Sr. VP of Brand Strategy, Restauranteur & Nonprofit Founder, with Soon Hagerty

Soon Hagerty is the epitome of showing how your transferable skills can help you have a cool job in completely different industries: She's the Sr. VP of Brand Strategy, a restauranteur, and a nonprofit founder.

As the Sr. Vice President (VP) of Brand Strategy at a specialty vehicle insurance company (that focuses on classic cars), Soon Hagerty has created a car culture, a community, and meaningful connections between owners/enthusiasts that propelled the company forward as a leader in their niche.

She helped transform Hagerty from a local specialty insurance company to a global, publicly-traded lifestyle brand for car lovers that joined the New York Stock Exchange in 2021 with a value of more than $3 billion.

She is the founder and co-owner of The Good Bowl, a mission-based Vietnamese restaurant in Traverse City, Michigan, that donates $1 per bowl to charity.

She's also the cofounder of the newly-launched Boundless Futures Foundation, a foundation dedicated to providing financial and leadership resources to aspiring female entrepreneurs who are building businesses that either address today’s biggest social issues or have an impact element embedded in their business model. The Foundation also supports mission-aligned nonprofits throughout the US. The foundation just awarded its inaugural grants in January 2024 that totaled $120,000.

Contact Info:

Soon Hagerty - Guest
Soon's LinkedIn account
Boundless Futures Foundation

Julie Berman - Host
www.womenwithcooljobs.com
Julie Berman's LinkedIn Profile
@womencooljobs (Instagram)

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Transcript

Soon Hagerty: 0:00

My particular role and brand strategy is to oversee the creative and the events basically, how do people interact with us? And how do we make it fun to interact with the car world? So I'm just from a tactical standpoint. I oversee our with our team, our commercials, our advertising, overseas messaging on the website, what are our taglines? When you go to an event? We don't just put up a booth and have a bunch of insurance brochures we actually never do that. When I think about a great engagement through Haggerty, I always talk to my team and say create memories, not brochures, you'll never have a desk or a table with a bunch of insurance brochures between me and the customer. It's always one on one. We almost always have a car in our booth when we have the space because people want to talk about cars.

Julie- Host: 0:54

Hey, everybody, I'm Julie and welcome to Women with cool jobs. Each episode will feature women with unique trailblazing and innovative careers. We'll talk about how she got here, what life is like now, and actionable steps that you can take to go on a similar path or one that's all your own. This podcast is about empowering you. It's about empowering you to dream big and to be inspired. You'll hear from incredible women in a wide variety of fields, and hopefully some that you've never heard of before. Women who build robots and roadways, firefighters, C suite professionals surrounded by men, social media mavens, entrepreneurs, and more. I'm so glad we get to go on this journey together. Hello, everybody. This is Julie Berman, and welcome to another episode of women with cool jobs. So today I have here with Suen Haggerty, she is a Senior Vice President of brand strategy of a specialty vehicle insurance company. So these aren't like your everyday cars. These are the cool classic cars that are expensive come in cool colors, the ones that you see at events, and you're like, oh, I want to I want to look under the hood if you're a car person or I want to look inside and see what gizmos and gadgets are included in this really cool car. So she played a huge role in transforming Haggerty from like a local small family business into a global publicly traded lifestyle brand for car lovers. That is on the New York Stock Exchange. It was valued at more than $3 billion in 2021. And she did this right her and her team did this by creating these elements around this insurance company. Right and insurance. If you think of insurance, we don't usually get super excited and want to chat about our car insurance. We don't have like conversations about these with our friends all the time. So she created this experience. And this idea of camaraderie and connection. And she helped build that by doing brand marketing, and brand strategy. And it's all about people coming together at these different events. And really just like talking about being in love with their cars, and loving the whole experience of owning these cool cars. And I think this is really fascinating to think about how she's using communication and storytelling to not only help her brand, but like she's helping people come together around something that they really love and enjoy. Like she's pulling these elements that are essential to building a brand and helping to sustain a brand as a leader. So this is a fascinating conversation for me because I really love communications. I really love the idea of storytelling and like how people use it. So that's her first cool job. Another cool job that she has is the founder and owner, co owner of the good bowl mission based Vietnamese restaurant in Traverse City, Michigan that donates $1 per bowl to charity. We talk about what that was like to become a restaurant owner why she felt so driven to become a restaurant owner, and also what the timing was like to start a restaurant business right before the pandemic. And so we talked about what that was like and some of the tough decisions that she had to make and in you know the lessons she was learning. She also is the founder of newly launched boundless futures Foundation, which is a foundation dedicated to providing financial and leadership resources to aspiring female entrepreneurs dedicated to doing good and the incredible thing is not only do you get this money through grant funding, where you don't have to pay it back. You don't have to pay interest you aren't beholden to people who are worried about what you are Doing right like investors, you get to use the money in a way that you see fit. You don't have to pay it back. Also you get access to mentors and other resources that you would never have access to, to help you grow and build an exponentially faster and healthier way to have more success. So I really was so amazed by all the different things that she was doing when I was doing research. About soon I was like, Oh, my gosh, these are all so different. But it also goes to show that so many skills that we have these transferable skills we can use in different areas, and they will help us out in completely different areas. So if you are someone who is either fresh out of, you know, high school or undergrad, and you're thinking about like, what do I want to be when I grow up? Or you're someone like me who's in midlife, you know, who's like, had 20 years of, like, experience after, after getting out of high school, and you're like, What do I want to be when I when I grow up? Am I interested in changing, and you know, because whether it's from burnout, or you just want, you just want to do something new, because you're curious about something else. Like, you can take the skills that you have, that you've developed from before. And you can totally use those in other areas. And it's such a beautiful thing when we see examples of this in real life and student is such an incredible example. So I hope you enjoy this episode with me and soon, please, if you know someone who this is going to inspire if it's going to intrigue them and be like, Ooh, what is this brand marketing? I did not know about this. Please make sure you share it with them, send it to them in a text or email right after you listen, it would mean so much because that's how we show what women are doing all the possibilities that exist for cool jobs. And thank you so much for being here. Enjoy this conversation with me and soon. Hello everybody. This is women with cool jobs. And I am so excited to introduce you to soon. Haggerty, thank you for being here soon.

