LIVE from 2026 HR Collaborative - Morning Session

[00:01:12] Hey, what's going on everybody? David Noe with SpeakEasy HR presented by Payroll Partners. We are live at the 2026 HR Collaborative. I've been fortunate to be asked to come back from last year. Had a blast being here last year interviewing all the speakers and so now we're back at a new venue this year. But I am thrilled to be here and being able to talk to the speakers for just about 15 minutes as they go through their breakouts.

[00:01:37] So I have the first guest coming on is Jessica Palatka. Welcome, how are you today? Thank you so much and you got my name right. I love it. Perfect. Right off the bat. Yeah, so we are live on LinkedIn and YouTube doing this from the conference. We're at the Oasis Conference Center in Sharonville. No, not Sharonville. Loveland. Loveland. I didn't grow up here and neither did Jessica. So we're kind of implants to this area.

[00:02:02] So what this conference is, is an all-day conference. It's the 17th year having this and we have breakout sessions where people can go hear the speakers. We just had an amazing keynote. Dr. Kevin Snyder who's going to come on this morning as well. So you get to hear from him. So I just get a chance to talk to all the guests or the speakers here and dive into their topic a little bit. And why they brought this topic to us and really what they want to get out of this conference.

[00:02:32] So I have a short little bio of you, but I don't really want to go through all of it. So if you just want to tell people listening a little bit about your background and kind of what you've been up to. And then you moved here recently as well. I did. I did. Thank you very much for having me. I moved to the Cincinnati area back in August. I moved here from Washington, D.C. I am currently the vice president and chief human resource officer for Miami University.

[00:03:00] And I'm the inaugural vice president. I am the first one they've had. Congratulations. So very exciting. The nice thing about that is that I'm the best one they've ever had since I'm the first. So that's also... I'm just setting it really high. I got the mini air horn. Yeah, I appreciate it. Got to hit that for that. So I came to Miami to take an office that had traditionally been a transactional HR office, which we're used to in higher education and transform it into a strategic asset. It was something they thought was missing at the university was the strategic nature of HR.

[00:03:31] And so I'm going to take HR to human capital and practice what I preach. That's amazing. So I'm excited for that. So how long have you been in the HR world? I've been working in specifically in HR since 2006. Prior to that, I actually worked as a systems engineer. Okay. Weird transition. What I found was that I kept working on HR is type of projects. Yep. And so I went from systems engineer to working in HR is business intelligence data analytics,

[00:04:00] and then naturally just transitioned straight into the HR arena. Okay. Yeah, it's been a fascinating ride for HR professionals and hearing people at the educational level in the college level and how people coming into the workforce want to get into an HR career. I think it's so exciting. I've been doing it for 20 years. I didn't want to do that growing up. You know, I wanted to be, you know, in golf professional golfer, and that didn't pan out the way I wanted.

[00:04:29] But, you know, now we get to help transform the workplace and transform individuals and businesses and culture. So we had a lot of great submissions and I'm part of the committee for this, this event. And so looking at the topics that people presented in their submissions, we had a lot of great topics. And so we are thrilled to have the list of speakers who have never been here before. This is your first time at this event.

[00:04:54] And so love to hear kind of your take on this topic, which is human capital as a strategic asset, aligning talent to mission for measurable business impact. Right. So a lot of times in HR or human capital, and I feel that those two are very distinct and different. And I will talk about that as well when I speak later. HR to me is that transactional borderline operational work. It's the work that we do.

[00:05:20] Human capital is the more strategic aspect that you overlay onto the HR work. We sell ourselves short. Yeah. HR professionals sell ourselves short. We will go into a room and when we are finally invited to that table, we get in and we show the data that we have. And we're proud that we finally have data that we can show. But the data we show is not important to the people at that table. It's important to us. Yep. Absolutely. I can continue to say what a great job I'm doing as an HR professional, but it means nothing to the success of the company. So how do you translate that data?

[00:05:49] How do you translate those metrics in your approach so it's important not just to you? You know you're doing well. How do you translate it to the language that's important to the mission of the organization? And that's what I'll talk about today. Absolutely. Absolutely. So any key takeaway that you want people to leave your breakout and really just think about? What's your one strong message in that? The strongest message I think is communication. It is about very specific word choice.

[00:06:17] It is about how you present what it is that you have to present. I'm not saying that you have to go and change your entire data set. Yeah. It's how you present it. It's how you talk about it, how you relate it to the mission. And often that last part is a complete gap. Yeah, absolutely. I'm going to ask everybody this question. It has nothing to do with HR. Biggest, best advice you've ever been given in your career from somebody. The best advice I ever received was to have more than one goal in mind. Okay.

[00:06:47] The biggest failure I see is when someone has one goal, one pipeline, one achievable dream. Yep. Well, if you don't get that one dream job, does that mean your entire career was a failure? No, that means there are probably four other people who were also very well qualified for that dream job. Absolutely. Have more than one dream. Have more than one goal. There's nothing wrong with that. You don't have to just pigeonhole yourself. Yeah. So everybody listening to this, you're going to hear from the presenters today. We have 11 amazing speakers. We had a keynote Dr. Kevin Snyder just finished.

[00:07:17] We have a closing keynote who was here last year. So you'll see a familiar face. And within that, there are several others that have not ever been here before, like, like Jessica and getting a chance to be here and really meeting new people, obviously being new to the area. I'm sure you will meet a lot of people that have similar like mind, like minds in this kind of industry. And so I think everybody here is going to get a lot out of it. And I love this venue. This is a new venue for us. It is, it feels like a conference. It feels like it.

[00:07:46] And this is one of the only all day conferences that I am familiar with in the area. I know your colleague, Tom Mobley, he was at Disrupt HR Cincinnati with me in February. And we have another Disrupt HR coming to Northern Kentucky in July. So we have a lot of great programs in the region for HR. And so hopefully you get a lot out of this and decide to obviously be a part of it in future event or, you know, future years. So where can people find you?

[00:08:16] LinkedIn, what's the best way for people to connect to you? Absolutely. LinkedIn, Jessica Palatka, just like in the speaker notes. You can and I actually in my presentation. So plug to actually come to my breakout session. Yeah. QR code. You can just scan it and it'll take you right to the page. Absolutely. And the only part about this all day event is we have three breakouts, but every breakout, you have to pick from three different people.

[00:08:40] So you can't come here and see all of the speakers other than the keynote this morning and then the closing keynote for the happy hour. And so this gives everybody that maybe came here, if they're listening to the on demand version after today, they can hear from the speakers who were not a part of their day. So that's why I, as being here on on Speakeasy HR, I don't get a chance to go to the breakouts, but I get to interview everybody.

[00:09:08] So this has been such a, you know, awesome opportunity and super glad that you're here and hopefully you get a lot out of it today and enjoy your time. So thanks for stopping by. Thank you. And you get one of the limited edition, mini bourbon barrels with the payroll partners logo and the Speakeasy HR logo. So if you are here, there is a secret code word to come by if you're not a speaker and I will give you one of those.

