Workplace Culture and Employment Law with Christina Reger, Esq.

In today's episode of “Follow Our Lead with Alaina Kearney,” we’re joined by Christina (Tina) Reger, Esq., an employment law attorney and co-owner of LOUTEL. Co-founded by Robyn Pollack, Esq., LOUTEL offers employment law counseling and compliance services, workplace culture, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) performance solutions. 

Tina discusses her career journey, the founding of LOUTEL, and how integrating legal compliance with workplace culture and DEI initiatives can transform businesses. She provides insights on how leaders can create a winning culture and avoid legal pitfalls.

Tina's commitment to listening to employees and taking meaningful action sets a powerful example for leaders. Her story reminds us that true leadership involves empathy, inclusivity, and continuous improvement.

Listen to this insightful episode to understand how to foster a positive workplace culture, navigate legal challenges, and implement effective DEI strategies.

Learn more about how LOUTEL can help your workplace.

Check out the resources Tina mentioned like: SHRM, Philadelphia Society of People and Strategy, and National Association of Women Business Owners Philadelphia. 

Read Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg.

This episode is presented by Barsz Gowie Amon & Fultz, a certified public accounting firm specializing in tax, audit, and advisory services for businesses. They have offices in Media, Delaware County, and Chadds Ford, Chester County, Pennsylvania. Visit their website at https://barszgowie.com/ to learn more about their services. 

Watch the episode live on YouTube!

Transcript

00:02
ALAINA KEARNEY:
Welcome to Follow our Lead, the podcast that dives
deep into the stories of leadership excellence and
the people who define it. In today's episode,
we're joined by attorney, Christina Reger,
co-founder of Loutel, a firm specializing in
employment law, compliance services, and DEI
performance solutions. In this episode, Tina
discusses her career journey, the founding of
Loutel, and how integrating legal compliance with
workplace culture and DEI initiatives can
transform businesses. She provides insights on how
leaders can create a winning culture and avoid
legal pitfalls. This podcast is proudly brought to
you by Barsz Gowie Eamon & Fultz, a
Pennsylvania-based accounting firm that
exemplifies leadership in tax, audit, and advisory
services for businesses. Tina, thank you so much
for being here on the Follow Our Lead podcast.

00:58
CHRISTINA REGER:
I'm so excited to be here.

01:00
ALAINA KEARNEY:
So, talk to us a little bit about your career
trajectory. How did you end up as an employment
attorney and now a business owner?

01:08
CHRISTINA REGER:
How much time do you have? Because this road is
not straight.

01:11
ALAINA KEARNEY:
That's what we like to hear.

01:14
CHRISTINA REGER:
I went to college and then wanted to go to the
FBI, wanted to go to the Secret Service, couldn't
decide. Ultimately, I decided I'm scared of
everything and couldn't do that stuff. But I
always loved the law, so that was my point. And
so, I decided to go to law school. And as straight
as it sounds, I love to help people. And first I
did a little bit of employment law, and then I did
a little bit of family law, and then I did a
little bit of commercial litigation. But
ultimately, I loved working with people and
building the relationships. And family law was
just, you were tearing down relationships. It was
so hostile and so bitter all the time. But my
father was a small business owner, so I always
loved that success and helping business owners.
And so, that's how I ended up following that
career path. And in 2015, I was looking at like
how do I specialize? I wanted to build something
for myself and not have to rely on other partners
or attorneys for work. And I looked at the
landscape of legal ideas and topics, and practice
areas. And employment law was growing faster than
any other area in the law, even bankruptcy. And I
thought I can help these people proactively rather
than defend them in litigation, because the laws
even then were changing so quickly. And so, I
developed this employment law compliance practice
group at my old firm. And then when I went out on
my own, I just continued to grow that practice.

02:52
ALAINA KEARNEY:
What did your dad do?

02:53
CHRISTINA REGER:
He was a plumber.

02:55
ALAINA KEARNEY:
Oh, interesting.

02:55
CHRISTINA REGER:
My brother, and sister, and I are first generation
American, my parents-

03:00
ALAINA KEARNEY:
That's amazing.

03:00
CHRISTINA REGER:
... came over.

03:01
ALAINA KEARNEY:
That's amazing.

03:02
CHRISTINA REGER:
So, didn't speak a lick of English when they got
here. I didn't speak English until I went to
kindergarten.

03:07
ALAINA KEARNEY:
Really?

03:08
CHRISTINA REGER:
Yeah.

03:09
ALAINA KEARNEY:
Where were they from?

