Episode 51: Dynamic Leadership and Strategic Growth – A Conversation with Bianca Lager

In this episode of Behind the Screens, I sit down with Bianca Lager, a respected strategic growth consultant, former CEO, and longtime thought leader in social media screening. Bianca takes us through her fascinating career—from building one of the first social media background screening companies to becoming a LinkedIn Learning instructor and trusted advisor for companies navigating change.

We dig into the real-world challenges of executive leadership, strategic planning, and team development—especially when stakes are high and time is short. Bianca shares actionable insights on how to approach growth with clarity, structure, and empathy. She also opens up about her personal journey, including raising two boys as an “autism mom,” finding joy at Comic-Con, and cultivating psychological safety in both business and life.

Whether you’re a seasoned leader or just finding your voice in the industry, this episode is packed with thoughtful guidance, warm stories, and a reminder that strategy is as much about people as it is about planning.

Pro Conversation You don’t want to miss!

1. Start with Structure: Bianca explains why a clear strategic framework helps companies scale smarter—and leaders sleep better.
2. Psychological Safety Matters: High-performing teams thrive where people feel safe to speak honestly and grow without fear.
3. Learn to Listen: Active listening isn’t a soft skill—it’s a leadership essential.
4. From Social Intelligence to Strategic Insight: Bianca reflects on leading the first social media screening firm and how those lessons apply today.
5. Balance is Real (and Hard): Juggling business, mentorship, parenting, and personal passions requires boundaries, grace, and humor.

Be sure to follow or subscribe to Behind the Screens for more conversations with the people shaping the background screening industry. If Bianca’s story resonated with you, share this episode with a colleague or leader who values growth, authenticity, and strategy with heart.

Connect with US:

• Les Rosen- https://www.linkedin.com/in/lesterrosen/
• Subscribe to our YouTube Channel- https://www.youtube.com/@BehindtheSCreens200

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

The most important factor of performance is psychological safety. And psychological safety is essentially the ability for your team to share ideas without the threat of being punished or ridiculed for them. And that it leads to more innovation, it leads to trust, it leads to people feeling like they're contributing in a way, and it helps you show up for work in a more productive way.

SPEAKER_02 0:32

Welcome to Behind the Screens Conversations with Background Screening Pros. I'm Les Rosen, your host, and I'm excited to have you here. On this podcast, we chat with the people who know the background screening world inside and out. Executives, industry experts, legal pros, and more. We dive into their personal stories and insights to give you a real look at what's happening behind the scenes. Whether you work in the screen industry or are just curious, behind the screens bring you the real unfiltered conversations from the people who make it all happen. Stick around for stories you won't hear anywhere else. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting action pack. Can't miss, must hear an essential episode of Behind the Screens. It's essential because we have a special guest. We have Miss Bianca Lager, Logger as in the beer. You're gonna hear all about her, but just by way of introduction, for someone who probably needs no introduction, she is a person who was the president of social media, which was the first, as I understand it. She'll tell us more about it. Social media firm that started the whole social media craze and has a ton of business qualifications in all sorts of areas that she lends to the background screening industry to everyone's great advantage. So it is my pleasure, absolutely, to welcome to the show, Bianca Lager. Bianca, welcome.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

Well, thank you so much, Les. Pleasure to be here. Pleasure is all mine. It's an honor, and thank you for the warm introduction. Happy to be here.

SPEAKER_02 2:11

Well, I'm I'm glad. And first of all, where are we interviewing you from? Because it doesn't look like a corporate office.

SPEAKER_00 2:17

Absolutely not. I don't do those anymore. I haven't in a very long time, as a matter of fact. But I am in sunny San Diego in my home office, where I come and go as I please, and mostly not as I please, because I'm shuffling after my three-year-old and my six-year-old all day long.

SPEAKER_02 2:35

And they are boys.

SPEAKER_00 2:37

They're boys, they're two boys, Henry and George. They like to call themselves the Logger Brothers. They're a team, they're a duo, and they're awesome. So that's my real job.

SPEAKER_02 2:46

So King Henry and King George.

SPEAKER_00 2:48

That's right. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 2:49

You named them after English Kings, and there's a lot more English kings.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

So that's how it worked out, essentially.

SPEAKER_02 2:55

Oh, that is a riot. And little known fact, San Diego has the best weather in the United States.

SPEAKER_00 3:02

Yeah, is it little known? I mean, it's pretty solid. Yeah. I love it here. I so I grew up here. I lived in Santa Barbara for 20 years, and then we just moved back here two years ago. Santa Barbara definitely gives San Diego a run for its money, that's for sure. But it's great to be around my family and everything again. Oddly enough, there's actually, you guys are all gonna like laugh at this, but I have more seasons here than I did in Santa Barbara. So I'm like, it's like 10 degrees different to the summer and winter. Like that's something, you know? It wasn't much in Santa Barbara, it's pretty much like 72 all year round. So I'm I'm enjoying the winters in San Diego.

SPEAKER_02 3:38

Yeah, I mean, you pretty much have lived in two of the nicest places in California and probably the world. I mean, Santa Barbara is just glorious. And San Diego is just my favorite place.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

So come down, hang out. Well, some of you were here, and I don't know if you made it out to Sherm this year less, but it was here this year, and yeah, it's a great place to have a conference, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_02 3:58

Oh my god, it's great. So let's start off. What is your current role? Tell us what you currently do, what you find interesting about it, and take it away.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

Yeah, so currently I'm a consultant. And what does that mean, right? Everybody's like, everybody's a consultant and nobody's a consultant, but I've sort of fallen into this work. So while I was running social intelligence, I started being asked to do a lot of public speaking about leadership. And I started also, I was asked to create LinkedIn learning courses. And essentially, I became a LinkedIn learning instructor. So I have several online courses. If you go to my LinkedIn, you could find them. And then I did a lot of public speaking with social intelligence as well, kind of talking about social media security and stuff like that. But then, you know, I was asked to do a variety of different things. So it all stemmed from there when I was not like I needed something else to do between having babies and running that company, but anyway, um, and COVID, not for nothing. But anyway, once we exited, I basically was like, I'm gonna continue doing this stuff. And so what I do now, I like to sum it up as a strategic growth coach, but for the most part, hold on there, a strategic growth coach. Coach, that's right. Coach, okay, strategic growth coach is how I'm summing it up lately. You know, a lot of the people that I work with are sales and marketing leaders, and then generally I work with COOs or CEOs. For the most part, there's sort of universal difficulties in the specific work that I do. So a lot of those are in what people can relate to, especially when you're running, you know, mid-sized businesses, is trying to make sure we have the right priorities, trying to have clear roadmaps to where our strategic goals are, and then staying the course, making sure that we have a team dynamic that is healthy, have is full of trust, and really strong. And that's actually sounds really easy, but it's harder to do. So I help folks, you know, essentially build their business roadmaps, make sure they have the right data and systems in place, you know, especially when it comes to marketing, you really can't invest in the right marketing programs unless you know what's working really well. Double down on that, and it takes a lot of work to just make sure you have make adjustments in your day-to-day stuff that you're collecting the right data, that you're understanding where your customers come from, you're understanding where they're going. And so in the background screening world, I partner with iCubed Advisors, Jason, Kevin, Andy, Nick and the boys. Shout outs to you.

