The Dave Crenshaw Success Show
Learn how to achieve balanced and lasting success with world-renowned author and keynote speaker Dave Crenshaw! Dave has already taught millions how to be more productive through his online courses—now listen in as he explores the untold stories of some of the world’s most accomplished people. Dave’s mission is to help his kids become successful human beings, and you get to come along for the ride! Discover how to develop your career, manage your money, find time for fun, build stronger relationships, and make your mark in the world. Every episode ends with clear, concise tips you can implement to reach your goals. If you’re looking for a wholesome, family-friendly podcast to achieve happiness and find prosperity, The Dave Crenshaw Success Show is for you!
The Dave Crenshaw Success Show
The Mother of Tech Talent, Neelima Parasker - CEO of SnapIT Solutions
Neelima Parasker, President and CEO of Snap It Solutions LLC, discussed her journey from India to the U.S., where she pursued a master's in computer science. Initially working in Kansas City, she rose to leadership roles, managing teams of up to 250 people. In 2015, she founded Snap It Solutions, focusing on training and deploying tech talent, particularly underrepresented groups. Despite a demanding schedule, she emphasizes balancing work with personal time and self-healing. Neelima serves on various boards, including the Kansas Board of Regents, and advocates for documenting processes to scale operations. She aims to create a ripple effect of success and impact through her company and community involvement. Listen to her story today and choose which action principle resonates most with you.
Action Principles
Pick one to do this week:
1. Challenge yourself. Seek out more "real" experiences that push you out of your comfort zone. ACTION: Sign up for an activity you've always wanted to try this week.
2. Find an accountability partner. A trusted partner or friend can encourage and push you to realize your full potential. ACTION: Reach out to someone you admire and trust and ask to be accountability partners.
3. Document systems. When your processes are recorded, you improve both consistency and efficiency. ACTION: Schedule time to record all of your processes, both professionally and personally.
4. Strive for a healthy balance. Try to allocate at least 30% of your time for personal and self-care activities to maintain your energy and innovative mindset. ACTION: Schedule blocks of time in your calendar to do fun activities and relax.
Guest Resources
Follow Neelima Parasker on LinkedIn to learn more about her and SnapIT Solutions.
Suggested LinkedIn Learning Courses
Time Management Fundamentals
Balancing Work and Life
Free Time Management Course
Thanks to Dave Crenshaw's partnership with Microsoft and LinkedIn Learning, you can get free access to his full course, Time Management Fundamentals, at DaveGift.com.
Dave Crenshaw develops productive leaders in Fortune 500 companies, universities, and organizations of every size. He has appeared in Time magazine, USA Today, FastCompany, and the BBC News. His courses on LinkedIn Learning have been viewed tens of millions of times. His five books have been published in eight languages, the most popular of which is The Myth of Multitasking—a time management bestseller. As an author, speaker, and online instructor, Dave has transformed the lives and careers of hundreds of thousands around the world. DaveCrenshaw.com
I got a call from this agency saying that they are from Oprah Winfrey and that they are wanting to publish our story, and I thought it was a prank.
Dave Crenshaw:In this episode, you'll get to know the Lima parisker, the mother of tech talent, and you'll hear the story of how she overcame cultural barriers and used an engineering mindset to become a notable and influential leader in the tech industry. I'm Dave Crenshaw, and this is my success Show. Welcome back, friends, to the Dave Crenshaw Success Show. This is where I speak to some of the most successful people I've met in my life's journey, and I get their success story, and I'm doing it to find universal principles of success that can help both you and my family succeed, and if it's your first time here, I'm a best selling author. I speak around the world of Fortune 500 companies, and I've taught millions of people how to be successful through my online courses this show, I it's something I created as a legacy project. I wanted to help my three children succeed, and I thought, Well, why not invite my followers along? And let's look for things that we all can do, no matter what our career is. Let's find specific actions we can take. So as you listen to today's episode, look for something you can do, something you can do, not not a year from now, but today or this week, to make my guest success story a part of your success story. Now, before we get into the interview, I just want to say that because this was a live interview, we had maybe a little bit of an audio hiccup at the beginning. We got it sorted out as the interview goes along. But I just want you to be aware, if you go, Oh, that doesn't sound quite right, it's just part of the challenge of interviewing someone live and in person. But I think you're really going to enjoy this despite that. Now to my guest, nelima paraskar, is President and CEO of snap it solutions LLC and CO, founder of Lotus TMS, and she has more than 20 years of experience in it in numerous leadership roles. Ulima has been featured in Forbes, Oprah Inc, and many more publications. She's the recipient of numerous awards, including the prestigious National Award as enterprising Woman of the Year. She's a board member of the Kansas works State Workforce Board. She served on the Community Development Advisory Council at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, and she's a regent for the Kansas Board of Regents supporting higher education in her free time, nelima enjoys traveling, enjoying the outdoors and spending time with her two children. And now let's go to the interview. Nalima, it's so great to be with you here in Kansas City. Thank you, Dave. It's wonderful to host you. Yeah, it was so serendipitous that we met. I mentioned how I've got a speaking