Melissa Ortiz: Basically, the idea is that we all have
Melissa Ortiz: these super highways in our brains, our
Melissa Ortiz: natural talents, and if I try to travel on
Melissa Ortiz: your super highways, it's going to feel
Melissa Ortiz: like a gravel road because my brain didn't
Melissa Ortiz: develop the way yours did.
Melissa Ortiz: Yeah, trust me.
Mark Haney: You don't want to try to drive on my.
Mark Haney: I wouldn't even call it an interstate, it's
Mark Haney: not even any kind of highway.
Mark Haney: Yes, this is the Mark Haney Show on a
Mark Haney: mission to ignite the entrepreneurial
Mark Haney: revolution right here in the hometown.
Mark Haney: We love to ignite the entrepreneurial
Mark Haney: revolution right here in the hometown.
Mark Haney: We love and we do that by sharing the
Mark Haney: stories of entrepreneurs.
Mark Haney: And the show really was started so that if
Mark Haney: you heard a story about somebody who was
Mark Haney: successful, it might inspire you to take a
Mark Haney: leap of faith and maybe try
Mark Haney: entrepreneurship or maybe try to grow your
Mark Haney: business a little bit more.
Mark Haney: And today on the show we have Melissa Ortiz.
Mark Haney: So today we are going to be inspired, but
Mark Haney: you're also going to be educated.
Mark Haney: So she is an entrepreneur, she also helps
Mark Haney: other entrepreneurs and we're going to get
Mark Haney: to know her because she is delightful, she
Mark Haney: is energetic and I don't know how she has
Mark Haney: as much energy as she does, but we'll see
Mark Haney: if she can match my energy today on the
Mark Haney: show.
Mark Haney: That's a serious challenge man Melissa how?
Melissa Ortiz: are you doing?
Melissa Ortiz: I'm great.
Melissa Ortiz: Thank you for having me, okay.
Mark Haney: So let's just get to know you a little bit.
Mark Haney: So maybe just an overview of the business
Mark Haney: and then we will go.
Mark Haney: I'll probably just jump around on this
Mark Haney: because this is gonna be fun.
Melissa Ortiz: Okay, great.
Melissa Ortiz: So in a nutshell, I help people do better
Melissa Ortiz: at their jobs okay and do better at the
Melissa Ortiz: jobs.
Mark Haney: They don't have to be an entrepreneur.
Melissa Ortiz: They could be somebody working for big
Melissa Ortiz: business, small business, whatever, yeah
Melissa Ortiz: basically, the idea is that we all have
Melissa Ortiz: these super highways in our brains, our
Melissa Ortiz: natural talents, and if we try to if I try
Melissa Ortiz: to travel on your super highways, it's
Melissa Ortiz: going to feel like a gravel road, because
Melissa Ortiz: my brain didn't develop the way yours did.
Melissa Ortiz: Oh yeah, trust me, you don't want to try to
Melissa Ortiz: drive on my.
Mark Haney: I wouldn't even call it an interstate, you
Mark Haney: know, it's not even any kind of highway.
Melissa Ortiz: But it's interesting because by the time
Melissa Ortiz: we're about 15 years old, those super
Melissa Ortiz: highways are developed and our job, as we
Melissa Ortiz: mature and gain professional maturity and
Melissa Ortiz: sophistication, is to find those highways
Melissa Ortiz: and use them.
Melissa Ortiz: Instead of trying to emulate people around
Melissa Ortiz: us who are really good, we have to find our
Melissa Ortiz: own path to success, and I think that's
Melissa Ortiz: maybe the most beautiful thing about
Melissa Ortiz: entrepreneurship is it's these people who
Melissa Ortiz: often have tried in the normal structure of
Melissa Ortiz: the workplace and been like I can't do this,
Melissa Ortiz: this is too constraining, this is too
Melissa Ortiz: whatever, and they exit stage left and go
Melissa Ortiz: try something else.
Melissa Ortiz: And they find their highway of the best
Melissa Ortiz: flow or what have you Turns out, we can do
Melissa Ortiz: that within the workplace too, and often
Melissa Ortiz: there are employers who are excited about
Melissa Ortiz: that.
Melissa Ortiz: And so, helping the right people, friend
Melissa Ortiz: the right seats in the organization that
Melissa Ortiz: are using their talents, make sure they're
Melissa Ortiz: engaged in their work and that we keep them
Melissa Ortiz: and keep helping them perform at higher
Melissa Ortiz: levels, because I think the thing that you
Melissa Ortiz: probably it would resonate most with you
Melissa Ortiz: about the work that I do and it certainly
Melissa Ortiz: resonates most with me is when we get those
Melissa Ortiz: conditions right, it turns out employees
Melissa Ortiz: can perform at higher levels.
Melissa Ortiz: We, as entrepreneurs, can perform at higher
Melissa Ortiz: levels.
Melissa Ortiz: But oh, by the way, we go home after doing
Melissa Ortiz: better work during the day for our
Melissa Ortiz: teammates, for our internal and external
Melissa Ortiz: clients.
Melissa Ortiz: We go home with more energy for our family,
Melissa Ortiz: for our faith, for our physical well-being,
Melissa Ortiz: for our community, whatever is important to
Melissa Ortiz: us.
Melissa Ortiz: There's gas in the tank left.
Melissa Ortiz: But if I'm in the wrong seat, if I am
Melissa Ortiz: working for a bad manager, if my job is
Melissa Ortiz: draining the ever-loving life out of me,
Melissa Ortiz: what do I do?
Melissa Ortiz: We come home, I crack a beer, I chill out
Melissa Ortiz: and I've got nothing left for anybody,
Melissa Ortiz: including myself, and so that's huge for me
Melissa Ortiz: Interesting.
Mark Haney: Well, I have this.
Mark Haney: I'm wearing my shirt today.
Mark Haney: Everything is figureoutable and I feel like,
Mark Haney: if I'm an employee and I'm not quite
Mark Haney: satisfied with the direction that my job is
Mark Haney: taking me, I want to tell you, everything
Mark Haney: is figureoutable If you, regardless of what
Mark Haney: you want, if you have enough imagination
Mark Haney: and enough inspired action, enough
Mark Haney: stick-to-itiveness, you can figure out
Mark Haney: anything you want to do within an
Mark Haney: organization, or maybe it's something
Mark Haney: outside the organization, but you can
Mark Haney: figure it out.
Mark Haney: And I think it's incumbent on us, as let's
Mark Haney: call it, the leaders of the business, or
Mark Haney: maybe the managers or the founders, if you
Mark Haney: will, the owners to listen to what our
Mark Haney: employees want in their lives, so that we
Mark Haney: can help open up some of those doors or
Mark Haney: maybe apply some extra imagination to the
Mark Haney: challenge.
Melissa Ortiz: Yeah, I call that owning your own
Melissa Ortiz: engagement, because I think too many people
Melissa Ortiz: decide things aren't figureoutable and so
Melissa Ortiz: they are stuck.
Melissa Ortiz: And they need to be stuck because they're
Melissa Ortiz: supporting their families or their elderly
Melissa Ortiz: parents or these people are depending on
Melissa Ortiz: them and I can't figure it out because it
Melissa Ortiz: will jeopardize this stability and all that
Melissa Ortiz: does is drain their life force.
Melissa Ortiz: And it breaks my heart because just there's
Melissa Ortiz: too much.
Melissa Ortiz: One of my core values is I hate waste.
Melissa Ortiz: I hate wasted time, energy, talent,
Melissa Ortiz: enthusiasm, money especially.
Melissa Ortiz: But when you decide in your brain things
Melissa Ortiz: aren't figureoutable and you're stuck.
Melissa Ortiz: There's nothing more heartbreaking and so
Melissa Ortiz: we have to take ownership individually and
Melissa Ortiz: as leaders.
Melissa Ortiz: We need to encourage people to be like okay,
Melissa Ortiz: what is it?
Melissa Ortiz: Where are you at, where do you want to be?
Mark Haney: We do, and so if you're one, let's get
Mark Haney: inside this employee's head at this stage.
Mark Haney: I'm working in an organization.
Mark Haney: I feel unheard, I feel unnoticed, I don't
Mark Haney: see opportunities.
Mark Haney: I'm starting to lose desire because of just
Mark Haney: where I'm at, but I'm, you know, I'm maybe
Mark Haney: procrastinating on the couch with a beer
Mark Haney: instead of dealing with it.
Mark Haney: What do you?
Mark Haney: What's the first step?
Mark Haney: Is it talking, you know, communicating with
Mark Haney: somebody in the organization, what matters
Mark Haney: to you and what you, what you'd like to see
Mark Haney: for yourself.
Melissa Ortiz: Maybe, Okay.
Melissa Ortiz: Maybe it's something in your personal life
Melissa Ortiz: that at least gives you a little extra
Melissa Ortiz: juice to then go back to work and start
Melissa Ortiz: looking around, because if we can't find
Melissa Ortiz: opportunities to do better at work, I'll be
Melissa Ortiz: shocked.
Melissa Ortiz: Because what I find in the employee
Melissa Ortiz: engagement space is often the most
Melissa Ortiz: disengaged employees have the best ideas.
Melissa Ortiz: They are just terrible at communicating
Melissa Ortiz: those ideas.
Melissa Ortiz: They're frustrated and they vent and they
Melissa Ortiz: complain instead of bringing a couple of
Melissa Ortiz: workable solutions to the table and be like
Melissa Ortiz: I'm frustrated and I'm going to do
Melissa Ortiz: something about it.
Melissa Ortiz: And here are my four ideas.
Melissa Ortiz: And when you bring it to the table that way
Melissa Ortiz: and it's partially our ability to listen as
Melissa Ortiz: leaders like what are they really saying
Melissa Ortiz: here?
Melissa Ortiz: But it's also our responsibility as
Melissa Ortiz: employees to own our own engagement and say
Melissa Ortiz: I'm frustrated, here's what I think is
Melissa Ortiz: broken.
Melissa Ortiz: And sometimes the owners or managers aren't
Melissa Ortiz: willing to fix it.
Melissa Ortiz: And sometimes that's your turn to exit
Melissa Ortiz: stage left.
Melissa Ortiz: Yeah, but try.
Mark Haney: Yeah, but try yeah.
Mark Haney: No, I like how you uh began your step with,
Mark Haney: not necessarily because if you are, really,
Mark Haney: if you have a victim mindset, uh, and you
Mark Haney: can't uh get your, get your head right, and
Mark Haney: that might happen at home, right?
Mark Haney: So what do you need to do?
Mark Haney: Potentially cut out of your life so that
Mark Haney: you have enough time to be a little bit
Mark Haney: solution oriented on how you're at least
Mark Haney: going to start the conversation with your
Mark Haney: supervisor or with the owner of the company.
Mark Haney: You need to carve out a little bit of time
Mark Haney: for yourself to develop a workable plan,
Mark Haney: workable vision for where you want to take
Mark Haney: that conversation.
