Speaker 1: I think as an owner of a business, which I
Speaker 1: was for twenty plus years, I think that gives me
Speaker 1: a little different perspective. Maybe when I go to work
Speaker 1: for somebody else, I take more ownership in it, so
Speaker 1: to speak, because I know I've sat on the other side,
Speaker 1: you know, and had people working for me, and I
Speaker 1: always appreciated when people would go the extra mile. Sometimes
Speaker 1: the HR department shies away from hiring business owners. Someone
Speaker 1: who's independent and entrepreneurial might not fit with company culture.
Speaker 1: But Mitch McNeil of Grand Rapids, Michigan, was a great
Speaker 1: choice to become a leader in a new job, even
Speaker 1: though he was working for somebody else. That's largely because
Speaker 1: he knew what it meant to have his own shop.
Speaker 1: As for Terrika Ellis, spend just five minutes with her
Speaker 1: and you'll have no doubt she's all in sure to
Speaker 1: make us success of whatever she tackles. I want to grow.
Speaker 1: I want to learn everything that I could possibly learn,
Speaker 1: and you're always learning new things. On this edition of
Speaker 1: On the Job from Hired to Retired, brought to you
Speaker 1: by Express Employment Professionals, we meet two people whose work
Speaker 1: involves helping others find the comforts of home. I'm your
Speaker 1: host Steve Mencher and over the past thirty four years,
Speaker 1: Express Employment Professionals has put millions of people like Mitch
Speaker 1: and Terrika to work in meaningful and fulfilling jobs and careers.
Speaker 1: If you're looking for work or want to grow your workforce,
Speaker 1: go to express pros dot com. I'm on my way
Speaker 1: to Grand Rapids, Michigan. It's one of the places in
Speaker 1: the Midwest that has been successful in reinventing itself for
Speaker 1: the twenty one century, and it seemed likely that people
Speaker 1: at work here would be able to pursue their passions
Speaker 1: and interests. Meet Mitch McNeil. Some of his earliest childhood
Speaker 1: memories involved sports. Even as he was preparing for a
Speaker 1: career with an undergrad degree in public administration, a minor
Speaker 1: in business management, and then a law degree, he kept
Speaker 1: trying to discover how he could make a living in sports.
Speaker 1: His brother helped with the brainstorming, and the two of
Speaker 1: them finally figured it out, and basketball in the driveway
Speaker 1: was was kind of the king for us year round,
Speaker 1: and uh so we actually just for fun had started
Speaker 1: a three on three basketball tournament in our backyard and
Speaker 1: did that during the summers one time a year, and
Speaker 1: then had an opportunity through an ad agency out of
Speaker 1: Grand Rapids UH and some sponsorship connections to actually take
Speaker 1: it on the road and do events in different parts
Speaker 1: of the country. We had a nice tent paige article
Speaker 1: in Sports Illustrated about our event, and ABC World News
Speaker 1: and WHY World of Sports and all these people were
Speaker 1: covering our one backyard event, and we decided to turn
Speaker 1: what we were doing just for fun into UH into
Speaker 1: a career. So that's what what we started doing. Did
Speaker 1: this benefit someone? Was it a charity thing? Would tell
Speaker 1: me how that turned out? What was how? Was it
Speaker 1: a business? Yeah, it really is a charity thing. We
Speaker 1: weren't a nonprofit organization ourselves. We were a for profit
Speaker 1: business entity. But in we developed a program where in
Speaker 1: each of the communities that we would run an event,
Speaker 1: we would have a local charity that was involved. They
Speaker 1: would help us with volunteers and and they had opportunities
Speaker 1: to raise money through other means that we gave them.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, that was the
Speaker 1: the ultimate goal, was this fun event for people of
Speaker 1: all ages, all playing abilities, but also raising money for
Speaker 1: some local cause in each of the communities that goes
Speaker 1: on for how long it's still going on today. But
Speaker 1: I left there back at the end of two thousand nine,
Speaker 1: so at about twenty five years did that full time.
Speaker 1: Maybe you've started or been involved in a business like
Speaker 1: Mitch and found that the record keeping, the organizing, the
Speaker 1: hiring and firing, all these things began to overshadow the
Speaker 1: reason you'd become involved in the first place. That's what
Speaker 1: happened to Mitch. At that point he figured it was
Speaker 1: time to move on. The one thing I landed on
Speaker 1: eventually in two thousand and ten was working as a landman,
Speaker 1: an independent contractor, a landman on behalf of an oil
Speaker 1: and gas company. You may not have heard of this job.
