Treating Talent Like Family: The Key to Success in IT Staffing and The Importance of Relational Connections w/Jennifer Schielke CEO Summit Group Solutions

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[00:00:03] I think you know it was different probably when I started than where I am now. Right now, really carrying over people has become all consuming for me.

[00:00:13] And we have three pillars. One is the operational pillar. One is the professional development and one is the culture of the people, the engagement pillar.

[00:00:21] And I just grab on to those so much because we started in 2008, so not a great time to start a stall.

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[00:00:37] And then 2020 happened and we said.

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[00:01:49] Hello, this is William Sittica from Ryan Leary and you're listening and watching inside the C sweet podcast. You have Jennifer on today. So we're going to learn her journey.

[00:01:59] At least up till now we've probably got a little bit more of the journey to go, but all of her about that.

[00:02:06] So Jennifer, would you do us a favor and introduce yourself?

[00:02:09] Sure. My name is Jennifer Shalke. I was born and raised in Hawaii, went to the mainland for college in Tacoma, Washington, the University of Puget Sound.

[00:02:21] It's fortunate enough to work for a Deloitte right out of college and set me on the right path forward.

[00:02:28] Did a lot of fun things and ended up co founding a company called Summit Group Solutions with my husband, which we still have. We're in our 16th year and have two kids, two giant labs.

[00:02:40] And we relocated in 2020 to Scottsdale, Arizona during the COVID during the COVID. Sorry, the Internet COVID.

[00:02:50] During the COVID.

[00:02:52] I'm not trying the other day because he said the softwares.

[00:02:55] Did you say the software?

[00:02:58] No, I went back and I had to edit that out Jennifer.

[00:03:02] You edited it out.

[00:03:04] I did and I should have, but it was hilarious.

[00:03:07] Let's just know that I did it. I might have left it.

[00:03:09] It's making five times during this one.

[00:03:12] I said softwares.

[00:03:14] He caught it.

[00:03:16] Oh yeah.

[00:03:18] I said, I said, I said Dears the other night and my kids were like, what?

[00:03:22] Yeah.

[00:03:23] We're not.

[00:03:24] It's multiple years.

[00:03:26] There's a bunch of years over there.

[00:03:28] So was it at the beginning of COVID or was it just kind of all the madness?

[00:03:32] It was well, if I feel like in Washington state at least it lasted a very long time.

[00:03:39] So we left in September.

[00:03:43] September and we had visited here.

[00:03:46] My father-in-law lived here.

[00:03:48] We had visited in May and it was like a different world.

[00:03:52] Oh, it is.

[00:03:53] Really different world.

[00:03:55] Yeah.

[00:03:56] My mom was actually sick at that time.

[00:03:58] Oddly, you know, you hear about the life care center and things like that.

[00:04:01] So I knew those places very, very well and had an inside journey into that that just quite honestly upset me at many different levels.

[00:04:13] Yeah.

[00:04:14] Arizona, especially Scottsdale, there's so many facilities.

[00:04:17] So the hope was to bring her here, but that didn't end up happening.

[00:04:21] So it just became a new journey for my family in a very sunny place.

[00:04:26] The thing about because we are selling you a pre-show, my wife and I, we went to grad school at U of A down in Tucson.

[00:04:33] And we had come from Birmingham.

[00:04:36] So, Birmingham has four seasons, right?

[00:04:39] And it's rainy.

[00:04:41] Tucson has actually one season with a slice of, you know, just a splash of something else.

[00:04:49] But one thing that I got used to really used to is every day, I'm going to see the sun.

[00:04:54] Sun's there.

[00:04:55] Like, here's some questions.

[00:04:57] Like, you won't wake up and go, I wonder what the weather is going to be like today.

[00:05:02] It's going to be dry and hot.

[00:05:04] There you go.

[00:05:05] Absolutely.

[00:05:06] I'm going to go retire in Tucson because I loved it that much.

[00:05:12] And really hot though.

[00:05:14] But the thing is, it's hot.

[00:05:16] Don't give me the dry heat.

[00:05:18] 112 is 112.

[00:05:20] The pool is not hot.

[00:05:22] The pool is nice and cool.

[00:05:24] That is a little freakish though.

[00:05:26] Like in June you get in a pool and it's warm water.

[00:05:30] You're looking at as well as in the pool.

[00:05:33] Yeah.

[00:05:34] Bad.

[00:05:35] Why am I here?

[00:05:37] So tell us a little bit about the company that you and your husband have.

[00:05:40] So it's an IT staffing and recruiting firm.

[00:05:43] So we always say, we have the opportunity to unite talents and technology.

[00:05:48] We are not the brilliance in the technology or the softwares for Ryan.

[00:05:54] But we are the ones who find the talent.

[00:05:57] I'm telling you, I'm going to get him to say it again.

[00:05:59] We need to read the talent.

[00:06:01] People are CPA.

[00:06:03] I'm not.

[00:06:05] We talked about talking that away.

[00:06:07] But it's amazing.

[00:06:09] This is what my husband always did.

[00:06:11] And I had the business side.

[00:06:13] So pairing us together just seemed to make sense.

[00:06:15] And it was his suggestion.

[00:06:17] And for us, I think we have such different backgrounds and personalities.

[00:06:22] The line just drew itself.

[00:06:24] Wow.

[00:06:25] So it works.

[00:06:27] And he's very passionate about this.

[00:06:29] It took me a while.

[00:06:30] I was in my safe spaces with biotech and SEC reporting and consulting.

[00:06:35] And I could come in and out, but then this was all about people.

[00:06:39] And it was exhausting.

[00:06:41] And I just watched things happen for about four years before I really engaged.

[00:06:45] Right.

[00:06:46] Right.

[00:06:47] Because it was easier for you to just do the back office stuff.

[00:06:50] Oh yeah.

[00:06:51] I only had to rely on myself.

[00:06:52] And that made it easy.

[00:06:53] You know?

[00:06:54] And lawyers and other accountants.

[00:06:56] So that made it really easy.

[00:06:58] It's just a different world when you, you know, have the people aspect.

