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Dec. 12, 2024

From Adversity to Achievement Inspiring Stories

Imagine transforming adversity into a pioneering HR success story—Procure Talent Management Group did just that. Join us on "Let's Talk About It," where Shatema and I, TJ, celebrate the spirit of Black excellence in HR and entrepreneurship. We're joined by a distinguished guest, the Chief HR Officer of the Arizona Cardinals and President of the National Society of Black Sports Professionals, who recently earned the Power 50 Under 40 Award from the US Black Chamber. Together, we explore how PTMG turned the underestimated role of HR into a powerhouse of innovation, offering strategic solutions to bridge the gap between vendor and headcount budgets.

This episode is packed with personal tales of resilience and growth. From my unexpected career launch at Kohl's to navigating complex challenges at Walmart, including disaster management and tech overhauls, the journey is as insightful as it is inspiring. We delve into the motivational role of music, from Yolanda Adams’ gospel to the beats of UGK, which has been a steadfast companion through life's trials. We also express heartfelt gratitude for the incredible community support at our recent gala event, held at the culturally significant Carver Museum, highlighting Black excellence in sports. Join us for these compelling discussions, and gain fresh insights into the power of resilience and innovation within the Black community.

Chapters

00:04 - Empowering Black Excellence in HR

12:06 - Navigating Career Challenges With Resilience

23:22 - Resilience Through Music and Challenges

Transcript

WEBVTT

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Welcome to let's Talk About it, the podcast where we shine a light on the change agents and everyday heroes who shape our communities.

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Here we dive deep into the lived experiences of our guests, exploring the milestone moments that have either propelled them forward or changed their paths moments that have either propelled them forward or changed their paths.

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We anchor every conversation in two foundational pillars of the Black community books and music.

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Through this unique lens, we capture, entertain and inform, weaving a rich tapestry of stories and insights that resonate, inspire and spark meaningful dialogue.

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Join our host, tj, tj Lowry and Shatima Grisham as they engage with thought leaders and community change agents to uncover the rich tapestry of experiences that shape our lives.

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Get ready for insightful discussions, unfiltered perspectives and the celebration of Black excellence let's talk about it.

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Excellence let's talk about it.

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Hey everyone, welcome to let's Talk About it, the podcast.

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I'm your girl, TJ, here, and I'm so excited to dive into today's show.

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We're bringing you one of the prominent HR professionals in the Valley and we're so excited to catch up with them.

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Before we do that, I need to introduce my prominent host, shatima.

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How you doing let's talk about it girl?

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Hey there, how's it going?

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It's going, it's going.

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You've been hanging in there, I've been hanging in there.

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What about you?

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Pretty good, pretty good.

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Tell me how PTMG is doing during this time.

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and what are some of your clients looking like?

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Yeah, so we are.

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We're doing really well.

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The company's thriving.

00:01:49.875 --> 00:02:09.685
So Procure Talent Management Group is an HR consulting firm that specializes in talent management, so it essentially is just the strategy of how you attract, hire, develop and retain your talent, your human capital hire, develop and retain your talent, your human capital.

00:02:09.685 --> 00:02:10.707
You know the market is marketing.

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So we definitely have felt the impact of that, but we are thriving.

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Our client base is, you know, really diverse, so we have a few.

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You know, recruitment is always, you know, it's always going to be the bread and butter direct placement, temporary support, things like that.

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So, really just working on our global talents, I have a new strategy in place to be a provider of global talents.

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I'm excited about that Good.

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And your reach.

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Yeah, for sure there's still.

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You know, a lot of companies are going overseas, but there's also talent that wants to come here, and so having some of that duality of offering resources for that has been really good.

00:02:53.300 --> 00:03:02.283
Yeah, now I feel like you have a really cool or inspiring origin story for PTMG, also born out of the pandemic.

00:03:02.283 --> 00:03:03.828
How did that come about?

00:03:03.848 --> 00:03:05.652
I had a really bad day at work.

00:03:05.652 --> 00:03:15.612
So I had a really bad day at work one Friday and was just really frustrated.

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You know HR sometimes is a thankless job, especially when you are supporting.

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You know large entrepreneur-based companies where they don't really understand the real impact of you know large entrepreneur-based companies where they don't really understand the real impact of you know what HR can do for the company, and I was looking for additional headcount, but because we don't make any money, they never want to give you the headcount, and you know our results were.

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I needed support, I needed help.

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What they would give me, though, was temporary support.

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Can't give you a head count, but you need someone for 90 days, you need somebody for six months.

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Tell me how long you need someone.

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I can bring someone in to help you, and so you know.

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The business was kind of built on that of providing that support that HR professionals need in a temporary status and or permanent if needed, because I found, in growing up in HR, that vendor, the vendor budget, is different than the headcount budget and it's usually a little more robust.

