Live Your Values
Live Your Values
Moving Towards a Values-Based Career with Quinn Novels
Quinn and Bagel uncover the story of the early days in their career and how they both left the same job that was dragging them down. Quinn shares her journey of discovering what type of work mattered to her and how she pursued opportunities that brought her fulfillment from things like skill based training for women in Honduras to nonprofit and community development work in the triangle of North Carolina. She emphasizes the value of networking and how it's been an integral tool in advancing her career. We even get to hear Quinn's novel advice to her 22 year old self.
Guest Bio: Quinn strives to be the best version of herself. She has quirks and flaws, but has passion, knowledge, and amazing experiences to share. Quinn believes in making an impact by showing kindness and consideration, continuously learning, and taking each day as a challenge to be a better human.
Social Accounts:
@mightyquinn22 (IG)
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Contact:
Quinn Novels, www.qengrantconsulting.com
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Bagel: [00:00:00] Have you ever been in a job or career that feels stale? Or ever felt like you've got much more to offer than what your job or team calls for? Perhaps you know that there has to be a more fulfilling role out there for you, but you're afraid to take the leap. Or worse, maybe you've experienced more days than not where it's hard to get out of bed. And you'd do anything to just turn off that alarm completely and go back to sleep.
In this episode of LYV, Quinn Novels and I uncover the story of the early days in our career and how we both left the same job that was dragging us down. From there. Quinn shares her journey of discovering what type of work mattered to her and how she pursued opportunities that brought her fulfillment from things like skill based training for women in Honduras to nonprofit and community development work in the triangle of North Carolina. She emphasizes the value of networking and how it's been an integral tool in advancing her career. We even get to hear Quinn's novel advice to her 22 year old self. See what I did there. Quinn brings her bright, warm, funny, and refreshing personality to the show. And isn't afraid to show her true colors. Can't wait for you to dive in to episode 11.
Welcome to the Live Your Values podcast. I'm your host Mike Bagel. And today I'm beyond excited to welcome our guest for today's episode, a long time friend, fellow blue hen, former corporate colleague, and always great to see, even on video Quinn Novels. Quinn's drives, yeah. Quinn strives to be the best version of herself. She has quirks and flaws, but has passion knowledge and amazing experiences to share. Quinn believes in making an impact by showing kindness and consideration, continuously learning and taking each day as a challenge to be a better human. I could not agree more knowing you over this last, I don't know, decade plus or so now. Which definitely I know makes me feel old. Yeah.
Quinn: [00:01:59] Hey Bagel.
Bagel: [00:02:00] Hey, I love how I read the intro and then you're like, Hey, what's up?
Quinn: [00:02:05] Thanks for rolling out the red carpet for me.
Bagel: [00:02:09] My pleasure Quinn. I can't even tell you how excited I am to have you on the show. I know you and I caught up a little bit last week for the first time in a little while as we tend to do, but it always feels like we pick up, pick up right where we left off. So
Quinn: [00:02:18] We do, we do.
Bagel: [00:02:22] Yeah.
Quinn: [00:02:26] One of those friends that, you know, we don't have to talk every day, but we know we're there. When you text me, I'm like Bagels got something to say, so let me read it. Yeah. I'm excited to be here. Super nervous, but I won.
Bagel: [00:02:41] Yeah. I like it. It's okay to be nervous. I even, this is probably my, I don't know, my 10th or 11th episode and I still get the jitters before and during doing these interviews, so you're not alone, but we're, we're in it together.
Quinn: [00:02:56] Great.
Bagel: [00:02:58] A little bit of a get to know you. I mean, obviously like right now, 2020 has been just like a crazy crazy year. I know we kind of caught up a little bit last week and talked a little bit about it, but how are you doing, how are you managing with all of the craziness of the unrest of this year?
Quinn: [00:03:18] You know, I'm doing my best, taking it day by day, considering it's COVID outside and the world is currently on fire. But trying to be optimistic, You know, mental health, therapy is great. Glad that I have that. I'm glad that there's wine and the like, and I'm grateful for my relationships and my friendships. People are keeping me sane and. You know, it's, it's been an interesting time that's for sure.
Bagel: [00:03:48] Yeah, for sure. You mentioned friendships and how those are important to you and stuff like how are you connecting and staying in touch with people right now? Are you, are you zooming it up or what's what's the day to day and trying to keep up with people?
Quinn: [00:04:00] Yeah, it's interesting. I am fortunate to have a couple of really good girlfriends that live within about a mile or mile and a half of me. And we have formed what we like to call the COVID coven or the isolation pact. And so we, every week, order in, out from Durham, I live in Durham. So Durham, local restaurants, and we see each other weekly sometimes multiple times a week and share a meal together. I've started going outside more because. Again, it's COVID outside and you're supposed to be outside. I'm not one that likes to be outside that often. So my friends have gotten me to hike. I just bought a paddleboard who is this, I don't know, but yes.
Bagel: [00:04:48] That's awesome. Where do you, where do you paddleboard over there? Out in Durham?
Quinn: [00:04:53] On a Lake somewhere. I'm not in charge of picking the locations. I'm just in charge of being on time and someone will drive me there.
Bagel: [00:05:04] Yeah. Quinn, Quinn can always be relied on to be on time, but I, I love that. You're just like, I don't know a Lake somewhere. I have the paddleboard.
Quinn: [00:05:13] That's the important part. I think it's in North Raleigh. Or wait for it. I don't know. We go different place.
Bagel: [00:05:21] Yeah. Okay.
Quinn: [00:05:22] I'm not the outdoorsy type,
Bagel: [00:05:25] But you, do you like paddle boarding? Like, is it, is it a relaxing thing? Like what, what triggered you to get one?
Quinn: [00:05:33] So I took this, half yoga, half paddle boarding class a few weekends ago, because one of my friends here locally started a yoga collective. Also I'm not one for yoga, but I wanted to support my friend. so we went on a paddle board after yoga and it was fun because you know, you're in the water. I'm not really going to beaches this summer because again, there's a lot of people going to the North Carolina beaches and it's kind of gross. But I want to be on the water. I'm a Pisces, I'm a water sign. I like it. And so we, looked into renting paddleboards and so it just felt more economical to just purchase one myself. Yeah. So and Amazon, I guess is my best friend now. And I can get things in two days.
Bagel: [00:06:15] So
Quinn: [00:06:16] It's dangerous. Plus I had that $1,200 trump sent that's still going strong after five months.
Bagel: [00:06:23] So, wow.
Quinn: [00:06:24] No, I'm being totally sarcastic. That's what the government wants us to believe that we should have used the $1,200 sparingly, right?
Bagel: [00:06:32] Like $1,200 these days is like, okay. That's like probably rent for most people in most, you know, Urban places in America.
Quinn: [00:06:42] Yeah, for sure.