engagement here tomorrow, and I came in a day early to watch the Monday night football game. We need to meet somebody who really is successful in business in Kansas City, you immediately stood out on LinkedIn and all of your accomplishments, it's incredibly impressive what you've done. So I'm grateful that you could carve out a little time in your busy schedule for this. Thank you so much, Dave, for the compliment. When you're in it you don't feel it. Yeah, you know you don't feel the amount of success that is being recognized. Yeah, I do know that every recognition aids and helps the mission of what we are working on. So I take it and I'm humbled by it. That's something that a lot of founders really have to wrestle with, is the idea that you are the face of your company, and therefore your story has value to the company. And I could tell you a little hesitant to talk about yourself, so I appreciate you being more open with this, because your story is educational for other people and they can be inspired by what you've done. Yeah, I agree. You know, I spearheaded, what I say is peer to spade approach where leaders are spearheading a certain aspect of the initiative that we taken up, and then we find our space to push it forward, and then the spades will turn into spears in growing, I believe in that method and forming a chain of connections. So there was a need for me to be out there and talk about what we are doing, because we are creating something new in the industry, for an industry that's been there for at least four decades now, and rapidly growing. So I had to put myself out there, but I always were. Was very mindful about not setting myself up.
Neelima Parasker:Up to something permanent. They were advisers like, you should have a nelima.com website, you know? I said, No, that's not the intention, right? So those are the things that I'm very meaningful and mindful about, stepping forward and stepping back, so that I push the leaders, future leaders, forward. Yeah, that's it. That's a really wise perspective. So I like to ask everyone the same question. Elli Ma, which is, when you were growing up, what did you want to become? Right? That's the question we ask our kids, what did you think when you were perhaps in your teenage years, what you were going to be in your career? You know, I was born in India, Dave, and raised by parents who had given me every opportunity to grow the way I want to go, especially my father. But my story began even before I was born, is what they tell me. My dad was, you know, raised by a very strict father, so he felt very restricted in certain areas certain times. So it seems when I was born, he's just said this girl will know, no fear. That's how he wanted to raise me. Okay. So it was a choice on his part, yeah, to say that. Yeah. So he took a lot of beating for me. What does that mean? That means that I was being honorary at times where he, like, you know, not not accommodating the society norms. And he would say, let her to be right. And then, if it comes from a closer family, like my grandparents, giving him, you know, grief, he would take that but not impact me. Could you talk a little bit, for those who are not familiar with India, yeah, you said you sort of challenged the society norms. What does that mean? What were the norms and how were you Challenging? Challenging them, right? The part of the country that I come from, they are very particular about education. Everybody needs to be educated. All the kids need to be educated. But what do you do with that? Education is a whole different ball game, right? She gets that education so that she can find a good groom. No, okay, does that make sense? That was the primary purpose. Primary purpose, okay? And she can marry, you know, a big executive, and she'll have a great life, but she has to be educated for that. So that's the means to the end in that sense. Okay, so I'm not saying that it is a theme everywhere, but in the areas that I know, this is what 30 years back, I'm talking about 2530 years it was not normal to women to graduate and say that. Okay, let me start a business. Let me go get whatever I need to do, travel wherever I need to be. Safety is an issue. Physical safety is an issue. Opportunity open doors to a woman is an issue. And I wanted to be a mechanical engineer like my dad, that is certainly an issue. Oh, okay, that would be extremely unusual, or at least at that time, yeah, unusual. So that was my early childhood where I was protected to be fearless, protected to think that I can do whatever I want to do. Sometimes I may not confine with the societal norms of getting the first grade, or a or anything, just because I didn't think the teacher didn't teach as well, like I would get attracted to a more practical approach for a knowledge and implementing that, instead of just saying that, okay, this is the book, and you need to get it by heart and put that on the test paper. And if I get test scores right then via I'm a, okay, that's a great point. And this is something that I talk about with my kids when they're contemplating, well, I mean, right now in high school, but as they're contemplating go to college, there are sometimes these two schools of thought of we're just going to get the grade right. The grade is what matter, whereas the other thing that really matters is the knowledge and the know how it sounds like you were putting emphasis on the ladder. I was ready to go out there and do my thing. And I felt like, without knowing the true knowledge of how things need to be done, I'm gonna set myself up for, you know, something that I'm not ready for and so in my own version, I always viewed getting a grade is a smaller step to success than gaining knowledge that I'm interested in learning and knowing about myself Where we I can actually bring that combination of interest, skilled knowledge and practical use was something I was always striving now. I'm able to put that in words right now, but at that age, all I knew is, I'm not going to go get good grades, because this is an easy subject, and I'll get an A in this, right. Yeah. Okay, so you're challenging this concept, right? You're you have a different perspective on it. What sort of opposition did you run