Humanity at Work: Brittany Fountain's Journey to Cultivating Corporate Culture

In this episode, I sit down with Brittany Fountain, Chief Humanity Officer of Britt Joy & Co. Brittany openly shares her story of growing up with a single mom, working her way through college, and spending 15 years in diverse corporate roles before courageously launching her own culture consulting business. We dive into the challenges and opportunities around workplace culture, preparing for the future of work, and the power of intuition in decision making. Brittany's candid and insightful perspective will leave you inspired to approach your own career with more curiosity, authenticity and intentionality. Don't miss this thought-provoking conversation!

Episode Quote: "Curiosity is the engine of achievement." - Ken Robinson

Collective Challenge: This week, make a conscious effort to cultivate curiosity in your daily life. Each day, identify one situation where you can pause and ask deeper questions – whether it's about your own thoughts, ideas, and actions, or those of others. Embrace the opportunity to lean in and learn more. Notice how this curiosity impacts your interactions, decisions, and overall perspective. At the end of the week, reflect on your experiences and consider how you can continue to integrate curiosity into your personal and professional life. Share your insights with others and encourage them to join you in this curiosity challenge!

Show Notes:
00:00 - Anna introduces Brittany Fountain and the episode theme of curiosity
04:36 - Brittany shares her childhood background and lessons learned from her single mom
09:46 - College experience as a first-gen student and entering the workforce during 2008 recession
17:33 - Overview of Brittany's 15 year corporate career across various industries and roles
25:01 - The launch of Britt Joy & Co in 2021 and identifying the need for culture consulting
32:13 - Challenges in getting leadership buy-in for prioritizing workplace culture
38:52 - Brittany's experience giving a keynote speech with her baby strapped to her
45:05 - The importance of staying curious and experimenting to identify gaps and solutions
51:50 - How organizations need to prepare for Gen Z and the future of work
58:16 - Balancing customer experience with employee experience and engagement
1:04:30 - Navigating ambiguity as a consultant and establishing metrics for success
1:09:59 - Learning to trust your intuition when making decisions about opportunities
1:12:07 - The value of reflective thinking and being the last to speak in a room
1:15:10 - Anna's closing thoughts on Brittany's openness and insights

Music by Music Unlimited from Pixabay

Transcript

Anna Stumpf: 0:07

Welcome to collective energy conversations, your inspiration for personal and professional growth in mid career. I'm Dr. Anna stump Your Guide to inspiring stories from a variety of professionals. A collective energy, we believe in the transformative power of connections and shared experiences. Each week we delve into narratives that spark confidence and self awareness. Join us as we elevate our growth through the power of shared stories. Such a unique episode for you, I want you to meet my new bestie I was introduced to Brittany through my energy coin, if you're familiar with that, I sent that to someone who was just an incredibly impactful leader, mentor, one of those mentors who didn't know they were mentor, I just Loki didn't have the confidence or the ability to ask for this person to be a mentor. So I just watched them and tried to emulate things and learn from them from a distance, and which was really easy in the 90s. Because we didn't have a lot of connectivity like we do now. Because you know, like, we just barely had email at work back then. But anyway, I sent this person, a former Walmart executive, and energy coin, and he texted me right away, when he opened it, and was so grateful. And then said, I can tell you, the person I need for you to talk to is Brittany. And then he like immediately made a text message introduction to which she and I just took off from there and decided rather than trying to have a call and get to know each other, or whatever, we just record a podcast episode. So I'll give you a little caveat in advance. This is probably one of the choppiness and worst editing jobs I've ever done a podcast. But we talked for well over two hours. And we talked a lot about Henry who brought us together, we talked a lot about just things in general, we talked a lot about our businesses and things that we wouldn't share on this episode. But I'm an incredible person. And I'm so excited for you to hear Brittney story and learn about her amazing business and what she does and how she got here. And just her her mind, the way she thinks and approaches thing. I think that is probably the biggest lesson that we can learn. But Brittany is the founder and chief humanity Officer of her own company called Britt joy and CO and she talks about growth and culture and strategy for businesses. And it is just comes from the right place. And I'm so excited for you to learn a little bit about what she does and hear from her. But I always like to give you a quote. So curiosity is kind of the theme of what I believe has put Brittany through these transitions and made her just the most insightful, and actionable person that she is. So the quote today for this episode is from Ken Robinson edit is curiosity is the engine of achievement. So be curious and open up your mind. Listen to a little bit about Brittany, you can learn about her her webs Britt joy.com. And she has a podcast which is just her you know, you'll learn a little bit about her brain dumps and kind of her LinkedIn content is amazing. So lots of ways to connect her at bridge joy.com and enjoy this episode. I certainly did. Do such a great job on your website. Like that's why I think I was comfortable. Like I don't need to like have a call like I start going because I get like all of this sense of like who you are, how you are and why you are like Ah, it's so good. Like kudos to you. I don't know how much help you had with that or if that's just how you communicate Euro This means so much. It was I'm like man, I gotta go back and figure out my messaging because I'm in my first draft of this and I was like I you just get why you why now like you get that from everything. So,

Brittany Fountain: 4:36

man, that is beautiful. Thank you. Um, I mean, I'm sure are you recording now or

Anna Stumpf: 4:47

we can just like

Brittany Fountain: 4:50

we might get into this or later or we can get into it now. It's just like so much of this I know to be true from lived experience from data from all the things And at the same time, I don't have the inner circle of influence to be able to have this be the scale that I want it to be right now, right? And so there's so many days where you're pushing and you're pushing, you're pushing, and you're just being consistent, and you're working with the clients you have now and you're doing the things that actually matter. Still with that goal in mind, and you're like, is this resonating? Is or is this happening? And then you you get people like you who are like, No, this is this? Is it? This? Is it?

Anna Stumpf: 5:35

And I'll tell you, yeah, a couple of things. I'm just gonna give you my impressions, right? Because I was introduced to you, from somebody who I think is probably one of the most impactful transformative leaders that I will ever meet in my lifetime. Like, I'm like, looking through your website. And I was like, man, so this is somebody who started in corporate America 15 years ago, in a pretty like, left brain linear, like data driven role. But you get all this culture. Because the balance, right, like you have an innate ability that I can tell just from your story, but I know of it to exist in one side, too, and see the other right to exist over here and see the other. So when you talk about like the scalability or what you're doing, or like, how will we you see where you want to go with your business? I'm here for this, because that is the authenticity. Yeah. And the balance, and the, like, the structure and now the people in corporate America need from you. I think like that think that's the beauty of like, what you're doing. Yeah,

Brittany Fountain: 6:44

no? Well, thank you. I agree. I think it's one of those things where I had glimpses of people who were the unicorns, like, you know, Henry's a unicorn, right? Oh, and also had the awareness of like, I don't, not everybody's going to be that not everybody can be that. But we can craft a scenario we can craft an environment where everyone feels like they have access to that. Yes. And, you know, most leaders are technically Excellent. They're not great people, people

Anna Stumpf: 7:27

will start with governmental leadership. Right.

