Humanity at Work: Brittany Fountain's Journey to Cultivating Corporate Culture

Episode Transcript
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Anna Stumpf (00:07):
Welcome to collective energy conversations,
your inspiration for personaland professional growth in mid
career. I'm Dr. Anna stump YourGuide to inspiring stories from
a variety of professionals. Acollective energy, we believe in
the transformative power ofconnections and shared
experiences. Each week we delveinto narratives that spark
confidence and self awareness.
Join us as we elevate our growththrough the power of shared

(00:30):
stories.

(00:54):
Such a unique episode for you, Iwant you to meet my new bestie I
was introduced to Brittanythrough my energy coin, if
you're familiar with that, Isent that to someone who was
just an incredibly impactfulleader, mentor, one of those
mentors who didn't know theywere mentor, I just Loki didn't

(01:15):
have the confidence or theability to ask for this person
to be a mentor. So I justwatched them and tried to
emulate things and learn fromthem from a distance, and which
was really easy in the 90s.
Because we didn't have a lot ofconnectivity like we do now.
Because you know, like, we justbarely had email at work back
then. But anyway, I sent thisperson, a former Walmart

(01:38):
executive, and energy coin, andhe texted me right away, when he
opened it, and was so grateful.
And then said, I can tell you,the person I need for you to
talk to is Brittany. And then helike immediately made a text
message introduction to whichshe and I just took off from

(01:58):
there and decided rather thantrying to have a call and get to
know each other, or whatever, wejust record a podcast episode.
So I'll give you a little caveatin advance. This is probably one
of the choppiness and worstediting jobs I've ever done a
podcast. But we talked for wellover two hours. And we talked a
lot about Henry who brought ustogether, we talked a lot about

(02:21):
just things in general, wetalked a lot about our
businesses and things that wewouldn't share on this episode.
But I'm an incredible person.
And I'm so excited for you tohear Brittney story and learn
about her amazing business andwhat she does and how she got
here. And just her her mind, theway she thinks and approaches
thing. I think that is probablythe biggest lesson that we can

(02:43):
learn. But Brittany is thefounder and chief humanity
Officer of her own companycalled Britt joy and CO and she
talks about growth and cultureand strategy for businesses. And
it is just comes from the rightplace. And I'm so excited for

(03:04):
you to learn a little bit aboutwhat she does and hear from her.
But I always like to give you aquote. So curiosity is kind of
the theme of what I believe hasput Brittany through these
transitions and made her justthe most insightful, and
actionable person that she is.

(03:25):
So the quote today for thisepisode is from Ken Robinson
edit is curiosity is the engineof achievement. So be curious
and open up your mind. Listen toa little bit about Brittany, you
can learn about her her websBritt joy.com. And she has a
podcast which is just her youknow, you'll learn a little bit

(03:47):
about her brain dumps and kindof her LinkedIn content is
amazing. So lots of ways toconnect her at bridge joy.com
and enjoy this episode. Icertainly did. Do such a great
job on your website. Like that'swhy I think I was comfortable.
Like I don't need to like have acall like I start going because

(04:10):
I get like all of this sense oflike who you are, how you are
and why you are like Ah, it's sogood. Like kudos to you. I don't
know how much help you had withthat or if that's just how you
communicate Euro This means somuch. It was I'm like man, I
gotta go back and figure out mymessaging because I'm in my
first draft of this and I waslike I you just get why you why

(04:33):
now like you get that fromeverything. So,

Brittany Fountain (04:36):
man, that is beautiful. Thank you. Um, I
mean, I'm sure are you recordingnow or

we can just like

we might get into this or later or we can get
into it now. It's just like somuch of this I know to be true
from lived experience from datafrom all the things And at the
same time, I don't have theinner circle of influence to be
able to have this be the scalethat I want it to be right now,

(05:11):
right? And so there's so manydays where you're pushing and
you're pushing, you're pushing,and you're just being
consistent, and you're workingwith the clients you have now
and you're doing the things thatactually matter. Still with that
goal in mind, and you're like,is this resonating? Is or is
this happening? And then you youget people like you who are

(05:32):
like, No, this is this? Is it?
This? Is it?

And I'll tell you, yeah, a couple of things. I'm
just gonna give you myimpressions, right? Because I
was introduced to you, fromsomebody who I think is probably
one of the most impactfultransformative leaders that I
will ever meet in my lifetime.
Like, I'm like, looking throughyour website. And I was like,
man, so this is somebody whostarted in corporate America 15

(05:56):
years ago, in a pretty like,left brain linear, like data
driven role. But you get allthis culture. Because the
balance, right, like you have aninnate ability that I can tell
just from your story, but I knowof it to exist in one side, too,
and see the other right to existover here and see the other. So

(06:19):
when you talk about like thescalability or what you're
doing, or like, how will we yousee where you want to go with
your business? I'm here forthis, because that is the
authenticity. Yeah. And thebalance, and the, like, the
structure and now the people incorporate America need from you.
I think like that think that'sthe beauty of like, what you're

(06:42):
doing. Yeah,

no? Well, thank you. I agree. I think it's
one of those things where I hadglimpses of people who were the
unicorns, like, you know,Henry's a unicorn, right? Oh,
and also had the awareness oflike, I don't, not everybody's

(07:05):
going to be that not everybodycan be that. But we can craft a
scenario we can craft anenvironment where everyone feels
like they have access to that.
Yes. And, you know, most leadersare technically Excellent.
They're not great people, people

will start with governmental leadership. Right.

But that, but then, you know, I think about
it, I'm like most leaders, ifyou're a leader in financial
integrated marketing, so you gota marketing guy, right, those,
you know, marketing peoplearen't great with, you know,
financial modeling, so they geta finance guy, you know, and so,
we have all these compliments tothe business, but we've totally
forgotten the humanity piece ofit. Well, and

then we also look at a Henry or somebody else and
think I need to be that Yes.
Right. And I'm like, if I got alittle bit of Henry in me, I can
find it and like, work on it andstrengthen it and let it out.
Like, I'm not ever gonna beHenry. I'm just not. Yeah, I'm
not done that ego either. Rightnow, so people centric, that,
you know, I think how he learnedhow to do that is kind of, you

(08:13):
know, how you learned what yoursuperpower was, right? It's
through those childhoodexperiences and through who you
had to be and how you had to be.
And then just, I'm, you have athing on your website. I want to
call it out, because it's I gotit highlighted. I'm like, can we
just get this on a shirt? Oh,gosh, oh, gosh, you're talking

(08:33):
about I spent 15 years on theclassic culture roller coaster
in corporate America. And thenyou go on to build this like
emotional attachment toshrieking and delight with my
colleagues, customers andshareholders at a bold human
centric value statements, right?
Because those are everywhere,hanging everywhere, either on
the website, and conversely,leaving bruise and whiplash from

(08:53):
the jerking halt to what happenswhen you say, but when what you
say and do does not in fact,point back to who you say you
are. I think that right therethat first of all, a coaster
analogies like Wouk is right,you start out with an
organization and you are like,up, you're going to incline you

(09:14):
got the anticipation. Your palmsare sweaty, you're like I got
it. I got in the door. This isgonna be great. And then you get
to top and the views all goodand the anticipation and then
that whiplash and that bruiseand the way your hips feel and
knocking your knees and everyyear like oh, this was this was
supposed to be exhilarating. No,no, wait, this. I'm sore for

(09:34):
days. Yeah, I

will not be back. I don't I don't want it.

So talk to me about like, what did you major in?

I majored in Business Administration with a
concentration in marketing.

Okay. And you were first gen college students.
Yeah. I know. You mentioned onyour website. Single mom had
many jobs.

