June 10, 2020 • 22 mins
Michelle Schumacher is a BOSS. Her leadership expansive. Michelle is a thoughtful and diligent leader while being a very active community member and an amazing mother to two beautiful girls. Michelle serves as the Chief Financial Officer at Stoneridge Software, overseeing the financial and IT teams. Prior to Stoneridge, Michelle’s previous work experience included leading teams at Microsoft and Eide Bailly. Michelle’s leadership extends into industry and community, serving on numerous community-driven organizations.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The other day, we went to a friend's house in new
Ulm, Minnesota, and we wereriding bike and I was riding
with my eight year old and therewas this yard and I said, Oh,
Libby, look at that yard.
It's full of sprouted dandelions.
She goes, mom, that's ugly.
That's a field full of wishes.
And I thought, Oh my gosh, howawesome and how true it gets,
(00:22):
just taking that lens andflipping that to the field full
of wishes.
And, and I just got goosebumpsand I, I had told her, I said,
Olivia, I just love that.
That's the way that you look atthe world.
That's a field of wishes andI'll tell you, I was driving
around this weekend.
And I, that's all I could see inthe fields where there's Daniel
lines as well.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
This is Jesse, this is Janine.
And then it's Leyland grant.
We're on a journey to share thereal story.
Michelle is a boss.
She is amazing.
We work with her.
She's just one of the executiveson our leadership team.
(01:14):
And by the way, which is alsoreally cool.
We have four women on ourexecutive team out of eight
executives.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
And I think what's even more empowering is the way
that they handle it.
Every interaction when they'reat work, like we have some of
the strongest, most innovativeand inspiring women leadership
at Stoneridge.
And I cannot wait for the restof our listeners to just get a
quarter of that from Michelleand to just see the greatness
(01:47):
that she shows up every day thatwe get to see how's it going?
Good.
I think I need to remind myfamily to be a little quiet or
hold on.
They're all making dinnerbecause it's seven 30.
So why not in the true spirit ofglaze and grit?
Um, we are hanging on tonight.
Well, thanks for coming on.
(02:08):
Yes, absolutely.
Michelle, like we just statedbefore, we're just super excited
to have you on the show,obviously, Jesse and I found you
to be such an inspiring, amazingleader.
And what better to have you kickoff our first guest, which is
awesome.
I know you grew up in Fargo,North Dakota attended high
(02:29):
school in Fargo, South.
And then after graduation madeyour way to the university of
North Dakota on a musicscholarship, you said music was
your life in our earlierdiscussion.
So what drew you to music?
Yeah, you know, I actually don'tremember where it started, but
it was always something for methat gave me an outlet to, to
(02:50):
just have something that was apassion, right.
To work hard and, um, to reallytry and get better at something.
And in the spirit of, you know,I was growth mindset
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Putting that time and that effort in, so, so in high
school I got a music scholarshipto U N D and went up there and
started as a music major.
And that lasted for about twoclasses.
Uh, until I learned that youhave to sing to be a music major
and all that, you have to begood at it, but you do have to
sing.
And that was a absolute no-gofor me.
(03:20):
Uh, so I ended up changing mymajor about two classes into
college and did accounting, butI did stay in play in the wind
ensemble with the music majorsand the saxophone quartet and
played in the marching band fora while, until I slammed my
instrument in my car door anddecided that was enough of that.
Um, you know, I grew up inFargo, as you mentioned, my
family owned a bakery, so my dadwas born in Germany.
(03:41):
And when his family moved overto the United States, my grandpa
started working at the bakery.
And, um, for folks that are fromFargo, um, the name of the
bakery was quality bakery.
And it was around for over 90years before we closed it.
So just a long history in theFargo area.
And, you know, that reallytaught me the importance of work
ethic and the importance of justreally sticking to something.
(04:04):
And, you know, I rememberworking there as young as I can
remember.
I started there for a littlegrowing up with my dad, growing
up with my grandpa andeventually my stepmom, um, on
the bakery with them.
So just really something tofocus on and, and continue to
just learn and get better.
And actually right before Ijumped on here, I was pulling my
saxophone back out.
I kind of took a little whilewhen, when I had kids and my
(04:25):
daughter now is at the age whereshe is, I'm going to start
playing in bands.
So we bought a new saxophone.
So I've been pulling that outand playing it again.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
[inaudible]
Speaker 1 (04:53):
You mentioned something that's interesting.
I think a lot of collegestudents experience that they go
in thinking that they're goingto start one major.
Then they realize that that'snot exactly where life is taking
them.
And that switch can be a prettyhard decision and kind of scary.
How did you handle that changein deciding where the wind was
(05:14):
taking you next?
Speaker 3 (05:15):
You know, it's actually interesting.
I don't remember making thechange.
I remember very vividly that Iwas not going to sing, so that
sticks out just clear as day,but I don't necessarily remember
why the switch, but I doremember that talking back to
work ethic, accounting was oneof the hard, harder majors.
And I think what drew me to itwas kind of the challenge of it
(05:36):
was really a you drop out or youmake it class, right?
Your generals, you had to takean accounting course.
And just thinking that he, thisis going to be a challenge.
I'm going to try to do it.
I remember that pretty clearly.
