Episode 19 - Anne Jocoby - Creative Business Processes

Anne Jacoby is an amazing woman who started her career in the arts as a professional singer, actor, and dancer. As many of us know and have experienced, she reevaluated her life and decided to take a new path. In early 2000 she went into the business world, eventually finding her way back to her creative roots. She founded her own business that focuses on just that. This was an amazing conversation, with a talented person.

 

Leighann Lovely  00:15

Let's talk HR is a place for HR professionals, business owners and employees to come together and share experiences and talk about what's working and what's not. How we can improve best practices so that companies can better attract, train and retain all generations of workers. We all know that there has been a huge shift in what people want. generations are coming together more than ever, on what's important. Mental health has been brought to the forefront of everyone's mind. Let's humanize these conversations. Let's talk about how the economy has been impacted and what needs to happen to find a balance. I'm your host Leighann Lovely. So let's get this conversation started. And remember, if you enjoyed this episode, follow us like us and share us.

 

Leighann Lovely  01:04

Today is going to be a great conversation with Anne Jacoby. She is on a mission to cultivate creativity at work as the founder and CEO of The Spring Street Solutions, a workplace culture consultancy, she partners with leading organizations to build more connected, innovative and inclusive cultures, and was previously the head of learning development and culture at a global consulting firm and has over 15 years of operational experience building and leading teams. She has her MBA from NYU Stern School of Business, and was a professional singer, actor and dancer prior to starting her corporate life. I'm very excited to have this great conversation with a very brilliant woman. And thank you so much for joining me today. I'm really excited to have this conversation.

 

Anne Jacoby  01:57

Thank you for having me, Leighann. This is gonna be fun.

 

Leighann Lovely  01:59

Yes. So why don't you start off by telling me a little bit about yourself?

 

Anne Jacoby  02:03

Sure. Well, I like to say that I am on a mission to cultivate creativity at work, something I'm very passionate about. I have an unconventional background. So I started my career as a professional singer, actor, dancer. And then I made a pivot to business, got my MBA and scaled a company from seven people to 1000s around the globe and kind of rode that rocketship for a while, really on the business side and then landed on the people side, because I was so passionate about seeing people develop and tap into their learning and their potential. So that's really what I've been focused on for the past five years or so.

 

Leighann Lovely  02:40

Okay, so let's back up you started with, say that in acting, and how did how do you start in that? And then ended up where you are?

 

Anne Jacoby  02:53

You know, it's a great question. And I'm sure we'll talk a lot about how creativity influences the work that I do now. But, you know, I was always passionate about storytelling and performing and I love to sing. So I was doing it, you know, ever since I was very small, just a little kid and thought I would make a career out of it. I really thought this is it, you know, I'm going to be a performer for my whole life. And found myself in New York in the early 2000s. And like many who were there during 911, I think reevaluated my my choices, and where I wanted my life to go and just thought, Gosh, I really want something more stable. And for me, it shows how naive I was at the time. But I thought that meant business and joining a startup, which we all know that startups are not very stable, but at the time that felt like a stable choice between performing or or being in business.

 

Leighann Lovely  03:50

Wow. Being in New York during that time. Rough first of all, but to pivot from Wow, okay, so it's take, and I and don't get me wrong in any career that you have, there's always some type of business aspect of that, right? You have to market yourself in one way or another in order to continue to be able to do what you love to do. I'm assuming that you had to go out there and, and market yourself to get jobs, right.

 

Anne Jacoby  04:20

Yes, and no, I'm a big believer in saying yes, as opportunities present themselves and the way that I ultimately found my job at this startup, I was waiting tables and had a really good conversation with someone who happened to be a recruiter, and she thought I just gotta get you out of this restaurant. You gotta be doing something better than this. And I was you know, babysitting and waiting tables and doing shows and performing you know, I had a million different jobs as you do in New York City in your early 20s. And and so I just said yes, and I gave it a shot and I found myself at the Start up and kind of the rest is history, you know, just really found that building a business is ultimately extremely creative. So all of that work that I had been doing to cultivate storytelling to cultivate connecting with an audience, or collaborating with other actors or performers on stage, all of those skills apply in the business world. So it was really just about making that leap and transferring a lot of those capabilities into a different environment.

