 1950s. I have said this since I was probably about 16, which is a little strange. My mom teases me all the time about how I have an old soul. I'm a homebody. I'd rather be at home, sipping my glass of tea, listening to Frank Sinatra. So that is me in a nutshell. Paul Casey: That's awesome. And we're going to dive in after checking in with our Tri-City Influencer sponsor. Mario Martinez, Northwestern Mutual. Mario, what types of services do you offer? Mario Martinez: Hey, Paul. Thank you for letting me be on here. We run bifurcated practices in that we focus on two areas of a financial plan. The first one is we do protection pieces, which include life insurance, disability insurance, long-term care insurance. Really, the things that people should be focused on to protect their families, their businesses. And on the other side of our practices, we do investment services. And on the investment platforms, we do both the brokerage platform and we do the advisory level services. So depending on what someone's looking for as far as guidance on their investment strategies, we can curtail and build a strategy for them that makes sense. Paul Casey: Mario, how can people get in touch with you? Mario Martinez: The easiest way, you can reach out to me directly on my business cell phone. It's 509-591-5301. You can send me an email at Mario.Martinez@NM.com, or you can reach out to us on our social media platforms, the easiest one being, excuse me, Mario Martinez Northwestern Mutual on Facebook. Paul Casey: Thank you for your support of leadership development in the Tri-Cities. Well, Madeline, it was great to meet you earlier this year, or was it last year? Madeline Carter: No, funny story, Paul- Paul Casey: It was the first of the year, wasn't it? Madeline Carter: We met the first week of January when 2020 still looked promising. Paul Casey: That's right. [crosstalk 00:03:15]- Madeline Carter: And we talked about New Year's resolutions. Paul Casey: We did. Madeline Carter: I think we need to redo this in 2021. Paul Casey: I think we probably should. It was snowing that day. Of course, when you bring in your guest it's like bunch early in the morning, and- Madeline Carter: Oh yeah. Paul Casey: And- Madeline Carter: Like 6:00 AM? Mm-hmm (affirmative). Paul Casey: ... that is funny. We've done a couple other recordings since then with Madeline Motivates. Madeline Carter: Madeline Motivates, yes. Paul Casey: Which I just love that, and I love all the people you're bringing on the show. Madeline Carter: Yeah, thank you. Paul Casey: So, yeah, it's been a great year of trying to put positive stuff in front of people in a negative year. Madeline Carter: Right. I mean, you were actually the very first guest of that segment. And for those who don't know, I created this segment, Madeline Motivates, because I've always been a big champion of motivation and encouragement. I always try to encourage people in any way I can, whether it's words or actions. And so I wanted to create this segment to try to uplift people. And it turns out you were the first episode in January. Two months later, I had no idea that we were going to be going through one of the most trying times that I think I've been through in my entire life. And I was just talking to someone that I work with about how relevant that segment became, and how useful, and the ideas. I mean, I didn't have to think too hard to come up with ideas for a weekly segment, because, I mean, what we're going through, it just warrants itself to needing motivation. Paul Casey: Absolutely. Well, so our Tri-City influencers can get to know you, take us through a couple career highlights that have led to your current position and just why you love what you do. Madeline Carter: I really do love what I do. And the interesting thing is this is actually my first stop in my career. Paul Casey: First stop, yeah. Madeline Carter: First stop out of college. So I don't have too much of a career history yet, but I will tell you how I got into broadcasting. It all started, I actually started university for the performing arts and felt a calling in the direction of broadcasting based on people I was meeting and a class that I took. I had took a class in radio production my junior year in college, not until halfway through. And I still remember the first time that I got to do the newscast on the radio. I went up to the studio, and I don't even think I wrote the news at the time, I just printed it off the computer. And I sat down in that chair behind the mic and just got chills. It was like, I don't know, a calling type of a moment. I sat down and it just felt right. And I read the news, and they ended up letting me do it once a week, and then I eventually started working at my college radio station as the news director and a radio DJ, which is a lot of fun. Madeline Carter: And ultimately, that was when my career really took off in terms of connections. Everything that I was doing seemingly led to the next thing. So, for example, I was doing the radio news one day when I got a call from my best friend's dad, who happened to be the morning radio guy in my hometown, and he asked me if I wanted an internship. And so he had just heard the newscast. And so connections like that just started to kick off. And ultimately, it led to an internship at the hometown TV station that I absolutely love, still love to this day, Fox 8 News in Cleveland, Ohio. That internship is where I gained the bulk of my experience and made connections that I think helped me get to where I am today, so I'm just grateful for that. Paul Casey: That is very cool. [inaudible 00:06:37] I think feeling the chills when you sat down in the chair. I tear up when I'm in the zone, when I'm- Madeline Carter: Oh yeah. Paul Casey: ... filing quotes for professional growth or putting together a seminar to deliver. I think our bodies even respond in a way to say, "This is what you were created to do." Madeline Carter: Yes. I'm actually having a flashback moment. I was just talking to our news director about career trajectory and where I want to be in the future, and I had tears well up in my eyes while we were having that conversation. And I said to her, I said, "Is this normal? Have you ever felt this way?" And she just said, "That's when you know you're doing the right thing." Paul Casey: What's great about internships? So you had that opportunity that really was a springboard for you into your career. I've heard of internships out at PN&L here locally, and maybe in some of the trades. If someone was thinking about just starting out, what would you recommend about internships? Madeline Carter: I'm a huge advocate for doing internships. I think it's one thing you can learn as much as you can in school and get a great education, but to get that experience in the field and to be with people that do it for a living, that, to me, was eye-opening. I went to a school that actually didn't have a running daily newscast, so that was my first experience seeing how the real world works in news. And I think getting that hands-on experience is crucial. Madeline Carter: But the thing with internships is I learned very quickly in both of the ones that I did in college that it is what you make it. I could very easily have sat there behind what they call the assignment desk and taken phone calls all day, maybe get some coffee for the news anchors. Or I could have put my best foot forward and tried to get as much experience as possible within those three or four months that I was there. And every single day, I worked hard to get to try new things and to help out in different areas where I knew I could grow. So I think if you're going to take an internship, really, don't take it lightly, because those connections, you never know where that might lead one day. Paul Casey: That's a great concept in general. It is what you make it, right? When I take people on a retreat for their company, I'll say that at the beginning. "What you put into this is what we're going to get out of this, as a retreat." Madeline Carter: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Paul Casey: It's the same with your professional development, your own personal growth, and every day you go to work. It is what you make it, so I love that advice. Madeline Carter: Yeah, it matters. And I think you make an impression, too. One of the news anchors at the Cleveland station who I looked up to most, she's one of my role models, she actually, it turns out she wrote the recommendation letter for me to get the job I have today. So that just shows how it matters, the fact that she was willing to take time out of her busy schedule to write that is probably because I worked hard and made sure to befriend her in the process. Paul Casey: Yeah, hear, hear. There's probably a resource on how to write a good recommendation letter, but those things matter. Madeline Carter: Yeah, they do. Paul Casey: [crosstalk 00:09:33] writing that for people, and whether it's a LinkedIn recommendation, which I know I want to do more of that for others, or helping people out when they go to interview for a job, those recommendation letters are really powerful. So, what helped you make the decision about jumping to this community here in the Tri-Cities? Take us to that moment where you made the decision to come here and, yeah, tell us about that. Madeline Carter: Again, I know I mentioned it's a calling for me to be in the world of broadcasting, and I knew from the moment I first spoke to the recruiter for my station that I wanted to work here in the Tri-Cities. I think it was culture, really, that stood out to me with the company that I work for. Madeline Carter: Kind of a crazy situation with how I got this job. I posted ... For news, oftentimes for on-air positions, you have to make a sort of reel or audition tape, as I like to call it. And so someone from our station actually found my video on YouTube. I was living in Ohio at the time, more than 2,000 miles away. I have no idea. Maybe what I tagged the video as, he found it and gave me a call and an email. And for me, it just seemed right from the beginning. I could tell that he was invested in me as a person and not just filling that next position that they needed to. And also, I asked him a lot about the Tri-Cities community. I said, "What's it like there? What are people like? Is it a close knit community? How do people treat each other? What's it like in the daily life in the Tri-Cities?" And everything I heard was impressive, and it reminded me of where I grew up. Smaller town vibes, everyone caring about each other, and I really feel that here still to this day. Paul Casey: Those are great questions that you asked. I mean, those are very specific questions about- Madeline Carter: Well, yeah, the culture matters. Paul Casey: ... the culture. Madeline Carter: It does matter. And ultimately, I did have another opportunity I could have pursued, but the other part of this is I can't really explain, I just felt called to come here. I was having dreams about working here, and I would see myself behind the news desk, and it was kind of interesting. Paul Casey: Wow. Madeline Carter: It was almost like I visualized it before it happened. Paul Casey: That sounds like a confirmation to me. Madeline Carter: I know. Paul Casey: We're glad to have you here. Madeline Carter: Thank you. Paul Casey: So, what advice would you give to listeners when they reach a crossroads, when they have a decision like that? I mean, I'm almost already foretelling that you're going to say something about intuition, because you felt that calling inside of you to come here, but just in general, what would you say? I've got a decision point, I'm at a crossroads, how do I know which way to go? Madeline Carter: Yes. Ultimately, it did, for me, come down to intuition or your gut or whatever you like to call it. But I do a lot of research, as well. For example, if you're choosing between two jobs and you're having a tough time making that decision, what I do, personally, what works for me is evaluating my options. So whether that's writing down the pros and cons of each, taking a look at what you've written. One thing that my dad taught me to do was after the interview, make a journal entry and write exactly how you feel. And when I went back and looked at what I had written, it was clear to me ... The pros and cons are there, but then ultimately, you kind of got to go with your heart, your gut. And just know that where you ultimately go, I think that it's on the path of where you should be going and it's going to mold you one way or another, whether it's a positive or a negative experience. So you can do your research, and then ultimately, you got to go with your gut. Paul Casey: Yep. Yep. And the pros and cons activity, it's tried and true. It seems so simple, and yet it really helps you, by putting it on paper, to filter your thoughts for making- Madeline Carter: Yes. Paul Casey: ... a big decision. So what's most rewarding for you in your job? And how do you stay focused on that? Because I'm sure there's hassles and disappointments and technical difficulties and all that kind of stuff. Madeline Carter: The most rewarding part of my job in news is the chance to bring light into someone's day. That's the beauty of a morning newscast, I think. We've got a great mix of news, entertainment, fun. Just giving you a reason to wake up and get out of bed in the morning. That, to me, is what drives me. The chance to be a friend to someone who maybe doesn't have one, someone who right now is struggling to just find their reason, their why. Just look to be a light to someone, and that's really what keeps me grounded. And also the chance to tell stories that shape our community. And whether they're good or bad, it's where we live, and you need to know what's going on. And those stories, I really think they truly matter. Madeline Carter: But, yes, you're right, life can get kind of crazy, especially in a very public type of a position. A lot of times, I'll find myself ... There are a lot of demands on my time, and a lot of people to respond to in so many different formats, whether it's viewers or managers, bosses. So those are the times when it can get a bit stressful for me, the time management aspect. But what really grounds me is when I speak to someone in our community, whether it's a guest that I'm interviewing or I'm doing an interview for a story that I'm working on, hearing people's stories reminds me why it's so important to share those with the people where we live. Paul Casey: I love how you said you just want to be a light, and in the morning probably people are comforted by your happy face when they turn on their TV in the morning, right? Madeline Carter: I hope so! Paul Casey: Because you're that consistent first greeting of the day, even maybe before the rest of their family wakes up, because you're on very early. Madeline Carter: Exactly. Paul Casey: So they've come to make you a part of their life, in a way, by choosing media- Madeline Carter: I mean, they have me in their living room. Paul Casey: Right? That's right. Madeline Carter: We have coffee in the living room. Paul Casey: That's an honor, isn't it? Madeline Carter: It is. It really is. Paul Casey: And a responsibility- Madeline Carter: Absolutely. Paul Casey: ... to be a light. I mean, if you were sort of an Eeyore to start the day off- Madeline Carter: "Morning. Here's your news." Yeah. Paul Casey: Yeah, that's right. That would start the day off pretty poorly. Well, leaders and influencers must keep growing or they become irrelevant. So, how have you matured in your professional growth, your personal growth, in recent years? Madeline Carter: I'm certainly still in the growth process, but for the past few years, I would say the past three years, I have studied character based leadership, and in a different context outside of broadcasting. But that's my goal of what I try to bring to the table as a leader is to lead with kindness, to lead with empathy, especially concerning coworkers and even our viewers, to be a leader for them in that way. And it's not always easy, but I've actually had a couple trials this past year that have taught me the importance of that. Madeline Carter: And one thing that I think I've really grown over the past year and a half that I've been here in the Tri-Cities is I've grown stronger in my personal voice. I know kindness can sometimes be perceived as a weakness, and I used to more so care about what people would think of me if I had to lay down the law or stand up for what is right or stand up for what I believe in. But now I feel having leadership in a daily newscast, it gives me that ability to better say what needs to be done, what needs to be right, whether it's an ethical news question or something along those lines. I less fear how others perceive me now, and I think that's a form of growth is growing in that confidence and that ability to take charge without worrying what people think of you. Paul Casey: Yeah, and I like how you said that. Kindness could be perceived as a weakness, but it's actually a strength. And if I ever do a random act of kindness, and just talking about it I guess means it's not random act anymore, but like when paying for the person behind you in the drive-through, right, at a coffee drive-through, I feel more powerful. I don't feel weak when I do that. And to see that person sort of wave and know that you pumped up their day- Madeline Carter: Exactly. Paul Casey: ... that's a great feeling. Madeline Carter: Oh yeah. Paul Casey: And it builds ... If you're in a workplace, that is building respect, it's magnetic. It attracts people to you if you lead with kindness versus the alternative. Madeline Carter: Right. Paul Casey: Well, you mentioned time management in there, and most of our to-do lists are greater than the time we have to do them, so that probably means you have to triage tasks like everybody else does, and maybe even delegate or outsource stuff or back-burner things. So, how do you sort out how you spend your time, and maybe any tips for the rest of us? Madeline Carter: Honestly, time management is still a bit of a struggle for me. I'm working on it. But something that helps me, I know you mentioned a long to-do list, but I do like to make a daily to-do list. That's usually the last thing I do before I leave work for the day, I email myself my to-dos for the next day. Paul Casey: Nice. Madeline Carter: Even though they may change. But I try to limit down to maybe the three or four most important things that I have to get done that day. Because I'm an achiever type of box-checker, I like to call it. Paul Casey: Yes. Madeline Carter: So I get a thrill out of getting things done, checking off items on my list. So when I make them manageable items that I can actually go through and feel like I accomplished something, that is what seems to work for me. So that is what I do to try to work on time management. Another thing I've learned in this job is to not spend too much time on the little things. I have perfectionist tendencies, as well, and I noticed when I first started in this role that I was ... Some things were taking a lot longer than they needed to. Not that I'm not putting as much effort in. I'm still doing my 110%, but learning what you can do quicker and what you can delegate. So that's been something that I've been trying to learn for time management. Paul Casey: Yes, the achiever, you alluded to that. So we were talking before we hit record today of the achiever is one of the StrengthsFinder 34 strengths- Madeline Carter: Yes. Paul Casey: ... and it's in your top five. It's in my top five. And any achievers listening, you're probably like, "That's why I listen to this podcast, because I want to listen to-" Madeline Carter: Right. "Because I want to-" Paul Casey: "... other achievers." Madeline Carter: "...grow." Paul Casey: Right? It's also in the Enneagram, the number three, type three is also an achiever, so it's funny how we take these assessments and they all say the same thing. Madeline Carter: I know, they really do. Paul Casey: But the box-checker is in that. And I like how you also are just transparent about you could gravitate to being OCD or perfectionist- Madeline Carter: Yes. Paul Casey: ... if you have that style. Each one of the styles has a dark side- Madeline Carter: They do. Paul Casey: ... to it. And so you have to know what's good enough, that's not compromising quality or excellence, but it's not getting so deep in the weeds that it's taking valuable time. Madeline Carter: Right. And another downside, if you call it, of the type three in the Enneagram, for example, the achiever, is the image conscious part of it, which kind of goes back to me saying how I care about what people think of me when I have to lay down the law. So that's something you got to work on those other not so good parts of the achiever characteristic. Paul Casey: Yes. Well, before we head into our next question about relationships, a shout out to our sponsor. Mario Martinez, Northwestern Mutual. Mario, why should people work with a financial advisor? Mario Martinez: Hey, Paul, that's a great question. Really, I think there's two types of people who should be seeking out a financial professional. The one person is somebody who has very limited access to financial guidance. Maybe they're a younger professional or somebody who just hasn't had an introduction to a financial professional yet. And the other type of person is really someone who has a lot of different exposure to different professionals, they just haven't found the one person that they really trust to take guidance from. So there's really an over information, in that sense. So those are really the two types of people that should be looking to be introduced to a financial professional. Paul Casey: Fantastic. So, Mario, how can people get in touch with you? Mario Martinez: The easiest way is to reach out to me directly on my business cell phone, which is 509-591-5301. You can send an email to Mario.Martinez@NM.com, or you can find us on our business Facebook page, which is Mario Martinez Northwestern Mutual. Paul Casey: Well, Madeline, you probably believe like I do that leadership is relationships, so talk to us about what relationships are key to your success? And how do you intentionally develop them, and maybe even in the land of COVID, how much do you do that differently? Madeline Carter: Yeah, relationships are everything. I think we've all learned that during this pandemic, is some point when we were spending time apart, it's really all we have. I think that relationships are key to success because, to me, character and kindness are what will carry you. I've seen examples of that in internships and people that I know that have kind of climbed the ranks in the industry. I believe that if you treat everyone with respect, you hopefully might get that back in return. So that's going to be my goal with entering this career path, and I think those relationships can help you become successful. Madeline Carter: But outside of work, some of the most key relationships for me are my family and my close friends. The people that really know you, the people that are in your corner, and the people that'll give you the truth when you really need to hear it. I moved more than 2,000 miles away, so I'm very, very far away from my key close knit people. But when I go back home, for example if I'm going to take a trip back home, those are the moments when I realize how far I've really come, because the people that know you best are the ones that'll tell you that stuff that you don't hear on a daily basis, especially living on your own. So for me, their relationships are what fuel me. I am a family girl through and through, so that type of support I think is key to success, because you need to have that as you go on and just continue on. Paul Casey: Has it been harder to connect with them 2,000 miles away? Family, friends, and COVID. I mean, do you do Zoom calls or phone calls, or- Madeline Carter: I'm done with the Zoom, honestly. I am not into that anymore. But yes, we do. I FaceTime my mom pretty often and we've started to pick that up. It's not her favorite thing, but we call each other all the time, text all the time. Same with my other immediate family. I have struggled to keep up with close friends. I'm learning as you get older and you move on from ... And you move, you're kind of the one who's responsible with keeping in touch, because I'm the one who moved away. Paul Casey: Yeah. Madeline Carter: And I've learned that the hard way. It's hard. There's so many people that I could text today or that I could reach out to. So I guess what I try to do is kind of vary it up, think about someone I haven't touched base with and I'll reach out to them. I usually give a quick call and leave a message if they don't answer, or send a text and say, "Hey, I'd like to catch up." And having intentional conversations every now and then has been key to keep those relationships going. Paul Casey: Yeah. You mentioned we all need relationships with people that will tell us what needs to be said, or they make observations about us, or they want us to live our best version of us. Tri-City Influencer listeners, I hope that you all have a ... We call it a fist of five. Five people that they love you and your style, your way, but they'll also call you on your stuff. Or if you're not living your core values, they're going to be like, "This is not what you usually are like. What's going on in your life?" Madeline Carter: Exactly. Paul Casey: And we all need that. I was teaching on emotional intelligence this morning to a company, and I brought up that years ago, someone gave me this tip to send five to seven questions to your tribe, those people closest to you, and ask them questions about yourself and get some feedback and then really listen. Like, "Where do you see me at my strongest? What do I need to let go of more that I tend to whine about for too long?" And, "When have you seen my shine?" And I still have saved one of those emails from seven years ago because it was that impactful to have people be that honest and answer those seven questions. Madeline Carter: That's good. I might need to try that myself. Paul Casey: Well, self-care is essential for mental health and top performance, especially in the land of COVID. So what recharges your batteries? How do you stay positive? How do you stay energetic for your job? Madeline Carter: My job requires a lot of energy, so I love this question. Yes. I'm naturally extroverted, however, I do have a slightly introverted side. I mentioned I was a homebody, so I definitely have to recharge my batteries. And that means at the end of the day, I like to have my alone time. For me, one of the biggest things I love, I absolutely love popcorn. So my ideal night of self-care is to pop popcorn over the stove with a little bit of oil and I watch a good movie or whether it's a Netflix show that I'm into. That, for me, by myself, is usually the best way to recharge. I'm also a huge reader, so reading books is another thing. Madeline Carter: But the choices that I make every day for self-care, I am huge on fitness and nutrition. I have to work out for stress relief. I'm the type that can't go ... I have to do it at least four or five times a week in order to feel like I got all my stress out. And then I eat very healthy diet. And those are the things that keep me having energy throughout the day. And speaking of which, on a daily basis, when you have a job as a news anchor, you have to have a wide range of emotions and bring that same consistent energy to the table every morning at 4:30 in the morning. Paul Casey: Man. Madeline Carter: And I am actually a night owl, naturally. That's a fun fact. Paul Casey: Wow. Madeline Carter: Yeah. So maybe that's why it works, because it's kind of in the middle of the night. But for me, what I do every day before work is I get up a lot earlier than I need to. I get up at 12:45 in the morning, AM- Paul Casey: What? You get up? Madeline Carter: I wake up. My alarm goes off. Paul Casey: What time do you go to bed? Madeline Carter: In a perfect world? 5:30. Paul Casey: Okay. Madeline Carter: But usually 6:30, which is not ideal. However, I get up way earlier than I need to. It doesn't take me that long to get ready. But the reason is I have developed a routine since I have been working here in the Tri-Cities to listen to music that makes me genuinely happy, and so that's the first thing I do is I turn on my happy playlist. I like to call it Happy Radio as what it started, but now I'm on to Apple Music. But I listen to happy music, stuff that puts me in a good mood. And then when I switch over to do my makeup in the morning, I turn on an interview about personal growth. I've fallen into the Oprah's Super Soul podcast, that's a great one. And right now, I'm listening to an audiobook by Alicia Keys about personal growth. And I find that doing that, it wakes me up, first of all, so I feel like I could be my true self by the time I get to work, and that's my goal every day is that I can be my full kind self by the time I walk through those doors in the middle of the night. So, to me, that seems to be what works to kind of keep my energy up and care for myself. Paul Casey: Well, I think you win. Out of all my 50-some guests on this podcast, that's the earlier wake-up time. Madeline Carter: I think you're probably right on that one. Paul Casey: I had a couple 3:30 exercisers and I was already impressed by that. Madeline Carter: It doesn't make it the best wake-up time, though, although it is the earliest. Paul Casey: That's true, although it is the earliest. But I would see how you would need a long ramp up to be- Madeline Carter: Oh yeah, to- Paul Casey: ... [crosstalk 00:28:42] fitness, nutrition, happy music, personal growth inputs into your life. You've created a good system for yourself to be at the top- Madeline Carter: I think so. Paul Casey: ... of your game. Madeline Carter: It seems to work. Obviously, you have your bad days every now and then, but those are the ... Having that consistency at least gives me something to look forward to and a reason to get up in the morning. Paul Casey: Yeah. Now, recharging your batteries, if you're an introvert, you recharge by being alone, typically, because you've had too much people time or too many Zoom calls. And then extroverts recharge their batteries by being with people, and of course they have suffered a lot this year. Madeline Carter: Right, right. Paul Casey: And so they have to be even more intentional about somehow getting that contact with other people. So how do you determine your next hill to climb or conquer? What's your process for continuous improvement so you keep getting better? That this month next year, you're going to be a better person, you're going to be a better employee, you're going to be better in all areas of your life. Madeline Carter: For me, it's time to climb when I've reached my capacity for growth. So when I feel that I get comfortable and I'm in my comfort zone, I'm not out of it, that's when it's time to find the next goal. And I'm definitely a goal setter. So for me, it's finding where I can grow next, whether that's a next job or it's a next project at your current job, which is kind of what I'm going through right now. Madeline Carter: Another thing that helps me grow and know what's next to climb for myself is by reaching out to coworkers and/or managers and asking for genuine feedback. And I'm not talking about just your annual or your every six month feedback session, but reaching out in an email and, for me, being in the news industry, sending them a story I did and saying, "What's your honest opinion on this? What could I do better?" I've reached out to different news anchors in our sister station to send them some of my work to say, "What do you think? What can I do better? If you had to pick one thing that I could work on for this next six months, what would it be?" And I reached out to recently probably about close to six or seven different people and got all different types of responses, but a lot of them have a pretty common ground, so you kind of find what areas you need to grow next. And so for me, it's about constant growth. And when you can't grow anymore, that might be when it's time to climb on to something else. Paul Casey: So good, because growth is on the other side of your comfort zone, right? It's not in the comfort zone. Madeline Carter: No. Paul Casey: Then you're coasting, and you only coast one direction, I love this quote, downhill. Madeline Carter: Yes, you do. Paul Casey: You don't coast uphill. So you have to stretch yourself, and I love how you said feedback is one of the ways to do that. And I really like the specificity of, "What's one thing I can do to work on?" Because if you ask for feedback from people, they often go blank, like, "Uh, you're great." Madeline Carter: Right, right. Paul Casey: And they just sort of ... But when you start asking the specific question, and listeners, you can use this in your one-to-ones either with your supervisor or your direct reports, "What's the one thing that I could do to blank?" It could be grow, it could be lead- Madeline Carter: To get a promotion. Paul Casey: Yeah exactly. Madeline Carter: To do all these type of things. Paul Casey: And try to get it to that one thing, because then, oh, now it's something tangible that I can actually do and put into my growth plan and get training on or get coaching on to get better. So it's a vulnerable thing, of course, to throw that out there and get feedback and ask that question, but it sounds like you embrace that. Madeline Carter: I try to, yes. Paul Casey: Well, finally, what advice would you give to new leaders or anyone who wants to keep growing and gaining more influence? Madeline Carter: Well, here's some advice from a new leader, myself. I like to call myself a newbie in this one. Be you. Be you. Just be you. Because there is only one you. One of my favorite quotes is, "No one is you, and that is your power." I've learned that this year, especially, taking on a role that's very public to where I am being myself every day. And it took me several months to grasp what it meant to just be Madeline up on the set and not be a news anchor. You can quickly fall into that trap of trying to be the next whoever your favorite person is in your industry, whereas the reason why I chose the job that I have today is because when they hired me, they said, "We want to teach you to be the next Madeline Carter. We don't want to teach you to be the next blank." They said one of my role models, they said their name. Paul Casey: Wow. Madeline Carter: And I said, "That's really interesting." It took me a while to grasp it, but that's my advice, is that there's only one you, and even if you have quirks, if you have things you don't like about yourself, eventually, those can become your strengths. And I think you just got to stay true to yourself in the process. Paul Casey: Be you. That's awesome. Awesome way to end. So, how can our listeners best connect with you, Madeline? Madeline Carter: Yeah, lots of things. I'm on all kinds of social media. It's too many to keep up with now. Instagram is my personal favorite. I love getting messages on there. My Instagram is @MadelineCarter.TV. And also Facebook is huge, Madeline Carter TV there. And also they can send me an email, Madeline.Carter@NBCrightnow.com. Or Twitter, but I'm not on that that much. Paul Casey: Tri-Cities Twitter just hasn't taken off quite as much. Madeline Carter: Oh my goodness, there's too many. That was what I was saying, the time constraints. I can't answer all the messages anymore. Paul Casey: Well, thanks again for all you do to make the Tri-Cities a great place, and keep leading well. Madeline Carter: All right. Thank you, Paul. Thanks for having me. Paul Casey: Let me wrap up our podcast today with a leadership resource to recommend. I want to invite you to Leader-Launcher.com. It's my local leadership development program for young professionals and emerging leaders. What we do is we meet once a month, and right now, it's virtually, for two hours, and I teach one leadership proficiency a month. So in a year, you get 12 of these leadership proficiencies which will set you up to move up the ranks in your company, to take that next supervisor position which will then give you so much more influence in your company. So if you are a boss and you would like to have your next tier of leaders developed, you can send them over to Leader-Launcher.com and sign them up. It's just 459 for the year, which would normally be like $9,000 if you hired me as a consultant for your company. So it's very affordable and it's very transformational. And hopefully, you'll consider Leader-Launcher.com. Paul Casey: Again, this is Paul Casey and I want to thank my guest Madeline Carter from NBC Right Now for being here today on the Tri-City Influencer Podcast. We also want to thank our TCI sponsor and invite you to support them. We appreciate you making this possible so we can collaborate to help inspire leaders in our community. Finally, one more leadership tidbit for the road to help you make a difference in your circle of influence. It's from Aug Mandino.He said, "It is those who concentrate on but one thing at a time who advance in this world." Until next time, KGF. Keep growing forward. Speaker 3: Thank you to our listeners for tuning in to today's show. Paul Casey is on a mission to add value to leaders by providing practical tools and strategies that reduce stress in their lives and on their teams so that they can enjoy life and leadership and experience their key desired results. If you'd like more help from Paul in your leadership development, connect with him at GrowingForward@PaulCasey.org for a consultation that could help you move past your current challenges and create a strategy for growing your life or your team forward. Paul would also like to help you restore your sanity to your crazy schedule and getting your priorities done every day by offering you his free Control my Calendar checklist. Go to ww.takebackmycalendar.com for that productivity tool or open a text message to 72000 and type the word 'growing'. Paul Casey: The Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast was recorded at Fuse SPC by Bill Wagner of Safe Strategies.

Paul Casey: Goals are the gasoline that make the vision Speaker 2: Raising the water level of leadership in the Tri-Cities of Eastern Washington. It's the Tri-Cities influencer podcast. Welcome to the TCI podcast. We're local leadership and self-leadership expert Paul Casey interviews, local CEOs, entrepreneurs, and non-profit executives to hear how they lead themselves and their teams. So we can all benefit from their wisdom and experience. Here's your host, Paul Casey of growing forward services, coaching, and it could be individuals and teams to smart breakthrough success. Paul Casey: It's a great day to grow forward. Thanks for joining me for today's episode with Rich Breshears he's the owner of Breshears photography. And I asked rich, what is fun or quirky about him? And there were a lot of things, but it came down to musical instruments. So a ukulele and a tuba. Rich. Tell us about that. Rich Breshears: Oh my gosh. So you won't believe this, Paul, but I actually went to college on his full ride scholarship to play the tuba, the way a full ride scholarship. They didn't tell me that was like me. That meant I had to like play in the marching band, which is something I did not want to do. But I was a yes, I was a tuba student all the way through college. I don't know. I thought I was going to be a, like a professional to bust. So it was just really weird, but I still own a tuba. I still play it occasionally Christmas carols and crazy stuff like that. But then a couple of years ago, we were at an auction and we go to a lot of benefit office and I saw like, I just couldn't help. It was like, it was like, you know, the angels were singing and this thing was blowing on the table. I mean, it was this purple ukulele and I picked it up and I just, I was like, Nope, I outbid everybody on it. And I ended up with this purple ukulele and now I play it for my Paul Casey: That's. Awesome. That's awesome. Well, we will dive in after checking in with our Tri-City influencer sponsor, it's easy to delay answering uncomfortable questions. Like what happens to my assets and my loved ones when I die. So it's no surprise that nearly 50% of Americans don't have a will and even fewer have an estate plan, many disabled clients worry that they don't have enough assets to set up an estate plan, but there are important options available to ensure that you have a voice in your medical and financial decision-making. Even if your health takes a turn for the worst estate planning gives you a voice when your health deteriorates or after you're gone. Maren Miller Bam attorney at law is currently providing free consultations to find out more about estate planning or to book an appointment. Call Maren at (206) 485-4066 or visit Salus that's S A L U S-law.com today. Thank you for your support of leadership development in the Tri-Cities so rich. So our Tri-City influencers can get to know you take us through some of the highlights that have led you to where you are today. Rich Breshears: Oh my gosh. It's a long sorted story, but we began our business officially in, in 2000. So we're at our time. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. We got January 1st of 2000 was the beginning of our, of our journey as professional photographers. And I started out, I literally, well, backstep just a little bit. I was a social worker who specialized in geriatric mental health and was brought here to the Tri-Cities in 1992 to start the very first assisted living at Hawthorne court retirement center in Kennewick. And I had it was that. So I was promised two years here in this town and look at us 2021. And I'm still here. I, I told my wife, she said, Oh my gosh, I can't believe you're taking me there. We lived in beautiful cor d'Alene Idaho. And she said, Oh my gosh, I can't believe it. So we, we came here. Rich Breshears: I promised her two years, baby. After that two years, we're gone, we're going to get we're going to go somewhere. Cool. And the company that I was with said, well, we have places in Anaheim, California, or we have Dora, just lots of places. I really didn't want to live. So we just kept living here. And then of course changed professions in 2000 and opened our, our studio and, and, and, and then just kind of work through. It's very hard to become a professional photographer, as you probably guessed in this day and age of digital cameras and things people, a lot of times they say to me, rich, what else do you do for a living? I said, well, this is it. This is all I do. This is, this is how I feed my family, pay my mortgage, put the kids through college, do all that by the dog food while we don't have a dog anymore, but a, you know, cat food and, and all of that. Rich Breshears: And the, and I, and I, and they say, Oh my gosh, how, how they look at me? Like, I'm just crazy. Like I'm from outer space, right? And no, it's taken a long time. It's you have to build that. You have to build that up. You have to build your name in the community. You have to, you know, you just have to become some more of a local name. You have to, you know, you have to do good for people and, you know, and you know, you're in and, and have that presence in the community. And that's just what happened for us. We just, we just are who we are. Don't force it. Don't try to be something we're not. And, and if you know me very well, you know, one that's who I am is who I am. And we've just got, been really blessed. I have to tell you more than anything else, just really blessed. And over the years, we, we picked up one staff member and then we picked up on another staff member. And now we're, you know, we've got several staff, people that work under us and, and we just have a great time. We, we play, we, we have a great time as, as, as a, as a team. And I'm just lucky to be part of that group. Paul Casey: And why do you love to do you do, I Rich Breshears: Don't know, Paul, I can't tell you Paul Casey: It's a strangest thing. Rich Breshears: I there's just something about, I may be having the worst day of my life. I mean, maybe just like horrible. Like I, I have sinus problems and things like everybody does in the Tri-Cities that's normal, but I'll be, I'll be like, we're sinus headache, or I, you know, I just don't feel good or, you know, just kinda grumpy. I, you know, you know, whatever, you know, and a client will walk in the door and my lights turn my lights on and we're talking and I start taking images. And I swear to you, not even 30 seconds later, a minute later, I am just having the best day of my life. And, and I'll just be just on cloud nine. And I never thought that would ever happen for me, honestly. It's, it's, I just fall into that, into that crease. It's just like, I'm here, I'm in the I'm in that moment. And the client walks out the door and I'm like, wow, I don't have a headache anymore. I don't feel, you know, I, I feel great. I, life is good. And, and, and, and it's been that way now for 20 years. So I I'm, I don't, I can't explain. I just love what I do. I love working with people. I love finding their, their greatest moments and cherishing the most with those with them. And, and it's just, it's a blast. Paul Casey: Yeah. What's the FA shout out to the Russian olive sinus. Speaker 4: I shouldn't know right here, the here this year. Wow. Paul Casey: But what is the favorite part of the job for you? Rich Breshears: Honestly, I had a family member who, a lady who came in yesterday and picked up her portraits and she walked in the door of the lobby and we, we always, we always present your images right in the lobby when you walk in the front door and she walked in and she just started crying and beautiful lady from Yakima. She's, they've been through a lot in their lives together. And, and she walked through the door and she just started crying. She was, I can't believe how beautiful that is. I just am. That's my family. And I'm just so proud of them. And it's just so beautiful. And that's really the moment where it becomes extremely real. And yeah, I guess it's the social worker in me that kind of goes back to, you know, really cherishing those moments as families. Cause they're, they're, they're, they're short, they're very fleeting, you know, just as you know, they're just so quick. Paul Casey: Mm Hmm. So, you know, you're in your strength zone every day, which is pretty awesome. Right. There's probably some weaknesses though that you have, that you got to maybe staff around or Speaker 4: Work on, you know, or so. So Paul Casey: Where do you sabotage yourself that you have to work on? Rich Breshears: Oh man. You know, it's so funny. I'm a huge fan of Steven Pressfield, the art of war and Speaker 4: [inaudible] Rich Breshears: You very much. And you know, when he talks about resistance, you know, when he talks about things like that, and I'm just, I'm Mr. Resistance. I mean, I don't, I own it all right. I, I sabotage myself constantly. Probably the biggest thing for me is, and it's been really hard because especially in my industry, like I said, I really like being in there with the clients I've been doing all that. Like, do you know? And, you know, you can get into the Photoshopping, you can get into all this stuff and you get into the whole artsy, fartsy side of it all, and you can get really deep into that. And, and you can really trip yourself. What I found for me personally, is I have to do as very little as possible and let my staff and let my wife who actually runs the business, believe it or not, I don't run the business. Rich Breshears: Marianne actually runs the business and she's an amazing operations person. And so she actually, she and the staff actually do everything. I'm just the guy with the camera and I'm really more of a figurehead than anything, which is great for me because it allows me to play and do things like that. But boy, you do not want me making business decisions that are raising them substantial or anything, you know, I'm Mr. idea. But then I, after I get past the idea it's over, like, yeah. And even I, I, I launched an idea on the staff on Monday and they looked at me like I was insane. I mean, they literally, like, I could see the eyes roll back in the backs of their heads. And I thought, wow, I really done fast past the Mark today. You know? And then they kind of come back down to earth. I go, Oh, sorry guys. I'll, I'll, I'll step out. Now Paul Casey: You caused enough damage for one day, right? Yes. So who keeps you accountable? Who keeps you energized to keep pursuing those goals? Is it your wife? Rich Breshears: I would say, yes. We, a couple of things. One to the team, we push each other every day and that's just really normal. The other thing is, is, and I, and I can't say enough about this, but I've been a member of some form of mastermind or, or coaching process since 2004, Marianne actually bought me a coach. Cause I was really struggling back in 2004 and she, she hired a coach for me. And in, it helped immensely back then. And ever since then, I've coached with you personally, a couple of times I've been in, on the coaching end for what you do. And I have had some form of coach either in industry or out of industry or both at any given time since then. And Dan, along with the coaching and the masterminding process of, you know, you're getting into a mastermind group, those people really hold your feet to the fire. And that's, that really helps. And for me personally, having a mastermind outside my industry is extremely helpful. Paul Casey: Yeah. So tell me what mastermind has done for you. And I'm probably going to start a couple more up this year because I just love small groups and the power in a small group of, especially when the peer coaching. Right. Was, was that the benefit for you or were there even other benefits? Rich Breshears: Oh yeah, I would say, and it really it's, it is the pure coaching. It's the, you know, the peers, you know, you, you give a presentation at a meeting and, and you know, you say where you're at with things what's going on and, and people, you know, w and one of your buddies that you love and trust, you know, sitting at the table across from me, he says, rich, you said that last month, that's exactly the same. Or I've heard this same phrase out of youth three months in a row. I'm starting to get concerned about you, things like that. And it really makes, makes you step back and go, okay, I'm really causing my own problems here. I'm, you know, I'm in my own way. And, and, or I'm really hitting that, you know, that Steven Pressfield resistance factor, you know, where I'm, I, you know, I'm saying things, I'm saying words that are really starting to become evident as to where I'm really at with things. And, and then, you know, I literally, while I was sitting in the lobby waiting to, to, to catch up with you for this, all of a sudden, I get a text from one of the guys in the group saying, Hey, buddy, what's going on with this? You know, so, and it's, and it's, it's crazy because that, that, that, that real intimate relationship that you build with, with a tight knit group of people is extremely important. Paul Casey: Yeah. So try see the influencers gather some people around you that'll help you stay accountable. That'll help, they'll encourage you on your goals. Because sometimes when you're a solo preneur, or you've got a small team, you feel like you're alone, and you've got to get people wrapped around, you get out and network with other people who can you make good connections, and you never know what that, that great idea is going to come from. And that, that could be the thing. That's the turning point for you? It Rich Breshears: Really is. It really is. Paul Casey: So replenishment of energy keeps a leader or an entrepreneur at the top of their game. Rich, what do you do to manage stress? Rich Breshears: Who would you use I to break out or the tuber, right? Oh, is anybody knows me? Knows that I have a fairly large presence on Facebook. Maybe not always a positive presence, but I have a large presence ranting. Again, there goes another rich rant, but in which you'll see, like, in this last year, I would say the stress levels have been pretty high this last year, probably. But if you noticed it probably was a lot of posts of me out in the, in the wilderness out hiking way beyond the reaches of, of, of society. And I find myself heading out into the woods a lot, but heading out in or out into the desert or out into, you know, I, I, that's probably why Jesus went out there. Cause I mean, at 40 days, baby, I mean, I could've, I could've spent a lot of time out in the desert this last year and been extremely happy was always when I came back in that I was, I was stressed, freaked out. Rich Breshears: And so there's that there's that stepping away. But then the other part of it is honestly, is, is I've really gotten into meditation. You know, you call it prayer, call it meditation. Collibra, you know, whatever you want to, whatever that, you know, whatever word that fits for you, but being able to step back really center yourself and really take that time. And for me finding those triggers, when I'm, I am starting to stress, sorry, I'm starting to freak out just a little bit. Something is starting to really get in, get into me. I was starting to see some of those triggers and trying to find those triggers when I'm starting to go, who rich you're, you know, you're, you're starting to lose it, you know, and, and really stopping and taking a few deep breaths, really getting myself re-centered again, you know, and it's amazing what five minutes of just, you know, taking some deep breaths and stepping away from things that, that really helps me to get my myself back on track. Paul Casey: Yeah. I was just reading about that today. That to manage your energy, oftentimes it is just the deep breathing. It's amazing what it can do to get you back grounded once again. And it kudos for solitude too. You know, we were in this noisy society, even in COVID, we're in a noisy society with lots of stuff coming at us through news and social media, that to go out there in the, in the desert, in the mountains, there's just something that you get perspective there. Sometimes you get really creative ideas too, especially if you're a creative, that's where I get the best breakthroughs. And yeah, you just come back refreshed and ready to go at it again. Exactly. Well, before we head to our next question with rich, a shout out to our sponsor, located in the Parkway, you'll find motivation, new friends and your new coworking space at fuse. Paul Casey: Whether you're a student just starting out or a seasoned professional, come discover all the reasons to love coworking at fuse come co-work at fuse for free on Fridays in February, enjoy free coffee or tea, Wi-Fi printing conference rooms, and more, and bring a friend. If you use this, where individuals and small teams come together in a thoughtfully designed resource, rich environment to get work done and grow their ideas. Comprised of professionals from varying disciplines and backgrounds. Fuse is built for hardworking, fun, loving humans. Learn more about us@fusespc.com or stop by seven to three, the Parkway in Richland, Washington. So rich over the years, you've you brought some people on your team. You said, and who is that ideal person for you that to have on your team? What were you looking for maybe even in this community, or you think about like, who would be a great employee? Rich Breshears: Oh man. Gosh, Paul, I'm so glad you asked that we were literally working on this right now in the studio. It's so funny because we're kind of a little bit of an expansion process and we are hiring some, some various individuals, but you know, what we found is, and we are, I know it was literally having this discussion with one of my staff members say, well, she's probably one of my key people. She is one of my absolute key people. And, and she said it, and I was so great to hear her say it. She said, you know, you can really hire for the, the tasks are one thing. And a lot of people can do these particular tests. But what we're really looking for is the people with the right personality, the right attitude that fits in with the team. And we're pretty picky about who we hire on that level. Rich Breshears: We found that if you don't fit in with a team, you know, we have a real problem. So we're like I said, we're pretty picky. Very first person that interviews you when you come to work for Berkshires photography is my wife, the boss. And she meets with you very first. And she kind of goes over some real basics, the tasks and things like that. And then, then you meet with the rest of the team. All, you actually get a team interview. The, the entire, the entire team has about a half an hour interview with you and you, we just see how, how they fit when with that team. It's not really the questions that we're asking, what we're really looking for is fit and how that's, how they, we, we listen in and we kind of see, and we have, we get reports back from them. Just how did that, how did that gel, how did they, how are they jelling? And then the last person has to deal with me. So, because I'm the crazy one. So we always have one last interview with rich and that's Speaker 4: Kind of, I'm the, at least the crack head, right? Gladiator. Rich Breshears: Oh, they, they meet with me. And if they write pretty much, if they survive me, they, they, they can handle the crazy brochures. The diary that's, that's about as bad as it gets. But what we found is really is people who it EPR, sheers, photography, it's different for every industry, right? Or every business. But for us personally, people who are willing to chip in people who are willing to set their ego aside, ego is a massive issue in, especially in what we do, because people can be really proud about their work. And so they don't take. And even I tend to, I can be that way. I mean, gosh, I'm a creative for gosh sakes. You know what don't tell me my baby's ugly. You know? So, so, you know, it's one of those things where, you know, you have to be able to take input and say, gosh, what you're doing here, isn't working. We need to do something different and, and, and make that, make it, make it better. So people who are able to set the ego aside and take the input, things like that, those are really important. I have to tell you the polar some really, really bad I'm in common sensical things that I don't know, maybe aren't common sensical anymore, but I have to tell you being on time and actually showing up to work when you show up to work. I don't know if that makes sense, but if you Speaker 4: Isn't that sad that we have to say that even six, come on, you know, like, yeah. Rich Breshears: Show up to work and show up to work with you, show up to work, you know, and, and be there and be present when you're there. I can't tell you it it's, it's, it's I find it quite sad today. The people who are even in their forties and fifties, who will show up on their phone and they're literally on their phone and they've got it right in front of them while you're in the interview sometimes, or things like that. And they're just not able to, and it's, it's so sad and they might be extremely talented people, but they're not able to relate in with the rest of the team. So those are really probably the most critical thing. Paul Casey: Yeah. Yeah. Emotional intelligence. You're, you're describing interpersonal skills, presence, informality, you know, the, the ability to laugh at yourself or, yeah. I mean, when I think of photographers, I would like, I definitely want someone who is present and not other directors. Rich Breshears: Oh my gosh. Well, there's some real freaks in my business. No, no, no, no. Don't avoid it. I might be one of them where there's some people out there who is like, Holy smokes. If they ha, if that person had just old ins of, of people skills to go with their, with their incredible artistic skill, it would be amazing. Like they would kill it. They just need that little tiny bit of people skills. Paul Casey: Right. Right. Like you say, you can train the skills, but you can't train attitude. Right. So we've got to work on yourself and your own attitude and that's, what's going to make you most employable. So you've got to think strategically, do you, are you part of that, looking at the big picture of the business, is that, is that mainly your wife? Do you have team meetings together? How do you, how do you look for a long-term impact for your business? Rich Breshears: That's exactly what we do. So Marianne and I, of course, we work together. We play together, we sleep together 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. It's pretty impressive. I know you do this at home. Do not go into this one lightly folks. It's, it's dangerous. And she lets me live, which is really impressive. I, I, she has not fired me or kill me. And so, so the, I have to say, so that's what we do. We, we get together at least once a quarter, we do a massive step away for about five to 10 days every year. At the very beginning of the year, we retreat just the two of us. We get away. There's a huge international conference for photographers that happens somewhere in the world every year in January. And we just coincide our board meeting with that particular week. Rich Breshears: So we step away and we do some really deep dive into what, what is the drive for? What are we doing this year? What's going to happen this year? Where are we headed? And then we come back and we strategize with the team and we start to actually break that out and, and start actually how one gets the team. Buy-in because, cause like I told you, rich comes up with some pretty crazy ideas from time to time. So it to get some team buy in, where are we going to really head with things and, and, and there is a team going to buy into this. And then, and then beyond that, we start to actually, you know, break it down into tasks. And, and then we, we started working on scrims about maybe four years ago and working in scrum. So Paul Casey: Tell everybody what a scrum is. I've read about this. Rich Breshears: Yeah. So working in scrums is, is something that's really high in the technology world. They do this a lot, but we break tasks into, into a two-week period. So what can you get done in two weeks? And so we break it down, break it down, break it down until we can get just a little bite size pieces that people can do. And each one, every Monday morning, we break down our scrums into every Monday we say, okay, this is where we're at in this scrum. This is where we're at in this scrum, this, this project is going on. Where are we at? You know, this brochure, this website, whatever, wherever we're at, working on whatever special tasks we're trying to do for, for development of the company, we break down into those pieces. And then we, we, we just farm that out to each other. Everybody just takes a different task that in their specialty and we just kind of go from there. And, and at the end of two weeks, you look at it and if you got it done, you got it done. If you didn't get it done, it's nobody's fault. Probably other things came up maybe at night, not be important anymore, which happens occasionally because rich has some pretty crazy ideas. And then the third thing is as well, maybe it was just too big of a job. We need to break it down into smaller pieces again. Yeah. Paul Casey: Yeah. And I, I think that's the definition of overwhelmed is not broken down into small enough pieces. So, so that often is, and that doesn't mean you're a failure. That just means your brain couldn't take that in and that big of a chunk. Oh yeah. But I really love how you said you tried to go to a conference every year. You probably get fresh ideas there. And of course I know you've got a lot of awards there too. Congratulations, by the way, along the way that's been pretty cool, but also tying a retreat, a staff retreat to that for strategic planning for the year, a kudos to you for that, I think more, more teams and businesses need to get away more often for that, that change of place. The change of pace leads to a greater perspective. Rich Breshears: Exactly. You're I think you hit it on the head there. It's I think so many times the one thing we need to do is to stop and take a little bit of a step back, a little bit of a break. And then all of a sudden, you free up your mind to, to actually see what you were missing. You're able to go, Oh, that's the piece of the puzzle that we are missing all along. We didn't think about that, you know, but, and it can be just an over the craziest thing. Yeah. I, I, I, I read a book and I'm so sorry. I think it was maybe in one of two tools of the Titans or something like that from Tim Ferris. But about every 45 minutes, you should take a break, no matter task, you're on whatever you're doing, but it's that same concept of, you know, every so often you just need to really step back and just go, Whoa. Okay. Where are we at? What's frustrating me. Ah, wait a minute. Just to get away from it for a while and then come back out. Paul Casey: Yeah. I think that's called the Pomodoro technique where you go for X number of minutes and then you have to take a break and you can just set this little tomato timer in it. It goes off and reminds you to take breaks because most of the people I coach don't take enough breaks. So I'm glad you say slid that in there. Cause that's a, that that is huge to stay fresh and leadership. So with your, with your team and maybe I'll change this question a little bit of with your customers, what do you do to wow. Your customers? So you make even more of a difference or there's some little things that you and your team do to really hit it out of the park. Rich Breshears: Hm. Probably the number one has another great question. But one of the things that we do is we've really carved a specialty when you and I met long time ago. Paul Casey: Oh my God. A leadership group. Yes. Rich Breshears: It was kind of like a sort of a mastermind Paul Casey: Was, was leadership is action. It was called jazzy jigs. Rich Breshears: Well, long time ago, the anyway, one of the things I found was that the best thing to do is to really strike that for a second. What was the question? Why were your customers? Oh my gosh, thank you. Paul Casey: He can, he's going to edit it. Yeah. Rich Breshears: One of the things that we found way back then was that we have to start specialist specializing. We have to actually bear down on one thing that we do and we do it really well because when you and I met Claire back then I was doing everything for everyone. Okay. If you call me and you said, Oh, I've got this, this makeup bottle that needs to be photographed. This is a little product photograph. Can you do that? Yes, I can do that. I, you know, Kenya, can you come photograph this school dance? Yes. I'll come do that. You know, can we, can you photograph my family? Yes, I can do that. A wedding. Yes. I can do that. Oh my gosh. Yeah. I can photograph anything. You know, and I wasn't, I was photographing everything mediocre. I was doing, we as a team, we weren't doing well. Rich Breshears: We were, we were just shot gunning an octopus thing on everything out there and not really doing anything really well. And w the more we bear down on what is it that we do? What is our mission and our vision, and really focusing on that mission and vision and saying, this is the client we want to serve. This is who we serve. And this is what we do really well. And keeping that foremost in every decision we make, the more we've done that. And there's a lot of times I will have, literally, because rich has, like I said, rich has crazy brain. He does all this crazy stuff with thinking all this stuff all the time about, Oh, I could be doing this and I'll have my, one of my production assistants will come in and go rich, where are we doing this? Oh, Oh, wait a minute. Got me. You know, and I'm sometimes the worst member of this, you know? I mean, it's the, owner's going to be sometimes the worst. Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, this is so much fun. I'm going to do this. Right. Rich Breshears: And so, yes, that's, that's probably one of the biggest things that I, I find is just, we have bared down specifically on to working with families. That's our number one thing. That's, that's our mission. That's our vision. That's exactly what we do. And, and bearing down on our mission and vision like that and saying, these are our core values. These are the ways we work and saying, yes, this is what we do. And when somebody calls me and says, Hey, I need this house photographed. I go as much as I would love to. That sounds like the most. Speaker 4: It's amazing ever. I mean, Oh my gosh, I'm doing this for, Rich Breshears: I would go do that. You know? And so that's making, that's Paul Casey: Really good. It's been like a filter then for you, once you identified your ideal client, it became a filter. So you could say no to other things that you're tempted to squirrel too. Right? Rich Breshears: Exactly. Yeah. And right down to, this is how we treat clients. This is what we do. This is, this is the kind of output we, we give our clients so that they're not shorted in the end that we take really good care of each and every one of them. And it's right down to that very last thing, like I said, the most, most important thing is when that family member walks in and sees their image, that mom, she walks in her, that dad walks in and they see those images in the lobby. And you know, and we've done a really good job, you know? And that's the most important thing and everything else, all these other little fun things I want to do. Oh man. I mean, Oh, there's, there's some really cool books outside of town. I could go photograph I'm. It's not what I do. It's not, I mean, yes, that would be so much fun, but it's not what I do. Paul Casey: I think you've, you've coined the term octopus thing. Speaker 4: He made it into. I made a verb. It felt like that my new term, Paul Casey: I love your chuckling when you're listening to this because that's you and that's me. And so, yes. So you have to get clear on your values. You've got to get clear what you do the best. You got to get clear on, where you can add the most value and get the most return on your investment. So that prevents octopus thing. Speaker 4: I love it. I don't know if I can claim that term or not, but I'll tell you what that's you it's you. Right. All right. Rich, Paul Casey: A wrap up. So what advice would you give to new leaders, new entrepreneurs, anyone who wants to keep growing and gaining more influence? Rich Breshears: You know, I have to tell you the number one thing I, I, it just comes to my head is when it comes to being a new entrepreneur and one don't let anybody tell you, you can't do it because there are going to be a lot of people out there who tell you, you can't do it. Yeah. I can tell you, I am one of those people who probably shouldn't be, but can't do it. I mean, like, I mean, I was told so many times how broke I was going to be our poor. I was going to be how quick I was going to go out of business. How awful this was going to be, how nobody's a full-time photographer in this day and age, how impossible it is. And I am walking, talking, breathing here before you today because I didn't believe it. When people told me I couldn't do it. Rich Breshears: Yeah. That's number one. The second thing is, find out what you do well, and do it really well. And third is be good to yourself. Be coming to yourself. You're going to have really crappy days out there. And there's going to be times when you're really feeling beat up. And you're probably the one that's beating yourself up the most. I leave if you're like me and yeah, just give yourself some love because nobody else is going to love you as much as you do. And you're the one who has to put on your socks every morning. And, and that's, that's just the way it's gotta be. So be kind to yourself more than anything else. Paul Casey: Good stuff. Rich self-compassion is huge, especially in the land of COVID right now. So how can our listeners best connect with you? Rich Breshears: Oh my gosh. Facebook, if you're, if you're living dangerous, I'm on Insta as well. I, one of my one rich photo guy on the Insta, there's a on Facebook. It's just a rich for shares. So, you know, go search me if you feel like being that dangerous. I on Twitter, I don't follow that much, but if you do eat me, I will. I, you know, I will see it. I will, I might respond to it. I might not, but that's, that's, that's one reason photo guy as well. I'm on LinkedIn. And, and then you can always just reach me at the, at our studio brochures, professional photography.com. Paul Casey: Awesome. Well, thank you for all the contributions you make to our community. So many nonprofits, your business touches, your generosity is admirable. And thanks for all you do to make the Tri-Cities a great place. Keep leading. Well, let me wrap up our podcast today with a leadership resource to recommend it is called a it's a podcast called business, made simple with Donald Miller. He's the StoryBrand guy changed his podcast name to business, made simple, and it's little, little nuggets of good stuff. If you are running a business, there are some solo episodes where he just pontificates on an area of your business. And then he brings in some great guest experts, and he really gathered some great thought leaders in the industry. So business made simple podcast. If you're looking for some professional growth again, this is Paul Casey. I want to thank my guests. Rich Breshears from Breshears professional photography for being here today on the Tri-Cities influencer podcast. We also want to thank our TCI sponsors and invite you to support them. We appreciate you making this possible so we can collaborate to help inspire leaders in our community. Finally, one more leadership tidbit for the road to make a difference in your circle of influence. Brian costal says, if you nurture your mind, body and spirit, your time will expand. You will gain a new perspective that will allow you to accomplish much more until next time kgs keep growing forward. Speaker 2: Thank you to our listeners for tuning into today's show. Paul Casey is on a mission to add value to leaders by providing practical tools and strategies that reduce stress in their lives and on their teams so that they can enjoy life and leadership and experience their key desired results. If you'd like more help from Paul and your leadership development, connect with him at growingforwardatpaulcasey.org for a consultation that can help you move past your current challenges and create a strategy for growing your life or your teams forward. Paul would also like to help you restore your sanity to your crazy schedule and getting your priorities done every day. By offering you this free control my calendar checklist, go to WW dot, take back my calendar.com for that productivity tool or open a text message two seven two zero zero zero, and type the word growth Paul Casey: Tri-Cities influencer podcast was recorded at fuse SPC by Bill Wagner of safe strategies.

