Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / The People Whisperer: Susan Levine's Rise from Underachiever to CEO of Career Group Companies

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The People Whisperer: Susan Levine's Rise from Underachiever to CEO of Career Group Companies · The Inspired Stories Podcast

• 0:04
  Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
• 0:08
  where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
• 0:12
  their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
• 0:14
  adversity. My name is Anthony Codispotti
• 0:18
  and today's guest is Susan Levine, Founder and CEO of
• 0:22
  Career Group Companies, a nationally recognized women
• 0:26
  owned recruitment and advisory firm consistently named by
• 0:30
  Forbes as one of America's best recruiting firms.
• 0:34
  Founded in 1981, Career Group Companies has been transforming
• 0:39
  the career matchmaking process across industries like
• 0:42
  administrative, creative, fashion, events and executive
• 0:47
  search. Susan's leadership and
• 0:49
  dedication to creating meaningful career connections
• 0:53
  have earned her features in Forbes, Fortune, Business
• 0:56
  Insider and Fast Company. She's been named to Ink
• 1:00
  Magazine's female Founders 200 list and recognized as a best
• 1:05
  CEO for women on comparably. Her commitment to creating a
• 1:10
  high touch, personalized approach has made career group
• 1:14
  companies a go to resource for talent acquisition and
• 1:17
  professional development. Now before we get into all that
• 1:21
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• 2:07
  All right, back to our guest today, founder and CEO of Career
• 2:10
  Group Companies, Susan Levine. Thanks for making the time to
• 2:13
  Share your story today. Thank you for inviting me to be
• 2:18
  on this fantastic podcast and I'm excited to share so many
• 2:23
  things with you and all the listeners.
• 2:26
  Let's jump right in then, Susan. So you started this business, am
• 2:30
  I correct, nearly 44 years ago? Where did that inspiration come
• 2:34
  from? Well, it is almost 44 years.
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  I can't believe it. And the inspiration really came
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  from falling into this industry by luck and knowing that I sort
• 2:48
  of struck gold right away and loving the recruiting industry,
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  but wanting to do something with a bigger vision that at that
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  time there really weren't any boutique high touch firms like
• 3:01
  career group companies. So I was very excited to be able
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  to put something like this together with my own standards
• 3:08
  and stamp. And So what does that mean?
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  Boutique and high touch as it pertains to staffing.
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  Well, when I got into this business, they were mostly
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  publicly traded, very, very large companies.
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  There really wasn't that hands on experience.
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  I think that I've always been a type A perfectionist, even when
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  I didn't know it. But I knew that I loved
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  matchmaking and I knew that just placing somebody in a job was
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  not rewarding. It had to be placing somebody in
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  a role that they thought they could never have.
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  And on the other side, reaching out to the leading companies and
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  really promoting what I felt was my talent and being able to pair
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  the 2. So it was matchmaking before
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  matchmaking was really a thing. And that came from getting to
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  know the talent very well and what they were looking for.
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  And then reaching out to all these companies who I believed
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  were frustrated and just settling on hiring anyone and
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  assuring them that I was going to be that new kid that came in
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  and was really able to get someone, their dream job and the
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  company a perfect new employee. So I know that the services that
• 4:34
  you offer have evolved over time as they should.
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  Before we get to sort of what present day looks like, what did
• 4:42
  the core of the services look like when you first started back
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  in 1981? So when I started, I really was
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  an expert in administrative placement and both full time
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  attempt. And what that meant was any
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  candidate that was in those days, it was called a secretary
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  instead of an executive assistant.
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  There's been a real evolution here.
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  But much of the job were the same responsibilities.
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  So we were placing executive assistants, admin reception, it
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  could be any clerical job, it could be human resources.
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  And so it was all administrative.
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  There were not. There was not as much
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  opportunity quite frankly, as there is today.
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  And that is what put me on the map as being an expert in that
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  field and just simply focusing and going after all of the
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  leading companies who had those needs, which was pretty much
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  everybody. And so how did you get the very
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  first customer? Do you remember that?
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  Of course I do. I could tell you the name of the
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  very first person I placed in at what company.
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  I worked really hard. You know, there's no shortcuts.
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  I was on the phone all day long. It's an interesting story.
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  Maybe we'll table it for a little bit later about the
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  challenges that I was faced with, but I cold called all day
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  long and I called every single company in Los Angeles who, if I
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  were that employee, I would want to work for.
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  So I think the important message here is that I knew I would be
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  so passionate and do such great job for the company, as well as
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  sourcing and finding the very best talent for the kind of
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  companies that I could relate to.
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  And I worked really hard, and I politely begged for an
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  opportunity to show these companies that I was different
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  and that I would stand out and that if they were not impressed
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  with me and the level of service and the way that I worked, I
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  would never call them again. And for me, you know, so many
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  people say no, but who cares? I mean, they didn't know me.
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  And I would say, oh, you're just saying no because you don't know
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  me. But if you knew me, you would
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  definitely want me to be the person staffing your firm.
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  And so who was the first person to say yes?
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  Caesar's World they own. Caesars.
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  Palace in Las Vegas, this was the corporate office.
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  I placed the chairman's assistant and her name was Karen
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  Kramer. And until that happened, I
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  wasn't even if sure if this business worked.
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  You know, it seemed too good to be true when I got the job
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  because it wasn't here. I started at another firm where
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  I worked for 10 months and I felt it wasn't the right place
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  for me to be able to do the level of work I wanted to do,
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  but I did make that placement there.
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  And so you were able to cut your teeth while working somewhere
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  else. And, you know, like, OK,
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  something about this doesn't feel like it's the right place
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  for me. I'm going to go and start my own
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  thing. And that was after only 10
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  months. Of 10 months.
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  Being in the space. I must have been out of my mind
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  because I truly did not know what I was doing.
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  How could I know? I mean, I was 24.
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  Sometimes that hindrance. Is bliss.
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  Well, I was a kind of a daredevil.
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  Like I thought, what's the worst thing that can happen?
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  We can talk about that later too, because there was plenty of
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  it. But I knew I had to do something
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  really meaningful. So how has it evolved into
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  today? I mean, you've got multiple
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  specialized divisions now, administrative, creative,
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  fashion, big events. I feel like we, we could
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  probably fill a few interviews with this, you know, kind of
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  following the evolution of your company, but kind of maybe give
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  us the the condensed version of how this has exploded over the
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  past 40 years. Well, I'm obsessed number one
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  with what I do. You know, I have a really good
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  balance in my life. But from the day that I got into
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  this business, I have been very disciplined, passionate, like
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  you can't believe about the work that I do and have a lot of
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  drive and wanted to really make a big name in this industry.
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  Being authentic, transparent, loving growth.
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  Because I'm not somebody that can sit still for a long time
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  and be doing the same thing over and over.
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  I'm really a promoter of growth, professional and personal
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  growth. And so how do I describe having
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  the DNA where it's never enough and more, more, more, more,
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  more, more clients, more talent and having the time of my life,
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  by the way, building this company.
