Themes discussed in this episode

• Adapting to bridge jobs and finding growth opportunities
• Navigating post-college career challenges in a pandemic world
• Importance of customer experience in career advancement
• Embracing commission-based roles
• Addressing workplace challenges with empathy

Episode Highlights

Timestamped inflection points from the show

00:50 – Guest introduction: Kyle Elsasser shares his journey from a pandemic graduate to a flourishing career in the automotive industry.

03:01 – From entry-level to expertise: Kyle discusses the transition from an express lane service advisor to his current role.

04:59 – Finding the value in seemingly temporary roles: How Kyle transformed his ‘bridge job’ into a fulfilling career.

22:55 – Handling conflict with customers: Building empathy and tackling problems collaboratively.

28:59 – Advice for recent graduates and early career professionals: Making the most of your current job while seeking new opportunities.

Top Quotes

5:38 – “I decided I wasn’t just going to use it as something to do for a few months. I decided I actually might as well do something with it.”

15:47 – “Being yourself at the office is different than being your best self at the office.”

17:09 – “…when you’re being paid to work, it’s not just your performance in your job, it’s not just your work product that is the- should be the result of that. It should also be your work persona.”

30:21 – “Even if it’s really hellish, focus on what you’re learning. When you start to get antsy, look back. Are you still learning?”

Links

Transcript

00:12

LORI: Hello, I’m Lori Jo Vest. Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of Work Mom Says “Don’t Be an Idiot!” Today we’re going to talk about making the best of where you are. There are times when you’re in a position that you didn’t really expect to have to take.

You may have a job that is less than you feel you deserve. You may feel that you are too experienced for your job or should be making more money. All kinds of things can happen. However, sometimes you have to stick with that job that you’re not so happy with for a little bit longer than you’d like.

So our guest today is Kyle Elsasser. Say hi, Kyle.

KYLE: Hello.

00:57

LORI: A 26 year old University of Michigan grad. He graduated in 2020 during the pandemic and things were extremely difficult and the place that he thought he was going to go right after college, that position evaporated. So he ended up taking what I would call a bridge job, meaning you take that job while you wait for something bigger and better to come along. Right, Kyle?

KYLE: Yeah, that was the plan.

LORI: Tell us about what happened when you first graduated.

KYLE: I had an internship with Mopar. I had a whole- everything lined up, you know, getting an interview set up for the second, third week of March of 2020. That was quote unquote, a formality to go move out of state and start a new job as a district manager. Covid happened, said, oh, we’ll just wait a few weeks, we’ll wait a couple months. And here we are, five years later.

LORI: Yea, no kidding. So what was your first position? What did you find out there and how did you find it?

KYLE: Well, again it was- I was originally intending to go work for Mopar, which is the service and parts division of FCA or Stellantis Chrysler. Ended up taking a job as an express lane service advisor at a Chrysler dealer that my uncle was the general manager of. Just figured it’d be something to fill my time while we were waiting those couple of weeks to a couple of months…

LORI: Couple of weeks, couple of months, couple of years. So what was the position and what were your duties? What did you do?

KYLE: So it was, again, an express lane service advisor, which basically means, it’s a big dealership. If you need to come in and get your oil changed, something quick, tire rotation, wheel alignment, what have you. You drive in the service lane, no appointments, and I was the guy that greeted you, set you up for your oil change, told you to go sit down and wait, and came and grabbed you when you were done.

03:01

LORI: Okay, so now fast forward five years, what are you doing now?

KYLE: I am a service advisor for the main shop, not doing oil changes and such. And I work for our premium brand of Alfa Romeo.

LORI: Okay, and Wagoneer too?

KYLE: A little bit of backup Wagoneer stuff, mostly Alfa.

LORI: So tell me what the difference is in those two positions.

KYLE: Express lane is very entry level. You know, it’s pretty, pretty standard. You don’t take anything from day to day. It’s just every customer that comes in, you say hi to them, tell them to sit down and an hour later you go grab them, collect your 50 bucks or whatever for the oil change and see you later.

Whereas what I’m doing now, I’m juggling every single Italian car that comes in that dealership from top to bottom, whether that is your oil change or whether that is your forty thousand dollar engine that blew up and, you know, keep your car for six months and I handle the process from start to finish.

LORI: So one of the other differences is, you make how much more money than you did when you first started?

KYLE: Considerably more. You know, that certainly does make a difference.

LORI: Two times? Three times?

KYLE: Somewhere between two and three. Yeah, for sure.

