Velveth Schmitz - How did you become a leader? (CEO, Mayor, Commissioner) - My Perfect Path

Episode Transcript
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Velveth Schmitz (00:00):
I was in the middle of an interview with an
investment bank.
There were three men in darksuits across from me and in the
middle of the interview I hadthis very still clear moment
where I realized I'm going totake this job, I'm going to work
120 hours a week and I'm goingto wake up one day and be like

(00:24):
what am I doing?
And I don't want to do that.
And mid-sentence I stopped andthey all kind of looked at me
like I was weird, which wasreally weird, because in those
moments, let me tell yousomething no one stops an
interview.
If you are going into bankingand you've gotten to the three
suit interview part, you say yes.

Daniel Koo (00:46):
Is that pretty much the final round?

It's before you the way we used to do it.
It's before you went in-house,and an in-house meant you were
in office.
It was the last round and atthe end of that you'd get your
offer.
So it was right before that andwe were on campus and I stopped
and I said to them I'm so sorry, I can't do this.
And I stopped and I said tothem.

Daniel Koo (01:05):
I'm so sorry I can't do this.
Hey, welcome back to my PerfectPath.
For those of you who are new,I'm your host, daniel Koo, and I
welcome you to season two.
For me, at large, pivotalmoments of my life, such as
applying to new colleges,applying to new jobs or
determining what next careermove is right for me I spent

(01:25):
time researching and findingmentorship to determine what was
the best path for me.
I knew that this struggle wasnot isolated to me.
Everyone struggles with this,simply because we cannot predict
the future.
However, I found something thatis second best to predicting
the future it's learning fromthose ahead of our career and
from those who've seen more andexperienced more.
After all, there are not thatmany problems that have not been

(01:46):
solved yet.
If you've ever felt unsureabout your next career move,
you're in the right place.
What do cleaning toilets,turning down investment banking,

(02:07):
founding a stationary companyand becoming mayor have in
common For Velvet Schmitz?
They're all part of heradventurous path, a journey
shaped by resilience, curiosityand a deep commitment to people.
Now the CEO of Hire Better andformer mayor of Rolling Hills
Estates, Velvet shares howgrowing up as a child of a
single mother sparked her drive,why she walked out of a final

(02:29):
round investment bankinginterview at Berkeley and how
trusting her gut has guidedevery bold step she's taken,
from lessons learned scrubbingpots and playing collegiate
lacrosse to navigating venturecapital and public service.
Velvet story is a masterclassin building a meaningful career,
one thoughtful yes at a time.
Hope you enjoy the episode,velvet.

(02:51):
Welcome to my Perfect Path.
I'm thrilled to have you here.

Thank you so much for having me.
It's an honor to be here.

Daniel Koo (02:57):
My first question to you is did you always want to
be CEO?

Ooh, did I always want to be in charge?
And am I a bossy lady?
Yes, I'm just kidding, you know.
Joking aside, being a leaderalways sort of innately came to
me, and I think people oftencategorize CEOs as, oh, it's
this important thing, but I'vealways seen it as the person

(03:23):
who's the most serving and theone that's bringing together
everybody, and so in some senses, yes, I always wanted to be the
CEO, but I think for differentreasons than most people would
assume.

Daniel Koo (03:36):
So you are currently CEO of Hire Better.
What's kind of the best part ofworking there?
I want to ask what's the worstpart of working there?
But maybe not because of thecompany itself, but maybe
because of the best part ofworking there.
I want to ask what's the worstpart of working there?
But maybe not because of thecompany itself, but maybe
because of the role.

So the best part about working at Hire
Better are the people.
I have an amazing team andthey're really good people.
They're smart, they are funny,they are creative and, being a
people person, it's definitelythe people.
You know what?

(04:08):
The worst part about workingthere is that we're all in
different states.

Daniel Koo (04:13):
Different states meaning.

Meaning everybody is remote.

Daniel Koo (04:17):
Oh states.
Okay, I thought you weretalking about stages of life,
maybe, but no, okay, completelyremote.

Like literal states of the United States.
I really like the spontaneityof running into someone in the
hallway and striking up aconversation, the things that
you learn on your way to thebathroom or to the lobby of an
office building and I wasfortunate my career started out

(04:43):
in office.
That's what everybody did and Imiss that.
I miss seeing people in thehallway, I miss being able to
run into them.

Daniel Koo (04:53):
Do you feel like, as a CEO, it's easier or more
difficult to be completelyremote?

Yes to both.
So I find that we have suchamazing freedoms with technology
today and they allow us to dothings that I don't know.
I don't even know if we I'msure somebody out there knew
this was possible and it's great.
And I miss.

(05:20):
I miss the office not becauseyou have to be there from a
certain time to a certain timeand people that part I don't
miss.
But I miss the office Notbecause you have to be there
from a certain time to a certaintime and people that part I
don't miss.
But I miss the spontaneity ofhaving a conversation of you
know, my career started in anoffice and I learned so much by
watching knock on an office doorof a vice president and ask to

(05:43):
come in and have a conversation,share an idea.
I learned so much from ourexecutive assistant, who the
vice president, who sat in thecorner office and she sat right
in front and she was the eyesand the ears of the floor and I
remember people telling melisten to her, she knows what's
going on.
And I learned so much frompeople who weren't in my

(06:06):
departments and I miss that.
I miss that we're not all inthe same space, learning from
each other, learning about eachother.
I like building a relationshipand probably my team's like
thank goodness, because I ask alot of questions and I want to
know about them.

Daniel Koo (06:23):
Of course we all want our bosses right next to us
, obviously.
Said facetiously Understood butI think I really admire your
passion towards people meetingin real life, because your
company is a recruitment company, it deals with people.
Can you tell us a little bitabout your business and what the

(06:44):
mission is Like?
What are you trying to achieve?

Well, the heart and soul of our mission comes
from our founder, Kurt, and hisidea many years ago was that the
recruitment industry is brokenand that you're pitting
interests against one anotherinstead of aligning them instead
of aligning them.

