Corporate Job vs. Entrepreneurship: Which Path is Right for You? | Victoria P

Never Been Promoted Podcast with Thomas Helfrich

Victoria Pelletier shares her journey from overcoming extreme adversity to becoming an executive keynote speaker, C-suite transformational leader, and author. Known for her expertise in business transformation and leadership, Victoria offers valuable insights into achieving success and maintaining resilience.

About Victoria Pelletier:

Victoria Pelletier is an executive keynote speaker, C-suite transformational leader, and author with extensive experience in business-to-business professional services. She has built and bought businesses, served in various executive roles, and is a fitness fanatic, foodie, wine lover, wife, and mother. Victoria is known for her resilience and dedication to creating positive impacts in the workplace and community.


In this episode, Thomas and Victoria discuss:

• The Journey to Executive Leadership: Victoria shares her path from a challenging childhood to becoming a successful executive, highlighting her diverse interests and accomplishments.
• Overcoming Challenges: Victoria emphasizes the importance of resilience and adaptability, discussing her personal experiences with trauma and adversity.
• Strategic Leadership and Transformation: Victoria discusses her approach to leadership, including the importance of authenticity, vulnerability, and creating a strong personal brand.

Key Takeaways:

• Embrace Resilience 

Understanding that resilience can be both innate and developed, and it is crucial for overcoming adversity and achieving long-term success.

• Value of Personal Branding

Building a strong personal brand that reflects who you are as a whole person, not just what you do, is essential for creating connections and trust.

• Importance of Diversity and Inclusion 

Promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace and community can drive innovation and create a more positive and effective environment.

"Nothing is gonna prevent me from achieving whatever goal or objective it is I've set for myself." — Victoria Pelletier


CONNECT WITH VICTORIA PELLETIER:

Website: https://victoria-pelletier.com/

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

CONNECT WITH THOMAS:

X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/thelfrich | https://twitter.com/nevbeenpromoted Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hovienko | https://www.facebook.com/neverbeenpromoted
Website: https://www.neverbeenpromoted.com/
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YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@neverbeenpromoted
LinkedIn:

Transcript

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Welcome to the Never Been Promoted podcast. If this is your first time here, you rock. I hope it's one of many. And if you've been here before, thank you for coming back. If you've heard these podcasts in the, before, you'll know that I give away dad points, and dad points are things that are fictitious thank you's that you can't spend anywhere. So you all get some dad points today. Congratulations. Our mission is to create a whole bunch of entrepreneurs. In particular, I actually wanna create a 1000000 entrepreneurs that weren't going to exist, here in 2024, and we're doing that through a a few methods. 1, through a good platform, through podcasts and YouTube, but also just from the stories and interactions we're having with our guests because you can learn something from any entrepreneur. And what I find through this idea of micro mentoring, if you could pick up one thing when you meet with somebody that helps you become more successful just in entrepreneurship or even just in life, you're you're, you have the right mindset to be great. And so today, we have another I'm having a pretty pretty cool pretty cool guest today. So, Victoria Pelletier. Did I say it right? I did. You did. Yes. Because I I I don't speak French, but except fake French. But, she's an executive keynote speaker, c suite transformational leader, kind of a badass. And, I I mean, I don't she may be a ninja. She won't talk about it. So but whatever. Why don't you why don't you say hi, Victoria? I'll stop talking.
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Oh my goodness. This is gonna be an amazing conversation. I can say that right now. Are you a ninja? Yes or no?
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You said I wasn't gonna disclose it, so I should keep that a secret and everyone guessing. I just want a throwing star. That's all I want. I always want 1 since I was a kid. Do you wanna do a little, backdrop on you? Do you wanna give the backstory?
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Yeah. Sure. So I actually like to use, this phrase. You can borrow it for future. I call myself a multipotentialite, and that is because I have very diverse interests. In that, I am a forever long, like, corporate executive at the c suite, predominantly in business to business professional services. However, I have built and bought businesses for myself, and I've also done that pretty significantly for the companies that I've worked for. And as you stated, I'm also a keynote speaker. I'm an author of several books. I am a fitness fanatic, a foodie, wine lover, wife and mother.
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That's a lot. Mhmm. Mhmm. I mean, there's more to be sprinkled in there, but, like, those are I mean, I feel like you're just kinda maybe half assing it a little Did so, no. Did you did you say you are a a multi what was it?
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Potentialite.
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So I feel like that's a like, a sports drink. Get your multipotentialite this week to feel better. Electrolytes now.
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Uh-huh. Maybe you could, find them as a sponsor for your podcast.
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A multi
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like, you drink it out of Stanley and only activates if you're in a Stanley. That gets the only way to activate that that drink? Yes. Yes. Well, as a good Canadian girl who plays hockey, you know, as you talk about the Stan I need one of those just, so I can feel like, you know, I've I've been able to play and potentially win the Stanley Cup.
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I'm trying to figure out how that company has been sued by the hockey because they're playing they're playing really close to fire there, and these people will pull their shirt over your head and punch you in the face. I mean, like, we have seen this played out. Alright. Before we get going into your journey a little bit, who is the greatest hockey player to ever live?
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Wayne Gretzky.
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You like Gretzky? Yeah. He wasn't great when he played for St. Louis when I was there. It was cool to see him play, but he was there to get drunk with Brett Hall, I think. That was the point of Well, I I grew up in in Calgary, which was huge rivals with Edmonton.
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Just the nature of the 2 cities against one another. So although I definitely say greatest hockey player of all time, I grew up with the flames and Lenny McDonald with the big red, like, mustache was playing when I was a kid. So I think he's always got a soft spot in my heart as does Jerome Maginla, the newer version of, the flame, to join just as I was getting out of the city.
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Alright. Another selfish question. Just this is actually pretty. When you visit Banff, if my scenery we're going this summer. So what? Banff. Okay. So what what do we do? What don't we do? Oh, if you don't know, by the way, let me say this. Banff is like this beautiful you probably can describe it on here, but, like, there's these beautiful glacier lakes and just, national park, I guess, if you just call it that way. And it looks absolutely gorgeous. It looks cold as hell year round, but, like so we're gonna go check this thing out this summer. So where where do we we're staying staying in Calgary. We can we haven't made our hotel reservations. Where do we stay? What do we do? What we don't what do we avoid? That's a trap.