[00:07:02] And it really kind of prepared us for the here and now,

[00:07:06] which is so different than it was 16 years ago plus.

[00:07:11] How so?

[00:07:12] How is that different?

[00:07:13] I mean, let's dig into that.

[00:07:15] Well, I think, you know, just the environment itself, you know,

[00:07:19] I want, I thought I was going to go find other people that were just like me

[00:07:24] or just like my husband, but the dynamics had changed already.

[00:07:27] You know, we also both came from not much.

[00:07:31] And of course I'm saying nothing.

[00:07:33] My husband always says you're dirt floors.

[00:07:36] I didn't have dirt floors.

[00:07:37] They were just dirty.

[00:07:38] Like it's different.

[00:07:39] I thought you were going to do a Drake verse.

[00:07:41] But you were in the whole thing.

[00:07:42] I thought you were going to start at the bottom and now we're at the top.

[00:07:44] And now we're in prison.

[00:07:45] But, you know, we worked very hard.

[00:07:47] I got scholarships and worked hard to go to college

[00:07:51] and paid off every dime of my loans, which was a lot

[00:07:55] because I didn't understand the difference in costs from different colleges.

[00:07:59] So I just chose the one I liked the most and, you know,

[00:08:03] and then had to pay for it on the back end.

[00:08:05] But that fabric is very different.

[00:08:08] And I'm just used to the hard work and the sweat

[00:08:12] and pouring in and just doing better all the time.

[00:08:16] On a scale of zero to pulling your hair out.

[00:08:20] When you hear people talk about government paying their student loans off.

[00:08:26] We're on that scale.

[00:08:29] Yeah, you lost me at government.

[00:08:31] But no, I just, I hear, you know, the thing is in everything,

[00:08:37] there is probably a good intention somewhere.

[00:08:40] The problem is it just gets put on this wide blanket scale

[00:08:45] and it's just brushed over.

[00:08:47] And I think, you know, then accountability is lost and, you know,

[00:08:51] entitlement rises, but then the people who really need it get stuck in this.

[00:08:55] You don't deserve it, you know, right lash out too.

[00:08:59] So it's so hard.

[00:09:01] I try not to do, you know, blankets, scopes,

[00:09:04] but I also hear people, I mean, just think about unemployment.

[00:09:08] When we were growing up, you know, you didn't want to be on on state funded food stamp.

[00:09:13] Although I swear we had more food when we were on food stamps than those two months than ever before.

[00:09:19] But you had, you know, when you had to, you had to and unemployment.

[00:09:24] I think there's just a misconception of what it's for and why it's there.

[00:09:28] We graduated and we weren't guaranteed a job in our field.

[00:09:33] And we just had to work.

[00:09:35] I think I was telling my team, you know, the before I went to Deloitte,

[00:09:39] what I did that summer, I worked at Dairy Queen.

[00:09:42] Oh, DQ.

[00:09:43] You know, it was just kind of this, but because you had to get a job, whatever job was available.

[00:09:49] That's what you got.

[00:09:50] And so it's very different.

[00:09:52] I remember having a young person so bright, so bright.

[00:09:57] He's doing fantastically now.

[00:09:58] But I guess my husband said, I'm so glad you weren't at lunch.

[00:10:01] I think you would have reached across the table and shaken him because he said he wanted to take time off.

[00:10:07] And, you know, just all the unemployment.

[00:10:09] Oh yeah.

[00:10:10] And he's like, no, he goes, do you know, employers pay for that?

[00:10:14] Not employees.

[00:10:15] There's no employee portion of unemployment.

[00:10:17] That's employers.

[00:10:18] And so, you know, as a small business, I think you feel it more and your heart's in it.

[00:10:23] And the thing is too, that we went about this, we could work for a big corporate and that's great.

[00:10:30] But we wanted to give back in a way and travel the journey through people.

[00:10:35] And a lot of people are going to use this as a stepping stone and I talk to them when they come in and that's fine.

[00:10:40] That makes sense.

[00:10:41] But I want them to leave stepping up and stepping out somewhere, not, you know, disgruntled, not anything.

[00:10:47] I expect them to come to the table and talk through whatever it is.

[00:10:51] And if they want to leave, that's great.

[00:10:53] That's what we do.

[00:10:54] We find places for people to go.

[00:10:56] So let us help the journey.

[00:10:59] And the, you know, honestly, some people will take advantage of that and some people won't.

[00:11:04] And you just have to have that open handed embrace.

[00:11:07] I call it is give of yourself and you can't be responsible for what they do with it.

[00:11:12] And sometimes that's hard.

[00:11:14] He grew up in staffing slash RPO.

[00:11:18] Okay.

[00:11:19] So a little bit different with RPO.

[00:11:21] It's just outsourced staffing.

[00:11:23] Fancy title.

[00:11:24] But basically he would find talent and place down as well.

[00:11:27] So it came from a different place, but it seems as you talk about it, it seems like you treat talent as if they were family.

[00:11:36] Like, like I would say your kids, but basically like family.

[00:11:40] And I love the approach of just trying to make them better while they're with you.

[00:11:44] However long or short that is, you want them to be better when they leave.

[00:11:49] Yeah.

[00:11:50] And you know what's interesting is it's much easier internally with our internal team.

[00:11:55] Right.

[00:11:56] And then from our extension to our external team, some people embrace it really easily.

[00:12:01] Some people are used to just being, you know, this part of staffing and going forward to someone else.

[00:12:07] And they do, but I think those are becoming far and few between, but you got to get them to trust you too.

[00:12:15] And you have to put your heart in.

[00:12:17] We had someone and he was actually on a visa and it's when all the visa craziness was happening.

[00:12:23] And they were really picking on staffing companies for one type of visa.

[00:12:28] And so we had three people under us on that visa type and things were going as planned, but I talked to our legal team and I said, you know, the thing is, if you're a company, you get slapped on the wrist.

[00:12:39] Maybe you get a fine.

[00:12:40] But if you're that person, you get your visa taken.

[00:12:43] You're done.

