Curiosity Did That: Mel Wilhelmi on Following What Interests You Through Every Career Pivot

EPISODE SUMMARY

Mel Wilhelmi has never had a master plan. And that's exactly the point. In this episode, Kate sits down with the Sr. Director of Marketing and Strategic Growth at Sunrise Technologies, a Microsoft Dynamics partner, for a conversation about what it actually looks like to keep saying yes to the most interesting thing in the room.

Mel's career started at 16 at a job fair she wasn't even there for. She picked retail because it would give her the most real-world applicability. That one decision in 1991 wound through a microbiology degree, 17 years at Sally Beauty moving through programming, project management, and AX implementations, and eventually to Sunrise, where she's been a consultant, a trainer, and now the head of marketing. The thread through all of it? Curiosity.

This conversation covers career pivots, the role of community in professional growth, what it means to push through fear, and why the skills that look unrelated on paper are usually the ones that set you apart.

TAKEAWAYS

• Curiosity is a career strategy. Mel didn't map out her path. She followed what was most interesting, most challenging, and most worth her energy.
• The skills that look unrelated are usually the ones that set you apart. Biology to programming. Retail to consulting. Every detour connected.
• Fear is real and you push through it anyway. Mel draws a direct line between box jumps and career pivots.
• Community matters most to the people who didn't have it. Mel shows up for others because she remembers what it felt like when nobody showed up for her.
• Find your fulfillment and pursue it responsibly. You don't need the whole map. You just need the next right direction.

👉🏻Contact information for Melissa Wilhelmi

LinkedIn: :https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissawilhelmi/

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome back to Coffee Talk. I'm your host, Kate Coffee Bacon. My guest for this episode is someone I met just a few weeks ago at DynamicsCon in Las Vegas. I walked up to her the same way I walk up to everyone and said, Hi, I'm Kate. I'd love to know you. And within about five minutes, I knew she had to be on the show. Her name is Melissa Will Helney. She started her career at 16 at a job fair she wasn't even there for, finished a microbiology degree while falling in love with computers, and spent 17 years at Sally Beauty moving through programming, project management, and implementations. Then she made the leap to Sunrise Technologies, a Microsoft Dynamics partner where she spent the last eight years. First as a consultant, then running their training program, and just six months ago stepping into the role of Senior Director of Marketing. She also plays bass in two rock bands, is training for high rocks, and has a cat named George who absolutely runs her house. The thread through all of it is curiosity. And I think you're going to love this conversation. Melissa Wilhelmy, welcome to Coffee Talk. Thank you so much. I can't believe it. My first podcast. Is it really? Yes. Oh man.

SPEAKER_00 1:25

So this is my first one to actually be on. So this is.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

Oh. Oh my gosh. Oh wow. I'm like super duper honored now. Um, so this is a gentle, soft entry into pop into podcasting because we're just gonna talk. We're just gonna have a conversation. And I I have only recently met you. I've known who you are. I attended one of your sessions uh at DynamicsCon a couple of weeks ago, and it was just phenomenal. And I loved how you just so naturally shared. And um, so I flagged you for Coffee Talk immediately.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

So yeah, well, I get to be on in the room right now with an award winner.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

So my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

That's why I was very excited.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

That's so exciting. I still pinching myself. Um, if you are listening, a couple of weeks ago, uh, we were at an industry conference, uh DynamicsCon, and I was, I haven't recorded a coffee talk since then to even make an announcement. Um, but I received a superhero award for my work in diversity and inclusion, specifically with this platform, with Coffee Talk and of course with She Builds. Um, and so much more is coming with She Builds. So follow me on LinkedIn, Instagram, you guys know where to find me. Um, so thank you for saying that and for triggering my memory. Um, what what a very special award to receive and to get it from Jody. Like she is I love Jody. She is like, she's the wind beneath my wings. And so it's like she's just incredible. And her words were so kind. And um, you know, I showed up and showed out in a bright yellow suit, and here we are with your flower, and you got your flower on too.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

With my massive flower, right? Yeah, so funny. Almost put on a shirt that I have that has a little flower here to be like an homage for you. But then I thought, no, that's that's Kate's thing. That's Kate.

