¶ Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the Workplace
Welcome to season four of the Manifesta podcast , a career and lifestyle podcast for aspiring women . I'm Portia Mount . Join me and my co-host , tiffany Waddell-Tate , this season on our mission to help women find their purpose , lead high-impact careers and live fulfilling personal lives by sharing the stories of women who've carved their own path to success .
The future is female . Let's get started . Well , hello squad . Our guest today is Julie Goff , chief Operating Officer at HireBrain . Julie is an entrepreneur turned entrepreneur , with a career at the intersection of people and technology .
She has led technology initiatives of varying sizes and scales at the enterprise level and zero to one launches , and throughout her work , she remains ever curious about how technology can help make us more , not less , human . I love the sound of that . Now you're probably wondering what is HireBrain .
Hirebrain is a B2B SaaS platform uniquely designed for hiring managers to assist in the ever challenging work of planning roles , hiring talent , building efficient teams with accuracy and reliability , and if you are a people manager , you know how important this is .
Hirebrain leverages AI to help enterprises create role specific profiles , effective and equitable job descriptions , interview guides and so much more . You can learn more about HireBrain at wwwhirebraincom and you can follow Julie on Twitter .
We still call it Twitter , but we know it's X at Julia Pete Goff and LinkedIn at Julie Goff , and so you will also see these in the show notes , as always , so that you can both follow Julie and also take a look at HireBrain . Welcome , julie , so great to have you , thank you .
Yeah , Julie . So this episode is all about entrepreneurship at work , but I think it's important that we define what that means for our listeners . How would you describe entrepreneurship and what it means to you ?
Well , I love that question , and I first have to kind of laugh at the notion that we're having a podcast on entrepreneurship , because I came to that .
I discovered that word relatively late in my career , relative to the work I was doing , so I don't know where I was or what I was doing at the time , but I just remember hearing it for the first time and having this like moment of like oh my goodness , there's a word that describes me , right , somebody gets it , and I did a little research this morning about
the origin of that word and apparently it came about in the 70s , like I didn't even know , and so I just heard it in my travels as I was doing the work that I was passionate about , and I was like an entrepreneur . That is what I am . I love it . There's a word for me .
I'm not just weird , but I think the way that I would define it and it's interesting and kind of reassuring that my definition matches up with , maybe , the way the world would define it but I think it's a person who is just naturally curious , right ? We know that this is true about entrepreneurs especially , right ? They just have that burning .
Oh my gosh , this is a problem that I have to solve , right , I have to stop everything , and I think that can . Still , if you're naturally curious , that's going to show up no matter what environment you're in , right .
And so I think if you're doing good work at a corporation and you're close to a business , a business with challenges , a business with potential , right , you're going to be curious , see ways that things can be done better .
If you're a curious person , you're going to be curious outside of work as well , right , and you're going to start to connect dots and ask questions and think about things .
And so I think an entrepreneur or somebody who's going to bring that curiosity to their day job is not going to be afraid to with the right respect , right , and posture , ask questions , think about how things could be done differently and then not be afraid to take on the doing right .
I think it's easy inside of a larger organization where there are a lot of problems , to be grumpy , to complain , and that's that doesn't cut it for me , right . Like I think , if you're going to be an entrepreneur , you have to see where it's broken and be ready to help solve the problems .
It sounds like being super curious and someone who is not just identifying problems and calling them out , but looking for solutions probably means that you come up with a lot of big ideas . You're probably on the cutting edge of innovation and just driving creativity at a really fast speed .
So I'm wondering , when you think about harnessing that mindset inside of an organization , how does it contribute to company culture and how does it contribute to your career right , especially as an ambitious woman ?
Yeah , so at any big organization , I think , especially early in your career , as you're sort of getting into the business , learning the company , learning how to do what you do , there's this sort of idea that the C-suite has it all figured out right .
They do not . People , they do not .
The board is going to lead us on a flawless path to growth . Right , and especially when you get into those leadership positions and you realize how little we know . Right , leadership is making the best decisions in the moment with the information that you have . Right , and being sort of courageous enough to keep going .
And I think as entrepreneurs we can be the people that have the creative space right , the energy , to look at these problems and think about them creatively , because our C-suite often is dealing with so much you know they're living in kind of that cognitive poverty state . That's not good for creativity , right , and that's just reality .
Right , if you're leading the company , you don't necessarily have the bandwidth , the time , the ability to take a step back and sort of think creatively and tinker . So , as an entrepreneur , right , the day to day is off your shoulders . You can look sort of with fresh eyes at problems and sort of bring that creativity , that innovation to a particular problem .