 

Leighann Lovely  05:29

Right. Well, awesome. Okay, so you are the founder and CEO of Spring Street as well as advisors to dangerous ventures and twine. Is that right? Yeah, right. Yeah. Yeah. So you got to tell me, first Spring Street, but advisors to dangerous venture? That's very interesting. So you got to tell me tell me a little bit about, you know, what each you know, each different, I guess, discipline is for, you know, as an advisor, and also as a founder and CEO.

 

Anne Jacoby  06:02

Yeah, well, you know, most of what I do is in the service of helping companies to grow, to build cultures that they're really proud of, to achieve their business objectives in any way, shape, or form. So whether that's me being in an advisory role helping a company to scale, dangerous Ventures is an early stage venture firm. And their principle is really around cultivating entrepreneurs from underrepresented backgrounds. So, you know, we have a whole bunch of people who could be successful entrepreneurs, if they have the right support and skills and infrastructure to guide them through that process. So I'm really passionate about that kind of work. But my my clients was Spring Street really range from early stage hypergrowth organizations that are really starting to put shape to their organizational culture, all the way to Fortune 100 organizations that are very focused on programmatically transforming their cultures to be more innovative or connected or inclusive. Yeah. So

 

Leighann Lovely  07:11

obviously, there's, there's going to be one and maybe there's not, I shouldn't say, obviously, let's let's back up. So working with a fortune 100 company versus a small, very small company, he's got to have a different approach, I'm assuming. So how do you start when you you know, you meet a client, and they said, we really want to focus on the culture at this company, we really want to figure out, you know, how to do this, you know, how do you go in and start with within an organization?

 

Anne Jacoby  07:45

Yeah, I'll give a couple examples. So for the earlier stage companies, a lot of what we do is think about, okay, what are our values? What do we want to celebrate? What behaviors do we really want to bring out in our people and reinforce positively. So being really crisp and clear about what those organizational values are, and defining how we're going to bring them to life, throughout the employee lifecycle is a lot of the work that I do around building that culture, really building those behavioral norms. So that people are really clear, hey, I'm joining this company, this is what I can expect. And there are lots of ways to reinforce that. On the other end of the spectrum, companies that have more established cultures can feel like huh, there are pockets where we we know that we need to change. Maybe we want to build more inclusive practices across the organization, how are we going to do that. And so that really takes a different approach that might be you know, developing a specific program and might be designing a particular workshop. So there are different ways to address an organization of that stage. Probably those values have been defined, but maybe we need work refining how we're going to reinforce the right kinds of behaviors.

 

Leighann Lovely  09:03

Interesting. Do you find one more difficult than the other?

 

Anne Jacoby  09:09

Both the rewarding it's a it's a very different approach, I'd say with each of my clients, because every company is at a different stage. And ideally, they have unique cultures that they really want to feel differentiated to the employee. And so I try to pride myself on, on offering bespoke solutions that are extremely tailored to that particular organization.

 

Leighann Lovely  09:35

Right. So here's the question that I always you know, it's one thing to go when you talk to the upper management, you talk to, you know, owners or CEOs or HR people, and somebody who's wants to be the driver of that change, right? And they have all of these great ideas of here's what we want, here's what we want to do. Here's the things that we want to lay out. But how do you Well, how do you teach? Or maybe it's not teaching? How do you get employee buy in? Or how do you teach them to get employee buy in?

 

Anne Jacoby  10:10

Hmm. Yeah, that's a wonderful question. And so on point, I think a lot of it is about good listening, and finding multiple ways to listen. And what I mean by that is, you mentioned the word buy in, buy and can be achieved by understanding what really matters to certain employee populations. And that can be achieved in listening surveys can be achieved in listening tours, where you have, you know, small groups of people coming together to share their thoughts. It might be achieved in anonymous forums, you know, organizations like like all voices aware, people can, you know, share or, you know, offer their concerns in a channel where it's not going to be attributed to them. So I think having a multi pronged approach is really important. But that that key aspect of listening can't be stated strongly enough. You know, to your point, LeAnn, I think leaders get really energized and excited about a particular initiative. But without really hearing directly from the employees, it's, it's hard to create that stickiness.

 

Leighann Lovely  11:26

Right, it's every time I go to like a, you know, a retreat, or, you know, some seminar or something, and I hear about all these great ideas, and I walk into that room going, Okay, I'm going to implement this. And then a week later, I've forgotten that feeling that I had when I was there. And I haven't implemented anything and nothing changes. And I'm like, wait a second, why did I go there, if I'm not going to make any changes, and I and I, and I talked to individuals like you, the, the, the ones that go in and meet with the people who want to make those changes who want to make it happen. And I feel like right now, in the world that we're living in, so many companies know that it's necessary, know that in order to, you know, be what they need to be. They are trying to make these changes, but often, they fall short, when Yeah, when holding themselves accountable, or actually making these changes happen. Long term.