Yes. So she was a single mom with three
jobs. And she had three girls.
And so I was the middle of thegirls. And then she remarried
when we were when I was in fifthgrade. And then we moved, she
became more established in hercareer, obviously, we had a
second income to our home atthat point. And she was able to

(10:19):
really pivot from so much oflike the, like barst plus
hustling. But it was morecorporate focus. So she wasn't
working three jobs, but she wason every board. She was,

we shifted from survival, right to feeling the
need to prepare

to propel. So that was very much. You know,
whenever I was going intocollege, she had never been to
college. So there wasn't a lotof guidance from her and maybe
just sort of like at large in,like higher academics at that
point of choosing what you wantto do. What exactly does that
mean, I went into college as adeclared Nursing Major. But I

(11:05):
had to work full time incollege. So I didn't have
student loans. I didn't knowthat student loans were even an
option. That's just sort of hownarrow my lens was for
everything.

But looking back now, that's probably I didn't
look back now. It's great. It'shundreds of 1000s of dollars.

So you know, I started to go into prepping
for my junior year, and they'relike, Okay, since clinicals. And
I'm like, What, I can't go 12hours a day and work in a
hospital, I had to work I haveto pay for this place. And so I
had taken a personal financeclass, and I liked the guy. And
I was like, Yeah, whatever, I'lldo business. And it felt like a

(11:44):
good idea. Until, you know, Igraduated in 2007. And we are in
a recession. And I'm like, well,guess who doesn't have a job? My
first job out of school wasworking for a wealth management
company, making like $26,000 ayear. And then I started doing

(12:08):
technical staffing. And didthat. Right, in our our largest
clients at the time werefinancial institutions in
Charlotte. So it was right atthe point where Wachovia went
under right before Wells Fargobought them. And that was like,
just the raw plus experience tolike seeing grown men just on

(12:31):
their knees in the middle of thelobby of the building, crying
because their 401 K is nowpennies. Yeah, because so much
of it was bested in the wall.
cobia stock. So that was a wildtime.

I think for people that aren't our age, to hear
that we have been through this.
Yeah, on a on a different scale,and maybe just like one industry
vertical at a time versus what'shappening right now. Right?
Right. It is like formativedevastating, and also incredibly
scary to watch all of that. Andwhen you tell people that were

(13:08):
on their knees were the ones whohad been brought up to get a
good job with a good company, beloyal to the company, the
company will take care of youmindset. Yeah, we had not seen
that. That plan disrupted rightdecades until like, the 2008 to
2012 timeframe. Right.

And I mean, again, I'm making like $26,000 a
year so money's nothing to me.
And I grew up very poor, like wewere, we did not have anything,
you know, during that time thatwere my mom was a single mom. So
money has never been somethingthat I've had. So not having it
has not felt as devastating asobviously what it was to these
people who had built theirentire life around this. Think

of the scarcity mindset to have like, somebody
couldn't come take this allaway. Yeah, you'd have a mother
who worked three jobs at onetime, right? So in your mind,
you're like, Okay, if you cometake this job, I'll just go get
the next one or two.

Well, and to see the way that my colleagues
and I responded to what washappening was I was there and I
went up to the people, you know,hey, like, come here and let's
get a cup of coffee like let'slet's regroup like let's you
know, I can't fix it but I can,I can be here for you. And it

(14:26):
was an immediate stepping out ofmyself to be there for somebody
emotionally 23 years old, I havenothing to offer them except for
humanity. Right? Um, but otherpeople turn to You know, they're
like, well, this feels awkward.
I'm out of here. So you knowwhen we talk about like the the
drops that got us to where weare now it's like I can look

(14:47):
back to my childhood. I can lookback to my first job out of
college. I can look back to allthese things and see where I
chose to lean into what feltuncomfortable. Hmm. To try and
provide solution, again, notnecessarily to what your 401k
looks like, but I can't leaveyou on the floor. Right? Okay,

(15:08):
so you're 56 and

on the pool of Simon Sinek on you, because He
does this thing on his podcastwhere he talks to people. And
then he asks them in advance twoquestions. One of which is take
me to a childhood memory that'svery vivid, and take me there
with you. And the second one, heasked him, like, what's
something you're working onright now? Or have recently that
brings you joy, and he drawsthis weird parallel between

(15:35):
like, your your best childhoodmemories, and like what you're
doing and shows that your wholearc? Yeah, so like, stay in that
lane. So this could be acomplete flop. But I want to
ask, why did you originally picknursing, as I

just wanted to help people? Yeah, I just
wanted to help people. And I hadhad experiences with myself and
with family members, that was soantithetical to what I believe
it should look like to be inthat field. That that's really
what it was. And, you know, evennow, I mean, my mother passed

(16:12):
away about six years ago fromovarian cancer. And even during
her time, you know, of goingthrough the treatment and the
challenges and all the things. Istill felt that pole, being in
the medical space, but notnecessarily to be the one to be
taking the vitals and so on andso forth. It was pretty much of

(16:33):
like, ah, the EQ that is missingthis moment that could really
just make this better, you'reprobably not going to cure her
cancer by having a betterbedside manner.

Right. Yeah,

I think that would be helpful right now.

Yeah. It's not the medical solution, right? It's
not a transaction of thosevitals. It's that relationship.
Yeah. Yeah. I somehow I knewthat was probably what drew you
to that, like, I want to, I wantto help people, and I want to be
a support and I want to be theface of their, you know, fears.
And in their knowledge, whateverelse you can bring IQ that

(17:12):
that's good job, Simon Sinek.
He's got like a flawlessformula.

Look at him.
He's onto something, that guy,

I'm just feeling it. Yeah. Like I it's, I'm three
for three on this one now. Sowhere did you go through these
15 years in corporate? Like,what kind of roles did you have?
What was your experience,

um, a little bit of everything. So it was a
wealth management associate. Iwas a technical recruiter, I was
a credit analyst. And all ofthese were for pretty large
companies. So I worked forVerizon for about three years.
And that was certainly thelargest company that I worked
for. And what's interestingabout that, one is that so many

(17:54):
people had just really negativethings to say about Verizon. And
I had such an incredibleexperience, the way that we were
trained the way that we hadsystems in place for support,
the way that our benefitspackage worked, they offered

(18:15):
free master's programs, so youcould get your Masters for free.
I mean, it was all these thingsthat were actually really
lovely. And I had such a bignoise from everyone else saying
like, Oh, like, you know, bigcorporate, you know, they're
awful, I wouldn't want to workfor them. And that is probably

(18:35):
one of the more formative timeswhere I was like, No, guys,
like, I think we really need tochallenge what the stereotype
is, with big business, classiccorporate America. Because my
experience was not at all that.
And I'm not denying that otherpeople's experience was. But I
think that was probably veryformative for me to say, We can
do this, and we can do this atscale. And I, you know, at the

(18:58):
time, I would have neverrecognized that that was what I
was thinking. But I mean,looking back again, the the
thread the tether that keeps uson this whole journey. I mean,
that was very clear. And thenafter Verizon, I worked for a
couple startups. So I worked insales for dermatopathology
company. So I traveled aroundVirginia and DC and Maryland

(19:21):
teaching doctors, differentbiopsy techniques and coding
options. There was a huge revampin the coding world at that
point. So it's really affectingthe way that doctors were being
reimbursed for seeing patients.
So that was a really coolopportunity to be able to show
them some new things, but alsobe able to propel their business

(19:43):
forward where some peoplethought their practices were
going to close down. To be ableto, you know, introduce the
pivot the nudge. It's like thisis not a bulldozer we don't have
to reinvent the whole thing, butthere are little things that we
can do. You know, to bring youback into a better alignment so
that your business as profitableso that you can still contribute
to your community so that youcan build a legacy for your

(20:04):
family, so on and so forth. Andthen I worked for a technology
company out of DC before movingback to Wilmington, North
Carolina. And I moved here againmentioned in my mom with her
cancer diagnosis, we moved backto be closer to her. And I
started working for a bank,which is totally random, because

(20:25):
my mom was a banker. And I knew,without a shadow of doubt, I'm
like, I don't want to be abanker. I'm whatever I do with
this business degree, I just, itdoesn't need to be banking. And
I ended up doing that for sevenyears.

