Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Revolutionizing Staffing Through Purpose: Maria O'Connell's Vision | Staffing Series

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Revolutionizing Staffing Through Purpose: Maria O'Connell's Vision | Staffing Series · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of Inspired Stories, where leaders
0:07
share their experiences so we can learn from their successes,
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how they've overcome adversity, and explore current challenges
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they're facing. Welcome to another edition of
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the Inspired Stories podcast, where leaders share their
0:20
experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired
0:24
by how they've overcome adversity.
0:26
My name is Anthony Kotaspodi, and today's guest is Maria
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O'Connell, owner of Express Employment Professionals in
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Chester County, Pennsylvania. She and her team partner with a
0:36
variety of businesses of all sizes across many industries,
0:40
providing a full range of staffing services to help ensure
0:44
clients maximum flexibility and cost savings.
0:47
Maria helps leaders transform employees into raving fans by
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designing and delivering an employee experience built on
0:54
culture, learning, community and communication.
0:58
She has a track record of bringing teams together and
1:00
ideas to life across multiple countries.
1:03
She has been with the Express Employment Professionals family
1:06
for nine years where they leverage technology to ensure
1:09
optimal matches between employees and employers.
1:13
Additionally, they offer on boarding services and coaching
1:16
to enhance the readiness of job seekers.
1:19
And Maria has started another business called People Excel
1:22
Solutions where she works with people on training and
1:26
communication skills to help drive their own X Factor to
1:29
differentiate themselves to employers.
1:32
It also helps companies to plan and develop their strategy for
1:36
the workforce of the future. Maria has a bachelor's degree in
1:39
accounting from the Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, a
1:43
Masters in Education from Penn State University, and an MBA
1:47
from the New York Institute of Technology.
1:49
Now before we get into all that good stuff, today's episode is
1:52
brought to you by my company, Add Back Benefits Agency, where
1:56
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2:21
Now back to our guest today, Maria O'Connell.
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Thanks for making the time to Share your story today.
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Thanks for having me. So, Maria, let's go back a
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little bit and tell us how you first got started in the
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staffing space to begin with. So I had an opportunity about
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nine years ago to make a change for something that I really
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wanted to do as a business owner.
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And well, I had never really done staffing in this capacity
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before. You know, when you're leading
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teams and you're hiring and recruiting and all the things,
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you know that the people side of the business is really critical.
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And so I, I was looking for an opportunity.
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I met a franchise Rep with Express Employment and the
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mission with Express was really aligned with what I was trying
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to accomplish. I wanted to launch into
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something that absolutely had a community impact that we could
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drive a mission to really make a difference.
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And I'll go on record saying that I think workforce
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development is economic development.
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And if people can have a good job and they can feel supported
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and get into, you know, a place where they can grow and learn,
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then I think people are different in the way they think
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about themselves and the way that they are able to take care
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of themselves and their families.
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And so it was important to me to have that as part of what I was
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going to launch into. And then I really do think one
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of the areas that my team and I bring is we help people really
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understand where they are and and help them transition their
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skills into what they want to become.
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And you'll hear me say that a lot when I'm coaching people is,
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you know, your resume tells me what you did and what your
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experience is, but it doesn't tell me what you want to become.
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And so I think our team really spends a lot of time helping
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people really just understand where their strengths are and
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what it is that they would like to do.
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So I said yes to Express and Express is a franchise, very
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large franchise when it comes to staffing across the United
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States and Canada. And I really have been very
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supported by the system and I appreciated that not I didn't
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have to start from scratch. So being part of a staffing
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company is definitely with its challenges.
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It's also got its rewards, but we can talk about that later.
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Well, let's let's go ahead. Like what are some of the big
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challenges that you run into with a staffing?
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Agency. So I mean, really when you are
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working with people, you can guarantee your system, but there
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is absolutely no way you're guaranteeing people.
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And you know what you think you're going to get, you might
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not always get. And I think that's probably for
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me been one of the most challenging things because your
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work ethic and the way that you show up is definitely not the
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way that everybody else shows up.
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And so you really have to become very comfortable with
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differences. And you know, patience is not my
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strong suit. I'll go, I'll go as far as to
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say that, but I have grown and you know, instead of getting
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like I'd give my second, I'd give myself 5 seconds to be mad.
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And, and the rest of my team, by the way, we have kind of that
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golden rule. After 5 seconds, we've got to
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figure out like, OK, we're here, where are we going next?
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So I think that's one of the big challenges is you really can't
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guarantee people you don't know if they're going to go, they
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don't know if they're going to show up.
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You just don't know. And then on the client side, I
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think it's really tricky because clients call us typically when
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they have a gap and they've tried other things that haven't
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worked and now they're kind of into their timeline.
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And so the pressure is on us to really be able to turn things
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around quicker then, you know, we might be able to do that.
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So it's, it's really balancing everything in, in a way that,
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you know, we can interview people, we can build benches, we
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can do all those things. But I, I always really need to
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say to myself and I really kind of asked my team to really
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consider is it an expense or is it an investment because we can
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do a lot of activities and never place the person or help the
6:48
company. And so those become expenses
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that we never recoup. So it's a challenging business
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because there's a lot that's impacting it not only on the
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individual side, but on the company side.
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And then wrap around the labor market, the economy, the
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uncertainties, you know, whenever there's risk, whenever
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there's a big storm, you know what I mean?
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There's a lot of uncertainties that play into it.
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So that, you know, that is really the challenge and it it
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is something that, you know, you have to learn to discern how,
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how to make your way through it. But also, like, how bad is it
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really? Like, you know, not everything
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can be catastrophic. And you really get to, you know,
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do that discernment at a different level when you're
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working in staffing. So you mentioned a couple of
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things there. I went unpack a little bit.
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Yeah. I imagine it has to be
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incredibly frustrating that you have found the employee, you've
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developed a relationship with the employer, you've matched
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them together, you've done your job really well.
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And then, right, you can't, you can't make that person go to
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work. You can't put a gun to their
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head and make sure that they show up every day on time and,
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you know, do what it is that they agreed to do and what they
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were hired to do. And but it reflects badly on
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you, right? It's like, hey, you know, Maria,
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you sent us this employee. They're not working out it.
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It puts you in a rough spot, I have to imagine.
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It it does, but at the same time it does it because I always set
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up a partnership with clients with pretty much the same
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discussion. Like I can guarantee my service,
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but I cannot guarantee people. You know, we do our due
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diligence. We go through a very extensive
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interviewing process. We do our credentialing.
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We do all the things that we say we're going to do.
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And, and you know, really sometimes the person gets there
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and they're not really excited about being at the job that
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they're on. For some reason, the connection
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isn't there. We, we try and set things up
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ahead of time so that people can meet, they get a tour.