Brittany Fountain: 7:29

But that, but then, you know, I think about it, I'm like most leaders, if you're a leader in financial integrated marketing, so you got a marketing guy, right, those, you know, marketing people aren't great with, you know, financial modeling, so they get a finance guy, you know, and so, we have all these compliments to the business, but we've totally forgotten the humanity piece of it. Well, and

Anna Stumpf: 7:49

then we also look at a Henry or somebody else and think I need to be that Yes. Right. And I'm like, if I got a little bit of Henry in me, I can find it and like, work on it and strengthen it and let it out. Like, I'm not ever gonna be Henry. I'm just not. Yeah, I'm not done that ego either. Right now, so people centric, that, you know, I think how he learned how to do that is kind of, you know, how you learned what your superpower was, right? It's through those childhood experiences and through who you had to be and how you had to be. And then just, I'm, you have a thing on your website. I want to call it out, because it's I got it highlighted. I'm like, can we just get this on a shirt? Oh, gosh, oh, gosh, you're talking about I spent 15 years on the classic culture roller coaster in corporate America. And then you go on to build this like emotional attachment to shrieking and delight with my colleagues, customers and shareholders at a bold human centric value statements, right? Because those are everywhere, hanging everywhere, either on the website, and conversely, leaving bruise and whiplash from the jerking halt to what happens when you say, but when what you say and do does not in fact, point back to who you say you are. I think that right there that first of all, a coaster analogies like Wouk is right, you start out with an organization and you are like, up, you're going to incline you got the anticipation. Your palms are sweaty, you're like I got it. I got in the door. This is gonna be great. And then you get to top and the views all good and the anticipation and then that whiplash and that bruise and the way your hips feel and knocking your knees and every year like oh, this was this was supposed to be exhilarating. No, no, wait, this. I'm sore for days. Yeah, I

Brittany Fountain: 9:39

will not be back. I don't I don't want it.

Anna Stumpf: 9:42

So talk to me about like, what did you major in?

Brittany Fountain: 9:46

I majored in Business Administration with a concentration in marketing.

Anna Stumpf: 9:50

Okay. And you were first gen college students. Yeah. I know. You mentioned on your website. Single mom had many jobs.

Brittany Fountain: 9:59

Yes. So she was a single mom with three jobs. And she had three girls. And so I was the middle of the girls. And then she remarried when we were when I was in fifth grade. And then we moved, she became more established in her career, obviously, we had a second income to our home at that point. And she was able to really pivot from so much of like the, like barst plus hustling. But it was more corporate focus. So she wasn't working three jobs, but she was on every board. She was,

Anna Stumpf: 10:36

we shifted from survival, right to feeling the need to prepare

Brittany Fountain: 10:41

to propel. So that was very much. You know, whenever I was going into college, she had never been to college. So there wasn't a lot of guidance from her and maybe just sort of like at large in, like higher academics at that point of choosing what you want to do. What exactly does that mean, I went into college as a declared Nursing Major. But I had to work full time in college. So I didn't have student loans. I didn't know that student loans were even an option. That's just sort of how narrow my lens was for everything.

Anna Stumpf: 11:15

But looking back now, that's probably I didn't look back now. It's great. It's hundreds of 1000s of dollars.

Brittany Fountain: 11:22

So you know, I started to go into prepping for my junior year, and they're like, Okay, since clinicals. And I'm like, What, I can't go 12 hours a day and work in a hospital, I had to work I have to pay for this place. And so I had taken a personal finance class, and I liked the guy. And I was like, Yeah, whatever, I'll do business. And it felt like a good idea. Until, you know, I graduated in 2007. And we are in a recession. And I'm like, well, guess who doesn't have a job? My first job out of school was working for a wealth management company, making like $26,000 a year. And then I started doing technical staffing. And did that. Right, in our our largest clients at the time were financial institutions in Charlotte. So it was right at the point where Wachovia went under right before Wells Fargo bought them. And that was like, just the raw plus experience to like seeing grown men just on their knees in the middle of the lobby of the building, crying because their 401 K is now pennies. Yeah, because so much of it was bested in the wall. cobia stock. So that was a wild time.

Anna Stumpf: 12:43

I think for people that aren't our age, to hear that we have been through this. Yeah, on a on a different scale, and maybe just like one industry vertical at a time versus what's happening right now. Right? Right. It is like formative devastating, and also incredibly scary to watch all of that. And when you tell people that were on their knees were the ones who had been brought up to get a good job with a good company, be loyal to the company, the company will take care of you mindset. Yeah, we had not seen that. That plan disrupted right decades until like, the 2008 to 2012 timeframe. Right.

Brittany Fountain: 13:28

And I mean, again, I'm making like $26,000 a year so money's nothing to me. And I grew up very poor, like we were, we did not have anything, you know, during that time that were my mom was a single mom. So money has never been something that I've had. So not having it has not felt as devastating as obviously what it was to these people who had built their entire life around this. Think

Anna Stumpf: 13:52

of the scarcity mindset to have like, somebody couldn't come take this all away. Yeah, you'd have a mother who worked three jobs at one time, right? So in your mind, you're like, Okay, if you come take this job, I'll just go get the next one or two.

Brittany Fountain: 14:06

Well, and to see the way that my colleagues and I responded to what was happening was I was there and I went up to the people, you know, hey, like, come here and let's get a cup of coffee like let's let's regroup like let's you know, I can't fix it but I can, I can be here for you. And it was an immediate stepping out of myself to be there for somebody emotionally 23 years old, I have nothing to offer them except for humanity. Right? Um, but other people turn to You know, they're like, well, this feels awkward. I'm out of here. So you know when we talk about like the the drops that got us to where we are now it's like I can look back to my childhood. I can look back to my first job out of college. I can look back to all these things and see where I chose to lean into what felt uncomfortable. Hmm. To try and provide solution, again, not necessarily to what your 401k looks like, but I can't leave you on the floor. Right? Okay, so you're 56 and

Anna Stumpf: 15:13

on the pool of Simon Sinek on you, because He does this thing on his podcast where he talks to people. And then he asks them in advance two questions. One of which is take me to a childhood memory that's very vivid, and take me there with you. And the second one, he asked him, like, what's something you're working on right now? Or have recently that brings you joy, and he draws this weird parallel between like, your your best childhood memories, and like what you're doing and shows that your whole arc? Yeah, so like, stay in that lane. So this could be a complete flop. But I want to ask, why did you originally pick nursing, as I

Brittany Fountain: 15:51

just wanted to help people? Yeah, I just wanted to help people. And I had had experiences with myself and with family members, that was so antithetical to what I believe it should look like to be in that field. That that's really what it was. And, you know, even now, I mean, my mother passed away about six years ago from ovarian cancer. And even during her time, you know, of going through the treatment and the challenges and all the things. I still felt that pole, being in the medical space, but not necessarily to be the one to be taking the vitals and so on and so forth. It was pretty much of like, ah, the EQ that is missing this moment that could really just make this better, you're probably not going to cure her cancer by having a better bedside manner.

Anna Stumpf: 16:45

Right. Yeah,

Brittany Fountain: 16:47

I think that would be helpful right now.

Anna Stumpf: 16:49

Yeah. It's not the medical solution, right? It's not a transaction of those vitals. It's that relationship. Yeah. Yeah. I somehow I knew that was probably what drew you to that, like, I want to, I want to help people, and I want to be a support and I want to be the face of their, you know, fears. And in their knowledge, whatever else you can bring IQ that that's good job, Simon Sinek. He's got like a flawless formula.

