Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Melissa Granizo Turns the Softest HR Conversations Into the Most Effective Ones

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Melissa Granizo Turns the Softest HR Conversations Into the Most Effective Ones · 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
0:11
their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
0:14
adversity. Let one idea from today shape
0:17
what you do next. My name is Anthony Cotispodi and
0:20
today's guest is Melissa Granizzo, Total Rewards Senior
0:25
Manager in the Human Resources team at Areas USA.
0:29
They are a travel hospitality company that runs restaurants,
0:33
cafes and retail shops in airports and Hwy. plazas across
0:37
the country. AREAS serves more than 35
0:42
million travelers each year through nearly 400 locations in
0:46
27 airports and 12 travel plazas, all with a mission to
0:51
make every journey more enjoyable.
0:54
The company's commitment to quality earned it multiple FAB
0:57
awards, and it recently grew even larger by acquiring
1:00
Delaware N's Travel Hospitality Services division.
1:05
Melissa brings over 10 years of HR experience that fast moving
1:08
environment. She holds an MBA from Florida
1:11
International University and carries the SHERM CP and PHR
1:15
certifications. Earlier in her career, she LED
1:18
people experience and Wellness programs at Alcora, and she
1:22
supported global teams at Fresh Del Monte.
1:25
Her passion is building benefits and Wellness plans that help
1:28
employees thrive so that they can say so that they can serve.
1:32
Let's do that sentence again. Her passion is building benefits
1:37
and Wellness plans that help employees thrive so they can
1:40
serve travelers with a smile. Now, before we get into all that
1:44
good stuff, today's episode is brought to you by my company,
1:47
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Back benefits.com. All right, back to our guest
2:37
today, the Senior Manager of HR and Total Rewards at Aries USA,
2:42
Melissa Granizzo. Thanks for making the time to
2:45
Share your story today of. Course, it's my pleasure.
2:49
So, Melissa, you did both your undergrad and your MBA at FIU
2:54
Florida International University.
2:56
Is this first where you became interested in human resources?
3:00
Yeah, so funny story. I actually wanted to be an
3:02
accountant because I love numbers and I always said
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numbers don't lie to you, right? 1 + 1 is always going to be two
3:09
no matter where you are. And people are too complicated.
3:13
So I was an accounting major, but I also, I started my like
3:18
educational career as an accounting major, but then I
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worked at the university when I was doing my undergrad and I
3:26
worked with donors and I got to work with the CHRO of Royal
3:32
Caribbean. At the time, her name was Maria
3:34
Del Busto. And we were just talking at a
3:36
networking event and she's like, you're not an accountant, you're
3:38
an HR person. And I was like, no way, I'm not.
3:43
Because you have a personality. Yes, because I was like very,
3:46
always very bubbly, right? And she's like, you're not an
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accountant. She's like, trust me, you're not
3:51
going to regret it. And then later in my career at
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the university, I just started doing like trainings and just
3:59
agendas and things like that. And I was like, oh wow, I really
4:01
do like people development. And funny enough I ended up in
4:06
HR so I always credit her. She probably doesn't even
4:09
remember that conversation or Remember Me truly because I was
4:15
just one of so many students that she worked with at the
4:19
College of business. But she is actually the person
4:22
that made me think about going into HR.
4:24
Wow, and so was it. This was during your undergrad
4:27
still. Yeah, this is in my undergrad.
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I was a sophomore. OK all.
4:31
Right. And so and mention her name
4:34
again so. Maria del Busto.
4:35
Yeah, that's great. And so it's great that you
4:39
called out, Maria. I wonder if there's somebody
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else prior to getting to areas in your career that was really
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helpful for you, kind of understanding and patient the
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road for you. I had a lot of great mentors.
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I do have to say that I've had amazing leaders in my career.
4:57
When I worked at the university while I was in undergrad, my
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leader at the time, her name was Monique Catogio, and she was
5:05
becoming a life coach. And so she kind of used us to
5:09
get the hours for her certification.
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And so she helped me work on a lot of like, my fears at the
5:16
time of talking to people because I was very quiet.
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Like I was OK once I got to talk to you, but I was very hesitant
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to speak to strangers. And then she helped me overcome
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that. And then from there I just had
5:30
amazing HR leaders, Litan Assas when I worked at Del Monte,
5:35
Fresh Produce at Alcora, I had so many great mentors.
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We had such a really strong team there.
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Laura Parto, who I still speak to, the head of legal, Tom
5:44
Houlihan gives has given me some of the best career advice I've
5:48
ever had. And then I had a boss for a
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short time, Alberto. He was also really helpful.
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And then my leader here at Maria's, George Garcia, is just
5:58
absolutely fantastic. I also had a boss that she
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taught me the rough way of how to use like Excel, things like
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that. And she would make us build
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really big spreadsheets. And then she's like, you got it.
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And I was like, yes, thank you so much.
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And she would click out this Excel spreadsheet and wouldn't
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save it. And I would look at her and be
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like, Jodie, we just spent an hour building the spreadsheet.
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She's like, good luck building it on your own.
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So I had a lot of great leaders that put me out of my comfort
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zone when I was younger in my career, gave me big
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responsibilities that I didn't think I was ready for, but they
6:36
knew I was ready for. And we're just there when I
6:40
needed to bounce ideas off of them and really let me kind of,
6:45
it really taught me how to think critically by just giving me a
6:48
challenge and letting me fail really, you know, letting me
6:52
succeed. But when I failed, letting me
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fail and then teaching me how to get up.
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And I think that that is like one of the best things that I
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got to learn from all of my leaders.
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So couple of points I want to dig into there.
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Talk to us about Tom. He gave me some of the best
7:08
career advice. What was that?
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So Tom is just great. He is like a natural
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storyteller, which is interesting from a general
7:16
counsel because he was just funny, you know?
7:22
And I remember interviewing with him and he's like, I don't like
7:25
your resume. And I, I, I'm never going to get
7:28
this job. So I pushed back and I was like,
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but the reason that my resume is like that is this and this and
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this and this. And he's like, OK.
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And I remember walking away and telling my husband, there's no
7:41
way I get this job. And then my next interview was
7:45
with like the CEO and the president, and they offered me
7:48
the job as I left. So that's.
7:52
The interview. Tom was just sort of like
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testing you. Yeah, he liked it.
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And he was always one of really funny feedback he gave me.
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He's like, he would call me Nelly.
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And he's like Nelly, you know what's great about you and like
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what he's like, you know how to tell people to go to hell.
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And they're so excited. They're like, I'm ready, how do
8:12
I get there? And so.
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But he always just had good conversations with you.
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You know, he gave you really good advice.
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And I would say one of the best things that he taught you is
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like, know your worth. Know what you're willing to give
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up and when you're willing to give up.
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And when you're not ready to give something up, know that
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too. Like know your standards and
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don't let people push you against that ethical line, you
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know, and if when you get there, stand proud to like be willing
8:44
to give it all up if someone pushes your boundaries.
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And I think working in the world of people, you know, it's really
8:50
hard because everybody has different value systems,
8:54
Everybody has different morals and everybody has like different
8:58
ways of communicating and you, but you have to know when it's
9:03
enough for you, like when you're ready to draw that line.
