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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Welcome to the Living the Dream podcast with Curveball. If you believe you can achieve.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Welcome to the Living the Dream with Curveball podcast, a show where I interview guests that teach, motivate and inspire.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Today I am joined by Stephanie Warlik. Stephanie is the visionary behind Five Foot View Consulting. She has over 30 years of experience of guiding small businesses towards sustainable growth and her remarkable leadership. She has a knack for helping businesses overcome their organizational gaps. So we're going to be talking to her. I'm just kind of curious about the story behind five Foot View, but we're going to be talking to her about that and everything that she's up to.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>So. Stephanie, thank you so much for joining me.
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> Stephanie Warlik>Curtis, thank you for having me.
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> Stephanie Warlik>I'm so pleased to speak with you today.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Why don't you start off by telling everybody a little bit about yourself.
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> Stephanie Warlik>So I am a 30 year business executive. I started out in family owned small businesses as a teenager and I love small business.
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> Stephanie Warlik>I migrated from small business, joining my husband after many, many years in a promotional products company. Launched from there into government contracting for about 10 years. Then I went to software development, which was a really interesting experience, moving from professional services to software development and then started Five Foot View two years ago. Because what I really love, my passion is small business. And here I am, when I'm not working, which is not very often because I'm a workaholic. I'm a mom of twins and a dog mom and love to play pickleball and hike with my husband.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>All right, well, you are the visionary behind Five Foot View. So kind of explain what you, your company does and explain the story about how that, that name came about. That's an interesting name.
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> Stephanie Warlik>It is. Thank you for, thank you for saying that. It's actually my. I love this story and I love when people ask me. So when I started Five Foot View, I was just again coming out of 10 years of government, contracting and two years in software development. But primarily it was the government contracting influence. Where my peers that were prior, military service people, veterans would often talk about the 5 meter target or the 30,000 foot view, where we're discussing, the strategy of something at the 30,000 foot view or the 5 meter target, meaning the priority at hand. And what I really wanted to convey to my clients when I started Five Foot View is that while I absolutely have the ability to create strategy, my passion is getting right up there in the weeds with a visionary and an owner at a very, attention to detail, close up View, side by side, elbow to elbow, shoulders and sleeves rolled up, helping them put out their fires every day with, with that attention to detail. So, I thought that five Foot View explained that. Although it's funny, somebody said to me, is it? Are you five foot tall? I said, well, I happen to be five, five. But that never occurred to me when I created the name.
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> Stephanie Warlik>And then five Foot View has evolved. actually just recently when, I started it two years ago, I was a solopreneur, serving as a fractional coo, human resources professional, and an integrator, which is equivalent to COO in the eos, framework. But just recently when I added AI services, I also expanded to a fractional expert collective where I Now have about 50 individuals on the team that are all C suite experts with 20 to 40 years or more of experience.
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> Stephanie Warlik>And we, serve the market, all industries, all levels of a business stage of life. And we help, we help businesses scale where they would not otherwise be able to afford a fractional, excuse me, an executive.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Okay, so if I was a business and I came to your company and I said, hey Stephanie, I need some help here with my business. What kind of services do you actually, do you and your company actually provide?
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> Stephanie Warlik>Start by asking you, where are your pain points? Where, where are you stuck? Let's role play that for a moment. Could you, could you tell me where. Give me an example of where your company might be stuck and then I could tell you how we might sol that challenge.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Like, for example, we're looking for small and effortless ways to make sure that we are providing exclusivity or inclusiveness in our workplace.
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> Stephanie Warlik>Yeah. So in that particular example, I'd recommend, that we hold a workshop, for the particular organization, help them understand what inclusivity means, because it does mean different things to different people. Obviously individuals with disability, it means a particular thing. And whether you're visually impaired or hearing impaired, it means one thing. And we might focus on digital accessibility. But if it means inclusivity because, you're a female in a male dominated environment or, an individual of color in a predominantly white environment, or vice versa. I've been in environments before where I was the only person that was white. and those types of inclusivity conversations are super important to have collaboration and trust among the team. So I would then suggest a workshop.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>What if we needed some help? you mentioned, digital accessibility. If we have people, in like you say, that have different disabilities, how do you help companies work with digital accessibility?
