Lisa Ramirez is Helping People Get Jobs with Purpose | The Ripple Effect Podcast

Are you feeling uncertain about your next career move or overwhelmed by the state of the job market in 2025? In this episode of The Ripple Effect Podcast, we engage in a powerful conversation with Lisa Ramirez, Senior Vice President of Operations and Client Success at Indeed. In her role, she focuses on operational efficiency and effectiveness as well as building scalable systems and processes, helping employers meet their hiring goals. She joined Indeed in 2019 as Chief of Staff to the Chief Executive Officer.

Lisa shares her unique journey, offering firsthand insight into how Indeed is helping people get jobs through innovation, adaptability, and deep empathy for job seekers and employers. This conversation explores the evolving job market, from the rise of AI in hiring to the importance of client success and user experience.

Lisa discusses how Indeed’s pay-for-performance model and commitment to customer impact are transforming how employers find talent and job seekers navigate opportunities. We also unpack how to lead with intention, the role of empathy in business, and what organizations can do to engage the younger and older workforce. 

Lisa’s perspective offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at how Indeed’s mission and culture create Ripple Effects across industries and generations. So, if you’re ready to rethink what a successful career can look like and how to align your energy with meaningful work, this is the episode for you! 

 

Connect with Lisa Ramirez on LinkedIn

 https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-henken-ramirez-2b07167/

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#lisaramirez #indeed #futureofwork #careeradvice #jobsearch2025 #clientsuccess #therippleeffectpodcast #steveharper #leadership #workwithpurpose #careerchange #womenintech

 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
I think if you've ever thoughtof changing jobs or find
yourself looking for a job, youhave heard of this site called
indeed it is the market leader,as a place for employers to go
and put up their jobdescriptions and to seek
candidates, and, of course, aplace for candidates to find
their next career opportunity. Iam super, super excited to have

(00:23):
Lisa Ramirez join us today. Lisais someone that I followed
online for a while, and Ithought she would be a perfect,
perfect person to bring onto thepodcast, because there's so much
influx in the job market today,I want to hear how indeed is
sort of approaching all of thisuncertainty and change. She's a
senior vice president ofoperations and client success,
which is music to my ears.Client Success, there are so

(00:47):
many companies that talk aboutthat, but very few that actually
follow through with it. And fromwhat I can tell in my research,
Lisa lives that title for thiscompany, and I gotta tell you,
just interacting with her andher team, just to get this
interview set up, I have beenblown away by her
professionalism, her approach tomaking sure all the ducks are in

(01:07):
a row, and just her commitmentto doing this. I'm super
grateful that she agreed to be apart of the ripple effect
podcast. So with no further ado,let's dive in with Lisa Ramirez
from indeed you Lisa,

(01:37):
first and foremost. Thank you somuch Lisa for joining the ripple
effect podcast. How are youdoing today? I'm doing great.
How are you I am fantastic. I amsuper excited. I think I maybe
told you this. I was a littlenervous because you are like a
rock star with a major companylike indeed, and I was like, I
gotta bring my A game. And I'mjust so grateful that you agreed

(01:58):
to be a part of this. So thankyou so much for being here. I'm
super glad to be here. I'm nottotally sure I agree with the
rock star, but status. I'mreally just me, but I'm excited
to talk to you. Well,
you is definitely a rock star. Iwill just tell you that. I will
say I did some research on you,and I kind of have sort of

(02:19):
looked at your work history alittle bit and kind of seeing,
you know, how your career pathis unfolded, and I certainly
want to get into that, but Ijust have to ask, you know, just
as we kick off, give us a littlebit of sense of, kind of your
origin story, kind of, how didyou end up where you are today,
and not necessarily just fromthe career aspects, but like,
sort of give us a little bit ofyour background, where you From,

(02:41):
kind of, you know, sort of whatmakes Lisa Lisa?
Well, I grew up all over, andthat is a huge part of my origin
story. So I moved to New Orleanswhen I was probably four. I
moved to East Bay, San Franciscowhen I was in middle school. I
moved to Texas when I was inhigh school, and everywhere I

(03:02):
went, I had to sort of learn anew culture, a new almost a new
language, and really a new wayof doing things. And by the way,
I love all of those places.They're all very dear to my
heart, but it really taught me,and in each successive move, it
taught me to just dive in. So itwas, like, really tentative the

(03:23):
first time I moved probably alittle bit less tentative the
second, by the third time, Ithought, like, I don't have
time. I'm a sophomore in highschool. I gotta get after this.
And I think that has a lot to dowith, like, one, sort of, like,
my adaptability and sort ofbeing able and that sort of led
me to work in a lot of differentindustries, and just jump in and

(03:43):
try to learn new things. And soI have lived in Austin for, you
know, over 20 years now, whichfeels really odd. I think it's,
it's shocked, shocked everyonein my life, but, but that, that
initial having, having torelearn over and over again, I
think, and granted. As ateenager, I was really surly to

(04:07):
my parents about this wholesituation, so thanks dad for
making me move and grounding mein this way. But I do think it
led to me being reallycomfortable in a lot of
different settings. The otherthing that happened when I was
in, really, in high school is Ireally started getting involved

(04:29):
in leadership activities. And,you know, everyone's heard the
Malcolm Gladwell 10,000 hours tobe an expert. And recently I
realized, like, I'm well past10,000 hours, and like,
leadership training and all ofthat. And so I think that had a
lot to do with sort of the way Ilook at the world, and the way
that I think about my team and,you know, and the work that I

(04:51):
do. And so I would say, youknow, those two things together
are really at my core.
That's all so I have to assume.That your family might have been
connected to the military, whichis why you moved around, or was
it witness protection program? Ijust it could be either right,
it's right, it's right, it'sright in the middle the oil and

(05:11):
gas industry. Oh, okay, yeah, mydad worked for Chevron for 35
years, 3039 years, maybe. And sowe, we followed his career. Ah,
that. Well, that makes sense.That makes a lot of sense. What
so? So his career brought you tothe Central Texas area. But what
has kept you here? What's keptyou in Austin?

(05:35):
Actually, his career brought usto Houston. Houston. Okay, yeah,
and my parents said that I wouldgo to college in Texas, and I
said, then I'm going to Austin.And so I came to school here in
the late 90s, and really fell inlove for me, Austin is the
closest you can get toCalifornia and still be in the

(05:56):
South. Yeah. And so it's this,it's this really nice mix, but
more than anything, it's thepeople I lived in New York City
for a year in my professionalcareer. And I loved living in
New York City, but I loved iteven more when my friends from
Texas came. And so I realizedthat that Austin was the spot

(06:18):
for me, and I really, reallyenjoy the spirit, the
atmosphere, the sort of energy,the diversity. Went to my
daughter's talent show thismorning. There was a really
amazing rhythmic gymnast next toa singer next to it. And it
just, it just sort ofencapsulates Austin for me. And

(06:42):
so I really love it. So,
so you went to the University ofTexas and so long horn, hook
'em. My son graduated with hismaster's degree from there. And
just such a great, great school.Was there something once you got
to Austin that kind of kept youhere and decided to, hey, this
is where I'm going to build mycareer.

