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So in today's podcast, the view from the top, I've got Matt Ropchack .
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He's the president of Ourvita US.
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He's been at General Mills a lot of his career and he's been kind of a local leader that has done some pretty amazing things, but has also learned some really amazing lessons.
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I don't want to spoil it, but he shares something personally that happened to him.
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It's actually how he and I got connected because I had a similar thing happen in my family.
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And he shares just how that shifted his perspective on leadership, on what's important.
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He his lesson about don't keep your feet in the familiar.
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Like where are you stretching?
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Where are you kind of pushing yourself to do something that you don't know how to do?
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And I think for a lot of us we get comfortable and we're not disrupting ourselves as often as maybe we should be.
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And so I love the lessons that Matt shares.
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I love some of the things that have happened on his success, on his climb as we talk about that a lot of us deal with.
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How is he looking at life differently as he goes forward?
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This is a do not miss episode.
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There was points where I teared up just because I know his story.
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I know how impactful it is for many of us.
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So make sure and take a listen.
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And if you know someone in your life that needs to hear this message, please, the greatest thing you can do for Matt or I is to share this podcast episode, to share it with people in your network, to share it with people you love.
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I think it's a gift when we do that for people.
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So I hope you like it.
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And this next View from the Top.
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Welcome everybody to the View from the Top podcast.
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I've got Matt Ropchak with me.
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He's the president of Ourvita US.
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Um, and Matt and I, I gotta say how we met.
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He posted something on LinkedIn, and I'm not even sure how I saw it.
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My family had gone through something similar that he had gone through in his life, which I'm sure he's gonna share with us today.
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And I just reached out cold and said, I appreciate you posting this.
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And would you ever meet for coffee?
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And you're like, sure, crazy lady, I'll meet you.
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Um, so we just had such a wonderful conversation that I was like, I want your story to be shared because I think it could really reframe some things for leaders, especially just the way our world is and to help us kind of prioritize what's important, which I think you've learned and you're good at.
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So thank you for being here.
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And if you'd kick us off with just who are you, right?
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How'd you get to this point in your success?
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What's that journey been?
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Yeah, sure.
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Well, well, thanks uh for have first of all for having me on the show, Jaime.
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Uh that quirky way we met was was fine with me.
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I meet a lot of people that way, and I was glad you reached out to have coffee and we got a chance to connect and then and then to do this together.
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Yeah, a little bit by myself.
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So uh as you mentioned, I I currently run um the US portion of a business called Ourvita.
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They're a global CDMO.
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So they uh do development and they ultimately do manufacturing for companies that want to sell mostly nutritional supplements.
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So, like all the capsules and tablets and gummies and stick packs that are so popular these days.
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We make those uh uh in the US, in the UK, in Europe, and in China, uh, and then also some some health and beauty products.
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Um, I've been with this company two years.
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Uh prior to that, I was at General Mills, so a local Twin Cities company for 27 years.
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I grew up doing a lot of engineering and operational stuff uh in my career before I moved to kind of the small company environment I'm in now.
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And during that time, I had uh a chance to be an expat in Europe for a few years, which is a really terrific experience.
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Um and I also worked internationally in the Canadian business of General Mills along the way.
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So lots of lots of diverse things uh in the background.
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But and when people would step back and say, you know, I know Matt, or I've known him from the beginning, and they kind of see your trajectory of climbing the ranks at General Mills and you know becoming president of a company out of that.
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What's one thing that maybe would they would misunderstand about that success?
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Because from the outside, sometimes it looks like everything's gone according to plan.
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What's that?
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What's it what's something people know about that climb?
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Yeah, it's um there was really one one pivotal point or segment in my career that this stands out, Jaime.
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After a kind of a restructuring event in the company, I was moved from the the role I was uh in in Europe, which was kind of an operations and engineering leader, into a into a supply chain leader role.
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And they had they made five of these positions across the company, and I and I got one of them leading the Canadian business.
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Um, and the the lesson here was as I reflected back on this later, was I I didn't keep a foot in the familiar.
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Uh and what I mean by that is I I was moving geographies, so moving from Europe back to North America.
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I was moving cultures, so I was kind of used to European culture for for the last three years, and then I was moving to Canadian culture specifically.
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Um, I was changing functions.
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I was in the engineering function, I was going to the supply chain one, and then I was going from uh like a technical leader role to a business leader role.
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I started on a business leadership team for this for this Canadian business.
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Um, and I was responsible for end-to-end supply chain in the post-uh pandemic era, which as you probably remember was a little bit hectic.
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Um, I had massive imposter syndrome at the time.
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Um I was I didn't know what I didn't know in some cases.
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Um, and it was it was a bit unnerving.
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I remember working, you know, 12, 13 hour days every day just to try to to learn so I could make a decision when every day was about making decisions.
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Right um, it was a tough time.
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And I I think what I did to get through that was I I just had to admit it to myself first that okay, I just don't know, right?
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And I and that that led me to I need to be okay with asking questions and learning.
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And the best thing I did through that that whole period, Jaime, was I I remember it was probably maybe nine months or a year into the role we had kind of a like a mid-year meeting, and I s I uh I was up in front of the team and I I kind of pivoted in the moment.
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Uh and I was kind of looking at faces as I was as I was talking.
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We were at an off-site thing, we were about to go do some kind of fun activity, and I I went away from the business update and I was like, you know what, I gotta share something with everybody here.
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You know, when I came into this job, I had no idea how to do I know I didn't even know what customer operations was.
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Like the portion of my business interacts with customers and uh you know uh extracts demand and does uh uh order processing and things like that.
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And people are kind of like, what?
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And I I wanted them to know that um not understanding was okay.
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And some of the other people in the room had just come in and they were in this post-pandemic area and they were afraid to shut their laptops on the weekends for fear of missing a critical email.
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And I said, you know what?
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It's okay not to be able to do everything and not to know everything.
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Your your leader is standing up here telling you this.
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Um and it was a you know, it was a nice five or ten minute conversation.
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And people came up to me afterwards and said, you know, nobody ever says stuff like that.
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You know, nobody ever admitted to us they didn't know how to do something.
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And I I kind of in that moment realized that it's being vulnerable like that was really a powerful tool as a leader.
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Right.
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And I think it's a powerful tool for you to heal as well, right?
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I mean, I think part of that is like it you step into that who you are, but it it it's the authentic piece that comes forward and modeling that behavior and admitting, and I think it's one of the beauties of the pandemic and some of the uncertainty and chaos is nobody knows how to lead through some of this chaos that we're in right now.
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We're figuring it out, right?
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We're leaning on our leadership skills and we're not leaning on domain expertise for 15 years like we used to be able to.
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And I think that's refreshing for people to hear, especially as I think about my four Gen Z, right?
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College age, coming out of college, to hear from leaders that like your job is to figure it out, ask good questions, be a good teammate, right?
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Work together.
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Like it's not to know all of the answers because there aren't answers to some of the things we're dealing with right now.
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Exactly.
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That experience, um, as good as it was to teach me, um, it ultimately revealed that I wasn't really a rock star in that role, you know, kind of like my my career had been characterized by kind of being a higher performer in the company.
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And right ultimately it led to there was another riff that happened a couple years into it, and I didn't end up with a seat.
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You know, I can look back at that and say, not having that foot in the familiar put me into a place of pretty extreme risk in terms of to be able to do the job.
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I mean, I I learned a massive amount, right?
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But I really wasn't performing the way uh I could have been.
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And I, you know, I went into job transition and did all that self-worth evaluation stuff that everybody does when you get to that spot.
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But the hard things are what make you better, and I came through that and got to a better place.
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And it led to the job opportunity I have now, which is fantastic and I love it.
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So at the end of the day, it was it was worth it.
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Yeah, so you would do it again.
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I would oh boy, I just got a perk from the two years of supply chain mayhem that we had, but but yeah, probably I would.
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Well, you would you would tell someone, a younger leader, right?
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To to like that, don't keep your feet completely in the familiar.
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That other side can also hold you back.
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Absolutely.
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And you know, if you think about things that I wish somebody would have told me earlier in my career, that's exactly one of them that um I would tell people that are you know in the first years or so of their career to just get as much perspective in as many roles as you can.
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Um disrupt yourself often, would be my advice.
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And you know, yet you're a year and a half, two years into your role, raise your hand and say, I want to change jobs.
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And it might just feel like you're just hitting your groove, but that's the time when you're starting to coast a little bit and you're not pushing yourself to learn as much.
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I mean, I I'm the president of a business now, I've never worked in sales.
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It would have been not too much of a stretch in the first few years of my career to say, hey, can I go to a cross-functional role in sales, just you know, sales operations or something, just so I get a sense of what this is about, and I'll come back to being a technical person.
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But I want to understand how that business works.
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That would have been super helpful uh as I step into this role now.
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So I've had to learn into that space, into that function quite a bit uh later in my career when you're the leader.
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It's a little harder to do that learning.
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We're seeing actually more of our clients that are creating uh, I would call them rotational programs in leadership, meaning you're not gonna get to the C-suite, right, or to the higher levels by the career ladder anymore.
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We need you to go to ops and spend some time in sales and because you're a better executive leader, right?
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If you've had that well-rounded.
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And so I I think me growing up at Cargill General Mills, that just wasn't how they thought, right?
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Necessarily.
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Like you kind of had a path.
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Yeah, you kind of stayed in your lane and in your function.
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Yeah.
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And I think that's a disservice now because I think you have executives who maybe are a little functional, you know, in that they they have silos because they understand really deep what they do, but not what the business does.
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I've been able to get by because I can I learn things really fast and I pick up on them quickly, but it's not always sufficient.
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And certainly for people that don't do that, I mean, I think the cross-functional roles are are really necessary.
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Yeah.
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When you think about, you know, the journey you shared and kind of how you've gotten to where you've gotten.
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Obviously, job transition was a was a key moment, probably a perspective shift.
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Was there another moment where from the outside world, you know, maybe it looked like you had it all together and you know, behind the scenes it wasn't going quite as planned or things that really disrupted you?
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I don't know how it looked from the outside, but internally at least, you know, I feel like I really had to, I really had to evolve how I approached my career uh as I got into higher levels of leadership.
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And you don't I I don't think you admit that to people readily, and people don't always see that, but you you feel it as a leader.
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And you know what got me here was that yeah, I learned things fast and I can make decisions quickly and I can solve problems and I can lead operations.
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But yeah, now I'm faced with I gotta lead an organization, I gotta set a vision, I gotta inspire people, I gotta, I gotta transform a business to make sure I hit the bottom line for a bunch of investors and in private equity.
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And you know, that wasn't in the playbook any instructions.
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So you uh you kind of you need to move past how you used to do things as you get into these these higher levels of leadership positions.
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And I I guess what I've what I've learned that I need to do more of now and I need to focus on more as I've gotten to this place, which which probably is a isn't obvious from the outside, but you coach more and you do less, right?
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You you know that old adage of teach people to fish, right?
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You you gotta you gotta teach them how to be the problem solvers, not not be the problem solver yourself.
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Um you know good example of that at the workplace here is um my operations director and I do uh do a do gimbo walks with the team.
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So that's basically go and see the event, but along the way we're we're kind of demonstrating the behavior of these are the questions you need to ask your your leads and your operators to make sure that they're completing tasks, to make sure the things that make this business run efficiently are being done.
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And in a business that was founder-led for a long time, everybody was just told what to do.
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You know, they they didn't know to go do these things on their own and to drive outcomes.
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So that was uh an example of coaching and and teaching.
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And uh a second thing on that list is is prioritization.
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And this one I think is kind of funny because you talk about this all through your career and you do it all the time, but you just can't fix everything, Jaime.
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I mean, there right.
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I remember having a having a job interview for a company I won't name, but uh while I was in transition, and the guy said to me, He's like, I just want to make sure you're somebody that knows how to walk past some of the fires that we have burning.
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And I was like, Well, that's a really interesting way to to think about it.
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But you know, you gotta think what can I let burn down so that something else can move forward is really what you have to do as a leader.
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It's it's kind of the essence of brutal prioritization.
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And yeah, I didn't, you know, I'm kind of internally conflicted sometimes because I like to put out fires.
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That's what I was raised to do.
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I carried the hose around so long.
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Uh that's all I knew.
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Um, and now I think I've evolved with this place where I I rely a lot on character for lack of a better term.
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So when I left General Mills, um I I had I had an experience really in my career where somebody told me, you need to know what your brand is, man.
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I'm sorry, I don't know what that means.
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Where it was a you have one of those.
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I don't think I have one.
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Yeah, do I but go where do I buy that?
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Yeah.
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And it wasn't until the last week of work with the company I sent an email out to you know, everybody I'd worked with that touched me in some way, and just kind of, you know, you know, job by job almost.
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I probably got 80 replies to those messages.
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And people used words like, you know, here's what you meant to me in this moment, or here's what you taught me, or gosh, you were always an authentic person and you're so genuine.
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And I those words popped out a lot, and I just realized that that's how I came across to people, and it was a bit of my brand.