Never say never, I never

say never.
And so that took me all the wayto 2021. And that's I decided,
you know, I wasn't, I didn'twant to be a lender. I'm not
sure what next look like. But Ijust knew that I needed to close
out this chapter as it was inorder to give myself the space
to think and to explore whatthat would look like. And that's

(21:03):
a very privileged position to bein, I fully recognize that. So
we have a second income, myhusband has a job. Again,
growing up very poor, we're justsort of allergic to death. In a
way that's great, but alsocarries a lot of like weird
trauma packages with it. So Imean, I understand there was a

(21:24):
distinct privilege to be able tostep back and say, What is this?
And

don't don't lend it all to privilege, though.
Because the self awareness toknow that you need to step back
and have that, because I think alot of people, especially if
they've got that trauma ofgrowing up poor and never
wanting to be back, yes, get ona hamster wheel and go sometimes

(21:52):
it's such an unhealthy pace forthe wrong reasons, yes. And end
up maybe recreating for theirchildren, a sense of scarcity
that actually doesn't exist,right. I've seen that a lot. My
dad like, did that. And it's, ittakes a lot of self awareness to
know that I need to stop and asksome questions like, yes, if

(22:13):
it's, you got to give yourself alittle more credit than Wow,
thanks for the privilege becauseyou use that well.

And I do. And I do have that awareness for a
lot of different areas of mylife is, you know, breaking
cycles are not perpetuatingcycles. So maybe it wasn't
something that was passed on tome either by family, employer,
so on and so forth. But how dowe remain cognizant of what we
don't want to perpetuate? Right?
And so then, you know, when Ileft the bank, I started working

(22:41):
with friends, they would say,you know, hey, Ma'am, can you
look at our financials, youknow, something feels off here,
you know, we, our numbers areup, but our margins are down, or
we had a great year with sales,but we're having a lot of
turnover. And it was just sortof those introductions back into

(23:02):
looking at things to where itkind of brought me full circle
to, you know, oh, this isactually not your numbers at all
like this. This is a peopleproblem. And I've seen this
where I've worked previously,I've seen this at other
companies, I've actually beenreading a lot about this, I've
been digging into the data. Andthings just started to come

(23:23):
around to where I started tolook into other industries and
say, culture is really, reallybeing neglected right now. And
it's impacting a lot of things.
It's impacting profitability.
It's impacting engagement,employee churn, you know, we
were just starting to see thegreat resignation and all of
those things. And nobody wasactually doing it. And I was so

(23:45):
confused, because I was like,this is a thing. You guys, we
have all the data you you guysare writing books about this.
You're giving keynotes aboutthis? who's actually doing the
work. And I couldn't findanybody. And I

while I will tell you some of the worst things we
did in business came from what Isaw in higher ed, is this like
ranking? Best Places to Work?
What we're, what we're takingcollege rankings school, right,
like, we know, are toxic andflawed and being used, again,
weaponized, and we're bringingit into corporate America. Uh,

(24:23):
huh. The worst places to workhave an award.

Yeah. Yeah.
You're like, this is not great.
No, this is not great. And

the minute they get that award, that take that foot
off the gas and quit askingquestions, like it's really been
detrimental.

Yeah. And you're like, and we've seen this
before. Like, this isn't new,like, why are we not learning
from each other?

I mean, like you decide to lean in on this. And
then we have global pandemic andAI we have all these things
coming and I mean, what a timefor you. Yeah. MMC Yeah,

it was really I mean, it was fun. So I was
still working for the bankduring like 2020, the original
shutdown. And bankers wereconsidered essential employees.
But all three of my childrenwere home from daycare because
that was shut down, my husbandwas working from home, it was
just chaos. But it was also soinvigorating to be able to be a

(25:23):
part of something that wasbigger than you. You know, we're
pushing out PPP funds to smallbusiness owners and keeping
businesses afloat and keepingpeople current on their
mortgages and just food on thetable, like really impactful
things. And to be able to seeboth sides of that coin of like,

(25:44):
this is good, meaningful work.
And wow, we are missing this,not just within the corporation
that I worked for. Buteverywhere, everyone is not
doing well, like work. Thisisn't great. Yeah, the
productivity is up. And youknow, we're doing great from a
business standpoint, remote workworks. And I'm like, I mean,

(26:05):
maybe, but at large, this is notgreat. So again, the duality of
me being able to see thebusiness functionality, you
know, how is this actuallyworking from operations? What is
this doing to your p&l? And thehuman side of it to say, we

(26:26):
actually have quite a bit ofpeople out here who are
legitimately going throughmental crisis, you know, walking
business owners through a panicattack? Yeah, you know, just
things that that aren'treflected on a quarterly
earnings report. So I thinkbeing able to see both of those

(26:48):
things at the same time, theYes, and really allowed for me
to lean into what I saw as ahuge gap in any kind of market,
but specifically corporateAmerica, when

you have this just natural ability that I think has
come again, the way you callthat out on your About Me
section of your website, likeyou really aren't grounded in
like, I was born into thissituation, and this is how I
grew. But it's also thosechoices that you made and the
diverse experiences that you hadin your professional career. I

(27:25):
think for somebody to understandthe financial side of business
to the point someone calls themand says, Can you come look at
my financials and tell me what'swrong with my business. But on
the flip side of that, havingbeen in sales, and understanding
how to tell a story, and how toget buy in and all of this, like
you have just had this reallyrobust set of experiences that

(27:45):
you've drawn from, but all ofthose experiences have lent you
the ability to look at thebigger picture and say, Yeah,
this is not working. Yeah, humaneyes, this is not good. This is
not working. So I think, like,what do you say to somebody who
maybe hasn't Lex that into asuperpower yet? Because I feel

(28:10):
like there are still people outin that second phase that you
were in of like having the jobsand thinking the thoughts, but
not and again, I know you saylike, I had the privilege of
taking a step back and sure heassessing or whatever. But like,
what do you say to somebody whomaybe doesn't have the
confidence or the nuance oflike, this is my next step?

(28:33):
Because I keep seeing this samecommon theme across different
sizes of businesses, differentcultures, different industries,
like everything, and I want tolean in on this, like, what does
that look like? Do you think forpeople that aren't there yet?

