This episode shares Farrah Burke’s inspiring journey from big tech to local leadership, highlighting her honest reflections on career change, work-life balance, and the power of authenticity. Listeners will gain practical insights on navigating transitions, building strong teams, and embracing kindness as a leadership strength. It’s a relatable and uplifting conversation for anyone seeking real-world advice and encouragement.
“Leadership means hiring with intention, aligning your team with your values, and making sure everyone is empowered to do their best work.”
— Farrah Burke, on Hiring for Good
Suzanne Hanifin: President at Acumen Executive Search. LinkedIn
Tanis Morris, Business Development at Acumen Executive Search. LinkedIn
Farrah Burke, Director of Business Development at Acumen Executive Search. LinkedIn
Acumen Executive Search Website: https://www.acumenexecutivesearch.com
Hiring for Good Transcript
Suzanne Hanifin: So, hi and welcome to Hiring for Good. This is Suzanne Hannifan with Acumen Executive Search, and I am with my lovely co-host, Tanis Morris.
Tanis Morris: Good morning, Suzanne.
Suzanne: Good morning, Tanis. And we are super, super excited to have Acumen’s newest employee, Farah Burke, joining us today. And Farah, you come from an amazing background, very much big tech with a lot of iconic brands in Oregon, from Rentrak to Hollywood Video to Nike to A-dec, or A-dec to Nike. And then you left, and you worked for a big international software company based out of LA. And then you did the weirdest thing. You took a year, and you became the CEO of a small local chamber, your chamber, Sherwood Chamber. And after a year, you have come to Acumen. So, I would love to turn this conversation over to you and kind of share with us your journey. And again, big tech, leading tech com teams, and I probably should have said that in the introduction, chief of staff, operations, tech, I mean, a huge breadth of experience. So, share with us your journey.
Farrah Burke: Yeah, well, thanks for having me. This is my first podcast.
Tanis: I’m delighted to have you.
Farrah: Thank you. You know, I have had an awesome career. It’s been so amazing. Basically, 25 years in technology. And, um, starting out, I worked for even the state of Oregon for four or five years. I was an auditor and then moved into technology. I had some technology chops in that I had taken some technology coding classes in college, so I became an IT auditor.
And then moved over to auditing for, um, actually big studios. That was Rentrak. I would travel around. I was gone for three years, basically every week. I would go to movie theaters and video stores, um, back when Blockbuster and Hollywood were a thing.
Tanis: Yeah.
Farrah: And I would audit all their transactions, which was pretty interesting to see, you know, if what was flowing between the movie stores and the theaters was going back to the studios, making sure no one was cheating there.
And then got recruited over to Hollywood Video because I was auditing their warehouses to be a project manager. And I think early on, too, I knew my destiny was going to be in IT. I think I’ve talked to Suzanne about this. Working for the government right out of school was amazing, and I was so lucky, and there are some really cool things I still have in place from savings from being there. But I quickly realized that there wasn’t a ton of money in it.
My director at the time was making $20,000 more than I was and had been there for 20 years, I was, so I was like, okay, I think I can do better than this.
But yeah, Hollywood Video, was there till the end. Then you know, that was quite the journey at the end there , you know, having being bought out and seeing all that goes down and with a huge buyout like that.
Um, so I needed something more stable and went to A-dec, which many people know is is, um, our number two biggest private company in Oregon. And it’s the biggest dental company in the whole United States in little Newberg.
Tanis: Wow.
Farrah: Yeah. Um, so got to work with their technology uh team and to help them grow internationally, which was so cool. Um, and then went to Nike, and I had some other stops along the way. I had some agencies in between, um, A-dec and Nike that I worked for, notably Metal Toad, which I have a ton of friends still coming out of there.
Um, and landed at Nike and was there until COVID. So the change why did I make the change when I was reflecting on why I think in order I think COVID changed me as a person managing…. So I was an RTE which is a release train engineer. It’s a part of scaled agile so managing like five or six teams and all the people in it and all of their dependencies and their projects and quarterly planning it was huge but when COVID hit and being a part of that with that many people really rocked my world as a person.
Um, also at that time, they, as we all know, Mark Parker stepped aside, and a new CEO came in. So just the clash of the titans of managing all those people, trying to help them, trying to help Nike, with social unrest, with people’s families dying, and then seeing the corporate wave of all the beginnings of the layoffs. It literally I feel like it almost changed my DNA as a person.
