Ep. 014 - Leadership in the Food Industry with Tia Glave and Jill Stuber
Tia Glave & Jill Stuber
Catalyst, LLC
Show Notes:
Join host Kristin Demoranville on this insightful Bites and Bytes Podcast episode featuring special guests Tia Glave and Jill Stuber. Engage in a discussion that bridges the worlds of food safety, quality, and transformative leadership within the food industry.
Tia Glave, a trained chemical engineer and a seasoned food safety and quality professional, brings extensive experience working across diverse food sectors. In this episode, Tia discusses her approach to integrating leadership principles with technical strategies to enhance food safety programs, reflecting her passion for supporting talent in the food industry.
Jill Stuber, with her comprehensive background in Food Safety & Quality (FSQ) and her roles in various multi-million-dollar food organizations, shares her journey and the joy she finds in coaching and positively impacting the food safety sector. With a Master of Science in both Food Science and Quality Management, Jill's professional coaching certification and leadership skills shine through as she discusses the importance of integrating leadership skills with technical expertise to foster better outcomes in food safety.
Together, they explore the evolving landscape of food industry leadership, the integration of technology, and the critical role of empathy and effective communication in cultivating a safe and innovative food environment. This episode explores their journeys and highlights their unique perspectives on the future of food safety and intentional leadership's pivotal role in navigating modern food systems' challenges.
In this episode, we also focus on the critical intersection of cybersecurity with food safety. As digital transformations sweep through the food industry, understanding the cyber aspects becomes increasingly vital. Kristin, Tia, and Jill discuss how enhancing cybersecurity measures is integral to safeguarding food production processes. They emphasize the need for leaders to be proficient not only in traditional food safety roles but also in combating potential cyber threats that could impact food integrity and safety. This conversation highlights the importance of a holistic approach to food safety, including robust cybersecurity practices, ensuring that the food industry can effectively face modern challenges.
Don't miss this engaging conversation that connects the dots between creating efficient, safe food practices and nurturing the next generation of food industry leaders.
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Episode Key Highlights:
(00:50 - 02:58) Food Safety Leadership Development and Coaching
(13:29 - 14:48) The Importance of Catalyst in Industry
(16:45 - 17:34) Diverse Roles in Food Industry Leadership
(25:11 - 26:06) Personal Development and Self-Reflection
(28:37 - 29:26) Cybersecurity and Food Safety Discussions
(32:25 - 33:57) Consumer Education in the Food Industry
(43:29 - 46:02) Leadership and Empathy in Food Industry
(51:14 - 52:42) Navigating Uncertainty Together
(54:59 - 56:12) Future of Hybrid Food Safety Roles
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To learn more about Tia & Jill's company, please check out their website Catalyst LLC and LinkedIn
Catalyst is a comprehensive and holistic coaching program for creating transformational change within people and organizations toward the ultimate food safety and quality culture.
You can find Tia Glave on LinkedIn and also find Jill Stuber on LinkedIn.
Catalyst Youtube: Ever wonder why food safety culture seems so challenging? or why technical experts aren't, by default, technical leaders? Join us each week as we explore these topics and more!
Bites and Bytes Podcast website for additional show notes, blog, and more!
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If you would like to schedule a meeting with Kristin to discuss the Bites and Bytes Podcast, please use this link.
Audience Survey can be found here.
Listen to full episode :
Episode Guide:
(00:20) - Food Safety Leadership and Culture
(11:17) - Leading Proactively
(16:42) - Transforming Food Industry Leadership Through Coaching
(30:14) - Food Industry Education and Challenges
(35:15) - Food Industry Safety and Etiquette
(44:21) - Leadership in Food Safety and Cybersecurity
(49:32) - Transforming Leadership in the Food Industry
(58:18) - Leadership Program and Cybersecurity Insights
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00:20 - Kristin Demoranville (Host)
Hello everyone and welcome to the Bites and Bites podcast. I'm your host, Kristin Demoranville. Today, we're stepping into the world of food safety and leadership with two exceptional leaders in their own right Tia Glave and Jill Stubert. They are here to share their experiences and insights on transforming the landscape of food industry leadership. Get ready to explore how empathy, technology and efficient leadership converge to create a safer and more innovative food safety culture. This episode is a little bit longer, so you better grab a snack, enjoy your workout or stay safe on the road as you listen to our enriching conversation. Let's jump right into it. Well, I'm glad that we've already started this off with laughing, because that's always the best way to start a podcast. I have Tia and Jill with me today. I'll let you both introduce yourself and then we'll just jump into all the fun things.
01:10 - Jill Stuber (Guest)
Awesome. Well, hi, I'm Jill Stuber, and it's great to be here with you, Kristin. I'm a self-proclaimed food safety nerd that found coaching and how powerful it is, and so now Tia and I do leadership development and coaching, and I love being here because one of the things we keep talking about in the food industry is how do we take care of people better and how do we have better outcomes, and so I'm delighted that we're going to be able to talk about some of that today and how it relates to cybersecurity and food as well.
01:41 - Tia Glave (Guest)
Yes, yes, and I am Tia Glave.
01:44
I am the second part of the Food Safety Duel at Catalyst and I'm an engineer by degree but started in the food industry a little over a decade ago, supporting many different products, many different size organizations, before I went into consulting Jill and I met we actually met on LinkedIn while she was coaching yeah, it was awesome.
02:08
It was awesome and it really helped develop this concept around Catalyst. Just our conversation over the year or two that we got to know one another and then you know really my passion to help people grow and really step into who they are as leaders and people in the industry really helped fuel this passion behind Catalyst and with Jill, I've really been able to create an organization where we can help support leaders, help them grow, while also helping support food safety and quality and food safety and quality strategy and integration into organizations so, yeah, we are happy to be here. Strategy and integration into organizations so, yeah, we are happy to be here. We're happy to be on the Bites and Bites podcast and talk more about food safety and culture and people and all the things, all the things, all the things.
02:55 - Kristin Demoranville (Host)
And so, with that being said, thank you very much. Let's jump into my favorite segment, because I get to know the guests. This is how I get to get out of them Favorite food and favorite food, memory and Jill. We'll start with you.
03:07 - Jill Stuber (Guest)
You know. This is why I'm so glad I listened to your podcast, because I've been thinking like what would be my favorite food. And that's actually a hard question because I like lots of food, but if I had to have like one food forever, I love soup, like any kind of soup veggie soup, chili soup, chicken soup, like you name it.
03:28 - Kristin Demoranville (Host)
Like, if it could be a soup, then I'd probably like it. So are you also a fan of things like ramen, then? And because those are technically soups as well, true.
03:34 - Jill Stuber (Guest)
Technically they are, and I would say probably, if it's soup like then, I probably am like, yes, I'll have some.
03:41 - Kristin Demoranville (Host)
Yeah, because that broth is life changing. So, yeah, right, yes, I'll have some. Yeah, because that broth is life changing.
