Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Speaker A: Opinions expressed in this episode are personal. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this streaming platform.
[00:00:13] Speaker B: Good day, everyone, and welcome to another edition of let's be diverse. I am your host, Andrew Stout. This episode is dedicated to all my loved ones who supported me through this journey. As you all know, or a lot of you, listen to a lot of my episodes. I talk a lot about leadership. I feel like leadership is in the forefront, and I feel like leadership is something that's changing drastically in organizations. Today I wanted to talk about forward thinking leadership, and my guest that I'm going to have on today for this topic is Kelsey Chandler. Now, Kelsey, after pivoting from an eight year music career amidst pandemic, she leveraged her analytical skills from active stock trading to tackle sales fast tracking in only months, from concierge to the business development role that thrives her today. She is someone that I have been in contact with for a long time, and I feel like she is genuinely an awesome individual. And I look forward to you guys meeting her today. Welcome to the show, Kelsey. It is great to have you on today.
[00:01:22] Speaker C: Oh, that felt good. I like intros. I want an intro every day. Or do you on the days where it's, like, just cloudy? Right.
[00:01:29] Speaker B: I'll tell you what. You can hire me, and I can introduce you to every zoom that you have. I can introduce you before it.
[00:01:36] Speaker C: Wouldn't that be something? I would have you introduce the client. I think that would be a good move.
[00:01:40] Speaker B: Sure. I would do that too. Absolutely.
How are things with you? What's new in your world?
[00:01:45] Speaker C: New in my world? Yeah. Here's the thing. For me, I'm new in my world because I'm new to this role. I've only been in this position since September. So a lot of the meetings I'm in, I'm just now hitting the second or third meeting, and I'm just learning a lot about the industry, which, in general, when I say that I'm speaking of HR and what do HR professionals need? Because that's essentially who my clients are. My products and services and offerings reach clients and customers, if you will. But my conversations and success comes from relationships with HR. So I just am diving really deep into what we're doing, what's been working. Of course, we have the typical meetings, like every sales and marketing team. But I want to specifically look at trends and always be thinking about, if this were me, what would I want? So that might always be my current snapshot.
[00:02:41] Speaker B: And just explain for our listeners, congratulations on your new role. Explain to our listeners what your new role is?
[00:02:47] Speaker C: Yeah. So my title officially is business development associates. So I'm responsible for creative ideas to prospect for new clients and how to support leads that come through marketing for new business. And we are a benefit, a program that can be tailored for the employee experience. So that might look like hotelification settings and renovations for law firms and hosting parties and creating community engagement for local partnerships, as well as maybe they have on site events to encourage return to office initiatives and things like that. And then we are a branch of Sodexo. We can also tap into the healthcare market with a really unique value through circles, but we can support some facilities management contracts and help with their service response centers. So there's really a complex list of offerings that I have available.
[00:03:48] Speaker B: Yeah, that's great. That's awesome. Congratulations again on the new role. I think it's very exciting and I could just tell that there's a passion for what you do.
[00:03:57] Speaker C: For sure there is. I have to try to not ramble.
[00:04:01] Speaker B: No, that's okay. You could just tell when someone's passionate about what they're doing. So it's great to hear. So before we begin, I always have a fun question to get things going with my guests. Are you ready for yours today?
[00:04:14] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:04:15] Speaker B: Okay. So my question is if actions speak louder than words, is speaking an action?
[00:04:23] Speaker C: Oh, absolutely. Because no response is a response.
[00:04:28] Speaker B: Look at that. That is a pretty quick response for not knowing what the question was before. That's pretty good.
[00:04:34] Speaker C: That is really good. Right?
[00:04:36] Speaker B: That is really good. I'm impressed. I'm impressed.
[00:04:39] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:04:39] Speaker B: Well done, friend. That's awesome.
[00:04:41] Speaker C: Leave it. Just like that. See, I want to ramble, but I'm like, don't mess it up. That was good. Leave it.
