Eileen:

Hello and welcome to the Soul of a Leader podcast where we ignite soulful conversations with leaders. In today’s episode, Dr. Alicia and Dr. Eileen talk with Tiffany Shephard to discuss unapologetic leadership.

 

Alicia:

Hello and welcome to the Soul of a Leader podcast. In today’s episode, we have Tiffany Shephard. She’s associate General Counsel at the Kraft Heinz Company, one of the largest food and beverage companies in the world. Tiffany worked also at Procter and Gamble Company, first as a global brand and trademark counsel, and more recently as North America brand protection leader and legal counsel.

 

Alicia:

Her responsibilities at Procter and Gamble Company included developing the overall enforcement strategy for dismantling counterfeit networks in North America, as well as collaborating with the brand, R&D, and regulatory teams to assist with quick execution, risk assessments and to ensure adequate advertising claim substantiation. Welcome to Soul of a Leader podcast I should say, attorney Tiffany.

 

Eileen:

Welcome.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

Thank you, guys. Thank you so much for having me.

 

Eileen:

Dr. Alicia did a great job in your introduction. Is there anything we missed or anything you’d like to add about yourself? That would be great.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

Oh, goodness, how much time do you have?

 

Eileen:

We have plenty of time. So please, please add.

 

Alicia:

And I must say I was pretty impressed reading it. I was like, this is a powerful sister. So there must be more.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

There are probably a lot more than hours in the day. And so I will say… Let’s see. So when I was in Proctor. When I was in Cincinnati working at Procter and Gamble, I also assisted some of the NFL players in Cincinnati with running their nonprofits and their foundations. And so that was really fulfilling for me, just because I’m really passionate about always paying it forward and giving back to the community. So that kind of was a natural tie-in.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

You’ll probably hear me reference a lot of those similar things that kind of parallel that kind of passion throughout this conversation. And then now that I’m back home in Chicago, working at Kraft Heinz, I am the co-founder, more of a silent partner. I’m sure if you spoke with my brother, he probably has… And my other partner probably doesn’t want to hear my opinions. But a silent partner electric, zero-emissions shuttle service in Chicago called GEST Carts.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

And it kind of serves two purposes. On the outside it’s blank. So brands can advertise on the outside and basically wrap the outside of the cart, similar to where you would see like a bus or a taxi or sometimes rap. So it serves as a mobile billboard. But then also, it shuttles people around the city for free. And so we serve… Right now we launched in the West Loop area. But again, when we get back to passion, my passion for the community, we are looking to help out with food-insecure neighborhoods, elderly people getting to doctor’s appointments, and things like that. So super excited.

 

Eileen:

Oh my gosh, that is exciting.

 

Alicia:

That’s [crosstalk 00:03:43].

 

Eileen:

What a brilliant idea.

 

Alicia:

Yes.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

So we could take maybe 99% of the credit. So it was founded in Cincinnati. So we brought it to Chicago as the Chicago branch. And then I should mention that probably the job that keeps me up at night, and in a good way, is I consider myself like an unapologetic mentor. So I have gathered, I think, at this point, I might have 11 mentees. And on just a day-to-day basis, I am pushing them, checking in on them, sometimes reprimanding them, all kinds of things. So I call them my kids. They don’t probably love that term because they’re probably not too far off in me in age. And again, as I said, you’ll see some themes of just kind of my passion to just kind of always kind of pay it forward. So that is something that… I like to be in bed by 11:00 but if a mentee calls, that is something I will stay up for to work through.

 

Alicia:

Yeah, yeah. That to me is… And Dr. Eileen and I both can identify with that. It’s the passion coming out of you. And I can just tell you right now, we are going to have a good conversation here. Because of what I like about something that you said, and I know you were teasing, your brothers and your partners really want you to be a silent partner. But there’s something in you that we call leadership that explodes out of you, attorney Tiffany, it explodes. So describe your leadership style.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

Wellbeing a good leader is also being able to encourage people to follow you and kind of… I shouldn’t say follow you, to be able to influence people. And so being a good leader is more so about being able to kind of influence people. And so my leadership style is, I think I kind of used the word earlier, a little unapologetic. It’s unapologetic sprinkled with a little sugar, glitter, something a little bit nice on top. But ultimately, the core of it is how can we get better? And how can we find a solution to whatever it is? Something as simple as assisting my mentee with their resume, helping them through a job interview, or something as large as working through a problem that Kraft Heinz times and trying to bring a lot of cross-functional partners together and drive synergy and drive closure.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

But I’m really big on… I’m a very solution-driven person. But I’m also a very relationship person. And I think that if you would ever talk to anyone else about me, I think that’s one of the things that they would say is that my ability to influence people is through my relationships. And so, even though I know sometimes, and those close to me would say, “You need to work on your delivery.” Because we agree with you, but you could have delivered that a little softer.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

