46:38
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
people, talking, work, business, kids, life, teams, coach, retention, week, employee, money, company, understand, michael, losing, paying, friends, events, single
SPEAKERS
Damon Pistulka, Michael Padurano
Damon Pistulka 00:05
All right, everyone, welcome once again to the faces of business. I’m your host, Damon Pistulka. And with me today, I’ve got Michael pattern Bronto. Yes, I sent it right. Thank you so much for how familiar with your name Michael, and we’re going to be talking about bringing the human connection to business today. Thanks for being here, Michael.
Michael Padurano 00:25
Thank you for having me. And you’re brave, right? Like you, you want to understand the last names when I when I host I just go with the first name. And if that’s too difficult, then I just say ma’am, or sir. Right? Like, I don’t even venture there. I just kind of get into it a little and just be like, it’s all good. It will work itself out in the slow.
Damon Pistulka 00:40
Yeah, it could it could Yeah, but with the last name like Pistulka I like to make sure I say this, say people’s names, right? If I can, because I’m, you know, a frequent victim of last name, butchering, it’s okay to try to get them right once in a while. So Mike, it’s cool to have you on here today, man.
Because I mean, it’s your story, your background, when we first met and first talked, I was really inspired by some of the things that you’ve dealt with in your life and then hearing about how you want to help leaders, you know, bring that human connection and bring humanity guests back into business and for lack of a better term. So why don’t we start out with telling us a bit about your journey, your background and kind of how you got how you found this passion?
Michael Padurano 01:29
Well, that’s what you know, it’s like a 4042 and a half year zigzag right to get Yeah. Okay, so I was adopt. I’m gonna be real brief, real concise. You can ask me anything you want. I’m open. Yeah, yeah, I was adopted at birth. I was physically and verbally abused from the age of two to 14.
By my adoptive mother. My father did his best he could to protect me as much as he could, while being a provider and doing all those things. I’ve had numerous near death experiences, numerous more than 10. I started drinking at nine to numb everything out, I started doing hardcore drugs at 12 to continue continued numbing everything out because at some point, the alcohol wasn’t working anymore. I got thrown out of two high schools and got my series seven I think before I even got my GED.
Once my boss realized I didn’t emojis and it was kind of like you shouldn’t have a series seven. So I had to hurry up and go get that was in the financial industry for about nine years, was on the wholesale side of trading, traded for hedge funds in all sorts of different trading things. Wasn’t really on the retail client side, I did have some institutional clients until the Patriot Act and then lost most of them. Still was drinking and doing a lot of drugs and dealing drugs on the side because most of the people from the stock market paid top dollar.
So it was just an easy fit for me right? What I was paying five for they would pay 34 or 35, or 44. So it was great. It was great revenue on top of making really good money in the stock market. September 11 happened, I basically offered to give my job up for a single father so that he can keep his job bounced around a little bit in the stock market. The drugs and alcohol got worse, the money came in much less. And I became unemployable and unmanageable. Father’s Day, 2006 got down on my hands and knees and said, God, please keep me sober or kill me.
I can’t do it anymore. Called every police station from every city that I had a receipt in my pocket for every hospital to see if I heard anyone that night before because my car was a little banged up. And I had no idea how. And I was an attorney myself and I couldn’t live with myself anymore. Thankfully, nobody did. Nobody was hurt. Nobody was in the hospital. Nobody filed a complaint of a hit and run. Thank God. So must have just been side rails or something. I have no idea. And that was the beginning of my journey to sobriety and I’ve been sober since June 19 of 2006. Did a lot of different things over the course of those years and just never did the emotional work. Never.
Fast forward to 2018 I left my ex wife and kids in Arkansas living with friends and moved back to Florida to rebuild my life. We had a civil divorce agreed upon. And within three weeks she took my kids moved across the state and I had no idea where they were for four months almost. She met a guy online and just took the kids and ran. And I was the target. And when I finally found them, she they barely allowed me any communication then eventually blocked my numbers. I went out to go visit my kids, she they almost didn’t let me see them. They weren’t bathed, they weren’t being well kept.
They had bruises all over them. And that started the journey of starting the fight for my kids. And that was June. That was June, it was July of 2019 at this point. And then, February 19, of 2020. I got physical evidence from her mother and her sister. I got videos and pictures of the abuse. got in my car, the 21st drove from South Florida back to Arkansas. The boyfriend said that if you ever saw me getting to me, when I was there in 2019, he also put a knife on me in the middle of the McDonald’s playground, which I kind of laughed at him. I thought that was kind of humorous. I’m a little weird.
