Latest / AccessCo Leaders Career Conversations / Lessons En Route to CIO
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- speaker-0: Hello and welcome back to AccessCo Leaders career conversations I'm Ilyne. I get to host a session ⁓ our students from Tacony Academy charter school with our I'm so excited to say guest ⁓ O'Brien from Scrub Daddy he's a chief innovation officer welcome back John good to see you. speaker-1: Nice to see you as well. speaker-0: All right, tell us what are you doing as a chief innovation officer for Scrub Daddy? speaker-1: So I think last time I was on with you, was actually chief operating officer at Scrub Daddy. ⁓ We had a bunch of different changes ⁓ within the organization. ⁓ And I have basically grown up under our CEO, Aaron Krauss's tutelage in all things product. And so when we looked at the company as a whole, thought, what do we want to do? Are we going to create more products? And so I am lucky enough that I get to lead that charge and lead a team of awesome engineers and project managers and industrial designers. So yeah, where I get to sort of help coach and lead this awesome team of ⁓ very bright people to develop new products for our organization. speaker-0: That's awesome. then tell us real quick, Aaron Krauss, was he the one who designed the actual Scrub Daddy? speaker-1: He is, yep, is what is known as the daddy of the Scrub Daddy. ⁓ CEO, inventor, serial entrepreneur, and just all around great person. speaker-0: How fun and you get to learn right under him. That's so cool. So I always say, did you wake up one day as a little boy and decide, I want to work for a company that makes little sponges. How did you get to Scrub Daddy? speaker-1: Yeah. So a very long path. Actually, I think this in like 10 days, it'll be 24, 25 years ago, I walked in off the street because I needed a job that I could walk to when my car would break down. And I met Aaron, I met his business partner at the time, filled out my application and wrote that I had played hockey on it. And he said, what position? said, I'm a goalie. He said, my team needs a goalie. When can you start? And I started that night. ⁓ Sorry, not that night, that day. I started that day and have been with him for, like I said, 20 some years now and Scrub Daddy was invented in 2007 and then eventually commercialized and had our shark tank success in 2012. So was not necessarily like a, I want to go work for a sponge company when I get older. It was, Hey, I don't know. I started working in this company and was, ⁓ you know, started out as just a job and then it turned into eventually turned into a career just through just putting my head down and going to work and, you know, ⁓ taking the lessons that we were learning and applying them and ⁓ was very lucky that Aaron gave me lot of latitude and lot of understanding that I was learning on the fly as was he, right? And kind of, you know, fast forward a quarter century and here we are. speaker-0: Super inspiring. can definitely relate to that. Last question before we hand it over to the students. Can you let us know, I know you mentioned that you played hockey, but in middle school and high school, take us back a little bit. What kept you busy? What were you interested in? speaker-1: It's just sports. mean, fully just that was our thing was me and my brother, we grew up in middle school. We lived right in front of the high school football field. And so we, we lived there. I mean, we had, if we weren't at the football field, we were playing street hockey across the street with, with our friends. And then as we got into high school was lacrosse, baseball, football, hockey. So it was just, it was just sports. Sports kept us busy. And then I would work at night as a busboy, cleaning up tables at an Italian restaurant that I worked at for many years. So yeah, mostly just sports. Sports was my thing. speaker-0: John, what I'm hearing is that you stay busy. You stayed busy with sports. You do, and you're really loyal. You said that you worked at a certain restaurant for many years and now you've been with Scrub Daddy for quarter of a century. That is great to hear. We don't hear that so often anymore these days. And speaking of that, let's go to our first student, Miguel, who's been with us for over three years. I like to say that I've seen him since he was a 10th grader and now he's about to graduate. So Miguel, you get the first question for John. speaker-2: So ⁓ as Afra mentioned, it seemed that you have kept yourself pretty busy throughout your life. And I also took notice that when it came to your education, you've gone to places such as Eastern University, Strayer University, and ⁓ MIT and University of Cambridge. Now with that being said, ⁓ what fuels you to do all of that, to do all of these activities, and to keep on innovating at Scrub Daddy and within your personal life? speaker-1: ⁓ Great question. ⁓ I think it was. speaker-3: it speaker-1: Wanting to to supplement, I should say, the real world learning, like on the job learning that you that happens, right? Those experiences that you have that you get from working ⁓ with. With the book learning, right, so that there's for me, I didn't go to it wasn't like I came out of high school and went to college. It was I came out, I ended up just working and then throughout my working career, I would take classes part time. speaker-3: some with speaker-1: to help supplement my real job, right? So for example, was, ⁓ they had asked me to start working in the books, right? Which is your accounting system. And I was like, I don't know what I'm doing in here, but I was learning at work, but then I was also taking accounting classes at night to help me have a better understanding of what I was doing at my day job. And for me, it worked out really well, right? And so everyone's path is gonna be different, but for me, it worked out extremely well that I was able to, as I moved or sorry, said, absorb sort of responsibilities at work, I could supplement that on the job, like learn on the fly with the book learning at school, right? So same example, we'll start doing some HR things, went and took a bunch of HR classes. ⁓ And then, so it's just that continual like understanding that I don't know everything and that's okay and will continue to learn as my career progresses. It's just a curiosity. speaker-0: Right, so you were given a responsibility and you didn't just sit there and figure it out in that moment. You went ahead and hit the books, as we would say, right? ⁓ And it worked out for