03:45 - Jill Stuber (Guest)
So right, and it might be actually part of why I like soup, because I just remember having soup as a kid Like my grandma used to. She was an old Polish grandma who used to make chicken dumpling soup with the homemade kluski noodles, and like I can still smell that when I like make homemade chicken noodle soup and I walk into my garage that's where my vent is for my stove and I'm like it smells like my grandma's house and it just makes me happy, jill, I love that you have a positive smell for your grandparents house.
04:15 - Kristin Demoranville (Host)
My grandfather rest his soul was Swedish and so Christmas it was lufthofish which is pickled herring in the oven no, thank you.
04:24 - Jill Stuber (Guest)
That would have been like the other side of my family, the German side. They always had herring, yeah, and that like 10 foot pole not touching.
04:31 - Kristin Demoranville (Host)
You just walk straight through the kitchen and get to like the baked goods in the dining room. So it was okay, like if you could just pass that gauntlet, you were good.
04:39 - Tia Glave (Guest)
You know, I would say my favorite food right now is probably seafood, which I know that's a broad category, but if I had to narrow it down right now I'm really on this lobster roll, lobster product which is fun.
04:56 - Kristin Demoranville (Host)
I'm here for this. I'm here for this. Go ahead.
05:01 - Tia Glave (Guest)
I love seafood, pretty much any type of seafood. I'll pretty much eat almost any type of fish. You know, I could really have seafood any and all day, but I've been obsessed with some lobster rolls. And it's funny I haven't told Jill this yet, but we actually are now Costco members and but when we were there yesterday or Saturday I can't remember when, but we were there over the weekend and they have these frozen lobster rolls and so we are going to try those out tonight. So maybe it's just on my mind, lobster, but seafood is definitely one of my favorite food categories.
05:33
And then, in terms of like food memory, say, in my family, all of our gatherings are surrounded by food. Food is always like at the core of everything that we do. And there's so many dishes that my dad, he was actually a cook, our chef, so he really knows how to, how to make some amazing food. So, yeah, I remember him cooking for us and I mean it can even be like when we were like kids and him making like the perfect pancakes, you know, and somehow he could just make it so perfectly round and tasty.
06:07
Or my mom, like her staple was her spaghetti, you know so, but it's always for to really my family getting together and laughter and sharing. You know what's happening now, but also you know laughing about memories. So food has always been there. It's almost like the centerpiece of family getting together, right, like we're getting together. What are we going to? You know what is going to be for dinner, what are we, what are we congregating around? When it comes to food, that's what I would say is like my best food memory is just really being surrounded by family around a meal.
06:41 - Kristin Demoranville (Host)
That's great. I love that and I the lobster roll thing. It's so funny. You brought that up because I was born in Maine, so I grew up in New England. So, like, lobster rolls are like, very like, specific for us. It has to be you know the buttertop, you know bun and it has to be you know the perfect amount of lobster ratio to mayonnaise. And you don't want it overcrowded and you don't want the lobster bits too big but you don't want it too small. Because that's weird.
07:06
And it's really quite funny because there's a lobster truck that just visited my parents' town recently. It came down from Maine and my parents were so excited because they hadn't had a quality lobster roll in a long time really, since they lived in Maine. And then when they go up, of course, because you can get them in massachusetts, but like it's something about maine hits different, I don't know. Yeah, um, so this lobster truck came down on my mom was so excited. She took a picture of the loft, like of the truck. Then she took a picture of her food and she said it was so much I couldn't eat it all.
07:36
She's like I saved it and I was like, okay, and she's, and I'm like, well, how was it? Because she didn't tell us how it was. And she's like, actually it was very good. And I'm like, okay, good, thank god, that's, why would you save it if you didn't like it, I suppose? But what, uh? But then she was all excited because there was whoopie pies and she sent one to me for my birthday. Unfortunately, packaging did not make it very well, so she didn't realize that she needed to refrigerate it and it kind of like spoiled on the way because I was reading it and I was like, oh, I don't think the ingredients and I wouldn't have known all that if I didn't talk to people in the food industry. So I probably just wouldn't have eaten it and been like, sweet, I have a stomachache now. Why? So yeah, lobster rolls. I completely. I understand that, that particular craving and that particular thing.
08:21 - Tia Glave (Guest)
Yeah, yeah, I. You know, I wish that they were like $5.99, because I would have it all the time.
08:28 - Kristin Demoranville (Host)
Last one I actually bought for myself personally and this is probably more information than that. Everybody needs this listening. It was $35 US Really For one and I'll tell you it was okay, but it wasn't like the best. I've definitely had better like on like a little shack somewhere on the beach in Maine, like for like I don't know eight bucks or something, but it was. Yeah, it was a weakness in the knees for a minute because you just wanted that nostalgic moment of, yeah, I was like home and this is what I want. And it was. It was. I guess I was fooled for some reason. I bought into the nostalgia, but that's okay. We learn Really outside of you know probably outside of Maine.
09:01 - Tia Glave (Guest)
you, hey, we learn Really outside of you know, probably outside of Maine. You know lobster rolls, that's where they're running, which is wild, so I don't run more often.
09:10 - Kristin Demoranville (Host)
but they're good, so I'm glad you like them. That's great, and you totally understand what I'm saying about the ratio to like mayo, to like meat and yeah, because you get screwed up in a second.
09:22 - Jill Stuber (Guest)
Yes, it's so important. Yeah, it sounds like something you have to just practice making homemade ones.
09:27 - Kristin Demoranville (Host)
That's true. That's true. I don't have time for that, but that's fine, anyways, and Jill's soups, I like love that because it's like my go to it. I'm like a weeknight when I'm like I don't know what I'm making. I guess I'm making chicken, something soup or something soup, vegetarian soup. I completely like, full-heartedly agree with the soup situation. Oh yeah, and if you ever get a chance to go to japan and a proper ramen, do it because it's like it will be. You'll be like this is this, is soup broth of. Like the gods, like I need this in my life.
09:58 - Jill Stuber (Guest)
And now I'm like drooling, like you're gonna order up some ramen after this, aren't you right?
10:05 - Kristin Demoranville (Host)
oh yeah, I wish I could just like flying in from japan. That would be fantastic, but no, it's not gonna happen. I do. I have like coveted little ramen places around where I live that like they're okay, they've passed muster.
10:17
It's a hard one for me because I I just remember it like yesterday, it's the gold standard yeah it's somewhere else and especially if you had a night of sake drinking and that's all you want is ramen. So it's pretty crazy. Yeah, that's great. Thank you both. I love that. So different too, by the way. It's totally different from everybody else, because most people are like pizza or tacos, which is great. You can be a pizza or tacos person, but I want to hear like different things. Sometimes you got it.
10:50 - Jill Stuber (Guest)
Like I can't ad lib off of pizza and tacos all the time. Well, we're glad we gave that little bit that ability to do that today?
10:53 - Kristin Demoranville (Host)
Yes, so jumping into your company. I really want to hear how it started and a little bit more. And you've gave a great description of what you're doing leadership and trying to empower the food safety professionals to be better at their roles. You got together on LinkedIn, which is great. You dropped into each other's DMs, which I love, and then all of a sudden, like how do we get to this idea of forming Catalyst?
