- [Narrator] Funding for this edition of One-On-One with Steve Adubato has been provided by NJM Insurance Group.

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- This is One-On-One.

- I'm an equal American just like you are.

- The way we change Presidents in this country is by voting.

- A quartet is already a jawn, it'’s just The New Jawn.

- January 6th was not some sort of violent, crazy outlier.

- I don't care how good you are or how good you think you are, there is always something to learn.

- I mean what other country sends comedians over to embedded military to make them feel better.

- People call me 'cause they feel nobody's paying attention.

-_ It'’s not all about memorizing and getting information, it'’s what you do with that information.

- (slowly) Start talking right now.

- That's a good question, high five.

(upbeat music) - Hi, everyone.

Steve Adubato.

We have her back.

She is Michele Siekerka.

She is the President and CEO of the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, and she's been with us many times to talk about a whole range of issues.

Michele, good to see you, my friend.

- Always a pleasure, Steve.

- Same here.

Hey, the Ninth Annual Women's Business Leaders Forum.

Nine years you've been doing this.

- Yes.

- The main message, I'm always asking, what's the main message?

What was the main message in the forum of these large group of leaders who happen to be women and making a difference in the world, what was the main message?

- Well, the main message is build those leadership skills, those hardcore leadership skills, and then let's bring visibility to all those great women who have those skills to get them to the C-suite and the boardroom.

The energy was palpable.

Everybody was excited.

We raised the roof at least 10 times.

- Yeah, but raising the roof in person, I'm not gonna say it's easy, but you and I have spoken and been in front of, we've done this remotely, but then we've been in person, and it leads me to this.

You have this Ninth Annual Forum, Women's Forum, which there's a great buzz about it.

It would've been much harder to create that buzz and raising of the roof remotely, fair?

- Absolutely, there is nothing like being in the room with 500 women and men, by the way, who are engaged and ready to discuss leadership and what it means to aspire and ascend to the C-suite and the boardroom.

- So, let's talk about that.

You and I have talked about this before, both on this program and also our sister program, "Lessons in Leadership," with my colleague, Mary Gamba.

We talk about relationship building and the fact that much of your success as a CEO, as a leader in this state in the business community comes about 'cause of relationships.

We're relationship people, right?

That being said, the unique challenges of not just building your brand, but building relationships that help you build your brand and the business that you need to run your business, a lot harder remotely.

Talk about that.

- Yeah, you're really missing the personal connection.

Look, we can be efficient and many times effective in a one dimension to get business done.

Transactional, right?

Great for transactional.

Quick, easy, we don't have to travel, we save money.

Great for transaction.

Relationship building, to take it deeper, you have to be in a room.

You have to feel the energy.

You gotta feel the warmth.

You gotta see the body language.

You have to be able to have sidebar, right?

The whole dynamic of physicality and a relationship is a big part of it.

- There's a challenge going on for many businesses, businesses that I've done leadership development coaching for in my other life, who are struggling with the question of, do we mandate people coming back into the office?

What's the hybrid situation?

What makes sense in terms of...

Listen, commuting in this state, we're not gonna get into a discussion about commuting in this state, which is never easy.

Have you come to a sense of what an appropriate, I know it's, look, we're doing this all remotely.

Sometimes we're out on location.

Mostly we're doing this, though, I wanna be honest.

Every industry is different, but do you have a better sense of the appropriate hybrid balance?

- Well, it all depends upon what the topic is, who you're speaking with.

I would say, time and manner, place.

Know when you need to be in the room, know when you need to be 3D and alive, and know when it's appropriate just to be on screen.

Your instincts should tell you, but sometimes you need to be told when you need to be in a room.

But you should know also what you need to get out of a meeting, a discussion, a relationship, and how to make it work, and sometimes that means being in the room.

- So I'm curious about this.

When we talk about building your brand, which is a major theme of the Ninth Annual New Jersey Business and Industry Association Women's Conference, the forum, when I've talked about people building your brand, they go, "What do you mean, bragging about yourself?"

And I'll say, "No, no.

"Brand building is, that's not for me."

Go ahead.

What's brand building?

I have my own ideas, but I'm more interested in yours.

- Well, you know, it's how you're seen, it's how you're perceived.

It's what people think of you, right?

And so you create your brand, your persona by how you're seen, by how you act, by how you behave, by how you engage.

