Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Sonya Locke: The CEO Who Collects People Like Cookies and Builds Empires | Staffing Series

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Sonya Locke: The CEO Who Collects People Like Cookies and Builds Empires | Staffing Series · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
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where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
0:11
their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
0:14
adversity. My name is Anthony Cotespotti
0:17
and today's guest is Sonya Locke.
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She is the Chief Executive Officer of EDS Service
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Solutions, a human Capital Management and staffing
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solutions provider that focuses on helping businesses improve
0:31
operations and efficiency. Founded in 1996 with
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headquarters in Atlanta, GA, EDS Service Solutions uses
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proprietary technology and extensive talent acquisition
0:44
expertise to allow clients to concentrate on growth while
0:48
managing critical back end functions effectively.
0:52
Now, Sonia has received the Entrepreneur of the Year Award
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2023 Southeast Award from Ernst and Young, showcasing excellence
1:03
in innovation and strategic development.
1:05
Sonia brings a rich background in global strategy, previously
1:09
serving in leadership roles at Audio on Demand and managing
1:13
large scale projects as founder of Workforce Velocity.
1:18
She earned a Master's degree from Florida State University,
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further enhancing her strong leadership profile.
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We're going to learn more about her approach to leadership, her
1:27
take on innovation, and how she overcame challenges to reach new
1:30
heights. Now before we get into all that
1:33
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AD back benefits.com. All right, back to our guest
2:06
today, the CEO of EDS Service Solutions, Sonya Locke.
2:10
I appreciate you making the time to Share your story today.
2:14
Thank you, Anthony, and thank you for having me.
2:17
Looking forward. To our conversation.
2:18
Yeah, likewise. Let's jump right into it.
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So you've LED EDS since 2014 and you've got deep industry
2:27
experience. Maybe pick one of your roles
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along the way that you feel really helped to prepare you for
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the leadership role that you now hold at EDS.
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OK, Yeah. Do you mind if I digress way
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back to actually my education, which I feel like is a very
2:47
unique perspective on what what helped shape me to be ACEO in
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today's world. Oddly enough, I went to school
2:57
to become an art history professor and was getting my PhD
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to become a professor. Well, academia and art history,
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not artist, mind you, I don't do the drawing stuff.
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But really with art history, one of the things that I felt like
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it really taught me to be a great leader is you're really
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studying perspectives. You're studying what does
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something mean? You never had multiple choice
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questions. It was all about how can I give
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what the meaning of this is, how is impacting the community, how
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it's impacting the culture, what this artist or what these if
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we're looking at ancient, you know, what these communities
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were trying to say and how that impacted our lives.
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And, and so I, I think with that was really just a strong
3:45
foundation and not looking at the black and white and looking
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at the whole myriad and looking at different perspectives and
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how that makes us grow and innovate and overcome obstacles.
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And so I think a lot of that early came on with all the roles
4:04
that I've had. When I first started out, it was
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with during the Olympics and it was very traditional staffing
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grew very fast. We were in multiple markets.
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And really that focus was on recruiting the best, finding the
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very best possible talent. And from different sources, you
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know, when I was staffing for the Olympics, my, my first thing
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was going to the colleges and I'd sit down in the actual
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libraries or in the lunch rooms and recruit all these great
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colleges because what I could offer was flexibility to where
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they work Tuesday, Thursday or Monday, Wednesday, Friday.
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But they were smart. They were intelligent.
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They were, they were eager to work, but something that was not
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stressful. So it fit perfectly within an
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industry that had never seen people like that.
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You know, most of the especially in the car rental industry and
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the airports, it was more like day labor that would come and
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fill in. It wasn't like a strategic
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recruiting initiative. And with that, what changed was
5:13
everybody kind of had there was a major recession afterwards and
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everybody had kind of blown their money.
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And it wasn't more about just finding the right people, it was
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about strategically planning your workforce.
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Which recession? Are you referring to now?
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Well, multiple ones. There was one in 92 which kind
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of got me into that kind of space.
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And then more for Atlanta after the Olympics.
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A lot of companies, and you see that with every city when they
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have an Olympics, right? All this money is brought in,
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everybody's planning, all of that.
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But the companies a lot of times don't end up making what they
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invested to be prepared for such a world event.
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So and and so it was really in those late 90s and you had
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multiple ones that kind of went through.
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I think our generation was really plagued by seems like
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lots of little recessions, but it was more about that's when it
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was really discovering how to plan a workforce to optimize it,
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especially in highly volatile industries that are driven by
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customers demands that fluctuate daily, hourly and everything
6:20
else. So, you know, that's really what
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also prepared me more on the analytical side.
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I was always very, you know, research, analytical and
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actually very math inclined for some odd reason which.
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Is not the mix you would expect from, you know, somebody who had
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an art history background. No, no, I have no clue why.
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You've got this. Unique convergence.
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Of interests and talents, yeah. Yeah, I think it was just more,
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I think with data, it just kind of goes back to the inquisitive
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mind. I've always been a continuous
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learner. I always want to know everything
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and I dig into all of those different things and you know,
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data is one of our most key attributes to do that.
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So I think that both of those kind of experiences working with
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Strident and managing a company and seeing it go from not just I
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need people to, Oh my gosh, I need to really figure out how to
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have the people at the right time and not blow my budget and
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how to be more optimizing for clients.
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And so I think that both of those really prepared me for
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understanding our market, how best operational plans don't
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work without the right people in place and really valuing those
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different perspectives. You know, obviously I've had
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experience on the technology side and working in development
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and working in Europe, which has also gained a a really great
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experience even working with Audi.
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I work directly with the team in Germany and very different
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cultures and very different dynamics of of how business
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operates. And I really appreciated that
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was learning that there's so many different perspectives and
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bringing those together is really, I think as a leader,
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it's what empowers me the most because leading a large team
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like I do is understanding that you don't have one model, right?
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You don't have a square peg. You have.
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You're not. Choosing from AB and C&D
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answers, you're having to have a more fluid perspective on
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things. Exactly, exactly.
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And I always tell people that my greatest strength right now and
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as ACEO, that my purpose and my greatest ability is I'm a good
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collector of people. And I can bring these different,
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unique, diverse perspectives and talents together and hopefully
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lead them to to be unified and lead them with one purpose.
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And I think that that's really is my gift.
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I think with CEOs, they, they say there's three things that
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that that you have to be the master of.
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And that is culture, people and data, right?
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How do you blend those all together?
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And those are like your most important aspects, leading a
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company and helping it survive. I want to hear more about being
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a good collector of people. What advice can you give other
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folks who are like, oh, I'm terrible at that.
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Like what? You know what, what do you do to
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to be able to identify that the right talent to identify what
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seats they should be in And once you've got them, like how do you
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hold on to them? I think that that second part
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you said was the most important. What seats do they belong in?