LORI: In four and a half years, basically, you made that happen, right?

KYLE: Yeah, yeah pretty much.

LORI: So, let me ask you, how did you decide to stay there, and how did you make this transition to a job that paid so much more and was so much more in keeping with who you are as a, you know, as a college graduate, etc.?

KYLE: I mean, when you start you’re making $12 an hour, again, as a bridge job, right? I kind of thought a little bit, you know, I wanted to make the most of it, right? At the time my going to be real job would have been valuable experience to have this little bit of express lane job experience.

LORI: Okay, so how did you do it? How did you- what do you think made you different that allowed you to make that transition?

KYLE: So again, it was originally a bridge job. Just get a little bit of experience. But then I kind of realized there was more to it. Right? You know, there was the customer experience aspect of it. There was some small portion that was commission in that first part of it. And I decided I wasn’t just going to use it as something to do for a few months. I decided I actually might as well do something with it. Which, again, originally was to be able to take that experience into the next step at Stellantis.

But over time, one, that next step at Stellantis seemed further and further away. And two, I realized there actually really probably was more to it than just writing up oil changes, collecting my 12 bucks an hour and going home. As I said, the customer experience aspect of it is huge.

That’s something that’s in the dealer industry is one of, if not the most important things. And I realized I certainly did have kind of a knack for it, I guess. I saw what other advisors were doing in the main shop. I saw that there was potential to be had there and then kind of carved out my spot as the customer experience guy and actually ended up in a position that didn’t exist. Taking care of only the quote unquote, premium customers expect that expect a little bit more out of their service.

06:44

LORI: So personally, how would you say you did that? What was it that took you from that more entry level position to growing your income, growing your responsibility, growing your, basically, career in a job that you thought was going to be entry level and kind of just a stopping point along the way. What was it about you that made it possible for you to do that, do you think?

KYLE: Well, one thing, one of our managers that came in out of a- actually used to work for a Lexus store. You know, they’re very, very, very much into the, again, quote unquote premium experience. I kind of got closer with him, kind of understood how he did things. And we both, between me and him, came up with this position that didn’t exist. And then I also, another side of it, was my mom, this lady that raised me, actually once wrote a book a long time ago about customer experience.

I kind of had that in my head from the get go. So really that is the biggest difference, is actually keeping track of customer experience, and making it a priority is what made this more of a possibility for me.

LORI: Now to talk about customer experience, just for people who aren’t as familiar with what we mean by that: what Kyle’s talking about is when the customer comes into the dealership, that dealership is representing that entire organization to that customer. And that may be the only relationship that they have with the corporation through, the dealership, until it’s time to buy another car.

And if that experience isn’t good, they’ll go to a different dealership and potentially to another brand. So for an automotive manufacturer, that customer experience is a huge, huge thing. And Kyle, you even mentioned that they get discounts on the cars they purchase if they have good customer service scores in the service area?

KYLE: Yeah, so I mean it’s highly incentivized by the manufacturer, and that’s across the board in the entire auto industry. But part of the way that Chrysler does it is, or Stellantis does it, is if service scores at a certain dealership are at whatever level they want them to be at, they actually do discount their cars for the dealership.

So I mean you’re talking 1,000, 2,000 dollars on every single unit just based off of if customers indicated they were happy during the oil change experience. So it does make a big difference.

LORI: So customer surveys are a big deal, and basically what that means is the dealer buys a car for this much and they sell it for that much. If they can buy it from the manufacturer for a couple thousand dollars cheaper on every vehicle, that adds up, that adds up over time.

KYLE: A bit of profit.

9:43

LORI: Yeah, exactly. So I really like how they’ve done that, how they tied service to sales and how they are making sure that the dealers understand that that service aspect is really critical. But they’ve not- traditionally, that’s always been a challenge in the dealerships to find the people that really understood, or to train them. Maybe that’s the issue. I’m not in that business, so I don’t know. But training people on customer service and how to be what you naturally are can be really challenging. And what I would say is you appear to be really naturally service oriented and wanting to make sure that the customers are happy, that that’s kind of part of who you are. Would you say that?

