Episode 6 - Healing from addiction - Kevin White

Non-discriminatory, silent, and sometimes deadly... Addiction. So many of us face challenges and many don't know that those around us are facing them still. This is the reality of life, but it doesn't have to be, Kevin an amazingly strong and open soul joins me to talk about healing. 

 

Leighann Lovely  00:15

Let's talk HR is a place for HR professionals, business owners, and Employees to come together to share experience, talking about what's working, 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 and 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 like to welcome my guest this week, Kevin White, he is a high stakes business therapist for the white group. As a high stakes business therapist Kevin thrives in situations where there is a lot on the line, and specializes in one on one work for business owners struggling with addiction. When the business needs additional support Jamie, Kevin's wife, and he worked together to navigate these situations as a team. They are uniquely positioned to support small business owners and their spouses and the leadership teams who navigate the opportunities and challenges that come when the stakes are high. Having been through many of those critical moments, himself, Kevin has been thankful for those that have been in his corner during those times. After 20 years of marriage and riding the roller coaster that comes with the struggles of overcoming addiction. He really believes in the power of empathy and love based therapies for people side of business. Kevin, I am so excited that you have joined me today. And I'm really excited to learn a little bit about your background and kind of find out, you know, the direction that you're going today. Because you and I talked prior to this show. And there's there's so many things, you know, on your plate right now. So why don't you tell me a little bit about yourself? And again, welcome to the show.

Kevin White  02:08

All right. Well, thank you. Yes, I've been looking forward to this conversation as well. So starting back at the beginning, I grew up in Iowa, very rural area. I met my wife, who was from Wisconsin and moved to Wisconsin, I started out of high school in it. And I spent 20 years in IT. I still am working out of some IT roles, finishing up some projects, and am transitioning into doing more coaching with people around addiction around business around some more completely different topics that I learned along the way. Really my journey in IT started as like a network person, setting up computers, setting up networks and all of that. And then I was fortunate through the family businesses that I was a part of to grow into several different roles, ending up doing more and more database work. And looking back, I found out that what I really liked about it was the relationships and the people that I was working with. So as I got into more like business intelligence roles, what I was really looking for, and what I really liked was the conversations and the people I was meeting, right, so I'm not an analytical person even though I work on data warehouses today and I do all this, you know, very analytical work I'm usually involved in the front end of that, or the like, I guess I don't know what the right term is, but the front end of that work, meaning I'm working with the clients on the end product and on giving them what they need to conduct their business. And so I think the common thread in my life between my first career and what is turning out to be my second career is that I'm a real people person, I love what people present. I love the story of of who you are and and what you bring to the world and and how you can contribute and how we contribute to each other. And so I think that's, the gist of who I am.

Leighann Lovely  05:05

You know, it's so, so completely interesting that you what you just said, Because long, long ago, I, I went to school for computer programming, and a class and an internship short of my degree. I went, I don't, I don't really want to do this for everything you just said, which is I love people. I wanted to be in front of people, and I didn't see a career in computer programming, having that exposure to to people, but you have found a way to have a career in IT, and still have that exposure by working with people. But now you are, you're kind of entering into with what you have been doing with your current role and doing a little bit of coaching and, and what you're, you're going into with the white group, you've been doing some coaching, and while your wife has been doing some coaching with businesses, you do some individualized coaching, and now you're kind of launching your own thing, where you're going to get to do a lot more individualized help and things like that, correct?