Brittany Fountain: 17:16

Look at him. He's onto something, that guy,

Anna Stumpf: 17:18

I'm just feeling it. Yeah. Like I it's, I'm three for three on this one now. So where did you go through these 15 years in corporate? Like, what kind of roles did you have? What was your experience,

Brittany Fountain: 17:33

um, a little bit of everything. So it was a wealth management associate. I was a technical recruiter, I was a credit analyst. And all of these were for pretty large companies. So I worked for Verizon for about three years. And that was certainly the largest company that I worked for. And what's interesting about that, one is that so many people had just really negative things to say about Verizon. And I had such an incredible experience, the way that we were trained the way that we had systems in place for support, the way that our benefits package worked, they offered free master's programs, so you could get your Masters for free. I mean, it was all these things that were actually really lovely. And I had such a big noise from everyone else saying like, Oh, like, you know, big corporate, you know, they're awful, I wouldn't want to work for them. And that is probably one of the more formative times where I was like, No, guys, like, I think we really need to challenge what the stereotype is, with big business, classic corporate America. Because my experience was not at all that. And I'm not denying that other people's experience was. But I think that was probably very formative for me to say, We can do this, and we can do this at scale. And I, you know, at the time, I would have never recognized that that was what I was thinking. But I mean, looking back again, the the thread the tether that keeps us on this whole journey. I mean, that was very clear. And then after Verizon, I worked for a couple startups. So I worked in sales for dermatopathology company. So I traveled around Virginia and DC and Maryland teaching doctors, different biopsy techniques and coding options. There was a huge revamp in the coding world at that point. So it's really affecting the way that doctors were being reimbursed for seeing patients. So that was a really cool opportunity to be able to show them some new things, but also be able to propel their business forward where some people thought their practices were going to close down. To be able to, you know, introduce the pivot the nudge. It's like this is not a bulldozer we don't have to reinvent the whole thing, but there are little things that we can do. You know, to bring you back into a better alignment so that your business as profitable so that you can still contribute to your community so that you can build a legacy for your family, so on and so forth. And then I worked for a technology company out of DC before moving back to Wilmington, North Carolina. And I moved here again mentioned in my mom with her cancer diagnosis, we moved back to be closer to her. And I started working for a bank, which is totally random, because my mom was a banker. And I knew, without a shadow of doubt, I'm like, I don't want to be a banker. I'm whatever I do with this business degree, I just, it doesn't need to be banking. And I ended up doing that for seven years.

Anna Stumpf: 20:40

Never say never, I never

Brittany Fountain: 20:42

say never. And so that took me all the way to 2021. And that's I decided, you know, I wasn't, I didn't want to be a lender. I'm not sure what next look like. But I just knew that I needed to close out this chapter as it was in order to give myself the space to think and to explore what that would look like. And that's a very privileged position to be in, I fully recognize that. So we have a second income, my husband has a job. Again, growing up very poor, we're just sort of allergic to death. In a way that's great, but also carries a lot of like weird trauma packages with it. So I mean, I understand there was a distinct privilege to be able to step back and say, What is this? And

Anna Stumpf: 21:32

don't don't lend it all to privilege, though. Because the self awareness to know that you need to step back and have that, because I think a lot of people, especially if they've got that trauma of growing up poor and never wanting to be back, yes, get on a hamster wheel and go sometimes it's such an unhealthy pace for the wrong reasons, yes. And end up maybe recreating for their children, a sense of scarcity that actually doesn't exist, right. I've seen that a lot. My dad like, did that. And it's, it takes a lot of self awareness to know that I need to stop and ask some questions like, yes, if it's, you got to give yourself a little more credit than Wow, thanks for the privilege because you use that well.

Brittany Fountain: 22:19

And I do. And I do have that awareness for a lot of different areas of my life is, you know, breaking cycles are not perpetuating cycles. So maybe it wasn't something that was passed on to me either by family, employer, so on and so forth. But how do we remain cognizant of what we don't want to perpetuate? Right? And so then, you know, when I left the bank, I started working with friends, they would say, you know, hey, Ma'am, can you look at our financials, you know, something feels off here, you know, we, our numbers are up, but our margins are down, or we had a great year with sales, but we're having a lot of turnover. And it was just sort of those introductions back into looking at things to where it kind of brought me full circle to, you know, oh, this is actually not your numbers at all like this. This is a people problem. And I've seen this where I've worked previously, I've seen this at other companies, I've actually been reading a lot about this, I've been digging into the data. And things just started to come around to where I started to look into other industries and say, culture is really, really being neglected right now. And it's impacting a lot of things. It's impacting profitability. It's impacting engagement, employee churn, you know, we were just starting to see the great resignation and all of those things. And nobody was actually doing it. And I was so confused, because I was like, this is a thing. You guys, we have all the data you you guys are writing books about this. You're giving keynotes about this? who's actually doing the work. And I couldn't find anybody. And I

Anna Stumpf: 24:00

while I will tell you some of the worst things we did in business came from what I saw in higher ed, is this like ranking? Best Places to Work? What we're, what we're taking college rankings school, right, like, we know, are toxic and flawed and being used, again, weaponized, and we're bringing it into corporate America. Uh, huh. The worst places to work have an award.

Brittany Fountain: 24:29

Yeah. Yeah. You're like, this is not great. No, this is not great. And

Anna Stumpf: 24:34

the minute they get that award, that take that foot off the gas and quit asking questions, like it's really been detrimental.

Brittany Fountain: 24:41

Yeah. And you're like, and we've seen this before. Like, this isn't new, like, why are we not learning from each other?

Anna Stumpf: 24:49

I mean, like you decide to lean in on this. And then we have global pandemic and AI we have all these things coming and I mean, what a time for you. Yeah. MMC Yeah,

Brittany Fountain: 25:01

it was really I mean, it was fun. So I was still working for the bank during like 2020, the original shutdown. And bankers were considered essential employees. But all three of my children were home from daycare because that was shut down, my husband was working from home, it was just chaos. But it was also so invigorating to be able to be a part of something that was bigger than you. You know, we're pushing out PPP funds to small business owners and keeping businesses afloat and keeping people current on their mortgages and just food on the table, like really impactful things. And to be able to see both sides of that coin of like, this is good, meaningful work. And wow, we are missing this, not just within the corporation that I worked for. But everywhere, everyone is not doing well, like work. This isn't great. Yeah, the productivity is up. And you know, we're doing great from a business standpoint, remote work works. And I'm like, I mean, maybe, but at large, this is not great. So again, the duality of me being able to see the business functionality, you know, how is this actually working from operations? What is this doing to your p&l? And the human side of it to say, we actually have quite a bit of people out here who are legitimately going through mental crisis, you know, walking business owners through a panic attack? Yeah, you know, just things that that aren't reflected on a quarterly earnings report. So I think being able to see both of those things at the same time, the Yes, and really allowed for me to lean into what I saw as a huge gap in any kind of market, but specifically corporate America, when

Anna Stumpf: 27:03

you have this just natural ability that I think has come again, the way you call that out on your About Me section of your website, like you really aren't grounded in like, I was born into this situation, and this is how I grew. But it's also those choices that you made and the diverse experiences that you had in your professional career. I think for somebody to understand the financial side of business to the point someone calls them and says, Can you come look at my financials and tell me what's wrong with my business. But on the flip side of that, having been in sales, and understanding how to tell a story, and how to get buy in and all of this, like you have just had this really robust set of experiences that you've drawn from, but all of those experiences have lent you the ability to look at the bigger picture and say, Yeah, this is not working. Yeah, human eyes, this is not good. This is not working. So I think, like, what do you say to somebody who maybe hasn't Lex that into a superpower yet? Because I feel like there are still people out in that second phase that you were in of like having the jobs and thinking the thoughts, but not and again, I know you say like, I had the privilege of taking a step back and sure he assessing or whatever. But like, what do you say to somebody who maybe doesn't have the confidence or the nuance of like, this is my next step? Because I keep seeing this same common theme across different sizes of businesses, different cultures, different industries, like everything, and I want to lean in on this, like, what does that look like? Do you think for people that aren't there yet?

