What To Do When Crisis Hits Your Business

[00:00:00] Jeanniey Walden: When you do all three of those, you build trust. And trust builds belief. And belief builds business. At the end of the day, when you’re 100 or 90 and you’re sitting on your deathbed, it’s not your company that’s going to be sitting next to you. It’s going to be your family.

[00:00:12] Kevin Rice: Welcome back to CEO of the Navy Seas. My guest today is Jeanne Walden, CEO of Liftoff Enterprises. Jeannie’s held CMO roles at billion dollar companies such as Mercer, Rite Aid, Rakuten. She’s also the TV host of Liftoff with Jeannie Walden, which reaches 81 million households.

[00:00:29] Jeanniey Walden: And.

[00:00:30] Kevin Rice: And she’s the bestselling author of the Trust Threshold. In this conversation, Jeanne shares her path to building such an impressive and successful career. The moment she realized she needed to prioritize her personal life more and the traditions that kept her family connected when work was demanding. This is a conversation about showing your children there are no limits and why authenticity, inspiration, and relatability are the values for success, both at work and at home.

[00:00:55] Jeanniey Walden: I was the sole breadwinner in the family at the time, and I came home from work and said, I’m quitting my job because I want to try something that I’ve never done before. And I have this great opportunity and I don’t know if it’s going to work out or not. And everyone just looked at me and said, are you kidding?

[00:01:11] Kevin Rice: Welcome to CEOs and ABCs. Real stories from execs who lead at work and show up at home. Career moves, parenting wins and fails and everything in between. I’m your host, Kevin Rice. Here’s today’s episode. Jeanne, thank you so much for being here.

[00:01:24] Jeanniey Walden: Super excited to be on the show.

[00:01:27] Kevin Rice: You’ve had a really interesting and varied career where you’ve been a substitute teacher, you’ve been a CMO at some of the world’s biggest brands. CEO, TV host, author. It seems like you’ve kind of done it all. How did you get to where you are today? And what’s the through line? What kind of connected everything that you’ve done?

[00:01:47] Jeanniey Walden: So, all right, spoiler alert is digital or innovation. And that’s the very, very short answer. Long answer is have no idea. When I was little, I was growing up, I wanted to either be a cashier because I liked cash registers, a teacher or a vet or a model. And so I volunteered animal hospital when I was little, and my job was to put the cats that nobody wanted to sleep. And I decided really quickly that was not the career for me. Because I couldn’t deal with the heartbreak for it. So I went to to be a teacher and I got my minor in sign language. I wanted to work with autistic kids and I couldn’t find a full time job. So. You said it. I was a substitute teacher for a while and ended up at JCPenney just so I could pay the bills and found out really quickly that a career in business leadership is very similar to being a teacher with just old people as students. And I loved it. I love the combination of inspiring others and communicating with them and ways that are really relatable and authentic while simultaneously making more money than you could have made as a teacher at that time. So my business career started and since I didn’t go to school for business or marketing, when new opportunities arose, I kind of just jumped in. I thought, you know what could happen, I’ll learn something. How cool is that? And digital and innovation, anything that was new, web pages, websites, email marketing, video and email, digital publishing, publishing, earned wage access, you, name was on the forefront. I jumped into it and it’s helped me to get to the career string that I’ve had, which seems like it’s not connected, but it really is.

[00:03:37] Kevin Rice: Yeah, it definitely seems like that kind of teaching philosophy has been prominent throughout each of the different roles. And as I’ve watched you on other podcasts and read some of your writings, you always have a lot of great, unique perspectives to share.

[00:03:52] Jeanniey Walden: Unique is a nice way of putting it. Thank you a lot.

[00:03:55] Kevin Rice: A lot of people just, they say something without saying something and they’re just writing to write or speaking to speak, and there’s not a point of view. And so I’ve appreciated it. And one of the things that I do want to talk to you about is this kind of air method that you’ve written about and you’ve talked about, because I think you can teach our audience a lot with that framework. And so maybe you could introduce the concept and we could dive in there a little bit.

[00:04:18] Jeanniey Walden: Yeah, absolutely. So I was the global chief marketing officer of a Marshan McLennan owned company called Mercer, and I was being interviewed on how I was able to transform the way that Mercer was doing marketing and, you know, do it in a way that was positively impacting where the stock price was going. And it was very cool. And I thought about it and I thought, you know, there’s, there’s three kind of tenements that I bring to business and one is I absolutely demand that anything we do is authentic because like you and everybody Else. And even, you know, as parents with kids, if you are not transparent about what you do and don’t know, and if you’re not authentic, then it looks like you’re not authentic and you seem like you’re not trustworthy. And if you’re not trustworthy as a leader or as a business, you’re not going to get a following. You’re not going to build brand loyalty and build your business. Inspirational that, like we just talked about, it’s innate in me. I’m going to hate to say this out loud, but I wish money motivated me. I think I could be pretty wealthy, but it doesn’t. Inspiring that light bulb moment that’s me wanting to be a teacher is what I love is when people, you know, like, wow. And whether that’s a consumer who’s like, oh my gosh, I didn’t realize this product existed. It could really help me. Or whether it’s someone inside a business that inspiration is always important and then relatability is last look, I came into the business world not having a class around business to save my life. I didn’t know what CPA and ROI Roas and SMB. I didn’t know any of those acronyms. People would talk in rooms and I couldn’t relate to it.