9:07
And I think Tom was always really clear with us on how to
9:11
have that conversation and just good feedback for me personally
9:14
on just my career on how to continue to develop.
9:18
He was always a good like a work dad we used to call him.
9:23
So let me see if I understand that it's sort of like if a
9:27
supervisor or boss is asking you to stay late, asking for extra
9:31
work, you have to know sort of where your threshold is.
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So you say, hey, I understand this is temporary, this short
9:39
term crunch, I'll do it to kind of help the team out versus no,
9:43
this is happening on a regular basis.
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I'm going to have to put my foot down and say I need some
9:47
boundaries here. I know it's important to you,
9:49
right? So, you know, like I, I'm a mom
9:52
and that's very important to me. Like I want to be there to put
9:55
my son to sleep. So that's a boundary that I
9:57
have, you know, so I will work until 3:00 in the morning, but
10:01
from 7 till 9:30, that's my time with my son.
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You know, after he's asleep, I'll get back on.
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And it's happened, right? We're like you said, we're in
10:10
the middle of the acquisition. So we are working endless hours.
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I will be on Teams calls with my phone with my team until, you
10:18
know, sometimes 2:00 in the morning trying to figure things
10:21
out. But from 7:00 to 9:30, that's my
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family time. At 9:35, you have me, but I'll I
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and that's a boundary that I know that I have drawn that is
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important to me. And that's what lets me be able
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to give until 2:00 in the morning or super early because
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you gave me that time for my family.
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Got it. I also, I want to understand
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better how you got over the fear of talking to people once you're
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comfortable with somebody. OK fine, you're bubbly, your
10:53
personality shows, but how did you breakthrough that fear
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barrier with new people? I think for me was realizing
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that all people are just people just like me.
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I think that I was pretty privileged at the beginning of
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my career to have interactions with very high level individuals
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because of the job that we had. I worked in the fundraising
11:18
department at the university. So you know, you're constantly
11:21
working with big businesses and things like that.
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And I think that once I realized that Aceo is the same person as
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I am, he just has a little bit more work experience, that you
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realize that we're all just the same.
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And through times of saying the wrong joke, talking incorrectly,
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you know, saying something I should have, walking away like
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God, that conversation is not what I expected it to be.
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You kind of just learn to feel confident enough in yourself
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that you do have something to add.
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Even if you don't have the most experience in the room, you
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always have something to add to the conversation because your
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story adds to the experience. So I may never have worked at a
12:11
fast food restaurant, but maybe you have and you just may be the
12:15
receptionist, but you feel like, OK, well, my job is just
12:18
reception. But if you know the experiences
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that other people have gone through, like you have a lot to
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add. And I think just slowly speaking
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to donors, putting myself in those situations, I realized
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that people did want to hear from me.
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And not just because I was like the handler, you know, at the
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time, which was my job often like follow the guest speaker
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around, make sure they have their drinks or their coffee or
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whatever. But they did like, they were
12:46
really interested in me, genuinely.
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And so it made me realize that people are just people.
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And most people have a story and they want to know your story
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too. And if you just look at it that
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way, then it's fine. Everybody is just OK.
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And so now, is there any lingering fears when going up
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and starting a conversation with somebody new?
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No, I I may not be great at networking events, you know,
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just walking out to a big group of people.
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Hi, my name is Melissa, but I love chit chat.
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You know, I think that actually one of the sad parts of COVID is
13:23
that I think that a lot of our problems we solve in the chit
13:28
chat. We solve so many problems next
13:30
to the coffee machine on the way to the vending machine or
13:34
walking, like when you bump into somebody that I think that like
13:39
the chit chat adds so much to a culture And it really you solved
13:44
so many problems in just those quick little conversations and
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you get to know so much about people.
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And I think that connecting is how you build a team, even if
13:56
they're not in your department, being able to ask for help or
14:00
something like that. I think all comes from, from the
14:03
chit chat. So I I love that.
14:06
That's interesting. Let's explore this for a second.
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In my experience, if I'm being honest, chitchat is the the part
14:15
of human interaction that I get bored with very easily.
14:17
Like, oh, sure is cold out here today, right?
14:21
You know, how about that sports team?
14:23
Like I want to get sort of like layers deeper, but that takes
14:27
some time. The chitchat to me seems like I
14:31
am not comfortable having a deeper conversation with you.
14:34
So I'm going to keep this completely surface level.
14:37
Tell me, tell me why I'm wrong. Tell me what I'm missing,
14:39
Melissa. Because I think you get to learn
14:41
so much about people so, and I don't know if it's like a
14:44
cultural thing in Miami, but I, I'm not, I'm not too sure.
14:49
Because when I, when I lived on the West Coast, we had it too.
14:52
And I'll give you kind of a funny example in Miami, I'm a
14:57
first generation person, right? And in Miami, that is so common
15:00
to be a first generation American.
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When I moved to California, in that city, people used to tell
15:08
me that I talked with an accent. And I remember one day we had a
15:13
really funny conversation about the way I said almond.
15:15
And apparently I say that with an accent.
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Who knows? So they were picking on me and
15:21
they're like, so how do you say aunt to see if I said aunt or
15:24
aunt? You know how some people say,
15:25
and I said I say Tia and and they all laughed, right?
15:31
But that's just chit chat. But what did you learn about me,
15:36
you know? I learned.
15:37
Yeah. You spent some time on the West
15:39
Coast. I I know that you're first
15:41
generation. Yeah.
15:42
Yeah, I know that you're funny. You made a joke, right?
15:45
You answered it in a different language.
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That's. That's clever and and if you
15:49
didn't see me right, if that, if I'm not, so you're probably go.
15:52
She's not somebody that takes herself too serious like she's
15:55
Ahr manager, but she's willing to joke about herself.
15:57
So I think that is really what I mean by the chit chat, right?
16:02
It's those small nuances that, you know, you may be having a
16:06
rough day, but you hear someone make a joke like sometimes
16:10
during lunch with a team, we like to read like dad jokes.
16:13
And some people will walk by and they'll just start laughing and
16:18
they're like, what the guys doing?
16:21
Or, and I'll say you see that? I, I think that is really what I
16:24
mean. I'm also not one of those people
16:26
that cares too much about how was your weekend?
16:29
Great. No, but I, I think that chitchat
16:32
of how are your kids? How are they doing in school?
16:37
Or just, you know, what did you do this weekend?
16:40
Oh, I went here and here. Oh, I've been wanting to try
16:42
that restaurant like those types of conversations and mostly work
16:46
chitchat. You know, if you work in Alcora
16:49
was a a distributor of Wellness and beauty products, right?
16:54
So we would just, they would just walk around.
16:57
Do you like the way this smells? Do you like the way this smells?
16:59
What is this? What is this and that you missed
17:03
during COVID? Because we just did a whole
17:05
focus group with 60 people by walking through the office when
17:09
in COVID we are all restricted. And it's like, how can I get you
17:12
to smell this through my computer?
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Like, and I think so many times, especially in HR, we use people
17:20
as like, hey, if we launched this platform, how would you
17:23
like it? Like I'll be having lunch and
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I'll just ask people, what did you think about this that we're
17:30
trying to do? Or would you like it if we did
17:33
this? And sometimes you get to hear
17:35
like, oh, another HR thing, you know?
