Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Chamber Connection on Talk Radio ten eighty,
a program designed for small business owners, aspiring entrepreneurs, and
community members who are eager to learn more about the
intricacies of running a successful business, hosted each week by
the dedicated staff of the Chamber of Saint Matthews. Now
here's your host for this week, Josh Suter CEO.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Good afternoon, and welcome to the Chamber Connection. My name
is Josh Souder. I'll be your host today and today
I have in the studio Jessica Fink with work Well Industries. Jessica, welcome.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Hi. It's good to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
So I'm excited to talk with you because you know
your boss, who we couldn't get on here because he
didn't handle this stuff well, is on my board and
I've gotten to know work Well a little bit. But
I want our listeners to hear, So tell us a
little bit about yourself and tell us a little bit
about what led you to work Well.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
Well, I am Southern Indiana born, so I've been here
for a long time. I've worked in Louisville ever since
i've been in my professional career, so I have a
deep love for Louisville and the people that are here.
I started out in customs brokerage and regulatory compliance, so
I've been doing that for about twenty five years now.
And Kenya and I met through another employer of mine.
(01:18):
I was located down and Work Well, fell in love
with the place, fell in love with the people, and
when I was transitioning from a previous employer, he said,
why don't you just come here and work for me?
You want to work for nonprofit at some point anyway,
And then I ended up at Work Well.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
So that's kind of the gist of how I'm up there.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Actually I love it now. I know most of our
listeners are probably like, what in the world is Work Well?
So can you tell us a little bit about Work
Well does and what kind of an impact you all
are making in the community.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
Yeah, I will try to keep it somewhat brief. We're
a very unique organization. So we are a nonprofit organization.
Our focus on our mission is to provide jobs for
people who have barriers to employment, whether that burier be
a mental or physical disability, or whether it just be
a socioeconomic disability or not disability, but barrier that would
(02:10):
prevent them from getting gaining meaningful employment in other avenues,
So that is a huge focus of ours. We run
really by a hybrid model, so we actually run like
a for profit company, but we take that money that
we earned from our jobs and we put it back
into the mission.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
So very unique organization.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
And just really trying to uplift a community in West
Louisville that really has deserved it for many years and
to become a meaningful employer in that area so that
we can try to bring up this geoeconomic status of
that area.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
So we had the honor of doing a big ribbon
cutting with you all over the summer. Can you tell
us a little bit about what that ribbon cutting was
for and what this service allows work Well to do.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
Yeah, absolutely, So our ribbon cutting was for our Recyclle project.
Our Recyclle project is a very unique project where we
created completely circular economy with recycled glassware. So we had
noticed in our business dealings that we had a lot
of waste glass that was being taken to landfills or
going to be downcycled into other products, and we started
(03:24):
speaking with some of the glass producers about what can
we do to maybe help that situation. So for a
while there we were sending the full bottles back to
the glass producer so they could break it down themselves
and recycle it into new glass bottles. Obviously, logistically that's
a little bit of a complication because of how much
room they take up. So Recycle was kind of born
(03:45):
with the idea of why don't we create our own
recycling system in our facility and that would that would
help with our.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Job creation that we were trying to do.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
So we had recyclell it to about two years of
project management getting in there. We custom designed our machine
for our team members but also for our unique facility
and making sure that we had space constraints taken care of,
and then it got to launch finally in.
Speaker 5 (04:15):
August of this year, last year actually, so yeah, it
was actually kind of fun because we had the governor
there and you all actually demonstrated to folks how this
machine worked, which was I think my favorite part.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
So it was real honor for us to be a
part of that. Well, let's talk about challenges. So in
any nonprofit there's got to be challenges. What are some
challenges work Well has faced and how have you all
overcome those?
Speaker 4 (04:42):
So our biggest barrier at work well as an organization
is creating year round job opportunities. So a lot of
our partners they have seasonal work, and we tend to
be very busy between April and October of every year,
but we have a gap between November and March of
every year where we have to downsize our employees. So
(05:03):
we can employ up to one hundred and fifty people
in a summer season, but we have to typically downside
to about fifty people during the winter months. So we
really are trying to diversify what we do. We work
mainly with the distilled spirits industry, so we're trying to
kind of lean away from only doing those types of
(05:25):
jobs to other diversifications so that we can have we
can have that seasonal work, but also create more job
opportunities so we don't have to worry about the seasonality.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
That is a work in progress.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
Our biggest way to overcome it is to just kind
of pound the pavement, keep selling, keep networking, meeting with everybody,
explaining what we do, and just finding those opportunities because
no job is too small for us to do.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Awesome, all right, We're gonna shift this conversation to a
little bit about you. So, thinking back over the over time,
what's one piece of advice she would give you your
younger self when you were starting out in your professional career.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Oh wow, that's a tough one for me. I always
struggled when I was younger with trying to figure out
what I wanted to do with my career. I've always
been very career oriented, you know. Ten years old, I
was talking about becoming a lawyer. Eventually that changed to
a psychologist, and then eventually that changed to a pediatrician.
