Unpacked with Ron Harvey
People Always Matter. Join Ron as he unpacks leadership with his guests.
Unpacked with Ron Harvey
Lead with Love: How Authenticity, Trust, and Giving Drive Impact Leadership with Diana Barbiani
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Ron Harvey explores people-first leadership with advisor and entrepreneur Diana Barbiani, tracing her journey from Croatia to San Diego and the lessons that shaped her approach to business, trust, and community. She shares why relationships—not tools—fuel team performance and customer loyalty, and offers practical guidance for founders: leveraging SBDCs, anticipating business phases, hiring for values, coaching to standards, and building a culture that attracts the right customers and talent. The episode emphasizes giving first, leading with love, and using generosity to build lasting growth and brand trust.
• people-first leadership and love as a business advantage
• immigrant journey shaping values and resilience
• free help for small businesses through SBDC
• anticipating phases of growth and planned reinvention
• authentic branding that attracts the right customers
• culture as customer experience and talent magnet
• moving from code switching to real presence
• trust-building beyond résumés and titles
• relationships and reciprocity over transactions
• giving circles, philanthropy, and local impact
• lead with a give before the ask
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Just Make A Difference: Leading Under Pressure by Ron Harvey
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The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any organization or entity. The information provided in this podcast is intended for educational and informational purposes only and should not be considered as professional advice. Listeners should consult with their own professional advisors before implementing any suggestions or recommendations made in this podcast. The speakers and guests are not responsible for any actions taken by listeners based on the information presented in this podcast. The podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice or services. The speakers and guests make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the information, products, services, or related graphics contained in this podc...
Welcome & People-First Philosophy
SPEAKER_01Welcome to Unpack Podcast with your host, Leadership Consultant, Ron Harvey of Global Core Strategies and Consulting. Ron believes that leadership is the fundamental driver towards making a difference. So now, to find out more of what it means to unpack leadership, here's your host, Ron Harvey.
SPEAKER_03Well, good morning, everyone. This is Ron Harvey, the Vice President, Chief Operating Officer for Global Course Strategies and Consulting. No, we run a leadership development firm out of Columbia, South Carolina. My wife and I, and everybody that follows knows that already. And so we spend all of our time helping leaders be better connected to the workforce. Our framework and our and our mindset is people always matter. And so we get leaders to really focus on the human part of it. Like, how do you take care of your people? Everything else will fall in place. And we talk about that on our podcast. So today, you know, excited to always release an episode every week for you to grow with us, learn from us. We learn from you, have fun with this. So this is unpacked for a reason. We just talk about things that happen for real. Um, so we don't know what the next question is or the next statement is. What we do promise we'll have fun and we'll talk leadership. Um, super excited to have another guest who does other stuff with our company around partner to empower, helps us educate entrepreneurs and business owners. Um, but she has a story of our own, and I always invite our guests to introduce themselves. Once Diana uh does that, we're gonna dive into the question. So let me move out of the way and invite you to the microphone. Thank you for saying yes.
SPEAKER_00Good morning. Thank you for inviting me. And uh yes, wonderful to be a part of this podcast. Wonderful to be a part of uh partner to empower with Brookfield and uh anything else that is in book for us, in books for us uh moving forward. Yeah, Diana Barbiani, originally from Croatia, born and raised. I was 22 when it came over. Uh, some some question like, how come I don't have a very strong accent? Or they asked me, oh, is it a jersey is a New York accent? I'm like, Yeah, I was married to a New Yorker for many, many years. That's why I sound like him, and it won't go away. So here we go. Many, many years here, more years on this side of the big pond than over there, but uh strong ties to my my community and uh many other communities. I live now in and thrive in San Diego, California, and that's a melting pot. So I uh enjoy the multicultural, multinational, multi-ethnic uh environment that I I looks like I thrive in. So I'm I'm very happy to be here. Thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_03Oh yeah, love it, love it. I mean, and thank you for reaching out. You're like, hey, how do I get on the podcast? And you're helping us do a lot of stuff, but you're doing some great things as well, and we'll dive into those. But let's let's unpack, you know. I mean, you shared, you know, coming from Croatia, very young, um, and and really trying to figure out how to navigate in in a different country that's probably totally different
Diana’s Journey From Croatia To San Diego
SPEAKER_03from what you were accustomed to, right? What were what were some of the biggest challenges you had to come over overcome initially?