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  And I say I'm the luckiest person in the world because
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  while so many people have opted out to stay home, I get to come
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  to work even as ACEO with my best friends every single day.
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  And I wouldn't miss that for anything.
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  And so I built a company on that.
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  And after LA, the next stop was San Francisco, Silicon Valley.
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  It's an interesting story, but I'll keep going.
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  Then New York, because one thing I want to say is when you have a
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  vision and a dream, and I think that's really what happened
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  here, it's not something where you're ever going to take your
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  foot off the pedal. You want to keep going.
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  And I want to perfect. I mean, I've been doing this for
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  44 years. I have a long runway.
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  I mean, I haven't accomplished near the things that are on my
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  bucket list to accomplish as a human being, as a professional,
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  as ACEO. But I kept going and, you know,
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  the common thread of success in any business, but certainly my
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  industry. I don't think it's a fluke that
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  I wound up in the people industry.
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  I think my lot and life are people.
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  I love people. I love helping people.
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  I love hearing people's stories. I love everything that a human
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  being possesses. I have a curiosity about.
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  And Miami, you know, is a thriving big office.
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  We launched in Texas, Greenwich, CT, Orange County, we're headed
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  to Canada. But these are all new
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  challenges. But it's all about great people.
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  I always say I'm the people's architect.
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  So it's interesting comment that you made with, with all these
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  accomplishments and we're really just scratching the surface and
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  what we've talked about so far, you still haven't even come
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  close to checking all of the items off your, your bucket list
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  or accomplishing the things that you, you want in life.
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  And I, I want to hear more about that.
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  What's on the list. But I think this is good for
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  people to hear because I think, and, and I've made this mistake
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  a lot in my life and my career path is we always think that
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  once I reach this goal post, then I will have made it right.
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  Then I then I can slow down, then I'll be comfortable, then
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  I'll be satisfied. And I don't know, the most
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  successful people that I've met is we're always moving the goal
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  post. Like getting here just means,
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  OK, now, now I can look further into the future and and does
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  this describe yourself as well? Oh my gosh.
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  I'll just share with you. I hadn't even been in the
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  business for a year and I would set these crazy goals.
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  I don't even know where they came from, but it was going to
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  be the most outlandish goal. But I thought, how fun to set a
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  goal that's not obtainable. No, how fun to set a goal that's
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  really a big goal? Well, I would have met that goal
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  halfway through the month. Now the average person would
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  salmon a coast for the rest of the month.
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  I made my goal. I found it so easy that I said,
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  now I'm really going to take it up 10 notches.
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  And a lot of the time I made that goal.
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  A lot of the time I exceeded it, but even when I didn't make that
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  goal, it was still so much further ahead than the initial
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  goal. I think that's an athlete.
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  I think that's how athletes operate.
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  So I'm curious to get your perspective on this because you,
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  you've said, hey, I, I know people.
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  I, I understand people. I, I know what they're like, you
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  know, very quickly, what is it that you think separates people
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  that are wired the way that you are versus the person who, if
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  they hit their goal midway through the month is like, hey,
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  now I can just coast. I'm on easy street.
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  Do you think it's just the way that they were born?
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  Like you're wired from birth with it?
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  Is it something in upbringing or past experiences?
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  Can it be coached? What what are your?
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  What's your thoughts on all this?
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  Well, I would say #1 if I had to pick a word to describe that
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  individual, I would say drive. Somebody who has this crazy
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  drive within them that just accelerates them to constantly
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  be moving forward. Do I think you're born with it?
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  I think that there are a few components.
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  I had to have been born with Adna, that I call it.
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  Later in life we could talk about that would kick in OK, But
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  out of the gate, when I was a kid, nobody would have ever
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  said, oh, she's going to amount to something.
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  Oh, interesting. OK.
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  Oh yeah, I was almost an underachiever.
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  I think that is what motivated me to be an achiever, quite
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  frankly. And so I think #1 as an adult,
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  drive, absolute discipline, focus and just failing was not
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  an option. And so those are qualities that
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  live inside of me. No one had to tell me when I
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  finally got into this business, get going.
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  I was the one that was constantly hitting myself on the
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  back saying you need to do more, you need to be better, you need
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  to exceed your goals. So it was an internal pressure
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  all the time. Can it be taught if you have the
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  desire to be successful and if you are willing to make
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  sacrifices and if you are someone that is not fooling
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  yourself, but you're really willing to say I, I don't like
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  this life I have any more in terms of I'm not living up to my
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  full potential. I could take that person and I
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  believe that I could help develop them in bringing out
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  those qualities and really getting them onto a really good
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  positive path. So storytelling is great, but
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  you need people who are willing to actually do the work because
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  it's hard work, but it's so rewarding.
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  So it's interesting to hear you say that when you were younger,
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  you would classify yourself as an underachiever and you reached
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  a point where you weren't happy with that.
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  You could sort of look at yourself objectively and say I'm
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  not meeting my potential. Am I understanding this this
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  part correctly? Definitely.
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  So was there a catalyst, something that's sort of like
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  flipped a switch for you? It was like I am going to start
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  doing things differently today. Yes and no.
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  I didn't know how to jump start myself.
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  I just knew that until I was probably in my early 20s, I was
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  very content with slacking, didn't I?
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  Didn't feel like a loser then because I felt like I was in an
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  age where I could make excuses and it would still be OK.
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  And then I got to a point where I really wanted to feel like a
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  different person. I wanted to feel whole, that I
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  could make choices in my life out of strength instead of
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  weakness that I was. Really had this burning drive to
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  find something that I could be passionate about.
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  But how do you know? I mean, until you're doing it,
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  you don't even believe there's that possibility.
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  Men Luck went into an agency looking for a job and they
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  described the role and it paid nothing.
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  It was $3.35 an hour. That's what minimum wage was.
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  I thought, well, that's more than nothing.
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  And they described what this was, and I was scared in the
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  beginning because you want to know something for people that
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  are listening. You can tell yourself your whole
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  life that you're better than any job you're doing and that you
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  deserve more. But when the opportunity is put
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  in front of you, it's like Showtime now you're going to
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  really find out what you're made of.
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  I was going to find out, was I lazy and making excuses or was I
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  going to be able to turn something into a really dynamic
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  career, not a job, a career for myself.
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  And that freaked me out. That is what made me realize I
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  have to be able to do this. I cannot fail at this.
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  And so I worked so hard to be successful at something in a way
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  that wasn't even that hard. It's called discipline.
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  You have to show up every day and just do it.
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  It doesn't need to feel good in the beginning.
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  Of course it's not going to feel good.
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  You're not successful yet. But if you don't plant those
• 20:08
  seeds and you don't show up and put on your game face and do
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  what needs to be done, you're not ever making it to the other
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  side of the mountain. And the fear that I was going to
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  have to quit this job or get fired and go back out there
• 20:25
  again and figure out what am I going to do is what?
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  Made me really be so focused and successful.
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  Were you a good student? Nope.
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  No, I was good at the subjects I loved.
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  I, I, I loved art. I was a Fine Arts major.
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  I liked English 'cause I always liked to write.
