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Executive Presence Born from Crisis · Speak In Flow

• 0:00
  Karla Yepez: Ready when you….
• 0:04
  Melinda Lee: Welcome, dear listeners, to the Speak in Flow podcast, where we dive into unique stories to inspire you to take your team to the next level, even when the stakes are high and the pressure is on.
• 0:16
  Melinda Lee: I have an amazing trailblazer leader in the HR industry. She is Carla Yepes. She's the HR Director for Trio Manufacturing, which is aerospace manufacturing. I'm so glad she's here. Hi, Carla!
• 0:35
  Karla Yepez: Hi, Melinda, how are you?
• 0:37
  Melinda Lee: I am great! I can't wait to dive into your amazing, inspiring story. Before we begin, can you share with us more about what is great, what is great in the world of Trio Manufacturing?
• 0:51
  Karla Yepez: Oh, Melinda, I… I'm biased because I work here, but I am not because I work here. TRIO is a world-class leader in the position manufacturing world.
• 1:04
  Karla Yepez: We are a proud partner in fortifying the U.S. defense sector, delivering the high-quality components essential to the readiness of our nation's armed forces. And that brings me immense pride and joy to be a part of.
• 1:18
  Melinda Lee: Oh my gosh, that gave me chills. And you're such… you know, they really believe in you, the founders believed in you, and you have come so far in the HR world. You do so much for them, you do their safety, you do…
• 1:32
  Melinda Lee: HR, you do a lot, but before we even dive into your story at Trio, I actually wanted to share… have you share with the audience, like, the beginning. It wasn't always like this.
• 1:44
  Melinda Lee: Can you tell us what that was like?
• 1:47
  Karla Yepez: Well, I come from very humble beginnings. It was very interesting times growing up. I come from a broken family of divorce, you know, separated, family,
• 1:59
  Karla Yepez: when I was 7, divorced, my parents, and I was alone a lot. I was alone a lot of the time, exposing me to quite a few, negative
• 2:09
  Karla Yepez: Experiences, but they're… it's what helped me be… become resilient.
• 2:15
  Karla Yepez: And in my perspective. … So, …
• 2:19
  Karla Yepez: during that time, I learned that I was…
• 2:22
  Karla Yepez: That I was gonna… that I… I was gonna be alone, and it's okay. It's okay. I learned a lot during that time. I learned a lot about myself, learned a lot about my, and how… how much I could deal with.
• 2:34
  Karla Yepez: And I learned a lot about my parents, too. It was… and my other family members that helped take care of me when, my parents were not able to.
• 2:42
  Melinda Lee: And you're primarily the only Hispanic in this area, correct? Like, rare to have that. And you look different from people.
• 2:51
  Karla Yepez: Yes, exactly, and that…
• 2:53
  Karla Yepez: at that, time, in that city where I was in, it was, there was…
• 2:59
  Karla Yepez: the community was majority, they were Caucasian, so I was bullied a lot because I was… I was Mexican, and I looked different, and I had… I don't look at… right now, because I have… my hair is straight right now, but I have curly hair.
• 3:14
  Karla Yepez: You know, I was tanned, I was so different, and I couldn't speak the language properly or fluently, so I was bullied a lot. But, like I said, those are the… those circumstances helped me really
• 3:27
  Karla Yepez: become resilient. Like, they didn't break me on the project.
• 3:31
  Melinda Lee: What did you do, yeah, to protect yourself? Like, what did you do to build courage?
• 3:36
  Karla Yepez: I honestly, …
• 3:38
  Karla Yepez: I started reading to learn the language. I became determined to learn English. I became, like… it was like an anger inside of me that I had
• 3:48
  Karla Yepez: to learn English. I was no longer in the safety network of my home and my parents, where they all speak Spanish, and they understood me. This is chow time, and I… it became, like, an obsession for me. I became
• 4:03
  Karla Yepez: I started going to the library a lot and, like, checking out the books, and reading out loud really helped me articulate better and understand better, and I would read out loud to both my parents at that time, and
• 4:16
  Karla Yepez: They were telling me what a good job I was doing, but this was before they, they got separated, and then I kept that going, when they separated, because that was one of the only things that
• 4:25
  Karla Yepez: help me feel safe, because I read out loud to them. So during the times that I was alone, my aunt would think it was weird, because I would read out loud by myself. She's like, who are you reading to? I'm like, it became a nostalgic feeling for me.
• 4:42
  Melinda Lee: One way to turn this anger into something positive for yourself. It fueled you to learn something new and learn a language, and then now speaking it out loud and saying it became nostalgic.
