Episode Transcript
Welcome to the Owner to Owner podcast with your host, Jesse Tyler, part of the EO Podcast Network. It's great to have you with us. Appreciate the listeners. I'm Jesse Tyler. Welcome to the Owner to Owner podcast for the EO Podcast Network. The goal of this podcast is to have owner to owner discussions about a range of ownership, experience, and culture topics. To bring more insight into the individual ownership experience, I'd like to feature rank and file workers. The folks that are making selling. Delivering, fixing, designing a lot of the voices of ownership that you don't often hear without an opportunity like the Owner to Owner podcast. The most common word in ownership across large ESOPs and small is we, we are this and we are that. The part of the goal, cuz we are bound to hear, we through this conversation with Avid, is to. Here, the individual experience. So a broader goal of the podcast is somebody thinking of selling their company to their employees. Here's somebody on the podcast that reminds them. Of somebody that works for them now and they're like, Hey, that sounds like so-and-so. That's pretty cool. And maybe, maybe I can see it. So we're really trying to just have a little bit of fun and bring some new voices to the conversation. We've had thousands of listens. We, we have a growing audience, and so we just wanna have a little bit of fun along the way. So we're talking from four different facilities. So there is a reality, there's an imbued authenticity if we have any hiccups in the audio quality, but I want to. Put a big disclaimer more than I usually do because of what Avid does and what they're experts at. So I am owning, hosting this on teams that if there's any, any, any issues of the audio, we want the listeners to take that as authenticity and a talking between two busy companies. So I wanna get right into it. Aaron, could you introduce yourself and a little bit about what you do for Avid? Yeah. My name is Aaron Moberg. I'm a project manager at AVID Products. I've been here since last August, so I'm the newbie of the group As a project manager, I work with cross-functional teams to organize and expedite our project efforts. It's product development. I'm working on another project in operations. I've been in the EO space since 2014 and started volunteering with the New England chapter, the ESOP Association shortly thereafter. Uh, been the president for the last few years and wrap up my term in December of this year. Very nice. Thank you. Welcome to the podcast. Kara. Could you introduce yourself please? Sure. My name is Kara Turgeon. I'm a sales account executive here at Avid, and I've been here just over one year. So I work with the sales team. I cover the west region of the US and work with some of our top partners on a relationship building and. You know, distributing to our end users, the educators and the students via our resellers. And I also, you know, kind of cross function with. Product development and inventory and some of our other categories that just help bring the products together and to the students. Very nice. Could you, since you're with a sales reach, could you give sort of the elevator pitch, so Avid is amplifying your future. Could you tell for folks this is a first time hearing about your awesome esop. Give a little bit more about what you're known for, what you're experts at. Of course. So, We are very well known in the K-12 space as excellent providers of headsets, headphones and earbuds, connecting millions of students over the last eight or nine years that we've been really focused in the K-12 space. We also do work with the. Hotels and airlines and different verticals from that space as well. I personally am on the K-12 team, so I focus with just education and we just really focus on bringing quality audio at an accessible price to students no matter where they're at on their learning journey, whichever, you know, kind of community they are in, and the budget that they have access to with their schools and their programs. Awesome. Very helpful. Appreciate it. Jackie, welcome a board. Could you share a little bit about yourself as well, please? Sure. My name is Jackie Alameda. I am the logistics coordinator here at avid. I have worked here for just about eight years. Mostly as the logistics coordinator, I mostly do all post shipment issues such as, you know, missing damage shipments, billing issues, returns, all that fun stuff, which I actually love. I love puzzles. Yeah, that's great. I am also the current chairperson of our ESOP communications committee. Unfortunately, my tenure is up next month, so I will be missing that. And I did just wanna mention that Kara is also on our ESOP committee and she didn't give herself enough credit for that while she was speaking. Thanks, Jackie. That's great. That's great. Thank you. Welcome all of you. I, I think, uh, it's, it's great to have you aboard. So I wanna jump right in, Erin, go ahead. Gotta add too. And Jackie's our New England chapter, employee owner of the year. That is totally awesome. Yes. Thank you for remembering that, Erin. That's great. I was boarding that. I don't, she doesn't give herself enough credit. I know. It seems to be a trend. So three in a row, you all gave the person before you credit, so that's great. Conveys to the listeners, the, and your customers, the, the team spirit. So I think that's awesome. That's really cool. All right, very cool. So we got a nice mix of, of tenure experience and reach and recognition, which is super into ownership. Team participants. So