And then going on to do, youknow, 150 credit hours that are
needed for the CPA exam andtrying to fit that into four
years versus five while doingmusic was something that it was
(05:58):
a lot of fun, but a lot of work,
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Clearly you love challenges, which would make
your first job out of collegewas at a big four public
accounting firm in Minneapolis.
Can you share a little bit aboutyour journey there and where
that took you on your nextsteps?
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Yeah, so, so I actually interned with a big
four, um, my, between mysophomore and junior years in
college, and then decided thatthat's where I wanted to work
when I got out of college.
So moved to Minneapolis, livedthere for a couple of years and
worked for price WaterhouseCoopers in downtown Minneapolis,
which was, you talk about hardwork and preparing for that.
Um, big four public accountingis definitely something that you
(06:37):
need to be prepared for hardwork, but I also think it's two
of the years that I learned morethan I learned anywhere else.
And it was just really, reallycool.
And I loved working there.
I still have so many, so manygreat friends that are from that
time that actually went on to begreat friends today and funny
enough small world.
Um, I work at Stoneridge todayand one of the gals that I met
(06:59):
at Pricewaterhouse became ourmaid of honor in our wedding and
is now a client of ours atStoneridge.
Not having anything to do withme just happened to be a
Stoneridge client, thosefriendships carry on both work
and professional and just reallyawesome.
We moved back to Fargo when myhusband and I got engaged and we
just wanted to be closer tofamily and stayed in public
accounting and went to EideBailly where we both worked for
(07:20):
a number of years and learned,learned a lot.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Was it intimidating, stepping into a big four?
Speaker 3 (07:26):
So I remember going and having these meetings with
business people that I have noidea what's going on.
Right.
And you have those conversationsand you hope you sound okay and
you don't really know.
And so, yeah, I mean, it was, itwas, it was definitely like
that, which actually was a greatexperience.
Then when I had a few yearsunder my belt and was able to go
back and help other people,because you really quickly
(07:48):
forget how hard it is, right?
You, you get there and you learnand you go back even just a
couple of years and remember howmuch those folks are learning.
And it's just a set of empathythat you can share with them.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
One of the many things Michelle, that is
incredible about you is yourpassion for volunteering and
serving on numerous boards thatnot only impacts our local
community, but on a state andnational level as well.
The boards you've served oninclude the North Dakota CPA
society, Y WCA Cass, clay,university of North Dakota
department of accountancy andthe finance committee for the
(08:21):
United way of Cass clay.
What drives you to give yourtime, your energy and resources
to the community in this way?
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Volunteering is, is a passion.
I love it in so many differentways.
I wouldn't say any volunteerexperience has provided the same
thing or given back to me thesame things as, as another one,
what really started that passionwas back when I worked at Eide
Bailly, I did a lot of auditsthat were for nonprofit groups.
And, and what I really learnedpretty quickly was that a lot of
(08:50):
nonprofits obviously want theirmoney and their resources to go
back to the community.
And it's often hard to afford afinancial mindset on staff.
And if you do it, maybe someonethat's maybe newer out of school
or potentially more of abookkeeper type of person versus
strategic thinking.
And so I really learned quicklyhow much value that that
(09:11):
skillset could bring to themission that these organizations
have.
And it just became justenlightening, right?
It start, it starts off small.
You know, people always ask me,well, how do you start
volunteering?
How do I get in?
Because it seems so daunting,right?
And it starts really small.
Like for me, it was juniorachievement.
I was a classroom volunteer whenI worked for Pricewaterhouse, I
(09:31):
started out and I went into highschool classes and taught people
about resumes and it was threehours a year.
It wasn't anything crazy.
And then when I moved back toFargo, someone at junior
achievement in Minneapolis hadheard, I was moving back to
Fargo and called the directorand said, Hey, one of our
volunteers is moving and we hadjust kicked up junior
achievement in Fargo.
I started volunteering here andthen ended up on the board of
(09:53):
directors there over time.
And then things just start tokind of move.
At that point.
You meet people and you learnabout things that you're
passionate about in thecommunity.
And, um, one thing tends to leadto another.
And again, it's all startingjust with giving to something
you're passionate about.
And over time people understandwhere your skill sets are and
how that can benefit.
And those things just balloonand grow.
(10:15):
And what you'll find is I get somuch more out of it than I put
into it.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Michelle, two of your many accomplishments include
graduating from United ways, 35,under 35 program and receiving
your American Institute of CPAleadership Academy certificate
from the CEO and board president.
You stated you didn't thinkthose were possible.
Why is that?
Speaker 3 (10:36):
You know, I think just like anyone, you always do
the what ifs or it's someoneelse.
It's not me.
It's often really easy to skipover those type of things that
seem too big for you or too bigfor your life, because it's
hard.
It's scary.
You know, the chances of megetting in might not be that,
(10:56):
that high.
And so I had those feelings justlike everyone else when I
applied for both of thoseprograms.
And it's just back to that,self-doubt of is this for me?
Am I really the person?
Right.
And what I've found is T take astab at it, right.
If you don't make it the firsttime and you don't, maybe you
don't get it at all, but everytime that I've applied for
(11:17):
something and not gotten in,I've learned something really
awesome out of the process.
So just really trying to takethat mindset and looking at what
am I going to learn?
What am I going to grow?
