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​Russ Johns
And it's another beautiful day in the pirate broadcast and we are live and we are streaming to a few platforms today and if you have any questions, please drop them into the comments here and love to try to get you an answer as soon as possible. So today we have a speaker and a writer and an awesome individual. Lisa, good morning. How are you?

Lisa Fenton
Good morning. I'm great Russ. How are you?

Russ Johns
Excellent. Excellent. So, you know, we're connected on LinkedIn and we're having a conversation, we had a conversation a while ago and we talking about different aspects of, you know, life and, and liberty in pursuing our goals and our mission and some of the things that we're doing. And, you know, a lot of times we have, you know, regular life that hits us in the face and you know, it's like, okay, we have things that we have to get done, when things we want to get done. And you've been doing a little bit of both working in, in transitioning into what you pursue and what you love. And tell us a little bit of bring us up to speed about what that is and what your what your focus in on your passion.

Lisa Fenton
sure, thank you so much. Um, I first want to just share that Russ the experience on the pirate podcast is amazing. All your behind the scenes processes. I really appreciate them. Having been on other podcasts, it's wonderful. Experienced to join you today. So thank you for all you do behind the scenes.

Russ Johns
That's so kind I have you know, my admin Mel who is also my sister. And I have a team of people that helped me put this all together, so I gotta give them credit. And, you know, one of the things that I love about this is that, you know, I've spent years in broadcast and radio and technology and all that kind of stuff. And building this system for the pirate broadcast is allowed me to build systems that I can share with other people. So that's, that's, I'm producing the pirate syndicate. So I can actually help a lot of other business owners and people and individuals that want to be on there that don't necessarily want to hassle with the headache of technology. They just want to show up and do the work, you know, do the broadcast, and then we do everything else. So that's on the way, and we can talk about that in another episode, but I want to focus it on you, Lisa, I want to focus it on, you know, the fact that you're writing and you're creating content and you're getting it out there in the world. And, and I know you, you have other things in that you're doing. So I want to I want to share that with everyone. You know, what are you writing about? What's your what's your focus, in your writing in development that you're going with them in your life?

Lisa Fenton
Sure, thank you. So I made a decision a couple of years ago, I do work full time. So I do this on the side in my spare time. And I made a decision to help others with their journey of returning to work after a gap. Because I was fortunate I had the opportunity to stay home with our three boys for 12 years. And then I went back to the workforce and that was a huge challenge. Just trying to figure out you know, how to start where to start. How not to spend a lot of money doing it. I'm not to spend a lot of time trying to upgrade, just all those kinds of challenges that you face as a mom or as somebody who's had a gap, trying to go back into the workforce. So I just want to share a little quick story about, you know, how I kind of first started back so, you know, I was a mom, so what did I do? So I decided, Okay, I need to be professional. So I went out, you know, got a haircut, bought a new suit, thought, you know, how am I going to start networking because, honestly, after being home all those years, it was a challenge. So our group, our purchasing group at the time was called p Mac. And they had a free event that was coming up in Toronto. It was at the Westin harbour castle hotel on right on Lake Ontario beautiful spot. So they were having a free sustainability event. And I thought, great, you know, I need to get educated I need to update myself on what's new and happening in the field of supply chain. So I challenged Myself, I thought, well, how am I going to really prepare and get the most out of this event? So I made myself a little networking card, you know, got on my suit, got my haircut, got my free pass on the go train, which is 45 minute ride into Toronto, and spent those 45 minutes just telling myself, I'm going to go out there and I'm going to say hello to people. Tell them where I'm at what I'm looking for, see if there's any opportunities. And so I did, I showed up at the hotel. And before I went into the event, I kind of collected myself I stood back from the entrance

Russ Johns
if you're going into networking every day, right?

Lisa Fenton
No, I mean,

Russ Johns
this is like a new adventure for me.