(07:07):
And so our mission is really tokeep a very human to human
connection space and reallytreat people with respect,
decorum and develop arelationship and then help those
people build good companies.
And so we have founders, wehave CEOs that come to us and
say here's my dream.
And we say, great, we can helpwith the people you need to

(07:28):
build that dream and we'll findthem for you.
And then we go and we findthese amazing people and we say
we know you're doing a great jobwhere you're doing it, but we
want you to come do that greatjob over here.
Because of this reason, thisreason and this reason and
oftentimes, probably 99% of thetime, we work with really good

(07:50):
people.
1% of the time when we chooseto work with someone who goes
against our values, we learn ourlesson quickly and we don't
work with them again, but wework with really good people to
build their dreams, work withreally good people to build
their dreams, and so we try tokeep that in mind and it not

(08:15):
only makes us different, but ithelps to create this pay it
forward ecosystem where thecompanies we help build do
really cool things and thenoftentimes the people we recruit
stay friends with us becausewe've represented the company
well, we've been honest andethical and we've helped them
with a career change.
That's been amazing and that'swhat differentiates us.

Daniel Koo (08:36):
So I guess your company is kind of at a space
where you have clients on bothends.

Well, no, we're client hired.
But because we're client hired,we go find the talent.
And so those candidates we'vedone arduous process to find
them.
We're looking for a specificindividual and because we're
looking for a specificindividual, when we talk to
people we will assess are youthat person?
And generally we'll find two tothree people that really match

(09:06):
well.
And often our clients will saythis is not fair.
And we'll say what are youtalking about?
And they'll say I want to hireall of the people.
These two people, I really wantthem.
And we'll say, well, that's ourjob.
Our job is for you to want that.
And we've had situations wherepeople have actually hired two
people or have created aposition for somebody else
because they're so amazing.

(09:26):
But because we work withentrepreneurs, we are helping
people who oftentimes areblazing the trail for the first
time, and we're selling culture.
We're selling vision and notnecessarily a fully thought-out
product or project yet, butwe're in partnership with our

(09:47):
clients and so we represent themvery well, we represent the
brands very well, and when webring these opportunities to the
people we're recruiting,they're very excited about them.

Daniel Koo (09:59):
What is the kind of level of role that you guys
usually hire?
So, from our conversationbefore, you mentioned CEOs and
CPOs.

Yeah, so we do executive level, individuals,
and then we have done all theway down to manager.
It's usually a professionalvice president, director,
c-suite title and it's reallythat impactful person who comes
in and changes.
So if you think of verticals ina company sales and marketing

(10:26):
operations, human resource,sales, finance and accounting so
a CFO, a VP, finance, acontroller, those kinds of
people and the people reallyhelping to lead and create
strategy and see the vision butalso help implement it.

Daniel Koo (10:43):
I see I want to talk more about you and your
personal career.
I want to talk about, kind oflike, your background.
You know how you grew up as akid, just to give the listeners
a little bit more context on whoyou are and where you came from
.

Well, it's very interesting.
My childhood because it's ajuxtaposition of I was raised by
a single mother.
There was domestic violence inmy home and my mom decided to
make a courageous move and movedmy brother and I out of the
house in secret, ended upraising us just her, ended up

(11:29):
raising us just her.
And we were fortunate that thecommunity she picked to live in
was an idyllic community here inLos Angeles.
So I grew up in the San GabrielValley.
I grew up in a town calledCovina.
Covina Hills, for many peoplewho knows, has a lot of orange
groves and horse trails andgreen space, and so, for the
audience that may be much olderthan you, there used to be a

(11:51):
show where it's called.
Mayberry was the town, and it'sthis idyllic town.
You know where, quintessentialAmericana?
Well, that was my town.
We had a wonderful elementaryschool that had what felt to me
like blocks and blocks of greenspace, and so we had parks.
We had a wonderful neighborhood.

(12:12):
My house was in a cul-de-sac.
I got to live in a really niceneighborhood growing up where
all the neighbors knew eachother and my mom what felt like
to me at the time was the onlysingle parent in my elementary
school.
It was traditional families andI had a weird name.
Nobody else was named Velvet.

Daniel Koo (12:35):
It's very hard to pronounce sometimes, I must
admit.

Yes, people often struggle with it, and it
was both things it was wonderfuland it was hard.
It was a beautiful communityand, I have to say, very safe
and very nice place to grow uphere in Los Angeles with access
to the rest of Los Angeles.
So I grew up a Dodger fan.

(12:59):
I grew up a Laker fan.
I grew up volunteering mostSaturdays at the LA Mission
downtown.
My family was always veryphilanthropic, so if you've ever
been down to the LA Mission,it's not in a particularly good
part of town.
And if I ever complained aboutvolunteering, my mother would
say that I should be thankfulbecause I was born into a family

(13:25):
who loves me and it could be alot worse.
And so I was often remindedthat I had very good fortune for
having the family that I had,and so all of those things sort
of created a space where I'm aperson who, ideally, maybe you
can tell me I come across verygrateful.

(13:45):
I have a lot of gratitude.
I'm grateful for the fact thatI'm alive, the fact that I'm
safe, that I've been able tothrive, and there were some very
difficult things that I had toovercome.
And those difficult things Iwouldn't remove at all because I
think it's what gave me myhunger and drive to do all the

(14:08):
things that I grew up to do.

Daniel Koo (14:10):
Actually, we should mention that, on top of the CEO
role that you have right now,you have another job.
It's being the mayor of RollingHills Estates.
That's a city in, I guess theSouth Bay.
Yes, that's a city in, I guessthe South Bay, yes, and I think
today we want to kind of diveinto that as well, because I
feel like that's a completelyseparate kind of career track
that you've been able tomaintain over time.

(14:31):
Being able to do all of that, Ithink, is truly impressive, and
I want to see how that connectswith your childhood and how you
maintain your drive andmotivation throughout your
career.
Today's episode is named myAdventurous Path.
Could you share with us why youchose this adjective for this

(14:52):
episode today?

