Hiring for Good is a podcast exploring the transformative power of leadership and what happens when the right person takes the job. Thank you for tuning in to this episode with our guest Calvin Walsh- CEO and Founder of Unity Foods.
About Calvin Walsh: After graduating from the University of California, San Diego with a degree in Political Science, Calvin worked for many different candidates and elected officials from City Council to Congressional Representatives on political issues, elections, and legislative policy in many different States. In 2012 he founded Unity Foods LLC, an Oregon-based food distribution business that focuses on delivering the world’s best foodservice products to independent restaurants in the Pacific Northwest. Committed to social and economic equality, Calvin volunteers his time to many different local and national organizations. Calvin Walsh’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/calvinrwalsh/
About Unity Foods: Unity Foods, a premier broadline foodservice company proudly serving the picturesque landscapes of Oregon and Washington State. Established in 2012, our roots run deep in the Pacific Northwest, and our commitment to excellence extends across every corner of these vibrant regions. With a keen focus on logistics, Unity Foods ensures timely and efficient distribution of a diverse range of culinary essentials. Unity Food’s Website: https://www.unityfoodspdx.com
Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/288s2urueV7xjlsFoYW8QN
Podcast on Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hiring-for-good-podcast/id1725208602
Tanis Morris: Director of Business Development at Acumen Executive Search Email: tanis@acumenexecutivesearch.com
Suzanne Hanifin: President at Acumen Executive Search Email: suzanne@acumenexecutivesearch.com
Acumen Executive Search Website: https://www.acumenexecutivesearch.com/
Acumen Executive Search is the leading certified woman-owned Executive Search and advisory Firm on the West Coast.
Hiring for Good Transcript
0:00 well good morning I’m Tanis Morris with Acumen Executive Search here as usual with my lovely co-host Suzanne Hanifin
0:07 good morning Tanis hi and uh thanks for being at Hiring for Good uh today we have
0:13 a very exciting guest I am proud to introduce Calvin Walsh of Unity Foods so
0:19 uh before we launch into the interview Calvin I’m just going to give a little bit of background so Calvin began his
0:24 career in politics working on campaigns of all sizes throughout the United States an entrepreneur at heart Calvin
0:31 launched Unity Foods in 2012 after identifying a supply chain gap in the food cart industry we’ll talk much more
0:38 about this but uh his business has scaled significantly from those days currently focused on delivering the
0:44 world’s best food service products to independent restaurants in the Pacific Northwest Unity Foods has experienced
0:51 exponential growth over the last 12 years Calvin has gone on to found other companies he’s a huge supporter of
0:57 emerging businesses and business leaders and entrepreneurs and he’s an active and engaged community member who volunteers
1:04 on boards and for local and National causes he believes in including the environment social justice and economic
1:11 equality Calvin w..welcome to Hiring for Good thank you for having me you’re so welcome it’s really a pleasure to have
1:17 you here so we typically start out by asking our guests to kind of you know I know I gave a little bit of background
1:24 there but we would just love to hear your story uh you can start from whatever point you wish um you know kind
1:31 of how you got to where you are now yeah I’d love to do that so I um even before
1:36 graduating from college I started running political campaigns um kind of fell into that and enjoyed it uh did it
1:44 uh all over started in California and kind of bounced back and forth between the West and the East Coast uh but knew
1:50 I wanted to start my own business at some point and um I I was uh I grew up
1:56 and was born in Vancouver Washington so I moved back to Portland and started
2:01 Unity Solar which I thought was going to be the future uh solar panel installation and it went out of business
2:07 in my first year and there was a lot of reasons for that uh there was it was a tough market um the there was we were
2:14 still coming off the 2008 financial crisis and uh we had trouble getting lending for individual residential solar
2:22 panels and uh the biggest thing was I just didn’t know what I was doing and so that can make that can make
2:29 it tough yeah yeah and so that was a learning learning lesson for me and I had to go back to the drawing board and
2:34 I was the cliche entrepreneur I worked at a bar I poured drinks at night I woke up early in the morning and I was just
2:40 writing business plans and trying to figure out what do I want to do and uh I started to get a little you know
2:46 frustrated with the situation that I was in and so I uh I thought I’m just going to open a food card of my own and I make
