Leading by Example

Speaker 1: [Music] hi welcome to the sheo fit experience with Melanie you're here because you want to scale and grow your business Master business strategy and learn about new tech Innovation join me and my inspiring guests as we dive into the topic of how how to create build scale and operate the business of your dreams in addition to being an entrepreneur I'm also a twin mom and Optimist who loves empowering you to experience the life that you crave Magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy so grab a coffee or cocktail get comfy and let's dive in Jana newat serves as the senior manager of government Affairs for Shi international corporation the largest female and minority-owned business in the United States as a government Affairs manager Jana oversees a team of lobbyists in Jefferson City Missouri and helps to manage Shi Consultants across the country she oversees strategic Partnerships on the federal level with some of the nation's most high-profile Governors legislators and leaders she is an advocate for women in politics and public policy having co-founded the women's policy network of Missouri Jana thank you for being with us today please tell us more about who you are and about the leaps that you have made and what gave you the courage to make them thank

Speaker 2: you so much for having me on today I have to say that it has been awesome to watch all the great things that you're doing when she built it I've absolutely loved watching it grow and the success that you've had it's really a much needed platform for female entrepreneurs and I'm really honored to be introduced who I am is a person I am a believer I'm a daughter a sister an aunt a friend but most importantly I'm someone who is striving every day to be the best version of myself that I can both for myself and for all of those within my life as a professional my background both through education and experience has really been varied among several different Industries I started in journalism as a TV news anchor and reporter went to law school I spent some time on the federal level working in the traditional legal environment before returning back home to Missouri and getting involved in politics and that's where I've spent the majority of my time in my professional career around tennish years working for several senators and ultimately the governor of the state of Missouri before transitioning to the private sector where I am now over the course of time I've also had the pleasure of starting a few of my own businesses addition to everything else that I was doing so I can understand the stresses and the leaps and everything that is required in starting a new business what motivated me to make these leaps and give me the courage to do it I love to learn and I love to challenge myself so part of it I think is just that desire to continuously learn and continuously challenge myself it's also the fact that I've had an amazing support network that is so important to

Speaker 1: your success in life is just having that really strong Network and for me it's not only family it's friends colleagues and some really amazing mentors that I've had over time and I know that I can call them anytime and run any issue by them and they'll help me to see every angle at which I need to see something before I make a decision and that is really what's helped me make that week it's so important that women and everyone really surround yourself with those people that you respect that you admire and that you can learn from and that's what's been helpful for me in getting to where I am today it's so important to surround ourselves with positive people and people who are going to Mentor us through situation when you're faced with a challenging opportunity where you don't know if

Speaker 2: you're ready to make a leap I think about those times when you had to dig deep and find the courage is there a leap in particular throughout your career where you can tell us about that time where you found your courage to say I'm going to do this that's a really

Speaker 1: great question I feel like there were so many because the different industries that I worked in were so varied starting in journalism and then going to law that was totally different and then going from law to politics again a complete change and not something I ever thought I would do probably the one thing that comes to mind is when I was working in politics and I was working as a chief of staff to a couple senators in Missouri and I had the opportunity to go to work for the governor and for me it was just like oh wow am I ready for that that's a big transition but you know you have to look at it as opportunities only present themselves sometimes once and so when you get them you have to take it you have to take that lead but like I said you can go to that support network and that's what I did and I asked them give me your advice help me to think through this so that's probably one of those times where I really relied on that support network to make that lead and finding the courage to trust in yourself to say I know I can do this absolutely because I think we have to be really honest and know that there have been so many times where I question am I I don't know if I'm ready to do this when I came from the legal world and went into being a chief of staff I didn't know anything about that and I remember thinking to myself I don't know if I'm ready to do this I don't know if I have the skills to do this but then you have to change your perspective and it's you can't look at it that way you have to say of course I can do this I know I can do it and really have that courage in yourself and that strength and belief in yourself and

Speaker 2: I had to ask you that question because I know you have made some incredible leaps throughout your career can you tell us about your education leading up to where

Speaker 1: you are now sure so education wise of course again I started in journalism and my goal was to be a TV news anchor and repor so I went to school to study every aspect from shooting the film to doing the standups to being in front of the camera just such a great experience so that's how I started I got a Bachelor's degree in journalism and then I decided I really wanted to go to law school there were various things that pushed me in that direction but I also wanted to get an advanced degree in journalism at the same time so I actually pursued a dual degree program I did a master's of Journalism and I focused a little bit more on media management and then I did my law degree at the same time and and while working toward my law degree I also focused on conflict resolution so I was trying to get every possible educational aspect that I could to really help me in the future so after that I moved to Washington DC and I worked for the Federal Communications Commission and that was such a great experience because it really combined that journalism background and then also the legal background as well and then I could see things from the regulatory level so that was a wonderful experience so in terms of my education that's really my educational backg ground but of course I got many years worth of Education in politics and in the real world experience which I think is