SPEAKER_01 3:28

That's so funny. People at at conferences are like, well, I can't wear a flower now, it's your thing. Please don't the flower, uh, join, join in. Okay, well, this coffee talk is about you. So so let's let's turn it around. If um, if you have not crossed paths with Mel, give us a quick picture of who you are and and what you're up to right now.

SPEAKER_00 3:51

I am heading up our marketing department right now at a company called Sunrise Technologies. We are an implementer for D365 across the board, but finance and supply chain management, co-pilot power platform, all of that. So that's what I'm doing at the moment, but that for me is new. I've been with Sunrise for eight years now, but the first three were being consultants. And then I moved into an internal role where I train our new hires, and then just recently, six months ago, to the marketing department. But by trade, I'm a retail girl. So wow, anything retail I love. Whenever we go to stores or restaurants or whatever, I'm always peeking around the corner saying, Can I look at what technology you're using? And I like to watch their workflows and ask them questions about it just because I have a natural curiosity about pretty much everything. But when it comes to tech or anything retail, you know, I'm gonna be all over or in music, like I'm all over that too. Yeah. So that is what I'm up to right now. So learning a new role, pivoting to like a new group. I have an awesome new team, which is really, really cool. But then also keeping my hands still in the tech side of things so I don't get removed from it. That's the challenge that is hard to work on. Yeah.

unknown 5:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:17

I send an in uh an intake form to all of my guests just to get an idea of what we're gonna be talking about so that I can kind of craft questions and um I I kind of know where the conversation is going. And wow, your career is is so many pivots, changes. And so I really think this conversation is gonna land and resonate. I am the same, exactly the same way. Um, I am working through a keynote that I'm doing on Friday on personal branding and knowing your why and going through that that exercise again. I have seen that uh my why is the common thread across all of my uh my changes, my my pivots. And I kind of see that with you. So uh so we'll look at that a little bit. But I do want to go back because the path to where you are now is not a straight line. And I love that about it. So tell me how it started and where does this story actually begin? Okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:20

So whenever I talk about my current job, especially when this is how I frame my experience when we get new hires to our company. Our company hires in college grads and we train them up on how to work at sunrise, how to be a consultant, how to use the three D365. So I always explain it like this. So when I was 16, which was some time ago, my friend, when I was 16, she said, I want to go and get a job at Six Flags Over, Texas, which if you don't know what that is, it's a theme park here in the Dallas, Texas area. It's where I'm from, born and raised, Fort Worth, girl, over here. And I thought, I don't want a job, but okay, I'll go with you. So we lived a good 45 minutes from there. So we drove all the way to Arlington, went to this job fair, and inside of the convention center, there are booths for all of the departments that Six Flags has. And there's way more to it than what you just might think, you know, like operating the rides, that's just one thing. But I looked around, and this is very odd for a 16-year-old, but I'm like, what in this room has the most real-world applicability? Like, where could I reuse skills? And I looked and I saw, ah, retail. Retail is everywhere. And so that one decision in 1991, Kate. Yes, I'll be honest, 1991, that landed me where I'm at today, which is wild to think of. And it all came from just finding something that I thought would give me skills that I could use for the rest of my life. And it really has. It's because it built my career on all the different jobs that I've had. I've always had a retail bent to them. So that's how it all started. That's my origin story.

SPEAKER_01 8:03

Yeah. You know, I I was actually thinking the other day, because I was I've been recounting my origin story for for several reasons. I'm I have several projects going on right now, and um, and I it I shudder to think if one tiny thing had been different, I wouldn't be where I am right now. And I really love where I am right now. I haven't always loved the journey. There were times it was hard, it's hard for everybody, but man, it was worth it because um this space that I'm in now and the the stories that I get to hold, the stories that I get to help share and and at times retell, um, I wouldn't trade any of that stuff. So I I understand that completely. So you said you spent 10 years at Six Flags.