And I asked my dad at the time, who was very successful executive in the hospital industry, and his dad, what do you do? And he said, you know how you call me a nerd all the time when you see me wearing those socks that you hate? I said, yeah. He said, well, to you, I’m a nerdy dad who is always silly and being goofy. But to the people I work with, I’m this expert leader and it’s all about relating to people on ways that you can connect with them. So find ways to connect with people and you’ll be great. So don’t worry about it. So comes out authenticity, inspiration, relatability. It’s called air. Makes it easy to remember. And I realized that’s what I do with my whole life. That’s kind of how I raise my kids, telling them stories that they could relate to. That’s how I built businesses, worked with employees. And I’ve used it as a mantra with every business I’ve been in and it kind of works really well. And so wrote a whole book about it because when you do all three of those, you build trust and trust builds belief, and belief builds business.

[00:07:06] Kevin Rice: Yeah, it sounds like a flywheel. And it’s interesting because it seems like you were already doing these things and then you kind of had to look at it and say, okay, reverse engineer, what am I doing? Into a framework so you could communicate it to other people? I kind of did the same thing when I was reflecting back on my business career before I sold my consulting firm. I was thinking about how do I create connection with my employees? And I started thinking about aspects of creating connection and ultimately came up with this framework called Spark, which is safety, presence, attunement, rituals, and celebrations. And it’s a flywheel. And this was at the time where I was trying to figure out, how do I be a dad? How do I translate 15 years of developing leadership skills into the area where I felt like I was failing the most? And so I created this flywheel out of my business career and started applying it home. And you already mentioned this, but I was going to ask you, how does this methodology show up for you as a parent? Are there examples of where this goes through your head when you were dealing with a challenging moment with your kids?

[00:08:11] Jeanniey Walden: Yes, it does go through my head, and sometimes I use it. And like all parents, sometimes I totally screw up and do the wrong thing. But, you know, I have five kids through a blended family, and I raised two of them.

And of my two girls, I always wanted to show them that there are no limits to the world.

Not for any reason. I’m not one of those crazy people that is all about, the world’s against you. Unless it’s not. My mom was a huge feminist and raised me. Talking about all the things you can do and never letting anybody stop you. Now, she grew up at a time when her husband had to approve her getting a bank account. So I can totally appreciate that. I grew up at a time when women could do anything they wanted to. So from a very young age, as in, JCPenney had a daycare in the offices where we worked. My kids came to work with me. So, um, it was awesome because I got to expose them to the two sides of me. You know, they saw a crazy, fun mom at home, and then they saw a more serious work mom at work, and they just got exposure to how they could build themselves. I think that’s the authenticity and the inspiration piece both together with a little bit of relatability in there. So my favorite story in the world is I took my girls and my mom with me. I was speaking at a conference in San Diego, a huge conference with, like, hundreds of people, maybe even a thousand in the audience. And my little one, who was 8 at the time, said, mom, can I come watch you speak. So I asked the conference organizers, and no one clearly had ever brought their little kid before to see them speak. So I do my speech, and it’s all about the future of retail and what’s happening in the retail industry. And at the end, I said, does anybody have any questions? And you see this little hand go up from the back of the room, and all I’m thinking to myself is, my God, my life is over. Because I was really sure that what was gonna come out was, are you done yet? Cause I’m hungry. You told me you’d take me to the pool, so of course, I’m hoping they don’t see her. They run up to her with the mic, because everyone wants to see what the little girl in the back has to say. And she said, mom, I have no idea what you said, but it sounded smart, and I just wanted to say I’m really proud of you. And the entire room goes, oh.

And everyone gets goosebumps. And the company I was with at that day closed more deals than ever before, because it just so true. But, you know, it’s those meaningful moments when I knew at the very least she was inspired by what I did. And everybody in the audience could see that it was super authentic. You got me as mom. You got me as work mom. And it was really cool. So that moment stays with me. She’s now very successful military career, not living in the US Staying safe, but she’s not anywhere close to eight anymore. And it’s still my favorite story.

[00:11:08] Kevin Rice: That’s adorable. I love that story. And it was probably really inspiring for everybody in the audience, too, to see you as an executive, integrating your family into all aspects of your life. And hopefully some other people follow too. And they took that example and started to find ways. Because I bring my kids to events, and they meet all the peers and colleagues that I work with, and I took them to a Patel event recently.

I would go to the sessions, and then I’d break out, and I’d go to the pool with them. Then I’d go to sessions, and I’d skip the cocktail hour to go have dinner with them. And it just made it just such more meaningful experience where I could be developing in my career, but also not sacrificing the time. That’s really important for me with my kids.

[00:11:55] Jeanniey Walden: Yeah, absolutely. I think. Look, I’m not advocating that every parent should take their children everywhere they go with them to work, but, you know, when it makes sense and you can do it, it. It’s really great. It’s great for your, your kids to see what you do when you’re not being a parent. And it’s great just to get that reminder of how you can stay connected.

[00:12:16] Kevin Rice: So going a little bit deeper. Cause I want to stay on this topic more as I’m really interested in this methodology. And are there any real world examples either that you’ve experienced or you’ve seen others go through where they’ve used this framework to be able to navigate a difficult moment? Maybe it’s dealing with layoff announcements or delivering bad news or managing change. Can you bring this to life for us a little bit?

