Latest / I Am Wiser Podcast with Dr. Laura Purdy / Don’t Get in Your Own Way

Transcript

Don’t Get in Your Own Way · I Am Wiser Podcast with Dr. Laura Purdy

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Don't get in your own way.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Imposter syndrome is something that women suffer from immensely, especially when it comes to a male-dominated industry.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I can say this from my own experience.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I think women just discount themselves.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: We have imposter syndrome.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: We think we don't belong there.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: We always do.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: And imposter syndrome is something that every single person deals with.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: So just go in there head high, you know, and just understand that you belong in the room because God put you in that room.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so you always have to, you know, go in as if you're supposed to be there because you are.
• 0:32
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Welcome to the I Am Wiser Podcast, where the biggest questions of health care and wellness meet the collective wisdom of industry leaders and innovators.
• 0:41
  Dr. Laura Purdy: I'm Dr.
• 0:42
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Lara Burke.
• 0:43
  Dr. Laura Purdy: And here we explore the intersections of AI, care delivery, telehealth policy, and more.
• 0:50
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Through the lens of those who are reshaping healthcare.
• 0:54
  Dr. Laura Purdy: This is not just about theory, it's about lived experience and real industry insights.
• 1:00
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Let's dive in and get wiser together.
• 1:03
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Welcome to today's episode of the I Am Wiser Podcast with Dr.
• 1:07
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Laura Purdy, where we explore the moments of breakthrough, resilience, and reinvention that shape the way we live, lead, and care.
• 1:16
  Dr. Laura Purdy: I am thrilled today to welcome Angela, the founder and CEO of Titan Global Enterprises and host of the Pretty Powerful Podcast, which I've been a guest on before.
• 1:27
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Angela has built a nationally recognized security and event services company.
• 1:32
  Dr. Laura Purdy: All right.
• 1:32
  Dr. Laura Purdy: From the ground up, thriving in a male-dominated industry while raising her son on her own.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Powerful.
• 1:39
  Dr. Laura Purdy: She believes that women do not need to shrink to fit into power.
• 1:43
  Dr. Laura Purdy: They deserve to redefine what power looks like.
• 1:46
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Through her leadership and storytelling, she empowers women everywhere to step forward confidently, unapologetically, and powerfully all being pretty at the same time.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Hi Angela, it's great to see you.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, thank you so much for having me.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm excited for you.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm excited to be on this podcast.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm thrilled to be talking to your guests.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you for the opportunity.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 2:10
  Dr. Laura Purdy: So tell me about working in the event services industry.
• 2:16
  Dr. Laura Purdy: What type of events are you throwing these days?
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Well, so I spent 20 years managing events and uh started this company 10 years ago after doing that for 20 years.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: And for me, it was just I wanted to have a better experience for the guests all around, uh, through better staffing.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I just wanted a more engaged uh personnel, more engaged personnel throughout all of the events that we were doing.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so we just kind of took that on as our mission is to create better experiences through better guest relations.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: And that then transformed into other guest personnel stopping, uh, and then eventually security, which is uh our main focus right now is uh event security and and security stopping.
• 3:02
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Wow.
• 3:02
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Okay, so when you say event, do you mean like trade shows, conferences, conventions, music?
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: We do a little bit of everything.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: So this week we're doing basketball, we're doing a concert, we're doing a movie movie premiere, we are doing a conference.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so yeah, we kind of have a little bit of everything going on.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: We do uh a lot of really large events.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: So we've done like festivals and parades and um large SEC football games.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we've done the Formula One, so kind of everything under the sun.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: So we're kind of experts at that large scale events.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of our that's our niche.
• 3:41
  Dr. Laura Purdy: And when you say security, you mean like the people with the muscles and the you know, earbuds and like maybe weapons.
• 3:48
  Dr. Laura Purdy: I don't know.
• 3:49
  Dr. Laura Purdy: I don't know if they have weapons in there of the vests, you know, the like keep them safe sort of security.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, yes.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: That is our that is what we do.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: So we we provide security for it could be anything from access control, which is like, you know, that guy standing at the VIP gate, um, to basically like field security, parade, crowd control.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: So we do all of that.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: Not all, it's all unarmed, okay.
