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How Getting Fired Sparked a Purpose Driven Social Enterprise with Merry Korn · Beyond Expertise

0:01
Eric Dickmann: Welcome to Beyond Expertise, a podcast about identity reinvention for professionals ready to explore who they are beyond their titles and careers.
0:11
Eric Dickmann: I'm your host, Eric Dickmann.
0:13
Eric Dickmann: Today, I'm excited to welcome Mary Korn to the podcast.
0:18
Eric Dickmann: Mary's story began with a moment many professionals fear most, being unexpectedly fired.
0:23
Eric Dickmann: Just months into what she thought would be her dream role, she found herself facing uncertainty, loss, and the difficult question of what came next.
0:32
Eric Dickmann: But what initially felt like a devastating setback eventually became the catalyst for something much bigger.
0:40
Eric Dickmann: Inspired by the lessons of resilience and purpose passed down through her family, Mary went on to build a social enterprise that employed more than 1,300 people across 30 states, creating meaningful opportunities for veterans, people with disabilities, and others facing barriers to work.
0:58
Eric Dickmann: Along the way, she discovered that some of life's most painful disruptions can become unlikely invitations toward work that feels more aligned and meaningful.
1:07
Eric Dickmann: Today, we'll talk about career setbacks, reinvention, purpose, and what happens when the thing that knocks you off your path may actually be redirecting you toward the life that you were meant to build.
1:20
Eric Dickmann: Let's get ready to go beyond expertise Mary, welcome to the podcast.
1:25
Eric Dickmann: I'm so glad that you could be a guest today.
1:27
Merry Korn: I'm honored to
1:31
Eric Dickmann: Mary, the way I like to start my shows is I like to ask the guest to go back in time a little bit, all the way back to when you first started your professional career, and talk a little bit about what your aspirations were at the time.
1:47
Eric Dickmann: Did you end up in that first job being aligned with where you wanted to go or where you thought you wanted to go at the time?
1:54
Merry Korn: Oh, I, I always felt this yearning to have my own business.
2:00
Eric Dickmann: Oh, yeah, right from the very beginning.
2:02
Merry Korn: the very beginning, I didn't know what that business would be, but I always felt like a fish out of water.
2:08
Merry Korn: And I always felt like the name of the game is please my boss, but it was never about pleasing myself.
2:15
Merry Korn: So I contorted myself into being a corporate animal that I wasn't.
2:20
Merry Korn: And, uh, and I was never happy working for anyone else.
2:25
Merry Korn: I knew I was destined to own my own business.
2:28
Eric Dickmann: What kind of a job did you have?
2:30
Eric Dickmann: What was one of the first jobs that you had as a professional?
2:33
Merry Korn: I was a hospital social worker, which I was really ill-suited to do.
2:38
Merry Korn: But I have a sister who is a clinical social worker, and, even though your siblings have passions, it doesn't mean they're yours.
2:47
Merry Korn: And she was meant to be a social worker, and I am absolutely not.
2:50
Eric Dickmann: Yeah.
2:51
Merry Korn: But what I am meant to do is use business to fulfill my social mission.
2:57
Merry Korn: Because you can absolutely combine a social mission and a for-profit mission.
3:06
Eric Dickmann: Well, I find a lot of people that feel some misalignment at the beginning of their careers, often they don't know what they wanna do or what they have the skills to do, and their path through their series of corporate jobs, really almost without them knowing it, gives them the skills and experience that they need to truly create the business ultimately that they end up creating.
3:27
Eric Dickmann: So you started out in social work.
3:29
Eric Dickmann: How did that develop over time?
3:31
Eric Dickmann: Where did you end up going with it?
3:33
Merry Korn: I left it after two years because I realized it was completely misaligned with who I am.
3:41
Merry Korn: I wasn't meant to be a clinical...
3:43
Merry Korn: Social workers are very special people.
3:46
Merry Korn: I'm not one of them.
3:47
Eric Dickmann: Yeah.
3:48
Eric Dickmann: So what was the next phase?
3:50
Merry Korn: I went to work for a medical management firm that I kept climbing the corporate ladder.
3:56
Merry Korn: I became a senior vice president with a corporate plane, and it meant absolutely nothing.