Soon Hagerty: 7:05

Thank you, Julie. I'm so happy to spend some time with you today.

Julie- Host: 7:09

So you have a plethora of very cool jobs, you and very diverse things that you have done. And so I think we're going to touch on all three of them a little bit today. And talk about like the the nuances and the details of each one. So I would love for for you to explain like your nonprofit founder of a really cool organization that's new called boundless futures foundation. You also are the Senior Vice President of Haggerty and you do brand strategy of for this company. And they focus on like a very cool niche, which is classic cars, all sorts of interesting vehicles that you don't drive every day. And then you also have a mission driven Vietnamese restaurant in Traverse City, Michigan called the good bowl. So normally when I asked this question I asked I started out with like, how do you describe your cool job? But do you want to talk about one or all of them and kind of just give us like a basic overview of what you do. And again, you can choose if you want to go into just a sneak peek of all three or just one we can we can chat about the beginning.

Soon Hagerty: 8:17

Yeah, I mean, I think I can do a quick drive by which is was perfect for the first one I want to talk about which is a role that I've been in for about 20 years at Haggerty so I'm in charge of our brand strategy. So Haggerty is a lifestyle automotive brand for car enthusiast. So like exactly what you said, it's not the car you drive every day. It's your passionate vehicle. So I oversee all of our creative our brand strategy, our events, I make sure that we tap into what car people really love, which is the joy of driving. So we created this purpose to save driving and fuel car culture for future generations. The majority of our business is built through insurance, but nobody ever wants to talk about insurance, I can tell you about that. So you know we spend a lot of time just thinking about cool campaigns. So car lovers can gather and enjoy each other and get to know each other and their vehicles. So that's been a really fun part of my life about 20 years of my life. And it's something that I think even if you're not a car guy or car girl, you can really appreciate what cars mean to people, right? So it's, you know, when you're a prom, you drive up in a cool car or the first time you take your child's home from the hospital you always remember that moment. So I think there's this huge connection with people in cars. Yeah,

Julie- Host: 9:36

I love that. And I think I definitely want to touch a little bit on what it means to be in brand strategy. I think that's something that's really interesting. And I'm fascinated by it personally because I started out like wait a long time ago and PR like communications world and so I just have this personal like vested interested and I think it's very interesting and now you know, we even hear people talking about like a personal brand and feel then your personal brand. And you just hear that. And so I'm so curious how, like that journey of joining this company and you guys have it in such, like such a big place now where you took it public, and you've got all these events. So it's really kind of fascinating how you guys went about building it and like what you've now created. And also I think, like, even not as, I'm not necessarily a car person, like, when I was growing up, I wanted a Camry, right, like I was not, I didn't have these big aspirations, I just wanted something like really reliable. And, and then, but I but you know, it's like we I think we do like we have these certain memories tied to cars, or like we can appreciate them even when other people are driving them. And look at how cool and unique and just like all the special features of them and get excited. So I love that. I want to also touch on, if you can explain also, what is the boundless futures foundation? If you can just kind of briefly explain that as well.

Soon Hagerty: 11:00

Yeah, I think I'll start with the brand strategy, I think, especially if you have a product that can be a commodity like insurance, right? So you have two things. Nobody really wants to talk about insurance. Because when you think about insurance, it's either you think about insurance when you have to buy it, which is probably a super fun, it's not the same as buying an awesome pair of shoes. So you have to but you buy insurance, or you generally deal with an insurance company when you have a claim. So neither of those inherently are super fun experiences. So we've figured out okay, if we built this really cool brand that we tap into people's passion, it will make us a more successful business. And honestly, it just makes working more fun. Right. And so that's, that's what we really tapped into. My particular role and brand strategy is to oversee the creative and the events, basically, how do people interact with us? And how do we make it fun to interact with the car world? So I'm just from a tactical standpoint, I oversee our with our team, our commercials, our advertising, overseas messaging on the website, what are taglines, when you go to an event, we don't just put up a booth and have a bunch of insurance brochures, we actually never do that. When I think about a great engagement through Haggerty, I always talk to my team and say create memories, not brochures, you'll never have a desk or a table with a bunch of inch insurance brochures between me and the customer. It's always one on one, we almost always have a car in our booth when we have the space because people want to talk about cars. So I really try to push our team tap into why they came to and how to Haggerty and it's not because they want to buy insurance, they do buy it from us for the leader, but they buy from us because they know we get it we they know that with us that will help support the hobby. We'll talk about your cars after after we help you and support you on on your basic needs. But I don't know I think brand strategy is the emotional side of the business. I love

Julie- Host: 13:04

that explanation. The emotional side of a business that is super powerful. And you know, it's interesting that we're having this conversation now I just started it and I know it's a super famous book, but I just started reading or listening to Simon cynics book. But it's yeah, it's all about the why. And I love that actually, I just listened to that, like two days ago. And then we're having this conversation. Like, I think that's so powerful, because you're connecting with people and not only like listening to their stories and hearing about like, why do they love doing you know, like, why do they love being in this area? This like, sort of niche of like these cool cars? And what how does it make them feel and like connect with other people? So what a cool thing in the fact that you don't actually have the brochures and the paperwork? i That's yeah, I mean, that says a lot to

Soon Hagerty: 13:53

ya know. And there's another book called Drive and it's by Daniel Pink. And it's this brilliant idea that I talked to my team a lot about, which is the whole idea is like everybody wants to to buy but nobody wants to be sold to. Right. And so that's what I think about when we create our products like don't sell them, like communicate why they should love it. Right? And that's the why it's like, why does this matter to me, it's, you know, there's so much research out there that we buy with our emotions we buy with our eyes, we buy with our hearts, we don't, we don't buy with our brains. You think about something so basic as you go to a grocery store. Why do you buy tide versus a generic brand? Because there's this trust built in TIDE, right? They built this brand. And one of my favorite products and brands I think a lot of people love them is apple. And what they do really well is when you get your iPhone, their packaging is like your opening a treasure, the way it's perfectly theirs and their brand is built on something special. That doesn't take a lot of explanation. There's no instructions to an iPhone, it should just be user friendly. So it's like when you open up an iPhone case or a laptop, you're opening a treasure, just the way that they have it package. So I think the greatest brands get the why. And they they make you feel for their product.