So I'm an adventurer at heart.
From when I was young, I usedto take these hikes with my
grandfather.
We called him Vito and he usedto.
There was all these wildstrawberry fields, and we would
hike and go eat fresh berries,and there was something nice
about getting lost in nature,and I've never been one to shy

(15:16):
away from a good adventure.
I've had this sense of I reallywant to live this life, and I
feel like I chose to be in thisspace and time, and because of
it I'm looking for any adventureanywhere that I can be a part
of, and so that adjective, to me, is synonymous with opportunity

(15:39):
.
I think that when you choose tobe on an adventure,
opportunities come up that youwould never have imagined, and
as they come up, life takes youon paths that you yourself may
not have even constructed, andin my experience, thankfully,

(15:59):
they've always ended up in abetter place than where I
thought I could go.

Daniel Koo (16:04):
So throughout your career, I'm sure you've been
offered a lot of opportunities.
Do you have a way ofdetermining which one you want
to delve into?
Because there's also thisadvice of learning to say no and
don't say yes to everything,but you need to kind of choose
your impact.
You have to focus in on whatyou want to develop and spend
your time on.
Do you mostly just say yes to alot of these things and try to

(16:28):
extract the most, or is thereanything that you have, a
decision criteria of sorts?

That's a great question.
Any person worth their saltwill tell you.
You learn the hard way.
So I said yes to most thingsalong the way until I learned
that I needed to say no and bemore judicious.
So I'll tell you my firstimpactful no.

(16:55):
I was a senior at Berkeley.
I went to Cal Go Bears it's abig part of my life and I was in
the middle of an interview withan investment bank.
There were three men in darksuits across from me and in the

(17:16):
middle of the interview I hadthis very still clear moment
where I realized I'm going totake this job, I'm going to work
120 hours a week and I'm goingto wake up one day and be like
what am I doing?
And I don't want to do that.
And mid-sentence I stopped andthey all kind of looked at me

(17:37):
like I was weird, which wasreally weird because in those
moments let me tell yousomething no one stops an
interview.
If you are going into bankingand you've gotten to the three
suit interview part, you say yes.

Daniel Koo (17:53):
Is that pretty much the final round?

It's before you , the way we used to do it.
It's before you went in-house,and an in-house meant you were
in office.
It was the last round and atthe end of that you'd get your
offer.
So it was right before that andwe were on campus and I stopped
and I said to them I'm so sorry, I can't do this.
And they said what are youtalking about?

Daniel Koo (18:13):
You were doing so well.

They were so excited and I'm sure I was a
disappointment and I said I knowmyself, I will commit every
fiber of my being to this joband I don't want my life to pass
me by.
So I am going to respectfullydecline and I'm going to gather
my things and I'm going to leave.
And one of them was reallyupset and said you are wasting

(18:39):
our time.
Do you know what people woulddo to get this interview?
Do you know how many peoplewant this?
And I said I do, and I am sovery sorry.
I'm sorry that I wasted yourtime.
Mostly I'm sorry that I took aslot and I hope that you will
consider offering somebody elsemy slot, and I don't think it

(19:00):
would be fair to you or to me,because you will get a great
worker in me, but I willsacrifice everything and I'm not
okay with doing that.
And then the other guy saidwell, now I want to hire you for
your honesty.
It was like well, I got to goand when I left in the hallway I

(19:20):
didn't know what I was doingand I was having a moment of
crisis, thinking I probably justmade the biggest mistake of my
life.
And I was having a moment ofcrisis, thinking I probably just
made the biggest mistake of mylife, and I came out into the
hallway to what I thought wasthe person who worked at the
career center and she wassitting there and I obviously
needed to vent.
And so I sat down and I musthave looked freaked out and I
said I think I just made thebiggest mistake of my life.

(19:42):
And she asked me why?
And I said, well, I just gaveup on this interview and I just
wish there was this place thatallowed me to rotate between
departments so I could figureout what I want to do with my
life and I just that's the kindof job that I would like.
And it turned out she was arecruiter for a different
company that did literally thatit was a management training

(20:03):
program.
She said she recruiter for adifferent company that did
literally that it was amanagement training program.
She said she was leaving forthe airport at a certain time
but my story felt compelling andshe wanted to offer me 15
minutes of her time before shewent.
I thought I was being punked.
I was like there's no way thisis real.
She gave me an interview.
I ended up really liking themand that's how I ended up at

(20:26):
Transamerica.

Daniel Koo (20:27):
And that's the role of project manager, right.

Mm-hmm.

Daniel Koo (20:30):
I want to kind of dig into how you change your
decision on that.
So what made you go intoinvestment banking in the first
place?

Oh, daniel, the seduction of iBanking.
So you know, the word on thestreet is you're an investment
banker for two years.
You can write your ticketanywhere in life.
Being an investment banker at acollege teaches you so much.
Have you ever seen the moviethe Devil?

Daniel Koo (21:00):
Wears Prada, no Okay .

No, okay.
So the premise of the DevilWears Prada is that you are the
assistant to one of the mostrecognized and enviable heads of
the world's best fashionmagazine and that by being that
assistant for call it two years,you can write your ticket

(21:22):
anywhere.
And that's because thatindividual is so hard on you.
You learn all of the thingsthat you need to learn to be
successful in anything you woulddo in life.
Investment banking is kind oflike that where you are thrown
into a group of incrediblytalented individuals from across
the world who make thingshappen individuals from across

(21:48):
the world who make things happenand there are no excuses and
you work really hard, but youlearn so much.
And when you're done with that,you could go to law school, you
could go to business school.
You can do many things, and soone thing that I knew early on
from my childhood and from whereI grew up, is that I always
wanted choice.
I always wanted the ability tohave a choice and I always

(22:10):
looked for the things that wouldoffer me the most choice.
So I chose to go to Berkeleybecause I knew that having a
degree from Berkeley would opendoors worldwide and that I knew
it meant something.
And I was right.
And I was interviewing forinvestment banking because I
thought if I did this, it'sgoing to open the doors to many
things, which is why it was sodevastating when I walked out.

(22:34):
But in that moment I just I didsomething which I would learn
later to be very valuable, whichis I trusted my gut.
My gut said this isn't it foryou, you need to do something
else.
And I was right.
I mean, I have a friend whowent into investment banking.
She's a dear friend of mine.
She's doing different thingstoday.
She has started amazing things.

(22:55):
She knows who she is.
I won't name her, she'squasi-famous.
I won't say who she is, but that100% everything I believed
about investment bankinghappened to her and she is a
hard worker and the hustle andbustle that girl owns it.