Bagel: [00:06:43] Great. Well, I'm glad to hear that you are, doing some, some outdoor exercise and some physical activity. I feel like that's, if nothing else, and the yoga surprise. Surprise to hear, I didn't think you were a yoga person.
Quinn: [00:06:56] I'm not, I've done it twice in the past year.
Bagel: [00:06:59] Yeah. Yeah, I'm right there with you. I think I've done it twice in my life. So yeah,
Quinn: [00:07:06] I'm not the most flexible person. It's more comical. I do it. So other people have enjoyment because it's just awkward for me.
Bagel: [00:07:12] But yeah, I feel like maybe, maybe we'll come back to this when we start to talk a little bit about your values and who you are a little bit more. Cause I feel like you have a, you have a unique knack for being able to laugh at yourself a bit. Right. And not take things so seriously. And that's, I think a really, a really important trait to have in like the crazy times that we're in right now.
Quinn: [00:07:37] Absolutely. I'm definitely the first to laugh at myself because I often think that I wish there was a camera crew following me at times, because sometimes you just can't make this shit up that happens to me. And. You know, it would be funny. I should have a reality TV show.
Bagel: [00:07:54] Maybe not. Maybe that'll be on tap for 2021. We'll see. We'll see how much time we still have to spend with our ourselves. I think we're all going to be making our own YouTube channels here pretty soon, but
So let's, let's do a quick little icebreaker and then we'll jump into some of your values. So. I was trying to think of something good to ask you. And I don't know if this is, I don't know. This came to mind. Name... Okay. Name one person or thing that you could not imagine living your life without.
Quinn: [00:08:28] Oh boy.
Bagel: [00:08:29] And I did not prep you for this. I sent you prompts, but not for the icebreaker question. We didn't
Quinn: [00:08:35] a person or a thing,
Bagel: [00:08:37] Either one.
Quinn: [00:08:38] I don't want to pick a person because that's, that's not nice.
Bagel: [00:08:41] That's fair. That's
Quinn: [00:08:43] A thing that I couldn't live without. I liked that better. There's so many things though. Chapstick? Yeah. That's necessity. Yeah. Bacon, can I have like three bacon? Sure. Can we change the rules of this ice breaker?
Bagel: [00:08:58] You can change the rules if, if you have good answers, which so far, you're two for two
Quinn: [00:09:03] Chapstick and bacon and, yeah. Let's, let's just leave it at that.
Bagel: [00:09:08] What a combination. Chapstick and bacon. I can't. Can you imagine a scenario where those two things are needed at the same time or in the same situation? I mean, I guess after you eat a bunch of bacon, maybe you need to make sure your lips are moisturized.
Quinn: [00:09:25] Ever had like a moment where you realize you forgot your chapstick and then all you can think about is how you want it.
Bagel: [00:09:31] Yeah, definitely.
Quinn: [00:09:33] And then have you ever, no. Nevermind. You don't crave bacon?
Bagel: [00:09:37] I don't, I don't. I've heard, I do eat Turkey bacon, although I know it's not the same but I've heard the cravings for bacon can be quite strong.
Quinn: [00:09:48] It's true.
Bagel: [00:09:49] Well, those are, I think that's a, that's a great answer. It's hopefully the goal here is to get people to know Quinn a little bit more, and I think we've accomplished that.
Quinn: [00:09:58] I will preface, it has to be crispy bacon. None of that floppy bacon. Okay. I'm done now.
Bagel: [00:10:03] Okay. Okay. Fair. So once again, so Quinn the crispy bacon and the chapstick can not live without those things. I like it. So.
Now that we've got the fun stuff. Let's, let's move a little bit, not into necessarily serious stuff, but let's move a little bit more into the values piece of the conversation.
So, when we spoke last, last week, you mentioned that you had taken this leadership course and that you actually like wrote out your own little leadership philosophy and that you had some values that you've kind of put together that are the things that you kind of live by the things that are most important to you.
And I was just, I emailed you back yesterday. I was like, wowed. By that I thought it was really awesome. It's like really succinct, but I could tell on, and I'm curious to know like what the exercise was that led you to put that together if you want to share. But I just thought it was so cool. How it. You have like the list I think it was like five things that were really important, but there was like a paragraph for each where you really went into detail, like expressing why that value meant something to you. It felt like really personal. Right. So share with us.
Quinn: [00:11:12] Yeah. So I, a couple of years ago through this leadership development program called leadership triangle. And so for any listeners who are in the Raleigh Durham area, leadership triangle covers, Wake County, which is where Raleigh is Durham County, Orange County, which is where Chapel Hill is and then Chatham County. And so I went through this course and we did this value sort. And it's this deck of cards.
There's probably about a hundred different cards with different, values on it. And what the exercise is, you go through the cards once and you, you sort them with A, B and C meaning? Yes, no, maybe. So if these values mean anything to you and then you take the maybe and yes pile and put them back together and go through again and just do yes and no. So you have to narrow it down to get to five. So you go from a hundred to five. And so at the end it gets pretty hard because there's a lot of things that are important to you, but you just have to think through what really speaks to you. And then after we went through and figured out what our five values were, we needed to write out what exactly it meant in your, in your view. Because you know, integrity for one thing, that's one of my values that can be one thing to me, and a different thing to you. And so we just kind of had to put together a purpose statement behind each of those values. So it was really impactful because there were things out there that I wouldn't necessarily have thought of myself, but because I had those cards to help me, I thought, yeah, that is important to me or no, not really.
Bagel: [00:12:47] Yeah, that's really cool. I actually am familiar with that exercise. We had those when I was career counseling, in my, my, I guess my last career before this one. We had the deck of cards, although I never actually really like did the full activity with anyone but familiar with it. And I, and I know that it can be really difficult. And it's like hard once you get down to those, like last 10 or 15, it's like, okay. Like most of these matter to me, but how much and doing that prioritization of figuring out which ones are the most important can be like really, really tough, but also can like real. Forced a lot of clarity. So I'm really glad to hear that you did that.
How did you land on these five? Or do you want to pick out any of them just to kind of talk about like why they matter to you or, or even an example of why they're important in your everyday life now?
Quinn: [00:13:40] Yeah. So it was the cool thing about this exercise too, is that you only have about 15 minutes to go through it. The whole exercise it's supposed to be quick, so you don't have time to ponder. So that's what was really interesting about it. But, the five that I landed on are integrity, respect and trust, efficiency, making a difference, and personal development. So they're pretty, they really do encompass me. I think the one that stands out the most for me is efficiency because I'm super OCD and a control freak and type A. And so I'm always looking at things as a way, what can I do to make this more efficient? And why spend more time doing something when you don't have to? Work harder or work smarter, not harder kind of philosophy. So it's just, once I figured out that, it took me a long time to figure out that a lot of people don't think the way that I do. I'm very analytical and very, I just had that operations kind of mind. And once that came to my attention, I don't know why it wasn't obvious to me. I just thought everybody did things that way. Then I've started to use that. You know, to my advantage because I recognize not everyone has that mindset. So that's one that I feel like is really unique for me, because most people, you know, have integrity and, and want to think of themselves as a person with integrity, most people value respect, and trust and want to make a difference. You know, they want to continuously learn and develop, but efficiency isn't necessarily one that most people would find is one of their values.
