IAM975- CEO Helps Professionals Increase Value in the Job Market

Mahjooba Bianchi is the CEO of Three T Institute Inc., is a vocational training school that helps working professionals obtain skills and knowledge to increase their value in the job market.

Ms. Bianchi has over 15 years of Project Management Experience, and an MBA in IT Project Management, with an undergraduate degree from George Mason University in Government and International Relations. Her passion in life is to drive motivation and enable individuals to reach their career heights through education.

• CEO Hack: Consistency and being organized using Trello, a daily planner and drain dump method
• CEO Nugget: Be careful who you trust and cherish every relationship
• CEO Defined: Giving back and making an impact

Website: https://www.threetinstitute.com/

Instagram: Mahjooba_ezpm
Facebook: Three T Institute
Linkedin: Three T Institute

Full Interview:

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Transcription

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[00:00:21.50] – Intro

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I Am CEO podcast.

[00:00:48.89] – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I Am CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Majooba Bianchi of Threet Institute Incorporated. Majooba, it's awesome to have you on the show.

[00:00:58.79] – Mahjooba Bianchi

I'm so happy to be here. Thank you for having me, Gresham.

[00:01:01.89] – Gresham Harkless

Definitely. Super excited to have you on. And before we jump in, I want to read a little bit more about Majooba so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. Majooba is the CEO of Threet Institute. It is a vocational training school that helps working professionals obtain skills and knowledge to increase their value in the job market. Majooba has over fifteen years of project management experience and an MBA in IT project management with an undergraduate degree from George Mason University in government and international relations. Her passion in life is to drive motivation and enable individuals to reach their career heights through education. Majooba, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

[restrict paid=”true”] – Beginning

[00:01:38.40] – Mahjooba Bianchi

Oh, yes. I am. Thank you. Yes. Let's get it started.

[00:01:42.00] – Gresham Harkless

Let's do it then. So to kick everything off, I want to rewind the clock a little bit and hear a little bit more about how you got started with your CEO story.

[00:01:49.70] – Mahjooba Bianchi

Yeah. No. Absolutely. It all started with me getting laid off from a corporate job I had. And I thought back to it. I can't be putting all my eggs in the same basket. And that had me, seven years ago, to start my consulting firm to do proposal work with the federal government. At that time, I partnered with two of my really good friends, and we started the company. It went well. And, then about a year and a half ago, was able to give that to one of the partners and start Threet Institute. But it was about minimizing my risk and taking some control over my career.

[00:02:29.30] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. That's huge. It's so funny that you said that. And I think we talked a little bit about I got laid off from my, job, and that flipped a light switch off, like, what's stable than what's not and make sure you look at things differently like this. Sometimes the more, I guess, the low-risk thing you could do is to bet on yourself and start something rather than sometimes being beholden to a lot of organizations and businesses.

[00:02:54.00] – Mahjooba Bianchi

I'm so with you on that. I think, I always take a look at what I can control. And at that moment, when I, you know, was getting laid off and I was looking at that letter, I was like, I have no control here. I now go out being jobless. What now? And so it had me rethink about this, having a job, being an adult, and being able to survive on your own. But, yeah, I agree with you. It's almost like those situations in life where it gets you to trigger other things, but other better things and that's what happened seven years ago.

[00:03:26.80] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. That makes so much sense. I love that word trigger, and I think so many times we forget that once that door closes, a lot of times it leads you to an even better door than sometimes we even thought. So I know that's been the case for you. So I wanted to hear a little bit more about all the awesome things you're doing with Threet Institute. Could you take us through a little bit more on how you work with your clients and serve them?

[00:03:45.80] – Mahjooba Bianchi

Absolutely. Threet Institute, the word itself is, the company name came from the fact of how I like to teach professionals. The Threet stands for a tiered approach to learning. What I realized over, you know, the span of about five to six years that I've been teaching, I realized that the classroom, the traditional classroom wasn't working for the the group of individuals that were coming to take certification courses. They either gave up midway or it became too overwhelming and they had families and careers to deal with and just never finished a course and they were out of pocket about two thousand five hundred dollars if not more and some would go and take the certification exams and fail.

So that a lot of my students would then come back to me and say, hey Majooba, I wanna take your course again. And so just because it was a goal, it was a professional goal, they knew that taking these certification goals, excuse me, classes would get them that next promotion, salary increase, that house they wanted to buy, the vacation they wanted to go on. And so one day I was thinking through things and I said, you know what? What if I provided structured learning, accountability, and coaching where I'm helping these individuals from start to finish and they have access to everything? Nothing ever expires in my class until these people hold the certification in their hands.