Kevin White  06:23

Yeah. So along the journey, so I worked with, let's see, or small businesses. Okay, so the first two are family businesses. And I say that because there was more than one family member working in them. And then the second two were pretty much single proprietors. And they didn't really have a family that was involved at all in the business. I remember, I worked for a consultant, nada, Madison, and he, I got really close with him. And he had a very successful business that went from when I started around 15 people to when I left around 60 In a seven year period, I remember him asking me as I was switching roles, because I was involved in sales, and I was involved in implementation. And then I was involved in this data stuff. And he's like, Kevin, what do you really want to do? Like, I'm confused about what it is that you want to focus on. And I was having trouble answering that at the time. I think that, for me, it's kind of a story of late maturity. Like, my dad and my grandpa, were like computers. And my dad told me when I was young, that let's do something you love, and you're gonna find your way that way. And so I took that to heart, I did that. And I did, like, I liked the part about computers I liked is the seeking of knowledge, the figuring it out the challenge, the A, the ability to help others through that medium through that technology. And so that, that was part of my journey, and certainly is the part that I love. But I think that now that I've been through a little bit more of life, and I've dealt with some of the my own issues, that I've gotten to a state now where I really see a way that I can help people directly, you know, and, and it still might be business related, but a lot of the work is around the person.

Leighann Lovely  08:28

What's amazing that in each one of us are defined by the journeys that we take, you've had an interesting journey, not only with the career that you've that you've had the career that you're leaving, and I shouldn't say leaving, but you're, you know, in the IT world or to IT realm. It has been obviously an amazing career, because you're still you're still doing that. But on the flip side of that you've also been involved with The White Group and tell me a little bit more about, you know, the idea and the concepts behind how that developed and came to fruition. And then, you know, tell me where things are with that right now and your involvement in that

Kevin White  09:14

About in 2017. My wife started working with a coach named Mark King, who is in the Milwaukee area. He works in Chicago and Milwaukee. Somewhere along her journey with him. He was helping with her family business. She works for her dad's so he was helping them with their communication and stuff like that. And I had had some questions about something I can't remember. And she said maybe you should talk to Mark about it. So I started working with him and that has been that's been almost a four year journey now. Coming up on four years, where I've been working with Mark on the company I was I'm currently transitioning out of, as well as just myself and my own fears that come out in my communication, that kind of stuff. So what that work uncovered, is just how much along with like half the world that seems like that's turning into coaches like how much opportunity we have inside of us, when we talk about HR, I think that there's just the whole idea of humans as resources, how are resources for each other? How how much potential we have, that's, I guess, the journey that has been there for me in the last four years. As far as like, how, where I'm taking that I think that I've, originally I just thought, Alright, I'm gonna work with teams of people, and try to uncover some of how they're making, we're making everything so stressful when it doesn't have to be. As a consultant, I've been involved in huge projects, some projects, this isn't talked a lot a lot, some projects that are really big, actually completely fail. I was involved in, you know, like, a half a million dollar failure, and part of my career. And so when you go through some of those situations, especially in bigger companies, you want to figure out, how do we actually succeed at this? How do we do something big and completely make it work? Right. And so that was my original focus for the business for The White Group. Since then, as we better define what we're doing, I've focused a little bit more on addiction, specifically, which is my story and where I came from, so we're doing kind of same thing, but with an approach of like, supporting business people that are dealing with addiction, if that makes sense. It's niching. down to, you know, getting into a small area of helping people instead of that broad area of well, I'm going to help IT teams, you know, right. And that, you know,

Leighann Lovely  12:14

You said something that that resonated with me niching down into that small area, which is I think that what we all need to do, you know, businesses out there used to say, Okay, we're gonna have every service in the world so that we can try to help everybody. That's no longer I think what people want, they want to be able to call one company that is the absolute expert, on whatever, that that that thing that they need is so because yeah, if I call, you know, if I call my doctor's office, and I have, you know, a broken finger, and they say, well, we specialize on toes, you know, I don't want to talk to them. I want to talk to the finger guy. Yes. So that mean, that's great. That's, that's awesome. And there are so many things happening in the world today. One being, addiction, mental health, whether that be related to addiction, whether that be related to what's happened with the pandemic. I mean, the list could go on. But that's amazing for not only to take that from kind of that life coach standpoint, but from the business standpoint, because people forget that just because you may be a successful business person, doesn't mean that you don't have some demons or skeletons in your closet. I think I said this to you, you know, the first time we talked, the more money you have, doesn't necessarily mean that problems go away. It typically means the bigger the problem, get. Yeah, yeah, yes. So I mean that I commend you on that. Tell me a little bit if you're open to it, about your story.