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But sometimes people are like, oh, that's actually really cool.
17:42
But you know, it would be better if this and this and this,
17:44
because we do this on Tuesdays. So Tuesdays really wouldn't
17:47
work. And then you're just like, OK,
17:49
now I have information. So I'm kind of reading between
17:53
the lines here, but I think the difference in what you're
17:56
calling chit chat, what I was kind of thinking of as chit chat
17:59
is your chit chat still gets into sharing information, right?
18:05
Like it's not how was your weekend fine.
18:08
How was yours fine. It's what did you do this
18:12
weekend or how are your kids doing in school?
18:14
Like a question that's going to elicit a more specific response
18:18
other than good, good, fine, fine.
18:21
Right, exactly. And then you get to learn that
18:23
you're you actually have a lot more in common with some people
18:26
than others. And then they're like, oh, I
18:29
just started taking this vitamin, why don't you try it?
18:31
Or you know, and then all of a sudden you have a connection
18:35
with someone that maybe you barely even talked.
18:39
To OK, let's get into closer to present day.
18:42
Now I want to understand how the opportunity came about for you
18:45
to join areas. So I actually worked with two of
18:51
the people that are on my team when we worked at Fresh Del
18:53
Monte. So the payroll director is a
18:58
friend of mine who worked there. And then my VP, George Garcia,
19:01
also worked at Del Monte Fresh many moons ago.
19:05
So we all worked together. And so I was just talking to her
19:09
one day and she's like, hey, how are you doing?
19:13
How's the baby? And I'm like, oh, great.
19:15
She's like, oh, if you're ever interested, like I would love to
19:18
work with you again. And I was like, well, I'm
19:21
interested. And she's like, are you serious?
19:25
I was like, yeah, it's like, why not?
19:28
I'm willing to explore like any opportunity.
19:31
And then and they just happened to have the position that I had.
19:35
I spoke to George and he's like, no, like I loved working with
19:38
you. I would love to do it again.
19:40
I know that we had like a really good time.
19:42
You're a really hard worker. And then we're here.
19:45
It was really something simple. And that's why it's so important
19:50
to always keep good relationships with people
19:52
because you never know. I worked with them at the very
19:56
beginning of my career in HR, maybe in 2015, and then I
20:01
started here three years ago in 2023.
20:04
So full circle. And Areas is one of those
20:07
companies where like I've never heard of it before, but I've
20:11
interacted with it, right? Yes.
20:14
Yeah, tell us more about what areas is what you do.
20:17
So we're one of those businesses that I don't even think you
20:20
realize exist until you're in the industry.
20:25
So our official name is we are concessionaires.
20:28
So when you go to the airports and you eat at a restaurant, a
20:32
Starbucks or Subway or even a private brand that you may not
20:36
realize is a privately owned brand, you are visiting a
20:39
concessionaire. And that's what we are here at
20:42
areas. So like you mentioned, we're in
20:44
airports all across the United States.
20:47
And then on the East Coast, it's more prevalent.
20:49
I don't know that they have them so much on the West Coast.
20:51
But on the turnpikes, when you're driving up, like let's
20:54
say if you're going from Miami up to Orlando, you stop at like
20:58
these service points that have plazas where there's snacks and
21:02
real retail stores. And so if you stop at one of
21:05
those in the state of Florida, Maryland or West Virginia,
21:08
you're also stopping at an area's travel Plaza.
21:11
Those are our employees. OK.
21:13
And in the airports, are you the ones who are running like a
21:17
Starbucks or do you have like, your own branded restaurants?
21:21
So both. So we partner with big brands
21:25
because like in in Houston, we have the first Yard House in an
21:31
airport, which is really exciting.
21:33
And so we have we partner with national brands that you're very
21:36
aware of or everybody's aware of.
21:38
We have Dunkin' Donuts, we have Starbucks, we have Burger King,
21:41
Wendy's, a couple of our airports have chick-fil-A's.
21:45
And then we have some of our own proprietary brands like Gastro
21:52
Hub here in Miami. We have a restaurant called La
21:55
Bosa, we have a bar called The Bar.
21:57
And then we have different just concepts throughout the United
22:01
States that are ours. And then we have chefs here on
22:03
staff that completely create the menu from start to finish.
22:06
So like a Starbucks or a Chick-fil-A?
22:09
Are you guys franchisees then? Sort of, yeah, in that area, I
22:14
don't know like the specific legalities of it, but we are
22:17
like we have the franchise to use these brands and so.
22:20
We, they're your employees. You.
22:22
Correct are. Operating 100.
22:24
Percent yes, our employees 100 Anybody that works for areas, if
22:28
you're in one of our sites even regardless of where you work at
22:31
a retail store or a restaurant, you are an area's employee
22:34
regardless of your brand. So you may work at Burger King,
22:37
but you belong to areas. We just work with Burger King to
22:40
meet their standards. So it's actually a pretty
22:42
interesting concept because if you think about it, the
22:44
standards are so different from a Starbucks to a Burger King.
22:47
Like you're, you're working in 2 completely different kind of
22:50
fields, right? And two completely different
22:53
types of fields when you walk in these two types of places.
22:57
So talk about the Miami airport, and maybe there's the Starbucks
23:04
there and a Chick-fil-A there, and they're both under the
23:07
area's umbrella. Would you have staff go from one
23:12
to the other like, oh, we're short staffed over here?
23:14
No, because it it depends. Like it would be a training
23:17
nightmare. Right, So it depends, right.
23:20
So you have some brands that are like more to their culture,
23:23
right. Like everybody knows that
23:25
Chick-fil-A is a Chick-fil-A no matter where you go and they
23:27
have their my pleasure and those things that you go to Starbuck,
23:30
them sorry, you go to Chick-fil-A for, but if you go
23:34
to Starbucks, you're also expecting the same thing.
23:36
So we work with all of the brands to be able to have like
23:41
our employees are trained by the brand.
23:43
You know, we are, we get like brand training.
23:45
We have a team that just does this here at areas that gets
23:49
certified by the brand to be able to like train the trainer,
23:52
if you will. And then our team members are
23:56
they know the area's way, but they're also fully versed in the
23:59
way of the brand that they work in.
24:01
Now there's some brands that it's a little bit easy to jump
24:04
one to two if they're like a little bit more similar, like if
24:08
you're working in a fast food, we may get you certified in both
24:11
if they're close to each other. Now working at an airport, you
24:13
may not be always in the same terminal.
24:15
So it all depends, but typically a barista has a completely
24:21
different job than somebody working at Chick-fil-A.
24:23
So we if we ever switch you out, it's for brands or operations
24:28
that have a similar like a similar feel.
24:32
Gotcha. But if your brands are very
24:33
specific and they have specific trainings and everything like
24:36
that, then you'll only work at your one location.
24:39
Gotcha. You know, and as you were
24:40
saying, this is the kind of thing where if you're not in the
24:43
industry, you probably don't even notice that this exists.
24:47
But clearly now I have an understanding it does.
24:50
And you guys are not the only company that does this.
24:54
So what sets you apart from the others out there?
24:57
I think that it's our our culture really our CEO when he
25:05
started in 2020 really created like this culture of own your
25:09
business guest first being brilliant at what we do.
