Hiring For Good Ep 36 – Beach Pace, CEO of Big Brother Big Sister
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 Hiring For Good with Hiring For Good Ep 36 – Beach Pace, the CEO of Big Brother Big Sister.
About Big Brother Big Sister: Since 1904, Big Brothers Big Sisters has operated under the belief that inherent in every child is incredible potential. As the nation’s largest donor- and volunteer-supported mentoring network, Big Brothers Big Sisters makes meaningful, monitored matches between adult volunteers (“Bigs”) and children (“Littles”), ages 5 through young adulthood in communities across the country. We develop positive relationships that have a direct and lasting effect on the lives of young people.
Beach Pace LinkedIn: / beachpace
Big Brothers Big Sisters Website: https://www.bbbs.org/
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Tanis Morris: Director of Business Development at Acumen Executive Search Email: ta***@***********************ch.com
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Acumen Executive Search is the leading certified woman-owned Executive Search and advisory Firm on the West Coast. Acumen sources, attracts, and qualifies world-class executive and management talent for organizations to support them in achieving their organizational goals. Due to their focus and local network, which is both broad and deep, we are able to leverage best practices across a broad range of industries. We employ an equity lens throughout the recruitment process.
Hiring for Good Transcript
0:00 Good morning and welcome back to Hiring for Good I am Tanis Morris with Acumen Executive Search, and with me as usual is
0:07 my wonderful co-host Suzanne Hanifin good morning Tanis good morning we are truly
0:12 honored to have with us today our guest Beach Pace we are beyond excited to be
0:18 joined today by someone who leads with heart courage and an unwavering commitment to community Mayor Beach Pace
0:25 from commanding troops in the US Army to commanding the vision for Hillsboro’s future Beach’s journey has been
0:31 anything but ordinary she got her start at West Point and served seven years in the Army as an explosive ordinance
0:38 disposal officer before stepping into the world of purpose-driven leadership Beach has led teams across sectors
0:44 from national nonprofits like City Year and Big Brothers Big Sisters to her current role as mayor of Hillsboro Oregon
0:51 along the way she’s championed equity housing small business support and the kind of inclusive growth that truly
0:58 strengthens communities in our episode today we’ll be talking about what it means to lead and hire
1:03 with purpose how her military training shaped her approach to team building and why bringing your full authentic self to
1:10 the table changes everything Beach brings brilliance warmth and a whole lot of heart and trust me you’re going to
1:16 feel all of that in this conversation let’s dive in welcome Beach thank you Tanis thank you you’re welcome i got
1:23 pretty inspired by you i’ve had the chance to hear you speak now a couple of times one without you knowing one with
1:29 me right up in your grill and and um I
1:34 uh I’m just so excited that we get to have you as a guest on our podcast um thanks for asking me oh yeah we’re truly
1:41 just thrilled to have you here usually when we start out we ask our guests to just kind of tell us a little bit about
1:48 their journey in your case go long i mean like you have a fascinating story and we would love to hear kind of how
1:55 you got and and I will also just acknowledge you’re in two significant leadership roles right now and if you
2:01 don’t mind speaking to both of them that would be fabulous perfect yeah absolutely uh so I grew up in Jersey and
2:08 that was a very interesting place to grow up because you’re between two cities between Philly and New York and
2:15 there’s a lot of influence there and I’d learned a lot of life lessons just growing up in New Jersey as a WASP a
2:21 white Anglo-Saxon Protestant surrounded by all these different cultures and people and backgrounds and and I loved
2:27 it um loved my high school years they were awkward just like everybody else’s
2:33 uh and then even before high school I had a calling to serve uh my parents
2:39 were both service-oriented in my mom was an Eastern Star and then my dad was in Rotary and uh women at the
2:46 time weren’t allowed to serve in Rotary yeah so I’ve since been a Rotarian so
2:52 it’s full circle there but um anyway uh went off to West Point um and I really
2:58 enjoyed my time there it was very difficult for me academically to be honest uh things didn’t come super easy
3:05 in the classroom but in the field in leadership or on the sports field uh
3:10 that was great West Point looks at three areas your academic um prowess your
3:16 leadership and then your sports ability your athletic ability um and so I
3:21 excelled in two of three and fought in the third and came out okay graduated
3:27 graduated in ‘ 91 and uh was commissioned an United States Army officer and then I went on to EOD school
3:34 or explosive ordinance disposal school and um learned my trade there and then
3:39 went off and uh served in Europe yeah so served seven years active duty in the
3:44 army uh my last assignment was teaching ROTC so I got an opportunity to pick up a
3:49 master’s in public administration there thinking it was nice to have a masters and I would probably not use a masters
3:55 in public administration, um, but I have since learned that it was foreshadowing
