Confessions Beyond the Food
Confessions Beyond the Food is a podcast about working in the Food Industry. People who work in the Food Industry have grit and lots of stories to tell. W3 Sales, a sales & marketing company, will host this podcast with their confessions on how they have a new, fresh approach and invite guests to confess their secrets to their sauce.
Confessions Beyond the Food
No Sugarcoating: How Leaders Drive Alignment and Trust
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In this episode, Nancy Ridlen sits down with Jeanette Brick, President of iSi North America, for a grounded, no-fluff conversation on leadership built on customer truth, mentor-driven growth, and disciplined listening.
Jeanette explains why learning to sell before leading marketing keeps brands from talking to themselves - and how retail instincts translate into food service, where emotional connection meets operational reality. She reflects on the mentors who raised her standards, challenged her thinking without sugarcoating, and pushed her forward without taking control - because comfort may feel kind, but clarity is what works in life and in business.
Listening is a leadership performance tool. Jeanette shows how truly hearing people uncovers the real problem, speeds alignment, and drives negotiations. She explains how brand values - quality, safety, savings - flex by customer segment and shares a five-step framework for tough conversations that protects high performers, stops quiet quitting, and rebuilds trust - no “compliment sandwich” required.
We close with a candid confession with baking over cooking - precision over improvisation - and the bigger leadership lesson it reveals about staffing to strengths.
Resource: https://lnkd.in/gGSma3Cm
Meet Jeanette And Her Journey
SPEAKER_01Welcome to Confessions Beyond the Food. I'm your host, Nancy Ridlin. Let's dig in and get inspired. Hi, welcome back to Confessions Beyond the Food. My name is Nancy Ridlin, and I'm so excited you guys have joined us today. I have Jeanette in the studio. Hey Jeanette. Hi. We're so excited to have you. Jeanette is the president of EC North America. So everything wonderful, like whipping dispense that you can think that you can do with a whipping dispenser. So it's been a really fun product that we actually get to work with. But today we're going to dive into a little bit more about Jeanette and her background. She's just been a really great role model for me as a female in leadership and just walking how watching how she leads her team and what she's done with the company since she's been with EC. So really excited to have you. So yeah, so for listeners who may not know you yet, do you mind sharing a little bit about your journey and what led you to where you are today? Sure.
Sales First, Then Marketing
SPEAKER_00First, I'm a marketing person at heart, and I've been lucky enough to work with some of the greatest brands throughout the years in giftware and also in Tabletop. So in the early part of my career, I was more on the retail side of the business, and then I was lucky enough to get an opportunity to move to food service in these same categories. And it was very exciting, and it's really been a great journey for me parlaying the knowledge I have of the product into the way we sell in food service. One thing that's very important about how I think I developed my skill set was that as a marketing person, I thought early on you better be a really good salesperson before you try to become a marketing person. And I think this is really true in a lot of places because being a successful selling person, you realize what's important to be supplying as a marketing person. Otherwise, a brand starts talking to itself and no one really cares what you're saying anymore. So I really focus all of our marketing efforts on actually what our customer wants to hear about us individually.
SPEAKER_01That is a very interesting perspective. I like that because how are you going to market something that you don't know what can sell and all the benefits?
SPEAKER_00Exactly. And even changing a product. Oh, this used to be blue, now it's white. Wow, no one asked us what we thought about that, and no one told the sales team why we did that. So they have nothing to say when the customer says, Why did you do that? So you really need to get into this into the uh into the sense of what a salesperson is going to have to say in front of a customer. So marketing people get out there, get out there with your sales team.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'm a little biased. Um, I think anyone in any type of leadership form, you know, position, um, whether it be finance, but to understand the selling cycle. I think some of the best leaders I've had in the C level um positions have been the ones that have sat in my seat. Yep.
SPEAKER_00Yep, absolutely.
Rethinking What Makes A Leader
SPEAKER_01So that's amazing. So, what's something you believed about leadership early in your career that you no longer believe?
SPEAKER_00Well, I thought that every leader that I came in contact, got there, contact with or got there because they knew everything. They must know everything. That's how they get to be the boss. However, I did learn, I'm so sorry. However, I did learn that uh it's not just about what you know, it's also about having a gut feel. It's about taking those gut feels and that knowledge and putting it together with active listening about now, about your situation now. You need to adjust your thinking, not to what you always have known or what you've relied upon knowing, but life is changing quickly. The world is changing quickly, the customers changing quickly, the internationality of our companies are changing quickly. And if you're not in front of what's happening right now and asking people around you and actively listening to them, then you're totally missing out and you're gonna have the wrong answer, and you're not gonna believe you're not going to be able to lead your team. I think that what's really important is if a leader is gonna act like they know it all, they'll have a really tough time sustaining their leadership long enough to make an impact on the business.