Kevin White  14:06

Yeah, so behind everything I told you, is the story of my addiction. Right. So starting when I was a kid, so I was, and I can confidently say now, but like, basically, it was a long journey. In the last, I would say six years away from addiction, but with different stages that I could identify for you. But so I was a porn addict that started when I was a kid. And something happened to me that was fairly similar. A lot of guys that I've talked to have been exposed to that type of material. Very young. No big deal, right? Like it's like part of life. So why was I interested in it? Well, when you dig in, and kind of the work that I've done in the healing process, is I was exposed. I was vulnerable to it because I just moved to a new school. I think I'm naturally curious, I'm possibly a little more have a more open to dicted personality than other people possibly. I think we find that among addicts that we have a certain we have certain traits that maybe make us more open to it, right. But really what it comes down to is like the rejection I was feeling in my new school. You know, even with living on a block with, like, 40 kids like all the dynamics of what was happening in my neighborhood, and, and you know, I wasn't dealing with that very well. And so I was looking for over the period of the rest of my school life. When I was exposed to that type of thing, I was using that as a, as a cover up for the pain I was feeling. And I think that we would probably say that this is similar for almost all addictions, there's a, there's a commonality here and that it's a coping thing, right. It's, it's, we don't want to address pain, we don't want to end it. But we get new problems, right? We haven't shamed now and all these new things. So right, it's behind. So behind everything we talked about, I was dealing with that in my relationship I was married, my wife was dealing with most of the problems with those what was going on? So I know how much you want to get into all of the specifics around this, because it's a big story. But like, yes, that's my that's my journey. And part of the reason why I think it's so important in business to support people's mental health, because, of course, no, no owner, no manager that I had knew that that was there. And I'm not saying that it's always appropriate for managers to know this. But I think one reason why coaching is a thing is because, like, and coaching in business, even life coaching in businesses, the thing is, because I started working like my, my journey, more recently has been working with a coach on business things, right? Getting with the team, how, how can I serve my team members better, how can I understand them better, all of those things, that's a really safe place to work on some of these things that are impacting us internally. Okay. And so then, but then we can extend it beyond that, we can take it into our personal life, into our relationships into our relationships with our kids. And so that's what I'm seeing with, I would say, a very broad community that's focused across many needs. One thing that I'm focused on and I see some other coaches focused on is this concept of, hey, business is a great area where we can work on ourselves, we can work together, we can work on how we communicate better, how we leverage each other better, how we support each other better. And then those things that we learn at work, we can bring home,

Leighann Lovely  17:59

Correct. And we spend so much time at work, that if if we're able to work on ourselves at work, and be able to work on ourselves at home, whether that if we need additional help through a mental health provider, or through a doctor, we're able to hone in on that when we're on our personal time. But if we're working with somebody at work as well, on trying to figure out areas of need there, I mean, think about how powerful that can be. I mean, putting those two things together is is that's an extremely strong thing. And to have people who are brave enough to come in and talk about their addictions, in a public forum, is just it's an amazing thing to do. Because, again, very much like all of the other conversations that are happening out there around mental health and around, you know, neurodiversity, and around again, the list goes on. These are the conversations that need to happen so that people no longer think of oh my gosh, that's such a bad horrible thing. I mean, we need to, we need to have those conversations in order to make people you know, realize that this is happening. It could be happening to you, it could be happening to a family member, your neighbor, it could be happening to your co worker, and you may have no idea. You know, your best friends could be, you know, hiding booze all over their house. And you may have no idea, you know, and some people may be laughing at that, but I know somebody who, you know, hey, I had absolutely no idea that they were drinking from the time they woke up in the morning until the time that they went to bed. I mean, I've experienced myself where I had no idea that a very close friend of mine was a severe alcoholic until one day I found the booze. And I went, I had no idea. I had no idea. Yes, no. And those are those are things that need to be addressed not just at home, but at work at on a, on a whole person level. Yes, it's not just now, I want to go back a little bit. You know, and I don't want to dig in too much to anything that you don't want to talk about. But you know, you were telling your story, and then you kind of jumped into the business sense of it. Obviously, your story, you know, has had a huge impact on, on you. And at some point, you had that aha moment where you went, I want to, I want to beat this. And I don't know if that started with you working with a coach and thinking I can overcome this or I can work through and I don't know that I'm using the right terminology. So forgive me if I'm being naive here. But you know, I don't know if it's, if you're a recovering if you're, I don't know what how you use those terms. So again, at some point, you had to have had an aha moment and go, Okay, I I want to do better. I want to be better for the people I work with. And for my family. Do you have a moment that it kind of happened for you, when you when you dug in and decided? I'm gonna, you know, and how was that affecting? Was it affecting your work? Was it affecting your family?

