Sep 21, 2021
Don't Leave Your Career To Chance, Develop A Road Map For Success with Randi Roberts
We can't start too early on our own career development. Don't leave it up to your company or your manager or you will more than likely fall behind. Take the lead and seek development on your own for where you want to go as a professional. Be the best you can be for yourself.
About Randi
Randi Roberts, MBA, PCC, is the President of Corlin Roberts Coaching, LLC and founder of the Fulfilling Career, Happy Life community. Randi is an Executive and Career-Life Coach, helping people love their work as they achieve their career goals.
She has seen too many people develop solid career plans, put in tremendous effort over many years at significant sacrifice, then achieve their goal only to find that it may not be as satisfying as they hoped. The work her clients do with Randi allows them to explore new possibilities, assess their framework against who they are and want to be, and find what truly fits.
Before becoming a certified coach, Randi had a very successful 30+ year career as a Pharmaceutical Executive, working for both large companies and a small start-up. She has also founded two of her own businesses. She skillfully combines significant business leadership experience with exceptional coaching skills to help her clients love their work as they achieve their goals.
www.fulfillingcareerhappylife.com
www.thebusinessofbusinesspodcast.com
Full Transcript Below
Don't Leave Your Career To Chance, Develop A Road Map For Success with Randi Roberts
Thu, 9/9 9:53PM • 53:54
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
people, career, clients, sales, important, thought, company, randi, marketing, life, job, feel, assessment, business, big, absolutely, moving, little bit, day, talk
SPEAKERS
Randi, Roy Barker
Roy Barker 00:00
We are the podcast that brings a wide variety of guests to talk about a bunch of diverse topics I want to help make you as a small business solopreneur entrepreneur, help make you successful, maybe bring some things to your attention you haven't thought about and then also provide some, some guidance and some professionals that can help you with things that may be you know that you need to work on a little bit.
So, today, we've got an awesome guest with us. Randi Roberts, she is an MBA PCC is the president of Corlin Roberts Coaching, LLC, and founder of Fulfilling Career, comma Happy Life. I didn't want to run all that together. But Fulfillilng Career Happy Life, Randi as an executive and career life coach, helping people love their work as they achieve their goals. Randi, thanks so much for taking time out of your day to be with us. pleasure to be with you
Thanks for Yeah. So kind of how did you know how have you found yourself in this? I know that you had an executive career in pharmaceuticals, and you've kind of made that transition to coaching. Tell us a little bit about your background and how this came about?
Randi 01:14
Sure, happy to. Yeah, you're right. My first career as I refer to it now was in the pharmaceutical industry, I had pretty much every job in on the commercial side. So sales and marketing, starting as a sales rep working my way up the sales, training, marketing, and then got into beating business units in the US market. And the biggest jobs I had were at the VP level at a big pharma company, always focused on the US market.
But I really loved that the opportunity to bring together sales and marketing, because I think there's a lot of misses between those two functions. So that was my goal. And I got there and loved it. But the interesting thing, it was actually difficult thing for me, but looking back on it pretty meaningful was I have always known that I need to do some good. While I'm doing well, I need to be attached to a mission, and know that my work makes a difference. And that's one of the things that I really loved about pharmaceuticals was that the true the deep knowledge that my work led to positive outcomes for patients, it made a difference in patients lives. And so unfortunately, I was able to do well while I was doing that.
And so it really motivated me in the way that I need. But then after, you know, was 28 years or so, yeah, it felt like I woke up one day, and it just wasn't doing it for me anymore. I had gotten so high up in a big bureaucratic organization that I was very internally focused. A lot of my time most of my time was spent setting the course for my team getting resources within the organization, making sure that we were we were allocating our time appropriately. But it was so much of getting internal alignment between different stakeholders in the company, that I just didn't feel close enough to the patient anymore.
And, and it just didn't feel like home. Yeah. So I thought about, you know, I've worked for all these years to build my skills to build my knowledge and business, I got my MBA all these things. I didn't want to walk away from that. But I knew I needed to do it to use it in a different way. And I had always thought that being an executive coach was going to be my my next career. And I really feel like this is the rate that I'm doing the work I'm meant to be doing at this point in my life.
I'm able to use everything that I've learned in business and in leadership, and sort of pivot on that it's not walking away from it, it's taking a different twist on it, and using it now to helping other people achieve their goals. So again, I feel like I'm doing too good. I have amazing clients. It just, I'm home again. So I know I'm in the right place. Yeah, and that's an important feeling. Because,
Roy Barker 04:15
you know, and I think it's something I learned I went to work, you know, when I was younger at a at a company that everybody stayed for 30 years till they retired. And, you know, I was one of the first that I knew that kind of broke out of that and went and did something different glad I did. But you know, you kind of have to look for that as we go through the cycles and we get put into positions and like you said, if we don't feel like we're doing good as we are, you know, working it makes it difficult.
And so I think kudos to you for being in touch with yourself and being able to make that but you know, I just challenge a lot of other people. It's executive, all the way down to the frontline workers is if you're not in a place where you really feel like you're making a difference, find it because having that passion, you know, it tends to make you get out of bed a lot easier.