25:16
We talk about that a lot here at the team, like we always say
25:19
like stay brilliant and it's part of one of our programs here
25:21
that we teach our managers and our employees about honoring the
25:26
guest. And I so I really think it's the
25:30
areas kind of attitude that we have where it's like everybody's
25:36
the CEO of their business, everybody is in charge of their
25:39
responsibilities. And we don't necessarily see
25:42
ourselves as a concessionaire. We see ourselves like we are a
25:46
food service company, like we're a hospitality company.
25:49
So when we you are traveling through one of our airports and
25:53
you visit one of our locations, we want you to have a good
25:55
travel experience. We don't just want you to have a
25:58
good dining experience. And so I think that is what like
26:03
really takes us, makes it different for us here at areas.
26:07
And what do you mean by that? A good travel experience, not
26:10
just a good dining experience. Like how are you going that
26:12
extra mile? I think it's the way that you
26:15
visit our concepts, right? So if we see and our employees
26:19
know, like if they see somebody that is travelling most of the
26:23
time is very stressful for people, especially I would say
26:26
like on our turnpikes, you're going through Rd. trips, maybe
26:29
you're going through Rd. trips with kids and it's loud.
26:31
And it's really just like if you see something that is out of the
26:34
ordinary, make sure you're helping people and yet you're
26:37
thinking about their whole experience.
26:38
You know, like, we've had diners come in and there's nothing they
26:41
can eat on our menu. And our team would be like, OK,
26:44
how can I help you? And they may create a special
26:48
dish for them if it's because of their allergies or they're going
26:51
through like a chemo treatment and their food has to be like
26:54
very clean or something like that.
26:55
So like, we just changed this entire person's day by listening
26:59
to them a little bit more, by listening to the person.
27:02
And so it's really just making that guest feel like this is not
27:06
just a stop to buy a water bottle.
27:10
I like that. OK, Now I want to explore what
27:12
specifically you do, Melissa, your title, Total Rewards Senior
27:17
Manager, and this is obviously in the HR space, what are your
27:21
responsibilities? What is it you get to do?
27:24
So I'm responsible for culture compensation and benefits in a
27:30
whole. We are also unique that we have
27:33
a lot of, we have a union environment and a non union
27:37
environment. So there's a lot of compliance
27:40
that goes into it. But I would say it's that whole
27:44
picture of culture rewards, your employee experience, like what
27:50
it feels like to work at areas. Our guest and learning
27:53
development team really takes the lead on it.
27:56
But definitely we like partner and I help support them because
28:00
so much of what they do also is tied up to like your rewards and
28:04
your experience I areas. And then of course, just trying
28:09
to get people the best benefits that we can working in
28:12
hospitality. It's a very different employee
28:15
population. Then, for example, like a
28:19
corporate office. You're kind of having to create
28:21
benefit items that work for two employee populations.
28:26
Meaning folks that maybe there's more turnover kind of lower end
28:30
of the wage scale and then somebody more senior corporate
28:33
folks. Yeah, it's like your field and
28:35
your corporate office, right. So if you're looking at somebody
28:38
that's working in like a location, it's a high paced
28:41
environment, it's typically high turnover, it's a hospitality,
28:45
right? So a lot of people it's like,
28:47
well, I can work $14.00 here, I can work $14.25 here, I might
28:50
jump for $14.25. So how do we make our
28:53
compensation or the total package that we give to the
28:56
employees feel valuable enough that you just won't jump for
28:59
$0.50 or $0.30 at another place? So how do we create that so it
29:05
feels valuable for the employee population, but also taking care
29:10
of our corporate office and our managers and the executives so
29:16
that everybody feels like they're getting there, like the
29:19
right piece of the pie. Yeah.
29:21
And so it's interesting what you talk about.
29:25
A question I like to ask a lot of folks, especially folks in HR
29:29
like yourself, is, yeah, how do you retain and hold on to good
29:32
folks, especially, you know, in these high turnover environments
29:36
you're talking about? You've got folks that'll, you
29:38
know, jump ship to go make an extra $0.25 an hour.
29:41
What are some other things that you found that kind of helps
29:44
keep people more anchored, feel more loyal to you?
29:47
I think sometimes it's culture, giving people some flexibility
29:52
and making sure that they know that they're not just another
29:55
number here. Because we have some locations
29:58
that are small, like especially some of our travel plazas that
30:01
are small in Florida may have like 50 employees and then you
30:06
have some that have 250 employees.
30:08
So how do you make them feel like you're not just a number in
30:14
this? You are part of us, like you are
30:17
part of areas, you're part of the bigger picture.
30:21
But at the same time, and I think we talk about this a lot,
30:25
but it's like culture is not just a poster you put up.
30:28
Culture is how you're treated every single day.
30:31
Like the interactions that you have with your employees every
30:34
day. It's not the performance review
30:36
that you do once a year that you say thank you or maybe you don't
30:41
say thank you. You know what you say, my
30:43
pleasure or something else, right?
30:45
That's not culture. Culture is are you treating your
30:48
employees well? Because if I treat my team well,
30:51
my team is going to treat the people that they interact with
30:53
well, and that is going to Cascade.
30:56
And what works in Maryland may not work in South Florida and
31:01
vice versa. So we really try to work with
31:04
everybody and let each location sort of create their own
31:07
culture. Like, what is it going to feel
31:09
like here? Because in every part of the
31:12
nation, you have people from different backgrounds in Miami,
31:16
like we have a very diverse population here, but it's like
31:19
mostly Hispanic population, right?
31:21
So what works here may not work in, you know, Minnesota or it
31:27
may not work in Texas. So we let everybody kind of
31:31
create their culture, but build off the same backbones, build
31:35
off of the same standards that we want results, we want
31:39
transparency, we want trust. And that is something that we
31:43
all have to have. Now from there, how that like
31:47
how that flourishes in your location is up to you as a
31:50
leader to own your business and make your employees feel
31:53
special. And I think that we also have a
31:55
lot of room for growth here. One of our vice presidents
31:59
started as a clerk at Miami Airport and he's grown all the
32:05
way up. Some of our general managers
32:07
started in entry level positions at our locations on the Turnpike
32:11
and have made their way up. And so I think seeing that is
32:17
also really inspiring to people because it's like, OK, I can
32:20
have a career here. I don't just get to have a job.
32:25
And I think all of that brings loyalty to people and to
32:28
businesses. And so how much autonomy does I
32:32
think you call them business owners at each of the locations
32:35
have like are they determining their own employee benefits?
32:39
Are they just sort of more in charge of, I don't know, the
32:44
events that they may do with the employees or the the training
32:49
and the way they approach it? Help me kind of wrap my head
32:52
around. So their benefits we definitely
32:56
do from a like big picture up here because economies of scale,
33:00
right? So the more employees you have,
33:03
the better you can bargain. And so we definitely manage some
33:07
of that from the corporate level.
33:08
But I would say it's the way you treat your people and the way
33:11
you celebrate your people is left to the locations.
33:15
So I think that that's really what creates it.
33:19
Of course, we have programs like every other company has programs
33:22
where we share. But it's like, OK, I'm going to
33:24
send you your tenure gifts. But the way that you celebrate
33:27
the tenure gifts is up to you. Do you want to do a BBQ?