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Um, you know, it turns out you don't have to die and have a eulogy for people to tell you this, you can leave a cup with you too, and they say you meant to them from a from a brand point of view.
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But but that's one part of what uh my character is about now, is is that that authenticity.
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And another part is connecting and and showing that I care about people so that I really want to foster a do it for me, not do it because you're afraid of me environment, right?
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And yeah, you don't manage by making people scared and and fearful of the jobs, you manage by by building a lot of trust and they want they want to go to battle with you, right?
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And that's the that's the environment I want to create nowadays.
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I love that I call it legacy leadership, right?
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Where there's ripple effects that you and I may never know from ways that we led.
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And we hope those are positive.
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Most of them, more positive than negative.
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Yeah.
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But I was just I was speaking to a CEO forum last week, and I was telling a story from my early days at Cargill and a leader that still to this day I think about and the impact she had on me.
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And when I told a story, I mean, people were like, You're tearing, you know, you could because they know that feeling, they know that person.
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And I said, Isn't that at the end of the day what we all just want?
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Right?
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We want someone to be saying, talking about us down the road about this leader had this impact or this person had this impact.
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It doesn't even have to be a leader.
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Yeah.
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And I think sometimes as leaders, we forget that that's a big part of our role because we're supposed to drive execution and hit outcomes and measurables and right.
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We're yeah, we're supposed to do all those things too, but we're also supposed to create an impact on the business and on the people.
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I think that's what you're talking about.
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Throughout your career, and I know a little bit about you know your story, and you know, talk about the moment, talk about that event that really changed everything because I think this is so important as we talk about the health, mental, physical, right, and what it means to be a leader and how to really make sure that is a priority.
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So you share as much as you feel comfortable sharing.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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So uh, you know, for the listening audience, Jaime's not talking about job transition this time, he's talking about a uh a health event I had.
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I I I had uh an experience that most people don't get to have.
00:16:44.639 --> 00:16:47.759
I I spent an hour and away uh many people don't.
00:16:47.759 --> 00:16:50.080
Uh and I spent I spent it dead.
00:16:50.080 --> 00:16:55.919
I had a heart attack on um December 27th of 2024.
00:16:55.919 --> 00:16:59.360
Um it was uh it was interesting.
00:16:59.360 --> 00:17:02.000
I I began the day like I began most days.
00:17:02.000 --> 00:17:06.319
I did a workout in the morning, my workout ended because I had some some strange back pain.
00:17:06.319 --> 00:17:14.000
I remember making the kids some lunch, it was just after Christmas, and I next thing I remember, last thing I remember was sitting on a couch.
00:17:14.000 --> 00:17:24.880
Um, and then the next memory I have after that was I woke up in a hospital room, um, surrounded by people in masks, all staring at me, not knowing what's going on.
00:17:24.880 --> 00:17:31.440
And I I thought what any sane person would think at that point that, oh my god, they're about to harvest my kidneys, please help me.
00:17:31.440 --> 00:17:36.319
Uh it was just a strange set of occurrences.
00:17:36.319 --> 00:17:48.559
So I what got filled in, the blanks got filled in later, were that uh as I sat on that couch, I started having what my wife told me I described as somebody stabbing me in the back with a spear type of pain, and my my arm went numb.
00:17:48.559 --> 00:17:50.640
And I said, I think I'm having a heart attack.
00:17:50.640 --> 00:17:51.920
We should go to the emergency room.
00:17:51.920 --> 00:17:53.039
And we did that.
00:17:53.039 --> 00:18:01.759
We got to within maybe a half mile or so of the Ridgeview Clinic in in uh Chan Hassan area, Charachaska area, and I went unconscious.
00:18:01.759 --> 00:18:07.279
And I arrived at the door, and a a large nurse named Clay came out, dragged me out of the car.
00:18:07.279 --> 00:18:08.480
One of my shoes fell off.
00:18:08.480 --> 00:18:14.559
He threw me on a stretcher and he jumped up out of the stretcher and started doing CPR as they wheeled me down to to one of the rooms.
00:18:14.559 --> 00:18:17.519
Um and I was in there a long time.
00:18:17.519 --> 00:18:21.519
Uh they had the chest compression machine on me trying to keep me alive.
00:18:21.519 --> 00:18:24.640
Uh the the attending ER, uh Dr.
00:18:24.640 --> 00:18:33.119
Matthew White, was trying to get hold of Abbott Northwestern Hospital to have him take me over to get uh a procedure done, and they they kept saying, Well, we're not gonna take it because there'sn't a pulse.
00:18:33.119 --> 00:18:34.720
About 30 minutes into that, Dr.
00:18:34.720 --> 00:18:45.039
White said, I went to the waiting room and your wife was sitting praying, holding your shoe that had fallen off while while they dragged you out of the out of the car.
00:18:45.039 --> 00:18:49.200
I was about to tell her we were gonna give up, and I didn't have the heart to interrupt her.
00:18:49.200 --> 00:19:04.559
So I went back and we worked on you some more, and you know, it's about 45 minutes in now, and I was I was gonna tell them to stop again, and the phone rang, and it was was Abbott, and he had a conversation with them, and they said I hung up the phone, and right after I hung up the phone, they said we have a pulse.
00:19:04.559 --> 00:19:06.640
And then I got whisked away in an ambulance.
00:19:06.640 --> 00:19:14.559
I got sent over to to Abbott and they put uh two stents in my my uh LAD, uh, your widowmaker artery in my art.
00:19:14.559 --> 00:19:18.559
Uh on Friday night I was in ICU for two days.
00:19:18.559 --> 00:19:22.480
Um then I woke up on Sunday night to the kidney harvesting.
00:19:22.480 --> 00:19:24.559
Uh was the next event.
00:19:24.559 --> 00:19:26.559
But I, you know, that they saved my life.
00:19:26.559 --> 00:19:32.240
Pretty unusual set of circumstances, but I was uh less than one percent survival odds, is what I understand.
00:19:32.559 --> 00:19:37.599
I haven't really shared this on the podcast because it's still a little new, but um not to the extent that you did.
00:19:37.599 --> 00:19:45.359
But um my husband suffered a heart attack in January, and I rode in the ambulance watching him slowly deteriorate, and your life flashes before your eyes.
00:19:45.359 --> 00:19:53.759
So I can put myself in your wife's position in the lonely waiting room, having no idea, and right waiting for the doctors to come out.
00:19:53.759 --> 00:19:56.240
And um there's trauma on both sides, right?
00:19:56.240 --> 00:20:00.000
What you went through and what your wife went through what your loved ones go through as well.
00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:01.759
And it really shifts.
00:20:01.759 --> 00:20:09.279
And so this is why I had reached out to Matt and just said, okay, unfortunately, I've had my own experience and just navigating that.
00:20:09.279 --> 00:20:18.079
So I get that's what I want to talk about is like when you come out of that and life, you know, is colored differently, right?
00:20:18.079 --> 00:20:23.680
Like the things you experience and the things that maybe feel important it didn't before, or vice versa.
00:20:23.680 --> 00:20:28.079
Like, how how do you navigate that kind of a shift in identity?
00:20:28.079 --> 00:20:31.200
And what's been the beauty of something very traumatic, right?
00:20:31.200 --> 00:20:34.240
What has that done for you as you look at your path forward from here?
00:20:34.480 --> 00:20:37.519
I um I think it's a catalyst.
00:20:37.519 --> 00:20:39.839
Um, maybe is the word I think of.
00:20:39.839 --> 00:20:50.240
And you know, much like uh, you know, if you relate this to what people go through maybe in job transition, uh similar type of catalyst, I I think uh I can draw analogies between the two.
00:20:50.240 --> 00:20:58.960
So they um what I what I talk to people a lot that are that are going through a job changes, you really gotta find you gotta rethink what you want, right?
00:20:58.960 --> 00:21:04.400
And I not so much what you did or what you can do, but really what you want to do.
00:21:04.400 --> 00:21:11.039
Um when I went when I went through a job transition, somebody said to me along the way, so Matt, you're a food guy, right?
00:21:11.039 --> 00:21:14.319
And I was like, gosh, you know, I thought I was an operations guy.
00:21:14.319 --> 00:21:19.599
So that's really interesting perspective that you have that just because I worked at General Mills, that's how I'm characterized.
00:21:19.599 --> 00:21:22.720
Yeah um, it made me think, I don't want to work in food anymore.
00:21:22.720 --> 00:21:23.839
I want to work in something else.
00:21:23.839 --> 00:21:30.480
And I started looking at my resume as this puzzle with missing pieces, and what do I want to fill in and and that type of thing.
00:21:30.480 --> 00:21:40.319
I think the heart attack similarly was a catalyst to just, you know, first and foremost, just have a greater appreciation for for life and finding what truly makes you happy.
00:21:40.319 --> 00:21:41.839
So, what do you want in life?
00:21:41.839 --> 00:21:55.519
Um, I think what I took away from from both of those kind of um life changing experiences, if you will, along the way, one more so than the other, was that work life balance for me is is finding my want in both those spaces.
00:21:55.519 --> 00:21:56.079
All right.
00:21:56.079 --> 00:21:59.359
So um personally, I want to live longer.
00:21:59.359 --> 00:22:03.839
I I you know, I'm into I make supplements and now I started taking a lot of them.
00:22:03.839 --> 00:22:16.799
Uh but I can relate to these these these longevity ideas and I've inspired to to be healthier in terms of what I eat and what I put in my body, you know, garbage in equals garbage inside is is definitely one of the mantras I live by.
00:22:16.799 --> 00:22:19.279
Um and I'm big into exercise.
00:22:19.279 --> 00:22:22.240
I was doing exercise on the day I had a heart attack, and I continue to do it.
00:22:22.240 --> 00:22:24.880
And some days I wake up and think, God, I really want to do this.
00:22:24.880 --> 00:22:28.400
And then I think, God, I really want to live longer, and I go do it.
00:22:28.400 --> 00:22:34.000
You know, and that's a a personal thing for me, but professionally I'm I'm still looking for those missing pieces.
00:22:34.000 --> 00:22:43.039
Um, and and what I hope all those missing pieces in my resume and in my career lead me to ultimately is I guess leaving a legacy for people.
00:22:43.039 --> 00:22:49.839
Um that's probably what I want to, you know, I want to be remembered for the legacy I leave in the places I uh I get to work.
00:22:50.240 --> 00:22:59.839
You know, I heard of me, and this I can say this to you, but part of the gift is at an earlier age, right, versus at 80, having this like mortality.
00:22:59.839 --> 00:23:03.599
It's like you get to have it and you get to reframe your life now.
00:23:03.599 --> 00:23:04.160
Yeah.
00:23:04.160 --> 00:23:11.920
And the guidance I would give to people listening, that whether you're going through something hard or is that you have that opportunity before the hard thing happens.
00:23:11.920 --> 00:23:16.799
And I think so many of us wait for the catalyst to do it, like you talked about.
00:23:16.799 --> 00:23:19.519
How would you suggest, like looking back, right?
00:23:19.519 --> 00:23:24.400
On a leader that's listening, that's like maybe going through the hard, maybe it's not that big of a catalyst.
00:23:24.400 --> 00:23:26.880
It's not enough to shift their perspective.
00:23:26.880 --> 00:23:33.279
What guidance would you give them on how do you do this before the bad thing happens, before the life-changing thing happens?
00:23:33.599 --> 00:23:36.240
Well, from a health perspective, it's pretty easy.
00:23:36.240 --> 00:23:46.240
Uh maybe I'll give an example of that first, but there's um there's plenty of things people can do to kind of counteract the way that a lot of medicine today is very reactive in nature.
00:23:46.240 --> 00:23:51.039
So we're our domestical systems designed to fix something that's broken, not to prevent it from breaking.
00:23:51.039 --> 00:23:53.200
So I've worked in operations my whole career.
00:23:53.200 --> 00:23:54.960
We do something called preventive maintenance.
00:23:54.960 --> 00:23:58.880
So you lubricate it or you check it, you make sure that it doesn't fall apart.
00:23:58.880 --> 00:24:04.559
Because if it falls apart when it's intended to be used, like your art, um, then you're gonna be in a bad spot.
00:24:04.559 --> 00:24:17.359
So you can you can get scans, you can get blood work, you can just ask your doctor, hey, I think I might have something wrong, or I'm worried that I might have something serious wrong with my heart, because I'm you know in my late 40s, early 50s when these problems start to manifest.
00:24:17.359 --> 00:24:18.799
What would you recommend they do?
00:24:18.799 --> 00:24:20.319
You know, and they'll they'll have ideas.
00:24:20.319 --> 00:24:22.319
And some of these things are like $50 blood tests.
00:24:22.319 --> 00:24:35.359
I mean, would you ask $50 to maybe know if you've got uh lipoprotein A like I do, which affects 10 or 20% of the people in the world, and it causes cholesterol buildup faster than it would be if you didn't know how it's a pretty good thing to know, all right?
00:24:35.359 --> 00:24:38.400
I mean, and that's it's not too much invested time for that.