• 4:14
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Unarmed, got it.
• 4:15
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Not law enforcement, but private security.
• 4:18
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Probably scary and intimidating nonetheless, and making sure that they keep people safe.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: Do you do you do raves?
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a raver.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Do you do raves?
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Are you?
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so we haven't done a ton of those.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: We we try to stay away from promoters, and I know that sounds terrible and judgy, but I get it.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: But it's just they they tend to fly by the seat of their pants, and we're super structured, so we're very B2B.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because in the security world, there's just way too much liability to work with somebody who isn't like really super buttoned up.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: So we try to be that way, so anyone we're working with has to be that way, and promoters tend to not be so much organized.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: So we can relate to that.
• 5:02
  Dr. Laura Purdy: That's hilarious.
• 5:03
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Well, I'm like you, right?
• 5:04
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Like, yes, I like to, you know, rave, but I also like to be safe and make sure that they're keeping it a safe scene.
• 5:10
  Dr. Laura Purdy: So 100%.
• 5:13
  Dr. Laura Purdy: All right.
• 5:13
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Well, how did you so you mentioned the male-dominated industry?
• 5:16
  Dr. Laura Purdy: I've been in the military, healthcare, business, startup world, those are all male-dominated industries.
• 5:21
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Sure.
• 5:22
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Motherhood is like the only not male-dominated industry, isn't it?
• 5:25
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Exactly.
• 5:26
  Dr. Laura Purdy: So how did you how did you get there?
• 5:29
  Dr. Laura Purdy: How did you make your way ethically, you know, morally, legally, conscientiously through that male-dominated um noise crowd to get to where you are today?
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: So it's interesting because when I was in the event management realm, you know, when I was really just managing events, that is way more female dominated, right?
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: At least at the middle manager level.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: So once you get up to the executive level of a lot of these companies, it tends to be mostly men.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: But at the at the like the the doer stage is what I call it.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like the people who are actually out there doing the work, it was mostly women in the event management world.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so um, I worked with a lot of females and that was great.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, everybody's super organized, you're still juggling a million things at one time.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like it was all, it was, it was kind of controlled chaos, which you know, women are really, really amazing at dealing with.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: So um men don't like that because they they feel like they would lose control and they would, right?
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like you you have to be extremely good at, you know, kind of navigating that, you know, multiple, multiple demands on your time, on your on your on, you know, accountability and so forth.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so when we started doing the guest services, like we would do uh everything from banquet service to ticket taking to, you know, conference staff, and all of that was fine.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: It was all things that I knew, but more and more comp uh venues would come to me and say, Hey, we love what you guys do for us on this front, but we would like for you to do this also.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I made a commitment that I wasn't gonna be in love with my idea, I was gonna let the market dictate where we went.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: So my philosophy was say yes and figure it out.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: So um I didn't want to be the, you know, like when I did meeting management, there were we were a dime a dozen.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: There were so many of us, right?
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it was really hard to differentiate yourself.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so you provided a service, and that service was exactly what everybody else did, the exact same thing.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: It was very hard to be different.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so I thought, you know, for this, I'm just gonna do, I'm gonna do what people need me to do, but I'm gonna do it better than anyone else.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so we just kind of started scaling that way.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so somebody had approached us about doing something called conversions, and so I said yes, and we figured out how to do conversions and became the best at doing conversions, and so conversions is when you flip an arena from one use to another.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: So basically, you know, a basketball game to a concert.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: So we learned how to do that and we became the best at it.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: Then security.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody said, I would really love for you guys to take over all of our security.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: We love you guys, we love the hospitality-focused, you know, staff, but we don't like our security guards, they're not very engaging, they feel very standoffish, like they're not, they're not nice people, right?