2:53 pretty mean sandwich this is what I can do and I’ll just do that figure out you know what real business I want want to
3:00 do and sell the food cart and move forward so I started talking to food cart owners in downtown Portland what
3:05 did they like what did they not like um and uh this reoccurring theme kept coming up that they they had to get up
3:12 early they had to drive to three or four different uh uh uh not restaurants but grocery stores grocery stores yeah you
3:19 name it right they had to go to tons of different places and that just added to their day and made it more difficult and
3:24 I knew nothing about the industry and said why don’t you just call a food distributor and have it delivered and
3:29 they all said well we’re too small the big guys won’t work with us and I thought there’s 2,000 registered food
3:35 carts in the Portland metro area and no one servicing you this is a blue ocean this is this is something that I need to
3:41 go into I’m not going to open a sandwich shop I’m going to sell to these people and so that’s what I did I I I got a a a
3:48 van uh refrigerated van um and just found connections and uh I found a
3:55 redistributor that did poultry and fresh meats and it’s just started with selling
4:00 that and have seen tremendous growth since then wow that’s amazing and and
4:05 again going from politics to solar failed solar company to Unity Foods
4:13 finding this Niche, it’s all about timing and kind of being in the right place at the right time but let’s kind of talk
4:21 because I wanted to back up about the Solar Company yeah um what it’s hard to
4:27 say I it didn’t work out it failed kind of tell us kind of more about
4:34 that it it is difficult um it’s difficult to do that it was difficult
4:39 for me to realize that that was happening at the time um you know I I part of the reason I got into I got into
4:46 some real trouble after that financially was I didn’t I refuse to see it coming
4:51 um I I I I never said oh this is going to happen I always thought I’m going to
4:57 find a way to make this work and uh so it wasn’t like a slow ending it was a an
5:02 explosion a crash you know like um and that was that was difficult for me to to
5:09 to realize um and that was a good learning lesson that I always hold and
5:14 keep on to because I I don’t my fear is that that would happen again that this
5:19 ending is coming and I you know I am refusing to see it um so that’s kind of
5:25 the challenge the teetering challenge that I have is to understand that history that happened but at the same
5:31 time don’t let that fear you know block me from reaching further than you know
5:37 something small I want to continue to push yeah thanks for for expanding on that because we’ve talked about in the
5:43 past in other podcasts about the learnings of failing and how important
5:49 it is but I’m sure you’ve had other real formative periods beyond that can you
5:55 share with us that really shaped who you are as a leader today sure um there’s
6:01 there’s a couple they come in stages and the nice thing is uh you can handle the problems that you can handle and once
6:08 you grow and learn from that then you can handle greater problems and so uh my first one that I had to really contend
6:15 with was hiring my first uh the first person to work in my company and um that
6:21 was that was difficult for me um you know it was something that maybe was passed down from my
6:28 grandfather and my father uh my grandfather had a company and he never hired anyone because no one could do it
6:33 as good as him and uh that was that was my first challenge that was the challenge that I had to overcome uh that
6:41 you have to just you know get over that and say you know what I’m going to hire the best that I can and that’s an
6:47 interesting skill set to learn that you don’t think about when you’re thinking about starting your your company is how
6:54 do I hire how do I how do I interview how do I do these things um so my my
7:00 first person was was a a difficult challenge that I had to overcome and then um I started bringing people in
7:06 that I knew and trusted friends family that kind of thing and so growing from really two employees to four employees
7:12 was also a learning experience for me um I had to become the boss right and now
7:20 my role is changing and I’m hiring people that are not necessarily my friends but even managing friends is
7:25 difficult as well um so as the company continued to grow so I had to continue
7:31 to grow myself and learn new skill sets and figure out how to do these things well what are some of those learnings
7:37 because we do talk to entrepreneurs and it is hard to say you know I started
7:43 this organization it’s mine I do it better than anybody else what are those learnings you know
7:50 share with others how you were able to overcome it and sure um the the most important thing
