Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Brenda Johnson.
CEO of Collaborative Training Company (CTC)
🧩 Main Topics Covered 🏢 What CTC Does
- CTC is a professional services consulting firm focused on workforce development.
- They help companies:
- Upskill employees for career advancement.
- Support new hires, especially those without traditional corporate experience.
- Define what “fit” means in their organization and help new hires acclimate.
👥 Not a Staffing Firm
- CTC does not do individual job placement or talent coaching.
- They work with companies after hiring to ensure employee success and retention.
- They partner with organizations that provide individual coaching.
🧠 Bridging the Corporate Culture Gap
- CTC helps new hires from non-corporate backgrounds (e.g., warehouse, retail) adjust to corporate environments.
- They use mentorship programs and employee resource groups to support retention.
🤖 AI and the Future of Work
- Brenda sees AI as a tool, not a replacement for human creativity.
- She emphasizes the importance of adding a personal touch to AI-generated work.
- AI may replace some jobs, but it also creates new roles in programming, maintenance, and oversight.
🎓 Rethinking the Four-Year Degree
- Many companies are removing degree requirements to widen their talent pool.
- Brenda helps companies:
- Reevaluate outdated job descriptions.
- Focus on skills-based hiring.
- Identify core competencies rather than relying on degrees.
🌍 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)
- Brenda challenges the narrow view of DEI as only race and gender.
- She expands the definition to include:
- Neurodiversity (e.g., autism)
- Generational diversity
- Accessibility needs
- LGBTQ+ inclusion
- She stresses that companies that embrace true diversity will thrive, while those clinging to outdated models may struggle.
💡 Key Takeaways
- Mentorship and support are critical for retention and success.
- AI is a complement, not a replacement, for human insight.
- Skills-based hiring is the future—degrees are not always necessary.
- True diversity is broad and essential for business success.
- Systemic change requires questioning legacy practices and recruiting strategies.
🔗 Contact Info
- Website: ctcdui.com
- LinkedIn: Collaborative Training Company
#SHMS #STRAW #BEST #AMI
Support the show: https://www.steveharveyfm.com/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
I am Rashan McDonald, a host of weekly Money Making
Conversation Masterclass show. The interviews and information that this show
provides are for everyone. It's time to stop reading other
people's success stories and start living your own. If you
want to be a guest on my show, please visit
our website, Moneymakingconversations dot com and click to be a
guest button Chris submit and information will come directly to me.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Now, let's get this show started. I guess it's on hold.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
She is the CEO of the Collaborative Training Company at CTC,
an at Atlanta based management and professional services consulting firm
founded in twenty eighteen. The Collaborative Training Company is a
professional services consulting firm. They support human resources business units
by designing and delivering customized workshops that increase employee retention,
(00:53):
which is very important.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Please welcome to the Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Brenda Johnson.
How you doing, Brenda? I'm good, respond so file you
on your show.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Tell everybody I know I read it in the intro,
but tell everybody in layman terms, what exactly does your
company does? Collaborative Training Company.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
For sure, and thank you for the opportunity to be
on the show. So we work in the space of
kind of what we call workforce development, which is generally
connecting talent to jobs, jobs that are sustaining, that have
a career pathway that like you could actually support your
family with these jobs. What I do a piece of
it is learning and development professional development, So I work
(01:35):
with companies and nonprofit organizations to make sure that their
talent is upskilled enough not only to perform well in
their current role, but what's that next step. Right, you've
got an engineer, they're doing great, but when we want
to transition them to manager, that's a different skill set
than maybe this technical skill that you have. So we
do a little bit of that. We do post hire support.
(01:58):
Companies are moving into what we call the skills based hiring,
which means a lot of companies have taken a lot
of time and consideration to remove some of the four
year degree requirements so that they can get this labor
pipeline that they need. Often, when you remove the four
year degree requirement, you may have really skill talent that
are coming from places where they've never worked in a
(02:20):
corporate environment. So we will come into the company and
say with this cohort of skill talents, your princesses. We'll
do an extra week of onboarding to help them understand
some of those professional behavioral norms that might be new
to them, help them acclimate to the culture. This fit,
this word fit all. We love them, they have the
(02:41):
right skills, but we don't know that they will fit.
So we help companies unpack what does that fit mean?
Does that mean you're a fast paced company and you
need people to hit the ground running. Does that mean
you know you assign people to mentors? What is that fit?
So we help companies define what is this ideal employee
that you're looking for and then connect these talent sources
(03:02):
to that.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Well, now let me ask you this, So can someone
come to you as an individual? Sir ruseean mcgaughll. That's
me and you know, and I want to get a job?
Do I come to you? Or how does that work?