Tanis: Wow.
Farrah: Just like I, you know, was very much impacted by how, when you know, corporate has their goals and then other things change that, how little room there is for those things to change. Um, and I knew that I was going to make some changes after that. And I would say number two is I’m a mom, and I think, you know my husband was a stay-at-home dad. He’s the most amazing stay-at-home dad, and I, um, was sort of compartmentalizing what I was missing in my daughter’s life prior to COVID and just saying, like, she’s taken care of. I’m so happy. It doesn’t matter that I’m missing out on drop-offs and making lunches and all the things I got. I’m working. I’m so proud of myself. Um, but I really was forced to see what I was missing in her life, which was a big deal, and I, coming out of it, I did not want to go back. I wanted to be there for her. You guys know how quickly you gone. You both have grown kids, or almost all your kids are grown, and um, so that’s where I started looking for something full remote. Um, Nike was saying they were going to pull everyone back, and I, so I found this company out of LA, um, and it was a small company, and I helped them grow. You know, they… most movies were filmed through it, which is pretty cool. Uh, it was a really fun four years, uh and I got to work from home, which was cool, and I got to be a part of my daughter’s life and really invest in my community more. Um, beyond that PSO though, which is so fun.
Tanis: Yeah.
Farrah: You know, volunteer in the community like I always wanted to. So, I really, you know, I think it opened my eyes to what I really wanted to be closer to home. Um, and that’s when, you know, the Hollywood strikes happened. So, another thing, uh, and, uh, so that company, you know, had some challenges. Um, and I was able to pivot and have a year to kind of like do whatever I wanted. And so the chamber of our local CEO, or of our local, my local city, uh, the CEO position was open, and I applied and became the chamber CEO for the last year.
Tanis: Wow.
Farrah: Which was like the most amazing experience of my life. I never felt more loved. Um, I literally was knighted by my community.
Tanis: Oh my god.
Farrah: For my good works. And like, I built them a new website, and and, you know, just brought all their processes to where they almost had no bills. Just operationalize the whole thing.
Tanis: Wow.
Farrah: It was so cool. Um, but it’s a nonprofit, and that doesn’t last forever. You know, I’m still the primary provider for my family. So, what’s interesting is that I was really hoping someone would tap on my shoulder coming out of it, you know, seeing what I had done at the chamber. They would really, another small company would come say like, “Come help me run my business.”
Tanis: Yeah.
Farrah: Um, and then, Suzanne, uh, was looking, and she, a mutual friend of ours, actually said, “I might know somebody.” And it just seemed like Sympatico, honestly. Um, and meeting the Acumen women and Suzanne, I just was in awe of them and was so excited for this opportunity. And I think with my background, it really lends itself to what we’re doing.
Suzanne: Absolutely. And welcome. I’m so happy you have joined us.
Farrah: Oh, thank you.
Suzanne: Absolutely.
Tanis: Yeah. I mean, this…it’s so exciting. Um I also have so much love for Acumen and and
Farrah: They love you. They love you so much.
Tanis: Wonderful company. You know, it’s like this. I’m just in my mind I’m thinking, “Oh my gosh, how exciting.” Like how exciting for a business leader to have talent like you join the team. And all of..with all of these experiences that you’ve had um, how that’s going to kind of contribute to their suite of services and um their ability to even, you know, more deeply, uh, support their their client, which I know is at the at the foundation of all of Acumen’s efforts.
So with that in mind, I’m curious, you know, where..what are you hoping to help the company do? Do you have a vision or are, you know, I if if you don’t if it’s not….
Suzanne: Yeah. No no.
Farrah: Well, and it’s it’s still, the vision’s still coming. It’s been two months.
Tanis: Yeah.
Farrah: but but I think one of the, definitely the primaries, I think was super interesting when Suzanne was looking for someone to to fill your big shoes. She was looking for someone with a big network that wasn’t similar to hers, and she said she looked on LinkedIn, and we only had two people in common.
Tanis: Oh my god.
Farrah: With her thousand….
Tanis: That’s amazing.
Farrah: connections and my almost 2,000 connections, we only had two people in common.
Tanis: Wow.
Farrah: Um, so that really is cool.
Tanis: Yeah.