03:09
CHRISTINA REGER:
Germany.

03:10
ALAINA KEARNEY:
That must've been really hard for you growing up.

03:12
CHRISTINA REGER:
Yeah, it's a very different upbringing than
somebody that's had generations of family that
have lived here.

03:21
ALAINA KEARNEY:
Tell us a little bit about your business.

03:24
CHRISTINA REGER:
We, at Loutel, are a full service employment law
firm, which I started in 2019. And then my
partner, Robin, she was a restructuring attorney
at Sol Ewing, she left her practice in about 2015
and started doing DEI work and her own company.
And then COVID happened five months after I went
out on my own, which for most people was
devastating, but for me was the biggest success I
could have as an employment lawyer. I was working
seven days a week, 15 hours a day. And everything
COVID was everything employees and businesses. And
so, working with business owners to help them shut
down, bring them back up, help them with their
employees. And then my partner had come to me and
said, "Can we put these two companies together?"
And I said, "I can't right now. I got to figure
this all out." And then George Floyd happened and
I was like, "All right, I'm ready to put the
companies together." She's like, "I can't now. My
business is blowing up." So, once we finally
settled enough to a place where we could put the
two companies together, that's what we did. We
felt that it was such a unique niche in the
market, but we saw it as so necessary. One impacts
the other. If you don't have a good workplace
culture, you're going to have legal issues. And
so, many times when we do the legal issues, or
we're doing that EEOC complaint, or we're doing
that workplace investigation, it's because they
have a bad workplace culture. The investigation
doesn't necessarily lend itself to, there's a
violation of the law here. It lends itself to, you
have poor workplace culture. So, we say that
Loutel sits at the intersection of where
employment law meets workplace culture. And so,
the law firm has a wholly owned subsidiary that is
the consulting company. So, they are two separate
companies under one umbrella.

05:20
ALAINA KEARNEY:
One of the things on your website, you talk about
this vibe approach and how that can enhance
workplace culture. Can you talk a little bit about
that?

05:29
CHRISTINA REGER:
Sure. So, that's all Robin's creation.

05:32
ALAINA KEARNEY:
I think it's so smart.

05:33
CHRISTINA REGER:
But yeah, it's interesting. When I started getting
more involved in the DEI side of the house, what
we do is so different than what a lot of DEI
companies do. A lot of companies come in and
they'll do training, but they don't do data-driven
work. And so, when Robin began doing this work,
she worked with a data scientist to create this
survey, and it measures on over 40 indices, and it
cross-references safety, psychological safety
bias, microaggressions against age, gender,
religion, national origin, handicap, disability.
So, you get a nice cross-section of maybe all of
your women feel one way or you have disabled
individuals that work for you that feel another
way. So, it really allows you to measure and then
develop action plans and strategic plans based on
what the data says. And then you can come back and
remeasure, and see what's improved.

06:40
ALAINA KEARNEY:
Obviously the culture of an organization is always
important, but now in particular, I feel like
employees are really focused on that. When they're
going to apply for a new job, they want to make
sure even more so over more than even money. They
want to make sure that their workplace culture is
one that they can align with. I wonder why that
is. Do you have any insight?

07:00
CHRISTINA REGER:
So, I think people realize that they spend a lot
of time at work, but that I think the generations
now marry very much more their work and their home
life. You might be working on vacation or you're
working at home and you're telecommuting. So,
those lives collide very differently than they did
even before COVID, where you went to an office and
you work there, and there's just a lot more
diverse people in the workforce. You have LGBT
people or individuals that now bring their whole
self to the workplace, and aren't hiding
necessarily behind their gender identity because
they're afraid. They want to work at a place where
they feel welcomed for who they are.

07:53
ALAINA KEARNEY:
Belonging is part of a really good company culture
where people feel like they can be themselves and
bring their whole selves to the workplace. What
would you say are some key components of or other
key components of a successful workplace culture?

08:10
CHRISTINA REGER:
I think it's giving people a seat at the table. I
think it's listening to what your employees are
saying. Through COVID, I used to say to business
owners, make your employees part of the solution.
They have really good ideas that are different
than yours. And the more diverse your culture is,
the more unique perspectives you're going to get.
So, just listening to employees. But I think what
I see on the employment law side is taking action
on the things that employees say, whether you get
it from a workplace investigation or you get it
from a survey. If you ask employees how they feel,
or what they think, or what they recommend, and
then you do nothing with it, you've now destroyed
the culture you're trying to create because you're
saying, "Well, we took your ideas, but they're
really not important. We're going to do things the
way we want to do them." So, it really has to be
full circle coming back and embracing those ideas,
and trying to implement those ideas into whatever
it is you're trying to accomplish.