• 4:55
  Karla Yepez: Wow. And then, and then you have to, you know, get jobs, right? Multiple jobs.
• 5:03
  Karla Yepez: Yes, after that, I… we didn't grow up with a lot of money. I had other siblings at home. Now I had lived home… at home with a stepfather.
• 5:14
  Karla Yepez: My dad, I would see him every so… every weekend. He was always in my life, present, and he… he was actually one of the people that really, pushed me. He would tell me, don't feel sorry for yourself, you're fine, there's nothing wrong with you.
• 5:27
  Karla Yepez: You have two legs, two arms, two eyes, you're not disabled, honey. You could get a job, don't worry about it. And you know, he was always very, very direct.
• 5:35
  Karla Yepez: And that… I was like, you're right, I'm gonna go get a job, and I told my friend, hey, do you know anybody that's hiring? Oh, yeah, there's a job right there, down in Compton, like, you get…
• 5:46
  Karla Yepez: let's just do it for the summer, just let's get some money. I'm like, yeah, I want to buy new clothes, you know, and I was embarrassed to ask my parents for money, because I already knew they were struggling. So, I ended up going, and I worked there, and I worked in the back of the warehouse, and just…
• 6:01
  Karla Yepez: putting stamps in clothes and putting them in boxes. But that helped pay for my… for the necessities of my, you know, growing up and wanting to have nice clothes. And I'm not saying, like, expensive clothes, just…
• 6:13
  Karla Yepez: decent clothes. And that, and even then, I remember just wanting to learn, like, why… why can't I be a cash waiter? Why do I have to be in the back? And, just even then, trying to learn everything, like, okay, so why is the pond made like this? Oh, because if
• 6:31
  Karla Yepez: we put more, the box will break, you know, so we have… it has a certain, amount that you can't exceed, because it's going to break the box. You don't want the box, that's money from my pocket, the owners would tell me.
• 6:43
  Karla Yepez: …
• 6:44
  Karla Yepez: After that, in high school, I graduated with honors from Paramount High. My alma mater, once a pirate, always a pirate. But it also taught me there, to be, again, resilient. I didn't have
• 6:59
  Karla Yepez: family members there. I had a lot of good friends, but I didn't have family members, so I had to become strong and independent even since I was 7. Since I had… I was left out alone, I… not on purpose, but I… I had to be independent, I had to be strong, and nobody… nobody told me to do it. I…
• 7:15
  Karla Yepez: just understood that that's how my life was gonna be, and I never looked back, I never looked back on
• 7:22
  Karla Yepez: And that helped me…
• 7:25
  Karla Yepez: become more ambitious and want to become something more than what… what I was. You know, starting off at Chipotle after high school and, going to a couple… a little college here and there, little trades that I learned. I ended up going, …
• 7:40
  Karla Yepez: to work at a moment where I didn't have resources or anything, I was just desperate for money.
• 7:46
  Karla Yepez: And I ended up going to Chipotle, just to get a quick job, to help pay the bills for my husband. It was too much for us. We were poor, and we were little, we were…
• 7:56
  Karla Yepez: 20? Like, 19 years old. We were kids, and we didn't know better, so I went in and I got a job just to help my husband out with the bills.
• 8:05
  Karla Yepez: And, after that, it still wasn't cutting it, so I ended up getting a full-time job at Truck Process, which is a… this is where everything kicked off. Truck Process was a pivotal moment for me in my career, because it's what launched
• 8:20
  Karla Yepez: The beginning of my career.
• 8:23
  Melinda Lee: Yeah, and what did you do there?
• 8:24
  Melinda Lee: I started off just smiling. Filing?
• 8:28
  Karla Yepez: Which means, like, nobody wants to follow.
• 8:31
  Melinda Lee: Right!
• 8:32
  Karla Yepez: It's so tedious, but I found a love for it because I ended up, I didn't just file the file, I would read, I would read who was the vendor, was the customer, certain part numbers, I wanted to know what they meant, I wanted to know what phase the part was in, what is shopping, what is that, what is that? I wanted to know everything. …
• 8:51
  Karla Yepez: I guess I was nosy, and I wanted to know more, and the VP actually started noticing me, and she was like, hey, why don't you just come on and help me with certain things, and …
• 9:01
  Karla Yepez: started… I started helping her, and then accounting was, … at that moment, that person that was in charge of accounting was, … I want to say she was on salary, so she would come in around 10 and leave around 3, so it was a very limited time. I was there at 6.45 every day, and would leave, like, around 4. But I was there, and when she would leave early.