4:00 and afterwards I went into corporate sales and marketing and the pharmaceutical business i did that for
4:06 almost 10 years, loved the money but hated how it made me feel mmhm because there was no mission
4:12 base to that and spoke to a classmate, an old West Point classmate of mine who was
4:19 in what is known as the nonprofit sector and what I am personally on a personal
4:24 crusade to change to the social impact sector um so I’ll get back to that in a minute but my friend who was in the
4:31 nonprofit sector um said have you tried looking at this sector because it’s mission-based work and that was 18 years
4:37 ago so and I I’ve been in service to youth ever since so that’s the um that’s
4:43 the nonprofit piece of it and before I go into the political side of my career
4:49 uh I wanted to say that nonprofit says what we don’t do and I like to say
4:54 social impact because that says what we do and you never see the Nike swoosh and underneath it says we don’t make sushi
5:02 they talk about what they do yeah and so I want to rebrand the sector as a social impact sector because that is what we do
5:09 and that is the change we create and I think everyone in the social impact sector should get credit for that
5:14 because they work very hard to make change for people in all walks of life and so that’s my personal crusade anyway
5:22 um and then uh I had friends telling me and and friends neighbors acquaintances
5:28 telling me that I should run for office and I really didn’t think much of it and when I moved to Hillsboro
5:35 I was here for about 6 months and people were saying to me “Oh you should run for
5:42 office.” And I found that strange because we didn’t know each other very long and they were saying that I should
5:47 run and so I uh kind of brushed it aside to be honest with you and then years
5:54 later I was in a in the car commuting somewhere it was I remember it was August it was hot i was on 26 in traffic
6:01 and I heard a woman named Jillian Shion and she at the time was the executive
6:06 director of Emerge Oregon and Emerge Oregon trains women how to run for office how to campaign specifically
6:14 Democratic women and Jillian was it was like she was speaking to me through the car radio and
6:22 she said “If you have ever been asked to run for office you should and if you’ve
6:28 been asked more than once then you should.” And I had been asked many times to run and so this woman who I had never
6:33 met put this huge guilt trip on me while I was uh driving in the car and I reached out found out about Emerge
6:40 applied for the class and I also reached out to the city counselors and uh in in
6:46 Hillsboro and learned what is what do they do what does it mean what does it take how do you run um what do you
6:51 govern how does it you know all that i just investigated it and that was 10
6:57 years ago then I ran uh and was a counselor for six years and then ran for
7:03 mayor and became mayor uh January 7th of 2025 so congratulations, congratulations
7:11 and I love how you kind of foreshadowed saying “Oh I will never need a master’s
7:16 in public.” Public administration that’s good to have you know but it’s funny how our lives you know very few people have
7:23 a straight line and a straight path and on the way there are these formative
7:28 moments and you kind of highlighted some of them but I’d like to dive deeper into those life-changing moments that you
7:36 kind of took that step back and paused i mean going from pharmaceutical to
7:41 nonprofit one you’re making money one you’re making a difference you know so
7:47 talk about some of these formative experiences and really what you learned from those
7:53 well I I would go back to the military learning from some of the the leaders I had and even if they were bad leaders I
8:00 learned from them i learned what not to do and how not to lead the Army has something called the 12 leadership
8:07 principles maybe it’s 11 i don’t know i added to 12 um and I remember learning
8:12 about them at West Point and it’s things like know yourself and seek self-improvement look out for the
8:17 well-being of your soldiers take responsibility and seek responsibility for your actions and these and I could
8:23 go on and on but I won’t but some of them were really hit me like this is
8:28 basic things these are basic things that you need to know to be a good leader and it’s easy to read them and it’s easy to
8:34 discuss them it’s much harder to do them um but if you can do them you will be a
8:39 good leader and so bringing that into the pharmaceutical industry bringing compassionate leadership but inspiring
8:46 leadership and goal- driven leadership to make sure that we are hitting the marks that we need to hit together as a
8:53 team I found made a big difference um and then just carrying those military
8:58 lessons through corporate and then into into the social impact sector I think
9:04 has made a difference and and you mentioned the difference between being
9:10 in pharmaceuticals and being in social impact there is a big difference as far as resources money uh opportunities to
9:18 train people opportunities to send people to training or even just have a nice office have a nice chair things
9:24 like that um it’s a it’s a vast difference and I was blown away in not a
9:30 good way by the opulence of corporate America i mean it’s great for people and and believe me if I I served in
9:38 corporate and I had a good time and I enjoyed it um but being in the social
9:43 impact sector I realize there’s there’s maybe better ways to spend that money um