SPEAKER_02 8:58

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 8:58

Um, that a decade is a long time for roller coasters. Although I do love a good roller coaster. Do you love a good roller coaster? Somewhere in there, somewhere along the line, computers enter the picture. How did that happen?

SPEAKER_00 9:11

Yes, exactly. So at the time, we had just the old, they were electric registers, but they were by no means computers. They were like old school or calculators, really more, really. Right. If you remember back to then, that's what we had. Well, early on, we decided to replace all of those with actual IBM registers. And I thought that was super cool. And I was very intrigued. And the boss that I worked for, her name was Deanne, asked me to help out. And I just sucked it in and glommed on to every single piece of information I could get. I really enjoyed putting together all the parts in the back room that we had for the display and the keyboard and the little stripe reader for your credit card and all that. So I really got into that. And then she started teaching me how the day-end process works, how inventory reconciliation works, and all the other portions that go along with it, that she started letting me help out with all those kinds of things, which and then I learned more about budgets and data and everything that we had going on. But to me, all I did was I was a register user, but there's so much more beyond it. So that it opened my mind up to look into more things further and further. So as I moved up through the management ranks at Six Flights in the retail department, they put me in charge of all the POSs. I was the one crawling underneath, trying to figure out why the ring went down. Basically, it was an old token ring network. This is a long time ago. People don't even know what that means anymore. I love that. You can do it. I was the one like rolling around on the floor in the funnel cake thing, trying to figure out why it went offline right there. So that was just really cool. I got into computers just from that. I wanted to change my undergrad to basically what we had at University of North Texas Business Computer Information Systems, because like a blend of coding along with the business itself. But my counselor was like, no, just finish your undergrad and come back and get your master's in IT. And that's what I did. So I did that while I was working at Six Flights for the most part.

SPEAKER_01 11:27

So you your undergrad is in what? Microbiology and chemistry. Okay, wow. So you finished a biology, uh, microbiology and chemistry degree, even knowing that you were heading somewhere else entirely. And that takes a lot of discipline and and eyes on the prize of knowing where you're going. What made you see that through to the end?

SPEAKER_00 11:54

Well, whenever I was finishing up working at Six Flags, my boss told me, like, hey, there's a job open at a place called Sally Beauty Supply. And it's just down the road. Um, why don't you try for that? She goes, I thought about it for myself, but it's just too far for me. But why don't you give it a try? And so she did. And when I was hiring in at Sally, they knew I was about to go and get my master's. That was right when I was starting it. And they said, you know what? If you come work here and you work in the replenishment department, then when you get your master's, we'll bring you into the IT department and you can code for those people. Oh, wow. So whenever I got my degree and transitioned to IT, I was able to just hop right into the coding side of things because I already knew the entire business side and all the people too. So that was really cool. And that that always had a if you finish this, you're gonna go here. If you try this, you're gonna go there. But beyond that, even, it's just pretty much every job I've been at. I am a very, very, very curious gal, you know, and that's so funny because my cat's name is George. We should call him curious, George.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

Oh, yes, George.

SPEAKER_00 13:09

Yeah. But so I'm always wanting to know why something works or doesn't work and or why we're doing a new project or what the new project is about. So I was always asking my boss and our boss's bosses, you know, oh, AX, hmm, what's that? Is that are we doing something with AX? Yeah. Well, yes, we are. And then you're one of the two people who are going to join the original project team. So me voicing my curiosity about other roles and other things going on at the company seems to be what helps me move along.

SPEAKER_01 13:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:44

That curiosity.