• 9:21
  Karla Yepez: they would ask, oh, can you please send a statement? I was like, what's a statement? But I was like, don't worry, I'll figure it out. Give me one second, let me place you on hold. And my customer service skills from Chipotle actually helped me, try to practice when I would answer the phones, because I maintain that customer service
• 9:41
  Karla Yepez: in my head, when they'll teach us at Chipotle, like, oh, smile and greet! Even if they call over the phone, smile, because they're gonna hear your smile. And I kept that in my… I kept that in the back of my mind, so, they enjoyed… the customers enjoyed talking to me, and I…
• 10:00
  Karla Yepez: I would place them on hold, and I would ask my buddy Juan, like, how do I get a statement? Oh, this is how you do, I'll take notes and everything.
• 10:08
  Karla Yepez: Little by little.
• 10:09
  Melinda Lee: Yeah! You could have, like, you know, because of your humble beginnings, because of the challenges, you could have, like.
• 10:18
  Melinda Lee: We've been in a pity party, oh, woe is me, you know, like your uncle said, but you're not, right? You, like, made decisions to go out there, do whatever it takes to learn, and to get really curious about whatever it is that you're there doing. Some people might say, oh my gosh, I don't want to file this so below me, or I don't want to do it, but then you got curious. Rather than that, you're learning, and you're learning, and then
• 10:42
  Melinda Lee: the VP noticed.
• 10:44
  Melinda Lee: That you're learning, you're not just filing.
• 10:47
  Karla Yepez: Yeah, yeah, and then she fell… she went to, … she went on FMLA for a couple months, and … one of my machinists
• 10:57
  Karla Yepez: He cut his thumb.
• 10:59
  Karla Yepez: And I figured it out. He came in, and I was crazy looking for anything that said workers' comp on it. And I found it, I took him, and…
• 11:10
  Karla Yepez: there you go! That was literally what kicked off HR in my mind.
• 11:15
  Karla Yepez: It was that pivotal moment for me, again, with that little workers' comp incident.
• 11:21
  Karla Yepez: And, I was… I started Googling, I started searching things up, I started asking questions, I ask questions for everything.
• 11:28
  Karla Yepez: where do I find this? Where do I do this? How do I do that? I'll call the workers' comp, I'll call HealthNet at the time. I called everybody. I wasn't shy, I'm not shy. If I don't know something, I will let you know.
• 11:41
  Melinda Lee: Oh, boy.
• 11:42
  Karla Yepez: Yeah, so the employees started noticing, like, oh, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's trying to help us, right? And little by little, I started, like, getting the hang of it, you know?
• 11:54
  Melinda Lee: And then you, yeah, you extend your hand. You're willing to go above and beyond to help people.
• 11:59
  Karla Yepez: Yeah.
• 12:00
  Melinda Lee: That's what they love. And then, so then you ended up topping out. You got, like, the masks to where you were.
• 12:08
  Melinda Lee: And then what happened after that?
• 12:10
  Karla Yepez: And, and then we were, that company was bought out by a huge monster in the aerospace.
• 12:17
  Karla Yepez: industry, and I was able to get a glimpse of corporate, which was amazing. It was such a, … it was… it was a beautiful challenge for me, because it exposed me once again to HR again, to doing AR and AP. Exposed me to HR and found my true, true calling, which I realized at that moment that it was
• 12:38
  Karla Yepez: being helpful, remembering that, we're in the business of people. We are. We really are. And,
• 12:45
  Karla Yepez: People are always going to need our help, and we have to remind them that we are
• 12:50
  Karla Yepez: We, at the end of the day, we're people too, so we're gonna help them.
• 12:54
  Karla Yepez: Regardless, and they… they wanted to feel like somebody cared about them, not just about how many parts did you deliver, did you plate my part, or did you do this? Did you mask this part, all that stuff. They wanted more, and I started realizing that, and
• 13:08
  Karla Yepez: once I, that company I topped out, I… Fast forward to… to, to, TRIO.
• 13:16
  Karla Yepez: is where I just…
• 13:19
  Karla Yepez: I was given the opportunity of a lifetime at that moment. I didn't know it at that time, but I was really given the opportunity of a lifetime because I had a mentor who believed in me since day one.
• 13:31
  Karla Yepez: He believed in me, and he never let up even through the worst time in the time where I hit rock bottom.