09:13
ALAINA KEARNEY:
So true. So true. And I think it's really hard for
people too, especially company leaders to figure
out what's the best way to take that information.
I think for some of them it could feel, at least I
would expect it to feel maybe a little
overwhelming. If they're getting back all this
employee feedback, what's the best way for them to
utilize it?

09:31
CHRISTINA REGER:
Well, so that's a lot of the times the calls we
get because they-

09:35
ALAINA KEARNEY:
We didn't even plan this.

09:36
CHRISTINA REGER:
They get all the answers back and it's like deer
in the headlights like, "What do I do now?" And
so, we work with them to put together a strategic
plan like, "Okay, these are the recommendations.
This is what the data shows. How do we use that to
implement changes in your culture? Do we do
training? Do we do coaching? Do we do activities?
Do we do focus groups on why employees feel the
way that they do so we can drill down on how do we
make changes that positively impact the culture?"

10:10
ALAINA KEARNEY:
Oh, I love that. The other thing is, is sometimes
company cultures or I should say company values
don't necessarily match their culture. How can
leaders try to better align those two?

10:24
CHRISTINA REGER:
Well, I think leaders first have to be very honest
with what their culture is. And if their values
don't line up with what their culture is, they
need to look at what they need to do to either
update their values or change their culture. So, I
think you need to first be honest with start from
a clean slate and say, what do you want it to be?
If this and this doesn't match, what should it be?
And then develop a path forward that may include
amending your values or looking at your culture to
make sure that your culture lines up with what the
values you want are.

11:01
ALAINA KEARNEY:
What are some ways that companies can regularly
assess and improve their company culture? Is it
just surveying or are there some other ideas?

11:09
CHRISTINA REGER:
No, I think surveying is good. I always think it
doesn't have to be a formal survey like ours. It
could be an anonymous survey. Focus groups are a
great way to do that. You bring in a facilitator
and then just put your employees in focus groups
and discuss an issue. Before I was here, I was
training at a client and we were training on
difficult conversations and how to have difficult
conversations. I probably had about 30 employees
in the room, no leaders. And so, I was able to
facilitate those discussions with them as we're
working through the material. And then I can bring
that back to the leadership to say, "Here's what
your people are saying the issues are with
difficult conversations as it relates to the
leadership." So, sometimes it's just a matter of
putting employees together or working with them in
a way that gets data filtered to the people that
need to hear it Now, making sure that the people
that need to hear it actually do something about
it is an entirely different thing.

12:14
ALAINA KEARNEY:
Exactly. So, you mentioning what you were doing
before this made me think, what does a typical day
look like for you? I mean, I'm sure it varies, but
give us some kind of an idea. I mean, what you do
is really unique. You're not your "typical,"
employment attorney. There's more to what you do.

12:32
CHRISTINA REGER:
Oh, my days are very... They start at 5:00 AM at
the gym. And then I get my kids out of the house.
And I still work at an office. We have a very
historic building that we work in. My partner
prefers to work at home, so we make everybody
comfortable where they are. We have one employee,
an attorney of ours that's working in Mexico right
now for the past six months. But my day then goes
to the office and answers a lot of emails. But it
could be going to a client to do training. It
could be going to just meet with a client to do a
handbook, or write a policy, or interview a client
with an EEOC complaint, or gather data or
negotiate with an agency, whether it's the
Department of Labor, or the EEOC, or the NLRB
or... So, many initials.

13:35
ALAINA KEARNEY:
I know, right? Keep it all straight.

13:38
CHRISTINA REGER:
Or it could be going to a client and doing a
workplace investigation, which those are draining.
Those are very, very draining because you're
meeting with employees about very sensitive topics
and discussing with them what's going on, why do
they feel the way they do, or what have they seen?
It's very much like doing an investigation into
anything like something's occurred.

14:03
ALAINA KEARNEY:
So, does the employer hire you guys as a third
party to do the investigation or who hires you to
do it?

14:11
CHRISTINA REGER:
So, we get hired either by the employer to do the
investigation directly or we get hired by some of
the law firms who represent the employer, who hire
us as their outside independent investigator who
will do the investigation, prepare a report that
then can be utilized by the company as how they're
going to address the issues.

14:37
ALAINA KEARNEY:
So interesting. So, what do you think, out of all
the things that you just mentioned in terms of
what your day typically looks like, what is your
favorite part?

