125: {Interview} Building Community: The Grow Forward Initiative with Jada Willis

Have you ever wondered what it looks like behind the scenes going from working in corporate to entrepreneurship to community building? Well you are in for a treat with this one! 

In this conversation, Jada Willis shares her entrepreneurial journey from leaving a corporate HR job to starting her own consulting firm, Willis HR, which she grew to a seven-figure business before selling it. She discusses the importance of community building, particularly through her Grow Forward Community for women, and emphasizes the significance of workplace culture and leadership in retaining employees. Jada also highlights the challenges of entrepreneurship and the need for support and mentorship for CEOs.

takeaways

• In 2016, she left her six-figure corporate job to start Willis HR.
• She grew my business to a seven-figure company and sold it in 2022.
• She focuses on growth coaching for passionate leaders.
• She helps leaders change people to evolve their culture.
• She started the Grow Forward Community for professional women.
• There was a gap in the market for hands-on HR consulting.
• She built her business through speaking engagements and referrals.
• Self-leadership is crucial for entrepreneurs.
• Workplace culture impacts employee retention and growth.
• Leaders need to appreciate employees on an individual level.

Connect more with Jada HERE

Thanks for listening! 

Transcript

Caroline Pennington (00:01.561)
Welcome, Jada.

Jada Willis (00:03.076)
I'm so excited to be here. Thank you.

Caroline Pennington (00:07.055)
So you and I have crossed paths, maybe directly, indirectly from the Columbia, South Carolina area. I was a recruiter, headhunter. You had your own HR consulting firm that you started after being in corporate. I want to hear about your entrepreneurial journey. I want to hear about your new community building now. So tell us about where you are now and how did you get there?

Jada Willis (00:23.662)
Absolutely.

Jada Willis (00:29.07)
Oh my goodness. think that it's a lot more fun to say, you know what, in 2016, that's whenever I left my six figure, big girl HR corporate job and started Willis HR, an HR consulting firm that was more outsourced. so ultimately we provided support to nonprofits and small businesses in six different states. I grew that business to a seven figure business that I sold in 2022.

And I like to give myself a self high five because if anyone can't see me, that's totally fine. Put my hand up and gave myself a little high five because it was hard as all get out and totally worth it. I believe it really also gave me the tools to get into and transition into my next adventure. And so I started Jada Willis Consulting and really for the first, I would say 14 months, I've really focused more on the

Growth coaching, really working with passionate, vision-filled leaders from the CEO perspective, because I also realized I was doing that at the tail end of Willis HR and using it under the guise of, this is HR. But in all actuality, it was executive coaching and just with a little people spin, right? And then with that, it's been so much fun to kind of play, right? Use my gifts in a different way, still really capitalizing on my HR skillset, but.

helping leaders see that they can impact change and grow their business. And so what I like to say now, so present day, I am bringing in the strategic HR aspects, organizational development, and I'm helping leaders change people or change people. I love to let that sink in. I love to let that sink in because really that's what we're doing as CEOs and leaders is that we're investing in our team.

and trying to think of all the ways to keep them engaged and retention and all those people, all those things. And when in actuality, the people may not be in the right seat. And then I have to help these leaders and CEOs gracefully change people to evolve their culture. And in addition to that, I simultaneously started the Grow Forward Community for high performing professional women and female business owners. So those are the two things that I'm really, really fired up.

Caroline Pennington (02:56.421)
Okay, let me just back it up here, because you just casually brushed over, oh, I started a business, grew it in six different states and sold it for seven figures, because hold on one second, I know that statement right there took a lot of work. So, okay, you're in your fancy high paying corporate job, you decided to go out and start your own business. How did that happen? Were people coming to you saying, hey, we want to hire you as a consultant? Were you just like, okay, there's not a lot of firms doing this, this is an opportunity for me? How did that start?