Aaron, we'll start with you. I'd like to do the, the questions in a kind of a predictable cadence for our listener, and so you can hear a similar story from very different, different experience levels and tenures. How do you talk about employee ownership? When you're out in the world and you're not around your avid crew or your New England chapter that you've been president of, how do you talk about ownership to non-employee owners? I. I think it depends on the context. You know, a lot of times because it, it's a pretty complex thing with a lot of dimensions, and I'm kind of an ESOP nerd, so I can nerd out a little bit and sometimes. People just kind of want to hear about this or that aspect of it. So it, it's a technical mechanism so that everybody owns a piece and can benefit from the value that they build at the company that they work at. So that's kind of my one liner on it. That's great. And then if people want to talk about, you know, continuous improvement, there's that dimension, there's the sort of the technical aspects of how the trust works and things like that are, I think are really interesting. So kind of depends where it goes from there. But usually that's my lead in. Very nice. Appreciate you kicking this off. Kara. How do you talk about employee ownership when you're not around employee owners? So I think I focus a lot on the culture that the employee ownership really creates that team atmosphere. Everyone kind of cheering each other on. It's, it's different from. Privately held organizations where a lot of people maybe will get a task assigned to them, and it might be a, oh, that's, you know, hands off. That's not my responsibility. That's someone else that needs to do that. With employee ownership and with the mentality that we have here at avid, it's just, it's a very. Community based, everyone's helpful. And you know, whether it falls into their, like we all wear many hats. So whether it falls into what your general scope might be or not, like if you're available and you're able to help, it's going to happen. That's great. Jackie, what about for you? I've practiced, like, I've had to tell so many people over the years that I've kind of on top of the things that Kara mentioned, to break it down into like a very minimal. Thing to begin with. I usually say it's a different kind of retirement fund. And then once they ask more questions, I go from there and I explain how, you know, the share prices work and the valuation works and how us. Being a team, you know, being a team players and having a lot of teamwork that that's how our valuation comes out and that's how our company grows. Hmm, that's great. Yeah, I appreciate your, your sharing your insights. It's, it's interesting cuz is it culture, is it retirement? Is it both? Is it something in between? So it's always interesting cuz you know, we could talk again in, you know, a few months and after some, you know, different adventures and experiences, the same, same people could answer that very differently and still be. Correct. Like there's no wrong answer. What I've settled on after talking to thousands of people and speaking at a lot of conferences is that if you have a, a work quality and you have sort of a, a secure a sense of security, the day-to-day is very different. A bad day won't get you down. You can have a bad day, but it, you'll, you can bounce back more quickly if you know that there's an element of security and wealth building. So it's fun to hear how, how you share that and, and get that perspective so intentionally. The next round. I wanna bring it closer to home. Cause So you're out in the world, you're at, you're at the, you're at the Hannaford, you're at the grocery store, you're at the co-op, and you talked as you just shared. How is it, when, how do you talk about employee ownership with friends and family? If it's the same, that's fine. If it's different, I'd love to hear how Aaron, after years of employee ownership and having, uh, A somewhat unique experience of working at two different ESOPs. How do you talk about employee ownership around friends and family? I think those conversations usually focus a little bit more on the continuous improvement aspect, you know, which I know you and I have talked about over the years in different conversations as well, just cuz it's an integral piece and it's also one of those. You know, enduring things that when you look back, we can say, oh man, we, we really accomplished an awful lot over a period of years. You know, or something like that. But I, I think that's how the conversations focus, you know, kind of on those milestones. Nice, cool, cool. Things like that. And if people work, you know, folks, whether friends or family work at other ESOP companies, how transferable those experiences are, or if they don't, you know, how they translate to a non-employee owned environment is an interesting things to consider as well. That's great. Thank you, uh, Kara, how do you talk about employee ownership with friends and family? I think with them it's more of the difference between, you know, having the company stock and the ownership feeling of it. The shares that we earn, you know, each year, the vesting and the timeline on that as well. And just, Again, how it does to kind of drive your everyday decisions and thoughts and, and just how you feel in general. Like, like you had said a minute ago about how you, you feel just different about employee ownership as an everyday experience where it feels like day could. Make a difference and maybe I'm just still too new at