Speaker 1 (03:14):
That's more of what we call a talent coach. And
I get so much of that in my LinkedIn inbox,
because if you follow me on LinkedIn, you'll see that
I'm always kind of amplifying opportunities for your career talent
how to get it? These jobs so I do not
do individual talent coaching, but I am a collaborative partner
of many organizations who do exactly that. So with the
(03:35):
workforce development ecosystem, we've got to partner, right. You need
talent coaches, you need people that are working with the
companies on that side. You need your community colleges, your
high school programs. We've all got to work together to
make sure that this talent is a strong candidate when
that job opportunity comes. So I do not do individual
talent coaching.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Now that's not you know.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Now with that being said, now, how do you identify
and nurture the unique talent of job seekers who may
not fit the traditional corporate mode? Right now, that's why
I'm trying to confuse educate me. I understand what you're doing,
but you're saying, Rashan, we place, we help people adjust.
(04:16):
We talking about the corporate side. The people do the
hiring side. All you talk about because you don't do
the individual coaching right.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Correct, Right, So when you work with the larger companies
than many of the smaller ones, they already have talent acquisitions,
they've got recruiters, they've got campus recruits, they've got that
expertise and so I am not a staffing firm. We
do not do that work. So we let them do
that methodology that they have to find the talent, and
then we come in after they found the talent to
(04:45):
get them more ready for success. I don't know if
you've ever had a job that on day one, when
you got to that job, you're like, this is an it.
I don't think I'm a good fit. I hate it here.
You see that in the first two weeks. There are
reasons that that might happen. That just mean anytime we're
placing an environment I'm familiar to us, it can be uncomfortable.
(05:07):
You can have this imposter syndrome that they talk about
so many of the people. If you place someone that's
come from a Walmart or Amazon, warehouse fast and Retail
and you put them at a job at at and T,
it may feel massively uncomfortable. To an extent, They'll go
back to that warehouse job right because they feel comfortable,
I feel. So we let the companies do their own
(05:29):
hiring or work with their staffing agencies that they already have.
We really lean into that cohort that you just hired.
We want to get them a one to one mentor
in that company that has that shared lived experience. So
if I get ra Sean McDonald a job at IBM
and he's young, early career, hasn't been in corporate, let
men look for an older black male because he'll have
(05:52):
that lived experience at IBM. This is what I've experienced.
These are some things I can help Reshan navigate, and
we use those employees resource groups a lot to tap
one to one mentor for this time that's coming in
to help them retain at that company.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Wow, I'm talking to Brenda Johnson. She's a CEO Collaborative
Training Company CTC. It's a professional services consulting firm provides
professional development and career readiness training for companies who are
bringing people in and making helping them to adjust. Now,
I gotta say the magical world that's just been dominating
everybody AI artificial intelligence, A robot's gonna take my job.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
A robot's gonna take my job.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Let me know, Brenda, because I gotta find that right now,
help me out hip out everybody, because that's the big fear.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
That's the big fear.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
I won't say robots, Let's say machine learning. I would
say there are already jobs that have been replaced by
AI components personally, and this is the Brenda Johnson perspective.
Humans are uniquely designed to be creative and innovation. If so,
what machine learning can do is only create an outcome
(07:04):
based on existing information, existing data. We can feed it
one hundred jobs, right, and from the hundred it can
create something, But it can't do that uniquely human thing
that we do, which is create something for nothing. Have
a really innovative idea. So what I tell you know,
all the young professionals, they're going to check GPT to
try to do their jobs right. And I say, if
(07:26):
you don't take that output and put your personal fingerprint
on that, it's garbage. Because you have lived experience, you
have expertise, you have the ability to make it your own.
So I'm a fan of AI in efficiency, increasing productivity.
You can do research a lot quicker with a I,
(07:46):
but you take that output, and for me, that's my
starting point. So there are are absolutely jobs that will
be automated, but there are many more jobs that will
not be automated, or somebody still has to tell the
robots what to do, right. But I got to I
won't know. Don't kill the technology. They're extensive. There was
a fast food chain that piloted like AI taking your
(08:11):
order at the order board of incorrect orders was so
high they had to kill that. Self driving cars. I
spent a year and a half out in the Bay Area.
You saw the self driving cars being tested. The County
Commission had a meeting the fire departments. The police department
showed up and said, listen, these things short out and stopped.
(08:32):
Just like a computer computer freezes up, self driving driving
cars freeze up, and often they're freezing up in front
of the fire station, so the fire truck can't get out.
None of us can move it. We can't program it.
But there's a lot to be desired in the technology.
It's not there yet, and if the companies will do
the diligence of piloting, many of these replacements of humans
(08:55):
won't work. It's what you see at a big chain.
Oh we want you to scan your own stuff. We
don't want you to scan your own stuff. It's that
back and forth. So I think the business case has
to be there. But if there's a dropping quality of outcomes,
some of that AI stuff is going to load right
back to humans.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
So there are situations that are coming along. But you're saying, Rashaan,
that is one job option, but there is another job
option that's going to repair that that vehicle, that's going
to a program that vehicle if it goes wacky, if
it's going to be able to You have to see that.
