Podcasts about Goodwill Industries

Steve Preston is the CEO of Goodwill Industries. Though Goodwill is known for big stores where people can donate clothes and buy them secondhand, those stores are just the first level of what Goodwill Industries are about. Those stores fund an international organization that provides job training, employment placement services and other community-based programs for people who face barriers in their employment. Steve joins Jay to discuss the ways Goodwill Industries support veterans and individuals who lack job experience, an education, or face employment challenges, such as those people who are formerly incarcerated. Today's episode was produced by Tani Levitt and Mijon Zulu. To check out more episodes or to learn more about the show, you can visit our website Allaboutchangepodcast.com. If you like our show, spread the word, tell a friend or family member, or leave us a review on your favorite podcasting app. We really appreciate it. All About Change is produced by the Ruderman Family Foundation. Episode Chapters 0:00 intro 1:02 The Goodwill you don't know 4:33 The troubling reality of work reintegration for formerly incarcerated folks 10:00 How Steve brings his public-sector experience to Goodwill  11:17 Goodwill's employment centers 15:51 The interplay between Goodwill's national and local arms 24:07 The case for minimizing recidivism becoming a cross-party cause 27:05 Goodbye For video episodes, watch on www.youtube.com/@therudermanfamilyfoundation Stay in touch: X: @JayRuderman | @RudermanFdn LinkedIn: Jay Ruderman | Ruderman Family Foundation Instagram: All About Change Podcast | Ruderman Family Foundation To learn more about the podcast, visit https://allaboutchangepodcast.com/ Looking for more insights into the world of activism? Be sure to check out Jay's brand new book, Find Your Fight, in which Jay teaches the next generation of activists and advocates how to step up and bring about lasting change. You can find Find Your Fight wherever you buy your books, and you can learn more about it at ⁠⁠⁠www.jayruderman.com⁠⁠⁠.

Dr. Jeannelle Perkins is a Psychotherapist, Licensed Family Therapist, and SC State Supervisor with over 20 years of experience. She holds degrees from the University of Maryland and Capella University and is licensed in GA, FL, and SC.She serves on the board of Charleston Hope, an organization enhancing mental health access in Title I schools. As an adjunct professor at The Citadel and practicum supervisor for Capella and Liberty Universities, Dr. Jeannelle mentors future clinical counselors.At the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), Roper St. Francis Hospital, and Goodwill Industries, she guided employees in turning interactions into meaningful connections, boosting success and productivity. Her "Into-Me-See" system has been shown to increase productivity by 66%, reduce absenteeism by 81%, and improve relationship satisfaction by 34%.A 2024 TEDx Charleston participant, Dr. Jeannelle addressed the impact of racism on Black intimacy. Her book, Into-Me-See, delves into the challenges Black couples face and offers solutions to strengthen relationships.Dr. Jeannelle is a sought-after international speaker on topics like mental health, emotional intelligence, trauma, and racial anxiety. She has presented at conferences including the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (AAMFT), the International Association of Marriage and Family Counselors (IAMFC), and the Lowcountry Mental Health Conference (LMHC).She has been featured in Essence Magazine, Newsweek, and Vice Magazine, and has appeared on AFRO News, Fox 24 Charleston, and more. Her lived experiences with adoption, blended families, and divorce bring depth to her therapeutic work.Living in Charleston, SC, with her dog Jade, Dr. Jeannelle has two daughters and a partner. She believes "the greatest generational wealth is mental and emotional wellness."Website- www.drjeannelle.com Instagram- @drjeannelleTicktock- @dr.jeannellelmftMaster of Your Crafts is a captivating podcast featuring conversations with individuals who have dedicated themselves to mastering their craft. Whether it's a gift, talent or skill that comes naturally to them, these individuals have taken ownership and honed their abilities to perfection. Through deep conversation, we delve into their inner dialogue, actions and life circumstances offering words of wisdom to empower and guide you on a journey to becoming the master of your own craft.For more information, visit our website https://masterofyourcrafts.com and Bright Shining Light Website: https://brightshininglight.comStay connected with us:- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/masterofyourcrafts- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MasterOfYourCrafts/- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1M0vp9HoK7kkP1w4ij7PJd?si=7d383a92b93b4e2c- ApplePodcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/master-of-your-crafts/id1512818795- Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.ca/podcasts/b15079de-bc6a-487c-b8f8-faca73d0f685/master-of-your-crafts- Google Play: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0...

In this episode of the Faith Driven Entrepreneur Podcast, host Justin Forman sits down with Steve Preston, CEO of Goodwill Industries, to discuss his remarkable journey from Wall Street executive to nonprofit leader. Unlike the typical path of chasing wealth and status, Steve shares how he made intentional decisions to prioritize purpose over prestige throughout his career.After starting at Lehman Brothers, Steve felt a tug that his faith was calling him toward a different path. He made a deal with God that he would "never make a decision for money, for prestige, or for power," which ultimately led him to leave banking on the cusp of making partner. His journey continued through corporate America, government service (including running the Small Business Administration during Hurricane Katrina recovery), and eventually to Goodwill, where he now leads one of America's most recognized nonprofit organizations.Key Highlights:Steve's countercultural decision to leave Wall Street's wealth and prestige to follow God's callingThe rich history of Goodwill beginning as a church-based ministry to help Boston's poorest residentsHow Goodwill provides holistic support to help people overcome barriers to employmentThe innovative prison education programs helping reduce recidivism rates to just 5%The power of corporate partnerships in scaling social impactHow writing a personal mission statement helped Steve identify his callingThe importance of seeing potential in people that they don't yet see in themselvesQuotable Moments:"I felt like God said, I've taken you thus far. Will you really go where I'm taking you? And worse, most of the people in my close-in circle said, you're crazy... And I had this moment where I thought to myself, I have been like every other American watching these horrific stories on television and wondering what I could do.""Our founder's story and our founder's vision 125 years later is still very much a part of who we are... It was all deeply based in the conviction that every human being has embedded potential.""I often say, when somebody comes through our door, we often see more in them than they see in themselves."

Welcome to this episode of The award-winning BrandBuilders Podcast! Today, we have Meredith Robinson in the studio with us. Meredith is the Director of Brand Experience for Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont, an organization that has been transforming lives through the power of work since 1965. As a leader in nonprofit marketing and community engagement, Meredith has played a pivotal role in connecting Goodwill's mission with the community it serves. From innovative workforce development programs to creative marketing strategies, Meredith ensures that Goodwill's impact is felt far and wide. We'll dive into the incredible work she's doing and explore how Goodwill's retail operations fuel life-changing opportunities for individuals and families across the region.

London Chamber of Commerce CEO Graham Henderson talks about a chance to meet the federal candidates in London. It will happen on Wednesday, Apr. 16 at Goodwill Industries.

Goodwill Industries Tim Kralavik speaks with Fred about their mission and the impact non-Goodwill collection bins have on what they do in the community. 

Send us a textWeston Lockhart serves as an Advisor with SVN Stone Commercial Real Estate focusing on Retail Real Estate. He is a native of Lexington and received a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Kentucky.During his time at SVN, Weston has worked successfully with clients assisting with asset acquisition/disposition, site selection for national and local retailers, and property repositioning through lease-up.Weston serves as the Kentucky / Tennessee Talent Development Chair for ICSC and is heavily involved in Retail Real Estate in the Southeast. Weston has worked closely on portfolio expansion with the following tenants: Popeyes Chicken, Goodwill Industries of Kentucky, Driven Brands, Ractetrac, Five Guys Burgers and Fries, Pizza Hut, Bargain Hunt, Take 5 Oil Change & more. Being in a relationship-driven industry, he views himself as another team member for Emerging Brands, Developers, and Investors in order to achieve their goals and optimize their respective businesses and investment portfolios._______________________________Find Weston onLinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/weston-lockhartReal Estate:https://myelisting.com/commercial-agent/weston-lockhart-131289/X:https://x.com/WestonBLockhart/status/1795650024480583962Stone Commercial Real Estate:https://svnstone.com/our-team/?brokerId=weston.lockhart%40svn.comDevelopLex Podcast:https://www.middletech.com/developlexBuild Out:https://buildout.com/plugins/51/svnlex.com/brokers/weston.lockhart@svn.com?pluginId=0&iframe=true&embedded=true&brokerId=weston.lockhart%40svn.com&cacheSearch=trueFacebook:https://www.facebook.com/developlexpod/_______________________________Show hosted by Landry Fieldshttps://www.x.com/landryfieldz'https://www.linkedin.com/in/landryfields/https://www.instagram.com/landryfields_https://www.youtube.com/@landryfields_www.novainsurancegroup.com859-687-2004

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How can retailers embrace sustainability and drive social impact at scale? In this episode of RETHINK Retail, host Lisa Amlani sits down with Bev Kobe, President & CEO of Goodwill Industries, to discuss how Goodwill is redefining retail through the circular economy, resale innovation, and social enterprise. Goodwill is more than just a thrift store-it's a leader in sustainability and job creation, diverting billions of pounds from landfills while employing those who need it most. ⏱ Timestamps: [00:00] Introduction to RETHINK Retail [01:20] Meet Bev Kobe, CEO of Goodwill Industries [03:45] The scale of Goodwill: 154 networks and 6 billion pounds of goods collected [07:10] How Goodwill is innovating in circular retail [12:30] Sustainability goals: resale, recycling, and reducing waste [17:50] Beyond retail: Goodwill's impact on communities and job creation [22:15] Take-back programs & retailer partnerships [27:30] Final thoughts: How brands can start their circular journey

GIVEAWAY - send us a message and let us know your favorite thing about the Square Pizza Pod. We are giving away SchermCo swag to the first three people that send us a note!Welcome back to another episode of the #squarepizzapod. This week, Greg is in conversation with Chris Jackson, President and CEO, Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont.In this episode: Leadership Journey & Connection to GoodwillThe CEO shares their leadership story and commitment to community serviceGoodwill Overview:$80M annual budget1,200 team membersServes 9,000+ residentsKey programs include Donate & Shop, training programs, Opportunity Campus, and construction skills trainingWhat People Should Know About Goodwill Focus on empowering individuals through workforce development and community support.Future Vision (2025 & Beyond) Expanding workforce programs and community outreach to meet evolving needs.Team Culture Strong, inclusive culture is key to success, and Goodwill continues to nurture this environment.Workforce DevelopmentDiscusses the importance of partnerships and key requirements for successful programs.Leadership PrinciplesEmphasizes collaboration, community impact, and empowerment as guiding leadership values.Support the show

We spoke with Richard Borer President of Goodwill Industries of Southern New England about how the organization supports the community.

In this episode, we go beyond the thrift store and explore how Goodwill Industries of Southeast Texas & Southwest Louisiana is transforming lives through workforce development. Michelle Richer-Mengerink, Vice President of Mission Services, shares how Goodwill provides job training, career services, digital skills education, and financial empowerment programs to help individuals achieve long-term success. Tune in to learn how Goodwill is breaking barriers to employment and creating opportunities in our community. Michelle also previews upcoming initiatives including a new location in Jasper with their sixth career center, a new retail location in Groves, and a financial literacy program launching later in the year. For more information, visit https://goodwilltxla.org/.

Building Resilience and Disrupting HR with Chrissy Myers | The Beacon Way PodcastIn this episode of The Beacon Way Podcast, host Adrian welcomes Chrissy Myers, CEO of AUI and Clarity HR, and author of 'Reluctantly Resilient'. Chrissy shares her journey of taking over and scaling her family business, starting a new venture, and leading through personal and professional challenges. They discuss the importance of resilience, authenticity in leadership, and navigating the evolving HR landscape. Tune in to hear Chrissy's insights on managing generational businesses, the impact of the pandemic on work environments, and the critical role of peer groups for business leaders.About Chrissy Myers: Chrissy is the author of Reluctantly Resilient and the CEO of AUI and Clarity HR which serve small and medium sized businesses in both for profit and non-profit sectors in the areas of Human Resources and Employee Benefits.  Chrissy describes herself as the chief cheerleader setting direction, steering marketing content, and finding creative ways to disrupt two established business sectors.  Chrissy is also the author of AUI Gives Back & Clarity Cares two community impact programs where employees serve in the community, track their impact and share what they are doing on behalf of their customers.  Around Akron Chrissy works to leave her community a better place.  She is a graduate of Leadership Ohio, Torchbearers, Leadership Akron, Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses, Sclaerator NEO and Community Leadership Institute.  She has received the 30 for the Future Award from the Greater Akron Chamber and an Achievement on Excellence Award from National Sales and Marketing Executives.  As an advocate for families struggling with addiction and mental health issues, Chrissy currently serves as Chair for the County of Summit Alcohol, Drug Addiction, and Mental Health Services Board, and is a member of the Board of Directors for the Greater Akron Chamber and Goodwill Industries of Northeast Ohio.  Previously Chrissy has served on the Board or Committees for Jobs for Ohio Graduates, Red Oak Behavioral Health, Community Partnership of Summit County, and Social Venture Partners. Chrissy received her bachelor's in business administration from John Carroll University and her MBA from the University of Akron.  When she is not plotting world domination of the insurance industry or volunteering in the community Chrissy can be found at home with Team Awesome Sauce including Steve, her husband, two kiddos - Maddy & Caleb.  Purchase Chrissy's Book Here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D4RHL17L?ref=cm_sw_r_ffobk_cp_ud_dp_4FJ68Q15WSE8XVMMHHCQ&ref_=cm_sw_r_ffobk_cp_ud_dp_4FJ68Q15WSE8XVMMHHCQ&social_share=cm_sw_r_ffobk_cp_ud_dp_4FJ68Q15WSE8XVMMHHCQ&bestFormat=true00:00 Introduction to the Beacon Way Podcast00:46 Chrissy Myers' Background and Journey01:57 Generational Business and AUI's History04:11 Launching Clarity HR07:07 Navigating HR Challenges During COVID-1914:54 Resilience and Leadership as a CEO18:16 Navigating Entrepreneurial Challenges18:40 The Myth of Perfection in Business19:25 Authenticity in Leadership20:08 Balancing Transparency and Leadership20:56 Building Resilient Teams23:05 The Reality of Startup Life24:53 Managing Growth and Transitions26:41 The Entrepreneurial Mindset34:32 The Importance of Peer Groups

