Erica: Hey, girl. By now, you know I have HER Collective, my online community for ambitious women who are done doing it alone. HER Collective is for the women who are smart, capable, and driven, but they find themselves stuck on the sticky floors like self doubt, burnout, and waiting for permission that quite honestly never comes. Inside HER, you get more than motivation. You get real support, real strategies, and real momentum.

Erica: We work on things like clarifying what you want now and what's coming next, building confidence without burning yourself out, navigating hard conversations, career moves, and leadership moments with clarity, and surrounding yourself with women who actually get it. This isn't about hustling harder. It's about moving intentionally with the right tools and the right people in your corner. If you're ready to stop spinning, start choosing yourself, and build a career in life that actually feels aligned, I'd love to welcome you inside HER Collective. You can learn more and join us at www.joinhercollective.com.

Erica: Because honestly, girl, you were never meant to do this alone.

Erica: Thank you guys for joining. This is the podcast from now to next. I am your host, Erica Rooney, and I am super excited today because we have Kelsey Schnittgen with us. And, yes, I had to say her last name six times to make sure that I got it right, but I think I did a pretty good job. But Kelsey is the chief people officer at Mission Critical Solutions, and she has over fifteen years of experience in all things HR.

Erica: She has grown a one person office to a talent and people division that leads talent acquisition, people and culture, talent management, conflict management, leadership and development, and executive strategy. So Kelsey is currently on the Forbes Human Resource Council, the director of career development for girl.gov foundation board. She is a founding council member of Hacking HR Experts and mentor for NextGen Talent Mentorship Program. So she is here with us today because she is super passionate about sharing her experiences and her insights with future leaders, and she is based in Chicago. So welcome, Kelsey.

Kelsey: Hi, Erica. Thank you. Awesome to have you

Erica: here today. I appreciate you taking the time. How are you?

Kelsey: I'm wonderful. I'm happy to be here.

Erica: Awesome. Good. Well, let's jump right in. Tell me a little bit about who you are outside of all of the wonderful things HR that we talked about.

Kelsey: Yeah. So, I live in Chicago with my husband. I'm originally from Illinois, and I moved to Florida when I was 19 and transferred school there. And when I left college, frankly, I was a bachelor of fine arts. This was not the route.

Kelsey: And my parents said, you have to get a job. And my first position out of school was what was called an administrator position. It's really, a junior recruiter recruiting coordinator position in today's world. And, it really led me into this industry. I was before it would have matter four years.

Kelsey: I was opening up satellite offices. I was coaching individuals on how to recruit. It was heavy sales, b two b type of marketing and recruiting. And from there, my my career really tick off, and I've been I've been able to, travel and move to California and now back to Chicago where I live right now. And during that time, I started with Mission Critical Solutions going on my tenth year, last month.

Kelsey: Started there as a corporate recruiter and worked my way up to a recruiting manager, director, a VP, and now our CPO. I am the first female, director VP and chief executive. I currently am our only female executive. We we have had others, but right now for the board, that's just me. And it's been a fantastic run.

Kelsey: So I've been really lucky with my opportunity at Mission Critical Solutions. We're a technology company, and we heavily focused in the commercial and federal sector. And we, service six different technology, birth to death services anywhere from a air force base, a government building, the VA, the space command center to a hospital. So it's a really wide range of of challenges that I get to experience, which is fantastic.

Erica: Wow. Yeah. That sounds amazing. That sounds Yeah. So really cool.

Erica: So let's also just jump right in too. So you and I had met before and talked before about sticky floor moments and glass ceilings. So Yeah. What was your sticky floor?

Kelsey: So I was thinking about this, and I think it has changed over the years for me. But I think when I first began, something that was and I and I'll be honest with you, Erica. I think at times I still struggle with it, is I am terrible at providing visibility on myself. And that sounds like a poor me, but it's actually a really bad habit. It causes a lot of challenges.

