By Insight Editor / 8 May 2024 / Topics: Culture & careers
What if we told you that tapping into your personal brand could be the key to unlocking your leadership potential? In this Season 3 premiere episode of Leading With Insight, Z and Rich sat down with Joyce Mullen, President and CEO of Insight, to explore the power of personal branding. With her warm and engaging style, Joyce shares insights from her career journey and offers practical advice for anyone looking to enhance their leadership skills and build a strong, authentic personal brand. From understanding your unique value proposition to developing trust and credibility with your team, this episode is a must-listen.
To experience this week’s episode, listen on the player above, watch the conversation below or scroll down to read a complete transcript. You can also subscribe to Leading With Insight on Apple Podcasts, Pandora and Spotify.
Audio transcript:
(...) Hey everybody, this is Z Tanaka and I'm Richard Reeves. You're listening to Leading With Insight. Join us as we explore the latest trends, insights and strategies for people who love leadership. Get ready to unlock your full potential and take your career to the next level.
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Today's episode is about, yeah, it's kicking off season three of Leading With Insight. You know, we've covered topics of truth of trust, executive presence and so many other topics that have been important to you as listeners and aspiring leaders and current leaders. This season is all about, hey, how do I start building or reimagine or rethink of my personal brand or even bring awareness to it as a leader? And this topic today is your unique value proposition. What is it? How do I establish it? And then, of course, what are some best practices and who better than our own CEO, Joyce Molen, who has amazing stories and we can't wait to learn and take as much insight as we can from that. Before we introduce Joyce, also want to remind everybody, our corporate citizenship report is out and this is an opportunity for us to share with you who insight is and all the amazing things that we do. I encourage all of you to take a look at that and we'll do, of course, a reminder at the end of the episode. So with that, let's go ahead and introduce our special guest, Joyce. Welcome to Leading With Insight. Thank you very much. It's great to be here. And by the way, you have to show these purple shoes. Have you guys seen these? Like talk about on brand. It's not fuchsia, but a variation of that. And maybe it's in the color palette. It's in the color palette. It's in the color wheel. Well, thank you, Joyce. I mean, if anybody knows shoes, that would be Joyce. She's always on brand as well.
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A couple of facts about you that I just want to share, highlight with our audience that don't know you yet. And I'll have you share your journey with insight. But one thing is again, you've been with Dell for 20 plus years. So before joining Insight, so you have quite four quarters, quite quite an extensive amount of time there.
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Also, a strong advocate. You know, one of the things that I really admire about your Joyce is that not only are you, of course, doing all the CEO things, but you're also a big, big champion when it comes to diversity, equity, inclusion. You know, I see you in all the different panels and discussions, the TRGs that we have.
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And again, I just surprise it. Doesn't surprise me. And it really touches my heart that a leader like yourself is always in the front line when it comes to those initiatives. It's really good business. It's really good business to collect diverse opinions and come up with best solutions. You only you only do that if people have diverse experiences. And then, of course, you have to, you know, you really mean it and you're part of it. One thing is like, you know, well, I have this part of my role. You're like, no, I don't. It's like you want you're jumping onto it all the time, which I appreciate that. Thank you. It's really important. Another cool thing. You're an avid runner. You may be done a couple of marathons here and there. One. I did one and done marathon. It was very good. It was a million years ago. Not an S at the end. Marathon marathon singular.
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And then you have a passion. Of course, you have a passion for technology. Every every discussion that you're involved in, you really just talk about all the new technology that's out there. You've made some great relationships. You've been a part of amazing discussions with a lot of thought leaders around that space. But not only that with our customers and also our partners. So that's awesome.
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Joyce, tell us about your journey. How did you how did you come about being the CEO of Insight?