00:04:19.880 --> 00:04:29.387
So we would, you know, pay for third parties to come in and pay them thousands of dollars, but I couldn't get a head count you know, yeah, part of that I see.

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They can, you know, take the salary for a short period of time on the expense report, right, but they don't see the value in what the people and providing the long-term resource does to the bottom line is the non-tangible.

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So it is so hard for us as HR professionals to, you know, make that case and explain that to them.

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It needs to be a short-term hit to the P&L and move on, get what you need.

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And so we're stretched and extended beyond what we can do and the ask just keeps growing, right, and we need this and this is necessary.

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And so when you say, well, we need a recruiter for that to be quicker, there is no expenditure for that, we're not going to invest in that.

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So to you, the bad day, you know, lead into success at PTMG and I feel like that's inspiring, even though it came out of a bad day.

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You know, lead into success at PTMG and I feel like that's inspiring, even though it came out of a bad day, I feel like your story definitely has inspired me, and you know the team at BHRS, and so we always are proud of you.

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Yeah.

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Entrepreneurship is tough in these streets, but rewarding yes for sure.

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Thank you.

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Let's dive into our show and thank you for sharing that and being vulnerable with our audience.

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Who are you introducing us to today?

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throw down a little bit on your background.

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So this is the chief HR officer at the Arizona Cardinals.

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He's also the president of BSP, which is the National Society of Black Sports Professionals.

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He's also a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity and just recently got awarded as recent as a few weeks ago the Power 50 Under 40 Award for the US Black Chamber right.

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So he's an Arizona resident of the last three years by way of Arkansas, originally from Houston.

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Did I get that right Okay so welcome Thank you Thanks for having me.

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Yeah, I'm looking forward to it.

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Such a nice bio and it's exciting especially for us, you know to see a black man here in Arizona.

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So, ladies, they are out there.

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I know we keep hearing that, but they exist.

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We're excited to have you on the show, sean.

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We're going to do an icebreaker.

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We're HR professionals, we call this, let's talk about it.

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So we're going to ask you a question, just give us the first answer that comes to mind, okay.

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All right.

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Favorite hip-hop artist.

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Favorite hip-hop artist?

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That's a good one.

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I don't know about favorite, I'll say current favorite.

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How about that I?

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like that.

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I don't know.

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I've been playing a lot of Drake lately.

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All right.

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Alright, I didn't know we still listened to Drake.

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Yeah, why you think he?

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got canceled because of the tender.

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I don't know, I guess that's what I heard.

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Okay, I still like Drake, so he's still alright with me.

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Alright Favorite hip-hop music video.

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Video.

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Oh, that's a good one, you know.

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What came to mind immediately is Big Pimpin' Jay-Z and Pimp c.

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Yes, now I'm gonna tell the story.

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I don't remember the name of the song.

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I need to go look the song up.

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But when I was on the campus of tsu so that's where I went they actually were recording a video there with ti and pimp c.

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Okay, uh, and so like, if I knew the name of that one, I would put that at the top of the list because I was in the mix.

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I was in the mix.

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But Pimp C looks like he's winning out.

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Best R&B album of all time.

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Of all time.

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I'm a big Usher fan, so I would probably go Usher Confessions or something like that.

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That's probably where I'm going to go with the R&B.

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Did you see him in Vegas?

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I did see the residency.

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I did too.

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Yeah, it was great I was.

00:08:24.502 --> 00:08:25.163
Did you see him in Vegas?

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I did see the residency, I didn't know, yeah, it was great.

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I did too.

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It was great.

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I was about ready to risk it.

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All I did.

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I was on stage in the beginning I ran up.

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I was one of the ladies, so I had a good time.

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You had a good time, absolutely, yeah, yeah, yeah.

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I'm a big Dutch fan.

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He's here in.

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I think it's on the new album a little more yeah.

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I think, so Residency was great though.

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Yeah, it was great.

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Awesome A pop song that always gets you dancing.

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A pop song that gets me dancing.

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I don't know, that's a good one, a pop song that gets me dancing.

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I don't know.

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I would probably go Party in the USA, or something like that yeah, yeah that's where I'd probably go, so yeah yeah, yeah what was your first concert?

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First concert, that's a good one.

00:09:17.451 --> 00:09:19.054
Oh, let me think back now.

00:09:19.054 --> 00:09:28.866
Uh, first concert, I want to say my first concert was actually on the campus of TSU and it was a bunch of, like, local artists.

00:09:28.866 --> 00:09:32.568
So if people are familiar with Houston, you go.

00:09:32.671 --> 00:09:38.086
Lil' Kiki and Lil' Flip, and that was like my first like that was like my first concert.

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Tsu was poppin'.

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What's going on down there?