Bagel: [00:15:24] Yeah. Yeah. I think that's really interesting. I think like the combination of your five values might make you uniquely who you are too. It's like, okay. Yeah. Like you said, some people might have integrity. Some people might value trust and respect, but having all of these together as at the forefront for you, I think. It kind of lends itself to like who you are and the decisions you make and like how you go about your decisions and your, your daily life and things like that. I also think, out of the ones you just mentioned, actually, I think I kind of looking at all the five efficiency is I think one of the only ones there that actually overlaps with a skill. Whereas the other four are sort of, Values, like really specifically like values or things that you are striving for. But the efficiency thing, it's probably a little bit of how you're wired and also a skill that you've sharpened over time. I mean, do you, do you feel that way or?
Quinn: [00:16:21] Absolutely. I was just geeking out today cause I spent like, I don't know, an hour on a spreadsheet and was super excited and didn't want anyone else to help me because I love spreadsheets. Okay. That's weird.
Bagel: [00:16:34] Yeah.
Quinn: [00:16:35] I just wanted to make sure that the process that we were doing at my job was the best way to do it. And so took on that task. For people.
Bagel: [00:16:44] Yeah.
Quinn: [00:16:45] And a lot of people were grateful for it, so I'm happy that I can bring that skill to the team.
Bagel: [00:16:51] So. Okay. So let's, let's dig into that here for just a second, if you'll play along. Cause it's, it's so funny. I mean, we've known each other for a while. I don't even know how many years exactly.
Right. Probably 84 years. That's right. We've known each other for a while. Pretty much since at least senior year of college, I feel like, and I think, you know, You start to remember certain things about people. And like, I probably wouldn't like, if you were to say like, do you remember what the things are that mattered to me the most?
I don't think efficiency would have been the first I would have remembered about Quinn, but now that you say it, I'm like, Oh, maybe there was a reason we got a similar job right out of school. And were emailing each other a lot about things that bothered us because we think in a similar way. And so it's just so funny to actually hear like how that plays a part in your life and who you are in terms of your skills too. So I think efficiency, I mean, I'm right there with you and I'm sure there's people who probably rolled their eyes at the spreadsheet comment, but there's probably also people listening. They're like, Oh, that's me too. I love those spreadsheets
Quinn: [00:17:58] Let’s talk about formulas. But I’ll spare your audience.
Bagel: [00:17:59] Right. Exactly. You could, you could totally nerd out hardcore if you really wanted to. But what I was I'll spare your audience. Maybe, maybe we could do a little bonus episode about spreadsheets. No, I'm just kidding. So what I was wondering about is like, so efficiency is obviously important and it's kind of ingrained in you probably to a certain degree, right?
It sounds like there's definitely times where it's appreciated and probably times where, you know, teammates and coworkers like look to you for that type of thing. Have there been times where it's gotten you in trouble or are there times where it kind of gets in the way of other things that are important?
Quinn: [00:18:39] I'm sure there has been times when that's happened. I know I'm a very passionate person about things that I care about. Of course, like most people. And so, it's very difficult for me when I see a process that is inefficient or, you know, in my opinion could be done different way or a better way.
And the reaction is, well, we've always done it that way. Like, that's one of my biggest pet peeves is when people say that. And so if I'm met with that kind of response, It's hard for me to let it go. So that's where the control freak of Quinn comes out. I try to keep it in internal, but, you know, it's difficult whenever you're doing a project or when you're working with a team and you know that if we could try it a different way and maybe there'll be some bumps or something as we go, but once we own the process, it would be better. And we could maybe do more with the same amount of time or the same amount of it or something. Yeah, so that's when it's kind of gotten me into trouble. But now I find myself in a role where it's appreciated before. You know, if I wasn't in roles that were, it wasn't necessarily appreciated because of the jobs that I had and, you know, legacy companies or organizations, that weren't very willing to change or be flexible that was hard to make changes.
But now I'm in a position where change is appreciated and we're allowed to pivot a lot and ideas are welcome. So that's why I need to get in the right role for you for yourself.
Bagel: [00:20:21] Do you feel like you have the ability to share and contribute in your work environment? What's an example of a time when you did? Was the feedback positive? How did it make you feel?
That's awesome. And we're going to, we're going to come back to that pretty shortly here. Just kind of talking about aligning skills and things like that to your, to your job. And what's important to you in terms of your work.
I'm interested before we jump into that, I'm interested to know, since you did the values card exercise, and there's probably some stuff right off the bat that you were like, Nope, not important whatsoever. Like, does anything stick out to you in terms of those values, anything that you were like, yeah, that does not matter to me.
Quinn: [00:21:09] There was something about, I don't remember the exact phrasing, but it was, you know, being famous or being the center of attention or, you know, having, having praise. I can't really think of the right phrasing for it, but I embarrass super easily and do not. Like words of affirmation is not one of my love languages. I get very awkward when people say nice things. Not saying that I don't appreciate it. I just don't know how to react properly. My ears get hot. It's weird. So I don't like having attention on me. Yeah. So that was definitely one because you know, you know, people who like to be the center of attention.
Bagel: [00:21:46] Yeah. And not that there's anything wrong with it, but yes, there are. Yeah. Right, right. And that's good. You kind of know what makes you tick and what doesn't. Yeah.
Quinn: [00:21:57] Yeah. I always, When I was in the nonprofit world, a lot of people would ask me, you know, do you want to be an executive director of a nonprofit one day?
And I always said, no, I would want to be the COO because I'm a great number two. I can make sure the executive director is out there front and center, fundraising, in front of the board, all the things. And I'll make sure everything runs smoothly in the background.
Bagel: [00:22:20] Yeah. Wow. So that's, that's awesome. I love that.
You just said that for sort of both selfishly, because I feel exactly the same way. And again, it's like amazing, like remembering things that connect us. Right. It's really funny. But also I hope that there's some people listening to the podcast that are connecting with that in some way, and maybe kind of taking the pressure off and saying, you know what? I don't have to be in the Starlight. I don't have to be the one that's got the attention focused on them. I can still be a contributor to my company or an organization or something, cause that, you know, interested or passionate about or whatever they're working on and I don't have to be in the spotlight.
I can be the one that's supporting the leaders or I can be the one that's handling things in the background and making sure that things are, are running smooth which I think is awesome. Hopefully people can like connect with that idea that they, they can be contributors in other ways and they don't have to be, they don't have to be the leader. Right.
They don't have to be the quote unquote person in charge that there's like many. In fact, that's usually just one person that's at the top. And then there's everybody else in an organization who in some way, shape or form is like supporting it. So,
Quinn: [00:23:29] Absolutely.
