021: Human Connection - The Key to HR and Business Success in 2025! Guest- Steve Browne

[00:00:57] Hey, what's going on everybody? David Noe with SpeakEasy HR presented by Payroll Partners. It is Martin Luther King Day. A lot of people have the day off. So if you are watching this live, welcome. And it is episode 21. So if this was like a normal human, we'd be legally to drink this bourbon behind me, right? So Steve Brown is my guest today. He is an HR rock star, local guy.

[00:01:27] to where I live and just have really enjoyed getting to know Steve over the years. So Steve, welcome to SpeakEasy HR, my friend. Steve Brown Hi David. I like the idea that we are now of age. David Noe Hey, cheers. David Noe Hey, so we're gonna have a lot of fun today. We've got the chat is open. We are live on on LinkedIn and YouTube. So if you are watching live, welcome. If you have never watched this show before,

[00:01:57] David Noe Hey, so we have a lot of fun. This is with passionate professionals to speak on easy, fun topics, not so easy topics, and you just never know what we'll talk about sometime. So today, this topic that Steve is bringing is gonna be really fun and interactive. So please chime in, ask questions. I've got a new blog out today, week three of this year long blog on the website, speakeasyhr.com.

[00:02:23] So this week is all about focus. There's challenges and it's a quick fun read. So go out there, check it out. You can subscribe and get a new fresh word of the week blog every Monday if you are wanting to follow along. So want to bring that up. That's been a new add on to the website. So Steve, how's your year going so far?

[00:02:46] Oh my, it's flying. I heard somebody yesterday already talked about like spring and summer. I was like, man, can we just get through a few weeks of winter? Well, it's full, but I like it that way. Yeah. Well, if you have kids in school right now, as I do, I have kids in three different schools and the last few weeks have been fun because they were off school for holiday break and Christmas and the holiday season.

[00:03:12] And then they had like a week off of school and then, you know, it's just it felt like it went on and on and on. And it was like, OK, time to go back, get the routine. You know, it's it's hard on parents. So so again, if you are watching live, please chime in, ask questions. We're going to have the world famous envelope icebreaker game coming up. But before we get to that, I'm going to bring up a couple of messages from our.

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[00:04:41] And I have 15 questions in these envelopes. So while this is playing, think of a number one through 15. OK. All right. One through 15. What is your number? Seven. Seven. That's a that's a common one that people tend to go to. All right.

[00:05:09] Number seven is when you were in grade school, Steve, what did you want to be when you grew up? Well, it's HR, right? HR. No, no. Ironic and appropriate for today. Back when you were young, you had to draw what you wanted to be. I grew up in a small, small town. At that time in elementary school, I was in Lucky, Ohio and Gibsonburg, Ohio. OK.

[00:05:37] And I drew a picture in third grade that I was going to be the president of the United States. And and everybody said, oh, I want to be a fireman. I want to be a police officer. And I went, no. And so the teacher asked me, are you sure? I said, yeah. I said, why not? You know, so I had lofty goals back then. Wow. What what made you think about that? Was it something that you saw on TV or was it somebody like what? What made you want to be the president?

[00:06:09] I think it was more, I guess. I wanted to lead people and let people enjoy what they do. Yeah. So it wasn't I wanted to become a certain president because back then it would have been probably Nixon or Ford. OK. Old person. But, you know, it wasn't I was inspired by them. I just thought the office was something that had credibility and value and and impact could make impact. And so I thought, why not?

[00:06:39] Yeah. No, I love that. I love that. All right. I'll give you one more chance. One more number. Oh, let's go nine. Nine. I heard a niner. All right. Number nine. OK. What's your favorite restaurant cocktail or movie? Oh, favorite movie by far. Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Not even close. Grew up on it.

[00:07:08] And know almost all of it by heart. It's a little disturbing, but it's fine. My wife hates it. She's like, I don't get this at all. I'm like, I know it's the best. Oh, that's awesome. It's just a flashback. So good. Oh, yeah. Yeah. All right. So, Steve, people that are listening to this, if they are watching it live and they've never heard of what you're about in HR,

[00:07:35] a lot of the people that you and I interact with on LinkedIn locally, regionally, have seen you at keynote speaking events at SHRM and things like that. But people that have not heard you speak in a setting. What got you into HR? What got you into HR? Because you've been doing this for, what, now almost 40 years. Yeah. Right? Yeah. You've been in the same profession to some extent for 40 years.