7:58 that I found really is spending uh adequate time upfront making sure that
8:04 that the person you’re going to bring on is is the correct person right because I think sometimes we’re in too much of a
8:10 rush or we have a need and we just want to fill that need and um making sure
8:16 that you have the right person to work with is is crucially important um and I’m I’m a firm believer of hiring the
8:23 right people no matter what so if you don’t have a position available something will open up if you have the
8:29 right person this is what you need right and c..can you expand I didn’t mean to interrupt you but like would you expand
8:35 on what makes someone the right person for for your like in your mind is it just skill set or what else no I mean
8:43 it’s definitely not just skill sets right um skills can be taught and learn it’s the ability to uh the desire to
8:50 want to to do something really great um and you know it’s really funny I I there
8:55 was a chef in a restaurant uh in Hillsboro that uh he said something that I always thought was really nice he was
9:01 he was he was coaching somebody um that was cutting chicken and he was like you know even if even if you’re just cutting
9:07 chicken for eight hours a day you could be the best chicken cutter that’s out there right and that’s what it it’s that
9:12 kind of mentality and that mindset that you know yeah we we we we have to work
9:18 to support ourselves and do what we’re doing but while you’re at work are you know are you going to be fully plugged in and do you want does this person does
9:26 this individual have the desire to grow their skills to to to continue to learn do they do
9:32 they have ambition to go beyond the job that you’re necessarily hiring them for and that’s a key thing that I’m looking
9:39 for uh in that role the other thing that I I always always ask an important part
9:45 of an interview process for me is I ask someone tell me something in your
9:51 professional career that you’re not proud of and I think that’s a crucial question to get to to find the substance
9:59 of what someone is mmhm right um surprisingly there are people who say I there’s nothing that I’m not proud of
10:06 and you know it’s like okay maybe you lack you know the the the ability to um
10:12 you know evaluate yourself or something like that but you know depending on what it is that people give that gives you a
10:18 good starting point to find out what kind of character somebody has um and like we were talking about before the
10:24 ability to fail forward is something that is absolutely essential with with
10:30 you know anyone in our organization um you have to be able to stretch further
10:37 and further and further and you will make mistakes and you you know and then how do you handle that right it’s it’s
10:42 not the end of the world how do you grow from that so that’s a question that I ask in an interview and I want to hear I
10:50 was stretching beyond my means in some capacity uh this is my failure point
10:55 this is why I was not happy with it this is where I grew from and so these are the kind of things that I’m looking for
11:01 in those kind of roles to find the right people well I I think this is fascinating you know because I I we we
11:08 also know each other outside of this podcast and I know I know about the the
11:13 growth that your company has experienced so this is interesting that um you have
11:18 such expansive thinking as kind of one of your core values it sounds like you’ve also made that part of the the
11:26 spirit of your team or your company ethos and I’m sure that that’s lent itself to
11:32 to the kind of growth that you’ve experienced which you can talk more about but are there other sort of
11:37 fundamental core values you hold uh personally that you feel have helped
11:44 define Unity Foods yes uh I mean there’s a couple um you know the the the the one that seems
11:52 cliched is honesty and integrity we really believe that right it’s shocking how um that such of unique and different
12:00 thing and in food distribution or in business in general like just doing what you say you’re going to do and not lying
12:07 but um but that’s that it seems revolutionary it’s a
12:12 revolution that what a novel idea right I mean just sounds great yeah so I mean
12:18 but that’s that that’s it we start with that right at a very like the basic level we’re going to have high integrity
12:25 we’re going to do our job we’re going to make sure that we do it correctly those kind of things um that translates to
12:31 high customer service high customer satis..satisfaction um and that’s a quality that everyone shooting for but
12:38 you need to hit the underlying the base right that you that you’re you’re going to just be somebody with integrity and
12:44 you’re going to tell the truth so there is that um the the the continual push
12:51 the desire to to do more be be better we need that in in an organization that you
12:56 know has has a a double digit to doubling in size every year year over