11:17 - Tia Glave (Guest)
Yeah, I would start and say, you know, catalyst for Jill and myself is extremely personal because we, you know, we we kind of gone through our careers and for me you know, I it's one of those things that I wish Catalyst was around when I worked in industry. And it's because a lot of the leadership qualities right Like you know how to be a great leader A lot of those things came easily to me. It was all natural for me to kind of move into it. But as I grew up in my career, really trying to harness right the skills around it and which ones to focus on and what part of my career, but even how to not make mistakes along the way, right when it's like if I had honestly a coach or if I had someone that understood what I did in the food industry as a professional and where I want to go from a leadership standpoint, I think that there's some bumps in the road which I learned from, but there's some bumps in the road that I could have been a lot smoother along the way. And then, when I met Jill, one of the things that I was struggling with is I was working at an organization and I was burnt out, overworked, stressed. You know, I was really at the point where, when we started talking about Catalyst, I was really at the point where I really just needed to get out of the situation that I was in. I needed to take a mental break, and it was because my workload was just way too much. And so with Catalyst, you know, we really are helping leaders kind of become more aware of their space, how they are, how they're showing up and just the tools that we help leaders use and focus on and practice. If I had those tools early on in that role, I wouldn't have made it to the point of being stressed and burnt out, because I would have been able to have these communication with my leadership, or I would have been able to realize that, hey, if I stay in this role, you're going to be burnt out, you're going to be overworked, because that's just not the direction the organization is going in right now, which, again, just having that information would have been a lot better than me getting to the point of being stressed and burnt out.
13:29
And we see clients come to us where they're at that point and they just need something to help them get through, and I was talking to someone recently. It's like when people come to us, when they're at that point you're almost at desperation, and so you. The way that you work through our tools and go through coaching is different than I. Want to be proactive and set up my team for success and set up myself for success, and we see that difference in our, in our clients, and so for me it was more like I really need this. I need this in the industry. People are saying that they need it in the industry. You know Jill has her story that I'm sure she'll share on why Catalyst is important to her. But, like us coming together, it was like man. I need this in my role and I really want to be able to provide these tools to other people in industry so they don't end up where I am burnt out, overworked, stressed.
14:22 - Jill Stuber (Guest)
I would say and I think that's what I love, because we do see people that come to us that are like this is the last straw right, like either this helps work so that I can work more effectively in my role or I'm done, yeah. But I also love that we have people on the other side and these are the progressive companies, the progressive leaders who are like we want people to stick around, we want them to have more success, we want to be proactive in our talent management and that's why they come. And, Tia being an engineer, I love that we bring these different things to the table, because I bring food science to the table.
14:53
I grew up on a farm and knew I wanted to be in agriculture, found food science, and I went wow, everybody eats, but not everybody needs cows. I grew up on a dairy farm, so I went to food science and through my career or at least the first part I thought to make things easier, I needed to learn more science. So I went back and got like another degree and then I would work more and then I got another certification and then I would get another degree and it was all based on food science, food safety, quality management, like all of these things. But what I realized is I wasn't leaning into leading people effectively and I went well, where is? Why is that? Why don't we have more guidance on how to do this? And, of course, I had an epic fail, which led for me to discover coaching and I went wow, that's the magic. If we could partner this massive technical expertise that we bring to the table with better awareness of who we are so we communicate better, support people better, we can be more effective for our organizations and have better food safety outcomes. That's how I got into coaching.
16:01
And when Tia and I got together, I laughed because we talked for months and we were like gosh, we're going to do something together, but we don't know what yet. Someday we'll do something. And we happen to have a client who was like I need both of your stuff, can you do that? And of course, we didn't have Catalyst made yet, but we're like of course we can. We're like we're going to step in. And we did. And from that moment on we were like here we are. This is the mission, like our mission is how do we transform, how we lead in food? We need people to really understand the gifts that they have and they bring and lead into that, and take care of people, because when you take care of people, you can take care of business.
16:39 - Kristin Demoranville (Host)
Yeah, yeah and I would like to add, keep people safe. I think that is the other, the really really big part too, for sure. So what type of people actually come and work with you? Sorry, as you're talking, I'm thinking, wow, there's so many different avenues that people can come to you through in terms of their role inside of food.
16:55 - Jill Stuber (Guest)
You know, we it's the whole spectrum. We've had people who this is my first job out of college and I need to step into leadership. We've had leaders who have said, wow, this is a person's first role in supervising or managing and I need them to have a better resource to have success. We've had senior leaders who recognize that for their team to thrive, how do we do it differently? And Catalyst is different. We have somebody in bootcamp right now who they said oh, I've taken all kinds of leadership development courses, but this I've never experienced. This is completely different from the first session we had together least that I'm aware of, that I've seen in my travels.
17:34 - Kristin Demoranville (Host)
I think that that's super important because and as you were talking, I was thinking about that college student. They got trained on food technology, whatever they got trained on food safety, whatever their particular role was. Their educational background was not. They didn't actually get trained in management or leadership necessarily and now you're going to learn something new on the job and try to keep your job and make sure you're functioning, keep your people safe and keep everything else around you moving.
18:09
That's really stressful and I think we've all been there at least at some point in our career. We've been asked to do more than we knew how to do, and some people either rise to it or some people just crumble. So I love that you have an organization that's there to say I will catch you before you fall, you know, or if you fall, we'll get you through it. We can coach through that as well. So, yeah, that's off. That's. It's exactly where the industry needs to be right now. We need that more support we do.
18:34
People think let's chuck more tech at it, let's chuck more people at it, let's chuck more things at the food industry, because that's going to make it more efficient and keep people safe and all these other things. What we don't realize is that we need to actually tend to the caretakers that are there. Yeah, because they have tribal knowledge, they're very well informed. Everybody talks to everybody in the food industry, as we know. And how do we protect that and continue to nurture that while still bringing new people and new ideas and new concepts and ages of different generations? It's this beautiful blend. It's almost like, you know, bringing people to the table and sitting down to eat. I mean, it's really nice and I think that the fact that you both came to each other organically and started this organization organically, separately and then together, is crazy. Like that doesn't happen. So that's like kismet, like kismet.
19:24 - Tia Glave (Guest)
It is, but it just reminds us that this is needed.
19:37 - Kristin Demoranville (Host)
Hi, listeners Ever wonder why there's so many food recalls and outbreaks. The bigger question is what are companies doing about it to keep us safe? Think science has all the answers when it comes to food safety. Nope, it takes more than just science. It takes scientists to be more effective leaders to truly improve food safety. That's why I love the work that T and Jill do at Catalyst LLC. They're transforming how people lead in food, because food safety isn't just about IQ, it's about EQ. There's a better way to improve food safety culture, and Catalyst LLC's coaching-based, practical, reliable and progressive leadership programs are leading the way. Don't wait any longer. Get your company a leg up with Catalyst's innovative approach to food safety. Check us out at wwwfoodsafetycatalystcom.
