Recorded live at the Business Services Academy, this episode of Workforce on the Mic explores how workforce professionals are redefining employer engagement through trust-building, strategic partnerships, and innovative tools like AI to create lasting impact.
Podcast Transcript
00:00:05 Introduction
What could happen if we take our workforce to new heights? Workforce on the Mic, presented by NAWDP, brings you inspirational stories, innovative solutions, and expert insights that are shaping the future of the workforce.
Tune in for dynamic conversations that motivate and transform the workforce development community. And now, on to the episode.
00:00:29 Alexis Franks
Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, all you workforce warriors across the country.
00:00:35 Alexis Franks
My name is Alexis Franks, and I am your Director of Membership for the National Association of Workforce Development Professionals.
00:00:44 Alexis Franks
And in today’s episode, we are recording live at our annual Business Services Academy.
00:00:50 Alexis Franks
And today’s guest, we have Aaron Lesson with TAD Grants here with us.
00:00:57 Alexis Franks
And in the back, we are in front of the beautiful downtown Denver Convention Center.
00:01:02 Alexis Franks
So even if you can’t see us, we have the big blue bear behind us.
00:01:07 Alexis Franks
So he’s our special guest for today’s episode as well.
00:01:11 Alexis Franks
And I will have Aaron to introduce himself and we’ll jump right into our conversation today.
00:01:16 Aaron Leson
Thanks, Alexis.
00:01:18 Aaron Leson
My name is Aaron Lesson, and I am from Battle Creek, Michigan.
00:01:22 Aaron Leson
And I was looking at distractedly, or I was looking at the blue bear thinking, oh my gosh, it is a special guest.
00:01:32 Aaron Leson
It’s really been a pleasure to be here at the conference and have the opportunity to, I would say, facilitate the pre-con.
00:01:41 Aaron Leson
It really, it was an honor.
00:01:43 Aaron Leson
I have to admit to you that
00:01:45 Aaron Leson
Initially, when I saw a pre-con, we might have 60, 70 people, and I saw the room and I was excited.
00:01:53 Aaron Leson
And I looked on the app and I thought, uh-oh, there’s 150 saying they’re coming.
00:01:59 Aaron Leson
And in the end, it turned out that, I mean, very thankfully that
00:02:03 Aaron Leson
We probably had over 200.
00:02:05 Alexis Franks
Yes, very close to 300.
00:02:07 Aaron Leson
Oh my gosh, really?
00:02:08 Alexis Franks
Yes.
00:02:09 Aaron Leson
Oh man.
00:02:09 Alexis Franks
Yes, and everyone had such great feedback.
00:02:13 Alexis Franks
Here at the Business Services Academy, we really wanted to create a community of workforce professionals.
00:02:20 Alexis Franks
to learn how they can engage with businesses and really strategically put forth the effort to engage in workforce programs.
00:02:29 Alexis Franks
So Aaron, I heard a lot of great feedback on some.
00:02:33 Alexis Franks
practical strategies for engaging with employers.
00:02:37 Alexis Franks
So we can jump right in.
00:02:39 Alexis Franks
First of all, how are you feeling?
00:02:41 Alexis Franks
What was the feedback you got?
00:02:43 Alexis Franks
What are some things that really stuck from the pre-comm session?
00:02:47 Aaron Leson
Yeah, you know, starting with the, I think as a presenter, I think, and if you’ve presented, you understand the feeling of you think it went well, you hit your main talking points.
00:03:00 Aaron Leson
And in the end, you don’t necessarily know because there is part of it.
00:03:03 Aaron Leson
You’re like, whew, that two-hour session is over, right?
00:03:06 Aaron Leson
Because I think every presenter in front of small groups or large groups, there’s a measure of, I hate to use the word anxiety, but it’s there a little bit, right?
00:03:18 Aaron Leson
Definitely.
00:03:19 Aaron Leson
And with this particular topic at this conference, I know just how important it really is, and I really wanted to
00:03:29 Aaron Leson
kind of hone in and hit my key talking points.
00:03:33 Aaron Leson
And so there was definitely relief getting the feedback.
00:03:36 Aaron Leson
I think it did resonate with the business services professionals in the room.
00:03:41 Aaron Leson
And it really did remind me that what we do in the realm of business services is absolutely vitally important.
00:03:53 Aaron Leson
And the conference energy, I know a lot of people say, our conference energy is good, trying to get people.
