Laurie Joslin

I met Laurie for the first time a few years ago at a Ken Blanchard event in Rochester sponsored by the Entrepreneur’s Organization – Western New York. On behalf of EO-WNY, she introduced Ken. I was immediately intrigued by her vibrance and sense of humor. Since then, I’ve participated as often as possible in sales and workforce trainings put on by her company, Unlimited Coaching Solutions. Laurie and her team are tremendous models of the strategies they teach. As a successful business owner, middle child of 14, and single mother of one, Jade, Laurie’s story is simply fantastic. It is an honor to feature, Laurie, a woman who I consider my friend and colleague, in this final issue of Bigger Impact Weekly. ~Joseph

I’d like to start with your experience as a single mother. As a successful business owner, I’m interested to hear how this life choice has affected your journey.

As you know, I’m very independent. I was still in college when I was set to have Jade. My high school sweetheart and I were together and it was a cute story, but we didn’t agree on a lot of things. Although we were together for a long time, I knew that it wasn’t going to work. Long story short, Jade was in 2^nd grade when we split.

We all are on our own life path and we all need to learn different ways. I respect that we have our different views of the world. If I looked back at the relationships that haven’t “worked” for me, I can truly say that through all of them – whether they were significant other, friends, or with clients – I’ve learned so much from them. I truly appreciate the fact that I wouldn’t be who I am right now without those experiences.

Everyone has their own stuff going on. And, it’s not that I don’t believe in marriage, it’s just that I think marriage is a very antiquated approach because people change! Divorce is a new beginning for a lot of people.

It has been really interesting to raise a child as a single parent. I came from a blended family with 14 children. I had seen a lot going on in terms of communication and relationships. One of the reasons I chose to be a single mother, I saw a lot of damage happen from two parents staying together that shouldn’t have necessarily been together.

I felt like I had a better chance this way. And, growing up, Jade spent time with her father during high school and she really excelled. If it was just about me, I would never have let her go, but it was about her.

Let’s move on to your career path…

I grew up in Cortland, New York. While I was there I worked for Smith Corona for a long time…starting on the factory line. I was a single mother, getting my degree at the same time. I really got to experience all different types of jobs throughout that organization. I worked in Accounting while we went through a Chapter 11, and I spent time in Human Resources and on the sales force. At one point, I went on the Shop at Home Network for them.

Oddly enough, none of these moves were really planned. In fact, with the Shop at Home Network, nobody really wanted to do it, but I was always willing to just jump in and do something new. I had no training but I did it and I loved it!

To be uncomfortable to me was fun. It was learning. Little did I know at the time that this type of workforce development would be my eventual field.

When I started in school I was going to be an English teacher. But, because I was working at the same time, I got more interested in business so I switched to economics.

Then I met with a career counselor at Cortland who helped me discover that one of my core competencies was communication. So, I started taking communications classes and I totally loved it. Even Media Law!

Luckily, I got so many opportunities at Smith Corona. Many of my moves throughout the company were lateral, just to keep my job while the company restructured. Once, I inquired about a product development job and when I did, the coordinator gave me a manual and said, “Go home, read this, and give us a presentation on it tomorrow.” So, I did it and I really wowed them!

From that point, I moved quickly from product development to software to soft skills. And, when I found soft skills I absolutely fell in love.

I founded the training development program at Smith Corona and created a whole university of courses for them. I brought people in and created courses myself – not realizing what an opportunity that was at the time. It was like, “Hey Laurie, we need to do this but we have no budget. Can you help us?” That experience proved to be so valuable to me.

When Smith Corona was filing Chapter 11 for the second time, I could see the writing on the wall. So, I went in to see the CFO who I had worked for in the past, closed the door, and requested to get the courses I developed. Long story short, I got them and I got to start my business with a lot of intellectual property.

I’ve been inspired by some awesome people like Ken Blanchard and I consider myself really just a messenger. I have unique and creative ways of delivering that message, but if you go way back, in my opinion, people are saying the same stuff.

Please, walk me through the experience of starting the business!

In 1999, after a brief stint with Comp USA Training, I started Unlimited Coaching Solutions.

When I first started my business, I went from a very good salary to nothing. And, I’m the kind of person that jumps off a cliff then looks…so I had minimal savings. I knew that I wanted to do this so I went out there and did it. I’ve always trusted my ability to come out ok.

Jade was about 12 at the time. I was ripping her out of school, moving to Rochester, and I didn’t know a soul. It was crazy. We learn the best by throwing ourselves into a new job or new experience like that though. In fact, 70 percent of learning comes from that.