20:37 - Tia Glave (Guest)
Thinking about the food industry and really you can look at most industries, right, we're struggling with retention, we're struggling with leadership talent, we're struggling with culture, and a big piece is that we're trying to do the same things we've been doing year over year and, you know, to Jill's point, we've been focused on this technical aspect of our role, which is amazing. We need to continue to focus there. But then we try to lead people, we try to inspire people, we try to influence people, we try to build relationships, we try to do all of these things as really people focused. But, like you said, Kristin, we don't get any knowledge about how to do that right, how to do it as my authentic self, how do I do it within my industry, within my role? And that's what makes Catalyst so unique is that we're not inventing these leadership skills, right, or these soft skills. They exist, you can Google them online, right?
21:32
But one thing that Catalyst does is relate it to the work you're doing.
21:37
Made it practical for how you get work done day in and day out, so that you can actually use these skills, you know, within your role and even as you're thinking about, okay, I want to go into a leadership role, right. Like most of the time, we don't even get any type of leadership, soft skills, even any type of development, even even a generic course, until we are managing people, and sometimes it's not until you have a fail, and then people are like, oh no, let's get you into some type of course that we find online, when in reality, we need those skills before we even step into those roles. Right, we should be looking at how do those skills change over time as we grow in our careers, as we need different things from you within your organization. And so, catalyst, we've done that work where we thought about it right and we built our business around it so that we can get out of this cycle of adding people but not really needing people, adding people not really having the skills, people being burnt out. Then we have people of knowledge.
22:45 - Kristin Demoranville (Host)
to be a leader can lead to food safety issues big time Because you're not managing your team as closely as you should. There's a lot of bad energy. I know people are like, oh, it's energy. No, seriously, it's bad energy. It flows into the rest of your team.
22:59 - Jill Stuber (Guest)
It becomes a problem, and I think people don't understand that when you are a leader, it's not just because you're smarter and you can do a better report and you know more statistics or you know more of the details of chemical reaction, right, this is about how do you intentionally guide, support, advocate, challenge the people that you work with in a safe way so that they know it's okay and they show up.
23:22
And I think that's one of the big differences in what we do is we're not mechanical, like we're not going to be, like let's have difficult conversations, like you can get that in your HR team, but when we want to talk about like why is that conversation making you feel uncomfortable? How is it? What story have you created around having this conversation? How have you contributed to this situation? We're going to challenge you to really think about how you're showing up, how your mindset is, so that you can be a better leader, because without that, you're going to sit in that space of, like you just said, food isn't going to be safe or we're going to miss an opportunity that we could have prevented. Right, exactly.
23:59 - Kristin Demoranville (Host)
Exactly, and I think that we can only show up as we are in any given moment, whether that's you've got 15 things that are happening in your personal life, you still need to show up and I think the fact that you tailor it to not only the food industry but the individuals that you're working with and that boutique type style, if I can dare say that, is huge, because I know we've all been through and I'm sure a lot of listeners would agree been through some type of leadership training in an organization you worked at and if you haven't, you're on your way, good luck and some of them are really great. But the best trainings I ever got were like culture trainings for other countries, because we get to have those deep conversations of why do I act this way as an American versus the way someone would act as Japanese or Singaporean or Indian or whatever. I think that that conversation really changed me as a leader, because I started to think about even the subcultures inside of cultures and then the subcultures inside of the organization and different places, and it really made me think oh well, I'm showing up this way because this is the way I am, this is who I am, and they're showing up this way because that's the way they are. So where's the middle ground? How do we have a meeting in the minds? Do we need to have something silly or do we need to have a serious conversation?
25:08
And it became this interesting cycle of figuring that out. But just a straight up leadership course? No, I can only do so many um, personality tasks, if you will, before I'm gonna pull my hair out. I think I have taken like six in the last probably 10 years, and what, what, what about myself? Have I not learned at this point? That's what I'm trying to figure. I mean, what are we gonna do? Like a birth chart and then an astrological like seance together, like I don't know what's happening anymore?
25:38 - Tia Glave (Guest)
But it's funny that you talk about that because I mean those are all great tools, right, and they and they serve a purpose. But it's really like how do I take this knowledge and really understand it in terms of myself? Not just like, it's almost like understanding myself in these different areas, like how am I supposed to use these tools at work? Or how am I supposed to use this information and the relationship I have with my children? How am I supposed to use this with the book club that I'm in? You know, like being able to even relate yourself or see yourself right, really being more self-aware of yourself in those areas and how you relate to other people is important.
26:17
And I think a lot of times leadership development courses like they're just giving you that awareness piece, but for you to try to figure out, how does it relate to the work that I'm doing, how to take away things, how to put things in, and at Catalyst, because we lean heavily on coaching and therefore give that time to practice and reflect, we are helping you connect that for yourself to say, okay, how do I show up in this space where I'm trying to convince the maintenance department to implement a new PM program, or how do I work with cybersecurity to understand the importance right of food defense and food security and things I need to get done from a food safety standpoint right? How do I relate to the different people that I'm talking with and working with? And I think that that has been out of the conversation and Catalyst have really brought it into the conversation and that's when you start seeing real results.
27:11 - Jill Stuber (Guest)
Yeah Well, that makes sense to me. To even go back to what you were talking about, Kristin, about, you know, learning about different cultures, and how then it gave you this ability, almost like I want to say superpower, but to really be to think about, I mean Jill.
27:24
You can call it a superpower if you want, it can be we're going to add it up, chalk it up, but the ability to really see people and how we interact with them, that's what we really try to do. How we interact with them, that's what we really try to do. Like we start with like we don't understand ourselves and what's motivating us and how we're showing up and being responsible for our own energy. However, do we lead others Like, can we be open enough to see them and what their needs are? And so we really try to start with like where are we at? How do we help, as leaders, to be able to see others and unleash their gifts, talents, support? And then, when people come together, like we still have to lead collectively this team and we have to be so mindful and intentional as leaders.
28:07
But often we're busy on our checklist. We're trying to check off like how do I do cybersecurity? How do I do food safety, culture? How do I do food defense? How do I do HACCP? We're like no, you actually need to be thinking about how you take care of the people who are doing those things. And until we start shifting this, you know kind of I'm going to say the system that we've been working in for so long and you know. These reporting structures and roles are very traditional, like have we paused to say how well do they serve us? We want new outcomes, but we're still working in the same system.
28:37 - Kristin Demoranville (Host)
Yeah and I think this is why, you know, I really have focused on cybersecurity and food. We need that different conversation, that different lens moment where what are we doing to support the food safety, food defense, food security, the quality, all those people, food protection we'll blanket it. How are we doing that? How are we serving that side of the house and the food industry? And cybersecurity, Because everything that's being touched now is digital. You're testing digitally, you're sending reports digitally, you're emailing, you're sending the FDA recall information via the web. There's all kinds of machines that are running all our production or our agricultural areas.