Kevin White  21:36

Wow. So those are that's a lot of questions. Sorry, I'm sorry, I do that a lot, where I asked like eight questions at the same time. Let me think so. Yes, there, there's, there was more than one, but for sure. My wife is pretty much all of them. Okay. So if you were just imagine for a second, the person who's listening, right? Having, especially if you're a woman having a relationship with an addict, that where they're not available to you really mentally. Okay. So, because addicts are, in our minds, you know, we're thinking about way too many things that have nothing to do with reality, how we're going to look, find other people how we're going to cope, especially with me with her. Since this type of addiction affects our relationship. As a married couple, there was a lot that certainly I didn't understand. And she didn't understand either about the ins and outs of our relationship. So the big awakening points were when she was like, even though she was aware of what was going on to a certain extent, where she would just be like, Okay, I'm not accepting this type of behavior, this selfish behavior, let's just call it that I'm not accepting this selfish behavior. I think, I think I would probably go with two points that made a difference. And they were both related to her. One is when she committed to me that she wasn't going to leave the relationship. But two, when she said, I'm not going to tolerate emotional abuse, or anything that has to do with you being selfish, right, because this is about us having healthy relationships. Right. So he things were the main points that led to healing, if that makes sense.

Leighann Lovely  23:36

It absolutely does. And I would assume that at that point, you kind of were scrambling around saying okay, now what, how do I, how do I do better?

Kevin White  23:47

Oh, for sure. And like, and especially in one particular moment that I remember, although, this really didn't I think there was more than one right? But anyway, there's a couple times where I had to choose Okay, I want to be I can be, I can say go live in my brother's house who's a is an alcoholic, or I can choose my family. I have six boys. I didn't through all of this. We have a two year old and all the way up to 19. But um, I had to basically work through those. Well, it's a very extensive process that we can't obviously get into just because of time but. I had to choose between two I just want to be a bachelor living or you know, with my brother and just have very unhealthy relationships or do I want a future with my soulmate? You know, with someone that I really appreciate and, and love to have in my life along with my kids. What do I want us? What do I want them to see? Do I want to see them? Or what I do I want them to see me give up or do I want to be there for them if they're having to dress them like that? And so, I mean, as simple as it sounds like, there's an obvious answer here, right? In those moments, it was actually hard. Because of how messed up I was right, in my mind, but, um, but I do think it wasn't like all the excuses I had about how I was actually fine and didn't have a problem or the things that held me back, right. So, I don't know if that answers all your questions.

Leighann Lovely  25:38

It does. I mean, it paints a picture to where you're headed now.

Kevin White  25:45

Yes.

Leighann Lovely  25:46

So tell me about that.

