In this thought-provoking episode of the #WisdomOfWomen Show, host Coco Sellman, a 5x founder and impact investor, sits down with Jennifer Yates, Founder & CEO of Roux. With a background in business operations and human-centered project management, Jennifer offers invaluable insights into building resilient teams, fostering people-centric cultures, and creating trust-driven companies.

WHAT YOU’LL GAIN BY LISTENTING IN:

Women founders will gain transformative strategies to scale their businesses with integrity, purpose, and growth-focused leadership. This episode is packed with practical advice and personal stories that amplify the journey of growing high-impact, high-growth enterprises.

GUEST SPOTLIGHT:

Jennifer Yates is a visionary leader with a diverse career spanning corporate roles and entrepreneurship. She has served as VP of Business Operations, Senior Project Manager, and advisor, using her unique skills to drive impactful change within organizations. Her company, Roux, is grounded in human-first business operations and inspired by her roots in Louisiana, much like the culinary term “roux”—a foundational base that brings flavors together. Jennifer’s expertise in fostering value-driven workplaces offers women founders actionable insights into growing strong, purpose-led businesses.

CHAPTERS

00:14 The Power of Women in Business

01:22 The Emergence of New Leadership

21:36 The Essence of Rue: A Foundation for Growth

26:55 Building People-Centric Organizations

39:41 The Path to Growth: Emphasizing People-Centered Focus

52:01 Empowering Teams for Growth

TAKEAWAYS:

◾ The Wisdom of Women Show emphasizes the importance of visionary women leaders in business.

◾ Jennifer Yates shares how her eclectic background informs her people-centered approach to operations.

◾ To create a people-centric organization, companies must genuinely communicate their values beyond mere posters.

◾ Building a resilient team requires knowledge sharing and a culture that encourages innovation without fear of mistakes.

◾ The concept of being replaceable empowers leaders to elevate their teams and foster growth.

◾ A successful business is built on trust, collaboration, and valuing every team member's contribution.

BURNING QUESTIONS ANSWERED:

1. How can you build a people-centric company that thrives on trust and connection?

2. What are the best strategies for building resilient, fortified teams?

3. What role does personal growth play in effective leadership?

4. How can founders measure and live their company’s values for growth?

5. What insights can founders gain from Jennifer’s entrepreneurial journey?

MEMORABLE QUOTES:

“Building trust isn’t about big gestures; it’s about consistency and presence. Your values must echo in every action.” — Jennifer Yates

“We’re in an era where human connection is more powerful than ever in business. Connection isn’t just a perk; it’s a necessity.” — Coco Sellman

“Fostering a resilient team means allowing space for mistakes. Innovation needs room to breathe.” — Jennifer Yates

“Intuition and well-being are the backbone of leadership. If we’re not in tune with ourselves, how can we lead others?” — Coco Sellman

OFFERS & CONTACT INFORMATION:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferayates/

Website: https://www.workwithroux.com

Book a Call with Jennifer: https://savvycal.com/roux/helloroux?sid=b21c9ba8-7349-470a-9365-ec7364ba912a

Follow the #WisdomOfWomen show for more inspiring stories and insights from trailblazing women founders, investors, and experts in growth and prosperity.

YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/yja3w7nh

Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/4tak8ajk

Amazon Prime: https://tinyurl.com/366syddj

Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/bdhananz

RSS Feed: https://feeds.captivate.fm/womengetfunded/

Coco Sellman, the host of #WisdomOfWomen, believes business is a force for good, especially with visionary women at the helm. With over 25 years of entrepreneurial experience, she has launched five companies and guided over 500 startups. As Founder & CEO of A Force for Good, Coco supports purpose-driven women founders in unlocking exponential growth and prosperity. Her recent venture, Allumé Home Care, reached eight-figure revenues and seven-figure profits in just four years before a successful exit in 2024. A venture investor and board director, Coco’s upcoming book, *A Force for Good*, reveals a roadmap for women to lead high-impact, high-growth companies.