Speaker 1: You have to know where you are before you can determine where you are going,  Speaker 2: Raising the water level of leadership in the Tri-Cities of Eastern Washington it's Tri-Cities influencer podcast. Welcome to the TCI podcast. We're local leadership and self-leadership expert. Paul Casey interviews, local CEOs, entrepreneurs, and non-profit executives to hear how they lead themselves and their teams. So we can all benefit from their wisdom and experience. Here's your host, Paul Casey of Growing Forward Services coaching, and it could be individuals and teams or breakthrough success.  Speaker 1: It's a great day to grow forward. Thanks for joining me for today's episode with Brad Sapp and feel, and Nate Robertson from Spotted Fox Digital, and they have some fun facts. And for the first time I think they might do one on each other. So who wants to go first?  Speaker 3: All right. So, I mean, Brad's got, Brad's got some good ones, but I'll go with an easy one. I would definitely say, you know, some of the funny things that Brad does in the office is he's from Alabama. And so when he says certain words, you know, you could think he's a Tri-Cities boy until, you know, he starts saying compass like a compass and you know, I'm like, is that what did you say? He's like I say, compass and I was like, you mean compass? It's like, yeah. Compass. So definitely some of the language from being from Alabama, are you from Alabama where you're from Alabama roll tide. So that's what we hear a lot in our office. We got a new whiteboard, just a little side note in there. The first thing that was on it was a huge red roll tide. So  Speaker 1: Nice, nice. And Brian, what about Nate?  Speaker 3: Right. So there's a lot of quirks about Nathan usually has to do with squirrels, but no, it's really, honestly, one of the funniest things, I think Nathan tends to call it like a remote for the TV. He calls it a channel changer. And I just think that's an old term. Like it should be me calling that not you. I feel like it's a channel. It does promote longer though.  Speaker 1: Oh, that's hilarious. And Brad said that his wife was starting to come up with a whole list for him. And he said, Oh, thanks, honey. That was enough. Well, we will dive in after checking in with our Tri-City influencer sponsor, it's easy to delay answering uncomfortable questions. Like what happens to my assets and my loved ones when I die. So it's no surprise that nearly 50% of Americans don't have a will and even fewer have an estate plan, many disabled clients worry that they don't have enough assets to set up an estate plan, but there are important options available to ensure that you have a voice in your medical and financial decision-making. Even if your health takes a turn for the worst estate planning gives you a voice when your health deteriorates or after you're gone. Marin Miller bam attorney at law is currently providing free consultations to find out more about estate planning or to book an appointment.  Speaker 1: Call Maren at (206) 485-4066 or visit Salus that's S A L U S-law.com today. Thank you for your support of leadership development in the Tri-Cities. Well welcome Brad and Nate. Brad, first time we met was through BNI here in the Tri-Cities and I heard you were the guy for website and all that other stuff. This was your another Brad idea company then, and we've developed a friendship along the way you've done. You've been helping me with my website for years and years. And then Nate got to meet you along the ways you guys merged into a Spotted Fox digital. And you've done a lot of video for me and both testimonial videos and my not my speaker demo reel videos. So it's been a great compliment for our two businesses. So glad you're a part of this today. So let's dive in so that our Tri-City influencers can get to know you take us through a couple of your career highlights that led you to this current company and tell us why you love what you do  Speaker 4: Well. So I actually started my career in Alabama. I was working for a software as a service company. We were working with hospitals and that's actually how I ended up in the Tri-Cities working with Kennewick general and Kadlec can went general, obviously is not Rios. They've gone through rebranding, but that's how I ended up here in the Tri-Cities. And that's how I started. That's how I actually built my relationships in marketing here locally started doing a web design for a local marketing agency. And I did some with regional agencies here and that's kind of how I ended up starting my business. So that was probably one of the biggest moves that actually come into the Tri-Cities and then joining BNI, you know, joining BNI has led to a lot of connections that led me to you all and led me to partnering with Nathan. And if it worked for that, you know, group of, or that organization and the people that I met through that I wouldn't be sitting here today.  Speaker 1: Wow. Very cool story. Nathan, how about you?  Speaker 4: Yeah, so I mean, I started, you know, Tri-Cities local, small town, you know, loved the idea of advertising from, you know, when I was little. And so when I was going to school, I didn't know what I wanted to do, but I knew it was something to do in advertising. And so I did some odds and end jobs and eventually landed my first job, which wasn't easy in a radio station here in the tri cities, which was used to be called NNB radio. So this is going to date me a little bit, which is crazy. Cause you know, I always think I'm young, but you know, let's be honest. So I got gray hair, I'm the silver Fox now. So, you know, but was able to land my first  Speaker 3: Job in radio. And I enjoyed coming up with the ideas for clients and, you know, just found out that I have this unique niche to being able to, to come with a unique idea and not just a cookie cutter idea. And I did that for a while. And then I actually ended up working for a spotted Fox, which was a deal company. And when I was working there, I was doing mainly sales. I grew the Tri-Cities from zero and was able to build this up and then eventually ended up purchasing the company. And at that time it wasn't my dream. And I really liked the advertising aspect of it, but you know, ended up falling into the video side and on the side because I was able to build a team on the deal side. So I started doing some video production on the side and you know, that took off.  Speaker 3: And then that's when I met Brad because Brad, we, we ended up working in connect workplace where Brad was and I met Brad there and I was like, hey man, you know, could you give me a quote on a website? And so we said, I was looking for videographers. Yeah. So, so long story short, we started working together and eventually quote unquote, we started living together, right? So we're in the same. I like convinced them to get an office space with me at a connect workplace. And he moved in and then from there we just started working together and everything was flowing so well that we said, you know what? We just need to partner. And then that's when Spotted Fox digital became right and and use our two strengths. And now we do social media management. We do paid ads online, paid ads, SEO, you know, kind of a one-stop shop for your marketing needs.  Speaker 1: How many staff do you have now?  Speaker 4: We have a total of 11,  Speaker 1: 11 staff. Yep. And over there connect workplace behind, behind Costco back in their great office space area. And so why do you both love what you do? I mean, Nathan, I'm sort of hearing that the creativity is a big deal for you.  Speaker 3: No, I would say, you know, one of the biggest things is, is delivering and, and coming up with a concept and an idea for a client and then, you know, the most nerve-wracking part is you come up with this idea, you're sitting at a meeting and you're like so excited, you know, and then you leave that meeting and you're like, Oh my gosh. Now I have to make this become a real thing. Right. And so the cool thing is, is, is actually being able to see that from an idea into fruition of like, wow, this actually happened and the client's happy and what we delivered to them. And so that's where I get my, you know, enthusiasm, enthusiasm and excitement for what we do.  Speaker 1: How about you, Brad?  Speaker 4: I would agree. I, my, my favorite part is really just, you know, helping businesses grow and it, you know, being able to form a team and have a team of people where it's not just me with the idea and then going to execute it, you know, having a team of people that can rely on and have their focus and their strengths so that we can deliver the best product possible.  Speaker 1: Yeah. Very cool. And so staying in your strengths, multiplies, your influence, you both have strengths. How do you add the most value to this partnership now that you have 11 people on the, what would you say? Like your sweet spot is  Speaker 4: Personally? You know, I think for me, it's, it's really making sure that we're like, day-to-day that we're doing the things that we need to be doing to get to where we want to be. Like, you know, not just, not just making sure that we're checking things off our list, but we're actually thinking long term of like, what are the things that we're doing today? They're going to get us to where we want to be tomorrow. Definitely. I don't think that's the biggest value that I bring to the team.  Speaker 3: Yeah. I would say, you know, the visionary portion of myself is always thinking big, big dreams. Like we're going here, you know, one day we're going to be bigger than Apple. I dunno. I mean, that's what gets  Speaker 4: Me out of bed in the morning is,  Speaker 3: Is, is thinking big. And sometimes that can be really scary. And you have days where you, you know, as the visionary where it's really scary and you don't know about those dreams but being around a group of people like the team that we have, it's always like an injection of being like, yes, you know, we can, we can do it. And you know, honestly, I learned from a young age, like anything you set your mind to, like you can do. And so that's been a huge strength of mine is  Speaker 1: Yes. So on the flip side, then you have to be self-aware of your weaknesses, right? So what's your favorite way to sabotage yourself?  Speaker 3: I'll be honest. So Brad points at me,  Speaker 4: This is an easy one. This is an easy one  Speaker 3: All day. And I admit to it honestly, it's spelling and grammar. I'll be completely honest. That is my biggest weakness is I call myself a creative speller. So I'm able to spell a word, how many different ways Brad, I don't know, a hundred. So, you know, that's my weakness, but I also let people know that, you know, and I own it and that's, and I try to get better at it. And you know, I got Grammarly, I got all this stuff, but at the end of the day, I accept it as like, this is something I struggle with. And I have my team help me, you know, Hey, I'm gonna send this email out, this important email. I have them check it out. Like, it's definitely not something I hide. I let people know, I'm a bad speller, but I have a lot of other, you know, strengths to overcome.  Speaker 1: Yeah. Like I said to you, you're aware of it and you make that known so you don't try to cover it up, which would just make everyone talk about you behind your back. And you also use tools like Grammarly, which is that's a good plug for that program and using your team to, because there's probably a few of them that are very strong on editing and proofreading and things like that. How about you, Brad?  Speaker 4: Okay. So I've been thinking about this a lot and you know, I'm not, not trying to call him Nathan out here, but I think he's kinda my favorite sabotage on the same exact thing, because you know, it be like, Hey Brad, can you review this? And so it's really kind of controlling that in, in, in it's more of processes. It's making sure that we're following the process because it's easy with this guy. He has so many ideas all day long that, you know, and it's fun to collaborate. I love that part of it. I love like the creativity, but we kind of have a system in place now to where we try to parking lot his ideas and we discuss them on a certain time instead of like coming up or like talking about them every time they come up. Cause I thought, I thought I had good ideas before I met this guy and I, he still has good ideas and he just has a lot more of that.  Speaker 3: But Brad used to be nice enough where you'd actually listen and be like, okay, what do you want to do? And now he's like, you know, Nathan "parking lot it" that's our new term  Speaker 1: Verb.  Speaker 3: And then I'm like, okay, I'm going to wait until next Tuesday.  Speaker 1: Yes. Land the plane, land the plane. So I'm going to say, see you next Tuesday. Cut that out. So yeah. What are your meetings look like then? Because it sounds like it's a lot of fun. You know, you've got lots of ideas to play with, but what's your meeting rhythm,  Speaker 4: You know, it's very structured. We have, we have a, we have a, an agenda for each of our meetings and it's set up, you know, it's a, it's very systemized where we have an ice breaker and we talk about like our best, our best personal thing. That's happened to us during the week and our best business event. And we kind of go through that as a team and then we, what else is on the agenda? So  Speaker 3: Then we go through, I think, highlights of like what's happening,  Speaker 4: Customer, employee highlights. What's good. Are there any issues we need to address? And then we have our parking lot  Speaker 3: And well rocks first. So rock reviews. So our rock reviews are basically what we come up with as a an individual. And so our company rocks, so we offer a program EOS, which is its traction, the book traction, what is it? Them  Speaker 1: Entrepreneurial operating system.  Speaker 3: So we go EOS and that's the program that we've taken for our business. That's done pretty well. But do we want to cut that out? No, that's cool. Okay, cool.  Speaker 4: Okay. So then after the rocks we have, it's called, I think it's called IDs. I'm not sure of the terminology, but then we identify, we identify, discuss and solve all our issues. So any of the issues that have been parking lauded for that week, we go through, we identify the top ones, and we start going through and solving them. And some weeks we get through one or two other weeks, we knock everything off the list. You know, it all depends on how complex it is, but we try to knock through those things and we just identify the most important ones and get through them. And it's, it really helps us as an organization to focus on the most important things and do it a specific time and not be worried about it every time something comes up and it just makes us a lot more efficient.  Speaker 3: Yeah. Having the meetings actually structured is, is really good. And honestly has made a huge difference because a lot of times Brandon are so busy and not having that structure. There causes a little bit of chaos and nobody walks away from the meeting with a lot of value. And, and now I, I definitely feel like Armenians have gotten a lot stronger.  Speaker 1: Yeah. Traction definitely recommends Gino. Wickman is the author. Want to give him lots of credit for that? And big rocks are your priorities, your top priorities for the quarter. Right. You set them for the quarter and then yeah, you have your a, was it level 10 meetings I think is your, is your weekly. And then the IDs and it's, I think what's cool is that the issues get solved at a certain time and they don't, they don't consume the other meetings, but it's like, alright, this is our time to bang these out that stuff. Well, rarely do we achieve our highest potential by ourselves. So who keeps you accountable and energized to getting your own professional and personal goals accomplished?  Speaker 4: Man? I would say what keeps me personally energized is, is the people that we work with. I think that, you know, and the, in our clients, you know, and looking at what they want and growing people, not, not the dollar, you know, I think a lot of people get held up on, on a dollar and making, you know, making a living instead of actually making an impact on someone's life. So that's definitely something that keeps me motivated is it's not just about going to work and, you know, just making money. It's about when, you know, I leave this place one day. I want people to say, Nate was a great guy. I worked for him and he taught me this. And that's why I am where I am today. So  Speaker 1: Making a living, making an impact, not making a living love that. That's that's good stuff.  Speaker 4: *inaudible* Speaker 1: How about you, bro? It keeps you accountable and inspired, energized.  Speaker 4: So yeah, so I would say, I, I thought about this. I think there's like three things that keep me personally and professionally accountable each week. And we've mentioned a couple of them. One of those is, is on, on a professional level. There's two things. There's the level 10 meeting that we have each week, because that really helps us keep a pulse on what's going on, but it also holds us accountable for the rocks, all the to-dos and making sure that we're staying on task. But you know, I, I'm very much a, you know, professional accountability system each week, you know, holding, held accountable for making sure that we're bringing business to our networking team and that we're getting that back. And then personally, and even professionally you Paul, you're your business case plug there? I noticed, I noticed a big difference when, when I didn't have that, you know, I was, I did other things like mastermind and things like that, but that it was from a different perspective. I noticed a huge difference when I came to you, Paul, and you were helping me because it, it really put in my mind the things that were easy to forget about, you always reminded me of, Oh, you need to be working on this and this and this. And if it weren't for you holding me accountable each month, I would never look at those things. And it's all legislative. It looks like that. And it's made, it's made a big difference,  Speaker 1: Right? Yeah. Without accountability things fall off the radar, don't they? And so even your park, the parking lot concept keeps things back on the radar, so you see, can bring them up. So yeah, coaches, BNI group, so many good ways to surround yourself because as an entrepreneur you could get, and especially in COVID, it's like double isolation. So it is great to surround yourself with people that keep you pumped up and accountable, then there's replenishing your energy. I was just reading in a book before coming over here today that, you know, time is a finite thing, but energy you can actually replenish. So that keeps you at the top of your game. What do you do to manage stress,  Speaker 3: Manage stress, man, I know what Brad does, Brad meditates. And this is something that I wish I could get better at because I've done it a few times and it's been, it's been really good, but yeah,  Speaker 4: It's consistency. It's the consistency. Yeah.  Speaker 3: I would say just getting outside, like, and getting, putting myself in, like when I'm at work, I can get re-energized just by going on to you, maybe, maybe a social media shoot with some of our social media team. Right. And I'm going through and I'm like, thinking, oh man, we're doing this. This is great. You know? Or like, I love the video shoots. Right? Like a lot of times I get varied and just the day-to-day of being a CEO hopper and doing that side of things, but it's nice to actually go and actually be a part of like what you're creating. And so that's really actually energizing to me instead of doing the day-to-day it's, it's switching things up, I guess, at the end of the day. Yeah.  Speaker 1: Switching things up. Yeah. Changing the state. I think Tony Robins says and reconnecting to what you do best. Sounds like also pumps you up. So breath meditation, anything else? Yeah.  Speaker 4: So meditation is definitely a key for me. It really kind of helps it's it's really kind of, I don't want to say mind control, but that really is kind of what it is. It helps you kind of control that monkey brain, you know, cause it's easy to really get stuck in your head and you know, whether, whether negative thoughts or positive thoughts or whatever, it just helps you kind of control that and helps you. Like it just helps you think about things without reacting first. And I've noticed a huge difference since, since meditating. But the other thing that I do is a walk and I'll either listen to music or listen to podcast book. That's always helpful, but music has a huge stress relief for me.  Speaker 3: That raises one for me, like fitness working out. Because a lot of times when I'm in that slump and I've been working really hard and maybe I through working out, out the window for a little bit, then you started really hitting ceilings. And I feel like once you start working out and you know, I am Peloton this year, cause I've never done, you know, spin or anything like that. But my brother-in-law has been doing it for like a year. And I was like, okay. I was like, I'm going to buy one of these sayings. COVID the gym's closed. And I need someone to push me. And so it's been awesome. I mean, when I get off of it, my brain feels rejuvenated. Like I feel more confident. I think that's the biggest thing for me in fitness is like, when I got done working out, I'm like I lifted these weights. I was on the Peloton. I'm freaking confident and I go to work, and I'm guaranteed. People could tell like, wow, now you got a good workout. So he's on my butt. You worked out today. You didn't work out yesterday. Exactly. I showed up yesterday. It was a long day  Speaker 1: Exercise. The best depression Buster there is. Well, before we head into our next question on a hiring and people development, a shout out to our sponsor located in the Parkway, you'll find motivation, new friends and your new coworking space at fuse. Whether you're a student just starting out or a seasoned professional, come discover all the reasons to love co-working at fuse come co-work at fuse for free on Fridays in February, enjoy free coffee or tea, Wi-Fi printing conference rooms, and more, and bring a friend. If you use this, where individuals and small teams come together in a thoughtfully designed resource, rich environment to get work done and grow their ideas. Comprised of professionals from varying disciplines and backgrounds. Fuse is built for hardworking, fun, loving humans. Learn more about us at fusespc.com or stop by seven to three, the Parkway in Richland, Washington. So gentlemen hiring and people development crucial for leadership. If you could clone the ideal spotted Fox digital employee for your organization, what traits are you looking for when you go into interviews?  Speaker 3: Oh, that's a great question, Paul, you know, people are heated, any good organization. We, we value our culture. We have set core values that we really follow. So they really have to align up with that first and foremost. But as far as key traits go, I think, you know, knowing somebody that has really good interpersonal relations, that's super important. Whether it's internal with our team outpacing for clients, having a strong relationship with people is super important. And then, you know, having good organization and really like leadership, being able to run a team of people. Those are really key traits that I always look for. If we're looking for somebody for our leadership team.  Speaker 1: Yeah. What's interesting about that is you didn't say anything about social media skills or web code. I mean, you started with values in her personal and organizational leadership skills.  Speaker 3: Yeah. Hiring people for me is always a really exciting task, but sometimes I'm not the best person to make the final decision. I'll be honest. And that's because I, I I've done some like leadership and kind of personality traits and I'm the kind of person that I see. Like everybody has potential, you know, I'm like I send to me and I, it could be any, Oh man, that guy would hire him. And after he had done, I'm like, I feel like we should just hire them. All right. So it's good to have Brad to like really focus me and, and you know, our team because we actually have our team that helps us hire, like, it's a big thing because instead of Brad and I just making that decision, we have key members on our team that it's like, Hey, you're going to be working with this person. And so making sure that they can work well together. And so I think that that's definitely a, you know, when it comes to hiring, it's not always for me an easy decision, but with the help from my team, it definitely gets it.  Speaker 1: That's why it's nice to have a hiring team or hiring panel with multiple personalities on the team. You can.  Speaker 3: Yeah. And we deal with so many different personalities between, you know, just our clients and even staff, you know? So you have to be able to work with, that's all we've been really blessed. We have, yeah, we have, we have an awesome team.  Speaker 1: So when have you taken some lumps in hiring? Like what, you know, I've been walking along the journey with you bred for a while, so there's been successes and you know, some that didn't work out where have you seen like maybe like, Oh, we sh we should have seen that. Or they didn't have that trader that value.  Speaker 3: Oh man. That's hitting close to home. No. Yeah. You want to take that? Yeah. Yes. Can you repeat the question? So honestly, a lot of times when you're hiring in, and you're not thinking of the actual fulfillment of the position, because you have to be thinking of all, you know, we were low, you know, I'll give you a sense. We were looking for a certain person to fill a certain void. Right. And the main thing on that void was the personality and the skills of communicating with our clients and those things. Right. But we didn't really pay attention to the actual like functionalities and what that person can do. And so when we brought them on our team, it was, it was a lot more training to the other sides of that part of the business that we were thinking they already may have had, but we were more focused on tunnel vision and they are that perfect person for that. But we weren't really thinking of the other side of fulfillment. And so I think that definitely realizing that they, and they have to be well-rounded and not just think, well, this is going to solve all our problems because the last person we had was good at this, but really what we need is this right? So it's a kind of mix in between.  Speaker 1: Yes. And you do learn from what didn't work.  Speaker 3: Yeah. The important thing is like, you're always going to have, they're always going to be things that don't work out. You know, you're going to have quote unquote failures, but as long as you take something away from that and you learn and you better, that it's all part of that it's yeah.  Speaker 1: Yes. So I've had emerging leaders tell me they want to grow thinking strategically. So you both said that it's sort of your strength spot to look at the big picture. You both described yourself as visionary working on the business. How would you say an emerging leader can look at the big picture and what does that look like for greater long-term impact?  Speaker 3: Well, for me, its really time blocking, you know, walking out the time to do it with our level 10 meetings, but also like personally, like blocking out specific times of the day that I'm supposed to be doing specific activity. And as long as I have those, or as long as I get those done, I feel like that's a successful day. The other part of that would be our, our long-term planning that we do. We, we blocked out like three to four days a year where the entire day is focused on that alone and we've walked everything out and that's all we talk about. And so I think again, just blocking that time out is a huge, huge deal. No, and I totally agree with Brad. And I think one of the biggest things is that you're not just time-blocking for yourself, but we actually tie block with our team to complete our vision. So that way, you know, you're able to, to all be on the same track without there being confusion of where are we going? And maybe Brad has certain goals in his mind that he's not sharing with me. And so when we do it as a team and we time block, it really has a huge impact. And I do definitely think that you should do personal time as well, but when it comes to goals of the business, definitely, you know, the team is definitely key.  Speaker 1: Yeah. And our teams are waiting for us as leaders to cast that vision. I think it gets them excited when they know where the owners are going, where the leaders are going, and they get confused when they don't know where they're going. Or like you said, your goals are in your head, but I can't read your mind. So, and then Brett, you know, I love time-blocking, that's like huge. So, so if you're trying to find time for things, that's going to fall off the radar, but if you literally calendar that appointment with yourself, that's going to happen. I also, like I added about the retreat. I think every team should do these chunks of time where you just look out a little bit further and you can gain a lot of ground by doing that. So that's the macro level now to the micro level, what small acts of leadership do you try to both do daily as much as possible to make a positive difference in your team?  Speaker 3: I'll definitely say leading by example, and you know, that's not always an easy thing to do as an owner. You know, sometimes you just want to roll in at 11 o'clock and, you know, Hey, I own the business. Right. But I think sometimes, you know, being the first one at the office and the employees seeing that I think that's been a huge impact and just kind of letting people know like, Hey, I'm in this to like, you know, yes you do. You know, you work for me, but I work with you. So yeah, I would agree with that. And I think the other thing that we do as a, as a leadership team, or as a company is really like showing our appreciation, not just for, not just for our clients, but for our, our employees, like showing them recognition of the things that they do well and and rewarding them when a client compliments what they do.  Speaker 3: Oh yeah. We have a breadboard. Yeah. We have a brag board and, and we have goals for each department on certain amount of kudos or things that they're supposed to get each, each quarter. And we look at that all the time and I've noticed a huge difference in our team. They're, they're just so much more excited on a daily basis of like, even when they get a compliment, it's, there's just so much more excitement among the team together. I also like to add onto that brag board thing. I think it's such a cool, like a lot of people don't want to brag. I'm not going to probably like, I don't mind being like, look, you don't look at this, you know, two people I know, and I'm are close to. I like to and think a lot of people like hold those things inside. And I think it's important to show them and have a place where they can go, Hey, look, this happened to me. And its a, it's a great place to put it. And it's a place where we can see like, Hey, they're doing a great job because some of the times we see these employees are doing great things, but we just never hear about it. And so we put a place where they can actually show us or tell us where it's a safe place to do it. So yeah, that's been super helpful.  Speaker 1: Brag board. Love it, love it. So if one of our TCI listeners asked you, like what, what two to three books must they read to grow their leadership or their entrepreneurial skills? Or maybe it's a resource like a website or, you know, just a place that you go to grow. Where would you point them? Paul Casey, another $5. [inaudible]  Speaker 3: I would definitely, I mean, I'll be honest. I'm not a huge book reader. I like audio books, but I would, for one of them, I'd say traction and let me be completely honest. Have I finished reaction completely, almost I'm on the last final, like 20 minutes, I think? But the biggest thing I would say is, is, you know, finding your niche. So mine is YouTube. Like we learned a lot of stuff like video production wise on YouTube and, and we were able to emblem emulate what we liked and, and to, you know, a process or product. So for me, you know,  Speaker 4: Years ago it was not much of a book reader, but in the last like several years, I've definitely become more avid reader. But I also do listen to audio books. I have a few favorites, but I would say, what are the most impactful books that I've ever read from a leadership standpoint is relentless by Tim Grover. I think that's an amazing book. It doesn't necessarily talk about like leadership from a business standpoint, but it talks about leadership from kind of a team standpoint. And I think that, that, and it, it talks a lot about basketball and, you know, your major superstars who went through this crazy coaching, but it talks about what they had to do to become that super Rockstar. And so I think that's a good foundation. And for me, it's a very inspiring book. So I always, always liked to pick that up. I love listened to it several times and then the other there's two other books, traction, I would agree. And then what's the Stephen Covey book, cost  Speaker 1: Seven habits of highly effective people.  Speaker 4: And that one's a really good foundational book,  Speaker 3: Paradigm shift and podcasts. I mean, I had been listening to John Maxwell. That's been a huge, a huge, I would say, a source of leadership information and, you know, he has a really good way of putting it across. So that's been cool.  Speaker 1: So finally, what advice would you give to new leaders, new entrepreneurs or anyone who wants to keep growing and gaining more influence?  Speaker 4: I would say really just always trying to improve yourself, always try to constantly refine you're never going to,  Speaker 3: There's never a, there's never an informant, you know, you're always like, I think when you're, when you're young, you kind of think, Oh, well, I'm going to, I'm going to get to this point and everything's just gonna be great. It's, it's just, it's not like that. It's, there's always things to improve on. There's always just skills that you can continue to refine. And let's say just always be working on that. Okay. Yeah. And on the leadership side, a lot, a lot of people will put in, you know, as a boss quote, right? Like, and, and don't be a boss, be a leader and don't just tell people to do things, lead them to do that. So I think that that's where a lot of people, when they step into a leadership role is, they feel like, Oh, well, I just need to tell people what to do and do this and do that. And that's the wrong way of leadership. I think it’s; it's being on the, in those trenches with that employee and, and helping them get to where they want to go. And that's a leader, you know,  Speaker 1: You're here. Well, how can our listeners best connect with you too?  Speaker 3: I would say, you know, they can always check out our website, Spotify, digital.com or connect with us on Facebook and Instagram. We're always there. We're here for you guys.  Speaker 1: Well, thanks again for all you do to make the Tri-Cities a great place and keep leading. Well, Rob,  Speaker 3: Thanks, Paul.  Speaker 1: Let me wrap up our podcast today with a leadership resource to recommend it is the book managing transitions by William Bridges. So change is really hard for most people and maybe the structure of change is the easy part as a leader, but we forget sometimes that change has an emotional impact on people. And if you don't have a strategy, you don't have someone on it. Then oftentimes people will resist that change to the bitter end. So he breaks into three groups talking about the letting go part, the neutral zone and the new beginning. And if you don't have a strategy for all three change is going to be a lot harder. So managing transitions by William Bridges. Again, this is Paul Casey. I want to thank my guests, Brad Sapp, and field, and Nathan Robertson from Spotted, Fox digital for being here today on the Tri-City influencer podcast. And we want to thank our TCI sponsor and invite you to support them. We appreciate you making this possible so we can collaborate to inspire leaders in our community. Finally, one more leadership tidbit for the road to help you make a difference in your circle of influence and the spirit of Brad's meditation here at John Kabat-Zinn says mindfulness is about love and loving life. When you cultivate this love, it gives you clarity and compassion for life and your actions happened in accordance with that until next time, KGF keep growing forward.  Speaker 2: Thank you to our listeners for tuning in to today's show. Paul Casey is on a mission to add value to leaders by providing practical tools and strategies that reduce stress in their lives and on their teams so that they can enjoy life and leadership and experience their key desired results. If you'd like more help from Paul in your leadership development, connect with him at growingforwardatpaulcasey.org for a consultation that can help you move past your current challenges and create a strategy for growing your life or your team forward. Paul would also like to help you restore your sanity to your crazy schedule and getting your priorities done every day by offering you his free control My calendar checklist, go to www.take back my calendar.com for that productivity tool or open a text message two seven two zero zero zero, and type the word grown  Speaker 1: Tri-Cities influencer podcast was recorded at fuse SPC by Bill Wagner of Safe Strategies.

Paul Casey: So a goal is like pulling the rope when you cannot clearly see what is on the other end. You know the treasure is there, but you can only see a shadowy outline. With each pole, the treasure becomes more and more clear until there it is right in front of you. Speaker 2: Raising the water level of leadership in the Tri-Cities of Eastern Washington, it's the Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast. Welcome to the TCI Podcast where local leadership and self-leadership expert Paul Casey interviews local CEOs, entrepreneurs, and non-profit executives to hear how they lead themselves and their teams, so we can all benefit from their wisdom and experience. Here's your host, Paul Casey of Growing Forward Service, coaching and equipping individuals and teams to spark breakthrough success. Paul Casey: It's a great day to grow forward. Thanks for joining me for today's episode with Justin Raffa. He is the artistic director of the Mid-Columbia Mastersingers. And a fun fact about Justin he said his little whistling thing, Justin talk about that. Justin Raffa: It might be easier if I just do a little demonstration Paul. Should we just- Paul Casey: Please do. Justin Raffa: ... and then I'll explain later? Paul Casey: Okay. Justin Raffa: [inaudible 00:01:16] So there's a little taste of this annoying whistling approach that I learned as a kid. I use my teeth and I look really goofy if you were just watching me. [inaudible 00:01:35] this funny embouchure but I can do things like that. That's the piccolo solo from Stars and Stripes Forever- Paul Casey: Yes, it is. Justin Raffa: ... and I've learned how to do the little trills and yeah. Paul Casey: Yes, and it was funny because we laughed about this because I used to have a gap or a chip tooth right in the front for like 20 years. And I was able to also whistle through that gap, so that's pretty funny. Well, we're going to dive in after checking with our Tri-City Influencer sponsor. Paul Casey: It's easy to delay answering uncomfortable questions like, "What happens to my assets and my loved ones when I die?" So it's no surprise that nearly 50% of Americans don't have a will, and even fewer have an estate plan. Many disabled clients worry that they don't have enough assets to set up an estate plan. But there are important options available to ensure that you have a voice in your medical and financial decision-making, even if your health takes a turn for the worst. Estate planning gives you a voice when your health deteriorates or after you're gone. Marin Miller Bam, attorney at law, is currently providing free consultations. To find out more about estate planning or to book an appointment, call Marin at (206) 485-4066 or visit Salus that's S-A-L-U-S -law.com today. Paul Casey: Thank you for your support of leadership development in the Tri-Cities. Well, welcome, Justin. I was privileged to meet you many years ago when I was working at a church and you came alongside the music director there and was helping with oratorios and then the Messiah, and it's like, "There's this young guy coming in here with all this musical talent." I remember that. And then through leadership at Tri-Cities, we've had a chance to work together, volunteer together through that to promote leadership development in the Tri-City. So, great that I get to interview today. Justin Raffa: Thank you so much for this opportunity, Paul. I'm a big fan of the work that you do on this leadership front for our community. I've had the pleasure of working with you as a facilitator with one of my groups. And I don't know that I'm a Tri-City influencer. My friends like to call me a pusher and an instigator. They use those terms a lot, but I'm delighted to have a chance to talk with you today. Thank you for the invitation. Paul Casey: We could change this podcast because it's still an eye, Tri-Cities Instigator, right? I think that would be really creative. Well, help our Tri-City Influencers get to know you. Take us through a couple of your career highlights that led you to where you are now. Justin Raffa: I'm a South Jersey native. I grew up outside of Philadelphia in the part of New Jersey where it gets its nickname, the Garden State. I was heavily involved in music for years. I loved singing in church choirs as a kid, and then in all of my different levels of school, I was always involved in music. And it was about my junior year of high school where I thought, "Maybe I could do this for a living." And my high school choir director, who was my favorite teacher of my favorite class, gave me an opportunity that year. And she asked me, "Hey, would you like to teach the class? Would you like to run a couple of rehearsals on this piece and conduct it in the concert?" And I couldn't believe that she would give me that opportunity as a student. She sat in the back of the room and I was down there running the show and I really got hooked. So I'm grateful for those opportunities that I had in high school. Justin Raffa: I went off to my undergraduate degree. I had a lot of opportunities to intern with volunteer community choirs, learning more about the nonprofit side of my industry, which is my bread and butter now, which is what I love the most. Being an intern for a variety of choirs in the Princeton area in Central Jersey, I went to Westminster Choir College in Princeton, not part of Princeton University, but the university was just a 10-minute walk from my campus, so I did spend a lot of time there. But I just took every opportunity I could, which a lot of performing artists do early in the career. You never say no. Whatever chance you have to get in front of people to get on the podium conducting a group, I just ate up, eat, slept and breathed music for so long. Justin Raffa: My first teaching job was in Bisbee, Arizona, a little town on the border of Mexico. It was 2,500 miles away from everyone and everything I ever knew. I'm an only child, so when I finished my undergrad, I was just ready to get out of Jersey, to get out of the east coast. I was just ready for an adventure. And as a young teacher, you want to go out there and change the world. So I thought, "Let's take this job." Justin Raffa: I didn't speak a lick of Spanish. Most of my students there were bilingual. I am as pasty gringo complexion, I had to stay calm. My father's family is Sicilian and my mother's kind of generic UK, but I had a really wonderful time. I was 22 years old and I was out there by myself and had a chance to run the choir and drama departments of the Bisbee High School. And I was also quickly promoted as the lead conductor, the artistic director of the Bisbee community course. So here I am now 22 also in front of adults and getting to pick music and program concerts and things that if I had stayed on the east coast, I probably would have still had to be the intern for the another decade of my life. Justin Raffa: It's just very saturated. My industry back on the east coast, there's a lot of us looking for work, so at the border of Mexico, I had a lot of opportunities and I'm grateful for that. I got to test things out. I made a lot of mistakes in my first couple of years of teaching and working with adult choirs. I also was on the city of Bisbee's Arts Commission, which is where I first stepped into the government sector of advocating for arts. Justin Raffa: I did my master's degree a couple of years after, 27 years old, I needed a job, and I found this interesting little community called the Tri-Cities in Washington State. I'd never spent any time in the Pacific Northwest. I was interested. I was ready to move to another corner of the country ready for that next adventure. I came up for an interview, they liked me, I liked them, and 13 years later, here I am. Justin Raffa: And again, I was 27 years old when Mid-Columbia Mastersingers hired me to be its lead conductor, the artistic director. That's a big responsibility for someone that's still fairly early in their career. The board took a chance on me and I'm grateful for that. And that original team and I worked very close together to really build and start to rebrand the organization. Paul Casey: Yeah, it sounds like say yes to opportunities, I heard in that story. I heard about mentorship in that story. I heard take a chance on somebody that's showing promise, so a lot of good leadership lessons. Justin Raffa: But the salary that the Mastersingers offered me that first year, by the way, which I am happy to share. I don't mind talking about money. I know some people get weird about money. It was basically a $4,000 stipend for the year. And my parents back in Jersey were like, "You're doing what?" Paul Casey: For the year. Justin Raffa: "You're doing what? You're moving to another corner of the country to take on a job that pays you four grands." I was like, "Mom, dad, you got to start somewhere in this industry. It's a small-sized nonprofit performing arts organization. I think I can invest in this and build it, and it's going to give me the opportunities that I want to work in my field." Justin Raffa: I'm glad that we've been able to build the organization and my salary along with it in these past 13 years. But yeah, taking chances and recognizing that, for a lot of us who are artists money is definitely secondary. And we hope that it comes, but it takes a lot of time to build up your experience where you're at a level where you're being compensated for what you think you're worth. But I was happy to do it when I was 27, or I actually I would do it again now. Paul Casey: Well, that's a real love for it. So being in your strength zone can multiply your influence, so how do you add the most value to your organization? Justin Raffa: I have talked a lot over the years about getting the right people on the bus. Paul Casey: Yes, the bus. Justin Raffa: And for me, when the Mastersingers hired me, the organization was a 30ish thousand-dollar annual budget, pretty small, seven or eight members of the board of directors, most of which were singers or singer spouses. So very much the early stages of what nonprofits look like. So I was very intentional and strategic from day one about who do we want on the board? What other staff positions do we want to create? And who are the best people to fill those jobs? Justin Raffa: The board and I, we are very protective of who we bring into that inner circle, because we know that one bad apple can really- Paul Casey: So true. Justin Raffa: ... poison the water. So we've been very diligent about who we invite to come on our board. And as we've grown staff positions, I am fastidious about who we're hiring. I'm on all the selection panels. And that's part of my role as artistic director, when we're bringing additional artistic roles, just, you got to get the right people on the bus. Justin Raffa: And in choir, it's all about team. I could be the greatest, most intelligent musical mind that this country has ever seen, but at the end of the day, it doesn't matter because the work I do is so contingent on groups of people. So yeah, getting the right people on the bus I think has been a really important step for me in growing my organization. Paul Casey: And then on the flip side, you have to be self-aware of your weaknesses. So is there a favorite way you sabotage yourself? Justin Raffa: Yeah, and I've just recently started addressing this. But when you work for a nonprofit organization, when you work for a nonprofit arts organization in communities like Tri-Cities, sometimes it's hard to set work boundaries. We do have a physical office space, but I do not have set office hours. I do not have a nine-to-five job where I need to report to this physical location. Justin Raffa: I can go into the office, but mostly my colleague, Wendy, who is our managing director, she's the front face of the office, so I almost never go in. Which means that at times I find myself answering emails on Friday night at 11 o'clock at night. Because I feel that there's this urgency to get it done. And not having those clear boundaries about showing up to a physical space to work and following a 40-hour work week nine to five, working in the nonprofit sector can be really consuming. And you feel like you're just on, 365 days a year you're just on call 24/7. And so I've had to be really intentional about balancing my time and setting up those limits and said, "I'm not going to answer emails after nine o'clock at night. Let's try that." Paul Casey: Right. Justin Raffa: And it's hard because things might come in and I see it, especially now that we all have phones where we get little dings when anything else comes like, "Oh, it'll just take me a second to answer." No, it can wait. Or, "It's the weekend, I'll get it on Monday morning." So it's been really hard for me because I love my work so much. And I often do have the time. I could take a couple minutes right now and answer that despite the fact that it's 11 o'clock at night. Justin Raffa: So just having to solidify those boundaries and those time restraints so that I don't feel that I'm constantly living my job. Paul Casey: Yeah, and that is hard when you love your job. I totally can relate to that as well, but it will drain you. And it also sets an expectation sometimes of the recipient of the email that, "Oh, I got to respond at 10 o'clock or 11 o'clock as well." Justin Raffa: Right. I don't want to condition people to think that, "Oh, well, Justin's going to answer my email within 30 minutes because he always does." That also sets up unhealthy habits. Paul Casey: It does. Justin Raffa: And end up, because you could see what time this email was sent, what time the response was sent, all of that is tracked. And I'm trying to help my staff colleagues as well. We've all been culprits of this. Like, "Folks, let's just take it easy. This is not so urgent. If something's urgent, pick up the phone and call me. But have a nice weekend, see you Monday morning." Paul Casey: Good stuff. Well, rarely, by the way, only children unite just saying that if any of those- Justin Raffa: Yeah, it's a thing. Paul Casey: ... actually influencers out there that are only children will have to start a meetup. But rarely do we achieve our highest potential by ourselves. And you said, it's all about the team in choir. Who keeps you accountable? Who keeps you energized to getting your goals accomplished? Justin Raffa: It's pretty easy for me as a conductor because it's my singers. Paul Casey: Yeah. Justin Raffa: It is the wonderful array of volunteer people that I serve in this community who look to me weekly in rehearsals or when we're doing events. Being a choir director is a very authoritarian job in many ways, it's not a democratic institution. The conductor is front and center, usually elevated standing on a podium, and is calling the shots, is dictating, "This is what we're going to do, and this is when we're going to do it, and this is how we're going to do it." Justin Raffa: So I answer to my singers. I am responsible to them. I am inspired by them. And as I mentioned a moment ago, I could be the most skilled, experienced conductor, but if my singers aren't having a good experience, if they're not happy with the nature of rehearsals or how the organization is operating under my leadership, they're all volunteers, and they don't have to show up next week. And I'm nobody without a choir. Justin Raffa: Standing up there by myself, waving my arms, it doesn't matter, right? Everything I do is based on my singers. And since we are a volunteer co-organization, that all of our singers are volunteers, most of them do not have professional musical backgrounds. They have other day jobs, and callings, and spouses, and partners, and children, and things that take their time. So they need their time to be well-spent when they are assembled with me for rehearsals and performances, or they can just opt out. Justin Raffa: And all of the professional development that I do to stay up to date on what are the newest cutting edge trends in choral music, all the professional development workshops and things I attend, is so that I can be of better service to my singers. Keep them connected, keep them engaged, keep them excited, and keep them coming back. Paul Casey: I love that, because they could vote with their feet. Justin Raffa: Absolutely. Paul Casey: Do you also have a formal feedback mechanism or are they just free to give you feedback at any time? Justin Raffa: We typically have a series of surveys that we'll share with them. And we survey a lot of our stakeholders, so following a performance, we survey our audience. Recently in this era of COVID, we've done a number of surveys with our singers to gauge initially, what do you want to do and what do you not want to do since we can't be assembled, since we can't be together in person singing? Because the staff and I didn't want to just arbitrarily create all these online offerings, whereas the majority of our singers would go, "Nah, I'm not digging that. I don't want to do that." Paul Casey: Yeah. Justin Raffa: So just trying to gauge their interests. And now, as we see a lot of businesses and industries that are transitioning back to hybrid services and in-person services, asking the singers, "Do you want to do this? Are you ready to be back together? What's the timeline? How eager?" Or, "What are the conditions that you want to see met before you would be comfortable resuming in-person rehearsals?" So that I would like to think that we've created a lot of opportunities for singers to give them feedback. Justin Raffa: Many of them have become good personal friends, they're in my social circle, so I would also hope that they would feel comfortable approaching me if there was an issue that needed to be addressed. But we also have a number of other staff and obviously a board of directors who are my bosses. If there was an issue, they are points of contact for singers to give that feedback, if they're not comfortable talking with me. Paul Casey: Yeah, you mentioned it's slow now of course, during COVID, and I feel for you because it's your passion and you can't assemble to produce these works of art. But when, before COVID, and hopefully very soon, replenishment of energy is a big deal, because you said you could be on all the time because you love what you do. So what do you do to manage stress other than the boundaries that you mentioned earlier trying to put a cap on replying to email? Justin Raffa: Paul, I am a massage junkie. Paul Casey: Are you? Justin Raffa: I try to go every two weeks if I can, if my budget allows it. Paul Casey: Nice. Justin Raffa: I also, a couple of years ago, started receiving acupuncture treatments, which I think are very complimentary, the yin to the yang of massage. If massage is the macro, acupuncture is the micro treatments. So that self-care is very important to me. I have a hot tub on my back patio that I use very frequently. Paul Casey: Oh, yeah. Justin Raffa: And it's funny because in this era of COVID, my industry was among the first to officially shut down because the nature of performing arts. We're all about big groups of people being together in the same physical space and usually in very close proximity. That's what choir is. Choir singers, we stand shoulder to shoulder often. Paul Casey: Yeah. Justin Raffa: So I have taken advantage of all of this free time I've had to really reflect on my health and stress management, because I historically have done a terrible job at it. I will just work myself to death. So I calmed myself into a daily exercise routine. I get out of the house every day. I think it's important to be outdoors, get some sunshine. I take a 30ish-minute walk. I'm very privileged, I live in Richland, close to the River Walk, so I have a built-in walk that's right out my back door. Paul Casey: Nice. Justin Raffa: And then I started a 30-minute exercise routine. I rotate arms day, legs day, core day. And if you had said to me over a year ago that this would be my future, I would say, "No way. I hate working out. I hate exercise. I'm not a gym guy." But so many of my doctors and my healthcare team, people that care about me have said, "Justin, as you approach 40, you need to take care of yourself and build muscle mass." Justin Raffa: I'm a pretty flexible person. My massage therapists have always told me that, but you need core muscles to be strong, so I don't turn into a shriveled hunchback of an old man when I'm 50. Paul Casey: Right. Justin Raffa: So I think devoting the time to take care of your physical wellbeing is something that I'd never prioritize, but that I've been able to do. I've seen a lot of benefits from that. And I've also recently been working on learning mindful meditation, something I'm interested in, but since I've had so much time by myself that I can really focus in on it. Paul Casey: Well, Tri-City influencers, a lot to put on your wellness self-care checklist that Justin just ran through. So hopefully you got some great ideas to make sure you've got in your own replenishment plan. Well, before we head to our next question on people development, a shout out to our sponsor. Paul Casey: Located in the Parkway, you'll find motivation new friends and your new coworking space at FUSE. Whether you're a student just starting out or a seasoned professional, come discover all the reasons to love coworking at FUSE. Come co-work at FUSE for free on Fridays in February. Enjoy free coffee or tea, Wi-Fi, printing, conference rooms, and more, and bring a friend. FUSE is where individuals and small teams come together in a thoughtfully designed resource-rich environment to get work done and grow their ideas. Comprised of professionals from varying disciplines and backgrounds, FUSE is built for hardworking, fun loving humans. Learn more about us at fusespc.com or stop by 723, the Parkway in Richland, Washington. Paul Casey: Justin, people development, that's what you do, it's crucial for leadership, and if you could clone the ideal person for your organization, what are you looking for? What traits would they have? Justin Raffa: Artists, and I'd say teachers and conductors in general, we are so focused on product versus process. We're working towards a performance and perfecting that performance. So we tend to put a lot of value on skill sets, on people's training. But at the end of the day, what I have discovered is, I could bring in the most talented and experienced artistic team, but if they're jerks, if they're not pleasant to work with, if they aren't good team players, the whole process is miserable. And then you could have the most beautiful high-quality aesthetic product, but it's not worth it to me anymore. Justin Raffa: So early in my career, I really looked up to these pillars. I idolized a lot of celebrities in my industry who I discovered are really nasty people. So I want to clone people who are flexible, who are pleasant to work with, that I'm going to look forward to going into the weekly staff meeting with them, and not dreading, "Oh gosh, I hope Paul doesn't go off the handle again because we didn't have enough green M&M's in his dressing room." Because a lot of that happens, a lot of artists who have wild expectations, and are very needy, and very demanding, and I don't want to play with those people. Justin Raffa: I would rather have a less-quality product, but that I have really enjoyed the process of getting there, working with people that bring me joy, that I really value the time that I spent, because we do. We spend so much time together as ensemble artists building a product. So I want to clone a team of, I don't know what that physically looks like, but flexible and reliable, that they're going to get the job done and not just do lip service. And for me as a leader, I want to a team of folks that I know if I'm going to divvy out these responsibilities, which has also been hard for me, sometimes it's like, "Well, I'll do it. I'll take care of it myself," if I divvy that out, I trust that the team is going to deliver. Paul Casey: Which is crucial for delegation, crucial for that. Yeah, and I also agree that we want to hire people, in whatever leadership position you're in, that you look forward to being with. That we don't think about going to a meeting with them and it's like, "Oh, I've got to go to a meeting with so-and-so." I heard it said that you want to hire people that you would choose to go to dinner with. That's one of the filters to look through and so, I love that. Paul Casey: Well, you have to think of your organization as the head of a nonprofit, you've got to look further out, long-term, you've got to look at the big picture, how do you do that, Justin? Justin Raffa: I have also historically been terrible at this, because I've often said, "I live in the present moment, and I'm just paying attention to what's in front of me." And as I approach turning 40 and coming into formal middle age I suppose, I feel like it's a big shift for me. Paul Casey: Yes. Justin Raffa: A lot of this, I think just comes with age that we become more experienced and it forces us to think ahead about what's next. When I was in my 20s, it didn't matter. I got a job for $4,000 a year. I'm not thinking about retirement or savings, it's like, "I'll spend it when I got it and have fun and I'll worry about tomorrow, tomorrow." But as I've worked in particular with the Mastersingers, if we have big goals, if we have big dreams about what we want our organizations to accomplish, if I don't want to keep working for the same 30ish thousand-dollar annual budget organization, we have to plan ahead. We have to set those goals because it does take a long time to get there. Justin Raffa: The choir's budget is now, just over $250,000 a year. And I'm so proud that we have built that here in the Tri-Cities. It can be done, a performing arts organization that thrived. At a time when, I was hired in the summer of 2008 in the midst of the big economic downturn that the country was facing where so many performing arts organizations were closing up shop, going bankrupt. You've got to set goals if you want to actually grow, and set your sights big, because I am. I want a big, bigger, better, bolder community. I want a bigger, better, bolder organization. And it's not something that I can do today or tomorrow, it takes the time to invest. Work with the team, set those big visions, because it's going to take a lot of time to get there, but you will, if you invest the time. Paul Casey: Well, congratulations for what has been built through you with the team, because that is phenomenal. Justin Raffa: Thank you. I'm proud of the role I've played, but it's because of the team. We got the right people on the bus when we need them. Paul Casey: That's right. And to use your macro/micro wording from earlier. So macro vision, the big goals, wanting to make this even more phenomenal than it is. What are the small acts of leadership in your role as artistic director? How do you make a positive difference in each one of your volunteers? Justin Raffa: When you and I went through LTC, we learned about five leadership traits in a particular system. And one that I had never really considered, because it's not important to me as an individual, is called encourage the heart. Paul Casey: Yep. Justin Raffa: And I think that conductors, classical music conductors are also notoriously terrible at this. We are trained to be pragmatic. We are fixing problems. And when something is correct, we just check it off the list and we move on. It's like, "What else needs to be fixed? Where else are the problems?" So I was so appreciative of my time in LTC that one of my biggest takeaways was stop and celebrate successes. And not just the big ones, once a year at the annual meeting, celebrate the little things, thank people, thank them more often than you think. Justin Raffa: And again, it's because I find that myself as an individual, that's not so important to me. I don't need a lot of lauds and thanks. I often say, "It's my job, I'm doing my job." But not everyone is like me. And of the diverse team and volunteers that I serve, it goes a long way in a rehearsal to stop and say, "Altos, that was really beautiful, thank you for that." And they look at me like, "Oh, my gosh." Because they're waiting for, "Altos, you're still singing the wrong note and I just don't know why." So this idea of encourage the heart, celebrate successes not just the big ones, and thank people often. Paul Casey: Thank people more than you think, I like that. Well, if one of our Tri-City influencer listeners asked you what are some leadership resources they must go to, it could be books, it could be podcasts, it could be other ways to grow their leadership skills, where would you point them? Justin Raffa: I used to be such an avid reader for pleasure, but now as a conductor, most of my "reading time" is spent studying music scores. But there are a couple of resources that I've enjoyed over the years as a leader. One of which I just mentioned, the leadership challenge, I believe is the formal concept that you and I studied in Leadership Tri-Cities and there's a book that came out with that. I very much enjoyed that book. It really changed my perspective on identifying those five key roles because two of them were very obvious to me. It's like, "I know I already do this pretty well, but the other three it's like, oh, I never really thought of that." So I certainly encourage people to read that. Justin Raffa: And the rest of my response, probably I would take this in a different direction than some of your other guests say, I think it's important for us here as leaders in the Tri-Cities to read the Tri-City Herald. I am a subscriber online, but we need to know what's happening in our community locally. And despite all the changes that the Herald has had in terms of staffing or the parent company that's in charge, they remain the best authority of local news. And I think it's important for us to know what's happening in our community on all these various fronts of business sectors and politics, because ultimately it is going to affect me and my organization. Justin Raffa: I think good leaders need to be aware of the big picture of what's happening in their community. Not just that I know all the latest arts and culture news, but that I'm aware of what's happening at PNNL and Hanford and on the tourism front, all those things come together. And support your local paper, right? We need good media. So be a subscriber to the Herald. It is a great resource. Justin Raffa: And then out for my daily walks, I usually listen to the New York Times, puts out a podcast called The Daily. It's about 30ish minutes, so it is the length of my walk. And that is focusing on different national issues, little 30ish-minute clips of what's going on nationally or even internationally what's happening in the world. And I have a lot of respect for The New York Times. I think it's a great publication. It's got a good team of people that are doing that investigative journalism that is not always guaranteed with a lot of our news and media sources these days. Justin Raffa: So those are things that I consume on a daily basis, in addition to reading lots of meeting minutes of city councils and other jurisdiction meetings, I try to keep myself up to speed on what local governments are doing. And since I can't attend every single meeting of every jurisdiction, I go back and read a lot of meeting minutes, which can be a little stale, but again, good to know what's going on? And what are our local elected officials? What are the decisions that they've been making for our community? Paul Casey: Great to stay aware. Good reminder. Well, finally, Justin, what advice would you give to new leaders or anyone who wants to keep growing and gaining more influence? Justin Raffa: Be present in the community, get out there and be visible, meet people. I continue to spend a lot of my work putting in time, getting out of the choir rehearsal, going to networking events and the chamber of commerce luncheons, any kind of communal gathering. I think it's important that I'm advocating for my organization, that I let people know that we exist. Justin Raffa: That was one of the biggest challenges when I moved here in the summer of 2008, as I was house hunting and people would say, "What brings you to Tri-Cities, you work in a Patel?" "No." "Are you hired by one of the Hanford contractors?" "No. I am the new artistic director of adult community choir called Mid-Columbia Mastersingers." And inevitably people said, "Who? Never heard of them." So I've had to build the profile of my organization. And a lot of that is just being present, getting out there. Justin Raffa: And getting out outside of your industry. We tend to cluster with people we know. All the arts and culture folks in town are good friends, they're in my social circle, I meet them at local watering holes, but sometimes we just become too insulated, right? All the doctors hang out with the doctors and all the lawyers hang out with the lawyers. We need to intersect those paths. Leadership Tri-Cities was a big help for me on that front. Some of my closest friends in my class were the most different from me and worked in sectors that are farthest removed from what I do as a musician. Justin Raffa: So get out there and meet people, meet people outside of your industry, and build your reputation that people know you to be a kind, compassionate and reliable person. Not just that, "Oh yeah, Justin is the quiet guy." Everybody knows that. They know I'm a music person, but I also hope that they know me to be kind and caring and reliable, that if I'm involved in a project or I've joined a board that I will deliver, I will show up when I'm given a task, I have a reputation for seeing it through. Build that community profile that people just don't think of you as, "Oh yeah, well, he's the CEO of this company." What beyond our titles do people know you for? I think that's so important, building those relationships, positive relationships with people. Paul Casey: Great reminders, to weave yourself into the fabric of your community and be that go-to dependable person. Well, Justin, how can our listeners best connect with you? Justin Raffa: Well, Paul as you and many know I did throw my hat in a political arena this past year. Paul Casey: Yes. Justin Raffa: I stood as a candidate for local office. If people are interested in engaging on those issues and just a lot of local community awareness, I do maintain a Facebook page called Elect Justin Raffa. I am not running for anything, I have not made any declarations, but I wanted to keep that page alive to just continue to talk about local community issues that I think are important. I also have a Twitter presence as well. You can follow me there, electjustinraffa. You can email me directly, it's info@justinraffa.com. My first and last name, R-A-F-F, as in Frank, A, is how I heard my mother pronounce my name for years over the phone, because inevitably the letter F might sound like a letter S. Paul Casey: And Justin, you probably also would love them to support the arts fundraisers in town as well, right? Justin Raffa: Yeah. In fact Mid-Columbia Arts Fundraiser is the name of an organization that supports not just my own, but some of our partners Mid-Columbia Ballet, Mid-Columbia Musical Theater, Mid-Columbia Symphony. There is such great art being made here in the Tri-City. Sometimes we're not so visible because we don't have a brick and mortar. We haven't built that performing arts center just yet. Maybe we'll talk about that next time. That's the long-term goal of mine that I will see through before I leave this community. We are going to get it done. Paul Casey: Yes, keep being a champion. Well, thanks for all you do to make the Tri-Cities a great place and keep leading well. Let me wrap up our podcast today with a leadership resource to recommend. He was one of the stalwarts in the personal development world, passed away several years ago, a guy by the name of Jim Rohm, jimrohn.com, J-I-M-R-O-H-N.com, and he lives on through his blog through The Success Academy, their resources, a team that just wants to keep getting his stuff out there. He was one of the personal development gurus of the 20th century. Stuff on goal setting, communication and leadership, all of my passions, you might want to hit up jimrohn.com to learn more. Paul Casey: Again, this is Paul Casey. I want to thank my guest, Justin Raffa from the Mid-Columbia Mastersingers for being here today on the Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast. And we want to thank our TCI sponsor and invite you to support them. We appreciate you making this possible so we can collaborate to inspire leaders in our community. Paul Casey: Finally, one more, a leadership tidbit for the road to help you make a difference in your circle of influence. Zig Ziglar said, "Outstanding people have one thing in common, an absolute sense of mission." And so next time KGF, keep growing forward. Speaker 2: Thank you to our listeners for tuning in to today's show. Paul Casey is on a mission to add value to leaders by providing practical tools and strategies that reduce stress in their lives and on their teams, so that they can enjoy life and leadership and experience their key desired results. If you'd like more help from Paul in your leadership development, connect with him at growingforward@paulcasey.org, for a consultation that can help you move past your current challenges and create a strategy for growing your life or your team forward. Speaker 2: Paul would also like to help you restore your sanity to your crazy schedule and getting your priorities done every day by offering you his free Control My Calendar Checklist, go to www.takebackmycalendar.com for that productivity tool, or open a text message 72000 and type the word 'growing'. Paul Casey: Tri-Cities Influencer podcast was recorded at Fuse SPC by Bill Wagner of Safe Strategies.