Brittany Fountain: 28:50

I think the biggest advice to anybody is just to stay curious. You know, if you can learn to hold a belief with an open hand, and take in more data, use it as like a hypothesis. Think of it like you're a scientist to say like, I think this is it. And I'm gonna stay curious on this. I'm going to keep digging, I'm going to look for the data. I'm going to have more conversations, I'm going to test this out in the little pocket of influence that I have right here and see if that works. And you can do that with your job. You can do that within your family. You can do it in your friend group, whatever the situation, your childhood

Anna Stumpf: 29:25

trauma, your childhood traumas,

Brittany Fountain: 29:27

I know. Oh, but to be able to hold the belief with an open hand and say I might be wrong. And then move forward with it. I think that is my biggest piece of advice because that's I mean, that's what I did. That's what I still do. You know, I say that so much. I'm like I'm not holding anything with an iron grip. Because we're going to be different tomorrow than we are today. Our business is different tomorrow than it is today. Society so on and so forth. So Far be it for me to say this is an absolute It's like, I think this works, we have a lot of data that shows that it's works. I have lived experience, it says that this works. Let's do it. Um, so and I guess I would probably be the second part of it is actually do it, even if it's in that little pocket of influence that you have is that we have to take action, we have to put the do behind the assumption. If anything's ever gonna change. And I, you know, I see that so much where people think and they have great ideas, or they have insatiable curiosity, and they don't take that next step. And that would, you know, to be able to create safe pockets for people to do that within my own circles of influence, I think, is really important for me to stay mindful of. Because it is scary. Takes a lot of guts

Anna Stumpf: 30:54

will scary anytime. But it's even scarier when the world's messy. Yes, like it is right now. Yes. And we are in a mess. We are. Like, I've just like any which direction you look, you're like, oh,

Brittany Fountain: 31:06

yeah, that's not good.

Anna Stumpf: 31:09

I don't know that. Like I, there's like, I'm not even sure we have a tunnel literally has a light at the end of it. Like, this is our reality, like, this is where we are. And I think that's why what you're doing. And in some ways, it's I think this is again, like why I'm going to need four more episodes with you, because you are coming into this as like a culture piece. And coming into the organization. I'm coming in like, a person at a time. Yeah. Right. So you are and so that's the other question I have, which I'm getting ahead of myself, because I need to know how you got from answering phone calls and looking at people's financials and then taking a deep breath and then deciding like, how I'm going to make this business what I'm going to do, like, let's talk about that first before Yes, I'm a really bad interviewer because I wouldn't like I'm just like, tell me that tell me that. No, I

Brittany Fountain: 31:59

love that. I feel like these are the most authentic conversations, anything that's too linear. I'm like, yeah.

Anna Stumpf: 32:07

Clearly, I'm not reading off of any kind of a script. I'm just like, and then what?

Brittany Fountain: 32:13

Okay, so I ended up randomly talking with another bank. And they were building out a team for themselves. And this was not about what I'm doing. And it was, yeah, would you want to do sales? That's, that was my background. I was a lender at another bank that I worked for. And I was like, No, I'm, you know, I know, I don't want to do lending. And well, would you be our sales manager? And now I don't like that's just not. That's not. What's next. And so what are you doing now, I said, Well, now I'm working with small businesses, a couple of nonprofits. I said, I'm working with them to find better alignment. So making sure that everything they say and do points back to who they say we they are, I said, that's been a big gap that we've been noticing, when it comes to financials and operations, and just overall efficiencies of the company is that that seems to be the common denominator for a lot of people. And what we're noticing with these small businesses and nonprofits, is, when those things are out of alignment, it's causing an undercurrent of mistrust and confusion by both employees and customers. So employees are leaving more quickly, they're becoming disengaged more quickly, their own personal, mental, and physical well being is deteriorating. And that's actually impacting the business because they're taking time off. They are, you know, having to use higher insurances than they've had in the past, so on and so forth. As in from a customer standpoint, we're finding that customers are not feeling encouraged or confident enough to refer another customer to the business, because their experience was so disjointed. So it can be something as simple as an email response to a customer that says we'll get back to you soon. Will soon is not a timeline. And soon to you, the customer might be two business days, soon to the person who sent you the email might be four weeks, you know, because we have not clearly stated what the expectation is. There's a disconnect and experience. And so now the customer is like no, I'm not going to refer somebody to you. That was ridiculous. Well, that's really unfortunate for the business for a lot of reasons. One, from a business standpoint, we talked about, you know, the left side and the right side of my mind that work together. It's on one hand, an existing customer referring somebody else is the lowest cost of funds to gaining new business. That is the lowest cost way to increase your revenue. from a human standpoint, that's your reputation. You know, if people are not willing to speak well of you are not willing to refer to you like the impact of that. Even just momentum loss in turn. like word of mouth and reputation. I mean, that's, that's hard to get back. Um, so I'm telling the bank that this is what I'm doing. And the guy was like, Oh, we, we could really use that. And I'm, I'm thinking, I know, I know what your institution I know you can, I could give you 10 ways to Tuesday that you can use it today.

Anna Stumpf: 35:24

As a matter of fact, I have that typed up for you now.

Brittany Fountain: 35:27

They will send me a write up and I was like, I have a write up. I don't, this isn't like really a thing. I'm just sort of like casually doing this for people. So I did that forced me to do a write up, okay, this is what it looks like. And this is what I see. And this is what I would do. And then we would revisit it, and so on and so forth. And they couldn't figure out a way to make it fit within a role that they had already. And that's classic with, you know, more seasoned companies, that they're not willing to be as creative with roles. And they said, Well, can we contract you? And I was like, Huh, well, yeah. And I thought to myself, I was like, well, if they're gonna contract me, I'm just gonna make an LLC and make it so that anybody could, knowing how long it would take to actually get them up and going as a customer. Because, again, legacy companies like this tend to not move quickly. Oh, yeah. And so

Anna Stumpf: 36:22

thank you, industry. Right? Right, you're like,

Brittany Fountain: 36:26

not much has changed. So, um, I did, I created an LLC, and I, you know, decided to call my company Britt joy, and CO, because my full name is Brittany, Joy fountain. And that's just way too long. And I was like, well, Britain, Joy is a domain that's available. So this is it. And I started building out my website. And I said, I'm gonna put this out there, I'm gonna start creating written content, I love to write.

Anna Stumpf: 36:55

I was gonna ask about that. Have you always been a good storyteller?

Brittany Fountain: 36:58

I know, I still probably wouldn't say that. I'm a great storyteller.