There are other opportunities that don't require four year degrees
(09:37):
that you can train people are trained them up. Once
these corporations bring you on board, and that's your job
as far as CTC correct correct.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
I think historically in America, the four year degree requirement
was an artificial barrier for certain people not to be
able to get certain jobs. Right now that we have
more Americans opting out of the four year degree, there
will be a labor shortage. If eighty percent of the
jobs in your applicant tracking system require degree, those jobs
will sit and you'll see it, Well, y'all have this
(10:09):
job poster for nine months, no one's getting the job.
So they've got to think differently and say, instead of
this piece of paper, let's revisit the job description. Right,
this job description has been in our system ten years.
Technology has changed, our processes have changed, but we really
didn't take the time to sit down and rewrite the
job description. So instead, I'll sit with someone and say,
(10:31):
give me three adjectives for someone who is a star
in this role. Give me three adjectives for someone you
would never hire for this role. I'll learn more about
what you need from that job than this two page
job requisition that hasn't been changed. The hiring manager doesn't
have time to do it. Talent acquisition doesn't write the
job description. Often the companies do not have a person
(10:53):
on staff responsible for even who makes the decision to
take the for your degree away? What's that process like?
So it can be a long journey to just say,
let's think about some of the jobs that don't need
the for your degree and instead let's focus on five
to seven skills of someone who excels in the job
sales job pharmaceutical sales. That's an interesting conversation. I asked.
(11:16):
That's a well paying job. Do you really need a
college degree for that? Tell me why you need a
college degree for that?
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Now, Wow, we're going to go to break before I
want to ask the question the simmer on your side
of the conversation. When I come back, can you share
an example, when we come back for a break of
how you have successfully helped the company diversifies talent pipeline
while improving business performance. That's a question I'm gonna ask.
Don't go nowhere, we want to break be back with
(11:44):
more money Making Conversations with my friend Brenda Johnson.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
Conversations Masterclass, hosted by Rashan McDonald. Money Making Conversations Masterclass
continues online at Moneymakingconversations dot com and follow money Making
(12:13):
Conversations Masterclass on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Welcome back to Money Making Conversations Masterclass. I'm speaking with
Brenda Johnson. She's the CEO of Collaborative Training Company. Now, Brenda,
can you share an example of how you successfully help
a company diversify it's talented pipeline where I improve in
business performance.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Absolutely, I'm so through that you asked me that. And
to preface my answer, when we get approached with the company,
it's like we want to diversity fire our talent pipeline.
One let's unpack diversity. If it's nursing as a sector,
does diversify mean more men?
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Right?
Speaker 1 (12:53):
What are we talking about? Because I think when we
hear diversity everyone goes to race and gender they do,
so I think we have to be clean or what
we're talking about. But the example that I love, I
won't name the company. They had like a really well
high paying, well I think high paying job. This is
out of I won't even name where. About a seventy
seventy five thousand dollars job that you could get without
(13:14):
a degree, and it looked like administrative work. You're going
to support some executives, You're going to do some travel planning,
some calendar management, and they were willing to remove the
for your degree requirement when we get that request. This
is when we do do talent coaching. So when I
have a clear job description, I understand the company's culture.
We go out in the community, our talent partners, our
(13:37):
talent developers and say who has the hard skills in
your talent pool that look like this. We screen them,
We get to know them individually a lot of people
have tried to scale matching a person to a job.
If you've ever looked for a job, it's not really
scalable in that way. Because it's very high touch. So
we'll take a group of candidates, get them in a cohort,
(14:01):
and we're getting to know them. Do they have soft skills?
Will this person even have what we call wrap around supports?
Do you have a car? But they say you're gonna
You're going to go to this site and Donewoodie and
this side in the cab and this site downtown. You
gotta make sure they're stable transportation. Are their childcare issues?
We can have our companies having to solve a lot
of that. At this point, I think they could invest
(14:23):
in that, but at this point we're not. So that's
when we do do what we call talent coaching. Prep
for the interview, Let's look at your resume. Let's talk
about the job that you had at McDonald's and at
Target and what you did there, so we can translate
those skills into exactly what they want. So if I'm
gonna send a group of candidates to be screened for
(14:43):
a high volume, recurring role, those talent I have to touch,
I have to see my team spends time with them.
A really interesting dynamic we see lately. It's this neuro diversity,
meaning we're now where autism is going to be in
our talent pool. How does that show up? Because everyone
(15:04):
wants to have an access to work. So this is
when you get to know, Oh, o, hey, this person
that has autism, that's why he's not looking me in
the eye. Is this something we can talk through with
the company. We've had a lot of success doing that.
They feel really rewarded to be able to open up
a well paying jobs for people that don't have a degree.
(15:26):
But the companies need to be able to see the
results of that and then have they retained how are
they performing? Oh, let's do it again. Let's do it
again in the spring. We're going to have this many openings.
