Episode 16 - Barb Waala - Following Dreams

What an amazing conversation with Barb Waala! Barb is a Coach who provides strategic support and accountability to help those clarify, pursue, and achieve their life and business goals. Those in HR and Staffing often take for granted how hard it truly can be to figure out, what you want to be when you grow up and then how to pursue those dreams. Barb found her passion for helping those looking for guidance and support.

 

Leighann Lovely  00:19

If you are an HR professional business owner or at the operations level trying to understand what people want. You may be struggling, our systems have been shocked practices have been questioned and culture is the leading conversation. Let's learn how culture is created, sustained, and why it should be the leading conversation when discussing hiring, training and retention. This is the foundation of any business and it's time to address it. So tune in to Let's Talk HR Humanizing the Conversation. We tackle topics that influencers of change need to understand and struggle to overcome every day, such as where to start, and what the new workforce wants, and how to attract and keep positive momentum going. I'm your host Leighann Lovely.

 

Leighann Lovely  01:06

Barb Waala is an entrepreneur, wife, mom and grandma, who has made a career out of helping others with their careers. After a career in corporate HR, she decided to turn her helping into a business starting part time, January 2019. And then leaving her corporate position. And starting full time, September of 2019. She has learned more in the last three years than she did in the 30 years prior.

 

Leighann Lovely  01:38

Barb, I am so excited to have you on today. Thank you for joining me.

 

Barb Waala  01:42

I am so happy to be here.

 

Leighann Lovely  01:45

So why don't we jump right in? Why don't you tell me a little bit about yourself.

 

Barb Waala  01:48

Okay. I always love starting with us. I am a mom. I'm a grandma, which I'm going to put like I should have said that first because that seems higher priority right now. He's nine months old. I have been married to the same man for 35 years, which I see is a great accomplishment. I have been in HR for years and years was corporate HR manager. And three years ago, almost to the day, I decided to open my own business and use all of the knowledge that I had learned over the years to help people trying to find a job. How, you know, why can't I get the interview? Why isn't anyone looking at my resume? So that is my joy to try to help people figure that out and and find their career find their home? That's awesome. So

 

Leighann Lovely  02:40

I have a couple of things to congratulate you on first being married to the same individual for you said 35 years.

 

Barb Waala  02:48

Yeah, I'd like to tell everyone I was 14. Yeah.

 

Leighann Lovely  02:51

Okay. As long as you say he was 14, too, because if you say he was older, then it gets weird. But yes.

 

Barb Waala  02:59

That is true. I was only 21. But you know,

 

Leighann Lovely  03:03

you're still a baby at 21. You know, you get to an age where you realize 21 You're still a baby?

 

Barb Waala  03:07

Oh, my goodness. Yes.

 

Leighann Lovely  03:10

Well congratulate congratulations on that. Because that is that. It's unfortunate, but it is a rarity to have been with the same and be married for 35 years. So congratulations on that. Congratulations for being a grandma to a nine month old. Is that your first grandchild? Yes.

 

Barb Waala  03:31

Okay, you know, because I'm so over the top. Yeah.

 

Leighann Lovely  03:35

Well, that's amazing. Congratulations on that. So do you do you have one child? You know, how are you a mother too? How many?

 

Barb Waala  03:44

Hey, see, look, oh, I forgot about my children once I had a grandchild. So we were just blessed with two. So we have our daughter who is the oldest and she is the one that gave us baby Theo, while she and her husband, and then have a son who actually just got married. It'll be three weeks. So he and his new bride. Yep.

 

Leighann Lovely  04:06

Wow. So congratulations on having another child basically entering into the families, you've got a lot to celebrate. Wow. And then another Congratulations on making it three years as a business owner and you know, entrepreneurs. So you've got a lot of stuff going a lot of a lot of celebration.

 

Barb Waala  04:27

Yeah, I feel very, very fortunate. Because when I used to work with financial representatives and hire them for their careers, I would always tell them that three years was the magic Mark, if you could make it three years because they were building their businesses, their book of business, whatever it was, you're good, you're golden, you're good to go. So I have to remind myself that I'm good now. Right? I'm good to go.

 

Leighann Lovely  04:49

Right. And you know, I'm training a new employee right now and I keep reminding her that you know, it's in the beginning it's going to be and again, this is in my profession. In all this, you know, this is my podcast, my side hustle. But in my professional career, I always have to remind her that it's going to be tough it's going to be, you're going to have really bad days you're going to but if you can make it through until you have that first really awesome win, and you feel that, especially in the staffing industry, it gets to be those heavy days where you like, oh my gosh, like, I just can't make anything work sometimes. But you're right for the financial industry? I would not, I wouldn't make it in that. No. I don't know how I've made it in the HR industry, though.

 

Barb Waala  05:41

Right? See, I HR is not what I planned for my life, but it's where I landed. And now I totally can't imagine myself doing anything else. Um, but yeah, that was not, you know, when I was 16 1718, trying to figure out what to go to school for HR was not on the list at all?

 

Leighann Lovely  06:00

Nope. No, I was what I was going to be an accountant than I was going to be a computer programmer. And I never and I figured after I made it through 2008. I was in it for life.

