[00:00:00 – 00:00:07] Nitin Bajaj

Welcome to the industry show. I’m your host, Nitin Bajaj. And joining me today is Susan Parks. Sue, welcome on the show.

[00:00:07 – 00:00:09] Sue Parks

Thank you, Nitin. Happy to be here.

[00:00:10 – 00:00:13] Nitin Bajaj

Great to have you here. Let’s start with who is Sue?

[00:00:13 – 00:00:30] Sue Parks

Oh, my goodness. Well, I could go on a long time, but I am from the Midwest. I was a corporate executive for years. I was an entrepreneur for a bit and along the way fell in love with the Orange County United Way. And now I’m their CEO.

[00:00:31 – 00:00:48] Nitin Bajaj

Amazing. Tell us a little more about Orange County United Way. I mean, you’ve done some really amazing work. You’ve impacted a lot of homes. People around give us a sense for the impact you and your team have been able to create.

[00:00:49 – 00:02:18] Sue Parks

Yeah, well, there’s many different areas that we do, many different things, but there’s four big areas of impact. We have a big effort in terms of homelessness. And so one of the things, you know, we’ve ended homeless. And we started this work a few years ago for over 1200 people. 300 of those are veterans, a couple hundred former foster youth. So some amazing work in there. Much more. We work with students Primarily in Title 1 high schools, get them excited about careers of the future, maybe being those new entrepreneurs, being part of the excitement of growth industries. And so we do a lot that to graduate students, college and career and even life ready. So big body of work there. Much more. A body of work to help families stabilize financially and understand how to set budgets, clean up their credit so they can go on and live that life that they all want, which is to ensure their children are stable and have the opportunity to really live out their life in a really positive manner. And then we also have 21 1, which is the social services hotline for Orange county. And that alone we 500,000 requests for contacts every year just in Orange County. Most people don’t realize a million people in Orange County, California. Beautiful Orange county live struggling to make paycheck. Paychecks are really struggling. So out of that million every year through all those programs and through 21 1, we have about 650,000 people.

[00:02:19 – 00:02:39] Nitin Bajaj

A lot. Wow. That is huge. I did not know that. Unfortunate. But at the same time, I’m glad you and your team are there to help and support many different things that you’re helping with. I’d love for you to call out the one big challenge you’re facing.

[00:02:40 – 00:03:10] Sue Parks

I think it’s a really challenging time for nonprofits in general because there’s a lot of changes coming down with government contracting and all that. And so that uncertainty, not knowing what’s going on, has caused a pause in terms of understanding, you know, what funding. We are a nonprofit. We need funding to do our work. And so some of those challenges, we are excited about the work that we do. We know we’re making an impact or not. We know that people’s lives are improving. So knowing what resources we have is really, really important to us.

[00:03:11 – 00:03:18] Nitin Bajaj

I can imagine. Now, on the flip side of challenges come opportunities. What’s the one that you’re most excited about?

[00:03:19 – 00:04:25] Sue Parks

Two years ago, we brought in 21 1, the social services hotline. So think 911. If your life is in danger, something your house is on fire, call 911, right? Go immediately to public safety. But people face crisis every day. And for those personal crisis, I’m not going to be able to pay my rent. My children are going hungry. My elderly mom doesn’t have transportation to get to her doctor. I can’t go because I have work to do. My utilities are going to be turned off because I’m behind in my bill, because I’m paying my family to eat. It’s so many personal challenges. And that’s when you call 211. And then we work with a network of nonprofits and we are connecting them through technology in a really sophisticated way to make sure people get the help they need. And if they aren’t, if somebody isn’t able to help them, that nonprofit we refer them to, then we stay with them to ensure they get the help they need. So I’m very excited about building up this network of accountable care so people can stay employed and stay housed and we can help through the people through those life challenges.

[00:04:25 – 00:04:35] Nitin Bajaj

It’s a fascinating resource. I did not know about that. But also how many people you’ve been able to impact. That’s mind blowing. So congratulations to you.

[00:04:37 – 00:04:50] Sue Parks

Well, it’s a great team. So let me just say it’s a great, great team. It’s an honor to be able to do this work. You know, obviously the needs are great and we’ll do whatever we can to help. We can’t solve everything, but we’re going to do our best.

[00:04:53 – 00:05:21] Nitin Bajaj

Now, as we talk about the opportunities and what lies ahead, I like to reflect back on your experiences in time. I’d love for you to share two moments in your career. One where things did not work out as you’d expected and there was disappointments, failures, lessons. And another where things exceeded your expectations and became a success beyond your imagination.

[00:05:23 – 00:08:01] Sue Parks

Wow, you have tough questions. So, yeah, so I Go back a ways. I think one lesson. Maybe an entrepreneur. I think being an entrepreneur is exciting and humbling in terms of, you know, especially when I’ve had a big corporate career. And I was very used to having a lot of resources because I work for a big corporation that had resources. And an entrepreneur, like, feeling like it’s very much my own money, even it’s my money, family, friends, whoever, my investors. I worked really hard to get a patent on something that I really was. It just. It was a long process. It was an expensive process. And at the end, I got a design patent that really didn’t really mean anything and. But not the patent that really would have made a difference and all that. Oh, my gosh, it was heartbreaking because it was like, you could always keep fighting. You could always keep throwing more money into the legal aspect of it. At some point, I just had to say, enough is enough. But then this was for a device. And so then we switched. We were able to pivot and rethink and make ourselves design, or, excuse me, device agnostic in terms of how we worked with our clients. So we were able to pivot. But that was really heartbreaking. And I, you know, I used to think, like, I had a team of lawyers in my corporate life, you know, that would figure out how to get things done. This was really different. And so. But at the end of the day, I did pivot and figure out another path forward. You know, one of the things in my corporate life, a different company, one of my big company experiences, I know I still get. I still. This story still makes me happy, is at the time, I wanted everybody to. Maybe it’s part of my united feeling like we should all move together in the same way. But I wanted every employee to feel like they were a share owner in this, that this is something that was really important to them because I wanted everybody. No matter what your role was, I still believe this. In any organization, you need to understand the bigger goal of the organization, right. And what your role is to making that success. And so I was able to work with our CEO at the time, and they got approved by the board that every single employee got a stock option, you know, which is really cool, like it never been done before in that area. And so I could talk to everybody in that company. As an owner, you know, I’m the same, but just getting that message out that you need to care, like how expenses get done and all that. So that was two different stories, but that one makes me happy.

