Something Extra

Episode 317: Best of 2024 - Part 1

• Technology Partners • Episode 317

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Join us for a special highlight reel in this episode of Something Extra. We’ve handpicked standout moments and compelling insights from our incredible guests throughout 2024. Reflect on the stories that inspired us, the lessons that shaped us, and the wisdom that continues to light the way forward. Let their advice and vision pave the way for your journey into what we hope will be your most impactful and remarkable year yet. Don’t miss this chance to recharge and set the stage for success in the year ahead!

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Credits: 
Host: Lisa Nichols
Executive Producer: Jenny Heal
Marketing Support: Landon Burke and Joe Szynkowski
Podcast Engineer: Portside Media

Lisa Nichols  00:02
Chromosomes, little strands of nucleic acids and proteins are the fundamental genetic instructions that tell us who we are. At birth, most people are born with 46 chromosomes but each year in the United States, about 6000 people are born with an extra chromosome, making them a person with Down syndrome. If you've ever encountered someone with Down syndrome, you know that they are some of the kindest, most joyful people you will ever meet. They truly have something extra. 

Lisa Nichols  00:30
My name is Lisa Nichols, and for 30 years, I have been both the CEO of Technology Partners and the mother to Ally. Ally has something extra in every sense of the word. I have been blessed to be by her side as she impacts everyone she meets. Through these two important roles as CEO and mother to Ally, I have witnessed countless life lessons that have fundamentally changed the way I look at the world. While you may not have an extra chromosome, every leader has something extra that defines who you are. 

Lisa Nichols  01:00
Join me as I explore the something extra in leaders from all walks of life and discover how that difference in each of them has made a difference in their companies, their families, their communities and in themselves. If you liked this episode today, please go to Apple Podcast or wherever you listen and leave us a five-star rating. 

Lisa Nichols  01:20
Welcome to the Something Extra Podcast where we dive deep into the essence of leadership through compelling stories and powerful insights. I'm Lisa Nichols, your host and CEO of Technology Partners. This year has been remarkable, filled with conversations that have inspired us to lead with courage, authenticity and heart. From Jeremy Kubicek's daily practices for clarity, to Maggie Wilderotter's wisdom on building authentic relationships, to Frank DeAngelis', moving reflections on resilience and love. Each episode has offered something extraordinary. Today, we're excited to bring you the best moments from our 2024 episodes. Sit back, relax and join us as we celebrate the lessons and legacies of true leadership. 

Lisa Nichols  02:07
Our first clip of the best of 2024, part one episode is Jeremy Kubicek, co-founder of Giant and multi time author, and a keynote speaker. 

Lisa Nichols  02:18
Love it. My wheels are spinning about 90 miles a minute here. But okay, so let me ask you a couple questions. You're doing a whole lot. What would you say is the secret sauce to keep in your sanity?

Jeremie Kubicek  02:35 
I do this, there's two things I do every single day. I do in the morning. I did this morning. It was so powerful. I did a call up session every morning, and I remind myself who I am and my identity. And so, the call up this morning was actually kind of, it was, it was very spiritual this morning. Sometimes it's just more. I'd tell myself who I am, but this morning, it was so profound. And I was like, hey, remind me, God, remind me who I am today. And I just literally leaned in and heard him remind me to tell me who I was. Because identity is like, you have to work on yourself every day. It's almost like evangelize yourself. The idea is I am a liberator. I'm a freedom fighter. I'm a creator. I'm an encourager. That's who you are. Jeremy, let's go. So, I basically got myself ready by calling myself into the position and the mission I had today. That's number one. The end of the day, I do this thing every day at about 5:30 my, my watch will go off no matter where I'm at if I'm usually driving, maybe it's 5:30 to 6:30 I'll do this right before dinner. I do an examine, and I just do a review of the day. And it kind of looks like this. What was I grateful for? Number one, who did I meet that I need to tell Hey, awesome, good. Thank you. Today was, you know, there might two or three people. Then I go, Where was I off today? Where was I? Not at peace. And what I do is I catch my emotions so that they don't go on to the next day. 