SPEAKER_00Sure. Uh, I was blessed that I had very strong interest, and environment was conducive to language learning. So in Europe, as you know, I mean, you drive two hours and then you're in two other countries, right? Um, so that's how my hometown is. Like it's very close to Italy and then um up north Slovenia and then Germany, Austria, very, very close. So I learned English um actually by translating some of my favorite uh bands and songs. Uh so that was not a hurdle of it was not much of it, but was the it was the culture, right? Like people were super welcoming and super nice, uh, you know, trying all kinds of different foods and falling in love with Mexican cuisine, still love it, and just being in the a big city, my hometown is small, two and a half, like when I was growing up, about less than 3,000 people. So landing in San Diego in 1998 was just like an eye-opener, like gone to a baseball game or a football game, and there's like 30,000 people in the stands. Wow, I still have that feeling of like a good overwhelm. Like, wow, like you're just a part of the community and you see the fans and everything. So that was uh that was a beautiful thing. Uh, a couple other things uh and like many immigrants, I did not have papers for many, many years to actually legally be here. I did uh have a I came on a student visa, I just fell in love with the country, let love with the people, okay. America is people first, right? Um, politics aside and all that stuff. So I was like, I want to stay here by any means necessary, and I did, and I'm thriving. And believe it or not, don't let them fool you what they say. Oh, American dream is to leave America. To me, no, not at all. And to many of my immigrant friends, America is still here, America still provides, because America is people. So that that continues to that continues to be a part of my ever-living and ever-evolving American dream.
SPEAKER_03So, you know, you said, you know, being in America, you enjoyed it, the people, you know, people first. I want to unpack something for you. You use a word that the often leaders don't use. You know, love and leadership. How important is it for you to, you know,
Love As A Leadership Principle
SPEAKER_03was it for you to to really fall in love with it so you can do well at it? And and you know, you think leadership and you think people and you think of connecting with people. How does love fit into leadership?
SPEAKER_00Thank you for asking. So maybe, maybe because of the fact that I never had a corporate America job. Maybe, you know what I mean? Close friends of mine did. Some still do. There's very little love in corporate America, very little, I would I'm I would dare to say even respect. Um, it's still run very much so, like um not even like an army. I can't even find the word, like the horror stories that they tell me. Now I coach some of the folks that came from that, and they have to unlearn and kind of like you say, unpack and just uh re-rewire their brain when they're going from corporate to let's say in business ownership. So maybe I was blessed that I didn't, I was not ever touched by the the the grueling circumstances of corporate America. Because in business ownership, you have to display the love and care, especially for your people. If you what we talked about a second ago, um, your team, you have to love them. You need to why would you work? Why would you employ somebody that you don't love? That you don't love how they are and everything. So for me, that's that's vital. And the low older I get, that's it. Yeah, I lead with love, and that's everything's so much easier. Everything's so much easier.
SPEAKER_03I mean, and I agree 100% with you. I tell people, you know, if you don't love people, it's hard to leave people. Um, because there's this authentic, genuine care about who they are, you know, and you want to get results, but but if you take care of people, the results happen. Um, and I think that's so important. So you so when you think about the work that you're doing, you know, you work in SBDC, you're in San Diego, um, you're helping entrepreneurs and business owners. What are some of the things when you think about helping those individuals? And let's speak to entrepreneurs for a second. So, all the entrepreneurs that are listening, what are some of the best what are some of the best things you you really advise entrepreneurs, you know, and I'll leave a little bit with that for you, Diana? I always tell them the SBDC, your taxes are paying for it, leverage the service before you go pay a coach like me, because I'm gonna, you know, I'm a business, I'm a and I'm not a non nonprofit. So if I hire me, you gotta pay for it. And I don't want people to pay out of their pocket if their business can't afford my service. What other advice do you give entrepreneurs and business owners about how to get the best help without going bankrupt or broken?
