Angelo J. Valletta: Concise Communication, Empathy and Servant Leadership

Speaker A: Welcome to the podcast Speaking to Communication Secrets of the C suite. I'm Dr. Laura Sokola, your host and our focus is on mastering communication as an essential leadership skill so that you can command the room, connect with the audience, and close the deal in any context. After over 200 episodes, we are a top 1% podcast globally thanks to you. So if you love listening to these conversations as much as I love bringing them to you, Please, please take 30 seconds to leave us a five star rating and review on your platform of choice or check out the website ratethispodcast.com influence and follow their super simple instructions on with the show. My guest this week is Angelo Valletta. Angelo is the CEO of Ben Franklin Technology Partners. He's also been CEO of many different organizations. Before that, he's also started an endowed scholarship at Temple University in honor of his late brother, uh, Louis A. Valletta, which is absolutely beautiful. He's the author of the new book the 7R's of Leadership and Life. And his passion for his favorite R is recreation, which I can certainly relate to. I'm guessing others can too. Ironically, that seventh R is filled with five Fs family, faith, friends, finances, and fun. And that's what we're gonna have here on the show today. Angela, welcome to the show.

Speaker B: Well, thank you, Dr. Sicola. It's a pleasure being with you here today and m always a pleasure talking with you.

Speaker A: And you know, Laura is great. So feel free to stick with that as we have this conversation. Thank you so much. Now, what is your fun fact?

Speaker B: Oh, gosh. We're going to start off with a fun fact. That's great. So for me, it's about being a little bit self deprecating, right? So a fun, fun fact for me is that my niece, uh, and nephew, who I adore dearly, this is my wife's brother's children and they're adults now, but if you go back a few years, you know, if you look at me on screen here, I look like Shrek. So imagine me green with some horn ears. I'm, um, Shrek. Right? I have a mirror. I get it, Laura. So I would have them call me Uncle Shrek. And my brother in law came to me a couple times and said, geez, that's so disrespectful. You have him call you Uncle Shrek. I said, jay, I love you. I said, you have to understand, I have a mirror. I look like Shrek. I get it. I bask in that likeness. So let me be the fun uncle and just enjoy the time with my wonderful niece and nephew. And I'll tell you, my adult niece who I'm really, really close with, uh, is a thing that I do with her when I'm on vacation. I sent her 30 photos because I came off a, uh, 30 day holiday as they like to call it in Europe. I was in Sicily for a month.

Speaker A: Oh my gosh.

Speaker B: And I just take the top of my head and wherever it is, I'll have either pyramids in the background or the Eiffel Tower in the background or whichever be the case, beautiful ocean ship. And it's just the top of my head. And she returns the favor with just the top of her head. So it's a lot of fun.

Speaker A: That makes for quite the family photo album over time.

Speaker B: Just that shiny top of my head. That's all she gets.

Speaker A: That's awesome. I love it. Can't wait to see some of those photos from Sicily or Cairo or wherever else at that point. Now, on a little less self deprecating angle, and by the way, for anybody else out there who's just listening on itunes or Spotify or something, this might be incentive to go and check out the YouTube version of the podcast. Shrek would not have been the first name to jump to mind, but I now I'm totally envisioning you with the green and the horns and whatever else that's just darn funny. So tell us about Ben Franklin Technology partners. What's your 30 second elevator pitch?

Speaker B: Oh, gosh. Thanks Laura. We are an organization that we refresh, retain and reimagine jobs for Pennsylvania. We do that by investing in early stage organizations to refresh jobs. We support with lift of technology for established manufacturers to retain jobs. And then finally we invest in one of the largest incubator networks in the nation. We invest in 12 different incubators in northeastern Pennsylvania. Form our incubator network to where we reimagine jobs by supporting those firms where they're supporting very early stage entrepreneurs to reimagine technology. So we do all stem, right? So science, technology, engineering, math, all products surrounding that.

Speaker A: That's awesome. And that's such a great beginning for an elevator pitch. Angela, we talk a lot about elevator pitches and things on the show, but just use the use of alliteration, the use of threes, the refresh, retain and reimagine jobs, all those kinds of things. So easy for people to process, to remember. There's a ring to it. So thank you for sharing that today.