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And a lot of times I've invented positions for so many people
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where I've interviewed them and I'm like, Nope, I know they need
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to be on my team. I just love their their inner
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drive, their inner excellence. I would say a lot of people like
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to be challenged to continuously learn, to continue to grow.
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And they have different talents, right?
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Some people are really, you know, they are more process
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driven. I want to, you know, this is
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what I want to do in my job. I can sit there.
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I mean, my programmers, how on earth they can look at a scream?
10:12
I have bought PHP for dubbies and every kind of book possible.
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And I was just like, OK, no, I don't have the patience for
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that, but I can learn how to hire the right people that have
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that and how to inspire them. So a lot of that is finding also
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the right seat. What what is their strength?
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What is their passion? Not not just a skill set, but
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what are they really good at? Are they good at, you know, my
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recruiters, they can talk, most of them can talk to anybody, but
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they also can listen and do they have a real drive of wanting to
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make those connections and helping people and helping
10:48
companies and they might be great at that respect.
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And then my operations managers, their, their drive is, is maybe
10:57
completing task, right? And having organization and
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saying this is, and we're going to optimize this and you know,
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finding those different talents and what is the right position
11:06
for that person. So that's where I say it's a
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good collector of people. It's all different
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personalities, all different diversities and giving them a
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way where their passion can meet their purpose so they can excel
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personally. So how can you get a sense from
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somebody if they have that inner drive to learn and to improve,
11:31
to get better? Because it sounds like that's
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kind of the first step for you. I don't know, I don't have like
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a set. It's not like a few questions.
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Sometimes it is, yeah. And a lot of times that's where
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I always have done my interviews more where it kind of goes just
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naturally kind of fact first, like, you know, OK, what's your
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basic qualifications type thing to really then more into the
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interpersonal right. And like what achievement did
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they achieve personally or in school or at a job that they
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felt the most proud of? You know, and I mean, I've asked
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things like if you could be a car, What Car would you be and
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why? I mean, like a lot of it is like
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understanding what is, what is their inner purpose and trying
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to make them feel comfortable to where they can have that
12:23
vulnerability to kind of give you their motivation.
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And yeah, so that's kind of how I, I, I like to really talk to
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somebody about them as a person. And I think that's where you can
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find, you know, do are they one of those people that like to be
12:40
constantly challenged, that like to be continuously learning, you
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know, or them or, and striving for that excellence.
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And they're going to put themselves to the point of
12:51
perfection, you know, and always see themselves as a failure
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because they like to have that challenge.
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But putting them into a position where they can grow from that
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and not overworking some of them, you know, not letting them
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like actually, one of my, my managers that has been with me
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for 13 years and she has been in every department of the company.
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And she is brilliant. And she is like my biggest
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success story because she has now developed her own.
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I mean, she's in charge of all of the talent acquisition to
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where I feel like she's built a company within a company, her
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own systems and her own culture and drive with her team, just
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how she communicates. And one of the things I've
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always said is I knew with her I would lose her the day I put her
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in a position where she wouldn't be able to master the task at
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hand, Put her in something that she would have no passion and
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she would feel like a failure. It didn't matter what you know
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what the position was or the money, but if I put her into a
13:54
point of failure, that was the biggest detriment because she is
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always going to disrupt and try to do something different and
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challenge herself and I need to give her free reign.
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That's the other thing I I knew is she has to be ownership of
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it, right? She had to see the challenge and
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figure out, OK, how am I going to do it, get the guidance, but
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have ownership to make mistakes and make the choices that she
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needs to make. She.
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Sounds like a real gem and. Oh, I have so many real gems.
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Yeah, and, and hearing you talk about that, I, I, I get what
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you're saying about you're a good collector of people because
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you're identifying what it is that she needs to be fulfilled
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and successful. Right.
14:36
Yeah. And then you're putting her in
14:37
those positions to do that, right?
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Yeah, some of them. They and, and one of my VPS, she
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used to one of her interview questions, which was one of our
14:47
favorites, was what kind of cookie are you?
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Is like a company is like a plate of cookies.
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You have sugar cookies, you might have the, you know,
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oatmeal Raisin, you have the chocolate, you know, it's like
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what, what was that? What kind of cookie are you and
15:02
why? And as a company, when you're
15:05
growing forward, you need that full plate of cookies.
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You need that variety for that diverse perspective and and
15:13
finding a safe environment where they can grow within what their
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their inner goals are, I would say.
15:22
OK. I want to get into EDS now.
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How and when did the opportunity to take over the reins there
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come about? Well, I came and took over the
15:32
reins around 2014 and when I came in, and this is where we
15:38
can also build about culture, it was more not just taking over
15:42
the reins, but really transforming a company.
15:46
They had a solid reputation, they had business, but really
15:51
what was kind of lacking at that point due to some turmoil for
15:55
the last couple of years, inner internal turmoil, which we'll
15:58
get to kind of later, it really didn't have that culture, right,
16:03
that that team culture. There was a lot of inner
16:05
competition. There was, you know, just kind
16:09
of like that, that leadership to where it was, you know, OK,
16:14
who's better than who, right? And it wasn't growing in a
16:19
forward motion. So I think that really was
16:21
transforming. It was really coming in there
16:23
and and helping building a culture that was one client
16:28
centric and it was excellence first and understanding what our
16:33
value was and how we were going to achieve that together where
16:36
one department was not above another department.
16:40
You know that that it's like a spoken wheel, how we can all
16:43
work together to make one that all of us are better than one of
16:47
us, right. And, and you know, prior to
16:51
that, I was really working on workforce velocity in Ireland
16:54
and then launching the Audi on demand mobility projects in your
16:58
end and in the US, which was really interesting.
17:02
So I think bringing those different perspectives of, you
17:06
know, with innovation and also with building a company from
17:10
scratch, which was what Audi on demand was, you know, no
17:13
employees. It was an idea, it was a concept
17:15
like how do we bring this concept to life was really kind
17:18
of some of what we brought in to EDS to take it to where it is
17:22
now and can successfully say that it's grown by leaps and
17:26
bounds incent so. I'd, I'd like if you can offer
17:30
some advice to our listeners on how you change the company
17:34
culture. Like I think company culture is
17:38
one of those things. It doesn't give enough get
17:40
enough credit for how important it is.
17:43
And I think it's challenging, but certainly much easier to, to
17:48
establish and to build in a new company.
17:51
But coming into an existing company that sort of has its way
17:55
of doing things and they weren't the way that you wanted them
18:00
done. Like turning that ship, you
18:03
know, in a different direction. It's a pretty big lift.
18:07
Like how did you accomplish that?
18:10
I think it was a lot of different things.
18:12
First of all, I think was transparency.
18:16
That was a real interesting shift.
18:18
You know, previous leadership was very closed in, you know,
18:21
kind of like said, have these little competitions, but nobody
18:24
really knew what the purpose was.
18:27
I was an open book. I mean, I let all of my leaders
18:30
was like, oh, do you want to see the PNL?
