Angela McCourt 0:00
Let's get ready for some serious shift. This is a podcast shifting Inside Out hosted by your quantum shifter Angela McCourt, we are diving into ways to empower and enable a quantum shift. Inspiring topics hacks and guest speakers take us on a journey around authenticity, challenging status quo, personal power and living a purpose filled life.

In this episode, Paige powers goes into her journey. And along that journey, how she discovered her personal power and how that ended up intersecting with authenticity. And we really dive into her journey. Where, you know, there were many times even though she's a planning person where she didn't have a plan. And she just really tried to figure out how to adapt and navigate in a way that really ended up becoming such a great opportunity for her to be able to go out into different career opportunities, move to different areas of the country. And one of my favorite things at the very end of the podcast is she talks about how she created this sanctuary for rescue animals. And I think it's just so darling. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this episode. As you listen you can find me on LinkedIn at Angie belts, McCourt and Instagram at Angie underscore McCourt. So without further ado, let's hear from Paige.

Paige, welcome to shifting inside out. I'm so grateful that you have joined me on this episode. To get started, why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself?

Paige Powers 1:45
Absolutely. My name is Paige powers and I have I'll just say 20 plus years in the high tech industry if I actually counted the years I might be afraid primarily focus my career on building global channels global distribution and global virtual sales. That's those have been kind of my my areas of passion. I currently lead the Americas distribution organization for Juniper Networks. And outside of that I have three rescue dogs and I am an adoption coordinator for West Coast boxer rescue and a board member for loving form animal sanctuary. My side hustles

Angela McCourt 2:30
Yeah, I love it. And I love the fact that you call that your side hustle. Because I think a lot of people think well, I have to own my own business to have a side hustle. No, no, you don't know, you can actually help and contribute and be part of a passionate, you know, area for you. That's awesome. I love it. Thank you so much. So I always do quick round of questions just so the listeners can get to know you a bit more. So the first one would would be what is your morning ritual?

Paige Powers 2:56
Well, I am an early bird. So probably was a farmer in a prior life. I like to get up between four and 430. In the morning, no matter where I am in the world, I tend to wake up that early no matter where I am. And the first and most important thing is to have that first sip of coffee. And that just gets gets me going. You know, up until recently, I would spend that time in the morning for myself. So I would go to the gym. I'm an orange theory addicts. I have an injury right now. So I've been able to do that. And I find that if I don't do that in the morning, it gets D scoped from my project plan for the day. And so I usually spend those hours you know, spending time you know, getting my endorphins going or relieving stress and then on days that I don't go to the gym. I like to sit and just be quiet with a world before it wakes up. And I'll either work on personal projects, or I will put her I call it around my house so I will you know make things change things move art around but doing things that bring me positive energy and set me Sydney right for the day that aren't work related.

Angela McCourt 4:07
Oh, love it. Yeah. I love the puttering part too, because, you know, some people are like, Why don't like having structure in the morning. I don't like having that set routine and the puttering allows for freedom. I think you just go do whatever you want. But you're holding the space for the pottering. Yes, the activity itself. Yeah. I love that. That's fantastic. Oh, somebody just picked up a new new way to do this. How do you renew your energy?

Paige Powers 4:34
That is, uh, that, you know, when I was thinking about this prior to coming, coming on air with you, I was really struggling with that because there's a lot of change going on in my life. And I think that, you know, I started at my current company a week after the World shutdown. Prior to that I was traveling 12 to 13 weeks of a quarter, and my energy was renewed by who I got to see when I landed wherever I landed. anywhere in the world, it was about the people. And that's where I got my energy renewal. And when you start a new company in a new role, and you're literally this is the first time I've been locked in a house for this long. I really had to rethink where do I get my energy. And it got very, I'll say, awesome. COVID has some unintended benefits. I actually went outside when I lived in California before I moved here, and I met my neighbors and their kids and their kids are now coming to visit me as Auntie Paige. And I would go outside, and I would just be with our friends and neighbors in the neighborhood. And then when we moved here, you know, again, I'm still, you know, we're not traveling much. And I was like, How do I renew my energy here in a new space in a new place, but still not being able to go see people for work. And it's, it's kind of funny, we either every night we walk the dogs or we get in our Go Kart, and we call it a sunset cruise, and we go out and take pictures of the Idaho sunset almost every night. And that's where I just kind of exhale, like getting out of the house. Go as my friend says, going outside and playing. But it's those simple things that you don't think about. Because the day is booked solid, much more solid than when we were in the office, you could at least walk to the bathroom or go to the cafe. So you have to be super on purpose about you know what, at five or 530. I walk down stairs, we have dinner and then we go for a cruise or we take the dogs for a walk and then I come back and I'm like I can sleep well tonight now.

