Episode - 182 - Nadine Huebel

Speaker A: Hello and welcome to another episode of Tuesday's Thanks. I'm excited to be joined today by Nadine Hoibel, advisor at Mentoro. Mentoro is a nonprofit movement that connects experienced professionals with the next generation of young leaders. Since its launch in 2016, Mentoro has connected over 1200 mentors and mentees across various industries in Montreal, Miami and New York. Nadine, thanks so much for joining me today. I really appreciate it.

Speaker B: Thank you so much for having me, Brian. I'm very excited to be here and talking to you.

Speaker A: Great. So listen, we have a lot to talk about today. Let's jump right into it. I'm going to start like I always do. You're a young girl growing up in Germany, I believe, out in the countryside.

Speaker B: Correct.

Speaker A: And for the American audience, the way that the German education system works is a little different, obviously than over here. So tell me how you were selected or how you chose to do your education in conjunction with working at Hugo Boss. How sweet is that?

Speaker B: Yes. So as you mentioned, in Germany we have different paths and different options. After graduating from high school and after being in School for 13 years, I felt like I don't want to continue just being safe sitting on a desk and listening to my professors. I wanted to do something a little bit more practical as well. So I chose a path where you find an employer and this employer employs you for about a three year period. And then part of this three year, uh, period you also are assigned to a college. And then what you do is you work for a month and then you go to college for a month. This really allows you to get to know the company. You go through all the different departments. And it also helps you to really understand where your preferences are. Because I feel when I was a 19 year old girl, I didn't know what I wanted to do and what my preferences are. So that's something that was my thought process. And then I started to apply. And the first company I applied to was Hugo Boss. It was the biggest company in my region. So very natural. That's a company you applied to. And then I was invited to a assessment center. And I remember very well that you had this, I had this assessment center to do. And then after this you go and meet the, uh, responsible for the program for an interview. And I remember the reason why they said why they were so interested into me was because Hugo Boss does a lot of sports sponsoring. There were lots of sports questions. And because I'm a daddy's girl, I always been, and my dad is a big sportsman, I answered all the sports questions correctly. And they were so surprised that at that time that a girl was able to answer all the sports questions that they got really intrigued by me. And that's why then they thought, we need to know more about this woman. We need to learn about her. Her. And then I interviewed and I nailed the interviews and I got the program.

Speaker A: Wow. Now this is back in the 90s, I believe.

Speaker B: Yes, correct. 1996.

Speaker A: So was it a lot of football related, like, like European football or was. Because I don't recall Hugo Boss being that big in sports. Maybe in Europe, obviously, but not here.

Speaker B: No, they were, they, they were sponsoring Formula one. They were sponsoring soccer team teams as well. And just in general, really, that was also, I would say, part of the target group. So the questions were all over. It was the Olympic Games, it was soccer. Uh, yeah, it was very different questions. And as I said, I think I got them all right.

Speaker A: Wow. So I guess the first big thanks, and I'm sure you'll talk about it later, goes to dad for ingraining the sports stuff into youth, because what a great company to join.

Speaker B: Yes.

Speaker A: Right out of finishing school. So I guess it's like, uh, an internship program, right? Because like you said, one month work, one month school. And how did it take you a, uh, full three years to go through the cycle of the internship? Or at some point do they say, you know.

Speaker B: No, it's a three year program. You have to go through the three year program to really then also to graduate, to be able to graduate. And you graduate with, I would say, something equivalent to a bachelor title. And in the journey, in my three year journey, I also spent six months abroad. I went to a college for three months in the UK and then also worked for Hugo Boss in London for three months. And maybe one fun fact around this, the school, the college I went to in Germany, they had a partnership with, uh, a private college in Southern England. And for whatever reason, on very short notice, the college wasn't able to accommodate us. I think they had financial problems and they couldn't take students from abroad during that year. So my school had to find a new college. And the only college they found was an agricultural college in South Wales, which had nothing to do with business, but they wanted to send us abroad. So they sent us to this college. We were in the middle of nowhere and it was truly an agricultural college where they had stables and where they had cows and sheep and where actually, um, the sons and daughters of the local farming community would go and learn about farming. But Also from a business perspective. And that's where I ended up for three months. It was great. It was very different. We took Welsh classes, so I learned a few sentences of Welsh as well. And it was, I think also the first time for me being in an environment where maybe I shouldn't be. And then you just make the best out of it.