Jada Willis (03:23.724)
Yeah, so I was more in like an HR leadership space, but I noticed that there was a gap in the market of like really boutique level types of HR firms that were gonna be a little bit more hands on. So I really didn't like the fluff, the corporate jargon, and because of my role, I had to also interact, right? With consultants and outsource parties and I'm like, ugh. I'm like, all of it feels just so stuffy and cheesy and it didn't feel authentic to me. And so I'm like, you know what?

I think that I could put this spin on it. And I've always been called a different kind of HR. And I've been in HR for 20 years, even started whenever I was 15 years old. And so I'm like, let me bring a different flavor to HR consulting for small businesses and nonprofits. Because God knows that there is definitely a gap there still in the market of really helping small businesses, again, and nonprofits with talent structure.

workforce strategies and everything else in between. And so I just said, you know what, it's time. So I gave my organization a three month very serious notice. I actually told my manager director a year previous and I was like, hey, I'm gonna be doing this. And she just didn't believe me. mean, things were going so well. I had just been named HR Innovator of the Year on a national level. And she's like, so you're leaving.

To start a company and by the way, you don't have a website. You don't technically I didn't have clients I had a few career coaching, you know gigs but not what I was doing from an HR perspective and I just I talked to my my higher power my partner and I was like it's time to press go and so I Left my last day was, you know April 18th 2016 and on April 19th. I was a very scared excited

entrepreneur and really had no idea what I was doing. So I just followed my gut. I followed my instincts and I started building relationships. I started showing up in different spaces, made the connections to build the website and I said, you know what, I'm doing HR differently. Let me show up and solve your problem and help you. And then I discovered what the problems were specifically to each and every client that we serve.

Caroline Pennington (05:41.445)
And then you scale to six different states. I mean, that is huge. Like, how did you do that? Did you have the people supporting you so the machine could run behind you? Like, tell me all the things.

Jada Willis (05:51.83)
Yeah, anyone that's listening that's a business owner know that it's an ebb and flow. Some days it's three steps forward and the next day it could be five steps back or two steps back. I had a team, I grew up to a team of 10 and that was a mixture of the operational administrative support and also HRs, multiple HRs that I supported. But really how I did it was through a great deal of speaking engagements.

It was unpaid and paid speaking engagements. I also hosted webinars. We had a fantastic podcast, HR After Dark, solving the people problems that keep you up at night. as you know, podcasting is so valuable and such a lucrative thing when you're trying to expand your network and expand your brand. So it was less of the social media and more of just...

the reach outs when it comes to sharing knowledge and sharing information. then it was referral-based. I love the fact, and I built a internal system to nurture referrals, to reward our clients, and also ask, ask for referrals, ask for the introduction, ask for the invite. And guess what? They were pretty happy to do so because they also could say, my goodness,

She has fixed, we have fixed so many problems, but this is where we are now, right? We're no longer that broke down organization and struggling to find people, so on and so forth. So now I get to tell my story and give a referral.

Caroline Pennington (07:29.765)
that you make HR so approachable because a lot of times people are like so scared of HR and they're like, oh, HR's coming, they assume the worst, but I love that you made it more approachable and you put your own spin on it and it obviously worked out really well for you because you've now sold that business and moved on to two others.

Jada Willis (07:45.71)
That's right, that's right. It worked out pretty well.

Caroline Pennington (07:49.253)
What's been your biggest challenge as an entrepreneur?

Jada Willis (07:53.806)
Oh my goodness, just one? We're gonna have to list this in like 15 and this needs to be like a two day workshop report, okay? No, it can be very challenging. I think it's sometimes the pressure that we put on ourselves because usually if you're an entrepreneur, you're very ambitious and hardworking and visionaries and all of this. So many ideas, so little time.

But I don't know about you, but I am that high achiever that says, you know what, you could be doing this better, faster, stronger. So I have had to do a great deal of work on self leadership and my inner critic and all the mind chatter and really understand what grace is. The same grace that I would extend to someone else or even my client is the grace that I'm extending to myself these days. And I also switched gears a good bit. So for instance, when I was...

running Willis HR up until I would say the very end, I believed in the hustle culture. I believe the hype of like, hey, you got to like work 15, 18, 20 hour days. I look at like memes back in my phone of like what I would share and I'm like, oh, I do not agree with that now. that's, that is no, that's not at all the case. And we were just talking about scarcity mindset yesterday that you have to, someone believes you have to hustle for your worth.

right, that money working and earning money is hard. I don't believe that. I switched very much into a growth and abundance mindset. And there are seasons of hard work and there are seasons, whatever that means to you, right? But I really believe that we can design our businesses to our zones of genius and the talent that we have. I went on a little soap box there, so I'm gonna pause.