[00:04:46] Speaker B: No, that was a really good answer. I was really impressed with, like I said, without knowing ahead of time, that was really good. I'm impressed. So why don't we start off with you telling us a little bit about you and your story.
[00:04:59] Speaker C: Okay. Yeah. I was born and raised in Texas, but I moved to Atlanta in 2009 for music opportunities. So that's where I live now. And I had a very successful career in music and I was a touring performer for a corporate and private events band we mentioned. But when the pandemic hit, I thought, I really want to be a mom. I'm in my. Since everything paused, including the entertainment industry, I thought this is the perfect time to try to have a family, be a mom. And luckily I got pregnant in the summer of 2020. Imagine we're locked down. I'm growing a garden. I'm doing all the things that we just don't get to do because we're always busy and traveling and brought our sweet boy into the world in March of 2021. And I knew I wanted to be home with him for the first year or so. But I also knew that a career shift was likely to be the best for us. When I did return to work, and I wanted to, I was always good at math and reading, researching. And it's mentioned again that I started trading stocks in 2015. And I thought after building up several accounts, I thought maybe I could go into finance or accounting. And I just wasn't sure if that's what I wanted to do. My mom is a CPA and I would prefer to grow the beans as opposed to just counting them. And so I knew I wanted to maybe go into financial analysis.
I got pretty solid at decoding earnings reports, and I felt I had a better understanding of what drives corporate success in general, marketing, innovation. And so light bulbs went off, and I thought I could maybe bring value to the table in a sales type role because that combines performing and storytelling with a keen understanding of business and crunching numbers. And I enjoyed that. And I think if you enjoy or believe in something, there's room for debate. But if you can handle objections, it felt like a bold and strong move for me. And I was inspired. I was really excited. Working from home can be challenging. And I knew that was something I needed, or at least a hybrid situation, because I wanted to be present my little boy, his life in the early years. But I was open, so I got lucky. And I had a friend who worked for circles and mentioned how great the culture was and the benefits, which was something that was new to me. I was a 1099 schedule c for so long, being a musician. So I submitted my resume because they were scaling and had a wave of hiring, and I did really well during the interviews. I enjoyed the interviews because I think that's a two way process. And I joined the virtual concierge team in April of last year and just made it really evident from day one that my goal was to go through some form of career development and evolve at the company. And they were really big on internal promoting, and so I held them to it. And I was offered an official position after a few months of mentoring. And that was this summer. And then in September, I officially started in my role.
[00:07:51] Speaker B: Yeah, I love it. I love it. So some things that kind of jumped out at me was you being in music and then going into sales and now in your position now, I think they've all kind of coincided a little bit, because I think all positions, what you performing in your music sales, and now your position now is performing. So you have to be on all the time, and you have to be also okay with objections. So you've had to be okay with objections in your music career, in your sales career, and now in the HR role. So I'm sure that music career helped you prepare for each role that you've had since.
[00:08:31] Speaker C: I've thought of it in a lot of those ways, but some of the specifics that you've noticed are really insightful. Yeah, that's really cool. I agree. I'm glad that, too, because coming back or coming into something when you're not from that turf, you just feel like you're the new kid and everyone's do you belong here? And I have those same questions. Imposter syndrome. You're like, do I belong here? But thanks, friend.
[00:08:57] Speaker B: You're very welcome. And one of the things I've always learned, too, is that we don't all know the answers. The worst thing that you can do is give an answer to something that's not the correct answer. If we know the answer, we give it. If we don't know the answer, we say, hey, I don't know the answer to that. However, I'm going to find out, and when I do find out, I will get back to you. But someone would rather be on the other end, would rather be told that than given an incorrect answer, and then they find out later that, oh, sorry, I gave you that information a couple of weeks ago. It was not correct. Here's the right information. So I've learned that as well. Being a leader is that we don't know everything. But when we say that we know everything and we don't know everything, that's when we get ourselves in trouble.
[00:09:42] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. And the more you know, the more you realize you just don't know Jack. Right? Yeah.