Speaker 1: I know I hadn't, but CNN Money calls landman one
Speaker 1: of the best jobs you could have. A landman negoti
Speaker 1: yates on behalf of energy companies, serving as a liaison
Speaker 1: to property owners who have oil or gas on their
Speaker 1: land or who might be on the route of a pipeline.
Speaker 1: Almost immediately, this took a toll on Mitch McNeil's family life,
Speaker 1: since he needed to be in a remote part of
Speaker 1: the state for several days each week. So did that
Speaker 1: for a few months, the oil ran dry, so to speak,
Speaker 1: and and things kind of shut down pretty rapidly, So
Speaker 1: I was only there for a couple of months. About
Speaker 1: a month or two after that, I got a call
Speaker 1: from the same company wanting to know if I'd be
Speaker 1: interested in going out to North Dakota and working as
Speaker 1: a landman out there and working on pipelines and that
Speaker 1: kind of thing with with landowners out there. So they
Speaker 1: took that opportunity. Was that the height of the boom
Speaker 1: in North Dakota went up. The height of the boom
Speaker 1: in Williston and in that area of North Dakota was unbelievable. Yeah,
Speaker 1: definitely an experience, but once again it was an experience
Speaker 1: that Mitch from his family, he was growing tired of
Speaker 1: that and there was more personal level. Was definitely the
Speaker 1: faith journey that I was going on at that time.
Speaker 1: I think obviously was unemployed for a while, obviously had
Speaker 1: those struggles and that kind of thing to go with
Speaker 1: along with unemployment. Had family that just you know, men everything,
Speaker 1: and wanted to make sure I was a part of,
Speaker 1: you know, what they were going through at college or
Speaker 1: in high school and being available at their events. So
Speaker 1: on a personal level, Those were the things that that was,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of driving me on a job level.
Speaker 1: I was looking for something definitely back in West Michigan.
Speaker 1: We knew that's where we wanted to be and really
Speaker 1: was kind of focused on because I had worked, even
Speaker 1: though I didn't work for a nonprofit organization, worked with
Speaker 1: a number of nonprofit organizations through the basketball events. Kind
Speaker 1: of had in my mind that that's the direction I
Speaker 1: wanted to take, was maybe towards something involved in a nonprofit.
Speaker 1: Ideally would be a faith based nonprofit. The drive to
Speaker 1: be part of something bigger than himself. That was the
Speaker 1: feeling Mitch used to have when he helped communities raise
Speaker 1: money with his basketball events, and all the jobs he'd
Speaker 1: held before gave Mitch a great story to tell about
Speaker 1: his flexibility and people skills, being able to uh, you know,
Speaker 1: literally cold calling, uh, these landowners out in North Dakota
Speaker 1: and Northern Michigan and trying to convince them that their
Speaker 1: land was going to be valuable to somebody and would
Speaker 1: they be willing to part with part of it. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: that that part of it, I think was some skills.
Speaker 1: And then obviously through our events, the other side of
Speaker 1: it was through our events. They were all outdoor events.
Speaker 1: You know, you don't send people into panic mode if
Speaker 1: there's a storm coming through and in that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: So I think those are again key ingredients. In the
Speaker 1: second half of our podcast, we'll follow Mitch to the
Speaker 1: job he found and does every day with commitment, humor,
Speaker 1: and unflagging energy. First, we're gonna meet Terrika Ellis. She's
Speaker 1: another Grand Rapids resident with an interesting work journey, and
Speaker 1: you'll see once we're done how her job is similar
Speaker 1: in some ways to Mitcha's. While I was in college
Speaker 1: thinking about a career path, I've always liked finances. Um,
Speaker 1: that's where I thought that I wanted to be. And
Speaker 1: that's because I am the finance chairperson at my church.
Speaker 1: So and I've been doing that for years. I started
Speaker 1: off as the assistant secretary, then went to secretary, went
Speaker 1: to treasurer, and I'm the finance chairperson. So I've held
Speaker 1: different positions and I won't give up that position. You
Speaker 1: will have to literally snatch it away from me in
Speaker 1: order for me to give it up. Um, But I
Speaker 1: thought that I always wanted to be in finances and
Speaker 1: for a person that does that don't really like accounting.
Speaker 1: I am very good at it, but going and applying
Speaker 1: to jobs at banks, and you know, they want you
Speaker 1: to have so many years of experience when it comes
Speaker 1: to counting money and and all of that. It's just
Speaker 1: like sometimes been in a business. You have to take
Speaker 1: a risk. Banks most of them anyway, aren't known for
Speaker 1: risk taking, and Terrika wasn't having any luck convincing a
Speaker 1: bank to take a chance on her. Besides, women have
Speaker 1: to make some decisions about work that men don't, especially
Speaker 1: as they're having and caring for their children. Terrika, who
Speaker 1: married her husband in two thousand six, has tried to
Speaker 1: adapt to circumstances as each of her kids was born.