Randi 05:08
Oh my gosh, that is so true. And I have that conversation so often my clients. And it's interesting because when I, when I first started, went out to do executive coaching, I thought my focus was going to be helping people get to the C suite or helping people get to the VP level. Because I've been with Big Pharma, I've also been the chief Commercial Officer for small startup, I've had to have my own businesses. So I really thought that's what I was going to help people do get to the next level. And I love that work. And I do, I will always do that work. But what I've learned from my clients over the last couple of years is there is this huge need for people to love their work while they achieve their goals.
And so I had this conversation with people all the time when I developed a career satisfaction assessment that's available on my website. And it really digs into a better or has the people taking the assessment, dig in a little bit to what I identified is eight pillars important for career satisfaction, and one of them is making a difference. Yeah. And one of the things that I found right is, once you sort of experienced that, you know, you might be in a position where everything's going great, and you're working as hard as you could work, but you're energized by it.
And then all of a sudden, it feels like you wake up and you're exhausted by it, and it's no longer filling your tank, right. And once you start digging into what is missing that used to be there, it's it's tough, because once you know something, you can't unknow something. And when you realize that something's missing, you got to go after it. Yeah. And that's the that's the work that I just love to do.
Roy Barker 06:54
Yeah, we had a guy here in town locally that he was a, he was a commodities trader doing very well. I think he had a little health event. And now what he's doing, he's a mirror, your Muriel painter, mural painter, so anyway, but he was they interviewed him and did a nice story on him. And he was just saying that, you know, the money is not anywhere near what I was making, but I'm happy.
And so I think that, you know, it's been a good shift over, I don't know, the last 10 2030 years, we're kind of moving toward people realizing that in order to have real happiness, you have to be fulfilled and have a passion no matter what it is, whether you're working, you know, at a not for profit, or whether you're you know, a chief executive officer, somewhere, everybody gets it different. But you've got to, you got to really do some self evaluation to see where that is for you. If not obtain obtaining the next promotion or the next pay raise or the next stock options.
It's a hollow victory after some point, you just have to, I don't know, it's, but I feel like we see this more and more, I don't know, if you you know, if you're experiencing with the people that you work with that it just seems to be kind of a growing trend.
Randi 08:11
I absolutely see it in the people that I work with. And you know that that's the whole point of my fulfilling career happy life initiative is it is possible. And once you start looking for it, you know, you can't like I said, once you know something, you can't unknow it, once you start that search, you got to keep going with it.
And it's it one of the things that's really interesting is some of my clients will come to me because they're feeling like maybe they want to make a career change, or they might be blocked, you know, between here and the level that they're trying to get to thinking about making a change. And on the surface, it might seem like what we're going to focus on is, hmm, would you know this marketing director job be better for me? Or would I be happier in a sales position, whatever that looks like, but it's amazing how we really spend a lot of time doing some of that inner work to figure out what it is that's going to to satisfy you on those different dimensions of career satisfaction and fulfillment.
Yeah. And it it's amazing to me I'm so in awe of my clients because it doesn't take them that long sometimes to figure out you know, where that sweet spot is for them and for some people that means making some shifts in their in their focus or their balance or whatever right where they are not all of my clients have to make a big change. But some do some leave where they are and make a make a major change but it is so fulfilling to watch them dig into that and find a place it's like that's the fulfillment for me. Yeah, is watching them find it and being a small part of that. It's it's just amazing.
Roy Barker 09:57
Yeah, and I think it's Something that hit me. Okay. Well, when I first started my career, you know, I was with a big a major utility. So my the first day I walked in, I mean, I'm, what 1920 years old, and I bounce into this office and the guy introduces himself tells me his name. And he's got he says, This is no lie. He says, Hi, I'm so and so I've got seven years, four months and 12 days left, till I can retire. And I was like, Oh, my God, like, okay, so I didn't really get it at the time, I was so young, and I didn't get it.
But you know, as I was, I kind of worked through this. It's the golden handcuff rule. And, you know, it's like, trying to stay get that retirement. And so I was at, we had a new EAP person, Employee Assistance Committee, or a C, program, EAP, employee assistance program, we had a new lady that come in for our division. So she had all the managers come in one day, and she's given a talk about this is the only cut, she was new to the company, of course, all of us were lifers, we'd have been there.
You know, that was our a lot of times our first job and we'd been there, you know, anywhere from 15 to 30 years. But she said, this is the only place I've ever worked that when people introduce themselves, they tell you how long they have to retirement. And I'm like, Oh, my God. Amazing mark on the culture. Yeah, and it was like an aha moment for me. But you know, I think that was, the biggest thing for me was that I just allowed myself the permission to change my mind. And it's like, you know, we don't want you start down a path. And it's hard for me, because my parents worked at the same places for 3540 years.
My grandparents, it was very ingrained, but I think that it's okay to give yourself permission to say, you know, what, life changes, you change, companies change everything, the situation changes, it's okay to say, you know, what, I'm really not liking this anymore, I want to pursue something different. And, you know, there used to be some stats on this, that, you know, my generation, we may change jobs two or three times, and then now, like, coming into the 90s, in the 2000s, they were saying that job, workers will not only change careers, but they will change industries, like seven times across, you know, a wide range.