And I think I like the word mindset , because that means lots of people have to be thinking that way at the same time . Right , and I think companies are going to take that step forward when you have a lot of people thinking that way across a lot of different problems and areas of the business .
Right , it can't just be kind of the one person coming in with the savior , you know , complex or whatever and trying to fix everything that's broken . All of us have to be curious and creative at the same time , so I think that's where the mindset is crucial .
I really want to dig into the mindset piece more , Julie , because , as someone who spent many years in corporate America , one of the things I've noticed is that I call it the not my circus , not my monkey's attitude . It's like . It's a survival mechanism , right Of like . Oh my god , I just need to do my job . Let me not get involved in like .
There's no shortage of challenges or problems inside of companies , and that's also massive opportunity for the right kind of person , and you have to have this mindset that you're talking about . Of like . It's not just finding problems , but also thinking about how you can create opportunities .
I would also add create value , right , Because not every problem that's out there is worthy of being solved , and so the question really is how do you , is that from your standpoint ? Is there a blueprint or steps that one might think about to identify those challenges and turn them into opportunities ?
Even just thinking about your own experience , Somebody who's early in their career might be like oh , that's great , how do I do that ? What kind of practical steps can someone take ?
Yeah , I often think these things start very small , right .
Like if you see an opportunity on your team where something's broken and you can bring maybe a new piece of technology to your team , that's going to say we're going to work harder I mean , we're going to be smarter on this issue , not harder , because look at this piece of technology that I found that's fantastic , it's going to solve our problem .
And then I think , once you do a few of those right , you gain trust you yourself , especially as women , right . Like I think we have to build our courage right , and I love kind of one of my mottoes is like courage begets courage , right . So I think you probably coach women this way too .
Like you got to take that little step and put yourself out there and oh , ok , I didn't die , nobody fired me , ok , nobody died , nobody died , nobody died , nobody died .
I am not doing surgery on anybody Now you , it's like it's yeah .
I love that . That was one of my favorite moments in my corporate career was we were like on a conference call like 6 PM on a Friday night and everyone was frustrated . We couldn't figure it out . And somebody it was like this woman from Boston and she was like you know what ? Everybody go home get a drink . Nobody's on the table bleeding out .
We can figure this out . On Monday I was like levity always get , I love that it just it puts it in perspective really quickly . But I think it's that notion of kind of building your own confidence and courage , right , and again knowing that , like the higher ups don't have it all figured out . So your original ideas are good , right .
And then I think it's also testing out if you're in the right environment where that's going to be embraced or rewarded right Because . I think I say this from experience . If you are in a situation where you're trying to be creative , curious , bring ideas to the table and nobody's having it like you're going to burn yourself back so fast .
Fall back , Fall back right , I know , and you kind of have to , like , in a corporate environment you're going to hit some natural resistance just because of how big you know it's a big organization , right , a lot of big shift to turn . So you kind of have to take the long
¶ Entrepreneurial Mindsets in Work Environments
game approach . I think , if you're an entrepreneur in a lot of respects but you know the difference , right , you know the difference . If you're in a place where your ideas are absolutely unwelcome , or if you're OK , did a good job on this , let's give it the next thing .
And I think , if you're driven like this , if you're an entrepreneur at heart , like if you can't turn off that curiosity and you're in a place like that , go see Tiffany and find your next role , because it's maddening , right , You're going to drive yourself nuts .
And then , conversely , if you find yourself in a place where that is embraced , wow , like you are just energized and excited and building those muscles and seeing what's possible , right . So I think those are .
That's really kind of the blueprint I would think about right , the small to the next , to the big , to the big , and then the ultimate is like entrepreneurship , right , I love that .
Yeah , julie , I am curious when you talk about context where it hasn't been welcome or it hasn't been encouraged to be curious and work in this way . What are some indicators that the place or the space does not have the capacity for that type of mindset , and can you share a time where you saw this show up in your career and what you did about it ?
Yeah , I mean , I think for me I have joke , but it was true , like for me , kind of the aha moment was like I started to get in trouble and I mean , obviously I'm a rule follower , I hate breaking rules , but I think if you're a creative sort of like person with ingenuity inside a big organization and if you're younger in your career right , and you have
ideas sometimes , that's welcome . But if you're in a place that it's not welcome , you're gonna get your hands slapped and that does not feel good . No , and so I sort of joke .