I think the biggest advice to anybody is
just to stay curious. You know,if you can learn to hold a
belief with an open hand, andtake in more data, use it as
like a hypothesis. Think of itlike you're a scientist to say
like, I think this is it. AndI'm gonna stay curious on this.
I'm going to keep digging, I'mgoing to look for the data. I'm

(29:12):
going to have moreconversations, I'm going to test
this out in the little pocket ofinfluence that I have right here
and see if that works. And youcan do that with your job. You
can do that within your family.
You can do it in your friendgroup, whatever the situation,
your childhood

trauma, your childhood traumas,

I know. Oh, but to be able to hold the
belief with an open hand and sayI might be wrong. And then move
forward with it. I think that ismy biggest piece of advice
because that's I mean, that'swhat I did. That's what I still
do. You know, I say that somuch. I'm like I'm not holding
anything with an iron grip.
Because we're going to bedifferent tomorrow than we are

(29:49):
today. Our business is differenttomorrow than it is today.
Society so on and so forth. SoFar be it for me to say this is
an absolute It's like, I thinkthis works, we have a lot of
data that shows that it's works.
I have lived experience, it saysthat this works. Let's do it.
Um, so and I guess I wouldprobably be the second part of

(30:11):
it is actually do it, even ifit's in that little pocket of
influence that you have is thatwe have to take action, we have
to put the do behind theassumption. If anything's ever
gonna change. And I, you know, Isee that so much where people

(30:31):
think and they have great ideas,or they have insatiable
curiosity, and they don't takethat next step. And that would,
you know, to be able to createsafe pockets for people to do
that within my own circles ofinfluence, I think, is really
important for me to stay mindfulof. Because it is scary. Takes a

(30:52):
lot of guts

will scary anytime.
But it's even scarier when theworld's messy. Yes, like it is
right now. Yes. And we are in amess. We are. Like, I've just
like any which direction youlook, you're like, oh,

yeah, that's not good.

I don't know that.
Like I, there's like, I'm noteven sure we have a tunnel
literally has a light at the endof it. Like, this is our
reality, like, this is where weare. And I think that's why what
you're doing. And in some ways,it's I think this is again, like
why I'm going to need four moreepisodes with you, because you
are coming into this as like aculture piece. And coming into
the organization. I'm coming inlike, a person at a time. Yeah.

(31:34):
Right. So you are and so that'sthe other question I have, which
I'm getting ahead of myself,because I need to know how you
got from answering phone callsand looking at people's
financials and then taking adeep breath and then deciding
like, how I'm going to make thisbusiness what I'm going to do,
like, let's talk about thatfirst before Yes, I'm a really
bad interviewer because Iwouldn't like I'm just like,

(31:56):
tell me that tell me that. No, I

love that. I feel like these are the most
authentic conversations,anything that's too linear. I'm
like, yeah.

Clearly, I'm not reading off of any kind of a
script. I'm just like, and thenwhat?

Okay, so I ended up randomly talking with
another bank. And they werebuilding out a team for
themselves. And this was notabout what I'm doing. And it
was, yeah, would you want to dosales? That's, that was my
background. I was a lender atanother bank that I worked for.
And I was like, No, I'm, youknow, I know, I don't want to do
lending. And well, would you beour sales manager? And now I

(32:37):
don't like that's just not.
That's not. What's next. And sowhat are you doing now, I said,
Well, now I'm working with smallbusinesses, a couple of
nonprofits. I said, I'm workingwith them to find better
alignment. So making sure thateverything they say and do
points back to who they say wethey are, I said, that's been a
big gap that we've beennoticing, when it comes to
financials and operations, andjust overall efficiencies of the

(33:02):
company is that that seems to bethe common denominator for a lot
of people. And what we'renoticing with these small
businesses and nonprofits, is,when those things are out of
alignment, it's causing anundercurrent of mistrust and
confusion by both employees andcustomers. So employees are
leaving more quickly, they'rebecoming disengaged more

(33:24):
quickly, their own personal,mental, and physical well being
is deteriorating. And that'sactually impacting the business
because they're taking time off.
They are, you know, having touse higher insurances than
they've had in the past, so onand so forth. As in from a
customer standpoint, we'refinding that customers are not
feeling encouraged or confidentenough to refer another customer

(33:50):
to the business, because theirexperience was so disjointed. So
it can be something as simple asan email response to a customer
that says we'll get back to yousoon. Will soon is not a
timeline. And soon to you, thecustomer might be two business
days, soon to the person whosent you the email might be four

(34:11):
weeks, you know, because we havenot clearly stated what the
expectation is. There's adisconnect and experience. And
so now the customer is like no,I'm not going to refer somebody
to you. That was ridiculous.
Well, that's really unfortunatefor the business for a lot of
reasons. One, from a businessstandpoint, we talked about, you
know, the left side and theright side of my mind that work
together. It's on one hand, anexisting customer referring

(34:35):
somebody else is the lowest costof funds to gaining new
business. That is the lowestcost way to increase your
revenue. from a humanstandpoint, that's your
reputation. You know, if peopleare not willing to speak well of
you are not willing to refer toyou like the impact of that.
Even just momentum loss in turn.

(35:00):
like word of mouth andreputation. I mean, that's,
that's hard to get back. Um, soI'm telling the bank that this
is what I'm doing. And the guywas like, Oh, we, we could
really use that. And I'm, I'mthinking, I know, I know what
your institution I know you can,I could give you 10 ways to

(35:20):
Tuesday that you can use ittoday.

As a matter of fact, I have that typed up for
you now.

They will send me a write up and I was
like, I have a write up. Idon't, this isn't like really a
thing. I'm just sort of likecasually doing this for people.
So I did that forced me to do awrite up, okay, this is what it
looks like. And this is what Isee. And this is what I would
do. And then we would revisitit, and so on and so forth. And
they couldn't figure out a wayto make it fit within a role
that they had already. Andthat's classic with, you know,

(35:51):
more seasoned companies, thatthey're not willing to be as
creative with roles. And theysaid, Well, can we contract you?
And I was like, Huh, well, yeah.
And I thought to myself, I waslike, well, if they're gonna
contract me, I'm just gonna makean LLC and make it so that
anybody could, knowing how longit would take to actually get

(36:12):
them up and going as a customer.
Because, again, legacy companieslike this tend to not move
quickly. Oh, yeah. And so

thank you, industry. Right? Right, you're
like,

not much has changed. So, um, I did, I
created an LLC, and I, you know,decided to call my company Britt
joy, and CO, because my fullname is Brittany, Joy fountain.
And that's just way too long.
And I was like, well, Britain,Joy is a domain that's
available. So this is it. And Istarted building out my website.

(36:46):
And I said, I'm gonna put thisout there, I'm gonna start
creating written content, I loveto write.

I was gonna ask about that. Have you always been
a good storyteller?

I know, I still probably wouldn't say
that. I'm a great storyteller.

But I do, what would you call it communicate?
What do you

call it, my thought dumps. Like, it is here
up in my head, and then itimmediately goes through my
fingers. If I had to.
Thoughtfully like craft a story,like if somebody was like, we
need you to write about this,like, if it did not feel
something that was like, in onfire for me, I would just be I

(37:26):
don't know, I can't, I can'thelp you. So I love to do a
thought dump. And I just starteddoing that. And so I was like,
I'm gonna do this on LinkedIn,I'm just gonna put it out there
for 12 months. And if nobodyhires me for anything, I think
this is a success. Because,again, that belief with open

(37:47):
hands of I see this gap thatexist, specifically with
culture, and I see a solutionthat's there. And if I never get
a client from this spine is asuccess. So to put it out there
and to have my words, you know,be available at large.

And what a great exercise for yourself. What was
that? It's a good exercise foryourself. Yes, exactly. I'm
challenging myself to just staycurious enough to keep talking
and keep saying these things andkeep

researching, keep looking for more
information. And within thefirst month of putting it out
there, I had my first client andmy first speaking engagement,
and I was like, Oh, okay. You,you know, and I'm a middle
child. So I will never not besurprised by something like
this. When somebody's like, Isee you, I hear you. I lighten
your load. I'm like, wait, what?
We do, this is great.

Alright, so this is what I have to ask. Yeah. Did I
see on your website that yougave a keynote with a baby strap
to you? Oh,

absolutely.
Absolutely. Okay.