(07:03):
Yeah, well, I didn't stay Okay,so when I graduated from the
University of Texas, everybodywent to Houston or Dallas. The
only people that got to stay inAustin worked at Dell or
trilogy, and I got a job inconsulting, and so I went to
Houston and I, but I traveledall the time, and Houston's a
great city to live in if you'regoing to travel, yes, and so,

(07:26):
and then I had the opportunityto live in New York City, and so
I did that. And when I realizedI wasn't going to stay in New
York City, I immediately, Iwould say, I would say, that was
like, that was my, like,circuitous route to Austin,
because at every point I wasjust trying to figure out how to
get back to Austin, yeah. And soI had the opportunity when I

(07:47):
left New York actually to workat the University of Texas. And
so that was just like a, youknow, dream job for a long time
is to go back and work there.And so that was, that was a, it
was a phenomenal experience. Butit also is a, really, it's kind
of a slow moving environment. Asa staff member, it's very
vibrant as a student and as astaff member, it was a little

(08:10):
bit slower. And so I'm back intoconsulting, but I stayed, but it
was really always, you know, ifthere had been a job in Austin
after graduation, I would havestayed there. Just wasn't. And I
actually, I actually think thatplaces like indeed are the
reason there are good jobs inAustin, because, you know, Dell
really started it. But if youthink about the tech

(08:32):
transformation that's happenedin the city, I'm so thankful to
our founder, Ronnie Kahan, who Idid not know at the time that it
was founded. But I'm just sothankful that companies like
indeed exist in Austin, becauseit does mean a lot of really
great jobs for folks. And it's,it's been great to be a part of
it, absolutely,
and how different the city haschanged over that period of

(08:54):
time, right? I mean, it's justit even within the last 10
years, it's, it doesn't evenlook and feel the same in a lot
of ways. That's
right. That's right. Thebuilding behind me is where I
had went to a like, sororityformal and college. And now it's
like, you know, it's like, it'slike, now my building sits above
it, and it's like, that was thethat was the biggest building in

(09:16):
downtown Austin. And so thereare little, little things like
that. My first day in theoffice, I looked out and I
thought, I can see my entireadult life. I can see the
hospital where I had my daughterthat, you know, like the dorm I
lived in freshman year, but it'sjust so dramatically different
and and vibrant.

(09:36):
That's, that's a, that's a fullcircle moment for you, when you
realize that, for sure, I am, Inoticed that, you know,
obviously, that you spent sometime at NetSpend, and, you know,
tell us a little bit about thatjourney, and then ultimately,
what led you to, indeed,
sure. So I was traveling quite abit for as a consultant. So I

(09:56):
was in, I was actually in Londonwith an old boss, and he. You
mentioned, you know, you'regetting older, and it seems like
you should probably get off theroad. You should talk to this
company, nextbend. And it turnedout it was seven blocks from my
house, my condo at the time. Andso I started talking to the CEO
at the time. And what theyreally needed was somebody to

(10:19):
come in and manage white labeledpartnerships. So the company had
been around for a while, butthey just signed Capital One
Virgin Mobile and and one otherthat didn't, that didn't launch.
And so they needed somebody tocome in and be a strategic
account manager and get thoseprograms launched. And so that's
how that was my entree, at thetime, it was a private company.

(10:43):
It was, you know, maybe 100people. I was single, and we
both grew when we grew uptogether. So I worked there,
through an IPO and through asale, and I did a lot of
different jobs. I also gotmarried, I had a child. So like,
you know, just like we bothmatured the company and me
together, and it was a reallyphenomenal experience, because I

(11:07):
got the opportunity to do a lotof different things. So I went
to a class at Harvard and gotsuper excited about customer
experience. Came back, wrote abusiness plan. Was like, we need
to, we need to implement this.You know, I went and sold the
job, got the job that I created,like, little, maybe, maybe a

(11:27):
little little, like greasing,greasing of skins, if you will.
But, you know, and then westarted doing some work,
advocacy work in DC. And RC, atthe time was like, you know, the
customers, why don't you come toDC? And so I started, you know,
here I was on the lobbying team.These are just things that like,
you know, over time in a companythat's growing like that, you

(11:49):
just get those opportunities todo things that aren't
necessarily like exactly in yourlane. But it was great. I had
the opportunity to work for someincredible leaders there and
learn just a ton myself. Yeah,it was, it was, it was a really,
it was a really great run.That's,
that's awesome. I actually knownetspin Because I was consulting

(12:11):
and then became a CEO for anemail security company in Austin
for a period of time, and that'sbeen, was one of our clients.
And when they started growing,it was like they were growing
like a weed, and it was, it wasreally cool and fun to see. And
like you said, though, in thatenvironment and in that space,
you're actually able to, youknow, do a lot of different
things. And really the onlything you're limited by is your

(12:33):
ability to raise your hand say,Sure, let me give it a try,
right? That's right,
that's right. And also, youknow, that's been, also had that
one. It's a it's a tough space,right? It's financial services,
lots of expectations. You'redealing with people's money, so
stakes are super high. But Ilearned a lot about information
security. I learned a lot about,you know, like I said,

(12:53):
government relations. I learnedall of these spaces that, like,
had I not done financialservices, I just I wouldn't
have, I wouldn't have had thatexperience, but I, I got to do B
to B, I got to do B to C. And soit was, yeah, it was just a
really amazing, like, paid MBAprogram. That's a great that's
probably, that's probably, Imean, a long one,

(13:18):
well, but that so that's, that'sa pretty, pretty significant
shift, though, when you movedto, indeed, what led to that?
Because that was a differentindustry, a different time, but
also probably, at the time youjoined, was probably kind of
feeling like, you know, you weregoing back home to that startup
kind of feel, and, you know,hyper growth, or about to hit
hyper growth. What? What was itthat kind of attracted you to

(13:41):
this role?
Yeah, so when I came to indeed,I came on as the Chief of Staff
for our CEO, Chris Himes, and itwas really a friend reached out
and said, You know, I think youshould. I'd like to refer you
basically and and so she talkedto me a lot about indeed, and
what the what the company did.Now, I also had had a friend

(14:06):
find a job at net spend onindeed. And we are really great
friends to this day. She was theone of the best lawyers we ever
hired. And so I knew that indeedwas pretty good, if, if Kimberly
had found nuts, then throughindeed, right? So that was like,
that was like a little bit of aproof point,
a good check mark, yeah. Well,good check mark, yeah. But

(14:28):
the friend who referred me is,you know, someone I trust. You
know a lot, and so she said thatI should really look at the job
I applied on indeed. Soobviously the job was listed on
indeed. And I think I wrote mycover letter about why cover

(14:48):
letters are a terrible idea. Sothat's surprisingly Chris
interviewed me. That'll
get some attention. I mean,that's I guess.
And so. Um, and so Iinterviewed, and I didn't, I
still didn't know much outsideof, like, you know, it's a job
listing site, but the more andmore I got to know people, the

(15:11):
more interesting the opportunitywas. The company was a lot
bigger than that. Spend was so,like, just people wise, yeah,
and revenue wise. And so it wasan interesting, you know, is the
this the right size company, butI thought it would be really
interesting, you know, reallygreat opportunity to work
directly for the CEO. I spentmost of the interviews. I

(15:34):
actually had to do the job oneday. So my last interview was,
okay, yeah, I met with every,every one of the senior
leadership team. I had to bringupdates back to the CEO, and by
the end of the day, I wasexhausted, truly exhausted, but

(15:56):
I'd had a really good day. Yeah,it was really fun. I really
enjoyed working with Chris, andit felt like a really good fit
to be able to help him, to beable to participate in the
company at that moment. Now,when I started, it was september
2019 and on march 3, 2020, wesent everyone to work from home.