SPEAKER_01Very true. Um so what drew you into this industry?
Why Products And People Drew Her In
SPEAKER_00I just love the products. Um, I got to work with beautiful products around me all the time when you're selling and touching and feeling, and products can be so beautiful, uh, products can be so useful. Uh, that really drew me in. Um, and on the on the retail side, it was you know all about the emotion of the product. And now in the food service side of the business as well as the retail side of the business, uh, I get to work with great people. They're all very different, and they all bring something different to the party. So I really enjoy that part. I mean, at Easy, we have uh both a food service division and our retail and online business. Uh so we treat our customers pretty individually about what they need. Um, and I really enjoy the camaraderie of the of our customers, of our representatives, uh, and clearly of my team. So that's what keeps me here.
Mentors Who Change Your Trajectory
SPEAKER_01Well, we appreciate that perspective because um, you know, the retail side is very different than the food service side. Totally different. And I can't even imagine all the personalities that you're dealing with. I mean, from you know, on the international front and translating that back, which we'll talk about a little bit later. But yeah, just knowing your audience, that's that's really good advice. Yep. So so when you look um back, um what moments really shaped how you lead today?
SPEAKER_00This is a uh a very simple answer for me. It's about mentors. And mentors are a really interesting thing because they pop up in your life when you don't really expect them. Often we don't go choose a mentor, often we don't know we need a mentor, but they show up in your business life. Um, and if you're really smart, you take advantage of it. It's it's interesting because those mentor mentors have helped me to gain momentum in my career. Um, an example, the first really person I would say was a really great mentor. She was a director in the company and I was a manager. And she said to me one day, listen, I need to become a vice president, and I can't do that till you become a director. So we are going to work on the skills you need to have to become a director. And here's what we're gonna learn to do. And I remember thinking, oh my god, I can do that. And she says, Well, of course you can, and we're both gonna do it. And you know, about a year later, we both got promoted. Another mentor gave me a crash course in analytical thinking and critical thinking. Like, what is important that we're looking at, and what exactly are we analyzing here and why? And she is the first person who said to me, you know, you could definitely be the president of a smaller, medium-sized company. You should definitely be looking at honing all of the skills you need, and I can help you do that. And she was the president of the company that I work for. Um, today I have an amazing mentor. Um, my boss in Vienna, she's wildly smart, probably the smartest person I've ever worked for. She's decisive, she's very global at her thinking, and she very importantly, as a mentor, allows me the freedom to make decisions for what's important in the United States market. But she's always there as my sparring partner, as they call it in Vienna. By sparring partner, she's the one who's saying to me, is that what you think really? Have you thought about this? And not in a critical way, but in a leading way. I think she can do that because she has confidence and she has a great deal of respect from both people who work for her and how she respects the people who work for her. So I think that's what makes a mentor. And I think it is important to note that sometimes you don't even realize that that mentor is out there. And sometimes, in fact, in several of these cases, I thought, oh my God, I'm not sure I can work for this person. This is really hard. They want everything from me. And what they really wanted was for me to be my very best. And they saw that sparkle of whatever it was that they saw that they thought they could influence, and they really took it to another level. And I'm always, I'm always grateful now and will always be grateful in the future for those women who came into my life and said to me, let's move you to the next level.
SPEAKER_01Wow, that's I'm extremely fortunate that you had, I mean, several really wonderful mentors. I think it's sometimes hard and we we think we have to do things all alone. And I have really benefited um in the past couple of years just taking a step back from all the the things I have to do and to ask for advice. It's been it's been the best time ever spent to get that real advice and they have your best interest at heart, you know, somebody that cares about you, but also that I can't sell.
SPEAKER_00Um I can't manipulate them. I'm good at that. But these people won't let me do that. They're like, no, let's look at the reality here, let's look at what really matters. And uh I think one of the great things then is to be able to give that back, uh, to be able to find somebody who you see the sparkle in and who you want to be able to help and grow. Um, and I hope I've been that for several people. Uh, I know I've wanted to be, and I know I've been told that I've helped. Um, I just hope I'm as good as those women were for me.