I did not have the road map when I started, but I was clear. It started with just me and slowly we built up to 6 at one point and now we’re back to 4 employees. The company has been pretty natural and fluent.

The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz is a huge part of what we do now and that happened through Ray Justice. In early 2000, he was a mentor and coach of mine. I was speaking to him at one point and I said, “I get this training thing but something is missing.” He said to me, “I just finished this book and I don’t know why, but you need to read it.” I trusted him so of the 10 books in my “to read” pile, this one went to the top.

And, as I read it, I had a movie playing in my mind of how exactly it would fit into what I was doing. It was amazing. So, I started down the path of contacting the author about using it in my training. He put me in touch with the publisher and they gave me permission to use it!

Miguel Ruiz, Jr., don Miguel Ruiz, & Laurie (Left to right)

How has The Four Agreements impacted your life?

At that point I began to participate in their trainings. Me being all business, I thought I was going to learn how to apply these materials in the workplace but it ended up touching my life in a very personal way. My life dramatically changed.

My relationship with my father improved. It was never bad, but I was the middle child of 14 so I got lost in the shuffle a little bit!

He is a self-employed carpenter and he was in Rochester working on a special job at the time so I let him stay at my house. He saw the book on my coffee table and said, “What is this?” I said, “Just read it…and if you want to discuss it, I’ll spend the entire weekend with you.” Now, I was single at the time so this was a big deal!

He read it and he said to me, “Wow, if I read this earlier I never would have needed Prozac!” My father is a Veteran. This experience started a whole new relationship between us with a common interest!

If you can help people be successful in their relationships with people, the workplace benefits. It’s really just a venue to reach people with the message. It’s all just empowering people to make a difference. To me empowering is a mix of inspiration and the resources to act.

Tell me about how you got started with the EO-WNY?

I got started with EO-WNY by a great guy, Ralph Dandria, a partner of ITX. I was at a party and we got talking. He wanted some training and he said, “Wow, you’d be a great candidate for EO!” Right away people were so generous. And, generosity to me is an attractive thing. That is EO for sure. One of our major objectives is to provide the best learning opportunities possible not only for members, but for the community as well.

It’s an organization that truly wants to help entrepreneurs grow.

Tell me more about your training packages.

Something else that I’d like to share with you is the concept that we’re using in our business. It’s a concept we call “GRIT.” It stands for “Generosity, Respect, Integrity, and Truth.”

Those are the core of what it takes for authenticity as a human being. These things drive human relationships. GRIT happens to work well because the American way is toughness. That speaks to so many people!

I’m writing a book which is half done right now and the working title is something relative to “Getting your GRIT together.” It’s about creating a workplace that people want to be at! We want to spread the word!

We take everything that we do experientially and we change that to fit into different organizations. We do not change the flow of the material, but we do change the language and some of the activities involved. Remember, I consider myself a messenger, or a translator. I tailor the information to connect with accountants, lawyers, or construction people!

A lot of training companies will specialize in an industry, but we don’t do that. We’re specialists in people. That is our philosophy. The Four Agreements is one differentiator and customizing our message across industry is definitely unique in our marketplace. The real impact you need to make in an organization is on an individual level. We help people see what’s in it for them.

The best part about this stuff to me is that you’re never going to master it. We’re constantly learning, so the more we can lighten up and have fun with it, the better off we’re going to be! Fun is a core value of mine!

CONTACT LAURIE:

ljoslin@unlimitedcoaching.com

Hannah Morgan

Hannah is an energetic Career Sherpa, guiding unemployed individuals into new career fields. She is employed at Rochester Works doing just that. Her year old blog, Career Sherpa, carries her daily updated articles to help people on their job search. No matter where you are in your career, check it out! http://hannahmorgan.typepad.com/ ~Ben

When I started there were five people reading my blog. Now I am at over 13,000 hits. Blogging is really fun for me; I was on vacation for a week and went through blog withdrawal.
I get to put in writing all of the things that bother me about job seekers. Unfortunately I have found that they are often so detached about what is going on in the real world.

I tell people, if you are unemployed and need new clothing, you should not be purchasing new clothing; you should go to Salvation Army. There was one unemployed gentleman who had not had a job interview in years. He recently lost forty pounds so he did not fit into his old suits anymore. He was planning on just wearing a shirt and tie to interviews. Things like this happen all of the time. To me, it seems like a no brainer to ask a friend for a suit or to go to Salvation Army. This is one example of how people are so detached that they are not thinking properly in the job search.

Where did you start out?

