Blocktime

Episode 23: Cultivating Talent & Shaping Leaders with Michelle Wolff

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BlockTime returns! Tune in to Episode 23 as Pierre Rochard engages in a conversation with Michelle Wolff, Riot's Manager of Employee Experience. Michelle's journey unfolds as a step-by-step manual on ascending the corporate hierarchy, starting as an enthusiastic graduate resource and evolving into a crucial member of our team, influenced by Abraham Chavez, our director of software engineering. Michelle delves into Riot's internship program, a product of her vision, where interns aren't just spectators but integral contributors, taking on projects and mingling with top executives! Listen now!

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Block Time podcast produced by Riot Platforms, where we take a deep dive into topics related to Bitcoin, Bitcoin mining and energy. Welcome back, I hope you all had a very wonderful break and happy new year. We're back here with a very special guest, Michelle Wolfe, our manager of employee experience.

Speaker 2:

Hey Pierre, Thanks so much for having me.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for coming on, yeah.

Speaker 2:

I'm very excited.

Speaker 1:

I'm excited as well, because I think that the employee experience is actually something that Riot excels at much, due to your work and efforts, and your team as well.

Speaker 2:

I would have to humbly agree and it's definitely a team effort, but I think we have one of the richest cultures I've been part of, so really happy to be contributing to that. So it's a really exciting role.

Speaker 1:

So I know you were recently promoted, so congratulations on that. I think that's one of the things I've enjoyed seeing here at Riot. A lot is seeing good people kind of rise in their ranks and that's how an organization should be run. But I'm curious of rewinding kind of how did you start your career and end up at Riot?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely. So I went to school for human resource development at Texas A&M and during my time there, I was able to secure an internship at a local nonprofit focused in school board activities, and so I worked there after graduating. And how I was introduced to Riot? Actually, I was referred by our director of software engineering, abraham Chavez, and it sounded like a really exciting opportunity and a really up and coming innovative space. I didn't obviously know much about Bitcoin, but I loved to interview, I loved to meet new people, so I took the interview with my now boss and really hit it off with her. Thankfully and you know, thankfully that led to me starting. So when I joined Riot, I was our corporate recruiter up until very recently. And, yeah, then a lot of things have happened since then, which leads me into this new role, which I'm sure we'll get into, but, yeah, it's been a really fun journey. Yeah awesome.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, emma is great, so happy for you. You mentioned Abraham as well. He also recently got promoted, so congratulations to him. And so you're an Aggie yes, I'm an Aggie and I'm a Longhorn, and so you know. It really shows that everyone can get along at.

Speaker 1:

Riot. Yeah, that's part of our rich culture and I've actually I've been going to College Station a lot and talking with the students and researchers and professors there as well, because they're all very interested in what we're doing Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining. So I think that the other part that I really like about Texas A&M is how geographically close it is. So College Station is close to Rockdale, where we have our facility, and that's close to Round Rock. Here I say close, but Texas-wise close.

Speaker 2:

Texas-close yes.

Speaker 1:

And they have that same, I think, culture as well. There's a lot of overlap in terms of kind, of being salt of the earth grounded, as I like to say, which is an electrical term that I like a lot, and that they are in kind of a rural community, even though Texas A&M is the biggest university in the world, college Station is not the biggest city in the world Exactly. Yeah, so that's wonderful. So what do you've been working on in your time here at the company?

Speaker 2:

So there's a lot that's been going on with Riot. As you know, we've been building a lot from the ground up, not just our facility, but also a lot of our programs and development programs. So some of the main things that I've worked on and contributed to in my time here have been most namely, our internship program. So we're going on our third year this year, in 2024. So, yeah, that's a big one. It's grown tremendously from the first year in 2022. We had three interns to last year, having nine to this year having about nine as well, potentially 10. So, really excited about that.

