Creative on Purpose Live - Melanie Booher

And buckle your seatbelt. We are indeed finally connected everywhere we need to be. Welcome to Creative on Purpose Live, insightful conversations with inspiring difference makers to help you live your legacy. I'm your host, Scott Perry, Chief Difference Maker at Creative on Purpose. If you're stuck at a work-life crossroads, visit creativeonpurpose.com and sign up for the free Power of Purpose email minicourse and start crafting a life of meaning and impact today. Let's meet today's guest, Melanie Buer. Welcome to the broadcast. Please tell our viewers who you are, what you're up to these days, and where people can go to learn more about you and the difference you're making.

Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. So my business— I actually run two businesses and I feel like both are helping me, I hope, make differences in the world. The first one is HR consultancy People First Talent and Retention. And we do HR different. We want to disrupt the model a little bit. We want to be culture leaders, right? We want to, we want people to enjoy their work because there's not enough of that. People are pretty miserable at work. So we've got a game that we use, which is called Cards for Culture. Think Cards Against Humanity, but it's the fun side. And we help leaders define the kind of culture they want to live, right? How do they define it, set it up, and then how do they bring it to life? And it's just so much fun. It's driving great workplaces and hopefully making people enjoy more work more. The idea is, how can we do that and make that, you know, pay it forward, make that happen in more, more— we spend so much time at work. How can we do that in more places? So we're even going to be certifying leaders that they can become culture leaders and they can make this happen at their own places. The way we bring it to life is through different processes, you know, whether that's helping with recruitment processes, whether that's how we coach, how we train. There's all kinds of fun things that we add in to bring that to life. But that's our first thing. My other side of my business is helping business leaders become authors and influencers. And I started doing this just because I got so many questions like, Melanie, how did you write your book? Who audited it? Who did the editing? Who formatted? How did you get on Amazon? And I kind of realized that if I help business leaders find their voice, leave their legacy, grow their business, that I can grow and facilitate the growth of great workplaces exponentially. So that's another area that I've been helping leaders, helping them become authors.

Fantastic. I love both, both endeavors. I'm, I would love to just dive in a little bit on the HR side and the culture creation, because that's really interesting to me as a, as a head coach at Akimba Workshops for several years. One of the things that we became really well known for, especially during the pandemic, when lots of people were concerned about how do we do culture online, one of the things that we got a lot of credit for was creating online culture where everyone felt seen, heard, understood, where real work got done, where real connection happened. And so in the HR field, what are the elements that create culture that promotes the employees' health and happiness? And what do you think are the biggest impediments to having a culture, a work culture that's really promoting thriving for everyone?

Absolutely. Well, actually, you just used my favorite word, so thrive. I actually, the things that help drive your strong culture fall within the Thrive Model. And to be clear, we give this away. So if you're interested, you can get on the website, thrivewithmb.com,. And you can get your own THRIVE model and use it as a heat map. It's an acronym. So when you ask, like, what areas should we focus on? The T is for talent. That's your people. We better, you know, have the right people on board, set up your recruitment process. H is the health of the business. We use that as a little bit more compliancy, making sure you're dotting your i's, crossing your t's. R is retention. That's kind of in that, hey, are we paying— the baseline is we pay people competitive wages. And then we add on benefits and perks and other rewards and recognition. I is improvement, kind of a catch-all bucket. But that's that area where any process improvement you can do, going digital, embracing technology, those are great things. V, I love that bucket. That's our culture bucket. That's our vision and values, right? How do we live our brand every day? Have we put in the time and effort? In fact, fun fact, less than 10% of companies are driving their culture and have a culture plan. So you can ask them all about marketing strategy, financial planning. They've got 100%— 95% to 100% have those, but less than 10% are planning for culture and people. So we're bridging that gap. And the E is engagement. And we typically say engagement at the top, meaning, are your leaders prepared to do what they need to do? Right? Do we understand the structure of leadership? Are they— are we training people? Are we mentoring? And so that's the things that we think need to happen. Actually, we know they need to happen. And we give you great ideas to make it happen yourself. The barriers typically, you know, we do a lot of engagement surveys and where we see gaps are in communication, leadership, and benefits. And that's all beyond people just want to have competitive pay. Communication is one of the top things that we hear, no matter the size of company. And often then why people leave companies, it's resulting in poor leadership. So those are the barriers. And that's what we're kind of trying to help people embrace and helping them do better in those areas. And if, again, would love people to consider getting the model and using it, it would make me so happy. And if they ever need, need us, they know where to find us so we could help with it if they need it.