 

Anne Jacoby  12:36

Mm hmm. Yeah. And it makes me think of a really effective coach, where, yes, you could probably share a lot of wisdom and, you know, ideas, but ultimately, a really great coach allows the coachee to discover their own solutions. And that's what really helps move things forward. I think the same applies in this situation where, you know, the leader may have a ton of great ideas, but unless they're really born from the grassroots efforts, that the folks who can really carry the culture forward, you lose that connective tissue, you lose that energy that you were talking about, Leanne? Yes, I'm gonna go do this. Yeah, need to harness that from the very people who have the capacity to, to carry it forward and to implement it. So you

 

Leighann Lovely  13:29

go in and you create, do you create a, like, a plan, you create a step by step? Or do you how do you how do you lay this out for the company?

 

Anne Jacoby  13:41

Yeah, so again, it takes a lot of different shapes, right, but it, start with an assessment where we're really getting to know, okay, where are the pockets of opportunities to change and evolve our culture? Where are those, let's identify them, let's rank order them and prioritize them. And that's more of a strategic process. You know, there's those stakeholder interviews that I was talking about, and like, gathering the data, and then ultimately, deciding, okay, we're gonna pick these three things to focus on this is what's achievable, and let's go do that. So that might be one one phase of the project. Another might be putting together workshops around skill development. So you know, I talked a lot about my passion for creativity at work, but there are lots of different I'll call them power skills that organizations today are really focused on around building resilience, adaptability, you know, change readiness. Those are skills that really do take practice. And so I often put together really fun interactive experiences where people can try out the skills in a safe space before they have to do that in the real world, so to speak. So a lot of it is program design and and developing skills,

 

Leighann Lovely  14:59

Excellent and you know what I love that you said, you put together achievable and achievable. And often we, again, you know, I have and I only can, you know, look at myself of, you know, what I'm, I always have, you know, this idea of like, Oh, I'm going to accomplish this, I'm gonna go walk two miles and then you know, after a half a mile, I'm like, oh, oh my god, I really need to sit down and I'm like, maybe I should make my my goals achievable. And I think that many of us, you know, it's just just like the, you know, my eyes are bigger than my stomach kind of mentality of what's not bite off more than we can chew kind of thing. So I like that. You know, you have the first thing you do is achievable goals. Yeah, that's awesome. So I want to move to something else that you know, that you're you're doing right now you are not only, you know, obviously the founder, CEO, you, you get your hands dirty. You're doing all of this work. But you are also keynote, Keynote spokes, my goodness gracious. A key note, speaker, and you are also busy writing a book? Let me I know, I gotta know what what is? What is the book? What are we writing about it? Can I ask that? Or is that there?

 

Anne Jacoby  16:17

It's not top secret? No. You will be my accountability partner, Leanne. Yes, the book is in development. It is about creativity at work, but specifically around what sparks our individual creativity. So how do we personally Ignite and reinforce our own individual our own creativity? It's also focused on creative leadership skills. So how do we bring creativity out in others? And then finally, how do we address it organizationally? So how do we build that culture of creativity? So that ideally, our company can innovate? And most companies that I serve, at least want to innovate in some way?

 

Leighann Lovely  16:55

That's awesome. I can't wait. So do you have? Do you have you set a deadline for yourself as to when you're hoping to publish? Or?

 

Anne Jacoby  17:05

Yeah, my hope is 2023. So I will, I'll circle back to you when the book is about to be released.  Part two conversation.

 

Leighann Lovely  17:15

Perfect. I want to know, I want to know, so now tell me a little bit more about your your speaking, you know, do you? Is this something that you do at certain times, or you you know, readily looking for speaking engagements, tell me a little bit more about that? Yeah,

 

Anne Jacoby  17:33

I've done a fair amount within corporations. And then also in the academic setting, so either executive MBAs or entrepreneurial programs, I speak a lot to help students understand this skill of creativity and, and what that means, especially when you're building a business, things like adaptability, or being open to perspective taking or, you know, there's so many things that accompany creativity. And it really is like any other kind of skill or muscle to develop, it's something that can be practiced, I think, you know, a lot of times you think of Elizabeth Gilbert and big magic, and, you know, this elusive creativity as if you're gonna get struck by lightning, yeah, some creative today. But really, it's like anything else, where if you dedicate the time to it, at you set certain conditions, certain parameters, certain creative constraints, you really can help train your brain to enter that space of creativity. So that's a lot of what I try to coach, both my clients and then also students to discover.

