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Hi, I'm Sarah Richardson, former CIO and President of the 229 Executive Development Community. Welcome to Flourish, where we delve into captivating career origin stories and spark conversations that inspire, inform, and foster community.

Join us as we explore the journeys that have shaped successful professionals and uncover the insights that can help you thrive on your career path. Thanks for joining us.

Sarah Richardson: I'm thrilled to welcome Jessica Samuels, a Dynamic CEO, Fractional CHRO, Executive Coach, Keynote Speaker, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Belonging DEIB Expert. She is known for helping executives and entrepreneurs with fearless leadership, career management, inclusive culture building, and LinkedIn Presence

jessica brings a wealth of experience as a former corporate C suite turned CEO of Evolve Career, where she coaches organizations and leaders while pursuing a doctorate degree that is shaping her understanding of leadership and resilience. Jessica, welcome to the show.

Jessica Samuels: Thank you, Sarah. It's so nice to meet you on this show.

I'm excited to meet you and the Flourish community. let's have Some fun today.

Sarah Richardson: Absolutely. And it's fair for the Flourish community to know that the first time we actually met in person, maybe a year and a half, two years ago, it was after hours VIVE event specific to women's business leaders, as well as you being a CEO of an organization.

And I will just tell you it was a girl crush moment. I saw you and I'm talking to you in the room Who is this woman? Like she has everything together. Like just the, all of it, the entire package. And I'm thinking like, it was moments where you were like imposter syndrome to come up and chat with the person.

And then here we are a year and a half later, we are friends. We know all kinds of people together. We just got to be together in DC for some time and high tea, which was incredible. And then I'm like, Hey, will you be on the show? And you're like, of course. And so the reason I share those stories with our listeners is that Our entire world is about relationships.

Our entire world is about, can I go talk to that person that I'm nervous to talk to? Or how do I learn from that person that I'm admiring so much and want to be more like? What are the things that they can share with me, et cetera? And then you turn out, you're more powerful and you're more capable than you ever thought you were just by surrounding yourself with the people that are not only in your universe, but you also admire.

And so such a win as people get to know you through this conversation. So thank you for being here today.

Jessica Samuels: Thank you for having me. And I agree with you. Relationships are key, I would say, to just fulfillment in life, but also as professionals too.

Trusting Intuition in Career Decisions

Sarah Richardson: I want to jump right in because there is so much we could cover.

When you and I chat, we talk about trusting your intuition and leadership specifically. And so how has trusting your intuition guided you through key decisions, particularly in career transition and some of those high stakes moments?

Jessica Samuels: I love this question around intuition. When we start to learn how to trust our gut, and when we start to really get clear on what our values are, decisions actually become much easier.

It's when we haven't done that inner work to help us say is this role or is this opportunity going to fit? Feed my soul, or is it going to drain me and take energy away from me versus adding? And so one particular decision I'd say with intuition that comes to mind was my decision to scale my business last year.

And this is end of 2023 saying, okay, I may leap into that path or I may scale the business and I trusted my gut in that moment that I wanted to serve more people. Outside of one organization and so I knew that I was a community builder. I knew that relationships was huge for me. I knew that mentoring and coaching and doing the DEIB work in ways that are boots on the ground, but also organizationally. I knew that if I. took on the role of CHRO within an organization, it would limit me. And so I decided I still want to do that work. So I'll scale the business to include fractional CHRO work, as well as the executive leadership, career coaching aspects.

So without following my intuition in that decision, I think I would have. forced myself to follow the plan that I had laid out instead of saying what feels right in this moment.

Sarah Richardson: So trusting our intuition is something we for people say you trust between you know your chin and your pelvis like that's where you know if a decision is correct and then your head takes over.

How do you balance trusting your gut with strategic planning such as in your career when you're faced with some of these difficult career choices?

Jessica Samuels: You make the plan, I don't think that you should say, I'm just going to rely on my intuition and make the decision in the moment.