(16:21):
So little
challenges, right? New little
things that happened along theway, but it was a really good
decision.
Yeah, I love it. So what is it?So when you when you were Chief
of Staff for the CEO, what wasit about that experience that
led you to be like, hey, thereare some other areas within this

(16:43):
business that I have a passionfor, or, you know, I have a
interest in contributing. Andyou clearly already demonstrated
like, hey, if the job doesn'texist, I'm going to make it
right. So I kind of see how thestory might unfold. But I'm
curious you have a little
bit of a track record there.Yeah, so absolutely, you know,

(17:04):
the most interesting, amazing,challenging job is the Chief of
Staff. You, you know, yousupport the chief, and then you
support the staff. And so your,your, your job is to, like, make
everyone look good, right? Likeyou're you spend all of your you
spend all day, every day, justtrying to, like, smooth things

(17:24):
over, make it happen, deal withthis crisis, like, keep this
person happy, you know, do thisover here, get this thing done.
And that's pretty great for me.I like a lot of variety. So it
might be a board meeting, youknow, one day, and it might be
like, making sure that we have,like, you know, I don't know
that, like, I'm trying to thinkof like, some of the more

(17:47):
mundane, like, you know, thetalking points are ready, or
that the email is written, orthat the, you know, like, or
that there's like, the rightamount of snacks for the team
that we're gonna meet with, orthe, you know, it's just really
like up and down kind of thing.And I loved it, yeah, but it
also gave me a pretty goodbird's eye view of, like, where

(18:08):
there might be opportunity tomake things better. And a huge
part of that was, you know, justseeing that there was maybe some
opportunity to create moreoperational rigor for a company
that had been growing likecrazy, you know, could we, could
we find some places where wecould have repeatable processes?

(18:29):
Could we, you know, could we doa little bit more
standardization across groups?And so, my first role out after
Chief of Staff was operationsand and, and could we have like
consistency in our globalquarterly meetings and our town
halls and our off sites andthings like that? So there's a
lot of that, and then our ChiefRevenue Officer left and left,

(18:55):
and whole and client success.And so I took that on, and I had
the background at net spend andclient in customer experience.
And so that was an interesting,like, a little bit of like,
going home, but also, but alsoin a different, in a really,
really different way. And so,you know, I think that's that

(19:17):
part of it was just like, asChief of Staff, sort of seeing
what, what needed to happen,also having openings help. So I
didn't, I didn't, in fact, writemy own job description quite
this time, but it's been reallygreat and so, and you know, I
continue to take on big crossfunctional projects while

(19:39):
leading client success, which Iactually find really helpful,
because I have such a groundingnow and what clients want, that
actually I'm even better from anoperational standpoint, because
I as a as a leader of a largefunction I have, I just have a
better sense of, like, what weneed to do and how we need to
get it
done. I love that. I love. Thefact that you aren't afraid to

(20:01):
try new things into leverageprior experience to like, help
you navigate and and build onsuccess in your current role.
The there's a, I think, a reallysuper powerful lesson for
especially job seekers who mightyou know, see this video or hear
this on a podcast, that thatresourcefulness that you had is

(20:22):
a huge asset to a company. And Ithink a lot of times, and we can
get into talking aboutspecifics, a little bit about
the job market here in a sec,but really, at the end of the
day, adaptability is one ofthose qualities that a lot of
leaders are looking for, andthey're looking for people that
will roll up their sleeves andbe like, I don't know, but I'm
going to figure it out and, youknow, figure out where to, you

(20:43):
know, get the resources I needinternally to fulfill whatever
we might need. Right? Whetherit's, you know, it's addressing
the troops, it's, you know,kicking off a project, it's, you
know, corporate alignment orstrategic relationships, you
know, having the ability to beadaptable and be willing to, you
know, learn along the way andnot be afraid of that I think is
such a huge, huge value. It's,

(21:05):
it's the thing that I look for,I know. And Chris, our CEO, he
says he looks for, you know,people who have good ideas and
get stuff done. And a lot oftimes it's hard to get both. And
so it's like, and so it'ssomething that I strive for a
lot. I I do really, really liketo get stuff done, but I also

(21:30):
try to have some good ideas too.So I think but, but I but, but,
but I similarly look for peoplewho are unafraid, unafraid of
what they don't know, willing todig in, you know. So I tend to,
you know, look for people whoaren't just going to float, you
know, float in that leadershipbubble where they don't really

(21:52):
dig in and get to know what'sgoing on. And so that's, you
know, that tends to be thepeople that I attract to my
team, the people that you got togot the opportunity to get to
know a little bit before oursession. And so because like
that, that just, it just makesit easier. If everybody, if

(22:13):
everybody's curious, ifeverybody's willing to learn, if
everybody's willing to roll uptheir sleeves and get stuff
done, you just can accomplish alot
that way. Yeah, well, you know,the thing that I really respect
about indeed, and you know, Ithink a lot of companies have,
you know, sort of one of your coroles is client success. And
people talk about that, but,and, you know, they even sort of

(22:35):
tout it, but very feworganizations actually deliver
on that. So from yourperspective, what is that was,
what is that portion of yourrole consist of? And do you have
a, you know, a win or two thatyou might be able to share with
us, to be able to say, this is,this is what that actually means
and how we put it into practice?Yeah.
So for us, client, success isreally around taking what, you

(23:00):
know, the promise that we make,in many cases, in the sales
cycle of what indeed is going todeliver and making that actually
happen. And so the team isreally focused on, you know, how
do we onboard you? How do wemake sure you understand how the
product works? And then, how dowe make sure that it's set up
for you to achieve your goal,which is really growing your

(23:21):
business making the hire, youknow. So that's, that's our
mission, is to help people getjobs, but we don't help people
get jobs if no one's makinghires. So it's a really, you
know, we do one of our corevalues as job seeker, first, but
the second core value is pay forperformance. And so we're really
driven by the idea that we makemoney when, when our clients are

(23:43):
successful. And what that meansis like our team has to get
after it every single day.There's no There's no, like long
term contract that you're lockedinto. It's like every single day
we have to perform every day wehave to get you the hires. And
so I think that that thatchanges the dynamic quite a bit

(24:03):
in the client success area,because we have to always be
looking for how we optimize theproduct for you, how we help you
use it better as a client, as anemployer. One of the things that
I'm probably the most proud ofis that can also feel a little
overwhelming when you have a lotof clients. And so we've been

(24:25):
building through AI and machinelearning intelligence to help
our team zero in on the thingthat's going to like, make the
most value for you. And soinstead of as a client success
specialist, you walk in and youlook at all your accounts and
you try to figure out whatyou're going to do, we're
actually delivering thoseinsights directly to them based

(24:45):
on everything that we know aboutthe product and everything we
know about the client, andsaying, You know what? Actually,
this person's jobs areunderperforming, reach out to
them today, get their campaignsfixed, that kind of thing. And
so we're just looking. For allof those ways to get much more
surgical, pinpointed, to makesure that the money that people

(25:07):
are spending on indeed is goingtowards making hires.
Yeah, it's a true partnershipright with the clients that you
serve, because you really aretaking that necessary step to
build that relationship withthem so that you can sort of be
in the know of what's happening,and it really for what you do
you know, or for what indeeddoes right the company sort of

(25:28):
needs to know what's happeningnext quarter or what's happening
six months from now. Where arethe new products and solutions
coming down the pipe, and howare we starting to plan for that
pipeline, for the right kinds ofcandidates? How do we get that
job? You know, the right type ofattention that it needs. It's,
it's a, it's a really in depthprocess.
It is. And knowing, you know,and knowing, like, if you know,

(25:50):
if my client is a seasonalbusiness, knowing when they need
to make those hires in order toget the right, you know, in
order to make meet their blackfriday goals, or their, you
know, or or tax season, right?So, like you're not hiring, you
know, you're not hiring taxpreparers in January, you're
hiring them in October,November. And so a huge part of

(26:11):
what our team does is really getto know those businesses. When I
first went to my when I went tomy first client event, I had
this woman, Julie, from, fromone of our clients. She, she,
she came up to me, and she'slike, I really love Web. Like, I
really love him. I He's not onmy account anymore. I need a
back and and that was like, thatwas like, your biggest ringing

(26:33):
endorsement, like, what web hadbeen able to do with her
business, and how he had, like,really become part of her team.
And I hear that over and overagain with clients of like, you
know, my person at indeed ispart of my team. And that's,
there's, there's just nothingbetter than hearing that.