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Well, as you said, I spent a lot of time at Dell before I was at Dell. I was at Cummins Engine Company for a little while.(...) And I would say Cummins was a fabulous place to be a new leader because it's a hundred plus year old company and they had very, very, very sort of well-established processes, development plans, programs, things like that. So I got a chance to do a lot of different jobs there. And and then one day I had a friend who went to Dell and she said, you know, you should come down and check this out. And I thought, well, yeah, I might as well go to Texas. We were living in Louisville, Kentucky at the time.(...) And I called my husband after I had a day's worth of interviews at Dell and I said, hey, what do you think about moving to Austin, Texas? And my husband is the greatest. And so he said, sure, let's go. And at Dell, I really started to understand how much I love technology. So diesel engine technology. Interesting. Does good work. Not great for the environment. But technology, I.T. is really, really cool. And we use technology to solve some of the world's most vexing problems. And I'm continue to(...) continually amazed at the work that our customers do with technology and the problems they solve with technology. And I find it very, very inspiring. And it's there's never a dull moment in technology. So after 21 years at Dell, I spent I decided to leave Dell and it was, I think, a pandemic kind of moment where you start to reassess and say, what am I doing? And I love Dell. We'll always love Dell. But I'd done most of the jobs there except for the one Michael's doing and a few other people, none of whom were leaving. So I decided to take some time off.
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And after about about a month and a half, my husband said, you are killing me. You have to go back to work. And I had had the chance to meet and work with Ken Lamnick because Insight was a partner at Dell and I was really impressed with Ken.(...) And then, you know, I came and met Glynis and the rest of the leadership team. And I thought this is a place with so much potential. It's done so many great things already and is a really, really good company. And I think we have an opportunity to make it a great company. So I got to come here and it's been really terrific since then. So three years. Wow. And we're so happy that you decided to join us. And I think it was a perfect fit, honestly. It's just like you were here from the beginning. So I feel like I've been here many quarters now, but it's not yet eighty four. Yeah,(...) it's definitely a great journey and it definitely lends itself to the topics that we'll be discussing today, which are understanding your unique value proposition, building personal brand and how to maintain that personal brand. So let's go ahead and jump right in. Yeah, let's do that. So, you know, we're talking about unique value proposition. You know, a lot of us may be intentionally, unintentionally
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are kind of working through this. Right.(...) I'm curious to know on your end, when it comes to your personal value property, what's unique about Joyce? Was that intentional from the beginning when you first started your career or did you kind of evolve to that over time?
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No, I think it's I think I did not have a plan that says, OK, here's my, you know, here's my personal brand and here's my unique value proposition.(...) You know, I think it comes from what really what is really important to you and how do you bring those values forward in your everyday life? So for me, I mean, I would say generally I start off with kind of a level of optimism.(...) I'm optimistic about what technology can do for the world. I'm optimistic about(...) our teammates and their their develop their skills and the capabilities they have. I'm optimistic that our customers are trying to do the right things with technology and are excited about experimenting with them. So I think it starts with whoever who you are.
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And then it also has a lot to do with what you're passionate about. So I have a great admiration and I've gotten to learn from so many really terrific leaders around hiring people smarter than you and trying to figure out how to build a diverse team that you mentioned, Z, so that people bring different experiences and together you make better decisions and you lean into disagreements and figure out kind of so that you can learn from one another. And so I'm super passionate about that. And then and then I really do feel like(...) I care a lot about our teammates development and success and our customers development and success. And I think if you do that, you're kind of on the right side of the arguments generally.
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And, you know, that's that's a kind of a higher ground that you can always come back to. And then you make good decisions. And by the end of the day, at the end of the day, it is around delivering results and being proud of those results and how you delivered them with integrity. And that makes makes it possible to go to sleep at night and put your head on the pillow and have a great night. Yeah, that's great. So I know you've kind of done this by, you know, your values and then incorporating, you know, leveraging maybe somebody who you work with other people who have the great ideas that you build a team, right? A successful team. So with that being said, how has that and I don't know, maybe this is in the peripherals as well, because you said you didn't quite, you know, set out to identify a value proposition. But has that changed your value proposition throughout your career or has it expanded it? Yeah, I mean, I think earlier in my career, it was probably in the reverse order.
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I do think that if you say what you do and do what you say and deliver results, you have a license to start doing the other stuff. It's really, really hard unless you sort of establish a personal credibility and and a commitment to execution and executing the right way.
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You don't get to talk about strategy. You don't get to talk about leadership development. You don't get to talk about diversity. So I feel like you've got to start by execution. I tell my kids this all the time. Just do it. Just actually execute. And then and then you can start talking about how you can improve it the next time or etc, etc. So I would say that the order is reversed. I think I didn't realize probably until middle of my career that it makes a lot of sense to hire people smarter than you. It makes your job a lot easier. A and you raise
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the bar and the whole team by bringing in different perspectives and and different experiences. So and then I think I guess the other thing that kind of got solidified, although I didn't mention it earlier, is(...) it is exhausting to try to be someone you're not. So a level of authenticity,
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being passionate about what you're passionate about, but don't try to be passionate about everything.