Even if maybe that end goalisn't exactly as I envisioned
it, what did I learn along theway?
And sometimes that can be hardto see.
And sometimes maybe you don'tsee it until later, but what
I've found is even if it's thatparticular experience, maybe I
(11:39):
didn't learn that time, but whenI go back and apply for
something in the future or dosomething in the future, it
always comes back and, andreminds you and helps you to
grow.
So just keep trying and don'tgive up and don't doubt yourself
is what I would say.
Really great advice.
Well, I remember
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Michelle, we were at a retirement party, a coworker
retirement party.
I was in a moment of feelingcompletely inadequate in my job.
And I'm feeling great as a mom,as a friend, just the pressures
of just trying to juggle it all.
And I remember sitting next toyou and thinking, you know,
she's incredibly intelligent.
She's always on her game and avery demanding job you're
(12:16):
involved in the community.
You're raising a family.
And by the way, you look greatcoming from YouTube, that's a
pretty, pretty big compliment.
So, and in a moment of justfrankness, you know, I asked
you, how do you manage it all?
And I remember you said to me, Idon't.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
And I actually didn't really realize this, honestly,
until I started thinking aboutthis podcast.
I have two really, really goodfriends that are both awesome
parents and awesome.
And the messiest sense that Iwill tell you that I am as well
and awesome at their jobs, justin both, in both ways.
And I do kind of a side note,but that's one of my pieces of
(12:58):
advice is find your tribe,right?
Like these are the people thatwill help you through the days
where stuff just isn't okay.
And I asked them, I said, whatis it about me that you guys,
you know, kind of my message,what, you know, you guys see me
in every light that there is.
So what are things that youthink about?
And they said you you're real.
And I don't know that Inecessarily realized that
(13:21):
before, but I think one of thethings that's beautiful about
life is that it's really messy,right?
Like I love the coldness camefrom someone that I worked with
at Microsoft.
And it just continues to make mechuckle is when those days get
super crazy, which, you know, inthe world today, it feels like
almost every day, just to pauseand say, this is what it's like
(13:42):
to have it all.
And it makes me laugh becauseit's so true.
Right.
Hey, you're in the midst of justsomething bonkers.
So you step back and then youthink this is what it's like to
have it all.
I'm so lucky that I have a job.
I'm so lucky that I have kidsthat can make a mess in my
house.
Now, granted, today, I'm notfeeling that way, but I try to
feel that way, right.
Is I'm super, super lucky tohave all of these things that
(14:07):
are causing this chaos.
The opposite side is I'm alone.
Right.
And I'm by myself and I don'thave all of these things.
So just really looking at thethankful side of it.
And like I mentioned, I have aneight year old today.
That's left everything likeHansel and Gretel on our trail.
So it's been a little bit of achallenging evening, but again,
that's the beauty of it.
And I think about the days whenthey're not here and it's going
(14:28):
to be when it's hard,
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Michelle, what you just discussed made me think of
another quote that you sharedwith Jesse.
And I, I truly believe thedifference between hardship and
adventure is simply perspective.
And you could really hear thatresonating through almost every
word you just said.
What about that quote reallyspeaks to you
Speaker 3 (14:48):
That actually, you know, if I think about kind of
what I by, I would come back tothat quote as being it.
And it's not necessarily thatthat's been it for me forever.
You know, you, you talk aboutall the things that go well, and
you just ask the question on,you know, how do you handle
things that don't, and in one ofthe things that maybe hasn't
gone ideal over the last numberof years is, um, I received a
(15:10):
cancer diagnosis in 2016.
And you know, that was, it wassuper hard, right?
You hear that word and you justpanic.
It's it's, I've got little kids.
Are they not going to grow upwith a mom what's going to
happen and got so hard thatthere were days that I actually
had to call my mom in the middleof the night and have her come
over and sleep next to mebecause it just was the only
(15:30):
thing that calmed me down.
I was having major panic attacksin the middle of the night.
And I remember we had a Disneycruise scheduled for a few days
after that diagnosis that we hadbeen planning for for so long.
And I didn't want to go all of asudden a trip that I had been
just dreaming of.
I had zero interest.
All I wanted to do is get toMayo and find out how bad it was
going to be.
(15:51):
It was really just, just areally challenging time and
really hard to find thosepositives.
Even though I try to be a personthat looks for the silver lining
is there's just certain thingsin life that that's really,
really hard to do.
And I remember opening aCaringBridge posts from a
gentleman that's about my agethat worked at Microsoft that
had some major health thingscome up and it was a really,
(16:13):
really sad deal.
And his sister posted this quotethat said, I truly believe the
difference between a hardshipand an adventure is simply
perspective.
And something about that quote,my whole mind shift changed.
It just flipped from being, Ohmy gosh, what's going to happen
to, you know what, I'm gonna dothis.
I'm gonna do this.
I'm gonna figure out what comesnext.
(16:35):
I'm going to take it as itcomes.
I'm going to take one step at atime.
I'm going to be okay.
And, you know, there were stilldays that were hard.
I'm not going to say everythingflipped to, to Rosie, but it
certainly gives you just adifferent lens on things.
And, and I I've really tried tolive by that in days that I find
that I'm getting down or I'mnervous about something.
You know, when I first startedat Stoneridge, like getting up
(16:56):
in front of the company wastough.