I grew up in Connecticut and went to school at Ohio Wesleyan. I had one of those really desirable majors; Humanities with a concentration in Ancient Greece and Rome. See how it prepared me for the world! It was the greatest four years of my life.

What about your family?

I have two boys, they are seven and five. The boys are a workout. However, my husband is a great father.

You are involved in a lot of other things...

I am writing for the Democrat and Chronicle. I have space on the Her Rochester blog and every week one of my articles is in the newspaper. My work is also published on JobSafe.com. http://www.herrochester.com/ , http://www.thejobsafe.com/

Beyond the writing, I am the Vice President of programs for the Genesee Valley Chapter of ASTD which stands for the American Society for Training and Development. Every month we put on a program, and I oversee the program. I spent my whole life doing nothing before all of this, and now I am completely over committed.

How do you go about the process of finding someone a job?

Primarily I deliver workshops with people. I encourage self assessment. You can’t properly look for a job until you know what you bring to the table. That is a step that people rarely ever take.

This whole search process needs to be proactive not reactive these days. Most jobs are happening back door, not by applying with a resume traditionally. Good companies are always looking for their next hire. If I am talking to you, and I find out you are really great at marketing or great at networking, I will file that away in my brain, because I may have a need for that in my company six months from now.

In order to find a job, you need to start not by developing a resume, but by developing a target list of companies. Then you need to begin to create relationships with people inside of those companies. You don’t send in a resume to the HR office, you have a cup of coffee with one of the leaders within the organization and introduce yourself. Business owners are always looking for the next opportunity. If you frame yourself as an opportunity, you will be hired. If you understand their business, understand what their problems are, and understand how to deal with those problems, they will be silly not to listen to you.

They do not teach that to you when you go to school.

Networking is not a course in college.

Everyone who has been laid off from Kodak knows so many other people who they used to work with at Kodak. When you ask these people “Who do you know?” They say, “I don’t have any friends.” Are you kidding me?

Job seekers need to figure out what the businesses problems are for the company they want to be in, and how they can solve those problems. Then, they need to communicate how they can be valuable to that business. That is all about sales skills, which unfortunately we are not teaching to our kids. They need to know how to sell well. Once you get a job you have to be able to sell your opinion to your colleagues, your boss. People who can sell are much more successful, they know the power and nuances of relationships.

What is the most rewarding part of your job?

I would like to say that the most rewarding part is to find people jobs, however that takes so long to happen. The most rewarding part of my work is watching someone understand “it,” being able to take this job search away on their own.

People respond to different methods of teaching. I am sort of “no nonsense, take it or leave it” kind of person. This is what it is.... I am moving on to someone else if you don’t want to understand it.

I typically see 60 to 90 people a day because there are a lot of unemployed people out there right now.

When do you wake up every morning? You emailed me at 4:30 this morning.

I wake up at 4 AM. It used to be 5am, and then I got into Twitter, so now it is 4am. A lot of my time after hours is spent doing stuff with my kids, carting them around, so I do work in the morning.

You live in Canandaigua. How do you like it?

It is a great community. I belong to the Congregational Church in Canandaigua. They nominated me to be a Vice Moderator. This is a nice title, and I get to go to the council meetings. I have lived here for fifteen or so years. We are transplants from other parts of the country. My husband was an airline pilot for a while, and I worked in Rochester, so we were never really in the in-crowd of Canandaigua’s community until recently as our kids became more involved. Now that we are more involved in the community we are loving it even more.

Why Rochester?

The quality of life here is great. Where is there a better place to raise a family? It’s easy to get around compared to other cities. It is a bit rainy and snowy, but not very bad.

What about goals?

I want to be the Suze Orman of Careers.

One of the challenges I am facing right now is that I am working forty hours a week at Rochester Works and spending a lot of time doing my Career Sherpa work outside of those forty hours. And, I have kids! It’s tough to do everything that I want to do.

What are your biggest strengths and weaknesses?

I am innovative. It allows me to look at problems differently.
My greatest weakness is that I am not very good at asking questions. I sometimes make assumptions. When I am talking to a job seeker, I am usually asking it under certain assumptions. I come to the table with my own pre conceived notions and biases.

When do you read?

I mostly read blogs online. When I do my night reading, I just read fun stuff. I am not a really good reader, but I read at least two books a month.

Are you a big caffeine person?

I am a caffeine girl. By noon I am on my third diet coke. My stomach is probably going to rot and fall out.

What did you want to be when you were a kid?

An archaeologist. It was not a very practical type of job so that did not happen.

You are a big Twitter user. If you could “Tweet” anything, what would it be?