Caroline Pennington (09:37.721)
No, I love that you went there because I preach about that all the time, specifically on LinkedIn about what you're putting out there, what people are seeing, the energy. There's a million LinkedIn agencies people can go to, but there's a reason my clients choose me. Same with you for HR and workplace culture. So.

Jada Willis (09:58.158)
That's right.

Caroline Pennington (10:00.421)
I had the opportunity to speak to your Grow Forward group last night and I appreciated it and I did. I felt the magic in the room. So you're attracting the right people and I think it's really cool what you're doing. I want to dig more into that. Like what prompted you to start that and why is it important to get in those rooms?

Jada Willis (10:19.106)
Yeah, it's a, reason why I started the Grow4 Community is a multi-prong is what I call it. I was going through a divorce prior to selling my business and I actually connected four friends together that are, when I tell you, so different. One is so heavily involved in her church and very, very high up and the other one curses like a sailor. And when I tell you these are four different women that I just felt completely comfortable to be messy with.

And so I put these folks together, but what was so neat is that, yes, they're of course supporting me through a very difficult time, but I watched how these very different women, now all professionals, all high performing, then started supporting each other, personally, professionally. I mean, a couple have turned into business references for each other, sent clients. it is actually, I was like, we created our little pod community based off of crisis, right? I was in a crisis.

And then simultaneously, whenever I was growing the business, I like to share a fact that is an unpopular maybe idea or opinion is that in growing my seven figure HR firm, I never once joined a chamber. Didn't do it. I think that there's value. There is value. I'm not telling you not to join a chamber and then you're going to reach this massive amount of success. No, but I was very strategic in building a relational based business approach and sales approach.

in business development. And so I say that to say when I would attend networking events, it felt so like transactional. And I'm like, I hate small talk. just, I'm like, I want to get deep and weird quick. Like I don't want to know about the weather or you know, anything of that nature. And so I saw that there was a gap. Like there is a gap of the kind of networking events where you want to feel comfortable that you don't want to overly drink because you're uncomfortable or you know, you don't know anyone. So you're not gonna, you're not gonna attend.

So what I did was combine, I'm like thinking through this, okay, I have the crisis crew. I see that there's a gap in from a business development perspective. And I noticed that women also need a different kind of professional development. So I was like, you know what? I know it's gonna solve three different problems, but this is gonna be the community for high performing, growth minded, professional women and female business owners. Because we are all looking for that safe place where we can be a bit messy, but also guess what? Learn new skills.

Jada Willis (12:43.182)
expand our network, grow our business. And that's what we do at the Grow Forward Community.

Caroline Pennington (12:51.471)
that and so you guys have tell me about this setup you have live events virtual events tell me all the things

Jada Willis (12:57.676)
Yeah, first things first, there's a way that you have to, from a community perspective, so I did a lot of research. I did something kind of strange. I actually did an analysis of cults, sororities, and megachurches. And I said, all right, if you think about it, it's massive amounts of people. There's usually one figurehead there from a founder perspective. This is so weird. So, and I looked at it I was like, okay, so how are we gonna make this successful because I want it to be contagious, right? And so,

The thought is, A, we have to keep engaged. We have to keep communication. So we have an app, we have an online platform where we are, I set up different discussion tabs, basically if you'd like break rooms, if you will. And we're talking about the mom support group. We have cultivate conversations, celebrating your wins. So the things to help us support on an ongoing basis. In addition to that, yes, we have live events. I want there to be flexibility. So whether it's an hour virtual session,

in the evening or during lunchtime, we are constantly measuring when is that time where our members can join. In addition to that, we have in-person events. I like to call them elevate her events because every time we get together, we have at least 30 minutes of structured networking. And I mean, like, it's not awkward. It's not weird, even if it's your first time. Our members and guests always say, my goodness, like this was, I'm so comfortable and I'm an introvert.

