This week James apologizes, Darin discovers laptop computers, Garret tries to do less work, and Tyler “uses James as an excuse”. All of that and special guest Ari Gerber discusses being the only female on a leadership team. 

00:00:00 - Pre Show

“Boiled eggs” in all the forms

Executive Director of People and Investor Relations “Facilitator” ARI upgrades her Apple technology

Oh...and she’s on this week's episode

00:03:00 - Show Start

00:03:17 - Follow-Ups 

Update on spreading Jelly with a spoon

Garret’s personal experience

Scoopability vs spreadability and smash factor 

3 Real time follow ups

Why not PB&J on toast?

Darin finds spoons for jelly a “left handed” experience

He may have been using his left hand

White bread vs wheat or multigrain bread (so many factors here)

Ari may believe that toast and bread are the same thing

Darin 

Luci the Dog update...Still kicking

Wife’s core values are still a mystery

James wins the aldermanic election (failed to mention “unopposed”)

It still counts

James still playing his gold plated CEO violin

Top 5% for James - Ari in her pure Quad 1

00:17:57- The Headlines

Darin

Strategic Team finishing the support migration to Hubspot

May not be terrible at managing things after all

Product releasing (currently not happening)

Great conversation with Tyler about short term path

“Failed releases” (question the quotes)

Follow the existing rules (documented or not)

Non work related

Obsessed with Obsidian (note taking app)

Finally remembered that my computer is a laptop

Tyler

Product L10™ - scored a 4.4

Started with a Todo not done 

“Solved after playing my violin”

Support tickets not being solved within SLA’s

Support migration project carries on

…”because of James”

Client at risk project

Top priority for the company

Expected a lot of negative Zoom calls

Short Term / Long Term plans for support and engineering

Session with James on the Engineering vision

“All the things” have me a little behind

Garret

LT L10™ - scored a 4.0

Issues

Todo not done

Marketing

All the walls around budget and plan

Retail and 3PL Sales L10’s™ - scored 4.0 and 3.6

D&E’s almost done

Ari’s D&E was terrible (more from her on that)

Customer at risk project

So far great calls

Clean approach and sticking to the agenda

Organized all the feedback now onto deciding our approach

Ari - Yes she’s a full participant this week

“I don’t have L10’s™ so no headlines there”

D&E’s™

Happy to not have the same meeting all day every day after 3 weeks

Glad to see it working

No employees scored below a 12 (out of 15)

Mine was terrible

Realized that Ari and Garret IDS’ing™ about me doesn’t work

Root - Garret doesn’t have the ‘W’ or ‘C’ for managing this seat

Career planning finally got delegated

Finally got over the hump here

Renegotiated the timeline with the entire company

Ari may have just tried to throw in a teaser for next week’s episode

Investor / Funding Update

All fascinating - no conversation has been the same

James (as always, only 1)

I’m so excited to get into Garret not wanting to be your manager 

Seems a lot like engineering’s solution of “I’ll just do less work”

My one big headline... pause for a sidebar around EO Forum retreat

It’s proper background to the 1 big headline

Now too the headline “I wanted to come back and apologize for being a miserable ____ the last 8 weeks”

Feeling of tearing down others instead of building us all up together

Wasn’t the failures that had me angry

I was scared in a way I’ve never been scared before

Choice of fear or anger...I chose anger

Who not How led me to some clarity

Focusing on anything but the number one thing I need to focus on is wrong for the company

Back to the headline “I am sorry”

Second Thing (or 1.2) - The thing that needs to be done is clear

Take the emotional side and put it away when it comes to people issues

Don’t be heartless

Realtime followup

Are you now clear on, I just need to find the 8, 10, 12 areas of the company to find the “who” for?

Podcast gold moment

Failing younger (or earlier) has less ramifications than failing older (or later)

When do you want to learn the hard lessons

00:55:55 - Topic 2 (1) - Ari is in town (like actually in Chester, IL with James)

3 to 4 part series

What’s it like to be the only female (young relatively speaking) on the leadership team

D&E’s™

Career Planning

Hiring

How do we avoid becoming a company of “30 year old white guys”

This week - moderated by James - An interview of Ari (Q&A - a must listen)

How are you feeling, what’s on your mind?

“I would love to not be the only female of the leadership team”

What was it like to be “just” facilitator Ari, and how has that changed moving into a full participant in that L10?

Learned the value of having a voice and making it heard in an intentional way

As you are approaching your tenth (AKA 1.5) year, you used to introduce yourself as “I don’t know anything about the business” in interviews, do you still feel that way?

“I no longer introduce myself that way… I do know about the business now”

Where are we blind as an organization or executive leadership team? What blind spots do you or have you seen in us when it comes to things that you as a female think about that we as men don’t have to?

I have 3 things...

Real time story on speaking with investors and the Ari Filter

What do you hear, see, etc. from others within our organization that you may be privy to as the only female on the leadership team? (No details needed here)

One of the few things I love being in the People seat is I tend to get news

You have one of the more interesting college degrees I’ve ever heard of. You light up talking about it. Can you share how experiences in your education have helped you?

“Creativity is taking two things that currently exist and putting them together to create something new”

At the risk of sounding cliche, what’s the biggest hurdle or glass ceiling that you have in front of you, that you are going to bust through, that we as men don’t have to worry about?

“Believe you can or believe you can’t...you’re right”

Teaser - Ari and James planted a seed for a new company today and Ari sees herself as a potential CEO (possible perfect combination)

01:27:40- Questions and Long Answers 

Carry over to next week

01:27:40 - End of Show 

01:27:40 -  After Show - NADA!

Hosts, Garret Richardson, Tyler Samples, Darin Kelkhoff, and James Maes

Show Notes by Garret Richardson

Proofing and Title by Darin Kelkhoff

Editing, Mixing, and Mastering by Brenton Wainscott