SPEAKER_00Yes, thank you. And that's love. See, when you say that, go to somebody else to get help before you come to me and be ready for me. That's love, that's like the perfect display of love. Uh, yes, thank you. So, SBDC Small Business Development Centers, that's my nine to five. That's my life. I feel like I'm uh lifer now, as they call it. You know, I started in 2019, I'm not going anywhere. My boss won't let me quit. Um, you know, absolutely love a scene, especially in San Diego, very, very, very diverse community. As a matter of fact, maybe I just like attracts like, so I do get first generation a lot. First generation immigrants that are maybe again from circumstances don't necessarily go work in corporate America. They opened their own businesses, mostly because they had some type of business in their home country. But for anybody in general, there's so many free resources. America is very pro-business. California is very pro-business. Maybe Texas is a little better, maybe some other states. We are regulated, but we teach a business, and there are so many different um resources. I love to say that um phases uh in business. When I was running a uh decent sized retail chain uh and a decent size of money or revenue that we were trying to achieve, um, it was the situations and the phases of business. So let's say when we had a couple of two two or three locations, the same vendors and the same relationships that we developed did not bring us to you know eight million in revenue 10 years later or 20 years later. No. So there'll be always this phase, almost like a growth spurt of the company internally. And you say lucky, but I say same, uh, you know, attracting the right people to work with us and stay with us for that long to hold the the core group of uh um people and hold the hold the fort kind of thing, and then other people come and go. But every phase we had to reinvent ourselves as a company from the top, and it was hard because again, it was me, it was at that point my husband, now my ex-husband. It was hard to actually, you know, for us individually reinvent ourselves with that next phase of business. So I would advise uh small business owners to watch out for those phases and almost predict them, almost be. I call myself an agent of change, so almost anticipate that change and make that change because love will change make that change for you. And in business, the change that you're not controlling or uh initiating yourself is never, never good. Never in your favor, never in your favor because somebody else is
Free Help For Entrepreneurs: SBDC
SPEAKER_00doing it, right? Like you're just a dripwood um going in there. So yeah, maybe that that's like a you know 30,000-foot overview of like you know, the the big faith. But I would also say people, culture, cultures can be implemented in corporate world, and cultures can be implemented in business. Think about businesses when you walk in, and how do they make you feel when you walk in? Some restaurant, maybe a favorite restaurant of yours. Is the food great? Is the Michelin Stark quality? Probably not. That's okay, but how do they make you feel when you come in, right? And how do you when you when you leave, how do you feel? So some of those things you want to implement in your business.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you you spoke about thank you for sharing. You spoke earlier, and you talked about you know attracting people that are like-minded or people that, and because you want the diversity and the difference of people, but you want people that have a mindset to help you win. What do I need to be? Or what are some of the characteristics for leaders that are listening to say, how how do I show up where I do attract the right people? So I want to speak to those people that are trying to figure out um that may be struggling with attracting the right talent. What is it about me that or about an individual that's in that position that they should pay attention to about themselves?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, thank you for asking. And something it's something that I'm very passionate about. And finally, as a business advisor, business consultant, I am letting this be the guide for the clients when I see them. I am done separating, which I used to, maybe just because of my position, our program, you know, our nine to five, we're federally funded. So I have to put on some type of role when I am in that position. In my business, my consulting business, I can be a little bit more me. But I'm realizing the more clients I see, and mind you, I see on average 20 to 25 clients, sometimes new clients a week. Okay. I spend an hour with these folks and try to help them the best I can. I'm realizing that if they do the, you know, code switch that in many different areas, yes, yeah, it happens, they're actually show up as somebody else. They show up in business or in leadership as a representative and not their themselves. So often I see that they're take on that persona of a what they think that the business owner should be, but they're actually fantastic people in their private lives, but they don't want that part to actually even show. I teach workshop uh good business, or I used to good business, how to implement charitable giving in your business, and that's like a big passion of mine, philanthropy. Um, and people give, but they don't ever showcase. I said, You have a business that's a good rep, that's a great reputation for your business that you are organizing fundraisers or donating uniforms to local team. Whatever it is, showcase that in your business. So that's just a small component. People just send the representative to their job, then they have to be in that code switch mode the whole day. They're performing, they're not, you know, again, speaking from the heart or just being themselves. So that leads to burnout, that leads to you know, dissatisfaction, all kinds of stuff. And of course, the alignment. If you're not aligning with that role and you took it because of money, reputation, title, whatever, that's terrible. But I hope that uh explains at least my version of how I feel.
