About Darren Marshall: Darren Marshall is an entrepreneurial CEO with 30 years of experience transforming consumer sector businesses. He crafts growth-oriented brands, products, and channel experiences while developing the teams, cultures, and capabilities to scale them sustainably.
Darren Marshall is the CEO of Steven Smith, Teamaker, a two-time Inc. 5000 growth company, and was a 2024 EY Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist.
Darren Marshall’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrenrileymarshall/
About Steven Smith Teamaker: The Finest Name in Tea Since 1949, Smith Teamaker crafts tea and other plant-based beverages steeped in quality and creativity. Elevated, but always accessible, our aim is to be the daily craving of consumers with uncompromising taste.
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. 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 is a podcast exploring the transformative power of leadership and what happens when the right person takes the job. The Hiring for Good Podcast is presented by Acumen Executive Search.
Hiring for Good Transcript
0:00 well hello I am Suzanne Hanafin with Acumen Executive Search and I am with my
0:05 lovely co-worker and co-host Tanis Morris. Hello. For those of you who have
0:10 not joined hiring for good before hiring for good is a podcast about best
0:17 practices in leadership it is about what to do what not to do and the lessons
0:23 learned today we are so excited we have Darren Marshall CEO of Steven Smith Tea
0:30 maker and Darren brings 30 years working with ic..iconic Brands such as Steinway,
0:38 Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and Proctor & Gamble but more
0:43 importantly Darren’s worked on people, cultures, and organizations; so welcome
0:50 Darren thank you for being here today thanks so much it’s a pleasure yeah so
0:55 we usually start off really learning about you and the journey it took to get
1:02 where you are today and again the lessons learned the “aha moments” things
1:09 that you want to share so I’ll shut up and turn the conversation over to
1:15 you wow uh my background um first off I
1:20 I would have never have imagined um that I would be sitting here with you here
1:26 today um um doing what we’re what we’re doing and life I guess has that way of
1:32 uh unfolding all kinds of uh interesting alleys and surprises uh I grew up in
1:38 Canada um in um in Winnipeg right in the center, pretty cold part, um I was really
1:45 interested in music when I was young um and that led me to a scholarship to
1:51 college uh to study music um which was lots of fun I learned how to study and
1:57 to learn uh and to be curious uh which took me to um uh math and
2:04 economics and eventually then went to business school um um at business school
2:10 I was thinking about what um what I would want to do with my life and I it’s
2:15 always interested in brands and consumers and you know…why is that
2:21 people buy things that the way they do and uh ended up at Proctor & Gamble um
2:27 which was a great learning ground um best fundamentals anywhere certainly at the
2:33 time and then um I got curious uh again and uh had an opportunity to come to the
2:40 US so I immigrated um in 1996 I guess um came to the US uh worked
2:48 at PepsiCo um uh for several years then I got an interesting phone call um from
2:54 the folks at Coca-Cola who said uh you’ve made one move why don’t you make other moves um um you want to do
3:01 something international well we’ll show you international which I thought meant London or Paris or something exotic and
3:09 they said yeah or Kuala Lumpur um so uh we um packed up our a small family at
3:17 that point in 1998 I guess and moved to Kuala Lumpur just before the um um the
3:25 Asian financial crisis um worked through that Asian financial crisis which was
3:31 bonkers in so many ways uh but survived um and then was thrown another
3:37 opportunity in Singapore, and then another opportunity in Bangkok, in Thailand, and another opportunity in Hong
3:44 Kong uh eventually came back to the US um and then there was a point um working
3:51at Coke after having been there for a long time that you know I didn’t really want to be selling Diet Coke for the
3:56 rest of my career and that’s sort of where things were were heading and so I left and I had as I mentioned
4:04 um studied music as a as a young student and thought it was perhaps a midlife
4:09 crisis I don’t know but um thought an opportunity to to do something good for
4:15 the world and so I I went to Steinway when they transitioned from um being a
4:22 public company to a private company as the chief marketing officer to try to bring that business into the 20th
4:28 century not quite the 21st Century but uh better than the 19th or the 18th yes
4:33 um and then when that was completed uh had an opportunity to sort of combine a
4:39 few things uh I had worked in private equity for a long time I had worked in beverages for a long time I had worked
4:45 in luxury for um for a minute um so bringing those together with uh with
4:50 Smith um so Steven Smith teamaker is uh a portland-based uh company um that
4:58 we’ve been very for to grow quite rapidly over the past uh six- or seven-years um Steven was the founder of Stash
5:07 Tea in the 70s and then um uh Tazo Tea in
5:12 the ’90s and uh came up with his third chapter his namesake brand Steven Smith teamaker