Anna Stumpf: 37:03

But I do, what would you call it communicate? What do you

Brittany Fountain: 37:06

call it, my thought dumps. Like, it is here up in my head, and then it immediately goes through my fingers. If I had to. Thoughtfully like craft a story, like if somebody was like, we need you to write about this, like, if it did not feel something that was like, in on fire for me, I would just be I don't know, I can't, I can't help you. So I love to do a thought dump. And I just started doing that. And so I was like, I'm gonna do this on LinkedIn, I'm just gonna put it out there for 12 months. And if nobody hires me for anything, I think this is a success. Because, again, that belief with open hands of I see this gap that exist, specifically with culture, and I see a solution that's there. And if I never get a client from this spine is a success. So to put it out there and to have my words, you know, be available at large.

Anna Stumpf: 38:10

And what a great exercise for yourself. What was that? It's a good exercise for yourself. Yes, exactly. I'm challenging myself to just stay curious enough to keep talking and keep saying these things and keep

Brittany Fountain: 38:21

researching, keep looking for more information. And within the first month of putting it out there, I had my first client and my first speaking engagement, and I was like, Oh, okay. You, you know, and I'm a middle child. So I will never not be surprised by something like this. When somebody's like, I see you, I hear you. I lighten your load. I'm like, wait, what? We do, this is great.

Anna Stumpf: 38:45

Alright, so this is what I have to ask. Yeah. Did I see on your website that you gave a keynote with a baby strap to you? Oh,

Brittany Fountain: 38:52

absolutely. Absolutely. Okay.

Anna Stumpf: 38:56

Again, I have to say, yeah, just like the bold authenticity that you have, because I saw that and thought, why? Nobody? Nobody does that. And I don't understand why. Because if you are trying to bring into the culture that we bring people to work holistically, and we have, I mean, I know that was not necessary. It's probably more of a necessity than a tactic. But man, and I didn't even question it, right? Because at this point, it's so far down your website, that when I saw that I already had seen your smile. And I had heard all these people's testimonies, and I had heard your story. And when I saw that, I was like, yeah, that math maps right there. Like yeah, exactly

Brittany Fountain: 39:39

what it was. Well, it's so funny, because after that happened, and I'd love to speak I've no problem speaking, but I'm also I'm not pursuing a speaking career. So that's an interesting sort of separation that I have.

Anna Stumpf: 39:54

This does not surprise me because I think you are a master storyteller. Oh, no, sorry. Tama calm thought dump. Right? Right, whatever you need to put on it, put it on, right peanut butter, whatever. To accept it as with your whole middle child miss. Yeah, whatever you lead to label that label it and then lean in. Because yes, what's comfortable and good for you. I'm here for it. But I'm telling you, I have graded a lot of stories in my time as an educator, and you're a storyteller. Thank you. And I would imagine that I could sit in the audience while you're speaking and be like, this girl's a speaker. What is

Brittany Fountain: 40:34

it? So, you know, I've been asked to do things. I'm like, Y'all, I'm not a speaker, but like, I'll do it. And afterwards, the response is overwhelming for the organization. And then also for me, and one of the most surprising things that people said, probably might have been after I gave that with my middle child strapped to me. They were just like, you know, they would come up and talk afterwards. And they said, you want the same person here, as you are there? And God is that isn't that the goal? Which again, a unicorn, you're, well, you're great at this, because you say that you're not a great interviewer. But all this is is like pointing back to say like, that's exactly what I tell organizations is that nobody's telling you to be a certain way. All we need is you to be who you say you are.

Anna Stumpf: 41:20

Well, here's the thing, if you said, I'm an incredible keynote speaker, right? You would not have be like, authentic, humble nature to walk up on that stage and just give it your best and be relatable, right? Because you would be filling a role. You'd have that facade, you'd have that like, look, same thing with a thought dump. If you're like, let me just let all this stuff come out of the into my fingertips. But that's not me telling a story. Because that sounds like a professional. I'm just dumping,

Brittany Fountain: 41:51

right. Like, we're trying to do something.

Anna Stumpf: 41:54

I think we get a little too caught up around here, right? putting labels on me. I'm doing it to you. I'm like, Oh, you're a master storyteller. And you're like, No, I'm a thought number. And leave me to that. Because that's the balloons that works for me not to put too much pressure on myself and let myself shine through. Yeah,

Brittany Fountain: 42:12

yeah. And it's funny you say that about titles, because, you know, going through this process last year of making all of this public and saying like, I think this is it, and like I'm ready to leverage this and take it on. Let's go. As people were like, so what do you call yourself? And I'm like, I don't like what do you call yourself? I don't like what do you mean? And somebody that I met on LinkedIn, she said, you know, you're like a chief humanity officer. And I was like, Oh, God, that makes sense. And so I use I use chief humanity officer, chief culture officer, sort of interchangeably. Because the fact is, some companies have butchered the word culture so bad that you can't, you should never actually say the word it needs to go on hiatus, you know, give it a sabbatical.

Anna Stumpf: 43:00

And we ruined everything. Like, I mean, I've taught personal branding for years. I very rarely ever say that out loud networking up stopped using that like we are. Yeah, like God. Yeah.

Brittany Fountain: 43:14

So, um, I mean, that's where that came in, is people like, what are you? Like? I don't know, does it matter? And yeah, what do you

Anna Stumpf: 43:19

need? Yeah. What's

Brittany Fountain: 43:21

about what's problem, which is, you know, now whenever you look at organizations, and they've rebranded HR as people, and they say, where people in culture, near nearly every HR professional that I've spoken with folks who work for large companies, small companies everywhere in between, they are all saying, we are not culture, like we cannot take that on our plate. And yet, it has been put on our already to full plate. So when it fails, everyone just blames us. And, you know, if it's needs to be reworked, everybody's looking at us. And we actually have we we are not doing anything with this, right. So the rebranding of it all is, man, it's interesting.

Anna Stumpf: 44:14

So are you finding it? Difficult, not the word, but challenging, I guess, out because my assumption, and you and I have not spoken like I'm just going off this. Yeah. From my own experiences is that it's takes a unique leader to reach out and say, We need help, or we need you to take a look at this or something's not working like it almost always. And I've seen this happen time after time. Like with customers, students, everybody what they think the problem is, it's not really the problem. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So I'm guessing that for somebody to get to the point where they say we need somebody to come in and take a look at this is almost always You're big think you're gonna be looking at something else? Or is it like what's been your experience so far this last year? Yeah,

Brittany Fountain: 45:05

for smaller companies? It, there's less red tape, right? There's normally there's less of like a hierarchical ego that's attached to anybody with this. People are normally doing multiple jobs. And they know because they're doing multiple jobs, something's probably falling through the cracks. So smaller companies, there's a an ease into coming in. Why is it

Anna Stumpf: 45:34

to like your leadership team is just organically closer to the customer? And the T? Yes. Because you don't have the layers? Yeah, I think that helps in their perspective, and their emotional intelligence just keeps them grounded. Yeah. So I've been able to,

Brittany Fountain: 45:51

with larger companies, there is almost always an ego that is blocking it. So whether it's someone who thinks that they should, you know, that this is already happening, and it's not, or they think that somebody else should be handling it, HR, and they can't,

Anna Stumpf: 46:13

or we have jeans days, and pizza is great.