[00:08:01] So, take us back to when you were, and you had a great post today on LinkedIn about being at Ohio University. And that was a really fun, that picture. And so, that was awesome. It was one of the first things I read this morning. It was great. So, take us back when you started thinking about, obviously, you want to be the president, but what got you into the world of HR? Like, what drew you to that?

[00:08:29] Part of it was my parents because I went into school at OU for engineering, originally chemical engineering, and that didn't pan out. And then chemistry, and that was worse. And I wanted to be in those fields because our school counselor said, you're strong in science and math. These fields pay well. And no one talked about careers, Dave. Everybody talked about jobs. So, I never thought of a career.

[00:08:58] I thought of, gee, I want to get a degree and land a job. Yeah. So, I thought, why not do one that pays well? And nothing pays more than human resources. So, after I was doing very poorly in school, my mom pulled me aside one day because I was crushed. I was ready to try something completely different, didn't know where to go. And she says, why aren't you in a field that works with people?

[00:09:27] And I said, what do you mean? She says, all you do is work with people. And I went, huh? I mean, you just don't, we don't see our own blind spots. Yeah. But everything. I had been in every school activity that I was allowed to be in. I was the class president, student council president, head of this, head of that. I became a resident assistant at OU. I was around people all the time. And I didn't see it because that's naturally where I fell.

[00:09:57] So, I thought human resources made sense. But back then, I was right at the cusp of it changing from labor relations as a field, industrial relations as a field, or to personnel. And then it changed into HR. And no one really knew what it was. So, we just made it nicer because we're like, we'll do the same old boring stuff, but we'll call it HR.

[00:10:25] But I was intrigued by the idea that I could be in a field that worked with humans, not people person, but really the human side of the business. That really appealed to me. Yeah. And then jumping in the first time was not what I thought it was going to be. Well, elaborate. What does that mean? I've never been a good tactical person.

[00:10:55] I'm not a block and tackle person. I admire people that are. I love it. I think they have talent. I wish I had. Yeah. I'd like to say, you need to fill this role. And I'd spend an hour and a half on an interview. Just talk to the person. But then when I described them to the people, I had a recruiting role when I first came out of school. When I described them to the hiring manager, I had almost a 90% acceptance because I knew the candidate.

[00:11:22] So instead of saying, hey, here's the four people and here's the resume, I just went completely off grid. I was talked to about that because they're like, you need to follow the template. And I went, I am. There's so much more than the template. And they're like, you're not following the rules. I go, I know. For my first role, which was very structured, and I got to be the first HR person for a small manufacturing place in Fairfield, Ohio.

[00:11:52] Then, I mean, it was learned by experience. Yep. So I didn't have someone to learn from. I had to learn myself. So I did the block and tackle work in order to work with people, not just to do the block and tackle work to be compliant. Yeah. So you've gone through the different shifts of HR and what they call it.

[00:12:15] Now it's chief people officer and the human element and human connection that I think you have seen evolve over the decades. And now we're in a world of such different technology and AI and where people work and how they work. So let's dive into this topic because just like everybody else, I ask the guest, what topic are you most passionate about right now?

[00:12:42] And your response to me was about human connection. And when you have spoke at events, that's a lot of what you really explain. And back to the situation you're in now, where you're at in your organization for almost 20 years, you've seen it in your industry. And so dive into this a little bit with us.

[00:13:04] And why do you believe that the human connection is more critical than ever in today's workforce, especially in 2025? Ever since I've been in HR, we talk about replacing people. It's amazing. Hey, what's the next thing that's going to replace people? This is terrible and dates me. We thought that desktop computers would replace people. It wouldn't enhance work. It wouldn't be a tool that moved work forward.

[00:13:34] It was, well, since I have computer, I don't need to hire four of this. Yeah. Or early robotics in the manufacturing industry. Boy, if we have robots, I don't need people. What people have misunderstood forever is you need people first. Yeah. In order to make work happen. What we've done for far too long is we focused on results, data. Again, it's not a versus.