Farrah: Um, and so for me, I’m really hoping like that one’s kind of on the nose. I’m hoping to grow. I’m hoping to use what I, you know, my background to really help us grow into other areas with my connections. Um, but yeah, I mean, I’m I uh I think a lot about, you know, they’ve been doing everything they can with a small crew and hoping to help them operationalize some things. I think I’m come from operations background. I can get all those processes humming if they, if they need it. So, you know, those are the two things I really think, um, there’s a lot of Sympatico around the growth, um, between us and then just, you know, help us tune up our process maybe. We want to.
Suzanne: Well, and and I think it’s really interesting because you and I both came from very very big organizations and I never intentionally set out to to start my own business. It kind of just happened. And there’s a big difference of being kind of part of this cog or creating processes, systems, being very intimate in the day-to-day lives. There’s lessons from both sides. Um, you know, and you did have the chamber which was really small.
Farrah: Yeah.
Suzanne: So, how did you navigate going from this big corporate world to really, it was you and volunteers. Which volunteers make it….
Tanis: very hard to manage.
Suzanne: Even much harder.
Farrah: And a volunteer board. I would say
Tanis: Let’s let us not forget.
Farrah: Nonprofits. You know bless them. Bless anyone who volunteers to be on a nonprofit board. But it is a huge challenge and even going to having no one. I mean I literally felt like I was doing everything right. You have to 50,000 foot down to 5 feet every single day.
Tanis: Wow.
Farrah: From like strategic planning and finance and budgeting and paying your bills all the way to answering the phone if it need. You know what I mean. You’re just. If there’s not a volunteer that here, there that day, you’re doing it. You know. I ran a 25,000 person event which was definitely something I have like, there is a lot of gray hair under this little bit of dyed hair. There’s a lot of things that caused that but this one I mean it was just another another level. But I, uh, making the transition, maybe it wasn’t as hard because of, like, I really feel like in my mind I knew I wanted something different.
Tanis: Yeah.
Farrah: I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, especially financially. Like that is the part that scares me the most, right? I’ve had that stability, and I love a pro..good process. I love that, you know, the stability. I feel like I’m a good soldier. Um, so I fit in good in a corporate setting, but I feel like my heart is just not in it, you know? It’s just not anymore.
Tanis: I I think you spoke to something so human when you honestly, and you know, very candidly discussed, um, kind of what you went through during COVID and I don’t think that you’re alone in that kind of like sea change uh of kind of like having some realizations about the world or it it’s really interesting and I think it’s what’s what’s even more interesting is you were brave enough to act on it and like change, make a big change. Um, have you regretted making like, how has that sort of, you make the bold move.
Farrah: Yeah.
Tanis: And then you’re kind of like, oh jeez. So, so like how is that?
Farrah: It’s funny. This is going to be really really raw, but I don’t professionally at all. Zero. Like I have loved everything I’ve done since I went to a smaller company to the chamber to here. Personally, it’s been a tough for my family. I’m not gonna lie.
Tanis: Yeah.
Farrah: You know, like my husband having to try and support me or like finances changing and being a stay-at-home dad and us having to adjust to that. And not that we hadn’t always planned for him to go back and do something, but it really sped that up.
Tanis: Yeah.
Farrah: Right. It sped up that expectation for him to provide more. Um, and that wasn’t easy, right? Um, I think that it was really hard.
Tanis: Yeah.
Farrah: Um, and just like a man being a stay-at-home dad in general is really tricky. I think you, I think your husband at some point was also just…You know, they they have this expectation on them that they’re going to be like the provider. So, I think the first three or four years was really tricky from an ego standpoint. We got past that and, you know, we found more balance, but I think this is just another phase in that. I think that it’s scary like your insurance, where’s your insurance going to come from?
Tanis: Yeah.
Farrah: You know, the chamber could barely provide me insurance.
Tanis: Yeah.
Farrah: And that’s expensive even for just a family of three. So, I would say professionally, I love I love everything I’m doing. But I do have a little heartache around hurting my, I feel like I’m hurting my family. Maybe that’s being a woman. Like, you know, like it could be we could be making more. They could have like an easier life right now. I don’t, not that their life isn’t great, but I don’t know. There’s something in me that makes me feel guilty.
Tanis: I think that’s really understandable. I mean I think like….
Suzanne: Absolutely.
Tanis: I know all of us have have, everybody probably listening to this has been through similar, um, kind of a similar crossroads, you know.