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Hbcu, HBCU.

00:09:42.227 --> 00:09:42.368
Yeah.

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What about the most underrated artists in your opinion?

00:09:47.700 --> 00:09:48.784
Underrated artists.

00:09:48.784 --> 00:09:51.008
That's a good one.

00:09:51.008 --> 00:10:03.274
There's a guy that I like named Russ, that he's a rapper kind of singer tone.

00:10:03.274 --> 00:10:10.245
He puts out some good hits that I think just haven't made it mainstream but I would go with Russ.

00:10:10.245 --> 00:10:12.770
Well, send it to us so we can check Russ out.

00:10:14.249 --> 00:10:17.268
What CD is in rotation CD?

00:10:17.288 --> 00:10:19.493
We don't need to say that right now, but what's?

00:10:22.009 --> 00:10:23.395
heavier on the playlist.

00:10:23.395 --> 00:10:26.553
I think we call it playlist and yet streaming heavy.

00:10:26.573 --> 00:10:27.196
Yeah, let's see.

00:10:27.196 --> 00:10:30.154
Well, it's probably streaming heavy for me right now.

00:10:30.154 --> 00:10:33.214
It's actually well, spotify was in my Spotify list.

00:10:33.214 --> 00:10:37.447
Right now I've got this I don't know, I think it's like.

00:10:37.447 --> 00:10:42.138
I think the title of it is something like Black Uptempo Gospel.

00:10:42.138 --> 00:10:44.871
It's what's going on right now.

00:10:44.871 --> 00:10:46.913
That's probably getting a lot of play.

00:10:46.913 --> 00:10:53.008
Aside from that, I go back to Usher, the Weeknd, like those are typically.

00:10:53.008 --> 00:10:58.458
There's some Drake like Drake's CDs and stuff are on Spotify pretty much.

00:11:02.351 --> 00:11:03.433
Is that Black Hip Hop Gospel Does?

00:11:03.594 --> 00:11:05.999
it got like r&b hip-hop flair in it.

00:11:06.144 --> 00:11:10.658
It does yeah like it's got me what was in the rotation and it's a lot, it's a lot of uh.

00:11:10.658 --> 00:11:18.186
I think the artist is uh, hubby and like lecrae, uh, and so it's got a lot of that and it's got a lot of that in there.

00:11:18.186 --> 00:11:19.749
Then it's bringing out some old school.

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They'll put some Kirk Franklin stomp in there.

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It's just upbeat.

00:11:23.157 --> 00:11:23.957
I like that.

00:11:23.957 --> 00:11:25.884
I need that for cleaning on the floor, yeah, yeah.

00:11:25.884 --> 00:11:28.875
Yeah, that's been in there a little bit, all right, yeah.

00:11:29.285 --> 00:11:32.772
And then let me ask one more what's your favorite genre of music?

00:11:32.932 --> 00:11:36.489
Genre of music, I mean definitely R&B.

00:11:36.489 --> 00:11:37.669
I'm yeah, yeah.

00:11:37.730 --> 00:11:44.679
So when did you first fall in love with R&B and speak to that in terms of how you got into this career.

00:11:48.524 --> 00:11:49.268
Oh gotcha, first fall in love.

00:11:49.268 --> 00:11:49.749
Fell in love with R&B.

00:11:49.749 --> 00:11:51.014
It probably comes back from my childhood.

00:11:51.014 --> 00:11:53.725
My mom, like I remember, back in the day, talk about cleaning, right.

00:11:53.725 --> 00:11:57.797
I remember my mama throwing on some Isley Brothers and it was, you know, when the songs came on.

00:11:57.797 --> 00:11:59.528
Ok, it's time to like Saturday morning.

00:11:59.548 --> 00:12:06.046
Yeah, it's like time to clean up, right, so like I, think that's where, like I probably said, that's probably where it uh, where it came from.

00:12:06.046 --> 00:12:17.890
And then in terms of, uh, you know, transitioning into this career, um, you know, and I never set out to be an HR right, like probably so many of us, like I don't, but yeah, yeah.

00:12:18.392 --> 00:12:19.572
I can go to school.

00:12:19.572 --> 00:12:25.999
I wanted to be this HR professional, but I ended up really being thrown into an HR role.

00:12:25.999 --> 00:12:51.047
I was in Houston at the time, prior to what I do now is all retail, and so I was working at Kohl's department stores and got a random call from our district manager at the time and said hey, our HR manager, slash operations, dual job operations in HR, quit, and you're going to go be the new HR operations manager for this new building that we're opening out in League City.

00:12:51.047 --> 00:12:53.491
So go do it.

00:12:53.491 --> 00:12:56.738
And you got to go hire 200 people to open this store.

00:12:56.738 --> 00:12:58.729
And so that was my introduction into HR.