I was like I realized it was time for me to go when I started getting in trouble , because I wasn't doing anything wrong , but I just had too many ideas for the spot I was in , and so I think that that's probably a good indication For me .
I experienced some of this when I was in banking in the mid 2000s , right , and that was a time where the financial crisis was hitting the economy , was taking like fear was the only emotion that we had inside of a bank at that time , right , and so I think we all are gonna be inside companies where our industry hits certain road bumps , et cetera , and fear
is just like from the top down , fear is just gonna be everywhere , and so that is usually a time when creativity , curiosity , is just you can't speak up , right , you just kind of have to put your head down into your work .
So I think for me , I in that situation realized I needed to like just put my head down and do my work , you know , but big picture as kind of that , that time sort of started to lift and things were getting better and I was thinking about my next move , like I think I realized , okay , I need to be in a place , whether it's inside a corporation or
somewhere else , where I can be , have more freedom to move and to execute on these ideas .
I wonder also , julie , you gave the example of being in banking highly regulated industry If you're working in pharmaceuticals again highly regulated and so I also wonder if the tolerance and then if you're at a legacy brand , if you're a ?
Tiffany and I both worked for a company that was almost 200 years old and had a long , long history , a very , very specific way of doing business as a Lean Six Sigma company . So everything's very standardized , very regimented , and understanding the environment that you're in and knowing that some environments don't like that's , let's say , creativity .
And , by the way , we should probably talk a little bit about what do we mean when we say creativity ? Because sometimes we think about it as being artistic , but that's not . I mean , creativity is actually very broadly defined .
¶ Navigating Career Boundaries and Pursuing Entrepreneurship
But I wonder and I've certainly seen this in my own career of really understanding your environment and figuring out where the boundaries are . And you're right , and I love you use the word , like when I started to get in trouble .
And I wonder for those listening who are newer in their career , earlier in their career , it's like there are avenues , but you've got to understand the culture that you're in and I certainly know from experience that oftentimes there's that like you need to earn your stripes before you can run off and create other ideas .
I will just say what I've seen with like especially , you know , our Gen Z team members . They're like I don't want to wait my turn , man , let me go . You don't let me do my thing , I'm going to go someplace else . That's legit . That's legit Absolutely . And you know , I wonder if we just spend a minute talking about just like .
There are avenues , but you've got to understand the environment and the culture in which you're operating and then you can decide . You know what this , this place , isn't for me . I'm going to go on to the next thing , but I just wonder if you , if you know , if you have a perspective on that .
I love that you said that , because it's so important , so important , and it actually reminds me of when I was graduating from college . There was this organization in North Carolina , a nonprofit , and I was just obsessed with the mission . I really wanted to go work for them . I think I interviewed with them for three different roles . None of that .
I didn't get any of them , and I remember sitting across from a VP when I was , you know , 21 , 22 years old , and she was like I love your passion , go get some skills and come back .
And I was like this job will help me get the skills right now . We'll give me skills Hello .
Yes , I know , I know it's funny . It's funny now .
It's not funny , then I know right , it hurts , then it hurt back , then you can laugh now though .
Right , that's great . And it immediately informed my my career path , right , I was like , okay , I'm going to go get a job . I mean , I'm in Charlotte , north Carolina , there's Wacovia , there's Bank of America , let me go , let me go get a job there . And it's not easy to get a job there , but that's what I started pursuing .
I did get in there and kind of started my career there .
Portia , I think what you said is absolutely correct , like that is a phenomenal place to cut your teeth , to get experience , to understand the unspoken dynamics of an organization , how to build relationships , how to have an executive presence right , I think all of those things are going to be so important later on .
And you can't hone those skills by yourself , right , you've got to be inside an organization .
And I think you , in those days , you have to have humility , right , you have to have the humility to say , like I'm just a kid , I'm just learning this business , right , but if you can put yourself in situations where you have to learn quickly , build those relationships , right , you're going to get so many reps on those skills .
Yeah .
Yeah , that you know I always said , like by the time I turn 30 , I want to have amassed all these different skills that I can like okay , apply it anywhere . I don't know where I'm going , but I'm just going to have this sort of repertoire of skills .
I also went to law school in my twenties at night , so it allowed me to sort of just have this like tool chest of things I could go use , and I knew that it would . It would equip me for whatever I was going to do next and wherever that passion led me , I was finally going to have the skills to bring to it .
You know , Julie , when I , when I think about what you're saying , about capturing the skills , building your kind of word chest capabilities , let's call it that .
That's what I'm saying .
This idea of reading the tea leaves and making sure that your ideas and your passion , you're harnessing it towards something that is contributing value . I think , Portia , you said that earlier .