[00:09:36] And then make sure if you are here to check out payroll partners with Matt Flynn, the Ohio sales director or payroll partners and would love to just hear about your situation. So I'm going to make sure that Dr. Kevin Snyder is ready. There's Matt Flynn. He'll come on next and say a few words maybe. So thanks for stopping by. Absolutely. Thank you. Nice to meet you. I've had a great time. Best of luck today. I hope it goes really well. I'm excited to network and meet new people. Absolutely.

[00:10:03] Just a few messages from our sponsor payroll partners and I'm going to go find the next interviewee and we'll get to it. Finding a new employee takes time and money. For one position on a single job board, you could easily spend a minimum of five to ten dollars a day advertising a job post. It's worth noting that the average time it takes to hire a new employee is 36 days. However, it can take longer than that.

[00:10:30] You could find yourself paying hundreds of dollars a month for a single job board. And if you're using multiple job boards for multiple positions, this could add up to thousands of dollars a month. There is a much simpler and more affordable way of finding the right candidate. At Payroll Partners, we offer an applicant tracking system to help manage your hiring process. Our ATS is customizable, allowing you to decide which days you want to run the job and when to close it so you don't break the bank.

[00:10:57] And this feature lets you e-blast your network, hosting jobs on multiple boards at once, all managed in one location. Payroll Partners, elevating your payroll and HR experience. All right. Well, thanks everybody for joining us. I have my next interview with Julie Doyle.

[00:11:26] She is coming on. She just got here from out of town. So I'm going to get her mic up. So just give me one second.

[00:12:04] All right. So we are live with the next interview. Julie Doyle is coming on and she is one of the breakout speakers today. You came in from Columbus, correct? Oh, no, I'm here local. I was in Columbus yesterday. Okay. So you were traveling. Yeah. So thanks for stopping by Speakeasy HR.

[00:12:24] This is an exciting time for the speakers to come on and really talk to people that aren't here or people that are here and don't get a chance to come hear you speak like myself. Or like I was telling Jessica, we have three breakouts here. Is this your first time here? Oh, no. Okay. You've been here. Okay. So you're familiar with it. New venue, right? Mm-hmm. But everyone doesn't get a chance to see all the speakers because there's three breakouts.

[00:12:53] So if they see someone in the title, they might want to go to that one. But then they look at yours and it's about understanding pay equity. So that is a hot topic. It is. And I'm excited to hear a little bit more about that and what got you to bring that topic to us today. So tell us about, start with your background just a little bit. And I have your bio, but I don't want to read all of it. No, no. That's fine. I'll let you kind of explain it. That's fine. So what's your background? Tell everybody. Well, you know, I'm a Cincinnati native. Okay. Okay.

[00:13:23] I've been leading the HR function in organizations as a practitioner, as an executive for, gosh, 20 years. And I went into consulting about seven years ago. Okay. Okay. So I've been doing this a hot minute. Hot minute. And one of the things that I always found when I was leading organizations, there were always opportunities around compensation. Yep. And then of course, in my consulting work, I do a fair amount of work in this space with

[00:13:51] organizations implementing compensation systems, market studies, equity reviews, things like that. So what, what prompted me to do this was in all of my experience, I find that there's just a lot of misunderstanding about it. It's not, it's, they feel like it's this, you know, big complex thing that they can't, you know, get their arms around. And so I speak about this topic a lot because it helps to sort of break it down, understand

[00:14:20] what it is, what it isn't, how you, what are some practical steps and strategies you can put in your organization to help to close any pay gaps that might be there. Yeah. So I guess, what are some of the questions that you typically hear in environments like this when you're presenting or when you're talking to clients right now? Like what are some of the things that they're bringing to you? Hmm.

[00:14:43] I think it's that many people who are leading the HR function in mid size companies, small companies, I wouldn't say so much in very large organizations. Okay. They're wearing a lot of hats. Yes. These HR folks. Oh yes. And so when you are in that role and you're the HR leader, you don't have a professional comp person. Nope. Right. So I get a lot of questions around, you know, how do I figure out if there's a pay gap? What do I do?

[00:15:13] What are my options? What do I need to do? What should I do? How do I make this work in my organization? So there's a big opportunity, I think, to sort of educate and share some practical ways to be able to make an impact on it. Yeah. So for people that may not be able to hear you speak at your breakout today, you know, what are some of the key important takeaways that you're going to kind of explain in that? Yeah.

[00:15:40] Well, here's the big takeaway I would say is that if you have pay gaps in your organization and a lot of them do, it just is. Yep. If you have pay gaps in your organization, number one, you're not alone. But number two, you need to realize that those gaps did not appear over one decision or one moment. Yep. They appeared over multiple points. Yeah.

[00:16:09] And multiple decisions. Yeah. So trying to learn where can I make the best and biggest impact in my organization to make sure that these patterns and these gaps don't develop in the first place. Yeah. So that's the big takeaway to try to learn how can I maintain it, get it, maintain it, and sustain it. Okay. Okay. And you're a certified facilitator of the five behaviors of a cohesive team. Yes. So tell me a little about that.

[00:16:38] You know, I do a lot of work with developing leadership teams. I work a lot with C-suite teams. Okay. And how to have better team effectiveness to work together. Yeah. I do a lot of development of leaders and organizations to teach them how to lead, you know, high performing teams and to be strong leaders. And I really enjoy that work because I think it's such a need and organizations are looking

[00:17:05] for that, that someone to come in and help them get their leaders further developed. Because we all know that we usually in organizations find our best individual contributor. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And we promote them into a leadership role and we haven't always prepared them for leadership. Leadership is very different than an individual contributor role. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:17:30] It's, it's something that I think what I see and who I talk to and, and, you know, hear the stories about someone that wants to obviously make the money and earn a living as a leader or manager, but if they've never dipped their toes in that, it's very difficult. And so navigating that for someone and setting them up for success, I feel like is very difficult too. Um, so you're going to be talking about implementing compensation, compensation strategies to bridge

[00:17:59] the pay equity gap when it comes to recruiting right now. Mm hmm. And you have a client that's like, you know, I'm having a hard time finding good people and I really don't know if it's because of our compensation model. Mm hmm. We need to figure out what we're doing wrong. Um, is that, is that something that you're hearing right now? Or is it more other, other perks, other things people are trying to get remote work?

[00:18:28] Um, you know, hybrid work environment is pay like one of those big things that you still hear from people that are still trying to be like more competitive on a daily basis with recruiting. Well, you know, being competitive with your pay in the, in the labor market is really important. You're trying to recruit top talent. I'm never going to say that's not important because that's sort of like the foundation, right? If you want to play, you got to have competitive pay, right? Number one.

[00:18:54] But to answer your question, I think besides that, uh, I think people are looking for, you know, those total rewards, right? What is, uh, what are the benefits? Uh, can I have flexibility in my work? Not necessarily. Can I work completely remotely, but can I have some flexibility? Yep. And I think people are also more attuned to what is the environment and the culture like in the organizations that I want to join.