00:12:59.451 --> 00:13:09.113
I love that, so that would be the intro to your song your HR career right, like thrown in it or something, yeah.

00:13:09.113 --> 00:13:18.659
And so now we're in the song after those first few bars, those first 60 bars.

00:13:18.659 --> 00:13:22.386
When did the beat drop in your career, In life?

00:13:22.386 --> 00:13:26.174
This would be the moment you started to see your career really take off.

00:13:26.174 --> 00:13:27.277
When did the beat drop?

00:13:27.317 --> 00:13:28.119
When did the beat drop.

00:13:28.119 --> 00:13:36.919
I would say definitely this move I ended up making to Walmart in the sense of moving to the corporate office.

00:13:36.919 --> 00:13:40.833
So I talked about the Kohl's experience there.

00:13:40.833 --> 00:13:41.676
I pretty much stayed.

00:13:41.676 --> 00:13:59.918
Kohl's went to a couple of the different retailers, but we're all in the field and I got an opportunity in.

00:13:59.918 --> 00:14:04.881
You know, it gets everything dumped on it that nobody else wants to do.

00:14:06.003 --> 00:14:42.552
But it was there in that job and had an amazing boss that really supported me, started to open a lot of doors for me in terms of my career, and so I spent the next, you know, four or five years there at Walmart, pretty much changing jobs and getting promoted every 12 months from that point on, and so that beat dropping was really the move to Arkansas that put me in a position that had this plethora of just other opportunities that existed, because if I stayed in a field like there's only one HR job in the field, like there's nowhere else to really go, and so that's what I would, that's what I'd go with.

00:14:43.186 --> 00:14:44.770
Love that, all that exposure.

00:14:44.770 --> 00:14:50.705
All that exposure In Arkansas Probably would have never thought oh, I want to move to Arkansas.

00:14:51.206 --> 00:14:51.830
Never on my list.

00:14:51.830 --> 00:14:55.099
It was never on my list.

00:14:55.547 --> 00:14:58.291
Alright, so we talked about the beat drop and let's talk about the verse.

00:14:58.291 --> 00:15:02.307
The verse is the part of the song that's used to advance the plot.

00:15:02.307 --> 00:15:07.628
Um, the verse makes up the majority of the sound and often tells those complex stories.

00:15:07.628 --> 00:15:11.014
Um, what is the verse on your personal soundtrack?

00:15:11.014 --> 00:15:17.845
You know, share maybe the most difficult career challenges or how you navigated those yeah, difficult career challenges.

00:15:18.105 --> 00:15:18.866
I give a couple right.

00:15:18.866 --> 00:15:23.878
Um going back, this is my, my time at Walmart, one of the most, one of the most.

00:15:24.067 --> 00:15:24.700
I saw a lot at.

00:15:24.720 --> 00:15:24.964
Walmart.

00:15:25.306 --> 00:15:26.431
I saw a lot at Walmart.

00:15:29.565 --> 00:15:32.750
There's two things that I give there that I talk about One.

00:15:32.750 --> 00:15:37.580
I talk about that project manager job being the hodgepodge of like everything nobody else wanted to do.

00:15:37.580 --> 00:15:59.495
One of the things that I got an opportunity to take on and was violently told that I was going to do is go be a part of this emergency operations center, and this emergency operations center is pretty much spun over at Walmart anytime that something disrupts the natural flow of business so think of all the hurricanes and things that are happening on the East Coast we would get activated to figure out what does that mean for our stores.

00:15:59.495 --> 00:16:07.395
I was responsible for the people function, and so that was really how do we account for our people and take care of our people that are in that area happening there?

00:16:07.395 --> 00:16:11.272
So I got thrown over there and when I did that, I didn't want to go and do it.

00:16:12.284 --> 00:16:18.856
I'll tell you, I was voluntold and the very first year I was there, I spent like 57 days straight working in the EOC.

00:16:18.856 --> 00:16:31.652
So not doing my normal job, doing this extra job, um, taking care of our employees, which was really important, but it really allowed me to build relationships across the entire Walmart enterprise, right, uh?

00:16:31.652 --> 00:16:33.355
So that was one and then that.

00:16:33.355 --> 00:16:35.349
So that was, that was more relationship building.

00:16:35.349 --> 00:16:43.746
It was hard work, it was challenging, uh, but the relationships, the connections I made out of that paid dividends for sure over the course of my career.

00:16:43.746 --> 00:16:54.136
And then the one that was probably the most challenging for me was I ended up taking on a job after that project manager job to be a director of people modernization.

00:16:54.136 --> 00:16:59.580
That job was focused on a tech overhaul to bring in a new HRS system.

00:16:59.580 --> 00:17:01.264
Fun tech overhaul to bring in a new HRIS system.