Mark Haney: And you got to cut out, maybe you know you
Mark Haney: got to put the bad, get some of the bad
Mark Haney: stuff out of your life and put in some
Mark Haney: downtime for yourself.
Melissa Ortiz: Stuff and or people.
Melissa Ortiz: So often we surround ourselves, the people
Melissa Ortiz: that I see in victim mentality.
Melissa Ortiz: They surround themselves with willing
Melissa Ortiz: listeners and people they can commiserate
Melissa Ortiz: with, and if you start to separate yourself
Melissa Ortiz: from that and make space for people who are
Melissa Ortiz: the doers and like, oh, that's a good idea,
Melissa Ortiz: you should go do that, all of a sudden
Melissa Ortiz: there feels like a path forward, and so,
Melissa Ortiz: whether it's activities you know, so many
Melissa Ortiz: people just get sucked into this social
Melissa Ortiz: media chamber and they just then time just
Melissa Ortiz: disappears, instead of going for a bike
Melissa Ortiz: ride, going for a walk, doing something to
Melissa Ortiz: physically get an outlet, because so much
Melissa Ortiz: of our good thinking comes when we're not
Melissa Ortiz: working well.
Mark Haney: It's amazing on social media because when
Mark Haney: you, when you scroll through, chances are
Mark Haney: you're gonna see uh kind of a combat zone
Mark Haney: is the only way I can think to say it at
Mark Haney: the moment is like there is people tearing
Mark Haney: down one side and tearing down the other.
Mark Haney: There's a lot of criticism depending on
Mark Haney: what channel you follow, but the main media
Mark Haney: it's pretty negative and so it can make you
Mark Haney: want to just poke holes at the other side
Mark Haney: or, you know, kind of get yourself in the
Mark Haney: mode of blaming others for where you're at.
Mark Haney: And really it's like my wife and I love
Mark Haney: Chris Stapleton and he's got this song.
Mark Haney: I Got Nobody to Blame but Me.
Melissa Ortiz: It's a great song and I really have lived
Melissa Ortiz: by that.
Mark Haney: My parents beat the victim out of me when I
Mark Haney: was a kid Don't hit your kids.
Mark Haney: But they just didn't let us be that way.
Mark Haney: So, for whatever reason, my mind has never
Mark Haney: clicked over that way.
Mark Haney: So I don't ever find myself with that
Mark Haney: tendency to.
Mark Haney: I look at myself first.
Melissa Ortiz: It's just I can literally pinpoint the
Melissa Ortiz: lecture where that was beat into me, oh
Melissa Ortiz: really.
Melissa Ortiz: And I remember the chair that I was sitting
Melissa Ortiz: in.
Melissa Ortiz: Oh goodness, it was something about a
Melissa Ortiz: softball game and I was mad at a ref or
Melissa Ortiz: something my dad just railed on me.
Melissa Ortiz: It must have been 45 minutes that I sat
Melissa Ortiz: there and took it about.
Melissa Ortiz: Everything's your fault, Everything you are
Melissa Ortiz: responsible for.
Melissa Ortiz: I'm like that's a little extreme, but I get
Melissa Ortiz: the message and so I feel the same way.
Melissa Ortiz: I feel the same way.
Melissa Ortiz: I have nobody to blame for me, but me for
Melissa Ortiz: everything Good, bad, indifferent.
Mark Haney: What is your dad like?
Mark Haney: What's your dad?
Mark Haney: He sounds like he's.
Mark Haney: Is he old school type mentality?
Melissa Ortiz: Super old school he my favorite story about
Melissa Ortiz: him is my kids.
Melissa Ortiz: His rule at home growing up was all the
Melissa Ortiz: horsepower, no horses.
Melissa Ortiz: So if you have to feed it, we don't need it,
Melissa Ortiz: but it was like go karts, four wheelers.
Melissa Ortiz: I grew up on a farm um he flew airplanes
Melissa Ortiz: and helicopter and race cars for fun, and
Melissa Ortiz: so there was a lot of horsepower around in
Melissa Ortiz: addition to the tractors man's man type guy
Melissa Ortiz: and um.
Melissa Ortiz: So my favorite story is my kids are out.
Melissa Ortiz: We we live on the Sacramento River up in
Melissa Ortiz: Colusa and my kids are out with him and
Melissa Ortiz: they're riding side by sides.
Melissa Ortiz: And my dad is having a ball he's 72 at this
Melissa Ortiz: point, I think, and he's spinning donuts in
Melissa Ortiz: the gravel and just having a great time.
Melissa Ortiz: And pretty soon my kids are screaming Papa,
Melissa Ortiz: you're on fire.
Melissa Ortiz: And he's like I know.
Melissa Ortiz: And they're like no, no, you're on fire.
Melissa Ortiz: Oh my, no, no you're on fire.
Mark Haney: Oh my gosh.
Melissa Ortiz: This goes on two or three rounds and
Melissa Ortiz: finally he realized that the side-by-side
Melissa Ortiz: that he's driving is on fire and he drives
Melissa Ortiz: it into the river.
Mark Haney: Oh, my gosh Fire round.
Mark Haney: Oh, and it started the fire from all the
Mark Haney: different donuts and stuff he was doing got
Mark Haney: too hot.
Mark Haney: I don't know, I wasn't there, but this is
Mark Haney: like the best quintessential story.
Melissa Ortiz: I mean he didn't quit racing amateur scca
Melissa Ortiz: sports car club of america cars until he
Melissa Ortiz: was 73.
Melissa Ortiz: He still flies fixed wing and helicopter.
Melissa Ortiz: He's just on fire.
Melissa Ortiz: He loves what he does.
Melissa Ortiz: He's a farmer, he's really damn good at it
Melissa Ortiz: and he's super intense, super competitive
Melissa Ortiz: and there's just no room for excuses in his
Melissa Ortiz: world.
Mark Haney: Wow I love that uh approach to no excuses
Mark Haney: Work hard, play hard guy.
Melissa Ortiz: Yeah, the quote I think that makes me think
Melissa Ortiz: of him is don't tell your kids how to live.
Melissa Ortiz: Let them watch you do it and learn.
Melissa Ortiz: That way I'm like, yeah, check that box.
Mark Haney: Well, and I'm deviating from the employee
Mark Haney: thing a little bit, because I do think that
Mark Haney: our value systems they begin at home.
Mark Haney: I know that they can change later in life,
Mark Haney: but if we do a good job as parents, I think
Mark Haney: it's more easy to uh when you're older if
Mark Haney: you, if you find yourself being a victim,
Mark Haney: to change back to the way dad used to like
Mark Haney: you have a solid yeah, yeah, you do so,
Mark Haney: even though everybody, virtually everybody,
Mark Haney: might act like a victim uh occasionally, or
Mark Haney: blame a ref occasionally.
Mark Haney: But you know, we can always revert back to
Mark Haney: you know a principles that your dad taught,
Mark Haney: taught you and of course, I had some
Mark Haney: similar stuff, but knowing this, okay, so
Mark Haney: you and I have some things in common.
Mark Haney: So I had the same sounds like a lot of the
Mark Haney: same values taught to me as parent as uh as
Mark Haney: I had when I was a kid, to me as parent as
Mark Haney: uh as I had when I was a kid.
Mark Haney: Um, but you also, you live near your
Mark Haney: parents today and you guys are talking
Mark Haney: about maybe building homes on each other's
Mark Haney: property.
Mark Haney: Would that be?
Mark Haney: You build a home on their, your parents,
Mark Haney: property?
Mark Haney: so they actually gifted us uh 40 acres,
Mark Haney: which is amazing, oh my gosh and um we're
Mark Haney: building, so they're generous.
Melissa Ortiz: So okay, that's uh, that's cool you work
Melissa Ortiz: for it yeah there's a there's no free ride,
Melissa Ortiz: but yeah, they've been extremely it's.
Melissa Ortiz: We moved back from texas.
Melissa Ortiz: My husband and I both built businesses
Melissa Ortiz: there.
Melissa Ortiz: We finished school at texas a&m and when I
Melissa Ortiz: got pregnant with the second baby, I looked
Melissa Ortiz: at my husband and I said you knew this was
Melissa Ortiz: coming.
Melissa Ortiz: I want to go home I mean my mom dad.
Melissa Ortiz: It's like this family core that they, if
Melissa Ortiz: you see them on, you know holidays.
Melissa Ortiz: It's very different than this.
Melissa Ortiz: My mom calls it kid taxi.
Melissa Ortiz: She'll show up for four minutes for
Melissa Ortiz: breakfast, whisk the kids off and they get
Melissa Ortiz: these little tiny interactions to see yeah,
Melissa Ortiz: see their values at work.
Mark Haney: Do you have brothers and sisters?
Melissa Ortiz: I have one brother, yeah.
Melissa Ortiz: Is your brother here as well?
Mark Haney: Yeah, he's full-time on the farm.
Mark Haney: Okay, so he lives out there with your mom
Mark Haney: and dad now and then you've moved back near
Mark Haney: and you're going to build something on your
Mark Haney: 40.
Mark Haney: How many acres is the whole thing?
Melissa Ortiz: About 3,500 acres we farm oh my goodness,
Melissa Ortiz: and it's 15 different crops spread over a
Melissa Ortiz: 20 mile radius, and it's guys and equipment
Melissa Ortiz: and non-stop oh, my goodness, okay.
Mark Haney: So it's like, is it kind of like a family
Mark Haney: business?
Mark Haney: Then your, your dad, obviously, uh, sounds
Mark Haney: like he's the initiator of this whole thing.
Mark Haney: Does your brother work in the business?
Melissa Ortiz: okay, he and I are fifth generation on the
Melissa Ortiz: ranch, my dad's fourth generation and my
Melissa Ortiz: brother has uh more stamina than I do.
Melissa Ortiz: There wasn't a right seat for me, so I love
Melissa Ortiz: the people, business and what's the name of
Melissa Ortiz: the company?
Melissa Ortiz: What is it?
Mark Haney: river vista farms river vista farms and is
Mark Haney: it uh?
Mark Haney: Is that brand uh available?
Mark Haney: Out you sell just wholesale, or is it
Mark Haney: available?
Melissa Ortiz: it's not a consumer brand, so it's all it's
Melissa Ortiz: all commodity agriculture and then we also
Melissa Ortiz: have a fruit drying facility that has a
Melissa Ortiz: consumer brand attached to it.
Melissa Ortiz: It's called sunrise fresh.
Melissa Ortiz: So are the largest um cherry dried cherry
Melissa Ortiz: brand on amazon is probably the best place
Melissa Ortiz: to find them.
Melissa Ortiz: They're amazing.
Melissa Ortiz: They don't have any additives.
Melissa Ortiz: We dry about 10 million pounds of cherries
Melissa Ortiz: a year, okay, so what's the name of that
Melissa Ortiz: brand again?