Bagel: [00:23:30] Before we get to present day, I want to take us back. I'm going to take us a little trip down memory lane.
Quinn: [00:23:37] Let’s do it.
Bagel: [00:23:38] And then take us back ... How about this? We're going to go back to senior year of college. That's probably a better way to put it.
Quinn: [00:23:44] I think people know how to figure out when we were seniors.
Bagel: [00:23:48] Probably it's okay. I'm just covering, I'm covering all our bases. Take me back to senior college. And, and so for the audience Quinn and I graduated from Delaware the same year and we, I think we knew each other, but not that well until our first job that we ended up working together in Philly. But take us back to senior year of college and walk me through what was Quinn thinking about in terms of her professional career, her life ahead of her after school.
Quinn: [00:24:21] Yeah, that is a trip down memory lane. So we were both in the business school at Delaware. So it was interesting because I don't know if you remember this, but most people didn't know what job they were going to get until spring semester, senior year. But the business school students, we all knew fall. So our spring semester was kind of funny cause we already knew we had jobs in the summer, so we just kind of hung out our last semester. So that was a luxury for sure. But then, you know, 2008, the stock market crashed and Oh, millennials we've had it rough. Right, right, right. Yeah. So it was interesting. I'd had a couple of internships, the summers before we graduated and didn't like either of those internships. So I thought of it as, okay, well now I know what I don't want to do. So let's find something else. And so I remember going to the career fair at the BOB.
Bagel: [00:25:27] I do. Yep.
Quinn: [00:25:28] Yep. And meeting with a bunch of different, accounting firms and places in Philly, places in New York and the guy that I met, who was at the table of our set accounting firms and I hit it off.
And so I remember going, I think we had an all day interview in Philly. And it was, it was just interesting. And then we found out we got the jobs and, so I was just excited to have, to be employed after graduation. Didn't it was exciting to know what our salary was going to be. And we got a bonus. We thought we were living large. Yeah, so it was interesting. I didn't know what I wanted to do, and I didn't really truthfully understand what I signed up for. Quickly found out though. It wasn't, it wasn't great.
Bagel: [00:26:20] Right. Not knowing what you signed up for, resonates with me, for sure. And I wonder how many other people probably feel the same way?
Is it like looking back, I remember at the time, I mean, it's so funny how, like. You know, we're in our thirties now. And I remember at the time, like right out of school, you like, you think you know a lot. We knew we did nothing. I mean,
Quinn: [00:26:46] If someone were to say to you, Hey, you're going to be in business advisory services. Well, what is that?
Bagel: [00:26:55] Right?
Quinn: [00:26:56] That's what we did. And it was an IT auditor. Now. I'm not good with IT. I had no business in this role.
Bagel: [00:27:08] So, okay. Like what, what was it? Cause at the time, obviously you made the best decision. I would imagine for yourself. Right? Like what, what made you decide that this was the right move for you at that point in your life at 21, 22 years old?
Quinn: [00:27:21] Actually, I remember it was my parents that, told me to take the role because I took a real estate finance class. I was a finance major at Delaware and I took a real estate finance class. And I remember our professor worked at Countrywide in Wilmington, Delaware, and I was really interested in real estate, still am to this day.
And he was willing to have me join his company, his office in Wilmington after graduation. And I talked to my parents about it and I don't know exactly remember the conversation fully, but I remember them saying I'm not sure if real estate's a good idea. And maybe you should stick with this accounting job. And so I just said, okay, sure. I didn't, I was excited to have a job after college, be moving to Philadelphia, getting my own apartment. You know, starting to live my best life, you know, after graduation. And then fast forward a few months, the economic downturn game and Countrywide, we know what happened to them. I definitely. Would have been laid off. And so thanks, parents for not letting me take that real estate job.
Bagel: [00:28:36] It's so interesting looking back and you know, maybe, maybe there was some reasons to consider that other job. But your parents maybe were with their wisdom, maybe just encouraging you, like, okay, here's a bigger organization, a bigger company with like a more stable foundation or more stable structure. They're located in a big city. I mean, I would imagine, I don't know what your parents said to you at the time, but maybe those things were like the reason behind them encouraging that. I think, because we took the same job right out of school, I think my parents were kind of echoing a lot of that type of thing too. It's like, I remember, just a quick tangent. I remember having to decide between, I don't know if I, cause we didn't know each other that well senior year, but I actually had kind of two jobs that I had to decide between. And one was in Delaware and the other was this job that we ended up taking in Philly. And I just remember going through the pro-cons list and which are never helpful, by the way. I feel like you need a much more intricate way of trying to make decisions about if you have, if you're lucky enough to have two opportunities or more. But I just remember at the time, just thinking through all of the different things about it and like, I will be honest, like yes pay was a little bit better at the Philly job, but that wasn't the main thing. The main thing was that I wanted to live in a city. I didn't want to live in Delaware. Just being really honest. I spent four years there in school and it was great. And of course I missed it afterwards, but there was this big part of me that was like, I'm ready to move on under the big city and like live like a, you know, a 22 year old or whatever is supposed to live and have a good job and have a place and live this like urban life. And of course, you know, the job, I thought was going to be a good fit, but it's just interesting to hear, like what sort of things kind of pushed you in that direction?
Quinn: [00:30:37] Yeah, it is interesting. I do think though, we knew a lot of people that were moving to Philly. A lot of people were hanging around South Jersey, so it was just kind of a natural next step. Most of our friends either went to Philly or went to New York. And so the idea of staying in Delaware, even though it's what, 35 minutes off of 95, right. It was just nice to know that we were going to be moving on to something bigger. And we were sold a bill of goods. You know, going to this accounting firm and, yeah. So, I mean, it was a good experience in a way. Yeah. I wouldn't change it because I don't think it would have led me to where I am today necessarily .
Bagel: [00:31:25] For sure. What I'm curious about is so there was a, there was a point at which I realized that this wasn't the right fit for me and that's putting it very lightly and diplomatically. And maybe I think I am going to share that with the podcast listeners, maybe the full story around my Exodus from that job.
Quinn: [00:31:47] I haven't done that yet.
Bagel: [00:31:48] I will. I will. This is, this is the Quinn hour. We're going to, we're going to focus on your experience. And I remember a conversation with you where you were starting to think about like, what was next for you and whether or not. That was something you wanted to stay in, or if you wanted to pursue other things. How did you know that it was time for you to move on from that role?
You mentioned that like it, you wouldn't necessarily change it. And probably it was like a good experience, but like what, what sort of signals did you get that you were ready to move on to something else after that first professional job?