18:31
Here it is. Here's every single thing of it.
18:33
Here's how much I make. I mean, I was more of a team
18:36
player. I, I liked going into each role
18:39
to understand what the challenges were and, and also
18:43
really talking to everyone and saying, OK, I want to hear your
18:48
perspectives, what's good, what's bad?
18:50
What do you think your, your value is?
18:52
What do you think our value is? So I think with culture, there's
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a lot about communication and gathering everybody's feedback
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and perspective, you know, true 360, I think being transparent
19:05
and I think empowering people, empowering them to be the owner
19:10
of their own domain, right, versus these false competitions.
19:15
You know, I always told everybody that our biggest
19:17
competitor is our clients. If if we can do it better than
19:21
them, then we're providing a value, right?
19:25
And that's what our value is, is we are really good at hiring and
19:30
managing these variable hour workforces.
19:32
That is our specialty. We put everything in our
19:35
resources into it. I don't rent cars, I don't own a
19:38
hotel. I'm not good at those things or
19:41
I'm not trying to be those. I'm trying to help them succeed
19:45
by managing their most important work, their most important
19:48
asset, their human capital. So I think one of the other
19:51
things with culture is being purpose driven.
19:54
What is it that your company does right?
19:57
What are you good at? What is your value add and not
20:01
chasing profits for profit sakes.
20:04
You see a lot of people that they just, you know, will change
20:08
what their mindset or, or hey, I do this or I also do that
20:12
because they don't really have a this is what I'm good at and
20:15
this is how I'm going to become the best at that versus trying
20:20
to be everything to everybody and.
20:23
Just to get a sale or a dollar or a profit, if you're good at
20:28
what you do, profits will follow.
20:30
But you have to know what you do well first.
20:33
So I think that we built that kind of culture first of the
20:36
refinement and the transparency and the kind of empowerment of,
20:42
you know, building that that culture of pride.
20:45
They want to have pride in what they do and they want to feel
20:47
like they're listened to and they want to have value that
20:50
they're providing. And how do we bring that all
20:52
together in a for profit world right where it makes sense?
20:58
So let's talk about some of the things that you guys do well.
21:01
I mean you're in the staffing industry, but that's a huge
21:04
umbrella. You guys are pretty good sized
21:06
company. Like break it down for us in, in
21:09
easy terms like what, what is it?
21:11
What are the services that you provide?
21:13
So we provide more full business process outsourcing and
21:19
staffing. And what that really means is
21:22
with most of our companies, we specialize in the travel
21:24
industry, you know, think aviation, car rental,
21:27
hospitality, automotive and we provide the full workforce
21:33
solution. So we, we have many times we'll
21:35
take over a function of, of, of a location.
21:40
So think about for hospitality, we can take over the entire
21:42
housekeeping division. But what's different is we not
21:51
only do all the hiring and recruiting and but we actually
21:55
manage the people. We train the people, train them
21:57
on their particular brand. We have KPI managers that that
22:02
their job is actually building these optimized schedules for
22:06
all of these companies throughout the country.
22:09
So they talk to the managers every day.
22:11
And that's one reason why Workforce Velocity was was
22:15
developed. What it will do is like look at
22:17
all the patterns and create schedules based on an hourly KPI
22:22
for every function within that department to ensure that you
22:26
have the exact right number of people during that day.
22:30
So we might have some locations like like in Orlando, for
22:33
instance, our largest airport, we have over 700 employees.
22:38
They never leave the lot. We work for multiple brands
22:42
there on the car rental side. But we also have a management
22:45
team of about 30 and they're actually managing directing,
22:49
they're doing risk, they're doing, you know, the full giving
22:53
the operational plan of how they're going to move all those
22:56
cars because on the car rental. And the easy way to understand
23:00
is they they may rent 3000 cars, but there's 100 parking spaces
23:06
in that ready line. Our job is to move everything
23:09
behind the scenes to make sure those cars are already always
23:12
there. And that's where it takes a lot
23:15
of complexity with everything from dynamic labor schedules to
23:19
active recruiting to 6 Sigma and lean operational processes to
23:26
understand what's the best process to get from point A to
23:28
point B, when are those failure points and our technology to
23:32
really hone in how to do that correctly.
23:35
And all of those come together. And that's why we have our
23:38
different departments and managers, but we really look
23:40
holistically in partnership with our clients to build their
23:46
critical back end functions that are more labor specific, not
23:50
like IT or things like that, but more the critical functions like
23:54
said a kitchen or a housekeeping department or drivers and car
23:58
washers or baggage handling. Those critical functions that we
24:02
can put not only data, but our skill set with, with hiring and
24:07
training those teams. And and that's why we have
24:10
employees that may have worked for us for 10 to 15 years
24:12
because there are employees, we have our own culture, we have
24:15
our own management teams and they may move.
24:17
Within roles that some of your different clients but they still
24:21
stay with you. Yeah, since and most time we
24:24
don't move them within different roles and this serves
24:26
opportunity, opportunity for growth.
24:28
And you know, actually my regional managers, three of them
24:33
started out as drivers and over 10 years now they are running
24:37
like multiple States and multiple different locations and
24:41
taking that knowledge. So that promotion from within is
24:44
also a very important part with ours because we have such a
24:47
diverse workforce throughout and, you know, offering them
24:52
opportunity to provide insight and help with growth.
24:56
I I want to better understand what the software workforce
24:59
velocity does. Maybe let me start with this
25:02
question. What is meant by dynamic labor
25:04
staffing? Kind of what I was alluding to,
25:07
there's about 10,000 data points that are on the back end that
25:10
automates everything. So first of all, with Workforce
25:14
and it was built because there was nothing like it in the
25:17
market. It manages the whole employee
25:20
life cycle. So when someone applies, we have
25:24
them immediately kind of go to our web and they apply.
25:27
It will trigger, first of all, we call everybody.
25:29
So we called 225,000 candidates last year to actually personally
25:33
screen them and talk to them. But on the back end with
25:36
Workforce, that's when their whole application process starts
25:39
with the interview notes puts in and then it automates the entire
25:43
background what their availability is, which is key to
25:46
our success is, you know, understanding maybe they're only
25:51
available from 4:00 to 10:00 at night on Monday, Thursday and
25:55
Friday. Our schedules are based on.
25:59
It then takes these dynamic nodes of understanding all these
26:02
KPIs, the hourly patterns. So if you think about an airline
26:07
right, what times plane are coming in, how many people are
26:10
coming off the planes on the planes, it builds A dynamic
26:14
labor schedule based on optimized needs to fulfill all
26:19
the task functions within those hours.
26:22
So you know it it with COVID as you saw like said you went from
26:27
3000 to 30, you had a huge change, but the schedules
26:33
maintained. And with many of our clients, we
26:37
do transactional based pricing means that we can build their
26:40
labor work model for the year because it's all based on KPI
26:45
and these dynamic schedules with the same people and with the
26:49
right labor price to where say every time they rent a car, they
26:55
pay us a certain dollar amount per transaction.