So I think it's good, you know, you the worker can be refreshed and renewed, you know, sometimes I worry about the, the brain drain with moving, you know, we kind of Bath time, you build up a lot of knowledge of the industry in the company, and then you leave, it hurts, you know, it can hurt both of you. But sometimes fresh ideas are good for for everybody as well.
Randi 12:55
I think that's right, I think people need to recharge their batteries in whatever way works for them. And sometimes that is learning new things. Sometimes it's like, I think about, you know, we talk about different careers and things like that, in my own career, I was with three different major pharmaceutical companies, and I had multiple jobs within each.
So some of that is how do you define it? Yeah. But I really encourage people who are, you know, see, maybe five years or so out of college, you know, get some experience, get to three years experience so that you have that track record, you know, how a company works, if you're going to work for a big company, and you have that, you know, people know that you have some longevity, and you have a bit of a track record, but then, you know, be willing to make a change, go find something that's more exciting to you this, you know, while you're building your career, this is your life, right?
And so you should, it is possible to be energized and excited about your work and know that it has meaning. And that's, you know, you should, you should go after it. So, and I think it's easy for people to take bigger risks at both ends of their career. Like in the beginning, when they just, you know, they may not have their expenses may not be as high they can risk take a risk financially, and they have so much room to grow in front of them.
And then, you know, for those of us who have been smart and done well and invested Well, you can also take risks at the other end of your career. Yeah. So yeah, it's just, you know, have faith in yourself, if you know that you're building your skills, and you're focused on something that really adds value. Have faith in yourself.
Roy Barker 14:40
Yeah. And that's important because you know, what I tell younger, younger people is that do things before you have a family because you know, all of a sudden when you have, you know, a wife and a child that depend on you, and, you know, insurance and all of that. It makes the stakes a lot higher to you know, make a change and sometimes We are more tempted to stay in that position. Sometimes where they say, no the devil, no one
The devil is part of an area, something like that, that you know, even though we it's not what we're you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. So you know, we make some decisions out of those places that we normally wouldn't which something else I always found lately is I had a guest that he said he was international sales, and he worked some in Latin America, and he had a chance to take like, six months off, and he went and did some kind of a tour to Africa.
And the advice that he got, and he was probably in his late 20s, early 30s, recounting the story, but he said that, you know, people said, this is the end of your career, you're killing yourself, just so you know, that. And, but he was like, Hey, you know, what I just he had been successful. And he's I just wanted, I just decided I was gonna take a chance. But he said, the interesting thing that when he came back from that, when he started putting in applications, he said that people didn't care about his education, and they didn't care about his former work.
Everybody wanted to talk about his trip. And I think that's an interesting note to make to people is that if you, you have to be strategic and say you can't just doesn't work for everybody all the time. But I think that if you do that strategically, if you can explain that time off, people are a lot more interested in the other stuff that's going on in your life than just your skills. And those are the the other part of that is I think those are good employers, that you probably want to seek out to that they more interested in the whole person.
Randi 16:52
Yeah, I think that's, that's very true. And it's, it's interesting to see, you said a couple of things that were really interesting there, which is this guy, followed his passion to do something that was really enriching to him and his life. And people found that intriguing. Like, if you're going for a job, and you look just on paper, you look just like everybody else, they're gonna go for that thing that's different. They're gonna want to know that about you.
But something else you said, right, you talked about it as the story and I talked to clients about a lot, which is if you have those strategic reasons for why you've made moves, then you don't necessarily have to take the conventional path and go straight from here to there in the way other people do. So it's helpful to think about it upfront, how will you communicate this break in your career or changing from one industry to the other people do find that interesting.
When I was a VP at a pharma company, I would have a lot of people come in to interview with me, and I could see on the resumes, you know, what they had done, I often knew their company, I usually do somebody who knew them, like, you know, there were ways of validating what they were saying. And what I used to ask them to do is talk to me about how they got from place to place, how did they manage their career, because that told me a lot about who they are, and how seriously they took themselves?
You know, were they strategic? How did they apply things about their life? And it just it told me so much more about them than going through what was your accomplishment on this job? And that that's important too. But these other things are what differentiate us?
Roy Barker 18:37
Yeah. And it's so important, you know, I'll step back and say, you know, talk to kids that are still in college about this a lot is you know, for the parent site, you need to make good grades you need to pass need to be able to get out in a decent amount. You know, like a you know, my sister I think she's you got to get off the payroll.
Yeah. Looks like a you know, we always joke about my sister she went to a major university here in the state has like the, you know, the president of the university I think he called my mom and said, She's taking everything in the catalog. We're gonna have to you know, give her a gold retirement ring and she's gonna move on. She is a professional student for a long time.
But anyway, is that while the grades are important, and she's got stories to tell about you Oh my god, yeah, yeah, that's why I don't have her on for a guest I can protect myself. But is that you need to get out and have those other experiences besides just the college and that's what you know, really sets you apart from everybody else is the the volunteer work that you may have done or the clubs and things like that the extracurriculars.
So it's very important to be well rounded. Sometimes we get so focused on Well, we just want this resume that if if it's a really forward thinking employer, they're going to want to look way beyond that and see, you know, how does all this tie together? in how you can, you know, bring some life and help this company out? It's important.
