Sarah Collins (00:01.878)
hello Mr. Bill Dippel
Bill Dippel (00:05.238)
Hello, Ms. Sarah Collins, how are you?
Sarah Collins (00:08.406)
You know, I'm doing great. We're actually recording on a Monday today.
Bill Dippel (00:12.812)
No,
Sarah Collins (00:14.96)
I know. Maybe, but I'm telling you what, I have Friday energy today. I am solo parenting and something about needing to be on on makes me feel on. I woke up early, I got my workout in and I just greeted the children with happiness. My children now know that every Monday we listen to Manic Monday. And so if we don't, they're like, Hey, where's Manic Monday, even though they're like, I don't like it. no.
Bill Dippel (00:21.122)
I do too, yeah.
Bill Dippel (00:43.736)
You mean the song, Manic Monday? yeah, yeah.
Sarah Collins (00:44.822)
Oh yeah. Six o'clock already. was just in the middle of a dream. Oh, no more. That's all you get. No, I think our karaoke song is I have friends in low places. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Speaking of friends in low places, I have a question for you, my friend. And I really can't wait to hear your answer.
Bill Dippel (00:49.262)
Yes, go. Man, that's our, is that our, that's going to be our karaoke now. I think we're running that. Friends in low places. Yeah, I think we're, I think we've decided. I think that has to happen. So, yes. Hit me.
Bill Dippel (01:12.128)
no, that means she's prepped it folks. I'm a little scared.
Sarah Collins (01:16.374)
Bill, if you came with a warning label, what would it say?
Bill Dippel (01:21.198)
if I came with a warning label, let's see. If I came, I think my first warning label would be drives too fast. I think, and I, it's not that I drive fast to drive fast. I'm just a very proficient, aggressive go-go, want to get there. I won't, I don't cut people off.
Sarah Collins (01:23.519)
You
Sarah Collins (01:36.31)
okay.
Sarah Collins (01:46.006)
Are you late? Are you running late? So you're driving fast? No?
Bill Dippel (01:48.468)
No, not normally. just, I just tend to, I lived in LA for a while where everybody drives at 90 miles an hour and I really thrived in that environment. I was younger when I did that. So I think it's carried over and I tend to go long, right? I tend to really like, I like the, to push it and have fun with it. And in a strange twist of fate, I'm going to put it on the podcast and that means I'm going to be in trouble. I haven't had a ticket in 15 years.
Sarah Collins (01:54.697)
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
Sarah Collins (02:15.176)
Woo, knock on wood.
Bill Dippel (02:16.91)
15 years like I blew by a cop about two years ago taking Matt MacGyver to a to an event and the two of us were driving together and and I blew by it and I was on a cell phone with somebody too, but it was a Bluetooth, you know, and I said, I just got popped for the first time in years. Cop never moved. I don't know why, so I don't know my warning and all of my other warning labels are pretty simple. Like if I.
Sarah Collins (02:27.286)
Oh my gosh.
Sarah Collins (02:32.022)
Wow, just breaking love.
Karen Senger (02:38.853)
Ha ha ha.
Sarah Collins (02:40.692)
Wow.
Bill Dippel (02:46.818)
you know, if I'm, if I'm drinking socially with people and stuff, I'm a, I'm a really friendly, nice, you know, drinker. don't get, I don't, I don't tend to ramp up or get pouty. And, I tend to be pretty mellow around most people. Now, when I was younger, my warning label might've been, I'm going to push you away. Hold on a minute, you know, give us, give me a minute to get in. Cause I will push you away initially. If you stick with it, we'll be great friends. That might've been my early, early warning.
Sarah Collins (02:52.938)
Mm-hmm.
Sarah Collins (03:07.773)
Bye!
Sarah Collins (03:13.472)
you
Bill Dippel (03:16.576)
So yeah, how about you? What is your warning label?
Sarah Collins (03:17.155)
my gosh.
Well, I feel like mine would have to be something about like, caution, she will talk out of her ass. I don't know. just say like, especially like, I just feel like sometimes I don't know what's going to come out of my mouth. That activator communication. I just sometimes say what I think and I don't think about it. And so luckily I have like a good positive mindset. And so it's usually not like mean or anything, but
I definitely can do that. My husband also tells me, and I think this goes along the same lines, he's like, you have a way. And he will say this in both a nice way and sometimes a not nice way, because I do it to him. He's like, you have a way of saying like really true, but harsh things to people. And then they receive it well because like you're nice. But he's like, sometimes the things you say to people are like actually mean.
Bill Dippel (04:00.11)
Ha ha ha!
Bill Dippel (04:15.342)
So, you know what, I'm glad you said that, right? I wonder, yeah, I'm gonna point out all your flaws. No, I'm glad you said that because my wife has told me numerous times, I would have never said that. Like in a coaching situation with like 30 people or something, and she's like, and yet you get away with it. You said it and it got a great reaction. And Renee quite often will be like, I would have.
Sarah Collins (04:18.197)
no!
Sarah Collins (04:29.556)
Really?
Yeah!
Sarah Collins (04:38.962)
Now!
Bill Dippel (04:44.982)
never said that. I don't know how, and I think part of it is that woo. Part of it is we have a little trust. We've built a little integrity so they know we're not coming from a mean place, which, and Sarah, I've known you long enough, you don't come from a mean place almost ever. And every now and then you say something where I'm like, wow. And I know you're just, you're just, hey, this is, I'm curious. I really want to know. So yeah.
Sarah Collins (04:50.504)
I am.
Sarah Collins (04:58.824)
Yeah!
Sarah Collins (05:02.857)
No!
Sarah Collins (05:13.3)
Yeah, I think I lead with like full frontal authenticity. And I think most people see that and appreciate it. But yeah, sometimes it gets in your face and you're like, wow, we really, we really said that out loud, huh? Like wasn't expecting that. you, but I, I hope that it is like with met with the harmony woo energy that it is people can see it's with good intent and at least they appreciate it. being honest and not like being
Bill Dippel (05:18.551)
Mm-hmm.
I would agree.
Bill Dippel (05:27.544)
Yeah.
Sarah Collins (05:42.391)
sneaky behind people's back is my hope. But yeah, yeah, yeah, I think that would be my warning label. Like, May talk out of her ass.
Bill Dippel (05:44.013)
Yeah.
Bill Dippel (05:47.886)
It's a good warning label, actually. I like it. Again, it's a warning. It's not a, it's a problem. It's just a warning. Just be ready for it, right? Something's going to happen. We have a guest coming on shortly, owns a business that's a very long-term friend of mine. He was following me across part of Nevada to go do something. And we got to the destination and he was like, why do you need...
Sarah Collins (05:54.134)
Right, right, right. Just like, just no. Just no.
Sarah Collins (06:05.44)
Mm-hmm.
Bill Dippel (06:17.226)
Are you trying to prove something by driving that fa- you know, and I'm like, I don't know what you're talking about. I just drove the- and he was like, no, no, you were literally hauling ass. And I'm like, I, I don't know. And then we were dropping off whatever it was. And then he rode back with me. We were dropping off his car and we got about three quarters of the way back and we were just chit chatting. And he goes, my fault, my fault, because here we are chit chatting and things are blazing by me.
Sarah Collins (06:28.307)
Yeah.
Sarah Collins (06:34.582)
Yeah.
Sarah Collins (06:45.791)
Right?
