805conversations

Professor Bruce Gillies, PsyD, teaches at the School of Management at California Lutheran University. He came back on the show to tell us about his new book, The 21st Century Career Search Program. He speaks about how the first 90 days on the job is crucial to make sure there's a cultural fit between the employee and the workplace. Bruce is passionate about this field and took us on a deep dive of how to get a great job, how to do a skills inventory, what to focus on in HR, including how to manage your self-confidence in the interview. Listeners to the show know that I love acronyms and Bruce has a great one as it relates to creating your inventory of skills. He calls it CAR - specifically, create an example of a problem you solved at a previous job, spell out the Challenge, talk about the Action you took and then highlight the Result. CAR. Note: It's been my experience that if you can insert stories into the interview, you'll perform at least 100% better than other candidates.

Laura Azzalina Rigali is a bundle of energy, and it must be fun to be one of her students. She is an adjunct professor at California Lutheran University, in the School of Management and in a professional capacity she runs a vibrant consultancy called Illuminate CFO, leading workshops and CEO Roundtables. During our conversation she let it slip that she loves going Case Studies - think of it as forensic accounting. Digging in and understanding what the numbers mean. She loves the stories that the numbers tell her. She's particularly interested in the financial empowerment of CEO's. She has a lot of experience working with millennials as well and says that what's unique about them is that they're very mission-oriented. She talked about the 'power of the purse - putting your money where it matters,' as something they care about. We asked about the three surprises she consistently sees when working with CEO's. She says they are: a lack of financial knowledge (or fear of numbers), a lack of confidence (afraid to grow) or a lack of self-awareness. Now we know why she's also a life coach as well as a CEO coach.

Aaron Pick, the Chief Operating Officer of award-winning Allen Construction, in Santa Barbara, had an engaging conversation with us, covering areas from LEED construction, the rebuilding of Montecito to his winding journey to Santa Barbara. Dennis Allen, the founder of the firm, is a pioneer in LEED methods of construction and is a thought-leader as it applies to sustainable building. Aaron focuses on growing the business and continuing to advocate for zero net energy projects. There were many exciting side-stories during this episode that will give you deep insight into what it's like running an independent operation here on the South Coast. Allen was honored with a California Small Business award in 2015. Note: It was at that ceremony in Sacramento that 805's host, Mark Sylvester, met Dennis, as introNetworks also was there to be recognized for the 805connect project (the organization that produces this show).

John Silva is the President and Senior Creative Director of DuPuis Group, based in Ventura, California. They work on branding, innovation and have created several ventures in conjunction with their clients' brands. John is a veteran with 25 years experience of creative problem-solving. The central theme of our conversation was around a shift in what branding is today and the brand-consumer relationship. We learned some key aspects of how he approaches problems. Specifically using brand values to connect trends and culture to business goals and strategy. A major takeaway from this conversation was that people buy values, not value (made us think about having a Values in addition to an About page on the website). John also suggests that the best brands are willing to polarize! There are plenty of pearls in this episode; you'll want to have a pen handy to take notes and feel free to share the show with a friend who's struggling with brand identity and purpose. We predict that this episode that will become required listening in marketing classes.

We had an excellent, wide-ranging conversation with Phillipa Bisou Della Vina, President of the Santa Barbara Transgender Advocacy Network (SBTAN). She's been deeply involved in this underserved community for the past several years and helped us better appreciate their challenges. There are a lot of new terms to consider during this episode, and we've provided a list of resources to help you better understand and find ways to be supportive. There is a tremendous transgender outreach and support network locally, and Bisou told us a poignant story of her meeting a young girl and her family at a Pacific Pride event three years ago. Bisou explained that there are several sub-communities underneath the trans-umbrella and that helping people understand this diversity is a large part of the organization's mission. She spoke of having recently produced a Cultural Competency Class for local educators to help them with transgender students in the classroom. We pushed this episode out quickly to support their upcoming event, Hearts on Fire on April 7th at the Lobero Theater in downtown Santa Barbara. Here's a list of organizations that are helping and providing resources: SBTAN and Trans youth Santa Barbara PFLAG - Center for the LGBTQ Community in Santa Barbara Hearts on Fire Event (April 7, 2018) Becoming a transgender affirming business Los Angeles economic empowerment for LGBTQ Tranz Central Coast (SLO) Diversity Collective, Ventura County Santa Maria House of Pride and Equality  Tips for Allies of Transgender People Understanding Gender Diversity and Sexual Orientation Among Students