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Okay. So Banff is beautiful. In the Rocky Mountains, as you said, there's beautiful lakes. You're gonna see wildlife there. It's grown substantially, so a lot of people do stay in Calgary. It used to be. Now I moved out of Calgary when I was 20 years old, so and that's a long time ago. But it's been built up significantly, so give yourself a little bit of time to get up there. There's a beautiful historic, I think it's the Royal York Hotel that you can stay at in Banff, which is just absolutely stunning, the views there. You just wanna leave time to explore. If you're into hiking, and very much the outdoorsy, things, you can go there. They've got a really cool I don't know if you're into running. They've got the Melissa's Road Race. I think that they do there as well. Didn't see much of the of the town.
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I'm excited. I I will tell you that I will not be doing any running, though. I've ran a marathon. I am not a marathon runner. And though I gave up drinking in August,
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apparently, I've taken picking up food is my new thing, so I'm just gonna move out of that. Does that have 4 distinct seasons, so you will wanna go into the summer. And what I would suggest is you go in July, and if you're gonna be flying into and staying in Calgary, Calgary has the biggest, greatest stampede and show on earth, they've declared. It's it's like Texas North. Right? So but they've got, like, huge shows, like, amazing. So you go in July, experience that in Calgary, and head head up to Banff and, and see some of the wildlife up there.
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I'm gonna do that. It it's on. It's gonna happen. I mean, it's definitely gonna happen. I I we had a little delay there. I'm not I would say I'm there's no way I'm gonna go run-in the mountains. It's just not gonna happen. I'm gonna walk and hopefully not get eaten by a bear. Because I will be of the you know, between my wife and I, I'm the slower of the 2 now. And so she she doesn't have to be the fastest. She just has to be faster than me. So it sucks. Yep. That's right. Alright. So, like, getting here. So tell me what you're doing now. So, like, you know and and how did you get kind of to where you've gotten? I mean, you you've done a lot of cool things. You're a travel guide. We're gonna throw that on there now as well. Tell me about you a little bit. How did you get to becoming a, you know, keynote speaker in on the topic of transformation and other things too, if that matter?
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Yeah. So I, so I started working at a very young age. So that will explain when I tell you I stepped into my first c suite role when I was 24 years old. I had already had a number of years of work experience under my belt at that point and at a leadership role. My first leadership role was at 14 as the assistant manager of the shoe store that I worked at while I was in high school. I had best laid plans of being a lawyer, but while I was doing my undergrad, I worked for a bank, throughout university, and I got promoted up through the ranks incredibly quickly. Early days of digital banking. So early that they didn't call it digital banking. They called it branchless banking. And I realized I loved the infusion of the leadership I was already doing, with the large scale operations I was running and technology. And so I got recruited to my first, exec role, as I said, at 24 and is a brand new mother too, by the way. So it was a stretch role for me, a huge risk I was taking for a large outsourcing organization, that wanted me to come in because they had large banking clients, and I had been running large scale operations in that environment. And since then, I've stayed at that executive level, in what I would describe as everything through strategy of whether it's transformation of digital or otherwise within an organization that could be reorganization. Ton and ton of merger and acquisition experience. Probably about 40 now. Between 20 done for myself for the companies I work for and another 20 supporting clients. And so from strategy all the way through to technology as an enabler and then the actual delivery or the outcome. So that's where my experience in being able to talk about transformation comes. I also talk about, culture and leadership in large part because I made some mistakes when I was very young, and I've learned from those. And I won't want to impart some of that on people. So hopefully don't they learn a lot faster than I did, and a few less stumbles.
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What did you use to kind of the brand of the unstoppable you? Is that the is that the is that the speaking brand that you use that under?
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Yeah. Exact exactly. I mean so I overcame very extreme adversity and trauma in my youth, and, that's not only it hardened me in a negative way initially, that's part of the lessons I've learned is how to develop a healthy way to be resilient. But I am very much some some of it, I do think you can your resilience can be learned and improved like building muscles. However, I also think there's a big part of it that's innate and fight or flight, and I'm a fighter. And so unstoppable is one, the like name of the first book that I coauthored with others, but it's just truly my life's philosophy and mantra. Nothing is gonna prevent me from achieving whatever goal or objective it is I've set for myself.
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Yeah. I I, I did a video there not too long that you that you are the sole reason you will succeed or fail. And and a lot of people were commenting in something of, like, well, it depends on where you grow up and this. And I go, yeah. You're gonna have challenges, but you're still gonna be the one who's makes it happen or not. And and and, you know, some people are gonna have it harder than others to get through that, but, like, the truth is you're right. It's like you become the unstoppable force. Otherwise, you'll be stopped itself. So I I subscribe to that idea a 100%. What do you think the biggest mistake you made in your youth in in leadership was?