[00:12:40] Jeanniey Walden: Yeah. Yeah, a hundred percent. So today I, I have a business that part of it is advisory services mainly around these topics and, and companies and executives will call me when their business is having an issue.

And it’s one of the, the most fun things that I have done career wise because it’s really great to help solve problems and get to that light bulb moment. But the CFO that I was working with, one executive team, was having a challenge when they were hosting the town halls because they would share the financials with their team, thinking that it would motivate them to take more responsibility in their work and focus on results in a different way. And it just wasn’t connecting at all. We’ve all been there, we’ve all been sitting in town hall rooms where numbers pages show up. And it makes sense if you’re a cfo and if you don’t, you’re just looking at a bunch of numbers and trying to understand, does this mean I’m gonna get fired or not? You just wanna know one thing. So the cfo, brilliantly, we transformed the way that she talked about numbers into the weather report. And she would literally show up at the town hall with sunscreen if it was sunny and it was all good news and things were going in the right way, or with an umbrella, if, you know, rain was forecasted, or wearing a raincoat raining. And it made the information so relatable that people got beyond trying to figure out, was 5 million good or bad? Does this mean that there’s going to be layoffs? And it got people to very quickly focus on, okay, this is bad news, this is good news, what does it mean? Which then allowed the CEO to make their business side comments and be a little more open and transparent. So that’s one example of how we brought it to life and it was great. Another example. And I work with leaders of teams at any level, all the time on what I call the superpower Test from an inspiration perspective, because a lot of what happens inside business are you come to work and you think you’re good at X, Y and Z, but what you don’t realize is it’s A, B and C that is really coming across with the teams and the other people that you work with. So. So we do this really short exercise that literally anyone can do where you sit down with your team and you ask everybody to go around the room and write down the three most powerful traits that each person on the team has, and then you put them together on little sticky notes if you’re together. A Miro board if you’re not. And you just put them up there, A little hangman skeleton of a person, and you just sit back and everyone gets to see what everyone else appreciates about them. Because a lot of times you. You don’t realize. People might really appreciate your candor, your thoughtfulness. They might totally appreciate that you will stand up for people in times of crisis, which might not be things that you think you’re good at or you even know that people noticed. So understanding that often daylights a lot of opportunity. And we do it the opposite way, too, to figure out what are you doing that make people less trustworthy or you seem less trustworthy in their mind.

And this one, this one’s great because this one we did, and it taught me a lesson. I did it with my team, and what came back was, you always respond to emails on vacation.

And I thought that was a good thing. I was like, yes, absolutely, yes. I’m not in the office this week, but here’s an email. Oh, you need this. Oh, I’ll help you with this.

And the team said, that’s bad.

You always respond. You’re the leader. That sets the tone that if we go on vacation, we should respond. And so please go on vacation and don’t talk to us. So it was really hard because I felt like I was letting the team down, but in reality, I was boosting the team up. And so it’s those types of. Those types of moments and activities. And the way that I wrote the book about it, there’s 15 chapters filled with workshops and little activities you can do with yourself, with people that you work with, with other people that you know for the purpose of. I didn’t want to have a book around theory. I wanted it to be things that people put into action in real life.

[00:17:04] Kevin Rice: Yeah, that’s amazing. I love leadership exercises. I got so much value out of them, bringing our teams together.

And I actually have written a Manuscript. And I’m going through the process of getting the book published, is taking leadership frameworks and exercises and then applying them to parenting. So very similar to the vein of this podcast.

[00:17:24] Jeanniey Walden: That’s awesome.

[00:17:25] Kevin Rice: But I love the exercise you just shared. I was thinking, oh, I could do that with my kids. It’d be a great way to recognize them for something because the examples you shared, they’re not part of your job description. Right. It’s like, oh, this is the person who always brings a positive attitude. And so we can celebrate them for more of those soft skills or traits that we appreciate versus, oh, you do your marketing job well, or you’re really good at finance. So your daughters are grown out of the house.

What does life look like today for you?

[00:17:52] Jeanniey Walden: I will tell you, a lot of working parents feel really sad when their kids are younger. You know, when they’re 1, 2, 3, 4, even 6 years old, and they can’t be home as much because they’re working, because you miss the bedtime moments because they happen so early in the evening, and you just feel really bad. You have these kids and you want to spend as much time with them and put as much energy into it as you can see.

I will tell you what you learn only by your kids growing up is as your kids move into high school age, while they might not want to be around you as much and they spend a lot of time in their room or on their devices, your presence is very important because that is the impressionable age when they’re understanding what you do. When they’re three and you’re not home, you’re not home. When you know they’re 15 and you’re not home, they want to know where you are and what you were doing and why you couldn’t be there. And so they’re learning from you. And those are impressionable times. Now, when they get into their 20s and they’re on their own and they’re learning how to live, It’s. It’s hilariously entertaining because we all forget as adults what we didn’t know as we were just becoming adults. So you get these hilarious calls where one of the kids will call my oldest daughter called screaming, sobbing on the video, and I’m like, who did what to you? Are you okay? Like, what happened? You know, she’s in her 20s and mom, mom, I don’t know what. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. She’s living in her apartment and she’s like, and there’s arms and it’s coming after me. And so I’m like, what. What is happening? Do I need to call 911? No.

The people that lived in her apartment before her apparently left a bag of potatoes, and the potatoes grew eyes, and they started coming out of the cabinet, and she opened them up and they look like they were going to attack her. Now, of course, you know, it was really silly because. But. But you forget.

