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Join NABR in partnership with Corp! Magazine for our CEO & Executive Thought Leadership Series, where Jennifer Kluge sits down with C-Suite Leaders to get their insight and expertise.
NABR is a service organization igniting greatness in companies and their people.
00;00;00;03 - 00;00;26;19
Jennifer
Hello everyone and welcome back. Today's guest is Kathy Steele. I have the honor of introducing her. Hello, Kathy. It's wonderful to have you here. Let's. Let's introduce you. I want to tell everyone a little bit about you. You are the founder and the CEO of Red Caffeine. I love that name. I just love it. I can't wait to hear about how you came up with that name.
00;00;26;19 - 00;00;50;23
Jennifer
But your company focuses on business growth strategy for your clients. You're known as a growth expert. I know you because you've been a multi-year winner of the best and brightest companies to work for in Chicago, and it's been an honor, just me learning from you. So I thought it would be wonderful for everyone to learn from you. You not only lead your company, but you're also a speaker.
00;00;50;25 - 00;01;07;26
Jennifer
I happen to know your speaker, your business resource to others, and you get involved in many industry groups in the community. So helping other entrepreneurs succeeds not only in your job description, but it's a passion that you have. So welcome to the program.
00;01;07;28 - 00;01;16;23
Kathy
Thank you so much, Jennifer. It's just a pleasure to be here and just been a pleasure to get to know you through all the best and brightest functions that you've hosted.
00;01;16;26 - 00;01;25;19
Jennifer
Thanks, Kathy. So let's talk about Red Caffeine. I'm dying to know how you came up with that name. And tell us why you started the company.
00;01;25;21 - 00;01;55;26
Kathy
Sure. So, Jennifer, we initially really founded Red Caffeine to help mid-market organizations with their branding, marketing, technology needs, and so we really started to see that our clients were needing a bit more than those, you know, those marketing tactics and their challenges were bigger there. They were operational. They were struggling with talent and hiring. They were, you know, struggling with digital transformation and sales.
00;01;55;26 - 00;02;21;27
Kathy
And so, you know, after a few years more delivering more tactical services, we we really repositioned our organization and offering to help leaders build a strategy that would provide them with, you know, both the Grow to Market plan and the implementation team to help them execute on that strategy. So over the past nine years, that's that's really what we've been focused on is growth strategy.
00;02;21;27 - 00;02;44;00
Jennifer
And you coined that the Grow to market plan. And it's it's a growth strategy plan. It's a brand plan. It's a marketing plan. It's a sales there's sales in there. There's tech in there. And there's the people component. Can you give everyone a 32nd overview of what the growth to market concept is, and maybe share some successes from that?
00;02;44;02 - 00;03;14;01
Kathy
Sure. So, I think, you know, the the Grow to Market plan is really successful because it's it's more than just a series of marketing tactics. It's really thinking about the, you know, the entire business infrastructure. And then, you know, the way we really start is with a discovery workshop. And so, you know, the clients might come to us and say, we need to generate more leads or we need to improve our, you know, our we need to hire more people, but we really then dig into those issues.
00;03;14;01 - 00;03;39;28
Kathy
It tends to be a bit broader than they initially think it is. So we team that, you know, internal information that we're getting from the organization with external information. So market research, competitive analysis, we talk with customers, we talk with employees. So we really get a good picture of what is going on within this organization. And then we help the the the company prioritize.
00;03;39;28 - 00;04;03;27
Kathy
Because obviously there's you know not infinite time or infinite budget typically. So we really want to stay focused on the things that are going to have meaningful impact in their business. And so, you know, usually the plans that go to market plans would involve some branding elements. So a lot of times people don't have a clearly articulated value proposition or positioning in the marketplace.
00;04;03;27 - 00;04;35;02
Kathy
So helping, you know what some of those foundational things as well as technology. So they may have not, you know, been really leveling up their technology usage, whether it's sales technology or hiring technology. So help them put a plan in place to automate and create efficiencies. And then, then, you know, obviously the people components. So, you know, really assessing where, you know, what they have on their internal team in terms of sales and marketing resources.
00;04;35;02 - 00;05;05;06
Kathy
And then we we put together a team to execute those strategies. So sometimes we're working in combination with internal team members. And other times we are that cross-functional team for our clients. And so so you know, we're not just delivering a strategy. We're helping execute that strategy. And most of our clients find it's more affordable to hire a fractional cross-functional team like Red Caffeine versus to actually hire and train their own internal team.