Speaker B: Sure. And some of those Rs will be in my seven Rs of leadership and Life book.

Speaker A: So, yes. Okay. And of course, we'll have a link in the show notes for your book for anybody who wants to check them out. And I highly encourage them to do exactly that. Now, Angelo, in all of the time that you've been doing these amazing things, what is the most important leadership communication lesson that you had to learn and how did you learn it?

Speaker B: Uh, boy, Laura, for me, it's about keeping it concise. Right. So even at a young age, I like the drone on Laura. So hopefully I don't do that today. But my mom would say to me, angela, you were born with two ears and one mouth. Listen twice as much as you speak, please. And I learned that at a very early age. Now, I may not subscribe to that all the time, but I try to keep it concise on point so my listeners don't get confused. And, you know, it goes back to a lesson I learned when I was reading Albert Einstein's autobiography. And he said, if you do not know your subject well enough, you will not be able to explain it.

Speaker A: Simple.

Speaker B: So, uh, try to take those lessons learned from that perspective and really try to communicate complex ideas, information, finances, investments, to boards, advisors, or whomever you're speaking with is very key to being a successful leader and servant leader in our daily lives.

Speaker A: Yes. And I think that was beautifully concise and succinct. I think Mark Twain, I believe, had a slightly more tongue in cheek version of that same kind of quote where he said, I didn't have time to write you a short letter, so I wrote you a long one instead. Yes.

Speaker B: A little bit opposite of Einstein, but the same point, Right?

Speaker A: Exactly. It's harder. The point is, it's hard to be concise. It does take work. It's easy to be verbose and kind of figure out your own point as you're articulating it, needing to hear the sounds come out before you even realize where you're going with your own message. But not everybody wants to go along that journey with you. They just kind of want to meet you at the destination.

Speaker B: And for an individual that's wired as an engineer, it's very hard. Right. So when someone asks me a question, I almost have, like, the decoder ring in my brain.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Taking the complex information, trying to put it together succinctly and be able to communicate to that individual. So, uh, no, I'm not going to drink my Ovaltine today, but the Coda rig is in the top, uh, of mind, for sure. When I'm Explaining, trying to explain things.

Speaker A: I think, you know, whether you're an expert in engineering or in finance or in human resources or architecture, whatever your space is. This is where we all get stuck in what I like to refer to as the expert's curse. We know too much and either we understand what everybody else doesn't understand about it and we, so we don't know how to simplify in terms they'll understand, or we talk over their heads and we do keep it short but not digestible or comprehensible to somebody who doesn't have any of the background to know. So super great lessons to help us bear in mind on a daily basis. Now, tell me about your either DISC profile or Myers Briggs or some other assessment that you've taken and how it has influenced you in your communication with others.

Speaker B: Sure. I try to take from m a communication perspective that servant leadership empathetic approach. Right. So any of the profiles typically took me and my personality, those type of profiles, they've kind of formulated that you are an empathetic, you are a servant leader. How do you drive that out into your organizations and leadership styles? So I learned that along the way. I didn't even know when we did this 20, 25 years ago what the servant leadership really was, but I was living it every single day. Right. So there is a motto that I have within my organization and it kind of really, um, puts a blanket around my servant leadership to where when new individuals come in within the organization or when I'm new to an organization, I say this one motto is that I work for the team. I don't work for my clients and partners because if I'm working for the team, the team is working for the clients and partners. And as CEO, we have to recognize that we give the empowerment to the teams. We give support to the team. So every single day I'm thinking of, are we doing things right? Do we have the right culture? Good culture, not toxic culture. And I know we'll probably talk a little bit about that later.

Speaker A: Sure.

Speaker B: But the key point is I'm working for them. If they know they have someone working for them every single day and supporting them, empowering them and giving them the right education, giving them the right tool sets, giving them the right environment virtually or hybrid or in the office, wherever that may be, we need to do that as leaders, but also understand that every single person, person, like every single snowflake is there.

Speaker A: Yes.