[00:09:48] Speaker B: It's a continuous circle. We're always continuously learning. And I call myself a lifelong learner. I never say that I've known everything. Somebody wants to tell me something or give me advice or whatever, I always listen to it doesn't mean I'd have to take it, but I always listen. So explain to us, in your words, the process of forward thinking.
[00:10:12] Speaker C: Yeah. So I think forward thinking happens in the here and now. I think we have to remain agile minded and humble enough to know, just like you said, that we can't do it all. We don't know all the answers and we may have to come back later with what we've found or adjust. And so being agile minded and we can't do anything momentous alone. In every moment that passes, something changes and nothing's really new anymore because it's all recycled and transformed. And so we won't think forward to the future if we can't handle the current moment and especially current trends that suddenly shift. So the process, to me, looks like this. You soak in the present moment, you embrace the scenes shifting on the daily. You're bouncing ideas off people with different lenses. Because how do we talk about everything that's going on? How do we bring all those topics to the table if we don't have the people that know what's going on at the table discussing it and get comfortable with being uncomfortable? I love that quote. I'm sure that's not like maybe a quote per se, but I love Nicole Wilkins. I'm a big fitness freak and nerd, and I just, I love her whole mentality. When she was going after her, I think it was her fourth olympia, and she said things like, embrace the uncomfortable, get comfortable being uncomfortable. Some people say, embrace the suck and be creative about it and commit. So whatever it is you're going to do, just eventually get out of yourself, get out of your way and just commit yourself to something. We can plot out scenarios, debate angles and next steps, but if we think well on our feet, we'll always be thinking ahead. Does that make sense?
[00:11:53] Speaker B: It totally makes sense. And I agree with you on the thought of thinking forward. Sometimes when we think forward, we find ourselves coming up with scenarios that most likely won't happen if we're able to adjust. And I love when you said agile minded. I love that, being able to pivot. You talked a lot about the pandemic. I think it changed of things for a lot of people. And a lot of leaders had to pivot and they had to change their minds and their philosophies and the way that they did business and the way that they treated their teams. So if you think too much forward, it's going to hamper you for sure.
[00:12:33] Speaker C: Yeah. The funny thing is, data is everything right now. Everyone loves a case study. I'm one of them. And it's like that's happening now, but we record it now, and then we put it together and package it and present it later. So it's already old news, even though it's your current case study.
Forward thinking is just being light on your feet for new ideas. But eventually, like I said, committing. You can stand in front of the mirror and pep talk yourself all day, but you have to do something, see if it works. Go from there.
[00:13:05] Speaker B: So we talked about the process of forward thinking. How do we encourage forward thinking within our organizations?
[00:13:13] Speaker C: I think that requires asking lots of questions. I think ideas need exploring before acting. We require insight to set the direction. And no instruction manual exists for people and human behavior. I wanted to say this a minute ago. Human behavior shapes what we see working. And that's how I would analyze stocks and charts because it's just all human behavior, essentially, and that's how we collect data to see what's working in an organization. So sparking internal discussions that lead to brainstorming and collaborative settings, that's when new thoughts emerge and we nurture trust and morale and we feel safe to share ideas. And I think that's where you encourage forward thinking and innovative thinking. And what's the saying? That you're a movement by yourself, but you're a force when you're together. You got to get together, you got to put your heads together and give it some time. Like a diet. Since we're on the note, and I know we've talked about, you've had fitness minded professionals on your show, and so it's setting a diet for four to six weeks. You can't just implement a diet and then leave the gym and check for abs. This doesn't work like that. These things need time. So we've got to foster ideas over time and ask lots of questions, I think was my point when I thought about this question, was asking a lot of questions of the people around you. I think a lot of really strong leaders say that they're surrounded by people that are smarter than them and we know that they can't do anything without them. And how do they do that? Through conversations and asking lots of questions, I would imagine.
[00:14:47] Speaker B: Oh, for sure.