13:01 year um the what you’re doing when you’re hired is not going to be what you’re doing a year from now um you’re
13:08 going you know there’s there’s true dynamic changes and growth so somebody who can roll with that um is okay with
13:15 change um is okay with failure as long as you learn from it those are things that are core values for the team that
13:22 we have um and then the next is uh environmental stewardship and that’s
13:28 something that is a passion of mine that translates to a passion to the entire organization and so uh and in the very
13:36 beginnings of setting up the company I had to really think about how can I how can I do this in in the most um
13:42 environmentally friendly way I want to reduce our carbon footprints mmhm and it’s kind of funny that a guy who started a
13:48 solar panel installation business jumped into one of the
13:53 dirtiest UHS right I mean we not only haul around trucks everywhere but they’re
14:00 heavy uh and then they have a a reefer unit on there that keeps the inside of
14:06 the truck extremely cold so there’s a lot of diesel usage um but I went into
14:11 that knowing that you know hey this is this is what this is the way that we move products this is thing how things
14:16 have to do and how can I make improvements on that and uh we I wanted to go full electric right away um the
14:24 technology is not quite there and it’s not quite there specifically with our industry
14:29 because we have refrigerated trucks and um and they just don’t have uh there’s
14:36 not a manufacturer right now who makes a refrigerated uh uh unit that can tied
14:42 into a battery-powered electric truck, they just don’t have it even when they
14:48 do get that uh there will be significant issues with range of how far those
14:54 trucks can go so I knew that kind of going in and I thought I’m going to set up my company to be built so that when
15:01 the technology is ready we will be ready to do that and so what we did is we’re beginning a hub and spoke model right so
15:07 we have a large hub in Portland Oregon which is where our major warehouse is is
15:12 where we inventory everything most of the staff is here and then we have spokes that we’re are are popping up in
15:18 different areas in Seattle, Bend, TriCities, Eugene, you know as we continue to grow out there when we do have when the
15:25 technology is there to get those electric trucks those spokes will have that you know we’ll have limited range
15:32 and we’ll have all these spokes that just can pop up so it extends what we could do if we were just in one place um
15:40 to be able to make that happen and so those are like the changes that are kind of needed for people um in the
15:47 organization you have to be okay with this because this is the vision we’re going towards and it’s going to be really bumpy along the way yeah and you
15:54 mentioned earlier you know early on you hired friends and family which which is so hard I I will tell you one of my
16:01 biggest lessons is firing my own son because again he was in high school and
16:07 I thought oh I have this project this is going to be great coming three no shows
16:13 and I was like dude but that is hard you know so how I
16:19 wouldn’t recommend it yeah yeah absolutely not Learning lesson for me no no no and we still talk about it every
16:24 once in a while of yeah Mom fired me yeah but um but how do you kind of go about building
16:31 your teams and you talked about the importance of interviewing but what other aspects especially when it comes
16:38 to your values that you incorporate into building teams well I mean it it really a lot of
16:46 it’s role dependent right so uh we there there is there’s um there’s a lot of
16:52 manual labor side of what we do as well so there’s people in a warehouse picking things there’s um um people driving
17:00 trucks around um so for that type of for those kind of jobs um what we’re really
17:07 looking for is someone who’s going to be committed and show up on time but we also talk a lot about safety and we try
17:13 to make sure that you know that in in what we’re doing uh we’re
17:18 communicating what the things that people are moving I
17:24 mean you’re moving a forklift maybe it’s hauling 5,000 pounds of product on it and when you’re on a forklift it feels
17:31 really light but it’s not and accidents can happen and when they are accidents
17:36 they’re normally not small accidents they’re catastrophic accidents the same thing with trucks right maybe it feels
17:41 like it’s a car but it’s a 26,000 PB truck that if there is an accident it
17:49 can be catastrophic so for these type of roles really you know someone who understand who has the the understanding
17:56 that okay what I’m doing is is is dangerous potentially dangerous and has you know uh the the ability to follow
18:05 the the safety standards that we have put in place mmhm um when we are looking for someone in more of a sales role uh a
