Pete The Job Guy, LLC

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In this episode:

Debi Locasio, Author of “Read me within my Poetic Mind.”

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Pete: Our next guest is Alex Stuckey. A lot of people in Jacksonville, business folks know who Alex is. Alex was once voted, the CEO of the year for Jacksonville Business Journal. What I want to tell you about Alex is I know his journey firsthand. Okay. Alex is someone that was successful early in his career after graduating college, he was a banker and he was a successful banker making a lot of money as a banker, as a young person, but it wasn’t his ultimate goal. Alex’s is an entrepreneur. He had to take a serious step backwards to take a step forward and for those of you that listened to the show regularly, we a lot of times use the analogy that your career is, is like climbing a rock wall, and I thank Lori Day for sharing that with us, and you know, sometimes you’re climbing up, up, up to reach the top, but then all of a sudden you have to climb back down a little bit and even to the side, you take a few steps backwards in order to move up the ladder again or climb up that rock wall again. Well, Alex has done just that. Before we get into your work story, Alex, tell us a little bit about, you know, maybe your childhood and kind of what made your gears turn this way.

Alex: Well, Pete, as we’ve discussed many times, I grew up on a farm about an hour and a half west of here in Lake City. We call it the “Big City.” And so I grew up on a thoroughbred racehorse farm.

Pete: Isn’t that over by Live Oak, the Big City, Live Oak.

Alex: Yeah, the other big city. So I grew up over there on a thoroughbred farm and we did the typical. We broke and raised and trained racehorses we cut hay and had 60 acres of Hay.

Pete: And so yeah, a lot of work, working hard on the farm. What were some of the things you did?

Alex: Well, all the glory stuff like mucking stalls, washing pack, and cleaning horses…

Pete: But it’s hard wo

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Pete: My first guest is Dr. Brandon Anderson and we’re going to talk to Brandon about it. Listen, when I just hear the “D.R.” the doctor in front of his name, he’s a medical doctor. He’s an E.R. doctor and I think my gosh, this guy had to go through school for a lot of years to become a doctor. And Brandon, the first thing I want to say it, just ask you when you were a kid, did you always want to be a doctor?

Dr. Brandon: I would say the first thing I wanted to be was an astronaut. Well, it becoming a doctor is just like an astronaut. You have Point A and Point Z and there’s a lot of letters in between to get to astronaut and doctor. But what, I’m no, early on I knew I, I, I love science, I love math. I kind of knew where, where my niche was in school and um, early on my dad’s a pharmacist so I had exposure to the healthcare industry and I pretty much knew early on it. That’s kind of the road I wanted to take.

Pete: Let me ask you that because when I hear “Doctor,” a lot of times I think, okay, was great-grandpa and great-grandma doctor and then great-great in this family of doctors that pushed you to it. No, I mean your dad was a pharmacist. What’d your mom do?

Dr. Brandon: She’s a teacher.

Pete: And a teacher and you decide I’m going to be a doctor.

Dr. Brandon: It’s one of those things, you know, part of it is your kind of early on have an idea of what you want to do and then you research different things. And um, for some reason, you know, like I said, I had other opportunities to do different things, but it’s something I always had in my heart to do. But as you go through the journey, you know there are steps along it where you start to question it and things come up.

Pete: That’s what I want to dig in. So, I mean just passing the MCAT test, I know that had to be tough and a lot of work going in. But when you start medical school you see a lot of smiling faces and a lot of people now at the end of medical school, I’m going to guess the same. Smiling faces weren’t all there. Right? So, the first step was in college.

Dr. Brandon: So, just for a little bit of insight. Our college had in our freshman class, 800 people in about a hundred of them day one were [on the ] “pre-med” [track], so everybody kind of wanted to be a doctor; they wanted to be “pre-med.” So throughout the whole process, it’s a slow weed-out process because you have to take the hardest courses, you have to maintain certain GPA scores, certain scores on the tests… and not party as much. For instance, all of the science labs were on Friday; the big party night was Thursday night. So basically for your first year or two, you’re stuck in the library studying while everybody else is partying. So over time it kind of weeds out everybody. And then by the time I graduated out of the 100 or 110, I think eight of us got accepted into medical school.

Pete: it’s amazing it. I made the reference to pro athletes before too. You think about, you know, the “elite of the elite” get the scholarship and they play in college and then the “elite of the elite,” the one percent or is going on.