Melissa Ortiz: Sunrise Fresh.
Mark Haney: Sunrise Fresh.
Mark Haney: You can buy local dried cherries Dried
Mark Haney: cherries, blueberries, apples, I think some
Mark Haney: strawberries.
Mark Haney: Wow, I'll have to check it out.
Mark Haney: Yeah, so I have seven grandkids two kids
Mark Haney: and seven grandkids and we all live on 74
Mark Haney: acres a lot smaller, but uh, you mentioned
Mark Haney: the you know two minute away thing.
Mark Haney: So my little granddaughter uh, one of the
Mark Haney: granddaughters is almost three but for the
Mark Haney: last six months she's been walking from my
Mark Haney: son's house we're probably 500 yards away
Mark Haney: just show up and she's just like she's on
Mark Haney: our back patio and say, hey, how you doing
Mark Haney: bradley?
Mark Haney: yeah, and I just wanted to come see what
Mark Haney: was going on.
Mark Haney: How's your day?
Melissa Ortiz: I'm 500 yards away.
Mark Haney: Just show up and she's just like she's on
Mark Haney: our back patio.
Melissa Ortiz: I was like hey, how you doing.
Mark Haney: Brittany and I just wanted to come see what
Mark Haney: was going on.
Mark Haney: How's your day?
Mark Haney: I'm like, come on in.
Mark Haney: You know, Does your mom know you're here?
Melissa Ortiz: The freedom of country kids, you just can't.
Melissa Ortiz: It's incomparable.
Melissa Ortiz: Yeah, and that have the confidence to just
Melissa Ortiz: go at that age.
Mark Haney: And well, you have daughters right, one of
Mark Haney: each.
Mark Haney: I have an 11 year old girl and a nine year
Mark Haney: old boy, have they?
Mark Haney: Now?
Mark Haney: You're not living on the property yet, uh,
Mark Haney: but it sounds like there's a lot of great
Mark Haney: interaction between your, uh, family
Mark Haney: members.
Mark Haney: Is there, um, like people, uh, your, your
Mark Haney: grandpa, or your dad or your dad, or, uh,
Mark Haney: you know, the grandmother or their
Mark Haney: grandfather?
Mark Haney: Is there one that the kids are more like,
Mark Haney: drawn to the dad or your mom?
Melissa Ortiz: I mean my mom's the most approachable.
Melissa Ortiz: She's so fun, she's so engaging.
Melissa Ortiz: My dad's doing his own thing.
Melissa Ortiz: He's busy.
Melissa Ortiz: If you want to hop in the truck with him,
Melissa Ortiz: great.
Melissa Ortiz: If you want to go golfing with him, great.
Melissa Ortiz: But he's doing his thing okay and so my
Melissa Ortiz: mom's probably the most mom's kind of a
Melissa Ortiz: confidant, maybe, maybe.
Mark Haney: Uh, I've seen that co-conspirator.
Mark Haney: She's pretty fun so that sounds a little
Mark Haney: bit like my wife is.
Mark Haney: She is, uh, I don't know, co-conspirator.
Mark Haney: I've never really thought of that term, but
Mark Haney: I'll come over like one of the grandkids is
Mark Haney: going into freshman high school and so you
Mark Haney: can imagine.
Mark Haney: You know she's kind of popular but there's
Mark Haney: girl drama and boyfriend drama and all that
Mark Haney: and so I get because I'm probably less
Mark Haney: approachable but I'm tight with my wife and
Mark Haney: I'm always around um, I get to hear all the
Mark Haney: uh, you know what it's like to be 14 years
Mark Haney: old.
Mark Haney: I'm not ready for that yeah, it's fun, uh,
Mark Haney: so, but I I say that as being I think it's
Mark Haney: like I it's the thing that I've never lived.
Mark Haney: I never knew that.
Mark Haney: You know like what we're describing what it
Mark Haney: would be like or how it might exist, until
Mark Haney: you're living it and I can tell you I love
Mark Haney: it and anybody listening I mean it can be
Mark Haney: great, so it's nice.
Melissa Ortiz: My mom did this great thing with my husband
Melissa Ortiz: because he doesn't come from a family
Melissa Ortiz: business or have everybody intertwined and
Melissa Ortiz: she said we, we got married in 2011 and he
Melissa Ortiz: needed to go to some meeting in Fresno or
Melissa Ortiz: Bakersfield or somewhere.
Melissa Ortiz: And she says you can use my new Porsche to
Melissa Ortiz: go on this trip and in exchange, you're
Melissa Ortiz: going to give me three years of you can't
Melissa Ortiz: talk trash about me as your mother-in-law
Melissa Ortiz: at all and he's like deal, I'll take that
Melissa Ortiz: deal.
Mark Haney: So she drove his car he drove her car, he
Mark Haney: drove her car it's her porsche.
Melissa Ortiz: Oh god, okay, got it, it's her porsche okay
Melissa Ortiz: he's like okay, deal, that's awesome.
Mark Haney: So it's pretty uh yeah, it sounds like
Mark Haney: she's got a good sense of humor and a good
Mark Haney: uh.
Mark Haney: You know, I don't know way about living
Mark Haney: life, so that's awesome.
Melissa Ortiz: She's amazing.
Melissa Ortiz: It's if we come back to my daughter for a
Melissa Ortiz: second.
Melissa Ortiz: I think one of the most professionally
Melissa Ortiz: rewarding things that has happened to me
Melissa Ortiz: this year by far is I've worked with the
Melissa Ortiz: Gallup.
Melissa Ortiz: Strengthsfinder is one of the tools that I
Melissa Ortiz: use with clients and my daughter says to me,
Melissa Ortiz: 11 years old, she says to me on a Sunday
Melissa Ortiz: mom, can I find out what my strengths are?
Melissa Ortiz: And I was like, girlfriend, I have been
Melissa Ortiz: waiting for years for you to ask me this.
Melissa Ortiz: I'm going to get a cheer.
Melissa Ortiz: It was awesome and I was like, of course.
Melissa Ortiz: And so their Gallup has a tool for younger
Melissa Ortiz: children called the Strengths Explorer, and
Melissa Ortiz: so we got her the code and we sat her down
Melissa Ortiz: at the laptop and she went through the
Melissa Ortiz: assessment.
Melissa Ortiz: Then we printed her report and we went
Melissa Ortiz: through it with a highlighter and made
Melissa Ortiz: notes and it was like the coolest parenting
Melissa Ortiz: moment, because she knows what I do for
Melissa Ortiz: work, she's interested and, of course,
Melissa Ortiz: everybody's interested in what makes them
Melissa Ortiz: special and fantastic and want to do more
Melissa Ortiz: of that.
Mark Haney: That's are you?
Mark Haney: She's well.
Mark Haney: Kids get asked all the time like what do
Mark Haney: you want to be when you grow up?
Mark Haney: You want to do what your mom's doing.
Mark Haney: You want to do what grandpa's doing.
Mark Haney: You know that type of thing.
Mark Haney: And uh, are they starting to imagine what
Mark Haney: their I guess might look like?
Mark Haney: I don't think so.
Mark Haney: They don't know what they want to be when
Mark Haney: they're a girl.
Melissa Ortiz: I think they're just present in their
Melissa Ortiz: little lives.
Melissa Ortiz: And I'm on the school board in Colusa and
Melissa Ortiz: one of the stats when I first started I
Melissa Ortiz: don't know, 10, 12 years ago was the kids
Melissa Ortiz: that we have in school.
Melissa Ortiz: Right now, half of the jobs they will have
Melissa Ortiz: don't even exist yet.
Melissa Ortiz: Yeah, it's amazing.
Melissa Ortiz: So we can't prepare them for careers.
Melissa Ortiz: We have to prepare them as learners to
Melissa Ortiz: understand who they are and what they bring
Melissa Ortiz: to the world and how they take in
Melissa Ortiz: information more than anything.
Melissa Ortiz: And so I, probably having inherently
Melissa Ortiz: discouraged, what do you want to do when
Melissa Ortiz: you grow up?
Melissa Ortiz: Because I think it's a bogus question in
Melissa Ortiz: general.
Melissa Ortiz: What do you want to do?
Melissa Ortiz: You don't know.
Melissa Ortiz: None of us know.
Melissa Ortiz: We're still making it up on the fly yeah.
Mark Haney: So a lot of times kids will look at um,
Mark Haney: like my daughter is in real estate, and I
Mark Haney: remember when probably when my daughter
Mark Haney: granddaughter was about 11, she would say
Mark Haney: things like I want to.
Melissa Ortiz: You know, I want to be a realtor like my
Melissa Ortiz: mom, or that I want to be a garbage man,
Melissa Ortiz: yeah, yeah, which is a ridiculous
Melissa Ortiz: aspiration for a little girl, but that was
Melissa Ortiz: well, that job, well, that job might still
Melissa Ortiz: exist.
Mark Haney: I don't know, maybe.
Melissa Ortiz: I mean it's gotten a little bit robotic my
Melissa Ortiz: kids still get excited on thursday morning
Melissa Ortiz: when the garbage man comes through the
Melissa Ortiz: alley.
Mark Haney: Yes, well, my dad uh really respected our
Mark Haney: garbage man because they were friends when
Mark Haney: you know, growing up our garbage man, so we
Mark Haney: were growing up to respect the garbage man,
Mark Haney: and because, uh, of a guy named Frank
Mark Haney: Cervantes.
Mark Haney: So it is kind of an interesting thing to
Mark Haney: think about.
Mark Haney: What jobs are going to go away?
Mark Haney: First, and I would imagine in your line of
Mark Haney: work you're seeing this begin to change
Mark Haney: right before our very eyes.
Mark Haney: We can see, you know, 15,000 layoffs at
Mark Haney: Microsoft.
Mark Haney: We see all kinds of jobs that are now AI
Mark Haney: enabled and you know, if you're not engaged
Mark Haney: and understand the job the mundane jobs,
Mark Haney: the monotonous jobs most of those are going
Mark Haney: to go away.
Melissa Ortiz: And most of those suck anyway.
Melissa Ortiz: Yeah, so aspire to be a driver of uh
Melissa Ortiz: something yeah, and so how do we as
Melissa Ortiz: individuals both business owners and
Melissa Ortiz: employees how do we keep leveling up, how
Melissa Ortiz: do we look around and figure out how we
Melissa Ortiz: kind of stay on top of that shifting sand
Melissa Ortiz: that's beneath us and it's pretty daunting?
Melissa Ortiz: I mean, in my eo group there was a guy the
Melissa Ortiz: other day who's super whiz kid on AI and he
Melissa Ortiz: was kind of schooling our group and I went
Melissa Ortiz: I'm a moron compared to this guy.
Melissa Ortiz: I have so much to learn and it was in a
Melissa Ortiz: deflating way, it wasn't empowering, it was
Melissa Ortiz: just like I think I'm so far behind already.