And I'm not someone thatgenerally gets terribly nervous
about talking, which I'm sure isa shocker to everyone, but I was
right.
And it's taking it even in thosesituations and saying, this is
an adventure, right?
Maybe it's not comparing to ahardship, but this is going to
be an adventure.
And it just, it ignitessomething different, right?
It's an excitement.
Um, and it really came true theother day.
(17:17):
Uh, we went to a friend's housein new, old Minnesota.
Um, and we were riding bike andI was riding with my eight year
old and there was this yard andI said, Oh, Olivia, look at that
yard.
It's full of sprouted, Dannylies.
She goes, mom, that's not ugly.
That's a field full of wishes.
And I thought, Oh my gosh, howawesome and how true.
(17:38):
It's just taking that lens andflipping that to the field full
of wishes.
And, and I just got goosebumpsand I had told her, I said,
Olivia, I just love that.
That's the way that you look atthe world.
That's a field of wishes.
And I'll tell you, I was drivingaround this weekend.
And I, that's all I could see inthe fields where there's Daniel
lines is it's a field of wishes.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Thank you for, for sharing your story and a
struggle that you went throughand something, I mean, the
reason Jesse and I started glazeand grit was for exactly what
you just discussed, because Ican see myself, I see you stand
up every day in our meetings andour, this bright light in our
office and are so inclusive ofour teams and just always bring
(18:22):
this light and brightness andfun myself, not knowing
anything.
I would have never guessed thatyou had been through that
struggle or had those days ofquestioning, or even have those
days when you didn't want to getup and be in front of the team.
It's just shattering thoseperceptions of seeing the person
as the whole person, everythingthat they bring to the table.
(18:42):
So just really thank you forsharing that little piece of
your story with us.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Thanks for having me.
It's, it's very, very fun.
And, uh, you know, we talkedabout looking good at the
office.
My new thing is, um, I'm goingto try to bring yoga pants back.
You know, we've been working athome.
I think it's a pretty goodstyle.
So I'm hoping that when we getback to the office, that it's
our new thing,
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Michelle, you know, we've gone through from starting
off to getting your musicscholarship, all of your amazing
stepping stones in your career.
Now being the CFO at Stoneridgesoftware, did you think your
life journey thus far wouldwouldn't lead you to where
you're at today?
Speaker 3 (19:21):
It's, it's actually interesting because I am a, I'm
a big planner in so many waysand, and I love to be organized
and plan everything, which haskind of changed since having
kids.
I still love it.
I just don't get to do it asmuch.
But you know, when I think aboutcareer in life, I have North
stars and I have things, youknow, I, I was on a work towards
(19:42):
kind of what's that North star,but I try not to get too planful
and too stressed out about whatcomes in the middle.
And my approach really is if youtreat people with respect and
you make choices that aregrounded in integrity, that
those things are going to comein in those things that are
going to bring you in thedirection that that you're meant
to go.
And so did I think about it?
(20:03):
Not, not really, but I didn'tknow that my North star was
somewhere like here.
And so I didn't know what pathit would be to get there.
I didn't know when it would be,but I always just tried to make
choices that brought me closerto that.
And so I'm excited to see, Iwill say, I don't know what I
want to be when I grow up, but Isure love it here.
And I love continuing to growand being at a company that we
(20:24):
just do new and different thingsall the time and stay
challenged.
And it's just, just reallyexciting.
And we have a team of peoplethat has those same values,
which I really believe is key tobeing successful together.
So
Speaker 1 (20:37):
What is the season in your life taught you?
Speaker 3 (20:40):
I think not to take things too seriously, you know,
I try to, I try to laugh whenthings go crazy, know there's
definitely stressful days andthere's, you know, it's not all
roses all the time, but justreally trying to enjoy the
crazy.
And, and I think once you giveyourself the permission to
realize that everybody's in thesame boat as you are, it may be
(21:02):
different.
It may not look the same, butwe're all trying to figure it
out.
It's just a relaxing feeling,right?
Or you just feel like you kindof let this weight off your
shoulders is there's a lot ofsocial media and there's a lot
of things out there that you cancompare yourself to, which is
great.
Like it's great that there'speople that have good things
going on, but there's also otherthings, right?
And, and not thinking that youhave to be only those things.
(21:25):
It's, everybody's got struggles.
They all look different.
They come up at different times,which is really to embrace that.
And again, find your people, thefriends that I have to bounce,
those crazy things off arelifesavers.
It's anywhere from my kids doingthis to how would you approach
this hard situation at work?
And having those people thatjust get you in and out, it's
(21:47):
just a game changer.
I can't even stress it enough.
And you know, you might not havethat person right now.
And that's okay.
You know, it's look for peoplethat have something in common
with you because chances arethose people are looking for
someone just like you.
And I listened to your story,Jesse and Janine on your first
podcast.
And it seemed something justlike that, right?
Where one of you noticed theother one and you ended up
(22:08):
reaching out and you found eachother.
So it's not that you have tohave this friend from junior
high, that you don't have it.
You're never going to find it.
It's realize that everybody islike that.
And everybody just longs forsomeone to be their person.
And they look for those peopleand really embrace, embrace them
and, and learn from them.
I love that.
Be their person Mattel.