5:20 in 2009 uh unfortunately Steven passed away uh several years ago uh a private equity
5:27 firm got involved I got involved and we’ve been able to to uh transition thing to things where they are today
5:33 well and you talk about these iconic brands that people know but really I
5:39 find what’s interesting is going to from very large corporate big
5:45 conglomerates to an old old brand, an old old company of Steinway to kind of a
5:53 startup PE owned you know what are some
5:58 of those for formative learnings going through all of that yeah you know I think we go through
6:05 life and we find things that we like and things that we don’t like um and the
6:10 only way that you can really understand that is by taking a step uh into the
6:16 unknown and either you you hear the click because you stepped on a landmine
6:22 um or you um you you sit on on solid ground uh but you have to take the step
6:28 and have to have the curiosity and the the guts sometimes um to be able
6:33 to to walk into the unknown so for me um
6:38 it’s interesting because it may seem like I’ve worked for very big companies and my paychecks perhaps have had that
6:45 but my roles have always been very entrepreneurial so for example um I uh
6:52 worked with Proctor & Gamble in Canada which is a scrappy little country where everything was done um you know locally
7:00 because the Canadians are so different um um so learning how to sort of create
7:05 things from scratch um my time at Coke which is you know one of the world’s
7:11 largest brands uh was in Asia uh where the big brands uh that were unknown in
7:19 that part of the world and in many cases Greenfield markets um where you’re
7:24 building the the operation and distribution and the brand literally
7:29 from ground zero and being 15 time zones away from Atlanta U was a a very good
7:36 thing very freeing in many ways um so the ability to be entrepreneurial in
7:42 those environments and then um Brands like Steinway were about transitions you
7:47 know how do you take a 150 year old um business that had people who had been
7:53 there for almost 150 years literally um how do you how do you transition that
7:59 into a new way of thinking um which is always harder than than you might imagine so I think at the end of the day
8:06 it’s it’s um uh for me there’s always been a constant threat of curiosity um
8:13 there’s been learning how to work through um
8:19 challenges uh oftentimes challenges that were unknown or unproven or just
8:25 undiscovered so there’s a level of tenacity that goes goes through that and then there’s um for me personally
8:32 there’s a a level of empathy you know I like people and I want to make a an impact uh in people’s lives and so the
8:40 that combination of curiosity tenacity and empathy uh are sort of the the three
8:47 words that one day I’ll get uh tattooed on my arm you’re teeing us up so beautifully for the next question I
8:53 almost can’t believe it because um you know the the next question that I was
8:59 think thinking about as you were speaking is if you have closely held values and you’ve identified them just
9:05 now tenacity curiosity and empathy how do you um extend those or or
9:13 have how do those show up in the organizations that you’re leading and have those been you know kind of your
9:21 cornerstones throughout your career or those you know values that you’ve come
9:27 to hold closely in value through you know because of what you’ve been
9:32 through yeah I I think if you if if you say that um you know my life has always
9:38 been on these three things then um that’s sort of a sad way to think about it because it means you’re inflexible uh
9:46 I I haven’t really thought until recently in my old age um about about
9:51 what those sort of fundamental pillars are I think you discover them and you refine them and you polish them and you
9:58 then you realize unknowingly that hey there’s a couple things that have been consistent throughout it’s interesting
10:04 with a with a businesslike Smith um so Steven was an iconic entrepreneur um um
10:13 he left a beautiful brand um some amazing products and uh just a wonderful
10:22 story provenance but what he also left is uh a team
10:29 that didn’t necessarily have the capabilities to grow um with uh a
10:36 business that had an overhead that was far too big for um um for the size of
10:43 the business and um just not the customer base to be able to grow so some
10:51 good things but some things that we had to fundamentally uh work through that doesn’t mean that we changed everything
10:58 because some things that were absolutely amazing uh but there’s other elements that you need to triage and sort of sort
11:05 through and so we as we are working through that um you know
11:10 obviously assumes that things were were different than they than they were and you only really discover where things
11:17 are at when you um uh take that step forward and do you’re the click or not
11:23 um and so we had to to work through things and and what’s interesting I guess that the the the to fast forward
11:30 to where we are today, we have about the same number of people as we had six seven years ago but with four times the
11:36 revenue so the the the output the productivity per person has changed
11:43 fundamentally which is I there’s some hard things that we did um uh tangible
11:49 things but really culture was at at the the the center of that so for us we step