00:03:59 Aaron Leson
It really has been great.
00:04:01 Aaron Leson
I’ve talked to many trusted colleagues who said, you know, sometimes I go to conferences and I walk away and he used a funny term.
00:04:09 Aaron Leson
He’s like, the session was either a sales pitch or a braggantation, which he meant just bragging about what you do.
00:04:20 Aaron Leson
I never heard that.
00:04:21 Aaron Leson
But
00:04:22 Aaron Leson
He said, not here.
00:04:23 Aaron Leson
And he showed me his notebook.
00:04:24 Aaron Leson
He’s like, this is the most that I’m taking back ever.
00:04:28 Alexis Franks
Wow.
00:04:28 Aaron Leson
So I think that’s pretty cool.
00:04:30 Aaron Leson
And I wanted him to go up to staff and to share that.
00:04:35 Aaron Leson
But I think right here is a great place to just say it’s been a great conference.
00:04:39 Aaron Leson
And the pre-con, thankfully, I think kicked it all off.
00:04:44 Alexis Franks
Absolutely, absolutely.
00:04:46 Alexis Franks
And I can tell you one of the messages just from engaging in the first 10 minutes was the encouragement that you share with other workforce professionals to think outside of the box and not to do things the way that they’ve always done them.
00:05:01 Alexis Franks
And I think you all said, don’t get too judgy.
00:05:04 Aaron Leson
Yeah.
00:05:05 Alexis Franks
And we get into our space where we’ve been conducting business services for so long.
00:05:11 Alexis Franks
And to think outside of the box and to be innovative, it really took for you to say that, to open up the conversation and say, we’re going to do some things different, and now is the time to try things differently.
00:05:26 Alexis Franks
And how we engage with employers, it’s always going to be a need, but we have to meet and pivot based on what the employer wants.
00:05:36 Aaron Leson
For sure.
00:05:37 Aaron Leson
For sure.
00:05:38 Aaron Leson
I think that in itself is the key.
00:05:41 Aaron Leson
is to really examine ourselves in this time of transition with the federal scene still kind of up in the air.
00:05:49 Aaron Leson
The Department of Labor came out with the talent strategy and their main key pillars.
00:05:56 Aaron Leson
And we talked about that in the pre-con.
00:05:59 Aaron Leson
And going into some unknown is a little scary.
00:06:04 Aaron Leson
And so I always say, you know, control what you can control and that what you can’t
00:06:10 Aaron Leson
You really just need to let it go.
00:06:13 Alexis Franks
Yes.
00:06:14 Aaron Leson
So what do you control?
00:06:15 Aaron Leson
And that’s where we spent a majority of our time in the session is we really need to look and make use of the demand-driven system.
00:06:27 Aaron Leson
And instead of, you know, if you’re listening, the demand-driven system is a system in which businesses drive
00:06:35 Aaron Leson
what we do on kind of the back end of workforce and economic development.
00:06:41 Aaron Leson
So instead of taking what our normal, what I always call products like OJT, IWT, ITA, and again, listener, I’m sorry if that’s not your world, but they’re all tools that we use in the business to help get people to work and offset expenses.
00:07:02 Aaron Leson
there’s a trap there to take our products and try to push them and sell them.
00:07:08 Aaron Leson
Okay, because we have performance to get and it makes it pressure filled sometimes.
00:07:16 Aaron Leson
We believe that if you start with what really get to know a business, like get to know the people in there, build professional working relationships.
00:07:28 Aaron Leson
So we have the ability to
00:07:31 Aaron Leson
Build trust.
00:07:32 Alexis Franks
Yes.
00:07:33 Aaron Leson
Because that trust will bridge many gaps and many problems that may come up in the future.
00:07:39 Aaron Leson
And when we trust another person, we’re willing to take more risk with them and to stay with them longer because we know what their intentions are.
00:07:48 Alexis Franks
Right.
00:07:49 Alexis Franks
I really appreciate that point.
00:07:51 Alexis Franks
And I think it’s a theme that has resonated throughout the rest of the academy, is how we focus on building relationships with employers.
00:08:00 Alexis Franks
can determine how long they continue a partnership with us.
00:08:04 Aaron Leson
Right.
00:08:05 Alexis Franks
And that piece, if we can start with that, brings in so many opportunities to expand workforce programs and really hone in on what are we doing to serve the community and keep the employers in our backyards.