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They really kind of say yes to something they have a lot of
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information about. We, we are very transparent.
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Like I don't think it helps anybody to keep secrets when it
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comes to what's the environment like?
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Hey, it's cold and wet here. How do you feel about that?
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You know, it's, it's really hot in here or you know, this
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client's really under a lot of pressure.
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How do you feel about that? Or this is a pretty laid back
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environment. You know, it's not as
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action-packed as some other positions might be.
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Like we really try and help out. And I always tell our clients,
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we become your best marketeer. Like I need to know why someone
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would say yes to coming to help drive your mission and join your
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community of, you know, your other employees.
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And sometimes that's not easy for clients to articulate.
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So we do have to work on that with them too.
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Because, you know, I will tell you things have changed in the
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nine years that I have been doing staffing.
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When I sit down with an associate who is a potential
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candidate, they don't necessarily start with, you
10:06
know, what are the hours, what are the pay, all the logistics,
10:09
all that transactional stuff. That's what I would think would
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come up first. Yeah, no, I mean, certainly we
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get to that, but they're like, OK, tell me about this company.
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Have you placed anyone else there?
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How do they like working there? Why would I want to work there?
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What's in the position? How can I learn in that
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position? What are the managers really
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interested that are part of the organization so much so that
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they want to even know, you know, where are their social
10:37
commitments? Where do they volunteer?
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Where do they donate? People want to be connected to
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something bigger than themselves.
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The days of trading time for money, let's face it, nobody
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really wants to work. So, you know, that's now that
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we've had gone through the whole thing in 2020 and all that stuff
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that's really become pretty status quo, like nobody's
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trading time for money anymore. And even if you are desperate
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and need a job, I still got to tell you, people don't just
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stick it out just because they can make money.
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And so that's really kind of been enlightening for me over
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the past three or four years because talking about
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challenges, our best year was 2019 and we were positioned to
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really kind of take it to the next level.
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And since 2020 and all the events that happened there,
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we've been really kind of trying to get back to where we left
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2019. And not for lack of trying,
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that's for sure. It's just been one thing after
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another when it comes to, you know, being able to find the
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clients, being able to find the people, really looking at a
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labor market that doesn't have enough people in it.
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There's just simply not enough people.
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If we have, for example, if we have 5 million jobs, there's
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never going to be 5 million jobs, 5 million people to fill
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those jobs. Even if we had three million
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people to fill those jobs, they wouldn't be the right people.
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So it's like you literally have to have people change seats
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because there's just not enough people in the talent and the
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skill that you need. So that draws a real creative
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strategy. And then if you look at the way
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that the job boards have become so inundated, some clients could
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post a job and get thousands and thousands of responses to that
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job. It's like getting none because
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what are you going to do with that, right?
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You really can't do much with that.
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I when I was just working with a client and this week and I said,
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you know, it's really not for the light hearted.
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You used to be able to have managers that had recruiting and
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interviewing and all those responsibilities as an and but
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this is really like a 24 by 7 operation because it's not a let
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me post a job. Let me get all you know, these
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resumes and let me go through it and pick one.
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You have to build relationships with people now and get them to
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be even interested in your company, especially for skills
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that are in high demand. So I, I think it's easier for us
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as a staffing partner to go talk to competitors people than it is
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for you to be able to do that on your own.
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I mean, there's just some kind of a play on integrity there
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about, you know, because you don't want somebody poaching
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your team as much as, you know, that's the way things are
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happening these days. But I, I think that, you know,
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realistically, the challenges usually are outweighed.
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And I say usually, but I, I really lean towards that they
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are when I have a, an associate that comes into my office that's
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in a bad way, you know, chin down, just not knowing where to
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go next, kind of get them reoriented because it can't put
14:09
somebody to work who's that way. That just doesn't usually ever
14:12
work out. So you kind of get to know them,
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give them a little more confidence, get them on the job.
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Most of our jobs are contract to hire or direct hire.
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So get them on a job, help them on the job, get kind of started
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and keep them going. And they get hired on by the
14:29
client. And then you see them six
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months, a year later, and they walk in the office, shoulders
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back, chin up, you know, just looking well and taking care of
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their family. And, you know, I always say to
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my husband, if I, if we've done that for just one person, then
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it's been worth the journey. And but, you know, it's been
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many, many cases of that. We put millions and millions of
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dollars of paychecks into hands of Chester County residents and
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work with well over 500 clients. So it's a it's, it's a neat way
15:02
to really become an advocate, run a for profit business, be
15:08
part of a bigger mission, but more importantly, man it when
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you see the impact of workforce and the, the, the impact of
15:17
someone having a job and having the confidence to be able to do
15:21
that. And that's a game changer right
15:22
there. That's a good feeling, huh?
15:23
That's a game changer. So you mentioned, you know,
15:27
there's a tight labor market, you know, and, and you've got A2
15:31
sided sales process, right? You've got to sell, you've got
15:33
to, you know, find the employer that's looking for workers and
15:37
then you've got to find the workers to match up with them.
15:39
And with a tight labor market, it's even harder to make all of
15:43
that work. What have you found to be the
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most effective strategies to recruit somebody in and then
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when you've got somebody good, to retain them?
15:55
Yeah. So I think there's a lot that
16:00
goes with the partnership with the clients that you're working
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with. And the reason I say that is
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there's going to be times where you have to have conversations
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about, you know, here's what you desire in a candidate, here's
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what is really available in a candidate pool.
16:22
What is it that you feel you could grow someone into or that,
16:28
you know, really isn't necessarily something that you
16:32
need to have today? And if you don't have a
16:35
relationship with clients to be able to do that, then you're
16:38
kind of stuck. So we really on the client side
16:43
trying to act, to behave as an extension of their team.
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And it takes a little bit more effort on our part, but we're
16:49
not just like, oh, I need 6 people.
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That's not what my team does. So we really try and kind of get
16:56
to know the client. And then on the late on the
16:59
associate's side for the job seeker, one of my favorite
17:04
questions after you get to know somebody is you kind of say,
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tell me about your current situation.
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But then I really love to know like what are you running from
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and what are you running to? And that really gives me a great
17:17
way to see what they're motivated in doing and what
17:23
their appetite for change is. I prefer not to work with people
17:28
who are completely desperate, hate where they're working, and
17:30
have all these bad things going on because you can only fake so
17:34
much sincerity. So they bring that with them
17:37
into these other conversations. But I think the thing about the
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tight labor market is really being clear about what your
17:46
needs are and when they are. And the best clients for us are
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the ones that work with us strategically.
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So we know where they're going to need people and what people
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they're going to need. Gives us a little more time to
18:00
be able to start to, to ramp that up for them.