Speaker A: Oh, that is too funny. Yeah. And so did you learn how to milk cows and all that kind of stuff or.

Speaker B: No, we didn't. They tried to find a business curriculum for us and they were really. And I think that's maybe also then a thank I want to give to the school, accommodating us and making sure that we would get something out of it. So they organized field trips to the local business community. They gave us marketing lessons and so forth. They were really trying to personalize the curriculum to our needs.

Speaker A: Yeah. So when you're finished with the three years, are you, is it mandated? Are you committed to Hugo Boss for a certain amount of time after that? Because they've invested a lot of time and money into you.

Speaker B: You. You are not committed. But of course, what you aspire to do, especially when you are able to land an internship at such a big company like Hugo Boss, what you aspire to do is stay within the company. And that's what I actually did.

Speaker A: Yeah. Cause, uh, you had a 12 year run at Hugo Boss. So what was the first real job you had when you finished the internship? What did you start as?

Speaker B: So I started in the travel retail department. And as you can see through my out my career, this was really then at the end where I ended up being throughout my whole career in a travel related business. So I was in a travel retail department. It was a division who. Which was looking after the airport, the Yugo Boss airport stores. And we were a growing business and I, my title was I was the, uh, area manager for Middle east and Asia.

Speaker A: Oh, wow. And, um, were you based out. Where were you based out of?

Speaker B: So we were based out of a small town called Metzingen, which is still the headquarter of Hugo Boss. It's about 30 minutes south of Stuttgart. And Stuttgart is maybe known for being the home of Porsche and Mercedes.

Speaker A: And so as a young. So three years, you're arguably 22.

Speaker B: Yes.

Speaker A: You've now got this manager position. You're. I'm assuming a lot of travel is involved. If you're in travel retail. Right. Because you've got to go to the. How many, like how many retail outlets would you be responsible for in different airports?

Speaker B: So I had about at that time, I would say about maybe 25. And my actually my first business trip took me to South Korea as a 22 year old.

Speaker A: Wow. And so it's amazing to me that you go through three years of schooling and internship and then you're given oversight of so many different retail outlets and now you've got to travel. You're a young single woman. Traveling around the globe must have been exciting as all get out.

Speaker B: Oh yeah, it was very exciting. And also don't forget the way travel was at that time. So for example, I was in, went to South Korea and to Japan. This were two of my markets and western mobile phones wouldn't work there. So I went there and I had wasn't able to really communicate, although mobile phones weren't that big of a thing at that time. But at least there was no communication possible other than dialing in the evenings through a very slow, not even wi fi system. I don't know how we called it when we had to pull in the cable.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And so as a young lady doing that, and you've completed your three years, was there someone at Hugo Boss that takes you under your wing to, I would think after that type of an investment in you, they would kind of give you a mentor for lack of a better term or someone was there someone who took you under the wing and guided you in those first couple of years.

Speaker B: So I was lucky because when I joined Hugo Boss as a, ah, student or right after high school, I had a mentor assigned to me, somebody who had been working with the company for quite a bit and she actually worked in an adjacent department so she was sitting not far away from me in my travel retail division. So I could always go to her and ask her questions. But there was no structured mentoring program. My mentor was basically my boss and my colleague. I had.