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Really sort of bringing your self to work, your whole self to work is so much easier than trying to
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have a different, at least for me, trying to have a different kind of persona at work or versus the one I have at home. So I think I think as you as you as you sort of see what works and you see what sticks, you start to sort of really hone in on those things and and then you emphasize those because they work. Yeah, yeah. It's like I love that you said. I think what when you were saying that I'm thinking also about like in the beginning of your leadership journey, right, you're trying to figure things out. You're learning from mentors from others, trial and error. Like you said, this isn't working. This is working. This did what I needed to. But in order to get to that position is your credibility. And a big part of that is deliver results is you're somebody that's capable, that's able to do the job, that's doing success, but also that human element of being your authentic self. Right. And I think one of the things that I've noticed from leaders and now we sell leaders is like, TEP, like, it sends the energy to like what brings you energy? Yeah. Right. Because can you imagine doing a role for a long period of time where you're just not energized to go to work every day, you're dreading it like it's not sustainable. And you can't do your best work. How can you possibly do your best work if you're not getting energy from it? Yeah. And I do think you can learn from really bad bosses and really good bosses.
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And it's you I mean, and you take away something from almost every interaction. And if you put all that together, that becomes your unique value proposition. That is what makes you different from everybody else. And that's why you got to be loud and proud about it as well, because what you bring is different from every book, what everybody else brings. And it's that combination that creates a team that executes really effectively. So I think you just said, like I just thought about to the loud and proud thing. You know, once we know what brings us the energy, we know our skills, we know the value we bring, right? The skills that we're developing. Don't keep it to yourself. Like, let people know, like, have a passion for technology, have a passion for networking, for building teams, for whatever that is. And I'm a testament to that. Right. I mean, being an amplifier, right, being the MC. Yeah, that didn't happen overnight. I've been with Inside 10 years now and I've been doing it for the last three years. You've been doing it ever since I got here. I think that's all you do.
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People was wondering, what is it that I do? I think even Tony Safoya goes, you have the best job, whatever that is. But I love. But that wasn't always the case. Right. When I joined Inside, I started as a sales coach, a sales trainer. And I remember being being in the audience and going, oh, dude, that'll be amazing one day to be in there because I have a passion for just getting people excited, right, for bringing in the audience. And you're so good at it. Thank you. And I was being loud and proud about it. And finally just saying, just telling people, how do how do I get on stage? Right. Besides me just running up there.(...) And it finally just came through. And here I am three years so far, knock on wood and running. But it's it's one of those things being loud and proud. Don't keep it to yourself. I do think no one cares as much about your development as you do. And I always tell everybody you have to be in charge of it because your boss is going to care. Your teammates are going to care, but not as much as you do. And I think saying that, being being clear about what you want to learn next, what you how you want to contribute, when you think you can do more is something that's, I think, again, a bit of a learned behavior.
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At least I'll use my kids again as an example. I mean, they're like, oh, yeah, you know, I could do more. And I said, have you told your boss that? Well, no, I don't want to actually work more as well. Then you're probably not going to do more. So but, you know, I think you do learn that that's how you're going to differentiate yourselves as well as part of that unique value proposition. Yeah. And it's funny. That's the reason why people hold back sometimes. They're like, OK, but now now they'll tell you yes. And now you're like, oh, now I got to do it. Right. Yes. Which is why you got to like it. And I'm passionate. Exactly. I love that. Let's let's let's. Yeah. So just now that we've touched on a little bit of the unique value proposition, you know, you've definitely built a very well-respected reputation for yourself within the technology space and our partner community, as well as just the channel overall that that didn't happen overnight. And that's definitely not something that happened by accident. Can you tell us when you kind of recognize that having a personal brand really mattered or impacted your career?
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Well, if I'm very honest, I didn't really think about it that much until you all sent me this script.
