America's Jobs Team: Recent Episodes
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For economic developers, by economic developers. The America’s Jobs Team podcast highlights professionals in the field sharing trends, innovation, collaboration and industry shifts, and regularly features the leadership development advice we all need to keep elevating economic developers nationwide.
“There was never a night or a problem that could defeat sunrise or hope.” – Bernard Williams
Schools are back in session and what better way to kick off a new school year than with an America’s Jobs Team episode that focuses on toolkits, data, inclusion, equity, and plenty of activity!
What tools do you have in your toolkit to help your community and/or region showcase what resources are available to them? And are you maximizing the opportunity of what you are given? Peter Frosch, President and CEO of GREATER MSP, is creative by nature with a passion to build coalitions and tackle problems. He highlights how the GREATER MSP website works to build and explain a problem through their American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Tracker. The Tracker shares “how 17 cities and 12 counties have committed the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund dollars in its first year.”
Part of taking those steps and leaps through challenges and careers is having some courage and knowing how to manage your energy through the process. Peter and Carla also talk about what he wants to be most remembered for: his courage to run at problems with everything he has. It’s about the actions defining the change within the process.
This episode is jam-packed with insights and you’ll have to tune in to the latest and greatest episode to hear more from Peter Frosch. You can find today’s episode on our website, via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.
“When you speak to companies about attracting and retaining talent, we often say that you can find a diverse workforce, and you can scale in the Toronto region. You can find your talent here and as hopefully the company continues to grow and be successful, you can find people here to do that.” -Michael Keoshkerian […]
“You get to see the community change daily. Myself and my staff get to impact the community whether it’s working with our commission or working with state leaders.” –Cal Wray What is your region and community best known for? When you first hear Augusta, Georgia, your mind may automatically resort to the iconic Master’s tournament. […]
“We exist to ultimately drive forward strategic initiatives, diversify the economy, and to raise the quality of living for everyone. We’re trying to make peoples lives better in our community.” -Danielle Casey How did you first get involved in economic development? Danielle Casey’s unconventional path towards this industry came about after her previous experience in […]
Development is about transforming the lives of people, not just transforming economies. – Joseph E. Stiglitz What would you say your purpose is within economic development? For Desa Burton, changing the lives of those within her community through job opportunities has been the focus of her organization. Zip Code Wilmington focuses on providing quality software […]
“Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.” – Henry Ford What would you say your economic development superpower is? Jason Giulietti describes his as the power of team, and he takes pride in playing a leadership role on his. Currently serving as President at Greater San Marcos Partnership, Jason […]
“Economic development is all about connecting, networking, and relationships.” -Christina Frank Have you ever considered taking a leap of faith in your career? For Christina Frank, economic development wasn’t quite in her sights as she began her career in social work after college. Despite her untraditional path towards economic development, this “leap of faith” has […]
“The ultimate resource in economic development is people. It is people, not capital or raw materials that develop an economy.” – Peter Drucker What began as a small two-page business plan has developed into something spectacular. Jennifer Owens CEcD, President of Lakeshore Advantage, joins Carla Sones on America’s Job Team Podcast. She reflects on her […]
“Economic development is a great profession. It’s one where you do make lifetime friends” – Jim Staton Have you ever built a long-lasting friendship through a working relationship? Carla Sones welcomes in good friends Chris Schastok and Jim Staton to share their experiences and how they met through economic development. Chris Schastok, Executive Vice President […]
“Trust is something that is built. Everybody has to come to the table being willing to bring their best to an event but also be prepared to flex in and out of roles.” – Carla Sones When you bring site consultants or others into your community, what is your why? Why are you doing this […]
“I’m obsessed with giving the audience something they don’t see coming.” —Jordan Peele Economic development is heavily focused on relationship building. And with relationship building comes event after event. Here at Consultant Connect we often get asked, how do you find the cool and memorable venues and moments that make all the difference? In this […]
“Great thing take years to build.” —Sam Juraschka In economic development, the pace of work can be grueling. Because we’re often operating in a short-term mindset due to full project pipelines and shorter timelines on projects, it can feel counter-intuitive to stop and think about the long term strategy of your organizations work. What are […]
Amazon has created more jobs in America in the last decade than any other company. With such a level of job growth, it’s only natural that the company has built an internal economic development team with its own strategy around doing developmental project work. How does economic development strategy differ when operating on behalf of […]
“It is not so much about what life hands you, but what you do with what you get.” –Idowu Koyenikan Sometimes lessons are learned the hard way, and those tend to be the lessons that shape our leadership habits from that point forward. Whether it’s a lesson from a time where we assumed we knew […]
“The world is messy. There are ambiguities. People who do really good stuff have flaws.” –Barack Obama Few words in society these days illicit as much emotion as the phrase “cancel culture.” With its roots of originating as a tool for marginalized communities to assert their values against public wrong-doings, cancel culture in many ways […]
“In an age where everything and everyone is linked through networks of glass and air, no one is an island. One thing is for sure: no organization can succeed in a world that is failing.” –Don Tapscott Creating growth and prosperity in our communities is work that has to be done alongside others. When economic […]
“Economic development is a team sport. We are only successful when we can work with, collaborate, empower and guide others in a common direction.” –Jonas Peterson Despite significant hurdles like ever-increasing costs of materials, labor shortages and supply chain challenges, the project pipelines have been overflowing the last few years. While most communities have experienced […]
“There is immense power when a group of people with similar interests gets together to work toward the same goals.” –Idowu Koyenikan You’ve undoubtedly seen those articles with “Best Places to…” or “Top Metro for…” lists. Maybe your community was on the list. Maybe you aspire to be on such a list. But what is […]
“The ultimate form of intrinsic motivation is when a habit becomes part of your identity. It’s one thing to say I’m the type of person who wants this. It’s something very different to say I’m the type of person who is this.” –James Clear How can you create productive habits to sustain your energy and […]
“We think that powering through the grind builds our capacity more over time when really it has the opposite effect: it leads to burnout.” –Gretchen Slenk
Did you decide to create some new habits as part of a resolution for 2022? Now that it’s mid-February, are you still sticking strong to your intention? If you have found yourself in the “Never mind this, I give up” camp, don’t be too hard on yourself. The science behind creating new habits can be a little tricky. These aspirational new habits are set with hopes to have it impact the trajectory toward a goal. But often we misstep and choose a new habit based on time or stress management, when in reality we need to be looking at energy management to choose our habits.
The habits we have are either supportive of optimal energy or deplete the well. Energy stems from several wellsprings, with four being shown on this grid. How do your current habits support or deplete each well?
Faye Davis is joined today by Gretchen Slenk to dive into all things energy, including energy rhythms, wellsprings, and crises. Gretchen is a director at Southwest Michigan First, where she specializes in areas of strengths-based leadership development programming, human behavior, habits, emotional intelligence, and professional resilience. Gretchen shares examples of why energy should be top of mind, how to feed the wellsprings (see the quadrant image to the left), and what leaders can do to navigate the natural inconsistencies in energy flow (aka ultradian rhythms).
As leaders, we often think that continually adding stress will strengthen the physical stress response system, creating an ability to handle even more stress. But this avenue of operating will actually wear down the capacity to handle stress, leading to people being triggered more easily and frequently. The idea of focusing on energy is to build habits to optimize energy. Listen in to Gretchen and Faye’s conversation now to hear more. You can listen on our website, via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts!
America’s Jobs Team is sponsored by Research on Investment / Gazelle.ai