[00:19:22] So if I have clients who talk to me about their recruiting, um, challenges, it's a whole lot of things that you got to look at, but pay has to be the foundation piece. So they need to know what that external market pay is. Absolutely. They need to know what is the right pay for their organization, size, industry, et cetera. Yeah. And then be, feel good about what they're offering. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:19:46] So I ask everybody on my podcast when I do it live on Mondays about the advice they've been given in their career. Mm-hmm . So if you look back on your, on your career and maybe one person that really gave you that nugget of advice, what, what was that biggest piece of advice that you think has stuck with you? Well, you know, I go way back for this one and I wouldn't say it was really advice other

[00:20:14] than they modeled for me away. Okay. So when I was early, uh, you know, just getting out of college a long time ago, uh, and I was leading teams and I, um, I was, you know, I was pretty stern and I was pretty, you know, black and white and everything. Right. Cause I thought that's what I needed to be. And quite frankly, where I was in the organization and the industry I was in, there were not a lot of women leaders and I was one of the few. Okay.

[00:20:42] And the person who modeled this for me was the only one in the area that was a woman that got into upper management. Okay. And so she came alongside me and she goes, watch this. And she interacted with one of my team. Okay. And the way she approached it is she modeled what great leadership looks like. She, she made that person feel seen. She made them feel heard. Yeah. She got them to say, well, how would you do it?

[00:21:07] And she got them to play to their strengths and, and, and instilled pride and showed them respect. And it, and what she was able to get them to do was not a real glamorous job, but they did it happily and they did it well and they brought their talents. And I sat there and I thought, I've been doing this all wrong. That made a huge impact on me and how I lead, how I show up, how I build and lead teams and how I have led organizations, HR function. Okay.

[00:21:36] So you say you've been consulting for seven years, seven years. So before the pandemic, you started it. So what got you to that point of like, I want to do this now instead of what you were doing before? You know, I, it was a time in my life where I wanted to kind of step back from working so much. Right. And I thought, what is it that I really want to do? I love human resources. I love what the people function, how, when we do it well.

[00:22:05] And like my, you know, that mentor long time ago modeled really strong leadership, what that can do for an organization. Yeah. And I love how it can impact the business. So, you know, I decided I want to go out and do consulting and I want to work with different organizations and do the pieces and parts that I love to do. Yeah. And that I'm really good at. Yeah. Okay. What, what's been a situation that really stands out since you started doing that?

[00:22:35] A client, a situation that just made you feel like this is, this is awesome. I'm, I'm making an impact in this organization or individual, like any, any specific high level highlight since you've done this? I would say, you know, there are many, but if I think of one, uh, most recently, one of my, um, a client that I've had for a long time and I've grown in that relationship and done many different things for them. And I do a lot of different, um, things for them with their leadership.

[00:23:05] One of them is developing their leaders. Yeah. And I'll tell you, um, going back year after year and working with them either on that or leadership retreats or strategic planning or whatever it is that I'm doing. And I'm working with the executive team or board, et cetera. And I see these folks who are advancing through the organization. And when I come back and they go, Hey, Julie, remember when we started, I didn't have any direct reports. Now I got five. And it's like just seeing those people continue to develop and grow gives me a lot of satisfaction.

[00:23:35] Yeah. That's, that's gotta, that's gotta make you feel good. It does. It does. Well, good. Well, where, where can people find you? Obviously LinkedIn, I've got all the presenters tagged on LinkedIn with these posts. So is that the best place for people to find you? That's probably the best place to find me is on LinkedIn. Yeah. Absolutely. Well, good. Well, I appreciate you stopping by, uh, Speakeasy HR for a few minutes, getting to, you know, talk to you about your background and kind of what your focus is today doing all of this. And so we appreciate you being here and all the speakers here.

[00:24:04] I think it's such a great event. I look forward to it and being a part of the behind the scenes planning and getting everything together. I think so far, it's been a great day. Venue's been great. And, uh, everybody, I think speaker wise is here. So I don't think anybody that's supposed to speak has, uh, told us they are not able to come. So that's even better. I know we've had some challenges in the past where people don't, uh, get a chance to show when they're supposed to. So we got to pivot and we got to fix, uh, fix that on, on the fly.

[00:24:33] So, um, great to meet you and best of luck today and, uh, enjoy a little key chain and, um, we'll hopefully keep in touch. And then, uh, yeah, so if, if you are here, stop by and see, uh, the podcast booth and there's a secret word code, kind of like a speakeasy to get one of these key chains and, uh, make sure to stop on the other side of this, uh, cloth, uh, wall to see my friend,

[00:24:58] Matt Flynn with payroll partners and, uh, hear about his, his, uh, services and what we can do for you. So thanks for coming by. Yeah. Thank you so much, David, for this and the work you're doing here. And thank you for volunteering to put on the conference. I know what that's like. I put on the Ohio state conference. Well, it takes a lot. It's a love. Yep. You gotta have a good team. We have a great team here. So we're good. Well, thanks a lot. Have a great day. Bye.

[00:25:27] Finding a new employee takes time and money for one position on a single job board. You could easily spend a minimum of five to $10 a day advertising a job post. It's worth noting that the average time it takes to hire a new employee is 36 days. However, it can take longer than that. You could find yourself paying hundreds of dollars a month for a single job board. And if you're using multiple job boards for multiple positions, this could add up to thousands of dollars a month.

[00:25:55] There is a much simpler and more affordable way of finding the right candidate. At Payroll Partners, we offer an applicant tracking system to help manage your hiring process. Our ATS is customizable, allowing you to decide which days you want to run the job and when to close it so you don't break the bank. And this feature lets you e-blast your network, hosting jobs on multiple boards at once, all managed in one location. Payroll Partners, elevating your payroll and HR experience.

[00:26:32] What I love about the Workforce Agility Limited Series by Cornerstone was we talked to executives and customers all about skills. Skills, skills, skills, skills, skills. Cornerstone has a wonderful background in learning and development, training, etc. Their LMS is world class. But they've centered the business now, not just on that, like building upon that, but building upon how everything has moved to the skills economy.

[00:27:02] So check out the limited series called Workforce Agility. And you can get it wherever you get your podcast. And it's just a wonderful series where we talk to their executives on the shift of why. And also their customers that are using it. So check it out whenever you get a chance. Appreciate it.

[00:27:44] We got our next one. Thanks, Julie. We got our next one. It's a familiar face. Clip that on. My man, Andre Young. Hello, hello. How are you today, sir? I am fantastic. How about you? Good to see you back here. Fantastic to be back. Hi, everyone. Yeah. Which way am I going here? Yeah, you're good. So we are live on LinkedIn and YouTube with our next closing keynote this year, Andre Young.

[00:28:13] And you were here last year. I was actually watching that interview this morning just to see what it was like last year compared to this year. Yeah. And I've done a lot of episodes between last year and this year. So I feel like I'm getting a little bit more used to this. This is a different vibe, though, being at a conference live. I don't do this outside of this conference, really. This is the only one that I've done it. So coming back and being part of the planning team was a lot of fun. So you do a great job. Well, I appreciate it.