Angela McCourt 6:38
It's like a separation. It's your creation of your separation

Unknown Speaker 6:42
commute that we don't have

Angela McCourt 6:44
since the commute. Yeah, exactly. And it does matter. I think for the mindset. Yeah. So that's a really, that's a really great ritual to be able to create that separation. A lot of people are still really struggling with that. So now what is your guilty pleasure besides coffee? Just just one or pleasures.

Paige Powers 7:06
So I you know, I was listening to Nico's podcasts. And I was giggling when he said, You know, I like to sit down and watch and you mentioned it to something on media that just let your brain relax because it is not your normal way of being and so I always giggle with people because my favorite show is cops. Okay have been watching cops for 18 years, and puts it helps me go to sleep at night and I downloaded onto my iPad no matter where I am in the world because I can't sleep unless I have an episode cops on and nobody understands how anybody could go to sleep to cops. But that has just been my thing. And I might have an affinity for dateline, Forensic Files and everything Bravo TV.

Angela McCourt 7:55
I think you missed the calling. Like, maybe you should have been an FBI agent or something. You know,

Paige Powers 8:01
like my next life? Criminal Justice. I'm gonna that.

Angela McCourt 8:05
Yes. Even a private investigator like you'd be really cool private investigator. Oh, man, you you would you would like break down well, in a way that you would get shit done, you would find the weapons that are very, like,

Paige Powers 8:18
I now know that I tell my husband. I'm not sure this is podcast appropriate. But I'm gonna say anyway, because I'm being my authentic self. But I joke with him that I am more valuable to him dead than alive. But he'll never get away with it because he has too much hair. So my friends are false.

Angela McCourt 8:37
You know how things I know, you know, when they're looking? And no one there? It's all it's all seated. Jamie, you're done. I think that's pretty funny, actually.

Unknown Speaker 8:53
Funny life.

Angela McCourt 8:55
That's awesome. But you know, I think to the whole cops, you know, falling asleep to cops. It's like, well, they caught the bad guy. So you feel like at ease. Like there's a Safety Association to that. Right. So yeah, I think your subconscious is using it as a way to protect you when you go to sleep. So 430 in the morning,

Paige Powers 9:13
right? I think I dreamed it into being because when my husband did a career change, he went from high tech sales into the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office and the community of people that kept me safe every day was unparalleled. So I sleep at night.

Angela McCourt 9:29
Yeah, that's awesome. Okay, so oh my gosh, I think we've known each other like 11 or 12 years. It's been a while, right? Would you say about 2006 ish. Okay. Oh, wow. Okay, yeah, 14, maybe maybe? Holy cow. Yeah, a long time. It's been a long time. And and you've been amazing at, you know, doing and supporting women at the channel lunches at different events that we've done and and being able to speak. And one of the things that between, you know, hearing your passion around what you believe in and what you support, obviously, with animals and rescue, there's, there's a big nurturing side to you as well. The Authentic Leadership is something that I just have always witnessed from you, and the impact that had on your teams, you know, that I got to see over time, you know, their their loyalty, the trust the inspiration. I mean, they worked hard for you. That's what I saw, when I've been able to witness that. And I think that is such an important capacity to have. And it's not necessarily a leadership style, that's been, I would say, the most popular or has been the most broadly, you know, modelled, and it is now becoming the most in demand. And so you've been doing it for a very long time. So we'll go into your journey first. But I think along the way, I would love to talk about authentic leadership, and just what does that mean to you? And, you know, what, what have you seen over the years of evolution and embracing and allowing for, and or what were the battles that maybe you had to play along the way to be able to show up as an authentic leader, right, because it hasn't always been the most modeled, leadership style. So anyway, I would love for you to share with the audience like your journey first, and let's just, you know, let you run on that and go back as far as you'd like, just go for it. So