4:03
Merry Korn: I always felt like I was walking through life wearing two left shoes.
4:08
Merry Korn: Never felt right anywhere.
4:10
Eric Dickmann: Yeah.
4:10
Eric Dickmann: Even though you had achieved a fair degree of success in that corporate role?
4:15
Merry Korn: Externally, yeah.
4:17
Merry Korn: I made really good money, uh, traveled all the time.
4:22
Merry Korn: It didn't bring me any joy at all.
4:25
Eric Dickmann: Mm.
4:26
Eric Dickmann: How did you find that manifest in your life, wearing those two hats?
4:29
Eric Dickmann: Being a good corporate citizen during the day, and then maybe at home not feeling quite the same amount of satisfaction?
4:35
Merry Korn: Soul depleting.
4:37
Merry Korn: It depleted my soul.
4:38
Merry Korn: It depleted my essence.
4:40
Merry Korn: I knew there was something out there, but what I struggled with was, why am I here?
4:45
Merry Korn: And, and I wonder, uh, I, I wonder, Eric, how many of your listeners struggle with, what is my purpose?
4:54
Merry Korn: Um, a- about a month ago, I was speaking to a room of 40 people, and I just randomly asked the audience,"How many of you know your meaning?" And of 40 people, how many people do you think raised their hand?
5:06
Eric Dickmann: Probably almost nobody.
5:08
Merry Korn: Five.
5:09
Merry Korn: But
5:09
Eric Dickmann: Five, yeah.
5:11
Merry Korn: that means 35 had no clue of why they're here.
5:19
Merry Korn: But I knew whatever I was doing, it wasn't it.
5:22
Eric Dickmann: Isn't that interesting?
5:23
Eric Dickmann: Because, we've had Simon Sinek and Know Your Why, and all these books that are really out there to try to help people discover their purpose.
5:32
Eric Dickmann: But oftentimes it's lived experience that helps you figure out what it is that is actually your purpose.
5:41
Eric Dickmann: I don't think everybody wakes up one day and said,"Oh, my purpose is this," right?
5:45
Eric Dickmann: They look at their life, they look at what they enjoy, they look at what they're good at and say,"Well, how can I apply that to something more meaningful?" Is that what you find as well?
5:54
Merry Korn: I just found on my whole journey, it took me till the age of 46 to find out-- at least I found it, and some really smart people who live around the corner from me, and they're both, uh, they were both, uh, doing the work, career coaches.
6:09
Merry Korn: They said a lot of people get through life and never do their life's work.
6:13
Merry Korn: And, and I can't, Eric, I can't imagine that.
6:17
Merry Korn: Why are you alive if you're not gonna be doing the work y- you're aligned to do?
6:23
Merry Korn: That's a life of silent desperation.
6:25
Eric Dickmann: So you're, you're working your, your way up the corporate ladder.
6:28
Eric Dickmann: The money's good, the perks are good.
6:31
Eric Dickmann: You're feeling this lack of alignment.
6:34
Eric Dickmann: At that time, where did you go to try to sort that out in your mind?
6:38
Eric Dickmann: Or had you just not reached that point yet?
6:41
Eric Dickmann: Were you reading books?
6:42
Eric Dickmann: Were you going to conferences?
6:44
Eric Dickmann: Did you have a mentor?
6:45
Eric Dickmann: How were you expressing this dissatisfaction?
6:49
Merry Korn: I think this is what they mean by imposter syndrome.
6:52
Merry Korn: I looked good from the outside.
6:54
Merry Korn: Inside, it was just ripped up inside.
6:57
Merry Korn: And I read all kinds of books, and I did see a career coach, and I can't say enough about career coaches.
7:03
Merry Korn: The career coaches I saw gave me a lot, a lot that was helpful.
7:09
Merry Korn: And the biggest thing it gave me was it taught me, based on all the testing, that I was meant to run a for-profit social enterprise.
7:18
Merry Korn: I, I knew what I was meant to do.
7:19
Merry Korn: I just didn't know how to get there until I was fired.
7:23
Merry Korn: So getting fired was the greatest gift in the world, and it didn't feel like it.
7:27
Merry Korn: And, um, I, I, I wanna share with you and, with your listeners that I wrote a book called Fired to Inspired, and it's all about the journey of finding out what I was finally meant to do.