Speaker 2:

We mentioned Texas A&M. That is a local university that we have recruited a lot at, namely thanks to our partnership and relationship with you and some of the events that you've spoken at there. A lot of the students that was kind of their first introduction to Bitcoin and Riot. So whenever we've interviewed them, they've said, oh, I attended the speech that Pierre had. It was so fascinating and I just had to learn more about this. So, really value that relationship that you have and, yeah, we're just hoping to continue that. We think it's a really great program with really great exposure to Bitcoin, our operations, how we operate and that corporate environment that a lot of students don't always get.

Speaker 1:

So what you say is kind of the ideal intern, if such a thing. You know if we can reduce it to that.

Speaker 2:

Right, I think that might be hard to reduce to, because they all bring such different, unique skill sets to our company. Like you said, it takes all of us working together to create this big company, with our Aggies and our Longhorns and everyone in between.

Speaker 1:

Our engineers and our people persons and yeah, there's a wide range of skills.

Speaker 2:

And that was the beautiful thing about this last year when we had nine interns, we had them across nine departments. So we had IT interns working together, software engineering, hr, marketing, communications, operations. So very different paths in those departments. They have very different focuses and projects going on but they were able to work kind of on a project altogether. Some were pulling data, some were analyzing that data, some were putting it into presentations to really come and find real world solutions for some of the problems and challenges we've been facing. So I don't know that I could say an ideal intern, but just someone that's really I love the phrase humble, hungry, smart. So you know, humble about their skills, that they have, hungry to learn more, smart and get at what they do. So I think I could maybe reduce it to that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's fantastic. I remember when I was in college, after taking a few courses, I thought I knew everything. I was like, oh wow. But then, when you get into the real world, you realize that, one, there isn't always a complete overlap between what you learn in college and the real world. Sometimes things are different. But two is that in the professional environment, you have folks who have been working there maybe five, 10, 30 years, who have learned firsthand so much that you would never be able to learn in a college course, and so I find it really valuable to be quiet and listen when I.

Speaker 1:

You know, I'm talking with quite a few of the folks who have that level of seniority, because there's no substitute for it. You can't learn it in a classroom. At the same time, though, I think that something that I enjoyed with the college students is that it's fresh in their minds the fundamentals, the principles and so quite often they do bring a fresh perspective that might be more up to date. You know they've learned about some new technologies. It's really wonderful having the interns coming through the program.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, and I love that you say that too. I think every student has that they're. Oh, I'm going to Texas A&M and I know everything there is to know about HR. I'm prepared, I'm ready to go, and that's part of the reason why I'm personally so passionate about our internship program, because my own personal internship experience really prepared me. It really opened my eyes to see. Okay, I don't know everything. I really need to lean on my team. I need to lean on my leaders. Seek my leaders out, ask them questions, figure out where my week spots are, where I can develop, and that's really how we have this modeled. We don't expect our interns to know everything, because we know that they're students, but we expect them to come hungry with questions, soak up every minute they can with our team and their leaders throughout the program, because 10 weeks goes by really, really fast, unfortunately, but we have it really jam-packed with a lot of fun and exciting learning opportunities. As you know, you do Bitcoin 101 training with our interns, which is always a fan favorite, so thank you for that.

Speaker 1:

Of course, and I wanna expand on that this summer, so I'm excited about that. So, for students, what kind of what year in college are we looking for? Is that, depending on the specific internship role?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it really kind of depends on what the position is that we're hiring for. We in our job ads we kind of say preferred rising, junior or senior, and that's just because typically when you hit your junior or senior year that's really when you're getting into those core classes. But with that we've been flexible. We hired I think the first year we had a freshman and a sophomore and so we even this past year had a recent high school graduate from Rockdale ISD. He completed the technology program that we kind of partnered with on setting that up. So that was really fascinating just to see, you know kind of that work culminated and him join our company. So we're flexible but we do try to target that junior or senior range just because of kind of where they are in their studies.

Speaker 1:

Got it? No, middle schoolers. Not yet maybe we could have a shadow program STEM for students something like that I think my five year old is ready to start his internship.

