The old adage that preaches “to follow your dreams” might seem outdated in today’s precarious working world but get ready to meet a visionary that’s turning fantasy into reality. In this episode, Jennifer talks with Mary Miller, the CEO of a Cincinnati-based janitorial services company called Jancoa, and about their pioneering Dream Manager Program — and how to create a genuine culture of caring is a serious game changer for both employees and employers.

• First things first: Who is Mary Miller and what brought her to where she is today? The short answer? Herself! Tune in to hear more about how Mary went from being a bankrupt twice-divorced single mom with two kids to being the CEO and primary shareholder of Jancoa.
• When it comes to living a journey like Mary’s, there are lessons around every corner. Mary talks about what she learned from her past and how she applied it to her future.
• Here’s a taste of Mary’s philosophy of work: instead of keeping a laser focus on the task at hand and the money, making space for recognizing opportunities will take you to the next step.
• Mary brings her wealth of experience to her coaching with Strategic Coach, where she works with business owners and entrepreneurs. When talking to her clients about keeping an eye out for opportunity and growth, she uses a question developed by one of Strategic Coach’s founders Dan Sullivan: “If we were sitting here a year from now, what would have to happen for you to be really happy with your progress?”
• For Mary, intentionality in not only goal-setting but reflection that can give you the breathing room to check in with yourself and your efforts — and adjust if necessary. Mary sets aside one day per quarter to reflect on the last 90 days, specifically to track down lessons that can be applied in the future.
• How did The Dream Manager Program start at Jancoa? Mary talks about how the idea for the program sprouted out of their efforts to retain employees after chronic turnover problems.
• After meeting the best-selling author Matthew Kelly, Mary and her husband Tony – the founder of Jancoa – told him their story. Their program served as the backbone of the business fable featured in The Dream Manager book.
• For many of Jancoa’s employees, their dreams were about uplifting their family and future generations to come. Mary talks about how enabling this kind of success amounts to a culture-shifting endeavor.
• Let’s talk metrics: with their Dream Manager Program, Mary and Tony set out to create a workplace that makes people want to stick around. Mary discusses about the results of those efforts from a business perspective.
• Thanks to the Dream Manager Program, there are countless success stories that come out of Jancoa. Mary shares some of the highlights with us and talks about how as the business grew, the formal Program has transformed into a broader culture of caring that consistently attracts quality employees.
• Now that the second generation is overseeing the day-to-day operations of the company, Mary now travels for speaking engagements and coaching workshops. She talks about how her role as a CEO has her more occupied with questions of long term vision and workplace philosophy than ever before.
• Mary recently published a book about the backstory of The Dream Manager Program called Changing Direction: 10 Choices that Impact Your Dreams by Mary Miller. She talks about the first point: you’ll never get anywhere if you can’t learn to embrace change.
• So what’s next for Mary Miller? She talks about her speaking work and her own dreams to transform the lives of others and make an even bigger positive impact in the world. Mary also gives us some tips and links for resources to follow.

Resources & Links:

Mary Miller LinkedIn

Mary Miller Twitter

Mary Miller – Speaking

Strategic Coach – Mary Miller

Jancoa

The Dream Manager Program at Jancoa (Program)

Floyd Consulting

The Dream Manager by Matthew Kelly (Book)

Changing Direction: 10 Choices that Impact Your Dreams by Mary Miller

Mike Sipple, Sr.

BucketList.org

Impact Makers Episode 1 – What Does It Mean To Be An Impact Maker?

Are you struggling with developing your personal brand?

You can now download Jennifer McClure’s Personal Branding Worksheet to help you ask and answer the right questions so you’re making the best impression.

Check out another trailblazing HR powerhouse!

HR expert Laurie Ruettiman hosts a podcast called Let’s Fix Work where she speaks with a diverse array of people about how to change the way we think and work for the better.

Give us a hand getting the word out!

Do you want to spend your personal and professional time making a lasting impact on others? Do you want to be the kind of leader people love? Subscribe today and we will bring you new ways to change the world every single week.