That's always true and no matter what stage of your career you're in , it's like I can have a really good idea or I could see a quick solve to something , but is this quick solve sustainable ? Does this quick solve help us drive more revenue ?
Does this quick solve mean we need to move some people around on this team because they're not going to make it once we implement this new way ? You know like those are the hard question . It's like the what are the new problems that come about because we're solving this one ? And I think , generationally .
There's all this conversation about you know who's the smartest , who's the hardest working , and all this business . But the question is the same , regardless of your life stage or what part of the business that you're in , and so I think about .
You captured all these skills , you leverage them inside of a big box organization , couple other organizations that were a little smaller , and then you flipped out into entrepreneurship . How has that work just been helpful for you now that you're in this space ?
Yeah , great question .
Well , like I said , I came to that word entrepreneur kind of late in my career and once I found it and grabbed hold to it , the step to entrepreneurship was not that much farther right , because I kind of was able to like , frame and categorize everything I had been doing in a way that said oh , like I have the skill set , I am ready for this step .
I don't think I mean . I know , tiffany , you and I know plenty of successful entrepreneurs in their twenties . We taught and mentored many of them . But like that wasn't me I know that wasn't me because I needed to go get skills , learn some things , develop that business acumen right , like all of those things right .
Like my praise hands .
Yes , I mean every , every criticism that somebody made of a leader during COVID . I said , nope , you don't get to criticize them because this is freaking hard . You know , there are so many competing priorities Like it is just hard to be .
I was a leader at the time , took a new leader at the time portion Like you remember those like dark , lonely days of like what am I going to do ? You know ?
we are . We were just out there trying to survive . We were literally , we were literally trying to survive .
Yes .
Yes .
Yes , it was so surreal and it's like talk about we can look back and start to laugh now . But but now I mean , but then it was just it was scary .
So I think experience gives you that acumen , gives you that appreciation for the complexity of things , but also , I think , just reminds you that you have to be able to step up and make decisions right , like you're not going to have perfect information , you're going to do your best to care for your team , but it's like they're going to get support from other
places too . Right , and so I think you just gain a respect for sort of the things are not as easy as they might seem . You know it's easy to criticize when you're maybe earlier in your career . It's much harder to lead .
You know 100% , and it's not easy to create products , but it's easier to create a product than it is to build the infrastructure for scale yes , With all the people that need to mobilize this organization , whereas you step into a company that 200 years old , it's well oiled , so they're challenged in there , but you're not creating that culture .
So , yeah , it's a different set of skills . That's good .
Yeah , julie , I want to pull on this thread of just the transition from entrepreneurship to entrepreneur , because I don't know that it's super intuitive per se .
Was there an inflection point for you where you felt like , okay , I've done all I can do within the confines of a nine to five corporate structure and now it's time for me to now go and do my own thing ? I like to joke that social media , twitter , llc , twitter will have everyone think they can build a billion dollar business like unicorn startup .
Right and the reality , you know like but we should all be building startups .
if you just follow like seven or eight people on X , I'm sorry , x and you know , but the reality is and talk , and talk , oh my . God I forgot about . I forgot about LLC . Ted talk , you know , the reality is the entrepreneur
¶ Taking the Leap
. Streets are not for everybody . Some people need to stay on the sidewalks , and that's totally okay , and so it just was there a ? Was there a moment or an event , or was it just a natural progression , Like what flipped the switch in your head , to say , okay , I'm just going to go for it ?
I love that question and I think it's an inflection point , or maybe several , that we all have to kind of like grapple with . I think for me . You know I was , I was working at Davidson College and I actually helped build out our Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship . Tiffany got to see part of that .
It's an amazing place , by the way , it's amazing place . Thank you , yeah .
I think it's as an alumni and as as someone who helped create it , you know . So I think I think just swimming in those waters right starts to give you the bug a little bit . Also , when I left corporate America , I went to work for Davidson College .
I had four roles in six years , which meant I wasn't getting fired , but I was always doing the next thing that the college needed done right . I sort of built a little reputation for myself , which was , I don't know , good or bad , but I think when I left corporate America I went to work for Davidson , I was going to lead a specific project .
We had a $2 million grant . We had an idea to build an education technology project , and so what that did for me was like there's an idea , there's capital in the bank , now I just get to go build it right , that's that's like a startup .
That's a dream .