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Pete: Now, continuing with our theme of perseverance and having the hustle. You know, I was reading an article the other day and it said that healthy employees, employees that have some kind of a wellness program are more productive and they miss less work and I invited Drew Nelson from The Gym Jax to be my guest here today. And Drew, let me ask you this. Okay. I work nine, 10 hours a day and I know a lot of hard workers that have listened to the show, they work a bunch of hours every day. And they say, “You know what? I would work out but I just don’t have time.” What do you say? What does The Gym Jax say to folks like this?

Drew: Well, first of all, Pete, you gotta make the time. You got to make it a priority. You know, everybody’s got jobs, everybody’s got kids; I’ve got three kids myself. I’m fortunate enough to work at a gym.

Pete: So, let me stop you right there. Drew comes walking in and he looks like a specimen; okay, his body fat is under 1 percent. Has to be. He shook my hand and almost broke. I have to tell you that that happened, but okay, so you’re a family man. You’re a hard worker. You’re working, but yet when do you have time to work out?

Drew: When I’m done working; you just have to make it a priority. I’m tired too. I got to pick the kids up from school while school is out now, but you just have to. You have to balance your time. You know, if you, if you got to get up early and work workout before work, you make it happen. If you get an after work, you don’t eat a lot of time, you know, 30 minutes, three times a week is the minimum amount of time.

Pete: Does your gym have, like hours that, okay, if I have to be at work at 8 a.m., can I come in at 5:30 a.m.or 6:00 a.m. or does it stay open late tonight?

Drew: Absolutely. We open at 4:00 a.m., so I’m not going to be there at 4:00 a.m., but we open it for it. Cold shower facility and do your workout, shower after your workout and get to work. You know, you can make it happen.

Pete: Yeah. In that article, it said that that I was reading that healthy employees make more productive employees. There was also a part in there that said, don’t look at it as like, oh, I have to work out and, and I don’t have time to do it. You actually add time to your life by working that. Here’s one thing too. I’m noticing that there’s these fit groups: boot camps, barre classes, other things I’ve read. What’s the deal now with it seems like the gone are the days where here’s the individual, maybe not gone, but there it seems there are more group workouts now then let me go there, lift a bunch of heavyweights and sweat and yell at somebody and get yelled at and then leave. It seems like there are groups and stuff. Do you, are you seeing that as well?

Drew: Absolutely. Exercise changes over time and progresses So, the new thing now is the group settings. Bootcamps, spins [cycling] been popular for awhile. The group setting, like you said, it helps them: motivation. You know you don’t feel like you’re doing it by yourself. He had 10, 15, 20 people, you know, going through the same thing, pushing each other…

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Pete: Our next guest is Brandy Kerby. Brandy is Regional Vice President with SNI companies, running all business operations for branch offices in Jacksonville, Orlando, and the Tampa, St. Pete area. She knows firsthand the ordeals and challenges facing working parents and more specifically working moms. Brandy, I know the landscape has changed drastically over years. Back in the day, dad went to work, mom stayed home to run the household, take care of the kids. How is that change today?

Brandy: So, women make up about 46 percent of today’s workforce, about half, about half. And out of that population, 70 percent of those women are actually working moms with children under 18 at home.

Pete: You’re a working mom yourself. What’s your experience as a working mom?

Brandy: Being a working mom is like having two full-time jobs with no days off and failure is not an option. So it’s a challenge.

Pete: You get pulled in a lot of directions, you know, it’s tough and not to get too personal, but is your household also a dual income household where dad works as well?

Brandy: Yes. So my husband and I both work.

Pete:  Yeah. Whoa boy. What advice would you give working moms or even let’s even back it up, moms that are expecting,that are working? Let’s talk about that. What kind of advice do you give those folks?

Brandy:  Yeah, well I was a perfect parent until I had children and realized how difficult it was. And so I think the first advice that I would offer is to, to give up on perfection. It’s and the guilt of not being able to achieve it because it’s really an unrealistic expectation.

Pete: Okay. Well, so what are some of the challenges? Let’s just get right into it. What are some of the challenges?