Paul Casey: Goals are dreams with a deadline. So you have to start somewhere and that's some kind of dream or aspiration, and then you have to have a deadline now, because it's not done until you get there. Speaker 2: Raising the water level of leadership in the Tri-Cities of Eastern Washington, it's the Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast. Welcome to the TCI Podcast, where local leadership and self-leadership expert Paul Casey, interviews local CEOs, entrepreneurs, and non-profit executives, to hear how they lead themselves and their teams, so we can all benefit from their wisdom and experience. Here's your host, Paul Casey, of Growing Forward Services. Coaching and equipping individuals and teams to spark breakthrough success. Paul Casey: It's a great day to grow forward. Thanks for joining me for today's episode with Bob Smart. Bob is the principal at Southgate Elementary school, the proud home of The Dragons. And I asked Bob for something quirky about him and he talked about Chuck Taylor's sneakers. Bob, tell us more about that. Bob Smart: Well, I started getting Chuck Taylor's sneakers, old school sneaks to match the colors of the schools that I was working with. And then somewhere along the line Paul, it became kind of a problem. I've done up two dozen pair and... Paul Casey: Two dozen pairs. Bob Smart: Yeah. Sadly true. Paul Casey: Are you competing with your wife or is this just she outpacing you? Bob Smart: No. I have won that one. Yeah. Paul Casey: Well, we'll dive in with Bob after checking in with our Tri-Cities influencer sponsor. It's easy to delay answering uncomfortable questions like, what happens to my assets and my loved ones when I die? So it's no surprise that nearly 50% of Americans don't have a Will, and even fewer have an estate plan. Many disabled clients worry that they don't have enough assets to set up an estate plan. But there are important options available, to ensure that you have a voice in your medical and financial decision-making, even if your health takes a turn for the worst. Paul Casey: Estate planning gives you a voice when your health deteriorates or after you're gone. Maren Miller Bam attorney at law, is currently providing free consultations. To find out more about estate planning, or to book an appointment, call Maren at (206) 485-4066, or visit Salus. That's S-A-L-U-S-law.com today. Paul Casey: Thank you for your support of leadership development in the Tri-Cities. Well, welcome Bob. I was privileged to meet you, Boy, how many years ago has it been? Bob Smart: It's been a number of years. I was trying to figure that out before I came over. Paul Casey: Yeah. I'm going to guess seven or eight. Bob Smart: Yeah. Easily. Paul Casey: Yeah. You've spoken for... When I used to do these edge events, you spoke for one of those and I was able to coach one of your employees somewhere along the line, and one of the teams there. And so, yeah, it's been great. I've always enjoyed your focus on leadership and your enthusiasm. And so it's a pleasure to interview you today. So that our Tri-City influencers can get to know you, take us through a couple of career highlights that led you to your current position. Bob Smart: Well, I've probably taken the scenic route. So I started off as a science teacher and loved it and a baseball coach and loved that as well. Ended up being the school principalship and loved doing that. Had a tour of duty in central office as an assistant superintendent, I was a professor and a Dean. I was teaching in the grad school and I kept telling my students, which were principal and superintendent candidates, that the best job is principal. And then I got thinking, I was teaching a critical reflection class and I got thinking, what am I saying? So luckily I found my current job and they hired me and I love being a school principal. Paul Casey: And why do you love being a school principal? Bob Smart: I was just talking today to some folks that, if you like, anything can happen. That's the job. And it's phenomenal. You get to work with great kids, parents, teachers, staff. It's just a neat little place. Paul Casey: I too, I've been a principal and it is a variety job. No two days are exactly the same. Bob Smart: Yeah. Yeah. Paul Casey: I've chased children around the gymnasium, discipline issues. Yeah. I've sprained my ankle playing freeze tag with children before. So it's a great job, very stressful job for sure. And so you actually were a principal, went to district office professor, came back to that. Was that a difficult decision? Bob Smart: No, it really wasn't. Truly, it was thinking about what am I saying about the principalship? And I think I have had enormous satisfaction being a school principal. Paul Casey: So love what you do, is probably a philosophy that you would want to put out there for the Tri-City influencer listeners. Bob Smart: Absolutely. I mean, if you do what you love, it's a great day every day. Paul Casey: Yeah. So you're probably in your strengths zone, which multiplies your influence. How do you add the most value to the school? Bob Smart: Well, I think I'm a good listener, and I think I'm pretty thoughtful, and I think those skills really, really help. Pretty present in the building, so I have a lot of conversations in a day. Paul Casey: Do you intentionally pull yourself out of your office to be present? Is that just natural for your personality style? Or do you literally put that on your calendar, walk around? Bob Smart: Well, no, I do. I'm probably the opposite Paul. I have to return to the office. The joke is that I could probably sublet that office. I'm not in there that much. And there are definitely times I need to be there and do those kinds of things. But really most of the business is done in hallways, and walking around talking to people, hearing their stories and what their hopes and dreams are, and talking to kids all day. Paul Casey: What's been the net positive effect of that style of leadership? Bob Smart: Probably situational awareness. Being out in the building, talking to people, talking to kids, you can get a feel for what that tempo is, where the issues are, and then where you can help out. Paul Casey: Yeah. It's the old managing by wandering around MBWA. Right? Bob Smart: Exactly. Paul Casey: You can curtail problems. People say like, "Oh, while you're here, I've got a quick question." Right? Where they might not come to your office. Bob Smart: Have you been following me around? It's like every day. Paul Casey: Yes. Since you're here. Bob Smart: Yeah. Since you're here Bob. Paul Casey: And the other opposite, is people start to distrust leaders that they don't see. You've probably seen leaders or even principals along the years, that are bound to their office. Right? Bob Smart: Yeah. And it's also for our parent group too, stakeholder group. Because everyone has an experience with the school principal. And what we've been trying to do, is kind of break down those stereotypes. Paul Casey: Yeah. Bob Smart: And right now in COVID, it's really challenging. Paul Casey: Sure. Bob Smart: Prior to that, we see parents all the time and we try to stay away from the principal's office, so that people have a different experience so to speak. Paul Casey: I remember you teaching me that years ago, that people have negative experiences with school principals from their childhood, and you were trying to blast away at that stereotype by being one of them and just leveling the playing field. Bob Smart: Indeed. Paul Casey: On the flip side, leaders have to be aware of their weaknesses. So what is one of your favorite quote, unquote "ways" to sabotage yourself? Bob Smart: I love how you put that. And I can sabotage myself in a variety of ways, but one of the ones that I've had to get a handle on, is overthinking, and over-planning, and over analysis. Having a research background as such, I am real happy to try to overcomplicate something. When in fact what I've learned from that over time, is that a much more timely decision while maybe not the perfect decision, is probably a better decision. Paul Casey: Yeah. That reminds me of Colin Powell, the battlefield, if he gets 80% of the information it gets to go forward. Bob Smart: Yeah. Paul Casey: You'll never get 100%. Bob Smart: Exactly. And the cost, the cost of the organization and the person, to get that other little bit, isn't worth it. Paul Casey: Right. Right. It's minuscule. So I coach a lot of over thinkers. Bob Smart: Yeah. Paul Casey: I think we should start over thinkers anonymous group here in the Tri-Cities. What would you you say to an over thinker to try to help them snap out of it and yet still be who they are? Bob Smart: Yeah. That's tough. I mean, because you've got to understand the small game, and you've got to listen, and you've got to really think about what people want. So I'll start a lot of conversations with, "Do you want me just to listen? Do you want to work on a plan? Paul Casey: That's good. Bob Smart: Or do we want to gather more data?" And such. And a lot of times, it's just, Bob, I just want you to listen. And what I try to find, is when I start breaking out pages of spreadsheets and pivot tables, I normally try to have an intervention. Paul Casey: You just lost me so. Bob Smart: Well. Paul Casey: What's a pivot table? Bob Smart: It's something really cool, but it's probably just to me at [inaudible 00:10:24] Paul Casey: Down in the weeds, right? Bob Smart: Yeah. Paul Casey: Just down in the weeds. No, that it's a great marriage principle as well of, do you want me to still listen or do you want me to help solve the problem? Bob Smart: Yeah. Paul Casey: Because if you can get ahead of that, you're going to get ahead of the conflict that comes with, just listen, or I need you to help me come up with a solution, stop staring at me. Either way it sets the context for the conversation. Well, really do we achieve our highest potential by ourselves? So Bob, who keeps you accountable and energized, although you can feel the energy from Bob, can't you listeners?. But who keeps you accountable to getting your professional and personal goals accomplished? Bob Smart: One of the things I've done over the years and more recently than ever, is sharing with people, asking for feedback, and doing that in a genuine way. And telling folks, "Hey, when you see me start to do this, would you let me know?" Kind of the thing. And it can be a really difficult thing because you're setting down that mask and that shield and such to get to that point. So that's really helped me along. And what I have found is being a pretty approachable person. Many people, [inaudible 00:11:44]. Paul Casey: That's a blessing. Bob Smart: It's all blessing for sure. Paul Casey: Why don't more people especially leaders, ask for feedback? What's your gut on that? Bob Smart: I think ultimately, it's got to have a root cause down in fear. And I mean, people are stretched to their limit and we're all trying to figure out who we are, and how we can do these kinds of complex jobs like you talked about. And sometimes that feedback, especially unvarnished feedback, it can kind of hurt. And we need to be able to talk about that. And I think that's a start with valuing that feedback. Paul Casey: That is so good. Yeah. I think there is that fear. There a little bit of pride, maybe as well, like, oh, I think I'm doing the right thing here and now you're telling me I'm not." Bob Smart: Right. Paul Casey: And I don't know if I like that. Bob Smart: Well, you're pretty invested in these things. Paul Casey: That's a good word. Invested. Yeah. Bob Smart: All of a sudden it's like, wow, I'm getting some feedback that maybe this isn't the right course. In which genuine feedback and those kinds of genuine relationships and a shared sense of where we're going, I think is pretty powerful. But it's tough. Paul Casey: It is. Bob Smart: Yeah. Paul Casey: It is. And what a vulnerable question, when you see me doing this, would you bring that up? I mean, that just shows you're working on something. Bob Smart: Yeah. Paul Casey: And you really want to get better. Anybody that would say that question wants to get better. And it just makes it easier for then people around to go, "There it is again." And then you can chuckle maybe even. And it sort of puts a little levity to that issue of like, I interrupted again, or I'm talking too much, or whatever that thing is. Well, replenishment of energy keeps a leader at the top of their game. So Bob, principal's work is never done. Right? You could work seven days a week and the to-do-list is still going to be there. So what do you do to manage stress? Bob Smart: So my wife and I, we walk Howard Amon every day. Paul Casey: Really. Every day? Bob Smart: Snow, wind, slit, whatever. We walk it every single day. And if you know of Howard Amon Park, there's a red bench up at the top, and it's got a neat history to that bench. And we sit on that bench every day. And we don't finish the day until we go out. And sometimes that's eight o'clock at night with flashlights, or if I'm feeling particularly goofy, I wear those things on my head and those kinds of things. So we do that. That helps a lot. I also, I try to laugh a lot. And if you can't find humor in a school, you're not searching. Paul Casey: I've got a comedian buddy who started a Facebook group. You can all look it up. It's called Work Happy. And it's all the different ways, people in this group all are coming up with funny things to bring levity to work. Because we default to the negativity due to the stress of our job. So you've got to mix in laughter. And it is a great stress reliever. It's one of the best, I think emotional wellness habits that you can do. Bob Smart: You're right. You're so right. Paul Casey: And where is that bench by the way? So you've got the pool launch there at Lee. Bob Smart: Okay. Paul Casey: Where's is it compared to that? Bob Smart: Well, if you keep going North and you go up, there's an old building there. And you go up onto the dyke there, it's right at the top. Paul Casey: Okay. Bob Smart: You can't miss it. Paul Casey: Okay. Bob Smart: So here's the real secret Paul. Paul Casey: All right. Bob Smart: You got to look on the back of it, because there's a neat little plaque there. And I'll leave the rest to you. Paul Casey: Yeah. We'll just make that a little tease for the listeners. Bob Smart: Yeah. And so if you see a couple there say idle, because that's probably my wife and I. Paul Casey: I love it. And that's quite the commitment to say, you're going to do it every day, whether that's early or that's late. Bob Smart: That's right. Paul Casey: So you're getting exercise out of that, you're getting good conversation with your wife. Bob Smart: Exactly. Paul Casey: And both of those distress you. Bob Smart: And laughter. Paul Casey: And laughter. Well, before we head to our next question on people development, a shout out to our sponsor. Paul Casey: Located in the Parkway, you'll find motivation, new friends and your new coworking space at Fuse. Whether you're a student, just starting out, or a seasoned professional, come discover all the reasons to love coworking at Fuse. Paul Casey: Come co-work at Fuse for free on Fridays, in February. Enjoy free coffee, or tea, WiFi, printing, conference rooms, and more, and bring a friend. Fuse is where individuals and small teams come together in a thoughtfully designed, resource, rich environment, to get work done and grow their ideas. Paul Casey: Comprised of professionals from varying disciplines and backgrounds, Fuse is built for hardworking, fun-loving humans. Learn more about us at fusespc.com, or stop by 723 the Parkway in Richland, Washington. Paul Casey: Well Bob hiring in people development is crucial for leadership. If you could clone the ideal employee, whether that's a teacher, or support staff, anybody for your organization, what traits would that person have? Bob Smart: I think a person needs to be flexible. I mean, we've gone through a year of huge change, second order change. And I think that people that are much more nimble, people that are flexible, are going to be all right, but it's tough. And the second part, would be someone with a fierce customer service, whether that's in education or business I think is critical, an effective leader. And then I think the thing that is the game-changer, that last 5%, is somebody that's truly empathetic. Somebody that can truly empathize with stakeholder groups, people you work with, clientele, customers. Paul Casey: You used the word fierce before customer service. Why did you choose that word specifically? Bob Smart: I think that word is critical in the sense that, if you don't have a commitment to your next in line customer, and you're not absolutely committed to that, I think one, you lose genuineness and I also think that you're not in a service role. Paul Casey: Yeah. I had a feeling you were going to say that word service. That servant leader mentality, is gone when you get myopic. Just about me and my world, instead of the customer, the constituent that we're looking to serve. Bob Smart: Or transactional. Paul Casey: Oh yeah. Transactional. Bob Smart: Yeah. I mean, I think it's important to really have that commitment. Because once you have that commitment, more positive things from that relationship are going to come out it. Paul Casey: And it can become transformational, not just transactional, which educators are in a transformational business. You mentioned empathy as well. What does empathy sound like? What does it look like when you're... Interviewing is a tough deal, right? How do you listen for whether this person is going to be empathetic? Bob Smart: Well, I think some of it comes across as non-verbal inside those kinds of conversations. So what we'll do oftentimes, is we'll talk about scenarios. So here's the scenario that we oftentimes engage in. And then based on that response, that gives us a little bit of insight, whether or not you've got that empathetic response. Because in our business, we're in a highly, emotionally driven business. And oftentimes, we have to deescalate situations. And we can do that through humor, through kindness, but also most importantly through understanding. Paul Casey: Yeah. And that is so true that in hiring, if you were to say, "Hey, Paul give me a set of interview questions." I probably give you half of them that are scenario based, because people can be ready to answer the, "What are your strengths and weaknesses," questions. They're ready for a whole bunch of those, but they're not ready for the scenario ones. That's where the true person comes out. So I've had emerging leaders tell me they want to grow in thinking strategically. And they're like, "How I do that?" So what tips would you give on how to look at the big picture for greater longterm impact? Bob Smart: I would recommend that you study Red Tail Hawks. And that's kind of an odd response. But when you think about it, as a kid I grew up watching these red tail Hawk sit on top of these peepee apples. And then later on I found they've actually got two visions. One is on the horizon so they know when to pull up. And the other one is very focused and almost using a set of binoculars. So kind of a short-term in there, but having that eye for that horizon to get to whatever is going to happen. Paul Casey: The Red-Tail Hawk. Bob Smart: Yeah. Paul Casey: What an illustrative example of that. So it's looking long-term like you said the horizon, and then there's sort of the micro level. What are the small acts of leadership if done daily, can make a positive difference in the lives of teams? Bob Smart: I think being present, just being there, and talking to people, being seen, being visible. If you ask our kindergartners what I do, they say I boss cars. Because they see me out there in the parking lot, but we engage an awful lot of business in the parking lot, talking to parents, talking to kids, welcoming kids, especially during uncertain times. And... Paul Casey: Because you could delegate that, right? Bob Smart: Indeed. Paul Casey: You could say, "I don't want to be in that parking lot. The weather's crummy again today." But you choose to do that. Bob Smart: That's right. I choose to do that. And I think that's also part of my role is tone at the top. And demonstrating that welcoming, that assistance, that service, same thing at recess for our folks as well. Paul Casey: Tone at the top Tri-City influence listeners. Bob, flush that out a little bit more. Bob Smart: Well, I can espouse a variety of things. Paul Casey: Sure. Bob Smart: I can say, "Hey, it's really important for us to be outside, it's really important for us to greet people, it's really important for us to insert." But if I demonstrate that, that's so much more powerful. Meeting kids at the doorway, "How are you doing?" Especially now. Kids are scared, parents are scared. And having that opportunity. Also, when the principal is out in front of the building, as you well know, it is a certain reassurance. Paul Casey: Confidence builder. Bob Smart: Yeah. Plus we get to have a two minute conversation and if we scheduled a meeting, it would have been 30, 45 minutes. Paul Casey: So [crosstalk 00:23:29]. Are you saying it's an exit strategy for the long-winded people? Bob Smart: No, I wouldn't say that. Paul Casey: No, it's a lot of mini conversations... Bob Smart: It is. Paul Casey: ... That cumulatively turn out to be a culture. Bob Smart: Yeah. Paul Casey: And so you said, especially in these times. So let me take a quick side jont here by saying, what else is important in these uncertain times for leaders to do? You said to welcome them, be visible during this time. Any other strategies you're employing to try to help people deescalate some of these emotions? Bob Smart: Part of it is it's going to get better. And if you're not an optimist and looking forward with this, people are looking to leadership to, is it going to be okay? And it's going to be okay. We're going to get through this. We always do. And I think at some point Paul, it's ultimately love. It's really helping reassure folks and take care of people, that during really, really tough times. And in my line of work in schools, schools have a very important role in getting whatever stases and calm. Paul Casey: So as we try to balance people, because you're a people person with administrative tasks, you probably have to utilize some other people and who are stronger, where you might be a little weaker. So do you use your office staff, your administrative professionals to help you with that? Bob Smart: Well, we always have more work than we can possibly do. Paul Casey: Sure. Bob Smart: And I have to watch where I put what limited time I've got. Paul Casey: Yeah. Bob Smart: And I've got to be pretty focused on that. And I think you gave me an idea a long time ago. I still have it on my phone even. Paul Casey: No way. Bob Smart: Who can do this work? And every time... I don't make a lot of phone calls anymore, but I think about that. Because oftentimes that's a growth opportunity for somebody else that can do it. And then I can put whatever energies I have, into whatever I'm doing, whatever mischief I'm creating. Paul Casey: Yeah. Sometimes leaders have to be at the 30,000 foot level, sometimes at 15,000 feet. And today I think all of our listeners have got from you, you've got to be on the tarmac once in a while. Bob Smart: I think you're right. Yeah. I think that's true. Paul Casey: Well, some of our TCI listeners asked you, what two to three books or resources they must read, in order to grow their leadership skills. Where would you point them? Bob Smart: I would start off with Ron Heifetz's book, Leadership Without Easy Answers. And so that's from the Kennedy School of Government. And that was written a number of years ago, but he really sets up the arguments for a leader to understand what is happening on the dance floor below. Paul Casey: Yes. Bob Smart: And then the differentiating between a technical response and something else. Paul Casey: Adaptive. Right? Bob Smart: Exactly. Paul Casey: Is that the other one? Yeah. Bob Smart: Yeah. Paul Casey: I love that one. Bob Smart: So I just think, it is so powerful. It is really, really helped me think about my role as a leader. Paul Casey: Yeah. That's a good one. I use that, get up in the balcony and look on the dance floor. Bob Smart: That's right. Paul Casey: All the time I'd probably need to quote him, because I've totally stolen that. What's another resource that you'd point people to? Bob Smart: I like Drive by Daniel Pink and understanding that really at the end of the day, people are looking at self-direction. I think effective leaders create opportunities for folks to direct their work. And I think that's a powerful outcome. And I think that goes all the way back to what we're talking about, as far as if you care about people and helping them reach their goals. So that's a powerful work I like. The other one, is... And I think about it more often in the last year to 18 months, is Richard Swenson's work on Margin. Paul Casey: Yes. Bob Smart: I love that. Paul Casey: Yes. Bob Smart: And it's such an easy equation, but extremely difficult to do. Resources minus load equals margin. Paul Casey: Yes. Bob Smart: And what I find with leaders, is that we can operate in negative margin for a while and you would never redline your car. The engine's going to blow up. Well, not altogether different than that. So I think having conversations about margin, is really important in a longterm look at leadership. Paul Casey: Boy, you're the only other person I think that has mentioned that book... Bob Smart: Really? Paul Casey: ... In my life. Yes. I read it years ago in an administrative conference in Seaside, Oregon. I still remember when he came to speak and yeah, the whole load minus limits equals margin and you can't go into negative margin. Bob Smart: Yeah. Paul Casey: But our bodies were not meant to stay in overdrive for too long. He's got some good stuff on nutrition in there. This is years and years ago. But all the different ways that we need to build more white space into our day, to absorb the unexpected. I remember that phrase. Bob Smart: All those curves are the same. You can put all those curves together, whether it's nutrition or whether it's health, they all say the same thing. And my area of research is the principalship and rapid promotion and what happens. And the concern I have, is that the attrition rate for school principals is quite high, same as teachers. And it's alarming. And I think part of the answer has to do with having more honest conversations about margin. Paul Casey: So good. Well, finally Bob, what advice would you give to new leaders or anyone who wants to keep growing and gaining more influence? Bob Smart: We talked a little bit about this before. I would still make a list, but I'd be willing to chuck it in the first hour and be okay with that. Paul Casey: Oh no. You're giving me convulsions. Bob Smart: This is probably an overused cliche, but listen, learn and lead. I just think that's powerful. And I think it's okay to take some time to understand something, to really be in a position to where you can lead. And then finally, I think don't take yourself seriously. And I crack myself up all the time with the goofy things I do and that's okay. Paul Casey: Listen to learn to lead the three L's. Don't take yourself too seriously. These are great takeaways. Bob, how can our listeners best connect with you? Bob Smart: Well, I'm in the land of The Dragons at Southgate Elementary and where every day is the dragonrific day and pretty easy to get ahold of. And so... Paul Casey: Thank you so much for all you do to make Tri-Cities a great place and keep leading well. Let me wrap up our podcast today with a leadership resource to recommend. This past year have gotten certified in the EIQ, which is the Emotional Intelligence Quotient assessment. And so it assesses you in three areas, self-recognition, social recognition, self-management and social management. So for 60 bucks, you could take this assessment. Paul Casey: I'd be happy to debrief it with you. You can do a retreat for your team on it and to do a group debrief, so that the entire organization, or your entire leadership team, can raise the emotional intelligence level, which is one of the best leadership pursuits you could have for your professional development this year. Paul Casey: Again, this is Paul Casey. I want to thank my guest, Bob Smart from Southgate Elementary, land of The Dragons, for being here today on Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast. And we want to thank our TCI sponsor and invite you to support them. We appreciate you making this possible, so we can collaborate to inspire leaders in our community. Paul Casey: Finally, one more leadership tidbit for the road, to help you make a difference in your circle of influence. Milton Berle said, "If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door." Till next time KGF, Keep Growing Forward. Speaker 2: Thank you to our listeners for tuning in to today's show. Paul Casey is on a mission to add value to leaders, by providing practical tools and strategies, that reduce stress in their lives and on their teams, so that they can enjoy life and leadership and experience their key desired results. Speaker 2: If you'd like more help from Paul in your leadership development, connect with him at growingforward@paulcasey.org, for a consultation that can help you move past your current challenges and create a strategy for growing your life or your team forward. Speaker 2: Paul would also like to help you restore your sanity to your crazy schedule and getting your priorities done every day, by offering you his free control mind calendar checklist. Go to www.takebackmycalendar.com for that productivity tool, or open a text message 272000 and type the word grow. Paul Casey: Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast was recorded at Fuse SPC by Bill Wagner of Safe Strategies

Paul Casey: Too many priorities means you have no priorities, because then you're making everything a priority. Speaker 2: Raising the water level of leadership in the Tri-Cities of Eastern Washington, it is the Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast. Welcome to the TCI podcast, where local leadership and self-leadership expert Paul Casey interviews local CEOs, entrepreneurs, and non-profit executives to hear how they lead themselves and their teams, so we can all benefit from their wisdom and experience. Here's your host, Paul Casey of Growing Forward Services, coaching and equipping individuals and teams to spark breakthrough success. Paul Casey: It's a great day to grow forward. Thanks for joining me for today's episode with Lisa Godwin. Lisa is the Women and Children's Shelter director of the Tri-City Union Gospel Mission, and author and speaker. And I asked her what a fun fact about her was, and she started riffing on Hallmark Christmas movies. Lisa, tell us more. Lisa Godwin: Yes, so I absolutely love Christmas, and so I love that time of year, but I also love watching Hallmark Christmas movies. So, I have t-shirts that say, "This is my Hallmark Christmas movie watching t-shirt." Paul Casey: No. Lisa Godwin: I also have socks that I wear, yes I do. And ultimately, someday, I would like to be in a Hallmark Christmas movie in the background. I don't want to be up in the front, but I want to be an extra, where I can sip coffee, or do some ice skating, or something fun like that. Paul Casey: Bucket list item. Lisa Godwin: Yes. Paul Casey: Lisa, don't you know that they're all the same plot, every single one of them? Lisa Godwin: But they're so happy, every one of them is happy. Paul Casey: There's going to be a communication problem, and there's going to be a snowfall, and they get back together. Okay, all right, we got a good laugh before we came on the air. All right, we'll dive in after checking with our Tri-City influencer sponsor. Speaker 4: It's easy to delay answering uncomfortable questions like, "What happens to my assets and my loved ones when I die?" So it's no surprise that nearly 50% of Americans don't have a will, and even fewer have an estate plan. Many disabled clients worry that they don't have enough assets to set up an estate plan. But there are important options available to ensure that you have a voice in your medical and financial decision-making, even if your health takes a turn for the worst. Estate planning gives you a voice when your health deteriorates, or after you're gone. Maren Miller Bam, attorney at law, is currently providing free consultations. To find out more about estate planning, or to book an appointment, call Marin at (206) 485-4066, or visit Salus, that's S-A-L-U-S-law.com today. Paul Casey: Thank you for your support of leadership development in the Tri-Cities. So Lisa, we got to meet each other like 10 years ago, you were a development director in an organization that I used to be in, and we connected there, and I felt like kindred spirit there. It's like, we get to talk leadership, and we both had a passion to make an influence on the world. We've all gone to different jobs since then, two or three of them>. Lisa Godwin: Yes, yes. Paul Casey: And reconnected, and just so excited for what you're doing over there at the Union Gospel Mission, so thanks for being here today. Lisa Godwin: Thank you. Paul Casey: Tell our Tri-City influencers a little bit of your career highlights that led you to your current position. Lisa Godwin: Yes, so there have been a lot of career highlights, but I have to say that it's actually the low lights that brought me to my position right now at the Union Gospel Mission. So I work with women who are down and out, who are at sometimes the worst time in their life, and so as much as I'm so very thankful for the position as executive director, I was Leadership Tri-Cities also WSU Woman of Distinction, and a couple other things. And those were awesome, and I was so excited about that, but it was the low times in my life that taught me the lessons that I can take with me to lead the shelter, not just lead my staff, but lead the women who they themselves can become leaders once they are out of their trauma and difficulty. Paul Casey: So why do you love what you do? Lisa Godwin: I love what I do because every day I get to encourage, empower, disciple, mentor, teach, come alongside of women who do not know their worth or value yet, and I get to help them see that. I get to help them see the diamond in the rough. I get to help them see their strengths, not their weaknesses. Their weaknesses are usually what they're focused on, and it actually ends up becoming their identity. And I get to teach them that that is not their identity, that they can grow their strengths, and we get to help them find their strengths. Paul Casey: What a fantastic mission that you get to be a part of. So along your journey you made different career moves, you said some lowlights probably led to some of those. How did you decide when to make a move, maybe from one of those organizations to another, from one position to another? Lisa Godwin: Yeah, so I have to be honest, I have a relationship with the Lord, and so the main thing is prayer. I spend a lot of time in prayer and meditation and reading, and that guides and a lot of what I do. Also, situations that may come up within that position that I am in helps me evaluate if I'm best used in that position, or if maybe it's time to move on and let someone else take over from where I've brought it to. So I think there's a lot of parts and pieces that go in from moving to different positions, but ultimately, I just want to be used in an organization where I can serve them. And once that's not happening anymore, then maybe it's time for me to move on. Paul Casey: So Lisa, staying in one’s strength zone at work can multiply your influence. So how do you add the most value at the Union Gospel Mission? Lisa Godwin: Absolutely, so I believe that due to my life experiences, and the things that God has allowed me to go through, I realized that transparency is critical to coming alongside of the women at the shelter, to coming alongside of my staff, that it provides trust, and they trust, whether it's staff or the women at the shelter, they're going to trust me if I'm transparent with them. And so they're going to share with me, they're not going to hide things from me, and that's where there's growth, because now I can come alongside of them and they trust me, and I can help them, and assist them, teach them, mentor them, and encourage. Paul Casey: Transparency is so huge. I think I've said once on the podcast, Patrick Lencioni wrote a book called Getting Naked, which has nothing to do with nudity, by the way, it has all to do with transparency and vulnerability and leadership and how that builds trust, and just lowers those barriers. He said it was his least sold book, and probably because of the title, it's a little too catchy. But yeah, I totally agree with you on that. In fact, you are now a published author, you wrote a book, and really the whole core value of the book is around transparency, isn't it? Lisa Godwin: It absolutely is. It basically is struggles that I have gone through, that I have lived through, have come out on the other end, and I can basically come alongside another woman through the words in my book to encourage them. It was written specifically to a woman who is hurting, whether that's a woman in a shelter, or anyone else, but someone who's going through a really hard time and needs to have answers to the pain that she's going through, this book will provide some of those answers. I'm extremely transparent, you're going to see the struggles that I've gone through, the personal struggles, and some people say it's pretty raw. But I'm okay with that because it's proven already to be extremely successful and has brought women out of certain pain elements that they've been going through in their life. Paul Casey: Wow. I remember, I was sitting in Barracuda Coffee with you several years ago and you're like, "I want to write a book." You did it. Lisa Godwin: Yes. Paul Casey: You wrote the book, years later. And Tri-City Influencer listeners, many of you have a book in you, and it takes a lot of discipline to write it, but I would say, go for it, get some words on paper. And we'll just take that quick aside, how did you write the book? Did you do it in one big chunk? Did you write X number of words a day? Lisa Godwin: It was pretty cool how it all came about. Yes, I've wanted to write this for, and had in my heart for about 15 years. Had dinner with a friend about two and a half years ago and I said, "Oh, how I would love to reach more than just the woman at the shelter with a message that I've been sharing with them, and a book would do that, it would open the doors to touching more hearts and lives." And she said, "Well, why don't you just write letters, why doesn't each chapter be a letter to the women who are hurting?" And I said, "Oh my goodness, that is the answer, that is what I'm going to do." So I had the answer, I knew what I was going to do, I sat down, it took me a month to write it, which is crazy, and then found a publisher within a few months, and was off and running. Paul Casey: So exciting. Lisa Godwin: Yes. Paul Casey: So you said you were pretty raw in there, and transparent. So leaders have to be self-aware of their weaknesses, so you can be a little raw and transparent with us really quick. What's your favorite "way to sabotage yourself"? Lisa Godwin: Oh my goodness. Fear, for sure. Paul Casey: Fear. Lisa Godwin: There was no question. And whether it's fear of failure, fear of success, fear of the risk that I might need to take, fear in general. Yeah, so I've had to create some ways to deal with that fear and really to black that out. Paul Casey: False evidence appearing real, right? That's what FEAR stands for? Lisa Godwin: Yes, it is. Paul Casey: So you said you've had to come up with some ways, if someone is struggling with fear listening today, what would you say to them? Lisa Godwin: I would say fear is a liar. I would say we make things way bigger than they are, and just focus on the truth. Paul Casey: Courage. Lisa Godwin: Yes, yep. Paul Casey: Well, rarely do we achieve our highest potential by ourselves. So who keeps you accountable? Who keeps you energized to getting your professional and personal goals accomplished? Lisa Godwin: Absolutely my husband. He is my biggest fan, my biggest supporter, and I would hope that he would feel the same way about me. But he is always there to encourage, to speak the truth when I need it. I have to say my family as well, my children. But then there's an element that the women at the shelter hold me accountable. So they're really good at being able to see right through you. And so I have to be on my game, I have to be real. They're going to know if I'm not speaking the truth, and something's going on. So they hold me accountable to me being the best leader and the best mentor that I can be, and I love that. Paul Casey: Very cool. All right, let's get Scott on the line right now and ask him the same question. No, just kidding. Lisa Godwin: Exactly. Paul Casey: No, it's great to have family members be that inner circle keeping you energized and accountable. But using your people, I'll use the word using there, but using your people to be that gauge for, am I bringing my best, my authentic self? I think that's really classic. So replenishment of energy keeps a leader at the top of their game, how do you manage stress? Lisa Godwin: So other than the Hallmark Christmas movies, I enjoy camping. My husband and I have recently gotten into camping, and we have a trailer. I also like kayaking. I just enjoy that being out in the river, just the quietness, being able to just think, or not think, and just have a little exercise, it's just wonderful. So it gets me out of my element of thinking and having to process things. Paul Casey: I was reading just the other day that just being in the forest is a stress reducer and a depression buster. Isn't that amazing? There's something about the, the chemicals that the trees are exuding. Lisa Godwin: Yes. Paul Casey: That literally just being in there reduces, so we have to get more time in the forest. Lisa Godwin: Absolutely. Paul Casey: In Tri-Cities it's probably Russian olives, but I love the idea of kayaking and exercising and camping, to be out there in God's nature. Well, before we head into our next question on people development, let's shout out to our sponsor. Speaker 4: Located in The Parkway, you'll find motivation, new friends, and your new coworking space at Fuse. Whether you're a student just starting out, or a seasoned professional, come discover all the reasons to love coworking at Fuse. Come co-work at Fuse for free on Fridays in February. Enjoy free coffee or tea, Wi-Fi, printing, conference rooms, and more, and bring a friend. Fuse is where individuals and small teams come together in a thoughtfully designed, resource rich environment to get work done and grow their ideas. Comprised of professionals from varying disciplines and backgrounds, Fuse is built for hardworking, fun loving humans. Learn more about us at Fusespc.com, or stop by 723 The Parkway in Richland Washington. Paul Casey: So Lisa, people development, crucial for leadership, the people you surround yourself with. So if you could clone the ideal employee for the mission, what traits would that person have? Lisa Godwin: So when I'm looking to hire a supervisor, or a staff member, I am always looking for someone who is teachable. At the shelter it's a beast of its own. So every day is different, and every situation is different, so they need to be able to be teachable, no matter how many degrees they have behind their name. And also humility. Humility is so important. Humility to be able to accept responsibility for mistakes that you've made. I do not ever expect perfection, and I make that very clear. I expect if you've made a mistake, own it, let's own our mistakes, and then let's learn from them. And they know that about me, and I live that out. I do the same thing; I'm going to own my mistake. Also honesty. Just be honest with me. If there's a problem, tell me. If you've done something, tell me. I'd much rather have you be honest with me then me finding out a different way. Paul Casey: What would you say are some signs of not being teachable, of not being humble? I don't know if you can pick that up in an interview, maybe you can, but just when you think of, you also inherit employees, a lot of our listeners have inherited employees. What are some of those telltale signs of not being coachable, teachable, and humble? Lisa Godwin: Yeah, I really feel like it's when someone's consistently making excuses for things that they've done, there's just not an owning. When you can own your mistakes, there's humility there. When you can speak your mistakes, and not just think it but speak it, that you own it, that you are going to do something about it, there's power in that. And so if I can hear somebody acknowledge that they've made mistakes, that they've grown from it, and that they're willing to grow, to me that's an indication that they're probably humble, they're probably willing to be teachable, and there'll be a good staff member. Paul Casey: That's a good indicator in a hiring process. I was talking in our last podcast about how we have to do these scenarios in our interviews probably more often than the standard questions to listen for just that, those little ways that people, so what was the biggest mistake you've made in your last job, and how did you deal with it? Listening for the, I screwed up, but I grew from that. Lisa Godwin: Yes. Paul Casey: And what happens when a leader does own their mistake? What's the effect on the culture, the staff? Lisa Godwin: Oh, I think it's extremely healthy. I think it creates an atmosphere of, it actually promotes creativity, because people don't have fear anymore of holding back. They can be creative, they can potentially be used for their strengths, and they're not going to fear what their boss is going to say to them, or do to them. There's the transparency, when a leader is transparent that's going to trickle down to the staff and they're going to be transparent, and you're going to see success because nobody's going to be fearing making a mistake, if that makes sense. Paul Casey: That is so good. I've heard of organizations have the best mistake award to normalize mistakes. Lisa Godwin: Yes. Paul Casey: To say, you took a risk, it didn't work. Lisa Godwin: Yes. Paul Casey: We're not beating you up over it, we're actually going to give you an award because you did your best, you tried, it didn't work. There's actually one global giant that shoots off a cannon at their headquarters when someone has a learning opportunity. Lisa Godwin: Wow. Paul Casey: So as soon as everyone hears the big boom they're like, 'Somebody screwed up, and they learned from that." Lisa Godwin: Yes, that is great. Paul Casey: Well, I've had people tell me, "So Paul, I want to think more strategically in leadership, I don't think that's one of my natural gifts." What advice would you give to how to look at the big picture? You've been a leader in several organizations, how do you get that long-term impact? Lisa Godwin: So from my perspective, I really see goal setting, every year on an annual basis, as being pretty critical to the success of that organization over the next year. One, it communicates to everyone the mission that you're on for that year, so all your staff are on the same page. And then I also think having each individual staff member under the leader, they also need to have their goals set. So everybody knows what's going on, everybody knows the direction that they're going in, and their effort can all be in that direction, versus having questions and not knowing, and then nobody does anything because there's no goals. Lisa Godwin: So goal setting on an annual basis, I think is critical. Also evaluating, I think it's really important to evaluate your policies and your procedures on a yearly basis as well. Things change, I know they do at the organization I'm at right now, and things change from year to year. We've got COVID, the pandemic, we've got all of these things happening in our world that are changing on a daily basis, and we have to adapt to those changes. And so on a yearly basis, just looking at those policies, looking at those procedures, making tweaks, making changes so that you can more effectively serve, or do whatever your mission is. Paul Casey: So good, evaluate your policies and procedures. I would even say job descriptions could be added to that. Lisa Godwin: Yes, and best practices. Paul Casey: Best practices, yeah. Because things creep in from the side, and one day you wake up and you're like, "I'm not doing anything that's in this document that says what I'm supposed to be doing." Lisa Godwin: Yes, exactly Paul Casey: How do you do that annual goal setting process? Do you have a process that you work through? Lisa Godwin: As director I am part of, obviously, all of the directors at the shelter. Paul Casey: Yep. Lisa Godwin: So yes, every January we go through the process of looking at five different categories. So as director of the shelter I would look at my volunteers, what are my goals for the year for volunteers? What are my goals for donations and potential donors? What are my goals for my staff, in terms of training? What are my personal goals in terms of growth opportunities, trainings that I want to go to? And then anything else, any other category that may serve your business or organization. So we really put it into different categories, and then have maybe three to four or five goals in each category that are attainable, goals that at the end of the year, we can look back and see that we've accomplished this, and it's moved the organization forward in a long-term way. Paul Casey: Yeah, listeners, you may want to rewind that for those categories, especially if you're in nonprofit leadership, because those are great. And for any business that you're in, put them in categories that helps you think through how to improve in that one area, make them attainable. I would also add, make them a stretch too, right? Lisa Godwin: Sure, sure. Paul Casey: So that they can't just be done, I was reading in a book yesterday that says, "Don't pick goals that can be done just by business as usual." Lisa Godwin: That's good, yep. Paul Casey: Because sometimes we shoot small, and we're just like, "Oh, okay, I'm going to write this goal down because I know we're going to achieve it. Lisa Godwin: Yes. Paul Casey: Just by the normal way of doing things, but instead stretch a little bit, challenge yourself. Still attainable, but it's going to take some work because real change does require a real work. Lisa Godwin: Yes, and risk. So thanks for the counseling on the fear. Paul Casey: Yes. So yeah, so goals are one of the ways to bring the vision down onto the tarmac, as I like to say, that the day to day, so how else can leaders, what are small acts of leadership that if they're done daily, make a positive difference in the lives of the teams and the constituents? Lisa Godwin: So good communication I think is pretty critical as well on a day-to-day basis. If I'm communicating as a leader to my staff, what that individual is doing correct, or what they are missing, I can align them on a daily basis, or a weekly basis, whatever that looks like, depending on how large your organization is, but I can keep up on that. Versus waiting until the yearly meeting and having to throw a ton of information on them that they can't really go back and fix, but that I can fix along the way. Lisa Godwin: And so good communication with them on what they're doing right and wrong, but then also communication about what's happening with the organization, so they are keyed into what they need to be doing as well. And they need to be communicating with me as well, so it goes both ways. I do a one-to-one with my staff, with all of my staff, we meet twice a month one-to-one. The first meeting I hold the agenda, and we go through the items that I want to go through. The second one I allow them to. So I'm training them as well in their leadership potential by having them come to the meeting and communicate with me. So I'm trying to train them, also, to do the same thing. Paul Casey: Wow, that really freshens up the one-to-one process. I know some of our listeners really know that they should do one to ones with their people, and there might be a little bit of a hesitation because it's like, "I don't know what should go on that agenda," so I really liked that of the one, one of them is your agenda, one is theirs. I also heard of leader's doing half and half of an hour, where half of it is [inaudible 00:24:51] . What kinds of questions do you ask, what else is on that agenda when you're leading the one to one? Lisa Godwin: Well I first ask, do you have any questions of me? Is there anything going on that you need to know from me? I like to give them praise. I will always give them praise, and then we'll work through any of the issues that I see that I might need to tone up a little bit. But the questions I might be asking them may surround any issues that have gone on over the last couple weeks, any questions they might have about policies and procedures, and yeah, just good communication, letting them know what's going on. Paul Casey: Yeah, that real-time feedback is so important, as opposed to the annual performance review. Lisa Godwin: Yes. Paul Casey: Which of course is great as well. I'm trying to work with companies to move them to quarterly reviews so it is doing exactly what you say, giving more real-time feedback so you can align, and so you can praise. Lisa Godwin: Yes. Paul Casey: Both of those are so critical. Well, if one of our TCI listeners asked you what two to three books, besides yours, of course, that they must read in order to grow their leadership skills, where would you point them? Lisa Godwin: So I have to say, I would point them to the Bible. Truly though, you are going to find so many leadership styles, how they handle things, insecurities, how they handle their insecurities. You really do get a good view of different leaders within the Bible. Also, I really do like the leadership challenge, that's been really helpful, and there's a newer one that's focused towards women, per se, but I really like it, and it could be practical for anybody, and it's Get Out of Your Head by Jenny Allen. A lot of times we live in our head and we need to get those thoughts out, and as leaders, getting them on paper and then communicating them effectively is important. Paul Casey: Yeah, Leadership Challenge, a classic, our local leadership Tri-Cities program. By the way, what class were you? Which best class ever where you? Lisa Godwin: I was class 20, thank you. Paul Casey: Well, second best class ever. Okay. Lisa Godwin: Yes. Paul Casey: But yes, the Leadership Challenge is sort of the textbook for that, five principles, or practices of leadership, in their model the way, inspire a shared vision, challenge the process, enable others to act, and the heart one, encourage the heart. Lisa Godwin: Yes. Paul Casey: Yes, nailed those, so that is a classic that I would definitely say is in my top five leadership reads ever. Lisa Godwin: Yes. Paul Casey: And the name of your book is, we didn't say that earlier. Lisa Godwin: That's okay, it's Dear _____, There's Hope on the Other Side. Paul Casey: Okay, awesome. Lisa Godwin: Thank you. Paul Casey: All right finally, what advice would you give to new leaders, or anyone who wants to keep growing and gaining more influence? Lisa Godwin: The biggest thing that I've learned is not to think that I've arrived, not to think that I know everything, be willing to learn, be willing to grow and understand that there's other people that may know more about a certain topic than you do, based on their life experience or things that they've been educated on. And so when you put up walls to listening, or to only be speaking and not listening, you're really shooting yourself in the foot because you're not able to grow. And so I would encourage you, and this is, again, something else from the Bible, "Be quick to listen and slow to speak," and that in and of itself is super powerful as a leader, because when you're listening, you're going to learn so much that can grow you. Paul Casey: Two ears, one mouth. Lisa Godwin: Yes. Paul Casey: It's probably for a reason. Lisa Godwin: Exactly. Paul Casey: And really what you're describing is having a beginner's mentality. Lisa Godwin: Yes. Paul Casey: By going into situations not as a know it all, it's sort of like when your teenager goes, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, mom." Lisa Godwin: Exactly, yes. Paul Casey: And you're just like, "Yeah, that means you don't really get it." Lisa Godwin: Yeah. Paul Casey: But as leaders, always going in with that beginner's mindset is really rich for the curiosity of learning something new, in a situation. Lisa Godwin: Yeah. And then surrounding yourself. When you do have weaknesses, surround yourself with people who have their strength as your weakness, and so you can play into each other's strengths and weaknesses. Paul Casey: That is so good, whether that's your friendships, mentors, coaches, colleagues, when you're hiring, that all plays into balancing yourself out. Lisa Godwin: Yes. Paul Casey: Well, Lisa, how can our listeners best connect with you? Lisa Godwin: Absolutely. So they can connect with me via email, and my personal email is Lisa.Godwin@mail.com. And eventually I will have a website up, I'm starting a nonprofit called Endless Hope, and my website will be EndlessHopelg.com. So check that out, and yeah, let me know if you have any questions. Paul Casey: Very inspirational. Well, thanks again for all you do to make the Tri-Cities a great place and keep leading well. Lisa Godwin: Thank you. Paul Casey: Let me wrap up our podcast today with a leadership resource to recommend. Got certified last year to present the DISC behavioral assessment, DISC stands for dominant, influential, steadiness, and correctness, and you are a blend of all four of those, but you usually default back to one or two of those. So for $60 each, I can get you the link for that to take the DISC survey, would love to debrief it with you, debrief it with your leadership team, or do a retreat for your entire organization or team so that you can gain the most about how you're wired, and how to pick out these qualities in your customers and in your team so that you can custom communicate to them that is most honorable. So hit me up for the DISC behavioral assessment, and we'll help you with your self-awareness. Paul Casey: Again, this is Paul Casey, I want to thank my guests, Lisa Godwin from the Tri-Cities Union Gospel Mission for being here today on the Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast. We want to thank our TCI sponsor and invite you to support them. We appreciate you making this possible so we can collaborate to help inspire leaders in our community. Finally, one more leadership tidbit for the road to help you make a difference in your circle of influence, Bobby Unser, a race car driver said, "Success is where preparation and opportunity meet." Until next time, KGF, keep going forward. Speaker 2: Thank you to our listeners for tuning in to today's show. Paul Casey is on a mission to add value to leaders by providing practical tools and strategies that reduce stress in their lives and on their teams, so that they can enjoy life and leadership and experience their key desired results. If you'd like more help from Paul in your leadership development, connect with him at growingforward@paulcasey.org for a consultation that can help you move past your current challenges and create a strategy for growing your life, or your team forward. Speaker 2: Paul would also like to help you restore your sanity to your crazy schedule and getting your priorities done every day by offering you his free Control My Calendar Checklist, go to ww.takebackmycalendar.com for that productivity tool, or open a text message 50 72000 and type the word growing. Paul Casey: Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast was recorded at Fuse SPC by Bill Wagner of Safe Strategies.

Paul Casey: Now, what are the 20% of targets that will let you 80% of results if you were to focus a disproportionate amount of time on those 20% tasks? Speaker 2: Raising the water level of leadership in the Tri-Cities of Eastern Washington, it's the Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast. Welcome to the TCI podcast, where local leadership and self-leadership expert, Paul Casey, interviews local CEOs, entrepreneurs, and non-profit executives to hear how they lead themselves and their teams so we can all benefit from their wisdom and experience. Here's your host, Paul Casey, of Growing Forward Services, coaching and equipping individuals and teams to spark breakthrough success. Paul Casey: It's a great day to grow forward. Thanks for joining me for today's episode with Tom Fletcher. Tom is the assistant manager for the waste treatment plant, and Tom does everything with gusto. So Tom, what's unusual about that? Tom Fletcher: So I often get teased by the wife and many family members that I'm either 100% in or 100% out. And when I came into and I was walking through the house at night and that's no different, walking through the house at night and missed the step. I have tiled floor; you know if you're on the tile you're safe. Well, guess what? My foot stepped on the opposite side of the wall and smashed my face right into the wall, blood going down. Paul Casey: Oh, no, no. Tom Fletcher: The wife comes out and laughs at me and says, "What are you doing? Don't you put your hands out in front of you?" I said, "No, I was walking." So I do everything with 100% in or 100% out. Paul Casey: And that's why we're interviewing you today, Tom. Well, we'll dive in after checking in with our Tri-City Influencer sponsor. Paul Casey: It's easy to delay answering uncomfortable questions like, what happens to my assets and my loved ones when I die? So it's no surprise that nearly 50% of Americans don't have a will and even fewer have an estate plan. Many disabled clients worry that they don't have enough assets to set up an estate plan. But there are important options available to ensure that you have a voice in your medical and financial decision-making, even if your health takes a turn for the worst. Estate planning gives you a voice when your health deteriorates or after you're gone. Maren Miller Bam, attorney at law, is currently providing free consultations. To find out more about estate planning or to book an appointment, call Maren at (206) 485-4066 or visit Salus, that's S-A-L-U-S-law.com today. Thank you for your support of leadership development in the Tri-Cities. Paul Casey: Well, Tom, great that you are here. I'm doing a little bit of coaching for your organization and got to meet you through that process. And just our brief conversation made me want to interview you, because I think we're kindred spirits on the whole leadership stuff. And so, let's let our listeners get to know you. So what are some career highlights that have led you to where you are today? Tom Fletcher: So I got master's and bachelor's in civil engineering from WSU, go cougs, grew up in a family of construction businesses. So I've been in the field since I was little but knew that that wasn't my career path. So I went to work for the US Army Corps of Engineers, and in 2006 decided I would make a change and actually transferred to DOE. And from there it's been a whirl, and I think I've held seven positions in the last- Paul Casey: Wow. Tom Fletcher: ... 11, 12, 13 years. Was the deputy manager of regional operations, and just about three years ago was asked to come back and bring the waste treatment plant online. Right now we're headed towards 2023 for the first creation of glass. So got a lot of work to do, but that's where we're headed. Paul Casey: Awesome. And why do you love what you do? Tom Fletcher: A couple of different things. One of the things that I love doing is to give back to the great nation. It's my way of giving back, working for the federal service. But it's also, I get to have fun doing it. And there's something about building a $16 billion facility that you don't often get an opportunity to go do. And the magnitude, the challenges, all of those are rewarding and fun at the same time. Paul Casey: Yeah, I was just doing that last week. No, just kidding. You're right, that is a rare opportunity to be able to put on your resume. Well, staying in one strength zone at work multiplies your influence, you probably believe that as well. So how do you add the most value to your organization and to the teams that you get to lead? Tom Fletcher: So one of the things that I've done a lot through my career is really building the team. Putting the right people in the right seat of the school bus is critical in delivering of a project. You don't put the kid that trips everybody in the front seat, you put them towards the back. So when I build up a team, it starts with building a clear vision, delivering that clear vision, building a critical mass within the team, supporting that clear vision, and then delivering on results. And as long as you can bring those three together, the sky's the limit. And I've created my career based on basically those three premises of clear vision, building the critical mass within the team to support that vision and then going and delivering on our word. And that's how I pretty much came to where I've been at this point in time. Paul Casey: Where did you learn that, Tom? Did it come from resources? Did you have a mentor maybe that taught you that? Or did you come up with that on your own? Tom Fletcher: So a couple of different things. One, I do a lot of reading. I grew up in a family, as I said, that we were taught early that nothing in life is given and everything is earned, or is given or deserved and everything is earned. So, that started off at an early age. I've been working in the field of construction since I was probably 10 or 12 years old with my dad and family members, two of the family businesses. So, that was the starting of it. But a lot of it comes down to mentors and coaches. I've had a lot of mentors and coaches. I'm lucky to have my brother who built businesses on supporting building businesses and supporting people grow. So having a brutal, honest voice that I get to bounce things off of that comes free when he normally charges a lot is excellent as well. Paul Casey: Well, on the flip side, leaders have to be self-aware of their weaknesses. So what is your favorite "Way to sabotage yourself?" Tom Fletcher: So one of the things that I want to touch on here, and this is really about defeating the lesser self. I have a philosophy, and this is built around my brother and my brother's concept as well. You have a heroic self, and you have a lesser self, and the lesser self is that little person on your shoulder, always sitting there telling you to rationalize things away, removing accountability. And I've spent a lot of time making sure I recognize who that is and what it is, and it's me. So the lesser self is just another side of me. And understanding what that means to me and what his triggers are, usually starts with words like, it can be done tomorrow, or there's a future day for that. Tom Fletcher: But for me, it's, being an A type personality, active listening. It's always that little guy saying, jump in there. You know we are going to tell you. And not actually letting the other people provide their perspective, the teammates that truly are the ones that are delivering the mission and truly often have the best answers. Getting all of that information on the table before you're making the decision has been critical and probably my weakest aspect, but it's been something I've worked hard on over the past 10 years. Paul Casey: You mentioned about rationalizing, and I think our brains do have the unlimited capacity to rationalize. If you had an employee who was a "rationalizer," we've probably all been there in our lives, what advice would you give them? Tom Fletcher: Know oneself. A lot of us have someday syndrome. Someday we'll start that, tomorrow's a good day, and that never stops. It's, someday we'll do that. Just over 18 months ago, I was challenged, and again, by my brother, to get back in shape. I'd let business take over for seven plus years and my body got out of shape. And now 18 months later, I'm 60 pounds lighter and in the best shape I've- Paul Casey: Wow. Tom Fletcher: ... physically been in my life, because some day is now today. And it's taking that accountability, again, 100% in or 100% out. And I have watched many statistics, and I'm a huge tracker and I watched my cholesterol keep growing, I watched my shoes get further and further away. And I took no action until I took that challenge. And once the challenge happened, it's been 530 days since I've missed a workout. Paul Casey: Wow, fantastic. Tom Fletcher: But it's about knowing yourself and knowing those weaknesses. And then once you go in, just make it a part of your day, make it a part of you. Paul Casey: Yeah. You can't dabble in it, you've got to fully commit, all in. Well, you mentioned about active listening, which is one of the best leadership skills you could probably have. How do you remind yourself to actively listen? Because you are a driver and you said you're type A, go, go, go, but you've learned along the way. You said that before you make a decision, you've got to listen. How do you remind yourself of that? Tom Fletcher: I think part of it comes to educating your team. And it's two pieces. One, educating the team that you need to know the bottom line upfront. So as a leader, I make sure my team knows, give me the bottom line and then provide me the details. I'll listen to the details, but if you start with the details and I don't know where I'm ending at or what the punchline is, man, that takes me a long time. So I've taught my team ... and this is true throughout life. If you look at the different types of personalities ... I've done a lot of reading and training on personality types. If you start with the bottom line, provide the analytical data and the facts that support it and then provide the connection from an emotional standpoint of how it makes us feel or how it improves us, you cover the entire suite in that order. Tom Fletcher: And the amount of patience people have or normally have is in that order, if you look at it from a personality type. So that is a way to communicate and something that I've learned works very effectively, both vertically, horizontally and down. If you communicate in that style, because you grab that bottom line up front, you gather the facts for those analytical thinkers and then those that are emotional based, they really want to understand what's in it for me. And if you connect that at the end, they'll stay there the longest, because they're really there about the emotional piece and they don't want to cut you off because they want to make you feel that good. Paul Casey: I love that. And I heard that's an acronym. Bottom line up front is BLUF, right? Tom Fletcher: Yeah. Paul Casey: So you got to call your bluff. Tom Fletcher: Yup. Paul Casey: And I love that you hit each one of the personality styles with that approach. Sounds like that'd be a good email too. Tom Fletcher: It is. Paul Casey: Just hit it up because some people want to read the first paragraph anyways, but then those that are going to hang with you need some of that other information. Tom Fletcher: Absolutely. Paul Casey: Yeah, it's great for vision casting. So Tri-City Influencer listeners, bottom line up front, then the analytical info, and then the emotional why, and you'll probably catch everybody. Well, rarely do we achieve our highest potential by ourselves. So Tom, who keeps you accountable and energized to getting your professional and personal goals accomplished? Tom Fletcher: So as you guys probably can tell, my energy level is high all the time. Again, I'm 100% in when I go in and that's just me as a person, my personality type. But I will tell you, I have a beautiful wife and two beautiful daughters that support me unconditionally, whether it's in my career, at home, whatever craziness I try to get them into. And a lot of time it's at the expense of personal time with them, because again, I got high energy, high expectation on my career side, the house as well. But in addition to the family, I have a whole host of mentors. I've been lucky enough that many of my mentors started off as paid mentors and the relationship and friendships, which I can't stress enough the importance of relationship and friendship that I've built with those people over time. Tom Fletcher: Now I can pick up the phone without the paycheck that goes along with it and have that conversation about, hey, what do you think about this? Or what do you think about that? I have my brother, which is another awesome resource for me, and the team that my brother works with. And so, it's been a great, I'll say, interaction. But at the bottom line, for me, it really comes down to making sure that we as a human or organizations, only our organisms, only have a couple of things that we can control entirely within ourselves. One is our integrity ... for me, these are my two large ones, my integrity and my word. And I will protect those at all costs, and those drive my behavior. So if I've committed to something and it takes me 24 hours or 48 hours straight of work, I'm going to meet my deliverable. Tom Fletcher: But that's just me, and that's something that I think it comes down to. You got to know what your value is, what your commitment style is. But one of the things I would tell you is, make the commitment publicly. Nothing makes it more important than putting a date on a piece of paper or putting a date in Facebook or putting a date in something that's public. When you're going to get questioned by those people that are out there that says, did you do it? And you don't want to say, no. That's a bad answer as a leader. No is not the right answer. Paul Casey: Yeah. I heard the other day, you're 78% more likely to accomplish your goals if you declare it out loud. I mean, that is some great odds. Tom Fletcher: Yeah. Paul Casey: So publicly share that with somebody or put it out there on social media. And you don't want to have that egg on your face. Tom Fletcher: No. Paul Casey: You want to get that done. I love how you said you've almost turned your mentors into friends over the years. And I think we all need people that we can hit up for advice, or as a sounding board along the way. I call them the A team. Accountability, teamwork, encouragement, asking for help and motivation, that's your A team. We've got to have those people in our life. And that's so cool you got so many that you could turn to. You mentioned your family, and before we turned on the recording, you talked about it blurs your style, work-life integration. Talk a little bit more about that. Tom Fletcher: Yeah. So I'm a person that I work and live one life. I don't have a work life; I don't have a home ... they blur together. I'm lucky that my wife is willing to let me do this because I'm not sure ... I don't know if I could do it any other way. So I often go to work a little later in the morning because I want to spend some time at home with the kids in the morning, get them off to school. I've had the ability throughout my career to be able to pretty much meet every one of their games. But on the flip side of that, work doesn't stop when I left the office. So I don't have a 9:00 to 5:00 job. I could, but that's not my style. I respond to emails throughout the entirety of the day. Tom Fletcher: I work throughout the entirety of the day, whether I'm home when it's a Saturday and Sunday. If one of my teammates have emailed me or sent me a note, it doesn't stop me from jumping on the phone. I do try to hold a couple hours each evening dear to my family. But from a big picture, it's really just one life. And tried and we talked a lot about work-life balance, and you think about that in a scale, you always are giving up on one or the other. Paul Casey: Right. Tom Fletcher: And with integration, some days, some weeks, it's going to be higher on the work side and some weeks it's going to be higher on the family side. And that work-life balance, or that work-life integration, it'll all level out at the end. And you're not trying to truly give one thing for another. And often it creates, like I said, two different lives, a work life and a home life. I just, I don't do it. Paul Casey: My wife calls me the blur, I just sort of fly. So when you say it blurs together, I totally get that. So replenishment has to be important too, to stay at this high level of capacity that you have. What do you do to manage stress? Tom Fletcher: This is a weird one for me, because most people think I'm not human in this case, because I really don't get stressed. I probably have one of the highest stress jobs, I've had one of the highest stress jobs that you could possibly have. I've went through major litigations, multiple major litigations, I've went through very emotional events from a workforce standpoint, but I really don't have stress. I mean, I do the best I physically can do and at the end of the day I know I've done the best I physically can do, and that's good. I mean, to take home energy or negativity or to even have it at work, that doesn't have a positive outcome or event that's caused by it, why? So I don't do things that don't add value. And if it's all in, all out, stress is one of those all outs for me. I can't figure out the value of it, other than, we all have it in the background. I mean, yeah, it's there, but I don't really feel it. Paul Casey: Sure. Tom Fletcher: But again, it's that work-life integration that I think is part of the reason I don't have that field, because it really does flow. It doesn't come in as one giant peak. And yeah, I get 50 deliverables a week that weren't planned, on a Monday, that disrupt my whole week. And I could be stressed over, or I could just go and say, okay, how's the best way to tackle them and prioritize the order, and just go crank down the list. Paul Casey: Right. Yeah. And stress is just stress. And I think what you're talking about is your response to it. And you're not viewing it negatively, you're viewing it as like, man, this is just an energy giver for me. Tom Fletcher: It really is. It's not really a planisher, it's really just, hey, I got to go tackle the projects or the action in front of me. Paul Casey: Yeah. If we continue to view stress negatively, that's when we get to burn out. So if you can have a positive view of stress, you won't get there. Love that. Well, before we enter our next question on hiring and people development with Tom, a shout out to our sponsor. Paul Casey: Located in the Parkway, you'll find motivation, new friends and your new coworking space at Fuse. Whether you're a student just starting out or a seasoned professional, come discover all the reasons to love coworking at Fuse. Come co-work at Fuse for free on Fridays in February. Enjoy free coffee or tea, Wi-Fi, printing, conference rooms, and more, and bring a friend. Fuse is where individuals and small teams come together in a thoughtfully designed resource-rich environment to get work done and grow their ideas. Comprised of professionals from varying disciplines and backgrounds, Fuse is built for hardworking, fun-loving humans. Learn more about us at fusespc.com or stop by 723, The Parkway in Richland, Washington. Paul Casey: So Tom, hiring and people development is crucial for leadership. If you could clone the ideal employee for your organization, what traits would that person have? Tom Fletcher: A growth mindset. And that is one that wants to learn, doesn't believe a failure is a failure and really believes it's an opportunity. We have a motto in my organization and something that I've lived by failure today is an opportunity for success tomorrow as long as we learn from it. Is driven and is a self-starter. I can teach, we can teach anybody a skill. It's really hard to teach somebody something that, in most cases, all three of those are contained within. And if you think about some of the great growth mindset people, or some of the great fixed mindset people on the opposite spectrum that just truly believe everything, great growth mindset would be Michael Jordan, right? Paul Casey: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Tom Fletcher: There's always a way to get better. Paul Casey: Yep. Tom Fletcher: And I can see the tennis player's name that throws his racket. Paul Casey: McEnroe. Tom Fletcher: McEnroe. Great fixed mindset. There's nothing that I did wrong, it's everybody else's fault. It's that guy in the stadium that made him sneeze, right? Paul Casey: That's right. Tom Fletcher: So that mindset, and it's been proven, and that's just something that's been shown, that if you have that growth mindset where your mind is about, okay, how do I fix that or how do I get better? I can try to get you there, but that's probably the biggest thing for me. And then driven and self-starter, because the sky's the limit, no matter what level of the organization you're going. And if you have those three, you can learn the rest. Paul Casey: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Say that quote again about ... what you said was, "Failure today is an opportunity for success tomorrow." Is that the quote? Tom Fletcher: Yeah. Failure today is an opportunity for success tomorrow, as long as you learn from it. Paul Casey: As long as you learn from it. Great words, TC Influencers. We love the self-starter thing too. I've been really reflecting on that. What separates a leader from a follower or at least an influencer is that initiative. That self-starter. If you're looking for a potential leader in your organization, look for those that kick it in gear on their own without any prodding from anybody else. Well, I've had emerging leaders tell me that they want to grow in thinking strategically, Tom. So what tips would you give on how to look at that big picture, that vision for greater long-term impact? How can people get better at that? Tom Fletcher: So, know where you want to go. If you're looking three months out, four months out, six months out, you're going to fail to start with. Most of us, and I've had the opportunity and my wife's business is now what, five years in the making. And we started her business, knowing that we had a five to seven-year plan before we thought she'd become truly profitable. I mean, that's just something you got to know. You got to know that you're in, especially with a business, if you're building a business, you're in up to five to seven years before you're going to be a truly profitable business. Or that amount of cash that needs to go in to support building the business actually starts coming out in the positive terms. And if you can't see that end point of where you want to be and you think today's going to be cash day, I challenge you to think longer. You got to know and be real with yourself, that long-term vision there. The only thing I would tell you is, don't get stuck on the starting gates. Perfection is the enemy of good enough. Paul Casey: Yes. Tom Fletcher: I tell my team all the time, we know where our destination is and a destination is a point on the journey, so that's one of our goals along where we're ultimately headed. But we're going to leave the starting line, not knowing exactly how to get there. And through metrics and measurement, we're going to self-correct or mitigate risk, another way to look at it, through time, such that we're going to leave. And we may take two or three jogs, but at the end of the point, end of the time, we're going to make it to our destination. And guess what? We don't get to stop there, because the day we stop is the day we start going backwards in life. Paul Casey: Yes. Tom Fletcher: Because somebody else did not stop. Paul Casey: That's right. Tom Fletcher: So it really is about taking that long-term vision, knowing that destination three, five, seven years in advance. Now, you can have some intermediate steps along, those goals, and you need to track metrics to measure those goals. Paul Casey: Yes. Tom Fletcher: Right? What's measured is delivered and what's not is forgotten, for lack of better words. Paul Casey: Yeah. Tom Fletcher: So I would just challenge you to think big. Don't have pride and rigidity. Too many people write a plan and say, this is where I'm going to go. Well, guess what? 27 things happened between here and where you thought you were going to go that you need to be adapt and flexible too. And if you're willing to be adaptable and flexible, the sky's the limit. And I'll give you an example from my wife's business. My wife creates cake toppers. When the pandemic hit, how many cake toppers do you think were coming into our business, which just turned profitable this year? Tom Fletcher: Her business just turned profitable this year. Not many. We went from over a couple of five to $600 a day to less than $50 a day. So we quickly looked at the potential and we landed this year with the largest year of the year, because we started developing face masks and stuff to support the pandemic that we're currently in. You have to be flexible; you have to be willing to grab that next product line. Yes, did it cost money? Absolutely. But at the end of the day, in all these major changes is opportunity and you just got to be willing to grab it. Isn't that scary? Paul Casey: Yeah. Well, quick shout out to your wife's business. Do you have a website that we can- Tom Fletcher: She's actually on Etsy, Christy's Custom Vinyl. Paul Casey: Okay. Tom Fletcher: Is her shop, but she does a lot of cake toppers and cake wedding products. Paul Casey: Fantastic. Well, that reminds me of Seth Godin's book, Poke the Box, where he just says, "Put something into play, ship it." He kept saying. And then you can iterate off that later. But as adults, we get more and more reserved and we get risk averse and we don't put it into play because we think it has to be perfect. But like you said, we got to be flexible. If we're rigid with it, we're in trouble. Also, like how you said, think bigger. We sometimes set goals that just by the normal course of things were just going to get done. I always tell employees, stretch, put a stretch goal down, think a little bit bigger. If you shoot for the moon, you're going to end up at the stars. Tom Fletcher: Yeah. Paul Casey: So that's at the macro level, let's go to micro level. What small acts of leadership, Tom, if done daily, make a positive difference in the lives of people and their teams? Tom Fletcher: Communication, communication, communication, and just keep hitting repeat. And I think the other piece of that is positive reward recognition where it's deserved. And I make that very clear, if you say thank you to everyone, thank you means nothing. So you need to make sure, as a leader, especially if you're the top leader or at the top of your organization, that your thank yous are visible, but also reserved for those areas that truly are those A performances. If all your C performers are getting the same thank you that your A performers are [crosstalk 00:25:51], you have just trivialized your A performers. Paul Casey: Yup. Tom Fletcher: And it's okay that the C performer does an A job and gets that credit when it's done. But you have to give credit where credit is due, and it has to be in a razor manner that is truly rewarding and meaningful. The other thing I would tell you is, make sure you know how your employees want to be recognized. Paul Casey: Yes. Tom Fletcher: If you take a very strong introvert and you go put them up ... bring them up in front of a stage and deliver them a grand award, they are going to want to sink as far down into their seat as they physically could. So, recognize people how they want to be recognized. That would be my other one. Paul Casey: Do you think that goes to performance reviews too, Tom? Like, rating? You can't give everybody the exceeds, exceeds performance review, right? Do you think it also plays out there too? Tom Fletcher: My biggest pet peeve in life, rating everybody equal. And I'm not trying to put a differentiation, but when you look at an array of people, we have a bell curve distribution, no matter what anybody tells me. There are people on the lower end, there's people on the high end and the masses in the middle. And so when you look at it, we have that distribution as you look at the vast majority of organizations. There are a few that skew one way or the other, depending on their structure and depending on how they style. But we have to be brutally honest with our teammates in order to help them grow. If we're not, we're giving them a disservice and we're doing ourselves a disservice because we're allowing subpar products to be the standard. So you have to be able to have the hard conversations to truly push the team, to give them their feedback. I don't ever wait. Yeah, we have feedback twice a year, plus end of your performance. That's nonsense. When you see something that they can improve on, give them the feedback. Paul Casey: Yeah. Tom Fletcher: And as long as you start with what we talked about earlier about the growth mindset, they want that feedback. Paul Casey: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Tom Fletcher: They want to know, how do they improve? Very rarely do I go ... I mean, I do have presentations all the time and it doesn't matter whose ... if they're willing to give me feedback, I'm asking for it. Paul Casey: Oh yeah. Tom Fletcher: Because it could be something small or just a small tweak that truly makes a difference and I make a better connection to the audience I'm talking about, so. Paul Casey: Yeah, real-time feedback is so crucial. Like you said, the once, twice a year kind of thing, it's doing your people a disservice because they can course correct if we give it to them sooner than to wait for the once-a-year thing and then it's, oh, surprise. Tom Fletcher: And you have disempowered employees when you do that. Paul Casey: Indeed. Indeed. And I like how you said that it's the motive behind that, it's the high performers. If you just pull everybody up to this rating that everybody gets, it really de-motivates the high performers. If one of our Tri-City Influencer listeners asked you two to three books or resources they must read in order to grow their leadership skills, where would you point them? Tom Fletcher: So I have a whole library of books. Paul Casey: Yes. Tom Fletcher: But if I was to put a couple on the list, I think, and I've talked about this a little bit, growth and fixed mindset. Mindset by Carol Dweck is an excellent book, it really talks about the growth of fixed mindset and gives great examples. And then Good to Great by Jim Collins. Another great book where you talk about getting the flywheel, the 5,000-pound flywheel going. And once it gets going ... it's really hard to get started, kind of the same idea of a business thinking long-term. But once that thing creates rotational mass and starts moving, it takes a little energy to make it keep going faster. But as soon as you don't put energy into it, it is slowing down and therefore you're going the wrong direction and somebody's passing you. So I think those are probably the two great books. But honestly, anything that you want to gain knowledge in, just read. Tom Fletcher: I tried to read 30 to 50 pages the other day. I tried to make that part of my day, reading 30 or 50 pages a day. And it doesn't matter what it's in. I mean, it really doesn't, as long as it's in an area of improvement you want to go after. I read a lot of books that some would go, what, why is that? But it's just leadership styles. Whether it's a book on autobiography for Amazon, Jeff Bezos or any of those. They each have nuggets in them. And are you going to read the whole book and you get something out of the whole book? No. But there's nuggets in every book that you can learn from. One thing I will say is, find a way to actually know how to go back and find that information in your book. Paul Casey: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Tom Fletcher: If you don't have a good way of tabbing or a good way of note taking or highlighting or whatever works for you, categorizing, to actually go back and recall and reflect on those words, six, 12, 18 months later, you hurt yourself a little bit when you're reading books. I always write mine; I highlight those critical ones and then I write on the edge of the book itself on the margin, my note that I want to capture or the thought I want to come back to. But just find a way that works for you. Paul Casey: That's a great method. I read 46 books last year on leadership, personal growth. That's why I think we're like-minded in that. And yeah, I try to highlight, and then I go back and journal through. So I get really three reads on a book and then it imprints in my brain a little bit more than just reading it and then it's gone. So Tri-Cities Influencer listeners, whether that's a seminar or a conference you go to, when you get to go back to conferences, or whether it's any kind of resource or even meeting with your mentor, take good notes because you want to capture that stuff. And put something into play within 72 hours, share it with somebody, write it, do something, or we start to lose it, and then all that professional growth opportunity slips away. Well, finally, Tom, what advice would you give to new leaders or anyone who wants to keep growing and gaining more influence? Tom Fletcher: Be true to yourself. I think you've heard me say this multiple times. I'm the same person at home as I am at work. As soon as we try to divide ourselves or make ourselves have different personalities, you're not going to be true to yourself. So many people try to fit in a box because there's a paycheck or a pay increase that goes along with it. But if it's not the right spot for you, don't take it. Money is just an object, it's not what defines us. And be true to yourself in that process. Keep moving forward, no matter what is in front of you. Yes, you're going to get knocked backwards in life and in business and in developing or growing. But no matter what adversities, challenge, you keep moving forward. That'd be my main thing. It takes determination, grit, and just pure brute force at times to overcome those challenges. Tom Fletcher: So I would just say, keep going. You talked a minute ago about documentation, one of the things I work hard about is documented approach. So whatever we do, whether it's a process at the business at home or a process at work, I try to document it such that I'm improving on it. So rather than trying to relive, okay, how do I go do that? Well, I've got a documented approach. I go back to my piece of paper. That's what we did last time. Let's see, what do we do this time? Was it better or worse? And keep iterating on that. And that approach just keeps getting better and better through time, the more times you use it. Paul Casey: Yeah. Anything we're doing is worth evaluating for sure. And so, yes, be yourself, Tri-Cities Influencer listeners. It's the best way to have executive presence if you're trying to go for that goal, because you're not trying to fake it, you are trying to be your unique self. Well, Tom, how can our listeners get in touch with you if they wanted to follow up? Tom Fletcher: Yeah. This is the part that I ... I'm probably the worst at social media in the world. Social media and I are like evil enemies. But I am on LinkedIn and Facebook. If you do send me a note, I do look at those and will respond. Just don't expect it overnight. Paul Casey: Because the driver is on his path, achieving great things. Tom Fletcher: I look at them every couple of days. They pop up. What really gets me is those little stupid bubbles that have numbers in them that drive me absolutely crazy as a human. Paul Casey: Well, thanks again for all you do to make the Tri-Cities a great place and keep leading well. Let me wrap up our podcast today with a leadership resource to recommend, the book I'm in the middle of right now called the 12 Week Year, by Brian Moran. The 12 Week Year. It's trying to help you get more done in 12 weeks than other people do in 12 months. So if you're a productivity junkie like I am, you're going to like this book because it's giving yourself tighter deadlines than just your annual goals. Those annual goals seem so far off and we just procrastinate saying, hey, I got time. And then November and December come, and all of a sudden, we've got some pressure to ramp up. But by breaking your year into 12-week years, you're going to have that little bit of pressure to get things done more often. Paul Casey: Again, this is Paul Casey. I want to thank my guest, Tom Fletcher, from the waste treatment plant for being here today on the Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast. And we want to thank our TCI sponsor and invite you to support them. We appreciate you making this possible so we can collaborate to help inspire leaders in our community. Finally, one more leadership tidbit for the road to help you make a difference in your circle of influence, it's from Zig Ziglar. He says, "Outstanding people have one thing in common, an absolute sense of mission." Till next time, KGF, keep growing forward. Speaker 2: Thank you to our listeners for tuning into today's show. Paul Casey is on a mission to add value to leaders by providing practical tools and strategies that reduce stress in their lives and on their teams, so that they can enjoy life and leadership and experience their key desired results. If you'd like more help from Paul in your leadership development, connect with him at growingforwardatpaulcasey.org for a consultation that could help you move past your current challenges and create the strategy for growing your life or your team or group. Paul would also like to help you restore your sanity to your crazy schedule and getting your priorities done every day by offering you his free control my calendar checklist. Go to ww.takebackmycalendar.com for that productivity tool, or open a text message to 72000 and type the word grow. Paul Casey: The Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast was recorded at Fuse SPC by Bill Wagner of Safe Strategies.  