Quinn: [00:32:22] Yeah. So. I lasted just under two years at that job. And the first year was new and we were learning how to do our job. And it was interesting because we got per diem for the first time. And we were traveling to, you know, random places on the East coast. You a little further than me. And then the second year, the fun of it wore off and you started going to the same clients because we were IT auditors. So you do the audit every year. And once we were into year two, I was thinking, is this really what this is every year? And so I just realized that it kind of seemed as though, and this is no shade to any IT auditor. No shade. It's just not for me, but I just felt like a trained animal could do some of the things that I was doing and wanted to make more of an impact.
What I felt was more of an impact. and so I started thinking about what I really enjoyed up until that moment. And I remember studying abroad my junior year of college and thinking about how much I love to travel and also how much I wanted to help people. And the earthquake in Haiti happened in 2009. And I remember that's when I kind of had the light bulb moment of I'm sitting here in the U S having a good job, have a good income and people are literally dying and in so much despair. And I could be doing more of a help. And so that's when I combined my interest in helping people and then my interest in traveling and, and tried to figure out a job that I could do that.
And that's when I decided to get a degree, go back to school and get my master's degree. I knew I didn't want to go back for my MBA because again, I didn't. I wasn't interested in the trajectory I was on, so I knew I needed further education. And so I just found a master's degree that fit what I was interested in.
Bagel: [00:34:39] Yeah. And, well, because you mentioned it, do you remember the call that you made to me the day that you got into grad school?
Quinn: [00:34:48] No.
Bagel: [00:34:49] You don't remember. Oh man. I was so, I was so excited to bring this up. So Quinn and I both were pretty much at the same time, like ready to leave that job, but to move on to other things.
And we were both interested in grad school and moving on to that. And you called me the same day that I got accepted to grad school. You got accepted to grad school.
Quinn: [00:35:16] I do remember that.
Bagel: [00:35:18] I mean, it may have been that you heard like the day before I heard the day before, but you called me the day I was going to call you to tell you. And I was like, you got in, I got in, it was like super exciting. That's right.
Quinn: [00:35:34] We were like, anything we can do to get out of this job. That is so funny. I do remember that. Yeah.
Bagel: [00:35:39] Yeah.
Quinn: [00:35:40] And I just quit on the same day too.
Bagel: [00:35:43] I may have quite a couple weeks before or something like that leave. And then I quit. I was just, I was done. But I do remember though that, that call I just, I will never forget that call. And, and there were like ups and downs about whether or not I was going to get into grad school. And then I got the call that I was going to go back to Delaware. I just remember. You being like I got into Tulane, I was like, that's awesome.
Quinn: [00:36:06] I do remember this. Oh, I'm so happy you brought that up. I block things out of my memory. Plus I have COVID brain. I don't remember things. This is amazing. What a great memory you remember that.
Bagel: [00:36:18] It's all good. I feel like I'm constantly losing things, you know, memories of things. But I just wanted to bring that up because I just felt like it was so. I never use this word, but apropos, we were both like, starting to feel like, okay, this is not what we expected, good experience, but , we need to figure out what's next for us.
And we both sort of separately, started to figure out what that next move was. We both happened to decide that like grad school was the move that we needed to do to get to the career. The next career thing that we wanted. And then just the fact that we got in on the same day to me, it was just like, I don't know.
I, there's still a part of me that's very spiritual. It just felt like it was kind of meant to be that we both had our Exodus happen together, which was just a fun memory.
Quinn: [00:37:00] Well I remember when, now that you're saying this, I remember when we both figured out that we didn't like our job. We were at summit park, your apartment complex at one of the party night.
And we, I hadn't, either you made a comment or I made a comment and you were like, wait. Do you not like it either? And I was like, no, this is a terrible. Oh my God, I feel the same way. Really? Let's get out.
Bagel: [00:37:26] And that is an, okay, so without throwing the company that we worked for under the bus, cause I know we're both very sensitive of that, and we're not mentioning names. I think that moment though is so it's so important. It's so crucial to have someone and you don't always have it, but it was so helpful to have someone else going through that same experience as you. And I'll speak from my perspective, the fact that I was feeling a certain way, but I didn't really know how to share it. And I didn't even really fully have my head like wrapped around how I was feeling, because it's like, this is your first job. It's a totally new experience. This is what it's like to work as a professional. This is what it's like in the corporate world. This is what it's like to work in a city. All of these things, I felt like I was just supposed to be doing this. And I kind of felt like this was what life was supposed to be. Meanwhile, on the inside I'm like crumbling, right? Like I hate so many things that are happening yet, I don't really know how to express it. Yeah. I'm not going to go to HR and tell them what's wrong with how much I don't like my job. Right.
And so to have you there, to be able to just kind of like bounce off of each other, and again, this is like totally like friends, right. Outside of work. But being able to share with each other, our experiences was just so bad you bowl at the time. And so I cannot imagine going through that experience Quinn without you to be like, yeah, like I feel that way too.
Quinn: [00:38:46] Yes, absolutely. And prior to us talking about it, I remember. Cause My mom was an elementary school, well teacher for 34 years. I grew up in Western Pennsylvania and I can remember talking to her after being there for probably a year. And she was at the tail end of her career. And of course she would talk about, you know, different things that frustrated her at her job and things like that. But overall, my mom loved teaching. She still talks about it to this day, how much she loved teaching, how much she loved. She taught fourth grade for the majority of her career, how much she loved it, loved the kids. Love seeing them years later, when they had kids, she had taught for so long. And I can remember talking to her and saying, Mom, yes, you get frustrated with your job. But you love your job and you look forward every day to teaching. And I told her that except for like the first week of that job. And then maybe when we went to Chicago for training, I never looked forward to going to work. Yeah. And that's when I realized you know, life's too short just because yeah.
You know, we're part of the millennial generation. And at one point, I mean, now it might have changed. But at one point when we were first starting out in the workforce, it was projected that most millennials would change their jobs 13 times in their career. And whereas my mom worked for the same school district for 30 years.
Bagel: [00:40:23] Yeah. Yep.
Quinn: [00:40:24] We just don't do that. My dad worked for the same university for 35 years, I think. Yeah. And we just don't have that companies aren't loyal to us. And the only person looking out for you is you. And so we spend the majority of our life at work. And so life's too short to be at a job that you don't care about.
And that's when we just realized we gotta, we gotta figure out what we want to do.
Bagel: [00:40:49] Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. I'm so glad you shared that. I remember that stat. I feel like we learned it at that job that like, you know. Our parents on average, their generation changed jobs. I think it was like three times maybe in their, in their lifetime. Whereas ours was like over the way over 10 or whatever. And it's so true. And I don't think it registered for me at the time being like 22 years old. I was like, yeah. Oh yeah. I'll probably have a few different jobs. It didn't occur to me. Like why we potentially move on from job to job. It's a different thing between just like going to a competitor within your industry changing jobs or versus actually like jumping ship and going to doing something completely different, which is what you and I ended up doing.
How many times have you changed careers? What were the reasons or triggers do you feel valued by your employer or team? What do you value most in a job or workplace?