33:30
You're going to do a potluck? Are you going to have just a
33:33
catered lunch? Are you going to do a Wellness
33:36
fair? Are you not going to do a
33:37
Wellness fair? All of that is really up to your
33:39
location of what you feel is going to be beneficial for your
33:43
employees because you may have a location where people aren't
33:46
interested, right? Like maybe nobody really wants
33:50
to do their biometrics, but then you may have another location
33:53
where people love that stuff. And so it's really up to you to
33:58
let us know. And then we work with each
34:00
location to kind of create like a program, have an event, create
34:05
a culture for them, help them if they're struggling to create a
34:08
culture, working with the leaders to help organize them.
34:11
And it kind of rolls out from there.
34:14
But we help give you the tools if that's something that you
34:16
wanted to. Let's talk more about these
34:20
Wellness initiatives because I know this is a big passion point
34:23
for you. Where does the passion come
34:24
from? And give us a couple of examples
34:27
of some of these programs that you've rolled out.
34:30
So I think that Wellness has always just been something that
34:33
interests me. Earlier in my career, I became
34:37
like a certified nutritionist, a certified life coach with a
34:41
specific like emphasis in Wellness.
34:45
And it's just because I realized that it's we're all connected,
34:50
right? When we're unhealthy in our
34:52
bodies or when we have bad habits, we're bad people, you
34:58
know, and not bad people in that.
35:01
But like, you're grouchier, like they always say, like you're
35:04
hangry. And it's like, yes, because I
35:06
haven't had breakfast or lunch and it's 3:00 in the afternoon.
35:09
And it's like, OK, well, what it would, what would have really
35:11
taken you to have food? And so I think I also had, you
35:17
know, some people in my family get very sick for things that
35:20
were like, my father specifically got very sick for
35:23
something that I felt was preventable.
35:25
And so I really got me down this like rabbit hole of mental
35:30
health, Wellness in your body and how we suffer so much from
35:35
that even now that it feels like with so much information at our
35:39
fingertips, how do we still struggle with Wellness?
35:45
And so I really, that question really got to me kind of after
35:50
my dad passed away a couple of years ago.
35:52
And it's sort of what made what interested me in sort of like
35:55
this different type of world of taking care of yourself as one,
36:00
you know, like 1 body, one mind, 1 spirit.
36:03
And how do we build on that and building healthy habits.
36:07
And so it helped that at the time, I had a group of coworkers
36:10
that were also into hearing me say, well, I heard this podcast,
36:14
I'm really this Ted Talk, I heard this book, you know, like
36:17
all of these things. And they're like, yeah, let's
36:19
try it, let's try it, let's try it.
36:20
And so, like, together, we sort of built really healthy habits.
36:24
And then it sort of just turned into like, well, since she likes
36:26
it, let's make her in charge of it.
36:30
And that's sort of how I ended up in this world career wise
36:34
because it was just something that interested me at the time.
36:37
It wasn't really things people were talking about, like
36:40
professionally talking about. And then I just sort of, I think
36:44
during COVID and all of that, it's like what it became, like
36:49
the Wellness of employees really became something worth talking
36:52
about. Are you comfortable saying more
36:55
about the passing of your father?
36:57
Because it seems like that was a big part of the inspiration
37:00
behind this work. Yeah, so my dad was was an
37:05
alcoholic for a large part of his life.
37:08
He has a great dad. I probably honestly didn't even
37:12
notice until I was older that there was a word for that.
37:15
But he got very sick and we didn't know why he got sick.
37:21
And we just realized it was towards the end, like a mental
37:24
health thing, right? Like he struggled with a lot of
37:28
like in his addiction. And I think it just got to him,
37:32
you know, towards the end, he was very weary of doctors
37:35
because doctors would tell you, you know, you need to do better.
37:39
You need to change your life. And he was a hippie, you know,
37:41
he grew up in the 70s. If there was something you told
37:44
my dad, like my dad had really long hair, why?
37:46
Because they told him to cut it. So in protest, he grew his hair.
37:52
And I think that he was just like that, you know, he was very
37:56
anti everything that you told him to do because that's how he
37:59
was. And so he passed when I was
38:02
really young, I think I was 24 or 25.
38:05
And so I towards the end of it, I realized like I started just
38:10
like reflecting, like how does this happen?
38:14
You know, how do people get addicted?
38:17
How does it take over our life when we're addicted to so many
38:21
things, You know, especially in this 80s, like we're addicted to
38:23
our phones, we're addicted to social media, we're addicted to
38:26
all these things that are bad for us.
38:27
We're addicted to working, which is probably the only addiction
38:31
that is celebrated. Like the more workaholic you
38:34
are, the more you're celebrated, which is another probably whole
38:37
podcast episode. And it just made me realize
38:45
after he passed, he ended up getting like very thin.
38:48
My dad was like 6-2, but he was very, very skinny towards the
38:52
end. And it just it got to me seeing
38:56
a man that was so strong. He's like my dad was a man's
38:59
man. He was an electrician.
39:01
He was strong. He would fish like he was like
39:04
my a superhero to me because there is nothing that my dad
39:07
couldn't do. He was he was huge, like
39:09
literally and figuratively just like a big personality.
39:14
So to see him kind of wilt young, he was in his early 60s,
39:21
was so shocking to me. And then me being young, I was
39:25
like, I need to figure this out, like, what is going on here?
39:29
And I think that's kind of what made me like I went into just
39:33
caring, I would say, about Wellness as a whole and not just
39:39
as I need to start drinking more water, I need to eat more fruits
39:41
and vegetables. But really, what does it mean to
39:44
be well as a person and and how do you make that work in your
39:49
everyday life without it making it feel like this is too much?
39:54
I have a friend that goes to a trainer and he tracks everything
39:59
and we're always messing with her.
40:02
And I'm like, but that's not realistic.
40:05
Like, you tell me I can't have chocolate.
40:07
I would need chocolate every second of my life, right?
40:10
That's not well living to me. Well, living is.
40:14
I can have my chocolate, I can have cake and have cookies, but
40:17
I'm also taking care of myself. Like, I'm also having fruits.
40:20
I'm also having vegetables. I'm having protein.
40:22
I'm eating well, but I'm also enjoying because that is
40:27
realistic. Yeah.
40:30
Can you give me an example of a Wellness initiative that you've
40:33
introduced at areas that you've seen be well received or have an
40:37
impact? So I think here specifically
40:41
like in our support center, it's easier.
40:44
I think we've gone through so much change.
40:46
I would say that it's, it's difficult to say like what's
40:49
working in the field versus what's not working.
40:52
But here we do Wellness fairs and like Wellness events
40:57
throughout the throughout the year.
41:00
And I'm always shocked by how much people really enjoy coming
41:06
and just learning about things. So we did like a trail mix bar
41:13
and people were just so shocked to learn like what's in this and
41:16
what's in this and how this can help you and what that can help
41:18
you. And so I've learned that just
41:20
doing these small, tiny information sessions for people,
41:25
even though it feels small to us because we're just putting out
41:28
like a granola bar and some information sheets, it really
41:31
helps people. I like, I think people like fun
41:35
facts and so I think that it entices them.