Kelsey: It's a very bad behavior of mine. My my job is sort of to be strategic and to lead and put out fires and and create and manage all employer related pieces for the company. And sometimes I am sort of head down working those or really focused on my team being visible or really focused on their numbers showing that I am not great about, putting that on myself. I'm remote, my CEOs in Florida. And even though I've been under them for many, many years now, we don't speak every day.

Kelsey: We both have very busy jobs. It has caused pain points for me where I have to then go back and really prove my work, defend my work. And it's not that I'm being questioned. I'm just not showing enough visibility on my own personal data. I focus a lot, like I said, on my team or the data of the company, and I'm just sort of moving.

Kelsey: I'm just getting things done, and that's a really comfortable link for me. But it causes it causes issues with my communication with my CEO. And that's the most important is our communication. So when I sort of forget to showcase myself or my thinking or my opinion, it's not even maybe my work. It's sometimes I'm not vocal enough in a meeting.

Kelsey: Sometimes I'm not visible enough in the conversation. I'm sort of listening too much or I I I tend to take in and then later on have a viewpoint. I'm not as reactive as some of the people around me. There's a lot of benefits to that, and then there's areas where that's can be a really bad behavior. So that's something I constantly am aware of.

Erica: Gosh. Yeah. You said so many things there that I was just, like, had my brain dinging. Yeah. So and I think too, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, but being in that that executive role Yeah.

Erica: Be something that needs to get done and you do it.

Kelsey: Exactly. It's a huge thing,

Erica: and you don't necessarily talk about it. You just get it done. And then time goes by, and nobody's really aware. But it could be a very critical piece of the business that you just handle. Audit or a comp strategy or whatever.

Erica: And then six months goes by, nobody really knows you did

Kelsey: it but yourself. That's and I do so many little things or it's sometimes big, but I do so many I have so many quiet moments through the day. And we all work with other individuals who feel the need to acknowledge every time they do anything or make sure their boss knows or run to the CEO's office and and sort of be the hero for the day. I just don't live in that world. I wanna be acknowledged.

Kelsey: But I'm like, okay. Done. We got it. Let's move on. Great.

Kelsey: Done. And maybe that's because your, you know, your talent people department is just a nonstop sort of chaotic place to work that I forget to do that. And when you're the only female at the table, when you're the youngest by fifteen, twenty years at the table, it doesn't help then also to be really quiet. So you have to push yourself to be visible. I I had I was in Florida last week and had something that came up, and it wasn't extremely, priority high.

Kelsey: But it was important that I communicate this to my CEO. But I felt I was like, I usually wouldn't. This is not something I but he wants me to communicate. But this isn't so I went to another peer and said, okay. How how do I how do I communicate this?

Kelsey: And he's like, just say x. So I'm really great for others, but for myself, it's it's a very uncomfortable place for me.

Erica: Yeah. For sure. Are you the youngest executive at your table?

Kelsey: Yes. Oh, yes.

Erica: So it's very interesting because I actually did a different podcast recording, which we had a lot of these conversations. And when we hung up the phone, she called me back, and she was like, I completely didn't even think to bring this up. But she's like, if I'm not putting ageism as like a systemic thing out there. But I am the youngest person. I was the youngest VP and she's like, but it's not for a lack of years of experience.

Erica: She's like, I started working when

Kelsey: I was 16. Right. But now I'm

Erica: sitting at the table and I feel like I shouldn't say anything or I can't say anything or I just I think I should listen. Yep. And the moment passes you by. Mhmm. And it's very easy for those moments to pass by.

Erica: So, like, we really constantly have to be talking, you know, to ourselves and talking ourselves up like, okay. You have the right to say these things. You are sitting at this table Yes. Of your years of experience and your talent and all of that. So say

Kelsey: Yes. And my CEO wants me to speak. I when I, like, when I came, there was there was not a even a recruiting department. There was a person. There was a fax machine.

Kelsey: Well, we're we're a very it's a very different experience a decade later. We're a full department with many, you know, verticals of the department with an ATS and and proper, employee reporting and proper strategic thinking and and we have for the whole deal at this point. So I not only was having to be maybe the youngest VP or the young or the first female accent, and and those people are in their spots. A lot of them have been there fifteen, twenty five years. Like, they they really worked hard for those spots.