26:57
But we manage everything from the management to the employee
27:02
risk to the compliance to everything to do it.
27:07
So if we are doing good and we've optimized our labor force
27:10
and they're hitting the productivity, then great, we're
27:14
on track. But to meet our SL as if I have
27:16
to staff more people or I fail and have too much overtime, then
27:22
we're kind of on the we're. Taking on some of that cost
27:24
responsibility. Exactly so it's a true
27:26
partnership, right Is both have skin in the game I.
27:30
Mean to do that, you've not only got to have a lot of your own
27:34
data points, you have to understand the data points of
27:38
your customer as well, right? And so we take in all of our
27:41
customers transactions. That's what creates the
27:43
patterns, that's what creates the hourly schedules.
27:46
I mean in terms of what their customer load is developed on
27:50
our own Lean 6 Sigma, here's the process, here's every support
27:54
position that works behind it. Then it also has time keeping
27:58
which has, you know, mobile and kiosks that are all, you know,
28:02
sensitive. So that actually goes into our
28:04
billing and our payroll and optimizes that.
28:09
And then of course a lot of data reporting and, and the automatic
28:12
scheduling. It can take what the employees
28:15
availabilities are with what the open schedules are to
28:18
automatically piece them together.
28:20
And you have full visibility into that employee.
28:22
You can see every position they've had, everywhere they've
28:25
worked, every hours, if they've showed up 5 minutes late or you
28:28
know, any types of notes. So holistically, you're always
28:32
seeing the workforce in real time and responding to it in
28:36
real time. You know, I can know right now
28:38
in LA if everybody showed up or if somebody called out or if
28:43
somebody's absent, we know instantly.
28:45
So we can fulfill that. And then with the optimization
28:49
on the back end, like with our payroll because it's all, you
28:53
know, real time and through tablets or mobiles and
28:57
everything on the ground. I have two people in payroll
29:02
that cut checks for 7000 variable hour employees every
29:05
week in a 2 1/2 day turn around managing every single state,
29:11
every airport, every state have different compliance standards
29:14
in terms of. Platform is also internal to
29:16
your software. Yes.
29:19
Well, not the platform, it goes into our accounting system, but
29:23
we actually calculate like there's different PTO laws in
29:26
every state. And with us working the airports
29:29
in California, every airport has different laws and different
29:33
overtime regulations blended overtime.
29:37
So somebody could work 5 positions in the same day,
29:40
right? But then their overtime is based
29:43
on their blended. So we had to create a lot of
29:48
different complex systems to manage all of that.
29:52
And and you already made the point you guys built this
29:54
because nothing like this existed at the time.
29:57
It sounds incredibly complex. Is is it only used?
30:01
You're like, Oh yeah, Oh yeah, we're and we're just scratching
30:04
the surface, buddy. And so is EDS the only company
30:08
that is using it or do you also license it to others?
30:14
Right now we've used it internally.
30:15
We want to go public with it. Like I said, we just did a UIUX.
30:20
We have been audited and submitted for awards because of
30:24
the revolutionary part of the technology.
30:28
But EDS has grown kind of by leaps and bounds.
30:31
So that's kind of a whole different animal as a tech
30:34
animal. So that's kind of that's a, a
30:37
push to a later date and it's our competitive advantage.
30:42
I mean, there's no one that has a market like.
30:45
This so. And.
30:47
Even in the time since you've developed it, have you seen
30:50
anything else or heard of something else that's doing
30:53
something remotely close to it? They a lot of them will handle
30:57
like parts of it OK, but not all in one system, which is also so
31:01
key for that transparency and that communication is there's
31:06
very few that you can see the whole dynamics of your
31:10
workforce. And we also have performance
31:12
tracking like especially with our drivers.
31:14
We have a large automotive contract where we do all of the
31:17
service delivery and 42 states picking them up at customers.
31:21
And we can see if that person speed, we can see what where
31:26
they're at, what time and track it so that we can offer the best
31:29
customer service as well as optimize making sure that
31:33
they're they do have the right labor for what their needs are
31:36
and their timing. So it's constantly evolving and
31:40
we're constantly pushing it to new limits.
31:43
I wonder if there's maybe a specific case study that you can
31:46
talk about, a specific client example where sort of this
31:49
confluence of your skills that EDS and workforce velocity came
31:54
together to solve a particularly, you know,
31:57
challenging employment situation for someone.
32:01
Yes, and many different ones. Like I said, it's always kind of
32:05
hand in hand with with with how we approach a client or a
32:11
location. I would say right now Orlando is
32:14
one of them is a very interesting dynamic market.
32:18
I'm not sure if you've ever, ever been to Orlando's airport,
32:21
but it's huge and there's three separate terminals and it's the
32:26
largest car rental operations in the world.
32:30
We will rent I believe, I think combined with all of our
32:35
different clients. Sometimes I want to say it's
32:38
about 20,000 a week and we have over 600 employees.
32:44
And we've been deploying actually a system on the on the
32:48
airport, which was also a challenge where we actually are
32:50
checking every single move that is less than a minute from every
32:56
employee and then in those garages.
32:59
So one help identify defective moves also to have that
33:02
visibility of where the. Being like moving the car from
33:06
here to there, not the person themselves moving around.
33:11
The person's moving themselves around and then they use the
33:14
technology to actually track that move into that car so they
33:17
can see where it's going at all times to give better visibility
33:21
to have the cars where they need to be for the clients and
33:24
what's. The defective move in this
33:25
example then. A defective move Well, there's a
33:29
couple of different ones. Say you have a car that's or
33:34
multiple cars, you don't have enough cars in terminal A, they
33:38
need to be in terminal B. Or you have a car that has
33:40
maintenance that didn't get checked in as maintenance.
33:42
So then it's there for rent, but you can't rent it right?
33:45
So then now you have to go pick it up, move it all over again.
33:48
There's a lot of different ways you can have defective moves
33:51
where you're having to move a car two or three times for no
33:54
reason, right? And that of course fails in your
33:57
optimization and everything else.
33:59
But the biggest thing is what we were able to do with that is
34:02
when we took over for the one of our particular clients there, we
34:06
literally had a week's notice to hire, train and deploy 400 new
34:13
employees. That's a pretty unreasonable
34:17
expectation, but. We were able to because like I
34:19
said, my recruiting team is like a powerhouse.
34:22
They they last year alone, like I said, they called 225,000
34:27
candidates. So they are mobilized getting
34:30
all the different talent in there recruiting it fast hiring.
34:34
If you know someone's background is clean, we can sometimes get
34:38
some someone hired within a 24 hour process after they've been
34:42
interviewed, in person, background check, fully
34:45
compliant, all on because all of their paperwork still leaves
34:49
enough time for them to get. Trained for this new position
34:52
exactly. Because we could be bringing
34:54
those in there. Then we have our operations team
34:56
that is training them on the operation, setting up
34:59
orientations, going out there with driving with them, making
35:02
sure they're safe. So it's like so many different
35:04
compartments and it's all in one system.