00;05;05;06 - 00;05;22;04
Jennifer
So it's ingenious because it's taking those big, huge consulting firm concept and you're bringing it to a smaller market for smaller businesses that need it almost more than the big guys do. Right? It's pretty. It. Yes. Pretty ingenious.
00;05;22;07 - 00;05;45;21
Kathy
Thank you. And I appreciate that. You you know, you recognize that because we do you know we do get sort of oh you're like the Deloitte of the mid-market. Yeah. So we really do pride ourselves on being able to think about the business and not just about marketing our sales activities and help prioritize. You know, budget and resources to to really help, you know, the overall business grow.
00;05;45;28 - 00;06;09;05
Jennifer
What I like about what you do is usually when people say, I need marketing, it really means they need growth, right? And you translated that growth into ways that really, truly help people, rather than just giving them a marketing plan and executing on marketing. So, you know, I love strategic planning and this this scream strategic planning all over it.
00;06;09;12 - 00;06;31;29
Jennifer
And many smaller businesses or big market businesses don't have strategic plans that are effective, and they almost need somebody outside to come in and help put it together for them. So there's actual results. Do you want to share any success stories that, you know, brag a little bit about someone you helped with? What did you start with? You know, keep it confidential?
00;06;31;29 - 00;06;35;15
Jennifer
Of course. Would you start with and what would you leave them with.
00;06;35;17 - 00;06;58;27
Kathy
Sir? I mean, I think one of the most thing, one of the most interesting things and important things to note is that a lot of times we are doing a multi-year, you know, agreement. Most clients need a lot of support. So, you know, but, you know, a couple of success stories would be where we've helped really digitize a revenue generation system for a client.
00;06;58;27 - 00;07;20;04
Kathy
So, you know, really come in and audit how they're going to market with their sales and marketing efforts, you know, identify gaps in the process, help them, you know, actually structure a process. A lot of, you know, a lot of people are really good at the core thing they do, but they don't operational, like operationalize their talent strategy or operationalize their sales strategy.
00;07;20;04 - 00;07;48;13
Kathy
So we put those those roadmaps in place like a blueprint in place. And then we try and level up certain key areas of that revenue strategy. And so, you know, you would hear many of our clients say, you know, that they've become very sophisticated sales and marketing experts because they've written alongside us in their plans. And so, you know, really can tell us or tell you now, you know, where marketing is having an impact on their sales outcomes.
00;07;48;13 - 00;08;06;26
Kathy
And, you know, and really be able to use some of the technologies like CRMs and marketing automation in their in their sales and marketing process so that they're, they're, you know, being able to be more, just better, you know, better outcomes for sales.
00;08;06;28 - 00;08;29;04
Jennifer
Yeah. Now, you mentioned to me that you're woman certified or owned and, you founded Red camping. Can we go back to when you were thinking about starting your business? What was going through your mind back then? What made you take the leap of faith to start your own business? And then I would love to hear why it's called Red Caffeine.
00;08;29;04 - 00;08;39;00
Jennifer
I think that is the coolest name versus purple caffeine. Or, you know, tell us, tell us a little bit more about that journey.
00;08;39;03 - 00;09;00;09
Kathy
So, you know, the story is a little bit of that has a little drama to it. You know, the foundation of Red Caffeine was because I was coming out of a partnership. I was in another business and we were, you know, heading for a business divorce. It was a very, very trying time. Took a, you know, about a year to unwind that partnership in that business.
00;09;00;09 - 00;09;28;28
Kathy
And what I wanted was to do things differently. I'd always sort of love the idea of some of the, the cultural things that we did do at my prior company. But, you know, during that process of unwinding the business, I became a part of the Small Giants community. So I really learned that you could not only build a profitable business, but you could build a business that has that really cares and has a great culture, so really cares about their people.
00;09;29;01 - 00;09;58;17
Kathy
And you wouldn't have to suffer profits and you wouldn't have to suffer your employee experience. You know, you could have you really could have both. You could have even great relationships with your customers and your community as well. So that really intrigued me. And to know that there were other businesses doing it was super cool. So we did have a small group of people come over from the other company with us and with me, and we weren't sure if we were going to retain the former brand.