Kelsey: So I don't discredit them by any means. But I also was the first sort of HR resource at the table and the first, you know, person focusing on employees or development or talent or a talent management or operations of your people or train. So in general, any discussion I point I have up until, I'd say, the past three years, I now have, more senior leaders that are from sort of, I would say, the same generation of thinking as I am or the same sort of industry thinking as I am. Up until that point, a lot of my discussion points, my viewpoints, my conversations were were just new. They were just it was new dialogue at the table in general because it wasn't a focus for the first twenty years of this company.

Kelsey: How wonderful that we've been able to massively shift in the decade I've been there. But when you're sitting there and everyone's talking, so there has been times where I've had to say, like, I would love if I could just talk without being interrupted. Just give me two minutes to have a talk. You know what I mean? So that quiets you down.

Kelsey: That stops you from speaking up. So I've had to find ways to your point to say, I have the knowledge. I have the experience. Don't be afraid. Just speak up.

Kelsey: Because the fact is nothing bad happens when I do. It's just oh, the great point, Kelsey, and we and we discussed it or we move on. It's it's not that I'm being disciplined for it. So but that is a bad behavior of mine for sure. It's the hesitancy.

Erica: You know? Yeah. Yeah. I imagine too a lot of the people who are listening who have gone from maybe being in person to going remote with COVID and things like that, who were struggling with providing the visibility on themselves Mhmm. Find it even more complex being in a remote world because your boss isn't walking by your office.

Erica: You're not having lunch together. So there are even fewer opportunities to express the things that you're doing. Right? Like, someone's gonna be like, hey. Guess what I did today?

Kelsey: Let me take my hand and tell you. Yes. And all those small moments in an office where you do kind of just walk in people's and talk to them for, a quick thirty second chat to a ten minute, you sometimes don't have on your remote because you're not gonna bother people for that thirty second chat. Right? You're like, I'll speak to them tomorrow at that meeting, or we'll we'll I'll I'll cover all those five things when we talk tomorrow.

Kelsey: So you are more search strategic and sort of agenda focused in your conversations. There's a different sort of transaction that happens where when I'm in the building, I'm walking around, I'm knocking on doors, and I have more of those small moments. And to to my current experience, I'm also the only remote leader. So my entire executive team sits in house together, and then I'm remote. So I really have to be visible to sort of overcome discussions, conversations that I'm not sitting in the room for.

Kelsey: Somebody maybe is telling a narrative that's not correct. Whatever it may be, I have to be I have to make myself present to be able to, be just as visible as somebody in the building. And that is something I I put a ton of energy in. So it's really exhausting, but I am just as visible in certain ways, if not more visible than other leaders in the company because I am, you know, checking with and then with them having so many department meetings, so many one on one, sending so much information. But you're still people say, well, we don't get enough of you.

Kelsey: And you're like, I'm gonna what? Oh my gosh. You guys. It's like of me. Yeah.

Kelsey: Like, never enough. And it's just because I'm not there. I'm just not there.

Erica: Yeah. So you are dealing with the fact that you were the only woman on that team's account. You are the only remote person on that executive team, and you are the youngest owner. Youngest. So you have this trifecta of things.

Erica: And, I mean, I feel like I'm speaking for the world when I say this, but when you have these types of hybrid meetings, and this was like pre COVID. Right? Yeah. You have some meetings with some people on Zoom, others in the room. The people who are in the room are typically the people dominating the conversation.

Erica: A 100%. It very much becomes the table talking and then being like, oh, yeah, Kelsey, what do you think?

Kelsey: And it's always and it's like You already made a decision. Yeah. It's always at the end. So we'd have a full dialogue and go around, and then they would be like, Kelsey, did you have anything you wanna say? Do you have any questions?

Kelsey: It's like, well, we've already talked for two hours. No. I'm good. We're now I'm typically the first to go. So instead of going last, I'll go first.