And I actually learned how to network, how to connect with another human, and we're following up next week, followed by some sort of professional development. Example, next week we have negotiating and navigating your self-worth. Sorry, your financial worth, self-worth is a little bit yesterday. So negotiating and navigating your financial worth with a fractional CFO. So we bring in those guest speakers, we bring in those experts.

And we make sure that we really provide the programming that makes sense for high performing women and business owners.

Caroline Pennington (14:57.707)
I'm with you. I am not a chamber fan. If you're listening to this in R, that's fine. I'm not saying it's not a good place to be, but I'm with you. Like I don't want to talk about the weather or small talk or like Suzy Q soccer game. Like no, like what's working for you in your business. Like right now I want to know like I'm watching you. seeing what you're doing. Like tell me all the things.

Jada Willis (15:10.519)
Now.

Jada Willis (15:17.314)
That's right, we're busy people. Why? Why am I gonna, like you have even 30 minutes to drop in, right? Like you have to, you know, check your box before you do have to pick up the kids or do you have to walk your dog? You have 30 minutes, okay? Like let's make this valuable for everyone there.

Caroline Pennington (15:20.581)
Yeah.

Caroline Pennington (15:34.181)
Okay, so switching gears, I wanna talk about something that you and I both are passionate about, which is the workplace culture piece. And so I know you worked with a lot of companies about this and as a former recruiter, workplace culture makes or break whether or not you retain your employees. So talk to me about, that all starts at the top and the leadership, either the founder or the C-suite or whatever that looks like.

what do you see has worked best for you in working with your clients and people that you coach right now?

Jada Willis (16:07.15)
There's so much to share there, but it's an excellent, excellent question. I would say, and this is working with small businesses that I would believe have even 15 employees to corporations with thousands of employees and maybe hundreds on a team, right? Like I feel like we overcomplicate culture a good bit. And I know that we say culture and it's like a buzzword and people kind of daze out and they're like, okay. There are studies after studies on, listen, if you do not focus on culture, if you do not have,

a connection back to your core values and how it ties to your team and your development of your team, then it will impact you financially. It will impact your growth. So the value of culture, I can get on a soapbox, I'm gonna leave it at that, right? And then the next thing is that how you move into that, we overcomplicate it because we think that we're just gonna do this, like we're gonna do ax throwing or escape room and that's gonna build morale. Or we put together these band-aid approaches to not really knowing what we're doing.

When in all actuality, to me, I feel like very simple formula for positive and engaged employees. that's, what? I teach the teams, the leadership teams, because you're right, it starts at the top. Your leadership teams, it's how you communicate and how often you communicate with your team. So that's the first one, with your direct reports. And there are some other systems there and templates. The second thing is all about appreciation.

Learn how to appreciate your employees on an individual level. I love appreciation languages in the workplace. It's one of my favorite assessments. It's one of my favorite things to give your direct employees, direct reports. And the last thing is help your employees make an impact based off of their zones of genius. And then help them see, hey, this is the impact that you said that you wanna make. This is how you're making an impact. This is how it's connected to the larger vision. my goodness, I promise you those three things, you're gonna cultivate

people that will follow you into battle. It won't even make sense, but they're loyal to you. They're loyal to the organization. And you're get the best kind of work out of them as well because they will be engaged. that's the, I can break that down, but we first have to start with assessing the current culture that you have present day, getting very real to look at the data, ask employees, and not just like this basic generic flipping employee survey. It is a targeted approach.

Jada Willis (18:32.684)
Right? And it's multiple ways because people process things differently. Some employees want time to think about it and process, and some employees want to tell you immediately what's going on. And so you really have to design that feedback structure, get the data, and then we create the plan. But if we just use even that formula, we're going to get to some good stuff.