Paul Casey: A good rule of thumb is before you speak, ask yourself, "Is what I'm about to say true, necessary, and kind?" T-N-K. Speaker 2: Raising the water level of leadership in the Tri-Cities of Eastern Washington, it's the Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast. Welcome to the TCI Podcast, where local leadership and self-leadership expert, Paul Casey, interviews local CEOs, entrepreneurs, and non-profit executives, to hear how they lead themselves and their teams so we can all benefit from their wisdom and experience. Here's your host, Paul Casey, of Growing Forward Services, coaching and equipping individuals and teams to spark breakthrough success. Paul Casey: It's a great day to Grow Forward. Thanks for joining me for today's episode with Ken Gosney. Ken is the Executive Director of Goodwill of the Columbia. And a fun fact about Ken is he really tries to be hip at home, but his family's like, "Not so much." So Ken, tell us a little bit about that. Ken Gosney: Well, I try to keep it cool with the kids, and the other day my wife told a story, and after she was done, I said, "Cool story, bro." I thought it was quite funny, and my kids just ripped on me and told me that was three years old and nobody says that anymore. It was a strong effort, but another failure. Paul Casey: Thanks for trying to be relevant. Ken Gosney: Yeah, keeping it real. Paul Casey: Well, we'll dive in after checking in with our Tri-Cities Influencer sponsor. Speaker 4: It's easy to delay answering uncomfortable questions like, "What happens to my assets and my loved ones when I die?" So it's no surprise that nearly 50% of Americans don't have a will, and even fewer have an estate plan. Many disabled clients worry that they don't have enough assets to set up an estate plan, but there are important options available to ensure that you have a voice in your medical and financial decision making even if your health takes a turn for the worst. Estate planning fives you a voice when your health deteriorates or after you're gone. Maren Miller Bam, Attorney at Law, is currently providing free consultations. To find out more about estate planning or to book an appointment, call Maren at 206-485-4066, or visit Salus, that's S-A-L-U-S, dash Law.com today. Speaker 4: Thank you for your support of leadership development in the tri-cities. Well, welcome Ken. I was privileged to meet you, we're thinking it's about nine years ago. My son was a freshman at Hanford High, you were the principal there, and of course I always want to get to know my kid's principal because I was a principal many years before that. I remember being in a parent-teacher meeting where we were talking about the regulations of the upcoming dance. And I realized I don't want to be in these meetings. Ken Gosney: Yeah, those were interesting meetings, what's appropriate at a school dance. Paul Casey: Yikes. So that our Tri-City Influencers can get to know you, take us through a couple of career highlights that led you to your current position. Ken Gosney: Well, when I first entered education, I was an English teacher out of Prosser High School. Paul Casey: Yeah, English. Ken Gosney: Yes. Paul Casey: That's my minor. Ken Gosney: There you go. Loved it, was teaching, and then coaching basketball and golf after school. My principal convinced me that administration might be a good thing to do, a good career. I was in the middle of getting my master's degree at that point, so I took a few extra classes, got my credentials. Low and behold, the athletic director/assistant principal blew a hole in his esophagus when he was eating Cheerios, he choked. Paul Casey: No. Ken Gosney: And so, immediately I was pulled out of the classroom, and for the next four months was an administrator at the high school, and loved it. So then took the next step of applying for jobs and was hired at Hanford High School, was there for 12 years. I then made the natural transition to Goodwill. Paul Casey: There was a little sarcasm in natural transition, right. Ken Gosney: Yeah. No, so I knew actually the former executive director at Goodwill, so when he left, the job came open, and I thought that that seems like a great opportunity and still kind of satisfied my desire to have a job where I can look in the mirror and say I'm trying to give back to the community, I'm trying to make a difference. So went for it, and yeah, the board selected me. It's been five-and-a-half years now. Paul Casey: Okay, and why do you love what you do? Ken Gosney: Well, when I was a principal, I worked heavily in the special education department and loved it. I loved working with that population of kids. You'll never meet better human beings than those kids. I still see those kids still now because Goodwill of course works with a lot of employees with disabilities or other barriers. It's great to see them still progressing, getting to see how they're doing. And I really just valued a mission that Goodwill has of changing lives through the power of work. We're able to, really on a daily basis, impact people's lives, and the lives of their family, and get out of that cycle of not having a job, and poverty, and helping people achieve some goals. It's really cool. Yeah, I can't ask for a better job, I love what I do. Paul Casey: What a great mission. I love the thrift stores too. We're thrifters, my wife and I, and my mom. I think these jeans probably were purchased at Goodwill. Ken Gosney: I hope you got a good deal on them. Paul Casey: Always, always. There was probably that moment of that decision to switch from being a principal to executive director, what was going through your mind during that? Did you do pros and cons? Ken Gosney: Absolutely. Yeah, actually I would take a lot of walks at night, I'd take the dog out, and walk for miles just going through my mind if I really wanted to leave a job I loved. I loved being the principal at Hanford High School. The high school was really humming along. I had been there long enough that I had hired the administrative team, the leadership team, and a lot of the teachers. Things were going really well, I loved it, so making that kind of a change was pretty dramatic. I had a lot of pros and cons lists I guess going in my head, a lot of talks with my wife about what we thought would be the best for the family. Really, I mean, not to get dark here, but when my youngest was six, he had a brain tumor. We were really lucky it was in a good location, the surgery was successful, but it was really scary. Ken Gosney: We were in pediatric ICU for two weeks with him. So at that point, I really kind of analyzed where I was as a parent, and I saw other people's kids more than I saw my own kids. At that point, I started looking around, but I still wanted to make sure it was a job that fulfilled my need of wanting to be a positive impact in the community. So when this job came open, I was like, "That's the one," but still it took a lot of thought to get there. But it allowed me to spend more time with my family than a high school principal position, which is just crazy hours. I mean it really is. Paul Casey: Yeah, yeah. So work-life balance was a huge, almost number one... Ken Gosney: Right, yeah. Absolutely. Paul Casey: ... on the list for that decision. Just for our listeners who might have a critical decision to make in their life, what do you tell people who are that crossroads of decision making. It could be career or it could just be another big decision in their life. What advice would you give? Ken Gosney: Well, I think you really need to analyze why you're considering the change. I could throw out the old cliché, which I truly believe, you follow your heart. But really make sure you understand why you're wanting to make that change and if it truly is right for you. I mean, money is a factor, there's no question. There's lifestyle, what are the hours? Are you working weekends? Is it straight 9:00 to 5:00? I think all those things come into play, and also where you are in your life. If you have kids, a wife, all those decisions of course have a direct impact on your family. But I think at the end of the day you do make that pros and cons list and try to make the best decision you can make with all those factors being included. Ken Gosney: Sometimes jobs I think look really attractive on the outside, and then when you really start to dive in, is this the best move? Maybe it's not. I would just say put a lot of thought into it and why you want to go into that position, what are you hoping to gain or accomplish by making that move. Paul Casey: What's the most rewarding part of being a leader for you? And then how do you stay focused on that and not the hassles, the disappointments, and the other junk of being a leader? You probably had to do that as a principal and also now. Ken Gosney: Yeah. It's really easy to get dragged down into the muck of it. And sometimes I have to remind myself I'm not perfect at it. I have to remind myself that looking at all the positive things is really important. It is important to acknowledge what you're doing well as a leader, as an organization. Not to rest on your laurels with it, but to acknowledge that there are things we're doing really well and there are things we need to improve on. But sometimes you get really lost in the negative, whether it's employee situations, you name it, right? Just like the lockdown when we were shut down for three-and-a-half months, we had to make some really difficult decisions in there and it was very frustrating because of the limited control we had on the situation. Ken Gosney: Yeah, I just think it's important to acknowledge what is going well, not to dwell on it too much, but to remember, yeah we got these significant challenges or frustrations right now, but we're doing some things that are going really well too, and we're having some really positive impacts. But again, I have to remind myself to do that because I think human nature sometimes it to just focus on. And sometimes like that five percent of the job that really exhausts you mentally, physically, whatever, it's easy to overlook the other 95% that's going fairly well because you're just focused on that 5%. And so I think sometimes it's just good to take a break and step back and say, "Okay, we're doing this and we're going to be able to handle this challenge." But and also I think surrounding yourself with people that embrace challenges and are positive themselves, you have people that are energy givers and you have people that are energy suckers and who you surround yourself with, I think is really important. Paul Casey: How do you intentionally try to celebrate those wins? Do you do it in staff meetings? Do you do it in one to ones? Is there retreats, where do you try to capture those wins and those stories? Ken Gosney: I think all of the above, I mean, we have like with our store managers, we have weekly meetings and in those meetings, there's an agenda and some of those are things we have to work on or things that aren't going well, that we have to make adjustments. We always talk about things that people are doing really well. And sometimes we actually single out a manager and said, "Hey, this manager was able to accomplish this." And acknowledge the things that our people are doing really well. Ken Gosney: And with my direct leadership team, I have five direct reports. I was acknowledged with my board. I have a board of 14, so I have 14 bosses. And they're great. They're all volunteers in the position. They really value what we do, but I always make sure to acknowledge the work that my team has done, whether individually or as a group because it's a collaborative process. And so it's easy sometimes for a leader to sometimes say, well, this is what I've done. And I try to never say that, I would say, this is what we've done, or this is what Paul did to make things work better for us. And I think that's really important that people that are working hard and being part of your team, understand that you value what they bring to the team and there's ways to acknowledge that. But I think one of the most important things is to collaborate and say, Paul, what do you think about this situation? Paul Casey: Yeah. Ken Gosney: Now at the end of the day, I have the final say, but you should be able to foster an environment of just, "Hey, let's, let's get after it here. And let's disagree." I don't want, yes men. I guess I should say yes people, but I want people to disagree with me and that's a hard environment to foster sometimes because as a leader, you're making yourself vulnerable to, "Hey, my idea, wasn't the best idea." But it also helps you come up with the best solutions. Paul Casey: Yeah. Good stuff. When I teach positive culture, I talk about acknowledging people, getting their input and communication and you hit two or three of those just right there. What makes people feel valued? Ken Gosney: Yeah. Also gives opportunities, I think for growth. I was really proud of when I was at Hanford High School, three or four of the assistant principals, I had went on to take their own buildings as lead principals. And in order to do that they have to have experience and it's a different gig going from assistant principal to a lead principal just like any leadership, right. When you take that step up and suddenly you're in charge of all of it. It's a different gig. And so providing them opportunities to learn, to grow, to fail and fail safely but learn from it. I think it's really important. Paul Casey: How are you growing these days? You mentioned growth and how have you matured as a leader just in recent years? Ken Gosney: Well, maturity is not typically a word that people use with me. But how have I grown as a leader? I think it's really important that you are always as a leader open-minded and I think that's where the most growth comes from. And I think it's important to read books on leadership and all that type of stuff. When it comes down to actually executing it, that collaborative environment allows you as a leader to really get the best information from the best people. If you hire great people and you need to let them be a part of your team and really collaborate in that environment, you learn from each other all the time. And you learn to function as a team in a high level team and that's work, doing that as a work because people have to trust each other that when they throw out an idea, even if it's disagreed with, but it's going to be done respectfully and not in a personal attack type mode. And that takes work to get there. And I think our team is there right now. We're really happy with where we are. But it took some time to get there. Paul Casey: Yeah, so one-liner on a job description of staying open-minded or creating psychological safety collaboration, but it could take, it does take a lot of work to get that. Well, you probably have a lot on your to-do list, like all leaders do, and it's probably greater than the time you have to do it. So how do you triage your tasks? How do you know what to delegate? How do you know what to focus on all that? Ken Gosney: So I'll go back to when I was a principal. I was horrible at delegating and I mean, horrible at delegating my first, probably two or three years as a lead principal. Because I was so, anxiety ridden about making sure everything was done in my world of right, right. So when my kid had that tumor and of course I was out for a month with him, I really had to let go and let my assistants and my leadership team run the show and you know what happened? Paul Casey: Nothing fell apart. Ken Gosney: Nothing fell apart. As a matter of fact, it went really smoothly and it opened my highest, a little bit of, okay, have I been, what have I been shouldering too much and too, have I not been giving opportunities to people to grow and show and develop their skillset. Paul Casey: Yeah. Ken Gosney: And so that was really an eye-opener for me that, okay, you know what, I need to trust my team to do their job and understand that they can do it and they can do it really well. And in fact, sometimes better than me. And so that was a real eye-opener and that really changed I think my perspective of how to work with my team, Paul Casey: Any delegation tips that you'd pass on to our listeners? Ken Gosney: I would say, whatever you... you know first off, if you hire, like in my current position, I have a director of finance. I'm not going to handle finance stuff. I'm going to delegate finance stuff to her, one because that's her job and two that's her training. I should not. I'm an English teacher by trade. I shouldn't be handling finances. So I delegate, if it's within their realm, I think they should be handling it. And so it's easy for me to say, "Okay, I'm going to really control this budget." But really she's part of my team and that's her expertise. So she's going to be right there with me and the rest of the team saying, "Here's where we are. This is what we can do. This is what we can't do." So I would say one of the important things with delegating is to let people do their job. If I have an athletic director as a principal, I should let the athletic director handle athletics and all the issues that can come with that. If I have one that's in charge of discipline, I should let them handle discipline. Yeah, that doesn't mean I'm not involved, but I think you let people do their jobs. Paul Casey: Yeah. Don't pull the rope back. Ken Gosney: Yeah. Paul Casey: Give them authority and responsibility. Right? Ken Gosney: Yeah. Paul Casey: Good stuff. Well, before we head into our next question on relationship building, a shout out to our sponsor. Speaker 4: Located in the Parkway, you'll find motivation, new friends and your new coworking space at Fuse. Whether you're a student just starting out or a seasoned professional, come discover all the reasons to love coworking at Fuse. Come co-work at Fuse for free on Fridays in February, enjoy free coffee or tea, Wifi, printing conference rooms, and more, and bring a friend. Fuse is where individuals and small teams come together in a thoughtfully designed resource, rich environment to get work done and grow their ideas. Comprised of professionals from varying disciplines and backgrounds. Fuse is built for hardworking, fun loving humans. Learn more about us at fusespc.com or stop by 723 The Parkway in Richland Washington. Speaker 4: So can you probably believe, like I do that leadership is relationships. Talk about what relationships are key to your success and how do you intentionally develop those? Speaker 4: Well, I would say the relationship with my, especially my direct leadership team is very important. Like you can't really overstate the importance of that relationships and the way I develop it now, of course, this is the world, according to God's name and I'm sure there's many ways to do this. I just try to make time to talk. And so one thing we frequently do we haven't released since the pandemic because that's kind of screwed up all of our scheduled regular scheduled meetings, but we would start out every meeting our weekly meeting with how was your weekend and we'd go around the table and everybody would take five, 10 minutes and talk about their weekend. Paul Casey: Right now. Ken Gosney: So you think about that, well, that's an hour to an hour and a half of our meeting. By the time you have five or six people reporting. Right? Paul Casey: Yeah. Ken Gosney: And of course it leads to questions from the other, in an engaging conversation. And you get to learn about people, you get to learn about their families, what their interests are. And so that helps to break down walls because all of a sudden now I'm viewing Paul, not just as a work colleague, but kind of a friend and somebody I trust. And so now we can have conversations that maybe a month ago we couldn't have, because I wasn't willing to trust that you were going to be okay with my ideas, whether you liked them or not. And so yeah, I think time is the biggest factor. Ken Gosney: And it's really difficult sometimes because trust me, there are days I come in and it's like, okay, I got a full list of things to do and somebody walks in my office and they want to chat. And I have to, I really have to just push that aside and focus on them because that's important. That relationship is really, really important. And it's important for them to get my attention at that moment because they've come in looking for it. And for me to shut it down and say, I don't have time would not be healthy and any way, shape or form. So yeah, it takes a lot of time. But I don't know that you could do anything more important than develop those relationships, if you really want to have a collaborative environment, Paul Casey: You said everything changed in COVID. Do you, do not check in via zoom or whatever you're doing now, or just less of it? Ken Gosney: So we still have weekly meetings, but we've changed from, now we have about 10 or 11 people in there and we're all spread out through the conference room. And we brought in people, extra people because of safety, we've got a safety person, who's making sure we're following all the safety protocols. And then, so it's almost become too big of a, "Hey, let's take 10 minutes because now we're going to be here for three hours." And really people is we've been really busy. And so now it's trying to find that balance between talking and honoring their time. And so yeah, it's become a little bit bigger, but I think we've been able to handle it well because we've already had those established relationships. And so it hasn't been as big of a deal, but we do miss it, but there, you know, I just was talking to my HR director, which I haven't seen in a couple of weeks because I have been out and she's went out. And so we took 20, 25 minutes and taught and just shooting the breeze. And so those pockets of time are still happening as they can, but it's been difficult to find the time to just say, "Hey, this is, we're going to work as a team and build relationships at this moment." So. Paul Casey: Okay. Well, self-care, essential to mental health to top performance, especially now when you made a career altering decision because of self-care and family work-life balance. So what recharges your batteries? Ken Gosney: Well, I think really at this point in this environment I enjoy my family and really enjoy going to work, especially after three and a half months where we really couldn't go to work or it was very limited in what we could do and who we could see and all that. I really came to value more than ever what we do. So I worked, does recharge my batteries. I know that's a, maybe not something you hear every day, but I do love going to work and I miss it when I'm not there. I've missed the routine of being there every day with people. But really at this point my wife and I are kind of getting two of our three kids are gone to college and then we got a sophomore. Ken Gosney: And so a lot of times it's just, my wife and I we're sitting there watching TV and we've settled into this, watching Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy and- Paul Casey: No, you haven't gone there. Ken Gosney: And then we have our cream corn and go to bed. We enjoy each other's company and it's been good just to at night, we're not running kids all over the place anymore. And I know sometimes that's scary when couples hit that phase, but Michael, we haven't been able to run him anywhere because all of the stuff has been canceled. And so really we've been able to just enjoy each other's company. And so that's been good at night be able to sit there and relax and just talk or watch TV together or whatever. A lot of Netflix documentaries. Paul Casey: Yes. Well, you brought up your finance director earlier when we talk about finances are really, one of those big things that you have to do as an executive director to sort of keep just an overall perspective on that your board probably of course would appreciate that you're doing that. So what does that evaluation look like in your position? Ken Gosney: The evaluation of finances? Paul Casey: Yeah. Budget commences, all that kinds of stuff. Ken Gosney: So, like I said, we have 14 board members and they come from a variety of walks of life. Some of them heavily with finance background or banking, business banking. And so we meet monthly and we have to report our finances to the board on a monthly basis. And Goodwill as a nonprofit is an interesting setup, in that we have our mission side of the house and we also have our retail side of the house. And so what's interesting is we have to run the retail side like any business would run. We have all the same bills, all the same problems that any business would have. And how well we run that business is how well we can take care of our mission side of the house. Because the more money we make on the retail side, the more money we have to spend on mission. Ken Gosney: So it's really important, but it's this weird balance between we're, going to be really business savvy and we're going to be really mission savvy and compassionate savvy. And sometimes that's almost like it doesn't go together. So, it's like a compassionate way to run a business, which sometimes, I think some people would say that doesn't work. It does, but we really have to do well on the retail side for our mission side to do well. And so we have to report the finances and the finances, if they're not looking good or they're not sustainable, we would go bankrupt like any other business. Ken Gosney: So my board, yeah, they hold us accountable to making sure the finances are looking good. And if there are issues, we better have an answer for the board as to why something's happening within the finances or expenses and what our plan is to move forward with that. Now the board has been very supportive. Like I said, they're great people, they're very passionate about our mission. But they also understand that mission is funded by our retail. But they hold our feet to the fire and like I said, they know their stuff. And so there's no trying to pull the wool over the eyes of that group. They're too sharp for it. Not that we would try it anyway, but anyway, as a nonprofit, I think, especially if it's a well-run non-profit their finances are in order. If their finances aren't in order, that may spell trouble down the road for them. Paul Casey: Did you have to make any big changes when you came in? I noticed that you had some storefronts and then no longer have as many storefronts for receiving donations. I don't know if that was just an observation I made. Did you have to do some changes of what works, what doesn't work? Ken Gosney: We did collapse two stores in Kennewick into one. We built a brand new one. And we have moved or eliminated some of the donation centers where they're this standalone trailers. And so what's really interesting about that is we use the same process that Walmart would use when placing a store. So Walmart doesn't just come in and buy any old place land. They do research on demographics and what store is going to perform the best and where. We do the same thing. And because it's the business side of the house, we have to make sure that our expenses are under control and we're able to maximize our profits out of there. So yeah, sometimes we were in the wrong spot or needed to make some efficiency changes, and that's what we came up with. So that was a steep learning curve for me, by the way. Ken Gosney: Because a budget as a high school principal, I mean, basically the district gives you, "Here's some money, make sure you don't spend more than you have." You're not in charge of generating revenue. And so now being in charge of generating revenue and so minimum wage went from $9.47 when I first started and now it's $13.69. We pay $14 an hour, is our minimum. So that's a dramatic, huge, especially when you're talking about hundreds of employees, we have about 300 employees. That's a huge impact on your budget. And it's a good thing. I'm not complaining about it, but we had to make some adjustments to make sure we could handle that increase in wages. Which we've done. But if we're not looking to the future and trying to be more efficient and always on, I guess cutting edge with what we're doing, those expenses will overtake you. Paul Casey: Yeah. Well, let me just follow that rabbit trail. So strategic planning, what does that look like then say, you're always looking forward. Ken Gosney: So yeah, our strategic plan, we're looking at, how do we handle expenses, including wages benefits. We have an excellent benefits package for our employees. It's very reasonably priced and that's very important to us that they can be covered and not break the bank while doing it. Which means we cover a huge portion of that. So all those things were taken to account. Capital projects. So for instance, the Kennewick store that we built a year ago, year and a half ago, that was simply, we were leasing two facilities and it became, lease are expensive. And then when you have to fix a 25,000 HVAC unit, you're actually fixing somebody else's HVAC unit. You're putting in a brand new one and you're just paying for all of it and you don't really, it's not yours. Ken Gosney: So we started looking at building and building turned out to be cheaper substantially than leasing the two buildings. And at the end of the day, once we have it paid for, it's ours. And then it frees up all that extra money to go into mission. So yeah, I mean, we're talking five, 10, 15 years down the road is how we're looking at things. Your infrastructure has got to be healthy. I mean, we had trucks that weren't running when I first got there. So we looked at ways to get new trucks for our guys to drive. The battery start. So yeah, it's strategic planning involves our board, it involves employees, our leadership team. And we do that, it's typically a three or four year document, but it also is subject to change if COVID happens or some other situation comes up. Paul Casey: So you've got the building, the new buildings on Columbia Center Boulevard. Ken Gosney: It is. Next to Fred's Appliance. Paul Casey: And then the other building in Pasco? Ken Gosney: Yeah. The old K-mart for those that have been around for awhile. Paul Casey: Yes, Kmart. Ken Gosney: Remember that Kmart there? Paul Casey: Great. Just want to give that info. Where everybody needs to go and- Ken Gosney: And then next to Fred Meyer and Richland. Paul Casey: Next to Fred Meyer. There we go. Those are the three. Well, finally, Ken, what advice would you give to new leaders or anyone who wants to keep growing and gaining more influence? Ken Gosney: Well, I would just say don't, don't be afraid to fail. Because you're going to. And you're going to make mistakes and it's okay to say, "I made a mistake." And I go back to when I was first made a principal, the lead principal, my very first staff meeting, it was in this summer, summer was just ending and school was about to start. And one of my assistant principals was in charge, I think it had to do with lockers. I can't really remember. But he was up presenting and something had happened and we had a blow up with some of the staff. They were furious and I totally got it. And as they were talking about it, I was like, "Oh no, we missed that. We didn't catch that. That was going to be a problem." And it was too late. Ken Gosney: And so I had a to make right then and there, because I was off to the side and my assistant was up presenting this part. And so I just stepped up and said, "Hey this is my mistake. I did not consider that and I apologize." And I was ready for this backlash to now come towards me, and I really wanted it to come towards me and off the... Because really I'm the guy in charge. And what happened was the exact opposite. The anger left that room in like three seconds and it turned almost towards compassion where they're like, "We can handle that." And it was never brought up again. It was like, "Okay, we can fix this semester. This is what we'll do to handle it now." And that was a real lesson for me to learn that, you know what? You can't get up and say, "I screwed up," every day, but when you do make a mistake, I think it's important to acknowledge it. I don't think people expect leaders to be perfect. Paul Casey: That's right, yeah. Ken Gosney: And if they do, you're never going to make them happy anyway. But I think most people just want an authentic leader. And I think my advice to any leader, new, young, old whatever is to be yourself. You can steal ideas from other people, but don't try to be other people, because people will see through that. Be authentic, be who you are always lead with integrity, and I think you'll be okay. Paul Casey: Yeah. And apologies build trust. That's a good lesson. That's a good lesson. How can our listeners best connect with you? Ken Gosney: Well, through the Goodwill Industries of the Columbia website. We have email addresses listed on there for all the leadership team. And of course, we live in a great community and we've been super happy with people kept their donations for those three and a half months. And so when we were allowed to reopen, we've always appreciated the support of the community. And we've been here for over 50 years and just really looking forward to many years of being here. It's been awesome. Paul Casey: Yeah. It's still, there's a lot of great thrift stores in town, but I think the common phrase is people like, "Yeah, I'm just going to donate that to Goodwill." That's a great thing to say. Ken Gosney: And if I could just plug real quick. In 2019, we don't have the 2020 numbers yet, but in 2019 donations helped us serve over 5,000 people locally and place 900 people into jobs locally. Paul Casey: That's incredible. Ken Gosney: So those donations make a huge difference. And so again, we've really always appreciated the support, but just know that it does make a huge difference. Paul Casey: Awesome. Well, thanks for all you do to make Tri-Cities a great place, and keep leading well. Ken Gosney: All right, well, thanks for having me. Paul Casey: Let me wrap up our podcast today with a leadership resource to recommend. If you're looking for something to motivate your employees, and you're probably working remotely, I want to put you on to a YouTube site. Well, I found it on YouTube. It's from snacknation.com. It's 11 insanely powerful and motivational videos for employees. So they've just taken some of these best motivational talks by Brendon Burchard, Daniel Pink, Les Brown, Shawn ACOR, and they've put them in these little bite-sized nuggets that you could play at the beginning of a staff meeting. Paul Casey: So again, it's snacknation.com, 11 insanely powerful and motivational videos for your employees. Again, this is Paul Casey. I want to thank my guest, Ken Gosney from Goodwill of the Columbia for being here today on the Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast. And we want to thank our TCI sponsor and invite you to support them. We appreciate you making this possible so we can collaborate to inspire leaders in our community. Finally, one more leadership tidbit for the road to help you make a difference in your circle of influence. As a leader, you are a stage procurer, not a perfumer. Until next time, TGF! Keep Growing Forward. Announcer: Thank you to our listeners for tuning in to today's show. Paul Casey is on a mission to add value to leaders by providing practical and strategies that reduce stress in their lives and on their teams, so that they can enjoy life and leadership and experience their key desired results. If you'd like more help from Paul and your leadership development, connect with him at growingforward@paulcasey.org, for a consultation that can help you move past your current challenges and create a strategy for growing your life or your team forward. Announcer: Paul would also like to help you restore your sanity to your crazy schedule and getting your priorities done every day by offering you his free control-my-calendar checklist. Go to www.takebackmycalendar.com for that productivity tool or open a text message to 72000, and type the word Grown. Paul Casey: Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast was recorded at Fuse SPC by Bill Wagner of Safe Strategies.

Paul Casey: Dissonance is a terrible way to go through life. It's sort of like drifting. When we live a little bit off, we actually reduce our chance of longevity in our jobs. We're closer to burnout when we do that and we just live an unfulfilled life. Speaker 2: Raising the water level of leadership in the Tri-Cities of Eastern Washington, it's Tri-City's Influencer Podcast. Welcome to the TCI podcast, where a local leadership and self-leadership expert Paul Casey interviews, local CEOs, entrepreneurs and non-profit executives. To hear how they lead themselves and their teams so we can all benefit from their wisdom and experience. And here's your host, Paul Casey of Growing Forward Services, coaching and equipping individuals and teams to spark breakthrough success. Paul Casey: It's a great day to grow forward. Thanks for joining me for today's episode with Jesse Campos. Jesse is the executive Director of Adult and Teen Challenge here in the Tri-Cities. I asked him for a fun fact about himself and he said he really doesn't like getting dirty. When did you come to grips with that, Jesse? Jesse Campos: Oh my gosh. I’ll tell you this, my first kid Caleb, he was a baby and we just had him. I had my favorite jacket on. And so it was bouncing him on my lap and everything. And all of a sudden, you know how babies do, he threw up all over me and I was in panic because I was dirty, but at the same time my kid was there too. So it was just like, "Oh, what do I do?" I'm running back and forth. My wife saw me running back and forth and she just started laughing and she came to my rescue. So yeah, that was something that I will never forget in panic mode. So yeah. Paul Casey: So we're not going to do any mud runs together. Jesse Campos: Yeah. Paul Casey: That's what you're saying. Jesse Campos: Yeah, Yeah. No, I can't. Paul Casey: Well, we're going to dive in after checking in with our Tri-City Influencer sponsor. Paul Casey: It's easy to delay answering uncomfortable questions like, "what happens to my assets and my loved ones when I die?" So it's no surprise that nearly 50% of Americans don't have a will and even fewer have an estate plan. Many disabled clients worry that they don't have enough assets to set up an estate plan. But there are important options available to ensure that you have a voice in your medical and financial decision-making, even if your health takes a turn for the worst. Estate planning gives you a voice when your health deteriorates or after you're gone. Maren Miller Bam, attorney at law, is currently providing free consultations. To find out more about estate planning or to book an appointment, call Maren at (206) 485-4066 or visit Salus, that's S-A-L-U-S, -law.com today. Paul Casey: Thank you for your support of leadership development in the Tri-Cities. Well welcome, Jesse. I was privileged to meet you. Man, I don't know how many years ago. It was probably, man at least 10 years ago. Jesse Campos: It has to be. It has to be. Paul Casey: Yeah. Jesse Campos: Well, you know what? Teen Challenge has been in existence here for 13 years. Paul Casey: 13 years, okay. Jesse Campos: So almost 13 years ago. Paul Casey: Okay. And I was at a church at that point. Jesse Campos: Yeah. Paul Casey: Executive pastor at a church. And you came as a guest, I think when we would bring in local community outreach programs. And you shared about the mission of Teen Challenge. Jesse Campos: Yeah. Paul Casey: And as a church, we wanted to further that mission. And I think I remember the guys coming out. Jesse Campos: Yeah, yeah. Paul Casey: And they would come to the services. They would serve, they would do some awesome things that also blessed the church back. Jesse Campos: Yeah. Paul Casey: So yeah, good stuff. So it's great to see you back at the organization, after a journey through some other jobs. Jesse Campos: Yeah, yeah. Paul Casey: So just so our Tri-City influencers can get to know you better, tell us about that journey. What were some of those career highlights that got you to where you are today? Jesse Campos: Well man, back in the day, my heart is really community, helping those that were like me. So basically a lot of help, a lot of teenagers mentor them through gangs and at risk kids. And then I was at Jubilee Youth Ranch. I don't know if you remember that. Paul Casey: Yeah. Yeah. Jesse Campos: And my heart was back in the Tri-Cities and so I kept wanting to go back. And then finally, a couple years later, I got a call from the [USA 00:04:40] Teen Challenge Director. He said, "Hey, I heard you want to open up a home in Pasco, and we're really interested. You need to talk to my son." And his son was a CEO of a Pacific Northwest Teen Challenge. Paul Casey: Wow. Jesse Campos: And that that's basically where it started. And then after that left, that was there for about four years, five years. And then I went to start a gang outreach program called Peterman Outreach where we went through prisons and juvenile detention centers and just tried to mentor them and tried to help them. Jesse Campos: So my passion is always helping those that were like me. And then I started at Tri-City Dream Center, and that's basically outreach focused. So we helped the homeless. We did some more mentoring and we did this Adopt a Block where we serve neighborhoods that need it most. Help mow lawns, pick up trash, whatever it may be. Jesse Campos: And then all of a sudden, my former boss from Teen Challenge gives me a call and we were talking about it and he said, "Man, wouldn't it be great going back?" And so we did some negotiation and whatnot, and voila. I'm back there. Yeah, so it's been great, man. Just recently, we had our capacity of 12 guys and we just recently expanded that to 24 guys. So it's been a great adventure. Paul Casey: Wow. Yeah. And just in case people aren't familiar with Adult and Teen Challenge, what's its mission? Jesse Campos: Man, it's mission is to put hope within reach of every drug addict. It's an 12 month faith-based residential program. And we just want to help individuals build foundation underneath them and, man, help them to be better and successful. Yeah, for sure. Paul Casey: And you said you wanted to help people through situations that you had experienced personally. So why do you love what you do? Jesse Campos: Man, so Paul as you know, I'm a former drug addict, a gang affiliate for many years since the age of nine. And I love doing it because if somebody did that to me when I was young, I don't think my life would have been what I went through. I've been through a lot of stuff. So therefore I'm passionate to reach out those that were like me. And it's something that I surround myself with those that have the same desire, same passion. And tell you what, man, it's been a phenomenal journey and I just love it. What's more awesome to witness is a individual transformed right before you. I'm not talking about age. I'm talking about soul. I'm talking about life and just like seeing a butterfly in a cocoon, right. And I'll tell you what, man, it's phenomenal to see that transformation before you. Paul Casey: Yeah. Wow. What an inspiration to be able to see that. And though, it's always inspiring when you'd have a banquet and the guys would be up there in the front and they'd hold up the sign. "This is what I was and this is what I am." And they flip the sign around. This is what he is. Jesse Campos: Yeah. Yeah. Paul Casey: It just brings tears to your eyes to see that transformation. Jesse Campos: Yeah. Paul Casey: So I could see why that would drive you every day. Jesse Campos: Oh yeah, yeah. Paul Casey: So you had to make a decision, whether to come back to Teen Challenge as executive director and before that you made that decision to start the gang outreach. Before that, as you were saying along the way, how did you decide when to make that leap and say, "All right, I'm going to do this now." What went through your mind for making that decision? Jesse Campos: Man, again, it's the why that is passionate for me. And looking at that Teen Challenge and going back when I first started the program, man, it was really hard. So I always felt like it was I was divorced. I was a stepdad and I see my kids over there and whatnot. And it was always something that I was driven and passionate about. And so I had to really talk my wife and say, "Hey, what do you think?" And it was something that, first of all, I am married and my wife's opinion matters to me. And you don't never want to make a move when it splits up your family for the decision that you've done. Paul Casey: Yeah. Jesse Campos: So that was something that, man, seeing again, it's something that I loved. So man, I went back and man, I felt like home. Yeah. Paul Casey: And she's right in there with you, right? She's the office manager or what's her role? Jesse Campos: Right now she is not employed with us. Paul Casey: Okay. Jesse Campos: But she does come and volunteer all the time. Paul Casey: Yeah. Jesse Campos: So she makes sure my men are ship-shape and you know my wife, man. She does not fear anybody. So she's a Latina. She will knock somebody out if they get out of hand. So yeah, so she's there. She always helps out in whatever capacity she can. Paul Casey: Yeah. And I'm sure you'll welcome volunteers back when we get through this COVID thing. Jesse Campos: Oh yeah absolutely. Yeah. That's something that we definitely need. Yeah. Paul Casey: And that's probably one of your hassles right now, but what are some of the hardest things about being an executive director right now in Teen challenge? Jesse Campos: Well, the hardest thing really is, have you ever been in a point that you know that someone's going to fall and you want to yell? You want to scream. Paul Casey: Yeah. Jesse Campos: So watch for that pit, watch for that manhole, watch for whatever they may be wandering into. And they just don't hear you. I'm talking about my students and stuff like that. And those there, a lot of us have our own perception of ourselves, but others have perceptions of you as well. So I'm looking at this, "Well, I'm healthy, I can do it." I think that's the hardest part of Teen Challenge is seeing an individual going through that pit and you're yelling, you're trying to help out. But I mean, you can lead that horse to the water, but you can't make them drink it. Paul Casey: Yep. Jesse Campos: So that's one of the hardest things for me to do. And I was raised in a really, how you say it? My dad never let me go out of the house rarely ever. Paul Casey: Yes. Jesse Campos: Sheltered in a sense. And so meeting new people was very hard for me when I started Teen Challenge, so I was raised up in East side of Pasco. So majority are minorities that lived over there. And so now I come into try to network and go to chambers meetings. And so I was very quiet. It was very hard and I think it was just un-normal to me to be with other people. And so that was the hardest part. And now it's still hard, but I've grown out of it. I, again, focus on the why and whatnot. And so those are the hardest things to face from that. Paul Casey: Yeah, that's so good. I think many of our listeners might be more on the introverted side. Jesse Campos: Right. Paul Casey: Or maybe they're shy to go to a networking activity when we're allowed to do that again. Jesse Campos: Right. Paul Casey: Or to reach out to new folks. But like you said, the why is the thing that drives you because you want to promote something. Jesse Campos: Right. Paul Casey: You want to promote something transformational. Jesse Campos: Right. Paul Casey: So it pushes you through the fear of why you want to be in that room. Jesse Campos: Right, right. Paul Casey: What would you say to people, Jesse, who have a coworker, a direct report, a friend who's really struggling? I mean, it's obvious that that person is struggling with something. And like you said, you want to yell, "Get out from in front of that bus. It's going to hit you." How do you do that compassionately to show you care? And yet not, like you said, you can't make them drink. Jesse Campos: Yeah, man. That's very hard to do because some may take offense. Paul Casey: Right. Jesse Campos: And become defensive and you can never reach. So it's a moment of, "How are you doing today?" and if they come to you normally, they come to you and say, "Man, you know what? I'm struggling right now." And when they open up, then that's what gives you a gateway to open up as well. Paul Casey: Gotcha. Jesse Campos: And that's the hardest part when you see families, especially. Because family, sometimes they don't listen to you. So that's something that you wait for the moment. Jesse Campos: Oh, crazy thing. I was in Walla Walla Penitentiary. I was in IMU, the whole per se. So these guys were shackled from their feet to their waist to the arms. Shackled, to the desks. I had eight guys at a time and these guys, some of them were lifers. Some of them were spending a long time in prison. I never told them that I was a minister or a pastor, right. So there was a lesson I was teaching. And I said, "Man, you know what? I got to say something here." I said, "I'm a pastor." And those guys totally just flipped out. "No, you're not." Some even cursed. Paul Casey: Oh. Jesse Campos: Yeah, yeah. "No, you're not." And the reason why I said that, because there were open to me. These guys never would open to anybody else, but I was like them. So they opened up and then I told them who I really was, my identity, what I face every day. And it opened the door for me to help them more. It opened a door to really tell them, "Hey, you need help. You need to change." Paul Casey: So it sounds like being vulnerable as a leader and in your relationships, people will see you then as like them. Jesse Campos: Yeah. Paul Casey: And then maybe, just maybe, they'll open up too, and then when that door cracks open a little bit. Jesse Campos: Than you get in. Paul Casey: You've got the opportunity to speak into their life, or just at least find out what's going on in their lives. Jesse Campos: Right. Right. Yeah. Paul Casey: Yeah. That's good. How have you grown as a leader, as an executive director from the first time? You said networking things, that stretched you. Now as you look back from the first time you were executive director at Teen Challenge and now, how else have you matured or grown? Jesse Campos: Oh my gosh. I think I've grown a lot. I mean, meeting people like you and the former pastors that were previous there in the church and just surround myself with those that have been successful in non-profits or been successful where in my capacity, in my field. And just ask them questions, sit down with them and just say, "Hey man, this is what I'm struggling with. What kind of advice would you give me?" And follow them on Instagram or LinkedIn or Facebook. Paul Casey: Yes. Jesse Campos: And just see how they approach things and what they're doing. And that really, again, I used to take things personal when people didn't want to talk to me, when people just... I took things personal, but then really focusing on the why really helped me push me. And I think that's something that was really, and now I don't get personal. I just say, "Hey, I won't to talk to you." And I'll go somewhere else. Paul Casey: Yeah. Jesse Campos: So it's something that is just don't take it personal. I actually cried, bro. Paul Casey: Whoa. Jesse Campos: Yeah, man. It was that personal to me because I really was passionate about my job. I was really passionate at helping people. And now it's something that your batting average, it's not going to be a thousand. You're going to hit sometimes. You may hit a single, may hit a double, maybe triple, maybe even a home run. But your batting average is not going to be a thousand. So we have to remember every time we swing and we don't get struck out, hey there's a next time you're going to come up and bat again. Paul Casey: That's a good illustration of how the best hitters in baseball still only get on base three out of 10 times. Jesse Campos: Right, right. Exactly. Paul Casey: [crosstalk 00:16:41] It's like a really awesome batting average. Jesse Campos: Yeah, yeah. Paul Casey: So even in your networking or if you're prospecting for customers or you're trying to make a difference in someone's life, you're going to come up short. Jesse Campos: Right. Paul Casey: Maybe even the majority of the time, but boy, those few times where it lands. Jesse Campos: Absolutely. Paul Casey: And you're able to make an impact in somebody's life, it's so much worth it. Jesse Campos: Yeah, absolutely. Paul Casey: Well, you probably have a lot on your plate. We all have huge to-do lists. And I'm just wondering, how do you decide what to work on on a given day? Because probably no two days look the same for you in your jobs. Jesse Campos: Absolutely. Paul Casey: So how do you triage those tasks? Or how do you decide what to delegate? Or maybe even just say, "Nope, we can't do that this year or this month." Jesse Campos: Right. I think it's developing the team around you. Paul Casey: Yeah. Jesse Campos: And really leading them and understanding that that is your core. Those are the guys that you need to invest your time in. That is the guys that you want to teach them leadership and how to deal with things and how you would deal with things. And so my guys, my team, I always tell them, and this is my motto. "Don't assume excellence. Teach excellence." And oftentimes we believe that everybody assumes what right or wrong is, and it's not. So therefore teaching your team to develop the way you want to develop and let them catch your vision. And so prioritize whatever is happening. Jesse Campos: So we just came out of our project. So I oversee that the thrift stores, oversee we're opening up a new counseling center here in the end of this month, the outreach component and the residential component. So basically it's a juggling act and whatever is more. And then you got the financial piece. So it's very hard to... Then you've got day-to-day fires you have to put out. So really just, your team can help you. That'll be great so you can focus on what it is. But if they can't, just focus on the why. And sometimes if my budget's due by the end of this week, but some guys suicidal or this guy wants to leave the program or this guy is missing, I would stop everything and focus on the person because ultimately our goal is to put hope within reach of every drug addict. Paul Casey: So that trumps every task on your plate. If that person needs you, that's going to trump all those tasks. Jesse Campos: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. But then you need to go focus back and get it out there. Paul Casey: That's right. Jesse Campos: Yes. As executive director, man, you're up at midnight pushing those paperwork. Paul Casey: Wow. Jesse Campos: But I tell you what man, it's been rewarding. Paul Casey: Yeah. So just so our listeners know, maybe there's some thrift store shoppers out there like my mom. No, actually I like it. My wife and I like those store too. What's the address of the thrift store? Jesse Campos: Oh, good question. If you just Google it or whatnot, it's Teen Challenge Thrift Store in Pasco. It's right on Sylvester. Paul Casey: Okay. Jesse Campos: And right across from the Eagles Salon or whatever it is. Paul Casey: Okay. Jesse Campos: Yeah, yeah. Right there on the corner of 10th and Sylvester. Paul Casey: Sylvester, okay. That's good. So please patronize the local businesses. You're helping Teen Challenge just by shopping there. That's cool. Jesse Campos: Yeah. Paul Casey: Well hey, we'll come back from a break here, a shout out to our sponsors. And then we'll ask Jesse about how he develops relationships. Paul Casey: Located in the Parkway, you'll find motivation, new friends and your new coworking space at Fuse. Whether you're a student just starting out or a seasoned professional, come discover all the reasons to love coworking at Fuse. Come co-work at fuse for free on Fridays in February. Enjoy free coffee or tea, wifi, printing, conference rooms, and more. And bring a friend. Fuse is where individuals and small teams come together in a thoughtfully designed resource rich environment to get work done and grow their ideas. Comprised of professionals from varying disciplines and backgrounds, Fuse is built for hardworking, fun loving humans. Learn more about us at fusespc.com or stop by 723 The Parkway in Richland, Washington. Paul Casey: So Jesse, you probably believe like I do that leadership is relationships and they're the key to your success. So how do you intentionally develop a relationship with a guy that comes into the program? Jesse Campos: And it is. Man, it's just being vulnerable with him, being genuine. You're not there just to check the box and get the data or the survey done. You're really there to really serve. And I think that servant leadership is very important. Paul Casey: Yes. Jesse Campos: So you're there for the person. We have a motto of my team. I say, "We're together, heart and soul." And it's really not about the person's characteristics or where you struggling. It is ultimately the soul of a person. So we can bypass everything and really look at the person and develop that relationship with them. I think it surpasses them and they will really be willing to engage with you if you're vulnerable. Jesse Campos: And I think with donors too, with people. I mean, if you're really transparent with them and let them know, man. I've developed a lot of mentors now that were my donors and those relationships that have really been awesome. And I try to be genuine as much as possible. What you see me here behind the mic and podcast with you, the same person I am on the alter preaching. Paul Casey: Yeah. No mask. Jesse Campos: No mask. There's nothing. So being vulnerable, is really, really, and understanding the why and what drives you and what are you doing? And I think donors and people that you network with will see that and want to get to know you too. And then those relationships, you need to finesse those relationships. You're not there just for the money. Paul Casey: Right. Jesse Campos: So you're not there just for their investment. You're there to try to learn from them, especially a millionaire. How'd you get that money? It's like, "What did you do?" He might be an entrepreneur and has his own business. "I'm struggling with this? What's your...", And they will be open to talk to you. And so it's something that relationships is very, very... I have my own personal motto, especially when we deal with programs, is that programs graduate people, but relationships change people. And oftentimes we need to look at that. Of course, I'm here to teach, learn, mentor, but I think the relationships trumps, as you said, trumps the programming. Because once you build that strong, I think people will begin to change. Paul Casey: Well, a lot of value bombs that Jesse's dropping here. Teaching excellence, don't assume excellence together, heart and soul on a team or a staff. And that programs graduate, but relationships change. These are really good. These are good mottos that you've got that drive you. And I could tell they are part of that why, the culture that you're trying to create. So you mentioned donors is one of the relationships that you also have too. So you've got the guys, you got your team, you've got donors that you have to be in relationships. What other strategic relationships do you have to nurture as a executive director? Jesse Campos: Man, in every aspect. I think in every person you meet can potentially be somebody that wants to be a part of your program. Paul Casey: Yeah. Jesse Campos: From the cashier in the grocery store, from the customer that you bumped your car into. I mean, it's everybody, it can be somebody, a part of your organization. And so I remember one time I was at Walmart and the cashier was there and just wasn't even looking at me, just scanning the stuff. It was busy and crowded. So I reached over and I touched her hands and said, "Hey, how are you doing today?" And she looked at me, kind of take a deep breath and said, "Man, you know what? It's been busy today." Oh, and I start cracking some jokes and that lady found me on Facebook. Paul Casey: No way. Jesse Campos: Yeah. And said, "Thank you." So it's something, anybody. I mean, you can impact anybody and they can be part of your network. Like I said, the relationships we develop is somebody that really understands you and is willing to invest in you in whatever capacity that they can, and maybe help you and mentor you to reach your goals. Paul Casey: That's a cool story. Jesse Campos: Yeah. Paul Casey: We've got impact. And anybody we run into, most of us are home bound a lot of the time now. Jesse Campos: Yeah. Paul Casey: So when we do get out in the world, it probably even means more to connect with people that are on the front lines, helping us out day to day. Jesse Campos: Yes. Right. Paul Casey: And then have you had to change your relationship strategy for the land of COVID? Have you had to go more towards social media, email, phone calls, Zoom? Jesse Campos: Absolutely. I mean, that's something Zoom was something that I've done a lot lately but also it's very important to keep connected, regardless of the COVID you can't meet with people. Keep connected through newsletters, set up a meeting on Zoom, on social media, telling what you're doing in your organization. Just continue to keep people informed and that's the way we do it. Paul Casey: Yeah. I would assume the stories are the thing that connects people the most to the mission, right? Jesse Campos: Absolutely. Paul Casey: Yeah. Because stories stick and that makes people want to move toward your organization and the transformation that's happening. Jesse Campos: Yeah. Paul Casey: Well, self care is essential for mental health and top performance, especially now. So what recharges your batteries? What fills your tank? Jesse Campos: My family. Paul Casey: Yeah. Jesse Campos: I mean, my kids. I couldn't have my baby boy. We couldn't have kids. For 12 years my wife and I were struggling to have a kid. Paul Casey: Wow. Jesse Campos: And yeah. And so when I had my baby boy, it was something that was very important to me. So I have two kids, Caleb now he just turned 10 in October, and my little daughter, she's eight and about to turn nine at the end of this month. And so I call them my monkeys. So making sure that my phone is off by seven o'clock when I get home, my staff has it just in case of emergencies or whatnot, but my family's time is my family time. And that refuels me and just spending time with family and let work be at work and let your family. Jesse Campos: And I grew up in, again, in a pastor's home. And I remember that my dad was always helping others, but he didn't help me. And I was mad at him for that. Everybody else was hurting and I was hurting, but yeah, he went to help everybody else except me. Paul Casey: Yeah. Jesse Campos: So understanding that what's most important to you and for me, it's my family, my kids. And I make sure I stop everything to ensure that my kids have dad's attention. [crosstalk 00:28:12] And so that's something that refuels me. And then of course your wife, you got to take her out on dates. We have a little routine that we watch our, I don't want to call it soap operas because I'm a man, but we have our TV shows that we watch. Paul Casey: Yes. Guilty pleasure. Jesse Campos: Yeah. And that's just me and her. so that's something that really refuels me, is spending time with my family. Paul Casey: Yeah. It's like you got to take care of that inner circle first. Jesse Campos: Yeah, absolutely. Paul Casey: Those closest to you, because it's tragic to have to share that story, right, of your dad and took care of everybody else, the outer circle before the inner circle. Jesse Campos: Yeah, absolutely. Paul Casey: And that it hurt you deeply over the years, but you're breaking the chain. Jesse Campos: Yeah. Paul Casey: And you're going to do your family first. And it was probably super hard and I'm sure there's probably a listener out there that may need to hear this, but you couldn't have kids for a long time. Jesse Campos: Right. Paul Casey: That was probably hard on your marriage. Jesse Campos: It was. Paul Casey: And all of the things that you probably tried. What would you say to a couple that's really struggling with having kids? Jesse Campos: Don't give up. I mean, it is something that we almost did and my wife thought she had a bladder infection and I was like, "Get out of here." And her mom said, "Go get a test." And she yelled at her, say, "Don't say that, Mom. You know I can't have a kid." Well regardless, she did go do it. And she comes back and of course the test was positive. We went to the doctor and she was 26, 28 weeks along already. Paul Casey: Whoa. Jesse Campos: Yeah. So it was something that we found out a couple months later. Yeah. Boom [crosstalk 00:29:53]. Right. So it was something that don't give up. I mean, we lost hope, but just believe that can happen and continue that. And it will happen. Paul Casey: Yeah. What a miracle. Well, as an executive director you've got a lot of pressures coming at you and some of those are financial pressures, right. Jesse Campos: Oh, absolutely. Paul Casey: As a nonprofit, you're always struggling with not having enough money, right. You could always use more money. Jesse Campos: Yeah. Paul Casey: I'm sure you're happy with the donations that come your way. How do you manage the financials of the organization? What does that evaluation look like? You talked about financial reports, that kind of stuff. Jesse Campos: Yeah. Well, there was a lot of things that we just got done last month before a yearly budget for this year. And really just looking at that and keep it close because oftentimes we can get busy with our day to day things, but the why is understanding that we need to support and you're there for a reason and you cannot do what you do and what you're passionate about, unless... I wish money grew on trees but it doesn't so you really have to look at that and strategize and see what are your goals and what are you going to do differently to raise support, or even allow guys to go work or trying to raise money somehow with banquets, whatever it may be. Just keep focused on that because then you never going to be able to do what you love to do. Paul Casey: Now you talked about strategizing because you have to keep pivoting and doing different things. So what does that look like? Do you have a big whiteboard and you get your team together and say "Let's brainstorm." Or is this all you in the quiet of your heart going, "All right, we've got to come up with some new plants." Jesse Campos: Yeah. No, as executive director, sometimes we've put the whole thing on top of us and it's really developing your team. So I tell my team everything. Oftentimes nobody tells the team the budgets because they didn't want them to stress or nothing like that. I tell my team the budget. Paul Casey: Transparency. Jesse Campos: Transparency, and really I tell them, "We are a team. And this is not Jesse Campos' outreach or organization. This is our organization." And let them feel a part of the organization and the vision of what you're doing. And I let them know. So what can we do? What can we do differently this year and whatnot. And we have a big brainstorming event in our room and we just go at it. And they feel so much pumped about it, that now they feel a part of the vision. And understanding, so the reason why I'm locked up in my office eight hours a day, they understand that, "Hey, Jesse's there and he's doing things that is going to help us." So really just depending on the team and I have my budget. I love electronics. So everything's electronic for me. And I have it on my computer and at first thing in the morning.,That's what I do. I look at my budget. Paul Casey: Wow, first thing. Jesse Campos: First thing in the morning. Paul Casey: Yeah. Jesse Campos: That drives me. And so what can I do different today to help my guys? And so that's something we do. Paul Casey: That's good. And I really believe that people help support what they help co-create. So if they have a voice and they've got input, they're probably going to be more on board with whatever you come up with as a group. Jesse Campos: Absolutely. Paul Casey: Well finally, Jesse, what advice would you give to new leaders or anyone who just wants to keep growing and gaining more influence? Jesse Campos: I tell you what, surround yourself with those that are maybe higher than you. Never be afraid to hire somebody that has more education than you because you can just really learn from them. Just surround yourself with those that have that wisdom and there's been several people in my life that I call. I text on a daily basis, "Hey man, I'm going through this. What do you recommend?" And again, we may see a perspective, but others that you surround yourself may see another perspective. And that gives you insight and different view and have that critical thought. Really looking at the bottle all the way around, not just one sided. Jesse Campos: And oftentimes we are one-sided because we have our own dreams, our own visions and ways it's going to work. But somebody who might have a greater plan and strategy for you. My dad always said, "Work smarter, not harder." So always wrap yourself with people that have the same passion and vision, or just want to help you and ask them those questions. And again, if it's volunteer, they feel more inclined to help you more because now they feel that they're part of it. Jesse Campos: And always give honor where honor is due. Never say, "This is our idea" and just forget about that volunteer that just gave you that. Honor them as well. And we don't know it all. We can't do everything ourselves and it takes people that you surround yourself with to help conquer your vision. Paul Casey: Yeah. So Tri-City Influencers, you heard it here, is get multiple perspectives in your business, in your whatever group you have. You got to have people wrapped around you as advisors to give you that different perspective. So you've got a lot more wisdom than just you in your own brain. Jesse Campos: Absolutely. Paul Casey: Well, Jesse, how can our listeners best connect with you and Adult and Teen Challenge? Jesse Campos: I'll tell you what, our best way, if you're on Facebook. I think everybody and their moms are on Facebook now. You can look us up at Tri-City Campus of Adult and Teen Challenge on Facebook. Paul Casey: Okay. Jesse Campos: You can reach us there. You can go to our website at www.TeenChallengePNW, for Pacific Northwest, .com or .org, whatever it is. You can get ahold of us there. So yeah, that's the best way. Or you can call our center, 547-2389. Paul Casey: Cool. Well, thanks again for all you do to make the Tri-Cities a great place and keep leading well. Jesse Campos: Thank you, Paul, for everything. Paul Casey: Let me wrap up our podcast today with a leadership resource to recommend. And it's more of a goal setting app that you could download. It's called Notion, N-O-T-I-O-N, dot S-O. Notion.SO. It's an app that helps you organize your to-do list, your goals list in one place. You create these little boards and then you can customize them to your liking with tags, with deadlines. You can share these with your team. You can delegate things or it could be just for you. And there is a free version that I'm trying out that for my goals this year, and also a paid version that gives you more bells and whistles. So again, that's Notion.SO. Jesse Campos: I use that too. Paul Casey: Again, this is Paul Casey, and I want to thank my guest, Jesse Campos from Adult and Teen Challenge for being here today on the Tri-Cities Influencer podcast. We also want to thank our Tri-City Influencer sponsor, invite you to support them. We appreciate you for making this possible so we can collaborate to make and help inspire leaders in our community. Paul Casey: Finally, one more leadership tidbit for the road, as you are making a difference in your circle of influence. It's a [Warren Venice 00:37:21] quote. He says, "Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality." Until next time [inaudible 00:37:30]. Keep rolling forward. Speaker 2: Thank you to our listeners for tuning in to today's show. Paul Casey is on a mission to add value to leaders by providing practical tools and strategies that reduce stress in their lives and on their teams so that they can enjoy life and leadership and experience their key desired results. If you'd like more help from Paul in your leadership development, connect with him at growingforward@paulcasey.org for a consultation that can help you move past your current challenges and create a strategy for growing your life or your team forward. Paul would also like to help you restore your sanity to your crazy schedule and getting your priorities done everyday by offering you his free control my calendar checklist. Go to www.takebackmycalendar.com for that productivity tool or open a text message to 72000 and type the word [inaudible 00:38:32]. Paul Casey: Tri-Cities Influencer podcast was recorded at Fuse SPC by Bill Wagner of Safe Strategies.