Brittany Fountain: 46:18

Or they just don't see how it is an actual business initiative. And that's an interesting place where I'm at right now is that I'm in this place where I'm doing what I'm doing, and is lovely. And like I said, My clients are great. Things are active, there's nothing to complain about. And so I really hesitate in saying anything, you know, that's would sound like I want more than one it is. The other side to that is that the model that I have for this, it is not scalable. So like, I don't have this in place, so that I can sell books so that I can go on a speaking tour, like that is not the intent, the intent is not to scale my business, the intent is to go in, be in the weeds, build out a team, the framework that is sustainable, and maybe in three or four years, lift up and go to another company and help them do the same. So there's, you know, sort of that pool of it right there is that like, none of this is actually going this is not for me to have a multimillion dollar bridge joy and CO like if that happens, I'm probably not doing this work. Right. Right.

Anna Stumpf: 47:30

Are you really leaning in on what your natural talents are?

Brittany Fountain: 47:35

Right? And so now you say, okay, so how do we present this to a company that is at large? Like, who actually has a layered framework? Who has business units that make up the organizational structure of that business? How do you get this to be even a conversation point of what it is? And I think to your point, I mean, it's going to take a really unique leader, I have often joke where I'm like, it's going to be a woman, a woman is going to look at this and say, Yeah, like that right there. Because, you know, traditionally, that is who is responsible for making sure you have family dinner, and family dinner at the table has nothing to do with the fact that we're all eating spaghetti, because I need everybody to eat spaghetti, right? It's because we know the nuanced effect of connections and engagement and loyalty and being able to build out a framework of trust with the people who come to this table. And that's what they're gonna have to take and use that as the same lens to say, Oh, we know that culture is impacting, actually our bottom line, but also innovation, institutional knowledge, and you know how the business is actually going to be able to sustain the weight of what this world is going to continue to put on us, because we're not slowing down anytime soon. No,

Anna Stumpf: 49:04

and here's why I think I love that you think about the scalability or what your limit limitations might be in terms of what you have to do. But I think you have to, you know, again, the rearview mirror is a beautiful place sometimes, right? Like, every little stop, you made a real rest stop every little exit, you took every little thing that you've done back there has prepared you for this. Yeah. But I think doing what you're doing, and then looking really far ahead right in the distance. When you think about Gen Z is about to replace the boomers as the largest contingent of our workforce, and when you think about what their journey has been and how much more emotionally intelligent, but less experienced they are and how accepting they are of diversity in technology and things that have been historically been a struggle. And then you think about how often we're gonna have to rescale people. Yeah, like when I think about what's coming, yeah, just based off, like, I read some World Economic Forum things, I watched the news parts and parts and pieces of the news. And I think where we're headed, you're ready. You're ready for that? Right? Like you're currently working on a framework and that like curiosity? Yeah. To be ready. When this hits, like, I think it's, I think so. So, future forward. Yeah. Because I mean, just the shift if we if you take a lot of the outside noise away, and just look at what is going to happen inside these organizations, and this shift, which is having coffee with somebody this morning, and I said, she's like, Why are all of these corporations? Like, why is corporate America so toxic right now, because we were talking about people, you know, monitoring bad scans and mouse activity and like forcing everybody back into the office, and just like the IQ of it all. And you have to remember, like, corporate America created middle management, because we had to have a place to put all the boomers. And now you've got the the shift is happening. And we haven't it's the control piece. And like some of those things that people are, as humans holding on to and organizations holding on to. And I sit is going to have to get Messier before we like, Oh, absolutely. But yeah, I think there's your scale. Exactly. Like, which I think you've done. I mean, I'm literally shook that you've only been at this, like less than two years. But I think you really like figure out your niche, and like, what are your ability to go in? And really help? Because it's coming your opportunities coming?

Brittany Fountain: 51:50

Yeah, no, I mean, I believe that too. So and, you know, you think about in reading things about AI, right? So AI is gonna take over jobs, every single report now says, right, and maybe it didn't say this six months ago, but everything is now saying AI cannot replace human skills. And those are skills that need to be taught and re taught and modeled and mirrored and, you know, really taken a pulse of what it looks like today versus tomorrow versus six months from now, you know, this is these are skills, you know, and that's very specific to culture, right? If you cannot make a plan and walk away from it, like it doesn't work is same way you can't hug your child once and say, I don't understand you didn't know that I loved you. I gave you a hug when you were three years old. Like, I hadn't work that way.

Anna Stumpf: 52:51

I think like just the the skilling thing you mentioned, right? The hand skills, because we are going to have, like a lesser population, like we've known, this was not relations declining. We are more globalized, obviously. And then more automation. World Economic Forum says like by 2030, we're gonna have to globally rescale a billion people. Wow, wow, who's going to do that? Right? Not school is not higher ed, that's right, is gonna have to be the organization. And let me tell you, you know, as well as I do training and developing in these organizations, not training that development, didn't call it learning that call whatever they want to write is not necessarily effective. For individuals. I mean, there's just a lot we are about to go through. We've been we are in a lot. We've been through a lot we bout to go through more. Yes,

Brittany Fountain: 53:41

No, I totally agree. And, you know, to be able to look at this stuff, make real time decisions with the long term vision in mind. Like that is the goal for everything. And if we're not able to do that with a framework and with you know, I talked about how this is this type of work is not just about how it feels good, you know, like, you're just responsible for making everybody happy. I'm like, No, not that I could give a rip about somebody's happiness. But there is an actual weight and responsibility that comes from keeping our language and our process and an alignment. Right

Anna Stumpf: 54:19

that alignment. I think what you mentioned earlier is the the giant paradox of business yes. Is the customer experience and the employee experience because that's what you can't have people first and excellent customer service. Because those things it's like the scales of justice right? It's so funny to me because like when do those things ever really balance? You just keep hoping they flip flop enough that everybody's either carsick. Right, or, or beers out every once in a while they're gonna tip in my in my favor.

Brittany Fountain: 54:51

Yeah. And, you know, I have conversations with leaders when they you know, talking about ideas or talking about challenges in their business and I you know, we've got about Come forth with what it looks like and what I think and have we tried, and so on and so forth. And most of the solutions, most of the suggestions are very simple. And they're, you know, maybe categorically old school. And what I say is, let's look, this, this work is less about transforming into something else, it's about coming back to who we are, you know, we're, we're not trying to become something that requires all of us to make this massive transformation. Like we are guiding, we are the bumper car, we're not the bulldozer, we are here. And we're just coming back to who we are, like, actually how we're wired to be. And, you know, you can say that, from a science standpoint, you can say that, from a sociology standpoint, you can say that, from a faith standpoint, you can say that, from an anthro. Anthropology standpoint, you can say from anything, it's just like, the fact is, is that we respond to things in certain ways, because we are human. Yeah. And if we're not making those real time decisions with long term visions, you know, that's giving your kid an iPad. You know, that might solve the moment, but that does not solve the long term, you know, so you let somebody have remote work. That solves the moment it doesn't solve the long e tells me to come into the office. Proximity is not a plan, people who are telling people to come back in the office, and they have no plan for actual connection and how the business works well, with people in there. Like that's not a plan. So what are we doing in preparation for tomorrow, and also 510 years from now?

Anna Stumpf: 56:51

Well, I think going back to your brilliant analogy of this roller coaster, right, if your job should be to smooth that track. That's right. And it's great if you're the visionary leader in your in the front car, because you can see oh, yeah, we got plenty of track. When we go down, we're gonna go back up. That's, but if you're 15 cars back, yes, you're just along for the ride the whiplash and the the, you know, that whole cart, that sickness thing that like feeling that in the pit of your stomach all the time, that's not sustainable.