11:57 back and you just thought thought about the people in our organization who were really crushing it you know what was it
12:03 that they were doing who were they and what did they do that was unique and
12:08 different and sort of came down to um the snappy three letters of of uh head
12:16 heart and hustle um which is remarkably not too dissimilar from um curiosity
12:23 tenacity and and empathy but that’s a separate thing um so head for us
12:31 is um just about making smart decisions about thinking through things being logical we don’t have rocket scientists
12:37 we don’t need rocket scientists we need people who um who put thought into what
12:43 they’re doing and and make good decisions um heart people who care about
12:49 our product uh our brand our customers each other um people who collaborate um
12:56 who want to make a positive difference um and who don’t want to just alienate
13:01 people and then hustle like we need to get things done um we’ve we have been
13:07 able to transition the business um because we uh retrofitted people who had
13:14 that hustle mindset it means that we’ve got to have an action orientation we
13:19 need to want to get things done um we need to uh take some risks to move
13:26 things forward um and that’s uh where all all sort of comes together and like
13:33 marketing head heart and hustle very intentionally you know it’s easy to think about um and it’s something we say
13:40 over and over and over and over again and um we’ve got these little green
13:46 cards uh which you…I have one! that sort of lay out you know why we exist and how we have we decided
13:54 as a team to to operate and we hold each other accountable uh to that um and then
14:01 share the the benefits as they go yeah and I think it’s you you mentioned this culture and and it’s
14:07 amazing Darren we’ve seen it firsthand you know to do full disclosure we’ve
14:13 supported you and helped find find a candidate for you or an employee for you
14:18 but it really is entrenched in all of the decisions across the board I think
14:25 the other interesting thing is again curiosity empathy
14:31 tenaciousness you can see it not just in that culture but it’s lived and breathed I
14:39 mean it’s it’s almost palpable so when you look at the scale that you’re doing
14:46 because you’re growing tremendously new robots in your manufacturing new marketing
14:52 partners what does the next five years look like for you so we’ve been we’ve been um very
15:01 fortunate it’s been a lot of work um but we’ve been able to move the business
15:07 from call it a distressed asset um relatively small losing a lot of money
15:14 um but with a lot of potential so we’ve been able to to rightsize the business
15:21 um make it sustainable um and now we’re at a point
15:26 where we can fund our own way um to our uh to our destiny so we have a a vision
15:36 um to be uh 60×30 we want to be a $60 million business by 2030 um and um we’re in the process now
15:45 of rolling that out and for us rolling that out means enrolling people uh in in
15:53 um in that process so helping people understand where we want to go why we
15:58 want to go there we think how but I want to get your perspective partner uh on
16:04 how we’re going to get there what are the things that need to happen um so it was interesting um we had one of those
16:11 sessions this week with our operations team and sort of the penny dropped with
16:17 most people that that meant well we have four production lines now but then we would need to have 10 production lines
16:24 and where are we going to put those and how are they going to get together and how are we going to find that many people and and you know all of that sort
16:30 of thing um but it’s that’s that’s where we’re going um we want to continue the growth rate that we have um um and we’ve
16:40 identified where and how we want to be able to bring that to life and now we have the opportunity to create the
16:48 interesting creative sometimes never invented before um um uh ideas to be able to to bring
16:55 that to life absolutely and you mentioned this building teams and building out the process a you’re
17:04 geographically confined in your current location
17:10 but well I guess that’s just end that so when you’re looking at this growth what
17:16 approach and what do you bring to building your
17:24 teams yeah I think um the the what I
17:29 want to what I want to do from a legacy perspective is create uh a sustainable
17:36 business um uh with people who can sustain that business that have a
17:43 culture and a set of processes and a set of products um that that keep that um
17:50 Financial economic um um flywheel spinning um for for people that it will
17:58 feed them and their families and our community uh in a way that that makes
18:03 sense so the way to to to make that happen from my perspective is just
18:10 getting the systems and the processes and the capabilities in line to be able
18:15 to keep that that that flywheel spinning at an ever accelerating rate um and then
18:24 um enjoying hopefully the impact that it has on on people on our community on our
18:30 industry on our brand on our stakeholders. Uh yeah well that I mean
18:36 it’s it’s so interesting I’m thinking also when when you are looking to build
18:42 your teams obviously they have to align with you know the core values of Smith Tea