Kelsey: And then my points are people are listening. They they're present. They're not exhausted. Because sometimes our meetings can be an hour and a half, two hours. They're long.

Kelsey: And so we try to have my CEO has been great about switching that where I typically will go first and present. And then that also helps, like, my piece of conversation maybe creatively brainstorm in areas that if I'm last, we don't even get to you because no one's really we're done for the day. So and I don't cover a p and l, and I don't cover heavy amounts of projects or or or, finance costs or inventory costs or schedule all sort of technology services related. We're touching big commercial and government buildings, and there's project managements and and and so many costs to that. Those in the moment can feel like much bigger topics than me wanting to talk about learning and development and employee related issues and data.

Kelsey: Right? Yeah. So it's if I go first, then I have them engaged and care about those pieces. But yeah.

Erica: That I think is a really great piece of advice for anyone who's kind of dealing with a hybrid team where Yeah. Some people are remote and others are in the room.

Kelsey: Yeah. Remote goes first. Yeah.

Erica: We are going to start remote goes first. I don't have no idea. I was recently I did some international travel. I went to India, and we had a couple people that could not make it. And so they these parcels dialed in, one from United States, one from Finland when we were on India time.

Erica: The number one, they're already tired. Right. But they they actually we assigned one person in the room to be, like, the point person to always be checking in with the remote team because there's a lot of people there. Yeah. So we had to say things like and I was actually the point person, but I would be like, okay, guys.

Erica: Hold on. Hold on. We gotta in with the remote team because I can see their eyes glassing over. Or if we were breaking for lunch, because we were all together, it was very easy for us to be like, well, we're back when we're back. We'll just go Yeah.

Erica: Right. Yep. Stop time, like, we're taking a five minute bio break or whatever it was. Yeah. So I think with the remote always going first, I think number one, that's an awesome strategy.

Erica: But then two, having, like, that point person to be like, what I think Kelsey's input would be really valuable if Right. And I'm gonna jump in on because let's face it. All these executives, we all have ideas, and we all wanna talk and Yes. You know? We're all fighting for that airtime.

Kelsey: Yes. Yes. Exactly.

Erica: Yes. Those could be two really valuable strategies for people who are are working.

Kelsey: Yeah. And it sounds small, and and I've learned my CEO's communication level. But especially at first we talk a lot about this for individuals who are more introverted, but I would say even in a remote setting, like, sending your agenda actually works.

Erica: Hey there, listeners. If you have ever felt like you're stuck in a place, held back by self doubt, perfectionism, or that pesky inner critic, you're not alone. We all face those sticky floors that keep us from reaching the heights we dream of. But guess what? It's time to shatter those limiting beliefs and toxic behaviors to uncover infinite possibilities.

Erica: My book, Glass Ceilings and Sticky Floors, is your ultimate guide to smashing through barriers, overcoming limiting beliefs, and stepping into your full potential. This book has been endorsed by none other than the great Mel Robbins, best selling author and motivational powerhouse. It's also been featured in Success Magazine, so you know it's packed with insights that work. Inside, you'll find real life sticky floor stories, practical strategies to help you navigate your own sticky floor moments, and a whole lot of inspiration to keep you climbing. This isn't just a book.

Erica: It's your roadmap to success, confidence, and freedom. Grab your copy of Glass Ceilings and Sticky Floors today at www.ericaandersonrooney.com. Whether you're in the boardroom, the classroom, or just starting out, this book is for you because no one, and I mean no one, deserves to stay stuck, no one deserves to feel small, and you have glass ceilings to shatter. Let's do this.

Kelsey: Going into the meeting and and making it clear you have points you wanna get to does stop some of the turns that meetings take in conversations where we're like, okay. But Kelsey actually emailed in four points she wants to cover, so let's make sure we get to those four points. So I have to do a lot more prep before I go into meetings. I can't just walk into a meeting and sit down and and make and know that I'm gonna be, given time to talk that day. I have to prep or make it clear I wanna speak, and that really also helps me.

