Practical Leadership Cast

Guest Cast: Sean Ilenrey on LinkedIn, Executive Leadership, and Humble Beginnings.

• Forest Handford • Season 1 • Episode 7

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Forest interviews Sean Ilenrey, the VP of Support at Dutchie, about his leadership experience and his humble beginnings. He gets into some details about what it's like to be an executive and how to make the role sustainable. He gives us a preview of his upcoming book LinkedIn Professional Brand Guide and Planner. The two swap stories about Sean leading a team in Mexico and Forest leading a team in Egypt. In the conversation Sean also discusses his family and his website.  

Sean Recommends:

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Thanks for listening. Please rate, subscribe, and share. Join the conversation in the Practical Leadership Cast Discord server: https://discord.gg/ewhPY6akRF

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Welcome to the podcast I'm so glad to have you on.

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Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity.

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So can you take a couple of minutes to introduce yourself?

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Yeah, you know. So I'm Sean Ilenrey. I'm currently the Vice President of support at Dutchy.

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The leading technology provider in cannabis. Absolutely. The organization.

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You know, long story short, you know, I was a person who started off as a failure in life.

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So I was that kid who dropped out of high school, was was homeless, living on floors, living in my car, didn't really have a path in didn't know what I was, gonna do thankfully turned my life around finished up school and got a job in the contact center.

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And I grew relatively quickly and it's been one of those opportunities where I'm forever grateful for it. I've been able to lead teams across the world, you know, internationally, and I never imagined my life being this way.

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But you know I have the opportunity that someone gave me.

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Wow! I had not known that.

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So over your years of leadership. What do you feel is the biggest lesson you've learned.

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Oh, man, I absolutely love learning. I'm a life learner, I think.

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The day I stopped. Learning is the day that I I probably stop living. So I'm constantly feeding myself.

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I think in this season what I've learned the most is, it's all about being vulnerable, you know.

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For many years I was embarrassed. I would never tell anybody how old that was.

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I was always that super young leader, and back. Then you could be on a conference call, and no one sees your face.

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You know I was the guy who you know like I said, dropped out of school.

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I went back and finished but I dropped out of college so I was embarrassed about that.

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So I lived this life of never truly communicate your flaws.

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You kind of just got to show your best self. And I've really learned of the last 2, 3 years that none of that matters people want to know the person behind the title titles are cool.

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But at the end of the day leaders will work for their employees, so your employees need to be able to see that for one year actually serving them with 2.

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You're being real about your origins, because then they can see themselves in you and be able to say, Okay, this person who failed can step up and make a success out of themselves.

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I want to also going on that path. So it's about to me.

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Leadership is not just about, you know, being a coach developing people.

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It's also about being as honest as possible about your shortcomings, and how you overcame them.

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Awesome and I know you're also passionate about resilience.

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Tell me a little bit about that.

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Yeah, you know, throughout my career I've been across multiple layouts right?

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I've been a part of companies that were, hey? If we don't get this done, the company fails tomorrow or delegates that could crumble if we don't turn it around, and what I've learned is that sometimes the best skill you can get have is resilience you build that

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through pressure. And right now we're in a space where almost every single organization is feeling pressure.

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You know the macro economic environment is scary, and even for the employees who who fortunately didn't get laid off and have their jobs, they're working harder than they did before.

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And this is what you kind of make or break, sink, or swim, and I believe resilience is so important because your ability to bounce back is infectious, you know.

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So if I see that my leader is able to take a a loss and still come back and play the game, it motivates me to do so, but when you don't have that you kinda have that mindset of everything is falling, the sky falling your things horrible the rest of the team panics as well.

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so, even in our personal lives, we've all been through something, you know.

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Whether it was me being homeless, or me losing both my parents before I was 30.

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I couldn't allow those opportunities to still be a setback for me, but instead, I've said, Okay, let's push forward instead, lean into the people on my team because I learned from them just as much.

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They learn from me, and that's kind of help me along the way.

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Thanks. How would you say leaders can make positive impacts in the lives of others?

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Yeah, well.

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You know, leadership having a management position, supervisor, title.

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You think your job is to come in and tell people what to do like when you first get the opportunity. You're thinking.

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Oh, I'm here! I'm gonna be the boss, and that's not what it is, and we we hear the term serve and leadership so much.

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Now, and that's also like that's, that's the key you wanna have server leadership.

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That's not the ultimate. I truly believe the ultimate goal as a leader is to impact the lives of others.

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You know what key to turn someone's life around, and I'll give you an example.

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My first management opportunity I relocated to Mexico.

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Don't speak Spanish, but my wife I and she was pregnant at the time, and our 4 year old.

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We moved to Mexico. Don't know anyone don't have any family, but I knew my leaders she was the only one I knew there, and my team.

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I hired 5 individuals. It's my real-time analyst.

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And it's my first time building a team, you know.

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My biggest fear was trainings. I had no clue how to do that effectively, and they taught me a lot, but being there, I met some amazing people, and one of those people his name was Caesar Caesar, I hired him on from the call center floor as an analyst because I got really good

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feedback that, hey? This guy's sharp, even though he's a call center agent.

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He could do this analyst thing, and I found out his background.

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He was actually an engineer, living in Arizona with his wife and his 3 kids, and he was making the equivalent of almost $90.

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Today his wife was one of the States still where his children unfortunately he got deported on a tech based on a technicality, and his family came with them.

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So they ended up living in a shed in his aunt's backyard.

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One room shed with him his wife and his 3 kids, and he would never know it, because he didn't carry that energy to work so as he was working with me like this, got this man is amazing.

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You know what he's able to do, and I allowed him to really be his best self, and I had an opportunity to take on a new department, and I said, Hey, Caesar, I would like for you to lead this team.

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So I'm making the Supervisor that department, and by the time I left that company he was he got promoted to manager, and he showed me the home that he built for his family, and that was one of the greatest joys of my life, because you could see someone went from making 90,000 to 4

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bucks an hour, I said 8, being able to once again take care of their family, and that's me is the impact we're changing lives.