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  But no, I I was not a good student because I was a
• 20:53
  goofball. Yeah.
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  And so it took having a big girl job for you to kind of put on
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  your big kid pants and say, OK, now I'm now I'm in the game.
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  Now it's time to start being a goofball.
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  Now I got to get serious about this.
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  You know what it was, Anthony? I was always bored.
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  I was bored in school and I was bored with every single job I
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  had. I mean, people would tell me
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  about the benefits when I would get a job and I thought to
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  myself, it's not going to matter what the benefits are.
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  I'm not going to be here long enough to be eligible because I
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  knew I'm not sticking around if I'm not happy and.
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  I, I think this, this is good. I, I'm glad that we're hitting
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  on this because, you know, I have a lot of conversations with
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  folks, younger folks who are still trying to figure out, you
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  know, what it is they're doing, where they're going.
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  And a lot of times I hear that, well, this thing I'm doing now,
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  it's, it's really hard. It shouldn't be this hard.
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  You know, I'm kind of waiting for God or the universe to sort
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  of deliver to me what the next thing is.
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  You know, what my passion is, what my joy is.
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  And I think that's great. Like if you find a job that you
• 22:08
  love, but sometimes you have to push through those really hard
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  stages in the beginning, like you did where you didn't know
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  what you were doing. You're cold calling.
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  Everybody's saying no, you've, you've got to get your reps in
• 22:21
  first before you find that success.
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  And you the, the wheels are sort of greased a little bit and it,
• 22:27
  and it allows you to be more comfortable in what you're
• 22:29
  doing. Like that doesn't happen right
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  out of the gate. No, but that is a type of
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  individual in my opinion. I knew that I had to make this
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  work. I can't tell you why it was this
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  instead of the job and advertising that I had had.
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  I mean, I had 100 jobs. I, I think with this for me, I'm
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  a storyteller. I want to convince companies and
• 23:05
  people that they are in the best hands if they join me.
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  And so when somebody would say no, it was like, oh, you don't
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  mean that you've never met me. If if you meet me, you I'll,
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  I'll change your whole culture. You'll, you'll let everybody go
• 23:23
  in your company and ask me to come in and be the person, the
• 23:27
  resource that's going to give you outstanding people, 'cause I
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  think people hired in those days a lot of mediocre people because
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  they didn't realize that there was someone like me.
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  That was my mission, who absolutely would go to the end
• 23:43
  of the earth to find them the best talent in Los Angeles
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  because that's where we were at the time and I delivered every
• 23:51
  time. I had such high standards.
• 23:55
  What did it look like back then, Susan, to find the workers to
• 24:00
  match with your clients. You know, today it's, well,
• 24:04
  actually we'll get to what it looks like today, but what was
• 24:06
  it like back then in the in the 80s?
• 24:09
  Well, let's talk about the industry in the 80s, I think
• 24:14
  most people that got hired to do what I was doing didn't have the
• 24:18
  standards that I had. And so if you're someone that's
• 24:23
  in charge of placing people at companies, and if somebody is
• 24:29
  just breathing and you think that they're superstar and
• 24:32
  that's who you're placing, well lucky for the candidate that you
• 24:38
  believed in them. But ultimately that candidate
• 24:42
  also wouldn't necessarily be thriving in that company and
• 24:46
  wouldn't last there. I was somebody who always loved
• 24:55
  pleasing people and over delivering.
• 24:59
  And so there's always been a huge workforce of people who
• 25:08
  could be fine-tuned and helped and guided and mentored.
• 25:14
  And I do a lot of that for people who have a hard time
• 25:16
  finding a job. And I ultimately get them that
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  dream job. But what it looked like in those
• 25:22
  days is that you had to go through hundreds and hundreds
• 25:25
  and hundreds of people to find that perfect match.
• 25:29
  And that is what I was promising these companies and the
• 25:33
  candidates. I will just tell you a very fast
• 25:36
  story. My son was graduating high
• 25:38
  school, and this woman ran up to me and said, do you Remember Me?
• 25:42
  And I said, I'm so sorry, I don't.
• 25:45
  And she said, well, you took a chance on me 30 years ago.
• 25:50
  I think it was more than 30. I came into your agency and told
• 25:54
  you I was days from living in my car.
• 25:58
  You said that's not going to happen.
• 26:00
  You picked up the phone and you called the human resources
• 26:04
  director at The Price is Right, and you placed me and I was
• 26:09
  there for 15 years. And so there are a lot of those
• 26:15
  kinds of stories where somebody couldn't get a job, but all they
• 26:21
  needed was somebody that believed in them, that would use
• 26:26
  their contacts and get them an interview.
• 26:30
  After that, I can't really do anything, but I'm going to open
• 26:33
  that door for you. Yeah, you you help get.
• 26:35
  Them and I'm going to tell them how highly I think of you.
• 26:39
  Yeah. So what did the I imagine it was
• 26:43
  like putting ads in like the the newspapers like the the one.
• 26:47
  LA Times was it? That's all.
• 26:50
  And so people would call you, you'd schedule the interviews,
• 26:53
  you would bring people in and and you would get a sense for,
• 26:57
  OK, you're a good fit for this, you're a good fit for that.
• 27:00
  Let me set you up with an interview and that roughly
• 27:03
  that's how the process looked. It did and if there weren't
• 27:05
  enough jobs for good people I would send them out temping and
• 27:10
  a lot of those temps got hired full time.
• 27:15
  And so how would you characterize your Business Today
• 27:18
  in terms of, I don't know, breakdown of temporary
• 27:22
  placements direct to hire, you know, professional recruiting,
• 27:28
  executive recruiting? Well, number one, I think that
• 27:32
  the volume in temp is always going to be higher because you
• 27:38
  could have 25 new orders coming in a day from so many different
• 27:45
  companies throughout the country.
• 27:46
  So that's volume where I want someone to start tomorrow.
• 27:49
  I need a maternity leave. I need this or that.
• 27:52
  As far as full time, wow, people are blown away at how busy we
• 27:59
  are. I have people say all the time,
• 28:04
  how do you have all this business?
• 28:07
  It pours in on a daily basis through referrals.
• 28:12
  Same for the events. We have a retained division, you
• 28:15
  know, where people pay you up front to work on a search.
• 28:20
  We have accounting and finance, creative and fashion, a
• 28:25
  lifestyle division which is all celebrities, high net worth
• 28:29
  individuals, estate managers, chefs all.
• 28:33
  I mean, that's what's so fun about this.
• 28:36
  Celebrities are the clients and you're trying to place workers
• 28:39
  with them. Correct, and they are a list
• 28:43
  Academy Award celebrities and producers and directors and
• 28:49
  people in the music industry and you're talking to them.
• 28:52
  I mean that's not who's calling you.
• 28:54
  Their business managers are. But then they're like, no, they
• 28:57
  want to get on the phone and they want to tell you exactly
• 29:00
  what they're looking for themselves.
• 29:04
  And that's an. Example of maybe one of the
• 29:06
  events that you've done. Lollapalooza Super.