Brittany Fountain: 57:21

No, not at all. And a lot of it, I mean, stuff like that, you know, people say, like trust and transparency, and they kind of leave it there. I think that's a big mistake. Just with a lot of things that businesses say is like, I'm not mad that you say trust and transparency is a pillar of your organization. I do think that's an incomplete sentence. So I do think that we need to finish it out, okay. And trust and transparency to us looks like this. And we expect that and reciprocation from you. And it would look like that, you know, to be able to give clear language and a fullness of an explanation allows for you to then say, oh, okay, I see this. I imagine what it looks like from 15 seats back in the back car of the roller coaster, I need to be able to use clear language, so that we are all ready for what's to come in the appropriate way. Well,

Anna Stumpf: 58:16

I think the last time that leader was back cars, it was a different world. Yes. Different everything. Right. Yeah, I think that's the real struggle. And I think the other thing I love about what you're doing in like, my lens, is, individually, we have all perfected our packaging, right? Like we've perfected our persona, our facade, like we, you know, from picking the right school to get the right to get and like, Oh, that's right, like, what's it doesn't look good. And then I think those people become leaders. And now we're doing that with an organization. We're trying to be everything to everybody. We don't like we like a lot of gray area in that, you know, careers page or that About Us page. Because, you know, like, we don't want to come out and say, Oh, this is it. This is who we are. Because we're right. Those people. Like we are just magnifying some of our humaneness. Right. Yeah. Putting that on to those organizations. So it's interesting, a lot of emotional intelligence opportunity there. I

Brittany Fountain: 59:24

look everywhere, right? I think too. I mean, some people are, are worried. I think they worry too much about what what would it mean, if I put it out there? Like what would it mean if we actually said what we meant? And I'm like, I, I really do think you would probably have some pushback. I think you would have a lot more buy in than you would push back. And if it's that controversial, we should maybe take a step back and think about why we think this way to begin with, right? Because the chances are that whatever you think Think whatever you're feeling whatever you're, you know, the values that you hope to have for your organization. They're probably not as controversial as maybe what you think somebody would read them as, right. And I think that's a risk that people need to be willing to take. And as an employee, I mean, to be able to have that sort of opportunity to have healthy discourse, I don't have to agree with everything that you do. You know, I just need to know where you stand. And that way I can make the decision for myself, from a clear, like a clarity standpoint, like, nobody's asking you to, like join the cult, you know, we're not drinking Kool Aid anymore, y'all like, that's gone. But at the same time, you know, to be able to make that decision and say, Look, I love this company. I love my work. I love what I do. I don't agree with them on everything. And that's fine. And they know, I don't agree with them when everything and that's fine agreement

Anna Stumpf: 1:00:57

and trust and confidence are. Yeah, they're not. They're different levels. Because yes, I cannot agree with you. But I can also trust you, as a leader trust you as the visionary and say, like, I don't see the picture yet, but I'm gonna trust that you got a good clear eye on it. So that's great. Yeah, yeah, that's definitely over time. And I would imagine that a lot of what you do is talking to the employee, because they seem to be the ones I mean, the frontline thing is like, kind of a cliche anymore, right? But they're, they talk to the customer, they're in the business, they're doing these tasks. And they're the ones who, if we're calling it a reward, if we're calling it a celebration, if we're calling this employee, you know, engagement or whatever it is, shouldn't we ask the employee? Yes,

Brittany Fountain: 1:01:45

yes. I mean, there's certainly there's not a blueprint for this work at all right? So everything is nuanced, because every company is different industries are different markets are different employees, customers, so on and so forth. So when people say, Well, what do you do, I'm like, This is not a five week program, where I give you a solution. And it's done. I was like, everything is different, its nuances specialize it's, you know, customed, to who you are, because your problem will not be the exact to someone else's, even if it's super close. But one thing that is consistent is we talk. So the first thing we do is talk, I want to hear from you. What is it that you think the problems are? And what do you think the really big wins of your organization are? And where do you hope that this will go? Okay, great. So now I'm going to talk to the customers. And now I'm going to talk to the employees. And now I'm going to sit in on a meeting and I want to watch the nuances of your body language, and how efficiently this is running, not in a way to be where it's, you know, productivity is king. But what could be said or done or, you know, mirrored in a body language that is actually damaging to people in that room that is actually not moving things forward in the way that you think it is. And we all have blind spots. So I think to be able to go in and say like we're going to talk, and we're going to talk because we need to figure out what is and what isn't and where the blind spots exist, sort of allows for everyone to put their guard down, because it's like nobody here is perfect. Nobody is seeing everything in its fullness at any given time. Like we're all going to have to have a place where we can have somebody step in and say, Have we considered

Anna Stumpf: 1:03:30

right? How do you manage the ambiguity for yourself and for your client? Because that is not what business world thrives in right now to see your like, lack of certainty. You love it. Let me let me see your calendar. Let me see plan. Let into your point. Let me see your five week, you know, what's our agenda? Like? What does that look like? Because historically, when they've had a consultant come in, that's what that looks like. Right? And I have always laughed, because I'm like, You do realize these consultants have like templates for your, I mean, they just pull the template. And so you're getting like a cookie cutter, the customization. So when you are approaching this from a really truly customized and curious, that's, again, something we all always have the luxury to do in the time is money world, right? How do you manage that? And then for yourself to make sure that you're not getting, you know, over extended in terms of your commitment to a client?

Brittany Fountain: 1:04:30

Yeah, so I think the most important thing to do is when you go in and you're curious, and you have like these, you know, are we is this actually the problem? Are we trying to figure out where the problem is, once we've named where we think the you know, the target is, you know, so whether it's engagement, whether it is client retention, whether it is you know, innovation or loss of institutional knowledge, whatever like the the metric is that we choose, we want to define because we can define anything. So, there metrics for everything. If you want to talk about people moving the mouse, right, like we can measure that, once we determine what it is, we have to find the baseline for that company. Most companies do not have the baselines of what they're actually measuring for themselves. And because they do not have that data that shows exactly where they stand today, there is no way to measure where they go tomorrow. So that is the very first thing is it? Where does it stand? Now we can pull, you know, stats or data from any number of organizations and show what national or global benchmarks look like for certain criteria. But that does not mean anything if we haven't actually identified it for the organization in which we stand. So that is a way to that really allows for us to take that ambiguity, which is healthy, right? So you need to be able to navigate that space, but also to say, and here's where we are. And here's how we're going to measure and this is how we're going to hold the employees accountable. And so that they can then hold us accountable. Because this is a two way relationship and be able to determine from there, you know, okay, great. So maybe we've gotten engagement to a place that feels sustainable for at least a moment. Okay, so maybe we can shift our focus here. And maybe we'll start going after employee churn. Okay, so now we can really get a baseline for what the churn looks like. And we can start digging into different variables that allow for us to see, you know, what is true churn? What is the actual cost that's come from this, you know, what is the cost in terms of dollars, and in terms of time. So, again, sort of both sides of the brain is that very focused on the human aspect of it, and what it does and how it drives people from an actual ethos standpoint. But also, this is data informed, you know, this is this is a business, and it's the two of those together that make this process actually work. Because if we're only looking at the data, we've missed it from the human side. And if we're only looking at the humans, then we've missed it from the dollar side. So the only way it works is if it's a yes, and it's human and data. And we'll never fully eliminate the ambiguity, but at least we'll be able to have enough certainty of what we're doing so that we can move forward, or just