Kevin White  25:49

Yeah, so I've been working with my friends. And actually, I've been doing some life coaching for addicts. And then I've been working with business people who are my friends. Originally, I was thinking that I would work with business and like, with teams, with leadership teams, with business owners, and support them, and like, kind of what you talked about. Whereas they don't always understand where their employees are coming from. And they get into a situation where there is a conflict, or there is something that they don't completely understand. And I'd be there to support both sides. But the goal is to support the business, right, because it's greater than any one party. However, along the journey, I had, I definitely had success with other addicts. In particular, one man, that man, he just kind of had the same thing happened, where his wife's like, I've had enough of this. And our wives knew each other. And we started working. And like a year and a half later, he was completely different. He changed his career. He was just awesome. And I was so much fun. I was like, Man, I'd love to do more of this. But I didn't think I could put both of them together. But as I've been talking with people about  business, people that are addicts, it's like everyone's coming to me and saying, Yes, this is the thing. I'm not planning to go around and tell a bunch of people about the people I'm working with in the future, right, because this is a private thing. And that's, they have to do that they have to tell you, but I mean, what we're really dealing with here with a lot of this mental stuff is the shame of what's going on in our lives, you know, the things that the dirty part of our lives that we don't want to share with people. And what that what that does in the workplace, is it's, it's making us have fake relationships, right? Because we're not being vulnerable about who we really are. And as soon as we start, we flip the switch, and we start really telling people about whatever it is, that is a problem in our life, or at least a struggle in our life. Okay? The more that we find connections with people that can help us to be the best version of ourselves. And the more we can support each other,

Leighann Lovely  28:25

Right? Once you humanize somebody, once you become vulnerable, and they become human in your eyes, and no longer this shell of a person or the ideal human, you take them off the pedestal of being perfect. All of the sudden, all of the the fakeness gets washed away. And I will tell you that there are many people who in my career that I've looked at and went wow, that he has to be perfect, because he's so successful and he's so and I idolized. And instead of, you know, having, and then when you find out like, Oh, he's got, you know, this or he's getting a divorce or you, you go oh, well, he's, he's just human and you humanize these people, and all of the sudden the fear of well, what if I screw up in front of them? Or what if I, you know, it washes away and people can actually then build genuine connections with each other. It's an amazing thing. Yes, it absolutely is an amazing thing. And it needs to happen more. And I'm not again, I'm not saying that everybody should go and dump their bag of laundry out on the conference room table. You know, again, it just it needs to happen naturally. People can build more genuine relationships, by being more human with who they truly are by being authentic. And I think that we all have seen that over this last 20 months, 22 months, whatever, whatever it is now. And this is just another step in that, the world, the world needs help right now.

Kevin White  30:14

You know, we all have. I mean life is is a challenge, it's also a great opportunity. I think there's, I think that there's a huge benefit to what's happening. I shouldn't say a benefit. It's a potential benefit. What's happening with all of this change in the work place? And where we're working in that the hybrid working and all of those things? I think it gives us an opportunity to provide new tools for employees and for for business people. I don't know, I don't have the answers. Right. And what that looks like I have, I think coaching is one tool that could be helpful, but I think that the answer is probably different for most businesses, like there's, you know, like, maybe your HR team is already well situated and has good relationships with the company, and can offer more around mental support, you would probably know more about that kind of stuff than I would. Or maybe you need. Maybe there's like having someone that has that role in the business around mental health or? I don't know, I don't know what it looks like. Like, that's, I think that's the beauty of what we get to explore together in the business community is how do we, we have the opportunity? How do we take that opportunity? And turn it into something?

Leighann Lovely  31:41

Yeah, no, I, it's, it's a scary thought. It's a scary thought to think, one, let me back up. It's, it's amazing to think that we could have somebody who's specifically hired at a company to handle mental health or handle employee wellness or, and it's also a scary thought, because I don't know that if they're employed by the company, a lot of employees wouldn't be completely honest at this at this time in the world, because they'd be like, Well, I'm not going to go in and tell them about my whatever it might be my addiction to this, I'm going to get fired. But maybe at some point in the world, we'll be able to get to that point where, where that would never happen, where a company truly cares enough that they'll say, there is you know, whatever you say to this person cannot be, you know, disclosed cannot go. But then you always run that fine line, if if a company is aware that somebody is addicted to heroin, and they're responsible for driving a forklift, or, Yeah, where's the liability fall? You know, there's always there's always something so that and that's why a lot of employees are so scared of, you know, I'm an alcoholic, but I have a job that requires me to use equipment of some kind. And that's that fear will always stay or resonate with them? And who do they go to? How do they get help? If it's through a company?