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I I, I was very not inauthentic, but I I created 2 different personas of Victoria. There was everything outside of work and the woman that showed up at work who was gonna be all business all the time. So at 24 years old, a new mother, the youngest by 2 decades, the only woman at the executive table, and I'm actually part of the LGBT community. I was married to a woman previously whom I had my 2 children with, and I am now married to a man. And so I I was like, I don't want anyone questioning me and my role and my seat at the table. So the biggest mistake I made, was having these walls around me where I was I refused to show significant emotion or vulnerability because I didn't want anyone, again, questioning my seat at the table. And some of it too was a little bit of fear from the childhood trauma. That that was also just a way to protect myself. That's one of the biggest leadership, failures I've made. I got a horrible nickname as the iron maiden, and it that was I was doing the right thing for the business and making really tough decisions, but, I was never showing the emotions. So I needed to evolve into a much more, what I refer to now, as a whole human leader in being vulnerable and transparent and authentic in how I show up all the time.
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I be I think anyone listening here, I think that the thing to call out here, the the kind of bullshit nature that if a man and not a man. You described it as describe like every other man in an executive board acts like. The fact that you had to put on a different persona and couldn't just be you couldn't be it's okay you're like that because I think men put on the same face, but you get a you get the, you know, the iron maiden title just because you're female. And if you're a man listening, don't don't don't fucking do that. And if you're a woman who do do what you need to do because it's, you know, you're somewhat the cards are somewhat stacked. Not not probably as bad they were 20 years ago, but they're still stacked badly still at at at the executive level because men are idiots, and and that's a big piece of it. Just let's do that. And I say that not because you're you're here and you're not a man. I'm just saying because we are. We're we're emotional clods mostly. And if, anyway, yeah. So, it that's that's unfortunate. I'm not sure if that's a mistake, though. I think you were you know, there's a bit degree of imposter syndrome in your first executive role that we've all faced. And you add youth to it. You do what you think you you need to do to be successful. The problem is older people can see through some of that, and they they know you don't have experience because you're 24. And no and no matter how you shield it, they're they can pierce through it through an insecurity very quickly. Like, they know how to do it if they want to. Now the mature ones don't. Did you have to face any of that where you people were just, like, get off your high you know, using your stampede, analogy. Get off your high horse there and, you know, learn to go ride better. Like, like, like, like, high did people did people mess with you a little bit? Did they poke at you when they knew they could?
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I'm actually fortunate that no. I I've always I thought I have this, like, big person syndrome. So, you know, we obviously can't see how tall one another is here through this video, but I'm 5 foot 8, which is not exceptionally tall. But I hit this height by the time I was, like, 10 or 11. So I always felt like I was much bigger than everyone else. 1, 2, I always appeared to have confidence even when I did not. I'm not a fan of the whole fake it till you make it, except when it comes to confidence. In large part, because for many people, competence is how they equate confidence. And so I think I've I always showed up that way. So I didn't have many people poke at me, and I've always been relatively humble in, the success in in in when I'm in senior roles. So they didn't poke that way. They just found other ways to go at me and whether and one of them is sort of the way you've called out Thomas around just names. So being called a bitch, whereas my male counterparts would, you know, be applauded for something similar. Being called They'd be called John or Bob. Exactly. Exactly. You know, aggressive versus assertive, all those kind of things. So that's how I've seen it manifest a little bit more than people finding how to, you know, pick a chink in that in the armor, so to speak.
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Yeah. And and that's the their own security is coming back at you. And I bring it up not to bring back memories, but I think if you're a young leader, you're gonna face these and and and like anything else, your mindsets and how you deal with it is gonna be the determinant of what's next. You You shouldn't have to put up with the bullshit of it, but at the same time, you're gonna have to put up with some of the bullshit of it because if you if you, if you're unable to, you're not gonna have you're not gonna get the respect of people who who's gonna see you still persevere and go execute behind it. And at some point, those people exit or die because they're older than you. So don't worry about it. It's how it happens. Tell me about the transition. So you did through these executive. Did you have a moment where you're like, I'm done working for people. I'm gonna go do this myself.