00:24:38.400 --> 00:24:49.839
Um, you know, and maybe on the career side, I'd say a lot of times I reflect and and I find that what really seems impossible in the moment uh isn't so bad when you look back at it in hindsight.
00:24:49.839 --> 00:24:51.359
You just have to get to hindsight.
00:24:51.359 --> 00:25:11.839
So uh how do you uh how do you get to hindsight quicker, right, and more proactively could be the you know the the analogy in the in the career world of like how do you see around those corners and anticipate what's coming a bit better and just be better at asking the questions and learning of what might be ahead um instead of having to get there and feeling the pain.
00:25:12.079 --> 00:25:17.200
And also knowing that you've gotten to hindsight all the other times you'll get through this too, right?
00:25:17.200 --> 00:25:17.839
You'll get to it.
00:25:17.839 --> 00:25:20.799
It's kind of that when you're in the middle of it, you don't have to know the answer.
00:25:20.799 --> 00:25:25.519
It can still feel kind of crappy, but you know you'll get to the other side.
00:25:25.759 --> 00:25:30.160
Yeah, you just have to believe you'll get there, and when you look back, you'll think it really wasn't that bad.
00:25:30.400 --> 00:25:31.039
Right.
00:25:31.039 --> 00:25:37.119
Throughout your career and everything that's happened personally, professionally, is there a belief, a mindset?
00:25:37.119 --> 00:25:41.519
You know, it was something that you had to unlearn to become the leader that you are today.
00:25:41.839 --> 00:25:43.680
We talked about that a little bit earlier.
00:25:43.680 --> 00:25:48.960
I do think it's rooted in just giving up the doing and and starting the leading.
00:25:48.960 --> 00:25:49.680
Right.
00:25:49.680 --> 00:25:51.359
Value in your worth comes from.
00:25:51.359 --> 00:25:51.680
Yeah.
00:25:51.680 --> 00:25:52.160
Yeah.
00:25:52.160 --> 00:26:03.920
It's it's really uh it's really a mindset shift to to rejigger the way that you approach your work to you've got to create the next set of leaders, the next set of capable people.
00:26:03.920 --> 00:26:09.119
I mean, there certainly is an element of bringing and and having around you the you know the right talent.
00:26:09.119 --> 00:26:12.319
But when you have that right talent, you can certainly misuse them.
00:26:12.319 --> 00:26:28.960
Um you could be somebody that micromanages, you can uh worked worked for a leader like that that was really challenging for me, or you can be somebody that that inspires, guides, you know, creates this vision, and and then people want to go to the go to battle for you and they they want to win with you.
00:26:28.960 --> 00:26:32.720
And I there's somebody asked me a few weeks ago, why do you keep doing this?
00:26:32.720 --> 00:26:35.680
And it was on a really bad day, you know, it was like our bad week.
00:26:35.680 --> 00:26:37.119
Yeah, like you know what?
00:26:37.119 --> 00:26:41.599
I just like to see you and the rest of the team experience a win, right?
00:26:41.599 --> 00:26:43.759
I I like that you get that satisfaction.
00:26:43.759 --> 00:26:45.680
I like that I get to do it with you, right?
00:26:45.680 --> 00:26:47.119
I mean, that's why I keep doing it.
00:26:47.119 --> 00:26:54.480
Yeah, um, that's a kind of fuels the fire every day, but but leading in a way that makes that happen is really the the key.
00:26:54.480 --> 00:27:03.680
So I I kind of had to give up, you know, well, let me go out there and help you solve a problem versus maybe I ask the right couple questions that make them think how to how to solve the problem for themselves, right?
00:27:03.680 --> 00:27:05.359
That's that's what I try to spend more time doing.
00:27:05.359 --> 00:27:16.799
And I I never want to be, and this is still hard to do, but you know, it's like we got to make a decision in a meeting, and it's like uh I don't want to say, well, I think until the absolute end.
00:27:16.799 --> 00:27:19.680
Because once I say that, I've influenced the outcome.
00:27:19.680 --> 00:27:24.319
And I I want to say instead, you know, hey Joe Smith, I haven't heard from you.
00:27:24.319 --> 00:27:25.440
What's your opinion?
00:27:25.440 --> 00:27:28.319
Or does anybody have a different opinion?
00:27:28.319 --> 00:27:39.920
One of the things that really shaped my my career was this expat role where I worked um worked over in Switzerland for three years, and you know, I I thought I was I thought I was hot stuff, right?
00:27:39.920 --> 00:27:44.000
You know, I I'm hey, I'm an expat, and I'm I talk to these people, I'm like, well, have you ever been an expat?
00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:46.240
And they're like, Yeah, this is my sixth assignment.
00:27:46.240 --> 00:27:52.960
I've worked in you know, in Africa and Asia and South America and Europe, and I'm like, Oh.
00:27:52.960 --> 00:27:56.720
So your perspective's a little broader than mine.
00:27:56.880 --> 00:27:57.200
Right.
00:27:57.279 --> 00:28:11.680
Uh but I I learned to value that diversity in opinion and that and that just the differences in culture, how they approach things, and I I want well, I want to draw that out of my team now of like who thinks this idea isn't good, like give me a counter opinion.
00:28:11.680 --> 00:28:16.240
Because once I say, Well, here's what I think we should do, then everybody just okay, hands off, match.
00:28:16.240 --> 00:28:20.000
And you don't get the next idea because the rest I you shut down the conversation.
00:28:20.079 --> 00:28:28.640
So that's a that's another way that you need to how do you, you know, if I said 10 years ago versus now, how do you define success personally and professionally all in one?
00:28:28.640 --> 00:28:30.880
What is that how is that different than 10 years ago?
00:28:31.119 --> 00:28:33.680
Well, it's it's definitely about what we talked about early, legacy.
00:28:33.680 --> 00:28:42.640
I want it to be about like who I helped grow, um, two or three mountains that got moved in working with the team, right?
00:28:42.640 --> 00:28:47.839
It's like, wow, before you know, before Matt was with us and working with us, we we didn't do it this way, and then we got to this place.
00:28:47.839 --> 00:28:49.039
I'd love for people to say that.
00:28:49.039 --> 00:28:52.720
And and I'd love to experience that with them that that we that we did that together.
00:28:52.720 --> 00:28:57.359
But um, you know, maybe a legacy of just value that's felt in the future.
00:28:57.359 --> 00:29:05.839
Um, leaving people with like um they really enjoyed the experience of of working with me and learning from me, right?
00:29:05.839 --> 00:29:13.759
If people said that, I'd be completely honored and uh felt like that was that was the best thing that could have come out from that from that work experience.
00:29:14.079 --> 00:29:21.599
Um of the Chinese um proverb that you know, planting trees that you'll never know the shade of.
00:29:21.599 --> 00:29:31.759
That's right, it's that generational leadership of having your fingerprints right on things that'll grow and beyond you or anything you could have expected.
00:29:32.000 --> 00:29:40.160
And it's not like it's not a boastful, prideful place where that comes from, but it's it's you know, like legacy is a pretty specific word, right?
00:29:40.160 --> 00:29:44.559
Like like you're you're remembered for something that people associate with good, right?
00:29:44.559 --> 00:29:52.559
Or or the work that you did is associated as being um something transformative or or really differential to what people get today.
00:29:52.559 --> 00:30:05.680
And they they look back at it that way, um, you know, despite maybe some hard conversations or some pushing along the way, which if you don't create some of those big changes, maybe all they remember is, you know, I just had to work really hard with that.
00:30:05.680 --> 00:30:10.480
You know, that was that was what they took away instead of gosh, we we accomplished this thing together, right?
00:30:10.640 --> 00:30:13.519
Would be more of a we didn't know we could do it's that resilient.
00:30:14.319 --> 00:30:14.559
Yeah.
00:30:15.279 --> 00:30:15.759
I love that.
00:30:15.759 --> 00:30:20.880
So let's go back to just you know, you talk a lot about health and about I think it's so important.
00:30:20.880 --> 00:30:25.279
And I think leaders that don't have what I call energy rituals, right?
00:30:25.279 --> 00:30:33.759
To manage your own energy well, meaning taking care of yourself so you can show up with the right energy for the battles and the climbs you're gonna do with your team or your family.
00:30:33.759 --> 00:30:40.240
What are what are those energy rituals, habits that really help you manage your leadership energy better?
00:30:40.240 --> 00:30:42.880
What do you do on a daily, weekly basis?
00:30:43.119 --> 00:30:45.839
I take a walk at lunchtime at work.
00:30:45.839 --> 00:30:55.519
Um harder in the winter time, of course, than we're tired, but some ways hard to make the time, but it's it's a little bit of a mind-clearing exercise.
00:30:55.519 --> 00:31:06.319
Um, it's exercise in itself, but it's a it's a time to just kind of flesh out the morning and think about how you could still make the day good, maybe if it didn't start that way.
00:31:06.319 --> 00:31:14.960
Um people probably experience this, like sometimes it happens in the shower for me, like where it's like it just all comes together and it's clear, right?
00:31:14.960 --> 00:31:28.319
And if you can just have that clarity of mind of okay, I I couldn't figure out all these things fit together, and then all of a sudden, if I just let my mind relax, I can figure out what the steps are and how I want to approach something, a conversation or a task.
00:31:28.319 --> 00:31:29.599
It helps me do that.
00:31:29.599 --> 00:31:31.039
I guess that's one of them for sure.
00:31:31.039 --> 00:31:34.000
And the other one's just you know, just in general exercise.
00:31:34.000 --> 00:31:41.039
So I I I find that's uh uh a thing that makes me feel like better about myself, just in general, is going back to that everyone.
00:31:41.119 --> 00:31:47.519
I've talked a lot on the podcast about my meditation practice, and I I get I talk to leaders a lot about and they're like, I just can't do it.
00:31:47.519 --> 00:31:49.200
I don't know how to do it, I can't sit still.
00:31:49.200 --> 00:31:53.359
And what I tell them is what you're talking about to me is your way of meditating.
00:31:53.359 --> 00:31:58.400
Meditating doesn't have to be you sit cross-legged and hum and you know, close your eyes and put your fingers out like this.
00:31:58.400 --> 00:32:00.240
It's the moments, right?
00:32:00.240 --> 00:32:01.839
Where your your mind can clear.
00:32:01.839 --> 00:32:02.799
It's the exercise.
00:32:02.799 --> 00:32:06.880
If I I used to call what I called active meditation on a run.
00:32:06.880 --> 00:32:10.799
I get my best ideas when I was on a trail because I didn't have to think about anything else.
00:32:10.799 --> 00:32:12.319
Just one foot in front of the other.
00:32:12.319 --> 00:32:13.519
That's meditation.
00:32:13.519 --> 00:32:25.680
And so I like to always tell leaders like, let's release the pressure of how you meditate and what you're talking about, those walks, those clarity, those are meditative actions that you can do to manage your own energy.
00:32:25.920 --> 00:32:26.480
Absolutely.
00:32:26.720 --> 00:32:29.599
And it doesn't have to be complicated, you don't have to be an expert in something.
00:32:29.599 --> 00:32:37.359
So if there's leaders listening, right, that are going through the tough time right now, or you know, like what if you were sitting in front of them at coffee, right?
00:32:37.359 --> 00:32:49.440
You're sitting and having coffee, what would you tell them if they're in the middle of uncertainty or maybe personal or professional things going on, a job loss, a health issue, what would you tell them if they were sitting across from you?
00:32:49.839 --> 00:32:55.519
That's funny because I I meet people like this often that are that are going through some type of life event.
00:32:55.519 --> 00:33:02.079
Um I I think what we said earlier is that the if you can just get to hindsight is certainly one thing that that makes sense to tell them.
00:33:02.079 --> 00:33:08.000
But probably another one that I would say is uh your attitude makes a difference every day.
00:33:08.000 --> 00:33:14.960
How you speak to yourself, you know, what what your attitude is towards yourself that day, what it is to others, what it is to your business.
00:33:14.960 --> 00:33:22.640
Um uh attitudes infectious, and you just are you gonna be a disease or are you gonna be a miracle drug that day?
00:33:22.640 --> 00:33:25.119
Uh is really what I might say to people.
00:33:25.119 --> 00:33:27.920
Maybe it should go on a sign someplace.
00:33:28.960 --> 00:33:31.200
I'll ask you that question in a second, because that might be it.
00:33:31.200 --> 00:33:32.880
Are you gonna be a disease or a miracle drug?
00:33:32.880 --> 00:33:34.079
And you have the choice.
00:33:34.079 --> 00:33:37.599
No matter what is happening to you, in every moment you have the choice.
00:33:37.599 --> 00:33:41.839
And not every moment's gonna be rainbows and unicorns and you know, all of that.
00:33:41.839 --> 00:33:48.000
But I think as leaders, our resilience comes from that choice we make when we walk into the office every day.
00:33:48.319 --> 00:33:54.720
Yeah, and I mean, oh, people have written books about that, where if you just get up and say, I'm gonna make it, it's gonna be a great day, you know, that can change your attitude.
00:33:54.720 --> 00:33:56.079
And I I think it can.
00:33:56.079 --> 00:33:58.079
I mean, mindset means a lot.