Aimee Resnick, a senior at Northwestern University, interviews Steven Preston, CEO of Goodwill Industries International, on the “Weinberg in the World” podcast. Steven reflects on his time at Northwestern, highlighting his major in political science and his transformative junior year in Munich. He also shares how his unexpected passion for statistics influenced his career in investment banking and leadership roles.  Transcript: Aimee Resnick: Welcome to the Weinberg in the World podcast, where we bring stories of interdisciplinary thinking in today's complex world. My name is Aimee Resnick and I'm your student host of the special podcast episode. I am a senior studying social policy at Northwestern University who plans to pursue public administration in my home state of Colorado. Today, I'm excited to be speaking with Steven Preston, who is the CEO at Goodwill Industries International. Thank you, Steven, for taking the time to speak with me today. Steven Preston: Yeah, thank you for having me. I'm looking forward to it. Aimee Resnick: Me too. To start us off today, I was wondering if you can tell us a little bit more about your time at Northwestern as an undergraduate in terms of what did you study and what were the most impactful experiences for you that led you to your current career path? Steven Preston: Yeah, so I was a political science major. And Northwestern, it was kind of a big thing for me. I kind of grown up in a medium-sized town up in Wisconsin and going to Northwestern kind of introduced me to a whole new world that I didn't even know existed of people from different places and that type of thing. I'd say there are two things, a couple of things that were really important. Number one is I was actually a poli-sci major with an international politics focus. So number one, it gave me a perspective on the world and how the world operates, which is something I didn't have as an 18-year-old coming to college. Number two, I took that further and I actually did a junior year in Munich program, and this was before the wall had come down, so east, west. International relations were what really defined kind of the global dynamic. So it was just a remarkable opportunity to study with different people in a different language right on the border of what was kind of definitional for international politics. And that year, I felt like I kind just burgeoned intellectually and academically and personally. The other thing I would say, that may not be what most people would expect, but I took a statistics class and I loved it. And I took more and I took more and I took graduate statistics classes and I became kind of like a quant poli-sci major. And that really was valuable for me because it was a way through which I could marry a topic that we think of as not being very quantitative and do a lot of research within political science using statistics, whether it was voter trends or national expenditures and how that relates to different government structures. And that became really important to me when I went into investment banking. I got an MBA in finance and [inaudible 00:02:38] Wall Street, and the ability to connect data with what felt like qualitative issues was really definitional to my path forward. Later, I became a CFO and a CEO and for the rest of my life, I really connected those two concepts in a way that was really powerful for what I was able to do professionally. Aimee Resnick: Absolutely. Thank you so much for sharing your response. And I think it's really fascinating how you were able to take a lot of the skills that you gained at Northwestern in your more non-traditional courses like statistics and apply them to a more impactful career pivot later in your life like we typically encourage at Weinberg. So thank you for sharing that experience. Steven Preston: Yeah. Well, I'll tell you, it's one of the requirements I have for my kids is they all have to have some proficiency in statistics now. So yeah, it's become multigenerational. Aimee Resnick: I'm sure they love that requirement. I say as someone who's not the biggest math person ever. But I'd love to hear a little bit more about your current career right now as well, as the CEO of Goodwill Industries. And I noted in your video introduction to the 2023 annual report for Goodwill, you mentioned that Goodwill is about possibilities of hope for the people who receive services. And in that same report, you described how over 140,000 people found new employment after receiving services through your organization in workforce development. So I was wondering if you could just tell us a little bit more about how Goodwill promotes economic opportunity across the United States and why that mission particularly resonates with you. Steven Preston: Yeah, so the people we serve are not the people that you're going to college with right now. 83% of the people we serve are people with a high school degree or less. In fact, about a third of the people never finished high school. And many of these people have other challenges in life. Some of them have gone down very difficult pathways, people coming out of incarceration, people who are experiencing poverty, even people who are experiencing homelessness. And what we often do in society is make assumptions about those people and make assumptions about what's possible. And we sort of relegate them, in many cases, into a category of, well, that's kind of who they are and that's what their life is going to be like. But the truth is that embedded in every one of those people is a massive amount of potential and talent. And in most cases, and I really say in most cases, those are people who, because of opportunities they've been given or not given, because of their circumstances in life, because of their pathways, have never been able to develop those capabilities. And in fact, have never really known how to, because they didn't have access to good education, they weren't surrounded by people who could give them advice. They didn't really know what the possibilities were. So what we do is we work with people to sit with them and say, "What are the possibilities for your life? And how do we help you get there?" So one of the most important things we do when somebody comes to us is really do an assessment of what their skills are, what their hopes are, but also what their challenges are. A lot of times, their challenges might be training or skills related, but they also may have challenges with behavioral issues. They may be, many of them don't have housing or have insecure housing. Many of them don't have core financial skills, so they know even how to get through life with a small amount of income. So if we can work with people to help them stabilize those sort of personal aspects of their life, at the same time that we can provide them with skills that are attractive to employers, we can help them move from a very difficult place to a place where they are flourishing and where they have a fundamentally different future, and a future that allows them to take care of themselves and grow and learn much more. What we often find is once we've supported somebody and they land that first job and they're successful and they see the people they work with and what the possibilities are, it's not just that their lives have changed to get to that job, it's that the trajectory of their life has changed because many of those people begin investing themselves, learning more, getting better jobs. And then the other great thing is it's often multi-generational because their kids benefit, or if they don't have kids and they had them later, they benefit. And it really breaks a cycle of poverty and brokenness that's very difficult to break. And that's why we talk about the possibilities and we talk about hope because that's really where we live. For me personally, I came from what I would call pretty humble background. So I think just in a couple of generations, I've seen what education and opportunity has done for me. But I think on a bigger scale, I've lived in a number of major cities early on, when I was in my 20s, I spent a lot of time in tough neighborhoods in New York working with kids in difficult situations and trying to help them move on. So I feel like I've seen it up front in what's possible. And then when I worked in the government, I was the secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and that is really the federal agency that deals mostly with poverty issues. And seeing intergenerational poverty and seeing people unable to do something about it is a sort of a dispiriting situation, and I believe we can do something about it. And really, Goodwill I think is, well, I know Goodwill is the largest nonprofit that is trying to change the landscape for many of those people, and hundreds of thousands of people find a different opportunity because of us. Aimee Resnick: I think that's a really excellent transition because I actually do want to talk to you a little bit more about your experience with housing and urban development. So for context, in 2008, you were nominated by President George W. Bush to serve as the secretary of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. And I'd just like to hear a little bit more about how you started this large career in public service, and then a little bit potentially about how your public sector experiences under George W. Bush have shaped your approach to private sector leadership in your current career. Steven Preston: Yeah. So I think one of the important things was I spent almost 25 years in the private sector before I went into the government. So I had been an investment banker, I had been a CFO, I had been a corporate leader. And I say that because many times, young people coming out of college will say, "I want to go into nonprofit, what do I do?" And one of the first things I say to people when they come to me is, "Think about the early part of your career especially as a time where you are learning and growing and developing and getting the skills you need to be effective later in your career." And many kids, many people will go in a nonprofit and have a wonderful career. But I had 25 years in the private sector to prepare before going into the government and later into nonprofit. And those skills, both as somebody with an MBA and somebody who grew up through the corporate world, have been incredibly valuable for me in my career. So I want to mention that. So the first thing I did when I went into the government is I ran the Small Business Administration and the Small Business Administration makes loans to people who've lost their homes in a national disaster. And I came in after Katrina and most people hadn't gotten their loans yet. So I applied those skills from the private sector to figure out how to fix the operational and technology and financial issues to accelerate loans to people who needed to rebuild after the disaster. So toward the end of my tenure at the SBA, the housing and financial crisis was mushrooming. And because of the experiences I had as a banker and a CFO and the experiences I had in working in a federal disaster, the president asked me to go to Housing and Urban Development to work on the housing crisis. I give you the background because that's how I got there. I got there because my experience and my background were sort of uniquely prepared me to be able to do that. I would not be a typical HUD secretary because I didn't have a poverty housing background, but I understood financial markets. I understood operational fixes. I understood national crises and media by that point because you do a lot of... You're on television a lot, you're dealing with Congress. So I was uniquely qualified to do this for that time in history, which was the financial crisis. So one of the greatest things about serving in these situations was the, and I really do, I think it was incredible blessing to be able to serve in a crisis because when you're in the middle of a crisis, people need leadership, they need people who can pull them together to fix the problems. People want to be part of a team that's doing something great. And if you're successful, a ton of people have seen their lives improved, whether it's an ability to rebuild their home after Katrina, in the financial crisis, whether it's the ability to stay in your home if you're being foreclosed, or we were able to rebuild public housing in New Orleans, and sort of the two came together. The public housing had been destroyed in Katrina. And when I came to HUD, we worked on rebuilding it. So if you have that opportunity, even though it's extremely stressful to work in a crisis, you also have an opportunity to have a very big impact. And you have an opportunity to have sort of restorative or a kind of healing impact on an organization that's in stress. So it really hits on a number of different levels. It comes with stress, but it also comes with what I would say great blessing and great opportunity, both for the people you're serving with and the people who benefit from this service. So that was really what that felt like. And then the other part of that is it wasn't just about housing. Some people who know about that era of history will know what the acronym TARP stands for. TARP was a large allocation of capital that the federal government made to support housing and the financial system. That money ended up going into financial institutions to save them. And I was on the board of the TARP with Secretary Paulson and the head of the Fed, Ben Bernanke and two other people, which sort of put me right in the center of seeing what was happening across the financial sector around the world and how we were going to work to save it. And that was just, it was a remarkable time. I think it was terrifying for many people because we saw what could happen if the world financial system was going to break down. And thankfully, it was averted, although there was just a massive impact from the financial fallout, really from early to mid 2008 going into well into 2009 before things started to recover. Aimee Resnick: Absolutely. And that actually brings me to something I'm very curious about, bringing you back to your poli-sci roots. A lot of young people today kind of feel a large sense of distrust in the government, especially on campus at this time, which I've seen some people describe as a new type of political crisis, almost like that you experienced back in the Katrina era. And I'm curious, what steps did you concretely take to rebuild trust, and in particular with the Small Business Administration, because it was somewhat disoriented when you began? And how do you think that can be applied to the current context? Steven Preston: Well, so first of all, yeah, trust has been declining in federal government for a long time, and I think we're absolutely at a nadir right now. And for me, it's very distressing to see, because I think there are good reasons for people's concern. But it's also really important for people to believe that if they go into it, they can make a difference. What I did when I went to the SBA, I found... One of the biggest benefits I had is I'd never been in the government, I didn't really know how it worked. They brought me in because I knew finance and I knew operational change and they wanted things fixed. And I got brought in and sometimes I would say, "How do I do this?" Or, "We want to fix this and this is how we're going to do it." And people would say, "No, you can't because there's a regulation or a law and you got to do it this way." And I'd say, "That can't possibly be true." There's nothing logical about my having to do that to make this decision. But yeah, well, it's a law that's been on the books for a long time. So one of the benefits I had is I came in and I needed to know how it worked, but I didn't need to be overly shackled in how I did this. So when I first got nominated, so before I even got to Washington, I was in the George Bush administration and a lot of Republicans were kind of briefing me. And the Democrat head on my oversight committee was John Kerry at the time. He had just lost the election for president. And they were the committee that the Senate does the nomination, they were the ones who were going to approve my nomination. And I just said, "Well, nobody... I'm not talking to any Democrats. Why..." So I called up the people briefing me and I said, "I want to talk to John Kerry's chief of staff." And they're like, "Why?" I said, "Because I'm hearing what you guys are saying, but I don't..." I know I'm a Republican nominee, but I'm not like a super partisan guy and we're all trying to fix this problem. I want to hear what they're saying. And as a business person, the first thing I'm thinking is you hear from all your customers, you hear from all your stakeholders, you want to build the first... So I talked to her and she was really surprised, and she kind of gave me her thinking on it. Once I got to the administration, I said to my team, "We're all about transparency. I'm going to invite the Democrats to do briefings on how we're doing fixing this problem." And they said, "Well, no, you're going to give them fodder to come against you in the press," and blah, blah, blah. I'm like, "We all want to fix it, right?" So I started holding briefings at the SBA office on the measures we were taking to fix the problem, the data that we were seeing on how big the problem was, once we started fixing it, the improvements. And I actually became very friendly with the teams on both sides of the aisle. When I got nominated for the HUD job, I needed to get confirmed by the Senate. By that time, the Senate was Democrat and I was a Republican nominee. The two most important reasons I got through that nomination process quickly were John Kerry and Dick Durbin, who was the number two person in the Senate. He was head of my appropriations committee. And the reason was because we were completely transparent with their teams. We worked with them very closely. We had them over for briefings. And we developed those relationships because they trusted us. So what I would say is you can be somebody who works both sides of the aisle. And by the way, most of the time, as an agency head, most of the time, you're going to be working on issues that aren't necessarily big political issues. You're serving people, you're trying to improve something. You've got a program that you maybe want to tweak to make it better. And when we go into a situation assuming that people are going to attack us and be against us, sometimes there's a reason for that, right? It is pretty fiery. But I think we have to go into it saying, "Let's win them over." Let's help them understand that we're all trying to get to the same place. We might disagree on the best way to get there. And most of those people just want to do their jobs really well and be part of something good. So some of my fondest memories were working with people really on both sides of the aisle. And I'm very grateful I had the opportunity to do that. And we probably see less, it felt like it was really kind of fighting all the time back then, but oh my goodness, it's at a whole different level now. And I also think President Bush was very focused on bipartisanism. He did a lot of work with people on the other side of the aisle. The financial rescue package was very much negotiated with both sides. Believe it or not, back then, he had negotiated an immigration bill that was more heavily supported by Democrats and Republicans. But because of an impending election, a lot of people didn't feel comfortable supporting it because they were concerned about winning re-election. But many of those things were worked on with both sides of the aisle, even though there were plenty of partisan politics at the time as well. Aimee Resnick: Really, I like that idea of having optimistic view towards bipartisanship and hopefully seeing that expand into the future in the next decades as a way to build public trust. I absolutely agree, that's critical. And I think we'll move on to our last question because I recognize we're coming up on our time, but I want to ask you, what do you wish you could tell yourself when you were me, a senior who's interested in public service and policy, who's about to graduate? What do you wish you could say to that 22-year-old version of you? Steven Preston: So yeah, it's what I tell people. I've had a chance to talk to students at Northwestern a couple of times, not recently, but I've talked to a couple of classes with Diane Schanzenbach who's on the policy side there. And I've spoken at a couple of other schools. And I tell them, one of the pieces of advice I give is very consistent. You all are really smart. You are getting a great education. You are learning critical thinking skills. But our society is very much about groupthink. And when we see the political divide or the divide on policies, you don't hear a lot of talk about the deep research on one side of the policy or the other. And we see it actually in Congress. I think we've seen fewer deep policy thinkers than we did 10 years ago, or certainly 20 or 30 years ago. So my encouragement is, even if you have strong views on something, challenge them, look at the data. And in the area that we focus on is a perfect issue. Why do we have intergenerational poverty? What will change it? What really has to happen? And when you think about where that debate lies, it's pretty fiery, and you've got all sorts of people fighting about these issues. But we don't have nearly enough people saying, "Let's look at the data on what really helps somebody." You guys are in Chicago. What really helps somebody who's a little boy or girl who's born in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago or some other tough neighborhood? What are the factors that make it very difficult for them to have the kind of life that most of the people you go to college have? And what can we change in that person's life? Whether it's the kind of schooling they get, whether it is the kind of family support they have, whether it's the protections we give them. Whether it's when they come out of high school, if they do need a little bit of support to get on the right track, how do we do that? What kind of youth... What truly does it take to help a person flourish in society? Or in our world, somebody who's coming out of prison? We have all these big narratives. You guys are the ones, because you're super smart, you got a fantastic education, you're taking statistics, like I recommended, you can dig deep. And when you see something where you say, "I need to challenge my thinking. I know I've been telling myself this, but I actually don't see this. Or I think I need to understand it deeper." We need deep policy thinkers. And the other thing is, if you're going into business, everybody's going to say find the right solution and see the data. But in the policy world, a lot of times that stuff doesn't happen to the degree that it needs to. So use that great education and be rigorous, be tough thinkers, ask tough questions, even if it takes you to a place that maybe doesn't align with what you think is the case today, because that's what's going to help us have a better world. And you know what? Those are the conversations we need to be having across the table from each other. We can be having rigorous arguments about the right policy decision, but if we're going to do it, let's look at the facts and let's really pressure test those because that's what's going to help us all have a better world. Aimee Resnick: Thank you, I really appreciate that idea of having Northwestern graduates go out into the world and just make it a better place. That's very encouraging. Steven Preston: Well, I love Northwestern, and I don't live in Chicago anymore, so I'm sad that I can't go to those games and go to the concerts on campus and talk to students as easily as I used to. But I just think it's a terrific place, and thank you for giving me an opportunity to chat with students indirectly. Aimee Resnick: Oh, of course. I think with that, I will say thank you to our listeners for listening to this special episode of the Weinberg in the World podcast. We hope you have a good day. And as Steven just mentioned, go Cats. Steven Preston: Go Cats. Take care.  

Welcome to the Back to Business Podcast, where we spotlight Calgary's industry leaders and delve into the heart of entrepreneurialism in our vibrant city!Matt Ashdown serves as the Director of Mission Impact at Goodwill Industries of Alberta, where he drives initiatives to build inclusive communities and create meaningful employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities and other barriers. With over 25 years of leadership experience in disability services and community development, Matt combines expertise with a deep passion for equity and empowerment. A graduate in Community Rehabilitation and Disability Studies, he is dedicated to fostering belonging and growth through purposeful work. Matt's leadership is grounded in collaboration, innovation, and a commitment to positive social impact.Get Connected With Matt:https://www.goodwill.ab.cahttps://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-ashdown-9188462b/Visit www.calpeteclub.com for information on our next networking and membership opportunities.https://calpeteclub.com/https://twitter.com/calpeteclubhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/calgary-petroleum-club-3a5868117/https://www.facebook.com/calpeteclubhttps://www.youtube.com/user/calpeteclub

To kick off Black History Month, we are buzzing about Melrose Plaza in the historically African-American community of Northwest Roanoke. It's located in a once thriving Black neighborhood that was decimated in the 1950s and 1960s by discriminatory redlining and eminent domain.Last time on our show, BUZZ creator Michael Hemphill talked with E.B. Smith, the new executive director of the Harrison Museum of African American Culture, which is considering a move from downtown Roanoke, Virginia, to Melrose Plaza.Today Michael chats with Zenith Barrett, vice-president of advancement at Goodwill Industries of the Valleys, which is coordinating the $30 million Melrose Plaza project. Melrose Plaza will feature anchor facilities to create positive change and address the community's most vital needs – affordable food, healthcare, education for adults, and financial independence. 