Julie- Host: 15:16

Yeah, I love that. And for you, I mean, like going back now, and talking a little bit about sort of your, your history and like how you got into this this field or these fields truly, how did you get into marketing, and kind of like taking this this small company and like, You've great expanding it and but doing so in really creative ways. But then you also have all these other neat things that you're doing as well. So can you like go back a little bit and you give us that that insight into who you were as a younger person?

Soon Hagerty: 15:52

Well, my background is, yeah, really, it's really unique to the everyday American story. Because I was actually an immigrant from Vietnam. I was a refugee. I was born in 1974. But actually 1975, and the Vietnam War ended at the end of 74. So I was pretty young. My dad fought for the American side. So the south. And when communism took over Vietnam, our family was asked to join at re education camp. And you know, that means there's no education happening there. So my parents knew right away that we were we could not live a successful life or even probably a fair life in Vietnam. So we emigrated to the United States when I was about five. So just, you know, starting over, we came with seven kids, six and a half kids. And my brother was born a couple of months after we got here with 300 bucks in our pocket, I just learned so much about entrepreneurism, I learned so much about curiosity. I just have always had this like learning brain because my parents who had a decent successful middle class life in Vietnam had to start over literally 300 bucks in their pocket. So I think so much of who I am really came down to how I came United States, and it took me probably, you know, not till my 30s, when I started telling this story, if you were to know me in high school, and probably in college, you would have never heard this story. Because I don't know if it was I didn't realize the impact, or I was embarrassed, I didn't want to talk about it. It was almost one of those things where it was such a huge impact that I almost like, buried it because it's embarrassing when you are Vietnamese. And you go to primarily white school and community and you have a different last name, first name. So it's all these like, really different things. So I think just this huge move to United States shaped who I am a ton of curiosity for a different culture and different way of life. So I think Curiosity made me really be interested in brand strategy. How do people think, how do I create something it's like, it's all about to me brand strategy. And marketing is about creating and morphing something in somebody else's eyes.

Julie- Host: 18:13

That's really interesting. And I'm thinking like, just you were the age you were to, you know, around that like, five year old six year old age, which I have a son now my middle is, is right at the age like between five and six. And it's like, they're just, they asked the best questions too, right. Like, that's your natural inclination at that age is Oh, my gosh, I have so many things that I'm I'm wondering and like curious about, and you're like, they're also so vibrant, and like creative and they try different things. Right. And so it's such a impressionable age to be so inquisitive. Right. Yeah. So I think that's so interesting, too, that you kind of taken that, and especially at that time of life to emigrate, and then also, to, like, be looking back and be like, Oh, maybe this is how I'm connecting the dots later. And why is really, really interesting. And, and also, I think, probably, because you didn't tell me if I'm wrong, for sure. But just like hearing you talk about that, like the fact that you did come in at that age, you were old enough to also understand things at a certain level, yeah, into into observe because kids are so observant at that age, too. They're just like taking in all the things around them. And then to be able to translate that into this career that you now have and that have been like so successfully doing it and creating like a whole new, like experience for people surrounding that like an insurance company, which is typically not like the most exciting thing that we think about. I agree with you that that like transforming it into actually something that people are participating in and experience and like what are the feelings and thoughts and associations that you want people to have around that? I think that's so cool. And so Powerful and I'm sure that's why you guys have been so incredibly successful in your niche. Did you have a degree it related to marketing? Or like what? What was your education around around marketing and things like that?

Soon Hagerty: 20:13

Oh, that's a great question. When I went to Fresno State University in Fresno, which is central California, I always had that curiosity. And so I thought for a while I wanted, I wanted to do two things. I either wanted to be in communications, because, you know, you're asking questions, you're building things, you're promoting things or wanting to actually be an attorney. So I took the LSAT, so I, uh, my senior year in college, I majored in psychology. I was taking a lot of courses in criminology what I didn't want to be in law. I wasn't sure I was also, I think there's a curiosity in law too. So I but then I entered I was my law class, and one of my psychology classes were literally across campus from each other. So take me like 15 minutes to hike it across campus at Fresno State. And I remember my Law Professor Ed hunt at the time, who was the DA of Fresno and the county of Fresno. It's like, you know, Mr. Winn, since you're late every day, why don't you come sit right up front with me for the rest of the semester. And it's like a rush. But it was the greatest thing because I got to know him. And he asked me to intern at the district attorney's office. So I did that for six months, and I truly got a good grasp what law could be okay, even though I still find it very fascinating, and my husband says I would have been a good lawyer. So I'd love to argue and debate and think I'm always right. But I realized it was a lot of research, a lot of behind the books, I just, I think I wanted to just be out front a little bit more and learning and talking to people. So I took a internship at a local hockey team and I did 35 hockey games in one season, charge of marketing and promotions at halftime working with the players in my local hometown to have them go to schools and read books for kids. So that was my first taste of communications and marketing. I loved it. So I moved from Fresno to LA, thinking that I was going to work for the Lakers. Worst idea ever. Because the guy that worked for the Lakers as head of PR was there for I think he still might be for like 20 years. And the only way that unless unseat him is they said either who retire or he drops dead. I'm like, neither of those want to happen. So I started working at a PR firm in the automotive industry. And because I really enjoyed the experience of these product launches, there's no other industry that launches this many products in a year, like automotive products or OEMs are always launching new vehicles they have to right. So that's kind of how I got into the automotive industry. That's how I got into the car whirls and into just communication. So I also wasn't sure if I wanted to be in communications or just in front of the camera. So I worked while I was living in LA working at the PR firm a year at a TV station as a field producer and assignment editor. So yeah, forgot that tiny little step. But that was about a year. And I learned a lot about media and I learned a lot about communication. So it was it was a nice addendum to my PR career.

Julie- Host: 23:27

Yeah, well, you kind of have like the inside scoop a little bit. Yes. On on, like how it works and the realities of probably what gets shown and what people could care less about.