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Yes. But somewhat not not by choice. So I've moved around a lot in my career in large part due to many of those m and a's. I've often orchestrated my own exit through, some of the restructuring. I'm the type who's like, I'm not a status quo person. I'll break shit to put it back together again. Like, I I like that kind of challenge, and so I've moved moved around. I've had moments where, as I said, I built and bought companies. And, so I bought 1, a data and analytics company, back in 2017. I bought it as an investment. I was gonna give it some guidance, but I didn't plan on being its CEO. However, the process for joining what was later IBM, who who I made the selection to join, just took so long. So then I became my own boss for a period of time. But what I realized is I like size and scale. I'm not a startup girl necessarily even though I actually have started businesses before. I prefer to grow and scale existing businesses, do the transformation. I have another nickname. It's the turnaround queen. That one I proudly own for turning around distressed businesses. I I'm always gonna maintain a side hustle, and that is my public speaking. I wanna have the portfolio career. My husband jokes that I'm never gonna retire. Probably true. However, at the later stages of a corporate job, I wanna be doing what I choose to do of speaking, writing, if if I wanna do a little bit of consulting here and there, and sitting on boards. So I'm still gonna have a boss. I'm in transition now for my next c suite role. So I will have a boss at some point, you know, be it a board. But I will do that because I still really enjoy doing it while I do these other things, hence the multipotentialite moniker I have.
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That's right. I still think it's a tea. I think it's a it's a drink as you go with multipotentialite. When you drink this, you land in the c suite. It's that simple. Yeah. What, what's the best advice you can give a woman that's an entrepreneur, today? Like, wherever she is in her career, it doesn't matter.
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There's a couple of things that are incredibly critical and I actually attribute a lot of my own career success to. 1 is learning how to create boundaries, and the other is the importance of personal brand. That's they're important for all male or female, entrepreneurs and leaders. But for me as a, as a wife and a mother, and as I said earlier, I was a brand new mom at 24 when I stepped into my role in the c suite. So I had to get very good at learning how to trust my hire the right team, trust my team, and be really clear around, their, success metrics, outcomes, and deliverables, delegating to others. And as an a type personality, that was still hard to some extent. And then I've also learned how to just say no to things. So the things that do not bring me personal or professional joy or value, I don't do them. Or if you they need to get done, like, you know, cleaning my house, that's not doesn't bring me joy. I outsource that, and so I think it's really important particularly for women who often bear more of the home responsibilities and duties, to get really good at creating those boundaries and recognizing you can have it all, not always all at the same time, and not without compromise or trade off, and do not let people give you the mom guilt. We're gonna have it ourselves. Like, don't make people feel guilty. Let you feel guilty for the choices that you're making, between career and family. And then brand was the other one. So building an exceptionally strong personal brand that's a reflection of who you are as a whole person and not just what you do is very, very important.
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So you're saying, like, when you're, you know, taking back to, like, don't be all business in your personal profile, so to speak. Show that you're, I'm a runner. I like this. I'm a whatever it is. Like, the whatever you identify yourself to be and that's important to you. And and what would be your I mean, I I know the reason for this. I'm curious to hear what your reasoning would
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be for that. Oh, people do business with people they like and trust. Therefore, they want to do business with. And I say do business with. I mean, that could be a hiring manager who's going to hire you. It's someone who's going to promote you. It can be a customer who might buy from you or contract from you. And so, you know, I I see so many people get it wrong. All they do is, like, this is the I I think your brand is there's sort of 4 foundational areas, and I only see people focus on the first one, which is this is what I do. Here's the education I had to qualify me for this and the experience I have and maybe a particular industry I do it in and maybe the company they do it for. You are more than what you do and who you do it for. And, so going back to how do you build connection and trust with people? Well, you need to do a little bit of storytelling. Who are you as a human? To your point, you know, what are your interests? So if you're a runner, that's great. You know, for me, I've connected with people, you know, being a, you know, true Canadian hockey player and hockey mom. I can't tell you how many people I've met, you know, in hockey arenas. In fact, that business that I bought in 2017 was the mother of 1 of the kids that I was coaching, and it was just a a fluke. You know? So what make who who what's makes you you? The next one's what makes you unique and different from other people who do what you do. And the last is thinking about legacy and impact. What do you actually want to be known for? You know, my m and a stuff and, what I've done in business is actually not what I would want people to talk about after I'm dead. I want that to be That was an extra question. Let's fast forward. You're a 116 years old. You just passed because you've you've worked out so many times.
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What what what are they saying about you? What's the what's the eulogy you're gonna read?
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Besides the fact that I, you know, have raised 2 really good human beings, I want them to talk about, you know, who I was as a person and that I left workplaces, communities, and the world at large a better place when I left them when I came in. And a lot of that has to do with the work that I do around social justice, diversity, equity, inclusion, and talking about, you know, how we are as whole human. That's the next book that's coming out in a few months, so it's on my brain as I've been literally recording the audiobook just before I hopped on with you. But this whole human leader and and and I mean that. I say leader. We're all leaders regardless of hierarchy and title, but in the way that we show up. That's what I want people to to be saying about me when I diet. I like that. 116.