Speaker 1: I worked in between and while I was pregnant and
Speaker 1: with my second child, I took off. I took work off.
Speaker 1: So I took a whole year off of work with
Speaker 1: my second child because I felt as though with my
Speaker 1: first child, I felt as though I neglected her a
Speaker 1: little when it came to work because I worked all
Speaker 1: the time, and you know, it just wasn't right. I
Speaker 1: should like spend more time with her. And then my son,
Speaker 1: being that he was six weeks early, I nursed him
Speaker 1: for an entire year, just so I can make sure
Speaker 1: that nothing is wrong with him, so you know, and
Speaker 1: he's just as smart as he want to be. As
Speaker 1: Terrika saw it help in finding just the right job.
Speaker 1: She had the advantage of certainty about what she wanted.
Speaker 1: Some tip agencies was just like, well, you know, it's
Speaker 1: gonna be hard to get you into customer service because
Speaker 1: you have so much factory experience. I think that you
Speaker 1: will be better off by during factory. But that's not
Speaker 1: what I want. That is not what Terica wants. Terka
Speaker 1: is sitting here telling you that Terriica wants a customer
Speaker 1: service position. Terrika is not working in factory. If you
Speaker 1: cannot help me get a customer service position, then there
Speaker 1: is no reason for me to waste your time or
Speaker 1: you to waste my time. So I can move on
Speaker 1: to the next agency and see who is going to
Speaker 1: help me with that. Who's going to oblige my my demands,
Speaker 1: Who's going to want to help me succeed in life?
Speaker 1: You know it's it's the one thing I liked about
Speaker 1: the agency that I went to is that they made
Speaker 1: sure that whatever position they put me in, it was
Speaker 1: going to be a long term position. It wasn't going
Speaker 1: to be something where it is going to be continuously
Speaker 1: short term and short term. Her goal for me was
Speaker 1: to start me off at some short term positions and
Speaker 1: then get me a long term position with the possibility
Speaker 1: of being hired in you were starting to tell me before,
Speaker 1: and I'm really interested in this, the idea of knowing
Speaker 1: yourself well enough and knowing your personality well enough to
Speaker 1: know that customer service works for you. What is it
Speaker 1: about being a cross from the table like you are
Speaker 1: to me now that really feeds who you are and
Speaker 1: what you're excited about. What it is is that I
Speaker 1: have a very bubbly personality. I am not a dull
Speaker 1: person at all. I am um, I'm really calm, and
Speaker 1: I'm very professional and um, you know my coworker she
Speaker 1: was listening to me on the phone with someone and
Speaker 1: she was just like, man, you were really mean on
Speaker 1: that car And I was like, no, I said, I
Speaker 1: wasn't mean. I said, I was very professional on that call.
Speaker 1: It's just that sometimes you have to be stern but
Speaker 1: be professional. And that's exactly what what it was. Okay,
Speaker 1: we're gonna take a short break now. Soon we'll find
Speaker 1: out we're both Terrika and Mitch Landed, and here's a hint,
Speaker 1: they're both helping people find the best possible home. You're
Speaker 1: listening to on the job from Hired to Retire, brought
Speaker 1: to you by Express Employment Professionals. Since we're in Grand Rapids,
Speaker 1: let's hear from Casey could Paris, director of the Professional
Speaker 1: Group for Express Pros office in Grand Rapids. One of
Speaker 1: the things we really strive to do differently here at
Speaker 1: Expresses really get to know the applicant um not just
Speaker 1: throw them in the first available job for them to
Speaker 1: get some money coming in, but really figure out what
Speaker 1: makes them tick, what their skill sets are, and really
Speaker 1: find that match with our employers so that it's a
Speaker 1: long term fit. Our goal really is for these folks
Speaker 1: to find a career at the end of the day
Speaker 1: in and continue to improve their lives through their through
Speaker 1: their work. So we also spend a lot of time
Speaker 1: with our clients as well, going on site, getting to
Speaker 1: know their culture, getting to know what that perfect match
Speaker 1: is going to be, so at the end of the
Speaker 1: day it's a it's a win win for everybody involved.