 

Leighann Lovely  18:38

And that's, it's so true, you have to work that muscle, you know, I remember in high school, I look back, perfect example, I look back to my drawings in high school, I love to draw, I love to do artwork, or sitting in a room where I have, you know, some artwork, drawings, you know, in the background, my podcast slash art room with my daughter, which we talked about just a second ago. And I look at the drawings that I did when I was in high school, because I was in advanced art classes, I loved all of that stuff. And they are so much better from when I was in high school than they are now. Because in high school, I was constantly in art class, I was learning new things. I was practicing constantly working that muscle, right? Working that creative side. And now, as an adult, I don't have time to just sit down and draw. I don't have time to just sit down and can I still do it? Yes. If I look at a picture, I can usually, you know, replicate it. You know, it's one of those buts. If you apply that to anything that you do, if you apply that to creativity in in your work, dealing with people coming up with creative solutions on how to, you know, manage people, all of that kind of stuff. If you don't do it every single day. Well, you're going to struggle on how How to do it right. Yeah, I can that completely resonates with me when you said that but you don't, I guess the normal person unless you remind them of that, won't think of that as something that you have to

 

Anne Jacoby  20:14

practice. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

 

Leighann Lovely  20:18

I think a lot of people think of it as well, you either have it or you don't.

 

Anne Jacoby  20:22

Yes. And I love that you said that, because there is that, you know, just misunderstanding I think about creativity in general, or they leap to oh, gosh, I'm just not a talented artist, or I can't sing or, you know, actually, creative thinking is something we're all capable of doing. And you and I are both moms, you know, we see, you know, in our children, how innately creative they are. And they're making new connections and putting together, you know, new inputs constantly. That's how they learn. That's how they make sense of the world. And I think we need to also go back to those fundamentals of gosh, you know, let me see things in a different light and, and look at things from a new angle. And that's creative thinking

 

Leighann Lovely  21:08

Absolutely helps. And you say, you're a mom, too. There's times where my daughter and I will sit down, and we do these, we just dumped paint on a canvas and then slow it, you know, it doesn't mix, but like, and I realized that she actually just, she'll pick out the colors she likes, not the colors, she thinks that will look good together. And me, I am a logic thinker. I think, Oh, these colors will look good together. But then mind turns out looking just really block. Because they're just they're too much like, right? It just turns out looking very much like, oh, very, hers turns out looking like crazy. Cool, because they're not colors that necessarily go together. Yeah, it just, it's really bold and really out there. And you're just like, wow, that. And I'm like, how is she better? But she's better at it because she chooses not based on what she thinks. You know, she should it's based on purely what I like, right this second? Versus and that, I think that really is more becomes more creative when you're dealing with certain things. Yeah, and that, again, I'm trying to get to a point. But, you know, children, children, I think naturally, because they're still learning. They do have that. And I think as adults, we try to analyze and create logic and everything. And that takes away some of the creativity that we have.

 

Anne Jacoby  22:51

And also your daughter is fearless, right? She's not, she doesn't yet have the judgment, the self judgment that we all have. And think about how what you just shared Lian applies to the business world know that? Let's take a risk. Let's try something new. Because we like it, you know, because we we believe in it. I mean, how often do we, you know, we judge ourselves and we try to you know overanalyze things where you just try and experiment and yes, you need to gather the data and see how the customers react. Absolutely. But I think it's that that bold quality that you just described, that is often missing in the workplace, because we put so much pressure around, oh, this, we have to get this perfect. And this has to be just right. And it has to go together. Exactly what you said.

 

Leighann Lovely  23:37

Right, exactly. We overanalyze, you know, we also grow into being more risk adverse, because of experience, whereas, and it's hard to let go of that. But when you allow the creative side to come out, and you will, and you realize that, hey, if I make a mistake, and I fall, it's not the end of the world. And I think that a lot of adults are like, Well, no, but I don't want anybody to see right. I don't want anybody to, to notice that I might make a mistake.