Speaker A: Wonderful. Okay, cool. So now when we first connected, the one question that I've been dying to ask you, and it's, I'm probably jumping ahead, but I'm going to ask it now because I just don't understand. I'm a guy who traveled 225,000 miles a year for 10 years and so on and so forth, I have to be honest with you, I've never spent a dime in a retail store in an airport. And I've always wondered to myself, other than getting a snack here or a book here, I've always looked at these stores that are selling shoes and bags and clothes and saying who the heck shops in there and how do they even Make m money. And so walk me through. Who shops in these stores?

Speaker B: Actually more people than you think shop there. So just to give you a few facts, the travel retail industry, it's also called the six continent because it's really from a size perspective, the revenue perspective, it's huge. It's a 70 billion dollar industry. Um, retail only. We're not talking about the food, what you mentioned. And people shop because they forgot something. People shop because otherwise they don't have time. And this is the only time of the day or of the week or the months they can really spend on browsing and shopping. They shop because they want to reward, um, themselves because they want to bring a gift home. There are so many reasons for shopping in an airport and people always also think it's about the price. And that's also maybe a little bit of a misconception because price is an important factor because sometimes, uh, it's cheaper, but it's really more around the convenience of shopping. The majority of people don't know that they're going to shop when they come into an airport.

Speaker A: Yeah, I would agree. The only time I've ever come close and then I'll uh, and um, as always, I digress on these shows and then we'll get back on track here. But the only time is I used to be a big watch guy. I won't even tell you how many watches I own. But I used to be a big watch guy. And of course traveling internationally and traveling around the country and whatever, there's always some great watch stores in there. And I would go in but I never pull the trigger because I'm a big airport lounge guy. Which again, we'll talk to later. So you hit all my, you check off all my boxes. But I've, because I've always wondered. And my wife and I, we were just out in California and we were walking through one of the airports and they were opening up the Johnston Murphy store. And I actually said to her, I said, goes in there and buy shoes in the airport unless you've ruined a pair. Uh, to your point, I don't know. So anyways, I digress. So you start off as an area manager with Hugo with the retail travel retail. I know you work your way up to being the head of retail travel for all of Hugo Boss.

Speaker B: Correct, Correct.

Speaker A: And so that, how did that progression go? Do you go from area manager? What's the uh, path?

Speaker B: So what? Yes. So what happened was my boss, the head of travel retail, he got actually promoted to a bigger role and he Moved from Germany to Spain to head up the Spanish market as the managing director and the CEO of Hugo Boss Spain. And then the question was, who should succeed him and the thinking behind it. I was actually very early in my career. I was only 26, 26 years old. And the thought process at that time was that we had reached maturity in the business and that this would be a great opportunity for some young talent the company had invested in, as you mentioned, to take over the business, because it would be more about really maintaining what has already been. Been achieved and making sure that the stores which we had already opened, that they would just continue to run. I am really grateful, first of all, to m. My boss at that time. His name is Priac Pinault, and I think I owe him a lot in my career. He was maybe one of the toughest bosses I ever had. I learned so much from him, and he was just, yeah, an amazing mentor for me. And so I'm really thankful that he saw something in me. He thought, she's young, she's only 26, but we can trust her to do it. And then also Briac's boss, the head of International, says his name at that time was Christoph Neusser. They both said, okay, we give her a chance to do this.

Speaker A: Wow. And like you said, you were, young lady, not too long in the thing. So you, like I said, you had a great run. You were with them until 08, and then you made a move, which I know must be difficult because you started with Hugo Boss at a very early age. And so you've grown up with them. You've had great success with them. What prompted that change to, uh. Am I pronouncing this right correctly? Heinemann, did you go to.