[00:12:44] And I said, I don't want to be responsible for that.

[00:12:47] That's to me, that's not right.

[00:12:49] And so we transferred two of our people to a company working for Microsoft and then we transferred another one to a client of ours.

[00:12:59] And one of them, the whole process he kept seeing what I don't understand why are you doing this?

[00:13:04] What are you getting out of it?

[00:13:05] What are you doing this?

[00:13:06] And I said, and I kept explaining it to him, but he said, yeah, but you don't get anything.

[00:13:10] And I said, yeah, it hurts.

[00:13:11] But I said, I'm more concerned about what happens to you again, the company slap on the wrist, maybe a fine.

[00:13:18] But you, this is life changing.

[00:13:20] And so interestingly enough, some clients do have a hard time with that.

[00:13:25] They're like, well, everyone's doing it and the everyone's doing that thing has never gone over with me.

[00:13:31] So it's, you know, I get the frustration because people don't like change.

[00:13:36] But we hope that when you explain the people piece of it, if you're doing the right thing, everyone should be in agreement at the end of the day.

[00:13:43] We're the ones losing.

[00:13:44] That's what's amazing to me.

[00:13:45] You know, financially we're losing.

[00:13:47] So we're trying to keep everybody else whole and work through it.

[00:13:51] So, but in all things, it's amazing who comes to the table and who doesn't.

[00:13:56] Did your parents give you the everyone's jumping off a bridge?

[00:13:59] Was that the one you grew up with?

[00:14:01] My dad all the time.

[00:14:03] Was it everybody get that?

[00:14:04] My wife uses it on my youngest son all the time, but everybody says something like that.

[00:14:10] I get that.

[00:14:11] I get that.

[00:14:12] So where does your motivation come from?

[00:14:15] You guys have been at this for 16 years and you've, I'm sure you've been through a lot of ups and downs, but where's the motivation come to keep driving?

[00:14:28] I think, you know, it was different probably when I started than where I am now right now.

[00:14:34] But really carrying over people has become all consuming for me.

[00:14:39] And we have three pillars.

[00:14:40] One is the operational pillar, one is the professional development and one is the culture of the people, the engagement pillar.

[00:14:47] And I just grab onto those so much because I, we started in 2008.

[00:14:54] So, you know, not a great time to start.

[00:14:56] Perfect.

[00:14:57] Why not?

[00:14:58] But we figured, Hey, if we make it through this, we're going to sale and it was great.

[00:15:03] And then 2020 happened.

[00:15:04] And we said, Hey, all those saving for rainy day funds, this is the rainy day.

[00:15:10] And so we navigated that.

[00:15:12] And, and you know, quite honestly, four years later boy, it's still a tough, tough changing market.

[00:15:17] So we're still navigating through that.

[00:15:19] But, you know, small businesses, we've broken all of the, um, you don't last, you know, the through five years.

[00:15:26] And it's hard and employment laws keep changing.

[00:15:29] It makes it tough.

[00:15:30] But I think number one, the people on the other side, we've been so fortunate.

[00:15:34] And I think all of us, um, I, and in one of our meetings, I did a just talk on what we have because our vision is it's not, we don't measure success by what we have, but what we have to give.

[00:15:47] And that's really important.

[00:15:49] And I said, you know, we look at things and people say, you know, I need this, I need that.

[00:15:55] And coming from not much and being able to go to college and then, you know, surviving those, we're accountants.

[00:16:03] And I would say, Oh, is my check going to go through for rent this month?

[00:16:08] You know, it's like that.

[00:16:10] And he cashed this on Tuesday.

[00:16:12] Yeah.

[00:16:13] Can you just hold on to that for a second?

[00:16:15] I posted it in anyhow.

[00:16:17] I did that so many times, so many times.

[00:16:21] But it's hard because we have plenty.

[00:16:23] We do.

[00:16:24] I mean, if we just had some major damage on our home and people are like, wow, that's a lot like reconstruction.

[00:16:35] And I said, you know, it is.

[00:16:37] But the thing is that's what you get when you own a home.

[00:16:40] When you're privileged to own a home, you're privileged to deal with all the other stuff that comes with it.

[00:16:44] Just like a car, you know?

[00:16:46] And so it's just shifting the mindset on that and realizing we do have plenty.

[00:16:51] Even if we want more, we have plenty.

[00:16:54] Oh yeah.

[00:16:55] Way more.

[00:16:56] My mother, because I grew up legally blind.

[00:17:00] So occasionally I get down, you know, because I couldn't see that well and I had really thick glasses and stuff like that.

[00:17:07] And she said, listen, you think you have it bad.

[00:17:12] Check.

[00:17:13] Everyone has something.

[00:17:14] Everyone you meet in your lifetime has something that's pulling out of something that is either real or imagined.

[00:17:21] And it stuck with me for like every time I would do that through my life, I would see someone.

[00:17:28] It was weird because every time I especially vision related, I would see somebody that was blind, like actually blind, right?

[00:17:36] Or I'd see somebody in a wheelchair or something like that.

[00:17:38] I'm like, you know what?

[00:17:40] I don't have it that bad.

[00:17:42] I can still function.

[00:17:44] I can still see.

[00:17:46] These people are walking with canes and reading braille.

[00:17:49] Okay, you know what?

[00:17:51] Get over yourself.

[00:17:52] Get on with it.

[00:17:53] Move on.

[00:17:54] So that little pity party for me, she gave me a coping mechanism to get over a pity party really quickly just by looking at other people just by being observant.

[00:18:03] I love that.

[00:18:05] The whole get over yourself and don't throw yourself a pity party.

[00:18:09] Those were things that I have always told myself to.

[00:18:12] I love what you said about there's someone who has it worse or, you know, and different seasons of time and in each of our lives, something happens.

[00:18:20] And it's so true.

[00:18:21] My kids, we were driving to this place in Eastern Washington called Leavenworth one day.

[00:18:28] And I don't know how we got on the subject, but it was kind of the, I think probably one of them started complaining.

[00:18:33] But to this day, they just repeat this in the house because I was like, you know what?

