How Being Valued at Work Changes Your Life

The Next Perfect Step cohosts Kim McStay and Lori Tremblay are energy healers and teachers with their own healing practices. They seek to provide a platform to those who are searching for guidance on how to navigate the shift in global consciousness. The podcast embraces spiritually awakened conversation and invites guests to share their healing gifts and knowledge.   Contact the hosts: thenextperfectstep@gmail.com.

What if the workplace started developing people instead of devaluing their employees? We sit down with Sandy Coker—CEO of Human Power Solutions and bestselling author of People Profit—to unpack how emotional intelligence, practical skill-building, and genuine care turn the workplace culture into a competitive advantage.

Her journey adds depth to the playbook: corporate beginnings, a family health crisis that reshaped everything, entrepreneurship forged in community, and founding Human Power Solutions days before a global shutdown.  The goal is simple and powerful—invest in people first, and profits follow as the echo of dignity, clarity, and trust.

 If you lead teams, manage change, or care about culture, this conversation offers a roadmap you can use right away.

This podcast is a community-based platform, where we encourage meaningful conversation. Please like, share and subscribe to help us inspire others. 

Sandra Coker's contact info:

sandracoker@LinkedIn

peopleprofit.com

The People Profit podcast

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:03

Hello, everybody, and welcome to the next perfect step.

SPEAKER_01 0:06

I'm your co-host, Lori Tremblay. And I am your co-host, Kim Mixday. And it is my pleasure today to introduce Sandra Coker. And she is part of Human Power Solutions, and she's also a best-selling author for People Profit. So would you like to tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do?

Developing People Not Just Training

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Yeah, sure. Thanks for having me today. I'm super excited to be here. Like I said, I'm Sandy Coker. I'm the CEO of Human Power Solutions, and we are a fractional chief learning officer company, which means that we offer uh different professional development plans for companies and help them to grow their employees so that they have better retention and higher profits for the company.

SPEAKER_02 0:53

I read one of the comments was that uh your work helped boost the employees' morale. They they were higher, um, felt better about what they do. So do you it sounds like you do some coaching and things like that with the in the workplace?

Emotional Intelligence In Practice

SPEAKER_00 1:07

Yeah, so I think you know, a lot of people think of um of of a training company as being a coaching company. And so we we do some coaching, but really our focus is on really developing the skills of the people. So uh when you when you take the time to invest in someone and and teach them how to manage conflict or what emotional intelligence is, they become better humans. So not only inside the work, but outside the work. And I think that, you know, our mission is not so much to train, because to be honest, you train dogs, we develop people, you know. Um, so that's that's you know, so when I when I hear that, uh and then the coaching piece will come in sometimes if someone is really struggling with a concept and they just, you know, or struggling with somebody or their personality is such that they're having a hard time, you know, getting along or or or getting being productive and those kinds of things. So the coaching kind of comes kind of kind of at the tail end, and not everybody needs coaching. I think that's a big misconception. Um, people need to know what to do, they need to have clarity. Their leaders need to be curious as far as like, why are you, you know, why is this hard for you or why is this easy for you? And that's really where we kind of come in. We just say, you know, I just I just get off a call with a company. And, you know, we just talked about like a lot of times employers will do a one day, you know, oh, uh twice a year we do this, we bring in a leadership company, and it's like, for what? You're spending all of this money for something that's not gonna stick. And so our company is really about developing a relationship with the comp with with the firm and having an ongoing professional development plan so that we can really actually transform the organization. Great.

SPEAKER_01 3:02

Wow. So you talked about emotional intelligence. I I I liked that. So can you explain like how you go about doing that with your clients?