Bill Dippel (06:45.838)
And he's like, I, okay, you know what? Maybe this, maybe I just didn't know this before. So I would also say that one of the places I drive frequently is a client that I have just on the outskirts of town, about 30, 40 minutes away. is a long-term client of mine that I absolutely love doing work with. And that is the food bank of Northern Nevada. I get to drive out there at least monthly, sometimes multi-times a month.
Karen Senger (07:04.135)
you
Bill Dippel (07:15.882)
and work with their team, their organization, some individuals out there, the entire leadership group. Sometimes it's just the outreach group part of them or the, I don't know, the marketing team or the warehousing team because they have a large warehousing facility where they take in food and do distribution for. I'm going to say this and then I'm going to be corrected. I think it's for nowadays around 160 to 180,000.
Sarah Collins (07:44.842)
Wow.
Bill Dippel (07:45.39)
people throughout the state of Nevada. And we're gonna find out in a second how good I was at knowing that because our guest today is somebody that I have worked with for all of the time I've been out at Food Bank and even longer. She was a client and became a friend of mine before the Food Bank. Welcome to the show, Karen Sanger.
Karen Senger (08:10.196)
Hello, so happy to be here. Thank you. And Bill, you were close with your number. luckily we're not that high, but the numbers have been going up. So we're serving about 155,000 people a month on average. Throughout our region, we serve 90,000 square miles. We're in Northern Nevada and Eastern California Sierras. So yeah, yeah.
Sarah Collins (08:35.958)
Wow.
Bill Dippel (08:37.582)
Wow, wow. 155,000 people served by the Food Bank of Northern Nevada and that's monthly?
Karen Senger (08:45.374)
That's monthly, yes.
Sarah Collins (08:46.569)
Wow.
Bill Dippel (08:47.8)
Wow. And how many, how much staff, how many people to perform this task?
Karen Senger (08:52.734)
So we're over, we're around 95 staff total. And that includes some part-time staff that we have that coordinate our kids cafe after school programs. And yeah, we're really a logistics company. When we think about it, we are moving millions of pounds, like last year, nearly 22 million pounds of food that we moved that we.
brought in through rescuing it, through donations, through purchasing food, and then we push it back out to our network of partner agencies. We have about 155 partner agencies, mostly food pantries throughout our region. And then we have our own direct service programs, like our mobile harvest fresh produce program and our produce on wheels kind of farmers market truck for seniors and a few other programs that we do that
where we're getting this food out to people who need it.
Sarah Collins (09:54.56)
Such important work that you're doing, Karen. So important that it was, I have heard that it was even recognized by one of our favorite celebrities to mention. Taylor Swift has donated to the food bank.
Bill Dippel (10:03.032)
Ha ha ha!
Karen Senger (10:04.852)
It's true. It's true. know, right. And I know there's this whole thread of Taylor Swift running through the Strinks on Fire podcast. And so we do have this connection. Yeah, we were pleasantly surprised in 2023 as part of Taylor Swift's Arrows Tour. She was making donations to food banks across the country. Just incredibly generous. And so we got the call.
Bill Dippel (10:06.188)
We have a Taylor Swift call out, ooh.
Sarah Collins (10:12.294)
Indeed.
Bill Dippel (10:15.246)
There is, there is.
Karen Senger (10:33.99)
It came from her publicist out of the blue. At first we thought, is this a prank? Is this a scam? Who is, is this really? Right? And sure enough, it was real. And so Taylor Swift made a donation to our food bank, which was just really wonderful. And she did that across the country with many, many food banks. And so it just, just shows her generosity, but yeah, we, there's, there's a Taylor Swift connection there.
Sarah Collins (10:39.638)
Right. Is this a dream come true?
Bill Dippel (10:43.999)
Right.
Sarah Collins (10:53.974)
Yeah.
Sarah Collins (10:58.547)
Absolutely.
Bill Dippel (11:01.784)
Wow.
Sarah Collins (11:02.134)
Well, this is why she's our queen. We love her and we love all the food banks across the country. You all are doing incredibly important work. So we are so excited to have you on today, Karen. And I know that Bill knows you, but I don't. So I want to know what's your story. How did you get here? Tell us a little bit about how you came to work for the food bank and your strengths journey of why you've been able to invest the time and energy into
Karen Senger (11:04.434)
That's right.
Bill Dippel (11:05.102)
We love her. We love her.
Sarah Collins (11:32.444)
learning strengths yourself and having, you know, Bill come to your team with your strengths and then also, you know, give us a little rundown of your top 10 in there.
Karen Senger (11:43.284)
Yes, so I call this my second tour of duty at the Food Bank of Northern Nevada. I actually worked here from 2011 to 2016. I left and went and worked for a couple other organizations and then I came back in the fall of 2020. And my, and because I love food banks, I'm originally from Oklahoma. I grew up in Tulsa and I worked for both of the food banks there.
Sarah Collins (12:09.533)
Okay.
Karen Senger (12:13.106)
the regional food bank of Oklahoma and Oklahoma City, and then the community food bank of Eastern Oklahoma and Tulsa. And so I just, I keep coming back to food banks. I love the mission, I love the work. And the reason I've gotten into nonprofits is really because of my number one strength, connectedness. It's very much about giving back and making a positive impact and doing good in the world.
Sarah Collins (12:23.338)
Mm-hmm.
Sarah Collins (12:33.536)
Mm-hmm.
Karen Senger (12:41.132)
And so that led me into nonprofit work right out of college. I actually got into, it was public relations and marketing was really where I started. And then I just somehow drifted into fundraising. I was like a lot of people never thought that I would really get into fundraising.
Sarah Collins (12:58.642)
Mm-hmm.
Karen Senger (13:05.992)
but as we'll talk later, you'll find out why my strengths actually are really perfect for this profession. And my strengths journey started actually when I was here at the food bank the first time around. I took the strengths assessment sometime, I was trying to think, it's probably around 2014 for the very first time the food bank was asking staff to do that. At that time though, we didn't have a bill dipole. We didn't have.
Sarah Collins (13:33.226)
Right.
Karen Senger (13:33.682)
We didn't have anybody coaching us as an organization and helping us understand. So I took it and I was like, this is so awesome. I love this. We had other staff that were like, this is great. But then we kind of didn't really know what to do with it and where to go with it. then I came back around to strengths. It was probably 2000, somewhere between 2016 and 2018 as far as just taking the assessment again. I'd always...
Sarah Collins (13:50.504)
Right.
Karen Senger (14:03.154)
really taken to strengths and kept learning about them, but I took the assessment again. And my top 10, pretty much the same, changed a little bit. I think there were a couple of, you know, that were sort of on the periphery before that moved up and maybe one that moved down and I can't remember which ones, but. And then it was shortly after that that I, yeah, met Bill and actually knew his wife Renee before I actually knew Bill. But when Bill got into strengths coaching and then
Sarah Collins (14:14.835)
Mm-hmm.
Karen Senger (14:32.858)
working, I was doing some contract work with the Blueprint Collaborative, which is Gretchen Beetz's company. I know you guys had her on the podcast a little while ago. And so that's where we really, we got to know Bill and doing, know, looking at our strengths as a team and how we could, you know, interact with each other better, understand each other, communicate. And, and I just, it just, it fills my bucket. The strengths.
Sarah Collins (14:39.306)
Yeah.
Bill Dippel (14:41.463)
Yeah.