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Whether you're in customer support, where you're impacting your employees and your customers because as customers interact with you, they may start the day or start that moment stressed out because they're having an issue.

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But your ability to pivot that emotion and change their sentiment is important.

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So that I think that's the ultimate purpose of leadership is to impact lives.

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Wow!

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No, I'm curious. I lived in Egypt a little bit for my job at Africa, and I learned some erabic while I was there.

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But I'm curious when you were in Mexico, like how much Spanish did you learn like?

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Did you become like I like I became what I would say is, I could speak navigational, Arabic, and I could.

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I could speak restaurant Arabic I could order in a restaurant, and I could tell or brideshare driver how to get to my apartment.

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We're the same boat. Always tell people that I can order food like that's the one thing I can do.

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Yeah.

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And it was so important because you have to. And I got lucky because we were in a 4 plant town.

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So a huge floor plan. So a lot of people split English.

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But but they weren't confident in speaking, so I still wouldn't want to speak it to you and at work.

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Yeah.

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We were only allowed to speak English, so I didn't really get to learn like I want it in my office, though we should.

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The door I told my team, so speak Spanish. I want to pick it up.

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Yeah.

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But what I loved about that experience was that growing up in and Atlanta you know, I went to school with a lot of Mexican immigrants, you know, and you would meet their parents and their parents, you know, would be shy, and my parents were immigrants, as well, they come from

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Nigeria, where the national language is English, so for them to come over wasn't as difficult.

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So I got a new sense of immenseity of what it's like to be somewhere and not be able to communicate, because, even though I could communicate slightly, I didn't have my personality, I couldn't make jokes, so you kind of lose who you are so now whenever I meet someone

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that's trying to learn this language. I'm overly empathetic to their situation and not judgmental at all.

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Hmm!

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Yeah.

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Yeah, I found that when I was living in Egypt I became a much better listener, and even after coming back to the Us I I found that I I taught glass actually am just more engaged and listening, and like when I was in Egypt, a lot of it, was like

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I'm just listening to the language, and I'm like Oh, I've heard that word before.

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Okay, I have to ask What's Humza?

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Oh, it's 5. Okay. Well, I picked up a new word today. Awesome.

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That's awesome. That's beautiful, though my wife and I really wanna go to Egypt.

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So I'd definitely pick your brain on what that experience was like.

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Yeah, yeah, email, me, after I do love Egypt absolutely.

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How would you say leaders can make positive impacts? No.

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I already asked that one. I will cut that out. Okay, actually.

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So I wanna circle back to what you said earlier about your time being homeless.

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So you know. How. How did you get from there to maybe not where you are now, but to out of that situation like I'm I just assume that somebody gave you a chance, and like, what was that chance like?

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And yeah, how did you? How did you get out of that situation?

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And how can leaders that are listening to this podcast?

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Help people that are in a similar situation.

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Yeah, you know, for me it was you have to humble yourself first a lot of times we have pride server.

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There was a day where a friend, let me sleep on his floor, and the next night I didn't want to ask him again right.

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Yeah.

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Because it's like, Hey, I don't want to tell him that this is actually a permanent thing, and to this day he doesn't even know like I would never, you know, have never had this conversation.

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But you first have to humble yourself and realize step one is digging out of the hole and step 2 is being honest about the whole, like.

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Let people know what's going on and where I got lucky was that when I finally got a job opportunity, my mother got her life back on her feet.

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Yeah. She was dealing with kidney failure, you know, towards the end of my high school journey, and she found herself in a place where she had to stop working.

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So the house was gonna get foreclosed and at the time when I was homeless she was living in my friend's attic, and you know I'm bouncing around.

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And then my dad and his, you know he remarried, and I could sleep on their couch every now and then.

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But it wasn't a home that I could stay in.

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So when she got back on her feet it was perfect timing, because I could no longer drive my car.

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My car couldn't pass the admissions test.

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So if you live in a state with permissions, test, test you know, you're gonna get a ticket. And I got a lot of tickets.

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So I'm at a point now where it's like, Okay, humble yourself.

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Go back with Mom, and I was living on my own. I'm back.

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Mom is embarrassing, but I started walking to work every day.

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I got a job at Wet Sal at the Mall, and that's my hack to everybody. You know.

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Get a job at a woman's store. If you can break down boxes because they always need help.

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So it's probably making pay me 6 bucks an hour, and I got that job.

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Then I got a second job at finish line selling shoes upstairs, and then I got a third job at Walgreens.

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The pharmacy, and I was working all 3 simultaneously, and it was really about, okay, how can I get myself out of this whole are enough money to fix my car?

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Are enough money to kind of pay off whatever desktops that I have, and when I was working at Walgreens, my first day of work, my leader, Mr.

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Crosby. I never forget his name. He says, Hey, come to the backstop room with me, and we look up, and there's like a wall there's shelves that go 50 feet high.

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He says, I need you to get on top of there. I'm gonna handle handing these metal shelves at about 5 to 10 pounds each.

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I need you to stack them 12. And so we did this all day long.

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My first day of work and I was scared. But you know I did it, and after we did it he was so impressed by my ability to just dig in and help that he allowed me to work there full time.

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It wasn't part-time anymore, and that allowed me to now have one job and then I continued to work hard there, and I got promoted to the pharmacy, and while I was at the pharmacy it was a great experience, but it still didn't pay well, and I had a family friend, who

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said Hey, we actually have a pharmaceutical call center I'm like, what's a call center and I'm like, Wait a minute.

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He got can sit down all day I've been working my feet, my entire career.

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I went from fast food to retail the pharmaceuticals. Wow! I get to sit down.

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I would love to do that, so I didn't have a resume, so he said, Let me help you put your resume together.

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Never knew what that was. We put it together with me, and then I was able interviewed.

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I got the job opportunity, and then I almost double my salary, making 1250 an hour, you know.

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It was huge to me back then, but that that story is that I didn't do it myself.

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Yeah.

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I I was honest about where I was. I was willing to sacrifice and walk.