Well, there's a couple elements of that that really jump out to me. The first is starting with the talent. And one of the principles that we live by at Creative On Purpose is start with who, and the who you need to start with first is yourself. And it ties into your V, which is Values and Vision. And, you know, we don't live in a culture, broadly, where we encourage people to think a little bit more deeply about what are their values and guiding principles? What are the things that upon which they will not equivocate, where they need alignment so that they can feel a sense of, you know, belonging and value in themselves? And so one of the things that I'm curious about, one of, one of my favorite clients and a member of my community is Nicki Lerner, who is a culture coach. And she gets hired to go into organizations because they see that they have a DEI problem and they want it solved. The problem, it seems to me, is that when someone hires a consultant like yourself or like Nicki or someone else, they want you to fix a problem. And that's exactly what they, they want. They want you to come in and fix it, as opposed to they want to have you come in and show them where they are lacking, where they need some development, where they need to engage a little bit more authentically and deeply with the talent around, you know, and not just pay lip service to values and vision. So I'm just curious about your experience with navigating that sort of dynamic, if that's the dynamic that you experience.

You're exactly right. You know, I have people say, "Is there— what's the magic pill?" You know, or they think they can just engage you for a quick training lesson, you know, and then it's done. And it's like, there is no— you've got to put in the work, right? You've got to believe that people really matter and put in the time and effort. The top question I get when I'm out there speaking, someone always raises their hand and says, "Now, what do I do if my leader What do I do if my leader is the one who's the problem? So one, that's sad. Two, you're kind of leading them down that path of an idea like playing Cards for Culture would be a great thing to do with your leader because you need to show them how you need to better live your, live your brand, right? This is about, you know, are we attracting and retaining the right people? Do we, do we just put it on the conference room walls and we hope people get it? Know what we mean. I always hear leaders say, "I'm so good. I trust my gut. I'm so good with people." And then it's like, "Well, then I'm sure you've never had any turnover, right?" And, you know, we know that's just, that's just not the case. So yeah, I mean, getting leaders on board. You mentioned your friend and colleague, like, DEI is so important in this, in this day, these days. We actually have elements of things. We are always looking for good partners, would gladly meet her, because that's not really our area of expertise. Like we're saying, "Hey, there's better people that can help you there." That's a piece of this. You should always value diverse perspective. But we're also looking at the greater whole of how do I become a best place to work in all ways? That's definitely one of them. And we would work that kind of into the plan. But, you know, it's, it's a full, like, all-encompassing approach. And what we're really asking is people just to be intentional. You know, don't wing it. They can't— you know, you wouldn't wing it with your financial plan. Why are you winging it with your people one?

Yeah, well, I love that you pointed to and recognize, you know, the blind spot, which is, you know, usually it's the leadership that's hiring you to work with the people below them. You know, because the idea is these people, we keep losing people, these people keep leaving, these people aren't willing to, you know, engage deeply in the culture work that we want to do and all that. And frequently, it's, it's because the people, those people are looking up to their leaders. For, to help them show the way, for them to model the very behavior that they say they want the people underneath them to, to engage with. And it's, as someone who has also done a lot of work in organizations with senior leadership, it is a delicate dance to help senior leadership see the thing that they don't see, which is that they are really complicit in the very problem that they are asking you to come solve. I'd love to shift over to the other side of, of what you do, because I'm like you and, uh, I have written some, uh, books and frequently am asked by aspiring and advancing authors, hey, I would like to do what you did, get a, a top seller on Amazon, get, um, you know, top seller in multiple categories and all that. What do you think is, you know, in an age where anyone can write a book, therefore anyone does write a book, It's both, you know, very liberating and it's great to see a democratization of the publishing process. At the same time, it does make it more challenging to get elevated above the fray. And so why should someone that's an influencer or a leader write a book? And then how can they go about doing that in a way that actually releases a product that's going to be seen and have an impact?