SPEAKER_03It does, and I think that's important, is it is it's very hard to continue to co-switch, you lose yourself in the midst of it. Um, and I think it's so important that how do you make sure you show up authentically as who you are? Um, and and I love that you mentioned no, I'm no business owner, no, we're in Columbia, South Carolina. And one of the things that you said that we we had to learn and do better is how do you let people see what you're doing in the community, other than you're making money in the community, you know, and that's the way you become a philanthropy, you know, or you start giving back or you start helping the organization. So become a part of your community, you know, every dollar counts. I mean, and and when you first start, you may can only donate 20 bucks. Uh, you may be only to volunteer so much time, but as you grow, the community wants to see you participate and support and help. And so I'll tell you, we had to learn that and we do much better at it, you know, um, because we can now. But I'll tell every business owner figure out a way to give something back to your community.
SPEAKER_00100. That is where the magic is because today people are really looking more and more how they spend their money. I'm not talking when we're going to you know Target or Walmart and we're spending on frivolous stuff and buying snacks for kids. No, no, no, no. I'm thinking where do our monies go intentionally after we, you know, done some uh impulse buys, like where can that money go? And I always tell my small business owners, like when you're going to show the reputation of your business, show some of that personality of yours. And then, but they they want like a they want to fit all, and then that's like a number one mistake in marketing. You're not selling to everybody, you're only selling to your people. So if you're a tattoo shop and you look all tough, and that's only for people that want to get tattoos, and everybody else will fall off, right? So you have to find a match by being authentically yourself and attracting the people that are willing to pay and willing to be with you and willing
Anticipating Business Phases And Change
SPEAKER_00to you know spend their hard-earned money with you. So the more authentic you show up, the the the rest falls off because they're not your people, anyways. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_03They'll come in and everybody's not for you.
SPEAKER_00Nope, nope, nope, yeah. They'll come in and uh complain that the soup was cold when soup is supposed to be cold, okay?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, everybody's not your customer, yeah. Everybody's not your client, everybody's not your tribe. No, so you know, be very, very intentional. Um, and it's not being mean or anything, but you have to define who you are, and it will attract the people that you want. I want to I want to unpack something for you. I mean, you're you're you're you're here, you're an entrepreneur, you're working for SPDC. When you think about the person that that really, you know, you took you spoke relationships earlier. How significant was it for you based on what you're doing now and what you want to achieve in life were relationships to you getting things up done?
SPEAKER_00Everything. Every time when I go against it, or I'm trying, let's say, and not that I'm not teaching, yeah, I'm still teaching folks, collect the emails, let's make make an email marketing campaign, B2B, B2G, business or government, right? Uh um build some name recognition and those folks, you're developing relationships. But often people are not asking of their circle of influence already that is there to help them. And those are the relationships that they should be tapping into, nurturing, and you know, always with here first, first the give and then the ask, right? Like, what am I giving first and then what am I asking? But people are just shying away. I think maybe again the disconnect, like in personal life, if you're moving, you would ask a friend to come help you move. But no, in business, it is just hard for people to tap into the relationships that they already have. And I bet you that majority of us that are you know on the giving side, it's even harder for us to ask. And we know that we have the relationships and we're building them and nurturing them the whole time, but it's a one-way street. So that's also something to consider. Like, who are we surrounding ourselves with are those quality relationships that we can tap into? There's no shame when you need help. As a matter of fact, it's it's it's a privilege to be, you know, helping somebody that needs it and then come on board, just you know, don't ask when it's too late, kind of thing. So relationships are everything.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I tell people all the time, and I think you're spot on. Oftentimes, the givers struggle at at letting people give. Yes, yeah, you know, they're good at giving and helping, but they're they're they they're very hard on themselves of asking for help and receiving it when it shows up. And always tell people, I said, there are a ton of people if you're a good person that want to help you. Um, so be okay with sharing that you can use to help, and when it shows up, let them help you.
SPEAKER_00100%. Yeah, that's nobody goes at it alone, especially in business, even in leadership roles. If you aren't a successful manager or rector or something, you're not you're not there because of your work. You're there because hopefully you are directing and managing people in the right way, and those people are doing work for you. So, all you have to do is so, as you said, support the people, support the people. Absolutely, you know what I mean? Like the managers in our kind of analogy in the restaurants, right? Like we all love and love, and we have some of our favorite restaurants. But when the manager they can come to the table and they can say like seconds of their like something to me as a guest, I'd rather see that manager go in a back room and you know, high five with their employees or having fun with them, right? That's it, that's where the magic happens. Support your people, and then those people support the customers and everything else. Yeah, love it.