Kevin White  33:25

That's a good point? Was I live in this alternative universe?

Leighann Lovely  33:30

No. Again, this is my HR hat going on, you know, saying,you know, the legal aspect of things where sometimes I hate that it rears its ugly head.

Kevin White  33:41

Yeah, I think there's, I think there's a couple things in the small business, you're gonna you, you can do, it doesn't have to be public support, right? Like this can be even just people that are mentors within the business, that are the under like, especially people that have gone through something, and can from the sponsorship of the business, but from a more private approach, right, like, they don't even necessarily have to know the details, they could just encourage you to get help in certain way, like, or talk to this person. Right. So I think there's a lot of more informal ways we can, we can work together. But I also think I want to acknowledge some CEOs of companies, you know, not necessarily your fortune 500, but that are out there making products and running businesses that are coming out. Right, and I think that some of those employees are then gonna under have an opportunity to say, Oh, the leader is acknowledging his problem. And this comes down to a question you said earlier, which is, you know, from an attic standpoint, is it recovering? Is it healing? Is it healed? I believe that we can heal. Okay, so I know that there's some differences, and especially the addict community around us like because the 12 step says, you know, you're recovering for the rest of your life. I truly believe in healing. That's been my experience, I've had a lot of help. I've had a lot of people that have been involved. But what I'm saying is, is that, mainly, the main point is that if more people come out, then it doesn't always have to be like, we're standing in the conference room and everyone, we all share our work. That's not appropriate. That's right. We can create groups subgroups, that aren't necessarily maybe even the liability of the company, sponsor some of the more popular issues that we could support each other in. And maybe that's just not appropriate in certain companies. Right, like, right. I don't know that this is for everyone. I'm not sure what the answers are.

Leighann Lovely  35:54

So I'm not just I'm not saying that this has to be publicly acknowledged at a company, nor am I saying that you can't help a company heal, if there is multiple people that you want to work with. Or if you're going into work with a company coaching around this subject, it's, again, when my you know, my comment about liability and everything else that was if you are an employee of a company addressing that, as Yeah, as an outside person going in, you're not obligated to the company to report anything. You don't work for that company. But I think that what, what you're talking about having a having people be able to come to you and work with you. And have it be a service that a company offers to their employees. That's an that's an amazing service that that could be provided. Because some people, they're not comfortable walking into an AA meeting, or an NA meeting or an I don't know, all the acronyms for all of the different addictions that are out there any, you know, at this time, but some people that's not that's not their jam. Some people don't like group meetings like that some people, you know, just won't do that type of work. Some people may prefer having a private individual coach. And I have to be honest, I've talked to a lot of people about going and getting individual counseling through a mental health professional. And there's a waiting list right now. Yes, to become a new patient months and months out. Yeah. I mean, the world needs more people, like you who are willing to have the conversations about it, because you've experienced it. What better way to learn, what better way to heal than through and with somebody who has gone through it. I would rather sit down and talk with somebody who has experienced what I'm going through than somebody who's read a book about what I've gone through.