So I went through a lot of cycles as I
(06:26):
grew and then when I was in college, I was
in nursing school and realized that sometimes you can be
a little bit too empathetic and have a little bit
too much compassion, and so working with people who may
not be there tomorrow was very difficult for me. So
I shifted gears and kind of leaned more into what
my mother was actually a customs broker, So I started
(06:49):
working with her at interned during high school at her company,
and then it just flourished from there. I fell in
love with international logistics and trade. I fell in love
with just the movement of the I still get excited
when I see planes, trains, automobiles like all that stuff.
I still get very excited when I see those things.
So I still take my kids to see the trains
(07:09):
when they're going through in Louisville. It's just a fascinating
thing to me. So it was really a natural succession
to end.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Up where I did. But I've always felt very.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
Strongly towards the nonprofit sector, and I had always thought
that I wanted to go in a nonprofit work when
I made it in my career once I got to
the point where I was ready to kind of retire
not work as much, and so I always had that
idea that's what I was going to do. So my
biggest piece of advice for myself is that it may
not always look the way you think it's going to look.
(07:41):
Because now I lean more towards that nonprofit work than
I do in my own career work that I've been
doing for years, and I found a way to have
some synergy between those two things. So being able to
do the trade regulations and be able to focus on
that but also know that I'm helping an entire community
build themselves up feels great. But I would have never
(08:02):
thought it looked like that when I was younger, and.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
You definitely married those two into one great situation. Yes,
that was very well done.
Speaker 5 (08:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
So how do you keep yourself developing as a professional?
You know, some people rebook, some listen to podcasts. What's
your secret?
Speaker 3 (08:17):
All of the above? I do everything.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
The biggest most impactful training that I do is that
I meet a lot of people. And when you meet
a lot of people, they have a lot of connections
to different different organizations. Perfect example is I've was lucky
enough to meet the people who run Whiskey or run
Munshine University, and in our conversations they had a executive
(08:44):
Bourbon Steward course. I was able to join that course,
spend a day learning about nothing but bourbon, making our
own bourbon, and it seems like such a small thing
to learn, but I learned so much from it. So
a lot of it is just making those connections with people,
and you know, making sure you're taking those opportunities that
they provide for you. Because everybody who's in the business world,
(09:06):
we just want to continue to connect and can you
continue to help the next person up. So I've been
really lucky there. I do read a lot of self
help books and just anything I can get my hands on.
So I'm very much a I'm kind of a dog
with a bone. When I like something, I really am.
I have no issues with going down the rabbit hole.
So that's kind of a big part of my training too,
is I always want to know why.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
So I guess my next question is going to be
what are some of the books that have been your favorites?
Speaker 4 (09:31):
Oh, so, my favorite book is it's called The Color
of Emotional Intelligence. It is a beautifully written book from
the standpoint of how do you develop emotional intelligence, how
do you recognize it, and how do you foster it?
And it's written in a way that it's not super technical,
(09:53):
it's not super difficult to read. It just tells you
what is and what isn't and it's so easy to
follow the steps become more emotionally intelligent.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
And all these conversations we've had over the last year,
so you're a lot deeper than I realized. And I'm like, man,
emotional intelligence customs. I'm like, man, I should have spent
more time with you way before. Now I'm liking this. Well,
we're gonna we're going to continue talking into this next segment,
but before we do, I got one more little quick question.
(10:24):
What's your favorite podcast or do you have a favorite?
Speaker 3 (10:28):
So this is.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
So my favorite podcast is actually called Know Your Aura
with Mystic Mikayla, and she's an oor Rita obviously, but
a lot of what she speaks on and how she
talks about your aura, she is really hitting on that
emotional intelligence side of things.
Speaker 5 (10:47):
So I love that podcast, love it, can't get enough
of it. That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Well, stay with us, folks, We'll be right back with
more with Jessica from work Well Industries on Talk Radio
ten eighty.