Speaker B: Yes, that's correct. So been with Hugo Boss, as you mentioned, for 12 years. And I felt a little bit hunger to do something different. And I think that Hugo Boss, at that time, they were very happy with what I was doing in travel, retail, so didn't really want to. They didn't want to think about putting me in different roles. So Christoph Neusser, who I had mentioned earlier, the person in charge of the international sales department, he actually moved to Heinemann to be a board member of Heinemann. And I had mentioned this to him at one point. He was already at Heinemann. And I just mentioned, really casually mentioned to him that, hey, I feel like I want to do something different. And then he said, why don't you join me? And so that's. This is how I ended up joining them. But I also wanted to mention what you said, that uh, it was extremely difficult. So when I got the contract from Heinemann, I, and this is not joking, I cried for three days before I was able to actually quit. And then I remember that I called my boss, somebody else I'm very grateful for. His name is Gary Drizzle. I called him and I said, we need to meet. It was Saturday, but I had to be done on the Saturday because we had this times contractually, certain times we can only quit our jobs. So I called him, we need to meet. I went to see him and as it happens, I came into the building and he walked down the stairs and I saw him and I started crying again. And then I told him. Then he said to me, oh my God, what happened? Did your boyfriend split up with you? And I told him, I said, no, but I'm splitting up with you. And I continued crying. So yeah, it was very difficult for me. But he really, he was so gracious when I told him about it. He was happy for me and really wished me all the best. And in Germany I had to, I had a six month notice period. So I had to continue working for six months. And we really worked very well together until I then moved over to Heinemann.

Speaker A: So two things. Heinemann is not a household name. So I'm going to ask you two things. One, you went over as head of category management, distribution. I have no idea what that means. And then what is Heinemann?

Speaker B: Yes. So Heinemann is an amazing company. It's one of the big players in travel retail actually. And they are what we call in Germany one of the hidden champions. It's a company which was founded in 1872. Oh my God, I don't know hundred percent anymore. I should, but. So it's now run in the fifth generation of the family, still 100% family owned. And as I mentioned, they are big player in this travel retail world. And they have two pillars. One is they run their own retail stores, the duty free stores. But then the other part they have, it's what they call distribution. And this is they are a supplier to companies who decide that they want to run the business themselves. So give you one example, Munich Airport. They run their retail business themselves under a company, uh, under a holding within the holding company. And then Heinemann supplies them perfume, cosmetics and liquor and tobacco. But it's not just a supplier relationship. They also build promotional plans, they do the training for the staff. So it's really a full service provider. For certain categories.

Speaker A: Got it. Yeah. Because I was wondering. I had no idea what that title was. And then. So you spent a little bit of time there and then you jumped over to be the sales director in Flight Catering, right?

Speaker B: Correct.

Speaker A: What does Heineman do for the in flight catering? Are they providing the stuff or.

Speaker B: Yes. So this was part of it. In Flight and catering was part of the distribution division and we were working with either the airlines directly or the subcontractors which the airlines have appointed to run their duty free business. At that time it was mostly about the trolleys. I don't know if we remember the trolleys which were pushed through the cabin.

Speaker A: Yes.

Speaker B: And so we were providing the perfume and the cosmetics and the tobacco and the liquor to those companies. And then we extended and also then provided what is called food for sale or buy on board products. And this were the snacks and the miniatures and so forth. And it was. We were operating in. Mainly in Europe, so.

Speaker A: Mainly in Europe. And then I guess you got to a point where you came over to the States, as were you the CEO of their. Of the American. So you were CEO of Heinemann North

Speaker B: America, for lack of a better Americas. Because we also covered the South American region.

Speaker A: And is Hyneman still active in that business? Yes. Right. I mean, but nobody, the public would ever have heard of these guys. Right?

Speaker B: It's because it's in the U.S. not. You're right, not really. That's why I always also have to explain when people ask me, what did you do before? And that was also one of the, um, challenges we had when we entered the market here in Europe they are quite known because many of their stores are actually called Heinemann Duty free. So when you, for example, when you go to Frankfurt or then you see Heinemann duty free, or when you go to Istanbul, you see a Heinemann logo on top of the store. So in Europe, I would say it's more of a household name. It's maybe too much of a word household name, but it's, it's quite well known. And in the industry, if you are in the travel industry, then Heinemann.