But it is a lot of work and it requires
a lot of partnerships.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Wow, that sounds great, But you said something in the
buzzword that really has had me all annoyed with diversity, equity, inclusion,
and whatever you use, the word diversity is always tied
to race. Talk to us about you know, how you've
seen the shift in diverse the echoing inclusion over the
(16:02):
last four years, I guess, And what do you see
the future moving forward for diversity in the workforce?
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Correct?
Speaker 1 (16:11):
So I think that's all, I think there was a
milestone moment, But George Floyd, we had many companies, many
organizations moved to embrace the EI and actually put money
behind it, and that looked a lot of different ways.
Then we have the Scholdist ruling come out and say
you really shouldn't be doing that. We might sue you
if you do that. So at the end of the day,
(16:32):
it has to be a business case that this company
needs talent. And historically, if that talent were white men
with a four year degree followed by white women with
the four year degree down the line, that company's not
going to be in business because the demographics of the
country has shifted and fewer people are opting to get
(16:53):
a four year degree anyway. So when we talk about diversity,
I challenge people that think beyond race, and because now
we have four or five generations in the workplace, that's
a whole different conversation about the way in which we
show up. We have the neurodiversity issue, the autism, the aspergers,
we have the LGBT status. We have accessibility people that
(17:15):
need enabling conditions to be able to work here. So
I think where we are now is you see a
departure of a group of companies who have said, thank you,
we don't want to do that anymore. And you have
another group of companies that are still very dedicated to
building the pipeline that they need from the broader labor
force and are asking people to help with that. Where
(17:38):
can I find the talent because these companies are not
necessarily connected into these communities. One of the reasons that
they're not what's your recruiting strategy. I've had companies say, oh,
we only recruit from three schools in Illinois. Tell me
about that. Okay, so if you're in Atlanta, tell me
about your recruiting strategy. Tell me if you have a
(17:59):
different quote unquote HBCU recruiting strategy. Why is it different.
How much money is in this one, how much money
is in that one. So you can't come and say
I want to diversify, but you have this separated recruiting strategy.
And so if you start to peel back the layers,
this is the status quo of America. But if you're
(18:19):
saying I want to move forward and be different, I
really want to tap into a labor pool that's going
to meet my business needs. Why do we have an
HBCU program. Make that make sense to me? Why is
it there? Because it's been there it's a legacy, right
or we just created it. Oh, but it's not like
it's not like a Jersey Tech and UGA program. Why
is it not like that? Right? So you have to
(18:42):
ask questions because most of these people inherited this from
the job. They inherited this is the way our company
does thing, and often they don't have the power influence
a budget to make those changes.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Wow, you know you've hitten so many man with me
in that presentation because.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
It's true because I get to do these you know,
they have these minority supplier portals. They want you to
fill out the information. Nobody ever calls you. Nobody ever
contact I've never been I'll just say nobody's ever contact
with Sean McDonald. And I get frustrated because they're saying
they're offering opportunities of diversity, but how and the examples
(19:27):
are so funneled down, so low. But you know, the
key is this country has changed and it's not going
to go backwards. It's going to only go farther. It's
only going to become more more. I think a better country.
We just have to accept it. But we also have
to accept the fact that I don't want nobody. Brenda
hired me because I'm black. I want nobody.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
You took the words out of my mouth. The vision
of doctor Martin Luther King was, could you please see
us on talent, our character, who we are inside? Were
they system that doesn't do that? So now we're just
saying we don't want to be able to compete equally,
like remove the roadblocks, remove the bias from your system
(20:12):
so we can compete equally. I've just I've been frustrating
in my own career with the resistance for people to
want to compete evenly. So we don't want the job
because we're black. And the companies who do not abandon
these initiatives are going to end up more profitable because
they're going to have the best labor force with the
(20:34):
right skills doing the work. The ones who want to
continue to practice status quo, well this is who we hire.
We hire only from these schools, and they have to
look like this and speak that way, probably going to
be out of business because that's not the the future
of America. So I think the chips will follower their
lot where they lie, and I think as a country,
(20:55):
we're great enough to start to surface. Let's hire the
people who can get the job done. Yes, relationship matters,
network matters. And I'm laughing at you with Sean because
you're like a supplier, diverse supplier of the year, so
some kind of way you made that work for you.
But I also know that you are well connected and
(21:16):
relationships matter, So we want to be able to get
this talent with mentors and coaches that can pull them
into these spaces so that they can compete equally.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
Wow, you're fantastic, Brenda.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Brenda, how can we get in touch with you?
Speaker 1 (21:33):
You know what? You can visit our website at etc
guy guide dot com and I would think the best
way to reach us on social media is to visit
our LinkedIn page, which is merely the collaborative training company.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Finally got you on my show and you are amazing
and I want to thank you, Brenda. You know I
got to bring you back because our conversation became a
different conversation the second half, and I think that that's
a really good thing because people need to hear how
the industry is. And there's a shot, but you can
win being you and don't let nobody under not the media,
(22:07):
undermine your opportunities by making you feel like you only
got a job because you are black, You only got
a job because you are a woman. You only got
a job because of this type of person. We have
to recognize that our skill set matters. Our skill set
allows us to compete. If you graduate from HBCU, it
is no different than graduating from Penn State. Equally talented
(22:28):
people qualified to do the job because we have the
right skill set.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Thank you for coming on Money Making Conversation. I appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Thanks for Sean.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
This has been another edition of Money Making Conversation Master
Class hosted by me and Rashan McDonald. Thank you our
guests in the show today and thank you our listening audience.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
Now.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
If you want to listen to any episodes or want
to be a guest on the show, visit Moneymaking Conversation
dot com. Our social media handle is money Making Conversation.