only a year in, but I haven't really had any like bad days and I feel like it's just an extremely supportive team so that when you do have a bad day, or for me if I lose out on a sale or something like that, I have an amazingly supportive group to to lean on. Yeah, that's great. I think it's the best of, of the use of we, the most common word it seems to be in, in any ESOP as we is that there's also, there's some safety in there that, you know, if something doesn't go well, we are gonna get through it. Like, you know, my, our team is a little understaffed or struggling. We need your help. And there's no question about whether you get help back. So then it can shift a little bit. You can have a bumpy day, but you, you know, you can shake it off and there's nothing like a culture experience at work. When things get hard, you suddenly have all this support can be quite amazing. So I, I hear some of that in, in, in what you're sharing. Jackie, what about for you? How do you, how do you talk about it with friends and family? I'm gonna bring the family aspect into it because I also live and help with my family's. Produce farm. That's cool. And so I think it's really easy for them to understand, for the most part, the culture. Because we are a family. We are a small company at Avid, so we definitely get closer to each other than most, you know, most other companies that sometimes you may not even speak to somebody the entire time that you worked there. So you know, already knowing. How a family run businesses coming into Avid and us just feeling like a family is definitely, it feels like home and it's very helpful in the culture and it's. You know, they're at my family's understanding and it's been helpful having a great family to come into this like, like we are. That's great. And, and these, these are the kinds of insights that we wanna share with the listeners. People that are, you know, employee ownership, curious, or trying to, you know, Hear their own voices in other places. So you, you're all three of you're, this is the whole point of this podcast. So I appreciate your openness and your sharing that. So we'll start, Jackie, for you with the next question. How do you help new coworkers understand ownership? You, you've got eight years you've. Been recognized by the New England chapter as an exemplary owner. So you have somebody, you know, we had five people start this morning at Hypotherm Associates and, and we do the intro. If you were gonna help come over to Hypertherm and help do that, sort of that intro, what would you, what would you share with him? I can say that we have been blessed with an amazing crew over the years that we have compiled the most amazing slideshow, so that, that we always do an onboarding and it's just been so helpful because even with that, like we're still learning all the time about, you know, new things with the esop. So not only that, but you know, obviously there's lots of questions that they have to. They have, you know, asked, and to us, we've added onto our onboarding because we're like, oh, that's not something that we would've thought to put on there. So we've added that. Not only that, just, I mean, a lot of just the onboarding has just, you know, you just speak so much more. Than just what like the slideshow says, and it's just, it brings great conversations because you want to make sure that you are open with everything. I've just had some really good conversations with our new employee owners. Through that process, if that makes any sense. It does. It's, it's, these are open questions. They're not, none of these questions are very easy. So I just wanna also acknowledge that because it can be, you know, culture is something you can't explain. You can kind of outline a program. You can say, this is, we hope this is some of your reaction to it. But you can't tell culture. You have to let them. You know, kind of ease into it, trust and be open to it. So it, it makes it a hard question in a, in a way, almost a tricky question, not intended, but that, that can be, how do you, how do you describe culture in, in a succinct way? So, Kara, somebody, somebody new starts at Avid. And you're gonna be, you get tagged. Jackie says, Hey, could you talk to them about ownership? What would you say to your new coworkers about employee ownership? So, I mean, I would help answer any questions they may initially have about what exactly it means to now be an employee owner and earn shares of this company that they've just started working for. Right. But I think in my time so far that I've had with any new team members that have come on board, it's been more of a. An explanation of what our culture is and just that reassurance. I mean, I think when you start a new job, you hear the niceties of reach out anytime, always here to answer your questions, right? Like those are the things that we hear when we start a new job. But I like to make a point that it's actually different here. Like you can actually ask anybody questions and you won't get the feeling that you're bothering them. You know, they won't, excuse me, they won't put you off. They will actually just provide, you know, usually a short, quick answer. Very easy, and it really truly is just everyone pulling together to make it sure everyone feels welcome and kind of accepted into the family and just. As part of the team. That's great. Thank you for that. Aaron, what about for you? Yeah, I've, I've gotta echo and like, what, what Jackie and Kara said, and give a huge shout out to the avid onboarding team. I, I think everybody