SPEAKER_02 6:30

Wait, so Jason Morris.

SPEAKER_00 6:32

Jason Morris, Kevin Bachman, the Kevin Bachman, Nick Fishman, Andy Hellman. All right, yes, let's give them due credit.

SPEAKER_02 6:42

All right, so and thank God they have you because otherwise that's a pretty motley crew of.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

Amen, Les. Amen. I hear you. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, no, that's my lot in life, I guess. I had a bunch of boys and I'm working with a bunch of boys now. But yeah, for background screening, it's great. This crew that we've kind of put together at this point, they do a lot of different work with like MA and different kinds of advisoring, just with operations. Andy does global, like there's all sorts of aspects of the background screening industry in particular. So I kind of have my foot in two worlds most of the time, which is a lot of support and work with my background screening clients through iCubed. And then I do workshops, again, online courses and public speaking through my separate company. It's called Blink Solutions, but that's essentially it's a mouthful, but that's what I do now.

SPEAKER_02 7:32

I like a strategic growth coach, SGC.

SPEAKER_00 7:37

I know an SGC. That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_02 7:39

Put that in your business card.

SPEAKER_00 7:41

Exactly. I'm an SGC. Do you know what that means?

SPEAKER_02 7:44

I mean, I'm gonna skip around on the question list just to stump you. Normally I don't ask this till three or four questions, but with all the skill sets that you have, and we're gonna go back to that in a moment when we talk about your path to where you got to now, and all your abilities at crisscross you know, any industry. What keeps you so interested? I know in the background screening field. Because you you your skills are transferable anywhere across any type of service. But you spent a lot of time with us background screeners.

SPEAKER_00 8:14

Why would you do that? It's a good question. It's a good question. No, I think for the most part, of course, like you know, I got asked to become the leader of social intelligence, right? Didn't know lick about background screening, have been a business manager sort of by trade, and then I did some corporate sales and marketing jobs to kind of learn a little bit more about larger companies, how they operate, and things like that. Got me and be. And so when I joined social intelligence, it was all Greek to me, 100%. I didn't know how the sausage was made, like it, nor was I interested, frankly. But it it was interesting during social intelligence. I was definitely, I always say, like, I was out there just like door to door, knocking on doors, like talking about social media screening before it became more colloquial, like it is now. We all in the background screen industry understand that it's a part of a background check where you know it's available, you know a lot more. But before I was like trying to shout from the rooftops. And anybody listening, you remember me pounding on your door, trying to tell you about it. That's what I was doing.

SPEAKER_02 9:19

I mean, you were a pioneer. I mean, the very definition of pioneer is a person with arrows in their back. You were the first.

SPEAKER_00 9:24

Well, certainly, social intelligence is the first. I came on even four years after the company was created, and it still hadn't, you know, really started taking off. When we got more competitors, it was better. It definitely elevated the conversation, more demand for it, all that good stuff. Right. Back to the journey with background screening, I think that like for me, one of the core things that I always think about when I think about background screening is well, for one, I mean, it was even like that then. I was building this tech platform, we did AI, we did all sorts of cool stuff. So I was in background screening. There were our clients, but I always got to be, I was always an outsider a little bit, you know, and kind of doing something very different than the core traditional background screening CRA does. And that was really interesting because I got to work with so many different CRAs and end users. We had two different revenue channels, and so I got to see a really broad view of background screening. And when we were selling our product, we had to really intimately understand how it fit in with all these other products. We're competing essentially against them, right? And not necessarily competing, but you're competing for attention.

SPEAKER_02 10:31

Yeah, you're competing for shelf space, basically.

SPEAKER_00 10:33

Shelf space, exactly, yeah, definitely. And so through that journey, I think the thing that I like the most about background screening is the people. Like, and it sounds really trite, but genuinely, like there's just really down-to-earth kind of salt-of-the-art people here that are very genuine. I mean, trust me, there's a lot of people that are not that way.

SPEAKER_02 10:56

Well, any industry.

SPEAKER_00 10:58

Let's just put it that way. But yeah, that's just the way it goes in general. You know who I'm talking about, just kidding. Probably myself, but anyway, there's like a welcomeness, I think, to it and an openness to be a part of this industry. It's definitely something that people really feel like they belong to and identify with once you're kind of really working within it, because it's a very nuanced set of knowledge that you learn. And so I I learned it too, and here I am. But you know, I really just enjoy some of the companies I get to work with. I love the journey, especially that CRAs are on, in terms of just kind of gaining market share, trying to set yourself up with the right messaging and and approaching clients and stuff. So a lot of the stage that CRAs, the majority of CRAs are in now, this just really speaks to me as like a business manager and somebody who loves to work in both strategy, but kind of get your hands dirty and do the executionary work as well. Well, that's great.

SPEAKER_02 11:54

Because I'm curious, I because I, you know, obviously I'm familiar with your career. I just looking at your LinkedIn, I think, God, this person could do anything anywhere for anybody, and she's with us.

SPEAKER_00 12:03

So that's quite a new uh Jack of all trades, master of none, you know. That's what I told you. That's what I tell everyone. I'm like, I, you know, here I am. I don't know. I know a little bit about a lot, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 12:13

Yeah, and then I think I I mentioned this off air. The way I describe myself is my knowledge of everything is a mile wide by about about an inch deep. So it's all right. So we kind of covered this. You talked about the fact you came on to social intelligence as president four years after this forum. But what was your path to becoming a strategic strategic growth coach?

SPEAKER_00 12:31

Don't worry about memorizing that one. It's really, yeah, whatever. I don't know. I'm a business consultant. My path there, well, I mean, the path there was really stemmed from the speaking gigs and the online courses that I created.

SPEAKER_02 12:47

I think that was before social intelligence or during social intelligence. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 12:51

It was during social intelligence. I worked for a company called lynda.com in I think it was like 2011.

SPEAKER_02 12:58

Oh, yeah, and they were bought by LinkedIn.

SPEAKER_00 12:59

They were bought by LinkedIn, which is bought by Microsoft.