And so, but I think what helps is because of my relationships, everyone knows where my heart is. And they know my intentions are there, and my intentions are pure, and that I’m just here to help everyone kind of just be their best selves. And so that is my leadership style is just encouraging everyone to level up. I mean, I think in one of the emails that… I may have even said to you today, I was so excited. So excited for 6:00, that I was even just kind of reflecting on times where a lot of times people talk about how you have to manage up and manage your manager. And then also just kind of manage, and I hate to use the word down, but manage those who are at different levels around you.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

And I think there’s a way to influence up and influence down as well. And when I say down, I’m thinking more of just younger and maybe less experienced, nothing to do with status, in life or society. And for me, that’s huge. Being able to… Even just recently with Black History Month. Being able even to say to a leader “Hey, I know, you’re really passionate about this month, I have this great idea. Why don’t we buy employee appreciation gifts from a local black-owned business? And show that we’re putting our money where our mouth is, we’re supporting a business.”

 

Tiffany Shepard:

And to a corporation, it’s probably pennies, but to the local black-owned business, we probably made her month. And that was a conversation I’m having with senior leadership. And at a company, phenomenal like Kraft, before I could even finish the sentence, they were like, “Absolutely no brainer. Just tell us what we need to do.” So I love that.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

But then even influencing, again, like I’ll talk about my mentees all day long. We have some very tough conversations. I was talking to one of the last weeks. And I introduced them to a friend of mine. And I followed up with my mentee, and I said, “Hey did such-and-such ever get back to you?” And they said, “No, I haven’t seen anything since the intro email you sent.” And I said, “Well, do you want to follow up?” And they were like, “I guess I could.” And I said, “Well, yeah, because such-and-such has a job and you don’t. And you’re the one who needs the favor. And you’re the one…”

 

Tiffany Shepard:

And you just kind of, you break it down a little bit like that. And then literally you just see them starting to slowly nod and there’s literally like, “Okay, Ms. Tiffany.” And I always laugh at Ms. Tiffany because I’m like, “Oh god, how old am I?” But they’re always like “Okay, Ms. Tiffany, I’m on it.” Like, “You’re totally right. I’m on it.”

 

Tiffany Shepard:

But sometimes, I guess maybe even in just that answer. Sometimes you lead… I think my best quality would be reading because sometimes I know I need to work on my delivery by forming things as a question. Because sometimes with the question, it feels a little bit less confrontational, and a little bit less… People are a little less defensive and more willing to… Because you don’t want people defensive. You want them willing to problem solve and come to a solution with you.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

And so I’ll do things like that. But I have a little bit of a witty, sarcastic attitude, which some people love. And some people probably wish I would stop speaking up. But that will never happen. Anyone who knows me is always like, “Oh, Tiffany’s hit… If Tiffany’s going to come Tiffany’s going to make waves. And she’s going to challenge the status quo.” And that was a bit of my reputation at Procter and Gamble. And I loved that. And I think I’m creating that reputation at Kraft Heinz, and again, in a good way. So very long answer.

 

Alicia:

It was good.

 

Eileen:

It’s wonderful. You said so much. Dr. Alicia and I are starting the Leadership Institute where it’s Soul of a Leader, Leadership Institute. And authenticity is number one, and I’m hearing that out of you, a lot of authenticities. And we have a thing called SAS, it’s servant, authentic and spiritual leadership. That’s what we call a soul leader.

 

Eileen:

And the last thing I heard was you asking people questions. Sometimes people need those questions. They have the answer within them. And it can come and that’s great. The other thing I heard you say, which is very unique. And I always, let me describe it first. And then I’ll ask the question. Is pushing people. There’s an image that there’s a big circle, and that’s your comfort zone. And then outside that circle is a little circle. And that’s where the magic begins. And people who are pushing or developing up or leveling up, you call it leveling up, I call it developing up. People who help people get outside their comfort zone to do the magic is what life’s all about. And as a leader, where you are and you’re quite successful, was there any time where someone mentored you that you remember or recall, that helped you ignite that magic?

 

Tiffany Shepard:

Wow, I will say I have some phenomenal mentors. And, again, don’t have time to name them all. But when I think about the type of advice I repeat, from mentors that I now repeat to my mentees, I think of three main things that come to mind. And I’ll give you a quick background on each one. So one was in undergrad, and I went to Hampton, which is an HBCU. And one thing about Hampton is you will not embarrass them. So they will not allow you to interview unless your resume has been vetted, approved, and literally has a stamp on it that says you can go to the career fair.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

And my mentor looked at my resume. And I thought I was… I’m basketball captain and had all these things from high school on there, just thought I was all the stuff. And that mentor tore my resume up and not because of… There was just too much and blatantly said to me, “You are not important enough and have not done enough in life to have more than a one-page resume. Why do you have two pages?” And when I think back on it, and even now I have a one-page resume. And I’ve done a lot more in life. But my resume is still one page, to that day. And here’s the thing, it could be a completely old school advisor completely antiquated and nowadays…

 

Tiffany Shepard:

But when I speak with recruiters, again, because now that I have these mentees, I’m also collecting people. Like “Oh, you’re a recruiter, I need you to speak to this person.” But when I talk to recruiters, they say, they’re not always interested in whatever is on that second page. They’re reading the first page. So I think that that advice still rings true. And I tell my mentees that to this day and I say “You do not need two pages. We don’t care if you were the captain of the varsity basketball team in high school anymore.”

