The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk - 075: Kristi Piehl – Creating A Winning Culture & Earning Great PR

Episode Date: November 26, 2015

Episode 075: Kristi Piehl – Creating A Winning Culture & Earning Great PR Kristi Piehl is an incredibly driven person.  She truly understands the importance of focusing on creating a phenomenal a phenomenal work environment for her employees and is reaping the rewards because of it.  We are extremely fortunate to have Kristi share her knowledge with us, the loyal listeners of The Learning Leader Show.  Kristi Piehl has built a unique company that redefines public relations.  This was her vision when she launched Media Minefield in 2010. Media Minefield is a news-driven public relations agency on a mission to change the perception of the industry. She’s dedicated to creating a unique work environment with policies that value families, flexibility and health. During her 12 year television career, I worked as a reporter and anchor at 5 television stations. She studied Professional Writing and graduated with honors from Bethel University. In 2015, Bethel named her Alumna of the Year. She’s also a member of the Entrepreneurs' Organization. Episode 075: Kristi Piehl – Creating A Winning Culture & Earning Great PR Subscribe on iTunes  or Stitcher Radio The Learning Leader Show “I got laid off and it was a blessing... But I was scared out of my mind.” – Kristi Piehl Some Questions I Ask: What are the common characteristics of high achievers? Discuss failure and moments you’ve bounced back from it… What was it like being laid off after winning an Emmy? What’s your process on building your company culture? Why don’t you believe in press releases? What does earned PR mean? What does being a learning leader mean to you?   In This Episode, You Will Learn: What she’s learned from working with clients in 75 markets The mentality of an entrepreneur The importance of having an extremely high level of optimism The philosophy of taking care of your employees first Winning an Emmy and being laid off… How is that possible? How to grow a business from a one person business to a big company The importance of finding great people to work with How to earn great PR “Find a great leader… Offer to work for him for free.  It will be worth it in the long run.” Continue Learning: Go To Kristi’s company website: Media Minefield Read Kristi’s bio: Kristi Piehl Follow Kristi on Twitter: @kristipiehl You may also like these episodes: Episode 001: How To Become A Master Connector With Jayson Gaignard From MasterMind Talks Episode 034: Jimmy Hatch – Shot While Searching For Bowe Bergdahl And Sky Diving With Gabby Giffords Episode 004: How Todd Wagner (and Mark Cuban) Sold Broadcast.com To Yahoo! For $5.7 Billion Episode 010: Shane Snow – How To Accelerate Success Using Smart Cuts Did you enjoy the podcast? This was a jam packed episode full of great content.  Kristi Piehl is leader who is constantly learning in order to help us all live a better life. Who do you know that needs to hear this?  Send them to The Learning Leader Show! Episode edited by the great J Scott Donnell   Bio From Kristi Piehl (LinkedIn) Kristi Piehl has built a unique company that redefines public relations.  This was her vision when she launched Media Minefield in 2010. Media Minefield is a news-driven public relations agency on a mission to change the perception of the industry. She’s dedicated to creating a unique work environment with policies that value families, flexibility and health. During her 12 year television career, I worked as a reporter and anchor at 5 television stations. She studied Professional Writing and graduated with honors from Bethel University. In 2015, Bethel named her Alumna of the Year. She’s also a member of the Entrepreneurs' Organization.

And I said, you know, I got laid off and it's a blessing. I mean, those two things were tied to me right away because I knew it was the right thing, but I was scared out of my mind. Are leaders born or are they made? Our host, Ryan Hawk, believes that leaders can be made through determined, focused work on learning the art and science behind the makeup of other successful leaders. Now it's time to inhale knowledge and exhale success. You're listening to The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk.