KYLE: Well, yeah. I mean, again, I remember when I was an eight year old I was talking to my mom about her customer service book, right? I mean that’s one side of it. But also, I mean I truly enjoy helping people with their cars. I mean that makes a big difference, actually wanting to do the job. If you’re coming in with your, just for my example or whatever, your Alfa Romeo or whatever, your nice Italian car that you saved your money up for and you’ve always wanted, and oh, you got an engine light and ‘Oh my God, that’s a huge deal. I don’t know what it is. I’m not a car guy. I just got my fancy Italian car.’ I’m happy to be that person to walk them through that and, ‘We’ll take care of it. We’ll make it a seamless process. You’ll be back on the road in no time.’ I mean, that’s something that’s pretty fulfilling, actually.

LORI: Yeah, because you are the car guy, right?

KYLE: Yeah, I mean, I’m explaining things about cars to my friends and family. I might as well do it for work too.

11:26

LORI: Exactly. Well, I do think there’s a lot to be said for that tie to what you’re passionate about. Makes it easier to do a really good job when you enjoy it. And you’ve always been a car guy, so let’s just veer off for a second. How many MINI Coopers do you have?

KYLE: I have six, working on seven.

LORI: And how many have you had in the last 10 years?

KYLE: Ten.

LORI: Ten. Okay. So yeah, the car guy getting into the car business really makes a lot of sense. Kyle just thought he was going to be more on the corporate side, helping the dealers from the corporate side, and instead he’s actually boots on the ground helping the customers. Which is- I would beg to say that was almost more important to the manufacturer’s success than anything else.

Okay, so let’s talk about what do you think- what mindset did you have when you took this job that allowed you to continue to grow and turn this into something better?

KYLE: I wasn’t intending to be there forever, but it really did start with, I wanted to actually make this not quote unquote important. Just bridge a job and use it as something that would be good experience for what I thought my real job would be. I mean, that’s really where it started. You know, I could have just collected my paycheck and just waited, sat around until the actual job showed up. But I thought it could be something useful. And just in doing that, that’s kind of when I realized that I wouldn’t have to skip out to the corporate side. I could actually make something useful out of what I was doing.

And then additionally, I mentioned that that my uncle was the one who was the GM at the time. He’s since retired, but when I had him in my back pocket telling me, ‘Hey, there is something to this. Give the dealership, the franchise side of it, a shot because there’s certainly a career, plenty of careers to be had in that side of the industry as well.’ So I took that knowledge and kind of just, again, rather than just sitting around and waiting for my, quote, real job to come in, to come up, I decided to make the most of it and see what I could do.

LORI: Well, you just nailed it. What you said when we were preparing for this recording was, you chose to make this a career, not a job. And when you choose to even take that first, what I’d call piddly little job that you don’t necessarily want and do your absolute best…

14:01

How many people do you hear that are CEO that started off as the receptionist or started off in the mail room, or started off, you know, you’re going through the ranks of the service department and learning how it works from that entry level position. So we also talked about being promotable. What does that mean to you, Kyle?

KYLE: I mean, I guess showing willingness and ability to do more than what you’re doing. I mean that’s my one biggest- I’m not very far in my career or whatever in terms of time- but in my one proper promotion of going from a very replaceable job to something that hadn’t existed before.

I mean that was really what it came down to was I was talking to management saying, ‘Hey, I don’t want to do this forever, but I want to see what I can do with this company.’ And then having the numbers and results to prove it when that position appeared, I was the one to do it.

LORI: And couple things I’d highlight as we talk about this is that when you go into a job with the mindset that it’s a career, I would say you’re more earnest, you’re more enthusiastic, you’re more likely to present your best self than you would if you were just going to your job. Does that make sense? And you mentioned that in that side of things, there’s a lot of people out there that are telling young professionals that we need to be authentic. Be as authentic as you can, that’s what people like. And there’s a lot to be said for that.

But, being yourself at the office is different than being your best self at the office. Right? So how would you say when you go into work every day, you’re your best self? Because you mentioned some things to me when we were talking earlier about, that you just have a different attitude no matter how the other person is acting. So tell me about that.

KYLE: Yeah, I mean that especially comes into play with the job that I’m doing. Customers typically aren’t walking up to my desk thrilled to be there. It’s usually because their car is broken, right? So I mean the biggest thing is just approaching the day with a smile on your face.

It sounds a little bit goofy, a little bit cliche or whatever, but especially in a customer facing job, I mean that is what you got to do. It’s, ‘Hey Mr. Customer,’ you know, and, ‘I recognize you’re not really thrilled to be here, but let’s figure this out. Let’s make this the least inconvenience we can and then we’ll get you back going.’ I’ll be honest, I don’t approach every single person in my daily life with a big bright smile and a hello.