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Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

We all need other people in order to help us grow! Whether you’re looking for a job, a contact, promoting a service or looking to collaborate, there are many ways to go about it. In today’s episode, Jennifer shares some thoughts and pointers on how to network by building and maintaining relationships with generosity and respect.

When it comes to changing hearts and minds in the workplace, nothing will bring people to your podium like a powerful personal story. Today, Jennifer talks with her good friend and old colleague Mary Faulkner, the author of the widely read blog Surviving Leadership. She is currently the Director of Human Resources, Talent and Total Rewards at Denver Water.

• Can you guess what Mary wanted to be as a young woman? Mary tells us a little bit about her educational and business history and how she found herself in the world of HR.
• The two met in 2013 while Jennifer was working a consulting contract at the company Mary was a part of. Mary talks about the details of her career since 2013, Jennifer’s influence on her development, and her blog HR-focused blog called Surviving Leadership.
• The focus of Mary’s blog isn’t just about the view from the top down; she also consistently approaches HR from an employee position and touches on a broad range of topics within the corporate landscape.
• One of the themes that Mary has been writing about is fear-based leadership in the workplace. For example, fears of innovation failure, fears of internal politics, or fear of speaking one’s mind. She uses the example of the #MeToo movement and the cultures of fear that prevent people from speaking out.
• What can those in leadership roles do to make space for people to speak out? Mary offers some specific suggestions for those at the top.
• A deep understanding of the many idiosyncrasies of corporate leadership culture is bound to change the way one sees the workplace. Jennifer asks Mary about how her work and writing has changed her own leadership style and work relationships.
• Like thousands of other impact makers, Twitter changed the game for Mary Faulkner. Jennifer asks Mary about how being connected to a globally diverse range of people has impacted her perspective and working style.
• Through her social media coverage of HR conferences, Mary has been invited to cover, speak at and organize a range of events. Jennifer asks Mary about how these experiences have helped her grow her career and enhance her practice.
• When it comes to laying it out for the top brass, HR departments are often on the back foot when justifying their programs. So being an HR practitioner and a consistently travelling speaker isn’t so common. Mary talks about how she balances these two parts of her career and offers some advice for conference organizers on how to get more HR practitioners on the stage.
• Stage fright is no joke but there are even greater challenges to building a quality conference presentation. Mary provides some pointers on how to work your way up to the podium and the value of presenting your story.
• Who are some the biggest impact makers in Mary Faulkner’s life? Mary talks about some of her leadership mentors and about the future of career.

Resources & Links:

Mary Faulkner website

Mary Faulkner LinkedIn

Mary Faulkner Twitter

Mary Faulkner Instagram

DisruptHR

DisruptHR Denver

Carla Shull

Laurie Ruettimann

Paul Hebert

Matthew Stollak

Steve Browne

Are you struggling with developing your personal brand?

You can now download Jennifer McClure’s Personal Branding Worksheet to help you ask and answer the right questions so you’re making the best impression.

Check out another trailblazing HR powerhouse!

HR expert Laurie Ruettiman hosts a podcast called Let’s Fix Work where she speaks with a diverse array of people about how to change the way we think and work for the better.

Give us a hand getting the word out!

Do you want to spend your personal and professional time making a lasting impact on others? Do you want to be the kind of leader people love? Subscribe today and we will bring you new ways to change the world every single week.

In today’s world, getting a degree isn’t the only way to making your entrepreneurial dream a reality. Jennifer talks with Claire Coder, a 21-year-old college dropout and founder/CEO of the wildly successful Aunt Flow. Her company provides high-quality menstrual products to a variety of schools, businesses, and organizations, and donates thousands more to women in need across the country.