in the company set up a meeting like within my first few weeks or something like that, just to say hi, you know, and to get to know each other and stuff like that. And that's, and that's part of the program, you know, and it's, it like, It takes such a load off when you're, when you're starting to get your, you know, get acclimated into a new company and stuff like that, when, when folks take that upon themselves to reach out to you because, I mean, you know what I mean? You're, you're starting up and getting your bearings and all kind of stuff like that, and it's just a great way to get to know everybody. And I, it's probably the number one way that folks, you know, show that they care and that they're. Invested by, you know, just kind of that little thing, taking 15 or 20 minutes or half an hour or something like that to have a real genuine conversation and get to know each other and get started off on the right foot like that. So, I don't know. So that's, that's probably, that's the first thing I would try to do. Somebody comes on board, you know, just try to kind of pay it forward following those footsteps and kind of, you know, echo the message at, you know, what an employee owned company. What we're doing every day has meaning in a, in a variety of ways for our coworkers, you know, for our retirements and our families, for the customers that we're delivering value to. Stuff like that. Obviously every day's a little bit different, but you know, that seems like one of the threads that ties 'em together. That's great. That's great. After onboarding over 1500 people, what I've settled on is it, We, we respect. It's gonna take some getting used to. We hope it's a wonderful thing for you, but we expect it's gonna take some getting used to. Cuz people are often even in their first day, more so in the later cultural immersion and two day intensive. But even on their first day, people when they relax will say they've had some tough work experiences. That's often how we're all of us are able to find any talent now is unfortunately people leaving tough relationships or tough leader relationships are the biggest source of new talent for other companies and have kind of reduced it down to. If you know where and when to be tomorrow, and you think you, you've started to feel like you made a good choice, that's a win. You can come back tomorrow and double your tenure. Let's just have you go through. It's a big deal to start to leave a place and start again. So it's always fun to hear what guests have to share. All right, Jackie, I'm gonna ask you the big question. In ownership world, the big, big question, what does ownership mean to you? Geez, We're bringing it on heavy over here. You know, I, being an employee owner definitely makes you think a little bit more about your role at the company that you're working for, because you wanna make sure that everything you do is positive. So helping make changes that will. You know, positively reinforce everything to do with ESOP culture, helping us, you know, better our company in general so that we can grow our company. And so all of our all, you know, all of our statements grow. We just wanna make sure that everything is successful. And it makes me feel like I actually have a word. You know, somebody will actually listen to me when I make suggestions and stuff like that, where. Otherwise, you know, somebody like myself who is kind of behind the scenes sometimes gets not forgotten, but you know, seen as you know in the background where Avid, it doesn't matter where you stand it, they want to hear from you. They want to know how you're feeling, what you're thinking, and what your suggestions are. That's great. That's great. Kara, what does, uh, ownership mean to you? So I think it's a lot about having that vested stake in the business decisions, knowing that really every decision I make throughout the day doesn't just affect me. And, you know, My career and my pay, but it's the whole company. Everybody is included in that. You know, when I make a big sale, it's everybody that's cheering everybody on, you know? Or if I have a product need or you know, when I say, oh my gosh, Jackie, I, this customer needs. This product in their hands by the end of the week. What can you do to to make that happen? I know she's going to just break through any barrier she needs to and make sure that it's going to happen, so I just feel like there's a real level of transparency that we all really are cheering each other on, pushing towards the same goals. And speaking of the goals, you know, our c e O and co-employee owner is very transparent about the goals that we have, short-term, long-term. And again, it just helps you stay focused on where we're going, how we're going to get there. And it actually feels like we all have a chance of getting us there. We all play a, a role in that. That's fantastic. That's great. Thank you, Kara. Aaron, what are your thoughts? What does ownership mean to you? You've been pretty engaged for years and years, your second esop, what does it mean to you? I don't think I could probably add very much to what Kara and Jackie already said, to be honest with you. You know, to, to kind of go back to the onboarding question and the meaningfulness of what we do, you know, I, since my first day here, you know, I never wonder why I'm going to work in the morning. I always know I can explain it to my five-year-old son. You know, so like we're talking the same language about that. So, you know, and, and like Cara said, the transparency mm-hmm. I think is like