LORI: Well, yeah.

But at work I do.

LORI: But when you’re getting paid to do it, you do it.

KYLE: Sure. Yeah, exactly.

17:03

LORI: I mean, that’s the thing that I think some people maybe forget earlier in their careers, is that when you’re being paid to work, it’s not just your performance in your job, it’s not just your work product that should be the result of that. It should also be your work persona.

And we talked about how when you create really connected positive relationships with everybody you work with, even the crabby-ass people, you’re going to end up being better able to perform your job. And you mentioned somebody that isn’t necessarily friendly every day, but you’ve taken an approach to him that makes him easier to work with. Right?

KYLE: Yeah. Yeah, I mean, we’ve got all kinds of different folks at the dealership level. Right? I mean from- there are plenty of folks that are just there to get through the slog and do the job and that’s it. But you gotta be able to work with everybody.

You gotta be able to, again as it is, as I said, smiling and then hello, and that makes a big difference because when I need this job out of this technician to get done or whatever, if I’m the guy that’s always having a brief chat with them and asking how they’re doing or whatever, they’re a little more likely to work with me. Even if they are the less cooperative type of person.

LORI: I would say you earn their reciprocity,

KYLE: Yeah. And I help them out too. I mean, if they need something from one advisor and that advisor is either busy or having a crap day and doesn’t feel like helping, I absolutely step up for stuff that’s absolutely not my job.

And, truly, as someone that’s only paid on commission, I’m literally handing out my time. Here you go. Let me take a few minutes to help you. I don’t get anything out of it. But, you know. And that makes a difference in a workplace, right? I’m spending 40, 50 hours with these people every single week. You might as well get along with everybody.

LORI: Yeah. And that’s the key too is getting along with everybody. You can’t pick people you do or don’t get along with. Everyone that works there deserves your positive performance. And if they don’t deliver their side of the bargain? Oh well, that’s them, you know? And you’ll still find the crabbiest people will go the extra mile for you because you’ve been kind to them for so long.

I’ve seen that over and over and over. People are like, ‘You got that person to do what?’ Like, yeah, I was just really nice to her for a really long time. And before you know it, I could get her to do whatever I wanted. I mean, reciprocity. People appreciate it when you are kind. Especially people I think that are seriously maybe crabby all the time. Not very many people are kind to them. So when you stand out as repeatedly kind, it makes a difference, it really does. In what you get back. And also how you’re able to perform your job. When you need something, you need a favor, you need help, you can get it.

20:04

So let’s talk about this whole commission thing. I know commission, a lot of people are afraid of it because they’re like, ‘I want to have a guaranteed salary’ and you are 100% commission, right?

KYLE: Yeah, yeah. And bonuses and whatnot, sure.

LORI: How does that work? I mean, why doesn’t that make you anxious?

KYLE: I mean, I certainly did the math right before I agreed to it. I mean, one positive is that there are, well, in one way, there are other advisors at the dealership who I could talk to and see what the numbers are and see what comes in every day to make sure it’s something that I can sustain myself.

But also, again, it was kind of starting a job that didn’t exist before in that I’m only working with the one premium brand that kind of just got sprinkled through everybody, through all the advisors prior to me showing up. But having all that as kind of a- I don’t know if really captive audience is the right word- but I knew that I was going to continue to have work coming in. So I knew that that baseline, whatever that baseline would be, I knew that I wasn’t going to be going completely hungry one week. Right? I knew that something was going to be coming in and I would have that. I just decided I’d go for it and see what happened. And it worked.

I mean, there are absolutely some weeks. There’s my little ADP app that tells me ‘your pay went up whatever percentage up or down’ I mean, there are some weeks where it says my pay was down 75% from last week. But also ones that were 300% or whatever. Right? I kind of had a vague idea of what came in the door and I knew that I could make it work. As long as I’m not living or dying on my one week that I happened to make $300 on because it was a slow week or whatever.

LORI: Right, right. I do think that commission, if you do the homework to make sure it’s a good deal for you, is one of the ways that you can make a lot more money than you would in a salaried position.

KYLE: Yeah. And that is how it’s ended up working too is that if you zoom out from the week to week to the month to month, to what you take home over a year, it adds absolutely worth it, at least in the spot that I’m in. And I’m sure a lot of commission jobs don’t end up that way, but I imagine most of them do.

