Future Ready Podcast with Chris Herndon

Why you should listen: Stress is real. Those that aim for perfection and achievement tend to have increased stress. Stress is bad for people and business because it can lead to burnout and ultimately attrition (people leaving). It IS possible to reduce stress and increase productivity – the whole working smarter, not harder. Meet our guest: Zoe is an experienced administrator with a background in Foreign Languages, Project Management, Systems, Graphics and Database Management. Throughout her career, she has assisted and managed high priority clients, high-risk project budgets and executive programs. For the past 5 years she has shifted her focus from government sub-contracts to the Architectural industry to focus on human resources and administration.

Why you should listen - Do you want to become the workplace of choice and attract and retain the best talent? - Do you want to become the best place to work where people can show up authentically and bring their whole self to work? - Do you want to create high performing teams? Meet our guest: Katie Cox currently serves as the Vice President of People at Salesloft, the leading sales engagement platform that helps sellers and sales teams drive more revenue. As the Head of People, Katie leads a growing team that recruits the best and brightest talent, guides the entire employee experience, including onboarding, training and leadership development, as well as designing all of the industry-leading perk and benefits that make Salesloft a great place to work. Katie’s passion and top priority as an HR leader is to create an inclusive workplace where every employee feels valued and fulfilled in their career. Katie and her husband, James, reside in North Georgia. When she’s not working or playing with her dog, Bella, you’ll find Katie and James traveling, relaxing on the lake, or spending time with family.

Why listen? - When you do this, you can create win-wins for both parties. Becoming a business for good has a positive effect on the entire ecosystem of stakeholders from customers to employees. It can create better alignment across an organization. Employees feel a greater sense of contribution. It can lead to greater resilience in the face of adversity. - Reduce turnover and increase retention. Meet our guest: Anja Taylor brings over a decade of leadership experience to her role as Director of Operations at Kinesis. She works with small business owners to catalyze their success, focusing on leadership training, organizational systems, and employee engagement. Anja’s purpose is people – as an advocate for a more human-centered approach to business, she helps leaders create work environments that enable humans to thrive. Her superpower? Mapping team members’ strengths and goals to the organization’s mission.

WHY you should listen - Those mini-interactions we used to experience in the office are no longer – or at least inconsistent. Assumptions can be built when we aren’t meeting as often – things get lost in translation. - When you invite the whole person to work, there are a variety of benefits: People feel safeReduces stressIncrease creativity and innovationPeople take more risksTurnover is reducedEngagement is increasedProductivity boostsWhich improves top and bottom-line revenue Meet our guest! Kim is a passionate people leader whose current obsession is defining our "new normal" - as she's certainly not one to wait around to see what the "future of work" means. Her drive comes from a lightbulb moment where a previous leader placed time, energy, and focus into her development as a young adult. This has shaped Kim to lead with empathy and to uncover things in others they may have not seen within themselves. Kim is currently leading the global People team at Mixbook, where her purpose is to drive creativity and connection. Kim has a degree in classical piano, is currently based in Oakland, CA, and is quite the chatty introvert. Links:

Why you should listen - If you want more of your ideas to come to fruition, you need to make a strong business case. - Decisions impact the business and in order to make smart decisions, having a sound business can get you there. Darby Vannier has over 20 years of experience in leadership development and strategic consulting. He has led effective teams of more than a 100 employees, coached others into their own leadership positions, and created stability during challenging organizational transitions. Darby built his career on the philosophy that developing the right people is the key to success. He’s also the author of The Indispensable Leader www.beindispensable.com

Jared Paul Shuler is a seasoned HR Professional. He has worked for over 15 years in the Talent Acquisition & People sector. He has worked with Fortune 500 companies and Small to Mid Saas startups. However, Jared's true passions lie in the diversity and inclusion space, speaking to organizations about the impact of the marginalized in the workplace. He currently resides as Head of People for LVE Talent, a boutique DEI recruitment firm that focuses on placing people of color in the private education sector from SVP level to Entry level. The organization's goal is to give a unique lens to candidates and provide an entryway into the growing private educational organizations that are grossly underrepresented. In addition, he is a noted speaker and LGBTQ+ advocate.