[00:14:02] We make everything versus in work and in HR. It's people or this. It's people or this. People generate results. People generate data. People generate productivity. It's not the other way around. But the old industrial work model is productivity first. Yep. Structure first. Hierarchy first. It's never worked. It's worked to an extent. I don't want to be so overarching, generalized, but it hasn't worked. Yeah.

[00:14:33] Relationships have always been present because when you talk to people, the first thing they talk about is another person. They don't talk about their work. They talk about, oh, I work with Beth and she. Oh, I work with Michael and he. So it's people first. We've tended to make HR people in trouble. I mean, honestly, that should be the sub-tend. HR people in trouble.

[00:15:04] We've fallen trap in the trap of it as HR professionals. And we've allowed organizations to put us in that box. When you come from a negative lens expecting positive results, you're never going to find positive results. If you come from a constructive positive lens, which where people should be, different results occur. So I think it's not only the key to business, it's essential.

[00:15:33] If we don't become people first in practice, in attitude and approach, we won't be relevant. And we're seeing it happen. Great brands here in town, great brands who got caught up with a bunch of stuff and we're not going to talk poorly about anybody, but because they were results in data and numbers first, they're gone. So yeah, because that's when you use that metric, I can say, oh, you're not performing at X.

[00:16:02] Therefore, giant cuts are made. Layers of organizations are eliminated. And yet they have the same struggles instead of saying, how can we design ourselves to be really strong organizationally through our people in order to get the results we want to see? Yeah. So give us some tips because I've been in that situation where if anybody saw me, they thought they were getting in trouble. They were getting fired.

[00:16:31] They were doing something wrong and they say, oh, HR is coming. You know, we need to we need to act better. We need to stop talking about real life things. We're going to be working. So what what tips can you give somebody that's maybe in that kind of situation right now? I think you have to have a lot of courage and this is hard for us. We want to be so nice and we should be. I want you to be horrible.

[00:16:59] But being nice, you can do it. I mean, I think the big thing is to be human first. We don't do it. We come across as the authority or the arm or the principal or all the negative stereotypes that come up with us instead of saying, David, hi. And they're like, oh, I mean, I have fun. It's like, oh, you're scared? Come on. Here we go. I'll scare you. And then you don't.

[00:17:29] But meet people where they are and say hi. Give people that context. Hey, I know that in the past, the only time you've seen HR is this. I want to change that. Today, I'm here just to talk to you about today. Why isn't this weather awful? You know, and everybody has things that they comment in common. Gee, is it worth frustrating? Do you have the tools you need? And stuff like that.

[00:17:57] Or if it's a behavior issue, if it is that negative thing, you go, hi, this is going to be a tough conversation. Yeah. We don't do that. We jump straight to the rational part. You know, I heard you have an attendance problem. Bang, bang, bang. Instead of saying, hey, you know, because when you don't work, other people have to pick up what you do. I'd like that to change. You want to add value. I want you to add value. But you know what? To add value, you got to be here. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:18:26] So it's just reframing conversations instead of just coming across so hardcore. Yeah. We have Steve Brown on Speakeasy HR. Chat is open. If you have any questions for Steve, I'm checking the chat. And obviously, I see we do have people watching live. So don't be shy. Ask a question. If there is something on your mind, it's probably on the minds of somebody else watching.

[00:18:49] So Steve, do you have a specific story that stands out to you where the human connection helped really transform a workplace culture, major HR challenge that comes to mind? Oh, absolutely. When I first came here, our department had the nickname The Black Hole. And it was just horrifying. You know, and I was like, why is it called The Black Hole?

[00:19:17] And they go, well, it's where everything goes to die. And I was like, oh, my gosh. It's not atypical. The best advice I could give any HR professional is this. Don't talk about your own description as an organization. Listen to what others say. So I've worked with friends that work in hospital situations. And they'll describe HR. And I'm like, oh, wow. And that will never show up on a survey.

[00:19:47] It won't be engagement or anything like that. But, you know, it's they describe what they're supposed to say. So when I first started here, my boss told me not to make any changes or suggestions for the first three months. Just listen. Knowing, OK, was that? And that's OK. I'm allowed to do that. He's yeah. So I would go out to pizzerias and I'd hear that, shh, it's HR.