Speaker 2:

Oh, I bet.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so that's I mean the high school. Tibet is really fascinating, so that's an possible opportunity. I mean, I think that you know it requires an exceptional situation as well, and for somebody who wants to apply for this, what would you say is kind of the best way to prepare and to think about their application?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely so. All of our internship positions. They're not live just yet, they're gonna go live mid this month, but they will all be featured on our Riot careers page. So if you go to our website, there's a tab that says careers. They'll all be featured there. They'll also be advertised on LinkedIn. So they would need to apply with a resume and to fill out our application.

Speaker 2:

But, as far as what can make someone stand out? I mean, there's a lot of things. We don't require cover letters, but I'm personally a fan of cover letters because they can kind of tell a story beyond the resume. They can tell us, you know, why they're interested in Riot specifically. There's a million internships that our students can choose from. So it really means a lot to us when they say, no, I wanna work for Riot specifically because of your presence in Bitcoin or whatever it is. There's a lot of ways that students can make their application stand out. And that goes back to that hungry piece why do you want this? What's your why? So, yeah, just apply. You can reach out to any of our team members. I know you can. You know there's LinkedIn. Most of us have LinkedIn. You can connect, but the best way would definitely be to submit that application and highlight those projects, the work that you've worked on in your studies.

Speaker 1:

All right. So, yeah, they've got to set up their LinkedIn, set up their resume, write that cover letter. I feel like now, with AI and chat GPT, you should be able to write a cover letter pretty pretty, you know, easily. I don't wanna say that. You know, we're always looking for ways to be more efficient, right, and so that's. I also think, though, that, with chat GPT, have you in your previous role as corporate recruiter, have you noticed? Hey, this was definitely generated by AI, or is that not common?

Speaker 2:

I have heard plenty of stories of other recruiters. I think we don't. We do a very personal approach with our recruiting so we personally review all of the resumes. I know larger companies have, you know, technology that maybe scans them so it may be easier to pick up on. I personally don't use AI or chat GPT that much, but I feel like if you're readable and you're like that doesn't really make sense or it seems very embellished like it might be you know, but I think it is a very useful tool, especially a lot of students that don't have work experience.

Speaker 2:

Maybe they, you know, don't really know how to write a resume, so it's a good starting point. But always go back and add that color or add kind of some details on what makes you you and what's gonna differentiate you again, because chat GPT can only go so far. They don't know you, the person, and what's gonna make you stand out and make you valuable to a team.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, my advice would be for those who want to use AI to write their cover letter. Start with prompt, the AI of one how should I write a cover letter, and they'll provide an explanation for that and to ask it what information do you need to write the best cover letter to apply to riot, a Bitcoin mining company? And that that just gives you lots of avenues for Thinking about. You know how to put those paragraphs together so that then, when human Michelle reads it, she doesn't roll her eyes at the embellishments or the Non sequiturs and bizarre AI statements. And then, yeah, it takes editing to. You can't just absolutely.

Speaker 2:

Use all the resources available to you, but always make sure that you have that personal touch.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, absolutely so.

Speaker 3:

I wanted to jump in here real quick. You know I got to do some interviews with our interns from last year just to have some content for our marketing campaign for it this year and I wanted to bring up that was something that I noticed a lot in. A lot of the answers to my questions were that the internship program that we had last year was very involved in the sense that they were working on real projects that had a lot of Meaning towards the company and the company's goals in general, and a lot of people had mentioned that in other internships. You know in other companies that it's almost like a program that they go through, but in riots program it was more of what are we working on as a company and how can, how can we have our interns really Put their best foot forward and actually help the company out? Michelle, what would you say to that?

Speaker 2:

Yes, absolutely. I think that's a great point. So that goes back to kind of the work being project-based. We, if we were gonna put this effort into designing this program, we didn't want to have our interns making copies and getting coffee right. We wanted it to be valuable, hands-on work where they could apply that theory and get that experience that they need to jumpstart their career, and so that was an expectation that was put on our managers from the very beginning. You know, make this project based work, make it meaningful, make it related to our riot you know mission, strategic goals, all of that and so it was a really collaborative effort.