What did you get out of that first job? Like, what were some of the things that you either learned from it or gained from it that ultimately helped you kind of move forward in your career?
Quinn: [00:42:04] I learned that I was interested in working with a lot of different people. So we worked with, with a lot of different companies, we were auditing. And so it was a lot of different companies. So that was nice. I also liked that every day was supposed to be different. You know, there was a little travel, there was you, weren't just sitting at the same desk. Although we were doing, we were in a lot of conference rooms.
Bagel: [00:42:28] Yeah.
Quinn: [00:42:29] So I did like that aspect of it. That's, that's what I took from, you know, figuring out what I wanted to do next is that I like the travel aspect of it. And then continuing to learn. But really I chalked it up to be similar to the internships that I had in undergrad is that I tried something and I didn't like it. So it's moving on to the next thing. Because I, again, I had had two internships in undergrad and didn't necessarily like them. They were good experiences and they helped me get the job that I got after after college. Right. But it was a new step stepping stone to change paths. Cause I could, I could have stayed. I just wouldn't have been happy or healthy.
Right. But yeah, just made me realize I needed to pivot and go in a different direction.
Bagel: [00:43:18] For sure. And I think probably doing a little bit of that, like self check in to really understand how you're feeling . you mentioned, you know, the fact that you didn't feel excited or even wanting to get up and go to work on most days. And I definitely felt the same way. That's probably a telltale sign that that's probably not the best fit for you. Not to say that you should leave that job. Right. If that's like the only thing you can do and you need money and you need to work, you might have to stay in that. Obviously we were lucky enough to kind of be able to find our next thing, but yeah.
But it's also, I think that the lesson I'm getting from that is like, it's important to do that like reality check. And hopefully have someone that you can talk to and share that with whether it's a friend or it's a therapist or it's your family or whoever that might be. I mean, definitely. That's when I started therapy, like for real after, during that experience, because it was just like, I needed to be able to like unload the stuff that was going on and how I was feeling about things.
So, I think it's important.
Quinn: [00:44:17] Absolutely. When you're, when the, the things that you look forward to in the day is, is the train ride the SEPTA train ride to and from work. So you can read your books. You should probably find a different job.
Bagel: [00:44:28] There you go. Wise, wise words. So. Yeah. And I think the fact that you had some things that you took away from that I think is really important. And that it is helpful for people who are thinking about like, well, how do I move on? How do I know what to do next? If I'm in a job that I hate or a job that doesn't feel like a good fit. So tell us about the next phases.
Where did you go from there and how did it lead to what you're doing now? And, and how what you're doing now aligns better to your interest and skills and things like that.
Quinn: [00:45:03] Sure. So I'll take you through this pretty quickly. But after figuring out that I needed to leave that job, I, as I mentioned before, I'm interested in traveling, interested in helping people.
So, Tulane University in New Orleans had a grad school program for international development. And so basically what I was hoping to do was to work in a developing country, working with a nonprofit in the development space. So while as I was in grad school, I actually met, a sister of a family friend, follow that. And she had started a nonprofit in Honduras. Helping women living in extreme poverty with skills based training and computer technology, cosmetology and sewing. And so I went and had an internship, never met her before. I asked her if I could come intern, the summer after my first year of grad school. And she said, yeah, come down for a month. And I flew to Honduras to Tegucigalpa the capital city. And she met me there at the airport and I stayed with her for a month and worked with her nonprofit. And fell in love with Honduras, with the people of Honduras. It's such a beautiful country and they're beautiful people and I was hooked. And so I went through my second year of grad school and then proposed to be their full time finance and program manager on the state side of things. So I did all kinds of fundraising, grant writing, finance, marketing, all the things. And continued to work at that organization for three years, traveling back and forth between the States and Honduras throughout the year. I learned, I tried to learn Spanish. I took Spanish at the community college of Philadelphia, and that was sort of helpful. I used my hands a lot and just said words, but I got by. I got by. And then, and during that time I made the transition and move down to Raleigh, North Carolina. And after living here for a couple of years and working in Honduras, I realized that I wanted to worked for a nonprofit that was more local. So being new to the area, it was hard working from home when you don't know anybody. So I ended up moving and I'm working for a local nonprofit, a regional nonprofit in the area and, and loved it. Did fundraising for them for a couple of years. And again, it was similar to our time at the accounting firm, where I was going into a lot of different companies and different industries and talking to different people, but about the issues affecting the community here in the triangle, because the triangle has all these accolades about number one place for careers. Number one, place to live. You know, we have great ratio of college graduates to the per capita college graduates and everything. You hear all these accolades, but you don't hear the statistics about, you know that we're very low in social mobility. Meaning that if you start off in poverty, you're most likely going to end up still impoverished by the end of your life.
So I was working for this regional nonprofit that was trying to help the population that wasn't seeing the benefits of all the accolades of this area. And so I did that for a couple of years, and then I moved to a statewide community foundation and work there for about three years. And my region just kind of got broader around the triangle and still doing we're working with local nonprofits, local communities. And so that was a really great experience. I got to learn a lot about the state of North Carolina. And so then about, a year and a half ago I still had a great friend that I made at the original nonprofit that I worked at in North Carolina. And he moved to a media company, a big media company in the area. And when he left that regional nonprofit, I asked him to take me with him, cause it's a great family owned company and I always wanted to work for that company. And about three years later, he called me and said, okay I have a job for you. And so took a little bit of convincing. Cause I wasn't sure. And then I just, I was thinking what, this is what you've been wanting to you do for the past three years, work for this company. And so now I'm doing economic development work, community development work, and social change work across the state. Raising visibility about the great reasons to live in North Carolina and what people can do across the state of North Carolina. So it's having the knowledge that I have about the region, about the state and then the relationship building skills that I thrive on. And getting to do that for a great family owned company is just really amazing and yeah.
Bagel: [00:49:53] Can you sense the confidence and flow state that Quinn displayed while sharing her career path? It sounds a little different than recapping our earlier experiences, right? Take note on how you talk about the things you're doing in your own life, which things do you talk about with pride, confidence and ease, which things do you shy away from sharing? Take the opportunity to think about why. Yeah.
Quinn: That's what I'm doing.
Bagel: Awesome. It's enlightening to hear the story and like the path and the journey that you've gone through and I know our listeners can't see you, but I can see your energy. You know, feeling like really positive about all of those experiences from Honduras, all the way up to what you're doing now. And, just, you know, I commend you sort of taking action for your own life and your own career to figure out like what, how you can do more work that feels fulfilling, I think is what it sounds like more than anything.
And I think we both tried to find that path after that first job we talked about. What ways do you feel like your skills, interests and values align with the type of work that you're doing right now?
Quinn: [00:51:04] So I love meeting new people and building relationships. I love finding common ground with people and just building a strong relationship. And so my job now is me going out in different communities and meeting people. And figuring out why, you know, their community is great. And what the history is about that community and telling their story, but telling it to the entire state, the region, you know, the Southeast of the United States.