• 29:12
  Bowl, These are big events, Super Bowl OK, these aren't
• 29:15
  like, you know, Maggie and Tim's wedding.
• 29:18
  This is. No, these are massive events,
• 29:21
  music festivals, activations, pop ups for celebrity clothing.
• 29:32
  Huge. You know, MLBNFL, these are big
• 29:38
  events. We have a lot of Ndas that we
• 29:41
  sign, but a lot coming up in the future that are huge where we
• 29:47
  will have 5 to 7000 individuals at that event.
• 29:54
  And we're not producing the events, we're doing the
• 29:56
  staffing. And but even those temp workers,
• 30:01
  whether they are Busters or mobility, you know, where you
• 30:09
  know, you're, you're pushing wheelchairs at an event, It's
• 30:13
  it, it really comes down to quality good people.
• 30:18
  So how on earth do you begin to find 5 to 7000 people in a
• 30:24
  specific geographic location for very short term employment for
• 30:28
  something like the Super Bowl? Well, number one, we use a lot
• 30:32
  of the same people for all of our events.
• 30:36
  We treat the talent very well. We generally pay more than a
• 30:44
  competitor would pay. I want to give someone a reason
• 30:47
  to get out of bed and not want to watch it at home, but
• 30:51
  actually work the event. A lot of word of mouth, you
• 30:58
  know, remember Field of Dreams, if you build it, they will come.
• 31:02
  We have a really good reputation.
• 31:03
  People know they're going to be treated well here and of course
• 31:09
  we're going to advertise, but we have a very thorough
• 31:14
  credentialing and vetting system.
• 31:16
  But we're doing fun stuff. I almost hesitate to ask this
• 31:23
  next question because you've got so many different divisions.
• 31:26
  I feel like it would be hard to answer, but I always like to
• 31:27
  give my guests an opportunity to explain who is their ideal
• 31:31
  customer. Customer isn't client or
• 31:35
  candidate. I I love that question client.
• 31:40
  Who's my favorite client? I can't mention the name.
• 31:44
  Who's my favorite? Who's your ideal client if
• 31:46
  somebody's listening and they're wondering like?
• 31:50
  So my ideal client is someone that has a good company with a
• 31:59
  great infrastructure where they're kind to their people.
• 32:02
  Let's start with that. I think it's really important
• 32:06
  that people have a chance to go work for firms that are invested
• 32:11
  in the talent, that care about their people.
• 32:15
  And believe me, we see everything.
• 32:18
  So my favorite customer is someone that cares about their
• 32:21
  people, has a really healthy culture where the people that
• 32:27
  work there are quality human beings, where you have a path
• 32:33
  and you're creating a path and you're interested in creating a
• 32:36
  path for people to grow and learn, where there's mentorship
• 32:42
  benefits. Of course, all those kinds of
• 32:44
  things are very, very important, but also fun.
• 32:47
  I mean, I want to work with fun clients and I want to work where
• 32:53
  there's brand alignment, where I can relate because I'm going to
• 33:00
  be talking to people all day long.
• 33:03
  And if I don't think you're a good client, politely I am going
• 33:07
  to back out from working with you.
• 33:10
  So I got to tell you what I love about that answer is in my mind
• 33:14
  when I ask that question, I'm thinking, oh, they are of this
• 33:18
  size, either in terms of headcount or dollar amount, or
• 33:21
  they're in this geography or that industry.
• 33:24
  And that's not where your head went at all.
• 33:26
  It was more like, what is the culture there?
• 33:28
  That's what I want to know. Well, culture's everything.
• 33:31
  So are people. So I have clients that are have
• 33:37
  thousands of employees and I have clients that have 8.
• 33:42
  I don't care. I care that the eight person
• 33:48
  company is growing to 12 or maybe they're not growing at
• 33:51
  all, but they treat their people really well.
• 33:53
  I mean, at the end of the day, isn't that what someone wants?
• 33:58
  To feel valued. Absolutely, Yeah.
• 34:02
  You know, Susan, what's interesting to me is 'cause I
• 34:07
  get the chance to talk to a lot of people and it's not it, it's
• 34:09
  not always the same person who has the set of skills to get a
• 34:13
  new idea off the ground kind of through the start up phase.
• 34:17
  That would be the same person that continues to drive the
• 34:21
  company into the incredible phases of growth that you've
• 34:25
  seen. They're typically different
• 34:27
  skill sets. Do you feel like you were
• 34:30
  uniquely suited for this or were there, were there mentors or
• 34:36
  other processes along the way that kind of help get you ready
• 34:40
  for each of the stages of growth that would come over the four
• 34:45
  decades that you've been in charge there?
• 34:49
  You know, this might sound like a terrible answer, but it's the
• 34:53
  truth. I really didn't have mentors.
• 34:56
  What I had were the lessons along the way of failing.
• 35:03
  So every time we had a recession or every time there was a huge
• 35:12
  hiccup where I absolutely had no idea how to navigate around it
• 35:16
  because I was a kid in the early years, I had to really figure it
• 35:24
  out. You know, it all came back.
• 35:28
  It all circled back again to discipline and hard work and
• 35:32
  sort of crossing my fingers and saying, oh, brother, I have to
• 35:37
  make it. I have to plug the holes in the
• 35:39
  boat with gum and get to the other side of the island.
• 35:43
  But I can't go down. And, you know, the pandemic,
• 35:48
  that was a new challenge that nobody saw coming.
• 35:53
  Very scary. But I'm not letting any outside
• 35:58
  emotion get in. I am just focused on making sure
• 36:05
  that the company and the people that work here, we are all OK.
• 36:09
  And so I go into a different headspace and that is sort of
• 36:14
  like a surgeon doing everything to keep the patient alive,
• 36:18
  right? Everybody here relies on coming
• 36:21
  here every day and has to have a leader.
• 36:26
  And there are a lot of very strong people here, by the way,
• 36:29
  who help pull their weight, but it's being very focused and
• 36:37
  determined and disciplined and just making sure that you make
• 36:43
  it through tough times. So no mentors, any peer groups
• 36:49
  that maybe you've been a part of that has been helpful to you?
• 36:54
  Well, I'm going to say the collaboration of the people here
• 36:59
  on a daily basis where we talk things through and we talk about
• 37:05
  where we are and where we want to go.
• 37:07
  And also we talked about vulnerability, you and I
• 37:12
  earlier. I don't have all the answers and
• 37:18
  I don't feel badly about saying that.
• 37:20
  I mean, the day I have all the answers, I should retire.
• 37:24
  But I I look and I listen and I observe a lot of people and I
• 37:30
  hear things that people have to say.
• 37:33
  And I'm very open to change as ACEO.
• 37:38
  Some people feel like they know it all.
• 37:44
  How can you know it all? Bless you.
• 37:50
  Thank you. So, but I there isn't a person
• 37:57
  in my life, I mean, there's so many different people that I
• 38:00
  know that I talk to that share stories at very successful
• 38:06
  firms, I mean far more successful than us.