I think you'll have a bit more peace with the final decision that you make if you rational mind, create the strategic plan. And what I mean by that is, Understand where you are today. Think short term, where do I want to be in maybe three months? And then I do the long term planning next year. What are some big goals that I have for myself?

And so I do that quiet thinking and I encourage my clients to do that as well. But when the opportunity presents itself in the moment, give yourself permission. to tweak the strategy and the plan that you have created and look at it to see, is this still working for me? And I think sometimes we either feel like it's all or nothing, right?

I have to be so regimented with my plan and my strategy, and this is what I'm marching towards, or I don't want to plan at all. I just want to feel it. And then I feel, is that the right decision? And so I think a balance between the two is a healthy marriage in terms of, Leading with intuition, but also being a strategic thought leader too.

Sarah Richardson: That's powerful as being able to trust the balance between the two and permission, which we don't always give ourselves permission to change course to make a, pivot into something we hadn't necessarily thought about previously, which let's be honest, pursuing your doctorate is not something you decide to do and go do per se.

There's a lot of perspectives involved in that. And When about how pursuing your doctorate

has impacted your professional development,

what inspired you to finally say, yes, do this?

Jessica Samuels: Oh, that's a great question. I'm one folks that are pursuing a doctorate degree and Saying was this the right choice?

And that honestly, I did pursue it for academic growth. This is my fourth and final degree. Thank the Lord. I have studied in education and leadership development and instructional technology and former degrees, but I really wanted to understand management process through the lens of what organizational psychology. And I tried to tell myself several times, no, I'm not going to get this doctorate degree two master's enough, but I thought about it. I said, I want to be a published author before I die. I knew that I knew that. And I also want it to be a published author and be the first one in my family.

So to me, it's about. Building a legacy first, and then if I realized what is this going to mean for my family? And what is this going to communicate to my, three daughters? And, it's that

I'm a black woman pursuing these big goals and I want them that they can do it. want them to know that they can make a goal and push pause when life is getting crazy and that's okay.

This will be my fifth year in the program and it was designed to be a three year program. But again, Listening to my heart when as an executive, your career's nuts, family transitions are occurring. It's okay to pursue goals and to push pause on them if Self care needs to be a priority. So in terms of the doctorate degree, yes, I've grown intellectually by this pursuit, but what it has really meant to me is around resilience and about connecting with real people through my research to solidify why I'm as passionate about supporting Executives and rising leaders in their path to career satisfaction, because that's the focus of my doctorate degree dissertation is around people of color and how organizations can develop very intentional succession planning efforts and really around executive development programming that supports women and people of color to hopefully build more inclusive leadership teams.

Sarah Richardson: And you got to be honest, it requires an element of fearlessness to just put it out there because I'm sure what you're finding is when people say why are you getting your doctorate? Like you don't need a doctorate to publish a book. You don't need a doctorate to do this. All the reasons why you don't need it.

At the same time, the fan base says, I can't wait for you to get that. I can't wait to call you doctor. I can't wait to be one of the people who says, am I ever going to go do that? To your point, do I need a fourth degree or is what I've accomplished at this interval? Good enough.

Fearlessness and Career Transitions

Sarah Richardson: And yet I want to touch on the fearlessness and leadership, because it's a real thing, what does it mean to be fearless as a leader?

And how have you encouraged others to adopt a fearless mindset in theirs?

Jessica Samuels: Gosh, to be fearless. I think it goes back to risk taking to, to be a fearless leader is to reject perfectionism. It is to be comfortable with risk taking. It is. Taking chances on yourself, betting on yourself, believing that you are the solution to someone's problem.

Really believing that, but then also fearless being, I know how to describe what makes me an authentic leader and what makes me unique. Everyone has what I call their secret sauce. And many of us are walking around knowing we're different. But we're not really boldly claiming that in the way that we do our work or the way that we describe our accomplishments in the workplace, or even in the community where I work with leaders that are in various states of career transition, or they've achieved the promotion of their dreams, and they're still shrinking.