(22:30):
Thank you so much for sharingyour journey.
You are very welcome.
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Thank you for joining us for this episode of glaze and
grit.
If you enjoyed this episode andwant to continue on this journey
with us, please like subscribeand leave us a review.
Now, Jesse and Janine.
The other day, we went to a friend's house in new
Ulm, Minnesota, and we wereriding bike and I was riding
with my eight year old and therewas this yard and I said, Oh,
Libby, look at that yard.
It's full of sprouted dandelions.
She goes, mom, that's ugly.
That's a field full of wishes.
And I thought, Oh my gosh, howawesome and how true it gets,
(00:22):
just taking that lens andflipping that to the field full
of wishes.
And, and I just got goosebumpsand I, I had told her, I said,
Olivia, I just love that.
That's the way that you look atthe world.
That's a field of wishes andI'll tell you, I was driving
around this weekend.
And I, that's all I could see inthe fields where there's Daniel
lines as well.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
This is Jesse, this is Janine.
And then it's Leyland grant.
We're on a journey to share thereal story.
Michelle is a boss.
She is amazing.
We work with her.
She's just one of the executiveson our leadership team.
(01:14):
And by the way, which is alsoreally cool.
We have four women on ourexecutive team out of eight
executives.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
And I think what's even more empowering is the way
that they handle it.
Every interaction when they'reat work, like we have some of
the strongest, most innovativeand inspiring women leadership
at Stoneridge.
And I cannot wait for the restof our listeners to just get a
quarter of that from Michelleand to just see the greatness
(01:47):
that she shows up every day thatwe get to see how's it going?
Good.
I think I need to remind myfamily to be a little quiet or
hold on.
They're all making dinnerbecause it's seven 30.
So why not in the true spirit ofglaze and grit?
Um, we are hanging on tonight.
Well, thanks for coming on.
(02:08):
Yes, absolutely.
Michelle, like we just statedbefore, we're just super excited
to have you on the show,obviously, Jesse and I found you
to be such an inspiring, amazingleader.
And what better to have you kickoff our first guest, which is
awesome.
I know you grew up in Fargo,North Dakota attended high
(02:29):
school in Fargo, South.
And then after graduation madeyour way to the university of
North Dakota on a musicscholarship, you said music was
your life in our earlierdiscussion.
So what drew you to music?
Yeah, you know, I actually don'tremember where it started, but
it was always something for methat gave me an outlet to, to
(02:50):
just have something that was apassion, right.
To work hard and, um, to reallytry and get better at something.
And in the spirit of, you know,I was growth mindset
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Putting that time and that effort in, so, so in high
school I got a music scholarshipto U N D and went up there and
started as a music major.
And that lasted for about twoclasses.
Uh, until I learned that youhave to sing to be a music major
and all that, you have to begood at it, but you do have to
sing.
And that was a absolute no-gofor me.
(03:20):
Uh, so I ended up changing mymajor about two classes into
college and did accounting, butI did stay in play in the wind
ensemble with the music majorsand the saxophone quartet and
played in the marching band fora while, until I slammed my
instrument in my car door anddecided that was enough of that.
Um, you know, I grew up inFargo, as you mentioned, my
family owned a bakery, so my dadwas born in Germany.
(03:41):
And when his family moved overto the United States, my grandpa
started working at the bakery.
And, um, for folks that are fromFargo, um, the name of the
bakery was quality bakery.
And it was around for over 90years before we closed it.
So just a long history in theFargo area.
And, you know, that reallytaught me the importance of work
ethic and the importance of justreally sticking to something.
(04:04):
And, you know, I rememberworking there as young as I can
remember.
I started there for a littlegrowing up with my dad, growing
up with my grandpa andeventually my stepmom, um, on
the bakery with them.
So just really something tofocus on and, and continue to
just learn and get better.
And actually right before Ijumped on here, I was pulling my
saxophone back out.
I kind of took a little whilewhen, when I had kids and my
(04:25):
daughter now is at the age whereshe is, I'm going to start
playing in bands.
So we bought a new saxophone.
So I've been pulling that outand playing it again.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
[inaudible]
Speaker 1 (04:53):
You mentioned something that's interesting.
I think a lot of collegestudents experience that they go
in thinking that they're goingto start one major.
Then they realize that that'snot exactly where life is taking
them.
And that switch can be a prettyhard decision and kind of scary.
How did you handle that changein deciding where the wind was
(05:14):
taking you next?
Speaker 3 (05:15):
You know, it's actually interesting.
I don't remember making thechange.
I remember very vividly that Iwas not going to sing, so that
sticks out just clear as day,but I don't necessarily remember
why the switch, but I doremember that talking back to
work ethic, accounting was oneof the hard, harder majors.
And I think what drew me to itwas kind of the challenge of it
(05:36):
was really a you drop out or youmake it class, right?
Your generals, you had to takean accounting course.
And just thinking that he, thisis going to be a challenge.
I'm going to try to do it.
I remember that pretty clearly.
And then going on to do, youknow, 150 credit hours that are
needed for the CPA exam andtrying to fit that into four
years versus five while doingmusic was something that it was
(05:58):
a lot of fun, but a lot of work,
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Clearly you love challenges, which would make
your first job out of collegewas at a big four public
accounting firm in Minneapolis.