you. 25 years later, it's amazing. Let's go to Genevieve, your first question. speaker-2: So you mentioned that you were athletic and you played sports. So do you believe your discipline from your sports helped shape your identity today? speaker-1: Great question as well. I think it goes down to, yeah, I think so. think there's only certain things that you can control in life, right? And so you can control your amount of effort and your attitude. And if you don't negotiate with yourself on the effort, a lot of good things will come. speaker-0: Don't negotiate with the effort. That's awesome. I agree with the attitude as well because you could be the greatest, but if you have a terrible attitude, no one wants to work with you. You know, so who's going to sign checks for about attitude? ⁓ speaker-1: I can, I can, we like that part we can get to sort of at the end in terms of things, but like always be open to learning. Cause I had, I had that experience in my, in my career, right? Where my attitude was very much like I had a lot to do and anything that was new or additional was like, could, was quick to shut it down because that meant I had more work to do on top of the other things. And it changed my attitude to be one of like a like a pessimistic or negative from the outside, ⁓ but had some really open and honest conversations with some coworkers and have worked very hard to pivot from that and kind of change. speaker-0: ⁓ it's so good to hear. It's so good to hear that too, that you took that feedback and you made a change and didn't say, ⁓ I don't agree. And then, you know, stay where you are. So love that our students get to hear that from you. ⁓ Chris, you're up next. speaker-2: Did you being on a sports team help you develop leadership and if so, how do you like apply that to your like job? speaker-1: ⁓ for sure. For sure. I think it's, it's, and it's not so much the leadership part is the teamwork part, right? Is like, I'm one piece of this entire team. Right. And so, ⁓ where I'm at now, my career, it's cool. Cause I get to recognize my job goes from doing all these, these transactional things to now supporting team, the team of, of, of whether it's engineer or industrial designer or whatever, like it changes. yeah, think playing sports is, ⁓ especially team sports really helps you develop those things. speaker-0: like Aaron saw on you before, you're the goalie. Like let's get these points on the board. So now you to do it at this level. Let's go to Anaya. speaker-1: Exactly. speaker-2: ⁓ I know you had said that you had started working here as a way to just have a job, but was there ever a point in time where you wanted to switch your job or try something different? speaker-1: So yes, and I did. ⁓ I ⁓ at one point, just so 25 years with Aaron, it hasn't all been continuous. ⁓ At one point, the business was very slow and he had to let me go, which is an unfortunate reality in business. We stayed very close. ⁓ I went and did some construction. I learned some different things in trade. Business picked back up and he brought me back. ⁓ And then probably like a year or two later, I was like, you know what, I really am enjoying this, this supplemental learning. want to go and do more of the book stuff and kind of work towards my degree. And I left and went and worked at Widener University in the copy center. I did, I worked at Widener during the day and then FedEx Kinkos, which I don't think any of you, you guys would know what a Kinkos is. But it was a copy shop as well. And so I would do those two jobs. day and night and then go to school on the weekend at Widener. So they had free tuition. So I did leave and try different things for different reasons. ⁓ And eventually I got fired from that FedEx Kinko's job ⁓ and left there that night and went to check in on Aaron and see what he was up to and things he was working on. ⁓ said, hey, I need a part-time job now. And I went back to work for him at nighttime. And then maybe two or three weeks later, said, Jude, you need to come back full-time. And I said, OK, but I'm doing the school thing. And he said, don't worry. We'll make up for it. And I did and ⁓ never looked back since. But so yeah, I have had some other outside experience. speaker-0: For our students, y'all are going to have to hold me back because I have 25 more questions just based on what John shared. So I'm hoping that you guys are going to touch into some of the things that he just shared. So who's next? have Max, you're next. speaker-2: ⁓ Yeah, continuing what she said about touch upon those questions ⁓ What curiously like brought like you brung up was like about like you were doing something on the school side after leaving the job and coming back and He said it was going to be brought up time. What was exactly that school stuff you were doing on the side there? It's really curious speaker-1: So I was doing, when I went to Widener, I was doing just some general courses, some business courses. then, so like I'd mentioned, I kind of just was piecemealing my education. was, if I was working on HR things, I'd go and take courses to learn some stuff about HR. And wasn't really doing it with like a degree in mind or a degree in focus. And at some point, I think it was like 2015 or so I was like, Am I close to getting an associate's degree for something like with all these random credits? And the counselor was like, yeah, actually, if you take like these two classes, you can get your associates and also like a certificate. And I was like, okay, so I'm going to do that. And that's how I ended up getting to my associates ⁓ and then took some like professional certificate courses. That's where you see like the MIT and the Cambridge. I didn't go to those universities. I took some courses and certificate programs through through them, but then ⁓ went to Strayer for my bachelor degree. Same thing, nights and weekends. My wife was awesome, of like gave me Saturday nights and then Sunday mornings, like she would take the kids and I would just go and basically go to school at those times. ⁓ And then same, finished that up and then same thing for my master's degree. I had searched at one time and then it followed me everywhere on social media. and kept hitting me and targeting me with ads for this program. And then I finally, drove down the I-95 and right before the Taconia Palmyra Bridge, there's an ad for an MBA degree at Eastern University in under 12 months. And I was like, all right, fine, I'm going to go do it. So it's been a good, very good use of free