35:06
So we're able to see everything visibly, right and what those
35:10
schedules are and the needs. And then my KPI managers are
35:14
managing all those moves and all those different predictions and
35:17
creating the schedules that's been pushed out that's
35:21
automatically drag and drop. And then of course, like I said,
35:24
all the way down to payroll to where that next week they're
35:26
getting paid. But yeah, so technology is a
35:31
great enabler. It doesn't replace the personal
35:35
aspect, but it enables us to be much faster and better and more
35:40
streamline and better communication and transparency
35:45
between multiple different divisions and departments.
35:48
Give us an. Idea of the size of the
35:50
operation, whether in terms of employees or locations or or
35:54
something, we can kind of wrap our arms around it.
35:57
I think we're about 100. And 51 locations across 35 maybe
36:03
more states. We, we, we open places sometimes
36:06
very quickly. And also with our technology
36:09
during COVID, we were able to do remote recruiting for our
36:12
clients. I forgot about that.
36:13
And very odd places, you know, like in the middle of nowhere to
36:20
where we could actually recruit, do the Zoom interviews, talk to
36:23
the person, get everything done, put them in a client and still
36:26
manage them ourselves. But that was that's challenge.
36:30
So I think we're about about 148 maybe locations right now and
36:34
around 7000 employees. And are these all?
36:38
Corporate owned or is it a franchise system?
36:41
No, they're all. Corporate owned all W2 all
36:44
completely yeah, complying across every single state.
36:49
So yes, what do you think has? Allowed for such significant
36:56
growth, what's what's sort of your your secret sauce and being
37:00
able to expand as much as you have.
37:04
Well, you want to hear one thing that's really interesting and
37:06
everybody really laughs at this is the fact that two years about
37:11
a year ago before we relaunched our website, if you typed in EDS
37:15
service solutions, you would not find our website because we had
37:20
zero SEO. So we have never done outside
37:25
sales and marketing. We have very core clients
37:28
you're. Going to have to repeat that we
37:33
had never done. Outside sales and marketing, it
37:37
has been very partnership driven.
37:39
We've had select clients where we have gone on nationwide to
37:45
open and facilitate locations for them out of this trust and
37:49
partnership. And that's kind of how we built
37:54
our, our, our, our network and our structure and our growth.
37:58
So very purpose driven and having strategic partners like
38:02
that requires you to have a good value on what you do right and
38:08
to be excellent at what you do. That's why we have high service
38:11
levels and good operations managers that are constantly
38:16
communicating and really embedding themselves in their
38:18
client success. So I think a lot of our success
38:23
kind of comes from our core values of integrity and trust,
38:27
you know, excellence in recruiting, meaning also to our
38:32
managers and who we hire and you know, how we retain them and
38:36
reward them and you know, build them for success.
38:40
And you know, trust and integrity within everything that
38:45
we do and innovation constantly changing, constantly pushing
38:50
what we need to do next. So I think with growth is a lot
38:53
of purpose, but synergizing together and with our strategic
38:57
partners like our clients and treating them as not a
39:01
transaction, but as a true partnership to help them help
39:05
them succeed has really enabled our growth.
39:08
So when you say strategic. Partner, you're referring to
39:13
larger companies that have needs and locations in multiple
39:18
states, multiple cities. Is that what I'm hearing?
39:21
OK, right. So like we operate in.
39:23
Like all of the top 30 airports, but across multiple different
39:27
brands. So, but that had to take some
39:31
kind of. Sales, marketing, business
39:33
development effort or is is that what you do?
39:37
Oh well, kind. Of I mean like we have our
39:40
quarterly meetings and we discussed with them, but also
39:43
our reputation is what has grown us into all the different
39:48
markets. So when when they have an issue
39:53
at a location, you know, they know they can call us.
39:56
Like for instance, the Orlando situation, that's why we got a
39:59
one week notice is they were in a major bind.
40:03
Their previous vendor failed and you know, was not very
40:09
scrupulous with them and. You know, so they called us and
40:13
we made it happen. So I feel like there.
40:16
Is a master class in the works here that like there's, there's
40:22
something to your process that you probably want to keep to
40:26
yourself, but I think a lot of folks would benefit from because
40:30
to, to not have an, you know, a sales and marketing team and to
40:34
get to the level getting one now.
40:37
As we're branching out more, so that's been kind of our
40:40
challenges is like, you know, it is relatively new for us.
40:44
You know we've been very successful with our model and
40:46
that's good, but there's a lot of other opportunities that
40:51
really fit within our wheelhouse and we know that and that's
40:54
where it's really been more. So now this is where the.
40:57
Innovation comes in, you guys need to improve, you need to be
41:00
nimble and and willing to change, right?
41:04
I'd like. To shift gears, Sonia and I'd
41:06
like to ask you about a serious challenge that you've overcome
41:10
in your life. What was it?
41:12
How did you get through it? What were some lessons that you
41:15
learned? I think there were several,
41:21
several challenges and always several lessons.
41:25
You know, when I discussed about taking the reins BDS, my partner
41:30
who had been since college days was was my ex-husband went
41:36
through a very terminus divorce, took 2 1/2 years, really kind of
41:39
tore the company apart. Just a lot of extent.
41:43
I was kind of written off. I mean literally had my name
41:46
stricken as I did not exist and had a fight for everything back.
41:52
And so it came down to two days before going to court and
41:57
figuring out, you know, I could either sign a 10 year non
42:01
compete Pete and go drink Pina coladas on the beach or I could
42:05
take the risk and pay absorbent amount of money per month that
42:10
was non bankruptible, non tax free to take over everything and
42:15
took the choice came in. We were negative EBITDA by a
42:21
lot. As I said, no company culture
42:26
kind of US versus them, very distrustful type system and
42:32
basically kind of felt like building the the company back
42:34
from scratch. And that's where I kind of go
42:36
with that. That trust and transparency
42:40
being kind of a a cornerstone and building that culture.
42:43
To me that was the most important is what, what do we
42:46
stand for? How are we going to get there?
42:48
And had a simple goal of saying, OK, five years, 50 million,
42:54
that's what we're going to get. We did it in 2 1/2.
42:59
But a lot of it was our team really we, we kind of broke down
43:03
those barriers like got rid of that inner competition.
43:06
And I listened to my instincts, I would say.
43:10
And one of the things that I, I kind of talk about it on some of
43:15
these other journeys is I've always been a hard worker and
43:20
I've always been very empathetic.
43:21
And but I was not seen as that kind of pound my chest like, you
43:28
know, Hey, we're going to get this done and, you know, heck
43:31
with everybody or that, you know, do anything to to get by
43:35
or to succeed type thing. And really almost embracing that
43:40
and saying, no, I, I can do this.
