Latest / Daily Influence / 556. Sticky Notes & Ripple Effects: Charlie Saffro on Leading with Intention and Humanity

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556. Sticky Notes & Ripple Effects: Charlie Saffro on Leading with Intention and Humanity · Daily Influence

• 0:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the daily influence where our mission is to deliver a daily dose of positive influence that can uplift you personally or be shared within your sphere of influence.
• 0:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: While not every episode may directly apply to your unique circumstances, we strive to provide insights and inspiration relevant to most people's daily, weekly, and monthly lives.
• 0:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: Whether you are tuning in during the morning, noon or night, the daily influence is here for you.
• 0:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Listen, share, and embrace the power of influence in your life.
• 0:40
  [SPEAKER_02]: Welcome to Daily Influence.
• 0:42
  [SPEAKER_02]: I'm Greg Plano.
• 0:43
  [SPEAKER_02]: Today's guest is someone whose leadership is grounded in authenticity, compassion, and purpose.
• 0:49
  [SPEAKER_02]: Charlie Sapporo is the CEO and founder of CS Recruiting, a respected keynote speaker, TEDx presenter, and a thought leader in building people first cultures.
• 1:02
  [SPEAKER_02]: Through her work, Charlie Empowers leaders to recognize that every day power, they hold and the ripple effect of their influence.
• 1:10
  [SPEAKER_02]: She is so in line with our anti-series and daily influence.
• 1:15
  [SPEAKER_02]: Her mission is to help others lead with intention and build thriving human-centric workplaces.
• 1:22
  [SPEAKER_02]: Charlie, welcome to daily influence.
• 1:24
  [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you, Greg.
• 1:24
  [SPEAKER_02]: I'm so excited to be here.
• 1:26
  [SPEAKER_02]: I'm so excited to have you.
• 1:28
  [SPEAKER_02]: Can you share a bit about your background and what led you to where you are today?
• 1:31
  [SPEAKER_02]: Both is a business leader and a speaker focused on human centric leadership.
• 1:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: Sure.
• 1:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'll make a long story short.
• 1:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: So today I am the CEO and founder of a third party recruiting firm called CS Recruiting.
• 1:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: We specialize in logistics transportation and supply chain.
• 1:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: So
• 1:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: very mailed, dominated industry, lots of trucking and railroads and warehouses and distribution in my life.
• 1:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I kind of fell into recruiting.
• 2:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: I fell into this industry.
• 2:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: I fell into entrepreneurship.
• 2:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: I started my career in marketing at a college after about six years.
• 2:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: My husband had started a
• 2:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: company that was a technology company in the trucking industry.
• 2:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: He was growing and I was looking for a change.
• 2:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I went to work for him originally in a marketing position.
• 2:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: They went through a huge growth spur where they needed to hire.
• 2:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: And honestly, I was the only person that had capacity to kind of figure out what recruiting looked like.
• 2:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: So this was two thousand six.
• 2:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: I, but you can relate to this rug.
• 2:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, this was pre-linked in.
• 2:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: I was going around to libraries, hanging up pliers, helping them recruit mostly salespeople for their team.
• 2:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: Their business was acquired after about four years of my time there.
• 2:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I found myself pretty much out of a job overnight.
• 2:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: I was pregnant with my third son.
• 2:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: And
• 2:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: Put myself on LinkedIn.
• 2:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: This was two thousand ten.
• 2:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: LinkedIn was near to the scene and I was positioning myself as a logistics supply chain recruiter.
• 3:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: Started getting inquiries from, you know, job seekers or people in my network that were hiring.
• 3:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: And to be honest, I kind of just made it up as I went along.
• 3:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: I wasn't looking to start a business.
• 3:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: I love helping people I love being a recruiter and being that connection point.
• 3:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I just started making some of those matches and before I knew it, my organic introductions kind of turned into like real work and an opportunity to have a process, have a service and you know, have a billing model.
• 3:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: And before I knew it, I had officially started my business, CS recruiting.
• 3:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: So this was fifteen years ago and over the past fifteen years,
• 3:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think I've just taken opportunities as they've covered my way.
• 3:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: I never went out and put together a business plan or got a loan just really put my head down and focused on delivering a great service.
• 3:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: So we've scaled our team today.
• 3:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: We've got about twenty-five employees.
• 3:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: We work with mid and larger businesses across the entire country focused on helping them find supply chain talent.
• 4:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: and the speaking piece, it's funny because along the way, I, you know, as an expert in recruiting and, you know, I would say an evolved expert in supply chain.
• 4:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've done a lot of speaking in my industry and, you know, I'm usually asked to get on a panel or do an interview around, you know, manufacturing trends and what that means for recruiting and retention or, you know, looking at it, it's supply chain forecasting.