[00:18:37] You have to get up and just face the world every day, whatever it is.

[00:18:42] And I was like, just like self, I go the day already hates you.

[00:18:46] What are you going to do about it?

[00:18:47] Tomorrow's not looking any good better.

[00:18:49] And they're like, mom, that's like the worst motivational speech ever.

[00:18:55] I'm just feeling that.

[00:18:57] I am so loving it.

[00:18:58] Every once in a while, they'll be like the day already hates you.

[00:19:02] Yeah.

[00:19:03] And now it's, it is what it is.

[00:19:06] And you know, it's just everyone has brokenness now or at some point.

[00:19:12] And this is, you know, my heart just hurts so much for our kids, especially post COVID,

[00:19:19] especially after going through the, I don't, we call them lockdowns.

[00:19:23] I don't shut economic shutdowns.

[00:19:27] And we're only starting to see.

[00:19:31] All right, I want to talk to you for a moment about retaining and developing your workforce.

[00:19:36] It's hard.

[00:19:37] Recruiting is hard.

[00:19:38] Retaining top employees is hard.

[00:19:40] Then you've got onboarding, payroll, benefits, time in labor management.

[00:19:44] You need to take care of your workforce and you can only do this successfully if you

[00:19:49] commit to transforming your employee experience.

[00:19:52] This is where I saw comes in.

[00:19:54] They empower you to be successful.

[00:19:57] We've seen it with a number of companies that we've worked with.

[00:20:00] And this is why we partner with them here at work to find.

[00:20:04] We trust them and you should too.

[00:20:06] Check them out at isolvedhcm.com.

[00:20:27] We're not going to talk about the next specialty care that cares about your ROI.

[00:20:30] It's possible because we're already doing it all while saving businesses billions.

[00:20:35] That's wonder made possible.

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[00:20:41] Evidence of a greater need to address those things in our kids and you know,

[00:20:47] that's going to go on for a while.

[00:20:49] And I remember when we're schools.

[00:20:51] Yeah.

[00:20:52] Yeah.

[00:20:53] And I remember when we talked about a giant wake that everybody's pretending not to see.

[00:20:57] And it's going to rear it.

[00:20:59] I don't understand.

[00:21:01] Well, this this classic graduating college or will graduate here in this way.

[00:21:05] They didn't go to prom.

[00:21:07] They didn't walk their college.

[00:21:09] They didn't work their high school graduation.

[00:21:12] And in some cases of larger schools, they're going to go walk to college.

[00:21:16] Yeah.

[00:21:17] Graduation.

[00:21:18] It's like that stuff.

[00:21:20] 20 years from now.

[00:21:22] To unravel.

[00:21:24] Yeah.

[00:21:25] Unpack all of that.

[00:21:27] Yeah.

[00:21:28] Why me type of, you know, type of stuff which everyone would have.

[00:21:32] I'd feel that way if I went through that stuff.

[00:21:34] So I think it's natural and normal for them to feel that way.

[00:21:37] Yeah.

[00:21:38] Sorry, right?

[00:21:39] No, go ahead.

[00:21:40] Oh, I was just going to say as a parent but also as a leader,

[00:21:43] you know, piggybacking on that the very big push to work remote.

[00:21:48] I get it.

[00:21:49] I'm remote now.

[00:21:50] I get it.

[00:21:51] However, the professional development piece, the engagement,

[00:21:56] we see the statistics of the engagement declining,

[00:21:59] the loneliness factor.

[00:22:00] I'm just thinking we're compiling things on top of each other.

[00:22:03] We haven't even really recovered from what all happened in 2020.

[00:22:08] You should do remote once you're healthy.

[00:22:11] Wait, yeah.

[00:22:12] And you know, reward.

[00:22:14] Exactly.

[00:22:15] You're emotionally stable.

[00:22:17] We're good to go.

[00:22:18] But then the development piece for people who are, you know,

[00:22:22] younger in their careers.

[00:22:23] I mean, not even younger.

[00:22:24] We all need it throughout our career.

[00:22:26] So I worry about those worries.

[00:22:28] Not a good word.

[00:22:29] I'm concerned about those pieces and those are the pieces that

[00:22:32] I really try to keep intact with my team because of being aware

[00:22:36] of it.

[00:22:37] So working with, oh, go ahead.

[00:22:40] How do we mentor these people?

[00:22:42] So the younger people that are coming up,

[00:22:44] how do we mentor them and help them through all this?

[00:22:48] I think communication is really important and that the

[00:22:53] relational aspect is critical.

[00:22:56] You know, these kids have so much potential and they have

[00:23:02] so much at their fingertips that we didn't have.

[00:23:05] But those same things kind of believe them of the relational

[00:23:11] pieces and navigating things.

[00:23:13] And things are so rapid.

[00:23:15] And I think that taking a step back is really important.

[00:23:18] I mean, even if you're like, all right, as a family,

[00:23:21] I'm going to do it.

[00:23:22] I mean, there's so much that parents now just have to

[00:23:25] intercede and do it.

[00:23:27] It's like we're leaving our electronics at home or we're

[00:23:30] going to Tonto National Park just to be outside and away

[00:23:33] with each other.

[00:23:35] And you know the inkling isn't, oh, yeah, okay.

[00:23:37] This sounds good.

[00:23:38] I want to be, they want to stay home.

[00:23:40] They want to stay on their phones.

[00:23:42] They want to stay, you know, they want to stay disconnected

[00:23:45] until you show them that they remember being connected.

[00:23:49] We are relational beings.

[00:23:50] And they'll complain the entire time.

[00:23:52] Yeah.

[00:23:53] Like you've pulled like eyelashes or something, like some

[00:23:57] torture trick all the way through up until the moment

[00:24:00] they're like, well, this is kind of cool.

[00:24:02] Yeah.

[00:24:03] We're going through that now.

[00:24:05] We were just talking, which I'm a little upset about this.

[00:24:08] So Jennifer, I'll tell you the quick story.

[00:24:12] My kids, so my girls are, they were all part of girls

[00:24:15] guys.

[00:24:16] One, two of them still are.