Melissa Ortiz: And then the reality is you know that even
Melissa Ortiz: if you're using it at any capacity, you're
Melissa Ortiz: ahead of some of the people, and so we have
Melissa Ortiz: to find some foothold.
Mark Haney: You're probably okay, yeah for sure, but
Mark Haney: 25% of today's job openings require some AI
Mark Haney: experience.
Mark Haney: That's an amazing stat and we're not even
Mark Haney: in the I mean, we're still in the first
Mark Haney: inning, if even that, in this AI thing,
Mark Haney: because what we do is we invest into
Mark Haney: startups and virtually all of them have got
Mark Haney: an AI component of some sort running
Mark Haney: through it.
Mark Haney: We just announced the exit of one of our
Mark Haney: robotics companies and it was AI driven,
Mark Haney: but basically it replaced the people that
Mark Haney: walk around and monitor solar panels, solar
Mark Haney: farms right, these gigantic solar farms.
Mark Haney: It's been very labor intensive, so these
Mark Haney: robots go out there and make sure
Mark Haney: everything's running right, write the
Mark Haney: reports and do it all and it's all driven
Mark Haney: digitally and it eliminates.
Mark Haney: You know it makes things better, but you
Mark Haney: just don't need people doing those boring
Mark Haney: jobs or driving 500 miles into the country
Mark Haney: go check out the solar panel.
Mark Haney: So it's good, but that kind of things
Mark Haney: change, do you in talking to employees and
Mark Haney: employers?
Mark Haney: Are people fearful of this kind of thing?
Mark Haney: It's like my job's going to get eliminated.
Melissa Ortiz: Some are.
Melissa Ortiz: And some are excited, some are and some are
Melissa Ortiz: excited.
Melissa Ortiz: It's never been a better time to be a
Melissa Ortiz: learner, because you don't need a fancy
Melissa Ortiz: college to learn things.
Melissa Ortiz: Learning has never been more accessible,
Melissa Ortiz: and it is fascinating for me to think about
Melissa Ortiz: the kids in school today and will a college
Melissa Ortiz: education?
Melissa Ortiz: Aside from a medical doctor, a professional
Melissa Ortiz: engineer?
Melissa Ortiz: Some of these roles really do require this
Melissa Ortiz: specific training, but so many of them just
Melissa Ortiz: require you to be a really good learner,
Melissa Ortiz: and so it's kind of amazing to know there
Melissa Ortiz: are all these avenues and all these experts
Melissa Ortiz: that are willing to share for little to no
Melissa Ortiz: money, and that's pretty exciting.
Melissa Ortiz: I think, if we're willing to take ownership
Melissa Ortiz: of it.
Melissa Ortiz: And I have some questions about our society
Melissa Ortiz: and our motivation to keep up, yeah but the
Melissa Ortiz: ones that are, I think will be just fine.
Mark Haney: I think so, and I think there's um.
Mark Haney: At one point I was, I had sold my companies
Mark Haney: and was trying to decide you know, what am
Mark Haney: I going to do?
Mark Haney: Am I going to wait for my non-competes to
Mark Haney: go away and kind of get back in the same
Mark Haney: space?
Mark Haney: And I did an exercise called an ikigai.
Mark Haney: Have you heard of that?
Melissa Ortiz: exercise before yes, yeah.
Mark Haney: So for our listeners it's a Japanese term
Mark Haney: that kind of means something like finding
Mark Haney: your calling, and it's the intersection
Mark Haney: between four things what you're good at,
Mark Haney: what you love, what the world needs and how
Mark Haney: can you make money doing it.
Mark Haney: How can it be financially sustainable?
Mark Haney: And you can.
Mark Haney: I did it in the form of like a almost like
Mark Haney: a brainstorming session.
Mark Haney: I got a big dry erase board and just
Mark Haney: started throwing ideas against the wall and
Mark Haney: was looking for commonality around.
Mark Haney: You know what that meant in terms of
Mark Haney: finding my calling and my.
Mark Haney: I decided at that point it was really
Mark Haney: around.
Mark Haney: I enjoyed creating opportunity for people.
Mark Haney: That's kind of like what I've been working
Mark Haney: on for the last 10, 12 years and it really
Mark Haney: acts as a North Star.
Mark Haney: Even though I didn't know what I wanted to
Mark Haney: do when I grew up, I knew I liked creating
Mark Haney: opportunity and I could figure out a way to
Mark Haney: make some money doing that and have some
Mark Haney: fun doing it.
Melissa Ortiz: Yeah, I've got like three pillars that I've
Melissa Ortiz: kind of come to the same conclusion.
Melissa Ortiz: So I've got kids, so school board, swim
Melissa Ortiz: team, all this stuff that I'm involved in,
Melissa Ortiz: and then there's entrepreneurship um a
Melissa Ortiz: girlfriend of mine and I taught an
Melissa Ortiz: entrepreneurship kid for kids class in
Melissa Ortiz: summer school this summer.
Melissa Ortiz: So then that covers two of the buckets.
Melissa Ortiz: Neither of those, unfortunately, make any
Melissa Ortiz: money.
Melissa Ortiz: Um, and then my other pillar is strengths
Melissa Ortiz: and engagement.
Melissa Ortiz: How do we leverage people's strengths,
Melissa Ortiz: figure out how to engage them for the
Melissa Ortiz: benefit of the individual in the
Melissa Ortiz: organization?
Mark Haney: and so they all are the I see them
Mark Haney: intersecting, though, even though maybe, uh,
Mark Haney: school board doesn't pay any money.
Mark Haney: Um, you are helping develop strengths, you,
Mark Haney: and same with the swim team, and so on.
Melissa Ortiz: So there's a lot of clients that are school
Melissa Ortiz: districts that are not the district that I
Melissa Ortiz: volunteer for, so that I have lots of
Melissa Ortiz: insight into that space.
Melissa Ortiz: But it's just like I think that's kind of
Melissa Ortiz: my those pillars, that you're talking about,
Melissa Ortiz: but it's a great experience and I would
Melissa Ortiz: definitely recommend, if you're going to go
Melissa Ortiz: down that path, find somebody who knows you
Melissa Ortiz: really well, because we all do this thing
Melissa Ortiz: to ourselves.
Melissa Ortiz: We're we're like well, what am I good at?
Melissa Ortiz: Well, everybody's good at that, everybody's
Melissa Ortiz: good at that.
Melissa Ortiz: And to have an external person who knows
Melissa Ortiz: you say, no, I don't think you understand.
Melissa Ortiz: You're really really good at this.
Mark Haney: You think it's weird.
Mark Haney: But that weird part of you that's, there's
Mark Haney: something there.
Mark Haney: Yeah, that's where the value is, that thing
Mark Haney: you're kind of like obsessive about.
Mark Haney: You know that might be something.
Melissa Ortiz: Yeah.
Melissa Ortiz: So I think that that separate set of eyes
Melissa Ortiz: to push you to acknowledge some of the
Melissa Ortiz: great things about yourself we all just
Melissa Ortiz: it's.
Melissa Ortiz: It's why it's hard to write your own resume.
Melissa Ortiz: I do quite a few executive resumes every
Melissa Ortiz: year because they don't know how to tout
Melissa Ortiz: their own expertise.
Melissa Ortiz: They're like, well, I'm really good at this.
Melissa Ortiz: I'm like, oh, you're like industry expert
Melissa Ortiz: level and that your metrics in your resume
Melissa Ortiz: indicate that and so.
Mark Haney: Yeah, A lot of times we don't necessarily
Mark Haney: see that in ourselves.
Mark Haney: So who?
Mark Haney: When you, when you want to find somebody
Mark Haney: like that, somebody who knows you well, but
Mark Haney: don't you think it needs to be somebody who
Mark Haney: will give you candid feedback?
Mark Haney: Yeah, like somebody who knows you well, but
Mark Haney: it's not going to be a yes, ma'am, or.
Melissa Ortiz: I know and hopefully you have those friends.
Melissa Ortiz: Yeah, exactly Because, yes, ma'am, or yeah,
Melissa Ortiz: I know, and hopefully you have those
Melissa Ortiz: friends.
Melissa Ortiz: Yeah, because not everybody does, but
Melissa Ortiz: someone who can be and giving them a
Melissa Ortiz: permission slip to be just brutally honest
Melissa Ortiz: with you, like I'm trying to make some
Melissa Ortiz: major life decisions here.
Melissa Ortiz: Direction, can you just call it like you
Melissa Ortiz: see it, who would you go?
Mark Haney: to for you.
Mark Haney: Let's say you were had one of those big
Mark Haney: things, you would you go to your mom, or
Mark Haney: dad would you go to your husband?
Melissa Ortiz: no, I have your children, a really good
Melissa Ortiz: friend named sadie.
Melissa Ortiz: She and I've worked on a hundred non-profit
Melissa Ortiz: projects together.
Melissa Ortiz: We've been friends since we were knee-high
Melissa Ortiz: to a grasshopper and she and I are really
Melissa Ortiz: comfortable shooting each other straight
Melissa Ortiz: and we've worked together professionally
Melissa Ortiz: and personally.
Melissa Ortiz: So she sees this well-rounded picture that
Melissa Ortiz: so few, I mean, think about our lives.
Melissa Ortiz: So few people in our lives see personal and
Melissa Ortiz: professional.
Melissa Ortiz: That's probably my favorite thing about
Melissa Ortiz: living in a small town is the doers are all
Melissa Ortiz: the things.
Melissa Ortiz: They're on the boards, they're doing the
Melissa Ortiz: work and you get this overlap.
Mark Haney: Well, that's the one thing we talked about.
Mark Haney: I'm kind of bouncing around on this
Mark Haney: conversation but touching off this, you're
Mark Haney: in the Entrepreneur's Organization.
Mark Haney: You started an EO chapter in Texas right.
Mark Haney: Yeah, in College Station I was a fellow
Mark Haney: member, so I thought I was kind of into eo.
Mark Haney: I've been a member for, I think, since 2012
Mark Haney: and the entrepreneurs organization.
Mark Haney: For somebody who may not know, it's a group
Mark Haney: of entrepreneurs, it's like a club um, I
Mark Haney: call it aa for entrepreneurs.
Mark Haney: It's where we share everything with other
Mark Haney: entrepreneurs and it's, you know, maybe
Mark Haney: your deepest, darkest secrets about you
Mark Haney: know, the personal life or the family stuff
Mark Haney: or the business stuff, and then you can use
Mark Haney: that these people as a sounding board in
Mark Haney: many cases and they, uh they, they want to
Mark Haney: help you.
Melissa Ortiz: We you become friends, they're living the
Melissa Ortiz: same life.
Melissa Ortiz: If you're trying to talk to a friend of
Melissa Ortiz: yours who's a W2 wage earner and has great
Melissa Ortiz: benefits, they have no idea the struggles
Melissa Ortiz: that you're facing, and I love the.