Randi 20:05
Yeah, absolutely. It's important. And it's important on a couple of levels. It's important in terms of making yourself most attractive and most marketable, but it's also this is your life, do things that you love, right? You know, we can't love everything we do. But we should love at least someone. And you know, there, you can choose activities. For example, there are people who are very passionate about sports, maybe competitive sports.
When I was in sales, I used to love to hire competitive athletes, because they had such tenacity, and they knew how to work through difficult times and things like that. There are absolutely ways to take things that you're passionate about, and make them relevant to whatever job whatever company you're pursuing. So endure gonna love what you're doing. Yeah, exactly. Okay.
Roy Barker 20:58
Yeah. One thing I'm gonna talk about for a minute, that's really not coaching related, but something you said in the very beginning that I don't hear enough, but the the marketing and sales working together is such an important aspect, because they've got in order to enrich our sales, we have to have good marketing. And then I think in order to have good marketing, we have to have good feedback from sales.
And, you know, we, I was on an episode The other day, and we were talking that there was a wall, you know, the sales and marketing were operating in silos. And, you know, they were just saying that marketing was doing all these great campaigns. But the people that were talking to the sales people were not their customers. And we it's an out, it's, it's kind of an extreme case, but the one that I use that I said, well, it's kind of like, if you sell an adult beverage, and marketing is doing an awesome job, they just drove 1000 people over to the sales department, but they all happen to be 12 year olds, not that, you know, it's not the traffic that you're looking for.
And so that is where I just feel, you know, when when it gets too big, where they silo them, and there becomes less communication between the two, I think it is so detrimental to both sides of the equation. Now. I do have to say, as in sales, you know, sometimes we we whine and cry that if you sent me 10 good people, I will say you sent me, you know, you sent me nine good people out of 10. I'll be like, well, you sent you know, this one guy, you know, we kind of seize on that outlier, that he might have said it may be a little tougher to close. So I think it needs to be good, honest feedback. We all have to hold up our end of the bargain. But just let's touch on that for a minute. Before we get back on the on the coaching.
Randi 22:51
Yeah, absolutely. Now, it's something that I feel strongly about. Because I've spent during my time in pharmaceuticals, I spent almost the same amount of time over in the sales side is in the marketing side. And I did see huge waste, it's it's almost like the relay race where you're passing the baton from one render to the next. And that's where it gets dropped is between sales and marketing very often. And I tend to think that, from a marketing perspective, my mantra for my teams always was, let's do fewer things and do them better.
Because sometimes it can be we're doing all of these things. And you know, that that actually can work against you, because sales may not be able to implement it all in that way. Marketing has got to do an excellent job of listening to sales, but also showing the way in terms of, you know, what's, what's the research that's been done? What's the rationale behind certain things and giving enough of an explanation, so that what they're recommending and resourcing makes sense to the sales team?
Yeah. So it, I think, in the end, if you can dial the listening way up and align objectives, you know, on the on the part that's on the part of the senior management of the company, if the objectives are aligned, really create that win win. Yeah, it's, it's an awful lot easier.
Roy Barker 24:16
Yeah. Yeah, we all thought, Yeah, I just think we all have to remember, at the end of the day, we're all on the same team, because all of a sudden, you know, I see these rifts between them where it's like, you know, marketing is a competitive entity, not competing for dollars. But, you know, for, I guess for the win, it's like, well, we've done everything and then sales is like Yeah, but I had to have four conversations with that guy before I could close you know, a, we want sales wants you to send them the one close.
For all they do is like, like, you know, they just faxed over the paperwork and it was done. So you know, I do get that but I just feel like it's this is in relationships, it's in work. It's within departments. It's what even people within department It's the communication, we just have to have rational communication, rational and realistic communication between the two groups in order to make them both function at the highest possible level, there's just no way around it. And like I said, it's unfortunate, because you see, you know, when a company's small, you know, they got one guy, they're doing sales and marketing.
And then once this grows, all of a sudden, they just, it seems like they drift apart. So I think it's important to really think that process through of how, how you can structure where they're not like at each other, but they are working with each other. Yeah,
Randi 25:39
yeah, absolutely. I think it's really critical, because there's a lot of wasted energy and missed opportunities in that regard. So it's it. If it was easy, it would be it would be a problem that had been solved. And I've been, you know, in pharmaceuticals. And while I'm not in pharmaceuticals anymore, I do have a lot of clients that are in pharma and other sales and or marketing in other industries. And yeah, that problem continues.
Roy Barker 26:06
Yeah. Well, so let's get back to the coach. And for just a minute, what are what are you seeing right now with your, with your client, your current clients, your new clients? Because, you know, I feel like we've had this thing where people, maybe they've had to go in business for themselves, or they've had to increase the side hustle in order just to put groceries on the table, there's been so many layoffs and turmoil out there that some respects, I feel like people are having maybe kind of come up against the point to make a decision. Do I continue on this road as an entrepreneur? Or do I, you know, go ahead and take this job offer? Is any of that manifested itself already?