time and just that continual, like, what else can I learn? What else can I pick up and then kind of speaker-4: been speaker-1: utilize my career. speaker-0: do have to pause here and just highlight the fact that even academic journeys after high school are not linear, right? We say, ⁓ you might go into trades, you might go to university, you might go to community college. John, I love how your story shows all the different ways that you can still complete a degree if that's what you need. But you just started off with, I just want to learn more about the things that I'm responsible for. And here you are post, you know, master's degree. That is amazing. And I hope that encourages some of our students and our listeners out there. ⁓ So good for you, John. Let's go to our senior, Miguel. speaker-2: So working with Scrub Daddy for such a long time, for 25 years and obviously on and off, what's one thing that you've learned that has stuck with you ever since? speaker-1: Probably a lesson and I'll share the story. ⁓ Early in when I first was given like managerial duties was like early 20s, something like that, ⁓ probably mid 20s. And I made a decision to basically close the factory down early. Cause it was like the first. nice day in a very long time. And we wanted to like go and like get some fresh air and go hang out. ⁓ and I did and, but we were so busy that there's no, there's no, there's no chance that I should have shut down and like, let everybody go out early. ⁓ and so we were behind on our orders and I was just like, really struggling with that. Like, ⁓ man, I really messed up here. And like, maybe I shouldn't be the manager and You know, like I had mentioned, ⁓ Aaron, give me the latitude and the understanding of like, I'm learning how to be a manager on the fly. ⁓ was like, no, like you made a mistake and you, you learn from it. If you keep making the same mistake, that's when it's an issue. And so that's just something that I've always carried forward in my, in my career and let other people know if, if you mess up, like it happens, it's just, you have to learn from those things so you don't do them again in the future. So that's, that's definitely one of the main. lessons that I've learned that I've carried carried through these these years. speaker-0: Thank you for sharing that, John. And did you guys end up catching up with production? speaker-1: We did. Yep, we got caught up. All the orders went out and ⁓ the next nice day that following year we did not leave early. But we found our times to leave early when we were good on the work. speaker-0: Good. Those nice days are important to take advantage of, good call on Aaron to show you that that's just a lesson. That's a lesson. Genevieve, your next question. speaker-2: So how would you separate your personal life from your work life? speaker-1: There's a time to ⁓ like, so we live in a modern era, right? We have our phones, our phones are on us all the time. I am checking emails, you know, 24 seven, or talking to a supplier who's in China at midnight, right? And so you kind of find that balance. there's like phone downtime, it's like, hey, we're all, you know, it's dinner time with the. with my wife and the boys. So it's like, okay, phones away. There's no work is going to be happening here. So you just find what pockets of time are those meaningful moments with your family, right? Of like, hey, if my kids are watching YouTube because they're decompressing from being at school and sports all day, they're checked out on me. They don't care if I'm in the room or not. But if we're eating together or we're doing you know, something together, then it's like, okay, this work can't happen at this moment unless it's like, you know, ⁓ an emergency. speaker-0: That's so good. So be present when it's the appropriate time to stay focused. That's healthy in any industry, as I would say. Let's go to Chris, your next question. speaker-2: ⁓ In your youth was there like any problems that got in your way and if so, how did you overcome them? speaker-1: problems that got in the way would be... I don't know. I can't think of anything off the top of my head that was like an issue that I had to unlock. ⁓ Probably mainly just different personalities that you deal with when you go to school. There's people that are friendly, there's people that are not so friendly. And I think I just took an approach of ⁓ early on perspective taking. I don't know what's happening at someone's house. I don't know what their home life is like, so maybe that's they're taking that out on me. Or maybe that was something that my folks taught me. It's like, don't know, like someone might have a bad attitude with you, but it might have nothing to do with you. So probably just navigating personalities. speaker-0: Where do think you learned that? Like, was that part of being on a sports team that you may have seen that the different personalities, different perspectives? speaker-1: I think so. I think so because I think when I reckon, I think it was like, if I go to a specific incident was like at football practice, you could see there's very different styles. And I mean, you guys probably see this now, there's very different styles and how parents, parent, children, right? And so I think I picked up when I was like, man, these like, that kid's dad is like really serious about football. My dad was like, not very serious about football, right? And so it's like, I think maybe through that, so that's probably through the sports lens of how I picked up on like, everyone's like got different experience in life. speaker-0: Right, right. We don't know the whole story. ⁓ Let's go to Anaya. speaker-2: My question is, was there any advice or motivation that kept you going and how does it still benefit you today? speaker-5: Hmm. speaker-1: ⁓ So my wife has this term where she just calls it fighting. She says it's fighting, fighting. And so she'll either just text me that or just tell me that. Fighting. Fighting, fighting is like, keep going, you got this. speaker-0: Keep going, I love that. Okay, we'll give credit to your wife there. That's awesome. Fighting, fighting. Let's go to Max. speaker-2: ⁓ Was there like a big like was there like a key figure like role model that like you looked up to that decided and like made your decisions for you or like Influenced how you acted towards like your jobs and like your schoolwork and stuff speaker-1: ⁓ Yeah, I mean, obviously my parents ⁓ in terms of schoolwork and through the high school life lessons there of... I think I was