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like half the time, I don't know if they're even as they're asleep or awake or like it's just terrible.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so they're like, we would love your quality of service, but doing that particular job.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, well, that's a little bit trickier because it is a licensed, you know, um uh profession.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I called in somebody who had 37 years of law enforcement and military experience, and he came in and helped us to build the foundation of our security program.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I learned, I go headfirst into everything that I'm doing.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: I want to learn everything there is to know about it.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I really started to love it.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought I thought to myself, I think I could take my hospitality background, my event background, and make some positive changes in the security world.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: Because I I could see some gaps in efficiency.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: I could see some gaps in hospitality.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so as I did more and more of it, I realized that there was a lot of room for improvement.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I started doing things in the industry that were not very welcomed.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, coming into the industry, number one, I was a woman.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: That was not okay.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know, a lot of most of these guys in the security industry are law enforcement, you know, they're former law enforcement, former military.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: They have a very set way of doing things.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: And when I came in with this like hospitality first approach, and we're gonna be part of the event, we're not just standing on the outside of it and we're engaging with guests, we're not just you know, glaring at them, and you know, we're gonna be proactive, not reactive.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so, yeah, I mean, like it was these things sound so simple, but I was laughed at constantly.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I was constantly like, what is she doing?
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: Who does she think she is coming into this industry and making all these crazy changes?
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: She wants to be nice to guests.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what is she thinking?
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, so but the clients loved it.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: The clients loved it, but uh the competitors not so much.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I actually had um competitors who like made it their mission to try to take me out, like they were really not happy about me trying to change the industry and trying to, you know, push the envelope on some things.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, they were in this one very regimented, like, in my opinion, it was a race to the bottom.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: It was, you know, let's race to the gutter, see who could provide the worst service at the cheapest price.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, this is a terrible business model.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: You guys are not gonna do well.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I came in with high prices and high expectations, and everybody's like, who does she think she is?
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like, who's this woman who is trying to change all this in the industry?
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: But how dare she shift our market?
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: Who, how dare she come in here with quality control and high expectations?
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: So it was it was a race to the bottom.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: And and the big, the big billion dollar companies in our industry, you know, they're they just interchange one another.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: They do the exact same thing with the exact same people.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, it's it's so cookie-cutter.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I just thought this is this is a terrible, terrible way to operate.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's like, you know, you have a great boutique next to a Walmart, right?
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so these these big, big companies are like, well, we'll give you Walmart quality, but we're big and we have everything, and yeah, that's that's just what it is.
• 11:45
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Walmart prices.
• 11:46
  Dr. Laura Purdy: No offense, Walmart.
• 11:48
  Dr. Laura Purdy: No slanderment against Walmart.
• 11:49
  Dr. Laura Purdy: I'm sure Walmart knows that it is not the best quality, but what it is for best.
• 11:54
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Yeah, Walmart understands what it's out there doing.
• 11:56
  Dr. Laura Purdy: We love you, Walmart.
• 11:57
  Dr. Laura Purdy: But so I'm hearing, so first of all, it's really cool to get to talk to you because I hear a lot of myself and you being in a you know male-dominated industry.
• 12:05
  Dr. Laura Purdy: And I I heard a piece of wisdom that I I want to tiptoe back to, which is I heard you say something really cool, which is I wasn't, I'm paraphrasing you, I wasn't so in love with my own ideas that I wouldn't let the market drive my change.
• 12:21
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Now, one of the things when I'm consulting with startup founders who have their brilliant genius ideas and they're gonna go change the world, I say, you have to solve problems that really exist.
• 12:34
  Dr. Laura Purdy: And if we get into the business of solving problems that only we think exist, but don't actually exist in the world, your business will fail.
• 12:43
  Dr. Laura Purdy: And I think we're touching on something that's a little bit related to that, which is if you try to drive irrelevant growth in your business, or let's be more personal, if we try to drive irrelevant growth in our business, it will fail.
• 12:58
  Dr. Laura Purdy: And if we listen, if we're humble enough and we listen to our clients and customers, we will find out what the market is so that we can reverse engineer product market fit.
• 13:11
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Tell me more about that.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I mean, I felt like there's so many people who who this is the way we do it.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: We've always done it this way, and this is what the market has, right?