Speaker A: Yeah. And how did you get the opportunity to head up the North American kickoff startup?

Speaker B: Yes. So when I joined the in flight and catering division, I had a, uh, task to really, I would even say bring back the division to life. It was a division which was very close to the owner's heart because in Fighting catering was a division which was founded or started in the 60s or maybe even before with the likes of Lufthansa and Condor, which was a big charter company at that time. And when I took over our clients, the Lufthansas and the Condors and the Air Berlins of this world, they were not really happy working with us. And they even said it, they said we work with you because there is no other option in the market. So we really have to work with you. And that's not a good place to come from. So I was tasked to turn this around and then I was also tasked to grow the business and I did both really turned around the uh, client satisfaction. I'd say after two years they really enjoyed working with us again. I'm still in touch with some of the clients today. So this is now what, 14 years later?

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And the team also the team I was working with, my team was just amazing. So big thanks to everybody who worked in the in flight and catering team. And then we also won a contract with the low cost carrier Ryanair. Um, and Ryanair is a little bit to southwest of of Europe and known to be really tough to get a contract with and even tougher to maintain the con, the contract which this contract I just learned is still in place. So also again after so many years, still working well. And this gave us a, a lot of credibility in the market. And so we grew the business and in the time I was there I I with my team, not just me with the team, together we grew the business by 5x. And so this was in a way my entry ticket or my business card to go to the Americas.

Speaker A: Got it. And did you come over as a CEO?

Speaker B: Yes.

Speaker A: So they made you CEO and then they. And of course learning the American way of business versus the European is a tough thing. I mean you ran Heineman, North Americ think for what, six years or no?

Speaker B: Yes. Yes.

Speaker A: Five or six years.

Speaker B: Yes, six years.

Speaker A: Yeah. And so what was the biggest thing, if you recall that you had to learn about leadership and how to manage people in the States versus over in Europe.

Speaker B: So I would say a few things and uh, one was that I realized that it's very important to lead your teams with the purpose and the why and the goals. And you really need to talk about it constantly. I felt that's not something and I can't really explain why, but that's not something we had to do that much in, in Europe. But I feel like this was very important to tell the people. Why are you showing up at work every day? And why are you showing up at work every day with passion and enthusiasm and Energy. So that, that was a part and then another part. For example, what we learned, as I mentioned to you, the company, it's a 150 year old company, dare to last for the next hundred and fifty years. So everything, it's about long term. So that's also why in Germany there is, there was no bonus system. Because we don't think short term. We really think about every decision you make might be short, might be harmful for the short term, but it might be very good for the long term. So that was our thinking. But then one of the things I realized here is that yes, you can instill this long term thinking, but then there needs to be also short term incentive. So this was one of the um, changes we had to make here in the US really to bring a bonus system back. Then another thing.

Speaker A: Sorry, no, go ahead, go ahead.

Speaker B: No. And then one thing I had to learn about myself is that I'm usually I'm very humble and I'm. What is the, what I, what is the word I can use here? I never want to brag about myself, rather to say less than more. And I remember that we had hired a PR agency, really helping us to position the company in a good way here. And then one of the things she said to me, Nadine, you are, you need to talk more about yourself. You need to talk more about your successes. You need to be able to, because you are the face of the company and they associate you and what you do and what you have achieved with the organization. So that's really one of the areas I had to learn and had to be really completely different from who I was before.

Speaker A: Yeah, no, it's, it's definitely when you're in that seat, your actions set the tone for everything that the company is going to be. People, what they're always watching you. And so that sounds like some great advice from your PR strategy company there. Because that is a big difference is once, especially in this country, when you're the CEO, there's uh, a, you've got to be much more outgoing than perhaps you're comfortable with and used to.

Speaker B: Yeah. And that's maybe have always, has always also been kind of uh, red threads through my career. I always got roles where I was maybe not 100% ready at the moment, but the people who got me into the roles really saw that I could be ready. So I always had to grow into the role as well. And I think when I came, I was definitely not a CEO when I started my role. But I can confidently say that when I Left my role. I was definitely a CEO.