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So let me just talk about a couple of things. So first of all,
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when first of all, the world is a very small place. So I think the first rule of thumb is don't be a knucklehead. I mean, people are going to remember if you're a jerk to someone, they could end up being like your boss or your coworker or your customer. I mean, it's just too small. So treat people like you want to be treated. It's the golden rule kind of thing. And just don't be a knucklehead. And and again, back to the authenticity piece, it's a whole lot easier to keep track of your stories if they're telling the truth. If you're if you're consistent in those. So I feel like that's kind of that's the basis. So I've had I had a lot of opportunities at Dell to do a lot of different jobs and I'm really grateful for all of them.
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And on my I had I was responsible for the OEM business. The OEM business at Dell is when basically you're selling technology into somebody else's product. So think about an industrial process controller or a gas pump. Everything has technology in it. So and what I loved about that business is that our interests were really aligned. Dell wanted to sell more. So it was in our interest to make sure that the product was better because Dell was in it. And so we were really aligned with our customers. And I loved that. But I loved that job because(...) we were really doing great things with these companies and they were doing things with technology that we didn't know were possible. It was it was really, really fun.(...) And I did after about three or four years, I went to Michael Dell and said, hey, you know what? I I really love my job and I can do more. Two weeks later, he gave me responsibility for the channel. I went from five billion dollars to fifty seven billion dollars in two weeks in terms of responsibility. But I think it was back to being authentic, caring a lot about it and then building a reputation or you're not an uncle. Had you deliver results, you hire people, build great teams and and that helps you when you're ready to say I would like to do more. And by the way, not everyone's ready all the time. So knowing yourself well enough to know when you're ready to do more is, I think, quite important as well as part of you get better at that as you experience more. Yeah. And it's interesting you brought up about like, you know, sometimes we don't even think about it. I mean, we're doing it every day, right? It's our actions. It's our results. It's, you know, tapping into that energy. It's being loud and proud. But if you really take that moment to pause and think about it like, yeah, like this is this is this is my this is what I'm known for. Right. Or people know me for that. And I think we all want to get to that position where people are tapping our shoulders for things. Right. It's like that means that you've done a good job where like the first thing that people think about when an opportunity comes up is you. You're like, OK, cool. Like I was I've been loud and proud. I'm putting myself out there. I've been speaking up. I've been sharing my strengths and building those networks, right? Building those allies, those advocates, those folks that really that's another topic we can talk about. Right. Is, you know, during your career, your authenticity is definitely well, it's definitely notice that we appreciate it being your true self.(...) Was that by design or have you always been like that since you were growing up? Like how how does that evolution start? I mean, honestly, I never even thought about anything other than that. I mean, it's again, it's too hard. Like if you were trying to figure out how to be somebody different, I think it's really, really hard. So it was it never crossed my mind to do anything other than that. By the way, it's not always perfect because there are plenty of times where I got feedback that maybe, you know, you need to be more serious or hey, you got to tone down that optimism or hey, you have to do a better job with this customer group because it doesn't work for them. It's fair, all fair, all fair criticism.
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So it's not like it's always perfect, but it sure is easier than anything else.(...) Yeah. Yeah. Speaking of that feedback, you know, what are some things that because in every feedback, we'll say it's it's you know, it's a blessing or it's it's a it's a gift. It is a gift. That's the word. A gift.(...) But there are I mean, would you say that there are different levels of feedback, though? I mean, there are some folks I mean, because people can provide feedback at all the time. Right. Yeah. Are there different levels of feedback or are they all like the same? Like what's your philosophy when receiving or giving? So, you know, if you go to a carnival and there's some guy that's drawing your picture and when he draws your picture, he's exaggerating stuff. So your ears are bigger. You know, your eyes are bigger. Your hair is crazy or whatever. It's because it's a caricature of you. I think you have to think about feedback that way. So there's going to be feedback that you.
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So, first of all, I think the most constructive way to think about feedback is, have I heard this before? Is there a consistent theme? If the answer is yes, do something about it. If you want, if you want, it's up to you. But if I've heard it only one time, you know what, maybe I should just keep my ears open. Do I do I hear it again? I mean, that might be something I need to address. But I think generally the themes are super valuable.(...) The one offs are are interesting to listen to, but I think it's more around, hey, am I am I developing a blind spot? Have I have I not thought about this before? And also, you can test it with some trusted people and say, hey, I heard this. What do you think? Am I am I being too brash? Am I being too loud? Am I being too
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too transparent or whatever? And and then you can decide if you want to do something about it or not. I got some feedback one time that I have zero poker face, which I think is true. So if someone comes in and they have they do a presentation or they have an idea and I think it's stupid, I'm afraid that it's very obvious because I'll just go.