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Speaker 1 (11:34):
We're Louisville comes to Talk Talk Radio ten eighty.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Welcome back to the Chamber Connection on Talk Radio ten eighty.
My name is Josh Souter. I'm your host today and
with me is Jessica with Workwell Industries and Jessica. We're
going to dive in now and talk a little bit
about marketing. So how is work Well marketing the work
you do?
Speaker 4 (11:57):
So our main way of marketing is we focus on
social media and we are very much a very small organization,
so we have about eight in leadership in our organization
and we all wear multiple hats.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
So with that.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
Comes a little bit of a we don't really have
a marketing team basically, and with our marketing strategy, we
really work with a local marketing company to help us
out and to really write Levelly written social media posts.
So that's our main form of marketing. Aside from that,
it's it's really just networking and all. We were just
(12:33):
very much a grassroots marketing type of company.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
I absolutely love that. What is the best part about
working for a nonprofit?
Speaker 4 (12:43):
Oh, that's a long list to go through. I mean,
for me, I've always been had a lot. I've always
had a lot of empathy for people and their situations.
I actually get accused of being a fence writer often
because I can always see both sides of a situation.
So that actually helped me a lot to be successful
(13:04):
in this part of my job because I understand everybody's
reasons for what they do. We all have our reasons,
we all have our background. So for me, the most
rewarding part of it is if I can reach one
person to help them understand that they have a better future.
I think that that's just the best feeling in the
world that when you have somebody who I work with adults,
(13:27):
so growing up their whole life, they've been told who
they are and they've been forced into this box. And
to see that person realize that they're not forced into
that box and that there are other options out there
and that they can thrive and they can succeed, it's
the best part of that.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
So who would you say has impacted your life the
most as a professional and why.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
This sounds very cliche, but I do. I am very
fond of my boss. He is fantastic guy. He has
really we've known each other for years and what he
has done more for me than anybody else is that
he's allowed me to be my genuine self at all times.
He's allowed me to make mistakes or to be awkward
(14:17):
in situations and not feel bad about it. And I
think that that it sounds so odd to make that
a key to your professional career. But when you can
break out of your shell and be who you are
and be okay with the fact that you might be
a little more introverted or that you're more socially awkward,
I think that's a beautiful thing to teach a person.
But he's also, you know, taught me that we're not
(14:39):
caring cancer. We're not you know, we're not reinventing the will.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
We're just making it better.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
And I think that that's a really valuable thing to
teach somebody. That I'm a I'm a natural born perfectionist
and it doesn't have to look perfect, and it doesn't
always look the way that you think it's going to look,
but you're still moving forward and you're still doing more things,
and that's really the beauty of learning to be a
great professional and.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
A great leader.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Well, and he does that himself. Yeah, I've watched Kenya
in action, and guy's got a certain swagger to him,
you know, a little bit of comfort in who he is,
and he doesn't divert from that. So I can totally
see that how that plays out. Yeah, so you're a
busy individual. How do you balance that work life and
home life?
Speaker 3 (15:23):
I don't.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
Now a lot of it is I am very fortunate
to be married to a great man who is super
involved with our children and super involved with our household,
so we have a different dynamic than most married couples
that are working. I've always been extremely career driven. I've
always put a lot of energy and time into what
I love and what I'm passionate about. He is fine
(15:49):
with that, and I think that that's a huge part
of that balance, because when you have somebody at home
who is supporting who you are and understands you are,
that makes that so much easier. But other than that,
it's a lot of Google calendar and scheduling, and you know,
because we have our boys are in multiple sports. My
(16:09):
youngest is in three basketball leagues right now, you know,
so we are always moving and pivoting and learning how
to make that work. But having a partner at home
to do that with you actually makes things so much easier.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Now working for a nonprofit, I know the joys of
having a board of directors and your boss happens to
be one of my bosses too. Let's talk a little
bit about your All's board. What kind of role do
they play in the Work Well mission?
Speaker 4 (16:35):
So our board is made up of a lot of
leadership in privately owned organizations, so not such large companies.
I mean, we have some board members who come from
larger organizations, but we do have a lot that come
from smaller organizations. So understanding us from a small business standpoint,
I think is a huge part of where it's that
(16:56):
they're able to provide that support to us. They have
been very especially our executive committee, they've been very supportive
of Kenya and the changes that we're trying to make there.