 

Tiffany Shepard:

And so and then the second thing is I was doing a presentation at Procter and Gamble, and I was leading it.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

And we have a stage at P&G it’s in our theater. We have a theater auditorium. It seats about 400 people, and I was getting on stage and I was interviewing someone who they’d actually flown in for this event. So it was a big deal. And I’m so nervous. And I casually mentioned to my mentor that I was… She was like “Are you okay? What’s going on?” I was like, “I’m so nervous.” As I told her why I was nervous and she was just like, “Oh, you…” So what she says is your slip is showing. And I said, “What do you mean?” So that’s her version of saying like, “Oh, you’re messing up.”

 

Tiffany Shepard:

If you were to stop a woman in the hallway and say, tap her on the shoulder and say, “Your slip is showing.” But she said, “Oh, your slip is showing.” And I said, “What do you mean?” And she was just like, “You are about to get on the stage with the Chief Marketing Officer of this company. And you have not told our legal leadership…” My general counsel’s office was two doors down from the Chief Marketing person’s office, and they were friends.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

And she said, “You have to give your leadership a courtesy heads up. They do not want to be surprised.”And so her advice to me was basically could you imagine your general counsel not showing up when someone in her legal department is on stage with the chief marketing officer, because she didn’t know you were going to be on stage. You have to give people the opportunity to clear their calendars and make a decision to be there for you. Not only for you but also just for their own equity, brand equity. Everyone has their own brand equity. And she was like “You cannot hit the stage without sending a note to our general counsel to let her know you will be on that stage.”

 

Eileen:

What great advice.

 

Alicia:

Yes.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

[crosstalk 00:16:10]. Yeah, I was just like, “I don’t want to, it feels like I’m bragging. I don’t do that. And that makes me uncomfortable.” And she was just like, “This is not bragging.” And she literally said, “This is the CYA moment, this is not bragging.” She said, “This is career suicide that you’re…” She was very serious.

 

Eileen:

That is right.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

She was like, “This is…” And she was like, you cannot ever allow her to be surprised, good or bad. Because I’m trained where, if there’s a crisis, I’m trained to let there’s a crisis coming. I never leave my managers surprised. But I never thought that same thing applied to getting on stage-

 

Alicia:

The positive.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

… For a casual event that had nothing to do with the legal department. So there was that. And then she also then walked me down to the… We have a photography studio in the house and said I needed a headshot. Because she’s like that picture that you think you’re going to crop and paste from social media, that will not do as well. So you also will not hit the stage and have a projection screen behind with a cropped picture from social media. We will go downstairs, you will get a headshot. You will use that headshot. It was just a very big sister moment, like all it was… And I was just like, “Wow I was already nervous. And now you’ve…”

 

Alicia:

She infused more nervousness in you.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

Oh my goodness. I was like, “Career suicide, what do you mean?” And then the third thing is a very good friend of mine’s stepmom actually has been pivotal and helped me negotiate and think about salary when I switched jobs. And her advice to me was, “Everything is negotiable.” And I really never… I used to just repeat it casually and not really let it sink in until I started kind of moving up in my career and being offered different things and really understand… You know people tell you something when you’re in your 20s. And you’re like, “Okay, sure, like all I care about is my base salary. What else are you talking about?”

 

Tiffany Shepard:

And then as you get… And then people offer you more things if you’re like, “Wait, this is possible?” So that’s one of the major, major things that I impress upon my mentees is, we are going to learn to negotiate early. It may be uncomfortable, I heard a statistic and I typically hate statistics because they’re typically never in the favor of women or women of color. But I heard a statistic that men relate salary negotiations to a basketball game. And women relate it to going to the dentist as far as just where our nerves are when we go into something like that.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

And so just knowing that. But to me, that empowers me, but I know some people take those things and are kind of like “Oh gee, so now I’ll let that inform me.” But her telling me that everything was negotiable, I take that to heart. And she took it really far. She was just like down to the parking spot. And I was like, “Wow.” And so again now moving, switching jobs and jumping around and just seeing different offers.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

I still send her my offers. To this day to take a look at the offer. Make sure I send her what I plan to counter with. And she’s retired and she still will red line and tell me where to push more. And it’s good. And I again want to be that same thing and more for my mentees because that information was priceless. And I realized how much more priceless it is when I find myself giving that same advice to my peers. People my age or even people a little bit older than me. And when that’s just not something that they’ve heard before. It really resonates with me how priceless those types of nuggets were in my life. That again at the time didn’t mean much. But now yeah.