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You're very expressive.
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And I got feedback that that's that's rough on people. So I got it. I had to figure out and I heard that a couple of times. OK, you know, that's true. I got feedback that, you know, prioritization is really important. And sometimes I have too many things going on. That's very fair feedback. Everyone tells me that my kids tell me that my husband does mean that everyone tells me that. So that's something I really work hard on and try to say, OK, wait a second, guys, is this too much? When are we sort of moving over sort of into dangerous territory? So I think it's a gift. I think you just got to put it in context. 100 percent. Yeah, I love the theme piece piece, right? Like keeping an eye out as if is it a frequent thing I'm getting feedback on? And I love they said test it too, like here, but then ask others and say, have you noticed this? That's right. Yeah. So speaking of feedback and, you know, throughout your tenured career, you've you've developed a lot of different relationships. How has that kind of shaped your career and kind of helped you in terms of, you know, going back to just being with us here at Insight as our CEO?
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Well, I think you can learn from everyone. And I think I have learned so much since I've been at Insight about so much of the world that I didn't know existed. So at Dell,(...) competitors to Dell were just I didn't know those people. I didn't know those people. I wouldn't like barely knew who they were.
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And now that I've gotten to be in conversations with,(...) you know, tons of other partners and learn about their strategies and how they ground them and where do they get them and their innovation cycles and how they think about it's been fascinating. So I just I feel like there's an amazing opportunity to just open the aperture a little bit, listen intently and learn from anybody at any stage of your career. But particularly when it comes to Insight, I mean, it's been fascinating to learn about these other technology companies, great technology companies that I had just put in that box of competitor. We're not going to talk about that.
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But now it's open up a whole different lens for you. And by the way, when I was at Dell, I had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with a lot of Insight competitors. And that's also quite instructive. So, you know, you just get to put it all together. It's really fun. It is. It is. Well, before we move to the next question, the final question here, you know, we talked a little about also like advocacy and heavy mentors and folks.(...) How has that played in your evolution when it comes to your journey and your career, your career development? Yeah, I mean, it's I have been so lucky because I've gotten to learn from some of the most incredible people. And as I said, I've also had some really bad bosses and that's really also an opportunity to learn. But I mean, my grandmother was really impactful. She's basically saying you can do whatever you want. Then I had a guidance counselor. I don't know if I've ever told you the story, Z. But this guidance counselor basically said, oh, really? What do you want to do? And I said, I really love international business. He said you should be a flight attendant.(...) And, you know, flight attendants are fine, but I didn't want to be one.
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And so but then my grandmother would say, you kidding me? You should do whatever you want to do. And so it's those kinds of yin and yang things. Learning from some people like Michael Dell and as and watching him build that company for years and years and years was amazing. And listening to how he thought about things, I had an opportunity to be the assistant to the CEO of Cummins, which meant I carried his briefcase mostly, but totally fine. I learned a lot in the process.
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And he was basically in the middle of kind of a difficult shareholder battle and fascinating. So I feel like I've had so many mentors. I have tons of people I worked with at Dell who we started the first TRG, ERG at Dell for women
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in 2002 or something crazy a long time ago. And and they are still some of my best friends in the world today. So I don't know. I feel like it's a mosaic of different styles and different capabilities and different strengths. And I feel so lucky I've gotten to work with all of them. I mean, pretty much what I just heard you say is like, you know, during those relationships, you're just learning good, bad, or the good and the bad and all this stuff. You're just soaking, taking in learning best. What what what works and what's top class. And then not so much. And I'm definitely not going to still implement some of those. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah. So, all right. Our last theme is how to maintain your your personal brand. So when you join us, you kind of join us in an interesting time. Right. The height of the pandemic. So much going on.
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So one of the things that we teach a lot of our leaders is, hey, as leaders, we have to work through this this thing called VUCA, right? Things that are volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. It's kind of like every day sometimes for us. Absolutely.(...) You definitely had a came during a big VUCA. How did you kind of maintain your authenticity, your personal brand during something like that major? Right. How do you continue to stay true to yourself? I think the challenge for me coming into Insight at that time was I really get energy from the personal connections. I really love being around our teammates, our customers. I love being around people.