Soon Hagerty: 23:38

Oh, you know, and I and I tell this to my team a lot on the communications team. I being on the assignment desk at a TV station in LA, I learned what what would work in terms of a pitch in 30 seconds or less. When you're a journalist and your phone's ringing off the hook all day long to talk to total strangers, PR people or whoever pitching you your I'd like you start to do the iral in 45 seconds if somebody doesn't understand what they're talking about. So I told my team you have less than a minute before I hang up on you is essentially the mentality. I don't say to be brutal, but it's kind of the truth because your your phone's ringing off the hook. So you better know what's important in less than a minute.

Julie- Host: 24:22

Yeah, I love that. And that's actually completely true because I have that it's I started out in PR and also in communications as well like external and internal. And then but now it's interesting because like having this podcast I'm on the flip side of it. Yes. And I like so I've been out of that for a while and then like now I'm the one getting the pitches. And like sometimes I get the worst pitches. I get pitches for men have you podcast. Yeah, like Yeah, who I am do do. Exactly. So it's very clear and then right and then I get like a handful of really incredible pitches from people I trust and then when they pitch me again, I'm like, Oh, sure, right. Like I'm paying attention sonship right. Yeah, it is you get what I do. Yeah. And so I love that. I think that's so I mean, how powerful of an early lesson to, to then be able to take into what you were doing to expand? And so I'm curious like, for, for you as someone who focuses on brands strategy, like, how do you figure out what actions to take that are meaningful? Or like, do you do testing first? Like, can you kind of walk us through what may be like a day in the life or a week in the life or month in the life however you want to do? It is like for you? Yeah, I

Soon Hagerty: 25:35

think that's no one's ever asked me that question. I think that's a really great question. I think, I think it's 50% intuition in terms of spending time with customers. There's a lot of qualitative conversations. And then sometimes you have this long conversation with somebody. And they'll say things like, you know, I really want to be with you guys. But, you know, one of the requirements is, I don't have storage for my car, you because you generally we want you to store your car somewhere, not just out on the streets. And so you might tap into that and say, okay, Julie needs she, she wants to be with us. She's got an incredible Camry. She's wanted all of her life. So then we said, okay, so what if we invested in club houses that are called garage, and then we call them garages? And social, right? So you go and store your car there. But then we do events? So it's like, a little bit as qualitative intuition. You pay attention, you're always in the field talking. And the other research, like when somebody's on your site, what are they navigating towards? When they when they see one of your commercials? What feedback do you get? So it's a little bit of science, a little bit art, but I would have to say, if you don't know your customers, and you're not willing to listen to their story, you don't have that curiosity brand strategy is going to feel very, you're going to feel very lost, because it's not a perfect road. It's not like it where it's like, here's the project I need to fix. And here's the end row, there's, there's not a perfect end road, because you're always evolving based on how your customers thinking about the world.

Julie- Host: 27:03

Yeah, I'm imagining to that you're really good listener, right like that, like, you're paying attention to a lot of different things as you're listening to people tell their stories and like, asking questions and analyzing as these things are going on, because I feel like part of if you are using your intuition for things is like you're noticing these trends almost or like the things that keep happening that people keep mentioning over and over again, like making mental notes or being like, Oh, this is a great idea. Like maybe we should put this in a commercial or like, maybe we should include this in our next missing mixer. Is that kind of accurate? Yeah, no.

Soon Hagerty: 27:44

Absolutely. I think listening and but I also think there's this, you have to be very careful and nuanced between listening and focus groups, because I think sometimes people over index on focus groups, I think when you we you overly survey, you do focus groups, all you learn is about what they've already seen. So it's tough to be innovative. It's like Steve Jobs. Like when he was building Apple, just, I'm not sure he was a huge fan of focus groups. He said, I don't think people know what they want. If you were to say to me, Hey, soon, like, Would you want this little? Would you want this little machine that has all your music that you can just download? I don't know if I would understand what an iPod was, or even an iPad, right? I think it's like listening, and then think really tapping into the emotional journey of that product or service that your customer goes through. So it's a little bit of intuition. So I, I think, yes, you have to listen. But you also have to be careful what the source is. I don't know why I was like, on the treadmill this morning. And I was thinking about, like the idea of feedback. I was talking to a colleague yesterday about feedback. And there's always this concept of feedback as a gift. I say that I hate the term, but I believe it. But you have to be careful that not all feedback is the same. You have to have the right person you trust an audience that you want to serve. And the way it's delivered is more important than just saying feedback as a gift. Because feedback can also lead you astray. It can also make you mediocre. If you actually take feedback of what everybody says you just become medium, you just you know. So it's like maybe you've take feedback from a few adopters and a few innovators and then you build your brand towards that and then the rest will follow. If you if you listen to the norm, what ends up happening is you just you don't create anything special. So I think it's I think brand is a really interesting field, but it's very nuanced. You know, you have to kind of have a good stomach and a good gut to kind of break through the clutter.

Julie- Host: 29:56

Yeah, it made me think of almost an idea of like Phil During the feedback and and like having sort of that intentional mindset of like, these are the people who I really think have valuable feedback versus this, this set of people I will ignore, and you know, not Avataan. I'm curious, like, what is it a day or a week look like for you? Like, what kinds of things are you doing in this role?

Soon Hagerty: 30:22

Yeah, I mean, just like about a month ago, I kind of transitioned my role to not full time, but just for the foundation and the restaurant and kids, but in my day to day roles, SVP, it's, I hate to say it, but it's a lot of meetings. But it depends on it depends on your role. If you're a senior vice president, you have, you know, six or seven direct reports, the majority of my time is really spent with my leaders to make sure that they have the tools to succeed. And that's really about giving them the autonomy to make a lot of great decisions, but being there to guide and say, okay, you know, what, my creative director, Tara might say, okay, soon, I've got this round campaigns, this this round of campaigns, my heart saying, you know, round B, and I'll just look at it and say, Okay, what are you trying to accomplish with around me? So it's asking a lot of good questions on what the direction of the brand campaign will be. It's, it's a really diverse role. Because I'm also looking at events I'm literally looking at, like, when somebody walks into a door at one of our events, what are they see and feel. So it's a lot of creative strategy, a lot of events, communications. So if we buy a new product, we buy a new service, my team is literally writing the press release. They're proving it through the CEO, they're thinking about the investor market, how will investors respond to this? How will a car enthusiasts respond to this and, and then two other pieces that I was in charge of is really the giving strategy, our philanthropy, how we feel the car world and how we feel our local communities. And then just just making sure that our internal team at Haggerty has the right information to do their jobs, so communications, creative, our impact strategy, and then all of our events, so a lot of internal external work. So for lack of like a super interesting response to that, it's really depends on where you are in your career. If you are brand new brand strategist, you're nitty gritty in the work, you're developing the brochure or the campaigns or the taglines. But if you're a senior leader, you're really developing your team, that's you're inspiring your team, you're inspiring your team to be creative and to try new things and kind of pushing them off the ledge a little bit. Because I think sometimes you can't create a great brand, and you don't take some risk, and you try something different. So I always encourage my team, like, don't be afraid to try new things. I