43:42
It's scary. But some of my skills of being
43:46
trusting to people are being overly empathetic and really
43:50
kind of weighing out all the options and not making rash, you
43:54
know, move this way, move that way.
43:55
And, and following stereotype is really kind of how we built the
44:01
company and built it to where it was more authentic and kind of
44:05
celebrating that a little bit more and realizing that every
44:08
leader is different. And how do you find what your
44:11
superpower is to help lead and, and bringing that forward.
44:15
So I would say that was a big challenge that we learned a lot
44:19
from. And like I said, I think it was
44:20
learning a lot from everybody learned from each other.
44:24
Recruiting was just as important as operations or our sales as we
44:29
would call it, like our, our main account managers and stuff
44:32
like that. Equally important, same as our
44:34
support without the people in the back end doing, you know,
44:38
risk or accounting or payroll, you know, nobody gets paid.
44:42
It's not actually, I mean, they're all equal pillars and
44:45
they all have to work together and be valued as such and have
44:48
an equal seat at the table to, to learn to grow a company.
44:52
So I think that was a lot of the lessons that I learned on that
44:55
side. What did you see in the?
44:57
Company at that time that made you want to take this giant
45:01
risk. All right, you could be sipping
45:04
pina coladas. You can.
45:06
Pay a whole lot of money and take over what sounds like a
45:11
sinking ship. I mean you.
45:12
Oh yeah, there was so many. Crying moments, right?
45:17
Come home and go, Oh my God, what did I do?
45:21
And I was raising two kids and I had no salary at the time.
45:24
So it was it was a challenging time.
45:26
And and I will tell you, and I know this sounds very cliche,
45:29
but the one thing I saw was the people and it was the same
45:33
people that are with me today. And it was the power of what we
45:38
could do. I knew what our greatness was.
45:40
I knew the hunger and the different people of being
45:44
excellent and fine tuning them. It was also my technology that
45:48
was built from, you know, brainchilds from the beginning,
45:52
knowing what that that power was and realizing that that was an
45:58
investment and we can do that and do this.
46:00
And, you know, we had to go build relationships with our
46:03
clients. Again, we didn't have a lot of
46:05
that client trust because it was very disjointed and really going
46:09
in and partnering with our clients and, and stating, you
46:13
know, what we are going to do to be of value to them and how to
46:17
be a good partner and listening to them and, you know, aligning
46:20
with them. So it was a big risk, but I
46:24
think that's kind of what most entrepreneurs do is they have
46:27
that power to know, hey, I've got something good here.
46:31
I have got good people, I've got good intentions.
46:35
We have a good value with with all of our different skill sets,
46:40
and we can succeed if we're all working on the same team with
46:45
the same beliefs. How long before?
46:48
You felt like you had turned things around.
46:51
I would say it was really it was about less than a year in
46:58
because we got a huge RFP with a client and 46 cities and we had
47:04
to take some real big gambles knowing the prices.
47:07
It's really low because it was a very competitive for like 10
47:10
different ones in and it was kind of that foot in the ground
47:13
to where it was like, OK, we can either be extremely competitive
47:20
and get the markets that we want knowing that we might not make
47:23
as much profit is because these are transactional based, you
47:27
know, some of them could be lost leaders, but we had to provide
47:30
the service, right. We couldn't just go and say no,
47:33
we're going to make profit only. We had to take all of these
47:35
locations, take that risk, and we succeeded.
47:41
And that really helped us propel our growth because we opened
47:44
like, I think it was 20 locations.
47:46
I mean, I think most of my staff wanted to pull their hair out
47:49
and they were really angry at me at the time because I was like,
47:51
no, we can do it. But I do have a couple of those
47:54
disruptors on my team as well that all they have to say is
47:56
like, let's go. And you know, they say, Oh yeah,
47:59
we can do it all the same day. Sure, we can do it.
48:04
So. I want to hear.
48:05
About. How you got through sort of the
48:08
personal and the emotional component of this long divorce.
48:14
You've got kids not taking a salary, you've jumped into a, a
48:19
company that, you know, jumped in to take over the reins at a,
48:23
at a company that is losing money and you're committed to
48:28
paying your, your partner, your ex-husband, regardless of what
48:32
happens, you know, going forward.
48:34
Like where did you get emotional and mental support through all
48:40
of this To surrounding myself with the.
48:44
Right, people, I would say, I would say one like attracts like
48:49
I'd say my HR director who's also kind of my friend she was
48:55
with me through both sides She was on the Audi side.
48:57
I tricked her into coming to the EDS side.
49:01
But yeah, she, you know, like I said, somebody that was there
49:05
that supported you, that also listened and and talked, that
49:09
was important. Surrounding yourself with people
49:11
that have the same the same mindset and that support system.
49:15
You know, it does take a village a lot of times and I think
49:19
that's one of them. And then I think also too, it
49:21
was coming to a realization and and it comes to my favorite
49:24
quote, which I know that was one of yours later, is that I never
49:29
lose. I either win or learn.
49:31
There's something I know I'm going to learn from that
49:32
experience. And I also know I, I survived.
49:37
I survived and I always am going to survive.
49:39
So it might have some difficult time periods, but I know that I
49:42
Will Survive. And that's really about just
49:45
being happy with the journey and figuring out what challenges can
49:48
I overcome, what problems can we overcome and how do we lead it
49:51
there? And, and, you know, trying to
49:55
ride other people along with you, because if, if you have a
49:58
team of you working to that same thing, that does help.
50:01
So I, I, I would say, like said personally, I grew a lot and a
50:05
lot of my people that work for me are also my friends.
50:08
I travel with them, I do things with them because we did go
50:11
through the trenches together, I would say.
50:15
So I, I think there's a lot of lessons on that.
50:18
And, and like I said, just looking at life, that there is a
50:21
journey and you know, what is it?
50:24
You can either cry in the rain or or wait.
50:27
Cry in the storm or dance in the rain is what you choose to do
50:30
with it. So I think just having that
50:33
outlook and yesterday was one day and tomorrow is another.
50:36
I like that. Yeah, there's something to be
50:38
said. You know, you and you know, many
50:41
of your team members went through kind of a real life
50:46
hazing together, like, oh, yes. And there's something about
50:49
going through those hardships and coming out together that can
50:53
just bring you together in a stronger way.
50:56
And I will say. COVID was the other huge
50:59
challenge. We knew it was going to be bad.
51:01
I'd lived through 911 working in the travel industry, so I knew
51:04
about some. But COVID was a whole different
51:06
ball game because at that point we had like about 4000 employees
51:10
coast to coast that are RW2 employees.
51:13
And we had a 95% drop overnight and 95% drop.
51:20
And like I said, we we're still contracted with all these
51:23
places. We are running these
51:24
departments. It's not like we could just say,
51:26
OK, we're going to take a vacation for a while and come
51:29
back. We were essential workers.
51:31
And that was a very trying time for all of our leadership team.