But I'm not doing it with with all the risks . So I feel like my career journey has been like I'm slowly taking off all the training wheels , you know . So by the time we we built Munch the Hub . I think that experience showed me I'm a builder , I'm not an operator . Right , that really became clear for me that I have to be building and creating Tiffany .
This will probably not surprise you , but when I was at Davidson I did my Clifton Strengths Finder , which you are a huge proponent , yes , and my number one is achiever .
So relatable relatable , yes , I'm sure we all have that . Yeah , it's like get it done . Get it done by any means necessary , and then onto the next , and then onto the next new thing . Onto the next new thing . Now we , you know we need someone else to optimize . So you know , you build and then you onto the next new thing . Let somebody else optimize .
Yeah , yes .
But I think that was the thing . And then I had someone else say to me kind of along that way , they're like you know , I just turned 40 this year and someone said , like you know , 35 to 45 are like some of your best working years , right , you've got experience , you still got energy , and like you want to build something .
And I was like , well , I'm halfway through that , what am I going to do , you know ? So I think that sort of gave me the permission to say , if not now , when , right . And I think it came from a place of like I'm going to do it , afraid , but I'm not going to live with regret because I tried it . I love that .
Yes , all of us could go get a job , right , like , if needed , I could go get a job . But if not now , when ? And if I want to look back on this part of my life and say , you know , I took the risks , you know , in a smart way , but I took the risks and I'm not looking back with regret .
I think when you grow up in the corporate environment , you have a lot of friends who are still there . No , you know , it's not a bad place for everyone , but I think there are a lot of people that are there as they don't know where else to go . They don't know how else to like , parlay their skills or what else is out there .
And these are , you know , at HireBrain , we talk about , like , your work is how you spend your day . Right , these are , this is your endeavor , these are the best you know , months , years of your life like . Let's be thoughtful about it .
You know , and that's why we're passionate about hiring managers , because they play a huge role in that equation and don't always have the preparation to make good calls .
I'm still thinking about whoever told you that you have the most energy 35 to 45 , I want to know where they got the energy from , because I'm very tired .
Well , and I'm saying and I'm over 45 and I have a ton of energy , of course , I have . I have a ton of energy as maybe the only over 45 on this here pod . So it does you know . But it's probably directly proportionate to how old your kids are or whether you have kids I hope it's not true . If you have kids , you are tired all the damn time .
Let's just put it out there , that's right 100% .
Well , it was . It was enough to like kind of get in my crawl and make me think about it differently . So , yeah , I think I think that was it , and I think I'll also say the other inflection point right , there's .
There's the moment and I don't know if you all have experienced this , but there's the moment that we leave , right when we're like , well , I don't know what's on the other side of this , but we're leaving .
And then there's the moment that you like settle in , right , yeah .
And I think the settling in moment , honestly if I'm honest , it was more recent right when I'm like , okay , we've hit snags , we've had successes , we've had failures , but we're still around , we're still kicking , we're still winning . Business Like this is not perfect yet , but we're going to keep going .
And you start to like feel that like we're settling in , we're doing the thing , as opposed to living on the roller coaster . Right Like , as an entrepreneur , you tie your identity , your financial security right To just like the day to day of a business , and that is unsustainable .
So the settling in , the having kind of the like confidence to say like , even if it doesn't work out , I'll still be okay , that's a different inflection point and that's when I felt like I became a true entrepreneur . If that makes sense .
Yeah , it makes a ton of sense .
If there was one lesson , Julie , that you could give someone who's thinking about taking that leap , like having their leap moment , what would it be ?
You're never going to have all the answers that you want to have , like Portia , to your point , like , you're never going to be able to de-risk the whole equation . Right , it is a risk and so you're going to have to do it afraid , but it's also helpful to think about the worst that could happen .
Right , I don't recommend anybody like you know , mortgage or help , like , do things as thoughtfully and as responsibly as you can , but there's still risk involved and even if it doesn't work out , you will still be okay .
Right , I work with a lot of our customers at HireBrain , our enterprise companies , large , large companies , and we're working in the talent space , the talent acquisition space . So I'm also starting to hear all these stories about entrepreneurs who have gotten hired into corporations that used to be a faux pas . Right , like , you started a business .
It failed , you know , we're just going to like , set you out to pasture for the rest of your life , and now I'm meeting people that are like running engineering divisions and like had a startup five years ago .
Right , so , like , I think the experience is starting to be more like normalized into our culture and into our workplaces and so you're not risking everything . If you take the leap right . There is a path to go , I think , in and out of corporate America , your whole career , if you need to .