Sarah Collins (14:46.996)
Mm-hmm.
Karen Senger (15:02.836)
fill my bucket. And so then I came back in full time to the food bank and I was like, we need to do strengths here and we need to get Bill involved and we need to, like, I want this, I need this, I love it. And so, yeah, our CEO, Nicole Lamboli, was really interested and there was another nonprofit in town that was also doing strengths-based work with Bill and so she was hearing that plus hearing me and so.
Sarah Collins (15:16.937)
Yeah.
Karen Senger (15:32.948)
And so now we've got Bill working with us and his team and it's fantastic.
Bill Dippel (15:37.614)
And can you, can you highlight your touch? So connectedness, I hear it as you continue talking about it, all of the strings together there. Can you tell us the rest of your top 10 Karen while we keep talking?
Sarah Collins (15:38.119)
Ugh, I love that.
Karen Senger (15:43.842)
Yeah.
Sarah Collins (15:43.983)
Mm-hmm.
Karen Senger (15:50.02)
Yes, so connectedness is number one. Then I have learner, responsibility, input, intellectual, developer, consistency, adaptability, relator, and achiever. So those are my top 10.
Bill Dippel (16:07.726)
Perfect.
Sarah Collins (16:07.99)
I love that. if I've got this right, we've got four relationship building, three strategic thinking and three executing.
Karen Senger (16:16.797)
Mm-hmm, that's right.
Bill Dippel (16:18.51)
Perfect. Those are great. you know, and as strengths coaches, Karen, we don't normally go here, but, I've been able to work with you for a number of years now and through two organizations. We've had this discussion once or twice, and I know we've talked about it with some of your people, in different forms and formulations, but a very, very interesting component to your strengths assessment that Sarah pointed out earlier today when we were
pulling up our show notes is all of the influencing themes that you have. We, we've just broke the lead that you have none of them in your top 10, but most interestingly is that they are absolutely and completely all sandwiched together from 33, 32, 31, 30, 29, right? They're all right there. we, yeah.
Karen Senger (16:57.108)
That's right.
Sarah Collins (16:58.326)
Okay.
Sarah Collins (17:10.89)
Yes.
Karen Senger (17:11.165)
Right.
Right.
Sarah Collins (17:14.45)
Yeah, I said this to Bill when we pulled it up. said, my goodness, all of her influencing themes are right next to each other, which is, you know, I've just never seen that them not broke up at all. And what I think is so interesting, I would love to hear you talk about. And again, we don't usually like to talk about the bottom, but I think it's fascinating because I know that you're so great at what you do with fundraising. And I think people would think, someone in fundraising should, right? We get the should.
have influencing themes. And here you've got yours 26 through 33. Tell us how do you use your top 10 to be so good at that fundraising job? And how are you still influencing people even though you're not leading with influencing themes?
Karen Senger (18:01.148)
Yes, no, I know and people, there is this misconception and actually for our development team here, the fundraising team at the food bank, I don't think any of us have, we have very few influencing strength themes. so there were some kind of like, well, how can that be? right? Like, don't you need to be influencing people to encourage them to donate to your organization?
Sarah Collins (18:19.338)
Mm-hmm.
Sarah Collins (18:24.564)
right?
Karen Senger (18:30.77)
But the reality is fundraising is really, all about relationships. It is about creating relationships with our supporters to really, it's really not about us. mean, yes, what we're doing, the mission, the work, very important, but it's really about us listening to that donor to understand what it is about our organization that they love, that they support, and really what are their philanthropic goals.
Sarah Collins (18:36.191)
Mm-hmm.
Karen Senger (19:01.268)
and so that we're listening to them and connecting them to our mission in the way they want to be connected. And so it totally makes sense to me. I mean, yeah, there was this misconception, of like, wait, is there something wrong with me? Like all of my influencing themes are down at the bottom. I really did think that. I thought, my gosh, what's wrong? There's something broken with me, right? But then when you really start to look at it, you're like, well, wait, no, this totally makes sense that.
Sarah Collins (19:20.319)
Yeah.
Sarah Collins (19:30.07)
Hmm.
Karen Senger (19:30.31)
I would lead with relationship-based skills and the rest of our fundraising team would too because that's really what we do is creating these relationships with our supporters. so I use my strengths. you know, I do influence people, but in a different, you know, not with those specific influencing strengths. So I come at it from like my learner and my input and my connectedness. So I like to help.
Sarah Collins (19:35.242)
Right.
Sarah Collins (19:49.44)
Mm-hmm.
Karen Senger (19:59.988)
to share information and educate people about who we are and what we're doing, the impact that we're having, also asking them questions. And then, you know, that whole connectedness, like we're all in this together and kind of really bringing that up. And so it's a very soft, I guess, influencing, right? It's not a twist your arm.
Sarah Collins (20:02.09)
Yeah.
Sarah Collins (20:25.435)
Mm-hmm. Right.
Karen Senger (20:27.316)
It's not something that I'm gonna force on anybody. It's a very kind and guess intellectual way of influencing that I do. Yeah.
Bill Dippel (20:38.99)
So good.
Sarah Collins (20:39.55)
Yes, I hear that. I hear the connectedness, the learner, the input and the developer. Like making this curiosity for folks that you're talking to and sharing it, connecting it to them, helping them learn and understand, you know, the situation in your community and the impact that they could have by donating. And I just think, that's so powerful.
Karen Senger (20:46.931)
Yes.
Sarah Collins (21:06.742)
Okay, so I'm into your top 10. And I have to ask you, I'm always curious, I always say to people, of course, there are no strengths that are opposites, right? Because anybody can have any mix of any of the 34 in their top 10. But I love to ask people, you have consistency and adaptability. Okay, so I always say, okay, I always say consistency usually shows up one of two ways. One way is like a fairness, right? If we do this for Jane, we need to do it for John.
It can also, I see come out in how we do things, liking schedules, routine, know, some sort of consistent procedures in our rhythm of what we do things. But then you've got this adaptability. Now, adaptability is a relationship building theme, right? So it's really good at meeting people where they're at, but I also find these people usually are like things to kind of be different every day in some way. They like to be able to adapt on the go.
So you're showing up with consistency and adaptability. How does this look for you? Like, tell me what does this look like in your day to day?
Karen Senger (22:11.238)
Yeah, so consistency for me is more about that fairness. In fact, I was just last week thinking about with my team, I was thinking about work schedules and talking to one individual and thought, you know, I need to make sure that I'm being clear and setting the expectations for everybody on my team. so that's that fairness and sort of treating everybody the same.
Sarah Collins (22:15.69)
Mm-hmm.
Karen Senger (22:37.776)
And so that's how that shows up for me for the most part. Adaptability, I do like variety. I think that's why I like fundraising because it really is this multidisciplinary profession that a lot of things are coming in to do the work we do. And I do like variety in the day, but I do like structure. I do like a schedule. I do like to have some of that in place.
Sarah Collins (23:05.139)
Mm-hmm.
Karen Senger (23:07.252)
and not complete like just chaos. But I can just be in the moment. And I've actually helped my team with that. I see that pop up a lot where something all of a sudden has flown in that they're asked to do. And so I'll talk to them about it. Like, okay, let's kind of pull it apart here. Well, let's really understand if it's really urgent. How can we tackle it? know, giving them some coaching or direction of like, okay, let's.
Sarah Collins (23:16.544)
Mm-hmm.