00;09;58;19 - 00;10;24;05
Kathy
So we started to work on name storming for our new company, which was really fun. And so we did know that we wanted to have something to tie us to the old brand. So that's really where the red came in. And then, you know, caffeine. One of the team members came in and put three. Yeah, he put it like he put us, you know, posted a big posted on our whiteboard and said, I only have one idea.
00;10;24;05 - 00;10;46;06
Kathy
And I bought the domain and it was Red Caffeine. And the team was unanimously in favor of that name. It just it was right for us. It didn't box us in it. You know, we knew we were going to be a business that was going to evolve our model over time, and we didn't want to be bound by a name that precluded us from, you know, doing or positioning the business.
00;10;46;06 - 00;10;58;26
Kathy
And red really, you know, feels it kind of is our passion for what we do. And caffeine is that energy is that fuel for how we help a business grow. So it really, really fit us.
00;10;58;29 - 00;11;22;00
Jennifer
It makes sense. It makes sense. And, you know, just from our background, we we've seen so many partnerships. That's that's a very common story. In fact, the majority of partnerships don't make it. And there is a separation. And they each go on their own and they're also successful. So, you know, it's almost a stepping stone partnership. So that that's very, very common.
00;11;22;00 - 00;11;49;00
Jennifer
Very common. So congratulations on on making that leap. I know that must have been a little scary. You mentioned small giants. I also know that you're involved with EOS. For those that don't know that's an entrepreneur operating system. You called it the small giant community. There's a great game of business open book management system. I'm reading from your bio here Story Brand and Hutto Institute.
00;11;49;02 - 00;12;05;18
Jennifer
So tell us a little bit about those tools, what those communities and tools are and what it would give for others listening today on what those tools did, not only for you, but for your clients and and why you are so attached to them.
00;12;05;21 - 00;12;36;13
Kathy
Sure, absolutely. I mean, I wish I would have known some of these things earlier on in my business career, but, you know, I've always been a life learner. And that Red Caffeine, you know, we one of our values as being a culture of learning. So I've always believed that you don't have to always learn by mistakes. If somebody has been there and done that, they probably have some insights that you can leverage and, you know, fast track an improvement in your organization versus trying to do something on your own.
00;12;36;13 - 00;13;09;06
Kathy
So EOS, entrepreneur, manorial operating system, I really feel like that's been a game changer for my business. I probably wished I would have done it a little sooner. But you know, I we've been operating using the EOS, methodology for about four years now, and it really is just an operating system that is is proven, and it helps your business function by just a series of different things, like the way you run your meetings and the way you include your whole company in decision making.
00;13;09;06 - 00;13;28;00
Kathy
But it's got so much structure, it doesn't really create this free for all atmosphere. I remember, I remember the day I knew it was working is when I'd stop dreading my leadership team meetings and was excited about my leadership team meetings because they were productive. We actually got stuff done, so that's the same.
00;13;28;03 - 00;13;29;15
Jennifer
Oriented versus.
00;13;29;20 - 00;14;09;07
Kathy
How are you oriented? And our go to market methodology really, really is such a companion to the EOS methodology. There's it's a very aligned methodology. So I think we love working with other EOS companies because we we all speak the same language. In terms of great game of business, financial transparency. I really believe in financial transparency. That was one of the things that was a mistake that I had made in my business prior to this one that, you know, thinking, keeping things from my employees, they they're assume something is way worse or way better than it really is.
00;14;09;12 - 00;14;21;12
Jennifer
And worse, nine times out of ten, just from the best and brightest days. You don't tell them whatever they make in their head is at. That wasn't times worse than what the truth is.
00;14;21;12 - 00;15;01;23
Kathy
I'm so I you know. But I think with that really comes that that obligation to do that financial literacy training. Not every marketer or technologist or account manager comes to our organization with financial literacy. So we believe in, you know, really doing that onboarding and training around the financial practices for business. I've seen such great impact for people in their personal lives as well as it, you know, it's really a great way for our, you know, since our our employees understand how business finance works, they take that same thinking to the client, work that they're doing and are very fiscally responsible for the client budget.