Julie- Host: 32:52

love that, like, are there certain ways that you do encourage them? It's like, whether it's actions or things you tell them? Like how, because I think that is such a really powerful thing that a leader can do for for the people they work with. And I'm curious, how do you go about that?

Soon Hagerty: 33:10

Yeah, and I think that's really important one, it took me years to do this, I think, I think it's like, psychology one on one. So I'm glad that I have a psychology degree, it's when you create a, like safe space, they're going to try something different. If they feel like, okay, I'm going to try this. And if I fail or doesn't work, soon is not going to have my head on a platter, she's going to maybe be disappointed. Or she might say, Oh, we could have done this way. But it's like raising kids, you said you have three boys, right? Like they're never, they're never going to want to disappoint you. But they know that if you are always going to support them, no matter what they're going to try different things. If they feel anytime they fail, they're going to disappoint you. They're going to stay in their safe zone. I think that's true of people. And I think that's true and work especially. So I always like if I but if I do see something that maybe I would do in different ways to hey, can we chat about this, and I don't put an alarm bell. This happened just like two weeks ago on on a on a meeting and an event. And I was sitting in this hour long session by one of my leaders, and I wasn't really like in alignment of the direction and so I didn't publicly say anything. I just slapped her afterwards. Like, hey, you have a second just talk on Friday. I have some ideas on this topic for you. And I gave myself two days to think it through. And then I presented it to her to help her and she took it really well. I would have to say I've really been studying stoicism, which is really about like separating your environment from your reaction. The old son would have been texting her like hey, we shouldn't do it this way. You know and not being thoughtful of gosh, I know you're trying to help soon, but you're really you're really discouraging this person from making decisions. The old The newer soon not the perfect soon, but I give myself distance. Now I say, Okay, I really want her to be successful, but I don't want to derail her independent decision making. So I gave myself two days. And it was really good. It was a great conversation. She's like, Oh, I totally agree, she created a better proposal that she fronted. And I was like, happy with her. But I was also proud of myself that just want to fix things. person came out, just like being a mom, right? It's like, I don't mean this to be negative towards a professional world. But being a leader and being a mom or dad are very similar. It's like you want your team or your family to be successful only like in you. There's only so much you can teach. And you have to have faith that what you instill is going to help them make great decisions. So you have to give people an autonomy to make decisions.

Julie- Host: 35:52

I love that. I also, I appreciate that you waited those two days? I think that's a really cool approach. That probably I could also use in parenting. Parenting, I just said, Yeah, but I love that for the for the examples that you gave. And also, I think, as the employee, like I can imagine, it's really nice as someone who is being, like being talked about something that didn't go ideally, but yet, it's like, here's let me give you some alternative things to think about. And like, maybe how I might approach it or some examples. And then like, let you run with it, because I think that also allows for a sense of like ownership for the individual. It allows them to be creative, too, for themselves and think like, how, how would I authentically approach this. So I love that I think that's so cool. And I I've never heard of stoicism, so I'm gonna have to look that up. So I really

Soon Hagerty: 36:55

recommend it's basically a philosophy not a religion, the stoics like Marcus Aurelius, former emperor of Rome, and it's a concept of just, you know, we are more than our environment. And it's kind of like, I've really been a student of it the last couple years, and my team has seen the difference. That's a good example. And I think what it does is says, Okay, here's what happened. I don't have to have a knee jerk reaction. I could say, I could just pull myself out. I've joked like a later soon as a butter soon. I mean, just having you had a reaction to something and just had shut up. I just thought it through and justice myself, I would have handled it better. Yeah. So this is a mindset that constantly asks you is this the right time to approach it? Is this is this your best self showing up? So it's not a religion? It's a philosophy. It's a really cool, it's really changed my relationships. Yeah,

Julie- Host: 37:50

it sounds so interesting. I'm definitely gonna check it out. And like, fee of and I like that to that awareness. Like having that awareness of Yeah, like, that's, that's

Soon Hagerty: 38:01

exactly what it is. It's somewhere. It's That's exactly it.

Julie- Host: 38:04

Yeah. It's, it's really interesting. It actually reminds me of mindfulness in a way to like, Yeah, different type of mindfulness.

Soon Hagerty: 38:10

That's exactly it. That's, uh, you know, I meditate every day for 15 minutes. And I just two months ago really started journaling, believe or not, I've always been like, I'm really a fan of mindfulness. But I just always thought journaling. I don't know why. And I've done it. The last it was maybe more than that, right? A little after Thanksgiving. completely cleared my mind. It's like, it's like, what what everybody says it's been really builds a lot of clarity in my thoughts. So I'm a fan of both. That's

Julie- Host: 38:40

awesome. Yeah, I am the same. I always think about journaling, and then I'm like, I could get up early and do it. And no, I will not.

Soon Hagerty: 38:48

Yeah, but why not, I'm excited about it's only been maybe 60 days or so. But now I'm like, I just can't wait to get it out of my head. And, really, it's really been helpful.

Julie- Host: 38:59

This has given me good incentive to maybe try to get better. I'm gonna get after work on that. I but I love hearing about this side of how you work and how you think about things and how you approach your team. I think this part is so powerful, because like, oftentimes, I see someone who has gotten, you know, to these really high levels, and in the corporate world, or wherever, and it's like, wow, how did they do that? Or how did they get there and guess like, there's all these very tactical things that they've done and like educational pieces and practical things that they've put into place. But then I think it's so interesting to hear about these other elements that are not necessarily what we hear about. And so it's very fascinating here. So I appreciate you sharing some of these so much. I want to get into the other things, the other cool parts of your jobs that you have before before we end today, so I'd love for you to speak About a little bit about the nonprofit that you founded, and then also the restaurant that yeah, so created. Yeah.