Speaker B: Right. So every person, every personality, they've come from different walks of life and cultures and, and background and Expertise. And we as leaders need to meld m that all together to have a cohesive team to be able to drive our products, services, environment for our clients, partners, board and whoever we are supporting on consistent basis.

Speaker A: Tell me about a time when you made the wrong call and had to fix it. Who did you approach first and what did you say to them? How did you open that conversation?

Speaker B: There's been a lot, Laura, so I'll hone in on one that's really near and dear to my heart because I waited too long. It was an individual within the group. Let's call him Bruce.

Speaker A: Okay.

Speaker B: And Bruce, his personality is just a toxic, tough engineer personnel.

Speaker A: Mhm.

Speaker B: He would be able to out engineer and out support people 3 to 4 to 1. He's brilliant engineer and technologist. But his personality was toxic.

Speaker A: How so? When you say toxic, what did that look or sound like?

Speaker B: You know what, there's honesty and then there's brutal honesty. Right. And that's what Bruce was. He would deliver brutal honesty to where it wasn't borderline of calling people stupid. He would actually say that is a stupid idea and you are stupid for bringing this up.

Speaker A: Wow.

Speaker B: And I let that go too long.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Because I felt that we could not live without that expertise that I didn't think we could find. Well, there was a group of the team said, ang, you're either going to lose one or all of this. We love you. We love how you lead, we love your servant leadership, we love how you empathize. But you protect one. And they didn't name the person, but we all knew who it was.

Speaker A: Yeah, sure, it wasn't hard.

Speaker B: So I tried to coach and it didn't work. I even went down to the level, uh, of drawing a circle on a whiteboard and putting 25 x's in the circle and 1 x outside the circle. And I said, inside that circle is the circle of trust. Bruce, you're this excellent outside of that. And I said it doesn't matter how of a high level engineer and a technologist. You are, you alienate. And about 30 days later we knew there weren't going to be a change. But this was over a four to six month period. And we made that change. We removed Bruce after one of his outbursts. And it's funny is that the team, the 25, were being held back by

Speaker A: the 1, of course.

Speaker B: And sometimes you uh, can't see the forest through the trees. A huge learning experience for me. But here's what I did after we realized that that was the right decision I personally apologized to every single one of my team members and said I was wrong. I waited too long to make this decision, and I'm sorry for making your life miserable.

Speaker A: Um, how did they respond to that?

Speaker B: Thank you. That's what they said, right? And they said, well, we wish it was six months sooner, but we're all moving in the right direction. Direction. And actually, it was one of my favorite teams that I've had in my close to 40 years of working in the industry, in the technology industry. Uh, one of my favorite teams. Just super, super people that because of one, we actually came more of a team together.

Speaker A: Yeah, no doubt. I'm curious if you could go back in time. You said you waited about six months too long. If you could go back six months earlier, what was the inflection point? That if your radar had been on and less whatever buffering or whatever it was trying to do that the radar should have said, now it's time. What was that moment?

Speaker B: The moment was when I actually witnessed the outburst personally. Um, so most of it was people would come and talk to me about it, but I didn't see it firsthand. And that was a culmination of two, four, three months over course. At times. Several people would come in, have conversations with me. Uh, Bruce made me cry today. And that was a man talk.

Speaker A: Well, crying for anybody, but.

Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely right. But you don't brush it off. You still have to go through the process. Right. And then until I witnessed it firsthand of that outburst, but no accountability, no apology. I said, that was the shift. That was the slap across my face to get something.

Speaker A: And, uh, at that point, what was the conversation you should have had with him?

Speaker B: I should have had that conversation with the coaching well in advance and then be able to go through the process of removal. And it was so bad that I witnessed. It was immediate termination at that. There was no going back.

Speaker A: Yeah. It's hard to misinterpret that and say, well, you know, I know maybe you were trying to. Nah. When is that?

Speaker B: Sure, sure.

Speaker A: Blatant that. At least it's easy enough to say. There's not a lot of room for anybody else to interpret it differently. And you've got 25 other witnesses of the exact same thing.