SPEAKER_02 13:02

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:03

So they were based in Santa Barbara in in carpenteria, and so they were my coworkers, right? The production of it all and the e-learning platform. And essentially, if you don't know what it is, it's essentially what LinkedIn learning is now. So all those online videos teaching about professional development and different kinds of um skills across business and across all sorts of different things. Um, and so one of the producers kind of saw what I was doing at social intelligence and saw just like kind of content I was putting on LinkedIn or whatever, and said, Hey, have you ever thought about, you know, would you be interested in filming an online course? And if you pitch us like five ideas of the things that you know, we'll kind of flesh it out and do it and whatever. And so yeah, we worked it out, and it's an incredible experience getting to go to the studio and getting all dolled up and the process of creating those online courses and working with the producer to really make content that is useful for folks that we all have are so busy. And so it started from there and really kind of taking a lens of how people need different skills in the workplace, and then of course, just my leadership journey with social intelligence. I mean, it is it's a journey, you know? And I think that the thing that I loved so much about social intelligence is the team that we had in the way that we related to each other and the way that we executed our work. You know, we were essentially a bootstrapped business, and so you're trying to do a lot without a lot of resources, and now I said there's a million things to do, and you have to choose one at a time, right? And the hardest, the very hardest thing to do is to keep your eye on the ball and to know when it's time to pivot and not just do it because you're reacting to other things that are going on. And so that all kind of led up to the translation of the work that I created now. And I'm coming out with a couple new workshops and courses called the Inbox Zero System, where essentially it's the roadmap like strategy and the practice that we developed at social intelligence. I have created a resource and a couple like a PDF and a workbook, a spreadsheet workbook that helps companies and their teams go through this exercise of prioritizing, making sure you have the right level of effort, you know, making sure you understand the timeline of what this project's gonna take, and just valuing the opportunity cost of choosing which thing to tackle, how to tackle it, and again to reassess and make sure that your priorities are sticking and they're the right priority.

SPEAKER_02 15:41

So it's and you were in the right place at the right time because you went to school at UC Santa Barbara.

SPEAKER_00 15:45

I did my undergrad at UC Santa Barbara, and then I did my MBA at Pepperdine. So I would say, like, oh my god, poor me. I was commuting between Santa Barbara and Malibu, like it was terrible.

SPEAKER_02 15:55

So so you've been going south all your life, Santa Barbara, then Malibu, then San Diego.

SPEAKER_00 16:00

Yeah, exactly. I know, I don't get out much. It's like these awful places that I've had to journey through, you know.

SPEAKER_02 16:05

It's just been too much. I I would I would try and feel bad for you, but I'm not going to. Yeah, don't bother.

SPEAKER_00 16:12

I would say, listen, you people that live in the snow, like I'm too weak for that. I am a weakling. I don't know how people do it. I bow down to you all who actually have a real winter. I don't know what that's like.

SPEAKER_02 16:23

Have you ever been to the snow? Sure.

SPEAKER_00 16:25

I've snowboarded. I've you know drank hot cocoa in the lounge, like with the best of them, you know.

SPEAKER_02 16:32

I don't believe in snow. It's cold, it's wet, it's slippery.

SPEAKER_00 16:35

I'm with you. Like, why?

SPEAKER_02 16:37

Yeah, yeah, why? I mean, for all you hearty souls who live in the rest of the country, but here's two of you, but not me.

SPEAKER_00 16:44

It ain't me, babe. That's right. No, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 16:48

So you went to C San Bar, you went to social intelligence, and then uh and then at some point you transition to business coach, which you've been doing ever since.

SPEAKER_00 16:58

I have been doing ever since, and yeah, you know, through my work with iCubed Advisors with Jason, Kevin, Nick, and Andy, we do a lot of webinars, we do a lot of podcasts and things like that. And so it's been super fun as well to just kind of try to continue to kind of think of new resources for people in this industry, outside of it too, for sure. But of course, like, you know, the group that I work with, iCubed Advisors were an advisory firm for background screening. And so I think it's really great to be able to think through very niche problems in this industry and address not just, like I said, that strategic planning and prioritization, but like putting that extra understanding of this industry and making sure you're putting into context, you know, the pesky things like the FCRA, all sorts of issues that come up while you're trying to, you know, run your business.

SPEAKER_02 17:50

Yeah, I mean, I'll just add an editorial comment. I try to keep out of it. But as Kevin Buckman likes to point out, everyone basically says the same thing, which doesn't really get you very far. It's kind of like World War I where you're in trench warfare, you take a yard, you give up a yard. I mean, if you really want to make a difference, you gotta do something differently.

SPEAKER_00 18:06

But you wouldn't get me on my soapbox about that less. I mean, I, you know, Kevin and I can have a whole not just a podcast, we could probably have a whole all day long conversation and don't threaten either Kevin or I with a microphone.

SPEAKER_02 18:19

I will I will not. I will not threaten you. I will not throw you the barbass, honestly. So, so basically, with all this fabulous you know experience you've done and the things you've done, who have been some of your mentors or some of the influencers that uh that have shaped what you've done or are doing?

SPEAKER_00 18:36

There's three key people I think that whenever I'm thinking about my career, my really life, and just kind of how it's gone, there's three major people that have shaped it. One, her name was Lorraine, and she was my she was the branch manager when I worked at Wells Fargo Bank when I was in college, in early college, like 19. And that was and that was Isle of Vista or uh No, so I lived briefly before I went to Santa Barbara. I lived briefly right outside of San Diego in a little town called Menefee. And if you know, you know. But anyway, I went to community college there for two years, and so I I lived there and I started working at Wells Fargo Bank, and it was a small team, and we're inside a grocery store, like one of those banks. And she was a person that if I had to pinpoint, she was a great leader, and I think that the the really great quality that she had that I learned is having difficult conversations.

SPEAKER_01 19:36

Right.

SPEAKER_00 19:37

She was able to have and some dumbs with me because I was 19 and I was an idiot, and so like some tough conversations she had with me, very direct person, but never nasty, and always supportive, and always willing to find a way to get through things, and just if there was tension, we confronted it. And she wasn't afraid to do so, and she wasn't afraid to make sure that we all knew what we were doing and why we were doing it, and to teach us all sorts of things, and so I think that like I can't be more grateful for that kind of early, you know, influence and understanding what that meant to be a leader and to have those tough conversations that you have to have with folks.

SPEAKER_02 20:17

Well, that's such a blessing to have someone with such leadership abilities early in your career. So that's number one. One down two to go.

SPEAKER_00 20:24

Two Maryland. When I lived at Santa Barbara, I worked for the Santa Barbara Film Festival for a couple years, and Brad Pitt touched me on my left arm, just so everybody knows. We met a lot of celebrities and stuff, and I literally called my mom on my cell phone. I'm like, I'm standing next to Brad Pitt and putting you on speaker. It was so exciting. 2006, Angelina was there too, anyway. So, so anyway, Marilyn was uh someone I shared an office with. She was one of my superiors as well, and you know, just an incredibly supportive person that wasn't like overbearing and micromanaging with it. She had done my job before, but let me kind of find my own way and always was there to give me nice supportive advice. And then for years after, years and years, decade probably, would always be a go-to person, always willing to like write a letter of reference, support me in any way, connect me with some the next person. And I really she just never really asked for anything in return and just always was happy to help in a very like low key way, and you know, countless thanks to her. She's just a really supportive champion of mine.

SPEAKER_02 21:33

That's amazing. Yeah, and now number three.

SPEAKER_00 21:36

Number three, you may know him, unless I don't I think you've met him, Max Drucker. Did you ever meet Max?

SPEAKER_02 21:43

No, Max who?

SPEAKER_00 21:44

Max Drucker is a founder of social intelligence.

SPEAKER_02 21:47

Oh, okay. No, I know the name, but I don't think we ever crossed paths.