Again, I have to say, yeah, just like the bold
authenticity that you have,because I saw that and thought,
why? Nobody? Nobody does that.
And I don't understand why.
Because if you are trying tobring into the culture that we
bring people to workholistically, and we have, I

(39:18):
mean, I know that was notnecessary. It's probably more of
a necessity than a tactic. Butman, and I didn't even question
it, right? Because at thispoint, it's so far down your
website, that when I saw that Ialready had seen your smile. And
I had heard all these people'stestimonies, and I had heard
your story. And when I saw that,I was like, yeah, that math maps
right there. Like yeah, exactly

what it was.
Well, it's so funny, becauseafter that happened, and I'd
love to speak I've no problemspeaking, but I'm also I'm not
pursuing a speaking career. Sothat's an interesting sort of
separation that I have.

This does not surprise me because I think you
are a master storyteller. Oh,no, sorry. Tama calm thought
dump. Right? Right, whatever youneed to put on it, put it on,
right peanut butter, whatever.
To accept it as with your wholemiddle child miss. Yeah,
whatever you lead to label thatlabel it and then lean in.
Because yes, what's comfortableand good for you. I'm here for

(40:16):
it. But I'm telling you, I havegraded a lot of stories in my
time as an educator, and you'rea storyteller. Thank you. And I
would imagine that I could sitin the audience while you're
speaking and be like, thisgirl's a speaker. What is

it? So, you know, I've been asked to do
things. I'm like, Y'all, I'm nota speaker, but like, I'll do it.
And afterwards, the response isoverwhelming for the
organization. And then also forme, and one of the most
surprising things that peoplesaid, probably might have been
after I gave that with my middlechild strapped to me. They were
just like, you know, they wouldcome up and talk afterwards. And

(40:54):
they said, you want the sameperson here, as you are there?
And God is that isn't that thegoal? Which again, a unicorn,
you're, well, you're great atthis, because you say that
you're not a great interviewer.
But all this is is like pointingback to say like, that's exactly
what I tell organizations isthat nobody's telling you to be
a certain way. All we need isyou to be who you say you are.

Well, here's the thing, if you said, I'm an
incredible keynote speaker,right? You would not have be
like, authentic, humble natureto walk up on that stage and
just give it your best and berelatable, right? Because you
would be filling a role. You'dhave that facade, you'd have
that like, look, same thing witha thought dump. If you're like,

(41:44):
let me just let all this stuffcome out of the into my
fingertips. But that's not metelling a story. Because that
sounds like a professional. I'mjust dumping,

right. Like, we're trying to do something.

I think we get a little too caught up around
here, right? putting labels onme. I'm doing it to you. I'm
like, Oh, you're a masterstoryteller. And you're like,
No, I'm a thought number. Andleave me to that. Because that's
the balloons that works for menot to put too much pressure on
myself and let myself shinethrough. Yeah,

yeah. And it's funny you say that about
titles, because, you know, goingthrough this process last year
of making all of this public andsaying like, I think this is it,
and like I'm ready to leveragethis and take it on. Let's go.
As people were like, so what doyou call yourself? And I'm like,
I don't like what do you callyourself? I don't like what do

(42:32):
you mean? And somebody that Imet on LinkedIn, she said, you
know, you're like a chiefhumanity officer. And I was
like, Oh, God, that makes sense.
And so I use I use chiefhumanity officer, chief culture
officer, sort ofinterchangeably. Because the
fact is, some companies havebutchered the word culture so

(42:52):
bad that you can't, you shouldnever actually say the word it
needs to go on hiatus, you know,give it a sabbatical.

And we ruined everything. Like, I mean, I've
taught personal branding foryears. I very rarely ever say
that out loud networking upstopped using that like we are.
Yeah, like God. Yeah.

So, um, I mean, that's where that came in,
is people like, what are you?
Like? I don't know, does itmatter? And yeah, what do you

need? Yeah. What's

about what's problem, which is, you know, now
whenever you look atorganizations, and they've
rebranded HR as people, and theysay, where people in culture,
near nearly every HRprofessional that I've spoken
with folks who work for largecompanies, small companies

(43:43):
everywhere in between, they areall saying, we are not culture,
like we cannot take that on ourplate. And yet, it has been put
on our already to full plate. Sowhen it fails, everyone just
blames us. And, you know, ifit's needs to be reworked,
everybody's looking at us. Andwe actually have we we are not

(44:06):
doing anything with this, right.
So the rebranding of it all is,man, it's interesting.

So are you finding it? Difficult, not the word, but
challenging, I guess, outbecause my assumption, and you
and I have not spoken like I'mjust going off this. Yeah. From
my own experiences is that it'stakes a unique leader to reach

(44:35):
out and say, We need help, or weneed you to take a look at this
or something's not working likeit almost always. And I've seen
this happen time after time.
Like with customers, students,everybody what they think the
problem is, it's not really theproblem. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So
I'm guessing that for somebodyto get to the point where they
say we need somebody to come inand take a look at this is

(44:57):
almost always You're big thinkyou're gonna be looking at
something else? Or is it likewhat's been your experience so
far this last year? Yeah,

for smaller companies? It, there's less red
tape, right? There's normallythere's less of like a
hierarchical ego that's attachedto anybody with this. People are
normally doing multiple jobs.
And they know because they'redoing multiple jobs, something's
probably falling through thecracks. So smaller companies,

(45:27):
there's a an ease into comingin. Why is it

to like your leadership team is just
organically closer to thecustomer? And the T? Yes.
Because you don't have thelayers? Yeah, I think that helps
in their perspective, and theiremotional intelligence just
keeps them grounded. Yeah. SoI've been able to,

with larger companies, there is almost
always an ego that is blockingit. So whether it's someone who
thinks that they should, youknow, that this is already
happening, and it's not, or theythink that somebody else should
be handling it, HR, and theycan't,

or we have jeans days, and pizza is great.

Or they just don't see how it is an actual
business initiative. And that'san interesting place where I'm
at right now is that I'm in thisplace where I'm doing what I'm
doing, and is lovely. And like Isaid, My clients are great.
Things are active, there'snothing to complain about. And

(46:39):
so I really hesitate in sayinganything, you know, that's would
sound like I want more than oneit is. The other side to that is
that the model that I have forthis, it is not scalable. So
like, I don't have this inplace, so that I can sell books
so that I can go on a speakingtour, like that is not the

(47:00):
intent, the intent is not toscale my business, the intent is
to go in, be in the weeds, buildout a team, the framework that
is sustainable, and maybe inthree or four years, lift up and
go to another company and helpthem do the same. So there's,
you know, sort of that pool ofit right there is that like,
none of this is actually goingthis is not for me to have a

(47:24):
multimillion dollar bridge joyand CO like if that happens, I'm
probably not doing this work.
Right. Right.

Are you really leaning in on what your natural
talents are?

Right? And so now you say, okay, so how do we
present this to a company thatis at large? Like, who actually
has a layered framework? Who hasbusiness units that make up the
organizational structure of thatbusiness? How do you get this to
be even a conversation point ofwhat it is? And I think to your

(47:58):
point, I mean, it's going totake a really unique leader, I
have often joke where I'm like,it's going to be a woman, a
woman is going to look at thisand say, Yeah, like that right
there. Because, you know,traditionally, that is who is
responsible for making sure youhave family dinner, and family

(48:20):
dinner at the table has nothingto do with the fact that we're
all eating spaghetti, because Ineed everybody to eat spaghetti,
right? It's because we know thenuanced effect of connections
and engagement and loyalty andbeing able to build out a
framework of trust with thepeople who come to this table.