(26:53):
So I'm curious, like, your takeon the industry as a whole.
Like, you know, back in the day,it was like monster.com or
careers.com There were a numberof, especially early days of the
Internet, right? That joblisting, job posting thing, but
where I in correct me if I'mwrong, but I think you sort of
just illustrated this in termsof your approach. But a lot of

(27:14):
those solutions that were sortof out there and big, you know,
because they were doing SuperBowl ads and they were, they
were making a big splash outthere in the media, and they
were doing a big spin, but theywere really nothing more than
just job lists, right? And yes,they brought it, you know, with
a little bit different userfeel, and there was a different
experience than, you know, kindof the one ads approach. But

(27:37):
really at the end of the day,they weren't really invested in
the relationship with theclients they were serving. You
need it. You have a higher youneed a higher. And, you know,
listed here, and if you placethe job, great, come back to us
when it's time for another one.But what I've always interpreted
from, indeed, and it sounds likefrom what you just explained,
that you know you're you want tobe at that table, you want to be

(27:58):
in those meetings, you want tobe a part of that collective
team, because, you know, thingscould really take off for an
organization. And you know, youneed to be at least prepared for
that many, many months beforeit. You know, the the rubber,
you know, meets the road right.And I sense, based on what I've
seen and researched on Indeed,is that you guys really lean

(28:21):
fully into that process, andthese others just didn't keep
up, and therefore you guys wereable to take the market lead
position. Yeah.
Now a lot of that was before Igot to indeed, so I but, but
what I will say is that, youknow, if you think, and if you
do go all the way back to oneads you just paid that, people
will say, like, post and pray.So it was just like, I pay, I

(28:44):
pay the money, I post the job,and I hope that someone sees it
right. I hope someone picks upthe paper. I
was guilty of that many, manyyears ago.
You know? I hope so. I hopesomeone clicks on monster. I
hope, you know, and, and so whatthat meant was you're paying
regardless you were and you wereand you had no idea what kind of

(29:05):
results you were going to get.And so Ronnie and Paul are co
founders. They really, they hada couple of key tenants, one all
the all jobs in one place. Soreally democratizing the access
to jobs. So, you know, not justfor people who went to monster
or other places, not just peoplewho picked up the paper, but
like all the jobs one place, youknow, not dependent on who had

(29:28):
paid to post on that particularsite. And then the the second
one was pay for performance. Soyou pay when someone expresses
interest in your job. And so youare, you know that you're only
paying when you're actuallygetting traffic and visits and
visibility. And I think it justreally resonated with people

(29:51):
because it, you know, one itmade it, made it where job
seekers really only had to go toone place. They didn't have to,
you know, they didn't have to,like, I saw this job over here,
but. Didn't see it over here andover time, the team just built
more and more tools to make itso much easier. We, we did an
exercise a few off sites agowhere we we we had the software

(30:18):
that made our computer screensas if we had Parkinson's and so
and so it made it very difficultto navigate the screen. And so
we all had to set up an indeedprofile with the and you could
choose different things. So youcould choose, you know, you
could choose things that madethe screen hard to read and you

(30:41):
know, so for visual impairment.But what we realized is, you
know, setting that profile upwas really hard, but once my
profile was set up, it was a loteasier to apply the second job,
the third job, the fourth job,and so things like that that
build a longer term relationshipwith both the job seeker and the
employer allow, indeed, to be amuch better matchmaker between

(31:05):
the two. And that's reallypowerful, right? Because the
more we know about job seekers,the more we know about jobs, the
better matches that we're ableto make, and then all of the
friction that we can reduce inthat, in that interaction, just
makes, just makes more more morematches, more hires, more people
getting jobs.

(31:26):
I actually, I love the fact thatyou brought up that story,
because that user experience andhow that informs what you do
next and how you do it. Andhaving been at least temporarily
in somebody's shoes, that that'sa really challenging situation
for them to be engaged orinvolved in, I think that's
phenomenal. I went and spoke ata tech conference last year for
women in tech in Philly, and oneof the speakers before me was

(31:49):
actually they had done the userinterface for clear. And what
clear ended up doing was theyhad put these, you know,
obviously clear does everythingbased on your eye and you know,
their their devices have beendeployed, but they hadn't done
any user testing, and theirteam, their tech team, had

(32:10):
basically put out, you know, thestandard set of requirements.
Well, it didn't take intoaccount very tall people and
very short people and airports,because they didn't want, you
know, anything that could beused as a weapon. Right at
security, they removed all thestep stools, which just cleared
out, like a huge chunk ofpeople. And it really took this,

(32:30):
I mean, it was basically a userinterface design specialist that
came in, and the first thing shedid was she, you know, she was
telling the audience that she'slike, I kicked off my heels, and
I went to my normal height, andI was like, this far from where
I needed to be. And she said, Iwould not, nobody would have
known that. Nobody would havedone it because, you know, you

(32:50):
have a set of requirements.People deliver those
requirements, and then nobodythought to test it, you know, up
or down or adjustable, you know,you know, units where they could
be adaptable. They just fullyinvested in, you know, kind of
the straightforward, you know,you know, their manufacturer
just, here's the specs, right?And it wasn't until they

(33:13):
actually went back and said,Hey, we need to put ourselves in
the literally, the shoes are notshoes of the our actual users
and see where our problems are,that they discovered they had a
pretty major problem, and theycouldn't figure out why. In some
of the more, higher volumeairports, people were just not
going to clear, even though theyhad a clear status, right? So it
was nobody could figure it out.On the executive team, they're

(33:34):
like, you know, I don'tunderstand. We have all these
travelers that are goingthrough, but we don't why
they're not coming through ourline, or they're not using our
devices. And it took someonefrom outside to actually really
put that through the paces tosee how it worked. And so I
hadn't actually heard anothergreat example to that until you
just talked about, you know,filling out the profile as
someone who has Parkinson's.That's, that's amazing. I love

(33:55):
that.
Yeah, one of the, you know, backto the nuts. Then days, one of
the things that we did as we,our CEO at the time, came to me
and said, You know, I don't wantto do another holiday party. I
want to do a customer empathyevent. And so we, we gave
everybody a paper check, we puteverybody in teams. And the

(34:16):
teams were, you know, anexecutive down to like,
individual contributor, youknow, so like the last person in
the company might be in the in ateam with the CEO, I give them a
paper check, and we gave them anet spend card, and we told
them, and they had to go to adifferent part of the city, and
they had to cash the check, theyhad to get the money on the
card, and then they had a listof tasks. They had to get paid,