SPEAKER_03Yes, make them feel like you want the guests to feel. And I tell you know, leaders help your people feel the way you want them to help your guests to feel, you know. So the high five and the pay attention to the details and know their birthday and know their name and check on them, all those things that that that allow you to have the human connection is super important. So if you're in leadership, make sure your people know you see them, hear them, and you value them. Um, I always tell people, Diana, there's a difference between appreciate and tolerate.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yes.
SPEAKER_03People can tell when you're just tolerating them versus you truly appreciate them, and that's a hover that you can you can actually fix, you know. So check your circle and see if your people feel like, yeah, Ron just got me around to get the bottom line or get the result or make the profit margin he wants to make or to get the brand he wants. Oh, Ron really values me. He takes my opinion, he listens to things, he asks questions, and he checks on my family, and he oftentimes talks with nothing that I'm asking for. I'm just checking on you. So pay attention to how do people feel? Do they feel like you appreciate them or do you feel like you're just tolerating them to ends to the uh to the means that you're trying to means to an end?
SPEAKER_00100%. And there's so much in it, and that's why the difference is between the good and the great people that are leaders. They are normally they they have the heart, they know that we are people first, and they know how valuable you are and and the work, and then they pour into you first because again, they're building you up, and then you build the business because you can't really pour, you know, as they say from an empty cup. And if your your employees are empty, then there's
Culture, Customer Fit, And Authenticity
SPEAKER_00nothing that they can give, and they're actually running your business. How terrible is that? We had retail stores at one point. My former spouse and I had 16. We could be only in two, yes, him in one, my me and the other one. Okay, our two two kids that we put as a you know, child labor, they could be another two, but what about all the others? So you have to trust people at some point, and you had to show up, like we talked about authentically, so they stay with you. And we were proud to build out the business because of the people. As a matter of fact, we ended up opening more retail locations because we had people waiting for us to work for us, right? Yeah, so it was it was wonderful, and the operation is still going, and I try to help as whenever I can. But um, it's wonderful to see that it's still thriving in the foundation that we put together. Um, it's still it's still it's still there and unshakable, you know.
SPEAKER_03Yes, for sure. Well, I'm gonna unpack one more thing before we begin to wind it down for everyone. You mentioned the word, and this is we'll probably have to do another another episode of this, but we'll we'll we'll touch on it a little bit before we wrap up.
SPEAKER_02Sure, sure.
SPEAKER_03You said trust your people. Trust is a challenge in today's society. People don't trust their supervisors or the managers, and and and managers don't trust their staff. How do we fix this problem of lack of trust across our entire society?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's a big one. Um, there's really trust, respect. There's other aspects, right, that are so vital. And you really, really cannot move forward in a long term. I'm always like I'm thinking always long term. I read a book and and and it said something about like um, and in Chinese culture, when they're building a business, they're thinking about a hundred-year period. Forget about five-year plan, hundred years. That's many generations, right? Because they're building a business and they're leaving it to their to their you know, um uh children, grandchildren, and so on. So if there's no trust, forget about it. That's it, like everything else, even respect, and you know, it's not even real, real uh respect if there is no trust, it's falling. You really, I think when I am trying to engage with anybody or try to uh let my or guide my my entrepreneurs or uh clients that I see into trusting uh when they're building a company, when you're leaving a store or a business for somebody to run for you, the reputation that they're giving, right? Employees also build the uh reputation of the company. There has to be a high trust level and really is approaching them first as people. You really need to know, like who you're engaging with. Again, that mask kind of when it comes off when you're clock out. Who are they? And can you even trust them to you know that's why some cultures have a test, right? What do they do? They put you in a boardroom and you talk for an hour, and then they take you out drinking and see who's gonna who's gonna fail, how you're gonna act when you're when you abbreviate it, abbreviate it. So, like who are you really? Yes. Oh, yeah, there's there's you know, where there's one way to do business, which is America, but there's different ways in other parts of the business, and then like that's where you build trust, or that's where you see if it's trustworthy or not. So there's tests that people go through, and it's very interesting. Not that I'm recommending implementing something like that here, but you it has to be something beyond just seeing that title, seeing their you know, academic achievements, seeing like, oh, what was the last job they had? There has to be more. So that is how the trust is built. Yeah. But at one point you have to let it go and let some people say, God, universe, whatever, right? You have to because you can. You you just can't. You're you're not gonna you're not gonna grow in business and you're not gonna um yeah, it's very, very hard to grow without human capital and without without trusting that human capital, they're gonna do the right thing. Okay, show them how to do it, let them go.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, I love it. I love it. And and what I tell people, you know, I love that you're having a conversation, you know, as I was sharing earlier, just released a book called Impact Leadership, and it speaks to everything you're talking about. The things that don't show up on LinkedIn or don't show up on your profile or not in your resumes on your bios, you know, you got to be smart to get a job, but you got to have human connection. People are how you get things done. My degree doesn't get stuff done, my certification doesn't get it done. You know, all those things are are nice to say that you're competent, but to really get stuff done with people, you're gonna have to have relationships, and all the things you're talking about are huge for every leader that's listening. What are the things that you bring to the table that have a real impact? It's not your degree.