 

Barb Waala  06:14

Right? Oh, and the thing was, I didn't even know how bad it was, like, you know what I mean? Like, I didn't have a lot to compare it to. But yeah, you're right, you make it through that and but going through 2021. And currently, recruiting and hiring people, is has been interesting as well. So because I still do that not only do I help individuals, one on one, I've been fortunate enough to be able to continue to have contracts with small employers. So I still get to look at resumes, which I know that helps me with my one on one coaching. But boy, it's tough to find good employees right now.

 

Leighann Lovely  06:55

So let's, let's talk about that. Okay. Tell me a little bit more about, you know, your, the one on one coaching that you do, but you your business is is BW, executive coach LLC. And tell me a little bit about, you know, what you do and how you help individuals.

 

Barb Waala  07:21

So I have two sides to the business. So I tend to call myself a career journey coach, because I do help people professionally. So I have three clients that I work with that I helped fill roles that they have, I do all their recruiting for them from sourcing candidates to interviewing them, you know, in that whole gamut, which is what I've done for years. But then I also, which will, I will say this is my favorite part, I get to do the one on one coaching. And I always start the one on one coaching. And I know people don't like the assessments and the tools and all those things. But I start with those. Normally, we don't talk a lot about them during the one on one coaching, oh, email a little bit about him. But I always want to use them one on one coaching for like literally talking about what it is that they want to do. Make sure that they're following what they really want to be doing. What I have been finding is that I have had three younger gentlemen in a row, that find themselves in a transition where they don't like what they're doing, and they want to do something else. And when it comes down to it, they are doing what their family wants them to be doing. They are doing, like one of the gentlemen he's into photography and videography, and his parents, accountants, teachers. That's what they wanted him to do. So master's degree, worked in a law office miserable, just miserable. So I just helped, you know, get some clarity around what they feel like their purposes and then work with them on that. And if that involves redoing your resume and helping you on LinkedIn, and networking and interviewing, if you don't have the interviewing skills than than that as well, but the one on one coaching ends up being confidence building is what I normally find. And I, I just really, really enjoy it because I help people see the things that are already there that are already in them. And they know that it's in there, but they just haven't used it for so long or just are afraid to use it because that that old place is comfortable. So

 

Leighann Lovely  09:41

Right. And you know, it's it's so natural for somebody who has spent a career in recruiting and retention and employee relations to fall into that or not, I shouldn't say fall because it's not like you can just fall in and be perfect. It's a lot of work but you You know, become an entrepreneur, like yourself in coaching individuals. So AKA, fall into the coaching. Like, I'm not trying to belittle that, and make it sound like it's easy. But um, but to end up in, you know, on the path that you're in, because, you know, I get those all the time, somebody will come to me and say, you know, I have a niece or a nephew who don't know, or I have a son or a daughter who don't know what they want to be when they grow up, will you talk to them? And I'm like, sure, I absolutely can talk to him, I can talk to him about what they've done in the past, I can talk to them about where they see themselves in the future. But in order for you, that's not how I'm paid. You know, I can do it as a courtesy to people in my network, friends of mine. But there's only so much that I can do if I'm not actually spending a lot of time with this individual. I couldn't lay out the way the world is the way the world works, and, but for somebody to finally really get there on what they want to be when they grow up, you have to you got to figure out what, you know, what's wrong with what they're doing now? What do they like? And what they don't like? Where do they see themselves? And where do they see themselves in five years? Where do they not see themselves? You know, all of those all the ins and outs of those. So, you know, your your progression, your path that you have found yourself on is? I think it's it's a very natural, it makes sense as to how you how you've ended up where you are now, it's, and again, I'm not minimizing it is not for the faint of heart. Entrepreneurship is not easy. I work for another business. I am not, you know, I love to talk to entrepreneurs and dream about one day maybe doing that. But so you had made a comment about, you know, obviously, with the pandemic, the onset of the pandemic, it's been tough, there's been changes. And with that, we have seen individuals more than ever decide, I don't want to be a lawyer, or I don't want to be an accountant, or I don't want to do what mommy and daddy always envisioned me doing. I want to do what I want to do. Do you think that a lot more people are finally deciding that because they've either had the time to sit around and realize I'm not happy? Or because it's just the shift that the world? You know, it's just what is happening in the world?

 

Barb Waala  12:42

Yeah, well, I think that unfortunately, all of us had like a little smack in the face of people were dying. And if this happens to me, is this. What I'm doing right now, does this matter? Does this matter to my family? Does this am I making an impact? You know, in my community, or in people just, yeah, they're just seeing things differently. And it's, that's been fantastic, I think, because people are being more intentional. And I love that, I want you to be more intentional. Think of how many hours you spend, you know, in your career, in your work day, do something that you love to be doing, because that's a horrible situation to be in, because I've been there where you're in a toxic work environment and the world around you isn't great. And let's just take a step back and see what I can do to make myself happier, make my family happier, you know, so? Yeah, it's been a lot of that and, and what you spoke up with the helping the niece and nephew, and can you help me, that is exactly how I got into this. You like set up? Because, you know, when someone's like, Can you just help me with my resume? And I did it for years. And then I started just charging a little bit. And then I was like, You know what, I think this needs to be my career. So.