 

Anne Jacoby  24:10

But yeah, yeah. And what you just said right there, that is a creativity culture is the safety to know that if you do fail, okay, you learn from it, you move on, but that needs to be supported, kind of top down. Otherwise, maybe it is the end of the world if you make a mistake if you're in the wrong culture. So I think really fairpoint and hopefully speaks to the kind of work that I do.

 

Leighann Lovely  24:34

That's awesome. Yeah. Okay, so now here here, here's the hard question, right? What if you're working with a bunch of accountants? No, and I asked my best friend as an accountant and she's she she analyzes absolutely everything. And I'm just like, cute. Sometimes your wound so tight, it's, you need the creative side to come out. A little bit. And I remember she asked me, When did she come over and we can just paint. And I remembered her sitting there. And she's painting and she's like, I just can you just paint it for me? And I'm like, no, like, she's so. Oh, okay, tangent. Like it.

 

Anne Jacoby  25:18

I'm so glad that you mentioned that, because I do work with a lot of accountants. And, you know, and lawyers in particular, I mean, folks who may not self fighting with GAAP, but you might be thinking how this workflow happens, or, you know, are there better ways of approaching this process? And I think that takes the creative thinking that that I aim to inspire and strengthen people.

 

Leighann Lovely  25:43

And I see, and you just threw something in there that I didn't think about, because it's not just about pretty rainbows and paints. And it's creativity comes into so many different things. Yeah. And I was just having a meeting today with my, my, my two partners. Again, my, you know, I'm in staffing my two recruiters and we were talking about workflow, and I'm like, Okay, how can we be creative to make sure that this workflow is working properly, because it's not right now. So just sitting down and being able to come up with a creative idea on how to make it easier. And so I guess, creativity comes into pretty much everything we do, if you and you would think that it would be, it would be much more fun if we tried to take the logic side of it, and be like, let's be creative about this, instead of logical, my brain, my brain will hurt less, right?

 

Anne Jacoby  26:41

And maybe it'll be more fun. Who knows? It'll be a good byproduct.

 

Leighann Lovely  26:47

So I want to go back to the beginning. Now. You okay, so. And you kind of talked a little bit about how you, you know, you decided that you needed to change, you know, you experienced obviously, with, with the world, a traumatic event, and you decided that, you know, at that point you wanted to change, you thought that business going into more of the business side. So, what did that look like? I mean, for you, personally, when you went from being a actor, singer, actress, singer, all of that, what did I mean? That had to have been a completely different kind of lifestyle? I would assume.

 

Anne Jacoby  27:31

Yeah, it certainly was a transition. And I'm glad you mentioned traumatic event, because I feel like we've all just gone through a traumatic event, you know, with the pandemic, and, you know, all the things that folks are challenged by today in today's world, you know, this skill of reinvention, and you see it with the great resignation, or the Great, the great reinvention, I know, there are lots of terms being floated around, but people are wanting different things from their work experience. And so I want to just note that, you know, in in 2001, and today, similar things are going on in terms of, gosh, what else can I do with my life? Or what should I be doing with my life, these are catalysts, I think, to have these thoughtful moments. But for me personally, it was a lot of embracing, being out of my comfort zone. And that is a skill as, as a trained actor, that you're kind of trained to seek out, right, you're trained to be in, in these uncomfortable situations where you're in front of hundreds, if not 1000s of people, and you kind of need to, to bring bring your A game, you know, so that kind of getting out of your comfort zone. Lots of learning lots of listening, learn. It's almost like learning a new language. And especially since I was thrown into an industry that was highly technical in the legal field, it was speaking the legal language as well working with a lot of lawyers and attorneys. So yeah, it was, it was an incredible experience. And I call it highly creative, because we were given that freedom to experiment to, to try new things and see what works. We were creating this new category of firm. And it was, it was disruptive. There was a lot of reinvention happening in the legal industry at the time. And so that kind of primed the pump for me to then oh, gosh, if I had such an incredible experience building this, I want to help other organizations go through this change as well and help them get good at it.

 

Leighann Lovely  29:42

That's amazing. Yeah, it was fun. Right? Yeah. Wow. So So from there you, you know, you've now been, you know, running your own business. You've now experienced a nother traumatic And then in with the pandemic. Yeah, I would assume that because of that business has shifted dramatically for, especially for what you do. Companies are screaming, you know, hey, help me while the smart ones? Yeah, I should say, because in today's environment, it's an absolute necessity in order to retain people that you need to start offering a happy, healthy environment. Yeah, we see it across the board of individuals I being in you know, staffing, I, you know, help people find jobs. And the number one thing that, you know, individuals talk about now is while I want to, I'm looking for a new job, because the culture of the company that I'm in is one that is unhealthy, or it's volatile, or it's just not, you know, conducive to family life or work life balance. Yeah. So, how has that shifted for you over the last two? Three? Geez, is it almost been three years?