Speaker A: Exactly. So like I said, you had a good run because theoretically you were with Heinemann from 08 to 22. Right. I'm not real good at math, but that's a lot of years. Yeah, that's a lot of years. And so as with everything in life, things change. And you ended up leaving Heinemann in 22 to join Newmark as their managing director, which is also a travel and retail company. And was Newmark. Did Newmark find you or did you find Newmark?

Speaker B: Good question. I think we found each other. That's what I would say, say that I had been in touch. So Newmark is actually the big real estate company here in the US and they had a travel retail division. Through an acquisition they had made back in the uk, they inherited a travel retail consultancy practice. And the person who was leading up this practice, Simon Black and myself, we had known each other and we had talked a little bit. So I ended up joining him and helping him build the practice in the north, in North America, because they had no business in North America.

Speaker A: Got it. And stint with them and then joined Reclaim. And I don't know anything about Reclaim.

Speaker B: Yes. So Reclaim is a startup in the pre owned luxury space. A tech startup in the pre owned luxury space. And I was found by an executive search firm. They found me and what I need to maybe say how I ended up there was already during COVID I gotten very fascinated by the startup and scale up world. So I started being a mentor and an advisor through different organizations, but also directly with some of the startups. I also started some very, very tiny angel investment. So the whole ecosystem I was very fascinated and I always felt one day I want to found my own company, I want to be an entrepreneur because I do think that I have a very entrepreneurial mindset, but maybe more one in a corporate, in a corporate setting. So when I heard about this opportunity at Reclaim where the two founders were looking to find their first employees or employee number one, I was very intrigued by this opportunity to join and build something basically from scratch.

Speaker A: Cool. And so I know that was in your term a very short. It was short because it was about a year, right?

Speaker B: Yes.

Speaker A: And then we jumped forward to Sodexo Live, which I want to talk a little bit about that because as a guy who lived on the road and lived in airport lounges, first with Continental and then with American and United, and I'm still a United club member, the value of those clubs, if you live on the road and you're traveling for business all the time. It's. There's nothing better. It's great. So how did that come around? Because again, it's not really travel retail, but it is travel related within the airport ecosystem. So how did that all come about?

Speaker B: So this came about that I got approached by another executive search firm. Ah. The reason why they had approached me was because the CEO of the airport lounges, Susie Kitcher, she was looking for somebody with a new perspective and she wanted to have somebody added to the team bringing in a different perspective, but still somebody who understands the travel ecosystem but not necessarily need to be from with the food background.

Speaker A: And I would imagine now I think your title was Senior VP of Operations, One World Alliance Airport Lounges for North America, right?

Speaker B: Yes.

Speaker A: So I have to believe that unlike your other positions and your other roles, especially the CEO role, which were very much more probably strategic in nature, this one was more operationally transactional as to how to maintain the service standards and the service levels within the club. So that must have been a big change for you.

Speaker B: Absolutely, that was a big change. And I again had to learn a lot. I had to adapt my thinking and one of the things in operation is it's very fast pace and it's also, it's not perfect and you can't wait for the perfect moment. You just need to keep on going. There's going to be mishaps and mistakes happening every, every day. And what really marks success is how quickly can you recover from those successes. And me coming from this world of being very strategic business plans, it took me a little bit of time to really understand that. It's that decisions need to be made fast and the decisions m can be far from perfect. Progress over perfection. That's what somebody from my team actually wants taught me. And it was very good.

Speaker A: No, it's very much true. I think having run hotels for the majority of my career, it's never going to be perfect. And it's really learning how to deliver hospitality versus service. Right. Because service is just making sure that the soda machine is working. But the hospitality side of it is how do you make the experience connect with that traveling public? And I've got to believe that the majority of the traveling public think that United Club Lounge or Admirals Club are run by the airlines and they're not. Right. They're run by you guys.