This was an idea about now almost two years, and I started it. It was very slow. People were like, no. I don't believe you. And I said, well, just come join and let me know what you think. And now fast forward almost two years, I have over two hundred students. Most of my students come from referrals. I work with a lot of corporations who wanna see their training funds being utilized and used on, within their company. Another thing I focus on, not to go on too much, is active learning.

What I always say is how can you apply what you're learning in your current job? For the example of project management, I think a lot of times we can learn the framework and say here's a charter, and here's a project management plan, but how do you use it? And that's what the coaches at Threet Institute do. As you're learning, we tell you how to utilize these different documents. Not only that, we assign our students templates that they have to complete based on a real-life example or a scenario that we have provided them.

[00:06:17.80] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. That's huge. I appreciate you for breaking that down and sharing that with us because I think so many times we know the importance of these certifications of getting whatever accomplishment you want to get, you know, for yourself, but also your organization if they're paying for it or promoting you to do it. But I think so many times we skip over creating that environment that allows people to succeed. So I love that accountability. I love that coaching piece because so many times we skip over that and we don't realize that we're not setting people up for success. So I love that you've been able to do that for so many people.

[00:06:49.89] – Mahjooba Bianchi
Yeah. Thank you. It's worked well.

[00:06:52.00] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. And, I don't know if you already touched on this. Do you consider that to be what I call your secret sauce, the thing you feel sets you apart? Is it that approach to how you teach people? Is that what you feel sets you apart and makes you unique?

[00:07:04.00] – Mahjooba Bianchi

You know, my secret sauce is being myself and working with these students and treating them like individuals they are, respecting the knowledge that they have already, respecting the experience and the backgrounds they come from, and knowing that they're utilizing three t Institute to gain more knowledge, and all they're looking for is some guidance. Part of what I do is build a relationship. I think that's my secret sauce. When they enroll, they register. I meet with every single student when they come into the Threet Institute.

I show them how to utilize the entire system. I remove some of the roadblocks, simple ones as we may call them. Like, when I go through the welcome and onboarding session, I'm like, hey, don't forget to favorite this link because you don't wanna be looking for it. Or when you're downloading these resources, create a folder so you know where to get them from. Simple tips, but they love it. They love that they have someone walking them through a tool that they're not familiar with. And I think that's the number one secret sauce. And then, of course, the system itself helps them to reach their professional development goals.

[00:08:12.19] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. That's huge. And I always say, like, if you stay true to yourself if you run your race, you'll never lose. Not only does that help us out individually, but I think it also reminds other people to run their races as well. And I think as you said so well, to be able to talk and communicate and to build relationships with the human aspect of business of what they are, what they're trying to accomplish. I think that's when things go to another level. So I appreciate that secret sauce, and I know your clients do as well too because the education and all those things are important, but I think the why and the connection and engaging and building those relationships takes things to another level.

[00:08:51.39] – Mahjooba Bianchi

Absolutely. One of the things we have a lot of parents, that are taking these courses. So sometimes the kids will pop up from the background. And what I do is I have a three-year-old who just walks into my office in the evenings. And then so I have her and I put her on my lap and I make it very comfortable. Like, hey, guys. I'm a mom. I used to work a corporate job and run a business. It's okay.

And I did this. I received my MBA, and I received my PMP certification just like you see right here with juggling, being a parent, juggling the world that you're in. So I understand, and that's what I tried to bring into the class, that this isn't a stuffy class where you just can't be you. Be you. Be a parent. Be a professional. Be busy, but let's also learn, and let's get you that promotion and let's get you that salary increase, in the midst of what we call a chaotic life.

[00:09:45.60] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. And I think when you see somebody that's successful, and we talked about that environment, you see somebody that's been able to do it, reminds us that, hey, I can do it too, and I can juggle all those things, and make it happen. I don't have to be somebody else to make that happen, which I think is one of the most phenomenal things.

[00:10:01.39] – Mahjooba Bianchi

Yeah.

[00:10:02.79] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So I wanted to, switch gears a little bit, and I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an Apple book or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

[00:10:13.60] – Mahjooba Bianchi

You know, consistency, and I haven't always been consistent. But when I became consistent and I became organized, I realized that I was getting a lot of my work done and that I was now reaching bigger, tasks that I could tackle. And part of that consistency is about, a simple trip trick, excuse me, that my business coach taught me is to have a place where you can do a brain dump. So whether that's a notebook or on your phone, I use Trello. So what I do is I have a Trello chat just with myself. I call that the Majooba Life brain dump and everything throughout the day goes right into that brain dump.