So I thought it was funny. I thought it was a joke. Like you’re pulling a knife, I’m going to McDonald’s playground, like you have a few screws loose, like what’s wrong with you. And whatever, like I my gift of an impasse and all these other things, I didn’t feel that it was even a threat that it was just one of those fear reactions and trying to have an ego about life. So the whole time I was in Arkansas, you know, I had that threat over my head real or not. He was friends with they were his the biker gang. The biker group that he was a part of was friends with all the police officers.
So they were always trying to target me with stuff. And I got emergency custody of them after 11 days of staying about an hour away on March sixth. And began a two month depression from like, I’ve never been in my life because I had no idea I was gonna handle anything. I got them. And then 10 days later COVID Came right shut down the world. And I’m sitting here taking care of three kids. My youngest barely even knew who I was at that point because she was at the time almost trying to think I mean, I guess she was turning three right inside this year.
So like she barely even remember who I was. And they were all brainwashed and abused and beaten and everything that you know, I didn’t love them I didn’t exist, I wasn’t even alive. I was had no interest in them. Meanwhile, my number was blocked. And I was calling every day, that whole time. So calling texting, calling the police for well visits, all those things and just nothing. I mean, it came to the point where the police obviously even told me to go eff off that I’m harassing them. And all I wanted to do was to my kids where it was absurd, right and you know, at this at the end of the day, it was a 17 and a half month adventure to finally get full custody of them and be able to leave.
Now during this 17 and a half months, I kept getting triggered about my childhood trauma. And a friend of mine at the time introduced me into some Brene Brown first right and I started with Brene Brown daring greatly. And then just I went on this healing rampage and I just went through book after book and coach after coaching guide after guidance therapist after therapist and psychotherapist and spiritual guides and I just was absorbing like a sponge how to heal because I spent the first 40 years never really understanding loving myself having any self worth constantly self sabotaging and having extremely toxic relationships with people of all sorts.
Because that’s all I knew how to be. It’s only knew how to be it’s, it’s what I was programmed to be by, by just conditions that I created for myself, right. And I still work on myself every day I journal I meditate I exercise as often as I can’t based on the kids probably not as often as I should but as often as I can. You know and it’s you know, it’s just a juggling act, right? Like I mean you just I just never know what I’m gonna get every morning and it’s me by myself with the three kids I call myself a solo parent because I’m not a single parent I’m a solo parent.
Yeah there’s no other half that’s gonna take them for even 10% of the time right so and there’s no you know, I came up to Pennsylvania to give my kids a fresh start and purposely have family two and a half three hours away and different directions but if I really need them but I wanted to create a healing bubble for my kids and I wanted to you know really inspire them to look within and heal at this age rather than waiting because my oldest is 12 Now my middle my son will be 10 next month and my youngest will be five the first week of June so that’s about it. That’s about the story guys. We can we go home
Damon Pistulka 09:55
now. Well, you know the I’m just gonna, I’m gonna start back to the beginning. You know, I’ve got many friends that have gone through the sobriety journey. And I commend you for that. Thank you. That’s a son of a bitch. It’s a son of a bitch. And it’s a song that you every day. And that is I commend you for that.
Michael Padurano 10:21
So pause on that for one second. Yeah, it’s been a little easier for me, because I truly believe that if I use it again, God’s gonna kill me. Okay. I mean, I believe it, because I told him, I begged him to kill me. So I believe God will have my understanding, that will immediately kill me on the spot. So I just have never given myself an option to even consider going back.
Damon Pistulka 10:44
That’s awesome. That’s awesome. Because I was at that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so so you’re now you’re so apparent, and you have your kid kids to help you as well, for one way kids kind of drive you towards it. But the other way, you know, they’re gonna keep you from it because you want to be there for him. And I know that I say tongue in cheek you’re driving for it, but it is I’m sure there are plenty of challenges raising the kids. But you know, as you look at that, I’m sure that’s worth it in your mind, and it’s something you would never change. No.
Michael Padurano 11:20
mind numbing is what is binge watching a show on a weekend that that’s my numbing. Yeah, and we all have numbing tendencies, right? Any type of escapism, any type of way to escape, where we’re at in the present moment is numbing, write it all escape isms. And I just feel like to binge watch a show over a weekend when my kids are relaxing and kind of recouping from their week, when they want to go out and do something, we go out and do something, but they’re not really big into going out and doing something my five year old doesn’t like leaving the bed on the weekends.