Speaker B: That's correct.

Speaker A: How many when you were there, how many airlines clubs did you have under your belt with Sodexo live in North America?

Speaker B: So I had 37. We had 37 lounges in one world. And we had just won also the Alaska Airlines contract when I was, we were. But we were mobilizing when I was leaving, which would have added another seven, so 40, 43 lounges.

Speaker A: And so how did you find that going from that strategic role to operation? Did you enjoy it or was it just not your cup of tea? Because not every role is going to be your cup of tea. And from being a CEO and all these strategic distribution and sales positions and roles that you had, did you enjoy it or was it like, okay, I tried it, not my cup of tea.

Speaker B: So I, at the beginning, I absolutely, I absolutely enjoyed it because I am always driven by learning and this was an amazing opportunity for me to learn. First of all, like you, Brian, I have lived in airport lounges many years of my career. So really learning and understanding what it takes to actually deliver this experience was for me was fascinating, mind blowing, humbling, uh, really many words. Also, I come from a non food retail side. Having to learn all about how the food industry works was also just amazing. I had never heard about the health and safety audits. I had to learn all about this. I had never learned. I never ever heard about how a kitchen works or how you bring a culinary program to life. So this was just really amazing for me to learn all this and really extremely grateful because I do think that I had the best teachers in the industry. For me, so Dexo Life and airport lounge division is just really a different level. But then over time I realized that really, what's my superpower? What really excites me on a sustainable base? It's really more the strategic, uh, it's the strategic approach. It's growing, being involved in growing businesses, transforming businesses and looking for the next big thing.

Speaker A: And that brings me to what you're doing now, right, because you've recently left Sodexo Live and you're writing a book.

Speaker B: Correct.

Speaker A: So what's the book about?

Speaker B: Yes, so my book is going, is called Untitling and it's going to be launched next year, most probably in late spring 2027. And the whole idea started when I left. You mentioned I was with Heinemann for 14 years and I left Heinemann and I thought it's going to be very easy for me. I'm just going to move to a different company and life will continue as life continued before. But what I realized was that really my title, CEO had become my identity. There was no Nadine beyond the CEO title. And when I lost this title, I was Completely lost. You mentioned I had a new job. I did different things, but the information inside me, I was lost. Then one day I launched a. Or I published a post on LinkedIn. At that time, I wasn't posting a lot. Now it's very different. But at that time, I did. And I posted about I'm having an identity crisis. And the reaction from people was just amazing. People reached out to me and said, wow, thank you for saying this. I feel exactly the same. And then from there, I started conducting interviews. And at the beginning, it was not meant to be for a book project. It was just really. I was curious. Again, I'm leading with learning and being curious. So I was curious to understand how are other people dealing with this and what can I learn from it and how can I get over this? So fascinating interviews with people in different walks of life. And one day somebody said to me, I think you should write a book. And then I put it aside because life happens. I worked at Sodexo, traveled, was very busy. And now as I'm. As I stopped, I said, no, now I need to go back. I need to really be serious about this book. I just finished an author's camp. I am, um, now also found a hybrid publishing house. And I'm in the process of writing the book. And the book is going to happen.

Speaker A: I, uh, love it because especially in this country, more so than maybe some other parts of the world. But you are identified with your title, right? You. I was the COO of Bridge street, and that's what it. Or I was this or I was that. And I know when I retired back in 2020 and said, I'm going to stop working on. And I say retired, but I just didn't want to work on the daily grind anymore. And I'm doing a bunch of other stuff, but your identity kind of just falls off the map. And I talk about it when people ask about, how did you set up your consulting company? And you have to develop a whole new network. You have to develop a whole new identity. I'm m. No, people don't respond to my emails. I'm saying, wait a minute. When you're the CEO, everybody responds to your email, right? Now that I'm this dumb consultant and podcast host, nobody cares about me anymore. And so you have to build this new identity. And I can see how that would deeply affect different people. Everybody's going to react differently, obviously, but I can see how that can be a big thing. So I can't wait to see this book because. Because I'm going to be fascinated from the learnings from it, I think.