We talk strategy with the CEO of a popular Louisville attraction on this week's Access Louisville podcast.DeVone Holt has been at the helm of the Muhammad Ali Center, as president and CEO since September. He's the first in the organization's history to hail from Louisville. On the show he talks about how he plans to both foster local relationships and expand the organization's reach. “It really has been a whirlwind of activity,” Holt said on the podcast, which was recorded with LBF Editor-in-Chief Shea Van Hoy in late December. Holt spoke about the immense honor of spreading Muhammad Ali's legacy around the world, calling it “literally one of the greatest honors of my professional career.” Ali is revered by people from all walks of life and continues to inspire the center's mission, he said.Holt worked for Goodwill Industries of Kentucky prior to his CEO appointment and helped shepherd the organization's $50 million Opportunity Campus development in West Louisville. He speaks about his roots growing up in West Louisville before attending Doss High School. That's something we reported in our recent holiday feature on where several local executives went to high school.The Muhammad Ali Center welcomed about 150,000 guest in 2023, ranking it among the area's largest tourist attractions. Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. It's available on popular podcast services, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Demi Knight Clark joined us on The Fabricator Podcast to talk about her efforts to open career pathways in the welding and manufacturing industries to people of all backgrounds and genders. She talks about how her grandmother's work as a Rosie the Riveter during World War II fueled Clark's own interest in the trades, pivoting from a career in construction, focusing on workforce development initiatives that engage underrepresented populations, and partnering with welder Nate Bowman on initiatives with Lincoln Electric, Goodwill Industries, Marketing Metal, and more. Clark emphasizes the need for more inclusive recruiting, welcoming environments, and mentorship to attract and retain a diverse workforce in the skilled trades. Her mission is to "put welding in places where welding is not" and inspire the next generation to see the opportunities in modern manufacturing. This episode was recorded at FABTECH 2024 in Orlando, Fla. Email us at podcast@fmamfg.org with any comments, questions, or suggestions.

This episode features a conversation with DeVone Holt, a prominent figure in workforce development and organizational culture. DeVone shares his unique career journey, detailing his path from journalism to various roles in public relations, economic development, and education. The discussion focuses on DeVone's experiences at Goodwill Industries of Kentucky, where he worked with hard-to-serve job seekers and his perspectives on workforce culture. He also introduces his concept of the "Trinity of workforce culture" and offers valuable advice for leaders on building positive workplace environments. The conversation concludes with DeVone's tips for emerging workforce leaders, emphasizing the importance of connecting with employees and understanding their motivations and challenges.

With Mitzie Hunter, new President and CEO of the Canadian Women's Foundation. Mitzie is a dynamic, community-grounded leader. Her 30 years of leadership spans the nonprofit sector, private sector, and government. Mitzie has a trailblazing track record and many successes championing infrastructure and community improvements. She was the first Black woman to serve as Ontario's Minister of Education. She also served as Ontario's Minister of Advanced Education and Skills Development and Associate Minister of Finance. Mitzie is a respected advocate for diverse women, girls, and Two Spirit, trans, and nonbinary people across Canada. She is known for her expertise in an array of issues, from women's leadership to inclusive economies to sustainable neighbourhood and city building. Mitzie is a founding visionary of the Prosperity Project. She served as Chief Administrative Officer of Toronto Community Housing Corporation, CEO of CivicAction, Vice President of External Relations and Corporate Secretary at Goodwill Industries, and President of SMART Toronto, a technology hub. She is a Senior Fellow with the C.D. Howe Institute and a Canadian Urban Leader at the University of Toronto's School of Cities. Mitzie has also served in several board leadership positions in nonprofit and public service bodies, including United Way Greater Toronto and TVO. In 2023, Mitzie ran for mayor in the City of Toronto by-election.Episode ⁠Transcripts⁠ Please listen, subscribe, rate, and review this podcast and share it with others. If you appreciate this content, if you want to get in on the efforts to build a gender equal Canada, please donate at ⁠canadianwomen.org⁠ and consider becoming a monthly donor. Facebook: Canadian Women's Foundation LinkedIn: The Canadian Women's Foundation Instagram: @canadianwomensfoundation TikTok: @cdnwomenfdn X: @cdnwomenfdn

David Rey, CEO of Goodwill Industries of North Florida, joins JMN to share details on the Grand (Re-)Opening of The Corner at Debs, bringing affordable groceries and additional community services to Jacksonville's historic Out East. The area has been a food desert for years, with no convenient grocery services in the area.

Joe Bartozzi, the president and CEO of the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), joins Mike and Jake to discuss his history working in the firearm industry, suicide prevention, and the NSSF's role and activities in advocating the gun industry. Joe is the President and CEO of the National Shooting Sports Foundation (“NSSF”) and the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute (“SAAMI”). He is also the Chairman of the Project ChildSafe® Foundation. He has spent over 40 years in a variety of technical, legal, and executive management roles.He is currently a member of the Board of Directors for the Council to Advance Hunting and the Shooting Sports (“CAHSS”) and the Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation (“CSF”).Joe also serves on the Board of Directors of the Connecticut Chapter of the American Red Cross and is a past Chairman of the Board of Goodwill Industries of Southern New England, where he is still serving as a member of the Goodwill Operations Committee.Joe is an American Society for Quality (“ASQ”) Certified Quality Engineer, Certified Quality Auditor, and Certified Quality Technician.He graduated cum laude from the Quinnipiac University School of Law and is licensed to practice law in the state and federal courts of Connecticut, the state of Maine, and in the United States Supreme Court.Joe is a 2014 recipient of the Anthony V. DeMayo Pro Bono Award, presented by the Connecticut Bar Association.LinksNSSFProject Child SafeGun Storage Check WeekBrave ConversationSend us a text

Tommy talks with Jodee Darcoa, CFO of Goodwill Industries of Southeast Louisiana

Tommy talks with Jodee Darcoa, CFO of Goodwill Industries of Southeast Louisiana

This episode features a conversation with DeVone Holt, a prominent figure in workforce development and organizational culture. DeVone shares his unique career journey, detailing his path from journalism to various roles in public relations, economic development, and education. The discussion focuses on DeVone's experiences at Goodwill Industries of Kentucky, where he worked with hard-to-serve job seekers and his perspectives on workforce culture. He also introduces his concept of the "Trinity of workforce culture" and offers valuable advice for leaders on building positive workplace environments. The conversation concludes with DeVone's tips for emerging workforce leaders, emphasizing the importance of connecting with employees and understanding their motivations and challenges.

Fred is lovingly known as Gopher by his millions of fans around the world who watched him became for 9 years in the 1970s hit series The Love Boat. But, before Fred became well known as an actor, he went to "Phillips Exeter Academy" with David Eisenhower. Later, he became David's best man when he married Julie Nixon. Then, Fred entered "Harvard University" at Cambridge, Massachusetts and graduated in 1970 with a Bachelor's Degree in English. Fred is a well-educated man and can speak fluently in both French and Arabic. Before he joined the cast of The Love Boat, Fred did guest shots on many shows, including Love, American Style, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Phyllis (with Cloris Leachman) & Welcome Back, Kotter (with John Travolta). Then, came other guest spots on TV shows and a couple of movies, while still on The Love Boat. Fred Grandy was destined to become more than just an actor. In 1986, he decided to run for Congressman as a Republican for the state of Iowa, and won. He received 3,000 votes. He served 4 consecutive terms (1986-1995). While in Congress, he was very much involved with Agriculture, Education, Workforce, Standards of Official Conduct, House Ways and Means. In 1994, he went ahead and entered the Governor's race but lost to his opponent, Terry Branstad. In 1995, he became both President and CEO for "Goodwill Industries", a position he held until 2000. Fred even became a political commentator on National Public Radio. He has also, as a guest, taught at the "University of Maryland" (School of Public Affairs) about non-profit organizations.   Want to watch: YouTube Meisterkhan Pod (Please Subscribe)

Did you know that Goodwill has a Concierge Estate Service? Elder Care Coordinator Katlyn Green talks with Crystal Schwartz from Goodwill Industries about how this new service line is helping families.

Welcome to an all-new episode of the Carolina Reeper Show! This episode is a whirlwind of whimsy, wrapped in a witty wisecracker. UPDATE! We have a new segment, Karaoke Chaos with Kurtis! Kurtis performs crowd favorites at Romeo and Brewliet Taproom & Pourhouse in Hickory. He is a professional karaoke singer after all! You don't want to miss this!Intern Isaiah is here and shares another Mystery History lesson... Plus! Isiah and Jon talk about how his most recent stand-up comedy set went... How do you think that went? Our pal Marc Hunt is here so we're gonna play Goodwill Hunting, as we un-bag gifts with got each other at a Goodwill. For gifts big and small check out Goodwill Industries of Northwest NC!Big thanks to Jay Moore at Unifour Life and Retirement. Jay is the Dr. of Life Insurance! Check him out!#CarolinaReeper #LiveShow #Podcast #GoodwillHunting #karaoke #RealID #PrideMonth #OnlyFansDownload and Listen to the CAROLINA REEPER with Jon Reep Podcast here Come see Jon LIVE in concert! Click here for Jon's tour datesVisit the MERCH shop here!Find Jon online:Facebook Twitter Instagram Tiktok#CarolinaReeper #JonReep #Comedy #PodcastSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