00;15;01;23 - 00;15;39;23
Kathy
So it's it's really great to be able to to provide that owner mentality for our team. Then I think you also mentioned the Huncho Institute. That's a leadership development organization that I've been a part of it for. I want to say around seven, eight years. So the development programs are really based on emotional intelligence. So everything they help coach you as leaders as well as your management team and employees on all the different aspects of of business curriculum, but they also provide mentorship opportunities.
00;15;39;23 - 00;16;04;24
Kathy
So, you know, we are a smaller organization, so it's not always easier for us to find a mentor within our own team. And so, you know, to be able to team up our our employees with mentors outside of the organization. The Hunter Institute has helped us form some of those relationships. CEO forums, peer forums. I really love, you know, like like you are doing at, at the best and brightest.
00;16;04;24 - 00;16;16;17
Kathy
There's the CEO or the peer forum aspect to be able to trade experiences and share them with others and learn from other business leaders. It's it's just such a powerful way to learn.
00;16;16;20 - 00;16;49;24
Jennifer
A really good topic. There's there's two things here. One is we have noticed with the best and brightest that the leaders want to self improve. They want to self improve. The other thing too, is that we've noticed that some of the lowest scoring areas is, is some times around trust and transparency of leadership. So you're you're bringing up a very, very good point here where leadership is critical to be vulnerable, to show transparency.
00;16;49;27 - 00;17;19;18
Jennifer
We we have made recommendations to the business community that you need to communicate more as a leader. Absolutely must communicate more because you think messages are getting out there and they're not. They either aren't getting translated correctly. And then you throw a pandemic in there and digital and hybrid worlds and whatnot. It's gotten worse, not better. So so all of these things that you are learning yourself and applying to your clients is probably why your best and brightest company.
00;17;19;21 - 00;17;36;18
Jennifer
So let's let's talk about people a little bit here. Tell us a little bit about some of your culture at your company, some of the rituals that you have, some of your best practices of being a best and brightest company. Share some of those, and then we'll we'll talk about the tail at war a little bit to.
00;17;36;21 - 00;17;50;04
Kathy
Sure. Well, I do always feel funny about talking about the culture, because I do think my point of view is probably a little different than the employees. So an interviews. I always like to let the team talk first, but you know.
00;17;50;06 - 00;17;53;17
Jennifer
What would they say? What would they say? How did they answer?
00;17;53;19 - 00;18;12;12
Kathy
I think that they, you know, they say things that make me just almost like bring tears to my eyes. They they probably say it better than I do. They really talk about just the the culture, the people we are. We are really a high performing culture. And, and we have a lot of super smart people working for us.
00;18;12;14 - 00;18;33;21
Kathy
But one of our values is that work life harmony and so to be able to not only work hard but play hard, I think our team has a lot of flavor. Another one of our core values. So, you know, bringing innovation and creativity to the way we work with each other and with with our clients and anything that we're doing in the community.
00;18;33;24 - 00;18;51;22
Kathy
So our culture is, is it's it's kind of a fun balance between, you know, having a good time and doing really great work. And, and I think that sometimes our significant others might think we have more fun than we do work because they listen to our zoom meetings sometimes.
00;18;51;22 - 00;18;54;18
Jennifer
An example what you do for fun.
00;18;54;20 - 00;19;20;11
Kathy
Well, you know, we just recently had our and Bad Leader award. So that's our annual recognition program. And so of course, you know, our our anniversary and this this event always happened around Halloween. So we had to get dressed up in costumes and we couldn't get dressed up in just any costume. We had to get dressed up in our super power costume.
00;19;20;11 - 00;19;44;08
Kathy
But it couldn't be like Super Woman. It had to literally be your superpower. So I dressed up and I'm a pretty high energy person. I dressed up with, you know, a coffee or Red Caffeine, coffee. But, you know, we we saw so many fun ways people express their superpowers. So we're always trying to put a little spin on that.
00;19;44;08 - 00;20;07;10
Kathy
And so we had, you know, a great, you know, employee events recognize some of the standout performances. But I think one of the most touching pieces of the event was that we had red buckets on a table. And so nobody walked away without getting some recognition. And each of the employees wrote a bucket filler comment to their coworkers.
00;20;07;10 - 00;20;25;24
Kathy
So you wrote a comment for every single one of your coworkers, and whether you won an award or didn't to be able to walk home, I, I actually I have my bucket right sitting right over there just, you know, came home. It just brought tears to your eyes how much people appreciate their, their, you know, their teammates. It was it was.