So it's just exciting. Cause I'm just constantly meeting people and learning their stories. And I just, I love to learn. I love to be a part of my community. You know, when I first moved down here, like I said, I was working from home. And I didn't really know many people. So now yeah. Yeah. When people travel here or think about what they want to do it's "Oh, have you been to little Washington, North Carolina, the original Washington. It's such a great town, such a cute town. Have you been to Boone and gone to see App State and, and gone to, you know, Blowing Rock to..." See, I'm naming all these outdoor places, you know, I'm not going outside, but I can tell people to go out there.
Bagel: [00:52:23] I was going to say those are all really good, really nice outdoor places in North Carolina. I mean, I haven't been the little Washington, but Boone and Blowing Rock are gorgeous. Yeah.
Quinn: [00:52:32] Yeah. So I will say I like the mountains, but what I like about the mountains is I like sitting there and looking at them. I don't necessarily like hiking them. So anyway,
Bagel: [00:52:44] Taking in the view.
Quinn: [00:52:44] If anyone needs vacation recommendations that's in North Carolina. I can help.
Bagel: [00:52:49] Quinn's got it on lockdown. Yeah.
I think the ways that you're able to kind of engrain the things that matter to you the most and the skills that you have and the things that you want to work on and to improve upon. If you're able to do that in your job, which you're spending the majority of your days and weeks doing. I think it brings you some fulfillment and it brings you a sense of meaning and it helps you feel like you're doing some good in the world. And I think you've alluded to that at a couple of different ways of like doing something that matters and doing something that's making a difference and making an impact.
How important. Yeah. How important is that to you?
Quinn: [00:53:35] It's really important to me because there's a lot of people doing good and doing good work and they're, they just, they might not have the ability to share it to the masses. So if through my job, through my team's work, if we can raise visibility of local leadership, trying to make their communities better. That's that's fulfilling for me. There's just a lacking in national leadership as we're seeing, not to get too political. There's a lack in national leadership and so local people are looking to how can they change their little corner of the world? And there's, like I said, there's a lot of good people doing good work. And sharing their story, sharing what they're doing in the communities that they live in might impact somebody in a different community across the state. And say, Hey, we have those resources or we have something like that. Maybe we should try doing a similar thing so that we can have a better and stronger community. So making those connections, building those relationships, that's what's gonna ake things stronger and better for us. So that's just what I like to do.
Bagel: [00:54:52] Yeah. I love the message there. It's like those small ways of getting involved and taking the lead and, or just like being, you know, participating in the community. And try and just trying to make a very small scale change can make ripple effects, right? Like it can make waves in the bigger scheme of things. And sometimes, you know, just getting involved in like a local charity or something as a hobby or outside of work or volunteer opportunity can just be a way to kind of test out where, you know, what you're good at. Or something that you care about and what you might want to contribute to.
And then all of a sudden you find yourself being like, Oh, I actually care about this a whole lot more than I thought. Or I met these really awesome people doing this volunteer thing that I just never would have met before, and I feel like we share some interest or we share some values. And all of a sudden your network expands. I think you've talked about networking a bit. And then just like all of a sudden it opens up these doors. And I think, I know a lot of our conversation has focused on career stuff cause that's kind of the topic today, but I love the message that you can still do little things on any scale and that could still make a difference.
Quinn: [00:56:03] Absolutely. It's exciting. And you know, you just never know who you're going to meet, who you're going to run into. And you never know by looking at somebody what their story is. So it's just very exciting to go and meet people and learn about what's important to them. And what they're passionate about and how, you know, you might, what you might learn just by meeting people and being kind.
Bagel: [00:56:28] Yeah. Yeah. So to kind of round things out here, I've got just a couple of last questions to ask you. And they're all kind of, they're all kind of reflective questions. So bear with me.
Quinn: [00:56:44] Okay.
Bagel: [00:56:44] I'm curious to know, what would present day Quinn tell senior year Quinn?
Quinn: [00:56:50] Um, senior year Quinn. Take your GREs the summer after graduating. Don't wait, you're already in study mode. Take your GRE's. That's my biggest advice to anyone who's in college. They're thinking about going to law school, grad school, take those GRE's, LSATs or whatever while you're in undergrad. Cause you're already in that study mode and it's really difficult to study two years after.
Bagel: [00:57:18] Yeah, that's awesome advice. And it's something I really had not thought about before, but that's so true. It's like you're in such a different mindset of work is just so different than studying. I think that's that's spot on.
Quinn: [00:57:32] Yeah. Yeah. I would tell doing little foreshadowing. I would tell senior year Quinn, Hey, in a few years, you're going to go to grad school at Tulane. I was all about living in Philadelphia. And so my grad school program was mostly online. There are three courses that I needed to take at Tulane, but I was able to do most of it online. And I thought about going to New Orleans for a semester, but I was living my life in Philly. I had all my friends and I didn't know anyone yeah. At the time and so I was nervous to leave. And if I could tell a 22 year old Quinn that, Hey, when you go to grad school in a couple of years, make sure you at least go for a semester. You know, who cares? Your friends will be there, whatever relationship you're in those that actually matter and go to Tulane. I would say to do that. And then also I would tell 22 year old Quinn travel as much as you possibly can because when you're 34 COVID's coming. And you have to stay home.
Bagel: [00:58:46] For who knows how long, we're only four months in and there's no end in sight. It's like, I feel like that's the biggest thing we all wish we did more of before this.
Quinn: [00:58:57] Yeah.
Bagel: [00:58:58] Just get out there.
Quinn: [00:58:59] That's depressing stuff. But anyways, go 22 year old Quinn, go.
Bagel: [00:59:05] That's awesome. I love, I love those messages. And I asked that because I'm hoping that, you know, maybe there are some college age people. Or, you know, even just shortly after that listening and I, it's just, it's so much easier in hindsight to kind of like pick apart what decisions we did or did not make. And not that, not that we're talking about living with regrets. But it's just, it's easier to see what things mattered more and what things mattered less. And the things we thought mattered more at the time that probably didn't matter anywhere near as much as we thought. And I'm saying that full well, knowing that there's going to be stuff I'm doing right now and saying right now that I'm going to laugh at, in another five to 10 years, but that's life. I mean, you can't get around it, but I love the perspective. That's right. That's right. It's growth for a reason. It's very, very on point.
How about, What are your, what are your biggest lessons and takeaways? I know you kind of mentioned a couple already. But any other things that stand out in terms of takeaways from your career thus far?