 

Leighann Lovely  14:08

Right. And because of the because of the position that you held because of correct, because the respect that people had for you in your network, you found people more and more people are coming to Hey, yeah, and again, you, like me are the kind of person that's if, hey, I'll extend an olive branch, but there's only so far that you can meet. There's only so far I can take that where I go, Okay, well, this isn't for me revenue generating unless you want me to find you a job through my you know, company, you know. Now there have been times where I've said, I am more than willing to be your mentor. But you have to take the initiative, the young generation, however, they don't take the initiative. I have started to realize that I have said to multi Well, people, if you would like to regularly call me as you're working through this, call me. They never call back.

 

Barb Waala  15:07

No, they don't. Why would they Tech with? Yeah, would they text you? They don't want to call big fear.

 

Leighann Lovely  15:15

But even even the text message, you know, I'll have a an hour long conversation with somebody go through their resume, talk to them about what they said, Hey, do you have any other questions? I'm always available to talk to you. Do you think that? Why do you think that is in the younger? If, in my younger days, somebody would have offered that to me? I would have been all over that.

 

Barb Waala  15:40

Yeah. I. So I'm, I'm not a boomer. I'm very close to being a boomer, but I'm not there. So I'm the Gen X. I don't understand the disease, that all Millennials I can understand. So like the younger millennials, I just had this conversation with one of our friends. And I said, they were just asking about the market. And if you look at the numbers, two to 3 million people took early retirement with COVID. And we knew that that was going to happen a little bit later, though, years down the line, because you could look at the boomers and you were like, how are we ever going to replace the works force with what we're going to lose? Well, it happened earlier. And now we're still down a million. And people are like, what's going to happen where, and I think to myself, we didn't birth enough babies to just have, you know, cover it, right. So that's just, that's just the fact of life. And and this new generation where they want to be on YouTube making money or influencers, or they sell a product, or whatever it is, and they don't want to go to work to, you know, they don't want to go into a retail store. I mean, I think back to when I first did get married at 21. And I worked full time at a bank and part time at a retail store. And I just can't imagine, and I know that's I don't want to make a blanket statement ever. Because there are people out there young people who do want to go to college and have that, you know, nine to five job with flexibility, potentially working from home, because people see you know how good that is. I don't know about the returning calls. Or, you know, when I'm interviewing someone, and I think they're such a great candidate. And they're 20. And one of the companies I work for, he's a distributor, so I need truck drivers and merchandisers and things like that. And these are great jobs for someone who is just starting out, and they don't want to go to tech school or to college. And I think I have this great conversation. And they don't show up for the face to face interview, or they don't. And that just didn't happen. 20 years ago, when I was recruiting, it just did not. And somewhere we failed to teach. These young people just come and respect. It is just really how how do you not show someone respect someone like you who took an hour to talk with them? And yes, I will do all these things. And then you hear nothing? Yeah, so it's I wish I could figure it out. Because I think if I could figure it out, I'd make a lot of money. Because it's the question everybody's asking me. Right?

 

Leighann Lovely  18:47

Well, and I, you know, there was a time that the only way that you could communicate with somebody was through a phone that was hanging on the wall. And I'm old enough to remember that. You know, the generation that exists now, they never experienced that unless their grandparents still have a phone hanging on the wall. And even the majority of grandparents do not have phones hanging I pretty sure that no, I mean, even my grandma and my grandpa, Pa eliminated phones, they no longer had a house line. They even they even then went to cell phones. So I'm quite certain that the younger generation do not remember a phone hanging on the wall. But there was a time that that was the only way to communicate quickly or write a letter. And you know, I their email was not a quick way because you still have to go home and then have your phone dial up.

 

Barb Waala  19:54

All that noise just as you're saying and I'm like, I can hear it in my head.

 

Leighann Lovely  20:00

Right, right? And then and then get access to your email. So you weren't actively and I didn't have my first cell phone until I was 18. And you weren't text messaging, because you know, you had to hit, you know, the 123 button like three or four times to get, you know.

 

Barb Waala  20:27

And you couldn't afford it because you had limited data.

 

Leighann Lovely  20:31

Correct. I mean, it was like cap your data, like, I text like, five, or what I had, like 30 text messages a month or something. And then if I went over, so there was, I don't know that it was respect, it was it was more like, well, I have to go here to talk to this person, or I need to call them and tell them. And so it was more of a ingrained. Like this is the way that the world communicates. Now we have a generation that's coming up, and the way that they have learned to communicate is through. Hey, how are you doing?

 

Leighann Lovely  21:09

Good? Well, okay, good. What do you mean? What do you what does that mean? You're, you're, you're good. Like, you're anything else you want to you want to write and you have collaborates? Right, and you have, and I'm guilty of this, I'm sitting in my lower level, my husband's on the upper level, and I'll text him and be like, hey, what do you wanna do for dinner? I am guilty of that. Okay, it's sometimes I don't feel like getting up and running upstairs and having a discussion. But you have people sitting in the same room texting each other. And it's like, okay, wait, this is not a form of communication in my household, there is no technology at the dinner table. You know, so we have, as a society, lost the human, I guess, that human side of communication. And a generation has come up living in technology in a way that is a little different for me, for you, for anybody who's of the generation that grew up with dial up and phones hanging on a wall. So I guess maybe along with that, some of the respect and some of the etiquette. And speaking of etiquette, I read a book on etiquette growing up, when you get a president, you write a thank you note? Yes. That's, I'm quite certain that that is just not the way that these younger generations thing. And you can't criticize if they've never been taught. Right. And that's the difficult thing for, for people in our position, right.