Speaker 2: equally as important absolutely was there anything that inspired you to go

Speaker 1: to law school where you said I want to become a lawyer I had a lot of situations just in my familial life in which I had interactions with lawyers and it was just something I was always really interested in that was more from a property side of things but then when I went to journalism school I found myself in situations a lot of times where people would say you don't have the right to be here or you can't be on the property or you can't run this story and I just felt like if I was going to be a good journalist I really needed to understand legally what I could and couldn't do where could I be what could I say how do I protect myself how do I protect those that I'm interviewing and that was really one of the biggest things that motivated me in that direction I also took a great course in Communications law absolutely loved the professor and found what she did really fascinating so that was another thing that really pushed me in that direction that's

Speaker 2: interesting to think of about from a journalism perspective wanting to know those rights to be able to tell the story to the best of your ability

Speaker 1: absolutely I didn't really respect that when I first went into journalism but then when I was practicing in the field I could see how that would be really valuable because many times I would be told you're not welcome here you're not allowed to be on the property you just didn't really know how to respond and I thought if I'm going to be successful at this I want to know my full rights and also my goal was to eventually go and work within the industry to help other journalists ultimately my path in a different direction but that's what I

Speaker 2: was thinking at the time and your leaps LED you to your current role at SHI can you tell us about what you do today we have an absolutely awesome story it's one of the things that really attracted me to the company we are a global value added reseller of Hardware software and we provide services too this is in the IT industry and we were founded in 1989 by our current owner her name is Tye and at that time it was a $1 million software company and over the years it has grown to be nearly a 12 billion doll business today to me that's awesome we have 5,000 employees worldwide we've been voted one of the top places to work over nine times but my favorite statistic is one that you mentioned in the intro Melanie and that is that we are now the largest privately held female and minority owned business in the United States and that is all thanks to Tai her vision her leadership her drive I mean it is amazing she still is intimately involved in the business day-to-day day uh to this day and I just think it's fascinating and there's so much that we can learn from her in terms of my role I'm a senior manager of government Affairs and work as a consultant for Shi I also work with our Consultants across the country some of the day-to-day can include monitoring policy trends at all levels of government engaging with partner organizations and ultimately just trying to build relationships with it leaders across the country of course we're a sales company we always want to drive business but one of the things I love about it is that we really strive to be a partner so we strive to do more than just sales we have this tagline of we have over 5,000 ridiculously helpful experts so for me personally I absolutely love the company I love the fact that they care about their people and I love the role because it really is a great combination of my background as we've talked about in journalism and in law and in government is the culmination of all of those it's so inspiring to

Speaker 1: hear the background of the company and about leader that you are working for within your role and you have a lot of responsibility what is your strategy for management and staying on task and how do you motivate the people around you in your

Speaker 2: teams yeah great question so for me personally just keeping myself on task one of the things that I do is I try to address things immediately as they come up that's really important for me with whether it's emails projects I don't care if it's text messages phone calls I try to stay really on top of it communication is very very key for me I know that that's not always realistic right we were pulled in many different directions so we can't always do that so part of what I found is just learning and knowing myself so I try to stay on top of everything as quickly as I can to get it off my plate but that being said I've gotten really good at knowing when I've reached that point of close to burnout or close to hey I need to take some time away and I do that so that way when I come back I'm twice as efficient so it's a little bit about knowing myself too terms of motivating I learned early on from again a good Mentor of mine that the best way to have success

Speaker 1: in your business career is to really hire the top talent and give them the ability to do their job right I don't like to micromanage I want to bring in good people and I want them to have the autonomy to do their job but at the same time I also want them to feel like they're part of a team I never want them to feel like they're on an island we're all a team we're all working together some of my positions before I I used to gather the team every morning we'd have the morning roundup where we talk about what are some of the big decisions that we're going to have to make today let's talk through them let's everyone be on the same page let's address this and move forward as a team and then it's also really important that the people I work with know that I care about them and I care about them personally and professionally I never want them to feel like I'm trying to put myself first I want them to know that their health and well-being is super important and I think by showing people that by giving them the autonomy and by showing them the care I think that is a natural motivator that's such great leadership

Speaker 2: to talk about clear communication but also giving the freedom and flexibility to do their best work and to do their job and showing them that you care you also mentioned burnout you've mentioned a farm can you tell us about that and do you ever go there when you've