(34:40):
pay for someone's gas, they hadto get groceries, they had to
pay a bill, and they had, youknow, they had $400 like so they
had a budget, and they had to doas much good as they could, and
a day and that. And we, and we,and we never had a holiday party
again. That's, that's what wedid. And the first, the first
team that came back, becauseeveryone. In teams, and we had,

(35:00):
we had trial, and we also usepublic transportation, because
it's not a really common thingin Austin to use public
transportation. So our teamwasn't really used to it. And in
fact, they were like, we'regoing to take the bus. I was
like, yes, you're going to takethe bus. Big learning curve. And
so they came back, this teamcame back, and they said, Lisa,
we just had the most interestingexperience. We went to the gas

(35:23):
station to buy someone's gas,and we asked him how much it
would take to fill up his tank,and he didn't know. And they're
like, if you ever and he said, Ionly put $10 in at a time, and
we were doing gas authorizationholds, right? So like, if you,
if you, you know, if you weregoing to do $10 Then we would
add because, because it wouldoff, and then we would have to

(35:45):
add up to a larger amount. And ateam came back, and we're like,
we have to pay like, we have todo something totally different,
because our customers are notusing the card the way that we
use our, you know, credit card,backup plan, debit card, etc.
And so it totally, you know, itjust, it was just like, such an
enlightening moment, you know,your your story of the of the

(36:08):
heels and the in the step stooland all that stuff. It's like,
yes, like, that is, those werethe kinds of stories that we
heard so much and just reallydrove it home, you know, because
there'd be an engineer on theteam going, like, you know what?
We need to do something aboutthis do. And so I am a huge
believer in customer empathy.One of the things that we do at

(36:30):
Indeed, is we do all of our ownhiring using our tools. And so
if we have a new interviewplatform, our team is using it.
If we have a new scheduling, orour team is using it, if we you
know, and so it's, it'sextremely, extremely helpful.
And then we give each teammember at indeed credit that

(36:54):
they can go help a smallbusiness or a nonprofit, and
that also helps them sitalongside a business as they're
using indeed, and the Innovatelike, it's just amazing that I'm
such a huge believer in customerempathy. But like, both from a
UX, but also just from a like,just really helps you understand
how customers are using theproduct, what they actually

(37:16):
need. You just do a better job.
I love that. It's one thing toactually do the experience, but
what, what it sounds like youguys are really good at as well,
and sounds like you did that atnetspin as well. But is not just
getting the, you know,proverbial shoes of your
customers, but to actually havethe conversation and
communication. The one thingthat I preach all the time to

(37:37):
the folks that I talk to, or Imight do coaching or consulting
with is that clients, theythey're paying you for whatever
it is, product or service, butthey want to know that you kind
of live it with them. And, youknow, the good, the bad, the
ugly. And oftentimes they thinkyou see a lot of especially in
tech, right? You know, it's,well, that's just the way it is,

(37:58):
or we didn't build it that way,or there's no way we can adjust
it or fix it. Well, you can'tadjust or fix something you
don't know is broken or is notliked or not appreciated by a
client, and the only way you getthere is by going through that
experience yourself and or, orhopefully both, actually
engaging the customer andsaying, Okay, what can we do

(38:18):
differently? What can we dobetter? I own a software company
in Austin as well, in additionto what I do for ripple, and the
one thing that we're, you know,I tell our all of our
prospective clients, is, hey,look, we're not selling software
here. We're We're selling apartnership, and with
partnership, I want to hear fromyou as the CEO, the good, bad
and the ugly, and what you know,what you don't like about our
platform and what you do like,and where can we make the

(38:41):
improvements? Because they'rethe ones that are in the field,
utilizing the technology. And,you know, we can make
assumptions, but that's all itis. And one of my biggest and
favorite phrases is, is itfactor? Is it assumption? And
especially when it comes to acustomer support issue, or it
comes to a new feature, or, youknow, something along the lines
that's bubbled up, you know,we'll have people that say,

(39:03):
Well, you know, I just, I don'tthink that's important, or
customers aren't going to likethat. Well, is that factor? Is
it assumption? Do we actuallytalk to anybody to understand
that? And we're in the processof building out some new
iterations to our platform, andmuch of what we're doing is from
that collaborative approach,where clients are actually
sitting there and going, I likethis. I don't like that. This is

(39:24):
what I need. This is what drivesme nuts. It. There's just no
replacement for it. But a lot oflot of companies just don't go
to that level of detail, right?And I love the fact that you
guys are doing that because it'sso important, and in your space,
especially that that industryhas changed so dramatically,
even in the last several years,it is, you know, being, you

(39:48):
know, sort of lock step,shoulder to shoulder with your
clients. I think is, is probablywhy you guys have the reputation
that you do. Thanks.
I think it's really important wealso have an amazing user
experience. Science Research andDesign Group that we work really
closely with, and that's, that'sreally all they do. But I find
that it's also really helpful tohave the engineering leader, the

(40:11):
product leader, the clientsuccess specialist, have those
experiences as well. And youknow, if you, if you live it as
a company, then you don't, youknow, it doesn't have to be the
UX person or the client successperson saying, like, we need
this, like the engineer sees itthemselves. And that is, is
extremely powerful. So

(40:32):
I don't know if this story istrue. I spoke out at Microsoft a
few years back, and somebody wasup. It was a, it was a an
internal event that I was at. SoI got to see a couple of other
speakers that they brought in,but one of them was a former
Microsoft executive that hadleft and gone out into the
consulting world. They weretalking about experience, and
they said, you know, the reasonthat Windows 3.0 got quickly

(40:53):
replaced by Windows 3.1 andpeople are like, shaking their
head, and they work for thecompany, and they're like, Bill
Gates could not get the damndrive to work right? Is this
could not work. And it's like,this is, this is not going to,
you know, this is not the waywe're going to do it, you know.
And if I can't make it operate,I owe, you know, at that point
probably, you know, they werepublicly traded, but

(41:14):
technically, owns the company,right? And he couldn't get it to
work. How could the averagecustomer, and you know, you
know, nowhere, Kansas, right, beable to do it. So I thought,
yeah, that was, it was a reallyinteresting perspective on on,
you know, you got to, and that'skind of where, apparently, their
phrase that you got to eat yourown dog food, you know, you
have, like you said, we use ourown tools to do our own vetting,

(41:35):
to do our own interviewing andhiring, and practice our skill
sets in that regard. And I justlove that, because I think
that's the only way you get soclose to hitting on the target.
I do think that the CEO title isalso the chief product breaker.
So I do think that's it. I thinkthat's like, actually probably
talking
to my team earlier. I mean, come

(41:56):
on, it's, it's, is I have, Ihave a sample size of a couple,
and it's been pretty it's prettyconsistent. It's pretty
consistent. And I will say it. Imean, here at Indeed, we really
like to say, drink our ownchampagne. We decided that dog
food wasn't necessarily what waseating but, but we do really,

(42:16):
really believe in thatphilosophy. And you know, our
from our CEO, you know, allthroughout the team. So it's a
it's, it's really, it's reallyessential. All of us will be job
seekers at some point, and wefirmly believe that, you know,
and in our evolution, that's whywe that's why we're in the

(42:37):
middle of really rethinking,like, you know, it used to be,
you just typed in a job titleand a location, and we're really
looking at how we go beyondthat, because people are a lot
more than just a job title and acity, but, but it is, but it is
like it is it is it is somehowin the requirements of CEOs to

(42:58):
be able to break, find The onething that doesn't work
that's right. Well, I'm a masterat that. I will tell I tell
people I'm the CEO of thissoftware company, but I'm really
the CDG, the chief, dumb guy. Soyou know, you know, I can
operate this thing that anybodycan operate it. So let's switch

(43:20):
gears for a second. I mean,there's a lot of there's a lot
of uncertainty relative to thejob market today. There's
obviously nobody knows howthings are going to shake out.
You know, we have a newadministration. There's
obviously a lot of concernsthere. There have been a huge
amount of tech layoffs,obviously, in Austin as well.