Kevin White  38:14

Yeah, I mean, I definitely don't want to discourage or like, like, sometimes therapy is appropriate. Okay. Especially when it's but I'm, like, I'm not trying to. I'm just thinking like, people are unique. I think that what I really want to underscore about what you just said is for me, and I think a lot of certain types of addictions, there's like a lot of shame. Some are more inch. A, like it's more common that well, I'm addicted to cigarettes, big deal, right? Oh, I lifted the food. Big deal. Alcohol is a little more shameful. But, you know, there's some addictions like definitely pornography addiction, is there's a lot of shame related to it. Okay, it's, we're embarrassed about that we're doing that and who in the world wants to talk about it? So I think that, for me as an introvert, my journey has been with not just my coach who was other there I had someone at several people that were helping me, okay. I, yes, I think that having a more one on one work is a thing and can be done in mainly, if I want if I can just speak to the addicts for a second, if anyone's listening or if you know other than that. Our main problem is shame about coming out and saying, Hey, I'm an addict, right? And that's why I don't want to get help. So the biggest thing is if you can tell someone and if you can tell someone that already knows what you're going through, that's great as well. But if you want to make a change in your life, life and I'm speaking to someone that that is affected by addiction. Tell someone, all right, just get the courage to tell someone, what you find is, we're all human, we all make mistakes. And most of the time, people want to be there for you, it might not be that they can help you, but there might not someone that can. So I think it's important to just get over that it's gonna hurt. It's painful, shameful thing. But you're gonna feel so much better when you start to heal from it.

Leighann Lovely  40:34

Thank you. I mean, and I encourage anybody who is listening to this, who is interested in getting help, and I want to, I want to make sure that my comment was not misunderstood. I am not discouraging, going to a psychiatrist or therapist in any way, shape or form. Something like this is an amazing thing that you're doing it, it truly is. And, you know, I'm going to flip this over to you to do a little self-promotion. You know, if somebody is interested in reaching out to you, and wants to have a conversation about this, how can they reach out to you? How can they, you know, learn more about you?

Kevin White  41:12

Sure, you can email me, it's probably the easiest. I'm on LinkedIn, Kevin White. But email me directly is maybe the easiest way to get to me. My email address is Kevin, at the White group.us. So Kevin@thewhitegroup.us

Leighann Lovely  41:30

Excellent. Now we're at time, but I have one more question. This is the question of the season. If you could pinpoint a time period in your career, that made a huge difference in your life or career paths. When would that be and why?

Kevin White  41:48

My biggest impact was I spoke earlier about this consultant that I worked with for in consultancy I worked for in Madison, Wisconsin. And I that was the biggest impact in my career. And it was really, because in that business, they were completely open, from top to bottom. I'll just say it in this way. I had a client that I worked for, that I was a friend with before I started at this business. And two years later, I moved on to a different job. And he asked me, So did you sell the company you were working for. And I'm like, I didn't own that company. I just worked for that company. And so this company that I worked for, really established a very strong vision. They, they were open with everything from all the financials to what their goals were, everything was open. And we had so much fun together. I saw the business owner that believes in people that believed in what he was providing to the community, and was clear on his vision and what he wanted to create. And he was he was kind of like an economist, so it was his thing. The money you know, was was something that he could project and think about and yeah, anyway, so that was the biggest impact on me is like a business owner that really believed in people really invested in his people and invested in his business and really invested in his client relationships.

Leighann Lovely  43:34

That's awesome. And isn't it funny how we all, you know, this so far this season, every person I've talked to it always comes back to somebody who just truly honestly, cares genuinely about people. It's I mean, that's what it's all about.

Leighann Lovely  43:56

Well, Kevin, I have truly enjoyed this conversation. And I have to really commend you on being so open and vulnerable and honest with us today. So thank you so very much.

Kevin White  44:09

Yeah, thank you for having me on. And I knew we would have a great conversation.

Leighann Lovely  44:15

Yeah, that'd be that's been awesome.

Kevin White  44:18

All right.

Leighann Lovely  44:20

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, too, follow us like us or share us. Have a wonderful day.

Kevin White Linkedin - linkedin.com/in/kevin-g-white 

Kevin White E-mail Adress - Kevin@thewhitegroup.us 

Website, The White Group - https://www.kevingwhite.com/  

 

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