an integral element of it. You know, we know why we're doing these things, why it's important to the company strategy, and, and there's that, there is that additional element to, you know, We're all working on it together for the sake of our own retirements and you know, long term and stuff like that. But it's also very clear the benefit that we're trying to provide for customers and potential customers, you know, up to years down the road with some solutions development and things like that. And then I think at the same time, You know, stuff that we've all worked on, that we're working on together now that, you know, in this podcast that you've done by creating a series out of it, what we've done in the New England chapter and things like that, to try to promote employee ownership so that it's an alternative, you know, form of ownership, you know, versus private or public, you know, the types of private or public ownership that's available to more people so that they can have the same experience as us. I think that's kind of the next layer out beyond that. So I think there are all sorts of meaning in those, in those things. That's great. I appreciate it from all three of you. So question I'll just throw out for anybody who's interested, you know, one or all is, you know, you mentioned positive, you mentioned kind of what I was hearing is kind of intensity. You have highly engaged people that are highly motivated. It makes being at work different. And what I like to explore a little bit is maybe some of the. Harder sides. It's very, it's great to have enthusiastic employee owners and I think part of the authenticity of insight is, you know, what's different working at an ESOP when things get hard? We have an undulating economy. There's tremors that we could be looking at a couple years that are gonna be hard, let alone. You know, a second half or whatever. Do you have any thoughts that you, you wanna share with our listeners of, you know, what's different about working at an employee-owned company when things get difficult versus maybe some prior work experiences? Does anything come to mind for any of you that you wanna share? So obviously we went, we dealt with Covid. Mm-hmm. And you know, that was kind of a scary time because before you know that all happened, we were really big in the airline and hotel industry and so that was really scary to have that all just go away. Luckily we did have. You know, our education headsets and we came out on top, but there's definitely, that was scary. You know, that could have gone in a different direction. But everyone did such an amazing job. The sales reps were on top of it. I think we had back orders for like a year and a half or two years. Like it. And it was just so exciting and going from what was felt like a really low, low and a scary time to being like on top of the world since, you know, it was the, like I said, I've been here for eight years, so I've seen, you know, how our share price has gone and every, and our profits and everything, and so I got to really watch us grow in so, Yeah, that's, it was scary. That's, and now it's just amazing. That's great. That's great. Erin or Kara, anything you wanna add to that? Just sort of the hard times comment. My thought was how we get through those harder times, it's by pulling together. Mm-hmm. So, I personally wasn't here when the Covid pandemic hit in 2020, but I've heard the stories. So our c e O had just come on board, you know, five or six months prior to the pandemic starting and. In the heat of it all, when there were more orders and more demand for headsets because students were learning from home and anywhere above the classrooms, he was jumping right in and he just told, you know, the person that was handling the K-12 sales at that time, like, just keep selling. I'll do the rest. He was great. Making sure orders were. Getting entered and getting fulfilled, and he, like, he jumped in as this new ceo. And that's just one of those examples. But I think even just as. We've had some personnel changes over the course of the last year. We might hit some of these bumps, but we just kind of reevaluate, pull in a little bit, see who can pick up what slack and push forward. That's great. That's great. Thanks for sharing that. Aaron, anything you wanna add? Really, just to echo Jackie and Kara again, to, to be honest, I, I think the, like the collaborative effort. You know that that's, that's part of the formula because we work with such great folks who are real subject matter experts. So, you know, I guess in the, in the project side, you know, because it's a cross-functional team, stuff like that, you know, if something comes up, you kind of think like who's the closest to that? And usually by going to that person, that gets you pretty close to a great solution to the problem because, They know their stuff, so that's great. Yeah. My wish is, you know, since you know, Jackie brought up Covid and, and it comes up intermittently in different conversations. I, my wish for Avid, my wish for any esop, any, any business is that people talk about it a little bit more. This has been, it's a unique time in history and we have gone through something and I'm not, I'm not touching on politics or, or, Any, yeah, just to think broadly. The human species has gone through something historic and for a lot of people, at the very least, it was deeply stressful. There was personal loss and other things, and my opinion as a kind of a culture, you know, steward is my concern as a human is that we're just turn the stadium lights