SPEAKER_01 13:45

I'm seeing that. So, how long were you at Sally's? 17 years. 17 years. And you know, I I see that. I see that curiosity. I feel like a lot of your story is happening and and unfolding during those 17 years. Tell me more about your programming um being pulled um into the PMO, implementations, all of that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:13

So it was really, really exciting to get chosen to be part of this AX project we were doing at Sally. So basically, our CIO brought me and my buddy, Eric, into the room and said, Look, we have all these international locations. So everything not US-based, we're converting them all over to this new system called AX2009. And we were like, oh, okay, because we came from an AS400 world, you know, very much the old school on-prem servers. Yeah. And this technology was brand new to us. And so just being chosen to be part of that project really landed me where we are today, really, with working in the dynamics area. And that has always to me been so cool because we're a small group, you know?

SPEAKER_02 15:07

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 15:07

Like worldwide, we're not this huge group of users. So it's just really neat to be a part of it and neat to have a voice. And back then, I I don't know if you're like this, Kate, but I have changed over time a lot. I am way more gregarious, outgoing, and curious than I used to be. So I am so much more of a different person than I I am now than I was when we first started working with AX 2009. But the whole thing that always weaved it is curiosity. Why did replenishment or why did master planning go down last night? Let's figure that out. Was it net change? Was it regen? You know, all that. So I like to really understand why something happens. And usually my husband is like, just don't ask the why, just just move forward. But I always want to know why.

SPEAKER_01 15:56

I always want to know why. Yeah. But yeah, yeah. I, you know, I have definitely, especially I would say, the last five years, I am a very um, I won't say that I'm different. I'm just much more grounded. I know the direction that my feet are pointed in. Um, and it it surprises people to find out that I'm actually a massive introvert. Me too. I am too. Yes. When I am home, a friend of mine was here with me over the weekend. And um, and you know, when I'm home, I don't leave. My car is parked in the same spot. Um, and then I I hit the road and I'm traveling and I I can't get enough of the dynamics community. I want because I'm curious, because I want to have these conversations, because I want to understand people. Um, that is my curiosity as people. And me too. Yes, and understanding who a person is at their core um is is fascinating to me. And it is such an honor to for somebody to trust you um to to come into their space and and have those conversations, these conversations like we're having right now. So curiosity is um it it leads the way for me. It's a reason that I read so much. Um, it's a reason I ask so many questions. Um, I feel like um we're kindred spirits in. I think so too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:29

That's very interesting because I don't I don't meet a lot of people in the world who have as much curiosity as I do. So it's cool to be around someone who who does. Because, like, oh my gosh, I am like an Uber driver's worst nightmare. Whenever I get in, I want to ask, I want to tell how's your day? Did you have any trouble? Did how are your passengers? Like, I spend the entire time asking them questions and they're probably like, lady, please stop. Right.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

Right. I I I can't have a silent Uber ride. I end up knowing way too much about a person by the by the time you're doing before or they just tell me about it, right?

SPEAKER_00 18:05

They just tell you. They just tell you. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, but that's that's what drives me too beyond just plain old curiosity. It's it's like you said, it's curiosity about people. And that is why I stayed at Six Flags so long, and I stayed at Sally so long. And that's why I'm I love Sunrise too, is that it's the people. And I'm a I'm about to put a video about that out. I think it's next week on LinkedIn. I can't remember, but that is what always keeps me going back. Like I don't remember necessarily the hard work, the late hours, only if they're anecdotal fun stories, what my husband calls type two fun, where you didn't mean for it to be fun. Actually, it was kind of a pain at the time, but now it's fun when you think back on it. You know, that's what I remember, and I remember people. And so that is why I stay at places for so long for the most part, is the people. Is the people, yeah. Helping people to get through things.

SPEAKER_01 19:01

My work uh team, we have a new team that we put together, and this team is is I I adore them. Like I am so front row for all that they are going to do, all that they're already doing. Um, and just I'm so excited to watch their growth and and have a hand in that growth. I I keep seeing this like word in my mind of like master plan. You have had so many reinventions, I'll call them. Um, you have a degree in microbiology, uh, you were a programmer, a consultant. Um, now you're a marketing director, which I feel like we could go on and on about that because I'm SUP of marketing at my company.