Like she just wants to sleep all day. She doesn’t sleep during the week. So she’s, she’s about three to five hours a night sleeper during the week for a five year old is ridiculous. Yeah. So on the weekends, there’s days that she’ll sleep 16 and a half hours, I just gotta go make sure she’s breathing every six.
Damon Pistulka 12:06
Yeah, yeah, that’s it’s a little different. Well, so. So you, you go through all this. And then you decide, well, I want to help other people. What, what the heck got you to that point to where you’re like, I want to help other people.
Michael Padurano 12:28
So, okay, so this is where I think I think the 12 steps kicks in a little. Okay, right. Because when I got sober, I was really big, and to go into meetings regularly and everything else. And I was giving back, I had sponsees, I was working with other people, I helped a kids get sober. I worked at a, I worked at a facility for a while, and I was, you know, really spending time with them when they were on, on site, right? A male only facility. So I mean, I really was always giving back. And when I started the healing journey, the first thing I wanted to do was give back, right? Because that’s just, that’s how I know to stay on my healing journey.
Right? is constantly keep myself in check. And how do you keep yourself in check is by, you know, seeing people were used to be, and helping them get to where you are. And hopefully, as you do that, you’re progressing a little bit further. It’s a daily evolution. So I mean, I’m a coach, I’m a guide. I mean, I call myself a guide, really, on three levels, business, life and spiritual. So I just guide people towards themselves, their inner knowings. I don’t look to do anything but help people find themselves. It’s not about me, it’s about what you know, let them find what’s best for them.
Damon Pistulka 13:49
So you’re in this process now, and you’re helping these people and you decide that you want to start a company doing it. I mean, that’s, I can see what you’re doing and what you’re going to do a company with events. And you know, you’d say, I want to help millions of people create better workplaces what I mean, how do you go from I’m going to help some people in the being a sponsor, he and I just I don’t you had to overcome by something.
Michael Padurano 14:20
I, I’ve always built businesses. Oh, yeah. Always had businesses on the side always had side hustles always had all different things, different points in time when I did have sources of revenue, I would invest into small businesses, single solopreneurs, stuff like that, right. Yeah. And just understand different industries. And I’ve worked in so many different industries, and I’ve been treated differently in almost every industry and I’m just not a corporate person, right? It doesn’t work for me. Because I’ve always been one of those people that goes get that corporate job because it’s not working as an entrepreneur. So I go, Oh, I need a job.
I go get a job. And within six months, I’m getting promoted. And then within a month or two after that, it’s like I can’t work for people that don’t align with their own values. So then I walk away and I start another business or I go back to my passion. And so now I really just decided to go with my passion, which is truly helping, inspiring. And you know, my definitive purpose on this planet is to elevate humanity. So in through knowledge and understanding, and this fits into that category perfectly, you know, I helped create a coaching business that got a corporate contract.
And, you know, I mean, I’ve developed now numerous coaching programs around different people’s modalities of healing and prac ways of practice and everything else now. So the whole concept of aligning teams was to be able to take it on a larger scale, be able to walk into a corporation, say here is 45, different types of coaching. Let’s really look at your employees, see how you can help them feel valued, heard and seen. Because when you help an employee feel those three things they never want to leave. They won’t leave unless it doesn’t align with their values.
And truth of the matter is, you’d rather have that employee leave if it doesn’t align with them. Yeah. Because when you bring in somebody that aligns with, they’re going to output they’re gonna help produce. Yeah, 100 fold. Yeah. So I’m looking at the corporate environment right now where everybody started with this great resignation. No, it’s the great reality of having options. I can sit home in the couch, and I can learn from Gary Vee on how to flip things on eBay and make more make maybe 60% of the money but not have to leave my house and be happy. Yeah, rather than making myself miserable working for people that don’t value me. Yeah.
Damon Pistulka 16:45
I think you said you said it very well, that you said it very well. There. It just happened to be on Tuesday, I interviewed a recruiter on Prince Edward Island in Canada, and he recruits all over North America. And that’s what he brought up some very enlightening things, as you just did is we have options.
Everyone has options now. And the remote workforce is has improved the options for everybody immensely, because now, it doesn’t matter where I’m setting. It doesn’t matter where I work. And a lot of these instances, or as you said, the gig economy or other things like you’re talking about with Gary Vee, and flipping stuff that you find at the yard sale on Ebay. I mean, there are opportunities that there just weren’t here 20 years ago.