[00:28:42] And so what's new with you? You were here last year. You were the keynote. I'm sure you've been busy since then. Yeah. You're traveling. Yes. Family. Kid. You know, son playing football. Awesome. You know, start to his college career as a football player. So catch us up to speed and what you've been up to last year. So what professionally and personally, professionally has been amazing. We put out a new book. It's my fifth book called The Complete Leader.

[00:29:12] And that book took a lot out of me. Really? I will say, it's the best book I've ever written. Is it the last book? No, it's not the last. But I am taking a break. I've been putting out a book maybe every two and a half, three years. Yeah. And at that time, my dad had had a heart attack. He's okay world. Okay. My kids were home from school. So they're needing me. I'm big on work life harmony. However, I was moving at a pace where we put out two big products.

[00:29:42] So the book came out and then we also created an AI tool called Ask Andre. Yes. And you know, I love writing the books. I love the online program. Yeah. I love going into organizations. But the truth is for organizations and leaders, when the stuff hits the fan, you're not going to fish through the book for the answer. No. You're not going to repay me, which I'll accept, but you're not always going to repay me to come in and give you an answer on the spot. Right. Right.

[00:30:08] So now to have me in your pocket where you can ask it and it only pulls from my information. Yeah. So that was really huge. And then kid wise, I just had a daughter move to Australia. Wow. I have a 23 year old that's figuring life out, but he wants to move and saving up to go to California and let's get in the production business. Okay. My 18 year old football player committed and just amazing experience watching him live his dream.

[00:30:35] And then I have a six year old who's being six and I get to put all of this leadership stuff into her and to watch her speak differently from so many kids has been really cool. So is that everything you've done with these books and ask Andre and now that you have a six year old and then other kids that are older, like, do you feel like you're a different father? Yes. Absolutely. Yes. I'm every kid. I have four kids. Yeah.

[00:31:01] And because of the gap, they've all gotten me in a different phase of my life. Yep. And hopefully when you're doing life right, you know, your current phase is your best phase. So, you know, my daughter gets the best version of me and then my older kids get to see that and get the support and get the wisdom. And now they're, they're not in the cool teenager stage. They are now asking for it. So it was really cool. Yeah.

[00:31:31] So I won't read your bio. I have a bio of everybody and, you know, hearing more about you and people that have not heard you speak. Hopefully this helps everybody hear a little bit more about Andre's background and his focus and, and really being now the keynote, the closing keynote this year. It's a new piece of our day. Last year we had an added breakout and no closing keynote.

[00:32:00] So when you got asked to come back and be the closing keynote, I don't know how many closing keynotes you've been doing, or if this is kind of a new, a new opportunity, but you know, what, what did you think when you were asked to come back? Oh, I'm always grateful to return anywhere. Yeah. You get asked to return to a conference or a company. It means people love what you did. Yeah. And it's biggest honor.

[00:32:23] Um, I've spoken all throughout days, uh, regarding conferences as the opener before lunch or after lunch, never want people are eating. You don't want to compete with people's food. Nope. Um, and then also as the closer. So the closer probably has the most amount of pressure because it's the end of the day. People have heard a lot. Some people are tired. Some people need to leave. So the goal is not to have anyone reach for their keys.

[00:32:52] Well, and then there's a happy hour. So you're, you're honing them from the bourbon tasting and the happy hour. So you're like that last step to get to there. So yeah. Yeah. No pressure on David. It's okay. You're going to be amazing. And, um, so your topic today, evolve your leadership and fruit. Yeah. So walk me through that people that aren't going to be able to, to listen to it here and shame on you for not coming.

[00:33:18] Um, but what, what are you going to try to bring in that message to them? Well, when I have 60 minutes, it's so important that I want to give common sense and easy to apply concepts, uh, in a little bit of time. Yep. So three is optimal. And if I was only going to give three, these are the three. One is work life harmony. Every single person wants better work life harmony. There we go. So we go through the five points of the day and how to do that.

[00:33:48] And everybody's busy. Yep. So it's not about time. It's about intent and consistency. So these five points allow us to live our best life as the foundation for it. Next, we're going to do the five types of leaders. Everyone in this conference is a leader at an organization. And I believe everyone's a leader no matter where you are within the organization. But if you're leading people or responsible for people, I say there's five types.

[00:34:14] A great leader is all five types given the situation that calls for it and the person that needs it from you. But we all have a top two that we are currently at our core and that can change over time. So I explained the five types and then the pro and concern about each type of what to do because we are a motivator type, but your people don't like your style. Well, what are you going to do? If you're an example type and you're very quiet, what are you going to do? What if you're the intense type?

[00:34:44] Let's get a raw impact. It's not a bad type. But when that type isn't meshing with your people, then what do you do? And then we close out with what I call the leader's blueprint. I find a lot of leaders make the same mistake and it's not intentional. Okay. A great leader will say, hey, come to me. You need to vent. You have an idea. We want communication. We want connection. We want to create a great culture, right?

[00:35:13] Most leaders fail to tell their people how to come to them. Yeah. They say come, but you don't know that person's history. There's a such thing called professional abuse. There's people who've been professionally abused before you or at other organizations. So they don't, they have trepidation to come or they don't trust that or you don't know their history. So we fail as leaders to tell them how to come. So we're going to end with how to do that. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:35:38] And I was just talking to Julie and some of her consulting is with companies that have new leaders and people that have never led a team or have been a manager. And that to me is like one thing that businesses struggle with because you, you, you put someone in a managerial role and they want to be a leader and they have the full intent of doing well. Right. But the people around them that they're managing, they might be in different generations. Yeah. They all might have a different motivation. Yeah. Especially right now.

[00:36:07] And they might want to work from home. They might want to work in the office. They can't deal with Sally and Jim and Bob. They just want to work by themselves. And it's, it's a dynamic that everybody has to figure out what's in their environment will work the best. Yeah. So I think your message to everybody here is going to be going to be great. And I think everyone's going to be excited to take that away and try to apply that in their jobs.

[00:36:32] So the last book that you wrote, it came out, we talked about it last time you were on and it came out last fall. Is that right? October. Okay. So what's been kind of the reaction from, from people, um, reading that? Do people come back and just tell you what, what they've gotten out of it or what's been the reaction? It's very interesting. So each book that I've written has been for different people. Yeah. So seven ways to lead the first one. I believe anybody can pick that up from high school students to CEO. Yeah.

[00:37:01] Um, the leader's toolbox, middle management, you know, I found that that's perfect for them. The complete leader, CEO down the front line, but C suite, uh, higher, higher level executives. Yeah. Um, but for, for everybody still. And what I've heard is people have told me, and this is no pun intended on the title. They said it's the most complete book. Yeah. It is the most complete from, uh, you starting out as a leader to succession planning, you

[00:37:31] know? And, uh, that's, I'm very proud when I reread that book, I'm on planes quite a bit and every now and then I'll bring my own book to read. And it's just, um, yeah, it's been a gift for me to give the other people. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So I'm asking everybody this today and it's a, it's a question I've been asking everybody on my, on my podcast for quite some time. And it's about advice you've been given, uh, from somebody in your life and what stands out to you in that.