And so the fearlessness is saying, I'm going to show up boldly, my whole self every day. And I'm not going to worry about the mistake that I made because I'm not perfect. I never will be. So I just remove that expectation for myself. And then I also help others develop that fearless mindset by saying we're not perfect, right?

We have a fail forward mentality. I look at you as an entrepreneur on my team. I hired you because I hire smart and talented people go lead.

Sarah Richardson: And you empower them to do that. So when the mistakes. The hiccups that I'm not having the best day ever, but it's a big day that I need to show up.

You have permission to still be successful, but maybe not the same way you thought that you could have been that day. And yet somebody has your back. That air cover is so important across the continuum. And when you hear it from your boss. It means everything. I want to talk about just the career changes you have made, the ones you weren't expecting.

The, hey, I'm a CEO of one company and this just happened, so sounds like I'm going to go become the CEO of my own company now instead of some perfectly planned other point or time in your life. Can you share about taking a calculated risk and how it's paid off for you and what do people really need to think about before they.

Jessica Samuels: Oh, this is a great question. I love it because with navigating various career changes, you have to number one, know your brand and have an idea of where you want to be in three to five years. If you're, in a role and you're, Waiting for someone to approach you with the promotion and saying I'll weigh it when this happens.

That's to me, not the right approach. I think you have to forward future pace and say in five years, I want to be here. So then you start to reverse engineer. What experience do I need to be prepared for that role? When it drops in my lap, right? Maybe you create the role. That's another piece of advice when transitions are happening.

Maybe you are going to design your dream career role within an organization or like myself said, Hey, I've been a CEO for 15 years, but we're going to scale this part time business into full time and that you're prepared to do that because you really understand the power that we have within each of us as we can design.

The career of our dreams. We just have to give ourselves permission. So when it comes to transitions, you have to know where you're trying to go in a few years and back into that role. The other piece is connecting what you do for fun or outside of work to your main gig. So for me specifically, I was looking to become a C suite leader, and I knew I wanted to have a role that was a combination of, and this is weird, y'all.

My background is truly. complex I have a love for HR. I have a love for OD. I have a love for coaching. I had my coaching business for probably, I'd say 10 years at this point, or maybe 12 years. And I also loved tech and product development. And so I wanted a C suite role that would give me the ability to do all of those, to get my hands messy in all of those aspects.

And Thank goodness a recruiter found me, but I was willing to start doing consulting work in those different capacities because I knew that's going to make me feel like I'm not working every day. And so when I branded myself as the expert in those areas, what happened? Executive recruiters and search firms started to find me and say, Hey, We have this kind of unique chief talent officer, chief culture officer role.

Would you be interested in? And it was everything that I thought it would be and more. So navigating career changes has to be who you are what lights you up inside where you're trying to go. And you're open to taking roles that may not be traditionally what you've heard. A CHRO role may look very different in every organization, but if it has bits and pieces around.

Where your superpowers lie, it may be worth taking the risk again, gain skills in certain areas that may help you get to the next role that you're looking to obtain.

Sarah Richardson: I love that you've shared that because just this week alone, I've probably had 10 conversations with people who are asking me for help figuring out what is next.

And you threw it back out there and you say, what do you love to do? And what's fascinating is how many people are making a decent living. And supporting their families and have a great title, maybe getting paid what they want to get paid and they aren't happy in what they're doing. And so I asked them to like, what do you love to do?

What do you, where do you find that happiness knowing full well, it may start out as a hobby or a secondary component of your career, but then becomes more of the primary, but you really do need those thought partnerships. And so when you think about the people who have come to you and the transformations.

that you have helped them to create? How much of it is on the person coming to you? How long does it take? How long does it take for someone to say, I'm going to reach out to Jessica because I need help. What is it? There's no typical journey. What does a journey look like in terms of one that you have seen successfully play out that you helped to navigate?