Rachel has 20+ years of experience in the HR space, working as an HR business partner, talent management innovator, and HR leader at companies like Gap, Inc, Airbnb and VSCO. She spent 6.5 years at Airbnb, helping scale its performance and employee engagement approach with an eye toward creating belonging and mitigating bias, and led the people function at VSCO. Rachel, now a consultant, is inspired to help early stage companies build a strong foundation of trust with their employees. She does this by implementing pay, performance and promotion processes that are clear, equitable and transparent.

Meet our guest! Ricky M. Turner is a vigorous advocate for more humanity in the workplace. He is a successful human resources executive with over 20 years of values-based human resources leadership experience. He loves people....and believes he was born to make lives better. As a sought-after keynote speaker and podcast interviewee, Ricky has a passion for helping organizations create diverse and inclusive workplaces that will produce strong and engaging employee relationships. Ricky has held executive leadership positions at several fortune 100 companies like Meta ( Facebook), Nike, Whirlpool Corporation, and Hess Oil. Ricky also advises growth stage companies in the development of their engagement strategies. He has a Juris Doctorate from Rutgers University and is a graduate of the world-famous Tuskegee University. Ricky is married to his wife Gwendolyn. They have two energetic and charismatic little boys. Ricky is a novice triathlete, Little League baseball coach, cigar lover, and an enthusiastic member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc.

Meet our guest! David is the founder and owner of lemus&co, a boutique consulting firm that works at the intersection of human-centered design and organizational change. David partners with internal change agents to create more human-centered organizations. He accomplishes this through training & embedding into internal teams. David has worked across financial services, healthcare, manufacturing and education with clients such as Capital One, Celestica, Nike and Lumeris. Prior to his current role, David did this work in-house at Capital One, where he worked on the Design Thinking and Strategy team which focused on changing the way the enterprise worked by empowering all employees with the tools and mindsets of design thinking. David designed and built and lived in his own Tiny House on Wheels. He loves creative problem solving and is equally obsessed with a good Excel spreadsheet. David has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and resides in Tallahassee, FL.

Meet our guest! Golbie's mission is to promote human flourishing and reduce human suffering, especially within organizations. Her work with Kamarei Advisory centers around coaching CXOs and Executive Teams to augment their individual and collective leadership during periods of growth, transition, or crisis. She also advises Founders and start-ups on issues related to organizational culture, individual and group transformation, and interpersonal communication. Golbie has diverse experience across industries, business growth phases, organizational structures, revenue models, and economic cycles preparing her for a range of leadership and cultural styles. Golbie was the inaugural Chief People Officer of Culture Amp, a VC-backed enterprise Saas start-up based in Australia as well as the interim Chief People Officer for Wisk Aero, a private, Fortune 100-backed JV creating all-electric, self-flying air taxis. She also served as Global Head of People at Quay Eyewear, an omni-channel consumer brand. She also held various roles in investing and organizational development at BlackRock, global investment manager with $10 trillion in assets. While at BlackRock, Golbie also served as Vice Chair for both BlackRock's NY Women's Initiative and NY People & Culture Committee. She also founded and led BlackRock Mindfulness which offered self-awareness and self-management training to nearly 1500 employees in 17 countries.

Adriane is the Founder and Principal Learning Architect at Adriane E Jones LLC, a boutique Learning & Development consultancy that creates custom learning solutions that attract and grow talent so businesses can thrive. Adriane's background in human resources, product management, and business inform her innovative approach to L&D. She has over a decade of experience in L&D and has worked with over 20 different organizations to decrease turnover, meet business goals, and create better places to work.

Omar Ramirez is the founder of Affordances, an experience consultancy that helps companies strategize and solve problems, all while staying focused on what matters most: the real people behind the scenes.

As Head of People Operations at Verusen, Addy Robinson leads all aspects of people and culture including diversity, equity, and inclusion, and oversees talent acquisition, onboarding, performance management, compensation, and benefits with a focus on the overall experience of Verusen employees. Addy brings over 5 years of progressive People Operations experience. She spent nearly a decade in people-focused roles with Atlanta-based MemberClicks LLC, a membership management SaaS company. At MemberClicks, Addy led efforts in Talent Recruitment, New Employee Onboarding, Performance Management, Benefits & Payroll Administration, Personal & Professional Development, Company Service & Community Involvement, and Employee Engagement. Personify Corp. acquired MemberClicks in December 2020, and Addy was named Director, People & Culture at Personify Corp. There, she championed projects and programming that fostered inclusivity and belonging and built processes to support teams working together.