Lisa Fenton
I mean, you know, my focus had been fish crackers and, and cartoons and all that kind of, you know, the world of kids and being a stay at home mom, right? Right. So here I am at this huge event in this beautiful hotel, and I'm all set to go. I've got Everything. So I stand back from the entrance and I kind of give myself a pep talk, I say, you know what, you're no different than them. The only difference is you don't have a title under your Hello badge. So that I'm going to go, I'm going to do this, I'm going to walk through that door. And I'm just going to have fun with it. And that's what I did. And the most amazing people were at the event was an incredible educational update on sustainability and what was happening in the industry. And one of the ladies I spoke to amongst a couple hundred people that were there was actually the editor of the supply chain magazine. So I was sharing my journey with her, just, you know, telling her what I was doing. And she invited me to write an article. And so that's how my writing career started.

Russ Johns
She invited you to write an article.

Lisa Fenton
Yeah. about my journey about getting back to work.

Unknown Speaker
You know,

Lisa Fenton
we're You know, we talked about having challenging. I'm getting some feedback right here so I'm going to adjust this. Okay? That's okay. Let's see if we can fix this okay. Okay, can you hear me now?

Lisa Fenton
I can hear you.

Russ Johns
Well, that's a gymnastics. Holy cow. Alright, so if you're on LinkedIn, and the broadcast just happened to show up. It was I was streaming to Facebook, YouTube, Periscope, but not LinkedIn. Apparently LinkedIn kicked me out of the account. So. So anyway, however we are on every other platform. So Lisa, we're getting a little feedback, but that's Can you hear that or is it sound?

Lisa Fenton
I hear you? You're good. Okay, cool.

Russ Johns
So you wrote an article. You started writing for this magazine. And, and so where did that take you? Where did that little snippet of interest and activity in joining a networking group showing up? Because showing up is so important, and we have to show up in order to accomplish anything, right?

Lisa Fenton
Yeah, for sure. Absolutely. I mean, just taking that first step, and just having that little bit of momentum, I think really helped, you know, just helped your confidence, right? I mean, you've been at home all that time, you're not sure about what the work world is like. You're jumping into a room full of hundreds of people and presenters and vendors and just, you know, are they going to accept you? That's huge, right. And I think if you just relax and have fun with it, you'd be surprised where you can go.

Russ Johns
Oh, it's amazing what how far you can go when and here's the thing is in pirate broadcast is proof of this is whatever you love to do. Just go do it and do be consistent. It doesn't take massive action overnight. It takes consistent action every day. And that's really what it's all about is just show up, do the work, continue to be there. And then people will get used to seeing you. And then all of a sudden, you're the resource. You're the person that they want to see.

Lisa Fenton
Yeah, absolutely. So, I mean, that was just kind of the beginning. Obviously, I, I did find a job a couple months later, and I was jumping back in kind of at an entry level position. And I stayed in that position for a few months and then it wasn't in supply chain, unfortunately. But that company had a planning department. So my probation was coming up and I decided to put my hand up for the position that came available in planning so you can imagine my boss was not happy. But I was lucky. Yeah. In that she supported me to move up internally. So that was a good step. yeah, it was fantastic. You know, it's sometimes it's hard to get that support. But I was honest, when I went into the interview for the first position that I had there and said, You know, I really want to get back into supply chain someday. So they knew that that was kind of a goal that I had in the future. And neither of us knew that that would come in so quickly in three months, right,

Russ Johns
right.

Lisa Fenton
But we all looked at it positively. And I told her, you know, I can help your team so much more on the other side, because I know exactly the questions you have on this side. So yeah, so I was lucky she was a good person and let me go forward.

Russ Johns
This is a great to have a mentor that actually really enjoys helping.

Lisa Fenton
Yeah, for sure. It makes a huge difference.