14:46
CHRISTINA REGER:
My favorite part is working with my clients. I
have really great clients. And I love helping them
grow, helping them get out of a situation that
they're involved in. Because I would say that the
vast majority of employers want to do things
right. They want to be a great employer for their
employee, but they don't always know what they
don't know, or they don't know that they're doing
something wrong, or they don't know about an
issue. And so, they get themselves into a
situation where they're defending a Department of
Labor claim. And so, just working with them. But
watching them grow. I have one client that I
started working with over 10 years ago now. When
we started, they had about 40 employees and they
have over 500 now.

15:40
ALAINA KEARNEY:
Oh my gosh. That is so rewarding. I'm sure. So
rewarding. I want to talk a little bit about DEI
because that's part of what you do at your
company. So, could you just give us a little bit
of a background? What is diversity, equity,
inclusion? We hear these words a lot, but I just
want to hear from you, what does that mean?

16:01
CHRISTINA REGER:
That means making people of all races, genders,
religions, ethnic backgrounds, disabilities, feel
welcome and included in the workplace and part of
the bigger solution that the company serves or the
people that the company serves, because everyone
has a perspective. And I have some results in a
presentation that I typically give that says
something like 30% of companies that have diverse
boards or diverse C-suite see a 30% increase in
their revenue as a result of diversity of thought.
So, it's not only diversity of what you physically
see, but it presents and provides diversity of
thought in how to do things. Because everybody
comes from different backgrounds with different
information and different perspectives.

16:55
ALAINA KEARNEY:
So true. So, what are the first steps a company
should take if they want to implement DEI and they
don't have anything, any type of DEI initiatives
in place?

17:07
CHRISTINA REGER:
I think they need to assess who their population
is, who their people are, see if they can get a
handle on are they having issues, what kind of
issues. Are they having issues between employees?
Are they having difficulty hiring people? Are they
having some situations? Or they're just looking at
their population and saying, "Hey, we have all
people that look the same here." And then talking
to someone like us or saying, "Hey, I want to do
things a little differently," getting some
knowledge. And then we work through with them,
"What is the issue that you're having?" We've
worked with some larger financial institutions
that want to hire more diverse people. So, it's
not necessarily that they have a problem, they
just want to serve more diverse populations and
more diverse communities. And so, they're looking
at their people and they're saying, "We don't have
diverse people here." So, sometimes it just starts
as basic as that.

18:05
ALAINA KEARNEY:
What are some common challenges companies face
when they try to implement DEI into their
workplace?

18:11
CHRISTINA REGER:
DEI is a process. It's a slow burn process. So,
when companies try to just take something to
generic or something that they've read and throw
it into employees that aren't gradually being
educated on what things are, they may create very
hostile situation. It's baby steps. It's a
process. And it takes a long time. And having a
path and using somebody that's professional and
trained in doing this to help you through that
process.

18:51
ALAINA KEARNEY:
That's such a good point. So, how do you see the
role of DEI evolving in the workplace over the
next decade, let's just say?

18:58
CHRISTINA REGER:
Well, it's interesting because we get a lot of
questions now following the Supreme Court
decisions on affirmative action that is DEI dead?
Is DEI no longer something that companies should
worry about? And the answer is no. If you want to
attract talent, you are going to have to continue
to maintain and grow a DEI culture, and a place
that's accepting to all people, because you're not
going to attract different people and you're not
going to attract different clients if you continue
to do the same thing. And like what I said before,
we are seeing chief diversity officers being laid
off following these decisions. And think about
what the message is to employees. Well, DEI was a
fad. It's no longer important here. And if you're
an employee, you're thinking, "Do I really want to
work here?"

20:04
ALAINA KEARNEY:
Exactly, yeah.

20:04
CHRISTINA REGER:
Because this is a place that doesn't value me as a
unique, diverse individual, whatever that
difference is that you have. And we all have them,
whether you see them or not.

20:16
ALAINA KEARNEY:
So, in terms of recruitment, what are some
suggestions you have for companies who are trying
to recruit more diverse talent?

20:25
CHRISTINA REGER:
What we always say is you need to fish in
different ponds. If you always fish in the Google,
Indeed pond, is it Recruiter Pond, you're only
going to get people that go to those ponds. Go to
your Chambers of Commerce. Go to your schools. We
are a educational mecca in this area. Go to those
schools. Go to the African-American Chamber and
build a relationship with them. Go to the Puerto
Rican Chamber of Commerce and build a relationship
with them. There are ways and opportunities to
build more diverse relationships within the
community that will produce more diverse talent.