18:04
You know, even more so if the positions that they're looking
18:08
for are in, you know, rare, like people that have certain
18:12
licenses in healthcare in even in customer service, people who
18:18
have high machining skills or CNC skills, welding, you know,
18:23
those kinds of technical skilled trades.
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So the more technical and the more you need to be able to hit
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the ground running, the more time we're going to need to be
18:35
able to track that person down. You've mentioned a couple of
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times, you know, that you really enjoy being able to help and
18:43
steer people toward what it is that they want to do.
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Your resume shows me what you've done.
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Where do you want to go? How do you help people with that
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process? So I think one of the things
18:55
that's magical about working with someone is really asking
18:59
them where do they find joy in their work.
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Now, we all have to do things that frustrate us in our work,
19:07
but where do you find joy in your work?
19:09
Where is the thing that really lights you up with?
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And you do it with ease. And, you know, you kind of start
19:16
talking about that and, you know, give me a story about why
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you think that. And then you could start to feel
19:23
their energy and kind of see that, well, just because
19:26
someone's done something in one industry, they don't really know
19:33
what's happening in other industries like we do that their
19:36
skills could transfer into. So for example, a big one is
19:39
customer service. Everyone who's ever interacted
19:43
with any kind of a buyer, you know, in sales or any kind of
19:48
way has some level of customer service.
19:51
But their levels of customer service are different based on
19:55
the amount of stress they like to have in their work.
19:58
Like someone who does receiving calls on a customer service line
20:03
may not be really great or comfortable doing outbound sales
20:07
costs. So it's really just a matter of
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listening to their stories and really trying to hone in on what
20:13
lights them up, what brings them joy.
20:16
And I think that's really one of the ways to cross walk it.
20:20
But we are fortunate because we have lots of jobs.
20:25
And we could see what the requirements of those jobs are,
20:29
and we could stack them against each other.
20:31
And so when you work with us as a staffing partner, you're not
20:36
doing this blindly because we already know the client and we
20:38
already know what they're looking for.
20:40
So if you've got a great personality and are just, you
20:43
know, new in something, but you have this very big desire to
20:47
learn, well, we know what clients are looking for, people
20:49
they can train and want to be part of the team for lunch, you
20:52
know what I mean? So we can kind of stack the
20:54
deck. I was wondering where that
20:55
training would come from. Sounds like a lot of times it
20:57
comes right from the the employer itself.
20:59
Oh, it definitely does. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
21:02
So that that's pretty much how we do it.
21:03
I mean, it's a conversation. You mentioned before that you
21:08
know people can put up a job post and maybe get hundreds or
21:11
even thousands of responses back, which is just incredible.
21:17
Almost incredulous. What?
21:21
How could somebody even begin to parse through so much
21:24
information to figure out who they even want to talk to?
21:28
So there, some of the some of the job boards do have questions
21:32
that you can prompt before someone is actually, you know,
21:36
sent over to you. But I think you really get, you
21:40
know, you kind of get a chance to say to yourself, I got to
21:47
start to really differentiate my job posting and really make it
21:52
clear, like a lot of times people apply for positions that
21:56
they're really not qualified for.
21:58
And so you, you don't, you don't have time to look through
22:02
hundreds of resumes that you, you simply don't.
22:05
And you know, I think the job boards are not really as
22:08
effective as they used to be to be.
22:10
And, and most times associates and job seekers don't even know
22:15
where their resume has gone. They may put it somewhere, but
22:18
then it gets posted in a whole other way.
22:20
And other, and you know, other job boards get picked up because
22:23
there's some aggregation that's happening behind the scenes.
22:27
So, so you know, I might call someone and say, Hey, I saw your
22:30
resume on career builder. It looks like the skills you
22:32
have are something one of my clients is interested in and
22:35
they're like, I didn't put my resume on career builder.
22:38
And so then you have to kind of make sure they they think they
22:42
don't think you're like scamming them or something, but.
22:45
Because they'll post it to one site and then there are bots
22:48
that go around and scrape them and post them to other sites.
22:50
Yeah. So.
22:51
So to answer your question though, it's not easy.
22:54
And I think a lot of times you start down that path and you
22:59
realize how much effort it's going to take you and how much
23:02
time. So that's one of the things that
23:04
we do is like if we have 100 resumes and you want us to go
23:07
through them for you, send them over to us or let us know how to
23:11
get them for you. Because, you know, let us kind
23:14
of put them in a way that you can at least get a few good
23:17
candidates out of that because the investment to post these
23:19
jobs is not cheap. And so are you able to leverage
23:24
some kind of technology to help look through those and and
23:28
prioritize them or filter? Through them depends on what
23:31
kind of role it is and it depends how how many there are
23:38
really. So the tools that we use, I
23:42
think we don't, we don't necessarily get hundreds and
23:46
hundreds against one job because we're constantly changing it and
23:51
tweaking the job when it's out there.
23:53
So like if I post a job and I don't get what I'm looking for,
23:57
then I'm tweaking that to see what I can do to, to get
24:00
different interest. So we manage them regularly.
24:04
Like we manage those posts regularly.
24:07
If you just, and if you're doing one of the jobs that, you know,
24:12
you've got to come into the office or you've got to come
24:13
into the building, then you're only going to take people that
24:16
are within a certain driving distance, right.
24:19
But if you do a work at home position, that could be anywhere
24:22
in the world, yeah. You're going to get a lot more
24:26
applicants, especially with a lot of people still enjoying the
24:31
work from home thing and a lot of companies going back to, you
24:34
know, return to office policies. So those those positions be very
24:38
desirable. What Maria, what kinds of
24:41
industries do you specialize in? So I'd like to say that, you
24:46
know, we really are full circle and we we really kind of work
24:49
with a lot of different industries.
24:51
I have found that the, the manufacturing and skilled trade
24:57
area, we spent quite a few years building a lot of relationships
25:01
with those clients. And that's just so fascinating
25:05
to me because, you know, working in software for most of my life,
25:09
actually seeing like tangible products and how things work and
25:13
all that kind of stuff, that's been really, really a lot of
25:17
fun. So we do, we do work in industry
25:21
and you know, there's a lot of staffing companies that won't
25:24
work in industry. It's probably one of the most
25:27
frustrating parts of staffing is in industry.
25:32
But I will say, you could put people in jobs that wouldn't
25:38
necessarily be able to get them on their own.
25:40
And I think that that's important to me.
25:42
So, you know, it kind of managed the frustrating parts of that.
25:46
But that's really a lot of fun because we can get everything
25:48
from general labor up to skilled trade to supply chain management
25:52
to, you know, all the supervisor roles and really just helping
25:57
that whole production. And that's really a lot of fun.
26:00
We do work also in, you know, human resources.
26:05
We've worked with it in the accounting space.