LORI: Yeah the episode we just released was about how to make more money. And one of the things that I say, if you work for a small or a mid sized company and you can influence customers coming in, a lot of times you can get a bonus or commission on that work, even if that’s not specifically your space. You know people or something like that that may come in, a lot of times you can get a little bump on that depending on what type of industry you’re in.

22:55

So a couple other things, I know you are in an industry, Kyle, that has a lot of probably more heated conflict with customers than a lot of industries. Because somebody pays $60,000 for a car, they buy it brand new, they don’t expect anything to go wrong. And just like any other type of product, sometimes something goes wrong early and they’re mad, and you’re the first person that they talk to. How do you manage those kinds of conversations?

KYLE: I mean, it’s all case by case, right? But over the few years I’ve gotten better at gauging people, right? You kind of have to know what they expect, and if you can meet and/or exceed that, then you’re doing well. And then not everybody- you’re not going to be able to win them all. You know, every once in a while I get the, ‘I just bought this car two weeks ago, I want you to buy it back from me and give me a brand new one.’ You know, I can’t-

LORI: Yeah, you can’t. You’re not the guy in charge of that.

KYLE: Kind of a benefit of being at the dealership, you know, part of that, the dealership guy, is that the expectations aren’t always the highest out of everybody. So if I am the guy that- if they say, ‘Oh, whoa, this guy actually does care that my car gets fixed’ if I hit them with immediately, ‘I know you just spent $60,000 in this thing. It’s broken. Let’s get it fixed. I don’t know what it is. We’re going to figure it out and we’re going to make it,’ you know, ‘we’re going to get you right back going.’ Usually that’s that little bit of, kind of caring and understanding, ‘Hey, this sucks. Yeah, I get it. Let’s make it not suck’ is enough to disarm get people to make them happy at the end of the the day.

LORI: So I’m hearing two things. Major amounts of empathy. ‘Oh my God, that does suck.’ And we against the problem. You are not the problem. The problem is over there and you and the customer are over here looking at it. Right? And trying to figure out how to solve it. So it’s we against the problem.

KYLE: That’s something that a lot of service people, at least internally, say is, ‘Hey man, I didn’t make the car.’ Now, I don’t find that’s helpful when I tell- if you’re going to tell a customer that. I don’t do that. But that is what we say internally, and that’s the truth. You know, I didn’t make the car. I didn’t cause the problem. So hey, this really sucks. Let’s figure it out. Let’s get it sorted out. And that, I guess also probably helps. You know, I’m not going to tell folks that in that many words. But also, most people know not to- most, not all, know not to immediately attack me for the problem they’re in.

LORI: So I gotta ask you though, when somebody’s yelling at you, and you know, ‘Hey, I didn’t make the car,’ what thoughts do you think or what do you tell yourself so that you don’t get pulled into the drama?

KYLE: I mean, not to be condescending or anything, but I know that if they’re yelling at me, if they’re yelling and swearing and pitching a fit, they’re being immature about it. Right? You know how to handle somebody that’s like that. I just let them get through it. Again, just keep with the passive, ‘Hey, we’re gonna figure this out. We’re gonna handle, we’re gonna do this, that and the other thing,’ rather than taking it to heart, obviously is not helpful at all. In my experience usually, I find almost every single time, if you just let them let it out, let them kick and scream, you don’t feed back into it, they’re gonna come back and apologize. I can’t count. I can’t count how many people I’ve had kick and scream and swear at me and call me mean names. And then either by the end of the call or the next day, they, ‘Hey Kyle, man, I’m sorry about that. I know you’re trying to help. I got a little bit heated.’ Yeah, you’re good. You just let them get it out of their system, and usually that’s all you need.

LORI: And if you had struck back or gotten defensive, then you’ve taken away that opportunity. Then you’ve taken away the opportunity for them to apologize and say, I’m sorry.

KYLE: Then it’s not me and Mr. Customer against the problem. It’s Mr. Customer against me and the problem. I’m not at odds with the customer ever. If they want to try and make that, it’s not going to happen. I’m not going to allow that. I’m not going to fight with them. It’s not as common as you might make it seem. It doesn’t happen very often, but the few that do get heated, again, as long as they come to the realization that I’m trying to help them, usually they calm down.

LORI: And let’s surface one more time that these are very expensive cars. So when they break down…

KYLE: Yeah, sure. As a representative of the company or whatever, I don’t know how much I should be saying, but Stellantis has had some quality problems. I’ll leave it at that, since-

LORI: All automotive companies have quality problems. Yeah, they really do.