Kelsey: And it holds me accountable because also if the meeting's going in a place that's dragging or we've it's just sometimes we all have we're like, oh, god. How the heck did we get here? You're you start to feel like today's not the day for me to bring this up. It's just not the day. So I'm gonna stop, and and then I don't bring it up.

Kelsey: So that also holds me accountable to speaking.

Erica: Yeah. Yeah. I like that. I love the sending of the agenda. So I think my next question too on providing visibility to self.

Erica: Like, I think that would be so big too. Do you feel like this is an area when it comes to, like, self promotion? Like, just all of the things that you have accomplished with not just your boss, but also the different leaders in your group and things like that. Like, how do you advocate for yourself as a leader?

Kelsey: I think part of my I mean, really honest with myself, I do allow anyone on my team, an up and coming leader, a director, anybody I'm collaborating with, I'll let them take the win. And I and I truly want them to because sometimes I'm in a moment of, I I don't need it. I'm at the top. I've I have access to every executive. I have access to resources and approvals and RC.

Kelsey: I I can make things move. Yeah. I'd rather showcase somebody else, whether they're in my department or not, that was just as valuable to this work that maybe needs that visibility more than I do. So I need I I have to really think about ways where it I can showcase that. Well, Erica was fantastic in a, b, and c, and this is where I was able to collaborate or keep her thinking or bring some advice or brainstorm with her or guide her, whatever it may be.

Kelsey: So I think part part of me is acknowledging my piece a little bit. And I think the other part of it is so we are we run very lean. We're a $90,000,000 company. I don't have a giant budget. I mind everything under me is overhead.

Kelsey: Right? We don't bill out a piece of of what I do. So we have really spent and we're growing massively right now. So we have spent the past year strategically thinking about how do we create more visibility for this department outside of our weekly meetings, weekly updates to our other departments, whatever it may be. And one of the things we've done is we built a, an we or we bought a document management system, sort of a master for all departments and workflows and ERPs and those types of things.

Kelsey: But we I have built out of, a people operations hub in this spit in this, platform. Yeah. Instead of you instead of everything being in my ATS or my Trello boards or emails or Excel spreadsheets, We are you want visibility? I'm gonna give you a ton. And we have built up everything we either are running from a recruiting HR standpoint or a task related or an update.

Kelsey: Anytime we're asking you or someone on your team, we're attacking you. Every single time there's an update on a on a case, on a hiring need, on a bid work, on a on a hire for your department, you're updated. And and not to annoy you, But if you want visibility, if you really don't understand how these types of departments run as the leaders of them, okay, I'm about to show you every single thing that happens every day. And so that has quieted down a lot of the noise.

Erica: Yeah. Mhmm. I imagine so because you're

Kelsey: just like, here it is. What do you need? Right. Not hiding it. I wasn't hiding it in the first place.

Kelsey: I didn't think you'd wanna know every but if you if you that really matters to you, no problem. You can go into our hub, and you can see all 30 tasks that are in progress already. You can see all 40 jobs, all the update. You can see everything and the conversations we're having with your leaders on your team. So that's part of it too is sometimes I've had a conversation over here.

Kelsey: My team has had a conversation over here, and there's this different dialogue happening. And instead of putting these emails and cc ing people, then people have feelings around all of that. Right? Okay. I'll just tag you on all these different little cases we have within your department, and you can just get the update for yourself.

Kelsey: Absolutely. Streamlining. Streamline it completely. Make it there's no way out of it. And I think that also helps their visibility.

Kelsey: Okay. Here's what I've done. This is why where your team has lagged in it. It stops me from being the bad guy, having to be the one who has to send, concerns or challenges. It's it's it's a lot more, I would say, data driven in some sense.

Kelsey: But I think that part of that is I I am not one is questioning individuals' work. I don't live in that world. And so but I work with some people that do, and so I'm happy to sort of make not it's not just me. It's my entire department. If you don't work in an HR recruiting department, you have no idea the amount of work it is.

Kelsey: I mean, we hire about 40 people a month, so we're not moving slow. Yeah. So it's no joke. So if you really wanna know how this rolls, no problem. I'll just make everything as clear.