00:17:01.565 --> 00:17:02.636
Yeah right, I know right.

00:17:02.636 --> 00:17:09.794
Those were always fun, and so we had decided that we were going to bring in Workday into Walmart.

00:17:11.790 --> 00:17:12.272
Into Walmart.

00:17:12.272 --> 00:17:24.045
So Workday was coming in to take the place of a homegrown system, and so yeah yeah, all that proprietary information that somebody thought was great and so yeah, yeah, all that proprietary information that somebody thought was great.

00:17:24.105 --> 00:17:25.189
Yeah, and so that job.

00:17:25.189 --> 00:17:30.603
It was the most challenging, for sure, but I can look back on it and also say it was the most rewarding.

00:17:30.603 --> 00:17:41.454
Yeah, but when you talk about, you know CEOs and everybody at your desk and on the phone trying to figure out what's going on, because we got all kind of downstream issues.

00:17:41.605 --> 00:17:43.670
And the spend, uh-huh yeah uh.

00:17:43.710 --> 00:17:47.806
So that was definitely the the most, uh, the most challenging uh piece of the career.

00:17:47.806 --> 00:17:48.528
And then I go.

00:17:48.528 --> 00:17:49.150
You know if I go.

00:17:49.210 --> 00:18:10.234
Third one I know you only asked for one, but I just go to all the disappointment too that's happened related to jobs, because not everybody, you know, sees where I am today and they're like oh, that's great, like, but there's so, yeah, there's so much disappointment along the way of jobs that I didn't necessarily get that I thought I was supposed to get, and things of that nature so many no's right before I got to a yes.

00:18:10.234 --> 00:18:18.819
And so I go back to those being challenging moments too, when you feel like you're ready for the next opportunity and it doesn't materialize the way you want it to materialize.

00:18:22.224 --> 00:18:26.696
I think you said a lot right there, because especially in HR there are a lot of no's, there's a lot of.

00:18:26.696 --> 00:18:34.916
You know it's hostile because sometimes when they're downsizing it's the first group you know that doesn't produce any money.

00:18:34.916 --> 00:18:39.305
So they're looking to say, oh well, the hiring manager can interview, we don't need a recruiter.

00:18:39.305 --> 00:18:46.546
Or you know, this person's been running this department forever, so they can do, they can be the business partner and they start to move through there.

00:18:46.546 --> 00:18:55.135
But even navigating externally, trying to get in that department is really hard because it's already tight as far as bandwidth and head counts and all that good stuff.

00:18:55.545 --> 00:19:04.970
Oh yeah, those are challenging but I do believe they build, you know, those resilience and all those things we need that character that we now have.

00:19:04.970 --> 00:19:13.957
It certainly can build that imposter syndrome when we do get something that we know we're supposed to have because well, why did they reject me?

00:19:13.957 --> 00:19:23.906
You know you go through that process but you've got to go back and refine yourself and remember your value so that you can get back to the next thing and keep functioning.

00:19:23.988 --> 00:19:34.653
So I do feel like, as hard as they are, we need those no's to to get back grounded and humble, and we all have had it, we've all had yes, the rejection.

00:19:34.653 --> 00:19:45.921
You know, I knew that job was for me, um and and then, when you think back to it, it's like, wow, you know, could have, should have, would have, and so we can be grateful for where we are no, absolutely yeah.

00:19:45.961 --> 00:20:01.134
I always take an approach of like hey, like if that didn't happen, it wasn't for me right, like there's a reason why that didn't happen, right, and usually you find that reason later, yeah right like hey, they downsize or something happens and you're like, oh, god appreciate, appreciate that or you get greater.

00:20:01.153 --> 00:20:02.478
you know you get something greater.

00:20:02.644 --> 00:20:09.876
You know, I've certainly had that happen where the doors close but then when the one opens, I'm like I'd rather have this anyway, right.

00:20:09.944 --> 00:20:17.135
But you just don't know that because you are in that moment but you got to process it and go through it and you get stronger and better.

00:20:17.135 --> 00:20:19.310
So I want to talk about the chorus.

00:20:19.310 --> 00:20:26.109
They say it's the heart of the song, and so it captures the main message and emotional essence.

00:20:26.109 --> 00:20:30.138
It's the part most listeners remember and sing along to.

00:20:30.138 --> 00:20:37.439
So what has been the core message for you, sean, in your career and also in your personal life?

00:20:37.704 --> 00:20:38.685
Yeah, that's good.

00:20:38.685 --> 00:20:39.286
That's good.

00:20:39.286 --> 00:20:49.354
I think there's there's a couple of things that I think I show up as consistently, regardless of what we're talking about work or personal Right.

00:20:49.354 --> 00:21:02.468
I think people have become known really as really a person that gets shit done Right, whether we're talking personally or professionally Right done right, whether we're talking personally or professionally right.