18:49 but are you you know you’ve you’ve kind of had to was the brand determined for Smith
18:55 before before you came on you know you you’ve identified a very specific type of consumer you’re you have an
19:02 interesting approach to or I don’t even say interesting but you have a very
19:07 targeted approach to who who you want to be working with when you’re looking at
19:13 adding to your internal team at Smith what sort of visionary mindset are
19:19 you looking for when when you have people joining the team do they need to embrace like the
19:26 larger Vi..the future vision of the company or I mean do they need to be visionary too or are you just looking
19:32 for hard smart hardworking smart people yeah um
19:37 there’s it’s interesting the the the skills and abilities that have gotten us
19:43 here are going to be different from the skills and abilities that are going to get us to the the the next um phase
19:51 we’ve um typic..we’ve been cash constrained um so uh there’s been a preference
19:59 for um high potential people that may
20:04 not have had uh a ton of experience yet uh but they can grow into things as um
20:13 the business needs um and in some cases there’s maybe a different price tag that
20:19 goes along along with that because there’s a necessity for it and for us
20:25 we’ve been fortunate in that in many cases the the people that we’ve we’ve
20:31 chosen in key roles have had that flexibility they’ve been able to grow um
20:38 uh but that’s not necessarily the case with everyone because we’re all human beings and we’re all different we have different values and different abilities
20:45 and different ambitions yeah um so getting to where we want to get to
20:51 there’s probably going to be more um delineation um there’s going to be some
20:56 people who are more forward visionary thinkers and more um people who are
21:03 going to keep their wheels on the bus going around and around around um and there’s a place for both of them uh it
21:10 really depends on how you want to develop your career well this podcast is about leadership too and so I think it’s
21:16 such an interest I’m sure it’s a balance that every leader has has to walk you know the the needs of the day how to how
21:24 to um encourage everyone to to vision you know envision and work towards the
21:30 future you know a an intangible future but but kind of make that concrete along
21:35 the way and you know what what have you
21:40 what have you learned about leadership through these various processes that that has
21:48 um that if you could go back in time and speak to like the young man who was
21:53 maybe just coming out of music school or or you know early in your career you
21:58 know what what would you tell yourself about
22:04 leadership yeah it’s that’s a really interesting question um um again as I uh
22:12 get more gray hairs um the the the impact of leadership is really far more
22:19 important than I would have ever sort of imagine I remember in business school it’s like oh yeah the leadership class
22:25 because you have to sort of go to that like blah blah blah the HR stuff whatever um but now there’s so many
22:33 things I wish I could go back to and revisit in a deep way and I think
22:38 leadership is just really really important um Integrity is really
22:46 important um being someone that someone can trust um the way to get trust is to um
22:56 say what you do and do what you say and deliver on commitments and promises um
23:04 um the way to get trust is to communicate super clearly you know here’s why here’s where here’s how um
23:14 the way to build partnerships is to engage with others um interesting
23:20 Suzanne you were talking about Thailand earlier and um one of the things that I…
23:27 long lasting memory from working in in Thailand back in the day was the
23:32 importance of asking questions of inviting people in um you can tell
23:39 people um and they’ll nod and shake their head and whatever but that doesn’t
23:44 mean that they agree um the way to engage people is to bring them into the
23:50 conversation and to ask questions and to um create an environment where um uh
24:00 people are challenged uh I need to be challenged the problem in my role is
24:06 that if I say something and I don’t really think about what I’m saying like people take it as gospel and um and half
24:13 the time I’m as my wife can attest half the time I’m you know pulling things out
24:18 of thin air and most of the time they’re right but um but um often they’re not
24:25 and I I need someone who can keep me accountable um and question uh and
24:31 debate um so having people who can who can who have the courage to to have that
24:37 debate on one hand and I just need to be super careful about what I say and to whom and when and how and yeah you know
24:45 um even like the tone of voice or the raise of an eyebrow um yeah all of that
24:51 stuff is just really really important creating an environment that allows people to to come in cuz I can’t do it
24:58 by myself yeah I’m going to go off script for just a second because I I think the other really interesting
25:04 leadership experience that you’ve had that I can’t imagine
25:10 um I I’m interested to ask you about it is that you came into leadership as
25:16 Smith um in the wake of of Steven’s passing you came on as the leader of a
25:23 team you know you mentioned that the organization was kind of financially under duress at the time and you’ve righted