SPEAKER_00 21:50

Yeah, probably not. You know, in the early days when they launched in 2010, he was kind of on the circuit, so to speak, and going to BBSA and all that kind of stuff, and then kind of let his second in command lead the Way a little bit more, but Max was CEO of social intelligence before I was, and he is the person who asked me to come take over. And essentially, what was happening with the company at the time is that social intelligence was basically serving three industries. It was serving the background screen industry, serving the government, and then serving insurance, right? Right. When there's a claim online and you're faking it, it was that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_02 22:24

And private investigators and so on. Yeah, that kind of stuff, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:28

Yeah, so so investors, of course, at some point are like, what are you doing? Pick a lane, you know, pick a lane. And so very much the lane was we don't want to do the security clearances, government stuff, sell it off to a government contractor. You can imagine a lot of red tape, a lot of difficulty with that kind of stuff. And his background was in the insurance industry, so he's like, there was a lot of opportunity there. But he's like, I can't let go of this background screening, employment background screening idea. And he felt like he was too early to market, but that there was gonna be some potential there. And so the decision essentially that they made is to spin off the company, bring in a new leader who was happened to be, you know, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, fresh out of business school, and uh, and was eager to kind of go out there and see what I could do, just boss people around as I love to do. So he was, I knew him. We lived in Santa Barbara, and I knew him essentially socially. I knew his wife, girlfriend at the time. But anyway, I always say we were at the tea off in Santa Barbara. If you ever get a chance to go to Santa Barbara, go to the tea off. It's this amazing, it's a steakhouse that like their specialty is prime rib, and they make it this delicious prime rib soup. And so I was like, prime rib soup halfway to my mouth, and he's like, anyway, I gotta, you know, he's prattling on about something.

SPEAKER_02 23:44

So carefully. I had to when at the mention of prime rib, I gotta stop. It's called kiosk.

SPEAKER_00 23:49

Tea off. Like it's like a gulf, like like you're teeing off the tea off.

SPEAKER_02 23:53

Oh, tea off. Okay, tee off. It's in Golita or it's in the Santa Barbara proper. Oh, Santa Barbara, okay. Okay. Tee off. The tea off. All right, I'll be in Santa Barbara this year, so I'm gonna tee off up on a prime year.

SPEAKER_00 24:06

It's great. It's like it's old school, it's kind of like in a like there's not many like strip mall in Santa Barbara, but it's in one.

SPEAKER_02 24:12

Is it on State Street?

SPEAKER_00 24:13

It's actually is on State Street, it's on Upper State Street, so it's it's pretty, it's north up there. It's off the beaten path.

SPEAKER_01 24:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 24:19

Yeah, it's off the tourist path. Great local spot. But anyway, yeah, delicious. And I'm not even that big of a prime rib gal myself, but anyway, it's it was it's so good. I didn't care even much for Max Strucker at the time, but anyway, he's praning on and he's asking me, Do you want to come run my company? And so, like, as my story goes, I'm like, huh? You know, like prime rib soup.

SPEAKER_02 24:40

So should I chew on that or should I chew on the prime rib?

SPEAKER_00 24:43

Yeah, I was like, I'm sorry, what are we talking about? I wasn't even listening to you.

SPEAKER_02 24:48

Another Sabon, please. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 24:50

Yeah, 100%. That's my drink, too. Last time you know, it's like you were there.

SPEAKER_02 24:55

I do my research.

SPEAKER_00 24:56

Yeah, right. Yeah, good for you. No, he became such a mentor to me. I mean, in terms of strategic thinking and in terms of just understanding how to play chess and not checkers when you're running a business and how to think in the long term. And he would, you know, try to beat into my head all the time, get out of the weeds, stay out of the weeds, stay out of the weeds. And that's such a hard thing to do. And it's a lot of the things that I try to help business leaders do now because it is so easy to get caught into the day-to-day little traps and fires that come on. And trying to really move your company forward takes a lot of, you know, getting out of that mentality. And it's not easy to do, it's not something that happens overnight. And so, yeah, we'd have these Monday afternoon meetings where so we worked in a building downtown Santa Barbara, right on State Street, in the middle of like Taurus State Street, Santa Barbara. It's called the Balboa building that's right over Paseo Nueva Mall. And you wouldn't really, you don't really think about it if you're there, but then you kind of look up and you're like, oh, that is kind of a building, almost looks like a residential building, but it's like this old school bunch of offices. And so, anyway, his office is at the top floor facing the ocean and the wharf. And so, and we're probably, I don't know, we're like we're maybe three-quarters of a mile, maybe, as the crow flies, like from there. And so it's this gorgeous balcony overlooking gorgeous Santa Barbara and the ocean, and it's great, and it just became the backdrop to like these really difficult conversations. I mean, we were going through acquisition conversations with Sterling, and we're going through conversations with all sorts of you know, negotiating with Goldman Sachs and like doing all of these really complex things that at the time I felt nervous about, of course, and intimidated by in a lot of ways, but it was just really grounding, and he was one of the most supportive people, not just in business, but in my life in general. And I always say it changed my life. I mean, it really did change everything that I was able to do and accomplish. And I'm just really grateful for his friendship and his business mentorship, just in terms of how to deal with like everything from employee matters to, yeah, these kind of high-stakes negotiations where there's a lot at play, and you know, the ocean in the background wasn't a bad thing, wasn't a bad thing either.

SPEAKER_02 27:14

The um interesting about our interview so far is that there is so much to unpack.

SPEAKER_00 27:18

There's a lot to unpack, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:19

Yeah, and there's just things we glossed over. But one takeaway point is like the importance of great leaders and mentors early in your career because you were blessed with that. You just had some great people, and then just got you just on this course at jet speed towards what you're doing now. That's fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 27:37

It's incredible, and I think that kind of relationship can continue on throughout, you know, and of course, give back and to help other folks, and that was really my whole goal. And I still have relationships with really all of my employees at social intelligence. They still check in with me and helping coaching them through really difficult situations. One of them had a really difficult situation just last week, and I I'm so glad we have that connection because it's incredibly important. And I think you know, I think the background screen industry, my experience has been anyway, is that there's a lot of really incredible relationships like that that people tend to grow and to keep throughout your career. I mean, you see folks changing, working at different jobs. What do you think? That's from these relationships, that's from you know, getting to know folks and being there for people in real ways and not just in this like kind of what can you do for me lately kind of way.

SPEAKER_02 28:32

So I mean that that's a great take. I mean, some people say, Well, it's not what you know, it's who you know, but you've taken it a step a lot more sophisticated. It's not only who you know, but how well you know them and your relationship with them.

SPEAKER_00 28:44

Yeah, incredibly so. I mean, that is like one of the core belief systems of mine is that I always sum it up as like work doesn't have to suck because it's it doesn't have to, right? We spend a lot of time together, and it's incredibly important for humans, for society to feel good about that amount of time that you're working, and not necessarily like joy all the time, but to feel like you're accomplishing something, you're contributing. And a lot of the ways that's accomplished is when you have a lot of trust in the people that you work with and your coworkers and the relationships that you have at work. I think your relationships that you have at work are so, so important, and they don't have to suck.