Suzanne: Well, and we’ve talked about it for a number of years, women that work. You know that there’s this balance, and I think you come to a realization there is no such thing as a balance. It’s not you’re balancing work, and you’re balancing motherhood and you’re balancing wife and you know, friends and everything else. It’s really about those priorities and then having to shift those priorities. That’s what makes it so challenging. And also so rewarding when you look back, right? That you kind of go, Okay, you know, like like for us when Mike was the at-home dad for 5 years, I finally said, “Get a job.” You know, like come on, get a job, dude.
Farrah: And that’s kind of how we’ve had those points, too. And it’s not he was working part time.
Suzanne: Yeah.
Farrah: But my husband’s been a designer, so we’re lucky that he could like shift, but I was also like, when’s the time only cuz it felt really scary for me to feel like I was the only, you know, weird had less.
Tanis: Yeah.
Farrah: And I wanted to give the same more, you know. Um, but the good thing is we’re past, we’re finally past that and I think we have a good path, but it was definitely hard.
Tanis: Yeah.
Farrah: The last year was definitely.
Tanis: I bet.
Farrah: Hardest
Suzanne: Yes.
Farrah: On that, because I was like threatening to stay at the chamber.
Tanis: Yeah.
Farrah: I was like, I love this job. But you know what? It makes $50,000. So, good luck with that. Now, it’s your turn, buddy.
Tanis: Yeah.
Suzanne: Exactly.
Farrah: But I don’t, I mean, I just don’t think I would have felt amazing staying. I mean, they can’t pay me more. We could not pay more than that. And I actually would not feel very, feel good and good about myself.
Suzanne: But, you know, it’s interesting as we talk about these transitions and things there, there are a lot of lessons to be learned. And when you look back, what lesson would you tell either your 20-year-old self or your daughter who’s heading into high school soon and college and her career?
Farrah: Yeah. I mean, there’s a couple of things here. I think it’s, it’s tough when you’re younger and you’re a woman. I worked in mostly, um, industries where it was all male and so I had a lot of challenging times in my younger, in my youth, you know of just like being a leader and, or you know, just, um, I don’t know, being considered a lot of things. A strong woman working with all men, it was really tough. Um, so, I think when I think about lessons learned, I think authenticity and just being yourself. Being true to yourself, um is the number one, and it took me a long time to get here, which sucks. I think that’s my generation. I just, you know I think the first 15 years of my career have been a lot, were a lot different than my last ten, and maybe everyone, maybe everyone can say that. But I will say that Me Too completely changed my life.
Tanis: Yeah.
Farrah: That movement, I like literally within months, was my work situation completely different.
Tanis: Wow.
Farrah: Um men treated me different. I hate to say it, but they were scared. And it sucks that it had to go that far, but it actually made a huge difference in my life. Um, so thank you, millennials.
Suzanne: Yes.
Farrah: Because I know we would not have done it. We would just continue to take it. And um and which again I wish it was different. Um.
Tanis: Yeah. Well, you you and I were at that, um, generational leadership event together, and I think you brought that up, and I hadn’t really thought about it until you brought up that same point with me. And I was like it’s so true. And if I look back at, like, some of the things that were going on when I was in my 20s and starting out in the workplace, I I I told my daughter, who’s in her early 20s, some of those stories and she was, like, dumbfounded. And I, and I was thinking like, you know, if if we’re all Gen X, so like we’re raised with these John Hughes movies, and which now, when you look back at them, they’re shockingly misogynist and everything else, but I think you just don’t even realize it. And anyway, so um there has been a sea change in the, in the culture of women working and and working with men and working amongst men and everything that that’s really interesting to kind of parse and I honestly didn’t even think about it till you said something.
Farrah: Yeah. And I I just felt like I had to be someone different in order to succeed. And the last 10 years I feel like I’ve been able to be myself. And I always say kindness is not weakness. I am a good person and I’m not going to act like a bad person just to get ahead.
Tanis: Yeah. Right.
Farrah: And that is what I had to do.
Suzanne: Well, and I think it’s not just that men changed, women changed, too.
Tanis: Yeah.
Suzanne: Because I think back on great bosses and poor bosses, and probably my worst was actually a woman who, again, this is, you know, mid 90s who just said, “You you want this job and wife and kids? No way. It’s one or the other.” And that was the time that we acted like men.
Farrah: Yeah.
Tanis: I think there was an expectation….