How do you know that the learning you and your colleagues are doing is leading to changes in behavior? In this episode, Bill and Andrew discuss little tests you can do to see if the transformation you're working toward is really happening.  0:00:02.0 Andrew Stotz: My name is Andrew Stotz and I'll be your host as we continue our journey into the teachings of Dr. W. Edwards Deming. Today, I'm continuing my discussion with Bill Bellows, who has spent 30 years helping people apply Dr. Deming's ideas to become aware of how their thinking is holding them back from their biggest opportunity. Today is episode 22, and the title is, Test for Understanding Transformation. Bill, take it away.   0:00:30.7 Bill Bellows: Hey, we've been at this podcast for about a year now, right?   0:00:36.6 AS: It's incredible how long it's been.   0:00:39.8 BB: And in the beginning you said, I've been at this for 30 years, right?   0:00:43.7 AS: Yeah.   [laughter]   0:00:46.7 BB: Maybe we should change that to 31.   0:00:48.3 AS: Oh, man, there you go.   0:00:51.2 BB: All right.   0:00:53.0 AS: That reminds me of the joke of the janitor at the exhibition of the dinosaurs and the group of kids was being led through the museum and their guide had to run to the bathroom. And so they were looking at this dinosaur and they asked the janitor, "How old is that dinosaur?" And he said, "Well, that dinosaur is 300,032 years old." "Oh, how do they know it so exactly?" He said, "Well, it was 300,000 when I started working here 30 years ago."   [laughter]   0:01:28.8 AS: So there we are.   0:01:31.4 BB: That's great.   0:01:33.3 AS: Thirty-one years.   0:01:34.0 BB: All right, all right, all right. So first thing I wanna say is, as you know and our listeners know, I go back and listen to this podcast and I interact with people that are listening too, and I get some feedback. And in episode 19, I said the Germans were developing jet engines in the late 1940s. No, it turns out the Germans were developing jet engines in the late 1930s and they had a fighter plane with a turbine engine, a developmental engine in the late '30s. They didn't get into full-scale development and production. Production didn't start till the tail end of the war. But anyway, but I was off by a decade. In episode 21, I mentioned that checks were awarded within Rocketdyne for improvement suggestions and individuals who submitted this and it could be for an individual, maybe it was done for two people, three people, I don't know, but they got 10% of the annual savings on a suggestion that was implemented in a one-time lump sum payment.   0:02:36.1 BB: So you got 10% of the savings for one year and I thought, imagine going to the president of the company and let's say I walk into the president's office and you're my attorney. And I walk in and I say, "Hey, Mr. President, I've got a suggestion. You know that suggestion program?" He says, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Come on in, come on in. And who's this guy with you?" "Well that's Andrew Stotz." "And who's Andrew?" "He's my attorney, and he and I have been thinking about what this is worth." "Well, tell me about it." "No, well, before we get into it, we've got this form to sign here."   0:03:10.9 AS: Andrew.   0:03:11.1 BB: "Right? And you wanna see the idea or not? But we don't have to share it." But I thought, imagine people going to great length and really taking advantage of it. Well, a few of us that were involved in our InThinking Roadmap training, what we started to propose is we want a piece of the action, Andrew. So the proposal we had is that, Andrew, if you come to one of our classes, a study session on The New Economics or Managing Variation of a System, we'll have you sign a roster, right? And so if you are ever given a check for big numbers, Andrew, then we're gonna claim that our training contributed to your idea and all we ask is 10%, right?   0:03:58.1 AS: Of your 10%.   0:04:00.9 BB: I mean, I think that's fair, right? But imagine everybody in the organization becoming a profit center.   0:04:08.7 AS: Crazy.   0:04:10.4 BB: That's what you get. All right.   0:04:14.5 AS: And the lesson from that is focus on intrinsic motivation. People wanna make improvements, they wanna contribute.   0:04:23.8 BB: You start... You go down the slippery slope of incentives, which will be part of what we look at later. There's just no end to that. All right?   0:04:31.4 AS: Yeah.   0:04:32.2 BB: So I mentioned in a previous podcast that I had an interaction, met the army's first woman four-star general, and I just wanna give you some more background and interesting things that happened with her relative to this test for understanding transformation. I don't know April, May, 2008, someone on her staff reached out to me and when they first... When the guy got a hold of me, I said... From the Pentagon, he called me, I think it was like 8:00 or 9:00 o'clock at night here. Whatever it was, it was after hours in LA so it was after hours in DC. I remember saying to the guy, "How did you find me?" He says, "There's a lot of stuff on the internet." So he says, "I came across a presentation you did for Goodwill Industries." And he says, "In there you talk about... " He says, "There's some really good stuff in there."   0:05:29.0 BB: And I said, "Like what?" He said, "You have a slide in there about you can minimize loss to society by picking up nails in a parking lot." And that was an example of what I used Dr. Taguchi's work, minimizing loss to society. I said, "Yeah, I remember that slide." He says, "We don't do enough of that in the Army." And he says, "Hey, we've got a conference next week, late notice. The keynote speaker bailed out." And he's calling me on a Monday. The presentation's a week from Wednesday and he says... And also he said that the Army had an initiative called Enterprise Thinking and Enterprise Thinking was part of what we called our effort within Rocketdyne. We used the terms Enterprise Thinking, organizational awareness, and that InThinking personal awareness. We were using those two terms. So he did a search on that, found my name, and he says, "What do you think?" And he says, "We're gonna... "   0:06:24.3 BB: If I agree, we'll have a follow-up vetting call the next day. So he calls me up the next day and it's him and a two-star general. There are three people in the room, all senior officers, and he says, "Okay, so, but tell us what you do." So I shared the last... It sounds funny, is what seems to have been the last straw in their interest was having me speak, was my last straw story. Remember the executive from the European airline and... Right? So I tell that story about my efforts within Rocketdyne and Boeing about this airline executive and how this deeply resonated with this executive of this customer of this company that buys a lot of Boeing airplanes that we focused on the one cause, not the greater system.   0:07:13.2 BB: And within minutes of sharing that story, they started laughing, leading to it a few minutes later to them saying, "you're the one."   0:07:19.2 AS: [laughter] That's very interesting.   0:07:21.3 BB: You're the one. So for our listeners, I'd say, let this be a reminder of how a personal story guided by insights on how Dr. Deming's System of Profound Knowledge can open doors for you. And you can use that story, come up with your own stories, but you just never know when you're gonna be in a situation where you need a really simple story. So as an aside, they contact me, like I mentioned, 10 years later, and I think I shared with you offline that the speaker I was replacing was the great Richard Rumelt, the strategy professor from UCLA, who for whatever reason needed to bail out. And then when this podcast is posted, I'll put a link to the slides of the presentation.   0:08:05.7 BB: It's about 45 minutes long. What was not covered... I went back and looked at it earlier to say, what did I share with them that got them so excited? All I know is it fit into 45 minutes to an hour. What was not covered was the trip reports, whether Red Pen or Blue Pen, Last Straw/All Straw, Me/We organizations. But after it was done, as I'm coming off the stage, General Dunwoody in uniform comes up to me. She was thrilled. Her exact words were, "You hit it." She says, "Bill, you hit it out of the park." And I thought, well, I had help from a lot of people. She then says something to me that I'll never forget. So we're face-to-face, right? Let me just... Right?   0:08:45.1 BB: And she says to me, "Bill, you've got a real challenge on your hands. Bill, you've got a real challenge on your hands." So prompted by that, I held my hand out, my right hand, which is what you do to initiate a handshake, and then she reaches out to shakes my hand and I said, "General Dunwoody, we have a challenge on our hands." [laughter] And she erupted in laughter. And my only regret, even though we went out for drinks for the next couple of hours, but my regret was not having a photo of her and I doing a double high five as she laughed. So then I remained in touch with her for the next six to eight months when she was promoted to four-star and she looked for opportunities to get me to the Pentagon, which she did. And I was trying to get her or somebody on her staff to come to Rocketdyne to learn more about what we're doing.   0:09:38.1 BB: But I say I share this anecdote as an example of a Test for Understanding of a transformation. So what is a TFU, test for understanding? This is something I got exposed to in my Kepner-Tregoe Problem Solving and Decision Making training, which I talked about in one of the first episodes. And in our training to deliver what was then a five-day course, we were coached on how to interact with seminar attendees, including how to answer questions and how to ask questions. And one of the things we got our knuckles wrapped for was saying, are there any questions? Because no one answers that. There is... And if I had said that when I was being certified, I'd have failed. So instead we're coached on how to ask questions or make comments, which serve as a test for someone's understanding of what I presented.   0:10:27.9 BB: For example, for me to reply to General Dunwoody with we have a challenge on our hands was to test her understanding of what I said and her laughter is a response that I could be expecting with something short. As an aside, an appreciation, we've talked about Ackoff's D-I-K-U-W model data, raw data information. You turn that into what, where, when, extent, knowledge. If we convert that to how does something operate looking inside of an automobile, how do the pieces work together? Remember he said understanding is when you look outward 'cause knowledge looking inward, Russ would say, doesn't tell you why the car is designed for four passengers. That comes from looking outward. And then wisdom is what do we do with all this? Well, the Kepner-Tregoe training was Test for Understanding and now that I'm inspired by Ackoff, well in my university classes, I ask "Test for Information" classes. I have them watch videos and say, what company was Russ working for?   0:11:31.1 BB: This anecdote, that's information. Nothing wrong with those questions. I can ask for "Test for Knowledge" questions asking how something operates. So what I don't know is like, why are they called Test for Understanding? They could be Test for Knowledge, Test for Information, Test for Wisdom. And obviously TFI test for information could be true, false, multiple choice and test for knowledge and understanding could be short, but then I want to go deeper. And so what I wanna share is in one of my university courses, I share the following, true, you can't make it up news stories. It says, once upon a time a national airline came in dead last on on-time performance one month even though it had offered its employees everything from cash to pizza to finish first in the US Department of Transportation's monthly rankings. Does that sound like incentives, Andrew?   0:12:33.0 AS: It's all there.   0:12:33.8 BB: If we finish first, pizza parties. Now if they got exposed to Rocketdyne, they'd be handing out checks for $10,000. So in one of the research essays, for a number of the courses, every week, every module, I give them a research essay very similarly, giving them a situation and then what's going on with the questions is having them think about what they've been exposed to so far. And so question one in this assignment is given this account, list five assumptions that were made by the management team of this airline? And so I just wanna share one student's response. He says, "assumption one..." And also let me say this comes from the second of two Deming courses I do. So these students have been exposed to a one, one-semester course prior to this. So this is not intro stuff. This is getting deep into it.   0:13:34.3 BB: And so anyway he says, "assumption one, offering incentives like cash and pizza would motivate employees to prioritize on-time performance." Okay? That's an assumption. "Assumption two, employee morale and satisfaction directly correlate with on-time performance. Assumption three, the issue of on-time performance primarily stems from..." Are you ready? "Employee motivation or effort. The incentives provided were perceived as valuable by employees." And you're gonna love where this goes. "Assumption five, employees have significant control over factors that influence on-time performance such as aircraft maintenance, air traffic control and weather conditions."   0:14:20.2 AS: Good answers.   0:14:23.0 BB: Again, what I think is cool and for our listeners is what you're gonna get in question two, three, four, and five is builds upon a foundation where these students have, for one and a half semesters been exposed to Deming, Taguchi, Ackoff, Gipsie Ranney, Tom Johnson, the System of Profound Knowledge, hours and hours of videos. And so this is my way of Testing their Understanding. And so if you're a university professor, you might find interest in this. If you're within an organization, this could be a sense of how do you know what people are hearing in your explanations of Deming's work or whatever you're trying to bring to your organization? So anyway, I then have them read a blog at a Deming Institute link, and I'll add this blog when this is posted but it's deming.org/the insanity of extrinsic motivation. All right. And they've been exposed to these concepts but I just said, "Hey, go off and read this blog." And it was likely a blog by John Hunter.   0:15:32.0 AS: Yep.   0:15:32.2 BB: All right, question two. All right. Now it gets interesting, is that "in appreciation of Edward de Bono's, "Six Thinking Hats"," which they've been exposed to, "and the Yellow Hat, which is the logical positive, why is this such a great idea? Listen, explain five potential logical, positive benefits of incentives, which would explain why they would be implemented in a ME Organization." And so what's seen is I have them put themselves in a ME Organization, put on the Yellow Hat and think about what would be so exciting about this. And so logical, positive number one. "Incentives can serve as a powerful motivator for individuals within the organization, driving them to achieve higher levels of performance and productivity. When employees are offered rewards for their efforts, they're more likely to be motivated to excel in their roles," Andrew. Logical positive number two, enhanced performance. Explanation, "by tying incentives to specific goals or targets, organizations can encourage employees to focus their efforts on key priorities and objectives.   0:16:46.9 BB: This can lead to improved performance across various aspects of the business, ultimately driving better results." Number three, attraction and retention of talent. Oh, yeah. Explanation, "offering attractive incentives can help organizations attract top talent and retain existing employees. Attractive incentives can serve as a key differentiator for organizations seeking to attract and retain skilled professionals." Now, let me also say, this is an undergraduate class. As I mentioned, this is the second of two that I offer. Many of these students are working full-time or part-time. So this is coming from someone who is working full-time, probably mid to late 20s. So these are not... They're undergraduates but lifewise, they've got a lot of real-world experience.   0:17:44.0 BB: All right. Logical positive four, promotion of innovation and creativity. Explanation, "incentives can encourage employees to think creatively and innovative in their roles. By rewarding innovative ideas and contributions, organizations can foster..." Ready, Andrew? "A culture of creativity and continuous improvement, driving long-term success and competitive advantage." And the last one, positive organizational culture. "Implementing incentives can contribute to a positive organizational culture characterized by recognition, reward and appreciation. When employees feel valued and rewarded for their contributions, they're more likely to feel engaged, satisfied, and committed to the organization." But here's what's really cool about this test for understanding, I get to position them in the framework of a ME Organization with the Yellow Hat.   0:18:40.9 BB: Now question three, in appreciation of Edward de Bono's, "Six Thinking Hats" and the Black Hat, what Edward calls a logical negative, list and explain five potential aspects of incentives, which would explain why they would not be implemented in a WE Organization. And this is coming from the same person. This is why I think it's so, so cool that I wanna share with our listeners. The same person's being forced to look at it both ways. Negative number one, potential for... Ready, Andrew? "Unintended consequences." Oh my God. "Incentives can sometime lead to unintended consequences such as employees focusing solely on tasks that are incentivized while neglecting other important aspects of their roles. This tunnel vision can result in suboptimal outcomes for the organization as a whole."   0:19:30.7 BB: "Number two, risk of eroding intrinsic motivation. Explanation, offering external rewards like incentives can undermine intrinsic motivation leading employees to become less interested in the work and more focused on earning rewards. Number three, creation of unhealthy competition. Explanation, incentives can foster a competitive culture within the organization where employees may prioritize individual success over collaboration and teamwork. This competitive atmosphere can breed..." Ready? "Resentment and distrust among employees." Can you imagine that, Andrew? Resentment and distrust? That seems like it would clash with my previous positive thought, but it really just points out how careful management needs to be.   0:20:19.0 AS: Yes.   0:20:19.2 BB: All right. Cost considerations. "Implementing incentive programs can be costly for organizations, particularly if the rewards offered are substantial or if the program is not carefully managed. Organizations may be hesitant to invest resources and incentives, especially if they're uncertain about the return on investment if budget is of concern." And then number five, "short-term focus over our long-term goals." Explanation, "incentives often improve short-term gains rather than long-term strategic objectives. Employees may prioritize activities that yield immediate results, even if they're not aligned with the organization's broader goals or values."   0:21:02.7 BB: And then question four, here's the kicker. "In appreciation of your evolving understanding of the use of incentives, share, if you would, a personal account of a memorable attempt by someone to use incentives to motivate you, so that so many pizza parties or bringing a small box of donuts or coffee in for working a weekend I was supposed to have off." And then question five, "in appreciation of your answer to question four, why is this use of incentives so memorable to you? They were very ineffective. I often felt insulted that my boss thought that $20 worth of pizza or donuts made up for asking me to give 50% of my days off that week."   0:21:55.5 AS: Here's a donut for you.   0:22:00.6 BB: Here's a doggy bone, here's a doggy bone. I just wanted to share that this time. Next time we'll look at more.   0:22:09.3 AS: One of the things that...   0:22:10.6 BB: There are other examples of Test for Understanding. Go ahead, Andrew.   0:22:12.3 AS: One of the things that I wanted to... What you made me think about is that you and I can talk here about the downside of incentives but we have to accept the world is absolutely sold on the topic of incentives.   0:22:27.2 BB: Absolutely.   0:22:27.8 AS: A 100, I mean, 99.999% and if you're not sold on it, you're still gonna be forced to do it.   0:22:34.5 BB: Well, you know why they're sold on them, 'cause they work.   0:22:39.7 AS: It's like a shotgun. One of those pellets is gonna hit the target but...   0:22:47.7 BB: That's right.   0:22:48.4 AS: A lot of other pellets are gonna hit...   0:22:50.6 BB: And that's all that matters. And then what you get into is, you know what, Andrew, that that one person walks away excited, right? And that's the pellet that I look at. And I say, yep, and what about those others? You know what I say to that, Andrew? Those others, you know what, Andrew, you can't please everybody.   0:23:07.8 AS: Yeah.   0:23:07.9 BB: So this is so reinforcing. There's one person that gets all wrapped up based on my theory that this is a great thing to do and I hone in on that. And everything else I dismiss as, "ah, what are you gonna do? You can't please everybody." But what's missing is, what is that doing to destroy their willingness to collaborate with the one I gave the award to?   0:23:33.1 AS: Yeah, I'm picturing a bunch of people and laying on the ground injured by the pellets but that one black, or that one... Let's say the one target that we were going after, that target is down but there's 50 other people down also.   0:23:50.6 BB: No, but then this is where I get into the white bead variation we talked about early, early on, is that if all I'm doing is measuring, have you completed the task and we're looking at it from a black and white perspective and you leave the bowling ball in the doorway for the next person, meaning that you complete a task with the absolute minimum requirements for it to be deemed complete. Does the car have gas? Yes. You didn't say how much but when people then... When those people that were summarily dismissed didn't receive the award, when they go out and don't share an idea, don't give somebody a warning of something or not even maliciously leave the bowling ball in the doorway but believe that the way to get ahead is to do everything as fast as possible, but in doing so, what you're doing is creating a lot of extra work for others, and then you get promoted based on that. Now you get into... In episode 22 we talked about, as long as there's no transparency, you get away with that. And then the person at the end of the line gets buried with all that stuff and everybody else says, well, my part was good and my part was good. How come Andrew can't put these together?   0:25:26.8 AS: In wrapping this up, I want to think just briefly about how somebody... So we're talking about understanding transformation, but we're also talking about incentives.   0:25:39.8 BB: Yes.   0:25:40.5 AS: And I would like to get a takeaway from you about how somebody who lives in a world of incentives, how do they, after listening to this, go back to their office and how should they exist? It's not like they can run away from a structure of incentives. Maybe when they become CEO, they decide, I'm not gonna do it that way, but they're gonna go back to their office and they're gonna be subjected to the incentive system. Obviously, the first thing is we wanna open up their mind to think, oh, there's more to it than just, these darned employees aren't doing what I'm telling them, even when I'm giving them incentives. But what would you give them as far as a takeaway?   0:26:27.1 BB: Well, I'll give you some examples of what some brilliant colleagues did at Rocketdyne, as they became transformed, as they became aware, and one is politely decline. Say, I don't, I don't need that. Just again you have to be careful there. There could be some misinterpretations of that. So you have to be...   0:27:03.2 AS: What if you're required to put an incentive system on top of your employees?   0:27:09.5 BB: Well, first, if it's coming down to you to go off and implement this, then one thing you could do is create a system which is based on chance. Everyone who contributed an idea, their name goes into a lottery for free lunch the first Wednesday of the month, and everybody knows. So then we're using the incentive money but using it in a way that everyone deems as fair. So that's one thing. And you just say, I'll... So then if your boss asks, have you distributed the incentive money? You say, yes, but you're distributing it based on a system of chance of which everyone realize they stand an equal chance of winning.   0:27:56.9 AS: Okay. So let's address that for a second. So your boss believes in incentives. They ask you to implement this system. Now you proposed one option, which is to do something based upon chance, but now let's look at your employees under you that have been indoctrinated their whole life on the concept of incentives. And you give them a system of chance and they're gonna come back and say, wait a minute, you're not rewarding the person who's contributing the most here? Now obviously you have a teaching moment and you can do all that, but is there any other way that you can deal with this?   0:28:33.7 BB: No, it could be tough. You've got to... You may have to go along until you can create a teaching moment. And what I did with the colleagues, when there are these a "great minds doing great things" events, and an announcement would go out as to who are the privileged few that got invited to these events, and I would tell people that if you go to the event, then that's what I would say. You can decline, you can politely decline. There's some things you can decline.   0:29:17.4 AS: I guess the other thing you could do, you could also... When you have to, when you're forced to reward, you can celebrate everybody's contribution while you're also being forced to give that incentive to that one person that has been deemed as the one that contributed the most.   0:29:36.9 BB: Well, I'll give you another example that a colleague did, a work colleague. He didn't do it in a work setting. Not that it couldn't be done in a work setting, but he signed up to be as a judge in a science fair in a nearby school. It was a work-related thing. And as it got closer, he realized... It was a... It would involve... What is a science fair without the number one science experiment? And my theory is you can't get a bunch of adults and a bunch of kids together in any organized way without giving out an award that just, it's like, oh, we got everybody together. We got to find a way to single somebody out. So when he realized what was going on, instead of not going, what he did, he took it upon himself to interact with every kid whose science experiment he watched and asked them lots of questions about it, about what inspired them? What did they learn?   0:30:30.6 BB: So what he wanted by the end of the day was that they were more intrigued that someone came and really wanted to know what they learned and less inclined to listen to who won the award. And I've seen that in a work setting, again, where we had events and the next thing you know there's an award and I thought, well, what can we do? Well, we can go around and really engage in the people who's got tables set up for the share fair knowing at the end of the day, we have this. We just can't break this, we just can't break this.   0:31:08.2 AS: Yeah. All right. So...   0:31:10.3 BB: But the other thing I've seen, I've seen people who received rewards, use that money. Literally, one guy in the quality organization at Rocketdyne received an award. It might have been for a $1000. He used the money, Andrew, to buy copies of The New Economics for everyone in the organization.   [laughter]   0:31:31.7 AS: Well, that brings us to another possibility, is that you convince your boss that you at least want to give... You want to reward the whole department.   0:31:40.5 BB: Yes.   0:31:40.9 AS: Any reward that you do, you want to reward your whole department. And so that could be something that your boss would say, "Okay, go ahead and do that." And they're not gonna go against it as opposed to trying to, say, no, I won't do it this way, but...   0:32:02.1 BB: Well, towards that end, I've seen people that are rewards crazy. At Rocketdyne, there's one guy in particular in a machine shop manufacturing environment and some big program wanted to thank five out of the 50 people in his organization with t-shirts. And he said, "You either give me 50 t-shirts or no t-shirts."   0:32:27.6 AS: Yeah.   0:32:28.8 BB: And I thought that was really cool 'cause this... And I don't know to what degree his exposure to what we were doing, but I thought that's what we need more of. Come back with 50 shirts and we'll take them.   0:32:44.1 AS: Okay. Let's wrap this up by doing a brief wrap-up of why you're saying... Why you've titled this Test for Understanding and what can the listeners take away.   0:32:56.6 BB: The idea is again, if in a seminar learning event situation is one thing, but if you're involved in leading in a transformation within your respective organizations, what I'm suggesting is that you think about how to Test the Understanding of that transformation's progress with your audience. And we talked in the past about leaving a coffee cup in the hallway, see if it's still there. That's a Test for Understanding of the culture of the organization. And that's what I'm suggesting here, is there are simple things you can do such when somebody says, come see what my son did. You can say, your son? Or is it, was there a spouse involved? And just as you become aware of the nuances of this transformation, you could be looking at somebody look at two data points and draw a conclusion and they're just a day out of some seminar with you about understanding variation and they're looking for a cause of one data point shift.   0:34:13.0 BB: So it's just, what can you do day in and day out, just your little things to test the organization or test an individual's understanding of this transformation process that we're talking about, which is, how are you seeing things differently? Are you becoming more aware of incentives and their destruction, more aware of theories? That's all. What just came to mind is... And the other aspect of it was this idea that very deliberately with the foundation of ME and WE, Red Pen/Blue Pen, then you can build upon that by saying to somebody, how might a Blue Pen Company go off and do this? How might a red pen company go off and do that? And that's not a guarantee that either one of them is right, but I find it becomes a really neat way on an individual basis to say, as you just pointed out, Andrew, so how would I as a manager in a Blue Pen Company deal with that awkward situation?   0:35:19.2 BB: Well, if I was in a red pen, this is what I would do. And so it's not only testing for understanding, but also the power of this contrast. And that's what I found with a group recently, especially the students. If I give them the contrast, I think it's easier for them to see one's about managing things in isolation and all that beckon such as belief in addition and root cause analysis, and one's about looking at things as a system. So it's not just Test for Understanding, but a test of both foundations is what I wanted to get across.   0:35:57.0 AS: Okay, great. Bill, on behalf of everyone at The Deming Institute, I wanna thank you again for this discussion. And for listeners, remember to go to deming.org to continue your journey. If you wanna keep in touch with Bill, hey, you can find him on LinkedIn and he listens. This is your host, Andrew Stotz, and I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes from Dr. Deming. I mean, I say this quote every time until I will be bored stiff of it, but "people are entitled to joy in work."