[00:38:02] So what, what was the best advice you've been given in your, in your career? The best advice I was given was from my first supervisor. His name was Dan Nickashir. Okay. So I was a mental health therapist for 19 years. If you don't know that. Um, and I remember doing a group therapy session and my supervisor came and sat down to observe and he, after I wrapped everything up, he pulled me to the side and he said, I think you did a wonderful job.

[00:38:31] Hmm. When your content, when you started, you did this. He said, moving forward, I want you to close it out better. Hmm. Um, just because you said it, does it mean people got it? Um, most people are leaving with the last thing that they heard or the thing that's most important to them. And that's not always bad. However, if you don't wrap up and say, Hey, in review, we talked about this, this, this, this, and this, what was your biggest takeaway?

[00:39:00] Or what, in some form of that, um, you don't know what people are leaving with. Yeah. So you don't know what they're leaving with. You don't know what was important. You didn't really sum it up for the rest of them to all leave on the same playing field. You're miss, we're missing the mark. I have taken that with me for the rest of my life, whether I'm talking to my kids, my wife, but especially with leadership training.

[00:39:26] And it's something that I've implemented throughout my training, you know, while I'm talking and then also at the end. So thank you, Dan Nickashier. Amazing. Wow. Is that someone that you have kept in touch with or? I have not seen that great man. Yeah. In 20 plus years. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:39:46] Yeah. It's funny. Cause like some of my previous bosses, I, I still stay connected to, and it's, I was listening to something when we were here last year, I was listening to the interview and she was talking about when someone leaves your organization, you don't want to close the door. Like fully, you don't, you don't want to close the door on the business or like it's full circle for me. I've seen it recently and it's, I've always left a job.

[00:40:11] I felt like, and, and, you know, an organization better than I found it in my role specifically. But you know, it's like, you just never know who's going to be able to help you out in your career and be a mentor and be, and as someone will talk today with Pete Schram on his Pathfinders. Yes. All about a board of advisors for yourself. So like mentorship is so important. And another piece of advice that I haven't received, but I give, and it's very aligned with what you mentioned.

[00:40:41] Yeah. Always gossip. Good. Always gossip. Gossip good. Cause you don't know when you're going to see people again, you know, when you might need or that connections matter and the leadership and success are a language. So when you got some good about David, Noe, about a show, about your job, about the project inside of work and outside of work, good things can happen.

[00:41:03] You just don't know when cause you might see each other again. And so really quick story about that. It wasn't a piece of advice, but it was the best professional butt kicking I've ever gotten. Ooh. Okay. So I was working as a mental health therapist. It was my first job out of college. I wasn't a therapist yet. I'm working on a unit. I was supposed to show up to a residence court date.

[00:41:23] Okay. I missed it completely blew my mind. I left my mind. I walked in the work. My supervisor says, what are you doing here? I said, I work here. What do you mean? He said, you're supposed to be at this thing. I said, Oh my goodness. I forgot. So the next day I come in and I look at my schedule and I have the dreaded one to 11 time slot for two weeks straight. I looked at him. He looked at me. We both nodded in understanding. I accepted my butt kicking.

[00:41:51] Yeah. Never made that mistake again. Okay. Five years later, I am now a supervisor at another mental health place. They say, we have a guy coming in. That's going to be working under you.

[00:42:04] Ooh. Who was it? My old supervisor. Get out of here. And now I'm leading him. But because I was willing to accept the professional butt kicking, because I gossiped good about it, because I extracted the lesson, our relationship was so great. Can you imagine how toxic it could have been if I was professionally immature in that moment?

[00:42:26] Yeah. Wow. Or had you not disciplined me? Yeah. So you heard it. Gossip good, everybody. Well, this has been awesome. I cannot wait to hear your closing keynote. So I appreciate you stopping by. I've got, I don't think you got one the last time.

[00:42:43] Even though you've been on my full, big easy HR, he's getting the personal key chain. Awesome. Love it. Bourbon barrel. Love it. So thanks again for coming to the HR collaborative. Great to see you again, my friend. Thank you. And enjoy the day. We'll, we'll chat again later. And yeah, just keep doing what you're doing.

[00:43:04] Thank you. I really enjoy it. And, uh, it's been great. It's been an honor to have you on speak easy HR. This is the third time you've been on. You were on last year for this. You were on an episode, full episode, and now we're here. So where can people find you? LinkedIn, you evolve now.com, right? Anywhere you are. I am. So LinkedIn, uh, Andre Young, you evolving now, but also my website, you evolving now.com. So it's Y O U evolving now.com and everything from the books, uh,

[00:43:33] trainings, um, ask Andre, everything's right. Yeah, no, that's awesome. Well, best of luck on everything you're doing and, uh, just keep, keep doing it and gossip good everybody. So, uh, a few messages from our sponsor payroll partners. And then I think the next speaker is here ready to come on. So I'm going to, uh, get her mic'd up and we'll, uh, press on here. So thanks again, my friend.

[00:43:57] Finding a new employee takes time and money for one position on a single job board. You could easily spend a minimum of five to $10 a day advertising a job post. It's worth noting that the average time it takes to hire a new employee is 36 days. However, it can take longer than that. You could find yourself paying hundreds of dollars a month for a single job board. And if you're using multiple job boards for multiple positions, this could add up to thousands of dollars a month.

[00:44:27] There is a much simpler and more affordable way of finding the right candidate at payroll partners. We offer an applicant tracking system to help manage your hiring process. Our ATS is customizable, allowing you to decide which days you want to run the job and when to close it. So you don't break the bank. And this feature lets you e-blast your network, hosting jobs on multiple boards at once, all managed in one location. Payroll partners, elevating your payroll and HR experience.

[00:44:55] All right. We are back with a, uh, the other speaker in this lineup for this morning, Sharon delay. Um, she is, uh, here to talk about to think like an owner from HR compliance to cultural curiosity. So Sharon, welcome to speak easy. HR. This is your first time on. Yes. And, uh, my previous guest Andre was here last year.

[00:45:32] He's gone through the whole process. Yeah. So we're excited to have him. So people that don't know you, I've got your bio and I really don't want to just sit here and read some of it. I think I was given a much larger, longer bio because you all have great bios that are here today. So just tell everybody listening your background and, and, and, you know, what, what you've been up to.

[00:45:52] Yeah. So bios are always written by marketing people, never by HR people. So they're a little embarrassing. So I own go HR. We are an outsourced HR company located in Columbus, Ohio, but we have clients all over the United States. Okay. And we do either full cycle outsourced HR for them, or we do projects for larger companies that have internal HR people that just don't have time. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. HR, they wear a lot of hats. They wear a lot of hats.

[00:46:20] And as Julie before was talking, she works with businesses that, that might have HR. They just don't have the bandwidth. And, um, not that everybody in HR are burned out, but I've, I've been in HR for 20 years and I know a lot of people that, that have gone through a lot and gone through the pandemic and trying to staff appropriately and manage appropriately and develop people appropriately and, uh, retain people.