[00:24:18] So they do what's called beach jam every year.

[00:24:20] They go to the beach, they camp on the beach and it's

[00:24:23] usually just the girls.

[00:24:25] Those three, my wife, they go and I get the weekend

[00:24:28] myself.

[00:24:29] You already see where this is going.

[00:24:31] There it is.

[00:24:32] There it is.

[00:24:33] There it is.

[00:24:34] There it is.

[00:24:35] There it is.

[00:24:36] It's not this weekend, William.

[00:24:38] I thought it was this weekend and I was going to have

[00:24:41] the whole weekend for myself to go fishing.

[00:24:44] And then next week I go on a fishing trip.

[00:24:46] I'm like, this is fantastic.

[00:24:47] 10 out of 14 days I'll be fishing.

[00:24:49] No, they're going to beach jam the same week that I

[00:24:52] go.

[00:24:53] That's not very useful.

[00:24:55] Yeah, that's horrible.

[00:24:57] It's not a good idea.

[00:24:58] Okay.

[00:24:59] So here's, here's what we're going through now.

[00:25:01] They are going at the anxiety is through the roof

[00:25:05] because they cannot find a charger that will last them

[00:25:10] three days, two days on the beach.

[00:25:13] Like what are there going to be plugs?

[00:25:15] What am I going to do?

[00:25:16] They're spending, they have in the Amazon cart $40 and

[00:25:19] $50 chargers, multiple of them so they can precharge

[00:25:23] them and have them ready to like, guys, you're

[00:25:26] going to be around 700 of your closest Girl Scouts friends.

[00:25:30] You're on the beach.

[00:25:32] What are we doing?

[00:25:33] They can't do it.

[00:25:34] They can't let go and I'm trying, I understand it's who they

[00:25:39] are and what the society, all that stuff, but I'm having a

[00:25:43] problem here.

[00:25:44] Yeah.

[00:25:45] Like trying to let go of it.

[00:25:46] You're at the beach so there's something in front of you.

[00:25:49] Yeah.

[00:25:50] You can engage in.

[00:25:51] I remove it from the Amazon cart.

[00:25:53] They keep putting it back in.

[00:25:54] It's like a game for them.

[00:25:55] I'm like, no, I'm really not paying for this.

[00:25:58] But that's it is we're losing that relational piece and we

[00:26:04] won't be able to fulfill it through a digital device.

[00:26:09] Right.

[00:26:10] And when that, again, it's everything is just

[00:26:14] compiling on itself.

[00:26:16] And so for the Girl Scouts, that kind of upsets me.

[00:26:21] It's us again as leaders doing things that are the

[00:26:25] right thing and are purposeful, intentional and talk and

[00:26:29] communicate the wise but doing them anyway.

[00:26:32] Not being, you know, it doesn't matter if someone likes my

[00:26:36] decision as long as I feel like I'm doing my job and saying,

[00:26:40] you know, we're going to do this and we're maybe you can

[00:26:43] say for this hour, you guys have free, you know, check

[00:26:46] up on your device and stuff for the other time.

[00:26:48] We're all putting this way.

[00:26:50] We had a we had a pact as parents for my son's class

[00:26:56] through fourth grade.

[00:26:58] Everyone was getting phones and we're like, we're not going to

[00:27:00] do it.

[00:27:01] I got a watch.

[00:27:02] We're not going to do it.

[00:27:03] And you can't like take that back, you know, but for my

[00:27:07] daughter, what was hard is, you know, she was in our

[00:27:09] house, but she was few years, almost six years older

[00:27:13] and they're on their device.

[00:27:15] They don't call each other.

[00:27:16] Right.

[00:27:17] They don't even touch each other.

[00:27:19] So it's, she was kind of left out and trying to engage.

[00:27:23] And when she talked about that, I understood this was a

[00:27:27] different dynamic, but really having those time where we're

[00:27:31] like set it down, you know, people bring their phones to

[00:27:34] work even now.

[00:27:36] That wasn't a thing.

[00:27:37] You're there to work, but there's so much overlap of,

[00:27:40] you know, there's caring for the employee and there's

[00:27:43] there's a line that is crossed over many, many times.

[00:27:48] And once it's crossed over, it's really hard to pull things

[00:27:51] back.

[00:27:52] But I've heard there are people who are driving forklifts

[00:27:54] who were bringing their phones and it's, it's just,

[00:27:58] it's gotten kind of out of hand.

[00:28:00] And I know my son actually was at schools right up until

[00:28:04] this year where they don't allow phones.

[00:28:06] So either don't bring them or you have to check them.

[00:28:09] You know, each class or beginning with that here,

[00:28:12] which I love because when he went to public school

[00:28:15] and he walks in, this is the first school that had phones.

[00:28:18] So imagine starting school about months later,

[00:28:21] trying at eighth grade, trying to integrate where people

[00:28:25] already know each other and they have their phones.

[00:28:27] It's, you know, like talking to rocks.

[00:28:30] Oh yeah.

[00:28:31] Oh yeah.

[00:28:32] What is it?

[00:28:33] What's it like working with your husband?

[00:28:35] Well, is he around?

[00:28:38] He's not there.

[00:28:39] You can tell the truth.

[00:28:40] I've never heard of it.

[00:28:41] I think, again, fortunately for us, I tell him,

[00:28:44] he's my best and my worst employee.

[00:28:47] He tells me, he goes, I fired you so many times.

[00:28:50] I'm like, I know we keep just showing up,

[00:28:52] but I think we're fortunate again because we have different

[00:28:56] skill sets, really different skill sets.

[00:28:58] He's sales, biz depth.

[00:29:00] That's what he loves and he's an extrovert.

[00:29:03] I am not.

[00:29:05] I am an introvert.

[00:29:06] I like being in the background.

[00:29:08] I like making things work,

[00:29:09] but I know that I have to be in the forefront at

[00:29:12] different points in times.

[00:29:14] And then my team makes fun of me because we'll do it.

[00:29:17] Team engagement, I'll be all on.

[00:29:19] I'll go home and just pass out.