41:39
Another thing that we have done is I don't know if this is the
41:42
word for it, but I have coined it population health in where we
41:47
bring doctors to our employees. So like we brought an eye doctor
41:51
into the office. So people just took 15 minutes,
41:54
went to the eye doctor downstairs, then they could come
41:57
upstairs, buy their glasses and then they left.
42:00
We had a dermatologist come, they parked downstairs,
42:03
everybody went downstairs, everybody came upstairs.
42:05
And it's just an easy way to get people healthy.
42:09
And they just, they don't, they don't have to miss work because
42:13
how many times you just not go to the doctor because I have to
42:15
take a day off or have so many meetings.
42:17
I have all of this going on. So I've also realized that if we
42:20
just bring it here, people will do it and they're like more
42:25
excited to do it because they also feel like they're getting
42:28
paid to go to the doctor. Yeah, that's pretty cool.
42:33
Melissa, talk to me about the state of HR in our world today,
42:38
specifically putting the human as well as the resources back
42:43
into human resources. I think we're probably one of
42:47
the, I would say us and IT are probably the two professions
42:52
that have changed the most over the past.
42:56
I'm going to say even six years because HR was such, even when I
43:01
started in HR, we were very much still like a paper pushing type
43:09
of like if you have an employee complaint, you come to us, we
43:12
hire people, we fire people, we give them benefits, you move on.
43:17
But now I feel that you have to do 2 things.
43:22
It's almost like you, we have gotten so good at putting the
43:25
human back in, like human resources, that we are caring
43:29
about our people. I always say our employees are
43:33
just humans having human experiences at work.
43:36
So people are gonna get phone calls even in like places where
43:42
it's hard to get a phone call. Like if you work at a call
43:43
center, the person answering the phone is still a mom, you know,
43:47
she's still going to have kids that have emergencies.
43:50
These things are going to happen.
43:52
So how do we be human and understand these, but understand
43:56
that these things are going to happen and we have to support
43:58
our employees through it. But how do we also become
44:01
resources for our for the business that we understand the
44:05
business, we understand what cost the business, whether it's
44:09
a real cost or not. And how do we become like true
44:13
business partners so that we can sort of bring these two things
44:17
together without tipping the scales too much to one side and
44:21
too much to the other side, right?
44:23
Because we still have to, we have to create like human
44:25
programs that are going to push the business forward, but not to
44:28
the extent that you're stretching your business so much
44:31
that nobody wants to do them because then there's no point in
44:35
having these successful programs.
44:39
And so I think that human resources has, especially in
44:42
like today's society where everything is ever changing, I
44:47
think the rules of almost how to be human change every single
44:51
day. And how do we keep up with that?
44:56
And I think it's also just realizing that as HR
44:59
professionals, we're also humans.
45:02
What do you mean by I forget exactly how you said it.
45:05
What it means to be human changes every day.
45:09
Because I think that just like in the world, everything changes
45:13
every single day. Like today, it's, it's what's
45:17
OK. Today is not OK tomorrow, you
45:19
know, like you may what? And some people feel like
45:22
there's a good joke, right? And that joke is OK with this
45:25
group of people, but it's not OK with this group of people.
45:28
But it was OK last week, but now a current event happened and now
45:34
it's not OK. I, I said something the other
45:36
day like, oh, I'm going to deport all of these files
45:41
because I don't want to see them anymore.
45:44
And people are like, oh, that's a bad choice of words.
45:46
And I said I'm talking about papers, you know?
45:51
But things have been happening recently.
45:52
Where people are really guarded about it.
45:55
So it, and I, I was shocked. I, I didn't know what to do
46:00
because I wasn't saying, I wasn't even having a political
46:03
conversation. I think I was talking about like
46:05
shredding paperwork or something, you know, and I was
46:07
like, I'm going to like take all of this and put it away.
46:10
I don't want to see it, but it's a bad choice of word, right?
46:13
I get that. But the word choices change so
46:18
much, you know? And I think that just what I
46:24
always like to tell people is that even for us as HR
46:29
professionals is that we're all just learning this too, right?
46:33
Like I'm going to go through experiences and I'm going to
46:35
help you through an experience that I've never experienced
46:38
before. So we have to give each other
46:42
that grace to be able to push through it.
46:45
It's not going to be something that is changing.
46:48
And I think sometimes too, especially in business, you have
46:52
to decide like, OK, I can be human.
46:55
And I think this is probably one of the hardest parts.
46:57
Like, I can be human, but up to here because we still have a
47:01
business to run. So I can understand that you
47:05
have all of this going on, but I also need someone to serve food
47:08
to my guest. And that can be a tough
47:12
balancing act sometimes, right? Because you've got these two
47:15
things that sometimes they come together really well, right?
47:18
You've got the business doing what it does to employ people
47:22
and to make money and to provide services to to customers.
47:25
And you've got employees over here that you don't.
47:28
Most of the time they're showing up and they're doing a great
47:30
job. And at the same time, they are
47:32
also humans that have their own baggage and their own things
47:35
going on at home and crises with their kids and whatnot.
47:39
And so sometimes those things, if you look at them as Venn
47:43
diagrams, they don't overlap very well.
47:45
And what do you do then? What do you do in those
47:46
circumstances? And.
47:48
It's hard, right, for some employees because like for
47:50
example, if I'm having an off day, I can work from home, sure,
47:55
but how does a bartender work from home?
48:00
They can't. And so how do you, how does that
48:03
person that may be going through stuff, right?
48:06
Because like today, it's a hard day in their neighborhood, in
48:10
their state, in their city, in their airport.
48:14
Maybe it's snowing, maybe it's a hurricane, whatever is coming
48:18
that way, right? And they still have to be the
48:21
best version of themselves to that guest every day.
48:28
That's that is a really hard ask of people.
48:33
Think of how many times you went to some place and you're like,
48:35
oh, that person was having a bad day.
48:38
But think how many times you have a bad day.
48:42
And I think that like, that also changes like that I think is
48:46
also part of being human. That can also change every
48:48
single day. And how do we keep up?
48:51
It's hard. And I think we have to give our
48:54
employees also space to have bad days, but also treat guests the
48:59
right way and give them kind of tips and tools to overcome those
49:05
hard moments. Yeah.
49:07
Well, yeah, we've all had those bad days.
49:09
We've all had those hard time periods in our life.
49:13
And overcoming those hardships, I think is a great opportunity
49:18
for us to grow and learn, as painful as it can be.
49:22
So I'd be curious, Melissa, to hear about a particular
49:24
challenge that you've had to overcome and how you got through
49:27
that. Yeah, so I think my personality
49:30
has been one of my biggest challenges.
49:35
And it's funny because in HR, we're serious people and I have
49:41
always been in bigger positions than I think my age.
49:46
And I think one of the feedbacks that I've gotten gotten is like,
49:50
oh, you need to like take yourself more seriously.
49:52
You need to do. And I'm like, how my personality
49:55
is bouncy, my hair is bouncy. Like I am a bouncy person.