(23:15):
And she went into banking afterwe graduated Cal and she's had
an incredible career.
And so I was right about thatand I was right to trust my gut,
because my adventure took meinto so many different arenas
and areas that it took thatfirst step, knowing I needed to

(23:37):
make a different choice to do it.

Daniel Koo (23:40):
So you said no to this.
I guess life where you're kindof burying yourself at work, but
you strike me as a person thatwill kind of put yourself into
any role and really pour yourentire existence into it.
Did that end up happeningsomewhere else?

Yes, daniel, it did.
At Transamerica.
I was afforded incredibleopportunities at that company
and actually in a veryinteresting way.
That is also how I ended up atHire Better, a former
Transamerica colleague whorecruited me to Hire Better.
I am still in touch with my CEOfrom Transamerica.

(24:20):
He and I built a relationshipback then and he was a mentor
and someone I admired andactually someone who I still
admire and keep in touch withnot as regularly as I like, but
he's still in my life and theother individual from
Transamerica.
And so, yeah, I buried myselfinto that company and my jobs

(24:48):
and it's probably my nature Ithink it's just in who I am.
I like to know about the thingsthat I'm involved in, and so I
take really deep dives intothose things and I enjoy being a
part of it and I thinksometimes I lose track of how

(25:12):
deep and how much I've invested,often because I get sick and
then I have to stop and thinkabout I'm pushing too hard.

Daniel Koo (25:21):
So when you got started there and you started
working a little bit, what waskind of in the roadmap for you,
so were you thinking I want tostay here for the long term, or
were you thinking I want tolearn what I can and maybe try
another thing?

I did.
I wanted to stay there.
I wanted to be CEO of thatcompany and I saw a path where
this will be my career.
This will be where I start atmanager and I build my way all
the way up to C-suite and rideinto the sunset, and I had high

(25:58):
hopes of staying there.
And then, as anyone who worksfor a big company with a lot of
challenges and levels ofmanagement, Bureaucracy.
I wasn't going to say it becauseI was trying to find gracious
ways of describing it, findgracious ways of describing it.

(26:25):
But I realized that if I wantedto have a say at the table the
way I wanted to have a say, Ineeded to leave and I needed to
find something that was smaller,leaner.
And so I left there to found myown company, which then was
both good and bad exactly what Iwas asking for in being the

(26:48):
founder and CEO.

Daniel Koo (26:49):
So this company that you've found is the Hen and the
Bird, and from what I know it'sa stationary company.
What was your intention with it?
And I guess I'm kind of curiousabout their origin stories,
about that too.
Did you have a friend that youwere working with?

I did.
I had a co-founder, ourcreative director.
She's an incredible artisticmind and we wanted to bring joy
to people in a form that at thetime, felt like was dying, which
was paper, and one of thethings that I love are

(27:27):
handwritten letters, cards andnotes.
So we have a tradition in myfamily anytime someone travels
for work, we hide notes in theirsuitcase in different areas,
and so when you're unpacking,you find different notes at
different times as a gesture oflove.

Daniel Koo (27:46):
Our family actually has a very similar thing, where
we trade letters at the airport,so I know what that feels like.

It's very nice, doesn't it feel wonderful?
I mean for the audience.
If you can start that, letsomeone you care with a
handwritten note.

Daniel Koo (28:01):
It's the best thing ever.
It's the best thing ever.

Oh, daniel, I knew I liked you, so my creative
director and I decided that wewanted to preserve this sort of
way of expressing our feelings,and so the hen and the bird were
actually nicknames for ourfirstborns and my oldest.

(28:27):
We still call her Birdie, andshe was the bird and her oldest
he's the hen.
And so we came together and itwas really interesting because,
for being an artistically drivencompany, companies require a
lot of non-artistic frameworksand structures, so finances and

(28:49):
QuickBooks, and we neededmanufacturing and tools and
machines, lots of things thatyou wouldn't think are very
artsy.
But so it was her exquisitedesign work and we built it
together and it was great fun.
It was so much fun and it tookus across the country and it was

(29:10):
at a time when so HallmarkChannel there actually used to
be a store called Hallmark andthey had cards.
I don't know if you know that.

Daniel Koo (29:18):
Maybe I'm-.
I think I've heard of it.

Okay, I don't know how many people have and
they were going out of businessand people weren't going to buy
cards anymore, and so we wantedto sort of hearken back to that
and we built these beautifullook like small works of art,

(29:42):
and our clientele grew veryrapidly because we were creating
customized holiday cards andcustomized stationery and baby
shower wedding invitations.
We had many of the weddingguests contact us through our
website saying I'm a guest atthis wedding.
I just received the invitationand it's beautiful.

(30:04):
I never want to throw it away,and so it was just such a
different from financialservices.
It was such a differentadventure and it was really fun.
We got to meet a whole otherworld of people and got to build
it and I got to be in charge,which I really liked and I
realized I like being in charge.

Daniel Koo (30:25):
What gave you the confidence to start a new
company?
Because I'm working as asoftware engineer and the more I
learn, the more daunting it isto start something new, because
I'm wondering who's going to doall this work.
And with Stationery you have totalk to manufacturers and it's
a real product which I thinkcreates more problems.
With software, you can write itonce and deploy.

(30:47):
So I'm wondering where you kindof got that confidence.
Did you feel like you had allthe skills you needed?

No, and every entrepreneur will tell you if I
knew what it was going to taketo do this, I probably would
have never done it.
So that's the beauty ofignorance you don't know what
you don't know, and so you makethese bold statements like I'm
going to start a creativecompany and you're going to go

(31:13):
and do it, and then, once you'rein it, there's nothing you
wouldn't do.
Once you're in it, there'snothing you wouldn't do, and so
you start to do all of thesethings.
I think you're aware, and maybenot one of my jobs when I was
in college was to clean toilets.

Daniel Koo (31:30):
Oh, I didn't know that.
Yeah, it wasn't on yourLinkedIn or anything.