00:08:21 Aaron Leson
Yeah.
00:08:22 Alexis Franks
So that’s a huge piece.
00:08:24 Alexis Franks
And I’m glad, I think,
00:08:26 Alexis Franks
A lot of folks came out saying, You really set the bar high for this entire week, but it is the tone that we wanted to have to really create some strategic partnerships.
00:08:38 Alexis Franks
So can you talk a little bit about the activities that each participant engaged in?
00:08:44 Aaron Leson
Yeah, you know, in the main two kind of topics that
00:08:49 Aaron Leson
I attempted to get into were sector strategies.
00:08:52 Alexis Franks
Okay.
00:08:53 Aaron Leson
And we wanted to talk a bit about on-the-job training contracts.
00:08:57 Aaron Leson
And those two by themselves really aren’t riveting topics.
00:09:02 Aaron Leson
You know, they just aren’t.
00:09:04 Aaron Leson
So we did spend some time thinking and working through the nine steps of building a good sector strategy, which is practical.
00:09:15 Aaron Leson
I mean, you can take that.
00:09:16 Aaron Leson
You can then go home and you have kind of a blueprint to use if and when you decide that you want to build a industry specific sector.
00:09:29 Aaron Leson
Okay.
00:09:30 Aaron Leson
So and we’re talking about things like health care, IT, advanced manufacturing, construction.
00:09:39 Aaron Leson
It’s going to look different for every area because each community has their own
00:09:44 Aaron Leson
their own emphasis.
00:09:45 Aaron Leson
And because of that difference, I didn’t want to get up there and talk about one particular sector.
00:09:53 Aaron Leson
What I really wanted to focus on is, well, if I’m going to build a sector, what are the foundational pieces?
00:10:01 Aaron Leson
So as we mentioned, relationships.
00:10:04 Alexis Franks
Yes.
00:10:05 Aaron Leson
Right?
00:10:05 Aaron Leson
And it seems kind of simple, but honestly, without building that trust,
00:10:12 Aaron Leson
The best business client that I ever had when I was a frontline staff in a Michigan work system was a business who was a repeat customer.
00:10:23 Aaron Leson
And then that repeat customer could become a business champion, and then they would leverage their words of encouragement and trust to their colleagues, and it tended to snowball on one another.
00:10:37 Alexis Franks
Yeah.
00:10:37 Aaron Leson
You know, and that’s…
00:10:38 Aaron Leson
That’s when you know that you’re on the right path, is that you have a business that comes back and is willing to do multiple activities or to even reach out to you for something you may not be able to provide, but you have the resources to bring in.
00:10:56 Alexis Franks
Yeah.
00:10:57 Aaron Leson
So in that, we really spent some time talking about how to develop it, like practical steps, being intentional is the word I continually use.
00:11:08 Aaron Leson
Instead of just hoping it happens, what are things that really cause good working relationships?
00:11:15 Aaron Leson
The other thing, and this is more of a higher level, is that when we examine the Department of Labor’s America’s Talent Strategy and their five key pillars that they’re going to be shooting for, to me, when I read that, the star of that show is business services.
00:11:36 Aaron Leson
I mean, it’s going to be
00:11:38 Aaron Leson
really the driving force behind the current administration’s focus on making workforce development the most impactful that it can be.
00:11:51 Aaron Leson
And so I think that’s why this academy is even that much more important during this time, because we have to.
00:11:59 Aaron Leson
Not often will I use absolutes.
00:12:02 Aaron Leson
We have to create the best business services systems we can and make the businesses in our community our priority first and foremost.
00:12:14 Aaron Leson
And I made a joke.
00:12:14 Aaron Leson
I made a joke in there.
00:12:17 Aaron Leson
So I did a training, oh, this year, 25, 2025.
00:12:21 Aaron Leson
And I had a person in there and I never bridge confidentiality, but they shared with me and
00:12:29 Aaron Leson
that they were one business services consultant and they had like 16 counties that they had to serve.
00:12:35 Aaron Leson
Yes.
00:12:36 Aaron Leson
And I said, well, you know, I’m not, I’m not there.
00:12:41 Aaron Leson
I’m not in charge in that area.
00:12:43 Aaron Leson
I’m not the director.
00:12:44 Aaron Leson
I don’t, so I’m not casting judgment.
00:12:46 Aaron Leson
But if I really were to look at one person serving 16 counties and
00:12:54 Aaron Leson
There’s hundreds, if not thousands of businesses located in there.