Randi 26:52
Yeah, it definitely is. And I mean, that's a huge question. You know, for someone who has a career like mine, where I was with big companies for so many years, and now run my own coaching business and entrepreneurial position.
27:07
You
Randi 27:09
You see the, when you're out on your own, the risk is much greater. And it's all on you. So there are times when it's very tempting to go back to do a job. And there are times when that's absolutely the right thing to do. Yeah, I think what it comes down to is really knowing, knowing yourself, knowing your priorities, knowing the realities for you, like you mentioned earlier, there are times when, you know, before you have kids, you can do certain things.
And, you know, right now just take a look at what are the realities of your situation, what is the what are your obligations, right? And, and then you make the decision that's right for you right now. And if your dream is to be an entrepreneur, and you also have to go back, if the right choice for you, is to go back to something that's a little safer. For now, that doesn't mean that has to be forever, right? If you're really clear on what the motivation is for you. At that time, you could sort of plan ahead. Yeah, a lot of my clients will do things like, you know, this is the right thing for me to do for this three to five year period.
But some of the work that I do with my clients, right is about and these, these are folks that, you know, maybe they're in their 30s and 40s. We'll talk about what do they want their ideal retirement to be right? And then sort of work back from there of, you know, what do I need to be doing today? To set me up for what I want that to look like, in 20 years? Right. And so, you know, it's bringing that kind of strategic thinking to your own life and to your own career. Yeah, and
Roy Barker 28:47
it's something that I would talk about, because, you know, early in my career, like I said, I went to work for a big company, I thought that was, you know, I was following my mom's footsteps, she worked at the same company, then it's like, you know, you just kind of go there, and you show up every day. And then you wake up at one point, and it's like, you were so kind of hung up in your job and your life, you really didn't think about the career, the path, where do we need to go? What do we need to do?
So, you know, I just challenge everybody, whether you're an entrepreneur, whether you work for a big company, is to really think about taking control of your future as much as you can, you know, having said that control is an illusion, because nobody would have thought there would have been a thing called COVID. You know, back in 2000, that team so there are things that we don't control. But I don't think we can map out a plan where we at least have a little bit of direction that we're going to be working on.
Randi 29:44
Yeah, yeah, I think you're exactly right. And look, this year has been a huge learning opportunity on every level. You know, there's just, there was so much that was out of our control this last year, but things are starting to come back. I mean, if you look at bay From where we are right now, more than 50% of the US adult population is vaccinated, I'm starting to see the world starting to spin again, a lot of my clients weren't directly impacted because they have the kinds of jobs that they could do remotely.
But now we're in a position where people are beginning to plan for transitioning back to being in an office, at least some of the time. And so the dynamics are really shifting in that regard. And one of the things that I have found so interesting, an impact of the last year is, people really are thinking, thinking about what is best for them thinking about what's most fulfilling in their lives.
And a lot of that is the life and death situations that many of us, you know, saw people close to us, or at least people you know, in our community space. saw a lot of things happen out of our control with jobs going away, or things change, if it makes you think it makes you want to follow that path, it is more fulfilling, as well as setups and contingencies for yourself. Yeah. So I think we all sort of have, you know, if you know what motivates you, and you know, you sort of have that North Star for yourself. Yeah.
And for a lot of people it is knowing that their work makes a difference. That kind of gives you a bit of guidance. But that doesn't mean that it's a direct path between here and there. Sometimes you have to take a few twists and turns along the way.
Roy Barker 31:33
Yeah. And you know, you mentioned that, what have you seen? Oh, no, I was just gonna say you mentioned that the, you know, that life and death thing, and I think it's important, I guess me, you know, I'm older. So you think about these things more. But think about, even though we want to make a plan, and we want to look at the future, we have to really be happy, or try to be happy now.
Or as soon as we can, if we're not weak, because we can't, we got to just be careful about giving our life away, you know, saying I'll trade the next five years, and then this is going to have been and then I'll be in a better place. Because the unfortunate part is sometimes that five years never comes. And it's, you know, it's devastating to talk about, but I just, the older I get, the more I look at every day is just a gift. It's not only a gift to wake up, but it's a gift to be functioning because, you know, you see people hurt in accidents, like we had this, I guess it was back in February, before we had the big ice storm, we had this crazy, this craziest accident on one of our freeways that you can imagine.
I mean, it was like a 60 or 70 car pileup. There were 18 wheelers that were jumping over cars and crushing them, it was devastating. And I think there were about six or eight people that lost their life in that, and a few others that were permanently crippled. So anyway, it's just you just never know, the trip to work, the trip home, things can happen. And so, you know, I just, I feel we have to balance with the planning for the future. But also, you know, let's make sure that we're trying to get some of that happiness in our life fulfilling today as well. So it's hard. It's not, there's not easy, not easy, for sure. But
Randi 33:21
now, it's interesting, because that's exactly the conversation I have with a lot of clients. And if they're with big companies, there might be really well established career paths. They pick where they want to go, and you know what steps to get there. And they may be told, okay, for the next two years, you need to get this kind of experience in order to do that may be great advice. But that's two years of your life that's going on while you're doing what you're told to do. So it's a bigger decision than just trying to get from here to there. Yeah. So but it's, it's what makes it interesting.