18:13 purchasing type role operational management type role there’s a different
18:18 thing that we’re looking for safety is still important but uh when you’re in an office you know we’re talking about
18:24 different uh um potential problems on that side um there we’re looking for someone who
18:30 has a little we we want vision right we want someone who can stretch we want
18:37 someone who’s okay with failure that that that can learn from it um we need someone who’s okay with with dynamic
18:44 change and and and can roll with it right um but the most important thing
18:49 for me and for building my team is not pigeon ho holding people into something
18:56 or making them act a certain way or whatever right uh I’m a firm believer
19:01 that what a business is any business it’s not the walls it’s not the boxes it’s not our trucks it is the people
19:07 inside of it and we want a diverse group of people with a very diverse group of
19:14 ideas uh working together in in a very you know uh um in a way that uh is
19:21 respectful um and uh there’s a lot of collaboration and so uh we encourage
19:27 people to bring their own personalities to bring their own things uh I don’t want a whole bunch of people like me
19:33 that would be the worst company I could imagine right I want this big diverse group pool of people that have all these
19:40 different ideas and that’s when you get you know those crazy ideas those wacky things that turn out to work really well
19:48 and then you can start to see really uh positive changes and and moving in the right direction and with a big diverse
19:54 group of people working together you also get uh protection an insulation from uh bubble thinking or moving down
20:02 the wrong direction or you know making some mistakes you you get a a good feedback so we always are we have big
20:10 team meetings and we talk and we talk and we talk and there’s a lot that we do together and doubling o year-over-year
20:17 That’s substantial how are you managing that both on a personal level because
20:23 again that’s that’s a lot how are you managing it all well I I mean
20:29 you know it’s fun uh there’s they they always say there’s two reasons that businesses
20:35 don’t make it and one is not an op..business and the other’s too much business and I never thought that that
20:41 was real until I was you know kind of in the throngs of it and I thought oh yeah I could see how this would happen
20:47 um I’m I’m I’m really lucky I I attribute you know most of my success is to just dumb luck and a great team
20:54 around me um but uh one of the things that happened that that has been a driver for that was um there was a large
21:04 uh broadline distribution company um it was called Food Services of America it was a great company um and they sold to
21:12 one of the national broadline companies out there um and it was it was really too bad uh because there is uh now it’s
21:21 it’s close to a monopoly there’s really only two broadline companies for everyone in the Pacific Northwest
21:26 there’s not much choice um when that happened I knew that there were going to be big changes there are uh independent
21:34 restaurants there are people uh there are large chains that don’t want to work
21:39 with the big broadline companies that have the same food and it’s just boring and so they want something different um
21:47 and so I knew that there was there was an opportunity there and that’s kind of what’s driving that growth is we’re
21:56 becoming more and more known as the you know the the the only or the next or the
22:01 the next alternative yeah to just boring big boxy companies right we know who
22:08 they are yeah uh I mean we’re yeah we’re we’re the we’re one of the only
22:15 independently owned uh broadline distribution companies throughout the Pacific Northwest wow and so that’s
22:20 driving a lot of growth and um and that’s really great and we’re
22:27 um when when we go back to just those core values honesty Integrity that kind
22:32 of thing we really work on strong long-term relationships all the way
22:38 through the entire supply uh food chain supply so it could be working with manufacturers or farmers or growers or
22:45 anything like that and building a strong connection all the way through the line until the end user and that includes
22:52 staff and that includes the people that work at Unity that includes our customer that includes you know the people that
22:57 we buy from and that helps that um that focus to
23:04 making sure that you know you have a good cohesive group everyone understanding and working together it’s
23:10 really helpful and it’s given us some some kudos that can help with that kind
23:16 of growth in order to recruit the right people so the Business Journal just awarded us as one of the top companies
23:22 to work for right congratulations thank you and so that that helps recruit the
23:27 right people and you know how do you continually how can you fuel the growth to continue to allow