26:08
The one area, oddly enough, that I don't do a lot of work in is
26:11
technology, and that's where my background is.
26:14
I don't know why that happened that way, but.
26:17
That's just kind of how it's played out.
26:19
Yeah, it just really didn't come in into play.
26:22
I do have some work in healthcare, which I'm, I'm
26:25
growing and I'm interested in that because it's a, it's a
26:29
tough labor market on the healthcare side.
26:32
And there's a lot of clients that really don't just need
26:34
people, they need strategy and they need a way to keep the
26:38
people in their organization once they found them and, and
26:41
they're up and running. And so I really would love to be
26:44
able to see what I can do and help in that space.
26:47
Is that where part of the motivation to start People Excel
26:50
solutions came from? Definitely.
26:53
I think we could get a candidate that meets all of the
26:57
description, all of the job description and then put them in
27:02
an organization that isn't ready to receive them or the
27:07
leadership isn't really able to manage the change, whether or
27:12
not it's good change or challenging change is change and
27:17
it always becomes a disruptor. And so you have to manage to
27:20
that. And then also, you know, I think
27:24
there's an expectation if a person sometimes if they come
27:27
from a staffing partner that they, they don't have that they
27:32
don't need to be coached up or integrated or whatever.
27:34
I mean that they're, they're hitting the ground running in a
27:36
different way. And while we try and set people
27:39
up for success, there's still an integration and still an
27:43
onboarding process that's needed.
27:45
And so, you know, I've, I've been seeing that trying to
27:50
convince people to move into a different organization.
27:53
So my best candidates are those passive job seekers.
27:56
It's the people that are, they're OK, they could stay, but
28:02
if something else came up, they would really be interested.
28:04
And that is like the perfect job seeker for me.
28:07
That's that passive candidate, you know, that takes a
28:12
conversation and a relationship. That's not a OK, they're not
28:16
applying for jobs, they're not going to job fairs.
28:18
I mean, they're, you know, the cat's out of the bag when you do
28:20
that. So that's not happening.
28:22
So it takes that relationship and.
28:26
So how are you first getting connected with somebody like
28:28
that? Yeah, we work really hard at
28:30
that. We do in person networking
28:32
events. We're always out on LinkedIn.
28:34
We use sales Navigator, you know, we look at resumes just
28:39
trying to get relationships. We, we talk to people and ask
28:42
them if they know anybody else. You know, it's like takes a lot
28:46
of effort to have those conversations.
28:49
So it's, it's, it's kind of the way to find success though,
28:56
because if you find someone who's working and you have them
29:02
married to another company that gives them a different
29:06
opportunity and that may not even be money.
29:09
And they say, yes, they're likely to move and be
29:12
successful. And so, you know, you really,
29:16
you really have to look at that. The sad part about it is, you
29:21
know, north of 60% of people leave companies because of the
29:25
culture. And so that makes me really, you
29:29
know, motivated to help companies with topics like
29:33
leadership, readiness for change, you know, really
29:36
strengthening their employee value proposition, their talent
29:40
attraction strategies and then motivation and retention
29:42
strategies. And what that really means to
29:45
accompany today is is pretty important.
29:49
And you know, once you find somebody, you want to keep them
29:53
in your organization because the cost of finding someone new and
29:58
all the lost intellectual property and all that, if you
30:02
could keep good people in your organization, that's really the
30:06
game. So with the Express Pros
30:09
business, your fee is coming from the employer, correct?
30:13
Yes, yes. Now with People Excel Solutions,
30:17
is it the same or do the employees also pay for the
30:22
training and guidance that they're receiving?
30:24
So, so clients will still pay consulting fees to do workshops
30:29
and really do strategy sessions and do all that.
30:31
And then Messier Differentiators is a program that is for
30:35
individuals. It can be used as a leadership
30:38
program within an organization, but I also would love to be able
30:43
to work with individuals who want to raise their level of
30:47
consciousness and really kind of hone into their own X Factor so
30:53
that they can just have fun, more joy in their life.
30:55
And so that would be a program that's, you know, includes the
31:00
book, it's the coaching program. This will be group coaching.
31:03
There's online modules that go along with that.
31:06
And so that would be a paid program.
31:08
Where can people find this? Master your differentiator.
31:12
Yeah. So this this program is
31:14
launching now it's this book is in final edit.
31:18
So you'll be able to get the book online.
31:20
And I would say by the end of the year, this whole program
31:25
will be available. And one of the other very
31:29
exciting components to this is, I mean, some conversations to be
31:34
able to do a version of Master your differentiators for
31:38
students and Master your differentiators focuses on five
31:42
key areas, which I, I find that are the game changing areas if
31:49
you really want to level up. And there's so much about each
31:53
of these in, you can find so much content on each of these
31:58
topics. Building trust to succeed,
32:00
ensuring professionalism, communicating effectively,
32:04
asking great questions and knowing your body language.
32:07
This is a starter set. If you can really start to hone
32:10
in and make a difference and level up in those areas, you
32:14
will find that your interactions are better in the way that
32:19
you're perceived. Just asking questions in a way
32:22
that sets people up to be on the offense and not the defense.
32:25
You know, just really kind of that.
32:26
And so the conversations I'm having are with schools to see
32:31
if we can't start to integrate some of this content for Co-op
32:37
students because it would really give them such a leg up to be
32:43
able to even begin to think about these kinds of things.
32:47
A lot of times we focus on what we do, but this program, it
32:51
really kind of focuses on how we do it and not necessarily only
32:56
on what we do. And so that's pretty exciting
32:58
for me to be able to see. I think that would be a more of
33:01
a 2025 thing for us. But I think that, you know, when
33:08
I think about how I even care about this or why this is
33:12
important to me or what makes a difference in my life for this
33:15
is early on. I mean, like when I was, you
33:20
know, 3 to 13, I, I worked with a teacher and I took elocution
33:27
lessons. And it was, I mean, I didn't
33:31
know what I didn't know. But when I look back and I start
33:35
to think about what that really meant to me in my life, just
33:39
really understanding how to public speak, really
33:43
understanding how to manage your body language, just really
33:46
things that I didn't even know why they were important at that
33:50
time. And then I I have an executive
33:54
coach, Phil Johnson, who runs a program called Master of
33:59
Business Leadership. And it's all grounded in
34:02
emotional intelligence. And he had a post out on
34:06
LinkedIn and I didn't know him before this that said 95% of
34:10
people are walking around unconscious and acting and
34:15
behaving unconsciously. And I was like, oh, no, that,
34:19
that that's not me. I can't be that.
34:22
Well, I was like, so I, I phoned him and we got to talking and I
34:29
was like, no, I can't live my life unconsciously.
34:33
That's just not it. So what is so cool about Master
34:37
Differentiators is it's not about your past.