00:33:58.079 --> 00:34:06.799
Like if you let yourself spiral down and get into this place where you know you're you just don't feel good about yourself, nothing is gonna work.
00:34:06.799 --> 00:34:12.719
So you have to find the ways that you you get yourself out of that, whether that's routines or or talking to people.
00:34:12.719 --> 00:34:21.039
I I think that being around other people and you know, you know, for those in job transition out there uh or have gone through this, they probably echo this.
00:34:21.039 --> 00:34:32.159
But if you put your energy into learning while you're going through that instead of finding a job, oh my God, is it a rewarding experience instead of a instead of a you know down a downer one, right?
00:34:32.159 --> 00:34:37.440
Where you're you're dreading the fact that you don't have a job, but instead you're like, I get this chance to learn from all these people I meet.
00:34:37.440 --> 00:34:39.360
And I oh my god, I learned so much.
00:34:39.360 --> 00:34:40.559
I didn't have a job.
00:34:40.559 --> 00:34:42.079
If it paid, I would have kept doing it.
00:34:42.079 --> 00:34:42.960
It was fantastic.
00:34:43.280 --> 00:34:43.599
I love it.
00:34:43.599 --> 00:34:44.880
Put your energy into learning.
00:34:44.880 --> 00:34:53.119
It's um I was at an entrepreneur conference and Arod uh was on was speaking and someone asked him a question, Howdy Manager, what are those things you do?
00:34:53.119 --> 00:34:55.679
And he said, I wake up every morning before my eyes open.
00:34:55.679 --> 00:34:57.599
He said, Today's gonna be the luckiest day of my life.
00:34:57.599 --> 00:34:58.400
It's a choice.
00:34:58.400 --> 00:35:01.039
It's a choice before you check your email, right?
00:35:01.039 --> 00:35:05.760
Or the chaos of the morning with kids happens, or he's saying today's gonna be the luckiest day of my life.
00:35:05.760 --> 00:35:07.119
He doesn't know how or why.
00:35:07.119 --> 00:35:17.440
And I it's really stuck with me how the simplicity of something like that, but the science behind how that changes your brain, right, for the day.
00:35:17.440 --> 00:35:20.320
So I think it's a beautiful reminder for all of us.
00:35:20.320 --> 00:35:24.159
Um, okay, so before I let you go, I want to go through the bonus round.
00:35:24.159 --> 00:35:26.800
And I think you may have already answered one of the questions, but we'll see.
00:35:26.800 --> 00:35:34.400
Oh so we're creating a Spotify playlist for all of the leaders, right, who go have been on this podcast.
00:35:34.400 --> 00:35:43.039
So what's your go-to song when you need that energy boost, when you're having a day, you're out on your lunch walk, what's your go-to song to raise your energy?
00:35:43.280 --> 00:35:49.039
Uh so it's there's a story with this, but it's uh it's by a band called Tub Thumping, and it's called Chumbawamba.
00:35:49.679 --> 00:35:53.920
And it's that one that's if if I get knocked down, I'll get up again.
00:35:54.320 --> 00:35:55.679
Right now, I know exactly.
00:35:55.920 --> 00:36:13.119
I'm not gonna sing it because I'm not a good singer, but the story that goes with this is uh uh at the end of my my term working with the Canadian business in General Mills, we had an end-of-the-year meeting, and all of the the business leaders uh by function had to have walk-up music uh before we did our presentation.
00:36:13.119 --> 00:36:19.920
And you know, I just went through two years of leading the spiking team that was constantly beat down and blamed for everything going wrong, right?
00:36:19.920 --> 00:36:22.559
Because we couldn't get materials and we couldn't produce product.
00:36:22.559 --> 00:36:29.760
Uh so the whole room kind of erupted with that is the absolute perfect song for the and you get up again.
00:36:29.760 --> 00:36:31.039
Yep, and you get up again.
00:36:31.039 --> 00:36:37.599
But it it's carried forward from there, and it you know, just as we talked about before, it's a little bit can be a little bit uplifting.
00:36:37.599 --> 00:36:39.039
I'm not gonna let it get to me.
00:36:39.039 --> 00:36:41.119
I'm gonna go on, uh, move forward.
00:36:41.440 --> 00:36:42.079
I love it.
00:36:42.079 --> 00:36:46.480
Um, what's a book or podcast that changed your perspective?
00:36:46.800 --> 00:36:52.559
Uh the book called Um Multipliers uh by Liz Wiseman, I think is the one.
00:36:52.559 --> 00:37:04.960
But it talks about um leaders who bring out the best in others instead of being a diminisher that uh either accidental or intentional diminisher that kind of takes focus away from others and puts it on them.
00:37:04.960 --> 00:37:06.480
Really, really good read.
00:37:06.480 --> 00:37:14.239
Really a lot of great lessons and and how to how to show up in a way that that accelerates instead of you know takes away everything.
00:37:14.559 --> 00:37:15.760
Yeah, I love it.
00:37:15.760 --> 00:37:25.199
And then the last question is I'm gonna give you a billboard on 394 going into downtown, and every executive going to and from work is gonna see this billboard.
00:37:25.199 --> 00:37:26.480
What would you put on it?
00:37:26.800 --> 00:37:28.559
Yeah, it's it is probably what I said earlier.
00:37:28.559 --> 00:37:32.960
It's a little flowery, but it's your attitude makes a difference every day, would be what I put up there.
00:37:32.960 --> 00:37:42.239
Um I really think that I really that matters, and you can it can be spread, you know, one person can make a difference just by bringing that level of energy.
00:37:42.239 --> 00:37:42.639
Yeah.
00:37:42.639 --> 00:37:49.280
Um could be either that or just uh create a culture of followers, not a culture of fear, might be another thing I'd put up there.
00:37:49.280 --> 00:37:59.679
You know, if you get people that you inspire, you care about, you know, you care first and you ask second, um, they'll go to fight, they'll go to fight with you and you'll you'll win a lot more often than you would otherwise.
00:37:59.840 --> 00:38:00.719
You'll move mountains.
00:38:00.719 --> 00:38:01.119
Yeah.
00:38:01.119 --> 00:38:03.679
And many of us have experienced that in our careers, right?
00:38:03.679 --> 00:38:10.639
Teams that have done things that they should have never been able to do because we figured out how to light that fire, right?
00:38:10.639 --> 00:38:12.320
And really motivate and inspire them.
00:38:12.320 --> 00:38:14.639
Um it's beautiful.
00:38:14.639 --> 00:38:18.000
Thank you for being here and thank you for sharing so openly.
00:38:18.320 --> 00:38:19.360
Yeah, you're welcome.
00:38:19.360 --> 00:38:20.559
Thanks for having me on the show.
00:38:20.559 --> 00:38:21.119
I loved it.
00:38:21.119 --> 00:38:28.320
I I hope it's uh I hope it's helpful to, you know, to the folks listening, inspiring to those that needed inspiration.
00:38:28.559 --> 00:38:29.920
Yeah, it absolutely will be.
00:38:29.920 --> 00:38:32.000
And that's really it to those listening.
00:38:32.000 --> 00:38:37.280
That's the purpose of this, is to bring leaders on that we we've all been through, right?
00:38:37.280 --> 00:38:38.400
A lot of stuff.
00:38:38.400 --> 00:38:40.239
And we've gotten out the other side.
00:38:40.239 --> 00:38:46.960
And sometimes we just need to hear it from someone who's on the other side when we're in the middle to say, okay, I can do this.
00:38:46.960 --> 00:38:49.199
Um, so I'm assuming you're open.
00:38:49.199 --> 00:39:00.320
If people connect with you, we'll put your LinkedIn and things like that on uh the show notes in case there's other people that want to have coffee and uh want to get on your calendar to share.
00:39:00.880 --> 00:39:03.599
If we connected, I'd well I welcome connections like that, Jaime.
00:39:03.599 --> 00:39:04.800
So yeah, absolutely.
00:39:05.199 --> 00:39:06.400
Thanks so much for being here, Matt.
00:39:06.639 --> 00:39:07.679
Thank you very much.
00:39:08.400 --> 00:39:13.599
Success isn't just about reaching the top, it's about what you discover once you're there.
00:39:13.599 --> 00:39:20.800
Here on View from the Top, we explore the stories, the setbacks, and the inner work that we define what success really means.
00:39:20.800 --> 00:39:26.000
If this episode resonated with you, I'd encourage you to share it with someone who might need it right now.
00:39:26.000 --> 00:39:31.519
And to stay connected, make sure and subscribe so you get notified when we release new episodes.
00:39:31.519 --> 00:39:37.519
You can connect with me on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook or visit my website at JaimeTaets.com.
00:39:37.519 --> 00:39:39.599
All of the links are in the show notes.
00:39:39.599 --> 00:39:42.159
Thank you for listening to View from the Top.
00:39:42.159 --> 00:39:45.199
We'll see you at the top and beyond.
00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:02.720
So in today's podcast, the view from the top, I've got Matt Ropchack .
00:00:03.279 --> 00:00:05.280
He's the president of Ourvita US.
00:00:05.280 --> 00:00:14.640
He's been at General Mills a lot of his career and he's been kind of a local leader that has done some pretty amazing things, but has also learned some really amazing lessons.
00:00:14.640 --> 00:00:18.160
I don't want to spoil it, but he shares something personally that happened to him.
00:00:18.160 --> 00:00:22.239
It's actually how he and I got connected because I had a similar thing happen in my family.
00:00:22.239 --> 00:00:27.359
And he shares just how that shifted his perspective on leadership, on what's important.
00:00:27.359 --> 00:00:30.239
He his lesson about don't keep your feet in the familiar.
00:00:30.239 --> 00:00:31.679
Like where are you stretching?
00:00:31.679 --> 00:00:35.359
Where are you kind of pushing yourself to do something that you don't know how to do?
00:00:35.359 --> 00:00:40.880
And I think for a lot of us we get comfortable and we're not disrupting ourselves as often as maybe we should be.
00:00:40.880 --> 00:00:42.799
And so I love the lessons that Matt shares.
00:00:42.799 --> 00:00:48.240
I love some of the things that have happened on his success, on his climb as we talk about that a lot of us deal with.
00:00:48.240 --> 00:00:51.359
How is he looking at life differently as he goes forward?
00:00:51.359 --> 00:00:53.679
This is a do not miss episode.
00:00:53.679 --> 00:00:56.719
There was points where I teared up just because I know his story.
00:00:56.719 --> 00:00:59.119
I know how impactful it is for many of us.
00:00:59.119 --> 00:01:01.200
So make sure and take a listen.
00:01:01.200 --> 00:01:12.959
And if you know someone in your life that needs to hear this message, please, the greatest thing you can do for Matt or I is to share this podcast episode, to share it with people in your network, to share it with people you love.
00:01:12.959 --> 00:01:15.359
I think it's a gift when we do that for people.
00:01:15.359 --> 00:01:16.560
So I hope you like it.
00:01:16.560 --> 00:01:18.319
And this next View from the Top.
00:01:18.319 --> 00:01:21.280
Welcome everybody to the View from the Top podcast.
00:01:21.280 --> 00:01:23.280
I've got Matt Ropchak with me.
00:01:23.280 --> 00:01:26.159
He's the president of Ourvita US.
00:01:26.159 --> 00:01:30.079
Um, and Matt and I, I gotta say how we met.
00:01:30.079 --> 00:01:35.200
He posted something on LinkedIn, and I'm not even sure how I saw it.
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My family had gone through something similar that he had gone through in his life, which I'm sure he's gonna share with us today.
00:01:39.760 --> 00:01:44.000
And I just reached out cold and said, I appreciate you posting this.
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And would you ever meet for coffee?
00:01:45.760 --> 00:01:49.120
And you're like, sure, crazy lady, I'll meet you.
00:01:49.120 --> 00:02:03.439
Um, so we just had such a wonderful conversation that I was like, I want your story to be shared because I think it could really reframe some things for leaders, especially just the way our world is and to help us kind of prioritize what's important, which I think you've learned and you're good at.
00:02:03.439 --> 00:02:05.359
So thank you for being here.
00:02:05.359 --> 00:02:08.080
And if you'd kick us off with just who are you, right?
00:02:08.080 --> 00:02:10.000
How'd you get to this point in your success?
00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:11.199
What's that journey been?
00:02:11.439 --> 00:02:12.000
Yeah, sure.
00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:15.280
Well, well, thanks uh for have first of all for having me on the show, Jaime.
00:02:15.280 --> 00:02:17.759
Uh that quirky way we met was was fine with me.
00:02:17.759 --> 00:02:23.599
I meet a lot of people that way, and I was glad you reached out to have coffee and we got a chance to connect and then and then to do this together.
00:02:23.599 --> 00:02:24.960
Yeah, a little bit by myself.
00:02:24.960 --> 00:02:30.159
So uh as you mentioned, I I currently run um the US portion of a business called Ourvita.
00:02:30.159 --> 00:02:32.800
They're a global CDMO.
00:02:32.800 --> 00:02:39.199
So they uh do development and they ultimately do manufacturing for companies that want to sell mostly nutritional supplements.