And then people come to know you in a certain way.

So it is, how do you wanna be seen?

What is the perception you want people to have of you?

And how do you then step back and build that?

- Is it clear at this point, we're at the end of 2023, this show will be seen toward the back end of 2023 into 2024, are there certain industries that seem to be from your experience and the research of BIA, to be more accessible to women, that women are succeeding in more in ways that they haven't in the past that...

I know that's an awkward question, but I keep thinking, are there industries that women are breaking through and succeeding in in a way they weren't five or 10 years ago?

- So, I mean, I'd like to be optimistic and say, I think we're breaking in exponentially on the horizontal across many, all right?

Because there's been a lot of attention to this, and I see it in corporate America.

I also see the barriers still in place, and some might having to do with at the end of the day who's got a balance, right?

Who's got balance that family and that work.

And next generation coming up too, their definition of balance is very different than ours, Steve.

- Talk about that.

- Yeah, some days.

Yeah, some days, I don't know if I am ecstatic for the next generation, if I'm jealous for the next generation, or if I'm just sad about where we may be going in terms of our interaction and our relationship building.

So go back to now personal brand, right?

If you wanna be seen as someone who is dynamic, engaging, a relationship builder, has passion, momentum, you can only do so much of that on a screen, okay?

You gotta be in a room to do that.

If you wanna be seen more as like a worker bee, head down, I can get the job done, I can get that contract done and off to you, right, and the relationship aspect isn't so much, then maybe one dimension's okay for you, right?

So building your brand is also about, again, getting yourself in the room or choosing not to be in the room because that's not who you are.

Not everybody's an extrovert.

Some people are introverts and they're better in a quieter space.

I mean, if that's the case, then you wanna ensure that you send the message that that's what works for you and that's where you work best.

And that's why the idea of mandate doesn't always work either, Steve, right?

- You're not a fan of it?

- You know, well, I'm not a fan date of that word for anything, right?

I prefer to get people with a little bit of honey versus a stick.

Can you create an environment that people wanna be drawn to, that they know that they have to be there 'cause they don't wanna miss something, right?

Make it dynamic and get them in there.

If you force them in there, oftentimes they come in defensive.

If they wanna be there, they're bringing their passion in with them.

- Got it.

Hey Michele, set this up.

There are two leaders, two leaders who are at this forum, the Ninth Annual Business and Industry Women's Leadership Forum, Dawn Fitch, Founder and CEO of Pooka Pure and Simple, and Krishna Powell, Founder and CEO of HR4 Your Small Biz.

These are two women making a difference in succeeding, right?

- Oh, absolutely.

If you're speaking at our event, you have, yeah, succeeded.

- So, set that up for people.

- We- - How do you actually select those folks?

- Well, because we see them in action, right?

We're not gonna put on a program where we're gonna put people up that aren't tested in order to bring value to the other people in the room.

But then, you know, and that's all across the, don't just think it's a bunch of executive level women sitting there delivering message.

The cross-pollinization between the entry, the middle, and the senior is extraordinary.

Look, we're going into five generations in the workforce.

If we don't take time to understand from each other how best to interact and engage in our work environment and in all the things that we do, we're not gonna be successful in what we do.

So how do we identify these women?

Because these women have taken the time to build their brand, right?

- Sure.

- To get their hardcore leadership skills, and they're out there, so we wanna bring visibility to them.

That's the whole notion behind the entire leadership program.

- It is the Ninth Annual New Jersey Business, by the way, the website has been up the whole time.

Check it out.

The Ninth Annual Women Business Leaders Forum.

Michele Siekerka is the President and CEO of BIA, New Jersey Business Industry Association, our longtime colleagues and partners.

And also check out their magazine, "New Jersey Business Online," as well as in print.

You can check that out on the website.

Michele, thank you.

Thank you for teeing this up.

- Thanks Steve, and by the way, mark your calendar, September 25, 26, 2024, the 10th Annual at Bally's in Atlantic City.

It's already booked.

See you there.

- Say the date again.

- September 25 and 26 of 2024 at Bally's in Atlantic City.

- That's Michele Siekerka.

She knows how to plug.

Well done.

We'll be right back right after this.

- [Narrator] To watch more One on One with Steve Adubato find us online and follow us on Social media.

- We continue talking to women business leaders, and we have Dawn Fitch in the house.