• 13:40
  Karla Yepez: In my career was when,
• 13:45
  Karla Yepez: an employee threatened me and my children. He found my address. I… I suspect that he followed me home, or… or might have sent somebody to… to look for me, but Melinda, that was when I… it was rough bottom for me there. I… I… I didn't know…
• 14:04
  Karla Yepez: I didn't know how to handle it. I thought, this is it, I'm done. …
• 14:11
  Karla Yepez: I couldn't sleep, I couldn't eat. I mean, my kids are everything to me, my children, my husband are my safety, and feeling…
• 14:20
  Karla Yepez: feeling that that was compromised was the worst feeling ever. But my owners being… the tough…
• 14:29
  Karla Yepez: being relentless, being the mentors that they are and the people that they are, didn't… they didn't leave me alone for a second. They… they hired a security team for me. They, …
• 14:42
  Karla Yepez: they mentored me through every single emotion that I had.
• 14:46
  Karla Yepez: mind you, this whole time, I'm still managing. I'm here, you see me smiling. I never let up. I kept assisting all my employees. I kept, tutoring them and letting them know,
• 14:58
  Karla Yepez: what the next, move is. I was actually, during that time, we were in the middle of purchasing a new… I'm sorry, leasing out the new facility. I was in contact with the City of Parson at that time, because that's where we're moving, and I was still…
• 15:11
  Karla Yepez: functioning, but inside, I was deteriorating, and they knew about it, and my supervisor, and they're the ones who… and my husband, that really held… were my support, and just brought me back up.
• 15:24
  Karla Yepez: to…
• 15:26
  Karla Yepez: To… to just mentally being okay. And I honestly feel like after that incident, I came back better and stronger. I went back….
• 15:34
  Melinda Lee: Oh my goodness!
• 15:35
  Karla Yepez: Human Resources.
• 15:37
  Karla Yepez: And I went back to school, I felt better than ever. I felt like, you know what?
• 15:43
  Karla Yepez: if I could if I could overcome this, just like my mentor said, Brian Hunkins, I can overcome anything.
• 15:51
  Melinda Lee: Yeah….
• 15:52
  Karla Yepez: It's just the bottom for you.
• 15:54
  Melinda Lee: What was that turning point? Like, what made you, like, just go from bottom? What was the turning point? The aha?
• 16:01
  Karla Yepez: I had to take a really hard look in the mirror and remind myself
• 16:07
  Karla Yepez: who I am. Like, I… I know, I know I've fought my whole life, Melinda. I've fought my whole life to be where I'm at, fighting stereotypes, fighting…
• 16:19
  Karla Yepez: Everything that was meant to destroy me has always made me stronger, and…
• 16:26
  Karla Yepez: I remember that I looked in the mirror, and I was like, Carla.
• 16:30
  Karla Yepez: Thank God nothing happened to your children, nothing happened to your husband.
• 16:34
  Karla Yepez: You're strong, you're resilient, and this is meant for you, and the reason why is because you weren't meant to break.
• 16:42
  Karla Yepez: I wasn't made to break, and everything since my humble beginnings, growing up where I grew up and, the…
• 16:50
  Karla Yepez: The neighborhood I grew up in and the people I grew up around with.
• 16:54
  Karla Yepez: I was not made to break. And I was… I was alone for that time, because…
• 17:01
  Karla Yepez: a higher power knew that I was gonna need that during this
• 17:06
  Karla Yepez: time, and that's really what got me through. It's like, I've been through worse. You know, I've been through worse. Like, this is the worst because it obviously rock bottom for me was, my children. Right.
• 17:17
  Karla Yepez: No, like, my mentor kept repeating to me, if you can get through this, you can get through anything. And I'm like, I've already been through everything. What am I talking about? You know, as long as my children are okay, I took the proper
• 17:30
  Karla Yepez: steps to protect myself, you know, for my children.
• 17:35
  Karla Yepez: I, I took, the authorities, I brought them into it, and I felt confident in the competence of the police department here.
• 17:45
  Karla Yepez: And I just remembered who I am, and I'm not made to break, and I love being in HR, and if somebody's not upset at what I do, I'm not doing it right.
• 17:54
  Melinda Lee: You're that powerful! Well, meaning, like, you're there to protect them, and you're there to… and sometimes to protect them means that it does not feel the best, right? And you gotta look at so many different… protecting the organization, the people, the founders.
• 18:11
  Melinda Lee: So, so in you making the right decision as a leader to do that.