Leadership As Deep Listening
SPEAKER_01Well, I bet you are with all your words of wisdom. So I know I'm always inspired when I'm on calls with you. So thank you. Well, so you've described leadership um as a form of listening, and I'm also assuming negotiation. So, how has that shaped the way you lead?
SPEAKER_00This is a really good one. You know, when we first start leading, we think we need to tell everybody what they need to do. However, you have to listen first. And when you actually spend the time to listen carefully, deeply, uh, emotionally, what you start to hear is what the real problem is. Not the problem they're telling you, or not the situation you think you're in, but what the real issue is. And then once you know what that real issue is, now you actually can negotiate, you can help someone find the step, uh, the next step on the ladder to finishing what they're starting. Um, you can get two people to sit at a table together when you understand what the real problem is. And then basically, listening unfolds consensus, and then it can move you forward. Without that consensus, you can't. So telling people does not help you get to in any way uh solutions in leadership. I think I think that once we listen and learn as a leader, we're part of the team. We're not just the leader of the team. I mean, every team has lots of different roles that have to play, and somebody has to be the leader. But the leader can't be separate from the team. The leader has to be a part, and active listening helps you become part and also be perceived as part of the team.
SPEAKER_01I love that. I'm saying a lot of I love that. I love that. I love the part about you can be the you're a leader of the team or you can be a leader with a part of the team.
SPEAKER_00So and that's where uh another part of that, of course, is that leading isn't always up or down. Leading is often sideways. So sometimes somebody at a different level, like say a manager level or a director level, or even a vice president level, if you can help lead those around you, that's a really, really valuable skill and will stead you well into the future when your leadership becomes uh, you know, and as in my job as a as a president. Um, because leading around is even more difficult in the listening stage. So think about leadership coming from lots of different angles and perfecting that listening skill is the one thing that you really need to be able to do.
SPEAKER_01Yes, and that's why we have two. I always hear two ears, one mouth.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yes. I think that was Abraham Lincoln.
SPEAKER_01So listen twice as much. So and I think as leaders, we put that pressure on ourselves that we have to solve the problem. But but I think um yeah, you're not alone. And and by listening and you know, investigating and putting on that curious hat um always leads to um great answers. So, how do you listen to both customers and a brand's DNA without letting one drown the other out?
Long-Term Brand In A Short-Term World
Fierce Conversations And Hard Truths
SPEAKER_00This is a really good question. Uh, one of the things about me is that I've always worked for international companies. Um, I my marketing direct degree is in international marketing. Um, I've never worked for an American company uh that didn't have a foreign parent company. So I've always been interpreting between the two. Um, it compounds the issue of uh really taking a brand's DNA and then making it appropriate. So, one of the things that I really found to do was to make sure that I was very clear on the evergreen prospects of the brand that I'm working with. What are the key components to that brand? But very importantly, and this kind of goes back to the beginning statement, um, you need to find where the need is for your customer and how it intersects with those, um, those brand standards. If you start telling a customer something that it has absolutely no bearing on what they need, they don't really care about your list of great things that your company does. But the minute you provide a solution, the minute you take that next step and you say, here's your need, and here's our uh one of our brand standards, I think this is the intersection for you, they start to really listen. And though I think when we engage with a customer, we tend to want to tell them everything great about the brand. At the same time, we have to take a minute and say, what's the great thing about the customer? And what is that intersection? Because they don't have a lot of time to listen to you. And once you go off on a tangent, they're gonna be like, huh, she goes on tangents. And then the second time you do it, they're like, okay, I don't have time for this. So research first, understand the need of your customer and where that intersects, that specific customer intersects with your specific brand standards. And once you make that map, really focus on that. Make sure it's right, listen carefully, do your research beforehand, but don't try to sell them everything you have about the company, they don't care.
SPEAKER_01Very true. Um, so what does it take to protect something long-term in a short-term world?
SPEAKER_00Wow, that's a great question. Um, because I think our world is moving even faster if that's possible. Um and I think it comes back to defining the brand standards carefully and succinctly. Um, some things, you know, like quality or freshness or savings or safety, these things never really go out of style. So find the fast and short way to describe how that works for your brand, for the customer in front of you. Now, for us, we have food service customers, we have retail customers, we have uh online customers. Each one of them needs a different part of our brand that makes the story evergreen for them. And if they can hold on to a piece of your evergreen story, there's no end to their ability to connect your with your brand. So keeping it short and sweet and directly what they need is the most important thing you can do in that short term. I don't have time for this kind of world.