 

Eileen:

So all three of them that you gave the example you use today, every day, and also share that knowledge with your mentors and friends.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

Yeah, yes, yes. No, for me, it’s all about spreading it, sharing it, spreading it, educating others. I just held a course last week with my investment advisor. And I mean, he’s taking a percentage. That’s how he gets paid. But part of that is, I will give you this percentage, but you will also now educate my friends and family. So I had him host a Zoom, to educate… I think there were 30 people on that call, to educate all of them on investment guidance. Everyone’s interested in crypto, everyone’s talking about all these things, financial literacy.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

And actually, that gets into, it’s one of the things my mentees will tell you. I have three requirements if you’re going to be my mentee because you are taking energy from me and some of my time. If you will be a mentee of mine, you must, one, communicate. So I host monthly Sunday sessions with them, where I invite someone from my world or who I know either a mentor or a peer of mine, to talk to my mentees about something. Whether it’s leading corporate America for a startup, whether it’s interview prep, whether it’s just anything. My friends have so many skills, and you’ll find that people are so much more willing… I’m sure my friends probably have done more for my mentees than some of them have done for me.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

But people love helping… They just love helping you. And I’m like, “Let’s help the kids.” The number of text messages I’ve sent out to say, “Whose company is holding virtual internships this summer.” These kids Miss last summer, let’s get their resumes and their experience up to par so they can go out and contribute to society. But sorry, so what I was saying is that three requirements, they must communicate, keep in touch. So let me know. If I refer you for a job or even again, I lean on my friends to refer for jobs, I say, “Hey, I see a job posting on your site. Would you mind if my mentee put you down as a referral? Here’s their resume. I can tell you that they’re solid.”

 

Tiffany Shepard:

And my friends… I’ve never had anyone say no. So I was going to say 99% of the time, but no 100% of the time, everyone responds back and says, “Absolutely.” And in fact, sometimes they’ll respond back and tell me a different process. They’ll say, “No, I’ll refer them. And then they’ll get a separate email for a referral.” So it’s been fantastic. So keep in touch, communicate with me, if you’re going to miss my Sunday session, I need you didn’t tell me that. Because this one just speaks to… One it’s just a courtesy for my time, but it also tells me how you manage last-minute conflicts.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

Because life happens, I don’t expect you to attend every session. But at least let me know. And then if you get a job interview from a job that I referred you for, let’s talk through that, communicate, that’s one. Two is to pay it forward. And so the same way I’m paying it forward to them I ask that they do the same. So whether that’s to a younger cousin, a freshman or sophomore on campus, or just even in their community, I’m really big on giving back to the community, both financially and with my time and my resources.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

And so whether you bake food for your local church food drive or whatever that looks like. But the same way, I’m paying it forward to you, I need you to promise to do the same. Because I may call on you one day. And I look forward to saying to them, “Hey, do you have any summer internships? Because I also have some mentees who need some.” So I look forward to that cycle. I’m really excited about it, actually. And then the third requirement of being a mentee of my is financial literacy.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

So I was honest with all of them. I said when I moved from… When I switch jobs, my salary increases significantly. When I first got to Procter and Gamble I knew I needed to budget, I knew everything I needed to do, but I didn’t want to. And I was really honest. I said, “Listen, I just want to travel and buy expensive shoes. And that’s what I want to do for a year.” And I literally told this guy, my financial advisor, I said “Call me in 365 days.” I literally just travel and buy expensive shoes with this first paycheck. I have not seen this before, I’m so excited.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

But after that, he was… Financial advisors will write a date down in the calendar, and they will call you. And so he was diligent. And he called me. And so I tell my mentees, I said, especially during this pandemic, you guys have the benefit of living at home with your parents. I mean, that’s the cheapest rent you’ll ever have in your life. And I said so I don’t mean to sound like a hypocrite because again I know that I spent irresponsibly for a year. But you guys can spend irresponsibly and save because you don’t have the same kind of bills.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

And so that is a requirement as well, of being a mentee. The moment you get a job, let’s talk about making sure you’re matching your 401k. If you don’t know what that is, let’s start at the basics. Let’s talk about emergency funds. Let’s talk about saving, I want to introduce you to a Roth IRA. Because what I don’t… What I hated was the first time I heard about a Roth IRA, I think I was already in my 30s. And so I was like, “I could have been doing this since I was…” And so I don’t want anyone else to have that experience. I want you to hear about it in your 20s. And I want you to be paying into it. And so yeah, so those are the three requirements, communicate, pay it forward, and commit to financial literacy.