Well, let it be known to the world I'm an
excellent toilet cleaner and Idon't know if anyone sets out to
be like I'm going to cleanworld.
I'm an excellent toilet cleanerand I don't know if anyone sets
out to be like I'm going toclean toilets.
But, man, that's probably oneof the best jobs I've ever had
in my life, and I'll tell you,it was also at a summer camp, it
was through Berkeley, it'swhere I met my husband and so,

(31:58):
yes, there are many emotionalthings that make it an
incredible job.
But it's all these things thatyou don't really know what it's
going to take to get the jobdone, and usually it's harder
than the thing that you think iseasier, and the thing that's
harder ends up being easy.
Like it's really easy to cleana toilet and there's gloves,

(32:19):
like it's not really that dirty,and you're constantly around
very heavy chemicals that bleacheverything and sanitize
everything.
So it's actually a very cleanjob in an odd way, and I like
clean things.
And so, had I, had I known whatit would be, I would have
jumped at the opportunity, whichmost people would be like I

(32:40):
would never say yes.
But the other end of thatspectrum is if you, as an
entrepreneur, knew what it wasgoing to take to make it happen.
You may not choose to do it,but once you're in it, you're in
it, and I mean I'll tell youanother job I had was working in
the kitchen.
No one works harder thankitchen people, and if you've
ever known a chef, a sous chef,the person who washes the pots,

(33:04):
those people work so hard and Iloved it.
I loved being in a kitchen, Iloved the team, I loved what it
took, and often we would beworking 12 hour days and I would
go back into a kitchen at anytime because of how great it is.
And so I think part of it isnot knowing exactly what you're

(33:28):
going to get into.
And then, for those that do itrepeatedly, it's the thrill of
knowing it's going to be hardwork, but it's good, clean, fun,
because it may be a derivativeof what you've done before, but
it's still hard work.

Daniel Koo (33:47):
I think that's actually that was a lot to take
in, but it reminds me of theepisode that you had recently.
It's called Reflecting Forwardsand you talk about how a leader
should be willing to do the jobthat you're asking people to do
, and I really like that and Ithink I see where all of that

(34:08):
comes from.
It's because you've done it alland you've done things from
cleaning toilets to becoming CEO.
There's nothing that youwouldn't do personally, and I
think maybe that's why there'sthis drive of like you can do
anything you know.
And I also wonder you alsomentioned that you did lacrosse

(34:31):
at.
Berkeley.
Were there any lessons orchallenges that you've learned
there?
That kind of helps you makeyour company 100%.

First, a shout out to my coach, jill Malco.
I'm sure I was a thorn in herside.
I know that I wasn't quietevery time she asked us to run
the connector.
I had a lot to say aboutrunning Probably not in the
positive, oh, I know, not in thepositive.

(35:01):
I learned so much from teamsports.
I've learned, you know, we donot do anything on our own.
None of us, none of us canstand and say I did this.
It's just not possible.
I think we do things together,we come together and make things

(35:28):
happen.
And in my life, recognizing fromsports that each of us plays a
part in the whole, that each ofus plays a part in the whole and
now I'm going to get a littleexistential is like the big
physics question right withenergy is not created or
destroyed, just transferred.
We all are interconnected,everything is interconnected,

(35:51):
and when we work in concert itall falls into place.
And so I learned that fromsports.
I learned that from myteammates.

(36:18):
I learned to rely on them.
And then I had a coach atBerkeley.
Her name was Ria and I reallyenjoyed Ria and she would have
us go through thesevisualizations and sometimes it
was hard for me at the time like, okay, so I'm visualizing
throwing the ball and thencatching it from that person and
she would really emphasize howyes, like that person, whomever
that player was is throwing youthe ball and you're cradling,
and the way that thoseinstructions were given.

(36:42):
I realized later that it was allabout the mechanics of working
together and anticipating themove that the other player was
going to make, so that you knewwhere you were standing but
where they were throwing, whichmeant in the present moment I'm
here but I need to be there, andso I'm simultaneously in both

(37:05):
places because eventually theball is going to get there, not
here, and I need to move thereand I need to see it and I need
to anticipate it.
And at the time I mean I was I'mstill dumb, but I was a dumb
college kid.
I mean I was I'm still dumb,but I was a dumb college kid I
didn't realize the ramificationsof how, like, if you imagine
that and just take that lessonand take its components, the

(37:31):
depth of what that coach wasteaching me, absolutely that
makes up everything that I know.
And so I think lacrosse, Ithink volleyball, I played
softball, I swam, all of thathelped in so many ways, and I

(37:52):
think there's something aboutthe physicality of sports that
also helps your memory at acellular level retain things
that you can later recall.

Daniel Koo (38:04):
I really like that because I think in a corporate
setting sometimes you don't feellike a team actually.
I think sometimes it feels likeyou're all out on your own.
I think sometimes it feels likeyou're all out on your own, but
I think sometimes, if you canimagine what other people need
you to be at a certain place andtime, maybe that's the way to
actually be impressive and beuseful to your team.

(38:25):
That's what I'm getting out ofthat.

That, my friend , is what a CEO does.
A CEO helps each of their teammembers realize what role they
play, where they're meant to beand where they're meant to go,
and how they're meant to throwthe ball to their teammates.

Daniel Koo (38:52):
I want to talk a little bit about your career to
mayor and at what time itstarted and when you were at
Transamerica.
Was that something that you'vebeen starting on the side, or is
there something like anideation?
I guess what motivated you tokind of participate in that?

So, funny enough, I was accepted to
Berkeley as a molecular and cellbiology major.

Daniel Koo (39:10):
Oh, that's completely unexpected from your.

Well, I'll tell you why.

Daniel Koo (39:17):
I thought it was political science.