SPEAKER_00 19:48

Oh, oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:49

I love, love, love marketing. I but I think when some people look at, I'm gonna make a leap and say, if someone someone were to look at your resume and all that you've done and assume that there was a master plan there, was there? You're just making it up as you were going along, which I like.

SPEAKER_00 20:09

That's ex pretty much that, yeah. And I've like honestly, to tell you the truth, something I don't think I've ever said this out loud before, but I did have one boss at one time who that really concerned him because he wanted me to fit this one particular mold.

SPEAKER_02 20:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

And I'll I'll fill a mold, yeah, but I ain't staying in it. Yeah. I'm gonna go out, I'm gonna do this. If it's not working, I'm gonna try this, I'm gonna try that, you know, that kind of thing. So I think that um back then I was enigma and enigma to him. Yeah, and so he I I was upset by by him saying that. But then when I thought about it, I'm like, forget it. Like, I've got things that I want to learn. If if you're gonna put me in the situation where I don't have any resources, I'm gonna find them. And I just went and did it my way, basically. I I I pulled a an old blue eyes on us and did it my own way. I love it. I I just love whenever I can put some kind of results along with helping someone. That's really where I get the most pleasure out of out of any kind of job. I that's I've always loved to like being it on the consulting side. It was so cool to say, have somebody tell me, I need a system that does da-da-da-da-da. And then for me to then go put that in place and that look of, yeah, it makes me so happy. Yeah, I love that.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

While we're on that track of talking about other people and helping other people, if someone is listening, I love to ask this question to my guests. If someone is listening right now and they're standing at a crossroads of sorts, and maybe they're thinking about pivoting, or they are scared, or I've had so many conversations lately. people feel like it's too late to make a change for them in their career. What does it actually feel like from the inside when you're in it to make that change?

SPEAKER_00 22:08

Yeah. Well, I mean, I I definitely am older and I just made a pivot. My the owner of our company saw something in me and he knew that I could do it. And the fact that he saw it, it made me realize, yeah, yeah, yeah, I can do that. I can do this. So just having a a champion was really nice. But you're right, the fear is real. Like, what's the best way I can say to get over it? I can relate it to something like I love to work out doing any kind of fitness I'm super into. And I am very scared to jump on things because I don't want to break my hands. Because I can't work if I have broken hands. So I was very, very afraid to do box jumps or those kinds of things. Well my trainer worked with me and she was like this is fear. And when you feel this fear you have to push through it because your your mind knows you can do it but you're you're holding yourself back. And that's the same kind of a situation in the work world too. Like we tend to hold our own selves back. I would say as a woman I would tend to hold myself back in the past. I don't do that anymore. And I don't let any other young person that I see say that or say negative things about themselves. I can't even remember what it was Kate, but in the the talk we had in DynamicsCon, one of the ladies said something in a way where she kind of was downgrading her own talent. Right. And I can't even remember what it was and I said no you did that thing. And she went yeah yeah I did. Yeah I did. So that's that's what I like to do too.

SPEAKER_01 23:46

Yeah. And I see you as being on every side of the table I mean you just added another layer of it um with the training that you do um from being a functional user a programming um now a marketer how does that change the way that you see or approach a problem? Do you even see problems in the same way?

SPEAKER_00 24:09

Well let's see the the problems like in the marketing area are are less black and white than they are maybe more on the the tech side of things. Like if something is not working correctly a program's not working correctly I can set some breakpoints and debug it and find out where it's going wrong. So not as easy with a department like marketing or something like that, where just one thing you do can have a ripple effect. That's right across the board. And so that's what I'm learning how to navigate now is to think a way more big picture. Way more big picture and to help see that one small action here will have dividends later across down the line. Where in the past when I was an individual contributor that thing that's going to be improved came directly from what I just did. So making the leap from that into a more of a leadership role and encouraging everyone else on my team to have a positive attitude and to look past the black and white answers that they might be wanting like I'm kind of bringing that into the role because I've been in those shoes before.