We have a very specific vision for work Well and
the type of culture we're building there. We want people
to want to come to work, we want them to
enjoy coming to work, and they're very supportive of us
(17:17):
doing that and making sure that we're creating these wrap
around services for our employees so that they have something
more than just a paycheck to come to. And I
think that's a huge role that our board members play
in what we do is just supporting us in all
of our decisions.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
I love that where do you see work well in
the future.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
So future well for our future disguise the limit. There's
no limit of jobs that can be created from work
that we are receiving from our partners. However, if we're
going more short term, I'm my focus is to just
kind of expand some of our our wrap around services
(17:58):
that we have for employees. So we have we have
a dress Well boutique where we're trying to provide clothing,
new gently use clothing to our employees if they need it,
anytime they need anything for school, for if they have
an interview, even like we're totally fine with being a
transitional employer, so supporting our employees in that way, and
expanding our eat Well program where we're trying to provide
(18:21):
access to healthy fruits and vegetables or healthier food options
because West Lovelle is a food desert, as most people
who live or know. In addition to that, we have
our Live Well program, So our Live Well program is
leaning into mental health, physical health. If we can continue
to expand those programs, that's what really would fill my
cup the most.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
And I see that as a future for us.
Speaker 4 (18:42):
If we're focusing on the employee, we're focusing on the
team member, and you know, making sure that we're expanding
our services and pivoting when it's needed and listening to
our team members on what they need and paying attention.
So that's where I want to see us advance as
time goes on. And all our programs are very new,
so it's just continuing to expand those programs, but beyond that,
(19:06):
gaining more partnership, having more people know who we are
and understand what we do. Sometimes it's like a matter
of just coming and visiting us, knowing who we are,
seeing what we do, seeing how happy are our team
members are to be there, and you know, giving them
that outsourced work and just continuing to build on that
and diversifying so that we can just can we can
(19:26):
keep growing.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
It would be fantastic if we grow so.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
Much that we can continue to employ two hundred three
hundred people in the future.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
So there's a common thing I keep hearing here, and
you're not saying it exactly this way, but you all
are building a culture in house that I think a
lot of companies need to pay attention to the what's
the drive or the passion behind that culture.
Speaker 4 (19:50):
The passion behind it mostly is that when you most
of our employees are actually located down in West Louisville,
so there's a lot to really battle.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
It is, you know, the poverty level there.
Speaker 4 (20:05):
Most most families make about twenty seven thousand dollars a year.
And when you think about that from a standpoint of
a lot of us were making twenty seven thousand dollars
a year when we were just out of college. And
that's that's a big stressor in somebody's life. So creating
a culture where somebody can actually enjoy coming to work
and actually comes to work for somebody who cares about
(20:27):
them and cares about making their life better. So increasing
pay is always something on the top of our list
as much as we can, you know, but we are
still a nonprofit, We are still small. So what can
we do beyond that for everybody so that they love
coming to work, so they love to be there, they
know that when they come there, we have services for
them that we can help them access. You know, if
(20:48):
we can help them access free dental care, huge because
a lot of people.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Don't have insurance.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
Dental care is expensive even if you have insurance, So
if we can allow access to that, that makes somebody
want to be there and enjoy being there. We enjoy
being there, Our leadership enjoys being there, being around everybody.
We're out there, we're physically with everybody on a regular basis.
So that's really where that culture just continues to build.
Kenya has been a big proponent of pushing that forward,
(21:16):
and I've been just very fortunate to follow along and
be able to continue to create that vision that we
have for Work Well.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
I love it. Yeah, that's that's the part I love
about Work Well and about nonprofits in general, is that
genuine care of the people that they serve. And there's
something else you said that struck me. You know, we
use the term nonprofit, but in the nonprofit world, what
we keep telling the community is yes, we're a nonprofit
and we're not trying to make tons of money, but
we're still a business and we have to operate that way.
(21:44):
So kudos to you all for keeping that mentality in
the back of your head. Well, if you guys who
were listening want to learn more about Work Well, make
sure you reach out to the Chamber. We'd love to
tell you more about this organization, introduce you to Jessica
and Kenya, and want to take a minute and thank
Jessica for sitting down with me today. If you want
to learn more about the Chamber, make sure you check
out our website Stmatthew Chamber dot com or you can
(22:07):
find us on Facebook and LinkedIn, And make sure you
tune in next week for the Chamber Connection because we're
going to have Sean Sparks with the Community Foundation of
Louisville that will be eleven am next Saturday on Talk
Radio ten eighty. Everybody, have a great day.
