S.M.A.R.T.-Performance Podcast with Dr. Lola Adeyemo focused on owning your career path!

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I am Walter. I'm the Dutch mentor. Welcome back to the smart performance of podcasts where S stands

for self-care and for mindful growth, A for adopt the problem solving, R for rhythmic operation,

T for building a thriving community. And of course, P for performance. I'm really happy to have

Dr. Lola here with me today. We're going to talk about an interesting topic that is something that

you need to own. I've talked about this in the past. Performance evaluations are garbage. These

are checklist items that don't lead to anything and often frustration. But you owning your pathway

is something that you are in charge of and nobody can take that away from you. But it's also often

the barrier to you getting to where you want to go if you don't take meaningful action. Like always,

this is a quit 15, 20 minutes. It will be actionable to stick with this. And Dr. Lola, thank you very

much for joining me today all the way from San Diego and tell us a little bit about yourself.

Thank you everyone. Welcome and thanks for having me here. My name is Lola. As I said, I am

based in San Diego. I am a mom of three working backwards because that's my whole life right now.

I also run three different organizations. One of them is an IT tech company where I lead operations

and HR and then I have a consulting firm where I offer services to companies around building

employer resource groups. And then I have a non-profits that is my passion work. It's called

immigrants in corporate and I love to build communities for immigrant professionals that are

navigating the corporate world. So that sums up all the things I'm doing right now.

Sounds like you are completely bored and have nothing to do when you look at from over.

Absolutely. Well, listen to this. I love the fact that you have a full plate today. But I'm a

100% sure that that's not where you start. And often we do what we do today because we identify

the problem or somebody else identify the problem for you. So take me back to wherever you started

to where you figured out that listen, I better be in charge in my career because nobody is going to

do it for me. Yeah, so I don't think it's one moment. I think it's a couple of moments. So I wasn't

I was never the child. I knew exactly what they wanted to be. You know, some people know what

they want to do when they are kids. I didn't. But I was fortunate. I grew up in Nigeria and my dad

was a college professor. So you already know I have an advantage. I had somebody who was helping me

talk through, you know, what subjects do you like? I was curious and I loved curious research

kind of bench work. And so biology and the sciences, I was really good at it. And my dad said,

you won't be a doctor and like, sure, you know, go to medicine. So I got into school to study

biochemistry for my bachelor's thinking I'll go into medical school. But then during the first

year, I started exploring a corporate walk and I told my dad, you know, I think I want to I don't

think I want to work in a hospital because first I can't stand the side of blood, which is like

the major thing. But what he did was he helped me get internships. So I did a couple of internships

during my five year program. One of the internships was six months long. One was three months.

And so I took breaks within my five year program to do admin internship, operational internships,

research internships. And I ended up graduating my bachelor's in biochemistry. And then I worked

for a little bit and I wanted to get my masters outside the country. Again, it was that decision

to say I do want to get an advanced degree. And I want to get it outside of this country because if

I'm studying the sciences, I want to have access to some of the, you know, great labs in the US.

So I did my masters in biotech. But again, that was also another decision there because my biotech

masters program at three tracks. And I was one of two people in my courts that took the management

track. Because at that point, I realized I was bored at the bench. I didn't want to run

experiments all day, every day in my regular life. And so I chose the part that 99% of the people

in my program were doing was a master's in biotech with a concentration in molecular biology.

And I didn't. I did the business track. So I got to be in class with MBA students while studying

biotech. And I thought that I loved it. I just discovered that passion for, I love understanding

and learning how things work, understanding people's personality with work. And so I ended up

working in biotech for a number of years and transition my career in between. And I thought I was

going to be a corporate girl. I always used to say growing up, I am not an entrepreneur. You know,

I can't run a business. I just want to work at a big company pays me good money and that I can

do different roles. But be careful what you say. Because when entrepreneurship came calling,

I thought I was just doing it for a few minutes and I ended up doing it for longer than I thought

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That's how it really works in the real world.

But I love the fact that you described it on your father's encouragement to go out and

kind of get a little taste of this and a little taste of that.

And that's where that in my individual development blend program

talked about the 70, 20, 10 approach, right? Start over the 10% you have to get your degrees.

I think that's your ticket in that doesn't make you who you are but it's certainly

requirement in most jobs today. It is about working with somebody else like your father,

like you know, coach or mentor or somebody you trust.

But it is that 70% of the time that people tend to spend in a box that the learning is limited.

Going outside of that box and learning while you're in your role and learning from going to

doing internships is so critically important. So dive a little deeper into that for you.

How would somebody who's now listening to this and say this? You know what?

I'm interested in a job beyond what I'm doing today.