into? Because it sounds like from the beginning, you were thinking, No, I'm not doing this just to get married. I am doing this to build a career, right? So what were some of the obstacles that you saw, either from people or from institutions that were making that hard. Yeah, to do that, I would say, you know, once I got my bachelor's in mechanical engineering, by then, technology was kind of opening up to the world in different industries. So I got awareness that computer sciences is kind of coming in at that point and really becoming prevalent. So I wanted to find my even though I was protected by very loving family, I felt like I was inside a golden cage. I really need to find I was very desperate, and I always needed freedom of thought and freedom of movement, freedom of energy. And no matter where I went, if I was recognized by somebody that, you know, that recognized my family, or something like that, or I was given transportation, you know, I could go in a car and come back and I'm like, but that's such a boxed in approach. I want to go and take public transportation, interesting. So you were sort of seeking almost a more difficult experience out, yes, real, I would not say difficult. Okay, I didn't want a difficulty. I want real situations so that I knew that I could navigate that by myself, not needing somebody always to be guiding me. So you have children, yes, is that a concern that you have now? And I'm asking this as a parent, right? Because sometimes I look at my kids and what they have, and I think this is perhaps not realistic. It's not as much of a challenge. And we try to teach them, hey, look when, when we first started as a couple, we ate oatmeal and hot dogs for years, right? Right? So what you're experiencing now with even just the food you have is not what it's going to be like, but you we say that, right? But it's not the same as experiencing that. So is that something that, as a parent, you're conscious of, or you try to provide for your kids, I'm very conscious about what they're able to do independently. Now, it is different for them to for my upbringing, or my situation or our situation, right at our age, for them, what we needed is new challenges that they need to observe that we didn't experience as when we were a kid. Say, for example, social media is all over, and that was not there for us. Technology was not there. Handhelds were not there. So now their problem is an elevated or a different type of problem. Now we need to be sideline observers and get in as needed for them, because we can't really do anything. We can't take away a device. We can't take away social media privilege, right, right? That's not practical, exactly. But what we could do is put them in a situation and observe and be the learning partner for them. And that's when our kids will say that, okay, I need to I'm figuring this out by myself, but when I hit a stumble, I know who to talk to. But if we come in strong handed and say that this is how it needs to be, then they are automatically finding different ways to find their mentors and advisors. And so in a relationship which is ever evolving between your kid and you, is a constant struggle in terms of what could be a better approach. It's not a one way fix all. I'm not certainly an advisor for parental advices, but for my own kids, what I say is, like, I would like them to navigate their own issues. Always let them know that we are here for you if you need us, not just when you get into trouble, but when you need a hearing, listening ear. I love that approach. That's fantastic. Okay, so let's move on with the story. Then, so far we've talked about your experience in college, right? Or they call it just early college, yeah. Okay, so you're doing that. Where did you transition into the workforce? What was that first opportunity like? So I completed my mechanical engineering in Bachelors in India, back in India, and then I decided to come to United States just to do my master's in computer sciences. And truly, I was scheduled to go back and take my father's company. So I came to United States into 1998 to do my master's in computer sciences. And what I. Realized is after about one and a half years, is when I completed one year and one semester really completed my master's what I find out is when I wanted to get into the workforce. In my mind, I was like, oh, I want to go back and take over. And so I, of course, I met my now husband, then that's a different story to tell. But the main core story was my parents felt like India was not ready for me, or I was not ready for India, right? So, just because you were challenging the norms, I'm challenging the norms, I'm gonna, you know, not succumb to any kind of like bribery. And you know, if you do find success, which they felt very strongly that I would be successful, then it's a whole different ball game. Hopefully we in the United States will never face that kind of a problem. For a normal person, normal, regular, you know, individual in our ways, we have different different challenges, of course, but at that point, they thought I would walk into trouble right off the bat, yeah. And with my kind of approach of I would always speak openly what I thought, right? I would always challenge small, even small things, like my dad called One day the entire house and said, I've noticed that glass of water for three days sitting there, and nobody picked up, and my mom's got up, and now that she's a fierce woman, there's nothing doubter. But she felt like, oh shoot, the cleaning lady must have forgot. And my sister was like, oh, it's not a big deal. But I said, if you observe for three days, why did you not pick it up? And instead of getting offended, he was so happy that I challenged him. Oh, that's That's wonderful. That's great that he created that kind of ability to challenge. But they know that not the society is not ready for us in that sense. So I would be the same person who would challenge if there is not something that makes sense, right, right? Yeah, so that is why I said, Okay, let me continue my work here, because obviously we are sitting on the land of dreams, right? So by then, I started looking at opportunities here in the United States, and I got my first software engineering