Anna Stumpf: 1:07:29

more clarity to say who you are. Yeah. Because again, it's like my, I've just worked with somebody who said, um, put, like the old cassette jar, instead of putting a coin in when you use profanity, I'm putting the word manage expectations jar. Yeah, yes. Too many times a day, manage expectations. And when people started to say, I'm like, put $1 my job and my manager expectations jar. But that's right. It is so true, that we have to get that part, right. Yeah, in order for everyone to know what their experiences gonna be. Well, in

Brittany Fountain: 1:08:02

the logic of it, and again, maybe this goes back to like, what was your past experience? I years and years ago, there was a job that I was asked to look at. And I was like, this is really interesting. And I started asking questions, you know, how will we measure success on this? Well, we're not really sure. Like, okay, what is the five year plan for this? Well, we're not really sure. Okay, so so on and so forth. The questions went like this, and I understand that there's like a certain, you know, level of uncertainty when you're, you know, building the plane as you fly it, and I am fine with that. But what I said was, I cannot interview for a job, nor can someone interview me for a job that does not fully exist. So I'm happy to work with you so that we can figure out the metrics that we're aiming for and what we hope this role will look like. But if we cannot define success, then we shouldn't be moving forward with the hire, period, whether it's me or someone else. And so to be able to have like that sort of self awareness in something that you perhaps could have moved my career forward in that capacity. And apply that to where I am now to say like, it doesn't matter if you bring me on as your chief culture officer, if we have not set the baseline for where this is and determined where we want to be. It's not going to work. It's not going to work. I don't care about the title. I don't care about having your logo on my website. Like that does not matter to me, because we're not actually doing the work that's going to impact the business and the people.

Anna Stumpf: 1:09:39

I call that the best. Yes, yeah, right. Yes. Every time you say yes to something, you have to say no to a bunch of things. So how, if you could articulate for yourself whether it's personally professionally, historically over time, with a client with an opportunity to speak whatever it is, how do you know you're giving your best yes

Brittany Fountain: 1:10:00

No, I am I'm very intuitive. And I've learned that, you know, I grew up in a sort of household and probably maybe even a time period where intuition was a little woowoo. And nobody talked about it. But I do think that there's a way to learn to trust your inner knowing. And again, because I do hold most things with an open hand, be able to be willing to take on new information for it. But I really do I trust my intuition to say this doesn't feel good. Why does this not feel good? Or this feels great. This actually makes me feel like I'm coming alive. And I'm making a difference. And why is that? How do I actually see that happening? So my intuition plays a huge role into that. And I do real

Anna Stumpf: 1:10:47

shock with that, though, because, again, the self awareness piece, and the fact that you are in a growth mindset on a consistent basis. Yeah. And there's not You're not really ever dealing with scarcity. Yeah, he's you have been there. You're like, I got out of that once. Right? I know what that looks like, there's an exit, I'll be fine. Like, that allows you to listen to your gut.

Brittany Fountain: 1:11:09

And I think being able to be comfortable with that allows me to say that I say that openly to leaders, you know, if something comes up, that doesn't feel good, I'm not quite sure why let's talk about it. And maybe like the words will actually come to me. But in this moment, that doesn't feel good. So I either need more information to know why my feeling was wrong. Or we need more information so that we can determine why I had that feeling to begin with. And, yeah, so I mean, intuition, I think it can be a really powerful tool, because it's not just like, you know, fireflies that are swarming around you it's like these are normally your intuition is a result of lived experiences. And information that you know, from other sources, so it's like to be able to process that in real time, has really been a superpower of mine. And that's how I come to like my big yes. Is Emma's temple.

Anna Stumpf: 1:12:07

Yeah. And it goes back to trust, because you have to trust yourself. Right? You have to trust that you can listen, when you're, I always say gut, but your intuition is telling you or pushing you in a direction. And I think that's so important. And such a lack of that sometimes. Sure. And again, in tight, you know, I'm using my hand quotes in time such as these.

Brittany Fountain: 1:12:31

Yes. Look, I mean, let's be real clear, like, I have not always gotten it right. Oh, no. And so also to be able to go back and say, like, Man, I felt that like, Why did I put Why did I push it? And to be able to analyze that to say, I didn't listen to it because of this? Don't do that again.

Anna Stumpf: 1:12:51

Yeah. And I think that's why one, you know, 18 years in education, I think the one thing that I still get frustrated, we don't teach well, is reflective thinking, Yes, we really do not. And we are not creating enough of that, where I reflect after the fog, what did I learn from this? And then like, what can I what, what will I do next time or, you know, just whatever that is, like, we're not the real key learnings of things aren't happening. And I think that's the lack of ability to do that keeps us from taking risks sometimes.

Brittany Fountain: 1:13:23

Yeah, and like in large group settings, I mean, I've found that the easiest thing I can do to force that, you know, to practice that as a discipline with myself is be the last one to speak, let the room let the room, flush it out, let them go through all of the iterations of what they're thinking, be the last to speak. And that has really been able to be like a great discipline for me to be able to harness that and use it. Yeah, looking back at college, you know, one of my favorite classes that was actually totally random, but it was called logic and reason. And so two people would sit at the class and the front of the class and they would kind of have a debate. So they would give conflicting sides of the same, you know, topic, but you couldn't use emotional warfare. You could only use logic and reason. And you as like, if you weren't one of the two up front as the class, you had to then write a summary or like, sort of your your conclusion. Yeah, at the end of it, I'm like, man, and at the time, I felt like this is the strangest class I've ever had, like, Why did I sign up for this? And the amount of times that I've like looked back and reference that is like, Man, that was, that should be required. Yeah. And I don't know, this was so fun. I'm always, you know, I feel like I always tell people, I'm like, I'm an open book, right? So no, I get that website, social media podcast, you know, like it's all there.

Anna Stumpf: 1:15:10

It's the conclusion of another great episode. And you know what that means we believe in the power of practical wisdom. That's why at the end of every episode, we propose the collective challenge. This is a small, actionable step for you to integrate these lessons learned into your daily life. There were just so many great things in this episode with Brittany. But if I had to give you just one challenge, which that's the point of this. This week, let's make a conscious effort to cultivate more curiosity in your daily life. Each day, identify one situation where you can pause and ask deeper questions, whether it's about your own thoughts, ideas and actions or those of others. Embrace the opportunity to lean in and learn more. Notice how this curiosity impacts your interactions, decisions and your overall perspective. At the end of the week, reflect on your experiences and consider how you can continue to integrate curiosity into your personal and professional life. And make sure you share your insights with others encourage them to join you in this curiosity challenge, I think we'll all be better because of it. Thank you for joining us on this episode of collective energy conversations. Today's stories and insights are just the beginning of our collective exploration into the vast landscape of personal and professional development. If today's conversation inspired you please share this episode with your friends, family or colleagues who also might find value in our collective wisdom. Your sharing helps us grow and expand. We'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences. Connect with us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, at threads at collective energy coach, and check out our website at WWW dot collective energy coach.com and become part of the collective. Until next time, keep growing, keep connecting and keep sharing your story because every voice matters in the journey of growth. I'm Dr. Anna Stumpf, and this has been collective energy conversations where we elevate growth through shared stories.