I’m like, but you ate potatoes when you were younger and you watched me cut those eyes off and watch them. What is wrong with you? But it’s hilarious to watch them grow up because they learn how to be adults. And it’s one of the coolest things ever. My favorite conversation with my oldest child was when she called me because she got her credit card bill and she couldn’t understand why she couldn’t pay it off as soon as she charged something on it. And I said, well, it’s not a debit card, it’s a credit card. So I was explaining to her and she said, why do they make you send a bill? And I said, well, make money with finance charge.

You would have thought I just gave her the worst, like, most ridiculous news in the world. And she says, mom, this company wants me to pay them to use their card.

And I said, yes, it’s called finance charge. She said, but I’m using their card. I’m showing it to my friends. I’m using it when I’m out. Why aren’t they paying me?

She’s like, do I get this finance charge? And I had to have this conversation with her for like 20 minutes explaining why she is not the ambassador and creator and influencer for the credit card and why she has to pay if she can’t pay her bill off in time. And I just thought to myself, oh, my gosh, like, there’s this whole world of raising kids when they get older that you don’t know about. So it’s things like that that just continue to happen. So I say, you know, when your kids are older, I mean, my life hasn’t changed. I still work a ton, I still travel a ton. I still take them everywhere that I go. We’re always together with. With five kids. We’re always with somebody somewhere. But it’s still these great parenting moments. Like, there’s always something. Our son and his wife had a baby, so we’re grandparents. So there’s. Imagine all the grandparents.

Okay, thank you. But, you know, there’s all these cool things that come up. So it’s just a never ending opportunity to just feel love.

[00:21:38] Kevin Rice: Yeah, that’s great. Well, I mean, when I was 20, I knew everything too, so I. I can understand where your daughters are at.

[00:21:46] Jeanniey Walden: Yeah. I’m sure you never called your parents and asked for help with anything.

[00:21:50] Kevin Rice: Oh, nothing. No, I agree with you. I think as my son’s gotten older, he’s 10, he’s not quite 15 or in high school or anything, but he needs me more now than he has. He’s dealing with changing emotions and how his body’s changing. And I find that he gets confused sometimes about what he’s feeling and how he’s feeling. And he really needs me there to listen and sometimes just hold him and support him.

I don’t always have the answers. Cause I don’t know everything about that sort of stuff. But he’s needed me more lately than even when he was younger. I was starting to get to the point where I was graduating of this challenging phase, and then it was gonna get easier. And then I realized as he gets older, it’s just different challenges and they’re not the same, but they might be just as hard in totally different ways. And so I’m enjoying seeing him grow up into a little man and definitely finding myself being more relied on as he does.

[00:22:48] Jeanniey Walden: Yeah, it’s great. I mean, it really doesn’t get easier. I would say that it gets better. I mean, it is. It is more fun when your kids are in their 20s and they can pay for dinner every once in a while or their 30s. And, um, you know, that’s nice. But they still need you. And I don’t think that changes. I still need my parents, but every. We all do. But it’s really nice to know that and to prioritize everything that you love.

[00:23:13] Kevin Rice: Yeah. If you think back to maybe when your kids were younger, what did you learn from juggling a very impressive, I assume, demanding career and family life at the same time? Because that’s where a lot of us get hung up. Work takes so much of your mental bandwidth, and it’s really hard to turn that off when you walk through the front do. Or you’ve learned to perform in a certain way as an executive.

And I’m all for authenticity, but you still carry yourself a little bit differently in front of your team.

And then you come home and now all of a sudden you’re in mom mode.

What did you learn about kind of balancing or juggling those two different aspects of your life?

[00:23:55] Jeanniey Walden: I mean, it’s hard, and it is a choice, and it’s a choice every day. And I don’t know any mom or dad out there that hasn’t had their crazy, crazy dad moments where you had a stressful day at work and you come home and your child says something really innocent and normally slightly annoying, but on this day, you freak out and have a meltdown in front of them. And that happens, you know, and, and that happens to all of us. And I think that’s just a part of the life cycle. As someone told me a really long time ago that if you get stressed out, you get wrinkles early and you get cortisol and your stomach gets fat. So I gave up being stressed long time ago. I still occasionally get stressed, but longer. I can hold off on wrinkles without Botox better. But that said, you know, it’s really balancing act and just reminding yourself that to be who you are and who you’re with. You also cannot freak out on your teams at work either. That never worked. There’s no crying at work. My. My number one goal. I’m never going to make someone cry at work. And if you are crying at work, this is not the right job for you for whatever reason. So let’s help you find a place where you’re not crying.

But everybody has their moments. And I think it just comes from practice and reminders that we’re all people.

[00:25:10] Kevin Rice: Hi, Kevin here. If you’re enjoying this conversation and you know someone else who’s working to grow in their career while staying present at home, I’d really love it if you could share this episode with them. It’s one of the best ways you can help us and help more leaders build their careers in a way that they’re proud of without missing the moments that matter most.

Did you have any specific periods where the demands from work were taking more than you were willing to sacrifice from your family?

[00:25:35] Jeanniey Walden: A hundred percent. That still happens. It happens all the time. I mean, really, it is a lesson that you learn. I think I learned the lesson when I was pregnant with my first daughter.