Roy Barker 33:58
Yeah, we were. And that's, that was part of the catalyst, not only the the EAP manager, when she was talking about that, she just said, You know what, we're free to go do whatever that and then the next thing was, we, we were doing a lot of mergers and acquisitions at this time. And so what they were asking where they were asking us, well, you, you know, we need you to go to this new acquisition, typically across the country for two years.
And then, you know, we'll bring you back. Well, luckily, I was there at the right time, where I saw some people that they sent away, but they never came back. So, you know, that was, that was a thing for me to be like, you know, it's just not worth taking the chance. I had some other options that came up. And so I was, it was a blessing for me. You know, I think it was great. I worked around a lot of good people learn a lot of good things as a young person, but you know, it was time for me to, to move on.
So anyway, so but one thing you mentioned too, was remote work. So let me ask you this, and get I'll get your opinion, but also, you know, some of the people that you work with is, is there going to be resistance telling people that we need you to show back up at the office? Again?
Randi 35:12
I think it's a mixed bag. Absolutely, there are people that have absolutely thrived on it. And there are people for whom it's been really difficult. I mean, I've run my own business out of my home office. So for me, not a lot changed. But for a lot of folks that were used to doing face to face work that might have been used to a lot of business travel, to all of a sudden spend all of their time on a screen was a really tough transition.
And one of the things that I found really suffered during this time was networking. Yes, because that's the kind of thing like if you're, if you're at a meeting, sometimes it's the time going into the meeting room. And when the meetings breaking up, and you get a little chat with, you know, senior leadership or that kind of thing. All of that went away. And so my clients that are in those senior positions we would work on, what could they do to make sure that people stayed engaged and didn't miss a beat? Yeah. So some of that, I think people, some people have adapted, I think there are a lot of people that are really looking forward to the opportunity to go back to actually being with others.
I don't think that will ever go back to the way it was, in terms of people being in an office five days a week, I think there's going to be a lot more flexibility, which is great. Because there's a lot of jobs that can be done there. I mean, many companies did not lose a beat. And in fact, their bottom lines may have improved because they had so much less travel expenses, for example, right? So there's a lot of companies that have figured out how they can do it without expensive office space, or at least without so much of it.
Because people if they go into the office, maybe it'll be a day or two a week. Yeah. I think there'll be, I don't see, us going back to the kind of business travel that used to happen before. I think you know that people are going to be a lot more open minded. And from a company's perspective, you save money moving people around, you open up your opportunities in terms of your talent base. I mean, similar to the way I work, I have always seen my clients either on the phone or on zoom.
And so I'm not limited geographically, I happen to live in New Jersey, I'm not limited geographically to people who I can drive and meet with, right. And I think there's a lot of companies that are recognizing their talent pool doesn't have to be located in one place. Yeah. So it's, it's gonna be exciting to see how we carve this new normal out, but it is not going to look the way it did before. You know, in in 2019, for example,
Roy Barker 37:48
yeah, I'm like you, I think it opens that talent base up that, you know, we finally learned that we don't all have to be in the same city, which is a good thing. And then the travel. And as much as I love to travel, you know, it does, I think it just gets it's gotten to where it, it was wearing me out. And so I'm loving this, because, you know, I can talk to four or five people in a day that it used to take me a lot longer to get there now that you know, it's an in person, relationship building, and just, you know, the feel you get of being in the same room. That can be a challenge to try to overcome that. But I feel like there's ways to work around that. But
Randi 38:31
yeah, but I think, you know, one, one thing that really works is if you can do the face to face, initially, when you're getting to know each other. And then once you do know each other, the more remote engagement, if it's on the phone, or more likely on a screen is entirely different, because you already know each other. Exactly.
Roy Barker 38:51
Yeah, the well, I lost my thought there. But anyway, well go. I wish you had brought up earlier that there are eight pillars that you look at for is it for career success. Did you say that?
Randi 39:07
Well, it's something that I've essentially learned from my clients, I identified eight pillars of career satisfactory. And that's the assessment that's available on my website that people get.
Roy Barker 39:17
Okay. Okay. Can you just hit the high points for those? Are those eight for Shrek quick?
Randi 39:23
Yeah, absolutely. Um, you know, there, there's no real surprises. I mean, we've talked a bit about making a difference is one of them. And that looks different to different people that might be making a difference in the lives of others, making a difference, knowing that they're making a difference for their company.
So in some way, knowing that what they do matters. A lot of times, the connections are really important. People may not think of this one, but the connections that they have with others, it might be with customers it might be with peers, it might be with senior leadership depend On this situation, but those kinds of connections, I mean, for any of us who have left companies, left industries, the people, it's the people you take with you, yes.
And those connections are really important. That's, that's how you, you know, networking is everything these days, right. And so those connections that you take with you the difference that you make to others, and that, you know, the help that you give to others, and what you get back from them, those things are really, really important. And one of the things that a lot of people don't think about in terms of these pillars of satisfaction, one of them is fun. Yeah, and that's a consistent theme among my, among my clients.