Kelsey: So that's what I've done. I've just bombarded with visibility.

Erica: That's incredible. So when other women are listening to this podcast and they're like, I really struggle too with providing this visibility to myself. Right? Maybe they're in HR, maybe not. What kind of advice would you give to them so that they can start to provide that visibility to advocate for themselves in that way?

Kelsey: I would say know your data. I think knowing your your numbers, your wins for your department, how you've overcome some challenges, you have to really be aware of those pieces of information. You can't a lot of times, something might seem small, but I'll still sort of write it down for myself. I kind of a running list of all things we do weekly because it might feel small to me or it's something I handle that's all the time. But to my CFO, that might be a big win that is really important for them to be aware.

Kelsey: So I I'm I'm very aware of how to acknowledge every little piece that happens without the week without it being obnoxious. Right? But how do we really focus on what is important to my CEO? Okay. Well, growth, revenue, morale, turnover, issues with leaders, issues with hiring, all that.

Kelsey: I know his sort of pain points. Well, how can I every month make sure I'm showing where we're we're we're having progress in those areas or we're having discussions in in those areas? So that's one for me. I'd say the other is I really try to communicate to my CEO the great work myself and other leaders do together. So, for example, I had, a really fantastic meeting with one of our controllers when we're discussing transitioning all e employee files, and this is the research we've done and this are challenges, and we wanted to see your comfort level, but this is what we think.

Kelsey: Whatever it may be for me to go in and show show him that you're also your your leaders are working together, and we've come up with some great idea. And we're gonna hand we're not asking for you to do anything, but just tell us what your thoughts are. That he walks away with that and is like, oh, did you hear about what Kelsey and so and so were doing? So it's like, there's these little moments or, by the way, we had, a big concern. He'll call me a lot when we have concerns with an employee, and he'll quietly call me and be like, Kelsey, can you check into this, or will you look at that?

Kelsey: When I give him feedback of my decision making, nobody really likes. He really likes my judgment. He feels I'm, very rational, that I've really solid, decision making skills, that my judgment is very rational. So I showcase him that type of work a lot. Here's my thoughts

Erica: around that. This was this is a decision

Kelsey: I would take. So wherever I know I'm a strength to him as an executive for his company, I I try to showcase those wins to him as much as I can.

Erica: Yeah. So I really love how you talked about knowing your data. Right? And this Yeah. Especially pertinent for people who are not necessarily working in a deliverable type role.

Erica: Right? Right. You need to hit x dollars in sales or what have you. And one of the one of the it just brought me back to this memory of something from my team where, like, as we are always busy. This is a crazy market.

Erica: All these things are going on. When we looked at the number of employees that we grew over one one year, it wasn't a ton. Right? Yeah. And you're like, wow.

Erica: How are we so busy? And then when I looked back because attrition was so high because of COVID and the great resignation, I

Kelsey: was like, oh,

Erica: because we onboarded a tremendous amount, and we onboarded a tremendous amount. Like Right. So when you look at just that number of, like, we grew from x employees to here and and throwing out numbers. Let's say we grew by 25 people.

Kelsey: Yes. Not a lot.

Erica: But when you look at the number that left and then the number that came and when I showcase that to the executive team, everybody kinda had, like, this dang Yeah. Yeah. Moment because we had to source all those people. We had

Kelsey: to Yes.

Erica: All those people. So knowing knowing the data is, I think, really key. And then also what you said is showcasing your strengths. Right? And it's Yeah.

Erica: As a female and in leadership roles, like, we have a lot of strengths that I think connect with a wide base of the population that these men sitting at the table don't experience

Kelsey: and don't

Erica: have. And being that there are not as many females in those types of roles, it is critical to even expand on those strengths even more.

Kelsey: Yes. And I will say we showcase all data from the amount of resumes pulled. All I we showcase the entire pipe every week, every job. So they really understand how much work goes into these hires, how much difficulty it is. And sometimes we're we're hiring 20 plus a requisition, and sometimes we're hiring a top secret Cisco CCNP engineer in Wichita, Kansas.