Melissa Ortiz: The way I describe the entrepreneurs
Melissa Ortiz: organization is like swimming in the deep
Melissa Ortiz: end with people.
Mark Haney: If you only like to swim on the surface,
Mark Haney: it's probably not a really good fit for you,
Mark Haney: because the the deep end is where the meat
Mark Haney: is at and where we learn from each other
Mark Haney: and learn from each other's mistakes and
Mark Haney: yeah, and when you say swimming near the
Mark Haney: deep end, you're saying I'm rephrasing this
Mark Haney: to make sure I understand You're saying
Mark Haney: talk about the stuff that may be a little
Mark Haney: scary to talk about, or even stuff that
Mark Haney: feels like bragging outside this circle.
Melissa Ortiz: It's both.
Mark Haney: Yeah, when you're talking about selling
Mark Haney: your business for a lot of money but you
Mark Haney: don't know how you're going to do
Mark Haney: transaction.
Mark Haney: And you know somebody else in your forum,
Mark Haney: maybe his, you know, sold ten businesses.
Mark Haney: That's a great sounding board.
Mark Haney: But they don't think you're bragging, they
Mark Haney: think you, you know they want to dive into
Mark Haney: the.
Mark Haney: Yeah, somebody else.
Melissa Ortiz: Let me help you but even, like you know, an
Melissa Ortiz: embezzlement situation or terrible things
Melissa Ortiz: that happen you don't even feel like maybe
Melissa Ortiz: you can talk to your spouse about because
Melissa Ortiz: you're petrified to let them know.
Melissa Ortiz: Yeah, these are these foundational groups
Melissa Ortiz: that get you, see you and have this freedom
Melissa Ortiz: to challenge you, challenge your thinking.
Melissa Ortiz: So those you know that sounding board if
Melissa Ortiz: you go through the ikagi I don't know how
Melissa Ortiz: to say it right yeah, they have a.
Mark Haney: Uh, oh, the ikigai, oh, yeah, yeah, if you
Mark Haney: go through, that process.
Melissa Ortiz: Those are some great people because they've
Melissa Ortiz: seen the ups and the downs.
Mark Haney: But yeah, no, the EO organization has been
Mark Haney: great for me.
Mark Haney: I mean, it really led me to the idea of
Mark Haney: starting a podcast.
Mark Haney: It led me to now I invest into startups and
Mark Haney: it's like all these ideas started by.
Mark Haney: I joined this group of entrepreneurs and
Mark Haney: they met a couple of venture capitalists
Mark Haney: and a couple of you know other people that
Mark Haney: were doing cool stuff for for entrepreneurs.
Mark Haney: I'm like what can I do?
Melissa Ortiz: This sounds like a really fun sandbox.
Mark Haney: Start a show.
Mark Haney: That'll be my thing and it led me to where
Mark Haney: I'm at today.
Mark Haney: So, um, highly recommend the entrepreneurs
Mark Haney: organization for, uh, for I would say
Mark Haney: growth oriented entrepreneurs, mainly
Mark Haney: because it really is, um, it's a place
Mark Haney: where you can go and not stay the same, and
Mark Haney: I I think it will help you grow if you, if
Mark Haney: you if you embrace it, yeah um, okay, well,
Mark Haney: you okay.
Mark Haney: So you're teaching entrepreneurship with
Mark Haney: the kids?
Mark Haney: I often um describe the importance of
Mark Haney: entrepreneurship, but as you're describing
Mark Haney: entrepreneurship to young children, did you
Mark Haney: talk about, like, why be an entrepreneur,
Mark Haney: or why it's the importance of being an?
Melissa Ortiz: entrepreneur.
Melissa Ortiz: Yeah, I mean it's.
Melissa Ortiz: I love the quote that you have downstairs
Melissa Ortiz: about these are the superheroes of our
Melissa Ortiz: economy.
Melissa Ortiz: This is what's going to save America is
Melissa Ortiz: people who try new things and take a
Melissa Ortiz: different approach, and so we talked a lot
Melissa Ortiz: about that.
Melissa Ortiz: We talked about my husband, when we were
Melissa Ortiz: pitching it to the school district, said
Melissa Ortiz: you need to call it small business class.
Melissa Ortiz: I'm like no thank you.
Melissa Ortiz: Academic language is important and setting
Melissa Ortiz: expectations is important.
Melissa Ortiz: I don't need you to own a bookshop on the
Melissa Ortiz: corner, I want you to think bigger.
Melissa Ortiz: And whether you end up with a bookshop on
Melissa Ortiz: the corner, cause that's your heart's
Melissa Ortiz: desire, great.
Melissa Ortiz: But setting that expectations?
Melissa Ortiz: Kids can't be what they can't see.
Melissa Ortiz: And if they both my friend Sadie and I have
Melissa Ortiz: owned businesses and so we're both
Melissa Ortiz: entrepreneurs and we're coming from this
Melissa Ortiz: place of like I've done it, I've done it
Melissa Ortiz: well, I've done it poorly.
Melissa Ortiz: We've learned so many lessons.
Melissa Ortiz: But even just this academic language of
Melissa Ortiz: like the difference between revenue and
Melissa Ortiz: income, and Teach, they got it.
Melissa Ortiz: They totally got it.
Melissa Ortiz: They got the concept, they you know, one of
Melissa Ortiz: the kids wanted to have a banana split
Melissa Ortiz: business and he said he was going to sell
Melissa Ortiz: full banana splits.
Melissa Ortiz: But you know, like a lot of times moms they
Melissa Ortiz: don't want a whole banana split, so he was
Melissa Ortiz: going to sell half a banana split for
Melissa Ortiz: better profit margins.
Melissa Ortiz: And we're like you've got this.
Mark Haney: You're going to be fine kid.
Mark Haney: That's awesome.
Mark Haney: Well, it's interesting because the older we
Mark Haney: get, I think there's something about
Mark Haney: reaching young people.
Mark Haney: We work with a lot of students in
Mark Haney: entrepreneurship in the growth factory and
Mark Haney: there's something about getting into the
Mark Haney: minds of young people and helping them to,
Mark Haney: I guess, think bigger, think different,
Mark Haney: think.
Mark Haney: It's okay, because a lot of times we see
Mark Haney: what our parents do and we sort of go down
Mark Haney: that path.
Mark Haney: And I'm on an advisory board for a local
Mark Haney: university, advisory board for
Mark Haney: entrepreneurship, and there's a lot of
Mark Haney: faculty at this certain state college and
Mark Haney: that the faculty don't really embrace the
Mark Haney: word entrepreneurship, like the people that
Mark Haney: run most of our circles.
Mark Haney: They I don't know if it's a scary word or
Mark Haney: if it's a word that they don't know how to
Mark Haney: spell yeah, yeah, Well, who does?
Mark Haney: right, I did.
Mark Haney: Luckily I learned how to C student learned
Mark Haney: how to spell entrepreneurship, but it's
Mark Haney: sort of you know, for the people that are
Mark Haney: working for a government agency but helping
Mark Haney: develop our young people.
Mark Haney: Not being in love with the word
Mark Haney: entrepreneurship, almost like it's I don't
Mark Haney: want to say adversarial, but the group
Mark Haney: really embraced the word innovation more
Mark Haney: than entrepreneurial, right.
Mark Haney: So I think that thinking about the people
Mark Haney: that maybe are working for a government
Mark Haney: agency or working in maybe a large company
Mark Haney: or something like that, I think you brought
Mark Haney: up the word entrepreneurial that gets
Mark Haney: thrown around a lot, but really embracing
Mark Haney: the way of thinking innovatively, because
Mark Haney: any of us can be innovative whether you're
Mark Haney: a government agency or not.
Melissa Ortiz: It's more approachable.
Melissa Ortiz: People don't have to identify with a
Melissa Ortiz: lifestyle.
Mark Haney: Yeah, I took all these risks, made all
Mark Haney: these sacrifices and I've got.
Melissa Ortiz: I'm greedy, yeah but the innovation is like
Melissa Ortiz: oh, so we could do things better.
Mark Haney: Yeah, yeah, great, let's, everybody gets
Mark Haney: into that yeah, so that that it was a lot
Mark Haney: more.
Mark Haney: Let's call it politically correct I which
Mark Haney: is not my strength being politically
Mark Haney: correct, but I'm learning.
Mark Haney: So I you know people that are out there
Mark Haney: talking about entrepreneurship so great
Mark Haney: realize your audience may be uh, uh,
Mark Haney: hearing innovative thinking or
Mark Haney: entrepreneurial or creativity and things
Mark Haney: like that.
Mark Haney: That's really you know what
Mark Haney: entrepreneurship, uh is, what
Mark Haney: entrepreneurship is all about.
Melissa Ortiz: Yeah, and it's interesting when I'm working
Melissa Ortiz: with clients.
Melissa Ortiz: One of the huge telltale metrics around are
Melissa Ortiz: we having innovation happening internally?
Melissa Ortiz: Is do I feel like my opinions count?
Melissa Ortiz: Is anybody listening if I bring up ideas
Melissa Ortiz: and am I safe enough in psychologically
Melissa Ortiz: safe to bring up those ideas?
Melissa Ortiz: And that's a really interesting one,
Melissa Ortiz: because one of the things a precursor to
Melissa Ortiz: that is if I get people in the wrong seat,
Melissa Ortiz: they're not in the right job.
Melissa Ortiz: They never feel safe bringing up ideas
Melissa Ortiz: because they think they're going to be
Melissa Ortiz: found out they're in numbers role, but they
Melissa Ortiz: don't have a numbers brain.
Melissa Ortiz: They're in a quality control role, but
Melissa Ortiz: they're not.
Melissa Ortiz: They're not anal by nature.
Melissa Ortiz: So they're working every day to be
Melissa Ortiz: something they're not.
Melissa Ortiz: They don't ever want to be found out.
Melissa Ortiz: So the ideas they have, they doubt.
Melissa Ortiz: Because I'm doing it wrong.
Melissa Ortiz: I know I'm doing it wrong, I'm just trying
Melissa Ortiz: to get by and collect a paycheck.
Melissa Ortiz: But the people that are in the right seats,
Melissa Ortiz: they are totally comfortable asking for
Melissa Ortiz: help, knowing they're not an expert, and
Melissa Ortiz: going to find, cobble together these
Melissa Ortiz: experts to keep going to the next level
Melissa Ortiz: because they know they can show up with
Melissa Ortiz: shoes on and they're good.
Mark Haney: Interesting.
Mark Haney: Well, you think about happiness.
Mark Haney: What drives happiness in our lives?
Mark Haney: And I've thought about that a lot as I've
Mark Haney: gotten older and because right now I've
Mark Haney: kind of built a life where I kind of do
Mark Haney: whatever I want, whenever I want, and so
Mark Haney: I'm always you know, I guess I'm not saying
Mark Haney: that.
Mark Haney: I ran over my son's dog yesterday and I
Mark Haney: felt horrible.