Speaker 2:

You know, I worked with managers. They work together and I mentioned there was you could almost think of it as like a capstone project. There was there was one Challenge that we were like you know what? Let's have the interns kind of put their, put their brainwork to it and see what they come up with Related to something in our operations, and so it was really beautiful to see them. You know, these nine students that have never met before Come together and really create a team and collaborate with each other and create a product that they all then actually presented to our Like highest, like our executive level, which, as an intern, presenting to that level that's pretty daunting. I personally struggle with that. It's a little scary. So to even just have that presentation experience I think they had a lot of feedback of you know how much they really enjoyed that and how much that you know they feel that set them up for success. So that's absolutely a cornerstone of our program to make sure that they're working on on real, on real problems and real projects.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, that was another thing that I got a lot back from was, you know, they were all excited to have actual interactions with the executive team and not just kind of stuck in their own little teams as far as the interns go right. So everything was very, you know, transparent as far as communicating up and down the ladder was really neat and I enjoyed, you know, having the interns around. It's something that y'all mentioned earlier. You know, there were a good number of interns who had no experience in Bitcoin, and then a number of them also who were really interested in Bitcoin and, and to see both of those camps kind of coming together and really working together was really interesting.

Speaker 2:

Oh, absolutely, I know I feel like after Bitcoin 101, I think you know they all had some interests, but they were like they wanted more. They came to Pierre. They were like teach us about hardware wallets, and so he was able to put something together, kind of on the fly. I felt like, and so again, fan favorite was really cool. I was, you know, sitting in the back like I'm just here for the interns but taking notes. You know how do I set up my hardware wallet, so that was really cool.

Speaker 1:

We'll have to do that again and for other employees as well. So, after they send in their, their application, what, what, what should their expectations be in terms of when they'll get a response and then what the interview process is like, going into Absolutely so.

Speaker 2:

We really, you know, try to take care of the candidate experience. So we call it, and so we really want all candidates that are move forward obviously are gonna be communicated with. We try our very best to communicate with everyone, just so let them know if we've, you know, reviewed their application, if they're moving forward, if they're not. And it's sometimes a little difficult. I think for our software engineering intern position last year we had over a thousand applications, which was mind-blowing, and so you know we really do try our best to go through all of those and give the care that's needed to review that. So once a candidate is selected to move forward, they will have an initial phone screen with myself or our corporate HR generalist and that's to kind of go over the basics of the program, the expectations.

Speaker 2:

So for us, what our internship program is structured like, it's a 10-week summer internship, so it's gonna start May 28th and go through August 2nd, so that's 10 weeks, and it's gonna be a full-time internship, so 40 hours a week, depending on where the internship position is located. It will be a mostly on-site role with potential to work remote, maybe on Fridays, but we really want that in-person connection with the team, the manager. So we just confirm with the intern. Are you able to report to our Austin office? They are paid internships but we don't provide relocation, so it's really important that they're able to meet those.

Speaker 3:

Those expectations.

Speaker 2:

So that's kind of what we're going over.

Speaker 2:

And then we're doing a kind of broad overview of their experience, reviewing any previous internships that they've participated in, relevant coursework projects that they've worked on in school, and from there they typically meet with the hiring manager, maybe a member of the team that they'll be working closely with, to do a deeper, sometimes maybe a technical, interview, like software engineering.

Speaker 2:

They're gonna do a technical interview where they code, they do coding exercises live. So each one's a little bit different depending on the needs of the department, and occasionally there will be a third round interview, just depending on how big the team is or maybe if the intern is gonna be collaborating with another department. So, like this year we're having operations technology intern they're probably gonna have overlap with our IT team as well, so if we want to bring in a peer from that. So that's kind of the interview process. Like I said, positions are gonna get posted mid this month and so those will be starting fairly quickly and with the, the, the program kicking off in May, we're hoping to finish that by mid-March or so, but depends how things go.

Speaker 1:

Got it. Yeah, that makes sense. You mentioned the Austin office. Are there internship roles also in Rockdale and Corsicana?

Speaker 2:

Yes, so this year the and.

Speaker 1:

Costa Mesa and Hong Kong and and everywhere riots global.