Hey and welcome to the Learning Leader show. I am Ryan Hawk. Really excited about tonight's featured leader. It's Christy Peel. Christy is an Emmy winning TV reporter. However, just two months after winning those Emmys, she was laid off from her TV station. What she did next was impressive, though. She used that as an opportunity to get into her entrepreneurial spirit and started her own business called Media Mindfield, which is an untraditional PR firm. that focuses on earned media. It has since grown to 14 people and their clients have been featured in Yahoo, USA Today, and the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. On our conversation tonight, we discussed how to turn passion into action and helping other people, which could then lead to a business. We also role played, meaning I was going to her as a potential client of hers. She gave me ideas and walked me through their process, which was really important. impressive. And then her philosophy on giving employees unlimited vacation and speaking about family first and how she lives that as the CEO of the business. I think you'll find that part

fascinating. Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, it's Christy Peel. All right, Christy, so excited to have you here as the featured leader on the Learning Leader Show. And I got a question to get us kicked off here. And that's around high achievers, people who have done big things in their lives. And you're obviously one of those people, and you've also spent time around a lot of those types of people. And I'm curious from your perspective, what are a few of the common characteristics that these high achievers all seem to share? Well, first of all, it's an honor to be put in that class to be considered that. I'm very much a work in progress. And the thing that I have seen many of the entrepreneurs and the people, the high achievers that I'm around,

and have interviewed over the years. And I believe the same thing is it's an always learning process. So for me, I love to learn. I'm always gobbling up books and TED talks and podcasts and different types of information and talking to people. But I also think that failing is really important. And I encourage my team to take risk and to fail. And that's okay because if you fail and you learn something, that it wasn't a failure at all.

So I think it's not being too afraid to get out there and to take a step out and see what happens. Interesting. Failure comes up every once in a while when I ask that question. And I'm curious as to can you speak to some moments in your life? And we'll get to your bio here in a second. But can you speak to some moments where you've failed, but the learning that's come from it has helped you get better? Sure. You know, when I was in television news, I regularly received rejection letters from agents and

television stations and thank goodness YouTube wasn't around and social media or I would have, I'm sure, gotten berated daily from my stories. But I got emails, you know, people who didn't like things and who were, and I was fodder for some columnists who didn't like me. And so all of those, you know, felt like failures at the time. certainly as I'm sure we're going to talk about, I got laid off, and that certainly felt like a failure, you know, and your dream ends. And all of those things were very important and are part of me and I'm not embarrassed of any of it. You know, the mistakes that I've made have made me who I am and have given me insight into a part of me that has, is the whole me.

And I, every single mistake that I've made and, you know, make them regularly, if I can learn something from them, it wasn't a mistake at all. So you mentioned your previous career in the TV world and some of the things that you've gotten into. Could you take a moment, Christy, and share a little bit about your journey as to what you've done previous to now as well as what you are doing right now? Sure. You know, from the time I was a little girl, I wanted to be a television reporter. As my family would say, I have the gift for gab. I like words. I like telling stories, and I love talking to people and telling their stories.

So that very much was something I always wanted to do. And I like being on the cutting edge of things. I liked when there's an event happening and everyone is talking about it that I got to see it firsthand or knew about it first. So that industry had always been what I wanted to go into. So when I, I'm from Minnesota. I grew up in a small town about an hour outside of Minneapolis, and I was pretty much set to go to an all-girls school in Missouri, where some very well-known female journalists have attended. And I went to look at Bethel University. At the time, it was Bethel College.

It's now a university, which makes me sound ancient. Like when I went there, it was a college. And now it's university. And I really fell in love with that school, and they didn't have a journalism program, and they didn't have a broadcast studio, two things that are pretty important. to put a resume tape together. Yeah, you did. Kind of critical, but I figured that there would be a way to do it. And so I started doing internships.

So I interned at first my local hometown newspaper. I was the editor of my college newspaper. And then I got an internship at what is now the Fox affiliate in Minneapolis. And when I was there, they told me that I should change my major from communications to English because so few people could write well. So I did. I'm an English Lipp major, and I just started doing internships. And at that Fox station, they connected me to a small TV station in Mankato, Minnesota. And I worked there for a summer, and I was on the year. And it was unpaid. And at the time, I was living about an hour away,

and I drive every day, and I got paid nothing and paid the gas, and I loved it. I couldn't believe that people could actually get paid to do that work. You know, and someday that was my plan. And when I finished college, I got hired there. And it's funny because I remember driving, because I loved in, like I said, an hour away. So I drove by the Burger King, and it would say hiring cook $7.25 an hour. And I was getting paid $7 an hour. Oh. And it was great.