Speaker B: And the beauty, Laura, how the team came together after the decision, which was wonderful to see, and we became better because others were able to step up and they wanted to step up because the one was holding them back.

Speaker A: Yes. So in that conversation, if you had gone back that first time that you witnessed it what would it have sounded like? How would you have confronted him? And what would you have said as far as that's not okay.

Speaker B: Right. I would say, bruce, you can be honest, but you can't be brutally honest. You can't degregate someone in front of a group. I would talk to him about. You praise publicly. You denounce privately. Right. You criticize privately. And I would talk to him about that. Even if someone had an idea that was going down the wrong path to call someone stupid, and how could you even call yourself an engineer? These are the words he said. They're ingrained in my head, that I can just spew them out. When I witnessed that, it was telling for me that, yeah, he's personally holding back the men and women on the team.

Speaker A: So to be able to say something like that, would you have said, like, this can't happen again or else? Is there an immediate ultimatum? Is there a. Or how do you respond to something like that? Does he go, well, I'm just being. What do you want? Is there defensiveness? What would you. I mean, I realize I'm asking you to speculate, but this is where a lot of people get stuck and why they don't have these conversations.

Speaker B: For me, it's process. Right. You know, so the first time you have it verbally and you document that in a file or on a piece of paper, on a post it note, and you slap it onto their performance appraisal from the previous year that you had a conversation.

Speaker A: Sure.

Speaker B: And then when it happens again, in this case, it would happen again. Then you document it. Right. And then the third time they're out. Right. Because you had the verbal, you had the written, and then now it happened a third time. And life isn't baseball where you get the, uh, three strikes and you get another turn part of the game. Well, it doesn't work like that in real life.

Speaker A: So in each of those conversations there would have been a, this needs to change and it needs to stop looking like this. Start looking like this or else with a very clear or else. Yeah.

Speaker B: Well, say, you know, like Bruce, either that you're going to change your ways or you're not going to be here any longer. That's new or else to me. And that's what I've said from that standpoint.

Speaker A: Yeah. Because I think that's hard for people to say it in such a line in the sand, black and white way, you know, or else. Right. Uh, there's no misunderstanding about that. We won't be able to.

Speaker B: Yeah, but you Know, I always follow that up. Laura with Listen, Bruce, if you do not change, you're not going to be with us anymore.

Speaker A: Mhm.

Speaker B: And Bruce, you have the control. This is all on you. Not on me, not on the team, not for the organization, not for the firm. This is you. You have the power. And I really think that's the important part is that the individual is making that decision, not the organization.

Speaker A: Right, Right. I think that's really important that the onus is on that person. You're giving them the control, they're giving them the choice to make. And that's a beautiful thing to remind them of that. Now, what about a time when you decided to take a big risk? What was at stake and how did you communicate your decision to key stakeholders?

Speaker B: Wow. I was the lone person within the organization really pushing for a product at a financial institution called mobile banking. And uh, we all probably use it. Probably 95% of the people that are listening or will see your podcast on YouTube probably use mobile banking. But go back a dozen years. That wasn't the case. Right. I have to have the audience understand that mobile banking is not a money maker for a financial institution. It is a digital channel.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: That if you don't have it, you're not going to be in the gate gain for a new client to keep your client. These channels, atm, telephone banking, mobile banking, branch banking. There's a dollar cost to that in expense.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: So there I am saying this is going to be the future to be able to bank. People want to bank on the palm of their hand. Um, and going back, mobile banking failed about five or six, seven years prior.

Speaker A: Interesting.

Speaker B: And the reason was is that the technology in the hand was not there yet.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: So you go back 10, 12 years, the paradigm shift was the iPhone, the Android.

Speaker C: Sure.

Speaker B: Uh, right in the palm of your hand having this power. And I said, the technology is there. Clients are going to require it. We're not going to be able to bring new clients in to the organization without having this channel.

Speaker A: Yes.

Speaker B: And this was a conversation over time. And once I was able to take my passion around this digital channel and be able to bring some others along. Once the decision was made, I already had it teed up and I promised the executive leaders or my peers that I would be able to stand this product up in 90 days.