25:30 that ship but what was it like as a leader to step into this environment
25:35 where you had a really kind of iconic figure figure head and and human being
25:41 who was who’s leading the team there and then come in kind of and um not only
25:46 right right the ship financially speaking but like take the helm um and
25:52 and have you know I I’m just curious if you could speak to that a little bit because I think I was like enough to to
25:59 you know tour your facility and see the respect that your team holds for you and it was really uh you know um interesting
26:08 and kind of inspiring oh thank you um it’s interesting so I’ve been I’ve been
26:14 in in Portland for in my seventh year and i’ had never had the opportunity to
26:20 meet Steven um I suspect that we would probably get along quite well um but
26:28 it’s it’s interesting I I was even at a dinner last night and uh sitting at this
26:33 table with a bunch of people I had never met before who all had Steven stories like everybody of a certain age has
26:40 Steven stories he’s like an iconic person um big personality very kind very
26:46 generous very creative um he had a perspective on things and left an impression on people the people who
26:52 worked for Smith um worked for Steven like they
26:57 didn’t get paid very well um they were doing things because of Steve and who he
27:03 was and what he was and the ability to sort of be in that presence and then you
27:08 take some um someone iconic like that out of the situation and the the people
27:15 around uh who who were part of that go into protection mode um and the the
27:24 culture was protect what Steven did not necessarily what Steven would do
27:34 um because times had had changed so that was that was an important um delineation
27:40 and understanding one of the things that we’ve spoken about before is it’s very
27:46 very typical um from my experience for someone new to come in and to change
27:51 everything you know to change the brand put my thumb print on it and to uh you
27:57 know make it very visible that you know you know new new new king is on the
28:02 throne and that’s not what we what we did um the the brand W is beautiful we
28:11 haven’t changed anything about the brand we’ve redefined a few things and and articulated things perhaps in different
28:17 ways but didn’t change the packaging was perfect um we’ve evolved it to different needs that we’ve had um the story uh of
28:27 Smith is is amazing and like you can’t you can’t make that stuff up so like
28:33 that is pristine if anything we’re we’re using that more um than we we ever had
28:39 in the past we had to be be careful to define the things that were sacred and
28:46 that wouldn’t change um and then there are some things that we added and some things that we did did change um we we
28:53 we’ve added new products new channels new capabilities new manufacturing you
28:59 know all of that stuff but that’s stuff that people wouldn’t wouldn’t see um we
29:05 have changed um people and and culture
29:11 uh and that again isn’t necessarily some something that a consumer might see but
29:17 we’ve definitely made that change within the organization um we could have um you
29:24 know new private equity company let’s fire everybody and start start a fresh um we didn’t do that um we um were more
29:33 gradual about that um and sort of one capability one person one personality um
29:40 at a time and and we more um methodical and that doesn’t mean that we eliminated
29:46 um everyone we eliminated a few things um that needed to be um needed to be
29:52 modified um in retrospect could have been done faster should have been done faster um
30:00 but we’ll leave that for the next time I’m glad you brought up the PE firm because I wanted to bring that up
30:05 because not a lot of Portland companies are PE owned how does that relationship
30:12 and how does that influence your leadership in your day-to-day
30:19 decisions yeah um so in our case our
30:24 private equity partners are uh ma majority owners of our of our business
30:30 um they have uh made the investment they’ve they’ve provided and risked the
30:37 capital and um we need to respect um
30:43 give them the respect that they they deserve um of course there um are shareholders and we need to make sure
30:49 that there’s a an appropriate return on on the investment they’ve made um that
30:56 doesn’t mean that that they know everything um we all learn and grow and
31:03 discover and frankly we’re the people who are operating the business um now
31:09 know the business better than any person ever has um because there’s been a lot
31:16 of um diligence that has been applied um a board um or private equity firm their
31:24 objective is to challenge and and uh you can take that challenge as um an insult
31:33 or an affront or a you know whatever it might be or you can take it as a
31:38 challenge um and a question and a sense of curiosity and dig deeper to
31:46 understand whether that is a truth or not a truth um and uh I like those sorts
31:53 of challenges um it means that uh P..private equity investors
31:59 are finance people um they think in numbers and so you have to um be
32:07 quantitative um you have to deal in fact um you have to tell stories um with
32:14 facts um if you want to have a point of view um otherwise you you’ll do what