00:21:02.488 --> 00:21:15.432
Um, I've become, uh, and then when I talk about that, like people know, like that that I'm associated with, like they can call me, no matter the day, the hour, the time, and like if something needs to get done at that time, like I'm gonna make sure that it happens and it gets done right.

00:21:15.432 --> 00:21:30.992
Um, I've also, you know, become known for what I tell folks is like making the complex, simple, love that Right, and so I think that has paid like really good you know dividends for me over time.

00:21:30.992 --> 00:21:48.444
And then I always talk about relationships right, like I've been I hope that people would say this too but like I've become a really great person and hopefully building what I would call mutually beneficial relationships, and so I'm never really after really anything, um, you know, for for my own self right.

00:21:48.464 --> 00:21:55.510
Like there's no real self interest and anything that, um, I'm trying to do like do I want to be successful and do I want to do?

00:21:55.510 --> 00:22:02.413
I want to grow Like absolutely, but I'm not ever taking calculated things to make that happen.

00:22:02.413 --> 00:22:04.037
Right, like I'm just out trying to do.

00:22:04.037 --> 00:22:06.671
I'm just out trying to do good Right.

00:22:06.671 --> 00:22:14.366
And so that's what I would say, hopefully would would show up in that course around things, that kind of thread, the needle of personal and professional.

00:22:14.847 --> 00:22:15.650
I like that.

00:22:15.650 --> 00:22:17.493
I like making the complex simple.

00:22:17.493 --> 00:22:18.877
That's a, that's a book.

00:22:20.405 --> 00:22:22.230
And it's a way to sell any product.

00:22:22.230 --> 00:22:23.211
You know what I mean.

00:22:23.211 --> 00:22:24.736
Like what is the goal?

00:22:24.736 --> 00:22:25.778
You make it simple.

00:22:25.778 --> 00:22:34.372
What resonates for me is the character piece right, and also the reciprocity I want to make sure I'm giving to other people.

00:22:34.392 --> 00:22:55.691
It's so much more rewarding for me to support and help people than to need something to you know expect something back back, and that really is just our core character, and so I feel like people who are intentional about ensuring our characters in check will get those rewards, will get less, and that's not what we need to chase.

00:22:55.691 --> 00:23:01.529
We just need to chase remaining a good person and character, so I love that I love that.

00:23:02.291 --> 00:23:09.059
All right, we're to the bridge okay bring in the bridge all right uh, the bridge helps, breaks up the repetitiveness of the song.

00:23:09.059 --> 00:23:14.994
It adds an element of surprise generally and often presents a new angle to the main idea.

00:23:14.994 --> 00:23:21.075
What is your bridge or the thing that shakes you up just a little bit picks me up a little bit.

00:23:21.115 --> 00:23:21.757
That's really good.

00:23:21.757 --> 00:23:23.669
There's a lot of things, uh, I don't know.

00:23:23.669 --> 00:23:27.017
Like, when you said that, I immediately, like, went to pet peeves, like I don't know why.

00:23:27.017 --> 00:23:29.471
But you know, there's, there's.

00:23:29.471 --> 00:23:32.459
You know, I don't, I don't, I don't like excuses.

00:23:32.459 --> 00:23:33.582
Right.

00:23:33.582 --> 00:23:37.169
Again, I get that there's reasons why things happen.

00:23:37.169 --> 00:23:43.159
But I also think, like you know, I take an approach of like, if it's within my control, I'm going to control it.

00:23:43.159 --> 00:23:45.122
Right, I'm going to change that outcome.

00:23:45.122 --> 00:23:49.891
If it's not, I'm not going to worry about it, I'm going to let it roll down you know my back and leave it alone.

00:23:49.891 --> 00:24:01.295
And so, like, excuses tend to shake me up, right, I think about there's other things too, like tardiness and not being prepared and like all that stuff.

00:24:01.295 --> 00:24:05.579
Right, but that would be the one that probably comes to the top of mind.

00:24:05.579 --> 00:24:06.800
Is that one?

00:24:07.365 --> 00:24:15.372
I'm sure you've heard a lot of good excuses oh, always, always, yeah, always, anything that comes to the top of your head, we can take a whole other session.

00:24:15.512 --> 00:24:17.529
I know let's talk about it.

00:24:19.286 --> 00:24:21.128
We're HR professionals right Get them.

00:24:21.230 --> 00:24:27.170
Okay, here's another one, Simple, but like I didn't have time Like that's like an excuse, right, like okay, no, you didn't make time.

00:24:27.170 --> 00:24:32.590
It's not about having time, you had time, right, it just wasn't a priority for you.

00:24:32.590 --> 00:24:33.473
So that's a simple one.