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I was willing to work multiple jobs. I was willing to work hard and people naturally wanted to help me along the way, because when you sit with your handout, but you're not putting any effort behind it, that's when people don't really want to help, you they see that you're doing something to make a

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difference. Everyone's there for you, so I don't believe in the notion that we make ourselves.

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We don't make ourselves at. We get built up by other people.

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So just be honest and transparent, and work hard.

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Do you feel like that? It would have been harder to succeed in that way, like in today's economy.

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No, because I think we have different avenues today than we had back then.

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Hmm!

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We have, ride sharing. We have. You can be more entrepreneurial now it doesn't mean that you'll that you're gonna have a living wage at all.

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I think today it's hard to have a living wage at all. I think today it's hard to have a living wage than it was back.

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Yeah.

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Then you're definitely gonna need a roommate. But the opportunity to generate income is different today.

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However, I think it would be well, it was during the recession, so I was going through all this right at the beginning of the recession, when I was over on the cusp of it.

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So everything was like great, and then it all fell apart, right when I started getting my jobs.

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So I remember my work, my first call center jobs. A lot of people were getting laid off and I was lucky that I never did.

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Yeah.

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But it was like When are we going to get our notice, you know, and I would hop around to different companies to protect myself so it's almost exact same environment.

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But I'd think today there's so many other ways to generate income.

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But companies learn from the recession. So now it's a situation where it may be hard to get a job than it was then, because companies are fearful that it's gonna get bad, even though it's not that bad yet.

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Your website is corporate, Dad, can you tell us a little bit about what it's for?

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In the origin.

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Yeah, you know it initially started. I said, Okay, I was raised with 7 sisters so I have 7 sisters, one brother.

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You know all my dad's side, my mom's side just being my big sister.

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And I ended up having 3 sons, and I'm like like this is, I'm used to being around girls but I'm just gonna be honest you know, I wasn't raised with voice.

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So it was like, Okay, and my boys are young and both of my parents passed away in their early fifties.

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So I set, okay, if I were to go tomorrow or in the next couple of years, what can I leave behind for them?

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So I said, I'm gonna make a Youtube channel called Corporate Dad.

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That gives back information to them, and it was a playoff.

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The book Richard, Appordach, because I'm a big fan of rich dad. Poor dad!

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Not necessarily the author anymore, but I won't get into that.

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But the book itself. And if you haven't read it, it's a good read.

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It just helps you unlock your mind. But what I felt it was missing was that the middle person?

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So it talks about your poor dad, who's someone who's kind of working for the government or working their a job and kind of just working to get by.

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And then it talks about rich dad who doesn't have an education, but understands how to invest their money and build businesses.

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There's that person in the middle that's the corporate professional that wants to know.

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Okay, how do I grow into leadership? How do I grow into executive roles?

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And we've never really had that conversation. So I said, Okay, I would give my sense of tools.

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And we've never really had that conversation. So I said, Okay, I want to give my sense of tools for personal finance.

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Give them the tools for how to scale in their careers.

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If that's something they wanna do and just make sure I leave something documented behind when I was working at Comcast was when I first had this idea, I ended up having a lot of mentees, you know organically where they were inspired just about my story my journey.

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The way I led. And I realized, Wow, no matter what age you are, this information is beneficial.

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So I pivoted and I made corporate dad and an organization where you know I do, speaking public speaking.

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I do workshops, where, whether it's understanding how to find your purpose in your career, how to be highly desirable candidate when you're interviewing how to, you know, set yourself up for success in the first 90 days, and then we also also have a book that it's actually gonna be

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published in the near future. And it's just about giving corporate professionals. They tool the tools they need to elevate in the careers in the way that they want to do so.

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That's awesome. I'm sorry about your parents.

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50 that that is so young. My parents are still alive, and my oldest, who's 22, got to spend a little time with one of my grandparents, so!

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Yeah, it's tough on my. The good thing is on my wife's side.

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Both of her parents are still here, but also her grandparents.

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Hmm!

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All of her grandparents I don't know what they have in New Orleans, why he lives so long.

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So that's been a pleasure, you know. At least my voice have that experience. But it's hard. It's losing. My mom was the hardest thing, because she was really much when my twenties was spent grinding, you know, my wife and I we got together.

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Yeah.

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Young I was 21, she was 18. We were pregnant with the first year, you know, and statistically, we shouldn't be together and I should be paying child support.

00:23:50.560 --> 00:23:55.510
You know, statistically. And we decide to stick it out.

00:23:55.510 --> 00:24:00.350
But as a young person whose brain wasn't even fully developed either.

00:24:00.350 --> 00:24:03.480
My mission was help my mom. You know she's in a place where she kept trying to work and couldn't do it.

00:24:03.480 --> 00:24:08.310
's or her health, and her immigration status was an issue.

00:24:08.310 --> 00:24:13.820
So she wasn't getting paid. Her disability, and my grandmother was living with her. So now I'm taking care of my mother.

00:24:13.820 --> 00:24:17.090
My grandmother. My wife is trying to help out, and my sister and it was. It was tough.

00:24:17.090 --> 00:24:21.360
So when she passed away, it hurt because my mission was before my wife.

00:24:21.360 --> 00:24:23.830
My mom passes away. I want her to have a few years where she can just relax.

00:24:23.830 --> 00:24:26.250
Yeah.

00:24:26.250 --> 00:24:36.330
You know she had working hard since she came to this country, and she deserved that.

00:24:36.330 --> 00:24:39.250
So I was lost and I, and for me it was actually the realization of I wanted to see my mom do have a better life and a better outcome.

00:24:39.250 --> 00:24:40.510
But I can pivot and have that for others. You know.

00:24:40.510 --> 00:24:49.850
Yeah.

00:24:49.850 --> 00:24:55.310
That's why I love leading, because I get to see it in the Caesars that I've been able to help with a Claudia as a Wesley's, where I couldn't do what I want to do for my mom.

00:24:55.310 --> 00:24:57.450
But that doesn't mean that. Only she can get. You know the help and care that I could offer.

00:24:57.450 --> 00:25:04.660
I can do it in other ways.