[00:20:17] And you know me. I mess with people. I'm like, oh, no. You know, what am I supposed to do? Do I have like scary theme music that travels with me? And I found out amazing things about the great people that work for us. So, you know, young people who are 16 years old, who it's their first job. Yeah. And you all can say, hey, how's it going so far? I'm kind of scared and I'm not really sure what to do. And you go, oh, cool. Let's get you connected.

[00:20:44] And then I'd go to the manager because the manager's like, why are you talking to my people? I'm like, why aren't you talking to your people? I want to talk to them because they're team members. And I'm in charge of team members. So let's talk to them. And then I tried to educate my managers, not shame them. I tried to encourage them and listen to them, not tell them what to do. And it was more being that resource we say we are instead of saying, here's the system to follow.

[00:21:15] It's here's how to be more human yourself. But you can't tell people to be human unless you are. You just can't do it. So I would laugh. I still do. You know, I'd come in and just want to get to know people. I had no other agenda. But I was given three months to just listen. Yeah.

[00:21:34] And what it did was allow me to understand where we were as a culture before making any brass, you know, big suggested changes. I thought it was brilliant because that's different than onboarding. You know, onboarding is high. I'm going to do this. And for three months, this is what I need from you. Tim Collins is blowing up here. Do you see him? Oh, yeah.

[00:22:04] So he said, ask my question. I don't know where his question even is. I didn't see the question. If you can rephrase your question, Tim, I will pull it up for Steve. I think he knows you, Steve. Oh, yeah. Tim and I work together. I know. I've talked to him. So, yeah, please, if you can just put the question in there, Tim, I'll pull it up for you.

[00:22:34] So, now we've got this hybrid work. Work from home still is a thing, Steve. So, if someone's watching this or listening that may not have the chance to work face-to-face with somebody, because that's really what you're telling people is to get out from the desk behind, get out from behind your desk and really go talk to the people. Get to know the people and have that human connection.

[00:23:02] But when you don't have that chance, what steps can those folks take in an HR position that really don't work face-to-face with some of their team members? I think instead of measuring engagement, we should be engaging. There's a big difference. I know a ton of my peers who are incredibly technically astute. There's just none about it. I go to them for resources. I ask them questions. Would I call them engaging?

[00:23:33] Possibly. I have other people who are incredibly engaging and don't know HR. Yeah. I think you need to do both. But you have to be accessible and approachable. So, it's not technology that gets in the way. It's how we choose to engage each other. So, we're on video right now. We're not in the same room. And you can choose to be engaging instead of just hit the brass tacks. You have time to ask how things are going.

[00:24:03] You have time to listen and hear where it is. You have times to go off book and go, hey, I know we're going to talk about the inventory management control system today. However, I hear you're not in a good place. Let's get you in a good place. Yeah. And then connect people that are responsible for others as people leaders and their staff. Instead of keep focusing on this boss-subordinate relationship, I'm connected to these people.

[00:24:33] Connected to these people. Yeah. I think you can be engaging around the world. I think you can be engaging through email. I think you can be engaging through texts. It just depends. Do you choose to be engaging or choose to be black and white? Yeah. Makes total sense. So something about brown-nosing at P&G. I saw that come up. Tim's talking about Jay Hunt, by the way.

[00:25:02] It wasn't Bunt. And he was my client in the paper division. And he gave me a baptism by fire. He was one of the hardest people to find people for. But he's a great example of HR. Jay liked to wrestle when he talked. So when you talked to him, he was immediately confrontational. And everybody's like, oh, we're going to give him to the new guy. Because the new guy gets the... It's like, that's crazy.

[00:25:31] So what I learned was, hey, Jay, you want to wrestle? Let's wrestle. Come on. You know, you said five candidates. I only see four. I'm like, well, there weren't five good ones. And we'd just go at it. But after a while, when I learned how he talked and I could talk with him the same, we actually had a really good relationship. It didn't make him do different behavior inside his client organization. But I enjoyed him quite a bit.

[00:26:03] Oh, Jay. Tim, get off it, dude. He's fired up today. He is fired up. So I think what you have seen with HR and how it's evolved and obviously implementing the tiny hands and the fun things in meetings, right?