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> Stephanie Warlik>Yeah, so I don't actually, I'm not the technical expert of digital accessibility. I think you do know that I wrote a book called Dark and Silent Office, A digital accessibility guidebook for inclusive communication in the workplace.
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> Stephanie Warlik>And that does focus on a layperson, non technical conversation about things that coworkers can do in the workplace. And it was really geared toward, because of my human resources background, geared toward leaders and human resources professionals to say these are the things that you need to do to be inclusive. So that workshop might teach people about how to put, make sure the captions are turned on during meetings and how to hold a, I'm sorry, not a virtual meeting but an in person meeting to be inclusive. Or how to make sure that your documents, for those that have low, vision or colorblindness, how to make them have color contrast or someone who's hearing impaired or have neurodivergence, tendencies maybe to put out the materials in advance so that they can process and read and certainly to make sure digital accessibility, excuse me, I focus on documents. Digital accessibility tends to, and you know this, I'm, I'm I'm educating someone that doesn't need to be educated. But digital accessibility is a lot about the website. But I said okay, but I'm an employee and I don't communicate with my peers through a website. I communicate through the intranet or web, documents, Maybe Slack or PowerPoints and those things. How do we make those types of things accessible?
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> Stephanie Warlik>so we teach people how to do those things very quick, easy, low cost, low effort, actions that individuals can take, not even at the corporate level so that we can get past that.
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> Stephanie Warlik>Well, we don't have funding for that kind of conversation.
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> Stephanie Warlik>It's just a little bit of effort for individuals to learn how to use the accessibility tools within the software products that we are already working on.
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> Stephanie Warlik>Another really big part of the book is just to have that conversation with peers, how to have that conversation. And there's some role playing conversations to say to your peer, I want to communicate with you. Can you tell me the best way that I can communicate with you? Because often individuals that do not have the disability kind of ignore that conversation and it's a big elephant in the room for them.
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> Stephanie Warlik>And I educate people that a person with a disability knows they have a disability and kind of ignoring that just makes things worse. It's no secret, right? So to be proactive and say to someone what is the best way to communicate with you? You Know, someone that is hearing impaired may read lips and may need you to always be facing their face if they're, wanting to read your lips. Others use American Sign Language and need to learn that, but there shouldn't one. A non disabled person should never assume that someone just because they're hearing impaired uses sign language. So it's really about having that conversation or someone that is visually impaired. You know, how do you want me to approach you in the room so that I don't startle you and announce myself coming into the room?
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> Stephanie Warlik>Those are really very basic inclusivity conversations that I think are super important to teach people how to have.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well, you might not be a digital, accessibility expert, but sounds like you sure got it down.
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> Stephanie Warlik>I tried Curtis, and you know, it was really profound for me when I learned about, frankly, digital accessibility. I worked for a digital accessibility company and was about 50.
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> Stephanie Warlik>I was super excited to work for a company that was doing good for the world. But as soon as I got there as the chief administrative officer, so a leader, a person on the leadership team, I had no idea I realized how to communicate with my peers that were blind or deaf.
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> Stephanie Warlik>And that was the first time I'd experienced that in my life.
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> Stephanie Warlik>And truly I was embarrassed and ashamed.
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> Stephanie Warlik>And I think it was one of those moments where I said, okay, I now know better, I must do better. And if I got this far in my professional career with great success and as a certified human resources person, and I have no idea how to do these things, and I wasn't taught and I was never exposed to it, I have to teach other people this.
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> Stephanie Warlik>And so that was really the genesis of the book, was to move that forward and say, once you know better, please do better. Because we know that inclusive and diverse environments are the most successful workpl.
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> Stephanie Warlik>So that's really where it came from. And I'm, so grateful that I had that experience to become a better person and a better communicator with all types of people.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Speaking of your book, go ahead and talk about your book. Let listeners know where they can get it, explain what listeners will get out of the book when they read it and anything else you want to talk about the book, why you decided to write it?
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> Stephanie Warlik>Yeah, so I am, adhd. And again, I wrote it for, professionals, maybe in the HR field or leaders and co workers to be able to foster an inclusive environment with individuals that they work with. I focused on visually impaired and hearing impaired because honestly, if I focused, if I wrote the book for all disabilities, it Would have been a mile long and I needed to start somewhere. So, dark and Silent Office can be found on Amazon.