Know what value you bring to the employer, cast a wide net, keep your options open and never stop networking.

Most memorable person you have ever met?

My dad was the most influential in my life. He taught me all of the important lessons of life. He is one of the most important people in my life. I have a huge host of mentors; Rita Carey, Pat Piles, DeeDee Dutcher, Rosa Smith Montanaro, Mike Lally, and many more. They are all mentoring a different part of my life.

If you could meet anyone, who?

Oprah. I would love to know what she knows. She has done a lot of great stuff.

If you could say any words of wisdom to all of Western NY, what would it be?

Besides the fact that WNY is a great place to live and work, I would love people to really take the time to appreciate the innovation that is happening. There are some really cool startups, and uses of technology and cutting edge science happening in WNY. The future of our region depends upon the innovation and growth of these up and coming companies. Changing that mindset from big to small is very important.

What is your definition of success?

Success is making a difference in people’s lives.

Train Your Brain

Alex Hillis is a 2009 SUNY Geneseo Graduate and currently employed with Ben at St. Pauly Textiles Inc. He is also a founder of dropStatic Newsletter, Rochester's Source for music information.

How to Be Happy on Purpose

By: Alex Hillis

Let’s face it: life doesn’t always go the way we want it to. Really, if you think of all the times that you picked the wrong thing to say, or you couldn’t make a ham sandwich because someone ate your ham (uncool), it seems like more often than not things don’t go the way you planned them.

This is how you deal with your wild and rapidly changing environment: you lay the best plans you can think of at the time, execute those plans the best that you can in the face of uncertainty, and then tally up your wins and losses at the end of the day to see whether or not you should feel happy or morbidly depressed. I suppose this is a very rational way to look at life, particularly if we can eliminate feelings all together.

Unfortunately something inevitably occurs in people’s minds. They tally up their wins and losses, and then multiply the losses by two, or perhaps ten. Deep down people cannot bear to make mistakes, and the sweetest success cannot compete with the simplest failure for attention. If you think about it, this is the attitude that spawns couch potatoes (success isn’t worth the potential failure), workaholics (I’m not successful enough in the face of my failures), and even filthy rich depressives (my success means nothing in the end, but I sure can think of a lot of reasons why deep down I’m still a failure).

If you assume, like I do, that this is an inherent part of human psychology (or at least American psychology!), then what can you do to combat this negative force of the mind? You have to think of it in terms of the emotions that are created from your relative successes and failures. (Note: if you can change your emotional responses for the better, an increase in positive attitude and measurable success will follow).

“But I can’t really control my emotions!” It is true. You can’t force yourself to feel happy. You can’t say, “I just got an average evaluation on my end of term report, when I badly wanted to be considered exceptional- but I’ll just be happy all the same.” You can pretend to be happy, but inside your prison you still feel the crush of disappointment, and the panic of insufficiency.

By the same token, no matter what you do, you can’t always create events and circumstances that elicit the emotion that you desire. If so, you would be perfect, and have God-like powers.
What you can do is adjust to the transition between what happens and how you feel about it. I really don’t want to rehash the glass half-empty, glass half-full metaphor, so I will cut the philosophy, and go straight to the solutions.

These are things that I do to be happy on purpose, and focus my mind on things that make me feel positive:

1. Sometimes I suffer insomnia because I lie awake at night dwelling on things that worry me. As soon as I realize that I am dwelling, I turn the lights on, get out of bed, and turn on the TV to a program that is innocent and positive, like the cooking channel, or national geographic. Even if I have to get up early and it’s late at night, I have discovered that I have to lose myself like this for a while and reset my emotions in order to fall asleep.

2. Whenever anybody asks me if I want to do something that they want to do, I do it! Every single time I have ever been ‘tired’, and then bit the bullet and agreed to go along to a show, or to engage in a project, I have been very glad that I did so.
Chances are, if you feel like chilling out and your friend is suggesting something that at the moment seems unappealing, you are suffering from a weary emotional state, and your sense of adventure is being overtaken by the failures and negative emotions you have accumulated throughout the day. In fact, the last thing you need is to sit around by yourself. What you really need is a fresh environment and a fresh attitude, and maybe even a beer.

3. In the past I have many times become very angry at the people that I love. As a result I am very unhappy. Often when this occurs, I actively try to remember times when I appreciated something that they did, or saw a side of them that was really wonderful. Whenever I can remember something like that, I find my emotions slipping from anger to forgiveness, which is one of the greatest emotional releases a person can experience.

These are just a few ways in which I have trained myself to be happy on purpose. Many people have different ways of actively changing their attitudes.