00:02:39.199 --> 00:02:44.159
So, like all the capsules and tablets and gummies and stick packs that are so popular these days.
00:02:44.159 --> 00:02:51.199
We make those uh uh in the US, in the UK, in Europe, and in China, uh, and then also some some health and beauty products.
00:02:51.199 --> 00:02:53.039
Um, I've been with this company two years.
00:02:53.039 --> 00:02:58.159
Uh prior to that, I was at General Mills, so a local Twin Cities company for 27 years.
00:02:58.159 --> 00:03:05.360
I grew up doing a lot of engineering and operational stuff uh in my career before I moved to kind of the small company environment I'm in now.
00:03:05.360 --> 00:03:11.680
And during that time, I had uh a chance to be an expat in Europe for a few years, which is a really terrific experience.
00:03:11.680 --> 00:03:15.680
Um and I also worked internationally in the Canadian business of General Mills along the way.
00:03:15.680 --> 00:03:18.240
So lots of lots of diverse things uh in the background.
00:03:18.560 --> 00:03:32.560
But and when people would step back and say, you know, I know Matt, or I've known him from the beginning, and they kind of see your trajectory of climbing the ranks at General Mills and you know becoming president of a company out of that.
00:03:32.560 --> 00:03:37.280
What's one thing that maybe would they would misunderstand about that success?
00:03:37.280 --> 00:03:40.479
Because from the outside, sometimes it looks like everything's gone according to plan.
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What's that?
00:03:41.120 --> 00:03:44.400
What's it what's something people know about that climb?
00:03:44.879 --> 00:03:53.759
Yeah, it's um there was really one one pivotal point or segment in my career that this stands out, Jaime.
00:03:53.759 --> 00:04:04.879
After a kind of a restructuring event in the company, I was moved from the the role I was uh in in Europe, which was kind of an operations and engineering leader, into a into a supply chain leader role.
00:04:04.879 --> 00:04:11.759
And they had they made five of these positions across the company, and I and I got one of them leading the Canadian business.
00:04:11.759 --> 00:04:19.439
Um, and the the lesson here was as I reflected back on this later, was I I didn't keep a foot in the familiar.
00:04:19.439 --> 00:04:25.360
Uh and what I mean by that is I I was moving geographies, so moving from Europe back to North America.
00:04:25.360 --> 00:04:34.160
I was moving cultures, so I was kind of used to European culture for for the last three years, and then I was moving to Canadian culture specifically.
00:04:34.160 --> 00:04:36.000
Um, I was changing functions.
00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:43.120
I was in the engineering function, I was going to the supply chain one, and then I was going from uh like a technical leader role to a business leader role.
00:04:43.120 --> 00:04:46.639
I started on a business leadership team for this for this Canadian business.
00:04:46.639 --> 00:04:54.639
Um, and I was responsible for end-to-end supply chain in the post-uh pandemic era, which as you probably remember was a little bit hectic.
00:04:54.639 --> 00:04:59.519
Um, I had massive imposter syndrome at the time.
00:04:59.519 --> 00:05:04.079
Um I was I didn't know what I didn't know in some cases.
00:05:04.079 --> 00:05:06.480
Um, and it was it was a bit unnerving.
00:05:06.480 --> 00:05:14.959
I remember working, you know, 12, 13 hour days every day just to try to to learn so I could make a decision when every day was about making decisions.
00:05:14.959 --> 00:05:17.279
Right um, it was a tough time.
00:05:17.279 --> 00:05:25.360
And I I think what I did to get through that was I I just had to admit it to myself first that okay, I just don't know, right?
00:05:25.360 --> 00:05:30.399
And I and that that led me to I need to be okay with asking questions and learning.
00:05:30.399 --> 00:05:45.439
And the best thing I did through that that whole period, Jaime, was I I remember it was probably maybe nine months or a year into the role we had kind of a like a mid-year meeting, and I s I uh I was up in front of the team and I I kind of pivoted in the moment.
00:05:45.439 --> 00:05:49.040
Uh and I was kind of looking at faces as I was as I was talking.
00:05:49.040 --> 00:05:56.800
We were at an off-site thing, we were about to go do some kind of fun activity, and I I went away from the business update and I was like, you know what, I gotta share something with everybody here.
00:05:56.800 --> 00:06:02.560
You know, when I came into this job, I had no idea how to do I know I didn't even know what customer operations was.
00:06:02.560 --> 00:06:10.959
Like the portion of my business interacts with customers and uh you know uh extracts demand and does uh uh order processing and things like that.
00:06:10.959 --> 00:06:12.639
And people are kind of like, what?
00:06:12.639 --> 00:06:18.560
And I I wanted them to know that um not understanding was okay.
00:06:18.560 --> 00:06:26.720
And some of the other people in the room had just come in and they were in this post-pandemic area and they were afraid to shut their laptops on the weekends for fear of missing a critical email.
00:06:26.720 --> 00:06:27.839
And I said, you know what?
00:06:27.839 --> 00:06:31.600
It's okay not to be able to do everything and not to know everything.
00:06:31.600 --> 00:06:34.079
Your your leader is standing up here telling you this.
00:06:34.079 --> 00:06:37.279
Um and it was a you know, it was a nice five or ten minute conversation.
00:06:37.279 --> 00:06:41.279
And people came up to me afterwards and said, you know, nobody ever says stuff like that.
00:06:41.279 --> 00:06:44.399
You know, nobody ever admitted to us they didn't know how to do something.
00:06:44.399 --> 00:06:50.560
And I I kind of in that moment realized that it's being vulnerable like that was really a powerful tool as a leader.
00:06:50.800 --> 00:06:50.959
Right.
00:06:50.959 --> 00:06:54.399
And I think it's a powerful tool for you to heal as well, right?
00:06:54.399 --> 00:07:13.920
I mean, I think part of that is like it you step into that who you are, but it it it's the authentic piece that comes forward and modeling that behavior and admitting, and I think it's one of the beauties of the pandemic and some of the uncertainty and chaos is nobody knows how to lead through some of this chaos that we're in right now.
00:07:13.920 --> 00:07:15.360
We're figuring it out, right?
00:07:15.360 --> 00:07:22.560
We're leaning on our leadership skills and we're not leaning on domain expertise for 15 years like we used to be able to.
00:07:22.560 --> 00:07:28.879
And I think that's refreshing for people to hear, especially as I think about my four Gen Z, right?
00:07:28.879 --> 00:07:37.279
College age, coming out of college, to hear from leaders that like your job is to figure it out, ask good questions, be a good teammate, right?
00:07:37.279 --> 00:07:37.920
Work together.
00:07:37.920 --> 00:07:44.079
Like it's not to know all of the answers because there aren't answers to some of the things we're dealing with right now.
00:07:44.399 --> 00:07:44.959
Exactly.
00:07:44.959 --> 00:07:58.319
That experience, um, as good as it was to teach me, um, it ultimately revealed that I wasn't really a rock star in that role, you know, kind of like my my career had been characterized by kind of being a higher performer in the company.
00:07:58.319 --> 00:08:04.639
And right ultimately it led to there was another riff that happened a couple years into it, and I didn't end up with a seat.
00:08:04.639 --> 00:08:13.360
You know, I can look back at that and say, not having that foot in the familiar put me into a place of pretty extreme risk in terms of to be able to do the job.
00:08:13.360 --> 00:08:15.759
I mean, I I learned a massive amount, right?
00:08:15.759 --> 00:08:18.800
But I really wasn't performing the way uh I could have been.
00:08:18.800 --> 00:08:25.040
And I, you know, I went into job transition and did all that self-worth evaluation stuff that everybody does when you get to that spot.
00:08:25.040 --> 00:08:30.720
But the hard things are what make you better, and I came through that and got to a better place.
00:08:30.720 --> 00:08:34.960
And it led to the job opportunity I have now, which is fantastic and I love it.
00:08:34.960 --> 00:08:37.120
So at the end of the day, it was it was worth it.
00:08:37.360 --> 00:08:38.559
Yeah, so you would do it again.
00:08:38.720 --> 00:08:46.960
I would oh boy, I just got a perk from the two years of supply chain mayhem that we had, but but yeah, probably I would.
00:08:47.200 --> 00:08:50.480
Well, you would you would tell someone, a younger leader, right?
00:08:50.480 --> 00:08:54.639
To to like that, don't keep your feet completely in the familiar.
00:08:54.639 --> 00:08:57.120
That other side can also hold you back.
00:08:57.519 --> 00:08:58.159
Absolutely.
00:08:58.159 --> 00:09:14.000
And you know, if you think about things that I wish somebody would have told me earlier in my career, that's exactly one of them that um I would tell people that are you know in the first years or so of their career to just get as much perspective in as many roles as you can.
00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:17.360
Um disrupt yourself often, would be my advice.
00:09:17.360 --> 00:09:22.080
And you know, yet you're a year and a half, two years into your role, raise your hand and say, I want to change jobs.
00:09:22.080 --> 00:09:30.559
And it might just feel like you're just hitting your groove, but that's the time when you're starting to coast a little bit and you're not pushing yourself to learn as much.
00:09:30.559 --> 00:09:34.960
I mean, I I'm the president of a business now, I've never worked in sales.
00:09:34.960 --> 00:09:46.960
It would have been not too much of a stretch in the first few years of my career to say, hey, can I go to a cross-functional role in sales, just you know, sales operations or something, just so I get a sense of what this is about, and I'll come back to being a technical person.
00:09:46.960 --> 00:09:49.039
But I want to understand how that business works.
00:09:49.039 --> 00:09:52.320
That would have been super helpful uh as I step into this role now.
00:09:52.320 --> 00:09:58.399
So I've had to learn into that space, into that function quite a bit uh later in my career when you're the leader.
00:09:58.399 --> 00:09:59.840
It's a little harder to do that learning.
00:10:00.159 --> 00:10:12.320
We're seeing actually more of our clients that are creating uh, I would call them rotational programs in leadership, meaning you're not gonna get to the C-suite, right, or to the higher levels by the career ladder anymore.
00:10:12.320 --> 00:10:17.679
We need you to go to ops and spend some time in sales and because you're a better executive leader, right?
00:10:17.679 --> 00:10:19.360
If you've had that well-rounded.
00:10:19.360 --> 00:10:24.559
And so I I think me growing up at Cargill General Mills, that just wasn't how they thought, right?
00:10:24.559 --> 00:10:25.279
Necessarily.
00:10:25.279 --> 00:10:26.639
Like you kind of had a path.
00:10:26.879 --> 00:10:28.879
Yeah, you kind of stayed in your lane and in your function.
00:10:28.879 --> 00:10:29.519
Yeah.
00:10:29.919 --> 00:10:40.320
And I think that's a disservice now because I think you have executives who maybe are a little functional, you know, in that they they have silos because they understand really deep what they do, but not what the business does.
00:10:40.720 --> 00:10:47.519
I've been able to get by because I can I learn things really fast and I pick up on them quickly, but it's not always sufficient.
00:10:47.519 --> 00:10:52.720
And certainly for people that don't do that, I mean, I think the cross-functional roles are are really necessary.
00:10:52.960 --> 00:10:53.360
Yeah.
00:10:53.360 --> 00:10:57.679
When you think about, you know, the journey you shared and kind of how you've gotten to where you've gotten.
00:10:57.679 --> 00:11:01.759
Obviously, job transition was a was a key moment, probably a perspective shift.
00:11:01.759 --> 00:11:12.960
Was there another moment where from the outside world, you know, maybe it looked like you had it all together and you know, behind the scenes it wasn't going quite as planned or things that really disrupted you?
00:11:13.200 --> 00:11:24.399
I don't know how it looked from the outside, but internally at least, you know, I feel like I really had to, I really had to evolve how I approached my career uh as I got into higher levels of leadership.
00:11:24.399 --> 00:11:31.200
And you don't I I don't think you admit that to people readily, and people don't always see that, but you you feel it as a leader.
00:11:31.200 --> 00:11:39.519
And you know what got me here was that yeah, I learned things fast and I can make decisions quickly and I can solve problems and I can lead operations.
00:11:39.519 --> 00:11:51.440
But yeah, now I'm faced with I gotta lead an organization, I gotta set a vision, I gotta inspire people, I gotta, I gotta transform a business to make sure I hit the bottom line for a bunch of investors and in private equity.
00:11:51.440 --> 00:11:54.399
And you know, that wasn't in the playbook any instructions.
00:11:54.399 --> 00:12:02.000
So you uh you kind of you need to move past how you used to do things as you get into these these higher levels of leadership positions.
00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:15.519
And I I guess what I've what I've learned that I need to do more of now and I need to focus on more as I've gotten to this place, which which probably is a isn't obvious from the outside, but you coach more and you do less, right?
00:12:15.519 --> 00:12:18.080
You you know that old adage of teach people to fish, right?
00:12:18.080 --> 00:12:23.600
You you gotta you gotta teach them how to be the problem solvers, not not be the problem solver yourself.
00:12:23.600 --> 00:12:31.519
Um you know good example of that at the workplace here is um my operations director and I do uh do a do gimbo walks with the team.