also kind of blessed in that way that they... Like I mentioned, Aaron giving me latitude at work to kind of like discover and learn and make mistakes and grow from them. ⁓ My folks were the same. Like they were like, you're gonna have your own path and you're gonna kind of figure it out. We'll give you some like guide rails of like... to not go too far off course ⁓ and kind of let you figure out your own way. ⁓ So yeah, my folks and then obviously career wise Aaron. speaker-0: It sounds like you have been able to, like you said, you were blessed. You get to benefit from having support throughout from like your family home, throughout your careers. And even you still have displayed opportunities to be, ⁓ to have resilience, right? Like you mentioned earlier, you got fired from a job, you called a friend and you picked right back up. Like this is amazing that ⁓ you have that kind of network. Can you share a little bit about how you continue to steward relationships like that or any pro tips on when you meet somebody and they're your friend, but now like they become somebody you work with. How do you navigate that? speaker-1: ⁓ I think the key is, finding people that are. You have to trust your sort of, you know, when you have that internal instinct of is someone on your team, someone have your back, does someone have your best interest, you kind of know that stuff. Like I want to say almost instantly from the vibe that you get. And I would just say just continue to trust that because 99.9 % of the time it's probably accurate. speaker-0: That gut instinct, the vibe check, yes. Applicable. Applicable to all jobs and situations. It works. All right, we're coming back to you, Miguel. speaker-1: Yep. speaker-2: So, one of the things that I've noticed is that you've ⁓ been mostly on the East Coast, but have you ever worked internationally or on any other part of the country? And if so, what has that taught you? speaker-1: So our headquarters has always been ⁓ even going back to pre Scrub Daddy, right? I worked with Aaron for other companies. All the headquarters have always been ⁓ based just outside of Philadelphia. ⁓ Though I have traveled basically most of the world for business, ⁓ which has been very eye-opening, right? You get to see different cultures. You get to see different lifestyles. You get to see different work environments, which is... speaker-6: No speaker-1: which is very cool because it gives you a ⁓ nice perspective of why things happen the way they happen or why things have limited capabilities or whatever the case may be. ⁓ I have never worked outside of here, but I've traveled for work and visited many different countries and different regions. it gives you whole different level of perspective and respect for the folks that you work with. speaker-0: That's amazing. Okay, now we have to ask, what was your favorite place that you've traveled to for work? speaker-1: Favorite place that I traveled to for work is probably Cologne, Germany. ⁓ Maybe because it was like my first time in Europe, but the Cologne Cathedral is just one of the most like all inspiring pieces of architecture that I've ever seen in my life. ⁓ It's just this giant like Gothic cathedral that's like right next to the train tracks there. There's like breweries that are like right under a shadow and it's so tall that, I might be getting this wrong, but during the world wars, they didn't knock it down because the pilots used the top of it as navigation. Cause it was so high that it went into the clouds and they used that as navigation. So they didn't bomb it essentially. It's just like such a cool thing. ⁓ Germany was, I think Germany was such a surprise to me because I had like painted this like dark picture of it in my mind. I'm just obviously from like social studies and learning about, you some of the things that happened there. But when I got there, I was like, wow, this place is clean. It's nice that the trains were like insanely fast. ⁓ Just probably that trip, just going to Cologne, Germany. speaker-0: That's so cool. I'm excited to hear from when our students start getting their jobs and they get to travel and the things and the perspectives that they get to catch from that. So thank you for sharing that so passionately. Let's go to Genevieve, your next question. speaker-2: ⁓ So since AI is becoming more normalized and employed throughout companies, would you say that AI helps your company as well? speaker-1: I for sure. think you'd have to live under a rock at this point if there's not some form of AI that's not assisting you or helping somebody in a company boost their productivity, even if it's just a simple AI to help correct your grammar or to reorganize your email, right? Which helps you in your communications with your teammates, which helps the overall productivity of the organization. So yeah, I think it's definitely a... a tool that's obviously not going anywhere and you'll see obviously companies doubling down on it. But I I utilize it. I know a lot of people that do and you can tell the amount of work you're able to get done now is greater. speaker-0: Right. That efficiency just, really increases the capacity that you have and productivity throughout the day. It's amazing. ⁓ Let's go to Chris. speaker-2: ⁓ If you have never like worked at Scrub Daddy, where do you see yourself like doing or working? speaker-1: I probably would love to work in hockey. ⁓ I just have always loved hockey. Obviously, you know, the, the, roots, like I had mentioned about interviewing with Aaron, and getting the job basically because I was a goalie. ⁓ fun fact, the, the Scrub Daddy neon orange is inspired by not only from where Aaron went to, to, to school at Syracuse, but also at the time, the flyers, the Philadelphia flyers were wearing neon orange uniforms. And we kind of held the blue and yellow logo up against that orange. And we're like, OK, that's it. That's the orange that we want. So it would definitely be in hockey. What former fashion? I don't know. I haven't given it any thought. ⁓ But that would be where I would want to be. Because I just love hockey. I wouldn't be involved in it. speaker-0: So cool that you're giving me some inside ⁓ intel on the choice of color that's related to something you're passionate about. So I don't know if everybody gets that kind of information. Thank you, John. Let's go to Anaya. speaker-2: So for kids or anyone in particular who was to come up to you and ask you about how to start a business or motivation, what would be your advice to them? speaker-1: ⁓ I'd probably start by asking questions, right? So ⁓ to just blankly say like, ⁓ to go start a business, you should do this, this, and this. It's more about finding ⁓ what inspires that person or what motivates that person or what problem, really what problem they're trying to solve. ⁓ So I'd probably start with questions and then dive into it a little bit from there, right? Depending on what the motivation is. ⁓ But I think... probably if I had to, know, wrap it up into one thing would be find a problem you want to solve and see if other people have the same problem. And that's probably a good place to start. It doesn't need to be a product. It could be a product or service that solves that problem. speaker-0: That's right. If there's a problem, whether it's a product or a service, and you have a solution, that's the time to speak up and take those steps or find the people that can help you and help give you the right resources of encouragement to move forward with that. Great question, Anaya. All right, Max, you're up. speaker-2: In your long years of working in the job, have you found any surprisingly different challenges you found with your own teammates and coworkers? speaker-1: When you say long, I'm not that old to clear the air there. No, I think, and we talk about this often is really change, right? And so change is not easy. Change is not something that is, you know, one of the big things in business is always change management, right? And so the work changes when you go from being a company that does, you know, X amount of money a year to many multiples of that amount per year. The challenges, you know, the challenges change, the offices change, the way where your sitting changes, the scale in which the decisions that you're making change. And so I think that's probably the biggest thing is just like dealing and navigating with that change and then understanding that like, yes, I might be okay with a change for a certain thing, but that doesn't make it easy for somebody else to be okay with that change. And that understanding that like change takes time and it takes like consideration to say, yeah, this is a change and this is how it impacts that person. How can we be mindful to go, okay, let's get through this together. So yeah, really I think change is the biggest thing. speaker-0: And speaking of change, we're gonna shift gears here for ⁓ an opportunity for our students to kind of practice presenting themselves to a professional like you and sharing what their interests are and your opportunity, John, as we shared earlier, to just speak into them, whatever wisdom, whatever encouragement you have for them. So as I said earlier, is a senior, so he'll be graduating from high school in just a few weeks. So Miguel, go ahead and share with John what your next steps are. speaker-2: Yeah, so ⁓ as you said, Eileen, I'm going to be graduating in a couple of weeks. I plan to go to the Bucks County Community College for an associate's in biomedical sciences. And yeah, that's basically it. I do plan to do an internship this summer and an externship. speaker-1: Awesome. That's great. So you are a thousand levels above where I was at when I graduated high school. The day I graduated high school, the next day I was like, oh, I don't know what I'm doing. I have zero plans. It was like, maybe I'll go to school in the fall. Maybe I'll just go get a job. So you're way ahead of where I was at at your age. So best of luck at Bucks. Is this the one that's by the bridge? speaker-0: Thank speaker-2: necessary. speaker-7: We're five blocks from the Taconic Palmyra Bridge. You might be thinking of one of the other ⁓ schools which is on the other side of 95 from us, but we sit right along the high-speed train tracks at 95. speaker-1: Got it. Okay. Cause I drive by a school every day to get on the, on the, I take the, the Tacony Palmyra bridge every day. speaker-7: You quite possibly dogleg passed our school. ⁓ We said that major roadway. speaker-1: Okay. speaker-0: I love that. I love how local our guests can be to our students. And, you know, this is how opportunities continue to grow. we've had guests be able to stop by the school and actually see the students real life. And then the opposite, where our students have been able to go and visit some of the companies that have been been able to be guests. So thank you for making that connection there. speaker-1: You guys are more than welcome to stop by the headquarters and I'll give you guys the tour. speaker-0: Yes, you heard it right here in AccessCo Leaders. Y'all get to go and see the Scrub Daddy house. speaker-1: The headquarters, You can't promise that the daddy of the Scrub Daddy will be here when you visit as he travels quite frequently, but you can check out the headquarters for sure. speaker-0: That's right, but we've got the CIO on our side and that's just as great, if not better. We love that. Miguel, what's your follow on question for John? speaker-2: ⁓ There's one piece of advice ⁓ for me taking courses throughout the next two years and obviously I'm going to transfer afterwards. ⁓ What would it be? How do you keep your head in the game with all the work that can get piled up on you? speaker-1: think it's, it's your most important thing is going to be your time management, right? And figuring out what works best for you. So for me was, ⁓ the structured learning, like, okay, these things are due these days worked very well for me. when the, when the teachers did that, I knew exactly when to be handed in. ⁓ I got into a little bit of trouble when it was like open ended and I didn't set a deadline for the things. then kind of like, let it all, to your point, let it all pile up. So I would, my thing is, is figure out what works best for you and your time management. And when are those pockets of time that you find yourself being able to focus on your work. So for me, like I had mentioned earlier, it was Sunday mornings. I knew I could get up at eight, like get myself up, help get the boys ready for the day, and then just go nine o'clock. I'm in the, I'm at my computer doing my work until like two o'clock. basically treated it as a work day. Okay, this is my Sunday, I'm kind of losing the whole day, but that worked for me. I wasn't worried about work, I knew the kids were busy. ⁓ And so that's my advice is to figure out your time management and what works for you and then learn from it. So like I had mentioned, I was like, ⁓ I'll just do all those things at some point. And I found out like, okay, you're not