SPEAKER_02 29:25

They don't have to suck, ladies and gentlemen. Advice from Bianca Lager work doesn't have to suck. That's it. And life does not need to suck.

SPEAKER_00 29:33

It does not need to. It does because it translates over, right? You have a crappy day at work when you have somebody who's just being a jerk to you. You're gonna go home and be a jerk, like you're gonna carry that with you. And I think, you know, hey, we could really get meta about it, but is it the help of society? But I think it actually is really informative of, and I mean, really getting into it here last. I watched my father kind of go through a ton of crappy jobs where people treated him terribly for a long time. And I it's one of the keynote speeches that I give, and I give this talk about leadership and trust and and how to kind of develop better relationships with your employees and keep them engaged. And one of the motivations for me, and I really kind of outline this, is watching my dad suffer and the consequences that came because of that. And it's just so unnecessary. It's so unnecessary. And I've been so lucky and fortunate to have really great people and to have really great experiences. That dichotomy to me just doesn't make sense. And I really just encourage, especially people who are in executive positions, leadership positions, you've been bestowed really a power over people that can be really uncomfortable sometimes if you use it in an uncomfortable, nasty way. And so it's you just don't have to do that, you know.

SPEAKER_02 30:52

There's just so much there, yeah. And there's all these studies that say people don't quit jobs, they quit toxic managers. And but anyway, I mean that's the whole thing, right? Yeah, we've spent hours on on leadership. But let's talk, let's circle back to you. Usually people have so many answers to this, but yeah, just top of mind, what's an early lesson you learned in your career that has that has stuck with you that you'd want to share? That I mean, I know there's probably 50 of them, but what's the first one that comes to mind? Kaboom.

SPEAKER_00 31:18

Well, the one that comes to mind is what I had mentioned it briefly and I'll go through it a little bit more. But Lorraine, who taught me how to have difficult conversations, right? And this is essential. Let me say it clear, you know, it is an essential skill, although it's an essential life skill to have. It's an essential business goal, 100%. But it translates a lot, of course, in leadership. Let's, you know, the big scenario when you have to fire somebody, or when you have to let go of somebody, or you have to make an employee change. That is a very difficult conversation to have, and it can be done in a way that you can ensure everyone's dignity in the conversation. I promise you it can.

SPEAKER_02 32:02

Conversations occur because people shied away from difficult conversations early on. It could have changed. For too long.

SPEAKER_00 32:08

That's right. That's exactly right. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And that's the problem. Or well, that's a lot of that can be problems like that. That's a really classic example of things that were you think you're having conversations, but you're not necessarily getting to the root of it or getting to the place where there's open communication, there's trust, of transparency in a genuine, true, and authentic way. A lot of people do a lot of posturing, a lot of lip service, or a lot of like I read this in a book, and this is how I think I'm supposed to say it, and they kind of dance around ideas, but it's a skill set that you really need to hone and develop. And even if you think you've been doing this X many years, you know what you're doing, you know. I promise you, you can always reinvest in looking at new ways to have conversations. I always say listening is active listening. You hear about how to actively listen and eye contact and this and that, but a lot of active listening is also the changes that are made after that, the actions that you take. That's listening. And so, anyway, again, I'll get on my high horse less.

SPEAKER_02 33:16

Well, no, we can go on that forever. And a lot of people don't realize that having a difficult conversation doesn't mean you have to be difficult. You can have difficult conversations that are constructive and actually they're helpful to people. I mean, 100% the truth is it's helpful.

SPEAKER_00 33:30

And if you're not nasty about it, and you're still able to be direct, but to ensure everybody's dignity, because that's all anybody needs and wants is dignity, respect as well, but dignity is a core thing that I think you have to keep in mind. It's such a fundamental thing that I think we kind of forget about it, yeah, you know, but it's easy to forget about it. But you know, I've had to, of course, like any other leader, fire people who were doing my company wrong or you know, doing things that weren't great. But you still owe that human, I think, the dignity of of just a conversation where everybody can just walk away, you know what I mean, and just be able to move on with their lives in productive ways.

SPEAKER_02 34:14

I'll share. I mean, for my lawyer days, the cases or the matters that ended up going to lawsuits. Oh, yeah. Common denominator was is that at the core of it, someone felt that they were belittled as a person, that they that their dignity and that's what drives it. That's it.

SPEAKER_00 34:32

That's it. And yep, I mean, uh for sure. And it happens so much in in employment, I think, because there's a cat and mouse game that tends to happen sometimes where a leader kind of thinks they're giving up too much power or that they're letting things get out of control and they need to kind of commend and this and that, or vice versa, right? And so you can really dismiss it as like touchy feely or hurt feelings, but when you look at it through a lens of just like we need to be efficient and productive here, and this is not productive, you're gonna go off into a lawsuit and spend, you know, give less all your money for what, you know?

SPEAKER_02 35:12

Yeah, no, and absolutely right. Yeah, absolutely right. So, what was a you know, and looking back at all this, you you've done so much and you and you're still in full throttle. I mean, you're still going at 1200. I'm tired. Yeah, you have more energy than I remember ever having. But right.

SPEAKER_01 35:29

It's fine to know, I'm not gonna tell you.

SPEAKER_02 35:32

What comes to mind as a moment that brings a smile to your face or a proud moment about either the background screen in the industry or your professional life. I mean, obviously, in your personal life, that's a lot of the things are there, but yeah. Your professional life, what's up, what's something that kind of really brings a smile to your face?

SPEAKER_00 35:49

Certainly, my team at social intelligence. I mean, that's just the immediate thing that comes to mind. I think not just in the relationships that I built there and the friendships, because during the time at social intelligence, I was going through a lot personally. My father had cancer and was passing away. Oh, I'm sorry. I had two babies. You know, there was these very profound things that were incredibly transformational in my life, right? And it's kind of, you know, full circle for sure of like the conversations I was able to have, the openness, the candor, and also the insistence on making sure that we had our priorities straight. We knew what we were doing and going after. We were all on the same page around what our priorities were. We were on the same page about how often we reassessed them, how often we could sort of pivot win. And you know, you have to be agile, you're a small company, things change, something gets thrown at you. And being able to, you know, maneuver through those things, we not always liked each other. You know, it wasn't always pretty, but we got through it and we trusted each other. And I think that kind of trust is so rare, and it's such a gift that it was because I finally got to live out that sort of I guess fantasy that I try to help other organizations achieve now of being able to meet your business goals while also, you know, enjoying it, I guess, at the time, and at least feeling fulfilled in terms of what you were accomplishing in a business sense, but also having the right people around and being able to do it together and accomplishing things as a team. I mean, again, a lot of stuff sounds trite, but it makes such a difference in people's the way they show up to work, the way that they deliver a performance. Because some of these people, when I think back on like the hours that they put in or the way that they would, you know, cram things out. And I come in on a Monday and they're like, you know what? We just we dove in there last night and we fixed it, we got it done. And it's like, no, but I didn't, you know, I'm like, don't do that if you're you know what I mean? But like it's this commitment that you end up getting out of folks and a loyalty that it is very strong, and so definitely the proudest thing.