Karen Senger (23:35.432)
you know, so that they're not spending a lot of time like, okay, just concentrate on this and that'll get it, you know, that'll take care of what's needed. And so kind of helping them work through like these last minute requests that pop up.
Sarah Collins (23:38.965)
Right.
Sarah Collins (23:47.733)
Yeah.
Bill Dippel (23:47.874)
Yeah, very, very good. And I want to, for just a moment, I'd like to circle back onto the relationship side of this for a second. Karen, you, since I've known you for so long, I have a pretty decent feel of your relationship and the way that you pull that together. And you mentioned it so brilliantly early on that relationships is how you influence. is the, it is the driver for how you actually get people to contribute or donate.
or help give you more food, build those connections. But I have witnessed and been able to watch your entire team. We actually worked with your team last month, just your team within Food Bank. And it was incredibly rewarding from a coach's point of view is watching them bond with, understand and feel both the relator and the developer in you.
Karen Senger (24:29.961)
Yes.
Sarah Collins (24:44.463)
Mmm.
Bill Dippel (24:45.31)
really have those bonds with your employees. And because I've worked with you so long, I get to watch the developer fuel on, we're going to do this because I want to make you better and better and better. And as you get better and better and better, it just motivates me to make it even better and better for you. So on top of the influencing donations and other people, can you touch on for a minute the relationship side towards your management stuff?
And how many people, again, do you manage? And what does that look like for you? Where do you think your strengths lead into that? Because learner input are there, too. I'm seeing it as part of that relationship side. So let me know.
Karen Senger (25:28.946)
Right, yeah, so our development team, it's a team of nine. So that's a nice size group and there's five people that report to me directly. But yeah, the way I always want people to feel supported, I always want people to have the information and the resources they need, right? That's that relationship building themes. That's the input and the learning. Let me give you the resources and I truly want to help people be.
Sarah Collins (25:52.052)
Mm-hmm.
Karen Senger (25:58.128)
successful and even if that means that they are then leaving our organization at some point to go on and further their career or do whatever it is that they want to do. So and I've told people that I'm not sure if I've told everybody that specific thing but I'm always you saying this is what you know I'm here to help you and and I enjoy that and I've I love to mentor
not only the folks in my team, because I do have some younger people in my team and people that are newer to fundraising, but also outside the organization. I've always found myself kind of gravitating to mentorship kinds of opportunities. So yeah, it's important to me. And it's a team sport. really, while we have individual goals, we're...
focused on different parts of our fundraising activities and strategies. Like I always remind people we're a team and I don't ever want anyone to feel like they're completely on an island with no support, having to pull some weight there without having the support of the team and the organization.
Sarah Collins (27:15.158)
Okay, I have another question. This is my strengths curiosity is just on fire today. You have the powerful combination of having responsibility and achiever, right? Achiever is that executing theme of like starting every day at zero, how much can I get done? Responsibility is that executing theme. Like if I tell you I'm going to do something, my word is good as gold. I typically see folks who have both of these in their top 10.
Karen Senger (27:19.124)
You
Sarah Collins (27:42.592)
They are high performers, high producers, sort of like the cream of the crop. We love to see them, right? They're great. But it can make leadership difficult. Have you experienced that, you know, the delegating of it all? Because oftentimes folks with these two strengths can do a lot and they just are like, it's easier for me to do it. Just give it to me. I know I can do it and I can trust myself. How have you managed that in a leadership role?
Karen Senger (28:03.123)
Yes.
Bill Dippel (28:03.736)
Just do it. Yeah.
Karen Senger (28:09.296)
Well, it's been a long journey. so I, you know, if you go back to earlier in my career, there was this tendency to just, it's just easier to do it myself. Then I'm have to explain it to somebody and, you know, and taking on too much really, right? Just agreeing to do too many things. And so I really, and it's still something I work on, but I've gotten some good advice along the way and
Sarah Collins (28:20.886)
you
Sarah Collins (28:29.621)
Yeah.
Karen Senger (28:37.212)
I forget who told me this, but someone said, or maybe I read it, that you really are not, you're not allowing people to grow when you're not giving them these other opportunities, when you're not delegating projects and tasks to them, when you're not saying, hey, I think you have some ability to do this, and I'd love for you to take this on.
Sarah Collins (28:51.648)
Yeah.
Karen Senger (29:01.852)
So I've internalized that and I remind myself that and even, and definitely when I'm thinking, gosh, maybe I should delegate this and like, well, who would I delegate that to and what does that look like? And like, well, that might take too much time, but just going, no, no, no, this is really a good thing. So I guess my developer kind of.
Sarah Collins (29:02.048)
Mm-hmm.
Sarah Collins (29:24.533)
Yeah.
Karen Senger (29:25.412)
is like, whoa, no, don't do that, because that's not developing people if you're keeping it from them. But it's a love-hate relationship. And my responsibility in particular is I have a love-hate relationship with, and Renee Dipple and I talk about this because we both have responsibility, Bill's wife, we put it in the trunk, but we feel like we have to put it in the trunk and put that responsibility away. And I think it was Bill or...
Sarah Collins (29:33.812)
Yeah.
Sarah Collins (29:47.371)
Yep.
Karen Senger (29:55.08)
Maybe it was Renee who said, you your responsibility strength doesn't, it's been very much about me and what I should be doing, but I can turn that and focus that outward. And how can I help other people take responsibility on, help them feel like they're doing more and growing? So that's again, another thing that I keep saying to myself over and over again.
Sarah Collins (30:02.634)
Mm-hmm.
Sarah Collins (30:08.149)
Yeah.
Bill Dippel (30:18.862)
Yeah.
Sarah Collins (30:20.63)
I have a great visualization for this. Tell me if this tracks. In my mind, I see your responsibility and your developer playing tug of war, right? I have to win. I have to win. I have to win. And at some point they go, wait, this isn't a battle or a game. We can just like both grab the middle of the rope and work together.
Karen Senger (30:39.07)
Yeah, yeah, but it hasn't, that is a great visual. It hasn't always been the way I looked at it or understood and having this conflict, but it is, that is totally how I see it now is like, no, this is, it's not a battle. Responsibility and developer can work together and that's actually a good thing. And it's actually, cause I look back to, you know, projects in school, college, like I always hated those cause I was like, man.
Sarah Collins (30:52.917)
Right.
Karen Senger (31:08.626)
I'm gonna be the one that does all the work. But honestly, that's really being selfish, what you think. Because that was me probably jumping in to say, I'll do it, or I'm the only one that can do it right. Or then people see me volunteering and they're like, great, she's gonna do it, just let her do it. So I see there's some responsibility that I have with my responsibility.
Sarah Collins (31:09.941)
Yep.
Bill Dippel (31:14.808)
Right?
Sarah Collins (31:19.188)
Right.
Sarah Collins (31:27.722)
Mm-hmm.
Sarah Collins (31:31.498)
Yeah. Yeah.
Bill Dippel (31:32.92)
There is, there is. And, and we talked about this a bit and you just brought it up about focusing your responsibility outward rather than inward. We talked about it on our last month, but we also have hit on this before. how we see our strengths is very different than how others around us see our strengths. So one of the really powerful things we did with your group was in bringing just your group in the room and letting them know they're in a safe space. They can be honest about it.
Karen Senger (31:42.76)
Mm-hmm.
Sarah Collins (31:52.63)
Mm-hmm.