Michael Padurano 17:37
And the reality is COVID showed everybody that right, like, Yeah, before COVID Maybe people didn’t know that or didn’t realize it, but they it slowed them down enough that they were able to see the world in front of them. And a lot of people didn’t like what they saw. So it gave them a chance to say okay, well, I’m not going to make this drastic change, because getting a divorce is a pain in the button, don’t want to go through that.
But I can shift my energy and start looking at things to better myself or shift my energy in a work environment. And, you know, while working at home and getting paid and being on zooms you know, there’s time in between that you want, you can start a side hustle, right, people learn to deviate their interests, as well as everything was shut down. So there was no more escaping, there was no more going out. There was no more sporting events. I mean, sports is one of the biggest escape isms in this country.
Damon Pistulka 18:32
Yeah. Well, you know, I even think about my family and we had both of our kids came back, one was in college and one was living in Seattle proper, and both of them came back. And just because they wanted to stay with us. And that changed the way we are still today. Because we spent four months or whatever the heck it was kind of in one place going and doing you know, we will go out on excursions, but she couldn’t go anywhere you could we could go drive out to someplace and see nature. That’s what you were doing, you know, but you’re doing it with your family because you know, you weren’t socializing and to speak up and other things like that.
But it does it did when you talk about that time. And I’ve mentioned that not because of my family because that really doesn’t it’s not relevant. It’s that time that all these people that run Run, run, I run to work, I run home, I run to go out dinner, I go out with bla bla, when that is gone, and you have that thinking time. I think you’ve hit on something here because those people had time to really understand what it’s like to connect deeply with the people that are very close to them and having time to themselves to just live. Yeah, rather than time to be to that rather than living to be busy doing something.
Michael Padurano 19:57
And a lot of people didn’t like what they saw And you had people that decided that they wanted to work on themselves, right? A lot of people did. Like, I’m not gonna, a lot of people did. And then you have those that follow through that continued to work on themselves daily. And then you have those that as soon as their escapism started opening back up. I’m busy all the time. Again, I don’t have time to work on myself, I don’t have time to look at anything. And they didn’t want to be uncomfortable, make certain self sacrifices for long term gains.
You know, we’re raised in this country to say, I need a partner on that whole. I do this way. We’re all holding on our own. We come into this world whole, we leave whole and we’re alone. So we don’t need anyone. If somebody chooses to be in our life, and we choose them, and we can enhance each other’s lives. That changes everything. Yes, man. That’s magical. Yeah. But we are so conditioned. That we have to be with somebody. Yeah, I’m the happiest I’ve ever been. And I’m alone. Like, yeah,
Damon Pistulka 21:10
you’re by yourself. There’s a difference. You’re by yourself.
Michael Padurano 21:13
Alone. Yeah. Well, well, let me Well, yes, I’m gonna one right. And my kids, they’re always Oh, is there? Too much sometimes. But, yeah, I mean, that’s okay. Because I got Yes, right. Yeah. No, no, let’s not mistake that. It’s easy. Because it is no, no, not easy.
No, no, there is no private time, there is no time to myself. There’s, you know, I’m the only adult and I’m outnumbered by a multiple three. So I’m always losing. And then a kid comes from the neighborhood. And then it’s multiple, four. And if another one comes in, it’s multiple, five, right? So I’m always losing, but it’s okay. Like, I’m adapting every day. I’m evolving every day. I’m learning every day. And I love the journey. I love the journey. I’m so happy with it.
Damon Pistulka 22:03
Yes. Awesome. Awesome. You’re right. So you mentioned one thing that this here in this that a lot of people took the time to start working on themselves. And I think about this in regards to the events that you’re planning, and we’ll be putting on later this year. Do you think that we’re more receptive as a society in the US now or maybe even globally? Hell, I don’t know, globally, you know, that that, that we’re really ready to start looking at things a little differently, and maybe working on ourselves a bit more, because
Michael Padurano 22:44
so I think there’s always going to be the people that want to do that for themselves. And then when I’m looking, what we’re looking to do is to go into corporate. So it’s a whole different game, right? Yeah. I believe that it’s a necessity, and corporates not going to have a choice. Because retention means so much bigger expense to the bottom line of having to replace people.