SPEAKER_02 38:15

Definitely that that's that's marvelous. You had a team working on all cylinders, yeah, despite the fact that you and everyone else is you're always going through stuff and you have more stuff than a lot of people have at that time, but it's that's amazing. So, congratulations. That's uh that that is something to be proud of.

SPEAKER_00 38:31

Thank you very much, yeah, very much. And I'm still incredibly proud of each of them as individuals, and of course, like you know, the way that they supported me, I'm grateful for the experience.

SPEAKER_02 38:41

That's marvelous. Yeah, so thank you for sharing. Yeah, you're gonna be able to do that. So let's pivot a little bit. We have a couple pivots left. Yeah, one pivot is obviously I think you mentioned PBSA. I do like to ask our guests how's PBSA influenced your career and uh what have you done and what it's done for you, and what do you what say you about that?

SPEAKER_00 39:00

Oh well, I say so much, sometimes too much. But no, I think PBSA, you know, what I was talking about earlier about just like, what is any of that stuff in background screening? You know, I remember going to like pan sessions and be like, what language is she talking in? Like, I, you know, what is happening right now? And so I would relentlessly go to as many sessions as possible so that I could understand the vernacular of my partners, of my clients, and understand a lot about the other products that that you know I was fighting for shelf space against. So I think that like education in general, being able to understand the nuance of all these things in a way that that I never have. It gave me a platform. I was able to do many public speaking engagements there. You know, all my knocking on doors about social media, it gave me a very big, you know, one big door that I was able to get this very long-winded conversation out and be challenged and hear the questions from a live audience so that I can understand what some of people's, some people's, you know, difficulties or challenges were with the product that we had. And then I would say, like, I, you know, I was really thinking about PBSA and just like, if there's one real thing that it gave me and like might bring me to tears, but it was my friendship with Montserrat Miller. She was such a gift to me, and we got paired with one of these speaking engagements once because they're like, Y'all gotta, you can't just be talking about social media, you need a lawyer with you, you know, and I was like, fair enough, you know, fair enough. I'm like, that's fine. I don't need to be, you know, all that's fine. Someone reel me in. And anyway, we met like literally right before we were gonna give the uh presentation together, you know. We talked on the phone and so many great moments. And like I said, I had gone through so much during that time of social intelligence, and she became such a friend. And, you know, she passed a few years ago from cancer, and I miss her dearly. And so I'm eternally grateful for PBSA for that friendship as well.

SPEAKER_02 41:03

And I would just add, I mean, anyone who monster misses her dearly, and she was you know absolutely wonderful, and so absolutely wonderful. I mean, on so many levels, she was wonderful as a person, as a lawyer, as a as everything. So yeah, so anyway, yeah. Well, and and you're still involved with PBSA?

SPEAKER_00 41:21

You still they still let me show up less, so like you know what I mean? Unless they kick me out this year, like I'll be there, I think. She'll probably come into our deck of the woods here this year. So Anaheim is I don't have to get on a plane. I am loving that.

SPEAKER_02 41:37

That's right. You can drive up to the five and sit in traffic for a while and eventually get there.

SPEAKER_00 41:42

Yeah, I actually don't think it works for me on this thing, but you get the camp penalty, you go, God, we're not even close. Uh not even close. I know, exactly. Very familiar with that drive though, so you know.

SPEAKER_02 41:53

And you're your firm, you and the boys put on the uh the social hour on Sunday, so I'll give you a little free advertisement. You know, run out the tab, have all you want. And then send the bill to Jason and uh Nick and Kevin.

SPEAKER_00 42:04

That's right. It's my favorite thing to do, is put it on someone else's tab. Exactly. Get loose.

SPEAKER_02 42:11

And order a burger wire out it.

SPEAKER_00 42:13

Get loose.

SPEAKER_02 42:14

Yeah, they'll pay.

SPEAKER_00 42:15

Kevin's gonna get so mad at you, Les.

SPEAKER_02 42:17

So let's pivot to life beyond screening. We spent so much time on so many things, each of which we could probably spend several hours on, but altogether, you know, time goes faster, you're having fun. What do you do beyond screening? You mentioned the two boys.

SPEAKER_01 42:34

The two boys.

SPEAKER_02 42:35

What are your interests, your hobbies? What do you guys do for fun? You know, when you're not thinking all these great thoughts about so many things.

SPEAKER_00 42:43

So many things, I know. It's even more. You know, it's funny. I was thinking about this. It's like, what else do I say about myself? And I had a conversation with a group of friends of mine. We were talking about our, and I'm looking at my phone right now because I'm gonna read my message because we're talking about our Instagram algorithms. And how it kind of, you know, in social media, your algorithm kind of just like mirrors who you are. And so let me list it off, and I think this sums me up well. So my algo imbalance is autism mom stuff. Both of my boys are autistic, and I'm a very proud like autism mom and learning all about the ins and outs of neurodivergency, food, recipes, things like that, how to make cool food, which truly I don't have a lot of time for, but it's interesting. Animals, I love like net geo and like kind of really kind of wild animal life stuff, and so do my kids. Football, the NFL only do not come to me with your college football stuff. It's not it ain't me, babe.

SPEAKER_02 43:41

No minor leagues, okay.

SPEAKER_00 43:42

All right, I don't deal with the minor leagues. No, thank you. Professionals around here, please. I am a multi fantasy football champion, so let me tell you. Wow. Oh, yeah, oh yeah, I've been doing it for years. I'm a huge nerd. Me and my husband, we go to Comic Con every year, we're big fantasy novel. Novel and book people. And so now we're bringing our kids to Comic Con. They came with us this year. It's super fun.

SPEAKER_02 44:07

I I have to ask, that begs the question. Do you dress up?

SPEAKER_00 44:10

Absolutely. Oh my god. Okay. Yes. This past year we did my son, it was the first time we took the boys, and trust me, that was taking two autistic six three-year-olds to a Comic Con is the most overstimulating environment you could possibly imagine. We took the trolley down there, which is like the little public transportation. Like it was a thrill for them. But everyone a trolley.

SPEAKER_02 44:33

It's great.

SPEAKER_00 44:33

Yeah, we told them we were going to a superhero party. So we the he that my oldest Henry insisted that we all be Spider-Man because that's what we dressed up as for Halloween last year. So I was Ghost Spider. My husband was spin and they were Spideys. And we literally had these kids on our neck walking around the hall and took awesome pictures, the backdrop. So that was that's definitely gotta be one of my favorites, and I think it always will because it was our first time taking them. But I liked my dress up as Daenerys Targaryen ones from Game of Thrones, and that was super fun as well.

SPEAKER_02 45:03

Wow. Did you have to dye the hair and all that?

SPEAKER_00 45:07

I wore a wig, I wore a big long wing. And then my husband was Jon Snow, and he had it, and this was pre-you know release of Jon Snow Road Dragons. And so he had an inflatable dragon, so we were like Jon Snow and Daenerys together. It was awful.