 

Barb Waala  22:56

And, that's why I said, I feel like we failed them. And I said it that way, because how did you learn the etiquette and to write the thank you so much. You know, like my mom, it was, ironically, my son in law's mom, when the her kids were little, they had to write thank yous before they can play with the gift. So she would like they get their birthday presents, they would be lined up, and then they had to write a thank you. And if they wrote that, thank you, they could have that gift. So of course, my son in law at the time, he would write thank you for that one gift, and then he played with it for a while. That'd be like, Okay, I'm bored. I think I need to read a thank you for the next one. Right. So I can have that. But you know, what, who who did that? It was you know, so that's why somewhere along the line, that respect of someone has done something for you, you need to, you know, show them the respect and and then I don't know, it's, yeah, right. Are they getting? Are they getting unemployment? Are they still living at home and their parents aren't making them pay for things? I don't know. Because I would have at at 2021 I would have needed to have money to pay for things. So.

 

Leighann Lovely  24:14

And that's another thing is that there was no free ride. And if at all, I mean, starting from the day that I could go to work. And I started working when I was like, I don't know, like 12 Maybe, yeah, about 12 I was mowing three lawns. I was getting a paycheck, not a paycheck, you know, cash, my dad would take that money from me, he would put half of it in my bank account, which I did not have access to. And he would give me the other half and I could spend that money or I could save that money. Then then as I got older, I would get a paycheck from you know, when I turned 15 or whatever the age is 16 when you can actually work and I would be required to put half of that in my bank. could count, and I could have the other half. And I got a job as soon as I could get a job. I mean, there was no, oh, you don't have to work until you go to college or you don't have to work through college, I'll pay for everything. Where's the workout sick? Right? Where's the responsibility? And I will tell you that when I look at resumes, of people who have never worked a day in their life until they graduated with a degree I go, Wait, what was? What do you mean? You've never, you've never worked? Not one job? How am I going to pitch you with a degree, but you've never walked into an office environment and worked a day in your life? Yeah. I mean, again, this is not their fault. How do we blame that person? If that's the way they were raised? Right. And this is the generation that we are raising. So it's an interesting conundrum. We've gone on a tangent. So let's go back to you. Let's talk about your let's talk about your coaching. So tell me about some of the individuals, you know, what did they come to you with? What are they looking for? Help with? You know, you kind of talked about one individual? How do you help them find their path?

 

Barb Waala  26:24

Yeah. So just continue with that gentleman. The, the one that worked in the lawyer's office for so long, so his, he's extremely creative. So yeah, he has his master's degree, and he can be very organized, but he loves to do photography, he paints, like, you know, beautiful paintings and does drone footage. So he does the videography, and just very creative, which is the total opposite of sitting in a lawyer's office, you know, doing work together, putting, putting, you know, doing paralegal work, doing just a host of things. So anyway, I worked with him for months for him just to see that what he is passionate about, he can make money doing. So I've been fortunate enough to have the networking group that I do, so I could set him up with someone who has her own art studio, and how did she, how did she take those paintings that she had? And how is she making a living, and someone who does videography, and now he actually has his own studio, and he does videos for entrepreneurs and different things like that. But it started out different and how, you know, how did that go, and he does drone things in different. So I can't speak to it, I can't tell you how to because no one would want to purchase anything that I paint. But um, I, you know, have had the opportunity to meet these people so I can connect them. And, you know, slowly he was getting into his stuff is getting into art galleries, and he's setting stuff up at festivals. And somebody asked for something and realized, it's just little bits, and he's making money to does he maybe need to go get a part time job to help, you know, to have a little bit of a cushion, probably. But choose where you want to have that part time job. So is that part time job in the studio, you know, making enough so that you can make your mortgage payments and all the things because I never want someone to be foolish. Unfortunately, the job that he had, I wouldn't say he was terminated. They they did a big change. And he knew it was time to go. So he kind of left before he was it was a host of different things. But so it just gave him the opportunity to like either, are you going to go back into it just so that you're getting the paycheck? Or are you going to start to do some of these things that are giving you joy? You know, so? So yeah, so he's probably going to have to do something. So that was that instance. And then I've had just recently, a young lady who was positive she was going to have to leave the company that she was at because she was managing people and hiring people in to do her job while she managed them, you know, because she was going up a level and hiring them in at a higher pay than she was making and managing them and then managing them. I just wish you guys could see Leanne space right now. But yeah, so she was like, I'm going to have to quit so we started down that path a little bit. But then in reality, she absolutely loves where she worked. She loved the people that she worked with. There was like a stockholders and board meetings and different things and I'm like, did you bring this to The committee did you. So she did all that. And she got a fantastic raise. She's living her best life. She's just beside herself, because she's so it totally took a different turn. Yeah. And

 

Leighann Lovely  30:12

You know, I've heard those stories before where all of a sudden management goes, Wait, I'm sorry. You're not making this? And the person goes, Well, yeah. And they go, Oh, my God, I'm so sorry. Well, we'll just increase your pay. Yeah. Well, sometimes management doesn't really, especially when you are when you are in like an HR type role, because HR managers that stuff. And they don't, they don't realize like, Oh, we're severely under paying the person who's managing all of the levels of pay. Oh, yeah. Oh, that's embarrassing.