00:24:33.473 --> 00:24:43.446
But, like whenever someone said I didn't have time to do it right, yeah, it wasn't important, right?

00:24:43.467 --> 00:24:44.809
like let's just talk about that piece, right?

00:24:44.809 --> 00:24:54.152
So what song is your go-to song, sean, that has pushed you through some challenges, rough times, or just simply today's going to be a day.

00:24:54.152 --> 00:24:55.153
It's going to be, more.

00:24:55.153 --> 00:24:56.577
What are you putting on question?

00:24:56.724 --> 00:24:56.965
I don't.

00:24:56.965 --> 00:24:57.586
That's a good one.

00:24:57.586 --> 00:24:59.932
I don't know about today, but I'll.

00:24:59.932 --> 00:25:02.165
I'll talk a little bit about this right.

00:25:02.165 --> 00:25:06.805
I lost my mom when I was 20, uh, grandparent my grandmother when I was 18.

00:25:06.805 --> 00:25:18.520
And both of those folks pretty much raised me in the song that I remember during that time that really helped was actually Yolanda Adams.

00:25:18.520 --> 00:25:19.346
Be blessed.

00:25:19.788 --> 00:25:23.317
Oh be blessed, Love me some, yolanda, yeah, yeah.

00:25:23.356 --> 00:25:26.007
Yeah, oh, be blessed, love me some.

00:25:26.007 --> 00:25:26.207
Yulanda.

00:25:26.207 --> 00:25:26.910
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, uh.

00:25:26.910 --> 00:25:28.173
So that's the song that immediately came to mind.

00:25:28.173 --> 00:25:31.403
Like today, I can't say I got a song that I like put on and like play I'll.

00:25:31.483 --> 00:25:38.948
I'll listen to a lot of different things today so definitely depends on the, on the energy and the mood yeah, sometimes you gotta turn up, sometimes.

00:25:39.167 --> 00:25:39.989
Oh really.

00:25:40.309 --> 00:25:41.330
Oh, go ahead.

00:25:41.330 --> 00:25:43.413
All right, see, all right.

00:25:43.413 --> 00:25:49.519
Yeah, I made the mistake of buying a karaoke machine this weekend, oh great.

00:25:49.599 --> 00:25:50.882
We'll come over, yeah, okay.

00:25:51.105 --> 00:25:53.172
We're going to have a little get-together.

00:25:53.413 --> 00:25:55.875
You're Maricopa, you are smidgen, maricopa.

00:25:55.875 --> 00:25:57.448
Yeah, yeah, I'll make the hype.

00:25:57.488 --> 00:25:59.031
Okay, you'll make the hype All right.

00:25:59.071 --> 00:25:59.512
Here you go.

00:25:59.512 --> 00:26:03.866
That sounds fun.

00:26:03.866 --> 00:26:07.612
So albums, you know, or full soundtracks.

00:26:07.612 --> 00:26:10.876
What do you recommend for a guest to purchase if they haven't already?

00:26:10.876 --> 00:26:13.460
One that you can maybe listen to from start to finish?

00:26:17.464 --> 00:26:18.948
A good album to listen to from start to finish.

00:26:18.948 --> 00:26:23.577
I'll give you two, all right, because I'm going to give you like one side and my other side.

00:26:23.577 --> 00:26:26.210
I'll tell you I got like two sides, okay.

00:26:26.210 --> 00:26:30.807
Like I'm like good and holy, like I'll give you like, uh, like both of those, all right.

00:26:30.807 --> 00:26:33.137
So I'm gonna go holy first, all right.

00:26:33.137 --> 00:26:35.928
Really, what I've been listening to, what I really like, who I like right now?

00:26:35.928 --> 00:26:37.692
Uh, maverick city music, okay.

00:26:37.692 --> 00:26:41.709
Uh, they do a really really good job so I try to catch them anytime they're in town.

00:26:41.709 --> 00:27:02.118
Uh, what I would go with on the holy side, on the hood side, I'm going to probably go with something Houston, and it's probably going to be like some UGK or something along those lines.

00:27:02.159 --> 00:27:04.811
All right, houston, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:27:04.832 --> 00:27:11.508
I know, like I love my Houston music I mean I could even go DJ Screw, like it's just like a whole lot of different things that I could go there.

00:27:11.508 --> 00:27:18.990
Those are the sounds of my childhood that just bring back like so many memories, and so those would be the two.

00:27:18.990 --> 00:27:20.810
So I cheated and I gave you two.

00:27:27.594 --> 00:27:28.173
I love them.

00:27:28.233 --> 00:27:40.394
I wanted to the two, so I cheated and I gave you two, so I actually had an opportunity to attend the gala and I was enjoying the the uh award ceremony.

00:27:40.394 --> 00:27:44.622
For sure, there were some great prominent people sold out quickly.