Join us next week and remember to always lead with
your gifts, keep winning. This has been another edition of
money Making Commerce Masterclass posted by me Rushaun McDonald. Thank
you to our guests on the show today and thank
you for listening to the audience now. If you want
(23:08):
to listen to any episode I want to be a
guest on the show, visit Moneymakingconversations dot com. Our social
media handle is money Making Conversation. Join us next week
and remember to always leave with your gifts. Keep winning.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Passssssssssssssssss
Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
I am Rashan McDonald, a host of weekly Money Making
Conversation Masterclass show. The interviews and information that this show
provides are for everyone. It's time to stop reading other
people's success stories and start living your own. If you
want to be a guest on my show, please visit
our website, Moneymakingconversations dot com and click to be a
guest button Chris submit and information will come directly to me.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Now, let's get this show started. I guess it's on hold.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
She is the CEO of the Collaborative Training Company at CTC,
an at Atlanta based management and professional services consulting firm
founded in twenty eighteen. The Collaborative Training Company is a
professional services consulting firm. They support human resources business units
by designing and delivering customized workshops that increase employee retention,
(00:53):
which is very important.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Please welcome to the Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Brenda Johnson.
How you doing, Brenda? I'm good, respond so file you
on your show.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Tell everybody I know I read it in the intro,
but tell everybody in layman terms, what exactly does your
company does? Collaborative Training Company.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
For sure, and thank you for the opportunity to be
on the show. So we work in the space of
kind of what we call workforce development, which is generally
connecting talent to jobs, jobs that are sustaining, that have
a career pathway that like you could actually support your
family with these jobs. What I do a piece of
it is learning and development professional development, So I work
(01:35):
with companies and nonprofit organizations to make sure that their
talent is upskilled enough not only to perform well in
their current role, but what's that next step. Right, you've
got an engineer, they're doing great, but when we want
to transition them to manager, that's a different skill set
than maybe this technical skill that you have. So we
do a little bit of that. We do post hire support.
(01:58):
Companies are moving into what we call the skills based hiring,
which means a lot of companies have taken a lot
of time and consideration to remove some of the four
year degree requirements so that they can get this labor
pipeline that they need. Often, when you remove the four
year degree requirement, you may have really skill talent that
are coming from places where they've never worked in a
(02:20):
corporate environment. So we will come into the company and
say with this cohort of skill talents, your princesses. We'll
do an extra week of onboarding to help them understand
some of those professional behavioral norms that might be new
to them, help them acclimate to the culture. This fit,
this word fit all. We love them, they have the
(02:41):
right skills, but we don't know that they will fit.
So we help companies unpack what does that fit mean?
Does that mean you're a fast paced company and you
need people to hit the ground running. Does that mean
you know you assign people to mentors? What is that fit?
So we help companies define what is this ideal employee
that you're looking for and then connect these talent sources
(03:02):
to that.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Well, now let me ask you this, So can someone
come to you as an individual? Sir ruseean mcgaughll. That's
me and you know, and I want to get a job?
Do I come to you? Or how does that work?
Speaker 1 (03:14):
That's more of what we call a talent coach. And
I get so much of that in my LinkedIn inbox,
because if you follow me on LinkedIn, you'll see that
I'm always kind of amplifying opportunities for your career talent
how to get it? These jobs so I do not
do individual talent coaching, but I am a collaborative partner
of many organizations who do exactly that. So with the
(03:35):
workforce development ecosystem, we've got to partner, right. You need
talent coaches, you need people that are working with the
companies on that side. You need your community colleges, your
high school programs. We've all got to work together to
make sure that this talent is a strong candidate when
that job opportunity comes. So I do not do individual
talent coaching.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Now that's not you know.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Now with that being said, now, how do you identify
and nurture the unique talent of job seekers who may
not fit the traditional corporate mode? Right now, that's why
I'm trying to confuse educate me. I understand what you're doing,
but you're saying, Rashan, we place, we help people adjust.
(04:16):
We talking about the corporate side. The people do the
hiring side. All you talk about because you don't do
the individual coaching right.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Correct, Right, So when you work with the larger companies
than many of the smaller ones, they already have talent acquisitions,
they've got recruiters, they've got campus recruits, they've got that
expertise and so I am not a staffing firm. We
do not do that work. So we let them do
that methodology that they have to find the talent, and
then we come in after they found the talent to
(04:45):
get them more ready for success. I don't know if
you've ever had a job that on day one, when
you got to that job, you're like, this is an it.