00;20;25;26 - 00;20;28;29
Jennifer
That's very low budget too. So I know.
00;20;29;04 - 00;20;29;15
Kathy
Actually.
00;20;29;19 - 00;20;49;27
Jennifer
I know we we put that as best practice. It probably came from you and our best practice resources that we pushed out is create badges brown bags or whatever it is in your case, buckets. And everybody writes a note to everybody in the company about what they value or appreciate about them. It goes a long way, goes a long way.
00;20;49;29 - 00;21;21;23
Kathy
It absolutely does. And I think the one thing that you mentioned earlier was around really having conversations. So I learned that that as I was leaving and exiting my other business, I started having these, we call them Culture Club. They were late afternoon. There was might have been a beer or two opened, but it was sort of this opportunity for me to share what was going on with the business, divorce and people asked me very pointed questions.
00;21;21;23 - 00;21;43;16
Kathy
They were concerned about losing their job. They were concerned that the company wouldn't make it. There was just so many unknowns, and it really pushed me to be truthful, authentic and and transparent with my people. And it went a really long way. All of my, all of those people came over to the new company with me, and they could have done a lot of different things.
00;21;43;19 - 00;22;11;05
Kathy
So it is something that has migrated from my past business over to the new business. We have Culture Club lunches once a week. We share information about that, you know, what's going on with the company, the financials. But we also, you know, have learning opportunities. So I do feel like, you know, you do have to continue to repeat things to people and remind them about your great benefits or you know, what is going on with the organization.
00;22;11;05 - 00;22;24;03
Kathy
But if you're, you know, if you have sort of that set time in, in the week or in the month that you're doing those things, it just it, it starts to build that open and, and transparent dialog that you can have.
00;22;24;05 - 00;22;56;09
Jennifer
You brought this up. I have had three separate conversations sessions this week just on this topic of allowing your team to ask you directly as the leader, the president, the CEO, the top dog, right? Scary questions and being able to not get punished for asking that or pressure from others. Or why did you ask that? You know, having an environment where those questions are expected, they're appreciated, they're valued and rewarding them for the for the courage to ask those questions.
00;22;56;09 - 00;23;07;28
Jennifer
Yes, that is one of the things that we're actually recommending, because we got to get these transparency values to go through our organizations. And the only way I can do that is top down.
00;23;08;01 - 00;23;36;10
Kathy
You know, it's tough. It's challenging. Sometimes the questions you feel they they hurt you or they you are they're uncomfortable. But again, like we talked about earlier, if you have that chance to to, you know, to be able to give feedback or, or answer a question, even if you don't always have an answer. Sometimes I've had a go back and think about something and then come back to the team with an answer, a solution.
00;23;36;10 - 00;24;06;08
Kathy
I do think also iOS the the functions of the L ten meeting on the agent or, you know, the group L ten meetings because they disarm issue work like working on issues. They have that formula for naming an issue and trying to solve or get to a next step and improving something. I think that it has a natural it's just a it's a very natural way to problem solve with the group.
00;24;06;08 - 00;24;11;11
Kathy
And I think it gives people that open forum to to bring up something that might be uncomfortable.
00;24;11;12 - 00;24;45;01
Jennifer
So yeah, thank you for sharing that. So Kathy, you are our go to person. And this comes up in our discussion round tables. It comes up at board meetings. It's a hot issue the value proposition and actually the war for talent. And we are finding the best practices out there is that you bring someone on the first interaction that you have with a candidate, you walk them through what is their employee experience, and then how do you treat them as they leave?
00;24;45;03 - 00;25;25;11
Jennifer
And a lot of people learning, including myself as a leader, are learning to adapt and one of the things that is expected now for cutting edge companies is to have this value proposition. From an employee perspective. So for those out there, we put all this energy into marketing and growing and getting clients right. So taking those lessons now, your growth expert, taking those lessons to get clients and strategize around that in the client experience, is now the the same process for the employee experience.
00;25;25;11 - 00;25;46;20
Jennifer
And we are telling HR leaders to team up with their marketing teams and strategists such as yourself. So what people through it pretends to make doesn't know what the value proposition is from an employee perspective. Watch them through that mindset and the bare minimums that they should have in their value proposition.