SPEAKER_00 3:11

Yeah, so emotional intelligence. So, you know, we all have stuff going on in our lives, and we can talk a little bit about, you know, all the all the things that we all deal with on a daily basis. You know, I think people often look at me and think, oh, she's got everything all put together and you know, she's the CEO and so successful. And then in the meantime, you know, I'm struggling with making my sourdough starter and I've got grandkids. And, you know, I mean, I th I think there's there's there's people behind the employee. And so emotional intelligence is where it's a skill and not everybody has it, but you can develop in it. So people will get empathy confused with emotional intelligence, right? Empathy is one thing that is something that some of us have and that we can actually like read the room. Emotional intelligence is where you actually can read yourself, right? Where you can say, somebody, if someone calls me, I know my name is Sandra on the thing, but if someone calls me Sandra, I think of my mother, right? And I think, you know, whereas Sandy, when someone calls me Sandy, it's like it's that's a comfortable situation, right? So it's kind of understanding where our emotions come into play and how what we're feeling, what we give back to the person, to the receiver, right? And then it's also understanding the social situation and being able to look around the room and say, hmm, uh something that I'm saying isn't landing, and on and really being able to figure that out pretty quickly. And so when we do emotional intelligence, it's you know, we might have them read a book, we have them take an assessment, and it's interesting to see where people kind of fall in their in their in the in the quadrants. Um and it's things that people can work on. So um I really enjoy that because so many leaders think they have to lead in an autocratic way, where I'm telling you what to do, I'm directing you what to do. It actually doesn't work for everybody. And so when you can actually think about if I'm directing you and that person is kind of cowering down, well, you've got to be able to read that and say, What's happening here? And how do they like to learn? It's a powerful skill.

SPEAKER_02 5:31

It is a powerful skill, it's more supportive that way than it is.

Beyond One-Off Workshops

SPEAKER_00 5:36

Yeah, and you get so much more out of them. I mean, you know, and they get they get more fulfilled, you know. So, you know, when when I started the company seven years ago or six years ago, um one of my things was just like how we're treating people inside of our organizations really affects their own life. It affects everything, you know. And one of the videos that I sent, it's a it's called a crisis in leadership. It's old, it's probably back in the 1990s, and it's a CEO addressing his company, 450 employees or so, and and he's addressing the employees and talking about like his transformation from being an autocratic leader, very directive and very numbers-oriented, and KPIs and blah blah blah, all the blah blah blah stuff. And then he went and and someone in his organization basically was able to uh be involved in a project. And the CEO said to him, How did it affect your life? And or how did it affect you? And he's like, I'm talking to my wife more. And that hit that hit him, like, what do you mean? And it's it's because I feel valued at work, I feel it, I feel fulfilled, I'm going home and I'm having conversations. Whereas when you don't feel valued and you've been beat up all day emotionally, you know, whatever that is, you may not go home, you might go to the bar, you might go, you might not head home, you might stay at work late so you don't have to deal with anyone. You might walk in the door and be like, I'm done. I'm going, you know, to my man cave or to my she shed, whatever that is, right? Um so I think I I'm just a big believer in the mental state of people, and I'm I'm not a woo-woo person, I never have been, but I do believe in treating people the right way that they need to be treated. And we've got to understand that people have lives outside of work.

Starting With Frontline And Managers

SPEAKER_01 7:30

Yeah. So so when you work with um clients, do you work with both the employees and the employer together or do you work with them separately?

SPEAKER_00 7:40

Yeah, so well, so you know, I'm pretty picky as far as who what client. I'm I'm in a very lucky position. That I can be a little bit picky when I think about working with a company. Um if I have a conversation with the CEO, that's who we that's who we open our conversations with, and they're, you know, wanting to check a box, I guess you could say. Like, oh yeah, I know we have to do this for our employees because they've been told by someone that they have to do this. We'll turn away from that company because they're they're not looking for what we're looking to provide. Um, we're gonna bring high-level, high, high um skilled facilitators to the organization. Um, so when we do work with the CEO that is like really looking like, hey, we don't know, we don't know, we know that we need to do this, we're not sure how to get there, but we really want to do this for our employees. That's when we sit down, we do some consulting, we work with them as far as like, what's the plan? Where are the gaps? Where where are the what are the priorities? What are you trying to accomplish? And then we help them put together a professional development plan. And some of that will include the leadership team, but we really do like to start with the feet on the street. We really want to start with the people, the producers. So my book that that we talked about is about, you know, you really can't devalue the people that are doing the work because they're the ones that are dealing with your customers head on. They, you know, your customers know Mary Jane. They know Joe Smith. They may not know you, Mr. Mrs. CEO. Um, so we really, really find it very important to make sure that the employees are there, they're not getting the leftovers, they're getting high quality um skills that they can either use when they're there to get promoted or use elsewhere. You know.