It was my first baby and I was getting ready to go out on maternity leave and I spent so much time meticulously planning everything that I’d been working on, who was going to cover it, how, and make sure that absolutely nothing dropped. So that when I went on maternity leave and had the baby, I could spend time and not worry that work things were going to fall through the cracks and that it would reflect poorly on the business. When. When I got back, my daughter then decided she didn’t want to be born exactly when the doctor said she was supposed to be. So we waited for three weeks and until I was almost induced. And then, and then I went into lab. But during those three weeks, I had nothing to do but wait for the baby. So I would worry about work and, and so I started to call into my peers and say, hey, you know, it’s Tuesday. Did you do that report for John that has to do this? I mean, and one woman said to me, she’s like, you know what? We got it. And by the way, 90% of your list, we’re not even looking at. It’s not going to matter. And we’ll all be here when you get back. And literally, you’re not the end of the organization. It existed before you and it’s going to be here after you. And please go out and enjoy being a new mom and just take some time. And it was horrifying to me. My job was so important to me and all of these things are so important to me and how can the company not get them done and what’s going to happen? And then I realized oftentimes we make things more stressful than or more demanding than they need to be in the reality of the situation.

So I think, like I said, it is a lesson that you learn over and over. We tend to fall into a trap where we get to that point where you’re working 12 hours a day, or you’re missing the soccer game, the gymnastics tournament or whatever it is, or you’re super tired the next morning and you’re not fully there with your kids because you think something at work is a priority. But think about today’s work. You can get more done with a quick research question to CLAUDE that takes five minutes. That would have taken us three weeks six months ago. That would have taken three months six years ago.

The world still worked six years ago and 16 years ago and 60 years ago, things still got done. And so it’s a constant reminder, at least for me to myself, that when I start to get into those moments, to step back and ask what is going to happen if this doesn’t get done, what is going to happen if I choose to do this instead? And you really weigh out the priorities, and that’s the advice that I give to people that I work with, is if It’s Thursday at 2 o’ clock and your daughter is in a recital and that’s really important to you, great. Make the accommodations, let the people know that you’ve. You’re going to move the meeting to the next day or a few hours later or you’ll get back to them. Don’t be Completely irresponsible. Still get the work done, but. But realign it. And 99% of the time, most people won’t care. That’s fine with them. It’s in your mind that you made it as stressful an event as you did.

[00:28:59] Kevin Rice: How did you stay connected with your kids during kind of some of those more demanding periods? Whether you were traveling or just the work hours were long, did you have any rituals or routines that, that allowed you to stay connected with, with your kids?

[00:29:14] Jeanniey Walden: You know, growing up, when I was in college, my dad would meet me. He worked pretty close to the school I went to. My dad would meet me every Thursday and take me to lunch. And he would call me every Sunday at 1 o’ clock and didn’t matter what was going on, he would meet me every Thursday for lunch. It was really the only real food that I got every week. So I was excited. Cause I got to order the appetizer, the entree, and a dessert, which I could never do on my own because I was a poor college student. But then on Sunday, he’d call me at one o’. Clock, sometimes we’d talk for two minutes, sometimes I would talk for a half an hour.

And he just put those in place. So as I grew up and had kids, I put similar kind of traditions in place. And they have to change a little bit. Now that my kids are all grown and on their own and having their own life, Each one of us have different rules. My daughter that’s in the military, because I am the worried mom that’s always wondering where she is and is she safe and she can’t say a lot of the things that she’s doing. Do we have a rule?

We hear from her every three days, one way or another. I text her usually every. Every day, and she sends me a little picture of Snoopy. She’s just to tell me proof of life. That’s all I know she’s very busy and grown up. I don’t wanna be the stalker helicopter mom. Although I joke with her. And I’m like, you tell. You go tell those commanders that you need to call your mom.

[00:30:32] Kevin Rice: Yeah, she’s like, mom.

[00:30:33] Jeanniey Walden: Not the way it works here, but. But yeah, we have little things like that. And each. Each child’s different and each child, you know, feel special in their own way. And. And that’s great.

[00:30:44] Kevin Rice: You also mentioned something to me briefly. You didn’t really elaborate on it, so I’m hoping you will is you told me about how you guys used to get together for Walden weekends and it sounds like those weekends got to be pretty epic. So tell us a little bit about Walden Weekends. What were some of the stories? What were some of your best memories?

[00:31:01] Jeanniey Walden: Yep. So, you know, Walden Weekends, like I said, blended family, five kids. Both Vince, my husband, and I feel like family is very important. I mean, at the end of the day, it’s all you have. You could get fired from your job, you could quit your job, you could retire from your job, your. Your company could disappear.

That happens at the end of the day when you’re a hundred or ninety and you’re sitting on your deathbed. It’s not your. Your company that’s going to be sitting next to you. It’s going to be your family. So prioritize really what matters. And so every weekend, we call them Walden Weekends, because that’s our last name. And we try and do something fun, and all the kids that are available are invited. You know, they’re all over the world right now. So we get some on some weekends and more on others. And when there’s no kids, we still have wild weekends with just the two of us. But we try and do what we call take the adventure path. So we try and take something ordinary and turn it into something extraordinary. We went on vacation and decided to hike across a volcano because we could. It was freezing cold in a swimming pool one day, and we saw a hot tub. So we called it the warm reward. Whoever could get to the warm Reward the fastest because we were all freezing to death would decide who gets entry and not, you know, really silly, crazy, crazy things that we do. But my husband and I have adopted it. People follow us on Instagram to see what are we doing for this Walden Weekend? Where are we going? And it’s kind of turned into a thing, and our. Our kids have started doing it. So we have the little grandbaby, and we call our house the Walden Pond.