Speaker 2:

So majority this year we're gonna be in Austin office, but we should have one in Costa Mesa, I believe two in Rockdale and they may be splitting their time between Rockdale and Corsicana because we do have two active sites and we're growing tremendously. So definitely want them to get that exposure to Rockdale the Finnish site and Corsicana what it looked like before. So I think that's pretty cool.

Speaker 1:

I'm not sure that I would describe Rockdale as a Finnish site, but it is energized and by the time the interns start Corsicana we'll be building A. We'll be quite a way along in terms of being energized. I remember last year we went on site and we had folks who typically come into the office go and deploy some miners and kind of get their hands dirty. Will there be that opportunity for the interns as well?

Speaker 2:

Absolutely another part. We worked really closely with our miner maintenance team at BAR. He created a wonderful program. It was a day we called it Miner Boot Camp, so they got the full site tour. They got to ask questions, touch the immersion liquid and then we actually went back and took apart and reassembled some of our maybe non-working miners just so they could really get in see how it was made. So they really enjoyed that part and I think it's something that we can just continue to expand on as well. So I'm personally looking forward to that day again.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's funny you mentioned. How has it made? It reminded me of this TV show, how it's Made, and working here at Riot. When I go out to Rockdale, I often I think like this is like being in how it's Made, how a Bitcoin is made, that the Bitcoin factory and all the processes that go into that.

Speaker 2:

That's so funny. You mentioned that the first time I visited ESS Metron, I thought the same thing, because I had seen Rockdale and seen something that we had manufactured in place working, so I was like we should film this from start to finish, but I love that you had that same kind of thought.

Speaker 1:

Gabe, we've got a new.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, we'll film the new Riot series on how it's Made, all the way from electrical equipment all the way down to the Bitcoin itself. That's cool. You know, something that y'all had mentioned was the different roles and positions, and, you know, not every IT manager or IT personnel or every HR personnel necessarily needs to go and see how the Bitcoin mining machine is put together, but I think it's really cool that they do get a chance to do that. You know, even if you are working in HR or you are working in IT, it's still cool to realize and see in person how those Bitcoin miners work and what those buildings are doing.

Speaker 2:

Oh, absolutely, and the thought I think you were bringing that up, kind of the thought behind that was you know, we're so passionate about our mission here at Riot. Our leaders bring it up in every town hall every time we talk about strategic goals and so, like you said, yeah, hr isn't super involved with the production of Bitcoin, but we are involved with supporting our people, and so to really understand the why and the how of what Riot does was really important to us. So I really appreciate you bringing that up.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, of course.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that speaks to the culture. I mean, we're not like a generic company, right, Like every company, yes, has an HR department, has an accounting department, but what brings us together is this mission of mining Bitcoin, and so the more we all understand that, I think that enriches the culture 100%, absolutely.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it's just so diverse the amount of people that we have and the roles that we have, and yet everyone is still so mission focused. I think that's really cool about Riot.

Speaker 2:

Yes, that's one of my favorite parts, and we always get that question in interviews. You know what's the culture like, and so that's a fun one to answer.

Speaker 3:

Very integrated, yes absolutely.

Speaker 1:

You brought up ESS Metron. Do they have an internship program as well? Is that separate or is that evolving?

Speaker 2:

I think it's something that's evolving, where they don't currently have interns, but the interest, I think, is definitely there. You know, I think with some of their production goals they have some aggressive timelines and everything, so it's hard to make sure that there's that devoted time, but I think it's something that's absolutely evolving and we get constant interest from managers from every different department. You know how do I get involved in the internship program, so I certainly think you know the sky's the limit with how we'll expand.

Speaker 1:

So, after they've completed the internship, kind of what's the path forward for the interns? Do they convert to full time or is there an evaluation process?

Speaker 2:

Absolutely so. That's something that we, you know, talk to at length with the managers prior to starting the hiring process for our interns. You know we try to see do you have any upcoming department needs that we could potentially use this to transition your intern to a full time employee, and we have been successful in that, actually. So we mentioned last summer we had nine interns. We were able to retain three of those. So those three individuals were actually seniors, they were ready to start a career, they wanted to stay with Riot, and so we're so happy to still have them on our team.