(43:41):
How does indeed, look at thosethings that are occurring, and
how are you guys preparing forthat so that you know you're
you're on the cutting edge andyou're out ahead of tip the
skis, so to speak, on some ofthese things that are evolving,
that markets and tariffs and allthese things are changing, which
we don't control, but in yourspace, you have to be really

(44:03):
super adaptable. So what,what's, what's the thought
process that you guys are goingthrough at this point with
regards to the way the jobmarket is today?
Yeah, so indeed, has definitelybeen through all, all of the
swings, right? So, founded in2004 and been been through quite
a few of these economic, youknow, a lot of the economic

(44:23):
turmoil. I think one thing thatclients really value about
indeed, is we don't have longterm contracts, and so it's
really helpful for because,because we can be there for
clients in the upswings and thedownswings, and we can really
adjust. They really can adjustthe way that they, that they
operate with us, that certainlycreates challenges for us. So we

(44:47):
have to be really, reallythoughtful about how we do that.
But the other thing that we justare stay super focused on the
mission of helping people getjobs and so in these times of
turmoil, our job. Seekers needus immensely and our employers.
Once you know, once they startgetting over overloaded with

(45:09):
applications, they really needhelp sorting through those.
Because it doesn't mean that noone's hiring. It just means
that, like, they're being alittle bit more selective. And
so we look at both of thoseproblems when, when it's when
it's tough to get job seekers,we want to, we want to be there
to help get as many eyeballs onjobs as possible, get as much

(45:31):
applicant flow as possible. Andthen when you're getting
overloaded with applicant flow,and this can happen to the same
company within a, you know,within like highly sought after
jobs, we want to be there to usethat same matching that we do
for jobs and job seekers to helpyou understand which are the
best applicants and really speedup the process for your team.

(45:52):
Because I feel like when you'renot hiring a ton is when it
really matters how long it takesyou to get that person in, yeah,
the risk
is so high at that point. Imean, if you're hiring a bunch
of people, that it kind ofmitigates the risk, but when
that one or two people, it's yougotta, you gotta swing for the
fences, and you gotta makecontact, and you gotta have some

(46:13):
runs, right?
And especially for folks thatyou know an employee is a
revenue line, right? So thereare lots of, there are lots of
companies out there that, like,they don't fill their hiring
targets, they're not makingthey're not making money.
They're not, you know, they'renot running that shift. They're,
you know, they're just a lot ofa lot of those out there. And

(46:34):
so, you know, I think we findthat in these times of crisis,
this is really, it's one when wehave some of our best
innovations, because we have toget really creative about how,
you know how to do things. Ithink about our video
interviewing and our indeed,hiring events went virtual very,
very fast in the pandemic. Andso we built an entire because we

(46:57):
we'd been running in people,we'd been running in person
hiring events for a long time,and then we took everything
virtual, so built a videointerview platform that allowed,
you know, a virtual lobby and tobe able to take in a lot of
candidates and and so right now,I feel like we're having to

(47:19):
really move ahead with our thehelp that we can provide
employers of taking largenumbers of candidates and really
getting down to the to the folksthat you should either be
interviewing or making offersto.
That I love that. Do you? Do youhave a sense that this kind of
cultural shift about you know,we've got these competing,

(47:44):
different demographics relativeto, you know, job, experience
and age. You know that thechallenges that there there are
for a lot of organizations arereally struggling to figure out
the right people to put on thebus right in the, you know, to
fill their talent pool is, isthat? Is that something that you

(48:05):
guys are, you know, you know,actively working on to say,
okay, look, there you get what Iguess. The reason I'm asking
this is I was thinking aboutseveral people that are in my
community for the ripple thatyou know, they either have
gotten to a point where they'vebeen forced to retire, or they
had a layoff that, you know,they didn't expect that they've
been with the organization.Their only network has actually

(48:26):
been at that company for solong. And it's kind of easy to
kind of point fingers at likecompanies like Dell, where
people have been there, and youknow that that's been home for a
long time, and then thisunexpected shift occurs, and it
can be somewhat intimidating anddifficult for a candidate to
say, look, how can I take thisexperience where I've been at
one of two companies as a careerpath, because that's how my

(48:47):
generation, that's kind of whatyou were supposed to do, and
then you have this youngergeneration that's coming in and
be like, Hey, I'm going toswitch jobs every nine to 18
months. And how do you get youknow, how do you find the right
fit for those organizations, andhow to, how to make sure that
you're delivering thosecandidates. Because when, when a
company, and you alluded tothis, right, it's a huge, huge

(49:08):
investment of time and money tobring somebody in. And I think
that the older workforce thathas maybe still looking for that
last act and their career pathis such an untapped resource
today and then. But how do youas a hiring manager or
leadership group within anorganization, look at that and

(49:29):
then also understand, like, Hey,you could bring in this next,
you know, you know, youngerworkforce, but they may not be
with you forever, becausethere's not a lot of loyalty
there. They may look for thenext job, or they, you know,
they were kind of looking forthe job when they found this
one, they'll continue to lookand see what greener pastures
are. So it's a reallyinteresting, but also a
difficult kind of time fororganizations, because it's

(49:51):
there's a lot of turmoil oneither end of that coin, right?
Yeah,
I think you know, one clientthat. I talked to recently. I'll
talk a little bit, maybe aboutsome examples, because I don't
know that there's like ananswer, but, you know, they hire
only, they mainly hire peoplefor their manager management

(50:14):
trainee program, right? And sowhat they're looking at is
they're bringing folks in,they're hiring them for their
manager train, managementtrainee program, and then
they're building their career.And so I think that's, I think
that is a huge part of theopportunity with the younger
generation is to because,because, you know, part of
changing frequently is trying tofind that opportunity to grow,

(50:39):
yeah, and so if you build thatin for the younger generation. I
think that's really powerful. Ifyou, if you, if you craft it in
such a way that you can, you canchange jobs every 18 months and
within
our organization, yeah, exactly,
exactly right. Like, lateral,you know, like, you know,
there's such amazing opportunitythere. And you know, as a

(51:04):
training program, rotations arereally powerful. We've done a
lot of that at Indeed, just, youknow, even to cover parental
leave. So if someone's out oncaregiver, caregiver leave,
we're taking folks and saying,Hey, why don't you do this job
while for the six months thatthat person's out, which, you

(51:25):
know, gives them some on the jobtraining, some, you know, some,
some, some real worldexperience. So we've been
calling them like and likeinternal apprenticeships,
basically. Now that, I think, islike, I see that as a huge
opportunity. We've been doing.We've been taking non technical
folks and doing a technicalapprenticeship. So, you know,

(51:46):
folks in client successoperations spending time with
our engineering team learning tocode. And so they, they have
these, you know, we have a classof 10 that just graduated, and
they're doing great. That'sawesome. On the other end. I
think, I think for folks thatare looking for their last act,
it is really, really difficult.And I think that that that is a