I think communication is probably key, too. Communicating what's going on, what's happening is very key. If we're talking about forward thinking, it's something that we're starting a process and it's going to be implemented six to eight months from now, letting people know, hey, this is what we're thinking of doing. This is our process that we're thinking of implementing. It's going to be starting in the next six to eight months. We're going to start to do the process to implement it. So we're going to be doing some training, we're going to be having some meetings and stuff like that. To discuss it. You will get further information as time goes on. It's when nothing is said and then something is put out, like six, eight months later and people are like, where the heck did that come from? Nobody told me about that. Did anybody tell you about that? And did they ask us what we thought or whatever? So that's why I think when people get mad. So communication and ask questions. When you're communicating, you're asking questions to see what people think, what your team thinks. Do they think the process is going to work? Not everybody's going to agree with it, but they're going to give their opinion on if they like it or not.
[00:15:59] Speaker C: Yeah, I think if you wait till the last minute on a lot of things in life, you're going to be scrambling and you don't have time to think it through for sure.
Yeah.
[00:16:09] Speaker B: So what would you say is the biggest challenge facing leaders today regarding forward thinking?
[00:16:14] Speaker C: Yeah, I think you touched on it, right? You said communicating. So engaging the free thinkers and the top talent, where the innovative ideas thrive. Like, true engagement goes beyond fun events and swag. Though I do love good companies.
No, but empowering people, that's what drives their vision, their visions and the impact they have. Maybe it's giving up ownership of a deadline and letting your team decide so they can speak up about potential challenges, letting it breathe, having those conversations and asking questions beforehand, or crafting a pitch that's interactive rather than presenting. That would be pretty creative. Co creating office spaces, that's something that we really help with. That inspire fluid teamwork, like hotelification, making it beautiful. So I think forward momentum relies on every mind, not just the ones presenting, but leaders. They have to foster environments where people interact, bouncing those messy ideas around. Someone's good at presenting, but someone's good at bringing those ideas to the table and someone's good at putting it all together. And when teams feel naturally invested in something together, it shows. When we were touring on stage, we would do goofy things, when we would mess up, especially. And I know that the audience noticed that because we would speak to them about other bands that maybe that they'd seen and they said. Something that really sets you guys apart is it feels like we're a part of the experience. You're not just performing something at us, you're experiencing this wedding with us, you're experiencing this. If it was a corporate event, like, you're here with us in this space, and it felt like a collaborative time. And I think that just connecting is. I think that's everything. So, yeah, engagement it's everything.
[00:17:53] Speaker B: I totally agree with you. And you said, I think you're spot on, right there is being. You're part of it. I think when you're talking to your team, you're telling them you're a part of it. And you mentioned swag before. So some people are good with swag, and that's part of engagement for them. And they got something swag wise. They're like, oh, my God, I got this. And they're engaged, and they continue to be engaged. Another person may not be like, okay, that's all I'm worth is this bag or this t shirt. So it's different for everybody as far as engagement goes, but to let people know that, hey, you are part of this. You're part of the team. You're part of what we're doing. You're the fabric of our organization. It's important for us to find out what we need to do in order to make things successful. And we want to make it easy for you guys because you're the frontline people. You're the ones that do all the work. And we want to make it easy for you guys so that when you come to work, it's a safe work environment for you.
[00:18:51] Speaker C: No, that's exactly it. It's creating a culture that bleeds into a customer experience, because that's what a lot of companies are asking is, like, how can we get brand loyalty to be trendy and cool and something that our workers are passionate about? Because it bleeds into the experience. And now people associate that brand with the experience they had, especially big brands. That's what they're doing. They're selling the experience. They want you to see something and feel something, because they know you can choose from anyone.
[00:19:21] Speaker B: So what would you say is a characteristic that you believe every leader should possess?
[00:19:26] Speaker C: Yeah, humility. So I knew that was my answer, and then I thought, is that my answer? I know that's my favorite trait, generally speaking. But the reason I think that's my favorite for this is because if you teach the failures, then those under, you know how to handle adverse situations when you're not there. And I have heard something similar said lately by leaders who are saying, if I leave or if I'm not there or I'm too busy, my team needs to know what to do. And whoever is experiencing the other side of that, it needs to be the same.