Jessica Samuels: I've worked with thousands of leaders over the course of the time I've been in business and what I'm really talented is helping those early executives, let's call it director, VP, SVP transition into the C suite. And I am just truly proud of some of the results that I have had just even in this year.

So I'll rattle off One executive, he'd worked for an organization for 20 plus years, unexpectedly laid off, hadn't put the resume together in a hundred years and said, Jessica I'm giving you a challenge. I work in the biopharma space. I don't want to travel internationally anymore.

I want, a role that I'm sitting at the C suite. I want to stay based in Texas. I want my comp to be at the 300k. All these stipulations. He's are you up for the challenge? I said, I'm up for the challenge, right? And six weeks later, he lands a role and he also kicks off his fractional biotech pharma advisory.

Consulting business. So that's one example, like six weeks, we knew what we were going for. And he was just a really present client that was willing to roll up his sleeves and co create with me. Another client that I worked with a little over 12 weeks, she was interested in landing her first C suite role as a chief revenue officer.

So we did the rebranding work and we noticed she was shrinking when she was showing up. She's a great networker, but the way that she was conveying her value that she was going to bring in the organization was not enough. And her interviewing skills were she was, it was like she was on a sales call, not necessarily building and forging deep relationships with her internal Executive team.

So we worked together, put together a 90 minute pitch deck for her final interview, and she landed the role and was just ecstatic. She was laid off at this point too. So not only were we trying to boost confidence in a career transition where she was actually very concerned about ageism, we were able to tackle that problem, but it was all of those instances, the leaders that come and ask me to become their executive coach in some capacity.

They're willing to do the work, and they know that they may not have all the nuts and bolts figured out, but they do know that they're ambitious, that they are skilled, that they are ready to make true business impact, and all of that. This is how we craft the new elevator pitches, and the new resumes, and the new services fliers I have one woman we secure $35, 000 Coaching.

She actually is a new business owner. So she transitioned from the corporate space and was feeling imposter syndrome about being a first time CEO. And we were able to secure a five figure deal. And again, all of these are about leveraging LinkedIn. It's about your presence. And it's about you showing up in person, but also how do you expand your executive business brand digitally?

Sarah Richardson: Such a powerful message. Putting the work in with a partner who's going to be equally committed to you is huge.

And it's a lot. People realize that digital presence, it in and of itself. Is a job because those algorithms, they flip every single day and you're going to try stuff and be like that didn't hit an audience yet. This one did. And just being creative with the approach that you're taking to define your brand.

Have people who tell you if your brand is matching what you want it to be. As well, that's even beyond your coach. It's who is, who are your five people on your personal board of directors who are going to give you the tough feedback that you need to get better every single day. And so I've always felt like your coach is your champion and will tell you where things need to be tweaked and adjusted.

You also need to have the independent group of people in your life who are going to say, I see the work that you're doing with your coach. Here's where I believe it's showing up or here's where I believe you need to continue to keep working towards it. Y'all need those individuals in your life. And very specifically, when you have other barriers to overcome, you mentioned ageism, I'm going to talk about the DEIB component because there's still so much work to be done across the continuum.

What strategies are most effective when advancing DEIB? And I'm particularly curious about underrepresented industries like technology and education, and you're tackling both.

Jessica Samuels: This is when I enjoy the fractional CHRO positions that I'm working with. One organization, a healthcare organization in particular, said, We have got to do more with succession planning around building up our women and our people of color.

And they said, we don't have the first clue as to how to do this. So I've actually helped them design and launch and scale a mentoring program within their organization that is designed to help these leaders that are diverse leaders show up more confidently and make more business impact. And so the strategy behind that is one.

Being intentional about where are the gaps, where are rooms for growth, and helping facilitate that conversation at the executive level, where they're not feeling punished for any particular lack of growth in this area, but it's, I'm going to meet them where they are. And we can start with DEIB. It could be around the talent development piece, which is where this organization chose to put their focus in.