Speaker 2:

So we were able to convert to a junior cybersecurity analyst, our graphic designer and a junior internal auditor. So, absolutely, we are a growing company and this is we are looking at this as one of our recruiting strategies. Not every role, not every department, has that full time need. Sometimes it is purely project based, but it's something that we really encourage managers to look inward, you know, see if there's any department gaps and if this is something that we can use to fill it. So, yeah, very excited to see who we're able to retain in 2024.

Speaker 1:

Fantastic. So the internship program is really. It can be a launching pad for a career at Riot.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. That's how I got my career started and so, again, that's something we want this to be a mutually beneficial relationship. Yes, we're getting great quality work out of our interns, but they're getting experience, they're getting that real world challenge and, like you said, just hopefully launching their career and to either stay with us or try something new.

Speaker 3:

But, yeah, great and the great thing with that is that not only are you getting real world experience, but it's also something that's almost kind of niche. How many people can say that they've worked for a budding Bitcoin company like Riot, you know? Sure, you can have your job, in whatever department that it is, and gain real experience in that HR and that IT or in that auditing space, but at the same time, you're working for a unique company.

Speaker 2:

Oh, absolutely. I always love when people ask me what do you do, I say, oh, I work in HR at a Bitcoin company and they're like what you know? They think that's the coolest thing. And so I know, for a student, like a graduating student, they probably think that's the coolest thing to say yeah, I work at Riot.

Speaker 1:

I imagine. So it leads to lots of interesting conversations about Bitcoin and mining.

Speaker 2:

It definitely does some of the more nuanced ones. Oh, isn't that fake.

Speaker 3:

I'm like no, no, no, I'm a seed, yeah, come on sit down.

Speaker 2:

Let me give you my presentation.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, very real company with lots of very diverse roles.

Speaker 1:

Yes, OK. So the internship program is fantastic. I hope that all of the college students out there will be hitting refresh on January 15th to get their resume in and put their best foot forward. Now, in terms of your new role, what is that bringing on in terms of challenges and opportunities?

Speaker 2:

Yes, absolutely. So much work to be done. Culture is an evolving thing, but for me personally, when I think about employee experience, I'm thinking about the first touch point, so that very first interview that somebody has with us to, hopefully, a long way down the line, their last day with a company. And how do we make that rich? How do we enrich those moments, make them feel like they're part of the culture, they're contributing to it, and, like we've said many times on this podcast already, we think we already have a very rich culture, but it's something we always want to continue improving.

Speaker 2:

So just maybe implementing ways to gather feedback. So how engaged are you feeling with your job, with your role, your department, team, whatever it is, and so there's a lot of things that HR and many other departments have been talking about, and that's like the beautiful thing about RIDE is we've all kind of had this unique opportunity to build something from nothing, and so I think it's challenging but also exciting and rewarding to have that ability in a role. So I might need to talk to you about, you know, some finalized things in the near future, but there's a lot of some really exciting opportunities in front of us.

Speaker 1:

That's great. Now you mentioned until they leave the company, but I would note that I used to work at Deloitte. They have a Deloitte alumni network and so, even after, I think that there's something there in terms of just helping people stay in the loop, and also perhaps there's opportunities they call it boomerang where you, if you leave the company and then you come back and you know, for whatever reason, that's awesome.

Speaker 2:

I really yeah, continued engagement because I still very much am in contact with colleagues and teams that I worked with in the past and just yeah, like you said, keeping it rich after and, like I said, hopefully that's a very, very long time down the road.

Speaker 1:

Yes, when you're retiring at the age of 65.