Soon Hagerty: 40:09

So the second piece I've had for a little bit, six years is the restaurant. It's called the good bowl, and it goes really part of my origin story. So when I came the United States, this community took a sin as refugees gave us, you know, we came as, as green card holders, so we had the paperwork, and then I became a citizen, which was such an incredible day. I remember it just distinctly, and you know, that was 20 something years ago. And so I moved to Traverse City, which has, let's say, not a ton of cultural diversity. It's a northern Northern Michigan, let's, let's politely leave it at that. And I just might, I was just cooking these big Vietnamese dinners for my friends. And if, you know, I was like, Oh, my gosh, I wish there was more Vietnamese food. They're like, You should start a restaurant like no, I'm never starting a restaurant, because my husband was in YPO, or isn't YPO. And his friend said, who's a big restaurant tour in Asia and said, If you know of anybody who wants to start a restaurant, you tell me because I will fly anywhere in the world, on my private jet, and tell them that they are batshit. Crazy. So I was like, Okay, so that's peering in my mind, as people are telling me this, but just I just couldn't get out of my head after a couple years. And so I started to develop the business plan for this restaurant, a Vietnamese restaurant, and then I showed it to my attorney. And he's the business plan. He said, Well, do you have a chef? I'm like, No, that but he said, I have a buddy. I went to high school with that I think you should get as a consultant. Long story short, we instantly had great chemistry. And he's now my business partner, and his family are refugees from Vietnam as well. So they were the boat people from the 70s. So we had this, like shared history. So we decided to start the restaurant. And part what I love about the restaurants called Good ball is we donate $1 per bowl to charity, as our way to thank the US for taking us in as immigrants. And so it'll be six years this year, and we've given away 150,000 160,000, so roughly about 30,000 plus a year. So Julie, if you came to the restaurant, have you ever had far Vietnamese noodle soup? I haven't. Oh, my gosh, I gotta have it's so good. So you come and you say, Okay, you can pick between a rice bowl and noodles, salad or a fall, which is like a hot beef broth soup. We'll say where do you want your dollar to go to today? So every quarter, we change charities, and we'll ask our community, what do you want, you know, which charity Do you want to be the recipients and people will vote and then they'll give suggestions. And then I'll give the final suggestions to our team and they get to vote. So it's always a local charity, a national charity and a global charity. So every quarter it changes. So that's the restaurant and we're having fun. I don't recommend ever opening a restaurant, i It's because it's a lot of work and half of our restaurant existence was during the pandemic, how we opened in late 2018. So all sudden, we're open for a year and couple of months and the pandemic hit. So that was you know, complete disaster owning a restaurant during that time. And, but I it also honestly, was the best leadership lessons I've ever had, trying to run a restaurant during a pandemic, and you have 20 people that you have to take care of. And customers like it was like this incredible, like, masterclass and leadership during crisis. And so I feel like if you could get through that, you've got a lot of great gifts that you can learn from.

Julie- Host: 43:51

Yeah. What do you think was one of the biggest things that you learned,

Soon Hagerty: 43:56

I think, humility of decision making, because remember, during COVID, like you were told one thing, so you made that decision, then you did something else. And so I think always asking for grace when you don't make the right decisions, but also just having a sense of humility of, Hey, guys, listen, here's how we need to handle the next week. I'm not going to have all the answers, but here's their approach. Let me know what you think. And let's recalibrate next week. And it it's what I mean by humility is like you have to lead but you also have to be humble enough to let people know like, this is what I know at with my best information. Yeah, so I think humility, but I think the bigger thing was just really like constant communication. I mean, I probably we have this internal kind of messaging and I probably every other day updated them. Okay, this is what's happening. We're gonna be open for the next 48 hours. We're gonna have to go to the next hour we'll keep you will keep you updated. So, constant communication, a ton of humility and And, like, and I'm just going to be really straightforward because I'm not sure a lot of people would say this, like a perfect, almost perfect balance between humility and a little bit of confidence, like, there's humility will get you really far. But if your team feels like you are not confident in the strategy, either it's a pause. So it's you do have to be confident is sidelined with humility, humility, I think it's you got to have both, like people will follow somebody that they think is confident in the concept.

Julie- Host: 45:35

Yeah, definitely. Well, I think also, it gives other people energy to like to see someone who's confident, and like, feels like, oh, I can write like, I'm going to do this thing. Like, come with me or don't but like, we're going on this mission. And, and especially in that scenario, like even, cuz yeah, you're right. Like, it's like I forgot is how many? Yeah, how many different sets of information were we getting? Like, at first? We think it's like three weeks. And then yeah, clearly, clearly, we it was not three weeks.

Soon Hagerty: 46:07

Like where I live? They close the school for two weeks. And we thought the world was ending for two weeks. Yeah,

Julie- Host: 46:13

no, I know. We're close schools before. Yeah. No, it was we were on break. I remember. And it's like, yeah, we're you're coming back, right. No, no, we're not coming back.

Soon Hagerty: 46:24

You know, just Yeah, yeah. It was really, like, I'm, I hate to say it, but it was, it was such an incredible learning time for me and Artie. Yeah,

Julie- Host: 46:34

I, I can't even imagine because I know, a very, very long, long time ago, I was in this very cool, sort of like, entrepreneur mentorship program. And one of the things I made a business plan for a restaurant, and I remember, yeah, and I wrote away, you should throw it away. Because you know, it is probably somewhere in an ancient computer file that I may or may not be able to find. So it may be equivalent to the right way. But yeah, I remember at that time, like talking to a restaurant tour, and he he's like, yeah, like some huge, like, 50% of businesses fail in the restaurant business. And he first

Soon Hagerty: 47:13

year without wow, like, huge amount. Yeah,

Julie- Host: 47:17

yeah. And so I just remember, it was there. It was some scary facts that he shared with me. I was like, Oh, good. I mean, I wasn't, it was like a project, right? So it wasn't ever something super serious for me. But it did always plant that seed. So I can see how, like then for you entering this field, having also someone who said so clearly, like, definitely do not do this. But on the flip side, like I love that you're still you know, you're still around six years later, after a pandemic, you're contributing so much to like all these really cool causes, not only in your community, but also worldwide. That's really, really amazing. So congratulations to you for for bucking that 50%. Right, that.