job here in Kansas City. Okay? I got offers in Silicon Valley from a small startup, which I went to California. I was very excited about the job offer, but I realized that I was already a Midwest girl. Okay, so what was that first opportunity? Like it was a lot of learning curve, and I would not sit on my desk if I didn't have anything to do. I would constantly go annoy people to give me more work, more work, more work. And that restlessness got me into projects that were pretty astronomical, like we are using 3g network right now 5g but I started working on 3g contract projects. I worked on number portability, worked on replacing entire back end system for one of the top three telecommunication companies, and I was hand picked by seven people because it's supposed to be NDA contract. We worked 20 hours a day, like for many, many months. So those kind of projects exposed me to a lot more width, right? I may have by then, 10 years of experience, but I gained 30 years of knowledge. Yeah, because of pushing myself into different aspects of the business. I want to pause on that for a second, because I'm a time management guy, and when I hear someone saying that they're working 20 hours a day, my perspective, Neely, man, you may disagree, is that that's not healthy and that's not productive in the long run. So where you are now, and you look back at that, what's your perspective? Was that necessary to work that many hours? No, it was not okay. And unfortunately, after six months of working together, a business decision came in that the existing company gave a better deal for the company, and so our project was shelved. But here's the thing, a lot of people like literally cried out loud on right in the halls, right? Yeah, that's it's a terrible way, terrible way to live and to work, right? But what I told myself is, they gave me salary to learn something that I could have probably taken a decade to learn, yeah, the amount of knowledge that I looked under the hood for that six months gave me exposure that I took that and put it on the positive care, and now I could get into positions where I called for, you know, opportunities and. Roles that I called for I was the youngest in so many ways. And no, I would never make anybody go through that kind of and I will never sign a client contract if they're expecting that out of my team. Yeah, I love that principle of getting paid to learn and grow. Yeah, and I even experienced that. I don't know if my my clients from you know, 20 years ago, would want to hear this, but I was learning at the same time that I was coaching businesses. And that isn't to say I wasn't capable, that I was helping them, but I think there's something to be said with of embracing opportunities that maybe aren't perfect, aren't ideal, but you're realizing that they're a stepping stone to what it is that you want to do next exactly, and also keeping in mind the holisticness, right? You gain knowledge, and there is only so much you can do when you sprint. Our life and our career is marathon. We have to remember that there are certain stages and ages of your career and your life that you may have to sprint take best advantage of it, but don't keep put yourself in that mode always. So when I started my company several years later, I did everything I could, and I put an arbitrary kind of a number of three years right, and then technically I slowed down, but the amount of investment I did in the first three years has taken me next six years to reap. So those seeds that I sowed are still coming my way. And so you walking in asking for a podcast. These are the opportunities that are walking in, and I'm now having to select it. Rather, a lot of people are trying to keeping the sprint longer than they should, and that's where we burn out, and that's where we lose track of who we are as people, to our family and everything else. So I want to ask you about that you're talking about these opportunities that are coming through the door. How do you choose? How do you prioritize which ones you should say yes to which I'm thankful you said yes to this, versus ones where you say no, I'm going to say no. How do you make that choice? I think only one year I put money towards any kind of marketing gig. Through my 10 years of running this company, and I have never, ever put $1 towards something first, say, for example, few said, and I have a lot of requests coming in, and they said, Oh, it'll cost us XYZ. So I want you to pay 1000 bucks, or whatever that is. I will never pay, but I will support that, after they put the effort in. Say, for example, all these awards that you're seeing. Yeah, I'm looking, I'm we're in the office. I'm looking at her wall right now, and we've got $0 okay, $0 right? All, they are asking me to please apply for these. But they are different type of awards that they will give you if you pay Yeah, the who's who thing? Yeah, so I'm not a fan of it. Right off the bat, I am never going to encourage anybody who's asking me to pay for getting into media that's not needed at all. So right there, I'm taking 50% of the chunk that comes my way and trashing it completely. Are there ones where you don't have to pay but you still say, No, I do okay. And how do you decide that? I decide based on validity of how far they've come along, right? If they are really young and coming up and really want to I will support them, right? They have a great mission, but they have been in business for a while, and they have no follow up, follow through or follow ink for what they're doing. That's not what I want to work on, right? I'm right away taking that as a message to me that this is not something that I want to put my effort in. I will never say no to anything to do with youth. That's been my rule. I've never said no. Why is that? I feel like there is so much of Internet content out there for adults who are truly wanting to get motivated and inspired by but the kids, first off, we don't want them to be online too much in the first place they have to learn through a you know person who they can see, feel the room. That's how the true education at that age should be. And so I believe in that old, age, old way of connecting with a youth. So if I can, I will never say no to a youth.