(52:07):
place that I don't know, thatI've heard of anyone kind of
cracking that nut, so to speak.I think that the caregiver leave
coverage is an interesting idearelated to that and sort of that
opportunity to do a six monthstint. My mom keeps offering to
be the librarian at Indeed,because she really likes our

(52:30):
offices and she would like aninternship. We haven't quite
approved that yet, but, but I dosee that opportunity for for
folks that are looking formaybe, maybe a six month
engagement, maybe a short termas a part of our overall parent

(52:50):
company staff. Mark is one ofour sister companies, and so I
do see them have have someopportunities for for folks that
are not looking for like, youknow that mid career, you know,
leadership job, but I do thinkthat's a place that we have to
do way more innovation, and thatI do see colleagues, friends,

(53:17):
folks in my Network, that arelooking for those opportunities,
you know, aunts and uncles thathave left the government, that
tends to be a earlierretirement, looking for, you
know, those opportunities andand in some cases, there's some,
there are some, there are somenatural places, right? There's
consulting, there's, there'sdifferent things, but, but I

(53:39):
think there's an opportunity forsomething a little bit more
structural.
I love that. I love that youtapped on both of those because
it really at the end of the day.I mean, it's, it's a brilliant
thought process that you have,because at the end of the day,
it's like when you think aboutthe younger generation that is
looking to be challenged. Theywant to have they I don't think

(54:00):
it's that they are flighty. Idon't think it's that they are,
you know, that they just jumpship. Because they jump ship. I
think a lot of the youngergeneration, they just want to be
doing work that they feel hasmeaning and has purpose. But it
really comes down to thecompanies giving them, you know,
the attention that is necessaryto say, look, we want to be able

(54:21):
to leverage your skill sets andyour abilities in other
capacities. And so here's acouple of different directions
you can take your career. Ithink you know, at least from my
experience, you don't see a lotof companies doing that, but you
really need to be out in theforefront doing that to keep
that younger generation engagedand committed to your
organization and that they cansee the potential, like you

(54:42):
said, a lateral move, or theycan see a potential up for the
career path. But and then theolder workforce, they're just so
many good, really qualitycandidates. I'm speaking at a
job club on Monday, and I'vedone several this year, and the
majority of the older workforce,they're like. You know, there's,
there's just ageism out there.And I'm not getting my resume

(55:03):
looked at. I'm certainly goingto put in a plug for you and
your team, obviously, the greatwork you're doing on Monday. But
you know what I what I alwaystry to tell employers is that
there are, there are, there'sgold on both sides of those
hills, right? But the ones thathave been there, done that, that
have that experience, even ifthey are, you know, government
transitioning military, they'vebeen in the corporate world, and

(55:27):
someone that had worked at IBMfor 15 years brings a crazy
amount of life experience andwork experience to a small
startup, and getting people tolook upstream and say, Look,
this is, you know, kind of thetalent, but you need to, you
need to have diversity withinthat workforce, you know. And I
think you want to be able tohave representation across the
board from the generationalperspective. But I feel like the

(55:50):
younger generation is getting abad rap, and I think the older
generation just doesn't get thelook, and they I love the fact
you guys are looking at that andfinding ways to do it, because
there, there isn't there's anunbelievable and tap number of
resources there we, I have alittle community we call the
pond, and we created just aspace within the pond called
Career ripple. And one of theareas that came out really

(56:13):
quickly was a lot of the folksthat were joining were retirees
that actually have lost theirnetwork, their day to day
purpose, their friends at work,their networks were all related
to their jobs than when theyretire and they're not ready to
hang it up. They don't know whatthey're going to do next yet,
but they feel lost, and thenthey feel really, I don't want

(56:34):
to use the word, but it'sprobably accurate, really
inadequate about getting backinto it and figuring out where
they might play in and fit. Itold this group that we have
this thing called Beyond ripple.So you're retired, but you don't
want to fully be retired. Youwant to do something else. And
one of the things that I telleverybody is, go watch that
Robert De Niro movie called TheIntern. Right? It shows that

(56:55):
someone with an experience thatcan come back in to an
organization, but you need a youneed a company to believe in you
and give you a shot.
Yeah, I will also say one of thepeople I admire so much is my
dad, and he is he's been retiredfor a while, but he is a water

(57:16):
tester. He's a marine mammalrescue volunteer. He, uh, calls
bingo at church. And I think Isay that because he's built a
network, and he he'd worked,he'd worked at the same company
for 39 years, and that was hisprofessional network. And he's

(57:36):
built, he's rebuilt his networkthrough these volunteer
activities have given him somuch joy and and so, you know, I
think that's not the fullanswer, but you do, you do have
to find those ways theloneliness epidemic is really,
is really huge. And so, youknow, I think there are some

(58:01):
really incredible opportunitiesout there that might that, that
people might find throughvolunteering, that could turn
into other things. And so I amjust such an advocate for, you
know, because just just watchingit, you know, from the initial
time that he was retired to thereally, really active life that

(58:25):
he has now is, it's really, it'sreally quite remarkable. Yeah,
a lot of our folks in the in theretirement space that we've
created within the pond, they'rebusier now than they ever have
been. You know, they're like Ithought I was busy when it was
working, but, but I guess thereal question is, what do we
need to do to get your mom hiredover there as the librarian? I

(58:47):
mean, does it? She needs to knowsenior vice president? I think
she said stuff like that too,Steve,
and I'll endorse her.
Thanks. I appreciate it. She'll,she'll appreciate that.
That's awesome. Well, I couldtalk to you all day long,
because there's just so manydifferent interesting ways that
we could take this conversation,but I want to be respectful of

(59:08):
your time, because I know you'rein demand and have a very packed
schedule, so I want to berespectful of that, but I always
like to finish these interviews,and I would love to open the
door for another conversation,because there is just, I think,
a lot more that we could diginto. And as you have time, I
would certainly invite you back,because I think a lot of people
are going to really enjoy thisparticular, this particular

(59:28):
episode, and they're going towant to know more. And so
hopefully you'll, you'll, you'llcome back. But we always like
to, we always like to finish upthese interviews with a full a
few what I call rippleconnection questions, just to
give people a little bit moresense of who you are and kind
of, you know, kind of differentthan the job, and a little bit
different than, you know, whatyou've already shared today, but
a little more personal insight,if you're okay with that, that

(59:51):
sounds great, awesome. So Iguess my first question I would
love to ask is, what did theseven year old Lisa want to be
when she grew up? I. She wastraveling all over the world or
all over the country.
So interestingly enough, Iactually had this question. I
think they said eight, but Ithink it was like pretty solid.

(01:00:11):
I thought that the height oflife would be to live in Baton
Rouge Louisiana, go to LSU anddrive a little red convertible.
I had no idea what kind of job Iwas going to do. I just was
going to go to college and atLSU, and my dad had season

(01:00:32):
tickets when I was young. And soI learned, I learned, you know,
takes four, four downs to get10. You know, you have four
chances to get 10 yards fromright there in Tiger Stadium,
and so I didn't think much pastthat.
Well, see, and if you, if you'vegone to LSU now, they probably
would give you that little redconvertible with the nil money.