How to be Resilient     Take away: Knowing your purpose helps you make decisions, motivates you through hard times, and ensures your business serves you rather than the other way around. It enables you to build a business and life you love.   Money Learnings: Chrissy learned that money was connected to effort, saving, giving, and planning from her family business background and religious schooling. Working for what you want and managing money responsibly were instilled early.   Bio: Chrissy is the author of Reluctantly Resilient and CEO of AUI and Clarity HR which provide insurance benefits and HR services to small and medium sized businesses in both for profit and non-profit sectors.  Chrissy describes herself as the chief cheerleader for both companies setting direction, steering marketing content, and finding creative ways to disrupt two established business sectors.  Chrissy is also the author of AUI Gives Back & Clarity Cares two community impact programs where employees serve in the community, track their impact and share what they are doing on behalf of their customers.    Around Akron Chrissy works to leave her community a better place.  She is a graduate of Leadership Ohio, Torchbearers, Leadership Akron, Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses, Scalerator NEO and Community Leadership Institute.  She has received the 30 for the Future Award from the Greater Akron Chamber and an Achievement on Excellence Award from National Sales and Marketing Executives.    As an advocate for families struggling with addiction and mental health issues, Chrissy serves as the Vice Chair of the Alcohol, Drug Addiction, and Mental Health Services Board of Summit County.  In addition, Chrissy serves on the Board of Directors for the Greater Akron Chamber, Goodwill Industries of Northeast Ohio and Jobs for Ohio Graduates.     Chrissy received her Bachelors in Business Administration from John Carroll University and her MBA from the University of Akron.  When she is not plotting world domination of the insurance industry or volunteering in the community Chrissy can be found at home with Team Awesome Sauce who includes her husband, Steve, and two children, Maddy and Caleb.    Highlights from this episode: Having clear business and personal purpose statements helps provide direction and alignment. Know exactly why you are in business. Prepare for disruptions and downturns - they are inevitable. Profitable businesses build cash reserves to weather storms. Hire people who match your culture. Don't just hire for skills. Culture drives results. Manage work-life balance. Set boundaries and have open communication with family. The business serves you, not the other way around. Foster resilience. Take care of your mental health. Showing vulnerability is strength. Survive hard days. Help employees become more resilient by leading by example, listening, and providing tools for soft skills development. Their whole life affects their work life.   Links: Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissymyersceo/ Instagram: @chrissymyersceo Email: chrissym@clarityhr.com Reluctantly Resilient: https://a.co/d/72t7doY AUI: www.auiinfo.com ClarityHR: www.clarityhr.com     Richer Soul Life Beyond Money. You got rich, now what? Let's talk about your journey to more a purposeful, intentional, amazing life. Where are you going to go and how are you going to get there? Let's figure that out together. At the core is the financial well being to be able to do what you want, when you want, how you want. It's about personal freedom!   Thanks for listening!   Show Sponsor: http://profitcomesfirst.com/   Schedule your free no obligation call: https://bookme.name/rockyl/lite/intro-appointment-15-minutes   If you like the show please leave a review on iTunes: http://bit.do/richersoul   https://www.facebook.com/richersoul http://richersoul.com/ rocky@richersoul.com   Some music provided by Junan from Junan Podcast   Any financial advice is for educational purposes only and you should consult with an expert for your specific needs.

How can transforming lives through education and employment initiatives lead to ending poverty? In this inspiring episode, we're joined by Lisa Rusyniak, President and CEO of Goodwill Industries for the Chesapeake, Inc., who shares their transformative work in ending poverty and helping individuals gain independence through employment. Lisa details the Goodwill Excel Center's impact in Baltimore, an adult education initiative that provides not just a GED, but a real high school diploma, opening doors to post-secondary education and middle-skilled jobs. Dive into Lisa's dedication to bridging the gap between disenfranchised populations and the job market, the innovative environmental projects undertaken by Goodwill, and the intricate balance between mission-driven work and the economic and regulatory challenges faced by such organizations. This episode is a testament to the power of transformation through education, employment, and environmental stewardship. Witness how one leader's vision is reshaping the landscape of opportunity for those most in need. What We Discuss in this Episode The unique offerings and impact of Goodwill's adult education initiative, the Excel Center. Goodwill's innovative approaches to material recycling and creation of new business ventures. Lisa Rusyniak's perspective on the minimum wage increase and economic sustainability. The challenges of cybersecurity for non-profit e-commerce. How to ensure a non-profit operates effectively amid stringent government regulations. The influence of societal issues on Goodwill's mission and the potential for transformation. The financial logistics of running an educational program like the Excel Center. Balancing environmental goals with economic realities in social enterprise initiatives. The effect of inflation on donor behavior and retail operations at Goodwill. Lisa's personal legacy with the Excel Center and how it's transforming lives in the community. Podcast Highlights 0:00 - How Goodwill is battling poverty and generating independence. 3:22 - Essential initiatives and the role of the Excel Center. 5:45 - Transforming plastic waste into useful products. 8:25 - The ongoing fight against cyber threats. 11:46 - Balancing business acumen with the non-profit ethos. 15:27 - Goodwill's employment impact on societal issues. 18:59 - Detailing the financial model for the Excel Center's success. 22:32 - Innovating through social enterprises for environmental stewardship. 26:14 - Responding to economic pressures as a non-profit CEO. 29:37 - Lisa Rusyniak's legacy with the Excel Center and its community impact. Join us in this episode with Lisa Rusyniak and uncover the ways in which Goodwill Industries is not only fighting poverty but also innovating to create a better world for us all. Favorite Quotes Resilience in Leadership: “As CEO, it's not just about steering the organization. It's about constantly adapting to new challenges while staying true to your mission." Environmental Responsibility: “It's not just about the environment or the bottom line. It's about how we set a precedent for the future of manufacturing and giving back to the community." Vision for Education: “The Excel Center isn't just a school. It's a beacon of hope, a place where second chances are given and lives are changed." Episode Show Notes: https://leadersoftransformation.com/podcast/education/488-building-a-brighter-future-goodwills-innovative-strategies-with-lisa-rusyniak/ Check out our complete library of episodes and other leadership resources here: https://leadersoftransformation.com ________