I mean, again, every time I got paid, I can believe anyone was paying me anything because it was just my dream job. And I worked there, and then I went to the CBS affiliate in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. and I worked there anchoring the weekends. And then I went to Dayton, Ohio, and I worked at two different stations there. And then my goal was always to get back home in Minneapolis. And I ended my career at the ABC station in Minneapolis and loved it. It was, you know, when I was a little girl, I would watch this one anchor, and I thought she was great.

And I wanted to grow up and be like her. And my first live shot in Minneapolis. She was the anchor who said, and Christy Peele is live. You know, and it was a burglary. and oh, I just was, I could barely speak. It was so exciting. So that's how I felt about the industry. And it was hard and it was difficult. And as I, my husband, who was my high school sweetheart, and he went to all the, all the little jaunts of the different cities with me. But as we had children, the job became very difficult. The things that made it wonderful as a 20-something made it painful as a

30-something, meaning, okay, there's a tornado. Go, get in the car. You know, we have a go, go, go, go, go, do that and we'll see in a few days. You know, that's really hard when you have little kids at home. So it wasn't the right. I knew that it wasn't right for me anymore, but it was all that I knew and it was all that I ever wanted to do

and I wasn't brave enough to step away from it or even to explore what else was out there. I knew a lot of people went into public relations and I said all the time, I would never go into PR. It's the worst. And funny how life works. So then in 2008, again, I was negotiating a contract.

I had just won some awards. It was all going really well. I was an investigative reporter. And it was a Friday. And I remember I got called and I knew right away something was going on. And I was one of 20 people laid off. And it was a blow that I didn't see coming. And yet I knew it was the right thing for me and the right thing for my life.

I just had no idea what I was going to do. and I called my husband and said, all right, I got laid off and a blessing is the word that I used because it was good. Did you think that like immediately though? I mean, what's the first thoughts going through your? I mean, in a way, were you embarrassed or I mean, what was going through your mind? You know, immediately I was pretty surprised. Yeah. And then I was pretty angry because I remember the person who and just notoriously, I've worked for some wonderful people in television news, but generally speaking, management is all.

I mean, it just because you're asking so much of people and it's just a really hard environment. And so I think I've learned a lot that I use in the way that I manage is the kind of how I never sought actually happen. But I remember, and I've had to fire people now. And I remember walking into the room as I was about to get fired. And there was a box of tissues sitting on this big table. And the person who did the deed said, this is harder for me than for you. Oh, God.

And I thought, oh, no. It's actually not. But that, and so I was mad. I mean, I was angry and I had been working on some, you know, big stories. I had been on Good Morning America doing some correspondent work on a story I was working on within the last, you know, nine months. So it was a shock. And then I was angry. And then, but I did.

I called my husband from the car because they said, why don't you go, you know, figure out and we'll talk Monday because they gave me a package. And I had some time left in my contract. And so we had to figure out, you know, was I really going to be done done working, but I had some stories that I wanted to get on the air because they were kind of half done. And I said, you know, I got laid off and it's a blessing. I mean, those two things were tied to me right away because I knew it was the right thing, but I was scared out of my mind. Yeah, so you get laid off to that dreaded call that can happen to anybody at any time, unfortunately, especially today. We've all know people who this has

happened to or it's happened to people listening. So what's, you immediately say, or not immediately, but eventually you come to the thought that it's a blessing. You speak to your husband. What's next? Well, it's funny. I didn't know what to do. I mean, I had childcare lined up for the day for my child, and I was just so kind of surprised.