00:25:04.660 --> 00:25:06.550
So what is it like being a Vp? Are there obvious differences from other leadership?

00:25:06.550 --> 00:25:25.420
Roles.

00:25:25.420 --> 00:25:31.190
Yeah, you know. So when you become a manager, slash supervisor depending on how your organization is structured, your leading individual contributors, typically, when you become a senior manager, director, you're then leading leaders when you become a Vp you're leading leaders, who lead leaders so

00:25:31.190 --> 00:25:35.710
it's very different. And the way I always break it down is, how do you make sure you don't have a leadership structure that steps on toes?

00:25:35.710 --> 00:25:42.430
I always say you need to change the with the time period.

00:25:42.430 --> 00:25:46.710
You're looking at. So if I'm for example, you know, a supervisor I may wanna have, or team manager.

00:25:46.710 --> 00:25:53.260
I may wanna have a great week. So I'm managing a day over day to make sure we hit performance.

00:25:53.260 --> 00:25:56.900
If I'm a director, I want to have a great month so I'm looking at it week over week, and if I'm a VP.

00:25:56.900 --> 00:25:59.760
I want to have a great year I'm so I'm gonna have a great quarter.

00:25:59.760 --> 00:26:08.640
So I'm looking at a month over months so it kind of changes the span of ownership.

00:26:08.640 --> 00:26:15.600
But as a Vp. Your ultimate role is to think about where we're going, have a clear direction, clear vision for your culture.

00:26:15.600 --> 00:26:24.070
But then also remove roadblocks. The worst thing you can do is get caught up in what the problems are today.

00:26:24.070 --> 00:26:27.180
You know it doesn't mean that they don't hit your plate, but you have to be to be very good at filtering out.

00:26:27.180 --> 00:26:31.510
What can my team own? And I have a team of owners.

00:26:31.510 --> 00:26:33.720
I respect the leaders who report to me so bad. I'm so much where it's important for me to know.

00:26:33.720 --> 00:26:45.810
Yeah.

00:26:45.810 --> 00:26:51.610
They own their shops, you know, and I basically make it easier for them to run their shops and, like, I said, we have a reverse pyramid where the leaders we all work for our team.

00:26:51.610 --> 00:27:00.160
So if the front line agents don't exist, we don't have jobs. There's no point in me being here, so it's all about, how can the next level serve the next?

00:27:00.160 --> 00:27:02.840
But it's tough it can. There are a lot of very direct conversations, as you have to have thick skin and understand. It's not personal.

00:27:02.840 --> 00:27:12.850
We're trying to solve the problem. So I give 2, 10.

00:27:12.850 --> 00:27:20.240
I say, you know a great leader, great executive, is not one who knows all the answers, but it's one who asked the right questions.

00:27:20.240 --> 00:27:26.210
Because you want to be able to spark the right dialogue and understand that we can develop the right solutions.

00:27:26.210 --> 00:27:42.430
And the second one is trying to remember it, so left my mind.

00:27:42.430 --> 00:28:00.560
Oh! And the second one is you have to manage and maintain your cross functional relationship you can't do this alone.

00:28:00.560 --> 00:28:13.930
If you're a vp plus who doesn't do well or play well with others, he won't be successful for long, because if you, if the 2 has the department are buying budding heads, of course the teams underneath, it will also have a difficult job working together, so those are the 2 things I you

00:28:13.930 --> 00:28:27.330
know our 3 things. Really, it's, you know, being strategic looking, having a long term view, being able to ask the right questions and not try to have.

00:28:27.330 --> 00:28:36.830
When I was at I worked directly for the coo, and he worked directly for the CEO, especially the CEO.

00:28:36.830 --> 00:28:38.310
I saw her to use the a word behind you which our podcast listeners can't see, but hustle.

00:28:38.310 --> 00:28:41.610
Yes.

00:28:41.610 --> 00:28:56.980
She would hustle, and I mean she would get like 4 h of sleep.

00:28:56.980 --> 00:28:57.900
Yeah.

00:28:57.900 --> 00:29:07.110
She was a single mother of 2 kids. I think one was maybe preteen, and the other was maybe like 6 or 7, and she was just on non-stop.

00:29:07.110 --> 00:29:20.330
And it really it really drove home to me or it gave me the message like I don't wanna do that.

00:29:20.330 --> 00:29:25.700
I I don't wanna be an executive, but I know that not all executives are like that, and even I think my CEO had who I work directly, for I think he had a better work life balance.

00:29:25.700 --> 00:29:31.310
But like, tell me about about that, like managing.

00:29:31.310 --> 00:29:36.170
What's the balance like? Do you feel it?

00:29:36.170 --> 00:29:40.350
It depends on on the leader and the company, and it, you know.

00:29:40.350 --> 00:29:45.390
How do you make it worth it?

00:29:45.390 --> 00:29:48.000
Yeah, you know, this may come off as a little harsh to my peers.

00:29:48.000 --> 00:29:58.750
So in advanced. I apologize, but I'll give some context.

00:29:58.750 --> 00:30:02.240
My mother, my entire life, you know. She worked in restaurants, you know, a lot of fast food restaurants as a leader, you know, store manager.

00:30:02.240 --> 00:30:04.180
She would have been a regional manager regional director right when she got sick.

00:30:04.180 --> 00:30:20.270
That was the next opportunity for her. But her peers.

00:30:20.270 --> 00:30:30.650
She would constantly go to different locations because you get new opportunities new companies and her peers would be so, because when she would come in, you know, you walk into a Mcdonald's you used to kind of them scrambling it around not being efficient, she would always be able to actually

00:30:30.650 --> 00:30:39.630
sit down on her job. It'd be calm on during her shift the reason why is because she prioritized organization, you know, making sure she could build a team with momentum that things were going to happen at the right time.

00:30:39.630 --> 00:30:54.330
But the right ownership, whereas the other leaders felt as if their leadership was directly correlated to their ability to do the job.

00:30:54.330 --> 00:30:59.210
That's not the truth, you know I love the analogy of once you become a leader, you're no longer Michael Jordan, your Phil Jackson, you know you have to be the coach now, and it's hard we like to promote our star players, but our star players.