Learn more about A Force for Good:

Website: https://aforceforgood.biz/

Are Your GROWING or PLATEAUING? https://aforceforgood.biz/quiz/

1-Day Growth Plan: https://aforceforgood.biz/free-plan/

FFG Tool of the Week: https://aforceforgood.biz/weekly-tool/

The Book: https://aforceforgood.biz/book/

Growth Accelerator: https://aforceforgood.biz/accelerator/

Welcome to the Wisdom of Women Show.

Business is the most powerful innovative force in the world.

And with visionary women leaders at the helm, we can lead in both impact and profit.

Today's world needs the wisdom of women in business.

This is why we are here to help women grow.

Are you already a successful visionary woman founder leading a high, high impact company?

The Wisdom of Women show is designed just for you.

We are a community of women founders, investors and leaders who want to see you rise.

Join us as we unlock opportunities and prosperity for women led enterprises.

The future of business is women.

Are you ready?

Welcome to the Wisdom of Women Show.

We are dedicated to amplifying the voices of women in business.

A new model of leadership is emerging and we are here to amplify the voices of women leading the way.

I am your host, Coco Sellman, five time founder, impact investor and creator of the Force for Good system.

Thank you for joining us today as we illuminate the path for unlocking opportunity, opportunities and prosperity for women led enterprises.

The voice and wisdom of women is needed and today we have a deeply people centered guest with us.

Jennifer Yates is the founder and CEO of Rue.

R O U.

That's right, Roo.

Like what you would make before you.

Before you make a delicious sauce or a gravy, Roo is a company dedicated to providing restorative and human first business operations.

With a career spanning four entrepreneurial ventures, Jennifer has honed a unique people centered approach to operations focusing on bringing cohesion, adaptability and human connection to every project.

Her background is as eclectic and as robust from driving tractors on rice farms to serving as a VP of business operations and teaching as a university lecturer.

Known for her rebelliously kind leadership, Jennifer excels in change management by empowering team members to become self sufficient, engaged and aligned with company goals.

Think about how valuable that would be.

Imagine your whole team self sufficient, engaged and aligned with company goals rules.

Rue's mission reflects Jennifer's belief in connection, community and truly human centric growth for companies of substance and scale.

So happy to have you here, Jennifer.

Thank you so much Coco for inviting me on.

I.

We met, we bonded and I'm just so glad to be here, seeing you face to face and having a lovely conversation.

So thank you.

Yes, we got to meet at the Entrepreneesta Founders Weekend in Orlando in April.

It was such a fun experience, right?

I mean such a wonderful group.

It really was, it was fabulous and it was actually beyond my dreams.

I thought I was just going to, you know, like hang out and I learned a ton.

It was packed with hundreds of really brilliant business women.

You and I were seated together at the same table.

We had never met before and it was just a wonderful weekend.

It, it was inspiring and optimistic and just, you know, and educational too.

I loved it.

Yeah, it was wonderful.

And it was fun, fun, fun, fun, fun.

You know, and I think, I think, I know as we talk about, we'll get into this in a minute, but we talk about things being people centered and what creates actual connection and growth.

Fun is one of those things that sometimes gets forgotten.

And boy, when there's a little connection.

And fun, everything changes 100%.

I mean, fun and food is a factor too.

I, you know, we're probably, that'll come up, but that's one of the ways I connect with people is hear what they're eating.

I love it.

Totally, totally.

So before we go deeper on the people centered piece, I just love to hear what is one book written by a woman that has significantly influenced your life?

Okay, so I actually have two because I can't decide.

So one is a very popular book.

It's Glennon Doyle's Untamed.

I'm sure that's come up before, but there are two quotes in that book that just stopped me in my tracks.

I read this book right before I started my business and I knew I was doing the right thing.

So Glennon Doyle's Untamed, quote number one, I am a human being meant to be in perpetual becoming.

If I am living bravely, my entire life will be a million deaths and rebirths.

That's quote number one.

Beautiful.

So basically it's, it's saying you are going to change and evolve constantly.

And that is okay.

Embrace it.

The other quote from that book was revelation must come before revolution.

Oh.

And so that I was out walking my dogs, I was listening to this book and I was out walking my dogs.

When that second quote came up in the book, I stopped in my tracks because I had realized something about myself which was I want to have a one to many effect on business.