Paige Powers 11:40
absolutely. And, you know, I, I think the first time where I actually ever had to think about my leadership style was when you asked me to do a luncheon of women in the channel on leadership, and I'm like, I don't, I don't know what to say, I just, I just do what I do, I guess I got a bit better figure this out. And, and that was one of, I'll say, a career defining moment that you really led me into, because I had to get up on stage and say something that was impactful and meaningful, where I had just been doing me, or, you know, how I worked and and trying to really look at that and inspect, what is it that I believe in? How is it that I lead, that I could articulate it in a way that sounded, you know, semi organized. But, you know, I started to look back, and I've looked back many times over, I'd say the last 15 years on, you know, you said owning personal power. And I think that, you know, I didn't really start. I didn't start out knowing any of that. Like I said, there was that defining moment where I had to actually talk about leadership. And I had to do it one other time. And I really went, you know, what, what did I do up to this point, and I realized that you do have to go all the way back. And I grew up without going into some of the traumatic side of of it, but I grew up idolizing my father and wanting to do exactly what my dad did, I did all the sports he did except for football. I wanted to be the you know, he had a national accounting firm, and I was going to be the first female managing partner of a national accounting firm. And I was just going to be a mini John. And I realized when I got college that I got my first three C's of my life all in accounting, and I called my father crying. And this was my first kind of powerful decision or defining moment, saying, I'm not going to be you. I just I don't, this isn't me. And he's like, Did I ever pressure you today ever, and he never did. And it was in that moment where I went, Wait, nobody's putting pressure on me to be something that I'm not. And I made a decision. And I said, I'm going to, I'm going to go into sales and marketing and major and marketing or behavior. And with that, I had no idea what any of that meant, but I knew it wasn't accounting. And so it allowed me as you say, this space to kind of do a lot of different things versus being pigeon holed into one thing. And shortly after I graduated, I was in a sales role. Microsoft was my customer. I lived in Seattle, and I made a decision to move to the Silicon Valley. within like two weeks, I'd never lived anywhere else. And I have no idea why where I found the courage to say, I'm just gonna uproot my entire life and go move to California. To Yeah, yeah. And I'm not I, at that point. I was not a risk taker. I've never been a risk. Well, I wasn't a risk taker at that point in my life, but I was like, this is the path I need to go. I don't know why I can always come home. And that started an amazing journey in my career, but also In my, you know, I'll say sense of self development experience, because I didn't know what I was doing. I questioned myself every step along the way. And after, you know, a year of working for the company that I worked for I went, I'm, I don't have any runway at this company who were my favorite customers, and it was my Cisco customer. And my HP Customer, they, it wasn't about the company, it was about who my favorite, like, who I love to work with. And I had an opportunity to go to Cisco. And, you know, through the course of the time I was there, obviously, I got to meet you. And I got to have the team that we worked collectively with, but I was able to create out of nine different roles, create six of them that didn't exist. And that's really, you know, in the moment, I didn't know I had this power. But looking back, it's something that I'm super proud of that I would see a problem, I would see a gap, I would see an org that needed help or service or somehow needed something fixed or changed or evolved. And I would just go after it. And I would get people on board with me. And that's where I started to really gain knowledge that if I actually asked for something, I could actually have people agree with me, I could get them on board, I could get them engaged, I could get them energized to do whatever it was whatever crazy scheme I was up to adapt.

But, you know, during that time, I was really growing up in my career, and I was also growing up as a person. And it was really through, you know, my whole identity was wrapped up in my work, how hard I worked, how much I was recognized for my work, how my work could have an impact. And I was really, you know, kind of internally focused. And then I was promoted to a leadership position where I was not the subject matter expert, I didn't know what I was doing. I'll call that distribution. And I didn't know any of the people except for my boss at the time. And I really had to look outside of my little world to people like Chuck and his peer at other companies, to you to my team, and say, I have no idea what I'm doing. But I know we can, we can do amazing things. And it was that wisdom of the crowd. So that's one of the books, wisdom of the crowd, bringing together the knowledge and diverse perspectives of different people never trying to solve something on your own, because you'll have such a limited impact. And then, you know, I had this, I think I really honestly think that part of my career at Cisco, where I was in distribution and got to engage with so many amazing people in the channel. You know, it was that was where the, the springboard was for me. But I also went to a life changing event. And it all it takes is one life changing event to completely change your perspective. And I did go through one, I was in a personal situation that I needed to be out of, and I didn't know how to get out of that. And I sought the counsel of a therapist to give me the courage and the strength to be able to change that situation I was in and what I realized, you know, I had been tagged as you're too passionate, or you're too cold and intimidating, or you're too fully self expressed. And I was being incongruent in my professional life and in my personal life with who I actually was. And after four and a half years of completely unpacking my life up into that point, I realized that I am good enough. I understood why had operated the way I did and how it had served me up into that point. How I was programmed, and how I adapted to it to survive. And I say survive, not you know Maslow's hierarchy needs of survival but just to survive in my life, and that it no longer serves me. And that's probably about the time where you met me because I all of a sudden kind of gave all of that programming up to say, I'm okay. And I believe in not everyone's gonna like what I have to say, but I'm going to be congruent in my core values. I'm going to be congruent in leading by example. And I'm going to give myself the space to be who I am whether I'm at work, whether I'm at home, whether I'm in the community, whether I'm giving back and that was a real turning point for me and an investment I think that everybody should make whether it's therapy or coaching you because you just, it's just an investment, the gift you give yourself to be able to make a choice at that point knowing, understanding that how you got to where you are and who you are gives you the choice to, to be who you want to be going forward.