Speaker 1: That was Casey Comparis from the Express Employment Professional's office
Speaker 1: in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and welcome back to on the
Speaker 1: job from hired to retired. In a moment, we'll find
Speaker 1: out where Mitch McNeil found deep satisfaction with a new
Speaker 1: direction in his career. But first, Tereka Ellis has found
Speaker 1: a job that completely meets her goal of being in
Speaker 1: customer service. She's a leasing agent at Oakview Apartments and
Speaker 1: Grand Rapids. Today she'll be handing over the keys to
Speaker 1: one of the apartments in the complex to two young renters.
Speaker 1: But first there's her solo inspection. Before we move someone in,
Speaker 1: we always go and walk the apartment and make sure
Speaker 1: that everything is is okay before the person moves in. UM,
Speaker 1: And that's what I'm about to do now. I'm about
Speaker 1: to go and walk in apartment because we have a
Speaker 1: move in today, So she's going to be on the
Speaker 1: second floor. What are you looking for when you walk
Speaker 1: through the apartment today? Making sure that all the cabinets
Speaker 1: are intact, that, UM, there isn't any paint anywhere it
Speaker 1: shouldn't be. Making sure that everything is how I would
Speaker 1: want my apartment to look if I was living. As
Speaker 1: we work our way through the apartment, it's clear that
Speaker 1: Terraco wants it to be perfect for the young renters,
Speaker 1: and her careful inspection reflects her philosophy that nothing should
Speaker 1: be taken for granted. Now I'm in a position that
Speaker 1: I love, and with me having a bubbly personality, it's
Speaker 1: awesome and I love talking to people, so face to
Speaker 1: face interaction it's the best thing. You can always have
Speaker 1: conversations on the phone and everything, but face to faces
Speaker 1: is awesome. Now I can testify to the bubbly personality.
Speaker 1: Terrika's enthusiasm and passion for her jobs shine through as
Speaker 1: she goes about her work. Okay, well, I was just
Speaker 1: calling to let you know that you are able to
Speaker 1: move in earlier today. You don't have to wait till thirty.
Speaker 1: I just walked your apartment and it is awesome. If
Speaker 1: you were Terrika's boss, Can you imagine how glad you'd
Speaker 1: be to hear this. I want to grow. I want
Speaker 1: to learn everything that I could possibly learn. You're always
Speaker 1: learning new things, especially when it's a new job, or
Speaker 1: it could be something that you already knew, but then
Speaker 1: it changes. It's just like the little things make you excited.
Speaker 1: And five years down the lie, I am quite sure
Speaker 1: that the little things are still going to excite me.
Speaker 1: Terrika new on day one that this job could be
Speaker 1: a winner. We all connected, everyone that's here in the
Speaker 1: office today, all of us connected. We are a family here.
Speaker 1: We talked to each other every day. We have fun
Speaker 1: every day. It is not a boring work day when
Speaker 1: we come to work. It is not a boring work
Speaker 1: day at all. I love the people that I work with.
Speaker 1: And once I get hired in, I hope I didn't
Speaker 1: get moved. What's the timeline? When do you think you
Speaker 1: might get the good news? I don't know, hopefully soon.
Speaker 1: I'm just waiting to be shopped. That's the one thing
Speaker 1: I'm waiting on. Just waiting to be shopped. And when
Speaker 1: I say shopped, I mean someone coming in and um
Speaker 1: acting as if they want to rent an apartment, even
Speaker 1: as going as far as them taking the application or
Speaker 1: even filling out the application and making sure that I
Speaker 1: follow all the guidelines when it comes to fair housing
Speaker 1: and UM discrimination and all of that. So wow, So
Speaker 1: they sound like a secret shopper in here. You'll never
Speaker 1: know who that person is. They really do that, Yes,
Speaker 1: they do, they really do that. Could you think you
Speaker 1: might be able to tell who it is. Sometimes you
Speaker 1: can tell and sometimes you can't. Yeah, you just never know.
Speaker 1: You just never know. It could just happen any at
Speaker 1: any given time. I could be secret Shop today. I
Speaker 1: don't know. It can happen tomorrow. I have no idea.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I'm just waiting, all right, ohn't know. We're
Speaker 1: all set. The apartment is yours? Have fun? Oh yeah, awesome. Now.
Speaker 1: We also followed Mitch McNeil to work at Baruke Senior Ministries,
Speaker 1: a faith based nonprofit that runs about two dozen senior
Speaker 1: living facilities. He found a great match there as VP
Speaker 1: of Business Development. Um, so we are in eight Bit Facility.