Nikhil Paul is a leadership team coach who founded We R Human to help senior executives & their teams strengthen their focus, culture and execution through engaging workshops and coaching programs. Including his previous career of running an employee engagement SaaS startup, Nikhil has a decade of experience in building teams and problem-solving employee morale issues with clients like Walmart, Airbnb & SalesForce, and is currently a member of the HubSpot Fellows faculty. Nikhil loves to find any excuse to laugh, is perpetually curious about people & systems, and is motivated by big challenges he can work on a little bit each day. With his background in emceeing & teaching dance, he enjoys getting people energized, playful & more connected with each other. We dive into Nikhil's framework on high performance teams & explore them with anecdotes & stories.

Helen Kupp is a co-founder and Senior Director of Future Forum. She has led many of Slack’s largest cross-functional and growth initiatives, and is the creator of many of Future Forum’s playbooks, tapping Future Forum’s research and networks along with her experiences at Slack, Bain & Company, startups, and her MBA from Harvard Business School. She’s also the lucky mom of two wonderful children. She is the coauthor of How the Future Works: Leading Flexible Teams to Do the Best Work of Their Lives (Wiley; May 2022) with Brian Elliott and Sheela Subramanian.

Alita Watson is the Founder of Alma, a firm that recruits, trains and matches Embedded Coaches with startups to increase leadership capacity, improve cross functional collaboration and champion cultural development. Over the past five years she pioneered Embedded Coaching at Sonder, through fast-paced growth into Unicorn status and eventual IPO. She is one of few leaders in this field who truly understands how this role needs to be designed, communicated and implemented. Alita is inspired to be the bridge between today's world class coaches, and the leaders who are invested in creating cultures where everyone can thrive.

Dr. Laura Hees-Garcia is the Human Resources Business Partner for a large healthcare organization called Hospital Corporations of America. She currently services over 1000 employees at her hospital in Brownsville, Texas. She is also a small business owner at Card My Yard and has recently been asked to consult for a leadership development company. Her love of ongoing learning, constant evolving and servant leadership is the foundation of her outlook at work and in her personal life. She truly enjoys helping others grow their potential in all aspects of their lives. Connect with Laura: answered during this topic: Why does this topic matter?How can it help me as an HR leader?What do you consider a high-quality relationships?What are the benefits of high-quality relationships?What problems does it help resolve?How do you build them?

Kaleem Clarkson is the COO of Blend Me, Inc, a remote people operations consultancy that helps startups and small businesses transform into high-functioning remote or hybrid-remote workplaces. He has been featured in Harvard Business Review, and named LinkedIn’s Top 10 Voices in Remote Work. He is passionate about work-life integration and the remote employee experience. Tune in for answers to these questions: What is employee experience? Why does it matter?What is The Remote Employee Experience (TREE)?What needs to be considered when thinking about the remote/hybrid employee experience?How might HR / PeopleOps leaders start thinking about it employee experience?How do you help companies with this?And why  - Diversity of talent > Competitive advantage > Profitability

Larnell Vickers is an experienced executive coach and talent professional within the social good/impact space with over 10+ years of experience. From one-on-one executive coaching, to talent placement and talent recruitment and hiring; he has worked with non-profits, educational organizations and for-profits to help enhance and drive forward their strategic talent plans. Also, he has worked tirelessly to help organizations to get very clear about their “who” when hiring and to then identify top talent that is game changing for the organization. Currently he serves as CEO and Founder of Larnell Vickers Enterprises, LLC, a firm positioned in matching great to great organizations and supporting individuals to live from their highest and best self both in career and life. Over the course of five years, the firm has supported over 25+ organizations in finding phenomenal talent, placed over 100+ professionals in mission driven organizations and has provided top tier coaching to over 150+ professionals. Connect with Larnell:

Frank is the Senior Director and Head of DEI for a financial solutions organization called Momentum Financial Services Group with over 2000 employees in North America (Canada, U.S). He is also a consultant with focuses on evidence-based data to influence substantive insights and conversations.  His love of continuous, enthusiastic learning is also the foundation of his outlook, a self-described people enthusiast. We get to the heart of why analyzing data matters and how understanding it can save you time, reduce costs and make you invaluable as an HR leader.  Frank shares his personal stories and insights and we manage to make a conversation about data fun! Connect with Dr. Frank González IV, PHR, CDP Global Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion with Chris Herndon