Mark Haney: I wasn't happy at that moment, but I'm
Mark Haney: generally a happy person and you know I'm
Mark Haney: kind of doing my own thing.
Mark Haney: Not everything goes perfectly, but I'm kind
Mark Haney: of in my lane and I'm happy For those
Mark Haney: people that aren't in their lane the lane
Mark Haney: that they should be.
Mark Haney: How do you be a happy person?
Mark Haney: It seems like it would be very difficult to
Mark Haney: be happy, even it's really hard.
Melissa Ortiz: I think some people try to find it outside
Melissa Ortiz: of work, even though they're not happy at
Melissa Ortiz: work, and I think one of the huge elements
Melissa Ortiz: about it is, if we can even admit to
Melissa Ortiz: ourselves, I think I'm doing the wrong
Melissa Ortiz: thing, because we've all had jobs we were
Melissa Ortiz: not meant for and when you feel that
Melissa Ortiz: dissonance, that it just feels harder than
Melissa Ortiz: it should be, the change is afoot in our
Melissa Ortiz: economy Go, start looking for something
Melissa Ortiz: else.
Melissa Ortiz: Start volunteering in a place to hone the
Melissa Ortiz: skills that maybe you could market later
Melissa Ortiz: and take some freaking ownership of it
Melissa Ortiz: rather than be miserable and that's some
Melissa Ortiz: people I see that are really doing that,
Melissa Ortiz: and some are tired and feeling miserable.
Melissa Ortiz: But there's no path out of that except
Melissa Ortiz: effort.
Mark Haney: Yeah, one of the things I've uh, I was
Mark Haney: thinking about the other day what makes me
Mark Haney: happy?
Mark Haney: Obviously I like being in my own lane, but
Mark Haney: when I am deciding to start something and I
Mark Haney: continue and I and I'm progressing, that
Mark Haney: little bit of progress is like very
Mark Haney: satisfying for me, even though I might
Mark Haney: still suck at it.
Mark Haney: It like, oh, I got better and now I'm like
Mark Haney: okay, it gives me just a touch of
Mark Haney: confidence and really it gives me the
Mark Haney: happiness.
Mark Haney: So really I think, putting ourselves into
Mark Haney: something where we can do it, try hard
Mark Haney: enough, do it regularly enough, where we
Mark Haney: actually show some progress, and then it's
Mark Haney: amazing what that progress feels like even
Mark Haney: if it's small.
Melissa Ortiz: And then it starts a snowball right?
Mark Haney: Yeah, for sure.
Mark Haney: But so do get yourself into something
Mark Haney: that's, you know, fun, that you're maybe
Mark Haney: naturally could be good at, and just start
Mark Haney: trying and then you're going to get better.
Melissa Ortiz: Yeah, one of my favorite things that really
Melissa Ortiz: brings me joy is challenging people to be
Melissa Ortiz: better versions of themselves, and the word
Melissa Ortiz: challenging is really important to me
Melissa Ortiz: because I'm not that gentle of a person.
Melissa Ortiz: I'm pretty, I can be pretty abrasive.
Melissa Ortiz: I'm not a really good coach for everybody.
Melissa Ortiz: I'm not.
Mark Haney: I'm not for everybody do they ever get you,
Mark Haney: ever get assigned as a coach to somebody
Mark Haney: like, okay, I want you to come in and okay,
Mark Haney: we got this.
Mark Haney: This person that, let's say, they're just
Mark Haney: sort of unhappy person and you know they
Mark Haney: don't want to hear.
Mark Haney: Challenge yourself to get better, right?
Mark Haney: Because, like, if my wife said that to me,
Mark Haney: I would be, you know, I'd be hurt and I
Mark Haney: would be.
Mark Haney: I don't know what I would do.
Mark Haney: I would cry, but I wouldn't want her to say
Mark Haney: that, but I wouldn't want her to say that,
Mark Haney: and so I can imagine pushback coming,
Mark Haney: because not everybody wants to hear that.
Melissa Ortiz: Yeah, it's definitely not phrased that way
Melissa Ortiz: to be fair, it's usually like, hey, where
Melissa Ortiz: are you at, where do you want to be?
Mark Haney: How can I help you?
Melissa Ortiz: How can I support you?
Melissa Ortiz: And that support often looks like hey, you
Melissa Ortiz: said this, what are you going to do about
Melissa Ortiz: it?
Melissa Ortiz: You got this, it's not scary.
Melissa Ortiz: Said this what are you gonna do about it?
Melissa Ortiz: You got this, it's not scary, go try it.
Melissa Ortiz: And I think we don't do enough tough love
Melissa Ortiz: in our economy anymore.
Melissa Ortiz: I think there's a lot of nurturing and
Melissa Ortiz: gentleness and not enough.
Melissa Ortiz: Get off your ass and go try it, don't be
Melissa Ortiz: scared.
Mark Haney: And we have to show our kids right heck,
Mark Haney: yeah, um, you should come coach football
Mark Haney: with me.
Mark Haney: I coach this group of seventh graders, taco
Mark Haney: football, and you know I am one of the
Mark Haney: coaches that does not use foul language.
Mark Haney: I use foul language all the time, but not
Mark Haney: around seventh graders.
Mark Haney: Football coaching is.
Mark Haney: You know, I hear a lot of get off your ass
Mark Haney: and all that kind of stuff.
Mark Haney: So it's kind of funny.
Mark Haney: It's such a back and forth right.
Mark Haney: They need to know you've got their back and
Mark Haney: the reason get off your ass and all that
Mark Haney: kind of stuff.
Melissa Ortiz: So it's kind of funny.
Melissa Ortiz: It's such a back and forth right.
Melissa Ortiz: They need to know you've got their back and
Melissa Ortiz: the reason you're pushing is to actually
Melissa Ortiz: care about them.
Melissa Ortiz: And if they don't believe that, none of the
Melissa Ortiz: tough love will ever work.
Melissa Ortiz: But if you get to a place where you can
Melissa Ortiz: challenge them, it's because you've earned
Melissa Ortiz: some trust and that, to me, I think, is the
Melissa Ortiz: most important part.
Melissa Ortiz: I think I've got a swimmer on our swim team
Melissa Ortiz: and God love her.
Melissa Ortiz: She missed an event at our championship
Melissa Ortiz: meet two years ago and her mom still talks
Melissa Ortiz: about the impression it made on her when I
Melissa Ortiz: just railed on her about all the people
Melissa Ortiz: that spent all their whole summer creating
Melissa Ortiz: this opportunity for her for you to go and
Melissa Ortiz: miss your event.
Melissa Ortiz: Are you kidding me?
Melissa Ortiz: And she was kind of deer in the headlights
Melissa Ortiz: and she's never missed an event again.
Melissa Ortiz: She's like she got it and it needed to not
Melissa Ortiz: come from a parent.
Melissa Ortiz: It needs from her parent.
Melissa Ortiz: It needed to come from someone else,
Melissa Ortiz: objectively watching the situation and
Melissa Ortiz: going Aubrey, give me a break.
Melissa Ortiz: We've worked all summer to get you here.
Melissa Ortiz: Pay attention, sweetheart.
Mark Haney: That's amazing.
Mark Haney: Well, how do you?
Mark Haney: Because I would imagine men and women, but
Mark Haney: I think more of the mom, the moms out there
Mark Haney: that might be listening, because you sound
Mark Haney: like Wonder Woman.
Mark Haney: You're building businesses, selling them,
Mark Haney: starting new ones.
Mark Haney: You're a school board, a swim team,
Mark Haney: starting the swim program.
Mark Haney: You're building this business.
Mark Haney: You're juggling a lot.
Mark Haney: Now you're even driving here from calusa to
Mark Haney: come on the you know, the mark haney show.
Mark Haney: How do you do it all and do you ever get
Mark Haney: burned out?
Mark Haney: Or you ever just like go?
Mark Haney: Did I bite off more than I should?
Mark Haney: That I can chew?
Melissa Ortiz: time.
Melissa Ortiz: Oh, you do All the time yeah, one of my
Melissa Ortiz: biggest problems is I really like new ideas
Melissa Ortiz: and so I get these things started, but then
Melissa Ortiz: I don't want to run with the ball anymore
Melissa Ortiz: and I really need to find more doers that I
Melissa Ortiz: can hand the baton to, they can run with
Melissa Ortiz: them, because my fun is I'm an entrepreneur,
Melissa Ortiz: right, it's the startup.
Melissa Ortiz: So year seven in swim team is like I'm
Melissa Ortiz: looking around kind of desperately going
Melissa Ortiz: which of these parents is going to run
Melissa Ortiz: fundraising next year?
Melissa Ortiz: Which of these parents?
Melissa Ortiz: So that, um, I got this great advice when I
Melissa Ortiz: was in graduate school from someone who I
Melissa Ortiz: pictured the same way and I said how do you
Melissa Ortiz: do it all?
Melissa Ortiz: And she said I don't.
Melissa Ortiz: I do one thing every day I said I'm going
Melissa Ortiz: to be a really good mom today, I'm going to
Melissa Ortiz: be a really good executive.
Melissa Ortiz: Today I'm gonna be a really good executive.
Melissa Ortiz: Today I'm gonna be a great volunteer.
Melissa Ortiz: And I was like that's powerful, that I can
Melissa Ortiz: take and own, because I think we all spread
Melissa Ortiz: ourselves so thin and that's really
Melissa Ortiz: valuable.
Melissa Ortiz: I think know your strengths right.
Melissa Ortiz: I know what I'm good at getting it started.
Melissa Ortiz: Maybe I don't need to to run with things
Melissa Ortiz: long term and so work on that, but I I have
Melissa Ortiz: to I time block everything so whether it's
Melissa Ortiz: lunches with my friends, school board, my
Melissa Ortiz: husband and I, if it's not on each other's
Melissa Ortiz: calendar, please don't expect us to be here,
Melissa Ortiz: because we both run pretty, so you're not
Melissa Ortiz: as much of a multitasker as you are.
Mark Haney: Like put them in these little compartments
Mark Haney: and just win that part of the day, or
Mark Haney: whatever.
Melissa Ortiz: I mean by nature I have O'Shiny syndrome
Melissa Ortiz: and so I like, I try, I try to be a one
Melissa Ortiz: thing person, but then I have, like you
Melissa Ortiz: know, I'm waiting for a client to get on a
Melissa Ortiz: call, so I'm answering emails madly and I'm
Melissa Ortiz: kicking off things that I need responses on.
Mark Haney: Any advice to other people about like
Mark Haney: because other people have, especially when
Mark Haney: you're talking to entrepreneurs, when
Mark Haney: you're helping an entrepreneur, chances are
Mark Haney: they built a life that is.
Mark Haney: You know they like to share shiny objects
Mark Haney: too, and they and I think too, once you're
Mark Haney: successful, there's probably more
Mark Haney: opportunity, there's more worthwhile
Mark Haney: opportunities that that you got to say no
Mark Haney: to for sure, because you got to sort of
Mark Haney: filter through and, you know, choose the
Mark Haney: ones that I guess tie to your pillars at
Mark Haney: some level.