Angela McCourt 20:17
Yeah, that's beautiful. Yeah. And so it's interesting because page power, personal power. But it's interesting, because as your your journey just came to this point in time, the personal power and the authenticity merging is so incredible. Because that's what it's all about.

Unknown Speaker 20:47
Yep. And that's

Angela McCourt 20:49
what I got from there. How did that how did that then, shape for you, from a life or in a work perspective? from a

Paige Powers 20:57
career perspective, it really helped me be okay. And not be in that. I mean, I just like, a lot of people were in that, oh, my gosh, I'm in the imposter syndrome, someday, they're gonna find out I'm not as good as I think, or they think I am. I just gave it all up. And I said, you know, what, I, here's my core values. Here's how I want to be as a leader, I want people to feel better. When they leave a conversation with me than when they started it. I want to always I took the quiz. And yes, I've, I'm a servant leader. No surprises, not that surprise. But it's, for me to really rebuild, who I thought I was professionally helped me also separate, not separate, but not have my whole identity wrapped up in who I was professionally. Because I'm also the same person personally, and bringing that congruence see together and being able to be fully self expressed with my humans in my life, as well as my humans at work, because I spend more time as we all know, with our humans at work.

It that's when I started to realize I actually had power. And when I looked back, having kind of that a little bit of that, you know, acceptance of myself, I went, Oh, wow, that was that was a powerful event, when you made that decision to step away from everything you knew, to make that decision to move to make those six decisions to try to get people on board with what you wanted to do. And then all of a sudden, I realized that I had the opportunity and the courage to take some risks in my life, and in my career that I would never have done had I not gone through kind of that transitional moment, coaching moments. And I said, Okay, well, I want to my retirement speech. At this point in my career, I said, I want to have, I want to be speaking about running or owning my own business. And working for a large corporation, like you, oftentimes you don't see how a company operates at our level. And so I said, I'm going to need to leave the nest, and I'm gonna go work for some smaller organizations still doing the things that I love to do, which is channel distribution and virtual sales, but being able to see how each element of the operation works to see if I could possibly run our own land business in the future. And so I went on this path, and I was very on purpose. For the first time in my career. My path was I want to go to companies where I can build virtual sales organizations, I believe in it, I want to go to companies where there's a cause associated to it in some way, shape, or form that I believe in. So technology always seems to be one that I attached to. And I went into solar distribution, because distribution is my love, I can't, I can't seem to shake that. And built a virtual sales and outside sales organization for a solar distributor back into technology, but global distribution, global virtual sales, but it wasn't about the building the team, it was the who like who I got to work for, and who I got to work with. And at the end of the day, that is my number one priority, no matter what role I take, is who I work for and who I work with. And I've been very blessed to acquire some amazing organizations, including the one that I have now, of which only a few I've hired myself, so it's just a testament to the leaders that came before me. And to have the ability to say this is what I want to do and I'm okay with not being the CEO I'm now okay with not only my own company because I have all of this energy and excitement and fun in my side. hustles I'm learning about five other one C's I'm saving boxers from being euthanized. And I'm like, I don't need to run my own company now because I, I have that, that filled that gap there. Yeah. And I still get to do what I love, which is who I work for who I work with. And I get to back in distribution which is, which is where I, you know, I love to partner with organizations to figure that out. But it's it's really all about people accepting me for being who I am and me accepting them for being who they are, and just really capitalizing on people's strengths. And that's been, we had a channel event, I think it was an internal Cisco event where Marcus Buckingham came. And I remember sitting there going, I'm not wrong anymore for wanting to be focusing on strengths. I've always done that as a leader, it's to your point not wasn't a well accepted, it was always spent 90%, focusing on what people aren't good at and developing it versus what they are good at. And I remember having that epiphany going, I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm a good leader. Yeah. And I just gone with it. It's just, it's listening. It's just who I am. And I would expect the same out of my leaders. And I'm very fortunate that I right now have really great leaders that give me that same, that same engagement and courtesy and respect and listening.