• 38:10
  And they share certain things with me and I really listen and
• 38:15
  I hold on to that and it sort of becomes part of my mantra and
• 38:23
  I'm open to anything that I feel is going to make life better
• 38:27
  here for people. We kind of danced around this a
• 38:32
  little bit early in the interview, so I want to come
• 38:34
  back to it, to the question about serious challenge that
• 38:39
  you've overcome. Sounds like you were thinking
• 38:41
  about something kind of early in your career.
• 38:44
  Be curious to hear what it was, how'd you get through it, and
• 38:47
  what did you learn. So this is actually a really
• 38:51
  great story because this was six months after I opened Career
• 38:54
  group and I was 25 years old and had no business experience.
• 38:59
  I was so excited that I started my own firm and the recession
• 39:04
  hit. And I mean, it was like somebody
• 39:07
  turned the lights off and I had five or six employees and I
• 39:13
  didn't have even the heart to say to them, you might need to
• 39:18
  go look for a job because I don't even think we're going to
• 39:20
  make it. And I had to figure out how am I
• 39:25
  going to make it? Nobody, nobody was paying fees.
• 39:27
  They people were still hiring if they needed someone.
• 39:30
  But they certainly, you know, this is a luxury business and
• 39:35
  human resources is not writing a big check when you're going
• 39:39
  through a terrible recession. And so I got very creative
• 39:43
  because again, I cannot go out of business.
• 39:46
  So I would go to the LA Times and all those companies that I
• 39:51
  would call and sell our services to.
• 39:53
  Initially I said how much you paying for your ad?
• 39:56
  And they'd say $378 or $149. Well, let's say my placement
• 40:04
  fees in those days were two, three, $4000.
• 40:08
  I called every person in the LA Times and said kill the ad.
• 40:13
  And pay me that money and I'm going to fill your jobs.
• 40:18
  And so while the fees were tiny, I had hundreds of jobs.
• 40:23
  Your fee the equivalent of what the the newspaper ad fee was.
• 40:28
  I just really. Slashing your rates.
• 40:30
  Yep. I mean, slashing like 99% off.
• 40:34
  But I needed enough money to pay my rent and that was all I cared
• 40:40
  about is survival. So that's another good word.
• 40:47
  And I thought it was pretty creative that I did that.
• 40:50
  Not at the time, but now when I tell that to people.
• 40:53
  I probably wouldn't be here today if I hadn't done that.
• 40:56
  So that was enough to keep you afloat during those lean times.
• 41:00
  And then I got all those clients as as business and the economy
• 41:05
  shifted, I had those clients that would have, I mean, right
• 41:11
  there in the ad, it said no agency calls.
• 41:14
  That never stopped me from calling.
• 41:18
  But nobody in human resources wants to go through all those
• 41:21
  resumes if you have somebody that's willing to basically do
• 41:25
  it for the same price. And so you were charging 2 to
• 41:29
  $4000 for a placement. At that time, people were paying
• 41:32
  3 or 400 for a newspaper ad. You're like, I'll do it for that
• 41:36
  amount. Yeah, any event there were,
• 41:38
  yeah. You yank your ad, I'll provide
• 41:42
  the service for the cost of the ad.
• 41:44
  Which means you still had to run your own ads to get people in
• 41:48
  the door, and you had to pay your people to go through the
• 41:51
  lengthy process of interviewing and placing folks.
• 41:55
  Yes. And then what did it look like
• 41:59
  sort of coming out of that, just keeping the lights on phase And
• 42:04
  now I'm going to go back to those same clients that were
• 42:06
  paying me 3 or $400.00 and now say, OK, we need to readjust
• 42:12
  those rates so that they're market equivalent to where they
• 42:15
  should be. How did you kind of make that
• 42:17
  transition? Well, the interesting thing is
• 42:21
  it's like altitude when you're climbing.
• 42:26
  I was so focused on my head down, just surviving that one
• 42:31
  day I realized I can take a breath.
• 42:36
  I mean, I was freaked. And one day I realized, oh, I
• 42:42
  mean, we're making enough now where I can pay people and pay
• 42:46
  the rent. And those clients were feeling
• 42:50
  pretty good that they got extraordinary service.
• 42:54
  I can't tell you the percentage that said $3000.
• 42:59
  We can't afford that. So those people went back to
• 43:01
  their ads. But I did gain a lot of
• 43:05
  business. And my original clients, of
• 43:08
  course, were happy to pay me what I was worth.
• 43:13
  I mean, I was basically doing anything just to make it in
• 43:19
  business and people understood that I was worth more than I was
• 43:22
  charging and no one took advantage.
• 43:26
  I think this story is really interesting for a couple of
• 43:29
  reasons. I want to highlight, you know,
• 43:30
  for folks who are listening like, oh, yeah, that sounds
• 43:32
  tough. No, no, no.
• 43:34
  If you haven't been through something like this where, you
• 43:37
  know, it's one thing most people have been through their own job
• 43:40
  transition career wise, and what am I going to do next?
• 43:43
  Where's my next paycheck coming from?
• 43:45
  And that is very stressful. But now imagine that you're in
• 43:49
  that same position, but you're not only worried about where
• 43:51
  your own next paycheck is going to come from, but you feel
• 43:55
  responsible for all of your employees and where their next
• 43:58
  paycheck is going to come from. And how are they going to be
• 44:01
  able to pay their rent and how are they going to be able to
• 44:03
  feed and clothe their kids? And that puts just an added
• 44:07
  level of stress and pressure on yourself.
• 44:10
  So to push through that and then, excuse me, come up with
• 44:14
  this creative idea that you did, I'm curious, where did that come
• 44:19
  from? How did that did it just pop
• 44:20
  into your head? It did it just.
• 44:22
  Popped into my head, you know, when you're business owner and
• 44:31
  you have leases in the best areas, best real estate
• 44:37
  throughout the country, you're on the hook.
• 44:39
  So let's start with that. Now you have duringthe.com
• 44:45
  crash. That was #2 where again,
• 44:49
  overnight it went from juggling phones and filling insane volume
• 44:57
  orders to all of a sudden it's pitched black in your office
• 45:03
  because there's your phones aren't ringing other than
• 45:06
  collection calls you're making. I was responsible for all these
• 45:11
  people. And you know, there's a woman
• 45:16
  that's worked here for 33 years who says, number one, I'm not a
• 45:20
  complainer. So when I'm going through these
• 45:23
  things, no one even knows that I'm completely panicked because
• 45:28
  I'm so focused on the solution to get through it that I'm not
• 45:35
  talking about how devastating times are.
• 45:39
  Hey, I'm a human being. Of course I'm scared, right?
• 45:43
  I'm not going to project that. What I'm going to project is
• 45:46
  that I need to put my head down and I need to get us through
• 45:50
  this. And I have all these crazy
• 45:52
  analogies, but it's like a pilot.
• 45:54
  If you blow an engine, you're responsible for 3 or 400 people.
• 45:58
  You have to figure out a way to land that plane safely.
• 46:01
  That's all you should be caring about.