But the baby got a baby swimming pool, and they named it the Walden Puddle. So everyone’s invited to the puddle. It’s a baby.

So it turned into just a really great connector that. That brings us all together.

[00:32:47] Kevin Rice: That’s amazing. I. I love that because I felt like I wasted so much time with my kids before I got more intentional with it. And what you’re telling me is you’re very intentional about how you spend your time as a family.

I used to kind of just roll into the weekends, be default dad. We didn’t have a lot of plans. And then once I started adding a lot more forethought into how are we going to spend this weekend and okay, we’re gonna go for a hike, but let’s do something a little bit more interesting. My kids got into Lord of the Rings, so then it was all right, we’re gonna go on a hike. We’re hobbits. We’re gonna pretend like we’re navigating Middle Earth. And then it’d be, oh, there’s the dragon.

I’m not the kind of person that is creative enough to think of that on the spot. So what worked for me was I’d have to plan it in advance. And that’s when there was more creativity and there was more imagination and we could make an ordinary thing more of an adventure.

[00:33:39] Jeanniey Walden: Yeah, it’s very cool. And there’s a website that I can’t remember the name of, but it’s, it’s called like Odd road trips or something like that. And you can put in a destination and just like in Google Maps where it will show you all the Chick Fil A is on your route, it will show you weird side things you can see when you’re taking a road trip from one town to another, like the world’s biggest red chair, the biggest spool of yarn outside. And it sounds kind of silly, but completely worth it to take a 10 mile detour when you’re going somewhere and get your picture taken with the world’s largest pair of sunglasses or go through a real life replica of Noah’s Ark.

Who, who does those things? It’s not something that you plan a vacation around necessarily, but those are the things that you remember as you grow up that you’re like, oh my gosh, remember when we were little and this happened or that happened. And so we always try and do those things and the kids get into it. When the Minions movie came out, one of the TikTok trends where people were dressing up in evening gowns to go see the Minions. So here we were, dressed up in evening gowns, going to the AMC movie theater to see the Minions and realizing that the rest of the people in New Jersey did not watch that same TikTok. But that’s okay because we looked fabulous.

[00:34:56] Kevin Rice: My, we’re, we’re going to go see the Minions and monsters. Maybe this weekend, maybe I’ll think about something fun to dress up as.

[00:35:03] Jeanniey Walden: A hundred percent.

You just got to talk like Minions along the way, the whole way in the car ride, talk like Minions and see what happens.

[00:35:11] Kevin Rice: What do you think those weekends brought to your family that just kind of like an ordinary evening didn’t was this about creating more connection memories. Was it inspiring them to be more adventurous or creative? Where did this come from?

[00:35:25] Jeanniey Walden: So I grew up in a family that significantly valued traditions. I grew up in Pittsburgh. My mom was one of four children, so she had three other sisters that lived close by.

Growing up, every weekend you were at some aunt’s house and you were at some cousin’s party, and someone was having a birthday party, a graduation, a communion, like you name it, we were always together in addition to doing things as a family on our own. And as I grew up, I moved with JCPenney from Pittsburgh to Dallas. And when I had my first daughter, I was very sad because all of my family was still back on the East Coast. And so I really wanted her to grow up with traditions. So I had one of those meltdown moments where I came home from work and said, I want to move home.

[00:36:10] Kevin Rice: I want to be with my family.

[00:36:12] Jeanniey Walden: But I forced to live in the basement. And, you know, we ended up moving to New Jersey, which is pretty close to Pittsburgh and still going back, but intentionally from my first daughter wanted to build a life filled with tradition so long after I am gone and my mom, who passed away last year, that she would remember that on Easter, you do this. On Christmas, you do this, you know, for Valentine’s Day, you have hearts hanging from the ceilings. On birthdays, this is what you do. And so I did that is one thing didn’t matter work wise, what was going on. On certain holidays, we had certain traditions. At one point, there was a chair in our living room, and it became the birthday chair. And I have no idea why that we started decorating on your birthday. And you just knew when it was your birthday, you looked forward to the. Now that the kids are grown up now, there’s the red plate. And that was from Vince’s mom. When it was your special day, you. You got the red plate. Everyone else could have whatever other plate was in the house, but you got the red plate. And it’s those things that I think bring a sense of family and remind you that you are connected to your family. So with Walden weekends, we love the feeling. And every. Everyone’s invited to a Walden weekend. If you were close by and you wanted to come, you would be more than welcome. Because the Walden weekends are for everyone, but they’re meant to just show everybody that. That, you know, you should be happy and celebrate life. Life is too short not to, and you get so much out of it. And this is our intentional way to share with the kids and everything else. Now, when we can’t be together, Sometimes we’ll do PowerPoint nights where someone will come up with a theme, and we’ll all get together on Zoom and do PowerPoints. And my husband, who’s the CEO of a company, on PowerPoint night, someone had changed his name on Zoom to Daddy King. And that was awesome. We had a great, hilarious, fun night. And the next day, he was on this huge pitch for Fortune company, and he logged in as Daddy King, and the entire industry that he’s in now calls him Daddy King. And he will never forget it. But he won the deal. But, I mean, you know, it is what it is. And. And they’re like, so Daddy King.