Angela McCourt 26:29
Yeah, and it's interesting, because that epiphany that you had about, it's no longer about the title, or the money, or where I'm at, it's who I'm with. And that's the most important thing. There is this point, pretty much in everyone's career, as long as they're open to it, where that happens. It's the priorities of what am I doing? And why am I doing it, all of a sudden become really, really deeply, there's like this deep yearning to discover it and to figure it out, and to really align in with it, because otherwise, we feel very disconnected. We just feel like oh, my gosh, I'm going through the motions, there's this like, robotic person inside of me, and going through all of this work, there has to be more to it than this, right. And I think you just you just explained and showed how that transition can happen, doing the same kind of work, but really honing in on how and why you love it. And then the whole purpose, which your purpose obviously is as a leader driving this to write, but a lot of people were like, No, I have to have, I have to have absolute fun, it has to be easy, and it has to be my purpose tied to my income. But where people don't necessarily find that other outlet, which is the side hustle, could be a business, could be a hobby, could be a nonprofit that you work with, or that you start, it could be a very intentional, very meaningful activity you do like rescue, and or connecting, you know, rescues with their new owners or forever owners. And so it's such a great lesson. And I think it gives a lot of aha moments to people, when they first hear it, they're like, oh, wait a minute, I don't have to actually love what I'm doing. But at where I don't have to actually find my full purpose in what I'm doing. And the meaning can still be in the work. But you're looking at it differently. Now, you're not putting so much pressure on the actual job, being able to fulfill every single piece of that yearning. It's, oh, I can now show up in the way that I need to show up who I am. And do this in a meaningful way this job, but I can also have my outlets, whether it's even for expression, or whether it's for creativity, or whether it's forgiving, you know, there there are lots of different ways to fulfill that other purpose, meaning that's piece of this, this yearning that we feel. And I think that's such a great example how you shared that and how you showcase that just now. So thank you for that. Appreciate it. So when you think about early on, or early on in your journey, when you had to make that decision about that was probably the first identity shift was when you called your dad and you said, I can't be you. Write for you being so young and being able to like, be at that moment where you said, this isn't this isn't me. I have to just admit it. It's not me. What was that feeling like? Was that liberating to feel that release of expectation, whoever's expectation it was.

Paige Powers 29:53
I would say the first it's like the stages of grief. There's multiple of them. I think the first was terror. tear in calling my parents I mean, my mom, but my mom is my cheerleader. My dad's my cheerleader too. But in what I realized in that moment, it was my expectation that I was terrified of breaking. And it had nothing. No parent. I mean, I know there are parents that do that might never, ever do that. And so I had that in that moment where he was just like, scratching his head going, why are you crying? Why are you so upset? Why are you like, I realized that it was me that had all I had put all this pressure on myself since I was a tiny person to be as good if not better than the person I idolized. And once he said, Paige, didn't go go do what you need to do. I just had this like, I don't know what I'm gonna go do. But exhale, like, there wasn't. In my mind, they expected of me but it wasn't them. It was me. And, and allowing myself to forgive myself. To be kind to myself in that moment to say, I'm okay that I'm not going to be exactly like John Crutcher, or Priscilla Crutcher, also esteemed business extraordinaire. And when I'm gonna go forge my own way, and I have no idea what I'm doing, and we're gonna go figure it out, which is not in my family, they, they're, you know, we don't go figure things out. We we have a plan, we plan, plan, plan, and like, I don't have a plan, but we're gonna go figure it out. Yeah. And I think that kind of I don't have a plan. I don't know the answer, but I'll figure it out, has been a common theme. Not just I'll figure it out. But now later, you no more towards the back half of my career, who can I engage to help me figure it out? And that's kind of the private investigator side of me? Who would have a great idea about this? I don't know the answer, who is really strong in this, who is bringing a team together and saying, Hey, let's just throw a sticky note up there with a business problem, how are we going to go solve that? And I think that that, that moment, when I had to realize it wasn't my parents that put the pressure on me, it was me and then I let that go. The whole world was open and sales was such back then it was your, you're going to a big five accounting firm, where the consulting firms if you're not finance and accounting, you have no job and like, I have no job. So what are we gonna go do, we're gonna go sell stuff. And I've been in sales ever since.