7:41
Merry Korn: And I really was meant to start this for-profit social enterprise that hired people with the greatest barriers to work.
7:50
Merry Korn: So I started this company that was enormously successful.
7:54
Merry Korn: I grew it to 1,300 employees, and I sold it.
7:58
Merry Korn: And we hired disabled vets, people with disabilities.
8:02
Merry Korn: Uh, we hired military spouses and people living in, uh, the most impoverished parts of the country.
8:08
Merry Korn: I was meant to do that work, and I was meant to give good jobs to people that society has cast aside.
8:17
Eric Dickmann: I, I love that, but I'm not gonna let you get to the end of your story so quickly.
8:21
Eric Dickmann: Being fired, being fired is a big deal.
8:24
Eric Dickmann: And in that...
8:26
Eric Dickmann: So you're, you're seeing a career coach, you know you've got this lack of alignment, you're feeling like you're narrowing in on what you wanna do, and then bam-o, you get fired from your job.
8:39
Eric Dickmann: I mean, just walk me through that.
8:40
Eric Dickmann: How did you feel in that moment?
8:42
Merry Korn: Oh, well, what I did was, I had been at this, with the same company.
8:46
Merry Korn: I was one of the four founders.
8:48
Merry Korn: I couldn't do it anymore.
8:50
Merry Korn: I was brain dead.
8:51
Merry Korn: I felt like a zombie.
8:52
Merry Korn: So I took the first job that came along.
8:54
Merry Korn: Ne- for your listeners, never, never, ever, ever do that, ever.
9:00
Merry Korn: So I took a job I was totally not a fit for.
9:05
Merry Korn: Um, I'll just be upfront.
9:06
Merry Korn: I'm Jewish.
9:07
Merry Korn: It was a religious organization.
9:11
Merry Korn: Uh, one of the questions in my interview is how do you feel about saying prayers to Jesus before every meeting?
9:18
Merry Korn: As a Jew, um, and a single mother, my immediate response is I need to, I, I, I need to make a move.
9:25
Merry Korn: I need to make any move, just a move, and that's never, ever a way to plan your career trajectory.
9:32
Eric Dickmann: For sure
9:34
Merry Korn: So I lasted two months, and As a single mother, I did not know how I was gonna make ends meet.
9:40
Merry Korn: I didn't know if I'd live under a bridge.
9:42
Merry Korn: It was horrifying and terrifying and the scariest time of my life.
9:47
Eric Dickmann: I can believe that.
9:48
Merry Korn: in in, the depths of that despair, I built a career that was one of the great loves of my life.
9:56
Eric Dickmann: So talk about that whole process.
9:58
Eric Dickmann: So you're out after two months.
10:01
Eric Dickmann: Now you- you've got some clarity, it sounds like, about what your passion might be and what you would like to build as a, as an entrepreneur, but you also have a limited runway, right?
10:13
Eric Dickmann: A single mom, two kids.
10:16
Eric Dickmann: You've gotta get some income coming in here.
10:18
Eric Dickmann: How do you decide to go from that moment to start to build something?
10:22
Eric Dickmann: 'Cause building takes time.
10:25
Merry Korn: I couldn't find a job.
10:27
Merry Korn: I couldn't relocate my kids, they were in high school.
10:31
Merry Korn: And, um, so I did a couple things.
10:34
Merry Korn: Uh, and this is gonna be a little woo woo, Eric, and if you're not suited for it, we don't have to
10:39
Eric Dickmann: Br- bring on the woo-woo.
10:41
Eric Dickmann: Let's go
10:42
Merry Korn: Okay, so a week after I was fired, I walked through an alley.
10:47
Merry Korn: And I love that alley'cause it's very peaceful and pretty with flowers and a very private time.
10:56
Merry Korn: And I was praying, and I said,"Okay, God" And, and I'm not, not proselytizing.
11:01
Merry Korn: S- so I prayed to this divine presence and I said,"You gotta help me here'cause I am so lost.
11:09
Merry Korn: I don't, I, I, I don't know what to do.
11:12
Merry Korn: You gotta tell me what-- Just tell me what to do, and I'll make a deal with you.