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Yeah. It's it's going deep. You know, I love people say the the 80 is the new 60, and I'm like, maybe in the 40 year olds right now, but the current 80 year olds are actually 80, and they are not looking like the 60 year olds of today. So this is an election year. I'm just throwing that out there. Alright. So I'm not picking a candidate. I'm just saying ageism is real. Can we play ageism everywhere? If we're gonna do this, let's play let's apply ageism to all categories of life. Okay? Let's just stop stop being selective.
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Well, you can't pick a candidate if you're talking about age because they're both 80 and old.
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Are they? Oh, I didn't realize. Okay. Well, that that was a timely comment. You do a lot of non for profit, board stuff too. So you wanna talk about a little bit of that. And and I want you to take the context as a is not you're you're a busy person, and busy people still make time for other things that matter. And I and I find that the the busier and more successful a person is tends to be the more things they're in, and not without being a not with it being an entrepreneur, but more of, like, purposeful. So you give I wanna give you 4 a few minutes on that, just some of the purpose driven stuff that you're working on.
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Yeah. I, it it's you you said the busy you know, people make time, and I I I say it my saying around this is where there's conviction, there is capacity. And so for me, I've chosen to make time for the things that are meaningful for me. And so in the past, it's been a part of vocational services organizations helping new immigrants to the country when I was living in Canada, and unemployed or underemployed people, you know, gain gain education, you know, and a new and a new job to I'm, I'm a child from the child welfare system. I'm fortunate to be adopted, and I sat on the organization that created funding for the child welfare system in Canada before I moved back to the US. And I currently sit on an organization here in the US called help us adopt.org, where we give grants to persons or families who are looking to start or grow their families through adoption, and so that's personal to me. I've had opportunities to look, I recently had a reach out a few months ago to, you know, be the board chair for this really great not for profit organization, but so much of the funding was going to other parts of the world. And I said, I think we're so broken here in the US that I'd rather focus my time and money here. And so I will always make time, in all the board work I do, to,
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give my time, money there as much as I choose to do that for some of the for profit boards as well. Yeah. What was the what's you know, are you driving that back to your childhood and why you have this kind of drive to help and and and and and, like, you know, do more?
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Yeah. I I I I think it goes back a little bit even to, like, legacy and impact. You know, my my vision of success as I would have defined it in my twenties had a lot to do with material possessions and wealth and accumulation. My ex wife had cancer, the first time when I was we found out when I was 7 weeks pregnant with my youngest. And so just sort of that was a wake up call. We we got separated as she was supposed to be in remission, and then unfortunately, a couple years later, she died from her second round of cancer. Oh, man. That was another moment for me just to go, like, that's helped her family. They'll so that and also just as I aged and mature and started to coach and mentor people, it was more like, how can I give back? I am fortunate to, you know, be better than my biology and circumstances, of my youth. How can I share that? Like, I mean, I'm not sure that I've took some philosophy classes in university, and I remember, like, having a debate over whether altruism actually exists or not because we've received we feel good doing it. So they're like, well, then it's not really altruistic, but, I feel good doing it. I want to be known for helping others, whether that's sharing my own story and journey and helping people recognize they can be incredibly resilient in overcoming adversity to fighting for diversity, equity, and inclusion in workplaces and communities and social justice and equity for all. So I'm gonna continue to do that. I wanna be known for that. It makes me feel good doing that and balances with, like, the very capitalistic, you know, day job that, I end up sitting in.
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Do you, do you think the, the the notion of, like, you know, someone is building their company? And I try to keep everything, you know, in context of entrepreneurs when they build. The diversity, equity, inclusion, I think the the original ideas behind I don't call it the movement or how it started a few years ago were cracked. But do you feel like the I don't know if it's branding or who who's done what to that, but it feels like it's been put into the negative polarizing bucket now. And and and and I don't know how or where that was, but what is your kind of take on that since you're maybe a little closer to it?
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Yeah. No. Yeah. I think you're absolutely right. We're seeing it being, you know, rolled back. I'm in I'm in Florida, South Florida. And so I just think of our governor who's, like, eliminated the, you know, diversity roles in the universities here, etcetera. So you're seeing politically, you know, that's happening across the country. I again, we don't wanna talk about presidents or former presidents who've maybe encouraged, or certainly not been disdainful towards, racists in the country. I think it's those kinds of things that are, you know, moving us backwards. So where I'd rather focus instead is on the, as you say, the movement is just it's more about doing the right thing. Like and I wanna work in a workplace that's reflective of the world that I live in. And so when I worked for, I won't say the company, but a number of years ago, I was leading a large, like, annual strategy session. And I walked into the room, and it was myself and one other woman and 40, 40 men.