 

Barb Waala  30:56

Right? Well, and when she brought it to their attention, and she said, I can't, I can't continue to do to do this. And I, she could just quit, because she was fortunate enough to have a spouse who, you know, they could do that not everybody can do that. Right. But she, she was like, I very much enjoy what I'm doing. I can make 30,000 more doing what I'm doing, if I just go so I could quit and go someplace else. Right? And then I could come back, and you would hire me for the pay that I want. So why would you you know? So yeah, so it turned out that she was able to stay, that doesn't always happen. You know, I have two other people that I'm working with, and they both want to leave where they are in the company knows that they want to leave. So really, it's just, they haven't done any interviewing and not real good at networking. Ironically, they were like, both of them separately. You know, I'm an introvert, I'm really not good at networking. And I said, Okay, well, you need to stop thinking that because I'm an introvert. And I love networking, because it's one on one conversations, that's the thing. Conversation, you have to stop thinking of it as networking is opposed to relationship building, I want to build this relationship with this person. And, you know, I was taught early on that when you're talking with someone, find out what you can do for them. And then the conversation always goes, and then they'll say, Well, what can I do for you, instead of you going into it, like, I'm coming out with five names so that I can, you know, get, I can get coaching clients, and I'm going to do this, and I'm going to do that I just never go into things like that.

 

Leighann Lovely  32:42

You know, and it's funny, it's funny that you say that, because that's what the pressure that bosses that didn't do networking used to say, Okay, you're gonna go to this networking meeting, and you're gonna go in there, and you're gonna bring back five leads. And that's how they would set up these people who had never networked before. So you had these, these people who would walk in like a bull in a china shop and be like, Okay, I'm gonna get five sales from this, and they'd walk around the room and just be like, Hi, I'm LeighAnn lovely, and I have stuffing services to sell, I really need you to buy my stuffing service. And, and everybody be like, run away from that girl she's trying to sell. Right? Right. away. Right, right. And then. And when I first started going to networking meetings long, long, long ago, that was how I thought you were supposed to go into a networking meeting. Nobody told me like, here's how you network. And then when someone excuse me, when somebody finally said, like, no, no, no, stop doing what you're doing. The light bulb went off, and I went, Oh, like, I can just come here and be like myself and just talk with people and build relationships and, and maybe make a friend here and there and pass leanza and connect people and like, it doesn't have to be this horrifying, horrifying thing that I'm doing. They're like, yeah, like, Oh, that makes it so much easier.

 

Barb Waala  34:19

Yeah, it's like a cocktail party. Right? You can just go you know, have a conversation with someone. Right? Yeah, much easier.

 

Leighann Lovely  34:26

Right. But there are there. There's people out there that, you know, especially especially managers, who are managing a team, and they don't know what networking, and I've seen this happen, they don't understand the idea of networking. So they're like, go to this networking meeting and bring back five leads. And I just, I just, you know, again, I've seen it happen and I just kind of shake my head like, oh, that's gonna be disastrous. This person's gonna this person He's gonna burn out really quick. And yeah, hate networking really fast.

 

Barb Waala  35:04

Yeah. And I worked with a gentleman who still owns the company, and he's still, he's in his 70s. So, um, he didn't understand networking at all, he firmly believed that if any of his employees were going to a networking event, it was because they were trying to get a job. Oh, he did, he did not allow us like to belong to different groups where we could go on our lunch hours or do different things, you know, like that. It was very, he's a little, he's, he's a little bit of a control freak. What I am going to say about him, though, as I'm talking about this, and thinking back to the conversation with the texting people in the same room, at the corporate office, we were not allowed to email each other.

 

Leighann Lovely  35:55

That's nice.

 

Barb Waala  35:56

We had to get up and walk to that person and talk to them. When I first started working for him that was so foreign to me, because the other office that I had been in, I could be sitting in one office and the other person could be across the hall, and I would send them an email, you know. But yeah, it wasn't allowed, you weren't allowed to email the people? And can I tell you, some of the places some of the corporate places that I've helped, or small businesses that I've helped the miscommunication between an email when everyone's in the same office, and then and I would see it, because I'd be copied on it, and I'm like, get off your butt and go talk to the person. Because this whole employee culture thing is not working, when you have 25 people in the office, and you guys are emailing each other. So I am going to give him credit for that one thing.

 

Leighann Lovely  36:52

You know here's what I hate. And I'm guilty of this. Occasionally. You email somebody in the office, then you stand up and walk over to them and say, I just emailed you. Did you read it?

 

Barb Waala  37:11

What do you think of my email?