Yes.

And so that revelation came before my revolution of leaving, you know, full time employment to go out on my own.

So that book, there was one other aspect of that book that was really, really helpful to me and it's a trick I use to this day.

So Glennon Doyle was going through a decision basically, and she sat with herself in her body and closed her eyes and imagined what she would do if she had said yes to this decision and what, what it would look like if she said no.

And she listened to her body's way of reacting to each of those answers.

So she said, yes, what did her body do?

And if she said no, what did her body do?

I use that tactic every time I make a big decision.

I imagine I close my eyes and I imagine myself in.

In the situation, whatever answer it is.

And I remember distinctly the first time I used it was when I was considering taking on a certain client and I was having my doubts about this client.

So I sat and I closed my eyes and I said, okay, what does this feel like if I say yes?

And I got nauseated?

Yeah.

And my body told me what the answer was.

So I got those three things from that book and I loved it.

It really helped me when I was starting my business and is something I lean on even to this day.

The second book is by a smaller, lesser known author, Amanda Crowell.

Dr.

Amanda Crowell.

I'm going to hold up the book.

It's called Great Work and the subtitle is do what Matters Most Without Sacrificing Everything Else.

That book helped me in the last year because as you probably know, and as many business founders and leaders know, you think you're going to do one thing and then you start, maybe you pivot or you start going down a different path for whatever reason, and you start to confuse yourself.

Am I doing what I really want to be doing, what I should be doing?

All of that stuff, all of us go through it.

And I started to feel an existential crisis, like, am I doing what I should be doing?

You know, I just wasn't sure.

And so I picked.

I heard that author on a podcast immediately ran out and got the book started reading through the book and what she recommends that you do is kind of rewind back to your childhood.

What were you passionate about in your childhood?

What were some themes that stick with you from your childhood?

And is there a thread between your childhood activities and passions to today?

And when I thought back, sure enough, there were threads from my childhood to today, and I realized I am doing what I should be doing.

So that was.

It was a really helpful book for me.

I love that.

So you've given us two real pearls here.

You've given us Untamed by Glennon Doyle and Great work by Dr.

Amanda Powell.

And in both of these examples and the stories that you.

Did I say it the wrong way?

Yeah.

Crowell.

Okay.

Thank you.

And the.

The thing that I love about your examples and the stories that you put around them is this part of what we're featuring here on the show?

Is the wisdom of women and how the voice and wisdom of women is really unique and different and needed.

And it doesn't have to be just a woman that decides to listen to his or her body to see if it is aligned.

It doesn't have to be just a woman who sees that she's not just a series of milestones, but perpetually becoming right.

She doesn't have to be just a woman that sees that.

Intuition, revelation, discovery has to come before revolution.

But this is what the wisdom of women and leadership is about.

And for us to be able to embody that and bring it into the work that we do and not being afraid to talk to our teams about how does this make your body feel?

It brings the wisdom of women into the forefront of how we live as a society.

And I think it's such great work and important.

And so you have had this very exciting and rich and textured life, and you've.

I think one of the things I.

I really love about connecting with you is how you have this, you know, from punk rock and, you know, rice farming, but you have this very, very solid center that sort of weaves it all together, kind of like what you're talking about in this book.

Great work.

And so I'd love to just get an idea of what led you to create Rue and the story of the name Rue.

Oh, you know, okay.

So I am preparing to appear here.

I, of course, was going back through, you know, my 28 years in corporate life and, you know, my upbringing and everything.

And I.

I thought to myself, I can't tell the story of 28 years.

No, no, no.

So how do I condense this down?

And what are the.

The primary themes in my life?

And I boiled it down to I've always been kind of a seer, an evaluator, a surveyor.

So I see things in the landscape, whatever that landscape is, whether it's truly a landscape, a human landscape, or a business landscape, all of it.

I can see patterns in those landscapes, and I can see the relationships between those patterns and understand why they exist.

So that surveyor, evaluator, and seer is kind of encapsulates theme number one.

Theme number two is just in my nature.

I'm kind of a planner and an optimizer and a visionary.