• 46:04
  Well, this is a big plane. I have a lot of people, 225
• 46:09
  people and offices all over, and I need to get us to a safe
• 46:14
  place. And so I was telling you about
• 46:18
  this woman that came in one day and she said, if you ever want
• 46:20
  to be in a crisis, you want Susan Levine to be the person
• 46:26
  who's flying the ship. Because there's a lot of
• 46:30
  confidence in knowing that I will get us to a safe place.
• 46:34
  But that is failure's not an option.
• 46:42
  What's your superpower, Susan? About that or in life.
• 46:48
  In life. In life, which includes work.
• 46:54
  My superpower. I think I'm a really good
• 46:57
  person. I'm authentic, I care.
• 47:02
  I'm genuinely interested in changing the direction of
• 47:06
  people's lives who are stuck and not happy.
• 47:15
  I love what I do and can't get enough of it.
• 47:20
  Having a balance in life is really important, you know?
• 47:23
  I have a family, but my superpower is trying to help
• 47:29
  people be the best version of themselves, including me.
• 47:34
  And I get the sense that you're very good at quickly is judging
• 47:39
  the right word, recognizing what kind of person you're talking
• 47:44
  to. I can tell immediately, so that
• 47:48
  that's probably the superpower, having a compass and a chip
• 47:55
  where I just know people. How can I tell you where that
• 48:00
  came from? You know, I have this keen sense
• 48:06
  even when someone else doesn't believe in somebody, I will call
• 48:09
  a client and say you said no to this person.
• 48:12
  You saw the resume. You're not hiring a resume,
• 48:14
  you're hiring a person. I met this person.
• 48:17
  This person belongs in your company.
• 48:19
  They fit your culture. You will love them.
• 48:21
  You trust me? Meet the person.
• 48:24
  I don't think I'm wrong. And you know, I don't want to
• 48:29
  say I've never been wrong because so much of it comes down
• 48:34
  to chemistry. But I had a client that refused
• 48:36
  to see somebody, a finance client, because the person came
• 48:41
  out of entertainment. I said they're doing the same
• 48:42
  work. It doesn't matter.
• 48:44
  This is your person. You told me what you want.
• 48:47
  This is your person. If if I'm wrong, send them back
• 48:52
  and they hired them. So I do have very strong
• 48:58
  feelings about people right away, good and bad feelings.
• 49:07
  Was this something you feel like you had as a kid and a young
• 49:10
  adult or did it develop? No, this is something.
• 49:13
  No, You know, somebody said to me, this is funny.
• 49:16
  Somebody said to me a couple of years ago, when did you get your
• 49:22
  voice? And this kind of goes hand in
• 49:25
  hand with what you're saying. And I thought about it for a
• 49:28
  minute, and I said it was probably 5.
• 49:32
  I I I was pretty outgoing and demonstrative.
• 49:37
  Yeah, I always had opinions. And so, of course, as I was
• 49:42
  growing up, there wasn't a superpower at 7 or 10 or 12 or
• 49:47
  18 until I tapped into this business where I could talk to
• 49:54
  people and then hear what they had to say.
• 49:56
  Hey, if the story doesn't make sense, there's usually a pretty
• 49:59
  good reason, right? Like I do follow the truth and I
• 50:04
  do follow patterns when I meet with people.
• 50:08
  And if something doesn't add up on top of my gut feeling, I'm
• 50:13
  not going to ignore that. I'm not a transactional business
• 50:16
  person. I really, I'm looking to play
• 50:20
  somebody great with a great firm.
• 50:22
  I'm not the the deal comes if you're doing great work.
• 50:26
  It's not chase the deal. Make sure that you have great
• 50:30
  people and great clients and that you are making really
• 50:33
  meaningful matches. I would have been a good
• 50:37
  matchmaker, right? I'm just doing it on the
• 50:39
  corporate side. I was going to say you are a
• 50:41
  matchmaker. I am a matchmaker.
• 50:43
  Just not for the dating scene. Yeah.
• 50:46
  So, Susan, I'm curious, what are your views on AI and its role in
• 50:52
  the staffing industry? This is kind of a a big topic of
• 50:55
  conversation in your. Well, I think it's how it's
• 50:59
  used. I think it's an incredible tool.
• 51:01
  I think that we're in it and we're moving closer and closer
• 51:08
  to where it's, when I say going to take over.
• 51:11
  I have these debates in these conversations.
• 51:15
  I think that it is going to make everything much more efficient.
• 51:22
  I would hate to believe that AI can actually replace human
• 51:28
  beings on a certain level. I think people are going to
• 51:32
  always need people. I I can't believe that companies
• 51:36
  one day are going to have robots, so to speak.
• 51:40
  But I think AI is critical. I think it will take a
• 51:43
  tremendous amount of work that people are having to do now
• 51:49
  themselves and streamline it, which will free up people's time
• 51:54
  to have more time to do bigger, better work.
• 52:02
  But you know, when I read a letter now, I want you to know
• 52:04
  when somebody sends me a thank you note, I know is it from them
• 52:09
  or is it ChatGPT? Because if it's too good to be
• 52:13
  true, it's not from that candidate, most likely.
• 52:16
  If it's a little too polished. You can just tell I mean.
• 52:20
  There's a tone. There's a.
• 52:21
  Voice. I was going to say the human
• 52:23
  element is missing, but we will. We will get to a point where
• 52:26
  people won't care. It'll just be about the
• 52:29
  efficiency of placing hundreds of thousands of people.
• 52:37
  I'm working on something now that I can't really talk about,
• 52:40
  but where it will be a real value add for people who are
• 52:50
  lost in the shuffle that are looking for a job.
• 52:55
  You know, I share your sentiment that my hope is that as AI finds
• 53:03
  its way into more use cases and into more industries, is that
• 53:09
  it's used as a way to free us up from sort of the the paperwork
• 53:14
  minutia that may be required and allows us to interact more as
• 53:19
  humans. And I'll give you an example.
• 53:21
  My wife is a speech therapist in a low income school district.
• 53:25
  And I hear her talk all the time about, you know, all these forms
• 53:29
  and these reports that, you know, she has to write.
• 53:32
  And I'm a little tech savvy. And so I'm like, you know, you
• 53:36
  guys, what, what if you could record the sessions and then
• 53:39
  have the AI turn a transcript and a portion of the reports and
• 53:44
  her eyes get real big and she's like, yeah, we're not allowed to
• 53:47
  do any of that. And I'm like, yeah, I get it.
• 53:49
  Like they kind of, you know, especially in education, they
• 53:51
  move slow. But wouldn't that be like the
• 53:54
  fantastic thing where she doesn't have to spend an hour
• 53:58
  writing a report for a 15 minute session that she had with a kid.
• 54:03
  She can spend 45 minutes with the kid and 15 minutes kind of
• 54:07
  polishing up the AI report. Like wouldn't that be amazing?
• 54:11
  The kid gets so much more out of that and and she does too.
• 54:14
  It's much more fulfilling to spend the time with the child
• 54:17
  than it it is the form. My fear though, and it might be
• 54:23
  generational. Where?
• 54:27
  Where are the young generation now going to learn how to
• 54:31
  develop skills right? I mean I.