Bill Dippel (32:02.73)
You could make that revelation to your team so that your team understands, I know why she takes so much on. We have to be a little more cognizant of, she taking on too much? I need to ask, what are we going to take on and put off? Where does that come into? And just knowing that aiming it outwards was really a powerful moment for you, especially with your team in the room and having them build on that together.
Sarah Collins (32:11.209)
Mm-hmm.
Sarah Collins (32:29.248)
Yeah.
Bill Dippel (32:32.046)
That's where the real, I guess the magic can happen in Gallup and that we being open with each other in that room and allowing you to explain why that is. And you hearing very importantly from your employees, this is what fuels me. this is what really, really why I like this part of it and don't bond so much to that part of it. Well, let's keep you in that engaged area. Um, this, and this all feeds directly.
Sarah Collins (32:41.056)
Mm-hmm.
Sarah Collins (32:50.154)
Yeah.
Karen Senger (32:58.823)
Exactly.
Bill Dippel (33:01.784)
to the point of this and the question I would have, which is I'm going to step out of your top 10 because we don't get so caught up in exactly the labels or where they exactly sit. We, we bounced around that. I want to talk about everything I just mentioned in you and your number 11, which is harmony. How does harmony, right? We're bringing that team together. Harmony for those of us strengths enthusiasts that don't have it, it's that ability to get everybody
Sarah Collins (33:19.894)
Mmm.
Bill Dippel (33:30.432)
rowing in the same direction, get everybody pushing towards a common goal. How do you think that motivates both you, your management style and the asks that you do at food bank?
Karen Senger (33:43.732)
Yeah, and it's so funny because when I was kind of preparing for today and looking at my strengths again and I saw that harmony at number 11 and I was like, oh yeah, there's harmony. Yeah, I think it does, again, it's very much, want, I use strengths to understand my team members and I use that to help us come together to better, to work better together, to be more cohesive.
Sarah Collins (33:53.439)
Mm-hmm.
Sarah Collins (34:12.95)
Mm-hmm.
Karen Senger (34:13.65)
you know, hoping that I'm helping everybody understand each other. And so we can really be productive and effective and efficient and moving together in the same direction. think that's the harmony does come into that. And I don't I know sometimes harmony is, you know, not rocking the boat and not saying things that might
throw people off or be something that causes some dissent or some division. And I'm not afraid to sort of have the hard conversations or to put things out there. So harmony shows up a little bit different for me in that sense. But I do love it when we're all working together and everybody's, you we're all happy and yeah, rowing the same direction. And that is, I think when that's not happening,
Sarah Collins (35:04.67)
Yeah.
Karen Senger (35:10.896)
That's when my learner, my input, my intellect should come into play and like, well, what's going on? Let me think about this. Or do I need to read an article about this? Or I need to go find some information. I need to go talk to some people, some team members maybe to understand what's happening. And I'm often the person that is really looking at what is not working and oftentimes,
Sarah Collins (35:19.068)
Mm-hmm.
Karen Senger (35:39.412)
when things are not working, it's often because of miscommunication, misunderstandings, assumptions made. So somebody will bring an issue or a concern or a problem to me and I'll listen and then I'll think, you know, I bet let's get the right people in the room. And I think there's just a conversation, whether it's me telling that person, you know, go back and have that conversation with that person and find out more because maybe I think there's just some things that just need to be worked out or it's me sort of facilitating.
Sarah Collins (35:43.669)
Hmm?
Karen Senger (36:08.692)
let's bring people into the room and let's just talk through this. And oftentimes that does the trick. Oftentimes it's like, okay, I thought you meant this and I thought you were really trying to do that and no, no, no, we're really on the same page. And so I do a lot of that with my team and with folks outside the team here at the food bank, because we're interacting with other departments. And just helping, I point out people's, I'm like, well, you know, when you go talk to that person, they have high achiever.
Sarah Collins (36:15.626)
Yeah.
Sarah Collins (36:38.046)
Yeah.
Karen Senger (36:38.174)
They're all about those tasks. So, you know, here's how you might want to frame this up for them or, you know, that person has ideation. So that's why they've got lots of ideas flowing around. And so don't let that overwhelm you. But, you know, here's how you can tap into that. So I'm like the strengths translator.
Sarah Collins (36:56.638)
Yeah, ugh, we want that.
Bill Dippel (36:58.474)
I love it. I, we absolutely, I, that's the coaching goal is turn you into as good a coach as you are. And I know this from working with you and being able to be there as a resource for your people and even other people in the organization that want to dive in a little deeper and talk about it. You actually ran a book club within Gallup for, or I'm sorry, within food bank for awhile where you were reading it's the manager.
Sarah Collins (37:03.734)
Mm-hmm.
Karen Senger (37:22.396)
Yeah.
Bill Dippel (37:28.246)
with a large group of people. I, you know, again, I talk about dream clients, very aware, right? Right.
Karen Senger (37:28.263)
Yes.
Karen Senger (37:31.88)
Yes.
Sarah Collins (37:35.72)
Right. Well, and what I love with what you're saying, Karen, is this is, you know, we work with so many clients. I'll have a lot of people say, you know, we're interested in strengths or we've done it before. Can you come do one or two things? And of course, you know, we always prefer I am the type of coach where I say like, yes, bring me in for just one or two things because you'll want more. And usually they do. But oftentimes they're like, OK, this is fun or interesting.
Karen Senger (37:35.73)
You
Yeah.
Sarah Collins (38:04.338)
how do we use it, right? And Karen, the way you're describing it for anyone listening, if you haven't entered into a strengths journey yet, this is how you use it. Karen is the perfect example. You can hear there's been years of investment in strengths, right? This is a journey, not a destination, years of learning yourself and other people. So now when you work with your people, you can say,
Karen Senger (38:23.048)
Right.
Sarah Collins (38:29.078)
Hey, remember this person has ideation. So that's why you're hearing all these ideas. It doesn't mean they think your idea is bad. They just have a lot of ideas, right? Or this person has that achiever. What can you give them to do? Because they're gonna love to have something to do. And that is the power. That is the beauty of knowing people's CliftonStrengths. You can just help your people yourself and help them with each other.
Karen Senger (38:38.983)
Exactly.
Sarah Collins (38:55.22)
So I love to hear that your work with Bill and your work on this has really led you to that point because it shows strengths in action, which is the goal. We want to be able to use this. We often talk about name it, claim it, aim it. This is what aiming it looks like. So kudos, Karen, and kudos, Bill. You've done great.
Bill Dippel (39:15.106)
Well, you know, I'd like to say the blank canvas was pretty pure when I got there. that, you know, Karen stepped in and Karen, you touched on another component that I'd like you to build on for just a second because you actually, you grazed it just right, but you didn't dive into it. And that was, we've, we, know we've talked about this a bit, your harmony, right? You can want everybody going in that direction, but you also mentioned, but I'm not always,
Karen Senger (39:16.687)
Yeah.
Ha ha ha ha.
Karen Senger (39:32.564)
Hmm.
Karen Senger (39:39.534)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Bill Dippel (39:44.65)
afraid to have that tougher discussion, which is another great coaching learning moment from the Gallup point of view. The harmonies are sometimes the people you want to have in the room when there's going to be some grit, when there's going to be some, hey, we're going to disagree on certain aspects. And I want you in there because you're going to be the person that actually gets us rowing in that direction. Now,
Sarah Collins (39:48.246)
Mm-hmm.