Quinn: [01:00:12] For me, it's been what I'm doing right now, I don't know that I would have been able to get a degree in in undergrad or even grad school. It's such a mix of my experiences and my education. And what's really gotten me to this point is networking and meeting people. I found out about the job at the local regional nonprofit, because I went to a nonprofit conference and met someone at my table. I got my job at the community foundation because I worked, I did a nonprofit board development program and one of the speakers recommended me for the role. I got my job at my current company because a friend of mine worked there and we created this team together. So all the jobs that I've had, the job in Honduras was because of a family friend. So. Networking is really important. And so yes, education is important, but you really need to go out and meet people because I know the job that I'm in right now didn't exist before I was in the role. I'm creating it as I go. So I'm fortunate in that regard, but what you think you're going to do at 22 or, you know, even 32 isn't necessarily what you're going to find joy in. And so just get out there and meet people and learn about the opportunities that are out there so that you can find what makes you happy. Yeah.
Bagel: [01:01:53] I love it. That's awesome. You even answered my last question, which is what tips and advice you have for others who are navigating, you know, trying to find a more values based career. So I think you covered a lot, but is there anything else that you want to add to that in terms of advice for others?
Quinn: [01:02:09] I during that leadership triangle, professional development program I spoke about earlier, one of the speakers during one of the sessions and said a quote that has stuck with me and has actually you know, been in the back of my mind through everything for the past couple of years. And it's a quote from a different motivational speaker. His name's Jim Roan, I think is how you say his last name, but it's, you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. And when I heard that quote, it really made me evaluate who is in my life and what the value they're adding to my life. And so I recognize that I needed to eliminate people who were negative, who just brought drama, you know. And I will say I'm a dramatic person, but I don't like drama. Super dramatic all the time. My friends will tell you that, you know this. But I don't like drama. I don't, I just, it's not good. But think about people - surround yourself with people who are more intelligent than you are, who are good at their heart at their core and make sure that's who you're spending time with. Because that's, who's going to make your life better and just, you know, and I'm sure people are seeing in COVID times what relationships truly matter and just make sure that those are really good ones, really solid ones. Yeah. That quote has always stuck with me.
Bagel: [01:03:46] Who are the five people you surround yourself with the most? How are they adding value to your life? How are you adding value to theirs?
I love that. I'm so glad that you shared that one. It's something that has been ringing true for me a lot lately. And I feel lucky that I've got, you know, probably more than five of those people that I want to be close. But I think that's just great advice to think about, like, who are those let's just say five people that you want to surround yourself with, like on a daily basis. Or just like the people that you're keeping close to you more consistently and how are they supporting you and how are you supporting them? It's, I mean, it's definitely a two way street. Like, do you feel like that they're able to contribute to your life in a positive way? Just as much as you're able to kind of give that back and contribute to their lives and be a good friend and be a good supporter and sometimes even being a good mentor and a good educator with the people we care about. Yeah.
Quinn: [01:04:52] Yeah. And recognizing that it's not going to be 50/50 all the time. You know, your friends are going to go through things, you're going to go through things. But if you recognize in a relationship that you're the one putting in the effort, you're the one always texting. You're the one always making plans. All of this is pre COVID by the way. Yeah. But still in COVID, reaching out and checking on you, you know, there's a lot of things going on in our country and it's inter- it's been interesting for me to see. Who's checking in on me or who do I feel compelled to check in on. And then also those people from your past and who knew you in different stages of your life and having them reach out to you for one reason or another. But knowing, is it because they're checking a box? Or is it because they actually care about you and want to know that you are doing well? It's been interesting to see, so it's okay to let things go. That's something going back to number, to the 22 year old me. Yeah, I would, I would tell myself it's okay to let people go. You don't, people in your life for a reason and for a season and some people it's longer and others, you know, just think about what the purpose of them being in your life was for that time. And then let it go. Think about the memories, but move on.
Bagel: [01:06:14] Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Very wise words. And, we talk about a little bit about friendships and when it's time to let go, actually in a recent episode with John Gray on the podcast. And then also one with Joel, which I believe is the second episode. So there's a couple of times that that comes up, but I love the context that you just framed that in. Which is in this more professional context, but also understanding that we need like personal support through whatever we're going through. And through COVID and through all these like turbulent times that we're in right now. And it's just so important to have that network. And you emphasize the importance of networking too a lot, which I think is great. So if you can't tell Quinn rocks and
Quinn: [01:06:57] Thanks.
Bagel: [01:06:58] It's funny, you said you're dramatic. I mean, I think maybe in like a funny way, I don't know. I'm sure I don't see like, you know, the full scope, but
Quinn: [01:07:08] I'm just really sarcastic too.
Bagel: [01:07:09] Yeah. I mean, you call things like they are and also can throw a little that sarcasm in a little bit when things need to be shaken up a little bit and that's a trait I always appreciate. Cause I am not, I am, it's like the opposite of my code. I'm just not sarcastic. I just say everything like it is. And I wish I had some of that. So maybe I'm just a little jealous, but no, I love that about you. That's great.
Quinn: [01:07:35] Thank you. Appreciate it. This is me. This is me taking in your kind words.
Bagel: [01:07:40] That's right. Words of affirmation. You said it right in the beginning. I think your ears are warming up from what you said.
Well, I just want to say thank you so much Quinn for being on the show. It's honestly, it's been so much fun and such a great conversation. So much insight, I really hope that people can take away I think lots of great messages and lots of things that they can do in their life and their career and things to think about. So thank you. Thank you. is there any way for people to contact you or keep up with anything that you're doing right now.
Quinn: [01:08:13] Yeah. Well, thank you for having me. This was really exciting. I was super nervous, but you're such a professional as always, and this was really great.
So thank you for having me. I'm on social media. I am mighty Quinn 22. Okay. On the Twitter and on Instagram. Although even though I'm a really bad millennial and I'm really good at re tweeting, I don't actually tweet ever, but you know, if you want to follow me there. And then Instagram other people post things and tag me in it, but I'm going to try harder to be better at Instagram.
I also do a lot of work with nonprofits in my area, in the triangle and in North Carolina. And so I love to help nonprofits, especially people in development with their grant writing. So I'm not a grant writer. I do feel that nonprofits know their story well, but I'm a really great editor and writer.
And so I would love to help nonprofits with their grant writing, helping to review them and coaching and helping them find grant opportunities across the state. So if you're a nonprofit person in North Carolina and you want help, my, website is Q E N. So my initials Quinn Emilien Nobel's . QEN grant consulting.com. If you want to reach out to me there.
Bagel: [01:09:34] Awesome. We will make sure we include that in our show notes and that way people can reach out and thanks so much for sharing about what you do and what you're passionate about and all of the above. So thank you.
Quinn: [01:09:47] Yeah. Thanks for having me.
Bagel: [01:09:54] If you like, what you heard, please hit subscribe in your podcast app so you get notified about all new episodes of the Live Your Values podcast with me, Bagel. Special, thanks to Emma Peck for logo design, Danielle Gelber for marketing strategy, and Rebecca Kittel and my team at Free Your Time Virtual Assistants for operation support.
Until next time, get out there and LYV !