Brandy: It’s time management is a huge challenge for working moms were, as you’ve mentioned, in many different directions and so we have to find ways to be able to achieve more with less time because we’re not home with our children all day. And we also have the responsibilities of work to manage. And so I think that for me, and I think another thing I would add is it’s going to be very different for each person. You have to figure out what works for your individual family. And then you also have to consider what type of flexibility that you might need from an employer if you’re going to be a working mom and make sure that you have a good balance there. Um, so for me, like some of the things that I’ve done, Amazon delivers everything to my house. From dry goods, groceries, I use a delivery service. And so while I’m not shopping at the store, spending that time, I can be home with my children or I can stay to get an extra little bit of work time in. And so, I think it’s finding the things that you can outsource that you can cut out and letting go of some of the expectation. I don’t care where the food comes from, I just care that it’s in my house when my children need it.

Pete: Okay. So we plan meals, you know, whether they can deliver or like you said, where it comes from, doesn’t matter. Not everybody might be able to afford a delive

[Please ignore any typos. This is a direct transcription for your benefit.]

Pete: Our first guest today is Lori Day. Lori is Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Officer Operations Officer, at EverBank.  She’s also on the diversity and inclusion council and she serves as the executive sponsor for the women’s employee resource group advance. Now, Lori, I know it’s safe to say you’ve been a manager, director, vice president, a leader in a hiring manager for many years. I won’t say how many, but I know it’s been a lot more than five years. Is that correct?

Lori: More than five would be correct and more like decades.

Pete: Okay. We’ll leave it there. Great. Well, in throughout your career you’ve been pretty passionate about helping people. You’ve been a career coach, mentor, and very involved in the community, isn’t that right?

Lori: Yes, I would. Thank you.

Pete: Alright, well, I think it’s safe to say that. What I want to know, now, is as a leader and a hiring manager, and I know you’ve interviewed, I don’t even want to put a number to it, but I know there’s a lot, you’ve interviewed a lot of people and what’s important to you is not just hiring, it’s retaining the top talent that you’ve hired, and I know that safe to say that you’ve retained thousands of employees over your years, I want to focus on your interviewing techniques, right now. Without getting into too many specifics. What kinds of questions do you ask in an interview and what types of answers are you looking for that help you make your decisions?

Lori: So I think part of the interview process of questions, answers is really around how am I able to help someone paint their story for me? It used to be back in the day where the standard questions are, tell me your strengths, tell me your weaknesses, what are the things you’re most proud of, and those just don’t help create the environment that gives me a forward look on how someone will be successful with my team. So instead I asked questions about the job requirements and the competencies that accompany that and I ask a candidate to paint a picture by telling me examples of times where they’ve had experiences in certain things and when asked to share their examples with me, I’m really looking for them to show me who they are, what they’ve done, how they’ve interacted with other people, how they’ve used different skills to achieve things and solve problems.  If they can paint that picture for me of an experience they’ve had in their past, then I’m able to see in the future how they could fit in my organization.

Pete: Outstanding and Lori, if they begin to answer their questions with, “oh well I always do this,” or “this is what I would do.” Okay. Hypothetical in one is speaking in generalities. How does, how’s that going to work?

Lori: That’s really not working out for me, but I will ask the question again. And the term is “behavior-based interviewing” is kind of the buzzword or the term and it really is about understanding others’ behaviors. So when I asked for a candidate to give me an example and the answer is, “well I typically” or “I usually” or then I’ll say, that’s great to hear. Can you give me an example of when you did that and what the circumstances are and if we still can’t get there, maybe after a couple of times then we’ll, we’ll change the topic, but I’ll still go ba

[Please ignore any typos. This is a direct transcription for your benefit.]

Pete: Our next guest is Brandy Kerby. Brandy is Regional Vice President with SNI companies, running all business operations for branch offices in Jacksonville, Orlando, and the Tampa, St. Pete area. She knows firsthand the ordeals and challenges facing working parents and more specifically working moms. Brandy, I know the landscape has changed drastically over years. Back in the day, dad went to work, mom stayed home to run the household, take care of the kids. How is that change today?

Brandy: So, women make up about 46 percent of today’s workforce, about half, about half. And out of that population, 70 percent of those women are actually working moms with children under 18 at home.

Pete: You’re a working mom yourself. What’s your experience as a working mom?

Brandy: Being a working mom is like having two full-time jobs with no days off and failure is not an option. So it’s a challenge.