And really, kind of the way, the way I think about that, is it? Look, we all work hard. Yeah. Right. Is that work? Is that experience filling your tank are draining your tank? Right? And that's if you're no matter how hard you're working? I mean, there have been weeks when I remember working so hard. It was it. I just didn't think I had any more to give. And I still had energy at the end of the week. Yeah. And, and that's fun. Yeah, that's, that's what that is. That's fun. And that, that makes a big difference between, you know, situations that are really fulfilling and ones that aren't. Yeah, there's a couple of examples for you.
Roy Barker 41:24
Yeah, yeah. And I'm just gonna stop the kind of interrupt you there for a minute. Because I find this interesting, like, if me, and you were coming, coming on to a business zoom meeting, before just me saying, Okay, I need you to go to the tab for spreadsheet. Number four, we're gonna go over these numbers, I like to have that personal, you know, how was your weekend, how's your weekend going?
You know, if I know that you have kids, you know, Java baseball game this week, having that the interaction because what I've noticed in some groups, and I don't know if this is age related, or more, if it's company culture, I haven't really put my finger on it yet. But there's just no personal interaction. And I've, I've always found, especially when I had people working for me, I need to know who they are, you know, you kind of have to get the feel how they do and to stay up with them. But I just find it. You know, trying to interject a little bit of comedy, a little humor in with all these zoom meetings, and I find that some people are just like, it's it's foreign. It's a foreign concept. But I think we've got to do that. We've got to humanize it. Yeah.
Randi 42:38
Yeah, I have seen that as well. And I think, you know, it can be tricky. Because humor can be risky, and asking people about their personal lives. Like, I would accept that in the way we were just talking about it, you know, you care about me, and you want to know about me, and you want to make that connection. There are people that aren't comfortable talking about it, or whatever. So it's a sensitive line.
And you have to, I think, what you do is you create the invitation, and if people want to step in, they can Yeah, but make it okay, that they don't have to, you know, if they're not comfortable with it, but yeah, I think, you know, that kind of thing makes a big difference. And, you know, one of the things that I find people talk about work life balance, right. So, and those lines are blurred more than ever now. Because we're all working where we live, right? I don't think of it as work life balance. Like I like that concept. I don't really like the term.
Yeah. Because it's, it's not working in your life. It's all your life. Right. And so I agree with you, I find it really motivating and most people that I've worked with do as well to be able to bring some of themselves into their work and not have to feel like it's one or the other. No, it's it's your life. Right. Right. So Bravo to you for making that happen.
Roy Barker 43:55
Yeah, it just, you know, like, even emails, instead of just, hey, I need this. It's like, you know, just I try to take the time to say, Hey, I hope your day is going good Hope you're having a good week or trying to bring up something if we talked about something not too long ago. Just bring it up just to kind of, to humanize it, take it take a little bit of an effort to do that. Because I think it builds relationships, when, when people know that you really care about them, they are willing to do more for you. It's just I don't know it just to me, it makes the world go round.
And that was the way I was brought up. Yeah, you know, and I learned this. It's funny how I learned at an early age, I had a good friend of mine, and we had both just gotten married, but we still played golf and fished and did you know, stuff together? And he told me one time we were out doing some things like you know, whenever you call the house, I can't think of her name. But he said, you know, instead of just asking for me, maybe you just asked her how it's going with her. She just felt very excluded from the relationship.
Yeah. Yeah, and so anyway, after that, I was like, You know what, that that's a good policy for really everything is to, you know, just kind of have that conversation and she was good, you know, hey, how's your day going? How are the kids? You know, What are y'all doing with this or that? And so, anyway, I've kind of carried that message with me for a long time. Because, you know, people, we need to make people feel important, not like they're just, you know, just another tool that we're trying to use to get something out of them.
Randi 45:27
Yeah, absolutely. And the beauty of it is, if you genuinely care about them, you're sincerely expressing that. Yeah. You know, one of the things that's interesting now, in thinking about your example of your friend, you, you don't have that opportunity. Now, if you call your friend you're calling on their cell phone, nobody else has never thought about you never. I heard that my daughter's 25. She and her friends were talking, they don't know what it's like to pick up a call that's intended for somebody else.
Roy Barker 45:55
I never thought, you know, I just gave away my age didn't know, I gave away what time frame that happened in?
Randi 46:03
Yeah, no, but I can relate to it just, you know, when you have those moments, and you think about it, it makes it even more important now to make that effort to include others. And like, it was obvious that your friend, his wife, and her involvement in this friendship was really important to him. Yeah. And so you making that effort makes the difference.
It's, you know, what it is, it's knowing for the people that are in our lives, and that are important to us, whether it's our friends, or our co workers, know what's important to them, right? And show interest in that. Yeah. And, you know, it's, it's about being human and bringing your heart to what you do. And there's hopefully that's not a big effort for people.
Roy Barker 46:44
Yeah. And there's something I heard the other day, you know, people used to always say, live by the golden rule, do unto others as you want them to do under you, but somebody brought up and I call it the Platinum rule, it's like, Do unto others the way they want to be done, you know, just because I like something or want this, that doesn't mean everybody that surrounds me. So we need to be in tune enough to try to source that. What is that? You know, what do people want? Around Us? Um, yeah,
Randi 47:13
it's a great point. And the thing, too, is we can't expect others to read our minds. Yeah. So sometimes just like in a, in a personal relationship, in a professional relationship, it's okay to, to make a request or to make a suggestion or that kind of thing, if there's something that you need that you're not getting. Yeah. You know, and you're not going to have that fit with everybody. But there may be some things you can do to try and improve that a little bit.