on and we're just, we're trying to pretend that this major thing didn't happen or isn't still happening, depending on what your experience was. And so I, I hope for all of you that you get a chance to, how did you get through that? Because those kinds of stories, you know, Carers about, you know, the c e o and jumping in and doing anything that, that's the most beautiful way to, to convey the foundational values. You know, that sauce was there before the new c e o of the, you know, Kara joining a year ago. But if you can talk about some of those things and acknowledge that people have been through something major, it, it might be easier to look forward for some. But anyway, I, I digressed a little bit with a personal opinion, so I hope for all of you, you get a chance to talk about it a little bit more after this conversation. So I wanna bring us around and I'm gonna start with you, Aaron, so that you don't have to second both motions ahead of yours a third time. So this is just a little bit of fun. It's almost a, can you, but I wanted to ask, will you give me three words in this conversation today? If you only could do three words to describe employee ownership, what would you boil it down to? This is the one that I w I wished I could go last on. That's such a, that's tough question. Uh, I, if I had two more on deck, I would ask you if I could use continuous improvement as one. Yes. But since I don't, I might only be able to supply one more and take the easy out. Okay. Continuous improvement. To borrow from you belonging and I would say meaningfulness. Nice. Thanks Jackie. What are your three words if you can go there? Ah, God, this one's a tough one. I mean, teamwork definitely has to be one. I'm gonna steal one of our old, our old values. We had collaboration. That's definitely, and that just, not just with us, but with, you know, our customers and everything definitely is something that we need to, we think about all the time because they affect how, how we run. Mm-hmm. And, geez, killing me. I guess along the lines with teamwork, I would have to say, I'd have to go with family. Nice. That's great. It conveys a lot. And so part of, you know, I want to give something meaningful to the listeners. I want, I want to give you that platform to give something meaningful. But I guess, I'm not sure I've said it this way on a prior episode. It's hearing you find your way through trying to give three words is the most meaningful part for the listener. So I appreciate it. It's okay if it's a little bit of a challenge and a little bit of a struggle, but you finding your way through it is what resonates for our listeners. And so I appreciate that Kara. You get to go, this is probably an e a relief to go third on this one. Cause you can borrow from the prior two or second motions as error toy. That's funny because collaboration was one of my words. Okay. Uh, but I actually do also have three others that we can use. I was thinking of purpose. Nice. Community and transparency. That's great. Yeah, it's, it's sort of smiling, going back to the beginning of the conversation, the underlying, if there were subtitles, sort of like Woody Allen would have sort of humorous subtitles of what they're actually saying. I, what I was hearing from the three of you is working at an ESOP is pretty intense. And I hadn't quite really had it formed that way with, you know, prior episodes. So yeah, the transparency, the drive, the purpose, family collaboration, teamwork. That's great. I really appreciate the insights. So I wanted to just go right to your ownership culture. What is something that AVID does well that you are proud of, that you want to share? So part of this is just pride and amplifying. The other part is ESOPs tend to work fairly open source with each other to help each other out. So what's something that you're proud of but may actually help somebody else who's trying to build their culture to the level that AVID is at? Let's see, Kara, if you wanna go first, what's something that you feel large or small that AVID employee ownership culture does well that you can share out? What makes me the most proud, um, of being an avid employee owner is the way that we bring humanity to the experiences that we have. So whenever we are out in front of the customers working with our partners, our resellers, our distributors, we get a lot of feedback from them that they just enjoy talking to us. They enjoyed stopping at our booth at the trade show because we just talked to them. We were genuinely asking how their day was going. We truly just wanted to share our audio solutions with them and hear what the, the pain points are in a classroom setting. And the also feedback is that they love to see our smiles, right? We're, we're a group of happy individuals that are just excited to share. Our solutions and improve the everyday experiences in making those connections for the students, for the educators, for somebody in the health facility who needs some relaxing music for someone in the airline who's stuck on the plane for hours and needs earbuds to get through so they don't have to hear the person next to them. Like it's just constantly looking for ways to improve the human experience and. You keep saying how intense it feels. I think that's because as a group, we are very intensely. Looking to achieve that greatness, achieve those connections and that human experience. That's great. Thank you for sharing that. Yeah. Erin, what about for you? What's something that Avid does well in ownership culture you want to share out with the