The Double-Dog-Dare
As an entrepreneur, I have been fortunate to get lots of advice, some of it even solicited (wink). I hope to always find space for the views of others, to be curious and humble enough to hear with two ears and respond (only after thorough digestion) with one mouth. Here are a few of the more resonant pearls of wisdom I’ve received:
Love the haters! – while feedback and accolades make us feel good and affirm that we are on the right track, the ‘haters’ inspire conversation, discourse, energy, emotion, and innovation. How many “feel-good” viral tweets make headline news?
“You can’t market your own business because you’re a woman!”
Sidebar: When I was 10 years old my uncle asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up. I told him I wanted to go to college. To which he responded, “That’s stupid, girls don’t need an education.” This felt like the invitation to a double-dog-dare. I might wind up on the playground with my tongue frozen to the flagpole of life, but I’d be damned if I wouldn’t have an education. He passed away at the age of 96 after I had finished my doctorate (I was the only one of my siblings to graduate from high school). He did tell me he was proud of me before he died.
Being told I couldn’t market my own organization felt like the contemporary version of that same double-dog-dare. This time I listened with my ears, my head, and my heart while carefully questioning this piece of thoughtful and well-intentioned advice. My advisor wasn’t wrong – at face value, I am an overeducated woman selling ‘fluffy HR stuff’ to a marketplace of highly educated, affluent white men in the world of private equity. For a long-time I tried, in vain, to find others (yes, men) to take on marketing and business development for me. It turns out, I know our products and services better than others. I am more passionate about what we do and why we do it than any outsourced biz dev person could ever be, and I needed to find a way to get this message across.
So, I did – together with my business partners I did careful research, learned the language of our audience, and set to work to bridge the gap in a way that helped educate and inspire. We built a software platform to illustrate the financial value we could bring to business owners and investors. That wasn’t quite enough, so I wrote a book about the topic too – People Economics: Defining and Measuring the True Value of Human Capital. It might just be serendipity or great timing, but since the book launched in October 2021 our business has increased six-fold and we’ve doubled our number of active clients.
The greatest gifts from my fact-finding, software-building, book-writing journey come from my collaborators. All of them are amazing people with incredible experiences and perspectives about leadership, creating value in business, and society. In the interest of sharing some unsolicited leadership advice with you, I invite you to take time out to listen to David Griffith – an excerpt of his chapter in my book can be found here. Learn why he and his father both live by the motto, “wear muddy boots every day”. His lessons are enduring, inspirational, and timeless. If you’d like to learn more, here’s an open invitation to read People Economics and learn how to build value through people as you build your own businesses.
May the wind be always at your back and the sun shine warmly on your face…
…. to check it out for yourself here: People Economics: Defining and Measuring the True Value of Human Capital: Queen, Laura: 9781667801179: Amazon.com: Books
About the Author:
With more than 25 years of leadership experience in human capital, talent management, and M&A Laura Kellers Queen has emerged as a leading voice in the HR field. She has quite literally changed the language within these arenas to better reflect and quantify the role and impact of the workforce on corporate performance. “People Alpha” – or the excess return available to investors who recognize talent as strategic business assets — has arrived and is creating advantages for those who adopt a more systematic, outcome-oriented approach to human capital management. Her book, People Economics: Defining and Measuring the True Value of Human Capital is widely regarded as a provocative and essential business resource.
With an EdD in Human and Organization Learning from George Washington University, and an MSA in HR Administration from West Chester University of Pennsylvania, Laura’s detour from a traditional career path in human resources was the culmination of an idea, a feeling, and a drive to recognize employees as true business assets versus merely an expense on the balance sheet. She is co-founder and CEO of HCM consultant 29Bison and AlphaCalc (a talent and intangible-asset valuation tool). 29Bison is a Certified Women Owned Business and a member of the Council for Inclusive Capitalism with the Vatican. In addition to frequent public speaking, Laura continues to light the way for those with a blind spot when it comes to assessing and valuing the role of people in the success of business.
Laura is an adjunct faculty member of graduate studies for Moravian College, a member of the board of directors for Aries Foundation for Financial Education and Juniper Productions. She has been the Mentorship Advisor for and a former member of the Advisory Board of the Healthcare Businesswoman’s Association’s (HBA) Greater Philadelphia Chapter, Chairman of the Leadership Advisory Council for Moravian College, and a Consortia member of the Center for Positive Organizations at the Ross School, University of Michigan.
She has a Doctorate in Human and Organizational Learning from The George Washington University (Washington, DC), an MSA in Human Resources Administration from West Chester University (West Chester, PA) and a BA in Industrial Organizational Psychology from Moravian College (Bethlehem, PA).
Laura and her husband live in Bucks County, PA. They enjoy traveling, camping, gardening, skiing, bicycling, are avid cooks and wine enthusiasts and love spending time with their adult children and fur babies.