21:06
ALAINA KEARNEY:
Really good point. So, I want to talk now a little
bit about your specialty. So, the employment law
and compliance piece of it. So, what are some
common employment law challenges that small
businesses face? And what are some ways they can
maybe proactively address them? That's [inaudible
00:21:26] a lot's.

21:26
CHRISTINA REGER:
That's different every single day. I think one of
the biggest ones is we can't afford it. We can't
afford it. And to that I say you can't afford not
to. That lawsuit is going to cost you way more
than you would've spent just calling someone,
whether it's an employment law attorney or an HR
consultant, spend a little time with them. Again,
it's all about relationship building. Build those
relationships. We have clients that call us once a
month for an hour. That's worth their time in the
weight of gold just to say, "Hey, am I doing this
right?" I'm not going to bill a client for calling
me and saying, "Do I have to abide by this?"
"Nope, it doesn't apply to you." "Great, thanks."
But there's so many different things coming out. I
think in the past month, the EEOC came out with
pregnancy guidance. The Department of Labor came
out with new regulations. There was so much that
came out. I can't imagine how a business owner
keeps it all straight and runs their business.

22:32
ALAINA KEARNEY:
Yeah, I feel like it's pretty hard to do that,
especially when you're a small business and you
don't have a dedicated HR person. How can employee
handbooks help businesses rather than harm them?

22:45
CHRISTINA REGER:
Well, it's interesting because when I first
started developing this practice area over 10
years ago, I got that a lot. I got, "Well, haven't
had one this far, and if I have one, then I'm
going to be sued because I didn't follow that
policy." And I'm like, but if you don't have one,
you're going to get sued for not following the
law.

23:02
ALAINA KEARNEY:
Exactly. Exactly.

23:05
CHRISTINA REGER:
But I look at so many handbooks and we have a very
different approach to a handbook. A handbook
should capture what your company does, how they do
it, and what employees need to know. "It's snowing
out, do I need to come into work?" That's what a
handbook should cover. Whether you're an exempt
employee or a non-exempt employee, an employee
doesn't care about that. All you're doing there is
teaching them how to sue you. So, when I take a
handbook approach, we do handbooks on a flat fee,
and we take the approach of if you have a
handbook, we will look through your handbook and
take out all the stuff that an employee does not
need to know, but they're going to know how to sue
you if you don't follow what's in that handbook.
If an employee wants to take FMLA, they need to
know what exactly I need to do to get FMLA leave.
Oh, I need to go to HR and fill out some papers
and ask for FMLA, and I might need a doctor's
note. They don't need to know that FMLA applies to
employers with 50 or more employees in a certain
geographical radius. They want to know what they
need to know to get FMLA. And so, creating and
drafting a handbook that captures your culture,
the way you do things and what the employee needs
to know to do their job. That's what the handbook
needs.

24:28
ALAINA KEARNEY:
Sometimes employers have the thought process that
they need to include everything in the handbook
because they're afraid if they don't say it, then
they could get sued for what they don't say. But
that doesn't seem to be the case.

24:39
CHRISTINA REGER:
No, I mean, you want things like you want your EEO
policies. You want, we don't discriminate on the
basis of any protected class. You want all that.
But you want that, "We comply with the ADA and if
you have a disability, please come see us." But if
you have a disability, they don't need to know the
entire process step by step of what an HR person
needs to know to comply with the law. They need to
know, "I have a disability, or I need an
accommodation because of an issue I'm having. What
do I need to do? Tell me what I need to do to get
help that I need. I need to go to HR and ask for
assistance or an accommodation. I might need to
get a doctor's note." So, going through the
process, but same thing with a complaint process.
So, many handbooks that I look at, say, if you're
having an issue, go to the owner of the company.
Well, what if the owner of the company is the one
giving the problem? Then you have a handbook
policy that's completely ineffective. So, just
looking at your policies from a really practical
standpoint and how you operate every single day,
not how you ideally would like your company to
look, but how it does look. So, when you pull
something off the web, whether it's LegalZoom or
the Google, or you get it from your neighbor's
company, which is nothing like your company, which
I have seen or I've also seen this, "Here it is.
We did in 1999 when we opened up." A lot's changed
since then. And those handbooks might not comply
with the law, but might also not be what your
culture is.