And then the media got a hold of it, and I sat in the bathroom at the Barnes & Noble and did interviews. Wow. On my cell phone in newspaper in town and radio station and different things, because it was a couple weeks before Christmas, and I initially wasn't going to do the interviews because they asked me not to. But I really, you know, for me, I knew we'd be fine.

My husband had a great job. But there were 19 other people. Some were the primary, you know, breadwinners in their family. And I wanted it out there publicly that, you know, there were now a bunch of people that could great people that could get hired. So I did talk about it pretty publicly when it happened. And that meant that I had job offers. And every job offer that came in, I didn't want to work for a television station again.

I knew that. I didn't, I got some in political kind of conversations happening and I didn't want to go that route. And so I just decided to take some time. And my husband at the time was traveling for his work. And so I was with our children and God bless the parents who stay home, but it wasn't my thing. And I was with them, you know, for a few months and then started doing some volunteer work and was volunteering at my church. And they asked if they could hire me about 10 hours. a week to do the bulletin and the website work and that sort of thing. And it was wonderful.

You know, it's funny, it was almost a year to the day from being on Good Morning America to doing the church bulletin. And it was a wonderful experience because I got to, because as we established, I like to learn. And I got to be on different committees with people and people in marketing and people who did a more kind of traditional communication. And, learn from them and just kind of take a deep breath and, and what am, you know, what am I supposed to do with the rest of my life? And I was about a year and a half into that role. And I took a class also at the same church and it was about how to use your background to help people because that really is what I wanted to do and that's what I couldn't figure out how to do because I have this weird background

that someone would think was valuable. I just didn't, didn't know what that was. And this business idea happened and I had my little kids in the back of the car and I called my husband who's in New York and I said, I'm starting a company and he said, great. And that was it. Wow. So you start Media Mindfield what in 2010, I believe. Is that correct? That's correct. So you've been in existence for five years now. Talk to me about your business. What do you guys focus on? What are your, you know, what's your core beliefs and when it comes your business? I've read it. I've read it. I've read it a lot about it, but I'd love to hear it directly from you. Sure.

You know, from the, when I was in television and the different media areas, it was very clear to me that traditional public relations has a role. And that's the part that I wasn't interested in being part of because I didn't, I didn't have that training. But I also felt that traditional public relations was really missing the mark when it comes to earned media. And earned media is something that, you know, we define as when an expert is, you know, interviewed by a trained journalist for the purpose of educating the public. So there's no money

being exchanged. It's when you, you know, turn on the news or radio or online or whatever. And you see, you know, so-and-so is an expert in whatever field, and here's what they say about this topic. So there's a lot of need for that. And, you know, media is always looking for whatever kind of topic they're on. They need someone who can speak and really give some more information. but generally as someone who was in the media, I knew that most of the time those people being interviewed weren't coached. They didn't understand how that was an opportunity. And I really viewed it as an opportunity. I thought 15 years ago and I think now that media is the best way to reach a large audience of people and influence change. And most people don't understand how to do it well.

So media minefield was, I also believe that the media is a minefield. And if you don't know what you're doing, you can get blown up and you need someone who can walk you through that and navigate that. So I spent the first year of the company, and I always thought it would just be me doing this company and having some clients. And I thought it would be a perfect kind of, quote, mom job. And that's not how it turned out. But I spent the first year really working on the process. I chose not to look at traditional public relations or do any informational interviews. I really wanted to figure out how I would approach it. So that first year was putting together a process

and getting the approach together and putting the plan that I thought would serve my clients and newsrooms the best. And within a year, we had nonprofit clients, and a lot of it was pro bono. I was really trying to figure it out. I did some paid work, but a lot of it was, again, for the purpose of understanding what the market needed.

And about a year in, I got a little busier than I wanted to do. And a woman who had just moved to Minneapolis from Omaha. She had a television background as well and had done some traditional PR work in a medical institution. Reached out to me. She heard me speak and reached out to me. And we got together and she became employee number one.