Right , and that's becoming , I think , a career journey that's more common and people don't mind right , and as long as you keep those connections , and working as a startup with an enterprise is not that much different than working at a .
I mean there are differences , but same skills , right , I'm still bringing the same skills to a startup , a vendor that's serving a global enterprise , as I would a leader in the enterprise , right ?
I will say , julie , though it's you know , having just I was just recently in tech and prior to that , industrial manufacturing , and we would often acquire companies that were run by founders , and one of the I thought the interesting observation that I found was that those found like it was great for the company , the acquiring company , but the founders invariably
felt a little stifled by going , you know , especially if they had been in corporate environments before or had never experienced it and felt like , oh my God , like there's so many rules here and everything moves so slow and why ?
you know why do .
I have to go through , like you know , three months of procurement to get a , you know , a pack of pencils and some post-its , and so I love what . I love what you say about , because I think it's absolutely true . Right , You're seeing more permeability between the sort of the walls of entrepreneurship , corporate and that culture .
Fit sometimes works , sometimes doesn't , for the entrepreneur especially . And I'm curious if you've observed entrepreneurs feeling like you know what .
This was great , I got a regular paycheck for a while , but let me go ahead and figure out how to get back outside into , you know , because I suspect , like the entrepreneurs that I know , once they've been on their own , they have very little desire to go and work .
It's maybe it's the concept of working for somebody else and like putting in hard work for somebody else versus for themselves . I just want to give a perspective on that .
Yeah , well , I think , I think in some ways , you know , our society has sort of glamorized entrepreneurship or startups or like you know the hockey stick growth , and the reality is like it's not for everybody , and so
¶ Entrepreneurship and Mindset With Inspirational Figures
I . I think it's remarkable when people try it and say this isn't for me , I'm going to go back and bring my skill set to it . You know , like that's . That's a totally fine thing . Yeah , let's normalize that . Yes , yes , and these companies are getting remarkable talent as a result , right ?
If you run your own business and keep payroll going and keep keep the business capitalized and sell things like you are a better employee , whatever team you're running , when you go back to a corporation , right ? So , normalize it all day long , hire those people all day long , yeah .
But I think , portia , to your point , the people that truly have the bug , right , it's just like they're , they can never go back , right ? Yeah , I just think those , those people will . They're going to , they're going to be the people that start two , three companies in their career right , and so I think that that's going to be .
That's just going to be how they have to live their life .
I think what I appreciate about our like my founder and I both spent , like my founder spent time at Oracle , cisco , so he , he has lived that life , he has run global teams , so it makes us so much better when we're sitting in front of you know enterprise executives , we know their struggles right , or at least we can relate right .
We know what kind of what they're up against , we can speak that language and then I love that we get to work with the entrepreneurs at those companies , right , yeah . As a startup we're bringing the solutions that speak to the things they're trying to solve and they get jazzed . We get jazzed right , we get to work together .
So I think , like being an entrepreneur who's been in that seat makes you far more prepared , I think , to bring good solutions , to speak that language and to really resonate with their struggles .
So , julie , this is we get to like our most favorite . This is the most popular part of the pod , or is the lightning round , and are you ready ?
I'm ready .
And so this is a . This is a lot , tends to be a lot of fun for our listeners and so question . So we talked about mindset the outset of this conversation . Is there a favorite motto or phrase that you have that defines your mindset ?
Yes , it was the motto that I shared earlier about courage begets courage .
Yeah , I love that .
I love that . That's been true , true for me . And like we don't get to big things overnight , like we've got to learn to trust ourselves , and I think , as women , we think courage is , you know , big , massive , grand things , and I think courage actually happens in the smaller moments , you know .
So important , so important . It's a good reminder . We feel like we need to make quantum , but sometimes it's the incremental that is equally powerful . I love that Totally .
Okay , next question You're accepting a huge award . What is your walk on song ? I love this song .
I'm a huge music fan , but mine would be the beginning of Nine to Five by Dolly Parton , or it's like you know , and I don't know if you know all this , but the percussion that she does in that song are her fingernails on the keyboard . No , I had no idea . Yes , that's how .
I I didn't know that she came up with that , because if you listen to the song , it sounds like someone , just kind of like .
I learned something new .
Oh , my God .
I just thought that was like a ball and movement .
I gotta go back and listen to this now . This is gonna be great . This is gonna be great for , by the way we're putting , we're gonna have a Spotify playlist of all these songs , so I'm just super excited about this . This is why .
I had no idea .
And .
I have a coffee mug that's called Cup of Ambition . So Dolly really gets me energized . I , you know we loved her . I have to say we love Dolly Parton .