26:24
ALAINA KEARNEY:
So true. How often do you think handbooks should
be reviewed or looked at? Especially with all
these changing regulations. I mean, you got to
stay up to date on all these regulations, and then
are you constantly updating the handbook to
reflect them?

26:36
CHRISTINA REGER:
On average, we probably look at our client's
handbooks every other year or so. Just to see if
there's anything. We did a lot during COVID and we
put in all the COVID policies. And now it's time
to pull some of them out and look at them again
and just say, look, if you're sick, stay home.
Don't come in to work. It's as basic as that. But
I think that that's the general gist of what we do
every two years. But we also put out a blog. And
we don't put it out every day or every week, but
if there's something coming out like the new
pregnancy guidance, we might put something out
that says, "Hey, employers, the EEOC, put out a
new pregnancy guidance. Here's the top three
points you need to know. If you want more
information, here's the link to the frequently
asked questions. Here's the link to the poster.
Here's the link to the questions. Call us if you
need us." But the handbook already says, if you're
pregnant and you need an accommodation, please
come to HR. So, that guidance is more for what
employers need to know when an employee comes to
them.

27:41
ALAINA KEARNEY:
So, I feel like I need to be on your newsletter.

27:44
CHRISTINA REGER:
Well, I'll make sure you get on it.

27:46
ALAINA KEARNEY:
I think I need to be on your newsletter. I'm like,
this is very helpful. Because I do think it's very
overwhelming. I think it's overwhelming for the
employees because they have a 300-page handbook a
lot of times. And I think it's overwhelming for
the employer who was having to constantly stay in
the know.

28:02
CHRISTINA REGER:
Right.

28:03
ALAINA KEARNEY:
It's just like a double edged sword.

28:04
CHRISTINA REGER:
It's a lot because the employer is so busy doing
their business, doing what they are good at. And
they should. That's what they should be doing. And
if you're doing what you're good at, you're going
to grow your company and you're going to be
successful. And then you call us, you call the
professionals to do the things that they're good
at. When I opened my company, the first thing I
called was a bookkeeper and an accountant,
because-

28:27
ALAINA KEARNEY:
My kind of girl.

28:27
CHRISTINA REGER:
... that is not the stuff I'm good at. So, I know
what I'm not good at, so I wouldn't even pretend
to try to do my own bookkeeping.

28:36
ALAINA KEARNEY:
Good.

28:36
CHRISTINA REGER:
So, there you go. There's a little plug for you.
Yeah, there you go.

28:41
ALAINA KEARNEY:
If an employer's listening out there today and
they feel like their HR department, whether they
have one or not, needs some work, where should
they start? What's the first thing they should do?

28:53
CHRISTINA REGER:
I think you can always call someone like us, like
an employment law firm. They can also go to SHRM.
SHRM, the Society of Human Resource Management is
a wonderful starting place. There's lots of
manuals and articles. And there's things coming
out every day if they want to keep abreast of that
kind of stuff, and they can have the time to do
that. There's also in this area, PSPS, which is
the Society of... No, I'm not going to remember
it. Professional Society of People in Strategy.
And Robin sits on the board there. There's also
NAWBO, the National Association of Women Business
Owners, where I'm president. There's all of these
organizations that if you don't want to go the
individual employment lawyer or HR consultant
route, there's resources out there that can help
companies with some of these issues to just answer
a quick question.

29:53
ALAINA KEARNEY:
You set yourself up for this next question.

29:56
CHRISTINA REGER:
Sorry.

29:56
ALAINA KEARNEY:
So, you serve as the president of National
Association of Women Business Owners in greater
Philly. So, how has leading this group really
impacted you personally, professionally, and so
forth?

30:09
CHRISTINA REGER:
Wow. It's been a very rewarding two years as
president, but also challenging. You learn how to
lead a board and educate them on what their
fiduciary obligation means, what they're
responsible for in terms of leading an
organization forward. But also it was important to
me to leave a legacy, make a mark, do things
differently in a way that benefits future
generations. So, for me, we've just celebrated our
40th anniversary last month.

30:51
ALAINA KEARNEY:
Congratulations.

30:51
CHRISTINA REGER:
So, 40 years of NAWBO in the greater Philadelphia
area. Next year, the national organization,
celebrating 50 years. But just doing things and
serving the women of this community to help them
grow their business and advocate for them, which
makes us so unique to every other woman's
organization in Washington, in Harrisburg, with
our congressmen and our legislators to provide
benefits to women business owners.