I don't think I'm a good fit. I hate it here.
You see that in the first two weeks. There are
reasons that that might happen. That just mean anytime we're
placing an environment I'm familiar to us, it can be uncomfortable.
(05:07):
You can have this imposter syndrome that they talk about
so many of the people. If you place someone that's
come from a Walmart or Amazon, warehouse fast and Retail
and you put them at a job at at and T,
it may feel massively uncomfortable. To an extent, They'll go
back to that warehouse job right because they feel comfortable,
I feel. So we let the companies do their own
(05:29):
hiring or work with their staffing agencies that they already have.
We really lean into that cohort that you just hired.
We want to get them a one to one mentor
in that company that has that shared lived experience. So
if I get ra Sean McDonald a job at IBM
and he's young, early career, hasn't been in corporate, let
men look for an older black male because he'll have
(05:52):
that lived experience at IBM. This is what I've experienced.
These are some things I can help Reshan navigate, and
we use those employees resource groups a lot to tap
one to one mentor for this time that's coming in
to help them retain at that company.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Wow, I'm talking to Brenda Johnson. She's a CEO Collaborative
Training Company CTC. It's a professional services consulting firm provides
professional development and career readiness training for companies who are
bringing people in and making helping them to adjust. Now,
I gotta say the magical world that's just been dominating
everybody AI artificial intelligence, A robot's gonna take my job.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
A robot's gonna take my job.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Let me know, Brenda, because I gotta find that right now,
help me out hip out everybody, because that's the big fear.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
That's the big fear.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
I won't say robots, Let's say machine learning. I would
say there are already jobs that have been replaced by
AI components personally, and this is the Brenda Johnson perspective.
Humans are uniquely designed to be creative and innovation. If so,
what machine learning can do is only create an outcome
(07:04):
based on existing information, existing data. We can feed it
one hundred jobs, right, and from the hundred it can
create something, But it can't do that uniquely human thing
that we do, which is create something for nothing. Have
a really innovative idea. So what I tell you know,
all the young professionals, they're going to check GPT to
try to do their jobs right. And I say, if
(07:26):
you don't take that output and put your personal fingerprint
on that, it's garbage. Because you have lived experience, you
have expertise, you have the ability to make it your own.
So I'm a fan of AI in efficiency, increasing productivity.
You can do research a lot quicker with a I,
(07:46):
but you take that output, and for me, that's my
starting point. So there are are absolutely jobs that will
be automated, but there are many more jobs that will
not be automated, or somebody still has to tell the
robots what to do, right. But I got to I
won't know. Don't kill the technology. They're extensive. There was
a fast food chain that piloted like AI taking your
(08:11):
order at the order board of incorrect orders was so
high they had to kill that. Self driving cars. I
spent a year and a half out in the Bay Area.
You saw the self driving cars being tested. The County
Commission had a meeting the fire departments. The police department
showed up and said, listen, these things short out and stopped.
(08:32):
Just like a computer computer freezes up, self driving driving
cars freeze up, and often they're freezing up in front
of the fire station, so the fire truck can't get out.
None of us can move it. We can't program it.
But there's a lot to be desired in the technology.
It's not there yet, and if the companies will do
the diligence of piloting, many of these replacements of humans
(08:55):
won't work. It's what you see at a big chain.
Oh we want you to scan your own stuff. We
don't want you to scan your own stuff. It's that
back and forth. So I think the business case has
to be there. But if there's a dropping quality of outcomes,
some of that AI stuff is going to load right
back to humans.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
So there are situations that are coming along. But you're saying, Rashaan,
that is one job option, but there is another job
option that's going to repair that that vehicle, that's going
to a program that vehicle if it goes wacky, if
it's going to be able to You have to see that.
There are other opportunities that don't require four year degrees
(09:37):
that you can train people are trained them up. Once
these corporations bring you on board, and that's your job
as far as CTC correct correct.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
I think historically in America, the four year degree requirement
was an artificial barrier for certain people not to be
able to get certain jobs. Right now that we have
more Americans opting out of the four year degree, there
will be a labor shortage. If eighty percent of the
jobs in your applicant tracking system require degree, those jobs
will sit and you'll see it, Well, y'all have this
(10:09):
job poster for nine months, no one's getting the job.
So they've got to think differently and say, instead of
this piece of paper, let's revisit the job description. Right,
this job description has been in our system ten years.
Technology has changed, our processes have changed, but we really
didn't take the time to sit down and rewrite the
job description. So instead, I'll sit with someone and say,
(10:31):
give me three adjectives for someone who is a star
in this role. Give me three adjectives for someone you
would never hire for this role. I'll learn more about
what you need from that job than this two page
job requisition that hasn't been changed. The hiring manager doesn't
have time to do it. Talent acquisition doesn't write the
job description. Often the companies do not have a person
(10:53):
on staff responsible for even who makes the decision to
take the for your degree away? What's that process like?