We love us some Dolly Parton . She is like a phenomenal person . I don't know if you saw her recently she did like a guest thing with the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders and she had like a whole little Dallas Cowboy cheerleader . We will have to link to that in the show notes , because she had on the full outfit it was .
It was pretty amazing , I love me some Dolly , I love her .
She was doing the thing she was doing , it she continues to .
I think she's like 77 years old , so she's a goddess and I learned something new about her , which is even a double bonus , okay , julie . So here's the next question what book do you find yourself gifting or recommending repeatedly ? We are big readers , the squad reads a lot , and so I'm super curious about this what do you read , what ? What do you ?
I came prepared with props . Yes , I love that .
Oh , my God , I love this book , but I haven't .
I haven't read it yet . Somebody recommended it to me , so I just bought it . I love that and I haven't read it . Okay , I'm going to read it over the break .
Scouts honor , scouts honor . Okay , I'm totally doing it .
¶ Designing Your Life
So , for those who are listening , so for those who are listening , this is called . It's called designing your life . It's a few years old , so it's been around for a while and it was written by the two professors at Stanford that really took kind of the the Stanford D school design thinking and kind of really brought that to their . Oh , there you go .
Tiffany you've got . Oh , I wish I could get up and go and grab my copy so we could all hold up our copies together .
I love that we all own this book . That must be a lot of reasons I love it .
Oh , but only two . But only two of us not me have actually read the book . So you know , I'm going to go read it , though I promise , tiffany and Julie , I promise . Sorry about that .
So thinking about this idea of mindset , like these Stanford professors were applying design thinking to all of these business problems and social problems , right , and then they actually created a course at Stanford called I think it's designing your first year or something .
So it's like helping use design thinking for Stanford students to chart their learning for the four years that they're there .
And then they took it to the next step , which is like using design thinking to think about your life plan , and so I love how this sort of breaks down thinking about your future , your next step , into kind of that design thinking , experimentation mindset . So it's very actionable .
Every chapter you read you then can do homework like a journaling exercise or something . And I think when we pick up career books or like inspirational books , sometimes it's just sort of you're supposed to glean the wisdom from somebody's story , right , which isn't a bad thing .
But this is so actionable that , like when people , especially my female friends , when they're stuck in a career situation , I give them this book because it's so actionable for you , you will be unstuck by the time you finish this book .
That is an endorsement .
What an endorsement I know they're not paying me , I just . I've given this book away a lot of times .
Well , they should , they should , Julie .
Yeah , just send me more so I can give them away . But I think it's also something you could do every couple of years , right Cause our lives are not static , so it just I feel like it's and it's talking about how to build a life , not a career .
I think , especially as women , we sort of get honed in on the career and then everything else kind of has to fit around it . At least , I think that's how we sort of begin our careers and then life happens .
But I think this is helping you sort of proactively think about , like all elements of your life and kind of where you want to be , and so I highly recommend it . Excellent recommendation .
All right , Julie . What is the best purchase under 150 bucks you've ever made ?
Ever ? This is a hard question , recent . I'll answer it recently not to feel like stereotypical , but my Stanley has been amazing . I drink so much water .
Mine's not on my desk , but I also have one .
I resisted the trend for a long time and then when the North Carolina summer hit where you're like I can have cold water all the time I gotta get one .
Oh my God , it keeps your water cold for like days . It's unreal . Tiffany told me about this Stanley cup and she was like , yeah , it's like this cup that influencers are talking about . And I was like that sounds totally stupid . And then I was like I was totally being derisive .
I was totally derisive and judgmental and then and Tiffany would be like that Tiffany was like that's par for the course for Porsche . And then I was getting some stuff . I was at Academy Sports and there was like a wall of Stanley cups . I was getting stuff from my son and I was like , huh , well , maybe God , it's like 40 bucks .
It seems kind of expensive , but all right , I'll get one . Oh my God , I am totally sold . Tiffany , I apologize to you in front of our squad in front of our squad audience , that I was wrong and you were right , Julie . Thank you , thank you . That's okay , I owe the same apology . Yeah , hook us up , stanley . Hook us up . We love your cups .
Hook us up .
Yeah , Okay . What is a secret ? Unpopular opinion that you hold .
Okay , I cannot wait for you to answer this .
I actually had a hard time with this question .
No , this is like the most fun question . This is a safe space , julie ? Tell us , tell us , I know .
I think watching movies are a waste of time . What'd you say ? I think watching movies are a waste of time Like I just can't . I can't sit down , I know , oh , I can't .