And we've grown ever since. And so what we do to answer your question is we have clients now in over 75 markets around the country. And they want to be viewed as the expert in their field. they are in the middle of a crisis or they have a new product and they want the media to know about it. And the majority of our clients are really looking to be interviewed in their local market because that's where their customers are. We certainly do national work and have done some international work. But what makes us really different is, you know, from the very beginning, it's understanding

our clients and knowing what their message is. And the team that I have, this media team that's so fantastic, all of them are very experienced and I've taken them out of newsrooms across the country. So everyone here has that background in television or radio or newspaper. So they really understand what media is looking for. And so this, I'll give you a for instance, Ryan, because some people don't get, I still don't understand what you're talking about. So, for example, you know, it's October and October is breast cancer awareness month. And there's a lot of talk about different issues related to that. So we have a large medical institution in Minneapolis that we work with.

and we have the women's clinic, the breast cancer, part of their hospital is a client of ours. So we would be looking at the different research that's coming out this month. And when there was something that we knew that our client, because we know their message, what they want to talk about or a specific piece of equipment that makes sense for media to do a story about, we would then take that to media and tell them, you know, and we don't do news releases at all. We do direct person-to-person contact, and we have a lot of contacts in media. we'd go right to them and say, right, we have this, here's this new study, here are some tips, here's some questions, and here's this expert.

And the people in newsrooms know that when we bring an expert to them, they've been coached because we, again, get how media works. So it's this very different approach to public relations, and I didn't set out to, you know, kind of recreate public relations, but our noble cause at the company is to change the perception of public relations in the industry. Wow. So I don't know if like, I think, you know, I've talked with people who are, who are big into PR on this podcast before, but I still don't, I still think it's an area where people don't fully get it. Like a guy by the name of Cameron Harold, who coaches CEOs, he was a CMO at 1-800 got junk and grew it to a huge numbers. And it's funny. Like, so when he talked about his PR strategy and he hired like seven people and their full-time job was to get, for them to get noticed in all areas of media, whether it, was blogs, online, TV, newspaper, everything you could think of to get them notice and it really helped grow the company.

But one of the tips he gave me, and I said, well, okay, for me, you know, I'm always looking for this when it comes to my podcast and growing it and getting exposure that's positive. And I've been fortunate to get some that just fell on my lap without seeking it out. But he said one of the few things that PR people love to do that is a mistake. and one of the things that they should do is they send press releases and nobody reads them. And he goes into one of the things I do is I simply pick up the phone and make phone calls to people because nobody does that and everybody sends press releases. And you'd be amazed at the difference in how it helps generate, you know, solid and positive PR by just simply picking up the phone. Now, obviously there's a lot more to it than that, but I found that to be interesting.

And it's kind of along the same lines of the type of work that you do. Absolutely. From the very beginning, we're never going to do press releases. And it's funny, we wrote a news release April 1st. It was an April Fool's joke. And we put out this press release on our blog, and it was the death of the press release. And it was a total joke. RIP, April 1st, 2015, the press release is dead.

And the funny thing is that all of a sudden we got a Twitter alert that, you know, Media Mindfield was being used somewhere. Well, someone, some, I don't know, writer, did the top 10 press releases and used ours as a serious example. So we were like, I mean, did you read it? Because the whole thing was a joke. So, but in a lot of traditional kind of mindset, it's about how to write a good press release. And when I was early in the company and I had this sense that I never looked at news releases as a journalist are my colleagues.

So I called a friend who was at a TV station of Minneapolis at the time. and I asked him to print out all of the email or all of the press releases that came in in a day. And the stack was about five inches tall. So the problem with press releases is no one is reading them. I mean, unless you are the governor and the press release says there's a state of emergency, be it bring your camera to this place at this time. It works. But otherwise, it's a huge issue in the industry and one reason that I think we recently had a client who came in and she had been with another firm.

and she said, the public relations is like the Bermuda Triangle. You just throw money in it and nothing comes out. And, you know, that's, I think, what the perception of PR is. And that's why our noble cause is to change the perception. You know, I'm proud of this team. We have 100% placement rate, meaning that every client we've ever worked with has done an interview. And, you know, we're in 75 markets and we have clients all over the country. and so it can work if the approach is right.