SPEAKER_01 25:26

It it isn't black and white there's so many different ways and perspectives from or approaching any problem. Yeah. And that is because of those glorious pivots and your and the things that you've seen.

SPEAKER_00 25:38

It's an outsider's perspective might look and think oh my God she can't figure out what she wants to do which is exactly what that old boss thought. And I'm like no I'm I'm going to where I need it most we have this new big project I want to go help on that. We're opening a project management office. I'm going to help on that we need to train new hires I'm going to help on that. So I I like my preparation too man I'm kind of a type A kind of guy. I don't know if people even still say type A anymore. I do yeah I don't know if it's that's a thing anymore or not but I am I'm a list maker I check things off make sure and every single lesson I learn if I forget something it's going to be on that list and it never happens again. That's right. Never yeah so I I get I love to prepare I love going into something but like for our conversation today I specifically did not prepare so that I wanted to to see what you'd ask you know and then but I well no actually Kate I'm lying I did prepare a little bit I went through and read your whole website and did this and did that.

SPEAKER_01 26:46

I did do I did do that you just did your um your expect which as you should and you know that I we again I feel like we you you should come back on another coffee talk and we can talk about marketing um that's what everybody does. We go into um we do our our research on I I looked up everybody on your panel. I looked you up before I went into your session because I wanted to understand who I was about to be sitting um in front of while you were teaching me, while you were showing me a new way um and we do that, which I won't get on a personal branding kick, but that's all the more reason why it's so important for us to show up with a personal brand if we are showing up in community. If you are you know if you are out there speaking which you are um community is a huge part of your story.

SPEAKER_00 27:44

Your speaking um engagements your YouTube do you have a YouTube channel yes yeah yeah so you're showing up consistently um why does showing up for community matter to you in the way that it does you know I I learn best and I react best to this is what not to do kind of messages. And so going in the past not any of our dynamics conferences or anything this is a long time ago I would go to a meeting or a convention and I nobody would talk to me nobody would ask me questions and I would just be left to my own devices to try and learn right and I would go up to someone and ask something and they'd kind of treat me like oh little little child you don't know anything that kind of mentality and then when stuff like that happens I'm like no one else is going to experience that ever again ever. So that's why whenever I want to I love going to these community events and talking to people and making connections it's so fun. Especially when they're from all over the world because I get a real kick about connecting where people live and everything. So whenever I go to these conventions I always try and look out for that person. Be they younger older any whatever male female I don't really care. If they look like they might need some help I'm gonna go up to them and say hey do you need some help or how's it going with this session or that session and that's what nobody no one did for me a couple of times when I was younger and so that shows me how to help others is to avoid that.

SPEAKER_01 29:25

Yeah agreed totally agreed and this community is so good about that it's so good about bringing in the person that may be standing in the corner that isn't you know having that conversation um someone that's brand new to channel uh one of my new team members is brand new to channel he just started with us in January and his network is booming already and he's been to a couple of events um and this community is so great about just pulling people in and making them feel like you're home like you have a place.

SPEAKER_00 30:00

Yeah okay like everybody has experiences everybody can teach somebody something exactly that's what I like to hear like even if you've only been in let's say dynamics for two months like maybe when we have our new hires every week I would get them to teach us a subject for 15 minutes because you have something to say no matter who you are or what you know you've had a life up until this point you've had experiences you have wisdom that I don't have teach me about that thing.

SPEAKER_01 30:32

Yeah that's a good note for leaders that that may be listening right now. I love that and now I'm wondering how can I pull that into my own you know Monday calls Friday morning calls um teach me something new. Teach me um you know because in that there's so much confidence in that that sharing of knowledge.