good at that. You just set a deadline so that you're done these things on certain days. ⁓ so, and, and at the end of the day, like, Also figure out the cadence. So if you're like, I'm going to take four courses this semester. If that's too much for you, go take two and see how, how you do with two. Like I had for me, like I tried four at one point. was like, not a chance. I'm never doing that again. My sweet spot was two. One was like a little too ⁓ light for me. And two I found was, was just right. Like I was, I would look at the thing and my big thing was like, I would print out. the courses that I had to take to get my degree complete. And then at the end of that semester, I would get that like cathartic release of crossing it off, right? So it was like, these are all the courses that I need and I would cross it off. And then I could look at it and go, okay, I crossed off two this time. At one point I had just to take enough time to just take one course. I get to cross that one off. And so just be okay in the fact like if four is too much for you, like that's fine. Like you don't have a clock set to your life, like, need to set a goal for sure, but understand your goal can pivot. Like I got my associate's degree when I was, you know, 40. speaker-0: That's amazing. And you're still young, John. There's still much more time for you to, you know, go get more degrees and go invent some products there. And I want to encourage Miguel, I think that is fantastic that you're starting off at Bucks County Community College and you get to save money and, figure out, was just thinking, working backwards, where do you want to end up? What university, what are their requirements? And then like John said, having those blocks to check off. at the end of the semester. I got that done, I got that done. It's just one more closer to the university you are going to transfer to. So I'm excited for you, Miguel, and we're excited to see you come back. So thanks for that encouragement too, John. And let's go to Genevieve. Genevieve, do you have a follow-on question for John? speaker-2: So throughout your teenage years, how did you stay motivated over time and how did you manage stress? speaker-1: Managed my time was, would say I didn't stress very much in high school. Cause for me was like, I was okay getting a C or getting a B. Like I never stressed myself about my grades because I wanted to also like play sports. I wanted to go play football. I wanted to go do whatever I had to do to get to after school. Right. So I was not very stressed, I would say at school. ⁓ and then, yeah, I don't, I don't, yeah, I don't recall much stress during those, during those years. Cause I was, you know, work either working or playing sports or in school. And, know, I think the real stress, but I also didn't grow up in an era where like you guys with, with social media and the, stuff that happens in your, you're constantly not able to disconnect. Like when I left school, I didn't see anybody, right? And I didn't have to look at their pictures of what they were doing and whatnot. So you guys have a different experience than I do. ⁓ So it's, I don't know how helpful that is, but that, yeah, that was my experience. speaker-0: That's right. Well, Genevieve, why don't you share with John what your plans are? I know that it's different from Miguel with having an interest in healthcare. speaker-2: So I plan on being a NICU nurse, God willing, like after school. So I'd obviously go to college to get my bachelor's and associate's degree. And I plan on passing the NCLEX and getting more experience in a clinical view. speaker-1: Awesome. Well, best of luck to you. speaker-0: Yeah, so John, Genevieve is already currently shadowing different nurses in the hospital. Do you have at Scrub Daddy or any of the other companies that you've worked for, have you seen a difference in people who are in high school or in working in college and being able to have those opportunities to intern or just go in there and ask those questions in those different industries? speaker-1: ⁓ Yeah, so we have an internship program ⁓ and I think we've hired a bunch of people that have interned with us. ⁓ I will say, think one of the more important things about the interns that we've hired, they've also had other experiences, right? Not just a summer here and then they work here. They've worked other jobs. They've gotten a little bit more of an exposure. So I think what Genevieve's doing is amazing. go in, if you're able to shadow nurses and ⁓ you know, my grandmother ⁓ was a NICU nurse. So I very much appreciate that trade. speaker-0: That's good. That's good. know that that exposure, that diversity of exposure is so important. Thank you for speaking to that. Let's go over to Chris. Chris, you and Chris have a little bit in common there with having an interest in sports and athlete and being an athlete. So Chris, why don't you share with John what your interests are and what you plan to do after high school. speaker-2: After high school, I plan on ⁓ attending like I'm not really sure what university yet but to study like how to be an athletic trainer like sports medicine and and we really interest me like that religious interest me because you see like many star athletes in any sport they get hurt it like it's a big setback in their career there and they don't like perform the same speaker-1: Yeah, now that's awesome to have a job that you see that a career that you want to go do. That's cool. And so if there's a way that you can do something that's similar to what Genevieve's doing in Shadow, that I just finished up some physical therapy. And so I fully appreciate again that trade, right? Where I had some neck stuff going on and did physical therapy for like six, eight weeks. and I can feel the difference. So it's definitely a career that will improve people's lives. So good on you. speaker-0: I love that Chris at this age already knows that he wants to be in a sports industry, but not the athlete. He wants to support the athlete. And you kind of said that too, John, where if you weren't working at Scrub Daddy, you would probably do something with hockey. Not sure you're not the player at this point, but you would be something in speaker-1: At one point that was one of my, you know, I think maybe like in high school was like, if I had a dream job, my dream job would be the backup goalie for the Flyers. And I backup because I was like, if you're the backup, you don't really have the stress of like, if you go in and you do great, amazing. But