Paul Casey: Get your priorities done near the beginning of your day. Research says that between 10:00 and 12:00 is typically the most creative time of the day for most people. Speaker 2: Raising the water level of leadership in the Tri-Cities of Eastern Washington, it's the Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast. Welcome to the TCI Podcast, where local leadership and self-leadership expert, Paul Casey, interviews local CEOs, entrepreneurs, and non-profit executives to hear how they lead themselves and their teams so we can all benefit from their wisdom and experience. Here's your host, Paul Casey, of Growing Forward Services, coaching and equipping individuals and teams to spark breakthrough success. Paul Casey: It's a great day to grow forward. Thanks for joining me for today's episode with Joe Estey. Joe is a performance improvement specialist at Lucas Engineering. And a funny thing about Joe is he got into video games at a later age. Joe, tell us about that. Joe Estey: Well, I was traveling on the road quite a bit to see clients out of the state, and my grandsons wanted to stay in touch with me and FaceTime wasn't cutting it. And so we wanted to do more interactive things, not just talk to each other. And so they convinced me, through a birthday present, to get an Xbox One. And then when I was in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, for the first time I logged online at the age of, well, I think I was going on 60 then, for the first time ever to play video games. So my experience wasn't Atari. It was mainly a pinball machines and bowling alleys. I had never, though my son had done it a lot, played video games. So I got a late start in life, but I will tell you I'm a threat when it comes to certain games. And here's what I found out I think is most interesting is by building connections with my grandkids, I started creating greater connections cognitively in my head about things I hadn't experienced. Paul Casey: Ooh. A win win. Joe Estey: I was a win-win, all the way around. Paul Casey: Well, we're going to dive in after checking in with our Tri-City influencer sponsor. It's easy to delay answering uncomfortable questions like what happens to my assets and my loved ones when I die? So it's no surprise that nearly 50% of Americans don't have a will and even fewer have an estate plan. Many disabled clients worry that they don't have enough assets to set up an estate plan, but there are important options available to ensure that you have a voice in your medical and financial decision-making. Even if your health takes a turn for the worst. Estate planning gives you a voice when your health deteriorates or after you're gone. Maren, Miller Bam, Attorney at Law, is currently providing free consultations. To find out more about estate planning or to book an appointment, call Maren at 206-485-4066 or visit Salus, that's S-A-L-U-S dash law dot com today. Paul Casey: Thank you for your support of leadership development in the Tri-Cities. So, Joe, so our Tri-City influencers can get to know you, take us through a couple of the career highlights that led you to where you are today. Joe Estey: Oh. Okay. Well, first of all, I've always been interested in training and seeing people improve. So even though I was a bus boy years ago at a local restaurant here in the Tri-Cities, I worked my way up in about eight months to the captain of the floor, which meant I was responsible for training waitstaff and bussers in the performance of their duties so they could maximize their tips. And so profit was the motive. The better they did at their job, the more they made. And so it didn't take a whole lot of convincing to teach them some tips about how to better perform at the table-side. And then from that, I became a flambeist, a sommelier. I spent some time in the culinary world. Met an individual who was starting a construction company to solely focus on restoring property after disasters. And since I had, as a flambeist, played` with fire by the table side, it made sense for me to try and put some of those fires out after they had occurred in people's homes. Joe Estey: And so then I stayed in that world for about three years and learned how to restore oil paintings, restore cars, restore grand pianos, absolve a variety of physical issues people had with their property after the disaster. And I met a gentleman who then put me on the track to human performance improvement years ago from Westinghouse Electric Corporation. We worked at a local radiological site where they were producing a material for reactors and for nuclear weapons at the time. And I began a journey on, not focusing so much on how to restore property that had been damaged, but how, as a manager, you can restore people back to wholeness after an error or after an event. And that's where I started pursuing really why things happen, the reason behind the why that we normally assume, meaning the obvious usually isn't the answer. We have to do a deeper dive into that. And so for the past, I'd say a three decades, I spent most of my time on human performance improvement, which is the reduction of events through the proper management of error. Paul Casey: Wow. The flambeist. Joe Estey: Yeah. That was a blast. Paul Casey: That's my new word for [crosstalk 00:05:24]. Joe Estey: A flambeist. Paul Casey: I love that. I also love that you're in the training field, even in your first jobs. So, I mean, and I've heard this before, too, that there were signs of your passion, even as a child or a youth. Jim, sounds like it's been a pattern for you all the way through. Joe Estey: Oh. I think so. I think I probably have two passions that drive every decision and action I make even today vocationally. And one is is that I'm fascinated with the way people learn. And secondly, I'm fascinated with the way things are made. And so I have yet to meet a person in a boring job though I've met many bored people in their jobs. Joe Estey: Unfortunately. And there isn't anything, I don't think, I haven't found fascinating about the most rudimentary work people do. I mean, there's always something behind the scenes that's fascinating about how they accomplish their tasks. And I think that's the real passion I have for understanding why people do the things they do when they do them. Paul Casey: That's so cool. And we met probably 10 years ago, I think, and that passion was evident then. It seems like the fire is still lit. Even today we got to go through a... You trained me in human performance improvement just a couple of years ago. And... Joe Estey: And you were a great student. Just want to put that out there. Paul Casey: Thank you. Add more tools to the tool belt. Right? Joe Estey: There you go. Paul Casey: So I can also, because we share that same love of developing people and trying to figure out what makes them tick and how we can get them to the next level. And I love that you're very niched in that there are accidents that happen, there are incidents that happen. How can we prevent those from happening again? Joe Estey: Yeah. I think, that's the real element. There are companies, and I think we live through those times right now, there are organizations that keep trying the same thing over and over and hoping for a different result. And it's not working. Paul Casey: It's call insanity. Joe Estey: Yeah. That's exactly right. And before it had a name, it was the way we managed things because we didn't know better. And so what happened is is we would think that by putting a plan in place that if it's failing is because people aren't working the plan. Well, it could be the plans is not a very good plan. You know? There's a saying that every system is perfectly designed to get you the results you're getting. If you don't like the results you're getting, you might want to look at your system and don't blame the people who are using it. Joe Estey: Because every system has a hole in it that requires the user to fill it. And so whether you're writing a great way of doing work in a procedure, or you're designing a great system in a control room, you left a hole somewhere, because you knew the answer when you were designing it. And people didn't even know what the question was when they're using it. And so there's always going to be a maze they're walking through. You saw the start and finish. They're just in the middle of the maze. And so when you have an event, it's easy after an accident to say, "Well. Here's what you should have been doing and could have been doing." That's because you started at the end of the maze. You already know the answer. What you need to do is put yourself into the shoes of the people doing the work at the time, and what made it locally rational for them to make the decisions they were making? Joe Estey: It's called the local rationality principle. It wasn't an error. Because if it was an error, they wouldn't be doing it. It had to make sense to them. Otherwise they would have stopped doing what they were doing. And so if you try to tell people what makes sense afterwards, that doesn't guarantee sense it's going to be made later in the future. So we try to help companies develop solutions for the real reason why things happen rather than the easier solutions that cause more problems. Paul Casey: The band-aids. Joe Estey: The band-aids. Band-aids that you can't... And you'll never know what the real problem is. Paul Casey: Yep. Yep. Good stuff. Good stuff. So I know you had your own business for a while and because we're friends and you jumped to this opportunity to be at Lucas. And so you were at a crossroads at some point, and you decided to make that jump. So maybe you could share a little bit about making that jump, but also our listeners, when they're at a crossroads of a big decision, career decision usually, what counsel would you give them? But start with your decision. Joe Estey: Oh. I appreciate the question. Actually for almost two decades, I ran my own consultancy and training and that meant that I was on the road and I was doing all the work. I was direct marketing. I was lining up the next contract. I was managing things and I was spending, three days a year with CPAs to manage my money and figure out how much I'm going to pay in debt. And that's not what I got into the business for. So I realized, probably after 19 years of doing that, I loved my vocation and calling. I didn't like the administration behind it. There was no drive in me to really go out and look for the new contract. There was no drive in me to manage my income, manage my finances, manage the way money is spent and invested. People are better at that than me. Joe Estey: And it takes a while for a person to say, you may be a business owner, but you are not good at anything, but what you do. And what you do is the good or service you offer. But the business behind the business is equally important, the enterprise. Well, I wasn't managing the enterprise and I realize that it. It wasn't bad. I never had a bad year. I always had great years. And every year was better than the last one. But I knew that I was being weighed down by the business rather than being in love with the vocation. And so I met a guy named Ken Lucas who had a similar consultancy, wider in scope, deeper in nature, and we teamed together on a couple of projects and he said he would carry the freight. If I carry the weight of the work. Meaning, he would basically broker my work with the people that needed it while he attended to the administrative things, and his staff. Paul Casey: Sweet. Joe Estey: It has been a sweet marriage. It really has been. It's been ideal. Paul Casey: Right because as a business owner, you have to work on the business, which was sucking the life out of you and you just wanted to stay in the business. And so you found a great marriage of those two things. Joe Estey: And I think one thing that I didn't see an unintended positive consequence was he helped push me without being too pushy towards setting new goals. You know, I was pretty satisfied with the level of income I was getting. A year would go by and I'd look back and say, "It could have been better, but it certainly wasn't bad." And I think there's a comfort level people rest at. If you're a student and you're happy with a B, you may not try to get an A, and I was a B student and I may have been a C student, but I was pretty satisfied with it. There was no prompting to do better because I was pretty comfortable. But now that you have this team are trying to support, you have to also do well for them and see, and it took the focus off of just doing well for me and my family to doing well for them and their family, which changed our whole relationship. Paul Casey: So if a listener is at that crossroads, maybe one of the crossroads is when you realize you're just sort of coasting. You need to be stretched. That might be a reason to jump to something new that's going to stretch you. Are there any other tips that you'd give? Joe Estey: No. That's an excellent one. And I would say some people, there's an old saying of boys, remember very early in my life, and when I remember it, I tried to reflect on how to get out of it. And that is the certainty of misery for a lot of folks is better than the misery of uncertainty. Paul Casey: The devil you know is better than the one you don't...] What is it? Joe Estey: So right now it may not be great, but you're too afraid to take a leap because it may be worse. Well, the truth is it may be better. I'm a firm believer that risk always carries with it greater rewards, but also a greater opportunities to fail. But if you don't have that, your foot is on the brake the entire time, because you're afraid of making a mistake so you don't take your foot off the brake and therefore you're not going anywhere. There's a reason why there's a gas pedal. And if you're all gas and no brake, you're in trouble. And if you're all brake and no gas, you're in trouble. And so I think through life, we kind of navigate through the brakes and gas pedals and to try and figure out how to get somewhere positively. Paul Casey: Boy, that's so good. My wife and I are watching The Amazing Race. We've gone back to the original. So I think e've hit season 11 now. Joe Estey: It's a binge season. Paul Casey: They're racing. They're on a boat somewhere in like Vietnam or somewhere. And they're like, wait, we picked the worst boat because the other boats are passing them. All of a sudden you see the boat master pull up the anchor. Having the foot on the brake pedal is not going to get you a success. Joe Estey: No. You can't. And I think you have to take... And you don't want to be all gas no brake, which means you want to take measured calculable steps. And you know, you've always got to have that plan and I know you preach and profess that a great deal and practice it, but you want things to be deliberate in nature. You want intention too behind every action. Paul Casey: Yes. Yes. Well, Joe, leaders have to keep growing or else they become irrelevant. So how have you matured as a leader in recent years in your craft? Joe Estey: You know, I think probably the greatest lesson I have learned through practice in the field and observations in different industries is most leaders get what's wrong wrong. They see something and they believe it's a matter of attitude and behavior driven by motivation in their folks, rather than a lack of ability and confidence. We're going into a time of change now where it's just the turning of the new year. We're in 2021. As a result, we're going to put new policies in place, new procedures in place, new practices in place. And people will unfortunately say, "Well, you know, people are bound to resist change. And so we have to do something to motivate them towards it." It's usually not a lack of motivation that's the issue. Right now people are very confident and competent in what they're doing. They've been doing what they've been doing for a long time. Joe Estey: When you start talking about changing any element of their work, you are shaking their confidence and their competency. It isn't that they don't want to change and improve because human beings are born to improve. We were born to learn. We were born to be different than we are today. We are not resistors of change. We're resistors of change in the things we no longer care about. Now see we don't want to put effort into something we don't see a benefit returned. And if we have a hobby, we get better at it by changing. You have a business, you get better at it by changing because the word change actually just means improvement. We were born to change. However, when you see somebody resist it, it may not be a lack of motivation. It's usually based on a lack of ability. They know how to do what they're doing now. Give them greater ability to do it, and motivation will take care of itself. Paul Casey: And you would try to have managers who are running into some resistance with their people try to sort that out. Isn't motivation [crosstalk 00:16:12]. Joe Estey: Exactly. That's the number one question you have to ask, is this really a motivational issue? And I'm going to tell you right now research shows it usually isn't. The real issue is it's a lack of ability or changing capability. You did something to their process that they were comfortable with. You implemented a checklist, changed the way you answer the phone, changed the way you handle money, whatever that is, well, they were competent, which meant they were confident. And now you're shaking up their competency, which is bound to affect their confidence. So naturally they're going to resist it until you make them more able to do it. Paul Casey: Yeah. Raises their anxiety. Yeah. Joe Estey: Oh. Yeah. Paul Casey: This tool that I share at my change seminar, the change puzzle and the six elements that you have to have in order to have change. And one of them is, if you don't feel like you can do it, you see what the outcome is. It's anxiety [crosstalk 00:17:00] Joe Estey: There you go. Paul Casey: ... people on the ground. So you've got to then pour into training or hold their hand for a little bit. [crosstalk 00:17:07] Joe Estey: That's a huge lesson and you hit it right on the head, Paul. Because if you think about all the seminars and workshops that managers take to learn how to motivate their people when things are changing or they're dealing with difficult times, it's not a motivational issue. They are motivated. They got out of bed. They put on their shoes. They went to work. They somehow were motivated. They just may not have been as able as they needed to be. Paul Casey: Good stuff. Well, before we head into our next question on Joe and his to-do list, let's shout out to our sponsor. Located in the Parkway, you'll find motivation, new friends, and your new coworking space at Fuse. Whether you're a student, just starting out, or a seasoned professional, come discover all the reasons to love co-working at Fuse. Come co-work at Fuse for free on Fridays in February. Enjoy free coffee or tea, wifi, printing, conference rooms, and more, and bring a friend. Fuse is where individuals and small teams come together in a thoughtfully designed resource rich environment to get work done and grow their ideas. Comprised of professionals from varying disciplines and backgrounds, fuse is built for hardworking, fun loving humans. Learn more about us st Fuse S-P-C dot com or stop by 723 The Park Way in Richland, Washington. Paul Casey: So, Joe, most of our to-do lists are greater than the time we have to do them. So how do you triage your own tasks? How do you focus on what's most important? Joe Estey: Yeah. That, once again, a great question. I think, the first list that Jerry Korum from Korum Motors over on the west side of the state taught me was that a to-do list is a list of priorities, but a never to-do list is a list of values. And you got to have a never do this list first. And so for me, the list I look at and reflect every end of the year going into the first year are the things I will not do that year. Joe Estey: The commitments I will make not to fall into some kind of temptation to wander down a path where it would be easier to say yes right now than to say no, but the no is going to reap greater rewards. So that kind of drives my to-do list. And Jerry Korum said that when he started his car dealership, he didn't like a single thing car salesman did, hated every one of them. And so he took a piece of paper and he said, "I'm going to list everything I don't want to do when I'm a car salesman." And his dad, Mel Korum, who ran the dealership really encouraged him to get into the business, but Jerry wanted nothing to do with it. And he created that I will never do this list. And that's the one that meant the most to him throughout the years. So for me, that's the one that drives my to-do list are the things I avoid. Paul Casey: Wow. That's so good. It reminds me like being at the beach and you've got the little sifter and you put the sand through it and there's some rocks and other things that get caught. That's the not to do list [crosstalk 00:20:00]. Joe Estey: Oh. That's a good one. Paul Casey: ... all the things that slip through are what we want to build the sand castle with. Joe Estey: Oh. That is a good analogy. I like that. That's right. And I think if you don't have your, I'll never do this list, no matter what you put on your to-do list, it may get circumvented along the way. Paul Casey: Sure. Sure. Especially if you're a yes person and a lot of us are yes persons. I'm a recovering yes person myself. You know, would you do this? You're so good at this. Or, well, that's another opportunity, your eyes get really wide, and then you say yes, and you're thinking, "Oh. That doesn't go with my values. Or why am I being resentful?" Joe Estey: Exactly. Well, I think to bolt onto that, Jerry said his greatest example is that was one of the things he put on his list years ago as a business owner was he would never get a line of credit against any car on his parking lot. Because he always wanted to be able to help a single mom out who showed up with two kids in the rain to get a car that would just get her to work. And he didn't want that paper owned by a bank to determine how much he could sell it for. Joe Estey: He wanted complete freedom and making those financial decisions. Now he started that over four decades ago and he practiced that every day. And when somebody would come in and say, "You know, Jerry, you could go twice as fast if you just get a loan on your vehicles." And he would say, "I have a not to-do list. And I may not be as big as I could be. I may not take the risk to get the rewards, but I'll be guaranteed the rewards that I'm taking or that I'm receiving because of the things I may not to do list." And to this day he is credit free and cash rich. Paul Casey: Wow. That's value centered leadership right there. Well, you probably believe, like I do, that Leadership is relationships. So, Joe, you're one of the best. I've been to your seminars and you're really great at connecting with an audience. You're great at developing relationships between the speaking gigs, the training gigs. How do you intentionally develop relationships? Joe Estey: Oh. I think be interested in people. I mean really. Again, I said it earlier, I am driven by a passion to understand how people do the work they do. There isn't anything they do that I already know before I watch them. So that they're kind of like a work of art in progress when I see them doing their work. I don't understand why they make the choices they make, take the actions they take, but they do. And so I am... I think most leaders are more interested in ensuring that people find them interesting, as Jim Collins once said. Joe Estey: And they spend a lot of time when they meet the new people in their organization, or they walk around the facility, or go out to see what folks are doing talking about their philosophy and what they're into and how they got to where they're at. And most people, to be honest with you, aren't interested. They want to know that the leader is interested in them before they ever find the leader interesting to them. And so when somebody walks into a classroom or somebody walks into an office or a maintenance shop where I'm doing an observation, I want to know that person. Because they have something in their head that I don't know. And I can't learn it unless they're willing to share it. Paul Casey: So good. Be having a curious posture and wanting to be interested, not interesting. Joe Estey: Oh yeah. Paul Casey: That's a really good takeaway. Well, self-care is also essential for mental health and top performance, especially now in the land of COVID. So what recharges your batteries, or maybe there are some things you don't practice what you preach. You also would tell other people, especially our listeners, what do you got to do for self care? Joe Estey: I think, first of all, you have to have a routine, but you also have to be spontaneous. My wife has taught me that. I've been married to the same gal I met back in high school. We graduated a year after she would've graduated, and I mean, we got married a year after she would've graduated and I was 20 years old with a first kid. And that teaches you a lot about having to be entertaining and how to entertain yourself. And so we've been married 43 years now. And I find out that her desire to have things planned along with my desire to be spontaneous are not mutually exclusive. That she can have all the structure she needs and I can have all the spontaneity I need as long as we do it together, because then we enjoy each other's company. Joe Estey: And I also spend at least an hour a day reading. So I read about four books a month to five books a month. And I have, since I was about 22 years of age, and it was a habit I developed early on and I have an insatiable desire to read, and that was cultivated, not through school, but through just being, as you said earlier, curious and interested in the world around me. And so I think that usually helps me stay connected. And then those moments of spontaneity of just doing things off the cuff keep me more interested in other things I don't know about yet. Paul Casey: Wow. So four books a month times 12 times 40 years... Joe Estey: Well, if you go to my website at Lucas O-P-T dot com, you'll see a resource library list. Paul Casey: I love that list. Joe Estey: Oh. Yeah. Was about 42 pages long, and those books are not books I heard about. Those are books that I've read. And they wouldn't be on that list if I didn't believe they had a good wealth of knowledge. Paul Casey: ... takeaway value to it Joe Estey: Yeah. Paul Casey: What a golden... People ask me all the time. What books do you recommend? Your list is probably the primo, top of the line list because it's 42 pages and you've got them in categories and you've got a little summary, what you're going to get out of this book. So we'll put that in the show notes for others so they can link to that. Joe Estey: I appreciate that. Paul Casey: Good stuff. But you know, I got to take that quick, a quick exit ramp with you. So give me the top books. Give me a few of them that you're just like all potential leaders or current leaders, you got to read these three or four. Joe Estey: Okay. Well, first every book you've written. You have to say that right now, because one of them they're digestible. Paul Casey: Here's five dollars. Joe Estey: The truth is they're digestible. You've taken, kind of like a Covey and others do it, you've taken a principle and tied some practices to it. And if you have problems with priority management or, you know, how to resolve conflict and your [inaudible 00:26:16] isn't that topic, you don't have to fish through 300 pages to figure it out. You can get right there [crosstalk 00:26:20]. Paul Casey: ... and it could [crosstalk 00:26:21]. Joe Estey: ... a lot smaller, a lot easier. But I would say, there are so many that are coming out. I think if you are into problem solving and understanding the nature of your problems, a great one by Dan Heath of the famous Heath brothers who wrote Made to Stick and Switch How to Change Things When Change is Hard. Dan's own book, Upstream How to Solve Problems Before You Even Have Them, a terrific book on how business leaders need to fix things upstream so people downstream don't have problems. It's where you fix the problem that determines if you're going to have problems. Joe Estey: Another one is Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek. And I think, from a neurological perspective he gives you the scientific chemistry reasons why people do what they do, but it's tied to some great analogies in the book, and stories about leaders really understanding what their role is in empathy and in perspective, understanding why people do the things they do. For my own vocational background, I mean, one of the best books, and it's going to be the most boring sounding book you've ever heard in your life. Joe Estey: But it's 110 year historical reflection on why we treat workers the way we treat them today, and it's called The Foundation of Safety Science by Sidney Dekker. Now nobody's going to pick that up at Barnes and Noble, Foundations of safety science. It does not sound exciting, but it is an exciting walk through about the way we treated people in 1910, which led to the way we treated them in 1930, and it's not so much about safety. It's more about work management. You know, why do we treat people the way we treat them? Why do we believe quote unquote they are as dumb as they are when we count on them at times being as brilliant as they could be. You can't treat people like a cook and then expect them to be chefs. If you want a chef, you better treat them like a chef and you better tell them that the day they walk in. So those are just three of them. Paul Casey: Yeah. Those are good. Those are good. Upstream, Leaders Eat Last, and that long title one. Joe Estey: Oh. The Foundation of Safety Science by Sidney Dekker. Terrific book. Paul Casey: Good stuff. Well, what's your process for continuous improvement in organization? So if you are a consultant for an organization and they said, "Joe, we really want to have a culture of continuous improvement." What kind of processes would you lead them through to just say we want this as part of our culture. Joe Estey: That's a great one. Number one, figure out where your problems are. Don't waste time solving problems you don't have, and there are a lot of companies who do. They have an inkling or an itch to fix a problem because they have a solution in their back pocket. It's the newest webinar they went to or the newest seminar they went to. And so they'll bring in things like Lean, Agile, Scrum. You don't have any of those problems. And so what you want to do is spend some time doing two things, analyzing the characteristics of the issues you're actually dealing with, and I mean, the characteristics, not the number of them, like the number of times, you didn't finish a job, number of dissatisfied customers. You want to analyze the cause behind those and then analyze what you've done to correct those problems. And what you'll find out is the majority of time your view of human error is an error because you believe people are choosing to make mistakes. No one chooses to make a mistake. Joe Estey: Errors are unintentional by definition. Telling somebody what they should have done after they did it is not going to keep them from doing it the next time around because there was a reason they did it this time. So the very nature of error is that it's involuntary. They couldn't keep from making a mistake. If they could and they decided otherwise, they call that a violation. Knowing you were doing something wrong, and knowing it was wrong to do is not the same as making an honest mistake. So a lot of the actions businesses put in place to reduce the likelihood of error later on, aren't going to work because they're usually motivational in nature. We'll tell them to be more aware. We'll tell them stories about the last time somebody did it and how they should avoid it. We'll do apology tours with employees, stand up, and tell everybody what you did wrong, and how you regret it now. Joe Estey: And none of that works and yet businesses keep using it. So I would study, what are your real issues? What are the corrective actions you have historically put in place? Which of those really viewed error as involuntary or carried the misconception that it was a matter of choice when it wasn't. And so what kinds of things can you put in place to reduce the opportunity for error? You see in every event there are two things present, the opportunity and the action. You either want to eliminate the action and leave the opportunity in place, or get rid of the opportunity. And you don't have to worry about somebody's action. And. that's the way I would advise businesses to conduct their business. Paul Casey: That's good. Take the eclair out of the refrigerator if you're trying to lose weight. Joe Estey: There you go. That's exactly right. Eliminate the queues, and then you don't have to worry about the response. Paul Casey: Love it. Well, Joe, finally, what advice would you give to new leaders just emerging in their organization or anyone who wants to keep growing and gaining more influence? Joe Estey: Again, great question. First of all, and this has come to me very late in life, and I wish I would have had it earlier in life because it would have served me well. And that is be curious and interested in the way you're doing business and examine it on a regular basis. Don't rely on the results and outcomes to convince you that you're doing well. It could be a matter of luck. And when crisis shows up, it probably shows you that you weren't as quote unquote lucky as you thought. So be curious and interested in the way we get things done and never allow consequence to be your guide. You see, too many businesses allow consequences to be their teacher. Well, when consequence is your teacher it's too late to get the lesson. Now if you go out there every day and you talk to people about what they're doing and how it's going and what's happening, and you realize, man, we had put some things in place that just don't make sense. Joe Estey: You know, there's one consultant who in Europe ask people in organizations what's the craziest thing this company asks you to do on a regular basis? And they always think that he's a shill for company, so they don't answer. But when he gains their trust, they'll say the way we fill out our time cards or the way we have to do this before we do that makes no sense to anybody, but the guy who came up with it. And so they eliminate that. And they eliminate it before they have a consequence. So that's the goal. Be consequence free by being curious. Paul Casey: Good stuff. Well, Joe, how can our listeners best connect with you? Joe Estey: Well, the best way is always through email at... I'm sure you'll put that on the site. I know you. But J-S-D at Lucas Inc dot com or go into the website at Lucas O-P-T, that's for organizational performance teams, dot com and then get a hold of me there. I'm always glad to talk to new people. Paul Casey: Well, thanks again for all you do to make the Tri-Cities a great place and keep leading well. Joe Estey: Oh. I appreciate it, Paul. You too. Appreciate it. Paul Casey: Let me wrap up our podcast today with a leadership resource to recommend. We talked a lot about books today with Joe, and if you just want the cliff notes version of some great books out there, I would encourage you to go to blinkist dot com B-L-I-N-K-I-S-T blinkist.com. They have a free trial. What it does is it curates the big thoughts of the personal growth and leadership books so that you get some quick takeaways without reading the whole book. So if you say like I'm too busy to read. You're not too busy to read these little summaries on blinkist.com. Paul Casey: Again, this is Paul Casey. I want to thank my guest, Joe Estey from Lucas Engineering for being here today on the Tri-City Influencer Podcast. And we want to thank our TCI sponsor and invite you to support them. We appreciate you making this possible so that we can collaborate to help inspire leaders in our community. Finally, one more leadership tidbit for the road to help you make a difference in your circle of influence. So best marketing for any of us is to always get better. Never stop improving. Until next time, [inaudible 00:34:40] throw it forward. Speaker 2: Thank you to our listeners for tuning into today's show. Paul Casey is on a mission to add value to leaders by providing practical tools and strategies that reduce stress in their lives and on their teams so that they can enjoy life and leadership and experience their key desired results. If you'd like more help from Paul in your leadership development, connect with him at growing forward at Paul Casey dot org for a consultation that can help you move past your current challenges and create a strategy for growing your life or your team forward. Paul would also like to help you restore your sanity to your crazy schedule and getting your priorities done everyday by offering you his free control my calendar checklist. Go to W-W dot take back my calendar dot com for that productivity tool or open a text message to seven two zero zero zero and type the word growing. Paul Casey: Tri-Cities influencer podcast was recorded at Fuse SPC by Bill Wagner of Safe Strategies.

Speaker 1: I can do things you cannot, you can do things I cannot. Together, we can do great things, Mother Teresa. Speaker 1: My name is Paloma DeHaan and I am a Tri-Cities influencer. Paul Casey: Most people fail because of broken focus. Broken focus is one of those things that actually hurt us. So complete your tasks before you move on to another one. The ancient proverb is, if you chase two rabbits, you catch neither. Speaker 3: Raising the water level of leadership in the Tri-Cities of Eastern Washington, it's the Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast. Speaker 3: Welcome to the TCI Podcast, where local leadership and self leadership expert Paul Casey interviews local CEOs, entrepreneurs, and non-profit executives to hear how they lead themselves and their team so we can all benefit from their wisdom and experience. Here's your host, Paul Casey of Growing Forward Services, coaching and equipping individuals and teams to spark breakthrough success. Paul Casey: It's a great day to grow forward. Thanks for joining me for today's episode with Maren Bam. She's an attorney and owner of Salus Law. Funny fact about her she said, it's really more funny about her daughter. So I'm just going to let you tell the story, Maren. Maren Bam: So my three-year old is definitely funnier than me. I'm currently pregnant and I have a three-year old who's learning body parts. We recently taught her that what her kidneys are. Who knows why that was the body part that came up, but she now thinks that if you hug her, you squeeze her kidneys and she tells you she has to go to the bathroom and goes running off. Maren Bam: So I go to the doctor today and they're doing all the stuff that they do for pregnant women, trying to make sure the baby's okay. They can't find this baby anywhere, and I'm positive it's in there. If you look at me, it's definitely there. Sure enough, this baby is doing a headstand on my bladder in the far-est, lowest part of my anatomy, lying on my bladder. Looks like it's smushing in a pillow. I cannot wait to tell my daughter because she thinks bladders and kidneys are the same thing, that the baby's doing headstands on my bladder. She will just be cracking up. So it's mostly that my child's funny, not really me, but I'm going to take credit for it because I created her. Paul Casey: That is awesome. We're going to dive in after checking in with our Tri-City influencer sponsor. Paul Casey: Mario Martinez, Northwestern Mutual. Mario, what types of services do you offer? Mario Martinez: Hey Paul. Thank you for letting me be on here. We run bifurcated practices, in that we focus in two areas of financial plan. The first one is, we do protection pieces, which include life insurance, disability insurance, longterm care insurance, really the things that people should be focused on to protect their families, their businesses. On the other side of our practice is we do investment services. On the investment platforms, we do both the brokerage platform and we do the advisory level services. So depending on what someone's looking for, as far as guidance on their investment strategies, we can curtail and build a strategy for them that makes sense. Paul Casey: Mario, how can people get in touch with you? Mario Martinez: The easiest way, you can reach out to me directly on my business cell phone, is (509) 591-5301. You can send me an email at Mario.Martinez@nm.com, or you can reach out to us on our social media platforms. The easiest one being, Mario Martinez Northwestern Mutual on Facebook. Paul Casey: Thank you for your support of leadership development in the Tri-Cities. Paul Casey: Well, welcome, Maren. I was privileged to meet you through our church connection a year or two ago, wasn't it? Maren Bam: It was, I think it was about two years ago. I was trying to think about this and I think you met my husband before church, which is typical because he meets all the cool people in Tri-Cities. Then I try to tag along and see if they'll be my friend too. So far it's working out okay. Paul Casey: Yes, Josh works over at Gravis Law, who sponsored our podcast last year. So put in another plug for them. Maren Bam: Fantastic, he'll be thrilled. Paul Casey: Well so that our Tri-City influencers can get to know you, take us through a couple of your career highlights that led to your current position and why do you love what you do? Maren Bam: I've been really lucky that the legal practice and the legal field can be really diverse. You can go in a ton of different directions, but I found my direction in law school because I didn't get into a program I wanted to, and it was a blessing in disguise. I was one of those people who knew I wanted to go to law school, thought I wanted to help people, but didn't have vision beyond that. I thought I wanted to work with women and that was really as far as I had gotten in my career planning. Maren Bam: So we had a family law clinic at our school and they did some protection from abuse orders for women as a very small part of it. So I applied to get that hands-on experience, but really the part that interested me was this teeny part of it. The professor pulled me aside and said, "Look, you want to help people? This is helping people but what you're looking for, this isn't it," and moved me to the disability law clinic. This was during my second year. I've done disability law my entire career. I started in a non-profit, switched to a firm, and then ultimately when I was pregnant with my daughter, my husband and I opened Salus Law together. I bought him out about a year later and he went over to Gravis Law and I've been running Salus since. Maren Bam: My biggest, coolest thing that I've done this year, we were able to do some lobbying to try to change some of social security's laws. Social security has a great policy that they're working towards, which was to fast track decisions, to get people approved faster. People wait a really long time and this is awful. Unfortunately, the way they wrote this was fast tracking the decision, but then no one brought in enough funding to pay those decisions. They didn't even create a process. So people get stuck in limbo and they're approved, they know the money's going to come in some day, but they're just waiting. It takes this happy result to this really bad result for our clients, especially when they're waiting, their attorney has no answers, there's no contact for us to call. We can call and get a little bit of an update but it's usually we're working on it, call us again in 60 days. Well, when you have been out of work for a year or sometimes longer, 60 days is a long time to go without your income, and with no real answer. Maren Bam: So this year, we lobbied Congress and got Congress to pass a 60-day deadline for people with disabilities to get their payments and their back pay, so not just their forward facing money but all the money owed to them while they waited. Now unfortunately, we didn't make it through the Senate, the Senate just has not passed any bills this year. That's just the political climate unfortunately, but this directive language is still available from Congress and is hopefully going to move the needle forward for some of our clients. So that was my biggest success, and it was such an important thing for our clients. Paul Casey: Such a huge win, so that's probably why you love to do what you do is embedded in that answer, right? Maren Bam: I think a lot of it is embedded in that. I love the people we serve, I love working with them. Everybody's story's unique and the process is run through an agency so it dehumanizes people a lot through the process. Not a critique and I'm not even saying it's an intentional thing, it's to try to boost efficiency and make good decision. We try to bring the human element back and learning people's story, learning about their experience and taking their medical file when we're talking about their conditions, and bringing it to court and humanizing that. How does this impact you? You're more than just your back surgery, you're more than just your multiple sclerosis, you're a person who suffers from impairments. How are they impacting you? How do we tell your story? That's the part I love the most. Paul Casey: Humanizing it, that's so neat. There were key moments along your journey that you just described. What helped you make decision about starting this business? I mean you were probably at a crossroads, you could go this way or this way. What advice would you give our listeners for when they reach a crossroads? Maren Bam: So the timing of this question is actually perfect because I'm four months pregnant with my second child, and I was four months pregnant with my daughter when I made this decision. Paul Casey: Wow. Maren Bam: I had been working at a firm that I loved the work I did. Unfortunately it was still a small to medium size law firm, didn't really have the policies and things in place for maternity leave for me to be out. I was seeing some challenges arising. I unfortunately get very sick when I'm pregnant, lots of people do. So not to complain, but I was having to try to get work from home opportunities and some of these challenges, reducing my travel. There wasn't a lot of flexibility. I realized that that wasn't a work environment that would work with children. At that point I'm thinking, someday I'm going to have a child who might have little league or this or that, and I want to be able to cut out at 4:00 because I worked the last two Saturdays and I want to be a grownup with that autonomy. I decided the only way I could carve out that flexibility was for me to work for myself. Maren Bam: So my husband and I decided to, on a complete whim, revamp everything and go out on our own. I was an associate so I left with no case file, four months pregnant, and we went for it. It was the best decision we ever made. Paul Casey: So it sounds like it was values based, that decision. It's like the work-life balance, you really prioritized the life part of that to make sure that would work for you and your family. Maren Bam: It had to. The work is stressful, it's hard, you're dealing with people with tragic stories all the time. I needed to be able to have other elements of my life too. I needed to have a career where the boss or the owner treated me like the adult and the high performer I was, where I was bringing in good revenue, my numbers weren't dropping off, and where I could then have some autonomy to make decisions. So I've taken that lesson with me as now I have a staff and a team, and trying to cultivate the culture at Salus where people do have some autonomy and flexibility. Paul Casey: Yeah, keep going on that. So what... there are leaders of teams that are listening to this podcast. How can they best treat them as the professionals they are and not... well, let's just say the opposite. Maren Bam: So when I brought on my team, the first thing I did is I made everyone salaried, even if they were part-time, their salary was pegged to a part-time hours, versus an hourly rate because work is messy and especially in the legal field and especially in our field which is a high volume caseload. So you're going to have ebbs and flows and I wanted to be able to account for that, that there are going to be some times where especially my full-time staff, they're going to have to put in some extra work. We're on a deadline, we got slammed, we have to do that. Then there are going to be times where are the lulls and they should get to recover. We talk in my household a lot about having these periods of time where you do recovery and do rest and rejuvenation, and then times where you're really buckled down and sprinting a marathon for a period of time. So I wanted my staff to have the ability to do those things, but it was even more than that. Maren Bam: There was nothing worse when I was at the last law firm I was at, and it really was a great business so I hate to take it back to some of the negatives, but some of the culture there was, you have a doctor's appointment. You're actually taking your hours. You could flex your time and say, "Hey, I'll just work late an hour here or an hour there." So every doctor's appointment was, you had to ask permission, you had to get approved. If you've been to the doctor's office recently, and I go all the time because I'm pregnant now, you stand there and they're like, "What day can you come in next?" You're like, "I have to ask my boss if I'm allowed to take off." You start to feel panicked and you don't want to miss it because then you leave and you forget to reschedule if you're anything like me. I wanted them to be able to do that without having to ask. Sure, we have good communication where they'll check in and say, "Hey, I have a doctor's appointment today," and I say, "Okay, great. Let me know when you're back or if you need anything. Hope everything's okay," but they don't have to ask permission, get your work done. That I felt really gave people some flexibility and the better their quality of life was, the better their performance was. Paul Casey: Say that again. Maren Bam: The better their quality of life was, the better their performance was. Paul Casey: Oh, that's so good. What a great culture. Maren Bam: But it's so true. Paul Casey: It is true, and use those three R's. Recover, rest, rejuvenate, if you don't have that in your life, you're staying in overdrive and we can't stay in overdrive for too long without burning out. Maren Bam: We call it survival mode at our house. We're like, oh, we're running in survival mode, and we're like, we need a reset because survival mode is just this horrible experience where your adrenaline is just fueling everything. Then your emotions get all haywire, everything goes sideways. We try to at least reality check when we're in that survival mode because it's not a place you want to stay. Paul Casey: No, and that's good to be able to recognize that as soon as possible so that the negative consequences don't ensue. Maren Bam: Yes, and well I've learned from when I don't do that as soon as possible too, so we all have our learning moments. Paul Casey: Yep, and we're not saying that there aren't seasons in every job where it's ramped up and you've got to put in the extra hours, work overtime to do that, but you can't do that for too long without recovery. So good principles there. Paul Casey: So you talked about the stresses in your job, the hassles, the disappointments, the stress, the long hours, the case load. How do you stay focused on the rewarding part? What do you do in your mindset? Stay optimistic and positive? Maren Bam: Part of the reason I stay positive and stay optimistic is my team feeds off of my energy. So I have a responsibility to them to stay positive and stay optimistic. I take it very seriously that while I may not do everything perfectly and while I am absolutely still learning, that if I don't cultivate that positivity, they can't cultivate it for me. They may not be feeling it in themselves, it can have this really bad trickle down effect on morale. Part of it is a straight forward efficiency concept that I can actually just think about the efficiency of the business and the power of positive thinking and how it has to trickle down. Maren Bam: Part of it is, I'm so fortunate, I am so blessed in the work I do. I have a team that is my family in more ways than one. They are my daughter's god mother and my parents and some lifelong friends who've jumped in to help. So I have this team who is really important to me and that team is why I'm able to constantly come back to the positive. That we're carving out this life not just for me, not just for the Bam household, but for my team as well. I keep coming back to that, but we're also carving it out for our clients. The biggest thing about social security is that financial security. At the end of the day, we are fighting for them to have that financial security. As I think about that every time, it's like, no matter what we're doing, if we are working towards that objective, we're doing something right. That's something that makes it easier to go to sleep at night even when the days are hard. Paul Casey: Yeah, love the quote. Your team feeds off your energy and that morale trickles down, good or bad. We could probably put in there the customers feed off your energy too. Maren Bam: They 100% do. I can tell when our energy at Salus is bad and that the client communication gets more difficult because they already are in stress mode, they're in panic mode. So they're coming to us with not the best energy oftentimes, not everyone but a lot. So if we're not in a good place, those conversations get exponentially more challenging, and to the extent that I've actually in the middle of the day told my team. I said, "No more client calls, we have to step away. Wrap up your last project, take the rest of the day. Go do something fun and come back tomorrow," because we weren't effective, we weren't having good communication and we all needed just to breathe. Paul Casey: Wow, so you called an audible, as they say in football and say, "We got to reset." You literally hit the refresh button on the computer- Maren Bam: Sometimes- Paul Casey: ... which resets all the factory settings. Maren Bam: Sometimes you just need to do that. Paul Casey: Love it. So you have to keep growing or you become irrelevant in your field and all the fields of our listeners. How have you matured as an entrepreneur, as a leader of a team in recent years? Maren Bam: I was a disaster of a business owner when I started this. I wanted to be really a solo practitioner, I thought that that would give me the ultimate in freedom and flexibility that I would be able to just do my work by myself, I could take on as much as I could, and that would be good. Then that didn't work, there was too much work, there was one of me, there were tasks that I was not particularly good at. I am not detail oriented, I needed somebody who was, you need to be in a lot of stuff that we do. So I needed a team and I brought on a team. I was like, okay, I can't do this, I'm going to bring people on. Then that was it, that was where I stopped for about six months. Paul Casey: Here they are. Maren Bam: Don't do that. Don't do that. Paul Casey: No plan but here they are. Maren Bam: But I had them and I was paying them and that was good. I thought that was great. They had skills that I didn't, so that was also good. I also did not have any people management skills and really wouldn't have considered myself a people person at all. So I had... my thought was, I'll give you these projects and then we won't talk again. Don't do that either. So I've come a long way. We talk a lot, I've spent the vast majority of this week doing staff meetings, we talk every week. I talk to each person about what they're doing, what the goals are, and keep trying to move it forward. Maren Bam: It took somebody explaining to me that even if I didn't like people management, which I have now come to like, that in order for the business to be efficient and grow, it was a step that had to occur for that growth. They could give me a numbers reason why it made sense, and that really worked with my mind. I was like, okay, I'm going to be really good at this because I want that number to be really, really big at the end of the day. So I'm a work in progress but definitely don't start a business and bring people on, and then try not to talk to them. Paul Casey: So communication is huge. So you need a team in order to grow but then once you have the team you need good communication. You need delegation skills and I heard one-to-ones and staff meetings in there. I would assume clear expectations for everybody's job. Maren Bam: Yes, that is- Paul Casey: You had to figure that out too. Maren Bam: Yes, you can't just hand them something and say, "Go for it, run with it." We had to outline expectations and the steps to achieve those expectations and break it down piece by piece, write it up, talk about it. It took both written communication and telephonic, we're a virtual law firm model so we're not a lot of face to face even pre-COVID. So yes, there was a lot of growth there. There's a lot of growth still happening. Paul Casey: Yeah, I think if you're humble... I mean we're all works in progress. That's why we have to keep growing. Maren Bam: Yes, because that would've been a disaster. Paul Casey: Well you got a lot on your to-do list like most leaders do. So how do you decided each day what your priorities are, what you need to delegate or outsource, so that you can focus on the things that only Maren Bam can do? Maren Bam: So a lot of it is I set up a system of what gets delegated to whom and I know what each person's role is really well, to the extent that I have them pretty well fully memorized. So I know when something comes in, who it's going to go to, whose task that falls in. So it's become to a point where it's routine that as things come in it's very easy to funnel it out because we carved out these clear roles and not a ton of overlap, we're still a smaller company. As we grow there might be places where two people do a role but for now we have really one person each role, so it's very clear who does what. Maren Bam: Creating that clarity really helped us, it makes it easy for me at the beginning of the week to send out assignments and I do. I send out, this is a priority in your realm, this is a priority in your realm. Hey, this needs to get done, and I able to do that- Paul Casey: That's on Mondays? Maren Bam: I work through it on Sunday night because that gets me ahead for the week. I don't like to go into Monday blind but I send it out Sunday night and I used to not because I don't want to give people the Sunday night blues, but because we're in diverse locations, some of my team is on the east coast and then some of them are in central, and then some of us are in Pacific. So if I wait until Monday morning, they're three hours into their work day because I'm not getting up at 4:00 AM, it's just not happening. Paul Casey: The Sunday night blues, yeah. I think most heart attacks happen on Sunday night. Maren Bam: Oh, that's terrible. Paul Casey: Isn't that a sad stat? Maren Bam: That is so sad. Paul Casey: Because people are dreading the next day, but you're setting them up for success the next day, which is totally opposite, right? Maren Bam: That's the goal, is that you know what's coming, you know what's ahead of you. You can dive in and say, "Okay, here are the things I knew I needed to do in my realm and then here are these other things. How do I carve out my week and make it work?" I'm giving them a full week to work on that and to know. Sometimes emergencies are going to happen, fires happen, we put them out but by starting out with a weekly plan that's based on what our structure is all the time, it sets us up for a good week each week. Paul Casey: Well before we head into our next question to find out what Maren's key relationships are, hey, shout out to our sponsor. Paul Casey: Mario Martinez, Northwestern Mutual. Mario, why should people work with a financial advisor? Mario Martinez: Hey, Paul, that's a great question. Really, I think there's two types of people who should be seeking out a financial professional. The one person is somebody who has very limited access to financial guidance. Maybe they're a younger professional or somebody who just hasn't had an introduction to a financial professional yet. The other type of person is really someone who has a lot of different exposure to different professionals. They just haven't found the one person that they really trust to take guidance from, so there's really an over-information in that sense. So those are really the two types of people that should be looking to be introduced to a financial professional. Paul Casey: Fantastic, so Mario, how can people get in touch with you? Mario Martinez: The easiest way is to reach out to me directly on my business cell phone, which is (509) 591-5301. You can send an email to Mario.Martinez@nm.com, or you can find us on our business Facebook page, which is Mario Martinez Northwestern Mutual. Paul Casey: Well Maren, you probably believe like I do that leadership is relationships. So talk to us about what relationships are key to your success and how do you intentionally develop those relationships? Maren Bam: So as I mentioned, when I started this I started blind, but one of the biggest blessings that happened for my business is I started it in Seattle with my husband. Ultimately, he left the firm. I used to joke that he left me but that was misconstrued so he went to Gravis Law and I was running Salus on my own, the disability side was picking up. Maren Bam: Coming to the Tri-Cities was the best thing for relationship building because as we're sitting here in Fuse right now, my husband's business at Gravis was, the team was, in Fuse. So he's like, "Come over here, work here." That's how I met the key relationships that have helped my business take off. I've worked with Rocco Luongo who helped us with some of the business coaching. I've worked with I Love Tax who was located right here. I worked with both Brand Craft and Level 510 to helped with my website design, hosting, all those things I know nothing about. I surrounded myself with these experts, these people who could do the things I couldn't, which really takes your business to that next level. You go from that mom and pop shop, that one-off solo firm who maybe happens to have staff, to that next level once you start bringing in experts in all the fields. I have Paloma helping me with marketing, everyone in Fuse became my go-to resources. I met all of these really smart people who were good at what they did. Maren Bam: So having these relationships and building these friendships and surrounding myself with other smart and successful people pushed me to work harder but it helped me stay in my lane too. It helped me realize that I have some good talents and I really believe that everyone does, but that I cannot do everything. Even though I can learn things, I needed to have relationships with other people and I needed to learn how to rely on other people. I hope that they've learned that they can rely upon me too for the parts that they need help with. Maren Bam: But between all of them and then my husband who I bring up all the time because he's wonderful, is my business attorney. So when I needed contracts or figuring out those things, he was right there. So I had this strong team by my side and that's where Salus really pivoted from a hot mess to success and is continuing to grow. Paul Casey: Love it, you're like a poster child for Fuse. I mean, you literally used just someone in every office. Maren Bam: There was at one point except for one office, and it wasn't their fault but they were 3D printing and I couldn't make that work with disability law. I was utilizing every service that was located- Paul Casey: That's amazing. Maren Bam: ... in Fuse at the same time. Paul Casey: That is really amazing. Outsourcing to people who are gifted in areas really help your business grow. I've got Bill here who does my social media and is recording the podcast, and website guy, and a graphic designer, and I mean I'm not good at those things. I would procrastinate them or I would do a poor quality job on that. Why not just let the professional run with that? Maren Bam: That is so true. I would procrastinate on the things that I didn't know how to do so they would just never make it to the top of the to-do list. They were holding me back and it was so freeing to give them away and to work with these people who were talented. Paul Casey: Freeing, what a great word. So self care is essential, we've talked about for the recharge, the reboot, the reset, all the R words. So what recharges your batteries when you do those reboots and recharges, so that your mental health and your performance stays top notch? Maren Bam: My favorite recharge is date night. So I have a toddler at home and a little one on the way. We have three crazy dogs so our house is chaos which is 99.9% of the time the most fun place to be. Before COVID, we had neighbors, half our block would just walk in unannounced, there'd be people in my house all the time. Normally I love all of that, but going on date night with my husband, my number one top favorite thing. We love to play board games, and we are shameless. We will go to your restaurant and bring our own cribbage board and we will tip accordingly, but we will absolutely make the date night last. There is nothing I love more, I think Tri-Cities has some of the best food ever, and I came from Seattle, and I still stand by that, and some of the best ambiance and best service. So going out to all the different restaurants with my favorite person in the world, playing a game, having a glass of wine, that is my number one recharge. No wine now during pregnancy, PSA, but otherwise, yes. Paul Casey: Love it, love it. Such a key to nurturing that most important relationship on the planet for you. Paul Casey: Well, we rarely discussed money on this podcast, but every leader, every entrepreneur has to know their organization's financials. So what does that evaluation look like in your position? Maren Bam: I both love and hate financials. I am type-A to the max and I love math so I love to know all the data. I also am still working on, I'm a recovering person who has a bad emotional baggage with the concept of debt. Business owners need to get comfortable with debt. I'm not saying you should take out bad debt, don't run up your credit cards, I'm not saying that but there is an element of investing in your company and in yourself and in your vision, and that takes money. For us to do that, I've had to get comfortable with seeing the numbers. I Love Tax Works is my accountant, they do all of our payroll, they do my profit and loss statements every single month, but I'm also tracking the bank account, what's coming in, how cashflow is managing almost on a daily basis. It doesn't take a lot of time, just a couple minutes, just a quick pulse on where everything's at, to make sure things are coming in because the way our financials work for social security, the bulk of our earnings are contingency fee based paid by the government. Like I talked about when we did our lobbying, there is not cadence for that payment part after you win. So there's this uncertainty element that a lot of other legal practices don't really have. Maren Bam: A lot of other legal practices are billable hour or a flat fee model where they know that 30 days post service, they'll likely get paid and maybe 10% of people won't pay and they'll have to write that off so they'll have to account for that. We don't know that, so I have to have a pulse on our numbers on what's coming in from that and what type of work can we be doing that's lower dollar value that can supplement that and keep this stable income for when the money doesn't come in. That's a tricky element that until we grow large enough and have enough saved, we still have to keep adding that in, and it's none of our favorite work because it's often writing briefs for another firm so there's that human disconnect when we're not really working with them. You also know that they make a lot more money off the product than you do so that's not super fun, but you know what? It's necessary to keep us stable so there's the element of focusing on that work and making sure we balance percentage of that without taking away from our true mission to keep everything afloat. Paul Casey: About the word pulse that you said, have the pulse on the business, you're checking it every day, and then you're checking it probably more in depth every week or every month. It's something I need to do more in my business because that's the least favorite part of the business. Maren Bam: Yep, it's the least favorite activity. Paul Casey: Two other things I like to outsource as well, taxes and wealth management and bookkeeping. Yeah, so there's three there but they do a great job. Paul Casey: How do you determine the next hill to climb or conquer? What's your process for vision, continuous improvement looking to the horizon? Maren Bam: This has been an interesting creative process for me because I feel like I've shifted on it a few different times. Initially when we started it was growth. We needed as many social security claimants as possible, we had zero to start, so zero is a long way to up. We're now over the 200 mark and we keep it pretty stable. I'd like to see us hit another round of doubling, so that's one element of growth there that's been critical, but as I've mentioned some of the cash flow side and the protection against some of the uncertainties that come in our business, I've really been focused on how to solve that dilemma while staying true to our mission of serving the disabled population. I'm really excited about what's next. Maren Bam: So the first thing I did to try to work on this is I mentioned before, was the lobbying to try to fix the problem. While we've made great strides and I think it's going to continue to improve, it's not there yet. So we're back to the drawing board. What I decided to do is add in some disability related services. I'm very hesitant to become a jack of all trades law firm, I believe I work with the disabled population very well, I believe that I work to empathize and understand some of their experiences. In doing so, I was trying to determine, how can we better serve them? Where are the gaps in service? That's where our next piece of growth is coming in and our next vision, which is focusing on solving some of the short term cash flows issues in that uncertainty piece, with providing service to the people we're already working with. Maren Bam: So we've started doing a few services such as student loan discharges, it's not a bankruptcy element but once somebody's approved for social security, they're often right away eligible. I researched this issue and there are hundreds of thousands of people nationwide who are eligible today as we speak, who either the barrier to entry of just completing the forms or aren't aware of it or have never been notified by their lender, who have not applied for that discharge. So we've made the service affordable for our clients because we're recognizing the situation they're in, but it provides us some stability for the business, and something that has a huge value to them. I mean we can be talking five to six figures of debt that can be resolved, that's a significant value month over month. Maren Bam: We also started doing disability planning. I don't want to dive into estate planning, we don't want to do true guardianship, probate, but there's an element to planning for individuals with disabilities that needs to occur. A small portion of our client base is young adults with mental illness. They really need trusts, they may even need able accounts. Some of the planning so that when their family leaves, they don't get kicked off the benefits we've worked so hard to get them on, to protect them from having too much access to the money and potentially causing some problems in the future. So we've worked on helping that for our clients. Maren Bam: We also were doing power of attorneys, specifically a healthcare proxy and your living will, so that you can have a plan in place even if you are now on disability and don't have a ton of assets and don't feel like you need an estate plan because there's nothing to divvy up, you do deserve a voice in your medical treatment. You deserve to get to appoint somebody to be your voice if you're no longer able to. So by providing some of these services, we're stabilizing our cash flow and still aligning with our mission. I felt like this was a creative endeavor for us, trying to figure out, what do our clients need? What is missing for them? That's what we're trying to fill that niche now. Paul Casey: Yeah, multiple streams of income but all within a theme. Jim Collins would say, "Preserve the core and stimulate progress." You got to keep your core services core and give that the most energy but then you're going to stimulate progress, see what else you can dabble in. Maren Bam: Yes. Paul Casey: Awesome, well finally, what advice would you give to new leaders or anyone who wants to keep growing and gaining more influence? Maren Bam: So when I was starting a business my grandfather told me the most important thing for me to do was to invest in myself. Investment wasn't just monetary, he meant believe in myself. Believe in what I thought, trust my gut, trust my instincts. It didn't mean don't grow, doesn't mean don't learn, but it did mean that my investment needed to be in my vision and what I was going to do. Maren Bam: So I would say that if you want to start a business, have started a business and are considering taking it to the next level, or maybe it's gotten stagnant and you need to revamp. Trust your instincts. As I've said that I'm not able to do everything, I surround myself with a core group of positive, smart people who can help flesh out some of those instincts, but even that, even in those relationships, I'm investing myself. I think it's critical when you are starting a business to continually work on that journey of confidence and self confidence. Part of that is building relationships that nurture you, that rejuvenate you, that bring you up, that remind you why you're doing what you do. That investment in yourself I think is key for starting your business- Paul Casey: Great stuff. Maren Bam: ... and keeping it going. Paul Casey: Great stuff. Well, how can our listeners best connect with you, Maren? Maren Bam: I would say the best way to reach me is via email, it's Maren@Salus-Law.com. I'll spell that, it's M-A-R-E-N, @ sign, Salus, S-A-L-U-S-Law, L-A-W.com. Paul Casey: Well thank you for all you do to make the Tri-Cities a great place and keep leading well. Maren Bam: Thank you so much for having me. Paul Casey: Let me wrap up our podcast today with a leadership resource to recommend. I would love to give you my top traits of terrific team leaders. It's just a one-page cheat sheet on 11 inspirational actions for leading your team. All you need to do is go over to your text message and open a text to 72,000, that's 7-2-0-0-0, and type in the words team lead. Put a space in between those two words. Team lead to 72,000 and I will send you that cheat sheet and get you those reminders on how to be a top terrific team leader. Paul Casey: Again, this is Paul Casey and I want to thank my guest Maren Bam from Salus Law for being here today on the Tri-City Influencer Podcast. We want to thank our TCI sponsor and invite you to support them. We appreciate you making this possible so that we can collaborate to inspire leaders in our community. Paul Casey: Finally, one more leadership tidbit for the road to help you make a difference in your circle of influence. It's from JFK, he said, "Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction." Until next time, KGF, keep growing forward. Speaker 3: Thank you to our listeners for tuning into today's show. Paul Casey is on a mission to add value to leaders by providing practical tools and strategies that reduce stress in their lives and on their teams so that they could enjoy life and leadership and experience their key desired results. Speaker 3: If you'd like more help from Paul in your leadership development, connect with him at growingforward@paulcasey.org for a consultation that can help you pass your current challenges and create a strategy for growing your life or your team forward. Speaker 3: Paul would also like to help you restore your sanity to your crazy schedule and getting your priorities done every day by offering you his free control my calender checklist. Go to ww.takebackmycalender.com for that productivity tool or open a text message to 7-2-0-0-0 and type the word growing. Paul Casey: The Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast was recorded at Fuse SPC by Bill Wagner of Safe Strategies.