32:20 you’re told um and I I thankfully have um am mind that
32:28 works that way and a history with large
32:34 corporate um uh entities that have taught me how to um speak that language
32:41 uh which is really really critical and it’s it’s important now that the people
32:47 who um are part of Smith they’ve learned that language um and are growing in that
32:54 language and it’s it’s really interesting to see people several years
33:00 into their career um you know talk about facts and you know have their data and
33:06 have all of the bits and pieces which is perhaps a different way of operating and
33:11 learning and articulating than they may have done in the past um but it’s
33:16 hopefully something that they can benefit from um by being part of uh this myth
33:22 team this podcast is hiring for good so
33:27 Daren in your perspective what does hiring for good mean to
33:34 you for us we want to make an
33:40 impact um on our business on our industry on our community and on our
33:46 teamakers um and that is why we exist so our mission statement is to enrich
33:54 lives through exceptional tea experiences and the impact we want to have it’s on the business on the
34:00 industry on our community and and uh our teamakers um so the impact that we
34:08 want to have is to create a sustainable business um one that lasts far longer
34:14 than anyone individual I heard someone recently talk about building a hundred-year business
34:20 and that is what we have been designed for and what we um intend um to be
34:28 um we want to have an impact on our industry and so for us having um uh the
34:37 tea industry is old and stale and boring and good year looks like plus one% um
34:45 and um Smith is growing at 25 to 30 times that that rate and uh we are
34:53 changing the way think people think about tea um particularly in a world
34:59 where soda is um uh not as healthy for
35:04 you um that caffeine is uh now being reconsidered where alcohol is being
35:10 reconsidered um we are more than happy to fill that space with um a beverage
35:18 that uh is good for the industry and good for Humanity um we want to make an impact on
35:26 our community we have several initiatives that we focus on um but a
35:31 couple in particular so we have a partnership with Girls Inc for example
35:36 um so that we can empower um women of a next generation to be strong smart and
35:43 bold um those are our customers uh and we want to be able to empower those
35:49 women um and we have created a a product called empowerment um which is designed
35:56 by women for for women uh and their unique needs and um proceeds from that
36:03 product go directly to um Girls Inc um so that’s one way of supporting our community our local community but our um
36:12 origin community is also very important to us so we um um we invest in um an
36:23 organization called broadleaf um which helps to support our farming communities
36:29 in daring um the families of of tea farmers um with education with health
36:36 and safety um safe water you all of those sorts of things so that that we
36:41 can um directly control the impact that we’re having in the regions that we want
36:47 to to make an impact to and then finally the the impact that we have on our
36:53 teamakers um we have 80 employees today as we evolve towards our vision that
36:58 will need to to double um at least o over time um uh and I want to make a a strong
37:08 impact in those those people’s lives I want people to um have a 401k that’s
37:14 matched um to have full health care benefits um to be able to um work and
37:21 support their families um in whatever way um uh they may need I want them to
37:28 be able to afford to buy a house someday uh those are important things and um I’m
37:34 thankful that we’re putting the the pieces in place to be able to um to
37:41 create that sustainable business model that’s the impact that we want to have so the people that we’re hiring for like
37:48 those are that’s the destination and we need to have people who can help us make
37:54 that impact it starts with creating a business that is sustainable uh within
37:59 an industry that needs some help uh which we’re helping with um and uh who
38:05 have a heart and empathy for um each other and the communities that we serve
38:11 I love that that is just beautiful yeah yeah I I think that might be our well
38:19 say the best response we’ve ever had but that was quite comprehensive yes um
38:25 thank you absolutely again Darren Marshall CEO of Smith Tea and I have to
38:31 say thank you as a consumer because I was I would like to yes I
38:36 would actually like to offer a plug for the new Marigold tea I recently purchased it I can’t even I am I’m I
38:44 guess I’m your you know gorilla marketer out there I am giving it to everyone like can you believe this everyone try
38:51 it it’s absolutely changes your life hot or cold hot or cold I served it cold at
38:56 a um party that I had right after I my tour and then I’ve been drinking it hot
39:04 I I’m obsessed so yes thank you and thank you Darren for today and your
39:09 insights greatly greatly appreciated thank you thanks for joining us today at
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39:28 or our company website Acumen Executive Search. Thanks so much and
39:34 don’t forget to join us next time for another in-depth conversation about transformational leadership till then
39:39 have fun