Other areas, the DE IB can be focused on talent acquisition. How are we being intentional about attracting leaders that have beyond racial diversity, maybe this in terms of neurological diversity and neurodivergence and making sure that we're inviting different sexual orientations into the leadership pipeline, being sure that we are talking about Gen Z leaders.

So when we think about DE and IB, we have to broadly understand where our gaps are. And many organizations are, they feel behind because they haven't been capturing this data. So they, have zero understanding where. The DE and IB metrics are to begin with, their talent. But if you don't have that data from a talent acquisition standpoint, what we could start to do is either develop the individuals that are hoping to stay in the organization and you want to retain them as a retention tool.

But then we could also take it one step further and talk about engagement. And so another strategy that I'm helping organizations do is launch their first employee resource group. Maybe this is around working parents, maybe this is around women leadership, maybe this is around elderly care, whatever the communities, if you know there's a bulk of leaders in your company that are plagued with challenges and need support and need a community Build that community.

And I can't stress enough for organizational leaders, brand reputation management. is huge. If you don't think it matters, you are mistaken because leaders have, candidates have choices. They are very selective of who they say yes to when it comes to hiring. And so you want to not only open up opportunities for them to grow in a specific role, but you have to make sure that your culture is a place where people of color and minorities and people that feel like they are in an underrepresented group feel safe.

To be working in your organization. And that is the hard work.

Sustaining DEIB Momentum

Jessica Samuels: And that's fun for me to partner with individuals that say we're committed to doing this, but we may not know all the best practices.

Sarah Richardson: An organization's made such an effort for a period of time about the DEIB space and then they don't know how to keep the momentum going.

They don't understand that it can be about paternal leave. It can be about having a coach when you get promoted internally for the first six months of a new role. When you think of some of the Foundational elements of having a program where people feel like they matter, that they're seen and they're heard.

What are some non negotiables organizations really need to be thinking about today?

Jessica Samuels: Non negotiables is when you promote someone into a new leadership position. Especially if they are a woman of people of color, provide them with one on one executive leadership coaching support. I cannot stress this enough.

It will make or break the transition. They will have someone that is a sounding board in terms of all the new requests that are coming their way from their new supervisor, to their new direct reports, to the business strategy that's set before them, and not having someone to sound board that understands the

organizations big goals, you're putting them behind the curve without that type of support. To me, that's a very easy layup for, to support folks that are a part of underrepresented groups. And I think the second piece is, really around building community.

You have to have Employee resource groups or business resource groups to start to engage the culture. If we are in just a work mode all the time, people burn out and it doesn't feel like the sense of belonging that individuals are craving for now in the workplace. If you can start to build community, and I think some organizations are doing this really well, giving employees time off to go volunteer at their organization of choice and making it even a day off every year, volunteer time off.

They're easy wins for organizations to show that I see you, I care about you Even if it's Unlimited paid time off or summer Fridays. Again, just honoring that we are humans and that we have lives outside of work. It goes a long way.

Sarah Richardson: I love that you mentioned the day off to volunteer.

I used to work at HCA and we had community days and the whole company took one or two days off in that mix to support their favorite organizations. It was a big deal. It was everybody did it. Because if you didn't go volunteer, like Why were you still in the office that day? There's so many causes that needed to be served.

And what was so rewarding is that you want to be involved in your community. You want to make a difference where you live. You don't always know how to get involved or where to get involved. When you're given time to do that, then you find gosh, you know what, I'm going to spend a couple days a month here helping this organization.

I didn't even know they existed and I know that they need me and it provides such a sense of just peacefulness and balance in your life because you're able to actually give back to more than just what's on your calendar every single day and I love that.

Balancing Career and Self-Care

Sarah Richardson: It's hard though, balancing a career. Balancing your family.