Tara Jaraysi Kenning: "Teamwork makes the dream work." John C. Maxwell. I'm Tara Jaraysi Kenning, and I'm a Tri-Cities influencer. Paul Casey: So to be a go-to guy or a go-to girl, you must push through your fear of failure. Announcer: Raising the water level of leadership in the Tri-Cities of Eastern Washington, it's the Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast. Welcome to the TCI podcast, where local leadership and self-leadership expert, Paul Casey, interviews local CEOs, entrepreneurs, and nonprofit executives to hear how they lead themselves and their teams so we can all benefit from their wisdom and experience. Here's your host, Paul Casey of Growing Forward Services, coaching and equipping individuals and teams to spark breakthrough success. Paul Casey: It's a great day to grow forward! Thanks for joining me for today's episode with Michelle Whitney. She's the superintendent of the Pasco School District. And fun fact about her, she's sort of a driver. So she said she can do a two-minute meditation a lot faster! Michelle, tell us about that. Michelle Whitney: Well, I just think it's about efficiency. You've got a lot to do. Two-minute meditation, we do it in 30 seconds. We move on to the work. We have things to do. I don't have time for that. Paul Casey: And her staff teases her about how fast she walks. Michelle Whitney: Right. Paul Casey: It's with intention. Well, we're going to dive in after checking in with our Tri-City Influencer sponsor, Mario Martinez, Northwestern Mutual. Mario what types of services do you offer? Mario Martinez: Hey, Paul. Thank you for letting me be on here. We run bifurcated practices in that we focus in two areas of financial plan. The first one is we do protection pieces, which include life insurance, disability insurance, long-term care insurance, really the things that people should be focused on to protect their families, their businesses. On the other side of our practices, we do investment services. On the investment platforms, we do both the brokerage platform, and we do the advisory level services. So depending on what someone's looking for as far as guidance on their investment strategies, we can curtail and build a strategy for them that makes sense. Paul Casey: Mario, how can people get in touch with you? Mario Martinez: The easiest way, you can reach out to me directly on my business cell phone is 509-591-5301. You can send me an email at mario.martinez@nm.com. Or you can reach out to us on our social media platforms, the easiest one being Mario Martinez Northwestern Mutual on Facebook. Paul Casey: Thank you for your support of leadership development in the Tri-Cities. Well, welcome, Michelle! I was privileged to meet you seven years ago in Leadership Tri-Cities. You were class- Michelle Whitney: 18. Paul Casey: And another one of the best classes ever, right? Michelle Whitney: That's right. We were actually the best class. Paul Casey: Oh, okay. I see. As opposed to number 11, which really was. Yes, and you had a different job at that time in the school district. You had gone from being a middle school principal into HR. Michelle Whitney: Yeah. Everyone was glad to see me when I was a middle school principal, and that changed drastically when I became director of HR. So it was tough transition. Paul Casey: HR managers, we love you! Thanks for listening. So Michelle, tell us your career highlights that got you to where you are today so our Tri-City influencers can get to know you and why you love what you do. Michelle Whitney: Well, I appreciate that question. I have a huge commitment to public service. My grandparents were both public servants. My grandfather was a police officer and chief of police of Pasco. My great-grandmother was a nurse at Our Lady of Lourdes, so I really come from a foundation in my family of civic service, and in particular, civic service to the community of Pasco. So I always wanted to be a teacher, and it was only right for me to tailor my education to be able to come back to a community that I loved and that my family had served in such amazing roles. And to be important in the lives of the students in Pasco has just been a gift. Michelle Whitney: And I've been extraordinarily blessed to serve in a variety of roles. I was a kindergarten teacher. I taught fourth grade. I was a counselor. I was a technology facilitator, a librarian. Paul Casey: Wow. Michelle Whitney: And it was always really just about offering my unique skills and talents to the organization so that I could be of best use to the organization and the kids of Pasco. Michelle Whitney: And then I really started a leadership journey, which I never intended to end up in a leadership role, but I was invited to the leadership table, if you will, by a mentor of mine. And I just feel a lot of gratitude towards the amazing mentors I've had over my career. I never saw myself that way, and it was by someone else recognizing those leadership talents in me and encouraging me in that direction that I took the risk to do an administrative internship program, became an assistant principal and then principal at the middle school. Then that started the trajectory into the district office with director of HR, which, having been a middle school principal and a counseling background, I was really uniquely prepared to do that job. Paul Casey: Yeah! Michelle Whitney: And I actually really loved that work. People joke with HR managers, but I do believe that in any organization, being able to be at the front line of hiring talent into an organization is just an extraordinary opportunity and gift. So that was amazing, and then I stepped into some other district office jobs. Michelle Whitney: And again, I would love to tell you I had this trajectory. I was going to teach kindergarten and then be the superintendent, but it wasn't really like that. And the opportunity to apply for the superintendency became open, and it really was about me throwing my name into the hat for a leadership position in a district I loved my entire life. And to be awarded that position was one of the greatest moments and has continued to be great moments since I was awarded the position. Michelle Whitney: I'm going into my fifth year. Every single year has had its complications. Every single year, I've been proud to be on the team and honored to do my part. So I have the best job ever, and the best part of my job is the students for sure. So sorry adults, you're second. Kids will always be first. Paul Casey: And I heard you tear up pretty easily when you think about those wonderful students. Michelle Whitney: I do. I do. In our organization, it's not uncommon for me to stand in front of a group of people, and I say, "We are," and the response is, "Pasco." It really for us is an outward commitment to our value of standing in the gap and bridging the divide for the students who need us the most. So when I'm in front of students or I'm in front of staff, it is not uncommon for me to be emotional about it because it isn't just a job for me. It truly me living that outward commitment every day. Michelle Whitney: And even when it's hard, I feel so extraordinarily blessed to be able to be part of what we're doing. And then when it's great and there's a success, those successes are just that much sweeter, and they really do truly move me to tears. Even talking to you about it, I get goosebumps. I live my purpose every day. And they say if you live your purpose, you never work a day in your life, and I truly feel like that I'm lucky in that way. Paul Casey: I think we're done here. That was an amazing- Michelle Whitney: Well, there you go. See? Efficiency. Paul Casey: ... story. Michelle Whitney: I told you. Paul Casey: That was an amazing story. Now I want to cry too. But living your purpose, so huge. Obviously, that's why I do what I do as a coach is to help people do exactly what you are feeling right now, so that's awesome. Paul Casey: Let's go back to that crossroads where you are going to take the jump into leadership or not, and you decided to move that direction. What helped you make that decision, and also what advice would you give someone else who might also be at a crossroads? "Should I take the jump into leadership, or should I just stay as a individual performer that I'm doing really well at?" Michelle Whitney: Right. So I think what helped me make that jump and take that risk was the courage of the support of the mentorship I had. So had it not been for Jean Carlton, who was the person who very first invited me into a leadership role, she really stood shoulder-to-shoulder with me in those early years in making sense of who I would be as a leader. And without that personal connection with her, I'm not sure I would have had the courage to take that first step. So I think that, as a leader now, I find that one of my purposes is to recognize other leaders and invite them in and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them. I don't think you can ever underestimate the power of somebody with that invitation and that offer of support.... I could give you a list of 100 people that have been amazing mentors to me. And I just I think it's that support from trusted mentors that gave me the courage to do it. Michelle Whitney: Really as I reflect back on it now as having had some experience and I hope some wisdom, there's really, all of us, no matter what role you play, you're a leader in your own right. So there's never really a downside to leaning in to the desire to explore that leadership characteristics of yourself. The worst thing that's going to happen is you're going to learn some great skills and learn some things about yourself that will make you even better at what you're currently doing. But if you take that little bit of a risk, and maybe it's just a toe dip, it doesn't have to be a full jump at first, you'll likely find that it's a good fit for you. And then that success breeds success, and the more you try it out a little, and it's like you put the sweater on and it fits pretty good so you wear it around a little bit. But I would just encourage people, especially if you're nervous, find a trusted mentor, start slow, start small, but just continue to take those steps, and it's only going to make you better at whatever you choose to do. Michelle Whitney: You may never choose to be the person that is the front of a large organization, but leadership skills, regardless of what you choose to do, will always just make you a better contributor. And that's really what we are as leaders is contributors. So I would encourage anyone to take the risk if you're thinking about it, and again, find a trusted mentor that you can lean on because there are times where it's challenging, and you'll have self-doubts and having that mentor you can go to and be vulnerable about that is very important. Paul Casey: Fantastic answer because leadership is influence wherever you're at, and it will fill up your game no matter what you're doing. And I love how you said mentorship was a courage builder for you, even up to 100 people, which is probably true. It's probably not hyperbole. There's just a ton of people that we would not have taken that extra step had it not been for someone giving us that boost and saying you can do it. Maybe you're further along your journey, and you're like you need to turn around and bring somebody with you and mentor them, even if it's informal and you don't call it mentoring, but you want to help somebody along their journey. Paul Casey: Like you said, in five years, you've had a lot of issues to deal with in your position. You're smiling still! That's good. A lot of hassles, a lot of disappointments, a lot of things that get in the news making some people choose one side of an issue or another. But then there's the rewarding part of the job. We're not going to go into those other places. Here's the rewarding question, What allows you to focus then on those most rewarding things, and what is actually the most rewarding part of your job? Michelle Whitney: Well, I was very serious when I said the most rewarding part of my job is students. And, from the very first day that I started as superintendent and actually even prior during my successor year, I had a transition year, which was gift, I prioritized being in classrooms. There is nothing more magical than the relationship between students and their teachers. So I scheduled on the calendar Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays every morning when we were in person to start in classroom. Michelle Whitney: Most days I would get there. Some days I wouldn't. I got there more than I would if I didn't schedule it in. Some days I could stay a long time. Some days I could only be in one or two classrooms, but I always prioritized that. And it does a lot of different things. Michelle Whitney: One, it keeps me connected to what teaching means now. It's been a while since I've been in a classroom, and teaching is not the same as when I was in a classroom. So I think that's very important to stay in touch with those you're in service to so you can do right by them in your decision-making. Michelle Whitney: But there is nothing that feeds my soul more than students. So in this pandemic environment, I've done the same thing in that I am scheduled to go into Zoom classrooms. And one morning, I was in a kindergarten classroom, and they were doing this good morning routine where they would say good morning to one another. And of course, I'm in tears. There's nothing more sweet than kindergartners saying good morning to each other by name. And it's those moments where you can really connect with why we do our work, the sweetest kindergarten doing the most genuine thing by saying good morning to one another reminds you that those hard moments are worth it, that there's students depending on you, and that there's this kindness in our system. That's what makes the hard moments for me worth it is I stay connected to those things that are closest to students, students, teachers in the classrooms. Michelle Whitney: And I have to tell you, that's what's made this pandemic so challenging is we're thrust into the really hard parts of our job for most of our job, and you have to be a lot more intentional about getting out and participating in those things that the really feel your soul, feed your bucket, whatever those things are that you say. For me, I have never lost sight of what it means to be a teacher. I walk around with a teacher's heart, and I think that's why I cry is it touches that part of me that is so important. And like I said, I stay really closely connected to students, and that for me is the difference in those dark moments. Paul Casey: So cool that you kept your goal of being physically present, even, well, Zoom is not physical, but you still kept that goal alive. You found a way to still be in classrooms, even though it's online in order to do that. That's pretty neat. Michelle Whitney: Yeah. It's incredible. I get to read stories, and the kids bring their puppies and baby sisters to the Zoom. So in so many ways, you get to experience even more of a student's life. So it's been a gift really. And while in-person education is what we're about and who we're about, there really truly have been some silver linings to this environment. Paul Casey: Mm-hmm (affirmative). And I was an elementary principal so I totally get teacher, vice principal, principal, the journey. And playing with the kids at recess was a bunch of fun. I even sprained my ankle one year playing freeze tag. Michelle Whitney: Mine was flag football. Paul Casey: Was it? Michelle Whitney: So yes. I, yeah. Paul Casey: It's like the scar of courage- Michelle Whitney: Yeah, it's a rite of passage. Yeah, uh-huh (affirmative). Paul Casey: But that is where the joy was for sure. So leaders must keep growing or they become irrelevant. How have you matured as a leader, I'll just say in these five years of being superintendent? Michelle Whitney: Oh, that's a great question. I think the number one way that I've matured as a leader is by listening. I do a lot of listening to the people that I'm in service to. So I meet with parents a lot. I've done lots of different ways of doing that. Of course, pre-pandemic I did community coffee events. I've done Soup with the Superintendent. Since the pandemic, I've done some virtual town hall meetings. You go out and listen, but it's listen with intention. And it's really listening to understand those you're in service to, what they need from you, and reflecting on those decisions that you need to make and the kind of leader you need to be on behalf of those you're in service to. Michelle Whitney: I also do a lot of listening to teachers and staff in a lot of the same ways by being present, and I have the most amazing thing. I have a superintendent student advisory council. So I have 30 high school students that meet with me six times a year, and we tackle really difficult issues together, whether it's planning for a new high school or changing boundaries or overcrowding issues or social, emotional, health issues. Again, it's about being present with them and listening to them and tailoring my leadership and the way that I make decisions and what I prioritize and focus on in a way that they need me to do right by them on their behalf. Michelle Whitney: I would love to tell you it was some professional development training I went to or some class I took, but it really wasn't. It was being present in my system and listening to those that I've made a commitment to represent and learning from them how I can be better and different in order to serve them in the best possible way. Michelle Whitney: High school kids know what they need from us, and know what they need from us around very complex issues. The most diligent group of people that I saw work on a set of boundaries in a couple of facilities plan was that superintendent student advisory council. Michelle Whitney: So I joke that really we should let the students run the place. I just need to buy lunch and give them a ride. They truly do know what they need from us, and we just have to create opportunity for them to participate. And it's in those moments where I feel like I'm my best self and I'm my best leader for them. And I feel like it's a gift. Paul Casey: Learning by listening. Yeah, I was part of a group in Richland School District. I feel like it was called Focus years ago. I don't know if it still exists today. I was part of the faith community then, too, to come in, and it was all the folks that cared about students and could provide auxiliary services. Plus, the principals were in there. Plus, these cream of the crop students were in there, and they blew me out of the water! The maturity of speaking in front of these scary adults, and they're holding their own and saying, "These are the programs that we got growing. These are the thing we needed." I could totally see how that would be an energizing meeting for you. Michelle Whitney: Oh, it's incredible. Paul Casey: Just to further validate the whole listening post, I had a boss who do a listening post, he would call it. He would invite a dozen of the constituent monthly, and he would ask the same set of questions to each one to hear on the ground level of how to serve them in a nonprofit. And then just yesterday, I'm part of the National Speaker Association, and a board member called me from the Northwest Chapter and just said, "I'm a board member, and I'm just trying to get ground-level intel of how we can best serve our constituency." And I was like, "Wow!" He followed up with an email, and we even played with a couple of ideas for the pandemic of how to speak virtually. I'm like, I think it's always a great move when a leader gets down on the ground with the frontline people, who know all the answers, like you said, they how to run the school, and listen to them. Paul Casey: Well, as a superintendent, it must be hard, with a huge to-do list and probably a billion emails coming in, to know how to spend your time, how to triage tasks, how to know what to delegate and what you have to own. How do you sort how to spend your time? Michelle Whitney: Yeah. That's a great question, and I'm going to be really honest with you because if I'm not, the people that know me will call me on that. That probably is my biggest weakness, because I believe so deeply in every single person that I'm in service to, and we have a large organization, almost 20,000 students, which represent 40 to 60,000 parents, 2,200 employees, five board members. And every single one of those interactions is important to me. So the whole delegation and all of that is absolutely a work in progress. Michelle Whitney: For me, I think one of the biggest pieces that I'm blessed with, and this may sound cliché, but it's absolutely critical is to have an executive assistant that you trust. My assistant is absolutely incredible. She knows what I need to work well. She knows what I need as a person to function well. She's my number one fan. I'm fairly certain I'm her favorite person in the universe above and beyond everyone else. And on those hard days, I know for sure that my assistant still likes me. That's just that, not only does she help me organize myself professionally, she makes sure I'm where I'm at with what I need, my calendar is organized and squared away, but she's also that person that's there to bolster and support on the days when days are tough. Michelle Whitney: And I think that executive assistant and, for me, superintendent of management relationship is so important to have a person that you can go, "Oh my gosh. I don't know how to... I'm not going to be able to get all this done," and something that you can delegate and help follow through with those priorities. Michelle Whitney: The other piece is I have a great team. And we're learning about the strengths of the team together over the last five years. We've utilized a book called StrengthsFinder 2.0. And that was really a game changer in terms of knowing and understanding where people fell out around those strength characteristics and really now trying to organize work function up against and those and trying to collapse some of the siloed nature of the way work is typically done in a large organization to be able to align work tasks with people's strengths. Michelle Whitney: So I'm not a great executor. That's not my strength. I'm big vision, relationships, but the details of beginning to end is not my strength, but I know I have a colleague and a teammate that that is her strength. So when I need help with that task, I go to that person. I think knowing the strengths and talents of the people around you is a real efficiency builder, and then having someone like an assistant like I have, Jenny is amazing, that really can help you prioritize, especially for someone like me that everything is equally important all the time. And that's just not viable in the long term. You can do that for a short period of time, but at some point, you need some help in making sure that you're keeping the right things up front all the time. Paul Casey: What do those meetings with Jenny look like? How do you sort, prioritize? What do you discuss? Is it regimented? Is it ad hoc? What does it look like? Michelle Whitney: Yeah. That's a great question. I think with Jenny and I, it's evolved over time. We started out with it being scheduled that if I get to go to a kid thing or meet with Jenny on virtual. Paul Casey: That's going to bump it. Yeah. Michelle Whitney: Yeah. So Jenny was getting bumped all the time. Then it became more ad hoc. Lately, what's been amazing about this virtual environment is she just comes to the meeting, whatever meeting I'm in that I feel like I'm going to need her in, she is in there virtually, and she can listen to the meeting and help me prioritize that way. My thinking post-pandemic, when we're back to a more normal environment, I think that organization works best for us. So those meetings that she can be at with me or helping facilitate or there as a note-taker, I think that, we've landed on that arrangement for us probably works better. Michelle Whitney: But I think the key to all of that is you have to figure it out for yourself. That management system with your assistant is going to be very assistant-and-manager-specific in terms of how your personality works. So the key is finding something that works. I don't think it has to look any single way, but it has to work for both of you. Paul Casey: Sounds good. Well, before we head into our next question on external relationships, a shout-out to our sponsor. Mario Martinez, Northwestern Mutual. Mario, why should people work with a financial advisor? Mario Martinez: Hey, Paul. That's a great question. Really, I think there's two types of people who should be seeking out a financial professional. The one person is somebody who has very limited access to financial guidance. Maybe they're a younger professional or somebody who just hasn't had an introduction to a financial professional yet. And the other type of person is really someone who has a lot of different exposure to different professionals. They just haven't found the one person that they really trust to take guidance from. So there's really an over-information in that sense. Those are really the two types of people that should be looking to be introduced to a financial professional. Paul Casey: Fantastic! So Mario, how can people get in touch with you? Mario Martinez: The easiest way is to reach out to me directly on my business cell phone, which is 509-591-5301. You can send an email to mario.martinez@nm.com, or you can find us on our business Facebook page, which is Mario Martinez Northwestern Mutual. Paul Casey: So it's been very clear, Michelle, that leadership is relationships for you, that you believe that like I do. You've talked about a lot of internal relationships within the school and school system. Now you've got this community around you. So how do you intentionally develop relationships with the City of Pasco and beyond? Michelle Whitney: That's a great question. I feel very lucky. The City of Pasco, the city manager, Dave Zabell in Pasco, we have what's called a Create Group. It's the port, the city, the public utility, the county. I'm sure I'm leaving someone out, but it's the leadership of the infrastructure of Pasco. And we meet monthly, and we keep each other updated on those core functions that would overlap. So for me, I often report out on facilities or potential construction projects. They're also very interested in our educational programming. So we give updates there. That, I think, is an incredible unique opportunity for us to partner as a collective for the good of our community. Michelle Whitney: I'm also a Kiwanian, and we have representation at all of the local groups like the Chamber of Commerce and so on. I think that's very important. Maybe it's not always me that's at those tables, but there's someone from our organization at those tables that can act as a liaison. Michelle Whitney: The other piece, though, for me is, like I mentioned earlier, those community coffees, that I do them monthly. I've done that almost consistently in at least the last four years if not five in some variation, whether it's at the Starbucks, or we did Soup with the Supe at the Booth Building one time. But that really is just an open invitation to anyone who wants to come and sit knee-to-knee, shoulder-to-shoulder with me. And we talk about whatever they want. It's not a pre-canned presentation that I do. They just bring topics and discussion and we talk about, and I answer whatever questions there are. I think those are the relationships, too. Michelle Whitney: So there's the organized groups that you would expect an organizational leadership to be interacting in. Certainly we participate in all of those, but there are people out there who want to build relationship or want to be in a relationship with the school district and don't maybe know how, or maybe don't know what they want to do. That's where those more informal opportunities like a community coffee come in really handy for people who just come and say, "Hey, here's a skill or talent I have. I want to get involved. How could that look?" And then I just am a big connector at that point, and I'm like, "Hey, you need to get in contact with that person." The night Jenny's there, and I say, "Hey, Jenny, will you get them in contact?" Then she takes care of making those connections. But it's that central location at the Starbucks community coffee that they know the superintendent will be there and listen. Michelle Whitney: Then over the last year or so, I've started to invite some of my executive team there, too, so that there's other people other than just me there that I can connect folks to. So that's been a great relationship builder. Then we have phenomenal programs like our PEAK! Partnership Program where I have a staff who go out and talk to organizations in the community that want to partner directly with schools. So we have some real innovative organized efforts like that as well. Michelle Whitney: We don't do the work for educating kids on our own. It's truly a system-wide and a community-wide effort to build that network of support and lift all of our students. And I'm proud to work shoulder-to-shoulder with the best in the community. Paul Casey: Well, Tri-City Influencer listeners, Soup with the Supe, so you could steal that idea if you're a supervisor- Michelle Whitney: There you go! Paul Casey: ... not just a superintendent. Michelle Whitney: That's right! Paul Casey: And post-COVID you can have with you. I love it! So we rarely talk about money on this podcast, but every leader has to know their organization's financials. I know you've got a whole finance department, I would assume, within the district. But what do you have to stay accountable to? What does evaluation of finances look like in your position? Michelle Whitney: Yeah, that's a great question. Education finance and funding has been in a state of flux over the last three or four years…Probably longer than that, but since I've been in the superintendency, it's been in a flux and change post-McCleary. So I've had to stay very in tune with learning all the new legislation and how the laws are impacted because it was a complete shift in the way things were done. One, it was legislative advocacy around the McCleary decision, pre-McCleary decision, and then post-McCleary, it was about learning and understanding those aspects of the change in the way education funding was done. Michelle Whitney: But then it's really about my interfacing with the school board to build some benchmarks and goals and priorities for a philosophy about the way we spend our dollars. So my interface with the school board to ensure that we're building budgets that are in alignment with their philosophy and their goals and to meet our strategic planning priorities. So that's really the level that my leadership and influence is at is making sure that the way that we're budgeting and prioritizing dollars is in alignment with our strategic plan and our board's vision for our district. Michelle Whitney: And then I work very closely with our business office. I typically supervise directly assistant superintendents. My business officer is an executive director, but I directly supervise him because he is in charge of the district finances. And that was personal decision that I made. Not all superintendents or supervisors do it that way, but one, he was new. The funding was new, and I was new. So we all are learning together, and it's again, that spending time together, knee-to-knee, shoulder-to-shoulder learning is the best way, I think, to build team and accountability together, especially around something as important as finances. Michelle Whitney: We also do a fair amount, or I do a fair amount of interfacing with the community around things like bond planning and levy planning. And we do that through community task forces. And I had an assistant superintendent who did an extraordinary job in interfacing with a group called the Community Builders who helped us plan out a district strategic plan around our facilities. And then of course, layered on top of that is bonds and how those cycles will work. So it's really a multi-tiered effort as a superintendent in a school district, and there's a variety of stakeholders who are involved in different ways in education and finance decision-making. I think it's a really fascinating part of the work. It's a very complicated part of the work. Michelle Whitney: Recently, in the last couple of years, we've had to make some adjustments because the McCleary funding that would require us to repurpose dollars and really there were some areas that we were going to need to reduce. And we got teachers very involved, staff, building-level staff very involved in that. I went out and did a budget presentation, actually two presentations at every single building, and then invited people to come to the table to help us build some budget efficiencies. So we're really working hard to broaden the ownership and leadership around educational finance in Pasco. And we just started to get traction around that work pre-COVID, and then of course, COVID hit. So once we get back to something that appears a little more predictable, we'll get back to that. Michelle Whitney: But I felt like that was an extraordinary opportunity to peel back the curtain of finance of any big organization is complicated. I'm really excited about picking that work back up. Paul Casey: You mentioned strategic planning. You also mentioned in your StrengthsFinder. Vision is huge for you, by the way, huge StrengthsFinder fan. It's called CliftonStrengths now, but Tri-City Influencer listeners, please look up StrengthsFinder 2.0 the book or CliftonStrengths. There's a $19.99 version which will give you your top five. You'll be like, "Someone's reading my mail when you look at it." You're like, "Wow! This is what I love." And if you can be doing that 80% of your work day, you're going to love what you do. And talk to your supervisor about that. You can do it as a whole team. Paul Casey: I can facilitate that for you. It would just be a super fun thing to realize, "Wow, you're so good at that. You should be doing more of that!" And, "Wow, you don't do good at that? What's a way that we can move that around on a team?" Paul Casey: So when you think about the next hill to climb as a district, and you think about continuous improvement, what's your process for that? Michelle Whitney: Well, right now our focus really was derailed in the face of and the impacts of COVID. My eye now is on transitioning our students back into some kind of in-person learning that's safe for them over the course of the next few months and then really getting specific and intentional about how we bridge the impact of the disruption to their educational experience. Michelle Whitney: So we had a really nice trajectory of focus starting in my first year with identifying some outrageous outcomes and strategic plans, and we just refreshed and got a brand new strategic plan approved in January before COVID. So those things really are push-pinned on the bulletin board right now as we're getting really hyper-focused on how do we met the needs of our kids during a pandemic in this just extraordinarily complicated environment. Michelle Whitney: We will need to get back to that. Matter of fact, in January, we'll start again with the board re-calibrating our expectations of the strategic plan, and it will then be focusing on what is life after, post-COVID, or as we start to get kids back. It will be about how do we fill those gaps that have been created by a disruption in the traditional education environment. So those processes for me are done in coordination and collaboration with stakeholders that are closest to the work. So we involve our teachers and our students, and there's a lot of listening that happens and serving that happens and focus groups and task force that happen. So I would envision those things starting to occur. Michelle Whitney: Once we get back to something that's a little bit more predictable, right now, people's priority and focus is dealing with the current crisis. And it truly is still a crisis for us. We've been in a crisis mode since March 13th, so it's really difficult to get people to, and really probably inappropriate to try to get people to think about something more long range. It's like you wouldn't be thinking of building your next house while your current house is on fire. So we really just need to honor where we are right now and know that there'll be work to be done when we get back to something that's a little bit more normal. Michelle Whitney: But my process is really around valuing those closest to the work. They know what they need from us, empowering them in the decision-making, and then being really specific and strategic and intentional about a few key priorities, and I think that was mistake I made early on as a leader is taking on too many things. I'm a person that likes to do too many things, but organizations don't. And I don't mean any single person in an organization. Just systems don't. So when you think about a system like a rubber band, if you stretch it too tight, it'll break, and systems are the same way. So that's been a huge learning piece for me as an individual leader, that you really have to be keyed into systems don't work the same way as you do as an individual leader. Michelle Whitney: So part my leadership responsibility is to help narrow people's focus so that we can get really good at a few things versus having our attention spread across a lot of different things. And I'll tell you, we're not quite there yet as an organization, but we certainly have our eye on that. And this strategic plan that we had in place pre-COVID puts us in a nice spot for that. So we'll be able to pick that up post-COVID and move forward. Paul Casey: Great. Yeah, that makes total sense. I like to say too much change too fast kills change, and it kills you! Michelle Whitney: It's true. It's true. Paul Casey: Well, finally, Michelle, what advice would you give to new leaders or anyone who wants to keep growing and gaining more influence? Michelle Whitney: So, new leaders, I would just say, be kind and gentle with yourself. Find a network of people that you can talk to and that you trust, and be vulnerable with them about what you don't know. Maybe don't be vulnerable with everybody about what you don't know, but find a few people that you really, really trust because none of us as leaders know everything. There is such great learning in vulnerability. So that would be a huge piece of advice for new leaders. Michelle Whitney: And like I said, be kind and gentle with yourself. There are things looking back now, I wish I would have done differently in my first couple years, but I learned from that. We make changes, and we move forward from there. Michelle Whitney: Continuing to evolve in your own leadership, while I talked about listening as learning, that's one part of learning. But there really is the piece about extending yourself beyond your current knowledge base and whether it's through a professional organization that you're involved in or a group or a network of people, reaching out and maybe targeting one key professional development that you want to extend, one in a year, and just being really thoughtful and strategic and gentle about that choice. I think that's always a good thing, to pick one thing that you're going to really extend, maybe beyond your own comfort zone and lean into something that maybe scares you a little every year, and making a commitment to doing that. And either doing it as an individual leader or as a leadership team, I think is always also a really a great thing to keep in mind. Michelle Whitney: Because it's easy in the busyness of our lives to forget about extending ourself in some formal professional development, too. So there's the informal listening and learning to be a better person and a better professional, but there's certainly that formalized professional development that also meets a need for us as leaders and influencers. Paul Casey: Well, Michelle, how can our listeners best connect with you? Michelle Whitney: Well, email is always the best way to connect with me. I'm on that thing all the time. Just ask my husband. He'll tell you. But I do take great joy in interfacing and being a support and assistance to fellow leaders. People always say, "Oh, but you're so busy. We don't want to bother you." It is never a bother to sit with someone who needs me to be a good listener. Email's always a great way to get in contact with me, and I'm always happy to help and be of support and assistance. Paul Casey: Well, thanks again for all you do to make the Tri-Cities a great place and keep leading well! Michelle Whitney: Thank you. Paul Casey: Let me wrap up our podcast today with a leadership resource to recommend. Michelle was just talking about getting more leadership proficiencies in your professional development, especially if you're an emerging leader or a young professional. I offer a program called Leader Launcher. Paul Casey: Leader Launcher is a Tri-City program for young professionals and emerging leaders where I do a training two hours every month on a leadership proficiency. You'll turn that into an action plan, be able to bring that back to your workplace and use it right away in your workplace. It'll be professional growth or leadership, and you can go to leader-launcher.com to sign up. For a full-year program, you'll get 24 hours of training that you'll be able to then apply right on the ground there at work. So leader-launcher.com. Paul Casey: Again this is Paul Casey. I want to thank my guest, Michelle Whitney from Pasco School District for being here today on the Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast. We also want to thank our TCI sponsor and invite you to support them. We appreciate you making this possible so we can collaborate to inspire leaders in our community. Paul Casey: Finally, one more leadership tidbit for the road to help you to make a difference in your circle of influence. It's a quote from Zig Ziglar. He said, "What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals." Until next time, KGF, keep growing forward! Announcer: Thank you to our listeners for tuning in to today's show! Paul Casey is on a mission to add value to leaders by providing practical tools and strategies that reduce stress in their lives and on their teams, so that they can enjoy life and leadership, and experience their key desired results. If you'd like more help from Paul in your leadership development, connect with him at growingforward@paulcasey.org for a consultation that can help you move past your current challenges and create a strategy for growing your life or your team forward. Announcer: Paul would also like to help you restore your sanity to your crazy schedule and getting your priorities done every day by offering you his free Control My Calendar checklist. Go to www.takebackmycalendar.com for that productivity tool, or open a text message to 72000 and type the word Growing. Paul Casey: Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast was recorded at Fuse SPC by Bill Wagner of Safe Strategies.

Cynthia Marquez: "Sometimes to begin a new story, you have to let the old one in." Author unknown. I am Cynthia Marquez, and I am a Tri-City Influencer. Paul Casey: One definition of multitasking is messing up two things at once. I love that definition. Speaker 3: Raising the water level of leadership in the Tri-Cities of Eastern Washington, it's the Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast. Welcome to the TCI Podcast, where local leadership and self-leadership expert Paul Casey interviews local CEOs, entrepreneurs, and non-profit executives, to hear how they lead themselves and their teams, so we can all benefit from their wisdom and experience. Here's your host, Paul Casey of Growing Forward Services. Coaching and equipping individuals and teams to spark breakthrough success. Paul Casey: It's a great day to grow forward. Thanks for joining me for today's episode with Rick Dunn. Rick is the general manager of Benton PUD, and I asked him for a fun fact about himself. He said, "It could be quirky. It could be annoying, but it's about the dishwasher." Rick, really quick, tell us about that. Rick Dunn: Okay. I did have to quiz my wife about the things that I did that annoy her, that would be considered quirky, and I guess as we kind of talk a little bit further, you understand where this is coming from, but I've been known to reload the dishwasher after somebody else does it, because it's not done right, and there's an efficient way to do it. Right? Then to kind of add to that, I cannot allow the drinking glasses to go into the cabinet, not being in the proper order. Small, juice glasses then the medium ones and then the big ones. Anyway, that tells you a lot about me. Paul Casey: It does. It does, personality style gone crazy. Rick Dunn: Yes. Paul Casey: Well, we're going to dive in with Rick after checking in with our Tri-City Influencer sponsor. Paul Casey: Mario Martinez, Northwestern Mutual. Mario, what types of services do you offer? Mario Martinez: Hey Paul, thank you for letting me be on here. We run bifurcated practices in that we focus in two areas of a financial plan. The first one is we do protection pieces, which include life insurance, disability insurance, long-term care insurance, really the things that people should be focused on to protect their families, their businesses. On the other side of our practice is, we do investment services. On the investment platforms we do both the brokerage platform and we do the advisory level services. Depending on what someone's looking for as far as guidance on their investment strategies, we can curtail and build a strategy for them that makes sense. Paul Casey: Mario, how can people get in touch with you? Mario Martinez: The easiest way. You can reach out to me directly on my business cell phone. It's (509) 591-5301. You can send me an email at Mario.Martinez@nm.com or you can reach out to us on our social media platforms. The easiest one being Mario Martinez, Northwestern Mutual on Facebook. Paul Casey: Thank you for your support of leadership development in the Tri-Cities. Well, welcome, Rick. I was privileged to meet you. Man, was it? It's been probably 15 years ago. I had your children at Liberty Christian School when I was the principal there, and I hired your wife to teach second grade. That is bizarre. Rick Dunn: I am eternally grateful for that, and it is kind of amazing though. You know how this community works, is that you’ve really got to be careful and make sure you're nice to people. They can come back and intersect with you in a different part of your life. Paul Casey: I like that. Intersect with you. Yes. And more recently being able to do professional development with your awesome team there at Benton PUD. Thanks for hiring me. Rick Dunn: Absolutely. It's been great. Hey, you earned it. All right. It's not just a favor. Paul Casey: Well, so that our Tri-City influencers can get to know you, take us through a couple of career highlights that led you to your current position and why you love what you do. Rick Dunn: Well, I don't think you can really talk about your career highlights unless you give a little bit of background about your personal life. Paul Casey: Yeah. Rick Dunn: I grew up in Benton City, graduated from Kiona High School, went to Washington State University and got an electrical engineering degree, and like most people from small towns wanted to get out of here, and so we did and we moved to Phoenix. I was recruited by a couple of different companies, one in California and one in Phoenix, Arizona. We moved down there, and the reason I tell you that is, is I'm a high voltage power engineer. That's the best summary of my background. Paul Casey: You're electric, man. Rick Dunn: We are really electric. You go where the jobs are, and so the thing that brought us back to the Northwest is we just missed the Northwest. As much as I had a great job down there, I really didn't realize how much I valued just being here in this part of the country. As you leave college, you don't know exactly what you want to do, but we took a risk and we went down, and then came back after two years. A couple of summers of 115 degrees will do that to a guy, but I tell you as a set up, because then you have kids, and we had kids, we lived in Seattle area. That's where I worked. As soon as we had kids, we found ourselves coming over to the Tri-Cities all the time. My wife and I were on our way back to Seattle one time, and it was one of those beautiful summer evenings in the Tri-Cities and the smell of the alfalfa in the fields on the way past Prosser and that area. Rick Dunn: I looked at Marjean and said, "Why are we doing this? We should just try to move back here." Fast forwarding, I tried. I even put my resume in at Benton PUD, and they didn't even get back to me. I give, Steve Hunter's our assistant general manager and director of engineering operations a bad time. I said, "You didn't call me," so isn't that funny? I ended up back in the Tri-Cities and long story short, ended up in Hermiston, in Electric Co-Op, and then ultimately landed a job at Benton PUD. I am about high voltage electricity, and I'm a bit of an engineering nerd when it comes to that, but I think maybe to close it out when I was at the co-operative, I was sent away to training, to do a national training at the University of Nebraska. Rick Dunn: I went back there for a six week, very intensive courses, living in the dorms again. The idea is to train you up to be a general manager, and I remember telling the general manager at the time, "I want nothing to do with this, ever. You can't make me be a general manager. I'm an engineer. This is what I am meant to be in life." He said, "Yeah, but just go anyway, because it'll be good for you," and I just laugh about that now, because even as I'm in this job now, up until about a year ago, I was still saying the same thing. Anyway. I love being in an industry that really makes a difference in people's lives. I mean, not to be cliche or anything, it's just electricity that is kind of something that goes on in the background and when you don't have it, you miss it real quick. Right? Paul Casey: Uh-huh (affirmative). Rick Dunn: I really do love that part of it, but I think as I think about Benton, and this community we live in, it's really about life-work balance and what this community has meant to me. Like you mentioned, that our kids in the school where you were principal. Those are the things that kind of come together in your life and you don't know exactly how they're going to weigh, and I've just been so fortunate to be able to balance all the different dimensions of my life. I look at this job now, that I have at Benton PUD, as somewhat of a getting out of what I might've naturally wanted to do and moving more into more of a service to other people. I'm kind of that stage of my life. Boy, it took me many, many months of thinking about it, but I came to this job really ready to do it, and I'm just so grateful for it. Paul Casey: Why did you resist initially, when you thought about being general manager, like, "Nah, I don't want to go there"? Rick Dunn: Well, I think, engineers naturally want to do design, and they want to create new things, and they want to watch things operate. I think it's a scary prospect to think you might be pulled out of what is really a defining passion. It's why you go put up with getting a bachelor's degree in engineering in the first place, right? All the suffering and late nights, so it feels like to go into "management" is contrary to really what drives a lot of people like myself who are mathematical and scientifically oriented, and liked getting out in the field and seeing things built. So the idea that you would then be locked down into a management job- Paul Casey: Leading people. Rick Dunn: Yes, and have to deal with these annoying people all the time. Right? I think, that's the fundamental issue, and I think also, I've been very fortunate. In the job I was in prior to the GM job was a senior director of engineering and power management, so that was fantastic. I mean, it's like the best job you could have, because I was able to stay close enough to the technical work, to kind of retain that anchor to what kind of defined me as an engineer, but also being at a director level where I could still get involved in some significant decision-making and problem solving, and working on strategic planning and different things, which I also enjoyed. It's kind of a nice balance and I thought, "Okay, well, that's it. I'm getting old and it's time to start heading out to pasture here in a few years. Why would I change now? I'm pretty comfortable." Rick Dunn: I think that's another reason that I kind of resisted, was things were going good. My kids were raised and mostly through college, I've got one left to finish up. He's getting his master's degree down in Colorado right now, but I was kind of looking down the road to just easing into retirement. Why would I go do this job and stretch myself, right, at this late date? Paul Casey: Yeah. You were at a crossroads, and you jumped and it sounds like you reframed it as, "I get to be a servant leader here, I get to pour into people. I'm going to say yes to this opportunity." What advice would you give to our listeners for when they reach a crossroads like that in their life? Rick Dunn: You know what? I do think that you have to be careful, and it's a little bit cliche to say, "Never say never," right? I think as you come to these crossroads in your career that you don't want to put definitive nos on opportunities necessarily. Right? Maybe the timing isn't necessarily right, but I've really listened to what other people have told me about myself and what I maybe mean to them, or maybe mean to the organization. Things that I'm not necessarily seeing or realizing is happening. I've been very fortunate to be, I don't know, an engineer that can get out of the cubicle and actually talk to people, and have a bit of interpersonal skills perhaps, and so I heard that from people. They think, "Oh, well, you're kind of a different engineer. You can actually talk to me and you make things sounded easier, and so I can track with you." I kept hearing that a lot. Rick Dunn: There's that, and then I think as you work for companies for a while, you do gain a sense of loyalty. I mean, we're all kind of team-oriented, and when you're working for a company, and you see a need and maybe your boss is saying, "Man, I have a challenge here. We need someone to step into leadership." I think that you need to be open to the idea that it isn't always about you, so when you talk about servant leadership, I think that's a good term, is you have to look at, well, where are the opportunities that I could serve? I've been actually, really surprised to some degree on how gratifying that can be. Now, I think that if you can balance your passions and the things that drive you with servant leadership, those things in combination, I mean, that's the sweet spot, right? Paul Casey: It is. Rick Dunn: I've just really been fortunate to have those opportunities within the industry that I'm in. I get back to your question, what's the advice I give to people, is just show some passion in your work and listen to what other people say about you. Maybe recalibrate the way you approach things, as you hear that. Don't limit your thinking about what the possibilities might be for you. It may not be the right timing, but there can be at some point in the future where things open up, just like what happened to me with this general manager opportunity. Is that I wasn't planning on it, and... Paul Casey: You should never fully close the door, right? Rick Dunn: I never fully closed the door. Right. Paul Casey: Left it ajar a little bit. Rick Dunn: Exactly, and I think it was around that whole loyalty and kind of serving orientation that I kind of gained over the years. Yeah, I think that's probably the best advice. Paul Casey: Yeah. I love that. Listen to others and how they see you. Paul Casey: Years ago, I had a friend who asked me a series of seven or eight questions about her, and said like, "What do you see most in me as my strengths? What do I talk too much about? What do I need to divest myself of?" It was a fun activity. I thought I'm going to do that with seven or eight of my friends, and people that I knew were really for me, I still have that sheet. It was like 2010 or '11. Now, when I teach on emotional intelligence, I said, "This is one of the ways that you can get feedback on yourself. I mean, go after it from the people who are for you and love you the way you are, as quirky as you are or not, and listen, and see if there's some patterns that develop, and it's like, "Wow, this is how I'm coming across." Rick Dunn: Yeah. Paul Casey: What's most rewarding for you in your job now, and how do you stay focused on that? I'm sure all the hassles, disappointments of being in charge trickle up to your level, woo hoo, as a leader, but what's the most rewarding for you? Rick Dunn: I mean, I still think the engineer in me likes to solve complex problems. I think the difference is designing a substation presents certain sets of problems, but operating in our business, in the power contracting side of things, for example. Developing strategic plans and different things present challenges, and so I still enjoy the complexity of the challenges, right? I mean, it's that kind of intellectual side of things, as opposed to the emotional side of it, but like I mentioned to you, I still value being a servant to others. I think for me, seeing the inherent value in people and not just making that a talking point, but actually making it a part of who you are is really rewarding to me. I guess what that translates to is, is I love just talking to anybody that will listen to me for more than a few minutes, right? That means anybody in any job capacity. Rick Dunn: COVID's been really difficult for me, because I took over March 1st. Paul Casey: Oh my goodness. Rick Dunn: Two weeks later, we shut the doors and locked things down, so one of my goals as general manager was going to be to walk around a lot and really engage with people, because I really liked talking to people. It's rewarding to me to talk to individuals. People don't need a whole lot of encouragement, and I know from being kind of on the other side of this, that it means a lot to hear from the boss, right? To get to know them and to see that they're a real human being. I like that part of it, and boy, I can't wait to get back to normal so that we can do that. Rick Dunn: One substitute for that, that I've kind of implemented here out of necessity, is to sending out an email to all the employees, to kind of make sure that they know I'm still here, and try to provide some encouragement and some strength through these really challenging times. I think it's a combination. Keep solving technical problems, but get a lot of reward out of just the simple things and the relationships with people. I think, to make room for those two things, people that have worked for me long enough and have been around me know that I'm an absolute... How do I say this? Disciplined daily task manager, and the reason that I bring that up is that if you're going to make room for the things you enjoy and you're passionate about, I just believe you have to have a process by which you intake information, and intake requests for meetings, and requests to review documents and things. Rick Dunn: I do it just really disciplined within... I use Outlook, Outlook Task Manager, and then people kind of, I think it's affectionately, call me the task manager, but they're referring to outlook. If that makes sense? Is that I have a real way in which I process incoming requests for things, because there is a lot of work that we do is very administrative and rather than grouse about it and complain about it, many years ago... In fact, it was a part of this management training I took back in Nebraska. Many years ago, I learned techniques and processes for how to bring paperwork into your office, and sort it and keep it off your desktop. Then when Outlook and email, and everything came out, I figured out a way to really use Outlook Task Manager. Rick Dunn: Hopefully I'm not droning on too long here, Paul, but I guess what I'm saying is, don't discount the value of having processes that are repeatable and allow you to efficiently take care of those administrative chores and tasks, that can take away and diminish your love of the job, right? If you allow it, and so I've really fended that off by having this process that I've had in place for, gosh, probably 15 years now. Then that frees me up, for the future, when I will be able to go talk to employees and things, but I've always done that in the jobs that I've had. I've tried to make room for that. Paul Casey: That's a great way of saying it too, it frees you up. By having these time management and priority management tools, you're talking my language now, then it does free you up to do the other things that give you that joy, but if you just let everything be reactive while you're sitting in the leadership chair, then it crowds all that time out. What is it? Parkinson's Law, work expands to fill all of the available time, and so you have to stay disciplined and say, "Is this what I should be working on right now? Am I the right person to be doing this? Or should I be delegating this to someone else, so I can do that relationship stuff? It's just so rewarding. Paul Casey: Leaders must keep growing or they become irrelevant. How have you matured as a leader in recent years as you moved up through the ranks? Rick Dunn: I think as you consider getting into leadership positions or management, one of the things that I noticed is that people were all, seemed to be looking for formulas and kind of the magic thing that you do to become a leader. There's lots of books and there's lots of things you can read about it, and I always felt a little funny, like, well, I don't really read a whole lot of leadership books. I actually, I really don't. What was the question? I'm sorry. Paul Casey: How have you matured as a leader? Rick Dunn: I'm sorry. Yeah. How have I matured, is I guess what I've allowed myself to do is really tap into some of my own natural abilities. Like I said earlier, kind of listen to what other people are giving me in terms of feedback. For me, the biggest thing I can do is listen more. I still struggle with it, but I've really recognized the value in letting other people talk, and let them tell you what's on their mind. I think as engineers, sometimes... Not sometimes, maybe all the time, we think we got the answer, right? So there's a tendency to kind of shut off, but I think that to be a leader and to mature requires that you do value other people, that you really see their inherent value, and that they may have an opinion that's different. They may have something that they know that you don't know, and really being open to that. Rick Dunn: I think, maybe additionally, I haven't looked for the big aha moment in how I'm finally arrived at being a leader. It's more about incremental improvement for me. I know, Paul, you and I have talked about this, that I really think that success in your personal life is really critical to success in your business life. Winning in your personal life, in incremental ways, kind of can snowball into good things. It kind of translates into just positive outcomes in your business life, too, if that makes sense? Paul Casey: Yes. Self-leadership always precedes team leadership. Rick Dunn: Yeah. I think I've recognized that, and your question was about maturing as a leader, and it's just recognizing that there's some principles on which you can operate and that you need to stay true to, that work throughout your career progression, that are really powerful, and I don't know, be careful that you're looking in books for. Now, trust me, reading books in leadership style. Well, those are all fine. That's all good. Paul Casey: Bill, let's shut this podcast down. He doesn't read leadership books, so let's just end it right here. No, just kidding. Rick Dunn: Right, right. Anyway, I just think that- Paul Casey: Yes. There's no magic bullet. Rick Dunn: ... I think there's a combination. There's a combination. I think, be open, all of that, but don't look for kind of that magic formula that's going to work, find your principles. I think for me, it's just really trying to be grounded, and the fact that it is about people in the end. These things we do for careers, they're really about people coming together, aiming at kind of a common purpose together, and that you can't do that if you don't have that frame of reference, I guess, that really values people. Paul Casey: Yeah. When you hired me to work with your team, we talked about like, let's balance this with self-leadership, and personal growth, and leadership growth, because you were very clear of that. "I want my people to be whole. They're whole people, so let's try to take care of nurturing their personal growth because that's going to bleed over into work." Rick Dunn: Yeah. I think another thing is that a lot of the jobs that people do, frankly, they're very necessary, and there's no job that's not important to an organization, but some of them can be routine, right? They can also isolate people from kind of the bigger picture of what their company's doing, and what we're doing in our community. I think it's really important that we don't leave people like that behind, and so that's what we're doing with you, and that's what we're doing with some of the strategic actions that we're undertaking, is to let's really invest in our people. Let's make sure they know they're valuable. Let's give them opportunities to set some goals and it can be personal life. Rick Dunn: In fact, I wish it was first, right? Get some personal goals that you achieve and then bring that to work. Now, let's set some incremental goals for you. Maybe you're going to expand beyond the job that you have now and in a way that you never really expected, right? Because you start getting some wins in your life, and then it translates to work. Now you're looking for opportunities and things can go far better from there, right? Paul Casey: Yeah. It's a growth mindset instead of a fixed mindset, which comes from the book, Mindset by Carol Dweck, but if you have that growth mindset- Rick Dunn: I haven't read it. Sorry. Paul Casey: I know. Rick Dunn: But maybe I will. Paul Casey: But yes, it talks about if you have that growth mindset, you're never really just like digging in with a position. You're always like, "Well, I can learn something from this person in front of me, and I can learn something from this resource," but that fixed mindset's sort of like, "All right. I know it all. Whatever. Yeah." Rick Dunn: Right. I think some people definitely need help in seeing that, right? Paul Casey: They do. Rick Dunn: Because they go to work to pay the bills a lot of times. It'd be easy to kind of hunker down and even become somewhat kind of jaded in your view. "Well, I don't know if there's going to be any opportunities for me," right? I think leaders need to go in, identify people who may be in that situation, and help them see beyond kind of where they're at right now, and do it in small ways again,. It doesn't have to be some major dramatic changes. It's incremental. Paul Casey: Right. It could be a fitness goal. It could be a relationship, marriage goal, a parenting goal. Yeah, for sure. Paul Casey: Well, before we head into our next question and talk a little bit more about that to-do list that Rick has, a shout out to our sponsor. Paul Casey: Mario Martinez, Northwestern Mutual, Mario, why should people work with a financial advisor? Mario Martinez: Hey, Paul, that's a great question. Really. I think there's two types of people who should be seeking out a financial professional. The one person is somebody who has very limited access to financial guidance. Maybe they're a younger professional, or somebody who just hasn't had an introduction to a financial professional yet. The other type of person is really someone who has a lot of different exposure to different professionals. They just haven't found the one person that they really trust to take guidance from, so there's really an over information in that sense. Those are really the two types of people that should be looking to be introduced to a financial professional. Paul Casey: Fantastic. Mario, how can people get in touch with you? Mario Martinez: The easiest way is to reach out to me directly on my business cell phone, which is (509) 591-5301. You can send an email to Mario.Martinez@nm.com or you can find us on our business Facebook page, which is Mario Martinez, Northwestern Mutual. Paul Casey: Rick, most of our to-do lists are greater than the time we have to do them, so that requires a leader to have to triage tasks, delegate in order to focus on your most important tasks. How do you sort, you were talking about your Outlook Task Manager, how do you sort how you spend your time, and maybe any tips that you have for our listeners on delegation? Rick Dunn: All right. Now you're going to uncover the secret sauce in how I do things. Paul Casey: Let's go deep, man. Rick Dunn: All right. Okay. Paul Casey: Nerd out on it. Rick Dunn: This is proprietary information that we're getting into there. No, we're not. Yeah, we already talked about the fact that... I guess it starts with this. We have to acknowledge that how we operate in our jobs has changed over the years. Right? I mean, when I came out of college, there were no personal computers. I mean, it makes me feel very old, but I had a PC on my desk within about six months, but I was in the workforce when you still typed a memo, and then copied it off, and routed it around, and everything. Paul Casey: Mimeograph machines. Rick Dunn: Yeah. Now we've moved far beyond that obviously. Email has created this unbelievably open door policy, if you will, about who gets to hear what you're up to, up to the top of the organization, right? It's CC everybody. I try to manage that with people. I try to manage expectations up front, which is if you work for me, or you work within my organization, here's how I want to operate. Rick Dunn: We don't all need to see what everybody's up to at every moment. Right? You need to take some- Paul Casey: Reply all. Rick Dunn: Exactly. I start with that, because this is an acknowledgement that that's the world we live in, I think, so it starts with setting expectations with people and what communication that you want to see, and so I limit it. I start by the same... I have a lot of email, okay? Just like everybody else, but I can keep it reduced. When it comes in, it's almost always, "Can you take a look at this," or it's just letting you know, FYI. Right? I move emails into a task list, because that's how... Email is the way in which we take on assignments predominantly, right? I mean, that's the truth of it. I bring them in, and so I look at the business I'm in, and I won't tell the groupings, but I have about six different groupings in which stuff goes, and it goes into those. Rick Dunn: At the moment that I process it, I assign it a due date. It doesn't mean I'm going to be done with it, and I ask people, I set an expectation, "Tell me when you want it done," because I want to perform to your expectation and not be uncertain about it, and that really helps. Right? It helps you manage your priorities. As those things come in, I assign them to a task. I group it into a particular category, and then I put a due date on, which is going to pop to the top. Then I use a little bit of automation in Outlook, and I tell Outlook, "Hey, show me my tasks by these different groups. And then color red when they get overdue," so they come to the top of the stack that way. The way I come in to each day, literally, is I'll go through those different groupings and I see what's at the top of the stack. Rick Dunn: Then at the end of the day, I kind of follow your advice, right? I'm trying to practice what we're preaching here, and so I look at what's coming for the next day. By doing that, I'm not really surprised by what's coming tomorrow. I try to be just highly efficient in that realm. Then people still insist on giving you paperwork, right? I have a system for which I manage that, and you might think, "Oh man, we're getting down in the weeds now. It is important, because still paper does exist, and so I have an accordion file with A through Z on it, and when somebody hands me a piece of paper, I put it in one of those letter categories, and I go to my task list, and I just put in parentheses what letter it's in. Does that make sense? Paul Casey: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Rick Dunn: Now, I can couple together, the paper world and the electronic world in a very efficient package where it's just kind of integrated with managing email, and calendars, and things. That's where- Paul Casey: Is A top priority, B- Rick Dunn: No. No, they're just letters that tell you the topic or whatever. Paul Casey: It's how you file them, right? Okay. Rick Dunn: Yes, and I don't over complicate it. I try to make... You can spend more time getting organized than you do just doing the work. It's like, "Well, you could"- Paul Casey: You could. Rick Dunn: ... "or you could use the actual process that's fast, seamless somewhat and integrate it. Right? That's my advice, is to take advantage of the tools we have, recognize how tasks are coming in, recognize how email influences you. It can also be a source of distraction. I turn off notifications. I do not have email notifications turned on. I think it really feeds the- Paul Casey: Squirrel. Rick Dunn: ... attention deficit disorder. Yeah, that's happening in the work. Anyway. I hope that kind of explains it. I do that, and then I say, "Okay, now, if there's tasks that end up lingering too long, perhaps I'm not the right person to get it done, or I need to communicate with other people." And I'll find myself finally telling somebody, "Hey, look," I call it my whack-a-mole task management technique, is that it pops up, it turns red, and then I either get it done or I whack it back down in the stack. Right? If I do that multiple times, I'm like, "All right, I've got to send that to somebody else." Paul Casey: That's your trigger. Yeah, yeah. Rick Dunn: That's it. If it's been through multiple cycles, and it's popped up and I can't seem to get it done, then... Now, I will tell you that it's very important to me that I actually meet people's expectations. Right? To do that consistently I do think it's important that you get yourself organized. Paul Casey: Yeah. Good stuff. We talked about personal growth, self-care, being essential for mental health, especially in the land of COVID, and for top performance. What recharges your batteries? Rick Dunn: Yeah. That's a great question. It's certainly easy for me, now that I have my three boys raised and they're adults. I just think that what you can do from a practical standpoint, when you're raising kids and have a house full of craziness, and what I can do now, are different things. Okay? I don't want to stand in judgment of anybody, because I was the last person to get up early and exercise when I had kids in the house. Paul Casey: Sure, sure. Rick Dunn: But, now, at this stage of my life, it's very important to me. I'm not a morning person, but my wife, probably about eight or nine years ago said, "When are you going to stop talking about losing some weight and getting healthy, and do something about it?" I was, "Whoa." Paul Casey: I love you too, honey. Rick Dunn: Yeah. She ordered the DVDs and we started getting up in the morning, right, okay? We did that. We had kids in the house, and so we did it together. I think the reason I bring that up is, because it's an accountability mechanism to have somebody say, "Hey, we're going to do this together." What's become very important to me, and recharges me, is the morning routine where I get up early. I do a lot of prayer time and there's quiet time, and do some Bible study. That's my choice for how I wake up in the morning. Then I go, I do physical exercise. I do at least 30 minutes to an hour. I've kind of reduced it down to 30 to 45 minutes now. Get the mind, and the spirit, and the body kind of fired up before you get to the office. I tell you, it's meant so much to me. Now it's become just part of what I have to do to stay recharged, like you're saying, but it does take discipline. Paul Casey: It does. Rick Dunn: It takes commitment, but the thing I've learned, and I know I'm not the first person to experience this, is once you've integrated some lifestyle like that into your world, I don't know what to do without it then. Right? I mean- Paul Casey: Stability. Rick Dunn: Yeah. I will tell you this. I've told a lot of folks this, is don't beat yourself up if you miss a day or something, right? It's about the long haul. I've really found that that's important to do that. Then I like to come home in the evening and even go for a walk or something. Just simple things. It doesn't have to be major. You can join a health club, but I've got a loft upstairs, and a rack of weights, and a DVD player, and Tony Horton on the other side, so I can do it at home, and make it happen and stick with it. Yeah. Paul Casey: Well, finally, Rick, what advice would you give to new leaders or anyone who wants to keep growing and gaining more influence? Rick Dunn: I think I said it before, but I'm going to reiterate it. No matter what job you're in, no matter what aspirations you have, I think, in terms of leadership, that it really does start with how you look at other people, and how you value them. Just knowing that every person comes to work for reasons that you don't totally understand, but I do believe that there's dignity in all work. I was taught that by my mom, and by my grandparents. You get up, you work hard, you take care of yourself, you take care of your family. I think that, as you're in your job, look at that and understand that, and everybody brings a little something different to the table, right? No matter what the job is, so value people, and don't just say it, actually do it. Rick Dunn: That means you engage with people. You have mutual respect for them. You listen to them. We're not perfect people. I have my moments, right? But I think when you do that, then you're going to find your way into leadership roles, because people naturally gravitate to folks who listen to them, and who care about them. Of course, you got to be competent, and so I say, dig into the technical things, learn your job really well. Do more than the minimum. I do a lot of reading. I spend a lot of time outside of work. I love my job, so it's not terrible to do that, but I think, really learn your job. Sometimes even over prepare a little bit. Be someone that people can count on. Rick Dunn: The simple things. Show up on time, get the task done when people ask you to, communicate with them and don't leave people hanging. All those things kind of work together. They have, for me at least, and opportunities have opened up. When people have confidence in you, like I said earlier, then you go, "Okay, well maybe I could do that, right?" Then they believe in you, and then other people believe in you, and you can find yourself being a successful part of a team. The next thing you know, you're promoted to general manager, and you didn't even want to do it, right? Paul Casey: Don't let this happen to you. Yeah. Rick Dunn: Exactly. Paul Casey: Rick Dunn's rules for life. I love it. Rick, how can our listeners best connect with you? Rick Dunn: Okay. I'm going to give you my email. Is that what you want me to do? Oh wow. Paul Casey: You can, and then it'll go into a folder. Our listeners will at least know that. Rick Dunn: That's right. I'll whack-a-mole you. Yes, yes. No, I'd be happy to communicate with folks. It's D-U-N-N-R, so it's dunnr@bentonpud.org. Paul Casey: Well, thanks again for all that you do to make the Tri-Cities a great place and keep leading well. Paul Casey: Let me wrap up our podcast today with a leadership resource to recommend. It's one that I want to provide for you, and it is a sheet of the top traits of terrific team leaders. It's 11 habits, inspirational habits that you as a leader can do to inspire your team. What you do is you open up a text message to 72000, seven, two, zero, zero, zero, and type the two words team lead, put a space in between, team lead, and I'll be happy to send that little tool off to you. The top traits of terrific team leaders. Paul Casey: Again, this is Paul Casey. I want to thank my guest, Rick Dunn from Benton PUD for being here today on the Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast. We also want to thank our TCI sponsor and invite you to support them. We appreciate you making this possible so that we can collaborate and help inspire leaders in our community. Finally, one more leadership tid bit for the road, to help you make a difference in your circle of influence. John Maxwell says, "The leaders take the vision from me to we." Until next time, KGF. Keep Growing Forward. Speaker 3: Thank you to our listeners for tuning into today's show. Paul Casey is on a mission to add value to leaders by providing practical tools and strategies that reduce stress in their lives and on their teams, so that they can enjoy life and leadership, and experience their deep desired results. Speaker 3: If you'd like more help from Paul in your leadership development, connect with him at growingforwardatpaulcasey.org for a consultation that help you move past your current challenges, and create a strategy for growing your life or your team forward. Paul would also like to help you restore your sanity to your crazy schedule and getting your priorities done every day by offering you his free, Control My Calendar checklist. Go to www.takebackmycalendar.com for that productivity tool, or open a text message to 72000 and type the word growing. Paul Casey: Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast was recorded at Fuse SPC by Bill Wagner of Safe Strategies