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas if you go to your customers and they say, hey, I would really like it if the security guards were nice to people, you know, if they greeted them when they arrived.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like, and and everybody's like, well, that's just not what they do, right?
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like they just, it's just, it wasn't done.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: And and even if people said, oh no, they'll do that, they wouldn't actually do it because it wasn't something that they thought was a real problem, right?
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: Like they didn't think it was a problem, so they weren't gonna make any changes to their structure, they weren't gonna make any changes to their training and their personnel, and so they weren't gonna set expectations to be different.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: So when client clients started telling me things about, you know, I wish that security did this, or I wish that we could improve this in this way, I listened to that and I'm like, okay, here's how we would take that and change our training and change our expectations to meet those needs.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what you really do.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like, that's how you serve a market.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so many people are in love with their ideas.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: But just like you said, I mean, I I can tell you so many entrepreneurs that I talk to, they're like, Well, I'm gonna do this and this and this.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, great, who cares about that?
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like, is that solving a problem?
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like, are you is is that a thing?
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like, is that an actual problem that needs to be solved?
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: And like, you know, there's or or there's how do you know?
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: How do you know that's a problem that needs to be solved?
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: This is so true.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so um, I heard some.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I went to the Inc.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: 5000 conference a few weeks ago and I was uh talking to Jay Shetty, and I love Jay Shetty, I think he has some really great wisdom.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so he said, um, because people were talking about like, how do you compete with these large companies?
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: How do you, you know, we don't have the same budget.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, we deal with that in this industry too, right?
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like there's a there's a handful of really large companies in the industry, and you know, small and mid-sized businesses are constantly trying to figure out like how do we compete?
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: And what they're saying in how do we compete is how do we assimilate, right?
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't want to assimilate, like I hate being compared to them.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to do that.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: And he said something really powerful.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Is it better to be the second best someone else or the very best you?
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: And it's so true.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I want to be the best me, not the second best somebody else.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't have any desire to compete with them.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: I really don't.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, when I see them going left, I want to go right.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: When I see them, you know, making one move, I'm looking at how I can do the counter move to that, because I don't want to be following in their footsteps.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's not my goal.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: Second piece of wisdom, right?
• 16:00
  Dr. Laura Purdy: You don't have to have competition.
• 16:02
  Dr. Laura Purdy: People have been asking me for years, who's your competition?
• 16:04
  Dr. Laura Purdy: I say, I don't have any competition.
• 16:06
  Dr. Laura Purdy: They say, Well, you do telemedicine.
• 16:08
  Dr. Laura Purdy: There's a bajillion telemedicine companies.
• 16:09
  Dr. Laura Purdy: I say, Yeah, but none of them are my competition.
• 16:12
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Oh, there's a lot of doctors out there being key opinion leaders.
• 16:15
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Yeah, but none of them are my competition.
• 16:18
  Dr. Laura Purdy: They're themselves.
• 16:19
  Dr. Laura Purdy: And I think that that's really valuable because if you're if you're busy competing, then you're looking over there.
• 16:27
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Right.
• 16:28
  Dr. Laura Purdy: You're not looking right here to the business, to the clients, to the customers, to the people in front of you, to the opportunity, to the future in front of you.
• 16:37
  Dr. Laura Purdy: You're too busy looking over there.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: And you can't look over there and over here at the same time.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: I don't care what my competitors are doing because you know what?
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't impact me and my business, other than, you know, somebody might say, Well, your services are too expensive.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: I got another quote from somebody else.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, it's not apples to apples.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you can get it, we don't do the same thing.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: They're like, Well, you're both security companies.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, we don't do the same thing.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: Come to any event, you will have a there's a there's a significant difference.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: We don't do the same job, we don't have the same training.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: Everything that we do is proprietary.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we're not, you know, taking something off a shelf and saying, okay, this is training, this is, you know, our guard uniform.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like, nothing we do is the same.
• 17:20
  Dr. Laura Purdy: I love it.
• 17:22
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Wow.
• 17:22
  Dr. Laura Purdy: And you've taken a lot of shade for being different, nice, and non-competitive.