Speaker 1: Mitch introduces us to his colleague, Jay Lindeman, the associate
Speaker 1: administrator of Georgetown and Cambridge Manners in Grandville, Michigan, on
Speaker 1: the outskirts of Grand Rapids. This is an eighty bed
Speaker 1: baruque facility with four distinct units serving seniors who need
Speaker 1: a wide range of care from independent living to assisted living,
Speaker 1: with early memory care available as well. So we we
Speaker 1: pride ourselves on a more homelike feel here. Um, what
Speaker 1: we're interested in is creating something that feel less institutionalized
Speaker 1: and more comfortable, more like which you would have at home,
Speaker 1: but at the same time recognizing that we still have
Speaker 1: to serve twenty people in a group setting. So our
Speaker 1: dining room here is set up more like a family
Speaker 1: dining We eat together, um. So you know a lot
Speaker 1: of places you come down and you grab your seat,
Speaker 1: you kind of come and go as you please. We
Speaker 1: like to come down together as a group and eat together. Um.
Speaker 1: And so all the dining rooms are set up similarly.
Speaker 1: There's a lot going on as we tour the facility.
Speaker 1: We're him in our fingernails painted clip see do you
Speaker 1: come specially to do this the nails? Is that something
Speaker 1: you do or do you do lots of different things?
Speaker 1: I do lots of different things. I want of the
Speaker 1: activities directors here. So yes, doing nails every Wednesday. The
Speaker 1: strongest impression a visitor takes away from a baroque facility
Speaker 1: is that every effort has been made to help residents
Speaker 1: feel at home, and as Mitch explains, that also translates
Speaker 1: into giving residents and their families a deep sense of security.
Speaker 1: One of the biggest fears that that families and seniors
Speaker 1: have as running out of money, and we have a
Speaker 1: program that assures them that they will never be asked
Speaker 1: to leave even if they run out of money when
Speaker 1: they're in our facility. So as a nonprofit, we can
Speaker 1: offer those kinds of things and and feel good about it.
Speaker 1: And since Baruque Senior Ministries is a faith based nonprofit,
Speaker 1: they have chaplains to minister to residents in their spiritual
Speaker 1: care department, and their nondenominational Christian beliefs infused the entire organization.
Speaker 1: Over the past few years, Mitch McNeil has been key
Speaker 1: to the organization's growth as the vice president of Business Development.
Speaker 1: I wear a lot of hats. When I was originally
Speaker 1: hired UM, I was going to get involved in fundraising
Speaker 1: and volunteer development again kind of based on my my
Speaker 1: previous career that kind of was short lived, and they
Speaker 1: they found out that I had some other abilities through
Speaker 1: my legal days and and uh skill set. So UM
Speaker 1: been involved primarily in the acquisition part of our the
Speaker 1: growth of the organization, but also do get involved in licensing,
Speaker 1: still do a little bit of marketing type things. We
Speaker 1: put together an annual report that I've kind of been
Speaker 1: responsible for, and and just a lot of other things,
Speaker 1: you know, smaller things, but primarily the acquisitions is is
Speaker 1: kind of where I've been involved. When it comes right
Speaker 1: down to it, there's one last question you almost have
Speaker 1: to ask someone like Mitch. Can he imagine his own
Speaker 1: mom in a baruque Senior Ministry's facility, you know? And
Speaker 1: I always look at my mom is is still around
Speaker 1: at at eight two and fortunately able to take care
Speaker 1: of herself right now. But if I was ever in
Speaker 1: a spot where I needed to to show her, you know,
Speaker 1: options out there, there are certain place as you probably
Speaker 1: wouldn't take her, but I'd feel very comfortable and ours
Speaker 1: just knowing that. Really for these families, it's all about
Speaker 1: the buildings can be as nice and and all that
Speaker 1: kind of thing, but it all comes down to the
Speaker 1: level of care and the uh the workers that are
Speaker 1: actually taking care of these residents on a day to
Speaker 1: day basis, and the pride that they take in that
Speaker 1: and and that kind of thing. So that really is
Speaker 1: what drives it. Family and faith, as you can tell
Speaker 1: or what drrive Mitch McNeil, and this is what he
Speaker 1: tells his three kids about work. Make sure you're doing
Speaker 1: something that you love. You don't want to go to
Speaker 1: work every day feeling like it's a challenge or a chore.
Speaker 1: That's great advice from the Heartland. And that's all for
Speaker 1: this edition of On the Job from Hired to Retired,
Speaker 1: brought to you by Express Employment Professionals. Find out more
Speaker 1: at Express pros dot com. This podcast is produced by
Speaker 1: Steve Mencher for Men's Media, Red Seat Ventures and I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Find us on I Heart Radio and iTunes,
Speaker 1: where we hope you'll leave a nice review that helps
Speaker 1: other folks find us too, And of course you can
Speaker 1: listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. See you
Speaker 1: next time On the Job.