But I will say I'm also a human dichotomy.

I'm very spontaneous and, you know, like, I'm not one of those people that's overly planned.

So I'm kind of a fluid planner, an optimizer and visionary.

And the Other thing that I have always been is a change partner.

I'm the kind of person who is able to inspire others and bring them along.

So like, you know, going back to this book, great work, I was thinking about my childhood.

I was the kid in the neighborhood who wanted to put on plays and I would recruit all the neighborhood kids and we would, you know, build a stage in the backyard by stringing blankets across, you know, from tree to tree, bring all the parents in and do some kind of play or.

When I was a cheerleader in high school, I don't know how I did this in rural Louisiana, but I convinced my fellow cheerleaders that we must do skits at every pep rally.

They thought I was cuckoo banana pants, but I did, I brought them along and we did these skits and then the school looked forward to pep rallies with our skits and like giving away a spirit stick and all of this stuff.

So I've always been able to lead people through change by bringing them along and making them a part of the change.

So it's those three things.

The seer, the planner and visionary, and the change agent or change age partner.

So how I got here is I spent 28 years in corporate with all kinds of titles you can imagine.

Yeah.

From statistician to project manager to product manager to, you know, this and that.

And ended up at my last job in corporate as a VP of business operations.

That's, that's all interesting, but every client in my past would reach out to me to ask me questions like, well, how do you do this?

Can you advise us in that?

Or this or whatever.

And so I realized at the end of my corporate or full time employment stint, you know, there's, there are questions that clients need help answering and they're coming to me already.

Maybe there's something in this.

I think I'm going to go out on my own.

And as I talked about with the Glennon Doyle book, I, I had that revelation.

Beyond that, you know, there's kind of the appendix to my story, which is I have been a four time founder or co founder.

So 20 years ago I left full time employment to open my own retail store.

I had never done retail before, but I figured it out and had this store.

I had both successes and failures in that when the store closed because one of the failures was a financial failure, I couldn't keep it open.

And I can talk about that later.

But from that came the next thing I did which was co founding an interactive arts fair that ran twice a year for seven years.

I was in a punk rock band which was basically a business.

Yes, it was a business, it was a community.

It was saying yes and trying something new.

I didn't know.

I played violin in elementary school, but I didn't know how to play electric bass, much less play and sing, much less play, sing and write music and write lyrics.

I did all of that.

I learned.

So you kind of learn as you go.

And I did that for 10 years.

It was great fun.

And then I also said yes recently to co found and co host a podcast about e commerce.

Again, not something I knew much about going in, but my co host said to me, you bring good energy and you ask really good questions and I want to do this with you.

And I said, sure.

I mean we had known each other or have known each other for 20 years, so it was easy.

So outside of like corporate life, I have, I do have a very rich other life that feeds all of that.

I'm a creative person.

I need to exercise that creativity.

I'm also a beauty school dropout.

I like working with my hands and doing things there.

I just, if I get the urge to do something, I'm going to explore it and learn about it.

I'm an explorer by nature.

I'm going, yeah, I want to learn about the landscape.

Yeah, that's wonderful.

And you know, and that, that makes you such a wonderful partner for founders because you have both experience as a founder and that often missing corporate structure, infrastructure lessons a lot.

You know, the pedigree of working in companies that have had a long time to figure out how to do things.

And whether you decide to do it the same way or you decide to do it differently is up to you.

But it gives you that, that other experience of not just having to create everything all by yourself and knowing how, how others make it work.

Right.

Other companies do it.

And so that corporate experience I think is a wonderful background for this creative person that you are.

So if you, I mean I love the story about, you know, just that's on your website talks about why you named your company Roo.

Yes.

So I am from rural Louisiana.

I grew up on a rice farm.

That's the tractors and all of that.

And if you have never been to Louisiana, first of all, I suggest going it is like visiting a different country.

And the food there is incredible and it's important.

And most food in my part of Louisiana, which is the southwest side of the state, is roux based.

So a roux is flour and fat and it's cooked almost to burnt.

So it Usually in Louisiana.

But there are different levels of roux.

So that's another add on to the story.

So you can cook roux.