00;25;46;22 - 00;26;10;16
Kathy
Sure, absolutely. I you know, Jennifer, I just first want to mention that in every CEO forum that I've been, I've, I've, I've done like four different CEO, you know, meetings in the past three months. And the top thing I think the recession is scary. But the top thing people are talking about that they're concerned about is talent. They are.
00;26;10;23 - 00;26;37;23
Kathy
It is such a hot button issue. It's not going away. So we really do need to start to get this right in our organizations. And so it really, you know, regardless of size or industry, we're all really challenged with this talent situation that we're in. So a value proposition and it's just like simple state is a statement that summarizes why a customer or employee would choose your product or service or choose your company.
00;26;37;23 - 00;27;02;08
Kathy
And so when you think about just as a consumer, when you like walk into a store to buy a bottle of water and you grab the bottle of Smartwater and you could have grabbed a bottle of Fiji water or a bottle of Disney or any other water brand. But if you really think about it, you grab that bottle of Smartwater because of its value proposition.
00;27;02;08 - 00;27;37;25
Kathy
That's something about that how that brand has conveyed why that water is better than the Fiji water or whatever resonated with you. That's exactly, you know, what we need to do as organizations in terms of how the employee perceives your business. So if you really want to be an employer of church of choice, that you you've got to build some differentiation around why a candidate should choose your organization to apply to and choose your organization when they've got a couple offers on the table and choose your organization to stay at once.
00;27;37;25 - 00;28;05;18
Kathy
They've been employed and onboarded for a time. So, you know, being an employer, of choice really does require a strong and differentiated and truthful value proposition. I think that there's a lot I this was one of the things that I really struggled with in my early career around branding. When you'd, you know, ask somebody about their values or what their mission was or what their purpose was, and they'd like, oh, wait a second.
00;28;05;20 - 00;28;31;06
Kathy
It's around here. It's in a drawer somewhere, you know, like below the dust off of that and and out would come, here's our values and read them and just would be like, no, those are not your values. I've been at your company many times, and that is not fruitful. So, you know, you really can build a differentiation differentiated value proposition for employees, an employee value proposition.
00;28;31;08 - 00;28;43;00
Kathy
But it has to be rooted in what you know, what you stand for as a business, what your values are, what your purpose is, what your mission is. So there needs to be some content in it.
00;28;43;02 - 00;29;05;13
Jennifer
I'm sorry to interrupt you. No, no, it doesn't have to be invented. It's already there. The fabric's already there is somebody looking at the fabric and saying, yes, this is our our place in employment is wool is going to keep you warm or our place them employing this cotton. You won't sweat. You know what? Divert whatever analogy you want to make on it.
00;29;05;13 - 00;29;30;12
Jennifer
But. And putting the collateral materials together and things. And here's the interesting thing. Many leaders that I have really good cultures, they're very humble. They don't know how wonderful their culture is. They can't define it. They can't put terms in it. So, you know, having your team, like you said, you said you wanted your team to answer the culture question.
00;29;30;18 - 00;29;54;29
Jennifer
Having your team put a committee together and say, who are we? What are we about in some some interesting practices with that? Is once this identified in the recruitment process, let's say somebody has some job openings, have somebody talk about that. Here's our experience, here's our value that we provide to you. I like it from a small, smaller business perspective.
00;29;54;29 - 00;30;17;06
Jennifer
For those that are smaller, say, hey, we're not going to pay you a ton of money here compared to others. But what we can give you is an extra half day off or we can give you this wonderful culture where we're helping the world or whatever it may be. It's been honest to your point, being honest about that, but it does need to be structured and managed.
00;30;17;08 - 00;30;21;14
Jennifer
And then that's what companies are doing now.
00;30;21;16 - 00;30;44;08
Kathy
It's part you know, the value proposition is sort of the pillar of your your messaging strategy. Right. So everything sort of rolls up. So your your job descriptions need to reflect that value proposition. Your, you know, some of your advertisements need to reflect that value proposition. And then people need to feel it in the interview process. You know, at that first welcome.
00;30;44;13 - 00;31;09;12
Kathy
Thank you for your application email that needs to be personalized and feel like your organization. So every touchpoint, just like as your customers are touched, every touchpoint with a candidate is an opportunity to re affirm your value proposition or to dispute it. Like to make it like we say we're this, but yeah, that's not the experience that you get as a candidate or as you're looking at the job description.