[00:08:01 – 00:08:25] Nitin Bajaj

Still fascinating. And, you know, the good Thing about the patent not working out as you’d expected is you still figured out a way. You were resilient, you were relentless. And maybe it wasn’t what you thought, but that’s what happens with us in life. I mean, you’ve seen a lot of it. And we fall, we get up, and we keep going.

[00:08:26 – 00:08:34] Sue Parks

That’s true. We have to, right?

Yes, yes, It’s. Yeah. And some days are harder than others, but you got to keep moving forward.

[00:08:35 – 00:08:39] Nitin Bajaj

True. Now, outside of work, what do you do for fun?

[00:08:42 – 00:08:48] Sue Parks

Well, I walk. I really boring you. And I’ve talked about walking before, right?

[00:08:49 – 00:08:49] Nitin Bajaj

Yes, we have.

[00:08:49 – 00:09:45] Sue Parks

I am. I am committed to every day, whether I’m very goal oriented, but I am not one where I need to share my goal with everybody else. I have my goal and I achieve my goal every day of what I need to do. And I will not go to bed unless I’ve achieved my goal. So I’m quite annoying. Roommate or wife, I should say. I am committed to this goal, so that is what I do. But on the weekends, my husband and I will do long walks, you know, always with food at the end of the day, you know, to end up there, walk with my girlfriends. And, you know, I try to find time, the course of the day. And what I love about that is whether I’m with somebody and I can have conversations, but when I’m with myself, it’s when I get my best brainstorming, it’s when I get my best ideas, and it’s when I find peace to try to think through some things that might be challenging, if nothing else. We live in Orange county and I’m outside with beautiful nature. So how good does it get?

[00:09:46 – 00:09:54] Nitin Bajaj

True. Yep. I love walking. That’s one thing we’ve talked about. And yeah, hopefully we can get something going with.

[00:09:54 – 00:09:56] Sue Parks

We’re gonna walk together someday.

[00:09:56 – 00:10:03] Nitin Bajaj

Looking forward to that. Is there a book or a podcast that you would like to recommend to the audience?

[00:10:04 – 00:10:09] Sue Parks

It just so happens that my board chair wrote a book. And there you go.

[00:10:09 – 00:10:10] Nitin Bajaj

Perfect timing.

[00:10:12 – 00:10:41] Sue Parks

Let me promote Larry Armstrong’s Layered Leadership. Seriously, Larry is an amazing leader. He is chairman of the board of Ware Malcolm, or international design firm. But he wrote this book and within a week or so, it’s on the bestseller list as a business book. And it’s really how he looks at the world of layers. And I think for any entrepreneur, there’s some really, really good advice in there. And then on the back of Casey, read the jacket, I am quoted.

[00:10:42 – 00:10:43] Nitin Bajaj

Amazing.

[00:10:43 – 00:10:44] Sue Parks

It is a great book.

[00:10:44 – 00:10:59] Nitin Bajaj

Yeah, we get Two for the price of one. Now. Thank you for sharing that. Now onto my favorite part of the show. We call it the one line, life lessons. So I would love for you to share your life lessons with us.

[00:11:02 – 00:12:23] Sue Parks

In my entrepreneurial life, I had a dear friend said, hope is not a strategy. I remember that one often. You’ve heard that before, I’m sure. When I got married, I remember my mom saying, be kind to one another. That always stuck me. And I think that’s great for any human action. Throughout my life, I’ve tried to keep a sense of humor. So I don’t know if it was Erma Bombach or Reader’s Digest, and now I’m going way back, but I think it was Laughter is the best medicine. I love that. I still believe it. There is the one about walking where it’s, every great journey starts with that single step, something along that line, which I truly believe, which kind of falls in line with. I always think about persistence as a great virtue, which is what we’ve talked about before. Right. And then don’t lead with this one. My mom said, I said, you know, about be kind to one another. I can remember I was going through a really difficult challenge on a corporate life thing that was going on. People were being mean to me and I, you know, I was kind of early on and I was in my first political kind of thing. And my dad said. And he said it in Latin. I didn’t know what it meant, but it said, don’t let the bastards get you down. So that’s. I’ll close with that one. Did I do five?

[00:12:23 – 00:12:39] Nitin Bajaj

Yes. So thank you so much. And just so you know, I. I used to read Reader’s Digest and that’s where it came from. Laughter is the best medicine. I would only read that section of the book, so I don’t like to read, but that was the one page I would read for sure.

[00:12:39 – 00:12:50] Sue Parks

Yeah. Because, you know, even corny, it makes you smile. Anything that makes you smile is a good thing. So anyway, thank you for letting me be on and share with your group.

[00:12:50 – 00:13:08] Nitin Bajaj

Thank you for taking time to do this and really appreciate you sharing your journey and story and your life lessons. So you’re doing some amazing work. Kudos to you and your team for helping thousands and millions of people. Just amazing work. Really appreciate it.

[00:13:08 – 00:13:11] Sue Parks

I appreciate you come and join us. So thank you.