29:11
It's interesting that we haven't had this deeper dive conversation of how can I come along and support you on this journey, Because you're touching stuff that you probably don't have any idea is necessarily going to cause a food safety issue, let alone a security breach, and lose data. How do we combine powers? You know Power Ranger moment. How do we do that? You know how do we get together, and I find and I'm sure you've met some resistance as well that people are like that sounds touchy, feely, Like we're going to break out a guitar and sing Kumbaya around the fire, and I'm like if we need to, I'll bring s'mores Like I've found that I'm down for that.
29:45
We all like s'mores, it's fine, but it's so frustrating that like people think that it's this like moment of softness. No, it takes real guts to do this, Real guts to challenge the status quo and start having a different conversation, and that's the leadership rise right there. For the most part is I'm seeing things differently because I have to, because I want to make sure that you all can eat lobster rolls and soup safely, and you know that I can talk to my niece in 20 years from now without her having some kind of foodborne illness. You know it's it's crazy to think about how much we've forgotten about the food industry, but it's so important to survival I need someone to someday make sense of that to me. I just nobody's got a good answer. I'm still waiting for someone to have a good one, and even when I talk about this with other security professionals, they're just like oh, it's just a niche, it's niche-y, Like, and I'm like wait, uh-huh.
30:35 - Jill Stuber (Guest)
Well, did you eat today? We take it for granted. I mean kudos to the food industry for making food so widely available here in the United States that we take for granted that it's just here, yeah Right. Like people don't have to think about it, People don't even know where it actually comes from most of the time. I mean, yes, there are movements around knowing where our food come from now, but we've done that so easily that people forget. Like we actually have work still to do in this space.
31:03 - Kristin Demoranville (Host)
Oh, totally. Or even the questions that I get sometimes, which I'm sure you both get as well, even though you're not directly in a company that's dealing with food oh, how does this happen? Or what is this? Or what do you think about? Like, like E coli and lettuce, and I'm like. My answer is like it's bad, like what do you want me to think about it? They're like oh well, do you eat lettuce? I said yeah, I eat lettuce. Weird questions Keep going.
31:25
You know I and I want to like, I want to kind of almost shake people a little bit and be like can you please critically think about things that are around you? That meat that's in the store isn't just magically packaged and birthed in a package, it happens in between. Or the disinformation and misinformation in the food industry is just something to behold, honestly. Yeah, and I do think that it's quite shocking when people realize it. I'm sure you've had these moments before with people when you say, well, a gallon of milk isn't just one cow, it's many cows, and they're just like wait, what it's like the mind has exploded and they've now, and it's like one of those memes the cat like going through space, like, and it's hard because you want to be like? I'm sorry I just busted your like childhood bubble, but come on like, here we are, you're an adult, let's go. You can do this, it's okay, I think there's no point.
32:17 - Tia Glave (Guest)
like people, don't? You know? Consumers as a whole do not understand where their food comes from or how their food made it to their table, and I think that there have been more movements right over the years and there's probably going to be even more, but I'm all up for consumers understanding where their food come from. I, you know. I think it's a part of, like you know, the FDA is focused on consumer education. We're starting to talk more meaning, like just the industry is talking, starting to talk more about consumer education, and that's consumer education around food safety and is so important because they're if that's the last line, right, Like that, the last line is when you take it out the package and you go to use it in your kitchen and cook it or use even a ready to eat product, right, what's around it, how are you opening, how are you handling it, and so there's a lot to be done in that space. But there's a lot of work that has also happened over these years that you know.
33:16
People are working behind the scenes and you may never know, you may never know about it, Just might not see any more reports, or maybe you didn't see the reports at all, or maybe there were no reports.
33:25
You know all the above, but the food industry is working really hard on these, on these issues, and you know, the part that we really want to play in is how do we, you know, how do we make sure that, as we're working on these issues, we're not sacrificing our mental health or our physical health or our relationships with with our coworkers or our families? You know how to come to work and have fun and laugh and enjoy, all while handling something that could be heavy, you know, on your shoulders, and that's important because right now we're talking about that. It's hard to find people right To come into our companies. It's hard to keep people. It's hard to you know structure benefits, where people are like, yes, I want to stay on. All of those things are top of mind, but we can't just keep focusing on the technical piece and expect for people to keep showing up if you're not also taking care of your people.
34:17 - Kristin Demoranville (Host)
That's very true. I applaud the companies that are trying to digitalize and they're trying to large scale do that in various organizations. But the problem becomes is you can chuck all you want the technology at it, but if you do not bring your people with you, you're going to have problems Because, as you both know, human beings are risks inside of these type of food environments, where the unknown factor in a lot of ways, where the whoops I tripped over something and I didn't tell anybody. Or whoops, yes, I poured something extra into something I shouldn't have. Whoops didn't tell anybody. Or you know, oh, we were supposed to report that we did, but we reported it late. Or other things happen. Human error happens, right, and I love that. You said like educating the consumer, because you made me think that consumer base will eventually work in the food industry, perhaps at some point. So you have, like that, already pre-knowledge going in. That's just going to boister and, you know, build up around everything, the work that you're doing, the work that I'm doing, because people will know. I love that and I think it's great. And I do think we need to start lifting the curtain back. Show the little man behind the you know the head that's talking and the Wizard of Oz, if you will. It's really not that scary, though I think it's. I think people think it's really cool because it's like you're watching these, like speeding machines throwing things out, you know, and all the stuff. There's a show on BBC that's doing I think it's called Inside the Factory and does a lot of food manufacturing in the UK. It's a great show and I'm not picking on that show, but I do not want to watch anybody's hands that are not gloved picking any product off a line like that. I lost my mind. I had to like pause it. I did the whole like oh, like I just couldn't handle it and I realized that they obviously were safe but they probably had to scrub that entire product line that day. Like that's a lot for a factory to lose. But, yeah, don't pick up stuff off the line.
36:03
If you ever go in for a tour of any of these places, please, people, don't touch anything. Just keep your hands to yourself. I think that's the standard, yeah, at least here. So I mean that's the idea Just don't touch anything. If you don't belong there, don't be there and make sure you wear all the protective gear you're supposed to wear when you go in. There's someone recently who was like in a factory and he was very excited he was there and I'm all for people visiting, like go for it. If you can't get in, go for it. But like, please adhere. Like don't have your like your chest hair all hanging, like oh my god, I mean, it's just like these little things, like it's just nobody wants that in their food. Please don't put it in the and even for just pictures.
36:42 - Jill Stuber (Guest)
We don't want to see it like that's the classic, like you see people, they go in it's. I'm going to pick on visitors and I'm going to pick on senior leaders a little bit like even for a photo op. They're like I can't have my hairnet on for this. We're like, yeah, you do. If you're taking, those are the ones we're all laughing at and we're like come on, come on everyone. This is culture, this is better Take it outside.
37:01 - Kristin Demoranville (Host)
then, when you get out of your all your gear, take it outside on the steps or something, because that's that's appropriate. Then your hair could be all beautiful and whatever you need it to be. Nobody looks good when they're inside these factories.