34:40
I'm not a therapist. So we're not going back there.
34:42
Whatever it is all about in the present and what we own and what
34:46
we control today and how we're going to use what we have right
34:50
here, right now to make a difference, to make an impact,
34:53
to find more joy in our life. And that is why I'm highly
34:56
motivated to bring this next business and these programs out
35:02
there because I think with the rate of change that we're
35:06
experiencing, with the rate of technology, with the integration
35:09
of AI, with all the things that we've lived through a lot of
35:13
technology, but these are different.
35:16
These are really different technologies.
35:18
I challenge myself to use them all the time because I'm a live
35:21
it and learn it kind of girl. But I think people are going to
35:25
be really challenged by some of these things.
35:26
And the more emotionally aware we can become, the better we are
35:31
to manage relationships, to manage the, the, the risk and
35:35
the conflict or whatever that comes ahead of us.
35:38
And I would, I had read a statistic.
35:42
I don't know where I had read it or who said it, but so it said
35:47
that we, we don't come into becoming our best emotionally
35:52
intelligent self till after age 60.
35:55
And I was reading that and I'm sorry, I don't remember I read
35:58
that. But I was like, Oh no, we've got
36:00
to get better at this. This can't be 60.
36:03
This has got to be 20. You know, 2025, something like
36:07
that. Because you really do find more
36:10
joy in your life if you can not be a certain way.
36:15
Yeah. And so that's what Master Your
36:18
Differentiator is all about. So how do you intend to promote
36:21
this and get the word out about it?
36:23
You've been working on the content for a while, sounds like
36:26
18 months or more, a couple more months maybe until it launches.
36:30
So it's got to be some really good stuff.
36:32
How do you generate interest? Yeah.
36:35
So I have a couple opportunities to speak and kind of get out
36:39
there and introduce it. There are a lot of people that
36:45
are waiting to kind of get in on it.
36:48
And I've been building this content for probably the past
36:53
four months. The business consulting piece
36:56
has been going on going for for longer than that.
36:58
But I'm going to do definitely do some master classes.
37:04
I want to offer it to certain cohorts, kind of get some groups
37:09
together. One of the things that is
37:11
different about this is these skills are not academic skills.
37:16
They have to be practiced. You have to interact with
37:19
somebody else. This is not going to work if you
37:23
just read the book, right? So in the book, I actually
37:26
created this as more like a playbook.
37:28
So there are very actionable things that you can try in your
37:32
very next conversation that will help you bring more emotional
37:37
intelligence into your life. Can you give us a sneak peek?
37:40
What would one of those be? Yeah.
37:42
So let me just, so one of the things that communicating
37:47
effectively that I really wanted to bring into everyone's
37:53
wheelhouse was everybody talks about developing your elevator
37:58
speech. And a lot of times people are
38:01
really put off by that because they think, oh, I'm going to
38:04
have to stand in front of a room and talk about myself, and
38:06
that's going to be my elevator speech.
38:09
Rarely does that happen. But what an elevator speech
38:12
does, and the way that I've set it up that you can actually
38:15
write one, it's very simple, is to answer the question, tell me
38:20
about yourself. And it's just you're not going
38:23
to sit there and go and do everything about yourself in the
38:27
elevator speech. But you can learn from this
38:32
exercise how to integrate it into a conversation.
38:38
So examples like that. So you know you, I help you get
38:42
one on paper and then show you how to practice it and then take
38:49
it into like a real life scenario.
38:52
The other part of my business in People Excel Solutions is a
38:57
segment called People dot Connected.
39:00
And that is a way for me to really help reimagine the way
39:03
that we build community and connection.
39:06
And as part of this, Master Your differentiators, we will do
39:09
people dot connected sessions so that people have a chance to
39:13
practice it, interact in a Safeway and be able to kind of
39:17
try some of these new things out.
39:19
So that's one example. Asking great questions is an
39:25
amazing topic, actually. There's so much written about it
39:29
that, but if you can ask really good questions, wow, like you
39:32
can learn a lot, You could set up for a really great
39:35
relationship. I talk about in the book closed
39:39
ended questions versus open-ended.
39:41
Everybody's already heard about that, but really what's the
39:45
impact of that? So not just saying open and
39:49
closed, what I do is I give you the closed ended question and
39:54
then I turn it into an open-ended question and tell you
39:58
how it feels different. And in the exercise for this,
40:03
while I don't call it out as triangulating, I show you how to
40:09
take simple questions and turn them into questions that are
40:14
relationship building instead of relationship trashing.
40:18
Just by triangulating away from a thing that is simple, like for
40:23
example, you've been missing deadlines and your work quality
40:27
has dropped. What is happening?
40:29
Changing that to hey, let's review the project timeline and
40:33
feedback together. I noticed some challenges in
40:35
meeting deadlines. External factors might be
40:38
impacting your performance. How can we address these
40:41
challenges together? Wow, very different tone, right?
40:44
Huge. Why can't you have good
40:48
relationships with your team members?
40:51
Hey, I've noticed within the team and I'm sure multiple
40:56
perspectives exist. What do you think is
40:59
contributing to these challenges?
41:02
Like just that's called message, that's called triangulating.
41:05
People don't need to know that, but this is really important.
41:08
Like what a difference. Take out the you replace it with
41:12
the subject. Now you have relationship
41:15
building instead of relationship trashing.
41:17
I need something like this for my kids and an 8 year old who's
41:21
very sensitive. If I try to correct him, I've
41:25
got to be really careful about the word choice.
41:26
Otherwise it really escalates. And I think I kind of laugh and
41:31
make a joke about that. But I think, you know, deep down
41:35
inside in our cores, we're all little kids, right?
41:38
There's, there's a little kid inside of all of us and we don't
41:40
like to be poked and, you know, accused and you're the problem
41:45
and there's something wrong with you.
41:47
And I think that's the beauty of what you're sharing here is
41:50
there's, there's a different way to approach this that that's.
41:53
It and the more that you, you become aware and become more
41:56
emotionally intelligent about this, it's really not about you.
42:02
It's really about how you impact and what you do to make it.
42:06
You know, the people that you're working with are impacting, feel
42:09
better and be more productive and have more joy.
42:15
The the ideas in this playbook, which is about 90 pages, I
42:23
really took a lot of time to net it out.
42:26
Like I said before, there's scads and scads of information
42:29
about each of these topics, but if you were able to implement
42:33
and try some of these ideas in here, you would level up and
42:41
really start to understand what brings you joy and what your X
42:44
factors are. Is there a way for people to get
42:47
on a wait list to know when this is out?
42:50
Yes. So if you go to
42:52
info@peopleexcelsolutions.com, you could put that in there and
42:58
I would definitely be able to connect with you and make sure
43:00
that you're, you know, you're really.