You know, it’s. It’s the way it rolls. And. And at the end of the day, in business, we’re all people. We all have families of some sort, whether they’re people or pets, and whether we have a lot of family or very little, and we just have a lot of friends, we are still people.

More done in business when you remember that you’re working with other people that are people. And so that’s really important to us.

[00:38:43] Kevin Rice: Yeah, I agree. Well, you certainly inspired me to double down on my rituals and traditions. I feel like we do a pretty good job. I mean, I’ve got an entire storage unit dedicated to just holiday decorations. So every holiday, it’s like, okay, go grab the five bins for Easter. Go grab the. I think probably about 25 bins for Christmas. My house looks like. Like Santa’s workshop over the holidays.

[00:39:07] Jeanniey Walden: But as it should. As it should.

[00:39:10] Kevin Rice: But there. There’s. Yeah, there’s more. I love that. That’s a big part of, like, creating legacy. Right? These are traditions that will get passed down and your grandkids will pick them up. And so that’s really special. Did you have any similar traditions that you brought into the workplace, or did you create traditions or maybe rituals in your career that helped create connection with your team?

[00:39:31] Jeanniey Walden: Yeah, and they’re all. They’re very different based on the company that you’re working with, and. And, you know, what the team is, what the culture is. You know, I’ve done everything from having, you know, the. What do they call them, where everybody brings something, a different dish in.

I can’t remember what they’re. They’re called like a potluck. Pot parties. Yeah, like a potluck party. As a. I’ve had everything from having those to having rituals where every Tuesday, everybody goes out for an hour and. And plays a game to game night at the office to. I mean, it really depends on who your teams are, what their personal lives look like, and how you can bring them together. Reverse mentoring, mentoring outings. It’s super important to create traditions. It helps with creating the culture for your team and creating the productivity and the output so you don’t get that quiet quitting that everyone has to do deal with.

[00:40:26] Kevin Rice: Yeah, that. That definitely is going around. I’ve talked to quite a few leaders recently who are like, I feel like my team’s just kind of doing the bare minimum to get by and not get fired at the same time. They’re asking their teams to do, like, 10 times more with less people. And so it’s just a. It’s kind of a crazy landscape right now.

[00:40:45] Jeanniey Walden: Well, you hit that inflection point. I mean, is your job going to exist? Not exist? Does it matter what you do? If you don’t have a job, will you be able to find one? Like, nobody knows anything. And I think everyone has a different point, but when people hit that point point, they’re just like, look, I’m just gonna go to work. I’m just gonna do what I need to do, and we’ll see what happens. Because there is no certainty. And I worked with a CEO of a company that was always talking about the markets, the financial markets, and. And he said, you know, markets can deal with good news and bad news. What they can’t deal with is uncertainty. And we all took that back to our teams. Your teams can deal with good news or bad news. Hey, bad news. We had to let go one half of the company, and you all have to do three times the work. You’re all gonna have to work 12 hours a day for.

Until we can get back on track. Okay. Like, it’s concrete. You can deal with it. It’s in a box. But if you’re like, hey, there’s gonna be some work, we don’t know how much you’re gonna have to do something. We’re not sure. Just kind of chip in.

What do you do with that? Can you spend time with your kids this weekend? I don’t know. Can you? Like, who knows? If you don’t, Are you gonna get fired? Not get fired. Like, will Tom do it? I mean, it’s. You get. You have to give some. Some kind of certainty and process. And the traditions really, really help with the. That.

[00:41:55] Kevin Rice: Yeah, those routines. Yeah. I mean, that’s human nature. Right? We all need some level of certainty in relationships with our friends, our family, our kids. And then, you know, a little bit of uncertainty is refreshing outside of when it comes to your livelihood.

[00:42:10] Jeanniey Walden: Yeah, we call that adventure.

Yeah, always follow the adventure path. For sure.

[00:42:15] Kevin Rice: I mean, speaking of not knowing what the world is going to look like in the next few years for people like me, I’ve got a kid who’s, he’s eight years away from, from either going to college or going into his career. If your kids were younger today, how would you be thinking about helping prepare them for a world that’s really hard to predict? Ten years ago, I had a pretty good idea of what the world was going to look like in the next five years. But today I have no idea what the world’s going to look like in five years.

[00:42:42] Jeanniey Walden: I know, it’s crazy. Well, I mean, I have a little grandbaby that’s going to turn one soon. What the heck’s he going to do? We joke around that he, that he’s going to either get a job in the robot wars or he’s going to have a robot doing everything for him. Like I, I don’t know. But if I had to look at it, I think if you go all the way back to when there were horses and cars, which sounds really silly, nobody knew what was going to happen when the automobile came into place and the industrial revolution started to take place and everybody realized over time that more jobs were created in different careers. And, and it always comes down to just having the basics. I think, think strategic thinking is going to be huge and I think empathy is going to be huge. If we are in a world that’s all driven by algorithms and robots, what are they not going to be able to do? If they can do every single job, I mean, they’re, they’re not going to be able to feel empathy. And I was having this conversation with someone yesterday. I said, you know, I fly all the time. I’m always going somewhere, I’m always on a plane. And there’s been those moments where I’m running to the gate and you, you’re like covered in sweat, but the door is just about closing and the really nice flight attendant like puts their foot in it and holds it in even though they’re not supposed to. And you can finally get home and thank goodness because your kids were there or your in laws were there and like she was, she gets it. Like she understands it. If it’s a robot, robot rules are robot rules. Man. It is 10 minutes before boarding. End of story. I don’t know. Good luck. Nobody wants to live in a world like that. So I think empathy and strategy are going to be the two main things that your kids can focus on creating that are going to give them the ability to, to open up to any opportunities that are there, whatever they happen to be.