37:18 - Jill Stuber (Guest)
Everybody looks like a trash person, like because we're covered in stuff, like, yeah, the best is when you walk out right and you're like, oh my gosh, you work here because I can't tell, because you got the hair net on and that helped be a bump cap or something.
37:25 - Tia Glave (Guest)
All right, but that is also nice because you don't have to think about anything, you just know. You went into your uniform, put on your hair net, got your safety glasses on your bump cap, you know and you're good to go.
37:36 - Kristin Demoranville (Host)
Yeah was. Um. Everybody had a different style of doing things, like where you uh earplugs over the hairnet situation, or like underneath it tucked up, or like behind your like lab coat. Like there was all of these like theories of like what was the more comfortable way to wear your equipment. Like it was always really funny to me when I worked at a bakery company. We had one of our support guys had like these gorgeous dreadlocks and he'd have to wear three hair nets. So we'd always send them like ahead of time, like okay, go forth and get there, because we knew it was gonna take him like 15 minutes to get it all on, but he did. He got every bit of hair in there. He showed up like it was no problem. He was always very like excited to go in anyways. Yeah, we'd always have to send him ahead of time. It was always quite funny like all right, go ahead, go quick. Yeah, the maintenance.
38:17
Yeah, he had three hairnets, so yeah, and and you know that's, that's important, yep yeah, and then the beer nets and stuff like that, like you gotta wear all of it. I, um, I think it's interesting. One of the one of the things that I learned when I first started working in the food industry is you couldn't have nail polish on or you could wear gloves, but nobody wants their gloves like they're not very comfortable unless you have to for whatever you're doing. But if you had nail polish on, you had could wear gloves, but nobody wants their gloves Like they're not very comfortable unless you have to for whatever you're doing. But if you had nail polish on, you had to wear gloves. And you know, I I made the mistake once. I had I had a wedding to go to on a weekend and I had obviously a nail polish on and cause I was in the wedding and when I showed up to work, everybody was like, ah, loves for you. And I'm like, ah, crap, I to get this off, like you know, because people don't realize that it can flake into the product and it's all these little things. Or like if you wear lashes, you have to wear goggles, you know. Or if you wear your glasses and get the extra shield on. There was a lot of things to consider, and I've had these topics with women in food where there's a lot of extra steps we don't ever talk about because it's just something we do. We just get, you know, get our suits on and go in. You know, yeah, and I think as a, as leaders, they have to acknowledge that as well, like, okay, some women are gonna have to take some time or whatever you identify as may, have to take a few extra minutes to get things done to keep our food safe, rather than just throw a body at the, the production line. That's not gonna work. Yeah, it's. It's so fascinating. Those like little nuances of leadership are super important.
39:37
Or or not being rude to people you've never met before, when you step into a factory I'll never forget stepping into a factory I was washing my hands at the basin before I was about to walk in, because you always have to scrub when you go in and out of these factories. The new president of this particular factory, who I had never met, shows up and, mind you, I was acting CISO at the time, so technically I also was executive and I remember this guy was like who are you and why are you here, do you permission? And I wanted to be like. I'm security. I have permission to be in here Because I don't know. The CEO lets me go do what I need to do. Are you going to obstruct me? And he actually did. He wouldn't let me in the factory. I needed to find the person I was meeting that would come pick me up at the front. And I'm thinking to myself buddy, I've worked at this company for four years.
40:24 - Tia Glave (Guest)
You're new, you need some anger management, just like what you're talking about with this situation, but then the previous examples that you give, you're honestly talking about how do people interact with each other? Exactly when you think about the guy stopping you because he had no idea who you are before going to the facility. We love that. When it comes to food events, however, you're being rude, right, are you combative? Exactly Then that's not how we want you to treat our visitors, whether they're in company or outside of the company. So it's like those people skills, right, that you really need to focus on, because, like all of these aspects, that's fine that you didn't let someone do in the yeah, it was fine, but it had to be the reason, exactly the reason. And even, as you talk about, give the example of like some people might need additional time to get ready right To go in, like you are working with people. So, yes, we have the GMPs no eyelashes, no nail polish, all of that. That's not going to change, but just even acknowledging the fact that this is, this is different for some people, you know, especially when we talk about, like, working in restaurants or food centers, you know we're hiring young, young adults that love right eyelashes and nail polish and all of those things. So when we tell them, hey, you know, you can't wear that here, there has to be some compassion right around. They're going to have to change what they want to do with their bodies. You know how they want to show up physically in the world.
41:58
You know, I had to deal with something very similarly when I supported restaurant where, you know, I literally had young girls telling me that like they do not even feel like themselves when they don't wear their lashes. So it's like that. That conversation, right, is really real for them. You know, we still can't have eyelashes, but you know, so we need to have a conversation. We need to have a different conversation, because you feel like you're not in yourself when you show up. Those are the conversations that I had with them, right, as we're rolling out these new GMPs. But if I'm only thinking about process, the science, the things that we know right, and I'm like, well too bad, right, like you can't wear them, then how would that person feel? How do you think they're showing up for the organization every day after that?
42:51 - Kristin Demoranville (Host)
Wow, what an incredible discussion we're having. I want to take a moment to thank you for tuning in and being part of our community. Your engagement is what fuels these conversations. Speaking of engagement, I was absolutely thrilled to meet some of the fans of the podcast in person at the recent RSA conference. Thank you for stopping me, sharing your thoughts and expressing your excitement about the show. It really truly means the world to me.
43:14
While we're on the topic of engagement, have you checked out the new merch shop yet? On the website? We have some great gear representing our passion for food safety and cybersecurity, including aprons, t-shirts, sweatshirts and a few other extra goodies. Link is in the show notes. Let's get back to our discussion with Tia and Jill and learn more about their visionary approach to leading in the food industry approach to leading in the food industry. So, really, what you're teaching, along with the leadership, is empathy and you know, the ability to care about others in a way that still allows you to do your job, but make sure they do their job just as good, if not better. That leadership, that empathy, leadership.
43:58 - Jill Stuber (Guest)
Well, and it's amazing because, you know right, so many organizations put their values on the wall. They put them on their website and typically revolve around something like we have integrity, we value people, blah, blah, blah. But yet then, when we have a conversation like, well, you can't wear your eyelashes out on the floor like, what value are we showing? Yes, it's about food safety, but how are we also honoring people?
44:21
And Tia, you probably know better than I do, but because I don't remember the exact stat, but that's one of the things that people noticed the most, and there was a recent stat that came out on that this gap between how employees see values being lived out and embraced at work versus executives.
44:37
Of course, there's a huge gap. Well, 50, 60, 70 percent, something, yeah, but that's the stuff, then, that these generations coming in, that we've taught to be authentic, that values matter, and then they come into our workplace and we're like, ok, except here. All right, here we're going to work like we've always worked before, and I think that's one of the things that we really help focus on as well is the work that you've done is amazing, but yet we can all do better. And if we even the most, Tia was as a natural leader. I'm not as much of a natural leader, but no matter where we are like, we still have areas to refine and to nurture and to improve so that we can continue to be mindful of others and be thoughtful and be caring and kind Because, once again, this is the group that we're supporting to make sure our food is safe. If we do that with the iron hand, the old school command and control like that's why people walk out at first lunch break, yeah, never come back.