Can you share a little bit aboutyour journey there and where
that took you on your nextsteps?
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Yeah, so, so I actually interned with a big
four, um, my, between mysophomore and junior years in
college, and then decided thatthat's where I wanted to work
when I got out of college.
So moved to Minneapolis, livedthere for a couple of years and
worked for price WaterhouseCoopers in downtown Minneapolis,
which was, you talk about hardwork and preparing for that.
Um, big four public accountingis definitely something that you
(06:37):
need to be prepared for hardwork, but I also think it's two
of the years that I learned morethan I learned anywhere else.
And it was just really, reallycool.
And I loved working there.
I still have so many, so manygreat friends that are from that
time that actually went on to begreat friends today and funny
enough small world.
Um, I work at Stoneridge todayand one of the gals that I met
(06:59):
at Pricewaterhouse became ourmaid of honor in our wedding and
is now a client of ours atStoneridge.
Not having anything to do withme just happened to be a
Stoneridge client, thosefriendships carry on both work
and professional and just reallyawesome.
We moved back to Fargo when myhusband and I got engaged and we
just wanted to be closer tofamily and stayed in public
accounting and went to EideBailly where we both worked for
(07:20):
a number of years and learned,learned a lot.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Was it intimidating, stepping into a big four?
Speaker 3 (07:26):
So I remember going and having these meetings with
business people that I have noidea what's going on.
Right.
And you have those conversationsand you hope you sound okay and
you don't really know.
And so, yeah, I mean, it was, itwas, it was definitely like
that, which actually was a greatexperience.
Then when I had a few yearsunder my belt and was able to go
back and help other people,because you really quickly
(07:48):
forget how hard it is, right?
You, you get there and you learnand you go back even just a
couple of years and remember howmuch those folks are learning.
And it's just a set of empathythat you can share with them.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
One of the many things Michelle, that is
incredible about you is yourpassion for volunteering and
serving on numerous boards thatnot only impacts our local
community, but on a state andnational level as well.
The boards you've served oninclude the North Dakota CPA
society, Y WCA Cass, clay,university of North Dakota
department of accountancy andthe finance committee for the
(08:21):
United way of Cass clay.
What drives you to give yourtime, your energy and resources
to the community in this way?
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Volunteering is, is a passion.
I love it in so many differentways.
I wouldn't say any volunteerexperience has provided the same
thing or given back to me thesame things as, as another one,
what really started that passionwas back when I worked at Eide
Bailly, I did a lot of auditsthat were for nonprofit groups.
And, and what I really learnedpretty quickly was that a lot of
(08:50):
nonprofits obviously want theirmoney and their resources to go
back to the community.
And it's often hard to afford afinancial mindset on staff.
And if you do it, maybe someonethat's maybe newer out of school
or potentially more of abookkeeper type of person versus
strategic thinking.
And so I really learned quicklyhow much value that that
(09:11):
skillset could bring to themission that these organizations
have.
And it just became justenlightening, right?
It start, it starts off small.
You know, people always ask me,well, how do you start
volunteering?
How do I get in?
Because it seems so daunting,right?
And it starts really small.
Like for me, it was juniorachievement.
I was a classroom volunteer whenI worked for Pricewaterhouse, I
(09:31):
started out and I went into highschool classes and taught people
about resumes and it was threehours a year.
It wasn't anything crazy.
And then when I moved back toFargo, someone at junior
achievement in Minneapolis hadheard, I was moving back to
Fargo and called the directorand said, Hey, one of our
volunteers is moving and we hadjust kicked up junior
achievement in Fargo.
I started volunteering here andthen ended up on the board of
(09:53):
directors there over time.
And then things just start tokind of move.
At that point.
You meet people and you learnabout things that you're
passionate about in thecommunity.
And, um, one thing tends to leadto another.
And again, it's all startingjust with giving to something
you're passionate about.
And over time people understandwhere your skill sets are and
how that can benefit.
And those things just balloonand grow.
(10:15):
And what you'll find is I get somuch more out of it than I put
into it.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Michelle, two of your many accomplishments include
graduating from United ways, 35,under 35 program and receiving
your American Institute of CPAleadership Academy certificate
from the CEO and board president.
You stated you didn't thinkthose were possible.
Why is that?
Speaker 3 (10:36):
You know, I think just like anyone, you always do
the what ifs or it's someoneelse.
It's not me.
It's often really easy to skipover those type of things that
seem too big for you or too bigfor your life, because it's
hard.
It's scary.
You know, the chances of megetting in might not be that,
(10:56):
that high.
And so I had those feelings justlike everyone else when I
applied for both of thoseprograms.
And it's just back to that,self-doubt of is this for me?
Am I really the person?
Right.
And what I've found is T take astab at it, right.
If you don't make it the firsttime and you don't, maybe you
don't get it at all, but everytime that I've applied for
(11:17):
something and not gotten in,I've learned something really
awesome out of the process.
So just really trying to takethat mindset and looking at what
am I going to learn?
What am I going to grow?
Even if maybe that end goalisn't exactly as I envisioned
it, what did I learn along theway?
And sometimes that can be hardto see.
And sometimes maybe you don'tsee it until later, but what
I've found is even if it's thatparticular experience, maybe I
(11:39):
didn't learn that time, but whenI go back and apply for
something in the future or dosomething in the future, it
always comes back and, andreminds you and helps you to
grow.