31:21
ALAINA KEARNEY:
It was maybe a year and a half ago, I had gone to
a seminar I think that NAWBO had, and it was so
interesting. And what I loved about it was I feel
like I left there with practical skills that I can
utilize. I'm not a business owner, but I found it
to be so helpful and super interesting. Number
one, because I felt like I could get better into
the brains of some of our clients and figuring out
what their pain points were. But also just for
leadership purposes. I think it was so helpful.
And I feel like a lot of organizations, you go and
it's like a dinner or something, or a networking.
And that's all great depending on the situation.
But I always say to me, I measure the success
sometimes of an event or an organization by what
did I learn from that? What did I get out of it?
And I feel like I learned so many really helpful
skills. So, I think also the teaching aspect of
what you all do is super helpful, at least for me.

32:19
CHRISTINA REGER:
Yeah, we try really hard to offer quality
programming that really helps our business owners.
Whether it's growing your business, or marketing,
or reading a profit and loss statement or any
variety of topics, employment law or DEI and why
it's important, really any topics around running a
business. And so, I think that makes us different
is that we do have social events, but we also have
events for educational purposes. And then we have
our advocacy piece, which is really what the
organization was founded on.

33:00
ALAINA KEARNEY:
So interesting. I wish there was more
organizations like that, but I'm glad it exists
because like I said, it was really helpful for me.
So, you're very involved in the community,
obviously. So, how does your involvement in the
community influence your leadership and business
approach?

33:19
CHRISTINA REGER:
Well, I think the two go hand in hand. What I do
in my business, I learn from watching what the
issues are that other people are facing, and how
we internally can respond or treat our employees,
or do things, or offer things. And vice versa. If
I see things that work in our business that I want
to bring that out to the community and help them
work through that pain point, or grow their
business, or do whatever it is that they're
looking to do to check off their goal list.

33:55
ALAINA KEARNEY:
So, what advice would you give to leaders who want
to create a more inclusive equitable workspace?

34:02
CHRISTINA REGER:
Listen to your employees.

34:03
ALAINA KEARNEY:
Ooh, good one. Okay.

34:06
CHRISTINA REGER:
Listen to them. I think they have great ideas. But
also they give them a seat at the table, ask them
their opinions. I think companies that just
dictate from the top without listening or
understanding the impact of what they're doing
doesn't create, it hinders workplace culture. But
getting everyone's perspective or making sure
everyone is included in a discussion, whatever
that situation is, or in the goal setting, is
what's going to drive the organization forward.

34:44
ALAINA KEARNEY:
I've heard something lately that says employers
now sometimes think that workplace culture means
pizza lunches on Fridays. We do do that, but
that's not our culture. But that's not solely what
a company's culture is. So, how can companies
create programs that lend itself to a culture that
you or I would want to be part of?

35:11
CHRISTINA REGER:
I think it depends on what you want. If your
business is one where you're saying, "Look, we
want to be known as a committed to our community
and that we are a community player," maybe you
schedule a food drive. Or I know an organization
that at Thanksgiving, they all distributed
turkeys. So, giving back to the community that
you're saying that you serve, how do you serve
them? What do you do for them? So, getting
involved in situations like that, or organizations
or non-profits. Or we sit on boards of NAWBO, and
PSPS, and different charitable organizations where
we support them, and we sponsor them, and we
attend their events to say, yeah, we're here and
this is where we feel that we want to say that we
support this organization. But doing things like
going to a ball game, that's a fun thing. But
doing things where you're giving back to the
community, if that's your goal. Or if you're
saying, "We want to do diverse hiring," well, what
relationships do you have? Building those
relationships? NAWBO has, over the two years that
I've been president, we've worked really hard to
build relationships with the Puerto Rican Chamber
of Commerce and the African-American Chamber of
Commerce. And now we just have an alliance with
Beacon here in Philadelphia. So, doing things that
create alliances and relationships with different
people depending on what your goal is as an
organization. I think you need to define that
first.

36:56
ALAINA KEARNEY:
I think that's so helpful. We just did an event
with the Headstrong Foundation, where we made care
packages for cancer patients in the greater Philly
area. But it was so interesting because when we
left there, our whole entire staff was so inspired
and a couple of the staffers after were like, how
can I get more involved? What more can I do? They
were so motivated by it. And it was really
touching to see actually. And I think it just
really bonded staffers that maybe... I mean, our
staff is on the smaller side, so they have good
relationships. But two staffers who don't work on
the same team. And I think that was really
beneficial and just unintended from what we ended
up doing. So, I think there's that, too.