 

Leighann Lovely  37:15

I used to be guilty of that all the time. And I remember one of my bosses finally saying, Yes, I was sitting around waiting for you to email me so I could read it immediately. And then I kind of went, Oh, shifts. Yep. Yep. Oops. Okay. Gotcha. I'm gonna go back to my desk now. Yeah, um, yeah, I don't do that anymore. But yes, if you are working in the same office, like unless it's you're forwarding an email, or you're just stand up and go over and say, Hey, do you have give, like two minutes? I just have to go over something with you. Yes, like, what, why are we? But here, here's another funny one. I, I have two offices away from my boss. And yesterday, I'm sitting in my office, and I look at my phone and my boss is calling me. And I pick it up. And he goes, I said, Hello. And he goes, Oh, you're in the office, aren't you? I said, Yep. Oh, two doors. So, you know, there are times.

 

Barb Waala  38:25

Well these days, you never know if someone's gonna be in their office or not. Right. He was hearing the echo, echo,

 

Leighann Lovely  38:31

echo. And then he's like, Well, now I'm on the phone. So I'm just gonna continue to stay in my seat and talk to you, but I could hear him through the phone and my door. So anyway, okay, sorry. I just thought I would throw that in there. But yeah, communication. I am my I remember, you know, there were days where I was on the phone constantly. I mean, I had a phone glued to my ear. You know, I used to do phone interviews, right? And then my brother would call me and I'd be like, hey, like, I love you. But can we not? Like yeah, let's not talk on the phone. Let's let's schedule a time to do lunch, and be in person. Like, I just, I am 100% an in person, person. So obviously, you know, this whole COVID thing like drove me crazy. However, with the onset of COVID came technology that changed all of our lives. It existed it just wasn't used as much, right? That's zoom teams and all of these things where you don't have to hold the phone up to your like, you and I are sitting here zoom. Having a conversation looking at each other in the face and being able to communicate in a way that is still got some human ness to it because you can see facial expressions. So how did that I mean, did that well, first of all, let me back up. You started your three years ago, we established that, which I mean, that was in like, what? Right before? Yeah, it was great. Yeah.

 

Barb Waala  40:11

Yep.

 

Leighann Lovely  40:14

And you were still working part time. When you started your business? Is that correct? or No?

 

Barb Waala  40:20

No, when I actually started it, where I was actually charging people, January of 2019. Okay. And September 29 2019, not that I represented for any reason, was my last corporate by. So yeah, I had a good six month run of having a majority of one on one clients. And then everything kind of hit the fan. And, you know, it was hard, because it was like, it wasn't gonna feel sorry for my self, because there were so many things worse going on. And but it did, I was able to get the corporate contracts, or the small business ones, where people still needed to hire people, because they, they were still all working, which was fantastic. And then, once people understood their transition of maybe they're not going to have their job anymore, or they didn't like their job. Probably took a good year, before my one on one picked up to where I was comfortable. Like I was having, you know, a couple here and a couple there. But yeah, because people were just like, they stayed where they were, they weren't going to look for anything, because nobody knew what was going to happen. Right? Like, am I still going to have a job? Am I not going to have a job? You know, what's, what's going to happen? And I think, a lot in a lot of businesses. Not a lot, but businesses did close. So, you know, that's understandable. And actually, I'm seeing some businesses are closing now. And it's still the effective COVID. So Right. But fortunately, for those people who want to continue working and not retire, there's plenty of jobs. Right? So

 

Leighann Lovely  42:11

Oh, yeah, there's gonna be plenty of jobs for the years to come because of what you what you mentioned earlier, which was what the 3 million of retirees but I think that this statistically speaking, they they determined that over 5 million people left the job markets during and I'm sure there still are. So that number is probably even higher now. But over 5 million people dropped out of the job market. And I'm sure that some of that accounts for deaths. But some people decided not to go back to work. retirements, early retirements, a lot of women at that time, decided not to go back to work because of the state of the school systems and not knowing what they were going to do. And all of you know, I'm sure that some women now are. But women and women of minorities were the highest impacted in in all of that. So, I mean, there's going to be a lot of vacancies for AI, in my personal opinion for years to come that Oh, yeah. Companies will continue to hire and or try to hire for. So

 

Barb Waala  43:32

Yeah. And people. Back in the day, when I was looking at a resume and you weren't staying somewhere for two to three years, and you were hopping around. I really dismissed the resumes. We can't anymore. People are moving around. And and you know, I have older people who and by older I mean 50s 60s, who owned these companies, and they're like, oh, they they skip around too much. And I'm like, it doesn't matter anymore. The hard part is when you bring somebody into your business, there's always a cost. I mean, there's the cost of the interviewing and the hiring, but it's the training once they get there. And all of those things and we no one wants to invest that time in you and then have you leave in six months. But these employees are like this, I can go down the road and I can get $1 more so then they just leave and they just don't care

 