KYLE: Maybe since before the merger. But post the Peugeot Stellantis merger, there have been some quality problems. So there has been a lot of opportunities for me to get through that situation.

LORI: Yeah, and they’re lucky with those kinds of problems- that’s one thing about manufacturing is when you have those kinds of problems, you want people like Kyle on the other end with the customers. Yeah.

KYLE: And I’ve seen my own dealership and also anywhere else where it takes that one shot and, ‘All right, I’m never going to buy a car from this manufacturer ever again. All right, I’m going to go to get my, instead of my Alpha, I’m going to go get my Lexus or my BMW next time. See you later.’ That’s something that happens all the time. Diffusing those situations makes a difference.

28:59

LORI: So sitting where you’re sitting, four and a half years post-pandemic, what advice would you give to somebody just out of college, took that first job because it’s what they could find, they’re not perfectly happy with it… Now what?

KYLE: I mean, keep on searching for sure. Don’t give up on whatever it is you think you’re actually looking for. But also realize more than likely at 21, 22, however old you are when you just got out of college, you don’t actually know what you’re going to be doing. You might have an idea, but you don’t have any idea. You don’t really know what you’re doing, what the future is going to hold. So where you’re at, make the most of it. If you’re flipping hamburgers at McDonald’s, sure, maybe find something else. But more than likely wherever you’ve landed, there are people that have been there longer, that have made careers out of it, that are making good money and have some success. Figure out what they did and what you can do to move in that direction. And if whatever it was you thought you were looking for comes up, then you’ve gotten the experience out of what you were doing and you can move on. There’s no downside to it.

LORI: I think there’s lot to be learned in productivity and in customer service. In most positions, I tell people to focus on what you’re learning. And even if it’s really hellish, and I’ve had hellish jobs, focus on what you’re learning. And when you start to get antsy, look back. Are you still learning? If you are, stay. If you’ve learned everything you can learn there and it really is a hellscape, get out. But if it’s tolerable and you’re still learning and there’s opportunity, stick it out. You never know what could happen, right? That’s what I would say. So, yeah.

So I think that’s what we’ve got for today. Thank you so much, Kyle, for being here. I’m Lori Jo Vest. Again, this is Work Mom Says “Don’t Be an Idiot!” We have a website at workkmomsays.com where we house all of our episodes. We also have a blog there and an intake form. If you have someone that you would like to suggest as a guest, if you would like to be a guest, or if you’d like to submit a question that I should answer on this podcast. Please visit my website at workmomsays.com. I am also an open networker on LinkedIn. I would love to hear from you. And finally, if you are watching this on YouTube, hit the subscribe button, give me a like, and I’ll see you again soon with some more helpful information on how to play the emotional contact sport of business.

---

Who is our ideal listener?

This podcast is for young professionals who want to learn to play the emotional context sport of business and experience less drama and more success.

How can you be more logical and less emotional? Be strategic, and Work Mom Says can help you.

“I tell people to back up, put down the magnifying glass, and look at the big picture when you’re responding to something,” said Lori Jo Vest, Work Mom. “In doing this, you will understand that what’s really upsetting you right now will be something you don’t even remember next week.”

What value can people get from listening to this podcast?

Listening to Work Mom Says can help you grow your mood management skills, grow your ability to reframe situations, and look at things from a strategic point of view. This makes it easier to go into a work situation and get the most positive results.

On Work Mom Says, we also offer tips and tricks for creating connected positive relationships that last over time. People will want you on the team if you can create connected positive relationships and work environments. You become an asset, and you will be more successful when you’re an asset.

“I also like to talk about developing traits like optimism, persistence, tenacity, stick-to-itiveness, sticking with things, and approaching every project with a curious mind instead of a fearful mind,” said Lori Jo Vest, Work Mom

                                                                                                     

Why do I do this? A few more words from Work Mom

I do this because I naturally fell into the Work Mom role when I worked in the ad agency business and had so much fun with it. I also realized I had made just about every mistake there was to make. I don’t hold myself as a stellar example of truth and how you should be. I hold myself out there as someone who has been bruised, battered, and beaten up and learned some important lessons. I’d love to share these lessons with young people, so they don’t have to make those same mistakes or be the idiot I was.

I also want to help young professionals realize that many things our culture prioritizes aren’t really important. We talk a lot about what should be important and how to present your best face at the office so that you can succeed.

I’ve learned so much throughout my career, and it’s gratifying to share that with young professionals and help them avoid some of those mistakes and get to that success sooner.