Speaker 2:

Exactly.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we've got a ways. Until that, us three here, we'll be here for a while.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I like my job, yes very much Okay so, in terms of you mentioned the survey of engagement. So I'm curious about this when I look at my career, there's times and roles where I felt very engaged, like my current one, and then there's other ones where I felt disengaged or I saw others who were disengaged. What causes that, or what are some of the common causes of employee disengagement? But also, then, what is the opportunity for transforming that into engagement?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think there's definitely. Obviously, just in any role there's ebb and flow and workflow engagement, sometimes personal, you know situations can definitely impact your level of engagement or disengagement. So I think sometimes what can happen is employees. I think a number one thing that you see kind of across the board is lack of opportunity for development, and I don't think that that is the case at Riot we already mentioned, you know, a lot. Many, many of our members, of our team members, have had the opportunity to flourish in their careers, try new things, swim outside their lane and really find something that they're passionate about and grow in. And so and that's something you know we're not stopping with that. You know we have currently a company-wide program, the Extreme Ownership Program, which is kind of developing every person as leader. That's kind of one of the core values is that everyone leads regardless of title, and so that's been giving a lot of opportunity for cross-functional work, meeting with different leaders, and so just finding ways like that that continue to enrich.

Speaker 2:

I think where some people might miss the mark is not doing that survey and seeing where people want that to go and just, you know, applying kind of a one-size fits all. We're all very different. We all have very different departments and roles and so figuring out, you know, what is it that's going to make an HR department, you know, happy and feel fulfilled is going to be very different than what makes a minor maintenance department feel happy and fulfilled. So one is probably going to be really excited by new technology and, you know, testing out new immersion cooling techniques or something like that, whereas one's going to be very excited by a new employee tool. So really kind of catering that approach to the individual and recognizing again that there is that ebb and flow and just checking in, if you have an employee that's typically very happy and bubbly and you see a change, you know be that person that reaches out to them and says, hey, what's going on. So I think it's a very collaborative effort that needs to take place from the top down, left to right.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you mentioned extreme ownership. That I found fascinating because long before I joined Riot, even before I joined the advisory board four years ago now, I saw Jaco go on Joe Rogan's podcast and after hearing him on that podcast I was like, all right, I'm going to order your book. You know, this is this is really interesting, it speaks to me and on a lot of different levels, and my wife also got really interested in it. She went to they had an event in New York I think they call it a muster. She went to one of the first ones there, you know, got the book signed by Jaco and then we had Leif Babencom do a training and so I was able to get that same book also signed by Leif. Like many years later. It's, like you know, first edition. So can you speak about kind of what extreme ownership is and why it's a priority at the company?

Speaker 2:

Yes, absolutely, and I love that, that full circle moment for you with Jaco and Leif and rep tying it all together at Riot. So, yeah, extreme ownership. I mean, like I said, it's kind of. There's a lot of principles in the book and I'm by no means an expert, but I'm very invested in it.

Speaker 1:

Humility. I like that.

Speaker 2:

That's one of them, but you know kind of the concept of, again, everybody leads and really developing yourself. It doesn't matter if you're a people leader. You lead by influence, just by working with people. They have their laws of combat, or what we like to refer to as laws of leadership, internally, but basically focused on, you know, teamwork. They call it cover and move, decentralized command. That's everyone leads, everyone understands the why. So it's just about kind of developing us, improving communication and creating a team that has each other's back. So we're going through it, you know, chapter by chapter each month, and I've learned a lot about myself.

Speaker 2:

One of the things in that session that life came. He said this isn't just going to help you at work, it's going to help you at home too. So I listened to those chapters with my husband and I can say our communication has improved tremendously. So it's kind of a fun thing I'm. You know, yes, I'm doing this and focusing on at work, but like I get that time we listen to the audio book together and kind of talk about the principles. So I think that's pretty fun.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I apply the principles with my kids as well. Whenever something goes sideways which you know things happen with kids I'll be the first to say, hey, it was dad's fault, it was my fault, I didn't do this, I should have done that. I'm going to do that next time. And sometimes they say, yeah, it was your fault, because they're kids. But other times they actually show significant maturity and they say it wasn't all your fault or it wasn't your fault, it was my fault or it was mom's fault, and they'll. You know, they're kind of reasoning about causality and I think that what I like about the extreme ownership kind of approach is hey, if we do recognize where we fell short, that gives us the opportunity to improve, but it also gives others the opportunity to cover for us. We can't have strengths on every front. We're going to have weaknesses. We're going to have strengths, but as a team, if we complement each other, then as a team we can all have strengths across the board and be covering each other's weaknesses.