49:59
How? And I think one of the biggest
50:02
things that I had to overcome is embracing myself and showing up
50:11
as that type of professional because in HR it's actually very
50:14
difficult, right? Because you're the letter of the
50:17
law. And I think also like I, nobody
50:21
knows because we're looking at this through a screen or you're
50:23
hearing this, but I'm also very petite person.
50:26
So I'm like this small person that has always had like very
50:30
big jobs and I'm not I one of my biggest career challenges was
50:35
that Tom or that we spoke about earlier would always tell me
50:37
like take up space. And I'm just like, I don't know
50:42
how to do that. What I'm going to stretch out my
50:46
arms, wear a bigger book bag. How do I take up space?
50:50
You know, I'm not that person. I don't need it.
50:54
I don't need space. I don't need to be to walk into
50:57
the room. And people think like, oh,
50:58
that's the HR lady, you know, I don't and I don't give that
51:02
energy. That's not who I am.
51:05
And so having to overcome that. So people take me seriously
51:10
because of the way that I am. I feel people always think like,
51:13
oh, OK, and then I start sort of in the negative serious bucket.
51:20
So you struggle with here is my natural personality.
51:23
I'm petite, I'm bouncy, I'm bubbly.
51:27
And then now I'm being given advice that says you need to
51:30
take yourself more seriously. You need to take up more space
51:33
in the room. You need to have a a different
51:36
style of personality. And there's this conflict like,
51:39
well, does that mean like who I naturally AM, there's something
51:43
wrong with me, right? Is, is this sort of the tug of
51:45
war that's going on in your head and.
51:47
It's just like how I don't, I don't know how to be anything
51:52
other than myself. So how does one do that?
52:00
And so I think that has been my biggest hurdle and the biggest
52:04
struggle that I've had, because I have learned that in my career
52:08
in specific, like when I was in charge of employee relations,
52:11
for example, it was harder to be, you know, how do I tell a
52:15
vice president, like give the vice president feedback on their
52:19
behaviors? You know, when I am probably
52:23
like seeing us like the happy police, right?
52:26
And not the behavior police. And so how do I, how do I do
52:31
that? And So what I have learned to do
52:33
is just change the role and say that, you know, actually the
52:39
fact that I am this way and you do respect me and I do take up
52:43
the space that I need is necessary.
52:47
Like that is how I kind of overcame it, which was like,
52:51
it's not for me a negative. For me, it's a positive because
52:55
we can have the tough conversation, We can have it
52:58
well and you don't need to feel beat up after the conversation.
53:01
You can feel good about it because I didn't, we just
53:05
talked. And I think that learning to use
53:11
what was my weakness as my strength, it is actually what
53:15
made me successful when I had to do those tough conversations
53:20
because you didn't feel like you were getting beat up.
53:24
You felt like you were talking to a coach.
53:26
You felt like you were talking to a friend.
53:28
You felt like you're talking to someone that believes in you.
53:32
So you. You were being given advice that
53:35
was like, your personality is too soft for some of these
53:38
conversations. You need to toughen up.
53:41
You need to be harsher, be a bigger, you need to take more
53:45
control and you have this tug of war with yourself.
53:48
You're like, oh, I don't know, I maybe I should.
53:50
Maybe I should because right, You receive all kinds of
53:52
coaching throughout your career and it's like, OK, what are the
53:55
things I actually need to work on it?
53:57
And where is this something where like I'm going to put my
53:59
foot down and say, I think you're wrong.
54:01
I think the way my personality, the way I'm naturally wired,
54:05
presents a better opportunity here to do it in a different
54:08
way, a better way, the way that's going to be better
54:11
received by the other person. Right.
54:14
And I think a way that makes me feel better for it, right?
54:17
Because nobody wants to be that person that is always giving
54:21
like the not so nice feedback. But when I realized it's that
54:24
I'm not giving you not so nice feedback.
54:26
I'm giving you important things that you need to hear so that we
54:30
can help you do better as a company.
54:32
Because if I'm not telling you the truth and I'm not telling
54:35
you where we need you to grow, then you're not going to grow.
54:41
And if you don't grow, I mean, in realistically in corporate
54:46
America, if you don't grow and you're in a leadership position,
54:50
you're going to see yourself leaving the organization,
54:52
whether it's the organization's choice or whether it's your
54:54
choice because you don't feel comfortable there anymore.
54:57
When you realize your values don't align with that of the
54:59
organization, you may choose to bow out.
55:02
But it's my job as somebody in the HR team to make sure that
55:08
you know how we need you to grow because we want you to be here.
55:12
If not, we wouldn't give you the feedback.
55:15
And so I feel that the way that my personality is, is that I can
55:20
be able to tell people like, let's do it.
55:26
Like, come on, let's grow. Let's grow together.
55:28
We, we can do this. And I think that it's worked out
55:33
for me. It's so much so that they used
55:35
to laugh at me in my old company because after I terminated
55:38
people, I would get thank you letters.
55:41
Wow. From people.
55:44
And thanking you for what specifically?
55:46
For like, for terminating them with respect, for talking
55:50
through them with them, for sitting with them in like such a
55:53
hard time, and just for being helpful, for being respectful.
55:58
Wow, that speaks volumes right there.
56:01
Yeah. And so I kind of realized that
56:03
it's OK to be bouncy. I like that you should put that
56:07
on a T-shirt. I should.
56:10
So as you didn't, I'm going to guess anyways, Melissa, you
56:14
didn't get to that point right away.
56:17
You're probably hearing a lot of this advice and and you're
56:20
having this like internal like, oh, maybe they're right.
56:23
Maybe I need to change how I am or who I am.
56:26
How did you get to the place where you're like, no, I love
56:31
who I am. The approach that I bring is
56:34
better. I'm going to stick with this.
56:36
Like, was it sort of like a gradual, like maybe you tried on
56:39
the mean hat for a while and and then like that didn't work?
56:43
Or was there like a light switch moment?
56:45
Walk me through it. No, I would say for sure it was
56:47
gradual because I tried, right? I tried being like the serious
56:51
person and I was exhausted all the time because I think that
56:57
when you're not being yourself, it's exhausting.
57:01
And I realized that I went from having a good day at work all
57:04
the time to coming home and being exhausted.
57:09
And we just happened to also be doing like a high potential
57:13
program, my old company, and just hearing the coach kind of
57:18
give feedback to the other people.
57:20
We used a third party and then just talking to her as we
57:23
prepared for everything else and hearing what she was like
57:30
preparing our hypos to go through.
57:33
I realized slowly that it's not that the feedback was incorrect
57:39
because do I think that there is a time and place?
57:42
Of course, right? Like when you're playing poker,
57:45
you're not going to show your hand, right?
57:47
So, and not everybody has the privilege to know every part of
57:51
you, right? Like it is OK for some people to
57:55
know just the professional Melissa and there's some people
57:57
to know the personal side of Melissa and the goofy side of
58:00
me. Like it is OK to reserve parts
58:06
of yourself to specific groups of people.
58:08
And I think that that is actually probably the right
58:11
thing to do in some cases, right?
58:13
Because you're not going to come to work and you know, be the
58:17
same person you are with your family, let's just say where you
58:21
are laid back all the time like that.