Yeah, I love it. So if you don't mind, I'd like to make this do something a little bit different. Let's role play it here. Are you cool with doing that? Yeah, sure. Okay, so I'm one of your potential clients, okay? And I call you up and I said, Christy, so here's a deal. You know, I have this podcast.

It's fortunately been growing at a really great rate. It was launched on April 11th. It's been a lot of times at the top of iTunes, new and noteworthy, and what's hot section. It still is. I've been featured in the MMQB, Dayton Daily News, among other places, Columbus Business Journal and some other places. And I want to continue to use that momentum to grow my podcast. It's all about leadership. It's about learning.

One of the other areas I really want to get into and that I've started to already do because of this is public speaking, both paid gigs as well as unpaid. I'd love to branch out so that my podcast can help create more of those opportunities. What are some of the things you would do to help me? Well, first of all, I'd want to find out who your audience is. Do you want to be interviewed specifically so that business people and different leaders can learn about the podcast, or are you looking for a more mainstream appeal? Because that would depend on where I take your message.

Yeah, that's a great question. And I know everyone tells me you have to niche down. They're always like niche down, down, down, down, down, down. And saying that so make sure you find you shouldn't try to be broad. For me, though, the people who respond and write me emails are in all different areas of life. So there certainly are business leaders, CEOs, those types. But then I get just as many people who are not in those positions. So I know that doesn't fully answer your question, but it's kind of both.

Sure. So then I would say you'd want to go, you could do both. I mean, you have a different kind of mainstream audience and a mainstream message than you would for the business audience. So then what we would do is say, all right, we're going to do a message session with you so we can learn about you and we're going to give you some sound bites. You can talk about what you do because, you know, while you have, you know what you're doing and you know what your message is, when you take that to media, it should be different and you should really understand what you want the outcome to be. So someone should never hear you interviewed and not know what take action step you want, meaning, okay, do you want them to listen to your podcast?

Do you want them to go to a website? Do you want them to buy something? Do you want them to follow you on Twitter? You know, what is it? So we want to make sure that you know and we know how to get that take action, you know, worked in and that it's natural and organic because we could get you an interview. but if you plug yourself so much and they never have you back, that's a fail. So then, you know, I think you could be talking about even leadership, any leadership topics.

So you could be doing interviews, you know, all over the country, really, about even the leadership that's happening related to the school shooting or related to, I don't know how, if you want to get into politics, but you could talk about, you know, the leadership skills that are coming to the surface as we see these candidates being interviewed. So any topic related to leadership that you can connect with current events is a place where your voice should be heard. I gotcha. Okay. And that's how you earn the media.

And then when you do a good job, they're going to continually want you to come back. Right. And so the majority of our clients, we are all about consistency because, you know, being doing one interview, even if you blast it out on social media, it's a three minute, five minute, whatever it is in engagement. It's really about being consistent so that you're regularly the person. talking about leadership or talking about what makes a strong leader. So then that would mean that we'd want you on at least once or twice a month in whatever market or whatever your target area is so that people go, man, that hot guy, he's on all the time. Yeah. You know, that would be the goal.

What do you think of the newspapers? Because I just, the only reason I say that, because there is a nice story in the business section on the front page of the Sunday paper about my podcast recently in the Dayton Daily News. And it's great paper. It's what I grew up reading. I know you've worked here in Dayton for a little. that's how we've got connected through a friend of mine named Lance Salyers. And, you know, I was shocked. The spike and downloads to the podcast, subscribers, hits to my website, learningleader.com.