Dave Crenshaw:Be youth related. Yeah, that's wonderful. All right, let's go back now to your story. So we talked about the beginning, let's talk about the middle portion of your career. You didn't become an entrepreneur until a little bit later, right? So let's talk about the years or the career leading up to deciding to go into business for yourself, what would you say was a major stepping stone in that period that sticks out in your mind? You know, for
Neelima Parasker:15 years I worked in a corporate world. 2000 is when I joined in workforce, I started my career. And 2015 I started snap it I truly never imagined myself as an entrepreneur and a business owner and all that. I was very well taken care of the company that I was working under, right. Yeah, may not have the same salary that I'm drawing now, but I had exceptional flexibility to what I wanted to do. I had amazing managers, role models who would say, you go, we'll, we'll do whatever it takes to support you, right? But of course, I had this constant voice on my side of me, you know, my husband, okay, constantly nagging that you're bringing a lot more to the table than you're paid for. And I would manage. I started with five people in Brazil, and within six months, became 20 people across and within two years, 250 people. So all that is, you know, hard work from what I'm putting into the team with the corporations. By then, I was an executive. I was a manager, director, and I was growing in the career. Okay, you mentioned your husband. So is, is he an entrepreneur, or Where was his perspective? He's working in the company. Now he works for me. Okay, he works for you. But at that time, when he was encouraging you, he's working, he's a senior architect, Software Architect, okay, he was working in his own thing, yeah, but he wouldn't was noticing what you're putting in is not the same as what you're getting out. Well, he always thought I have a lot more potential. I don't think he knew, or I knew exactly what you know. He knew that if I started a business with all the opportunities there, there are available for women businesses and minority businesses and all that we could achieve a lot more, right? He knew that, but he didn't know exactly how to open those doors at that point. Neither do I did i So what came to true, push for me is after I attended a mentoring event at schools, at intercity schools, I spent pretty much a whole day with bunch of high schoolers that day trying to mentor them into engineering technology careers. One kid was very silent throughout the whole thing, and I thought, Man, I couldn't get in with this kid, but everybody else was asking questions or you know, doing the thing and communicating back. So at the end of it, I gave the cards to everybody and said, anytime, please reach out. I'm here for you. Only one kid reached out, the kid that didn't speak very much. She said, I inspired her to become an engineer. Oh, that's wonderful. And what I find out is these girls were coming to that event to have good lunch. They were good lunch provided there. I found out many things about where their family is, where they come from in the community. I was shocked that this is the most powerful country in the world, and there are 1000s of students and families still behind the digital wall, right? Yeah, this is youth of America not having access to technology resources and engineering resources. And that said, Then I said, Okay, I can start a company, but I want to make an impact. Wow, that's beautiful. And it is an overlooked and untapped employee base and potential. And I think that's brilliant, that you saw that potential. Okay, so now let's talk about starting snap it. Talk to me about the genesis of that and what that was like. Yeah, when I started snap it solutions, the underlining mission for me was, this is going to be an successful company, but once it is successful, I want to see if I'm going to bring anything different to the market, and is it going to be an impacting business. Now mind. 10 years, you know, about a decade back, people didn't know all these fancy words. Now we put about a social impact company and all that. I didn't think about all that. I just thought, as an engineer, would think I looked at the potential within the city where I have ton of raw raw material, right? And I have market that's requiring the skill. They're going offshore, they're going they're creating, by then, RPAS, robotic processor automation for some basic skills. They're investing in technology, but not finding talent here on shore to give jobs to frankly, that's what it is. More than half million jobs are open every single year in this country, not getting filled, and they are areas where you cannot hire non citizens. You cannot send it offshore. So companies are truly wanting to access this talent. Now, I know there's bunch of smart young adults, even adults, who have not had that opportunity when they were going through the early education. And so when I found out that this is an untapped potential, I put my engineering system into it, and so that's how I created snap it as a baseline of who we are. Of course, we do the same thing. We hire technology expertise and not place them. We can create products and we can place resources, but behind the wall, we are training up the talent that has been traditionally ignored and under represented. I love a couple of things there. One is