Kelsey: You're like, okay. Well, let me work on this one. So it's this really wide range of individuals that we're we're profiling and trying to hire all at one time. So it's they they have no idea how much work it really takes, to make one hire. So I constantly and I don't care to speak of that.

Kelsey: I want my recruiters to speak their numbers. I want there there to be a respect level to their work. Right? And so on top of that, I am constantly saying be consistent in your tone. Be consistent in your decision making.

Kelsey: Be consistent in how you communicate through email, over the phone, in person. The more you are consistent, I personally feel, the more I have consistency in those areas, I have more wins without the company. There's no shock about my decisions. There's no shock where I stand. There's no shock by the tone of my voice.

Kelsey: Right? So I'm really consistent in my dialogue. And I think the overall and I was just talking to someone on my team about this today is the more you think of a overhead department as a p and l department, and the more you think how your data and your strategic wins bring revenue into the company, the more you will be awarded for your work and the more visibility you you will have because people are watching you and talking about you. So we discuss out loud to the company how running this project management training over the past nine months or, our referral program or making three hires in less than fifteen days. How all of those things actually brought this amount of money back into the company.

Kelsey: Because I don't bring money back into the company in the traditional sense. Right. So how do we showcase that? And, of course, morale and retention and turnover, those are also really important data pieces. But when we're just talking about having sort of these big wins for yourself as a female leader and as a a leader that doesn't that you're not being watched in the same way as your other departments that hold a p and l, you have to think of yourself as a mini business.

Kelsey: The more you think of yourself as a mini business, then you start to be recognized.

Erica: No. I love that train of thought. I love how you kinda spin it that way because not only are you the only female etcetera covered, but you are now also the only executive that has to operate in a different manner because you're not bringing that money back into the business.

Kelsey: Right. Everything we do is overhead. Everything we do is a cost. Yes. And even where I can say, well, it's not a cost because

Erica: it's

Kelsey: like, no. It is a cost because I can't cost. Yeah. I don't bill you an ounce of you out. So how do I constantly say to my CEO by doing by investing in these areas that were across the company or slow down a project or slow down starting somebody or or taking somebody out of meetings to put them in a training, how did that actually put money back in your pocket?

Kelsey: And I would say in the beginning, it was hard to see. And now five, six years later, we've really made that connection.

Erica: Yeah. So what challenges are you currently facing? I mean, you've talked a little bit about this is still kinda one that you do struggle with, but are there any challenges that you're currently facing as it relates to any sticky, donkey floors?

Kelsey: I think I think right now, just from the aspect of the company I work for, we are for the my first eight years or so, we were a $30 to $35 million company.

Erica: Yeah.

Kelsey: We're about to hit 90,000,000. So we've had this massive jump. Well, that's wonderful. And but the of as anyone would expect, there's there's major growing pains in that, but it's kind of a bigger picture, which is how do we at least from my department, I'll speak for that. How do I now communicate that while we might be running at a certain size and we might be pushing the needle and successful, we're still the size we were when we were a $30,000,000 company.

Kelsey: So how do I really explain to you why there is a need to expand this depart why to invest in larger resources for your talent, management side, to invest in a a fifth or sixth person, to really have a heavy HR side or a people operations side. How do I how do I showcase this? Because right now, we're doing it. So for me, that is a big I have to put together a case and explain my needs and compare to maybe an a company in a very similar size and what what sort of show what what it would look like somewhere else. Because I while we could continue to do it like this, I'm really only just burning people out left and right.

Kelsey: And so that is my biggest challenge right now is how to show that there is a need to invest in your your talent department more than you probably ever have.

Erica: Yeah. Showcasing that value, the work Yeah. All of that. Mhmm. Look at your eye.

Erica: You're looking at another look, but you're fine.

Kelsey: You're fine. You're doing it. What's the problem?

Erica: Yeah. This should be no problem. Absolutely.

Kelsey: Yeah. Yeah. Well, once

Erica: you tackle that challenge and you need which I feel like is the everyday HR battle. Right? Yes. Everybody's like, but do you really need that? Right.