• 54:36
  Hear that? Yeah.
• 54:37
  If everything is being done for you, where are you going to
• 54:43
  intellectually be challenged to do any of your own work?
• 54:48
  It's going to get to a place where you push a button and
• 54:52
  it'll pull you out of bed, dress you.
• 54:55
  They already have Waymo. You don't even have to drive
• 54:58
  anymore. I mean, I, I think that it's
• 55:04
  going to be very interesting over the next two to five years
• 55:07
  to see what happens. I hear that completely, and I
• 55:11
  tend to to share the same concern with you.
• 55:14
  Here's what another voice in my head is telling myself, though,
• 55:18
  is that we heard similar arguments from ancient Greeks
• 55:22
  who were worried about the written word and people were
• 55:26
  going to lose the ability to memorize things and to share
• 55:30
  stories. And we heard the same kind of
• 55:32
  thing about calculators and computers.
• 55:37
  And so, you know, over time, like, has the way that we've
• 55:43
  used our brains changed? Yes.
• 55:49
  I think what's so startling is what a rapid and massive change
• 55:55
  we're seeing with AI in terms of how we may end up using our
• 56:01
  brains. But, you know, if you were to
• 56:03
  sit here and say, Hey, we're the ancient Greeks, right?
• 56:05
  Should we have not, you know, you know, evolved the, the
• 56:09
  written word and books and, and, you know, the ability to capture
• 56:13
  stories that way? I think everybody would say,
• 56:14
  well, probably not, but it is, it is scary 'cause it's this is,
• 56:19
  this is unknown territory and it's happening very quickly.
• 56:23
  Well, who's going to be doing the podcasts?
• 56:26
  If works. If works, You and I, Yeah, yeah,
• 56:31
  no, I, I maybe 10 years. From now, it'll be my avatar
• 56:34
  attacking to your avatar, and they've both just been educated
• 56:37
  from listening to all the content we've already created.
• 56:40
  I don't. Know so I want to become an AI
• 56:42
  expert. I want to know everything I can
• 56:44
  absolutely know about it. That's that's a good challenge
• 56:47
  for me to take on. Is that 1 you decided in this
• 56:50
  moment or one you've been carrying?
• 56:51
  No, I've. Been thinking about it for about
• 56:53
  the last six months that I I can't be ignorant about
• 56:57
  something that's here now and really going to be prevalent in
• 57:01
  the future. I have to master that.
• 57:05
  I think that's a healthy way to look at it.
• 57:07
  I had a, a former employee approached me a couple two or
• 57:12
  three years ago, whenever it was ChatGPT kind of came into
• 57:14
  everybody's lexicon. And she's a creative person, a
• 57:17
  copywriter. And she was worried about, you
• 57:21
  know, the future of her career path and just terrified that,
• 57:26
  you know, overnight, you know, the need for her services was
• 57:28
  going to go away. And I told her, I said, you
• 57:31
  know, you need to kind of flip this around and think of this as
• 57:35
  a tool for leverage and how can you use it to maximize the skill
• 57:41
  sets that you already have to deliver better services to your
• 57:43
  clients. And she went away for a couple
• 57:46
  of months and she came back very excited because now she had
• 57:49
  mastered it, mastered it. She had rolled up her sleeve.
• 57:52
  She'd really figured a lot of it out.
• 57:54
  And she was so excited about now what she's going to be able to
• 57:57
  do for her clients going forward.
• 58:00
  And sounds like that's that's the headspace that you're in
• 58:02
  too. I think so.
• 58:03
  And I'll tell you, especially in creative, we're very, very busy
• 58:08
  and growing. And these are areas that people
• 58:12
  could say these individuals could be replaced with AI, but
• 58:19
  so far they're not being. That's fascinating to hear.
• 58:22
  And so when you say creative are the give me a little bit more of
• 58:26
  a picture. What?
• 58:27
  What kind of? Roles.
• 58:28
  Digital graphics copywriters. Production people.
• 58:37
  So that's really fascinating because these are exactly the
• 58:40
  kinds of jobs that you've heard sort of the fear mongers say are
• 58:44
  gone or going away and they're. Not gone.
• 58:47
  They're not gone. You're still stealing a lot of
• 58:50
  demand. Here, they're not gone at this
• 58:52
  point. OK, interesting.
• 58:55
  Yeah. What's a resource that you might
• 58:57
  recommend for our audience? A podcast that you love, a book,
• 59:01
  a course, something that's been really helpful to you might be
• 59:04
  helpful to others. Gosh, I wish I could tell you I
• 59:07
  mean well. You know, maybe ATV show.
• 59:13
  Oh, Oh well, I watch Netflix so you don't want to hear about
• 59:19
  what I watch. It's more other leaders and
• 59:24
  executives. I know that Mel Robbins is super
• 59:30
  popular and she's definitely an inspiring woman who talks about
• 59:39
  a hard past and how she has really helped a lot of people
• 59:50
  become very motivated and get out of their own way, but it's
• 59:54
  more like a spiritual self help book.
• 1:00:00
  I haven't listened to a lot of podcasts that are relevant to
• 1:00:07
  'cause I think it really comes down to what is it that somebody
• 1:00:12
  wants to achieve in their life? Are you going to watch?
• 1:00:14
  Are you going to listen to a podcast because you don't have a
• 1:00:16
  good love life? Are you going to listen to a
• 1:00:18
  podcast because you are a lost individual and you're stuck?
• 1:00:26
  You know, I want to do a great podcast about, you know, are you
• 1:00:33
  stuck? I think everybody's stuck
• 1:00:36
  somewhere in their life. I think everybody, if you really
• 1:00:40
  break it down and you say, is everything going the way I would
• 1:00:44
  like it to go in my life? And is there room for me to be
• 1:00:49
  doing more? Maybe somebody's a workaholic.
• 1:00:53
  I do make the time to do fun things so and I am a workaholic
• 1:00:58
  but maybe there are people who work non-stop and their
• 1:01:03
  relationships are suffering or their kids feel like why aren't
• 1:01:08
  my parents ever around? I think there's a different
• 1:01:11
  topic for different people. I think a universal topic is
• 1:01:20
  being happy, fulfilled, content, living your dream.
• 1:01:26
  It sounds very idealistic, but I, I do believe that all of this
• 1:01:32
  is obtainable if you're willing to take the steps and you care.
• 1:01:36
  I think, you know, if you're going 100 miles an hour, you
• 1:01:39
  probably missed that road sign. So I think that the first step
• 1:01:45
  is being able to be honest with yourself that you're not where
• 1:01:50
  you want to be in your life. I think that's a humbling.
• 1:01:54
  I did, you know, I wasn't the person then who I am today.
• 1:02:01
  It's a journey. And you, you have to really want
• 1:02:05
  to go on that journey and you have to be open and you have to
• 1:02:11
  ask for help. And if not to the outside world,
• 1:02:16
  you have to talk to yourself a lot and say why isn't my life
• 1:02:19
  where I want it to be? And you have to be straight
• 1:02:21
  about it. And it's sometimes really
• 1:02:24
  difficult to realize who you are.