 

Alicia:

I mean, all of that… You said so much. I mean, I’m just taking a lot of notes, a lot of notes, a lot of notes. A lot of good notes. I see so much in you. And I’ve never even thought about some of the stuff that you require your mentees. I mean, you think about, okay, if I’m going to mentor a person, you really are putting a lot into it. But I never thought about it, okay, but I need to tell them if I’m going to invest my time in you, then you got to ensure to me that you got to be investing the same effort and time and take this seriously.

 

Alicia:

And I wrote it down, it just never dawned on me. Because we are giving up a lot to help them. And I like that. Because I’m always giving. And then you sit back and say, “But I’m not getting anything back in return for the time I’m spending with that person, because it’s like, they’re not really taking it seriously, some of them.” Or you can see the beauty in them, or the potential in them and sometimes a lot of mentees, don’t see it yet.

 

Alicia:

And it’s like you’re pushing them, you’re pushing them. And I said all that to say what transpired you to kind of see your style of mentoring? Was it some values that came into play? Was it just natural? Because I had mentors, that helped me naturally. I should be able to do this for someone else. Did that come into play with some of your values and say, “Hey, I’m going to do the same thing.” Because I heard you say pay it forward. You’re obviously a great communicator. I don’t see what they mean about your delivery. You dead on and everything.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

[crosstalk 00:27:33].

 

Alicia:

You’re very straightforward. But that’s what you tend to be when you are passionate about what you want to do to help others. So talk a little bit about some of your values and your style of mentoring, and how that came about.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

It’s interesting because it wasn’t anything formal. I never kind of woke up and said, “I want to be a mentor.” It’s always just kind of been a natural kind of just personality trait of mine to just always want to educate and share any wisdom I have and learn and encourage others. And again, influence others. And so I kid you not, I feel like I woke up one day and I was… I had gotten to a point where I was copying and pasting the same text message to…

 

Tiffany Shepard:

And at this point, I wasn’t even calling them mentees, I was just like the kids. I was copying and pasting the same text to them. And then I was like, “Why am I copy… I need to just bring everybody… Why am I answering the same question four different times when I could just have everyone on one call on…” It kind of makes this a thing. So it was already a thing. And then I was kind of like, “Oh, there’s a name for this, it’s called mentorship.”

 

Tiffany Shepard:

So I kind of came into it backward. Because even one of them asked me, “Hey, can you be my mentor?” And I was like, “How different do you think that is than what we’re doing right now?” [crosstalk 00:29:10] thought about it we’re like, “Oh, I guess it’s already happening.” Yeah, so my values are just really about I just want everyone to win together. And I just think that you can… People always talk about standing on shoulders, but I also think there’s a way to just kind of hold arms or hold hands and just kind of move together. And so my values are really founded in spirituality and honesty and I’m really big on friendship and, again, making an impact in the community.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

So that’s something that is true and true to me. One thing that when I think back on a lot of things in my life that I’ve done, it all centers around doing something for the community. So I make my siblings get up and come with me to volunteer. I started a scholarship fund in honor of my parents and we give three scholarships to kids every year. And so even during the pandemic we got custom hand sanitizer to hand out to everyone.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

So it’s small because I’m self-funding it. We don’t have any grants or anything like that. But it’s also just important to me to make sure my siblings see that. So I think it was just naturally ingrained in me. My dad grew up in Rockwell, which is a… I think they’re not down now, but the project Cabrini–Green here in Chicago. And the moment he, I guess, you would say, made it. I’m using quotation marks for those listening. But the moment he made it, his biggest thing was, he would buy turkeys for the community. I mean all the stuff you see in those movies.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

He would also take us as kids. I mean, we grew up, my mom was a doctor, my dad was an entrepreneur. So we grew up doing very well. But before we could open our Christmas gifts, he would take us to the post office, and we would pull out letters that kids had written to the North Pole. And we would have to then go take our allowance and buy Christmas gifts for those kids and my dad would always check the address and make sure that the address came from a low-income neighborhood in the city.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

Because he just knew that when he was in high school, he was a taxi driver. So you could give him cross streets. And he can tell you exactly where that is. But he would look at the address from a kid who’d written a letter to Santa Claus, make sure it was in a low-income neighborhood, we would look at their wish list, pick out items that we want to buy for them. And we would have to deliver them before Christmas Eve in order for us to open our gifts on Christmas Day.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

And so that was me growing up as a kid. Now they have since stopped that program. Well, they do a truncated version, they no longer give you the address, I believe, unfortunately, I think kind of some… I think the pedophiles kind of messed that up a little bit. But they no longer give you the address of the home. So you can’t actually deliver them. But the post office still collects… I mean, you know kids write the North Pole, and the post office holds on to them.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

And so but that was ingrained in me as a kid just to always give back. So I think it’s just… As I said, I don’t even realize it. I would… They always say pay yourself first. And I think I would probably pay everybody that else. With my business or just anything like that. Anytime I… My siblings have mutual funds, I set up custodial accounts for them. Anytime I invest, I’m investing on their behalf as well. And that’s just everything I do, it always involves other people. I don’t think I do anything by myself.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

Because to me, it just doesn’t take anything away from you.