Any kind . What about inside out ? What about inside out ?
It's very emotional , Tiffany , you can't just like start throwing out random movies Like , well , what about this movie ? That is not the point of this . Tiffany is going to go . She's got a long list of movies that she wants you to like . Confirm or disconfirm that they're going to be on .
Confirm that they're a waste of time , the reason I'm a podcast audible fiend , because I can like do other things while I'm listening , and that's probably more of a sickness Fair Than you know an attribute , but it is what it is . I am who I am .
I love it and I love how you're resilient about that . You're like that's who . That's just who I am , that's just who I am .
You can speed up audibles and pod to more efficiently get through them too . You can't really do that with a movie .
Just diversion . I don't understand Cause Tiffany mentioned this , julie , that she will speak . You're like not the only person , tiffany , that will speed up a audio book so that they can listen to it faster , and I don't understand the logic of that at all .
You don't have to explain it , I'm just saying I'm just putting it out there , not a lot , just like 1.2 . Why ? Why ? I don't understand that , though . Like what is the logic To listen faster it ?
makes it shorter more . I just need to be multitasking , so if I'm walking the dog and listening to a podcast , I feel like I've got the double time going .
You've got , so it's like a it's like your productivity hack . I will just tell you , julie , like I watch a lot of movies and I find myself watching the same movie over like several times , because I am multitasking and not paying attention to it , and my husband will be like haven't you watched this movie Like three times .
I'm like , yeah , but I was doing like seven things and so , yeah , there's something to that , yeah , okay , so I love that is an amazing . I love that one . I'm going to really be curious about what the squad says says about this unpopular opinion , but I love it .
Okay , so you don't have to apologize .
Own fully own your belief that watching movies is a waste of time .
Own it , embrace it , embrace it , embrace it .
Okay , so last question for you is what is a hobby that you have that would surprise people who know you .
This is also a little bit of a hard one , but I'm going to share the one that came to mind . So every summer , I host a series of backyard garden dinners at my house and hook us up next summer , come on , come on . But I also feel like just to kind of put a bow on our whole conversation .
Like I started it in 2015 because I needed , like , a creative outlet , I invited 10 people over , I cooked a meal with local produce and I was like maybe I'll do this again , maybe I won't . Everybody loved it and they wanted me to do it again and it turned into a summer series . So I was doing three a year . I got a friend to come help me .
Now we are up to four a year , 30 people per meal , per meal . I have a team of four that helps me .
So this is amazing . This is totally amazing .
I started small . I borrowed some tables , I got some bargain bin napkins at World Market , just threw it together , didn't spend a lot of money , and just like sort of iterated my way to something that now is a tradition that we love . Yeah , stealing this idea .
Okay , can I just say I've been following these harvest dinners on social At least . I know when you started and when I moved to my most recent home I told a friend I really want to get a huge outdoor table so I can have harvest dinners in my backyard like someone I know . And it was you , Like you've inspired me to do this .
This is amazing .
I think the idea of coming together at a table is top tier and I love that you've stuck with it and it's building community .
Yeah , 100% . I love that too .
It's allowing me the opportunity to be creative , but , at the end of the day , all my other skill sets project management , all those things help as well . But yeah , I think that was like something I'm really proud of , obviously , and something that's pulled a lot of different . I also think courage begets courage , but also creativity begets creativity .
Right , if you put your creative thing out there 100% . It's just going to attract other people's creative things and I don't think everything well . So I want the person who makes bread to bring their bread . I want the person who loves music to create a playlist Right .
I love this so much and cannot wait for my invitation to your one of your harvest dinners .
All right , when you do this , I'm already inviting myself over Tiffany I love it Because I want to steal this idea , but I need to experience one first .
I love it . No , in all seriousness , I love this concept . How cool , how cool 2024 .
Summer 2024 .
2024 . Let's go , let's lock it in . Julie Goff , it has been such a wonderful pleasure to have you here on the pod . Thank you so much . We hope that we'll you'll come back and just thank you for all the wonderful insights on intrapreneurship .
I hope that our squad you know one , I think just some of your wisdom around courage , around taking small steps , around the opportunities that it creates for career expansion , for learning , for growth and also , you know , sharing your a bit of your own journey . It's just been lovely to have you here today . We appreciate you so much .
Oh , thank you and thank you all so much . I love what you're doing , thank you .
Thanks , julie .
And don't forget to follow us on Instagram at the manifesta and tip talk at the manifesta pod See you next time .