[00:46:48] So think like an owner. So, so tell us about this topic. And for people that are here, they might go to another breakout session because again, we have three breakout sessions and there's three different speakers. So you can't go to all of them. Right. And so I get a chance to talk to all of them, but I don't get a chance to go watch the whole thing. So tell us a little bit about this topic and, and, you know, what are you going to kind of dive into with it?

[00:47:13] So sure. So 25 years ago I worked for corporate America. Um, I had a very toxic boss and it started getting me thinking about, what was next for me and then the toxic environment. I internalized a lot of stress and it put me in the hospital. And so while I was laying there, my thought process says, well, if you think you can do it better, put your money where your mouth is.

[00:47:38] So, um, when I got out of the hospital, I, and went back to work, I gave my notice and I gave about a four month notice. Um, I didn't have anything against my boss and I certainly had a department of people. It was two levels up that the boss was a problem. And so I gave four months notice. I left there and that happened to be my first client. And then my second client was the employer. I left to go to that employer.

[00:48:04] So when I originally went out on my own, it was the employee communications and employee training development, two very niche parts of HR. And I joined an organization of business owners. And what I found very quickly was they needed HR. They were small businesses. They didn't have onsite HR. And so I kind of found myself pivoting.

[00:48:26] And one of the frustrations, particularly with smaller businesses, I'll be honest, is they are spending all of their time operating a business. They don't maybe focus as much on employee development, but more than that, they don't really know how to develop their employees and get their employees on board. They think about just hiring people to get work done. And I was no different to be honest.

[00:48:51] And so I started understanding that you need to interview very specifically, but then you need to develop and engage your employees very specifically to get them to think like you do. Nobody's going to love your business the way you do. Just like nobody's going to love your kids if you're a parent the way you do. And so it started making me think differently. I'm not perfect at it.

[00:49:16] Yeah. It's been a learning experience over the 24 years I've been in business, but nonetheless, there are certain things I have picked up along the way that help me work with my employees differently. Yeah. Yeah. Any specific industries you enjoy working in more than others? We tend to work mostly with professional services businesses, accountants, lawyers and things like that. Okay.

[00:49:40] But we have a wide variety of clients. So we get a lot of different interesting stories every day. Yeah. Yeah. I, you know, we're at Payroll Partners. We're in the technology side of it. So we work alongside HR departments. We work alongside businesses and business owners.

[00:49:58] And, you know, there's not just a magic button that everyone flips on and payroll services and tech are all just perfect and things change and you got to, you got to evolve with, with the technology. So how has the recent boom of AI impacted you as a business owner, as a consultant? Yeah. I think that's another area where business owners really need to work with their employees to help them understand. Yeah.

[00:50:28] We, we have an enterprise internal AI system. I'm not going to lie. I mean, we have to use it to be more efficient for our clients too. The thing that we have had to, I have had to teach my team is it's okay to use the tool and you should use the tool, but you need to make sure that you are, it is accurate, that you research everything, but then put the information in a way that it's consumable to the client. Yep.

[00:50:56] Just copying and pasting what AI returns. Number one is, in my opinion, not great client services because it's not customized to the client. But number two, I think it, it just demonstrates if you don't tailor it to the client's questions and needs, they can go out and look stuff up.

[00:51:14] Yeah, definitely. So part of your topic, it says HR from HR compliance to cultural curiosity. So that caught my attention when it said cultural curiosity. So when you think about that, what, what are you going to try to explain to people in that discussion that you have today when it comes to cultural curiosity?

[00:51:37] I think one of the biggest points I want to make is if, if you don't understand what culture is, because it's such a big thing and it can be so ambiguous. So if you don't understand what your culture is, somebody else will define it for you. Yep. So as an owner, part of my presentation is you have to put your own oxygen mask on first, whether you're an owner or manager. And if you don't understand what culture is and you don't get out in front of it and you don't make sure that you walk the walk and talk the talk with the culture,

[00:52:07] you're trying to protect and establish and grow. Why would your employees want to do it? Right. So you have to make them curious about what makes the company tick. Not only now, three months, six months, nine months down the road. Yeah. What has been the best way that your clients have been able to measure the culture and the success of the culture?

[00:52:30] Is it assessments, surveys, check-in reviews with managers one-on-one? Like, is there something that you've seen work better than others? Yeah. First, just a word about assessments and I'm, I'm certified in DISC. So I, I like assessments, but I do think sometimes employers tend to use them as rules and not tools or gospel instead of guidelines.

[00:52:55] So I think tread carefully on those, but I think the most important thing you can do is make sure your management line is, is well-educated, well-trained. And by educated, I don't mean bachelor's or master's degrees, but educated in the business, educated in the industry, educated in understanding what their responsibilities truly are and then empowered.

[00:53:21] But, and that's the manager's line because we all hear people leave because of managers. And I do believe there's some truth in that. Yeah. Um, I also believe, especially in smaller businesses, we see a great technician and we're like, you'd be a great manager. And then we promote them and leave them to either sink or swim. So I think that again, as businesses, we need to develop our managers and then empower them to do their jobs.

[00:53:44] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And now I was talking to Andre about just the generation differences when you're hiring people out of school. First big job out of college or out of school. And then you're managing that person in their first job, or you're managing people that have been in, in, in working for, you know, maybe they're in their forties or fifties.

[00:54:08] And, you know, it's easy to manage a bunch of people that do their job and show up and do a day-to-day task that is accomplished and that you don't have problems. Right. But it's when a manager has a lot of issues and turnover and problems. It's like, is it the manager's fault? Is it the employer's fault? Is it the employee's fault?

[00:54:31] Well, you know, it's kind of like who's pointing fingers at who to make that problem go away. And it's, it's hard to just say, well, this is going to work here and this is going to work here. So, you know, I, I, I don't know how much that comes up when you are talking to businesses right now. I mean, I think the answer to, is it the manager's fault, the employee's fault or the owner's fault or the business's fault? I think the answer is yes.

[00:54:52] I think everybody bears some responsibility and an employee not succeeding. Now there are some unique one-off cases where the employee is just not going to succeed no matter what the business or the manager does. But one of the things I talk about in my session today is the need to let people fail. Yes.

[00:55:13] If you don't let them fail and then within a safety net, if you don't let them fail and then debrief that failure and give them the tools and give them the confidence for the next step, then they're going to do only what you let them do, which is then the organization's fault for limiting them. Yeah. We can't be afraid of failure. We can't be afraid of an individual's success.

[00:55:41] Exactly. I'm asking everybody this question and it's about their, their career. Yes. Advice they've been given. So what's been the biggest piece of advice you've received? I think one of the biggest, very early on, I accepted a job when I was right out of college, one of my early jobs, um, accepted a job for the pay that was offered. Yeah. And within, I don't know, three, six months, I realized, wow, I kind of need a little bit more money to live. Yeah.

[00:56:09] And I went to my boss and it was really harsh at the time, but it's something that has always stuck with me. And she said, look, you accepted the terms that we offered. Yeah. You have to figure out how to deal with it. And it was a harsh lesson to learn, but it made me ask for what I want. Yeah. More readily, I think, along the way. Yeah. And articulate better what I want along the way. Yeah, absolutely. Well, I appreciate you stopping by. Absolutely. Thank you.