 

Alicia:

Absolutely.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

Yeah, it doesn’t take anything away to share, to spread the wealth, to pay it forward. I mean, now does it slow you down a little bit? So maybe instead of opening a mutual fund for all my siblings, if I just did myself, I’d have four times as much money, I guess. But I mean, to me, I’m going to get there anyway. Like that’s what you’re banking on. So yeah, I’m rooting for people, I’m always rooting for people who look like me, but I’m also just rooting for everybody.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

And I just think it’s an environment where we can all win. And so I never understand people who don’t help. I think that’s an area I don’t understand. I mean, we all got here from somebody opening the door. Now once you get in, I’ll open the door. I tell my mentees that. I will introduce you. I will open the door. But you have to keep yourself there. But I have never… I mean, I’m never stingy with my contacts with anything. I’m just kind of like if it can help let me connect you, let me make it help.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

I wake up in the middle of the night, like, “Oh my gosh, I should introduce this person to this person. And that’d be great. And they need to meet.” And I always tell people to introduce themselves like, “I’ll introduce you, feel free to remove.” I’ve done my job. I’ve made the connection. But from beyond that, I don’t need to really be involved. And may you all go and flourish together. So but yeah, no, I’m all about… I’m a connector and I really enjoy that.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

And I think… I guess people have connected me and people look out for me… I’ve thought back on ways that people have really helped them look out for me in ways and I’m always like, “Wow, that’s so nice that they would do that for me.” And my friends are like… My friends are looking at me like “What they kind of owe you. Do you remember the time you did X, Y, and Z for them? You did it.” And I’m like, “Oh.” I wasn’t even thinking about it like that. I’m just grateful that somebody would do something… I’m just blessed that somebody was thinking of me. And I wasn’t even thinking about the three other things I’ve done for them.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

Because I didn’t do it for that. It wasn’t exchange for me. And so you mentioned earlier about the three things that require of my mentees, it’s funny, because when I first said it to them, and I say, “Well, now I need something from you.” And I could see their eyes kind of like, “Oh, no, is she about to ask us for money.” Or like, “Do we have to pay? Do we have to pay to be her mentee?” But it’s really, if you think about it, outside of me forcing you to communicate with me, I guess that is more for my benefit than theirs.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

But the other two are more for their benefit. I’m making you care about finances. I’m not asking you for a piece. I don’t want a commission on that. Or I’m telling you to pay it forward. I mean, that’s just good energy into the universe. So that’s going to come back tenfold back on you again. None of the things I’m asking from them directly really benefit me. It’s just let’s pour back into society, the society that got us here.

 

Eileen:

And on my LinkedIn, and you just said it perfectly. If you’re not opening doors for others, you’re closing them.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

Absolutely.

 

Eileen:

And by your connecting, and just saying… And it’s not doing it to feel good. It’s doing it because we’re all connected. We are all connected in some manner. And we are here. But the wonderful, wonderful story that you said there. It was wonderful. Thank you.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

Yeah, no problem.

 

Alicia:

I mean, the energy is like… I don’t even know how much more I can write on my one sheet of paper. I’m learning and listening and grasping it all. And then I’m looking like time flies when you’re having great conversations. And we say it all the time. It’s like, how much more can we talk about? A whole lot more with you.

 

Alicia:

But as we get ready to end, we always like to ask our guests to leave us with some words of wisdom, and you said a whole lot. And I know you have plenty more. And trust me, I have a lot of your nuggets written down that I want to sit back and look at my notes. But think about some words of wisdom for all the listeners that we have. And we have listeners all over the world. And also, as Dr. Eileen talked about, we have the Soul of a Leader Institute. And what we’re going to be doing with that is almost exactly what you’re doing with your mentees. We’re going to be helping individuals, I was going to say women but it’s going to be individuals. Who is underrepresented roles in some of these positions, or trying to start their own business? And so I know you got something great to say.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

I’ll repeat something I said earlier is don’t be afraid to make waves. And that’s in corporate America. But then the other thing I actually have is written on my phone. And as I was looking at it to make sure I get it right, but it’s my screensaver. But I would say work hard, have fun, and make history. So those are-

 

Eileen:

Oh my gosh, that’s perfect. Work hard…

 

Tiffany Shepard:

Those are the three things. Work hard, have fun, make history. And so that’s kind of my daily mantra. And then I’m trying to think. I always wish personally on other people, my friends will tell you I put this in their birthday cards. But I always wish upon people health, wealth, and happiness. So apparently, I like things in threes. So those…

 

Alicia:

Wow.