Great question. So the why— we see all kinds of whys, and it ranges from, you know, I just want to share my expertise, um, I want to get more business. That's really what we're trying to engage, right? How can we get more business, more speaking engagements, podcasts, more project work? Um, some people are writing just for professional development, or they want to leave a legacy, right? So there's a multitude of reasons why someone writes. You also mentioned the barriers. Yeah, um, not knowing how to do it is often a barrier. Where do I even start? Or could I fill an entire book? I don't have enough to say. And then often the cost question, like how can I even pay for this? And there's wild discrepancies between like you can do it for no cost if you do it all yourself, or you could do it for a ton of money and you get ghostwriters, right? So there's that blend. So we've tried to remove a lot of those barriers and the how really behind this then is I would recommend if you know you write, or maybe I didn't even know I was a writer, you have something to say, maybe you want to figure it out. We do a lot of collective stories. So yes, we have solo opportunities if that's what you really want. You have enough content and know-how, that's more expensive. But I love the idea of we're sitting in the business sector, we find the theme. So example, right now we're working on a Sales Fusion book and the idea is we want sales gurus, right? Maybe that's someone who's a CRM expert, been in sales a long time, a sales coach, someone who knows that to sell you need to have great marketing. You know, there's a variety of things you could really hit on from a sales perspective. We pull all those leaders in, we get them to write one amazing chapter. We say one chapter, one headshot, one bio under a common theme or umbrella topic. And then the magical moment, if you will, is, I mean, we do all the heavy lifting behind the scenes. So the publishing, the editing, all that stuff, helping get it on Amazon. The marketing is really the amazing piece with the collective because you get to, you get a lot of lift by putting out a book with multiple people in the same sector. You know, they're going to read that book and they're going to go, eh, I don't really like this one's chapter, but I love this. And so I want to know more. And the idea is that it— they reach out, they connect on LinkedIn, or maybe they want to engage that person in, in business or ask them to be a speaker. So, um, that's how we're doing it. And that, that business of mine is called Influence Network Media. So we are— we have a site, it's a group community that we've started, as well as a LinkedIn page. But we're always looking for people that have that interest.

Yeah, I love that. Um, that's, that's such great advice, the idea of collaborative work with multiple authors, because everybody, anybody can write a chapter. And leveraging the power of multiple authors and their audiences to get a book to have higher visibility. One of the things that I'm often struck by when someone asks me for advice about writing a book is I, I'll say, well, show me some of your writing. And they say, I haven't written anything yet. It's like, well, then maybe before you tackle a book, maybe you should try a blog.

Yeah.

And for me, I rediscovered my love of writing kind of late in life. Uh, and, you know, I wrote 100 blog posts and then looked at all of them for the common theme, the thread that, you know, the topic that I, because I didn't know. Really what I was doing is just writing about things that interest me. And when I, when I found that theme, I was then able to just basically take a lot, several blog posts and pull them together into my first book. And a book doesn't have to be 300 pages. It can be, you know, a handbook. The first thing I ever wrote was just 3 pages long and it still sells for a dollar.

Yeah, that's, you know what, that's actually the trend is these shorter books that you can maybe even read in a setting. You'll even see kind of, we use the term microbook, right? And maybe that's just where you get started and it's a leave behind, it's a marketing promotion. Yeah, there's lots of ways to do it. And I'm still kind of surprised. It's funny, I don't always fashion myself an author, but it's like, I'm here, I'm doing this. I've got a couple out. We've got Leadership Fusion is gonna launch here soon, which we're excited about. Yeah, it's really opened some cool new doors. So it's been an exciting journey.

Well, the other thing that I would suggest is everybody thinks that the hardest part is writing the book. And that's, um, it is hard for sure. It's, it can be challenging, uh, can also be very rewarding. Um, what nobody tells you is that, um, once you have run the marathon of writing a book, you're going to get led by the hand to the next starting line of the next marathon, which is marketing the book. And, uh, so good to kind of launch both kind of simultaneously if you have a good idea of what you're writing about and can start to employ, um, some, some of the text, some of the images into your social media so that you're promoting the book even as you're writing it. It can be really, really, really helpful to make sure that when it does publish that you have some interest and maybe even some pre-sales so that you can have a successful launch. I love that. I'm, I'm guessing one of the things that I often like to do, Melanie, is ask guests about, like, how did you come to be doing what you're doing now? My guess is little 9-year-old Melanie didn't wake up one day and go, you know what I want to be? I want to be an HR professional. And maybe I'll write some books and do that too. So I'm just curious, what got you to point that you're doing what you're doing right now?