11:16
Merry Korn: If you tell me what to do, I promise I will dedicate my life to paying it forward," and I did.
11:23
Merry Korn: And so about 10 minutes into this walk, I heard, I heard a voice, and the voice said two words, and they made no sense.
11:34
Merry Korn: The voice said,"Medical associations." And I'm like,"What?" And the voice said,"Medical associations." And I thought,"I'm not gonna question it." I immediately went home and made a list of all the CEOs of medical associations in the state of Ohio, which I'm based out of Columbus.
11:57
Merry Korn: And I started having-- This is what my career touch-- uh, coach taught me, is how to do informational interviews.
12:04
Merry Korn: And it's a far more, uh...
12:07
Merry Korn: It, it's appro- an approach to finding a job or career or starting a business that gives you much more agency,'cause you're not waiting for, uh, a job posting.
12:20
Merry Korn: So I made outbound calls.
12:23
Merry Korn: Uh, but first I asked friends who knew whom, so that when I left messages, I would say,"My friend George suggested I call-" Or I used a warm lead, and my script was very simple.
12:35
Merry Korn: "Hi, I have 20 years of marketing, sales, and healthcare experience.
12:40
Merry Korn: I just wanna meet with you to understand how do I transition my skills into your field?" After six weeks, one of the CEOs said,"I don't have a job, but we need, we need someone to raise money, and we will give you a, um, we will give you a retainer, and we'll pay you commission." And that's how my business started, and for the first seven years, I started hiring people and, uh, to, to raise money.
13:12
Merry Korn: But what I discovered is that if I worked with people who had severe disabilities, they stayed with me, and they had a much greater work ethic.
13:21
Merry Korn: So I started hiring people who were blind, paraplegic, quadriplegic, people who had severe disabilities.
13:28
Merry Korn: The average time they had been unemployed was at least seven years.
13:33
Merry Korn: And I put them to work, and they stayed, and they were incredibly successful.
13:40
Merry Korn: And they were so successful that word got out with the Rehab Services Commission, and without looking at...
13:46
Merry Korn: And this is like that woo woo, that tap, this divine tap on the shoulder.
13:52
Merry Korn: I was asked if I wanted an$80,000 grant.
13:56
Merry Korn: I wouldn't get the money, but the state would spend the money any way they could to help me grow the business.
14:02
Merry Korn: They wanted me to keep hiring people with severe disabilities.
14:08
Merry Korn: So I found my heart.
14:10
Merry Korn: I found my passion.
14:13
Merry Korn: I hired this one man who was a quadriplegic veteran.
14:17
Merry Korn: He came back from Vietnam fine.
14:20
Merry Korn: He fell.
14:20
Merry Korn: He came...
14:21
Merry Korn: He was fine.
14:22
Merry Korn: He was a former plant manager.
14:24
Merry Korn: He fell off a rooftop, broke his back, and hadn't worked in 29 years.
14:29
Merry Korn: He wanted to work so badly that on days he was too sick to get out of bed, we had a rehab engineer create a, uh, hospital table over his bed so he could work from his bed making outbound calls.
14:47
Merry Korn: So I decided, uh, uh, that...
14:50
Merry Korn: What I discovered with the association sponsorships was it was, uh, episodic,'cause once we raised the money, I had to put people in the field.
15:01
Eric Dickmann: Mm-hmm.
15:02
Merry Korn: So I decided to go for government contracts because government contracts can be very large and long-term.
15:11
Merry Korn: And so without...
15:11
Merry Korn: And, and by the way, your listeners, you don't have to know what you're doing because, uh, I never knew what I was doing.
15:17
Merry Korn: I just, just jump in the pool and swim.
15:21
Eric Dickmann: Yeah, that's very interesting because what I hear is that you knew that you wanted to do something.
15:26
Eric Dickmann: You knew that you wanted to help people.
15:29
Eric Dickmann: It didn't magically start one day.
15:31
Eric Dickmann: It was through a process of outreach, and then one opportunity leads to another opportunity.
15:37
Eric Dickmann: You learn something along the way.
15:39
Eric Dickmann: That becomes another opportunity that you can leverage, and all of a sudden, you're creating a business that not only sustains you, but has a real impact on the, on people in almost unexpected ways.