SPEAKER_02 9:33

That's a win-win situation for everyone.

Sandy’s Path And Purpose

SPEAKER_00 9:36

It is, it is. And the managers are the managers are great. Like the middle managers are, it's a that's I always say, guys, middle managers are the toughest position. It's hard because you're managing up, you're managing down, you're managing across. It's all this um kind of stuff. And so we we really help them, we help our middle managers really break it down because they're pivotal in the success of any organization. Um, you know, they're they they literally are the glue so of the organization. And I think I think a lot of times they're just kind of glossed over in organizations. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:11

So, Sandy, I'm curious how you um came to this work.

Resilience Through Loss And Growth

Alignment, Intuition, And Timing

SPEAKER_00 10:17

Yeah, so yeah, yeah. Um, I'm a serial entrepreneur. I really enjoy working for myself. Um I didn't I didn't start off that way though. I started off in corporate. So out of college, I was gonna be a doctor, took a year off and never went to med school. So I think a lot of people can understand that. Um, I went and worked for Marriott for about three years, uh, and then moved out to California for a few years and worked for Brinker International back to Marriott when I moved home. My youngest son, I loved Marriott. Um, so I think I I can't say enough about that company and the and the development that they gave. Uh, I would have been there forever. Um, but my son got sick. I had a 16-month-old boy um and my firstborn. Um, and he was uh pretty uh, what's the word? But um terribly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. It was a misdiagnosis. His blood sugar was 882 when he was lifelited from a hospital to another hospital. And I was told that he was not going to survive because he was so young. Um he did, he did survive. Um and uh, but that changed the whole trajectory of my life, um, and obviously his. So, but God puts you in a place, whether you believe in God or higher power, whatever that is, but God put you in a to me uh in a place that you're supposed to be. So um, as hard as that situation was for me, it really took me down this other path that I never would have gone on without having without him. Um, and he had mental health issues. So the coma that he was in a coma for three days and he came out, he went in one kid and came out a whole different kid, um, and has continued to struggle with mental health, and he's just turned 30. Um, and it's continued, it's been a long, lifelong journey for us, um, you know, trying to get him situated. But so that happened, and um I had a I struggled with my mental health. I had I subsequently had two more kids and was out of corporate and trying to figure out how I was gonna do it. Um, I didn't have a super supportive partner spouse. Uh, so that was really challenging. Um I went to go, I went to um, I answered a work from home ad uh and I started selling supplements. I sold herbalife for 12 years. Uh best thing I ever did was do network marketing because it made me do personal development. Uh, so it made me read, it made me listen to tapes back back in those days. It was tapes, uh, you know, so uh really uh got me thinking about like what's the high power, what's the purpose? What where do we why why am I why am I doing this? So again, that's just every the universe just kind of helps helps you out. Um and I ended up uh getting an opportunity and longer story, but uh get an opportunity to purchase a fitness center um through this. And I had no business buying a business. I had no idea what to do with the business, but I bought it anyway. So um, and that was a huge leap of faith. It was a um, but I I had a I had a very strong goal in mind of what I wanted to do, and I I I knew I wanted to leave my marriage, and I didn't have the means to do that, and I thought a business was would help me to do that. Um, you know, and so five years later I was able to uh to exit my marriage in a in a way that I needed to. And um, you know, and then I had the business for two more years after that. Um, but a lot of hard work, a lot of networking. I I do a lot of networking, I shake a lot of hands, I kiss a lot of babies, but I also recognize when something is put in front of me for a reason. You know, I I really feel like that every iteration of my journey has been planned in some way, way, shape, or form. Um, so when I had a I had hired a business coach year five, and then by the time I wanted to sell the fitness center, um, you know, he said, What do you want to do