Jeremie Kubicek  04:10
And the idea is that I manage my emotions so that other people don't have to manage my emotions. And so, I basically say, Where was I off today? And an example would be like, Why did I like, I woke up on the wrong side of the bed. What happened there? So, then I analyzed, well, you stayed up too late. You watched a show that was like, there was like, you felt slimed. It was like, violent and like, did it really? Did you really need to do that before bed? No, that wasn't really helpful. You didn't end well, Jeremy, and so therefore you woke up, obviously, and you didn't do a call up session and you were so what are you gonna do next time? Next time. I'm not gonna, I'm gonna read before I go to bed. I'm gonna watch something that's encouraging. I'm gonna do something. But I'm not gonna watch slime before I go to sleep anymore. Didn't help me. Didn't help me, help others. So that was my like, that's an example that happened this last week, but that's what I do. So, I catch these things, and then sometimes I catch them, they're like, tendencies. Like, you know you over share, you know you that's a tendency of yours, when does it happen? When? And I kind of play detective on myself, and then I go, Is it me, or is it the other person? And most of the time it's me. So, then what I do is I get at peace and with myself, and I manage my emotions. And then by dinner, I'm free. I'm not thinking about stuff. I'm chill. Kelly, and I may go on a walk, or we may, you know, have a hot tub conversation, but I'm not like, I'm not having a lot of animosity, because I've managed my emotions, where, in the past, those things would kind of build up and be the straw that breaks the camel's back, kind of a thing. 

Lisa Nichols  05:57
The next clip is with Michelle Green, EVP and Chief Information Officer at Cardinal Health.

Lisa Nichols  06:03
I would just say to people, when you have those opportunities, as much as you can say yes to those, and obviously sometimes you do need to say no. Learning the power of no is really important too. But let's talk about this. So, career wise, you've had a great career. You were for Sony Ericsson, which I think really took you to Sweden for a while. 

Michelle Green  06:25
It did. I lived in Sweden, and when you were speaking earlier about taking the opportunities, I think this is a perfect example of I tell that I've shared this story with people before me and my mom, we are super close, so we'll talk on the phone in the mornings. Now we do a lot of texting, face timing, whatever we need to do. But at the time, I would talk to my mom every morning, and the drive from my house to my office was about seven, eight minutes every morning. We talk on the phone, and I remember getting off the phone with her saying, Listen, I have got a, at the time, my leader's name was Dez Black. I've got a conversation with my leader this morning. I'm not sure what's happening. He's just back from vacation and said he wants to meet. He wanted to meet to ask me about the opportunity to Sweden. So, as soon as he asked, I was like, Of course I will. And I called my mom back, like, 30-45, minutes later, and I'm like, Hey, I'm moving to Sweden. And she was like, what I just spoke to you, like, what happened in that short period?

Michelle Green  07:25
So, that was one that I said yes to, and I recall people asking me, like, what are they going to pay? You? How are they going to pay I was like, I don't know, but in the end, I'm feel confident they're not going to take any money away from me. So, if I'm good with that, then let's just go for it, because this is a great opportunity. So, the first time I lived in Sweden. I lived in Sweden for about seven-eight-ish months, and I was only supposed to be there for six, and they extended me a little bit. And I came back to Raleigh, North Carolina at the time, and then I was back in Raleigh maybe about a year and a half, close to two years. And I got asked to go back, and I signed up for a year with the option to extend for a year, and I was in Sweden for four years. So again, I felt like the growth opportunity I had for Sweden was bigger than just professional. It was personal. It was very personal for me, feel it helped me to become even more independent, more focused, and to just learn myself. It forces you to do a lot of internal work. It forces you to do a lot of self-work. When you're living on your own in a foreign country, you just have to figure things out. You can't always just pick up a phone and call a girlfriend or pick up a phone and call your mom. You got time difference to deal with, and I don't know it just it really did help me just grow in a great way.

Lisa Nichols  08:48
Next up is Donnie Campbell, a keynote speaker, math teacher, basketball coach, and an inspiration for the character Ted Lasso. 

Lisa Nichols  08:56
Tell it. Tell me this, because you and I kind of talked in the sidebar conversation. I think it might be really helpful for our listeners, because sports is such, youth sports is such a big thing, isn't it? Donny, I mean, you had three girls of your own, they all played sports, and you told me, you said you really didn't get involved. What did, if we've got listeners out there that are parents of athletes, what kind of advice would you give them? And I know kind of what you did for your girls, but what would you, what would you say to them?