Speaker A: Wow.

Speaker B: They said, well, that's good. And 90 days is not good enough. You need to stand this up in 45 days. Because we're going to take all of now our marketing efforts, we're going to do bus wraps. We're going to be the first institution in the state of New Jersey to be able to have this product that are outside the money center banks.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And we were able to do that because we did the work up front. We already knew who we were going to go with, who we were going to partner with, how we were going to integrate it within our core banking application. All of that was in place. Uh, the only thing we had to do was turn it up. And we were able to do that in 45 days.

Speaker A: It's interesting to think because so much of when we're talking about innovation, it's about, okay, what'll drive revenue? What's the newest revenue stream, the newest revenue source. But to, uh, look and think on the flip side in some context, how to persuade someone to invest a truckload of money in new technology, new products, new services, new innovation, just so you don't lose the money that you already have. There's something so backward thinking about that. I can imagine the first however many times they heard you talk about it, they're going, uh, uh, this, okay, roi. What? There's. How do this, how is it going to pay for itself? And you're kind of going, well, it is in that you're not, you're going to lose this money anyway because either you're not going to invest in it and you're just going to lose the people and all of the future money they bring in, or you're going to invest the money now to keep those people and be able to recruit new. Because this is now table stakes. Nobody's going to want to join a bank that doesn't have these services. That's so counterintuitive.

Speaker B: Imagine today going to a financial institution. You want to change banks for whatever reason, and you go, okay, so can I see an example of your mobile banking? Because we all use it. Imagine a financial institution even five years ago, say, oh, geez, we don't have mobile banking. We don't believe in it.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: Or whatever be the case. Right. Oh, boy. Imagine that, uh, the person's going to walk out. To me, it's akin to going into a car dealership and wanting to buy a car and, oh, sorry, this model doesn't have air conditioning.

Speaker A: Right? Yeah, that's not going to happen in my world.

Speaker B: Right?

Speaker A: Stop, wait. Jersey girl. Too much frizz. Got to have a hair.

Speaker B: I don't have to worry about that.

Speaker A: All right, well, there's a challenge for the organization. Let's challenge our audience. Angela. This is the Opportunity here For our listener 24 hour influence challenge where you get to talk directly to the audience and challenge them to take one step that they can complete within 24 hours to have more influence. How would you like to challenge our listeners today?

Speaker B: Great question and it's a great close. I'm going to challenge the audience to find a time to be empathetic and really understand why you're being empathetic. Right. Uh, don't just go through the motions, do it, live it, understand it. So you can work with an individual to drive them forward, to make them more successful. And that could be up or down within the organization. So I challenge people to manage up. Right. Reach out to the peers of your leader and see how you can help them. It's the same thing as networking that we do every day. We don't go into a relationship on. Well, we shouldn't go into a relationship with. What you're going to do for me when you build a relationship is how can I help you? Right. And you should almost be in a race to ask that question to a person. How could I help you?

Speaker A: Yes.

Speaker B: What could I do for you today? And that's what I like to challenge.

Speaker A: Beautiful. Thank you for sharing that. All right, everybody go out there and practice empathy and asking how you can be of service to someone else. Now, what is a communication skill that you weren't born with and had to learn and how did you develop that skill?

Speaker B: Sure talked a little bit about being concise. Right. Laura? And uh, my mom telling me two ears and one mouth. I really think I'm a good, uh, speaker. I've been keynote headliner several times and many different arenas and so forth. But for me it's about the story. I haven't always been a storyteller. Right. And I think we communicate and I think hopefully I've done a good job today. Laura, about communicating via stories, either be mobile banking or empathy or how I've led through, uh, a challenging situation where I was wrong. Right. So that's about a story. Right. So we have to figure how to tell a story story and how to tell the story concisely. Right. Because in our brains we have the full end to end and not everyone has the time for the end to end. Right. I probably could have talked about that Bruce story for about 45 minutes. Well, we only have 30 minute segment.

Speaker C: Right?

Speaker A: Sure.

Speaker B: Uh, so the key is to take those points and some things that I'm missing. A great interviewer like yourself will insert questions because you know your audience will want to Hear some of the answers to those points, questions.

