IAM2225 – CEO Shares on How to Find Joy and Fulfillment in Leadership

Title: Transcript - Mon, 02 Sep 2024 11:36:08 GMT

Date: Mon, 02 Sep 2024 11:36:08 GMT, Duration: [00:16:57.38]

[00:00:00.16] - Cathy Thorpe

I think it's about being curious about other humans, right? And it's taking the time to listen, and it's also taking the time to ask the questions, right? Like, are we taking the time to ask the questions to get to know someone and to understand what makes them tick, what they love? You know, we have a whole bold dreams and goals.

[00:00:25.58] - Intro

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEO's, 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 Imceo podcast.

[00:00:52.95] - Gresham Harkless

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the ImcEO podcast and I have an awesome guest on the show today. I have Kathy Thorpe. Kathy, excited to have you on the show.

[00:01:00.67] - Cathy Thorpe

Thanks for having me. It's great to be here.

[00:01:02.53] - Gresham Harkless

Yes, absolutely. I'm super excited to have you on. And Kathy is doing so many awesome things and I'm so excited to have her on the show. But of course, before we jump into a great conversation, I want to read a little bit more about Kathy so you can hear about some of those awesome things. And Kathy joined Nurse Nextdoor as president in 2014 with the mission of growing the business both from across both Canada and the United States and achieving a new level of operational excellence. Under her tenure, the company has accelerated its growth and now has over 300 locations across northern Virginia, North America. I'm sorry. Through bold kindness, her culture and leadership philosophy, she has developed self led leaders across the brand system. And through her new book, Bold a Caring, more compassionate way to lead. Kathy is bringing the bold kindness philosophy to other business leaders and inspiring them to disrupt traditional business practices. And before we were preparing for this, I was just geeking out on everything that Kathy's been doing. She has so many accolades and has done so many things. I'm just going to name some of them because there's so many. She's the master franchise agreement in Australia, an award for Canada's most admired corporate culture, a place in the top 50 on the Entrepreneurs franchise 500 list, CEO of the year award for business in Vancouver, and so many other things. But one of the things I really loved when I was kind of going through her book is she said she unapologetically works with great people and that when you work with great people, you get, you just have to kind of get out of their way, which is where that self led people come from which I'm sure we're going to delve down deep. But in her book, she said, we have the opportunity to bring humanity to business and how we work to a new, more personal level that sheds hierarchies, focuses on the growth and development of team members, and most importantly, cares for people. So super excited to have you on the show. Cathy, are you ready to speak to the Imco community?

[00:02:52.18] - Cathy Thorpe

Absolutely.

[00:02:53.06] - Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Well, let's get it started then. So to kind of kick everything off, let's rewind the clock a little bit, hear a little bit more on how you got started, what I call your seal story.

[00:03:01.83] - Cathy Thorpe

So I actually, I started in retail back many, many years ago. I started on the shop floor at the gap when I was going to university and then joined the management development program, went through various roles in Canada and found myself over in Germany running the german organization for the Gap. I did that for about three years, came back and ran Gap Canada. And, you know, I just, I loved retail. It's about people, it's about operations. And that's really where my journey started with, you know, when you work with great leaders, how you show up as an employee, and when you work with bad leaders, what happens? And, you know, I'll include myself. It's been my journey of becoming a better leader as I've gone through my career. And so, yeah, spent many years in retail, and then I went into family business advising for a while because I became very excited about how do you bring that corporate mindset into a private business while keeping that secret sauce of the private business. And then found myself here at nurse next door. You know, it's been ten years. I can't believe it. You know, it was really that opportunity for me to step into a role that allowed me to say, how do I want, what do I want this culture to be and how do I want to show up as a leader of this organization, and what are we going to create that's different?

[00:04:30.75] - Gresham Harkless

Nice. I absolutely love that. And so I wanted to drill down a little bit more, hear a little bit more on what you're doing at Nurse Nextdoor. Can you take us through a little bit more on how you all are serving and how you're making that impact there?