Suzanne: Right,
Tanis: That to get ahead, you had to kind of….
Suzanne: Pick and choose.
Tanis: Yeah. Or act in a, in a way that was a little, like, it it wasn’t ne..it was like weakness to be nurturing or to be kind or kind of lean into some of your maybe nurturing qualities that are a little more innate to women and um. And and to have those kind of define your leadership and whereas now I think it’s embraced.
Suzanne: Oh, it’s a superpower.
Tanis: It’s a superpower. Yeah.
Farrah: Yeah. If you can juggle that all you’re like now totally it’s a strength which is so cool.
Tanis: Yeah.
Farrah: And which is what I saw started to see down in the company in LA, and just asking for what I wanted, it happened.
Suzanne: Great.
Farrah: I had this amazing executive coach at Nike. It was like one of the best things that ever happened to me and I was holding on to a lot of baggage of things that weren’t even happening anymore and he was like you know we did all this journaling and talking about it and it was like, you know, he kept pointing out to me, “These things are not happening to you anymore, but you think that they are.”
Tanis: Wow.
Farrah: Um, he’s like, “You need to ask for what you deserve, and when you do, it will happen.” Um, and I started to do that, and boop boop boop boop…VP of operations.
Tanis: That’s amazing.
Farrah: I just said, “I want to be chief of staff. I want to be VP of operations.”
Tanis: Yeah.
Farrah: Because I’m doing like five times the work of everybody else here.
Tanis: Yeah.
Farrah: But, you know what I mean? I had, I was still holding on to these things that happened to us in our 20s and 30s. No one’s picking me. I’m I’m raising my hand and no one’s picking me because I’m a woman and it was not true anymore. Um so yeah.
Suzanne: So what are you excited for your daughter and that generation? Because we have gone a long way and I kind of want to do that little slogan, we’ve gone a long way, you know, baby. Uhhuh. But yeah, what what do you….
Farrah: I’m just. Yeah, I’m excited for her because I think they are just so much more discerning than we ever were. She does not think that she needs to be like feminine and like she is feminine inherently. That’s who she is. But I think she’s just like unstoppable. She thinks she can do anything. She does not ever pause. Like ever, which cracks me up. I just see her like walk into a room and she’ll just raise her hand. Anyone ask anyone to do anything, I’ll do it. She doesn’t even know, even if she doesn’t even know how to do it.
Tanis: That’s great.
Farrah: Do you know what I mean? Which is like the coolest thing to see. I just think there’s no barriers or boundaries. They don’t have like their parents. I mean, I had an extremely feminine mother who was like homemaker. I mean, we had a lot of things going on besides that, but she also like very homemaker, you know, was by my dad’s side taking care. So I was like torn between all that the whole time.
Suzanne: Oh yeah.
Farrah: You know, very like, is this my role? Do I need to be the caretaker? Do I need to…I just don’t think my daughter’s has any of that. Seeing my journey and then, you know, having a dad who was a stay-at-home dad, and then have being in the world that she’s in right now. I just think they think they can do anything, and I’m like, you guys can, like….
Suzanne: Awesome. Yeah, that is awesome.
Tanis: Yeah. So, well, gosh, um, I feel like there’s so many interesting things that have been touched on in this conversation. I’d love to lean in a little further, but I know that, um, we are on a time limit.
Farrah: No of course. No, thank you for having me. It’s wonderful.
Tanis: So, the final question that we always ask our guests is, you know, what does hiring for good mean to you? We like that it’s iterative, and we’d love to hear your interpretation.
Farrah: Yeah. I mean, for me, I feel like I’ve collected over the last couple months. It’s hiring with intention and the right people. It’s not just like writing a job description and posting it. It’s like looking at your organization and making sure you’re all aligned on what you want. Um, and then really hiring with intention, like we are hiring what is going to be best for this organization, and hopefully they hire Acumen to help them.
Suzanne: I agree. Well, Farah, thank you so much for your time, and welcome to Acumen.
Farrah: Thank you.
Suzanne: You’re going to be unstoppable.
Farrah: Oh, thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you both.
Outro: Thanks for joining us today at Hiring for Good. If you were inspired by our conversation, don’t forget to like, follow, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And if you want to learn more about our executive search services, check us out at www.hiringforgood.net net or our company website acumen executive search. Thanks so much and don’t forget to join us next time for another in-depth conversation about transformational leadership. Until then, have fun.