15:55
Eric Dickmann: Yeah, that had to be tremendously fulfilling.
15:57
Merry Korn: It, it was the work of my lifetime.
16:00
Merry Korn: I grew the business twenty years and sold it two years ago.
16:05
Eric Dickmann: Hmm.
16:06
Eric Dickmann: Was that hard to do, to leave it?
16:09
Merry Korn: I, I wanted it to go to somebody who had the youth to maybe make the whole concept go global.
16:18
Merry Korn: That was my overall vision.
16:20
Merry Korn: But once you sell your baby, you have no, you have no say of what happens.
16:25
Eric Dickmann: Hmm.
16:26
Eric Dickmann: So that was kind of a second chapter for you, and now you're in a third chapter.
16:31
Eric Dickmann: So talk about, what do you do after you put your heart and soul into a business, sell it, and then all of a sudden say,"Okay, now what?"
16:39
Merry Korn: I knew that my next calling was to talk about my journey and be a beacon of light to your listeners who want to start a business, who want to do work that they're aligned with, that aligns with their interests, with their values.
16:55
Merry Korn: I, I feel I want to be a beacon of light.
16:59
Merry Korn: I-- Eric, if you and I touch one person, we've accomplished something major.
17:04
Eric Dickmann: Mm-hmm.
17:05
Eric Dickmann: I agree with that.
17:07
Eric Dickmann: And I know that you wrote a book.
17:08
Eric Dickmann: Was that book something that you had been working on throughout the time in the business, or was that a project that you started once the business had been sold?
17:17
Merry Korn: Uh, I've been working on it for four years, and it's just about to go into the publisher hopefully next week.
17:24
Eric Dickmann: That's really exciting.
17:25
Eric Dickmann: That's gotta be a real sense of fulfillment to have that done.
17:28
Merry Korn: Well, the other thing is, is I don't know how to publish a book.
17:31
Merry Korn: I don't know how to market a book.
17:33
Merry Korn: I'm figuring it out.
17:35
Eric Dickmann: Mm-hmm.
17:36
Eric Dickmann: What did you learn about yourself, uh, when you wrote it?
17:40
Merry Korn: It's very hard.
17:41
Merry Korn: It's a very isolating experience, and I keep wanting to write a really, really good book.
17:49
Merry Korn: And you're in marketing, and your background...
17:52
Merry Korn: I, I-- When I looked at your LinkedIn, you've been a CMO for a good part of your life.
17:59
Merry Korn: You always want to write the best marketing script,
18:02
Eric Dickmann: That's right.
18:04
Merry Korn: and I always thought I wasn't a bad writer, but I've never read a best-selling book.
18:08
Eric Dickmann: Hmm.
18:08
Merry Korn: It's a different type of writing.
18:10
Eric Dickmann: For sure.
18:12
Eric Dickmann: And it's also, uh, a vulnerable position to be in, right?
18:15
Eric Dickmann: Because you have to share some very deeply personal things to make a good book.
18:20
Merry Korn: Yes.
18:22
Merry Korn: Yeah.
18:23
Eric Dickmann: So you've written the book, or you're writing the book.
18:26
Eric Dickmann: It's going to be published, and then how are you spending your time?
18:29
Eric Dickmann: You're speaking.
18:30
Eric Dickmann: You're, you're helping others.
18:32
Eric Dickmann: How are you getting the word out on your message?
18:35
Merry Korn: I'm doing these podcasts, I'm speaking.
18:39
Merry Korn: I'm gonna become much more aggressive in the marketing once it's done.
18:43
Merry Korn: It helps to have the book published.
18:45
Merry Korn: It's not published yet, but I'm gonna be doing a lot of pre-marketing of the book to just get the word out.
18:52
Eric Dickmann: Hmm.
18:53
Eric Dickmann: Do you find it different, you've been in this business where you talked about going to get government contracts and grants and things.
19:00
Eric Dickmann: So you're selling a business.
19:01
Eric Dickmann: You're selling a service.
19:03
Eric Dickmann: Do you find it very different when you're selling yourself?
19:06
Merry Korn: Yeah.
19:07
Merry Korn: I used to be really gun-shy about social media and liked being under the radar.
19:13
Merry Korn: And when you're marketing yourself...