Russ Johns
It makes a huge difference. And the thing that we have to appreciate is that leaders help others lead. You know, they lift each other up. They encourage everyone around them. And they just, it's just amazing. And it's just so refreshing when, when somebody is in your life like that, and I'm sure you had a few people that have been like that, you know, even online, we were talking about Wendy and in you know, she's such an encourager, there's so many would have had on the show that have been a little tips like Hani, you mentioned that, you know, little ideas that they share, that you can actually produce results with all the time. And it's just just so so wonderful. People are great, and they love to help. I think inherently everyone is kind and has some generosity built in. And if you just allow people to be themselves, you know, and not be Beat him up or beat him down. It's really encouraging to see how, much we can grow.

Lisa Fenton
Yeah, for sure. And I mean, we all have something in common, some little tidbit that we're trying to accomplish that, you know, you might be in a different industry or in a different position. But at the end of the day that that commonality can help both of you find solutions that you never really thought about in the first place, which I find so fun.

Russ Johns
So, so after you've got that, and now you're in logistics now,

Lisa Fenton
yes, yep.

Russ Johns
That's an industry has made some major changes. Changing in like right now, supply chain for those that don't know what supply chain means. Can you kind of explain that because it's, it's an important industry. It's like critical to our survival. Right.

Lisa Fenton
Yeah. And that's been challenged a lot, right?

Russ Johns
Yes.

Lisa Fenton
Especially here in Canada, I don't know if you know we have, obviously we have the challenge of what's going on overseas. And locally we have also our Canadian railway is basically it was at a stop standstill for a couple weeks. I'm hoping that the situation gets resolved fairly soon, I haven't seen anything to say that we're up and going. Again, we're kind of, I think, still trying to work through those challenges, which I'm just going to cross my fingers they resolve themselves. Because supply chain involves getting the goods you know, from, where they're produced, all the way to your location, and then you being able to get it to your customer and your customer giving it to their customer. So it's a whole end to end process of logistics and there's so many variables along the way and so many challenges that can happen Example The current environment right now. So yeah, it's, yeah, we're just crossing our fingers here in Canada.

Russ Johns
So I would anticipate that, you know, all of those challenges, create circumstances where you have to get really creative. And that creativity spills over into your writing. I wouldn't anticipate. I mean, that's a side effect that you can enjoy.

Lisa Fenton
Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, on my on my side hustle, I'm kind of trying to get women and those who've had a gap, to look at going back to work, but I also want them to focus on negotiating. So negotiating is huge in supply chain. And that's kind of where the two kind of come into play together. So I want people to think about, you know, it's not just your salary that you need to be concerned about. It's all those additional forms that you know, you don't think about your educational reimbursement Like professional dues professional days off, even days off paid for philanthropy, like volunteering events, you know, all those kinds of things can really help you feel like you're contributing at a different level than if you were just getting your salary. Right. Right. And, and it adds up so much over the course of your career that some people don't realize. It's critical for that first career position to negotiate because there's stats that say if you negotiate $5,000 more for that first career over the course of your 40 year career, it can make between 600 and a million dollars more.

Russ Johns
Wow.

Lisa Fenton
Yeah,

Russ Johns
it's a huge impact. And I think a lot of people now are also negotiating for time away. You know, rather than two weeks off, you know, the potential sabbatical every so many years, you know, the ability and the opportunity to change from being a valued employee to being a number to be replaced is, I think evolving as well, companies are realizing that it's not as easy to, you know, replace good employees. It's a costly endeavor, you know, replacing that employee is expensive, and training them getting up to speed and the culture and everything about it. So, you know, we need to have our negotiating skills and we need to be able to do that. So what are some skills that a lot of people are interested in negotiating for? What are a lot of elements in that negotiation? Whether it's time money, education?

Lisa Fenton
Yeah, so I mean, there's just it's just endless. I mean, if you haven't home office, maybe you can negotiate you know, getting some of those That type of equipment paid for if you're into fitness, maybe you can have them help you pay for your fitness membership. You know, like you mentioned, if you're interested in a personal journey, time off or time to educate yourself about that area of interest. I mean, it's really endless. The things that you can consider it's just a lot of people don't look at the whole package, they just concern themselves with the dollars and really all those extra things can add up to so much value over the course of your career and help you with, you know, more balanced work life balance.