Welcome to the Chamber Connection on Talk Radio ten eighty,
a program designed for small business owners, aspiring entrepreneurs, and
community members who are eager to learn more about the
intricacies of running a successful business, hosted each week by
the dedicated staff of the Chamber of Saint Matthews. Now
here's your host for this week, Josh Suter CEO.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Good afternoon, and welcome to the Chamber Connection. My name
is Josh Souder. I'll be your host today and today
I have in the studio Jessica Fink with work Well Industries. Jessica, welcome.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Hi. It's good to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
So I'm excited to talk with you because you know
your boss, who we couldn't get on here because he
didn't handle this stuff well, is on my board and
I've gotten to know work Well a little bit. But
I want our listeners to hear, So tell us a
little bit about yourself and tell us a little bit
about what led you to work Well.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
Well, I am Southern Indiana born, so I've been here
for a long time. I've worked in Louisville ever since
i've been in my professional career, so I have a
deep love for Louisville and the people that are here.
I started out in customs brokerage and regulatory compliance, so
I've been doing that for about twenty five years now.
And Kenya and I met through another employer of mine.
(01:18):
I was located down and Work Well, fell in love
with the place, fell in love with the people, and
when I was transitioning from a previous employer, he said,
why don't you just come here and work for me?
You want to work for nonprofit at some point anyway,
And then I ended up at Work Well.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
So that's kind of the gist of how I'm up there.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Actually I love it now. I know most of our
listeners are probably like, what in the world is Work Well?
So can you tell us a little bit about Work
Well does and what kind of an impact you all
are making in the community.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
Yeah, I will try to keep it somewhat brief. We're
a very unique organization. So we are a nonprofit organization.
Our focus on our mission is to provide jobs for
people who have barriers to employment, whether that burier be
a mental or physical disability, or whether it just be
a socioeconomic disability or not disability, but barrier that would
(02:10):
prevent them from getting gaining meaningful employment in other avenues,
So that is a huge focus of ours. We run
really by a hybrid model, so we actually run like
a for profit company, but we take that money that
we earned from our jobs and we put it back
into the mission.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
So very unique organization.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
And just really trying to uplift a community in West
Louisville that really has deserved it for many years and
to become a meaningful employer in that area so that
we can try to bring up this geoeconomic status of
that area.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
So we had the honor of doing a big ribbon
cutting with you all over the summer. Can you tell
us a little bit about what that ribbon cutting was
for and what this service allows work Well to do.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
Yeah, absolutely, So our ribbon cutting was for our Recyclle project.
Our Recyclle project is a very unique project where we
created completely circular economy with recycled glassware. So we had
noticed in our business dealings that we had a lot
of waste glass that was being taken to landfills or
going to be downcycled into other products, and we started
(03:24):
speaking with some of the glass producers about what can
we do to maybe help that situation. So for a
while there we were sending the full bottles back to
the glass producer so they could break it down themselves
and recycle it into new glass bottles. Obviously, logistically that's
a little bit of a complication because of how much
room they take up. So Recycle was kind of born
(03:45):
with the idea of why don't we create our own
recycling system in our facility and that would that would
help with our.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Job creation that we were trying to do.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
So we had recyclell it to about two years of
project management getting in there. We custom designed our machine
for our team members but also for our unique facility
and making sure that we had space constraints taken care of,
and then it got to launch finally in.
Speaker 5 (04:15):
August of this year, last year actually, so yeah, it
was actually kind of fun because we had the governor
there and you all actually demonstrated to folks how this
machine worked, which was I think my favorite part.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
So it was real honor for us to be a
part of that. Well, let's talk about challenges. So in
any nonprofit there's got to be challenges. What are some
challenges work Well has faced and how have you all
overcome those?
Speaker 4 (04:42):
So our biggest barrier at work well as an organization
is creating year round job opportunities. So a lot of
our partners they have seasonal work, and we tend to
be very busy between April and October of every year,
but we have a gap between November and March of
every year where we have to downsize our employees. So
(05:03):
we can employ up to one hundred and fifty people
in a summer season, but we have to typically downside
to about fifty people during the winter months. So we
really are trying to diversify what we do. We work
mainly with the distilled spirits industry, so we're trying to
kind of lean away from only doing those types of
(05:25):
jobs to other diversifications so that we can have we
can have that seasonal work, but also create more job
opportunities so we don't have to worry about the seasonality.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
That is a work in progress.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
Our biggest way to overcome it is to just kind
of pound the pavement, keep selling, keep networking, meeting with everybody,
explaining what we do, and just finding those opportunities because
no job is too small for us to do.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Awesome, all right, We're gonna shift this conversation to a
little bit about you. So, thinking back over the over time,
what's one piece of advice she would give you your
younger self when you were starting out in your professional career.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Oh wow, that's a tough one for me. I always
struggled when I was younger with trying to figure out
what I wanted to do with my career. I've always
been very career oriented, you know. Ten years old, I
was talking about becoming a lawyer. Eventually that changed to
a psychologist, and then eventually that changed to a pediatrician.