Pete: You get pulled in a lot of directions, you know, it’s tough and not to get too personal, but is your household also a dual income household where dad works as well?

Brandy: Yes. So my husband and I both work.

Pete:  Yeah. Whoa boy. What advice would you give working moms or even let’s even back it up, moms that are expecting,that are working? Let’s talk about that. What kind of advice do you give those folks?

Brandy:  Yeah, well I was a perfect parent until I had children and realized how difficult it was. And so I think the first advice that I would offer is to, to give up on perfection. It’s and the guilt of not being able to achieve it because it’s really an unrealistic expectation.

Pete: Okay. Well, so what are some of the challenges? Let’s just get right into it. What are some of the challenges?

Brandy: It’s time management is a huge challenge for working moms were, as you’ve mentioned, in many different directions and so we have to find ways to be able to achieve more with less time because we’re not home with our children all day. And we also have the responsibilities of work to manage. And so I think that for me, and I think another thing I would add is it’s going to be very different for each person. You have to figure out what works for your individual family. And then you also have to consider what type of flexibility that you might need from an employer if you’re going to be a working mom and make sure that you have a good balance there. Um, so for me, like some of the things that I’ve done, Amazon delivers everything to my house. From dry goods, groceries, I use a delivery service. And so while I’m not shopping at the store, spending that time, I can be home with my children or I can stay to get an extra little bit of work time in. And so, I think it’s finding the things that you can outsource that you can cut out and letting go of some of the expectation. I don’t care where the food comes from, I just care that it’s in my house when my children need it.

Pete: Okay. So we plan meals, you know, whether they can deliver or like you said, where it comes from, doesn’t matter. Not everybody might be able to afford a delive

[Please ignore any typos. This is a direct transcription for your benefit.]

Pete: Our first guest today is Lori Day. Lori is Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Officer Operations Officer, at EverBank.  She’s also on the diversity and inclusion council and she serves as the executive sponsor for the women’s employee resource group advance. Now, Lori, I know it’s safe to say you’ve been a manager, director, vice president, a leader in a hiring manager for many years. I won’t say how many, but I know it’s been a lot more than five years. Is that correct?

Lori: More than five would be correct and more like decades.

Pete: Okay. We’ll leave it there. Great. Well, in throughout your career you’ve been pretty passionate about helping people. You’ve been a career coach, mentor, and very involved in the community, isn’t that right?

Lori: Yes, I would. Thank you.

Pete: Alright, well, I think it’s safe to say that. What I want to know, now, is as a leader and a hiring manager, and I know you’ve interviewed, I don’t even want to put a number to it, but I know there’s a lot, you’ve interviewed a lot of people and what’s important to you is not just hiring, it’s retaining the top talent that you’ve hired, and I know that safe to say that you’ve retained thousands of employees over your years, I want to focus on your interviewing techniques, right now. Without getting into too many specifics. What kinds of questions do you ask in an interview and what types of answers are you looking for that help you make your decisions?

Lori: So I think part of the interview process of questions, answers is really around how am I able to help someone paint their story for me? It used to be back in the day where the standard questions are, tell me your strengths, tell me your weaknesses, what are the things you’re most proud of, and those just don’t help create the environment that gives me a forward look on how someone will be successful with my team. So instead I asked questions about the job requirements and the competencies that accompany that and I ask a candidate to paint a picture by telling me examples of times where they’ve had experiences in certain things and when asked to share their examples with me, I’m really looking for them to show me who they are, what they’ve done, how they’ve interacted with other people, how they’ve used different skills to achieve things and solve problems.  If they can paint that picture for me of an experience they’ve had in their past, then I’m able to see in the future how they could fit in my organization.

Pete: Outstanding and Lori, if they begin to answer their questions with, “oh well I always do this,” or “this is what I would do.” Okay. Hypothetical in one is speaking in generalities. How does, how’s that going to work?

Lori: That’s really not working out for me, but I will ask the question again. And the term is “behavior-based interviewing” is kind of the buzzword or the term and it really is about understanding others’ behaviors. So when I asked for a candidate to give me an example and the answer is, “well I typically” or “I usually” or then I’ll say, that’s great to hear. Can you give me an example of when you did that and what the circumstances are and if we still can’t get there, maybe after a couple of times then we’ll, we’ll change the topic, but I’ll still go ba