Yeah, it’s an enormous absorbing and expense, they have to retrain, reintegrate, redo everything, try and get the right chemistry on the team, again, like you can go through this whole six month training, period, whatever it is, and then they went out have the right chemistry for the team. And it’s like, well, now the team’s shit, right? Because it’s the chemistry that keeps this, this going. I believe they’re not gonna have a choice. Because at some point, the bottom line is going to be impacted so greatly by retention numbers, that they’re not gonna have a choice but to look deeper within.
And it starts with themselves, each individual. And you can do it in my mindset is you go to middle management, right? You go to supervisors, and senior managers, ones that work with the largest teams, ones that are more hands on, because, you know, when people start going on their journey, their healing journey, it’s infectious, right? In a positive way, opposite or it’s a different pandemic, or whatever. Right, right. It’s a good one. So as you reach the middle of a company, it spreads outward from there.
But you need upper management, obviously, to sign off and you need upper management to believe that there’s an issue. I don’t know how many quarters that were in a row of retention being horrendous. bottom lines being tremendously impacted before upper management says, Oh, I guess I think we have an issue. And it’s not just because other companies are paying more because truth of the matter is an employee that feels value heard and seen wouldn’t take less money to be happy and fulfilled and content and feel safe. Then go somewhere new. And that’s the truth.
Damon Pistulka 24:55
Well, and like I said on Tuesday, I interviewed Andrew and he said, one of the things that he said was exit interviews are gold for employers. And, and then taking what you find in that and talking to your existing people. And he brought up a ton of awesome examples. But you talk about wage was not brought up in the conversation these people are talking about, he was talking about in his own experience he had it happened to him once when he was managing a an equipment dealership where someone was going to leave, because they did not have swag, like they used to, to give away to their customers.
Michael Padurano 25:45
They could live up to their customer,
Damon Pistulka 25:47
base. Yeah, their customers, they said we could go out and do the work for our customers always want a hat or something. And it was they decided that that that wasn’t going to be in the budget. And he’s like, Well, if you’re gonna leave, and I need to spend, you know, it’s just these little things that these people want.
And like you said they needed to be valued, seen and heard. And, and the thing that I think we were in business, we’re able to do until recently was we were able to kind of, because it was an employer market, we didn’t have to listen, we didn’t have to ask those questions, we’d have to do that. And now when you look at it, and you look at the merry go round, or the revolving door on the entry level positions, it can put you out of business, it’s on
Michael Padurano 26:29
the top two, it’s not only entry level, it’s middle, it’s everywhere, like really sort of build a good, they don’t live into their they don’t have into their, their vision that they’re selling somebody they get in the door. And it’s like, this is why people have three options sitting on the board, when they start a new company a new job.
They just tell their second favorite that, you know, just give me a week or two. I mean, if they’re really transparent to be like, there’s another one, I want to try it out. I’m just being honest. But you’re a strong second candidate. And if these people don’t live into what they said, then I’m gonna come to you. Now if that company is one that lives into what they say, there’ll be fine waiting the extra two weeks, because they know that most companies aren’t.
They don’t there’s a revolving door. Yeah, there’s, you know, and I always say this, inflation is 8%, seven and a half a percent argue whatever number you want, let’s just say seven. Let’s even say seven. Who cares? And you know, they do this living wage increase of three and a half percent. Right. So you’re losing money on your raise. The other half was inflation. Yeah. So let’s not go into the economic side. But let’s say that’s that three and a half percent differences, five grains, let’s just say that it is. I’m not, I’m just using numbers.
That’s three and a half difference, I’d say it’s 5000. If you went to that employee and said, You know what, I can only give you the three and a half percent. But what sports are your children interested in? And I’ll either send you guys to a game, maybe a couple games, because some sports are cheaper than others? Or I’ll sponsor one of their teams for $1,000. Yeah, $500. That employee will never walk away. Yeah. Because you found something that matters to them and their family more than money. Yeah, that is how companies should be looking at things. That is where companies need to see different because then you’re valuing your people.
Damon Pistulka 28:21
Yeah. Yeah, I can hear it coming out of you. This is why you’re putting these things together. And you’re talking about bringing the human connection into business, because it is what it’s almost like a revolution in AI. It’s an old term, but what it is, is we have to really look at individuals in a company rather than the mass and, and, and tailored towards each individual, and what we can do to help them be more successful at business at life. And, and really get good at that.