00:30:59.210 --> 00:31:04.850
Aren't necessarily the best leaders, or they don't know what success looks like, because success is meant.

00:31:04.850 --> 00:31:10.760
I've killed everyone else on my team. And really as a coach or a leader, now it's how can I make new copies of me?

00:31:10.760 --> 00:31:17.250
But respect who they are as individuals. I'm just helping them become as great as I was.

00:31:17.250 --> 00:31:33.920
So it flips so for me when I see leaders who are working really hard, because that would be for a long time.

00:31:33.920 --> 00:31:36.310
You know my first director and Vp. Opportunity was the same company I was working twelve-hour days, you know, because my days were so busy, and then I went to still spend time with my team and engage with them, and I'd come home that crash on the couch and I wasn't there for my family.

00:31:36.310 --> 00:31:47.960
I wasn't you know, maybe on the weekends.

00:31:47.960 --> 00:31:52.630
So I've learned that if you don't prioritize having the right process and structures and creating different levels of ownership on your team, you try to do everything in now you have no balance.

00:31:52.630 --> 00:32:05.900
So you know, Hustle's great, but it doesn't trump proper planning.

00:32:05.900 --> 00:32:12.010
It just doesn't, you know. So what I normally do is I hustle to get the system setup so that I don't have to hustle forever and like I said apologies to my peers.

00:32:12.010 --> 00:32:18.390
But when I see them in that challenge, it's because it didn't take the time to properly structure it.

00:32:18.390 --> 00:32:22.810
Now, it doesn't mean that things don't happen where the industry may change or there's interrupts at the company where we need more time.

00:32:22.810 --> 00:32:24.940
But it shouldn't be an everyday thing and I'm always on call.

00:32:24.940 --> 00:32:26.250
I'm always on my slack. I I don't.

00:32:26.250 --> 00:32:32.060
What I'm on vacation. I don't mute it.

00:32:32.060 --> 00:32:34.290
I'm always listening, but my team knows where they can make decisions and what they don't need me.

00:32:34.290 --> 00:32:48.200
Awesome.

00:32:48.200 --> 00:32:51.960
Tell me about the signs that are behind you. I'm guessing that they're important to you, and you know I'm guessing that your team sees them all the time, and I'm probably you're upper management.

00:32:51.960 --> 00:33:02.980
Sees them all the time. What do they mean to you?

00:33:02.980 --> 00:33:08.810
Yeah. So they say, hustle, grind, execution, and you know there are times where you get when you're in business.

00:33:08.810 --> 00:33:19.780
It's easy to get fatigued. It's easy to say, okay, once again, you know, we did great yesterday.

00:33:19.780 --> 00:33:26.690
But can we do it again, you know, especially if you're in the sales department, or if you're in and any it field or tech field where you have to constantly build new products, it puts you in a place where you can get fatigue.

00:33:26.690 --> 00:33:31.650
And it's like, Okay, hustle. And like, I said, the way I view hustle is, you know, you hustle to build the system, you know.

00:33:31.650 --> 00:33:36.070
Grind to me is, is your grinding to make sure that you're getting through what you need to get through.

00:33:36.070 --> 00:33:42.120
Yeah.

00:33:42.120 --> 00:33:54.200
You know it's that it's that component of bills putting a little bit of resilience in there and kind of building muscle when execution is whatever we do, we have to finish.

00:33:54.200 --> 00:34:05.390
So we'll so, you know I had a good conversation with my wife through the day, and I said, You know it takes courage to start, but it takes discipline to finish, and that's where a lot of us end up.

00:34:05.390 --> 00:34:07.970
We at work. We start a lot of things we don't exude. We don't really finish it all the way through so I need this right reminder to myself, because we have 20 different initiatives going on right now.

00:34:07.970 --> 00:34:10.140
So it's hustle to make sure.

00:34:10.140 --> 00:34:12.210
You know we're getting it set up properly, you know.

00:34:12.210 --> 00:34:16.660
Let's grind and that even means that our people.

00:34:16.660 --> 00:34:19.250
Let's make sure that we're putting in the effort to make our people happy.

00:34:19.250 --> 00:34:19.970
Let's execute what we said we were because our teams will hold us accountable to.

00:34:19.970 --> 00:34:31.100
And so what?

00:34:31.100 --> 00:34:33.810
Well, and then on the flip side there's there's sometimes projects that need to need to get put down.

00:34:33.810 --> 00:34:37.090
And so like, how do you talk to your team about that?

00:34:37.090 --> 00:34:47.290
Because, you know, there's always the.

00:34:47.290 --> 00:34:48.900
That fallacy which is not coming to my mind at the moment of it's some costs.

00:34:48.900 --> 00:34:50.080
Yes.

00:34:50.080 --> 00:34:56.350
The sun cost fallacy that comes up with that so like, how do you?

00:34:56.350 --> 00:35:00.230
Cause. I'm sure that there are a lot of projects that you've had to put down and had to tell your team. Hey?

00:35:00.230 --> 00:35:11.490
That was awesome. You guys have been doing a great job, you know.

00:35:11.490 --> 00:35:17.470
You spent months, years, decades on it, but it's time to shut that down, and we're moving to something else like, how do you do that?

00:35:17.470 --> 00:35:18.890
Sure!

00:35:18.890 --> 00:35:22.010
Yeah. You know, it's funny we had on Major switch like that recently that I probably can't disclose publicly, so I won't.

00:35:22.010 --> 00:35:31.230
But we also had a minor one that actually happened yesterday.

00:35:31.230 --> 00:35:41.210
I think, for one is start with your culture. You have to make sure you create a culture of knowing that it's okay to fail. You know, we are.

00:35:41.210 --> 00:35:46.350
We hear it a lot now fail fast, especially in tech. I think that's kind of getting a little bit overused because it we're using that where we don't have proper change management.

00:35:46.350 --> 00:35:55.410
So my take on. It is failed understanding, you know, like.