That's what I graduated with Okay cool.
So MCB was the major I pickedand I was going to go to Harvard
, to go to medical school, and Iwas on the path and science at
Berkeley just did not sing to myheart.
And science at Berkeley justdid not sing to my heart.
Students in the science fieldsat Cal are crazy smart and it's

(39:46):
very competitive and I didn'tfind that I loved it.
I just it wasn't singing to myheart and soul.
And I took a semester where Itook economics, history and
political science and I found mypeople and so I decided that I

(40:10):
would switch.
And during my undergraduatestudies I was taught by amazing
individuals, individuals who Icould never tell what part of
the political spectrum theythemselves were on.
I was taught to think, I wastaught to question, I was taught

(40:32):
to seek information, I wastaught to challenge, but I
wasn't taught any sort ofdoctrine.
And I learned from who Ibelieve are the best.
And you know one of myprofessors at the time in class.
It was a California politicsclass, taught by Dr Cain, and he

(40:52):
was talking about you knowpeople running and if we in the
room should ever choose to run,talking about you know people
running and if we in the roomshould ever choose to run.
And honestly, back then I waslike what, who would ever do
that?
And just let it go of that, letgo of that idea.
Well, when we moved to RollingHills Estates, as I mentioned, I

(41:13):
volunteered at the LA Mission.
Growing up, and in my family,the expectation was always that
you give of your time or yougive of your money.
And you know, when you'restarting out you don't have a
lot of money and so you give ofyour time.
And when I moved to the city, Iwas really interested in being
involved in the community and soI joined a lot of different

(41:34):
philanthropic organizations andI applied to be on the
Environmental Advisory Committeefor the City of Rolling Hills
Estates.
Well, what's really interestingabout that is the way that the
city is structured, and this iskudos to all the councils and
staff before me.
You have committees that meetand then you have commissions

(41:56):
and then you have the electedcouncil.
And I was hooked.
I had never been a part of thepublic sector and I didn't
understand how public money isdifferent from private.
And I've done I'd donenonprofit and I'd done, of
course, corporate for profit.
But public is very differentand it's structured very

(42:18):
differently, and we, as electedofficials, are stewards of that
money and we're stewards of itfor the betterment of everybody,
not just one person.
And so that means thatoftentimes we have to sit with
conflicting ideas andinformation and make a decision

(42:39):
that's the best for the most.
And some decisions, no matterwhich way you look at them, will
harm something and you have tomitigate that harm at all costs.
You have to make sure that theharm is as little as possible,
if non-existent, and I loved it.
I loved that in that commissionwe talked about the environment

(43:01):
and we talked about how wecould preserve.
Rolling Hills.
Estates is very, very special.
It's so lovely that we have athriving commercial district and
incredible outdoor space, andso to make that happen, we have
to be very thoughtful about theenvironment, about what we do.
And that committee.

(43:21):
Just, I loved volunteering, Iloved working with the city
staff, and then I decided I'mgoing to do more and so I
volunteered and I applied to bea commissioner for the Parks and
Activities Commission and I saton that.
And then I applied to be onplanning and I sat on that and I
chaired that, and then I wasfortunate to have a mentor.

(43:43):
He was on the city council atthe time and he said so, you've
now been volunteering with thecity for about 12 years and you
know how it works and I thinkyou'd be great to run for office
.
And I said but I don't knowanything about that.
And he said well, I'm going toteach you.
And he spent about six monthsteaching me the city budget, the

(44:08):
rules, regulations, theordinances, how it's governed,
who's part of what, how we workwith fire and police and any
other service provider, and howwe work with the state, how we
work with.
I mean, just John took a lot oftime to teach me and by the

(44:29):
time it was campaign season, Ifelt very comfortable filing to
run and then I ran for office.

Daniel Koo (44:37):
So how did you connect with this person?
Was it John?
How did you connect with Johnto the extent that he's willing
to teach you everything?
I think finding those mentorsare often very difficult.
Maybe you can have mentors thatwill sit with you for lunch,
maybe once in a while, but towork with you for six months to
really dive deep into the role.

(44:58):
How did you develop thatrelationship?

So I think asking direct questions,
oftentimes people are nebulousabout what they want.
And so if you go to someone andsay I'm looking for a mentor
but I don't really know and I'mkind of wishy-washy, I don't
think it's that people don'twant to help, it's that they
don't know how.
And John was very prescriptive.

(45:21):
I knew that if I needed to run,I needed to learn and he could
teach me.
And I wanted to know.
And my question to him was if Iwant to run for office, what do
I need to learn?
And he said well, there's manythings to learn.
And I said would you be willingto teach me over a period of
time?

Daniel Koo (45:42):
Also, it was you who kind of requested that specific
.

It was a little bit of both of us, but I
definitely asked and he answered.
I had asked of others andinitially I was turned down.
I was told that they were goingto mentor somebody else whom
they wanted to run, ohinteresting.
And so I said okay, thanks.
And so I asked again and Johnsaid yes.

Daniel Koo (46:09):
I want to know what the timeline was for this.
So when did you first getstarted?
As I guess the commissioner ofparks and activities Was that
during your Transamerica role.
When did you first get started,as, I guess, the commissioner
of parks and activities?

Was that during your Transamerica role or was
it much later?
I moved to Rolling HillsEstates in 2004 and got involved
shortly thereafter, and I ranfor office in 2016.

Daniel Koo (46:34):
What was your role in the corporate sector?

in 2016.
What was your role in thecorporate sector?
So I actually was the chiefoperating officer for a tech
company in Emeryville calledAthletes Renaissance, and it was
alongside two individuals whohad played basketball at
Berkeley and we knew each otherfrom Berkeley and we're building
a platform to help supportprofessional athletes and the

(47:06):
myriad of things they need tostay on top of from a financial,
diet, exercise perspective, andI had just left that to run for
office, and so prior to that, Iwas there and then, prior to
that, I worked with InventVentures, helping to build other

(47:29):
companies through venturefunding.

Daniel Koo (47:31):
So you were the vice president of Invent Ventures.
What was your favorite thingabout working at Adventure
Capital?

And I guess what are some of the more
difficult challenges that youfaced.
So I mean it's what you wouldthink it is.
You get pitched these ideasthat you're like oh my gosh,
these people are geniuses.
One of my favorite things wasworking with an individual by
the name of Tim.
Tim is really smart and socreative and down to earth and I

(48:09):
found that I learned a lot andI didn't know a lot, but he was
willing to be very honest withme and I enjoyed the team.
Again, it's kind of boringbecause I'm saying it's the
people and it's always thepeople, but that's the running
theme in my life and I just toldthis to somebody recently in

(48:31):
that my purpose here has been tocome to this beautiful
existence and have people feelseen and heard, and that's my
job, and so I liked the people.
I didn't like how cutthroatthat world was.

Daniel Koo (48:51):
I'm sure a lot of tough decisions have to be made.