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That is not reflective of the world in which we That sounds like Accenture. Just to be throw it out there, sounds like Accenture. It was the one before that. But I mean, I worked at Accenture as well, so that was my take on that. I'm just saying.
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Well, Pierre, the former CEO, is, you know, very bold and put a statement out a number of years ago. Julie Sweet, the current CEO, has followed her on getting to gender parity, which they've done a fairly good job of it. But yeah. No. IBM.
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Me, one other woman, and 40 guys. That's the world of technology, also. And so you see a little bit 35 of those guys were from India. That was the other part you've left out, the the those. So I Nothing wrong with that, by the way. I'm just saying, like, they have a high there's I would've I wanna back that up a second because I always thought forever that everyone from India was super smart, and here's why. Everybody I ever met in the United States was from India. It was so freaking smart. But there's like a 1000000000 people in India, and the top 10% of their population is is more than we have working in America in total. And so the group that gets to actually come to the US on visa is like the one of the one of the 1 percent. So everyone from India was smart. Then I went to India. I'm like, that is not the case. I realized quickly that there are a lot of dumb people, dumbasses in India just like here. So everywhere. Every everywhere there are. But yeah. It was that when I worked with when I worked with people from from IBM, it was like we worked with the Indian teams as in Genpact, and it was like, I'm the dumbest guy in this room for sure. Like, I was so sure of it. Anyway, continue. That's why my my little drop there. Yeah. No. So for me, it it's saddens because, you know, the I think the the needle was moving and there was a focus on it. Now I'm not a big fan of having to
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pay leaders to do the right thing. Like, it and this is public, so I'm not, like, breaking confidence. But when stepped in as CEO for IBM, taking over from Ginni, one of the things he did as part of the executive compensation was a portion of our variable compensation was tied into our diversity performance. On one hand, I'm like, I don't like having to pay our leaders to do what I believe is the right thing in hiring and promoting and supporting underrepresented groups. But on the other hand, the needle just isn't moving fast enough. So and we know that people are incented based upon competition and rewards. So I'm not a fan of that, and so we're seeing some of that being repealed and moving back with the elimination of affirmative action of, again, in my state, elimination of some of, like, the diversity initiatives and roles specifically. So I just want us all to be thinking about and recognizing that it's not just like an ESG initiative, a tick in the box, you know, on a contract RFP or for a contract, but rather it's really good for business. There's enough data that now shows that there's more innovation, problem solving. There's generally more risk, particularly at a board level when you see diversity in the its board directors. So let's just hire more people that don't look like us, that don't have the same lived experience that we do, because that diversity of lived experience, work experience, geographic experience, socioeconomic, all those things creates an incredible richness. So that's where I just known as focusing instead.
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A 100% agree with you. I think you, you get people with different backgrounds, beliefs, just all across the board, doesn't matter where they are, and given that everyone's still qualified to be in the roles they should be in. So I I don't think you should be putting people who are unqualified in the roles just to check a box. That would I think that's the problem with some of the stuff that was happening or being perceived on. But when you put a true diverse set of people just from a belief system, from a background system, you get a more enriched message if you're all supporting the same kind of vision. And and I think so so you have to kinda have a a shared, like, hey. We're all moving this way. What do you think? What do you think? How do you like to do that? Whatever. That that that creates real ideas, like, that are that that don't exist today. When you get people who are unqualified and any diversity or none, you won't go anywhere. So you still have to you still have to qualify. Okay. Qualify because you actually are the rest of the candidate, not because you are, you check a box for something. I I I don't I don't agree with the check the box on anyone. Like, you know, like, if you're the owner's son or you're the, you know, whatever. You you're the most diverse candidate on the planet. If you can't do the job, you shouldn't get it,
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period. Agree. Agree. However, there's one caveat that I would say to that, and that is, I think we're we're many leaders are consistently hiring for the 9 or 10 out of 10, and that of whatever skill requisite skills, credentials that they've outlined. And a lot of that will mirror or match their own experience. And so then you get a lot of the same people. And so I think if we wanna be intentional about creating diversity with, to your point, merits and performance, then let's be comfortable accepting the person that comes in with 7 out of 10, but has great aptitude and potential to learn and grow. And then it becomes a competitive