9:49 that’s just me that’s just my personal thing but um so can I ask you you said that there’s 11 things and for you 12 do
9:57 you remember the one that I added that you added humor have a sense of humor
10:02 you have to have a sense of humor as you’re going through life you can’t take things too seriously i tend to do that
10:08 uh so I try to back up and say actually this is kind of funny you know yeah this is kind of ridiculous and that’s okay
10:14 and what what can we learn and move on you know yeah and in today’s world particularly social impact organizations
10:22 are being challenged and challenged more so than ever especially now especially
10:27 on the resource side um how do you keep that strong leader
10:33 and the vision and mission when you’re struggling you know that that there is
10:40 such upheaval right now yeah um I try to stay consistent with my leadership and
10:45 make sure people understand what we are doing together and and what we can achieve together and sometimes we have
10:52 to say I I’ve been through different you know waxes and wanes in the sector for
10:58 example I was the executive director of a social impact organization in San Jose California during the 07/08 crisis um
11:06 they were social impact organizations that weren’t just atrophying they were shutting down um and so sometimes you
11:14 have to make choices of what we were going to do or how we’re going to serve or maybe we serve less this year maybe
11:20 we serve less children this year um and while that’s not what we want um it’s
11:25 better to say let’s serve less and maintain our health and sanity make sure
11:31 we’re still serving but maybe just maybe not as many right um and that’s hard to
11:36 do when you are in a social impact sector and you’re around people who want to make a difference to youth who know
11:43 we have youth on the wait list and we cannot get to them all yeah and that’s
11:48 just it’s one of the it’s one of the realities yeah and probably really tough
11:54 to be at the very top of that um of that kind of decision-m process um I want to
12:01 back up just a second because I think we kind of covered how you got to your role in government in government leadership
12:08 but um I know that you pivoted into social impact do you want to discuss
12:13 kind of where you are now and what you’re doing just because I think it it plays in i know yeah we haven’t even
12:18 talked about I know i’m sorry if you want to go back to the journey for just a second cuz I I I feel like we can’t
12:24 really authentically talk about all of the elements of you know your leadership without understanding exactly where you
12:31 are too yeah sure so so in 2007 I
12:37 believe right before the crisis there I joined a group called City Year uh which
12:42 is an organization that provides tutoring and after-school programming to youth across the country and I was
12:48 running the San Jose um affiliate and um it was interesting to get into the
12:55 social impact sector because the resources that I was used to in both the military and in for-profit were not
13:02 there and so if you wanted something you had to go get it um which was also kind
13:09 of freeing because if we really wanted something we had to go get it and so do
13:15 we want to fund this or do we want to fund that how do we want to approach this after school program do we want to
13:20 do five schools or three do we want to do seven schools or 10 schools and then what are the resources that we need to
13:26 do that and then working together as a team to make that happen it wasn’t like well you know HQ didn’t give us the
13:32 budget no no no we control the budget we go get the money or not and so that was
13:37 kind of exciting um and also annoying sometimes especially during the 0708
13:43 crisis but um and during co you know there’s there’s different and then now
13:49 right uh what’s going on now with the uh lack of federal funding and the retraction of federal funding to
13:55 nonprofits uh to social impact organizations it’s tough um but I see it
14:00 as another way as part of the wax and wane of the cycle of this work so and
14:07 so today you’re the executive director for uh I’m the CEO of Big Brothers Big
14:12 Sisters sorry no no you’re like “Let’s get there.” No it’s okay it’s all good yeah so I was with um City Year and then
14:19 I was with an organization called Roadtrip Nation and then I’m in my ninth year of service with Big Brothers Big
14:24 Sisters of the Columbia Northwest so this affiliate of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America is one of 230
14:31 affiliates across the country and so I’ve been with that organization you know as I said I’m in my ninth year so
14:37 almost almost 10 years so and how long as a Rotarian uh I was a Rotarian both
14:43 in San Jose California and also here in Portland Oregon so I would say collectively 3 to four years okay yeah
14:50 because I do think those values you know are people join Rotary because they do
14:57 believe in those four four core values yeah yeah yeah it’s been a
15:04 while since I’ve been sorry um but when you look at leadership
15:10 we have these core values that we hold dearly that we operationalize throughout
15:17 our organization what are some of those core values that you hold dearly that you really do
15:26 implement day in day out at either the city of Hillsboro or Big
15:33 Brother Big Sister yeah i I think the first thing is understanding what the mission is and are we aligned to that