Speaker C: Right.

Speaker B: And that's what the conversation's all about. So it's about learning that story. And fortunately for me, I had an incredible CEO that I was working for that was a great storyteller. This individual was a very good leader, a tough leader, but boy, oh, boy, could he tell a story. So I kind of honed some of those skills, and I would ask him questions, and for me, how I garnished his support in regards to storytelling. I was on him all of the time. And asking him, let me stand in for you. When you have two bookings, you're back to back, you can't make it for some, uh, reason because of a family issue. Those things happen during the course of a year. Instead of tapping the CFO or head of lending, why don't you talk to the tech knobs guy? Yeah, let me do that for you. And boy, oh, boy, I hounded him for about six to eight months. Boy, I see that you asked Tom. I see that you asked Dan. Still haven't asked me yet, Tom.

Speaker A: Interesting.

Speaker B: Right? And I would just keep on it and say that I'm ready for it. What do you want me to talk about? And then finally he did. And then at that point, uh, for every four keynotes or discussions that he needed to go to and he couldn't, I would be at half.

Speaker A: Uh, what role were you in at that time?

Speaker B: Uh, ahead of tech and ops.

Speaker A: Okay.

Speaker B: For a financial institution. Yeah. Running. Running a few lines of businesses. But, yeah, I elevated at that point in time to do that. Right, sure. And, uh, I see myself when I'm having these conversations, um, not telling his stories, but telling the stories like he would, because I really think he is a, uh, wonderful storyteller.

Speaker A: I asked that question because I think there are a lot of people out there who would be afraid to ask those kinds of questions, to go to someone above them and say, let me take this opportunity for you. You did it in a way that is a win win. It's not like, you know, hey, I'm better than you, or. But make it about me, me, me, me. You're saying, when you don't have time, consider me as your backup. Let me be your deputy, your pinch hitter, your understudy, or whatever it is, but I'm here for you. Step it up. And would like to take that chance. And, um, that it wasn't just like you said it once and then you left it out there. You kept gently reminding them, pinging them, nudging them. Use Whatever verb you want.

Speaker B: Poking them. Absolutely.

Speaker A: Poking them. Nudging, harassing them. Which, of course, has a totally different word in hr, so we'll take that one out of it. But the point being that you didn't let it go. It wasn't like a, uh. Well, I told him once, and he didn't give it to me, so. Oh, well, you gotta keep reminding them. Sales, marketing, it's. It used to be seven touches before you get the close. Now it's more like 70. With all the noise that's in everybody's ears. It's not different when you're pitching your own idea to somebody else. So I really appreciate the fact that you were so tenacious and dogged in just constantly gently reminding. If you got another opportunity, I'm here. Give me a shot. And you know what? You can put me in the big and take me out if it doesn't work out. But let's see what happens.

Speaker B: Put me in coach. Right?

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: I use that term once. I forgot that I even said that until just now. It's like, come on, Tom, put me in coach. I can do this. Right? You know?

Speaker A: Yes.

Speaker B: You know, it's funny. Is that the same type of tenacity that you said? And I love that word because I don't see it being negative. I see it very.

Speaker A: Not at all.

Speaker B: Right? So. And I tell that to young individuals that are in the first quarter of their career, right? And one of the challenges, maybe this is a, uh, full topic for another show, is how does individuals that are in the first quarter of their careers balance this remote hybrid not being in the office? And fortunately for me, I had an incredible mentor and leader within the first real job that I had in customer service. Carolyn Kelly, Thelma Brown. Incredible leaders in their own right. And one of the things that they took this young knucklehead from South Philadelphia and said, boy, I think this young man has some potential. These two females that were in financial. You have to go understand. I started working for them in the early 80s. Okay. Um, one, Carolyn was nearing retirement when I started, so her career started in the 50s. Right. And I like to kind of stop and say that slowly because, you know, in the 50s. For an African American female in the 50s in financial services, um, boy, oh, boy, was a different world, right? And they took me under their wing and they said to me, and this is where the tenacious comes out in it. Angelo, once a week, I want you to ask one of my peers in this bank for coffee or lunch, um, breakfast, dinner. I don't care you go meet with one of these leaders on a weekly basis? Yeah, that was part of my job. And I did that. And then I learned from having conversations with these. And there are some conversations. I said, boy, uh, I never want to be like that person. Right. It was a learning experience. But what I didn't know at the time is that they were exposing me to the financial institution. So when I was ready to grow, I already had the relationships built.