Brandon Anderson: The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers. Ralph Nader. I am Brandon Anderson and I am a Tri-Cities influencer. Paul Casey: And if we must assume, the only thing I would say is to assume positive intent. So if there's a gap between why that person behaved as they did, and you don't know the answer, fill in that gap with positive intent and check it out. Speaker 3: Raising the water level of leadership in the Tri-Cities of Eastern Washington, it's the Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast. Welcome to the TCI Podcast where local leadership and self-leadership expert Paul Casey interviews local CEOs, entrepreneurs, and non-profit executives to hear how they lead themselves and their teams, so we can all benefit from their wisdom and experience. Speaker 3: Here's your host Paul Casey of Growing Forward Services, coaching and equipping individuals and teams to spark breakthrough success. Paul Casey: It's a great day to grow forward. Thanks for joining me for today's episode with Rocco Luongo. He is an executive coach for professional services and he's got a fun fact I think we're all going to like today. It has to do with dad jokes. Rocco. Rocco Luongo: Thank you, Paul. Great tee up. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me on the show. So with all the homeschooling going on, I've got three kids at home. So we do a walk every morning before school, what's on the agenda for today, how we're going to do it, and we start off the walk every morning with a dad joke. So that's my thing. So, I thought I would share today's dad joke with you all. Paul Casey: Please. Please do. Rocco Luongo: The cringe factor has to be there. Any good dad joke has to make you cringe. So today's joke was, I once had a hen who could count her own eggs. She was a mathemachicken. Ooh, isn't that horrible? Paul Casey: It's terrible. Rocco Luongo: It's terrible. Paul Casey: It's terrible. Rocco Luongo: It's terrible. But it got a big laugh. Paul Casey: You're owning it. And you're wearing the shirt today. Rocco Luongo: I even have my dad joke shirt on. You can't see it, but it is. I have my “dad joke loading” shirt on, so it's become a thing. We have to adapt. We have to adapt to these things, Paul. Paul Casey: We do. Well, let's dive in after checking with our Tri-City influencer sponsor. Paul Casey: Mario Martinez, Northwestern Mutual. Mario, what types of services do you offer? Mario Martinez: Hey Paul, thank you for letting me be on here. We run bifurcated practices in that we focus in two areas of a financial plan. The first one is we do protection pieces, which include life insurance, disability insurance, long-term care insurance, really the things that people should be focused on to protect their families, their businesses. And on the other side of our practices, we do investment services. And on the investment platforms, we do both the brokerage platform and we do the advisory level services. So depending on what someone is looking for, as far as guidance on their investment strategies, we can curtail and build a strategy for them that makes sense. Paul Casey: Mario, how can people get in touch with you? Mario Martinez: The easiest way, you can reach out to me directly on my business cell phone is (509) 591-5301. You can send me an email at mario.martinez@nm.com or you can reach out to us on our social media platforms. The easiest one being, Mario Martinez Northwestern Mutual on Facebook. Paul Casey: Thank you for your support of leadership development in the Tri-Cities. Well, welcome again, Rocco. I was privileged to meet you here in this building and Fuse, walking by your office one day. Who is this guy? He's got the word coach on the doors. I’ve got to meet this guy. Did a one-to-one I think a few months later. And we even staged a picture in this very studio, here in Fuse for the Tri-Cities Journal of Business and the podcasts that are starting to pop up all over the place. So glad you could be with us today. Paul Casey: So, tell our Tri-City influencers a little bit about you, a couple of your career highlights that got you to where you are today and why do you love what you do? Rocco Luongo: Yeah, thanks Paul. I appreciate it. Yeah, we definitely met here at Fuse. It was so great. We've seen each other around, we swim in the same circles with the chamber and with community events and things. We're both very community oriented and I think that's important for everybody to do. And so that was great. And about my career, so I've been in the business for about 22 years. My background is engineering, did my undergraduate in New Hampshire in mechanical engineering. Sold a lot of table saws, swung a lot of hammers to pay for undergraduate. And I think a lot of people probably did the same. And I sold a table saw to the right guy. He turned out to be a director of engineering for a German firm. And before long I was an intern with them working in the same town, doubled my pay, working on engineering projects. Rocco Luongo: It was amazing. I thought, great. I was still a senior doing my undergrad. And like I said, it was a German firm. And I said, "Hey, could I ever maybe work in Germany someday?" And they said, "Yeah maybe two, three years, with some hard work you might get there." And I thought, 'Well, that's not bad." Six months later, the project got called back to Germany and they said, "Everybody who wants to go can go." Paul Casey: Whoa. Rocco Luongo: And it was just a great opportunity. And I said, "Well, there's some more schooling I want to do." They took a look at what I was doing and said, "I tell you what, we're going to bring you over there. We'll hire you as a German and we'll put you right into our master's program." Rocco Luongo: And so I did my master's program there too. So I got a master's in mechanical engineering and industrial engineering in Germany, in German, which I didn't speak. So I had to learn to speak German. Paul Casey: Wow. Rocco Luongo: Yeah, that's hard. I got hazed too. They were telling me all the time, "An American engineer, is there even such a thing? Can an American be an engineer?" It's like, "Hey guys." We had one Australian there who used to always say, "Who won the bloody war?" I'm not trying to incite violence or anything, but there was definitely some hazing going on. Rocco Luongo: Then from there, came back to the US. Was supposed to be a two year program, stayed for five years, had a great time, just stayed there working. I had six weeks of vacation, it was an awesome time. Came back to the US. Then actually got recruited by a tech company that was a spinoff of WSU working on some very cool technology. Helped them raise 180 million bucks. They were called Infinia. They subsequently sold off a chunk. Is still here handling government projects. The other part was sold off to a company in Utah. That was a heck of a project. We did NASA projects, DOD. We made these miniaturized nuclear power points basically for Mars rovers and for other projects that we can't talk about, but other interesting things. Rocco Luongo: So that was really fun. From there, started my own engineering consultancy. Started realizing that management and leadership and business acumen stopped many more of these projects than engineering problems. And just, I was always managing right from Germany. When I was in Germany, every engineer, there is a manager and a leader, even if you're no good at it. And so I stumbled through, and I learned to manage by listening because I couldn't speak the language super well. So I just would listen to everything everyone said, and I would just give simple, as clear guidance as I could. Do this, do that by Thursday, Donnerstag. Rocco Luongo: We would just do it as simple as possible and just evolved that out into my own consultancy. Now I still do engineering work, mostly expert witness stuff. And then I do a lot of coaching and consulting for professional services for engineers, architects, healthcare lawyers. And it just expands into certain areas. Rocco Luongo: Like this year we had helped one of our clients change a federal law. So kicked off a lobbying campaign and got that changed because of there was just a problem... It's complicated. But a problem with the way the services were being done. The government wasn't paying on time and these benefits just weren't being paid on time to people. So we had to change a federal law. Rocco Luongo: Done that a couple of times with new products and new services. And so it's expansive. And I think you'll agree with this, it ultimately comes down to fundamentals. It comes down to what you get up every morning. What your mindset is, what you choose to do and what you choose not to do. Paul Casey: And why do you love what you do? It's apparent that you love what you do. Rocco Luongo: Oh yeah. It's challenging. It lets me use my whole brain. I don't have to just use the science stuff. I love science and math, but I like it when it can tell a story when it can solve a problem. That's what I always loved about engineering. It was just problem solving. And very soon I realized, in product and service development, is that the product and service is just a way of solving a problem. And that's really a business problem. Meet the customer's needs, hit the price point delivery, all those other things. And so it's really all just business problems. And so I engineer the business solutions, is what I do. And just use the good leadership techniques and help people solve their own problems. Try to lead them there, but not give them the answer so that they can solve it and learn it for themselves. Paul Casey: So our second engineer in a row on the show, and engineers with personality, I like to say. Rocco Luongo: We're a lot alike. Thank goodness. I was about to say, I'm glad you didn't say just one of them because then I'd be like, "Wait, which one am I?" Paul Casey: I also work with another group here in town. They call themselves accountants with personality. We like to tease some of the professions. They're scary smart. Rocco Luongo: Perfect. Paul Casey: So there were key moments along your journey. What helped you make some of those decisions about whether to jump or not to jump to a new opportunity? And what advice would you give to our listeners who have a crossroads decision to make? Rocco Luongo: Well, humans are emotional beings. And so ultimately, every decision you make is going to be emotional. If you're an engineer, you're going to do the math, you're going to do the projections. You'll figure it out. Hey, I'll make more money going this way or that way it'll take me more time this way or that way. But ultimately, you're going to make an emotional choice. And so what I recommend when you're at any kind of a crossroads is, examine your options, keep your options open. And one thing I like to do is I just take a look at the best case, worst case of making the choice or not. And you end up having four boxes if you take a look at that. And then you you can dig into those. You can look at financial specifics in each box, timeline specific box. Rocco Luongo: You should certainly include emotional impacts in those boxes. If I make the choice, wow, I'll feel amazing because I told my grandma on her death bed that I'd finally do this. And this is a big deal to me, even if it doesn't make as much money down the road. Or whatever it is. But realize, ultimately, your heart is going to choose. And so let it, but get all your thoughts together on paper so that you can sleep at night too. Rocco Luongo: And then when you've made the choice, do it, just do it, go and do it. And a lot more is lost due to inaction than wrong action, as I'm sure you've seen. Making rapid, high quality decisions is essential in business and in life. And one of the things that holds people back all the time is, they don't quite understand that not everything is quite as permanent as they might feel. If I'm at this crossroads, man, I'm going to be on it for the rest of my life. Not necessarily. If you look close enough, tomorrow, there'll be another crossroads you can see. And the day after that there'll be another one. Life is a series of opportunities if you keep your eyes open and you're tuned for it. Paul Casey: That's great advice. I love the four box system, but it doesn't have to be four boxes probably. Rocco Luongo: Sure. Paul Casey: But it's weighing out all the different categories. Like you said, emotional being one of those and that every decision you make probably isn't permanent. There's going to be a chance to iterate off that or go a different route. It's not all or nothing kind of thing. Rocco Luongo: That's right. Paul Casey: Good stuff. Rocco Luongo: Thanks. Paul Casey: What's most rewarding for you in your job? How do you stay focused on that? There's probably some hassles, disappointments like in every job, but instead of focusing on that, you're going to focus on what's rewarding. What is rewarding? Rocco Luongo: My client success is ultimately my success. And so, if you can just tune your services to the betterment of your client, so that literally you are doing the very best you can for them. And if you like to do that, then you're in the right field. That's going to be it. You'll enjoy it. And I also have learned, as I'm sure you've learned too, that you have to say no to certain clients, that there are just some clients that it's just not going to work out. And I can tell right away. At first, I couldn't. And so earlier in your career, you just want to try and serve everybody. I can help anybody. I can do anything. I can help with anything. And so you just learn that there are certain people who, what they need, isn't what I do. Rocco Luongo: If you want to grow, I can help you do that. If you want to set a measurable goal and set metrics and track them on a regular basis and adjust, I can help you with that. If you like feedback and accountability, I can help you with that. If you like treating your business like a business and actually building an advisory board, building a board of directors, if it's big enough, managing that, building your team, managing your team, if you really want to do all those things, not every company has to, but the more you want to take your business seriously, the more I will be able to help you with it. Rocco Luongo: I've had some clients that haven't done so well. They talk a good game, but they don't really deliver. I have been told erroneous numbers. How are sales going last week since we put in that thing? "Oh, it's going great." Weeks and weeks in a row. By the time we get to the monthly report, what's happened here? It's like a calamity. What is this dumpster fire of a report? Where are all these numbers? "Oh, I guess I wasn't right about that stuff." What are you doing? You're wasting your resources, my resources and time. You're not getting anywhere. What's going on here? I've understood what the DNA of an ideal client is. And my success is just their success. So if you'd like to grow, if you like to work towards measurable goals, especially in professional services, that's where I shine. Paul Casey: Your rubrics were very clear with that. So if someone, no matter what field they're listening to this podcast, how would you say they should figure out what their ideal ideal client is? Rocco Luongo: Yeah. And of course that can really vary. For example, in engineering, you may offer more than one service, in which case you may have more than one ideal client. Law firms, especially, too. Practice area. If you're in family law, if you're in crim or if you're in civil litigation, that ideal client is going to vary again. Rocco Luongo: But definitely understand your business in terms of the business model canvas, which is one of the models that we use here all the time at Fuse for the accelerator. Really take a look at who your client channels are going to be, your customer channels and customer segments are going to be, how you're going to reach them. Create personas for those people, give them a name like Paul, Cheryl, Brenda. Something that means something to you. Empathize with them, understand what it is. And then you can build it up. And then you can test it out with your clients. You can really see if that's going to be the right model for them. Am I going to be answering the questions right for them? And just try it out. You have to always test. Paul Casey: That is really important. So my ideal client, her name is Leslie Maxwell. I did give her a name and she's a middle manager on the way up, she reads Self magazine and does yoga and never has enough time for that. And has a couple of kids. Rocco Luongo: That's the perfect point. Paul Casey: Working with homeschooling right now and struggling with that. And I've created a whole page on my ideal clients. So that in your marketing, or as you say, when you're discerning whether this would be a great client for you, run it through that sieve and go, "Yeah. That's somebody that I could really serve." Paul Casey: So leaders have to keep growing or they become irrelevant. How have you matured as a leader, as a coach, even in recent years, maybe even in the last five years? Rocco Luongo: So, one thing that differentiates me is, I may not be the smartest guy, I may not be the fastest, whatever, but I love to learn. I absolutely love to learn and I spend a lot of time on it and I spend a lot of money on it. I'm constantly going to seminars. The last six months, not necessarily. Paul Casey: Right. Rocco Luongo: In case you guys haven't been paying attention, we've been having a bit of COVID issues going on. But I love going to seminars. I love going to learning opportunities. My wife and I actually go together. We're kind of nerdy that way. Paul Casey: Cool. Rocco Luongo: We do these things together. We're both into learning and professional development. So we do these things together. I love to read. My engineering side is math and tech heavy, so when I learn and read leadership books and business books, I can quickly distill down elements that I can work into models and tools that I can use in my practice. So I quickly build tools out of things I learn. And I can put them very rapidly to use because I've got a good recurring slate of clients on constantly trying these new things and seeing how they work. Rocco Luongo: So putting those things to use is really what helps. If you only read something, but don't write or create anything out of it, don't make a computer model or a guide or just a note to yourself, or whatever is meaningful to you, if it only stays in your brain and never comes to the real world, to some level, that's just entropy. That's just heat being wasted. It's energy, not being directed at a purpose. Once you write something down, that's a neural muscular process that really crystallizes your thoughts into something real. And if you want to take that and share it with a friend to hold you accountable, "Hey I wrote this down." Paul Casey: Even better. Rocco Luongo: Even better. So the number one thing really is just, I love to learn. I love to put it in action. And I think that energy just carries forward into my clients. They feel that and while we set goals and we achieve them. Your clients too, every client has setbacks, this happens. So how do you deal with a setback? How do you deal with the pivot? You just deal with it. Paul Casey: So you're sitting at a seminar at a conference... I'm just going to go there with you because this is so much fun. And a speaker is up there sharing. What are you doing while you're sitting there with your notebook? When right in the middle of a seminar, that person maybe sends a great idea or maybe it's just, you're in the zone with them. Rocco Luongo: Right. So I tend to listen with my whole body. So I just sit back and I just listen. I take it in with my eyes, my ears, just everything, the room around me. I just want to see how this whole thing is happening. It's just very exciting because I love doing talks myself. I love training. I love speaking. I did a Ted Talk. I just love this stuff. So I love watching every one of these presentations, because I'm always looking for a little nugget I can take back. Rocco Luongo: So what's in my notebook? Usually a top three is what I try to get, three things that are really meaningful to me out of this talk. Because I can't just spend my whole time writing notes or else I miss a lot of stuff with my head down. So I try to capture three big bullets. Rocco Luongo: And they are sometimes simply substantive, like a piece of information, like you can get 16% better web traffic if but blank. Oh, okay. That's cool. I'll write that down. That's a great idea. Sometimes it's about the structure. I saw one great talk and I've adopted this, and I encourage anybody out here listening to try this as well. Whenever you're doing any kind of a presentation, like a sales presentation, you're talking to a group, it's a free talk. Come on in. If you like, what I'm saying, come on, sign up. We'll have a meeting. Move into the process. I love having my clients come up and talk too. I share the stage with them. I let them talk about the challenges that they've been through, how we've solved them, how things are going now. Thank you very much. Rocco Luongo: So I end up doing relatively little of the talk. I provide the platform to my clients so that they can share what great things they're doing. And all of a sudden you've cleared a tremendous gap of credibility in the minds of the audience, because wow, this guy's got his clients up here saying great things. They're doing the talk for him. So I saw that one time and I'm like, "I'm definitely doing that. That's fantastic." Then I thought, "Man, can I get my clients to do that?" And guess what? You can, if you do a good job for your client. So couple of nuggets. Paul Casey: Yeah. Really good stuff. And just Tri-City influencers, it's really important to write after you read. And I love what you said about the neuromuscular connection that happens when you do that. I'm a massive filer, so I'll rip stuff out of magazines that have been highlighted, I'll file it by a certain leadership topic. Rocco Luongo: Nice. Paul Casey: And then that turns into a seminar or a book or something eventually. But you're right, I'm always ripping stuff out and doing stuff with it, journaling it. So much fun. Paul Casey: Most of our a to-do lists are greater than the time we have to do them. So that requires a leader or an entrepreneur to triage tasks, and delegate, outsource things so that you can focus on the most important tasks. So Rocco, how do you sort how you spend your time? And maybe what tips could you give on delegation or outsourcing? Rocco Luongo: Yeah. So how I sort my own time is, I've got overarching goals, like assets I'm building for other programs that I'm working on. I've got current client matters and I've got some administrative time. There's always some biz dev as well. So there are different categories. So I try to keep myself moving in each one of those categories. I've got a pretty good formula that keeps me moving in each one of those. Rocco Luongo: I developed a template I called the block and tackle sheet. And we'll probably talk later about my website, so if you can get it there later. We'll do that plug later. But it's one tool. It's a weekly organizer. It keeps me on track. I use it all the time. But how do I choose the stuff? I'm a big fan of Covey's four quadrants model. Paul Casey: Oh yeah. Rocco Luongo: The important versus urgent matrix. That one. Every now and then, we all get jammed up with too much stuff. And you've got these task lists that are maybe exploding out of control. I'm starting my third one before I finished the first two. Paul Casey: Day's gone wild. Rocco Luongo: Day's gone wild. Exactly. That's funny. And sometimes you do. I think you said triage in there. I sometimes just call it audit, but sometimes there needs to be a reboot. You got to pull the plug out on this, let it calm down for a minute and plug it back in and see what really matters. And so I generally have each one of my tasks on a little sticky note. I just like it. It's very visceral. When it's done, I put a little checkmark on it and I put a pile that at the end of the week, I review all my sticky notes. It helps me journal for my next week. So that's just my little model that I do. Rocco Luongo: But if the sticky notes get out of control, I will take them and literally take the four quadrants, put it up on one of my whiteboards and I'll just find a home for each one of them. And all of a sudden, you start seeing, well, man, if this thing is not important or urgent, time for them to go away. Sometimes a thing you thought was worthwhile to do, just didn't have enough priority and it kind of went away. It's been replaced by something else. And we just try to keep everything in that important, but not urgent box- Paul Casey: Yes. Quadrant two. Rocco Luongo: So you can plan it. That quadrant two. Exactly. As you know. And if anything else is urgent, then just handle it. Just handle it. And you can get wrapped up in so many things. Well, I'm a procrastinator or I feel anxious, or I just don't know what the right thing to do is. Well, you're a procrastinator or you're anxious, the same kind of thing to do is just start going. Just take action. Any action is so much better than wrong action that you are going to be moving yourself in a positive direction. Rocco Luongo: And if you don't know what to do, this can be the hardest thing in the world. Ask for help. Call a mentor, call you, Paul. Paul knows a lot of stuff. Call me, call any number of people. The Fuse mentor network. If you don't know them, call the pastor at your church, call the neighbor, call a friend, whatever is meaningful to you. Don't let it stew. I think people sometimes feel so very alone, especially early business folks can feel very alone, like it's me against the world. And that's really not true. Even here, especially in the Tri-Cities, we have a great community supporting entrepreneurs and there's a ton of people who'll give you help support for very little or for free. There's a lot of good people around. So ask for help. Paul Casey: Yeah. I love the “pull the plug and then plug it back in.” So I've asked my clients, this very week, one of the questions for an icebreaker, I asked them was, what do you do when you get overwhelmed? And you said the three things that are the number one, two and three answers. One is you’ve got to pull the plug, you got to step back, breathe, compose yourself. Second, you might have to just tackle one of those tasks and get something to done. Or make some progress, kick something down the road, spin that plate again. And then, ask for help, being that other one, because clearly it's too much for you because you're saying the word overwhelmed. So you're going to have to get some help. Rocco Luongo: Yeah. That's right. Paul Casey: Before we head to our next question on relationships and leadership, a shout out to our sponsors. Paul Casey: Mario Martinez, Northwestern Mutual, Mario, why should people work with a financial advisor? Mario Martinez: Hey Paul, that's a great question. Really. I think there's two types of people who should be seeking out a financial professional. The one person is somebody who has very limited access to financial guidance. Maybe they're a younger professional or somebody who just hasn't had an introduction to a financial professional yet. And the other type of person is really someone who has a lot of different exposure to different professionals. They just haven't found the one person that they really trust to take guidance from. So there's really an over information in that sense. So those are really the two types of people that should be looking to be introduced to a financial professional. Paul Casey: Fantastic. So Mario, how can people get in touch with you? Mario Martinez: The easiest way is to reach out to me directly on my business cell phone, which is (509) 591-5301. You can send an email to mario.Martinez@nm.com or you can find us on our business Facebook page, which is Mario Martinez, Northwestern Mutual. Paul Casey: So Rocco, you probably believe like I do that leadership is relationships. So talk to us about what relationships are key to your success? How do you intentionally develop relationships? Rocco Luongo: Well, I do agree that relationships are instrumental to leadership and business in general. Business is about people. You have to think of your customers as people, as individuals, solving an individual's problem. And if you do it right enough times, it becomes a business. And a big part of having a successful business is having good, both client relationships, but also other partner businesses that can provide complementary noncompeting services to help you become successful. Rocco Luongo: For example, like if we do off-sites for example, I'm not going to have everybody come to my home necessarily. We're going to go and rent a space. So you need to have that. You're going to have to understand how to work with catering. You're going to have to understand how to get your materials printed. You're going to have to understand how to work with event coordinators. In my team, I've got marketing people, I've got web people. So you need to be able to manage your team, both internal and external. Rocco Luongo: You also need to be able to manage your clients so that you can understand where their gaps are and augment them and help them be successful. And what I have to do to help one client be successful, isn't necessarily going to be the same thing as a different client. So I always mold my programs around their needs, as I'm sure you do too. That's one thing that a mechanical engineer learns is that people are not machines. Whether we all do something about it is different, but we all learn it pretty early. Some are just frustrated and stay stuck there. But the rest of us, we learn and people are emotional beings. And so you have to be intentional and well, start with your intention. That's how I do it. What is it that I need to get done? What value can I bring to this relationship that will be worthwhile for that person to come and get excited, and be motivated, to be a marketing affiliate or to be a service provider of whatever kind? Paul Casey: Which is one of the best networking tips that we could share is, go into those relationships serving. What can I do? What can I get? Can I give advice? Can I give a tip? Can I connect you to somebody else? People love those kind of connectors in our community. And people are going to love working with you if you're just kind to them and you treat them with honor and respect and value. So, I don't like the finance part of my job personally. So I've got a CPA and I've got a bookkeeper and I've got a wealth advisor and I love those folks and I want to treat them awesome because they're taking care of the stuff that I don't want to do. Rocco Luongo: That's right. And we need those results to be good. Paul Casey: We do. Rocco Luongo: Yeah. Paul Casey: Well, self-care is also essential to our mental health, especially in the land of COVID and just for top performance in general. Because if you melt down, you're not good for anybody. So what recharges your batteries? Rocco Luongo: So I'm a very athletic person. I played a lot of sports. I played Div One rugby in college. I love that kind of stuff. I did CrossFit for a long time. I love cycling, mountain biking. I mountain biked over the Alps while I was in Germany, a seven day trip. It was beautiful. I still go bike packing with friends. Carried that forward with my kids, biking and hiking to the level they're able. They're growing up. A lot of that has been changed because of COVID. Can't really go to the gym. It's not quite the same. So repurpose exercises as I can around the house. Going for a jog is pretty easy. You can pretty much always do that. Going for a bike ride again, pretty easy. You can always do that. Doing yoga, doing the video of yoga, sometimes some strength or flexibility based yoga is good. Rocco Luongo: It's really just about really picking a time to do it, and then following through on that time. And if you keep doing that long enough, then the pattern starts forming, breaks into your brain and into your heart. And then you start doing it. You look forward to it more and it becomes less of a burden and more of a true benefit. And some days you just don't feel like doing anything. And so you can honor that time too. You can say, "Well, I'm going to take a day off." If there's a couple too many of those days, then maybe you should say, "Well, maybe I'll do a 10 minute ride, not a one-hour ride?" Just get into it and do it. Rocco Luongo: And a lot of that, if you're resistant to it early, a lot of it's just this out the door factor. Once you're out the door doing the thing, you're probably going to like it. Paul Casey: Get started. Yeah. Rocco Luongo: It's just that activation energy to get you going. And I'm sure you've seen it too, but in coaching and consulting, you see that activation energy hurdle get in a lot of people's way on a lot of different kinds of topics. But get them started, that momentum will start building. Paul Casey: Yeah. A body at rest tends to stay at rest. Rocco Luongo: Yes. I'm pretty sure an English scientist who died a virgin said that a long time ago when an apple hit his head. Paul Casey: Activation energy. We just got to get going, put something into play. We've got to move. Rocco Luongo: Right. Paul Casey: Well, we've rarely discussed money on this podcast previously, but every leader, every entrepreneur has to know their organization's financials. What does evaluation of financials look like in your position? Rocco Luongo: So I'm also not a CPA. Pretty good with numbers. I do like numbers. And so what we do is, also bridging on what I said earlier, just to make sure no one is telling me baloney, we have standard reports that we take a look at. So I think the three most important financial reports that you look for in a business are going to be your balance sheet, your profit and loss and your cashflow statement. If I can see those things on a monthly basis and certainly on a quarterly basis, that's going to be adequate to handle that side. Rocco Luongo: What we do, then, we tie that back to other sets of metrics like number of impressions, or number of posts or a number of meetings, or whatever is meaningful for your business, that we can then tie to that top line in terms of revenue. And once you've done that, you basically can distill pretty much all businesses down to five numbers of business. You've got your leads, your conversions, number of transactions per client and average sale price per client, and then margin at the end, which incorporates all of your efficiencies and all of your inefficiencies, if the case may be. And then what comes out of it is profit. And so you can basically find what those four top line numbers are and tie them back into those standard three cashflow, profit and loss, and balance sheet statements. And then you can really see how the business is going. Rocco Luongo: And that's usually where we go, because money is an output, as you know. People get wrapped up on and it's also very emotional, but it's really an output. When you do enough of the right stuff, money ends up in your account. If you don't do the right stuff, money doesn't end up in your account. And that might seem flip, but it's pretty true. Rocco Luongo: What do you think? Paul Casey: Yeah. See, that's a lag measure. That's what you're describing. Right? Rocco Luongo: Exactly. Paul Casey: Money is that. In the lead measures, what are those things we can control? And as coaches, that's what we try to do is help people set those goals that are within their control, that's going to get them that money in the bank later. Rocco Luongo: That's right. Paul Casey: Good stuff. Finally, what advice, Rocco, would you give to new leaders or anyone who wants to keep growing and gaining more influence? Rocco Luongo: So the thing that I would say is, read first of all. Read a couple of key books, if you haven't already read them. Read Seven Habits by Steve Covey, which we talked about earlier. Read How to Win Friends and Influence People by Carnegie. Go down the Collins road, probably do some Good to Great. That will really help you out. Boy, if you do any kind of management, checkout Blanchard stuff, One Minute Manager, that stuff is really good. I think between, I think four or five books I just said, man, if you get started there, you've really got a good foundation. Find yourself a group of other like-minded people who want to talk about these kinds of books and work together, if you can. Maybe like a little business book club kind of thing. Or come on down to Fuse or come on down to whatever your local business accelerator is. Rocco Luongo: Get involved. Get involved somewhere. Maybe it's a nonprofit that you want to get involved in, but put that leadership into play. Maybe become an advisor on a board somewhere or a board of directors member somewhere. Just take action, take motion, go in a direction and serve. And like we said, when you show up at that first meeting, what gift can you bring? If you go to someone's house for the first time, you're going to bring a gift. Well, I hope you will. Please bring a gift. Bring a gift with you. And this is also metaphorical. Maybe the gift you're bringing is a connection or a favor or something else, but bring some kind of a gift. And when you do that, it just makes everything easier. People are going to like you. They'll show that you care, you put some effort into this moment. Just everything goes a lot smoother if you do that. So I think you should prepare and then you should engage. Paul Casey: Great stuff. Well, Rocco, how can our listeners best connect with you? Rocco Luongo: You can check me out on my website, gorocco.pro. I've got my coaching and consulting stuff there. You can read what I do. You can see some of the other companies that I've worked with. You can also connect with me there. I have stayed pretty far away from social media over the last few months. It's just become dead toxic. So you can get on my mailing list there if you want. And I send out periodic emails with offers of services and also just things to think about and templates and tools. Paul Casey: Yeah. You mentioned one tool earlier. Did you want to plug that? Rocco Luongo: Oh yeah. The block and tackle sheet. That's my weekly planner. It's a two pager. There's a PDF. You can check it out on gorocco.pro. Go under resources, search for block and tackle sheet. It pops up. You can download it and fill it in. No charge there. Just trying to help. Trying to help you guys out. Paul Casey: Well, thanks again for all you do to make the Tri-Cities a great place and keep leading well. Rocco Luongo: Well, thank you, Paul. And thank you for having me on here and thank you for being a great leader of the Tri-Cities too. Appreciate you. Paul Casey: My pleasure. Well, let me wrap up our podcast today with a leadership resource to recommend. It's a program I'm offering here in the Tri-Cities for young professionals and emerging leaders. It's called Leader Launcher. You go to leader-launcher.com and it is a monthly seminar. Right now, it's virtual. We can't wait to get back together live, but it's a two-hour seminar on a leadership or personal growth proficiency. If you want to move up in your company, your organization, to the next level, you want to come to Leader Launcher. Paul Casey: You're going to meet some awesome people that are also at the same stage of leadership growth. You're going to pick up 12 proficiencies in a year. You're going to be able to put those right into play, like we talked about in our podcast. Again, leader-launcher.com. Paul Casey: Again, this is Paul Casey, and I want to thank my guest Rocco Luongo who is an executive coach for being here today on the Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast. We also want to thank our TCI sponsor and invite you to support them. We appreciate you making this possible so that we can collaborate to help inspire leaders in our community. Finally, one more leadership tip for the road to help you make a difference in your circle of influence. Leonard Bernstein said, "To achieve greatness two things are needed. A plan and not quite enough time." Until next time, KGF, keep growing forward. Speaker 3: Thank you to our listeners for tuning in to today's show. Paul Casey is on a mission to add value to leaders by providing practical tools and strategies that reduce stress in their lives and on their teams so that they can enjoy life and leadership and experience their key desired results. Speaker 3: If you'd like more help from Paul in your leadership development, connect with him at growingforward@paulcasey.org. For a consultation that can help you get past your current challenges and create the strategy for growth for life, grow your team forward. Paul would also like to help you restore your sanity to your crazy schedule and getting your priorities done every day by offering you his free Control My Calendar checklist. Go to www.takebackmycalendar.com for that productivity tool or open a text message to 72000 and type the word growing. Paul Casey: Tri-Cities influencer podcast is recorded at Fuse SPC by Bill Wagner of Safe Strategies.

Speaker 1: "Sometimes to begin a new story, you have to let the old one in." Author unknown. I am Cynthia Marquez and I am a Tri-City influencer. Paul Casey: And if we must assume, the only thing I would say is to assume a positive intent. So if there's a gap between why that person behaved as they did and you don't know the answer, fill in that gap with positive intent and check it out. Speaker 3: Raising the water level of leadership in the Tri-Cities of Eastern Washington, it's the Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast. Welcome to the TCI podcast, where local leadership and self-leadership expert Paul Casey interviews local CEOs, entrepreneurs, and non-profit executives to hear how they lead themselves and their teams. So we can all benefit from their wisdom and experience. Here's your host, Paul Casey of Growing Forward Services. Coaching and equipping individuals and teams to spark breakthrough success. Paul Casey: It's a great day to grow forward. Thanks for joining me for today's episode with Mike Denslow. Mike is the originator of Love the Tri, a sticker I have on my Hydroflask right here. And he's also a branch manager at Homebridge. And a fun fact about Mike is he's a creator. He can see stuff that is not there and make it happen. Mike, just give us a little glimpse of that real quick. Mike Denslow: I was telling you before we started the show that I like things that are just in my brain and then seeing them and touching them. If it takes a few days or if it takes months, that accomplishment of just the tiniest little idea, that spark, and then making it happen. I just love it. Paul Casey: Yeah, that is awesome. I can't wait to talk more. We're going to dive in after checking in with our Tri-City Influencer sponsor. Speaker 5: Mario Martinez, Northwestern mutual. Mario, what types of services do you offer? Mario Martinez: Hey Paul, thank you for letting me be on here. We run bifurcated practices and that we focus in two areas of a financial plan. The first one is, we do protection pieces which include life insurance, disability insurance, long-term care insurance. Really the things that people should be focused on to protect their families, their businesses. And on the other side of our practice is we do investment services. And on the investment platforms, we do both the brokerage platform and we do the advisory level services. So depending on what someone's looking for as far as guidance on their investment strategies, we can curtail and build a strategy for them to make sense. Speaker 5: Mario, how can people get in touch with you? The easiest way is you can reach out to me directly on my business cell phone. It's 509-591-5301. You can send me an email at mario.martinez@nm.com or you can reach out to us on our social media platforms, the easiest one being Mario Martinez Northwestern Mutual on Facebook. Paul Casey: Thank you for your support of leadership development in the Tri-Cities. Well, welcome, Mike. This is the first time we’ve met, but I feel like I know you because the Love the Tri stuff is all over the Tri-Cities. And even my pastor and my church wore I Love the Tri shirt. I think he called you on a weekend because he was speaking on how our church wants to love the Tri-Cities. So that's pretty funny. Mike Denslow: Yeah. I've met him in a Starbucks parking lot with a shirt and a hat and some stickers and did a handoff. Yep, well, happy to do it. Paul Casey: Pretty cool. Well, tell us a little bit about your journey. How can our Tri-City influencers get to know you in a snapshot? And why you love what you do. Mike Denslow: Well, born and raised in Tri-Cities. Grew up in Pasco, graduated Pasco High, went away to college, started a family, wanted my kids to grow up in Tri-Cities, just like I did, and moved back. Wasn't gone very long, really. And came back and after I got out of college, I got into the computer field for a while and ended up starting BOSS Computer Solutions with a friend of mine. And we did that for a while. Paul Casey: I didn't know that was you. Mike Denslow: Yeah, yeah. And we did that for a while and then it was time for the next thing. You do something for awhile, then got antsy. And guy that I went to high school with recommended getting into the mortgage business with him. And so that's been 15-and-a-half years ago now and I love it because I love helping and educating people, I love math. And the mortgage world, you wouldn't think this, but it's actually very creative because everyone's credit score and income and background, and everything's different, right. And so every single day, you're helping people. Paul Casey: It's like a puzzle, right? Mike Denslow: Absolutely a puzzle. And you're helping people with typically the largest transaction they're ever going to have in their life. And they don't look at it as a transaction. They look at it as, "I'm buying a house." Or, "I'm refinancing a house." Or whatever. And it's very much more rewarding than I expected it to be. But that's what gets me to here, is Pasco High and the love for the Tri-Cities and wanting my kids to grow up here. And now one of them's here, one of them's in Seattle, but they're adults paying for themselves. Paul Casey: You mentioned the word antsy in there. I keyed in on that word because creatives often have this inner juice that after a while doing the same thing, you’ve got to start something new. Has that been a pattern in your life? Mike Denslow: Not really. I wasn't a job jumper or anything like that. I think I was just looking for more. And in that particular case, something more rewarding. And then it ended up being so much more than I expected it. It seemed like a good career. And I had other people I knew who did the mortgage field and then it just, wow, you close a loan for someone and, "Thank you so much." That happened over and over again. "Oh wow. You explained that better than another person that I talked to." And getting it down to, "Well, did you think about this?" And one of the first questions I ask people is, "Well, how long are you going to be in this home?" And they're like, "What's that got to do with anything?" I'm like, "Well, you can buy down points or you can do this, or you can do this." There's all these different things that we can do to structure it so it makes more sense for them. And they're like, "Oh." Mike Denslow: And I had one educator tell me, "You should teach a class on this." And the funny thing is I come from a family of educators. My dad was a teacher for 30-plus. My mom was a teacher. Uncle was a teacher, grandparents were teachers. And I never really thought about it, but it became my style. Paul Casey: It's in the genes. Yeah, my parents were teachers too. So there is an art about breaking something down into a way that's understandable. Mike Denslow: For a lot of different people and educations and backgrounds, right. So you got to be able to explain some something to somebody who's in a trade and an engineer and maybe even English as a second language too. Paul Casey: Yeah. Of course, you have to size people up pretty quickly to see what they need and then custom communicate with them. Mike Denslow: Yeah. And you do that long enough you don't think about it, right. Paul Casey: It's just natural. Mike Denslow: Yup, exactly. Paul Casey: Well, what's been some of the biggest hurdles? Well, just give us maybe one hurdle you've overcome in your career because as you're on your journey to success, you hit some speed bumps. Mike Denslow: Yeah, good question. Well, it's tricky. You and I talked about some different things that have happened before. And in my world, I would say, when you're dealing with competitors that maybe 100% truth isn't what comes out. And so, especially early in your career, when you're going into a commission field, you lose out on some business because somebody else tells something that they want to hear. Then they're almost done with the loan and then they find out it not to be true, but it's too late to turn around. And so when you're relying on this commission business, and all of a sudden, you're dealing with unethical behavior, that's hard. I mean, but it's not like you're going to change who you are and go down to their level. But the first few years of getting into this business, that actually it was in the computer business as well. Just getting out in the real world and finding out that everybody doesn't want what's best for people, and having to accept that. And then, how are you going to be better? Paul Casey: Yeah. How to still operate out of your core values no matter what somebody else does? Mike Denslow: That's right, yup. Paul Casey: What do you think your biggest ongoing challenge as a branch manager is right now? Mike Denslow: Oh, good question. Well, right now, 90-plus percent of us are working from home. And so it's keeping that bond with the people that work in our office. I try to reach out through Skype and phone calls and those kinds of things. But when we're all in our office, we have things cooking. We're going to have birthday desserts in the lunchroom. And you have that decompressed time with people, "Hey, how are your kids doing?" That kind of thing. And now, hey, you don't know what somebody might be going through. Whereas you could visually see it if they were in your office. So it's that disconnect right now. The COVID, I would say, disconnect that we're all probably feeling from regular office people. Paul Casey: Yeah. Having to check in virtually, you just can't see it all anymore. But we have to keep trying, right. We have to keep trying to read her employees' body language and our customers' body language. Mike Denslow: Absolutely. You adapt, and then that's all you can do. Paul Casey: Yeah. Well, let's pause here because I want to know the story of Love the Tri. So how did that come to you? And take us through that journey. Mike Denslow: Oh man. How long is the show? Well, I always had a creative streak. I wouldn't say I'm the best draw-er or artist or anything like that, but I knew that I wanted to create something and it's probably going to be clothing and t-shirts and hats or something. And I was home one weekend and my wife was out of town for travel and I was eating lunch and it was just like, you know what? I just flown through Seattle or Portland airport. And I saw the I Heart Seattle. I think it probably originated in New York or they become famous for it, right. The I Heart New York. And I thought, "Well, why don't we have anything like that in Tri-Cities? Somebody should do that." And then I started thinking, "Well, Tri-Cities doesn't really exist on a map." Officially, because it's Pasco, Kennewick, Richland. Mike Denslow: And is there a Tri-Cities governing body? No, we're multiple cities. We're two different counties. Who would ever pick that up? And there's the Tri-City Visitor and Convention Bureau, which I found out about. And they're there doing it a little bit, but it's just a different thing. So I started thinking, "All right. Well, what would I call it?" And no joke. I mean, I thought about it for 15 minutes and I just said, "Love the Tri." That's the only name I ever considered going. And well, what would it be? And sunsets. Something, it's not business, it's not golf, it's not atomic, it's not wine. You know what I mean? Paul Casey: We have the best sunsets, yes. Mike Denslow: Right. But if you're not from here, you don't spend a lot of time here, what's really nice about living here? And the sunsets are amazing. And I was like, "Okay. Love the Tri. Sunsets. Check, check. Done." What would I do? Oh maybe t-shirts and hats. And what would it look like? And I started drawing a few things. And then here's another discussion. I've been a volunteer for water follies and boat races for a long time and I thought of Atomic screen printing. And I said, "Oh, I'm going to go sit down with these guys." And Brent over there as the lead designer. And he said, "We have people asking about this all the time. And we've always kind of thought, 'Oh, it'd be a fun project.' But we're doing shirts for this event and this event and this event." And they just never really set aside the time for it. And I said, "We'll do this and that. What do you want to do?" And it just started gaining momentum. Mike Denslow: I got a friend of mine to help build a website and the store. Atomic helped finish up the logo. I start the logos and the designs. I go, "This is what I want it to look like. And this is what I want it on." And they gave me these catalogs and then it just started coming together. And then it was boat races. Four years ago, I brought some hats and t-shirts and tank tops. And I gave them to some of my friends. And then I saw this woman walking among the thousands of people on the Kennewick side at the time. And she had one of my tank tops on and I looked at her and I said, "Oh, I don't know who that is. She bought one of my tank tops." And it was so cool. And I get a kick out of every time. You drive down the street, you see somebody with a Love the Tri sticker in the back window and everything. Mike Denslow: And I also thought, with doing the mortgage business and everything and successes there, I said, "What better thing to do with Love the Tri is to then donate all the proceeds back to local nonprofits?" Kind of a different angle. And I got that idea a little bit from Blake Mycoskie who created Toms. And I read and seen him speak and read his book and philanthropy. Entrepreneurship through philanthropy is what he called it. And so I was like, "Yeah, I'll just donate all the profits back." And that's been super fun. Oh my gosh, Boys and girls club and the Cancer center and veteran groups and domestic violence shelters. Paul Casey: Do you rotate who you donate to? Mike Denslow: Yeah, every year. And right now, donating to Second harvest and the Tri-City Union Gospel Mission. So going to dropping off checks when people don't expect it, they're like, "What's this for?" And it's been super fun. And a lot of people know about Love the Tri and they see the hoodies and the t-shirts and the hats and the different things. And then on social media, I post good photos, cool photos from the area as well, but they don't know about the donation part. And as soon as people hear that, "Oh, that is so cool." So you buy basically a $20 t-shirt, probably cost me $10, then I'm going to donate that $10 profit to a local charity. Paul Casey: That is so cool. Mike Denslow: Why not? If you Love the Tri, pour back into it. Paul Casey: Yeah. You did it, Mike. Some people did have ideas, but they don't put them into play. But you hit the go button on it. Mike Denslow: Yeah. It's very rewarding. It's my passion project. It really is. And I love doing it. I don't have enough time in the day. Paul Casey: Sure. Because it's just you, right? You don't have a team doing this. Mike Denslow: No. I've had helpers from now and then running errands and different things, but Kadlec has done a great job selling our stuff. Greenies, Tri-City Visitor and Convention Bureau as well, but right now, Greenies is really the only one that's open because the others are not as come in and buy stuff kind of things right now. Well, I've had a lot of fun partners. I've had release parties with DJs and all these different things and I'm just winging it. Just fake it till you make it. Paul Casey: Well, you said passion project. So what do you mean by that? And as the listeners listen to you say it, they can feel your passion in it. Would you recommend everybody have one? Mike Denslow: I think so. I think when my children were young, I was involved in whatever they were doing. So sports and choir, whatever. And now that they're adults themselves and have their own families, what was I going to do with my time? I'm helping with the water follies and the boat races and that kind of thing. And I've done that for a while and okay, what else? I don't know. I'm just not one of those people just sits around and doesn't do things very well. So I think people who have a passion about our community should figure something out. Either volunteering, do you have a charity that you're really behind or something like that? Why not? Spend some time, percentage of your time giving back to your community. I think it's a great idea. Paul Casey: Very cool. Now, most of influencers I know have a bit of a visionary inside of them, whether that's in your day job or your dream job. So where do you take time to dream about the future for your organization, for Love the Tri, for your own life? What does that look like? Mike Denslow: Well, for work, I have a great manager and she has a great manager and I have a monthly call with them. And right now in the mortgage business, a lot of good things are going on. And so we're very, very busy. So we're in the management. How do we manage all these different things that are going on right now? We talk about the future, but it's more about handling things now, marketing and that kind of thing. I like doing that, which helps with bringing in future business. But if I'm thinking visionary, it's typically more on the creative side, on Love the Tri and those kinds of things. I can imagine a day when I'm retired and spending a lot more time on it and what we could do. From scholarships and programs and getting other businesses involved. Just endless. Paul Casey: Let's get a whiteboard out right now. Let's start playing with these ideas. Mike Denslow: Absolutely. I'm up for it. Paul Casey: Well, hey, before we head into our next question, behind the scenes a little bit in Mike's life about his typical morning routine, let's shout out to our sponsors. Barracuda Coffee. Born and brewed in the Tri-City since 2003. At Barracuda Coffee, it's people first, then great coffee. Barracuda features freshly roasted coffees from their own signature roastery, Charis Coffee Roasting Company. With fresh coffee always on the shelf from all over the world, you can taste the distinct floral flavors of Latin American coffees from countries like Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Honduras. Savor the delicate Berry notes that are dominant in African coffees from Burundi, Rwanda, Ethiopia, or Kenya. Or go for the full earthy tones of the South Pacific coffees from Timor, Indonesia, or Sumatra. Ask your barista what's fresh and try something new today. Barracuda has two locations over on Van Giesen in Richland or on Kellogg Street in Kennewick, and you can find them on Facebook. Paul Casey: So Mike, what's your typical morning routine look like? Before you go to work, once you arrive at work, do you have any rituals to start your day out strong? Mike Denslow: Yeah, I would say I'm a ritual-based person for sure. Get up, eat, and then check email at home. Shower and then get going. Lately, been working a lot from home, but when I wasn't, that was still the same routine. And then after that, I get a blank sheet of paper out and I look at yesterday's sheet of paper, which was at one point, blank, and the day before. Mike Denslow: And I start pulling things over that either weren't accomplished or need some more attention to some level. And so I take that sheet of paper and I'm writing down names and ideas and follow up and all sorts of different things. And it's funny because it's evolved into, this is kind of the work side, that the regular work side. And then there's the Love the Tri side and personal side, and it's a much smaller section. But that's absolutely, "What do you want to accomplish today?" And then throughout the day, I'm adding things to that list. People I need to follow up. "Oh, that's right. I need to take that licensing thing or this or that or whatever." And then that's the daily go back to. If you have a free minute, I'm looking at my list going, "Okay, can I check this off? Can I check this off? Okay." I emailed them or I left them a voicemail, so they're going to be circling back. And then that's every morning then. Paul Casey: So that's nothing fancy, just a sheet of paper. Mike Denslow: Nope, just a sheet of paper. Paul Casey: So it's not a fancy planner that's got little quadrants in it. It's just refreshing your to do list, then. Mike Denslow: I haven't had good luck making it digital. I've tried it on the phone and then in the Outlook and different things and it never worked. It's a breathing document. That is a piece of paper on a pad right there next to my keyboard and my mouse. Paul Casey: Yeah. Handwriting probably makes a brain connection. Mike Denslow: I don't know. It places a spot in my brain. Because I have a good memory and I can like, "Oh yeah, boom." And I just pull it out and put it there. And I use the previous couple of days' cheat sheets to help move it forward. Paul Casey: Influencers, one of you has to make a planner for Mike that has quadrants. Follow up with email, Love the Tri. No, just kidding. I love that. That sort of a brain wipe, but it's also a refresh and setting a new course for the day. So nothing falls off the radar. Mike Denslow: And then at the end of the day, everything has been touched. Paul Casey: That's great. Mike Denslow: And you stop when you're done. Not just when you're tired. You stop when you're done. Paul Casey: Yes. Which brings me to my next question. How do you do that and not burn out? How do you have this everyday grind plus this passion project and still keep high energy? Mike Denslow: That's a very good question because I'm not a caffeine person, but it just keeps happening. I don't know. It just must be in there somewhere, something I was born with. I don't take a lot of vacation. At the end of the day, my wife and I eat dinner. And then we try to relax either on the couch together or sitting outside together. But if it's 15 minutes or an hour and a half, just some amount of time just talking. I mean, undoubtedly, some stuff will come out from the day kind of a thing, but just that time and that'd be a time that I would talk to my kids on the phone potentially, or they would come over or whatever other family. Paul Casey: Defrag. Just sort of defrag thing. Mike Denslow: Yeah. And I like the creative time. The creative time doesn't feel like something that would add to the burnout. So if it's been a crazy week in the mortgage world and a lot of stressful situations, creativity will help. And just, "Oh, what about this? What about that?" I've got a million ideas. I've got scripts in my head. I'm not a writer, but, "Why don't they have a movie like this? This would be fun." It doesn't stop except musically. I like music, but I don't play it. And my singing is lip-sync. Paul Casey: Yes, yes. So it's like putting a hot coals on the fire for you when you do something creative as an entrepreneur. Mike Denslow: Yeah, yeah. Paul Casey: And influencers, they're not know-it-alls, they're learners. So where do you go to for the wisest advice? So people here in the Tri-Cities, maybe they've been mentors or another idea people, or is it people that maybe in your industry or authors or motivators, where do you go for inspiration and good advice? Mike Denslow: I would say definitely not within the industry typically. I mean, I'm looking for self-motivation. I read a good amount and when I find something I like, mostly non-fiction, but sometimes fiction as well. I like biographies, that kind of thing. Tim Ferris, big podcast guy, big author. I like his stuff because it's short and sweet. He's got a book, Tools of Titans. Paul Casey: Yes, I read that one. 606 pages. Mike Denslow: Exactly. But it didn't seem like that because everything was maybe three or four pages per person that he interviewed and he just took the highlights, right. Paul Casey: Yes, which is brilliant. Mike Denslow: Exactly. It's CliffsNotes from podcasts. And you took all these successful people and how did they do it? Right. And, "Oh yeah. I just want the CliffsNotes. I don't want the full story." That's been a good one. So I would say reading. I've got a lot of good friends in Tri-Cities that have done similar things and created a business and been successful, that kind of thing. So I like following up with friends and then reading. I think reading is underrated and I'm not a Kindle guy or anything like that. Paul Casey: Hardcover book. Mike Denslow: Not just the book and turning the pages. I want the trophy in the end. Because I've got a room that's got all the books that I've read and it's the mini study library at the house. And I want to add the trophy. Every time I finished, I'm going to put a trophy up on the shelf and I'm reading Yogi Berra's biography right now that my daughter and her husband gave me for Father's Day. And love it. So different industries, different people. Past, present, whatever, doesn't matter. Paul Casey: Yogi Berra. 90% of the game is half mental. Mike Denslow: That's right. Paul Casey: Those funny little quotes that you will have. Mike Denslow: I’ve read up til he's about 26 years old. And he hasn't even started with any of those. He's not known for any of those things yet. So I'm ready for those things, but it hasn't happened yet. Paul Casey: Tim Ferris, good stuff, tim.blog is where you can get his blog. And Tools of Titans, Tribe of Mentors I read this year, which is another 600-page book, but like Mike said, don't let it intimidate you because it's these little three or four page chunks of these great influencers and their habits. They asked the same questions actually. So it’s like, "What do you do when you get overwhelmed? What advice would you give a college student today? How do you say no to people in a respectful way?" And you just get to hear 50 people give the answer. Mike Denslow: And ultra successful people, too, right. How did you do it? And I think the key for him is that we've all looked at that. We've all seen someone, Richard Branson or somebody ultra-successful. His biography was great, by the way. And you look and you're like, "Oh, I wonder how they did it. They must have had rich parents or something and just followed them." And then you find out, "Oh no, it was just this one idea. And they pushed it a little bit further than anybody else. And then innovation happened and then everyone loved it. And they were then ready for that massive growth and the amount of energy." And basically, the planning that it would take to make that successful. They just wouldn't let it not be successful. And a lot of consistency there among most of the people. Paul Casey: Right, I agree. I agree. You also mentioned earlier in the conversation, your boss and boss's boss are, would you say inspirational? Mike Denslow: Absolutely. Paul Casey: So what makes them so inspirational? Mike Denslow: Good question. They're very good listeners. And they can wipe everything clean of what's going on at the time. And at the end of every conversation I have with them, they say, "Is there anything else that I can do for you right now?" Paul Casey: Oh, great question. Mike Denslow: And both of them do it. They're both strong, smart females, very well-known in the mortgage industry, even nationally. My boss has been in it, I'd say, probably about 25 years. And then her boss is more of 35 years. And so there's just no challenge they're not willing to take on. And, "Well, I'm having this problem with this." Or, "I'm so frustrated with this." They listen with purpose and then they act. They don't jump in. Okay, let's solve that problem right here, right. And I try to do that, but I'm still an impatient listener. I'm getting better. But when I know the answer, "Oh, I'm ready. I know what the answer is." And that goes back to elementary school and the flashcards. I was killer at that. Paul Casey: That should have been your quirky thing we talked about. You were a rock star at flashcards. Mike Denslow: Okay. Quick Facebook shoutout. Somebody posted a photo of our third grade class a couple of years ago. And this one girl, I haven't talked to her in 30-plus years. She put on there, "And Denslow was always killing everybody at the flashcards." Paul Casey: You were a fave. Mike Denslow: I was like, "Yes." Paul Casey: Yeah, it's funny. I did a Tim Ferris and I asked all my coaching clients the three top leadership skills to keep in mind; I would say active listening was the number one answer. I'm just validating what you said with your awesome supervisors. Mike Denslow: Well, you think about it. I mean, are you a boss or are you a leader, right? If you've seen the boss that's pulling everyone along. And then the boss that is sitting in the carriage and everyone else's pulling them along, what kind of boss are you? Paul Casey: Yeah. The leaders are more of the arm-around, so to speak, of what can I do to help you, which is a great posture for a leader. If you had a leadership philosophy that you'd put front and center on a bulletin board or an entrepreneurial philosophy, I'll go either side of the brain for you on this one, what would those messages say? Mike Denslow: Again, man, you're hitting me with the good stuff here. On the creative side, on the passion project side, nothing is not worth exploring, right. "Oh, that's a dumb idea. Someone would have done it by now." Oh my gosh, cross that off because we would never have innovation if that was the case. And on the work side, I'd go back to the listening piece. And even when it's crazy busy getting that focus and that's going to the disconnect of working from home right now, is having someone feel your level of focus when you were listening to them but yet you're not in the same room. So listening, and no ideas are bad ideas. But explore everything and then pick the best one. Paul Casey: That is good stuff, because that's going to help all new leaders, people that are leading right now grow and gain more influence. Mike Denslow: Listen intently, right. Paul Casey: Hear, hear. So Mike, how can our listeners best connect with you and connect to Love the Tri? Mike Denslow: Well, social media. There's Love the Tri on Facebook and Instagram that I'm updating all the time. Lovethetri.com, I just released a new website. What was that? Oh, it's probably been four or five months now maybe, but that's another place to see our products and kind of the idea of Love the Tri. And then professionally, email mike.denslow@homebridge.com for anything and everything basically mortgage and real estate related. Paul Casey: Fantastic. Thanks for all you do to make the Tri-Cities a great place and keep leading well. Mike Denslow: Thank you. Paul Casey: Let me wrap up our podcast today with a leadership resource to recommend. Earlier in the podcast, I talked about the Tribe of Mentors, how to say no. And I just finished a book by William Ury, The Power of A Positive No. And the concept of the book is saying No out of a yes. Out of a yes to your convictions and your values and maybe even your view of work-life balance. Then from that, you say no, and you do it in a very respectful way and then you invite people with another yes, so to speak, that allows them to not leave your presence feeling all bummed out, but that, "Hey, I tried to set you up for success or build a bridge so you can still get what you were asking me about accomplished." Love the book, The Power of A Positive No by William Ury. Paul Casey: Again, this is Paul Casey. I want to thank my guest Mike Denslow from Homebridge and Love the Tri for being here today on the Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast. And we want to thank our TCI sponsor and invite you to support them. We appreciate you making this possible so we can collaborate to help inspire leaders in our community. Finally, one more leadership tip for the road to help you make a difference. Influencer Travis Bradberry who's the author of Emotional Intelligence 2.0. He said emotional self-control is a result of hard work, not an inherited skill. Till next time, KGF. Keep growing forward. Speaker 1: Thank you to our listeners for tuning in to today's show. Paul Casey is on a mission to add value to leaders by providing practical tools and strategies that reduce stress in their lives and on their teams so that they can enjoy life and leadership and experience their key desired results. If you'd like more help from Paul in your leadership development, connect with him at growingforward@paulcasey.org for a consultation that can help you address your current challenges and create a strategy for growing your life or your team. Paul would also like to help you restore your sanity to your crazy schedule and getting your priorities done every day by offering you his free Control my Calendar checklist. Go to takebackmycalendar.com for that productivity tool, or open a text message to seven two zero zero zero, and type the word Growing. Speaker 5: Tri-Cities influencer podcast was recorded at fuse SPC by Bill Wagner of Safe Strategies.

Speaker 1: I've learned that people will forget what you said. People will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel, by Maya Angelou. I am Michelle Oates and I'm a Tri-Cities Influencer. Paul Casey: What specific behaviors must everyone on your team do every week to live out the vision and keep it alive? One of the only ways change happens in a company is if people change their behavior and align it to the vision. Speaker 3: Raising the water level of leadership in the Tri-Cities of Eastern Washington, it's the Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast. Welcome to the TCI Podcast where local leadership and self-leadership expert, Paul Casey, interviews local CEOs, entrepreneurs and non-profit executives, to hear how they lead themselves and their teams, so we can all benefit from their wisdom and experience. And here's your host, Paul Casey of Growing Forward Services, coaching and equipping individuals and teams to spark breakthrough success. Paul Casey: It's a great day to grow forward. Thanks for joining me for today's episode with Jennifer Cunnington. She is the home loan sales manager of STCU here in the Tri-Cities. And a fun fact about her, is I found a lady who likes fantasy football, but Jen, you better tell us more about that. Jennifer Cunnington: Yes, indeed Paul. Thanks for having me. Yeah. My family put together a league a few years back and I was the only girl. And so I thought that I had to do a ton of research in order to be good at it. Over the years I've rested on my own laurels a little bit, but they always tease me, because I do so much research. I haven't won yet, but I've come pretty close. Top five out of 10, I think is pretty good. So I'm still working on it. Paul Casey: Awesome. Well, we're going to dive in after checking in with our Tri-City Influencer sponsor, Mario Martinez, Northwestern Mutual. Mario, what types of services do you offer? Marion Martinez: Hey Paul, thank you for letting me be on here. We run bifurcated practices and then we focus in two areas of a financial plan. The first one is, we do protection pieces, which include life insurance, disability insurance, long-term care insurance, really the things that people should be focused on to protect their families, their businesses. And on the other side of our practices, we do investment services. And on the investment platforms, we do both the brokerage platform and we do the advisory level services. So, depending on what someone's looking for, as far as guidance on their investment strategies, we can curtail and build a strategy for them that makes sense. Paul Casey: Mario, how can people get in touch with you? Marion Martinez: The easiest way, you can reach out to me directly on my business cell phone is 509-591-5301. You can send me an email at mario.martinez@nm.com or you can reach out to us on our social media platforms. The easiest one being Mario Martinez - Northwestern Mutual on Facebook. Paul Casey: Thank you for your support of leadership development in the Tri-Cities. Well, welcome Jen. I was privileged to meet you through leadership Tri-Cities just a couple of years ago. It seems like it's been longer. And you were a shining star in your class. What number was that again? Jennifer Cunnington: Best class ever. Paul Casey: Yet again, best class ever. And we've done some work together, with some team building with your awesome team over there, STCU. I'm glad you could join us today. So start us off by telling us a little bit about your career highlights that led to what you're doing now and why do you love what you do? Jennifer Cunnington: Yeah. Well, I started in banking when I was in college and then just was introduced to the mortgage arena through that big financial institution. Then I went to work for a credit company who started acquiring banks, back in the day. And so, because I was the only one with a little bit of knowledge about something big that they were going to be involved in, they took advantage of that. And I rolled with it, learned a lot about things I had not a lot of knowledge about, but that helped me embark on this... Gosh, I won't say how many years, but have had just a really engaging time in this industry. Jennifer Cunnington: So, I had a lot of really wonderful mentors and as I went through different positions in finance, I decided that I wanted to be on the forefront of the origination part, because I wanted my clients to have the very best experience possible. So, I really wanted them to get to the closing table, feeling comfortable with paperwork, and there's a ton of it. And really understanding what their terms were and that it was all in their best interest. So, it's been a big ride over the years. I've gotten to do some really, really fun things and meet a lot of great people. And now we're here. Paul Casey: And why do you love what you do? Jennifer Cunnington: I love what I do, because really being able to assess needs and be a part of one of the biggest financial decisions in one's life, is huge. Really priding myself over the years of gaining that knowledge of all different programs and the nuances of the benefits. Being able to provide that to people and helping them get into the homes and realize a lot of their financial goals is huge. Paul Casey: It's great to know that why; it reminds me of the tire commercial that it says, "It's not about the tires, it's about the child that's riding in the car." So, I love that your why is very clear of helping people with that big financial decision of buying a home. So throughout that journey, you hit some obstacles to success as we all do. There's some speed bumps there. What's one of the biggest hurdles that you overcame in your career? Jennifer Cunnington: Oh gosh. I think just the cycles in the financial industry is huge. Back in 2008, I was just really getting going in my career and of course, too big to fail. And so our economy goes through so many changes and the mortgage industry was a big part of that back then, but I didn't know any better because I was relatively new. And so I didn't know about some of the things that people used to do. I just was able to adapt quite quickly and just move forward with new procedures and regulations. And so, taking that all into account, I really wasn't that phased. And so I was really one of the lucky ones. Jennifer Cunnington: A lot of my friends and colleagues in the industry, unfortunately shut up to work and doors were locked. All those folks that they were trying to help, they weren't able to do so, because the companies ran out of money. Lots of different changes, but I think just being able to weather a lot of these cyclical changes that we experience from time to time, whether it be political, economic, all those things, are just huge. So, that was a big one. Paul Casey: So, you've used the word adapt a couple of times already. Why is that such a valuable skill for a leader? Jennifer Cunnington: Oh, well we have to be flexible. There's one thing that's constant, which is change. And so really if we find ourselves being too regimented, or set in our ways, we won't be able to move forward when these changes occur. So you really do have to have the flexibility to learn new things. And especially salespeople, they're not really good at that. We like the ways that we have our day set up. And the technology that we get just good enough at, to get to the next step and maybe have somebody else help us with the next things after that. But really, you have to be flexible with people as well. You have to know how to communicate effectively with all different types of folks. There are folks that come in and think that they know everything, that you're just going to be their conduit. But really, hopefully at the end, we can help them realize that we do have a little bit of knowledge and if we can add to what they already know, or help along with something that they don't, it really is important. Paul Casey: And I heard a John Maxwell quote the other day, "Change is inevitable. Growth is optional." Jennifer Cunnington: Oh, definitely. Paul Casey: So leadership is difficult. What is your biggest ongoing challenge as a leader? What really stretches you, either in just in a hard way, or just in a really good way? Jennifer Cunnington: Yeah. Well, I think I was a pretty good producer and so I was tapped to become a leader and we all know that not all producers, or successful salespeople make good managers. Paul Casey: Right. Jennifer Cunnington: You could be a manager or you can be a leader. Over the years, I have really evolved myself because I’m pretty direct, an achiever, if you will. All of Enneagram 3. And so I was brought up in the business as being really quite autonomous, but you can't do that when you're in leadership. And so I think my biggest challenge has been really employee engagement. We've got so many folks that come to this business because they hear it's super easy, anybody can do it. People have the ability to be so exponentially successful, but not everybody can be good at it. Jennifer Cunnington: And so it takes a lot of effort and engagement. And so employee engagement really has been my challenge, all different personality types, aptitudes, styles of communicating, all those types of things, played big roles. And as leaders we're really have to find out a little bit more about each of our team members, to find out what makes them tick, to hopefully appeal to that, to give them maybe more resources or direct them to those resources, so that they can become better. And that helps everybody involved. So that's been a really big challenge. Paul Casey: Love employee engagement. And you said one of those ways is to fully get to know your team and what makes them tick, what maxes them out, what's their sweet spot for them. You got another employee engagement tip that you tend to employ? Jennifer Cunnington: Yeah. Well, we have been really fortunate to be able to take advantage of some team building. Paul, you were helping us as well, and it's true learning about each other. So, anybody can want to do this autonomously, but really I think when you surround yourself with a really wonderful team, it's great to know a little bit about a lot of things because the rest of us can fill in those gaps. But providing resources and like I said, directing people toward things that they might be interested in, what really might push their button, as you mentioned. But team building I think is big, because again, it takes a village to do what we do. We can't do it by ourselves. There's absolutely no way. Jennifer Cunnington: And so learning how to rely on each other, be truthful and open, and say, "Hey, I need some help." And then being open to that assistance and then also rewarding each other. A lot of our support staff, they don't always get the recognition that they deserve. And so it's really buying into that mindset of, it does take a village. And so it's really a holistic environment. And more and more, as time goes on, with all of the changes that we were alluding to earlier, you really do need a wonderful team and that's an expansive effort, not just your team that you see every day, but all those folks behind the scenes that are helping make your clients experience the best that it can be. Paul Casey: Fantastic. And you alluded to the Enneagram assessment, and maybe our listeners don't know what that is. It's probably the most ancient of the personality assessments. You could say, it's having a resurgence lately, through a gentleman named Ian Morgan Cron. And he wrote a book, The Road Back to You, which I would give as a recommend for you Tri-City Influencer listeners. And Jen is a three and I'm a three as well, which is the achiever one. And achievers, also one of these strengths finder strengths, which we got to do with your team. And if you take the CliftonStrengths Assessment, it will give you your five top strengths. And you read it, and you're just like, "Wow, that is so me." And everybody else nods their head and, "That is so you." Then you can place people in the right spot in an organization, or when you have a project to come up, you know where to place people. Jennifer Cunnington: Exactly. Paul Casey: Well, if you had a leadership philosophy, and you've probably already alluded to some of it already, what would you put front and center on a bulletin board in your office for all to see, what would those messages say? Jennifer Cunnington: Well, I think because I'm a little linear, the first one is, input equals output. One of my mentors, a long time ago told me that, and it's about engagement and commitment to the process. And so really I still believe that, we can do the minimum and we can get a little bit less back potentially. But if we just go a little bit above and beyond, imagine what the possibilities would be. So input equals output, but on the more emotional side, it's do what you love. Most of us have choices of what our profession is, and I would recommend that everybody really dig deeper, especially as we get a little older and we're really settling in and becoming experts in our fields. It's so good to recognize that, Hey, what I'm doing right now, I really like it. And to find out why, and to really take a deeper dive into looking into the why. Paul Casey: That maybe isn't like, Woo hoo. I love every aspect of it, to try to find out those areas of your job at 20%, that really does light you up and try to spend more time there. And it's like football, I can't do that either. Well, there's probably a hobby, or some other passion that you can light up outside of work that will carry over into work, because I find if one area of your life is humming, then it bleeds over into the rest of life. So I love that and love the input equals output. It reminds me of the saying, "You reap what you sow". So, you get what you give and put into it. Most influencers I know, have a bit of a visionary inside of them in order to take that next hill. Where do you take time to dream about the future? What does that look like? Jennifer Cunnington: I have sisters-in-law, that are just wonderful. And so one of them just signed me up for book of the month club. And so, it gives you some choices every month, all different genres, but I'm still getting back to now. Finding more time to read, taking some more time, especially what we've been through this year in 2020. Some of the solitude that we have been forced into in different ways, has given us a little bit more time to start reading about things that we love and then engaging back into professional books as well. You just mentioned a couple. There's some really great ones at the beginning of the year, took a look at that Brendon Burchard book, High Performance Habits, all those good things. But I think it's really important to... If you love to read, get into that. Jennifer Cunnington: Podcasts are awesome. So if you're in the car a lot, just taking the time to actually research them, download a couple, so that you have something a little bit more interesting to listen to, maybe than just constantly searching the radio stations. But really now, I think it's future planning. I do this with my team a lot and I'm always encouraging them to revamp business plans all the time, because the world isn't just changing around us, but the economy's changing, our industry landscape changes all the time. So being able to take a look at all of these factors and then put it into a plan. How can we back into it? Where do you want to be? Jennifer Cunnington: And so, I still love Pinterest. I'm getting a little bit bigger on Instagram. I know people are laughing, a lot of pictures of my new dog, but- Paul Casey: I've seen him. Jennifer Cunnington: ...I think he's adorable. So, but motivational quotes and stuff, tons of people have been sharing those. And you never know when that one post that you put out there in the universe that day, is going to make an impact on somebody else. And so I think that's huge too. Paul Casey: How far do you future forecast with your team as far as business planning? Do you go out one year? Do you go out more than that? Is it just quarterly? Jennifer Cunnington: Great question. We started with just one year, especially as we have a little bit newer folks getting into this full-time. And then mid year, of course, we keep mentioning this year, but we have to make some adjustments. And so, we've been taking a look at those more frequently, but our standard business plan, everybody I think can have a pie in the sky goal of five years. But you never know what life is going to hand you, say in June of any set years. So really, the focus is one year and then scaling into it on a monthly basis and then having connections, what we call connection meetings. Trying to still do that once a month at least, and find out just one-on-one where they're at, what other resources they might need, what challenges they're having specifically and how we can triage and solve those equations for them. But it's all meant to be able to provide them with a better experience for their clients as well. Paul Casey: Yes. And I'll kudos the audio books and the podcasts. And usually I have the Libby app for here, the Mid-Columbia Libraries going, I read the 4-Hour Workweek, on vacation last week. So I'm able to do that on the way there and back, got the audible. I usually get the free one with Prime, always using that credit, and then podcasts or so. Those little bursts of 30 minutes that you can stay current with things, or just get that inspirational burst. Well, before we head into our next question on Jen's typical morning routine, let's do a shout out to our sponsor, Mario Martinez, Northwestern Mutual. Mario, why should people work with a financial advisor? Marion Martinez: Hey, Paul, that's a great question. Really, I think there's two types of people who should be seeking out a financial professional. The one person is somebody who has very limited access to financial guidance. Maybe they're a younger professional, or somebody who just hasn't had an introduction to a financial professional yet. And the other type of person, is really someone who has a lot of different exposure to different professionals. They just haven't found the one person that they really trust to take guidance from. So there's really an over information in that sense. So those are really the two types of people that should be looking to be introduced to a financial professional. Paul Casey: Fantastic. So Mario, how can people get in touch with you? Marion Martinez: The easiest ways to reach out to me directly on my business cell phone, which is 509-591-5301. You can send an email to mario.martinez@nm.com or you can find us on our business Facebook page, which is Mario Martinez - Northwestern Mutual. Paul Casey: So Jen, what's your typical morning routine before work, maybe even once you arrive at work, if there's any rituals that you do to start your day strong? Jennifer Cunnington: Well, I love to exercise and in the beginning of the year, it was three times a week. We get up super early. My husband and I would take part in what we call, triad class, which changes, but it was a punch class. So it's essentially boxing with a small group of people. 5:00 AM. We get home about 6:15. Get ready. I love to make breakfast in the morning. I think that that's super important just to have a couple of minutes, not necessarily talk about work, but just to talk about where our days are going. Jennifer Cunnington: But those things have changed a little bit, now it's sometimes still more working out, maybe online, just became a beach body coach too. So yeah, putting that out into the universe. And a lot of my friends, they were just reaching out for some camaraderie. Everybody's going through the same thing and if I can just find a little bit more energy and I can help them too, then that's been super great, but we just got a new puppy I mentioned. And so boy, that's changed our routine a little bit. So. But still, I think exercise is key to finding some kind of an outlet for yourself, so that you can clear that path from the day before, to get ready for the day ahead. Paul Casey: Love that. Love that so much. Yeah. The gym just opened again, so happy to get that routine back. Because it was hard and I did some of the video workouts as well there. Can't keep up with them, but I gave it a try. Jennifer Cunnington: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Very good. Paul Casey: But it is really important that we move. We try to get moving, especially as we've been quarantined and it's been just difficult. How do you deal with the everyday grind of your work without burning out? So I heard, exercise. I've heard you listen to motivational things. What else? Jennifer Cunnington: Well, I love music, all different kinds. And so every chance I get... Haven't really been able to go to concerts, so getting online and watching just little titbits of concerts or YouTube. I really like, like I said, all different kinds of music, but EDM and cello music. So I find, if I especially put that on, as soon as I get home, I'm able to download a little bit from the day that just happened and do that. I've got a great tennis team. We still managed to play a really good tennis tournament a couple of weekends ago outside. Paul Casey: Wow. Jennifer Cunnington: And so really staying in touch with just all different kinds of people too. It takes a lot of effort when we're just trying to take care of ourselves sometimes, but really reaching out to at least one person a day that you want to keep in contact with. And it's not so much about you. It's about finding out, gee, what's new with them, what's going on in their life? And I don't like to really watch the news right now. That's a bummer, sometimes a little frustrating, but we can still make our worlds, even if we are living in our own sphere right now, as good as we can. And so, reaching out to people, exercise. Of course puppies again. Paul Casey: The pound doesn't keep too many animals these days. Jennifer Cunnington: No, but I think family is a big thing as well. I mentioned I'm super close with my family and I think that's a real blessing as well. So we've got our great friends, but if you've got great family, that's just an extension of your support system. Paul Casey: Yeah. I totally agree. We have to reach out to one person a day. A text only takes a few seconds to at least initiate, and I found, throughout the years, friends have really appreciated when I have initiated. I always appreciate when they do, because we're just in our worlds. And then someone has to put themselves in front of you to be able to focus. And I was like, "Oh yes. How are you?" And all of a sudden you're back in that place where you were before. So relational wellness is huge, especially in this land of COVID. And love music too, because that's a dopamine release that we get. Yeah, I tell Alexa to play electronic chill music as well. Jennifer Cunnington: Usually they sound great. Paul Casey: They do. They do. Good stuff. So you mentioned family, it's a big deal. So how do you prioritize family time, yet still be a high performer at work? Because sometimes one or the other has to give. And again, I know we're in the land of COVID right now, so maybe you can answer before and after COVID. Jennifer Cunnington: For sure. Well, I think before, that connection with your immediate family was there. We were able to have so much more flexibility to see each other and to really plan activities. Gosh, this year was going to be the year of vacations with friends and family. And so I got a ton of vouchers, I have no idea how I'm going to use them all, but really just having routines too. I mentioned tennis. We just have different groups of people, but family is a huge part. The balance too, was there a whole lot more, before summer. Now, I think we've become really more reactive. And so we're working on that, because I think we're having to reset now that we've gone through this season. We've just been so busy and I hate that word sometimes, because busy is just a- Paul Casey: Intentionally scheduled. Jennifer Cunnington: ...general word. Yeah. But just, I think that the volume of our electronic communication has increased. And so we went from maybe talking on the phone, or meeting in person and being able to knock out a whole lot of conversation and business that way, to now being so focused on Zoom meetings and Teams meetings and email. And I think that does force one to struggle a little bit with how they're prioritizing their day, because when everything is so scheduled within certain timeframes where you have to be seen online, it does hinder the ability to be super relational, as you mentioned. Paul Casey: That blurs the lines. Doesn't it? Jennifer Cunnington: Yeah. And so scheduling maybe from 7:00 or 7:30 to sometimes six o'clock at night, when other folks have already been online working and now you have to maybe meet needs of clients, but you really need to download a little bit and get back to your family and your safe place. That has been a struggle. And so right now I think we're going through a period of reset and just re-introducing ourselves out into the universe and if... The weather's changing. So we're forced to find other avenues where we can still get in touch with people and make sure we get all of our work done, but in a more efficient way now that we don't have so much coming at us. Paul Casey: Yeah. And they say due to Zoom fatigue, which is a real thing now. The wellness experts are saying we have to get eight hours of sleep, even if you could get by with six or seven before, you got to get eight, because it's a different kind of tired. Just stare at the screen all day. Jennifer Cunnington: Yeah. It's almost like from the neck up. Paul Casey: It is. Jennifer Cunnington: Because your brain is working overtime already. And then you're like, okay, well I've got 15 minutes for a quick break and then I got to get back on. And so you're never really able to take a breather. Paul Casey: Good for you for the 15 minute break. Because I find myself getting too back to back and if I can run across the room and do some stretching, or anything to move, even if I go to the furthest bathroom in my house in between, it's still movement. In between say, get out of that chair. Jennifer Cunnington: Yeah. Paul Casey: Well, influencers aren't know-it-alls, but they're learners. And I know you're a learner, Jen. So where do you go for the wisest advice? These can be, people here in the Tri-Cities, it could be authors and motivators, or industry professionals that you've never met, but they're your mentors from afar. Jennifer Cunnington: Yeah. So, I mentioned that I've had some wonderful mentors in my career and now I'm grateful to be able to call on my spheres. So we were just talking about electronic communication, being able to check in with folks and find out what they're going through. Is there a better way to do something for right now? That's huge. But I always go back to the lessons I've learned out of some of my favorite books. From a sales perspective, we've got Darren Hardy. The Compound Effect was one of the first books I ever read. Again, input equals output. Your efforts are important in order to meet your goals. Jennifer Cunnington: One of my favorite books too is called, The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand. And it's a really interesting study on sociology. Two people, seemingly on the same path, but the choices that they make, make all the difference. And so I love, love, love that book and really can use anecdotes from that book for a lot of different situations that we go through on a regular basis. We mentioned I love podcasts and I don't always do it well. I have time to download them first. So I'm always going, oh, I should listen to that one. Oh, darn it, I didn't get to it. But Brendon Burchard, we talked about him. Dave Harney. Todd Duncan, he's one of my industries gurus and he's written a ton of books, but gets back down to common sense. You start with the want to help people, and then you just apply yourself in the right direction to get the knowledge that you need in order to do so. Jennifer Cunnington: Tim Ferriss is a big one. You mentioned The 4-Hour Workweek. He keeps revamping that. He puts out a Friday email. He tells us about a book he's reading, he's got a podcast as well. And then his favorite quote. So again, I love quotes. I love learning new words, English minor- Paul Casey: Me too. Jennifer Cunnington: Great. Paul Casey: Love grammar. Jennifer Cunnington: So all those good things and also I like reality TV. I think that we could find a lot of cool things from some of these, especially industry reality TV shows. Some of the Million Dollar Listing and things like that. There's a guy named Ryan Serhant, I'm not being paid for that, but he had a show for a while called, Sell It Like Serhant. It's just about, again learn a little bit about what you're doing and how it affects people. And then eventually you learn how to help them the best that you can. Paul Casey: Well, Jen just gave a whole bunch of great resources. So they'll be in the show notes and you might want to hit the rewind button and jot some of those down. For my podcasts, I use Castbox to find other people's podcasts. And so then they're all lined up in the library, so you can click on them. So finally, what advice would you give to new leaders or anyone who wants to keep growing and gaining more influence? Jennifer Cunnington: Yeah. So I always say, my mentors' helped me define my goals. So those would then help you determine your path. I think anytime you get into a job, some people look at it as just that, a job, but you really need to define first what you want to accomplish and then how the heck are you going to get there? And so a lot of things that we've talked about today, are about applying yourself, getting that knowledge, because again, anybody can do jobs. But to be the best that you can be, you've really got to dig a little bit deeper and figure out some resources that are going to work for you. So that's one of my biggest pieces of advice and it's not always easy to do. Some days we just wake up and we might have really good mojo. By noon, it's gone. But then, we all hope that something great is going to happen near the end of the day, so we can go home with a smile on our face. Jennifer Cunnington: You can have goals, but you still need to have a path to achieve them. And it takes a lot of work to do business planning and figure out what system works for you. Then I would also recommend trying to figure out how to prioritize. I'm a list maker, I make too many lists, those who know me, I have 18 notebooks. Paul Casey: Good point for the list makers. Jennifer Cunnington: Oh my goodness. So I know that there's got to be a better way. There was a time when I was a lot more efficient. Again, I talked about reactivity right now, so it's just whatever path is going to be best for you, to be able to reach those goals and attain your dreams. Paul Casey: Define the goals to determine your path. So Tri-City Influencer listeners, good advice there. And then, like she's mentioned earlier, backing into that with the prioritization of your time, to literally get those done by putting them into your daily schedule, your weekly scheduling, your monthly schedule, to eventually get at that yearly goal. So Jen, how can our listeners best connect with you? Jennifer Cunnington: Absolutely. Well, online of course, my website is stcu.org and then you can look JenniferC or a phone number 509-598-7711. Our team is out and about in the universe as well. We've got a great community relations team that's always out there. We're extremely philanthropic. So we're definitely around the community and we'd love to connect with you. Paul Casey: Well, thank you again, Jen, for all you do to make the Tri-Cities a great place and keep leading well. Jennifer Cunnington: Thanks Paul. Paul Casey: Let me wrap up our podcast today with a leadership resource to recommend. A lot of people say, I need to be more assertive. Well, there's actually a website that you can assess how assertive you are. It's TheHRSpecialist.com. And if you go into TheHRSpecialist.com, you can look up these 18 questions to test your ability to be positively persuasive they say. So how assertive are you at TheHRSpecialist.com. And remember, you don't have to be aggressive, but we all can up our confidence a little bit more and be more assertive. Again, this is Paul Casey. I want to thank my guest, Jen Cunnington from STCU, for being here today on the Tri-City Influencer Podcast. And we want to thank our TCI sponsor and invite you to support them. We appreciate you making this possible so we can collaborate to inspire leaders in our community. Finally, one more leadership titbit for the road to help you make a difference in your circle of influence. It's from Bruce Lee, he said "A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer." Until next time KGF, keep growing forward. Speaker 3: Thank you to our listeners for tuning into today's show. Paul Casey is on a mission to add value to leaders by providing practical tools and strategies that reduce stress in their lives and on their teams, so that they can enjoy life and leadership and experience their key desired results. If you'd like more help from Paul in your leadership development, connect with him at growingforward@paulcasey.org, for a consultation that can help you move past your current challenges and create a strategy for growth in your life or your team forward. Paul would also like to help you restore your sanity to your crazy schedule and getting your priorities done everyday, by offering you his free Control My Calender Checklist. Go to www.takebackmycalender.com for that productivity tool, or open a text message to 72000 and type the word "growth". Paul Casey: Tri-Cities Influencer podcast is recorded at Fuse SPC by Bill Wagner of Safe Strategies