So it can be a long journey to just say,
let's think about some of the jobs that don't need
the for your degree and instead let's focus on five
to seven skills of someone who excels in the job
sales job pharmaceutical sales. That's an interesting conversation. I asked.
(11:16):
That's a well paying job. Do you really need a
college degree for that? Tell me why you need a
college degree for that?
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Now, Wow, we're going to go to break before I
want to ask the question the simmer on your side
of the conversation. When I come back, can you share
an example, when we come back for a break of
how you have successfully helped the company diversifies talent pipeline
while improving business performance. That's a question I'm gonna ask.
Don't go nowhere, we want to break be back with
(11:44):
more money Making Conversations with my friend Brenda Johnson.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
Conversations Masterclass, hosted by Rashan McDonald. Money Making Conversations Masterclass
continues online at Moneymakingconversations dot com and follow money Making
(12:13):
Conversations Masterclass on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Welcome back to Money Making Conversations Masterclass. I'm speaking with
Brenda Johnson. She's the CEO of Collaborative Training Company. Now, Brenda,
can you share an example of how you successfully help
a company diversify it's talented pipeline where I improve in
business performance.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Absolutely, I'm so through that you asked me that. And
to preface my answer, when we get approached with the company,
it's like we want to diversity fire our talent pipeline.
One let's unpack diversity. If it's nursing as a sector,
does diversify mean more men?
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Right?
Speaker 1 (12:53):
What are we talking about? Because I think when we
hear diversity everyone goes to race and gender they do,
so I think we have to be clean or what
we're talking about. But the example that I love, I
won't name the company. They had like a really well
high paying, well I think high paying job. This is
out of I won't even name where. About a seventy
seventy five thousand dollars job that you could get without
(13:14):
a degree, and it looked like administrative work. You're going
to support some executives, You're going to do some travel planning,
some calendar management, and they were willing to remove the
for your degree requirement when we get that request. This
is when we do do talent coaching. So when I
have a clear job description, I understand the company's culture.
We go out in the community, our talent partners, our
(13:37):
talent developers and say who has the hard skills in
your talent pool that look like this. We screen them,
We get to know them individually a lot of people
have tried to scale matching a person to a job.
If you've ever looked for a job, it's not really
scalable in that way. Because it's very high touch. So
we'll take a group of candidates, get them in a cohort,
(14:01):
and we're getting to know them. Do they have soft skills?
Will this person even have what we call wrap around supports?
Do you have a car? But they say you're gonna
You're going to go to this site and Donewoodie and
this side in the cab and this site downtown. You
gotta make sure they're stable transportation. Are their childcare issues?
We can have our companies having to solve a lot
of that. At this point, I think they could invest
(14:23):
in that, but at this point we're not. So that's
when we do do what we call talent coaching. Prep
for the interview, Let's look at your resume. Let's talk
about the job that you had at McDonald's and at
Target and what you did there, so we can translate
those skills into exactly what they want. So if I'm
gonna send a group of candidates to be screened for
(14:43):
a high volume, recurring role, those talent I have to touch,
I have to see my team spends time with them.
A really interesting dynamic we see lately. It's this neuro diversity,
meaning we're now where autism is going to be in
our talent pool. How does that show up? Because everyone
(15:04):
wants to have an access to work. So this is
when you get to know, Oh, o, hey, this person
that has autism, that's why he's not looking me in
the eye. Is this something we can talk through with
the company. We've had a lot of success doing that.
They feel really rewarded to be able to open up
a well paying jobs for people that don't have a degree.
(15:26):
But the companies need to be able to see the
results of that and then have they retained how are
they performing? Oh, let's do it again. Let's do it
again in the spring. We're going to have this many openings.
But it is a lot of work and it requires
a lot of partnerships.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Wow, that sounds great, But you said something in the
buzzword that really has had me all annoyed with diversity, equity, inclusion,
and whatever you use, the word diversity is always tied
to race. Talk to us about you know, how you've
seen the shift in diverse the echoing inclusion over the
(16:02):
last four years, I guess, And what do you see
the future moving forward for diversity in the workforce?
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Correct?
Speaker 1 (16:11):
So I think that's all, I think there was a
milestone moment, But George Floyd, we had many companies, many
organizations moved to embrace the EI and actually put money
behind it, and that looked a lot of different ways.