51:36
I think we worked longer and harder for nothing than we ever
51:40
have. I mean, we were working at least
51:43
80 hours weeks. We were calling, we were having
51:45
phone calls every morning and afternoon discussing every city,
51:49
every employee because one, we, we knew we had to save our
51:52
management team. We had to support our clients.
51:55
We were having to kind of create safety programs.
51:59
Like there was nothing for it. I mean, you know, they didn't
52:02
have sanitizer. I mean, like you, you couldn't
52:04
go to the airport when we were getting zep like and pallet
52:08
jacks delivered to my HR director's house, you know, to
52:11
try to protect our employees. I mean, we had a lot of
52:14
different focus and I think that was another great thing for our
52:17
team. And where we were so strong is,
52:20
you know, it was being resourceful and it was being
52:25
innovative and understanding what our focuses were at that
52:28
time. And you know, counting down my
52:30
burn rate, right, like, OK, how long are we going to survive
52:33
with a 95% revenue drop? And an amazing thing happened
52:40
from that was we ended up growing during that like yes,
52:47
because with one of our clients actually we had several clients
52:51
went bankrupt. But with one of our clients,
52:53
because of our partnership with them and because we did maintain
52:57
our service and we were, like I said, we were really there, we
53:02
ended up gaining additional locations because we became
53:07
their essential supplier coming out of COVID.
53:10
As things starting to open. Back.
53:12
Up. That's when you guys saw the
53:14
growth, yeah. So between 20 and 22, I think we
53:21
experienced 11189% growth, which was also very much kind of the
53:29
RIP lash effect, right, like this.
53:32
And then back up. Yeah, wow.
53:35
Awesome. But I think that's where you
53:38
gain from different perspectives and everybody learning to be
53:41
innovative and coming up with some ideas and working together
53:43
as a team and communicating and being transparent.
53:47
I want to talk about something else.
53:48
Impressive, Your 2023 EY Entrepreneur of the Year SE
53:54
award. How did that come about?
53:57
That was also I. I still don't know exactly
54:01
because that wasn't the time when you couldn't find my
54:03
website. And when I worked for Audi, it
54:06
was so hush hush when we were in the pilot phase that my LinkedIn
54:10
actually said anonymous. So I mean, I have my name, but
54:15
it says company was anonymous. I mean, we've always been behind
54:18
the scenes and very comfortable with that.
54:20
So but I got nominated and then got brought into the program,
54:25
went through all the interview things and I will tell you it is
54:29
the most rewarding and most humbling program I've ever been
54:33
a part of. Because it's not about numbers
54:36
necessarily. It's it's about, you know,
54:40
what's your entrepreneurial spirit?
54:42
Have you overcome adversity? How have you done that and how
54:45
have you improved? What is your purpose?
54:47
You know, how do you lead with purpose, with, with what impact
54:51
do you make? You know what impact you make on
54:52
your community, on your company, on your employees?
54:55
You know, what impact do you really make and, and innovation
55:00
and, and actually really interesting is this year.
55:03
I'm a judge with the program and I was up until about 3:00 last
55:07
night. I'm probably not the most
55:09
efficient judge because I have read everything and I'm just
55:11
like so inspired by these companies and I was like
55:14
everyone of them I read. I'm like, Oh my God, that I love
55:16
that, you know, and you know, just really digging into it.
55:19
But no, it's a great program because it really rewards more
55:23
than just, you know, how'd you do, what's your growth and stuff
55:28
like that. But really, what is it that you,
55:30
what is the long standing value that you can provide?
55:35
And, and that's a hard thing to do.
55:37
How can you lead A-Team right and make and and have true
55:42
purpose that that you can articulate and motivate others
55:49
around you to believe and and to follow right?
55:55
What's a book or podcast, maybe a course that you've taken that
55:59
was particularly helpful for you that you'd recommend to others?
56:02
Sonia Oh gosh, there's. So many and, and I I'm now
56:07
struggle to to read, but actually at my last leadership
56:10
conference, I bought 20 different books and laid them
56:15
all out on the table and said, everybody you know, here is, you
56:18
know, grab them. It was everything from from, you
56:21
know, to good to great, which was a, a great book that I still
56:25
love teaching based on because it a lot talks a lot about the
56:28
right seat on the bus and, and valuing that to everything I
56:32
learned, I learned in kindergarten.
56:33
You know, there's a lot of new ones and old ones you know a lot
56:37
about. So I, I'm not sure if I could
56:40
say 1. I I I really I am AI am always
56:46
thirst, you know, thirsty for more knowledge and stuff.
56:50
And AI has been a complete game changer in that respect for sure
56:55
with their deep research. Although their deep research is
56:57
writing me like encyclopedias as I get like, like, tell me, how
57:01
are you using? It how is it helpful to you?
57:05
A lot of it is as a thought leader and actually that was one
57:08
thing I did have and I would say it was a game changer at the EY
57:13
Summit, which is an inspiring summit to go to.
57:17
Like the leaders that come in, the thought panels, the
57:20
networking, It's always inspires me and I learned so much from
57:24
them. But the president of Concera had
57:27
a course on generative AI for the CEO and I believe they have
57:32
a Concera course online as well with it.
57:35
And it talks about using generate AI as a thought leader
57:39
to bounce ideas back on to, to, to you really have to know how
57:44
to prompt. But one of the questions that he
57:47
had us asked or he he's challenged us with, and it was
57:51
really scary is just go to ChatGPT, if that's what you use
57:55
and say, who am I? Nothing more.
57:58
And see if it actually answers somewhat correctly about you as
58:02
a person, not just your online profile, which it was scary.
58:05
It had it all down to my work like balance needs.
58:09
And what if you fed it up to that?
58:11
.0 a lot. OK.
58:13
I talk to it a lot, OK. And there's a lot of dialogue, a
58:17
lot of asking. Questions and Yep, OK, so and
58:19
then as to how can I be more? Successful and it gave me a 15
58:25
point thing in terms of both business and personal on how I
58:32
could personally grow and be more successful.
58:34
It was really that was really kind of, I would say something
58:38
inspiring as far as that's concerned.
58:40
And and that's where I do use it more and it takes me.
58:43
I'm not quick with AII don't like say hey, write this for me.
58:47
I'll go back and forth. I apologize to it all the time.
58:52
I'll say, no, I'm sorry. I did not mean that I'd like
58:55
that, but it's good to always practice your manners.
58:57
Yeah, yes, exactly. But no, there's just so much,
59:02
you know, and on podcast, you know, I've learned a lot from a
59:04
lot of different podcasts, you know, just listening to
59:07
different inspirations and different Nuggets.
59:10
I think it's just very powerful and you know, so I don't know if
59:15
I could say one. I'm sorry.
59:16
I think it was a great answer and I think he just.