A light roux that isn't cooked very much creates a different outcome than the roux that's cooked almost to burn, and that can create a different flavor and outcome.

What I love about besides that roux is the start of so many delicious foods, is that it takes ingredients that you already have, very simple ingredients, and builds upon them for something wonderful.

So if you think about that in business, you can start with what you already have and then expand and build into something wonderful.

The other thing about Rue is it is a structural foundation, a thickening agent, and it provides cohesiveness.

So I wanted to name my company after something that represented exactly what I bring, which is that structure and the cohesiveness and that binding material.

I just happen to use my human centered and human connection and my ability to make those connections to provide that foundation in the scaffolding for those better outcomes.

Also, it is a nod to my upbringing in rural Louisiana to name something Rue.

Also, I love the letter O or circles.

I love circles.

I always have.

I'm wearing circles in my earrings.

I have circles tattooed on me.

I love circles.

Plus, it's like a little hug.

And then I also love X's.

I'm Generation X.

It's Generation X is the generation that kind of was the first one that bucked the status quo.

So it.

It speaks a little bit to my rebel nature.

I'm not so rebellious that I'm like off the rails.

But I am also not one to think that the way we're doing it now is the right way just because that's the way we've always done it.

I'm going to think creatively and try to bring something a.

So that is how I named my company Rue.

That's beautiful.

You know, and I.

It's.

I think what's.

What's exciting and important for everyone listening is it's great to hear about it for Rue and for you, but it's also a best practice for any company that has a desire to grow with substance and scale.

If you can create a meaningful.

A whole repertoire of stories, but a meaningful story behind the name of your company.

A meaningful story behind the symbols, the circles, the X's in your company, it allows.

It's not just.

It's not just because Jennifer likes these things.

It's because it creates a mystery, it creates a story.

It creates a special sauce that your people can then come together and creates it creates structure.

Right.

Connection.

So, and I really fully believe, Jennifer, it's things like this, it's these types of elements that allow companies to become great and companies that, you know, start with very little.

You don't need anything to be able to connect with your employees.

Right.

You just need to have connection and you need to have purpose.

So you focus on understanding employees, motivations and work styles as key to project success and, you know, company growth.

So what are some practical steps leaders can take to foster a people centric and restorative culture?

Yes, so that is a big question.

It's a big question.

I'm going to answer it in several different ways and several different threads.

So one of the things that if you want to build a people centric organization, what you're really saying is that you value, you value people, so it becomes one of your values.

Yes.

Now companies do.

Many companies have values.

And I think many companies actually make the mistake of just writing the values out, putting it in a picture frame on the wall and telling people, these are our values and everyone do it.

It is so much more than just the poster of values.

So I want to talk through some real tactics that companies can use to live and breathe their values no matter what they are.

But let you know, company, excuse me, people centric value is one.

And, but this approach goes to any value.

And then I'll get, I'll slide more into the people part.

So the first thing that you could do with values is obviously communicate.

So that is the poster.

Talk about your values.

But that is explicit communication.

I am telling you my value is human centered.

But I'm not sharing with you the implicit communication kind of that, the human environment interaction of that value.

So you have to have signals or unspoken communication of what that means to people.

So I'll give you an example.

Recently I kind of told you a hint of this in the, the preamble before we started recording.

But recently I was at a music festival overseas and I was there, I was sight unseen.

Like I just shows showed up at this music festival and I left there thinking, oh my gosh, I got their company values.

How did I get it?

I didn't see a poster anywhere around the festival that said, we believe in accessibility, we believe in sustainability, we believe in belonging.

But I walked away thinking that how did I get it?

It was the human environment interaction.

I picked up on the cues and the signals.

So when I entered the area to see a band play in the back, there was a raised platform with a ramp.

That's a queue There was a porta potty at the bottom of that that was accessible for people perhaps in wheelchairs or any, any other assisted aid there.

All of the food vendors had multiple options for every kind of dietary restriction you could think of.

All the serving containers were in recompostable materials.

This, those were the cues.

So when I talk about communication, it isn't just explicitly saying, I am human centered.

You have to practice what you're preaching and communicate that implicitly.