(48:44):
And that's what they're gonnahave to take and use that as the
same lens to say, Oh, we knowthat culture is impacting,
actually our bottom line, butalso innovation, institutional
knowledge, and you know how thebusiness is actually going to be
able to sustain the weight ofwhat this world is going to
continue to put on us, becausewe're not slowing down anytime
soon. No,

and here's why I think I love that you think
about the scalability or whatyour limit limitations might be
in terms of what you have to do.
But I think you have to, youknow, again, the rearview mirror
is a beautiful place sometimes,right? Like, every little stop,
you made a real rest stop everylittle exit, you took every
little thing that you've doneback there has prepared you for

(49:27):
this. Yeah. But I think doingwhat you're doing, and then
looking really far ahead rightin the distance. When you think
about Gen Z is about to replacethe boomers as the largest
contingent of our workforce, andwhen you think about what their
journey has been and how muchmore emotionally intelligent,

(49:49):
but less experienced they areand how accepting they are of
diversity in technology andthings that have been
historically been a struggle.
And then you think about howoften we're gonna have to
rescale people. Yeah, like whenI think about what's coming,
yeah, just based off, like, Iread some World Economic Forum

(50:10):
things, I watched the news partsand parts and pieces of the
news. And I think where we'reheaded, you're ready. You're
ready for that? Right? Likeyou're currently working on a
framework and that likecuriosity? Yeah. To be ready.
When this hits, like, I thinkit's, I think so. So, future

(50:34):
forward. Yeah. Because I mean,just the shift if we if you take
a lot of the outside noise away,and just look at what is going
to happen inside theseorganizations, and this shift,
which is having coffee withsomebody this morning, and I
said, she's like, Why are all ofthese corporations? Like, why is
corporate America so toxic rightnow, because we were talking
about people, you know,monitoring bad scans and mouse

(50:56):
activity and like forcingeverybody back into the office,
and just like the IQ of it all.
And you have to remember, like,corporate America created middle
management, because we had tohave a place to put all the
boomers. And now you've got thethe shift is happening. And we
haven't it's the control piece.
And like some of those thingsthat people are, as humans

(51:18):
holding on to and organizationsholding on to. And I sit is
going to have to get Messierbefore we like, Oh, absolutely.
But yeah, I think there's yourscale. Exactly. Like, which I
think you've done. I mean, I'mliterally shook that you've only
been at this, like less than twoyears. But I think you really

(51:40):
like figure out your niche, andlike, what are your ability to
go in? And really help? Becauseit's coming your opportunities
coming?

Yeah, no, I mean, I believe that too. So
and, you know, you think aboutin reading things about AI,
right? So AI is gonna take overjobs, every single report now
says, right, and maybe it didn'tsay this six months ago, but
everything is now saying AIcannot replace human skills. And

(52:13):
those are skills that need to betaught and re taught and modeled
and mirrored and, you know,really taken a pulse of what it
looks like today versus tomorrowversus six months from now, you
know, this is these are skills,you know, and that's very
specific to culture, right? Ifyou cannot make a plan and walk

(52:34):
away from it, like it doesn'twork is same way you can't hug
your child once and say, I don'tunderstand you didn't know that
I loved you. I gave you a hugwhen you were three years old.
Like, I hadn't work that way.

I think like just the the skilling thing you
mentioned, right? The handskills, because we are going to
have, like a lesser population,like we've known, this was not
relations declining. We are moreglobalized, obviously. And then
more automation. World EconomicForum says like by 2030, we're
gonna have to globally rescale abillion people. Wow, wow, who's

(53:15):
going to do that? Right? Notschool is not higher ed, that's
right, is gonna have to be theorganization. And let me tell
you, you know, as well as I dotraining and developing in these
organizations, not training thatdevelopment, didn't call it
learning that call whatever theywant to write is not necessarily
effective. For individuals. Imean, there's just a lot we are

(53:36):
about to go through. We've beenwe are in a lot. We've been
through a lot we bout to gothrough more. Yes,

No, I totally agree. And, you know, to be able
to look at this stuff, make realtime decisions with the long
term vision in mind. Like thatis the goal for everything. And
if we're not able to do thatwith a framework and with you
know, I talked about how this isthis type of work is not just
about how it feels good, youknow, like, you're just

(54:02):
responsible for making everybodyhappy. I'm like, No, not that I
could give a rip aboutsomebody's happiness. But there
is an actual weight andresponsibility that comes from
keeping our language and ourprocess and an alignment. Right

that alignment. I think what you mentioned earlier
is the the giant paradox ofbusiness yes. Is the customer
experience and the employeeexperience because that's what
you can't have people first andexcellent customer service.
Because those things it's likethe scales of justice right?
It's so funny to me because likewhen do those things ever really

(54:39):
balance? You just keep hopingthey flip flop enough that
everybody's either carsick.
Right, or, or beers out everyonce in a while they're gonna
tip in my in my favor.

Yeah. And, you know, I have conversations
with leaders when they you know,talking about ideas or talking
about challenges in theirbusiness and I you know, we've
got about Come forth with whatit looks like and what I think
and have we tried, and so on andso forth. And most of the
solutions, most of thesuggestions are very simple. And

(55:12):
they're, you know, maybecategorically old school. And
what I say is, let's look, this,this work is less about
transforming into somethingelse, it's about coming back to
who we are, you know, we're,we're not trying to become
something that requires all ofus to make this massive

(55:35):
transformation. Like we areguiding, we are the bumper car,
we're not the bulldozer, we arehere. And we're just coming back
to who we are, like, actuallyhow we're wired to be. And, you
know, you can say that, from ascience standpoint, you can say
that, from a sociologystandpoint, you can say that,
from a faith standpoint, you cansay that, from an anthro.

(55:57):
Anthropology standpoint, you cansay from anything, it's just
like, the fact is, is that werespond to things in certain
ways, because we are human.
Yeah. And if we're not makingthose real time decisions with
long term visions, you know,that's giving your kid an iPad.
You know, that might solve themoment, but that does not solve

(56:20):
the long term, you know, so youlet somebody have remote work.
That solves the moment itdoesn't solve the long e tells
me to come into the office.
Proximity is not a plan, peoplewho are telling people to come
back in the office, and theyhave no plan for actual
connection and how the businessworks well, with people in

(56:41):
there. Like that's not a plan.
So what are we doing inpreparation for tomorrow, and
also 510 years from now?

Well, I think going back to your brilliant analogy
of this roller coaster, right,if your job should be to smooth
that track. That's right. Andit's great if you're the
visionary leader in your in thefront car, because you can see
oh, yeah, we got plenty oftrack. When we go down, we're
gonna go back up. That's, but ifyou're 15 cars back, yes, you're
just along for the ride thewhiplash and the the, you know,

(57:15):
that whole cart, that sicknessthing that like feeling that in
the pit of your stomach all thetime, that's not sustainable.

No, not at all. And a lot of it, I mean,
stuff like that, you know,people say, like trust and
transparency, and they kind ofleave it there. I think that's a
big mistake. Just with a lot ofthings that businesses say is
like, I'm not mad that you saytrust and transparency is a
pillar of your organization. Ido think that's an incomplete

(57:41):
sentence. So I do think that weneed to finish it out, okay. And
trust and transparency to uslooks like this. And we expect
that and reciprocation from you.
And it would look like that, youknow, to be able to give clear
language and a fullness of anexplanation allows for you to
then say, oh, okay, I see this.

(58:02):
I imagine what it looks likefrom 15 seats back in the back
car of the roller coaster, Ineed to be able to use clear
language, so that we are allready for what's to come in the
appropriate way. Well,

I think the last time that leader was back cars,
it was a different world. Yes.
Different everything. Right.
Yeah, I think that's the realstruggle. And I think the other
thing I love about what you'redoing in like, my lens, is,
individually, we have allperfected our packaging, right?