 

Anne Jacoby  31:20

I know, time flies when you're having fun?

 

Leighann Lovely  31:25

Or when you're drinking heavily because of that? No, sorry.

 

Anne Jacoby  31:31

I'm so I'm so appreciative of the question. When I launched Spring Street, I had imagined I would be doing in person workshops, and that it would all be, let's get in a room. Let's figure this out. Let's get creative. Here are some creative exercises to start to develop these skills, obviously, that was thrown out the window. So on day one, I had to reinvent the business model. And actually, I think, because all the points that you just mentioned Lian, people are craving for support around culture initiatives, and how to think about, are we remote? First? Are we hybrid? Are we in office? What does that look like? What's our employee value proposition? What are the cultural tenants of our organization? And how do we broadcast those for new employees? For current employees? What is this employee experience like? And so, yes, I think we have dialed up the importance of this kind of across the workforce. And so you know, whether it's me or someone else, having a partner to help objectively assess, this is the stuff that you're doing really well. And this is the stuff where we have room to grow. Let me help you with that. Gosh, people are craving it. So it's been a very busy time.

 

Leighann Lovely  32:48

And are you work? Do you work remotely with organizations, then?

 

Anne Jacoby  32:53

Primarily, I do. A lot of my company's clients are global. And so their team members are distributed. They don't necessarily work in office, or if they do, it's a hybrid culture. I am starting to see a lot more calls for in person retreats, and, you know, let's get together in a room, which I think is a great thing. So don't get me wrong, I love the chemistry and the connections that are formed when you get everyone in a room. But I also have clients with whom I work extremely closely, and I've never met them in person. You know, it's, it's really incredible, especially with video conferencing, what you can achieve in a distributed way.

 

Leighann Lovely  33:36

Right? Even in my business, I mean, there's, I've been working with some of my clients for and I've never met them in person, I've seen them 100 times on a teams or a Zoom meeting, and I'm just like, we should do lunch sometime. I mean, not like at separate desks, like at an actual restaurants.

 

Anne Jacoby  33:57

Yeah, exactly, exactly. But the

 

Leighann Lovely  34:00

virtual world has definitely shifted, shifted the way that we do business, and the ability to do business on a global level for a lot of individuals. But that need and that desire to be together is still still definitely is exists and wins out. When it comes to truly understanding of others. And when I'm at let me kind of back up and say ultimately, when it comes to creating a company's that true culture, and I'm not I'm not against remote working, I'm not against you know, hybrid, remote, hybrid, hybrid working. But in order for those individuals to actually get to know each other and spend time together. There needs to be at some point or another a gather range of those employees. Right?

 

Anne Jacoby  35:03

Yeah, I think it helps for sure. I think there can be an over, maybe not over, let me rephrase. I think sometimes people jump to the conclusion that if their culture is suffering, it must be because we're not all together. And my belief is, you can have a highly engaged committed, great chemistry working team completely distributed. I think that is possible. It takes different kinds of effort, it takes a consciousness and an awareness and intentionality to build that kind of culture. And I also think there's a belief that, oh, if we just bring everything everyone back, everyone's going to be engaged. And I don't think that's true, either. You know, I think disengagement can happen, wherever you are. So you want to be focused on the engagement levels.

 

Leighann Lovely  36:01

And I write I completely agree with that. If I mean, I have one employee that's 100% remote, she's out of California. And she is the one of the most engaged employees. I mean, I talk to her constantly, all day long on on via teams. I mean, because of the technology that exists, you can literally feel like you're sitting next to somebody with being able to just pull them up on your screen and be like, Hey, can you do this for me? Oh, did you need anything for me? Hey, Ken, I mean, it's, it's pretty, it's the technology is, is beautiful. But it is also awesome to be able to have those, you know, occasional get togethers, and you know, how you doing kind of situations?