15:39 mission and that’s the first thing I ask when somebody wants to come in and and join
15:45 the organization or even just ask me about my service with the city of Hillsboro is what is your goal with us
15:53 what do you want to do um and even as board members when board members come to me or prospective board members for Big
15:59 Brothers Big Sisters and I say you know what’s your interest in Big Brothers Big Sisters and some people have said oh I
16:05 want to build my resume um there’s nothing wrong with that but that’s not somebody that’s going to come through
16:11 for me um or the children when the going gets rough i want somebody who said uh I
16:17 believe in mentorship i was mentored my coach took me under my wing i was a former little my dad was a former big
16:23 for example or my mom was a former big um it’s it’s the connection to mission is
16:30 the number one thing for me because that will see you through the hard times
16:37 uh whereas if you don’t have a connection to mission and it gets tough it’s easier to say h I’m out um so that
16:44 to me is the number one thing are you connected to mission and then you know there’s also the technical and t
16:49 tactical abilities right do you know how to work on a computer have you worked
16:55 with children before have you worked in the community setting before have you been a board member before do you know
17:00 how to raise money um will you be willing to raise money will you make asks on our behalf in order to serve the
17:08 organization which in turn serves youth things like that so what are your core values yeah what drives me is service
17:15 okay um if I can make a difference I should it is a duty i believe that wholeheartedly if I have the ability to
17:22 help then I should and do you think you were born like this is your DNA this is
17:28 your wiring and then it was like honed by your time in the army and from parents who who were service oriented or
17:35 Yeah i don’t I don’t know to be honest with you i don’t know where it came from i I think the service orientation of my
17:40 parents definitely set a great example mmhm and I saw some of the things that
17:46 they were able to do with their organizations that benefited the community and I thought it was pretty cool but I don’t think it really hit me
17:52 how transformative it was so for example with Rotary my dad was on a committee that got uh an amphitheater built so
17:59 people could come and enjoy music and then he was one of the folks that would reach out and have all these bands come and play and I saw this huge field of
18:09 people out enjoying this music for free and I don’t as a kid I was like “This is
18:16 cool you know but now as an adult I’m like that’s that’s some badass right there.” Yeah absolutely and so
18:23 this this may be too personal and you can tell me if it’s too personal but but there’s a lot of different social impact
18:30 organizations what was the draw for kids i think the initial
18:38 uh placement with or my my application to City Year was that I like the fact that
18:44 it was a national organization that was making a difference to youth and I remembered as a kid how nice it was to
18:51 have something to go to in the after in the after school space and sometimes I didn’t have things to go to in the
18:56 after-school space and so that spoke to me that I would like to be able to facilitate that for more youth
19:02 especially for youth whose families cannot necessarily afford it and they would sit home alone uh the hours
19:09 between 2 and 6 are the most vulnerable times for youth where um they’re usually
19:15 home alone they don’t have guidance um and it’s really easy for them to find other things to attract their attention
19:23 and so to be able to to fill that space with positive uh influence with tutoring
19:30 or programming or clubs um that’s transformative for kids and so that was
19:35 something that attracted me to City Year oh absolutely and and as three kids that live through COVID one in middle school one
19:42 in high school and one in college that was damaging enough I you know but then to have it
19:49 from young that that time alone right yeah well that time alone I think has a
19:55 difference or makes a difference and then you know where I where we were serving where we had the honor of
20:01 serving in San Jose um was a rough area you know so leaving your house was a
20:06 risk in some cases and so often times the kids were told sold to stay home so
20:12 the thread there between COVID and and that time was isolation
20:17 right and it was even worse then because there was not the proliferation of cell phones and connectivity on the internet
20:24 um it was just alone yeah um which is very different yeah wow so um I wanna I
20:33 want to actually talk a little bit about some of the ways that um
20:39 people can support Big Brothers Big Sisters just because I believe in the mission and um and you know I’m was
20:47 motivated by your leadership when I heard you speak um but I I want to finish talking about some of these you
20:54 know themes that we cover here in the podcast so you know one of the really
21:00 interesting questions we ask our guests each week is you know if you were to
21:07 have the opportunity to speak to your younger self what advice would you give
21:13 you know 20-year-old Beach it gets every time it gets me emotional um
21:20 I would say trust yourself you got it and I didn’t know that back then
21:27 there was um there’s so many naysayers you know who why would you go to West