[00:56:36] I hope you enjoyed this. I, uh, I have a little gift for everybody that comes on and it's the limited edition key chain with payroll partners and the speakeasy HR logo. Is there bourbon in there? There's not bourbon in there, but there will be bourbon later at the bourbon tasting with Wenzel. So make sure to hang out with that. Excellent. Um, that's starting after Andre's closing keynote. So where can people find you? Is it LinkedIn? Is that the best way to find you and learn more about, uh, go HR?

[00:57:03] Yes, I am on LinkedIn. And then our website is www.go-hr.biz. Awesome. Well, thanks for stopping by. Thank you. Appreciate it. Good luck today. Thank you. I know you have to crush it. So appreciate it. Have a nice day. You too. Have a good one. Just a few messages from our sponsor and then we are going to get back to it with the next speaker. Hold on one second.

[00:57:25] Finding a new employee takes time and money for one position on a single job board. You could easily spend a minimum of five to $10 a day advertising a job post. It's worth noting that the average time it takes to hire a new employee is 36 days. However, it can take longer than that. You could find yourself paying hundreds of dollars a month for a single job board. And if you're using multiple job boards for multiple positions, this could add up to thousands of dollars a month.

[00:57:52] There is a much simpler and more affordable way of finding the right candidate. At Payroll Partners, we offer an applicant tracking system to help manage your hiring process. Our ATS is customizable, allowing you to decide which days you want to run the job and when to close it so you don't break the bank. And this feature lets you e-blast your network, hosting jobs on multiple boards at once, all managed in one location. Payroll Partners, elevating your payroll and HR experience.

[00:59:11] So I've got my next presenter coming on. He's just finishing up a conversation. So hope everybody's enjoying this conversation. I love talking to the speakers that are here. I'm going to get Matt Flynn on our sales team to come by real quick and just say a couple of things. Matt Flynn. What's up? Before Pete comes on, Matt Flynn, Payroll Partners. He's here at our booth. So tell everybody about Payroll Partners for a minute.

[00:59:39] What's your 30 second discussion on Payroll Partners? Payroll Partners is the fastest growing payroll HR solution provider in the Southwest Ohio, Northern Kentucky region. And our philosophy is not complicated. We do provide some of the best technology and dashboards, but we are committed to giving you people behind the dashboard.

[01:00:03] People to help you not only set it up and figure out the best way these robust platforms should be set up for your business, but also train you on it. One-on-one training and then give you dedicated support people to put out those payroll fires, put out those HR fires, and also put out those tax filing fires, which is super complicated in those two states. So that's it.

[01:00:27] So if you want some of the best people in this region behind your dashboards, stop on my booth and let's talk today. Matt, thank you, my friend. I need the mic. I'm going to bring Pete on. Pete Schramm, the next. And I've got his book here because he's been on Speakeasy HR.

[01:00:54] He was a former full episode guest. He is in town as one of the breakout sessions. So Pete, I'm just going to explain his background a little bit because I think it's very fascinating. He's a keynote speaker, best-selling author, founder dedicated of helping professionals navigate their career with clarity, mentorship, and intentional guidance.

[01:01:19] With over 125 keynote presentations delivered, Pete brings real-world experience from engineering, leadership, and business development roles across multiple Fortune-level organizations. He is the author of Pathfinders, Navigating Your Career Map with a Personal Board of Advisors, as I've brought up before,

[01:01:41] and the creator of Latitude, a career development and mentorship platform designed to help individuals and organizations grow. So I'm going to bring Pete on and try to get him to explain his topic a little bit. It is Pathfinders, Navigating Your Career Map with a Personal Board of Advisors. So he is about to jump on. And Albert, good day to you.

[01:02:10] Nice little horn, yes. We are live at the HR Collaborative in Cincinnati, Ohio. This graphic is not the one that I wanted. There we go. So Albert, thank you for joining. Pete is on his way over. So thanks for joining, Albert. Anybody out there watching live, throw in your comments. If you're not here, shame on you. I know it's an all-day event. It's in Cincinnati.

[01:02:38] Maybe you're not local to Cincinnati, but it's an all-day event. And some great speakers like the next one coming on. So Pete, Schramm, welcome to Speakeasy HR. He is way taller than me. So I don't even want to stand up because he's going to make me look like, there we go. Man, clip that on, my friend. I just gave you a little plug on here so you don't even have to talk about that. I need to pay more money. It's okay. You can pay me a bourbon. Let's see if I can get in here. Yeah, there we go.

[01:03:07] Got the mini air horn. You get to see it live. Can I? You can hold it. Can I? You can plug it. You can hit it. Yep. I've waited so long to do this in my life in general. You need to get one. Yeah. Yeah. It's so fun. And they're branded? Is there an affiliate link on your website to get these? No. That is the one and only. Now, I will say, these... There's a merch guy right over there. I know. Merch me. Yeah. Yeah. Plug for merch me. These are obviously a little bit of a limited edition piece.

[01:03:37] So you get to have that. Nice. Not your book. I do need you to sign my book if you haven't. Yeah, we'll take care of that. So for any... Are we recording? It's live. We're on LinkedIn and YouTube. Oh, nice. So for any of those authors out there, we're going to see if I was a good friend, which I was. Oh, look at that. Look at that. It's signed. Sorry. I didn't see that. And somebody may disagree with us at some points along the way. I guess what the book says of how to sign a book is not just on the inside cover. Okay.

[01:04:06] But it's actually where your name is. Where your name is. Yeah. So as you're... Can we give any exciting news about some things that might be coming soon? Let's do it. Just tell them. About your book. I'm writing a book. Pete is a contributor to that book and he is in one of the chapters. So stay tuned. As long as I don't get cut out. It's not totally published. I could still get cut. You are not cut. You will be in it when it's released. Release date is to be determined.

[01:04:34] Maybe it's by this time next year and I'll be here talking about my book. So thankful and just honored to actually meet Pete in person. We've talked. He's been on my podcast as a full episode. He's given me some great advice. And this book is just a fascinating concept. So people here get to hear the concept live at your breakout. Already heard it. Done. Oh, you're done. That's right. Yep. Yep. I've broken out. How did it go? It was great. Yeah.

[01:05:03] We got started a few moments late, but we didn't let that hold us back. Okay. It was, I changed it up just about every single time. Really? And we just went through three different things. Purpose. Ikigai. Path. Career map. People. Personal board of advisors. Okay. So I tried to keep it super simple. And I took a different, interesting adventure with the PBA this time. Okay. It's, I got to pull this up because I did have this. It's a one man show here.

[01:05:33] And I, I have your name and your title and stuff. So, so you're from what part of the country? The greater Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area. And the easiest way to know exactly the town that I grew up in is where Trump was shot. Butler PA. Yep. Everybody knows about Butler as a result of that. Okay. So, yeah, you traveled in for this event. Is this your first time to this? To this venue? Yes.

