Please join us in welcoming our newest Action Catalyst host, Stephanie Maas! With more than 25 years of experience, Stephanie is an executive search Partner with ThinkingAhead Executive Search, where she sees her purpose as improving the lives of others by providing life-altering opportunities for her candidates and clients through talent acquisition. Stephanie brings a fresh energy to the podcast, where she takes her place alongside Adam Outland as a full-time host.

Learn even more about Stephanie in her interview on Episode 420 of The Action Catalyst.

Hi, this is Stephanie Maas and I'm thrilled to be joining the Action Catalyst.

Many of you will have no idea who I am or why in the world I could even remotely be qualified to be here, and a really neat story how it came to be.

So for 30 years, I have been with the Southwestern family of companies who produces the action catalyst.

In fact, I first got to know the Southwestern family of companies when I was a sophomore at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

I was recruited to be a part of their Summer Advantage program, and it literally changed my life.

I have three kids, so my hobbies typically consist of football games, getting my oldest off to college and ready for that experience.

Spending time with My youngest is she's trying to figure out if she wants to be a fashion designer, a volleyball player.

A race car driver, gymnast, a cheer queen, any of those number of things we typically tend to bounce around.

When I'm not busy with those, my heart also goes to giving back to those less fortunate in the community.

Probably one of my all-time favorite quotes is from Spider-Man, uncle Ben, if you remember, and it is with great power comes great responsibility.

And I believe that I have been blessed in extraordinary ways with the gifts that I've been given throughout my life and career.

So anything that I can do to give back to others is very motivating for me.

That sounded really cheesy, but it's really sincere.

Since my exposure to the Action Catalyst, one of the things I think make it really unique is the ability to have real conversation with folks that have done some amazing things.

I think the Action Catalyst really spends time getting beyond the traditional questions of who are you, how'd you get there?

So forth and so on.

But really peels back the layers of, Hey, Tell us not just about your wins, but about your failures.

It really gets to the people behind the achievements, and I think for executives, leaders, folks who wanna be in those roles, who are on the journey to be in those roles, who are currently in those roles, it gives them a very real look at what it looks like to get there, to stay there, to be there, et cetera.

Podcasting is a fantastic format for folks who are busy in a time crunch, but looking and yearning for places to get new ideas, share ideas, be exposed to things they maybe didn't know, to help them further their career, their professional life, whatever the case may be.

Podcasting is a fantastic format for those who are on the go, but still have a thirst for knowledge.

My hope is that listeners get a very real look at the folks behind the successes and the achievements.

It's so easy to see something that somebody has done in, in your mind automatically put them on a certain type of pedestal, and it's not that we're trying to take them off of the pedestal, but rather, hey, what does that climb look like?

And help understand that even though these folks have incredible achievement, They're really like you and I and very relatable, which means we can be just as incredible in our achievements as they are.