Speaker B: Thank you. That's very encouraging, Brian, that you say this, that you feel that there is a need for the book.

Speaker A: Oh, uh, yeah, I think you'll have a big audience for that once you get that going. So we'll look for that in the spring of 27. Did you say yes?

Speaker B: Correct. Okay, yes.

Speaker A: So we'll keep that on the radar. So listen, I could continue talking to you for another five hours, but nobody would listen to this five hour podcast. Uh, you've thanked some great people and I'm not going to try to pronounce all their names, but react. Christoph, Garrett and Simon. I got four of them and obviously we talked very briefly about your dad with the sports thing. So I'm going to turn the microphone back over to you, Nadine, and let you thank anybody else you'd like and then I'll let you go back to writing that book.

Speaker B: Thank you. Thank you so much. So I, yeah, I really want to thank my, um, girlfriends, also my friends who are part of IWF International Women Forum, my teams I worked with and so forth. But there is a particular thanks I want to give to my parents. Uh, and why is this? Because I don't think that I would be where I am now without them and without their support. My parents, they live in the German countryside. They are blue collar worker, used to be very tired and I think that very often they don't know what I'm, what I'm actually doing. And for many years they haven't known this and really understood it. But their support is, how do you say, unraveling or what's the English word for it? Just incredible.

Speaker A: Unwavering.

Speaker B: Unwavering, exactly. They have what, everything I did. They have always supported me. When I was in school and I wanted to do school exchanges to Italy, they were in it. We didn't have a lot of money, but they always found money to help me do this. They supported me with working for Hugo Boss. Then I, and then I left our little hometown. I went to Hamburg. I'm the only child and I think it must have been very difficult for them just to see me go from our little area to move up north. And they supported me. And then I told them I was going to the us. My dad had never been on a transatlantic flight. He was never planning to do it. And he. They came to visit me. My mom started learning English on duolingo. She does duolingo every day just to be able to talk to some of the people here she comes to visit me by herself and she had in her wildest dream, never thought that she would do this. And they were just leaning in to support their daughter. And that's just amazing.

Speaker A: I'm a girl dad, so I have two daughters and, and I can only imagine I come from a, um, more of a corporate family than it sounds like yours was. My father worked in banking and stuff and I knew the anxiety of sending your daughter 3,000 miles from the east coast to California for school. I can only imagine your dad when you said, oh, I'm flying to, uh, South Korea as a 22 year old for business. I don't know what that would be like. So I can only imagine that the support you receive from them has been outstanding and amazing. And the great thing is they've lived long enough to see it.

Speaker B: That's true. And that's. I'm very grateful for this. And I'm actually going back next week to Germany. I'm actually going back. No, not next week. I'm going back tomorrow. And uh, I'm celebrating my 50th birthday with a big group of people next, next weekend in Germany. And they are part of it and as usual. And they have already been fully embedded and involved in this festivities and I'm just proud that I can be part of it, continue part of my life.

Speaker A: Yeah, no, it's so important. So listen, like I said, we could talk for hours and we're going to talk for hours when you get back from Germany because I still have to figure out how those darn stores make money. But let's cut this off now because I know you've got other things to do. But listen, continued success. I'm serious. I can't wait to see the book. So let's. Obviously we'll keep in touch. Now that we've connected live, I'm anxious to see that book and whatever else next. You're still a young lady, so you still got a long Runway to do. A, uh, lot of cool things. Nadine, thank you so much for being on the show and I guess I'll end this like I always do, folks. If it's Tuesday, let's get out there and thank somebody. They're going to love it. You're going to feel good doing it. So, Nadine, continued success. Safe travels and we'll see you when you get back stateside.