00;31;09;12 - 00;31;33;12
Kathy
So and then I think even in the interview process, we haven't had to do this as much. But I think sometimes you do need to do some coaching around culture and how to describe your culture so that the the team can articulate it during the interview process. Because I have not been on an interview in years that we haven't been asked about our culture, you know, and specifically asked by candidate if.
00;31;33;14 - 00;31;53;11
Jennifer
You have the materials and have you trained the team, and this is who we are and this is how we do it. And yeah, there's so many layers of complexity on it and it's a somewhat new world that people are going into. And thank goodness we can lean on people like you that have mastered it and now just need to apply it towards talent.
00;31;53;11 - 00;31;54;21
Jennifer
So thank you.
00;31;54;22 - 00;32;15;19
Kathy
It's a it's really challenging. So you know we're really being it's it's probably harder. And we're seeing that shift sometimes people are investing more in marketing for talent sometimes than they are for marketing for customers. So the one last thing you'd say is you wouldn't put somebody unprepared, you know, in front of a prospect to pitch your business.
00;32;15;19 - 00;32;22;02
Kathy
So but, you know, that's the start of the same prop that you need for your team as in the recruiting process.
00;32;22;04 - 00;32;48;18
Jennifer
Okay. Very good, very good. All right. Well let's just chat to let let's switch gears. Let's chat about you a little bit more in your career and everything related to that as a woman. You know it's a little different running a company. And I am sure that there are some young ladies out there that are thinking about starting their business.
00;32;48;20 - 00;33;03;21
Jennifer
I'm sure you've had monumental moments in your business. What advice would you give? Let's see, it's 18 year old young lady. She has the dream of starting her own business. What advice would you give her, sir?
00;33;03;23 - 00;33;38;16
Kathy
Well, I wish somebody I would have asked other entrepreneurs as I was starting out, but I think one of the things that I did later in my career was one of the things I should have done initially, as is really right, a long vision, you know, really descriptive story about what I wanted the company to look like, to feel like to, you know, feel like from what our offering was, what our employee would, you know, experience would look like, what our culture would look like, what our clients would look like.
00;33;38;16 - 00;34;12;28
Kathy
So really drafting out, you know, a vision, they always say that, you know, you wouldn't just get in the car and start driving. Well, sometimes you would, but you know, you want a destination in mind. So to write out a vision, if you're starting a company with others, you know, maybe have people collaborate on that vision so that you've got a really clearly articulated roadmap of what you want to build and then, you know, layering on all the other assets like the business plan, budget, the financing piece, those types of things should come after.
00;34;13;01 - 00;34;36;17
Kathy
If you are considering a partnership. What I would say was is really talk about your values. I think entering a partnership is is, you know, very much like entering a marriage or in a relationship where you're going to spend a lot of time with somebody and, you know, nobody goes into a marriage or a partnership thinking the worst thing that's going that the worst thing is going to happen.
00;34;36;19 - 00;34;54;21
Kathy
But business is have ups and downs. And if you don't have good values, alignment, when things are going well, you will find out really quickly how much values alignment is going to matter when things aren't going well. So those would be some of the things I would have wished I would have done when I was starting the business.
00;34;54;21 - 00;34;58;28
Kathy
Beyond just the business plan and and some of the financials.
00;34;59;01 - 00;35;11;28
Jennifer
Well, Kathy, we're running out of time, but I guess what I want to ask you in closing up in in your career and as the human, as a human, what are you most proud of?
00;35;12;04 - 00;35;36;28
Kathy
Wow. That's there's so many things, but I, I really think, most I think the, the pandemic has just taught us all to really appreciate, you know, sort of more simpler things. And I, I really am proud of the fact that I've been able to balance some of the personal things my family, my friends, and the time with them that that real quality time with them and the time it needs to to run a business.
00;35;36;28 - 00;35;51;14
Kathy
So I, I really feel like I've gotten some really good balance in the last few years and, and, you know, devoted a lot of time to all the most important things in my life. And that's not easy. So I'm pretty proud of being able to to juggle that.
00;35;51;16 - 00;36;03;25
Jennifer
Well, congratulations on your success and all the wisdom that you brought to everyone today. Keep shining brightly. Thank you again, Kathy. Kathy, still with the red keeping.
00;36;03;28 - 00;36;05;29
Kathy
Thank you so much, Jennifer. It was really fun.