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> Stephanie Warlik>there's also an audio book available there and it's really because I'm ADHD and don't really read long segments of information.
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> Stephanie Warlik>Well I made it in really quick, easy to read large font, paragraphs, small, short paragraphs and checklists so that someone really could turn to any section of the book and say, ah, I'm holding a meeting.
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> Stephanie Warlik>Here's the things that I need to do. I'm holding.
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> Stephanie Warlik>I have a co worker. How do I have that conversation with them? So really a quick, easy read. my dream is that every company brings it into their organization and makes it a part of their onboarding and orientation.
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> Stephanie Warlik>so I've reached out to the Society for Human Resources and other organizations to say let's put this book in the hands of everybody. It's just so easy to teach people and again, low cost, low effort, low tech ideas that we can foster this inclusivity.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well, talk about how you help companies foster entrepreneurial spirit on every level.
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> Stephanie Warlik>Oh gosh, you hit all my favorite questions. You must have been reading about me somewhere. So what you just described is the concept called owner mindset. That is the knowledge that I took from working not only as a, in family businesses since I was a teenager, but all, all the years of working as a small business entrepreneur and then applied those skills and abilities during, into the corporate space that, that work that I did.
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> Stephanie Warlik>I had something like seven, promotions over 12 years and, and increased my salary by over 100,000 during that time. And I did that using the owner mindset. And so what I teach using what I call the stand in the gap method is to teach individuals how to visualize a gap. A gap in a workplace is like someone's not performing a task and nobody's taking ownership of that responsibility or there's a problem, but nobody's grabbed the bull by the horns to figure out how to solve it, those types of things. And I'll give you a really very simple and basic example of, of standing in the gap.
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> Stephanie Warlik>I'll say to someone, are you if you're walking down the hall and you stumble upon a piece of garbage that is in front of you, do you pick up that piece of garbage and put it where it belongs, in the garbage or on the shelf or whatever it may be?
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> Stephanie Warlik>Or do you walk past it and say that's not my Garbage because the owner mindset is I'm going to pick up that piece of garbage and put it where it belongs for numerous reasons. Number one, it's not in the best interest of the company for it to be here.
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> Stephanie Warlik>Someone could get hurt. It makes us look messy. It could be dangerous for other reasons. I'm going to take care of that piece of garbage. And if you, if we refer to that piece of garbage as any of those undone tasks or the unwanted tasks that people have within an organization, those are the things that an owner of an organization is going to be mindful of and just take care of it because that's in the best interest of the company. And when we focus on the best interest of the company, we're always going to find success as individuals and help the company be more successful. Those people that walk past the piece of garbage that say that's not my job are not going to find success in corporate world. They also are likely never going to be a successful entrepreneur because really when you're an entrepreneur you need roll up your sleeves and you do everything from scrubbing the toilets to closing multi million dollar deals. And that's what is to stand in the gap. Have an owner mindset. And I believe that we can teach people to not only to managers to foster the owner mindset but for individuals to employ the, the owner mindset with all of those character traits that I, that I teach, that I think form the complete owner mindset and help them be successful wherever they are in their career.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well I know another one of your favorite topics is HR compliance. So talk about how you help small businesses make sure that they are doing what they need to do to be HR compliant.
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> Stephanie Warlik>Yeah, HR compliance is such a tricky thing right now and so difficult for small businesses.
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> Stephanie Warlik>you know post Covid where people went remote.
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> Stephanie Warlik>One of the biggest challenges in compliance is paying people pay transparency paying people where they work. You know, if, if I moved from Washington D.C. to Florida, do I now pay people from the salary base that they had that was in the Washington D.C. very expensive area or do they get a different income for moving to that remote location? But in addition the transparency laws that are now coming out or the fact that when those individuals go remote and they work predominantly in that remote location, the organization does not need to follow the laws just of where their corporate office is. They now have to follow the laws of where that work is predominantly, created, done, performed, whatever the case may be. And so that's super tricky for a small business.
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> Stephanie Warlik>Now You've got a human resources professional that had it nailed and knew exactly all the laws for their region.
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> Stephanie Warlik>and now they have to learn all of the other laws.
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> Stephanie Warlik>So those are just a few ways where it's super tricky.