Sarah Collins (39:57.525)
Yes.
Karen Senger (40:03.251)
Mm-hmm.
Karen Senger (40:10.364)
Mm-hmm.
Sarah Collins (40:10.878)
Nice.
Bill Dippel (40:11.582)
It's true that quite often if the dissension is so big, right? It's going nuclear. You're more like, I'm out. I just don't want to, I don't need to deal with this. But in order before it gets to that level and in order to keep pushing it, you're the one that we're like, Hey guys, we're losing focus for a second here. That's the actual destination. Let's go there. Would you say that's fair in your usage of harmony?
Sarah Collins (40:32.917)
Yeah.
Karen Senger (40:36.808)
Yes, I think that's very fair. Yeah, very accurate.
Sarah Collins (40:40.532)
Yeah, because a mature harmony will go into conflict when conflict's necessary to get to the other side, which is everyone rowing in the same direction, right? It's that raw harmony that can get us into trouble because it's so afraid of conflict that it avoids it. So it sounds like you've been able to finesse it and having that leaven is probably great because you can kind of pick it up and set it down when you need to.
Karen Senger (40:57.769)
right.
Sarah Collins (41:05.226)
but you've been able to finesse it to be mature, probably through your other strengths, right? I have to imagine your entire top 10 contributes to your ability to finesse that harmony, because as you know, in any sort of leadership role, we will experience conflict, or even if not big C conflict, just little sort of frictions, and you have to help people get through it.
Karen Senger (41:22.569)
Yes.
Sarah Collins (41:30.686)
You can't just avoid it. And so anybody in a leadership situation who's got a harmony sitting in that top 10, top 15, we've got to learn how do we go into it when necessary.
Karen Senger (41:42.536)
Right, yeah, yeah, that harmony definitely pops up and is a little stronger sometimes where I'm like, boy, I just don't wanna have to deal with that. I really don't wanna have to have that conversation or bring that up, you know, Brene Brown, right, talks about clear as kind, and that's something we've been emphasizing at the organization lately too, and so I just think no, and those other strengths come in to say, mm-mm, this isn't.
Sarah Collins (41:52.713)
Mm-hmm.
Sarah Collins (41:58.868)
Yes? yes.
Karen Senger (42:12.14)
This isn't gonna, this will not ultimately be good if you try to avoid this. I've become more mature in that as I've advanced in my career and as I've had more relationships with people and managing people. I would say earlier in the career, my career, probably, know, Harmony was not as mature and there were probably times when I might be avoiding like, I'm just not gonna go there. I don't wanna do that. But just through.
Sarah Collins (42:12.405)
Yeah.
Karen Senger (42:41.714)
coaching and through understanding strengths and other, you know, management resources and articles and so forth, just going, no, no, no, you have to have these hard conversations and you owe that to people. Like that's the right thing to do.
Sarah Collins (42:55.594)
Yeah, yeah, it's your responsibility and developer saying we got to do this.
Karen Senger (43:00.986)
Exactly. Like darn it. No. That's right. Right. Right.
Bill Dippel (43:04.301)
That's right. We're parking the Harmony in right, in the back for a while and our developer and responsibility is taking the steering wheel today.
Sarah Collins (43:07.743)
Right.
Mm-hmm. Taking control. Well, Karen, we've talked so much about so many amazing things that you do and you have a really clear understanding of your strengths and you've got a lot of mature usage of these strengths. But I know all these strengths, they got the dark side. So when have your strengths gotten you into a dumpster fire?
Karen Senger (43:14.694)
Yes, exactly.
Karen Senger (43:31.13)
yeah.
Yeah, no, I do have dumpster fires. I was thinking about that leading into this today. I had a supervisor actually when I was working at the food bank the first time around. And I so appreciate that she had this conversation with me, this sort of.
difficult maybe conversation or just not difficult, just give me really honest feedback. But she said, Karen, you share articles with the organization with staff members, like, you know, you're pushing things out two or three times a week, you know, different resources, articles, and it's, you know, it's just too much. it's, you know, maybe if you summarized or, you know, you had more
or thought about what you're pushing out, it would really be so much more helpful. And I was like, yeah, that's my input. And I am just firehosing people with all this stuff, because I love, I'm very much about current affairs, like what's happening now. And I need to do that in my fundraising role and as a nonprofit executive, like what's happening out there in the environment and the economy.
Sarah Collins (44:39.208)
Mm-hmm.
Karen Senger (44:57.588)
What are the trends? What do we need to be paying attention to? And so, it was that point where I realized, oh boy, okay, I am firehosing people with my input. Probably have been doing it for forever. And so, I have definitely dialed that back. I definitely, when I come across an article or something, I think, okay, I wanna share this.
Sarah Collins (45:09.248)
Yeah.
Karen Senger (45:24.222)
Do I need to share it? Is it something they need to know right now? Is it going to be beneficial to them? Is now the time? Maybe it's something I can share later. Who do I share it with? So I filter it. I go through that. And I share a whole lot less. But I still do it. But I try to be more strategic about it. So that was some great bit of advice that I got that's helped me with that input.
Sarah Collins (45:36.95)
you
Sarah Collins (45:44.116)
Yeah.
Sarah Collins (45:48.71)
And I love that as an example of someone who says kind of a hard thing, right? Because it wasn't this I have to imagine, you know, sharing articles is not like this detrimental thing that could like ruin your career. Seems helpful and harmless, but good to know because then, you know, you don't want people saying like, my gosh, did you see I had like seven emails from Karen in the past two weeks? What's going on? You don't want people talking like that. And so it's really kind.
Karen Senger (45:53.469)
Mm-hmm.
Karen Senger (45:58.676)
All right, it seems helpful. Right.
Karen Senger (46:08.72)
Right. Exactly.
Sarah Collins (46:14.57)
For her to have said that to you, okay, as someone with high input, I just have to know, are you also a physical manifestation of input? Like, do you have a lot of stuff? Do you have like books and articles? Do you have a messy desk or is it just like the mental? Okay.
Karen Senger (46:27.814)
I do, I have lots of books and I keep article, magazines, and yes, I do have a kind of, I kind of organize my desk. It gets to me after a while, I see stacks of things or clutter and I, it's like my brain can't think, so I do need to clear things and organize, but I tend to have, I tend to just accumulate things. Mostly it's like, it's,
Sarah Collins (46:45.076)
Yeah.
Karen Senger (46:55.048)
flyers and handouts and articles and magazines and books.
Sarah Collins (47:00.03)
Yes, that input. Some people don't have it and I'm jealous of them. Not only not, I love the strength, but not the physical manifestation. It really gets me. I tell you what, my desk is a mess and I'm always, I know where everything is and I know why I have everything, but I just can't help it. I just feel like I might need this. I might need to give this to someone. I might need a reference set. just let me buy the physical books. I mean, it really, it is an issue in my marriage.
Karen Senger (47:16.978)
Right.
Sarah Collins (47:30.486)
It's like, why do you have all this crap?
Bill Dippel (47:30.726)
I'm just sitting here thinking, throw it away. I my input is low, right? And I'm like, no, my desk always the way it needs to be. Well, but every now and then, I mean, I do need a tool or something that I'm like, I'll never use this again. And I threw it away eight months ago. And I will then be like, I had that. Now I gotta go.
Sarah Collins (47:35.03)
Throw it away!