SPEAKER_00 30:54

Yes I love doing that and it it would make them a little nervous at first but when they got used to it and they it was a repetitive thing it really really did pay off quite a bit. Yeah okay let's take a dramatic shift okay because I have to ask this question bass player in two rock bands yes F45 yes my workouts uh high rocks reading for high rocks okay treating for high rocks trend uh tell me more about this version of Mel that is existing outside of work because I feel like she informs everything else you know it's really really funny when when I moved over from Sally which was the user end user side to Sunrise the consulting side that was one of the scariest jumps I made by the way but I came over because of people I followed people around that I knew that I liked and so whenever I came into sunrise uh eight years ago almost exactly now eight years and two weeks or something like that I was kind of the same as I am now but I was not as confident speaking or gonna go up and talk to somebody randomly I I wouldn't have done that. At the same time that I joined Sunrise my two bands started performing and practicing more at the same time and one influenced the other and I'm not sure which one it was but I have a feeling it was the encouragement that I get from my friends and my husband and everybody to when I'm on stage to really emote and perform which I've never done that. I'm a band girl you had to be stoned face you know I was the trumpet player and all that. And so I was never the one that was just out there just emoting because I wasn't on in theater or anything. I think that is what has changed my personality to where it is today where I I have no fear of speaking in front of people. I have no fear of going up to strangers and talking to them. I think it became from the performance part of the bands that I'm in. It seems to like one fed the other and it's kind of hard to put my finger on exactly when and where that happened but it really really did. So now when I'm up on stage I'm crazy and I'm dancing around and doing my different things. And it's probably a lot more fun to watch than when I used to stand there quietly like a stone.

SPEAKER_01 33:23

I guarantee you absolutely of somebody that uh is it frequents live music as as often as I can it is much more entertaining to have that version.

SPEAKER_00 33:34

Yeah. I love doing my my band stuff. I've been a music girl since I was 10 or so but doing the bass player thing I always had you know those things like you have goals in life one day I want to fly a plane one day I want to do whatever mine was one day I want to be in a rock band and play bass and sing backup. There you go. And so I did it and I I absolutely love doing it. It's such a good time. So you'll see me all the time on Fridays I put like Friday fun posts out on LinkedIn where I talk about songs that are stuck in my head and workout moves that I've liked this week.

SPEAKER_01 34:11

That's where that all comes from I am heading to LinkedIn as soon as we rap here and I'm gonna engage with every one of those posts so they show up first for me in in my feed. So that is that is where I am headed when we rap here. So when you get 20 notifications from K Coffee Bacon you'll know what it'll give me all the worn fuzzy feeling I'm like so I really I've I feel like both of us have this huge heart for people and we both have such interesting stories of pivots and and I want to come back to this again um as as we slowly start rapping we could talk for five more minutes or we could talk for 30 more minutes. Who knows?

SPEAKER_00 34:52

Who knows where we're going right now um if someone is listening to this podcast and they're in the middle of a career that doesn't look like maybe they planned what do you want them to actually walk away from this episode with the one thing that's gonna hold everybody back let's say they have a job and it's it pays okay but it's not giving the fulfillment that they want they're gonna be afraid in this day and age to leave something that leave a job that is providing for them now for the uncertainty of the future. But what I would say the future is always uncertain. And coming from this type A girl that wants to plan everything and know everything that's going to happen, that's never going to be the case. So look for something that gives you some kind of fulfillment it doesn't have to be the end all be all right now, but what is something that fulfills you find a path that leads towards that fulfillment that's the only thing I can think of so for me it's the people side of things. And so whenever I make pivots I will always always pivot towards working with the group of people or helping out a group of people. So that's what I look for. So find that one thing for you and see how you can pursue it responsibly basically.