19:16
Merry Korn: I mean, I actually had somebody say,"You're annoying me.
19:19
Merry Korn: Your, your posts are coming up all the time." And I'm like,"So just delete me." But if you're-- everybody has an opinion about how you show up on social media.
19:29
Merry Korn: And I just decided, uh, that's just one fear I'm just happy to deal with.
19:35
Merry Korn: People will either like my social media or they won't.
19:38
Merry Korn: But, uh, a-and I'm speaking to a marketing professional.
19:42
Merry Korn: If you wanna market your book, it's all about your following.
19:45
Merry Korn: And how else are you gonna build your following on social media unless you constantly are at it and building traction?
19:52
Eric Dickmann: Yes.
19:54
Eric Dickmann: Do you f-- One of the things that when I talk to guests, especially when they're at a similar stage of life to what you're describing, is that they've gone from a very hectic career world where you start your day off with emails in the morning, meetings, you know, sometimes work carries throughout the day even into the evening, to then changing your profession to something where you are more marketing yourself.
20:19
Eric Dickmann: And all of a sudden there are all these free slots in your day where you're working at a much more leisurely pace.
20:25
Eric Dickmann: You own your life a little bit more.
20:27
Eric Dickmann: How have you adjusted to the craziness of owning a business and having to deal with employees to now your time is your own?
20:36
Merry Korn: used to being like the hamster up the hamster wheel.
20:50
Eric Dickmann: Yeah.
20:51
Merry Korn: it's just become a way of life.
20:53
Merry Korn: It's something I have to work on.
20:55
Eric Dickmann: Yeah.
20:56
Eric Dickmann: That's a drastic change, especially when your days are now consumed with social media posts and interviews and speaking and writing and that.
21:03
Eric Dickmann: But it's a different pace, for sure.
21:05
Eric Dickmann: So looking out, what do you see as the evolution of this next chapter over the next couple of years?
21:11
Eric Dickmann: Are you gonna write a sequel to the book?
21:13
Eric Dickmann: Hmm.
21:14
Merry Korn: I was meant to write this book.
21:15
Merry Korn: I think I have another book.
21:17
Merry Korn: Uh, and Eric, this is a whole part of my history.
21:21
Merry Korn: Uh, my, my journey had so much to do with my mother, who was a Holocaust survivor.
21:29
Merry Korn: A- And she was the one who stared down Nazis, escaped from the death march.
21:36
Merry Korn: I feel like I have a lot more work to do related to my mother's story as a Holocaust survivor, which means going to Poland.
21:48
Merry Korn: I wanna see the town she grew up in.
21:50
Merry Korn: I wanna go to the concentration camp she went to.
21:54
Merry Korn: I feel like my life has been riddled with unknowns, and I feel like that's the next book that I've got coming.
22:02
Merry Korn: It'll be a very different book.
22:04
Eric Dickmann: A very different book for sure.
22:05
Eric Dickmann: A deeply personal book.
22:06
Eric Dickmann: Well, I think it's fascinating, and I just love the fact that you were able to turn something into something so meaningful and help so many people along the way.
22:16
Eric Dickmann: That had to be incredibly fulfilling for you after what must have been a painful experience, getting fired from a job.
22:23
Eric Dickmann: This is just the kind of story of reinvention that I love to talk about.
22:27
Eric Dickmann: Mary, where can people find out more about you, more about this upcoming book, online?
22:32
Merry Korn: Uh, my website, www.firedtoinspired.com.
22:37
Merry Korn: Or go to my LinkedIn, Mary Korn.
22:40
Merry Korn: M-E-R-Y K-O-R-N.
22:44
Eric Dickmann: Mary, this has been great.
22:45
Eric Dickmann: I've really enjoyed our conversation today, and I appreciate you taking the time to talk to our listeners.
22:50
Merry Korn: Thank you.
22:50
Merry Korn: Thank you, Eric
22:52
Eric Dickmann: Thanks for listening to Beyond Expertise.
22:54
Eric Dickmann: You can find show notes, resources, and links mentioned during this episode at podcast.ericdickman.com.
23:03
Eric Dickmann: If this conversation resonated with you, I hope you'll join me again next time as we continue exploring what it means to reinvent ourselves beyond our careers, titles, and expertise.