community? I'd really give a shout out to the onboarding program again. You know, last fall at the ESOP Association National Conference, Michael Bush, the c e o of Great Place to Work, was one of the keynote speakers and gave a really fascinating, engaging talk. And one of the things I'll always remember that he said was, if you don't have your onboarding program together, You're better off paying a new hire not to show up while you get it together than to have them show up and not have something good for 'em. And I think the AVID program was so great, you know, with all the learning material, especially with those engaging meetings with co-owners. Right off the bat, within the first, you know, couple of days or weeks, really set the tone and gets people started on the right foot. So if there was something that I would give a shout out to, and that's, you know, transferrable to other ESOP companies as well, the importance of the onboarding program, really doing it right and getting started on the right foot. That's great to share. I'm glad that that was your experience and that's a priority for you. That's a game changer for starting a career in the first days and the first month. That's awesome. And talking with you about it too, and the importance and everything that you put into it in the program and you know, knowing, you know, whether it's you, you never get a second chance to make a first impression or anything like, you know, that goes as much into it as well. Yeah, the, the one, the loneliest moments in a job transition process is after you accept your offer and then you don't hear anything for days or a week or more. That can be the loneliest. Even, you know, you like, I just quit, I just accepted. And so the onboarding starts, you know, kind of almost before the offer email is fully, you know, the accepted offer is read, like that's go time, and those sort, you know, having those things in mind. So it's, that's great. That's a priority. Jackie, what about for you? What's something. For ownership culture that your ownership team does that you wanna share out? So even though I obviously am a part of the ESOP communications committee, I have two people that was the person prior, and the person now who have put out newsletters who are the main person to put out the newsletters, and that is, you know, Stephanie and Liz and. First of all, they've both done, they both do amazing jobs with our newsletter, and I feel like that is one of the biggest suggestions I would have. For other companies to put out newsletters. Not only do we put stuff about our own company, but we put stuff about other ESOPs and I've learned so much about other ESOPs and you know, companies I didn't even know were ESOPs. Because of this newsletter and because of things that I've looked up myself to help out with the newsletter, and there's a lot of information that, you know, it does involve our company that other people, and I will say like our warehouse staff and our accounting staff don't see a lot of, mm-hmm. Because they're not on the front lines that they can go into our newsletter and they were like, oh look, we have a new headset coming out and stuff like that. So it's really good information for people who might not. Be right on like the front lines. That's great. Yeah. In reaching into production, reaching into different buildings, reaching into different shifts, that sounds like it's been really effective for you. That's great. And, uh, amplifying other ESOPs. It's, it's an interesting, so that associates have a comparison point, so I really appreciate your, you're sharing that. So to start with you Jackie, and then you guys can shake this one off if you haven't had the moment. But I have, I have two questions left in our time is if you had an EO aha moment when ownership. You were like, this is really gonna be a big deal if you had a moment that you're willing to share, and then we'll finish with an opportunity for you, you know, what do you want to amplify about Abbot products and why a listener should come join you as a coworker. So those are, those are what we have left. So, Jackie, for you, did you, so I'm trying to ask this in a more fair way. Have you had an EO Aha moment where you just thought, wow, this ownership thing's gonna be a big deal? Have you had one? I will tell you that, you know, obviously when I started eight years ago, we were only 50% esop and we didn't even have a communications committee at that point, but we, it was Chatter and we do an annual event where right before we get our statements, we do guess the share price. So that kind of pumped you up for it. And then, you know, the first year your statement is just kind of pretty much blank and you're like, okay. But that second year that there's actually. Something on your statement, you're like, oh my God, okay. You're like, okay, this, this is what it is. Yeah. So that was definitely like an aha moment. Like that's, I mean, there's been, and honestly there's not just financially, but when I became part of the ESOP committee back in 2020, I learned so much more. So even more so was probably another aha moment about, you know, What really goes on behind the scenes with committees and with the conferences. That's great. Thanks for sharing those. Kara, have you had an. Oh aha moment. And if so, would you share it? So, I haven't experienced my first real statement yet, so I don't think that I've had a true aha moment yet. But I do want to say this past January we had sort of like a. Sales kickoff meeting, but it brought together the whole