Yeah, my dad would cringe because I always tell the story that I really wanted to be a teacher. My parents were teachers. My dad was a high school principal. They're retired now. And he just basically was like, nope. Like, you know, I guess he saw a lot of politics and stuff he didn't really care for, and he encouraged me to go into business. And I just never looked back. I loved the people side, which I think why I wanted to teach. And I went into HR, been in HR over 22 years. I just kept Every job I got, I liked better than the next. Um, it's funny how when you look back on, you know, over 22 years, there's lots of stories and pieces that you can take. And how, um, I just always kept, kept an open eye for like, what's the next thing? I, I leaned into uncomfortable, you know. I— there were some things where I was like, I don't know, or can I do that job? And I just kind of kept, kept growing. Uh, the biggest leap was leaving corporate America, you know. I left a nice comfy corporate America job to start my own business 6 years ago. And I mean, I'm very thankful that I've been able to do that. But I think it was kind of embracing in my mind. I thought, I remember asking a prior leader, like, how did you ever start your own company? You must— I thought maybe he just had a ton of money, right? Like, you must have been left a lot of money by your family. I don't know. I didn't have parents who were business people who could teach me this. And what the answer is, it's really, it's a combination of, you know, hard work and making good connections. You know, I'm an avid networker and I always kind of did that and talking with people and being social and it's, it's been beneficial. So yeah, and when I hear, when I hear the word no, I don't, just like most people, I don't love that word. So I'm a constant like challenge the, you know, can, can it be done? Can we, can I get to yes? Like, how do I get there? How do we make that happen? And I've been thankful. Yeah, I just trying to make it happen.

Yeah. Well, what jumps out to me from that is I, like you, have found that I just, I feel like I keep winning the lottery because I, I began my life as a schoolteacher and taught at some reasonably famous places that, you know, some people would recognize names of and decided that that was what I really wanted to do. So I moved into, um, the coffee business, the wine business. Then I became a full-time musician, and then I became a guitar— opened a guitar studio. And now, you know, I've, I've been a head coach at Akembo for 4 years and have my own coaching practice. If I look at the common theme in all those things, teaching is what I've always been doing, or coaching is what I've always been doing. Um, and it just keeps, like you said, it just keeps getting better. Like every new gig feels like, oh, this is what I'm meant to do now. Um, and so, you know, I, I'm just curious about your thoughts on, you know, I think the thing that, that keeps people from exploring the edges of their understanding and ability and try and leaning into new interests and, um, you know, taking on new challenges and new, uh, careers or vocations or occupations or jobs or what have you is, um, you know, we, we don't have an educational or occupational system that really encourages us to explore our potential and, you know, find and define and, and deliver on our promise. Um, is any, any thoughts on that? Or, you know, what What enabled you to ignore the indoctrination of, you know, education of institutionalized education and keep seeking the edges of your understanding ability and pushing through?

It kind of reminds me of, you know, when I first got out of school, I remember a lot of recruitment happening for salespeople and I was afraid of that terminology and I had a business degree and an HR degree. And I thought, sales, like, I can't do sales. What am I going to sell? I'm a, you know, I'm a novice. And as I've progressed in my career, what I now recognize as networking and people connection and solving problems— oh, by the way, that's actually sales, right? So this thing that I was like kind of afraid of, now as I look at it, I'm kind of a unicorn, right? In the fact that I am an HR person who also likes to sell. That doesn't happen very often. But it's been good for me and for my business. I also thought when I went in, I was going to just be a solopreneur for the rest of my life. I didn't think about building a team. So even kind of hearing you say that, these changes keep happening and I just have embraced it. I merged my company with People First Talent and Retention just earlier this year. And the idea was I can't do it all by myself. And that's hard for someone who— I'd been a now solopreneur, lone wolf for 5 years. And I was like, okay, I'm going to merge because I really do think we're stronger together. I can't do the recruiting by myself. That's not my passion, right? Or all the HR services and project work. There's no way. I can only serve a few clients. But if I band together with my now teammates, Alex and Will, and our team, proud to say we have a small team of 7, which sounds so huge when you were a solopreneur. Just keep leaning in. And, you know, I had to really come to terms with like that idea that I'm a little bit of a unicorn, which I now I take great pride in. I think it's a very entrepreneurial term as well.