Michael Padurano 28:57
Yeah. And, you know, I mean, you if, okay, so it’s the three are event for a reason, right? It’s rejuvenate and retain. Because the minute you go from rejuvenating to reinventing, then you can start retaining your employees. There’s too many options. Too many. And you know what money is losing value every single day. So why am I only going to care about money when there’s simple things in life that matters so much more to me and my family? Yeah.
Damon Pistulka 29:33
Well, and, you know, I think this is where hybrid work, to me is a huge thing when people were so Oh, we all gotta go back to the office. But you’re looking in the area where I live in Seattle here, right? There’s a lot of people that are working and commuting one and a half or two hours each way. Five days a week. And if you just said listen, you can have two days flex days. We’re Tuesdays and Thursdays you don’t drive or get on the bus, whatever the heck you do. That just gave them six to eight hours extra time in their week. And when I would really caution,
Michael Padurano 30:13
the future work is going to be some type of Hybrid model. Or it’ll be completely remote because people were just as productive. They have the overhead of the building, and how do they sell to the board that they spend all this money on the building? But there’s not a single person there. Right.
Damon Pistulka 30:29
That’s a whole other thing. I think that what we’re we’ll be dealing with in the future, because of the companies that are effectively doing hybrid work can have smaller space, and that that gives them a competitive advantage. Overall, I just, I really do I think that but what you’re talking about the small things, and talking again, about how can I make Michael’s life better today in Michaels? Michaels, and I know that Michael is a solo parent with three kids. And if Michael can have a few more hours a week, that’s a big deal to him.
Michael Padurano 31:00
I mean, who wants to spend 10 to 12 hours a week traveling back and forth work? I mean, yeah, even more than that, because, you know, it adds up so fast. And then it’s the gas and then it’s the tolls, and then it’s great. Like, the expenses ridiculous, your conference is through the roof. Because yeah, you’re driving so much more. I mean, there’s so many options like, yeah, why are we overcomplicating? This? Yes? Like, why are we really trying to stick to the old ways, but we do it in every system in this country? Do it in education, we do it every single system, does it? We don’t evolve until it’s too late.
Damon Pistulka 31:39
Until we have to tell we have to it’s forced, the pain is so great that we have to change.
Michael Padurano 31:46
How far away from that are we at this point?
Damon Pistulka 31:49
I don’t think we’re very far. Especially in business, we can’t be far because we’re gonna continue to lose because of the especially you just said we were talking about hybrid work, right? You two options, I can work hybrid, or I have to be there, I have to commute, I have to do that ugly commute, who’s gonna do that? Even with a better opportunity, they’re not going to do it. Especially if you got a family. I mean, that’s, that’s so huge. But let’s talk a little bit about your events. Because you guys are gonna put together some pretty special events. Let’s talk about you, because you’re talking about rejuvenate, reinvent and retain. So let’s talk about this.
Michael Padurano 32:27
So we’re gonna do events. Our first one is now September 11, through September 15, in BLUEBELL, Pennsylvania, just outside of where I’m at, because, again, solo parents. So if I want to be present, it’s got to be near me. And I don’t care. Everyone’s coming to me. They don’t have a choice, right? So this is the way it works. And then we’re going to rotate them around the country. But at first, it’s going to come to me the first one.
So it’s all inclusive, except for the flight. Everything’s Included in the cost. We’re finalizing, because things have shifted and costs have gone up, everything’s gone up. It’s a four day event. You get there for the first afternoon, that first evening, which is a Sunday, we have a blindfolded meal. Everyone’s blindfolded, you have no idea who you’re sitting next to. And every facilitator that is a part of this event, except for the ones working that one specific meal are all blindfolded also, okay.
And we’re going to rotate the facilitators, I’m one of them. Because I want to be a part of this, I don’t want to be the facilitator guy on this one, I want to be participate. Because this is when we push ourselves to limit and have to understand our subconscious and unconscious bias. We’re wanting to blindfolded we have no idea who were sitting next to, we can offend anyone with any sentence. So we have to really look deep and we start understanding ourselves at a level that is uncomfortable for us. But if you want true di if you want to truly understand yourself and others, these are the things that will help.
And this whole meal is about Trudy AI and how a blank blind candidate pool with no identifiers. Will one give you true equality. Because you’re not paying anyone different if you don’t know who they are. Yep. You don’t know what their background is. You don’t know what race you don’t know what religion you don’t know what gender you don’t know what their gender preferences. You can’t judge a single thing and you don’t know what their age is pretty much other than their experience base. But, like, at some point, everybody’s getting paid the same. Yeah, God forbid, God forbid, you know, hey, when requests you know, they deserve less.