Karen Senger (47:35.602)
Right? Yeah.
Sarah Collins (47:38.622)
Mmm.
Sarah Collins (47:45.194)
Well, must be nice.
Karen Senger (47:46.836)
It must be, it must be.
Sarah Collins (47:55.446)
Mm-hmm.
Wish I had that wish I had that.
Bill Dippel (48:00.206)
Now I gotta go buy it again. So, you know, it does bite me from time to time too. And Karen, I would say too, that in listening to you talk about firehosing with the possibility of firehosing with some articles and ideas, that's the inversion. That's a little mature learner in there as well as the input side, because you're learning it. You want to take all that in, but you also want to get it out there, right? You want to make sure people see it and hear it and know it.
Sarah Collins (48:20.106)
Yeah.
Karen Senger (48:21.524)
Yes, totally. Yeah, yes.
Sarah Collins (48:24.789)
Yeah.
Bill Dippel (48:28.078)
And high input learners, just really, you know, they I need to absorb it. I want to get to the end of it, but I also want to help people understand it. And I've known you as that way for years now. just, you know, I reflect on that and I hear that input working really hard on you and then the learner. And again, developer shows up in there. I want to help other people because we're going to talk about what that is and how that looks. So, yeah.
Sarah Collins (48:32.458)
Mm-hmm.
Sarah Collins (48:38.079)
Yeah.
Sarah Collins (48:49.215)
Yep.
Karen Senger (48:54.92)
Yeah, and I'd say, know, the other, I mean, I do, have other dumpster fires and other strengths that, no, right? But.
Bill Dippel (49:00.622)
No, yeah. No, I saw those two bottles of wine behind you. So I was like, there's another dumpster fire at some point. Give us one more. Give us another dumpster fire.
Sarah Collins (49:01.392)
No. No! Don't we all just have one?
Sarah Collins (49:09.078)
Hello!
Karen Senger (49:09.756)
That's right. That's right. So, well, let's go with the intellection because we talked a little bit about responsibility and my love hate with responsibility, but intellection. So, in particular, with my husband. So, it's like a party in my head and he often says, oh, you're in Karen land.
Sarah Collins (49:15.839)
Yes!
Sarah Collins (49:27.837)
Mm-hmm.
Karen Senger (49:31.572)
I will do all the problem solving and figure it all out in my head. Maybe it's a trip that we've been talking about that's coming up and he's asked me some things or like think of, and I'm like, okay, yeah, and I'm gonna do all this. And then all of a sudden I say, well, I think we should do that. I come to this very definitive, okay, I've got it. This is what we should do. And he's kind of like, well, how did you get to that? Or where did that come from? how, like, I often don't.
Sarah Collins (49:55.19)
Mmmmm
Karen Senger (49:59.26)
I forget that I haven't let people into my thinking sometimes. haven't taken that out of my head and been like, hey, here's what I'm thinking and here are the things I'm looking at and also getting input from other people, right? It's sometimes I've just, again, that's like a party in my head. It's a party I want and I'm doing it all. And that's not very, that's not really kind and smart really.
Sarah Collins (50:07.798)
Yeah.
Sarah Collins (50:21.181)
Yeah.
Bill Dippel (50:21.454)
Ha ha ha!
Karen Senger (50:27.06)
to do that, to exclude, and it's not that I might have taken, I might have talked to some people and then that's coming in and I'm swirling that around in my head, but that can be detrimental and kind of hurtful or harmful to other people. So I've tried to be more aware of, okay, I need to bring people into my thinking and share how I got from point A to point.
Sarah Collins (50:51.498)
Mm-hmm.
Karen Senger (50:56.328)
D. So yeah.
Sarah Collins (50:57.792)
Yeah. Well, and can even see that playing into that first dumpster fire, right? You're seeing an article you think through, my gosh, this is why this is relevant, da, da, da, da, da, da, da. You send it to people with not that context though, because you're like, it'll just make sense to them, not realizing that they're not in your care and land in your head. And so then they don't know, well, like, why'd she send me this article? I don't know. Right.
Bill Dippel (50:58.734)
Yeah.
Karen Senger (51:07.132)
Right.
Karen Senger (51:17.522)
right.
What is this about, right? Like, I don't, why does she keep doing this to me?
Sarah Collins (51:25.069)
It's intelection.
Bill Dippel (51:25.794)
Are you saying I need to learn something from this? What are you saying? What am I losing?
Karen Senger (51:30.26)
I... Exactly.
Sarah Collins (51:31.018)
Right.
Well, and I think I love what you point out because intellectual, it's that delicate balance where the greatness comes when you have time to really think about things. But it can get in your way because you have to have that time, right? So it's like, what do you like you're saying? If you're not communicating it, you're already seven steps ahead of everyone else. And so it's it's being able to communicate to people or.
I actually love that your husband says, it you're in Caringland? Because to me, I love helping people come up with like code words, because I actually think it can be hard to, this is probably my harmony showing, instead of just saying like, hey, you didn't let me in on that. Like it sounds a little rough. I love coming up with like playful things like Caringland. So even telling your team, hey, if you feel like I've over-intellection something,
Karen Senger (52:04.616)
Yes.
Sarah Collins (52:27.38)
You can just say, hey, were you in Karen land on that? Cause I feel like I'm missing a few pieces and it makes it like a little bit lighter. It brings some levity to it. Everyone can be like, ha ha ha ha. I mean, I'll literally tell people just come up with the word pineapple and you can just be like, I feel like we're having a pineapple moment and everyone has agreed that it means X, Y, is happening. And so then we can be like, okay. And it just helps us address some of those things that might be weird or awkward for other people to say.
Karen Senger (52:31.536)
Yeah.
Karen Senger (52:48.572)
Right.
Sarah Collins (52:55.082)
But we say, I want you to, I want you to let me in when I've like walked seven steps in my head and you don't know where we're at.
Karen Senger (53:02.492)
Yes, no, I love that. That's such great advice. And yeah, I mean, the fact that my husband does that, it is very, I don't take offense. okay, I'm in Caringland. But using that with my team, that's a great suggestion. I should let them know like, hey, when I'm doing this, tell me I'm in Caringland. If I am, my responsibility is flaring up and I'm doing something that you would.
Sarah Collins (53:10.164)
Mm-hmm.
Karen Senger (53:30.376)
really wanted to do or you feel like I shouldn't be doing, like there could be a code word for that, right? So then they could just say that and it feels less threatening, easy for them to do and then they don't have to worry about, she's gonna get defensive or she's gonna act out or something.
Sarah Collins (53:34.804)
Yeah.
Sarah Collins (53:45.652)
Yeah. And I just think it's great for team building. know, we know, like, if we think about teams, like we love inside jokes, they're not bad when you're like part of a team, right? Like we need things that like we get. That's why all those common shared experiences, they build us and bond us together. So using sort of that code word, we've all agreed upon, everyone knows what it means. It also kind of connects us at a deeper level too, because we like, we all, we're all in on it. We get it.
Karen Senger (54:14.322)
Yeah, that's perfect.
Bill Dippel (54:16.278)
Yeah, really, really good. Well, in that because we've asked you the hard question, right? Let's give you an easy one. Let's well, I wouldn't say easy. Let's give you one to have a little fun with. All right. So all right. You are competing in a bake off, but you have never baked a day in your life, which Karen, I know you well, that's not true. But you have never baked a day in your life. How do your strengths help you win?