Russ Johns
It's so when you talk about work life balance, what is it that you're specifically referring to?

Russ Johns
Yeah, that's a challegne

Russ Johns
it's really kind of this ominous thing that you know, it's like, okay, it's not really defined in anybody's book. So you know, You?

Lisa Fenton
Well, you know, I'll give you an example. Okay for for myself, recently, our company, we used to work 830 to 430, every day, Monday to Friday, and then we had summer hours, which were a little different in the summer. But recently, they said to us, you know, here's the schedule of different hours that you can work. So you know, you can pick between all these different options. And then you know, you can just make sure that you're here on that time and, and we'll give it a test run, we'll see how it goes. And so we gave it a test run and everybody was fine, you know, the world didn't fall apart. Everybody was still there during their core hours, but it just makes it easier. You know, if you have to be dropping your kids off, and you can't be until later or the reverse if you want to be an early to be home for your kids. So it just gives you I guess it's just giving people options to feel like they have a little bit more control over their every day. schedule, I guess?

Russ Johns
Well, that was one thing I never really truly understood. I mean, everybody complains about traffic, but nobody does anything about it. And if companies were just to take a moment and say, Let's all have flexible hours, let's work from, you know, 6am to 9pm. And some people would work in the morning some people work at night and employees could actually make adjustments to each department so it's there's covered it all and and we could expand that commute or that travel into the office a little different, or you know, some people are morning people, some people are evening people. And it just to me, it makes a lot of logic. You know, we're crossing time zones now. We're a global organizations, you're probably shipping and moving products and services, you know, across multiple time zones, mostly products, but I can't imagine that it would be a deficit in an organization to have be open longer. I don't know. It's just my math.

Lisa Fenton
Yeah. Yeah, I mean, for myself, I come in in the morning, I took an early option. And so I started seven, I finish at three. And that allows me to go home and do what I want to do. I can write, I can do podcasts, I can do blogs, you know, I can prepare for speaking events, whatever, whatever I'm trying to get done and, and it just makes it a little bit easier for me. But in terms of work, I mean, like you said, in supply chain, it's happening all the time. So I go in in the morning, my mailbox is full, you know, overseas has been chatting to me all night. And, and I'm okay I you know, I start my day and, you know, they'll get their answer the next day. It doesn't. It's, it's always going to be the next day anyway, right? So it really doesn't matter that much for myself, and You know, and there's certain areas that if I go in and answer first thing in the morning, it's better because for Finland, for example, they're there for a couple hours. And you know, we can communicate maybe for an hour or two before they end their day. Yeah. So it just depends on your job and your industry and what's going on. But I mean, flexibility just helps people feel like to have a little bit more control.

Russ Johns
Well, in a mother of three boys, you know, you have developed the skill of being flexible, right?

Lisa Fenton
Oh, yeah.

Russ Johns
things are going to happen. Life is going to take place, you know, cooking adventures, you know, school, whatever it happens to be. That is a training ground for some of the most arduous flexible moments of your life. It's like, so you're in the right category. If I can get three boys around town I can get. I can get products from West Coast, East Coast. So it's fantastic. I love that you're now using this skill from your experience and taking it and producing it for other people coming back into the work force. So is that? Do you find a lot of challenges? What's the biggest challenges you've come across on a regular basis when you're talking to people?