• 4:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: And maybe that three or four years ago,
• 4:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: I always have enjoyed that type of speaking, but I kind of felt this fire where I had more to share.
• 4:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: I had stories about being a female entrepreneur, stories about some of the, you know, traumas that we face as leaders and those heart decisions.
• 4:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so I started sharing a little bit more about who I was behind my title, which eventually led to me giving a TED talk.
• 5:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: And now
• 5:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: finding a new passion and keynote speaking and just connecting with audiences and sharing this message that you and I have in common just this whole idea of how our everyday influence can make a huge impact and create ripples and it's just about us being intentional.
• 5:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: So that's a very long story short, but hopefully hopefully you got the gest.
• 5:22
  [SPEAKER_02]: Absolutely.
• 5:22
  [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for sharing it.
• 5:24
  [SPEAKER_02]: Your philosophy highlights that leadership is about trust and engagement more than just KPIs.
• 5:30
  [SPEAKER_02]: How do you personally model responsible influence in your organization and how can other leaders help start to do the same?
• 5:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: I have always been a leader who has this, you know, people over profit mindset.
• 5:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: I will be very honest that the last couple years have been rough.
• 5:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's been rough for the economy, rough in our industry.
• 5:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: And it's really made me stop and pause and realize that while I still am a people first leader and I put people over profit in ninety nine point nine percent of situations.
• 6:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: If there is no profit, there are no people and there is no business.
• 6:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: So you have to have metrics, you have to have these KPIs, but what we've really done is look at our business and try to understand
• 6:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: the little wins over time were in recruiting.
• 6:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: So for us, you know, the ultimate win is that we help a company hire someone that person accepts the offer they're given.
• 6:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: They start and they're amazing and they stay there forever.
• 6:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: But there's a lot of situations where we don't get to that result and we have still done a lot of great work.
• 6:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, those situations may be that we get to the point of an offer and
• 6:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: the individual rejects the offer for a reason out of our control.
• 6:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: So we focus a lot on controlling what we can control, but we also do a lot with recognition internally and really encourage that peer-to-peer recognition.
• 6:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: So we may have someone on our team who has put in all the work, maybe gone above and beyond, they may not have the commission to collect or the win to celebrate, but we really try and pull out these little wins along the way, whether it's a peer-to-peer
• 7:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: testimonial, whether it's something we can collect from the individual externally that we were working with.
• 7:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: But just making sure that our team members constantly feel acknowledged, appreciated and recognized for like the little and the big win.
• 7:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: metrics matter but that's not always the full story and if you've ever recruited you really know like there is so much more work that goes into it versus just what the numbers on the dashboard might show.
• 7:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I'm just I'd say I'm hyper conscious about making sure our people feel appreciated so the profit comes.
• 7:45
  [SPEAKER_02]: Hmm, I agree with that.
• 7:47
  [SPEAKER_02]: You know, our book series emphasizes that small intentional actions can create meaningful change.
• 7:53
  [SPEAKER_02]: Can you share it time when a seemingly small gesture on your part had a significant impact on a team member or colleague.
• 8:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, when I was in my first job at a college, I had a supervisor who was just a couple years older than me.
• 8:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: I wouldn't even say she was my like official manager, but we worked together and she'd been in the business longer than me.
• 8:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: And we worked in a tough industry in marketing and it was long nights, late hours.
• 8:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: And she would do this thing where she would leave me these little sticky notes like I'd open up a notebook in the middle of a meeting and I'd have a sticky note, you know, telling me what a great job I had done the day before or thanking me for staying late the night before.
• 8:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: And it was, it's funny.
• 8:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's like, it's a ritual that like, no pun intended or pun intended.
• 8:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: It kind of stuck with me.
• 8:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: And it was something that I started doing with my employees as I grew my business, you know, very much, you know, bootstrapped without a huge budget.
• 8:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: I wanted to show my team members that I saw them and I appreciated them.
• 8:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I started leaving little sticky notes and I did it.
• 8:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: I did it for me, like it brought me joy to just like bury a little, you know, post it under someone's, you know, notebook on their desk or leave it on their monitor.
• 9:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so as the years have gone on, that's something I've always done.
• 9:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: We went remote.
• 9:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: I started putting my sticky notes in an envelope with a stamp.
• 9:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: And where this story all comes to ahead is maybe two or three years ago, I got a text message from a former employee.
• 9:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: And she sent me a picture of a sticky note that I had probably given her like eight years before.
• 9:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: And it was in her glove compartment in her car.
• 9:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: And she said, I want you to know that I have put this in my car and driven around with it all these years.
• 9:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: And every time I'm having a bad professional moment, I look at the sticky.