43:02
So anybody who's interested in this, they can send you an
43:04
e-mail info@peopleexcelsolutions.com.
43:08
And just to make sure we've got the correct pronunciation of
43:10
Excel, is it EXCEL? Accel.
43:15
Great, OK, I've been thinking about it incorrectly.
43:18
In my head I hear excel, I think of the spreadsheet.
43:20
So send an e-mail to info@peopleexcelsolutions.com.
43:25
Accel is how you spell excel. Exactly.
43:28
Yeah, right. Yeah.
43:30
The other thing I'll say is in the book there are conversation
43:33
starters and to me that is one of the things that I really am
43:38
excited to bring. I love mentoring early career
43:42
people who are still in college, still early career.
43:46
I, I love that that age group and seniors in high school.
43:50
I think that that's, you know, I feel like we have a
43:54
responsibility to help people in that age group because somebody
43:59
helped us to be able to do what we do right.
44:01
And it, it frustrates me because see, I see a lot of people that
44:04
don't really do a good job with that.
44:06
And then and you have one bad experience with a leader and you
44:11
know, it really changes kind of your trajectory in a lot of
44:14
ways. But for example, these
44:15
conversation starters, because building trust is really, I
44:20
think, challenging for young people because we've gotten away
44:25
from the conversation and you know, everybody says, oh, we
44:29
have the technology and we have all the things, but really
44:31
building trust happens in a conversation, like a
44:36
conversation. If you read a lot of and there's
44:40
a fierce conversations is one of my favorite books.
44:44
If you read that, you know, Susan, who's the author of that
44:47
book will tell you the conversation is the
44:50
relationship. So if you never have a
44:53
conversation with someone, you don't have a relationship.
44:56
And if you don't have a relationship, you can't build
44:57
trust. And so it's kind of this way of
45:02
me bringing that forward of how do you build trust and how do
45:07
you become aware to that? So these conversation starters,
45:10
like let's say you just meet someone and you have an
45:15
opportunity to talk to them and they are potentially a decision
45:18
maker in a company and you ask them the question.
45:23
So what qualities do you think are essential for someone to
45:26
excel in your company? What's important?
45:30
And if there's a particular role that you're interested in, you
45:32
would maybe ask about that. But that question demonstrates
45:36
your interest in understanding their expectations and
45:39
standards. And that's a really emotionally
45:41
intelligent question. It's a really emotionally
45:45
intelligent situation to put yourself in.
45:50
And so throughout this playbook are things that are very
45:55
implementable, very action oriented.
45:57
So it's not an academic exercise.
46:00
And I had someone who was writing a testimonial for me for
46:03
the book, who's a who's been in my workshops and stuff.
46:06
And she's like, I need this for my kids.
46:10
Like this would help our relationships.
46:13
And if we all were doing this together, it would be really
46:16
good. So I'm excited to be able to
46:18
kind of get this out. It's in final edit, so we should
46:22
be we should be done in the next couple of weeks with the book
46:25
and the master differentiators for students is a different
46:29
version because I felt compelled to change the pictures and the
46:35
exercises and make them more student appropriate.
46:40
This is really for someone who's, you know, in college,
46:44
early grad through executive, I actually had some executives
46:49
look at this and they're like, Yep, because you can always get
46:53
a little better in all of those things.
46:55
So anyway. So it's very exciting.
46:57
This is coming very soon. What?
47:00
Not to put the cart in front of the horse, but what would be
47:02
your five year vision for where this gets to?
47:07
So I have a vision. So I'm, I'm creating as part of
47:11
this people Excel center of learning.
47:15
So there will be a Learning Center, which it'll be online,
47:18
but I want to be able to introduce additional topics to
47:22
messier differentiators. So in this program, when you
47:25
join this community, you'll, you'll get all the things that I
47:29
already told you about, but things, other things that we'll
47:31
be adding on health and mindfulness, resilience and
47:35
grit, financial literacy, entrepreneurship's got to be in
47:40
there and public speaking. So those other 5 topics, So what
47:45
I'm envisioning is that, you know, we kind of grow together
47:48
and we start here, we kind of get levelled into, you know, I,
47:53
I really, I really want to be able to say you're growing in
47:59
your emotional intelligence, but you don't even know it.
48:02
And I think the reason I say that is because I've been trying
48:05
to do this my whole life and I didn't even know it.
48:08
But if I didn't have someone kind of guiding me early on and
48:12
then, you know, meeting up with Phil Johnson as an executive and
48:16
going, man, I have gotten kind of off my game on that.
48:21
You just don't know. Like, you just don't see it
48:23
because you kind of go unconsciously in your own way.
48:26
So I'm trying to do this in a way that elevates and levels up
48:30
people. And I feel like the better we
48:33
can do this across a community, you know, we'll have more joy
48:37
and and more relationships that are more meaningful.
48:40
So that's, you know, my goal is to just kind of really get out
48:44
there and meet as many people as possible when it comes to a five
48:47
year goal. Yeah, that's terrific concepts
48:51
in that book that I think we could all get behind.
48:54
Maria, I want to shift gears on you for a moment, and I'd like
48:57
to hear about a serious challenge that you went through
49:00
either personally or professionally, and some of the
49:03
lessons that you learned coming out the other side of that.
49:06
Yeah, that's a great question. So I'm going to go with this
49:14
one. So I think being a business
49:18
owner and actually saying yes to owning a business set you up for
49:24
challenges that you can't even pretend that you know are
49:31
coming. And I think it it also gives you
49:34
a chance to figure out how to manage risk and also more
49:41
importantly, how to manage a reaction.
49:43
So I think when I think about the biggest challenges for me,
49:47
you know, you never know like this was a starting from zero,
49:52
right? And I would say ramping up the
49:57
1st 2 years of the business, I really underestimated and didn't
50:03
give myself the grace, to be honest with you, that the amount
50:07
of effort it takes to build relationships in a community, to
50:11
do that. What I was just describing to
50:13
you, to have the opportunity to build trust amongst a group of
50:21
people like I, when I worked for the companies I work for, it was
50:25
hundreds of thousands of people, but they were not the right
50:28
people that I needed in this new venture that I was on.
50:32
So now I just like, you know, you go from the top of your game
50:35
and now you're like starting at 0, right?
50:37
It was very humbling. And so by the grace of God, I
50:42
was able to meet with some people in the community who just
50:48
trusted that, you know, I was going to be able to do some good
50:51
things. I joined the chambers and got to
50:54
meet a lot of great people that were really already in business.
50:58
And, you know, it was a tough first couple of years.
51:03
Like I thought I had made the most grave error in my career.
51:10
And I think it really challenges not only what you're trying to
51:16
do, but also, you know, your faith.
51:18
And I, I had really a strong faith and belief that God wanted
51:24
me to be doing what I, I was about to do.