So yeah, no, I love that. Yeah, I think all of us could use a little, a little more experience in just embracing uncertainty and leaning into You know, leaning into the challenges and the adversity that you're going to face if you're doing anything worth doing. Well, we're coming up to the end of our time together, Melody. Two quick last questions. The first is one of the things that seems to be a common theme amongst guests on this broadcast is that, you know, real moments of, you know, epiphanies or success often come on the heels of an event that at the time might have been perceived as a, as a misfortune or a failure of some sort. I'm just wondering if there's a moment in your, the arc of your career where, you know, a significant challenge, misfortune, failure, at least what appeared to be a failure at the time occurred, and you were able to flip that into either an opportunity or a lesson that helped you then push through, if there's any kind of example like that from your experience.

Absolutely. You're like, you're reading my mind here. So quick, the quick story is, you know, as I was working in companies, corporate America, I was working at a smaller organization. We had been trying to become a Best Place to Work. And I'd been there for 4 years. We're doing our survey. We finally got invited to the, this, the big pep rally, the Best Place to Work pep rally here in Cincinnati. And the team was excited. We had agreed to give everyone at our location a half day off to go to it. Like it was a big deal. We wore matching t-shirts and had pom-poms and all that good stuff. In the morning of the event, my leader decided he wasn't going to attend, my CEO. And I had that heartbreak moment of, you know, I had led the horse to water, but I couldn't make him drink. And it was, that was the moment for me. That was the aha moment where I thought, what am I doing? And am I just going to be serving this company and purpose, you know, this person forever? When I see that other organizations and lots of organizations really want to embrace great culture and their people and how to drive a great business because of it. So that was a turning point for me. When I speak, I show the picture of these 15 amazing coworkers, and we're holding our trophy because we won that day. It was a great day. But someone's missing from that picture. And now when I look at that picture, you know, there's only 2 people out of the 15 that were there. There's only 2 left. Now, granted, it is 6 years later, but they were great leaders, great people. And that just goes to show, you know, good people don't stay working for leaders that don't believe in them and don't show up on the most important days. And so for me, that was that moment of, okay, I'm gonna take this— this is sour grapes— and turn them into something else. And I actually did, you know, I kind of say tongue-in-cheek, I resigned pretty quickly thereafter. Um, I did what you're supposed to do in HR, you know, I hired my replacement and wrote myself a nice severance package. Um, but you know, I did all those things to transition out, but I knew I just had a bigger goal and something else I needed to accomplish in life.

Yeah, well, what I love about that story is we, you know, work is an interesting thing. All living creatures work. They transfer energy. You know, plants do it by converting sunlight and nutrients and water into buds and fruit. And human beings are unique in that We kind of, we build identity and forge meaning in our lives through the work we do. And you cannot put, undervalue the importance of being in a place where you are seen as of value and belonging and that you're working towards something worthwhile. So I just love that story because I think it inspires, can inspire others to not settle for a situation where they are not being valued, where they do not feel they belong, and where they do not feel they're making a contribution. The final question is always, and you've already shared quite, quite a few insights that I think anybody that seeks to define and deliver the difference only they can make can leverage. But if there was just one final insight, lesson, exercise, quote, mantra, whatever, you know, for someone that's here tuning in, listening in, who would like you have done, fly a little bit higher in the difference only they can make, what would you share with them?

I know it'd be something around, you know, to the business leaders that might be listening to this, you know, people may come for your business or what you offer, but they're going to stay for the culture, right? It matters how we treat people. And I find myself saying all the time, you know, we have to make more decisions and lead with heart. You know, we would be in a better place. We cannot separate— this isn't, I know people say, right, separating church and state, or however you want to say it, right? But business and heart have to go together as well. We have to figure out a way to lead and remember that we have those human moments. And we can have success even, even in doing that.

I love that. I think all business is about human-to-human. Endeavor, not B2B, B2C, or all the other ridiculous things that we come up with. That's really very much appreciated. Well, we want to thank everyone for tuning in. Melody and I really appreciate you lending us some of your valuable time and attention. If you would like to— sorry, we hope this broadcast motivates you to take a bolder step into possibility, living your legacy. You can learn more about Melody and the difference that she's making at Thrive with MB. And of course, it is always great to see you at creativeonpurpose.com as well. If you're listening to this as a podcast, please consider leaving a 5-star review. It helps more of the right people find and tune into the wisdom shared by our guests. And now take the insight and inspiration from this conversation to fly a little bit higher in the difference only you can make. Melanie Buer, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom and time with us today.

Thank you so much.