Roy Barker 47:39
Yeah, I know, we're, we're in way long. I've just got one more question maybe we could just touch on briefly, is the importance of doing more assessment test on ourselves. Who are we? What do we want out of this? Because I'm one of these that I like the analytics, I love spreadsheets and numbers and gathering data. But I also like a little bit of that human interaction, the selling, I like to, you know, try to figure out marketing and things like that.
But there are some that, you know, they either love spreadsheets, and they don't care if they ever had to talk to another human individual that would suit them fine. There's other people that if they never have to see a spreadsheet, again, their life, they would be immensely happy, they want to just talk to people. So kind of tell us a little bit about the importance of figuring out who we are and what we really need.
Randi 48:30
I think it's hugely important. It's, it's really, you know, there was a time when I thought coaching was about helping people develop specific skills, and that's part of it, absolutely. But really, where the need is, is knowing ourselves a little bit better, and understanding where that fit is in creating it. So, for example, you know, some of the assessments that you're talking about, you know, kind of can split you up into introverted or extroverted, those kinds of things.
Some of the tools that I use with my clients Now, something that I do with almost every client at this point is about us assessment. So that you can take, you know, stop and take inventory of what are the things that are most important to you right now. And that changes throughout our lives, like our core values may not change tremendously, but how they show up and what we need at different times in our lives kind of gets dialed up and down.
Yeah. And so I'll even do a values assessment of clients. I had a client recently that I worked with for for four years. Now. We did it again, to see what may have changed in that interim because we change and so it's valuable to to sort of stop and take a look at that. So I'm a big believer in assessments and a lot of different levels. And that's why I have that career satisfaction assessment that I developed, it's less quantitative.
It's really more of a starting point for people to think about what may be missing or what opportunities there may have. And and for anyone who's interested in that they can find it on my website. Which is Randi Roberts R a n d i Roberts comm under the resources section, so right, if you check it out yourself, let me know what you think.
Roy Barker 50:08
Yeah, I definitely will. Randi, thanks so much for giving me so much time. I do appreciate it. Before we get away, what is a tool or a habit? What is something that you use in your daily life that you feel adds a lot of value?
Randi 50:25
Yeah, that's a great question. I think I have a couple of sort of guiding principles, and one that I think of as a tool that really, really does help me is when, when I start to get when my stress level starts to go up about anything, and look running my own business, there's a lot of things, it's all on me. So there's a lot of balls that I need to keep moving, in order to continue to be successful. And so when something starts to get stressful, or I find myself getting wrapped up in, you know, around the axle on something, I really do, stop and ask myself, is this something that I can control?
Or is this something that I can influence? And if so, then figure out what that action is, and taking an action and moving in some way can really break that stress? But if the answer is no, no, it's not in my control, there's nothing I can influence about it, I really do let it go. Because all that's gonna do is create more Nxd for me, and hold me in place where if I could release that, I really can move forward in a way that that's more productive. So it didn't happen overnight. But I've gotten pretty good at it. That's good.
Roy Barker 51:37
Yeah, no, that's definitely something that, you know, we can spend a lot of time and energy fussing over things that we've got no control over. And that just going the way they're gonna go. So good advice. Good advice. All right, Ryan, I know you just said your website. But tell us again, kind of Yeah, who is your client? Who do you like to work with? How can you help them? And then of course, give us your website how to reach you one more time?
52:01
Absolutely, I'm happy to. So I have two pieces of business, I do the executive coaching of folks who feel that they have an area of skill development in order to move forward love doing that work. But I also do a lot of work with people who maybe are mid career, who are feeling less motivated for their work than they did, something's missing that they used to have, or they feel that there's an opportunity for them to be enjoying it more.
And so we really do dig into what's missing. That's where that career satisfaction assessment started. So and I am happy to offer a complimentary session where I can meet with someone who thinks they may be the right client for me, and we can talk about our backgrounds and see if there's a fit and see where we go from there. And there's no obligation beyond that. Okay, so if people want to reach me, it's through my website, Randi Roberts.com there's a section you can contact me, or you can send me an email directly at Randi R A N D I @fulfillingcareerhappylife.com.
Roy Barker 53:02
Okay, yeah. And I'll be sure to put all that in the show notes as well. Randi, thanks again for your time. It's been a pleasure speaking with you a lot of great information, y'all reach out, see how Randi can help you in your career. And, you know, even if you think you're doing good, at least reach out maybe you want to, you know, kind of plan a little bit for the future never hurts to you know, always be thinking a little bit ahead as well. It's an investment in ourselves.
Exactly. Alright, that's gonna do it for another episode of The Business of Business Podcast. You can find us of course at www.thebusinessofbusinesspodcast.com. We are on all the major social media platforms as well as all the podcast platforms, iTunes, Stitcher, Google Spotify. If we're not on one that you listen to please reach out I'd be glad to add. Alright, until next time, take care of yourself and take care of your business.