How can they go out and taste it? How can they exercise that in, you know,

how can they set themselves up for success to learn without having to take the leap of faith

by quitting the job and diving into straightaway?

Absolutely. I love that because that immediately reminded me of my experience when I was

working in supply chain within the operations team and I had a mentor.

I was part of a platform where they match you with mentors. You get to have a conversation with them

and I remembered when she asked me, you know, what do you want to do? Where do you want to go?

And I was like, I think I'm very strategic, which is now I think about it. I'm like that.

I was such a dumb statement. But I was like, I think I'm very strategic. So I want to work in

the strategy department of my company. And she said, do you know what they do in the strategy

department? And I was like, I don't know, I guess they're strategic people. And she said,

that's your assignment for this month. I want you to go find somebody that works in that

department at your company and have a conversation with them to know more about what they do.

And I went to find somebody through the company org charts. Again, the best time to kind of

have this is when you have a job because you have access to so much more internet. And so I went

to find somebody and I scheduled the call with her and I asked her what their department

what they do. And I told her I was exploring career options. And she told me about

monitoring the external markets and trying to make business decisions for the company. I'm like,

I don't want to monitor the external. That does not sound like what I thought it was. And so I came

back to my mentor. I was like, no, no, that's not a department I want to work on. And she's like,

what made you choose strategy as a department? I was like, I look working with people. I want to

understand how we design. You know, I was talking about all these. And she's like, have you

talking to the HR and culture platform at your company? I was like, they're not HR people,

right? Like they help you get hired. She's like, go talk to somebody in your culture platform.

And so I was exposed to this old world actually looking at the org chart and picking people

and talking to them about HR is so broad. There's talent development, there's sourcing,

there's recruiting, there's career development, there's the onboarding HR.

But that's where I found out I was more drawn to. And I started showing up and volunteering there

and started supporting career advancement initiatives. So I would think if you are employed and

you are trying to figure out the next step, the best ways to start is where you are right now.

People are more liable to say yes to you because you work at the company.

That is advice is gold. And people need to take that to heart. So I teach the fellowship

advancement courses around the country on a regular basis. And people say, well, give me more

questions so I can study. But that's not by the end. So this is studying questions and understanding

the structures important. But what is far more important for you to go to HR or to IT or to quality

improvement or to governance or to leadership, go find the right people and have lunch for them.

Start building a partnership with them. Listen to what the real world is. Now, I love your

example about strategy. Yes, strategy is all about micro and macro market analysis.

Boring surveys, focus groups, and kind of keep your head around the corner and see what the

competition is up to, near and far away. It's not for everybody, but critically important work

is that's how the company can stay in business over the long run. But operations or HR is very

different. So thank you for putting that out there. So now that you you went through these

experiences, right? So how did you now finally decide for yourself? This is what I want to do.

And how did you then start transferring your knowledge and experiences and the role that you

were in to get into the track that you really wanted to be in? Yeah. So a lot of the decisions

were made from a place of clarity to of decluttering and just letting go of what was in working. So in

2020, I had my third child in January of that year. And so my first two were home. I was overwhelmed.

I was working with Incorporate America. I was working on the cultural platform. I was doing what

I loved, but I didn't love where I was doing it. And so I was privileged that I was able to step

away. I had a conversation with my husband. It was last minute and I was like, I really need a

break. And so I put in my three weeks notice, stepped away. And at the same time, it was building

this IT company. And he said, I just want this big contract. So I want to start hiring people.

Do you want to help me kind of hire people? And I was like, sure, I can figure it out.

And so I joined. And I realized I'm finding what I love more than what I was doing. And so our

company is called SAPianVogic. We started it in 2020. And now we have 23 employees full-time

engineers. But I'm at the back end there. I'm helping to like hire people to build our culture,

to design our budgets, working with our finance. And I found out I love that. It keeps me active.

It keeps my mind sharp. I love doing multiple different things with the same broad vision. So that

part of entrepreneurship leading a business that is more stable and structured because we're in

the defense space. That works very well as my W2 job. And then in the process of doing that, which is

a little more structured job. I started exploring how can I go back to corporate America in a way

that I really want to. But of where I was overwhelmed in 2020 was because I didn't like where I was.

And some of the gaps that I recognized then was around the programs that I was managing, where

employee resource programs within companies. And I didn't see that the leadership was like

partnering to build this community as well. And so I started EQI mindset, equity and inclusion

mindset with a focus on employee resource groups. I can companies start right. I can companies

develop them right. I can this groups be built into the business mechanism of the organization

in a very sustainable way. And so I've just steadily built that by having conversations with

companies, working with clients and have developed workshops and speaking topics around these that

I take to HR and talent conferences, not DEI conferences, HR and talent spaces. Because this is

where the people that are managing people and internal programs and up all these gaps that I'm

able to bring into it. So I think I've been fortunate to have a job, but also build my passion

along the way. I love it. It is nice. And you should never be afraid to pivot in your career either.