Very, but I also have such an abundance
mindset that I don't think ourresources are finite.
I think there's enough foreverybody if we choose to look
at it from an abundanceperspective.
But yeah, there's some toughdecisions that I have to make
and on any given day, you canhave a great product with a

(49:17):
great team and it doesn't work.
You can have a terrible teamwith a terrible product and it
works.
I mean it's just the weirdthing about things working out
and not working out.
I mean it's certainly not fair,but it's also it's odd the
algorithm of what chooses towork and what doesn't.

Daniel Koo (49:37):
You kind of send it out in the world and you don't
know what it's going to do.

And there's so many people who had brilliant
ideas and never made it.

Daniel Koo (49:46):
So I guess for venture capitals.
Then how do you guys develop asense of an internal decision
criteria?
Or do you feel like it's like aprescriptive kind of formula,
or is it kind of based on gutfeelings from people, um, or do
you look for very specificthings from the ceo, do you like
?
Is there anything that you'velearned?

vision and conviction of that vision.
It's often when a founder ismaniacally blinded by their
mission.
You know that that individualis going to move mountains to

(50:31):
make things happen.
There has to be a demand for aproduct, so it can be okay that
people don't know that they needsomething yet, but they're
definitely going to need it andthat has to exist.
And we of course had matricesand different things we looked
at and then brilliant minds inthe room and often, back to Tim,

(50:56):
there would be things that I'dbe like that is so great, I love
it, we should do that.
He would be like here are 37,000reasons why you shouldn't, and
they would all make sense and itwould blow my mind away Like
what?
How do you even know that?
And so yeah to all of thosethings.

Daniel Koo (51:17):
How has being in a venture capital helped you?
I guess lead a company, is itsomething?

that you couldn't have learned anywhere
else.
That's a good question.
I'm sure it can be learnedelsewhere.
It's what I know because, how Ilearned, it's very helpful to
have an equanimous approach tothings and to really stay
level-headed, because oftentimesour emotion will hide things

(51:51):
from us.
If we're overly excited aboutsomething, we may not see a
problem.
If we're overly anxious aboutsomething, we may not see the
solution.
And so there are reallyimportant steps to staying sort
of neutral to be able to reallyassess things.

(52:11):
And so if you have criterion,if you have things that are not
emotionally involved, those arereally critical.
And I am not without emotion.
I am a very emotive person andit's you know for people who see
me.
You know exactly what I'mfeeling when I feel it.

(52:32):
And that was difficult, becauseif I'm excited, you know I'm
excited, I know I'm excited.
The American people, if I'mexcited, you know I'm excited, I
know I'm excited, the Americanpeople know I'm excited.
And if I'm not, same audiencewill know it.
And so that's not the bestindicator of thumbs up or thumbs
down on a deal, but I do thinkyou need it in the room.

(52:53):
I think you need a champion inthe room, think you need it in
the room.
I think you need a champion inthe room, and it always helps to
have both a champion and adefector in the room, because
having that person who's like noway no, how would I ever put a
cent to this is very helpfulalongside the.
I will sell my house to putmoney on this.

Daniel Koo (53:15):
I want to talk a little bit about how you became
COO of Athletes Renaissance.
That seems like a new role foryou.
Where do you think you got theskills to become CO and what
were the circumstances that ledyou to that role?

So let me tell you something With every role
I've had, I have both, in thesame instant, felt like I am
qualified and I'm 100%unqualified, and both are right.
There are days when I feelreally good and I know what I'm
doing, and there are days when Iam like what?

(53:50):
Who do I think I am?
What am I doing?
And so for every role that I'vehad not just for that one
here's what I know to be trueWhether you're cleaning toilets
or the CEO or the mayor, knowingthat there are things you don't
know is important.
You don't know what you don'tknow and you can never solve for
that, because you are a human.

(54:11):
You are never going to knoweverything you need to know, and
knowing that the skills thatyou have are transferable,
they're applicable and useful iscritical.
Every job that I have had hastaken my commitment, my
concentration and my desire towant to do it those things bar

(54:34):
none.
It doesn't matter what the jobis, you have to have them, and
that's critical.
It's huge, it takes you a longway, and so I cannot be a
software developer, because Idon't have the technical skills
for that.
I cannot be a seamstress,because I don't have the

(54:55):
technical skills for that I knowif I wanted to be a seamstress
because I don't have thetechnical skills for that I know
if I wanted to be a seamstress,I need to go to school to learn
how to sew, and I know that ifI needed to do a technical job,
that I would need to be educatedon how to do it.
But for the majority of jobs,it's really the commitment to

(55:18):
being a lifelong learner.
There is no way you are goingto know anything about
everything all at once.
It just it doesn't happen, andso for any interest that I've
ever had, I have really takenthe time to learn.
And so with Athletes Renaissance, I was connected to Tashawn and

(55:38):
Ryan and we started havingthese conversations and they
needed operations, help forensuring things got done and
what we could structure to berepeatable processes and making
sure that we were having thefinance, talk to the creative
and so forth, and I could dothat.
I could do those things, Icould help to grow it, and there

(55:58):
was a lot that I had to learn,and along the way, in every job
I've had, there's always a lot Ihave to learn, and I would beg
to say right now I probably needto learn a lot more about my
job and for my team.
This is an inside joke with us.
I try to source candidatessometimes and they're like yikes

(56:19):
.
But I did find a very goodcandidate.
She now works for us actuallyshe's on our team and I found
her, so I'm taking credit forthat.
But I don't know that.
And so I say all that becauseyou never want to count your
weight like don't count yourselfout, never count yourself out

(56:40):
of a job.
Always look at something and berealistic about the things that
you know and don't know.
But you can learn a lot ofthings and there's help out
there.
We were just talking the otherday during COVID.
I told the family we all neededto learn something new and it's
something that we had to teachourselves that you'd never done

(57:01):
before, and so I bought aharmonica.

Daniel Koo (57:04):
Wow.

I epically failed.

Daniel Koo (57:09):
Have you played any instrument before?

No.

Daniel Koo (57:13):
Okay.

And I tried to teach myself the harmonica.
Fyi, for anyone learningharmonica, that is hard and also
, if you've ever tried to rap,same thing with your breath.
I taught myself how to rap inthe fifth grade and I still have
some songs that are my go-tos.