Leighann Lovely  44:29

Companies don't understand that they have to it is now on them. It is now their responsibility to retain that employee. And they have to they have to change with the times. If we don't have a we don't have a you know, people say I have a hiring problem. No, no, no you don't. If you are interviewing people, and you are seeing traffic, especially if you're working with a staffing agency or your Working with a consultant, independent person who's helping you and they're finding people for you. And you are saying, you know, I have a hiring problem, you know, people come in, they work for me for four months, and then they go away, you don't have a hiring problem, you have a culture or retention problem. And retention problem directly means that you have a culture problem. Companies don't realize that if they are not retaining employees, that has nothing to do with a hiring problem, and has that's related to, and companies constantly are saying to me, Well, you know, we just can't pay more. So we can't keep people. No, no, nope, no, sorry. But employees do not leave jobs. Majority of employees do not leave jobs for money, employees only start looking for new jobs, if they are unhappy for some other reason in their current job. Right. And I have heard more and more benefits is, you know, a driver, I talked to a lot of, or a lot of employees that that, hey, my benefits are just too expensive. But again, people don't start to you know, they don't open up the hood, and start looking, you know, into the all of this stuff, is they are extremely happy. It's just they don't know, people will make sure Yeah, you don't you don't you don't open up the hood and start poking around at your engine. If your car is running perfectly great. You only open that hood. If there's, you know, if it's making noise, right, then that's just not right. And then you start looking at how much am I paying for benefits? How much am I getting paid? How much vacation time do I have? And then, you know, if you ask them, Why are you leaving? Well, you don't? That job is gonna pay me more. But it's on the company's responsibility to say why did you originally start thinking about looking? Yeah. And how many companies do you know nowadays that do an exit interview?

 

Barb Waala  47:13

Oh, we, the last company that I was at, we weren't allowed to do exit interviews correct. Because he said, I don't care what they have to say, anyway. They're disgruntled, they don't want to be here. But I have the story of one of my friends who they always got a bonus every year, and the end of 2021. They didn't get a bonus. And then at the beginning of 2022, they were all asked to refer people to come work there. And that the people that they were referring, they should let them know that there was a hiring bonus. They weren't giving the employee who worked there. But they were going to give the new people that they were hiring. Not only were they going to start them at more, but they were gonna give them a hiring bonus. So guess what? She's not there anymore. Right?

 

Leighann Lovely  48:05

That's a kick in the teeth. And she had been there for 12 years. That's a big FU I don't care about you.

 

Barb Waala  48:12

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you're right, when these when these employers are so upset, because their employees are not happy. You know, and they're leaving, they need to look at themselves. And you want to have as many positions to fill. If you are treating the people that you have well, because guess what happens when you have employees that you've had for a long period of time, they know more about the company than just their job, they always do. And you get faster at your job over time. It just happens because you know better and you can always take on more responsibilities. So pay them well, right. And then they don't mind the extra responsibilities. Right? So that's my TED Talk. Yep. Yeah,

 

Leighann Lovely  48:58

I completely cheese. Some of the things that companies do, I am flabbergasted. My boss, my boss once said to me, he said, and this is a great learning experience is a great, this is something that any great boss knows, he says, You always spend the most time with the best employees. He says you don't you don't go and spend all your time with the employees that are struggling. And he goes obviously you spend time with them to coach them and but you always make a point to dedicate the most time to those who are the most important because they need to know that they are important to you need to let them know like you are important to me. And so often those people who are excelling at the company are forgotten about because their manager goes well they don't need my help anymore. And then all of a sudden that An employee that's excelling feels like well cut, you know, my manager never really talks to me never rarely. And they they become forgotten about. Well, and and eventually, they're so forgotten about because everybody's like, Oh, he doesn't he doesn't need us anymore. That that gives them time to become unhappy and eventually leave. Yeah, if you have an awesome employee that's doing a great job, and you know, just rockin it, you should be checking in on that employee and making sure that if do you need anything from me? Is there anything I can do to help you be more successful? Or is there anything that you need? You know, is there anything I'm doing? That's pissing you off? Like? That should be like, number one, you want to retain the best employee? That's fine. I just don't understand why more managers don't get that.

 

Barb Waala  50:56

I don't know. And when you when you sit in on a meeting, when I used to sit on the meetings, you know, corporate they were always talking about let's look at our numbers, who's in the pipeline, what candidates do we have blah, blah, blah? Why do we never talk about our current employees? What is this one doing? Oh, look at, you know, she just brought us this great thing, how can we, you know, show her that we appreciate what she's doing? When is the last time she's had a review? Who, because I'm gonna tell you one of the companies asked me to do an employee engagement surveys, and when I started them, because I always do those face to face. I cannot get over how long some of the people had been working there, they had not had a review. And they hadn't had a raise. And I'm like, why are you still here? I didn't say that out loud. But a lot of the reason they were still still there was because they liked everyone that they worked with. And it was close to home. So you know, those were big things. But those employee engagement surveys, I personally don't recommend sending them out like a Survey Monkey or something. I like doing them face to face, because you get the facial expressions, you can find out, they're scared to tell you something, because they think you're gonna go back and tell the boss and all those different things. That's probably one of my favorite things to do for companies is the employee engagement surveys. But anyway, yes, appreciate your employees, people appreciate what you have, you know?

 

Leighann Lovely  52:25

Well, Bob, you are a wealth of knowledge. And I could continue to talk to you for the next two hours. I feel like I've been on a tangent this entire time. Yeah, HR. Let's see, I love to HR

 

Barb Waala  52:44

The HR tangents.

 

Leighann Lovely  52:46

So I want to get to the question of the season. Yes. If you could go back to your younger self and give yourself advice, when would you go back? And what advice would you give yourself?