It is that sadly, I think it is about 60% of the people go to work, not loving what they do,

think about it being 30 years in a role that you really don't love to do. You deserve better.

So you need to be on a continuous pursuit of asking yourself and connecting to four

piece. My purpose and passion on the heart level and then who, which are the people in process I

want to work with. As you age, things can change and that's okay. There's something you have to

assess for yourself and then make these pivots at the right time. Not being irresponsible by

resigning and not having a backup plan. But if you want to do something else, start building the

backup plan, that plan B and C in the background, including save money. So you have financial

security, building out your really robust network, go taste test it. Go do that internship, hang out

before you make that leap of faith in order to do that. So thank you for sharing that very

interesting journey. So what do you feel? And let's tie back to the individual development plan,

your journey plan. What do you, what are the two or three action or items that you would say to

somebody who's listening right now and you're spiked their interest? What should they do in order to

get themselves ready to explore the options? Yeah, thank you for that question. I think I'm also in

that space now is the same thing. Like make sure you take it audits. Like actually take a

sit down and take an audit of where I am right now. Because as you said, things change. You're

changing. You are evolving. The things that you want is different. So take stock of what is

in your big giant circle right now. You know, do you have little kids? Do you have

some other passion that you haven't even explored at all? Take stock of where you spend the

bulk of your time right now. What are the things you enjoy most that you haven't had time for?

Or can I do more of that? You don't have to make drastic decisions like quitting overnight.

Like that's not even recommended. But if we don't take an audit of where we are and maybe you're

spending 90% of your time on something that is draining the life out of you, you need to make

a change. But if you don't take a audit to understand, you might be missing the thing that you

could be spending more time on. So take a audit, where am I in my life right now? What are the

things that bring me joy? What are the things draining me? How can I do more of this thing and flip

my percentages around? I love how you talked about education. You know, at some point you might

be in school and that's, you know, a 10%. But what else should you be doing? What's in your circle?

So if there's any gap you notice, even if your plan is a long-term plan, what are the little things

I can do right now to start to shift these percentages, right? Connections. What communities do I

need to plug into? If I know this is where I want to go. And then what things do I need to step

away from? That I'm spending more time on now and I don't really want to do is just because I

say habits. So that personal audit is really important. Well listen, thank you for that.

What can we find you if there's more information? I'm on LinkedIn. I'm very active on LinkedIn,

Dr. Lola, DMO. But I'm also, my personal website is Dr. Lola, Dash, a DMO, A-D-E-Y-E-M-O,

and happy to chat. LinkedIn is usually the best way where I would respond. Thank you for having me.

Yeah, of course it is and I will certainly make sure that gets into the into the nose itself too.

So as a closing part for yourself, what is somebody you want somebody who's listening to this to

take away from our conversation? Don't box yourself. Your career is yours. You own your career and

you have no idea so many things that you haven't tapped into. So take ownership of your career

and go do that next thing for yourself. Yeah, I think it is. Don't allow things to happen by

chance. It is that you need to make it time and put effort into it and we are indeed truly locked

into a square box of what we know. And if you really want to live a full life, you have to look

outside of that box while you're creating the environment to do that. And again, I'll go back to

the audience here is that use that 70-20-10 approach. By 10% it is education undeniable, you have to

go pursue that. 20% don't go out of the loan. Nobody went to the Olympics a couple of months ago

without a coach or a mentor. Why should you? I find people who can help and guide you along the way

paid or unpaid but you need to have a trust partner in that process itself. But this 70% is a

critical important as we talked about. You have to go out and try new things. You have to put

yourself out there. You cannot wait for people to come to you and do it for you because it's

unlikely to happen. And the last thing you want to do is when you're 65 years old, hopefully

collecting social security at a point I'm to look back with regret. I've worked for 40 years in

the japa don't even like, right? What is your legacy? Your legacy should be working in areas of

deep passion. So you can to create an environment and thrive into the future no matter what that is.

So again, they're going to thank you very much for joining me today. The key here is to take action,

right? We'll do the Apple Store download the Dutch Mentor app. Start working in that on a daily

basis just 15 minutes a YouTube can be. And what we talked about the individual development plan

your journey mapping can all be found in the app itself. Thank you very much for joining me today.

Have a wonderful day everybody and see you at the next episode. Thank you.