Donnie Campbell  09:31
Number one, they better be having fun. If they're not enjoying it, then they shouldn't be. Don't force them to do it. I never forced my kids to do anything. If they did do it, they were going to finish it where they liked her, you know, talked about, you know, finish but I think number one, they've got to love it. And the reason why kids are getting out of, you know, I think, I think the percentage there's like 80 it's in the 80%, 87%, don't quote me on that, are getting out of activities, sports activities, by the age of 13. So why are they getting out of it? They're getting it out of two reasons, the parents who are trying to live their, their life, their sports career, through their kids. And number two, of coaches who really don't know how to teach. That really don't know the fundamentals. And what I'm seeing now from kids now, give an example, basketball players, and I watch a lot of games too. I still go to high school games and watch and I watch college games. And kids now are more athletic than they've ever been, but their basketball IQ is not very good. They really don't understand how to play and so, that's totally different than what I believe in. I always wanted my kids to be fundamentally sound and to play as a team and, and if your kids are on a team, and they're enjoying what they're doing, and they're learning so many lessons, and are they always going to be happy with the coach? Of course not. But it's not your responsibility as a parent to jump in and try to get your kid whatever. Maybe it's more playing time. You need to have your son or daughter go talk to the coach, because this is not about you, it's about the kids. Kids haven't changed, parents have changed. For me, I just want to stay out of it. I don't know what they're doing in practice. I don't want to know what they're doing in practice. I'm just going to go to the game. 

Donnie Campbell  11:39
I remember my daughter, my youngest daughter played soccer. We were in a tournament in Iowa, and she was on a really good team, and she hardly, I think they played three games that weekend, and it was a little expensive. We have to get a hotel, you know, and all this stuff that goes into it, for people that are doing traveling teams and stuff like that. I don't think my daughter played four minutes. So, as we're driving home, she says to me, she says, Dad, can I say, talk to you? I say, Well, sure. What's going on? She goes. I said, what'd you think about this week? I said, Sydney, it didn't matter if you played four minutes, 40 minutes or not play, I still love you. I'm proud of you. And it's not, it's so it was never about me, about her success on the soccer field or basketball floor. It was about what kind of kids they are. Are they learning lessons from what they're doing now? Everything's about, okay, can I get my daughter or son a college scholarship? And that's great? I don't think, I think that's a great goal, but to me, it's, are they having fun? Are they learning? Are they learning fundamentals? Are they learning the right way to how to work with other people? All those things. 

Lisa Nichols  12:50
Next, we have Karen Kranenburg, CEO and owner of Polo and Moore and managing director for Care Caribbean. 

Lisa Nichols  12:57
Well, I have one more question for you, and then we need to take a quick break, and I've got a lot more than I want to talk to you about, but this one is really, you know, I find this so fascinating that you've actually been to over 106 countries. And I think, you know, you've set up polo matches in a lot of those countries, and you know, you've done a lot of different things around the globe. But you kind of describe, they describe you as a global Nomad. Yes, and so what I really would love to know from you, and then we'll dig into a lot more after the break. But how do you personally prepare to adapt to so many different cultures? You know, in environments, because they're all different are they not, Karen?

Karen Kranenburg  13:40
They are all different. You know, I always say to people that travel is an education in itself. So you're going there to learn from the people, to learn from the learn from the culture, and that's your take, that's your take away from it all when you go there. So, there's always a you, there's all that, always that fascination, that fascination, that excitement, when you're going someplace, you're going someplace new, someplace that's different, you know. So, it's different preparing, I would say, preparing for a trip like going to Everest, for going to a trip like to Mali. Which I went to Mali last year, which is very different. Mali is a country I've been wanting to go to for the last 12 years, since this, since, really their problems, they've had a lot of problems with rebels and stuff like that in the last 12 years. And it's not really been that safe to go. And they had, they had a little bit of a quiet patch where last year and I said, I'm going to take this opportunity to go here now, you know. I packed my bags and, you know, I made a but the thing about it is, I'm a planner as well too. So, I always make sure that, you know, for example, when I went to Mali that I had somebody had recommended a guide that they had used. She's a journalist. Is a guy that she had used. So, I made sure that, you know, I have those things all lined up before I go somewhere. I don't just show up and hope for the best. You know, I'm doing in a prayer and hope for the best, because in some parts of the world, that's just downright dangerous. There are people that do that, but not, no, I'm not one. I'm not, It's not smart and I'm not one of those, you know? 