00:12:58 Aaron Leson
I then just have to think to myself, I believe we really need to examine our own systems.
00:13:05 Aaron Leson
We need to have justification of why we are doing what we’re doing in the area of business services.
00:13:11 Aaron Leson
And then to go to the business community via chambers, consortiums, and ask the question, are you getting what you need from us?
00:13:22 Aaron Leson
Do you even know we exist in being vulnerable in that way?
00:13:27 Aaron Leson
Because unless we’re willing to do that, one person can’t serve 16 counties.
00:13:33 Alexis Franks
Absolutely.
00:13:34 Alexis Franks
Absolutely.
00:13:35 Alexis Franks
And I think you hit the nail right on the head with that one.
00:13:39 Alexis Franks
And that is common that we have business services teams that are lean and doing the best that they can to serve their business community.
00:13:49 Alexis Franks
And that investment,
00:13:51 Alexis Franks
Now is the time to look at our structure and say, are we investing in all of the right areas?
00:13:58 Alexis Franks
And how can we support each other?
00:14:00 Alexis Franks
Even if we can’t do it all ourselves, how are we partnering strategically with chambers and other organizations and collaboratives?
00:14:11 Alexis Franks
How do we do this work on a large scale, even as a lean team?
00:14:16 Alexis Franks
So I think that’s a very good conversation to have.
00:14:20 Alexis Franks
For some, even to go back with…
00:14:22 Alexis Franks
with their leadership and have.
00:14:23 Alexis Franks
Correct.
00:14:24 Alexis Franks
How can I do this work in a really impactful way?
00:14:28 Alexis Franks
And we’re always challenging, if there’s one thing I’ve learned business services and workforce program staff really do well, is pivot when we need to pivot.
00:14:37 Alexis Franks
And we have been able to do that successfully over decades through a number of legislation and new programs and initiatives and all of these things.
00:14:48 Alexis Franks
but we may be at a time of another pivot to just re-examine how we’re investing into our community.
00:14:56 Alexis Franks
So I think I’m glad you had that conversation and individuals felt safe and free to have that conversation in the sessions as well.
00:15:06 Alexis Franks
So I’m really happy to hear what is happening right here on the ground today.
00:15:11 Aaron Leson
Yeah, no, I agree with you 100%.
00:15:14 Aaron Leson
And because we have, and I didn’t know the attendance, do you know the approximate attendance of the academy?
00:15:20 Alexis Franks
Yes, we’re right at 480.
00:15:23 Aaron Leson
Really.
00:15:24 Alexis Franks
Yes.
00:15:24 Aaron Leson
Oh my God.
00:15:25 Aaron Leson
Yeah.
00:15:25 Aaron Leson
That’s fantastic.
00:15:26 Alexis Franks
Yes.
00:15:27 Aaron Leson
And when you look at that, that’s usually by full-time working adults who are taking the time
00:15:35 Aaron Leson
being away from family, friends, home, business.
00:15:39 Aaron Leson
And I know listener, you’re like, oh, that’s tough.
00:15:41 Aaron Leson
You’re in Denver, Colorado.
00:15:43 Aaron Leson
Yes.
00:15:44 Aaron Leson
Okay.
00:15:44 Aaron Leson
Not a bad place to be.
00:15:46 Alexis Franks
Not bad.
00:15:47 Aaron Leson
But the truth is, all of our work is still going.
00:15:51 Alexis Franks
Yes.
00:15:51 Aaron Leson
We sit in sessions, we give sessions.
00:15:54 Aaron Leson
We’re we’re we’re doing this work and the emails are piling and we’re trying to handle things from a distance.
00:16:00 Aaron Leson
That commitment
00:16:04 Aaron Leson
I think is just the indicator that people are willing and wanting to learn what they can in terms of how do we embrace the change that is about to come and not knowing it?
00:16:18 Aaron Leson
And what can we do regardless of the change that we know will work?
00:16:23 Aaron Leson
Yes.
00:16:23 Aaron Leson
I mean, I think that’s the real key.
00:16:26 Aaron Leson
Even in by the time a decision maker, whenever that’s gonna happen, ’cause we know some of the reauthorization is to,
00:16:32 Aaron Leson
been dragging on for some time.
00:16:34 Aaron Leson
It needs to happen and people are presenting different.
00:16:38 Aaron Leson
And I find myself getting sometimes a little worked up, like, what?