So just keep trying and don'tgive up and don't doubt yourself
is what I would say.
Really great advice.
Well, I remember
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Michelle, we were at a retirement party, a coworker
retirement party.
I was in a moment of feelingcompletely inadequate in my job.
And I'm feeling great as a mom,as a friend, just the pressures
of just trying to juggle it all.
And I remember sitting next toyou and thinking, you know,
she's incredibly intelligent.
She's always on her game and avery demanding job you're
(12:16):
involved in the community.
You're raising a family.
And by the way, you look greatcoming from YouTube, that's a
pretty, pretty big compliment.
So, and in a moment of justfrankness, you know, I asked
you, how do you manage it all?
And I remember you said to me, Idon't.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
And I actually didn't really realize this, honestly,
until I started thinking aboutthis podcast.
I have two really, really goodfriends that are both awesome
parents and awesome.
And the messiest sense that Iwill tell you that I am as well
and awesome at their jobs, justin both, in both ways.
And I do kind of a side note,but that's one of my pieces of
(12:58):
advice is find your tribe,right?
Like these are the people thatwill help you through the days
where stuff just isn't okay.
And I asked them, I said, whatis it about me that you guys,
you know, kind of my message,what, you know, you guys see me
in every light that there is.
So what are things that youthink about?
And they said you you're real.
And I don't know that Inecessarily realized that
(13:21):
before, but I think one of thethings that's beautiful about
life is that it's really messy,right?
Like I love the coldness camefrom someone that I worked with
at Microsoft.
And it just continues to make mechuckle is when those days get
super crazy, which, you know, inthe world today, it feels like
almost every day, just to pauseand say, this is what it's like
(13:42):
to have it all.
And it makes me laugh becauseit's so true.
Right.
Hey, you're in the midst of justsomething bonkers.
So you step back and then youthink this is what it's like to
have it all.
I'm so lucky that I have a job.
I'm so lucky that I have kidsthat can make a mess in my
house.
Now, granted, today, I'm notfeeling that way, but I try to
feel that way, right.
Is I'm super, super lucky tohave all of these things that
(14:07):
are causing this chaos.
The opposite side is I'm alone.
Right.
And I'm by myself and I don'thave all of these things.
So just really looking at thethankful side of it.
And like I mentioned, I have aneight year old today.
That's left everything likeHansel and Gretel on our trail.
So it's been a little bit of achallenging evening, but again,
that's the beauty of it.
And I think about the days whenthey're not here and it's going
(14:28):
to be when it's hard,
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Michelle, what you just discussed made me think of
another quote that you sharedwith Jesse.
And I, I truly believe thedifference between hardship and
adventure is simply perspective.
And you could really hear thatresonating through almost every
word you just said.
What about that quote reallyspeaks to you
Speaker 3 (14:48):
That actually, you know, if I think about kind of
what I by, I would come back tothat quote as being it.
And it's not necessarily thatthat's been it for me forever.
You know, you, you talk aboutall the things that go well, and
you just ask the question on,you know, how do you handle
things that don't, and in one ofthe things that maybe hasn't
gone ideal over the last numberof years is, um, I received a
(15:10):
cancer diagnosis in 2016.
And you know, that was, it wassuper hard, right?
You hear that word and you justpanic.
It's it's, I've got little kids.
Are they not going to grow upwith a mom what's going to
happen and got so hard thatthere were days that I actually
had to call my mom in the middleof the night and have her come
over and sleep next to mebecause it just was the only
(15:30):
thing that calmed me down.
I was having major panic attacksin the middle of the night.
And I remember we had a Disneycruise scheduled for a few days
after that diagnosis that we hadbeen planning for for so long.
And I didn't want to go all of asudden a trip that I had been
just dreaming of.
I had zero interest.
All I wanted to do is get toMayo and find out how bad it was
going to be.
(15:51):
It was really just, just areally challenging time and
really hard to find thosepositives.
Even though I try to be a personthat looks for the silver lining
is there's just certain thingsin life that that's really,
really hard to do.
And I remember opening aCaringBridge posts from a
gentleman that's about my agethat worked at Microsoft that
had some major health thingscome up and it was a really,
(16:13):
really sad deal.
And his sister posted this quotethat said, I truly believe the
difference between a hardshipand an adventure is simply
perspective.
And something about that quote,my whole mind shift changed.
It just flipped from being, Ohmy gosh, what's going to happen
to, you know what, I'm gonna dothis.
I'm gonna do this.
I'm gonna figure out what comesnext.
(16:35):
I'm going to take it as itcomes.
I'm going to take one step at atime.
I'm going to be okay.
And, you know, there were stilldays that were hard.
I'm not going to say everythingflipped to, to Rosie, but it
certainly gives you just adifferent lens on things.
And, and I I've really tried tolive by that in days that I find
that I'm getting down or I'mnervous about something.
You know, when I first startedat Stoneridge, like getting up
(16:56):
in front of the company wastough.
And I'm not someone thatgenerally gets terribly nervous
about talking, which I'm sure isa shocker to everyone, but I was
right.
And it's taking it even in thosesituations and saying, this is
an adventure, right?