Lisa Fenton
Yes. So, yeah, so there's a few things. One is that, you know, all of us somewhere have these huge talents that we don't really highlight, I guess. And I think when you've had a gap, you're kind of nervous to share what you did during that gap. But whatever it is, I mean, if you cared for an elderly parent, you were scheduling, you were monitoring, maybe financial funds, you were, you know, time management, getting, you know, just all these kinds of skills that you don't really Think are important, but they're so transferable into so many different areas that you really have to highlight that. And then I think the other thing that I want to share is some LinkedIn has been wonderful. I think if you really put yourself out there and connect with people, you'll be surprised where it ends up. I want to share just one connection that I did. In October of 2018, I reached out to a lady to share my journey. And with them, we hopped on a zoom call. And then we had a podcast together and then I wrote a couple blogs for them. Then they did another podcast with her. Then I ended up actually going to Chicago to Northwestern University. And I had the opportunity to speak on a panel there about returning to work and none of this would have happened. Russ without LinkedIn. I mean, I didn't know this lady. You know, I never heard about her organization. It all just started with a connection.

Russ Johns
We are one conversation away from making a difference in somebody's life, or making a difference in our life. Right? Yeah. And that's all it takes. And I, I know, I sound like a broken record sometimes, but it's really important to reach out. If you're thinking about having a conversation with somebody, just have the conversation. You know, we're all we're all busy, we all have things to do in our life. And if you don't ask, the answer will always be no. And you know, I don't sell anything, per se online because I'm, you know, it's just not my style. However, all of my work that comes to me is because I have relationships with people you know, I've developed a relationship people understand how I can help them and and what it is that I can help them with. So Reaching out building those relationships, then when somebody pops up and says, I need this help, you know, people reach out to me. And that's the same way with anyone, you know, you have a gift that people can actually come to you and you can help them. You know, you can encourage them, you can get them in involved in maybe some activities, networking or involved in a group in LinkedIn. There's all kinds of activities that we have nowadays. So what What's your goal for the next 1218 months? What would you like to see happen?

Lisa Fenton
Well, I'm going to try to get some more speaking opportunities, but I have a few things on the go. I have a few more articles that are going to be published in the spring, a couple blogs and then an article with the purchasing Association coming out in the spring. I'm going to hop on a radio show with a lady from LinkedIn in the spring. That should be fun. I've never done that before. So yeah, I'm just looking to connect with people if they need help on their return to work journey in any way I can help. And just have fun with it and see where it goes.

Russ Johns
Wow. That's, that's awesome. So tell us, you know, before we go away today, I want to make sure that you share a few nuggets of knowledge that you know, you want to leave with the world and make sure that we have some Lisa wisdom to go about our day. So what would what would be the biggest thing that you'd want to share with the Pirate community today?

Lisa Fenton
Well, I think we're just hard on ourselves. Sometimes we just don't give ourselves enough credit. Like I mentioned, you know, share those skills that you think might not be important because they actually are and just have fun with it. Go out there and, you know, reach out to people, like I said on LinkedIn. Just have fun. Have fun and learn and help others and I don't think you can go wrong.

Russ Johns
No, no. I love the the idea in the journey of learning. I love learning and I love being curious. I love being curious about what other people are doing like yourself. I love finding out a little bit more about what you're doing. And then hopefully get to shine the light on what you're doing and and hopefully that'll bring some new conversations to the table.

Lisa Fenton
Oh, thank you so much Russ. It's been so much fun being here today.

Russ Johns
Well, we ran into a few couple of challenges. And you know what, we can get past that and we can do we can do multiple shows in the future. So as you grow and expand your business and you know you have more conversations and you're on radio shows and everything else, just just remember me Here is a private broadcast and say thanks that was a pirate. I'm a pirate still.

Lisa Fenton
Actually was almost a pirate this morning. Remember my earrings?

Russ Johns
Yes. That's so fun. Well, thank you, Lisa so much for being here. I really appreciate you and everything you're doing and all the, you know, gratitude in the world for the people that have joined us here. And, and let's go out in the world and make it matter because you know what? kindness is cool. smiles are free. So, thanks so much for being here. Lisa.

Lisa Fenton
Thank you so much Russ,

Russ Johns
I love and I look forward to our next conversation. Take care

Transcribed by https://otter.ai