• 17:28
  Dr. Laura Purdy: You've got a lot of shade thrown your way for just trying to be nice and do better, haven't you?
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, absolutely.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and I, you know, my son is an entrepreneur too, and so um, he's young, he's he's a freshman in college, but he's had a couple of different businesses, um, even just as a teenager.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I always tell him, I'm like, competition happens at the bottom, collaboration happens at the top.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the real change makers in the industry, they're making change across company lines, right?
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like they're making changes for an industry that are positive.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what you really want to focus on is who can I collaborate with, not who are my competition, because the competition, they're never your friends, right?
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like these are people who are not, they're not being nice to you because they want to help you.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you have to find the people who truly are the change makers in your industry and then go and collaborate with them.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's where you drive change.
• 18:20
  Dr. Laura Purdy: That's beautiful.
• 18:21
  Dr. Laura Purdy: So let's shift slightly because I see you here talking positive with this big smile on your face, and I'm I'm relating to you and I'm empathizing with you, and I have this big smile on my face.
• 18:33
  Dr. Laura Purdy: But I don't want to be dishonest.
• 18:35
  Dr. Laura Purdy: It's extremely difficult.
• 18:37
  Dr. Laura Purdy: It is emotion for me.
• 18:39
  Dr. Laura Purdy: For me, it has been extremely difficult, absolutely gut-wrenching.
• 18:43
  Dr. Laura Purdy: It has brought me to my knees at times in just agony and nausea, and why is this so hard?
• 18:51
  Dr. Laura Purdy: And I'm just trying to be good, I'm just trying to change the world.
• 18:53
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Why are all these people trying to take me down?
• 18:56
  Dr. Laura Purdy: What has cared?
• 18:58
  Dr. Laura Purdy: And I assume that you can relate to that statement.
• 19:02
  Dr. Laura Purdy: So tell me about the difficulties that you've had, but also how have you brought yourself through that to the point where you can sit here and talk about the opposition with me with a giant smile on your face?
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: Oh gosh.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, I've had some real challenges.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like I've had um so I sat down to lunch with a guy uh about a year ago, and he was telling me, because he had actually connected with one of my managers, and then he was telling me, he's like, you know, I'm really glad we're sitting at lunch.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, because I just wanted to tell you, um I worked for a couple of different companies through the years, and every single one of them comp those companies had you in their target.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like they wanted you done, they wanted you out.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: And he was like, and now I'm sitting across from you at lunch and you are still here, you are still thriving.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: And but it was because it was coming in and I was taking their clients from them, and I wasn't going in and saying, you know, we're gonna go in here and undercut him.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, we were coming in at higher pricing.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: We were coming in with, you know, just a totally different uh idea of and and you know, idea of how security should be done.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: And we were winning contracts and then getting referrals.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: And trust me, I wasn't cold calling any of these clients.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: It was just one of those things where they were just not happy.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so anyway, I had I had made enough people mad at me that they they really just wanted me gone.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: And that's okay.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like, that's okay.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: I don't mind.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like, listen, if if you're not, if you don't have haters, you're not trying that hard.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't mind, but um yeah, but yeah, I've dealt with uh there was one really uh really tough time that I went through where we were working with a really large university, and um there was a company that uh we had won a contract, but we had to share the contract.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: So they were gonna get half the contract, we were gonna get half the contract because I was a still a very small business, and I think they were just nervous that we wouldn't be able to fulfill the entire contract, which is valid.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so I had no problem with it whatsoever.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: They said, Hey, you know, we're gonna split the contract between your company and another company.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: I sat down with this company and we had, you know, I treated them to lunch and I said, you know, this is, you know, we're excited to work with you.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what we do, you know, tell me a bit a little bit about you, like how can we work together to make this a great experience for the university?
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: Collaboration.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: Collaboration, exactly.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, I'm like we can all win in this, right?
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: Especially the university.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so they sat across from me, just extremely egotistical.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: And it was so it was a very negative vibe that I got from them.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, you know, I saw, you know, I was like, Are you in the process of applying for because they were from Texas?