[00:29:20] You know, just be like, I'm done.

[00:29:22] That was exhausting.

[00:29:23] I just want my corner and my dog and everybody leave me alone.

[00:29:26] But I think we've been fortunate in that respect that,

[00:29:29] you know, again, we have different skill sets.

[00:29:31] So it works.

[00:29:32] We're doing different things.

[00:29:34] But it never stops, right?

[00:29:36] So like work is home, home, work.

[00:29:39] Like there's not an off button here, right?

[00:29:41] So where is there?

[00:29:43] There is.

[00:29:44] I think my husband was really good at that off button.

[00:29:48] So he pretty much enforced it because I'm a 24 seven.

[00:29:52] I'm just a learner too.

[00:29:54] So I can't sit in front of the TV while I do sometimes,

[00:29:58] but I'm also getting something else done.

[00:30:00] You know, I just can't sit.

[00:30:02] I just it's constant.

[00:30:04] Someone told me that I'm probably undiagnosed ADHD and I'm

[00:30:08] like, I'm probably, I don't know,

[00:30:10] I'm just working in my favor right now.

[00:30:12] So not only that, it's probably six.

[00:30:14] There's five other things.

[00:30:16] We're going to stick with it.

[00:30:19] So yeah, I mean, when you have one person who he would just

[00:30:22] say, I don't want to talk about work.

[00:30:23] I'm done.

[00:30:24] So because I'd save all my stuff to be like, why live with

[00:30:26] it?

[00:30:27] I'll just get this information.

[00:30:28] Well, no.

[00:30:29] And I've told the team, I'm like, don't think that I'm

[00:30:31] going to get this information when I go home because it's

[00:30:33] shut down.

[00:30:34] So he really lays down the law.

[00:30:37] Oh, that's fantastic.

[00:30:38] I think I'd have to do that if I worked with my wife, which

[00:30:40] would never have.

[00:30:41] She would just never do it.

[00:30:42] Same with me.

[00:30:43] Yeah.

[00:30:44] We yeah, it would have to be like, no, you'll see me at

[00:30:46] nine o'clock tomorrow morning.

[00:30:48] Put it on the calendar.

[00:30:49] That's that type of thing.

[00:30:51] So how my wife and I could, my wife and I could do it

[00:30:54] if she was your husband because everyone loves her.

[00:30:58] If I didn't have to see anybody or interact with

[00:31:01] anybody, it could work.

[00:31:03] It could actually work.

[00:31:04] It could work.

[00:31:05] I was trying to figure out how that was working.

[00:31:07] It could work because everyone loves her.

[00:31:10] Yeah.

[00:31:11] And that's, I mean, and I could hide because I'm an

[00:31:15] introvert too.

[00:31:16] So I could hide, do the work and she would do the

[00:31:19] front end.

[00:31:20] Yeah.

[00:31:21] I can see that working now that I understand what

[00:31:22] y'all have.

[00:31:23] Sorry, Ryan.

[00:31:24] Yeah, no, I forgot what I was going to say anyway.

[00:31:27] It's all good.

[00:31:28] We got to go backwards.

[00:31:29] Yeah.

[00:31:30] I was going to go back and bring it back.

[00:31:32] And yeah.

[00:31:33] So so walk us through some of this, some of this

[00:31:36] journey.

[00:31:37] You didn't just start running a company for the last

[00:31:40] 16 years.

[00:31:41] What happened before that?

[00:31:42] Where did this entrepreneurial spirit come from?

[00:31:45] That, you know, I was thinking about that very

[00:31:48] question last night and I thought, that's not me.

[00:31:52] I'm not a risk taker by nature.

[00:31:54] I'm a type A.

[00:31:55] I like everything planned out for me.

[00:31:58] Quite honestly, I think it started when I, well,

[00:32:02] really I think there were probably hints of it when

[00:32:05] I was little.

[00:32:06] I was just a survivor, resilient, just fighting for

[00:32:10] myself.

[00:32:11] My brother, so Asian culture, my brother, first born son,

[00:32:15] he's so smart.

[00:32:17] Everything was about him.

[00:32:18] And so he got the brunt of everything too.

[00:32:21] I could have, I could have just sailed through life,

[00:32:24] but I wanted to prove that I could do it too,

[00:32:26] you know, and I was smart too.

[00:32:28] And so I worked really hard and it was my own

[00:32:32] doing and I think that served me well as well.

[00:32:36] So I think those things were planted, but when I was

[00:32:40] about late in my 20s, I was invited to a Bible

[00:32:46] study and I remember not wanting to go because it

[00:32:50] was on Monday nights and football was on Monday

[00:32:52] nights.

[00:32:53] So I cut into my time and I was just like, oh my God,

[00:32:57] but you know what?

[00:33:00] I got some important stuff.

[00:33:03] So the funny thing is my friend, my friend kept

[00:33:06] inviting me and it was her birthday.

[00:33:09] So I thought fine, all right, I'll gift her, you know,

[00:33:13] so I showed her.

[00:33:14] I'll give her a present.

[00:33:16] So you can see the just utter arrogance that was

[00:33:21] going to be crushed.

[00:33:23] I'll show up.

[00:33:27] Well, and she showed me because and she's just the

[00:33:31] sweetest kind of person, but she didn't show up

[00:33:33] because her parents took her to dinner because

[00:33:35] it was her birthday.

[00:33:36] So I was left on my own and I didn't even know

[00:33:39] what was going on.

[00:33:40] There are so many people I didn't know, but it was

[00:33:43] the first time I actually knew that's where I

[00:33:45] was supposed to be.

[00:33:46] And I could really connect it in and just

[00:33:49] started a journey of reflecting on myself instead

[00:33:53] of just learning in my mind.

[00:33:56] And I think that changed everything.

[00:33:58] It's just reshaped having a purpose.

[00:34:01] Yeah, probably so he can do that.

[00:34:03] Right.

[00:34:04] It's wicked that way.

[00:34:05] It's wicked.

[00:34:06] She's going in like we're going to study accidents.

[00:34:08] Oh, mine was numbers.