[00:26:27] So I'm talking to more of the managers in the world right now and people that aren't maybe in an HR position that want to have more human connection with their team. So HR can help connect the departments between an organization because they're the only team that really connects and works with every organization's department. So if you are in an HR position, you can do that.

[00:26:51] But if you are in a manager position and you really do not feel connected to your team or you have new people on your team, what can we as HR professionals do to help those relationships within a manager kind of team environment? Like how can HR help that? Support those that lead others. And we tend not to.

[00:27:18] We tend to say, hey, you're in charge of these seven people. What does that mean? Do you take time to help them know those seven people? Do you take time to say, hey, here are the expectations we have. Do those fit? Do those not fit? We talk about work in front of us or we try to do these things indirectly like through the projects or through the workload instead of saying, we're going to step back. How are you feeling about leading seven people?

[00:27:47] Well, I like these five, but these two are challenging. Well, how do I know that? Because I only hear about the two. Yeah. I don't hear about five. So help them with that. Be more of an intermediary for them. So you can help people be that connective tissue within their area of work as well as between departments. Yeah. So obviously, HR professionals, specifically people that have followed the profession for a while.

[00:28:15] It's moving forward with how we are trying to be connected and inclusive. And I know there have been a lot of changes. And there are people that really don't feel that that is a good direction that people in HR are going, trying to keep the DEI part of it in there. I know people are chiming in on the comment section about it. And that's okay. I think people that have been in HR have seen how that has been such a big focus.

[00:28:43] And now it's becoming not as much of a focus. So I don't know if you have any comments about that, Steve. I think it's really, for some people, going to still be a focus within their organization. Primarily, bigger organizations that have a whole DEI team. So if you have any comments on that, I think definitely share them. Well, and here's the thing. I'm not going to comment why SHRM did what they did. That's their choice.

[00:29:12] Here's what people need to understand about SHRM. And I've been a SHRM person all my life and probably will be. Because of the people. Not because of the structure. It's a business. And I was as surprised as when they made their announcement about the direction they're going. It's not a matter of agreeing with it or give me an answer. I think it's more like this.

[00:29:40] The reason we have these areas of diversity is because we chose not to focus on them for decades. And that's a miss. It's just a huge miss. So all of the factors that come under DEI, B, and I don't want to be trite. All of the letters that are in there are important because they're the factors of humanity. And humanity is what we're focused on in the company.

[00:30:07] We don't have to compartmentalize it or you can. We're trying to make everything prescriptive instead of framed. I think in framing things, you can be more inclusive. You can be more diverse. You can make sure equity occurs. That belonging happens. But if it's strict, then you're forcing people into the boxes you say you don't want. It doesn't make sense to me. I don't like it.

[00:30:35] I think that you need to be consistent with people and value them for who they are. And you may think that sounds too overarching, but I meet people who are different from me every day. I think they have values and strengths and talent, all that good stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we've got a new generation coming into the workforce and there's going to be more and more of them that have grown up with technology that you and I didn't have growing up. Right.

[00:31:04] People will want to work remote, hybrid. So when you meet people where they are in an organization, it's going to be challenging for companies that really want to be competitive that can offer some of those structures of a schedule.

[00:31:19] But, you know, I think what what I have found with managers that have a struggle, it's when they have team members from multiple generations trying to work together that don't that don't know how it is to be a 25 year old right now in 2025 versus a 55 year old.

[00:31:41] And and I have seen how reverse mentoring I've heard that come up a lot, you know, where people are trying to share ideas when they have been in the workforce for so long and helping the younger ones. But then the younger ones are helping the older people. So, like, have you seen much of that? Yeah. One of the things I've talked about quite a bit is, in fact, I'm going to talk about it at a Chamber of Commerce event. They came on. They said, let's talk about generational differences.

[00:32:09] I said, I'm not going to talk about generational strengths. Yeah. And they go, what? I said, each general there's this is not new. It's like all the other things. It's not new. It's just what we call it or what we focus on. I don't want to tell you my whole thing because then it will take away. Yeah, no, I've awaited the shows. There's ways for all of us to learn from each other. Yeah. Here at La Rosa's, you know, I mentioned we have 16 year olds. When you're 16, you're not thinking about work, honestly.