21:33 Point and women aren’t women don’t go there that’s my guidance counselor told me my high school guidance counselor
21:39 when I told him I want to go to West Point he said women can’t go there i said they can now they’ve been accepted
21:45 um since 1976 i graduated in ‘ 87 from high school and so I I had him sign
21:52 off on the form just to say that he counseled me and then I went to my history teacher and he helped me and my
21:57 ROTC teacher they both helped me fill out the application because it was a paper application back then yeah oh yeah um
22:04 but I would say trust yourself um that you have good instincts and I I
22:10 wish I wish somebody had told me that you know I had something very similar i
22:16 wanted to go into engineering and I graduated in ‘87 and I was told I
22:24 wouldn’t be happy there by my counselor and it’s funny because I and and he said
22:33 you don’t talk to people when you’re an engineer you know like you’re you’re doing you’re social to be an engineer
22:39 and and I remember it wasn’t until probably
22:44 15 years later looking back going I can’t believe I listened to that guy wow
22:50 i had something similar too i went to my counselor maybe this is a
22:57 cathartic experience of talking about guidance counselors which is you know but I Yeah i when I went in I was like I
23:05 want to go to you know I wanted to go to a pretty good college and my guidance
23:11 counselor was like you won’t be able to your grades aren’t good enough and I was like watch me i mean they literally told
23:17 me that I should go to community college and I was like no I’m going to a 4-year university and they’re like no you can’t
23:24 you’re not you know you have And I was just like I was so offended i think I I was I was
23:32 offended too i was I actually was like I said why do you do this job i did say
23:38 that oh yeah i was a little bit more like I was too I think I wasn’t strong then like I I didn’t have the confidence
23:46 to either i push back sign the form and I’ll go I’ll go somewhere else so I didn’t push back like you did so kudos
23:52 to you it got me in some trouble but um you know it’s interesting though
23:59 because like when um when when we I kind of did like after after a year of the
24:06 pod we I kind of went through and and tried to assign some just um
24:13 synergies across guests and when I was trying to distill down the answer to this question
24:20 um its essence was trust yourself it would lit we did we actually created like a leadership training based on the
24:27 podcast and there’s two things one is the challenges you go through actually
24:32 shape who you are which everyone kind of knows I think but but when we ask people what the formative experiences were that
24:38 they went through it’s not when they like won or succeeded it’s when things
24:43 were tough and they had to like figure it out or they had to you know dig down deep and find these qualities inside of
24:50 themselves um and then the second was it’s always you probably probably are our first guest who’s said it so
24:57 succinctly but like it is it’s always some level of like I wish I would have
25:02 listened to my inner voice or I listen I look to others for guidance that I think
25:09 I knew inside or you know it’s really interesting that that that’s yours do
25:14 you mind giving us some examples of experiences you went through that kind
25:19 of you didn’t trust yourself and then you should have
25:24 uh yeah there was uh there was a moment there’s a long leadup
25:31 to this so I’ll try and keep it short but um we were in Germany so I was at
25:36 the time I was stationed in Italy i’d been trained as an explosive ordinance disposal technician i was serving as the
25:42 executive officer of the organization uh so we took our unit and went up to
25:47 Germany and our job was to dispose of munitions that were to be used for World
25:53 War II and they had been expiring so literally it was past the date of
25:59 landmines past the date of missiles and so what you do is you blow them up
26:05 very simple um but very technical you have to make sure that you do this correctly or people can get killed dead
26:13 get killed uh so I was the ranking officer uh downrange downrange means
26:20 we’re placing the explosives on the ground and putting C4 which is a
26:26 malleable plastic explosive on on top of it and you had to stack them a certain way because if you don’t one could blow
26:32 off and not explode and then you drive your truck back down to place more and you kill yourself right just to be very
26:38 specific on how you do it and uh anyway we’re downrange and we are
26:46 stacking some landmines and there was a master sergeant Master Sergeant Hamilton i’ll never forget him and he was very
26:53 knowledgeable and I think he had been in the army longer than I had been alive
26:59 and I outranked him and I’m not the kind of person that says I outrank you do
27:04 this do that um I think if you have to say you’re in charge you probably aren’t right right so anyway we’re downrange
27:12 and Master Sergeant Hamilton is doing some things that I felt were unsafe and I didn’t say anything and uh you could
27:20 tell that the soldiers were getting a little upset and I you know so one thing happened it
27:28 wasn’t nobody got hurt but I was just like “Oh man.” And um then he was about to do something
27:34 else and I said “Can I talk with you?” And he said “Wait till we get up range.”
27:39 And uh hey LT wait till we get up range cuz he was busy um but I was like “Actually you know we need to talk now.”