So I went through a lot of cycles as I
(06:26):
grew and then when I was in college, I was
in nursing school and realized that sometimes you can be
a little bit too empathetic and have a little bit
too much compassion, and so working with people who may
not be there tomorrow was very difficult for me. So
I shifted gears and kind of leaned more into what
my mother was actually a customs broker, So I started
(06:49):
working with her at interned during high school at her company,
and then it just flourished from there. I fell in
love with international logistics and trade. I fell in love
with just the movement of the I still get excited
when I see planes, trains, automobiles like all that stuff.
I still get very excited when I see those things.
So I still take my kids to see the trains
(07:09):
when they're going through in Louisville. It's just a fascinating
thing to me. So it was really a natural succession
to end.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Up where I did. But I've always felt very.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
Strongly towards the nonprofit sector, and I had always thought
that I wanted to go in a nonprofit work when
I made it in my career once I got to
the point where I was ready to kind of retire
not work as much, and so I always had that
idea that's what I was going to do. So my
biggest piece of advice for myself is that it may
not always look the way you think it's going to look.
(07:41):
Because now I lean more towards that nonprofit work than
I do in my own career work that I've been
doing for years, and I found a way to have
some synergy between those two things. So being able to
do the trade regulations and be able to focus on
that but also know that I'm helping an entire community
build themselves up feels great. But I would have never
(08:02):
thought it looked like that when I was younger, and.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
You definitely married those two into one great situation. Yes,
that was very well done.
Speaker 5 (08:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
So how do you keep yourself developing as a professional?
You know, some people rebook, some listen to podcasts. What's
your secret?
Speaker 3 (08:17):
All of the above? I do everything.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
The biggest most impactful training that I do is that
I meet a lot of people. And when you meet
a lot of people, they have a lot of connections
to different different organizations. Perfect example is I've was lucky
enough to meet the people who run Whiskey or run
Munshine University, and in our conversations they had a executive
(08:44):
Bourbon Steward course. I was able to join that course,
spend a day learning about nothing but bourbon, making our
own bourbon, and it seems like such a small thing
to learn, but I learned so much from it. So
a lot of it is just making those connections with people,
and you know, making sure you're taking those opportunities that
they provide for you. Because everybody who's in the business world,
(09:06):
we just want to continue to connect and can you
continue to help the next person up. So I've been
really lucky there. I do read a lot of self
help books and just anything I can get my hands on.
So I'm very much a I'm kind of a dog
with a bone. When I like something, I really am.
I have no issues with going down the rabbit hole.
So that's kind of a big part of my training too,
is I always want to know why.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
So I guess my next question is going to be
what are some of the books that have been your favorites?
Speaker 4 (09:31):
Oh, so, my favorite book is it's called The Color
of Emotional Intelligence. It is a beautifully written book from
the standpoint of how do you develop emotional intelligence, how
do you recognize it, and how do you foster it?
And it's written in a way that it's not super technical,
(09:53):
it's not super difficult to read. It just tells you
what is and what isn't and it's so easy to
follow the steps become more emotionally intelligent.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
And all these conversations we've had over the last year,
so you're a lot deeper than I realized. And I'm like, man,
emotional intelligence customs. I'm like, man, I should have spent
more time with you way before. Now I'm liking this. Well,
we're gonna we're going to continue talking into this next segment,
but before we do, I got one more little quick question.
(10:24):
What's your favorite podcast or do you have a favorite?
Speaker 3 (10:28):
So this is.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
So my favorite podcast is actually called Know Your Aura
with Mystic Mikayla, and she's an oor Rita obviously, but
a lot of what she speaks on and how she
talks about your aura, she is really hitting on that
emotional intelligence side of things.
Speaker 5 (10:47):
So I love that podcast, love it, can't get enough
of it. That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Well, stay with us, folks, We'll be right back with
more with Jessica from work Well Industries on Talk Radio
ten eighty.