[00:32:39] You're not. You're 16. You're trying to figure things out. And I have people that are well into their 70s who work with us. Yeah. And it's more, hey, what does that person bring? What can they do? How can they add value? Age should not be a limit. Generations shouldn't be a limit. I know some people who are very old by age that are very young in approach. I know some people who are very young by age who are very set in their ways already.

[00:33:07] So I think it's a matter of how do we work together through our differences because of our differences so that we learn from each other. Yeah. So how does emotional intelligence? Because I have kids and I talk to them about emotional intelligence and understanding that. And it really plays a big role in an organization and a team environment because you have people

[00:33:35] that just don't have emotional intelligence as a strength. And you want to foster that. So how can human resources professionals cultivate that and try to build up emotional intelligence with their team? I think you need to have more candid conversations with people. Yeah. And just say, hey, you know, people have no problems telling your opinion of others. I mean, they'll give you their opinion.

[00:34:06] All you have to do is open the door and go, hi, whack, you know. So my thing is, so how's that working? Yeah. So if this is such a point of frustration, how's that working? What can we do? Use how and what all the time and get people to try to make the next step. I think one of the challenges on emotional intelligence in a lot of areas in HR and work is we try to solve everything instead of saying, what's the next step? What's the next step?

[00:34:35] What's the next step? And keep moving more of a continuum. Yeah. It will solve itself to a point. It may not go away completely. Yeah. But you can't say, hey, you need to be more emotionally intelligent. People go, what? But, you know, hey, I'd like to talk to you, David, about your approach. The way we're taking a look at it is this. We're focusing more on development versus measurement. I want to develop you. Yeah.

[00:35:05] And work with you in order for you to develop into the better performer you could be for our company so that you make us better. Right. Measurement is after the fact. Development is current, present, and moving forward. And it's agile. Measurement is a little more static. Yeah. And I just don't think it works as well. Yeah. So development, I have found that it can be challenging to develop people that were once

[00:35:34] not a manager that want to become a manager and you promote them. And now they're managing their peers. So that to me is great. If organizations are promoting their people and they want to develop them and put money and effort into developing their staff, that's great because they know the organization. But sometimes when people are great at their job, they're not going to be great managers.

[00:36:01] So what advice would you give somebody that really is trying to do more of that in 2025 and beyond? How can people promote people better in their organization to a leadership role? I think looking at leadership a little differently, there are people that lead areas of work who are not good leading other people. Yes. But they're great at leading areas of work. You can have both.

[00:36:28] Those that are good at shepherding and leading and paying attention to and spend time with people, those are the people that should fall into that bucket. However, don't exclude others who can't or don't do it well. The ones who don't do it well, who are more specialized? We have roles where people lead large areas of business. Yeah. And they're tied to a few key people, but they're not in charge of or responsible for other people.

[00:36:58] They thrive. You have some people who are great people leaders, but they may have a smaller scope of business. And really, they get work done through others and there's value in that. So don't try and make it an either or, make it an if then. If you fall into this bucket, be more of that specialist who leads and we need that. Yeah. And the other side, be the great people leader and then equip them on how to do it well.

[00:37:28] Yeah. So looking beyond 2025, Steve, how do you see the role of HR evolving as businesses and workplaces continue to change? I think HR has to be more integrated and quit being a separate function. We weave throughout the organization. And I don't think this is just because I work in a smaller or mid-sized company. I think it's true in all companies.

[00:37:58] We should be that connective tissue. Yeah. Yes, you should have expertise. Yes, you should do straight HR. But it has to be more of a hybrid OD approach. Yeah. How do I make the company better through human efforts? That is where HR should have been and where I think it's going. It's not a matter of being so tactical.

[00:38:25] It's a matter of being observational, analytical, strategic. I hate saying it, but it is. It's strategic. But it's saying, how does what this effort does affect these people or the company before you jump? Too often we jump and go, oh, and then you fix it. It would be better to plan it a little bit, take a step, and then do it that way.