00:16:41 Aaron Leson
are we thinking?
00:16:44 Aaron Leson
Then I step back and I’m like, well, in the meantime, I know this will work regardless, like building relationships.
00:16:53 Aaron Leson
putting ourselves out there to be able to be resources to businesses, that will not be impacted regardless of the new rules, legislation, focus, because we truly need to meet those businesses’ needs.
00:17:09 Aaron Leson
And that’s going to come with, for some areas and some individuals, a reprioritization of
00:17:21 Aaron Leson
what we’re doing.
00:17:21 Aaron Leson
Yes.
00:17:22 Aaron Leson
Okay.
00:17:23 Alexis Franks
That makes complete sense.
00:17:24 Aaron Leson
I mean, we might have to balance our staff and say, well, how can we really make a touch point in our community with the businesses?
00:17:31 Aaron Leson
Do we have enough?
00:17:32 Aaron Leson
Is it, are we tracking it?
00:17:35 Aaron Leson
Are we focused there?
00:17:36 Aaron Leson
Because when we can do that, they’ll bring the job orders.
00:17:40 Aaron Leson
We’ll get our people placed.
00:17:41 Aaron Leson
We’ll spend our money in training and on the job training.
00:17:46 Aaron Leson
And that’s one of the points that I made in the pre-con that
00:17:51 Aaron Leson
the on-the-job training contracts really help businesses offset the hiring of new employees.
00:17:59 Aaron Leson
And I think one of the screens that I have said that it costs approximately $4,600 to hire and train a new employee.
00:18:10 Aaron Leson
And with those on-the-job training contracts, what we’re allowed to do is offset that, I mean, you know, approximate $5,000, which makes
00:18:21 Aaron Leson
It allows that business not only to have a better chance of succeeding at keeping a trained individual, but it also, in real financial terms, offsets some of the fees that are associated with that.
00:18:36 Aaron Leson
It’s A win-win.
00:18:38 Aaron Leson
And some people say, well, you didn’t show us an example of an on-the-job training contract.
00:18:42 Aaron Leson
Well, there are many pages long with a lot of legalese, but here’s the truth of the matter, and I believe this.
00:18:51 Aaron Leson
This is where we leverage AI.
00:18:54 Aaron Leson
I just did a little like just messing around with AI and said, build me an on-the-job training contract.
00:19:00 Aaron Leson
Shockingly, it put off a pretty nice beginning that I could have massaged all the way probably into a real contract.
00:19:10 Aaron Leson
So we’re going to have the tools to leverage
00:19:14 Aaron Leson
the scary AI world.
00:19:16 Aaron Leson
And it is, it’s a little scary.
00:19:18 Aaron Leson
Some people are like, you know, I don’t want to take over my home or family.
00:19:21 Aaron Leson
Right, right.
00:19:22 Aaron Leson
Which, okay.
00:19:24 Aaron Leson
And I know we’re laughing about it, but there’s part of me, I was sharing with somebody, I had a question on art.
00:19:30 Aaron Leson
So I asked Gemini on my phone about this.
00:19:35 Aaron Leson
And then I had a 35 minute conversation like,
00:19:38 Aaron Leson
kind of back and forth.
00:19:40 Aaron Leson
And I’m like, I got off.
00:19:41 Aaron Leson
I’m like, that was weird.
00:19:42 Aaron Leson
It was good.
00:19:43 Aaron Leson
I actually told the person goodbye because I’m old.
00:19:48 Aaron Leson
But the beauty, the beauty of it, though, is in one of the key pillars of the Department of Labor’s strategy is to be flexible and to leverage the new technologies that are coming.
00:20:03 Aaron Leson
And that’s stuff we can do now.
00:20:06 Aaron Leson
And I know, I know it.
00:20:07 Aaron Leson
I know there’s people because I feel it myself going, yeah, no, not me, right?
00:20:12 Alexis Franks
Yeah.
00:20:12 Aaron Leson
Yeah, that little bit of resistance.
00:20:14 Aaron Leson
I get it completely, but it’s going to be here.
00:20:19 Aaron Leson
And so how can we use it for good?
00:20:22 Aaron Leson
Absolutely.
00:20:23 Aaron Leson
And that’s going to take us.
00:20:24 Aaron Leson
It’s not for someone else.