• So, where did it all start? Claire takes us back to her high school days and tells Jennifer about the beginning of her entrepreneurial journey: starting a promotional products company at the age of 16.
• Claire was destined for sales. After becoming a top seller on Etsy and having a blast running her modest company, she realized her passion lay in the entrepreneurial world.
• The ultimate question for a young mind: where are you going after high school? For Claire, that question has always meant college. But knowing academia wasn’t where she would thrive, Claire kept her eyes on the horizon for any new opportunity.
• Sometimes inspiration can come from those day-to-day experiences that throw a wrench in your gears. While attending a 54-hour entrepreneur hackathon weekend and realizing that the bathroom had no menstrual products whatsoever, Claire knew something could be done. And thus, Aunt Flow was born.
• Why is better access to menstrual products so important? Claire drops the facts: in the United States, menstrual products are not covered by food stamps or by the SNAP and WIC programs and as a consequence 16 million women living at or below the poverty line don’t have dependable access to tampons and pads. In a woman’s lifetime, she will spend an average of $3000 dollars on tampons and pads, many of them subpar and overpriced.
• After learning about how menstrual products are made with highly dangerous ingredients like chlorine bleaches, synthetic fabrics, and dyes, Claire was driven to create a sustainable and accessible alternative. Aunt Flow now manufactures 100% organic cotton tampons and pads, and sells them to businesses and companies, which they then provide to their students, guests and employees in their bathrooms and restrooms.
• Every new endeavor requires sacrifices and compromise. Claire describes the contentious choice to drop out of school to start Aunt Flow, and what the first months and years of her business were like. From product sourcing, to building a website, to learning how to become an adult, Claire built up her business over two years before finally launching sales.
• In 2016, where does a college dropout working 3 waitressing jobs get the kind of funding to start a company? The answer was, naturally: crowdfunding. Using her experience running crowdfunding campaigns at her marketing day job, Claire raised $25,000 to purchase Aunt Flow’s first product run.
• So where did the name Aunt Flow come from? Jennifer asks Claire about the origin story of the name and how she turned an old-fashioned euphemism into a winning brand identity.
• For ridiculous reasons, most people don’t like talking about menstruation, but Claire is all about speaking frankly. Jennifer asks Claire about her outspoken nature and how that has played into her life’s journey so far. Claire talks about her work as a nude model for artists, and how that experience has helped her embrace both her body and her self going forward.
• Today, Aunt Flow currently serves over a hundred businesses and organizations but its beginnings were more humble. Claire talks about Aunt Flow’s early individual subscription model and how it eventually enabled the business to transition into the B2B space. Claire also describes the values that she held onto from the very beginning, when the company still operated on the subscription model: for every Aunt Flow box purchased, one was donated to a person in need in the United States.
• Aunt Flow now serves some very large organizations and companies, from Fortune 500’s to major universities. Jennifer asks Claire about how she secured her biggest clients and how these large accounts enable Aunt Flow to donate tens of thousands of menstrual products a year. Last year, Aunt Flow donated 100,000 menstrual products. This year, Claire is shooting to donate half a million.
• As a young woman in the business world, asking for what you want, riding out the no, and learning when and how to ask again is the not-so-secret to success. Claire fills us in on her philosophy of business and how it has enabled her company to secure great clients, as well as high-profile media attention.
• When it comes to the brand, Claire is the charismatic face and voice of Aunt Flow. Claire discusses the decision to use her personal profile to push conversations about menstruation into the mainstream via CEO-focused media coverage. She also talks about the more challenging aspects of being a young business woman, and how sometimes both a combination of ageism and sexism can rear its head in both client and investor interactions.
• As a young entrepreneur, what advice does Claire have for other young change makers trying to make the world a better place? Here’s her 2-part breakdown:
  • Just Google it! Use the power of the information age to your advantage and don’t be afraid to research.
  • Make a Big Ask. If you can’t find the right answer or person for your problem, don’t be afraid to get straight to the point.
• Everyone has role models or trailblazers they look to for inspiration. Claire talks about the success of Jeni Britton Bauer of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, as well as her advisors at Aunt Flow.
• How does Claire feel about not finishing college? Despite some mild FOMO about dormitory experiences or collective school pride, Claire has no regrets. Would she recommend her path to others? Well, figuring out whether or not college is for you is a lot cheaper if you’re not in college.