 

Eileen:

I love to work hard, have fun, make history.

 

Alicia:

And make history.

 

Eileen:

That breaks all boundaries anywhere you want. In whatever industry you’re in, whatever you’re doing to do good, anywhere. Work hard, have fun, make history.

 

Alicia:

Also, and I think you said, don’t be afraid to make waves. I like that because we gotta get out of the fear of trying to hold on to something. And so I like it all but that was something that as I was writing, I was like, “She’s got a point.” Don’t be afraid to make waves. Wow.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

No, I love it. As I said, I’ve heard that that’s how people have described me to my face and behind my back, and I’m okay with that. Because I own that. So yeah, don’t be afraid to make waves. And I think that, again, it resonates with me more in corporate America. But I think it could resonate in multiple areas of your life as well. I joke with my mentees. A lot of this is no different than your personal life. No different than dating, or other things like that. So when I give them advice, I say… What was the thing most recently I said about dating?

 

Tiffany Shepard:

And I said… Oh my… What did she have? She had a job offer, but she wasn’t sure if the company would be hiring when she graduates. Do they have a growth model to make space for her and offer her a full-time role? And I said, well, would you date somebody that wasn’t sure that they wanted to get married ever? Or if they didn’t see a future with you? And she said, “No.” And I said, “So then you need to ask that question. And you need to find out.”

 

Tiffany Shepard:

I said it’s very similar. And there’s a lot of analogies I make for them. But whenever I make it to dating, they get it and they start laughing. So one of the things I had to tell them, I said, “Hey, listen, at this point, you guys have applied for 20 different jobs. When you answer the phone if it’s a number you don’t know you need to be answering. Hello, this is Tiffany.” I said, “Now if it turns out to be somebody’s crazy ex-girlfriend, then you hung up. But until you find out who it is, you need to dust the coal out of your eyes. And pretend like you sound like you brushed your teeth. And you need to answer the phone, Hello, this is Tiffany.”

 

Tiffany Shepard:

Because at this point your resume is floating through so many hands. There’s no telling what number might call. And I told them, I said stop… This is not the time period to dodge call… A lot of people dodge calls when they don’t know the number. And I was like “When you are job hunting, you don’t get that luxury.”

 

Tiffany Shepard:

And then what was another thing I said related to dating. Oh, there was someone they wanted to reach out to. And they were nervous because they were like, “Oh, what if they don’t respond?” And I said, “Then don’t tell anybody.” I said, “How many times have you sent a DM on social media or sent a girl a text message and she didn’t respond? Did you tell anybody? No. So you can’t be embarrassed about something if nobody knows about it. So if you want to go work for Oprah, then DM Oprah and see if Oprah responds.” And if she doesn’t respond nobody ever has to know. But if she does respond, then you make sure to let her know that your mentee Tiffany is the one who told you to reach out to her.

 

Alicia:

Exactly.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

Well, yes, I just relate the… Yeah, relate things and things like that, friendships, I’m like “You don’t want to be the flaky friend.” I say, “We all have a flaky friend.” I said, “You don’t want to be the flaky co-worker.” So I think it also reminds them that maybe I’m not as old as they think I am. They can laugh with me a little bit. And they don’t have to be so buttoned up. But no, we have some good conversations. But yes, so that is the… So again, make waves and it can be professionally or personally in your personal life. But the status quo, it may have got us here, but it won’t keep us here.

 

Alicia:

Yes. Your words of wisdom. I’m like your mentees are blessed to have you as a mentor. Every last one of them.

 

Eileen:

I agree and the ripple effect of making waves and how you are impacting their lives. Just by mentoring them. It’s changing the energy on this planet. It really is.

 

Alicia:

And they won’t have a choice but to pay it forward. I mean-

 

Tiffany Shepard:

I hope so.

 

Alicia:

With the impact that you’re giving them and the time, there’s no way they can sit back and say, “I’m going to hold on to all of this that I’m learning from you.” There’s no way. I mean, I’m a giver. So I could say I just don’t see how they will want to hold on to that. It’s like you said, you got to make the waves. You got to open up the door for someone else. They got to use the same strategy and techniques or similar. The things you’re teaching them for somebody else, because sure enough, there’s somebody else coming up behind them.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

Oh, absolutely. I mean, [Ali 00:44:09], and I know you said we were at the time, but I’ll give this last example. So three of my mentees and I recently adopted the Noble Charter School Network here in Chicago. They do an externship program for their alums. So students who went to Noble High School, but are now in college.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