Mark Haney: Any advice to people, though, that are like
Mark Haney: trying to.
Mark Haney: You know I'm raising the kids and you know
Mark Haney: what she's doing sounds cool and how do I
Mark Haney: do?
Melissa Ortiz: I think.
Melissa Ortiz: A couple of things that come to mind.
Melissa Ortiz: One I talk to my kids a lot about I like
Melissa Ortiz: working.
Melissa Ortiz: I think a lot of times as parents we feel
Melissa Ortiz: this shame that we shouldn't be away from
Melissa Ortiz: them more.
Melissa Ortiz: So I have to go to work, I have to go
Melissa Ortiz: travel.
Melissa Ortiz: And telling them Mom gets to go do this
Melissa Ortiz: thing, I get to go speak at a conference, I
Melissa Ortiz: get to do these things.
Melissa Ortiz: It can be cool, and when I'm home with you
Melissa Ortiz: it's really cool too, but not making that a
Melissa Ortiz: taking it on as a shameful thing, because
Melissa Ortiz: I'm a way better mom because I work than I
Melissa Ortiz: would be if I stayed home?
Mark Haney: Yeah, and I think most working women are
Mark Haney: that way.
Mark Haney: I think that that's why they chose this
Mark Haney: thing.
Mark Haney: So I love that.
Mark Haney: Don't take it on as a guilt thing.
Mark Haney: I love that.
Mark Haney: And you should go find what you like too,
Mark Haney: to the guys out there too.
Mark Haney: Same thing you know.
Mark Haney: Whether you're a traveling salesman or
Mark Haney: whatever you're working conferences or
Mark Haney: managing, you know a big territory.
Mark Haney: If it's a fun job for you, don't be ashamed
Mark Haney: about it.
Melissa Ortiz: Yeah, and if it isn't a fun job for you,
Melissa Ortiz: that's a different topic.
Mark Haney: Yeah.
Melissa Ortiz: Right, but like there's so much kids can
Melissa Ortiz: learn about work that we can teach them and
Melissa Ortiz: and help them be interested in um and
Melissa Ortiz: another uh hack I guess I've found is I
Melissa Ortiz: found a girl on the swim team years ago who
Melissa Ortiz: was like could I pay you to come to my
Melissa Ortiz: house two days a week?
Melissa Ortiz: Get the laundry out of our rooms, do the?
Melissa Ortiz: Laundry fold the laundry put the laundry
Melissa Ortiz: away, do other assorted tasks like a kind
Melissa Ortiz: of a mother's helper, because I that was
Melissa Ortiz: just one task that wears me out.
Melissa Ortiz: Anything to do with grocery shopping,
Melissa Ortiz: cooking, laundry are just my kryptonite.
Melissa Ortiz: I don't want to touch them.
Melissa Ortiz: I still have to do some of the cooking.
Melissa Ortiz: My husband's pretty good about it and we
Melissa Ortiz: just don't need that much complicated meals
Melissa Ortiz: yeah but god, having someone who it wasn't
Melissa Ortiz: just like do the chores.
Melissa Ortiz: It was, she had a rhythm, she came even
Melissa Ortiz: when I wasn't there and she'd take care of
Melissa Ortiz: business and it was not very expensive way
Melissa Ortiz: to buy back some of my time.
Melissa Ortiz: That's a great book, by the way.
Melissa Ortiz: Buy back your time.
Mark Haney: And um, uh and it's uh.
Mark Haney: It kind of shows you how to the hacks of um
Mark Haney: finding more time in your life.
Mark Haney: Yeah, basically.
Melissa Ortiz: And so it's like what can we be outsourcing?
Melissa Ortiz: I have an admin who takes care of all four
Melissa Ortiz: of my email accounts and my calendar and a
Melissa Ortiz: bunch of stuff.
Melissa Ortiz: So even some of my entrepreneur friends
Melissa Ortiz: joke that they don't know when they're
Melissa Ortiz: hearing from Bobby or me, because sometimes
Melissa Ortiz: she just responds as me.
Mark Haney: Yeah yeah, wow, that's great, so it's like
Mark Haney: I don't have to.
Melissa Ortiz: If I am doing my emails all day, I don't
Melissa Ortiz: have time to do my work, and so it's super
Melissa Ortiz: boring.
Melissa Ortiz: So, and somebody else, that's a great
Melissa Ortiz: growth opportunity and I think that's as
Melissa Ortiz: leaders, giving up some of the pieces
Melissa Ortiz: you're not great at anyway.
Mark Haney: Give someone else a chance to grow that
Mark Haney: makes earn money and earn confidence so you
Mark Haney: can be more productive on something that's
Mark Haney: maybe more high value, because typically
Mark Haney: the client facing uh items or the building
Mark Haney: partnerships and things like that these are
Mark Haney: can be really valuable to an organization.
Mark Haney: Where a calendar invite is, it has a lot of
Mark Haney: value, but it's it's not necessarily the
Mark Haney: same opportunity as building a big
Mark Haney: relationship yeah, like I'm thinking about
Mark Haney: one.
Melissa Ortiz: I just would have been working with a board
Melissa Ortiz: um for a.
Melissa Ortiz: They're not non-profit and they're not for
Melissa Ortiz: profit.
Melissa Ortiz: It's kind of a weird space, but they were
Melissa Ortiz: in a really tough spot and they were really
Melissa Ortiz: struggling with their staff.
Melissa Ortiz: There was no trust whatsoever and I, when I
Melissa Ortiz: was hired for the job, I said I don't know
Melissa Ortiz: if I can fix this.
Melissa Ortiz: This sounds pretty rough, but I'm going to
Melissa Ortiz: go in with an open mind and assume positive
Melissa Ortiz: intent.
Melissa Ortiz: We did a bunch of stakeholder interviews
Melissa Ortiz: and that kind of work is.
Melissa Ortiz: It's amazing the place they're in and it's
Melissa Ortiz: only been, you know, two months down the
Melissa Ortiz: road, but just getting in there and really
Melissa Ortiz: understanding where is everybody coming
Melissa Ortiz: from, what is a been a miss that created
Melissa Ortiz: all this lack of trust?
Melissa Ortiz: That's the stuff.
Melissa Ortiz: Those are the problems I want to solve.
Melissa Ortiz: I don't want to respond to all my emails,
Melissa Ortiz: yeah, yeah.
Mark Haney: Yeah, uh, well, okay, so back to uh.
Mark Haney: I'm putting put my um uh hat on where I
Mark Haney: want to get a little more education for
Mark Haney: about to the, about the employees and
Mark Haney: getting them to get themselves right on the
Mark Haney: bus.
Mark Haney: What else around that did I not really dive
Mark Haney: deep enough into that really is around.
Mark Haney: Look, here's how you can get yourself from
Mark Haney: point a to point b if you're more of a
Mark Haney: teammate versus the ceo yeah, um, I think
Mark Haney: one of the things I love about my business
Mark Haney: is that it's HR technology.
Melissa Ortiz: It's especially for the more technical
Melissa Ortiz: people out there.
Melissa Ortiz: They don't get people and they don't need
Melissa Ortiz: to.
Melissa Ortiz: There's some really good tools Like.
Melissa Ortiz: One of my favorites is called Predictive
Melissa Ortiz: Index and it's a way for us to define what
Melissa Ortiz: is our ideal candidate for any given role
Melissa Ortiz: and then, as we evaluate candidates that
Melissa Ortiz: come through the door, we have a really
Melissa Ortiz: quick look at behaviorally and cognitively,
Melissa Ortiz: does the shoe fit?
Melissa Ortiz: And if it doesn't, I don't care how much
Melissa Ortiz: resume fit there is.
Melissa Ortiz: I might be setting them up for failure and
Melissa Ortiz: myself up for failure as our employer.
Melissa Ortiz: So that's been a really powerful tool that
Melissa Ortiz: I've added to my practice, maybe eight
Melissa Ortiz: years ago.
Melissa Ortiz: And then the other one I really like is our
Melissa Ortiz: employee engagement module.
Melissa Ortiz: So we're measuring employee engagement and
Melissa Ortiz: giving a data driven direction to every
Melissa Ortiz: team on what should you go work on, because
Melissa Ortiz: we can work on a thousand things.
Melissa Ortiz: But how do we narrow down what's getting in
Melissa Ortiz: the way of performance?
Melissa Ortiz: And often it's clear expectations,
Melissa Ortiz: sometimes it's resources, sometimes it's
Melissa Ortiz: just feeling appreciated that somebody
Melissa Ortiz: notices you're doing good work, and so I
Melissa Ortiz: like the tactical nature of those things
Melissa Ortiz: because it's like I see it, I get it.
Melissa Ortiz: Pi tells me exactly what to go do and how
Melissa Ortiz: to ask questions of my employees, and I
Melissa Ortiz: like the tactical Just tell me what to do.
Melissa Ortiz: Most managers I see are like I'll do it.
Melissa Ortiz: Just, I don't just see it, I'm not as
Melissa Ortiz: empathetic as I want to be or I'm busy.
Melissa Ortiz: Most managers now are employees.
Melissa Ortiz: I like working supervisors.
Melissa Ortiz: It's not often that you see someone who's
Melissa Ortiz: just a manager, a player.
Melissa Ortiz: They're mostly player coaches rather than
Melissa Ortiz: just coaches.
Mark Haney: Okay.
Mark Haney: So what did I not ask you about?
Mark Haney: So you're, you're, obviously, you've
Mark Haney: developed a family that is to be admired, I
Mark Haney: mean the way your parents and now you and
Mark Haney: your husband and your brother, and it just
Mark Haney: seems like it's a good working model.
Mark Haney: Did you say fifth generation family?
Mark Haney: Okay, so what did I not dive into around
Mark Haney: building such a strong family with that
Mark Haney: kind of unity?
Mark Haney: Because to me that unity has got a ton of
Mark Haney: value.
Mark Haney: But what could you add in terms of how to
Mark Haney: develop that?
Melissa Ortiz: I think the best word I can use is
Melissa Ortiz: acceptance.
Melissa Ortiz: My mom, my husband, exited the family
Melissa Ortiz: business in November and we were really
Melissa Ortiz: worried how this was going to affect I.
Melissa Ortiz: Had a client in Houston who was talking
Melissa Ortiz: about their son-in-law exited their
Melissa Ortiz: business and they didn't speak for a year
Melissa Ortiz: and a half.
Melissa Ortiz: I'm like, okay, this could go really bad.
Melissa Ortiz: I don't know how everyone's going to take
Melissa Ortiz: this and my parents and my brother were so
Melissa Ortiz: gracious about it, this total acceptance.
Melissa Ortiz: Well, if this isn't what you want to do, by
Melissa Ortiz: all means please don't spend your life
Melissa Ortiz: doing it and accepting.