27:47 And I pulled him aside and uh I said “Look what you’re doing down here is not
27:53 according to what we should be doing.” He goes “You don’t know what the you’re talking about excuse me i don’t know if I’m allowed you’re fine.” um
28:00 Lieutenant you know you’re brand new you know you don’t know what the hell you’re doing and I was like I concede that you
28:05 know more than me but I just got out of EOD school and I know the safety situation and we are breaking safety
28:13 protocol and it’s putting all of us in jeopardy so I really regret not saying anything beforehand because we did have
28:20 that one incident again no one got hurt um so before this before it continued I
28:25 was able to stop it but I was shaking yeah um because I respected the guy number one and you know and the soldiers
28:32 were like you know what are you going to say LT or what are you doing you know there was a lot of pressure um and I I
28:40 did not do it well I did not do it as smoothly and as eloquently as I said here I was like hey you know I I didn’t
28:46 have confidence even though um I should have and so that’s one example but going
28:54 through that he was like god damn it all right you know and he did what he was supposed to do and uh and we we you know
29:03 improved the safety protocols and we got off the range safe at at the end of the day but um I was awake most of that
29:11 night thinking what if that first incident did turn out poorly we all could have been dead wow and I didn’t
29:18 say anything um initially and so that still stays with me well and it’s and we
29:25 talk about this a lot especially other women leaders that there’s this
29:30 confidence that for some reason we have such a hard time being okay
29:38 and and again whether you’re a young leader which you were incredibly young
29:46 that confidence and growing that across the board is challenging and I
29:54 think it’s these experiences that we had to get to get that confidence like we’re not born like I’m going to tell you what
30:02 to do and here here’s what you’re going to you know do but what an incredible
30:08 story and and life-changing thank you so much for sharing that with us yeah it
30:14 was very life-changing because we still had weeks to go uh this this operation um and I wanted
30:21 to make sure we all got home did you feel that after you did call him out whether it was rough or smooth or
30:27 whatever that he was a bit more respectful of you subsequently yeah he he was always respectful you know when I
30:33 pulled him aside he was giving me a hard time but um I I think things got better and and I I
30:41 what I did know is not to call him out in front of everybody yeah i mean I it sounds like And you also told him like
30:47 “You know more than me but I know what’s I mean it sounds like you did it probably being a little too hard on yourself.” Well I mean in retrospect
30:54 Yeah but um I just the the time it took me to step in yeah that’s Yeah that’s what got me and uh when I knew better
31:01 yeah you know it’s like come on that’s a tough deal that’s it is a tough right is a tough thing but um there’s we all have
31:08 those opportunities where we’re going to say something or we’re not we’re going to do something or we’re not we’re going
31:13 to take action or we’re not and it it could be life-altering depending on what
31:19 we decide to do and I didn’t want it to be life-altering because I I didn’t want anybody to get hurt much less die and I
31:26 knew the families of these soldiers um I knew their kids i knew you know their
31:32 wives and um I it was my one of my many responsibilities to make sure we all got
31:37 home safe wow so you talk about No no and I was going to say but I bet you
31:42 learned from that so vividly if you still it if you know you still bring it
31:50 up to where it is about saying something when other people are in danger like I
31:57 bet you would never question today no never no the first incident wouldn’t
32:02 have happened right right and I would have said “Whoa hey you’re getting a little cavalier like let’s let’s slow it
32:07 down you know getting more experience um and finding a little bit more confidence
32:13 and talking to my commander who I I had a good commander um about the incident in Germany that I was speaking about um
32:21 there was another incident in um Moscow so we were called up to Moscow for the
32:26 1994 Clinton-Yeltsin summit.” M and so that’s the really interesting thing about explosive ordinance disposal is
32:33 that which is the army’s version of the bomb squad is that you could be muddy
32:39 and dirty and disgusting in a field in Germany one day and then the next week
32:44 you could be in a suit working with Secret Service providing safety and security for the president vice
32:50 president or secretary of state and so as I was gaining confidence and um
32:57 learning more about my leadership style and who I was at the unit and what I could do and all that uh we were called
33:04 up by the Secret Service to go to Moscow and we were in the hotel where the
33:10 Clintons were staying and the the Clintons were at another location and
33:16 we’re the teams the EOD teams the explosive ordinance disposal teams the EOD teams were leapfrogging from one site
33:22 to another as he moved and so there was always a team ahead of him clearing
33:28 where he was headed and a team with him um so that way we could make sure he was
33:34 covered and just so the listeners know the Secret Service makes sure the president vice president secretary of
33:39 state don’t get shot and we make sure they don’t get blown up two different security
33:45 uh missions so we are at the hotel and he is now uh
33:51 President Clinton and his wife Hillary were in route from a location back to the hotel and they were late which was a
34:00 common thing and that was fine um cuz that gave us more time and there were
34:07 some people who were gathering outside the hotel because Clinton was very
34:13 popular overseas and Um he also visited Italy and man just the people that came
34:20 out for him anyway so there were people um gathering in front of the hotel and the Secret Service said “It’s getting to
34:27 a point where it’s too much we need to use the secondary or tertiary entrance.” Okay so I take myself and a young airman