if you go and you don't do that great, like people aren't stressing on you because you're the backup goalie. You're not the, you're not the number one. So. that was at one point, I like, that would be a cool job to have, because then could go play professional hockey and not really have as much stress. But obviously that never panned out. speaker-0: I feel like John, you grew up and thought, I'm going to figure out how to live my best life wherever I am. And you're really displaying that. I love it. ⁓ Let's go to Anaya. Anaya, why don't you share with John what your plans are after high school and what your interests are? speaker-2: After high school, I wanted to go straight to college and I wanted to study marketing for real estate and then also to be an advocate for kids on the spectrum. And my current hobbies, sometimes I got study for real estate and I like look into the stuff and I babysit some kids who are on the spectrum. So I kind of already have like an insight of like what goes on with the kids and how they act. speaker-1: That's awesome. That's, that's, ⁓ being the through line here of, of, of this group seems like they really care about helping other people, which is awesome. And, ⁓ it sounds like you're going to, you'll end up doing a bunch of different things and you should try all of those things. Don't, don't just dial into one experience them. So in high school, I was doing a culinary arts program and I was like, ⁓ I'm going to be a chef. Like I love to cook at home. This is going to be so much fun. And I went to a, ⁓ a hotel. speaker-3: I'm sitting. speaker-1: and I worked in the kitchen and very quickly I was like, you know what, I enjoy cooking as a hobby and not as a career, but I tried it, right? I went and I experienced that. And so ⁓ that's one of the things is like, you guys are all young, you're very young. ⁓ And even myself in my career, I'm young, go and do different things. So if you wanna do marketing, go try marketing. If you wanna go and be a nurse, go be a nurse. If you find out like, don't really enjoy this, it's not my thing. Like your job is what you're to be doing for the rest of your life. So go do something that you, that you enjoy. Right. ⁓ so yeah, try all, try all of those things and then whichever one fits best, ⁓ run with it. speaker-0: So you're speaking to the Tacony All-Star team. All these students are already so passionate about the things that they want to get into. And speaking of that, again, somebody who reminds me of the passion that you display, John, is Max. Max is somebody who is passionate about animals. I teased because the note I had for him when we first started was animals. So he's laughing. Max, share with John why you're so passionate about animals and what you plan on doing. speaker-2: Alright, so I come from a family- ⁓ my goodness speaker-0: They have an announcement going on. We'll just let it pause for a moment. speaker-1: good. speaker-0: And then Max can get out his giggles. Just animals. Hey, we're staying connected. One time we had a show and Comcast was working on their internet and they were dropping like flies. That was rough. It was rough. speaker-1: know from our side, our IT team works very hard and fast to make sure our system here is up and running. So I know we have some lightning fast connection speed on my end. speaker-4: and speaker-2: We're back. We're back. All right. So it's ever since like my entire family has been ⁓ like an animal family. So many pets and so many different animals we cared for from baby squirrels, baby birds, releasing them out. It's been like a very, very close thing to me. And I always wanted to help out any animal I could. So when it came down to it, speaker-0: Yes. speaker-2: I always wanted to help animals and I always want to be like part of like any like career that involved them. So I came to the decision I want to be at a vet. So as the years went on, I looked into more and more pre-vets programs and colleges toward colleges with them. And I work at a horse stable for right now actually. ⁓ And it's really, it's really fun in my opinion. speaker-1: Awesome. So, ⁓ I'll say, make sure you get up to date on your rabies shots, right? If you're going to work at the vet. ⁓ but yeah, now that's, that's incredible. And, and I think it's going to be for you finding out what part of the, the, the care you want to be involved in, right? Do you want to be, ⁓ giving medicine or do you want to be, ⁓ grooming, whatever the case may be, it sounds like you, you know, what it is you want to work in. So try different. try different things in that space wherever you can, right? And then you'll find what really inspires you, right? And what becomes easy to not feel like work, but feel like joy. speaker-0: Feel like Joy, you brought that up a few times now. I'm just curious now thinking, John, you have access to the whole team that creates products for Scrub Daddy. Do you ever see them creating anything to support animals? And even that direction that Max is going. speaker-1: So not right now, but there is, I think in the future, ⁓ there will be, we're launching some pet care products right now for cleaning. ⁓ That will be ⁓ as a partnership that we did with Pets Plus People. They're launching some items. I know ⁓ following that, as we look more into pet, they'll probably end up being some tools and some different things that we launched right now. We're focused on the bathroom and the kitchen still. speaker-3: So right. speaker-1: kind of some things that we can do there. But I definitely see that on the horizon. speaker-0: Let's go. I saw that the hands go up and the excitement in Max. Max, how does that make you feel? And what did you pick up from our conversation with John today? speaker-2: I, that makes me really happy that, scrub day really is a, you know, all around, not, not just caring for the humans, but also for every other species of animal. ⁓ but I think, one thing I learned out of this is that like, you have time to do like what you want. It's not like a clear road. Like sometimes it can take breaks and sometimes like things just don't go south, but. It's knowing the time that you have and using that time for learning purposes to go out your way to learn other things that you aren't known in or you want to learn more about. And that's something that I took away most about it. speaker-0: I love that Max. Anaya, we're coming back to you. What did you pick up in our conversation from John? speaker-2: What I picked up was that it's okay to try different things