00:12:31.519 --> 00:12:44.960
So that's basically go and see the event, but along the way we're we're kind of demonstrating the behavior of these are the questions you need to ask your your leads and your operators to make sure that they're completing tasks, to make sure the things that make this business run efficiently are being done.
00:12:44.960 --> 00:12:50.080
And in a business that was founder-led for a long time, everybody was just told what to do.
00:12:50.080 --> 00:12:53.679
You know, they they didn't know to go do these things on their own and to drive outcomes.
00:12:53.679 --> 00:12:56.879
So that was uh an example of coaching and and teaching.
00:12:56.879 --> 00:13:00.399
And uh a second thing on that list is is prioritization.
00:13:00.399 --> 00:13:07.440
And this one I think is kind of funny because you talk about this all through your career and you do it all the time, but you just can't fix everything, Jaime.
00:13:07.440 --> 00:13:08.559
I mean, there right.
00:13:08.559 --> 00:13:19.759
I remember having a having a job interview for a company I won't name, but uh while I was in transition, and the guy said to me, He's like, I just want to make sure you're somebody that knows how to walk past some of the fires that we have burning.
00:13:19.759 --> 00:13:23.279
And I was like, Well, that's a really interesting way to to think about it.
00:13:23.279 --> 00:13:30.080
But you know, you gotta think what can I let burn down so that something else can move forward is really what you have to do as a leader.
00:13:30.080 --> 00:13:32.480
It's it's kind of the essence of brutal prioritization.
00:13:32.480 --> 00:13:37.120
And yeah, I didn't, you know, I'm kind of internally conflicted sometimes because I like to put out fires.
00:13:37.120 --> 00:13:38.080
That's what I was raised to do.
00:13:38.080 --> 00:13:40.000
I carried the hose around so long.
00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:43.039
Uh that's all I knew.
00:13:43.039 --> 00:13:50.639
Um, and now I think I've evolved with this place where I I rely a lot on character for lack of a better term.
00:13:50.639 --> 00:13:58.240
So when I left General Mills, um I I had I had an experience really in my career where somebody told me, you need to know what your brand is, man.
00:13:58.240 --> 00:14:00.240
I'm sorry, I don't know what that means.
00:14:00.240 --> 00:14:02.159
Where it was a you have one of those.
00:14:02.159 --> 00:14:03.039
I don't think I have one.
00:14:03.039 --> 00:14:04.799
Yeah, do I but go where do I buy that?
00:14:04.799 --> 00:14:05.440
Yeah.
00:14:05.440 --> 00:14:17.440
And it wasn't until the last week of work with the company I sent an email out to you know, everybody I'd worked with that touched me in some way, and just kind of, you know, you know, job by job almost.
00:14:17.440 --> 00:14:20.320
I probably got 80 replies to those messages.
00:14:20.320 --> 00:14:28.480
And people used words like, you know, here's what you meant to me in this moment, or here's what you taught me, or gosh, you were always an authentic person and you're so genuine.
00:14:28.480 --> 00:14:35.919
And I those words popped out a lot, and I just realized that that's how I came across to people, and it was a bit of my brand.
00:14:35.919 --> 00:14:44.240
Um, you know, it turns out you don't have to die and have a eulogy for people to tell you this, you can leave a cup with you too, and they say you meant to them from a from a brand point of view.
00:14:44.240 --> 00:14:49.440
But but that's one part of what uh my character is about now, is is that that authenticity.
00:14:49.440 --> 00:15:01.759
And another part is connecting and and showing that I care about people so that I really want to foster a do it for me, not do it because you're afraid of me environment, right?
00:15:01.759 --> 00:15:10.399
And yeah, you don't manage by making people scared and and fearful of the jobs, you manage by by building a lot of trust and they want they want to go to battle with you, right?
00:15:10.399 --> 00:15:12.960
And that's the that's the environment I want to create nowadays.
00:15:13.200 --> 00:15:15.679
I love that I call it legacy leadership, right?
00:15:15.679 --> 00:15:20.159
Where there's ripple effects that you and I may never know from ways that we led.
00:15:20.159 --> 00:15:21.519
And we hope those are positive.
00:15:21.519 --> 00:15:23.519
Most of them, more positive than negative.
00:15:23.519 --> 00:15:23.840
Yeah.
00:15:23.840 --> 00:15:33.759
But I was just I was speaking to a CEO forum last week, and I was telling a story from my early days at Cargill and a leader that still to this day I think about and the impact she had on me.
00:15:33.759 --> 00:15:39.200
And when I told a story, I mean, people were like, You're tearing, you know, you could because they know that feeling, they know that person.
00:15:39.200 --> 00:15:42.559
And I said, Isn't that at the end of the day what we all just want?
00:15:42.559 --> 00:15:43.200
Right?
00:15:43.200 --> 00:15:50.240
We want someone to be saying, talking about us down the road about this leader had this impact or this person had this impact.
00:15:50.240 --> 00:15:51.679
It doesn't even have to be a leader.
00:15:51.679 --> 00:15:52.000
Yeah.
00:15:52.000 --> 00:16:01.120
And I think sometimes as leaders, we forget that that's a big part of our role because we're supposed to drive execution and hit outcomes and measurables and right.
00:16:01.120 --> 00:16:07.360
We're yeah, we're supposed to do all those things too, but we're also supposed to create an impact on the business and on the people.
00:16:07.360 --> 00:16:08.960
I think that's what you're talking about.
00:16:08.960 --> 00:16:28.720
Throughout your career, and I know a little bit about you know your story, and you know, talk about the moment, talk about that event that really changed everything because I think this is so important as we talk about the health, mental, physical, right, and what it means to be a leader and how to really make sure that is a priority.
00:16:28.720 --> 00:16:30.960
So you share as much as you feel comfortable sharing.
00:16:31.279 --> 00:16:32.240
Yeah, absolutely.
00:16:32.240 --> 00:16:40.080
So uh, you know, for the listening audience, Jaime's not talking about job transition this time, he's talking about a uh a health event I had.
00:16:40.080 --> 00:16:44.639
I I I had uh an experience that most people don't get to have.
00:16:44.639 --> 00:16:47.759
I I spent an hour and away uh many people don't.
00:16:47.759 --> 00:16:50.080
Uh and I spent I spent it dead.
00:16:50.080 --> 00:16:55.919
I had a heart attack on um December 27th of 2024.
00:16:55.919 --> 00:16:59.360
Um it was uh it was interesting.
00:16:59.360 --> 00:17:02.000
I I began the day like I began most days.
00:17:02.000 --> 00:17:06.319
I did a workout in the morning, my workout ended because I had some some strange back pain.
00:17:06.319 --> 00:17:14.000
I remember making the kids some lunch, it was just after Christmas, and I next thing I remember, last thing I remember was sitting on a couch.
00:17:14.000 --> 00:17:24.880
Um, and then the next memory I have after that was I woke up in a hospital room, um, surrounded by people in masks, all staring at me, not knowing what's going on.
00:17:24.880 --> 00:17:31.440
And I I thought what any sane person would think at that point that, oh my god, they're about to harvest my kidneys, please help me.
00:17:31.440 --> 00:17:36.319
Uh it was just a strange set of occurrences.
00:17:36.319 --> 00:17:48.559
So I what got filled in, the blanks got filled in later, were that uh as I sat on that couch, I started having what my wife told me I described as somebody stabbing me in the back with a spear type of pain, and my my arm went numb.
00:17:48.559 --> 00:17:50.640
And I said, I think I'm having a heart attack.
00:17:50.640 --> 00:17:51.920
We should go to the emergency room.
00:17:51.920 --> 00:17:53.039
And we did that.
00:17:53.039 --> 00:18:01.759
We got to within maybe a half mile or so of the Ridgeview Clinic in in uh Chan Hassan area, Charachaska area, and I went unconscious.
00:18:01.759 --> 00:18:07.279
And I arrived at the door, and a a large nurse named Clay came out, dragged me out of the car.
00:18:07.279 --> 00:18:08.480
One of my shoes fell off.
00:18:08.480 --> 00:18:14.559
He threw me on a stretcher and he jumped up out of the stretcher and started doing CPR as they wheeled me down to to one of the rooms.
00:18:14.559 --> 00:18:17.519
Um and I was in there a long time.
00:18:17.519 --> 00:18:21.519
Uh they had the chest compression machine on me trying to keep me alive.
00:18:21.519 --> 00:18:24.640
Uh the the attending ER, uh Dr.
00:18:24.640 --> 00:18:33.119
Matthew White, was trying to get hold of Abbott Northwestern Hospital to have him take me over to get uh a procedure done, and they they kept saying, Well, we're not gonna take it because there'sn't a pulse.
00:18:33.119 --> 00:18:34.720
About 30 minutes into that, Dr.
00:18:34.720 --> 00:18:45.039
White said, I went to the waiting room and your wife was sitting praying, holding your shoe that had fallen off while while they dragged you out of the out of the car.
00:18:45.039 --> 00:18:49.200
I was about to tell her we were gonna give up, and I didn't have the heart to interrupt her.
00:18:49.200 --> 00:19:04.559
So I went back and we worked on you some more, and you know, it's about 45 minutes in now, and I was I was gonna tell them to stop again, and the phone rang, and it was was Abbott, and he had a conversation with them, and they said I hung up the phone, and right after I hung up the phone, they said we have a pulse.
00:19:04.559 --> 00:19:06.640
And then I got whisked away in an ambulance.
00:19:06.640 --> 00:19:14.559
I got sent over to to Abbott and they put uh two stents in my my uh LAD, uh, your widowmaker artery in my art.
00:19:14.559 --> 00:19:18.559
Uh on Friday night I was in ICU for two days.
00:19:18.559 --> 00:19:22.480
Um then I woke up on Sunday night to the kidney harvesting.
00:19:22.480 --> 00:19:24.559
Uh was the next event.
00:19:24.559 --> 00:19:26.559
But I, you know, that they saved my life.
00:19:26.559 --> 00:19:32.240
Pretty unusual set of circumstances, but I was uh less than one percent survival odds, is what I understand.
00:19:32.559 --> 00:19:37.599
I haven't really shared this on the podcast because it's still a little new, but um not to the extent that you did.
00:19:37.599 --> 00:19:45.359
But um my husband suffered a heart attack in January, and I rode in the ambulance watching him slowly deteriorate, and your life flashes before your eyes.
00:19:45.359 --> 00:19:53.759
So I can put myself in your wife's position in the lonely waiting room, having no idea, and right waiting for the doctors to come out.
00:19:53.759 --> 00:19:56.240
And um there's trauma on both sides, right?
00:19:56.240 --> 00:20:00.000
What you went through and what your wife went through what your loved ones go through as well.
00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:01.759
And it really shifts.
00:20:01.759 --> 00:20:09.279
And so this is why I had reached out to Matt and just said, okay, unfortunately, I've had my own experience and just navigating that.
00:20:09.279 --> 00:20:18.079
So I get that's what I want to talk about is like when you come out of that and life, you know, is colored differently, right?
00:20:18.079 --> 00:20:23.680
Like the things you experience and the things that maybe feel important it didn't before, or vice versa.
00:20:23.680 --> 00:20:28.079
Like, how how do you navigate that kind of a shift in identity?
00:20:28.079 --> 00:20:31.200
And what's been the beauty of something very traumatic, right?
00:20:31.200 --> 00:20:34.240
What has that done for you as you look at your path forward from here?
00:20:34.480 --> 00:20:37.519
I um I think it's a catalyst.
00:20:37.519 --> 00:20:39.839
Um, maybe is the word I think of.
00:20:39.839 --> 00:20:50.240
And you know, much like uh, you know, if you relate this to what people go through maybe in job transition, uh similar type of catalyst, I I think uh I can draw analogies between the two.
00:20:50.240 --> 00:20:58.960
So they um what I what I talk to people a lot that are that are going through a job changes, you really gotta find you gotta rethink what you want, right?
00:20:58.960 --> 00:21:04.400
And I not so much what you did or what you can do, but really what you want to do.
00:21:04.400 --> 00:21:11.039
Um when I went when I went through a job transition, somebody said to me along the way, so Matt, you're a food guy, right?
00:21:11.039 --> 00:21:14.319
And I was like, gosh, you know, I thought I was an operations guy.
00:21:14.319 --> 00:21:19.599
So that's really interesting perspective that you have that just because I worked at General Mills, that's how I'm characterized.
00:21:19.599 --> 00:21:22.720
Yeah um, it made me think, I don't want to work in food anymore.
00:21:22.720 --> 00:21:23.839
I want to work in something else.
00:21:23.839 --> 00:21:30.480
And I started looking at my resume as this puzzle with missing pieces, and what do I want to fill in and and that type of thing.
00:21:30.480 --> 00:21:40.319
I think the heart attack similarly was a catalyst to just, you know, first and foremost, just have a greater appreciation for for life and finding what truly makes you happy.
00:21:40.319 --> 00:21:41.839
So, what do you want in life?