She is founder and CEO of Pooka Pure & Simple.

Dawn, great to have you with us.

- Thank you, Steve.

It's good to be here.

- All right, you got 30 seconds for the so-called elevator pitch, which is a dated expression, I know.

Pooka Pure & Simple is?

- Pooka Pure & Simple is a line of natural bath and body products that I started in my kitchen 23 years ago.

I like to say I started when I was two, but obviously I did not.

It's a line of natural bath and body products, but we're also moving into being a health and wellness brand for women.

- Why?

That's the what.

Now I wanna know the why.

- The why is I got sick.

I'm a graphic artist by trade.

I went to school for design.

I worked in the music industry.

I got off the train in Manhattan, had my theme music on in my head, and I went numb from the waist down while I was walking.

And it was the scariest experience ever.

It started a five-year journey of trying to figure out what was wrong, what's wrong with my health.

And doctors just kept sending me home, said, "Oh, you're healthy".

So you don't feel good, you hear that, you gotta make some changes.

So I changed my diet and I read an article about your skin.

It's the largest organ, what you put on is going into your system.

So I was like, I'm cleaning out the inside and outside.

I opened up my kitchen cabinet and I just started pulling things out there, olive oil, soybean oil, to put on my skin.

And I started to feel better just from cleansing everything.

So it really has become a mission for women, women and men, to put cleaner products on their skin.

- Why the name Pooka?

- My mom, when we were little called us the pookalitas.

We have no idea what that means or why she did, but we know it was a term of endearment.

And when I was making products, I had no plan of starting a business.

Just wanted to feel better.

But the graphic artist in me was like, all right, put a label on it, make it neat.

And I wanted to put Pookalita on it, but I just couldn't fit it.

Cut it in half, put Pooka on there.

So, it's named of love for my mom.

- Your mom would be proud.

You started in your home.

- Yes.

- Where is the business now?

- We have our own warehouse in Kearney.

The business has grown.

We're in 62 Whole Foods stores now.

We have a large e-commerce following.

We have some smaller wholesale accounts across the country.

And we built a community around our business, which is really, really important to me.

I was later diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, so everything I do with this business has a health focus that people don't even really know.

But I put special things in the products for healing 'cause it's stuff that I use.

- Could you describe some of the products?

- Sure.

We've got our biggest line is body butters, which are shea butter, which is great for skin elasticity, for aging skin and for dry skin.

But what makes ours different is I slip in ginger and turmeric essential oil into every body butter 'cause ginger and turmeric are great for inflammation, they're great for skin healing, but I'm a girly girl, so the products all smell good.

We have things like guava mango, island mimosa, but underneath it got some really good things working to keep your skin really super healthy.

- All right, I'm gonna let the girly girl thing go, 'cause I'm not sure exactly what you mean, but I think I know, but lemme try this.

As a student of entrepreneurism where we wouldn't be here doing this right now, because we're in a business, we're a not-for-profit that raises money all the time.

That's business.

I've often thought, Dawn, that being an entrepreneur, being your own boss, which is a euphemism for you better find a way to pay the bills, not just your own, but everybody on your team.

That's the way I look at it.

- Exactly.

- Do you believe that you are a born entrepreneur or somehow it just crept into your life?

- I think it crept into my life, but I do think I'm a born entrepreneur because I come from a family of entrepreneurs.

Like my dad, we had the T-shirt business when we were younger.

My sister and I had a flower business and babysitting.

So when I look at all the touchpoints in my life, I'm like, wow, I had a little business here, a little business there, and I think I got away from it, but I think it was gonna come around and get me again no matter what I did.

So I believe I'm a born entrepreneur and a situation happened and I just sort of stepped into it.

- Well, it's interesting being an entrepreneur now versus 10, 20, 30 years ago, e-commerce wasn't around then.

What has e-commerce meant to your business?

- Oh, my goodness.

When we started, there was no Facebook.

This was 23 years ago was.

(Steve laughing) I know, I feel like a fossil when I say that.

There was no Facebook.

- No, no, no, go ahead.

- But, so we had to do things very grassroots.

Everything was, we captured email addresses.

We didn't even really know what we were gonna do with them at that point, but we captured email addresses and it was parties at people's houses.

It was word of mouth.

It was buy some products, buy some ingredients, sell some stuff, buy some more.