00:35:55.410 --> 00:36:00.780
And it's okay to do that. But at the same time, you know of example from yesterday we were looking, and we said, Okay, we have a holiday policy right now.

00:36:00.780 --> 00:36:05.060
That pays our support center employees a good amount of money whenever there's a holiday.

00:36:05.060 --> 00:36:10.760
If they work and I'm not used to. Policy like this is very expensive.

00:36:10.760 --> 00:36:13.110
So myself. Finance, Hr. A couple of my team we've been meeting and to say, How do we revamp this?

00:36:13.110 --> 00:36:16.280
We've been coming up with new iterations. So it makes sense.

00:36:16.280 --> 00:36:20.890
And yes, I pulled the plug on it, you know, I said.

00:36:20.890 --> 00:36:23.510
Yeah.

00:36:23.510 --> 00:36:26.540
You know what our team has been through so much change and it's such a short period of time let's leave this alone.

00:36:26.540 --> 00:36:30.550
And at that moment it was no longer about this.

00:36:30.550 --> 00:36:31.770
The numbers behind it, it was about the people, you know.

00:36:31.770 --> 00:36:37.110
Yeah.

00:36:37.110 --> 00:36:49.810
What is so the sunk cost? We've been working on this for weeks now to get this corrected.

00:36:49.810 --> 00:36:51.780
So yes, there was a some cost there, but the Roi is that we'd have a better understanding of what our values are right now we're valuing the morale of our people at a much higher value.

00:36:51.780 --> 00:36:58.030
Than we are valuing saving a couple of dollars.

00:36:58.030 --> 00:37:07.750
So I think we needed to go through that, and I think it was a relief in some respects to my team when I brought it up.

00:37:07.750 --> 00:37:13.210
Maybe they feel like a waste. Their time a little bit, but you know it's just fair that we actually went to the exercise of understanding first how we got there.

00:37:13.210 --> 00:37:13.810
What could we do differently? But then we decided, maybe it's better to wait a year or 2 before we make this change.

00:37:13.810 --> 00:37:19.120
Cool.

00:37:19.120 --> 00:37:28.060
Who's your favorite leader to have worked for, and why?

00:37:28.060 --> 00:37:37.070
Oh, wow! There's 2 that come to mind a one I worked for directly, and one I did not.

00:37:37.070 --> 00:37:47.860
The one I worked for directly would be Heather Joel, she was the one who gave him the opportunity to relocate to Mexico.

00:37:47.860 --> 00:37:52.660
You know she's from Wisconsin. Big personality, great woman, powerful leader, and she gave me an opportunity to become a manager when I was getting overlooked back to back.

00:37:52.660 --> 00:38:09.310
And not only does she did do that, but she trusted me, you know, when I got there, you know she let me run the play.

00:38:09.310 --> 00:38:19.460
Whatever I need it. Go ahead and figure it out. Our one on ones were more so about advice versus telling me what to do, and she just trusted me, and I think that was the first time in my career, because I didn't plan on going to leadership professionally it would happen in my personal life, but professionally it was never

00:38:19.460 --> 00:38:24.400
Yeah.

00:38:24.400 --> 00:38:28.000
the goal. So she started opening my mind to who and what I could be I remember her telling me when you moved to Mexico, your career would never be the same you know, showing that you've been willing to go over broad and understand a different culture and lead an international team is important and she was right?

00:38:28.000 --> 00:38:33.310
You know. Since then, I've LED teams in 7 different countries.

00:38:33.310 --> 00:38:39.670
So I appreciate her for that. The other leader is by far.

00:38:39.670 --> 00:38:46.770
If I could say the leader, I want to become the man I want to become the human.

00:38:46.770 --> 00:38:50.660
I want to become at Steve White. Steve White was the president of the West Ofision at Comcast.

00:38:50.660 --> 00:39:06.090
You know he had a background where he was raised by a single mother.

00:39:06.090 --> 00:39:12.060
He and his 3 brothers. He's the oldest of the 3 and she would have to work while he would be at home with the brotherothers and having to protect them and lock the doors, and you know he was able to work himself up through school after school got great jobs and had been in his career for

00:39:12.060 --> 00:39:19.460
decades, and made it all the way to the president of a division where his division alone could be a fortune.

00:39:19.460 --> 00:39:35.670
500 company. That's how big it was. And so for me to see that, especially as a black that I had never seen that before.

00:39:35.670 --> 00:39:37.170
But his charisma, and his understanding of people. He could walk into any room, and no matter the background of that room, he was so inclusive, he just understood how to communic with people and put people first, and how to be diverse in the right way.

00:39:37.170 --> 00:39:42.520
Where you're doing it organically and authentically.

00:39:42.520 --> 00:39:44.660
And you're truly curious about thought that he had that balance of you. Better have your numbers together.

00:39:44.660 --> 00:39:51.270
You better be ready. It's going to be tough conversations, you know.

00:39:51.270 --> 00:40:00.800
So he knew every aspect of his business, and he really understood that everyone needs to be owners.

00:40:00.800 --> 00:40:05.730
And I actually have his book. You know he has a book called Uncompromising that I'm a huge fan of and he and I are actually gonna work together in a couple of weeks for the first time.

00:40:05.730 --> 00:40:14.050
So it's kind of for coming back full circle.

00:40:14.050 --> 00:40:22.350
But Steve White is definitely someone who this is the leader I would love to become, and I will ever get there. I have no clue, but I'm gonna keep working.

00:40:22.350 --> 00:40:30.950
You mentioned that you had done some leadership outside of work.

00:40:30.950 --> 00:40:45.000
I'm curious, like what that was and how you see the relationship between.

00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:51.780
I don't know. I like, I'm assuming it's volunteer leadership. But I don't even know so like how you see the relationship between professional leadership and the kind of leadership that you are doing outside of work.

00:40:51.780 --> 00:40:52.610
Yeah, I mean, it's a combination of things like, for example, like leading my family, taking care of my family when you know I was the baby of the family, you know.

00:40:52.610 --> 00:40:56.580
Yeah.