00:21:41.839 --> 00:21:55.519
Um, I think what I took away from from both of those kind of um life changing experiences, if you will, along the way, one more so than the other, was that work life balance for me is is finding my want in both those spaces.
00:21:55.519 --> 00:21:56.079
All right.
00:21:56.079 --> 00:21:59.359
So um personally, I want to live longer.
00:21:59.359 --> 00:22:03.839
I I you know, I'm into I make supplements and now I started taking a lot of them.
00:22:03.839 --> 00:22:16.799
Uh but I can relate to these these these longevity ideas and I've inspired to to be healthier in terms of what I eat and what I put in my body, you know, garbage in equals garbage inside is is definitely one of the mantras I live by.
00:22:16.799 --> 00:22:19.279
Um and I'm big into exercise.
00:22:19.279 --> 00:22:22.240
I was doing exercise on the day I had a heart attack, and I continue to do it.
00:22:22.240 --> 00:22:24.880
And some days I wake up and think, God, I really want to do this.
00:22:24.880 --> 00:22:28.400
And then I think, God, I really want to live longer, and I go do it.
00:22:28.400 --> 00:22:34.000
You know, and that's a a personal thing for me, but professionally I'm I'm still looking for those missing pieces.
00:22:34.000 --> 00:22:43.039
Um, and and what I hope all those missing pieces in my resume and in my career lead me to ultimately is I guess leaving a legacy for people.
00:22:43.039 --> 00:22:49.839
Um that's probably what I want to, you know, I want to be remembered for the legacy I leave in the places I uh I get to work.
00:22:50.240 --> 00:22:59.839
You know, I heard of me, and this I can say this to you, but part of the gift is at an earlier age, right, versus at 80, having this like mortality.
00:22:59.839 --> 00:23:03.599
It's like you get to have it and you get to reframe your life now.
00:23:03.599 --> 00:23:04.160
Yeah.
00:23:04.160 --> 00:23:11.920
And the guidance I would give to people listening, that whether you're going through something hard or is that you have that opportunity before the hard thing happens.
00:23:11.920 --> 00:23:16.799
And I think so many of us wait for the catalyst to do it, like you talked about.
00:23:16.799 --> 00:23:19.519
How would you suggest, like looking back, right?
00:23:19.519 --> 00:23:24.400
On a leader that's listening, that's like maybe going through the hard, maybe it's not that big of a catalyst.
00:23:24.400 --> 00:23:26.880
It's not enough to shift their perspective.
00:23:26.880 --> 00:23:33.279
What guidance would you give them on how do you do this before the bad thing happens, before the life-changing thing happens?
00:23:33.599 --> 00:23:36.240
Well, from a health perspective, it's pretty easy.
00:23:36.240 --> 00:23:46.240
Uh maybe I'll give an example of that first, but there's um there's plenty of things people can do to kind of counteract the way that a lot of medicine today is very reactive in nature.
00:23:46.240 --> 00:23:51.039
So we're our domestical systems designed to fix something that's broken, not to prevent it from breaking.
00:23:51.039 --> 00:23:53.200
So I've worked in operations my whole career.
00:23:53.200 --> 00:23:54.960
We do something called preventive maintenance.
00:23:54.960 --> 00:23:58.880
So you lubricate it or you check it, you make sure that it doesn't fall apart.
00:23:58.880 --> 00:24:04.559
Because if it falls apart when it's intended to be used, like your art, um, then you're gonna be in a bad spot.
00:24:04.559 --> 00:24:17.359
So you can you can get scans, you can get blood work, you can just ask your doctor, hey, I think I might have something wrong, or I'm worried that I might have something serious wrong with my heart, because I'm you know in my late 40s, early 50s when these problems start to manifest.
00:24:17.359 --> 00:24:18.799
What would you recommend they do?
00:24:18.799 --> 00:24:20.319
You know, and they'll they'll have ideas.
00:24:20.319 --> 00:24:22.319
And some of these things are like $50 blood tests.
00:24:22.319 --> 00:24:35.359
I mean, would you ask $50 to maybe know if you've got uh lipoprotein A like I do, which affects 10 or 20% of the people in the world, and it causes cholesterol buildup faster than it would be if you didn't know how it's a pretty good thing to know, all right?
00:24:35.359 --> 00:24:38.400
I mean, and that's it's not too much invested time for that.
00:24:38.400 --> 00:24:49.839
Um, you know, and maybe on the career side, I'd say a lot of times I reflect and and I find that what really seems impossible in the moment uh isn't so bad when you look back at it in hindsight.
00:24:49.839 --> 00:24:51.359
You just have to get to hindsight.
00:24:51.359 --> 00:25:11.839
So uh how do you uh how do you get to hindsight quicker, right, and more proactively could be the you know the the analogy in the in the career world of like how do you see around those corners and anticipate what's coming a bit better and just be better at asking the questions and learning of what might be ahead um instead of having to get there and feeling the pain.
00:25:12.079 --> 00:25:17.200
And also knowing that you've gotten to hindsight all the other times you'll get through this too, right?
00:25:17.200 --> 00:25:17.839
You'll get to it.
00:25:17.839 --> 00:25:20.799
It's kind of that when you're in the middle of it, you don't have to know the answer.
00:25:20.799 --> 00:25:25.519
It can still feel kind of crappy, but you know you'll get to the other side.
00:25:25.759 --> 00:25:30.160
Yeah, you just have to believe you'll get there, and when you look back, you'll think it really wasn't that bad.
00:25:30.400 --> 00:25:31.039
Right.
00:25:31.039 --> 00:25:37.119
Throughout your career and everything that's happened personally, professionally, is there a belief, a mindset?
00:25:37.119 --> 00:25:41.519
You know, it was something that you had to unlearn to become the leader that you are today.
00:25:41.839 --> 00:25:43.680
We talked about that a little bit earlier.
00:25:43.680 --> 00:25:48.960
I do think it's rooted in just giving up the doing and and starting the leading.
00:25:48.960 --> 00:25:49.680
Right.
00:25:49.680 --> 00:25:51.359
Value in your worth comes from.
00:25:51.359 --> 00:25:51.680
Yeah.
00:25:51.680 --> 00:25:52.160
Yeah.
00:25:52.160 --> 00:26:03.920
It's it's really uh it's really a mindset shift to to rejigger the way that you approach your work to you've got to create the next set of leaders, the next set of capable people.
00:26:03.920 --> 00:26:09.119
I mean, there certainly is an element of bringing and and having around you the you know the right talent.
00:26:09.119 --> 00:26:12.319
But when you have that right talent, you can certainly misuse them.
00:26:12.319 --> 00:26:28.960
Um you could be somebody that micromanages, you can uh worked worked for a leader like that that was really challenging for me, or you can be somebody that that inspires, guides, you know, creates this vision, and and then people want to go to the go to battle for you and they they want to win with you.
00:26:28.960 --> 00:26:32.720
And I there's somebody asked me a few weeks ago, why do you keep doing this?
00:26:32.720 --> 00:26:35.680
And it was on a really bad day, you know, it was like our bad week.
00:26:35.680 --> 00:26:37.119
Yeah, like you know what?
00:26:37.119 --> 00:26:41.599
I just like to see you and the rest of the team experience a win, right?
00:26:41.599 --> 00:26:43.759
I I like that you get that satisfaction.
00:26:43.759 --> 00:26:45.680
I like that I get to do it with you, right?
00:26:45.680 --> 00:26:47.119
I mean, that's why I keep doing it.
00:26:47.119 --> 00:26:54.480
Yeah, um, that's a kind of fuels the fire every day, but but leading in a way that makes that happen is really the the key.
00:26:54.480 --> 00:27:03.680
So I I kind of had to give up, you know, well, let me go out there and help you solve a problem versus maybe I ask the right couple questions that make them think how to how to solve the problem for themselves, right?
00:27:03.680 --> 00:27:05.359
That's that's what I try to spend more time doing.
00:27:05.359 --> 00:27:16.799
And I I never want to be, and this is still hard to do, but you know, it's like we got to make a decision in a meeting, and it's like uh I don't want to say, well, I think until the absolute end.
00:27:16.799 --> 00:27:19.680
Because once I say that, I've influenced the outcome.
00:27:19.680 --> 00:27:24.319
And I I want to say instead, you know, hey Joe Smith, I haven't heard from you.
00:27:24.319 --> 00:27:25.440
What's your opinion?
00:27:25.440 --> 00:27:28.319
Or does anybody have a different opinion?
00:27:28.319 --> 00:27:39.920
One of the things that really shaped my my career was this expat role where I worked um worked over in Switzerland for three years, and you know, I I thought I was I thought I was hot stuff, right?
00:27:39.920 --> 00:27:44.000
You know, I I'm hey, I'm an expat, and I'm I talk to these people, I'm like, well, have you ever been an expat?
00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:46.240
And they're like, Yeah, this is my sixth assignment.
00:27:46.240 --> 00:27:52.960
I've worked in you know, in Africa and Asia and South America and Europe, and I'm like, Oh.
00:27:52.960 --> 00:27:56.720
So your perspective's a little broader than mine.
00:27:56.880 --> 00:27:57.200
Right.
00:27:57.279 --> 00:28:11.680
Uh but I I learned to value that diversity in opinion and that and that just the differences in culture, how they approach things, and I I want well, I want to draw that out of my team now of like who thinks this idea isn't good, like give me a counter opinion.
00:28:11.680 --> 00:28:16.240
Because once I say, Well, here's what I think we should do, then everybody just okay, hands off, match.
00:28:16.240 --> 00:28:20.000
And you don't get the next idea because the rest I you shut down the conversation.
00:28:20.079 --> 00:28:28.640
So that's a that's another way that you need to how do you, you know, if I said 10 years ago versus now, how do you define success personally and professionally all in one?
00:28:28.640 --> 00:28:30.880
What is that how is that different than 10 years ago?
00:28:31.119 --> 00:28:33.680
Well, it's it's definitely about what we talked about early, legacy.
00:28:33.680 --> 00:28:42.640
I want it to be about like who I helped grow, um, two or three mountains that got moved in working with the team, right?
00:28:42.640 --> 00:28:47.839
It's like, wow, before you know, before Matt was with us and working with us, we we didn't do it this way, and then we got to this place.
00:28:47.839 --> 00:28:49.039
I'd love for people to say that.
00:28:49.039 --> 00:28:52.720
And and I'd love to experience that with them that that we that we did that together.
00:28:52.720 --> 00:28:57.359
But um, you know, maybe a legacy of just value that's felt in the future.
00:28:57.359 --> 00:29:05.839
Um, leaving people with like um they really enjoyed the experience of of working with me and learning from me, right?
00:29:05.839 --> 00:29:13.759
If people said that, I'd be completely honored and uh felt like that was that was the best thing that could have come out from that from that work experience.
00:29:14.079 --> 00:29:21.599
Um of the Chinese um proverb that you know, planting trees that you'll never know the shade of.
00:29:21.599 --> 00:29:31.759
That's right, it's that generational leadership of having your fingerprints right on things that'll grow and beyond you or anything you could have expected.
00:29:32.000 --> 00:29:40.160
And it's not like it's not a boastful, prideful place where that comes from, but it's it's you know, like legacy is a pretty specific word, right?
00:29:40.160 --> 00:29:44.559
Like like you're you're remembered for something that people associate with good, right?
00:29:44.559 --> 00:29:52.559
Or or the work that you did is associated as being um something transformative or or really differential to what people get today.
00:29:52.559 --> 00:30:05.680
And they they look back at it that way, um, you know, despite maybe some hard conversations or some pushing along the way, which if you don't create some of those big changes, maybe all they remember is, you know, I just had to work really hard with that.
00:30:05.680 --> 00:30:10.480
You know, that was that was what they took away instead of gosh, we we accomplished this thing together, right?
00:30:10.640 --> 00:30:13.519
Would be more of a we didn't know we could do it's that resilient.
00:30:14.319 --> 00:30:14.559
Yeah.
00:30:15.279 --> 00:30:15.759
I love that.
00:30:15.759 --> 00:30:20.880
So let's go back to just you know, you talk a lot about health and about I think it's so important.
00:30:20.880 --> 00:30:25.279
And I think leaders that don't have what I call energy rituals, right?
00:30:25.279 --> 00:30:33.759
To manage your own energy well, meaning taking care of yourself so you can show up with the right energy for the battles and the climbs you're gonna do with your team or your family.
00:30:33.759 --> 00:30:40.240
What are what are those energy rituals, habits that really help you manage your leadership energy better?
00:30:40.240 --> 00:30:42.880
What do you do on a daily, weekly basis?
00:30:43.119 --> 00:30:45.839
I take a walk at lunchtime at work.
00:30:45.839 --> 00:30:55.519
Um harder in the winter time, of course, than we're tired, but some ways hard to make the time, but it's it's a little bit of a mind-clearing exercise.
00:30:55.519 --> 00:31:06.319
Um, it's exercise in itself, but it's a it's a time to just kind of flesh out the morning and think about how you could still make the day good, maybe if it didn't start that way.