[00:04:42.61] - Cathy Thorpe

Yeah, so, I mean, Nursenextdoor is a home care company, and so we actually have close to 400 locations now across North America, Australia, and now we're in England. And, you know, we have this concept called happier aging. And happier aging is where you're bringing that joy back into the client's life, you know, something that they used to do that they're not doing anymore. And you'll be able to. You're able to, you know, we spend so much time on the physical needs of people, and this is really about taking that time and saying what's important for their mental happiness. Because, listen, one of the biggest things that we're dealing with in what we do every day is loneliness. You know, there's a lot of lonely people, and how can we make sure every interaction that we have with them brings that smile to their face and helps them have a great day? And here's an example. We had a lady who was, she was, we call it a care designer. So the care designer was doing a consult with this lady, and she was starting to see what was going to happen when a caregiver came into her home. And she said, oh, you mean I get to go. I get to go shopping? I get to go get groceries again? Oh, I get to go for lunch with my friends again. And, you know, we think it's the big things, but it's those little things that people are no longer able to do. And we get to bring that back into their life and bring so much joy that comes with it. So, you know, we have stories like that every single day. And so it's such a purpose driven organization because of that. And it's what makes it so, so fun and so joyful. Joyful is the word that I can think of because we get to make a huge impact in lives every single day.

[00:06:34.55] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. And it kind of goes back to everything, you know, you've been able to do to kind of create that culture, you know, internally as a team, but also, you know, seeing that with, you know, the franchisees and franchise or the people that are coming in to be able to, again, take that and run with it. Where you're listening, you're hearing, you're seeing, you're understanding that human part and being able to bring that joy in the way that the person might be, you know, missing or want to have. And, you know, I think so many times we can miss that part, that human part of our life and how we are so much trying to have that fulfilled as much as we can.

[00:07:06.97] - Cathy Thorpe

Exactly. You know, it's just, it's the small little things, right. We sometimes think it's bigger things, but no, it's the small things. And it's about what that individual is looking for. And I think when you get to know someone and get to understand what their individual needs are, it's pretty amazing. The impact that you can make in that person's life.

[00:07:28.70] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. We just have to make sure that we're listening to do that. Yeah. Those small things become big things, and they become ultimately everything to the person we're trying to serve. So do you feel like that's part of what I would like to call your secret sauce could be for yourself, the organization, or a combination of both. But is it that ability to really understand that, to listen to that human part and be able to incorporate that internally, externally, and everything it seems like you've been able to do?

[00:07:53.81] - Cathy Thorpe

Yeah, you know, I think it's about being curious about other humans. Right. And it's taking the time to listen, and it's also taking the time to ask the questions. Right. Like, are we taking the time to ask the questions to get to know someone and to understand what makes them tick, what they love? We, you know, we have a whole bold dreams and goals program here at Nurse Nextdoor. So we work hard at making sure that we know what those bold dreams and goals are. And we spend a lot of time talking to people about their dreams and goals and also helping them fulfill their dreams and goals.

[00:08:33.44] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. It's taking that boldness and kind of running with it that you said you can create that environment. That environment isn't just within the work environment. It spills over, and it's poured into all aspects of who we are. So I absolutely love that. 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 app, a book, or even a habit that you have, but what's something that you lean on that makes you more effective and efficient?

[00:09:00.48] - Cathy Thorpe

You know, I've always. I think running and walking, for me, has really helped me create so many actions in my life because, you know, it's taking that time to actually, if you have. If you have something, that's, if you have a question that you want to answer as an example, when you go and sit in that question and go for a long walk or a great run, you start to get answers to it, and you start to see possibilities. And so I think it's like, how do you, what do you have in your life where you take the time to sit in things, to sit in what's hard to sit in questions, and then you're gonna get the answer. You know, I think to your point, life is so busy and so fast, and you really don't solve problems or find solutions unless you sit in it and that takes time.

[00:09:56.42] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. When you say sit in it, are you thinking of you're going through, are you doing something separate? And that's kind of top of mind. Do you have, like, a process for it, or you're just spending some action or activity someplace while, you know, what might be the problem or thing that you need to sit in and to kind of find that solution?

[00:10:14.54] - Cathy Thorpe

Yeah. Okay. So as an example, so you are not achieving a result that you want. So you can sit there and take the easiest solution, which is generally not the right solution. Or you can say, actually, I'm going to sit in this for as long as it takes. Say, why is this happening? And when you get to the why and you get to, you know, to the. To the root cause of something, then you're able to figure out the solution, but the first thing that comes to mind is generally not going to solve the problem.

[00:10:48.26] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah. I appreciate you so much and, you know, breaking that down. And I almost wonder if that's, like, kind of part of what I would call your CEO nugget, which is a little bit more word of wisdom or piece of advice. I like to say it might be something you would tell your favorite client if you were to hop into a time machine or potentially your younger business self. But I wonder if it's that understanding the journey, understanding the flow, understanding, I guess, the meandering that might happen within our lives and in business.