[01:06:03] This venue? Yes. Which, yes. I think this venue is fantastic. Oasis. Next year, we're going to have to have them put some golf passes in. We're, we're on, we're right by a golf course. I think that's a fantastic idea. Yep. Pete, I was going to mention that to the committee and we'll see if- PHRA does it. So, hey, plug for Pittsburgh Human Resources Association. Golf and or, well, it's golf or bocce, but they both take place. It's a fantastic, one of my favorite PHRA events every single year. All right. Be there.

[01:06:33] We might have to copy off that a little bit. But, so, talk to us about what you have focused on, obviously, with this topic today. But just in general, like your, your, your path, your personal path. And just, I read a little bit of your bio. So, I probably missed a lot in what you've been focused on. So, kind of give everybody a quick rundown of, like, what you've been up to, you know, what you've been focused on.

[01:07:01] I know you have a podcast, which is part of the work to find community as well. So, just explain your background a little bit for people that have never got a chance to hear you speak. Yeah. Well, it's really just how other people helped me along the way. And folks took a shot on me. And growing up, my parents told me, hey, you know, working on the farm, growing up on the farm, that our purpose here is to better the lives of others. So, okay, cool. How in the world am I going to do that?

[01:07:28] I'm not shoveling manure or, you know, picking sweet corn. And so, I just had that curious mind. So, always in sponge mode as I kept progressing. Went through public high school, Catholic grade school, public high school, private high school, and then college down in Washington, D.C. area. I was fortunate enough to play two sports. As you mentioned, Pete's kind of tall. Yes, I played basketball. Did my best. How tall are you? My best. Five foot 20 every day of the week.

[01:07:55] That translates to six, eight for the non-mathers out there. I studied mechanical engineering, undergrad, grad school. Most of those things you can see on my LinkedIn profile. But what you might not see there is every week during my first and second year of college, I actually tried to meet one new person along the way. So, I could learn about their background, their journey, how they got there. Just because, again, curious and in sponge mode.

[01:08:23] More people I meet, more people I can help, more people I can learn from. Gets to be really, really cool, fun, exciting. Yeah. After that, I had internships at a laser company, a steel mill, construction company. Really, really fun. And upon graduation, I said, I'm going to finish up my master's degree full-time while working full-time at largest defense contractor in the world. So, shout out Lockheed Martin for so much that I was able to learn.

[01:08:50] You know, the mantra they drilled into us, do what's right, respect others, perform with excellence, is still here. And I think that applies to life in general. No, they're not paying me to say that. But I was able to grow and develop with so many amazing people, still in touch with a lot of those folks today, progressed through the defense industry, went into starting my own tech company.

[01:09:16] And I actually have a very exciting update on the professional side that I've gotten back in to the defense contracting space. That's awesome. Yeah. Congrats. Thank you. Very cool. So, this is a question I'm asking everybody. And it's probably going to be a loaded question for you because of your book, but career advice. Yeah. Biggest, best piece of career advice you've ever received.

[01:09:48] Told you it was a loaded question. Own the change and expect the unexpected. That's why I put together the book is nothing's for certain. There's a picture in there pretty early on where it says, hey, here's what we think our career trajectory is going to look like a straight line. Yeah. And in reality, it's a whole bunch of squiggles and back and forth and arounds. And that's why the methodology in here exists.

[01:10:16] So, it's, hey, do I have, I'm in, you know, engineer level one, for example. From here, I could go to engineer level two, or maybe I go into quality engineering, or maybe I go into operations, or maybe I go into something else. But having that option A, B, C, D, E, so that if option A doesn't come to fruition, I'm not totally distraught. Yeah. And the world is over and everything is gone. I'm defeated. But I'm like, okay, so if not that, understand why. Yep.

[01:10:44] And then say, okay, well, maybe I can explore this one or this one or this one. So that multiple different, I'm not saying to settle. Yeah. But I'm saying to put the work in early, do the plan. Yeah. So that you're able to keep figuring out, hey, not all, what's the finding email? All drains lead to the ocean, right? There's multiple different paths to get to those potential ultimate steps we want to be at professionally. Yeah. It's awesome. I really appreciate you being a part of this event.

[01:11:10] And when I saw that, you know, you were on the list of consideration and then we narrowed it down to the group that we asked and you were graciously available and accepted it. I know several others, including yourself in this group of speakers today. So I'm just so grateful that you're here, a part of it. Hopefully you've enjoyed it so far today and have been able to meet new people, share your story. And I just really appreciate what you're doing. So keep it up. Well, thank you.

[01:11:38] You're crushing it and it's not possible without you. So everybody, you know, check out HR Collaborative. Please come back and give a listen and a like and a comment to Speakeasy HR. Also not getting paid to say that, but I will have to give one of those. There you go. And look at this guy. How about that? Nice. How about that? There's no bourbon in it. That's all right. It's just got the logo. It's a little squeezy barrel. We are going to have bourbon at the happy hour and bourbon tasting.

[01:12:07] So shame on you if you didn't come, if you've been here in the past. Yeah, they might. Oh, they're seeing this. Yeah, it's possible. I guess you could show up late. You know, I guess we'll let you in. You might have to pay a little bit, but get a chance to meet some of the folks like Pete and the other great speakers here. So definitely best of luck to you. And thanks again for being here. And hopefully we'll keep in touch as we will because of the next launch of my book. So exciting to get that all together and be on that journey because everybody that's written books,

[01:12:37] I know Andre's written several and you've written. Written four, published one. Four, published one. And so where can people find you? LinkedIn. Just LinkedIn's the easiest. Yeah. LinkedIn, Pete Schramm. So thanks for stopping by. Thanks, man. I really appreciate it. Always a pleasure. And, you know, we'll have a couple messages from our sponsor and then we will find the next speaker to come by and talk to me. So one second. Finding a new employee takes time and money.

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[01:14:24] So Matt Flynn and I are going to wrap up the morning session and have had some amazing conversations with the speakers. How do you think the event's going so far? Morning keynote was great. My big takeaway was a lot of stuff I like, you know, people basically thinking differently, seeking out tension so you can grow. I'm a big believer in that.

[01:14:48] And I try and get everybody I'm talking to about their payroll and HR software to think more critically about the impact and what they're trying to do with it. And I like if I can get them to think about something they weren't thinking about before. You would argue that's tension, but I don't like to be a yes man salesperson. I think if you're really going to create something that's going to be impactful, you got to you got to think differently and kind of get to a point of tension.

[01:15:14] So I like to see HR people being encouraged to think about their software like that. So got it in the air horn. So it's been a great morning session. We're going to have lunch here soon and then I will be back for an afternoon live episode. So thanks, Matt, for stopping in. Yep. Saying hi. If you're here, stop by the Payroll Partners booth. There's payday candy bars. There's a giveaway for a Hocking Hills. Right. Yes.

[01:15:41] So all you got to do is set up an appointment with Matt and help him learn about your business and what you're looking for as a technology provider. So thanks for stopping by. All right. HR collaborate and listen. Let's go. You like that? How about that? See everybody.