59:18
Gave certainly myself, I'm sure a lot of our listeners to an
59:22
idea of the next thing that they're going to type in the
59:24
ChatGPT and I think that could be so many people do that and
59:27
they. Freak out there was a big if you
59:31
use it. A lot.
59:31
You're like. Whoa, I had.
59:36
A couple of friends a while back who were like, oh, type this
59:39
prompt in. It was basically like asking the
59:43
the large language model to construct a picture of how it
59:48
views myself and and what I do. And it was, it was a little
59:55
creepy slash eerie. And, and it, it did a pretty
1:00:00
good job, you know, based on the, the dialogues that we've,
1:00:03
we've had. And so now I'm, I'm really
1:00:05
curious to, to feed in your questions there.
1:00:07
Who am I and how can I be more successful?
1:00:09
And I think that would be lightning.
1:00:11
I bet you'll get some. Really interesting response and
1:00:13
it will be a little creepy, yes. Like staring into my soul kind
1:00:18
of a thing. Sonia, I just have one more
1:00:22
question for you. But before I ask it, I want to
1:00:23
do 2 things. First of all, I'm going to
1:00:26
invite all our listeners to hit the follow button on their
1:00:29
favorite podcast app so you can continue to get more great
1:00:33
interviews like we've had today with Sonya Locke, the CEO of EDS
1:00:37
Service Solutions. I also want to let people know
1:00:40
either the best way to get in touch with you directly or to
1:00:43
follow your story or that of EDS.
1:00:46
What would that be? Well, I.
1:00:49
Have a couple of different things.
1:00:50
First of all, I actually am starting a passion project of
1:00:52
mine and I'm launching my own podcast.
1:00:55
First episode airs Monday. Oh, terrific.
1:00:58
What's the name? Spark.
1:00:59
Spark sessions with Sonia Locke. It's a series of fireside chats
1:01:04
with different women leaders or, you know, inspirational
1:01:10
motivators talking about a lot of different, like my first
1:01:14
episode is based on generational differences and I have three
1:01:17
women from Gen. X, Gen.
1:01:19
Y and Gen. Z talking about the different
1:01:22
motivations, the different aspects of purpose within each
1:01:26
one of them and how working with a multi, you know, generational
1:01:30
workforce. Cause today there's six
1:01:32
generations in the workforce, which has never happened in
1:01:35
history, which is fascinating to me.
1:01:37
I mean, it's just so a lot of different topics like that that
1:01:40
impact women. It's not like a business type
1:01:43
podcast exactly, but it really is.
1:01:45
I look at different inspirational leaders and we
1:01:48
have a fireside chat and kind of discuss, you know, topics of
1:01:53
relevance and hopefully passing on inspiration to the next
1:01:56
generation. Also, you can go to
1:02:00
edsservicesolutions.com or my LinkedIn or our company's
1:02:05
LinkedIn for edsservicesolutions.com.
1:02:07
We are much better with that. And actually you've got a lot of
1:02:09
thought articles like that's one of the things that we've really
1:02:11
been honing in on is like talking about topics and
1:02:15
research and you know, things that are important to the
1:02:17
industries that we serve to our community at whole or to the
1:02:21
workforce and and really inspiring on that.
1:02:24
So the podcast. Sparked Sessions, Is it going to
1:02:27
have its own website? Can people find it on spot?
1:02:30
Like how do people access it when it comes out?
1:02:32
Because by the time this podcast goes live, you will have already
1:02:36
published it will be on. It does have its own website
1:02:39
which I believe is called sparksessions.com or you can
1:02:41
follow it from my website sonyalocke.com and it will also
1:02:48
be on Apple and Spotify. Great and.
1:02:51
We'll make sure that we spark sessions with Sonya.
1:02:53
Locke, like I said, we launch it next week, OK, but.
1:02:58
OK. We'll make sure we find the
1:02:59
links and we include them and obviously on.
1:03:02
Linkedinedsservicesolutions.com We we kind of keep up to date
1:03:05
with all of that. Gotcha.
1:03:06
OK. So last question, as you look to
1:03:09
the future, Sonya, what are the changes in your business that
1:03:14
you're most excited about here in the next two to three years?
1:03:18
Well, I think. You know, I've had a lot of
1:03:20
conversation. I get called with robocalls and
1:03:24
AI for recruiting, which I can give you.
1:03:27
That's too long conversation for me to tell you why that does not
1:03:30
work. There is a place for AI, but
1:03:34
it's not in the people business. So I think, you know, you're
1:03:38
seeing a big change in the workforce.
1:03:41
It's it's much more of a conversation.
1:03:43
It's not it, it's not the traditional path.
1:03:48
You're seeing a lot of people trying to grasp that like how
1:03:50
does how do I get people to work?
1:03:52
You know, we've had the great resignation.
1:03:53
We've had, you know, the changes since COVID and everything like
1:03:58
that. People do want to work, but they
1:03:59
want purpose. And there's a mix between how do
1:04:02
employers really match with employees and understanding that
1:04:05
it is a, it is a two way streak right now.
1:04:08
It's not a one side fits all. And I think that you're going to
1:04:13
see more of that kind of personalization as everyone is
1:04:17
navigating coming back to the office, right?
1:04:19
You know, where some companies are just like you're coming back
1:04:23
to the office and forget about it, you know, and hoping people
1:04:26
resign. And I think you're going to see
1:04:28
some pushback with that. They're they're going to have to
1:04:30
try to keep up with to make their brand successful.
1:04:35
It requires people that believe in your brand that work for you
1:04:38
and that they're fulfilling that.
1:04:40
And I think that you're going to see much more of a push towards,
1:04:46
I would call it customer service, right?
1:04:48
We are getting more like when we travel, right?
1:04:51
What makes a memorable experience?
1:04:54
I would say to me about 90% of the time is a service I get from
1:04:57
a place, right? If I'm in a beautiful place and
1:05:00
I have horrible service or it's just a horrible experience, it
1:05:03
kind of taints my view. And so I think with businesses,
1:05:07
they need to distinguish themselves and with doing that,
1:05:10
they need to also refocus on what is their workforce, how can
1:05:16
they work and navigate with hybrid work, gig economy,
1:05:21
different types of things to make it work, to look for the
1:05:24
value of the person and not just fitting a molt.
1:05:27
So I think you will see a lot of changes with that.
1:05:29
There's a lot going on politically, obviously, which is
1:05:33
really making everybody all fired up.
1:05:35
I think. I think you'll see a rebalance
1:05:37
of that. I think that the private sector
1:05:39
will make it because they're going to need to distinguish
1:05:41
themselves. Great stuff.
1:05:44
Sonia Locke, I want to be the first to thank you for sharing
1:05:46
both your time and your story with us today.
1:05:49
I really appreciate it. Well, thank you, Anthony, you.
1:05:53
Were great and I really look forward to listening to some of
1:05:56
your other podcasts. Thank you.
1:05:58
Folks, that's a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories
1:06:01
podcast. Thanks for learning with us
1:06:02
today.