Yeah, and give your, give your team the cues.

Okay, so that's big giant, number one, Communication, implicit and explicit.

The second thing is provisioning the resources and the tools in support of that value.

So you can say we value mothers at work.

Well, you can tell me that, but what are the resources and the tools that you are giving working mothers to show them and everyone else that that's one of your values?

Yes.

I recently heard the Chro at Etsy speak about the tools they give for parents.

Listen to this.

They put aside a budget so that when a parent goes on parental leave, a manager can use that budget to A, hire a temporary replacement or B pay their own team extra for putting in the extra work while that mother or father or partner is out on leave.

Now that is a resource and a tool that communicates that value.

So provision resources and tools.

There's a third one that in my experience, very few companies actually lean into.

And I feel like this one is.

Well, it is, it's just as important as the other three.

And I will say, well, I'll tell you about the third one, then I'll, I'll summarize at the end.

The third one is curating and vetting partnerships that support your values.

So if you are working with a client, if you're going to support humans at work, but you're working with a client that is abusive to your workforce in their communications or don't some other way they don't support your company values, you must say, no, that is not a partnership that communicates your values.

So you need to carefully curate and vet those partnerships and only sign on with those who are in support of your values.

So in summary, no one of those prongs communication, provisioning of resources, communicating and vetting partnerships can act alone in supporting those values.

They're intertwined.

So the partnership piece is implicit communication.

The resources and tools are implicit communication.

Communicating and the way you speak to people on your team is both explicit and implicit.

The all three of them are interlocked with one another and one can't operate or communicate your Values on its own.

That, that is like value.

That's my value guidebook.

Yes.

So I.

And then I can talk more, more specifically about the people part if you'd like.

But I want to pause and.

Because I can see you chomping at the bit.

Well, you know, I think it.

I love the way you've laid this out for people to think about because sometimes it's like you say, everybody thinks, well, I have values.

They're on my website, they're on the wall.

And there is a very big difference between having truly infused your values into your organization and your practices and not.

And when you do, it actually creates this tremendous momentum within the organization and it, and it fosters loyalty of your customers and your employees.

And people will like, you know, run through walls on behalf of an organization that it feels is aligned with what it does, what it says, and it's.

And it has true values 100%.

When I think about like a very popular company, value besides people is trust.

We trust in our people, we trust in our clients, we trust in our product.

How are you practicing that trust?

Right.

And so I think about, for example, Warby Parker is a great example of a company that practices trust.

Yes.

They, if you order from Warby Parker try on at home, they are sending you a box of five glasses, frames the box to ship them back in.

The ability to keep them at home to try on, you know, yourself for over X number of days.

No money has changed hands.

Warby Parker is telling you, I don't need to charge you money.

I trust you.

Potential customer.

You're not even a customer.

Potential customer.

I trust you to do the right thing, which is send these glasses back, you know, by the deadline.

When you are trusted to do the right thing, not only do you feel better in general, but that trust then becomes cyclical.

You then return the trust back to Warby Parker.

They trusted me to do the right thing.

I'm trusting them as a brand to do the right thing.

And so then it becomes a cycle.

So I would love to encourage anyone who's listening and who has a business to think about their company values and how to use that three step guidebook, which is a spoken book, to really, really emphasize and live each one of their values.

So each of your values, if you have three or five values, you need to think, how am I communicating it?

How am I providing the resources?

How am I curating partnerships around each of those?

Yes.

You know, and I also encourage to make metrics around your values.

Right.

Because why wouldn't we we measure everything else that's considered important.

So how do you create measurements around trust or integrity or people centeredness or employee focus, whatever it is, like how do measure it?

And so I fully agree we can.

I also believe that you said three to five.

I think I, when I, with my last business alum, I started out with six.

And it's unwieldy.

If you cannot remember and gosh, your team can't remember what your values are, then you really.

They don't value them because they can't name them.

That's right.

Right.

So like less is really more.

Hard, hard to do.

Right.

Because we, we believe everything you know.

Of course you can still have integrity even if it's not one of your core values.

Right.

Like what is it you really need in order to create this particular business and impact in the world?