Speaker 1: experienced the burnout as you know Melanie one of my favorite things is my country Roots so I was born and raised on a farm and it is really the place where I find so much peace and joy and happiness and it is the place that I go whenever I just need to get away and be on my own and find that joy and so I do spend a lot of time there and thanks to co and not being able to travel as much as I normally would in a usual year I've had the opportunity to spend so much more time there so I've enjoyed working with the family on planting and harvesting and this past year in particular had the ability to work on a garden which is something I've always done it here and there but I've never been sedentary enough to really devote my time to it so it was absolutely awesome I got to grow over 30 different varieties of fruits and vegetables bring others in to to give them an opportunity to experience it to bond with family and to really share their fruits of our labor that's definitely my happy place

Speaker 2: that's so great it's so important to take that time to slow down because I think when we take that time to slow down that's when our ideas really come to life and you mentioned burnout we all feel burnout at certain times it happens to everyone and so it's amazing that were able to take that time to spend time in quiet and peace and with those

Speaker 1: that you love around you right and I I completely agree with the burnout that's something I've really had to teach myself over time because I'm a really hard charger and it's hard for me to stop and take a break but I think that's one of the best lessons that I've learned is you are going to be so much more successful if you're more balanced on the weekends take time away spend time with family do the things that are important to you get that relaxation in so you can come back during the week be a better version of yourself professionally because I think if you let burnout get to you it's just going to harm you all the way around you have to know those boundaries and you have to

Speaker 2: set those boundaries absolutely such good advice and I know a lot of the women and men listening to this podcast are very goal driven very typ a we like to accomplish things so that advice of taking that downtime to really feel the joy really good advice we are all shifting and pivoting at such a rapid speed today and I love how we can learn how others have overcome obstacles and challenges can you share a recent business experience that you had where you were able to overcome a challenge

Speaker 1: the biggest challenge for me has always been that of Delegation and I think that this goes back to us again like you just said being that type A personality I love to learn I love to understand how every aspect of a business works from top to bottom the same can be said for the fact that I want to have a certain level of quality in the work product that I'm producing if it's going to have my name on it I want it to be of a certain level and a certain quality but good leaders realize that it's not realistic you have to delegate you have to learn how to do it so I really worked on how to overcome this and I think again it goes back to that you hire good people you wait until you find the right person you don't just hire you wait until you find the right person who really has a genuine interest in what you're doing that they feel a part of the team such that they want to see it succeed that takes a lot of time on the front end teaching them of what you're trying to accomplish the level of quality that you want and also teaching them not just the what but the why you're doing what you're doing and another thing I found is also asking them what is it that they enjoy doing and how do they want to contribute and I think that if people are doing something that they like of course they're going to be better at it and so that's how I've learned to overcome what's always been a challenge to me of delegating is again hiring the right people getting them engaged teaching them the why and then asking them what they enjoy doing so that they will ultimately be successful and I can feel comfortable knowing that we're achieving all of our goals and at that standard that we want

Speaker 2: to so true and to your point about putting your name on something we tend to take so much ownership of things and we take pride in that but it's also allowing others to do their job and companies can really grow when we put that trust in other people right it seems like you've really mastered clear communication which is such a great leadership skill and also if someone wants to learn something new it's going to make them so much more excited about their job right and they're going to be so much more successful for you too I

Speaker 1: think communication is key I've just found that being open being upfront being honest and sharing the vision is really important really great skills to have in a leader and that's someone you want to work for is someone that's going to give you that clear communication the feedback and actually think about what you want to accomplish within your role

Speaker 2: right that is so true and I think about that all the time I think back to the bosses that I've had who are people that I just wanted to work for they were so great to work with and it was so hard when I ended up having to move on I want to be that same kind of person I want to be someone that people want to work for because they know that they're going to learn they're going to grow and I'm going to care about them and we're going to have not only a professional relationship but I'm going to care about them personally too with the recent

Speaker 1: shift in technology today are there any Tech platforms or apps that you use either in business or your personal life that you could not live without I think

Speaker 2: right now professional I would definitely say LinkedIn I used to be on the go and have the ability to meet people and Network all the time that's a big part of my job and it's really hard to do that when we're all grounded in this environment and I think LinkedIn is really the best opportunity to keep up with everyone professionally to follow what it is that they're doing and to make those important connections from a personal perspective two different apps are my favorite one is Yoga go and this is one I used to use when I traveled a lot because I could take yoga with me and it would just be a great release while I was on the road I could do this from anywhere but I've enjoyed it while being a little more Homebound and I also love Instagram I'm a huge fan of Photography and travel and so that's a way in which I can share my photos and my travel with everyone so those are

Speaker 1: really my go-tos since we are all dreaming of travel right now do you have a favorite trip that you've been on and

Speaker 2: why I would say South Africa I had a great opportunity to travel to South Africa in batswana a few years ago was with a delegation through the state department and our goal was really to Foster relationships among Future Leaders of the countries and so we had the pleasure of meeting with political leaders of all the different parties in both South Africa and batswana to go to Parliament to see it in action and it's just really amazing the difference between our political system here and what they're doing there and forging those relationships and those friendships was something that was just so meaningful to me and of course enjoying the cultural aspects of South Africa and batswana too absolutely beautiful my other top though would be Israel uh and if I really really had to pick one I would probably pick this and I think the reason why is that well first of all there's just so much to love about the country but for me my absolute favorite aspect were the people and the best way that I can describe