51:26
Because if you'd have asked me, oh, you're going to own a
51:30
staffing home now, I would have been like, yeah, no, I don't
51:31
think so. That wasn't going to be it.
51:34
And so, you know, I began to put my trust in him in a way that
51:38
was a little different than I had before.
51:41
And it all worked out. And so we were really doing well
51:45
and had a great team in place. And everybody was humming.
51:48
You know, businesses were growing the whole 9 yards.
51:52
And I think the biggest challenge for me now comes in
51:55
2020 because, you know, the doors were shut.
51:59
Essentially the revenue that you lost, it was lost forever.
52:03
You know, teams, teams were changed forever.
52:06
But also people were exhausted and our business is people.
52:13
And so whether you're on the client side or on the job seeker
52:16
side, it was exhausting and it became financially challenging
52:20
at that point then to really start to to keep everything the
52:24
same. And so the challenge for me was
52:27
as, you know, as a person, as you know, you know, as an owner,
52:32
as a, you know, just someone who, you know, was trying to
52:36
drive in a different way. Like, what do you do?
52:40
Do you shut the door? Do you try and pick up the
52:45
pieces and move forward? Like, what do you do?
52:49
And nobody was ready for that. So it's not like, you know,
52:54
everyone was like, oh, OK, we're going to have this catastrophic
52:57
event and things are going to shut down and blah, blah, blah.
52:59
People are like, you know, who's planning for that?
53:02
Like, so to me, that, that that's really been my biggest
53:05
challenge. And the, the challenge remains.
53:09
So that was game changer for us in our business.
53:13
And I, I know it was a game changer in a lot of businesses
53:16
because a lot of businesses have closed.
53:18
And so I think that that challenge brought an opportunity
53:23
as well as, you know, difficulty.
53:26
And the opportunity is for me to say, OK, like what are you going
53:29
to do? Like you have to decide you, you
53:32
know, at the end of the day, it's my decision.
53:34
I own it. I have to, I have to decide what
53:36
we're going to do, but I also have to be able to say, OK, how
53:40
are we going to do this? Because it's not going to be the
53:43
same. So I've had to let go of, OK,
53:46
let's get back to 2019 because that ship has sailed.
53:49
That's not happening. But now how do we recreate?
53:53
And I feel like the combination of mess of people Excel
53:57
solutions in combination with Express pros is a much more
54:04
stronger resource for businesses because whenever you're doing
54:08
organization, yeah, and and really now staffing is a yes, no
54:12
conversation. People Excel brings a different
54:16
level of conversation and strategy to a company.
54:21
And whenever you're doing organizational development and
54:23
change, people are always involved.
54:25
So then, you know, we can really kind of help on both sides.
54:28
So the challenge really has been like, how do you how do you
54:33
manage through something like that?
54:35
And I will say that going through 20 and 21, there were
54:43
resources, but I think it was really underestimated.
54:46
Once those resources were gone, what was going to be left to be
54:52
able to? And that's when a lot of
54:54
businesses had to close because you didn't have enough ramp up.
54:58
And you know, cash is king in any business.
55:00
So, you know, if you're paying payroll, it's not it's different
55:05
if you're by yourself or, you know, you don't have a team.
55:07
But if you're paying payroll, I mean, you got to have the cash
55:09
to be able to pay that. So that that opens up a whole
55:13
new thing. But I think the challenge is
55:15
that what I just described, but the opportunity is for me to
55:20
grow as a leader. Like how do I react to this?
55:24
You know, how do I manage through it financially?
55:27
You know, what are the decisions that have to be made and I have
55:32
learned not to measure my value and myself worth based on my net
55:39
worth or my success in business. That to me is a separate thing.
55:45
I know that we are force for good whether or not this
55:48
business succeeds, we're doing really good work.
55:51
So I think it helped, has helped me grow.
55:55
And also I have to breathe through this.
55:59
You know, if I'm, if I'm in a bad way or panicking, then you
56:02
can imagine what everybody else is doing.
56:04
So I've got to figure out how to manage through it personally so
56:08
that that I can lead a team of people and an organization in a
56:12
way that, you know, they feel confident, confident that we're
56:16
we're moving in the right direction.
56:17
So what? What are some coping mechanisms
56:20
that you have leaned on in the past?
56:23
I mean, I, the stories that you're telling, Maria, are, you
56:27
know, they're very common amongst business owners.
56:29
And for folks who don't own a business, they're probably
56:31
unaware of this. You know, those first couple
56:33
years when you started the business, you had big visions of
56:36
what was going to happen. And things are slow to get
56:39
started, right? It's a long sales cycle.
56:41
You're getting your feet wet. You're learning what you didn't
56:45
even know coming in, you know, and you thought, man, I made a
56:48
grave error. Should you know, should I back
56:50
out of this? OK.
56:51
And somehow you find strength. You move through.
56:54
Then you hit COVID, which brought everything to a
56:56
screeching halt. And you're you're kind of having
56:59
those same conversations and those thoughts in your head
57:02
again. Now here we are, you know, at
57:05
the end of 2024, still in business, you know, offering a
57:09
new solution. So clearly you've made the
57:11
decision to move forward. But I'm curious to hear, in
57:14
those dark moments, what was it that kept you moving forward?
57:21
So I, I really have to say that it, it's been my faith.
57:26
It really has been my faith. And every time I think it's game
57:30
over, something comes like, let me give you an example.
57:34
Not not too long ago, within the last six months, I was like, OK,
57:38
great, how am I going to make payroll?
57:42
And we did reduce the size of our team significantly because
57:49
we just did not have the sales to support that.
57:53
And I really didn't have the financial cash investment to
57:57
make to support that at the moment.
58:00
So I was like, OK, great, how am I going to do this?
58:02
And we had 1 ticket in this competition that we had
58:11
increased our number of client, client count by 5.
58:15
So we had 1 ticket in this competition and they pulled our,
58:20
our, our ticket out of hundreds and we got $10,000.
58:24
And it was just about the amount I needed to pay payroll.
58:27
So it's like, I mean, just at every turn of the crank, like
58:31
there's usually something there that, you know, shows up.
58:36
And I think that people also, I mean, we just got, although I
58:42
can't officially announce this, I'm going to just say it here.
58:45
We just won best of staffing in a competition across the county,
58:50
which we've won for, I don't know, the past 5-6 years.
58:55
And I'm really humbled by that because it's unsolicited and in
59:00
the way that they do this kind of competition, if you will, is
59:05
that other people in the community have to write your
59:08
business name in there. It's not like a checklist or
59:11
anything. They have to actually have to
59:12
write your business name in there.
59:14
And I, and I often say, you know, why and why, why us?