It was very, very, even finding ingredients.

Now I can go to the internet and say, hey, I need beeswax.

Back then, I went to the white pages and tried to find the ingredient.

Sourcing ingredients was even harder.

So for me, just being able to see both sides, like, this is a dream world now.

I love this.

This is great.

- The other part about being an entrepreneur, I've often said my favorite four letter word that I would say on public broadcasting is grit, G-R-I-T.

Some of my team is tired of hearing it, but I don't know where anyone who is successful would be without it.

You have it.

Where's it come from?

- I think it comes from the passion part of the business.

Being diagnosed with MS, like there have been a lot of ups and downs.

So a big part of this business is education.

I was saying I had a bad MS day.

And I said, there's gotta be other women that are having the same thing, feeling bad.

So I went to Facebook, I grabbed 20 friends.

I said, look, we're gonna talk about just health and wellness and how to feel better.

And that group is now 6,000 women.

So they keep me going.

We keep each other going.

I think the grit comes from knowing that we're putting out a good product, but we're also building a community with like-minded people who wanna feel better.

- Before I let you go, you're part of this discussion, which this program is kicked off with Michele Siekerka, the CEO of the New Jersey Business and Industry Association.

You were featured at the ninth annual New Jersey Women Business Leaders Forum that BIA business industry held.

Why was and is that forum so important?

- Just getting the message out to women, to young girls that we are here, just to see our faces and like I said, more for me young girls, let them see the powerful women are out there and the different things that they're doing and to share and build community.

After that forum, I mean, I have so many new, I wanna say new friends, but I also have new mentors, just new icons that I can look up to, people, resources that I can call.

So that forum is amazing.

It builds community for women and helps to build stronger businesses in New Jersey.

- That's Dawn Fitch, founder and CEO Pooka Pure & Simple.

You're terrific.

Thank you so much.

We appreciate it, Dawn.

- Thank You.

- See you again sometime in the future.

More success.

- Yes.

- Stay with us, we'll be right back.

- [Narrator] To watch more One on One with Steve Adubato find us online and follow us on Social media.

- We continue our conversation about women business leaders with Krishna Powell, Founder and CEO of HR4 Your Small Biz.

She was with us in 2018.

Go back on our website.

You'll see SteveAdubato.org to see that previous conversation.

Krishna, how you doing?

- I am doing great, it's good to see you.

- It's great to see you.

How about this?

You told our producers and you said you spoke about this at the New Jersey business and Industry ninth annual Women Business Leaders forum, that there were, there were two new generations in the workforce of women.

Who are we talking about?

- So we are talking about Gen Z has now entered in the workforce.

So those are like your 22, 23 year olds.

And then we also have the alpha generation coming in.

And so those are your young people who are having, who have the summer jobs.

- What would you say to those?

Let's play this out for a second.

We happen to have a very young, talented, I believe she's 25, Caroline, I think she's 25.

She's a talented marketing professional, hardworking, diligent with great upside leadership potential.

My prejudice I'll put out there.

I'm not convinced she's the norm.

Translation, my bias is that I sometimes think, and help me on this 'cause you know it, I don't.

That a disproportionate number of younger people are not willing to have the grit, put in the work, put in their time to learn and grow.

And, in part because of this.

Am I oversimplifying it?

- Well, I won't say they're not willing.

A lot of times they just have not been taught.

They don't know what it looks like.

If you think about it, they have spent the last two to three years with the pandemic in four walls.

They didn't have anyone grooming them.

They didn't have the face-to-face conversation.

They didn't have the interaction.

And then we boop, dropped them off in the workplace now and say go out there work, be successful.

They don't know what that looks like.

- They don't know what they don't know.

- Exactly, exactly.

So it's now our responsibility to teach them.

So a lot of times we think, you know, Krishna, they should come in already knowing this.

For my generation, for your generation, yes.

We came and we were groomed, we had internships, we had summer jobs.

Summer jobs are scarce now.

There's not even the jobs available for them like there was for me growing up here in New Jersey.

And so you have these young people now and they're in the workforce and they're like, someone has to teach me, someone has to show me, someone has to explain to me the why.

You know, a lot of times we think that they should just do as they're told and they're like no, this is the generation.

- Why am I doing that?

- Exactly, exactly.

- Tell folks, I screwed up out of the, out of the box.