SPEAKER_00No, mm-mm. Because everybody has it these days, you know, like lots of people have it. You have to see why you why you're so unique, right? Uh, a friend of mine is uh the chief season in the US Navy just passed. And friend of mine was training, he had the appointed person, and for six weeks he asked the same question every day. So, what do you bring as a as a new appointed chief? Like, what do you bring to the table? And mind you, these people have been enlisted for many years now. Yes, and on the last day, he told me that the uh the person that he was in charge with, he was a sponsor, said, Me, I bring me. Yeah, and that was that was the answer, right? Like they bring something that nobody else can match, and it's them. And then when we unpack, like, okay, who are you? What are you? I hope
Attracting Talent By Being Yourself
SPEAKER_00we find something good in there, right? But beyond the skill, beyond the academia, like who are you really? And that's in the corporate world and even in business. I think the business people are a little easier to show that personal side of business, as my my friend has a podcast personal side of business. I love that. Like they can show that side a little more, like the personality, right? Even in the business that they're choosing, the how they show up, the visibility. But for corporate world, I think we're still wearing many, many masks and many, many layers, and that's why it's harder to get to the deeper part of who are you and and can I trust you? Can I form a long-term relationship with you so that either we're here or we're out on a hike and I fall and you're gonna carry me or call for help or something. So yeah, it has to be yeah. I wish we start with I wish we start with personality first, you know, like don't ask me what I do for a living. Like ask me, you know, like how do I get involved with my charities or what do I do on Saturday morning, not Monday through Friday? Yes, um, yeah, get to know me as a person first because though everybody's and then if you don't dig deeper or you don't ask questions or you give them a chance, you miss out on so many beautiful relationships, and that's that, right? Like you don't want to miss out on the people that are your people, but both of you are wearing a mask and white, right?
SPEAKER_03I love it, I love it. Well, you've done a great job. I mean, love the conversation. Um, love to bring you back for people that are listening, they want to reach out to you. I mean, you you bring a lot to the table. People have questions all the time. They love to reach out to the people that we have as guests. What's the best way to contact you?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so uh through SBDC, San Diego, Small Business Development Centers, and then I do have a website, I do have my own business, it's a consulting business. I serve normally I you know jump in uh um incubators or accelerators for nonprofits that serve small business community, and that's why I'm um partner to empower um member and um facilitator. But uh the repacademy.biz is the website, um, and you know, LinkedIn, LinkedIn. I don't think anybody on LinkedIn is with my first and last name. So unique. Yeah, yeah, one of those. Yeah, one of those. Get to know me. I am uh what we one of the things that we didn't uh spend enough time, and maybe this is another episode, Mr. Ron, is the charitable giving. Yes, I am on on the leadership role of uh San Diego Women's Giving Network. I absolutely enjoy it. It's a giving circle. We pull our monies together, nominate the local charity and donate. I were inching to a hundred thousand in the two and a half years. I'm very proud. And uh, we're gonna have a little party. Thank you, thank you. Yes, uh, giving circles are all around the country, you don't have to do it alone. Again, find your tribe, find a giving circle. Uh um, pull your monies together and give to charity. And these charities are absolutely wonderful, they appreciate every penny that they get that they didn't have to work for. We just did all the leg work for them, and it was pleasure.