00:27:44.622 --> 00:27:50.375
Um, I found myself having a great time for the after party while we're talking about the music.

00:27:50.375 --> 00:27:57.727
Um, I also got a chance to bounce the basketball a little bit, so that was pretty cool, but it was a great turnout um.

00:27:57.787 --> 00:27:59.769
Shout out to you for putting that together.

00:27:59.769 --> 00:28:00.830
It was poised.

00:28:00.830 --> 00:28:03.496
Uh, the carver museum looked great.

00:28:03.496 --> 00:28:08.951
Everything was fun, so I was surprised and very happy to be in that space.

00:28:09.010 --> 00:28:12.185
It just felt really good yeah, well, definitely thanks for supporting.

00:28:12.185 --> 00:28:18.326
It was our first one, so we had no idea how it was going to turn out, but very pleased with uh how how it turned out.

00:28:18.326 --> 00:28:22.133
It was so important, uh, for us to do it in that space.

00:28:22.133 --> 00:28:31.634
Yeah Right, there's so much historical context there and for us to be, you know, an organization that's focused on Blacks in sports.

00:28:31.634 --> 00:28:33.744
It was important for us to do it there.

00:28:33.885 --> 00:28:45.627
But the support from the community and from everybody it blew our expectations out of the water, so thanks for sure, well, we're proud of you and we want to keep supporting you in every way.

00:28:45.627 --> 00:28:52.796
I mean, we is in the black community here in in the valley, um, and just really proud to see you doing your thing, so we'll keep doing that.

00:28:52.796 --> 00:29:00.416
Um, we also really appreciate your time and you hanging out with shatima and I today and giving us a chance to talk about it.

00:29:00.416 --> 00:29:03.672
Um, tell everybody where they can find you yeah, yeah.

00:29:03.692 --> 00:29:15.690
So LinkedIn, instagram, x for those that use X, but LinkedIn, just my name, sean Mayo, but X and IG, sean Mayo HR, are the places you can find me.

00:29:15.690 --> 00:29:19.929
Thank you all for having me, thanks for putting this together and anything I can do to support you all.

00:29:19.929 --> 00:29:21.230
I'm a resource.

00:29:21.230 --> 00:29:25.239
I want to be able to help and support wherever I can.

00:29:26.326 --> 00:29:26.868
Thank you.

00:29:26.868 --> 00:29:29.598
Yeah, thank you so much for hanging out with us.

00:29:29.598 --> 00:29:30.662
We learned a lot.

00:29:30.662 --> 00:29:35.653
I'm definitely going to check out some of these recommendations that you've made for sure.

00:29:35.653 --> 00:29:36.655
For sure.

00:29:36.655 --> 00:29:39.028
I think of Maverick City.

00:29:39.028 --> 00:29:40.512
They were just here, Weren't they just here?

00:29:40.772 --> 00:29:41.074
They were.

00:29:41.074 --> 00:29:42.486
Yeah, I think they were just here, yeah.

00:29:42.886 --> 00:29:48.519
Yeah, I definitely need a little more, little more church in me these days to put it together.

00:29:48.519 --> 00:29:55.238
I want to also thank Procure Talent Management Group as a sponsor to the let's Talk About it podcast.

00:29:55.238 --> 00:29:57.512
It's an HR consulting firm located here.

00:29:57.512 --> 00:30:01.066
I am the CEO of that TJ.

00:30:01.066 --> 00:30:03.453
You want to talk about the Black HR Society?

00:30:03.453 --> 00:30:04.215
Absolutely.

00:30:04.345 --> 00:30:07.596
Our sponsor in hometown, the Black HR Society.

00:30:07.596 --> 00:30:10.775
We want to thank BHRS and our community.

00:30:10.775 --> 00:30:15.998
Be sure to like, follow and subscribe everywhere you can find your podcasts.

00:30:15.998 --> 00:30:18.313
Let's talk about it as well.

00:30:18.313 --> 00:30:24.316
We've got our own social sites, so please make sure you follow and subscribe and come on back next time.

00:30:24.316 --> 00:30:29.015
We are so glad to have you and can't look forward to next time.

00:30:29.015 --> 00:30:29.797
So thank you.

00:30:32.105 --> 00:30:35.574
Thank you for tuning into let's Talk About it the podcast.

00:30:35.574 --> 00:30:42.269
We hope you enjoyed today's conversation and found inspiration in the stories and experiences shared.

00:30:42.269 --> 00:30:48.195
We trust that you were entertained, learned something new and felt inspired by today's show.

00:30:48.195 --> 00:30:54.041
Be sure to subscribe, like, follow, share and join us for the next episode.

00:30:54.041 --> 00:31:00.342
Until then, keep the conversation going and let's keep talking about it.

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