Women have, women may be the breadwinner, may have their kids that they're raising and putting through college, may have elderly parents, may have all kinds of demands as an executive at work, throw in a couple pets, goodness knows what else is happening in your life. And then you forget about yourself in the mix.

And when you think about managing the balance between your family obligations, your professional demands, your. Education demands. What strategies work for you to maintain a sense of groundedness and peace in your own life?

Jessica Samuels: Thank you for asking this question. It is one of my favorite questions to be asked because I have had my own personal journey with self care and boundaries and a part of my executive leadership coaching program, C Suite Career Accelerators.

We start day one, self care plan. I ask my leaders. What's your plan? And they may say something, but I'm like let's write it down. They're like, I'm not doing any of this. And I'm like, thank you for being vulnerable and honest with me. What do you want to start doing? And so I look at self care.

I practice what I preach. I have a daily Aspect to self care, I do something that I commit to weekly, something monthly, something quarterly, and something annually. And you have to time block it in that way, because if we don't time block it, we won't do it. If it is not on our calendar, usually it will not become a habit if we just think we'll get around to it, right?

And we'll leave ourself last, but we know the saying, the airplane analogy, you put your mask on first, right? If we don't have oxygen and nutrients in our body to be able to give to others, we're going to be over here just depleted and depriving ourselves of the nourishment we need to be healthy.

First things first, create that self care plan for yourself. I have fun habits that I do on Fridays. It's oysters and champagne day for me, and I am pretty religious about this. I am going to get a half dozen oysters. I'm going to order a glass of champagne. Sarah, I love champagne. Its bubbles make me happy, and I reflect on three things for the week.

What are three wins that I am extremely proud of? What are three challenges that popped up that I need to make sure that I address the following week? And what are three big priorities that I want to accomplish in the following week? I spend, it could be 15 minutes doing this. I whip out my iPhone and I just Put them in the tracker, and it is a way to celebrate, it is a way to be honest, to troubleshoot, and it is a way to have focus, so you have a productive week the next week.

Just that practice alone, I'm having fun, I'm having my bubbles, but I'm also getting focused for the upcoming week, because if we're walking around here feeling scattered, We're not going to get the job we want, we're not going to get the board role we want, we're not going to make the impact as a leader to our teams.

We're not going to wow our clients, we're going to be depleted for our family. We're not going to finish the degrees and write the books and launch the businesses that we want. If we aren't taking care of self. And so I encourage folks that are listening to this. I love posting my self care moments on LinkedIn, along with other tidbits of leadership and career transition, because I want to show people that I am living this out day to day.

And you can too. I love Puerto Rico. I go as often as I want. I kiss everybody at home. Bye, honey. Bye. Bye kids. See you later. Bye. Mommy's going away and maybe three days, maybe five days, but I'm out of here because I. Recharge in a way that I cannot when I'm going to networking events or hanging out with my girls or doing a family function, I need downtime to recharge.

And you have to listen to your body and figure out what those cycles are for you.

Sarah Richardson: Yep. I already have my note for you that when you finish your doctorate that we're going to be doing Krug bubbles together. Because you and I both love champagne. It's our favorite way to celebrate, commiserate, do whatever.

It's always in between. But to your point, those things you do for yourself are huge. On Friday, best week, worst week, in between, whatever, you've got oysters and champagne and wearing a few at the end of the week. And you're going to figure all of it out because that is something you memorialized into your routine.

And you earn it. And it's like these moments that you allow yourself. Women are not good about giving ourselves permission to do any of these things. And so do you set boundaries? And I say this because People ask me every day, can you do this? Can you do this? Can you do this? And you're so honored sometimes to be asked and you want to be helpful.

That's our nature to do it. I've become comfortable with the warm, no, thank you. Or I'm not the right person. This person could be, sometimes I still struggle with it. I'm not going to lie. I have to ask my husband, like, how do I tell this person? No. And he's tell them, no, thank you. I'm like, yeah, thank you for that.