• 9:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm reminded that someone believed in me.
• 9:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I mean, what the sticky said Greg was, it was like, Abby keep going.
• 9:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: I believe in you.
• 9:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: You can do whatever you set your mind to.
• 9:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: And she's like, I want you to know how much the single note meant to me, but I also want you to know that in my job today, like, I am the sticky know girl.
• 10:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: like people look at me in my company for the high five, for the acknowledgments, the shout outs and the sticky notes.
• 10:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: And she's like, I didn't realize how much of an impact you had on me until someone in my current company called me the team cheerleader, the sticky note girl.
• 10:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so it's a moment like that where it's like, wow, how many more people did my boss do that too that have carried it on?
• 10:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then all these people I've left sticky notes for,
• 10:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: And maybe once one person wrote someone else's sticky note, that's the ripple effect.
• 10:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's where influence can make it impact.
• 10:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so, you know, it's like you think of, I don't even take credit for this.
• 10:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: If I think of my original boss at the top of the pyramid and all these people that really have been influenced by this simple gesture, like, that's the power.
• 10:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: We didn't change any lives, but in the same, you know, breath, it didn't cost any money.
• 10:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's just simply seeing people and making sure that they know they're seeing.
• 10:58
  [SPEAKER_02]: I love that story.
• 11:00
  [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for sharing that.
• 11:01
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I would challenge you.
• 11:01
  [SPEAKER_02]: I think you have changed lives because of it.
• 11:04
  [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, that you're able perfect example of that one gal who keeps it in her car when she's having a bad day, she takes it out.
• 11:11
  [SPEAKER_02]: So you're changing her life.
• 11:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's amazing.
• 11:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 11:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: And it's a small gesture that we all have access to.
• 11:18
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it's very simple, and but it goes a long way.
• 11:22
  [SPEAKER_02]: So thank you for sharing that.
• 11:24
  [SPEAKER_02]: At the IM team series, we explore how self-awareness and individual responsibility shapes collective success.
• 11:31
  [SPEAKER_02]: How do you foster that sense of individual accountability within the teams you leader coach?
• 11:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean recruiting is a team sport.
• 11:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: There is no way around it.
• 11:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think what we do is we really encourage our team to connect.
• 11:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: We went remote in twenty twenty after the pandemic, you know, forced us home from our office and we never went back.
• 11:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: And we've worked really hard on just how do we stay one team?
• 11:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: How do we collaborate?
• 12:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: How do we communicate?
• 12:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: So we do a lot of little things.
• 12:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: And like one of them I'll mention is we do something called a shuffle.
• 12:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's a fun little ritual that our HR director manages where every month she, I don't know, she does some shuffle on an app where people get paired up randomly.
• 12:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: And everyone will get an email saying that they've been matched with someone else in the company.
• 12:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: We are scheduling a fifteen minute call, and then when we get on to the call, we have a series of questions that we can use as a prompts, but we don't have to.
• 12:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: But these questions are usually fun, maybe a little little deep, but the whole point is like, get to know your colleagues behind their title.
• 12:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's not forced but I've realized that there aren't a lot of bosses out there that truly like these people are on the clock and I am more than happy to pay them and count this as work time to just talk to a colleague once a month and I don't want you talking about work like
• 12:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: Catch up on what you did this weekend.
• 13:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: Share your favorite TV shows.
• 13:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: But it's amazing how our team lives for these fifteen minute calls and you never know who you're going to get paired up with.
• 13:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: You never know what questions are going to come at you.
• 13:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I have learned and shared like some of the strangest things with my colleagues.
• 13:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I'll share one because it's a quick funny story that I was I was doing this call.
• 13:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: with one of my colleagues.
• 13:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: And as I was on the call with her, a bird flew into my window.
• 13:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I kind of jumped, you know, like that you're just in shock.
• 13:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: And when I said that she just like froze and she's like, oh my God, she's like, I swear to God, my grandma comes back.
• 13:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: My grandma passed away and my grandma comes back as a bird.
• 13:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I always know when it crashes into one of our windows.
• 13:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: And she's like, and I hate it because I never want a bird to
• 13:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: you know, be heard, but she's like that is a sign that my grandma's here and that's so crazy that we're talking and you said that out loud and I believe in that type of stuff too and so it's just like it's that one moment that like because we were having that conversation because I shared that with her like now every time we have a bird run into our window we share it with each other and it's just this little connection that I have with, you know, a younger employee and my team that all resulted of
• 14:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: What some might say was like a forced or, you know, a set conversation that turned into so much more.
• 14:22
  [SPEAKER_02]: What a beautiful story.
• 14:24
  [SPEAKER_02]: I love that.
• 14:25
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's been little things.