Soon Hagerty: 48:00

Thank you. It's, like I said, it's quite humbling to be able to run a restaurant during that time and you learn a lot. There are some days I have a bottle of wine to myself and say, What did I get into. But there's other days where I'm having the impact strategy. And the giving model really energizes me, you know, when I come into the restaurant, and I talk to guests like this has happened last week, a woman who works for a local nonprofit said, I just want to thank you for all you do for your community re energizes you and I know I've been joking a lot about restaurants. Anybody who owns a restaurant knows it's a passion business that knows how hard it is. Because almost everything has to be perfect in a restaurant for your customer, or else they're unhappy. So it's almost like this. Like, it's kind of like this tough scenario to always win. I always tell people, it's you got to have the food fast, but not too fast. A friendly server, but not too friendly. Right? Hot, but not too hot. So it's like it's perfect scenario all the time. Sometimes it's unattainable. But if you love it, you love it. And I just I don't know, I hate to say but I love it.

Julie- Host: 49:04

Yeah. And it's so interesting, because it's such a different business then. Yeah, doing the brand marketing for like a, you know, like a big company that specializes in these like insurance versus cool cars and other vehicles. So you

Soon Hagerty: 49:20

know, it's on the surface, it feels very different. But gosh, there's quite a bit of crossover. It's all about passion. People who own these classic cars don't drive it from A to B. They drive it because they love it. And when you go to a restaurant, like you want the experience like most people can cook at home. But to go out to a restaurant is because you chose like it's such a to me. It's like I feel such gratitude that somebody chooses to come to my restaurant to celebrate their birthday. And so it's like, it's such I'm so grateful. So it's to me, it's really the same mentality is like passion. People love food, and I think people love cars and it's like those Two things bring people together. Car Lovers want to be with other car lovers passionate people about food want to dine out with other people are passionate about food. So I think on the surface, it might seem pretty far apart. But I think underneath it, it's it's all about community and passion. And I just, I love tapping into both of those things.

Julie- Host: 50:18

I love that. Yeah, that's now that you point that out. I mean, it makes a lot of sense that there are very clear, like overlaps there. So I love that. I want to talk about your nonprofit, and a little bit. So share, like, what, what is your nonprofit? I know, it's pretty new. And you have some exciting news. So share a little bit about what it is and what what's happening. Yeah.

Soon Hagerty: 50:39

So my husband, Mikayla and I, we launched a foundation called the boundless futures Foundation, late September of 23. And the mission of the foundation is to help female entrepreneurs who want to have this boundless impact in society, which means that they would be new to starting their own business. And either that a business has to be a social enterprise, meaning their product or service solves a social issue or their product or service, their business has a giving element to it. So think about like TOMS shoes or Warby Parker, right. So even if their business doesn't solve a world issue, something in their business contributes to society. So So those are the two parameters. And it's all for female entrepreneurs. And it's a no strings attached grant. So we give two types of grants, we give a grant called empower her. And it's for individuals who start their own, who want to start their own business or have started their own businesses under three years old. So we can help fund that. And we give grants up to $25,000, with no strings attached. And then we also help grant nonprofits who are mission aligned. So their nonprofit has to help female entrepreneurs as well. Okay, that's all about supporting female entrepreneurs. I think, there, there's amazing stats out there that show that 40% of businesses in the US are owned by women, but only 2% of venture capitalists, venture capitalists funds go to women, so VC. So where are they getting this money? From family, they're borrowing it from friends, they're borrowing it from banks, and that's not a great advantage. Because if you have more capital, you take bigger risks, you can make mistakes, if a product doesn't work, your business doesn't go out of business, right? So I want to be an even though 25,000 isn't maybe not going to change their world, it, it can give them rent, for you know, six months, them by 20 laptops, it can help them hire somebody to promote their business. So it's, I think it's it's some support, but part of boundless futures foundation is we have something called an advisory circle. It's five members of our team, three females myself. So for females, myself, and then my husband, and we are basically mentors on speed dial. So from my background, restaurants and marketing communications, if you launch your new business, and you need help in any of those fields, you can just call me and we have certain amount of time every month that we can dedicate to you for that, because I think starting a business and getting funding from a bank is one thing, but like when you have questions like do I start an LLC? Do I start a corporation? What's the bonus plan for my first employee? Like where are you going to get that Google? pte. You want a trusted source? Who's done this before, especially a female who's done this before? Because there are differences when, from a female mindset and male mindset when you're building your business. And so I think they're that advisory circle to me, it's going to be more compelling than just the grants.

Julie- Host: 53:57

Oh, yeah, I think for sure, I mean, I think those are the unspoken things that like, right, you're not just gonna go ask a stranger or like DM someone through LinkedIn and be like, you have the most amazing experience? Can you please tell me all of your advice on this particular topic? And like many, you might get lucky. But the odds are probably like, what, like, you don't even know me? Yeah. And

Soon Hagerty: 54:21

yeah, I think what the advisory circle we're committed to, I mean, we already know who you are, because we're granting your best suite. You did all the work. You showed us your business proposal, you answered all the questions of the criteria. We've interviewed you multiple times. And so we really trust you and we know your business. Whereas if you're DMing, a stranger, they might give you advice, but it may not be good advice or the right advice because they don't know your business. So we're committed to getting a little deeper with our advice with you.

Julie- Host: 54:51

I love that. I think that's such a powerful part and especially also what you mentioned the fact of like women who have done these things and been there long knew from their experiences of like, what to do or what not to do. And also just being able to ask those questions that like, sometimes are not like, it feels silly to ask certain questions, but are also Yeah, like, Do I need an LLC? What do I do with my taxes? Like, do I need certain items? You know, like certain professionals helping me? And how do I set things up and structure like all those things that you don't necessarily think about when you have this grandiose vision of, I want to make this happen, the nitty gritty details are really important, and having someone to help you think is so valuable.