SPEAKER_02 45:22

You know, that and those photos would be great blackmail material, but neither here nor there.

SPEAKER_00 45:26

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, no, it's that's what we do. We're big old nerds around here, and otherwise, we're just like in the sun. My son did surf camp this year, so he loves it. They we go swimming and we just try to you know hang out and have a good time.

SPEAKER_02 45:41

I'm even sure you can get into Comic Con anymore, unless you book a year in advance. It used to be you can just walk right in.

SPEAKER_00 45:47

No, you cannot. Yeah, you know, it's in fact in two weeks here is then they do the lottery. And so, like essentially, if you're a returning person, you get there's like a special registry, but yeah, you have to register. They do it in early October. Register and buy your tickets, and it's a whole thing. It is a whole thing.

SPEAKER_02 46:04

If you weren't in early, you're you it's hard to get in now.

SPEAKER_00 46:07

It's hard to get in now, yeah. So me, my husband and my sister-in-law like will text each other during the registration, like who's in? And so, and sometimes we don't get in, and so one of us will get tickets so the person like buys the tickets for everyone because you're like on the clock, you have like five minutes to make your choice, and it's intense, it's intense.

SPEAKER_02 46:24

God, the Anka Longer, Comic-Con Queen. Comic-Con Queen.

SPEAKER_00 46:29

That's my act, forget the SJC, SGC. It's Comic-Con Queen.

SPEAKER_02 46:33

That that's your new Queen of the Dragons.

SPEAKER_00 46:35

That's true. Thank you. Thank you. I am the mother of dragons.

SPEAKER_02 46:39

The mother of dragons.

SPEAKER_00 46:41

They are dragons, that is for sure.

SPEAKER_02 46:44

Oh, that's fantastic. You do a lot. I need a nap.

SPEAKER_00 46:48

I need a nap.

SPEAKER_02 46:51

That's right. When the kids nap, you can nap, right?

SPEAKER_00 46:54

That's what they say, but that ain't true.

SPEAKER_02 46:57

There's never so fun fact. Tell us, you you may have already revealed it, but is there something else about yourself that you uh that people may not know, unrelated to background screening, that people can harass you about unmercifully when they see you at the next uh at the next PBSA meeting?

SPEAKER_00 47:14

Well, there's not much that embarrasses me, so I dare you to try. You know, I I I have pretty thick skin, so there isn't a whole lot that you'd ever be able to throw in my face. But yeah, I mean, come at me with your Comic-Con suggestions actually for what, you know, what my next cosplaying, you know, approach will be. And certainly if you are a fantasy novel and you love like Harry Potter and all this stuff that I love, by all means, let's talk about it. Like, I think I need to start a PBSA, like, you know, subcommittee or whatever of like fantasy nerds unite.

SPEAKER_02 47:48

So come to She-Hulk yet.

SPEAKER_00 47:52

No. True.

SPEAKER_02 47:56

I would take a or Jessica Jones.

SPEAKER_00 48:00

Yep. Yeah. I mean, you know, there's some options here. There's some.

SPEAKER_02 48:04

Or the new Superman had the that's not her name, Hawk Lady, the Hawk Woman.

SPEAKER_00 48:09

Oh. I don't know that universe. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 48:12

DC, yeah. Well, I initially grew up in DC.

SPEAKER_00 48:14

My husband's a DC guy, and I'm kind of like, meh.

SPEAKER_02 48:17

Yeah, I have one of those sad stories, right? I started collecting comic books in the 60s and went to school. I came home one day, and my parents had cleaned out the garage, and they probably threw out Spider-Man number one.

SPEAKER_00 48:27

You know, that's awful. That's awful. I'm so glad I'm a hoarder that would never happen in my house.

SPEAKER_02 48:33

Yeah, actually, anyway. The first time I was ever published, I wrote a letter to the editor to uh the Justice League of America or something. I and they actually I was complaining that Element Lad was not used appropriately. And so it got published. Yeah, I was 16 years old.

SPEAKER_00 48:45

Okay, I love that. Good for you. Stand up for us.

SPEAKER_02 48:47

Yeah, I was on that. I was a I was on that bandwagon. Element Lad could have saved the world, but yeah, really well.

SPEAKER_00 48:52

Gosh, man, you're just like shaking your fist at all those comics in there. Yeah, those would be something these days.

SPEAKER_02 48:58

Well, you've done and are doing and will be doing so many interesting things that you are the perfect person to give advice to newcomers. And I define newcomers broadly as people have been in the industry but really haven't gotten involved beyond just doing their job, or people that are just brand new verifiers who somehow think, wow, you know, being in PBSA or doing it is way beyond my pay grade, and everything in between. So, what's your advice?

SPEAKER_00 49:26

Well, I certainly think that oh my gosh, uh something is coming to mind right now that I didn't expect to pop in my brain. And it's it's I'm gonna say it, but I I am so not a compliance person, and I don't I do not know why this is coming to my mind. But one of the most useful things that I did, and I don't know if everybody does or not, read the FCRA, actually read it, like actually read it, okay? Because I think you'll learn a thing or two. I think that is very useful. Some of you have to, but not everybody does. And I think that you don't really understand some of the nuance here unless you really appreciate and digest, you know, what some of these words are. So I think that's one. Certainly, I think now, like of course, PBSA, I think that's a very obvious thing to do. Now, you know, Les's podcast, you have iCubed, you have Izzy and Melissa and Background Screen Collective. Background screen collective. You have folks that are really working hard to create new and interesting ways to bring education and get to know each other in this industry. And so I think that keep your non-background screening brain with you when you join this industry is maybe the advice. Like, yes, read the FCRA. But like this industry needs innovators and needs interesting ideas and needs, you know, lots of perspective on new ways of doing things. The world is changing all the time, the AI of it all, it's all you know, new and exciting. And so, you know, keep your non-industry brain with you and make sure that you know you are digesting all the new content that is out there and the people that you can meet through these platforms because I think you know, we need new minds like you.

unknown 51:17

That's what I would say.

SPEAKER_02 51:19

Well, Bianca, before I ask you like the final question, you have so much to to offer, and we've just you know, having scratched the surface. I mean, of the surface, just scratch.

SPEAKER_00 51:31

Like I said, I call it.

SPEAKER_02 51:32

How can people find you? Where is Bianca Lager? Where can they get hold of you if they want to continue the conversation or talk to you or get to know you or find or get resources you have?

SPEAKER_00 51:40

Please be my friend. Please. The best place is LinkedIn. That's the like the number one easiest place. Just search for me, Bianca Lager, and you can find me probably through the iCubed page if you're familiar with iCubed. But just search for me, connect me, throw me an invite for sure. I love connecting with people online. Certainly, you know, follow the content if you're interested. But I love having two conversations. Throw me a DM. Like, let's chat. I talk with people in the industry all day on LinkedIn. Like we're constantly exchanging messages, figuring out times to meet up and stuff like that. And that's really where it's gonna be the hub of everything. I kind of have a balance of content on there between background industry and then kind of you know, non-industry or kind of more general business advice and things like that. And so that's what you'll hear me, you know, insufferably talking about over and over. I'm an insufferable know-it-all. And if you know that Harry Potter reference, then good for you. But that is that is the number one place where we can be friends. Please do. I love friends.