• 1:02:29
  If you were to start your own podcast, Susan, what would you
• 1:02:32
  call it? Well, I've thought about that.
• 1:02:37
  I don't have I don't I, I mean, I have a a a lot of different
• 1:02:44
  names. I I want to be someone.
• 1:02:48
  I think I'm a good motivator and I think that I am really
• 1:02:53
  authentic and genuine, but I don't think it can be a harsh
• 1:03:00
  title. I want to say that right off the
• 1:03:02
  bat, You know, there are a lot of books out there that make it
• 1:03:06
  seem like you better get it together.
• 1:03:08
  You're a mess. Like, that's not what I want to
• 1:03:11
  do. No easy fix.
• 1:03:15
  How about that? OK, it's not cake batter where
• 1:03:19
  you add an egg and water and blend it and now you have the
• 1:03:23
  perfect cake. I I everybody's got a different
• 1:03:26
  story and a different journey. I think the main thing is what
• 1:03:31
  is holding you back? What is holding you back from
• 1:03:36
  being the person you want to be? And I know somebody really well
• 1:03:43
  in my life who. Absolutely.
• 1:03:47
  And they're near and dear to me and they're very defensive when
• 1:03:51
  I talk to them because they don't want to be judged.
• 1:03:56
  It's not judgement. It's the reality is you're lazy
• 1:04:04
  like you're lazy. I see it.
• 1:04:07
  I used to be lazy. This is what you need to do if
• 1:04:10
  you want to get out of the lazy zone.
• 1:04:13
  You want to make a lot of money, but you're not willing to do the
• 1:04:17
  work to get there. You can't get there, Number one,
• 1:04:21
  if you're not loving what you're doing and you're not fulfilled.
• 1:04:24
  I'm sorry. I don't believe successful
• 1:04:27
  people who have acquired, let's just say wealth because today so
• 1:04:34
  much emphasis is put on success. Go on Instagram and you've seen
• 1:04:39
  these guys say, can I interview you're a billionaire, How'd you
• 1:04:42
  become a billionaire? And they are there is a common
• 1:04:46
  thread. There was no easy way to get
• 1:04:50
  there. You had to get out of bed every
• 1:04:54
  day, do a job that maybe at that moment was really hard where you
• 1:04:58
  were afraid. But the vision of constantly
• 1:05:03
  seeing success out there in the future and wanting and willing
• 1:05:07
  to run towards it. So you can't fool yourself.
• 1:05:11
  And by the way, not everybody needs to be successful in terms
• 1:05:14
  of money. Success can be defined in so
• 1:05:18
  many different ways. You, you know, doing great work
• 1:05:24
  where you're not making a lot of money, but you're making a big
• 1:05:27
  difference in the world, and it's very fulfilling.
• 1:05:30
  That is a very important, much needed job for humanity.
• 1:05:36
  And you should be very proud of yourself if you're that person.
• 1:05:39
  But then there are others who define success as an
• 1:05:43
  accumulation of wealth. And I mean, I can tell you for
• 1:05:49
  me, I love what I do. I love what I do.
• 1:05:53
  I'm obsessed with what I do. And I'm very fortunate that it
• 1:06:00
  just is like the gift that keeps giving.
• 1:06:02
  And I'm not talking about money. I'm talking about fulfillment of
• 1:06:08
  people recognizing the great work we do.
• 1:06:12
  So the name of the podcast? I don't know, you need to help
• 1:06:17
  me. One that kind of pops into my
• 1:06:20
  mind is this is either the title or maybe even subtext for the
• 1:06:24
  title getting unstuck. That's kind of what I feel like
• 1:06:29
  I'm hearing you talk about or getting moving.
• 1:06:33
  Maybe that's. Even going how about get going?
• 1:06:35
  Get going. Love it.
• 1:06:38
  More succinct is better. Get going.
• 1:06:42
  One question, I want to wrap up our interview with Susan, but
• 1:06:45
  before I ask it, I want to give you a chance to tell people best
• 1:06:48
  way either to get in touch with you career group companies or to
• 1:06:53
  continue to follow your story. What would that be?
• 1:06:57
  Well, Career Group Companies is our firm and I'm very accessible
• 1:07:08
  people, you know, I'm here in LA, but 310-277-8188.
• 1:07:18
  I'm always happy to help people. You need to know that I'm always
• 1:07:25
  happy to help people. You know, I don't sit in an
• 1:07:28
  ivory tower. I'm very approachable and I love
• 1:07:32
  feeling like I changed someone's life for the better and that I
• 1:07:37
  helped put them on a good path. And I'm a good talker and I'm a
• 1:07:43
  good listener. So we'll include a link to your
• 1:07:48
  website, whichiscareergroupcompanies.com
• 1:07:51
  in the show notes and if you like, 1 to the company and your
• 1:07:55
  personal LinkedIn profile. Yeah, You know what I want to
• 1:07:58
  know? I want to know how I can be a
• 1:08:01
  great help to people who are struggling and who are stuck.
• 1:08:05
  You know, So I think that I think most people are stuck
• 1:08:14
  unless you've got it all figured out, you're thinking about,
• 1:08:17
  there's got to be something better than this.
• 1:08:19
  How do I even begin? It's daunting.
• 1:08:26
  That's that's a big give that you're offering there.
• 1:08:31
  It's it, it feels even more to me like the, the podcast idea is
• 1:08:35
  calling because that would be a nice platform you for you to be
• 1:08:40
  able to reach a lot of people. And actually that may be the
• 1:08:45
  answer to my final question, which is you and I reconnect a
• 1:08:50
  year from now, Susan, and you're celebrating something, one
• 1:08:53
  thing, a big thing. What's that thing that you hope
• 1:08:56
  to be celebrating one year from now?
• 1:09:00
  Great life. That may not be the answer that
• 1:09:04
  you want, but it's something continued success in all areas
• 1:09:12
  of my life, which is family, business, health and feeling
• 1:09:20
  like I let's talk about a goal, my podcast, you know, a podcast,
• 1:09:28
  a self help where my journey really empowered people to be
• 1:09:38
  able to take some steps towards bettering their life.
• 1:09:47
  Mentoring. One thing I didn't really say I
• 1:09:51
  love teaching. I love being a mentor.
• 1:09:55
  I love being a leader far more than running a company.
• 1:09:59
  So, you know, OK, it's more about feeling that somebody came
• 1:10:04
  in and is having a problem and they walked out of here with a
• 1:10:08
  solution. So that's what makes me tick is
• 1:10:12
  being able to fix something. Love it.
• 1:10:16
  Susan Levine from Career Group Companies.
• 1:10:19
  I want to be the first to thank you for sharing both your time
• 1:10:22
  and your story with us today. I really appreciate it.
• 1:10:24
  And I appreciate you for inviting me on.
• 1:10:28
  I really mean it. Thank you.
• 1:10:30
  Folks, that's a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories
• 1:10:33
  podcast. Thanks for learning with us
• 1:10:34
  today.