Erica: Yes. Or is that nice to have? What what's next on the horizon for you? I mean, you do so much giving back to the community and giving back to

Kelsey: the entire world. Yeah. I don't know. My big focus of 2022 was to get on a board

Erica: Uh-huh.

Kelsey: To and to write. I really wanted to write professionally. I've I've I've been lucky to speak a lot, whether it's on panels, conferences, podcast, things like this, but I I I really hadn't stretched myself writing. And so when the Forbes Human Resources Council came along, that was a that was a great opportunity for me to expand myself and to get comfortable writing publicly and getting comfortable seeing my words out there, which for me feels different. It's very different than just speaking.

Kelsey: Right? So that was a big thing for me. Getting on a board was a huge, huge goal of mine. And then I was lucky enough to I I I was asked to be part of some mentorship councils. I think for me, I do wanna continue to stretch myself.

Kelsey: Of course, within my role right now, I feel very lucky to have the position I have, but there's a big passion for me on that development side. And where does that how how do I build and continue to push that internally and really make that almost like a mini little department for us if we can showcase that success? And how do I maybe down the road find opportunities to consult or sort of have opportunities where I can discuss sort of people development and and the creation and and sort of how you build that out? I think that would be a great next step for me. Awesome.

Kelsey: Yeah.

Erica: You've got so much really cool stuff going on. And I think too, like, all of your involvement, I think there was a lot of people who will probably be like, wow. I want to learn more. I wanna hear more. I wanna see more of what you're doing.

Erica: Where can where can people find you?

Kelsey: Yeah. I'm on LinkedIn. That's my main one, Kelsey Schnittgen. And I I it's connected to a Twitter, but that's really it. I I run everything through my LinkedIn.

Kelsey: And, of course, you can find me on the Forbes Human Resources Council and anything I've written and and some of the pieces I'm a part of there. And like I said, I work with girl.gov, foundation. It's a foundation that focuses on women age, five to 25, scholarships that we put together and fundraising to give them opportunities, whether it might be a backpack drive or getting them in, you know, interviews or some development, things like that. And then, I'm part of the next gen at, mentorship program, which I didn't advise anyone to look into. A huge passion of mine.

Kelsey: Something I've been able to really focus on is coaching and developing typically young women coming up in in this sort of industry. And and so if, you know, if there's any opportunities anyone wants to discuss what that looks like, I'm happy to talk about it. But, LinkedIn is is the main place. Awesome.

Erica: Gosh. You are a busy woman. So my last question that I'd love to end on is Yeah. Knowing what now, being the chief people officer, having scaled that corporate ladder, If you could, like, look back and tell the the Kelsey who's starting out in the recruiting coordinator world

Kelsey: Yeah.

Erica: What what advice would you give her?

Kelsey: I would say and I think some individuals maybe don't have this mindset today, which is say yes. Say yes to every meeting you get invited to. Say yes to every new opportunity you get given. Say yes to something that's not in your scope of work. Let yourself be seen by other people.

Kelsey: Let people see that you want to be a sponge and learn. And then when you showcase that you're really good at something that they didn't realize, it's interesting how many doors start to open and how many other opportunities you get invited to be a part of. So I am always looking for individuals that say yes, and I said yes to everything, and I things I shouldn't have, but I did. And it was incredible what my career really was as a young person. It was it was it was fantastic.

Kelsey: So I would say yes. And I always tell people, and I and I mean this. It always works out. I am on my fifteenth year, and somehow we always figure it out. And the building doesn't start on fire, and we're all still alive.

Kelsey: So have clarity. Right? Have a clear mind. And that really, I think, allows you to stay focused on what you're really there to do, which is to learn, to be developed, to bring value, and to hopefully have future opportunities for yourself. So I think that's what that's what I would say.

Erica: I love it. Those are all things of advice. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for your time today. I think there was a lot of great information shared.

Erica: I particularly love the say yes concept, but I do appreciate your time. So thank you, Kelsey.

Kelsey: Thank you, Erica. Have a good day. You.