SPEAKER_03So, yes, yes, yeah, and it's needed, it's needed, um, and it's very appreciated. You know, so thank you for bringing it up and continue to talk about giving. Um, and it's important. I mean, our communities are looking for it and definitely they're doing some great work out there, you know. So, as we as we wrap up, if for everyone that's listening, is there one thing that you want you say to make people more effective at taking care of people? What's the one thing that's worked for you all the time?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, um, something that I touched upon earlier. When I go, and I was in sales, I was in B2B sales before. Now, in the last couple of years, I got clients on the government contracting side, right? Maybe it's not always appropriate, but you know, when they teach you when you're doing the elevator pitch and what is your ask, let's let's let's shift the conversation. Let's see, let's do a give first, right? Let's see, can we give first? Every um when I was even in part of your program, part Yes, a client of mine told me about it because again she's in San Diego and she wanted to participate. The times didn't work. I went on the website, I found the leadership. I said, I didn't even know that you guys are you know compensating for it. I was like, Can I be a part of it, please?
SPEAKER_02I love retail.
SPEAKER_00I have I have shopping uh you know, I have I have shopping mall experience. That was my first business. Talk about business. I I got it when I was in the country, like as I call a fresh off the boat. So please, in when you want to be or when you even want to do business with somebody, go with lead with what you can give and not what you can ask of them, right? And when you're building a relationship, show up for somebody, don't think because they are giant or you admire them or you want to work with them and get compensated. They also need something. Ask them what you can give, what can I give to you first? And then your ask will be answered by itself.
SPEAKER_02Trust me.
SPEAKER_00Every time I've done that, I was like, Oh, okay, you're paying
Relationships Over Transactions
SPEAKER_00for this. Oh, oh okay.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, love it. I mean, our entire team, when we started putting it together, we just asked for resources and and we were able to go back and compensate and say, Look, we're we thank you for showing up. Glad you're willing to help. But here's what we want to do. And I will tell you, I love that you say, How do you give? and then it will take care of itself. So, all the entrepreneurs, everybody that's listening, find a way to give something, and you'll be amazed. You know, you know, one of the phrases if you really want to get what you want, help enough people get what they want, and it will take care of itself. So, continue to give. Um, for everyone, thank y'all for joining us. You can find me on LinkedIn as well. Hopefully, you go out and like the podcast, tell people about the podcast. Um, definitely it's important for me as a podcaster to tell you to review it, to vote on it, to share it, you know, because we definitely want to continue to add value to our entire community. Um, by the way, NSA, if you're familiar with it, is going to be in San Diego next year. National Speakers Association will be in San Diego. I plan to make that trip. So uh hopefully we'll get to see each other face to face.
SPEAKER_00I would love to go to that. I'm always trying to brush up on my uh facilitation and speaker skills. I love to share the passion, the love, uh, and then of course, business advice.
SPEAKER_03That all comes like in a San Diego next year, so you may want to look that up. And I plan to make it so uh we should be able to see each other face to face in 2026. 2026 for everyone else. Yes, thank y'all for joining us. Thank you for hanging in there with us. We enjoyed it. Hopefully, we gave you something that that's helpful on you on your journey or what you're trying to get accomplished. If you ever need either one of us, myself or Diana, please reach out to us. We definitely will help. And if we don't have the answer, we will point you in the right direction. Um, we believe in collaborating and helping and supporting people across the entire country, so not just in our city. If we know someone in another city, we will point you to them and help you figure out how to get in touch with them. We'll make a phone call for you and ask the people to talk to you. So please reach out to us. Um, again, thank y'all for hope uh joining us on Unpack with Ron Harvey for another episode. And we look forward to you seeing you in the future on another episode and supporting what we do.
SPEAKER_01Thanks everyone. Well, we hope you enjoyed this edition of Unpack Podcast with leadership consultant Ron Harvey. Remember to join us every Monday as Ron Unpacks Sound Advice, providing real answers for real leadership challenges. Until next time, remember to add value and make a difference where you are for the people you serve. Because people always matter.