[00:38:52] More incremental movement works over time. Yeah. So folks in HR have been through a lot the last five years. And I think in the future, we're going to still have challenges just like every other profession. But what's the best advice you could give somebody in HR, whether they're just starting out, whether they've been in it for, I'm almost 20 years now, you a little bit longer than 20 years.

[00:39:19] But what advice would you give somebody in HR as they want to stay in the profession? I think you have to enjoy people for the wonderful, messy people that they are. What's really funny is when you hear HR people talk, if they want to be seen as a senior person, they go, well, I have to talk this way or act this way or say certain phrases and I'm credible. Yeah. I'm a mess. And I know that all the time.

[00:39:48] You know, a quick example. So we had an important meeting that I needed to be at here at eight o'clock. And it is colder than anything here now in Cincinnati, just like it is in most of the country. And our power went out at two in the morning. Ooh. Power went out. Wife's retired. She's at home. I go to work. Yay. You know, so you go, ah. So I shared that story because it happened.

[00:40:18] Yeah. People rally around. So how's she doing? Is she okay? What's happening? We did all that people stuff and it took three minutes. But it set the stage for the tone of the meeting. Because it took away from the let's jump into the thing in front of us. And people go, oh. And then they share their stories. Oh, I remember when. And they share great stories. You can't tell people to be human without modeling yourself. You just can't.

[00:40:47] And if you don't enjoy people, goodness sake. Just get out of what. There's a lot of other great work out there to do. Yeah. But no matter what you do, you're going to be connected to other people. So why not enjoy? Yeah. No. There's a lot of opportunities in HR. I think smaller businesses, you know, you have fractional HR that's needed.

[00:41:11] You know, when you have a business that doesn't need full-time HR, they're going to need some assistance. So there are some great consultants. As I see, like in this chat group, there are Tim and the other folks that have been doing consulting. They see it. So there's going to be a need for HR people and HR professionals beyond 2025. And no matter what AI does, it's not going to take the human part of human resources out of it.

[00:41:40] It's just never going to happen. So it might make our jobs easier. It might make it more efficient to find data and generate proposals and presentations and find information. But it's still going to be important to have somebody in that role, no matter what technology is going to do. But Steve, I appreciate your time. It's been great to talk to you. People that are watching, if you're not connected to Steve, why aren't you?

[00:42:10] You need to be. So you can scan his QR code on the screen. All of his ways to connect with him and his newsletter that's been going out for years is awesome. So it's definitely worth checking out. And Steve, I'm sure you'll be presenting and going to different keynote speaking events this year. Are you traveling a lot this year for some events?

[00:42:33] I'm going to the beautiful Wisconsin Dells in April and talking with a local chapter, doing a half-day seminar there. I submitted to speak at the annual conference because I've always enjoyed that just to meet the people from around the country. I'm sure there are other things I'm going to jump into, but not a lot has come to the schedule yet. Well, great. Well, Steve, again, I appreciate your time. Last question.

[00:43:00] What's your favorite thing on the menu at La Rosa's? That's tough, man. I'm a little – I love the Buddy Topper pizza. Okay. So pepper, cola, ham, banana peppers in our sauce. So it's got spice and heat as well as our sweet sauce. It's probably my favorite. Okay.

[00:43:25] Yeah, my – at our Christmas party for the company, we had a white elephant game and our boss bought these amazing gifts. We didn't bring them. And one of them was a pizza maker that I ended up stealing from somebody and I kept. So over the last three weeks of snow and holidays, we've used that thing and definitely have some pizza sauce from La Rosa's here. So kids have loved it. They make their own pizzas. It's great. You know? That's fantastic. Yeah.

[00:43:56] Well, great. Well, Steve, thanks again. Thanks, everybody, for chiming in and hearing everything that Steve was able to provide us today. So, Steve, I'm sure I'll see you around sometime in the great state of Ohio or anywhere else that you'll be in the HR world. So appreciate your time. I have some amazing guests lined up for this year. So please make sure to tune in. Go on to the blog. Check that out. You can subscribe every week and get that.

[00:44:25] So, Steve, thanks again for your time. And as the board says, champions adjust y'all. That is what I live by. If I ever get a tattoo, it's probably going to be it. So. Thanks, David. All right. Take care, my friend. We'll talk to everybody soon. See ya. Bye. Bye. Bye.