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> Stephanie Warlik>And my HR professionals deny, serve companies by going in and making sure that they're meeting their compliance so that they don't get huge fines and they stay competitive. Because as an example, back to pay transparency.
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> Stephanie Warlik>The workers that are coming into the workforce now demand transparency and clarity and equity. And when you don't present that through appropriate, pay grades and transparency for salaries and how they can be successful and promote from one level to the next, they're going to go to the next employer, the one that gives them what they're, they're demanding.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well, tell us about any current upcoming projects that you and your company, five Foot View, are working on that listeners need to be aware of.
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> Stephanie Warlik>Wow. I have so many exciting projects right now. primarily because of the new initiative of adding the fractional experts to my team, we're really heavy in marketing, making sure that businesses not only through small, but through enterprise, understand the, strength and capabilities and experiences and wins that the fractional experts have. Where if you want to get from A to Z and the fractional expert has already done it, this is the person for you to help get your business there and take your product to market your service, to market whatever. We're, talking to a lot of private equity firms because of the startups that are happening right now and the I think they're calling, calling it the Silver Tsunami, this wave of baby boomers that are wanting to sell and close their businesses because the heirs don't want to take it over or there is no heir to sell it to. And there's a lot of work that needs to be done with those organizations to get them up to speed in terms of current marketing efforts.
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> Stephanie Warlik>AI getting their books ready for sale.
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> Stephanie Warlik>So we've got a lot of that going on.
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> Stephanie Warlik>And then, personally I'm super excited about working with, a movie producer that has, a video game company and getting his products launched. I'll be doing that in a COO capacity.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Wow. Well, so listeners can keep up with everything that you're up to. Throw out your contact info.
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> Stephanie Warlik>Thank you. Www.5 the number 5 foot FT view V-I-E-W.com is the best place. It lists all of our experts with their credentials, talks a little bit about AI work that we're doing and how we're helping small businesses really prepare to survive the next decade.
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> Stephanie Warlik>and that begins with an assessment, by the way. We didn't talk about AI, but lots, of folks are just plopping AI on and saying, oh, I'm going to bring on this tool without strategizing and really understanding, what the impact is to their business and how to use, use that. And what's going to happen when companies do that. They're going to have to break that down in a year or two and start over because they really just started driving with no destination in mind. So we, we work with companies on that.
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> Stephanie Warlik>And so you can find about our experts, our AI services, and, contact us through our website. Thank you, Curtis.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>We'll close this out with some final thoughts. Maybe if that was something I forgot to talk about that you would like to touch on and any final thoughts you have for the listeners.
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> Stephanie Warlik>You know, I'd love to end with an inspirational quote. And since you focus on inspiration, I love to share with folks that while I have now a successful and thriving business that I absolutely love, and I wake up thrilled, to go to work every day, it wasn't always like that. I've been in places, organizations, or had bad days in my own business where I let fear and doubt hold me back from what I wanted to do.
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> Stephanie Warlik>And every time I peeked behind the curtain or the door and said, okay, let me test this out and open that door and, and, or jumped off the cliff, let's say metaphorically, to just dive in, I was so excited and found greatness. And I thought, every time I do this and I take that leap, I find that while they're not all successful, it didn't hurt. And it wasn't as scary as I thought it was. And it just gives me that courage to keep trying. So I encourage anyone who's interested in starting a small business or, going after their dream, writing a book. I would have never thought I would have been an author, but I was pulled to that passion and have so much fun, presenting that to folks. So I just encourage people to really go for their passions and don't let fear and doubt or naysayers stand in their way because you can have awesome work days and really fulfill your days with passion.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Absolutely.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well said, ladies and gentlemen. Please visit fiveftview. Com for more information on Stephanie, and please check out our book. Follow us on your favorite podcast platform and to leave feedback and suggestions. And for more information on the Living the Dream with Curveball Podcast, visit www.craveball337.com thank you for listening and supporting the show. And Stephanie, thank you for all that you do to help make the world of business a better place.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>And thank you for joining me.
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> Stephanie Warlik>Thank you for having me, Chris. It was a great, great conversation today.
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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>For more information on the Living the Dream with Curveball Podcasts, visit www.cravec.craveball337.com until next time, keep Living the Dream.