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Are you in the process of applying for your Georgia security license?
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: And they said, Oh no, we're not gonna get one.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, No, you kind of have to.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like, oh, because it was in Georgia, like it was in Georgia, in Georgia, yeah.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and they're like, You can.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Of have to, they're like, no, we do this in Florida and Alabama, and you know, we've never had to get a security license because we don't use the word security.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, listen, it doesn't matter if you call it garbage collecting.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: Well, if you do a security function, it's it's security, and uh, like I don't care what you call it, right?
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so, anyway, they went in with this very, you know, this attitude of, you know, we're gonna do what we want.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, listen, I just think it's a really smart idea.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: Now, once I and then I I reached out to them again.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: I and after a first the first couple of games, you could tell there was definitely a lack of training, and there were there were some major gaps, right?
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so I reached out and I'm like, listen, I think you need to improve on these things because your lack of doing these things is gonna impact me.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: It impacts me negatively because we have to work together, like we both need to level up here.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: And they weren't doing it.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so, anyway, I kind of wrote them off.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, look, I'm gonna do my thing, you do your thing.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: I told the client, I was like, listen, I'm I'm passing this off to you.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: You this is this is your problem now.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna just stay in my lane.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, but here's here's the information you need to know.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: And told the client, I told the client, and I told this other security company or this other company that was not not doing security.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so I said, listen, I need you guys to do what you need to do.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, I'm removing myself from the situation.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: This is uh you know, I can't, I'm putting it in writing that you've all been known, like you've it's all been disclosed that you need to have a security license, you need to do proper training, and this needs to get done immediately.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, but it's not my job to supervise you.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm just giving you this information, and now I'm removing myself from it because it was just so bad that um it was really like we would get reviews of like that security company is terrible.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, no, no, no, no, no.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: Oh no, nope.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: Wasn't me security company is a good idea.
• 24:00
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Right.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because they were only talking about them.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: And you could tell by the description and the locations and everything else.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, so fast forward three years go by.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: We're still in this contract, and I have almost little, I have very little to do with this company.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I've I've written them off, and we just kind of stay in our lane, we do what we need to do, and I've already told my my team, like, hey, you know, we already know we're going to have to double down and do what we need, we do really, really well to make up for their incompetency and so inadequacy, yeah.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so they knew that.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so three years in, this company finally gets caught operating without a security license.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, and so now they were so upset, and because I had brought it up to them three years before, they said, it must have been Angela, it was definitely Angela's fault that we got caught.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, no, no, no.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: If I wanted you to get caught three years ago, I would have turned you in.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: I don't care.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: I don't care about you now.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like you are insignificant.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: I just do what I do.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: We are it, we are, we stay in our lane.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so, because of that, they had started this vicious rumor that we had done all of this underhanded stuff, which we actually never did, and we ended up, um, so they they it was it was a really ugly situation.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, they had slandered us to the client, they had just done all this really awful stuff.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, so that's one of the things that I had to survive.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, thankfully, uh, we are still here.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: Everything is fine, but um, they continue to uh now when I know that they're bidding on something, I avoid them at all costs because they're just you just are gonna have those.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna have those those companies that will win at all costs, they'll undercut everything, they'll they'll cut corners, and so you you just have to learn like that's not the sandbox I want to play in.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so I have learned to kind of remove myself, like instead of trying to collaborate with people who clearly have no desire to to both win, like they're they're going to do what they're gonna do, and you just have to remove yourself.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: You can't you can't go down with the sinking ship.
• 26:16
  Dr. Laura Purdy: That's right.
• 26:17
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Success at the expense of other people is not worth it.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's not absolutely not.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, for us, it was it was just as fine to walk away from a contract that uh was a great contract because there I just wasn't willing to to put our reputation on the line day after day.
• 26:36
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Well, congratulations to you to continuing to take the high road, even though it has a little bit of expense to you.
• 26:43
  Dr. Laura Purdy: I think that the impact and the long-term value and the lifetime value of your conscience and your goodness and your ethics, it will eventually pay off.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for sure.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean it's it's frustrating because you're just gonna have you're gonna have that in the industry, but ultimately, you know, do the right thing and and you will always win at the end.