sales team and our product development team, our director of marketing, customer service. I mean, it just brought together really a lot of, or, or all of the, the departments and everybody had a fair chance to talk. During the two days of meetings, there was a lot of idea sharing. There was, if this won't work, maybe this, maybe we could try it this way. You know, there was just a lot of collaboration and, and everybody had that fair chance to talk and that's not something I've experienced before in past. Companies that were not employee owned companies. So that for me was really like, okay, this is different. That's wonderful. Yeah. It's, you can want your voice to matter, but if you look around and realize it does that, that sounds like mm-hmm. You just, your, your face lighting up when you're describing it. That's, yeah. That's wonderful. Erin, have you had an employee ownership aha moment, and if so, would you share it? Yeah, mine hit me kind of early on going to Web Industries Plant in Hartford in the fall of 2014, and it was on their ESOP day where they shut the plant down to talk about projects that they've worked on over the past year, promote employee ownership, talk about ideas big and small, you know, within cross-functional groups and then together as a big group. And I'd say it was amongst that big aha moment. There were several aha moments that made it up. One of 'em was that they cataloged, um, all the ideas that their employee owners came up with and implemented over the last year. Mm-hmm. And it was like an Excel table format, 12 point font, and it took up like a whole wall. And it's just like, like literal, like Yeah. It's unbelievably, you know, like, like visually it just hits you, you know what I mean? Because you can't even read 'em until you get up close. There's so many, and that's, they make it a part of normal work. And so that, that was just how, how folks implement. So many process improvement ideas like that really blew me away. That was one of 'em. Another one was listening to the cross-functional teams talk about their ideas and whether it was, and it brought groups of pro, probably a dozen folks, or say, I would say it was probably about the average size the. The depth that they spoke about. Not just the depth, but also like the passion that they had for the things that they were making, whether it was wire and cable or medical devices, you know, test devices, you know, before covid it didn't have the same, you know, kind of meaning with the global pandemic. Then as, as has happened over the past several years, The airplane parts that they make outta specialized materials. It was just fascinating and they were so into it. And you know, some people talked a little bit more in the meetings and some people kind of sat back and talked a little bit less. And sometimes folks would ask the quieter folks for their opinion and they would give it. It's, it seemed like everybody was just being themselves, you know? But it clearly made up these like, you know, these really highly effective teams. So those were two of the. Individual aha moments that made up the bigger one. That's great. That's great. I appreciate you sharing those. All right. So I wanna just do a, uh, a quick final round, so, uh, you can certainly start, Aaron, why should somebody listening join you at Avid products as the, as it gets harder to hire, this is an intentional giving you each the microphone to help your, your talent acquisition manager. A couple quick words from Aaron Moberg on why listeners should join you at. At Avid. Go for it. I mean, we have an outstanding team that's delivering on our mission, so folks want to be part of something really special. And work with some awesome people. They should come and work with us. Super. Jackie, can you add to that? I will, and I'm gonna let my weird out right now, but I am definitely an oddball. I will, I have no, I, I don't care. And the everyone at Avid just lets me be myself. And that's just, I think it's one of the reasons why I've just stayed so long, cuz they're just like, it's just Jackie and she's silly. That's great. That's great. That's great. So you can be your genuine self. Absolutely. It's a wonderful thing in a workplace. Kara, what about for you? I would echo the same thing that they both just said. Just amazing group of people. Very accepting, very fun. We work hard, we play hard, and we're just, Driving to accomplish our mission of helping people in many, many aspects of however that looks through providing audio solutions and yeah, it's a great group. That's great. That's great. It comes through from all of you. That's that's what I like to finish there, so I really appreciate the time to have the three of you very busy company. Take the time to kind of reflect a little bit, be open. Share a little bit about your company and yourselves. We do really appreciate it. The listeners appreciate it. So again, this is Jesse Tyler with the Owner to Owner podcast for the EO Podcast Network. We appreciate any patients needed. If there are any audio issues from my end, uh, recording this and we look for Avid out there in the ESOP land and thriving and helping schools, and helping communities, and again, we really appreciate the listeners. Thanks very much. We'd love to hear from you. You can find us on Facebook at EO Podcast Network and on Twitter at ESOP podcast. This podcast has been produced by Brett Keesling for the EO Podcast Network. Original music composed by Max Keesling, branding and Marketing by Bitsy Plus Design. And I'm Bitsy McCann.