00:40:56.580 --> 00:40:59.440
You know, even I try to have my own startups at 1 point, you know, I had 2 of them.

00:40:59.440 --> 00:41:02.810
One was a dating site and one was a social media site.

00:41:02.810 --> 00:41:09.240
Had a small team, and we try to work on that.

00:41:09.240 --> 00:41:15.260
But to your point. It was also, you know, it's in in the community, you know.

00:41:15.260 --> 00:41:18.740
I've always been someone who is old, maybe a little overly empathetic with the struggles of others.

00:41:18.740 --> 00:41:23.880
So I've always been a fan of, you know.

00:41:23.880 --> 00:41:34.790
How can I go talk to some students, and how can I help someone's little sister, a little brother out?

00:41:34.790 --> 00:41:38.180
And and it is always confirmed a place of I don't want anything back, and I don't expect anything back, and I think that was the important part for me was that I wasn't working for a title.

00:41:38.180 --> 00:41:47.010
Yeah.

00:41:47.010 --> 00:41:52.550
I was just looking to help people, and so, as I transitioned to leadership, it wasn't something I was going for, because I was just finding an IC at the time, but people kind of cush you there.

00:41:52.550 --> 00:41:59.090
So when people see something in you're like, wait a minute, you know you're the one that we all naturally feel the safest.

00:41:59.090 --> 00:42:10.500
With that we all feel, not just from a we think you care about some people, but we also feel safe with your judgment.

00:42:10.500 --> 00:42:14.760
So it's really others who helped me see that throughout my personal life, and then also at work because that first leadership opportunity I got I'm leading my peers who had been there before me, you know.

00:42:14.760 --> 00:42:19.650
So, and I wasn't an official promotion.

00:42:19.650 --> 00:42:22.490
My leader at the time he left the organization. So our department Vp.

00:42:22.490 --> 00:42:27.760
Unfortunately got ousted from the company, because it was a a new leash.

00:42:27.760 --> 00:42:29.230
Take over. But when he left, my supervisor was his number one.

00:42:29.230 --> 00:42:36.580
God! I was his right hand, man, so he took him with him.

00:42:36.580 --> 00:42:41.580
So my 2 peers are in Utah. And Atlanta, and I'm freaking out because wait, I'm like I'm an analyst now. I don't have to be on the call center phone. So it's great.

00:42:41.580 --> 00:42:45.890
I don't want to lose this job, and my mind naturally, this role should go to Utah.

00:42:45.890 --> 00:42:50.410
So I just stepped up. The next morning and said, Okay, I'm a senior analyst, you know. What can I do to help?

00:42:50.410 --> 00:42:56.940
And I started leading all the calls cost functional partners, leading them.

00:42:56.940 --> 00:43:01.030
Coming up the street, and they felt comfortable with it, because I came from a place of humility, had from day one.

00:43:01.030 --> 00:43:07.950
I had an ego, and I'm telling them what to do.

00:43:07.950 --> 00:43:12.090
Neither one of them would have listened to me, but I think it's because of my leadership style being in a place where it wasn't about leading.

00:43:12.090 --> 00:43:12.950
It's about serving. That's what helped me along the way.

00:43:12.950 --> 00:43:16.700
Awesome.

00:43:16.700 --> 00:43:22.820
Is there anything you want to plug?

00:43:22.820 --> 00:43:25.860
Oh, yes, I'm not the biggest player about you to start doing better at that.

00:43:25.860 --> 00:43:30.630
As I mentioned that, you know, with corporate dad. Of course I do.

00:43:30.630 --> 00:43:33.010
My speaking workshops, but I'm getting ready to actually publish my first book.

00:43:33.010 --> 00:43:35.070
Congrats.

00:43:35.070 --> 00:43:41.350
I'm excited about it. Thank you. It's call.

00:43:41.350 --> 00:43:45.980
Well, Corporate Dad, but the official title is Linkedin Proffessional Brand Guide and Planner.

00:43:45.980 --> 00:44:03.810
So the Linkedin Proffessional Brand Guide and planner.

00:44:03.810 --> 00:44:10.350
And the reason why I'm doing that is that to going back to the question you asked me earlier about today versus yesterday, we're in an era now where, as employees or as professionals, or as service providers really as employees, we have the ability to own our career

00:44:10.350 --> 00:44:13.000
narrative for many years. You know it was about what is, what does your company say about you? You know.

00:44:13.000 --> 00:44:17.810
What are your references? Look like? What are your recommendations?

00:44:17.810 --> 00:44:19.640
Yeah.

00:44:19.640 --> 00:44:34.000
Whereas now on Linkedin, we actually get to show our talent we'll get to show we know, so we can be so that we're thought leaders in a space.

00:44:34.000 --> 00:44:40.550
And so I'm a big fan of having a rock star profile showing everything that you've done, but constantly posting whether you want to stay with your organization or not, it's important, because, as your organization sees what you're posting, you're like oh, this is somebody that we didn't know?

00:44:40.550 --> 00:44:44.070
Had the skill. Let's see if we can have a massive opportunity for the internally, and vice versa.

00:44:44.070 --> 00:44:47.790
Other companies would do the same thing. They'll reach out to you and see if you're open to opportunities.

00:44:47.790 --> 00:44:51.630
But it's really about owning your professional brand.

00:44:51.630 --> 00:44:59.360
And unfortunately, 80% of us don't do it. We don't maximize Linkedin.

00:44:59.360 --> 00:45:08.240
We were read things. We never post anything. So this book is really to help individuals understand how to do that.

00:45:08.240 --> 00:45:10.900
And there's a planner where you can actually, okay, here's the guide on how to best do it, how to best set up your profile and your content, because content is the number one reason why people don't post they don't know what to post.

00:45:10.900 --> 00:45:11.740
But then it has a planner in it that breaks down.

00:45:11.740 --> 00:45:13.340
Yeah.

00:45:13.340 --> 00:45:19.460
You know your and helps you keep track of your strategy.

00:45:19.460 --> 00:45:30.600
So, to me. It's not about making money off the book, it's more so but I've been doing a lot of speaking lately.