So how, let me, let me shift the conversation a little bit towards one of the things our listeners are constantly doing is, is, is looking for growth.

Growth is so much of a piece of how, how we can do all the things complete.

The vision of the, of the business is you need to have enough gross profit to hire the best team to create the best product to fuel the next level of marketing and sales.

So how can, how can this idea of people centered focus help with growth?

Right.

So many of our founders face bottlenecks, stalled growth.

How can you guide clients to identify and resolve these issues through people centered operations?

I love this question because a company is really only as good as its people.

And so business is human.

It's connection and it's community all in one thing.

So for me, the path to growth is building fortified teams, resilient teams.

And then there's one other thing.

So I want to go through the fortified and the resilient teams and what that leads to.

So a fortified team, what does that really, really mean?

That means a team is multidisciplinary.

It is a team with complementary skills.

So this skill kind of overlaps with the other skill.

They're not exactly the same expert, but they have adjacencies.

So your team's multidisciplinary, it's complementary.

The team has different strengths, different interests and different perspectives.

And the leader needs to be open to all of those facets of a team and desire to hire those multiple facets of a team.

So that's, that's one one aspect of building a fortified team.

The other one is more tactical.

No one person on the team should solely own a set of skills or tasks.

So you need to cross pollinate with knowledge share across people.

Now, there may be a specialist on the team.

A specialist is in charge of this one thing, but there's someone else who kind of knows what that specialist does and is trained a little bit.

The third thing, and this is related, is there's knowledge sharing and communication across team members.

And I'm going to give an example in a second after I go through the resilient piece.

So the first step is a fortified team.

I given tactical ways to build that team.

Multidisciplinary, different skills, different thoughts, different perspectives.

Be open to that.

No one person is in charge of one thing.

There's knowledge sharing and communication sharing.

Again, there's that trust.

And the democratization of communication is really important.

So people have to feel comfortable speaking out and giving their advice and their expertise.

Your team knows they're working and living in it every, every single day.

Ask them and then be quiet and listen.

Okay, so resilient built.

How do you build a resilient team?

A re.

A resilient team is working below capacity.

Now that is one of those business gotchas because.

Right.

Yeah.

You hire someone and you want to max them out and get the maximum utilization you can.

But what happens when people are max?

Yeah.

Well, besides burnout, there is no room for innovation.

There's no room for experimentation or creativity.

There's no room if someone goes on vacation or someone is suddenly out sick or something happens.

So you always want your team to be operating below capacity, make room for creativity, innovation, being nimble and for something to happen and you know, someone else to step in.

Also allow for mistakes.

How do we learn, you know, so important.

Yeah.

So that is building the resilient part of the team.

Yeah.

Now I said there's a.

Oh, no.

I was just going to say how hard that is.

Right.

When you're, when you get to a point and you have a certain amount of cash flow and you have a certain amount of people, you start to feel a little bit like you can tolerate people making mistakes.

But when, right when you are like strapped and early and there's no time for mistakes, you start to do everything yourself.

And of course that's the bottleneck.

But, but, but it is you you're talking about here, Jennifer, really big hard things.

Right.

Hiring people that are different than you.

Right.

With different opinions that operate very differently.

You're a self starter and they're like applauding analyst.

Like that is hard.

It is not easy to do this.

So I, I just want to say that because you're saying you're talking about this and it's not like we can all just go do it because it's, it's, it's so uniquely hard.

And, and what I always, what I would encourage everyone listening is to, is to not just nod, I'm doing it.

I agree.

But see where you're not because that's where you have the opportunity for revelation.

Right.

And revolution is in these, in these simple concepts that are very hard to implement.

So I'm sorry, keep going.

You were going to say the next, the last piece, the last step.

And the last step kind of goes hand in hand with what you're saying.

This is hard work.

This is the million deaths and the rebirths and allowing people to make mistakes means everyone is going, you know, I'm not saying let them make a mistake and then just sweep it under the rug.

Learn from it and evolve past it.

And because that is, that's where the growth happens.

So the third thing, and this is the really, really difficult peace for leaders.

Leaders of any kind.