SPEAKER_02 52:38

Well, and they could also take advantage of just your pre-recorded courses on all sorts of things, business and social media and yeah, sorts of things.

SPEAKER_00 52:48

I say, you know, hey, I still get royalty, so just put it on mute in the background. Let her rip.

SPEAKER_02 52:52

Let it rip, folks. You heard here. I mean, all contributions gratefully accepted, so that's fine.

SPEAKER_00 52:58

That's exactly right. That's exactly right. That's my GoFundMe. So thank you.

SPEAKER_02 53:01

Well, this has been a great conversation. We're almost at the hour mark, but yeah, let me end this the way I normally do and give you the last word. Is there anything I didn't ask you? Is there anything you want to add? Go for it. The show is yours.

SPEAKER_00 53:13

You know, a shameless plug, I suppose, for both for two things is yeah, like I mentioned, I mean, I mentioned a lot, but any of the iCubed webinars or podcasts, like we work really hard on those. So please do find us there. And then for myself, I'm coming out with a new workshop. It's gonna be available in January. It is for any strategic leaders that want to get better at running their team, running their own business and their own career in a more, you know, organized faster and a more systemized way. So it's called the inbox zero system. And we hope to get a bunch of leaders together. I know one of the things, questions in this industry I get asked a lot is that kind of peer-to-peer conversation. And sometimes I think folks can feel really competitive and really like close to the chest on some stuff. So trying to, you know, create a space where you don't have to give away the secrets, but you're able to come and say, hey, how do you solve this problem? What are you doing? We're hoping.

SPEAKER_02 54:07

I hate to break this. Sometimes I hate to break people, but there are no secrets. There's nothing. Let me tell you a secret. There's no one has anything unique, no one has a unique issue. Everything is known to everybody. And so there's nothing to hold on to.

SPEAKER_00 54:21

There's nothing to hold on to at all. Don't hold back. We know your pricing. It's not a secret, and it's not the thing that's making you successful. That attitude or that whatever close to the chest is is not keeping, you know, it's not helping.

SPEAKER_02 54:37

So and even I hate to say, but even your client list is not that big of a deal because everybody is someone's client.

unknown 54:44

Right. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 54:45

Yeah. And you can only do so much with that information. And so, I mean, it's semi-useful in some ways, but no, yes, stop taking those things so seriously, guys.

SPEAKER_02 54:54

Yeah, I think you're right. Because that's just the start of it. The fact that you there's so much more to it. But with everything that we have said, what would be your parting words of wisdom? And go ahead, take two or three hours.

SPEAKER_01 55:07

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 55:07

Or two, sorry, two or three minutes.

SPEAKER_01 55:09

I was gonna say, no problem.

SPEAKER_00 55:14

No problem. Listen, I'm gonna get on my I'm on this soapbox right now of leaders who are people's bosses, who are in charge of people's livelihoods, or who have influence over people's career. Whether your job title is a C-suite executive or not, but especially if your job title is one, you need to think carefully about how your presence is perceived and felt in your organization. And how that doesn't just affect the person that you're speaking to or trying to control or trying to be defensive about, whatever it is. There is a lot of dynamics that can come into play. And uh I think a lot of more seasoned leaders, so to speak, leaders, I use that term loosely, can feel like they know everything about everything and they they uh leadership training, please. Oh, that's so, you know, like I've been doing this X amount of years. I guarantee you're probably the number one person that needs to take some time to reflect and to remember, you know, that everybody's just people here and that your words and your actions and your, you know, the audience that you're in front of, whether you're calling somebody out in a public meeting or whether you're doing it privately, you know, there are always better ways to do that. And if you're you should be always interested in pursuing avenues to make sure work doesn't suck. And I guess that's the best way to end it, Last.

SPEAKER_02 56:48

I think that's great. You know, there's so many truisms you see on LinkedIn and people who pose. And the one I see a lot, but really I it is strikes home that that old saying, I can't remember who said it. People don't remember what you do, they remember how you make them feel, that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_00 57:01

And it's a real thing, it's not like emotion, feelings, like whatever you can call it emotional intelligence. It certainly is emotional intelligence, right? I mean, it goes into this, but I think that it's not productive, it's just not productive. Like, plain and simple, when you are okay. Here we go. Well, it's taking longer than two or three minutes, it's just gonna it's gonna happen. Project Aristotle. Google it, look it up. Google did a research project. This was probably in 2012, but it's called Project Aristotle, and essentially they tried to say, okay, we're a huge organization, we have all these different teams. Some of them perform better than others. What are the factors that make teams more high performing than others? And long story short, the most important factor of performance is psychological safety. And psychological safety is essentially the ability for your team to share ideas without the threat of being punished or ridiculed for them. And that it leads to more innovation, it leads to trust, it leads to people feeling like they're contributing in a way, and it helps you show up for work in a more productive way. That's kind of the short of it. I can go off about that, but I will say that that's the point is that Google's proven it. Don't take my word for it. It makes better performing teams, and I promise you it'll make a better experience for everybody and better experiences for everybody at work, make better experiences for everybody at home. There you go, guys.

SPEAKER_02 58:27

Okay, you've heard it here.

SPEAKER_00 58:29

You heard it here.

SPEAKER_02 58:30

Take a look, Google or go to your favorite AI, look at Project Aristotle. That's right. And I I I always have to remember that you know Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Spa. So Project Aristotle.

unknown 58:44

Right.

SPEAKER_02 58:45

And you will learn and hear, and it will be confirmed that our guest today, Bianca Lager, is absolutely correct. Bianca, thank you for sharing so much. Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_00 58:56

Oh, I've topped your ear off. I'm so embarrassed. Thank you, Les, for not grabbing this mic out of me. Thank you. All right.

unknown 59:03

All right.

SPEAKER_02 59:04

Well, listen, this has been another great episode of behind the screens. It has been a pleasure to have Bianca Lager with us. Stay tuned. I would be remiss. I forgot to mention at the top of the hour that our sponsor is Barry Nixon, the pre-employment directory. And stay tuned the next week. And again, let me thank our special guest who has contributed so much information. And please look her up on LinkedIn because you would get the amount of resources you have available and the insights and the wisdom are just phenomenal across a whole uh scale of business-related activity. So remember the name Bianca Locker, is we will hear from her more in the future. And say hello to her at PBSA conference. All right. Bianca, thank you very much.

SPEAKER_00 59:47

Thanks, guys. Thanks, Glenn.

SPEAKER_02 59:48

Appreciate it. All right, that was yet another wonderful conversation with a background screening pro. If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to hit subscribe so you never miss an update. And hey, if you got a moment, we'd love for you to leave us a review. It really helps get the word out. For more info or to catch up on past episodes, or to make suggestions, or to suggest possible future guests, head over to our website. Once again, this is your host, Les Rosen, and it's been a pleasure to bring you another episode. See you on the next episode. Thanks.