Karen Kranenburg  15:17
So, you know a lot of places that, of course, people you know, they say here they are genuinely dangerous. A lot of them, a lot of it is, there's a lot of propaganda behind it as well, too. So, you kind of have to weigh the balance up of what the reality is and what's, you know, what's real and what's not, you know? And being in touch and having contacts on the ground makes a huge difference in terms when you're planning, you know when you're planning a trip and you're planning to go somewhere. You know, if you, you know some, you know if you there's some place you're planning to go, and you contact, you have a guide, you have a local contact, and you say, Hey, listen to that. And they said, listen, maybe it's not such a good time to come now. You know it's not such a good time to come. So, you don't necessarily, or only a lot of people you know, they only look at what you know. They only see the propaganda, and they only look at, you know, all the warnings that they are to. Don't travel here, don't go there. But sometimes the reality on the ground is very different. It's only, it's the locals that give you the real, reality of what's happening for places that are, you know. I want to say sketchy, but you know that have, have their problems. I've had their problems. You know, you can't blindly go and say, you know, I'm going here with no preparation. That's not, that's not going to work. 

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Lisa Nichols  17:09
Now we have the EVP of automation and business operations at Mastercard, Kimberly, Martin. 

Lisa Nichols  17:15
Kim, I know you're super passionate about this, but you know when you started in tech, there was a real inequity in the number of females, you know. But Mastercard in particular has been really intentional about encouraging more young women. And another good friend of both mine and yours is Dana Lorberg, and I think about what she did with girls for tech. She's retired now, and although I'm not sure she's really quasi retired. She's quasi I'm like, I think she's failing at retirement because she's so busy with other things, right? But, girls for tech. But what else has Mastercard done? And you know, what could you tell like our listeners that are in organizations that really are still trying to figure that out? You know, what kind of advice would you give them, what kind of ideas would you give them?

Kimberly Martin  18:02
Well, what Dana did, which was, I think innovative is. She said, Look, if we wait until kids get in college, they've already made life choices by college. We need to meet girls when they're in middle school, or before they get into middle school, because that's where they're deciding whether STEM is even interesting or not. And give them the picture what STEM could be, because I think they see it in the movies, and they see like the lonely programmer living in his mom's basement, and that is not what STEM is. And they don't even know that they probably do STEM activities every day, and they're not. And these are opening up a world of possibilities to them before they even start making those choices closer to high school. But once they go to school, then attracting them in your organization, we found that we were we were looking and we were recruiting and trying to make our job descriptions as, you know, gender appealing as possible, and we still weren't getting a lot of great candidates applying for our roles. And one of the things one of the things one of the recruiters said to me one day is, if you would let me open these up at a more junior level, I could get you a ton of candidates. And if you're willing to look for a non-traditional workforce, people that have done something different, but they're coming in as the entry level, so maybe they've had a career in something else. And I'm like, yes, the boards were open, and what we're finding is the entry level, you still have to grow the pyramid like they will grow. They'll come into your organization, and they will still get promoted, and they will grow. And it takes several years to start seeing that pay off. 

Kimberly Martin  19:30
We're starting to see that pay off now in my organization. I think operations is one of the hardest places to hire a gender equal workforce, because people look at that, and either one they, you know, it's been attractive to, I think, not women for a very long time. We don't do a great job of making it look sexy. And then the hours, if you're, you know, a mom, you know, like, I can't afford to get up at 2am, I've got kids. I've got to get kids off to school. And so being able to balance that, say, not every job. Job needs somebody to be on call at two in the morning. Not every job requires, like, deep depth and understanding, like the Linux kernel, but there are plenty of roles out there. Like analytical minds work great in this role, being able to question stuff. I found that the best skill set are people that ask questions and then are willing to put a plan together once you have the answer those questions, those two things are, I think, I think those are my strongest skills, and anybody could bring those in table. It doesn't take a depth of technology knowledge to bring those you just have to be able to ask the right questions and be willing to keep digging until you get, I think, to a final answer.

Lisa Nichols  20:37
Christy Barker, VP and Chief Information Officer of Olin Corporation is up next.

Lisa Nichols  20:43
You know, can you, what, you know, what are some of the most impactful technological advancements that you have implemented Olin, and how are they really contributed to the business's success? Can you, can you just talk about a few of those?