45:40 - Kristin Demoranville (Host)
That's true, and this is again it's there's so many similarities between the food industry, food professionals in general, and cybersecurity, because we're all kind of going after the same type of vibes. We got to train the staff so they understand what a threat is, understand what their role is with that threat and then also making sure that doesn't happen and then, when it does happen, surviving and becoming resilient. So this is why I say cybersecurity is a lot about mitigating shame, because you have to admit, ok, there was a problem, or there could have been a problem, or I might have been the problem, or my friend might have been a problem, or we don't know what the problem was. If we don't know what the problem was, that's the highest level of shame. And I think within the food industry, which is already a very emotional industry and I'm not saying that people who work in the food industry are necessarily emotional individuals, because there are some that are not but it's because it's an emotional product going out, it's part of a celebration, it's part of a funeral, it's part of whatever Right, and I think that even people who work around it know that. I think actually they very much know that and I think for cybersecurity we forget to that bit of empathy for someone who's going through a situation, and I think that there's a lot of shaming going on like, oh, that company should have had a better cybersecurity program.
46:53
I'm sure the food industry is on this too as well. Well, if they only just tightened up their quality they would have been fine. Like okay, great, I'm glad you thought that. Is that helping? No, but how do you instill that into the leadership and I love that that's part of what you're coaching is hey, people are people. People in process are going to be paramount, no matter what happens around the tech or anything else that's happening in the facility, or even your skill set. But if you forget that people are people and people do people-y things like whoops, something happened. You know that. How do you respond to that as a person rather than just as like this robot that shows up to work as their job? We don't want that. That's not going to make food safe, it's not going to make cybersecurity any easier to deal with, and I think the misconceptions around both of our industries kind of like jealous in some ways too, because people think that it's a male hacker in a hoodie behind a computer in a dark room in mom's basement.
47:41
That's not how it's happening anymore. There are whole hacker gangs that sit in corporate offices and have shell companies surrounding them and it's probably a woman that hacked you. Like, let's be real, he's sitting in a coffee shop that's probably right next to you with her latte and you didn't even know. It's crazy to think about. And then you know any of the type of food issues that happen.
48:02
It could be a multitude of things that could be, just as you know, disinformation wise, that we didn't understand before, because people think that, oh well, e coli was getting in there because of whatever. Well, it's the runoff from the cattle, like. We know what it is. We're trying to figure out how to deal with it Technology, probably but we don't know how to secure that. So it's going to open us up to other problems. There's like these little things, but if you focus on the people and process of it, it kind of takes it into that holistic bit, which I love, because you attach your leadership training right into that whole cycle and that's so brilliant. And this is why I love running into you too when we're at the food conferences, and because it's almost like we're like from across the room, because it's just so perfect.
48:45 - Jill Stuber (Guest)
Well, because nobody walks in and goes, wow, food safety and cybersecurity, those are like the sexy, fun places to work. I mean, they are, they are, you know, but they're also the ones, like you said, that are the ones that are hardest to be able to get funding for and to get the real support for, and it seems like, well, what we have isn't that good enough. You're like, no, it's not. And the risk even though we don't necessarily always have a daily, you know, catastrophic incident, when it happens you are, you definitely want all of it and you wish it would have been there. And so the insurance policy. The insurance policy is so important, yeah.
49:24 - Tia Glave (Guest)
Yeah, Kristin, I thought it was really interesting when you talked about cybersecurity and just the connection of shame. You know this is not a well thought out thought at all, but I think it's really interesting when we talk to some senior leaders and they have this attitude of like, oh, everything is so great. And they have this attitude of like, oh, everything is so great, right, like we have nothing to improve, literally had someone tell us that. So when we hear that, we're always so interested because typically we are already talking to someone or someone in the organization, so we, we typically have a have a finger on the culture, at least from some people's perspectives. But what's really interesting from the senior leader perspective, the executive leader perspective, there might be this whole piece of even shame of where their organization is. And if they want to even admit that we're at this point and I'm responsible for it, like I'm responsible for it being here and I'm responsible for the, the shift right Of where we want to go, and we are so used to again just thinking about process, right, we're so used to trying to always do the right thing, like always make it seem like we made the best choice all the time. Right, because we, because that's what we want.
50:44
On performance appraisals, we don't want to have those conversations of okay, tia, maybe not the best decision, what could we have done differently? How do we make a different decision next time? And I know we have those conversations at work. But it's really hard for a senior leader and just even me have been a senior leader to say that, okay, we're not in a good spot and I've been here X amount of years, right, and we're still not in a good spot. We need help getting to the right spot. You know, I don't know, there might be some piece of like shame or even disappointment that as people we have to sort of acknowledge and accept before we even accept help.
51:25 - Kristin Demoranville (Host)
Yeah, because you don't know what you don't know. You don't know what you don't know. Right, and I think the ability to say that you know I think this this past year, especially with being an entrepreneur is realizing that nobody knows what they're doing. The entire human race has no idea what they're doing. We are literally making it up and some of us are raising humans not knowing what we're doing, which is funny.
51:47 - Jill Stuber (Guest)
Are we all making those?
51:49 - Kristin Demoranville (Host)
people. We all fall in there. I feel like that's actually really empowering to understand and know that you haven't figured it all out, nobody has it figured out, and we're all kind of just making it up as we go along. So it almost puts us on a level playing field. So it reminds me, when I especially talk to executives, that there's really no difference except for you make more money than I do. Probably you know, or you've been in the industry longer in some perspectives, but ultimately we're still human beings trying to figure out how to be human beings while try to train and be around other human beings, and that's a lot of yikes at the same time. Yeah, so I feel like if you get to that point and you realize all that, especially if you work in cybersecurity within food, you're like OK, you know what, now we can deal with this, like we can do this. This is OK, because you have no idea what you're doing and neither do I. We're going to work on it together. You know everybody just pull up, pull up your bootstraps and we're moving and I and that's. It's actually really quite liberating when you get to that place. It is. It is so, as we're wrapping all this up.
52:42
Let's talk about a little bit about the evolution of where you think the food industry is going, and especially since we're going to be adding more tech to it. I mean, we have AI moving in to help, you know, handle some of the labor shortages that we have in the agricultural sector. We're putting AI in to help keep people safe as they're working. So, you know, more robots and things like that hands off, not to be graphic, but that's true and moving forward. So what is that going to mean for leadership training in the food industry? Because we have rapid innovations moving.
53:10 - Tia Glave (Guest)
Yeah. So I would say from my point of view is that we're going to continue to advance when it comes to technology, like we are. We're on this path. We're going to continue down the path. We have very, very, very smart people creating technology, creating innovation, and very, very, very smart people are going to be able to integrate that into our business. We are aligned with that.