Speaker 1: them is resilient they are the most resilient people that I've ever seen I don't know what it's like to live in the middle of War most days of my life I don't know what it's like to hear bombing in the background I don't know what it's like to have a 15sec warning before I need to run and take shelter from a bomb that's headed over and for me to literally see that firstand to hear it to see it to feel it and to know that they're just moving on with life as though nothing's going on and just continuing to move forward to me that was amazing one of the areas we visited the very next day it was actually bombed and so to think about that it's just hard to think about living in the kind of world that I do right now in addition of of course I loved the historic and the biblical aspects of it that was something that was really important to me the fact that the country has so much to offer despite the fact that it's relatively small both geographically and in terms of the number of people and then of course from a tech perspective which is of interest to me I think it's really fascinating there's a great book called startup nation which talks about all the startups that have happened and come out of Israel and really again it's amazing for how small the country is and how few people they have relative to other countries so for all of that I would say that was probably the most

Speaker 2: meaningful what an incredible moment to have and appreciation to bring back with you I'm sure all of those experiences play into your everyday role at what you do and within your life as far as finding joy and appreciating joy and appreciating

Speaker 1: life oh my goodness I think back to that when I was in Israel if they can find joy every day and go about their life and build businesses and succeed and certainly I can do it the hurdles that I have are are far less than what they're experiencing there so you're absolutely right magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that

Speaker 2: brings us joy speaking of Joy what is one tip that you can leave with us today about how you find and live your joy in your life and in your career I love this

Speaker 1: question because I try to find joy in the absolute smallest of things and my tip is that it's easy to do that it's really easy to find Joy when you change your perspective I think it's all about perspective and I think living in a world with Co presented a good example of that because so many of us have spent the last year focusing on what we miss so we miss travel we miss the interactions with family and friends we miss major events but what I've kind of changed my perspective to say what is it that I've been able to do because of Co and because of not being able to travel so I shift it and I know that I've had the ability to spend a lot more time with family so I've been able to find my joy there I know as we talked about you know my country Roots I loved being back home being on the farm starting that garden and really all of the great things that came out of that I was able to find a lot of joy in that as well so shifting my perspective But ultimately for me it's all about giving I am the happiest when I am giving to other people giving back to those within the industry trying to Mentor you know young women in business politics itics Etc that's really what's important to me as the giving but my tip would be to really change your perspective and when you do that I think you can find joy that is

Speaker 2: such a beautiful Outlook and we've all struggled in so many ways throughout this year but like you said if we focus on the joyful things it makes it so much easier we started to have brunches at our house and the kids now look forward to this brunch and it doesn't take a lot of time but it's been like you said those little moments where you can bring bring the joy in and those are probably the things that they and we will remember that's exactly what I was going to say you know Melanie those are what your kids are going to remember and if we didn't have a time like this we would all be going a million miles a minute in so many different directions and we wouldn't slow down to really appreciate those kinds of things so i' love to hear that it's as simple as doing things like that that are really going to have an impact in that bonding and that lasting memory that they're always going to remember and I'm sure it's the same with you and your family on the farm and in the garden it's those small Quiet

Speaker 1: Moments it has given me the opportunity to really bond with my family in particular my aunt who was 80 years old I have had the ability now to spend time learning from her from all of her years has been so fun and then to bring in my nieces and nephews and teach them and start them young teach them about the process and really the benefits of being out on the farm and learning how to do this and bonding with one another and then ultimately giving back so it has

Speaker 2: been a great experience thank you so much for joining us today J it's been wonderful to talk to you can you tell us

Speaker 1: how we can find you sure I am on Facebook I'm on Instagram and I'm on LinkedIn you can find me on any of those platforms at Jana M new stats the same across all three please reach out I would love to hear from you love to share experiences hear your story thank you so much I'm so honored to be a part of this network to celebrate the successes of those starting their own businesses and love the opportunity that we can really learn from each other and grow

Speaker 2: together if you are new to Sheil it we'd love for you to join us we offer a community memberships masterminds Innovative virtual events and meaningful connections to entrepreneurs and corporate leaders please also check out our she built it shop curated products from women-owned businesses who put their heart and soul into their beautiful and Innovative products we offer she built it business Consulting and the Sheil tip blog thank you to everyone around the world who joined today thank you to my editor Rich stalino please download And subscribe wherever you get your podcast and until

Speaker 1: next time together let's let nothing stop us from experiencing the life that We crave

Speaker 2: [Music]