SPEAKER_01That's interesting. I love how you said keep what is consistent always, you know, at the base of it. So, and remembering that as well as you talk about new things and products and yeah, that's very interesting. So, what's the hardest leadership conversation you've had to have?
No Shortcuts, No Sugarcoating
Confession: Baking Yes, Cooking No
Wrap-Up And Audience CTA
SPEAKER_00I remember this like yesterday. For me, it was a it was a landmark um in a turning point for me to understand how to directly approach a leadership conversation. Um, I had to confront a longtime, very powerful employee about how her behavior was destructive in the group that she was working in. And I had become a newly minted director, and it was my job to sit her down and tell her, you cannot behave like this in our environment. And I was really scared that I was not gonna be able to do this. I was really scared that the outcome would not be what I wanted it to be. And uh one of my mentors said to me, I'm gonna give you a book to read. It was called Fierce Conversations. And the book described an incredibly simple, non-emotive way to have a discussion. It starts with, here's the situation, and this is what I have observed. And then the second step is is that how you saw it? And you gotta listen carefully to what they're saying so that you can make sure that those two things are actually connected. Then this is how we need to go forward, and this is why I need you to behave in a different way because this is what's happening, and I can't let this continue. It's not fair to the other people you're working with. And then the next step is so now we know how we need to go forward, and this is what happens if we don't see, if we don't see change, or if we see this specific behavior again. This part's really important because it's literally setting a goal for somebody. It's saying, this is okay and this is not okay. And then five, do you understand the outcome of this conversation? This is another catch-all time where you can listen really carefully and make sure that they're taking personal responsibility for what happened and for what they are going to do differently in the future. Without those five steps, you can get off on a tangent, you can get confused, you can get manipulated, you can not end up at the goal. So, really looking at that allowed me to literally prepare on a piece of paper these are the four points I need to address, or the five points. This is what happens if we don't if we don't see you know the change in behavior. And it helped me define that very difficult conversation without adding emotion. And uh I'm I'm not in. Unemotional person by any means at all. I'm actually pretty um you know straightforward, but everybody gets scared of confronting a scary person. And unfortunately, leadership conversations that are difficult are really a hot button for a lot of people. They'd rather just not have them. But unfortunately, if you don't have them, the rest of the team suffers. And then instead of the person who's the problem leaving, all the good people that you wanted to preserve from the problem, they're the ones who get fed up and leave. And that's obviously not good for business. So straight out like it is, keep it unemotional, be prepared. That's what I learned.
SPEAKER_01If you are listening in, you need to rewind back, go back a couple minutes and listen to this.
SPEAKER_00Because this is the name of the book. It was amazing. It's a small little book. Um, yep. Step one, here's the situation I observed. Step two, this is is that how you saw it? Step three, this is how we need to go forward. Step four, this is what happens if this all happens again. And step five, do you understand the outcome of this conversation? Step one direct.
SPEAKER_01It's so easy, especially you work with people you like, and you know, or like you said, or they're either scary, you know, or they're one of your highest performers and you don't want to lose them. And sometimes I catch myself almost overcompensating for that person, you know.
SPEAKER_00That's your emotions taking over. You're absolutely right. We all do that because we're afraid. So let the afraid go. Stare it down.
SPEAKER_01Right. Because it's almost I've learned, you know, I learned the sandwich, I don't know what they call the sandwich.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, not effective.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's not because then did we really get to the heart of it? And do we understand? I love how you're, you know, here's the here's the behavior that's expected, and what can we do moving forward? I just I think this is really good advice. And again, I get what I say called bejiggity when uh sometimes in conflict. And so, I mean, if it's somebody I'm competing against, it's not a big deal. But if it is a friend or some, because I work with a lot of my friends, and so that is one of the harder things is um just but in the end, you know, I have to remember I'm I'm helping them, you know, I'm helping them.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. Don't sugarcoat, sugarcoating doesn't involve anybody, it really doesn't.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you don't learn, you don't grow, and I like how you said the protecting the people around them.