(58:38):
Like we've perfected ourpersona, our facade, like we,
you know, from picking the rightschool to get the right to get
and like, Oh, that's right,like, what's it doesn't look
good. And then I think thosepeople become leaders. And now
we're doing that with anorganization. We're trying to be
everything to everybody. Wedon't like we like a lot of gray

(58:59):
area in that, you know, careerspage or that About Us page.
Because, you know, like, wedon't want to come out and say,
Oh, this is it. This is who weare. Because we're right. Those
people. Like we are justmagnifying some of our
humaneness. Right. Yeah. Puttingthat on to those organizations.
So it's interesting, a lot ofemotional intelligence

(59:22):
opportunity there. I

look everywhere, right? I think too.
I mean, some people are, areworried. I think they worry too
much about what what would itmean, if I put it out there?
Like what would it mean if weactually said what we meant? And
I'm like, I, I really do thinkyou would probably have some
pushback. I think you would havea lot more buy in than you would

(59:48):
push back. And if it's thatcontroversial, we should maybe
take a step back and think aboutwhy we think this way to begin
with, right? Because the chancesare that whatever you think
Think whatever you're feelingwhatever you're, you know, the
values that you hope to have foryour organization. They're
probably not as controversial asmaybe what you think somebody

(01:00:10):
would read them as, right. And Ithink that's a risk that people
need to be willing to take. Andas an employee, I mean, to be
able to have that sort ofopportunity to have healthy
discourse, I don't have to agreewith everything that you do. You
know, I just need to know whereyou stand. And that way I can

(01:00:30):
make the decision for myself,from a clear, like a clarity
standpoint, like, nobody'sasking you to, like join the
cult, you know, we're notdrinking Kool Aid anymore, y'all
like, that's gone. But at thesame time, you know, to be able
to make that decision and say,Look, I love this company. I
love my work. I love what I do.
I don't agree with them oneverything. And that's fine. And

(01:00:52):
they know, I don't agree withthem when everything and that's
fine agreement

Anna Stumpf (01:00:57):
and trust and confidence are. Yeah, they're
not. They're different levels.
Because yes, I cannot agree withyou. But I can also trust you,
as a leader trust you as thevisionary and say, like, I don't
see the picture yet, but I'mgonna trust that you got a good
clear eye on it. So that'sgreat. Yeah, yeah, that's
definitely over time. And Iwould imagine that a lot of what

(01:01:19):
you do is talking to theemployee, because they seem to
be the ones I mean, thefrontline thing is like, kind of
a cliche anymore, right? Butthey're, they talk to the
customer, they're in thebusiness, they're doing these
tasks. And they're the ones who,if we're calling it a reward, if
we're calling it a celebration,if we're calling this employee,
you know, engagement or whateverit is, shouldn't we ask the

(01:01:42):
employee? Yes,

Brittany Fountain (01:01:45):
yes. I mean, there's certainly there's not a
blueprint for this work at allright? So everything is nuanced,
because every company isdifferent industries are
different markets are differentemployees, customers, so on and
so forth. So when people say,Well, what do you do, I'm like,
This is not a five week program,where I give you a solution. And
it's done. I was like,everything is different, its

(01:02:07):
nuances specialize it's, youknow, customed, to who you are,
because your problem will not bethe exact to someone else's,
even if it's super close. Butone thing that is consistent is
we talk. So the first thing wedo is talk, I want to hear from
you. What is it that you thinkthe problems are? And what do
you think the really big wins ofyour organization are? And where

(01:02:29):
do you hope that this will go?
Okay, great. So now I'm going totalk to the customers. And now
I'm going to talk to theemployees. And now I'm going to
sit in on a meeting and I wantto watch the nuances of your
body language, and howefficiently this is running, not
in a way to be where it's, youknow, productivity is king. But
what could be said or done or,you know, mirrored in a body

(01:02:53):
language that is actuallydamaging to people in that room
that is actually not movingthings forward in the way that
you think it is. And we all haveblind spots. So I think to be
able to go in and say like we'regoing to talk, and we're going
to talk because we need tofigure out what is and what
isn't and where the blind spotsexist, sort of allows for

(01:03:15):
everyone to put their guarddown, because it's like nobody
here is perfect. Nobody isseeing everything in its
fullness at any given time. Likewe're all going to have to have
a place where we can havesomebody step in and say, Have
we considered

right? How do you manage the ambiguity for
yourself and for your client?
Because that is not whatbusiness world thrives in right
now to see your like, lack ofcertainty. You love it. Let me
let me see your calendar. Let mesee plan. Let into your point.
Let me see your five week, youknow, what's our agenda? Like?
What does that look like?

(01:03:52):
Because historically, whenthey've had a consultant come
in, that's what that looks like.
Right? And I have alwayslaughed, because I'm like, You
do realize these consultantshave like templates for your, I
mean, they just pull thetemplate. And so you're getting
like a cookie cutter, thecustomization. So when you are
approaching this from a reallytruly customized and curious,

(01:04:13):
that's, again, something we allalways have the luxury to do in
the time is money world, right?
How do you manage that? And thenfor yourself to make sure that
you're not getting, you know,over extended in terms of your
commitment to a client?

Yeah, so I think the most important thing
to do is when you go in andyou're curious, and you have
like these, you know, are we isthis actually the problem? Are
we trying to figure out wherethe problem is, once we've named
where we think the you know, thetarget is, you know, so whether
it's engagement, whether it isclient retention, whether it is

(01:04:51):
you know, innovation or loss ofinstitutional knowledge,
whatever like the the metric isthat we choose, we want to
define because we can defineanything. So, there metrics for
everything. If you want to talkabout people moving the mouse,
right, like we can measure that,once we determine what it is, we
have to find the baseline forthat company. Most companies do

(01:05:11):
not have the baselines of whatthey're actually measuring for
themselves. And because they donot have that data that shows
exactly where they stand today,there is no way to measure where
they go tomorrow. So that is thevery first thing is it? Where
does it stand? Now we can pull,you know, stats or data from any

(01:05:33):
number of organizations and showwhat national or global
benchmarks look like for certaincriteria. But that does not mean
anything if we haven't actuallyidentified it for the
organization in which we stand.
So that is a way to that reallyallows for us to take that
ambiguity, which is healthy,right? So you need to be able to
navigate that space, but also tosay, and here's where we are.

(01:05:55):
And here's how we're going tomeasure and this is how we're
going to hold the employeesaccountable. And so that they
can then hold us accountable.
Because this is a two wayrelationship and be able to
determine from there, you know,okay, great. So maybe we've
gotten engagement to a placethat feels sustainable for at

(01:06:16):
least a moment. Okay, so maybewe can shift our focus here. And
maybe we'll start going afteremployee churn. Okay, so now we
can really get a baseline forwhat the churn looks like. And
we can start digging intodifferent variables that allow
for us to see, you know, what istrue churn? What is the actual
cost that's come from this, youknow, what is the cost in terms

(01:06:37):
of dollars, and in terms oftime. So, again, sort of both
sides of the brain is that veryfocused on the human aspect of
it, and what it does and how itdrives people from an actual
ethos standpoint. But also, thisis data informed, you know, this

(01:06:57):
is this is a business, and it'sthe two of those together that
make this process actually work.
Because if we're only looking atthe data, we've missed it from
the human side. And if we'reonly looking at the humans, then
we've missed it from the dollarside. So the only way it works
is if it's a yes, and it's humanand data. And we'll never fully
eliminate the ambiguity, but atleast we'll be able to have

(01:07:21):
enough certainty of what we'redoing so that we can move
forward, or just

more clarity to say who you are. Yeah. Because
again, it's like my, I've justworked with somebody who said,
um, put, like the old cassettejar, instead of putting a coin
in when you use profanity, I'mputting the word manage
expectations jar. Yeah, yes. Toomany times a day, manage
expectations. And when peoplestarted to say, I'm like, put $1