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Speaker 1 (11:34):
We're Louisville comes to Talk Talk Radio ten eighty.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Welcome back to the Chamber Connection on Talk Radio ten eighty.
My name is Josh Souter. I'm your host today and
with me is Jessica with Workwell Industries and Jessica. We're
going to dive in now and talk a little bit
about marketing. So how is work Well marketing the work
you do?
Speaker 4 (11:57):
So our main way of marketing is we focus on
social media and we are very much a very small organization,
so we have about eight in leadership in our organization
and we all wear multiple hats.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
So with that.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
Comes a little bit of a we don't really have
a marketing team basically, and with our marketing strategy, we
really work with a local marketing company to help us
out and to really write Levelly written social media posts.
So that's our main form of marketing. Aside from that,
it's it's really just networking and all. We were just
(12:33):
very much a grassroots marketing type of company.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
I absolutely love that. What is the best part about
working for a nonprofit?
Speaker 4 (12:43):
Oh, that's a long list to go through. I mean,
for me, I've always been had a lot. I've always
had a lot of empathy for people and their situations.
I actually get accused of being a fence writer often
because I can always see both sides of a situation.
So that actually helped me a lot to be successful
(13:04):
in this part of my job because I understand everybody's
reasons for what they do. We all have our reasons,
we all have our background. So for me, the most
rewarding part of it is if I can reach one
person to help them understand that they have a better future.
I think that that's just the best feeling in the
world that when you have somebody who I work with adults,
(13:27):
so growing up their whole life, they've been told who
they are and they've been forced into this box. And
to see that person realize that they're not forced into
that box and that there are other options out there
and that they can thrive and they can succeed, it's
the best part of that.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
So who would you say has impacted your life the
most as a professional and why.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
This sounds very cliche, but I do. I am very
fond of my boss. He is fantastic guy. He has
really we've known each other for years and what he
has done more for me than anybody else is that
he's allowed me to be my genuine self at all times.
He's allowed me to make mistakes or to be awkward
(14:17):
in situations and not feel bad about it. And I
think that that it sounds so odd to make that
a key to your professional career. But when you can
break out of your shell and be who you are
and be okay with the fact that you might be
a little more introverted or that you're more socially awkward,
I think that's a beautiful thing to teach a person.
But he's also, you know, taught me that we're not
(14:39):
caring cancer. We're not you know, we're not reinventing the will.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
We're just making it better.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
And I think that that's a really valuable thing to
teach somebody. That I'm a I'm a natural born perfectionist
and it doesn't have to look perfect, and it doesn't
always look the way that you think it's going to look,
but you're still moving forward and you're still doing more things,
and that's really the beauty of learning to be a
great professional and.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
A great leader.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Well, and he does that himself. Yeah, I've watched Kenya
in action, and guy's got a certain swagger to him,
you know, a little bit of comfort in who he is,
and he doesn't divert from that. So I can totally
see that how that plays out. Yeah, so you're a
busy individual. How do you balance that work life and
home life?
Speaker 3 (15:23):
I don't.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
Now a lot of it is I am very fortunate
to be married to a great man who is super
involved with our children and super involved with our household,
so we have a different dynamic than most married couples
that are working. I've always been extremely career driven. I've
always put a lot of energy and time into what
I love and what I'm passionate about. He is fine
(15:49):
with that, and I think that that's a huge part
of that balance, because when you have somebody at home
who is supporting who you are and understands you are,
that makes that so much easier. But other than that,
it's a lot of Google calendar and scheduling, and you know,
because we have our boys are in multiple sports. My
(16:09):
youngest is in three basketball leagues right now, you know,
so we are always moving and pivoting and learning how
to make that work. But having a partner at home
to do that with you actually makes things so much easier.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Now working for a nonprofit, I know the joys of
having a board of directors and your boss happens to
be one of my bosses too. Let's talk a little
bit about your All's board. What kind of role do
they play in the Work Well mission?
Speaker 4 (16:35):
So our board is made up of a lot of
leadership in privately owned organizations, so not such large companies.
I mean, we have some board members who come from
larger organizations, but we do have a lot that come
from smaller organizations. So understanding us from a small business standpoint,
I think is a huge part of where it's that
(16:56):
they're able to provide that support to us. They have
been very especially our executive committee, they've been very supportive
of Kenya and the changes that we're trying to make there.