the the entrepreneurial mindset, or you talk about engineering, but it's also entrepreneurial, right? It's see the resources, see what's available, and then, and then leverage it as much as you can and make it real. But also how there is that social aspect to the social form and impact, yeah. How did it come about that you started to be on boards like the Kansas Department of Commerce and the Kansas City Journal, those sort of things. How did those opportunities come about in 2018 we were about three years into the business, and we were not as huge of a success as we are now. But I got a call from this agency saying that they are from Oprah Winfrey and you know, other magazines that they are wanting to publish our story. And I thought it was a prank. I didn't respond. Then they sent an email, and then we validated that that is a valid organization, and so we were published on these magazines couple months later. I don't know if there is coincidence or not, but I got a call from Governor Kelly's office saying, there is an opportunity for you know, them to open up a board seat on State Board for workforce. And so I went through that process and got appointed. But more impactfully, last year, after many years of being on Federal Reserve Bank Board and other community boards and all that last year, I was contacted by the governor's office wanting me to consider a region's job. And frankly, I did not know all the things that are encompassed in that. And I said, I need to know exactly what I'm signing up for. Yeah, so, so those who are not familiar with what a region is, what does that what does that mean? So there are nine regions for state of Kansas, and nine regions have fiduciary First off, we are huge supporters of higher education, and we are supporting our state universities in growing the student pool and helping the students through but we have fiduciary responsibilities on all of the universities, so the presidents of the university and the Chancellor for KU they all report up to Regents, and We work with legislation. They have to go before legislative committee, and you know, I had to go through that and present my case, and all the senators had to approve. So I got a unanimous approval this year in January. Oh, that's wonderful. It's a four year term, and if I want to, I can extend that. Okay, so there's a question again, time management, guy, productivity guy, that's standing out to me, which is, how do you juggle running a company with all of these different things that you're doing for the community? How does that work for you? I keep asking that to myself, Okay, but I'll tell you this truthfully, a lot of people think that I work. Lot more hours than I actually do. Physically, my mind is always working. Sure I can't shut that down. Not only work, I'm thinking about my kids, how they are growing my my time with my husband, me time and my friends time, right? That's always there. My mind is always but physically, I block my calendar down for 30% of the time. I never go beyond 70% at a time. And if it is, remember, we talked about sprinting versus marathon. I will sprint if needed during certain phases of time, because it's needed, but after that, I go back again, so that doesn't become my steady speed right at that point. So what that is giving me is giving me the rest I need to move forward. I will never overcome it myself, no matter what. So there's a underlying implication here that I'd like you to talk just a little bit about, which is you have to structure the company in a way that it runs without you having to put your hands into everything. Yeah. So can you talk to us a little bit about how you've created that structure, how you've empowered people in the business to be able to do it so that you can only set aside 30% of your time snap. It is a small but a complicated business. We have different divisions within snap it. One is the trainings aspect that we talked about, training and talent development. That segment runs and is a lot more versatile right now because we have uplifted learning management modules where we can train and mentor online for any students in 10 states that we are working with. And the second division, which is the biggest that makes money for me, is my talent deployment. We find talent we place them in federal agencies or big corporates like Federal Reserve Bank and cerners and oracles and IBMs, and the last one is the conference management that works on bringing building conferences. And so every division has their own leaders that we have hired. The one thing they look for me is guidance on which direction to take when it's the next phase, and so when it's constantly dependent on me, I try to find ways to make a process more more streamlined. That way they're not trying to invent the wheel over and over again. Could you give us an one example of streamlining a process? Yeah, so for example, before I say that, I want to let you know that snap ID is close to 40 employees right now. Okay, that's a decent size, decent size, and we have trained more than 2000 people into tech jobs and things like that, but we don't have one sales position within the company. There is no sales or biz dev role within the company. Whatever work I'm doing, it's making sure the society knows what we do, and we get inquiries and request to meet with clients, and so it's easier for us to sit down and look at moving to the next