(01:07:50):
my job and my managerexpectations jar. But that's
right. It is so true, that wehave to get that part, right.
Yeah, in order for everyone toknow what their experiences
gonna be. Well, in

the logic of it, and again, maybe this goes
back to like, what was your pastexperience? I years and years
ago, there was a job that I wasasked to look at. And I was
like, this is reallyinteresting. And I started
asking questions, you know, howwill we measure success on this?
Well, we're not really sure.
Like, okay, what is the fiveyear plan for this? Well, we're

(01:08:22):
not really sure. Okay, so so onand so forth. The questions went
like this, and I understand thatthere's like a certain, you
know, level of uncertainty whenyou're, you know, building the
plane as you fly it, and I amfine with that. But what I said
was, I cannot interview for ajob, nor can someone interview
me for a job that does not fullyexist. So I'm happy to work with

(01:08:45):
you so that we can figure outthe metrics that we're aiming
for and what we hope this rolewill look like. But if we cannot
define success, then weshouldn't be moving forward with
the hire, period, whether it'sme or someone else. And so to be
able to have like that sort ofself awareness in something that
you perhaps could have moved mycareer forward in that capacity.

(01:09:08):
And apply that to where I am nowto say like, it doesn't matter
if you bring me on as your chiefculture officer, if we have not
set the baseline for where thisis and determined where we want
to be. It's not going to work.
It's not going to work. I don'tcare about the title. I don't

(01:09:29):
care about having your logo onmy website. Like that does not
matter to me, because we're notactually doing the work that's
going to impact the business andthe people.

I call that the best. Yes, yeah, right. Yes.
Every time you say yes tosomething, you have to say no to
a bunch of things. So how, ifyou could articulate for
yourself whether it's personallyprofessionally, historically
over time, with a client with anopportunity to speak whatever it
is, how do you know you'regiving your best yes

No, I am I'm very intuitive. And I've learned
that, you know, I grew up in asort of household and probably
maybe even a time period whereintuition was a little woowoo.
And nobody talked about it. ButI do think that there's a way to
learn to trust your innerknowing. And again, because I do

(01:10:22):
hold most things with an openhand, be able to be willing to
take on new information for it.
But I really do I trust myintuition to say this doesn't
feel good. Why does this notfeel good? Or this feels great.
This actually makes me feel likeI'm coming alive. And I'm making
a difference. And why is that?
How do I actually see thathappening? So my intuition plays

(01:10:44):
a huge role into that. And I doreal

shock with that, though, because, again, the self
awareness piece, and the factthat you are in a growth mindset
on a consistent basis. Yeah. Andthere's not You're not really
ever dealing with scarcity.
Yeah, he's you have been there.
You're like, I got out of thatonce. Right? I know what that
looks like, there's an exit,I'll be fine. Like, that allows

(01:11:07):
you to listen to your gut.

And I think being able to be comfortable
with that allows me to say thatI say that openly to leaders,
you know, if something comes up,that doesn't feel good, I'm not
quite sure why let's talk aboutit. And maybe like the words
will actually come to me. But inthis moment, that doesn't feel
good. So I either need moreinformation to know why my
feeling was wrong. Or we needmore information so that we can

(01:11:31):
determine why I had that feelingto begin with. And, yeah, so I
mean, intuition, I think it canbe a really powerful tool,
because it's not just like, youknow, fireflies that are
swarming around you it's likethese are normally your
intuition is a result of livedexperiences. And information

(01:11:54):
that you know, from othersources, so it's like to be able
to process that in real time,has really been a superpower of
mine. And that's how I come tolike my big yes. Is Emma's
temple.

Yeah. And it goes back to trust, because you have
to trust yourself. Right? Youhave to trust that you can
listen, when you're, I alwayssay gut, but your intuition is
telling you or pushing you in adirection. And I think that's so
important. And such a lack ofthat sometimes. Sure. And again,

(01:12:28):
in tight, you know, I'm using myhand quotes in time such as
these.

Yes. Look, I mean, let's be real clear, like,
I have not always gotten itright. Oh, no. And so also to be
able to go back and say, like,Man, I felt that like, Why did I
put Why did I push it? And to beable to analyze that to say, I
didn't listen to it because ofthis? Don't do that again.

Yeah. And I think that's why one, you know, 18
years in education, I think theone thing that I still get
frustrated, we don't teach well,is reflective thinking, Yes, we
really do not. And we are notcreating enough of that, where I
reflect after the fog, what didI learn from this? And then
like, what can I what, what willI do next time or, you know,

(01:13:13):
just whatever that is, like,we're not the real key learnings
of things aren't happening. AndI think that's the lack of
ability to do that keeps us fromtaking risks sometimes.

Yeah, and like in large group settings, I
mean, I've found that theeasiest thing I can do to force
that, you know, to practice thatas a discipline with myself is
be the last one to speak, letthe room let the room, flush it
out, let them go through all ofthe iterations of what they're
thinking, be the last to speak.
And that has really been able tobe like a great discipline for

(01:13:46):
me to be able to harness thatand use it. Yeah, looking back
at college, you know, one of myfavorite classes that was
actually totally random, but itwas called logic and reason. And
so two people would sit at theclass and the front of the class
and they would kind of have adebate. So they would give

(01:14:06):
conflicting sides of the same,you know, topic, but you
couldn't use emotional warfare.
You could only use logic andreason. And you as like, if you
weren't one of the two up frontas the class, you had to then
write a summary or like, sort ofyour your conclusion. Yeah, at

(01:14:27):
the end of it, I'm like, man,and at the time, I felt like
this is the strangest class I'veever had, like, Why did I sign
up for this? And the amount oftimes that I've like looked back
and reference that is like, Man,that was, that should be
required. Yeah. And I don'tknow, this was so fun. I'm
always, you know, I feel like Ialways tell people, I'm like,

(01:14:49):
I'm an open book, right? So no,I get that website, social media
podcast, you know, like it's allthere.

It's the conclusion of another great episode. And
you know what that means webelieve in the power of
practical wisdom. That's why atthe end of every episode, we
propose the collectivechallenge. This is a small,
actionable step for you tointegrate these lessons learned
into your daily life. There werejust so many great things in
this episode with Brittany. Butif I had to give you just one

(01:15:32):
challenge, which that's thepoint of this. This week, let's
make a conscious effort tocultivate more curiosity in your
daily life. Each day, identifyone situation where you can
pause and ask deeper questions,whether it's about your own
thoughts, ideas and actions orthose of others. Embrace the
opportunity to lean in and learnmore. Notice how this curiosity

(01:15:54):
impacts your interactions,decisions and your overall
perspective. At the end of theweek, reflect on your
experiences and consider how youcan continue to integrate
curiosity into your personal andprofessional life. And make sure
you share your insights withothers encourage them to join
you in this curiosity challenge,I think we'll all be better
because of it.

(01:16:25):
Thank you for joining us on thisepisode of collective energy
conversations. Today's storiesand insights are just the
beginning of our collectiveexploration into the vast
landscape of personal andprofessional development. If
today's conversation inspiredyou please share this episode
with your friends, family orcolleagues who also might find
value in our collective wisdom.
Your sharing helps us grow andexpand. We'd love to hear your

(01:16:47):
thoughts and experiences.
Connect with us on LinkedIn,Facebook, Instagram, at threads
at collective energy coach, andcheck out our website at WWW dot
collective energy coach.com andbecome part of the collective.
Until next time, keep growing,keep connecting and keep sharing
your story because every voicematters in the journey of

(01:17:10):
growth. I'm Dr. Anna Stumpf, andthis has been collective energy
conversations where we elevategrowth through shared stories.

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