Maybe it's not comparing to ahardship, but this is going to
be an adventure.
And it just, it ignitessomething different, right?
It's an excitement.
Um, and it really came true theother day.
(17:17):
Uh, we went to a friend's housein new, old Minnesota.
Um, and we were riding bike andI was riding with my eight year
old and there was this yard andI said, Oh, Olivia, look at that
yard.
It's full of sprouted, Dannylies.
She goes, mom, that's not ugly.
That's a field full of wishes.
And I thought, Oh my gosh, howawesome and how true.
(17:38):
It's just taking that lens andflipping that to the field full
of wishes.
And, and I just got goosebumpsand I had told her, I said,
Olivia, I just love that.
That's the way that you look atthe world.
That's a field of wishes.
And I'll tell you, I was drivingaround this weekend.
And I, that's all I could see inthe fields where there's Daniel
lines is it's a field of wishes.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Thank you for, for sharing your story and a
struggle that you went throughand something, I mean, the
reason Jesse and I started glazeand grit was for exactly what
you just discussed, because Ican see myself, I see you stand
up every day in our meetings andour, this bright light in our
office and are so inclusive ofour teams and just always bring
(18:22):
this light and brightness andfun myself, not knowing
anything.
I would have never guessed thatyou had been through that
struggle or had those days ofquestioning, or even have those
days when you didn't want to getup and be in front of the team.
It's just shattering thoseperceptions of seeing the person
as the whole person, everythingthat they bring to the table.
(18:42):
So just really thank you forsharing that little piece of
your story with us.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Thanks for having me.
It's, it's very, very fun.
And, uh, you know, we talkedabout looking good at the
office.
My new thing is, um, I'm goingto try to bring yoga pants back.
You know, we've been working athome.
I think it's a pretty goodstyle.
So I'm hoping that when we getback to the office, that it's
our new thing,
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Michelle, you know, we've gone through from starting
off to getting your musicscholarship, all of your amazing
stepping stones in your career.
Now being the CFO at Stoneridgesoftware, did you think your
life journey thus far wouldwouldn't lead you to where
you're at today?
Speaker 3 (19:21):
It's, it's actually interesting because I am a, I'm
a big planner in so many waysand, and I love to be organized
and plan everything, which haskind of changed since having
kids.
I still love it.
I just don't get to do it asmuch.
But you know, when I think aboutcareer in life, I have North
stars and I have things, youknow, I, I was on a work towards
(19:42):
kind of what's that North star,but I try not to get too planful
and too stressed out about whatcomes in the middle.
And my approach really is if youtreat people with respect and
you make choices that aregrounded in integrity, that
those things are going to comein in those things that are
going to bring you in thedirection that that you're meant
to go.
And so did I think about it?
(20:03):
Not, not really, but I didn'tknow that my North star was
somewhere like here.
And so I didn't know what pathit would be to get there.
I didn't know when it would be,but I always just tried to make
choices that brought me closerto that.
And so I'm excited to see, Iwill say, I don't know what I
want to be when I grow up, but Isure love it here.
And I love continuing to growand being at a company that we
(20:24):
just do new and different thingsall the time and stay
challenged.
And it's just, just reallyexciting.
And we have a team of peoplethat has those same values,
which I really believe is key tobeing successful together.
So
Speaker 1 (20:37):
What is the season in your life taught you?
Speaker 3 (20:40):
I think not to take things too seriously, you know,
I try to, I try to laugh whenthings go crazy, know there's
definitely stressful days andthere's, you know, it's not all
roses all the time, but justreally trying to enjoy the
crazy.
And, and I think once you giveyourself the permission to
realize that everybody's in thesame boat as you are, it may be
(21:02):
different.
It may not look the same, butwe're all trying to figure it
out.
It's just a relaxing feeling,right?
Or you just feel like you kindof let this weight off your
shoulders is there's a lot ofsocial media and there's a lot
of things out there that you cancompare yourself to, which is
great.
Like it's great that there'speople that have good things
going on, but there's also otherthings, right?
And, and not thinking that youhave to be only those things.
(21:25):
It's, everybody's got struggles.
They all look different.
They come up at different times,which is really to embrace that.
And again, find your people, thefriends that I have to bounce,
those crazy things off arelifesavers.
It's anywhere from my kids doingthis to how would you approach
this hard situation at work?
And having those people thatjust get you in and out, it's
(21:47):
just a game changer.
I can't even stress it enough.
And you know, you might not havethat person right now.
And that's okay.
You know, it's look for peoplethat have something in common
with you because chances arethose people are looking for
someone just like you.
And I listened to your story,Jesse and Janine on your first
podcast.
And it seemed something justlike that, right?
Where one of you noticed theother one and you ended up
(22:08):
reaching out and you found eachother.
So it's not that you have tohave this friend from junior
high, that you don't have it.
You're never going to find it.
It's realize that everybody islike that.
And everybody just longs forsomeone to be their person.
And they look for those peopleand really embrace, embrace them
and, and learn from them.
I love that.
Be their person Mattel.
(22:30):
Thank you so much for sharingyour journey.
You are very welcome.
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Thank you for joining us for this episode of glaze and
grit.
If you enjoyed this episode andwant to continue on this journey
with us, please like subscribeand leave us a review.
Now, Jesse and Janine.
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