 

Barb Waala  53:02

That is a good question. I'll start by saying I'm always a firm believer that the path that you're on, there's a reason that all those things happened because it, you know, helps and gives you the knowledge for for where you are right now. But if I had to go back, I would probably tell myself as a young mom, that it was okay, that I was only working three days a week, you know, 18 hours a week, whatever it was, at that time, because my husband worked second shift. So I could, it afforded me the ability to actually be an office manager work for an accountant, you know, do the different things that I did, when my kids were little. And it was okay that I didn't work full time. It it was perfectly okay that I didn't work full time. That was the choice that I made. And I would just because I was I was panicked back then, like if I don't work full time now. And then the kids get older, what am I going to do and what it all it all worked out? It all worked out? Well. So that was that's the thing that I would say. I so that's the end of that answer. And then I'm gonna just tell you that I had such an extra. I'm trying to think of the word just appreciation for those mothers that were making the hard decision to leave their careers to stay home because during COVID Because it would wreck me that somehow their job wasn't as important as their husbands. But at the end of the day with the people that I talked to it came down to who made more money. Who who was bringing in the majority of funds and who was it easier for them to leave their position Why that? You know, 95% of the time turned out to be the women, that's a whole different conversation. But though they'll be okay to, if they, you know, if they want to go back, especially in this environment, you know, having a gap in your resume is not a big thing. It never was for me. I don't know if that's because I'm a woman. So then I would see someone would have, you know, a couple years where they stayed at home. Let me tell you, when you stay at home as a mom, and you're running your house, hello, that is CEO, see, oh, you know, you want those women having having a mom who's working, best hire her. Because she knows how to coordinate all the things.

 

Leighann Lovely  55:45

Right. That is the one and I tell people that if that's what you were doing, that's you put that as a job from this day to this day, stay at home mom or CEO of household or what however you want to list that that is yeah, that's the hardest job in the world. And I used to laugh before I became a mom, about people who are oh, that's the hardest job in the world. Yeah, right. Yeah. Then I became a mom and I went holy shit, this is the hardest job in the world. Yes, like ask because you can't manage a four year old or a three year old or five years? My daughter's four right now. So I referenced four year old you can't actually manage them. I mean, in any way it doesn't. Because their brain is not actually making any sense. Like, Mom, I want a milk and then you give her milk and she goes, Mommy, I told you I want a Gatorade. Well, no, you actually did. Fine, I'll get your Gatorade. Like there is no, there is no rhyme or reason or sense when it comes to. So all of the things that you have ever learned about trying to keep things coordinated and organized, throw it all out the window. It is complete and utter chaos, and no sense of the word all of the time. And if you get in the shower, the for your husband or significant other or if you're a single mom, you might as well just drag her in the shower with you or him in the shower with you. Half the time my husband was you know, just wearing shorts in the shower. You're lucky because, hey, it is the hardest job in the world. I only have one. So yes, there are people out there right now. My, my recruiter, one of my recruiters that I work with, she's she is got five kids on vacation. Right?

 

Barb Waala  57:38

That's not vacation. That's what someone says. It's like just living somewhere else. That's just because you're not on vacation. You're right, just like doing all the things you do at home, but you're doing it in a different location.

 

Leighann Lovely  57:50

Who said there's there's vacation and I can't remember what the phrase was. vacation and a trip there's read the difference between a trip and a vacation? Yes, and the vacation or a trip is with your children and a vacation is without your children? Yes. Something like that. Yeah. Anyways, okay, so, we are like I said, at time we were Yes. Okay. Um, if someone wanted to reach out to you to learn more about your business more about your coaching services, or all of those things, how would they go about doing that?

 

Barb Waala  58:33

They can go on my website, barbwaalacoaching.com, it's easy to find. And I have a little link on there that you can click on it. And then it emails me and we can set something up. I always if you want to be a one on one client always have at least a 30 minute discovery call. We call it so then I can find out what it is that you're looking for. And you can talk to me a little bit just to make sure we're a good fit. It's it's the same thing. I tell candidates when they're recruiting, it's like this isn't all about us hiring you, you need to make sure you'd like to so. So I do that. And if it's anybody that needs help with their HR if they need to hire an HR person, I have done that many times hire you know, I'll work in their HR for a little bit and then hire my replacement and move along. Same thing. Barb Waala coach. Yeah, you can you can find me.

 

Leighann Lovely  59:27

Excellent, Barb. This has been such an amazing conversation I adore talking with you. It's just it's so much fun. So again, thank you for joining me today.

 

Barb Waala  59:39

Thank you for having me.

 

Leighann Lovely  59:41

Thank you again for listening to Let's Talk HR. I appreciate your time and support without you the audience this would not be possible. So don't forget that if you enjoyed this episode, to follow us, like us or share us. Have a wonderful day.

 

Website – https://www.barbwaalacoaching.com/

LinkedIN - linkedin.com/in/barb-waala

E-mail - barbwaalacoach@gmail.com

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SUMMARY KEYWORDS

people, employees, hiring, job, work, companies, networking, person, day, making, resume, hr, coaching, email, helping, interviewing, pay, talk, years, business