23:33 more growth um I mean it’s really easy to get more trucks it’s really easy to
23:39 get more boxes it’s really difficult to get the right people and you know when
23:44 you believe that that is the core of what your company is uh putting an emphasis on making sure that your you
23:51 know that your current staff is happy and uh they love what they do helps and
23:57 then going out and continuing to get more of that building that culture yeah well as experienced you know we we work
24:03 in Executive Search and everything you’re saying is I mean this is the mantra I mean it’s it’s really nice to
24:09 hear um a leader who who’s so you know believes this so passionately and like
24:16 has kind of made it the foundation of their organization it’s it’s I’m I’m sure it’s a huge factor if not the the
24:23 only factor in your I mean you know I’m sure there’s a lot of other parts but that is so fundamental to success yeah
24:29 well thank you and and we do I mean you bring on a guy who who owns a logistics company and moves food around and all I
24:36 do is talk about people yeah and the reason for that is it’s the most important thing you have yeah so that’s
24:41 great you know um this this podcast is you know about leadership and it’s about
24:47 what we’ve learned and all that I would love for you to share with our
24:53 audience one of the you know exciting aspects of your company’s growth which is when you bought your building I think
25:00 this is just a story that any business person would be really interested in hearing so I know we’re kind of going a
25:06 little bit rogue with this but if you don’t mind telling that story I think it’s just such a great story it is it is
25:12 it is a wild turn of events and and you know I I don’t know how we did it um so
25:18 uh right before the pandemic happened we we uh that split happened and um uh we
25:25 pitched a large regional chain very large regional chain and said hey we want to do your business and they said
25:31 yes was that when Food Services of America went out of business is that the split you’re referring to okay yeah so
25:37 then you went after and so yeah I knew there was there was an opportunity so we made it we made a pitch they said yes
25:42 and I said that’s great we are way too small um we have to grow we have to
25:47 scale up and so um we needed to to get a new building and um there was there’s a
25:54 a severe lack of cold storage facilities um throughout the West Coast yeah uh so
26:00 it looked like we were going to have to just build one from scratch so I found some land in Ridgefields and we were
26:06 looking into doing that and uh then Covid happened and supply chain happened and
26:12 we were looking they were saying hey this is going to be two or three years before we can actually finish this
26:17 building and that was not going to work with our time frame we needed it you know two or three years ago not in the
26:23 future and so um there was a a a a a building that was the right size in the
26:30 right area in North Portland that came up for sale and so I you know we we said
26:37 we’re just going to have to we’re going to do this we’re going to retrofit it we’re going to we’re going to buy it and so we put it in an offer with them and
26:44 they came back and said no you you know you’re you you guys are working with the
26:49 SBA and it’ll take too long to finish this loan um and we have a tax
26:54 obligation that we need to sell this within certain number of mon..months and I thought okay they’re they’re I I
27:03 didn’t know what to say I said do they think that you know someone’s going to come with an all cash offer in the next
27:08 month we had about a month to finish it and uh I didn’t think that anyone was so
27:14 I was just going to have to do it and I didn’t have that kind of money right and so um I uh uh I I had I went out to try
27:23 to find whatever I could um to make it happen and I called you know the uh one
27:30 of the guy who first helped get me started who had the the chicken and meat company and he wasn’t in a position to
27:36 help and I actually called our our general contractor who was going to do the refurbishment on it and I gave him a
27:42 call and said hey we have never actually talked this is our first conversation and I said hey um is there any way you
27:50 could just lend me 4 million so I can purchase this building
27:56 and in 90 days I’ll give you 4.4 and he said sure and I was in the
28:03 beginning of saying well I understand I know that’s and then I was like wait what really um so actually um our
28:11 construction company uh lent us the money we purchased it in cash um and
28:16 then worked with the bank and secured the financing on the back end and that was how we ended up getting in the
28:22 building and what did your bank say when you called them up and said you needed a cash buy
28:28 right I mean they were shocked I had to I went to almost every Bank uh in town because at that time I had 4 million of