and that especially because you you're finding what you like because it's going to be something that you do long term and that just to stay motivated and keep doing what you're doing it's okay to try different things. speaker-0: Awesome, awesome. All right, Genevieve, you've been in our program this whole school year. How have these interviews helped you grow more confident in your leadership and your communication? speaker-2: So, sorry. So, yeah, it's gone. Okay. So, ⁓ I learned and like throughout the interviews is that it's okay to have different opinions like for your career and that over time your mind is going to change. So, yeah. speaker-0: We have an announcement. speaker-1: Yes, very much. that's okay. It's, it's normal. speaker-0: It's normal, it's okay, and you can still be successful. I love that. I love it. All right, Chris, what about you? How have these interviews helped you grow more confident in your leadership, your communication, or even just deciding in the direction you want to go in? speaker-2: Honestly, from all these other interviews, like I've been in the program for about what since the start of the school year, something like that. But I really enjoy talking to like all these different people really get to know like what backgrounds they came from. And despite like some of the backgrounds that people have came from, they always got like to achieve what they wanted to do. speaker-0: That's right. And they're successful and they show the joy and, you know, live in their best life like John. I love it. Then back over to Miguel. I've said it a few times. He's our senior. He has been doing these kinds of interviews for many years. Miguel, can you share with us ⁓ how these interviews have helped you grow confident in and communicating with professionals? speaker-2: There you go, sorry. The bell had to run. ⁓ Yeah, so I'd say with these interviews, it kind of just, it's like a reflex, you know what I mean? Like, at first I was kind of weary and I was very like, you know, scared and anxious, but talking with, you know, these people in different ⁓ sectors of, you know, the work field, it just comes naturally to me, comes as, like I said, as a reflex. And these interviews overall has not only shaped, you know, my communication skills, but I'd say me as a whole, so. speaker-0: That's awesome. All right, we have Mr. Smith back. ⁓ Mr. Smith, do you have any ⁓ final comments or a final question for John? speaker-7: wanted to thank John because I so often there's the two schools where it's you the students are like, what do I want to do? Then they have this goal mindset and it's like, I need to go to school first and then get the job. And you kind of flip that on on its head and you went and got a job and you grew from there and you went and sought out the education that you needed to help with whatever position you ended up at and built from there and then realized at, you know, when you got to it, hey, I'm close to a degree now. What, you know, what do I need to do to accomplish that? And you, let your career and your, do I dare say passion? Cause I know at first the passion was I want to make money so that I can afford to do things. then, and then it was, you know, and then it was, you know, well, I liked this company and I, the loyalty that I see to, you know, between you and, and your employer is that speaker-1: He did a new car, yeah. speaker-7: You know, they allowed you to grow. allowed you to make mistakes, but they also, you know, when you, when you felt like you needed to go and spread your wings somewhere else, you know, if it didn't work, it was, it was a place where you had established this repertoire with your boss that you could go back and, and, and you were welcomed back with open arms because you had developed that connection there. And I think that's huge because making connections and keeping those connections. you know, is always important and not burning bridges over, you know, over a decision to try something else. speaker-1: Yeah, that was definitely a pivotal ⁓ experience in my life was that, hey, I need to go try this and do this for myself at the school. And then it worked out that the guy that was the manager at the FedEx Kinkos took a weird stance on something and fired me. And I was like, let me go see what Aaron's up to. And was lucky enough that ⁓ they were working nights and I was free at nights. And it worked out. ⁓ I do want to backtrack to what you were mentioning about the path. ⁓ and for me was, it's not life advice, right? So it's not like, Hey, do this. Cause this worked for me. It's it ended up working out for me that I was able to get a job, work in a career and then supplement with the book learning, which I, I always say and stay to this day was more valuable to me to learned those things with the supplemental like I call book learning but school while I was working because then I was able to take those lessons and apply them immediately to work versus I feel like if I had got out of graduate high school went right to college I probably would have just zoomed through my classes just to get them done and not taken from those learnings what I what I did as an adult working so but that's my path that's what worked for me that's how it worked out for me now everyone's everyone's journey is going to be a little bit different. It's just keeping your head forward and saying, whatever you're doing, just keep working and go be the best at what you're doing. If you're working at a horse stable, go be the best whatever those jobs are. I don't know what those jobs are called, but go be the best one at that. Max, go kill it what you're doing there. Go be the best at that. Then whatever your next position is, go kill it. Go be the best of that. Maybe you don't end up liking it and go try something else. But at least go like give it your best effort because otherwise you don't know what really you could be missing out on learning. speaker-0: those, the potential and the opportunities. And you have been such a great display of being, being ready for that. And, you know, the biggest takeaway is just your effort and your attitude. So thank you so much, John, for joining us again for a great interview with our students. So John, the chief innovation officer from Scrub Daddy joined with our students from Tacony Academy, our all-star team, including Chris, Genevieve, Aniyah, Max, and Miguel. You've been listening to AccessCo Leaders, career conversations. We'll see you next time. speaker-1: Take care, thanks for having me.