• 27:05
  Dr. Laura Purdy: That's awesome.
• 27:06
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Hi, Colin.
• 27:07
  Dr. Laura Purdy: We're just wrapping up.
• 27:08
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Well, maybe two or three, five more minutes, and then we'll be done.
• 27:10
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Thank you for your patience.
• 27:14
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Well, Angela, I have really enjoyed talking to you today.
• 27:17
  Dr. Laura Purdy: I feel so encouraged.
• 27:18
  Dr. Laura Purdy: I feel like even though we work in vastly different industries, I feel like we have so much in common and we're we're peers, and I am cheering you on for every you know, every hater.
• 27:27
  Dr. Laura Purdy: I want you to know you you have a fan and a huge supporter.
• 27:30
  Dr. Laura Purdy: And if you're ever in Miami, you're probably too busy to talk to me.
• 27:34
  Dr. Laura Purdy: But if you're ever in Miami on vacation, I would love to meet with you sometime.
• 27:39
  Dr. Laura Purdy: One last piece of wisdom.
• 27:40
  Dr. Laura Purdy: If you could give one pearl of advice to women trying to make it in male-dominated industries without compromising or changing who they are or settling those values that are driving them forward, what is that one piece of wisdom you would give?
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: Oh gosh.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: I would say don't let your um don't get in your own way.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: Imposter syndrome is something that women suffer from immensely, especially when it comes to a male-dominated industry.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I can say this from my own experience.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: I felt constantly like I wasn't worthy of being in the room because I just felt like these guys know so much more.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm new in the industry, I don't come from law enforcement, and I really doubted my ability to learn and engage.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: And a couple of years ago, I was actually one of the speakers in one of our largest global conferences for security, and that was like a huge win for me because I felt like finally my voice matters, but truly it always did.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I think women just discount themselves.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: We have imposter syndrome, we think we don't belong there, we always do.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: And imposter syndrome is something that every single person deals with.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: So just go in there head high, you know, and just understand that you belong in the room because God put you in that room, and so you you always have to, you know, go in as if you're supposed to be there because you are.
• 29:07
  Dr. Laura Purdy: You are supposed to be there.
• 29:09
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Yes, you matter, and your gender has nothing to do with it, but also everything to do with it because you have valuable contributions to give to those industries.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you absolutely, absolutely.
• 29:22
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Be tough, be brave, but don't be scared.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: A hundred percent.
• 29:27
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Thank you.
• 29:28
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for being here with me today.
• 29:31
  Dr. Laura Purdy: I am cheering you on.
• 29:33
  Dr. Laura Purdy: I really am.
• 29:34
  Dr. Laura Purdy: I think you're doing great things, and maybe I'll see your security team somewhere sometime.
• 29:39
  Dr. Laura Purdy: And if I do, I'm gonna tell them what a great job you're doing and how proud I am of them for being nice to me.
• 29:46
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Thank you so much, Angela.
• 29:48
  Dr. Laura Purdy: I wish you all the best.
• 29:49
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Um, and I really appreciate you taking the time to be with me today.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: My pleasure, and all the best to you.
• 29:56
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Thank you.
• 29:56
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Bye.
• 29:57
  Dr. Laura Purdy: All right, bye-bye.
• 29:58
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Thank you for tuning in to the I Am Wiser Podcast, where each episode brings us closer to a wiser, more human approach to healthcare.
• 30:07
  Dr. Laura Purdy: If today's conversation inspired you or sparked new ideas, share it with someone who's ready to rethink healthcare.
• 30:15
  Dr. Laura Purdy: And if you have a story or innovation that could light the way for others, reach out.
• 30:20
  Dr. Laura Purdy: We'd love to hear from you.
• 30:22
  Dr. Laura Purdy: This space is yours too.
• 30:23
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Don't forget to follow, rate, and review us on your favorite platform.
• 30:28
  Dr. Laura Purdy: Until next time, stay curious, stay courageous, and stay wiser.