[00:44:24] Kevin Rice: Yeah, that’s a good point. I haven’t really been able to get a lot of very high level strategic thinking or connecting of dots from any of the AI tools. Right. They’re really good at like tactical. Here’s how you’re going to build this program or that program. We can write an entire white paper for you. But the unique thread of connecting one idea to another and how you tie this company and this partner, it’s just not able to do that. So I really agree with your point. It’s like that kind of strategic thinking and then humanizing it, bringing the human element. I’m really focused on teaching my kids about resilience and grit. So I think gonna need a lot of that in the future where it’s hard to tell what’s gonna happen. And I wouldn’t say I’m. I’ve done a great job so far, but it’s something I’m trying to do. Cause they have a hard time with things. And I guess what I’m trying to say, they have it pretty easy. Right. They have an easier childhood than I did. And I’m trying to find ways to like manufacture difficulties and struggles so that they can face adversity at a young age. Because my biggest fear is that they just grow up entitled thinking that the world’s going to give everything to them. So. So yeah, adversity is something I’m really focused on with my kids right now.

[00:45:35] Jeanniey Walden: Send them outside. A scavenger hunt. Do something outrageous that no one would consider. Let your kids go outside without you seeing it.

[00:45:44] Kevin Rice: I should do a treasure hunt. Like go down to the beach, dig a hole, put a treasure chest down there and give them a map and tell them to go figure it out.

[00:45:56] Jeanniey Walden: Yeah. You know what I used to go to? This is gonna sound so silly. I used to go to the dollar store and if it was your birthday and you were turning 10, I’d go to the dollar store and I’d buy 10 things and I would literally hide them around the neighborhood and my, my kids and their friends would then go on a scavenger hunt to find the ten things. I mean there were ten silly dollar things. It didn’t cost a lot of money. Money.

Best time ever. I mean teamwork, thoughtful processing, commitment, loyalty, the whole nine year frustration.

[00:46:27] Kevin Rice: Yeah, that’s fun. That’s fun.

[00:46:30] Jeanniey Walden: Yeah.

Yeah.

[00:46:32] Kevin Rice: So if we were thinking about our audience here, somebody that’s listening, maybe it’s a woman or man, somebody that’s earlier in their career feeling the weight of ambition and family and the tension that’s coming from the two to. And how to hold both of them. What would you want to say to them? What advice or lessons have you learned of having this amazing career and also being a wonderful mother to your. To your family?

[00:46:57] Jeanniey Walden: Yeah, gosh. I would say three things. Number one, your kids are not an excuse. So make your decisions thoughtfully. If you’re at work and you commit to do something, you cannot use your children as an excuse as to why it didn’t get done. So make good decisions at work. Don’t commit to something if you’re not going to be able to do it.

Be honest about it. If your kids need you on a Thursday night, don’t agree to organize the event that’s happening on a Thursday night. If you are asked to do something on a Thursday night and you know you have your kids, just find a different way around it. Ask for help at work. And that’s my second piece of advice is, is ask for support inside the business place. There’s no job that is going to not support you so that you can also be a great parent. And most, most working parents don’t realize that. And the third, don’t be afraid to take risks. I think my girls were 11 and 14 and I was the sole breadwinner in the family at the time. And I came up from work and said, I’m quitting my job because I want to try something that I’ve never done before. And I have this great opportunity and I don’t know if it’s going to work out or not. And everyone just looked at me and, and said, are you kidding? And I said, don’t worry, we’re gonna still have healthcare. Cause that’s all that mattered to me, was I could still have healthcare through this. And there’s not too many people that would take that chance.

And with, with kids, they would take the safe route and say, oh, I can’t leave, I can’t do this, but the world has you. I did it. It was awesome. But, you know, a year later, I was ready for another change. And I just let everybody know and, and things happen. The world opens up for you. I believe in manifesting goodness. I’m not the manifestor type of person. I don’t have Pinterest, mood boards and things, but I do believe that when you open yourself up and You’re a good person and you look for good things. Good things will come to you, and you never have to worry about taking risks. So don’t let that hold you back from opportunities in the business world.

[00:49:02] Kevin Rice: Those are great. Did you just come up with those off the cuff, or is that like something you had started off the cuff?

[00:49:06] Jeanniey Walden: No, no, no. Those are off the cuff.

[00:49:10] Kevin Rice: Well, Jeannie, thank you so much for, for being with me today. I love your story about your daughter and how she joined you for a conference and shared how proud she was even though she had no idea what you were talking about. And I’m definitely inspired to do more this weekend. I just really appreciate you for, for joining us today. So thank you so much.

[00:49:30] Jeanniey Walden: Absolutely. Yeah. And thank you. These are, this is a great conversation. These are great questions and really think your podcast is powerful and empower a lot of other people, which is very cool.

[00:49:40] Kevin Rice: Thank you. I appreciate that. If you’re enjoying this conversation, make sure to hit subscribe so you don’t miss future episodes. CEOs and ABCs is all about helping you grow in your career and show up at home. We’ve got many more amazing guests coming up, so tap, follow, and stay tuned.