Karen Senger (54:27.25)
All right.
Karen Senger (54:42.92)
Well, so I'm definitely going to turn to the learner and input. I'm going to be like, OK, what videos can I watch? What articles can I read? OK, let me get my hands on some recipes and kind of pulling all that information together. And then I think adaptability is going to fly in because I'm going to be anxious. I'll be like, my gosh, I'm in this bake-off and I don't know what I'm doing. And I'm going to be like, you know.
Sarah Collins (55:02.582)
Mm-hmm.
Karen Senger (55:10.886)
I prepared enough, I think I have enough information. I'm just gonna do it and see what happens. Just go with it. I think those would be the strengths that I'd probably be pulling in on that.
Sarah Collins (55:17.693)
Mm-hmm.
Bill Dippel (55:18.702)
Just going off, right? Yeah.
Sarah Collins (55:26.826)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Bill Dippel (55:30.2)
Yeah, I would, I, if I know you're coming up on the great British baking show, I'm definitely tuning in. I I'm going to see those strengths and all it all action.
Sarah Collins (55:38.381)
yeah. And I feel like you would make friends with all the other bakers. Like you would be like, did you drop your sugar here? You can use mine.
Karen Senger (55:43.828)
I probably would, you I actually was just watching that show, you know, they have a celebrity version and they had celebrities on that didn't, you they've never hardly baked and it's hilarious to watch. But yeah, I think that I would see it as being really fun and yeah, I'd be like, I'm gonna get to meet other people, that'll be cool and.
I would want to win. would definitely want to win. I don't know where my competition, see it's low. Yeah, so I, but it does fly in or something flies in to want me to be a little bit competitive. Maybe Achiever is part of that.
Bill Dippel (56:14.067)
Ha
Sarah Collins (56:14.482)
Alright!
Bill Dippel (56:17.134)
competition.
Sarah Collins (56:17.568)
competition sits at 32.
Bill Dippel (56:20.652)
Way down there. Yeah.
Sarah Collins (56:25.418)
Mm-hmm.
I was just gonna say maybe achieve her responsibility. She can she likes to do good.
Karen Senger (56:33.254)
Yeah, yeah, so, but yeah, it's funny to watch those shows and watch people who don't know how to bake. So, yeah.
Bill Dippel (56:46.73)
We know that you're influencing way, way down there.
Karen Senger (56:49.98)
It's, no, I'm gonna have that blue icing, which I'm not sure that's really appealing, but the color blue in food is not an appealing color. But yeah, you know, you're decorating a cake. You can use, I would use, I love color. I would use all the colors. I would have a very colorful cake. A rainbow cake, that's right.
Sarah Collins (56:56.586)
Alright.
Sarah Collins (57:02.496)
That's right.
Sarah Collins (57:06.592)
There we go, a rainbow cake.
Bill Dippel (57:11.918)
Perfect. Perfect.
Sarah Collins (57:13.814)
Karen, you have just been a pleasure to have on the podcast today. I am just so happy to learn more about you and get to know you a little bit better and hear about all the great things the food bank is doing. So thank you for taking your time to be with us.
Karen Senger (57:27.028)
thank you so much, Sarah. It's been so nice to visit with you, because I've known Bill for some years. And so just really thrilled to be with you guys today.
Bill Dippel (57:36.82)
And Karen, I would tell you, I appreciate and absolutely adore working with you and your team and continuing our food bank of Northern Nevada relationship. But also when I come in and whenever I see Karen, my day gets even a little better, right? It's good when I get there, but then I always seek out Karen's office to say, Hey, how are you doing today?
Sarah Collins (57:53.108)
Mm-hmm.
Karen Senger (57:53.265)
Aww.
Karen Senger (57:57.972)
He does and I always appreciate that. I always get a big hug from Bill and I just feel very supported and yeah. Yes, they're big hugs. Yeah, big bear hugs.
Bill Dippel (58:06.082)
Yeah, there were world famous bear hugs. They're big hugs. I get it. I know. and, and yeah, and I just, you know, Karen, thank you for all the time and honesty and working through multiple jobs together and carrying the strengths torch through, different phases of your life and your professional career. And I, again, it's so rewarding from a coaching point of view to hear somebody step into it and become
Sarah Collins (58:09.382)
Yes. Big Bill Bear hug.
Bill Dippel (58:34.638)
a bit of a coach themselves and my developer gets fired up to watch that. So our developers do that together.
Sarah Collins (58:40.544)
Yeah. Karen, if people want to find you, where can they find you? Are you on the LinkedIn?
Karen Senger (58:47.08)
Yeah, so I mean, I'm LinkedIn, people can look up my profile, but if they want to go to www.fbnn.org, that's F as in Frank, B as in boy, N as in Nancy, n as in Nancy.org, Food Bank of Northern Nevada. I'm on the staff page there, and so they can connect to me that way, and they can see more about what we're doing here at the Food Bank of Northern Nevada as well.
Sarah Collins (59:16.818)
And if anyone wants to donate, can they donate food and or money to you as well?
Karen Senger (59:20.852)
Absolutely, yes, yes. that again, going to that fbnn.org website, there's a really big donate button up in the upper right hand corner to make a monetary donation if there's food companies or grocery stores or anybody that wants to do a food drive, they can find out how to do that on our website as well. So we're always looking for...
more community support. have such great support from our community, from our region, and we love that. And so, yeah, if people wanna join us in this effort to help relieve hunger, they can find out more on our website.
Sarah Collins (59:58.686)
If Taylor Swift can do it, so can the rest of us. Come on.
Karen Senger (01:00:00.978)
That's right. That's right.
Bill Dippel (01:00:01.356)
Well, I was just going to chime in that I've contributed to the food bank the last couple of years during a particular time when they have a triple year match, Somebody will triple up if you contribute. And those are the times I choose to contribute to the food bank. But I'm just assuming Taylor was probably more generous than I was. it's just an assumption, but know, I...
Karen Senger (01:00:11.283)
Yes.
Sarah Collins (01:00:13.046)
oooo
Karen Senger (01:00:22.494)
Well, you know, you...
Sarah Collins (01:00:23.766)
Well, you know, she has probably a little bit more to give. I mean, I think that you have an incredibly successful business, Bill, but you know, Taylor Swift is just a touch more successful.
Bill Dippel (01:00:28.366)
I'm guessing. I'm guessing. don't. I'm guessing she, know, that's fine.
Karen Senger (01:00:29.748)
you
It might have been a little bit more, but you know what, I mean, you know, I really do mean this, every gift matters. And Bill, we have so appreciated that you've supported the food bank in that way and giving back. mean, obviously supporting us with the strengths work, but then doing that is always really special to us. So we appreciate that.
Bill Dippel (01:00:55.384)
now and, and thank you for everything that you are absolutely doing for the community. That's a tremendous, a number of people that you're helping and in a great way to do it. So thank you for that. Well, with that, we're gonna, we're gonna give you back your time, Karen, for today. And thank you for sharing the parts that you shared with us. We are so grateful that you do what you do and you've come on to talk to us about it. So with that, we will talk to our arsonists on the next episode.
Sarah Collins (01:01:02.646)
Mm-hmm. Absolutely.
Karen Senger (01:01:06.836)
Thanks.
Bill Dippel (01:01:23.544)
For all of you, thanks for listening and we'll talk soon.
Sarah Collins (01:01:27.19)
Bye!