37:40
CHRISTINA REGER:
Yeah, I belong for a long time now to a small
networking group out in Bucks County that they are
professionals who give back to the community that
they serve in. So, all of the dues that we collect
at the end of the year, we donate to local
charities in the area that charities that we've
selected. So, one of the charities that we worked
with was a charity in Jenkins Town called The
Breathing Room. And they would provide backpacks
to families impacted by cancer. And an amazing
little organization that allowed us to come in
August, stuff backpacks, and then deliver them to
the communities that needed them. So, it was
amazing. We would take that morning as a group.
Now we weren't employed all at the same place, but
as business owners and go stuff backpacks for
three hours. And then I would take the ones for
Bucks County and I would deliver them. And I'll
never forget, I took my kids with me so that they
got that experience too. But we knocked on this
one door and the woman answered the door and she
said, "Thank you so much." And she opened the door
and you could see her son sitting on the couch,
and he had his head covered and she said, "I
really hope he goes back to school this year." I
get all touched up even now, and it's been years,
but he was the one that had cancer. And so,
watching your kids even see that and say, "Look,
we really have a good life and not everybody's as
fortunate as we are." And so, when you do those
things as a group, as an organization, you build
those relationships, those bonds.

39:21
ALAINA KEARNEY:
Absolutely. Thank you for doing this.

39:23
CHRISTINA REGER:
My pleasure.

39:24
ALAINA KEARNEY:
I'm so glad we got you. I want to do a quick
lightning round, if that's okay with you.

39:27
CHRISTINA REGER:
Yeah.

39:28
ALAINA KEARNEY:
Where are you traveling to this summer? Anywhere
good?

39:30
CHRISTINA REGER:
Panama.

39:31
ALAINA KEARNEY:
Ooh, very exciting.

39:33
CHRISTINA REGER:
It's our first time, so we always like to go...
well, I always like to go to different places.

39:39
ALAINA KEARNEY:
Me too. Me too. Why Panama? Was it just...

39:43
CHRISTINA REGER:
It was somewhere we'd never been. And we've been
to Costa Rica and we loved it, and just want to
see the Panama Canal.

39:49
ALAINA KEARNEY:
Ooh. All right. You're going to have to report
back and let me know how it was.

39:52
CHRISTINA REGER:
I will.

39:53
ALAINA KEARNEY:
Do you have a hidden talent or hobby that most
people don't know about?

39:59
CHRISTINA REGER:
You always ask me these questions.

40:00
ALAINA KEARNEY:
I know.

40:04
CHRISTINA REGER:
I wouldn't say I have a hidden talent. I would say
I have a superpower and that's to juggle many
things at one time,.my husband will be talking to
me he's like, "I'll just talk to you later." I'm
like, "I can clearly hear what you're saying," and
do these four other things at the same time.

40:17
ALAINA KEARNEY:
That is a superpower. That is absolutely a
superpower. All right. If you could implement one
change in every workplace, what would it be?

40:29
CHRISTINA REGER:
Have diverse people in every workplace.

40:32
ALAINA KEARNEY:
Great answer. Okay. Last and final question. I ask
this on every podcast. I mean, yeah, every
podcast. What is your favorite book or podcast
that you would recommend to our listeners? It
doesn't have to be about leadership. It can be
about anything.

40:47
CHRISTINA REGER:
Honestly, and I love books, and you and I have
joked about this many times. I have a stack on my
nightstand and I say, "When I retire. I'm going to
read every single one of those books." But I did
read Lean In and I did love that book.

41:00
ALAINA KEARNEY:
Okay. I've heard good things about that.

41:01
CHRISTINA REGER:
And so, I did love that book.

41:04
ALAINA KEARNEY:
Okay. All right. We'll let you slide with that.

41:05
CHRISTINA REGER:
And John Grisham, I love his books.

41:08
ALAINA KEARNEY:
Okay. See, I'm an Ellen Hildebrand girl. So,
anyway. Well, thank you so much. This was awesome.
I really appreciate it.

41:15
CHRISTINA REGER:
My pleasure. Thanks for having me.

41:16
ALAINA KEARNEY:
Anytime. In this episode, Christina Reger shared
her journey and Loutel's innovative approach to
combining employment law with workplace culture
solutions. Christina's experiences as a
first-generation American, enrich her insights,
emphasizing the importance of creating inclusive
and supportive work environments. Her story
reminds us that true leadership involves empathy,
inclusivity, and continuous improvement. Join us
next time as we continue to explore the principles
of leadership with those who have lived it.