Like, all of that really went up when that came out. And I wasn't really expecting that. What are your thoughts on the power of newspapers still today? Yeah, you know what's interesting that's happened with newspapers that I think has been really good for print. and I'm old school. I like to touch my newspaper on Sunday, but I also read a lot of articles on, you know, the different social media channels. So the best thing that's happened, you know, for people like you and for newspapers, although if I was putting my business head on and saying it's not a revenue generator for them, which is a problem, so I'm not talking about the revenue

stream and the problems that they have on the business side of the newspapers, but just from what you were talking about, you know, probably that article got tweeted and got sent out and got shared. And so then more people are seeing it. And it's like, oh, I know my friend would be interested in this. I'm going to send them. So that's where, you know, the print still certainly has a place and still is making an impact. And we see that too with our clients. And we really feel like the, you know, the majority of folks we work with like to be. And we like to put them in all the different kind of platforms because there are some people who prefer blogs or people that prefer radio or, and really, why not be everywhere? Exactly. So that you're, you're touching

on depending on how people want to digest their information, you're on every platform. Right. So can you talk to me a little bit about your company and the growth, so what you guys have been through? So you started as a one-woman shop on your own, and it sounds like you envisioned it staying that way as the perfect, as you called it, mom job. And I get that, you know, especially with a, if you say your husband, how already had a great job, you have kids, you want to, you know, kind of try to do both, the work-life

balance and I've read a lot about your company and some of your policies you have unlimited vacation for your employees you go on your website and you guys are all dressed up in like Halloween costumes and it looks like an extremely fun place to work talk to me about your philosophy on because now you're you're in a big time leadership position you have people that you're the boss I mean you're running the show and people depend on on you and your business to be the you know supporters financially for their family. So that's a huge responsibility. So talk to me about that. It is. You know, it isn't a responsibility that, oh, excuse me, isn't a responsibility that I thought I would ever have. However, you know, it's really a privilege. And it is always tough for me.

Not tough. Maybe that's not the right word. But when I meet someone's children and employees' children, because I look at those little kids and most of the employees have little kids and we have a woman and just had a baby a month ago. But I look at them and I think, you know, gosh, this company is feeding you. So I got to make sure that it keeps feeding you because there is a pressure. And a lot of times I'm out there recruiting or when we get new employees, they're coming from newsrooms. And it's a little bit easier. Well, it's a lot easier now because they're coming to us. But at the beginning, I was selling them a dream, right? I was selling them, you know, hey, you know me as this TV reporter. But I'm going to run a company and I want you to leave your job that has, you know,

pension or benefits. And I want you to come from me and buy into this vision. And so it's been an interesting path for me certainly. So when it comes to, you know, this company, I really wanted to be a place where people want to come and I wanted to be the kind of environment that I would want to work in. And I do believe that when you give, I feel like my clients are the most successful. If I don't focus on the clients first, I focus on my employees first. And if my employees are well taken care, they're going to take care of my clients. So, and I want to attract the best and the brightest and continue this fantastic track that we've had, and that means that I need to take care of people. And it should be fun. I don't know why we got into this mentality that works to be terrible,

and you should punch a clock and go home, and it's awful. I think then you're in the wrong kind of job. So we have unlimited vacation. We have unlimited sick time. We have a family first policy. And I set an example, right? I need to do all of this if my employees are going to do it, meaning my kids are in a band concert or my son is in cross-country or baseball or basketball. I'm at his games. You know, I'm volunteering. I'm not volunteering all the time, but I try and get one field trip or something in a year. And I want my employees to do that, too, because this job is, you know, temporary compared to their family.

We have, you know, get your birthday off every year. We celebrate everyone's anniversary and everyone has a cape. So they wear their cape on their anniversary now. That's kind of a new one. We have quarterly dress-up days. So you said Halloween costumes. And I know if my team hears you call the superhero outfits at Halloween costume, they will. They will cringe, so I'm going to correct. That was a dress-up day. It's October, I'm sorry.

And this year for the first time ever, we're actually going to dress up the day before Halloween. We always feel like, you know, and everyone else dresses up. That's when we don't. But this year, we're going to do it too. And we have just a really fun environment. And yet I get, because our policies have been out there quite a bit, you know, in our website, you can read about it and our culture. But so I get these resumes from people who think that, you know, it's just a party every day. Well, there's a lot of blood, sweat, and tears like anything.