And so a friend of mine just casually sent it to me and she was like “This is great because it’s virtual. So really, they could shadow anyone anywhere.” I’m like there’s actually a lot of benefits to this new virtual society that we live in. And so she said, “You should look into it.” And it’s funny because I looked into it, and she actually forgot. And so I looked into it, got approval from my manager, and I had 3 externs shadowing me for two weeks.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

And so none of them were… They were all marketing As I said, “Okay, I’m not going to bore them with legal meetings. But I will use my influence to get them in front of the right people.” So at Kraft Heinz, I am the Associate General Counsel of our kids’ snacks and beverages and our meal [inaudible 00:45:17]. So I’m the attorney for Mac and Cheese, and Lunchables, and all of those great things.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

So all of these marketers have to come to me for approval. So I’m like, “Okay, well, I might need you to let this extern shadow you and attend this meeting.” And again, these people are phenomenal. They probably would have said yes, anyway, but it is not lost on me that they probably were also slightly afraid to say no to their attorney.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

But again, that’s me using my influence. But I’m talking about, and I don’t say this to brag, I say this based on the feedback survey that the students did afterward. And the fact that the program coordinator called me to ask me how I set up these two weeks. They had a jam-packed schedule. I don’t even think… I got work done that week. But it was all at night after the workday was over. I was like, “If you guys…” Because I had them send me their resumes ahead of time. Two of them had not had summer internships.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

So I said, “Oh, so this is your experience. Right now is it.” So we are going to make this two weeks resume worthy. So I reached out to them, I found out what they were interested in, who they wanted to meet with. They shadowed me three days a week for two weeks. I had them in back-to-back meetings with internal people, shopper marketing people, social media managers, brand managers. I had them in an external meeting with TikTok, Twitter, our sports marketing agency. Some of them were attending meetings. Some of them were just doing one on one kind of informational interviews.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

But what I did at the beginning of the week, because again, as I said, I was big on making sure they left with something on their resume. I had three of my brand managers assign them a project that was due at the end of two weeks.

 

Eileen:

So smart.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

And they’re Gen Z. So what everybody wants to know is, “Can you tell us about TikTok? Can you tell us about…” Two of them were Hispanic. And so we have some brands, that’s kind of the target market. And so they jumped right in. They were like “You guys need to change the colors. You need to do…” They gave phenomenal presentations. I invited the brand leaders to the presentation, I invited recruiting to the presentations. Because I was like, you’ll see these rock stars who are currently still job hunting. I want you to meet them and see how good they are.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

And at the end of this, so all of them… Yeah, all of them have the externship listed on their resume. They had a phenomenal two weeks. It was exhausting for all of us, but I’m going to make it worth your time. And I think that’s the thing that it is exhausting. So let me not make this sound like it’s all just fun and cartwheels.

 

Alicia:

Thank you, a lot of work.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

It is exhausting. It is a full-time job. When I make a choice to review a resume that is a good 30 minutes out of my day that I should be doing something else. And so it’s exhausting. It’s a full-time job. Putting together that schedule was tough, for me. Managing that schedule was tough. I’m making interviews, I’m scheduling one-on-ones while I’m also responding to the job I get paid to do.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

But it was… I mean to this day, they send me cards they are so grateful. And, so sorry, the thing that actually made me think of it was then the marketers at my company were like, “How did you get three marketing students to shadow… Like you’re in legal? And how can we get three marketing…” So that was perfect, because now for Noble’s next program, I’ve now brought them three more people who want to sponsor externs next year.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

And so I was just like, it’s just a constant movement. This summer, I volunteered to host a legal intern this summer. Initially, there were no plans in the works to have an intern. I went to my manager, and he supported me by going to my general counsel and saying, “I think we should create a budget to have a virtual intern this summer.” And again, everyone at Kraft… They’re fantastic. My GC, my manager, they were like no brainer. Absolutely.

 

Tiffany Shepard:

So I think it’s really just… And that’s what I mean about sometimes making waves it’s not always difficult. It’s just asking. And you’re so busy. And just no one just kind of is taking the time to ask. And so I’m excited to have an intern this summer, but I’m just even more excited and grateful by how much my leadership… Whenever I just present these ideas. They’re like “Absolutely, tell us what we need. Go get the budget. Here’s the budget. Here are the parameters. What else do you need from us?” And I think a lot of that speaks to Kraft as a company. But I mean, just generally you never know what answer you’ll get until you ask. So like I said, I had three marketing externs shadow me. And now this summer, I will have a legal intern for the legal department coming in, and so really excited about that.

 

Eileen:

Thank you for joining us on the Soul of a Leader podcast. We are igniting a new way of leading with your soul, and interviewing ordinary people with extraordinary impact. Thank you for listening to the stories of our leaders who will help and guide you on your leadership journey. For more information on our podcast, please visit our website at www.soulofaleader.com. Thank you for listening