Resilience by Structural Scott Burns

Today Scott sits down with Joe Keeley. Joe is the founder of College Nannies and Tutors, and led it from its launch in 2001, when he was just a college student at St. Thomas, all the way through to a sale in 2016 to Bright Horizons, a public company that is one of the largest providers of childcare in the world.

In this episode, Joe talks about the feeling of sitting at a stranger's dinner table, the empathy that inspires, and that process of going from 'stranger' to 'role model' as a nanny for a family. He would go on to build a company of thousands of role models and impacted families across the nation and beyond.

Joe is also refreshingly transparent about the daily grind of entrepreneurship, in one of our favorite stories Joe recalls:

Imagine someone in their early 20s calling an insurance company and saying, "I need liability and workers' compensation insurance for folks between 18 and 24 that are going to drive young children around unsupervised." Well, I talked to 50 insurance companies and if I could get them to stay on the phone long enough to simply hear the rest of the pitch, I considered it a win.

In Part 2 of our conversation with Shawntera Hardy we dive deep into her journey, from being a leader at Health Partners (a 20,000 person healthcare organization) to a 20 person environmental justice startup. From the the Governor's Office (the first time), to starting her own consulting company, to co-founding Civic Eagle, and back to the Governor's Office again (this time as Commissioner of The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED).
When Shawntera tells you, "no position or title is permanent" (and that's a good thing), you know she's speaking from experience.

In her own words, Shawntera Hardy, "does it live."
Meaning: no matter her background on a topic, there is no problem too large or complicated for her to figure out. She has taken this open, growth mindset with her on an amazing career that has spanned multiple industries and has lead to positive change for the lives of thousands of people. Here's just a taste of her professional title cornucopia:
City Planner for the City of St. Paul
Government Relations Manager @ HealthPartners
Policy Director @ Fresh Energy
Deputy Chief of Staff to the Governor of Minnesota
Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development
Co-founder and CSO of Civic Eagle...
The list goes on. In this 2-part conversation with Scott, Shawntera talks about this career path but she also talks about her motivations along the way, the importance of place, giving back to the communities that made you, and the complicated power of a pen in the shaping and reshaping of cities and towns.

Zach is a former software sales leader turned entrepreneur. He was an elite athlete who competed on the US Alpine ski team. He's also a cancer survivor. Zach embodies resilience. He's led his business, GovDocs, through the Dot-com Crash, The Great Recession, and now he faces COVID 19 with the patience, vulnerability, and authenticity you can only get after decades of leading high-performing teams and seeing it all.

"Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth."- Mike Tyson

Until the recent COVID crisis Heather Haas, Principal at Advisa, had a plan to continue her company's momentum from 2019 and aggressively grow in 2020. Needless to say, the plan has changed a bit for her and her colleagues. In her conversation with Scott, Heather shares some of the themes that have helped her become a resilient leader throughout a long and successful career. Her career journey started in teaching, transitioned into an Assistant Principal role at an elementary school, then made a more abrupt shift into the consultancy world and Advisa. She now finds herself thriving as she leads a growing business (absorbing a few Tyson-esque jabs along the way).

In episode four of Resilience, Scott is joined by Amy Langer, co-founder of executive staffing and recruitment firm Salo, LLC. Amy shares so many intriguing stories in her short conversation with Scott about perseverance during trying times, from the tough lesson about job fit she learned as a young professional to making it through the Great Recession while wondering if her company would survive.