Whether you're a founder or you're the manager of a team, you need to operate from the mindset that you want to be and are replaceable.

Yes.

Yes.

How can you make room for growth on your team if you don't operate from the mindset that you are and want to be replaceable?

You want your team to come in and fill in your shoes.

If you are a founder and coco, you said this in your intro, you're a serial founder.

I have founded and co founded multiple things.

Founders are visionaries.

You need to make room to move on to the next idea because you're going to have it.

The next innovation, the next this or that.

And you can't do it if you don't empower your people to fill in where you were once doing everything.

So you need to build up your team for your spot.

Then that person is filling in your spot.

What about their spot?

Exactly.

And it's a chain reaction.

And pretty soon people start filling in the next vacated spot above them and you want them to be ready for that.

So, so important.

It's so important.

And it's also when I've gone through the process of exiting you're the value of your company is nothing if the if.

If your buyers believe that you are a.

You are the business.

Right.

You need to step.

You need to make sure that company can operate without you.

That's the being able to install a leadership team that can function without you is how you make sure you that your company is sustainable.

Right.

And for and for managers and that type of thing.

I've seen more hap.

I, I believe that it happens more with women than with men.

I, I, this is, I don't have data to support it, but my hunch is this.

We get too t, we get too connected and protective nurturing our, what we do and how we do it and you know, nurturing our teams and protecting people that we don't allow ourselves to elevate and allow, you know, and it's, it's a part of what we do and men do it too.

But I think we have a tendency to become so responsible for the work we do that we feel that it's, there's something wrong with us delegating and leaving it on to somebody else.

I think you're making a really interesting point because I bet there is a gendered kind of approach to, to whether you are, it feel like you can operate from a replaceable point of view.

So what you're saying is women, you know, they want to nurture and help and be there in support, but sometimes, you know, you have to let, let the, the others leave the nest.

I, I have encountered men who are approaching it from a different point of, in a different rationale and you know, whether it, it doesn't even, we don't have to talk about it.

But I do think for a part of nurturing.

If you think about what, you know, the kind of the teenagers.

Right.

Well, teenagers and the teacher model.

The teacher model is I do.

We do.

You do.

So I can do it at first.

Then we do it together.

You learn about it and then you do, you're empowered to do this thing and there's a trust.

So part, if you, if you as a woman, not, you know, you, the collective, as a woman feel this responsibility to nurture and care for your team, the best thing you can do is the.

You do.

Yeah.

And yes.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Empower others.

Yes.

Don't cover them up.

Yeah.

Oh, Jen, you've just given us a whole masterclass on culture and people and how to create a resilient and growth oriented organization.

You know, I, we're all going to need to go back and read the transcript over and over again and follow it.

It is a really rich playbook that you have offered to us here today.

Thank you for your wisdom.

So how can our viewers and listeners learn more about you and your services?

How can they get more connection with you?

I'm going to give you four places.

So I play a lot on LinkedIn.

I share this kind of wisdom there on the regular.

So my LinkedIn profile is Jennifer A.

Yates and you can find me on LinkedIn and connect with me there.

The second place is my website which is workwithroo.com it's all one word work with rue and on the top of my website and at the bottom there's a button you can book a call.

It's free.

I love meeting people.

I want to hear your story.

I want to share some more wisdom.

You on a call.

Come on, book a call.

The third place is they're kind of two number three and number four is if you want to learn more about the way I think and use this kind of information, I have a more long form blog called the Gravy.

It's the Gravy substack and I have a shorter form newsletter Drippings which is@roo.kit kit.com.

so any of those four places you can get my wisdom, get my little nuggets of information or if you want to meet me, I would love to meet you.

Book a call.

That is wonderful and so generous.

All these different ways that you're feeding your experience and wisdom into the community.

That's wonderful.

Thank you Jennifer for joining us today on the Wisdom of Women Show.

Thank you for illuminating the path to unlocking opportunities for growth and prosperity for women led enterprises everywhere.

We value your experience, your wisdom and you the world.

You're well?

Yes.

It's been so fun to have you.

The world is made better by women led business.

Let's all go make the world a better place.

Cheers.

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