You know, we all are very passionate. about what we do and our clients and this company. And it initially was my baby, but now it's not anymore. You know, my main focus is on continuing to push us ahead. And while I loved television and media, this role fits me better. I'm more equipped and wired for this kind of role. I really love the vision piece. I love the strategy piece.

I grew up around all entrepreneurs. And I think some of that must have soaked in. also means that I have some really good smart people that I can call it anytime. And I don't, you know, dad help. And I have a great mentor and all those things. But so we, I was a company of one. And now we're at 14 and we're hiring. And we've outgrown our office.

So I went from my kitchen table to my basement to a coffee shop to a smaller office to this office. And now we're moving and we're building out. We're in a, it's actually right across the freeway, which is nice for moving purposes and meetings over there. But we're building out and getting to a space where we can have more than 20 employees. And then in the next quarter or two, we're going to launch our first regional location. So the growth strategy over the next five years is to be in different cities across the country because we can do the work that we're doing here.

And as I mentioned, we're in all over the country. But there's a lot of folks that we aren't reaching now because they just don't have no idea who we are. Wow, that's awesome. I'd love to hear that story, especially of just the growth and the employment that you're providing to people. And that is, it's obviously going in the right direction. It's just phenomenal. So, Christy, I commend you for that. I think that's inspiring to hear.

So I actually have one more question. Sure. Thank you. And it's around, of course. And it's around, like I said, the whole purpose behind why the show exists. being a learning leader is really important to me. It's almost a duplicative term because great leaders, like you have mentioned, a couple times, are constantly learning. They're constantly striving to be better. They're intentional with their decision making every day. They understand things like

the compound effect where it builds and builds and builds and builds if you continuously are thinking about it. And that's what I try to express on this podcast. every time we record one. So I appreciate you giving me and sharing this message. But I wanted to ask you when you hear that phrase, what is the very first thing that pops into your mind? Is it a person? Is it another phrase?

Is it a definition? What is it when you hear learning leader that you're thinking of? You know, when I think about learning leader, I think about people in history. I think about, you know, the stack of books that is on my bedside that I go back to, you know, the Abraham Lincoln's and the Winston Churchill's and folks in the past who have led something that wasn't just for a moment but has a legacy and has impacted generations.

And I think anyone can lead through, you know, a good time. But it's what really is there and what makes a great leader is how they can handle the crisis, how they can handle the tough times because there are tough times. And there are days where you think, how, why me? But it's really viewing that as a privilege and feeling that responsibility. And whether you're leading a team of two or it's your family or it's a large group of people or a huge company, whatever it may be, that that's a responsibility and needs to be treated and respected as such. That is great. Thank you again so much, Christy, because I love that answer.

I've always found, you know, of all the best teams that I've been a part of, the leadership that is on. those teams steps up big time when things are going bad. Everybody's a captain and everybody's happy when you're winning and everybody's friends and everybody's a leader. It's who steps up, who leads and has an optimism in their voice when things aren't going well or you're losing. That's when your character is truly revealed. So what you're saying is phenomenal. I'm a big Churchill fan. So I was happy to hear you bring his name up too. But, Christy, thanks again for being here. Like I said, I really appreciate it.

I look forward to continuing our dialogue as we both progress on our journeys. Sounds great. It was a pleasure to be here, and it was nice to talk to you, and I look forward to keeping the conversation going, Ryan. Awesome. Thanks so much. All right, Christy. Thank you.

This episode of The Learning Leader Show is over, but we have plenty more to keep you locked in until next time. Head over to Learning Leadershow.com for more information and to request your favorite entrepreneur, CEO, world-class athlete, or anyone else that inspires you. You can also talk to Ryan directly by reaching out to him on Twitter at Ryan Hawk 12. Thanks again, and we'll see you next time on The Learning Leader Show.