Daniel Koo (57:31):
Okay, we'll pull up some music right now.

Gosh, thank goodness that we didn't record
things back then, but it wasvery difficult.
But there were many resourcesand multimedia.
So if I wanted to take a bookon, read a book about how to
play harmonica, I could.
If I wanted to watch videos,those were available.
If I wanted someone to teach me, you know, via Zoom, that was

(57:58):
available.
There's so many resources thatdon't shy away from something
because you need to learn a newskill.
That's literally why you do newjobs.
Be open, learn new things, behungry.
That's the magic for any of thejobs.

Daniel Koo (58:17):
Right after Athletes Renaissance.
Now we arrive at Hire Better,which is where you are right now
as CEO.
I want to talk about if youbelieve that these skills that
you have are innate or if youdevelop them over time and I
think we just answered that.
But I kind of want to hear youropinions on if you think there

(58:39):
are certain talents that areinnate.
Maybe it's being extroverted ormaybe it's people skills that
you kind of have to have fromthe get-go.

So that's a really interesting question.
Sometimes I think you went topsychology school, Daniel,
because you ask some profoundquestions that are really good.
Thank you, which is good for you.
You have a lot of goodintrospection, so it's hard to
answer that for me, because alot of my skills I developed out

(59:12):
of survival and so, because Ihad a single mother and she
often had to work, I was taskedwith parenting my younger
brother, and at four, five, 11,I wasn't a good parent.
I was a kid, and I'm sure mybrother was like you're a

(59:36):
terrible parent, which Iprobably was but I needed to
figure things out because I hadto.
There was no one else to do it,and so I needed to learn to
listen in different ways.
So, for instance, when you'rein second grade and your
teacher's talking about a formthat they're gonna send home for
your parents to sign, I knowthat I need to get that form

(59:59):
home, I need to read it, I needto see what's on it, I need to
have my mother sign it and thenI need to bring it back, and if
what's on it means we areagreeing to bringing supplies, I
then have to procure thosesupplies.
So my job isn't just to handthis form over to my mother.
My job is I read this form, Ineed you to sign it and we need

(01:00:21):
to go get crayons, because Ihave to bring crayons back to
school.
And so what happens often withchildren who have interesting
circumstances growing up is thatyou have to really be thinking
about a chessboard, not justthis present moment.
You need to think about themove you're going to make and

(01:00:43):
the three moves you're going tomake after.
And so my skills developed fromnot just wanting to survive but
wanting to thrive.
I never wanted to be the kidthat sat in class and wasn't
able to do the project because Ididn't bring the supplies, and
I never wanted to be the kidthat didn't get to go on the
field trip because I didn'tbring the permission slip, and

(01:01:05):
so I always was extra careful.
Now, the dark side of that isyou develop these OCD tendencies
because you don't want to misssomething, that you start to
overcomplicate things, and so,while these skills are great
when you're an adult, if you hadto develop them as a child with

(01:01:30):
trauma in their lives, theycome at a price right.
They come at the cost of.
Come at a price right.
They come at the cost of.
I wasn't a carefree child.
I had a great imagination and Iplayed a lot of imaginative
games and I problem solved.
But I also was a very seriouschild because I needed to think

(01:01:50):
things through, and so would Ihave had these skills Maybe, but
I know for sure that Ideveloped them because of that
and I think the answer for mylife is that they were acquired
skills.

Daniel Koo (01:02:08):
You and I actually had very different childhoods
and I am learning so much, youknow, kind of vicariously.
You know, some of these thingsthat you've learned through
trauma and through hardshipsactually ended up being the
energy source for a lot of yoursuccess and a lot of your

(01:02:28):
journeys.
And you mentioned in thebeginning that you wouldn't
regret or you wouldn't replaceany of that, and I think that
really shows as like a hopefulsign for a lot of those people
that are in the same situationthat if you're somehow able to
make it out of it with thelessons learned, then you can
achieve so many great things.

Velveth Schmitz (01:02:49):
Well said and let me underscore that, because
somewhere a kid's going tolisten to this and when you're
in it, you are in it and it'shard, and it's hard to see that
it's going to get better.
I get that and I am not tryingto minimize or trivialize, but,
man, besides being messed up, wemake some pretty cool adults

(01:03:14):
and I hope this is hopeful.
I always knew that those thingswould serve me.
I knew that I could be astatistic and I never wanted to
be.
I always wanted this to meansomething and all of those
things gave me the ability tocreate amazing opportunity and I

(01:03:36):
feel so fortunate because I'mnot a statistic and I didn't do
it alone remember, we never doit alone and I'm so grateful for
every person in my path whoextended their hand and pulled
me up.
But I have this amazing,adventurous life because of it,

(01:03:57):
because of all of that, and it'screated these awesome
opportunities and I'm fortunate.

To summarize a little bit about what we talked
about today, I think the numberone thing I'm learning today is,
if you commit yourself to therole that you have right now,
learn everything that you canthere.
You never know when thoseskills are going to come back
and help you in the future.
Also, you know when you gothrough tough times, it actually

(01:04:27):
may be a time to harden you andreally develop yourself, and I
think, keeping that in mind,it's going to kind of be a
hopeful message for us toremember that at the end it's
all going to be worth it.

I will add that shout out to every therapist
I've had, because they havehelped and because of them I am
so loving.
I have never closed my heartand I'm so grateful that I've
stayed optimistic, positive andopen, because that's also been a

(01:05:08):
big difference.

Thank you so much for your insights today.
They've been profound and Ithink I'm going to take so much
out of this and apply it in myown life, so really appreciate
it.

Thank you for having me, and you are an
incredibly wise individual andpeople are so fortunate that
you've chosen to create this asa way of paying it forward,
because the very intention youhave if no one's listened to the
trailer of the podcast, theyshould the intention you have of
paying it forward and ofbringing the ability for people

(01:05:43):
to have mentors in their livesthrough this podcast, you're
nailing it.

Thank you so much.
It really means a lot Great job.

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Velveth Schmitz - How did you become a leader? (CEO, Mayor, Commissioner)

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Velveth Schmitz - How did you become a leader? (CEO, Mayor, Commissioner)