In this season of the SA Voices From The Field Podcast, we had the privilege of delving deep into the world of job placement and career development in higher education with D'Najah Thomas, a dynamic figure leading The Placement Exchange (TPE). Her insights reveal a holistic and innovative approach to connecting talent with opportunity in student affairs. Transitions in Student Affairs: A Modern Take It's no secret that the job market in higher education has undergone significant shifts, particularly with the advent of virtual platforms. Thomas brings a refreshing perspective to the conversation, emphasizing the need for psychological safety and well-being during the job search. As TPE adapts to an increasingly digital landscape, it prioritizes mental health by advocating for scheduled breaks and creating virtual lounges for decompression—a much-needed change welcomed by both candidates and employers. The Crafting of TPE's Identity Thomas's journey to the directorship at TPE wasn't a conventional one. With a background in marketing, public relations, and a stint in the non-profit sector, she found herself drawn to the world of student affairs through a combination of chance, economic circumstances, and personal choices—highlighting that a nonlinear career path can lead to fulfilling leadership roles. Her diverse professional experience, enhanced by her empathy and commitment to supporting others, is now channeled into redefining TPE as a central hub for career development. She envisions TPE as a platform that not only facilitates job matching but also serves as a resource for continuous professional growth. Empowering Job Seekers and Recruiters Thomas is keen on equipping job seekers with tools for self-advocacy and proactive searching. TPE's year-round job board and the on-demand TPE Academy sessions affirm her resolve to meet modern job seekers where they are. Similarly, she encourages employers to highlight their values and culture authentically, showing that recruiting in student affairs must evolve beyond mere job advertising to a more strategic and narrative-driven approach. Looking Ahead: A Future of Innovation and Inclusivity  With initiatives like TPE Talks addressing hot topics in employment and the WRAP Session focusing on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, TPE is broadening its impact beyond job placement. Thomas reimagines a future where TPE continually adapts to uphold a vibrant, healthy, and diverse workforce in student affairs. Thomas's work with TPE exemplifies strategic transformation driven by understanding and meeting the needs of its community. The focus on accessibility, storytelling, and mental health showcases TPE's commitment to harmonizing candidate and employer expectations within an evolving digital world.   TRANSCRIPT Dr. Jill Creighton [00:00:01]: Welcome to student affairs voices from the field, the podcast where we share your student affairs stories from fresh perspectives to seasoned experts. This is season 10, continuing our season 9 theme of on transitions in student affairs. This podcast is brought to you by NASPA, and I'm doctor Jill Creighton, she, her, hers, your essay voices from the field host. Hey, essay voices. We've got a really awesome episode for you today all about the placement exchange or TPE for short. So I'm pleased to welcome D'Najah Pendergrass Thomas, sheher, who is a practitioner and whose work is centered around organizational behavior with a focus on recruitment, professional development, and career advancement. She's committed to helping organizations and communities bring about transformational change in these areas. And currently, she is serving as the director of the placement exchange, which is also a partnership of AUCHO-I and NASPA. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:00:53]: In this world, Inesha works directly and closely with a planning committee of professionals from across the field of higher education and student affairs to drive equitable and inclusive practice and innovation to deliver transformative networking communities, knowledge resources, job search, and recruiting experiences that cultivate and sustain a diverse and robust workforce in higher education. Before coming to TPE, D'Najah worked for 9 years in residence life and housing. Prior to that, she served as a marketing and communications practitioner in the nonprofit sector with Goodwill Industries of Southern Piedmont, The Florida Bar, and The Florida Psychological Association. D'Najah is past president of North Carolina Housing Officers or NCHO, and she also served in other leadership roles with NCHO and the Southeastern Association of Housing Officers or SEHO. She was a 2018 participant in NASPA's Mid Managers Institute and served as faculty for SEHO's 2021 regional entry institute or RELI. D'Najah also finished her term with a Kujo AI's 2021, 22 Leadership Academy cohort. A native of Charlotte, North Carolina, D'Naisha holds a master's of divinity from Duke Divinity School, a master of science in sport management from Florida State University, and a bachelor of science in public relations from Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. Whether you are a candidate looking for a job this year or thinking about looking for a job this year or an employer who has an entry to mid senior level job to post, this episode, I hope, will be a wonderful resource for you so you can learn a little bit more about how the placement exchange process has grown and changed over time. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:02:27]: Don't miss this one. Hope you enjoy our conversation. D'Najah, welcome to SA Voices. D'Najah Thomas [00:02:33]: Thank you for having me. I am excited to be here. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:02:36]: I'm really thrilled to help you have you on the season at this moment in time, especially in our theme of transitions in your role at TPE, I think that you personally hold a lot of keys to success for people in the profession. And especially given the changes that are happening in TPE right now, it's a great time to talk about all of the things. But before we talk about all of the TPE things, I'd love to get to know you a little bit better because you've had some interesting transitions in your career as well from housing professional and, I believe, training as an attorney to the TPE space now. So tell us about you. D'Najah Thomas [00:03:10]: I was an attorney. It's not quite that exciting, but I will tell you a little bit about what I've done before coming to TPE. My background is actually actually in marketing and public relations. So I did undergraduate work in North Carolina with great dreams of working for an NFL team. I thought that I would travel and do on-site communication and public relations. And so that led me to get a master's in sport management at Florida State University down in Tallahassee, Florida. And then that program was my 1st interaction with student athletes. And so while working on my degree, I worked with at risk student athletes in academic services. D'Najah Thomas [00:03:45]: And I had the luxury of graduating in 2008, which if anyone can remember, was the recession. And so I humbly took my brand new master's degree home to North Carolina and started searching for a job. And so I spent a good bit of time volunteering while looking for work simply because my mom, as an educator, was of the background. You get stuck in your own head when you're looking for a job and you can get discouraged. And she suggested that I volunteer. And so I volunteered like it was a full time job and landed in non profit work, particularly crisis support services in North Carolina. And to be transparent, if you live in the South, particularly North Carolina, it is, still called the Bible Belt. It's deeply steep in religion, particularly working in crisis support. D'Najah Thomas [00:04:27]: The questions were typically existential. How did this happen? Why could this happen to me? Oftentimes, how could a god be god allow this to happen to me? And in the course of serving people, I thought I will either get a master's in counseling or maybe a master's in divinity. And I chose the route of divinity school and so I landed at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. And they mentioned this opportunity to be a graduate hall director while in the program. And so I thought anything that will help me save money on the cost of this degree is going to be a wonderful opportunity. And so I landed in residence life and housing as a grad hall director while working on my master's of divinity. And so during the 3 years that I spent at Duke, I realized that college students were amazing. They are complex. D'Najah Thomas [00:05:09]: They have great demand. They are extremely diverse, and they were very much and are very much looking for a relationship, mentorship, and support. And so as a grad student, I found they liked me a little better than the professional coordinator because grad students are where they wanna be. They're gonna graduate and they wanna get master's and doctoral degrees. And so, residents and RAs alike would just hang out in my apartment. I would host programming for them, all while working on this master's of divinity. And my 3rd year in divinity school, a full time position opened. And I was eligible because I had the previous master's and so I did what I honestly would not recommend to anyone. D'Najah Thomas [00:05:44]: I worked full time on that last year and stayed a full time student because I just didn't wanna pass up the opportunity to be able to get the position at Duke. And so that is how I landed full time in student affairs. I was a resident life coordinator at Duke University. And so stayed in Durham for about 5 years and moved on to Wake Forest as an assistant director, staying in residence life and housing. Had the joy working under doctor Kitty Ryu, who was a great leader and really believed in what we were trying to do in Residence Life and Housing. She's NASPA famous. She is NASPA famous and rightfully so. And so in my the 1st year and a half in my role, we actually did a full reorg in our department. D'Najah Thomas [00:06:21]: We did not have full time residence hall coordinators. And so in the spring of 2019, we fully reorgued, went to TBE in LA, and bought on 7 new full time live in staff members, which was pretty important because halfway through their 1st year the pandemic happened. And we recognized that had we not had full time staff living in, there's just no way we would have survived supporting students, in the ways that we needed to. And so the next part I shared transparently because I think it matters with how I work with PPE and how I approach talking about career trajectory with people. I got pregnant and had a pre work for baby in the middle of the pandemic. And so, residence life and housing was very demanding at that time and work and life just were not meshing. And so, I had to start to look for other opportunities and very regrettably didn't wanna have to leave residence life and housing, but knew, you know, you have to make some life choices. And so the position with CPE opened up and I thought, gosh, this will be a wonderful opportunity to help meet our field at a place that was a point of crisis. D'Najah Thomas [00:07:18]: Right? Trying to retain staff in the middle of the pandemic. Campuses were triaging vacancies everywhere. And it would give me the flexibility to think about what I needed to do to be a mom to a brand new baby. And so I applied, interviewed, and in about 6 weeks found myself in the role as Director of the Placement Exchange. And so I bring to the role a little bit of nonprofit work, a little bit of student athletics work, and a whole lot of housing and residents' life experience coupled with supervision, hiring, and retention. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:07:45]: That's an incredible journey, and especially to an organization like TPE where you can keep a lot of the skills you learned in your on campus experience by also bringing your nonprofit based experience. And I'm realizing now where I accidentally referenced an attorneyship, and it's because you were working with The Florida Bar as well as Florida Psychological Association. And so with all of those experiences kind of creating a melange of things for you, what is life like now given that you're serving professionals instead of students? D'Najah Thomas [00:08:15]: Life is amazing. Part of my work with TPE has really helped me solidify what I work with candidates around, which is understanding your story, your values, and your overall professional goal. And so when I look back at my career, I think the thread that ties it all together is relationships and investing in the success of others. And so for a while, that was student athletes. Before that, that was in the sports arena, that transition to serving people in the nonprofit world, coming back to my students at Duke, and then becoming a supervisor, particularly being very invested in the career trajectory of those that I supervise. And so, now I find myself with TPE being able to concentrate and be less of a generalist, but to spend so much time thinking about how to support the goals and the career trajectory of both who are doing work that I love so much. And so now my days are are filled with understanding what's coming out of SHRM and coming out of corporate HR and following trends on our campus and in our field and thinking about how TPE can now, in essence, be a career hub for the profession. How can we say to practitioners that this is your career trajectory? PPE is where you can come to develop the skill, review this resource, engage in the support so that you can continue to be a knowledgeable and competent and competitive candidate? And on the other side of that coin is how can we say to employers recruiting, retention, and advancement of staff really is a free market. D'Najah Thomas [00:09:42]: Meaning, they've got a set of skills and a salary they're looking for, and you now have to showcase how you are a place that people want to work at, and that the package you have to to offer is competitive. And so, how do you look at your efforts around recruiting, and interviewing, and hiring, and onboarding, and retaining staff, such that when you sit down with a candidate, you can say, This isn't just any assistant director role. The assistant director role on this campus is going to provide you with these opportunities, support you in this way such that you don't wanna walk away from this opportunity. So that is how everything I do is centered. How do we really equip these practitioners? And then how do we empower employers to see themselves as great places to work and be able to really share that with candidates in the process? Dr. Jill Creighton [00:10:24]: Now TPE is short for the placement exchange. I think it's its own living acronym. Now people just kinda know what it means if you've been in the field for a hot minute. But it's also a joint partnership of Akuhoai and NASPA and also serves as a hub for professionals who are not affiliated with either of those organizations as people search for student affairs in higher ed positions. What is the experience of a candidate today who's utilizing TPE? D'Najah Thomas [00:10:52]: Sure. I hope that the profession as a whole. It experience even though we are serving the profession as a whole. It has expanded. We now have a job board that is 20 fourseven, three sixty five. So I hope people aren't up in the middle of night. You feel the urge at midnight, you can go to the job board and look for that next job. If you do that on the weekends or whatever that looks like for your schedule, it's available. D'Najah Thomas [00:11:22]: And it's got the features that now allow you to upload your profile and resume at a level of comfort. So it can be fully visible by employers who are looking to hire. It can be one level down, which is what we call confidential, in that they can see the content of your resume, but not your identifying information. But if I were to message you as an employer and you choose to do so, you can then disclose who you are. Or it can be fully private, meaning it's there and as you see an employer that you may have interest in, you can share that resource with them. That's something that has been added on since what we've been known for. The once a year in person week of interviewing that happened the week before NASPA. So I appreciate now that we recognize, right, people are looking for a job 365 days a year. D'Najah Thomas [00:12:02]: We cannot make people wait until March to get their next job. So being able to offer the job board with some customizable options for candidates is something that we're really proud of. The other thing that I'm really proud of for candidates, and I hope they would say they are appreciating, is how we've taken the TPE Academy and really tried to make it more accessible for the year round experience. So it used to be being a part of the academy was from November to March, it was much more like a mentorship experience and culminated being in person. Now we create the sessions on demand and candidates can go to the YouTube channel and access any one of those 6 sessions. Right? So again, at a time that works for you, whether it's October, February, or April, you can have access to those resources in a way that your lifestyle and fits your schedule. So again, just thinking about the things that used to be centered around that once a year experience and expanding those to be accessible anytime a candidate would need that. We still keep our Candidate Development Subcommittee and so we still offer those year round webinars. D'Najah Thomas [00:13:00]: And what I appreciate about those sessions is they don't feel very stiff and structured. The content is there but our presenters and speakers are very engaging and the pace still allows for question and answer, learning opportunities, almost like a workshop. Like, we may pause you and have you do an activity, do some reflection, and engage. And so we are still trying to make sure that we serve on a larger scale to everyone who may need us, but not without having that personal experience and that interpersonal connection that we've been known for. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:13:30]: So the addition of the psychological safety piece, I think, is incredibly important from a candidate experience, especially knowing that there's a lot of reasons that someone might not be able to share with their current employer that they're looking or maybe they just don't want to. That's also fine. I also really appreciate the expansion of the academy and this on demand element because it really is meeting candidates where they're at in the modern era of search. So for those who are listening who may be newer in the profession, my 1st job experience job hunting experience in student affairs was at TPE in the year that ACPA and NASPA were last combined for a joint conference. That thing was bananas. I think I did 45 to 60 interviews in 3 days. I had a pair of extra tennis shoes in my bag. I had physical thank you notes with me. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:14:21]: There were candidate physical Dropbox mailbox systems that were just organized but chaotic at the same time. And it was also a place where I feel like more of the candidates were like myself in their 1st or second job search, not necessarily in their mid or senior level spaces. And I believe that has shifted quite a lot in the last several years. So who's in the TPE now in terms of the level and type of position that candidates are looking at and employers are hiring for? D'Najah Thomas [00:14:50]: Sure. You know, you shared a memory that just stuck with me. I was not at that particular one, but I remember being in San Antonio. And the way the my my boots. It was huge. And you have the candidate's a through m, n through z, and there were just hundreds and hundreds of people and hundreds of tables. And when we decided to go virtual, what you just shared is what we really listen to from candidates. I had a lot of listening sessions and I listened to people say I had 30, 40 interviews and, I was so stressed that an interview would go terrible and I didn't have time to, like, gather myself. D'Najah Thomas [00:15:31]: And then it was a trickle down effect or I was at a table and I had a hard time focusing because the interview was right next to me or sitting in the waiting room and hearing people talk about their number of interviews and struggling with comparison. And I remember as an employer just reminding candidates, you don't need every job, you just need 1. And I remember pausing interviews and saying, I don't think you have the stamina to show up well, and we reschedule you. And so what I appreciate now about us being virtual is the ways in which we are advocating for protecting the schedule of both candidates and employers. So we do last the full week, but we offer block. Our schedule builds and breaks. It's virtual, so we can't regulate everyone. But we highly recommend that people take the lunch break, take the afternoon break, adhere to the block, pause and go to some of the round tables. D'Najah Thomas [00:16:17]: And right now that we are virtual, you can go into a space. When an interview ends, don't book back to back. Give yourself a chance to go into a space, decompress, review that, drop into the candidate lounge, talk with 1 of the subcommittee members to just kind of help you have a better mental health experience through the process. And we actually do that for employers as well because we have to remember that people are away from their responsibilities on campus while doing these interviews. And I remind employers that they are being interviewed as much as they are interviewing candidates. And so you get distracted, you get fatigued. Some of these things that we are embedding because we are virtual are to help you show up, your best version as an employer, to the candidates who are giving you their time and trying to tell their story to you. And so I really do appreciate that the virtual space is allowing us to prioritize mental health, psychological safety, and well-being of everyone who's currently involved, for sure. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:17:12]: The experience of the employer shifting as well, I think, is a very big deal because I think, especially as younger professionals, our instinct at the beginning is, you know, my job is to show up and show out, and the employer's job is to judge me. At least that's how I felt in my first TPE. And now it's I think we're trying to do more to push more of a balance that it is a mutual understanding of if this is gonna be the right job match. From the employer side, what else is new or changing for them? D'Najah Thomas [00:17:41]: Sure. From the employer side, a few things are new with the virtual experience. We really did listen to them 2 employers when they said, you know, it may be virtual, but we used to have reception. We wanna build that warm connection. If we can't physically touch or see other same spaces with candidates, how are they going to feel our full spirit, our vibe? We used to have swag. We used to fill mailboxes with all these things. And very lovingly, I said, there are ways that you do this now, but it has to actually be with the meat and the substance of who you are. And so you actually have to help candidates want to work for you because of the substance of what you offer, and you can do that. D'Najah Thomas [00:18:20]: So my coaching conversations with employers now are a lot about, tell me about your team, tell me about your campuses, tell me about the affinity spaces and support that is available to your staff. Talk to me about your professional development opportunities. Because this generation of candidates is very interested clear pathways to advancement? What is their supervision and leadership going to be like? And so I said employers, your booth, it's the sims. So that part is still fun. Your booth is fully branded. You can hyperlink it to videos. You can show a day in the life of. You can showcase your campus and your teams in ways virtually that you actually couldn't do in person. D'Najah Thomas [00:18:58]: You couldn't pick up your campus. Everybody just had the floor extensions with their brand on it. So now with your booth, you can use imagery, but you are linking to all of the resources and information that your campus has to offer in a very nicely branded way. But on top of that, your engagement with candidates is now about who you are, what you believe, what you value, and what the candidate experience will be. And so, in short, I'm finding that we are helping employers learn what it means to recruit, which is something other industries have been doing for some time, but I do think it's very new to student affairs. We knew that people were going to go to the graduate program. They were going to graduate, and they were going to need an entry point. And we just kind of knew that TBE would be that funnel. D'Najah Thomas [00:19:41]: But we know that the pipeline into the profession now looks different. And so virtual really does allow us to still serve that pipeline but also expand. Like your earlier question was, who all the CPE serve now? I am excited to say that we serve the full profession. We really do stop before you kind of get to the executive search firm level. That's not our wheelhouse. But up to director level positions, they are there in terms of employers posting those positions and candidates that are currently in the candidate pool. And I say that very excitedly because we are really carving out supporting those who want to do a nationwide search. There are lots of regional groups and associations that can do in person placement. D'Najah Thomas [00:20:16]: And I think that's wonderful. If you know you're gonna stay in the Northeast or the Southwest, and you can be at your conference and have that interview process, absolutely go for it. But if you know you're in California and you want to look at Illinois and Michigan and Virginia and Texas or a couple of different states and you don't want to break the bank as a candidate or if as an employer you want to cast the largest net as possible and you don't want to have to pick up and take a a team of 6 or 7 or 8 people, the virtual platform allows us to do that for everyone who wants to do it. Being virtual now lets us say that engaging in CPE is free for all candidates. That was a huge one. I just feel like it says something about an industry when you have to pay to get your job. We all want people to have to pay, let alone go into debt or use a credit card to get their next job. And so virtual allowed us to say, if you're looking for a job and you wanna meet some great employers, create a free candidate account, participate in the career fair, let our employers recruit you, and then in a few weeks, come back, have those interviews and hopefully find your next job. D'Najah Thomas [00:21:23]: Same way we say to employers, if you are a community college or a small college a limited budget, you are on the same footing as the flagship institution for whatever state you're in. It's the substance that you have that puts you in front of candidates and allows you to say to them, we have something that you want, and we would love to have you be a part of our team. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:21:42]: I just wanna reiterate one thing that you said, which is that the placement exchange process as a candidate is free to you to use, which is such a critical point that wasn't always true. I believe I registered for a fee when I originally went through many years ago. It wasn't high if I recall, but, you know, it's still a fee. So I really appreciate that that is a major positive change for candidates. So if you're looking for a position this year, please register with TPE. It's totally free for you. Now if I'm an employer, let's talk about how much it might cost my institution. D'Najah Thomas [00:22:16]: Again, I can say it's probably going to cost you less than you ever remember. Like, full transparency, when I went to LA in 2019, we were in the 1,000 of dollars to have our booth, take our staff, to pack up all the slack, to stay in the hotel. Employer booths are only $475, And that is to keep it comparable with the actual technology that we use for the platform. And so in that employer booth, you can have up to six recruiter seats and each recruiter can run their own schedule. So if anybody remembers CPE in person, it was a table and you often ran 2 interviewers per table. And some employers ran 2 tables. You can do that with 6 recruiters and 1 booth. So you can have up to 6 interviews if they're individuals or 3 interviews if you run them in pairs for 475. D'Najah Thomas [00:23:04]: We are not in the business of trying to to bankrupt anyone. We actually want to make it as accessible as possible for our job seekers and our employers because that is how the field wins. When we can bring the largest pool of talent together and the largest pool of hiring employers together, I believe that both sides will be presented with option and possibility and increase the likelihood that we make really strong career matches across the field. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:23:30]: I love that. That's amazing. D'Najah Thomas [00:23:31]: It makes me smile. So I'm glad it makes you smile. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:23:34]: Absolutely. So as we look forward then, there's already been, I believe, at least 1, if not 2, virtual events that have happened this year. There's another couple major ones coming back up, including one that will be concurrent with the NASPA annual conference. So this episode should be airing right before the conference begins. If I haven't registered for TPE yet, but I want to, what do I do now? D'Najah Thomas [00:23:58]: All you have to do is go to our website, which has not changed. We're never gonna change that web address. It is www.theplacementexchange.org. You will see virtual placement highlighted on our web page. Click that live green button, register, and join us. Registration takes about 30 minutes. Setting up your booth only takes 30 minutes. I did it just to be sure I was being truthful when I tell an employer anyone can do it, anyone can do it, and then you have full access to to our registered candidates and the ability to participate in placement. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:24:30]: You mentioned value congruence as probably one of the number one things that this generation of job seekers needs in their employer. How are you seeing employers demonstrate their values in a way that is really digestible for candidates? D'Najah Thomas [00:24:43]: I think, again, it starts with us introducing career fairs. We really wanted there to be something between I see a job on a site, I do my own kind of investigative research, and I hope they interview. I believe in the power of storytelling and human interaction. And so us since starting the career fair before placement has really been a great place for employers to do that. So there's what I see on your booth in terms of your printed materials about your your campus. I am now clicking to have a conversation with a recruiter and we are really working on helping candidates understand the questions to ask and the follow-up questions to ask. Ask. And so it is developing those conversational skills to engage in active recruiting. D'Najah Thomas [00:25:23]: And so I may say, you know, I read these are the values of your institution. An employer may say, yes. We value creativity, exploration, leadership, and service. Now in our in our recruiting chat, I can say, well, tell me a little more about how the value of service is played out on your campus. Often times employers are gonna talk about the student experience. And I say, as a candidate, when you listen, tell me what it is you're really wanting to hear and how do you have the question to get to that answer. So we kind of walk through scenarios and then the oh, they talked about the student experience. Well, they that sounded wonderful for students. D'Najah Thomas [00:25:56]: Can you tell me a little bit more about how this value, is experienced or plays out for your staff? Dr. Jill Creighton [00:26:02]: Mhmm. Mhmm. D'Najah Thomas [00:26:03]: So it's just keeping the art of engagement. And we do the same with employers because this is new to engage in recruiting as well. So we talk about when you when you choose recruiters, you want to choose people who, a, understand the values, the mission, the vision of your university, who can talk about their own experience with them to showcase that congruence. And I recommend you collect stories of your colleagues, of your team, of your peers that can validate that or affirm that. I also talk to my employers about transparency to say these things are so aspirational and here's where we are in working towards this. I think this is a wonderful generation of candidates that appreciate the honesty and the transparency. So even if you tell me you're not there yet, if you can tell me how you're working towards it, I'm gonna appreciate that you didn't tell me a lie. Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:26:50]: Yeah. For sure. D'Najah Thomas [00:26:50]: That you have that awareness, and I have an understanding of how you're still trying to get there. And so it's not a ding to you as an employer if you haven't hit everything inspirationally. It's your ability in preparation to talk about how you're working towards it and what you have in place to bridge that gap if you're not there yet. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:27:08]: Let's talk a little bit about the numbers. How many candidates and employers and jobs are in the TPE portal at any one given time and particularly during high season of hiring? D'Najah Thomas [00:27:19]: Sure. At any given time, we average between two 50 and 375 for jobs monthly. And so I give the average because we have new jobs posted. We offer 30, 60, 90 day postings. So we're in that 2 to 300 range on average per month. We currently have about 380 candidate resumes on the job board. That's the year round component. And we have about 600 employers who are in our system. D'Najah Thomas [00:27:45]: They may not be currently posting at the time, but they have posted in the past calendar year. Those numbers are continuing to grow as we continue to, a, inform people that we have a job work because a lot of people still just know us at the event. So as we continue to tell that story, those numbers increase. I am excited with placement that we are seeing numbers to start to increase to what they used to be. I told you the background in PR and marketing comes in hand. It helps me develop patients. Our field loves the things that have been a part of our journey, And we know that change is a process. And so replacement, our candidate numbers are are very quickly getting to what we are familiar with, closer to 300, 400 candidates. D'Najah Thomas [00:28:22]: Our employers are slow to adopt. And so our hope is as we continue to grow and employers continue to have that positive experience, a, that their testimonial, their validation, and their word-of-mouth will help. We are also marketing though, making sure employers know our candidates are getting it. We're getting up to 300 plus candidates almost to 4. And so right now, we actually are almost a 100 registered employers, which means there's almost a 100 positions. So it's a position per employer that they're being hired for. And they are from early career to senior, mid level, or senior level positions. And so I am just telling employers, you are looking for the candidate. D'Najah Thomas [00:28:56]: I can tell you where they are. They are leaning into technology. They are leaning into equitable access. They are leaning into spaces that fit better with their time and their schedule to look for a job. And so we are pacing it year by year to help employers see that we've heard what they were looking for from the in person experience, and we can't copy and paste, but we can find ways that technology allows us to reach that goal. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:29:17]: I always say that transition and change always takes at least 3 years in higher education. 1 year to formulate and push the change out, the 2nd year to work out the issues or the kinks with it, and the 3rd year to let it fly and see if it actually works. It's because our profession is so cyclical. The hiring quote unquote season in higher ed really only happens once a year en masse, but it is it is all year round. But you're not gonna see if the impact is is what you're hoping for for a while, and that's just true for anything in higher ed, I think. So I'm hoping that our show and featuring TPE can help others discover you again. D'Najah Thomas [00:29:53]: Well, I appreciate that very much. This role as a former practitioner on the campus has helped me lean into we talk about redefining success. We easily say it, and then you have experiences that require you to live that amount. Up. Rebranding and restructuring CVE has really challenged me, and I've embraced what it means to redefine success. And so right now, redefining success is not the highest registration numbers. It is listening to those who were leaning into this process, say that it worked and they experienced an improved week going through the process in this way, hearing people say, oh, this felt very innovative, or this was engaging, or this was fun. Words that we used to hear from the in person experience to now hear them in the virtual experience lets me know that we're headed in the right direction. D'Najah Thomas [00:30:34]: So I'm very much leaning into the feedback from our participants to make sure that we are hitting the mark with what equals a quality experience for them. And I believe that as more people have the quality experience, the numbers will do what they need to do. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:30:47]: Well, I think the number one thing that virtual space creates is accessibility. Right? And that's accessibility in a lot of different ways. But when I was, working as an AVPDOS at a large public university, you know, it made the TBE process possible for us because we couldn't afford to send 7, 8, 9 recruiters to the experience. But we could say, okay. Let's pay 1 fee, and we can post our hall director positions. We can post some assistant director positions, and we can try to find our people, this way. So I think that's that's all good stuff. What other transitions and developments have come about for TPE that you want our listeners to know about? D'Najah Thomas [00:31:25]: Sure. I think the the next big piece is what's happening in terms of programming and in the social media space. So we are about placement. We absolutely want people to connect employer to employee and find those jobs and make those hires. But again, as we think about being a career resource, it also means creating space to talk about and address the factors that impact our ability to retain staff and advance staff in the field. And there are some very role factors that we have to think about broadly if we're going to get the talent and keep the talent. And so, a big thing that I'm proud of is called TBE Talks. It's from our 2 planning committee chairs. D'Najah Thomas [00:32:00]: Every last Friday of the month, they get on the TPE Instagram live account and they talk about hot topics. So anything that is making someone think about, I don't wanna do this job anymore or what's driving my search for the next job, they talk about it. And I don't hang out in that space because I really wanted to be a free space for peer to peer conversation and engagement, and those conversations have been wonderful. The 2nd piece that will launch in March that I am extremely excited about is the one that I get to host. They're called TPE WRAP Session. And the sole subject of those conversations is around diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, and how that is impacting our ability to recruit, retain, and advance practitioners. And so each month, I'll have a guest join me to have that conversation. And so it varies. D'Najah Thomas [00:32:46]: My first guest is going to be someone who was the director of HR and DEI for a West Coast campus. And so for people to be able to hear how campuses are doing this work, get some ideas, ask them questions, and then I'll talk to some practitioners about their journey and their experience in the field. But I really want us to create spaces to just talk about the importance of accessibility, the importance of DEI, and how that's impacting the talent in our field, whether they're staying or going, moving up, or whatever that looks like. I think there's no harm in having a space to really have that niche conversation. So those are 2 big things coming up that I'm really excited about is offering to the field. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:33:25]: And repeat for us how people can listen into those dialogues? D'Najah Thomas [00:33:29]: Sure. If you want to listen in to TPE Talks, you can go to the TPE Instagram account on Fridays at 2 pm and join them live. If you want to join us for the wrap sessions, they happen the last Thursday of each month. And again, our website is magic. You go to our website and go to events. You'll find the link to join those when we are live on those last Thursdays of the month. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:33:53]: Any final thoughts on TPE's evolution from you, D'Najah Thomas [00:34:02]: 3rd year in the role, and this is the 3rd iteration of TPE in a virtual space is what you really alluded to. Right? We were really trying to fine tune what it means. And although it's a 3rd iteration, what I would say to the field is it's just an indicator that we're listening and that we are committed to refining it until we create what it is the field needs. And so I am excited for TPE to continue to evolve, to be a career hub for our field because I think that is the way forward for making sure that we can sustain our workforce. And not just have those bodies in seats, but make sure that our workforce is fulfilled and healthy and vibrant and able to have the creativity and the flexibility to do the work that they need to do. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:34:43]: It's time to take a quick break and toss it over to producer Chris to learn what's going on in the NASPA world. Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:34:50]: Thanks so much, Jill. Glad to be back in the NASPA world, and there's a lot going on in NASPA as we prepare for the 2024 annual conference. One of the things that I wanted to talk about because we're talking about the placement exchange today is that there are opportunities within the placement exchange for your organizations to be able to find those employees that you need. Many of you may either be looking for jobs or may be looking for individuals to fill positions. And TPE, or the Placement Exchange, is the largest career placement resource in student affairs for over the last 15 years. TPE is committed to helping employers and job seekers in our industry find each other and build our community one great job at a time. The methods and practices for job searching and hiring continue to evolve, and TPE is also working, as we've been hearing about, diligently to deliver the best in technology and innovation as well as accessibility, affordability, and dependability when it comes to recruiting and retaining talented professionals in student affairs. I know you've been hearing about it a lot today, but I'm going to plug it again. Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:36:03]: To go to the placementexchange.org to find out more information. Another great opportunity for you to explore is a new partnership that is called the Program Review Collaborative. This was developed in collaboration with organizations such as the Association of Colleges and University Housing Officers International, the Association of College Unions International, NASPA, and the National Intramural Recreational Sports Association. The PRC is a new joint venture aimed at enriching departmental reviews through the guidance of seasoned experts. These associations bring together a wealth of knowledge, resources, and a unified commitment to advancing the work of campus of campus professionals and institutions alike. PRC reviews focus on appraising the strengths and opportunities of a department with particular emphasis on staffing, administrative processes, programmatic offerings, student engagement mechanisms, and collaborative ventures within the broader campus community. Find out more at program reviewcollaborative.org. Finally, thank you to everyone who voted in the annual NASPA leadership elections, which closed on February 8th. Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:37:19]: We are thrilled to announce the following results with each position following the NASPA board of directors for the terms noted. The board chair elect is Michael Christakis, vice president for student affairs at the University of Albany, the region 2 director, Chaunte Hill, vice president for student life athletics and campus services at St. Joseph's University, region four east director, Juan Guardia, assistant vice president for student affairs and dean of students at the University of Cincinnati, and region 5 director, Carnell McDonald Black, vice president for student life at Reed College. Congratulations to all of these new leaders that are going to be leading NASPA into the future. Every week, we're going to be sharing some amazing things that are happening within the association. So we are going to be able to try and keep you up to date on everything that's happening and allow for you to be able to get involved in different ways because the association is as strong as its members. And for all of us, we have to find our place within the association, whether it be getting involved with the knowledge community, giving back within one of the the centers or the divisions of the association. And as you're doing that, it's important to be able to identify for yourself where do you fit, where do you wanna give back. Dr. Christopher Lewis [00:38:40]: Each week, we're hoping that we will share some things that might encourage you, might allow for you to be able to get some ideas that will provide you with an opportunity to be able to say, hey. I see myself in that knowledge community. I see myself doing something like that. Or encourage you in other ways that allow for you to be able to think beyond what's available right now, to offer other things to the association, to bring your gifts, your talents to the association, and to all of the members within the association. Because through doing that, all of us are stronger and the association is better. Tune in again next week as we find out more about what is happening in NASPA. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:39:27]: Chris, as always, you just do such a wonderful job with keeping us updated on what's going on in and around NASPA. Thank you for all you do with our NASPA World segment. Denasia, we've reached our lightning round. I have 7 questions for you in 90 seconds. Ready to start the clock? D'Najah Thomas [00:39:43]: I'm ready. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:39:44]: Alright. Number 1. If you were a conference keynote speaker, what would your entrance music be? D'Najah Thomas [00:39:49]: It would be Beyonce's I Been On. It's such a fierce song, and it reminds me to know that my track record is pretty good, and I don't need to be nervous about what I'm about to do. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:40:00]: Number 2. When you were 5 years old, what would did you want to be when you grew up? D'Najah Thomas [00:40:04]: I wanted to be a bank teller because they always handed out lollipops when I went with my parents to the bank. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:40:10]: Number 3. Who's your most influential professional mentor? D'Najah Thomas [00:40:13]: My most influential professional mentor would be doctor Stephanie Carter Atkins. He is the embodiment of servant leadership, and she taught me extreme patience as a supervisor. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:40:24]: Number 4. Your essential student affairs or career read. D'Najah Thomas [00:40:27]: Oh, my essential read would be Dare to Lead by Brene Brown. It leads me into some vulnerability that I had to really work through to offer to my staff, but was transformational. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:40:38]: Number 5, the best TV show you binged during the pandemic. D'Najah Thomas [00:40:41]: During the pandemic, there wasn't a lot of TV because there was a kid in the house. But I would say that My Guilty Pleasure was The Real House 5 series. You could pick 1. They were always on A&E. So yeah. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:40:53]: Number 6, the podcast you've spent the most hours listening to in the last year. D'Najah Thomas [00:40:57]: Harvard Business Review. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:40:58]: And finally, number 7, any shout outs you'd like to give, personal or professional? D'Najah Thomas [00:41:03]: I would love to give a shout out to my partner who is also in higher ed and helps me find a way to navigate both of us reaching the goals that we have. I definitely wanna give a shout out to black women who are doing this work. They are my sisterhood. They are my network, and they are my support. And I am always here for empowering them. And then lastly, I have to give a shout out to my TPE planning committee, both current and past. TPE, when I say we, it's just me. And so without my planning committee, I would not be able to do what I get done. D'Najah Thomas [00:41:32]: They continue to be a dream team, and I love them dearly. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:41:35]: Denasia, it has been a pleasure to have you on SA Voices and get to know more about how TPE has been changing and evolving to meet the needs of the modern candidate and the modern employer as well. If folks would like to reach you or TPE, how can they find you? D'Najah Thomas [00:41:50]: Sure. If they would like to reach me or TPE, they can come to the TPE website. Again, it's www .theplacementexchange.org. You can click about us and get in touch with myself or our general email account. You can also follow TPE on Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn. If you put in the placement exchange on all 3, we will pop up. There's no competitors. You'll definitely land at us, and I do my best to get back to people as quickly as I can. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:42:17]: Thank you so much for sharing your voice and the new story of TPE with us today. D'Najah Thomas [00:42:22]: Thank you so much for having me. It's been a wonderful conversation. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:42:28]: This has been an episode of Student Affairs Voices From the Field, a podcast brought to you by NASPA. This show continues to be possible because you choose to listen to us. We are so grateful for your subscriptions and your downloads and your engagement with the content. If you'd like to reach the show, please email us at essay voices at NASPA dot org or find me on LinkedIn by searching for doctor Jill L. Creighton. We always welcome your feedback and your topic and guest suggestions. We'd love it if you take a moment to tell a colleague about the show and give us a 5 star rating on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening now. It really does help other student affairs professionals find the show and helps raise the show's profile within the larger podcasting community. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:43:09]: This episode was produced and hosted by doctor Jill Creighton. That's me. Produced and audio engineered by doctor Chris Lewis. Special thanks to the University of Michigan Flint for your support as we create this project. Catch you next time.