SPEAKER_00Everybody's worked in an environment where there's an obvious lacquer and nobody says anything, and everybody takes up their work and everybody gets annoyed, and then eventually everyone's looking around like who's gonna tell the slacker to stop it? And they're looking at you like, why aren't you telling the slacker to get busy? And the longer you let that go on, the longer the slacker gets comfortable and doing nothing and sloughing their work off on others, and eventually there's you know, one by one, those people who are high performing, they're like, I don't need to do this, I can high perform somewhere else without a slacker. And you don't even know what's happened. It's happening. I think they call it is it silent quitting or something like that? Uh that's what happens. People just withdraw, and then you think, Where did my team go? Why don't they show up anymore? It's because you're not leading them, it's because you're letting the slacker lead them. And you can't do that.
SPEAKER_01I feel like we can have a whole podcast on this one today. So, my last question before confession time. Um, so what's what's a leadership lesson that you learned the long way? No shortcuts.
SPEAKER_00I I think we just were talking about it. Tell it like it is. Um, sugar coating does not help anyone. And if you don't define the issue or the requirements or the goals, whichever one of it doesn't always have to be a confrontational issue, it can be a goal setting discussion that's actually lively and fun and exciting. But if you don't actually say it like it really is, then no one knows what they're responsible for doing. And then here's the thing: no one shows up to actually be responsible. And I think you said this earlier. Then you're alone sitting there responsible. And you thought you had this team behind you, but they don't know what to do because you haven't told them and you haven't been clear, and because you lacked clarity, you can't get the help you need. And so sugar coating just um lowers the lowers the frequency of understanding. So, you know, we're not nasty, but at the same time, sugar coating when you need to be direct and not providing goals when you need to be direct, it doesn't work. It just doesn't work in life, and it definitely doesn't work in business.
SPEAKER_01Words of welcome. So well, we're gonna um conclude. Um, uh as you know, Jeanette, at every end of um the podcast, we ask for you to share a confession. This was tough.
SPEAKER_00This is tough, you know. Um, well, here's my confession. I'm not actually a person who enjoys cooking. Okay, I've said it. Um, I have many. Um, in fact, most of my colleagues they love to cook. They're really, really good at cooking. Um, they can imagine blending a taste together. They can imagine, oh, I have these six things in my refrigerator, I can make this tonight. I seem to have that whole part of my brain missing. I can't imagine what flavors taste like together. Um, it's probably one of the reasons why I love to work with the chefs and the baristas and the mixologists we have at easy, because I trust what they're doing. I find it fascinating. I love to watch them create and cook. Um, but uh, you know, just don't leave me in a kitchen. Now I will say this: I love to bake. And baking is different than cooking. Baking, first of all, is a recipe, and you have to follow it exactly. So I like things that are pretty exact, you might have noticed. Um, but also when I'm baking for people, um, particularly Christmas cookies, is a really good example. I'm pretty famous for those. Um, I'm thinking about those individuals to whom I'm going to give the baked goods, and it's sort of my way of showing them love. So while I can't cook, I really, really can't cook, but I can bake. And um I'm really fascinated by anybody who can do those things where they can imagine tastes and scents and smells combined together. Uh it's it's a it's a skill I have zero ability in, but I love watching it.
SPEAKER_01That's shocking. I was trying to have a confession here. I mean, that's a really good one. So because I've sat on, you know, webinars and things with you guys, and I mean, just y'all's passion for food, and I think that's just a testament to you like really utilizing the people around you and letting them do what they love best. So I like it.
SPEAKER_00The really important part for me is I don't have to be a a well-created cook. Um, I have to have the right people and I have to have the right attitude, and I have to really rely on the team around me. Um baking every day, but cooking, please, no.
SPEAKER_01And I'm right there with you on the baking thing. I love to bake. I love to bake. So, and that's my it's it's it's um it's it's a I love giving um baked goods away. I think it's so fun. So, well, thank you so much for joining us today. This has been there's so much wisdom in your words, Jeanette. And I think, you know, even if you're not in the food service industry, there's a lot of good information that you can um learn from this podcast. And um, as a female, and um you know, it's very inspiring. And, you know, wherever you are, male, female, along your career path, and just finding good mentors and um to help you and guide you along the way. So really, really um great information today. So thank you so much for joining us.
SPEAKER_00It was a real pleasure. Um, thank you for asking me. This was a lot of fun. You need to come back to help me there.
SPEAKER_01That's what happens when you do control, right? I ask again. So very true. Well, thank you so much, and thank you guys for joining us, and we'll check you. Uh, see you guys again um on the next episode. Thanks so much. For more inspiration, follow our social media at W3Cells. Please like, comment, and subscribe. You know, all the things we would love to connect with you.