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And so it was a big switch, obviously, to have only those interactions on the screen. And
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I felt like it took me longer to learn about our team. It took me longer. I mean, I feel like I'd been on video with people and then I run into them and I had no idea that was the same person. So it took it was harder than I would have. I think it would have been had we had been in a normal period. But on the other hand, you got to visit everyone's equal on Zoom. So you got to or on teams, you got to see people all around the world. You could meet them and learn about them. You could be in a lot more meetings than if you were relying on physical contact. So I guess it was a bit of a mixed bag, but it was I felt like it took me longer to really learn around kind of what makes Insight tick. It took me longer to really understand kind of the groups and the dynamics between the groups.
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Certainly took me longer to like recognize everyone.
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But at the end of the day, there was there was probably more time spent on the more technical aspects of the business. Like learning more about the financials. And I probably would have defaulted away from that stuff and towards the people's side. So on balance, it was OK. But I feel I feel grateful that everyone was very patient through that whole process because it was not so easy. I can only imagine still to today, I think a bump into people that I haven't seen in person until the first time still. I know. Oh, oh, my gosh. You know, and they're taller or shorter. You just never know. I know. Yeah, exactly. So with an area like that, what are what are some of the common mistakes? I know I know you mentioned, you know, maybe just staying authentic, like your authenticity, right, bringing your authentic self to the table. But what are some common mistakes that you've seen or maybe even come across or encountered or have heard people, you know, bringing their authentic selves in a situation like that where it's completely virtual and how it would may may or may not impact their their brand. Yeah, I think I mean, I think I worry it's really less about authenticity and just more around how people learn.(...) And so I feel like it's pretty it's hard. I worry about our new sellers, for example, I worry about our new teammates who joined us in India, maybe where we're just adding a bunch of people and no one really knows anyone else yet. And it's just harder to build those relationships, I think,
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via video. And so I don't know that we'll know really the cost of that. You know, if you think about kind of all it's all over the news, right? Education is really there. A lot of kids took a hit from reading point proficiency point of view or a math point of view. And I think we'll probably see some of that as we look and watch our new hires that joined us through this period. I mean, it's just you've done a great job with a bunch of those development programs. But I mean, it's going to be really hard to see the impact. And I think it's probably a couple of years away before we'll really know are we not developing the pipeline around leaders? Are we not developing the pipeline around sales teammates because it's just harder to do? And I think we adapted pretty well in terms of the tools and the capabilities, but we just really don't know the results for a few more years. And I think that's that's the biggest challenge. I mean, it's always a work in progress, right? If something else is going to come our way, we never know what's going to be another, you know, what's going to what's going to change in our economy, in our world that we have to pivot and adjust. But to your point, is that constant learning and finding ways right to stay connected.
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So an AI is a great example. We all got to get really, really smart about this. And it's an opportunity to get really smart and a responsibility because we have to show our clients how to work on this. That means we all have to spend some time on it. And that wasn't even a thing we talked about, you know, a year ago. Which is funny you mentioned one of the things that we work on when it comes to personal brand is it's a popular topic for teammates. I don't know why it was like fascinated by it, but it's one of those things where all this leverage AI, right? You know, a lot of times we would spend all this time, you know, kind of hitting our head over like, what am I good at? What do people say? And like, just collect the data, collect the feedback and put it have the tool work for you. And be like, what are some common themes from this feedback? What are some common things that I'm hearing or being recognized for? And then can you put this into like a sentence or two, right? You'll be surprised all that energy and time that you spent, right? Trying to figure that out. It's like, oh, here it is. It's pretty awesome. Yeah. Start leaning into it. It's amazing, right? And you learn in the process, right? And you learn in the process. Yeah. All right. One final question. It's around, you know, there's always significant people in our lives and you've had quite a few in your fair share.(...) Wow. Can you can you describe or tell us about a mentor or some money that has made a significant impact in your personal brand, who you are today?