(01:00:58):
Steve, thank you. Thank you.
Sorry. I'm sorry if you weren'tdoing what you're doing now,
what would you be doing?
Okay, so I answered thisquestion. This is a little
embarrassing to the founder ofindeed, on one of my first
nights, one of my first eventshere. And I said, Oh, I would

(01:01:19):
just connect people. I wouldjust spend all day connecting
people. And he pointed out thatthat was my actual job. So So I
think I am in the right spot.
I love that. I love that when,when you think about you said
you have a daughter. Do you haveone child or

(01:01:42):
I? Do I have a 13 year olddaughter named Charlie? Okay,
13 year old daughter and yourother child is how old?
Oh, no, I just have one.
Okay, so the 13 year olddaughter, when she looks through
the lens of what mom does, whatdo you want her to think and say
to people. I
want her to see somebody thatgives back and that really cares

(01:02:06):
about people and cares about thecommunity, and does as much as
she possibly can to make theworld a better place.
I love that, and that's evidentby your tagline on LinkedIn. I
hope people get jobs. I justlove it. It's simple, it's easy,
it's straightforward, and you'reclearly very, very good at it. I
think that's fantastic. If youhad to pick one, we'll call it

(01:02:32):
superpower, or, you know, skillthat you actually don't get to
use at your job. What would thatbe?
Do? I have to do? I have thissuperpower skill. You,
hey, if you have it,
okay, I did. I wrote the HarryPotter thing last week in
Orlando, and I don't want tofly. I was nauseous. I'm not

(01:02:56):
interested in flying. Or I don'twant it's, it's whatever, when
that you're like, the screen iscoming at you and you're flying.
Yeah, I, I so I told everybody,if anyone ever asked me, What
superpower I don't want it isflying. You know, you know, it's

(01:03:17):
interesting. Steve is like, Ifeel like, and this is, like,
one of the things that I reallyvalue and work is like, I bring
all my superpowers to work, andI don't, there isn't a lot of
like, oh, I don't do that atwork, you know. So like, I, you
know that the thing that I do,like, I just, you get, you get

(01:03:40):
it all you get you get me, youget my family. You get like,
everybody's like, my, you know,you get my husband, you get my
daughter, you get, like, yousort of get everything, package
deal. It's a package deal sothere aren't, there aren't like
superpowers that I use outsideof work, because I, you know,
pretty good at event planning,but I'll use that, you know,

(01:04:01):
like, I just, I just, I justbring it all. So, like, that's
the like, it's, it's all in, I
do it all. It might be the bestsuperpower I've heard so far.
Okay, if, if you had to describeyourself in one word, what would
it be? Oh,

(01:04:23):
one word, tenacious. Oh,
that's a good word. I love that.If you if you could give any
advice to job seekers that areout there that are feeling
frustrated or are concernedabout what they're seeing or
reading in the press, what wouldyou tell them

(01:04:46):
really be open to trying newthings? And sort of, I like to
ask people to do an exercisewhere you keep track of what
you've done and mark whether ornot it gave. You energy, or
drain your energy and focus onjobs and opportunities that give

(01:05:06):
you energy, regardless of like,what the title is, and sort of
some of the things that youthink might be important, but
focus on working for somebodywho sees you and values you,
doing things that bring youenergy and meaning. And I think
that's, it's really, which meansyou have to open your aperture,

(01:05:28):
you have to, like, really thinka lot, a lot different, you
know, bigger and differently.I'm a huge fan of the designing
your life book, like DesignThinking applied to your life.
And so I think especially nowwith everything, all the
technological advances, all ofthe uncertainty, you know,

(01:05:48):
really, really being open towhere the possibilities could
be, I think, is going to be themost important, you know,
attribute in this particular jobmarket.
I love that, if you could putone piece of advice on a
billboard that everybody sees onthe way to or from work every

(01:06:09):
day or school, what would yousay, or what would you put on
that billboard?
So so there's a very specificanswer that at the entrance to I
35 from Seventh Street, it wouldsay, drive forward before you
merge. Every single day, Steve,I try to figure out how I'm

(01:06:29):
going to get that billboard ontothe median so that I could just
get people to pull forwardbefore they merge. So that's my
that's my on that is my veryspecific plea to anyone in
Austin that at five o'clock istrying to merge on I 35
that that's good. I love that.That's great advice. And
actually, we should just buy abunch of those billboards and

(01:06:51):
put them everywhere, becauseit's a problem everywhere.
That'd be great. But I think,you know, I, I don't, I don't
know. I have so many, like, Ifeel like there's so many. I
actually have this, I have thistruth for our daughters that
sits a friend of mine gave thisto me years ago, and it's, it's

(01:07:16):
called truths for our daughters,and it sits next to my
daughter's picture, but it has,like, all of these little
sayings, like, be preparedpractice. Know, you know the
numbers inside now, but the lastline is, be ready for anything.
And I think that's probably, Ithink that would be, I think

(01:07:37):
that would be mine. I
love that. I love that
emerging one. Yeah, that
one's up there too. I mean,that's, those are both great. I
love that last two questions. Sowhen you hear the term ripple
effect, what does that mean orconjure up for you?
I mean, it's, it's so powerful.It's just that idea that, you

(01:07:59):
know, a small change starts, youknow, small change has such a
big impact. And I think that's,I think that is a lot of how I
live my life is really focusingon making sure I have a great
team, making sure they're reallysupported by me, and then
watching that, watching otherpeople watch that, and try to

(01:08:21):
exemplify it themselves. And soI, I really love the idea of
small changes making bigimpacts, which is, you know, in
many ways, like what I think ofwhen I think of the ripple
effect.
That's a great answer. I lovethat. And my last question would
be, what ripple can I be lookingto create for you?
Oh, I mean, I think I said itwith emerging, right?

(01:08:46):
Because, because, if we mighthave been fine with the
billboard people, but I don't,
I mean, I'm telling you, Steve,if we could get this done, I did
say this, yeah, yeah, you know,I think that the more we can,
you know, I think the more wecan reach more people with the
idea of being open to life'spossibilities, really thinking

(01:09:09):
about what makes them happy, andpursuing that and sort of
designing their lives withintentionality. You know, that
certainly would be a reallygreat that would be a really
great effect.
I love that. That's fantastic.Well, I will do whatever I can
to support you and help you inthat capacity. For sure, is
there any way that you wantpeople to maybe follow you? Do

(01:09:29):
you have social handles oranything that you know you want
to share here, we can certainlyinclude those links.
I mean, certainly would welcomeanyone to follow on LinkedIn,
Lisa Henk and Ramirez. So it'smy full, full Maiden and married
name, and that's probably,that's probably the best way.

(01:09:52):
Okay, okay,
perfect. And you said at thevery beginning of this interview
that you don't view yourself asa. Rock star, you are totally
wrong. I'm just gonna tell you,you are awesome. I mean, I had
such a great time, and I'm soappreciative that you made time
to come on. And I really, reallyappreciate it. I have followed

(01:10:14):
you on LinkedIn for a whilebefore I actually reached out,
and I just the work that you'redoing, obviously, the company
you work for is changing liveson the daily, and that's really
important to me, and creating somany positive ripples out there,
even in a world that has a lotof uncertainty and there's a lot
of turmoil happening right now,it's good to know that you guys
are doing work to support peopleand organizations that are still

(01:10:38):
driving forward before theymerge. And so I think, I think
what you're doing is great, soawesome. I just really, really
appreciate it. Guys, thank youso much for joining the ripple
effect podcast. I reallyappreciate Lisa. Thank you for
being here, and we'll be backwith another episode very soon,
but until then, Lisa, ripple On.
Thanks, Steve. I reallyappreciate it. Thank you. I'm