State lawmakers and gun safety activists are urging the legislature to get behind Governor Josh Shapiro's 100 million dollar plan to reduce gun violence. Dozens of states allow people to provide sterile syringes to individuals who use illegal drugs. Some lawmakers want Pennsylvania to join the list. It's the heart of tax season, and those who made clean energy upgrades around their home last year may be eligible for tax credits. A new journal published by Penn State Press looks to create an academic space for the study of Palestine and Israel. The Goodwill Industries of Northcentral Pennsylvania recently hit gold. Lego gold, that is. Four toxic waste sites in Pennsylvania will receive a share of a $1 billion infusion to the federal Superfund program. The remains of a U.S. Army Air Force photographer from Northumberland County will be returning home.Support WITF: https://www.witf.org/support/give-now/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of Mission CTRL, Jahkeeva Morgan, Director of Programming at The Lab at ConnCorp joins Ramon and the PD Flight Crew to share her career journey of self discovery. The Lab at ConnCORP serves as a learning and knowledge center for new ideas, a community small business hub, and a place to exchange ideas about business ownership and entrepreneurship. Morgan, a dedicated professional, focuses on addressing inequalities and achieving equity in underserved communities. She has over a decade of experience working with non-profit community organizations, such as Goodwill Industries of Connecticut. Morgan grew up with the best of both worlds: her dad was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and her mom hailed from South Carolina. This combination of rich cultural histories, both valuing hard work, significantly shaped her work ethic and character. After being accepted into an accelerated Physician's Assistant program at St. John's University on a full scholarship, Jahkeeva was on her way to following in her parents' footsteps. But what do you do when external pressures pull you in one direction and your internal compass guides you down a different path? Tune in to hear how Morgan's story unfolds and the surprising direction it takes as she finds her purpose and follows her heart and now helps countless entrepreneurs and small businesses grow and scale.  Before diving into Jahkeeva's story, Ramon and the crew look to finally settle the coffee vs. tea debate! . . Find Mission CTRL on Anchor, Apple Podcast, Spotify, and our website. Mission CTRL aims to ignite the innovative spirit inside us all through providing budding and successful entrepreneurs and community leaders with a platform to share their stories and inspire others. Tune in every Wednesday and catch up with the team at Peralta Design as we unleash the origin stories behind some exceptional leaders, share marketing/branding insights, and navigate the ever-changing currents of pop culture. Subscribe for weekly branding and entrepreneurial content here!  To learn more about Peralta Design's work visit peraltadesign.com. #welaunchbrands #digitalagency #mbeagency #mbe #digital #branding #marketing #web #startups #creative #BrandU #w2 #fulltime #leadership #contentcreator #contentstrategy #marketingstrategy #entrepreneurs #business #launchyourbrand