00:20:26 Aaron Leson
It’s for us to learn and to know and to understand, and then to be able to arrange some of our training around AI focus and get
00:20:35 Aaron Leson
our job seekers into that and see where that is going to lead us.
00:20:39 Aaron Leson
We have to be tuned into that.
00:20:41 Aaron Leson
And it really did play itself out well.
00:20:44 Aaron Leson
One of the pillars is that, and the on-the-job training contracts can be made with it.
00:20:49 Aaron Leson
It’s just, again, something that if you’re set in your ways and like me at times, a little bit stubborn, we’re going to really have to look in the mirror and say, hey, you know what, how do we take what we’re given
00:21:04 Aaron Leson
to make it the best for the people that we serve on our teams.
00:21:10 Aaron Leson
And then because when we do that, that translates into changing, helping them impact our community by and truly not just not just rainbows and sugar Skittles.
00:21:25 Aaron Leson
It’s literally
00:21:28 Aaron Leson
transforms people’s lives when we can get them into careers and pathways that make a difference and that are sustainable.
00:21:37 Aaron Leson
Because then it then changes maybe their family dynamics and generationally speaking, and then you broaden that out into the communities and into our regions.
00:21:49 Aaron Leson
And that’s why I love what we do.
00:21:51 Aaron Leson
We have a part and a play in that.
00:21:55 Aaron Leson
And to me, a big part in play.
00:21:57 Aaron Leson
I mean, I just see it as if we call this industry our home, it’s our responsibility to really latch into these things and to embrace them and to learn from one another.
00:22:10 Alexis Franks
Right.
00:22:11 Aaron Leson
Right.
00:22:11 Alexis Franks
That’s a big thing.
00:22:12 Aaron Leson
To be here at, if you’re in business services, to be at an academy like this where you can sit in a session
00:22:20 Aaron Leson
And maybe they already have figured out something you desperately need and save you all the heartache of trial and failure to get there.
00:22:31 Aaron Leson
You can just take it.
00:22:32 Aaron Leson
And I think, again, that makes me excited for these specialized academies like we have here.
00:22:38 Alexis Franks
Yes, yes.
00:22:39 Alexis Franks
So wow, first of all, you said a lot.
00:22:42 Alexis Franks
I did.
00:22:43 Alexis Franks
There are a lot of key pieces that really
00:22:47 Alexis Franks
drive home where we are in today’s landscape and how we can move forward.
00:22:53 Alexis Franks
And I think a big piece of that here at Workforce on the Mic, we always have what we call mic drop moments.
00:23:00 Alexis Franks
So you gave us a couple, but one that really stuck with me is to do what we should, regardless of the change that will happen.
00:23:09 Alexis Franks
So what can, what are pieces of the work that we do that will never go away?
00:23:14 Alexis Franks
Business will always have a need.
00:23:17 Alexis Franks
We’ll always need to leverage technology and resources for the work that we do.
00:23:22 Alexis Franks
We’ve been doing that.
00:23:23 Alexis Franks
And how we do it may change, but those are things that are steady in our industry.
00:23:29 Alexis Franks
And we are working towards embracing what that looks like.
00:23:33 Alexis Franks
So I think you’ve given us a few key nuggets that we can just take away and really say, how are we reprioritizing the work that we do to make sure we meet the business need, to keep that building relationships at the forefront of the work that we do, being employer demand driven, and how that plays a key role in the success of our workforce programs, all of those
00:23:59 Alexis Franks
have been really great workforce mic drop moments for us.
00:24:04 Alexis Franks
So I appreciate that for you.
00:24:05 Alexis Franks
And I told you I wouldn’t keep you for too long.
00:24:08 Aaron Leson
Okay.
00:24:08 Alexis Franks
So I have one more question for you.
00:24:11 Aaron Leson
Uh-oh, okay.
00:24:12 Alexis Franks
All right.
00:24:12 Alexis Franks
So for all of our workforce warriors across the country, for all of the business services professionals that have joined us this week and across the nation, what advice do you have for them as we move forward with all of the things that we see happening and changing
00:24:29 Alexis Franks
and going on, what advice do you have for us to continue to be successful in the work that we do every day?
00:24:37 Aaron Leson
You know, great question.
00:24:40 Aaron Leson
And what instantly comes to my mind is something I hit on earlier, is to continue, or I won’t even say continue, really look and say, are you, as an individual, getting caught up in the noise of the unknown,
00:24:58 Aaron Leson
or the noise of the political backdrop, or what’s gonna happen?