Melissa Ortiz: You know, if you go back to the strengths
Melissa Ortiz: mentality, accepting these quirkiness, that
Melissa Ortiz: is like my.
Melissa Ortiz: The joke on in the family farm and it
Melissa Ortiz: really comes from our office manager is
Melissa Ortiz: like there's, uh, if you've seen madagascar,
Melissa Ortiz: it's like, yeah, I think, is that disney
Melissa Ortiz: movie?
Melissa Ortiz: Yeah, yeah, pix, I think, pixar, that's
Melissa Ortiz: right.
Melissa Ortiz: The lemurs, they're all spaz attacks.
Melissa Ortiz: That's my entire family.
Melissa Ortiz: And then there's my husband, who's like an
Melissa Ortiz: engineer and he's dressed in the
Melissa Ortiz: stormtrooper outfit and he's marching with
Melissa Ortiz: a whole group of stormtroopers in a row and
Melissa Ortiz: he's like this very structured German,
Melissa Ortiz: interesting and so.
Melissa Ortiz: But there's this appreciation that he's
Melissa Ortiz: great at systems and processes and he
Melissa Ortiz: tolerates us.
Melissa Ortiz: God love him.
Melissa Ortiz: And so just these different strengths at
Melissa Ortiz: play, if we can take them, from irritation
Melissa Ortiz: which, like last night, it came to a head
Melissa Ortiz: because my brother took the boat out which
Melissa Ortiz: was parked at our house to go out on the
Melissa Ortiz: river.
Melissa Ortiz: We're like, oh, we'd love to come join you.
Melissa Ortiz: We're on our way, well, we're getting
Melissa Ortiz: packed up, and he calls and he says um, the
Melissa Ortiz: keys aren't in the boat.
Melissa Ortiz: Well, my German engineer husband took them
Melissa Ortiz: out of the boat, so no one stole the boat
Melissa Ortiz: and the boat was useful to them.
Melissa Ortiz: But he didn't remember to text the whole
Melissa Ortiz: family to say, hey, boat keys are in my box
Melissa Ortiz: and you know well, I think uh, I'm going to
Melissa Ortiz: summarize, gonna summarize, uh, in my, what
Melissa Ortiz: I took out of that was you be you, right,
Melissa Ortiz: be yourself.
Mark Haney: It's okay to be you, even if you're um
Mark Haney: systematizing type of mind or you're a, you
Mark Haney: know, a little bit uh, flighty, uh, accept
Mark Haney: it yeah, and just own it right.
Melissa Ortiz: What's the dr seuss quote?
Melissa Ortiz: Uh, nobody.
Melissa Ortiz: Oh, something about being.
Melissa Ortiz: You are the new.
Melissa Ortiz: Oh, I wish I had had it on the top of my
Melissa Ortiz: head but Dr Seuss has some really good.
Mark Haney: Yeah, I'll have to chat GPT that I'm using
Mark Haney: a little bit of AI myself these days.
Mark Haney: Okay, so last question and I'm gonna.
Mark Haney: Well, I'll ask two more questions.
Mark Haney: So what did I not ask you?
Mark Haney: I was thinking about life hacks and
Mark Haney: leadership and things like that, and there
Mark Haney: was a book that was recommended to me.
Mark Haney: It was kind of around time management, but
Mark Haney: it's more than that.
Mark Haney: It's different than that by somewhat, some
Mark Haney: measures, and it's called Essentialism.
Melissa Ortiz: The.
Mark Haney: Discipline Pursuit of.
Mark Haney: Yes, yeah, it took me a while to stammer
Mark Haney: the words out, but Essentialum is a book
Mark Haney: about like cutting things out of.
Mark Haney: It's okay to cut things out of your life
Mark Haney: and say no, it gives guidance on that, and
Mark Haney: so that to me.
Mark Haney: That's a book that I've read a number of
Mark Haney: times or listened to on audio and it's.
Mark Haney: You know, it might mean that you appear to
Mark Haney: look a certain way to others, but if that's
Mark Haney: what you need to do for self-preservation,
Mark Haney: do it or to grow you got to do it yeah yeah
Mark Haney: I think one of my favorite books is, uh,
Mark Haney: the four agreements oh yeah that one, it's
Mark Haney: been a while though it's
Melissa Ortiz: a.
Melissa Ortiz: It's an annual listen for me, okay, um and
Melissa Ortiz: it, and it's such a good grounding and one
Melissa Ortiz: of the four agreements is always do your
Melissa Ortiz: best, okay, be impeccable with your word.
Melissa Ortiz: Of course, I'm not going to remember all
Melissa Ortiz: four of these on the spot.
Melissa Ortiz: Impeccable with your word is an amazing one
Melissa Ortiz: in terms of confidence and competence.
Melissa Ortiz: Don't take anything personally.
Melissa Ortiz: Has been a really powerful one for me
Melissa Ortiz: because, because of my strengths,
Melissa Ortiz: everything's personal to me and I'm.
Melissa Ortiz: My relationships are really important.
Melissa Ortiz: If anything's off with one of my key
Melissa Ortiz: relationships, I kind of spin a little bit,
Melissa Ortiz: and it's been an amazingly freeing um
Melissa Ortiz: mantra for me is it's never about you.
Melissa Ortiz: We're all coming from our own lenses and
Melissa Ortiz: our own bad days and triggers and all these
Melissa Ortiz: things.
Melissa Ortiz: It's like usually that interaction.
Mark Haney: It wasn't about you and, um, yeah, yeah,
Mark Haney: I've actually heard people, uh, um, within
Mark Haney: the last year, say that the four agreements
Mark Haney: was on there.
Mark Haney: You're not the first person that's brought
Mark Haney: that book up to me, and I believe I read it
Mark Haney: a few years back, but you know, they could
Mark Haney: recite've, they could recite it Like they
Mark Haney: live by it, like they read it every year
Mark Haney: type thing too, so that it must be a great
Mark Haney: book, even though maybe I didn't, you know,
Mark Haney: didn't resonate with me as much.
Mark Haney: I'm gonna have to pull that one out again.
Mark Haney: Um, now, you know, sometimes we need like
Mark Haney: that downtime when you feel like growing.
Mark Haney: Timing is everything.
Mark Haney: That's one of my mantras with my kids.
Mark Haney: Timing is everything.
Mark Haney: It's like to read.
Mark Haney: You know one of these self-help books.
Mark Haney: When you're not feeling the mood, you know
Mark Haney: it doesn't.
Mark Haney: I like to read that stuff, like when I'm in
Mark Haney: Cabo and I come back a little more
Mark Haney: energized sometimes, so okay.
Mark Haney: So last question, I guess, is like what
Mark Haney: else did I not ask you?
Mark Haney: I know you have a message, I don't know
Mark Haney: where you.
Mark Haney: I mean, I didn't really.
Mark Haney: I have notes on what I was gonna talk about,
Mark Haney: but I don't even remember what they are.
Mark Haney: So what did I not ask you?
Mark Haney: That's like important for us to get out in
Mark Haney: terms of messaging.
Melissa Ortiz: I think one of the things that everybody
Melissa Ortiz: needs to hear is there just aren't enough
Melissa Ortiz: doers in the world.
Melissa Ortiz: There aren't enough people who take the
Melissa Ortiz: courage just try, and we need those in our
Melissa Ortiz: small communities, in our communities at
Melissa Ortiz: large.
Melissa Ortiz: I mean, I think about politics and there
Melissa Ortiz: aren't enough good candidates, because it's
Melissa Ortiz: a terrible job, but if we don't have doers
Melissa Ortiz: who are willing to push the needle, who are
Melissa Ortiz: willing to take a stand and say this is
Melissa Ortiz: what I think is important, that's, you know
Melissa Ortiz: I think about.
Melissa Ortiz: I go to the gym and work in our community
Melissa Ortiz: with people who have very different
Melissa Ortiz: political views than I do.
Melissa Ortiz: But when you work closely with people,
Melissa Ortiz: you're like oh, they have all these amazing
Melissa Ortiz: redeeming qualities.
Melissa Ortiz: Just because we don't agree on these things
Melissa Ortiz: over here, they, they become more human.
Melissa Ortiz: And until you lean in and become a doer,
Melissa Ortiz: volunteer for things and, um, hold people
Melissa Ortiz: up.
Melissa Ortiz: And that's a great way to find our
Melissa Ortiz: strengths without big risks at work is to
Melissa Ortiz: go volunteer and and lean into some things
Melissa Ortiz: and um yeah, there's this great quote by an
Melissa Ortiz: entrepreneur in texas um, that is, we all
Melissa Ortiz: want to be valued members of a winning team
Melissa Ortiz: on an inspiring mission, and that goes for
Melissa Ortiz: both volunteer, unpaid roles and paid roles
Melissa Ortiz: because if we're a valued member, it means
Melissa Ortiz: we're contributing from a strength-based
Melissa Ortiz: place of a winning team.
Melissa Ortiz: Even people who aren't competitive love to
Melissa Ortiz: win.
Melissa Ortiz: And on an inspiring mission.
Melissa Ortiz: It means we're doing something that matters.
Mark Haney: Yeah.
Melissa Ortiz: And that is really the guidepost for all of
Melissa Ortiz: my work is if we can find and create those
Melissa Ortiz: conditions, we've done something really
Melissa Ortiz: good.
Mark Haney: I love it.
Mark Haney: Create those conditions.
Mark Haney: We've done something really good.
Mark Haney: I love it.
Mark Haney: Well, melissa, thank you for sharing such
Mark Haney: uh, I guess it's more than common sense
Mark Haney: wisdom.
Mark Haney: It's more, like you say it in an inspiring
Mark Haney: way, things that make us want to be a doer
Mark Haney: go out and, you know, change our lives for
Mark Haney: the better.
Mark Haney: So thanks for sharing that Very
Mark Haney: inspirational.
Mark Haney: Hopefully somebody got something that they
Mark Haney: can put into action.
Mark Haney: Even if it's hey what book to read, there's
Mark Haney: a lot of good nuggets in there.
Melissa Ortiz: Thank, you for coming on the show.
Melissa Ortiz: Thank you for having me.
Melissa Ortiz: This is such a great platform.
Melissa Ortiz: Thank you very much.
Mark Haney: Thanks for watching today's show.
Mark Haney: My goal for every episode is that you find
Mark Haney: a takeaway, something tangible you can use
Mark Haney: in your business today, and if you have a
Mark Haney: comment about a favorite takeaway, feel
Mark Haney: free to put it in the in the box below.
Mark Haney: And if you have a topic that you'd like me
Mark Haney: to bring up on the show, don't forget to
Mark Haney: let me know.
Mark Haney: And also don't forget to subscribe to our
Mark Haney: YouTube channel if you want to learn more
Mark Haney: about entrepreneurship, because at Haney
Mark Haney: biz, we are always by your side.