[00:11:13.95] - Cathy Thorpe

Yeah. When you're trying to push water uphill, it's probably not going to work. It's when you let the flow of it. When you believe in yourself and you believe in life's gonna bring you the things that you need and just to be at peace with that, things happen and things come, and the world takes care of things and. Yeah, so, yeah, it is about that flow. It's fluidity. It's about the calmness and the peacefulness that can come with just believing that things are going to go in the right direction.

[00:11:54.67] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. And I'm so curious, like, how. How do you, how do you look at, or how would you define kind of quote unquote failure? And when things don't go the way you want them to go, do you feel like that's part of showing that it's part of the process, but it just, again, is another opportunity for excitement, to see how you can kind of reinvent things when they. They're not going the way you want.

[00:12:14.92] - Cathy Thorpe

Okay, so I'll tell you the. The story of. So Harry, my late husband, I said he passed away three and a half years ago, and, you know, I was left with this, oh, my gosh, you know, what am I going to do with my life? And it hit me, it's like, okay, I have two options. I can look at the past as the best. I've lived the best years of my life, or I can recreate something and step into a new version. You know, obviously I had many wonderful years and a wonderful life, but I'm like, you know what? I have a lot more years to live, and I want to step into version 2.0. And so it was about recreating my life and creating a version 2.0 and taking chances and doing things that were incredibly uncomfortable and, you know, creating this life that I have to say I'm very proud of. Three and a half years later, and I have a lot of meaning and joy and a lot of incredible people in my life. And, you know, my kids are both thriving. And, you know, it's those moments in life where, okay, this is hard, but I need to step into that and recreate something, do something different and take chances. And so, yeah, it's been pretty incredible, the learnings that I've had going through this process and sitting here today and. Yeah, like, being able to share it, really, I think that's also important. Right?

[00:13:46.38] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. Because. And I appreciate you so much, obviously, sorry, you know, you had to go through all of that, but I appreciate you so much and being so open to sharing that because I think whenever we might be going through certain challenges, we can sometimes not feel as if there's light at the end of the tunnel or even opportunity at the end of the tunnel for things to be, I won't say better word, just different or however it's going to be. And I think by hearing the stories, hearing the journey that you have, that gives people awareness, but also, I think, permission to be able to sit in it and step into whatever might be next.

[00:14:20.11] - Cathy Thorpe

Yeah. And know that you can create whatever you want. Right. Like, it's up to us. And you either take the bold chances or you don't. And when you take the bold chances, you are going to get some great things happening.

[00:14:35.57] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. And the key word that really stuck out with me, you said the word choice. And I think so many times we don't feel like we have a choice in certain situations to go left or right or up or down or whatever that might be. So now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And our goal is to have different, quote unquote, CEO's on this show. So, Kathy, what does being a CEO mean to you?

[00:14:57.00] - Cathy Thorpe

Being a CEO means that I get to have incredible relationships with great humans and help those humans thrive and be great in their life.

[00:15:11.08] - Gresham Harkless

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, Kathy, truly appreciate that definition. Of course, I appreciate your time even more. So what I wanted to do now was pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know. And of course, how best people can get a hold of you. Find out about your team, the franchise, opportunity, all the awesome things that you and your team are working on.

[00:15:30.15] - Cathy Thorpe

Yeah, I mean, I would say, listen, you know, I wrote a book. It came out in January called bold Kindness. I think that it is a new version of how we can lead people in the workplace and put it out there to the world of if you think that it's something that you want to read, then please read it. Because I think that there's a lot of nuggets in there for a lot of people and I've been overwhelmed with the people who have read it and just the things that they've said and the impact it's made on their own leadership. So there's that. And I would say, just remember to have fun. You know, we have one life and let's have some fun every single day.

[00:16:08.58] - Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. Well, I truly appreciate that. Of course, to make everything easier, we're going to have the links and information in the show notes as well too, so that everybody can find out about all the awesome things that you're working on the book as well too. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

[00:16:21.65] - Cathy Thorpe

Thank you. Thanks for having me.

[00:16:23.10] - Intro

Thank you for listening to the I am CEO podcast powered by CB Nation in Blue Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at Imceo Co. Imceo is not just a phrase, it's a community. Want to level up your business even more? Read blogs, listen to podcasts and watch videos at CBNation Co. Also check out our ImcEo Facebook group. This has been the ImceO podcast with Gresham Harklis Junior. Thank you for listening.