And as you think about that setting boundaries though, that Make you feel like you're not letting somebody down. That's always what it comes down to. How do you set a boundary? Doesn't feel like you're letting somebody else down. How do you do it?

Jessica Samuels: How do you do it? Okay. And I did not plan this. So literally I keep this book literally like within boundaries.

Dr. Henry Cloud and John Towson, I have been reading this book on and off for over a decade. I encourage everyone that is struggling with boundaries to read it because it is phenomenal. But it's you're not letting, you caring for yourself and being honest with yourself is not letting anyone else down.

We can do, we can say no with empathy. We can again, like you said, connect them with someone else. But I just refuse to run on fumes. That's a good line. I refuse to run on fumes. Please make sure that I write that down. Write it down. Because it always comes back to a needed moment. It's good, right? I refuse to run on fumes.

If I'm sleepy I'm not doing it. I'm going to take a nap. I'm going to say, yes, I can do this, but not on the day that you need. I can do it on this day. So it's maybe a no. However, or it can be, yes, I can do this, but it'd be ideal for me to do this on this date, two weeks, three weeks out. And so we just have to be comfortable that a no is a no, but you can also offer an alternative that it's mutually beneficial between the two of you.

Sarah Richardson: Good advice. I refuse to run on fumes. And I was at the SOAR event in Atlanta last week, which by the time our listeners hear this, maybe a couple weeks. And one of the analogies a woman gave was, you would never go shopping if you didn't know the balance on your gift card. Think about yourself in that same, if you're the gift card, what's the balance before you commit to whatever it is in your cart as an example.

And I thought absolutely perfect corollary, refusing to run on themes that requires resilience though. And so as you build resilience in your life, What's a moment that you could share when resilience was critical to your success? And then how do you help others develop resilience in their own journeys?

And in business, there are going to be waves, right? And so you may have a month where you're saying I'm charting towards the goal that I've set and I don't hit it. But I continue to still go, I continue to still pick up and do this work every single day, because again, I've removed the obligation of perfectionism, but resilience is around the goal is ahead of me.

And I know that I'm going to continue. If I take one step forward, one step forward every day, I'm building momentum. And so that's really what I think we have to remind ourselves is that it's not I was teaching a group coaching session yesterday about driving innovation. In your leadership role.

And it was a reminder to the group, don't worry about making big changes every day, start small, pilot ideas. Refine what you already have working and maybe add this and take away that to see how it's working. So the resilience piece to get up back again and do it all over again is we're failing forward every day.

But as you continue to make steps, celebrate those. Literally pause. And that's what my weekly reflections is about. I'm like, wow, I'm doing something new this week. And wow, I just closed three sales in a day. And wow, I just got booked for another paid speaking gig. And so you just have to celebrate the wins.

And even though it may not be a perfect day, every day, you're probably making more momentum than you're, actually acknowledging. So start to celebrate those wins. And I think that will assist with being a resilient leader. Whatever type of leadership position you're in, whether it's corporate executive or an entrepreneur.

Sarah Richardson: One step at a time, to your point. Years ago, we had a women's leadership group at HCA and our CIO at the time, Noel Williams, she gave us these little piggy banks and they were literally about the size of a softball. And she said at the end of every week, put your greatest success in there and then open it when you believe the time is appropriate.

She didn't give us a specific timeline because you will forget about the wonderful things that you did incrementally every single week. And. I did that for a long period of time. I moved and then I wrapped up the piggy bank and put it in a box and found it actually a couple of years later on the next round and why that mattered so much.

And I've still put this in practice with people that I talked to is when I opened that piggy bank, there were still some little sticky notes with little things written on them and I'm like, dang it. I forgotten to look at these before I packed up the piggy bank and all of the things in there made me smile.

And there were little things like, Hey, we got a puppy or, Hey, I led this meeting or I traveled here and met this person, completely had forgotten about those moments in life. And it was a time when I actually needed to see them. So one step forward every single day, such a great reminder. And thank you for that.