53:33
As we think about people and leadership, that too is going to need to transform, and so our mission of transforming the way people lead in food, that is the path for our industry when it comes to leadership, when it comes to people skills, and it's because we have to. We have to as innovation, as we have more, you know, innovation as we have more technology. People are going to continue to drop off from a retention, from engagement, if we do not focus there. And again, we see it in the numbers right now, right, we see it in the data right now what we call a mission critical, because it is and eventually the industry is going to have to get there, otherwise there's not going to be an industry, and we all know it's a business, right, and the industry is making a lot of money. So the industry is not going to not exist, so they're going to have to get on the same page with protecting their people and ensuring they have the right leadership in place and that their leadership have the right skills. So we are moving there right.
54:33
Catalyst is just ahead. We like to say that we're pioneering the space. You are, yeah, because there's really no one like us that focus on leadership development with these coaching principles specifically for the food industry, and we love what we do. We know the industry is going there and we are in this very unique position, based off of our backgrounds and who we are, that we can help lead that transformation.
54:59 - Kristin Demoranville (Host)
Do you think that there'll be more hybrid food roles? What I mean by that is you'll see more people within food safety having more food defense knowledge, as well as tech knowledge and cybersecurity knowledge moving forward, and I'm going to preface this with I do believe that there will be more hybrid roles, and I want to make that clear up front, because I already see it happening in certain places. So I'm just curious what both of you see, because you're in the industry in a different angle than I am.
55:26 - Jill Stuber (Guest)
You know, I think we're at this really interesting spot and I wouldn't say it's right now is where it happened. But you know, even in the past 10, 15 years, people have talked about food safety and quality. Do they need to be lumped together? I mean, we're getting more and more into this space where there are very specific specialized disciplines within food safety, within the food industry. I think, as you talk about that, that's cybersecurity, and food defense is one where we still have to have this really solid understanding of, like how it fits within the food safety management systems and the business and the industry. But yet, this specialized knowledge, we need people to have that and blend these together. And while AI is going to be a great tool to help us with that, it's still based on humans.
56:12
Yes, and the other day we had somebody ask like what do you think comes after food safety culture? And we're like intentional leadership. That's a brilliant answer. Well, yes, because as we think like OK, at least my kids is an example. Like they will sit on their device 24 seven. Unless I'm intentional about engaging them, they'll even do it while they're eating cereal or whatever it is. If I'm not intentionally parenting, I'm going to lose them to be able to have relationships and have them act. The same thing is going to happen in our workplaces, if we're like just go do and you're all the right tools.
56:47 - Kristin Demoranville (Host)
So I think, more than ever, we need intentional leaders to step up and really think about how they're engaging people so they are able to use those tools, so they are able to help make food safe, so they are able to help our businesses make money and make sure consumers are protected, and so I think that that's such a brilliant way to say it, and I had a mutual friend of ours, dr Darren Detweiler, on the podcast not too long ago and he was also echoing very much that we have this call to leadership, that we do need this people-centric leadership that's really going to take responsibility for and be honest and authentic while they're trying to defend and protect food. That's going going to take responsibility for and be honest and authentic while they're trying to defend and protect food that's going to the public for being consumed. And it just made me think about it, because his story is so impactful that you just shut up and you listen. You know, yeah, and both of you have such experience as well that I also shut up and listen, of course, but thank you both for being here with me and I love it that we had like a really unique episode where it wasn't just like let's talk about technology and cybersecurity and food and how it intersects, like I still love that, don't get me wrong, but I love that we actually had a people episode, about people and food, because I think we forget that people make our food or have harvest our food or plant our food or raise our food.
58:05
I think that we have to remember that we're there to be a supporting function to make sure people stay safe and healthy. So thank you both for your time. I will make sure for all the listeners that both of their information will be in the show notes. Is there anything we can look forward to that you're working on coming up that I can we can talk about here quickly.
58:23 - Jill Stuber (Guest)
Oh, we always have things coming up, so we have bootcamp that's available. It's kind of our level one leadership. We love people going through that first because it's the prince, the principles, and they get exposed to coaching that is open for the next cohort. We're also working on a new program, tia. Are we ready to kind of show or talk about the whenever launch? You want to sneak peek at it?
58:47
Yeah, well, it's executive leader, because one of the things that we find is right, we focus on building technical skills and we get into senior leader roles and then we're like, wow, we need different tools to be intentional leaders and so, while our program that's, there's actually three parts to our kind of our core leadership program, but it also takes some time to get through because you have to practice, practice, practice. Yeah. So we also have this now kind of track for people that are experienced in these roles to get them up to speed, because meanwhile their people, hopefully, are going through the other program and they're going to connect up and then have these shared values on how do we be intentional leaders together?
59:23 - Tia Glave (Guest)
Yeah, out and then have these shared values on. How do we be intentional leaders together? Yeah, we're excited about executive, because executive leader because we talked a little bit about it today where senior leaders really are responsible for the culture and also responsible for moving their culture forward and if you haven't checked in with yourself, right, if you haven't taken a look at where you are today, who you are today and how you interact with your team of today and how you prepare for tomorrow, then executive leader is going to be perfect for you. Yeah.
59:55 - Jill Stuber (Guest)
Let's see our private community launches. We're going to be at the upcoming summer. You know circuit of shows, so we love being there to like see you see other people like the human connection, so it's always shows. So we love being there to like see you see other people like the human connection, so it's always fun.
01:00:08 - Kristin Demoranville (Host)
And I love it that we've. You know, and people ask me all the time well, when you get together with food professionals, do you eat? Yes, we eat. We have dinners, we eat. Don't worry people, we love food. I always say, though we pick places that don't have an open kitchen though, because we know that it's. It's incredible, actually. I have now witnessed that twice, and I'm like wow, I'm the one that has to sit towards the kitchen, and now I'm all freaked out because I'm watching.
01:00:32 - Tia Glave (Guest)
That's like my only rule. I just don't want to eat face in the kitchen.
01:00:37 - Kristin Demoranville (Host)
Yeah, unless it's my own kitchen, that's OK, but we also know you can't eat at everybody's house, so that's also a real thing. Consumer education is real Facts. Those are facts. Yeah, they're total facts. Anyways, thank you Bol, tia and Jill for being here. I really appreciate it and we will definitely keep an eye on things that are moving forward for both of you, and I wish you the best.
01:01:01 - Jill Stuber (Guest)
Well, thank you, yes, thank you for having us and raising the awareness around cybersecurity in our space, because we feel the pain when things aren't running because of a cybersecurity issue, oh yes, so thank you for doing this too.
01:01:15 - Kristin Demoranville (Host)
It's my pleasure. Thank you both. Thank you. That wraps up today's episode. Thank you to Tia and Jill for sharing your incredible insights today, and a big thank you to the listeners. I know this was a long one. Thanks so much for staying with us. Don't forget to visit the new merch shop on the website and grab some Bites and Bites gear. Your support helps to keep bringing these great conversations. Stay safe, stay curious and we'll see you in the next one. Bye for now.