Speaker 2:

I love that and, yes, I could see it backfiring, sometimes with a child that's.

Speaker 1:

OK, right, it's part of the combat Right, but in a work setting.

Speaker 2:

That's one of the biggest things is, if you ever say you know what team I messed up, no one is ever going to say yeah, you're right. So I really think it does create that culture of embracing and saying no, you know what I could have stepped up and I could have done this. And so it's been really cool to see, like that small language shift and how we approach things and we all have room for improvement, right. So I think it's been pretty fun.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I agree. And then we've also had the instructors come in person, yes, and those stick out in my mind as really great memories of team building exercises and learning directly from them.

Speaker 2:

David.

Speaker 1:

Burke was the other one who came. Former Air Force, I believe.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, love his energy. He's an excellent presenter. They all are wonderful presenters, but those have been some of my favorite experiences at Ride as well.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and the most challenging as well.

Speaker 2:

Yes, you have to dig deep, yeah.

Speaker 1:

When he's talking about, like I feel, seen right now.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, have you been following me? Yeah, I love that.

Speaker 1:

OK, so internships, extreme ownership, what are some of the other kind of big focuses that you foresee in 2024?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean we've mentioned Corsicana and obviously that's a huge focus of Riot and with that build out is a large hiring event is coming along with that. We have to staff that whole site.

Speaker 2:

Quite large, I think when we tallyed up the head count. We're looking at about 140 new hires which we've already embarked on. So our recruiting team is incredible. Can't give them enough props and recognition in both Rockdale, corsicana, and then we assist where we can as well at corporate. But we've already chipped away at some of that and we're making great relationships with the Corsicana workforce solutions. We've gone to a couple career fairs out there in Midlothian and some of the surrounding towns. So that's a big, big focus for HR, just making sure we hire the right people for this great state of the art new facility. So that's a big focus. And yeah, I mean just kind of looking at ways to continue building engagement.

Speaker 1:

Is Corsicana too far from Dallas for folks to commute, or is that a hiring pool as well?

Speaker 2:

I think in some I think the southeast side of Dallas we've met some people. They are like nope, I'm happy to commute two hours one way, no problem for me. So we really are trying to be as broad as we can in that approach. We've had some people relocate and so absolutely anything in that northern part of Dallas probably would be a little bit more difficult with the morning traffic. But yes, absolutely, we're trying to target not only the rural communities that surround Corsicana, but also Dallas.

Speaker 1:

That's wonderful. So, yeah, if anyone's in that area, please do find a way to engage and maybe your talents will really help the company.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely tell your friends.

Speaker 3:

Hiring for all types of different positions.

Speaker 1:

Yes, yeah, very much. Ok, well, this has been wonderful, gabe. How are we doing on time?

Speaker 3:

We've got about 35 minutes down already, so I mean we're doing pretty well. All right, yeah, I mean, michelle, is there anything else that, project-wise, you've been working on for 2024? I know we've covered a lot already as far as the internships, extreme ownership, hiring and Corsicana. Anything else that comes to mind?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, those take up a large portion of my time. We did mention extreme ownership and that's something where we're working on rolling out actually this month at ESS Metron as well.

Speaker 3:

So that's been really exciting and yeah, I know there's, you know it's like someone asks you what do you do in a day and you're like what do?

Speaker 2:

I do so. Yeah, I know that's the majority.

Speaker 1:

Excellent. Well, thanks for coming on the podcast. We enjoyed the conversation and, yeah, we're looking forward to this summer's internship class.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, thank you so much for having me. This has been such a pleasure to talk about something I love with my wonderful colleagues, so thank you both.

Speaker 1:

Thank you to our audience. We look forward to seeing or speaking here, for we look forward to podcasting more in 2024. Thank you all for tuning in. Feel free to share the podcast. In particular, share this episode. If you have any nieces or nephews or daughters, granddaughters in college or just friends, please do let them know about the opportunity to intern at what I think is the best Bitcoin mining company in the world. And we'll see y'all next week. Cheers.

Speaker 3:

When is the right time? Question.

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