We have a very specific vision for work Well and
the type of culture we're building there. We want people
to want to come to work, we want them to
enjoy coming to work, and they're very supportive of us
(17:17):
doing that and making sure that we're creating these wrap
around services for our employees so that they have something
more than just a paycheck to come to. And I
think that's a huge role that our board members play
in what we do is just supporting us in all
of our decisions.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
I love that where do you see work well in
the future.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
So future well for our future disguise the limit. There's
no limit of jobs that can be created from work
that we are receiving from our partners. However, if we're
going more short term, I'm my focus is to just
kind of expand some of our our wrap around services
(17:58):
that we have for employees. So we have we have
a dress Well boutique where we're trying to provide clothing,
new gently use clothing to our employees if they need it,
anytime they need anything for school, for if they have
an interview, even like we're totally fine with being a
transitional employer, so supporting our employees in that way, and
expanding our eat Well program where we're trying to provide
(18:21):
access to healthy fruits and vegetables or healthier food options
because West Lovelle is a food desert, as most people
who live or know. In addition to that, we have
our Live Well program, So our Live Well program is
leaning into mental health, physical health. If we can continue
to expand those programs, that's what really would fill my
cup the most.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
And I see that as a future for us.
Speaker 4 (18:42):
If we're focusing on the employee, we're focusing on the
team member, and you know, making sure that we're expanding
our services and pivoting when it's needed and listening to
our team members on what they need and paying attention.
So that's where I want to see us advance as
time goes on. And all our programs are very new,
so it's just continuing to expand those programs, but beyond that,
(19:06):
gaining more partnership, having more people know who we are
and understand what we do. Sometimes it's like a matter
of just coming and visiting us, knowing who we are,
seeing what we do, seeing how happy are our team
members are to be there, and you know, giving them
that outsourced work and just continuing to build on that
and diversifying so that we can just can we can
(19:26):
keep growing.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
It would be fantastic if we grow so.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
Much that we can continue to employ two hundred three
hundred people in the future.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
So there's a common thing I keep hearing here, and
you're not saying it exactly this way, but you all
are building a culture in house that I think a
lot of companies need to pay attention to the what's
the drive or the passion behind that culture.
Speaker 4 (19:50):
The passion behind it mostly is that when you most
of our employees are actually located down in West Louisville,
so there's a lot to really battle.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
It is, you know, the poverty level there.
Speaker 4 (20:05):
Most most families make about twenty seven thousand dollars a year.
And when you think about that from a standpoint of
a lot of us were making twenty seven thousand dollars
a year when we were just out of college. And
that's that's a big stressor in somebody's life. So creating
a culture where somebody can actually enjoy coming to work
and actually comes to work for somebody who cares about
(20:27):
them and cares about making their life better. So increasing
pay is always something on the top of our list
as much as we can, you know, but we are
still a nonprofit, We are still small. So what can
we do beyond that for everybody so that they love
coming to work, so they love to be there, they
know that when they come there, we have services for
them that we can help them access. You know, if
(20:48):
we can help them access free dental care, huge because
a lot of people.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Don't have insurance.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
Dental care is expensive even if you have insurance, So
if we can allow access to that, that makes somebody
want to be there and enjoy being there. We enjoy
being there, Our leadership enjoys being there, being around everybody.
We're out there, we're physically with everybody on a regular basis.
So that's really where that culture just continues to build.
Kenya has been a big proponent of pushing that forward,
(21:16):
and I've been just very fortunate to follow along and
be able to continue to create that vision that we
have for Work Well.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
I love it. Yeah, that's that's the part I love
about Work Well and about nonprofits in general, is that
genuine care of the people that they serve. And there's
something else you said that struck me. You know, we
use the term nonprofit, but in the nonprofit world, what
we keep telling the community is yes, we're a nonprofit
and we're not trying to make tons of money, but
we're still a business and we have to operate that way.
(21:44):
So kudos to you all for keeping that mentality in
the back of your head. Well, if you guys who
were listening want to learn more about Work Well, make
sure you reach out to the Chamber. We'd love to
tell you more about this organization, introduce you to Jessica
and Kenya, and want to take a minute and thank
Jessica for sitting down with me today. If you want
to learn more about the Chamber, make sure you check
out our website Stmatthew Chamber dot com or you can
(22:07):
find us on Facebook and LinkedIn, And make sure you
tune in next week for the Chamber Connection because we're
going to have Sean Sparks with the Community Foundation of
Louisville that will be eleven am next Saturday on Talk
Radio ten eighty. Everybody, have a great day.
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