after your sell it? And I said, I have no idea. Yeah, that I just didn't know what I was gonna do. But I'm like, I know that I'm gonna be led to wherever I'm going to be led to. So he offered me a job. Um, and a lot of people were very skeptical. They're like, that's the fitness woman. What are you doing? And you know, why is she selling for you? I'm like, because I can sell anything. Um and soon I became the face of his business. I sold a lot, I did a lot of networking. I I had a noodling in the back of my head that I wanted to get an advanced degree. Um, and I really loved the learning and development space. So I I met someone by chance, which is never by chance, um from Nichols College. And I ended up getting my master's in organizational leadership two years into working for him, which gave me a real big boost, um, just confidence-wise. Didn't need it, I really don't need it for anything else. And I'm actually noodling the PhD right now, and that's God's leading me down that path at some point. Don't need it. That that is just strictly for ego. Um, but but when I we parted ways in a really tough, tough way. Um, it's year four into in 2019. Um not not something I was really expecting, and um not something that I I think I deserved. But again, everything happens the way it's supposed to happen. So I started my business, Human Power Solutions, in December of 2019. So I got I got fired five days before Christmas and I incorporated, I built our website over the weekend and I incorporated on Monday, and then spent those two weeks between Christmas and New Year's um calling clients and saying you have a choice. This is what I'm doing. You know, you have a choice, come with me or not. And I'm so lucky that 80% said yes, they came over with me. So it's very, very, very, very blessed. Um, but also we I did a good job. So um, and those clients are still with us today. So we still let we still laugh at like some of it's like, remember, oh yeah, that's when I was with that company. Remember that? Like um, so we have a lot of that. So I was really my my partner at the time was working in New York, so we decided he's like, hey, let's let why don't you build out of New York now that you're not stuck here? Um, so we started building a team out of New York, and I had that our clients, everything was kind of moving and grooving. March 20 2020, the world shuts down. But luckily, but not luckily, because I had done my masters at nickels, we had done it, was it was a online, so it was Zoom, it was breakouts, it was everything that the world didn't know, but I did. So when I said to my clients, don't worry about it, we're just gonna flip to Zoom and we can do this. I had no issues with it at all. So again, the path of you know all your journey just that was not a big deal to me. So we were able to grow and and be very sustainable through that beginning of COVID. And then my partner passed away suddenly in August of 2020, August 5th of 2020. Oh, I'm so sorry. That's that was yeah, yes, awful, awful. Uh, really difficult. I had to, I was leaving my home. I had, you know, I mean, he was so supportive financially as we were getting up and running. Um, there was a lot, we weren't married. There was a lot that kind of went on with that, and that was really hard. And my network really um was amazing. They were like, you're not going down, right? So there were days I'm like, I don't want to get out of bed. Um, and it they just they helped keep me, keep me going. And my clients helped keep me going. And um, and I was given the gift of of meeting my husband uh not long after that. Uh and again, I feel like it was just a gift given to me by somebody. Um, so you know we're six years into the business, we've grown significantly. Um, I've written a book, I've done a TEDx talk, you know. So I look back at all the journey and I'm like, this is so interesting. You know, I'm 57 years old. And if you look at any chunk of my life, you're like, oh, that poor woman. But I don't look at it that way. I look at it this like, here's the path, you know, and I've I I've like the the experience of being with with Matt, my partner, who passed away for five years, he taught me so much, so much about myself and so much about how smart I was and where I could go and what I could do. And so it's just every everything kind of just it comes together. And now I'm in the best spot I've ever been, and ever, um, personally, professionally, um, how I feel about myself. So I think that you know, it's never a uh I can't, or it's um oh woe is me. It's like, okay, what am I supposed to learn? Uh and you're it's always something to learn.