Soon Hagerty: 55:33

And it cuts a lot of time too, because you can research it. But you know, you spend a lot of time researching, and it may not be the best advice, where it's like you can walk it through, it's almost like cuts, you're always gonna have a learning curve. As an entrepreneur, I still have a great learning curve for the restaurant, I still have a massive learning curve for a nonprofit. And I still have a learning curve on brand and marketing. And but I think if if these experienced people with 2030 years of experience can shorten that learning curve just a tiny bit. I think that'd be super helpful for our grantees.

Julie- Host: 56:08

Yeah. I love that. It sounds so wonderful. And I really love like your particular mission of helping women because I'm clearly aligned, really aligned and helping women. Yeah.

Soon Hagerty: 56:19

And I think you know, starting your own podcast and starting your own business, and I'm sure like, I'm sure you got a lot of ton of questions when you started. And if you had, like, rock star podcasters at

Julie- Host: 56:32

your fingertips, and you could have learned, right? I mean, it would have made all the difference. Like it took me it took me from February when I decided, yes, this is what I'm doing to October till I started launching my first few episodes, because I had so much groundwork that I had to do so much research, and I didn't know anyone else who was podcasting? Yes. So yeah, it was, I mean, yeah, it would have been so amazing. Still would be so amazing, right?

Soon Hagerty: 56:56

You have a great way about you and awesome, awesome laugh. I mean, like, I don't know, you make people feel at ease. So I think you think you're got a good leg up,

Julie- Host: 57:07

I think you really mean so much, you're gonna like make me tear up. So I'm gonna keep it together here. i I want to ask you a few other things just before just before we wrap up. So as far as your, your job of doing the brand marketing, and being the SVP of brand marketing, like if people are really interested, if they're listening to this, and they're like, Wow, this, this sounds really fun. I love the idea of like, creating brand and like helping people build, how would you advise people to get started in this field, if you have like resources or suggestions for associations or groups, just kind of things that people can start looking up and, and learning about it? Yeah, I

Soon Hagerty: 57:48

mean, I, I think it depends on where you are in your life, I think it's never too late to learn a new field. I think internships are always important, but I think like, really getting underneath content. So I subscribe to a lot of brand and marketing, creative newsletters, I have something called I don't know if you've heard of Flipboard, where you can kind of it's Flipboard is just an app that you subscribe to certain industries that you like, and then I'm, like, inundated with amazing stories from that field. So every day, I probably spend a half hour or like looking at different brand and marketing creation stories. And so you're learning. And I think, you know, it's like, good advice for anything else is like you have to put in the work. And you have to be willing to teach yourself something really new. And then I think, for me, I started as an internship both in all of my fields. So putting in the work, building the content, and having that curious, open mind. And I think with like anything else, talk to as many people as you can, and I think somehow the door will open and you'll be able to say like, Okay, this is, this is a good road that I want to take that next step. So there's no perfect way to do it. But talking to talking to people putting in the time and the work and internship, and then learning every single minute you can about that content, what that world is really about.

Julie- Host: 59:11

That's a great idea. I love that idea of Flipboard I'm definitely gonna look that up, because I've never heard of it. Are there any other like associations that you're part of as someone in this industry or just anywhere else that people might? Yeah, I

Soon Hagerty: 59:23

mean, I've always been a part of like prsa, which is public relations. Society of America has a lot of great brand stories, at ages. Great to subscribe to, and they do a lot of events. There's dozens and dozens of newsletters, but I would say prsa I think Ad Age are really incredible.

Julie- Host: 59:40

Okay, thank you so much. But they're great resources to check out for people. Okay, I'm going to ask you our very last questions before we wrap up. And I asked you to everybody, so it is will you please share a sentence that uses verbiage or jargon from your field, then translate it so it's understandable to us

Soon Hagerty: 1:00:00

I mean, maybe people know this but I think one of the funniest kind of like references in the restaurant world is I need this on the fly and you have to use it in that tone. Do you? Do you know what that is? I know I don't know what that is. Tell me on the fly is generally when something's been messed up in a restaurant and you have to redo it and you have somebody who's not super happy with you like I need these chicken wings on the fly and then the whole kitchen goes in this like spatter so it's on the fly basically means like, drop everything else. Get this done immediately.

Julie- Host: 1:00:33

Okay, yes, I have it makes complete sense. Yeah. On the fly. Like don't try calling your

Soon Hagerty: 1:00:39

voice start telling your voice I need this room picked up on the fly. Yeah,

Julie- Host: 1:00:45

or like when we need to get out of the house like get your chips on on the fly basically,

Soon Hagerty: 1:00:50

flies from the kitchen out into the hospitality room.

Julie- Host: 1:00:54

Got it. Okay, there you go. My husband was in hospitality. So have to see if he knows this reference test yet. Yeah, there you go. Right. I can quit him for later. All right. Well, thank you so much soon for being here. It was just such a pleasure to learn about you and like all your very incredibly cool and diverse jobs that you have. And where can people find you and your your various things that you're working on if they are interested in doing so? Yeah,

Soon Hagerty: 1:01:20

I'm pretty straightforward. So soon Haggerty and Instagram and Facebook and then just started really spending some time on LinkedIn. I, for a while I thought, I can't do three social media handles like camp. But since we started the foundation, just doing a lot of thought leadership and posting some interesting articles that like I really liked so on LinkedIn as well.

Julie- Host: 1:01:40

Awesome. All right. Well, thank you so much. It's really been a pleasure. Thank

Soon Hagerty: 1:01:44

you, Julie. Really enjoyed it.

Julie- Host: 1:01:49

Hey, everybody, thank you so much for listening to women with cool jobs. I'll be releasing a new episode every two weeks. So make sure you hit that subscribe button. And if you love the show, please give me a five star rating. Also, it would mean so much if you share this episode with someone you think would love it or would find it inspirational. And lastly, do you have ideas for future shows? Or do you know any Rockstar women with cool jobs? I would love to hear from you. You can email me at Julie at women with cool jobs.com Or you can find me on Instagram at women who will jobs again that women will jobs. Thank you so much for listening and have an incredible day