• 18:16
  Karla Yepez: Yeah, and I remember… you hit the nail on the head, Melinda, you're amazing, really, because that's literally what I had to do, is like, I have a duty. I… I… I love doing what I do, and I love what TRIO stands for, and the…
• 18:33
  Karla Yepez: opportunities, they just don't give… they give to me, but everybody else within the establishment. …
• 18:41
  Karla Yepez: I… I went back, and I'm like, this is… this is… this is what I'm here for. I'm here to help throughout the whole time.
• 18:47
  Karla Yepez: the smiles that people would give me when I would help them. I would help them find the solution to their problems, whether it's downloading something for them, their cards are helping them on the phone with benefits.
• 18:59
  Karla Yepez: the smiles and the thank yous I would get, …
• 19:03
  Karla Yepez: that was enough for me. That was… I can't let this go. I'm here for it. I'm seeing TRIO from overseeing safety and seeing how, when I first walked into
• 19:14
  Karla Yepez: This beautiful 40,000 square foot facility of amazing machining here.
• 19:19
  Karla Yepez: So I'm going from where I was at there, and now having my inspections be almost immaculate.
• 19:25
  Melinda Lee: Wow. So much joy that….
• 19:28
  Karla Yepez: Melinda, the sound of a CNC running, the chips of metal hitting the floor, it…
• 19:35
  Karla Yepez: The smell of metal. I can't let this go. This is engraved in my soul, I….
• 19:42
  Melinda Lee: Wow.
• 19:43
  Karla Yepez: seeing the missiles that our parts go into, and the fact that we are one of the most powerful militias in the world, and the reason why we have freedom of speech, why we have the freedom to have this conversation, to have the opportunities that I have.
• 19:59
  Karla Yepez: a lot of it goes into the militia that we have, and I'm proud to be here. I'm proud to be part of the United States Militia, and that is a bigger monster than just me, and I'm part of that.
• 20:12
  Karla Yepez: We're part of that, you know? And I couldn't take that for granted, and I had to go… I had to go big or go home.
• 20:20
  Melinda Lee: Yes, and you're meant to go… you're big, you're going big, you're doing it. Like I said, I meant what I said, you're a trailblazer, and so it's so… I mean, your story is so inspiring, and I'm sure that whoever is listening, have taken away something today, because you've just really… with your story and all the things, the pieces that went into it, you giving back and people helping you, too, it's just a
• 20:44
  Melinda Lee: beautiful cycle, and I think Yeah, every person needs to hear this.
• 20:49
  Karla Yepez: Yes, and I want to remind everybody, and all of our leadership, Melinda, Golden Takeaway.
• 20:55
  Melinda Lee: Yeah.
• 20:55
  Karla Yepez: is… To bring back human to human resources.
• 21:00
  Karla Yepez: To lead with…
• 21:02
  Karla Yepez: fairness, and sympathy. We have to remember that if we want successful culture, and a culture that we ourselves want to be in, we have to embody that, and we have to be fair at the end of the day. HR is about being fair, and I'm here for the employee, and I'm here for, the company as well.
• 21:20
  Karla Yepez: And I think we need to remember… as leadership, we have to remember that. We have to remember that.
• 21:26
  Karla Yepez: We have to be fair, we have to lead with sympathy.
• 21:29
  Melinda Lee: I totally agree.
• 21:32
  Melinda Lee: Totally agree, because it's about the people, and so they're so lucky to have you.
• 21:38
  Karla Yepez: Thank you, Melinda!
• 21:40
  Karla Yepez: them.
• 21:41
  Melinda Lee: Yeah, and yeah, I'm glad that they see the value that you have, and the value you bring, and I'm glad that, yes, you're serving, yeah, a bigger mission here. And so, thank you for your story, and thank you for doing what you do. Really appreciate your time and sharing your expertise.
• 21:57
  Karla Yepez: Thank you, Melinda. I really enjoyed… you have such an aura, and you have such an organic manner of interviewing. I'm so happy that you were the one who approached me, and I'm really happy to have done this. I respect you tremendously.
• 22:11
  Melinda Lee: Thank you. I can't wait for people to hear it! I can't wait to share it!
• 22:16
  Karla Yepez: Oh, my.
• 22:17
  Melinda Lee: Yeah, well, thank you so much, audience, for being here. I trust that you got your golden takeaway, and until next time, remember, anytime you have a moment to talk, or con… that's also connection, and it's also making a positive difference and influence in the world.
• 22:35
  Melinda Lee: Until next time, I'm your sister in flow. Much love. Take care. Bye-bye!
• 22:40
  Melinda Lee: Thank you, Carla.
• 22:42
  Karla Yepez: True, thank you so much.