SPEAKER_01 19:42

I think that's a beautiful way to look at it, you know, and I think a lot of people can really learn from that, that uh going into your life, you know, looking at it from one direction or from another, and you know, your proof that looking from that positive direction. Now, do you did you follow your intuition a lot of times with you know, or did you did you ever hear messaging, or did you just accept that whatever was in front of you was for your best?

SPEAKER_00 20:10

Um I I yes, I've messaging has been there for me. Uh after Matt Pass, I was really lost. Like, what's what's the deal here, God? kind of thing. And I actually uh saw a medium. So uh because I just I needed, I just really needed something to uh to kind of help me process through that. It was such a sudden, it was such a sudden uh situation. It just didn't make any sense. Like, what's the lesson there? I that was the one time I think that for me, I was like, I really I had to reach out to something else aside from my own optimism. Um so yeah, I mean, I and I and um it's funny. I I pay attention to what's happening in the universe and I pay attention to what's being told to me. And and you know, when people are put in my path, I will, I will think about what where that might have come from. So I don't hear voices, but I definitely my my intuition definitely guides me to where you know where I'm supposed to be. And last year was really a tough year, I think um, you know, politically, the the business climate, all of that. I mean, what whichever side of the fence you lie on, it was difficult on both sides, I think, um, especially in the business world. And it wasn't our best year ever. And there, there was a couple months I'm like, mm, mm, mm, you know, but I'm like, you know what, I have faith that everything's gonna be fine. And it is. You know, walking into January, I was like, oh, okay. I just need to have a little bit of patience. I need to humble myself a little bit, and here we are.

SPEAKER_02 21:45

So I appreciate your being so vulnerable with your story. And it's also true, your story is such an inspiration because you are optimistic. You do look for the roses or the silver. And also I think it's fun to um look back and see how the pieces have been put together, how they fit, and how they how you have been guided. And you can't always see that when it's right in front of you, but you see it in hindsight.

SPEAKER_00 22:16

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think there are times that for people, like when they're so thick into it, is to really take that step back and and and look at it and say, like, my daughter's in the middle of she's thinking about transitioning, she's 28, she's thinking about all that. And I'm like, I'm like, well, look at look at where the path is, like, you know, and then kind of take that step back and and see if it, if that, if it aligns with your values and it aligns with with who you are. Because I think a lot of times people will follow a path that doesn't align with them. And so there's that constant struggle, and that's that constant stress. Um, you know, going back to work for me after I sold the gym and going to work for somebody else, that was a time for me that I needed a break. I was seven years of running my fitness center. I was up at 3:30 in the morning four days a week. You know, I was working till nine at night. I mean, it was a it was a drive. I was teaching 12 classes a week. So physically I was tired. So for me, going back to work for someone that season, I actually needed to do a my my my whole body needed a reset. Like I just needed some structure. Um, you know, but it grew out of alignment after a while because I'm not, I don't, you know, other people's opinions and ideas aren't always correct. Neither are mine, but I'd rather fight with myself than fight with somebody else.

SPEAKER_02 23:42

So you might you may have to know when to step away too. You know, that's important. And you did that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:51

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 23:52

Yeah, yeah. And I I think that's a really good tool for people to have is to be able to recognize their alignment with the path that they're on.

SPEAKER_00 24:00

Yeah, for sure. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 24:04

Yeah. Yeah. Great. So if you had a piece of advice to give to the listeners um about like your journey and how you dealt with all of that, um, what would you what would you give for advice?

SPEAKER_00 24:18

I I'd say when life hits you the hardest and when you're at the moment, at the your lowest of the low, just to go through it as hard as it is, because on the other side could be the happiest, most fulfilling part of your life ever. So, you know, and don't be afraid to ask for help. Like your girlfriends are there for a reason.

SPEAKER_01 24:43

That's yeah, thank you. That's beautiful. Yeah, I'm great.

SPEAKER_02 24:48

Is there anything you'd like to add to our conversation? This has been wonderful to talk with you this morning.

SPEAKER_00 24:54

It's been so great for me as well, for me as well. Now I um I'm very grateful. I hope that I share my story not for pity. I share my story for hopefully other people can look at their lives and say, what can I get through and how can I get through this? And um, so I hope that some someone has been helped through this story that we've talked about today.

SPEAKER_02 25:19

Great. Thank you, Sandy. And and if someone wanted to um get in touch with you or read your book or or reach out, how can they do that?

SPEAKER_00 25:28

Um, so the book is peopleprofitbook.com. Uh, so that's our website there. You can buy that by it there. There's a QR code directly at Amazon. And uh LinkedIn is probably the best place for me. LinkedIn, um, Sandra Coker, uh, just like my name is spelled. And uh, and then our our website is hpowersolutions.com. So yeah. Anytime, reach out anytime. Thank you so much. Thank you. Appreciate it. Appreciate so much. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 25:57

So if you've enjoyed this podcast episode as much as we have, please like, share, and subscribe.

SPEAKER_01 26:05

And until the next time, where is your intuition leading you to your next perfect step?