I should've asked you while we put up your website Krishna.

Describe HR4 Your Small Biz.

What is the business?

- So HR4 Your Small Biz, we are a boutique human capital consulting firm.

So what that means is that I show leaders how to manage a multi-generational multicultural workforce.

What does that look like having this diverse workforce?

So it doesn't matter if you're a small business or a large business.

- You could be talking about our production company right now so go ahead.

- So that's, I mean for the first time in history, we have five generations in the workplace.

We've never had that before.

Five.

And they're not holding hands and singing Kumbaya.

- Why?

No, we're not.

You're seeing heads going, going no you're not, we're not holding hands.

So, so should we as leaders of these organizations, businesses, should we want, should we want and try to encourage if not force people on our team, five generations to be holding hands and singing Kumbaya or saying that ain't gonna work.

Go ahead.

- It's not gonna work.

I mean, think about it.

We have family members, we have, some of us have children and we don't sometimes like our own children.

That's okay.

- It's true.

- You don't always hold hands and sing Kumbaya as a family.

That type of conflict and challenge is expected.

And so as a leader you have to help guide your team through it and help them to understand and appreciate the strengths that each other bring to the table.

This is a smart, brilliant generation.

They've learned the art of working smart.

They don't necessarily know how to work hard.

That's for us to show them.

So together we combine their smart with our strong, there's nothing we can't do.

- And this for us.

Anxiety, mental health.

Your business deals with and helps organizations, businesses deal with, first of all how to help team members dealing with mental health, anxiety issues.

How does a small business deal with that?

- So, well, patiently.

Unfortunately what we're seeing is also with the younger generation, more mental health issues than the previous generation.

So we do have to build and allow for parameters and space for them to work through if they have anxiety and stress that shows up, and help guide them through when things get difficult.

They don't necessarily always have the tools to handle the stress.

Think about it.

You by yourself, you have five jobs.

- Before you talk about what we should be doing, I wanted to ask you, do you believe there is more anxiety and mental health issues in the workplace or that we're more aware of it and what's causing it?

- So there is more mental health issues in the workplace.

The pandemic really brought that to fruition.

There were people who did have challenges, but unfortunately when the pandemic happened, they weren't able to get those resources and support that they needed to help adjust to the solitude, to adjust to all the changes that happened.

And even those who were doing well before the pandemic happened, it was a very stressful time for all of us.

And so now you come back into the workplace and you still have that stress.

People have had, you know, deaths in their family and losses and et cetera, and they have, they're still working through that.

So yes, there is the levels of anxiety and stress is much more greater than it was before the pandemic.

- Before I let you go, I've asked every leader who's ever come on this question, where does your grit, G-R-I-T come from, your grit?

- My grit comes from my community and those who have come before me.

I salute those who have come before me.

I have those such as Rosemary Stiniger and Henry Moses and Gloria Moses and those who have come before me that I learned from them what hard work looks like and what passion looks like and what purpose looks like.

And how do you combine that with the knowledge you have and the responsibility to share it forward and give it forward and make sure that you leave things better than the way you found them.

- You know, how many people, women and and men, are gonna say that it was Krishna Powell who helped me find the grit in myself because I saw it in her.

And without it, we can't succeed, the passion.

I'm off my soapbox, I won't do that.

Hey Krishna, it was great having you on.

Let's not let it be five years till the next time you're on.

Krishna Powell, founder and CEO of HR4 Your Small Biz.

This has been, and by the way, thank you so much, Krishna.

- Thank you so very much for having me.

- My pleasure.

Folks, this has been a program dedicated to women business leaders in the state we've did in cooperation with our partners and friends at the New Jersey Business and Industry Association.

We thank you so much for watching.

We'll see you again soon.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato has been a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by NJM Insurance Group.

Hackensack Meridian Health.

The North Ward Center.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Johnson & Johnson.

PNC Foundation.

The New Jersey Education Association.

New Jersey Institute of Technology.

And by The New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

Promotional support provided by Northjersey.com and Local IQ.

And by BestofNJ.com.

NJM Insurance Group has been serving New Jersey businesses for over a century.

As part of the Garden State, we help companies keep their vehicles on the road, employees on the job and projects on track, working to protect employees from illness and injury, to keep goods and services moving across the state.

We're proud to be part of New Jersey.

NJM, we've got New Jersey covered.