Christy Barker  21:01
Well, you know, I think there are so many levels, and you can't just the change that we have put in place and the capability that we've built inside Olin spans everything from having information and data that you can trust to make decisions on. So, what that means is we had to get to a common data model and definition of what it is that we're looking at. And, you know, understanding how we're measuring our business and, you know, get it so that everybody's in understands that same model. So, it was basics that we had to put in place. We, you know, we had to we put in place all new manufacturing and engineering capability and standardized how we were doing that across all of our manufacturing assets around the world. So that when we're looking at an engineering drawing of a plant, it's coming out. You know, it's we're doing this on a common way across all of our sites. Because then when you start doing this, then you have an engineer who now can span knowledge and expertise and can contribute towards solving a problem that can go beyond their one location. So, you know, how do we connect people and leverage what we're doing on a much broader scale than what we could do before? You know, we put in a whole new SAP, you know, latest and greatest in the chemical industry. 

Christy Barker  22:39
We were one of the very first big global companies to take, take the jump into SAP S4. And, you know, do it in a way that allowed us to take advantage of many of the new technologies that were part of that whole portfolio from SAP. We had new infrastructure, we had to put in place, new collaboration tools for how people were going to work every single day, using taking advantage of cloud. You know, now we're at a position. We're done with all that. We have a whole new a whole new platform, a potpourri of solutions, common data model. So, like now, we're focused on the next way we leverage all that investment we made. So, we're we started our first Artificial Intelligence Center of Excellence within the company. We're talking with partners you know about what that might look like in potential use cases, that that could make a real step change difference on helping people be more productive than they are today. We have our first governance committee that started as kind of our review board, but also making sure, because, you know, AI and especially in this Jenny, I field there, it's growing, or it's changing and evolving so quickly that, you know, there's risks that we need to understand as well. And you know, you know what I need to make sure, and I take it as my job is, this is not a technology to replace people. You know, people will always human needs to be in the loop at all times and make the judgment. But boy, if I can do some of my tactic, you know, tactical work that I do so much faster. Think about the hours I free up.

Lisa Nichols  24:38
Our last episode for part one is Maggie Wilderotter, former CEO for Fortune 500 company, and now the chairman and CEO at Wilderotter Vineyard. 

Lisa Nichols  24:48
So, Maggie, what I'd love to talk to you about, sometimes you do get tapped on the shoulder. Sometimes you do get tapped on the shoulder, right? And you've tapped a lot of people on the shoulder. But I talked to a lot of leaders Maggie, and oftentimes what they say is, no, I raised my hand. I raised my hand for the project that no one else wanted. So, I have a question for you. How do you, because sometimes putting your story out there, letting people know what your skill sets are can feel a little bit like self-promotion, and it can feel a little icky. So, what would you say to people about that? I mean, how can you go about kind of promoting your brand, you know, within the organization, without it feeling icky?

Maggie Wilderotter  25:39
So, you know, look at, I always believe that the best leaders are inside out and outside in all, right? So, you're looking at things holistically. And I also believe that leaders need to build power bases, which is something that a lot of women don't want to do, or they're afraid to do it, or they think it's like icky to do or something. But, but positive power makes the world go round in the right way. Negative power makes it go the wrong way. And I believe in building power through networks. And so, to me, networking was always working. It wasn't an extracurricular activity. It was integrated into everything that I did. And you know, I would raise my hand for projects, for opportunities when I was young. And I always made a list every year of 15 people in business that I wanted to meet and spend some time with. And I would build into my schedule, you know, find out where they were, what things that they, they love to do, and I would work my way into an opportunity to meet them. Either through people that they knew and I knew, right? Or being at a place at the same time they were was whether it's an event or whatever, because networking is working. 

Maggie Wilderotter  27:07
And I also believe that the best way to get to know people is to share a meal with them. Because when you sit down and you eat with someone, you're equals at a table. There's not somebody sitting behind a desk and you're sitting in front of it. There's not somebody who's, you know, got their badge on and they're in a position of power over you or greater than you. When you eat a meal, you're two people or four people, depending on who you're having a meal with, and you're all equals. You're all doing the same thing, and people lean back when they eat, and you get to know them again for who they are, not what they do. And so, I ate my way around corporate America, and it was one it was a big gift, right? Because I got to eat at many fabulous restaurants all over the world with very interesting people. 

Announcer  28:05
Thank you for listening to today's show. Something extra with Lisa Nichols as a Technology Partners Production Copyright Technology Partners Inc. 2019. For show notes, or to reach Lisa, visit tpi.co/podcast. Don't forget to leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Google Play or wherever you listen.  

*Please note, the preceding transcription has been automatically generated and should be used for informational purposes only.