And then in the evening, I take a look. This is an everyday thing. I take a look at my brain dump, and I organize the tasks within the upcoming weeks and days, so days and weeks, and I schedule them in thirty-minute increments. So now I feel a lot less overwhelmed and I know that I'm tackling the things that have been in the back of my mind. That has been the one trick that I use all the time. And the other thing I do, and I can show you this, is I have a daily planner. I have a daily, what I call a road map. It has a thirty minutes, slot in here. It has the brain dump that I had in my Trello app.

And so it allows me to start my day knowing what I'm going to do from 08:30 AM to 05:30 PM. And if I like to schedule some things with the kids, you know, in the evening, I'll write that down too. But I take care of business, kids, life, and everything within those eight hours so then I can just relax and enjoy my evening.

[00:11:56.20] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. And so I want to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So that could be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It might be something if you were to hop into a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

[00:12:06.60] – Mahjooba Bianchi

I think being careful who you trust, I think that's important. But more than anything else, cherishing every single relationship, no matter how old you are, no matter where you go in life, respecting others, appreciating who they are, maintaining good relationships, genuinely caring, whether that's a coworker or a boss checking in, text messaging, and not because you need business from them, but because, genuinely, you care. I have to say that I have done that throughout my life, but I realized in my mid to late twenties that relationships were so important and that just building them and keeping good friends around and that today it is my network who backs me up.

[00:12:55.29] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So, Majooba, I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different, quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So, Majuba, what does being CEO mean to you?

[00:13:06.10] – Mahjooba Bianchi

A CEO means to me that being someone in a role where I could make an impact, a positive impact in someone's life. I have been a humanitarian. For most of my growing up, what has always resonated with me was how can I help the world. The goal was to work for the World Bank. I did do a little bit of work with them and USAID and all of that. I've done some interesting projects there. When I received my degree in government international relations it was to work for the United Nations because I felt like I wanted to give back to every person in life. But at that time, some political things were going on with the UN and I backtracked on that, but I never lost my original mission of giving back.

So I continued to work with the Department of Veterans Affairs on projects that impacted our veterans and that gave me happiness, that gave me joy that would you but you're working on a project where a veteran doesn't have to die waiting in line for health care. Those were the kinds of projects I worked on. And so it always went back to that. And when I got into teaching then it was into helping a mom, a single mom, make more money or, a dad who's been not, you know, who hasn't who's been passed on on promotions. Person to tell them, you have everything you need. Here's how to tweak things a little bit.

And so as a CEO, Here's how to tweak things a little bit. And so as a CEO, the work I do with three t Institute, again, it's all about giving back. It's all about making an impact. And for someone to say, hey, Majooba. Thank you so much. I can now buy a house thanks to this promotion I received or the course I took with you. That's it. To me, that's happiness. That's what it means for me to be a CEO, and I've met my life's mission.

[00:14:59.20] – Gresham Harkless

I truly appreciate that definition. I appreciate your time as well. And what I want to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know and, of course, how best they can get a hold of you and find out about all awesome things that you're working on.

[00:15:12.60] – Mahjooba Bianchi

Absolutely. You know, connect with me. If you have any questions, ask me. You can see me on Instagram as Threetinstitute, Majooba_threet. I'm on LinkedIn with my full name, Majooba Bianchi, as well as on Facebook. So connect if you have any career questions or you just wanna know more about three t Institute. We'd love to talk to you about that. The other thing we have is we have monthly cultural events where we do open mics for talented artists to come and share poetry, literature, or just readings.

This is a free event that I've built for our community. And so it's a good place to just share and talk about who you are aside from being a professional. We always talk about those careers, but I think we're more than that. So if you're interested in any of those things, reach out to me. I would love to talk to you about it.

[00:16:02.89] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Thank you so much, Majooba. We will have the links and information in the show notes. Appreciate you for providing so many opportunities for people to be able to to level up, so to speak, in their businesses and their lives and making huge impacts, on so many people. And, of course, those opportunities as well, I guess, let your hair down, so to speak, and to be yourself and to communicate and build those relationships as well. So truly appreciate you for all the awesome work you're doing in your time today, and I hope you have a rest of the day.

[00:16:29.70] – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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