• 14:27
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it is the little things.
• 14:30
  [SPEAKER_02]: Are you using AI?
• 14:32
  [SPEAKER_02]: And if you are, how is it having a positive influence on you?
• 14:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: I love AI.
• 14:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm going to say, AI, I'm going to live in it to chat GPT just for the sake of this conversation.
• 14:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I do use it a lot.
• 14:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: How is it changing?
• 14:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, every day, I'm thinking of a new way to use it in a new way to like humanize it.
• 14:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: I really feel like I have trained my CHAPGPT to understand who I am.
• 14:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: One of the things I do is incredibly uncomfortable, but I will often have my CHAPGPT if I'm stuck on something, if I'm writing a speech or putting together a deck.
• 15:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: I often have it ask me questions that really force me to like go deep in questions that may be vulnerable.
• 15:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: I may not want to share answers with anyone, but my chat bat.
• 15:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: But if I'm stuck on something, I'll you know, talk to it and say this is what what I'm stuck.
• 15:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know why I'm stuck.
• 15:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: Ask me twenty questions where I can be honest and maybe together we can figure out what direction I go in.
• 15:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: And it's amazing and I think a lot of times like whether you think it's your therapist or your lawyer or your boss or your friend.
• 15:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: You have to play with it and experiment and be creative and and be vulnerable.
• 15:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's a weird thing to say be vulnerable to a robot, but you open yourself up and again, like these are questions I never would answer.
• 15:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: unless I really had this tool to position it to me.
• 15:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I've used it quite a bit and I've learned a lot about myself, my team, business, everything just by being curious.
• 16:06
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's a great way to use it.
• 16:07
  [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for sharing that, Charlie.
• 16:10
  [SPEAKER_02]: What message or words have encouraged me?
• 16:11
  [SPEAKER_02]: Would you like to share with our listeners who aspire to make a positive difference in the world?
• 16:15
  [SPEAKER_02]: But maybe I'll show where to start.
• 16:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, I grew up with the mentality of like be nice to the janitor and that's my advice for anyone.
• 16:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: in the workforce out of the workforce is see people beyond their titles.
• 16:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: So when you go to McDonald's like that woman or man ringing you up has a family, they have emotions, they have struggles, they have wins, they have things that they're dreading and things they're looking forward to.
• 16:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm not saying that you have to have a conversation or a relationship with every person you touch.
• 16:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: But when you smile at them or you ask them how their day is or you make eye contact and you see them as a human being, it can make all the difference.
• 16:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's what I encourage and the business we're in.
• 16:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, these are not resumes.
• 16:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: These are humans and the resumes just represents the, you know, the way we're going to get to them.
• 17:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: So true people like humans look beyond their titles and you'll be surprised if the connections you can make.
• 17:11
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's great advice, Charlie.
• 17:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for sharing it.
• 17:14
  [SPEAKER_02]: Our listeners want to get in touch with you.
• 17:15
  [SPEAKER_02]: What would be the best way to do so?
• 17:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: Uh, follow us on LinkedIn.
• 17:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: I am very active.
• 17:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm LinkedIn putting out a lot of content very similar to what we've been talking about.
• 17:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: Um, and our company is also very active.
• 17:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: So would love to connect with us to hear from you would love to learn a little more about you, but reach out to me on LinkedIn.
• 17:34
  [SPEAKER_02]: Great.
• 17:34
  [SPEAKER_02]: We'll put that information in the show notes.
• 17:36
  [SPEAKER_02]: Charlotte, they do so much for being here today.
• 17:39
  [SPEAKER_02]: I'm so grateful for you.
• 17:41
  [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you, Greg.
• 17:43
  [SPEAKER_02]: Thanks for spending a few moments of your day with us on daily influence.
• 17:46
  [SPEAKER_02]: Charlie's journey reminds us that leadership is built in everyday moments, the intentional choices and the courage to care.
• 17:54
  [SPEAKER_02]: Whether you're leading a team or just beginning your professional path, your influence matters.
• 18:00
  [SPEAKER_02]: Let Charlie's story inspire you to show up fully, lead with heart and never underestimate the power of small actions.
• 18:07
  [SPEAKER_02]: If today's episode resonated with you, please share it with your family, friends and coworkers.
• 18:12
  [SPEAKER_02]: and consider adding daily influence to your daily routine, whether it's during your commute, a walk, or a quiet moment.
• 18:19
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's your daily dose of positivity.
• 18:21
  [SPEAKER_02]: Remember, the power to make a difference begins with you.
• 18:25
  [SPEAKER_02]: Your ideas, your choices and your actions until next time, keep having a positive, responsible influence.
• 18:31
  [SPEAKER_02]: Bye-bye.