Speaker A: Yes, yes.

Speaker B: It's special people that I didn't understand until the 90s what they were doing to me. And I really didn't have a heart to heart until I spoke with Thelma. She was now retired. She was about a decade before Carolyn. And then of course, I start the probe. What was it like for you and Carolyn in the 50s that had to deal with.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Racism, misogyny, all the stuff that would happen in the 50s that typically aren't. I'm, um, going to say typically. I'm not saying they're not. What I'm saying is that typically are not the workforce today.

Speaker A: Not. Not to that degree, at least one would.

Speaker B: Sure. Right. So it was an incredible learning experience and having these two as my first mentors. Oh, my goodness. I couldn't. I don't know how I can ever replay. It's a blessing that just keeps giving. It'll be for the rest of my career.

Speaker A: Well, let's do them some honor. What were their names?

Speaker B: Thelma Brown, Carolyn Kelly from Provident national bank that turned into PNC bank in the, uh, mid-80s.

Speaker A: Beautiful. To both of these wonderful women, thank you for being the role model of leadership that you are and helping Angelo. Pass it down. And pass down, uh, through me and through everybody else out there. Please take those messages and continue their legacies by helping others uplift them as well.

Speaker B: Amen. Amen.

Speaker A: With that then. Angelo, thank you so much for sharing all of these lessons with us today. Is there anything that you'd like to give our audience?

Speaker B: Yes, Laura, I shared a, uh, one pager that outlines my seven R's of leadership in life.

Speaker A: Love it.

Speaker B: Uh, yes, it's a little teaser for the book. So I did supply not only the one pager and the link to the one pager, but also a link to my author's website that you can purchase the seven Rs of leadership and life

Speaker A: and we'll have that link in the show Notes, everybody. So, uh, go check it out again on whatever the platform is. Get that link. Because look, a one page overview is always a beautiful thing to just do quick reminders notes to self and just to have that 2 millimeter shift every day towards something better than and how can people learn more about you and Ben Franklin Technology Partners if you want

Speaker B: to learn a little bit more about me, please find me on LinkedIn. Angelo J. Valletta Just do a search in the LinkedIn search. There's not many of us so please feel free to connect and mention the show. I would love to connect with folks that are, uh, lifelong learners. So that would be one Ben Franklin nep.BenFranklin.org that is our website that outlines how we refresh, retain and and reimagine jobs for the great state of Pennsylvania. I love it and thank you for having me.

Speaker A: Laura uh oh it's been such a pleasure. And to everybody else, thank you as always for tuning in. Be sure to subscribe so that you never miss an episode. And once again, please leave us a five star rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your platform of choice, including the website ratethispodcast.com influence and of course, if you wanna download my free guide to equipment recommendations for virtual influence, including my picks for microphones, lights and more, go to speaking to influence.com I'm Dr. Laura Sokola and you're listening to Speaking to Influence Communication Secrets of the C Suite.

Speaker C: Thanks for listening to Speaking to Influence Communication Secrets of the C Suite the show for Leaders who Want to Speak with impact the host, producers, owners and media distributors of the show make no guarantees that the strategies and information discussed will result in profit or other success and may result in losses. The Opinions these statements of the hosts and guests do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the owners, staff, managers, broadcasters

Speaker B: or sponsors of the show.

Speaker C: No medical or psychological therapy or personal or professional wellness or relationship advice is offered in the show. You are advised to seek counsel on matters related to your health, family relationships, job or other business and legal matters from licensed advisors in those areas prior to making any changes in business or lifestyle. No information provided may be suitable in your situation. As always, take responsibility responsibility for the decisions and actions you take, including the reactions they may make in your work, family, health and life.