SPEAKER_01 36:14

Yeah I love that I love us a lot of things about this conversation I love that you didn't map out your path I love that it is um there are lots of jumps and what I see in that is that you were always looking for what was more interesting. I kind of feel like you just said that more challenging something that was actually worth your energy we all have to work you know we this is a a huge part of of our lives the work that we do but I love that you were always looking for an opportunity that was more challenging that was worth the energy that you were putting into it and that mindset is its own kind of strategy for for a career for for the for those pivots um I have a 21 year old daughter that is a rising uh senior in college and we are we're talking about career right now. We're talking about what she wants to do. And you know she's like I I know kind of what I want to do but I don't I don't really know and I celebrate that I celebrate that she doesn't really know because she could get into into the the world of work and find a path that she never even saw coming. So being open and wanting that challenge um wanting to touch people and and be effective leave a legacy I think like I said I I think it's its own kind of strategy.

SPEAKER_00 37:46

It really is. And for me like I really couldn't care if my name is can on something or people know who I am like I don't care about that. It's does the person that I'm talking to have I help them with their problem have I helped them think about something in a different way that's what gives me the most pleasure and you're right about the challenge thing I I do like that. I'm kind of the the person who is the quintessential study and uh reverse psychology if you tell me I can't do something watch me. Watch me. Yeah exactly I'm like oh you don't think I can do that yeah hang on you know basically so that's why I challenge myself with all of the fitness stuff like the high rocks thing and my workouts because it is supremely hard for me and not a whole lot of people do it. But I s ask myself can I do this hard thing and the answer is always yes. Always yes always yes yes yeah absolutely at the at the fr at the beginning when you're looking up at the top of that mountain you're like oh my god can I do this can I do this that's when you need someone next to you that a sherpa if you will to say yes you can and here is a path to start on yeah yeah and those very special people that that come alongside you and lock arms with you um and and if something happens and you stumble and you lose your footing you don't fall because you've got people that are literally locked arms with you that are holding you up until you get you get your footing again.

SPEAKER_01 39:20

And I love that imagery and again coming back to community and why it's so important for us to have each other. None of us must be going out this alone. Exactly yeah we we need each other.

SPEAKER_00 39:31

And especially I would say now more than ever but then I think pretty much everybody says that year after year. Now more than ever we need each other. But I kind of think it's more true now because we're in the age of AI yeah we're in the age of way more connectivity but way less togetherness which is really we a weird uh paradox there.

SPEAKER_01 39:52

Yeah I know this uh like we we crave that time together um and that learning from each other it's like coming together and saying okay I just learned this thing and and you know it's like it's like going back way back to the way that we used to learn and we used to learn from each other. We didn't used to learn from the internet from you know used to that shared knowledge from person to person, um generation to generation. I I strangely feel like we're returning to that a little bit as as we are all learning and and sharing what we're learning together. Yeah it it feels like a throwback to to those old old days. So well I can't wait to see you in person again. I'm sure we will be sharing calendars and figuring out where we'll be next in in the same zip code so that we can share air again and we have got so much more to talk about I feel like we're just scratching the surface on um yeah all the things we have in common my goodness thank you thank you DynamicsCon thank you Kate for coming to my session of course I mean I had women in tech in the title I couldn't miss it right yeah exactly you had me at women in tech um well shout out though quick shout out though to my my coworker Caitlyn Cooper who actually organized and put that session together. Good job Caitlin it was an excellent session it was an excellent session um Mel thank you so much for being here for giving me an hour of your time um it it is a Tuesday afternoon and you know in in the world of work our calendars are jam-packed full so I thank you for making time uh for me and for coffee talk this conversation was everything I hoped it would be um yes if you are listening you can follow the links in the show notes to connect with Mel follow her on LinkedIn because there's a Friday post we all need to be engaging in um and as always same time same place but with a different cup of coffee next time thank you for listening to Coffee Talk. Thank you for joining us today on Coffee Talk a special thanks to my guests for sharing their story and to you the listener for being a part of this conversation. If you enjoyed today's episode be sure to subscribe so you never miss a Monday morning chat. Until next time I'm Kate Coffee Bacon and this has been Coffee Talk