59:19
And they, they say that we're different and they say that, you
59:22
know, we try and really be a force for good.
59:25
And I have that on my wall. I mean, in, in our office, we
59:29
have, you know, our guiding principles and, and a big part
59:32
of it is to be a force for good. So, you know, to answer your
59:35
question, I just keep trying to be a force for good and breathe.
59:42
Do, you know, do as much exercise as I can fit in, try
59:47
and and have fun. I will say about five years ago,
59:52
six years ago now, I started a fun calendar for myself and my
59:57
husband and I. It's a literal calendar.
1:00:00
And, and I, I, I look in this book and like, I write things in
1:00:07
here that are only fun. And then I'll, I'll look in here
1:00:11
and I'll be like, OK, well, that, that doesn't look like
1:00:15
we're having enough fun. And so, you know, really trying
1:00:18
to stay true to that. My husband and I own a sailboat,
1:00:22
so we go sailing. I do gratitude, I do gratitude
1:00:27
journaling. I've probably done that for the
1:00:29
past 15 years. So it's, it's that whole mental
1:00:35
preparedness or just a way to focus and center that I think
1:00:41
has helped me through all of it because I could get myself
1:00:45
worked up to a lather no problem.
1:00:48
And I really, I just don't feel like I've tried that approach,
1:00:53
but then I see everybody else around me and just really is it,
1:00:56
it's just a. Great way.
1:00:57
Those are a lot of great tools that you shared.
1:00:59
Thank you for that. I think people can can get some
1:01:04
good pointers from those for their own personal use.
1:01:08
Maria, I just have one more question for you, but before I
1:01:10
ask it, I want to do 2 things for those listening.
1:01:14
If you like today's content, please hit the like share
1:01:16
subscribe button on your favorite podcast app.
1:01:18
I always like to tell people the best way to get in touch with
1:01:20
you. And we shared that e-mail
1:01:22
address info@peopleexcelsolutions.com.
1:01:25
Is that the best way? Whatever it is that they have,
1:01:29
that they. Want to talk to you about
1:01:30
That'll come directly to me and I'll make sure that whatever
1:01:33
comes through there gets attention.
1:01:36
OK. Last question for you, Maria.
1:01:38
What do you think is the single biggest change likely to come to
1:01:42
the staffing industry in the next few years?
1:01:48
The single biggest change? Maybe it's something that's
1:01:52
already in process? I think the single biggest
1:02:00
change is maybe not to the staffing industry as much as it
1:02:06
is to staffing in general, in that I think people have evolved
1:02:14
in their thinking about how they're going to make money.
1:02:19
And, you know, the days of coming into a company and
1:02:24
staying for 25 years isn't as common as it used to be.
1:02:30
And I think people are looking for ways to mitigate their own
1:02:33
risks and are looking for ways to do multiple pathways of
1:02:38
revenue generating for themselves.
1:02:41
And I think that the way that we work with people is also going
1:02:45
to change. I think the the ways of, you
1:02:48
know, if you look at the generations and across the
1:02:52
generations, you know, the up and coming alpha generation, not
1:02:55
even in work yet really I think are focused on different things,
1:03:01
social impact, really understanding the mission,
1:03:04
really being part of, you know, the technology in a way that is
1:03:10
integrated into the work. There's a difference between I
1:03:15
think looking at people as talent and looking at people as
1:03:21
humans and I think that the change is really going to come
1:03:26
when businesses really kind of take that on differently.
1:03:32
And, and in one part of this book and messier
1:03:34
differentiators, I really call that out.
1:03:37
You're one person with one life to live.
1:03:40
And you know, traditionally you said, OK, here's I need this
1:03:44
work life balance. Well, that's really kind of hard
1:03:49
to accomplish with one person, one life.
1:03:52
And I think that as we move forward here, you're going to
1:03:56
see business is becoming a lot more people focused and a lot
1:04:02
less talent focused because you have to bring people into your
1:04:08
community. You have to bring them into
1:04:12
wanting to be part of what you're trying to accomplish.
1:04:16
It's, it's, I do believe that trading time for money is, is,
1:04:22
you know, kind of going out with the baby boomer era and the, the
1:04:28
accountability of, you know, loyalty and being able to do
1:04:31
that. I think you will want to create
1:04:33
and craft a journey. And one of the things that I
1:04:37
really say all the time is, you know, enjoy the journey.
1:04:42
I had a chance to be part of 10,000 small businesses, which
1:04:47
is a program that's a scholarship from Goldman Sachs
1:04:50
and highly recommend that program.
1:04:52
It's like no other program you'll ever, ever be in.
1:04:56
I, I have an MBA and that was like an MBA, but all about your
1:05:02
business. And it was a very intense 16
1:05:05
weeks, but we had a chance to be on a call with Warren Buffett
1:05:11
and I was in my kitchen at the island.
1:05:14
And we're, we're there was the cohort that I was in, had twenty
1:05:18
of us in there. And he was talking to us.
1:05:20
And first of all, I was just like, well, now that is very
1:05:25
cool, you know, and, and we were all kind of just like leaning
1:05:29
and listening. And he said something that I, I
1:05:35
really, really do appreciate. He, he, him saying, and he said,
1:05:39
you know, you can go through your journey, you can go through
1:05:44
your whole life. You can be worried about what
1:05:46
the next thing is or what the outcomes are or, you know, are
1:05:50
you making it, Are you not making it?
1:05:52
How much do you have and all those things, He said.
1:05:55
But I'm going to tell you from where I sit right now that the
1:06:00
joys in my journey have been the people that I've met along the
1:06:04
way, the relationships that I have really grown to love and
1:06:09
trust. And also that, you know, I
1:06:14
really want you to focus on the journey and if you focus on the
1:06:20
outcome, once you get there, it's over, it's done.
1:06:25
And just the way that he was kind of positioning that really
1:06:28
gave me the motivation to really want to focus on that.
1:06:35
For example, being, you know, kind of what people Excel
1:06:40
solutions is really grounded in and you know, I, I say it this
1:06:45
way, we have one life to live. So let's enjoy the journey.
1:06:49
And it's a big part of how I'm positioning this.
1:06:55
And I think that that's going to be the biggest change in the
1:06:59
staffing. And it's it's how people are
1:07:02
connecting in and how companies and businesses are going to need
1:07:07
to really create raving fans for their employees to to be a big
1:07:14
part of what they're trying to accomplish in the world.
1:07:17
Maria, I think that Warren Buffett story is a perfect place
1:07:20
for us to wrap up this interview.
1:07:22
I want to be the first to thank you for sharing both your time
1:07:25
and your story with us today. I really appreciate it.
1:07:27
You're welcome. Folks, that's a wrap on another
1:07:30
episode of the Inspired Stories podcast.
1:07:32
Thanks for learning with us today.