[00:34:10] Who are these numbers?

[00:34:12] What is this?

[00:34:13] No one.

[00:34:14] Favorite focus job.

[00:34:15] I could read Job every other day.

[00:34:17] Yeah.

[00:34:18] Love Job.

[00:34:19] Good ending though, right?

[00:34:20] Yeah.

[00:34:21] But I think that really is it.

[00:34:22] It caused the focus to be on me inside as far

[00:34:27] as the convictions and working on yourself.

[00:34:29] And then pouring out the good stuff, you know, that lens.

[00:34:34] And that's really what shaped it.

[00:34:36] I think is that purpose.

[00:34:38] And what am I doing?

[00:34:39] Because this road, whether it's audit or accounting

[00:34:44] and SEC reporting, it was, I loved it so much,

[00:34:47] but it was serving me.

[00:34:49] Sure.

[00:34:50] And I thought there was a more of a foundation.

[00:34:52] So I consulted a little bit, had fun.

[00:34:54] And then I actually was offered the perfect job.

[00:34:56] It was, you know, make up what you want to do.

[00:34:59] Tell us what your role is.

[00:35:01] It was close to home.

[00:35:02] I could bring my dog and my daughter at that time.

[00:35:04] And it was my husband who said, I don't think so.

[00:35:07] And this was his idea to start a company because this is

[00:35:10] what he had been doing.

[00:35:11] And he said, I just want to do things a little differently.

[00:35:13] And so we honored his non-compete.

[00:35:16] We actually started in Arizona so that we could honor

[00:35:19] the non-compete.

[00:35:20] And then we brought the company back to Washington state.

[00:35:24] So I think that's what started it is having a purpose,

[00:35:27] figuring out what you want to do with yourself.

[00:35:29] Because it's not just about working and getting the money.

[00:35:32] It's what comes after that.

[00:35:34] It's the people and it's what you do with the money

[00:35:36] where you spend your time giving.

[00:35:40] 100%.

[00:35:41] 100%.

[00:35:42] I've read the Bible, the Holy Quran and the Torah.

[00:35:46] You have.

[00:35:47] And I have.

[00:35:48] And in all three cases, they're all a mirror at different points

[00:35:53] at different points in reading.

[00:35:55] It's all you're looking into yourself.

[00:35:58] It's reading a story.

[00:35:59] Yes.

[00:36:00] But you're looking into yourself.

[00:36:02] You're looking inward to figure out, OK, everyone's broken,

[00:36:05] as you said earlier.

[00:36:07] And the brokenness kind of moves around at different times

[00:36:10] and stages in one's career.

[00:36:12] And so it's like, OK, what do I do?

[00:36:15] It's not left to chance.

[00:36:19] You've got to actually push those things yourself.

[00:36:21] So I love that.

[00:36:22] Such accountability there.

[00:36:25] Yep.

[00:36:26] Well, that's fantastic.

[00:36:27] So a younger Jennifer, let's say high school,

[00:36:33] what did you want to be when you grew up?

[00:36:36] Why the hell did you leave Hawaii?

[00:36:38] I'm sorry.

[00:36:39] No.

[00:36:40] What'd you want to be when you grew up?

[00:36:44] Your floors weren't very good.

[00:36:46] Yeah, I remember there was a dirty.

[00:36:48] I started cleaning the floors.

[00:36:52] The title of what I wanted to be was uncertain.

[00:36:55] I just knew I wanted to go to college.

[00:36:57] That was certain.

[00:36:58] I thought maybe law.

[00:37:00] I thought maybe a teacher.

[00:37:02] Accounting wasn't in the mix.

[00:37:05] It just wasn't.

[00:37:07] Did you have to do a 100 level class?

[00:37:12] I got bullied into it.

[00:37:14] Actually, no, I say that with every one get bullied into coming

[00:37:21] into the count.

[00:37:22] Let's get out of here.

[00:37:24] So no, this is terrible.

[00:37:26] I do have to get so I had a professor.

[00:37:28] Well, I was thinking law.

[00:37:29] I loved law and I was thinking, OK, I'm going to do this.

[00:37:35] But then I had an accounting professor

[00:37:39] and she was just amazing, just amazing, just very certain,

[00:37:45] really good professor all in super passionate.

[00:37:49] And she actually called me up and it was Professor Deborah Smith.

[00:37:53] She changed my life.

[00:37:54] She called me up and she said, Jennifer, I see you don't have an advisor.

[00:37:57] I'm going to be your advisor.

[00:37:59] And that was it.

[00:38:01] My accounting was, you know, I declared and I had my path

[00:38:05] and off we went and best decision ever.

[00:38:08] And I actually, I don't fear people in general.

[00:38:12] But man, she intimidated me because she I looked at her and I was like,

[00:38:17] this person knows what she's doing.

[00:38:20] She will see every piece of me that I'm thinking everything

[00:38:24] that I'm uncertain about.

[00:38:26] And you know, she never to always she had that, but she treated

[00:38:30] people with such kindness and not not flowery kindness.

[00:38:35] You know, where you're like, oh, you're so amazing and you look

[00:38:38] so good. Not that at all.

[00:38:39] But she found your strengths and she knew your weaknesses and she

[00:38:44] would say use this, this way.

[00:38:46] And one of the things she told me was Jennifer, you're very,

[00:38:50] I don't remember the word she used, but kind of in hand with

[00:38:55] being naive, she grew up in a bubble.

[00:38:59] Yeah.

[00:39:00] You know, you're on an island still, but it worked.

[00:39:04] She says, use that.

[00:39:06] Use your smile.

[00:39:07] Use that and just listen because people are not going to give

[00:39:10] you credit for what you do know.

[00:39:13] And they're not going to see you coming.

[00:39:15] And that's exactly what she said.

[00:39:17] And I appreciated the way she said that because I just

[00:39:20] totally jumbled it and everything.

[00:39:22] But she was one of the most amazing and giving and I would

[00:39:26] say that's one thing all the professors at University of

[00:39:30] Puget Sound at the time I went, they were all in.