phase. So you're sort of the lead generator, kinda Yes, great. So in terms of processes, you're making it easy for the easier for these 40 people. What's something that you're doing to streamline it so that they're not having to spend excessive amounts of time doing something. So we have SOPs, standard operating procedures for every every area of running a business. We have standards of how to put certain actions based on a process that we have already defined. And so if we know that we are following the SOP or there needs to be change in SOP, we sit down and reflect back in how it's done. How was that documented? Or is it? Is it video documentation? Is it writing out a document? What? How are we depending on different teams? One team is totally manually returned, and maybe only one person is doing that process. So they got it down, and they're getting things done in one area, there is a lot more heavier hand holding on all the teams to work with, so they have trailer boards and making sure that the trailer is assigned and on time, and all that we've used Salesforce before. We thought it was too much complicated for what we are doing, so we didn't need Salesforce. But there are different tools that we have used depending on complexity of the situation. Yeah, the reason why I asked that is, that's the key though, is to document it. Yes, if you do not, if you try to just tell someone verbally, this is how. It's done. You actually haven't created any value in the company. You're making it verbally dependent, yes, so I like that. So it's constantly coming to me or somebody else, right, as a bottleneck creation. What we are pushing though is the next stage. You have a document, you have a process documented. We want to do a zero trust implementation. What that means is, when you open it, your metrics will show exactly which of that process has been implemented right, and who did it and how many times. And so that is what we are working towards, is making it truly scalable and measurable process that at an executive level, we can look and see what's working and what not, and this is for expansion for nationally. So let's shift gears for a moment. And I wish we could keep talking forever. I love this conversation, and in your providing so much value to me and to people who are listening. So there are two, two last questions I want to ask you. The first is, just you mentioned how you've limited how many hours you're spending and you're doing these other things. How do you make sure that you're taking time for yourself? Yeah, great question. So if I'm traveling, I'll weave in a massage day or a massage evening or something like that. I like to catch up, you know, on a phone call with my friends or family. I keep some time there. What I know is I love traveling. I like being in the nature quite a lot. I like to spend, obviously, with my family as much as I can those movie nights or board game nights and all that. I weave in those things intentionally so that I get a break in that monotonous way of I love what I do, but that doesn't mean that that should define who I am, and so I have done very less social media these days, by the way, interesting. Why out of the three that I used to use Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, I've kept LinkedIn almost as much, but reduced it to 80% I would say from I used to 100% use it. For example, 80% I went Instagram. 50% I went 5% to Facebook. And so the reason is, I think we all have a lot more data to publish from our end, knowingly or unknowingly, my brain is I'm observer. I'm a sponge. And so when I look at that content, I'm taking in and I'm processing it, and what happens is, there is only so much we can process and we want to process. And so I consciously put a timer on my Facebook app where it will pop up and say, you have used five minutes. Now I'm using five minutes in a week, and I can't even believe, like it was such an addiction at one point. Yes, and so those things will give you more time for your me time, read a book, walk in the sit outside and just take the nature. And there is so much of internal journey I do during those moments that is helping me grow more stronger, my biggest weakness, Dave, I have never said this in public, was my anger. My anger was my worst enemy, but taking the time yes has helped you be aware of that and to begin to truly identify where is that anger. Anger is a secondary emotion, but it's like since snap it, I've really recognized myself as like going backward in that process and identifying systems and areas within me to heal, and then when I come out and be in the public, I'm a lot more stronger because of that. So me time is not just for what the social media makes us feel like it's everybody has our own ways of me time. It's truly healing, self healing. I love how, as you talked about that, we could see how you are using the engineering perspective to to find personal happiness and self reflection. It's oiling, right of the mechanical thing? Yeah, we have to find the joints to oil. Yeah, yeah. Last question, where do you see your career five years from now? I've never seen my the work I'm doing as a career. I truly think the more chains I can connect, the more people I can connect to this theory of self healing and self so the if you observe our logo has three strokes in it with an upward movement of spiral. So I see as much as evolution as possible with.