34:35 who had a bomb dog down to the basement or to the side door where the Clintons would come in because it was getting too
34:44 much up in front of of the hotel and by the way it was freezing so the dedication of these people to be out
34:50 there to see him is unmatched anyway so we go downstairs and there’s a side door
34:57 where he would enter and there is the stairs that we just came down and a plant just a big old plant in a planter
35:04 box and then a pipe that went from a wall and then made a a turn up to the
35:10 ceiling that’s it a door a staircase a plant and a pipe pipe that’s it
35:18 and I said “Okay.” Okay i turned to the airman and uh I’m still a lieutenant and I said “Take the dog around.” And so he
35:24 takes him around he smells the plant nothing and then he snaps and the dog
35:30 goes up on the wall sniffs the pipe and the dog sits the airman so that that indicates
35:38 so um so that means he has smelled explosives
35:43 and uh so the airman looks at me and he turns absolutely white he’s a very young
35:49 man who just got out of training and I had a couple years under my belt at this
35:55 point and um and I said “Take him around again.” I said “Take a breath and then take the dog around again.” So he took
36:01 the dog around again dog goes up sits again and now the airman is shaking and
36:06 I said “Thank you very much go upstairs your service is good.” Right and he’s like “Okay.” You know he goes upstairs
36:14 and I’m like “What is this pipe?” Right and so now is there’s a difference in confidence and I was looking back I’m
36:21 really proud of it but we ended up getting the engineer of the hotel we ended up getting the managers of the
36:27 hotel the lead for the secret service we found out what the pipe was it was the vacuum it was the central vacuum for the
36:33 hotel so my sergeant who was amazing looks at me and he’s like “Lieutenant we got to
36:40 see if there’s a good suck on the other floors right?” You know a good pull you know what I’m trying to say yeah i hope you do yeah and I said “Yes.” He goes
36:48 “I’m gone.” Right and so he goes up with these schematics looking where he could
36:53 go and he opens the hatch and we’re connected by um your by walking talking
36:59 yeah and uh he says “LT got a good suck.” And I was like “Okay.” Which sounds ridiculous over the airways right
37:06 and I was like “Great.” And I was like “Is this the only pipe?” You know anyway blah blah blah um meanwhile POTUS is 5
37:11 minutes out POTUS is president of the United States POTUS is four minutes out POTUS is 3 minutes out go ahead is the
37:17 secondary entrance okay do we need to clear the tertiary entrance you know whatever and it was like um we
37:23 determined that the pipe was clear i looked at the pipe the other thing and it hadn’t been messed with there was dust all over it which means nobody had
37:30 been messing with it recently and I made the call to bring the president into that side door
37:36 and then I stood there and waited near the pipe right and I was like well if it goes it goes but I feel confident that
37:43 this is clear um and the dog falsely sat which means that airman and that dog
37:49 have to redo that dog is done right like his career is over um not the airmen but
37:54 anyway um so the president comes in everything was fine and he went into an interview with Dan Rather who was pissed
38:01 at the by the way that he was so late um but I would felt good about that because
38:06 there was a difference in confidence a difference in training um you know we had trained more about it
38:11 and um you know so I felt I felt really good about that and and it’s these highstake
38:18 moments I mean think about it like that’s love Bill Clinton and think what
38:24 would have happened you know you had to make the call and and being able to make that call and you
38:32 did it by also helping the other gentlemen that you were like your
38:38 services are done yeah just go upstairs you’re good yeah yeah speak about leadership how much how much long how
38:45 much time had passed between a couple years a year or two okay about Yeah and um pretty impressive well I mean I had a
38:53 good commander and um just finding more just um going back to my training and
38:59 saying what are the things that are important here what are the things that are not important here what are what is at stake what is you know what can be
39:05 mitigated yeah um and just going through that process in my head and and the training was phenomenal and and you use
39:12 that I bet every day as a leader because I do know I do what are the priorities
39:18 narrow down if times are tough this is it and you go back to those basics right
39:24 what is essential in this particular situation and then if if you can achieve that great then you could do like the
39:29 what’s nice yeah yeah what is essential what’s nice what’s flamboyant right and I know we’re kind of getting off topic
39:36 but I do want to ask this question and it’s futuristic if you had a crystal ball right now and
39:42 you can tell just even what the next year looks like or guess in the social impact world and in the local government
39:51 I mean both are in such flux because of funding and priorities and other things
39:58 what do you think this year is going to look like well I think the social impact
40:04 sector is going to be leaned on quite heavily i it already is and as people lose safety nets um they will lean on
40:12 those organizations even more and so uh it will be critical for those
40:17 organizations to do some pretty serious fundraising to make sure that they can serve whomever they’re serving whether
40:23 it’s youth like with Big Brothers Big Sisters or other folks in other situations um so I think they’ll be
40:30 leaned on hard that’s what I saw in 07/08 that’s what I saw during COVID and this it’s going to you know we’re back again
40:36 um it’s that wax and wane that I talked about and I am concerned for people
40:41 because there will be people who don’t know to go to social impact organizations they or they think they’re
40:47 ineligible or they’re afraid because they might feel that they would get deported um to be frank right so they
40:54 don’t want their name on record they don’t want to be affiliated i mean during COVID we had in the beginning of