Speaker 1: The chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken. I'm Richa Sigdel and I'm Tri-city influencer. Paul Casey: We measure what we value. I love that because what gets measured gets done. If you want to make sure a new habit is going to occur, you've got to track it. You've got to measure it. So if you want to get better at whatever your goal is, track it. Speaker 3: Raising the water level of leadership in the Tri-cities of Eastern Washington, it's the Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast. Welcome to the TCI Podcast where local leadership and self leadership expert Paul Casey interviews local CEOs, entrepreneurs, and non-profit executives to hear how they lead themselves and their teams so we can all benefit from their wisdom and experience. Here's your host, Paul Casey of Growing Forward Services, coaching and equipping individuals and teams to spark breakthrough success. Paul Casey: It's a great day to grow forward. Thanks for joining me for today's episode with Scott Sax. He is the president and project manager of the Central Plateau Cleanup Company, and Jennie Stults, who is the business development director of Amentum. And they like hanging out together so we decided to do it together. And I asked them what's funny and they sort of give a yin and yang kind of answer that one loves green pens, one loves purple pens. So tell us the story of that. Scott Sax: So, yeah. That's something interesting that Jennie and I have discovered about each other. She asked me why I always wrote in green, and there all kinds of quirky answers that you could have like Navy captains always write in green. Well I wasn't in the Navy. But I do have a real story. It's a leadership story. I was walking into one of my plants in Colorado when I was running the site. The manager was with me, and he was signing a work permit to access the area, and he signed in red ink. And our control technician said, "You can’t sign in red. You have to sign in black." And he said, "Why?" He says, "Well, that's just the way you do things." And so when we went out, I figured out, "I’ve got to find out if he has to sign in black ink." And sure enough there was no real reason to sign in black ink. It was all stuck to the old xerox machines that you signed in black or blue in the 60s. And it stayed around and it just became a legacy requirement. Scott Sax: So from that moment on, I always signed everything in green ink to remind myself that you can change anything. Okay? And remind yourself that anything can be changed if it's inefficient, dumb, or just a legacy thing. Paul Casey: A great leadership principle from a quirky thing. I love it. I love it. It's sort of like the ham. "Why was the ham cut off?" "Oh, it's because my grandma cut it off because her grandma..." "Because the oven was too big, and we had to cut it off." Scott Sax: Right. Paul Casey: Well we're going to dive in after checking in with our Tri-City Influencer sponsor. Mario Martinez, Northwestern Mutual. Mario, what types of services do you offer? Mario Martinez: Hey Paul. Thank you for letting me be on here. We run bifurcated practices in that we focus in two areas of financial plans. The first one is we do protection pieces which include life insurance, disability insurance, long term care insurance, really the things that people should be focused on to protect their families, their businesses. And on the other side of our practices, we do investment services. And on the investment platforms we do both the brokerage platform, and we do the advisory level services. So depending on what someone is looking for as far as guidance on their investment strategies, we can curtail and build a strategy for them to make sense. Paul Casey: Mario, how can people get in touch with you? Mario Martinez: The easiest way you can reach out to me directly on my business cell phone is 509-591-5301. You can send me an email at mario.martinez@nm.com. Or you can reach out to us on our social media platforms, the easiest one being Mario Martinez Northwestern Mutual on Facebook. Paul Casey: Thank you for your support of leadership development in the tri-cities. Well, welcome Scott and Jennie, and thanks for being a part of this today. And we had the hard drive crash of 2020 in among the other crazy things that have happened in 2020. So thanks for coming back and re-interviewing here on the Tri-City Influencer. So tell us a little bit about your backgrounds so that our influencers can get to know you. Maybe a little bit of your journey to your current position and why you love what you do. They're just pointing at each other. It's sort of funny. Scott Sax: I‘ll go ahead and start since I’ve got the longer story because I'm way older than Jennie. So I started my career after college training sailors in the Navy Nuclear Power Program. In the center of Idaho there's actually an aircraft carrier and two submarines, or there was. And that's where they train sailors before they could sink their submarine. And that’s what I did. I was working for Westinghouse. I went from there to Plutonium Production for weapons at Rocky Flats in Colorado, and I've done a variety of things since then, came and ran the plutonium finishing plant here in the early 2000s, worked at Tank Farms as a chief operating officer. In the early 2010s, I went to the UK and I was in charge of all of the commercial nuclear fuel work for the United Kingdom. Came back, ran River Corridor Closure Project as a project manager and president, and starting Monday, I'll start kicking off my new job as the president and project manager for Central Plateau Cleanup, cleaning up the center of Hanford. Paul Casey: What a story. So all the Hanford people are just, "Yeah." Checking things off the list. "I remember that. I remember that." And the rest of us are, "All those sound like acronyms that I don't understand.” Jennie Stults: Every time I hear him talk about his career it's really amazing. So, yeah. He deserves all of a lot of credit. Paul Casey: Incredible. Jennie Stults: Yeah. So my career has been a little different. I've been mostly at Hanford. I started out at, well I actually started out way back when I was in high school. And then I went on, was at PNNL for multiple years. And then took a career change out to Hanford and I worked at Tank Farms, and when my second kiddo was born, I took a state job at the Department of Ecology, and worked on the flip side of being a contractor, actually doing the regulatory work, and did that till I think my youngest was in kindergarten or so, and then went back to the contractor, which was a highlight. I actually got hired a four, and went into a completely different kind of career into the hardcore DOD group out there, which was a great highlight. It was a big change for me, and really loved it. And I worked in Hanford for 13 years doing that work. Jennie Stults: And recently joined Amentum last year as a business development director. So I took another career change. So I've done a lot of different kind of things, which is good. I call myself kind of a utility player. But I've adapted because of different things, a lot of different challenges. And so I'm enjoying my current job. So that's a highlight too. So... Paul Casey: And what does Amentum do? Jennie Stults: So, Amentum, which is the parent company for where Scott has been, you've been Amentum and all the legacy companies, right? Scott Sax: Correct. Jennie Stults: Yeah. So we're a government contractor that has around 20,000 employees. And we just bought DynCorp, so now we're going to have 37,000, 40,000, I don't know, 20 some odd countries. I probably should know the tagline a little bit better. Jennie Stults: So all over. But our division that has gone there, and nuclear environmental, so we run a lot of the DOE sites, our partners on the DOE sites as well as other federal, state, local cleanup work across the US, and in the UK and Japan. So we've got a big division. Paul Casey: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Scott Sax: So a little bit to add onto what Amentum is. So a lot of people know who Amentum is, and Amentum was born out of AECOM, which was a partner with URS which bought The Washington Group which bought Morrison-Knudsen, and Westinghouse. So a lot of the old companies that have been around Hanford for literally almost 60 years, since the beginning. So, a very big company and now Amentum is just focused on those government supports primarily for the Department of Defense, NASA, and the Department of Energy. Paul Casey: Okay. And why do you both love what you do? Got to love what you do. So what wakes you up with enthusiasm in the morning? Jennie Stults: So for me, personally I like to be challenged. I like to do a lot of different things. I like to take on new roles. That's what excites me. I think my thing in terms of leadership is I really like to work on teams. I like to bring people together and foster a sense of kind of collaboration. That really drives me. I don't like environments where it's just very you're one on one, and everybody is kind of free for all. I like to get consensus. So I think if anything that kind of drives me at work, is to work on new things. And for me, I'm not afraid to try something new. I like change. A lot of people don't, and that's fine too. So I'd say that kind of drives me for sure. Paul Casey: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Has virtual been hard for you being a team person? Jennie Stults: No. Actually in some ways it hasn't because I've gotten to do different things again. It just forces you to- Paul Casey: Another challenge. Yeah. Jennie Stults: Yeah. Yeah. And there's other things I like about virtual. I'm actually not too much of a people person believe it or not, but I do like to work in groups and teams, and so we've just tried different things. Scott Sax: I'll give you an alternate answer to that. I hate virtual, okay? I love to work with teams too, and I love to get stuff done, and the stuff I like to get done is executing projects, delivering products, all the people I work with have heard me say, "We deserve to provide the taxpayer a nuclear baker's dozen. We need to give 13 units for every 12 units of money they give us." And that's not the reputation of the Department or Energy kind of work in the nuclear cleanup. It's always going to cost more, take longer, et cetera. Scott Sax: And so that's what gets me charged up is working with a group of people to figure out how to do more for less, and save the taxpayers money. Paul Casey: Sounds like efficiency to me. Scott Sax: Yeah. Paul Casey: So give us a hurdle along your journey that you've overcome in your career. Scott Sax: I think my biggest hurdle, and I probably will never overcome it, is that self confidence in my own ability to get things done, and understanding what's possible. So I think there's always a little bit of insecurity when you're going into a job. "Am I good enough for this? Am I going to deliver or not for the people? Am I going to leave my guys that are working with me and for me lacking because of some weakness I have?" So I think the hurdle I have every single day is to strive harder and work harder, and I think that that's probably consistent with a lot of type A kind of people is that they have that little bit of insecurity that makes them think they're not as good as anybody else, so they work harder, or try harder. Paul Casey: Sounds like humility to me, Scott. Jennie how about you? Jennie Stults: So I probably have something very similar to Scott on that part. I think so my biggest hurdles in terms of growing as a leader and moving up or achieving more, have been because I am a utility person, I have quite often my career found being turned to the left because there has been a company project, and, "Oh, you were kind of on this trail, but oh my gosh, there's an emergency out here. So Jennie, you're perfect." And one day I'm out at the 100K area trying to figure out how to do X, Y, Z, and I've never done it before. Jennie Stults: So I think it's great to be a utility person. I think you need them. I think the hardest part for me with that is it led to sometimes hard to establish a path up into leadership. And so I guess one of my lessons though is you still need to be true to who you are. If you enjoy doing a lot of different things, then do that. Eventually it will work. It may feel like you're getting to the left, to the right, but the one thing I learned about all of my jobs, and I know Scott has probably had jobs where he thought he was going this way, and well I know he has, and you end up going a different way. You didn't get what you wanted. Is that, "I wouldn't be doing my job today had I not done all those different things." Jennie Stults: So at the time it feels a little bit to the left or a set back or different things, but in reality I think every time, I learn something. And so you just have to approach things that way, is you can't see it at the time, but six months later, a year later, you go, "Oh, well that's why that happened." So I think those are some of the hurdles, but I think it is how you face them when you do have those hurdles. Paul Casey: Would you also be an advocate of cross training for that reason? Being versatile to be able to be put in different places in an organization? Jennie Stults: I think so. I think that's one thing as leaders, that's hard to do when you have good people working for you, or around you or even up, is you do not want to let them go because they're there. But I think, and Scott might have some experience with this, is I think it does people good to be forced into different things. You learn some new tools, you learn adaption, you learn how... And sometimes it makes you better I found. I think I got better in positions where I was the least comfortable, but you really have to work hard. Paul Casey: What's your biggest ongoing challenge as a leader? What really stretching you even after all of your years of experience? Scott Sax: I'll give you two answers to that. One answer is directly with a current job, as we're about ready to kick off a transition and take over a major contract. And so establishing the vision, and bringing the team along, and establishing the culture we want, but also growing and learning the culture that's already existing in there. So I think that vision and that leadership part of that is really important for me personally. I'm not at the beginning of my career. So personally I'm at the end of my career. I'm not going to have a lot more jobs. So keeping that passion every single day to get up and drive and make a difference is different in the different parts of your job. So that's it. That's my two. Paul Casey: What does stoke that passion for you? Scott Sax: People. People. And I think in analogies, and I think in pictures. And so, and the things that really just absolutely turn me on is when I talk to somebody that has got a Ph.D in forklift, that just is absolutely a master in running a forklift because I'm not. And asking them how do they do their job so well, and what could I do to help them do their job better. It's real exciting. And so that does turn me on when you get to see somebody just do something that is just marvel. Paul Casey: Love it. Jennie Stults: So for me, I think you work on things all the time. It's kind of funny. And you go through one week, it seems like you're working on something the next week. So for me, it kind of varies depending on what I'm working on, but sometimes I think us type A people try and take on too much, and that's probably my biggest thing I work on, is- Paul Casey: I wouldn't know what that means. Jennie Stults: Yeah, I know. Setting those good boundaries. And so I have really tried to embrace that over the last few years, and chosen to build up my teams around me, and rely on them. And I have found a passion for doing that. I really enjoy mentoring people, I really enjoy working as a team and getting them, because sometimes it's amazing what ideas... I can't remember who. I think it might have been Patton who even said you just tell them where you want to go and they're all figure it out, and there will be a better answer than you could ever come up with. And I've seen that in action myself. I've tried some techniques like that, and it does work. So not just saying, "Oh I can do this because I can do it." but actually stepping back and letting other people start to shine, I think us leaders really need to embrace that, and I think it's something I work on myself is making sure. And I get a lot of reward out of it but it's tough still too. Paul Casey: It is. But it multiplies your influence, doesn't it? Jennie Stults: Yeah. Yeah. Paul Casey: If you both had a leadership philosophy that you put front and center on a bulletin board in your office at all times for everyone to see, what would those messages say? Scott Sax: So it's funny you ask that question because I actually have four signs that I've had with me, and I've added them throughout my career. And the very first one I put up on my wall was just sign that said Pride. And I had my favorite coach in college, a guy named Sonny Holland, and his leadership skill, and what I took away from him was you need to be proud of your individual effort contributing to the team's success, and if you are every single day to try to do that, you could be proud of your team. And I think being proud of something as a father, as a manager, as a teammate, is probably the thing that is my philosophy is, "Don't do anything that you wouldn't be proud of, and try to do things that you can be proud of." Jennie Stults: What's your other signs though? Paul Casey: Yeah, now we want to know because you said there's four. Scott Sax: There's four. "Be part of the solution, not part of the problem." Paul Casey: Love it. Scott Sax: I put that one up when I was a maintenance manager. "The key to getting better is working smarter not harder." And I did that to keep reminding myself every single day that extra hours don't necessarily mean extra productivity. Paul Casey: True. Scott Sax: And then probably my favorite of all time is, "If you aim at nothing, you hit it every time." And so that ties back to that vision. You got to know where you want to go, where you're expecting to go, where you want your team to go, instead of just marching off smartly in all directions. Paul Casey: Good ones. Good ones. Jennie Stults: So I have two, or three maybe. But the one I would say the teams that work with me the most hear me say the most is, "We’ve got to get to point B first." So I see a lot, and I understand totally that you got to have a whole team that sees things all differently. But a lot of times in leadership you'll hear all sorts of things about a step that's 20 months down the road, and we'll have spent 30 minutes on it. And I really try and focus my teams on, "Yes. We have to think long term, but you also have to get to B." You know what I mean? "You're worried about G. Let's get to B first, and let's figure that out." And I think Scott probably sees a lot of that in his leadership that he has done too is we could worry about every single thing going wrong but let's try and figure out the near term, and then we'll keep going. Jennie Stults: And so I think that's probably the one, if you ask some of the people that work with me that hear me say that the most. The other thing I would say is a philosophy of mine is to do what you're doing today the best you can. So we all have things on our jobs that aren't our favorite, but you got to focus in, and I think as leaders, it's really important to remember that because you always lean towards the things you'd like to do. But I really do try, I'm not perfect at it, but I really do try to do my best at what I'm doing today, and sometimes that is stuff that you think, "Oh my gosh. Why am I doing this?" But sometimes you just got to do it and stuff. Jennie Stults: So that's something I try and always make sure the teams around me always know that you got to pitch in, you got to do stuff, let's all work together. And usually it works pretty good that way. Paul Casey: Yeah. I do one thing, I saw you do everything. So that's why you do your best at everything. Jennie Stults: Right. Paul Casey: Well before we get into our next question on vision and more of these guys; dream about the future, let's shout out to our sponsor. Mario Martinez, Northwestern Mutual. Mario, why should people work with a financial advisor? Mario Martinez: Hey Paul. That's a great question. Really I think there's two types of people who should be seeking out a financial professional. The one person is somebody who has very limited access to financial guidance. Maybe they're a younger professional, or somebody who just hasn't had an introduction to a financial professional yet. And the other type of person is really someone who has a lot of different exposure to different professionals. They just haven't found the one person that they really trust to take guidance from. So there's really an over information in that sense. So those are really the two types of people that should be looking to be introduced to a financial professional. Paul Casey: Fantastic. So Mario, how can people get in touch with you? Mario Martinez: The easiest way is to reach out to me directly on my business cell phone which is 509-591-5301. You can send an email to mario.martinez@nm.com, or you can find us on our business Facebook page which is Mario Martinez Northwestern Mutual. Paul Casey: So Jennie and Scott, most influencers I know have a little bit of visionary inside them, and as the leader we have to think about the next hill, even though as Jennie said, we get to point B first before we get to Z. So where do you take time to dream about the future? What does that look like for you? Scott Sax: So I find that I get my best dreams about the future when I'm really tired of fighting the daily mundane bureaucratical stuff. I'm actually not known for my patience. In fact I'm pretty famous for my impatience. Paul Casey: Jennie, stop laughing. Scott Sax: When I get very impatient, I start grading even on myself. I just go out into the field and I watch work get done, and wander around and talk to people. And they just energize me. And most of the things that I can actually say about myself is I've had a tremendous number of ideas or great ideas, but I'm a good implementer of ideas. So if I can ask somebody, "What's your idea for something to make our job better?" and they have it, I love to grab that and run with it and turn that into the future. And so I think dreaming up what you can be and what perfect looks like is important. But again, embrace today and get everything you can get done today. And it enables a lot of stuff in funny ways for tomorrow. Paul Casey: And you listen to your constituents to help create the vision it sounds like. Scott Sax: Right. Jennie Stults: So I get a lot of my personal inspiration stuff because I'm a very avid reader. So I actually like to read different sources: leadership newsletters in my email, sometimes some of them speak to me. And I would say that's probably my biggest source. Sometimes I listen to different things when I'm walking or whatever else, but I tend to do that. I tend to go in batches, and try and really take on some things, especially when I'm finding some challenges, I'll go and look for some inspiration there, and, "How do you handle this? How do you handle that?" And so I think that probably is my biggest source of different things, is doing that, but there's all sorts of different inspirations. I think Scott is right. Every day you get inspired by co-workers, friends, family, whatever it is. Paul Casey: And you can learn from everything, right? Jennie Stults: Absolutely. Paul Casey: Yeah, I'm sitting at a conference, and I may not even completely connect with the person that I'm listening to, but my brain takes one of those concepts and runs with it in a applicable way for what I'm doing, or if I'm listening to a podcast, same deal. And so with the emails. And it's hard not to be compulsive because, "Oh, this newsletter came in. I've got to get something from it. Before I delete it, I have to..." And sometimes I can get a little OCD about that. But I want to learn from everything. Paul Casey: But let's go a little granular with your life here. What's yourtypical morning routine for both of you? Maybe before work, maybe once you arrive at work, do you have any rituals that help you start your day strong? Scott Sax: Well I get up, get in the shower, and get to work in 30 minutes. Paul Casey: And you probably have to get up early, right? Scott Sax: I do. And I try to get to work between 5:00 and 5:30. I did that primarily when I had little kids because I added all my time onto the beginning of the day, and tried not to take their time away from them at night, or on weekends. And so my days got longer. Now I just go to bed earlier. But so I get up, get to work, drink coffee, and I dive into those mundane emails that you're talking about, and try to get the routine stuff cleaned off my system before everybody else starts getting to work. And then I can engage people. Paul Casey: So many leaders I've interviewed use that morning time before they get interrupted by the flood of people arriving to really get some quality stuff done. Jennie Stults: So I have kind of a typical routine, at least when I'm working onsite or a project, I get up very early but I'm a very avid exerciser. So I usually am up about 3:45 and I'm exercising by about 4:15, and I really like to exercise before work. I actually get a lot of my creativity there. I do. I listen to podcasts when I'm doing stuff, I get a lot of great ideas. My team actually one time said, "You've got to stop running." Because I got on a running kick and I come into work going, "All right, I got it. This is it." Paul Casey: Something about the open road. Jennie Stults: I had a thought. So I have been accused of that. But, so I usually do that, and it's very good for me. It clears my head in the morning, it lets me focus. And I did start doing that similar to Scott because my kids were little, and that was the only time I had for a little bit of me time. And so but it does clear my head, and really get me focused and excited for the day. Paul Casey: It probably helps you avoid burnout too. Jennie Stults: It does. Yeah. Yeah. So that's my typical morning. Paul Casey: How did you both prioritize family time and yet still be high performers at work? I know the lines get blurred as you go through your career, but how did you make sure there was time for both? Scott Sax: I think the priest that married my wife and I said something to me when he was telling us how to be married, which I always thought was an interesting me for a priest to teach me how to be married. And I guess, but his explanation for that was, "I see all the problems when it's not working." Paul Casey: Oh, sure. Sure, sure. Yeah. Scott Sax Yeah. So I took his- Paul Casey: Research. Scott Sax: Exactly. But he said, "One thing you have to understand Scott..." and we had known each other for quite some time, "...is being a good father and being a good husband, one of your roles is being a provider and the way you're doing that. So providing and doing your work is a key responsibility for you as a family member." So that relieved a lot of guilt when you had to stay late or you missed a birthday, or you had to work on Christmas, or some of that stuff because that was part of my role as a dad and a husband is providing. And so, didn't relieve all of it. Okay? Scott Sax: I never missed my kids' sports and I was engaged with them in at least their goal setting of all their school. Their mom raised them. I have a amazing wife, and she did a lot of the different stuff to get them through their lives setting their goals and doing all that stuff. But I tried to never work on weekends. I tried to never take my phone out at a basketball game. And phones are detrimental to your family I believe. So putting your phones away and focused on conversation instead of texts, that is really important. So... Paul Casey: We'll tweet that. Phones are detrimental to your families. Scott Sax. Jennie Stults: So I have kind of a different thing because I had my first son when I was 23 I think, not quite 24. And so I've had a challenge of being a mom, and a single mom relatively when my kids were relatively young. And so it was a hard balance for me. I'm very open about talking about this because I think it is really important for people to know that some of us have tough barriers that way, and I never asked for anything special because of it, but it was a challenge. But I think that what I did myself is I looked for roles that I could do. So Scott talks about being the operations manager at PP and some of the other roles. I couldn't do those. It just wouldn't have worked with my family and my kids, that they needed me home at 5:00 so that I could take them to the sports and be there for the dinners. And we always had dinners together and everything. I just could not take some roles I would have liked to. Jennie Stults: But what I learned is that's okay. I had great roles. It just was different. So I think one thing I tell people when they come and ask me about advice for this, because they do know my story, is I tell them, "Look around and find the role that fits. Talk to your manager. Tell them your things, but tell him what you're willing to do." So me, I did a lot after my kids went to bed at 8:00, I'd log on the computer for an hour and a half and I'd work till 10:00 and catch up on those emails that Scott was doing at 5:00AM. I did them in 8:30 at night. Paul Casey: Sure. Jennie Stults: And I never missed deadlines. So sometimes I had to work Saturday nights when my kids were watching movies with their friends. I was working to get ahead. So I did what I needed to do, but I accepted the roles. And the other thing I did was, when I got asked to do some of these emergency roles, I would talk to the manager and say, "Look, I am a single mom. Here's my thing. But here's what I will do. I will work very hard. This is what I do, and I'll work with you." And after that, usually we can work something out. But you do have to realize I think when you do have family balance issues, but the other thing is it doesn't last forever. So my youngest just left for college. So I'm now free to go do whatever I want. And so, it's not permanent. You can work it out. So, I think people just need to try and learn that balance for them, whatever works for them. Paul Casey: Yeah. I love that. It's contentment with whatever situation you're in, and it's also being very clear with your boundaries, "Here's what I can do, here's what I can't do." And doing it with the utmost respect. Jennie Stults: Yeah, but you have to be prepared to work hard though if you do have some of those challenges. I mean I did when Saturday night and they had friends over eating pizza and everything, I would have loved to have just sat there and whatever. But, no. I was working. So it doesn't mean you don't have to work really hard, especially if I want to be a leader and go up. So... Paul Casey: Yeah. And if you want a special work arrangement, you got to almost work double hard to show that, "Hey, I'm on board." Jennie Stults: Yeah. Paul Casey: Well finally, what advice would you give to new leaders or anyone who wants to keep growing and gaining new influence? Scott Sax: Well I think being a new leader, leading is different than doing, okay? And I think having a mentor to learn your leadership stuff is very important. Colin Powell's Rules on Leadership are really my Bible on leadership. And I know which leaders in my career gave me the most positive attributes to work on. I also know which ones gave me some of the negative attributes not to work on. And so I think get a philosophy that's not perfect, but you can sink your teeth into, and anchor yourself with that. And that's what Colin Powell did for me. Scott Sax: Second thing is I think always listen and learn. You talked about cross training at the beginning of this, and I think one thing cross training really does for you is it some people think that if you're cross training, you can do all of it, right? For me, cross training gave me the ability to notice when somebody was exceptional at it. So I just knew enough to watch somebody and say, "That's the person that needs to be doing this, not me. I just know enough to appreciate real quality." So listen, learn. When you're in doubt, go do something. Find something you can do that day to cause the project, the team, the company to move forward. That gets noticed. You might not think it's getting noticed, but it is getting noticed, and those people that are always causing stuff to happen seem to advance. So that's what I'd say. Cause things to happen, continue to learn, and listen. Find your own mentor. Paul Casey: Good stuff. Jennie Stults: So, I would want to echo what Scott says about finding a mentor, and I think you need to look around for mentors. I've had some mentors. I will tell you my best ones were not the ones that were like me at all, and they weren't necessarily even the ones that I said, "Oh, this needs to be my mentor." But looking back on it, I learned the most from them. So Scott is a great leader but someone who's a lot like Scott, might actually find a better mentor in someone who's totally not him. So I actually think personally, I learn the most from mentors and leaders who I wasn't drawn to, but they challenge me in a different way. I learn something from them. Maybe even appreciation for finding someone else who is like them to counter me. So I think that but there's a lot of great leaders at Hanford as elsewhere. You can find a leader to be with that isn't in your field. I think you can learn a lot. I've learned a lot from people that have nothing to do with Hanford, and really pushed me in different ways, opened my opportunities. Jennie Stults: Volunteer is another one that I like to do. I'm on a board, Scott is on boards. Personally I've got a lot out of that. You meet a lot of different kinds of leaders that way because they're usually from a whole different wide variety of industries and stuff. And usually that way you usually can find some passion about some things, and really get into things. And then the other advice that I found in my career for being a younger leader when I was younger, and then middle age, and starting to be older, is look around. And I've coached this lot for people when they've asked some tips for success is, look around for those items that are getting just dropped. They're just going anywhere. They're the thing on the schedule that keeps pushing to the right and whatever, the things that people just are not that excited about." And even if it's not your favorite, try and embrace that and go after that because that's usually the stuff that actually you can shine at. Because to Scott's point, they'll appreciate you. Jennie Stults: So for me, I went and did the Department of Ecology job and did the regulatory thing just as kind of so I could be at home at normal hours with my kids and have a normal 8:00 to 4:30 kind of job for a while when my kids were young. But it ended up leaning me to a lot of things, and so a lot of times I do a lot of the regulatory work because it wasn't as high a priority as some of the other work. And so it made me shine in my career in different things and take on some new projects. So, I think trying to look for some of those. And I don't know about you Scott, but I've seen a lot of people shine just picking up kind of the stuff that nobody is picking up, and then all of a sudden you're looking and you're, "Wow they took off. Look at that." Paul Casey: The team says, "Hurray." Jennie Stults: Yeah, exactly. Don't know how they made that happen, but great. Scott Sax: I agree. Paul Casey: Great stuff. Well how can our listeners best connect with you both? Scott Sax: Well I'm pretty good at responding to emails, and so my corporate email is scott.sax@amentum.com. And be happy to respond to an email. Paul Casey: Thank you. Jenny Stults: And so my email just like Scott is @amentum.com jennie.stults. And I also am on LinkedIn. So people can connect with me there. And then Scott did mention the brand new website that's going to be launching for his company. So you can probably catch him there too and find out how to get him there. Paul Casey: Cool. Well thanks for all you do to make the Tri-cities a great place, and keep leading well. Let me wrap up our podcast today with a leadership resource to recommend. From a gentleman I met last year at a National Speakers Association conference: Kevin McCarthy. He specializes in blind spots that leaders have. And you might say, "I don't have any." Well that's why it's called a blind spot. So you can go to www3.blindspot.com, and you can actually take a little survey, 14 quick questions to reveal your blind spots. It's a free assessment. It actually comes with an eight page PDF, and Kevin McCarthy is his name, blindspots.com. Paul Casey: Again, this is Paul Casey. I want to thank my guests today Jennie Stults and Scott Sax from Amentum for being here today on the Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast. And we want to thank our TCI sponsor and invite you to support them. We appreciate you making this possible so we can collaborate to inspire leaders in our community. Paul Casey: Finally, one more leadership tidbit for the road. To help me make a difference in your circle of influence. The secret to leadership is simple. Do what you believe in, paint a picture of the future, go there, people will follow. Until next time, KGF, Keep Growing Forward. Speaker 3: Thank you to our listeners for tuning into today's show. Paul Casey is on a mission to add value to leaders by providing practical tools and strategies that reduce stress in their lives and on their teams so that they can enjoy life and leadership, and experience their key desired results. If you'd like more help from Paul in your leadership development, connect with him at growingforward@paulcasey.org for a consultation that could help you move past your current challenges and create a strategy for growing your life, or your team forward. Paul would also like to help you restore your sanity to your crazy schedule and getting your priorities done every day by offering you his free Control My Calendar checklist. Go to www.takebackmycalendar.com for that productivity tool, or open a text message to 72000 and type the word growing. Paul Casey: Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast was recorded at Fuse SPC by Bill Wagner of Safe Strategies.

Richa Sigdel: The chains of habit are too light to be felt until they're too heavy to be broken. I'm Richa Sigdel, and I'm Tri-City Influencer. Paul Casey: Keep reinforcing that everyone must place the common good of the team above their own agenda. If one area wins, the whole team wins. Speaker 1: Raising the water level of leadership in the Tri-Cities of Eastern Washington, it's the Tri-Cities Influencer podcast. Welcome to the TCI podcast, where local leadership and self-leadership expert Paul Casey interviews local CEOs, entrepreneurs, and nonprofit executives to hear how they lead themselves and their teams so we can all benefit from their wisdom and experience. Here's your host, Paul Casey of Growing Forward Services, coaching and equipping individuals and teams to spark breakthrough success. Paul Casey: Thanks for joining me for today's episode with Brett Spooner. Brett is the founder and CEO of Gravis Law. And, let's see, fun fact about Brett, he's just told me he's been a gamer for a long time. But specifically Brett, tell us the story. Brett Spooner: All right. Thanks for having me here today. So basically, in 1999, I started playing an MMORPG called EverQuest. Started out as a wizard named Merlin and found out a little bit about copyright and trademark law and they made me change my name. But I played that game pretty much for most of my high school career and into college, actually ended up playing it all the way through law school. Paul Casey: Through law school? Brett Spooner: I created a successful guild in the game and was the raid leader and guild leader for over a decade, and learned a lot of great leadership and soft skills managing hundreds of people on an online platform. There's a lot to be said in leading a online community, a lot of different personality quirks. You have anything from high schoolers to professional doctors and attorneys. It's a really interesting dynamic to think that in a game space, that at a given time, you might be trying to manage those different types of completely different personalities from different walks of life. I always got a lot of enjoyment, not so much out of the game, but out of the leadership and community development component. Paul Casey: That was a great link to our podcast, Brett, because the gamers are totally in for the rest of the interview and the others, it went over their head, but were like, "Oh, but you linked it to leadership." So way to go. We're going to dive in after checking with our Tri-City Influencer sponsor. Paul Casey: Barracuda Coffee, born and brewed in the Tri-City since 2003. At Barracuda Coffee, it's people first, then great coffee. Barracuda Coffee features drinks that are sure to satisfy everyone, everything from straight espresso to fruit smoothies, lattes, americanos, and mochas, to lavender green tea or matcha, chai, or chocolate milk, you are sure to find a new favorite from the menu. Try one of Barracuda's signature coffee drinks, like the Fou Sel Caramel, a salted caramel macchiato with French vanilla. It's trés bien, oui. Or the flapjack, it's just like, it sounds, it tastes like breakfast, maple syrup and all. Not a huge coffee fan? Barracuda also has Red Bull infusions with about 20 flavors to mix. For the next level hack, try a fruit flavor and add a touch of vanilla. It's a game changer. Barracudas is on Kellogg Street in Kennewick or on Van Giesen in Richland and you can find them on Facebook. Thank you for your support of leadership development in the Tri-Cities. Paul Casey: Well welcome, Brett. I was privileged to meet you several years ago, I think it was through a chamber event, and I had heard great things about you and said, "Would you speak for one of my Edge events?" Which was this thing of combining Papa John's Pizza with Preston House and professional development, had three speakers join me and we did this every other month, and I still remember your presentation on generations in the workplace. And you enlightened us all about the millennial generation. So that our Tri-City Influencers can get to know you, take us through a couple of career highlights that led you to your current position and tell us why you love what you do. Brett Spooner: Great, thanks. So, I mean I'm kind of a bit of a walking contradiction. I started out in computer science and my goal at that time was very into technology, was playing EverQuest and love video games, built most of my computers through the nineties and was doing some basically web development for the high school and was really into the technology side. So it seemed like a natural place for me to gravitate in college. I learned really quickly in undergrad that I had a fascination for more of the business side than the technical side. I didn't mind doing the software development side and the web development side, it was enjoyable when it was just kind of creative and mostly enjoyed doing it, though realized that I enjoy doing it because I like working with the clients. And as I moved through computer science, I realized I just wasn't getting what I wanted out of the utilization of my soft skills and the desire to work with business sitting at a computer all day. Brett Spooner: And so I had this moment of decision-making where I had to decide if I was going to go into the business school program or maybe explore a law degree. I ended up choosing, heading towards a law degree, leveraged a lot of my technology background on that path. But basically after undergrad, went into the workforce for four years, while my wife wrapped up her master's degree, we got married after undergrad and decided two of us working after degree did not make sense. Paul Casey: Smart. Brett Spooner: And so kept on the path to law school ended up graduating law school and starting my own practice and really just focusing on that business side of things. So Gravis started as a boutique business transactional firm. We did mostly outside general counsel for early stage companies, a lot of business formation and those types of things and it allowed me to really work with the business owners and share that knowledge. And naturally, again, I gravitated towards technology clients, so worked with software companies in the software as a service space. Brett Spooner: And that was a really great experience. I got to work with a lot of emerging companies, a lot of entrepreneurs. And through that process, I started reflecting on the legal industry and there's just so many shortcomings in law and the practice of law and the delivery of the service that I actually focused in on Gravis. Instead of continuing to grow the transactional practice, I really looked at how we could address legal service more at a larger scale nationally and we decided in 2016 to start growing Gravis. And that's what I've been focused on since 2016 is really Gravis Law as a growth company and building out a national business platform for the provision of legal service across all areas of law. Paul Casey: And tell us now how expansive Gravis has become. Brett Spooner: So we have over a hundred employees now, we're in six states, we have 14 offices and we're growing every year, we've grown 300% year over year for the last three years. It's incredible, we're probably going to hire another 50 employees next year. Paul Casey: Wow. Congratulations. And why do you love what you do? Brett Spooner: Well, I get the best mix of all areas of my interest. We leverage technology in Gravis Law really intentionally. So we have a custom software platform that we've built in the law firm that we run our practice on and helps provide delivery of service. And it's been a really fun technology component to what we do. We innovate technology in all areas of improving client service, but then I get to work with people and the business, and really focus on how to get access to law out nationally and do it in a way that's rewarding to me as an entrepreneur. Paul Casey: Very cool. And we sit here in the Fuse studio, you had a hand in Fuse as well, didn't you? Brett Spooner: Yeah, I was one of the co-founders of Fuse back in 2013 when we landed in the Tri-Cities. One of the first things I did was look for the entrepreneurial and startup community, naturally go to the chamber events and start looking around and found a group that had started a nonprofit called Room to Think, just as Room to Think was shutting down. And so we kind of did a post-mortem of why that shut down and where the need was and a group of us recognized that there was still a need for a place to aggregate those sorts of things. And that was kind of the history of Fuse. We started in an old building on G Way across the street and continued to grow and expand that to meet the demands and needs of the new businesses forming in the community. Paul Casey: And now it's helped many different people have a good start. Brett Spooner: Yeah, we've had a lot of success with early stage companies. We're seeing a big influx of freelancers over the last few years, certainly COVID has changed the dynamic a little bit about space utilization, but I think what we recognize pretty universally is that there is an exodus happening from the major metros and people are going to be at home freelancing and telecommuting into work. And so a place like Fuse allows a nice blend of human interaction and support. It's very supportive of a hybrid freelance telecommute type of scenario. Paul Casey: So throughout your journey, Brett, you've had obstacles to success. What's one of the biggest hurdles that you overcame in your career? Brett Spooner: That's a good question. I think one of the challenges to building any sort of growth company in today's ecosystem is really just a large shift in the way that the banking industry underwrites early stage companies and the entrepreneurial class, or the younger generation coming out of education with a lot of liability. So for my wife and I, we both came out with undergraduate debt and then we both had graduate debt. And so when we were launching into business, it was definitely an interesting challenge to try to decide how to deploy resources with all of the education debt and still take that leap of entrepreneurship into small business. Brett Spooner: We were very fortunate, Tracy took the stable nine to five and I kind of dove in to the small business side of things and started Gravis and other entrepreneurial pursuits. And that worked for us, we were able to balance that, but that challenge of navigating how to get that right, there were moments where I almost took the nine to five multiple times just to have the stability of that W-2 income and that risk of taking that leap, it's a big one. Paul Casey: Yeah, I coached an attorney this morning and he told me that some of the other attorneys have so much debt from their school loans that their children will be entering college and they won't have it close to paid off. Brett Spooner: I think the average right now, by the time you're done with law school, is about 150 to $200,000. So I know a lot of people where they're both went and got law degrees, Tracy has a couple of masters. The average student loan for a dual advanced degree household is north of three or $400,000. And oddly enough, the interest rates are not favorable on those. I mean, depending on the interest rate climate, but right now, most of them consolidate around 7% or 8%. So you can imagine how long you're paying to catch up on those. Paul Casey: Well, way to persevere. Brett Spooner: Yeah, thanks. Paul Casey: And leadership is still difficult, like you said, even with all that fantastic growth. What's your biggest ongoing challenge as a leader, what's really stretching you? Brett Spooner: There's this thing called the valley and people reference it differently. But for me, I think it's that moment where your business expands from a point where one leader can navigate all of the different personalities and carry that business forward. And that's usually somewhere around 20 or 30 employees, a good leader can keep everybody happy and can give everybody the right amount of time. But as you expand beyond that, and as you start growing into multiple locations or business verticals, you just can't do it. And so between 30 employees and whenever you can get the organization profitable again, which depends on the area you're in, is 'the valley'. And you're always going to be losing money as you develop management, and you grow out infrastructure necessary to scale a business because it takes an IT department all of a sudden, it takes an HR department, it takes a marketing department. Brett Spooner: There's all of these expenses that live in 'the valley' that are dangerous and full of landmines. And so getting from point A to point B usually takes years. And so you have to have an investment strategy to get through 'the valley', and you have to have a really great team that's willing to kind of persevere through all of those challenges that come out, because really what you're doing is trying to impart and empower mid-management to be successful with all the bits and pieces so you can scale the organization. It's a place you don't want to spend a lot of time. It's not a very fun area of business logistics. It's stressful. It's the times when you wake up and wonder if you're going to hit payroll, it's the, "Should I have brought in the outside IT vendor? Should I have hired the CTO? Did I make the right choice on a buy vs rent type of scenario?" All those things you have to navigate in that stretch of time. Brett Spooner: And so it's on one hand, very, very exhilarating and it's kind of like an adrenaline rush. I consider that we're through 'the valley' and it's nice to be on the other side and feel like, okay, now we can work on process and we can work on the team's doing great, but I can think of 10 or 20 stories that would take an entire podcast to tell through 'the valley'. And it's funny too because you can always talk to a business owner who is navigating and you always know if they're in it, if they've overcome it. Paul Casey: Pre-valley, mid-valley. Brett Spooner: And a lot of people go in and then they retreat and then they go in and then they retreat and they go in and it's because you have to just run through it and there has to be a way to survive to the other side. Paul Casey: Yeah. Well, just to double click on that for a moment. So for our listeners, when do you know it's time to add either another level or just another person on your team? What have you learned over the years? Brett Spooner: Well, I certainly wouldn't go into 'the valley' alone. I wouldn't be running in there by yourself without having a core team ready to run beside you because you're going to lose people along the way and you've got to be there on the other side, ideally. So it's not saying that you're taking in people to sacrifice, but you just won't make it to the other side without support. And you need to have a little bit of bench depth in key areas of the business so that as you build up new areas, you can move your focus around because you can't be everywhere at once, so you've got to have a really good right arm team left. You just got to have people on each side of you and somebody who can really watch out for core business aspects. I always say, assess your strengths and weaknesses and make sure that you've got somebody who is there to plug, be there for your weak spots, because they'll really come out to air when things get tough. Paul Casey: Yeah, stress reveals character. Brett Spooner: Yeah. It does, it does. It really does. And areas that when you're really stressed, you don't want to focus on the things that you're not good at or that are the toughest challenges. We should always go there first, but we don't. Paul Casey: We don't, that's right. So if you had a leadership philosophy that you would put front and center on a bulletin board in front of your office or on the road for all to see, what would those messages look like? Brett Spooner: I'm a big fan of the book by Marc Lesser called Know Yourself, Forget Yourself. And there's, I think, five truths in this book. I don't have them memorized unfortunately, though I pull them up in all my leadership retreats. But for me it is about embracing paradox, that everything that we say and we do in business is really contradictory and understanding that that's okay is almost an epiphany that frees you from feeling hypocritical at times, or when you run into those challenges and you can't get comfortable with the decision or the reason or the why, it's because it isn't very crystal clear. It never is. And so this idea that paradox is such a real thing, you have to know yourself really well, but at the same time, you've got to forget it. Brett Spooner: I know there's one that's like, question everything, but accept what is. You have to be able to accept both of those things. You've got to be able to help others and benefit yourself at the same time. But you can do that. You can both make a living and build an entrepreneurial destiny while helping people. And so there's five of them and at the heart of it, though, is this concept of paradox that these things are almost polarizing statements, but in the middle and in embracing both as okay extremes, we really actually find solace. Paul Casey: Yeah. It's like a tension to manage, it's not going to go away. Know Yourself, Forget Yourself. We'll put those in the show notes. Most influencers I know have a bit of visionary inside of them and I would definitely put a capital V by your name on that one, Brett. So where do you take time to dream about the future? What does that look like for you? Brett Spooner: Thanks. Yeah, that's an interesting question for me. I really have a couple extreme tendencies, I have this desire to figure out how to affect commercialization of space and work on some really hard science ideas that I have. And so I mean, for me it's, how do we resolve some of these big issues? And sometimes I feel like in entrepreneurship, we have a bunch of people running around building mobile apps and software games and we don't focus enough of our brain space on complicated issues, survival of humanity from asteroids and those types of things. I think that's where I dream. Brett Spooner: I think what we're doing in Gravis Law is fantastic, we're really bringing a lot of accessibility to a lot of people, but there are other issues that I think I dream about sometimes. And I don't know if another quirky thing about me, I really like space sci-fi, so I'm kind of a space geek, a closet case. I read a lot of books all the time and I kind of dream of space. Paul Casey: You and Elon Musk, right there. Brett Spooner: I know, it's almost a cliche now. I was thinking about this stuff before Bezos and Musk were building rocket ships so now I don't want to do that. Paul Casey: That's funny. Well, hey, before we head to our next question with Brett, a shout out to our sponsor. Barracuda Coffee, born and brewed in the Tri-City since 2003. At Barracuda Coffee, it's people first, then great coffee. Barracuda features freshly roasted coffees from their own signature roastery, Charis Coffee Roasting Company. With fresh coffee always on the shelf from all over the world, you can taste the distinct floral flavors of Latin American coffees from countries like Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Honduras. Savor the delicate berry notes that are dominant in African coffees from Burundi, Rwanda, Ethiopia, or Kenya, or go for the full earthy tones of the South Pacific coffees from Timor, Indonesia or Sumatra. Ask your barista what's fresh and try something new today. Barracuda has two locations over Van Geisen in Richland or on Kellogg Street in Kennewick. And you can find them on Facebook. Paul Casey: So Brett, what's your typical morning routine look like? Before work, once you arrive at work, do you have any rituals that help you start the day strong? Brett Spooner: My morning routine has varied a lot over the years. Most recently, we have a four year old and a six year old and so my wife and I have always balanced morning routines and pickup routines. So my morning routine is actually taking care of the kids and getting them ready in the morning. So I really tried to balance my morning routine around positive family time. I do check into work between 5:00 and 6:30 AM before the kids are up usually, I clear out my email and make sure that I can really focus on them in the morning. So basically 6:30 to 9:00, I'm spending time with the kids, reading a book, getting some quality family time in, try to really give them attention in the morning and be present. And then that kind of triggers when I'm later in the evening or have traded that pickup time in the evening, I've had that opportunity to have some quality time with them each morning before we get them off to school or in lock down, it's kind of been a weird world the last few months to say the least. Paul Casey: Yeah. You mentioned clearing your email early. So there's two schools of thought that I've read, one is don't check your email first thing in the morning, attack your priorities. The other is, I want to get ahead of anything, see if there's any disasters, sort of map out the day. So you've chosen the latter, which is clearing the email. What led you to that? Brett Spooner: Well, for me, we're on East Coast Time, we have offices on East Coast Time. So if I don't check my email at a reasonable time in the morning and our general counsel's in Florida, so we're on East Coast. So there's too big of a time lag between my 9:00 AM touching the desk, I would have an anxiety. It's almost like a need to resolve future anxiety. I mean, I'm sure probably everything would be fine if I didn't check my email, but there's enough times where a quick email in the 30 minute to an hour window I have in the morning can give a couple hour headstart to a project or get things on rails. And so I try to do that. Brett Spooner: I don't dive into every email and read them and respond to them, I'm really making sure that I've assessed if there's anything that's critical that I address in that morning window. And then I know when I'm with the kids, it's not on the back of my mind. I get to be as present as possible in that time with them in the morning. Paul Casey: Fantastic. So you've told me your schedule before, how do you not burn out, Brett? So what's the everyday grind, and of course you love work and you love your business and you love your family, how do you not burn out? Brett Spooner: Yeah, that's a good question. Well, I have burned out. I've definitely hit burnout at numerous stages in the last five years. And it's basically from 2013 until now. Tracy and I own 15, 20 businesses at this point we're owners co-founders of, and we're in real estate and we're the distillery and the software. And I think, A, I get a good diversification of business. It's a very different challenge in one business than the other. I mean, there's a lot of similarities, but it keeps things fresh. And it keeps me focused and attentive and I have to be really intentional about what I do, but I do burn out. And when it happens, I think I really end up going outside and doing yard work or finding a reset for that. And I have to make tough choices sometimes and step back on projects, which I feel bad about. There's organizations and groups that I'd like to give more of my time right now, but it's just not possible. Brett Spooner: And of course, with the family, you got to balance that too. So trying to find that healthy balance. When we started all this, we didn't have kids. So we had a couple start-ups in the household we had to navigate through as we've grown these businesses, but Tracy and I are a great team. All of our entrepreneurial efforts are really collaborative. And so we do talk about it at home and it's a way of life. It's a very integrated path. And I've said this before and talked about it, I don't believe in work-life balance, I really believe in integration. And I think it's okay to bring work home and make it a part of the house and the family and there's a lot of benefit and support to be had making it a positive thing at home. It doesn't need to be something that's shed at the door. I mean, there's aspects of it you definitely can't bring home, not the drama or the baggage, but the vision and the excitement and all the great things that we're doing for the people that we're helping, those are positive talks in our house. Paul Casey: Yeah. So I heard you say variety keeps things fresh, being able to toggle between a lot of different things that give you passion. I heard you say some kind of therapeutic activity, which could be yard work, could be just something that you can shut your brain off for a little bit and just be active. The unity with your partner is critical to your success and then stepping back once in a while, when you do get to that burnout or on the edge, I like to say, read your gauges and if you see one running a little hot, the sooner you can recognize that, you'll stay out of the weeds, out of that burnout. Brett Spooner: Yeah and it's safe to say, I do have a high tolerance for burnout though. I mean, I work a lot across all of those different things. And I mean, I enjoy it. I think that helps. I really do enjoy everything that I am working on. And I tend to let go of the things that I'm not enjoying. So it's nice to have that opportunity to make those choices and I think that keeps it fresh too. Paul Casey: Are you saying your kids were a start-up in the home? Brett Spooner: Yeah. Paul Casey: I just caught that little bit. Brett Spooner: I don't know. I remember making some bold claims about I'm going to do this many startups in this many years and shortly after that I said, "Eric, do kids count as a startup? Because I kind of feel like we've got a couple going on here." Paul Casey: I love it. Well, influencers aren't know-it-alls, but they're learners, so where do you go for the wisest advice? I know a lot of people want to bend your ear, but you of course have to keep listening as well. Those could be live people, well they're all live people, I guess, or they could be authors, motivators, industry professionals that you just sort of keep an eye on. Brett Spooner: Yeah. So I've always had a great group of mentors or other business leaders that I connect with. I do a tremendous amount of reading, and I think there's a lot to be learned from just good leadership books like Know Yourself, Forget Yourself. And I could go on the list of, great books that help really connect leadership traits. But I also think that there's a lot to be had in the soft skill side of science fiction and fantasy books as well. There's a lot of political sort of business entrepreneurial concepts that can be had just reading these different worlds and these different societies and ecosystems develop, it's really fascinating to follow the soft skill side of human tendency and read how character personalities play out over and over again. And I actually gleaned a lot from that. I don't know if a lot of people think about it that way, but as I'm reading through it, and I'm definitely assessing the personalities and psychology of a lot of the people and I think I learn a lot from that. Paul Casey: I was in a church once where they had a Star Trek group and they were deriving life lessons from the episodes. So I think that's what you're doing there. Brett Spooner: Yeah, they probably shouldn't do it that way or that's a good idea, that's a really subtle management redirect, I like how they did that. It was all offered, but it worked well, different personality types for you. Paul Casey: Yeah. So for our listeners who do like to read, are there some books that you can throw out there for us that come to mind or influencers that you would say, these are some folks that really have their head screwed on right and if you listen to their stuff, you'd probably end up on the right path? Brett Spooner: Well, definitely Know Yourself, Forget Yourself. That's probably my top recommend, especially for business leaders trying to figure out how to reconcile a lot of the things that happen in a growth company. And then Brad Feld, his Startup Communities was really an important read for me when I was trying to understand what entrepreneurial ecosystems and business development looks like in a community like the Tri-Cities. I subsequently read his book Startup Life, which I took a lot from his book, Startup Life. It's not an analogous book for a smaller midsize market, it's very much kind of maybe a little more Silicon Valley market geared, but there's absolutely some great advice in there about entrepreneurial married couples and family, and kind of how you balance the demands and the stress of being a business owner and dual working households and that sort of thing. So I found a lot of value in that, but those are some to start off with. Paul Casey: Okay. So finally, Brett, what advice would you give to new leaders or anyone who wants to keep growing and gaining more influence? Brett Spooner: Let's see. I mean for me, and I tell this to people in my organization all the time, you just got to try it, not be afraid to make a mistake and pivot. The worst thing you can do is have paralysis by analysis and I think a lot of leaders and managers are afraid to make big changes. I think you've got to build a culture of it, and I mean, we maybe sometimes tip the line at Gravis of too much change and I'll have to dial it back and I'll realize I didn't handle change control well enough, or I made too many big changes at once, but I found that the people who have grown with me in the business have really, really embraced that, I mean, they talk about it, like it's part of our business culture. Brett Spooner: I think it's important. I think it's important for new business leaders and entrepreneurs going in to just accept that the more I know and the more that I navigate through, the less I know. I think there's moments in time where I had a lot more self-confidence and then I learned like, "Wow, I really just didn't know anything. I don't even know what the hell was I doing." And so it's just, you're going to mess up and you've got to just start figuring it out. Trial and error's a real thing. Paul Casey: Yeah. Embrace change, poke the box, pivot, yep. Good stuff. Good stuff. So Brett, how can our listeners best connect with you? Brett Spooner: Brett@gravislaw.com. Happy to receive emails and always willing to have a video conference or hopefully we can start having coffee soon again and all that fun stuff, but I've always made myself available to the community. I'm always happy to go out and have lunch coffee or grab a video conference. Paul Casey: Yeah. Thanks for what you contribute to the Chamber of Commerce and just this entire Tri-Cities community. So keep leading well. Brett Spooner: Well, thanks Paul. Thanks for having me, appreciate what you guys are doing here and excited for the next 12 months in the Tri-Cities. I think we get to open up and go back to business. Paul Casey: Yay. Let me wrap up our podcast today with a leadership resource to recommend. John Kotter is one of my favorite authors for leading change, and he has an eight step process for leading change that might interest you. It's at kotterinc, K-O-T-T-E-R-I-N-C, .com. And if you really want to get better at the skill and leadership of being a change leader, you might enjoy his eight step process. Paul Casey: Again, this is Paul Casey, and I want to thank my guest Brett Spooner from Gravis Law for being here today in the Tri-Cities Influencer podcast. And we want to thank our TCI sponsor and invite you to support them too. We appreciate you making this possible so we can collaborate to help inspire leaders in our community. Finally, one more leadership tidbit for the road to help you make a difference within your circle of influence is from Julie Andrews, she says perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th. Until next time, KGF, keep growing forward. Speaker 1: Thank you to our listeners for tuning into today's show. Paul Casey is on a mission to add value to leaders by providing practical tools and strategies that reduce stress in their lives and on their teams so that they can enjoy life and leadership and experience their key desired results. If you'd like more help from Paul in your leadership development, connect with him at growingforward@paulcasey.org for a consultation that can help you move past your current challenges and create a strategy for growing your life or your team forward. Speaker 1: Paul would also like to help you restore your sanity to your crazy schedule and getting your priorities done every day by offering you his free Control My Calendar checklist, go to www.takebackmycalendar.com for that productivity tool or open a text message to 72000 and type the word growing. Paul Casey: Tri-Cities Influencer podcast was recorded at Fuse SPC by Bill Wagner of Safe strategies.