00:31:06.319 --> 00:31:14.960
Um people probably experience this, like sometimes it happens in the shower for me, like where it's like it just all comes together and it's clear, right?
00:31:14.960 --> 00:31:28.319
And if you can just have that clarity of mind of okay, I I couldn't figure out all these things fit together, and then all of a sudden, if I just let my mind relax, I can figure out what the steps are and how I want to approach something, a conversation or a task.
00:31:28.319 --> 00:31:29.599
It helps me do that.
00:31:29.599 --> 00:31:31.039
I guess that's one of them for sure.
00:31:31.039 --> 00:31:34.000
And the other one's just you know, just in general exercise.
00:31:34.000 --> 00:31:41.039
So I I I find that's uh uh a thing that makes me feel like better about myself, just in general, is going back to that everyone.
00:31:41.119 --> 00:31:47.519
I've talked a lot on the podcast about my meditation practice, and I I get I talk to leaders a lot about and they're like, I just can't do it.
00:31:47.519 --> 00:31:49.200
I don't know how to do it, I can't sit still.
00:31:49.200 --> 00:31:53.359
And what I tell them is what you're talking about to me is your way of meditating.
00:31:53.359 --> 00:31:58.400
Meditating doesn't have to be you sit cross-legged and hum and you know, close your eyes and put your fingers out like this.
00:31:58.400 --> 00:32:00.240
It's the moments, right?
00:32:00.240 --> 00:32:01.839
Where your your mind can clear.
00:32:01.839 --> 00:32:02.799
It's the exercise.
00:32:02.799 --> 00:32:06.880
If I I used to call what I called active meditation on a run.
00:32:06.880 --> 00:32:10.799
I get my best ideas when I was on a trail because I didn't have to think about anything else.
00:32:10.799 --> 00:32:12.319
Just one foot in front of the other.
00:32:12.319 --> 00:32:13.519
That's meditation.
00:32:13.519 --> 00:32:25.680
And so I like to always tell leaders like, let's release the pressure of how you meditate and what you're talking about, those walks, those clarity, those are meditative actions that you can do to manage your own energy.
00:32:25.920 --> 00:32:26.480
Absolutely.
00:32:26.720 --> 00:32:29.599
And it doesn't have to be complicated, you don't have to be an expert in something.
00:32:29.599 --> 00:32:37.359
So if there's leaders listening, right, that are going through the tough time right now, or you know, like what if you were sitting in front of them at coffee, right?
00:32:37.359 --> 00:32:49.440
You're sitting and having coffee, what would you tell them if they're in the middle of uncertainty or maybe personal or professional things going on, a job loss, a health issue, what would you tell them if they were sitting across from you?
00:32:49.839 --> 00:32:55.519
That's funny because I I meet people like this often that are that are going through some type of life event.
00:32:55.519 --> 00:33:02.079
Um I I think what we said earlier is that the if you can just get to hindsight is certainly one thing that that makes sense to tell them.
00:33:02.079 --> 00:33:08.000
But probably another one that I would say is uh your attitude makes a difference every day.
00:33:08.000 --> 00:33:14.960
How you speak to yourself, you know, what what your attitude is towards yourself that day, what it is to others, what it is to your business.
00:33:14.960 --> 00:33:22.640
Um uh attitudes infectious, and you just are you gonna be a disease or are you gonna be a miracle drug that day?
00:33:22.640 --> 00:33:25.119
Uh is really what I might say to people.
00:33:25.119 --> 00:33:27.920
Maybe it should go on a sign someplace.
00:33:28.960 --> 00:33:31.200
I'll ask you that question in a second, because that might be it.
00:33:31.200 --> 00:33:32.880
Are you gonna be a disease or a miracle drug?
00:33:32.880 --> 00:33:34.079
And you have the choice.
00:33:34.079 --> 00:33:37.599
No matter what is happening to you, in every moment you have the choice.
00:33:37.599 --> 00:33:41.839
And not every moment's gonna be rainbows and unicorns and you know, all of that.
00:33:41.839 --> 00:33:48.000
But I think as leaders, our resilience comes from that choice we make when we walk into the office every day.
00:33:48.319 --> 00:33:54.720
Yeah, and I mean, oh, people have written books about that, where if you just get up and say, I'm gonna make it, it's gonna be a great day, you know, that can change your attitude.
00:33:54.720 --> 00:33:56.079
And I I think it can.
00:33:56.079 --> 00:33:58.079
I mean, mindset means a lot.
00:33:58.079 --> 00:34:06.799
Like if you let yourself spiral down and get into this place where you know you're you just don't feel good about yourself, nothing is gonna work.
00:34:06.799 --> 00:34:12.719
So you have to find the ways that you you get yourself out of that, whether that's routines or or talking to people.
00:34:12.719 --> 00:34:21.039
I I think that being around other people and you know, you know, for those in job transition out there uh or have gone through this, they probably echo this.
00:34:21.039 --> 00:34:32.159
But if you put your energy into learning while you're going through that instead of finding a job, oh my God, is it a rewarding experience instead of a instead of a you know down a downer one, right?
00:34:32.159 --> 00:34:37.440
Where you're you're dreading the fact that you don't have a job, but instead you're like, I get this chance to learn from all these people I meet.
00:34:37.440 --> 00:34:39.360
And I oh my god, I learned so much.
00:34:39.360 --> 00:34:40.559
I didn't have a job.
00:34:40.559 --> 00:34:42.079
If it paid, I would have kept doing it.
00:34:42.079 --> 00:34:42.960
It was fantastic.
00:34:43.280 --> 00:34:43.599
I love it.
00:34:43.599 --> 00:34:44.880
Put your energy into learning.
00:34:44.880 --> 00:34:53.119
It's um I was at an entrepreneur conference and Arod uh was on was speaking and someone asked him a question, Howdy Manager, what are those things you do?
00:34:53.119 --> 00:34:55.679
And he said, I wake up every morning before my eyes open.
00:34:55.679 --> 00:34:57.599
He said, Today's gonna be the luckiest day of my life.
00:34:57.599 --> 00:34:58.400
It's a choice.
00:34:58.400 --> 00:35:01.039
It's a choice before you check your email, right?
00:35:01.039 --> 00:35:05.760
Or the chaos of the morning with kids happens, or he's saying today's gonna be the luckiest day of my life.
00:35:05.760 --> 00:35:07.119
He doesn't know how or why.
00:35:07.119 --> 00:35:17.440
And I it's really stuck with me how the simplicity of something like that, but the science behind how that changes your brain, right, for the day.
00:35:17.440 --> 00:35:20.320
So I think it's a beautiful reminder for all of us.
00:35:20.320 --> 00:35:24.159
Um, okay, so before I let you go, I want to go through the bonus round.
00:35:24.159 --> 00:35:26.800
And I think you may have already answered one of the questions, but we'll see.
00:35:26.800 --> 00:35:34.400
Oh so we're creating a Spotify playlist for all of the leaders, right, who go have been on this podcast.
00:35:34.400 --> 00:35:43.039
So what's your go-to song when you need that energy boost, when you're having a day, you're out on your lunch walk, what's your go-to song to raise your energy?
00:35:43.280 --> 00:35:49.039
Uh so it's there's a story with this, but it's uh it's by a band called Tub Thumping, and it's called Chumbawamba.
00:35:49.679 --> 00:35:53.920
And it's that one that's if if I get knocked down, I'll get up again.
00:35:54.320 --> 00:35:55.679
Right now, I know exactly.
00:35:55.920 --> 00:36:13.119
I'm not gonna sing it because I'm not a good singer, but the story that goes with this is uh uh at the end of my my term working with the Canadian business in General Mills, we had an end-of-the-year meeting, and all of the the business leaders uh by function had to have walk-up music uh before we did our presentation.
00:36:13.119 --> 00:36:19.920
And you know, I just went through two years of leading the spiking team that was constantly beat down and blamed for everything going wrong, right?
00:36:19.920 --> 00:36:22.559
Because we couldn't get materials and we couldn't produce product.
00:36:22.559 --> 00:36:29.760
Uh so the whole room kind of erupted with that is the absolute perfect song for the and you get up again.
00:36:29.760 --> 00:36:31.039
Yep, and you get up again.
00:36:31.039 --> 00:36:37.599
But it it's carried forward from there, and it you know, just as we talked about before, it's a little bit can be a little bit uplifting.
00:36:37.599 --> 00:36:39.039
I'm not gonna let it get to me.
00:36:39.039 --> 00:36:41.119
I'm gonna go on, uh, move forward.
00:36:41.440 --> 00:36:42.079
I love it.
00:36:42.079 --> 00:36:46.480
Um, what's a book or podcast that changed your perspective?
00:36:46.800 --> 00:36:52.559
Uh the book called Um Multipliers uh by Liz Wiseman, I think is the one.
00:36:52.559 --> 00:37:04.960
But it talks about um leaders who bring out the best in others instead of being a diminisher that uh either accidental or intentional diminisher that kind of takes focus away from others and puts it on them.
00:37:04.960 --> 00:37:06.480
Really, really good read.
00:37:06.480 --> 00:37:14.239
Really a lot of great lessons and and how to how to show up in a way that that accelerates instead of you know takes away everything.
00:37:14.559 --> 00:37:15.760
Yeah, I love it.
00:37:15.760 --> 00:37:25.199
And then the last question is I'm gonna give you a billboard on 394 going into downtown, and every executive going to and from work is gonna see this billboard.
00:37:25.199 --> 00:37:26.480
What would you put on it?
00:37:26.800 --> 00:37:28.559
Yeah, it's it is probably what I said earlier.
00:37:28.559 --> 00:37:32.960
It's a little flowery, but it's your attitude makes a difference every day, would be what I put up there.
00:37:32.960 --> 00:37:42.239
Um I really think that I really that matters, and you can it can be spread, you know, one person can make a difference just by bringing that level of energy.
00:37:42.239 --> 00:37:42.639
Yeah.
00:37:42.639 --> 00:37:49.280
Um could be either that or just uh create a culture of followers, not a culture of fear, might be another thing I'd put up there.
00:37:49.280 --> 00:37:59.679
You know, if you get people that you inspire, you care about, you know, you care first and you ask second, um, they'll go to fight, they'll go to fight with you and you'll you'll win a lot more often than you would otherwise.
00:37:59.840 --> 00:38:00.719
You'll move mountains.
00:38:00.719 --> 00:38:01.119
Yeah.
00:38:01.119 --> 00:38:03.679
And many of us have experienced that in our careers, right?
00:38:03.679 --> 00:38:10.639
Teams that have done things that they should have never been able to do because we figured out how to light that fire, right?
00:38:10.639 --> 00:38:12.320
And really motivate and inspire them.
00:38:12.320 --> 00:38:14.639
Um it's beautiful.
00:38:14.639 --> 00:38:18.000
Thank you for being here and thank you for sharing so openly.
00:38:18.320 --> 00:38:19.360
Yeah, you're welcome.
00:38:19.360 --> 00:38:20.559
Thanks for having me on the show.
00:38:20.559 --> 00:38:21.119
I loved it.
00:38:21.119 --> 00:38:28.320
I I hope it's uh I hope it's helpful to, you know, to the folks listening, inspiring to those that needed inspiration.
00:38:28.559 --> 00:38:29.920
Yeah, it absolutely will be.
00:38:29.920 --> 00:38:32.000
And that's really it to those listening.
00:38:32.000 --> 00:38:37.280
That's the purpose of this, is to bring leaders on that we we've all been through, right?
00:38:37.280 --> 00:38:38.400
A lot of stuff.
00:38:38.400 --> 00:38:40.239
And we've gotten out the other side.
00:38:40.239 --> 00:38:46.960
And sometimes we just need to hear it from someone who's on the other side when we're in the middle to say, okay, I can do this.
00:38:46.960 --> 00:38:49.199
Um, so I'm assuming you're open.
00:38:49.199 --> 00:39:00.320
If people connect with you, we'll put your LinkedIn and things like that on uh the show notes in case there's other people that want to have coffee and uh want to get on your calendar to share.
00:39:00.880 --> 00:39:03.599
If we connected, I'd well I welcome connections like that, Jaime.
00:39:03.599 --> 00:39:04.800
So yeah, absolutely.
00:39:05.199 --> 00:39:06.400
Thanks so much for being here, Matt.
00:39:06.639 --> 00:39:07.679
Thank you very much.
00:39:08.400 --> 00:39:13.599
Success isn't just about reaching the top, it's about what you discover once you're there.
00:39:13.599 --> 00:39:20.800
Here on View from the Top, we explore the stories, the setbacks, and the inner work that we define what success really means.
00:39:20.800 --> 00:39:26.000
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00:39:26.000 --> 00:39:31.519
And to stay connected, make sure and subscribe so you get notified when we release new episodes.
00:39:31.519 --> 00:39:37.519
You can connect with me on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook or visit my website at JaimeTaets.com.
00:39:37.519 --> 00:39:39.599
All of the links are in the show notes.
00:39:39.599 --> 00:39:42.159
Thank you for listening to View from the Top.
00:39:42.159 --> 00:39:45.199
We'll see you at the top and beyond.