 

Anne Jacoby  36:50

So nothing like sharing a meal with someone. I totally agree. Yeah, it's, there's a different level of bonding. And that's a chemical thing. You know, that's as humans that's, I think there is something special that happens when we're we're in, in good company, just, it's different. It's a different experience, it will be interesting to track and I'm no expert on this. But with virtual reality becoming more prevalent, it'll be interesting to see what's possible in terms of almost replicating that kind of feeling. And that experience, as the technology continues to advance.

 

Leighann Lovely  37:25

It's amazing, but it's also really scary. Have you ever worn those virtual reality goggles? Yeah. I mean, there's been times where I've worn them and I'm like, I think my husband got a he got a pair of those for for Christmas from work or something. And he brought him home. And the only thing that was like pre loaded on them was like some horror scenes or something. And I'm like, Okay, I'll watch it. It was like falling off a cliff. And I think I fell down. I'm like, Oh, my God, like, these things are insane. Like, it's, they're scary. And but I can understand wearing those and feeling like you're sitting at a conference table with all your co workers. Yeah, I mean, I guess it's, it's awesome. But it's gonna create the same time. It's, the technology is is is amazing. It's amazing when it works. But just imagine how frustrating it is when you're like, Oh, I gotta go to a meeting. You put your goggles on, you're like, Oh, they're not working. Okay, guys. 20 minutes later, you're like, Okay, we finally got it. We only have five minutes for the meeting. Okay, anyway. All right. So the question of the season, I'm gonna move to this. I think you had a preview of that. So but I'm going to ask, so if you could go back to your younger self and give yourself advice, when would you go back? And what advice would you give yourself?

 

Anne Jacoby  38:57

Such a good question. I would give myself lots of advice.

 

Leighann Lovely  39:03

Oh, me, too. This is why I never answer my own question.

 

Anne Jacoby  39:09

Truthfully, though, I can't pinpoint one particular moment in time. So I guess it's a little bit of a cheat. But I would say to myself, be open to possibilities. Because a lot of times, I was wired a certain way where I would get laser focused on a goal or particular outcome and stay really fixed to that outcome. So much so that I probably missed some other good stuff happening on the side. And I think, I hope that I can translate this to my kids as they grow and are met with challenges and I think challenges make us who we are. I think challenges are great. Those are learning opportunities, but I would coach myself to be more open to different outcomes and just see the good in them?

 

Leighann Lovely  40:01

Yeah, I am. So it's funny. I'm one of those people, my husband drives him crazy, you know, problem. And then there's me like immediate like Solve, Solve, Solve, Solve, Solve and he's just like, you don't have to do that right the second and I'm like, No, I have to I have to and I've gotten better at it. Yeah, I am one of those, you know, I'm like a, I'm like a cat with a mouse. I can't, I can't leave it alone until the thing stops running. Right? It's hyper focused. And I think I've, the older I've gotten, the more relaxed I've gotten with, but there's definitely something you know, add to the list of advice I would give myself, you know, my list is probably about 300 things right now. Be like, go back to me or so. Hey, just chill out. Take a chill pill relax. Yeah, yeah. Definitely. That would probably go on my on my list that's a mile and a half long. Every time somebody says something. I'm like, oh, yeah, I probably should give myself that advice, too. Right. Yep. But that's definitely a good one. Definitely a good one. So we are we are coming to time. If someone is interested in reaching out to you, how would they go about contacting you?

 

Anne Jacoby  41:23

Yeah, well, certainly feel free to check out my website, SpringStreetco.com or an jacoby.com. You can reach out to me there. I'm on LinkedIn. And I'm also on Instagram at and Jacoby dot author. So any of those platforms? I'd love to hear from you.

 

Leighann Lovely  41:42

Excellent. And you're going to be having a book coming out sometime in 2023. So people should be looking out for that as well. But this has been such an amazing conversation. I really appreciate your time today. It's been really fun.

 

Anne Jacoby  41:57

It's been fun for me to Leighann. Thanks for having me on your show.

 

Leighann Lovely  42:00

Yes. Thank you again for listening to Let's Talk HR. I appreciate your time and support without you the audience this would not be possible. So don't forget that if you enjoyed this episode to follow us like us or share us. Have a wonderful day.

 

Contact Anne -

 

Website - https://www.springstreetco.com/

     https://www.annejacoby.com/

 

e-mail - anne@springstreetco.com

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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SUMMARY KEYWORDS

people, creativity, culture, creative, organizations, company, employee, skills, focused, business, question, achieved, world, learning, talk, building, lian, conversation, reinvention, cultivate

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