Caroline Pennington (18:56.303)
I love that you said the assessment piece because I met with so many companies that would be like, we have the best culture. And I'm like, no, because half your department's calling me like on the low, like at lunch because this place sucks. Like, and I don't want to recruit for places that suck. Like, I got to a place, what's that?

Jada Willis (19:13.429)
Exactly. Do you know what I compare that to? I can tell you what I compare that to. Whenever I meet a leader, I actually had breakfast with a leader in the last few months and he said to me, oh, I have the best culture. And I went, oh, it's pretty bad. So I already know if you're telling me, if you're telling me you have the best culture. Okay. I said, this is my response. If I would go up and interview employees.

Caroline Pennington (19:29.125)
you

Jada Willis (19:41.858)
what exactly would they say about your culture? And it was like a moment of, well, we have to ask them? Yeah, I think so. So this is what I say about that. It's like an employee when you're interviewing, I don't know if you feel this way. It's like, I hate drama. I'm like, okay. But if you're saying that, if you're already positioning, I get a little worried. I'd like to look under the hood. So tell me what you think about that.

Caroline Pennington (20:08.845)
It's so funny because companies think when they put together these teams or these high performing, whatever fill in the blank, they forget that like the top people are getting poached at all times. Like if you've got high performers, you better guarantee there's recruiters in their inbox and they're getting recruited to go work for other places. And the main thing that's going to make them stay is the culture piece and it's the money piece. You've got to have both.

Do you agree with disagreeing?

Jada Willis (20:39.758)
I agree. I mean, especially, right? We see the prices of bread and eggs, all right? We need to take care of our employees so that it's not the mazelas, hierarchies where they're worrying about their overall survival. They want to be compensated fairly. And then in addition to that, they want to feel good about the work they do. I don't think an employee wakes up and says, you know what, I want to be a sucky employee today. Just not what happens.

Caroline Pennington (21:07.617)
So what is lighting up with some of the clients that you're working with right now?

Jada Willis (21:11.726)
So many things, I'll tell you. It was actually a text exchange I was working with. I'm working with a female that owns a law firm and she has four different locations. She is growing and scaling rapidly and it's so much fun to help her grow and obviously the team and putting the right people in place, all those things. But what I told her is that I appreciate working with her so much because she's a leader of, it doesn't matter what she does in a given day.

I can guarantee I'm gonna get a text or an email in the next day to two days, a reflection of why she made that decision, what are her actions? And I just had to give her some acknowledgement of self leadership is underrated. Like we got to be intentional and be a bit more conscious in our living and our actions and our behavior because that's the energy that we're putting out to write to our team and our clients. But...

She is so focused on, and it's not like a worrisome focus. It's more of like, why did I do that? How does that relate to my goals? And it's very intentional. So that's fun for me to see. But what was really cool was that she said, well, guess who helped me do that? I was like, oh, I thought this was natural. But in our time together, it's really neat to see that every CEO, every business owner needs that.

CEO coach, that CEO mentor, because the accountability, it's so needed and it's so lonely in those roles where no one really understands what you're going through. And I think it's so, it's kind of a neat experience to be both HR professional, business owner, and wear that hat so I can support the clients that are also growing and scaling. so, I mean, it's lighting me up to see their wins, right? And to see that if you just put in the work.

If you focus on the right intentions, the quarterly goals, then it will pay off whenever you are, again, leading from a conscious mindset.

Caroline Pennington (23:16.569)
I love that. So how can our listeners find you?

Jada Willis (23:20.418)
Yeah, I am so excited to share that we just did a refresh to my website. So I want you to visit jaydowillis.com. I think that's the best way. And I mean, I would be remiss if I didn't say LinkedIn. Please, it's Jada Willis Consulting, but just type in Jada Willis. I promise you're gonna see this face right here.

Caroline Pennington (23:44.185)
that you did the LinkedIn drought by the way. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for being here.

Jada Willis (23:45.996)
Of course, of course. It's the best way.

Jada Willis (23:52.312)
Thank you so much. This was an honor and a privilege. Appreciate you.