Dane Howard is a designer, a dad and a friend of the show. We asked him back to continue our conversation about the importance of design in the workplace. Dane joined us in 2016 when we were first getting started, and we spoke about Design Thinking. You might want to listen to that show right after you've finished this one. I am fascinated with design, in all its incarnations. Dane and I talked at length about communication skills and how he pre-visualizes partnerships and how his ear for adaptive and tribal languages can influence conversations. He's keenly aware of how an organization feels, which is directly related to how people talk with one another. As usual, Dane had drawn up his ideas on his drive down to the studio and shared the intersections of his dreams with his skills and how course corrections and forks in the road changed everything. We also talked about Big Moments, his word, and how I refer to them as Taps (on the shoulder), with the takeaway being, you need to 'be available for the work.' Finally, we discussed the relationship he has with his daughter, Chloe, who was on the TEDxSantaBarbara red circle and has now launched her career at the old age of 17. I know that a lot of our listeners are parents and how they shape and guide their children blurs the line between work and family. How much guidance do you provide and how much do you let them go on their own path. The two of them have found an excellent way to work together. We may invite Dane back for a third talk at the table.

In this episode of 805conversations, we talk with Business Giving Roundtable members, Kirsten McLaughlin, Market Vice President, COX Communications and Van Haas, Founder, Accountix. The Business Giving Roundtable (BGR) is a growing forum where local business leaders share strategic approaches to corporate social responsibility and employee volunteerism. BGR promotes business giving and elevates the generous contributions of its members including local entrepreneurs, international corporations and local chambers of commerce. Kirsten and Van talk about how their organizations approach business giving and have embedded corporate social responsibility into the culture of their companies.

Karyl Lynn Burns and Jim O'Neil are the co-founders of the Rubicon Theater in downtown Ventura, California. They are celebrating their 20th Anniversary Season with six new shows. They call it "A Season of Enchantment." Jim has a long career in the theater; acting, directing, writing and producing. He's the Artistic Director Emeritus at Rubicon. Karyl Lynn has focused on her career as an actress and is the Producing Artistic Director. They don't run the theater by themselves, they've got a fantastic team and pull from a volunteer team of over 300 people. 20% of the volunteers have been with them since the beginning 20 years ago. Jim and Karyl Lynn are married and work closely together. In this episode, we explore what it's like to live as a creative couple. They have some ground rules: limit work-talk at home, remember that they're friends and co-workers and never forget their shared values. There were plenty of threads to travel down in this far-reaching interview including, How to read the audience? What does it mean to be a non-profit and how that affects operations? How running the theater is like sailing, you plot a course and then go with the winds. Over the years they have had 45,000 students go through their summer programs, and over 440,000 people have enjoyed their productions. With 20 years behind them, they are planning for ongoing sustainability, focusing on the people and the building the theater is housed in. They enjoy a tremendous amount of local financial support and know that great productions help pull in an even broader audience. We wish them the best for this Anniversary Season.

Sara and Garrett are the founders of the afterschool theater program based in Santa Barbara called Collabreations. They teach an ensemble-based creation method rooted in improv techniques. The focus on grades 1-6 and appreciate how much impact they're making in these young lives. Their business is teaching students skills that will serve them well in life, including collaboration, brainstorming, performing and developing self-confidence in front of an audience. The focus here is on how you launch a business like this in Santa Barbara, the market validation they did and how Sara is putting ideas she's learning in SBCC's Marketing class into practice. We are always interested in talking to couples who work together, the challenges they face and how they optimize their collective skills to serve a growing business. This is an excellent example of this collaboration can be done and how impactful arts-based education can be in our community.

Marsha Bailey, a resident of Santa Barbara since receiving her Masters in Communication from UCSB, leads an organization that's making a difference in the lives of hundreds of emerging entrepreneurs in the region. She's the founder of Women's Economic Ventures, which is the outgrowth of an early interest in the feminization of poverty, the suffragette movement and direct experience working in crisis intervention. She was surprised at her interest in entrepreneurialism and now finds working with women, and some men has been extremely rewarding. In talking about startups and empowering women through this type of education, she mentioned the startup rates are the lowest they've been in 35 years and that 60% of millennials want to be self-employed, but only 4% are. Her interest in empowerment led to a role for the past five years as a member of the National Women's Business Council in Washington. There, she's worked on policy, the SBA, with the White House and at the State level. Her members are in two camps. First, they hit a glass ceiling after acquiring 25 years of experience and want to venture out on their own. Second might be as the result of a significant life transition, divorce, or after an illness. She's also seeing more younger women now, with many in engineering. This is a great leading indicator of the local economic development challenge we have here. Something she loves teaching, "How to ask for the business." Yes, we could all stand some more training in that area.