It’s insane. To me, it makes no, it makes no sense to me. I swear parenting should also be a skill that you should be able to apply to business because there’s multitasking. There’s so many things you’re controlling. You’re already a manager in my mind if you’re a parent. Or if you work in the service industry abused, everybody babies are too but that’s besides the point. We’ll stay quiet on that one. But when you really Look at this, like, this is a journey, this is an adventure, we’re taking you into a place that you don’t normally go so that you can be a better person. So that you can create a better environment for your team for everyone around you. That’s just the first night.
Then from there, we’re going to have for morning workshops, which is going to carry through till Thursday morning, and then you’re leaving, you’re leaving Thursday afternoon, after the lunch hour, we’re calling it a lunch hour, because I like creative with the words. And every single meal is experiential. And then the other thing is, there’s a whole bunch of one on one workshops, or micro workshops, where you will actually be able to in this four day period, try test out and see how it works for you. 12 To 15 modalities of healing or working with somebody, all different types.
So you’re going to go through these personal journeys through experience. And you’ll be able to go back to your teams and have tools from 12 to 15 different types of learnings to be able to look at how to apply them or see if your teammate needs some of them. Green grieving needs to be a separate thing where you bring in somebody to deal with somebody who’s grieving, because that impacts every aspect of their life. Right.
So when there’s coaches and people that are specific in that area, you know, and why not, you know, give the pay for a coach for them for 612 weeks that can shift their life create value to them, that can’t be replaced by another job. because you just invested into them, less than probably 1/3 of what you would spend to replace them. Yeah, good again, right, we’re back to the retention thing. You’ve got to put the money somewhere. So invest it into your people and new creative ways.
Because if they come out a more healed version of themselves, then it’s going to interact with everyone else at a different level. Yeah, and these events are spectacular. I mean, it’s a top quality venue. It’s called Normandy farm. The place is unbelievable. They do 360 weddings a year, they have an Arnold Palmer Golf Course attached to it. They have ballrooms, they have conference rooms, they have everything. Then they have farm to table food.
Everything’s from the table. Every single part, every one of our meals is going to be international styled like we’re going to be doing a Japanese style dinner, which we’re going to talk about leading with intuition and iki guy, we’re gonna do a Middle Eastern lunch. And we’re going to talk about empowering and honoring anybody’s everybody’s voice. We’re going to do a fondue lunch and talk about self love. Because 99% of the country probably has no idea what that even means. And it’s every single thing is about impact every single thing has, it’s amazing food, it’s amazing bonding.
And then there’s follow through on the way out we have we have support from each one of the facilitators will have access to every participant and every participant will have access to the facilitators to be able to reach that support and have something when they walk away. There’s so many of these style events, there’s nothing when you’re done. And we want to create digital, private groups, and we want to create, you know, private chat rooms and all these different things that they have support. We want to impact we want to impact people. And you know, I’m a little grandiose, I have crazy ideas. And I’m where we stand up to me and employees in five years.
Damon Pistulka 38:45
Wow. There’s so many things that are running through my head. It really is because by helping these leaders, these middle management leaders better understand themselves and other people. They can be so much more effective at this. Yes. And their own lives are improved. Their own lives are improved, first of all, but that because their own lives are improved. There’s so much better for other people.
Michael Padurano 39:17
I mean, percent. And that’s the idea behind it is you start with one person at a time, right. And most of these company corporate budgets, has money in there for professional development. But if you’re dealing with people that are wounded and trauma ridden, generational trauma, any type of trauma, whatever, yeah, right, then all you’re doing is you’re just creating the same dynamics over and over again.
So how do you do that you work with them one on one, you get them somebody that can specialize in? You know, a Writing teams has access to literally 1000s of coaches globally that work in all different modalities of coaching that can reach out Anyone, right? They’re all different demographics are all over the world. They can work in any time zones. Like, I mean, yeah, we’re built for this.
Damon Pistulka 40:09
And then when you talked about to earlier in this conversation, you talked about the grief counselor and bringing a grief counselor in for an employee. And me being old school, right. So I am How do you tell? But I think about that, and the first thing I ran through my head was love be expensive.