[00:39:33] They knew you had loans or it's just high tuition and they

[00:39:37] wanted, they wanted you to get your money's worth.

[00:39:40] I mean, if you didn't show up for class, you would get a call

[00:39:43] from your professor.

[00:39:45] That's, you know, it was that much.

[00:39:47] She actually took me home to her, to her home one weekend

[00:39:51] because I, it was like a long weekend or something.

[00:39:53] And she knew I didn't have family in the area.

[00:39:56] And I just, I was amazed.

[00:39:58] I was like, this is person who was so generous and she had

[00:40:02] horses.

[00:40:03] And I remember she had, I think it was a red Ferrari.

[00:40:06] I don't know my cars very well, but it was really nice.

[00:40:08] She had, she let me drive it back to school and back for

[00:40:11] a meeting and she also helped me with my interview prep

[00:40:15] and everything.

[00:40:16] And she, she, she worked at Deloitte when it was too

[00:40:20] raw.

[00:40:21] So, you know, having her behind me, I feel like

[00:40:25] really was the gateway because I know when they do

[00:40:28] recruiting, it's mostly you've dubbed some of the other

[00:40:32] schools and normally they would only take one from my

[00:40:35] school, but they took two.

[00:40:37] They took me in someone else.

[00:40:38] And I really attribute that to her and not my own doing.

[00:40:42] So I say bullied and I'm really kidding.

[00:40:46] But I was terrified at the time, but it was all good

[00:40:49] for me.

[00:40:50] And she really, she set my feet on the right path and

[00:40:53] to have someone believe in you so strongly and show it

[00:40:58] and pour themselves into you just marked my, my heart

[00:41:02] and my life forever.

[00:41:03] I want to be that to someone else.

[00:41:06] I can see that.

[00:41:07] Yeah.

[00:41:08] Jennifer, the next question kind of builds on, on that.

[00:41:12] I'm always interested to understand how people build

[00:41:15] their circle, successful people are building their

[00:41:18] circle.

[00:41:19] How do you build that?

[00:41:20] Who, who do you thrive around?

[00:41:22] And how do you select those couple of people that you

[00:41:25] can trust?

[00:41:26] That is a great question.

[00:41:28] And I'm glad you asked that because when I bring people

[00:41:32] into the company, one thing I say is always check what

[00:41:35] I'm saying.

[00:41:36] I'm going to tell you and I'm an honest person.

[00:41:38] I'm all about truth.

[00:41:40] I will make mistakes along the way.

[00:41:42] But even if you trust me, go do your own homework

[00:41:47] that is really critical that you, you get there on

[00:41:51] your own as well.

[00:41:52] But always have people five, seven years or senior,

[00:41:56] 10, 12 years or senior and plus and have those people

[00:42:00] be your mentors.

[00:42:01] There was a point in time when I think mentors went away

[00:42:05] a bit and people were just talking to each other.

[00:42:08] And I thought, what are you going to learn?

[00:42:10] You're going to learn people, people who want the

[00:42:13] likes or this and that and they're going to appease

[00:42:15] you and not challenge you.

[00:42:17] And they haven't walked that road.

[00:42:19] So they really don't know.

[00:42:20] They're just going along with you and they like what

[00:42:22] you like.

[00:42:23] And so I think early in your career, especially it's so

[00:42:26] critical to look toward people who are your seniors

[00:42:30] and as much as you can in school, in college and

[00:42:33] in any organization that you're with, try and find

[00:42:37] a program that builds that.

[00:42:39] And if you can't find one, build one because there

[00:42:42] are so many people willing to step out and help

[00:42:44] you.

[00:42:45] There's so many people.

[00:42:46] All you have to do is ask.

[00:42:48] And then as you get along in your career networking,

[00:42:54] as much as it exhausts me to get out there, it is

[00:42:58] also very inspiring.

[00:43:00] And it doesn't matter if it's someone with your

[00:43:03] same background or a group meeting.

[00:43:05] It's even better sometimes when they don't have

[00:43:08] the same background, but they're just a great

[00:43:11] connection point.

[00:43:12] And in the mix, you know, you meet a lot of

[00:43:14] great people and you help each other, but

[00:43:16] they're going to be those anchors that keep coming

[00:43:19] along with you during the course of your career

[00:43:22] and your life.

[00:43:23] And you'll make some incredible friends too.

[00:43:25] So I say be intentional about owning that journey

[00:43:29] for yourself.

[00:43:30] Last question for me.

[00:43:32] Do you have another professional development that

[00:43:35] you'd like to achieve or is there something that

[00:43:38] you'd like to learn that's around the corner?

[00:43:41] Yes, what that is, I'm not sure.

[00:43:44] I will say this.

[00:43:45] I just talked about this yesterday.

[00:43:47] One thing that's always been on my heart, I grew

[00:43:49] up dancing hula.

[00:43:50] So I don't use that at all anymore.

[00:43:53] But I've always thought that maybe I should be

[00:43:56] learning sign language.

[00:43:57] And I think I might, you know, just start that

[00:44:01] on the academic front.

[00:44:03] We're always learning and in the field working

[00:44:06] with IT consultants.

[00:44:08] Everything we're going to innovative fields.

[00:44:10] So something's always there.

[00:44:11] I also did write a book this year, which was

[00:44:14] really new.

[00:44:15] I'm not much of a reader.

[00:44:16] So it was a really interesting journey, but I

[00:44:19] want to use that in some way.

[00:44:22] And we're figuring that out right now to transition.

[00:44:25] Okay.

[00:44:26] What has my journey been and what can I do to

[00:44:29] influence people in a really positive way

[00:44:31] and use that to really make that impact piece

[00:44:34] bigger now that I am getting older and more

[00:44:37] seasoned in my career.

[00:44:39] Well, Jennifer, this has been an amazing

[00:44:42] conversation, refreshing to say the least.

[00:44:45] And we had a good time learning from you.

[00:44:48] Thank you very much for your time.

[00:44:50] We appreciate it and for sharing your

[00:44:52] insights here with the audience.

[00:44:54] Until next time.