Angela McCourt 32:42
But I think it's important to the approach that you've that you've taken there, which is I don't have the answer. And I don't have a plan, but I'm gonna figure it out. adaptability, flexibility, curiosity, being open, and being open to receive support and help and asking for it. Like, those are all skills and capacities that so many people struggle with, on top of expectations, and unrealistic or false expectations to, but it's it but it's interesting, because it's almost been this navigational tool for you, you know, to be able to, it's like, I'm not going to freak out about this change, I'm going to figure it out. I'm going to, you know, trust myself, and I'm going to trust others. And the personal power that that has, is incredible. Yeah, besides skills and capacities and kind of the technical pieces of it, like the personal power that holds is just like what gives me the chills

Paige Powers 33:40
Yeah, and that's, you know, one of the things in the congruence AC side I did I learned that much faster in my professional life than I did in my personal life. And I have I will any even now, you know, I do get feedback. We wish Paige would delegate more and I don't want to burden people that kind of servant side of me I don't want to burden people but in my personal life, I spent so many years just doing doing it all not asking for help not saying I need I was like I got it I got it I got it and that you know contributed to the downfall of you know, things in my personal life and now I'm learning still learning how to say hi, I need your perspective or I need your help or I will accept help when people want to give give me something which is just against my nature because I'm a doer, my on my own but I I'm always working on that congruence. See I'm much better with my teams than I think I am with my personal life that I've made a lot of inroads I will say in the last 10 years to just be me and be able to be vulnerable. Personally, ask for help. Say I need I need help, which is, those are the hardest words for me to say but it really people want to help people want to contribute. People want to be a part of a team, people want to feel like they are a part of something, whether it's in your community, your personal life, your professional life, and I do. I feel like I'm better at it with my work peeps than I am with my home peeps, but I'm still we're always human, and we're learning every day.

Angela McCourt 35:36
Yeah, absolutely. And it's interesting, because you know, all of these kinds of approaches, being inclusive, you know, inclusive and solving problems, too. It's not just inclusive and coming up with new ideas. It's about empowering others. And it's about connection and deeper connection. And there's this yearning going on amongst people, humans, doesn't matter if it's life's work, where they're really wanting more, they're wanting more meaning they're wanting more connection, they're wanting deeper relation, deeper, meaningful relationships. And they're wanting to be trusted, and they're wanting to be not just recognized, like recognized is really hard nowadays, because everything is pretty much CO collaborating, it's co creating, like there is no individual does everything. And so recognition is the old way of how we were able to kind of as leaders be able to say, oh, you know, this person did such an outstanding above and beyond job. But acknowledgement, can go to anyone who is putting in an extra couple hours to finish something to prioritize something over, you know, everything else on their plate to try to help their, you know, leader or their customer or pure. And that kind of leadership needed to be able to support and hold space, for this new, I would call it new set of needs, that employees have is critical. And I can't see it happening with a lot of the old behaviors and old leadership styles, authentic authenticity, and vulnerability and nurturing are like the three nurturing being empathy and, you know, some other key components of, of really wanting people to succeed. And, you know, really helping them get to the possibilities that they have, like, those are all pieces that play into this authentic leadership style, if you want to call it that, that is demanded. Nowadays, it's not even a matter of you better figure it out, or your teams are all going to leave, because they've already shown that they will do that. Yes, they've already shown they will do that. They're not there, they want connection, they want acknowledgement, they want to be valued, and they want meaning in what they're doing. And that means as a leader, we have to help them connect to that meaning. So as you look at the changes over the past few years, for you, you haven't necessarily had to change, but you've probably seen how it's been more received, not just by your teams, but even by your own peers and your and your leaders to show up authentically to lead authentically. What is your what are your thoughts on all of that? Like? How does that? How do you disseminate that down into, you know, some some synopsis that you've witnessed?