00:45:30.600 --> 00:45:33.150
And I want to leave people with something. Tangible that after I'm gone they're able to still actually utilize the information, because you can only digest with so much in one conversation.

00:45:33.150 --> 00:45:37.370
In addition, it's gonna be on Amazon. So I'm publishing on Amazon.

00:45:37.370 --> 00:45:54.550
So anybody can access it. But I'm excited about it.

00:45:54.550 --> 00:45:54.720
That's awesome. I have struggle to get some of my employees over the years to to build up their Linkedin, and it's really important for their career like it can really help them.

00:45:54.720 --> 00:46:03.030
Yeah.

00:46:03.030 --> 00:46:06.480
I even had one person who was like freaked out by the fact that sometimes I would visit his Linkedin.

00:46:06.480 --> 00:46:15.520
He was like, Where are you looking at my Linkedin?

00:46:15.520 --> 00:46:18.970
Are you spying on me? This whole company is spying, and I was like no like I wanted to get some background about you, so I could help you.

00:46:18.970 --> 00:46:20.980
I wanted to make some suggestions for your Linkedin.

00:46:20.980 --> 00:46:23.450
And like, yeah.

00:46:23.450 --> 00:46:27.200
Yeah, and it's good to. Especially we, depending on the role.

00:46:27.200 --> 00:46:29.760
You know, for example, a person like Ray. I love Ray.

00:46:29.760 --> 00:46:37.930
I love that he's maximizing his Linkedin.

00:46:37.930 --> 00:46:39.390
Yeah.

00:46:39.390 --> 00:46:45.430
I tell? I tell him, I said, your voice is important, you know, as an Lgbtq Latin American, you know, person of color in a director role.

00:46:45.430 --> 00:46:49.210
People need to hear your voice, to know it's possible, and to also know what your view is on.

00:46:49.210 --> 00:46:57.650
Employee leadership and customer experience, because we need diversity of thought.

00:46:57.650 --> 00:46:59.140
So you'll notice my team is start some members of my team are starting to post a lot more because representation matters and I'm just excited that to your point.

00:46:59.140 --> 00:47:03.680
You know they're starting to get more comfortable with it.

00:47:03.680 --> 00:47:12.250
Some will never, ever post, but I hope that one day they get comfortable with it.

00:47:12.250 --> 00:47:15.590
Yeah, yeah, I think some of the some of my employees have just been like anti social media.

00:47:15.590 --> 00:47:16.560
And like, I get that, I'm very kind of anti-s Facebook.

00:47:16.560 --> 00:47:21.590
Yeah.

00:47:21.590 --> 00:47:22.490
And and then there's just also the ones that are just super private.

00:47:22.490 --> 00:47:35.670
Yeah.

00:47:35.670 --> 00:47:37.690
And so it's it is what it is, I guess, but I don't know I think your book will be. It sounds like your book will be really helpful for people, and I might recommend it to people when I encounter that kind of resistance like

00:47:37.690 --> 00:47:44.240
Yeah.

00:47:44.240 --> 00:47:44.350
hey! My wife, update your linkedin, I'm not saying leave, but like this is for your correct.

00:47:44.350 --> 00:47:51.020
Yes.

00:47:51.020 --> 00:47:53.710
So who's one person you feel I should absolutely interview?

00:47:53.710 --> 00:47:59.430
Oh, so a good former colleague of mine!

00:47:59.430 --> 00:48:01.910
I actually adore her. Her name is Mckenzie Roebuck.

00:48:01.910 --> 00:48:07.840
Walsh, so I'll I have to spell it.

00:48:07.840 --> 00:48:13.260
But I'd be happy to send you her, Linkedin Mckinnon's like incredible, you know.

00:48:13.260 --> 00:48:31.360
She's someone who not only was, you know, a great partner, but also a great friend. When I needed one.

00:48:31.360 --> 00:48:45.490
As far as she. She gave me free advice, because I was interviewing for a retail operator of retail opportunity for a different division, and she was willing to coach me and develop me on it, and connecting with different people on that opportunity unfortunately, it didn't happen because we did a pause of hiring a all

00:48:45.490 --> 00:48:50.100
the time, but the fact that she would take time out of her busy schedule, where she was leading an entire region was so important to me, and she's done a Ted Talk I know she wants to get back into speaking as well because she's also at a place where she's mentoring

00:48:50.100 --> 00:48:51.210
she's getting back, but I just think her voice is so powerful.

00:48:51.210 --> 00:48:56.630
I think she'd be someone great to have a conversation.

00:48:56.630 --> 00:49:03.270
Awesome Sean. Anything else we should cover before we wrap up.

00:49:03.270 --> 00:49:09.190
Yeah, I think the last thing I would say is that this is not an easy time to be in.

00:49:09.190 --> 00:49:16.600
You know, and whether, no matter really where you are in the world right now, not just in the Us.

00:49:16.600 --> 00:49:23.770
And it can feel as if we're all divided. It can feel as if even you know. Go on, Linkedin.

00:49:23.770 --> 00:49:28.450
Professionally at work we're having these tough conversations or these predators. Conversation.

00:49:28.450 --> 00:49:41.450
And I'm a true believer that we're mostly the same versus you know.

00:49:41.450 --> 00:49:50.600
And there's mostly good people in this world, you know whether or not we have good views, most of us want to see a better world for our, you know, our and let's not give up hope that we can help each other along the way.

00:49:50.600 --> 00:49:54.350
As I mentioned, I didn't make myself. No one mixed themselves, and it was.

00:49:54.350 --> 00:49:59.130
There's even people who help you along the way that I don't agree with, but I've been able to learn from them.

00:49:59.130 --> 00:50:05.240
So let's continue to be life learners. Let's continue to care about the well-being of the people around us.

00:50:05.240 --> 00:50:09.650
Then also care about the well-being of yourself, because you deserve to be happy, and being your authentic self.

00:50:09.650 --> 00:50:11.710
Awesome. Well said, thank you, Sean.

00:50:11.710 --> 00:50:14.710
Thank you.