Dave Crenshaw:In the company, and hopefully more people will get impacted and grow through this process. It's the way of regenerative approach. So I don't see myself in a career journey. I see myself as what is it needed for me to achieve 100% freedom on what I want to do and also give the ability for others to grow through it. Why do I feel that is needed? Is, that's my payoff, that's my net profit. Is if somebody else has found me that, then it becomes a chain reaction, and I want to make it as big and impactful as possible. That's beautiful. Thank you for sharing all this. Nelima, so what I do at the end of every episode is, as we've been interviewing, I've been making notes about things that someone can do, anyone can do, on a simple, practical level to follow your example. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to share three actions. There were a lot of wonderful actions in here, but I'm just going to focus to three that someone might take. And then what I'd like you to do is add in your own add in one more action that you would suggest to be sure. All right, so the first one that stood out to me was, let's go all the way back to the beginning of your story about how you were looking for more real experiences, right? You were sort of in this sheltered environment, and were not experiencing life as it really is. And then we talked about how that led to you your approach as a parent, right? How you want your children to also have these kinds of experiences? So what I would ask someone listening to this is to say, what is something that's going on in your life, in your career, where maybe you're sheltered a little bit, maybe the experience isn't real, and how ask yourself the question, how could I challenge myself a little bit more. How could I put myself into a more real, more vulnerable state, just a little bit? And I think that's going to help you be more prepared and have a broader perspective on what life is really like. The second one, and we didn't talk about this too much, but it stood out to me. You mentioned how your husband was encouraging you and pushing you to do this. And I think there's real value in finding a partner, finding a friend, someone who you know and trust, who pushes you just a little bit, not in a unhealthy way, but in a way that says you don't realize how wonderful you are. You don't realize what your potential is. I think there's real value in finding someone like that. It doesn't have to be your marriage partner. It can just be a good friend or even a counselor that can help you with that, and then the last one document your processes. Now this may sound like it's only a entrepreneur thing, but it is not in your career, you can say, What is something that I'm doing? Maybe the company hasn't documented the processes, but that doesn't stop you from doing that, and maybe even on a personal level, uh. Nelima, one of the most difficult things I have to do, this is going to sound crazy, is to pack for a trip like this. I'm I'm off the charts. ADHD, and so I've documented my process. I've got a packing list, and I have to go through that list, and the process helps me feel confident that I haven't left something right. And I think that all of us have these things that we have to do that are difficult. Just write it down. Use something. Get it out of your head, put it on paper, put it on a digital thing, and then you can reference that, and it will help you get more consistent results. So those are just three the actions that I saw Lima. What's one that you would add to this? I think what helped me is opening up my 30% of the time, all the time, constantly being running back to that phase, even though I would sprint, like I said, but making sure that's not the constant phase coming back. So what that does is that keeps you whole as a person, as an entrepreneur, and keeps your juices innovative juices still there, not so dry that you're only constantly wiping yourself out. So constantly check your calendar. We are all running around our calendar make sure that is at least 30% blocked off. Yeah, that's wonderful. Thank you for sharing that. Ulima, if someone wants to continue to follow you and learn from you, learn about your company. Where would you suggest they go? I would say LinkedIn is a good place to be. I put, once in a while, information to post, and you know, they can definitely follow my journey. But a lot of what's happening right now is not on LinkedIn. If I can truly make a difference in anybody's life, I'm.
Unknown:Always open to sitting down and having the conversation, but I want to make sure they are doing their part before they come to me right. They are doing their homework. If it's not already out there, then I can speak, but if it's already out there, there are a lot of many mentors and advisors who is already giving that then learn that first before you come to me, yeah, make an investment, put some effort into it. I like that, and so we'll link to your LinkedIn profile. It's been a real pleasure to get to know you here today. Thank you so much for for saying yes to this and allowing me to come in. And I really appreciate it absolutely. I'm thrilled to have this and of course, host you at snap it. Yeah, and thank you everyone for listening. Remember, it's not just about the knowledge that you gained or the inspiration that you received. It's about the action that you take. So do something. Use one of these action principles. Do something based on what you heard today, and you'll make new Lima's success story a part of your success story. Thanks for listening. You've been listening to the Dave Crenshaw Success Show, hosted by my dad, Dave Crenshaw, and produced by invaluable incorporated research and assistant production by Victoria Bidez, Sound Editing by Nikic Wright, voiceover by me Darci Crenshaw, and the music is by Ryan Brady via Pon five. Licensing, please subscribe to the Dave Crenshaw success show on Apple podcasts, Spotify, wherever you like to get your podcasts. If you have a suggestion for someone my dad might like to interview, please send it to guests at Dave crenshaw.com and please don't forget to leave us a five star review. See you next time you.