58:23
You need to keep a respectful discourse amongst your Co
58:27
workers and in the office. But there is a portion of you
58:30
that you can share. And what I realized was that the
58:36
feedback was not wrong in that I needed to be less bouncy, but it
58:44
was choosing the portion how much of me I get to share in
58:49
each moment, right? And what I realized is, is that
58:53
that bouncy kind of uplifting, light hearted part of me is what
59:00
did make me successful in my job.
59:03
Because even now when we're going through so much, I'm
59:06
always telling the team like, it's OK, it is what it is, we'll
59:10
fix it. There is not a problem that
59:13
cannot be fixed. Everything can be fixed.
59:16
There's always a way to correct it.
59:19
And if it can't be fixed, I just, I haven't seen a problem
59:23
that can't be fixed. To this day, I've never come up
59:25
through a problem in HR that cannot be fixed.
59:29
And so it's OK to bump into problems.
59:31
It's OK because we're going to find a solution.
59:34
And I think that that part of me is the successful part of me and
59:39
the part that needed to continue to be there.
59:44
Now, do I need to be telling jokes to the CEO while I'm
59:47
presenting a bonus structure? Probably not really, right?
59:51
Like, that's not the place. Can I tell my team?
59:54
Oh, man, he said this. And I had the perfect joke in my
59:56
head. Yes, you know, it's OK.
1:00:01
But it's it's realizing the when and the how.
1:00:05
That you show up like our CEO has been part of our dad joke
1:00:09
lunches because we're just being ourselves in the kitchen, right?
1:00:13
But if I'm presenting data and facts to him, that's probably
1:00:17
not the place. So I think over time I learned
1:00:23
that that that is the magic in it is realizing how much of you
1:00:29
you needed to share all the time.
1:00:31
Situationally appropriate. Right.
1:00:34
Yeah. So what's your superpower?
1:00:42
I'm happy. That's a pretty good one.
1:00:47
I'm happy. Where's that happiness come
1:00:50
from? I think my faith for sure,
1:00:55
because I know that like, I'm at peace and I, I, I don't think
1:01:02
that there's anything that can't be overcome.
1:01:05
And even if it's hard, it'll pass.
1:01:08
I tell the team all the time, it's going to pass.
1:01:11
It's going to pass like a kidney stone and we're never going to
1:01:14
forget it, but it's going to pass.
1:01:16
You know, it's going to be fine and all, everything I heard
1:01:21
somebody say one time, and I can't remember who or where I
1:01:24
saw it, but it's like this too Shall pass is such an important
1:01:30
sentence and normally we use it only in times of stress.
1:01:34
But it's really important to know that this too shall pass
1:01:37
can be used in times of difficulty.
1:01:40
But it's really humbling when you use it in times of happiness
1:01:44
because it too shall pass. So it's like sit in the
1:01:48
happiness exactly when you have it.
1:01:51
Because that burst of excitement of finishing a project of like
1:01:55
when we heard the acquisition was finally going through after
1:01:58
all this hard work, Like it was so exciting.
1:02:01
And then it passed and we got into the nitty gritty of it.
1:02:05
And then there's days that are super hard and we don't know
1:02:07
when we're going to live through them.
1:02:09
Those pass too. And then there's days that are
1:02:11
really easy and those pass too. And so I think that just knowing
1:02:16
that there is like more and being in that piece, it just, it
1:02:21
makes me very happy to know that like, I'll be OK.
1:02:24
My faith tells me that I'll be OK.
1:02:27
Tell us about the acquisition. Why were you so excited about
1:02:29
this? I think because we worked so
1:02:32
hard in the lead up to it, preparing for it.
1:02:36
And of course with these things, like you never know until it's
1:02:40
real. Like it's like buying a house,
1:02:42
right? You think the house is going to
1:02:44
be yours, but until you sign at the title company, like you're
1:02:47
not sure anything can happen. And so the day that we closed,
1:02:52
although everything was the same from the day before, it was not
1:02:57
the same because now we had 4000 new employees and all these new
1:03:02
tasks and all these new responsibilities and all these
1:03:05
unknowns. And we always say we can't wait
1:03:08
to see the people that we're going to be at the end of this,
1:03:12
to see how much we have learned and grown.
1:03:15
And actually because I, it's only, we're only in two months
1:03:19
in post acquisition, like post close date.
1:03:22
But I always tell them, I, I don't think we can wait to
1:03:25
become those people. I think we have to be those
1:03:27
people today because there's so much everyday that we don't know
1:03:33
and we don't know how to fix it. And we just have to put the best
1:03:37
minds that we have together, put all of the best ideas in the pot
1:03:41
and pick the best one that's going to work for the business
1:03:44
and for the employees and execute.
1:03:47
And when we make mistakes, admit it, fix it, communicate it, move
1:03:52
on to the next day and move on to the next thing.
1:03:54
And so I think it has been really exciting because as
1:03:58
professionals, we've all learned and grown.
1:04:00
And I think also as people, we are also learning and growing
1:04:04
through this together because it's it's a lot of work.
1:04:06
And I think that in a lot of work and high times of stress,
1:04:11
you don't always get the best in people when people are really
1:04:15
stressed. But we have such a solid,
1:04:17
amazing team here that I think we laugh and we pick on each
1:04:22
other so much that it is a great way to get through stressful
1:04:29
times. Melissa, I've just got one more
1:04:32
question for you today, but before I ask it, I'm going to do
1:04:35
3 quick things. First of all, if you want to get
1:04:37
in touch with Melissa Granizo, you can find her on LinkedIn.
1:04:41
Her last name is spelled GRANIZO.
1:04:44
Melissa Granizo. Am I saying it correctly?
1:04:47
Yes. Melissa Granizo, Areas USA, you
1:04:50
look for that on LinkedIn. You will find her and you can
1:04:52
connect with her there. Also, if you're enjoying the
1:04:56
show, a quick comment or review on your favorite podcast app
1:04:59
goes a long way towards helping others discover our show.
1:05:02
So thank you for taking a quick moment to do that right now.
1:05:07
And as a reminder, if you want to get more hospitality
1:05:10
employees, access to therapists, doctors and prescription meds
1:05:14
that, as paradoxical as it seems, actually increases your
1:05:18
company's net profits, reach out to us at adbackbenefits.com.
1:05:22
So last question for you, Melissa.
1:05:24
A year from now, what is something specific that you hope
1:05:27
to be celebrating? I would say a full integrated
1:05:38
company. One big, fully integrated
1:05:41
company. You think it'll take that long?
1:05:44
Our goal is 6 months, so let's see.
1:05:47
OK. But I think getting everything
1:05:51
fully integrated, all of our employees and all of us fully,
1:05:56
like all of our departments fully staffed and everybody
1:05:59
really up to date, I think it would be such a good relief for
1:06:07
so many people that are working so hard.
1:06:09
So to look back a year from now and see like why we made it, I
1:06:13
think that's going to be probably one of the most
1:06:16
exciting sentences that we'll say a year from now
1:06:19
professionally for sure. But Melissa Granizo from Areas
1:06:23
USAI wouldn't be the first to thank you for sharing both your
1:06:26
time and your story with us today.
1:06:28
I really appreciate you being here.
1:06:30
Thank you, Anthony. This is so much Ann.
1:06:33
Folks, that's a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories
1:06:35
podcast. Thanks for learning with us
1:06:37
today.