Then we have the Scholdist ruling come out and say
you really shouldn't be doing that. We might sue you
if you do that. So at the end of the day,
(16:32):
it has to be a business case that this company
needs talent. And historically, if that talent were white men
with a four year degree followed by white women with
the four year degree down the line, that company's not
going to be in business because the demographics of the
country has shifted and fewer people are opting to get
(16:53):
a four year degree anyway. So when we talk about diversity,
I challenge people that think beyond race, and because now
we have four or five generations in the workplace, that's
a whole different conversation about the way in which we
show up. We have the neurodiversity issue, the autism, the aspergers,
we have the LGBT status. We have accessibility people that
(17:15):
need enabling conditions to be able to work here. So
I think where we are now is you see a
departure of a group of companies who have said, thank you,
we don't want to do that anymore. And you have
another group of companies that are still very dedicated to
building the pipeline that they need from the broader labor
force and are asking people to help with that. Where
(17:38):
can I find the talent because these companies are not
necessarily connected into these communities. One of the reasons that
they're not what's your recruiting strategy. I've had companies say, oh,
we only recruit from three schools in Illinois. Tell me
about that. Okay, so if you're in Atlanta, tell me
about your recruiting strategy. Tell me if you have a
(17:59):
different quote unquote HBCU recruiting strategy. Why is it different.
How much money is in this one, how much money
is in that one. So you can't come and say
I want to diversify, but you have this separated recruiting strategy.
And so if you start to peel back the layers,
this is the status quo of America. But if you're
(18:19):
saying I want to move forward and be different, I
really want to tap into a labor pool that's going
to meet my business needs. Why do we have an
HBCU program. Make that make sense to me? Why is
it there? Because it's been there it's a legacy, right
or we just created it. Oh, but it's not like
it's not like a Jersey Tech and UGA program. Why
is it not like that? Right? So you have to
(18:42):
ask questions because most of these people inherited this from
the job. They inherited this is the way our company
does thing, and often they don't have the power influence
a budget to make those changes.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Wow, you know you've hitten so many man with me
in that presentation because.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
It's true because I get to do these you know,
they have these minority supplier portals. They want you to
fill out the information. Nobody ever calls you. Nobody ever
contact I've never been I'll just say nobody's ever contact
with Sean McDonald. And I get frustrated because they're saying
they're offering opportunities of diversity, but how and the examples
(19:27):
are so funneled down, so low. But you know, the
key is this country has changed and it's not going
to go backwards. It's going to only go farther. It's
only going to become more more. I think a better country.
We just have to accept it. But we also have
to accept the fact that I don't want nobody. Brenda
hired me because I'm black. I want nobody.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
You took the words out of my mouth. The vision
of doctor Martin Luther King was, could you please see
us on talent, our character, who we are inside? Were
they system that doesn't do that? So now we're just
saying we don't want to be able to compete equally,
like remove the roadblocks, remove the bias from your system
(20:12):
so we can compete equally. I've just I've been frustrating
in my own career with the resistance for people to
want to compete evenly. So we don't want the job
because we're black. And the companies who do not abandon
these initiatives are going to end up more profitable because
they're going to have the best labor force with the
(20:34):
right skills doing the work. The ones who want to
continue to practice status quo, well this is who we hire.
We hire only from these schools, and they have to
look like this and speak that way, probably going to
be out of business because that's not the the future
of America. So I think the chips will follower their
lot where they lie, and I think as a country,
(20:55):
we're great enough to start to surface. Let's hire the
people who can get the job done. Yes, relationship matters,
network matters. And I'm laughing at you with Sean because
you're like a supplier, diverse supplier of the year, so
some kind of way you made that work for you.
But I also know that you are well connected and
(21:16):
relationships matter, So we want to be able to get
this talent with mentors and coaches that can pull them
into these spaces so that they can compete equally.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
Wow, you're fantastic, Brenda.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Brenda, how can we get in touch with you?
Speaker 1 (21:33):
You know what? You can visit our website at etc
guy guide dot com and I would think the best
way to reach us on social media is to visit
our LinkedIn page, which is merely the collaborative training company.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Finally got you on my show and you are amazing
and I want to thank you, Brenda. You know I
got to bring you back because our conversation became a
different conversation the second half, and I think that that's
a really good thing because people need to hear how
the industry is. And there's a shot, but you can
win being you and don't let nobody under not the media,
(22:07):
undermine your opportunities by making you feel like you only
got a job because you are black, You only got
a job because you are a woman. You only got
a job because of this type of person. We have
to recognize that our skill set matters. Our skill set
allows us to compete. If you graduate from HBCU, it
is no different than graduating from Penn State. Equally talented
(22:28):
people qualified to do the job because we have the
right skill set.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Thank you for coming on Money Making Conversation. I appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Thanks for Sean.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
This has been another edition of Money Making Conversation Master
Class hosted by me and Rashan McDonald. Thank you our
guests in the show today and thank you our listening audience.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
Now.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
If you want to listen to any episodes or want
to be a guest on the show, visit Moneymaking Conversation
dot com. Our social media handle is money Making Conversation.
Join us next week and remember to always lead with
your gifts, keep winning. This has been another edition of
money Making Commerce Masterclass posted by me Rushaun McDonald. Thank
you to our guests on the show today and thank
you for listening to the audience now. If you want
(23:08):
to listen to any episode I want to be a
guest on the show, visit Moneymakingconversations dot com. Our social
media handle is money Making Conversation. Join us next week
and remember to always leave with your gifts. Keep winning.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
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