Experience needs to be just as strong. Obviously, it could be a little different.
[00:20:08] Speaker B: But I love that. Yeah, I love that. For leadership, humility. I have had leaders that I've gone to or that I've seen people go to them and say to them, oh, what a great job your team did, or, thank you so much for the job that your team did. You're such an excellent leader, what have you. And then the leader turns around right away, and instead of saying, oh, thank you so much, and boasting, they taking a credit, they turn it directly to their team, and they say, you know what? Without my team members, we would not have been successful at this. I'll say thank you, but if it wasn't for my team, we would not be where we are today. So that would be someone who has humility is taking a compliment and turning that compliment into a compliment for somebody else. So. I love that word when he said it.
[00:21:00] Speaker C: Yeah. It's just. It stands. Yeah.
[00:21:03] Speaker B: So if you could choose one word to describe yourself, Kelsey, what word would you say it would be?
[00:21:09] Speaker C: So I had to look this up, and I've been working on expanding my vocabulary anyway, so I wanted to pick a word that I just like, I knew the word, but maybe. So I chose astute, because I'm good at assessing situations, and I'm really empathetic to a sense. I think I've gotten really good about not being overly empathetic and thinking everything is something that I can read or observe, but I like finding common ground, and I like thinking deeply about what that looks like and why that wouldn't just matter to me, but why that would matter to someone else or in a situation like, what can I do here? Or is, maybe my role is to just shut up and stay still. That's been fun to learn, but, yeah, I would say astute.
[00:21:55] Speaker B: I love that word. I think that's a great word for you. It's nice when you figure out that word for yourself and you feel confident about it, and especially you looking into it and trying to see, okay, what is my word? Or what word would I describe myself as? So I appreciate that you looked into it a little bit, and that's the word you came up with, so that's great.
Any final thoughts today?
[00:22:19] Speaker C: I think that comes from journaling, and I didn't start journaling until I was pregnant because I didn't want to forget the experience, and I knew I was probably only going to do it once, but journaling has really brought to life my subconscious thoughts, and we're very faithful people. And so sometimes I sing on the worship team at church, and so sometimes I like sitting in the audience for both services and just watching how pastor explains his message to the two different audiences. Because they're different. They are the earlier crowd. They're just different. And, yeah, I think it's been interesting to listen to one service and then listen to the next and see how the thoughts come to life for me. And, yeah, I would say as a final thought, if anyone just is thinking forward thinking, if that's our theme.
[00:23:01] Speaker B: Right?
[00:23:01] Speaker C: Like, how can I think more deeply? Maybe you already think you're a great leader. Maybe you really are. I think journaling is so good for that. You'll sit down with a simple thought and these thoughts and these ideas. It just sparks creativity. And sometimes I end up rambling about something that had nothing to do with what I sat down to write about, and I end up seeing that I need a break. Like I'm burnout. So let's say just get to know yourself a little more and get to know everyone else around you. I hate that I don't get to ask you the question.
[00:23:31] Speaker B: That's okay. It's been a great conversation. I've appreciated you coming on today. I know that we were talking about it for a while, and it was great to have you on. I really enjoyed this conversation. I can talk all day long about leadership till the cows come home, and especially with somebody who enjoys talking about that, I could talk for hours on leadership. So I appreciate you coming on and having the discussion with me today.
[00:23:57] Speaker C: Absolutely. Thanks for having me. You're doing good stuff. I'm really digging it. Just keep going, man.
[00:24:02] Speaker B: I appreciate it. So on behalf of myself and my guest, Kelsey, I'd like to thank you all for listening. And until next time, be safe. And remember that if we all work together, everyone, we can accomplish anything you.
[00:24:17] Speaker A: Have been listening to. Let's be diverse with Andrew Stout. To stay up to date with future content, hit subscribe.