40:59 COVID during the first Trump administration uh we had people who were
41:04 um food insecure who were eating very little and were afraid to go to food
41:11 banks because they had heard the rumors were that they were they would get picked up by ICE at the food bank
41:18 and so we had called ahead the Big Brothers Big Sisters staff called to the food bank and they said no food bank
41:23 said they are not on our property they are not allowed on our property they can come and so I had staff mask up and go
41:29 and meet families so they could get food wow our biggest issue right now is misinformation
41:35 um so I could go off on that but um misinformation is what’s really hurting
41:40 people right now and then um just lack of access to services as Medicare or
41:46 Medicaid gets cut um and other cuts come down grants to social impact
41:52 organizations um it’s they’re people are going to be hurting absolutely and so we
41:59 always end this question um with this podcast it is hiring for good after all
42:06 so what does hiring for good mean for you oh
42:12 well finding the right people uh who are dedicated to the mission who are committed to the mission and who have
42:18 the skills or willing to learn the skills uh to contribute to that mission
42:23 and it’s that’s a hard thing to find right um but that’s why my first
42:28 questions you know in an interview or when I’m talking to somebody who is showing interest to say “What’s your
42:35 motivation what is your why?” And if you can tell me your why then I could tell
42:40 you if you’re going to make it yeah that’s a that’s a really I I love
42:46 how everybody answers that question so differently because it’s it is iterative and I I like that for you it’s it’s it’s
42:55 it’s the process it’s like how you know what is hiring for good it’s the process of
43:01 finding the right people yeah and it’s a tough thing to do yeah it really for sure yeah um I we both mentioned that we
43:09 wanted to ask you a little bit about opportunities to support Big Brothers Big Sisters i fervently believe in in
43:16 the vital um the vital importance of mission driven
43:22 organizations and social impact organizations and know that the work that your organization is doing um is
43:29 changing lives and saving lives transforming the future for families and for kids who are involved in the program
43:35 and it’s transformational uh for the VIGs yeah yeah so I know that there’s
43:41 quite a few opportunities to support um Big Brothers Big Sisters coming up so do
43:47 you want to speak to what some of those opportunities are and then we’ll we’ll put it on the website as well awesome
43:52 first of all thanks for asking the question i really appreciate it and thanks for having me here there are many
43:58 ways you could support Big Brothers Big Sisters and whether you are local or around the country the number one thing
44:04 I would say is go to Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and find out how you can donate to your local chapter so
44:10 that’s bbbsa.org um or you could just Google Big Brothers Big Sisters in your area uh for Big
44:17 Brothers Big Sisters Columbia Northwest I would say uh investigate being a big which means being a mentor you can go to
44:24 our website it’sbigtime.org to investigate how you want to engage
44:29 with us there’s many ways there but one of them is you could be a big and a mentor and that would take two to four
44:34 times a month where you connect with a young person and we do all that for you we find the young person make sure that
44:40 you’re connected with them connect with the parent and help you we have case managers to help you through your mentorship journey and we ask you to get
44:48 together as I mentioned two to four times a month and we ask you to be matched for a year anything less than a
44:54 year is more detrimental to the kid than no mentor at all so that’s the first thing and by the way the number one
45:00 thing I hear from mentors is “I’m here to help a kid.” And three months into it they’re like “This kid has helped me.”
45:07 Right they have grown from being a mentor so that’s the first thing second thing is donate right now funds are
45:13 being cut and it is not a great time to be in the social impact sector as far as
45:19 money but it is a great time if you want to make a difference and your investment in Big Brothers Big Sisters will make a
45:25 difference to youth in our community then we have some events as you alluded to thank you uh we have January 21st is
45:33 our repel for a reason where we’re going to repel off the Hyatt uh hotel it’s a
45:38 15-story building and what we ask you to do is sign up and register and then fund raise with your family and friends and
45:45 say “Hey I’m trying to raise $1,500 to repel off this building which will help a kid get matched up with a mentor.” And
45:52 so that’s and it’s fun and it’s also a little bit of badassery if you want to do that um and then we have our gala in
46:00 September September 20th if you’d like to be a sponsor or buy a table you can contact us again our website’s uh
46:06 it’sbigtime.org this has been such a wonderful conversation Beach i cannot thank you
46:13 enough and the insights pe…they’re they’re super valuable so thank you
46:19 absolutely thank you truly thank you it was a really an honor to have you as our guest and uh we look forward to getting
46:26 an update on all the success and I will just put out there I will be repelling off of the roof of the Hyatt and am
46:32 actively fundraising so if you’re listening to this and don’t want to repel but would like to give money you can give to my team yay awesome or
46:40 directly to the organization and I’ll raise my own money sorry i won’t take anything away i love it yeah all right
46:45 either way either way works okay yeah awesome thank you thank you so much thanks for joining us today at Hiring
46:51 for Good if you were inspired by our conversation don’t forget to like follow and subscribe wherever you get your
46:56 podcasts and if you want to learn more about our executive search services check us out at www.hiringforgood.net
47:05 or our company website Acumen Executive Search thanks so much and don’t forget
47:10 to join us next time for another in-depth conversation about transformational leadership until then
47:15 Have fun