Mentorship and Networking Power

Sarah Richardson: One last question, because you and I can fill hours. We did three hours just hanging out in DC and just kept talking. We both have to be somewhere next. Imagine that. And one final question for you, because this goes into how we met and how we continue to bring people into our universe together, is I'm going to do a twofold.

It's about mentoring women in leadership, but also the power of networking. How you mentor other women and how networking has influenced your career. What do people need to know about what success looks like in that space?

Jessica Samuels: My goodness. Thank you for asking this question and kind of in capping it around mentorship and networking, because this is single handedly what lights me up inside.

I know leaders say I just look to build the people and build the teams, but I'm really one of those leaders that believe this. And I love it because Mentorship. I'm telling you, I mentored a woman earlier this year and she said, I'm looking for a little bit of career growth. I'm really not sure how to navigate this.

And she's now the leader of diversity, equity and inclusion and belonging at a notable weight loss organization. And I was a part of that. Tears streaming down her face, giving her permission to dream big and go after what she wants. And this mentorship, was actually created when I had to turn down a CHRO role at the company that she was at prior.

So understand when you, when someone is girl crushing you as we were girl crushing when we first met because I was in awe of you right back at you when we first met. But it's just about realizing that we are learning every single day and dropping those, wisdom nuggets to the next generation.

It is our job as executives. We have to do it because the younger generation just doesn't understand how to navigate the workplace. They may be technically skilled and ambitious, but they will not know how to navigate certain situations. And it's our job to say, here's how you could. view this career transition that you're approaching.

Here's how you can navigate this organizational politics moment, right? Giving back to them is key. And so prioritizing, I say, I only, and I tell people, I only take two mentors a year because I go in, right? And obviously I'm coaching and doing the fractional CHRO work and speaking. But the second half of this is make time for networking.

I don't care if you're an introvert. I don't care if you're an extrovert. I don't care if you're an ambivert. Figure out the way that you need to do this. If you're more of a one on one introvert kind of gal or guy, knock yourself out. If you're extroverted, you want to go to all the networking events and toast it up and go to the conferences, that's fine too, right?

If you just want to connect with people, go into virtual events and you meet people in those type of small communities, great, but make sure you're networking because again, that personal board of advisors, And making sure that your brand goes beyond your organization. It is critical to being able to manage your career as you.

As you grow. And networking brings you deals. If you're an entrepreneur, or even if you're a corporate leader I've got picked up for paid speaking gigs, and I'm moderating round tables and salon dinners. How Sarah and your organization hosts opportunities will come find you if you expand your network.

So I just can't stress it enough. Make the time to not only build your network, but also stay engaged with them. The way that you and I have, again, connected very meaningfully over the last year and a half. I make those efforts continuously throughout my network and I'm sharing value, but I'm also receiving opportunities in the same regard.

Sarah Richardson: Yep, you're in DC. I'm basically in San Francisco. And I'm like, I have one afternoon to spend in DC. And I'm like, are you available? And you're like, you betcha. And you were at a party the night before for the Bulk Caucus with 4, 000 people. And I was like is she, really gonna make time for me? And you're like, I wouldn't miss it.

And so I'm hopeful that the people listening to us today realize that it is community, it is relationships, it is sponsorships. All of those things lead to friendships. And those are how you get to continue to be elevated because people will recommend people they like, people they know, people that are their friends, because we all want to see our friends be successful.

I may not see you in person until you have that doctorate, but guess what, I will have a bottle of Krug in hand, and a dozen oysters, because I will eat my 60 week numbers. Everything amazing that happened to that. And I know it'll happen in that moment. We're going to be planning the next thing that happens because we certainly don't sit still, but we always enjoy the celebrations in the moment.

Thank you so much for being on Flourish. Such an honor to have you and look forward to your continued success and our continued friendship. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Sarah. I appreciate the time. This has been a joy to break bread with you virtually, and I look forward to the next time.

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