00:25:06 Aaron Leson
Are you a person who’s looking not only at that, maybe that high level, or maybe it’s your organization that prevents you from really doing what you believe, right?
00:25:18 Aaron Leson
But you don’t have the control.
00:25:21 Aaron Leson
I would ask you to really be honest with yourself, and if you can’t control it,
00:25:27 Aaron Leson
That doesn’t mean you can’t advocate, but I’m gonna ask you to let it go.
00:25:31 Aaron Leson
And I’m gonna ask you to double down on that which you know that you can control and be great at it.
00:25:39 Aaron Leson
Be great at it.
00:25:41 Aaron Leson
People need us to be great at what we do because for everybody in this industry, we’re here because on a daily basis, I believe this, there is someone that needs us, there’s a business that needs us.
00:25:55 Aaron Leson
When I say business, I’m talking about a person in that business, a real person, not just a nameplate.
00:26:00 Aaron Leson
We’re here and we have the opportunity to serve people.
00:26:06 Aaron Leson
Let go of that what you can’t control.
00:26:09 Aaron Leson
Double down on what you can and become great at what you do because your impact will exponentially grow that way.
00:26:18 Aaron Leson
And quite frankly, you’ll be happier because you won’t be as frustrated, you won’t go
00:26:24 Aaron Leson
You’ll be like, you know what?
00:26:25 Aaron Leson
I know what I should and can do, and I’m going to be the best at it.
00:26:29 Aaron Leson
Wow.
00:26:30 Aaron Leson
Whether that’s serving a job seeker, whether that’s being a manager who manages in a one-stop or a director, we need managers and directors to be the best because they set that tone.
00:26:44 Aaron Leson
And we need business services consultants
00:26:48 Aaron Leson
to be able to be energized, to go out, to have an impact and influence not only with businesses, but partners such as training institutions and economic development and chambers.
00:27:00 Aaron Leson
And sometimes that may seem overwhelming because I’m throwing out, but the truth is, let go of that which you can’t control.
00:27:07 Aaron Leson
Double down on what you can, because people need us to be the best we can be.
00:27:11 Alexis Franks
Wow, that is great, Aaron.
00:27:13 Alexis Franks
And you heard it, you heard it direct from Aaron.
00:27:16 Alexis Franks
You might have to coin that term at TM.
00:27:20 Alexis Franks
Yes, yes.
00:27:21 Alexis Franks
And that is great for all of our listeners to take away from today’s episode, is to really be great at what we can control.
00:27:29 Aaron Leson
Yeah.
00:27:29 Alexis Franks
And just be great.
00:27:31 Aaron Leson
Yeah, I agree.
00:27:32 Alexis Franks
I appreciate that encouragement.
00:27:34 Alexis Franks
And Erin, really, truly, thank you for being a part of our academy this year.
00:27:40 Alexis Franks
Thank you for taking the time just to speak with me on the podcast today.
00:27:44 Alexis Franks
I have enjoyed you so much.
00:27:46 Alexis Franks
And I am looking forward to our continued partnership with NADA.
00:27:50 Alexis Franks
Erin, if anyone’s looking for you, what’s the best way to find you?
00:27:55 Aaron Leson
You know, thanks.
00:27:56 Aaron Leson
Well, first, I have to say the same.
00:27:58 Aaron Leson
We just love you guys.
00:27:59 Aaron Leson
TAD Grants love you, and we are all, I consider you my dear friends.
00:28:04 Alexis Franks
Yes.
00:28:04 Aaron Leson
You know, so.
00:28:05 Alexis Franks
Thank you.
00:28:06 Aaron Leson
Yeah.
00:28:07 Aaron Leson
Best way to reach us is at tabgrants.com.
00:28:11 Aaron Leson
If you wanted to e-mail me directly, it’d be erin@taggrants.com.
00:28:15 Alexis Franks
Awesome.
00:28:16 Alexis Franks
Okay.
00:28:16 Alexis Franks
Erin, thank you so much again.
00:28:17 Alexis Franks
You’re welcome.
00:28:18 Aaron Leson
All right.
00:28:19 Aaron Leson
All right.
00:28:23 Conclusion
Thank you for listening to Workforce on the Mic, presented by NAWDP. Make sure to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
To learn more about NAWDP and to become a member, visit www.nawdp.org. That’s www.nawdp.org.