28:36 sales not gross you know not net I had $4 million of sales and I was looking to
28:42 secure a $6 million loan yeah which is insane yeah and I I I went from one bank
28:48 to the next to the next and finally I uh I found one and they you know we talked
28:54 about vision what we wanted to do the whole thing and they said well we’re going actually we’re going to we’re investing in you and we you know we we
29:01 think that you’re the kind of person who can pull this off we’re going to go ahead and move forward with this of
29:06 course you know they wanted me to put my house on the line too and a few other things right but but they took the risk
29:14 and that was really exciting um and yeah they were just absolutely shocked cuz they thought the deal fell apart with
29:19 the building um and they were like how how did you come up with that that’s a great story oh absolutely and and it’s
29:26 interesting taking a step back and looking at this incredible journey but
29:32 you know again hiring for good podcast is best practices on leadership so what
29:37 are some of the learnings I mean we’ve talked a lot of failing forward hiring friends and family letting go um but
29:46 what other learnings do you want to share with us I mean there’s always continual
29:53 Improvement and that’s the the the biggest thing I think that that’s out there right that you’re you’re you need
29:59 to continue to continue to learn so the Learning lesson is continue to learn um
30:04 but I mean the skill sets no one’s born with them uh and it’s incredibly useful to reach out to mentors um and make sure
30:12 that you have some kind of resource that you can bounce ideas off of um or just have them say I’ve made this mistake
30:19 before don’t do it right and then don’t do it that’s the hard part right so
30:24 looking back is that the advice you would give your year old self or is there something more specific yeah I
30:31 mean you know the the the 20-year-old Calvin um and even to this day I think
30:37 that what we all need to realize is um not everyone knows it all right and it’s
30:45 okay to try something new not being an expert in that field right because and
30:53 and maybe that is the fil forward part of it but uh even those large boxy companies that are
31:01 national are still just ran with by people and you know uh not we don’t need
31:07 to be intimidated with anything that’s out there no matter how large a company is a
31:12 small company like Unity Foods can take that on um and it’s built with people inside of it and we’re just trying to
31:19 figure it out and I think that um that’s something that it require you you need
31:25 to learn right you need to learn that you you have to build the skill sets and you have to learn from them but you only
31:32 get those by trial and error and learning and and and and like pushing the bounds of what you’re doing and so
31:38 that’s something that 20-year-old me took a long time to figure out to not be intimidated by others and just you know
31:45 go out there and learn and try and figure it out I love that I love that love that too I know and then you know
31:52 we always kind of close out these these conversations by asking our guest what
31:57 does h in for good mean to you it’s pretty iterative so there’s a lot of different interpretations yeah yeah um I
32:07 looked at something uh just before coming on here and you know it was really it was interesting it said you
32:13 know a lot of people spend 10% of their time um on on hiring and then 90% of
32:19 their time dealing with that probably should be switched and it’s true right your job is really easy
32:26 when you have really really great people with you um so that’s what hiring for good would mean to me is is you really
32:33 need to spend the time upfront and make sure that you have the right person that you’re looking for that they have the
32:39 skill set that they want that that you want right you could always train into
32:44 tasks that’s the easy part right it’s do they have the the core fundamentals that
32:50 that mesh well with your company um and then the last part is just the personality piece of it because you want
32:56 this diverse group of people and and so you want them all to work well and work you know in a cohesive unit and that’s
33:02 an important factor of it too thank you so much this has been a joy I so glad
33:07 you could come Calvin it was just a pleasure to have you it’s my pleasure thank you for inviting me absolutely
33:13 thank you Calvin Unity Foods thanks for joining us today at Hiring for Good if you inspired by our
33:19 conversation don’t forget to like follow and subscribe wherever you get your podcast and if you want to learn more
33:25 about our Executive Search Services check us out at www.hiringforgood.net
33:31 or our company website Acumen Executive Search thanks so much and
33:36 don’t forget to join us next time for another in-depth conversation about transformational leadership until then
33:42 have fun