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leader to coach coach and and build them. Yeah. The propensity to learn. So whenever I've hired anybody, it's always been, do they have the propensity to learn and be and evolve? Like, I I actually don't want them to know the answers because then they're not open they're not an open cup. They've already filled it. And so Yeah. There's capabilities, and then there's, you know, there's more to it. It's agreed. What's one question I should have asked you that I haven't? How do I get this big scar over my eye? Oh, I can't even see that. Oh, no. You can't. Oh, maybe I'm just so self conscious of it. I have one. I have, like I I don't know if you can see this one. I got one. Okay. I went through a windshield. I went through a windshield, and I was, like, 8 or 9. So that explains so much. You're like, it all makes sense now. So Right. That's right. No. So I couldn't see it. So let's talk about your self conscious scar because we all have scar scar. The coolest scar is the one that I can't see. Just kidding. So the reason
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ask about it is because of how I got it. So I, so when I moved back to the US in 2019 from Toronto, I didn't need a vehicle to live in New York. And but I have those electric scooters. It's faster for me to get to the office in New York than take the subway, and so it became my main mode of transportation. And when I moved to Miami, Miami Beach in particular, same thing, very walkable. Chose not to have a vehicle because we're walking or biking everywhere or on the electric scooter. And, I use it as a a recent example of how I've been extremely resilient. Freak accident. My front wheel locked up. I went flying over. I broke 3 of 4 appendages and was in a wheelchair for months. So my whole right side had, like, road rash, huge gouge across my eye. I lost a tooth. Broke both arms, shattered my knee for which I've needed 2 surgeries, over the last, it's now about a year and a half ago that since this happened. And so for me, that's just another example of, like, being incredibly resilient, and just I was back in the gym the moment my 2 broken arms were healed. Mind you, I used to curl like £40 aside, and the, you know, physical therapist put me at 2 and a half pounds. It's a little, like, depressing, but to build back up to be where I am today. So you didn't ask, but there's my story and just, like, continues to demonstrate unstoppable. Nothing's gonna prevent me from moving forward.
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Unstoppable. You, how long were you in Miami before this happened?
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A year. And it wasn't even the crazy drivers here, that rivaler or worse than New Yorkers. So at all. It was just like I said, a freak accident.
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So it's not how you were thinking your year was gonna go though in Miami. Oh, it's so nice in the beach. Like, I gotta be in traction for how long? God bless. That that's the part that would get me. Like, I moved somewhere warm to enjoy it, and now I'm indoors lifting 2 and a half pound weights instead of walking on the beach. But that Yeah. God hates me. That'd be the next statement probably that would come out, and then I'd get over it. You know, listen. I how who should get a hold of you, by the way? I know we've we've had a really really kind of diverse conversation, and I I really appreciate that because I think you, your I look at your your kind of career and what you've presented from, like, it's something to be admired. And I think it's, you know, if if a if a young woman listens to this or sees you, they should get to know your story way more depth because I think you'd have, you have way more we're only have, like, in about 40 minutes together, but you have more to offer in the story. And I think, it's just a beautiful story of resilience and just push that shit forward. I don't care how. And and so who who do you want to get ahold of you in this kind of, seasonal life for you? And how do they do that?
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Absolutely. So, although I know a lot of your listeners are entrepreneurs, so they might not be looking to hire a CEO. But if they're ready to get out, of their businesses, come to me for that. Alternatively, I speak on a number of topics, some of which we've spoken about today. So if you're looking for whether it's it's the motivational speaker that shares that unstoppable journey, talking about diversity, talking about branding, talking about leadership, then come to me as well. And the best way to do that is I have a website, which is victoriadashlta.com. I'm sure you'll have it in the show notes, so they don't need to figure out how to spell that last name. And they can also choose to link out, from there to connect with me on whatever their other preferred social media platform is.
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Awesome. I appreciate that. Thank you so much, by the way, for coming on show today.
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Thanks for having me.
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Anybody's made it this point today, by the way. This is what we're trying to do. We're trying to create more entrepreneurs in the world, and I want you to learn from the stories from the people who come on the show. There's something to be learned from every one of the episodes we have. And if you've made it this point, you get your dad points doubled, write them down. Somebody some at some point is gonna come back to me and say, you owe me 400,000 dad points, and I'll be like, yes. I do. And I don't know what to do with it. But thank you so much for, for listening at this point. You know, once again, I'm Thomas Helfrich, your host of the Never Been Promoted podcast. I appreciate you all for listening. And until next time, get out there. Go unleash your entrepreneur. Thanks for listening.