Paige Powers 38:42
Well, I think there is still an element of the old world in play at every company. In every industry, I'm sure I'm well versed in high tech, but back to who you work for meaning leadership down to whatever level you're at, to who you work with. One of the things that I've noticed, having done a few, I'll call them adventures in startup adventures in you know, different high tech situations between Cisco and extreme and here. When people say our culture, I had zero belief in that they were authentic about culture, because I would walk into a situation or to accompany and it was all, you know, marketing, marketing information, where I got to see truly the culture of the company I was at again, I started a week after the World shut down. Nobody's dealt with this before. And I watch a CEO that I didn't know anything about at the time. I had been in the chambers you know, world for so many years and I idolized him as an Vangelis and somebody that could get people aligned and on board with anything. And I'm like, there's never going to be anybody else like, like a John Chambers. And then I watch our CEO and how he handled us as humans during something he didn't even know how to navigate through. And I, I went, I remember all the interviews about junipers cultures, you know, whose culture and it could be Juniper, it could be any insert company name here, and I didn't, I'm like, Yeah, I'll get in there. And I have truly saw the, you know, leaders show their stripes when you're in a crisis, and watching from our CEO all the way down through the organization with dealing with that made me loyal. And I have, you know, as a leader in the space of pandemic, and being a

technology, hardware technology, during all of this stuff, I have watched, many leaders just embrace the fact that, you know, we have to be better than we've ever been, to keep people okay to keep people, we've had to deal more with the human side of people, people's experience of what we're all going through as humans, all the natural disasters, all of that as well. And it's like, I, I've always had leadership core values, and it starts with family first, then it's respect and hearing, it kind of goes up thing, but to see somebody that has, that leads, all of us handle the care and feeding and human element of the people that work in the company first, before money has made me loyal, and I, I feed off of that I have to be loyal to my leader in order to provide for the authenticity that I have for my organization and the peer organizations that I work with. And that has been, as I've been going through my personal changes of not moving around the world and doing all those things, at the end of the day, taking care of each individual on my team, making sure they're okay. Health, Mental first, then let's figure out how to solve the problems we're dealing with. But if we can't support one another, in the first level of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, we cannot be the best professional people changing, changing the situation and driving driving the revenue that we need to do together. So I am a lead by example, person, I won't ask my teams to do anything I wouldn't try or do myself, I will tell them when I'm not at my best, sort of kind of that vulnerability. Like, it's been a rough couple of weeks for me, I haven't been able to walk, I haven't been able to do some of those things. And my team 1,000% backs me up knowing that my fortitude is Dan personally, they jump in, and we all figure out how to do a quarter end together. But it comes from it really comes from the top. And to see that, you know, I obviously work for somebody I know, that I've worked with as a peer for many years. So he's a known quantity to me, and we have supported one another going through this change, but I always will come back to pick who you work for, and who you work with. And they will change and it will it will throw you on your tush a few times. Because you get super attached to that. And then you go make your change whatever change you need to make. Because those are the people that are going to be in your tribe. You know, as you move through your career and I'm I'm delighted to say that I get to work with I had two mentors when I came right when it came into distribution. One of them is retired, who were who will remain nameless, and the other one I get to work with every day. So I that that history of who you work with is to me now in my career more important than to your point, the title the job, you know, I have a roof over my head, I can feed three dogs. You know, the the money's the money, and I am a salesperson, so I am very motivated by money but I'm less motivated by that then the people piece.

Angela McCourt 44:28
Yeah, well, because that's the meaningful piece. The true true true meaning, you know, of what you're doing every single day and spending most of your life actually doing it right. timewise Yes, yeah, exactly. That's so great. I love closing on that, but I would love one, maybe a page bumper sticker or a page billboard. Just a bit of advice. Besides, you know, obviously, it's about who you work for and who you work with. Is there anything feels like you've done, you've done a lot of change in risks in your life, like in your career and your life. And what has given you that courage and that maybe something around that I think would be also really nice to wrap kind of wrap this up in a in a holistic way.

Paige Powers 45:16
My courage has always come from I know I can always go home. And I say home in a bigger way. But you know, taking a risk, just talking about taking risks, I just got goose bumps myself. Because it's not natural to me to take risks. But I always knew I can go home. And whatever you have to define where that home is for you that it makes you feel like you have a home base, like when you play tag, or you know you have if I go do this, I know I can come, I know where my safety, my parachute is or that and so for me, when I ventured out beyond my comfort zone, I've always had that that bumper sticker, you can always go home now for me, physically, that means I can still go home to my parents, I still have them God bless this earth. But that grounding of where's your home base, so that you know that you can take the risk and you feel safe if it doesn't work out. Because you mentioned it, you know, go fast, fail fast to go hard. But you need I need to always have a plan B, a C, A D it to a z. And I'm always planning for if this doesn't work, what am I going to do next? Or how am I going to do this? So that for me is always no you can go home, but defining where your what that is for you. So that you feel the courage and the safety because part of courage is scary. But I always have to have the safety, safety backup for any risks that I take.