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All right. Well, I'm going to tell you about Tom Martin. He was I mentioned that I worked at Cummins Engine Company. And let me just set the stage for a second, because I had no business running this plant, but I did have this job to run this plant. And I opened one too many my mouth one too many times because I was we were living in Belgium, which by the way, my husband loved. And then we moved to Cookville, Tennessee, and he was less excited about that, although Cookville is a beautiful place. Anyway,(...) and so I didn't know anything about how a plant runs. And and Tom Martin, I'd like to say was the original IOT. He had some first of all, he was maybe 410.(...) He probably weighed 90 pounds if he was soaking wet. He was missing at least half of his teeth. He smoked four packs of cigarettes a day. I mean, he was like his voice was gravelly.(...) And, and he could see anything in the plant, he could tell where there was a material flow problem, he could put his hand on a machine, he could anticipate its failure. He was invaluable to the plant, the smartest guy there. And he signed his name with an X. He could not read or write.(...) And it was hugely impactful to me because, you know, you kind of, you kind of think about schools, you think about positions, you think about hierarchy. And what I learned from that guy is none of that matters. I mean, the smartest person, the person who knows the most about a problem is the person who knows the most about a problem. And it's really important to listen and to understand the contributions of everybody around you. And that has nothing to do with where you went to school. It has nothing to do with what your title is. It has nothing to do with anything other than your knowledge of the situation at a time when you can offer your advice and your counsel and back to the DEI thing. I mean, that's not what we traditionally think of with DEI. But when I think of DEI, it is broad. It is different set of experiences, different set of learning, different path. And you put that together. And if you if you build the team right, you're going to come out with great answers. And people like Tom Martin are inspiring in that way. That is amazing. And you know what I love about that story, Joyce, and is that your, you know, you're continuing his legacy, right? Who knows where he's at at this point and his whatever, but just the fact that you're sharing that story, he has no clue, baby. I don't know. He probably doesn't. Yeah. Yeah. But you know what I mean? Like, that's so awesome. And as leaders,
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we'll be, we would be shocked and surprised how many people would tell our stories. Yeah. The little things that we've done, maybe you don't even think about it. Yeah. But somebody out there is saying, hey, I met this guy named Rich, and he did this. And I remember, dude, you'd just be surprised. It's so it can be so impactful. And that's kind of back to the authenticity part. And just don't be a knucklehead. Like, put yourself in somebody else's shoes and try to help them. Because I think if we pay it forward, we make the, we make the company better. We make our clients better. We make our teammates, you know, better. It's everything. It's those little, those little, little imprints, those little seeds that are. Well, you guys do it all the time. You're doing it with this podcast. Yeah. Yeah. Right. There you go. See, I told you, we're doing something good.(...) Perfect. Well, really, really great conversation today that we had on identifying your unique value proposition and how it lends itself to building your personal brand.(...) Any final thoughts today? Oh, gosh. I mean, come on. The key word of today's episode is don't be a knucklehead.(...) Like, literally think about your actions and the things that you do. You know, I know that a lot of times we don't sit down and going, ah, I'm going to wake up this morning. What's my personal unique, you know, value proposition? But it's one of those things like, hey, be yourself every day. And the actions that you take, every little conversation in a, you know, I talk about this all the time, like you're just seeing somebody in the hallway just by saying, hi, good morning. How are you really caring for that person even getting their name or remembering their name really goes a long way. Just take that time, you know, be yourself, get to know people and just remember people will remember those things. So just, you know, be kind, be nice.(...) But you'll find your personal brand. Just continue to look for feedback. Gather. I love the word themes.(...) But not for me, it's definitely not cool. Joyce, any final thoughts, questions that you want to give our audience around this topic? I think the people who love you the most will tell you exactly what your personal brand is and they'll be right. So my kids tell me all the time exactly what I don't do very well and what they think is OK.(...) And those lists are not always the same length, by the way.
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So they will they will give you some really good feedback about it. They'll help you really see yourself in a mirror, which is what that brand is. Really.(...) Yeah. What a great way to kick off season three.(...) Remember, if you enjoyed today's content, please hit the like button and turn on your notifications to get the episodes as soon as they release. Also, friendly reminder to visit insight dot com to visit our corporate citizenship report. You don't want to miss that. And until next time, thanks for joining us with Leading with Insight.
Host
Z Tinoco is a diversity, leadership & organization development manager who believes in building teams, inspiring minds and creating authentic connections. He helps people reach their goals and find success through humor, leadership and a diverse mindset.
Co-host
Richard is an experienced paid media specialist with a proven track record of creating and executing successful campaigns across various platforms. Richard has a passion for tackling new challenges, connecting with people and loves all things tech.
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