The Salvation Army is partnering with Goodwill Industries of Middle Georgia, Inc. and Helms Career Education on a first-of-its kind endeavor in Macon, Georgia. The organizations are joining forces in their mission to lift individuals out of poverty and homelessness by breaking down systematic barriers to employment and opening access to meaningful work opportunities.   This program is the first of its kind across the country. It offers hands-on training and even job placements. This is also the first formal partnership that we know of between Goodwill and The Salvation Army.   Classes are offered free of charge to qualifying individuals, with specific programs focusing on administrative and office skills, forklift operation and safety, construction safety, customer service and sales, and more. These classes are both practical and vital for individuals to gain experience and proceed toward sustainable career options.   As with any Salvation Army initiative, the overarching focus is not only helping people succeed in practical terms but doing so while focusing on the soul-saving mission.   Learn more at southernusa.salvationarmy.org  

Our guest today is Sharon Birkman. As the daughter of company founder and influential industrial-organizational psychologist Dr. Roger W. Birkman, Sharon cultivated her deep expertise in human perception and organizational behavior through her lifelong interest in The Birkman Method.Sharon has been recognized with a multitude of awards, including EY's Entrepreneur of the Year, the Women President's Organization's Mary Lehman MacLachlan Award, National Best and Brightest Places to Work For, and the Houston Business Journal's Women Who Mean Business Award.In addition to her responsibilities at Birkman, Sharon volunteers her services as a Board Member of Houston Public Media, Goodwill Industries of Houston, and a long-time Board member for ESCAPE Family Resource Center. Sharon co-authored the book “The Birkman Method: Your Personality at Work” and authored the book “Creatures of Contact” by ForbesBooks.Birkman International is an industry-leading behavioral and occupational assessment company founded by innovative organizational psychologist Dr. Roger W. Birkman in 1951.The Birkman Method remains a preferred instrument to better understand interpersonal dynamics through positive psychology. It is used widely in the fields of career and life coaching, leadership development, human resources management, and organizational design today.Sharon Birkman - sbirkman@birkman.comChasing What Matters Instagram

This week on the bigcitysmalltown podcast, host Bob Rivard welcomes Carlos Contreras, CEO and President of Goodwill Industries in San Antonio. As Carlos shares insights about San Antonio's economic challenges—with nearly half its population financially insecure—he underscores Goodwill's mission: lifting individuals above precarious living conditions towards sustainability and self-sufficiency.  Goodwill San Antonio website Visit the official bigcitysmalltown website

Born & raised in the Houston-area, Steve Lufburrow knew his calling was to give back to his community. After 43 years of service, 37 as President & CEO of Goodwill Industries of Houston, Lufburrow is retiring. In this sendoff, HBJ Reporter Chandler France offers Lufborrow the opportunity to reflect on the impact he and his team have made over the past four decades. 

Jump in the sack with Dipperz--the SPARKLE SACK that is! Lauren and Sarah are in the field this week to bring you the finest in commentary at the most wonderful time of the year, visiting classic American establishments BigLOTS! and Goodwill Industries. Trot around the town and discover the wonder of the season and some great popcorn values with your fave podcasters. Featuring: the Radio Shack robot, things that probably should not be made out of candy, gummy or gümmy?, how is your sock supply holding up?, wreaths, surprisingly less singing than you'd imagine, and MORE! The Dips send you their warm wishes for a healthy and prosperous 2024, and hope for peace and safety for all. Happy Sparkle Season! Email us your favorite thrift finds: dipperzpod@gmail.comSupport the pod! Your contributions go directly to the creation of Dipperz! www.patreon.com/dipperzFind us on instagram: @dipperz_podcast

The Moneywise Radio Show and Podcast Thursday, December 21st BE MONEYWISE. Moneywise Wealth Management I "The Moneywise Guys" podcast call: 661-847-1000 text in anytime: 661-396-1000 website: www.MoneywiseGuys.com facebook: Moneywise_Wealth_Management instagram: MoneywiseWealthManagement linkedin: MoneywiseWealthManagement Guest: Jake Slayton, CEO of Goodwill Industries of South Central California website: https://thegoodwill.org/  

EPISODE SUMMARY: Unleash the entrepreneur in you with the wisdom of Chrissy Myers, a powerhouse in the realm of real estate and the CEO of three thriving companies. Embark on a journey with Chrissy as she unveils the narrative of her unique life - from birthing a book on Amazon to steering the wheels of a blended family with the acumen of a seasoned business leader. Be inspired by her fervor for philanthropy, as she serves on numerous nonprofit boards and ardently helps Northeast Ohioans secure employment. In a world of constant hustle, Chrissy shares the secret to maintaining peace amidst pandemonium. Take notes as she demonstrates how to juggle multiple roles without dropping the ball - navigating her multifaceted career, authoring books, and co-running a commercial real estate business. Chrissy's sage advice extends to cultivating emotional resilience, achieving equilibrium between work and life, and fostering tranquility in chaos.  Finally, Chrissy imparts invaluable lessons on fostering a culture of life in business rather than one ruled by revenue. We delve into the notion of taking a long-term view of success, planning life in decades while living in moments, and ensuring smooth transitions within a family business. Gain insights from her experience about the early cultivation of relationships and the pivotal role it plays in the seamless passing of a family business from one generation to the other. This episode is your ticket to an enriching discourse on maintaining balance, future planning, and successful business transitions. CHRISSY'S BIO: Chrissy is the author of Reluctant Resilience and CEO of AUI and Clarity HR which provide insurance benefits and HR services to small and medium sized businesses in both for profit and non-profit sectors. Chrissy describes herself as the chief cheerleader for both companies setting direction, steering marketing content, and finding creative ways to disrupt two established business sectors. Chrissy is also the author of AUI Gives Back & Clarity Cares two community impact programs where employees serve in the community, track their impact and share what they are doing on behalf of their customers. Around Akron Chrissy works to leave her community a better place. She is a graduate of Leadership Ohio, Torchbearers, Leadership Akron, Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses, Scalerator NEO and Community Leadership Institute. As an advocate for families struggling with addiction and mental health issues, Chrissy serves as the Vice Chair of the Alcohol, Drug Addiction, and Mental Health Services Board of Summit County. In addition, Chrissy serves on the Board of Directors for the Greater Akron Chamber, Goodwill Industries of Northeast Ohio and Jobs for Ohio Graduates. Chrissy received her Bachelors in Business Administration from John Carroll University and her MBA from the University of Akron. When she is not plotting world domination of the insurance industry or volunteering in the community Chrissy can be found at home with Team Awesome Sauce who includes her husband, Steve, and two children, Maddy and Caleb. GE IN TOUCH WITH CHRISSY: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissymyersceo/ www.clarityhr.com www.auiinfo.com EPISODE CHAPTERS: (0:00:13) - Interview With Austin Linney and Chrissy Myers Chrissy Myers shares her success in real estate, mindset coaching, and leading a blended family, as well as her involvement with nonprofit boards and passion for helping people in Northeast Ohio get jobs, referencing 75 Hard. (0:05:04) - Calm and Happiness in Small Business Chrissy Myers shares strategies to build emotional intelligence and resiliency to manage difficult situations and balance multiple jobs. (0:13:04) - Long-Term Perspective in Business and Life Creating a life-giving culture, long-term success, social media anxieties, understanding life goals, and planning in decades are discussed. (0:24:02) - Family Business Transition Navigation Fostering healthy relationships, creating a life-giving culture, and cultivating early relationships are key to transitioning a family business. (0:27:36) - Challenges and Strategies in Business Transition Fostering healthy generational relationships, discussing payment, terms and value, owning real estate and business, and emotional transitioning of a business are discussed.

David Shuster is the president and CEO of Horizon Goodwill Industries, a future-focused nonprofit workforce development organization that helps thousands of individuals each year pursue economic mobility through its mission of removing barriers and creating opportunities for meaningful and sustainable employment. -- If you haven't yet had the chance, make sure to register for our 2024 Real Leaders Impact Awards. Our Impact Award winners gain access to a values aligned community, credibility through Real Leaders, and access to our network of Impact capital sources. Apply now to claim your discounted application ⁠https://eunbi5zgbx7.typeform.com/to/XNdfGsS2#app_first_name=xxxxx&company_name=xxxxx&work_email=xxxxx&campaign_name=xxxxx&channel=LN&owner=Z⁠ Also, check out Outsource Access for all of your Virtual Staffing Needs. At an affordable rate you can outsource the work you need to get done at an extremely affordable rate. You can find more info about them here using this link. https://outsourceaccess.com/

Fred Grandy spent 8 years in the US House as a Republican from Northwest Iowa, but remains best known for the decade he spent playing the character Gopher on the iconic 70s/80s hit television show "The Love Boat". In this conversation, he talks how his small-town Iowa roots mixed with matriculating at tony Eastern boarding schools, how he came to spend time around both President Eisenhower and President Nixon, why an initial flirtation with politics instead pushed him to Hollywood, what drew him back to politics after an incredibly successful run in show business, memories of his 8 years in the House, challenging an incumbent in a 1994 gubernatorial primary, what he's done since leaving office, and one of his current projects portraying Harry Truman on stage in "Give 'Em Hell, Harry". Fred Grandy is a natural storyteller and no one in politics has a story like him.IN THIS EPISODEHis unusual roots in both Sioux City Iowa and Eastern prep schools...An early lesson in congressional politics before going into show business...Stories of spending time around both President Eisenhower and President Nixon...The accidental conversation that drew him to politics from Hollywood in the mid 80s...Memories of being an international celebrity at the height of The Love Boat's run...The role the "Gopher Gap" and Johnny Carson played in his first race for Congress...Important lessons learned when seeking committee positions in his first term...Why he left the House to mount an underdog primary against IA Governor Terry Branstad...Why politics can be a narcotic...His post-congressional career as an Executive at Goodwill Industries...Talking through his current stage play inhabiting Harry Truman in "Give 'Em Hell, Harry!"AND...the Americans with Disabilities Act, Bret Baier, Steve Bartlett, Berkley Bedell, Sonny Bono, the Bourbons, Bill Broomfield, Bill Clinton, Tom Dewey, fishing tackle, Bill Ford, The Freedom Support Act, funny hats, Newt Gingrich, Goodwill Industries, Clayton Hogdson, Henry Hyde, Steve King, Bob Livingston, lugubrious hearings, Nancy Mace, Gavin MacLeod, Edward Madigan, Marblehead, Wiley Mayne, David McCullough, Bob Michel, Alyssa Milano, moneyed patricians, nativist foundations, Leon Panetta, the patois of the district, the Pendergast Organization, Phillips Exter, Ronald Reagan, the Republican bosom, ringworm, ritual slaughter, Rivercade, Pat Roberts, Dan Rostenkowski, screwing the sugar industry, seed caps, Sherman Oaks, shoving words around a room, Sturm und Drang, summer stock, Robert Taft, Fred Thompson, Craig Tufty, Mary Tydings, Mo Udall, the underbelly of Congress, Watergate & more!

It's YOUR time to #EdUp In this episode,  YOUR guest is Lisa Rusyniak, President & CEO at Goodwill Industries of the Chesapeake, Inc. YOUR cohost is Dr. Janet Spriggs, President of Forsyth Technical Community College YOUR host is Dr. Joe Sallustio⁠ YOUR sponsors are The Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) & InsightsEDU  What is the Excel Center & how is it helping to provide a second chance for adult learners in Baltimore? What are some other initiatives that Lisa her team are working on that might impact Higher Education? What does Lisa see as the future of Education? Listen in to #EdUp! Thank YOU so much for tuning in. Join us on the next episode for YOUR time to EdUp! Connect with YOUR #EdUp Team - Elvin Freytes & Dr. Joe Sallustio ● Join YOUR #EdUp community at The EdUp Experience! ● Support #EdUp We make education YOUR business! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/edup/message

Visit the Excel Center Website www.goodwillches.org/excel-center/ About the Guest Lisa Rusyniak, CEO of Goodwill Industries of the Chesapeake, where she has worked for 26 years

This episode's interview is with Christine Skold, Chief Financial Officer at Goodwill Industries of Middle Tennessee.She shares stories and advice based on her management experiences, including the importance of:Ensuring people see and understand the value and purpose of their workSpeaking up and being willing to share your ideas and opinionsBeing intentional about setting aside time for self-careSelf-advocacy, delegation, setting high expectations,  and collaborationShe answers the same questions as each podcast guest:How do your values impact your management philosophy?Who or what has had the most impact on your management style?What book has made the biggest impact on you?

Listen to the TWiM Sisters' discussion on the female experience with garments by Become a TWiM Patron. This Week's Hosts: TWiM Sisters Link: Mailbag: MATT It's been a while since we recorded, and we did have some comments in the mailbag - there is one in particular we'd like to address quickly -  Some listeners disagreed with calling a death a little deal, I apologized offline for any pain we caused. MELISSA Should we give ourselves a name? What should we call ourselves? ChatGPT suggests, “The Beloved Brothers and Sisters” or “TWIM: Marvelous Siblings” Quick Clips: MATT (TEMPLES) St. George temple open house / Feather River California temple open house (more) / Saratoga Springs temple dedicated MELISSA A typical day in the life of an apostle MATT South Korea Supreme Court Justice is LDS MELISSA President Oaks turns 91 MATT Elder Soares speaks to missionaries in Brazil and speaks at Brazil conference MELISSA Church donates $44 million to end hunger Food donations in 6 countries MATT New study estimates that 1.4 million people attend LDS church services each week. That is about 20% of US church members. Famous Mormons: (MATT) Which 1980s/1990s child TV star is a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? Jason Bateman Ricky Schroeder Kirk Cameron Big/Little/No Deal: MELISSA What President Freeman wishes for the Young Women of the Church MATT Supreme Court's neutral stance on religion creates more chaos than clarity MELISSA Researchers studying intersection between LGBT+, Mental Health, & Religion MATT The holiest places in the world MELISSA Man faces felony charges after stealing chicken nuggets from LDS church MATT Did Joseph Smith plagiarize the Sermon on the Mount? MELISSA What happens to your church digital information when you die? TWIM TAKES (MELISSA) Should I send my child to church with a cellphone? (Related article) Can we talk about Lori Vallow Daybell statements? TWIM sisters did this, but we would have a different take. Mormons Doing Goodly: (MATT) Frank Vandersloot and Melaleuca fund the largest firework show west of the Mississippi. This Week in Mormon History: (MATT) 35 years ago today - 1988 Mid-August 100 millionth endowment performed for the dead. 50 years ago today - Aug 15, 1973 From Leonard Arrington Elder Anderson came into my office for a few minutes this morning. He said that President [Heber J.] Grant told him that Joseph F. Smith told President Grant about an informal, friendly conversation he had in Independence with Joseph Smith III [RLDS President]. Joseph Smith III leaned over to President Smith and said, "You know, I wish I knew for sure which one of us is right," and President Joseph F. replied, "I thank the Lord that I do know which one is right." 85 years ago today - Aug 14, 1938 The first Deseret Industries store opens with its dual purposes of providing low-cost used items as well as employment for disabled and elderly persons. Orson H. Hewlett patterns this after Goodwill Industries.

In this week's episode of The Tech Leader's Playbook, our host Avetis Antaplyan sits down with renowned speaker, IT expert, and best-selling author, Jeff Ton. With a wealth of experience spanning 35 years, Jeff occupies a unique intersection of technology and people, inspiring leadership and innovation across the IT industry. The conversation delves into Jeff's philosophy of leadership in IT and his journey from software developer to industry-recognized leader. We discuss the critical role of IT leaders in shaping the vision and strategy of their organizations, thereby amplifying their value. Jeff shares insightful anecdotes from his tenure as CIO at Lauth Property Group and Goodwill Industries of Central Indiana. He also discusses his time as Senior Vice President of Product and Strategic Alliance at InterVision, shedding light on his approach to developing people and driving product strategy. We then explore the concepts and insights from Jeff's books, "Amplify Your Value" and "Amplify Your Job Search - Strategies for Finding Your Dream Job." Listeners in transition or considering a job change will particularly find this segment beneficial. Finally, Jeff forecasts emerging trends in IT and leadership and their implications on the role of IT leaders in the future. Join us for an enlightening conversation packed with practical advice, strategies, and wisdom from one of the IT industry's most respected leaders. Links Check out Jeff Ton on LinkedIn here Discover more about Jeff's work and insights on his website here Get to know more about our host Avetis Antaplyan here Visit Hireclout's website for more resources and episodes. SEO Optimized Keywords: Jeff Ton, IT leadership, technology trends, Amplify Your Value, Amplify Your Job Search, tech leadership podcast, technology and people, IT strategy, CIO insights, job change strategies, Avetis Antaplyan.