Angela McCourt 46:55
That's awesome. Thank you so much for that. Do you happen to have any call outs that I can add in the show notes, any books, products, websites, nonprofits, maybe rescue? That'd be awesome.

Paige Powers 47:09
So I would say aside from your magical writing, the two books that have had actually the three books that have had the most impact on my career are managing from the heart. Now discover your strengths and wisdom of the crowd. Those are three I refer to and that I go back to time and time again. So those are my three. The nonprofits that I got involved in that made me realize that I don't have to have my own business, but that I can be such an impactful part are loving farm, animal sanctuary, and West Coast boxer rescue to causes that I'm super passionate about. And again, you know, getting involved in things we can learn about when we're in technology, we don't often know how to run a business necessarily, we don't know how to run a 501 C. But finding that thing, if we always joked page, you'd be you know what your business is gonna be like, I don't know, what am I passionate about animals, wine, running, you know, like, what is my thing going to be and then this it's like the universe manifests itself to bring these two great organizations into my life. And I now whether I run our own, my own business is not a thing in my bucket list. It's now I have these amazing organizations that I get to contribute to and hopefully, you know, maybe I'll run one of them one day. Yeah.

Angela McCourt 48:48
Oh my gosh, it's amazing. I love it. And so I haven't been on Facebook for a while but you had a pot bellied pig I think at the sanctuary was that that you sponsored? Or that you it was yours? I'm not sure what the situation was there. But I think it's really cool.

Paige Powers 49:03
Yes, um, on loving farm we started with one pig. So it started with three of us and one pig that we rescued from a con South Carolina and now we have 57 animals. Wow, we have 15 pigs. I should have probably lose count. But you've got chickens. You've got turkeys we've got sheep. We've got goats. We've got horses. We've got cats. We've got dogs. But yes What started as the 501 C was started around Miss Charlotte people's worth one starting home otherwise known as Ziva and she was like this big when we got her and now she's 650 pounds and it's so fun to educate people because we're like, I've never seen a pic that big and we're like, yeah, because you eat them when they're six months old. So it's a lot of it. What we do is around education of farmed animals and You know, their journey and their trauma around that and how you can live a plant based life without and treat a pig the same way you would treat a cat and a dog and give them a life that they deserve. So that's really what the sanctuary is about.

Angela McCourt 50:17
I love it. And I didn't realize that. So you started it? Yeah, there

Paige Powers 50:22
were three of us. So, it started at a work again, working with amazing people. And my I was building a I was a VP at a company in in the solar space. And I hired this gentleman to be my sales operations director. And he's like, ah, we really want to move back to California and Tracy's back in South Carolina and the neighbor called 45 acres away. And there's this pig that got loose from the slaughterhouse and they don't know what to do with it I'm like get the pig it's like well, I'm a bill gets paid. We don't know anything about pigs. I'm like, you live in the agricultural like mecca of you know, the South you there's vets, there's colleges, you go figure out how to take care of the pig. And they basically told him without using the words that I said to him because he's from Boston, so I can say these words I said, take the rest of the day off and get the pig or you're fired. And that's how we started the fiber ones Diego go finish the paperwork. Let's go to the county of Santa Santa Rosa or Santa Sonoma go get the paperwork done and then you Tracy night we'll figure out how to create the Sanctuary here in California and we'll move the pig and then the resident animals out here and we did that oh my gosh, that's so awesome. I know there's 57 of them. Oh my gosh, you begin to live their life on this. We do not have many horses looking for many where you can have many horses

Angela McCourt 51:49
I think that is so wonderful. That is so purpose full that is so heartfelt. That is so oh that's like better than owning a business. It's incredible. Yeah,

Paige Powers 52:01
it is. It is it really is and they you know the animals give back way more than you get from revenue and all that good stuff so

Angela McCourt 52:10
totally agree on it's awesome. Paige thank you so much. I know you're really super busy. I really appreciate you coming on this episode. And if you liked this episode, you can LinkedIn me at Angie belts McCourt, and let me know and if you really want to say thank you just please leave a review on Apple products. Thanks so much.