But then you said, well, you’d have to replace your What if you didn’t have to replace somebody, hell, that’s it’s too cheap, it’s cheap. And then you think about and then you think about the impact that you would have on that person, their life, and how much more connected to your workplace and to their career, they would be, and you go, it’s inconsequential what the cost is, because, because you’re just gonna have that much better. They’re gonna put their mind in their heart and what they do, because you’ve taken that step to really address their, their challenges.
Michael Padurano 41:14
Yeah, I mean, there’s, you know, and we have coaches that will work with all different price points. You know, there’s coaches as cheap as 1000 a month, there’s ones that are 2000 a month, and really even investing 6000, let’s say, a three month program for It’s nothing. It’s nothing, it’s less than paying their parking. Like, I mean, and but real quick, real quick, before I lose the tangent, I’m sorry. I’m no, no, no, go for it. Go for it.
You take one employee, one employee on a 12 person team, who’s going through some type of grief, and you get them somebody to work with them a grief coach, somebody, a former rabbi, former priests, we have all these right? And then somebody who does hope on a pono, which I don’t know if I pronounced right, all different types of grief. Right? You know what those other 11 people in the team are thinking? I am so lucky to work for a company that is willing to support me through my worst time.
They’re not going to turn their back on me. They’re going to be there. You think any of those 11 are leaving? No, no, because they’ve seen what you’re willing to do for your teams, your retention goes through the roof, you don’t have to worry about replacing people anymore. You don’t have to worry about these things, because you’re doing the right thing. And that goes so far, because that’s what we were talking about offline, doing the right things. Right. Like, yeah, that’s just what it is. You’re treating them like humans, not numbers.
Damon Pistulka 42:47
That’s incredible. Because I think you’re, I think you’re, you know, throughout this year, it’s gonna be really interesting to see the results you get, because I think this is going to those, those people that choose to do this, it’s going to make some tremendous difference in organizations.
Michael Padurano 43:04
enormous, enormous. And here’s the thing, the organizations that do this, I promise you, people talk. People talk they go to, they go to alumni things, they go to all these different things. You know, everybody talks? Who do you think you’re gonna be first on list to get new employees get top talent to get those companies? Because they invest into their people, they support their people, they show how they value their people. It’s a whole different game.
Damon Pistulka 43:41
It’s interesting hearing you talk about this, because I know there’s, there’s some people that are waking up, waking up, there’s business owners that I talked to, that are waking up about this, and I’ve got some, some friends of mine that work that have landscaping companies, they’re actually near where you live.
I am really impressed by how they work with their people, and how they really bring their team together and care about them as people and work with them. I’m encouraged by some of what I see, which is really good. I’m very encouraged by what you’re going to be doing with hopefully 10s of millions of people in our workforce. Because this is going to be big, and it’s going to help those people and allow them to be better leaders and, and in their organizations.
Michael Padurano 44:33
So we’re also and we’re also now working on creating one day events where we come to the corporate campus to wow so that we can bring it to them. one flat rate we come to them we go through a shortened version. Yeah, focus on a couple of the things and we introduce it to teams of 10 to 20 people at a time. And I think that is going to shift things to that’s going to make things a lot more accessible for people and really create a different dynamic for people to go home with.
Damon Pistulka 45:07
Well, Michael, it’s been awesome talking to you. It’s so just bringing this human connection to business, I think is, is, is really, it’s needed. The organizations that do it are going to benefit greatly from it, and the people that take the time to really invest in themselves and the people around them. It’s just, they’re gonna have better lives. And heck with business, they’re gonna have better lives. 1,000,000% And just thank you for being here today. I really enjoyed that.
Michael Padurano 45:43
Thank you for having me. I mean, I appreciate it. It’s awesome. It’s I had a blast. So yeah,
Damon Pistulka 45:47
good, good. Well, I want to say hello to Ronald Henderson. Payroll and in Maryland. He also is Knossos landscaping people are talking about and part of it part of a group that we meet every week, but Michael Potter Toronto. Yes, sir. With aligning teams, thank you so much for being here today. And I appreciate you. And we will be talking later when you start those events up in September. Want to hear how they’re turning out and what’s going on? So,
Michael Padurano 46:22
yes, and we’re gonna bring them to the West Coast also. Awesome.
Damon Pistulka 46:25
Very good. Very good. Well, thanks, everyone for being here today. We’re gonna wrap it up for now. Hold on, Michael. When we’re done. We’ll talk for a minute we’re done. And we will be back again next week.
Michael Padurano 46:37
Thank you so much.
